#gotta admit writing asshole Ursa to this extent is... disturbingly fun

[seyaryminamoto]

Underneath Starlit Skies: Sokkla Saturdays 2021

Day 6: Pregnancy

On FF.net//On AO3

(This chapter is a direct sequel for my Loyalty prompt from last year. It takes place 12 years after that story, and features certain mature themes that were absent in the original story. If you need to revisit it, you can find it here!)

Sweat trickled down his brow as he held onto her naked waist: desire pulsed through him like the thrumming of an earthquake, and he was moments away from giving in…

She fared no better than him: her desperate hands clawed at his loose hair, legs strained after spreading them as far as they could go, and she wished she could spread them wider still… though he had perfect access inside her, as they were. His manhood would be sheathed to the hilt with every grind of his body against hers, prompting her to moan with bliss when his pelvic bone brushed against her clit, when his balls slapped against her rear with the force of every thrust. More, she only wanted more, she had climaxed thrice already in this round and yet she was so greedy, sopping wet and burning with uncontrollable heat, that she wanted even more than what he had already gifted her…

He was tireless, relentless, and surely as greedy as she was. They rolled across the dais, changing positions often, with her straddling him whenever she was strong enough to lead, and with him pinning her down on the throne whenever her excitement left her with shaking limbs and virtual inability to move… and he was voracious with his mouth as he pressed it upon her throat. He dragged it over her breasts later, then he returned to her lips… and she would be waiting, always waiting, arms tight around his strong, muscular body, tongue twirling with his, all sense of decorum and dignity well and truly discarded…

“I’m… close. So close…” he groaned, unsure if she’d understood his words when their lips remained so closely engaged. Her hum of acknowledgement, and the thrust of her hips into his, conveyed she had.

“Do it, then… do it. Give me everything you’ve got…” she gasped between moans, reaching for his hands, busy fiddling with her nipples as they had been: he intertwined their fingers and pinned their hands down on the dais, hoisting his hips to find the perfect entry angle to drive her mad with pleasure.

“Gladly… my Fire Lord,” he hissed: she shuddered and tightened her grip around his hands when he sped up his rhythm, well beyond reason.

They did love kissing non-stop while they had sex, whether it was tender lovemaking or wild, reckless fucking, but in the case of the latter, it was certainly necessary in order to muffle the very melodious sounds that would pour from her throat. Even the muffled sounds echoed in the Throne Room, but more than anything, they would be traded between the pair, their voices vibrating together with each relentless sway of their hips.

She had no more sense left in her head, she knew so, completely blinded by passion and reckless desire: words that made no sense surely spilled from her lips, as she begged him to go harder and faster, to wreck her as best he could, to give her his everything, in every sense of the word… and he obeyed each time, her brain swimming with so much bliss and excitement she couldn’t want anything else… and yet she did. She wanted him, again and again, at every waking moment, every single time…

She shuddered with each climax, her body jolting in impulsive ways, and she didn’t give it any respite, regardless: more, she needed more of him, she refused to believe her body couldn’t take it any longer…

“I’m there, I’m… oh, fuck, Azula…!” he cried out.

A familiar thrill rushed through her body as his hardened shaft unleashed its load inside her, so deep inside… her legs tightened around him, locking him into place, as good as demanding that he didn’t dislodge their bodies, not even for a second… so he complied, thrusting further, harder, finishing the throes of his orgasm by delivering another one for her, just so…

She almost screamed at the last of her climaxes – how many had it been? She’d definitely lost the count after five –, but the moans devolved into laughter as she finally came down from the heights of reckless, mindless pleasure.

“We did it again… didn’t we?” she dared ask. He snorted, pressing his face to her shoulder, nibbling softly on her neck.

“We always do,” he replied, a very light tinge of guilt coloring his words. “Is this how we’re going down in history, Azula? The Scorching-Hot Fire Lord and her perpetually horny husband…?”

“Hmm… I like the sound of that. I’ll ensure to introduce us with those titles at the next council meeting,” Azula smirked. Sokka snorted and shook his head as he rose from his position: he supported his weight with his elbows as his hands trailed over her forearms, his blue eyes glued to her sweat-streaked face.

“I could really go for this all day…” he whispered. Azula snorted and raised an eyebrow.

“I have no idea how long we’ve been at it already. Though… yes, I’m not quite sure I know how to stop, either,” she responded, looping her arms around his neck. “We probably should get dinner by now…”

“We ought to clean up together, first,” Sokka grinned, nibbling on her neck. Azula laughed and shook her head.

“You insatiable man…” she caressed his strong back, marveling in the build of his muscles… muscles he certainly had cultivated marvelously over the decade following the end of the war. He hadn’t been remotely that strong when they had first met…

“Can you blame me?” Sokka smirked, rising over her cheek, trailing kisses everywhere she went. She moaned and groaned: heat started stirring inside her again, and it wouldn’t be long before he had his wish and she took to pleading for him to do as he pleased with her waiting body. “If you had a wife half as hot as mine…”

“If you had a husband half as hot as mine, you’d never get anything done. And as far as I can tell, I barely ever do lately,” Azula smirked, kissing the side of his head. “I know it’s a wonder you still want me this badly after all this time, and I should be grateful…”

“Say WHAT?! A wonder? Why would it be a wonder? You’re amazing!” Sokka squeaked, prompting Azula to laugh as she cupped his face.

“Sokka, we’ve been together since we were kids,” she smiled, sliding her fingers through his hair. “It’s been well over a decade by now, you realize…”

“What about it?” Sokka said, smiling back as he prodded her nose with his own.

“That most people can’t handle a relationship for two months, let alone twelve years,” Azula teased him, kissing his lips promptly. Sokka chuckled as he returned her affection, rolling on the throne with her and fondling her body as boldly and daringly as he ever did.

“Most people aren’t as awesome as we are. I think that goes without saying,” Sokka grinned, kissing her brow next. Azula sighed happily, all thoughts of cleaning up or dinner dismissed as she rested with her head upon his broad chest.

“Fair enough, you most certainly have a point there,” she said, closing her eyes. “Though most people aren’t Fire Lord and Prince Consort. And most people can’t have sex in a throne room after a meeting gone well…”

“Or in the garden’s fancy new gazebo at midnight, just for shits and giggles,” Sokka smirked. Azula laughed.

“Or in meditation chambers in the Temple…”

“We are a hazard, aren’t we?” Sokka concluded. Azula only continued to laugh, her face pressed against his chest. “I bet we’d be so pissed if other people were as bad as we are, so outraged by their lack of decorum and propriety…”

“But that’s why it’s great to be us. If we’re going to abuse our power, might as well be for the sake of fucking each other’s brains out wherever we may be,” Azula smirked, hoisting herself up to kiss Sokka’s lips lightly.

Their voices echoed far more subtly now in the Throne Room, no longer with the same urgency, desire and recklessness as before. Thus, it was the ripe moment for those outside their careless cocoon of bliss to remind them that, even if their loins compelled them to think so, Sokka and Azula weren’t, in fact, the only people left on the planet, let alone inside the Palace.

The man waiting by the room’s threshold knew better than to march into the Throne Room just yet: instead, he cupped his mouth with his hands and spoke, quite loudly, across the curtain:

“I see you’re as lively as ever, my niece!”

Azula winced, immediately alerted by Iroh’s voice. Sokka pouted slightly, but he smiled, nonetheless. It had been an intense tryst, of the very best kind… so, as much as he would gladly distract Azula from important business all day, he couldn’t complain too much over this interruption.

“It was about time he dropped by, I suppose…” Azula mumbled, willing the blood to stop flowing to her cheeks. It was hardly the first time Iroh would catch them red-handed in such a manner, but she never failed to feel slightly embarrassed whenever it happened.

She climbed off the throne’s dais and stepped around the expanse of the Throne Room, searching for their scattered clothes. Sokka joined her in doing so, canvassing in the opposite direction: they tossed their clothes at each other from one end of the room to the other, until they were presentable, more or less… barring the many love bites, the messy hair, the redness on their cheeks and Azula’s slightly uneven walking rhythm – it was embarrassing to feel so weak on the knees whenever Sokka did her in quite as well as he had this time, but it was typically the sign of absolute satisfaction for her. All fluster aside, she certainly had enjoyed herself thoroughly with him.

“Ready yet?” Sokka asked, fastening his navy tunic – his changshan certainly helped conceal the marks on his neck, but his face was covered in Azula’s lipstick shade. She laughed at the sight of it, reaching up to brush off the markings on his face while he fastened her formal clothes for her.

“I’d say we’re almost done. Just missing…” Azula said, glancing about herself, looking for a misplaced object.

“Ah…” Sokka grinned, taking the five-pronged hairpiece out of his pocket. Azula smirked knowingly. “Guess you meant this?”

“How very sneaky of you…” Azula said, leaning her head forward so Sokka would place the golden hairpiece before her half-knot. “Am I wrong to think my crown appears to spend more time in your pocket than on my head, these days?”

“Well, considering we spend more time being naughty than we used to, lately, I guess it makes some sense if it does,” Sokka smirked.

“Got to take our victories wherever we can,” Azula said: Sokka positioned the crown perfectly upon her head. “Is it really any fault of ours that things are moving along smoothly, these days?”

“Considering it literally took twelve years before we could genuinely think so, I’d say we should be proud of that, if anything” Sokka chuckled, wrapping an arm around Azula’s shoulders as they marched to the Throne Room’s exit together.

The years after the end of the war had been busy and complicated: learning how to be Fire Lord had been no easy feat, no matter how diligent Azula was about studying everything she had needed to know for the role. Her uncle had helped in numerous ways, giving her time to grow used to her upcoming responsibilities and keeping her at his side while he served as regent for three years before Azula finally became Fire Lord herself. Iroh had to handle many immediate problems that came up during the end of the war, though the support of Ba Sing Se, whose king was thoroughly grateful for their help in stopping the schemes of the former Fire Nation regent, had been invaluable in making several challenges more bearable for the Fire Nation. Making amends for the harm done throughout a hundred years of war would take a long time, but the majority of the immediate problems had been handled successfully at last…

Which was why Azula and Sokka could be so bold and reckless as of late. They had been wed shortly after Azula’s 20th birthday, and while their relationship had consistently strengthened across the years, it had been boosted with no end of excitement and joy after they were married at last. Six years had passed since then, and their passion only seemed to grow stronger every day… which could result in escapades such as the one they had indulged in just now. Now that certain pressures had diminished, it was so much easier to bask in their privileges… and what was more emblematic a privilege to a young ruler, deeply in love with her husband, than to have trysts with him wherever and whenever the urge arose?

“Ah, and there you are!” Iroh shot them a knowing grin once they exited the Throne Room. Sokka smiled back awkwardly, Azula sighed and stepped away from the curtain with her husband. “Not that it was difficult to track you down, of course…”

“No need to remark on what we already know,” Azula sighed, shaking her head and waving a hand dismissively at her uncle: discussing her sex life with Iroh certainly wasn’t among the things she had grown accustomed to, in her life as Fire Lord. “Everything going well so far?”

“So far, so good,” Iroh confirmed, grinning and, to their relief, seemingly letting go of the subject relatively easily. “Though I heard you hadn’t been feeling all that well lately, Azula. Strange, considering what you were up to… perhaps my information was inaccurate. Still, I’ve brought you some tea, in case it helps!”

“Your remedy for everything. Even for when there’s no illness to speak of,” Azula smiled, shaking her head. “I did feel slightly off two days ago, but I’m fine today. No need to worry.”

“Clearly,” Iroh grinned, and Azula sighed as Sokka chuckled behind her. “No judgment here, of course…!”

“You sound like you’re judging, and like you’re very amused by doing so,” Azula said, poking her uncle’s forehead with a fingertip, at which the man laughed heartily. “Come on, then. Time for your weekly tea brewing?”

“It is, indeed!”

Azula hadn’t truly grown to appreciate tea remotely as much as Iroh did, but unless things in the Capital weren’t going particularly well, Iroh would typically spend his days in his teashop in the city, visiting the Palace once a week, on whatever given day it struck his fancy to do so. As he had visited today, though, the mischievous plans Sokka had thrived in scheming would have to be postponed for the next day, at best: he kissed Azula’s brow, retiring briefly so he could clean up, while Azula sat with Iroh as he started brewing his tea – Azula would take her own turn washing up once Sokka returned, and that way they’d both have time to talk with the old man before sharing their afternoon tea properly.

“Are you quite sure you’re well, then?” Iroh asked, once Sokka had taken off to his shower. Azula nodded.

“It was probably just something I ate,” she said, dismissively.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to send word to Katara?” Iroh said. Azula snorted.

“If I thought it necessary, I’d call her myself,” she responded. Iroh chuckled.

“I suppose Sokka would, if anything. You, my dear…”

“What? You think I wouldn’t ask for a physician even if someone chopped off my head?” Azula asked, before frowning. “Huh, well, evidently I wouldn’t in that case, I’d be long dead by then…”

“And it’s entirely accurate to say that, short of such a tragedy, you might never do it of your own volition, Azula,” Iroh smiled fondly at her. “Come on, now: just do it for your own sake, will you? If she checks and confirms all is well, I will stop being a busybody and you’ll be free to, uh… well, continue doing your husband willy-nilly, as you have.”

“Heh, thank you for giving me permission to sleep with Sokka. Just what a twenty-six-year-old needs to hear from her uncle,” Azula said, with a dry grin. Iroh beamed brightly at her.

“You’re welcome!”

“I’m kidding.”

“I know.”

“Ugh, you’re annoying,” Azula groaned, running a hand over her hair as Iroh laughed still.

“And you love me, even if I am,” Iroh decided. Azula shot him a narrow-eyed glare, as though to threaten him that she might just contradict that statement, but the old man was far too perceptive to let her get away with such threats. “It’s only a precaution anyway…”

“I know I’m not exactly prone to sickness, and that’s why you’re worried, but really…?”

“Uh, no, that’s not what I’m worried about at all,” Iroh said, blinking blankly. Azula raised an eyebrow. “I do realize that you’re having the time of your life, as is obvious by how often I’ve caught you and Sokka as of late…”

“Must you bring that up again…?”

“Why, yes, I must. What, exactly, do you think happens if you aren’t cautious when having such an active sex life, Azula?”

For a moment, Azula fell silent. She glanced at Iroh uneasily, and he raised a knowing eyebrow. Her jaw dropped.

“No.”

“I’m only saying…”

“No way!”

“Azula…”

“I’ve been very careful about calculating things!” Azula exclaimed, paling as she stared at her uncle in chagrin. “And Mai’s aunt has sent me these herbs that supposedly reduce the risk of pregnancy too, so…!”

“When did you last drink those?” Iroh asked, raising his eyebrows. Azula’s own eyebrow twitched. “Huh. No more questions are needed, I suppose…”

“It’s not possible. It’s not…!”

It was, though. It absolutely was. Antics like those they had indulged in during that afternoon were, of course, conducive to the very outcome Iroh was spelling out most delicately to her: yes, she drank infusions of those herbs often, but she had forgotten about it on the most part lately because… oh, because waking up naked with Sokka somehow resulted in spending most the morning naked with Sokka, until a servant came calling or a meeting was so urgent she had to go at haste.

As for her calculations for her cycle… yes, she did that, before. Ever since their latest roll of high intensity and frequent sex had begun, well over two months ago, she had lost track of it, completely…

“I can’t be. I can’t be pregnant,” Azula said, looking at Iroh in chagrin. Iroh sighed and shook his head.

“You can be. And you don’t have to worry so much, Azula, really…”

“You know exactly why I’m worried,” Azula said, her brow furrowing. “It’s not just over something stupid like my insecurities of being a terrible mother because my mother outright tried to kill me…!”

“Is that really stupid…?”

“Having a child is simply not a good idea, right now,” Azula said, firmly. Iroh sighed. “And you know why that’s the case.”

“You’re worried about what he’ll do, aren’t you?” Iroh asked. “You fear he’ll resurface again, if word about your pregnancy spreads…?”

“I don’t even want to imagine it,” Azula said, rubbing her brow with her fingertips.

“I know you’ll say I’m soft and biased, Azula, but…”

“You don’t think Zuko could do anything bad to his own niece or nephew?” Azula finished for him, with a sarcastic grin. “Considering the kinds of chaos he had been up to in the Earth Kingdom as of late, I have a hard time believing that.”

“You’ve built up proper defenses for his attempts to sabotage the alliance between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom,” Iroh recited, staring at her sternly. “The moment he turned up with his new gang of…”

“Brigands? Misfits?” Azula suggested, still smiling the same way. Iroh sighed.

“Companions in chaos, I suppose, you’ve responded proactively to the point where now you’re always prepared to counter whatever he may be ready to do,” Iroh finished. “You’ve shared that wisdom with Kuei, too. Zuko has been scarce ever since we strengthened our defenses to that extent, hasn’t he?”

“It doesn’t mean he’s not a threat or a problem,” Azula said, scowling. “The last thing I need is for him to bide his time, waiting for me to lower my guard so he can come after my child once it’s born…”

“Azula…” Iroh sighed. “You have always taken pride on your intellect, your ability to see through dangers, to come up with clever solutions to every problem. It’s going to be the same this time, too. You won’t fight on your own, and we will help you keep Zuko at bay if need be… and beyond that, your child will be a proper child, and not just some hostage or bargaining chip for your brother to use against you. It will be more than a political tool: it will be your baby…!”

“I… I know that. I do, I… I get it, though it doesn’t sound real yet. And maybe it’s not real anyway,” Azula said, staring at Iroh apprehensively. He shrugged.

“Maybe. But if it is, Zuko is only a secondary problem, something you can ignore, on the most part,” he said, with a weak smile. “We would tighten the security in the Palace, ensure no one can attack you or the baby, once it’s born. And you would raise the little tyke to be a wonderful prince or princess…!”

“I would try to, at least,” Azula sighed, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this, though. It’s… tricky.”

“Maybe you’re not, but you weren’t ready to be Fire Lord either, once your mother was defeated,” Iroh said, with a shrug. Azula raised an eyebrow.

“Will I have three years to adjust to my new duties, the same way I did back then?” she asked, skeptically. Iroh smiled and shook his head.

“Nine months, rather… or less than that, depending on when you conceived the baby,” Iroh laughed. Azula groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Now, then… you don’t have to make such a face, Azula. You don’t know what’s happening yet, not for sure… and that’s precisely why I’m saying Katara ought to be contacted. Would you rather do it yourself? Talk to Sokka about it, perhaps?”

“I… don’t know. I don’t know how to bring it up,” Azula said, eyes flickering away towards the gardens that expanded before them.

She was certainly a selfish fool for thinking it was better to keep Sokka in the dark just for the sake of continuing their very lucky streak from the past month. That streak was the very reason why they might just be expecting a child, right now… she sighed and groaned again before nodding at Iroh.

“Fine, then, I’ll talk to him. And I guess, if you can reach out to them…”

“Oh, no problem whatsoever! They keep correspondence with me, as you know,” Iroh smiled. “I believe they’re nearby at the moment, too: Aang’s initiative to restore the Western Air Temple has taken the three of them quite a lot of time, so they might be happy to have a short break from that challenging project, if possible. Perhaps they can stay nearby during your pregnancy, if you truly are expecting a child…”

“Well… that would be a relief, yes,” Azula conceded: she wasn’t particularly willing to give Zuko more credit than he was due, but she’d feel a lot more comfortable facing off against him if Avatar Aang, Katara and Toph were close enough to deal with him and whatever forces he had rallied to his cause.

“Then I shall get to it right after tea,” Iroh grinned: footsteps approached them by then, revealing Sokka was returning.

Azula glanced at him wistfully, and her stupid, impulsive heart skipped a beat, as it ever did, upon seeing her husband in his newly showered glory, a towel around his neck, still with a few beads of water pearling over his face, his hair glistening and wet. Curses, she couldn’t be quite so stupid as to want to pin him to a wall right then and there when… when they had to talk. About something very serious, something life-changing, if it was really happening.

“Something wrong?” Sokka asked, rubbing the towel lightly over his hair. Azula swallowed hard.

“We… uh, there’s something we should discuss,” she said, rising to her feet. Sokka blinked blankly. “Mind accompanying me back to the bathroom?”

“No problem,” Sokka said, surprised: they didn’t usually leave guests unattended, but Iroh was family, and it was apparent something was bothering Azula. Had Iroh said anything worrisome? Had he shared news about Zuko, maybe? It would have been fine for them to discuss that sort of thing in front of Iroh, though…

Azula ushered him to follow her, and so, Sokka did exactly that. They didn’t simply march to the bathroom, though, instead walking in the roofed corridors in the Palace gardens… wordlessly, to Sokka’s confusion. It was clear Azula was going to say something, and whatever it was, it couldn’t be easy to bring up.

