#tdobs

The western air temple was truly extraordinary. Aang led his team here, since it would be a good hiding spot from the fire nation. Not only were they enemies with different goals, but now they sort of kidnapped their princess.

"We should keep her hands cuffed." Toph said, as Sokka was laying Azula down on his sleeping bag he set right after they entered the center of the temple’s area. He took the cuffs away for a while, so that it wouldn’t injure her wrists.

Normally, he would agree to cuff her hands anew, since she stirred every now and then. A signal she was slowly waking up. But he told them she wasn't their hostage. He couldn't place it, but he didn't want her to be treated... like a dangerous enemy.

Yes, she could be dangerous since she was a fascinating firebender and tragically for his team, a mastermind. She informed her father about their plan because she somehow found it out.

But nevertheless, he wanted her to be on their side. It sounded foolish he knew, but something in him made him want it.

"I think we shouldn't." he replied to Toph, while watching Azula's still unconscious figure.

Katara, whose arms were crossed against her chest gave an ironic laugh.

"And then what?!" she said angrily. "What's the problem Sokka? Why did you bring her here in the first place?"

"I..."

"I also think we should treat her with dignity." Aang interrupted before Sokka could answer.

"With dignity?!" Katara said, still angry.

"I had a dream several times." Aang said seriously.

"What kind of a dream?" Katara asked annoyed.

Sokka focused on Aang, eagerly waiting for his response.

"Azula was our friend. And to Sokka she was more."

He turned to look at him as if trying to send him a message through his eyes. Sokka looked warily.

"Uhm, guys" before Toph could finish her sentence, Sokka fell to the ground after a blast of fire flew besides him.

Blue fire.

"Friends you say? I would have laughed at this lame joke if it weren't for this unbelievable situation!" Azula wasn't at her best, since she still felt the headache Toph caused in the tunnels. But she was on her feet regardless, ready for a fight. Ready for revenge.

A fight escalated then. While Katara was more focused on taking Azula down, Sokka and Aang focused on protecting themselves.

Toph on the other hand shook her head and abruptly turned around to get ready to take down their new guest. Said guest bent his own fire to the center of the fight, causing everyone to stop, all eyes on him.

"Zuko? Are you here to... save me?" Confused as she was, the words sounded weird once Azula uttered them she thought.

"I didn't even know you were here until I saw you guys climbing off of Appa." he answered to his sister.

Puzzled. Everyone was puzzled including Zuko himself.

"Then why are you here?” Suddenly, Azula grew wary of her brother.

No one said a word, letting the siblings fill in the silence.

„I’m here because I turned my back on father. I want to teach the Avatar firebending.“ Zuko said while he closed his eyes. He didn't want to fight with his sister.

Anger and shock were what Azula felt in that very moment. She looked frozen.

Katara let out another laugh out of anger. „Is this all a bad joke?!“

„He is telling us the truth Katara.“ Toph said.

„You… are you out of your mind Zuko!?“ Azula walked up to him, brows furrowed.

Sokka’s gaze didn’t leave her figure. And then everything went too fast. Zuko took Azula down with him when a blast covered the air with dust disabling them to see who was responsible for it.

But Toph knew very well who it was "Sparky-sparky-book-man!"

All eyebrows furrowed with fury. This was the last thing they needed.

"What?" Azula asked as she stood up from the ground.

"Stop! I will give you your money, but I don't want you to hunt down the Avatar anymore!" Zuko looked up to Combustion Man who was standing a few feet away from them.

"What?!" everyone said in union. Angry eyes were fixed on Zuko now.

Though one person's anger was from different nature then the rest. Azula wondered if this was all a dream. Or a nightmare. She surely hoped so.

First, Sokka held her waist inappropriately, then she was kidnapped, then the Avatar told of his weird dream, then her brother came out of nowhere telling her he was here to teach the Avatar he chased for years firebending, only to find out he hired a bounty hunter to kill him? And the most shocking part was, that Zuko literally jumped on her to save her from the explosion. Since when did he care for her?

Before Combustion Man could cause another explosion everyone except Azula attacked him. The scene in front of her was odd, yet familiar. Once they attacked her all together, now they were a team against another enemy.

Although Katara seemed to have more sense than the others. She bent her water and aimed for Zuko this time. Right so. He was their enemy not friend.

"You're paying this man to hunt us down?! You... you have no honor!" Katara yelled and kept attacking Zuko, who fell on the ground for the second time today.

In that moment Combustion Man was preparing another immense fire. Did the guy not know Azula was the princess? Seeing how driven he was right now she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't care. Because with that aim his fire would reach Azula too.

