AN: This is a tale of bridezillas, brothers and bantering.

+Prologue+

"You're still breaking them in!" Ty Lee protests, shaking Azula by the arms. "You can do impossible things, princess! I believe in you!"

"I believe you're as much of a monster as I am," Azula remarks, sighing.

A small smile spreads across Ty Lee's face. "I love you, you know?"

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be standing in this dreadful shoes if I didn't know that," Azula says, staring at herself in the mirror. She offers a grimace and nothing more.

Ty Lee grins beside her soon-to-be-wife. As in tomorrow to be wife.

"I need to practice my speech," Azula lies.

Ty Lee does not believe her, but she has infinite preparations to make too.

She pecks Azula on the lips and walks off to go shout at some florists. Azula sinks into a chair and brusquely orders of a servant, "Out. Immediately," and is obeyed.

Azula's speech will be groundbreaking. She has secretly read Ty Lee's, and Ty Lee is just going to joke about their engagement. Maybe she will be convincing about the lies, maybe not.

Their engagement was not half bad, Azula supposes.

+Questions of Marriage+

Princess Azula of the Fire Nation likes to get what she wants, and always does get what she wants. Or so she would like to believe, and no one wants to burst her bubble of fantasy. She is currently having an uncomfortable dinner with her brother, Fire Lord Zuko, and is lamenting the fact that he seems to think a knife is more dangerous than lightning, as she pries apart a steak with a particularly dull fork.

"I need to ask you something, brother," Azula declares as some blood or particularly dark red sauce splatters onto her ivory wrist.

"Yes?" Zuko offers, glad that she is attempting to start conversation. Azula has not hesitated to express her loathing for these weekly dinners he asks for her to have with him, yet, she does always come to them, when she has the power to be served food somewhere else.

"You know my... romantic relationship has gotten somewhat serious?" Azula says, giving up altogether on her meat and sipping wine.

Zuko breathes in and nods. "I like you with her. She's good for you."

"So I'm aware," Azula says sharply. "I wouldn't date her if I didn't think she was good for me."

While Zuko finds that difficult to believe, he just nods. His past few years of relationships have not gone well, and he is trying his best to be happy for his sister. However, it makes him uncomfortable that his twisted, wicked, selfish and manipulative sister somehow has a healthier love life than he does.

"Zuko, when you're jealous of someone, you have be jealous of everything about that person," mother chides and Zuko scowls.

Only now does Zuko realize the truth in his mother's words.

"So, what do you want to ask?" Zuko offers and Azula stares at him for a moment.

"I want to ask her to marry me," Azula says and not one, not two, but three of Zuko's dishes crash onto the floor from his body convulsing in completely shock. Azula, however, just stares forward unflinchingly, waiting for his reply.

"Wh-what?" Zuko stammers in surprise, clearing his throat and fumbling around for a napkin that does not exist.

"Why not?" Azula says coldly. "We've been courting for what one would consider to be an acceptable amount of time to offer a proposal of marriage. I mean, of course the courtship will have to drag on, but I'd like to initiate it sooner rather than later."

Zuko licks his lips and tries to think of something to say. "Is it a trap?"

"Is what a trap?" Azula asks, somehow keeping herself from rolling her eyes. Zuko seems to take too much pleasure in accusing her of malicious intentions.

Not that she doesn't often do things with malicious attentions. But still, he should give her much more credit.

"Are you marrying her to trap her with you?" Zuko asks and it takes Azula longer than it should for what he is implying to sink in.

"So it would be some kind of torment to be married to me?" Azula asks quietly, attempting to sound intimidating and fearing that her real response will show through her practiced regal expression. "I want to..." She hesitates. "I do not need your input. Or your permission. I can do as I please and this is one freedom I refuse to have stolen from me."

Azula stands up, contemplates throwing her chair to the floor, and then decides to go the mile further and sets the chair on fire before throwing it to the floor. The tapestry on the wall is set ablaze before Zuko puts it out, and right as the blue glow fades, Azula is gone.

Zuko stares after her, sighing.

That, like most of their interactions, could have gone much better.

"Mai," Ty Lee says as she sits on Mai's sofa and sips sugary mint tea. "I got something today."

Mai gestures at the endless shopping bags that have nested in her living room. "I had no idea," she remarks dryly.

Ty Lee rolls her eyes.

"No, I got ─ okay, well, maybe I got a bit distracted and bought other things, but I got this." Ty Lee rummages through four bags before she pulls out a smooth, velvety red box. Mai is not sure what it is until Ty Lee opens it and reveals an engagement bracelet.