“So…?” he finally blurted out, when his patience ran out. “I’m not going to be delusional and hope you’re trying to have a go at it with me in broad daylight, I know the gazebo is there and all, but…”

“I wish. I really wish,” Azula said. Sokka snorted.

“Wow. I mean, we’ve been pretty adventurous lately, but seriously? Out in the open, like that?” he asked… though she didn’t follow up with any comments of her own. Nothing could have been more ominous. “Azula, what’s wrong?”

“Sokka…” Azula gritted her teeth, raising her head towards him. “I… have failed you, in a myriad of ways. Ways that… that may not be apparent right away, but I’ve failed you indeed.”

“Uh… huh?” Sokka blinked blankly. “What does any of that mean? Are you going to switch us to a vegetarian diet or something…?”

“I… don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” Azula admitted, grimacing before shaking her head. “You remember that, well, two days ago, when I woke up, I was, uh…”

“Extremely indisposed,” Sokka recited, nodding. “I was worried sick about you, but…”

“When I felt better, I jumped your bones again, yes.”

“About five hours afterwards, that’s right.”

“Well…” Azula grimaced, stretching her arms nervously. Sokka raised an eyebrow, following her every aimless footstep with his gaze. “Iroh heard about it. Bet a servant mentioned it, I don’t know, but that’s why he’s here today.”

“Well, nice of him to check on his niece, if that’s why he came,” Sokka said, with a simple grin. “Not sure how that’s supposed to translate into you having failed me in any way, though…”

“Iroh has suspicions about what my malady might be, is all,” Azula said, slowing down as she finished her sentence. She eyed Sokka warily… to find he stared at her with even more apprehension.

“Wait… this isn’t some weird firebender disease, is it? Or worse than that, a Royal Family disease? Azula…!” he gasped, reaching for her hands in worry. Azula grimaced. “Please tell me now that I’m going completely crazy and making a bigger mess than need be…!”

“It’s… not a firebender-exclusive condition, no,” Azula said. Sokka blinked blankly. “As for royals…? You could say about half of them are, uh, expected to go through this, at some point in their lives. I know, yes, that I was expected to do it too, but… I didn’t think it was the right time and I thought I’d be able to tell if the time was right for it, eventually? But, uh…”

“Wait. Wait…” Sokka frowned, narrowing his eyes. Azula breathed deeply as she tightened her grip on his hands.

“Iroh thinks I might be with child.”

Sokka blinked once. Azula bit her lip.

He blinked twice, and she drew in a deep breath.

He blinked one more time… and then his eyes widened as he stumbled back, jaw dropping at the most obvious outcome for all their latest, reckless escapades.

“Oh, damn. Oh, hell… I forgot all about…!” Sokka whimpered, hands going to his head. “Shit, two months on a streak, even after you were sick, we got back to it afterwards… Azula, you didn’t have a period in all that time!”

“I… I didn’t, did I?” Azula realized, eyes widening. “S-so it must have happened well over a month ago… maybe it was that day, in the dojo?”

“Or the spa,” Sokka frowned, stroking his stubble with a thumb. “You know, that day when we set down all those towels and then it was no use because we wound up at the other end of the room…”

“The night after that boring play we ran away from?” Azula asked.

“Or when we went stargazing and you got a little too cozy under the blanket…”

“So did you, don’t pin it all on me,” Azula pouted, cheeks red. Sokka groaned.

“Or just about every night or morning of any of those days, come to think of it,” he said. “We’ve… really been unstoppable lately.”

“And it’s been great, but… I was careless,” Azula said, grimacing. “Too careless…”

“Oh, no. No, no, no,” Sokka huffed, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her smaller frame: her body instinctively reacted with delight when she was swept into his warm embrace. The scent of his soap tingled her nose pleasantly. “Don’t you dare hog up the blame here, Azula. I’m just as responsible, alright?”

“Fair… or maybe you’re more responsible,” Azula said. Sokka pouted.

“More…?”

“I’m just kidding,” Azula laughed, pressing a kiss to his chest. “I know, I know, we’re married and we’re equally responsible for our irresponsible choices. It’s only…”

“What?” Sokka asked, rubbing her arm gently. “Is it… you’re worried about your mother, maybe?”

“Ugh, partly, but also about my brother,” Azula confessed, eyeing Sokka warily. “I don’t even want to dwell on the fact that I might turn out to be a terrible mother because of my mother…”

“You’re a brilliant Fire Lord, and her performance as regent didn’t affect yours,” Sokka huffed, kissing her brow. “Same thing will be true for when you’re a mother, Azula. Don’t doubt it.”

“I do doubt it. And my main problem is Zuko, anyway,” Azula grimaced. “He’s out there, on the run, has been on the down low for a few months, and as much as I love gallivanting with you the way we have, I keep thinking maybe our brief respite from chaos is just the calm before the storm. Any moment now, Zuko’s bound to show up with some army of renegades, and if I’m with child, or if the child is already born, then…”

“It’d be a mess,” Sokka concluded. Azula nodded, a grimace across her face.

“I don’t think it feels safe, bringing a child into this situation when I can’t assume their own uncle won’t do something terrible to them. But at the same time… I don’t want to be scared of anything, let alone of my damned brother…”

“He’s nowhere near as smart as you,” Sokka said, cupping her face. “You can plan ahead for every possibility, everything he might try to do to attack us. Though… you know what? I can do it for you if you’re too stressed to think about this. I can deal with every damn thing Zuko tries to throw our way.”

“Sokka…” Azula said, grimacing. He raised his eyebrows.

“What? Are you trying to say, by any chance, that no matter what we do to prepare ourselves, you won’t ever feel ready to be pregnant?” Sokka asked. Azula grimaced and lowered her head. “Azula, I know you felt we shouldn’t have kids right away, and we haven’t. So…”

“Sokka, I’m not ready to have kids and the reasons for it are more than obvious,” she said. “First, I’m worried Zuko would try to do anything awful by taking advantage of my pregnancy or motherhood. Second, I’m terrified of being an awful mother just like mine was. Third, I never truly have tried to think about this, I haven’t really pondered it, to the point where I was entirely neglectful about our contraceptive methods because I outright forgot that having sex often results in babies… and fourth and worst of all: a kid would get in the way of our reckless, fun escapades, and the fact that I’m worried about not having those escapades anymore no doubt speaks for itself regarding what a deplorable mother I’d be: I should be thrilled. I should be ecstatic! I should be…!”

“Societal expectations aren’t the ones that dictate how you should react to the very surprising news that we may have conceived a kid by accident,” Sokka spoke sternly, and Azula grimaced, falling quiet. “It’s okay, Azula: I’m scared right now, too. I… don’t think I’m anywhere near as scared as you, sure, but I’m worried anyway because I’m a reckless idiot too who would love to keep on having sex with his wife without consequences, but clearly, the reckless idiot isn’t about to get his way. It’s not something you need to punish yourself over, Azula: I’m no better, and I’m pretty sure lots of people feel this way too…”

“Not likely. Most people can’t afford having as much sex as we did over the past two months,” Azula mumbled, blushing. Sokka sighed but nodded.

“I concede, that’s true. But still…!” he said, clasping Azula’s shoulders. “The signs say it’s likely, but we’re not sure yet, right? So, let’s not jump to conclusions, for one thing… and let’s talk about this well and thoroughly, okay? We’ll handle this carefully, properly, if it’s really happening. We’ve literally worked together to patch up a world after a hundred years of war: how much harder can it be to raise a baby, eh?”

“I… have no idea. Don’t even ask that question. It’s bound to be a thousand times worse,” Azula groaned, collapsing against his chest. Sokka laughed and shook his head, patting her back kindly. “Iroh’s going to contact Katara, tell her to come here to check on me soon. I guess we’ll know for sure, by then…”

“And we’ll talk about what to do, by then,” Sokka agreed. Azula sighed loudly against his chest.

“I’ve spent ages ignoring the whispers of nobles and pressures from the council…” she said. “They complained over our relationship at first, then you were so popular with the people they couldn’t hope to put up any protests anymore, let alone once we were married… but they always did say, whether subtly or not, that I need an heir, especially while Zuko’s still lurking out there. So… maybe I should just accept this, if just to get them to leave us alone. But… I’m really not sure about anything right now.”

“We’ll figure it out. I have no idea how to handle this either, you know,” Sokka smiled, caressing her face. “We’ve been together since we were kids, you said it just now. Since that night in the Northern Water Tribe…”

“Are you going to try romancing me again? You may have already knocked me up by doing that, Sokka, you don’t have to give it another shot,” Azula said, with a teasing smirk. Sokka laughed, shaking his head before kissing her lips softly.

“Too late. I’ve been romancing you over and over again every day of our lives, Azula, whether you like it or not,” Sokka declared, with a proud grin. Azula laughed and shook her head, leaning in again to press their lips together.

“You’re impossible. Look at where this has landed us, damn you…”

“Uh, we’re the hottest, happiest, healthiest Fire Lord and Consort in the history of your nation? Yeah, I like where it’s landed us, come to think of it,” Sokka smirked, prompting Azula to laugh again at his shamelessness. “Come on, love. We’ve been through so much, as it is. This can be one hell of a challenge, yes… but we can handle it together, for sure.”

Azula sighed but nodded: it should have been no surprise that talking with Sokka would help, especially when it came to such subjects, but she was relieved to see her beloved husband had retained his common sense, his strength of mind… he hadn’t gone utterly wild over the prospect of having a baby, just as he hadn’t let her get carried away by worries and fears. As always, Sokka anchored her to reality… or, at least, he did that whenever he wasn’t soaring and floating in bliss with her, both so entirely careless and reckless that they’d forget their every shred of self-control when the powerful call of desire took hold of them.

Azula cleaned up quickly after their conversation and they rejoined Iroh without leaving further chaos in their wake. The man offered them what Azula hoped would be unnecessary advice for taking care of a baby, though it seemed Sokka found his tips helpful and amusing. He surely did want a child, Azula guessed, even if he’d never pressured her about it, aware of her many grievances and the drawbacks she saw in becoming a mother. Still… they were old enough by now. In a couple of years Sokka would be thirty. Perhaps the time for having children wouldn’t be better than it was now… perhaps she was making too big a deal out of the notion of becoming a mother, too. What was one child, anyway? Tiny, innocent, unable to understand the world around it: thus, destructive, chaotic, crying and loud and…

She didn’t get much, if any, sleep over the next two days. Sokka soothed her with his warm embrace when they were in bed, but Azula remained tense, her back against his chest, her eyes wide open as the panic over becoming a mother continued to flare up. It couldn’t really be happening, could it…?

When Katara, Aang and Toph finally arrived, Azula had another bad day: she had spent the bulk of it in the bathroom, clinging to the privy as her breakfast’s natural path reversed and she returned the meal. She had hoped that the discomfort would fade after a first round of puking right after waking up, but within five minutes of finishing her meal, she had been running for the bathroom again. Now, with large bags under her eyes, she laid down tensely on a futon as Katara examined her. Sokka held her hand, while Toph and Aang sat back, watching as the waterbender’s healing waters glowed, highlighting the chi flow for Katara to analyze.

“Okay… I’ve eased your symptoms slightly now,” Katara announced, and Azula tensed up. “But the chi’s flow… I’m afraid it can’t really be anything other pregnancy, Azula.”

She closed her eyes tightly and threw her head back. Of course. Iroh had said so, Sokka had realized she’d missed her periods, but even then, she had been so stupid as to cling to the hope that this wouldn’t mean anything, in the long run…

And now it meant everything; her life had been upended, and she was expecting a child.

“Well, um… should we congratulate you guys?” Aang asked, with an awkward grin: Toph, beside him, snorted.

“I’m not sure our Firecracker’s all that happy about it,” she smirked. “I’d have helped tell you if you were pregnant, but I don’t think your little storm’s got a heartbeat yet, so I can’t say I’ll feel a thing…”

“It’ll be a while before it develops enough for you to do that,” Katara said, smiling at Toph before looking at Azula. “I know it’s a big change, but… you’re pregnant! That means you guys are going to be parents, and I’ll be an aunt, and…”

“And what about us?” Aang blinked blankly. “Are we, uh, honorary uncle and aunt, too?”

“Well, Toph’s a bit like Azula’s long-lost sister or cousin? And Iroh’s sort of adopted her. So maybe she’s more of an aunt than you are an uncle…” Katara smirked at Aang, who gasped in horror.

“Just means you gotta wizen up and marry either one of us, Aang,” Toph said, elbowing him in the ribs. Aang flinched, face flushed. “Otherwise, you can’t really be an uncle!”

“T-Toph! That’s not fair, and it’s really weird, and…!” Aang winced still, glancing between the two girls with horror. Toph laughed as Katara eyed him with undisguised outrage.

“Oh, really? Well, then, if it’s that weird, Toph and I should be the ones getting married!”

“Oh, you’re so stuffy, Sugar Queen, I don’t know…”

“Wait, are you rejecting me?!”

“Stuffy, see?”

The silly argument between her three friends couldn’t fail to bring a smile to Azula’s face, despite the circumstances barely seemed to bring her joy – pregnant, expecting a child, with so many problems to resolve and so many more yet to come –, but it helped thinking maybe some things wouldn’t change too much, even if her life was bound to shift enormously because of this.

Nervously, she dared venture a glance at the one member of their group who had stayed quiet so far… to find he was speechless, sitting beside her, her hand in his. Azula bit her lip, gazing at his blue eyes… eyes that were fixed on her exposed belly. She always exercised, both in responsible ways and with him, in every single one of their sexual encounters… and so, her abdomen’s muscles were outlined and marked smoothly. Said chiseling was sure to vanish within a few months, once her belly bump began growing… she shivered, hoping Sokka wouldn’t find her entirely unappetizing by the time she was heavily pregnant.

There was, she thought, a spark in his eyes… a beautiful one, at that. But it wasn’t until he raised his free hand to her belly that she confirmed she wasn’t imagining things. He had often touched her affectionately, lustfully, playfully… this time, though, he seemed to be emotionally overwhelmed. A soft laugh left his lips as he caressed her belly gently… acutely aware of the small miracle they had created, a miracle that grew, day by day, inside his wife.

Who thought of it as an accident rather than a miracle, but they’d probably settle on one thing or another, eventually…

“Sokka…” Azula called him. He laughed and glanced into her eyes, and a surge of sudden happiness, pouring from him, seemed to infuse her with the need to smile, too. She wasn’t sure she was happy, she probably wasn’t happy at all, and yet… and yet seeing her husband smiling so beautifully could fix everything wrong in the world in one fell sweep.

“We’re having a baby,” he said, softly. A laugh shook him, as tears sprung up in his eyes…

Before she knew it, half exposed as she still was, Azula found herself reeled into Sokka’s tightest hug, gasping in disbelief as he laughed joyfully in her ear, hugging her and swaying her from side to side…

“Sokka…!” she blurted out, with a slight laugh of her own.

“I love you. I love our baby already, and I love you,” he chuckled, burying his face in her shoulder. “I know this isn’t going to be easy, but…”

But they were going to do it, yes. There was no question about it, Azula had known so from the start. She refused to let her fears control her. Her apprehension might continue to swirl and grow, but she would do her best to face this challenge without backing down. Her child, their child, would have opportunities many others didn’t: they would be the Fire Lord’s heir, which didn’t simply mean they would want for nothing and find as good as their every dream easily fulfilled… but that they would be loved, profusely, not only by the father who couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm, but by their three best friends, who would indeed be their aunts and uncle, whether surrogate or not. And they would have Iroh, too, and…

And her, of course. Even though she wasn’t sure she had the slightest clue of how to be a mother – well, she did have one clue: don’t attempt to kill your child, but that one went without saying. Doing the opposite to everything her own mother had done while Azula had been growing up didn’t sound like the worst way to start off this new stage of her life.

Their family would grow, then, and she would need to adjust to the changes, little by little. Whether it would be easy or hellish, she wouldn’t know until the baby was here… but she’d do best to prepare for that moment, across the months they had left to prepare for the child’s birth.

She tightened her grip around Sokka and smiled. It was terrifying, yes… but fear hadn’t paralyzed her in the past, and it wouldn’t do so now, either. They’d handle this challenge… and they would raise their baby safe and soundly, no matter what.

...

“So? They were here, huh?”

Sneers nodded, eyeing the Western Air Temple’s surroundings. It was a magnificent location… and it had certainly seen worse days, for now it appeared so much more cared for, with clear marks of earthbending everywhere he dared glance. Pipsqueak marched back towards them, his hands behind his back.

“Saw bunks, and that earth tent their earthbender always builds,” he announced to their leader. “Bet they got called away for something or another…”

“Not our doing, even if that’s the case,” Jet said, eyebrows twitching. He glanced to his left, where their stern leader stood, glaring at the horizon. He stepped forward, placing a hand on his lower back. “What do you make of this?”

“Nothing to make of it. They’re probably back in the Fire Nation. Means… we can’t take action until they’re not,” said the dark-haired man, scowling heavily.

“You sure about that?” Jet asked, biting his lower lip. “Do you even know where this asset you’re looking for might be?”

“I’m pretty sure I do know where it is. We can’t close in until the Avatar’s gone, though, you and I, so… I guess Sneers ought to go with the Duke and find whatever information they can about when they’ll take their leave again. Nothing more to it.”

“We won’t let you down, Zuko,” Sneers said, firmly.

Their group had been profoundly affected when they’d come across the runaway, fallen prince. Jet had immediately wanted to slay him where he stood… only to hold back when Zuko declared he wanted to destroy the Fire Nation every bit as much as Jet did. In fact, Jet was shocked to find the prince appeared even more willing to obliterate his nation than he was. Little by little, he had learned more about who Zuko was, about how he had lost everything he had… and now, twelve years into their association, it was clear the man’s willingness to destroy the world in retaliation for the struggles he’d been through wouldn’t weaken anytime soon.

They had stirred up chaos, they had rebelled, they had attempted many terrorist acts against the Fire Nation, of which only a handful had succeeded. Still, Zuko wanted one thing, and one thing alone. He had never been forthright about what it was, but Jet had followed him willingly, eagerly, this far. Whoever his asset was, surely Zuko needed them in order to topple his sister’s regime and bring about the scourge of Azula’s Fire Nation…

So Jet decided, yet again, to trust Zuko. His friends did the same thing. And now they would have to wait, patiently, until the right moment to strike finally arrived…

...

Azula had thought it natural that, on the first night since her pregnancy was confirmed, Sokka would simply lie awake in bed with her for hours, talking both about her fears and his hopes, discussing countless things until they fell asleep, smiling brightly. The second night, she had been quicker to fall asleep – she needed it direly too, after her previous sleepless nights and her body’s many changes, which demanded proper rest.

On the third night, he had a book. He was reading it very attentively. On the fourth night, he finished the book when she had already fallen asleep. On the fifth, he had another book.

On the sixth, she snapped.

“Sokka: I get it. I know it’s weird, I know it must be uncomfortable, but…!” she blurted out, not knowing how to speak without getting choked up as she paced in front of him: sitting on the bed, Sokka could only stare at her blankly. His cluelessness only emboldened her further. “I’m pregnant, yes. Which means… y-you can’t knock me up again, right?”

“Yeah, doesn’t look like that’s how twins are made,” Sokka said, with a goofy grin. Azula glared at him. “Hey, it’s just a joke, no need to be upset…”

“Sokka… do I look that bad?”

“What? Bad? Azula, you can’t possibly look bad, not even if you try…!”

“Don’t even challenge me, it’d absolutely be possible, and…! T-that’s not the point! I don’t look awful, then?”

“Of course not!”

“Then isn’t it a little late to play it safe now?” Azula asked, almost pleadingly. “I…! I…!”

Sokka finally appeared to unveil the problem: his eyes narrowed, and he regarded Azula warily.

“Azula… do you think I’m avoiding sex because I somehow don’t find you desirable anymore?” he asked.

Her heart seemed to drop so fast, so hard, she almost felt it tugging her into the core of the planet. Not only was it ridiculous, embarrassing, to admit something like that… but that Sokka would say it with that tone didn’t help matters at all. The fact that he read through her fears perfectly… didn’t it suggest they weren’t as unfounded as she had dearly hoped they’d be…?

She couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t respond at all… and then her shoulders shook. Sokka gasped in horror, jumping to his feet:

“Azula…!”