So, she bent her own fire against his attack. The fires collided and caused Azula to fly away... and fall down the cliff.

"Azula!" Zuko's voice was the last thing she heard and Sokka's worried face was the last thing she saw before her tragic fall started. She was too weak right now.

She was falling and falling. Until she heard a roar. The roar sounded familiar. Was it the bison of the Avatar?

"Azula!" before she could process whose voice called her name this time, she felt a strong hand pull at her arm and into the saddle on Appa’s back.

"I got you!" the voice said.

She couldn't see him but felt his chest pressed against her back. His arm firm around her waist.

An arm that held her often today.

Sokka's arm.

"What..." she parted from him immediately. "Get off me!"

"Azula wait!" He showed his palm to stop her from attacking him. "I saved you!"

"Why?!" she asked.

"Because you were falling!" he replied.

He looked different though. His hair fell all over his face. Azula never gave a thought about his looks, although she already noticed on various occasions that Sokka looked handsome, but right now she couldn’t oversee how attractive he was.

No, her mind refused to let his attractiveness get the better end of her. So, she let out a growl and prepared to strike him. To push him out of this saddle and get rid of him.

But he was faster and held her wrists tightly before she could move any further.

"You can choose to join us, or you can walk back to your palace, if the latter is even possible!" he said.

She could easily bend fire. She could free herself.

But she didn't make a move. What would happen if she pushed Sokka away? The bison would throw her away anyway. And if not, everyone on the temple would chase her. No matter how good she was, she wasn't overconfident to think she could defeat a strong warrior, a waterbender, an earthbender, the Avatar and his bison at the same time. Even if, what would she do then? Wait until her father send soldiers to get her? Did it even come to his mind about where she could be? And what would Zuko do?

Yet these were not the only reasons she didn't pull away.

The intensity of Sokka's eyes was. He looked at her with his brows furrowed. Lips pressed together. His hair down. Determined. But why? Why did he want her to join them this badly?

"Why would I come with you? Give me one logical reason Sokka." she said finally.

She didn't miss the way his face softened upon hearing her say his name.

Appa landed on a space that looked out from the cliff. The fight on the temple forgotten.

"Because your father is evil!" The words were spoken confidently, but not harsh or angry.

She finally pulled her wrists free and shook her head before looking at him again.

"Who says that?" she asked.

"Who? He is leading a war! He is taking lives every day and steal people's homelands!"

"You are wrong! I conquered Ba Sing Se as you must remember, and I didn't hurt anyone... except for the Avatar of course."

"True. You really didn't." Sokka said softly and stopped for a moment.

"And?" Azula said next.

"This is exactly the reason why you should join us. Not only do we need help, but you aren't like your father and..."

"Don't you dare! You know nothing about me and my father!"

"Your father is nothing like you! Nor is your grandfather and his father! You didn't kill anyone or hurt anyone for sports, but they did! They took lives!"

"They did their best to make our nation successful!"

"By killing innocent people?"

"That's not..."

"My mother was murdered brutally by your soldiers!"

Azula was taken aback. The rage in her eyes vanishing.

"Do you truly believe she deserved to die? A woman, a mother in the southern water tribe who did nothing but tried to lead a peaceful life, with her husband and her children?"

Azula was lost for words "No... I... no of course not."

"And this is probably one out of thousand others..." he replied looking down for a moment.

Why would they kill an innocent woman? As far as Azula knew, the southern water tribe has never been "worthy" enough to be conquered in the eyes of the council. They had nothing of value to give the fire nation.

But that was when her grandfather Azulon was fire lord. She and her father hadn't anything to do with this. And yet...

Azula's bangs were waving from the wind. The fierceness in her eyes vanished after what Sokka said. She was... beautiful. Breathtaking.

"Listen, I will not let you go. So don't make this hard and come with us. See things from another perspective."

"Didn't you kidnap me to get information out of me?"

"Yes... no!"

Azula gave him a questioning look.

"What I mean is, yes I need some information from you it's true. But I also want you to join us. To not keep doing what your father is doing.” Sokka said “Appa, yip yip!”

Appa flew back to the temple.

The moment they landed, Azula didn't say a single word to anyone. Combustion Man was gone. But due to her mind's fullness she didn't hear what happened. She only saw another earthbender and two other people.

She just stood at a wall and waited.

Zuko gave them a talk, about what happened and how he wanted to join Team Avatar. He and Azula gave each other looks every now and then but Zuko seemed unsure to approach her.

She felt Sokka's gaze on her often. When he was looking somewhere else she gazed at him. She wondered if he knew she was looking and didn't look back to give her freedom to stare at him as long as she liked.

Two nights passed.