"I have to respectfully decline your offer," Mai says sarcastically, hoping to mask her shock and horror with scathing attempts at humor.

Ty Lee frowns. "You don't approve, then?"

Mai chews on her lip as she thinks about the right answer. And then she sighs and decides it is not worth it to lie. "You can ask for your own funeral if you want. I won't stop you."

And Ty Lee rolls her eyes before lying back down and tugging the throw blanket further over herself.

"It's not a funeral. Marriage is about moving into something beautiful and new. Like a rebirth and second even better life," Ty Lee says dreamily and even Mai is not a heartless enough person to crush her expectations.

She doubts it will go well, regardless.

"Take her somewhere pretty, somewhere she likes, and then just ask," Zuko suggests, trying weakly to make up for his initial reaction to Azula's plans to marry Ty Lee.

Azula does take his advice, albeit with several snarky remarks.

Now, two nights later, Azula messes with the golden necklace tucked inside of her pocket. This is not what she is good at, nor is it what she enjoys doing. Romancing the girl who is now her fiancee has not been easy from start to finish, and the moments she enjoyed were never the expected or planned ones.

There is, honestly, nothing calculated or planned about loving someone.

And that makes Azula feel nervous. She likes to be several steps ahead, always knowing what is coming next. While she may have spent years of her life consumed gradually by her suffering, being consumed by these feelings has been even worse.

"This is..." Ty Lee remarks as they finally emerge from the trail. "This was definitely not your idea."

"You caught me. It was actually Zuko's," Azula admits, shrugging and stepping over some dew-misted plants.

"Zuko's?" Ty Lee snorts and laughs and Azula rolls her eyes.

Of all of the people for the great Princess Azula to fall in love with...

It's this girl.

"I know," Azula says honestly, still rather surprised that her brother had decent love advice. Particularly with the impossibly fast rate at which he has been going through girlfriends for the past several months.

"Well, it's beautiful," Ty Lee says and Azula thinks she should make some remark, but she comes up short.

Not as beautiful as you? No, no that's too weak. Too pathetic.

"Let's sit," Ty Lee announces, grabbing Azula's hand and running to the dock to sit down.

"I have been trying to attempt something for some time," Azula says coldly, clasping her hands on her lap. Good, good... She is sure she is doing well. "It has taken a good deal of my thought, and I have put a significant amount of energy into it. It's..."

"Can I say something first?" Ty Lee interrupts, her tone of voice the one in which she simply cannot hold what she wants to say in anymore.

"Of course," Azula says, trying to relax her tensed and angry fingers. She does not enjoy being interrupted, but if she is going to successfully coerce Ty Lee into agreeing to royally court her...

"Azula," Ty Lee says and the princess suddenly thinks that perhaps this is a break-up speech. Agni, no. Azula should not have allowed her to interrupt. "I got you something."

Ty Lee reaches into her quaint little purse and pulls out something that nearly makes Azula fall into the water. The princess grabs Ty Lee's arm to support herself and wonders why they did not safely remain on dry land.

"What did you get me?" Azula asks, although she knows, and Ty Lee knows she knows.

"Will you marry me?" Ty Lee asks with a wide, hopeful smile. She bats her eyelashes as she holds out the gilded bracelet.

Azula's lips open and close wordless and Ty Lee suddenly looks afraid her, her brow knit with worry.

"I was going to ask you first," Azula at last manages to snap.

Ty Lee bursts into a fit of giggles and Azula struggles with the urge to push her face first into the water.

"You were going to ask me first?" Ty Lee laughs even harder.

"I even get you a matching necklace. I clearly had the superior proposal done! Why did you think I dragged you out here into these disgusting woods for!"

"For a better place to hide my body when you murder me?" Ty Lee chortles.

"Well, I'm considering it now!" Azula says, blushing.

Ty Lee sighs. "Well, do you want me to put this away and pretend that I never did it?"

"No, I want to propose to you with the bracelet you got me, and you can keep the ones I got you. And then it will essentially be both of our proposals except I will be doing it," Azula says quickly, relieved that her strategist's mind didn't immediately shut down upon the sudden revelation of the night.

Azula reveals the jewelry, handing it to Ty Lee and exchanging it for the bracelet sitting on the Kyoshi Warrior's lap. Ty Lee examines the necklace and bracelet and could not be happier right now.

