A/N: I've had this story on my mind for a while, I know I never finish my multichapter fics, but I gradually will add to this story. I hope the first chapter is alright, I also promise that the ships change a lot throughout this story, and the pairings don't stay the same. I honestly intend mismatch characters and ships all over the place in this fic, however most, if not all of the ships that are focused on in here are female/female ships.
A warning though, is that this will contain consensual incest eventually, vague mentions of rape, some abuse, sexual themes, relationships with large age gaps, death, war, romance, fluff and whatever else I feel like throwing in there.
I hope you enjoy this.
Azan was sixteen years old when her father was murdered by equalists in Republic City. It was a tragic loss, and while the young fire bender had already lost her mother before she was young enough to remember her face, losing her father was the last thing to send her into darkness. Her Aunt Ty Lee raised her from then on out, but four depressing years later was when she realized her entire life wasn't what it seemed.
It was a normal busy day in Republic City, and Azan had decided to practice her firebending forms in the alley behind her father's apartment, as she did almost every day. At first firebending was hard for her after her father's death, as that was the one thing they did together when her father wasn't busy working. But she had to continue learning, her father and Aunt Ty Lee were adamant about her firebending, to which she didn't understand why. She didn't complain however, Azan loved firebending, it was that which she delved into to keep from completely losing herself.
However, they forced her to do it in secret, never outside or in the view of a stranger. This was because her fire was blue, Azan guessed that much, but why that was such a problem, Azan couldn't understand. The young firebender was quite proud of her excruciatingly hot, cerulean fire. But her father almost seemed ashamed of it, a scowl had grew on his face when she had first discovered her blue fire. Azan noticed that Aunt Ty Lee's eyes lit up at the azure blaze, even though her lips would frown.
Being pulled back to the present, Azan heard a loud yell for help from down the street, and immediately extinguished her fire, head whipping into the direction of the yell. She tried hard to ignore the commotion, Aunt Ty Lee had always warned her of never being the hero, no matter how much she wanted to, it would only lead to bad things for her. But Azan could tell the voice was an old man, and he was crying and begging someone not to hurt them. It was a triple threat shakedown, Azan could tell, they lived in Triple Threat territory.
Not able to take the old man's pleas ringing in her ears, Azan ignored her aunt's voice in the back of her head and took off running down the street, following the man's voice. She came to a halt at the sight of Two Toed Ping holding a fire blade and Shady Shin holding the old man by the collar.
"Stop what you're doing." She shouted, rage taking over her logic.
They turned to her, Ping still holding his fire blade.
"Why should we listen to a little girl?" He scoffed.
"He owes the Triple Threats, stay out of business you don't understand." Shin took the man and shoved him inside the shop and closing the door, leaving Azan and Ping on the street.
"This 'business' is over. Stop terrorizing this man. These streets belong to all of us, not just scum like you." She snarled, feeling her whole body warm at her anger. "Let that man go."
"How about I teach you a little lesson on what happens if you mess with the Triple Threats?" He snickered, lighting his hands ablaze, to which Azan followed suite. His eyes narrowed at the blue fire, but he wasn't going to give his surprise away, weird fire or not, this girl was going to be shown what happens when you stand up to the Triple Threat Triad.
He punched a blast of fire at her, testing her agility and she dodged it easily, swiping a wave of blue his way from her ankle. He jumped and kicked his red fire towards her face which she cut through, and it faded to blue as she redirected it towards Ping. This went on for a few minutes , blue and red bursts filling the empty street, eyes peeping out of blinds to watch.
However, suddenly a Satomobile comes speeding down the street, and the two foes dive out of the way as it comes to a screeching halt. Inside, Azan recognizes the Avatar, whose face recently covered the newspapers, along with Asami Sato, who the young firebender remembered seeing in the papers recently.
"Well well well, look who it is." A smooth voice remarked, Shady Shin, emerging from the shop, shady grin plastered on his face, throwing a bag of coins around. "What can we do for you, Miss Avatar?"
"What are you doing around here, Shin? I thought we told you to leave these people alone weeks ago."
"Sorry Avatar, but the boss didn't like that offer, he turned it down." This guy was entirely too cocky, Azan couldn't wait to see the Avatar kick his ass in person.
"It looks like I'm going to have to make you another offer then."
"Shin don't you think we got enough from this street? I mean, you remember what happened before right…" Ping whispered to Shin nervously.
"Shut up, moron. Alright Avatar, show us what you got."
The Avatar and the Future Industry heiress made short work of the duo and had them running with their tail between their legs. After they had escaped once again and the police had arrived to talk with the old man, had the Avatar had noticed the firebender standing there.
"Did those guys give you trouble? Do you want to talk to the police?" She asked the the girl, who was a little older than her.
