A/N: You guys are a quiet bunch ;-; leave a review plz.


Zuko is not stupid. He's impatient and impulsive but not stupid. The distinction is slight sometimes, so it's one mistake Azula will almost forgive herself for making.

Cornered at the edge of a cliff after her training session, Azula is not feeling very forgiving.

Zuko approaches her. "I know I haven't been the best brother to you. I mean, you did almost murder me so you weren't the best sister either. It's okay, I forgive you for that, I guess, since I did challenge you to an Agni Kai. Point is, we both have things we need to apologize for—"

Oh Agni, he's prepared a speech. Prepared speeches were always Zuzu's worst speeches. Azula had thought he was going to ask about Mai, and she was looking forward to revealing that Mai had already replaced him, but this? This was torture.

Azula takes a step back.

They're on a cliff, but the landscape below is speckled with bodies of water. If Azula manipulates her fall with airbending then she can land safely in the water and away from this conversation.

"— I want us to be like Sokka and Katara. I want to fix our relationship. Let's start over. Without father. What do you say, sister?

Azula yawns. "That's nice Zuko but I'd rather die." Then, with a smirk, she lifts her arms to her side and tips backwards until she's falling into the air.

It was the perfect exit. At least, it would have been had the Avatar not intervened.

He's trying to save me, thinks Azula and then, he shouldn't have done that.

Azula had had a plan, a simple but glorious plan, to slow her descent by surrounding herself with a vortex of air.

The Avatar ruins her plans, as per his nature.

He grabs hold of her at the same time his glider grabs hold of the swirling air, resulting in them spinning off her destined path and hurtling downward at a rate much, much faster than either of them expected.

They ricochet across the water like thunder until they crash into white waters. Azula had the foresight to forcibly relax her body before she hit the water. The Avatar, for all his wisdom, did not. She feels his arm around her waist loosen— and the likelihood he gained a sense of self preservation is far lower than the likelihood he fell unconscious— so Azula holds him tight.

They've landed in dangerous waters, into the rushing river instead of the languid lake, and Azula struggles to keep afloat. The current whips her eyes but its the undercurrent, the indifferent and inevitable downward pull, combined with the Avatar's own weight that pulls her under.

There's a vague shape near the bottom, a murky mess like an ink spill across a shadow. Azula takes the gamble of it being a cave instead of a sea creature and propels themselves towards it with a blast of air and the last dregs of her consciousness.

It's a cave. An underwater cave. Azula breathes deeply until her vision clears but she doesn't celebrate. The Avatar infuriatingly believes that she can earthbend and she's too prideful to admit to him that she can't. That it was a fluke. That some small part of her didn't want to see her brother be crushed by a boulder like Lu Ten. And without earthbending, or waterbending for that matter, she's trapped. Azula turns to the Avatar and is about to pointedly demand that he fixes the mess he created…

...only to see that he's still unconscious. And then, when Azula drags him further up the cave floor, she sees a small trail of blood leading to his head.

Azula knows enough about head injuries to know that they're bad, and that she shouldn't move him further, but not much beyond that. She gently moves his head to be in line with his spine and tries to recall whether applying direct pressure to a head wound is good or bad. She decides not to risk it, and moves to perform CPR when she remembers herself.

Of course the Avatar would die the second it's inconvenient for me.

She should let him die, chop off his hand and bring it to her father as proof of her loyalty. She should…

…but it would be dishonorable this way. The Avatar should die in a rematch against her father.

Azula begins CPR and tries not to think too deeply about her actions.

This isn't their first soulmate kiss. Medical emergencies don't count, thinks Azula, but she still feels a curl of embarrassment when her lipstick leaves stains on his lips.

She's glad he wakes up on a chest compression but, while the Avatar's responsive enough to cough up water, Azula doesn't trust him to lift his head let alone to walk.

"Avatar?"

No response.

"Aang."

His eyes flicker in her direction.

Azula kneels and cradles his head. Blood staining her hands.

"Aang," she croons slowly, "tell me how to activate the Avatar state."

He mumbles something about hidden gold, but when Azula leans in to try and make out his words he falls silent and then once more unconscious.

Azula has only used the Avatar state once. Logically, it would be close to impossible for her to activate it again, let alone to heal, but Azula is counting on whatever Avatar nonsense that kicked in and saved the Avatar from her (and from her father) to kick in again.

