Azula knew something was wrong the moment she met a running Zuko's eyes. And as much as she liked being the most levelheaded of her siblings, their eldest making a mad dash usually meant one very important thing.

"Raizu learned how to shoot lightning from grandfather!"

Her brother grabbed her by the hand and ran on, her own feet struggling with the first few steps before self-preservation kicked in and she picked up the pace. That explained the lightning bolt earlier; she just didn't want to believe her first guess.

"What was grandpa thinking?!"

"Grandfather said he owed him a favor."

Azula's palm found her face there and then.

"Sage Shyu we need a place to hide!" called out her brother.

Said fire sage's eyes went wide after recognizing the two running children. "He's still at the courtyard with the Fire Lord, hurry!"

She nodded her thanks at their faithful and loyal subject and continued running to the one place their youngest brother never set foot in: the palace greenhouse. It would work for a while, but it wouldn't save either of them once lunch time came around. Fortunately for her she had lessons on etiquette after lunch, her brother however, didn't have a good enough cover.

"I'll figure something out," Zuko said, huffing next to her. "We just need to stay hidden until he pounces on someone else. I'm not sure if mother will last with him for much longer."

Azula loved her brothers, truly, but her little brother was many things, and considerate was not one of them. She was thankful her mother finally agreed to giving her her own room separate from the fire bending freak. Not that that stopped him from sneaking into either her or Zuko's rooms sometimes to tell them everything he knew and figured out about whatever new thing got his fancy. Raizu even shared copies of whatever notes he made on whatever subject picked his fancy at the moment.

It was just unnatural to even her for someone to find so much excitement in something so boring.

"I guess we're gonna learn lightning early," Zuko said.

Azula knew she was nowhere near ready to start dealing with powers beyond what she understood. Which was the problem with their youngest brother. It didn't matter if he didn't know what he was doing because learning was part of the process, he'd always said. Right, because having things explode in front of your face and around you was fun. She really should have expected this, the last booklet she got from Raizu was a very detailed list of things that went wrong with the people trying to master lightning.

She would have questioned the sanity of the young prince had such graphic descriptions been shared with Zuko, and likely would have kicked his butt too—or tried at least. Still, Azula admitted there was something wrong with herself as well that her own crazy brother would decide it was safe to share such information with her. Then again he had shared, crazier things before.

She was seven for Agni's sake!

Azula met her brother's eyes, putting as much of that seriousness her mother always had a way with and said, "Promise me you'll only do so when either grandfather, father, or uncle are watching you."

"I'm not that dumb, Zula."

Zuko had a very good point. He wasn't stupid, just bad at fire bending relative to her and Raizu. He was also the most responsible of her siblings, but more out of duty than personal desire. Herself, she admitted, was more flexible with her sense of duty. Raizu, on the other hand, was difficult because of how honest he was with his desires. She knew of ambitious generals and those other nobles' kids who wanted more than their lot in life, those people were easy enough to string along, was what their father called it.

Raizu, however, didn't care for any of that. He had no interest in the games they played at court or in the parties and so was surprisingly above the intrigue she enjoyed so much.

Her younger brother shared what he knew regardless of who came to him and made an honest effort to do so—even if he didn't expect to do so for free, or for them to understand what he was talking about. What a lot of the mindless koala sheep around them didn't know was how her cute little brother was easily the most ruthless of the three of them.

Azula knew the things Raizu dared talk so openly with her sometimes bordered on treason, but that was part of the fun with him. Dear Zuko's tender heart could never accept how horrible the war truly was for the world—but he also wouldn't be able to accept the truth of the good in what the Fire Nation did, and continued to do.

After another two turns and almost running into the prickly minister Qin, she and Zuko entered the greenhouse and found it thankfully empty.

Zuko quickly scanned the room and windows for anything important before going over to one of the tables in the middle of the indoor garden and pulled out two chairs. Both of them learned early on to make extra sure that Raizu wasn't already nearby when they were hiding from him.

"Don't worry, we can trust Sage Shyu won't rat us out."

She smiled at that. It was funny sometimes whenever she was reminded about how different she was to her brothers. One wore his heart so openly while the other never shared his truth except in very few moments. The person they were running away from was the pure desire of their youngest brother unleashed—but who he was was something that was so different from anything Azula had ever dealt with before.

Zuko, on the other hand, was a fresh spring breeze in a room full of smoke and mirrors. And she swore she would destroy anyone who dared take that away from her.

Even if that someone was a monster she called her brother. Though she highly doubted Raizu would ever do anything to hurt their family. But it was the principle of the matter, and she was sure he would appreciate her vigilance even if it were against himself.

Azula checked her vague reflection against the glass table's surface and fixed her hair and robes back into place. A tidy appearance invited less scrutiny than a sloppy one after all. "Any bets on who won't get any sleep tonight?"

Zuko took a few deep breaths to steady himself before answering, "If we're lucky, father would stay up with him this time."

He always looked so sad whenever he talked about father, and some part of her hated that about her younger twin. Raizu took so much attention away from her and her brother from their own father, but at the same time, she also knew maybe it were for the best.

Raizu never lied. Even when it would get him in trouble. So she took it upon herself to make sure the things he'd told her before—things he were genuinely surprised to learn about—would never ever reach her big brother's ears.

The royal family was already messed up enough with their grandfather kidnapping their mother.

"Cheer up Zuzu, I'm sure Raizu will spend time with you soon too." Not that it was a bad thing entirely. He was just better taken in small doses and with a lot of time in between.

Zuko shuddered. "I'm not even done reading that last booklet he gave me about how fire is actually made of a bunch of little things called moh-leek-yules, I mean, how does he find the time to write all of that?"

Azula shrugged. "A lot of things he does don't make sense."