Azula's Christmas Tale
The day was Christmas Eve, the weather was hot and humid, while a princess of the Fire Nation sat inside the cool palace where she sat on her throne studying her nails while her friend Tylee sat across her with a smile stained to her face, watching Azula carefully waiting for the right moment to speak up,
"Tomorrow is Christmas!" she stated excitedly, "Are you excited?"
The princess turned to her friend, "Christmas is a stupid holiday that isn't even worth my time." She glanced back at her nails with weak interest, "Christmas is a waste of people's time. We should seriously ban it." She peeked a glance at her bubbly friend whose excited expression turned to disappointment, "You don't like Christmas Azula? I thought you probably would. You seem to enjoy it as a child."
"Pth, I was only acting then, if only the world new about the truth of this "Santa" old man." She sneered, "I would love to see the disappointment of those ridiculous children's faces." She swung her legs that were resting on the armrest around and leaped to her feet,
"Come on Tylee, lets go to the village, perhaps I could snatch something that would be useful…like a dagger!"
Tylee's frown turned to a fake smile, but Azula saw right through it and smirked, as Tylee shot her a fake grin, "Oh yes!"
The two friends went to Azula's room to gather some gold. At the same time; Azula disguised herself with Tylee's help before leaving the palace's grounds with her loyal friend.
They walked down the marketplace observing the items that were on sale, just as they turned a corner, they saw a group of six people singing traditional Christmas songs with smiles on their faces.
Azula just snorted as she passed by sticking her nose high as Tylee smiled, "How nice, they are singing some Christmas carols!"
"That is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen…other than my brother's weak actions." She added quickly the last part, with a sneer.
Swiftly before Tylee could react, the princess spun her heel and walked over to the carolers smoothly and asked innocently, "Can I join you?"
"Why sure!" the man from the group handed her a scroll so that she could read the lyrics, but to their mistake; she snatched all the scrolls and engulfed them into ashes, "I hope you memorized them!" she said sweetly with a smirk and hurried back to Tylee.
Tylee just sighed heavily knowing that Azula would've done that sooner or later. Looking about, she glanced at one of the shop's windows and grabbed the princess's hand, dragging her over, "Hey Azula! Look at that!"
Tylee pressed her hands on the glass window staring with dreamily eyes.
Azula just sighed and rolled her eyes, "Oh Tylee, what's so special about that dress? It doesn't even look good!"
"No, I'm not looking at the dress here, I am looking at the one at the very back!" she pulled Azula closer to the glass and pointed, "Do you see that pink dress…" her voice trailed off when she saw parents looking at the very same dress she was pointing to.
She squealed and skipped away from the shop before successfully performing a triple flip back to Azula, "Oh my gosh! My parents must be getting that for me! They must be! Maybe they saw us Azula! Maybe they saw how much I was admiring it!"
Azula just rolled her eyes and played along, "Oh my gosh! Good for you!" she spun around and waved, "I'm going home, I'll see you tomorrow if you are available!"
Tylee grinned and jumped up and down before dashing home.
Azula looked over her shoulder watching Tylee go thinking to herself, 'How does she even enjoy Christmas like that? It's so pathetic, I mean; just how do people even enjoy celebrating when we have jobs to do!' she huffed angrily, "People of this ear are pathetic…" she paused, "Except for father and I!" she grinned darkly as she past by the singers who now had new scrolls, however just with one flick of her wrist, she shot effortlessly three tiny flames at the paper, setting them on fire; causing the singers to panic dropping the scrolls that were quickly consumed.
She grinned cruelly, "It's fun to play with Fire every now and then."
Back at the palace she sat back on her throne eating grapes as a snack to entertain herself, since there was nothing to do.
A guard entered the room and bowed before her, "Princess, we have some visitors from the village. They would like to ask you something? What do you wish princess?"
She frowned, "Is it worth my time?"
"In my point of view, yes; your highness." Replied the guard weakly, praying to Agni that he wouldn't be roasted.
The room was silence with pondering thoughts, the guard found this much too quiet, more like…deathly quiet.
"Bring them in." she replied to his surprise, she waved her hand as he stood up and bowed once more before fetching the guests.
She took another grape and threw it into her mouth before anyone could see her, and quickly looked up to see who her guests were.
"Your highness." The two men that were brought in by the guard bowed down to their princess as she stated, "What is your reason here."
