Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Sokka and Azula talked. He knew she'd been intentionally avoiding him too, since he'd sometimes get up early and see her leaving the dining hall, even earlier than she usually ate. They'd make eye contact, but Azula would quickly look away and leave. Sokka was at the lowest he'd been in a long time, and people around him could tell.

"What's the matter, buddy?" Zuko asked one morning as they were looking over construction plans. "You seem like you've been down recently."

"Me? No, I'm fine, just tired is all."

"You sure? You've been like this for at least a week."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Sokka couldn't tell Zuko that he was heartbroken over Zuko's little sister.

Zuko could tell Sokka wasn't being totally truthful, but he knew better than to press the issue. Sokka and Zuko continued to work through the morning and took a break for lunch. Sitting in the dining hall, Sokka was still stuck on Azula. He looked up.

"Hey, do you mind if I take the afternoon off? I think I just need a break from working on this stuff," Sokka asked after swallowing down his last bit of food.

"Yeah, no worries. I'll finish up with this and see you at dinner?" Zuko replied, knowing full well once again that Sokka wasn't telling the whole truth, but wasn't about to force his friend to stay when he was going through something and needed space.

"Thanks, dude," Sokka said, standing up and leaving the dining hall. He walked out into the palace courtyard and took a deep breath. He'd been taking these walks at night, trying to find some sort of understanding of what had happened with Azula. He was sure she liked him, and didn't know what had gone wrong. Sokka made it to the outdoor training grounds, where Azula happened to be practicing her Firebending against some wooden dummies, since Zuko forbade her from training with actual people.

"Great," Sokka muttered. As much as he missed Azula, he didn't want to be reminded of her hatred for him. At the same time, Sokka's heart started to race. Nothing Azula said changed the way he felt about her. He watched her train. Hours flew by without him realizing. Azula's fluid motions were mesmerizing, as Sokka realized just how graceful she was. Seeing her Firebend without the intention of hurting someone brought a whole new beauty to the concept. Sokka was starstruck watching her. She jumped, spun in the air and shot out a blast, and…

Landed hard on her ankle.

Azula let out a scream and held her right foot. Looking around in a state of panic, she spotted Sokka, who wasn't able to disguise his eavesdropping in time. They made eye contact. Sokka sprinted over to her.

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked, worried.

Azula rolled her eyes. "I'm fine," she said, before trying to stand up. When she put weight on her right leg, however, she winced and grabbed at her foot again.

"That doesn't look like fine to me," Sokka said.

"I don't care what it looks like to you."

"Just let me help you."

"You? Help me? Never. I shouldn't even be seen with someone like you."

"Well, I hate to say it, Princess, but it doesn't look like you have much of a choice."

Azula looked at Sokka, then at her foot, blushing. "Fine," she snapped.

Sokka picked her up gently. "Where to?"

Azula's face was bright red. Both of them knew it, and neither chose to comment. "I have a place," Azula said. "Go to that tower," she said, gesturing to a tower nearby

Sokka carried Azula up the tower and stopped at the top of the spire, with a view that spanned over the royal palace's grounds and over the wall separating the palace from the city.

"This was where I went to get away from everything," Azula said as Sokka set her down.

Sokka started to pull off Azula's combat boot and sock to assess the damage to her ankle.

"It's pretty up here," Sokka said, looking out the window and over the Fire Nation capital.

Azula looked down and closed her eyes. "Yeah," she said.

"Did you come up here a lot?"

Azula nodded. "It was pretty much the only place where I knew no one would bother me. I never really had a connection with my mother, and while my father was perfect, he could be a little…" Azula paused, searching for the right word. "Demanding."

"I'm sorry," Sokka said.

"I don't need your sympathy," Azula huffed.

Sokka sighed and went back to tending to her ankle. "I think your ankle's sprained," Sokka concluded. "You're probably not gonna be able to walk on it for a couple days."

Azula rolled her eyes. Staring at her swollen ankle, she frowned in frustration but took a deep breath. She looked up at Sokka with her face bright red. She uttered two words that sounded like they took more effort than anything she'd done before.

"Thank you."

Sokka was flabbergasted. He'd never expected Azula to use such a word. Something was different about this, he knew that much. But what? How far did this go? He knew there was only one way to find out, but should he go through with it? What would happen if he got it wrong? He cleared his head. Sokka decided he'd do what felt right and deal with whatever happened next. With the sunset shining through the tower onto the two of them, he drew his own deep breath.

And kissed her.