Once again, no comment right now. I'm still a bit traumatized from that commercial...XD But this is the FIRST! Chapter with spoilers! Dun dun dun...It's "special"...

Disclaimer: I still don't own Avatar or its characters. -sniff-
Spoilers: Zuko Alone- part of the flashback scene from when they were kids. I just kind of rewrote it so I don't get in trouble

Chapter 3: Azula Almost Finds Out

.:."Quack! Quack!" the turtle-ducks swam by the young prince and his mother. They were both sitting in front of the large fountain, and under a shady tree, in the main courtyard just enjoying the fresh air and feeding the animals.

"Here," she handed her son the bread. "You try." The 6-year old stared down at the ducks waiting for more food to come. He's never actually fed turtle-ducks before. Just played with them. Shrugging, he carelessly threw the loaf of bread in the water hitting one of the babies.

"Zuko!" his mother was clearly shocked at his actions. But he could see a small smile on her face too.

"That's how Azula feeds them," he answered. "Except she uses rocks..." Suddenly, they heard angry quacking that caused them to look back at the fountain. The baby duck was no longer underwater, and next to it was its mother evidently angry.

"Um, Zuko? I think it's-"

"OW!" he shreiked as the mother turtle-duck sprang out of the water and bit on his lower leg. Hard. He tried swinging around his leg to try to shake it off, but it just clung to it for as long as it could making it worse. "Mom! Help!" he yelped feeling the stinging pain. Ursa calmly detatched the duck from his leg and set it down back in the water.

"Are you okay?" she looked back at her son who was clutching at his limb.

"That hurt!" he complained as his mother as she gently lifted the end of his pants to see three pretty deep teeth marks. "Stupid tutle-duck..." she stuck his tongue out at the group of turtle-ducks swiming in front of him.

Ursa softly laughed at his coment. "Well Zuko, that's how mothers are. If you mess with their babies," she made a biting sound for 'effects'. "They bite you back." she said as they both laughed. .:.

Suddenly, Azula came into the scene ruining the moment. "Hello," she stood over them with hands on her hips. "Mom, can I talk to Zuko?" she asked innocently. Zuko's face fell knowing this can't be good.

"Sure," she replied.

"Um...alone?" she added after a while.

"Right..." she stood up and left leaving the two siblings alone to talk.

"So, what did you want?" he slowly stood up hesitantly at first.

"I have a question," she smirked. "You know my friend, Mai?" He nodded hoping she wouldn't ask what he thinks she will. "What do you think of her?"

"Well," he suddenly sounded all uncomfortable. "She's nice...fun to talk to, I guess...not too hyper all the time like your other friend. Ty Lo? Ty Lu? Ty...something." he asked cluelessly.

"It's Ty Lee, dumb-dumb." she answered. "And is she your friend?"

"I don't talk to her." he obviously didn't get she wasn't talking about Ty Lee anymore. "I didn't even know her name, and-"

"Not Ty Lee!" she nearly lost her calm for a second. "Mai."

"Uh...ya, I suppose she is my friend." Azula slapped her forehead, frustrated she wasn't getting the answers she wanted. He just had to be so cluless all the time. With that, she asked another question.

"Anything else?" she sounded a bit more impatient than earlier.

"N-no, not really." he refused to make eye-contact.

"Ugh, this is harder than I thought..." she looked to her right.

"What's harder than you thought?" apperantly, she didn't say it quiet enough.

"Getting you to admit you like her!" she finally yelled.

"Getting me to admit what-"

"Oh, forget it!" she stormed off angrily. Zuko sighed heavily relieved she didn't get anything out of him. Just yet...

Ha! The old 'stupid act'. Nice...Anyway, next chapter the two have a longer conversation implying lots of Maiko...so just wait :D And yes, this is a pretty short chapter. But the original version of this chapter was still shorter.

Oh yeah, and if you saw any .:.'s, those are just markers for spoilers in between them.

-Black5Belt