WRITTEN FOR THE WHITE LOTUS EXCHANGE ON LJ/AO3. SPECIAL THANKS TO MY BETAS, LAVANYA SIX AND PHTHALO BLUE, FOR PROOFREADING AND STORY DEVELOPMENT.
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Young Love, Part 1
In the Water Tribes, he was known as Azulon the Scourge.
After years of prosecuting the war against the Earth Kingdom, the aging Azulon considered his ongoing lack of victory and turned his mind to the matter of legacies. He discovered worry that the Avatar- lost to the world since the days of Sozin- might have died and been reborn in accordance with the cycle. Thus, he began two additional campaigns: one against the Northern Tribe and one against the Southern. Every Waterbender at the South Pole was either captured or killed, and while the Tribe at the North Pole was able to fight off the same fate, the Fire Navy had bottled it up into a single walled city.
In the Fire Nation, he was known as Fire Lord Azulon.
Most people could not remember there ever being another Fire Lord. Sozin had died soon after Azulon's birth, and the boy had grown up handling the pressures of both the war and the crown with stunning ease. While a Firebending prodigy, his passions laid in administration and mathematics, enabling him to effectively lead the Fire Nation with all its societal contrasts, and even advance it along his father's vision. Even as his sons grew up and into their own, Azulon never weakened, never let his age affect him. With his hair and skin both bone white, he was just as strong and aggressive as the day he was declared a Man.
In the Princess Azula's mind, he was just Grandfather, the old man who was in Uncle Iroh and Dad's way of inheriting the crown.
She wasn't the only one who made that mistake.
The first impression Azula had of her new home was Gray. The clouds above were gray, the sea was gray, the sands were gray, and the village itself was gray. She didn't even know that wood came in grays; perhaps villagers in the Northern Earth Kingdom painted their houses that way on purpose? But who would want to live in an ugly gray shack?
Who would want to live in a shack, whatever the color?
What was left of her family was standing at the ship's rail with her. Mom squeezed both children and said, "Well, I think it looks quaint." Zuko and Azula, in turn, exchanged grimaces. 'Quaint' was not a word that translated into being fit for Royalty in any way.
Suddenly, Azula realized she might not be Royalty anymore. She was born with Royal blood, but if she were still Royalty, why would she have had to leave the palace? And anyway, it was Dad she inherited her Royal lineage from, and now Dad was...
Azula stopped thinking about it and focused on the village. "It looks dirty and infested with peasants."
"Now, Azula-"
"No!" Azula turned to glare up at her mother. "Stop lying. You don't like it any better than I do. It's an ugly, backwards little infestation, and nothing like home."
Mom met her gaze calmly. "No, it's nothing like home. And... you're right, I don't like this place. But it's safe, and so I'm going to accept it, and do my best to like it. A Princess accepts difficulty with honor."
Zuko shuffled, ignored by both mother and daughter, but not willing to leave their company. He was weak like that, and, even though she was younger, Azula was much stronger. Still, she also knew how to strategize. Sniffing disdainfully, Azula turned away from her mother and leaned on the rail again. The ship was much closer to the shore now, but she couldn't see a dock. Was the boat just going to slide right up on the sand?
Behind her, Zuko finally piped up. "What kinds of people are going to be there? Are they nice?"
Azula rolled her eyes, but no one saw. Mom moved to put her arms around her young son and said, "They won't hurt us. They're friends of the nice swordsman who helped us leave the Fire Nation. They're people like us, who need a special place where they can be safe."
Azula decided right then that she didn't care about being safe. She'd prefer to have her Dad back.
The boat did just beach itself on the sands, but at least they put out a ramp made of tied-together logs so that Azula and her family could disembark without getting their feet wet. That told Azula that these people weren't familiar with Firebenders because anyone worth their Bending could generate enough heat to quickly dry off. (Of course, Zuzu couldn't yet.) Perhaps the villagers expected Azula and her family to be dressed better? Their clothes weren't poor in quality, but they were a far cry from the silks and armors that the Royal Family was entitled to. Still, at least the peasants had the politeness to come out and meet the new arrivals. Azula wished she had her crown so that she could receive her new subjects properly, but a Princess accepts difficulty with honor. She stood straight and traversed the sands regally as she approached the gathered crowd.
