Azula wasn't the type to be easily embarrassed. A special ability to always say the wrong thing at the wrong time seemed to run in her family, so she had gotten very good at just shruging it off whenever she made a fool of herself in front of others. It was even easier when the person who could potentially make fun of her in some awkward situation was Zuko. All she'd have to do to have the upper hand again was bring up any of the countless stupid things he had said or done in his life and it'd shut him up.

But on that afternoon, when she had been happilly looking at some of the new items at her favorite sex-shop, only to turn around and see her older brother just a few steps away, staring at her in disbelief as she held a whip and handcuffs, Azula was absolutely mortified.

For the longest ten seconds of her entire existence, she and her sibling just stood there in shock. Running into someone they knew during such a moment would have already been terrible. Running into each other was even worse. Azula in particular was at a disadvantage since she was already holding two items she was thinking of bringing home, while Zuko didn't have anything in hands.

He had just gotten a glimpse of what she liked, and she couldn't even use whatever freaky things he was into as a way to keep him quiet because she was completely in the dark as to what exactly he had been trying to find.

...Well, not completely in the dark. That part of the shop was basically fully dedicated to things for bondage and physical punishment. The mental image of Zuzu wearing leather from head to toes while being bossed around and begging to be hurt was so hysterical it would have absolutely made her laugh at any other time.

After that unbearable silence, Zuko was finally about to say something, but Azula panicked, throwing the cuffs and whip to the side and running home without saying a word. She regreted a bit later. She had already embarrassed herself anyways, she should have just bought the things she had liked. Hell, if she had acted like it was no big deal and just continued looking around Zuko would have been almost guaranteed to get freaked out and she'd be laughing at how easy it is to get under his skin, as usual.

She felt stupid. And worse of all, she felt a bit conflicted and even disgusted because, even though she knew it was weird to want to know that kind of thing about her sibling, she was very curious about what been going through Zuko's head before their awkward encounter.

Had he ever been to that place before or was it his first time there? What if he liked the shop and they'd both have to mentally prepare for the possibility of this happening again each time they wanted to buy something? Was he seeing somone and wanting to spice things up or was he buying stuff 'just in case' like Azula herself? Did he already have something in mind or was he more in the mood to just look around and see if anything would interest him?

For over an hour, she kept telling herself to just forget about it, but the second she saw Zuko walk into their appartment with a pretty large purple bag from the shop, her goal immediately became taking a look at what he had bought.

She stayed there on the couch, pretending to be very interested in the movie she had been completely ignoring since she came home. Zuko went to his bedroom to leave the bag there and, as Azula had imagined, immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower, as it was particularly hot on that day.

As soon as she heared him lock the door, she ran to his room, finding the bag caressly thrown into the mess that was his bed.

The first items were no big deal. Just some flavored lube and condoms - though she had to admit he had picked good flavors, and she'd have to go buy some of those cherry ones. And looking at the size of the condoms... well, there had to be some reason for so many girls to always be after her brother, and Azula supposed that was a pretty understandable one.

But the real fun was with the next ones. She was slightly shocked that Zuko apparently had such good taste when it came to 'add-ons.' Nipple-clamps, blindfolds, candles made especifically for some wax play, ball-gags, a ridding crop, a flogger, quite a lot of red rope... and a whip and cuffs. The very ones she had been intending to buy for herself.

Had they REALLY had such simmilar preferences in bed that Zuko just happened to like these when he saw them, despite the awkwardness of it?

She didn't have time to wonder, as he opened the door - he probably needed a towel or something - and found her there. He went from shock to anger very fast.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm learning more about my apparently very kinky brother" she taunted.

"Have you ever heard of privacy?"

"Don't be so dramatic"

"Dramatic? You'd kill me if I went through your stuff! Especially if I was trying to find something like this!"

He had a point, but there was no way she was going to admit it.

"Oh, will you lighten up a bit? I just wanted to mess with you. Though I will admit I am quite shocked. I didn't expect you to have such a dirty mind, Zuzu"

"You're one to talk. Think I didn't see you about to buy those" he said, gesturing to the handcuffs and whip.

"I was going to buy them as a joke. Ty Lee dared me to"

"Bullshit"

Azula pouted, not appreciating the fact that he wouldn't even pretend he believed her excuse "Oh, and thank you for buying the exact ones you thought your little sister would be interested in! That's not weird at all!"

"Will you shut up and get out of my room?!"

"Fine, Jesus" she said, getting up from his bed and heading to the door "No need to make a scene, dum-dum. It's not like I really think you'd ever get a chance to use any of these"

"Excuse me?"

Oh, she hit a nerve there.

"Come on, I've seen you try to flirt. It is the very definition of second-hand embarrassement. I don't know how you ever managed to go a single date with how bad you are at it"

"Like you're any better!"

"And you're also so clueless on if girls like you" she went on, ignoring his very valid argument "God knows poor Mai had to throw herself at you for years for you to get the hint"

"At least I dated someone. Unlike you"

Okay, now she was mad.

"At least I'd know what to do with those things if I wanted to use them. You'd just have an anxiety attack and admit you never did anything that wasn't vanilla"

"You have no idea what I'm like!"

"What? You really expect me to believe you're one of those Doms from some shitty erotica? I know you. You're too much of a dork for that. Even if you tried playing that role, you'd suck at it"

"Oh, I'll show you how good I am" he shouted - then seemingly became unable to speak as he realized what exactly he had just said to her of all people while trying to mask his wounded pride.

Azula was pretty shocked herself, eyes wide, jaw dropped, and cheeks burning.

"I did not mean-"

"You pervert!"

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!"

"Then what the hell did you mean?!"

"You started it!"

"Yeah, but I didn't make a move on you!"

"It just came out wrong, okay?"

"You think?!"

The siblings found themselves in the midst of yet another incredibly tense silence. This really had not been their day. Azula felt particularly stupid. She just had to go sticking her nose where it did not belong.

"Look, Zuzu-"

"Let's just never speak of any of this again. Deal?"

"Deal" she said, and left his room.

...After grabbing the whip, cuffs, and one of those pretty candles.