Pain radiated from the left side of his head, more specifically from his left eye. Sokka didn't dare to open his eyes, not yet at least. First, he was pretty sure the pain would increase the minute he opened his eyes, second he wasn't sure if he already wanted to see what had happened to him.

After several minutes he finally opened his eyes, groaning from the pain. He noticed he was tied up on a chair, in a small room with poor illumination. And he wasn't alone. Three men stood in front of him. He narrowed his eyes trying to focus his blurred vision, so he could see their faces.

"Look, he is finally up…" One of them said, elbowing the other.

"Where am I?" Sokka growled, looking around, and moving his arms trying to unbound himself.

"No…" The tallest one scolded him. "We ask the question here." He glared at Sokka. "We know who you are…"

"Princess Azula's personal guard. Or should I say her little pet?" The other one laughed.

Sokka felt his heart racing, it was pounding so hard against his chest, he could barely listen to his own thoughts. Azula! Did they find out she was in that tavern? Did they go after her already? He bet that girl Zirin was behind all this. His heart suddenly stopped. What if something had already happened to Azula? He imagined her all alone in that tavern's room, and his chest tightened. He knew that usually Azula could defeat basically anyone, if she was prepared. But she wasn't much like herself that day, she was clearly shaken and slipping... Could she even fight properly? He felt despair taking over him. If Zirin was really one of them, Azula could already be… But, wait. If she was already dead, why would they even keep him alive there? Sokka breathed again. No, they hadn't found her. Not yet.

"Listen…" He tried to start.

"No, you listen. " The tallest man cut him off. "Unlike you and people like your Princess like to say, we are not murders. Yes, we want her dead… We have our reasons… But that's all. However, if you are trying to screw us over, we don't have much choice, do we?" The man pulled a knife from his pocket. "Now, you will answer our questions… or there will be consequences." He kneeled down to face Sokka. The knife's blade touching Sokka's left cheek.

Sokka just glared back at him, showing no fear. They needed him, they wouldn't simply kill him.

"So, how did you find us?" The third man in the corner of the room asked.

"I didn't… I mean I follow that guy…" Sokka noticed the guy wasn't there with them. "Because someone told me to, I don't even know where I am right now!"

"Who told you to follow him?" The man with the knife asked.

He couldn't say it was Zirin, because if by any chance she was really innocent, they would go after her and if they did it right now, they would find Azula with her.

"I don't know who he was." He started, lying. "He was a random merchant in the capital. He told me I would find that guy in that tavern…" The three men crossed their arms, suspicious. " But, hey, you got to listen to me, I want to help you!" Sokka shouted, still glaring at them.

They looked at each other and laughed.

"Help us?" The tallest asked raising one eyebrow. "You? Want to help us kill Princess Azula?"

"Exactly." Sokka nodded firmly.

The guy with the knife approached again, shaking his head.

"You should have found a better lie, son…"

"I'm telling the truth! That's why I came after you!" Sokka shouted.

"If you want her dead, why don't you just kill her by yourself? After all, you are close to her all the time, aren't you?"

"It's not that simple. Her brother is the Fire Lord and my friend!" He answered.

"Exactly. He's your friend. Why would you kill your friend's sister?" The one in the corner asked, crossing his arms.

"Because she is just like her father!" Sokka replied quickly. "And she is trying to turn Zuko into another Ozai! She is completely crazy!" He couldn't help but feel bad for saying those things about her. It's true he once thought that about her, but she was so different now… Suddenly he wondered if she was really that different or he had just changed his mind. "Look, I don't think killing someone is the right solution, but it's better than living another war, right?"

The men looked at each other, frowning.

"This is ridiculous! He is obviously lying!" One of them shouted.

"Well… you can't simply tell that…" The tallest one muttered, shrugging at the other's glare.

"Come here, you two." The third one called them to the corner.

Sokka couldn't listen to what they were saying anymore. He started to look around, looking for ways to escape if things didn't work out well. But he wasn't really lucky. He couldn't die there by the hands of those idiots. He was trying to prove to Azula that we could do something right, so he had to find away out of this.

"Hey, Princess' pet! We have a proposition to you…"

Azula walked from side to side, nervously. Where the hell was he? Hours had passed and Sokka wasn't back yet. Zirin hadn't showed up anymore either. She felt like was going crazy. It was all her fault. She shouldn't have let him go. She should have thought of a better plan. Now, what could she even do? What if he got caught? Or worse… Azula swallowed hard, feeling her eyes burning and her head throbbing. He could be dead, because of her! And she didn't even have a chance to apologize for burning him or for saying those horrible things. She didn't have a chance to tell him what she really…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone abruptly opening the door. Her right fist was already closed with a blue flame burning on top of it, but it faded away when she realized it was Sokka. The Princess let out a sigh of relief and rushed to him.

