A/N: Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that I probably got some stuff wrong. I watched the beginning and end of the series, but missed a lot of the stuff in between, so I'm a little clueless. But this idea's been hanging around my brain for a while, and I just wanted to see what you guys thought of it.

Also, updates will be a little slow. I'm an honors college student, and real life can be a little stupid sometimes. But I'll do my best to get them up when I can.

A note on this chapter, regarding Azula…it was just fun to imagine this from her point of view. So you can regard her as having recovered a little bit from the war and being a little more sane (as well as being without her bending).

Hope you like!

Also…this goes without saying that this is slightly AU, since Zuko and Katara are together. Other pairings include Sokka x Suki, and as for what happened to Aang, Toph, and any other loose ends…submit a review and let me know what you think the pairings should be!

Disclaimer: Kiri is mine mine mine! And all the other OCs. But I don't own anything else.

PROLOGUE

Splash.

Somewhere inside the chamber, droplets of water fell to the floor. Voices murmured in reaction, one angry and disappointed, the other gentle and encouraging. The torches that lit the small chamber crackled, the smell of burning wood light in the air. In the corner of the room, a fountain continued to splash, water falling into the pool. A distant voice let out another shout of effort-again, water splashed onto the tiled floor. Azula leaned against the room's wall with her arms folded, her expression set in a permanent glower of disapproval as she watched. Inside, she felt a twinge of dark amusement.

Little Kiri wasn't on top of her game today, not that that was saying much. Her niece thrust her hand out in a crude mockery of a Firebending technique, the feeble stream of water following along behind it falling uselessly onto the ground. Her mother said a few more gentle words, quietly pushing the girl's arm back into the Waterbending stance that she had been trying to teach her for the better part of two weeks. The corners of Azula's mouth turned up in a smirk. She wondered if Katara noticed the way the girl stiffened in pain as her mother's fingers closed around her right arm. Doubted it. Her little niece was good-her expression hardly even changed. Kiri kept silent out of a twisted mix of honor and pride.

No...she wouldn't dare tell Mama and Papa about the mean little noble brats that had ganged up on her in the palace's backyard yesterday.

Conditional release was so very boring, with her bending gone and herself more or less placed under house arrest, but at least she had this sort of thing to watch and look forward to.

"You're too tense, Kiri," she heard Katara say, her voice echoing in the chamber and drowning out the sound of the fountain for just a moment. "Waterbending is about being softer. Graceful. You can't use Firebending stances for this."

"I'm trying, Mama!" said Kiri frustratedly. Her voice sounded high-pitched to Azula. Grating. Her eyes narrowed. Whiny little brat. "It's just not working!" She kicked at the water in front of her, splashing some of it up.

Trying. Eight years old and already such a liar. Then again, trying might have been the right word for it. Trying to be a Firebender.

Pathetic.

Katara sighed. Obviously little miss Fire Lady was running out of patience as well. "Maybe you're trying too hard," she said. "Try to loosen up a little. Let's start it again."

At her mother's direction, Kiri resumed her stance. Azula didn't need to look to know the outcome of this one. She had killed enough Waterbenders in her lifetime. Legs were too far apart, back too straight, arms too tense. Katara saw the stance errors, of course, but she couldn't see the source.

The door to the chamber opened, outside light filtering in and interrupting Azula's show. Both mother and daughter turned towards it, illuminated in the glow cast by the opening door. A servant girl-Azula couldn't be bothered to remember her name-stood there, looking nervous.

"Excuse me, my lady, but the dignitaries from the Earth Kingdom are here. The Fire Lord asks that you entertain them while he sees to some other business." Azula didn't need to ask which "lady" the servant meant. After all, nobody ever asked for her around here, except to ask where she had been.

Katara looked hesitantly at Kiri. The girl stood there with her hands in her pockets and rolled her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. Half-hearted, half-baked. It was disgusting. Azula could feel Katara's eyes suddenly turn on her, distrustful. She snorted quietly. If she had wanted to hurt the brat, then bending or no bending, she would already have been dead.

"I'll be right there," said Katara to the servant. "Kiri, keep on working on that stance."