"I don't really need this. It's the most beautiful thing anyone has bought me and I don't even know where to put it or wear it that does it any justice," remarks Ty Lee quietly as she studies the necklace in her hand. It is beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful. She has always loved things, material objects, clothes, jewelry, containers for the jewelry. But the necklace seems more significant somehow.

"It's for you. You love things. Remember, love dies but things are forever, as you said," Azula insists, her lip twitching, clearly annoyed. The princess is used to people acting exactly as she predicts them to, and while Ty Lee's level of unpredictability can be attractive, Azula does not like this.

Ty Lee looks at the necklace in her peach toned palm again. And then she stares at this blue lake, where Azula took her, on the edge of forever and somehow guarded from time. Ty Lee takes it and, without a second thought, tosses it as hard as she can into the water.

"Why would you do that?" Azula snaps, nearly falling from her perch on the dock as she tries to catch it and misses. It falls into the water, down beneath the depths, beneath where any firebender would dare dive to find it.

"So I'll always know where it is," Ty Lee says honestly and Azula looks at her as if she is insane.

"You ─ I don't understand why you would ever ─ !"

Azula does not finish her sentence because suddenly, soft lips meet hers. The princess leans in to it, pressing back quite passionately. The bracelet on her lap presses into Ty Lee's skin as their hips meet with a charge of electricity.

Ty Lee's fingers stray without any restraint, nor does she put a second thought to inviting herself onto Azula's lap. She reaches into her clothes, beneath them, and trails her fingertips down from her navel until the princess moans against her neck, and then slides further up.

But the moment Ty Lee's eager hand reaches Azula's chest, the abrupt motion of Azula's leg as she tries to catch the engagement bracelet without interrupting the burning moment of pleasure sends them both, screaming, toppling into the cold water.

Azula chokes as Ty Lee holds up the bracelet.

"It's okay. I saved the important thing," Ty Lee says, waving the dripping cold as she takes hold of the dock.

Ty Lee laughs as Azula sputters, coughs and drags herself towards shore.

"It went better than expected!" Ty Lee calls after her.

It did, Azula knows.

"We need to get our proposal story straight," Azula says as she dries her soaking hair with a deep scarlet towel. She wrings out the cold water onto the floor and walks away from it, expecting her servants to clean it later.

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee asks, baffled and half naked. She has dried herself and is now wrapped in Azula's warm crimson blankets, her cheeks still aglow with excitement.

They are getting married.

Ty Lee is going to be a princess!

"I am certainly not telling people how it actually happened. So, let's think of some much more dazzling way that I proposed to you," Azula purrs in a matter-of-fact tone. Ty Lee can only shrug, because she loves this girl like an idiot, even when she is selfish, shallow or amoral.

"So... our marriage will be founded on lies," Ty Lee says slowly, sounding out each word. Azula is uncertain if Ty Lee is mocking her or is thinking the matter through. "Well, if they're our lies, I don't see how they can hurt."

"Exactly." Azula leans in to kiss her new fiancee and finds herself grabbed by the arm.

"Our lies. So help me Azula if you build anything in this relationship on lies I will divorce you forever."

"What about lies our relationship was based on before we got engaged?"

"Like what?"

"The list is pretty long. We can start with everything I have ever told you. Of course, I just told you I loved you to get you in bed. And basically everything you know about me is a complete lie. Even my own name..."

Ty Lee pinches her harder and she winces before their lips crash together.

"I'm sorry for that; I meant to be gentler. I'm feeling pretty emotional right now," Ty Lee says breathily, standing up with melodramatic grace.

"I couldn't tell," Azula mutters, rubbing her wrist and taking Ty Lee's place on the bed. "I proposed to you, and, therefore, Ty Lee, our first couple-lie can be your decision."

Ty Lee grins like Azula has just told her she can buy every puppy-bunny in the store. "So, I can just make up any way you proposed to me that I want?"

"I mean, as long as it seems like a way I would realistically propose. And also maybe I don't look like a complete wimp in front of my enemies..." Azula wrings her hands as she realizes she might just have made a very poor decision.

"Have I ever had anything but a realistic view of our love?" Ty Lee winks and Azula frowns faintly.

Azula supposes she has very little dignity left to lose anyway.

Azula and Ty Lee are well dressed and disturbingly quiet when they take Zuko out to dinner. Ty Lee keeps fidgeting and twitching, and Azula has that slight trembling in her fingers, like leaves partially disturbed by the wind. They are nervous, and the Fire Lord is not stupid. While he has had ten years to repair his relationship with Azula to an extent, he is very skeptical of his sister's desire to go anywhere with him. Or, for that matter, go anywhere. Zuko can only assume that Ty Lee has said yes to Azula's proposal, which is saddening, but Zuko will put on his happiest face about the ordeal.

