Zuko and Azula had spent the whole morning in a meeting with the governors from some of the biggest cities in Fire Nation. Now the two siblings were talking alone in Zuko's Throne Room about the ceremony that would happen in less than three weeks to celebrate three years of the end of the war. They were not entirely alone, of course, the princess' guard was sitting in a corner of the room, seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

Sokka had noticed that Zuko was acting nicer than usual to Azula. Every time she insulted him, he simply ignored it, and he was trying his best not to disagree with her in anything. Sokka rolled his eyes at his friend. That's not how you make it up to her, Zuko… He also noticed Zuko tried to talk about what happened the night before with his sister, but every time he brought that up, Azula would glare at him in a way he could do nothing but silence himself.

Sokka didn't pay much attention at the sibling's conversation though, for he couldn't stop thinking about what happened the night before. Azula had kissed him. She actually had. Every time he thought about the kiss he felt like he was going to have a mental breakdown. That was so wrong. And the wrongest part was that he enjoyed it! He enjoyed it so bad, he couldn't help but wonder if it would ever happen again. However, when the princess met him in the morning she simply acted as if nothing had happened. Sokka couldn't wait to have another time alone with her, he wanted at least to understand better what had happened.

"We need to be extra careful, having this feast here in the Palace… Well, it can be another attack…" Sokka heard Zuko's voice.

"Hm, yeah. But that doesn't seem like their style… They don't seem to be the kind who likes to make scene. Although, I think we need to be cautious during the days before the feast. I'm pretty sure they would love to have the Fire Nation Princess dead before the celebration of the end of the war." Azula sat across Zuko with her arms fold.

Zuko looked worried at her and sighed.

Azula went on:

"Well, and make sure no one outside the Palace knows about it. You know how the commoners are, you don't want a chaotic situation now."

Not long after that, Azula left Zuko's room with Sokka behind her. Once they were in the corridor, she grabbed his arm and dragged him behind a pillar. She was really closed to him, and looking around, seeming to make sure they were alone. Azula looked at his eyes before saying:

"I want to do that again."

"You WHAT?" Sokka looked at her startled, although he couldn't help but smile a little. "S-seriously?"

"Yeah… Do you think now is a good time or should we wait until the nightfall?" She tapped her chin, thoughtfully.

"Uh… Now is great for me…" Sokka didn't seem to be able to control himself. Why couldn't he simply say no to her? That was completely insane.

"No. I think it's better to do it at night…"

"Okay… I-I can wait, I guess…" He said nervously.

Azula frowned to him.

"Good. Should we watch the guards or the servants this time?" The Princess asked.

Suddenly Sokka's mind went blank.

"What?!" What the hell was she talking about?

Azula looked at him with a confused face.

"Whom should we spy? The servants or the guards?" She asked without patience.

Suddenly it all made sense. Sokka's face went red when he realized she wasn't talking about kissing him again.

"Uh… That…" He rubbed his forehead, trying to get back to normal. "Hm… The servants I guess?"

Azula nodded firmly.

"Fine. At dusk, we head to the tunnels."

Azula's day was so busy that she barely talked to Sokka. But whenever she did, she still acted indifferent about their kiss. And that was already driving Sokka insane. What was the matter with her?

When the night came on, they had already entered in the tunnels. They went through a different passage this time, it was darker and tighter, making them walk really close. The only light they had was Azula's bright blue flame. They were walking in silence until they arrived to a bifurcation.

"Hmm..." Azula frowned. "I didn't remember this…"

Sokka sighed.

"You should have asked Kiyi to tell us how to get there."

"Shut up, let's go through this one." She said taking the tunnel in the right.

"What if it's the wrong one?" Sokka asked, walking closely behind her.

"Well, then we come back and take the other one." Azula said calmly.

Sokka groaned impatiently.

"Great… I can't believe it…" He kept mumbling unmeaning complains.

"Ugh, what's the matter with you?" Azula glared at him, before keep walking. " You are weirder than usual …"

Okay, that was the last straw. Sokka couldn't handle this anymore. Not only she was ignoring what had happened, but also she was pretending he was the crazy one! That was enough.

"WITH ME? What's the matter with you?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about..." She kept going on the tunnels, starting to leave him behind.

"Ugh… WHY DID YOU KISS ME LAST NIGHT?" Everything went dark, before Sokka could even regret raising his voice to the princess.

Azula had simply frozen, letting the flame disappear. Did that moron really brought that up? Of course, he did. Because driving her mad was probably his favorite hobby.

