"The Avatar and his friends have arrived. The Fire Lord requires your presence."

Azula simply rolled her eyes at that information.

"Well, although I hate to interrupt this great conversation," There was bitter sarcasm in the Princess' voice. "I need to get ready to salute the rest of your pathetic friends."

Sokka wondered for a second if the Princess were talking to him or to Suki, as he watched she leaving the room.

"Suki…" He started, looking at the door, worried. He was still Azula's guard, he wasn't supposed to leave her alone. "Please… Katara is here now."

"Sokka, there is serious. You shouldn't even be her guard anymore. It's not safe."

He shook his head, angrily.

"This is also serious. If my sister finds out Azula's burned me… We'll probably be facing another war before dinner. So, please. Forget it." He looked at the girl desperately.

Suki sighed, shaking her head.

"Fine." She finally said. "I won't say anything to Katara… Yet. But I won't let this go that easily, Zuko need to know about this."

Sokka simply sighed and nodded tiredly.

"We can discuss this later." Suki glanced the door. "The guys are waiting…"

Even though Sokka really missed his friends and his sister, he didn't go see them immediately, for he had to wait the Princess to get ready. And for some reason she was taking even more time to dress up than usually. Did she simply hate his friends that badly? Or was she afraid to face them? It wouldn't be the first time she met them after she had come back to the Palace, but it was never long interactions. He wondered if Suki would really keep her word. The last thing he wanted was his sister and Azula trying to kill each other.

Some time later, Azula came out of her room in her usual royal clothes.

"Hey…" He couldn't help but smile bright as he eyed her.

"Hey." Azula said distractedly, walking down the hall next to him. "So, what is your dear ex-girlfriend going to do after all?"

Sokka looked at Azula, worried.

"She agreed not to say anything yet… But I think she will tell Zuko later. It's so stupid, she doesn't believe me!"

Azula shrugged. "Well, you can't blame her… I could have made you lie to protect myself, if I wanted to."

Sokka gave her an unamused look.

"You think so much of yourself, don't you, Princess?"

She gave him a mocking smile. "It's the truth though."

Sokka felt a warm feeling in his chest as he saw she smiling. For moment, she looked genuinely happy…

"So, what happened back there during your training?" He asked, making conversation. "I mean, did you get hurt?"

Azula's cheek flushed a little.

"Uh… No, I'm fine." She tried to sound casual. "My ankle is still not fully recovered, and I ended up falling. But well…" She shrugged. "No big deal."

Sokka just smiled.

The first thing Azula saw when she get to the Palace's gardens were Appa's teeth gritting at her as the bison growled angrily at her.

"Hey, calm down, buddy." She heard Aang's voice. "It's okay, she's not going to hurt you…"

Sokka who had pulled her back a little by the arm, just sighed and said, "Oh yeah, I forgot… Nature still hates you."

Azula looked unamused to him, while they walked towards the others.

"Sokka!" Katara was the first to speak. She rushed to him, but the minute she looked at his face, she stopped and gasped. "What happened to you?" She was asking about his black eye, that wasn't still fully healed.

"Uh… That's a-"

"You… " Katara suddenly glared at Azula. "You didn't…"

The Princess on the other hand just smirked.

"Don't worry, peasant, it wasn't me. If I were the one who attacked him, he would look a lot worse than this…" Azula said with a malicious smile.

"Hey!" Sokka complained feeling personally attacked.

"If you ever hurt him, I swear you will regret it for the rest of your life." Katara was gritting her teeth.

Everyone just stared at the two girls with tension.

"Oh really?" Blue flames came out of Azula's hands as she kept looking at the other girl, with an amused face. "Let's see what you can do…" She whispered.

A lash of water was already dancing around Katara, when Sokka rushed to hold his sister's shoulders.

"That's enough, Azula!" Zuko was already holding Azula by the arm.