"No, I think I'll be alright. But thank you Avatar, they've been harrassing this neighborhood for years." Azan bowed formally to her. She knew the Avatar was in Republic City, but she never thought she would get to meet her.
"No problem." The Avatar blushed at the gesture and scratched her neck awkwardly. "You can call me Korra, by the way." Korra hated when she was referred to as the Avatar all the time.
"Well, thanks, Avatar Korra." The young fire bender turned to return home, preparing herself for a flustered Aunt Ty Lee who would no doubt go crazy over her absence, which she did.
Asami and Korra got back into the heiress' Satomobile, the nonbender's brow furrowed in thought.
"What's wrong?" Korra asked, and Asami paused before starting up the engine.
"I just could've sworn that girl was using blue fire when we pulled up."
"Blue fire? I don't know Asami, maybe she was just water bending, we were going kind of fast."
"Did she look like a waterbender to you?"
"Well no but… I think you were just seeing things."
"I don't know, Korra." Asami swore she saw blue fire.
That night, when Asami was over Mako's house, cuddling with him on the couch, recounting the day, she asked him about blue fire, and told him what she saw.
"Uh, I don't know Asami, I've never met someone with blue fire. Maybe you were just seeing things."
"Yeah maybe you're right." But Asami didn't believe that, however she decided to drop it. It's not like it really mattered.
However a week later, Asami was walking to her favorite tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon, a chain tea shop that had been popping up all over the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, when she bumped into the same girl again.
"Hey, you're that girl. I never caught your name."
"I'm Azan." She replied, but her eyes lingered a little too long on Asami's before looking away nervously.
"I'm Asami," She put out her hand and the girl shook it, Asami noticed how perfectly manicured and soft her hands were despite the poor area she seemed to reside in.
"I already knew that, I'm pretty sure everyone in Republic City knows your name." Asami blushed at her straightforwardness, she didn't know she was that popular, although hanging around with Korra and the Fire Ferrets didn't exactly put the Future Industries wonder girl in the dark.
"I was just making my way to the Jasmine Dragon, do you care to join me?"
"Uh well I was just…" The young firebender was supposed to be returning home, but she was sick of listening to her over protective Aunt. "Sure."
Asami smiled at her and the firebender felt her heart speed, she blinked. What the hell was that feeling? Not being allowed out of the house for anything unnecessary, her interactions were quite limited, and Azan was oblivious to the feeling of a growing crush.
Getting seated at a table was small work. While the tea shop was quite full, Asami and the firebender were seated immediately when the owner noticed his regular, and famous customer.
"Have the triads been around lately, since… y'know." Asami questioned, while she had pushed the thought of blue fire away, seeing the girl again, the question began to nag her.
"Well the triads are always around. But the Triple Threats have been laying low a little bit. They're still extorting everyone, but not as frequently." Azan replied. Asami couldn't understand the life of someone living on a street with such gang power, what with being born into wealth. Of course the Agni Kai's had killed her mother when she was six but she wasn't in danger every day she walked out of her house. How Azan could speak of the danger like it was so common made her feel sympathy for the girl sitting in front of her. It filled her with a sense of duty to continue to clean the streets of the benders who took advantage of their power.
Since she was seventeen she had been involved with the equalists to try and get rid of the growing number of benders and triads who dominated Republic City, however when Korra arrived in Republic City; a bender with a purpose and ambition and fight in her to restore balance and help, Asami had found that calling a little louder than the dark and grim ideas Amon had in mind for her. She frowned at that thought, she was glad she left that life behind her when she did. The Equalists were starting to become too radical.
"Well, Korra and I are trying to help out. Hopefully the Triple Threats will be found soon. Speaking of that, I know you didn't talk to the police, but you were an eye witness to that attack. Could you possibly help us?" It was a ploy to ask the question on her mind, but it also was true that her information could help their investigation to end the triads and their tyranny over the streets, at least for a little while.
"Uh, what do you need to know?" Azan felt uncomfortable, she always felt uncomfortable being questioned, even though she wasn't even the criminal, but Asami's warm smile did appease her nerves a bit.
"Well we know Shady Shin and Two Toed Ping were the ones there, but was there anyone else you recall on the streets with you? Anyone who could be linked to the triple threats?"
"Other than that old man, it was only the three of us. Everyone knows to hide when they see a Triple Threat." So it had to be her with the blue fire, no one else was around.
"What were you doing there then?" Asami was instigating as much about the incident as she was about her. Azan hesitated, unsure if she should answer honestly or not, her father and aunt raised her to lie, her first instinct would be to lie, but she wasn't sure what would serve her best in this situation. Logic ruled out.
"I heard the old man who Shin was holding up and I went to investigate."
"Investigate? You ended up fighting Ping, though, correct?" Azan swallowed. She wasn't sure if Korra and Asami saw the fight before Ping and her were forced to get out of the way. She was starting to think she didn't like where this was going.