The people wore a mix of colors. Most favored green, and there was a scattering of blue, but a significant portion of the crowd wore grays. The old woman in the lead wore a tunic of faded purple, but she was unique in that respect. The two children of similar skin-tone who trailed immediately after her just wore blue.
Azula looked at them and waited for them to bow.
Then Mom bent at the waist while spreading her hands out humbly, and Azula felt her own jaw drop. Mom straightened and said, "Thank you for sheltering us. We are honored by your kindness, and vow to honor in turn the multinational harmony of the village you have built here."
Zuko hastily bowed, but Azula just crossed her arms and scowled; she was not bowing to peasants, and she didn't care who had a problem with that.
The old woman just nodded at them. "You are welcome. My name is Kanna. My son Hakoda leads this village, but he is away. Chey will show you your house and let you know about your share of the chores. Mind your children." Then she turned and started shuffling away, the rest of the crowd moving with her.
Azula looked up at her mother, wondering if that was as insulting as she thought. "Mom, the peasants didn't seem very welcoming. I thought we were safe here." Mom was blinking with surprise, and Azula knew she was right.
"We are safe. And welcome, like Elder Kanna said." Mom closed her eyes and sighed. "We'll just have to work to make friends, is all. You're good at making friends, so that shouldn't be too much of a challenge for you."
Azula smiled. That was true, she was very good at making friends. Back at the Royal Academy for Girls, she found Mai and Ty Lee, the best girls in the entire school, and made them her friends. (she didn't miss them she didn't miss them) Azula glanced over at Zuko, and was pleased to see him looking glummer than usual; he didn't have any friends. Ever. "Don't worry, Zuzu. After I make friends with the smartest, most fun kids around, I'll catch you a Water Tribe barbarian whom you can play games with."
Azula grinned at Zuko's blushing scowl, and ignored her mother's lecture about how 'barbarian' was now a bad word.
It turned out that the two blue-clad kids who trailed after Old Woman Kanna were the only kids in the village, besides Azula and Zuko now. This was less than pleasing, but Mom had challenged Azula, so she couldn't back down. The elder was a boy and the younger a girl, so they would make a perfect pair of friends for Zuko and Azula. Hopefully, they would have some useful skills; friends were fun, but they were also tools, and had to be taken care of like good tools.
As soon as the ugly Chey man showed them their house (another horrid gray shack), the young Princess snuck off to explore and stalk her friendship prospects. She would do better without Zuzu tagging along, and if Mom knew what she was planning, there would just be another lecture about not calling people 'peasants' anymore.
Friendship, in Azula's experience, started with observation.
The village itself wasn't terribly busy, but everyone was occupied with some rustic task or another. Azula was fascinated by one man who was cutting up some dead animal, but she could always learn more about that later. Others were carving things, or building things, or repairing some shack or another. It was all so silly. They should just have found some servants and forced them to do all that work. Maybe if they did, they could build some real houses and not have to live in ugly gray shacks.
She didn't find the Water Tribe kids until she got to the other side of the village, right along the beach. The girl was dancing or something at the surf's edge, while the boy sat on the sand and watched her. Then Azula realized that the water in front of the girl wasn't moving with the other waves. It was rising and falling of its own accord. In time with the girl's movements.
Waterbender.
Intriguing. Grandfather had ordered all the Waterbenders killed.
Azula watched for a while, crouched behind some tall grasses. The girl didn't seem to know many moves, being content to just influence the size and lapping of the waves in front of her, but she kept at it with a diligence that Azula could respect. The boy just lazed about, chewing something while he alternated between watching his sister and chattering at the edge of Azula's hearing. Perhaps he was the village idiot. Azula read about village idiots in her old storybooks.