"Katara, stop it. She is just playing with you, can't you see?" Sokka tried to calm the waterbender down.

"Wow, I forgot how these friends' reunions were fun!" Toph finally exclaimed, amused.

Everyone just looked at the earthbender, incredulous.

After they all had a quite stressful lunch together, Katara and the others wanted to spend some time with Sokka, so Azula went to her office escorted by Ty Lee, while the group of friends stayed in one of the Palace's living room. Zuko, however, couldn't be with them, since he had a last time meeting that afternoon.

"Now that we are alone… Tell me, Sokka, how bad has it been?" His sister asked, with a worried voice.

Sokka frowned, confused.

"Uh?"

"She wants to know how have you survived around the mental princess for such a long time. Has she tortured you or something?" Toph spoke in a sarcastic way.

"What? No!" Sokka's eyes widened incredulous. He had forgotten what his friends thought of Azula. And he couldn't blame them. A month ago he would totally agree with them.

"Come on, guys. I bet it hasn't been that bad. Zuko said she is different." Aang said in a gentle voice.

"Oh, please, Aang! I know you like to think there is good in everyone and I really admire that, but we all know Azula! Zuko wants his family together, so he would say anything. Didn't you see how she acted with me earlier today?" Katara was frowning, angrily.

"But you were the one who threatened her first and you accused her of something she didn't do!" Sokka shouted, sounding annoyed. The three friends suddenly stared at him, frowning, confused. He of all people was defending the Princess? Sokka blushed a little, when he realized the others' reaction. "Uh… What I mean is… If you don't provoke her, she isn't that bad. She can be pretty fun to be honest."

That didn't help everybody's astonishment.

"Azula? Fun?" Katara asked, her voice was a mixed of angriness and confusion. "Are we even talking about the same person?"

"Do you think she has brainwashed him?" Toph teased. "Or maybe she has threatened burn his pants down if he didn't say nice things about her…" The earthbender laughed. And Sokka just looked unamused to her.

"Ha ha. I'm serious, guys. She's not that bad anymore."

"Sokka, I really want to believe you and, yeah, I don't think she is our enemy anymore, but…" Aang started. "Well, she wasn't exactly the nicest person with us at lunch today."

"She was insulting us every time could! You, included!" Katara was revolted.

"Yeah…" Sokka rolled his eyes. "She is like that. But it doesn't mean she can't be fun when she feels like it."

"I can't believe you are actually defending her..." Toph shook her head. "When I thought you couldn't get any weirder."

Sokka made a grimace to her, but then he remembered she couldn't see it.

Katara just looked at him, annoyed.

"And I can't believe you are going to risk your life to help finding her assassins. I still haven't told Zuko how I hated this stupid plan!"

"Hey! It was my plan!" Sokka complained. "And I think you've told him that at least five times!"

Katara rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's the truth."

"Don't worry, okay. Nothing will happen to me…" He tried to calm her down.

"Well, tell that to your eye…" She muttered. After a while, she asked, "And how is Suki?"

Sokka frowned and shrugged.

"She is okay, haven't you guys seen her?"

Katara rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but I mean… What about you two?"

Sokka blushed with the unexpected question.

"We have broken up, remember?"

"Well, yeah, but we thought you were coming here to get back together with her!" Katara was looking at him with inquisitive eyes.

Suddenly he realized how bizarre that idea was. It wasn't like Suki didn't mean anything to him. She meant a lot, actually. She would always be his first real girlfriend, the first person with whom he had a true connection. And for that, a part of him would always love her. Just like a part of him would always love Yue too. But things were over with Suki. And now there was Azula. And even though he knew nothing would ever happened between them, he couldn't even imagine being with someone else right now.

"What?! No! Are you crazy?"

Everyone frowned at him, again.

"Guys, Suki is an amazing girl. But it's truly over…"

"Did you even try to talk to her?" Katara asked.

"We talked but not about that!"

