"You're not forbidding me to leave the Palace, are you?"

Azula couldn't hide the fear in her eyes while she glared at her brother. She couldn't believe that was happening, he wouldn't do something like that, would he… But his lack of response couldn't be a good sign. He was clearly nervous and afraid to say something, when he was opening his mouth to say anything to her, their mother started talking.

"Azula, stay calm, your brother is only taking care of you. This can be really dangerous…" Ursa kept talking, but Azula couldn't listen to anything anymore, all her thoughts, all her senses, were focused on what she would have to do if she wanted to escape right now. She could easily beat the guards at the door, and run away before anyone could reach her. But then what? What would she even do with her life? At the moment, she used all her strength to hold back the tears that were coming to her eyes, oh no, she wasn't crying in front of them! Not again.

"You two can't be serious, right?" Sokka was the one who spoke now. Azula turned around to look at him, confused. "She is not a prisoner! And I don't get it, her life is threatened and you're punishing her?" He looked incredulous at Zuko and Ursa.

Azula was facing Sokka, puzzled. What on Earth was he doing? Why was taking her side? That whole thing about him being friends with her was a joke, right? He was Zuko's friend. He didn't care about her. It wouldn't even make sense. But still, he kept doing stuff like this…

"Sokka…" Zuko began.

"We aren't punishing her, Sokka." Ursa said in a soft tone. "It's just a precaution for her own sake."

Sokka looked frustrated to Ursa, then he glared at Zuko, who looked away from him.

"I can't believe it!" Sokka complained, before giving Azula a worried look.

The Princess was putting a strong face, but she was clearly lost and hurt, and once again that made him feel horrible. But what intrigued Sokka was the way the Fire Lord was facing his sister's loathing eyes. Zuko also looked lost… and regretful?

"Mom, wait…" Zuko finally spoke. Azula was still glaring at him, waiting him to give any lame excuse to indorse his decision. She couldn't blame him though, she could only blame herself, she was the one who agreed to come back home and to work with him. Of course something like this would happen… "y-you must have misunderstood me…" Zuko's voice was unsure now. He gave Sokka a look and went on. "I didn't say I was forbidding Azula to leave the Palace or anything like that…" Azula's jaw dropped a little. What?! Her eyes were widened to her brother. "She is not a prisoner, as Sokka has said, and she is the Princess. I mean she is free to go whatever she wants…" Ursa was going to say something, but Zuko cut her off quickly. "I know you are worried, mom. We all are, but there may be other ways to keep things on control, we don't need to do anything extreme, okay?" He said softly, as he held his mother's hand.

Ursa didn't do anything but nod, she looked both surprised and embarrassed. Azula on the other hand looked more shocked than ever. She didn't know what to do or say.

"Azula?" Zuko sighed while he looked at his sister.

"Yeah?" Azula asked in a confused tone, frowning.

"I'm sorry for this misunderstanding… The truth is it would be nice if you avoided leaving the Palace for a while, but if you really need it, I want you to take some of our most trusted soldiers as an escort, besides Sokka, of course. Is that a problem for you?"

"No... no problem at all." Azula simply answered, still trying to understand what had happened there.

Zuko gave her a weak smile, but before he could say anything else to her, a guard came to him.

"Excuse me, my Lord, Governor Jiang's secretary wants to talk to you."

Azula's semblance came back to normal and she raised an eyebrow.

"Why does he possibly want now?" The Princess asked right away.

"Don't worry about this… If it's anything serious I tell you later." Zuko replied.

Azula looked her brother leaving suspiciously, and then she glanced at Ursa awkwardly.

"Good night, mother." The Princess left the hall as quickly as she could.

When Sokka and Azula were walking down the corridor to her room, he noticed the Princess was smiling distractedly, he couldn't help but smile too.

When Azula noticed his look, her smile disappeared and she blushed a little.

"What?" She asked impatiently.

"Nothing… Are you even okay?" Sokka was looking directly to her eyes now.

Azula looked away, nervously. Why did he always have to make her feel weird like this?

"Y-yeah. Everything was a little… odd. I really didn't expect Zuko to do… that."

"I think it was nice, he did the right thing after all…" Sokka shrugged. "Your mom certainly overreacted… Uh, I mean, I guess moms do that, right?" He gave her an awkward smile, realizing that wasn't a good subject to bring up.

"Yes…" She sighed sadly. "Sure."

"Hm… What about that secretary that came talking to Zuko at this hour?" Sokka asked quickly, trying not to let her think about her mother again. "Wasn't that weird?"

Azula looked at him with interested now.

"It was weird. Zuko didn't have any appointment with him or anyone tonight…"

They arrived at her door and, for some reason, knowing she would only see Sokka again in the morning made her feel a bit sad.

"Let's talk about this in the morning." Sokka said. "You should rest…" He smiled and kept looking at her for more time than he should. "Good night, Princess."

"Sokka?" Azula called him quickly before he left. "Uh… thank you." The Princess looked a little embarrassed and was avoiding his eyes.