The two men sat on their knees glancing at the princess, "Your highness, we were hoping to collect some money for the poor. It is Christmas Eve, and many have no food for the holidays."
Azula looked uninterested, "And I should care because..." she trailed off so that they could state their reason.
The looked at each other unsure how to answer without being shot by fire or lightning, "Because that is what kind people do?" mumbled the second man weakly, he was afraid. She could see his entire body shaking, the fear in his eyes. He knew who he was talking to. She smirked darkly to herself before standing up and glanced at her sharp long nails before glancing back at them, "Why won't you just give them all your money then? It would make you a caring, kind person." She looked at them with no emotions on her face, "Or is it that you are one of the poor families as well, and is pretending to say that they are raising money for the poor. What a wonderful act!"
The first man protested without holding back, "We aren't poor! We just care about people and want them to have a happy Christmas, just like the rest of us!"
"That's another reason why Christmas is rubbish. It wastes people's money who can't even afford the holidays. How sad." She said sarcastically at the last part. A frown grown on her face, "You two were a waste of my time, be gone before you can celebrate your so-called cheery holiday of yours in the medic house, or even just die there." She snapped furiously, but in a calm tone that probably scared the guts out of the guards that were observing the scene near-by.
The two men didn't even bother bowing, they scurried out in a flash, but not fast enough for her to miss a small flame that was aimed at their robe they wore, and was now on fire.
She smirked hearing their panic in their voices from their scream of surprise.
Looks like they'll have to walk into town in their underpants. It was a perfect way to humiliate themselves on Christmas Eve.
Tired and bored, she left the throne room and headed to the kitchen to snatch a quick meal from the chef before heading to bed.
She walked down the silent halls that echoed her footsteps. She wondered what her father was doing, she haven't seen him all day. He was probably at a long war meeting that she would've attended, but she was too lazy to go today; which explains her slight boredom except for the funny part, shooting things on fire.
Opening her bedroom door, she saw that two maids, one was closing her windows closed while the other was putting wood in the fireplace that was not lit yet.
Azula frowned, "Why are you closing my windows? And why are you putting wood in my fireplace? Isn't it a little hot for that?"
The maids chuckled and bowed before sweetly replying, "A cold front is coming in, so it's going to be windy tonight, if we are even lucky; it will snow like it did a 100 years ago."
Azula furrowed her eyebrows, "Well that sucks. Very well; you are dismissed."
The two women bowed before replying with a charming voice, "Merry Christmas Princess Azula!" and they both left before she could scowl, "What is with people and Christmas!" she quickly took her crown out of her hair and undone her bun, setting her long hair loose, she swiftly changed into her nightgown and shot a small spark at the fireplace before crawling into bed and fell dead asleep.
A cold breeze whipped at Azula's face, she woke up sharply, jumping out of bed into her defense stance, she scanned her room realizing that the maids were right; it was going to be windy tonight.
Closing the window shut, blocking the bitter cold air before glancing over to her fireplace where the flames had died earlier that night. Glancing at the moon, she noticed that, just by the position it was in the sky, it was about midnight.
She groaned rubbing her head before gathering some spare wood in a box and threw it into the fireplace before shooting a fire spark.
The fireplace brightened the dark room, she sighed as she crawled back into bed and closed her eyes, but swiftly snapped them open when she heard a strange noise.
Bolting up straight in her bed she scanned the room.
She noticed someone or something that appeared out of thin air and yelped at the sight.
"Good evening Princess Azula, I am the Spirit of Christmas's past." The spirit was dressed in red and had a long straight white beard.
"NO! YOU ARE NOT! YOU ARE THAT STUPID PATHETIC AVATAR! I am not stupid you know Roku!"
"It doesn't matter if I am a decent Avatar; I am here to do my duty." He replied smoothly.
"And what does it have to do with you being in my room!?" she snapped angrily.
"You can save your questions later, come princess." He snapped his fingers and a bright light appeared, blinding Azula's eyes forcing her to close them.
When the light faded she noticed that she wasn't in her room anymore, she looked around.
"What the hell happened?" she scowled, and glanced at a little girl decorating a Christmas tree, she had a sad expression on her face.
"Jeez, I must have a twin or something." She groaned, "That brat looks like me."
Roku frowned, "That is you."
Azula almost jumped, "I beg you pardon?"
"I told you, I am the Spirit of Christmas Past; which is obviously why I am showing you your Christmas past." He stated slowly.
