"I already said it, the girl was the one who helped him. She put something in my water… We need to find her too." Azula's voice sounded hoarse and weak.

They were in one of the Palace's living rooms. The royal physicians had just left, they said Azula had been drugged but was unharmed. The Princess was now sit on the couch, holding her knees to her body, she was still pale and a little groggy. Sokka was on the other side of the couch and Zuko was sat in a chair in front of her, resting his forehead on his hands.

"The guards are already looking for her, Azula, but I think she simply disappeared just like him." Her brother said, he sounded worried and tired.

"Why were there no guards in that corridor?" Sokka asked.

"I don't know yet, they all seemed very confused about it."

"Of course they do…" Azula muttered angrily.

"What I really want to know is… Why you?" Zuko said, looking at her.

She shrugged.

"And you say I'm the lucky one, Zuzu…"

He gave her a weak smile.

"Your sister has many enemies, we all know that. It actually took a long time before something like this happened." Her Uncle, who was in the other side of the room, spoke that, and Azula glared at him.

"Why is he even here?" Azula asked her brother angrily. "Shouldn't you be making tea somewhere else, Uncle?"

"Well, my tea helped you regain your senses, my niece, so don't be rude." Iroh said in a soft tone, but it clearly made Azula get angrier than she was.

"Do you really think-" She tried to stand up, but her brother pulled her down by the arm.

"Woah, slow down! Uncle, give her a break, okay?" Zuko said in a tired tone.

Iroh sighed.

"I will be in my room if you need me." And he left the room.

"Finally…" She muttered.

"He is right though." Her brother commented. "But let's talk about it in the morning…"

"We can talk about it now, Zuko. I'm fine."

"Of course, you are…" Zuko said rolling his eyes, and standing up to get some tea to himself. "But I am not awake enough to try track all your enemies right now."

At the moment, the door opened and Ursa and Kiyi came in.

"I couldn't get her to sleep again, she wanted to come here."

"How are you feeling?" Sokka whispered to her, in a low tone, while Zuko and Ursa talked. He had been looking at Azula since they've got there. He wasn't even sure of what had happened back there, but he knew it was really weird to see the Princess in such a fragile state. Also it had been a long time he hadn't been that scared.

"Fine, I already said it." She answered coldly, as Kiyi ran into her.

"So, will you stay in my room with me, Azu? I heard you burned down part of your room." The little girl asked, sounding almost happy.

"There are plenty of other rooms here, why would I even need to stay with you, Kiyi?"

Azula was on Kiyi's bed, the little girl was sleeping besides her. Why did Kiyi always get her way? Well, now I know how Zuzu must feel like. The real probably was… She couldn't sleep.

After a while, she left her sister's room. She found a sleepy Sokka sitting on the floor outside just next to the door.

"What are you doing here?" She frowned.

"Uh, hey, Azula, feeling better?" He stood up, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah..." She said, still waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I thought it was better to guard your door after what happened…" He answered, expecting her to say something against it.

However, she only shrugged. That is weird… He noticed then that she looked beyond tired, and she was clearly afraid, since she was looking around very uneasy. Sokka felt a weird need to protect her and to make her feel better. Well, you're her personal guard after all, of course you want to protect her.

"Hm, I can't sleep so I'm taking a walk…"

She started walking down the corridor, and he quickly followed her.

"Uh, can we go to my room first?"

She turned to look at him, and crossed her arms.

"Why?"

"Well, before the whole thing happened, I was making a snack there and I didn't finish it…" He gave her an awkward smile.

She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, it's not like I have a better place to go at this hour…" She muttered.

Sokka was eating and Azula was sat on his bed quiet. She was looking at the window, again seeming to be really apprehensive.

"Can't stop thinking about what happened, huh?"

Her eyes widened at him for second. Was she really so reckless that she let him caught her out of guard like this?

"Hm, maybe…" She tried to come back to her usual self.

"I understand, it scared me too."

"I'm not scared." She said coldly.

"Come on, Princess, not even you is that good at lying. Anyone would be scared by that!" He frowned at her. Who was she trying to fool? It was more than obvious that she was scared.

"Maybe it was scary for you, since you are an idiot. I have everything under control!" She said, glaring at him.

"Everything under control? Don't you know what happened there? He almost got to kill you! That's like the opposite of having things under control!" He may have lost a bit of his temper, but did she actually think he was that stupid? And he didn't even mention the fact that he was the one who saved her life! He could handle a lot from her, but this behavior of her was already ridiculous.

What Sokka didn't expect was that she didn't fight back, she just look away, a little embarrassed and really upset. Suddenly, he felt horribly guilty. He really was an idiot, he had seen she wasn't well, and he just made it worse!

"Uh… I mean, they drugged you." His voice was softer now. "It wasn't like you could do anything to defend yourself. They tricked you… But, uh, what I'm trying to say is… It's no big deal to admit that you are scared of a situation like that."

