Part 1: Half Baked

Aang was happy, and it was a normal day on Air Temple Island, all things considering.

The children were out practicing their bending, the sky bison were grazing the extensive fields of watermelon that had been planted, the 'trainee' Air Nomads were progressing in leaps and bounds in their studies, and-

"AARGH!"

And his wife had found someone else to harm, evidently.

Aang sighed, rising out of his meditational position, and went to see what the commotion was all about. This had almost become a daily routine, with his partner either harassing, fighting, or verbally obliterating any random member of his society at any moment in the day.

As he traced the source of the growing commotion, he reminisced on how, after being dropped like a sack of sea prunes by that child-hunting cougar known as Katara (perhaps his wife had influenced him a little too much. Speaking of which, wasn't his wife older?), he had taken to doing what he loved best: helping people.

It was in this mission, that he discovered that he had overlooked the one major casualty from the war that everyone had forgotten about, and decided to help the former Princess and Fire Lord.

Their friendship grew slowly at first, and he even had the scar on his left cheek to show that even when her bending was temporarily blocked, she was still a formidable force. As time passed though (and by time, he meant something along the lines of three to four years), she had come to open up to him, and gained his trust, with the opposite also true.

Where their friendship stopped and their relationship began, he wasn't quite sure. One day he was in her cell, playing a game of Pai Sho over some of Iroh's world famous Jasmine Dragon special tea, and the next he had broken her out of the asylum, publicly declared her under strict Avatar protection, convinced the nations to leave her be, 'tied the knot', and lo and behold, had four children with her!

A smile painted his face at the memories, though another sigh escaped his lips as he came upon the sight of an unrecognizable baking room with scorch marks linings the walls, a weeping baker huddled in a far corner, and an irate Azula with a blue sparks dancing dangerously in between her fingers.

"Some things never change I guess..."

At the sound of his voice, his wife quickly ousted her pending attack, and spun around, and showed no hesitance in verbalizing the problem.

"Finally dear husband-"

Well this wasn't good, Aang summarized. She never called him dear unless she meant business, and when sarcastic, it often ended up with another banished Air Nomad...

He braced himself for the coming onslaught.

"-you have arrived. This worthless, incompetent, useless, Agni-forsaken-"

He zoned out, used to his wife's ramblings by now. The view of the ever-slumping baker in the corner of his vision was something though, and made him decide to pick up the occasional word, just to see which parts of the poor man's ego were being destroyed.

"-peasant-levelled-"

There went the pride of being his chief baker, he supposed.

"-sightless-"

A jab at the glasses? He'd admit it, the baker had never had perfect vision, though he did his job well enough. It was a bit harsh though...perhaps he ought to-

"-non-bender trash-"

'Okay' Aang concluded in thought 'Better intervene now...'

"Ahem..."

Azula's now red face quickly settled down to a mild blush at the clear indication from her husband that her explanation had divulged into another tirade, but didn't lose her anger as she cut to the main story.

"Ah, yes. As I was saying, this windbag clearly isn't suited to serve you with his supposed 'talents' of baking any longer, with his latest creations-"

She wildly gestured towards the somehow immaculate row of fruit pies of varied colors for him to see, though the reaction of his watering mouth escaped her immediate notice.

"-being nothing short of appalling! I have yet to hear the name of these abominations, but I assure you, they will not even have the chance to acquire one! He even had the gall to state to me that it was the way they are meant to be baked! Have you even seen that base?! It's half done! Aang, as your advisor, and more importantly, your wife I recommend that you remove this pathetic excuse of a baker from your numbers immediately!"

It was at this point that the Princess fully took note of her husband's condition, with his current location much closer to the pies than it had been to begin with, and his arm subtly beginning to reach for one of the sacred Air Nomad delicacies.

Suddenly, it all came together in Azula's mind. The baker's insistence on creating something special for Aang, the occasional rambles of said husband on a sacred Air Nomad delicacy comprising of a soft and almost gooey base, the questions as to whether she knew of her husband's favorite fruits...

These were sacred fruit pies!

She had just been shown as a complete fool, and her husband was exploiting this as a means to gain his favorite dessert! This would not do at all! A plan needed to be formed, something to enact revenge, however mild, was desperately need-

A smirk appeared on her lips. Oh, she had just the plan to make him pay. In the words of her grandfather Azulon (with some poetic license):

The baker had suffered enough, but Aang's punishment had scarcely begun!

She had said earlier that the pie bases themselves were half baked, so perhaps she could finish the job, hm?

It was at this moment that Aang decided to look up from his ever approaching goal to see the face of his wife, and determine whether he would have to make a mad dash for the food of gods or not, by attempting to read her expression.

The sight that greeted him, however, was not one of a stoic or enraged expression, but rather a wall of blue fire that raced to meet him head on. The choice was laid out. Either he died hugging a fruit pie, or he sacrificed his lost love and survived another day.

Now, he was no fool, and knew he would be reincarnated, but it just wasn't the same. There was no surefire guarantee that his water tribe self would even like fruit pies!

He made his choice not a moment too soon, and with the help of his bending, dived out of the way of the fire just before it consumed the pies.

Fate was just too cruel sometimes.

He looked towards his wife from his landing stance half crouched on the floor, and asked one simple question in anguish.

"Why?"

At this, his nymph of a wife simply smiled and proceeded to explain, before stalking off.

"I told you already, Aang. They were half baked."

Yeah, so I've had these shorts sitting on my hard drive since like...the end of 2012. Last time I edited them was the 14th of August 2013 (bar today). I've got 4.25 parts done so far, and you'll see why there's a 0.25 when you see the others. I'll probably upload one of these weekly, I'm not sure... Just say if you want me to shove all of them up or anything, I'm all for it! Also, if you want to see something happen, or want me to do an Azulaang short from an idea you've had, fire away!