The young Princess decided it was time to act on the intelligence she had gathered. She put on a nice smile and walked out to approach the other kids. "Hello! I'm Pr- um, Azula. Today, you have been graced by fate, chosen to be my companions. What are your names?" Both children turned to stare at her. The Waterbender froze up completely, and the water around her flattened. Azula bit back a sigh. Perhaps they were Simple. "I. Said. I'm. Azula. Who. Are. You?"
The boy stood up. "Gran-Gran said you're from the Fire Nation. Is that true?" He leaned forward, feet spread apart with hands held out from his body, and stared at Azula with narrowed eyes. It was a typical attack stance.
Ah, so they weren't simple. They were intimidated by her greatness. That was good; Azula could definitely work with that. Snapping a hand up like a magician making confetti explode out of thin air, she summoned a ball of beautiful orange flame in her palm and said with all due authority, "I am a Child of Fire, born to bring light to a dark world."
The Waterbender girl shrieked like an injured messenger hawk and ran away.
The boy pulled a bone knife of some kind from his belt and pointed it right at Azula. "Stay back! I won't let you hurt my sister!"
Azula blinked several times, trying to decide what to do. She didn't think she had done anything overly aggressive, and she considered herself an expert on aggressive actions. Perhaps these kids had never seen a Firebender before? She supposed that might be scary. But what to do about that? Finally, she found an option that experience told her was most likely to diffuse whatever this strange situation was. "Truce!" She lowered her hands slowly and let the fire go out. "Truce."
Then the adults arrived.
"I didn't attack anybody! They asked if I was from the Fire Nation, so I provided a visual aid." Azula crossed her arms and sat down on her new (it better be new) futon. "It's not like I lit anyone's hair on fire. Which Icould have."
Mom buried her face in her hands in a most undignified manner. She stayed that way for a full ten seconds before she looked back up at her daughter. "Azula, I know this is difficult. We're starting a new life in a very strange place, a kind of life with which you don't have any experience. It's inevitable that there are going to be... misunderstandings. We have to be as nice as possible so that people will learn to like us. That means, for now, no Firebending near other people. Especially not anyone from the Water Tribes."
On the other side of the one-room shack, Zuko made a show of kicking the wall, but not very hard because he was a baby that way. "Great, first we have to wear gray clothes while we're here, and now we can't Firebend. Way to go, Azula. You're such a Dum-Dum."
Azula looked over at him, decided she didn't like the superior look in his eyes, and launched herself screeching at him. Mom herself was screaming by the time she tore the two kids apart, and made them both sit in opposite corners of the house until the Chey man brought stew for dinner. Azula didn't know what her mother was so upset about; it's not like she lit Zuko's hair on fire, which she could have.
That night, lying awake on her futon, Azula heard Mom sobbing in the dark. She wondered if Mom missed Dad, too.
Morning came and, over breakfast, Mom delivered a briefing that Azula only half-listened to. Something about having to go learn how to boil tar or somesuch nonsense. Mom noted that Zuko and Azula were going to have to learn how to do chores, too. "But for now," Mom said, "I can't deal with learning this and dealing with you two, so you get to stay home and stay out of trouble. Remember not to wear anything red." Azula wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't; Mom was in a really bad mood this morning, and even Azula knew to respect her mother's bad moods. Already on her way out the door, Mom finished with, "Why don't you two go find someplace to practice your hand-to-hand defense? Just spar with each other, and watch that you don't Firebend. Azula, no spraining your brother's joints."
As soon as their mother was gone, though, Azula stuck her tongue out at Zuzu and took off into the village. She had better things to do than baby-sit her own big brother.
Like finding those two Water Tribe kids and figuring out what their problem was.
Azula knew stealth, and she was soon moving through the village completely unnoticed in her new (it better be new) gray tunic. She didn't find the Water Tribe kids on the beach like yesterday, so she had to do more searching. She did find Mom in the carpenter's shack, holding a big bucket of black goop that another woman was stirring, but that was boring to watch. Once again, she saw the big man carving up batches of meat, and Azula was quite impressed by the length of the knife he got to use. Mai would be jealous (she didn't miss Mai she didn't miss Mai ). Still, that wasn't what she was here for.