"I didn't understand a word you said? Repeat will ya?" she arched an eyebrow waiting to a better exclamation.
"I am showing you your Christmas Past. That is why I am called the Spirit of Christmas Past, understand now?" he asked with an annoyed expression on his face.
Suddenly a little boy that appeared older than the little girl, he smiled as he ran over and shouted excitedly, "Azula! Can I help?"
She sneered, "Why would I want help from you?"
He pouted, "I want to decorate the tree too you know."
She thought for a second before replying, "Fine, but I get to put the angel on top, Zuzu!"
"Don't call me that." He pouted once more before handing Azula another decoration and hung one himself.
The two children finished decorating the tree, while trying to find solutions how to reach the top to place the angel there.
"Hey Zuko." began the young girl, "Why don't you just lift me up or something? Not like you aren't strong enough." She smirked at the last part, "Or are you actually weak?"
Zuko huffed, "I'm strong enough to lift you." He ran to the couches and threw the pillows under the tree and grinned, "There, so incase I do drop you, you have something plushy to land on."
"I'm glad you have a brain to do that Zuzu."
Zuko just ignored her as he lifted her on to his shoulders and swayed a bit before gaining balance.
"Geez, be careful Zuko!" she snapped, "I really don't wanna fall."
"Me neither." He snorted as he held himself steady as she reached to put the angel on the top.
"A little closer."
"Higher or closer?" her brother asked.
"Closer." She replied as he slowly took a step forward and swayed back and forth trying to keep his balance.
"Almost…GOT IT!" she laughed excitedly just as Zuko lost his balance, the angel was luckily placed on the tree top before the two children fell on to the pillows below them.
Zuko and Azula laughed with glee as their mother hurried into the room, "What was that noise!?" she glanced at the tree, "Ah, you two did a beautiful job! Who put the angel on top?"
"Azula did!" grinned Zuko, "I lifted her up!"
"And then he fell." Smirked Azula as her mother just chuckled and began, "Time for lunch now. We'll show your father when he is done with his war meetings."
Roku smiled, "You seen to enjoy Christmas then."
"That was the past." She frowned not showing any emotions on her face, but yet her eyes looked slightly sad if you looked carefully, however Roku wasn't aware of it, as she continued, "It has nothing to do with the present, the events that happened in the past are meant to be forgotten."
"That is where you are wrong Azula; history wouldn't exist if the past was forgotten. Knowledge would have never improved since people wouldn't be able to learn from past's mistakes that others had made." Replied Roku as he looked back at her, time to go back.
"Eh?" she looked confused as the blinding light returned in a flash, and faded back into her room.
She was sitting in her bed, alone. No one was there.
"Man, was I just awake there? That must've been a dream-,"
"That was no dream Azula." A voice corrected.
"Okay, who is this now!?" she scowled angrily, "I am really getting sick of not being able to go back to bed! NOW WILL YOU LEAVE ME ALONE GOD DAMN IT!" she pulled her covers over her head, yet it was just be the thrown off, she looked to see who it was now.
She gasped and shot a fireball at the figure who quickly blocked with his hand without any damage done.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE ZUKO!? I THOUGHT YOU DECIDED TO GO OFF WITH THE AVATAR!?"
Her brother frowned, "I may be your brother, but I was given a duty tonight. Right now I am playing the role of the Spirit of Christmas's Present."
"You have got to be kidding me!" she scowled, "What kind of dream is this!?"
He sighed, "This is no dream Azula. Now accept it already. Come, we are going for a walk."
"Whoa, hold on. Explain, how the hell you got into my room or even-,"
"I am not literally here Azula; I told you already, I am here to do my duty-,"
"And what is that?" she pressed angrily, yet he did not answer and just swiftly grabbed her wrists and opened the window before leaping out dragging her behind.
"HEY! HEY! HEY! Where the hell you think you are taking me!?" she demanded.
He looked at her, "You'll see."
"I can't believe you actually ditched father. I can't-,"
"Save it when we encounter again sometime when we are in reality, I don't have time for this." He interrupted sharply, cutting of her sentence.
He leaped from the ground into the air flying, still holding her wrist with a firm grip.
"Okay, seriously. This has to be a dream! You can't fly in reality Zuko!"
"Who says I can't?" he smirked slyly.
"Pardon?" she was very confused with her brother right now, he seem to enjoy confusing her.