"Why did you take so long to come back?! I thought you were dead, you stupid peasant! Where did- " Azula gasped when she finally looked up to see his face. "What the hell happened to your face?!" He had a horrible black eye.

Sokka sighed, irritated.

"You wouldn't believe it, but the guys who want to kill you aren't exactly the nicest people in the world." He said with sarcasm. "Now, slow down a little, okay?" He walked past her to reach a bottle on the dresser of the room. He poured some of the liquid on a glass, and drinking the whole content at once.

"What are you even doing?" Azula crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him as he filled the glass again.

"Drinking... " He shrugged, he sounded both annoyed and exhausted. "Don't judge me, okay? I deserve it after the night I had…" Azula just raised her eyebrows to him. "Want some?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." She said carelessly. "Will tell me what happened or what?" She asked, impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah..." He started it, as he handed her the drink. "So… They knocked me out, took me to some weird room I don't know where, asked me some questions… And then after a while, I told them I was there because I wanted to help them, as we planned." He sat on the bed, the bottle on one hand, the glass on another, looking down.

"And did they buy it?" Azula asked anxiously, sitting next to him.

Sokka sighed and drank more.

"Kind of…" He replied after a while, shrugging. "I mean, not at first…"

Azula frowned, confused, and drank from the glass. She coughed and grimaced. Sokka just laughed and shook his head.

"Take it easy, Princess."

"What the hell is this?" She asked with a disgusting face.

"Whiskey, I guess." He drank more of it and went on. "So, as I was saying… They didn't really believe it, but at the same time they thought it could be useful to have someone so close to you on their side. So, they decided to test me."

"Test you?" She asked, taking another drink, making another grimace.

"They will call me, I don't know when or where, and give me some kind of task… So they can see if they can trust me." He shrugged. "I still have no idea how I'm going to do something like that… I guess I will have to wait to see how it goes."

"And you didn't find out anything else about them?" Azula asked in a low tone.

"No, not yet. But it could be worse, right?" He said almost in an apologizing tone, which made Azula for some reason feel even worse.

"Let's go home then." She said, drinking the rest of the content in her glass.

"No… The bar is too crowded, we should wait until it's empty. We don't know if there are more of them down there."

"So we just wait here?" Azula asked, annoyed.

"Zirin will tell us when it's the best time for us to sneak through the back door…" He muttered, pressing the glass with whiskey against his sore eye.

Azula raised one eyebrow at him and took the bottle from his hand, pouring more drink on her own glass.

"So you trust Zirin now?" There was some sort of sarcasm in her voice.

"No, but we don't have much choice, do we?" He commented, careless, then frowned, observing her drinking a full glass in one gulp. "Hey, you should slow down, you know, or you will get drunk…"

Azula just shrugged.

"So?" She rolled her eyes to him.

"I already had enough trouble tonight, I don't need to deal with a drunk Princess…" He tried to take her glass back, but she just pushed him away.

"I'm not getting drunk, you moron! Just leave me alone!" She growled and Sokka just shook his head at her. After a while, she sighed and said, "So we're stuck here until further notice, uh?" She asked, pouring herself another glass.

"I guess…" He muttered, getting more drink to himself as well.

Azula wasn't much of a drinker, actually she had drunk alcohol only a couple of times her whole life. But right now everything was such a mess and she was so angry and upset with so many things, that she couldn't help but love that warm reassuring feeling that the drink was giving to her. She started feeling lightheaded as well, but she decided it was a good thing too, since it was silencing that nagging inside her head.

"Uh, Azula?" Sokka called her after a while. He was facing her, sat with folded legs on the bed. "Can I ask you something?"

The Princess looked at him, frowning, then smirked.

"Only if you fill my glass up…" She raised the glass to him, giving him a daring look.

He rolled his eyes and served her more drink.

"I'm not carrying you home if you get drunk, you know…" He joked, starting to feel quite lightheaded himself.

"You have to. You promised Zuzu you would keep me safe, remember?" She pointed out with sarcasm, making a disgusted face. "So, what do you want to ask?"

Sokka bit his bottom lip, nervously.

"Uh… Those things you said earlier to Zirin… Are they really the truth? I mean, have you actually done all those things?"