After a while, she lighted some of the old torches in the tunnel's wall up, and turned to face a scared Sokka. Azula folded her arms, hoping the lack of proper light would hide her flushed cheeks.

"U-uh, excuse me?" She tried to look at him as cold as she could.

"Come on, Azula! You kissed me last night and now is pretending nothing has happened!" He said throwing his arms up in frustration. "C-could you at least tell me why you did something like that?"

He had moved close to her again. Azula swallowed looking up at his blue eyes, blushing deeper.

"I-I… I don't have to tell you anything! I'm a princess and… you're my guard! You are not supposed to question me!" She felt more embarrassed, realizing how lame her answer sounded. "A-and why are you acting like I was the only one to blame? You kissed me back!" She frowned at him, with her hands on her hips.

Sokka's eyes widened. He didn't expect that.

"Uh…"

"Why you did it?" Azula cut him off as she moved close to him, making him step back. She had a look of satisfaction in her face, clearly happy to be on control again.

"I… I don't know…" Sokka blushed a little, remembering everything he felt back there. "Well, I'm a guy! When a beautiful girl kissed me, I kiss her back!" He smiled a little, knowing she didn't expect an answer like that. But then his eyes widened again and he blushed more as he realized what he had just said. Did he actually say she was beautiful out loud?

Azula looked shocked at him, her cheeks were red. The princess couldn't help but feeling really good with that compliment. She immediately censured herself for having such feeling. This is ridiculous!

Sokka was looking at her nervously.

"Can you now at least give me some sort of explanation? I mean, I just want to understand what happened last night!" His voice had a frustrated tone.

Azula groaned.

"I don't know why I did that, Sokka!" The princess sounded more embarrassed than she wanted to. "I wasn't thinking clearly after all that happened… So, there is no explanation…"

"Uh… I see." He tried to sound satisfied with her answer, but for some reason he was disappointed, this wasn't what he was expecting.

"Can we keep going now?" She asked impatiently.

"Sure." Sokka shrugged, still annoyed, and the princess turned around, keeping walking through the tunnel.

He was angrier with himself than with her. What other explanation could she give? Of course she just did that because she was upset. She was probably just trying to make herself feel better, and after what she had heard he couldn't blame her. The problem was he liked that kiss better than he should. Of course, you did. She is gorgeous, and you've single for a while now… That's all. Suddenly Sokka remembered how horrible he felt when he looked at her face when she was listened to her mother and brother's conversation. He also remember how everything he wanted back was to make her feel better…

Sokka's thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into Azula's back, since she had stopped walking all of sudden. The collision made her lose her balance, and he instinctively held her by her waist, pressing her back against his chest. Azula's face flushed red again, but instead of yelling at him to let her go, as she wanted, she just whispered:

"I heard something…"

They stood still for some seconds, and then they both heard it – voices and footsteps.

"Someone is coming right to us." Sokka whispered. "Let's go back!"

He grabbed her hand pulling her back, before she could think of anything. They went back to the bifurcation, and entered in the left tunnel. They stopped near the entrance. Sokka leaned over Azula in a protective way. She was too startled to even realize how close they were, but when the princess looked up and saw his big blue eyes looking directly to hers, her heart skipped a beat. Their faces were so close she could feel his breath mixing with hers. Sokka made a gesture for her to keep quiet, and Azula nodded, blushing. That was so strange, she wasn't used to human contact like this and the way he was looking at her gave her a fluttery feeling in the stomach. She suddenly realized no one knew they were there, why was he even protecting her like this?

"Should we send those savages after the princess again tonight?" They finally heard one of the voices speaking. It was a man.

"No, you idiot! It has been less than two days since the last attempt, everyone is expecting something to happen again soon, specially the princess herself. And believe me, you don't want to send anyone to face that witch if she is prepared." The other man replied, he seemed to be older. "But the important thing is… the plan is working: everybody is worried about protecting Azula and won't pay attention to what we are doing. I knew those morons wouldn't kill her easily, but if they do, then good for us. Without her, it will probably be easier to get Zuko to favor us anyway."

"I see… What about the-"

"Oh, that we are doing. Actually it's probably already happening…"

They kept walking and Azula and Sokka couldn't listen to anything anymore. They stood there in the same position for a while, until they were sure the men were gone. Azula looked up to Sokka awkwardly.

"Uh… Sokka, they are gone now…" Her voice came as a whisper.

"Oh, sorry." He stepped back embarrassed.