She slept in a room alone, with Sokka on the floor in front of the entrance.

Two nights she considered what Sokka said. She tried to work things out in her mind. No one in team Avatar seemed to have a feud with fire nation people for fun. They haven't treated her and Zuko bad.

She also saw how loving they were with each other. How much Sokka cared for his sister. Watched out when Toph needed help. Looked for Azula herself if she needed anything.

Katara cooked for everyone and shared. She wasn't fond of her or Zuko, that much was clear. Yet she still shared their food with them as well.

Aang... he sometimes acted like everything in the world was perfect. As if no one had problems. He laughed a lot and tried to make Azula smile by telling the weirdest jokes ever. She dismissed him every time.

Sokka must have talked with them. Told them to give her space. To not treat her as hostage. Azula also knew that one of them was always awake to make sure nor she or her brother would do anything. Mistrust.

Azula would be lying if she said their friendship didn't touch her at all. Because it did. They cared so much for each other. And even if she never wanted to admit it, she felt much more like a normal person who was respected with them than anywhere else.

In the night, Sokka gave her his sleeping bag again and slept on his clothes on the floor. He watched her and she watched him. Then, he said something else that touched her again...

"We had to leave my father and friends on the capital. Do you have an idea of where they could be?"

The emotions in his eyes when he talked about his father was that of sorrow. It hit her. She no longer tried to pretend his team wasn't justified at all to try to stop her father. They didn't want to fight. They were forced to...

When she saw Aang and Zuko training she had to fight the urge to push Zuko away and teach Aang herself. Her brother wasn’t a bad bender, but his bending was too simple.

Sokka joked saying Azula should replace Zuko, since he was pathetic, which made Zuko angry. Azula couldn’t help but smile every time.

The next day they decided to fly to an island for safety reasons.

Everyone packed their things and some already climbed on the back of Appa. Azula just stood there.

Zuko looked at her as if to approach, but Sokka was faster. They stood there for a moment.

"And? Are you coming with us princess?" he asked.

Azula looked at Zuko, then again to Sokka. She just gave a slight nod and Zuko climbed on Appa.

A hand showed up in front of her. She looked at it and then to its owner.

"Trying to be gallant?" she asked, a little smile on her face.

"Well, always for you princess." Sokka replied with a smirk.

She took his hand and climbed on the back of Appa with his help. He pushed her on the back which made her blush and get mad at the same time. But she said nothing. Just sat on the saddle near Zuko.

But Sokka had the perfect idea to sit right next to her.

Appa began flying and Azula's topknot fell apart. Making her hair wave in the wind. She looked at her left to where Sokka sat, already feeling his gaze on her. It looked like he wasn't able to tear his gaze away from her. A smile spread through their faces while looking at each other, while Appa flew towards a sunset...

She was too fast, too agile, and too skillful.

They could barely keep up with her.

Sokka started climbing up to the hole to catch up with his friends and the clever princess. Just as he reached the top, he saw Azula "jump-flying" towards him.

As confused and exhausted he was, he tried to find a solution to their current situation. He needed to catch her this time. Their time was running up and he needed to finish this. The beautiful princess was strong and fast, but he was strong himself as well. He was a man, and he could do this...

Azula was pretty satisfied with her plan so far. Team Avatar was getting tired, and the eclipse would be over soon. They fell straight into her trap. Just a little longer and the mission would be complete.

With the help of the Dai Li agent, she jumped towards the hole where the tall warrior boy was looking at her confused. He was clearly annoyed and clueless. What would he do now she wondered with a smirk.

He ducked back while she reached him, flying over him elegantly.

Almost.

Sokka could feel her nice scent. Everything happened sudden, when Azula felt two arms hugging her waist and two strong legs trapping hers between them. They fell hard on the ground. First, Sokka was under her, but he immediately turned themselves around so that he would lay atop her, in control of the situation.

Time seemed to stand still for a while. Both out of breath and shocked, their faces only inches away, looked into each other's eyes.

As weird as it might be considering their current situation, they both always knew that the other was attractive, but right now, they were amazed. Especially Sokka was extremely marveled by her beauty. They could feel each other's breaths and even everything else since their bodies were pressed tightly together.

Azula's eyes started narrowing and she started moving to get out of his grasp. He immediately stood up a little, so that he wouldn't press so much against her. His hand held her pinned down on her shoulder and he grabbed his sword and held it over her heart, so that she would stop moving.

Aang and Toph reached them. Sokka looked at Toph, put his sword away and slid his strong arms around Azula's waist. In a matter of seconds, without Azula and Aang being able to process it, he stood up fastly with her in his arms and pinned her against the wall, not too harshly though. He didn't want to hurt her intentionally. Toph bent the earth and trapped her arms, so that she would stay put.

