Author's Note - This is an AU at the most fundamental level. This is a world where Lu Ten never died, and a look at one possible life the royal siblings might have led if that one event changed. It is certainly not a deep and perfect representation of actions and consequences, it is just something that made me happy and that i decided to share.

A Rivalry Averted

Year - 104 AG

Azula grinned to herself as she crept up behind Zuko. No one would have heard her feather-light foot steps approaching. She keeps her breathing calm and controlled. Her brother is facing the rising sun, so her shadow is unable to betray her position. Even the wind is on her side as it gently brushes the black locks out of her eyes.

Zuko stretches, yawning loudly as he drinks in the first rays of morning sunlight. It is the perfect moment. She strikes, lunging forward and clutching his shoulders, shaking him as she lets out a feral growl near his ear. He jerks and is half way into a standing position before he recognizes his attacker.

"You nearly knocked us both off the roof!" He huffed and sat back down, dangling his legs over the side. She sits beside him and laughs for a few more moments before leaning back on her hands and smirking at him.

"You know I'd never let you fall, Zuzu. You worry to much." She sighs and closes her eyes, enjoying the warmth on her skin. "It's your fault for not coming past my room when you came out, anyway."

"I figured you were probably still... Busy." Zuko blushed slightly as he remembered the heated glances his sister and her lover had been sharing as they escaped from dinner last night. "Dad was not happy. I don't appreciate you pissing him off then leaving the rest of us to deal with it."

"I... Sorry Zuko. That was selfish. I wasn't thinking about what would happen after we left... Was it bad?" Azula gave her brother an apologetic smile. He sighed.

"Nothing we weren't able to deal with. It was a good thing Uncle was eating with us though, or Dad would have probably burnt down the palace." Zuko chuckles and shakes his head. "Lu Ten is getting back this evening."

"You hero worship of him is probably unhealthy, Zuzu." Azula rolls her eyes. Zuko sticks his tongue out.

"I don't recall you ever lecturing Ty Lee when she hero worshiped you."

"Totally not the same. At least Ty Lee and I were friends. And now a bit more. Plus, she grew out of worshiping me, and I grew out of demanding it. You've followed Lu Ten around like a lost puppy since before I could walk!"

"You're right, I guess. He was like an older brother, though. Only he was also a war hero, and like Uncle, only his stories made a lot more sense." Zuko groans. "I really do hero worship him, don't I?"

"I'm afraid so." Azula snickers and points off toward the harbor. "We should go out and meet him when he gets back. Dad will be a jerk about it, but Uncle will take us."

The siblings sit in comfortable silence for a while before Zuko turns to his sister and straightens up.

"What do you think we'd be like if Dad was Fire Lord instead of Uncle?" His question makes her raise an eyebrow. "I'm serious. Uncle and Lu Ten both went to war at Ba Sing Se, and they were out there for nearly two years. It's not unthinkable that something could have happened to them. Then where would we be?"

"I don't know... I never waste my time with what ifs like that. But if I had to guess... Mom would probably have left him. She very nearly did anyway, after Grandfather Azulon died. Then it would have just been us and him. No Mom, no Uncle, no Lu Ten... I don't even want to think how messed up we would have been." Azula swallows. "I'm glad that didn't happen. Dad would have driven us to the breaking point to follow after him..."

"I think you are probably right. And that was when you were at your worst... If Dad had been the only one around us then, he would have let you tear me apart. Scratch that, he would have encouraged it. Then you'd have been an only child, he'd be short one disappointment, and the war would still be going." Zuko leans back on the roof, watching the clouds roll past.

"Only child... I would hate that. I know we fought pretty badly for a while, but I don't think I could have stayed sane through everything without you." She lays back next to him and leans her head against his shoulder. "Ty Lee is probably awake and wondering where I went by now... I should go find her before Dad does." She rises gracefully to her feet and makes her way back toward her room.

"Meet me at the gate after lunch so we can go down to the dock?" Zuko calls to her. She looks over her shoulder and grins at him.

"Only if you bring your girlfriend. Dad won't be there, so you don't need to hide her. Lu Ten will want to meet her, and I haven't gotten to hang out with her for weeks either. Ty Lee has only even met her once!"