It will not be unlike putting on his happy, congratulating face to Katara and Aang, and hiding the boiling resentment within his chest and stomach. Watching Katara drift away, out on the tides, far away from him, without the anchor Zuko knows he would be, is infinitely harder than watching his sister and Ty Lee marry.

Fire Lord Zuko sits down at the beautiful wooden table coated with a freshly cleaned veneer. He is keeping his words of support sealed within him and preparing to use them as he waits for his sister and Ty Lee to get settled across from him.

"What do you usually get here, Zuko?" Ty Lee asks casually as she picks up a menu.

"Congratulations! I am very happy for you!" Well, Zuko thinks that might have just gone wrong. His face reddens as he quickly tries to compensate, "Oh, I always get the sweet noodles."

Azula cackles, of course.

Azula and Ty Lee arrive at Mai's house with Ty Lee just bursting to recount her dramatic tale of the perfect proposal. Princess Azula must admit that it is a quite good story, and Ty Lee does tell it with such excitement that it would be difficult to discern if it is truth or lies.

Mai looks them up and down before sighs,

"I already know what you're going to say. At least make it interesting," Mai says dryly as soon as Azula and Ty Lee step inside, interlinked, disgustingly together. Agni, it makes her stomach churn in revulsion.

Maybe they are cute. Maybe. And Mai does secretly want them to be happy. But she also thinks that their public displays of affection are appalling; it does not matter how subtle or attractive they are, because they will always be Mai's two best childhood friends who happen to be sucking on each other's faces.

"Oh, oh, oh yay!" Ty Lee says before gasping a few times. "It was a beautiful sunset, in the Black Sand Woods by the Firehole River, and..."

Mai believes not one word, but the story has great effort behind it, so she nods and pretends to be happy for Ty Lee, as she always does when women announce their weddings.

Azula believes not one word of Mai's congratulations, but she does not want to expend the effort to make a scene.

"It's champagne, not a weapon," Azula snaps at the guards and their quizzical expressions. "I can bend lightning; it isn't as if I'm going to bludgeon someone to death with this flimsy glass bottle of overpriced alcohol."

Azula has just arrived at the prison, and is already being extensively searched. The guards are an annoyance that Azula cannot work her way around, since no one in their right mind would trust her alone with her father, even after all of these years.

"Why do you need champagne?" the head guard with a meticulously groomed beard asks.

"Because I'm telling him that I'm getting married. It is socially appropriate, and I think it would be utter savagery for you to deny me or him that. We are people even if ─ ouch, do not even think about jabbing me with your thumb if you want to keep it ─ We are people even if we are guilty of war crimes," Azula says and he squints at her. "And I also happen to be the Fire Lord's Advisor. And a princess. Basically, I outrank you in every possible way a person could outrank someone else, so if I want to bring a bottle of champagne, I can ─"

And a gravelly voice from behind says, "Let her take the champagne in. I will personally make sure she doesn't... do whatever you think she's going to do with it."

"I don't need you to save me, ZuZu," Azula snaps, although she thinks she does. While Azula is competent and clever, life is much easier with the Fire Lord as your brother.

He clasps her shoulder with one hand, cocks an eyebrow at the guards, and they immediately bow and allow the Fire Lord and his sister to pass.

"You would have probably had a better chance of getting in if you didn't threaten to remove anyone's thumbs," Zuko whispers in her ear and she elbows his ribs.

"Why are you even here? When is the last time you ever even wanted to look at our father?"

"I want to look at his face when you tell him this."

"That's not in the spirit of this joyous occasion at all."

"You only come talk to our father when you want to make him feel bad about how well your life is going without him. Don't act like you're actually here to share your happy news."

"That may be true. But you can't have any of my very dangerous champagne, and you're going to have to pretend you're not here."

"But think of how seeing us not trying to kill or exploit each other will hurt him. Think of the pain in his eyes."

"You don't have to pretend you don't exist, but you still can't have any of my very dangerous champagne."

"I will take it," Zuko says with a small smile. She rolls her eyes and pretends not to enjoy the interaction. So it has been for well over a decade after the comet.

They arrive and find him waiting, expectant of Azula. Not so much of Zuko.