“I’m… I’m fine! I’m fine!” she said, dabbing her eyes with her fingertips. “It’s okay! It’s completely okay, I get it, we’ll wait until the child’s born, if you even think I’m any good by then, it’s creepy to do it beforehand anyway, so…!”

“Azula, you’re going off the rails here!” Sokka exclaimed, clasping her shoulders with his strong hands. “That’s not what I’m saying and… oh, I know what this is. It’s the hormonal response!”

“The… the what?” Azula repeated, tears blinking in her eyes.

“You’re responding with excessive emotion to things, it’s one of pregnancy’s symptoms,” Sokka explained. Azula’s brow drew together.

“And you know this because…?”

“I read about it. Yesterday, actually,” Sokka explained, with a weak smile. Azula’s eyes widened.

“T-the… the books you were reading were about…?”

“Pregnancy,” Sokka nodded. Azula gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as more tears spilled down her eyes. He smiled fondly at her, wiping the tears with his own thumbs. “And you want to know the main thing I was looking for? Bet you do: I wanted to make sure we can have sex safely while you’re pregnant without affecting the baby. But, uh, apparently I’m picking prudish books that assume you either already know the answer to that question, or they believe people expecting babies lose their libido somehow, but…”

“Y-you were looking into it…?” Azula asked, horrified. “And I just went and…”

“Azula…”

“Oh, I’m the worst…!” she exclaimed, tears spilling down her cheeks as she hugged him tightly. “And I’m being utterly hysterical! Where’s my rationality? Where’s my level-headedness?! I want it back!”

“Hell, you’re adorable, beautiful and I want nothing more than to pin you to our bed and make love to you until you feel better,” Sokka laughed softly, cradling her in his arms delicately, pressing many kisses to the side of her head. “I love you, silly. You’ve got no idea how badly I want to go for it, but…”

“B-but you’re being responsible. While I’m being… the worst mother ever,” Azula whimpered, burying her face in his neck. “I only thought about myself, not about the baby, and… hell, we’ve been going at it like crazy for the last two months, without even knowing I’d conceived anything, and… w-what if we hurt the baby, Sokka? What if…?”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to confirm,” Sokka said, kissing the top of her head now. “I don’t know if the baby’s too small to be affected yet… probably is, going by what I keep reading. Maybe it’s the size of a small seed, or a bean? I don’t know for sure yet, depends on when we conceived for sure, but… anyway, don’t be silly now, will you? You’re not the worst mother ever because you weren’t thinking about this…”

“But I am. I really must be. I just… wanted to sleep with you,” she whimpered, clinging to him greedily. “And I’ve been doing that for all this time too, so… why am I being so utterly stupid now, when there’s reasons for us to hold back, so many reasons…?”

“Well, that’s also because of your hormonal response, I suspect,” Sokka said, smiling kindly as he walked them back to the bed: he sat on it, compelling Azula to sit across his lap, face still buried in his shoulder. “You want things to go back to normal, too… so it’s not that strange, alright? And not something you should punish yourself over: treat this as a bit of a test run, how about it?”

“A test run?” Azula repeated, raising her eyebrows.

“This is the first hurdle we face as parents,” Sokka smiled. “And we need to resolve it, simple as that. Once this is done… I bet everything else will feel small and easy in comparison.”

“Well… sure, but how are we going to resolve it?” Azula said. “Will we read more books about pregnancy? Or do you have something else in mind?”

“I intend to read every book I can get my hands on, yes,” Sokka admitted, with a light blush. “But, uh… this does feel a bit urgent. I guess maybe we could ask Katara…”

“Would she know?” Azula asked, grimacing. Sokka blinked blankly. “She’s not a mother herself … has she assisted someone else throughout pregnancy this way, before?”

“Uh… no idea. Not in my presence, at least,” Sokka admitted. Azula sighed.

“Maybe she won’t know either. Maybe we should just ask someone who had a baby successfully… though I can’t say I know a lot of women who have given birth. At least not personally enough to ask that sort of thing,” Azula admitted.

“Hmm… guess the most obvious answer is utterly ruled out,” Sokka said, bitterly. “But surely there’s other people we can ask. Like… huh. Like Gran-Gran!”

“Your grandmother?” Azula asked, puzzled.

“Say, things did wind down a bit around here lately, so… how about we take a brief trip, to the Water Tribe?” Sokka asked, with a giddy smile. Azula couldn’t hold back a small smile of her own. “I think I don’t want to tell my dad he’ll be a grandfather through a messenger hawk, to be honest… I want him to hear it directly from me.”

“Sounds good,” Azula smiled, placing her head on his shoulder. “Then… we can plan for a short trip to the Water Tribe.”

“We can keep on reading books while on our way there… and once we know for sure whether we’re allowed to have sex or not, we can come back and all will be well,” Sokka said, with a proud grin. Azula smiled and nodded. “See? Problem solved. No need to think you’re the worst over any of this, love.”

“I’ll try not to… I’ll try not to,” Azula sighed, tightening her grip around him. “Thank you. For not thinking I’m, well…”

“Undesirable?”

“Nuts, rather. But that’s important too,” Azula pouted. Sokka laughed and tilted her chin up delicately, placing a loving kiss upon her lips.

“Come on, now, how could I ever believe that?” he smiled, as he rolled them carefully into bed. “Seriously, you have no idea how badly I want to go all out on you, ever since we learned the truth, but… I think it’s for the best if we wait until we know if it’s safe. And even then, it’s possible we won’t get the chance to do the things we used to do…”

“Which things…?” Azula asked. Sokka chuckled.

“Whether the excessively intense sex or the very reckless kind, in totally crazy places?”

“Oh, bummer. What’s the point, then…?”

“Seriously, now?” Sokka smirked, raising his eyebrows as Azula laughed in his arms. “You’re too damn mischievous for your own good. Here I thought you were sickly and kept feeling dizzy, but instead…”

“I bet it would heal all my ailments if you just pinned me to a wall and had your way with me…”

“You… quit tempting me, Azula. Please, stop…”

“Fine, then. Fine,” Azula smiled, caressing his cheek delicately. “I’m sorry I made a… sort of scene?”

“It’s just the two of us in here,” Sokka smiled, shaking his head. “It wasn’t a scene, it was an uncharacteristically emotional exchange for our standards. But we’ll sort this out, Azula. You’ll see.”

She hummed in agreement, caving in to kissing him gladly. Knowing she had misunderstood something had never been a greater relief for her. Usually, she could be level-headed in the face of any crisis, but today… she really had gone off the rails this time. She had to regain her center and to stop being so ridiculously emotional – she swiped off a tear spilling down her cheek as she kissed him, curses, what was WRONG with her? – over every single trigger out there. Yes, Sokka loved her dearly, deeply, she had always known as much – and there she was, crying again, and now he was worrying, though when she told him she was fine he smiled fondly and took to kissing her tears away, which made her laugh and cry even harder, and…

Oh, being pregnant was weird. It was so very, very weird.

...

The Duke and Sneers returned after five days, on the fishing boat they had confiscated for the purpose of carrying out their investigations. Zuko was immediately on edge upon glimpsing their approach: their group had made camp by the shore of the Western Air Temple’s islands, and while the mist blocked their vision at times, it wasn’t quite so heavy that they couldn’t possibly see their boat in the horizon.

About twenty minutes later, the boat had docked safely: everyone crowded around them, knowing they’d have answers.

“The Fire Lord’s on the road,” Sneers said: Zuko’s eyes widened, and then he frowned quickly. “Apparently, headed to the South Pole, from what we could gather. Riding the Avatar’s beast.”

“That… that means a quick trip, rather than a long-term one,” said Jet, frowning. “But if she took the Avatar’s beast…”

“The Avatar should be with her!” Smellerbee chimed in. Zuko nodded.

“Him… all their damnable group,” he hissed. “The Capital is going to be unprotected.”

“Then it’s… it’s time to strike, isn’t it?” Jet asked Zuko, his voice trembling with excitement: finally, they’d learn what Zuko had in mind. Finally, the devious plan of the Fire Lord’s greatest detractor would come to fruition…

Zuko breathed deeply, releasing a few sparks through his nose when he released the air:

“We’re moving in. Now.”

...

There was so much to prepare, so many things they needed to do before taking off on their hopefully quick trip to the Water Tribe. They would only stay for a couple of days, but there was much they had to brace themselves for, beforehand. Azula left Iroh in charge of the Fire Nation, as ever, he was her go-to Interim Fire Lord whenever she and Sokka had to travel anywhere. Yet they knew, all too well, that one of Azula’s main fears could, presumably, come to pass while they were gone…

And so, she had taken it upon herself to think thoroughly about every possible choice and course of action the enemy might take. Sokka had helped her, and then he had given out the commands in her stead – she was indisposed on most mornings, the flu was truly a pain – and prepared the Fire Nation’s defenses as thoroughly as possible in case anyone attempted to attack at all.

Thus, after the preparations were finalized, Katara guided Appa herself to the Southern Water Tribe, accompanying her brother and her sister-in-law back to the icy landscape where they had first met Azula, so many years ago…

...

Whatever people might have assumed about him, the truth was that Zuko knew the Fire Nation fairly well. He knew the right places where their little fishing boat could safely dock at, without anyone’s awareness, far from the watchful gaze of the armed forces, and he knew, too, the exact place where his asset would likely be kept at, based on an information leak from a few years ago. He hadn’t been able to confirm that information, but it was the only choice that made any sense. Surely Azula hadn’t been as stupid or as extreme as to act any differently.

Thus, he guided his troops, the Freedom Fighters, to the Prison Tower. They waited for a shift change, and then they barreled through the building’s entrance, startling the guards who had been about to take a brief break.

“Intruders! Intruders…!” shouted one guard… and then he fled, cowardly, instead of fighting back. Zuko scoffed but sneered: that was how Azula’s great forces behaved? Pathetic.

They marched into prison without facing any true dangers: a bell rang, no doubt an alarm requesting reinforcements, but it seemed as though the guards were truly such fools they were merely running away… was it they hoped to assemble some sort of defense well after he and the others had broken out the prisoner he was looking for?

“It’s… it’s too easy!” Jet suddenly called, but Zuko ignored him. “Zuko!”

“Keep moving!” he shouted, rushing up the stairs. “Follow me! If she’s too stupid to guard our ally properly, it’s not my problem!”

Jet snarled, exchanging a glance with his friends: Zuko was reckless and impulsive, but never before had they truly dreaded he might be leading them astray. They still understood nothing about whoever he was supposed to find in this prison, and his willingness to make the most of the situation was almost gluttonous, to a fault. He was mindlessly barreling through… and that couldn’t be good, not when they were closer to the heart of the Fire Nation than they ever had been. This was a moment for caution, not recklessness… but their fearless leader couldn’t seem to understand that. They had to continue following him wherever he might go, if they hoped to keep him safe from his own impulsiveness, somehow…

His destination, it seemed, was the topmost floor. Guards cowered in corners, escaping through side stairs, never engaging, never giving them reason to be violent. Longshot kept an arrow at the ready, but the enemy constantly scurried away before he could fire… and it was such a bad sign. It had to be a bad sign…

“This is a trap. It has to be a trap,” Longshot spoke, something that rarely happened. Smellerbee, next to him, tensed up too.

“Jet, tell your boyfriend to cut it out: let’s get out of here before we get killed!”

“Quiet!” Zuko bellowed, and Smellerbee shrank in place. “We’re doing this now, and that’s final! We’re not getting a better chance than this one!”

“You don’t have to yell at her like that,” Jet chided him, frowning: sometimes, Zuko listened to him. Usually, he’d listen to Jet when he didn’t listen to anyone else. Today, though, it seemed that trend would break completely.

“I do if she’s being a burden! You’re not going to be one too, are you?” Zuko growled. Jet’s scowl grew sharper yet. “Move!”

Despite his better sense indicated otherwise, Jet obeyed. And as he did, all his friends followed, too: finally, they reached a corridor, a doorway… and Zuko kicked it open with his firebending, tearing it off its hinges as he strode into the large prison chamber with heavy strides.

It was the biggest of the chambers in the Prison Tower… and just so, the most isolated one. A single shape, huddled against a wall, was visible through the cell’s bars… a shape with long, dark hair, and undoubtably female curves.

“Mom… MOM!”

It was at that very moment that Jet’s group knew they had wasted their time, and potentially their lives, following this leader.

All six of them stood on the threshold of the prison room, jaws dropped, as Zuko rushed towards the cell, readying his hands to melt the cage, if need be…

“Oh, no. Oh, it’s so wrong for you to call me that!”

A totally unexpected voice came from the cell… from the female figure crouched by the wall. A voice that didn’t belong to the fallen regent, Ursa… but that did belong to someone else Zuko knew. Someone he didn’t think had committed any crimes that would warrant winding up in a jail cell, let alone the most secure of them all…

His jaw dropped when the crouching woman finally raised her head. Her face was definitely more mature now, much more adult, than when he’d last seen it… but it was familiar too, despite it didn’t belong to Ursa. The hair… it was a wig, of course, perfect to sell the trick that he had fallen for, mindlessly, recklessly…!

“Wow, look at you, Zuko! You really haven’t gotten proper food in years, have you? So fierce, but so gaunt too! Don’t worry, I can lend you some makeup when you’re in prison so you can look much, much lovelier…!”

“Ty Lee?!”

He roared her name with such outrage she fell silent at once, blinking at him. She cocked her head to the side and shrugged.

“Well, yes. You don’t have to say it so angrily, but that’s better than ‘mom’, for sure,” she said, with a teasing grin.

“What are you…? What are you doing here?!” Zuko exclaimed.

“What the hell are we doing here, if this isn’t your mom and…?! What they hell did you mean, ‘mom’, anyway?!” Jet screamed, marching into the room and clasping Zuko by the shoulder: he wrestled his own arm away from Jet’s grip, snarling. “That’s who we were supposed to be freeing today?! That’s what you were after, for twelve damn years?!”

“Oooh! Look at that, he’s kinda cute too…!” Ty Lee grinned, though her voice hardly affected the impassioned exchange happening before her eyes.

“You led us on… you led me on! You don’t want to fight the Fire Nation, you just want your damn mom!” Jet gasped.

“Yeah, how could you trick us like that?!” Pipsqueak groaned, marching into the room menacingly, followed by Sneers and The Duke.

“I knew it. I knew he was up to no good!” Smellerbee exclaimed, already inside the room too. Longshot, beside her, aimed his arrow at Zuko.

“Oh, no. Look, now, you’re all very fun and quirky people, I can see that…! But you’re not about to kill my childhood friend right in front of me, are you?” Ty Lee said, with a raised eyebrow.

Zuko snarled, glancing back at her, intending to tell her not to barge into what didn’t concern her… when he realized there was a lever, right at the wall Ty Lee had been crouching at, when he first saw her. His eyes widened.

“What are you…?”

“Look, I really didn’t want to do this, Zuko, I really didn’t, but… that’s why I’m here, actually, so here we go!”

None of them had so much as thought to look at the ceiling. None of them ever considered that the door Zuko had torn down might not be the sole means to defend this isolated room.

The rattling of chains revealed a system of cages had been dangling right above their heads… and it fell heavily on the group. Pipsqueak’s attempt to brace himself for it saw no success: in a matter of instants, all seven infiltrators were pinned to the cell’s floor, their movements highly restricted by a system of cages that adapted to their body shapes perfectly… and the doorway behind them was suddenly sealed by a heavy, metallic door that had slid down, right behind the one Zuko has torn down earlier.

“To think Sokka really designed all this wacky system, and he did it so damn well, too…” Ty Lee said, tapping her chin while swaying her feet at a beat only she could hear inside her head. “Azula really hit the jackpot with him, huh…?”

“G-get this off me, ow!” Pipsqueak whimpered: his large frame saw him pressed flatly on the filthy prison floor, his movements fully restricted, though Jet wasn’t much better off: he had landed with his face in Zuko’s chest, and the metal behind him pressed against the back of his head kept him pinned in place.

“Someone do something! I can’t reach my swords!” Jet shouted.

“We’re all… stuck!” Smellerbee cringed: she had fallen in a very awkward position, and her leg was twisted badly: Longshot, next to her, whimpered over his bow – the string had snapped.

“Ty Lee! Pull that thing again!” Zuko bellowed. Ty Lee whimpered and pouted. “And where the hell is my mother?!”

“How should I know?” Ty Lee pouted. “Azula simply called me and asked me to serve as a decoy because she thought I could pull it off, you know? I’m trying to transition from circus to theater, and she said, you see, that if I helped trick you and your group, she’d give me a commendation for the next audition for the Royal Troupe of Actors in the Fire Nation…!”

“I don’t give a shit! Just get this off me!”

“Oh, hey now, that’s just plain rude,” Ty Lee pouted: Jet scoffed.

“Well, rudeness isn’t even the least of what he’s capable of, believe me!” he roared. “So much sobbing over how your uncle betrayed you, right? So many nights weeping because everything you loved was taken from you, and look at what you’ve done to us now, you bastard!”

“Shut up, Jet!” Zuko spat out. Jet huffed, his furious eyes rising to meet his with difficulty.

“You shut up! You betrayed us! You betrayed me! We’re Fire Nation prisoners now, thanks to you and your bullshit! You didn’t even tell us what you were up to! You didn’t say a damn word…!”

“Well, that’s really rude, Zuko. Worse than rude, he’s right,” Ty Lee said, shaking her head with a deep sigh.

“And you don’t even know half of it!” Jet huffed. Ty Lee eyed him compassionately.

“You would be better off without him, you know?” Ty Lee said. “Mai was very sad about it, when Zuko first took off like that, but I helped her, encouraged her to move on, all that… I kinda had hoped Zuko would find someone nice for himself too, but you can do better than this, Jet!”

“You’re right! Yeah, I can!” Jet scoffed. Zuko rolled his eyes.

“Good. We’re over, then,” he determined. Jet blinked blankly.

“Y-you… you don’t get to say that! I do! I’m the one breaking up with you!”

“What’s the big difference if I say the words myself?” Zuko groaned, rolling his eyes.

“You’re supposed to be… begging me to change my mind! I’m the one who should be in charge right now!” Jet huffed, glaring at him. “You’re the one who wronged me, so I’m the one who dumps you!”

“That is, indeed, how it works,” Ty Lee confirmed.

“Why are you still butting in, Ty Lee?!” Zuko exploded, glaring at her. “Just pull up the damn lever and…!”

Ty Lee hadn’t moved at all, but the metallic door at the cellblock’s threshold rose anyway: Zuko couldn’t move his head much, but he still glanced back at the door… to find three people, flanked by many guards, standing behind the rising, metal door.

“Well, well. I don’t know who anyone else is… but we just keep bumping into this guy in prisons, huh, Aang?” a young woman with arms outstretched in a bending kata smirked. Beside her, the Avatar chuckled… he actually had the gall to be amused, did he?

“Can’t believe it worked like a charm. And we didn’t even need to resort to plan B!”

“Azula did say her brother was terribly predictable,” the earthbender declared. “It’s kinda funny to see she was right.”

“I’m not…!”

Zuko’s attempt to protest, to defend himself and his dignity, went nowhere: Toph’s hands moved carefully, and they unraveled the network of heavy chains and bars that kept the group restricted, flat on the floor… until they found themselves shackled, both at the wrists and the ankles, after Toph was finished with her metalbending. She snickered proudly as the Freedom Fighters moved around, with Smellerbee particularly keen on rubbing her aching leg… and Jet particularly keen on grabbing Zuko by the scruff and yelling at him.

“You’re an idiot! You’re the worst kind of asshole! I should’ve never agreed to joining forces with you! I shouldn’t have…!”

“Shut. UP!” Zuko rebuffed, shoving Jet off now that he could do so: Toph tightened his shackles for it, though, and he cried out in pain. “Ugh! Quit that!”

“You quit that, you pissbaby,” Toph huffed. “Bad enough that you’re doing stupid shit all over the world, you’re also an ass to your friends?”

“His boyfriend!” Ty Lee chimed in, and Zuko scoffed.

“Not anymore, I’m not!” Jet roared.

“Oh, just shut up, all of you…!” Zuko growled, turning to Toph and Aang. “You bastards set me up but I’m going to make you pay, all of you are going to…!”

“I’m afraid there’s not much you can do to threaten and intimidate us at this point, dear nephew.”