She closes her eyes and thinks about her mother. Not her mother. Ursa. Azula places herself back in the moment when Iroh told her that they had found her mother hiding away with a replacement daughter.

She opens her eyes.

Nothing.

Failure.

Azula never understood why Zuzu thought she was born lucky. Luck isn't earned. Azula fought tooth and nail for every shred of her father's attention.

"Azula. I should have known you'd betray me. I should have heeded my wife's warning."

"Never father, I—"

It was never enough. Not Ba Sing Se. Not anything.

There's no one here, no one but herself and the soon-to-be-dead Avatar, so Azula lets loose a string of swears that a Princess should never utter.

The cave responds with the steady lapping of water and the too loud sound of blood dripping through fingers and onto rock.

Zuko couldn't even tell me himself that they found Ursa. He hadn't uttered a word about mother. Not that it matters, thinks Azula, then

she quickly and firmly shakes those thoughts away and looks back down at the Avatar. "I blame you for this," snaps Azula, "I didn't need saving. Why did you—"

Azula can't remember the last time someone saved her, she's not sure if it's a memory she has, but it doesn't matter. The marks on her arms are glowing.


Of course, the Avatar state would do just enough to save the Avatar from death but not enough to spare Azula her dignity.

Azula is giving the Avatar a piggyback ride.

Utterly ridiculous.

The Avatar nuzzles against her neck. She stills.

"…Appa."

Clearly, Azula had made a mistake in saving his life. She will have to rectify that immediately. As soon as the Avatar is conscious and therefore able to feel fear.

"Appa, let's run away."

"Brilliant idea, Avatar," says Azula, her voice a mine for pure sarcasm, "Can you attempt it instead of drifting in and out of consciousness?"

The Avatar drifts out of consciousness.

"Admittedly, I should have seen that coming."

Azula doesn't get a reply. She shifts her weight. The Avatar is light but he's not that light, and Azula doesn't know how far she'll have to walk. She'll settle for less shoulder strain even if that means the Avatar may drool on her ear.

Not for the first time, Azula wonders why she's still here. Sure, the spirits heavily suggested that the world is ending, and her father was trying to kill her, but Azula was never overly concerned with what the spirits had to say, and she could still attempt to reason with her father. She had to. Everyone left her but her father, at least, promised to return. Sure, having everyone know she's the Avatar's soulmate may make it harder to convince her father she's on his side, but Azula's certain that he'd rather have her fighting with him than against. Especially considering his defeat at the hands of the Avatar.

Azula looks to the aforementioned man at her side and rolls her eyes.

"I'm certain that the only reason you won is because I vastly overestimated your intelligence. I could have put a help me sign pointing to a volcano and you'd jump right in, wouldn't you?"

Aang mumbles, "I'm sorry about the iceberg."

"You should be sorry," says Azula despite not having a clue as to what he's talking about.

"I wish they didn't pick me to be the Avatar."

"…I thought you wanted to be the Avatar?"

"…"

"Aang?"

The Avatar is unconscious again. Azula sighs.

The walls start to rumble. Azula quickly sets the Avatar down.

Beifong and the others are here.

The waterbender takes one look at Aang and then turns to her with a glare. Azula can practically feel the waterbender build up momentum for a scolding or a fight, and Azula's not in the mood to deal with either so she interrupts with, "I used the Avatar state to heal his head with some weird manner of firebending, but who knows if it worked."

Immediately, the waterbender is all over Aang, making circling motions with her hands, and healing him with waterbending.

Azula glances up to see Zuko staring at her, and then it suddenly dawns on her how weird it is for her to stay and watch the Avatar heal.

She leaves, but it's too late. Zuko catches up to her.

"Azula, I know I haven't been the best brother—"

She shoves him behind.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what happened to mom!" shouts Zuzu, "I didn't think you cared!"

Azula wants to say she doesn't care. That Ursa isn't her mother. She thinks the words and moves her mouth, but what comes out is, "I cried when you left."

Pause.

"After the Agni Kai?" asks Zuzu.

Away from their father's eyes. Yes she had—

"He couldn't even scar you properly. He left you your sight."

Zuzu chuckles— She'd thought he'd get mad. When did he stop being so easy to bait?— "Our family is so fucked up."

"Zuzu! Such language is not befitting of a member of the Royal Family." Azula holds the stern expression for a full second before she cracks and laughs, and laughs, and laughs.

It's the first laughter she has shared with her brother in a very long time.