"I'm just kidding." He laughed softly before landing right by a shack looking house.
"What is this piece of trash?" she sneered, "Why are you showing me trash?"
He just grumbled to himself as he dragged her inside.
Inside there were a mat, a single blanket and a pillow, with a small doll resting on the pillow.
"Why are you showing me this?" she asked again, but this time with a frown expressed on her face, while waiting for an answer.
Sniffling sobs came from around a dark corner.
"Go." He pushed her towards a dark corner where small choking sobs were echoed.
As Azula got closer she recognized who it was immediately.
The princess spun around to her brother with a surprisingly worried face, "Is this actually happening right now!?"
He had crossed his arms across his chest nodding slowly, before replying, "I didn't know you actually were human Azula, I didn't think you would have emotions." He peeked at her observing a scene that he never seen before except that time when they were at Ember Island together with their friends for vacation. But that was a long time ago…okay maybe a few weeks, but that was it.
"Stupid family, stupid sisters…stupid parents…" the girl muttered soberly.
Azula was quiet, she was unusually silent.
There was a moment of dead silence between Zuko and Azula, except for the girl's muffling sobs.
"I think I understand more why Tylee ran away to the circus, why she accepts her nickname as 'Circus Freak' as a compliment." Zuko nodded agreeing with Azula.
"You know, she ran away from home this evening, her family is throwing a Christmas party…" Zuko trailed off, "By the look of it, she was left out, excluded from the group." He sighed, "You will probably find her back home by the morning. I doubt she would stay here all night. It's dangerous."
"You aren't making things better Zuko." Snapped Azula, she was pissed off, not only that she couldn't get her beauty sleep, but now her friend is out in the cold.
"But you could." He replied simply, he snapped his fingers as they returned to her room, but instantly, he disappeared leaving her to hear one last phrase from him, "Merry Christmas Azula."
"Oh shut up Zuzu." She snarled. She was grumpy, she was tired. It must be about one in the morning. She yawned and was about to crawl into bed when a red hooded figure placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around.
She scowled angrily, "CAN'T YOU STUPID SPIRITS LEAVE ME IN PEACE TO HAVE MY BEAUTY SLEEP!" she thought furiously to herself, 'This all better be some damn dream…' she paused, 'Tylee better actually be home if this is a dream...'
The figure did not speak.
"I am going to take a guess, some stupid spirit of the past, then the present, I am gonna guess that you are the 'Future' Spirit of Christmas!" she made the word 'future' sound sarcastic and eerie.
Instead of replying, it nodded before waving its hands making the stupid blinding light reappeared again. Azula was getting seriously sick of this routine.
They stood in a snow covered city.
Azula looked around and scanned the area, "Where are we?"
The spirit did not answer, but used body langue to make Azula look over to a crowd of people gathered around in a circle.
"Did you want me to see what is going on?" she asked, tapping her foot waiting for an answer.
No reply from the spirit.
"What are you a mute?" she snapped.
No reply once more.
"Fine, I'll look and get this over with. Hopefully you will be the last so-called Christmas Spirit I see tonight and go back to my healthy beauty sleep." She grumbled tiredly as she stomped over to the crowd and stood there waiting for an exclamation.
"Poor child. Who knew she was starving herself."
"I didn't think that girl would've even though about suicide!"
"She was so bubbly, so cheerful-,"
That was all Azula needed to hear to instantly know what was going on.
It was Tylee's funeral.
She walked right through the crowd and ran over to a coffin where everyone was giving Tylee's their final bidding farewell.
Azula stared at Tylee's cold dead face, "No way. Tylee wouldn't be that stupid…I wouldn't-," she stopped and looked at the spirit and shouted, "IS SHE REALLY GOING TO DIE!? IS SHE STARVING HERSELF-,"
"This is the future, not the present. But the present will affect the future. It depends. You can change the future, by protecting the present." The spirit whispered softly, with a wise tone to it.
So the spirit wasn't a mute after all.
"So I can make sure that Tylee doesn't commit suicide by shoving food down her throat?" asked Azula as the spirit chuckled softly, "My time is up. I think you understand now."
"What was I supposed to understand?"
"Why you don't like Christmas."
Azula thought for a second before the spirit answered for her since she was hopeless to answer the question, since she didn't know it herself.
"You don't like Christmas because you are always lonely." The spirit said softly.