She found the kids behind the oldest-looking shack in the village. Both of them were combing through a pelt that had been detached from its animal owner and strung up on a rack. Checking to make sure that her topknot was still nice, Azula walked slowly around to the small yard. "Good morning. I hope you two are feeling calmer today."
Both froze at her voice. The boy recovered first, turning to face the Fire Princess and waving the girl away. "Go inside, Katara. I'll take care of this."
Katara. Azula made a mental note.
She waited for the Waterbender to leave before speaking again. "You act like I'm going to do something horrible to you." She widened her beautiful golden eyes in a way that never failed to get Mom on her side. "I just want to be friends with the Waterbender girl. She seems nice."
"Katara doesn't want to be friends with any Fire Nation monsters." He turned around again with a stomp. "And neither do I."
Hm, this was odd. Everyone at the Royal Academy for Girls wanted to be friends with her. It was much better than being her enemy. It was like all these people didn't know anything about Royalty. Azula decided to teach them, starting with this one. He wasn't as old as Zuko, perhaps Mai's age, but you had to start somewhere, and he was convenient.
Azula walked around to face the boy again. "Oh, now that's not very welcoming. My family has been cast adrift by our nation, and when we come to grace your village with our friendship, you call us monsters. What have we ever done to you?"
"All Fire Nation people are monsters. And you!" The boy began waving his hands in front of him like he was having some kind of seizure. "You can do the wooshy-fire-thingy with your hands! We definitely don't want that around here!"
"Really." Azula leaned into his face and narrowed her eyes. "And just why wouldn't you like the Agni Warrior's gift to my people, the gift that enabled the world to rise out of savagery, the gift that allowed us to separate ourselves from the beasts?" She reached out and quickly grabbed his tunic. He was taller than her, so she just yanked and unbalanced him so that she was the only thing keeping him from falling. "Hm?"
He looked down at the ground, then up at her, and Azula could see the delicious fear in his eyes. Then, his face set and his eyes grew hard. He shifted his jaw as if to speak, but instead he spat right in Azula's face. "Because you Firebenders killed my mom!"
The barbarian's saliva dripped down Azula's cheek. She felt the Fire kindling in her heart, reaching out along her chi-paths in search of this peasant's fragile skin. She wanted so much to burn him. But a Princess accepts difficulty with honor. Azula let go of the boy with one hand, and used it to calmly wipe the spit off her face. Leaning forward so that her hot breath splashed against Sokka's face, she hissed, "Firebenders killed my dad. Mom says that if Fire Lord Azulon, my grandfather, ever found us, he would kill us all as a warning to other traitors. So spare me your petty anger, barbarian."
Then Azula clenched her soiled hand into a fist and slammed it into the boy's face so hard her own knuckles hurt. She threw him to the ground and stomped off, managing to successfully make it out of the yard before the tears fell. She had them back under control by the time she got home.
A Princess accepts difficulty with honor.
Soon enough, everyone was talking about "Sokka's" black eye. It didn't endear Azula to the locals at all, but then, she wasn't expecting it to, even though she could have used fire but didn't. Zuzu, on the other hand, apologized to Sokka and his family on her behalf. Unprompted. Azula bet that people just loved him already.
To ashes with them all!
Azula vowed that she would be on the next boat out of there, even if it meant she would be a kid alone in the world. Mom was completely impotent, Zuzu was a disgrace, Dad was at best a pile of ash in the family crypt or scattered across a footpath somewhere at worst, and Grandfather was a vindictive monster who wouldn't roll over and die when it was his time. Azula didn't need any of them. She was better off alone. If no one could appreciate her the way Dad did-
Until another boat arrived, though, Mom insisted that it was time for Azula to learn a chore. "Honey, I think it'd be best if you started contributing to the village's well-being. It would give you something to do, and people will come to appreciate you if you help out."
Azula scowled from her stupid, too-thin futon. "Zuzu doesn't have to learn a chore."
"Stop calling me that!"