Zuko’s eyes widened, and his already pale complexion seemed to lose what little color it had left. The third person at the head of the guard squad stepped forward, out of the shadows of the prison’s archway… and, of course, it was no one other than the uncle who had chosen his sister over him. The uncle whose choices could have seen to Zuko’s perfect world falling apart, twelve years ago…

Iroh breathed deeply, taking in the scene before him. The Freedom Fighters appeared furious… and it was clear they resented Zuko for leading them astray. The firebender was starting to react to Iroh’s presence, though he seemed more emotionally conflicted than Iroh had expected him to be… good, then. Perhaps he didn’t hate Iroh as badly, as completely, as Iroh had feared he did.

“It’s been a very long time, Zuko.”

...

Hakoda had the feeling, from the get-go, that they were about to announce exactly what they were about to announce. He was ready to react even before they spoke, and he did as much mere instants after the words came out of Sokka’s mouth:

“A baby! My first grandbaby! Ahahaha, you two wonderful kids, you!”

Out of respect for the Fire Lord, the Chief of course chose to pick up his son only, twirling him in midair as he laughed in sheer delight. Katara laughed, as did Azula and Kanna, while Sokka smiled awkwardly, squeezed tight in his father’s arms.

“Have you felt well so far, dear?” Kanna asked Azula, taking her hand in hers. “Any discomfort?”

“Mostly morning flu, but Katara is of the opinion that I’ll be fine,” Azula smiled, nodding positively at Kanna.

“Good. You are a very strong woman, after all,” Kanna smiled brightly, patting Azula’s arm gently. “Though you don’t look like you’re all that confident, eh?”

“Well, I may have had a part in ending my mother’s tyranny and putting a stop to a hundred years of war…” Azula recited, with an awkward smile. “But I’ve never raised a baby before.”

“Oh, compared to that, I bet it’ll be easy! Though, huh, I haven’t stopped anyone’s tyranny and stopped a hundred years of war, myself,” Kanna pointed out, to Azula and Katara’s amusement. “Hmm. Guess I can’t really say which is worse, come to think of it.”

“Come on, don’t say that. I bet you have lots of great stories to share with Azula and Sokka,” Katara smiled.

“And you too, if you’re ever ready to settle down, dear!”

“Oh, still thinking about it, but sure, Gran-Gran,” Katara smiled awkwardly. “For now, though, ask these two for great-grandkids, clearly that’s going to be much more successful…”

“It already is, and I didn’t even need to ask!” Kanna laughed. Azula smiled awkwardly: yes, it was true that she was carrying a child now, but that didn’t quite mean she intended to have twenty kids, especially not if it meant she might not indulge in her typical overindulgences with Sokka quite so often…

… Which kept coming to mind, of course. There was no chance they could do anything quite that reckless while on Appa’s back, and Katara was around, so of course they held back from doing anything too stupid while they were on the road. They would probably only stay in the Water Tribe for about two days at most, as she had to return to the Fire Nation at haste, for she couldn’t leave her uncle to handle all her duties for too long. The sooner they asked Kanna about the actual reason they’d come here, the better…

And yet she listened to Kanna’s every story with a smile once they were inside the igloo, and throughout dinner: Sokka kept eyeing her with uncertainty, as though expecting her to breach the subject soon… but how? Was he seriously asking her to bring up sex during pregnancy while his sister and father were literally right there? She couldn’t possibly do that…

“I know it’s uncomfortable, I do, it’s just…” Sokka started that night, as they were slipping into the covers of his bedroll. Azula gave him a pointed stare.

“How exactly would you feel if your sister gushed about her sex life in front of you?”

“Eh… uncomfortable, probably, but…”

“Do you really think your father wants to know if your grandmother was getting laid while she was pregnant… as in, when he was the baby growing inside her?” Azula asked, with a sarcastic grin. Sokka’s eyes widened. “Thought so.”

“Okay, point taken. Not in front of Dad…”

“Or in front of Katara, though I doubt she’d be too bothered, at this point. We’re not exactly subtle, we haven’t been for years…”

“Ah, remember our early days, when we made out carelessly and cutely, and held hands like the silly lovebirds we were?” Sokka sighed, gazing at her with playfully fluttering eyelids. Azula snorted and laughed, shaking her head.

“We still do that these days. Just… we do other things too unless I’m pregnant. Then we want to do those things anyway, but we don’t because…”

“Because we haven’t asked Gran-Gran if sex is fine during pregnancy. Yep,” Sokka sighed. Azula bit her lip.

“We’ll do it tomorrow. We’ll wake up early… once she’s awake, we’ll go help her up and, once we do, we’ll ask her.”

“Really? First thing in the morning?”

“Come on, do you really want to keep delaying it? At this rate, we’ll leave the South Pole without any answers,” Azula scoffed. Sokka sighed and shrugged.

“Okay, okay. We’ll do it, then,” he decided, rubbing his hand over his hair before scooping Azula into his arms and warmth. “We’ll do it tomorrow.”

Kanna’s morning routine proved a much more complicated matter than either Sokka or Azula anticipated it would be: the old woman would spend at least half an hour in the bathroom, then she needed help getting out of the small ice chamber, then she would choose what to wear for the day, brush her hair carefully, and then walk out either to prepare breakfast or eat it, if the others had already finished making the meal while she was getting ready. Thus, when it became obvious that they’d get no better chances to talk than when she was brushing her hair, Azula and Sokka exchanged an urgent glance.

“Uh… Gran-Gran?” Sokka called Kanna, with a nervous smile. Kanna grinned, brush in hand. “Azula and I were wondering if, uh… if you need help with that?”

Azula cursed inwardly at his sudden change of subject. Kanna laughed and accepted his generous offer, and Sokka was left to glance at his wife apologetically as he brushed each strand of snow-white hair carefully.

“Actually… what Sokka wanted to ask was something else, though he also wanted to help you with your hair, of course,” Azula smiled awkwardly. Kanna turned her gaze on her.

“Oh? What is that, then?” she asked. Sokka flinched, blushing behind his grandmother, who thankfully couldn’t possibly see it so far.

“W-well, it’s, um… gee, I don’t remember anymore! Azula, maybe you should do it!”

“You remember! Of course you remember!” Azula huffed, and Sokka flinched behind Kanna. “Seriously? Do I really have to do it?”

“W-well, no, but maybe you’re right, this is weirder than I expected…” Sokka pouted, taking to composing Kanna’s hair into the proper braid she always wore it in – of course, he didn’t forget the hair loopies either, taking two strands of hair over her forehead expertly before sliding the adornments into place.

“Then the sooner you ask, the sooner the awkwardness will go away, right?” Azula said, with a skeptical smile. Sokka huffed.

“For that matter, you could…!”

“Oh, goodness, so much frustration and pent-up energy!” Kanna interrupted, and the two of them froze in place. “You two clearly have been putting off sex lately, haven’t you?”

“W-we just…! I mean, w-well, do you really want to know that…?” Sokka asked, his voice growing smaller with every passing moment. Azula simply froze solid… and then her face became just as red as her usual Fire Nation robes. It suited her current blue parka just as well, in Sokka’s opinion, but he doubted she’d take well to hearing that…

“Goodness, you two are so silly,” Kanna laughed, shaking her head. “I’ve served as a midwife for years, Sokka: do you really think a seasoned midwife like myself would so much as blink at the thought of her grandson’s nighttime activities with his wife?”

“W-well… it’s not always at night. But that’s not the point…!” Sokka exclaimed, flustered again. “It’s just… w-well, we’re not sure if we, uh, should, um… try doing it anymore? Because, well, the baby is very small and all, but…”

“Ah? That’s what’s bothering you both, then?” Kanna asked, glancing between them. Azula, still flustered, only nodded once in her direction. “Oh, dear. Well, now, how bad is your morning sickness, Azula?”

“Not that bad…”

“Any dizziness?”

“Not often.”

“Did Katara give you any heads-up about it looking like a delicate situation, after she used her waterbending to check your chi?”

“Not really?” Azula answered, glancing at Sokka with uncertainty. He simply shrugged, and then Kanna smiled.

“Well, then… as long as you’re not too energetic, and you don’t do anything too outlandish, it should be fine,” she said. Azula’s eyes widened, and she smiled in relief too.

“S-so, um, if we did some outlandish things before Katara did the chi-reading thing… do you think the baby could have been affected by it?” Sokka asked, with an awkward smile. Kanna blinked blankly before letting out a hearty laugh.

“Why, it certainly must have been affected, but surely not in any detrimental ways,” she smiled. “Think of it as, uh… as if someone knocked on the door of your big Palace back in the Fire Nation! If you’re at the other end of the building, you wouldn’t notice it at all, right? But as the baby grows, it comes closer and closer to that door, so…”

“So, we have to be careful anyway,” Azula said, biting her lip. Kanna smiled and shrugged.

“By the time you’re nine-months along you won’t be able to do anything outlandish at all, dear, trust me on that. Lying on your side and letting Sokka do all the work will be your only choice, if you’re anything like me…”

“Okaaay, thank you for your help, Gran-Gran!” Sokka smiled, blushing again as he patted Kanna’s shoulder. Her hairdo was perfect already: Sokka, the expert hairdresser he was, always flowed through the motions smoothly when he was helping Azula with her hair, and it was clear it was the same with his grandmother. Kanna turned and smiled at him, broadly.

“You’re welcome. Have fun…” she said, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly at her blushing grandson, who whimpered and squirmed away from her gaze, covering his face with his hands. Azula, delighted not to be the center of Kanna’s attention right now, could only laugh at her husband’s reaction over his grandmother’s inappropriate taunts.

They didn’t exercise their newly gained permission for intimacy in the South Pole, anyway: the time they spent in the growing and thriving village was restful and soothing in many ways, as Hakoda and Kanna showed them the growth of the Southern Water Tribe. The war’s end had seen to wonderful changes in the world around them, and Azula had been particularly keen on offering as much aid to the South Pole as possible. After having seen the large city the Northern Water Tribe boasted of, the Fire Lord was determined to help her husband’s hometown to become just as successful, if not more so, as its sister tribe was. Sokka usually helped plan such business ventures thoroughly, and whenever they visited, they could witness the growth of the Tribe after their many efforts at a distance. Yes, it was only a start… but it was a good one, and Hakoda and Kanna couldn’t have been prouder of their nation and their people.

Thus, all was well as they said their goodbyes on the next day and returned to the road. All continued to be well as they traveled with Appa all the way back to the Fire Nation, with however many stops as they had needed to make, along the way…

And perhaps because of how promising and happy the last few days had been, Azula should have known, she should have absolutely suspected, that something had to be wrong in the Fire Nation, once they finally returned to the Palace. Yet she had been hopeful, utterly, stupidly hopeful, that it wouldn’t be the case… yet once Iroh welcomed them back with slightly urgent news, she knew her hopes would go to waste.

“Zuko… he did it? He attempted to break out our mother?!” Azula exclaimed, staring at Iroh in chagrin.

“And he failed!” Iroh smiled, though there was a tinge of obvious nervousness in his voice as Azula nearly stumbled back: Sokka caught her before she could do so, while Katara glanced between Iroh’s group – comprised by himself, Aang, Toph and Ty Lee – and her own, as they all stood in the middle of the Palace’s gardens. “Azula…”

“I knew it. I knew he was going to do something the minute I lowered my guard…! And then he did! He did, and if anything had gone wrong…!”

“Nothing did,” Iroh pointed out, blinking blankly. “The safety mechanisms in the prison worked perfectly, we caught him and all his co-conspirators, it was the smoothest plan…!”

“I didn’t even get hurt at all! For a moment I thought Zuko might try to attack me, but…” Ty Lee acknowledged, tapping her chin, but Azula clearly wasn’t listening to her.

“If he’d broken out my mother and started an uprising against me, we would be returning to a Fire Nation going up in flames…” she recited, as though in a trance. Sokka sighed, hugging her warmly as Iroh scoffed.

“We had about ten different traps and plans set up, Azula, you know we did. You and your husband designed most of them yourselves!” he reassured her, but it didn’t seem anything he could do or say would help: Azula was absolutely losing her composure, and Sokka grimaced as he sensed his wife’s panic, and mood swings, were flaring up in a dangerous way.

“I could’ve made a mess, this could’ve been a mess…” she mumbled to herself, and Sokka sighed, turning her in his arms so she’d face his chest instead.

“Is this supposed to mean she didn’t trust my acting at all, or…?” Ty Lee asked Toph subtly, who shrugged in her direction.

“I mean, you just had to put on a wig and sit in a cell for a few days, what’s so hard about that?”

“I know, I…! Hey, there’s a method to it! There really is!”

“Alright, you guys? Thank you all so very much for ensuring Plan A paid off perfectly!” Sokka said, smiling as he cradled Azula against his chest. “Good work, everyone! I’m sure Azula will be responsive and offer you her gratefulness well and properly very soon, too. Though… the cage system did work out? Really?”

“Almost didn’t for one of them, he was smaller than the others,” Toph admitted – she had sensed The Duke squirming far better under the cage than the rest of the group, and he was the first one she had bound up with metal because of that. “But yeah, all around, it paid off pretty well, Meathead.”

“Great. Then I’m sure you guys can regale us with more tales on how things turned out later…”

“Wait, but we have to know what he’s doing now! Where is he?” Azula tried to stop Sokka from dragging her inside the Palace, and she glanced back at Iroh desperately. He smiled and shook his head.

“Safe and sound, behind bars, as expected. Same as all his friends. He’s not getting out anytime soon,” Iroh assured her. Azula grimaced.

“Are you sure he…?” she started… then she had to stop talking when the world shifted suddenly, and her body wound up stretched across Sokka’s arms. “Sokka!”

“Later, Azula! An intervention is in order, right now!”

She couldn’t protest anymore as Sokka marched with her in arms, bridal-style, into the Palace. She grimaced, as her panic flared and made her head spin… Zuko had made his move the minute she had left the Fire Nation. He was truly so bold, so obvious, as to do such a thing. He had someone keeping watch, gathering information about the Fire Nation, otherwise he couldn’t have found out she’d left at all… and he had attacked. He had truly done it. He had meant to free their mother… he had absolutely hoped to take advantage of her absence to strike at the heart of the Fire Nation and take over it with Ursa’s help. Curse him… curse him for his damned recklessness, for being so power-hungry and for endangering the Fire Nation and the hard-earned harmony and peace of the world with his actions, with his dreadful choices…

She held back her words, her rampage, until Sokka closed the door to their room and set her on the floor. Azula snarled, turning towards him, eyes glowing with a mix of determination and outrage.

“He’s going to pay for this. He’s going to…!”

“Azula,” Sokka called her, hands cupping her face quickly. She fell silent at the gesture… and she lost her train of thought entirely when he pressed a long kiss to her lips.

Was he trying to soothe her? Was he seriously hoping to distract her from the danger Zuko had attempted to bring to their family, to their calm lives, to the Fire Nation itself…?

She would rebuff him, tell him to stop, she absolutely would do that once he broke off the kiss to catch his breath – though for now she kissed him back because… why would she waste such an opportunity? She could reason with him later, of course she could, his lips and tongue and fingertips couldn’t possibly entice her fore-…

His hands shifted: one tilted her chin towards him, and the other slipped down to her left breast.

Well… maybe she would let him entice her. If just for a little while.

Of course, she was being ridiculous and irresponsible yet again, no one would need to tell her as much for Azula to realize it… but she leaned into his touch regardless, and her boiling fury suddenly found a new outlet when she kissed him harder, arms around his neck, pulling him in with the force of a hurricane. Sokka didn’t waver, didn’t hesitate to respond in kind, just the way she needed him to: when her lightning struck, his tempestuous rains accompanied it. Neither one fell behind when the other picked up speed: his hand kneaded and squeezed her breast, and the other trailed over her back, once he had made sure she would continue kissing him fiercely, on its way to cup and fondle her rear.

Azula moaned… though it wasn’t a whimper, a wistful, tempting sound, but more of a roar, instead. If she was upset over how he had chosen to distract her, and that was what her vocalization meant, it didn’t seem her actions matched her unspoken words in the least: she grinded her hips against him even as they stood up, as though to push him to their bed… but Sokka didn’t relent: he stood his ground and slipped a leg between hers.

The friction between her groin and his thigh caused her voice to hitch, her kiss to be interrupted with astonishment over the burst of pleasure he had offered her: Sokka should have backed down then, he supposed… but he had lost his common sense now, it seemed, for when she was stunned by his bold move, he simply chose to be bolder yet. He kissed her again, dragging his mouth over hers, letting his tongue probe her own, while his hands fondled her curves eagerly. It was Azula’s turn to startle him when she took to grinding against his leg, now… when one of her hands trailed down his chest, squeezing his strong pecs, sensing every ridge of his ribcage, of his abdomen… and then she cupped his manhood firmly, enough to make him yelp with pleasure. Clearly, she wasn’t giving him the reins of this endeavor completely… and that, of course, was how Sokka preferred it.

They stood there, swaying back and forth in a complicated, strange dance, defined by the relentless thrusting of their still-clothed bodies, by the sharp and voracious kisses that only grew hungrier every time their lips parted – thus, they joined again in no time –, by the devious heavy petting, as their hands sought every weakness, every single spot that would make the other shudder with pleasure… and also every place they relished on touching, their every favorite part of each other’s body. Azula’s breasts fit ever so smoothly in Sokka’s large palms, Sokka’s rear was perfect for Azula’s hands to cup and spank, whenever his own deviousness went too far…

Their foreplay usually was much more subtle, much tamer, than this. Typically it was a game of seduction, where the intensity ramped up as time went by: today, a thrumming, powerful energy appeared to circulate between them, strengthened upon each loop it might make, and they were entirely controlled by it. Possessed by desire and need alike, the world seemed to spin around them – or was it the two of them, moving fast and quickly, twirling in place with their strange, erotic dance…? – as they almost toppled over upon reaching their mattress.

Sokka fell on the bed first, but Azula followed quickly, climbing on his lap and kissing him fiercely, as though to steal his breath away. Sokka’s hands fell upon her rear with a resounding slapping sound, and Azula moaned as her skin thrummed under his heavy touch. Again, his thigh slipped between her legs, parting them, offering her a slight respite by providing friction between her sensitive clit and his strong body, and Azula moaned with utmost delight at the pleasure he offered her so generously.

Her hands worked on his sash quickly, tugging it undone and setting it aside. His sleeveless changshan, his preferred apparel in the Fire Nation’s tropical climate, spread open and exposed his strong body for his greedy wife to take in: her fingers toyed with his taut nipples, fondling his smooth skin playfully as she swayed against him. By then, Sokka experienced new urges, new calls to action, and he obeyed them by fisting Azula’s hair and trailing his hot mouth over her chin, then down her neck, which she exposed with a breathy moan.

His free hand saw them switching places: now she was pinned down on the bedding while he straddled her. She hoisted a leg deliberately, intending to tease his hardened shaft, and Sokka’s deep groans revealed she was succeeding at that task: he undid her belt and tossed it aside, then yanked her long tunic up, forcing them to disengage from most their exciting, erotic oral exchanges for a moment. While Azula struggled with the tunic, however, Sokka took advantage of the opportunity to shove her shirt up too, and to begin undoing her breast bindings. By the time Azula had shrugged off both the tunic and shirt, her chest was almost fully exposed, and Sokka’s mouth already trailed over her mounds, quick to suck on her nipples as soon as they were in plain sight.

She arched her body upwards, into his mouth, and he took her in without hesitation, dragging his mouth back and forth between her breasts, toying with her nipples until they were fully erect reddened over his teasing. That Azula had taken to shoving down his trousers with her feet, and removing his hair tie, was as good as irrelevant to the man who remained latched upon her breasts, savoring them as though he had never tasted quite as delectable a feast as the one she presented for him. And this was but an appetizer, as far as Azula was concerned… but her ravenous husband always found pleasure in every inch of her body, it seemed, for he pressed his face to her well-endowed chest, basking in their softness, in the way they bounced upon each teasing, playful tug he dared do with his lips. Whenever he slowed down during sex, whenever he wasn’t particularly loud – or Azula, for that matter – he could hear her heart racing, too… but right now, the agitation made it impossible. He kissed and sucked, letting her strip him bare without complaint… letting her play devious games, too, games he knew better than to protest against once he felt the smooth fabric of his forearm bandages peeling off his arms… only to tighten them by his wrists, again once she was a mere instant away from undoing them completely.

She loved doing this to him. She had taken a liking to it relatively quickly, once their relationship had turned so physical. He would return the favor sometimes – he could swear she enjoyed being on the receiving end far more than she liked being the one doing the binding –, but right now, it was clear his wife wanted one thing… and she worked quite diligently at it, while enjoying every wonderous caress Sokka’s mouth bestowed up her chest.

