Disclaimer: I could only dream that I owned ALTA and Azula..
Everything burns.
These people are fools.
None of them see her.
None of them see her.
None of them see her.
She is broken. She is a little broken, twisted little china doll.
She is a broken, broken, broken little angry girl who just screams and screams and her throat tastes like iron and soot and no one even turns to look.
So she's given up.
She's given up.
Hid these cracks. Cover them. But nothing can be repaired. She'll never be perfect enough. She wasn't born right. Wasn't born first. Born a monster.
Everyone likes him. He gets the dagger with a beautiful inscription that she deserves. All she gets is this ugly, ugly, ugly, perfect doll.
No. She has the hottest fire. Her blue fire gives her reprieve. Because for a second, people can see how she burns inside as azure flames lick the air.
Because people can feel how she burns inside.
She is faster. Smarter. Stronger. So why? Why isn't she better?
He doesn't deserve it.
Everything hurts. Everything hurts. Everything burns.
But it's alright. He may have everything. He may have Mother. He may have everything. But she has blue blood, the talent and she will be loved.
But it doesn't work like that.
He has Ursa.
He has Uncle.
He has respect.
He has her friends that look at him longingly, even as they stand by her side.
You should have feared me more!
Why does he take everything?
All she smells is burnt air, raw and strong and why won't anyone ever look at her?
No one takes that hand of perfect, even, sharp nails. No one soothes the charred internal.
Father sees. Father sees that she's the better child, the stronger warrior but why won't he look at her? Father? Why? He's proud of her. Like another jewel in the palace coffers.
He sees a cold, frozen stone.
Even banished, even disgraced and cast out, he is still the crowned prince. Even scarred, he has the love of Iroh, of Mai.
He doesn't burn. He doesn't hurt.
He's gotten his second chance, his third chance, over and over and over. Hasn't she proved herself yet?
Why?
Even if she needs to stain her hands with own blood. Because maybe that blood will take away the burn. Even for a second.
She could hear those timid whispers around the palace. Cold, they say. She's cold.
But she isn't. She had the hottest fire burning through her veins. She has lightning blood. She wants to scream, to let out the burn because it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.
She's not cold.
She's burning up.
She isn't a pot in to be fired in an oven.
She's just a girl.
She's just a little girl.
She's just a scared, broken little girl.
Why is everyone blind?
When she watches Zuko's perfection get taken away, she can hardly hold in her laughter, her joy, her glee.
Because now he was broken, too.
Just a pair of broken children.
And she would break him more. Break him so he would see, so maybe she could look into his eyes one day and see. And see the same hurts reflected back that she felt.
So maybe when she screamed fire, he would understand too.
Because everything burns.