"Your brother is going to learn a chore, too. He's going to come to work with me at the carpenter's." Sitting down next to Azula, Mom put on a smile that didn't reach her beautiful golden eyes. "Now, where would you like to work? You've been walking around the village. Did you see anything you want to try?"
She didn't want to do peasant work, but there was one job that at least looked a little interesting. And if she was going to be out on her own, it might be a useful skill. "I saw a man cutting up animals. He had a really nice knife."
Mom blinked. "The butcher?"
"Is that what they call it?" Azula considered that. "But where do the animals come from? He wasn't cutting up one of those they keep for fur in the pens. And I didn't see any large farms like the Governors administrate for Gr- Fire Lord Azulon."
"They hunt for them, honey. Large farms would give away this village's location, so they send hunters into the woods to catch the large animals."
Azula slowly smiled. "I want to hunt. Away from these stupid peasants."
Zuzu ran up and leaned on their mother's shoulder. "Please let her do it! It'd be nice to send her off on long hunting trips. And the adults will take care of her."
"And if you let me, I won't have to find new ways to keep my Firebending sharp. Here in the village." Azula giggled and smiled up at her mother with her own beautiful golden eyes. "Where everyone will see me."
Mom sighed and sunk her face into her hands again.
A hunting trip was heading out soon, and Mom's request to let Azula go along was accepted by the leader, a man in green named Hun. On the day, Mom brought Azula out to the village's center around mid-morning. A group of men were gathered, checking over their backpacks and spears. Azula herself brought a knife and a few supplies, but nothing like the huge packs the others did. Typical. Mom had left her completely unprepared.
Then the last arrivals showed up, and Azula was at a loss for a reaction.
It was Sokka, bearing his own large backpack, with his grandmother and sister trailing behind him. When he saw Azula, his eyes widened- well, his one good eye widened, while his puffy black eye stayed shut- and he froze in place. "Aw, you have to be kidding me!"
Azula gave him her best death-glare, the one she learned from Dad, but Mom stepped in front of her immediately. "Azula is very sorry she hit you, and promises that she'll be on her best behavior during this trip."
"Wait, she's going on a hunting trip?!" Sokka looked up at Kanna. "But girls aren't allowed to hunt?"
Azula blinked. "Why not? My mother has already explained the bathroom situation, and I'm confident I can handle it. But no peeking!"
Katara gasped and started tugging on her grandmother's dress. "I want to go too! I know how to pee in a bush! Please please please I want to try hunting!"
With a sigh, Kanna leaned down and rubbed the top of her granddaughter's head. "Katara, if you go hunting, who will help around the house? Your father is still on his trip. If you want, you can ask him when he gets back about going next time." Then she looked over at Mom. "Are you sure about letting your daughter go this time? It's just going to be men, on this trip, none of them her family."
"If she were any other little girl, I would agree that it's a troublesome situation." Mom just massaged her forehead like she had a headache. "But I know Azula."
Sokka sighed. "Hmph. I hate this place. Back in the South Pole, men did men-jobs and women did women-jobs. None of this crazy mixed-up stuff."
Azula hadn't even got out the first syllable of "barbarians" out before Mom gave her enough of a kick to silence her.
Hun's instructions were simple as they set out for the hunting grounds, deep in the forest. "Follow me, do what I do, and shut up." Azula liked him; he was just like a Fire Army general, and the long march to the hunting grounds helped reinforce that image. What she wasn't so pleased with were his instructions for setting up the campsite once they arrived late in the afternoon. "Azula, since you didn't bring a tent, you'll bunk with Sokka. Don't kill each other."
"But!" said Sokka.
"But!" said Azula.
But it did no good. So Azula simply sat and watched, steaming a little (literally), while Sokka set up his small tent. Planting one of the support sticks into the ground, he grumbled, "Feel free to help any time."
Azula rolled her eyes. "Feel free to teach me if you want help. Dum-Dum."
"Why are you even here? Hunting is man's work!"
"Obviously, I'm here to torture you. Now that I've been exiled from the Fire Nation, I've decided to take up a sacred mission of annoying any Water Tribe boys I meet. And I seem to be so good at it!"