"Well, I am surprised that I am not in a pit of some sort to grovel," Ozai remarks directly at his son. "Do you really value me so much that you'll let me be in an open room with an actual window and be able to talk to real humans?"

"This isn't about Zuko," Azula interrupts as she sits down in the only chair across from Ozai. She sets the very dangerous champagne down on the table and Ozai stares at it.

"What are you celebrating?"

"My engagement," Azula says and Ozai laughs in a way that makes both of his children hurt.

"To the circus freak? Agni you've become more pathetic than I thought." He leans back in his chair as Azula tenses. "Would you like me to walk you down the aisle? I could procure some golden handcuffs. Or maybe we could start a massacre…Oh, I forgot that your loyalty lies with your brother now instead of me."

"I am happy about my wedding and you cannot change my mind," Azula says.

Ozai slowly shakes his head. "You'll be miserable. You'll hurt her. You'll hurt yourself by even bothering to get involved with her."

Azula frowns.

It could not go worse.

"I don't want to rush anything," Zuko says quietly as Azula is sitting and ghostwriting speeches but mostly just kind of looking like a ghost pretending to be writing. She does not want to think about how everything with her father went.

The champagne, uncorked once she arrived back in the palace, is halfway drained beside her. Zuko does hope that it will make her less likely to get angry or critical of what he has to say. She has to be at least a little tipsy.

"This will be done when it is done," Azula says coldly, although she knows her brother is not talking about the speech. "It's a shame there are even speeches you really have to give. I always do so much better. And I would have you know that I have only contemplated using the powers you have given me to start a Civil War three times."

"Only three?"

"Three times a day," Azula corrects with a smirk.

Their usual insults as conversation makes what Zuko is about to say very uncomfortable. "I was thinking about, after... with father... if..." He wants to run away but he composes himself and sighs. "I was thinking that maybe I could do the father part for you?"

Azula cocks an eyebrow, clearly taken off-guard by that.

"Why would you want to be involved in this? You seem pretty adverse to the idea of my happiness."

"Well, Ty Lee doesn't have anyone, and you, kind of don't. I'm not trying to be your father or anything like that; I'm just offering. As Fire Lord and an older brother. Mostly the older brother part."

Azula feels a bit like she is going to cry and it makes her want to punch him and then hold him down and slowly burn him alive. It is that feeling when someone rips open your ribs and decides to poke around in there. A feeling she hates.

"I will consider your proposition," Azula says quietly, and Zuko knows it is a yes.

He leaves her be, for fear of some kind of wrath.

Azula can no longer focus on the stupid speech, because she is thinking about the fact that Ozai made her a weapon. Zuko... didn't make her anything. He didn't force her to bend or starve or run for hours. He just helped her take her first steps all over again, and...

She shakes her head and tries to forget all of that. It is behind her. Those years are behind her.

But Zuko is much more fitting for the role.

In a logical, sense, of course.

Ty Lee cannot decide on what she wants as stationary for her engagement announcements. How can this little, insignificant detail be preoccupying her this much. It is so frustrating that she absolutely wants to scream.

"Why not just the royal scrolls?" Azula offers as if that is even a remotely acceptable idea. Ty Lee just glares at her with a pout on her lips before returning to her detailed analysis of the stationary that the wedding planner has laid out on the table. "Those aren't good enough for you?"

"I am not announcing my engagement on legal documents," Ty Lee snaps and Azula rolls her eyes and sets her chin on her hand. "Why do you have to be so disinterested? This is the most important day of your life."

Azula rolls her eyes again. No, the most important day of her life was probably conquering Ba Sing Se, or her coronation if it had not been ruined by Zuko and his stupid unrequited romantic obsession. This wedding is going to be a reasonable valuable day in her life history, but it isn't the most important day of her life.

Oh, there was also that day when Azula gave her first speech since her fall from grace. And the people loved her, adored her, proved that she still had some semblance of worth. That is the only important day of her life that has not been revoked by the Avatar.

"Oh Agni!" Ty Lee exclaims and Azula nearly falls out of her chair. The wedding planner looks even more frightened. "We haven't picked out our color scheme! How will I decide on stationary without a color scheme!?"

Azula just sighs. "Red and gold."

Ty Lee looks deeply offended for some reason. "Royal purple and maybe a shiny golden."

"You want this to be a royal wedding, Ty Lee. There's no such thing as royal purple, and the colors are red and gold." Azula looks at her fiancée's eyes, and has the sudden revelation that this is not going to be a pleasant four months of wedding planning.

"Pink and gold."

Azula decides it is in her best interest to agree.