Title: Avatar: The Kidnapper
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Azula / Aang
Genre: Fluff/romance
Author's Note: Sorry if you're not a fan of the pairing. Just a One-shot piece wherein I try not to write the characters too terribly while simultaneously skipping over the whole 'Azula recovers from being mentally unstable' part. Comments and criticism is adored, I try to listen and learn from my mistakes. Not an experienced fanfiction writer, so be kind please. I fear they might be OOC, which is not my intent, and is something I want to get right.

"Aang." Her voice was quiet and almost compassionate. She'd worked hard on that; until the war ended, she'd never called him by his name before at all, and when discussing him with others, it was common for her to say 'The Avatar' instead. Old habits die hard.

"Aang!" There was nothing friendly in her voice that time. It had the distinct familiarity of her wanting to catch his attention at a point in time where she'd send a fireball (or two) at him along with it.

It succeeded in waking him up the second time, as he pushed himself up from his prone state on the bed to shift into a sitting position. "Hu.. What is it?" He looked at her, and then out of the window on above her. "You're still up? What are you doing?"

"I'm planning for your next trip to Ba Sing Se. You leave today; you do remember?" Her tone was more than a little accusatory; probably because of how many times he'd pushed back the trip already, saying that the Fire Nation's stability was questionable and that the Avatar's presence was needed. She let him lie to her two times, but the third time she called him on it. She could be nice. Sometimes.

"Yeah, but.. I'm not leaving for hours.. Go to sleep, it's late.." He rubbed at his eyes, yawning.

"No. You're going to be there for four days and you need to prevent Long Feng and the Dai Li from regaining their political power and taking advantage of the Earth Kingdom's state anymore than they already have." She did not look up from what she was currently writing down on a piece of parchment. There were several others stacked one atop another, all already full of her delicate and methodical handwriting. "Do you know how to bend Metal?"

"Uhm.. no. Toph never offered to teach me how." He slid out from underneath the covers to walk over to where she was, suddenly aware of why she was unwilling to sleep. She sat at a desk with two long, red candles lit and illuminating a blue flame; always training. His hands went to her shoulders, thumbs running along her trapeziums. Always tense, too. He'd tried to teach her some basic meditation techniques while she was recovering and found it only made things worse for her. Her necessity for perfection with what she did made it pointless since she couldn't seem to let herself go. "Zuko never taught me how to use Lightning, either."

"You should learn how to bend Metal. And use Lighting, while you're at it. If you come back, I'll teach you." Every once in a while, she'd offer him some incentive to return. Typically, it was just before he left for an extended period of time, like with the trip to Ba Sing Se. It made him wonder if she had truly settled her past with Mai and Ty Lee. He'd tried to talk to each of them, but had little luck in finding answers from any. If Zuko knew anything about it, he wasn't talking.

He let it go, while his hands came in toward her neck, trying to knead away the tension that seemed particularly resistant. "Toph sent a message yesterday, she's raided the facilities you told me about and captured all but a few Dai Li agents, though she didn't know where Long Feng was." He smiled, leaning forward and to the side a little to get a glimpse of her face. "He's probably in the middle of nowhere raising Saber-tooth Moose-Lions."

She continued to write, making no indication that his hands were massaging her, and she outright ignored his look. "There are a few places I want you to look into while you're there, he could be in several. I ordered them to redesign the Palace to my specifications before I left, he might have—" She was cut off by the sudden darkness which enveloped the room, as Aang blew out both candles with a sigh.

"You could just come with me."

She jerked her shoulders to free them of his hands, still facing the table. "I'm still a prisoner here. I can't leave the premises, you know that." She stood up, pushing her chair back in the process. It had the convenient effect of pushing him away as well, as she leaned over to blow on the claw-tipped nail of her index finger, creating a small blue flame to light one of the candles.

"So I'll kidnap you."

She turned around abruptly and the flame on her finger died off, leaving only the light of the candle. She appeared in every sense to be contemplating the number of ways she could kill him where he stood, but he simply grinned, mischievous. It made him look just like the boy she'd hunted down for months on end, and almost killed once. "The Avatar is supposed to protect the people. What will they think if you go and steal the most dangerous criminal of the Fire Nation? They'll think you've gone mad."

"They can think what they want to. Everyone's asked me to get rid of you ever since the war ended, I'd only be giving them what they've requested for years. They won't have to worry about you being here anymore.. You'll be with me." Officially. Zuko never stopped asking questions and making it known to Aang that he received reports of his frequent and sometimes extended stays at Azula's prison. Nor did he ever choose to hide the fact that he considered it a horrible idea and questioned if Aang was thinking at all.

"As if you could get rid of me, the Princess of the Fire Nation. They're sadly mistaken." She raised an arm and held it by the elbow of the other, examining her perfectly-kept nails with a cool confidence.

He reached out to grab the cloth which was tied around her waist to keep her robe closed, and tugged her toward him. She hopped to keep her balance and met his gaze, her golden eyes ablaze with a sudden excitement. "I'm very experienced when it comes to defeating Firebenders."

"Are you willing to risk what happens if I win?" Her breathing was hard and slow; her eyes were challenging. "I could gather the loyalist forces which my father commanded and march on the Palace to reclaim my right as the heir to the throne. I would overpower Zuko and begin another war which will span lifetimes."

His arm went around her waist, pressing her against him. "If there's one thing I learned from being around you, it's how to not fight fair." He flicked his wrist and the candle's flame was blown out, leaving them together in the darkened room lit only by stray moonlight.