prompt i: birth
Azulon's birth was not an easy one, lasting more than twelve hours and leaving his mother on a bloody bed. That's what Li and Lo had said once while caring for his older sister, Zuuki. With anger, Azulon thought that maybe that was the reason why his mother seemed not to love him as much as she loved Zuuki, because he doubted it was because he was a boy, like Zuuki had told him once.
"It has to be my difficult birth," Azulon muttered to himself, bitter and angry. "And all because Zuuki had to be a girl."
At night, when he sees his mother escorting Zuuki to her bedchambers and hears them laughing when talking on suitors for her, Azulon feels the need to cry. He never lets his tears fall, though, but he wonders...
Had he been a girl and Zuuki a boy, would life had been different? Maybe his mother would love him more, as a girl. He could have been called Azula. His mother would hold him close, laughing and kissing him, while Zuuki (Zuko, maybe?) got to train with Fire Lord Ozai. Azulon sighed.
But he was born a boy, destined to be the greatest Fire Lord the Four Nations had ever seen, and Zuuki was just a shy girl who was to week to defend herself from Mai and Tai Lee even if they were younger. Azulon was always there to defend her and scare the girls away.
But one day he would not be a boy anymore. Azulon would be a man, and his mother would cry at the mere sight of him. She will remember a little boy who was too good at firebending to have a loving mother, a little kid who saw his mother choosing his sister over himself. But she would see a powerful man with little mercy to spare for those who wrong him, like she did every day.
"All because of a difficult birth."
This turned out to be a bit more darker than anticipated, but I like it a lot so it will stay like this. It's written for the Gender-Swap Boot Camp on the Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction Challenges, by the lovely Alys.