“Need me to… woah, need me to turn us around?” Sokka asked, head swimming in delight after Azula’s body swayed against his building erection. She groaned, trapping him with her legs before finally turning them in bed.

His willingness to be tied up certainly didn’t sit badly with her: depriving herself from his eager touch would only make her welcome it more eagerly once she released him. Thus, she rode up over him on the bed, tightening the bandages properly on his left wrist while his right hand unbuckled her heavy boots and yanked down her leggings.

She complied with his wordless request – or demand –, rising to stand up before him, exposing her naked body to his greedy eyes, dark with need and longing. Her leggings and underwear fell in one go, pooling by her ankles, over his chest: Sokka delicately raised her feet, one at a time, to do away with the clothes that would certainly get in the way…

“Come here, now… get yourself over here right now,” Sokka grunted, hands traveling over her calves, and up to her thighs…

She complied, dropping heavily on the bed just as she tugged his bandages, hard. Her wet core loomed closer: Sokka leaned in and began devouring her while Azula fastened, at last, the bandages on the bedposts. Sokka’s head fell smoothly on their pillow, giving him a perfect angle from which to feast on her wet, warm folds. Azula whimpered slightly, body shuddering with pleasure as she worked on each fastening, delighted both by his ministrations and by his instinctive, impulsive attempts to wrestle his hands out of confinement. Twice he sabotaged her intentions, making the binding come undone, all be it because he needed to caress her so direly… twice Azula laughed about it, letting him get away with a moment of greedy touches, of kneading her skin, before yanking his hand back yet again towards the bedpost.

The fastenings weren’t quite too restrictive, but they certainly were restrictive enough. Sokka’s hands shook with the mighty urges to embrace her, to caress her… and Azula responded to them by intertwining her fingers with his while she rolled her hips over his face. Giving herself to pleasure so recklessly was undeniably, impossibly fun…

Halfway through her thrusts into his mouth, through his tongue’s relentless teasing and probing of every weak spot he had pinpointed since ages ago, Azula realized he had well and truly succeeded at his plan. Yes, she had genuinely set aside all her furious worries about her brother and his schemes… and right now, it seemed as though it didn’t matter whatsoever. Why would it? Sokka was here with her, their baby would be fine, and Zuko was in custody, at long, damn last…

How strange that clouding her mind with the intoxicating pleasure of unbridled sex would happen to clear it from so many doubts, just as well. She gave herself entirely to bucking against Sokka’s mouth, as he continued to bury his face gladly in her core, jaw open as he opted to offer her no end of open-mouthed kisses, his tongue delving into her depths. She whimpered between moans, hands sliding out of his to fist his hair, to caress his body, fully hers to take advantage of…

She leaned back over his larger frame, legs spread wide, head resting on his abdomen as she moaned longingly: her hands traveled over his flanks, back to the fully erect manhood that awaited her… she pumped it slowly, feeling the twitches of his legs as the pleasure she provided proved too much to take. Impulsively, she pulled back from his mouth, and he even had the gall to whimper miserably, as though deprived from his very favorite meal when it was right there for the taking: she turned around, so her breasts would rest on his abdomen… so the hands holding his cock could help direct it towards her mouth.

“Fuck, Azula…!” Sokka gasped: his next words were inaudible, for she lowered her hips on him again, and whatever he spoke, he did to her very core.

From this new angle, his approach changed: mouth wide open anew, her dripping juices would fall from her opening directly into his mouth while his tongue rubbed knowing circles around her clit. She whimpered again over the excessive pleasure his teasing resulted in, savoring his large manhood by dragging her tongue around it greedily: one of her hands cupped his balls, fondling them gently while the other one took to traveling up and down his inner thighs. To think he was driving her mad to this extent while being tied up… she already wanted his touch directly upon her skin, but she denied it to herself, for now: hearing him struggle with the bindings was terribly stimulating just as well, for she knew he wanted to touch her just as badly as she wanted him to do it. Knowing him, he would tie her up right after she freed him… and she wanted that, too. But until that moment arrived, she would make the most of keeping him in bondage, instead.

He yelped audibly, buried as he remained in her folds, when she engulfed him in her mouth deeply. Azula groaned, bucking her hips against his mouth again as though to ask him to keep going: he knew exactly what game she wanted to play, and so he proceeded to humor her by recreating her every gesture as faithfully as possible. His hips thrusted upwards, and his glans crashed against the roof of her mouth… Azula moaned happily for it, sucking on him, and he responded by sucking on her sensitive, moist skin too. Her tongue danced over his tip, and his own toyed with her exposed nub…

He growled when she squeezed his balls gently, and she dared chuckle at his protest: he responded to her teasing by sliding his tongue as deep as it might go inside her walls, savoring them thoroughly as Azula whimpered, taking him deep in her mouth just as well. She knew she couldn’t quite engulf him all the way to the base, but she attempted to do so all the same. She nearly choked over his girth, over filling her mouth with him, just as she knew her flavor was flooding his…

She instinctively, impulsively, pulled away upon being so close to the edge she had damn near tipped over… and Sokka rose up to meet her anyway: he wouldn’t let her back down, just as he would continue to thrust into her mouth. Azula could only be grateful for his perseverance in the face of her body’s ridiculous, impulsive choices to flee from the overflowing pleasure, for his next wild kiss upon her nether lips, his next reckless rubbing of her sensitive clit, saw her exploding with delight into his mouth. She cried out, his manhood still sheathed within her mouth… and she took to sucking on it, almost in a vengeful manner, once he proved he wasn’t backing down after her first peak. It helped to clamp down on him this way, to suck on him fiercely, for he wouldn’t relent and she could barely cope with the powerful shudders of pleasure coursing through her body. Of course, she had finished first, and of course he was basking in his victory… but was it really him who was victorious, when her heating body, with those trails of sweat pouring down her skin, felt as deliciously sensitive as it did, when every single one of his caresses, every wet sound of his mouth working on hers, every cry in his voice drove her even deeper into the throes of ultimate arousal…?

He loved providing chains of climaxes for her, one after the other, to the point where her vision would blur, to the point where she couldn’t tell the multiple peaks apart with how frequent they became. Her body swayed against him, and every time she seemed to think she had burned through too much excitement, his tongue and mouth proved her wrong. Another burst, and then another, and her head was spinning but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t truly stop, not until he did…

He didn’t. Instead, he whimpered and cried out louder, breathing heavily while still devouring her, when his own surge of pleasure burst out of him, recklessly, into her mouth.

It would have likely been a good idea to warn her he was about to release, but Azula had made love to him so many times she knew exactly what his every nonverbal cue entailed. She was fully free to stop sucking on him, if she didn’t want to receive it directly… but she did want to. She continued sucking, bobbing her head up and down as he finished, spurts of seed pouring into her mouth and shooting off to the back of her throat… and she kept going, just as he did. She kept going, even if it seemed as though her body would combust if they didn’t stop. But he had to be ready again, she had to get him up and running or she’d never get to ride him… though she was open for other ideas, if Sokka had them: the sudden feeling of his hands slapping upon her asscheeks revealed her knots hadn’t been as effective as they should have been… oh, she was just too eager to do it right. But still, if he would fondle her rear now and pull her down on him more powerfully this way, she had very few complaints, if any at all…

If she lost track of how many times she had finished, it meant a tryst had been as successful as could be: she certainly couldn’t count them at all this time. She laughed against his manhood as she reasoned with that, once his cock was fully erect once more.

“Okay… okay,” she said, moaning once Sokka’s tongue delved into her opening again. “Ah… I-I think you’re… ready now…”

“Your turn on the bedposts,” Sokka said, greedily. Azula laughed, pressing one more kiss to his manhood.

“Whatever you want,” she said, simply. After the relentless race of pleasure they’d taken each other up on, she wanted nothing but to surrender to him again now.

Sokka sat up, finally giving some respite to the folds he’d left reddened and delightfully raw with his devious mouth. Azula merely slid down his body, unable to so much as sit up when her legs were still shivering: the smile across her face spoke for itself, and Sokka smirked at the sight of it: a job well done, for sure, in distracting his wife from the stress and anguish that had swept her up once they landed in the Palace.

“I’d ask if you’re feeling better…” he said, sliding a hand mischievously over the back of her thigh, down to her knee… she shivered, again and her heel rubbed against his body. Whether she was trying to convey he should stop or keep going, Sokka couldn’t tell… “But I think that smile of yours speaks for itself.”

“Oh, I feel awful. So bad. I am utterly outraged… still so mad. Why was I mad, again?” she said, teasingly. Sokka chuckled, squeezing her rear teasingly as she opened her eyes to gaze at him alluringly.

“Come here. You’re not getting away with this without some bondage of your own,” he said, lowering himself so he could embrace her, hoisting her delicately in his arms. Azula hummed, turning her head towards him, seeking to kiss his lips. He complied generously, letting his tongue toy with hers – years of practice had certainly seen to strengthening his endurance when it came to providing her oral pleasure of any kind…

“Tie me up… better than I tied you,” she laughed into their kiss. Sokka snickered and shrugged.

“I’ll try. Don’t burn through the bandages if you decide you’ve had enough, though… we can be civil and reach a diplomatic agreement for a truce in terms of bondage whenever you need it…”

“I don’t want a truce. Go for it,” Azula said, beaming. Sokka chuckled. “I promise I won’t burn them…”

“I’ll figure out a way to punish you, if you do.”

“Oh, no. Don’t say that or I’ll want to do it…”

“Fire Lord Azula, you’re incorrigible,” Sokka hissed, playfully. She hummed, swaying back into his body.

“So are you, and I’m not complaining,” Azula said, reaching back to kiss his neck. Sokka responded by fondling her breasts, and Azula moaned willfully at his caresses, at the way his thumbs played with her perked nipples, finding the spots that brought the very sweetest of sounds from her lips.

“You thought that was a complaint? Don’t I have to file official paperwork for that?” Sokka grinned. Azula laughed and nodded.

“You do. I’ll get to it in four-to-six weeks, but you’re allowed to complain indeed, if you follow the right… hmm, protocols…” she whimpered, pressing snugly against him. “Oh, Sokka, just fuck me.”

“So crude of my Fire Lord to say that… and I just love it,” Sokka growled, leaning down to nibble on her neck as his playful caresses on her chest gained further intensity. Azula moaned again, her voice hitching as she swayed against him…

And then, before she knew it, she was lying on the bed again, facedown, while Sokka clambered over her back. She sighed in delight as Sokka tightened the bandages around her wrists, leaning down to press kisses to her cheek, to her neck and shoulder… then he deprived her from his presence and company for a moment, if just a moment, and she groaned with hopelessness as Sokka ensured to tighten the bandages at each bedpost. She’d have some mobility anyway, but not nearly enough to take proper action… and she knew that was exactly what Sokka was counting on. He was too clever, tying her while she was face-down…

“How dare you…” she hissed. Sokka snickered, finishing the knot on the second bedpost before climbing on the bed again. “Tying me down like this, how can you do such a thing to your Fire Lord?”

“Hmmm, my Fire Lord, yes. Mine, and mine alone,” Sokka teased her. Azula smirked as he leaned down over her. “Would you have preferred to be face-up, by any chance?”

“Evidently… I wouldn’t have,” Azula said, eyeing him pointedly, dangerously, from the corner of her eye. Sokka snickered knowingly. “You take such advantage of my weaknesses, damn you…”

“You love that I do,” Sokka said. Azula snorted and smiled.

“Yes, damn it, I love that you do,” she whispered. “Only drawback is… I won’t be able to kiss you all that easily, this way,”

“Well, now, if the urge hits us too powerfully, I’ll just loosen up the bandages,” Sokka said, kissing the corner of her mouth before pulling back.

Azula hummed: her legs remained spread shamelessly, and she had no doubt she looked as undignified as possible, but Sokka appeared to find her utterly enthralling, instead. His hands traveled down her back delicately, all the way to her rear. He rubbed it teasingly, a hand on each buttock, and Azula moaned while thrusting backwards, into his touch.

“Give it to me now, damn it… come and get it, Sokka. Come and get me…”

“On my way there, love. On my way,” he said, leaning down to hoist her hips up delicately: he planted a devious kiss over her mounds, and Azula hummed happily, vibrating with delight…

Her cheerful sounds were promoted to outright cries when his hardened shaft rubbed against her folds. First against her clit, then higher, dipping the tip teasingly in her waiting entrance…

“I did a number on you for sure…” Sokka snickered, delighted by her persistent wetness. Azula hummed.

“D-do another one now, damn it…”

He could have teased her further, but he relented with her wishes in the end: his manhood pushed through the entrance, brushing against her sensitive walls and prompting Azula to cry out again in hunger and delight: when she nearly lowered her hips impulsively, he raised them once again. A happy laugh tumbled from her lips.

“D-do your worst… oh, fuck me, Sokka…” she moaned, thrusting away against him slightly: her own motions caused her to moan in bliss while Sokka remained static…

And then he began moving. At first, he only thrusted lightly, marking a very subtle, teasing rhythm that still drove Azula mad with desire and bliss. He went so slowly, and yet so thoroughly, burying himself deeper and deeper inside her at a terribly calm pace when Azula was already whimpering and panting heavily, sweat pouring down her body…

“You’re impossibly hot, damn it…” Sokka sighed happily, closing his eyes once he was sheathed fully inside her: she could take all of him, squeezing his grateful manhood with slight twitches of her walls. “I missed this… I really missed this.”

“S-so did I… so did I. J-just… k-keep going, don’t stop, keep going, faster now…” Azula begged.

Sokka chuckled as he set his hands on her hips: his body reeled back, slowly still, though at a faster pace than before. His pelvis’s movements were akin to that of the erotic dance they had been doing earlier, tucking in his abdomen and then letting it back out with flowing motions. Azula gasped, and now it was her turn to tug at her bindings desperately: she could have just thrusted into him, she could have rejected his rhythm to establish her own…

When she tried, Sokka’s hands clasped her waist and stopped her. He set the rhythm now, just as she had earlier. She gasped, utterly delighted by his boldness… she’d definitely tease and taunt him about how controlling he had been later, yes, but right now she wanted more of this, more of his commanding behavior. She was the most powerful woman in the world, of course she was… and that was why surrendering, and giving in to him, was a pleasure that left her lightheaded with bliss.

“S-Sokka… please…” she whimpered: her breathy voice, her needy moans, poured out that way without her being able to do anything about it. She felt his grip tightening upon her, and she knew her cries had tempted him, as they ever did. But he still wouldn’t budge as much as she needed him to, no matter if he picked up some speed…

She knew what he was doing, of course she did. Starting slow, accelerating gradually until he was drilling into her with unrepentant fierceness, and she needed him to get to that point now, right now, for if he kept this up, she was just going to…

The thought went interrupted when she climaxed again around his shaft – in any other circumstances, she would have held out a little longer, but their earlier mutual oral sex had seen to the utter destruction of her endurance today. She cried out helplessly, and Sokka gave in to her needs of further speed for a brief moment, just to ride her orgasm with her while groaning with delight at the smooth massage of her walls against his manhood.

“Woah, damn… that never gets old. Never,” he laughed, throwing his head back. “You okay, Azula…?”

“F-fuck…! Fuck…!” she gasped, feeling tears of pleasure surging in her eyes. “M-more, Sokka…! J-just… more…!”

“I’m just making sure… don’t want to go overboard, you know?” he smirked, hooking his hands smoothly on her hipbones. “Gotta make you do that again, though… feels so damn good to feel you bursting all around me…”

Azula whimpered, glancing at him from over her shoulder: he towered over her in a godly way, and she wanted him to be as merciless as one, too… and she finally seemed poised to get her wish as he started to thrust faster, always ensuring to be deeply buried inside her upon his every sway forward. She gasped and moaned, closing her eyes as the pleasure surged and soared, pouring all over her body, under her utterly sensitive skin… she felt feverish with pleasure, overdosed on climaxes already, knowing Sokka would continue to provide them to her until he, as well, was fully spent…

He sped up further. Her body bucked lightly against him, now that he was at the rhythm she had been looking for. He clasped her hips and groaned, head thrown back as he relished in the smooth heat inside her, enveloping him so warmly he almost wanted to finish right then and there… but no, not yet. He wanted to draw this out longer, much longer, and he’d do exactly that by thinking about taxes and treaties and the guard patrols and vegetables and everything that could potentially help him hold out longer… all the while, speeding up. Little by little, she was getting exactly what she wanted and soon enough she couldn’t keep up anymore: Azula cried out and exploded anew around his shaft, and the delightful friction between her walls and his cock almost broke Sokka out of his miserable train of thought – how could he possibly hold out when she made him feel like melting jello with her every moan, with the way her body collided with his, with the beautiful visual of her slender back, right in front of him…?

He couldn’t endure another second: he had to thrive in this tryst for the wonder that it was. He opened his eyes again and slowed the rhythm… solely so he could lower his body to lie atop her. His chest pressed against her back, and his cock remained lodged deep inside her. Azula whimpered, glancing back at him as though begging him to continue… she moaned again, much more heartily, when Sokka’s hands slid underneath her body, over the covers of their bed, and clamped onto her sensitive breasts. Her nipples found perfect purchase on his palm, and so he kneaded and squeezed, remaining static while buried to the hilt inside her…

“Want me to untie you yet…?” he asked, breathing heavily at her ear. “I… really want to kiss you now…”

“N-no… no. Y-you can’t just… you can’t just hold my breasts this way and then… say you’ll stop, no, keep going like this… a-another round, we’ll kiss as deeply as you want in another… ah!”

Well, he wasn’t going to complain too much over that request, truly. What was there to complain about? He’d definitely pull off a third orgasm later, he absolutely had it in him, although the second one seemed dangerously close by now…

He thrusted faster, harder, groping and massaging her breasts while kissing her cheek, nibbling on her exposed neck, enjoying the way she met his thrusts with her own. Were they utterly insane for going this far, this hard, when they were supposed to be taking it easy? Probably… certainly. If Azula dared claim she was going to be the worst mother ever over this, he’d make sure to remind her it was all his idea… and that, if their previous romps hadn’t likely affected the baby, hopefully this one wouldn’t, either…

So he huffed, burying his face in her neck and shoulder as he powered further, thrusting harder, so much harder, so much faster, his hips swaying at vertiginous speeds that Azula’s shuddering body couldn’t seem to follow: she kept begging him to keep going as she burned through climax after climax…

He burst too, at last, letting out a deep groan as he embraced her tightly, pressing his body heavily to hers, crushing her to the bed, trapping her between it and his body… and she wanted to be nowhere else. She laughed in delight as she felt his seed spurting deep inside her – she was already pregnant, he could keep doing this from now on, at least until the child was born, to no consequences –, and she thrusted against him again as he finished pumping his cock through her shuddering walls. His every pant was accompanied with a soft moan, and once he felt well and truly spent, Sokka collapsed atop her.

They laid in silence for a moment, savoring the sheer pleasure they had just coursed through together. Both were delightfully lightheaded, both felt utterly undone after overindulging in each other… and both smiled, knowing they weren’t even done yet.

“Want me to untie you now…?” Sokka asked, softly. Azula moaned suggestively.

“Maybe… though stay inside me while you do it,” she said, with a greedy smile. Sokka laughed, kissing her cheek softly. “It’s… it’s your fault. You feel so damn good inside me…”

“If I stay there for too long, I’ll be ready again in no time,” Sokka whispered. Azula hummed and smirked.

“Is that supposed to be a drawback, or just regular information… huh?” she asked, before shivering over a surge of pleasure, resulting from their joined sexes. “Ah, it feels so good, fuck…”

“I’m glad it does,” Sokka laughed softly, reaching for her right hand first. “And I hope you feel better now, all around.”

“You need to do this more often… so much more often,” Azula laughed. “Every time something’s going badly, or something dangerous is coming up… take me to a whole other world of pleasure and I’ll definitely deal with the problem in a much better mood.”

“I’d had it in mind for a few months already, you know? But things were going so well lately that it didn’t seem necessary to do this…” Sokka whispered, kissing her cheek quickly as he moved to her other hand. Azula lowered her right, reaching over her own body to touch his flanks, closing her eyes with delight. “Still, it was my best idea for what to do if your brother pulled any stunts anytime soon. I knew our plans were pretty good, so it wasn’t likely that he’d mess them up, but…”

“But you know me all too well, huh?” Azula sighed: her left hand was free again now, and she hummed as she reached back to fist his hair. “I’m sorry I was moments away from going off the rails. They were right… even if Zuko means trouble, we handled it well even in our absence. So… I should just celebrate we outdid him by getting you to ravish me again, right?”