Azula's eyes widened. She didn't expect this kind of question. Why was he even interested on that?

Eventually, she nodded.

"Yeah… I have." The Princess muttered. "You know, when I told you how I went back home, things may have sounded a little easier what actually happened. It was not that easy, not until Zuzu and I get under some sort of agreement…" She commented, drinking more whiskey. Azula noticed Sokka was looking at her waiting for more details, so she went on.

"Well, I decided I want to go home, but I didn't want my girls to simply go back to prison because of me, so I had to convince Zuko to let them to be free citizen again. And that was the hardest part I think, and as you could see yesterday when we talked to him, he still doesn't like this whole story very much. And I don't blame him to be honest…"

Azula wondered why she was telling him all that and why she was being so honest. But for some reason, she felt the weight inside her chest a little lighter as she kept talking to him.

"So, after a long time he agreed to give them a chance, but if they ever break the law again… They shall go to prison immediately. No trial or anything." She sighed. "So I gave them all resource enough to make a new life. But as you can see…" She raised her hand, pointing to the door. "Some of them aren't very happy with it." Azula laughed sadly before finishing another glass.

Sokka nodded.

"And the place you said you had shutdown," He finally spoke something. "Was it… uh, the institution you went, when… uh" Sokka looked at her embarrassed and unsure, he didn't know how to talk about that anymore. He used to say she was crazy all the time with his friends, after all she was known as Zuko's crazy sister. But right now he felt so bad for calling her that, it just sounded so wrong. She was so much more than that for him right now. Yes, she still had many issues, but that just made her even more human and real for him. He felt his chest tightening when he saw shame in her eyes, before she look away.

"Yeah." She shrugged. "But that was pretty easy. After Zuko found out what used to happen inside that disgusting place, he had it shut down at the same day. Actually other places like that were shut for the same problems after that…" Azula just sighed, and Sokka frowned confused at her.

"What do you mean? What did use to happen there?" He asked, nervously, chewing his bottom lip.

Azula sipped her drink slowly.

"Well, you know… All sort of abuse. Mostly to girls." She muttered, looking down to her drink.

Sokka's suddenly heart stopped and his eyes widened. No, that couldn't mean what he think it did, could it? He felt a cold, sharp fear taking over his body. His mouth opened as he tried to say something.

"D-Did something… Did something… happen…" Sokka swallowed, unable to finish the question.

"To me?" Azula could easily read what he was thinking. "No!" She shook her head, as she saw Sokka letting out a sigh of relief. "No, never… Not to me." She took a deep breath. "I think the doctors and everyone else was just afraid of me." She laughed a little trying to clear the air a little, but her smiled faded when she saw Sokka was still too startled. "Or maybe the fact I'm the Princess… The Fire Lord's sister… stopped them, I don't know… I guess I was lucky." She shrugged.

Sokka just shook his head.

"Wow, Azula… I… I'm so sorry…"

Her eyes grew wide as she looked confused to him. Then she suddenly got really mad.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me! Haven't you listened? Nothing happened to me! I don't need any pity!" She shouted and took a big gulp of whiskey, feeling her face burning in shame, turning her face to not face him. Why did she even tell him those kinds of things?

"What?!" His eyes widened now in shock at her. "No, it's not pity! On the contrary… It's just… Sometimes it's just hard to believe how strong you are…"

The Princess felt like someone had slapped her in the face. She just starred at him, puzzled. What was he even talking about?

"Excuse me?" She asked, raising her eyebrows to him.

"Well, yeah… You're really strong… I mean, you've been through so much, but still… Look at you now!"

Azula frowned at him, confused.

"You mean… Drunk in a disgusting tavern and chased by a bunch of murders?" She asked sarcasm, raising the glass. "Yeah, I'm doing great!" She wasn't sure what he was talking about, but he couldn't be serious.

Sokka rolled his eyes at her, shaking his head and smiling at her.

"Come on, you know what I mean..."

Azula sipped her glass again, keeping the eye contact with him.

"I really don't…"

Sokka sighed and threw his arms up frustrated.

"Oh, come on, Azula! You know you've been through some really bad stuff, but you've founded your way out of it! And you've conquered so much! You gained your brother's trust, you became his chief adviser, you got your mental stability back…"

Azula bit her bottom lip, and looked down. "I'm not sure about the last part…" She tried to sound funny, but her voice just came out really hurt.

Sokka noticed she was looking at his injured hand.

"Oh, this?" He raised his hand and gave her a weak smile. "Don't worry about this. It was just an accident."