"Yeah, I did." Asami hoped she wasn't crazy.
"And you're a firebender, right?"
"I thought this investigation was about the Triple Threats." Asami sensed her unwillingness to cooperate suddenly, and she was almost certain she wasn't crazy.
"The investigation is about the whole incident, I just need to know what happened."
"Yeah, I'm a firebender." Azan replied, but she had a glint of distrust in her eyes that Asami took notice of, despite keeping her tone and face neutral.
"When we pulled up to the scene, I saw blue fire. Was that you?" Azan wasn't surprised, but that couldn't help her heart speed up. She managed to keep her face neutral, she didn't miss a single beat, but Asami saw the color drain from her face regardless.
"Blue fire?" She played stupid. "I don't know any firebenders who bend blue."
Suddenly the two were in stare off, both waiting for either to break, it was Asami who looked away first, a smirk forming on Azan's face.
Asami continued to ask her about the incident, but she didn't let the blue fire out of her mind. But what she couldn't understand was why it mattered so much to her. It just all seemed peculiar, and what seemed to add to the fact was that Azan looked weirdly familiar, like she had seen her face somewhere, but Asami couldn't put her finger on it.
Afterwards they did chat, mostly city politics, and for a street girl, Azan kept up pretty easily, she was clearly intelligent, and very opinionated. While she seemed laid back at first, as soon as politics was mentioned, neither one remembered who brought it up, her golden eyes were on fire with passion and Asami felt almost mesmerized by her words. While Asami herself was a politician, this girl sure knew how to speak and persuade. She could see Azan being a politician. Azan was becoming more and more intriguing to Asami, she suddenly wanted to know more about her.
"While Raiko loves to stay neutral, it is absolutely the United Republic's duty to-"
"What do you do?" Azan blinked at the random and abrupt question, caught totally off guard.
"What do you mean?"
"Like where do you work?" The fire in her liquid gold eyes was suddenly gone and her words were slow and careful, guarded again, but Azan figured she could be a little open with the only girl she had actually chatted to in months. It couldn't hurt.
"Uh well I have a job at the power plant down town." Azan suddenly felt extremely self conscious in front of the Sato heiress.
"All the way down there? It's dangerous down there isn't it?"
"Well it's not the best place, but I mean what else is there for a firebender to do around here besides get into triad business or something just as sketchy."
"Mako works down there, it doesn't seem like a good place. You know we always have room for more employees at Future Industries." Asami said flashing a bright smile at that sudden idea. But Azan was stuck on the name Mako. Who was Mako? By the way she said it it sounded like she and this Mako guy was quite close. Why did this suddenly make Azan feel pissed off?
"Who's Mako?" She blurted out, surprising herself.
"Oh, he's a pro-bender, on the Fire Ferrets? He's my boyfriend." Azan felt really hot all of a sudden. Why was she so hot? Asami noticed the sudden change, but couldn't understand why, so she decided to prod again.
"So what do you say? Would you like a job at Future Industries. Fire benders are helpful with welding when we don't have enough tools, I'm sure my dad would be happy to find some sort of job for you." Forgetting about Mako, Azan was suddenly overwhelmed.
A job at Future Industries? Seeing Asami every day? She was sure the pay was better than the power plant, but what would her aunt say? It was close to the better part of town and therefore closer to prying eyes. But they really did need the money, and Aunt Ty Lee was too old to work. But it was far away and Azan would need money for the transit every day.
"I don't know. Let me think about it." Asami's face fell a little, but she still smiled. Azan felt a pang of guilt and these sudden waves of emotion were starting to really confuse her.
"Well while you're thinking about it, you could help me and Korra track down the triads. It's usually a lot of action." Asami couldn't help but get a little excited, Korra had showed her a life of fun and crime fighting. She felt a rush every time she chi blocked a criminal, similar to the rush of Satomobile racing on the track or watching a pro-bending match. Asami may have been born a rich girl, but she was quite the thrill seeker.
The thought of something different, something action filled was quite appealing to Azan, and fighting the triads that extorted her whole neighborhood sure sounded good, but if anything happened she couldn't bend in front of anyone, it would give her away. She wasn't sure what would happen, but bringing attention to herself wasn't the best idea she knew. However, she supposed Aunt Ty Lee did teach her how to be as ruthless of a chi blocker as she was a firebender, which she could always use to defend herself if need be. She decided she needed something new in her depressing, boring, menial life, and decided that it was worth the risk.
"You know what? Sure." Azan had constantly felt her parent's death and the struggle of money and the dark future ahead of her on her shoulders for years, but Asami's bright smile and with the most fun she had in years, she finally saw a light in her path, and when she smiled back at Asami, her smile touched her eyes.