Sokka didn't say anything to that. He just kept working on his tent. Azula may not have liked the situation, but she kept an eye on him regardless, taking in the way he set up the tent's structure, and draped and fastened the covering into place. She committed the entire procedure to memory. She might have to live out of a tent if she ran away from home.
That done, the two children were called over to help with other chores around the campsite. Azula was allowed to light the campfire but didn't get the appreciative noises she was expecting for the ease with which she got a good blaze going. The whole group sat around the campfire as they ate their dinners, and the talk soon turned to jokes that Azula didn't get. She resolved to find out why it was so funny to say that Mom was 'hot' for a Fire Nation woman; as far as Azula knew, her mother's temperature was standard for a Firebender. Sokka seemed to be generally enjoying himself, black eye and all, and for some reason that annoyed Azula. She just ate her apples- the only food her mother had packed- and observed everything.
Then it was time to go to sleep.
In Sokka's tent.
"This side is yours, and this one is mine," was the first thing the Water Tribe boy said as they unrolled their sleeping bags.
Azula clasped her hands together and gave him an imploring look. "Ooh, don't be so mean. You can feel free to cuddle if you get lonely for your family in the night. My brother loves cuddling with me." She punctuated the offer with a smile that was all teeth.
Sokka ignored her, to Azula's disappointment. Zuzu always reacted so deliciously to sarcasm.
Once Azula was settled in her sleeping bag, Sokka reached up for the lantern hanging from the tent's central support stick, but she beat him to killing the flame with a simple exhalation and hand motion. The tent plunged into darkness, and Sokka said, "I wish you would stop with the Firebending."
Azula didn't take that bait, but it did bring to something else to mind, and she figured that she had nothing to lose with this barbarian. "Did your mother fight in the war?"
"What?"
"You said the Fire Nation killed her. Was she a soldier?"
He was silent for so long she had begun to think that he wasn't going to answer. "No, she wasn't a soldier. The Fire Nation came looking for Waterbenders and attacked my Tribe. They killed her in my family's home. Katara was the last to see her."
Azula considered that. She supposed it was sad, in an abstract way, but if his mother was a Waterbender, then that was for all intents and purposes the same thing as being a soldier. Her lessons on Grandfather's policies had been clear on that much. She was drifting off to sleep, vague shapes of Enemy Waterbenders who looked like the screechy Katara girl swirling through her mind, when Sokka spoke again and snapped Azula back to full waking. "Was your dad a soldier?"
Azula snorted. "My dad was a prince. He wanted to rule the entire Fire Nation as Fire Lord. We lived in a palace and had servants to do our hunting for us."
"So then how did your dad die?"
"I- I don't know." Azula surprised herself at the admission. She knew all the proceeding events- that Uncle Iroh had lost cousin Lu Ten and shut down the Siege of Ba Sing Se, that Dad had asked Grandfather to be made the crown prince, and how Grandfather had decided to punish him for it. Dad was going to have to kill Zuko, something Azula found rather funny, but then Mom found out.
It was all vague from there. The next thing Azula knew, Mom was waking her up in the night, telling her that they had to go right away. They left the Capital in the night, and on Ember Island, they found announcements of Dad's execution for treason, along with wanted posters for the rest of their family. Mom had then taken Azula and Zuko to Shu Jing, to her swordsman friend who she thought could help them get away.
"I thought he was the best," Azula found herself saying. "I was his favorite. But then he messed up somehow, and they killed him for it while I ran away."
And that was all there was to it. The one person whom Azula respected in all the world, the only one who valued Azula for who she really was, was dead because he wasn't as good as he thought he was. So what else might he have been mistaken about?
In the dark, Azula suddenly felt very, very alone.
Sokka's voice came back softly. "Do you want to hurt them for what they did to your dad?"
Azula let the thought bounce around her mind as she felt sleep overcoming her again. "I guess it's worth trying." It was a purpose, at least.
The two children slept through the night, unconsciousness allowing them to be at peace in each other's presence for the first time.
TO BE CONTINUED