"That's fine." She said, shaking her head distractedly. "Did you hear that?" Now she looked at him almost in shock.

"Yes! We need to tell Zuko!"

"No!" Azula yelled at him, then she covered her mouth, looking apprehensively at the direction the men were going.

"Why not, Azula? This is big! I mean, it's not just some crazy people who hate you, there is something we don't know behind it. He needs to know!" Sokka frowned at her.

"Exactly! We don't know what is it! And if we tell Zuko now, he won't let me do these investigations anymore, we won't know what those bastards are doing, and they will probably succeed in Agni knows what." Azula sounded almost desperate.

"But Azula-"

"I know what you are thinking… I mean, I know you and your friends always expected me to betray Zuko at some point, and you think I'm going to do this now…" Azula rolled her eyes and sighed. Sokka raised his eyebrows confused, that wasn't what he was thinking. Actually it had been a while since he thought she would do something like this. "But listen, we can do this, we can take them down. I mean, I can." She blushed a little. Were they like a team now? "But I need more information before I tell this to my brother. You know how Zuzu is… He will get all nervous and angst, it will just make everything harder. And he has already a lot in his mind, with the festival coming. His little brain can't take so much at once…"

Sokka sighed unsure. Now that she brought that up, he couldn't help but wonder if there was a chance for her to be lying. But that wouldn't even make sense. They didn't even know what those men wanted from Zuko, but they clearly wanted her dead. Fine, she wasn't lying. But still, not telling this to Zuko would be a sort of betrayal. And he would be betraying his friend! However Azula had a point…

The princess crossed her arms impatiently.

"Okay, Sokka, let's do this. If we find out anything else, we tell him. Do we have a deal?"

Sokka rubbed his head, nervously.

"I'm probably regretting this… But fine. It's a deal." He shook his head, not believing himself. Azula gave him a smirk. What was with this woman? Why did always she get him to do whatever she wants?

Some time after that, Azula and Sokka were out of the tunnels. Sokka was telling her what he wanted for dinner and she was looking at him impatiently.

"Do you ever stop thinking about food?"

"One of the good sides of being friends with royalty is getting all the food I want. So don't take that way from me!" Sokka answered, smiling at her.

"So, now I'm your friend?" Azula raised her eyebrow, looking at him.

"Hm, I was talking about Zuko… But I guess you kind of are my friend now…" He shrugged.

Azula tried not to smile at that, but before she could say anything, they noticed there was something going on at the entrance of the Palace. The Fire Lord and Ursa were taking to some guards. And by their faces it couldn't be good news.

As the princess approached, they looked at her apprehensively.

"Okay, what happened now?" She asked right way.

"Apparently… the news about the attempt to kill you spread. Everyone in the capital already knows about it." Zuko answered her, with a worried look.

Azula groaned.

"Great."

"That's not the worst part, my dear." Ursa said in a soft tone, making Azula feel uncomfortable.

"So what is it?" Azula asked worried, stepping a little farther from her mother.

"Well..." Zuko began. "Uh... People seem to be… Taking sides. Part of them is asking for your protection, they think it's a negligence of mine that your life was threatened. But that's not entirely bad..." Zuko looked at her nervously. "The other part though…"

"They are supporting the attacker! They want you dead too, Azula." Ursa cut Zuko off, walking closer to Azula and touching her daughter's arm. The woman looked scared and really worried, and that made Azula feel nauseous.

"Uh, and that's shocking because…?" Azula saw her mother looking incredulous to her. "Mom, I'm the Princess! Did you really think everyone in the country would love me? Of course they won't! And that's not because I am… me. That happens to everyone in a high position. Even to your precious Zuzu…" Azula gave her mother a fake smile after saying the last part. "Specially to him to be honest…"

"Azula, stop it, please." Zuko intervened, and Azula looked at him. "The point is… Things are more dangerous now. You know how it's easy to incite a crowd, people can easily decide to do something against you. I mean, if you go outside." He almost whispered the last part and looked at her as if he was afraid of his sister's reaction.

Suddenly Azula's eyes widened to her brother. He wouldn't do it…

"P-please, tell me you're not doing what I think you are…" Her voice was a mix of loath and despair. It couldn't be truth… Zuko would never treat her a prisoner again, would he? It didn't matter if it was for her sake, he couldn't do it! No, he wouldn't... "You're not forbidding me to leave the Palace, are you?"

A/N: Again, longer than it was supposed to be! xD But I hope you like it, and reviews are always really really appreciated!

My classes will start again, but I will try to keep updating the story every week! :)