Azula looked up as the door closed behind Katara, noticing that Kiri was looking at her. The girl's fists were clenched at her side, her shoulders suddenly rigid. Azula raised an eyebrow, sizing her up. Her skin was slightly darker than the usual Fire Nation pale, but it wasn't quite as dark as her mother's. Long black hair fell down her back, tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes were bright blue, even bluer than her mother' stand off continued for a few more moments, before Azula smirked.

"Aren't you going to practice that stance?" she asked, the question laced with fake innocence.

And Kiri knew that.

"...I'm tired today," she said. "I think I'll work on it later."

Disgraceful. Her little half-blood niece needed a rude awakening.

Azula straightened up, her heel hitting the floor with a click as she walked towards Kiri. She placed her hands on her hips, smirking widely as she walked over to the fountain and looked down. Kiri watched her uncertainly.

"It's never going to work, you know," said Azula."What you're doing."

Kiri shrugged again, quickly looking away. "I'm not doing anything."

Oh, she was good...but she still had so much to learn.

"Don't play dumb with me, brat," said Azula, turning towards her sharply. "You don't have any right to use those stances! You don't have any right to pretend!"

"I'm not pretending anything!" said Kiri, rising to the challenge. So not only was she pathetic, she was also predictable.

"Really? Because that sure looked like pretending to be a Firebender to me!"

"Well, you're wrong!" said Kiri. "And I don't have to listen to you!"

Her blue eyes glittered, almost glowed. If Azula didn't know any better, she would say they burned. Which was why doing what she did next was so pleasing to her. She reached out, drawing her palm quickly across the girl's cheek. The sound of the blow echoed in the small room, and Kiri let out a shout of pain, jumping back.

"You can't do that!" she said. "I'll-!"

"You'll what?" asked Azula with a sneer, reaching out and grabbing the girl's arm. Her injured arm, the one that Kiri had been trying so hard to hide. She twisted it behind the girl's back, pulling her closer. "You'll tell Daddy on me? Is that what you'll do, Kiri?" She grabbed the girl by her ponytail, her nails digging into her hair.

"Ow!" shrieked Kiri. "Ow! Ow! Auntie! You're hurting me! You're hurting me!"

Azula shook her. "Shut up and look at yourself," she said, shoving her forward slightly while still holding onto her hand and head. She had grabbed the girl, positioning her so that she was forced to look into the fountain. At her own reflection. Kiri stared at it wide-eyed, tears trickling down her face. She fell silent. She didn't even sob. Azula wasn't sure if she was breathing. "Do you see that?" she asked, leaning in closer to the girl's ear. "A pathetic excuse for a Water Tribe peasant masquerading as a Fire Nation princess. You keep trying and trying and trying to be better, but you'll never be what you want to be-what they want you to be. You'll never be a Firebender. And the way you're turning out, you're turning into a poor excuse for a Waterbender, and a disgrace to this country. Little half-blood princess, can't do Fire, won't do Water, just an inconvenient accident that everybody forgets and gets shoved away. A weakling-the regrettable offspring of a weak Fire Lord and a Water Tribe peasant. You'll live the rest of your life in your little brother's shadow, because let's face it. You'll never be anybody worth noticing-anything worth mention."

Kiri was shaking beneath her grip. Her words struck home. Azula's sneer became an ugly grin as she let go of her, shoving her forward onto the stones. She fell to her knees, throwing out her arms to protect herself.

"You'll never be strong," she said. "That's who you'll always be. And you know it, don't you? That's why you don't even try."

Kiri turned her head towards her in shock, her eyes wide. Tears continued to dribble down her face. Azula turned around in a swish of fabric, her gold eyes gleaming as she left the room.

That night, Azula sat beside her window, running a brush through her hair with a self-satisfied smirk on her face. Her window faced the beach-the crashing sound of the waves and the smell of saltwater rushing up to her. The moon-half-full-cast silvery light on the surface of the water.

And on the figure of a young girl standing at the water's edge. Azula took in her fluid movements, the way she swept up the sea's water into her hands, releasing it in a near-perfect water whip. Droplets of water flew through the air, caught and merged into another stream as she moved again, swaying in time to the ebb and flow of the ocean.

Little Princess Kiri was so predictable. And so much like her.

She only needed a challenge.