Sokka was the one puzzled now. She was thanking him? Azula didn't thank people…

"W-what for?"

The princess rolled eyes and almost smiled at him.

"I really don't think Zuzu would do the right thing, as you said, if you hadn't say anything before. So… thank you." Azula said before closing the door and letting a shocked Sokka at the corridor.

They were again inside the Palace's tunnels. Azula was leaned against the wall and Sokka was facing her, they were close, really close. She couldn't stop looking at his eyes… those big blues eyes. Why they had to be so beautiful? His right hand touched her face softly and tucked her hair behind her ear. Azula instinctively closed her eyes as he kissed her deeply. She wanted that kiss, she had wanted it for a while… She pulled him close by the collar and then she felt one of his hands running from her waist to her breast. Azula gasped interrupting the kiss, the Princess didn't know how to react to something like this, no one had ever touched her in this way, she liked it though. Her lips reached for his again and this time the kiss was rougher. She ran her fingers on his neck, then through his hair… She could hear his moaning in her mouth…

"Princess…" A distant female voice called for her.

She tried to ignore it, now feeling his lips on her neck.

"Princess?" Again, the voice. And now Sokka were gone.

Azula stirred abruptly in her room. Two servants were opening the curtains and another one was carrying a tray with breakfast. The Princess' eyes widened and her cheeks became red when she realized what had just happened. Was she dreaming with Sokka? And it was not a regular dream… Azula bit her bottom lip remembering how he kissed her and how he touched her, it felt so real and so good. She shook her head. What was the matter with her? She was the Princess, she wasn't supposed to have this kind of dream, and certainly not with that Water Peasant!

"Was it a good dream?" The servant asked, smiling and placing the tray on Azula's bed.

"WHAT? W-What dream?" Azula's heart stopped. How the hell did she know about that?

"Oh, you looked happy in your sleep, your highness, I thought you were having a nice dream." The woman said nicely.

"No. I had no dreams." The Princess replied codly, glaring at the servant, who stepped back a little.

"My Princess, the Kyoshi Warriors have just arrived and the Fire Lord asked us to get you ready to be in the principal hall as soon as possible."

Azula sighed and started eating her breakfast.

It had been a week since everyone in the capital found out about the attacks. And even though people were doing a mess, nothing unusual had happened inside the Palace.

Azula left her room almost an hour after she had waken up, wearing her typical royal clothes, her hair was partially down, with her golden crown on the top of her head. Sokka smiled when he saw her.

"Good morning, Princess."

Azula gasped, almost scared to see him. She immediately blushed, remembering of the dream. The sunlight from the windows made his eyes even bluer and brighter than in the dream, her heart raced. It was just a stupid dream! Forget it. The princess recomposed herself and gave him a forced smile.

"Morning, peasant." She muttered, walking past him.

"I thought we were over the 'peasant' thing." Sokka sighed and started walking by her side.

Azula noticed how he was completely comfortable around her, she realized he had been like this for a while. And that made her feel weird. People usually didn't feel that way near her, at least not when they knew her a little better. She remembered very well how the first guy she'd kissed had run away from her. Sokka didn't run away… But that was probably because his job was to be around her all the time. Was that the reason she had dreamt with him in that way? Because she was spending too much time with him? Or was it because of the things he has said to her or how he stood up for her the other night…

And there was also their kiss… She wouldn't dare to admit it not even to herself, but she thought about that kiss often. Too often. What was happening to her? She wasn't the kind of girl who would lose her time thinking about kiss a hot guy like that! Hot guy? Do you actually think he's hot? Azula glanced at Sokka with the corner of her eyes. Fine, he isn't that bad, he looks quite nice in this Fire Nation's outfit, and he's more muscular than he was three years ago… Azula wanted to slap herself. That wasn't like her, she wouldn't let herself have those idiotic thoughts anymore. She would focus on her duties, as she should have always done.

They were getting too close and that should stop now. But Azula enjoyed his company, she had to admit it. She was used to be alone for a long time, before he become her bodyguard, and now they were always together, talking to each other. She also admitted that were a couple of times she pretended she had to work late, so she would stay in her office with him a little longer… But that was enough. Things were getting out of control! He was his guard and only that. And from now on that's how she would treat him.

As soon as the Princess arrived in the principal hall, she felt someone hugging her tightly. Ty Lee.

"Azula! It has been a while!" Her old friend smiled at her happily. "Zuko told me what you've been through, are you okay? I was worried!"

"I wasn't killed. So, I guess I'm fine…" Azula smiled and shrugged.

"You look better than I expected…" Ty Lee said in a sweet way. "And now that we are here we will help you and Zuko…" Ty Lee kept talking, but Azula's attention wasn't there anymore.

Her eyes were on Sokka. He had simply left her side without saying anything and was hugging the leader of the Kyoshi at that exact moment. His ex-girlfriend. They were smiling and looked happy to see each other. "I missed you too", Azula heard him saying. The Princess didn't know why but suddenly she felt a tightness in her chest, that made her both mad and frustrated.