Sokka looked puzzled at her when he realized she only got more upset by his last statement.

"Exactly! It was an accident! This kind of thing doesn't happen to me! I'm known to be nothing but precise, and the same goes for my bending! I've always had complete control over it!" Azula's voice came out more desperate than she wanted. For some reason, it was so hard to control her emotions right now. She felt this horrible lump in her throat and her eyes burning with tears. "Well… Almost always… These things only happened, when I was… You know… Out of my mind." She bit her bottom lip hard, avoiding his eyes

"But, Azula, this was different, it was all my fault! You were under a lot of stress and I kept pressuring you to tell me what happened between you and your mother. Anyone would snap in a situation like that. It doesn't mean anything!" Sokka explained, nervously, hoping that she would believe him and feel a little better. "I shouldn't have done that…"

He got a little closer to her, so he could look better at her. His heart ached when he saw pain and despair in her eyes.

"But what if it does mean something?" She asked with a wobbly voice. "My mind…" She swallowed. "What if I'm losing it again?" Azula shut her eyes closed, trying to hold the tears back.

Sokka stared at her with eyes widened, his mouth opened.

"Azula, no, no, no…" He shook his head, nervously, and instinctively hold her hand, trying to calm her down. He wanted to hug her, to hold her close… But he knew it could just make things worse, so he controlled himself. "You are not-"

"You have no idea what it is, Sokka… You just don't know!" She cut him off, not able to control the sobs anymore. "It can't happen again, it can't…" She mumbled, staring at nothing. Her lips were trembling and tears were falling down her cheek.

"Azula!" Sokka cried desperately, holding her shoulders. He instantly regretted it because he had clearly scared her. But at least she was paying attention to him now. "Please, listen to me…" His voice was gentler now. "It's not happening again, okay? You have been through a lot these past weeks! It's okay to be scared and to lose control a little bit. It doesn't mean you are losing your mind. Believe me, I myself am feeling like that recently, I can only imagine how you are feeling." Azula just stared at him. Tears were still in the corner of her eyes. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something else. "It has just been really bad days, that's all, okay?" He smiled at her and rubbing her shoulders. "You look so tired, when was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"

Azula shrugged, wiping the tears off her face.

"I don't know…" She sighed and shook her head, blinking a little groggily at him. He wondered if she was really that tired or she just had too much alcohol. "I just wish this whole thing were already over. I mean, I only want a little bit of peace in my life, is that asking too much?"

"Hey… It will be over soon." He said in a reassuring tone. "I know you think I'm useless." He wanted it to sound as a joke, but his voice came out sadder than he planned. "But I really think I can do this. If they actually end up trusting me, soon we will know enough to arrest all of them!"

Azula frowned at him, in disbelief.

"Sokka, you are not useless!" She shook her head, looking incredulous to him. He couldn't be serious, could he?

Sokka laughed a little, but looked down sadly.

"Well… I haven't been the best guard in the world and you said-" He started, but she cut him off.

"Sokka, I only said that, because I was mad at you that day! Oh, please! You saved my life more than once! You have helped me when everyone else refused to, and now you are risking your life to help us arrest the assassins!" The Princess sounded almost irritated. She sighed and looked down, biting her bottom lip again. "I know you are doing all this because of Zuko, but I know when I have to be grateful to someone…" Azula tried to avoid his eyes, feeling a little embarrassed for saying the last part.

Sokka just blinked at her.

"You don't actually think I'm doing all of this because of Zuko, do you?!" He asked sounding almost startled, but she did nothing but stare back at him. "It may have started this way, but… that's not the reason anymore… It hasn't been for a while."

Azula felt her heart racing, as she got closer to him.

"Then what is the reason?" She asked in a whisper, her gaze going from his eyes to his lips.

Sokka wasn't sure if he should answer that question. It's not as if she didn't know the answer already! They were so close, Sokka could feel her breath on his neck and it was sending shivers down his spine. Was it all the alcohol he had or did she actually look even prettier tonight? She was clearly drunk and groggy and her eyes were still red because she had cried, but she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And the worst part was that every time he knew some new about her, it just made him think she was even more amazing. It just made him more attracted to her. He wanted to let her go, mostly because she probably didn't even want him, but everyday it got harder and harder. He opened his mouth, trying to decide what he would say to her. But before he could spoke anything, Azula just slammed her mouth to his.

A/N: Sorry for the late update! Life's been a little crazy...I hope you liked this chapter! Hopefully, next chapter won't take so long!

Please review it! :)