“As many times as you want until you’re satisfied,” Sokka smirked. “Though you seem quite a bit insatiable today, eh?”

Azula laughed, turning around almost unwillingly: their bodies uncoupled over her motions, but she wrapped her legs around his waist afterwards regardless, arms around his neck as she rewarded him for the torrent of pleasure he had unleashed inside her with deep, searching kisses, invading the very territories she had claimed for herself so many times in the past… letting him return the favor too, when his tongue delved into her mouth as well.

“Insatiable sounds… about right,” she laughed, closing her eyes as Sokka regaled her with more kisses upon her cheek and neck. “Your fault entirely… you did this to me, you wicked Fire Lady, you…”

“Oh, come on now, take responsibility for your own actions,” Sokka smirked. “How is it my fault alone, when you’re the hottest Fire Lord there ever was?”

“Hmm, if you could resist my hotness maybe I’d resist yours,” Azula reasoned, amusing him. “Though maybe I wouldn’t resist yours either way, and I’d just keep swooning over you while you pointedly ignore me…”

“Never,” Sokka whispered, caressing her damp hair and brushing it off her face. “The minute we have any form of eye-sex, Azula, you know I’m down for anything you want from me.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Azula laughed. Sokka grinned proudly. “Thank you… seriously, thank you. Not only was that… oh, it was amazing. We’re filthy and I love us for it…”

“I love us for it too,” Sokka said, kissing her cheek now, moving back to her ear.

“But it’s also… helped heaps in keeping me level-headed. Though… maybe that’s not entirely right,” Azula smiled, running her hands over his delectable back muscles. “I’m not sure I’m level-headed at all right now, come to think of it…”

“You’re much happier, at least,” Sokka chuckled. “Alright, then… we can go again, as many times as you want, really. Just… know we did well. The worse threat has been fielded safely, alright? So…”

“So, I can take it easy,” Azula let out a breath, closing her eyes. “The baby is… oh, fuck. The baby…!”

“Yeah, yeah, well, don’t worry too much. Kid’s still too small to be affected by what we do, remember?” Sokka smiled awkwardly. Azula grimaced.

“I hope so,” she said, eyes wide with terror. “We’re hopeless, aren’t we?”

“Slightly so. No surprise we wound up making a baby without meaning to, considering our track record,” Sokka laughed, kissing Azula’s lips. “But our little kid’s going to grow up just fine, Azula. Everyone who could have been a problem, everyone who could have represented a threat for your rule…”

“They’re in custody now. We’re safer than we have been since… well, ever, really,” Azula admitted, closing her eyes. “I’ll… probably talk to Zuko tomorrow. Or try to, anyway…”

“Good. Tomorrow, then,” Sokka whispered, kissing her collarbone next, then moving lower smoothly, trailing his lips over her breasts anew. Azula hummed, shuddering in delight against him. “For now, we’ll make love reasonably…”

“I’m not sure that’s within our capabilities, Sokka…”

“And afterwards, we’ll go clean up because we haven’t done that for way too long, and we’re not only filthy for having raunchy sex, but literally filthy after traveling, too,” Sokka teased her. Azula laughed and shrugged, for he had a point… “Then we’ll get something to eat… and if the night’s still young, we’ll get filthy in every sense of the word all over again. How about it?”

“Perfect. You should plan our every daily itinerary forever,” Azula decided. Sokka smirked.

“Of course I should. Leave it to me and you’ll get twenty orgasms a day, at the very least,” he said, eyeing her mischievously before taking her nipple into his mouth. Azula whimpered, as their eye-contact lingered while he continued to taunt her this way.

“D-don’t tempt me… oh, fuck, you already have, what’s the point in pretending otherwise…?” Azula laughed, breaking their eye contact. Her cheeks were aflush with bliss. “Again. Again, and again, and again…”

“My Fire Lord’s wish is my demand,” Sokka teased her, smirking before sucking on the pert nipple again. Azula whimpered, fisting his hair anew: his manhood brushed against her clit, and Azula rubbed herself against his shaft anew, knowing it would be up and ready to get going again in no time…

Sokka’s itinerary wound up being a perfect plan to follow: after ensuring to help Sokka back to a full erection, the two lovers gave themselves to another frenzy of passionate sex, though this time they faced each other, just as they loved to. They rolled across the bed back and forth, with Azula winding up on top often, and Sokka swapped them over anew whenever the excitement shook her too powerfully to keep going. Twenty orgasms, Azula thought, was certainly a low bar for what Sokka proved himself capable of delivering for her on that day, and she certainly conveyed as much to him once they were lying down together again, sweating wildly, laughing at the utter recklessness of their latest tryst.

No one had to wonder about what they’d been up to, once they finally left their room again. Azula suspected Katara had hoped to ensure things were alright, that they’d just talked things over and that there was no problem at all… but when she had glimpsed them, walking hand in hand to dinner, her concerns had frozen over entirely. Their good mood definitely gave away the means through which Sokka had dealt with Azula’s near-panic attack, and Azula suspected she wouldn’t even be able to display an ounce of shamefulness if anyone asked about it… so, for the sake of her dignity and reputation, she certainly was grateful to join their friends for the meal without going in-depth about how utterly satisfied she felt at the moment – though her trembling legs surely spoke for themselves, as they ever did.

“The whole mechanism of the cages worked smoothly, Ty Lee did a brilliant job in her performance as Ursa…” Iroh explained: Ty Lee grinned awkwardly – unlike the others, she, no doubt, struggled to hold back from asking Azula for every detail about her four-hour absence with Sokka.

“I didn’t really do much, though, it’s true,” she pointed out. “He fooled himself all by himself, I think. Weird how it didn’t even cross his mind that you could’ve just sent your mom to the Boiling Rock or somewhere else…”

“The Boiling Rock is too far away, and the inmates have a lot more freedoms, ironically, than in the Prison Tower,” Azula said, wiping her mouth with a napkin before speaking. “I can’t trust putting my mother there would be a good idea. Granted, a few inmates might despise her, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned them into her private army within a few days…”

“Much harder to do that in a more isolated cell in the Prison Tower,” Sokka said, nodding. “But, of course…”

“She’s not there, either,” Ty Lee said, with a weak smile.

“You guys had leaked false information saying she was there some years ago, right?” Aang asked. Sokka nodded.

“We had no idea if he’d ever take the bait, but we did it back when he and his little group were at their most active,” Sokka confirmed.

“Even if he had suspected it was just bait, he wouldn’t have been any more successful if he’d somehow discovered her actual location,” Azula said, with a sigh.

“Because we installed the cage system there, too,” Sokka grinned.

“You guys are terribly thorough,” laughed Ty Lee. “No wonder you’re perfect for each other.”

“So… all that remains now is figuring out what will happen next,” Iroh said, eyeing Azula and Sokka with uncertainty. “Zuko is under custody now… so, will you send him to the Boiling Rock?”

“I have the feeling you’d protest that choice, if I dared make it,” Azula sighed, eyeing Iroh skeptically. The old man grinned sadly.

“You know me so well…” he sighed.

“Why’d you wanna keep him around, anyway?” Toph asked Iroh, halfway through munching on a picken leg. “Azula’s Fire Lord already, he can beat it for all I care…”

“I don’t want him to be Fire Lord,” Iroh said, raising his eyebrows. “Azula has been a splendid leader so far. But I fear that’s precisely the problem: Zuko has been utterly lost ever since Azula took the throne, ever since we brought Ursa to justice. He mistakenly believes a throne alone would justify his existence… that his sole purpose in this world is to become Fire Lord. I wish he could stop believing that, but…”

“It’s not something he’ll be ready to relinquish all that easily, no matter if it’s been twelve years since we defeated my mother,” Azula said, with a sigh. “You’d think he’d have made something of himself over twelve years, but…”

“Well, he did get a boyfriend,” Ty Lee blurted out, with a mischievous smile. Azula raised an eyebrow. “He did! I’m not kidding here! You guys, tell her…!”

“Looks like one of his friends was in love with him, or so,” Toph said, with a shrug. “He was all emotional, crying about how mean Zuko was for using them, blah blah blah…”

“Then it’s a one-sided thing?” Azula asked. Ty Lee blinked and shrugged.

“I doubt it. They were trying to dump each other right there, right in front of me! I tell you, it’s true!”

“Well, it’s not true anymore, if they dumped each other,” Katara smiled awkwardly. Ty Lee pouted.

“Oh, say what you will, I’ve always had a sixth sense for these things. Like… like those two!” Ty Lee exclaimed, pointing at Azula and Sokka. “From the minute I met Sokka, I knew you had feelings for each other!”

“Really? From that early on?” Azula asked, with a sarcastic grin as Sokka chuckled, bending over his plate slightly. “Ty Lee, by the time we first saw you in the Fire Nation after defeating my mother, Sokka and I had been together, officially, committed already for months. It’s not like you picked up on a big secret…”

“I didn’t know that, though! But I could tell, even before you said anything…!”

The dinner table roared with laughter as Ty Lee continued trying to make a case for herself when it came to her so-called sixth sense to identify romantic or sexual tension anywhere it existed. Yet, as amused and relieved as Azula was now that the dangers appeared to have been dealt with, her eyes drifted towards Iroh often. She knew her uncle wanted what was best for Zuko… but she also suspected, deep down, that he felt guilty for not having tried harder. For having tricked Zuko, no matter if it was a necessity… for not having kept an eye on him when they had the chance, for not having ensured to make him see the reality of who Ursa was before Zuko ran away. He wanted to give Zuko a second chance… but did Zuko want one? Would he use it for anything good, if it was granted at all? Azula sincerely doubted it…

But for Iroh’s sake, and for Zuko’s own, too, she had to try to find out if he would.

...

The door opened, and the guard closed it anew once she had stepped inside the stone room. Deep within the chamber, behind bars, sat a man she barely recognized, hunched over, with a mat of dark, frizzed hair that concealed his features. The shackles on his ankles and wrists had to be terribly uncomfortable, but not enough that said discomfort would justify not eating at all: his food tray from breakfast stood before him, untouched.

“You look dreadful.”

She knew saying that wouldn’t help her case, but Azula couldn’t help it. Zuko at least reacted upon hearing her voice… even if said reaction was merely the tightening of his fists.

“If you ever do hope to topple over my regime, doing so while starving yourself to death sounds like an utterly dreadful idea,” Azula continued, folding her arms over her chest. “Are you doing some sort of hunger strike, perhaps? You think that will somehow get me to feel compassionate enough to hand over the throne to you?”

He didn’t say anything at all, not yet. Azula sighed, shaking her head.

“I did suspect coming here would be a waste of time, but you do love proving me right, don’t you?” she said. “Any chance you’ll respond to anything I say? Maybe, if Ty Lee’s right, would you respond at all to the chance of rekindling things with your boyfriend…?”

“Fuck off.”

Finally, he broke. Azula let out a breath and almost smiled: he hadn’t changed that much. Eventually, one taunt or another would get the job done.

“Finally. Wasn’t so hard, was it?” she asked. “Zuko… you’ve caused more trouble than you ever needed to, over the course of the last years. I’m here to give you a chance to prove you regret that, that you repent over that…”

“I don’t. Happy?” Zuko growled. Azula’s brow furrowed.

“How exactly do you expect that would make me happy?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “Zuko… you’ve been a terrorist. An international terrorist…”

“What about it?” he growled, raising his head. “As if it… as if it would matter one bit to you, Fire Lord Azula. You won! Is that what you want me to tell you? Well, fuck off! I don’t care how hard you make it for me, because I’m going to make your life, your rule, a living hell for everything you’ve stolen and taken from me. You have it all now, don’t you? And I’ve got nothing! So go to hell, and don’t you dare come here to pretend you want to give me a chance to do anything but prove you right: yes, Azula, I’m the awful brother who would jump at the chance of pulling that crown off your head! Why would you give me a chance to do it, huh?!”

“I wouldn’t,” Azula said, simply. Zuko scowled heavily at her. “Frankly… I’m not here for your sake. I’m here because I know that, while I’m certainly at greater peace with you behind bars, I know someone who’s not.”

Zuko scowled, confused. Azula breathed deeply before speaking again.

“Uncle Iroh…”

“No.”

“Zuko, I understand you…”

“No! I won’t hear a damn thing you have to say about that traitor!” Zuko roared, glaring at her viciously. Azula scoffed.

“You do realize this ‘traitor’ is the only reason you haven’t been packed up and sent to freeze to death in a cooler, in the Boiling Rock?” Azula asked, hands on her hips. Zuko snarled at her. “Oh, yes. My husband thinks that would be the best fate for you, and the more stupid shit you say to me, the more I’m inclined to agree. The only person out there who thinks you need and deserve a chance is Iroh… and this is how you reward him for it, truly?”

“If he’s doing it for a bloody reward, he can take a hike,” Zuko snapped. “I’ve got nothing to give him. He deserves nothing anyway.”

“It’s as if I’d tossed you in a pit on the ground, and you decided that the only reasonable option is to keep on digging deeper and deeper until your fancy tunnel collapses and you die buried in dirt,” Azula said, with a dry grin. Zuko lowered his gaze, his brow furrowed. “I know it’s hard, Zuko, to accept that your life isn’t turning out the way you wanted it to. But, heh… I bet our father must have felt that way too.”

“Don’t…”

“Yes, right about when our dear mother decided he had to die for the sake of her own quest for power,” Azula said, with a dry grin. Zuko snarled.

“Shut up! Don’t talk about her! Don’t you dare say anything about…!”

“Oh, about the screeching harpy that tried to murder her own daughter?” Azula asked, with a sarcastic grin. “That’s who I shouldn’t badmouth?”

“You’re lying! You’re always lying, and you’re doing it now too! My mother didn’t do any of that, she didn’t kill my father, he just died, and if someone did it, it wasn’t her!”

“Ah, so me and everyone else who witnessed it must have hallucinated that time she literally forced poison into my mouth and nearly killed me. Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that,” Azula said, tapping her chin. “Much food for thought you’ve given me, Zuzu, I really ought to thank you…”

“You ought to…” Zuko started, glaring at her as Azula shook her head and marched towards the door anew. “Yeah! Get out and leave! That’s all you ought to do! You’re not my sister, and I want nothing to do with you or uncle ever again!”

Azula rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to make an undignified hand gesture in Zuko’s direction before marching out of the room. She couldn’t take it: twelve years without seeing her brother, only to find herself at her wits’ end the first time she spoke to him at all…

Her irritation dwindled, though, upon stepping outside the cell to find Iroh wrestling to keep Sokka in the prison corridor: he was instants away from sprinting into the cell and giving Zuko a piece of his mind… it was probably stupid for her heart to feel warmer because of that, but she still smiled at the sight of Sokka anyway.

“That bastard, I don’t care if he’s your nephew, I’m gonna…!” Sokka growled, trying to shrug off Iroh’s hands… then he slowed down upon noticing Azula had returned. “Oh. Oh, you’re done now…? Well, damn it, I’m going to say it again: to the Boiling Rock with him!”

“No, no, no!” Iroh huffed, turning towards Azula and finally releasing Sokka: the non-bender rushed to his wife, wrapping his arms around her and pouting pointedly now that he held her tightly. “I know, Azula, I know you’re sure this is never going to pay off…!”

“And yet you keep putting your trust and your hopes in the belief that it will,” Azula said, rubbing Sokka’s back reassuringly as she glanced at her uncle. “Look, I don’t want him in the Boiling Rock either, though for very different reasons…”

“No way a guy that eloquent could win over the prisoners there,” Sokka pointed out. Azula smiled and shrugged.

“Probably not, but I’d rather not take chances…” she said, glancing at Iroh. “And I’d be taking one hell of a chance if we go with your plan, instead. Are you sure about this, Uncle? You overheard our conversation, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Iroh said, lowering his gaze. “I know it’s hard, I know it makes you uncomfortable, but… I’m sure Zuko can be better. We just need to give him time… time to understand and conciliate the truth for what it is, and to realize he’s not tethered to his mother any longer.”

“I don’t think it matters, at this point, whether my mother is around or not,” Azula said, sternly. “Zuko is just… he’s so lost in the past, so deeply wrapped up in it, that he can’t fathom the notion of living his life without fighting for the throne. Even if my mother outright tells him he should move on, he’d never listen.”

“She wouldn’t, though,” Sokka said, scowling. Azula sighed and nodded. “And she’s the only person he’d listen to anymore.”

“So it seems. Maybe he does care about his friends to a degree, but not to a point where he’d actually listen to them,” Azula said. Iroh sighed and nodded.

“It seems he didn’t even tell them they were looking for Ursa, when he brought them to the Prison Tower,” Iroh said, glancing about himself: they were in said prison right now, though in a cell that hadn’t been modified with Sokka’s increased security measures other than the heavily sealing doors that now stood at every threshold within the tower, in case of a breakout.

“Look… I don’t like this, at all,” Azula said, staring at Iroh intently. “I don’t want you putting yourself at risk, potentially giving Zuko opportunities to hurt others, such as yourself, all be it because you have compassion for him. But if you’re still hellbent on it…”

“If I am?” Iroh asked, gazing at Azula hopefully. She sighed and shook her head.

“Your teashop would have to be guarded, day in and day out,” she said, pointedly. Sokka grimaced, but Iroh smiled and nodded. “You’ll have to promise you won’t let Zuko do anything stupid, the minute you see any suspicious behavior you’d have to report it to the guards, you’ll call them in if he tries to attack you…”

“I’ll be careful. I will be, Azula,” Iroh said, smiling. Azula grimaced.

“Don’t assume blindly that he’ll be grateful for your generosity. So far, it doesn’t look like gratefulness is a feeling he’s familiar with,” she said. “He’s been quite adamant about saying you won’t get any rewards for helping him, if that’s what you’re after…”

“The only reward I’d want is for Zuko to find genuine, true peace,” Iroh said, closing his eyes. “Anything beyond that would be an added bonus… and an irrelevant one, if my one and only objective goes unfulfilled. But… thank you, Azula. Thank you for this opportunity.”

“We’ll review the state of your teashop on a weekly basis. His performance there will also be analyzed,” Azula said, firmly. “If there’s any sign of him attempting to rile up your customers against me, we will intervene. Same if he tries to attack you, directly, himself.”

“Give it three blunders and he’s off to the Boiling Rock?” Sokka suggested, raising his eyebrows. Azula sighed but nodded.

“If Iroh isn’t successful over the course of… well, I don’t know. Six months are too many, or too few?”

“Probably just enough,” Iroh said, with a smile. Azula sighed.

“Well, then. If you can’t handle him for that whole period, let me know,” she said. Iroh nodded promptly.

“Rest assured… I’ll take care of this. If I need anything, I’ll let you know… but you already have more than enough in your hands as it is, Fire Lord Azula,” Iroh smiled. “A baby on the way, and a nation to rule? I know I’m old and you are definitely smarter than me…”

“Oh, now, that’s a lot of buttering up you’re doing, all of sudden…” Azula smirked, and even Sokka smiled slightly for it.

“But I think I can handle your brother, for now,” Iroh said, clapping her shoulder gently. “I’ll do my very best to patch up our messy family, Azula. And if it can be done before your little one is born… all the better yet, don’t you think?”

Azula sighed and nodded: it would be convenient, perhaps too convenient, if Zuko somehow grew out of his countless toxic beliefs before her child was born. Could he prove to be a good uncle, just like Iroh had been for her…? It was hard to believe it could be possible, and yet the idea manifested in her mind, all the same. She’d have to keep him under proper watch, even in the best case-scenario… but if Iroh was successful, it would be better for everyone, in the long run.

Thus, within a couple of days, Zuko was plucked out from the Prison Tower… and escorted by many guards, experts at both firebending and non-bending combat, all the way to Iroh’s teashop, in the Fire Nation Capital.

...

Each week brought new challenges and new complications: once morning sickness faded, other pregnancy-related problems emerged. Azula’s food cravings had been utterly ridiculous, as she found herself wanting to eat the strangest meals she seemed to be able to think of – the latest request she’d made to the kitchen staff was a bowl of fried cabbage: the staff had been utterly perplexed by the odd petition but they had reached out to a cabbage seller to fulfill the Fire Lord’s request anyway –, her breasts had grown in size and proven quite sensitive as of late, and her willingness to engage with Sokka in about any sexual antics they could think of only seemed to skyrocket sometime after three months since her pregnancy had been fully confirmed…

But her growing baby bump didn’t quite compel them to be quite so wild anymore. It was easier to tell the child was there, that it was growing, and with every passing day, the awareness strengthened inside them. Even after rounds of tamer lovemaking, Sokka would hug Azula from behind, his hand trailing over her bare body… and over her growing bump. Then they would talk, for hours at times, just for a few minutes, at other times, just to confirm that Azula felt well, and that the baby was growing properly – something Katara confirmed frequently for them, at least once a week.