"Maybe she is waiting for you to say something…"

"Katara, stop it!" Sokka groaned. "It's not happening!"

His sister just shook her head, irritated.

"I don't get what is wrong with you!"

Sokka couldn't help but imagine how she would react if she found out everything that had happened between him and the Princess. He didn't even want to think about it.

Azula was at her desk, writing something down.

"Finally, we are alone with each other! I have been dying to ask you what happened that night you guys went to see Zirin! You seemed so upset when you left, and then when you come back you were so much better!" Ty Lee was talking loud, she sounded excited. "Does that mean… something happened?" She asked in a teasing voice.

The Princess kept looking down at the paper, but her cheeks flushed red.

"I'm trying to work, Ty Lee. Can't you see?" Her voice sounded annoyed.

"Oh, please! Stop that and let's talk! It's not like you could be fired or something!" Her friend joked.

"There is nothing to talk about…" She kept writing.

"Really?" Her friend leaned at her desk, frowning at the Princess. "Are you saying you guys slept at the same place and nothing happened?"

Azula's face burned deeply.

"Ty Lee! What do you take me for? We didn't sleep at the- Well, we did, but we didn't- Ugh, Ty Lee!" Azula groaned. "You can be so irritating sometimes!"

The other girl chuckled.

"It's so funny how you are such a great liar, but when I ask about this you are the worst!"

Azula's eyes widened.

"But I'm not lying, for crying out loud! We didn't sleep together! At least not like that!"

Ty Lee laughed again.

"I didn't ask that. It's pretty obvious nothing happened, since it's you we're talking about." Azula couldn't help but feel a little insulted with that comment. And at same time, ashamed, since she remembered how she behaved with Sokka that night. "I just want to know if something happened."

Azula sighed, angrily.

"As I said, I must work, I don't have to talk about these silly things!" She growled.

Ty Lee shook her head, smiling. "So something did happen."

Azula chose to ignore her friend's comment and keep with her duties.

Later that day, Sokka and Azula walked back to their rooms together.

"So, how was the day with your friends?" The Princess asked, genuinely curious.

Sokka shrugged.

"It was nice. I missed them, but I had forgotten they can be quite annoying sometimes…" He muttered.

Azula laughed.

"I wouldn't say 'sometimes'…" She joked.

He gave her a look and laughed.

"You would like them if you gave them a chance… I mean, you used to hate my guts, and now you can't help but love me, can you?" Sokka teased her.

Azula's heart skipped a beat. For a second, she thought he was serious. But then she just gave him an awkward fake laugh.

"Yeah, right…"

Sokka opened his bedroom's door, but before he could wish her a good night, he looked inside his room and frowned.

"What?" She noticed his face. He entered the room, and she followed him.

There was a small scroll on his bed.

"I didn't leave this here…" He commented, picking up the scroll. Azula was surprised that he noticed something out of place there, since his bedroom was quite messy.

Sokka opened it and looked at it with eyes widened.

"What is it, Sokka?!" She asked, anxiously.

"It's from them."

"The assassins?" Azula asked, taking the scroll off his hands.

He looked at her annoyed.

"Who else?"

"I see… So, what are you going do?" She asked, still looking at the message.

"What do you mean by what am I going to do? I have to go. They want me to be there tonight." Azula sighed, she suddenly felt her heart tightened. "Will you tell Zuko and the others that I had to go?" He said as he put on a cloak.

Azula nodded, biting her bottom lip, tensed.

"I'm going now. Don't stay alone, ask Ty Lee or someone else to stay with you tonight."

The girl rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry about me, moron. I'll be fine. Worry about yourself. Don't get killed, I don't want your sister to have another reason to annoy the hell out of me."

Sokka smiled at her. "Sure thing." And then, he instinctively came closer to her and kissed her cheek. "See you later, Princess."