Azula unconsciously nodded. Small tears formed in her eyes, her voice was trembling, she wasn't used to crying, she haven't cried or spilt a tear since she was 4.
" I am so damn lonely. My dad doesn't spend Christmas with me, yet I know better that I should really just go to the meetings-," she stopped, "But…It's still so lonely. Eating alone…training…alone…" she spilt tears, "I miss people that I hate, I am damn surprised that I miss Zuko, probably because he was my entertainment, I, I miss uncle, his annoying speeches can make the day go by faster. I miss; I miss…my mom, even though she thinks of me as a monster."
The spirit approached her and wrapped her into a hug, the spirit whispered into her ear warmly and softly, "I never thought of you as a monster Azula."
Azula looked up to see her mother's sad smiling face, "Mom?"
The blinding light appeared as the last she heard from her mother, "Merry Christmas Azula, merry Christmas…"
Azula bolted awake, she gasped breathing heavily.
She saw tearstained marks on her pillows; she felt her face and slapped herself to make sure she was awake.
"Ow!"
Yep, she was awake.
The sunlight that shown into her was warm and bright.
She turned to the window, only to be surprised by spotting white puffy things falling from the sky.
"It's snowing?"
Slowly she walked up to the frosted windows and gazed at the city, it was covered in thick sheets of snow.
It has been a 100 years since it snowed in the Fire Nation.
Turning to her closet she quickly got dress and dashed out of the room leaving her hair down and her crown behind, dashing down the stairs she bolted out of the door as the maids called her, "Princess! Don't you want to open your-,"
"LATER!" she shouted as she ran full speed out of the palace's territory.
Clinging to her coat she dashed to a store and slammed open the door shouting, "I NEED CAKE! I NEED A GIFT! ANYONE GOT CAKE AND A GIFT!?"
"There is a bakery that just opened recently this morning has some excellent goods-,"
"THANKS!" and she was out the door.
Wait, did she just say thanks to a Peasant?
She quickly shrugged the thought off and dashed into the bakery and demanded, "I NEED STRAWBERRY CHEESE CAKE NOW!"
Everyone stared at her with surprise before the manager shouted, "You heard the young lady! Make some Strawberry Cheese Cake now!" he turned to her, "That'll be 20 gold pieces."
"HERE!" she blurted out handing him 20 gold pieces as the cake arrived in a box and handed to her before she ran out the store like a mad airbender.
Dashing to another store she bought a specific gift before rushing out and heading over to Tylee's house.
Knocking on the door she was greeted by one of Tylee's sisters who looked exactly like Tylee. 'Looks like she meant it literally that she literally has 7 or whatever number of sisters that look the same…' Azula thought sighing.
"Yes?"
"Is that all you can say to your royal highness?" Azula demanded, "I am here to see Tylee, where is she?"
The girl gasped and quickly bowed, "My deepest apologize Princess, I didn't recognize you without your crown!"
"Azula?" Tylee came skipping down the stairs and grinned, "Hey Azula! Merry Christmas!"
Her sister just gawked that Azula was cool with Tylee ignoring the formalities.
"Merry Christmas to you too Tylee! Do you want to hang out today?" she asked with hope gleaming in her eyes.
"I don't know…" began Tylee unsure, while looking back at where her family was eating breakfast.
"I got Strawberry cheese cake!" grinned Azula.
Tylee swung around and smirked, "You did not!" she grabbed her coat, and motioned Azula to hang on a second while she runs to get something.
"How come Tylee doesn't have to act all formal to you?" sneered the sibling who opened the door.
Azula smirked, "Unlike you, she's a friend from my childhood, just because she doesn't call me princess or your highness, doesn't give you your choice to call me by my name alone." She lit a blue fireball to bounce on her hands, "Unless you want to mess with me."
The girl gulped as Tylee ran down the stairs and grinned, "Let's go!"
The two girls ran out back towards the palace, laughing with glee.
It was nice, that neither of them would spend their Christmas alone.
The End
A/N: Okay, so what do you think of my Azula's Christmas story.
I was reading my fav Christmas book that I always read since I was 5 and I still really like the stories.
I was reading the specific story, A Christmas Carol
I really wanted to make another Christmas Story, but this time it had Azula in it.
I know at the end, it was sort of OCC for Azula. But…sigh I tried.
Please review/comment. I REALLY LIKE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS/REVIEWS!