“Have you thought about names yet?” Sokka asked her one night, dragging his hand gently over her belly – he could feel the baby moving, if just lightly. Azula hummed, eyes closed, fingers slipping between his.

“Not really. Can’t settle on anything because… I don’t know how to mix both our naming cultures properly,” Azula confessed. Sokka hummed, kissing the side of her neck.

“How about… Kazoku?” he suggested, with a wicked grin. Azula glanced at him in surprise.

“Kazoku? Doesn’t that just mean… ‘family’?” she asked. Sokka chuckled and nodded, and Azula elbowed his ribs gently. “Goofball.”

“But it has a ‘K’ sound, and a ‘Z’, and it doesn’t mean anything like ‘destruction’ or ‘booger’, or anything like that…”

“It’s still not a name, damn it,” Azula smiled, bringing his hand up to her mouth to press a quick kiss to it. “I may be many things, but I won’t be the mother who gives her child a ridiculous name just so they’re mocked for it in school.”

“Mocked? Our kid is going to be heir to the throne, nobody can mock them or they’ll be accused of high treason and sentenced to a pyre,” Sokka said, with a dismissive shrug. Azula snorted and laughed at his carelessness upon saying those words. “Really, though…!”

“You’re impossible,” Azula smiled, turning in his arms carefully and kissing his lips directly. “What am I going to do with you…?”

“Hopefully, spend your whole life trying to make sure I stop saying silly things…?” Sokka suggested, prodding her nose with his.

“Sounds bad. I’d rather spend my whole life cherishing every silly thing you say. Believe it or not, you’re quite funny,” Azula said. Sokka gasped in horror.

“Me? Funny? Perish the thought! I’m the most serious and straight-laced guy you’ve ever met!” he declared, pompously, bringing Azula to laugh louder in his chest. “Really, Azula!”

Such moments were always delightful breaks whenever trouble stirred in other regards: governing a nation was no easy feat, no matter how reliable Azula’s overseers might be. The occasional bastion of sentiment against her rule would arise sometimes, and she would have no choice but to quell it as quietly as possible, hoping to never allow those groups to gain enough traction to represent a genuine threat… her forces always attempted to track down the main instigator, and typically it would be someone with ties to Ursa. Even twelve years later, the chaos her mother had sown into Fire Nation society continued to be a thorn on Azula’s side… never more apparent, of course, than in the greatest of such thorns, namely, Azula’s own brother.

Iroh had insisted he’d have everything under control. Azula had chosen to believe him, but after a couple of weeks of not seeing the old man at all, Sokka had decided to visit the teashop himself to ensure Zuko hadn’t done anything stupid. He was surprised to find the hotheaded man was now a waiter in Iroh’s teashop, though not a very good one: he had glared at Sokka fiercely as soon as he had crossed the door, and Sokka had been on edge as Iroh prepared his chosen tea brew and handed it to Zuko. He saw no sign of poison, nor did Zuko spit in the drink, and yet once the firebender deposited the cup on the table before Sokka, he bitterly growled.

“I hope you choke on it.”

Sokka had been moments away from losing his patience at that very moment, and he almost tossed the tea right back at his brother-in-law, but he controlled himself while Iroh grimaced apologetically: reforming someone who didn’t want to be reformed would never be easy, but Zuko was particularly keen on making it impossible.

Three months into the arrangement, Iroh was exhausted, no matter if he pretended otherwise. He seemed moments away from giving up, no matter how hopeful he had been, at first. When he finally visited the Palace after that long – leaving Aang, Toph and Katara to keep an eye on Zuko, along with the rest of his assigned guards –, he confessed how difficult the journey had been so far… and that, try as though he might, he couldn’t get through to Zuko, not once, until then.

“He just shuts me down, yells at me… he thinks I’m the enemy,” he concluded, lowering his head with a sigh. “I’ve tried every approach I can think of, but he is still bitter, still angry. I got him a book I thought he might like… he set it on fire right in front of me. It’s… it’s impossible for me. I didn’t think it would be, I truly hoped I could reach the young boy he once was… but it seems I’ve failed, Azula. I’m sorry…”

Azula sighed, glancing at Sokka with uncertainty. She could see it plain on his face: he was already thinking of the Boiling Rock again. She, admittedly, wasn’t entirely opposed to the notion anymore, and yet…

Her hand trailed over her belly. It was bigger now, easier for people to notice it. Rumors abounded in the Fire Nation, emboldened by the fact that she had no choice but to admit the truth of her pregnancy to her chief overseers and top-ranked officers even before releasing an announcement to the general public. She’d do that last thing sooner than later… but she had been hoping, despite herself, that Iroh would have been at least slightly more successful with reforming Zuko than he had been. That way, if people marched into the teashop and talked about the big news, she might feel less apprehensive and fearful that her brother might attempt to stage some sort of escape in a few months, only to return to steal the baby, or so… she sighed, shaking her head.

“What do you want us to do?” Sokka asked, softly. Azula gritted her teeth, reaching out to squeeze his hand with hers.

“I… have a really strange idea in mind,” she said. “If it fails… Boiling Rock it is. This is my last resort for Zuko, and I hope he appreciates it, because… goodness, I don’t know. It might be an awful idea…”

“What is your intent?” Iroh asked, gazing at Azula with hopeful eyes. “Is it something I can help with…?”

“Doubtful. If I fail at it, I bet you’ll be just as unlikely to succeed as me,” Azula sighed, glancing at Sokka again. “You’re with me to the end?”

“You know I am,” Sokka frowned.

“Even if my next choice is utterly ridiculous?”

“If it’s too awful, and I feel personally victimized by it, all I’ll ask is that you compromise and let me choose the kiddo’s name…” Sokka said, playfully. Azula smiled and shook her head. “Really? Oh, now, come on…”

“Only if it goes really, really badly, then,” she said. Sokka grimaced.

“Damn. If you’re agreeing to that condition, I’m genuinely worried now,” he said. Azula sighed and tightened her grip on his hand… her other hand remained on her growing belly, as her heart tightened with anxiety.

She had never thought it would come to this… she really had hoped otherwise. But if this was what it would take for Zuko to cut out his nonsense, she could only hope it would be worth a shot, no matter how disgusted she might be with herself and the person she had to visit…

...

Three visitors a day. They changed often, quite often. For twelve years, it had been that way, with no one sticking around long enough to have a proper conversation with her, no matter what she said or did.

Seldom did any of those visitors try to clean the place, but typically, they only did it while she was asleep. She had tried to fake a deep sleep once, to catch one of them entering her cell so she could break out when he didn’t expect it… only to realize, upon opening a single eye, that there were more guards right outside. She gave up before even trying.

The right moment would have to come, eventually. One day, one way or another, a different visitor would finally arrive, and once he did, her time in this damn cell, hidden so far away from the world, in the least likely place, would finally come to an end…

Today, for the first time, she received a non-guard visitor, merely about an hour or two after her latest meal.

“Ah, did you forget something?” she asked, playfully, with a sing-song voice as she heard the key turning in the door’s lock. “Perhaps you’ve decided to regale me with tales of your lady wife and the cottage she keeps by the sea after all, Captain Haokan?”

The guard standing by the door only seemed to shoot her a venomous glare before stepping back… and then someone else strode through the door, which closed after she had entered the chamber.

Ursa raised her gaze when she caught sight of the regal hem of the outfit. She let her eyes travel slowly, upwards… though they slowed once they glimpsed the growing belly that the obi worn by her new visitor couldn’t conceal. A slow smirk spread over her face as she continued upwards, knowing who, exactly, would wear such opulent robes… and indeed, the merciless golden glare that fell upon her own eyes couldn’t have belonged to anyone but the young woman who had sentenced her to the pits of oblivion, twelve years ago.

“Oh my, oh my…” Ursa chuckled, her smirk widening slowly. “What have we here? The Fire Lord herself, visiting her poor, dear mother for the first time… oh, but what generosity you grant me, my liege.”

Speaking with Zuko’s vitriol, Azula realized, was preferrable to her mother’s sneers. The pregnancy had caused her mild heartburn, over the past weeks… it seemed poised to worsen over Ursa’s every word, though. Her hands tightened into fists as she glared fiercely at her mother.

“Though no doubt, you must be quite… quite the generous Fire Lord,” Ursa said, smirking again as her gaze fell upon Azula’s prominent womb. “Look at that… come to ask for countermeasures for pregnancy this late in the game, have you? Tut-tut… you should’ve visited sooner, dear. I could’ve given you a remedy or another, ensure you wouldn’t wind up in such trouble after having your fun with whomever you needed something out of…”

“I suppose that’s how you went about it, huh?” Azula said, keeping her voice level despite she wanted to scream already. “Once you were regent, that’s how you secured every alliance that kept you afloat, across your countless scandals? Your reputation certainly was too bright and pristine for the rotten, corrupt dealings we’ve uncovered you were up to…”

“Oh, now, are you about to tell me you’ve been above all that?” Ursa said, smirking. “What an upstanding lady you’ve grown up to be, Azula…”

“Compared to you? Clearly, that’s not much of a contest,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“For what it’s worth…?” Ursa said, waving a hand towards Azula’s belly – the Fire Lord almost succumbed to the urge of covering it with her arms, despite knowing Ursa had absolutely no power over her right now. “It suits you just as poorly as that five-pronged hairpiece does.”

“Ah, really, now?” Azula smirked, and Ursa returned the gesture gladly. “I suppose you speak of experience, do you?”

Ursa’s amusement seemed to freeze in her face at Azula’s comeback. The Fire Lord scowled, folding her arms over her chest.

“Not that I’m particularly keen on having anything in common with you… but at the very least, I don’t need to spread my legs to half the nobility to gain their respect,” Azula hissed.

“Boring,” Ursa said, simply. Azula scoffed.

“I suppose you shouldn’t have killed your husband if you were so keen on having an active sex life… but I suppose digging your own grave is just one of the fun traits that you chose to pass on to your son, too?”

At that moment, the atmosphere in the room shifted. Azula nearly felt the temperature drop when Ursa’s brow drew together slowly. Oh, goodness… maybe this would work. Maybe this could work…

“What does that mean, exactly?” Ursa asked, her voice authoritarian and no longer as mocking as before. Azula scoffed.

“The fact that you dare speak to me like that… as though I owed you anything, at this point in time?” Azula said, skeptically. “You killed my grandfather and my father, you attempted to kill me… you’ve been down in this dungeon for twelve years, while I’m out in the world, fixing every disaster you left in your wake. What kind of threat do you believe you pose for me, exactly? How do you expect you can hurt me anymore… when it’s clear as day that you’ve lost everything, Mother?”

“Have I? You still call me that,” Ursa said, staring at Azula piercingly. Azula’s heart clenched. “I don’t think I’ve lost quite as much as I had, if you still see me as your mother…”

“On the technicality of birth and nothing more,” Azula hissed. Ursa chuckled, shaking her head.

“Keep on that road, and that brat you’re carrying will likely spit the same words right back at you, once it reaches the right age,” Ursa said. Azula scoffed. “Don’t believe me?”

“No. Because the only thing I know about how to be a mother is to be everything you weren’t,” Azula said, with a dry grin of her own. “Not to mention, the child’s father is the best man in this damn world, Uncle Iroh will help us too…”

“Oh, please, that resentful, jealous old wart…”

“I have alliances with every nation, and even the Avatar is my friend,” Azula said, hands on her hips. “Unlike you, I don’t intend to make this child grow alone. Unlike me, this child will have everything I never knew was possible when I was young. A good childhood, a good family, a good world for which to fight for. Everything you denied me, everything I fought to achieve…”

“Oh, goodie. Mighty Fire Lord Azula, I bow down to your superiority,” Ursa said, rolling her eyes. Azula snarled at her. “What does that have to do with me? And what the hell did you start saying about Zuko earlier? As you must realize, I have a very packed schedule, not much time to take visits at home, you see…”

“I said Zuko likes digging further whenever he’s already neck-deep in mud. Much like you,” Azula hissed. Ursa frowned. “And the only reason I’m here now, after all these years… is because of him.”

“What… did you do to him?” Ursa asked, her brow furrowed heavily.

“Ah? No more games and teasing now? Instead, you’re taking the threatening route, are you?” Azula asked, smirking. “Again: you have no power over me. You never will again. And yes, I will tell you what’s happened to your beloved son… but not for your benefit, mind you. Nothing I ever do, not a single thing, is for your sake. So don’t you dare believe, not for a second, that what I’m offering you is some sort of truce: it’s not. But if you do care for Zuko at all? Oh… if you do, then you’d do best to listen to me without any more of your snippy, idiotic comments. Are we understood?”

Ursa didn’t say anything: despite knowing she was dipping into dangerous waters, Azula still dared scowl at her mother and dial up her intimidation.

“Playing rebellious now? Is this really something you’re willing to risk for the only person in this damn world that means anything to you at all?” she asked. Ursa snarled.

“Fine. I understand. Of course I do, curses, do you think I’m a child?” Ursa snapped. Azula’s eyes narrowed.

“If only I were as stupid as to underestimate you, I really might,” Azula said, frowning heavily. “Your dear son has been sowing dissent and chaos across the Earth Kingdom for the better part of the last twelve years, with a posse of seasoned criminals who somehow wound up following his lead. He faded into obscurity a couple of years ago… and then resurfaced, three months ago, infiltrating the Fire Nation.”

“He… he was looking for me,” Ursa stated, immediately. “He… he had to be! Azula, what have you done to him? Azula…!”

“Oh, I barely had to do anything. I wasn’t even in the mainland at the time of his clever attack,” Azula said, with a sneer. “He infiltrated the Prison Tower… looking for you. Only…”

“I wasn’t there. You… you caught him. You fooled him and caught him and…” Ursa concluded quickly. Azula nodded slowly. “Azula, please… he’s your brother. He’s your brother…!”

“And I’m your fucking daughter. It made no damn difference to you, though, did it?” Azula asked. Only then did Azula confirm her mother had a heart, somehow, for she had just seen it breaking, in front of her very eyes. To her utter disappointment, it didn’t feel remotely as satisfactory as it should have. “My father was your husband. I have a husband of my own right now, you know, and if anyone so much as tried to touch a hair on his head, I’d sooner scorch them where they stand… but you, you killed your own husband just fine. Now, though, after all those crimes, you plead for mercy? You beg me to show compassion? Truly, this is how low you stoop, setting aside your dignity and your high-and-mighty attitude just to plead in your son’s defense?”

“A-Azula, he’s not me. He’s not responsible for my choices, pin his every crime on me if you must, execute me if you have to…!” Ursa gasped, crawling towards the jail’s bars as she glared at Azula with a mix of outrange and helplessness. “Don’t punish him for my wrongs, it was me, it was all me! Want me to confess it officially? I will! Just leave Zuko alone, damn you!”

Azula held her silence for a moment: every instant she held it, though, saw Ursa breathing more heavily, more frantically. In the end, after a long pause, Azula drew in a deep breath and released it: her hand fell upon her growing belly, and she closed her eyes.

“We don’t have a name for the child yet,” she said, casually, as though her mother weren’t pleading with her, desperately, just now. “We talk about it often, and I keep feeling rather uncertain of myself, at every moment in time. Apparently, the pregnancy is going fairly well, no problems have been detected… and yet I can’t help but be afraid for this child. Afraid of whatever challenges it will face, out in the world… afraid of making choices that could one day see this child hating me just as badly as I hate you. And then, just as I think of that… I realize there’s no way I could ever hate my own child, the way you hate me. Sokka has said so a few times, and I… I can’t help but agree, in the end. It’s our child… we didn’t do it on purpose, no, but he was thrilled about it when we found out we were expecting it, and now even I find myself… even I find myself wondering what it will be like, getting to know this child, once it’s born.”

She breathed deeply again, looking at Ursa intently: it seemed, for a moment, that there were tears in the corners of her mother’s eyes… but she ignored them, even if there were.

“I know you don’t feel that way about me at all,” Azula said. “I don’t care why. I don’t need your reasons, I don’t want excuses, I reject all your explanations already, just because I know they’ll serve no purpose. But… I do think, and I do hope, that it’s exactly how you feel about Zuko. Because… if I ever turned out to be half the bitch you have been? If I ever wound up in jail, and my child was out there, in danger, yes, I think I would beg and plead and do anything to save their life.”

“W-what do you want from me? What do you wish of me?” Ursa said, trembling. “If you do understand, Azula…”

“I want you… to want what’s best for your son,” Azula said, pointedly. Ursa’s eyes widened. “I want you to dissuade him from chasing mindlessly after the throne.”

Ursa gasped. Azula remained unyielding… and she was unsurprised when Ursa shook her head, if just lightly.

“He… he wants his throne back, then? He’s fighting you, still?” Ursa asked. Azula didn’t answer. “And you want me to dissuade him from taking his birthright…”

“It wasn’t his birthright any more than it was mine: it was Lu Ten’s,” Azula hissed. Ursa frowned. “Not going to try to convince me you were responsible for his death too, now, are you?”

“No… no,” Ursa said, glaring at Azula. “Of course I wasn’t, curses…”

“Do excuse me for assuming: it looks like you had a stake in every fishy death in the Fire Nation in the period of five years during which you served as regent… can’t blame me for jumping to that conclusion, can you?” Azula said, with a dismissive shrug. “Be that as it may… yes, Mother. I want you to tell Zuko to cut out his nonsense and accept he won’t be Fire Lord, for once and for all. For his own sake, above all else.”

“Right… because he’s a hazard for you. A problem to deal with…” Ursa said. Azula huffed.

“And it would be very easy to deal with it in a much more gruesome manner than I have so far. You’d know,” she said. Ursa’s eyes widened. “Poison is your specialty, isn’t it? It would be damn easy to just find a guard willing to pour some into Zuko’s next miso soup bowl, perhaps…”

“Azula…!”

“But I don’t even need to do that,” Azula admitted, with a shrug. “I could, just as well, have him taken to the Boiling Rock. The coolers there, oh, they’re remarkably effective, I hear. Keep him locked there three days and he’ll be an icicle by the time they remember to break him out again…”

“Stop! Stop talking like that, it’s enough…!”

“But the traditional method is, indeed, giving him to the flames, isn’t it?” Azula said, raising an eyebrow. “And why not, huh? It would be just fine, wouldn’t it? Making an example of him, showing what fate awaits traitors and terrorists, in front of the entire Fire Nation…”

“Stop…! Please, stop…!”

Finally, it seemed Ursa had broken. Finally, the tears spilled down her cheeks: again, Azula found herself compelled to believe she would persuade Ursa, ultimately, no matter how hard it might prove to be.

Thus, Azula stepped forward, kneeling near the bars where her mother now crouched. She kept a safe distance all the same, so Ursa couldn’t reach her even if she stretched her arms out of the cell… and then she finally made her full proposal:

“You realize now, then, that I have all this power at my disposal, that his fate is very much in my hands…” Azula started. “And yet I chose to come here and ask you to help him. I chose to do this, not for your sake… but for his. Zuko doesn’t deserve to live the rest of his life in the shadow of the worst choices you made, burdened by whatever notions of duty and leadership you forced into his head. It’s the last thing you can do for your son… the only thing you can do, for as long as you have left to live, that entails you leaving this cell, even if just for brief stints. Do this? And Zuko will have a chance to live out a happy, successful life, making whatever choices he wants to make, as long as those choices don’t entail ruining the work countless world leaders have done across the last twelve years.”

“Azula…” Ursa shuddered, looking at the Fire Lord with dread, plain across her eyes. “You’re giving me… a real opportunity, to step out of this cell? Truly?”