Azula had Zuko and his friends informed that Sokka had left the Palace and at that moment she was brushing her hair at her dressing table. Her thoughts weren't there though, they were very distant. She was remembering that night… At the tavern. Sokka over her on bed, kissing her passionately and touching her in a way she didn't know she could be touched. That thought made her crossed her legs. She groaned, frustrated. It wouldn't be the first time that memory would keep her awake. Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted her train of thoughts. Her brother. Wonderful.

"What do you want?" She asked rudely and kept working on her hair.

"I need to talk to you." He started. Zuko didn't sound angry, but he wasn't happy either. But when was he happy anyway?, she caught herself thinking.

She rolled her eyes.

"Can't it wait until morning?"

"No." He sounded serious.

Azula growled, "Fine. Just spit it out."

"Look at me when I'm talking to you." Zuko ordered.

Azula couldn't help but stare at him with eyes widened, outraged. He could be the Fire Lord, but she would never let him talk to her like this. He was still her stupid inferior annoying brother. He had to respect her.

"What the hell is your problem, Zuko?" She stood up and crossed her arms, glaring at him.

"I was told there was a problem between you and Sokka… And you ended up burning him." He went straight to the point.

That slut will pay me. Azula sighed.

"Yeah. So?"

"Is it true, then?" Her brother sounded more like himself now, shocked with her careless reaction.

She nodded.

"Yeah, I knew that bitch would tell you."

Zuko glared at her.

"Don't call Suki that way, Azula!" He yelled, angrily. "Now, would you tell me what happened?"

The Princess groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Well, if she told you right, you should know it was an accident."

Zuko looked at her incredulous.

"How that accident happened? And why did you lie about that?" He questioned her.

"Wow, I didn't know this would be an interrogatory! Sokka was the one who lied about it, I didn't say anything."

"How it happened, Azula?"

The Princess shook her head.

"I want to sleep, Zuko… Get out." She complained.

"And I want to know what happened!" Zuko insisted.

Azula just groaned.

"Wow, you can be so irritating…"

Her brother looked unamused to her.

"Azula…"

She let out a sigh of frustration.

"I was stressed out, okay?! I had had that stupid conversation with mom and it drove me mad. After that, Sokka started to asked me what happened there, he insisted and I lost control, okay?" She shouted, her eyes burning with irritation. "Are you happy now?"

Zuko frowned.

"You talked to mom?" Azula's eyes suddenly widened. Shit. "Is that why she has been so upset? You told me you didn't know why she was like that, Azula!"

"Zuzu, let's talk about that in the morning, okay? I'm tired." She started pushing him, but he held her by the wrist.

"No! What did you two talked about? She has been weird since that day, Azula! You lied to me! I can't believe it!"

Azula couldn't help but let out a muffled laugh.

"Really? You can't believe that?"

"You gave me your word you wouldn't lie anymore!" He scolded her.

She frowned.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow to him, confused. "No. I said I was going to tell you about my plans! And that's what I've been doing!"

Zuko shook his head, frustrated.

"It's the same thing, Azula!"

"It's not!" She yelled.

"It doesn't matter now! What did you say to mom?" He asked carefully, looking down at her now in a threatening way. Angriness burned in his eyes.

She knew this would happen. He was at her side just because she was playing nice, the moment she did anything that displeasured him… Or his precious mother, he would get mad at her. Treat her like the crazy woman he thought she was. Not woman. Because he didn't even see her as a grown up, he saw her as a child. Would he even keep his word? Or he would simply punish her for that in a humiliating way? She gritted her teeth. This was her mother's entire fault. As always. She always found a way to ruin things for her. It was because of her she lost her mind once, it was because of her she had a shitty relationship with her brother her whole life, it was her fault she had burned Sokka… And now this… Azula felt her eyes burning. Hate taking over her.