"That's because you don't know my family…" She muttered.

Now he was confused.

"What? Actually I do know your family and as far as I know they are just worried about you. Because they care!"

"And because they think I'm weak!" Her voice sounded both angry and sad.

Sokka once again looked at her really confused.

"Uh, okay, Azula… This is ridiculous. No one in a clear state of mind would ever think of you as weak. You are probably the deadliest person I know!"

She couldn't help but smile, feeling a little flattered.

"Yeah, you're right about that. But that's not what I meant." She sighed. "They think I will have another mental breakdown, that I will lose my mind. And that's so frustrating…"

Sokka looked away, feeling a little bad, because he also thought that in his firsts days there. But after a while, he realized that he was just being really unfair to the Princess. She certainly was crazy in a way, but she didn't seem to be about to lose her mind like that again. He couldn't believe her family would think such thing of her.

"So, that's why you are pretending not care about the attack since day one?"

At that moment, she gave him a weird look and frowned.

"Wow, that drug they gave me is probably still working… I mean, why else would I even have this conversation with you?" She gave a sad laugh and started to walk away.

Sokka instinctively grabbed her hand.

"Wait, don't go!" He realized what he had just done and blushed, letting her go.

Azula blinked at him, confused.

"Uh…" He began. "You said you couldn't sleep… I can't either since I will stay the whole night at your door, I mean, your sister's door." He gave her weak smile. "So, why don't we, hm, distract each other, at least until you are really sleepy?" He gave her an awkward smile then.

Sokka didn't know why but he really didn't want her to go. Maybe he was still feeling guilty for making her feel bad… Or perhaps he didn't want to stay alone guarding her door again. And he had to admit it was kind of nice to be around her. Mostly because she was particularly beautiful tonight… Wait, WHAT? What am I even thinking? Sokka pushed away the weird thought to listen to what the girl was saying.

"All right… I guess it's the best option I have anyway." She smiled at him, and sat on his bed.

"But if you want to feel sleepy you should talk about that political things you are always working on. Really, how don't you ever sleep reading those things?" He said laughing at his own joke.

"Hey, my work is not boring!" She frowned. "Well, what would you know? You are just a Water Tribe peasant after all…" She gave him a mocking look.

"What does that have to do with the subject?" He throws his arms in the air in frustration.

She shrugged.

"So, how is it there?" Azula asked looking at her nails.

"What?"

"Your birthplace. How is it?"

"Oh, it's nice, really cold… You couldn't survive it." He smirked at her.

"Excuse me?" She looked at him, feeling outraged. "Zuko survived it!"

"But Zuko was banished, you know, he had a tough life. You lived here most of your life, being spoiled, you clearly wouldn't make it in a place like that." He said it, now just really enjoying messing up with her.

"This is ridiculous!" She looked mad at him.

He laughed at her furious face.

"Alright, let's do this: when this problem with the attacks is solved, you come with me to visit Southern Water Tribe! So you can prove me you can make it there." He said, challenging her.

Azula laughed now.

"Like I would go to a place like that!" She made a disgusted face.

"I knew it…" He gave her a mocking smirk at her again.

"Don't play mind games with me, you idiot, that's my thing!" She frowned at him. "But okay. I will go. However, I don't think I would be very welcomed there." She laughed a little.

He laughed too.

"I bet they like you more than the Earth Kingdom."

She couldn't help but agree to that. And he went on:

"And of course, I will be there too. And I like you, so they will too." He shrugged, smiling at her.

"You like me?" She said with a sarcastic smile.

Sokka blushed and panic a little, not realizing until now what he actually said.

"Uh… Y-Yeah, you are living with me for a week and haven't killed me yet, I guess I got to like you." He laughed a little nervous.

"Good point." She nodded. "And believe me, sometimes not killing you is really hard…"

"And then, Katara threw a snow ball at my face…"

"You know, I don't like your sister, but I can't blame her." Azula said, laughing.

One hour later, they were still there. She was lying on his bed, eating fireflakes from a bowl. She had to admit it, he did succeed at distracting her. She wasn't thinking about the attack or anything like that anymore. To be honest, she was even enjoying his company. Well, if I'm going to have a bodyguard, it's better if I like being around him, right?

"Some of the draws I told you are here with me." Sokka kept on talking. "Let me show you." He got up and starting looking for it. "The guys say I'm a terrible artist, but I think I'm just really underrated…" He opened a chest, and found some papers. "Found it! You just need to think I have an unusual-". He turned around to look at Azula, but stopped talking to see something unexpected – the Princess was sleeping peacefully at his bed.

A/N:

Thank you all for the reviews 3

This chapter was longer than I expected it to be, but I wanted Sokka and Azula to bound a little more, before anything happens. Hope you like it. :)