"Sokka is your name right?" Azula asked a smirk spreading across her face "What do you think will happen now? Do you believe your antics scare me?"

Sokka narrowed his eyebrows and came closer to her, his hand on her shoulder again.

"Listen now Azula" Sokka replied with a slight growl "Don't make this any more difficult! Where is the Fire lord?" spelling the last words slowly.

Azula just kept smirking which drove Sokka mad.

"Tell us where he is now!"

"Sokka, this won't help, she isn't going to tell us anything" said Aang.

Sokka looked at Aang and turned to Azula again. An idea coming into his mind. He didn’t know if this was crazy, but he wouldn’t let this day go to waste. And he wouldn’t let the princess win, no matter how attractive she was.

"You know what? Don't tell us where he is" he said to Azula.

She watched him a bit confused now. Now his lips curved into a slight smirk.

"I have a better idea" he said and turned around again.

"Did you guys bring those metal handcuffs? The ones the mechanist gave us?" he asked.

His friends just stood there for a moment, clueless of what he was planning.

"Yeah, but she is already trapped, and she can't bend" Toph replied.

"Just give me one of them" Sokka said.

Toph handed him one of the handcuffs. Sokka looked at Azula and she started laughing.

"You are funnier than I took you for warrior boy, you think metal handcuffs will scare me now?"

He smirked again "Yes, I think they will. These are made from the hardest metal, not even an excellent bender like you can escape those"

Azula stopped laughing altogether and was surprised by his comment about her being an excellent bender. On the other side she was thinking about if he was going to do what she was thinking he would do. No, he wouldn't dare that right?

"Since the eclipse is over soon and you as good as sabotaged my whole plan, I will make the best out of the situation”

With every word he uttered, everyone else grew more and more confused.

“You are coming with us princess!"

"WHAT!?" yelled Toph and Aang in unison.

"Are you out of your mind Sokka?" Aang asked

"If we take her, we can try to make a better plan on how to destroy the fire lord. I don't know, maybe she can even help us" he whispered towards his friends.

"I’m hearing everything you say oh “whisper-master! You are going to regret that. Besides you aren't going to accomplish anything in your favor with this plan of yours" Azula interrupted.

"Yeah, we'll see that princess" he replied smiling.

Azula found him weird.

“Do you really believe you’ll be able to kidnap me and get out of here without anyone catching you?”

She wouldn’t admit it, but his open-mindedness and self-confidence made her unsure. Would he really do that without getting caught. She would fight him anyway, but part of her wanted to see if he really could get away with this. Even if he sounded funny and weird, he was an intelligent man.

"I am not too fond of this idea, but I also think she could be of use" Toph commented.

Aang thought for a moment and looked at Azula, then to Sokka "Alright, let's go"

Just as Azula tried to protest, Toph moved the rock wall behind her, so that she would fall unconscious. Sokka turned around and looked at Toph with narrowed eyes.

"What? She would have made everything more difficult. I didn't hit her hard, it is enough for us as long as we reach Appa" she said.

They freed her hands from the earth only to cuff them with the metal cuffs. Sokka held her carefully, not to hurt her any further and threw her body over his shoulder, since it would be easier for him to run and safer for her to not hit her head.

He felt weird, carrying someone for the first time, and a beautiful woman, the fire nation princess too boot. The more he thought about it, the more he was asking himself if this was really a good idea or not. They would try their best to get information out of her. And of course, he would give his best, that no one would hurt her and that she wouldn’t hurt anyone either. He was responsible for her, and he would treat her well, no matter if she was the daughter of the man who led this war.

Flying on the back of Appa, Sokka watched Azula the whole time. She was still unconscious. The rest of the group weren't fond of the idea at first. But his father, now left behind, said he trusted Sokka's instincts and knew he would do the right thing. Katara agreed after a while too, halfheartedly, yet trying to trust her brother as well.

Azula was interesting thought Sokka to himself. Not only her beautiful looks and marvelous bending. She gave him an energy he couldn't quite describe and never felt before. They barely knew each other but he felt responsible for her. Responsible to not let any harm come to her. A warmth was born inside of him and without his control and realization, he smiled warmly at her lying figure. He believed amazing things were going to happen from here onwards...

Maybe she would become part of their group one day, who knows. Everyone could learn to look at things from different perspectives. All logic was against what he was feeling, but he couldn’t help it. His rage turned into hope and warmth.

Next to him, Aang sensed the energy and didn’t dare tell him anything about the dream he had some days ago of him with Azula. He smiled too and kept flying Appa, also having a good feeling about this.