"I said the truth, okay?!" She screamed, Zuko jumped back, a little startled with her reaction. "I told her I didn't want her near me, because everything bad that ever happened to me was her fault!" Part of her knew that was a lie. She knew Ozai had a great part in that too, not to mentioning her herself. But she wanted to blame her mother for all that. For some reason, it made her feel less frustrated and depressed when she thought this way. "I told her how she was a horrible mother! Not only to me, but to you too! She abandoned and forgot us! And she thinks everything can be okay now! Well, IT CAN'T!"

"How could you say something like that to her?!" Zuko's eyes widened at his sister. "Azula! I know you have your problems with her, but you can't treat her like this! Not after everything she has been through!"

"WHY NOT?" Azula yelled again. She felt the tears coming to her eyes. She hated crying in front of her brother. It made her feel weak and pathetic. But right now, it was already too late. "You got your chance to say everything you ever wanted to our father, why couldn't I do the same with her? She deserved it!" Her breathing was erratic, she felt so angry she was nauseous. She wanted to burn something. She closed her fist tight, trying to control herself. She knew if she would burn something it would be brother, and that wouldn't be pretty. "She deserved it…" The Princess mumbled, she was looking down right now, shaking her head as if she was trying to make something go away from her head.

For the first time in that night, Zuko looked her in a way that wasn't with angriness or frustration. It was a mixed of sadness and worry.

"Azula…" He started. "How can you even compare the two of them?" Her eyes rose to him, widened, but she didn't say anything, she just shook her head again and looked away. Zuko sighed. "You know this can't stay like this, right?"

"What?" She asked, her voice sounded tired. She looked so tired right now.

"Azula, this wasn't like our daily stupid fights. This was serious. You had an episode." He was calm, but serious.

"An episode?" She raised her eyebrows, incredulous.

"And hurt someone in the process." She blinked at him. "And giving everything that has happened to you, I can't just ignore this, Azula. I know you won't easily agree to this. But I will ask a physician to come here tomorrow and see you."

"A physician?" Azula looked at him confused now.

"A mental physician." He said, quietly.

Her eyes widened at him.

"You can't be serious." She laughed shaking her head. But then she looked at him and realized he was. "YOU CAN'T! Zuko! NO! NO!" She yelled.

"I just want you to talk to him." Her brother's voice was gentler now.

"You said you wouldn't make this kind of decision for me anymore! You are the one who break your word!" She stepped forward him, her fist closed, hate burning in her eyes again.

"That was before you lost control like that and hurt someone!"

"It was an accident!" Azula yelled, tears falling from her face again. "I'm not crazy!"

"I don't think you are crazy! But look at yourself, Azula! You are not well!" He looked at her, frustrated.

Azula stopped, glaring at her brother. Did he have a point after all? But did it matter? The point was he was making her do something she didn't want to, something she didn't agree with. He was controlling her. She remembered Zirin's words then.

"What do you mean? I'm still free!", Azula had said.

"Oh really?"

Her friend was right. She wasn't free. She never really was free. Not while she was living under that roof. Zuko was just letting her think she was, so she wouldn't cause problems, but now that she had done something bad, he was showing her truth. She would have to follow his rules.

"Get out." She said all of sudden.

Zuko blinked at her, startled. "What?"

"GET OUT!" Azula screamed. "You are just like her! Get out of my sight! NOW!" She was trembling.

Her brother sighed and once he realized it was no use trying to talk to her right now, he turned to leave the room.

"I will have the Kyoshi girls guarding your room."

Azula laughed.

"Why? Are you afraid I will escape and burn the whole Palace down?"

"No!" Zuko groaned. "To guard you! What's the matter with you?"

"Out." She muttered through her teeth.

When he was gone, the Princess dropped herself on the bed, feeling humiliated. Her face still wet with tears. She wished Sokka were there with her, he would know what to say to make her feel a little better. But he wasn't. She was alone as always. And trapped.

Zirin was right. Zirin was right. She is always right. I should have never stayed here.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And don't worry, Azula's suffering won't last that long!

Please review! :D