“Your only opportunity, as a matter of fact,” Azula said, sternly. “I haven’t forgotten, and I’ll never forget, every monstruous choice you’ve made. The deaths you left in your wake. The fact that you tried to make me and my friends your casualties, too. But you’re the only person left who can knock sense into Zuko’s head… and now that I’ll be a mother, too, I’d like to think that, if this were my one and only chance to save my child’s life, I’d take it without thinking of how to twist things to my favor. Which, I admit, is entirely possible in your case…”

“N-no, no, Azula, the truth is I…”

“I don’t care to hear it. I don’t,” Azula said, firmly. Ursa fell silent. “Swear whatever you will, I’ll believe in nothing you say until I see actual results. Until Zuko stops making an ass of himself and behaving as though the world owed him something when that’s never been the case. By then, I still won’t trust you. But you’ll have made sure your life amounts to something more than being a dark blemish in Fire Nation history: you’ll have helped the sole person who means something to you, in this whole damn world. If just for that reason, maybe your existence will be worth something, at long last. Refuse, out of pride and selfishness? And you’ll condemn your son to an indefinite stay in the Boiling Rock, if I am, indeed, feeling generous at all. It could be a much shorter stay, though, if my mood is particularly dark and he proves unworthy of any more second chances than the countless ones Uncle Iroh has given him, time and again, over the past months. His survival, his possibilities to adapt to a normal life again, hinge on you.”

Azula rose back to her full height, golden eyes bearing coldly into her mother’s own. Deep down, she was apprehensive and wary. She dreaded Ursa might just twist the situation to her benefit somehow, even if Azula already had countermeasures in mind to prevent that…

But her mother couldn’t be trusted. If something hadn’t changed at all in those twelve years, it was that.

“So…” Azula said, unyielding. “Help Zuko, or rot in this jail forevermore: what’s it going to be, Mother?”

...

He had never doubted, not for a second, that the so-called generosity of the Fire Lord would run out eventually. That his uncle would give up, after a while. The resigned look on the old man’s face, as the guards dragged Zuko out of the teashop, spoke for itself: all his promises, his claims that he genuinely cared about Zuko… all of them had been lies, unsurprisingly. Zuko had merely glared at Iroh on his way out, as though hoping it would drive across that this was exactly why he didn’t trust him… exactly why he would never forgive him.

Returning to the Palace was torture. He had been born and raised in these dark, ominous halls… halls that had been modified ever since his damn sister had taken office. The place was eerily familiar and unrecognizable at the same time, and it unnerved him with every step they took.

“This isn’t the way to the Throne Room…” Zuko growled at the guards, after finding they hadn’t taken a necessary bend to drag him there.

The men didn’t listen and continued to lead him through the corridors anyway. Had she decided to mess up the layout of the building to the point where she had relocated whole rooms, even? He rolled his eyes at the thought. It would be just like his sister to do something like that, really…

They reached an unassuming door then, and Zuko frowned with irritation: he was expecting to hear his final sentence, but it seemed unlikely for that to happen anywhere other than in the Throne Room. He gritted his teeth as the guards opened the door…

It was a living room. A perfectly ordinary living room. And it was vacant… except for one woman, with shackles on her ankles and wrists, sitting calmly and quietly by a window.

Zuko yelped at once. Ursa’s gaze only ever softened for him, and him alone… and it did this time too, once her eyes met his.

“Zuko… oh, Zuko, at last…!” Ursa smiled: Zuko didn’t even realize the guards were no longer holding him, that no one had spoken warnings of any nature to him…

He rushed into the room, careless about how his own shackles restricted his movements, and he wrapped his arms around his mother, who rose to her feet to meet him.

“M-my boy, you’re not a boy anymore, oh, dear…!” Ursa sobbed and laughed, hugging him tightly as Zuko’s chest heaved against his mother.

“Mom… Mom!” he exclaimed: he couldn’t have hugged her any tighter, he could barely believe she was here…

It could be a trap. He only thought of that after a moment, once Ursa’s tears spilled on his shirt, once his own dripped down her hair. He was a whole head taller than her by now… and yet he felt like a little boy, all over again, comforted by his mother’s presence.

Outside the room, the guards kept a watchful eye on the events within the room. Other guards were posted out by the windows, in case anything dangerous or suspicious happened. Yet the main line of defense in such case weren’t the firebenders, but rather, the Avatar and her earthbending teacher, sitting with the Fire Lord, her husband and her sister-in-law, in the next room.

“No worries, alright?” Toph said, feet planted firmly on the ground. “I’m sensing everything going on in the next room… if they do or say anything stupid, me and Twinkle Toes will get ‘em.”

“I’m sensing everything too… though I’m not as good at it as Toph is,” Aang admitted, smiling a little at Azula. “Still… sounds like they’re just emotional, right now.”

“You’re sure this is a good idea?” Katara asked, for what felt like the umpteenth time. Azula sighed, sinking in the couch, resting against Sokka – whose hand rested, in turn, on her growing belly.

“Not sure of anything at all, no,” Azula admitted, closing her eyes. “I wish I could reassure any of you, but… I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.”

“Time will tell, I guess,” Aang whispered.

Sokka sighed, hugging Azula closely. His head rested against hers, and Azula glanced at him wistfully. His blue eyes showed no shortage of determination… though they gleamed with compassion, just as well.

“We’re ready for the worst-case scenario anyway,” he said, softly. “Whatever happens here… whatever happens in the coming months, too, we’ll make sure to keep things under control. If they do anything sketchy at all…”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Azula nodded. Sokka sighed, caressing her face delicately.

“But, for now… let’s just hope you’re a visionary beyond the capabilities of us common folk, and that you’ve actually found the perfect solution to all your family’s problems,” Sokka said. Azula smiled, closing her eyes and resting against his shoulder.

“Let’s hope…” she agreed. Only time would tell, indeed, if Zuko and Ursa would behave themselves, or if they’d get up to sketchy business… hopefully, the presence of so many guards would deter them from doing anything stupid, but even if it didn’t, Aang and Toph could feel every variation in their bodies, every hitch and change, and they would know, for sure, if something was off about those two, even if they spoke in codes.

There was nothing to do but wait… wait and see if, perhaps, the baby she carried might have a safer life, with a larger extended family, than she had anticipated all along…

...

Zuko was different when he came back to the teashop that night. He didn’t lash out at Iroh… he even took him up on the offer of tea, so calm and demurely that Iroh couldn’t help but feel even more anxious than he already did. They sat together at a table in the kitchen, quietly, watching as the steam rose from their filled teacups…

“You knew what she was up to… right?” Zuko asked, softly. “That… that she’d sent those guards so they’d bring me to my mother.”

“Yes,” Iroh confirmed. Zuko tightened his lips, clasping the teacup carefully.

“And you haven’t asked me what happened yet. Do you… not want to know?”

“I’m not sure I want to push you for information, Zuko. I’m not quite sure what the boundaries are between us, at this point,” Iroh admitted. Zuko gritted his teeth: yes, he had certainly pushed Iroh away persistently, constantly, for the past three months. It couldn’t have been to no consequence…

“She told me not to try and save her anymore,” Zuko whispered. Iroh frowned. “That the only way in which I might save her at all is by… by living my life the best way I possibly can. She asked me to put down my… my weapons, so to speak. To stop struggling against Azula… I guess because Azula is damn powerful, too powerful, as she is right now. She must have scared Mom into thinking she was going to do something awful if we rebelled any further…”

“She could do something awful, yes,” Iroh admitted, and Zuko closed his eyes tightly. “But Zuko… she doesn’t want to. I understand you may not want to believe me any more than you believe her, but… it’s the truth.”

“I… I guess it has to be. I don’t think I… I don’t know if I would’ve given her a chance to reunite with you, or with Mom, if our roles were reversed,” Zuko said, sniffing as he rested with his forearms on the table. “Not the way she allowed it with me and Mom. I guess… Mom’s always been kept in the Palace? In some basement Azula built for her sake?”

“I’m afraid I can’t…”

“Can’t confirm or deny anything, of course,” Zuko sighed. “Well… doesn’t matter. I’ll… have a chance to see her again next week. That’s what the guards said, so… apparently, if I’m on my best behavior, it could happen more often. M-maybe I can’t get all our freedoms back, but… if I can help Mom by not leaving her to rot in a jailcell forever, I think I… I think I have no choice but to play by Azula’s rules.”

“Your sister isn’t quite as merciless as you may have thought, Zuko,” Iroh said, softly. “Deep down… she only wants to help you. To ensure you find a new path in life that doesn’t set you on collision course with her. She doesn’t want to fight you…”

“Of course not… she already won, after all,” Zuko shrugged. Iroh sighed. “I know I should be grateful, and maybe one day I will be, but… even if she’s being kind, it’s conditioned kindness. If I step out of line… she’ll take me down, won’t she? She’ll either have someone kill me on the spot, or send me to the Boiling Rock, or…”

“She can do whatever she wants, yes. And she has allowed you to serve here, with me, so you don’t have to rot in a jailcell forever,” Iroh said, frowning. “She has allowed you to see your mother, too…”

“I know, I know,” Zuko sighed. “I… I will try to wrap my head around it, okay? I will. It’s just hard to accept… hard to fathom. I want to do right by my mom, but… she only wants me to be happy, as far as I can tell. And I… I don’t know how to do that.”

“Well… take whatever you value, Zuko, and cherish it as best you can,” Iroh said, with a gentle smile. “If you don’t have anything you value that much yet… well, we can take our time to help you find something. It can be a new start for you…”

Zuko bit his lip. Maybe… maybe there was something he cherished, something other than his mother. He swallowed hard and glanced at Iroh uneasily.

“My… my allies. Are they…?” he asked, for the first time. Iroh’s eyes widened.

“Oh… they’re in the Boiling Rock themselves, yes,” Iroh confirmed. Zuko gritted his teeth. “They’re likely not happy about it… but at least they are together there.”

“They shouldn’t be… ugh, I doubt Azula would ever pardon them. She’d never want to, but…”

“Is this about that young man? Jet?” Iroh asked. Zuko grimaced, cheeks reddening.

“I just… acted like an ass to them, all along. I doubt they’ll care if I apologize for using them, but… maybe he’ll want to hear it, if just to feel more vindicated in hating me,” Zuko sighed. Iroh bit his lip.

“I have been trying, for three months, to reach out to you and understand you better,” he said. Zuko eyed him with uncertainty. “Until tonight, it felt like I had failed, every single time. Now, though… you’re talking to me, for the first time. And that makes me feel like… like every effort I made in the last months have been worth it.”

“Uncle…” Zuko swallowed hard, an uneasy guilt spreading in his chest.

“If you truly care for him… I’m sure you can make efforts like these for him, too,” Iroh said, with a gentle smile. “It may take him some time to come around, and perhaps you’ll have to make risky choices to help him find his way, choices that might not pay off, but… choices for his sake, above all. If you do care for him…”

“T-then you’re saying, I… I should be ready for him to reject me?” Zuko asked, swallowing hard. “I mean, reject getting back together with me… but that I should still do my best, for his sake?”

“Well… yes, Zuko,” Iroh sighed, with a sad smile. “He’s not your only shot at love, I’m sure… but if he’s a good man, no matter what chaotic choices you’ve both made over the last years, I don’t doubt he’ll understand you’re trying to atone. You shouldn’t cling too desperately to the hope of getting back together with him, it shouldn’t be your only goal, but…”

“But if it happens, I’ll be damn lucky,” Zuko sighed, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. “I… I know it must feel weird that I’m talking about this now, but…”

“Weird? Because you’re finally sharing things with me?” Iroh asked, with a gentle smile. Zuko swallowed hard and nodded.

“Today was… a better day than I thought it would be. But it just makes me realize how bad I was, over the past months, so…” he sighed, raising his gaze to his uncle’s. “I’m sorry. For… for all the chaos I’ve waged and the bitterness and… You didn’t deserve to face the worst of it. I think… I think it’s easier to understand now, why you chose her instead of me.”

“I didn’t wish to make the choice at all…” Iroh whispered. Zuko gritted his teeth. “I may be too selfish in my own way, yes, but… I’d wish I could have the both of you, rather than picking just the one. I was an uncle to the both of you when you were young, wasn’t I? Though, back then, Azula wasn’t very fond of me…”

“I remember,” Zuko said, with a weak smile. “And yet you… you won her over, in the end.”

“Took us well over three years, but I suppose so,” Iroh smiled. “You are both valuable, wonderful people, Zuko. I know you have your grievances with your sister, and surely you always will… but she’s doing her best to give you a second chance at life, my nephew. It may not be the life you wanted, but…”

“It’s hard, letting go of everything I thought I would be,” Zuko said, lowering his gaze. “I… I was going to be Fire Lord. And now she is, and… and I’m just supposed to let go?”

“Well… believe it or not, you can let go of the throne, even if you spent your whole life expecting to sit on it,” Iroh said. Zuko swallowed hard. “I, after all, am living proof of that.”

“You… you were raised to be Fire Lord all your life,” Zuko acknowledged. Iroh nodded. “And now you’re… in a teashop. While your niece is Fire Lord, instead…”

“Life has mysterious ways of steering us to paths that we never imagined for ourselves,” Iroh smiled. “Sometimes, we should stop thinking about finding what we want… and instead, we should aim towards finding what we need. The throne… it’s not a privilege, it’s a heavy burden, a great responsibility. Your sister has spent years handling her duties as best she could, but it hasn’t been easy all along. She had help, though…”

“You, the Avatar, her friends… and her husband?” Zuko said, raising an eyebrow. Iroh chuckled and nodded.

“He has probably helped more than anyone else, frankly,” Iroh said. “Having a partner as faithful, as devoted as him, has done wonders for Azula. She was so lonely before, so aloof and cut off from everyone else, even myself… until she met him. He helped her find peace with herself, in ways she couldn’t have anticipated it… and I have no doubts you can find that peace too, in your own way. Whether by seeking to right your wrongs to Jet… whether by continuing to make the most of your encounters with your mother. Whether by finding other ways to live your life, by finding new passions to truly devote yourself to…”

“Like you did, with tea?” Zuko asked. Iroh chuckled and nodded.

“You’re still young, my boy. Your whole life awaits you,” he said, gently. “Don’t make the mistake of assuming your course has been set… you’re not even thirty yet, goodness. No one’s path is set in stone quite that early in life, not if they’re open to the possibilities… and you should certainly be open to them. The path forward may not be easy… but sometimes, the journey and its hardships are as gratifying as the destination, as long as we allow ourselves to enjoy them for what they are.”

Zuko breathed deeply… and he nodded in agreement, in the end. He wasn’t sure of anything yet… he wasn’t sure Azula would even let him see Jet, though he knew the first thing he’d have to say to him was that he was sorry, if she allowed it at all. Maybe their relationship had truly ended, but some part of him hoped Jet’s emotional reaction in the Prison Tower suggested that, while he had hurt the man deeply, the end of their relationship was the more devastating blow for him. If he was lucky… if he was lucky, they might have a chance to start over. He’d do his damnedest not to mess it up this time, if they did…

He never had thought any displays of kindness or generosity on Azula’s part could be genuine, but this time, he couldn’t help but think they were. His mother had explained the circumstances to him, to the best of her ability… to this moment, Zuko wasn’t sure whether he was his mother’s last hope, or if she was his. But once he was being taken back to the teashop, he had noticed Azula standing down that corridor, watching him intently. A strange feeling in his chest had damn near brought him to thank her for that day… a strange feeling that didn’t leave his lips. For his eyes had been drawn to her prominent belly… and he had found himself wondering, in the end, if maybe the child his sister was expecting had changed her understanding of Zuko and Ursa, just as well… if perhaps her impending motherhood, of which he hadn’t been aware of until then, had changed her world. It was baffling to think that, even if he might never get to know the child, he would be an uncle, sooner than later…

Life wasn’t turning out, at all, the way Zuko had anticipated it would. Perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing… perhaps it was alright to follow on Iroh’s footsteps, in more ways than expected. The old man smiled kindly at him… and Zuko mirrored the expression. Maybe he wouldn’t have the chance to be an uncle to Azula’s child, like Iroh had been to either of them… but maybe it wasn’t too late to find a new path for himself. Maybe.

...

Azula sighed as the council wrapped up yet another meeting. They hadn’t made enough progress on her latest projects for her taste, but she knew there were many hazards, drawbacks to this particular subject: she, herself, wasn’t completely certain that it would be a resounding success, but she had hopes, and that was the best thing she could cling to.

Iroh’s whole new squad of waiters and cooks had proven a remarkable initiative: the Freedom Fighters hadn’t been thrilled over their alleged opportunity to taste freedom anew, namely because of how deeply they distrusted Zuko, even now… but together with Iroh, Zuko had done his best to help his old friends start new lives, working for the benefit of others. Jet had been particularly irritable about it, at first… but after reconnecting with Zuko four months ago, and beginning his work at Iroh’s teashop across the last two months, it seemed their relationship might just be on its way to rekindling for good. His friends weren’t all that pleased for it, unnerved by working with Zuko at all… but they had focused on learning to be waiters and cooks, and there had been no reported problems in Iroh’s teashop ever since they had started working for him.

Zuko still would meet with Ursa, nowadays twice a week. Toph and Aang still listened in on their every conversation, unbeknownst to the mother and son, but so far, there was no sign that the Fire Lady’s resentment had reared its head again: instead, she appeared to prioritize her son over everything else, and she cherished his every story of his days on the road, as well as his newer stories of service in Iroh’s teashop. She asked for nothing from the guards… she had little right to ask for anything, to begin with, and she seemed genuinely aware of it. Still, her compliance, as well as Zuko’s, had set Azula on her new path…

And what a complicated path it was proving to be. Not every Fire Nation prison inmate could be easily forgiven, or easily granted second chances… but the ones whose crimes had been small might deserve that opportunity. At first, the council pushed back harshly against her initiatives to reform convicts through service in shorthanded businesses. By now, it seemed she had refined the proposal enough to give them pause… but they still hadn’t budged fully, and while she couldn’t blame them, she also couldn’t help but feel they’d do so much more for the world if they dared open their minds and eyes to the possibilities of reforming people, rather than simply tossing them behind bars and forgetting about them forever…

Azula’s wonderfully complicated life became less dangerous and worrisome because she’d done that. Only because she’d given Zuko and Ursa a new, controlled chance, could she calm down, to a degree, when carrying her pregnancy to term. Sokka helped her walk back to their rooms after the meeting, an arm snugly around her waist, as she grimaced while feeling unsettling movements inside her belly.

“It’s okay, we’re almost there… goodness, Azula, I think we should reschedule the upcoming meetings,” Sokka said, shaking his head. Azula sighed in resignation. “You’re in no shape for crossing the whole Palace when you’re already nine months in, if our calculations are right…”

“I know, I know…” Azula sighed, as Sokka pushed the door open. “We’ll be set back with so many things if I do that, though…”

“At worst, I can attend the meetings in your stead. What are husbands for, eh?” Sokka grinned, helping her to their private bathroom.

“Not… a terrible idea,” Azula acknowledged, cringing at the sensations inside her body. Curses, but the baby was particularly fidgety today… “Probably better for you to attend than… than for me to look so undignified while I’m there, right?”

“You’re wearing a very nice outfit, love. No pregnancy gown can get in the way of your godly beauty,” Sokka declared, proudly. Azula laughed softly as he helped her to the bathroom. “Alright… there we go. Let me know if you need anything, alright?”

“Sure… ugh, sure,” Azula grimaced, pulling her sash open. The fabric of her outfit spread open, she shrugged her underwear down, and she stepped out of it on her way to the privy…

Sokka gasped when she flinched suddenly, grasping her exposed belly. She cried out, he rushed into the room and wrapped his arms around her body as she breathed heavily.

“Azula? Azula, what happened?” he said: she found herself firmly in his arms again, safe and sound… and yet she felt something unpleasant, threatening to trickle out from between her legs.

“P-pain, I don’t know… a contraction?” she asked, glancing at him uneasily. Sokka’s eyes widened. “And now I think there’s… t-there’s something that came loose inside me. I don’t know what it is, Sokka…”

“Your mucus plug?!”

“My… my what?”

“I…. read about it in those books about pregnancy,” Sokka confessed, grimacing as he reached for a towel. “If you’ve lost the plug that seals your uterus, and there’s some pink fluid pouring out of you, then usually that means that, within a few hours or, at worst, days…”

“D-days…?” Azula’s eyes widened. “Sokka… are you saying what I think you’re saying? T-the baby is coming?!”

Sokka leaned down, brushing the towel carefully over his wife’s groin. For once, Sokka’s closeness to her core wasn’t a source of excitement for her… although it certainly reassured her to have him looking after her, the situation still brought her no shortage of anxiety and fear. Was it possible? Could it already be happening…?

Sokka swallowed hard as he pulled the towel back… as his eyes widened at the sight of what Azula had felt trickling out of her. There was but one conclusion to reach, and he gazed up at Azula, with his earnest blue eyes gleaming with hope, fear and thorough nervousness, all on equal measure…

“The baby is coming.”