Dragon At Heart

Chapter 8

He turned to Mother, ready to tell her everything about the horrible things Azula had threatened to do to that animal, but something in his mother's eyes stopped him from speaking.

Ursa was still looking at Azula, her eyes hard. There was something... wrong about the way in which she looked at her own daughter. She was already expecting to hear the worst of her.

Zuko was stunned. His mother never looked at him like that.

"I am not a sore loser", Zuko repeated. "Azula cheated. She didn't explain all the rules beforehand."

For a split second, Azula's eyes met Zuko's. She looked surprised, but before anyone had time to see her surprise, her face resumed its usual unreadable smile.

Mother looked at Zuko intensely. He knew his face might betray him, so he looked down, as if ashamed to show just how upset he had gotten over a silly game.

"Ty Lee, Mai. Would you excuse us for a moment?" Ursa eventually said in her usual caring, yet polite tone. "I need to speak with my children."

Azula pushed the rabbiroo over to Ty Lee, and her friends left hastily, leaving them alone in the yard.

Mother turned to look at both her children with loving worry. "You know I do not like it when you two fight."

"It was only a game", Azula protested, but Mother raised her hand to indicate she was not done talking.

"Zuko, you need to be a good big brother to your sister. Azula, stop teasing your brother", Ursa looked at each of her children in turn.

"I'm trying", Zuko mumbled.

"Fine. Next time, I'll explain all the rules beforehand", Azula sighed.

Their mother hugged them both, holding them in a loving and warm embrace.

It felt good to be held by Mother, and Zuko liked the way she played with his hair. But the calm of the moment was disrupted by worry. Her worry.

Mother worried because the siege of Ba Sing Se wasn't going well. A messenger had just told her so. Mother was afraid that something bad would happen to their relatives on the battlefield.

"Is everything alright with Uncle and Lu Ten?" Zuko asked. Even though the summer day was hot, he found himself shivering.

Zuko lifted his gaze to look at his mother. She looked surprised. Azula, too, looked openly curious. Her gaze shifted from Zuko's worried face to what Mother's response would be.

Swiftly, Ursa composed herself and answered: "Your uncle and cousin are fine. Why would you ask such a thing?"

"It's just", Zuko tried hard to find the right words to explain something he knew to be true in his hear. "I mean, you just seemed so worried for them."

Again, Mother looked puzzled. Then, she smiled at him and said with a reassuring voice: "It is sweet of you to worry for them, but I am sure everything is alright."

"Zuko is being weird", Azula teased.

"Azula", Mother warned Azula to be quiet, and continued to talk to Zuko: "You have always been an emphatic child and there is nothing wrong in that."

She hugged him tighter one more time, then let go off them both and told them to run along.

As Zuko and Azula headed into the house after Mai and Ty Lee, Azula suddenly elbowed Zuko, saying: "Mother's pet."