Sibling rivalry

"Hey Kozar have you seen my…" Zuko trailed off as he entered his Brother's bedroom.

"What have you done?" he gasped gazing round at the piles of clothes strewn over the floor, wardrobe with one of it's doors hanging on by a thread, and bed with the covers torn to pieces and roughly thrown into a corner.

"Mum's going to be so angry with you…" Continued the elder Prince.

"Please don't tell her!" begged Kozar, still himself coming to terms with what had happened.

"Why did you do it?" Zuko asked.

"It wasn't me, it was Zhao."

"Who?"

"One of Dad's friends, he was looking for a letter I had."What letter?" responded Zuko disbelievingly.

"They were going to kill Uncle!"

"What! Why would you say that?" gasped the elder Prince, Kozar saw his eyes close to tears. This in itself was not unusual, Zuko was often upset, this time however, they seemed to be tears of anger.

"It's true!" insisted Kozar, faltering as he said it, he could see Zuko would never believe him. Zuko idolised both their Uncle and their Father.

"No. It's a lie. You're a liar." shouted Zuko, angry now, then he continued;

"I'm telling mum!" He then turned to leave the room. Kozar caught his arm.

"No please don't, I didn't mean what I said, I was just so angry." He pleaded, and the rage seemed to drain out of Zuko.

"Please don't tell mum." Kozar repeated.

"Oh alright then." He grumbled and Kozar grinned. But at Zuko's next words he faltered again;

"But what are you going to tell her happened." Kozar knew full well that he couldn't tell her the truth. The letter was certain to be gone, it hadn't been hidden very well. In fact it had hardly been hidden at all, Zhao had probably continued to wreck the room as revenge for their earlier exchange.

"I don't know, maybe I'll blame Azula…" They both laughed at that. Aside from the fact that Azula was at her fire bending lessons and couldn't possibly be involved, they both knew there was no way on Earth their Father would believe Kozar over Azula. Or their Mother for that matter.

"Blame me for what?" came the chilling tones of their Sister.

"Uh-oh" whispered Zuko. Kozar ran to the door to stop her coming in.

"I thought you were at your class." He challenged her. She was entirely unperturbed.

"I was, but it was cancelled when one of the girls got hurt. Quite badly too." Wonder how that happened thought Zuko, at the exact time Kozar voiced the sentiments out loud. Zuko groaned. Golden rule of the house: Do not rile Azula.

"She should have dodged it." came the contemptuous reply. And then the question the boys were both dreading;

"What are you doing in here anyway? Seems pretty suspicious to me." Kozar blocked her way as she tried to barge past.

"None of your business." Wrong move thought Zuko.

"Seems even more suspicious now." Smiled Azula sweetly. Then tried to push Kozar out of the way. He retaliated aggressively and shoved her to the floor. When she got up there was none of the dark humour of before in her eyes. Just cold fury.

"You'll regret that!" She hissed.

"Bring it on!" Growled Kozar in response. She did, punching fire straight at his head, he ducked and tried to tackle her legs. She side stepped this and caught Kozar in the face with her knee as he fell. He tried to punch some fire of his own at her, but his basic training with Jhong was no match for her's . She was a very special talent with the very best teacher's, and easily dispelled his efforts, laughing at his face, screwed up in concentration.

As she was about to punch at his head once more, with Kozar completely helpless, Zuko barged her in the back and knocked her to the ground. They all got up and Kozar and Zuko both advance towerds her as she backed away.

"Hey, no fair! Two against one!" She protested, though silently still confident she had the beating of them. Neither Brother responded, they were both excited and terrified of the situation.

As they prepared to engage once more, a shout came from along the hallway.

"Princess Azula! Prince Zuko! Prince Kozar, what is going on!" They turned to see a large, middle aged maid jogging towards them. Zuko and Kozar put their fists down. Azula, however, jumped forwards and kicked Zuko in the midriff, causing him to yell and topple backwards. Kozar launched himself at her in retaliation, but before he could do any more, they were separated by the red-faced maid. They glared at each other but were cut off at the woman's words;

"Just wait until I tell your Mother." she threatened, and then paused as she noticed movement at the end of the corridor. And then, cutting through the atmosphere like a knife through butter:

"Thank you maid, I'll take it from here." Kozar turned to see his Father striding towards them. Purposeful. Powerful. Terrifying.

Kozar cursed his Sister for the millionth time as he tried to unpick a knot in the end of one of what seemed like thousands of bed sheets in the Palace. This was his punishment. To do the work of a Servant for a month. Twelve hours a day. No leaving the palace except for going to school. Special school As Azula referred to it. He paused and shook his head angrily, trying to erase all thoughts of his Sister from his mind.

He was distracted by a low moan a few feet to his right. Zuko was having his own struggles, and a pang of guilt surged through Kozar's stomach and up to his throat. Zuko had two weeks of this, bad enough considering he had done little wrong. Worst of all, Azula had got away scot-free Of course she had. Thought Kozar. His anger was back.

Kozar's punishment was a return for the state of his room. His Father had said that he lacked respect for the servants. Zuko had two weeks of the same stuff for no reason other than, in the words of Ozai: "It'll toughen you up." Kozar was smarting inside at the unjustness of it all. And smarting more than anything else about the way he had been beaten by his Sister. I'll work harder from now on. He resolved, She'll never beat me again. And then he was broken off from this train of thought by a yelp from his Brother. Zuko had cut himself on a sharp piece of wardrobe he had been trying to neaten up. He was bleeding. Kozar glanced at his Brother. Zuko glanced back. Kozar quickly looked away.