"Fine! I was going to invite her anyway, so don't think you talked me into anything!" He closes his eyes as she slips out of sight.

"Brother, calm down." Iroh is trying his best not to say something unnecessarily rude, but Ozai is making self control very difficult.

"How the hell can you expect me to calm down?! She's sleeping with some circus freak! Not just a girl, but a non-bender as well! It's beneath her! She should be courting a suitable male noble and producing an heir to the bloodline!" Ozai has steam pouring from his mouth in his rage.

"She is seventeen years old. Eighteen in weeks. She is relatively low on the list of succession, especially with the war over. She need not concern herself with heirs and nobility, so long as she is happy. From what I saw, she is very happy."

"Her happiness is meaningless! She is a child and I am her father! She is a bending prodigy and a tactical genius! She should be leading armies and conquering nations, not wasting her time and skills on her failure of a brother and a slut from the circus!" The younger brother does a sudden shift from furious to fearful as Iroh stands from the throne and glares down at him.

"You will not speak in such a way of my niece and nephew, Ozai. Ever. Father or not, you are a fool. I thought you would have learned some small measure of humility after challenging me to an Agni Kai at our father's funeral, but it seems your thick head is not so easily swayed!" Iroh forces himself to take a deep breath and calm himself. "That girl was balanced on a knife's edge when I returned, and had I not, I fear you would have made her into an unrecognizable monster. What will it take for you to see that family is more important than power?"

"Says the man with the power..." Ozai growls and turns away from the throne. The Agni Kai was probably his lowest moment. He would not deny, that had been a truly foolish act of arrogance. The Dragon of the West had been a general on the front lines not even two months before, while he had never once fought outside of training. It had not even been a contest.

"I would hand my power to my son, or even my niece or nephew with no regrets, save that they would loose the chance to be children for the sake of our nation. You and you alone are the only reason I desire to hold this position. You would have continued the war for another century. You would never have accepted the Avatar's offer of peace." Iroh sat back down, one hand rubbing his eyes as he thought back to the day the Fire Nation had pulled back its troops from every corner of the Earth Kingdom. Ozai had been beyond furious.

"Our grandfather left us a legacy that you threw away for nothing! The Fire Nation gained nothing and lost much! This peace is just a coward's failure! One hundred years of power, and you destroy it in an afternoon! Out father would have spit on you and given me your crown in a heartbeat!"

"One hundred years of death and pain, both for the other nations, and our own. One hundred years of imbalance in the world. We enacted genocide on the most peaceful people in the world simply to eliminate a single threat. Our crimes were horrific, and we gained mercy and compassion for accepting peace. Our people are prospering, and other nations have opened their borders to us freely. This is better than anything we would have gained in war."

"My own son is involved with an Earthbender! At least the circus slut is from the Fire Nation!"

"Your son is a young man now, and you have no say in his romantic affairs. That being said, even you could not have found a more powerful bender. She faced King Bumi of Omashu one on one at thirteen years old and came away the victor. She is blind and she is the Earth Kingdom's most powerful and skilled bender in written history." Iroh is quite fond of his nephew's girlfriend, but that argument would only enrage his brother more. Better to appeal to what Ozai values.

"Blind! Their children could be born crippled! And she is far too young for him! She is younger than Azula!"

"Indeed, she is. They have made their own decision to postpone any intimacy for another two years, until she is an adult by Earth Kingdom laws. By Fire Nation laws, they could be married as it stands. He respects her culture. Their relationship may not be perfect, but it is a thing that may work wonders for our people to see. Fire and Earth, united."

"My daughter is wasting her life with a useless girl. My son is shaming me with an Earthbender. What will your own son do to end the line of Sozin? Find a woman from the swamp?" Ozai sneers in disgust.

"You are dismissed, brother. I have a meeting I need to attend before I go and greet my son. I intend to take Azula and Zuko with me when I do so." Iroh has no more patience for his brother today.

"Do what you like... They are nothing to me. You have the throne. You may as well have my children as well. They both prefer you anyway." Ozai stalks sullenly down the aisle leading from the throne to the door.

"Oh Ozai... You tremendous fool... I love you, but how can you be so blind? If you would just accept them as the children you have, they would adore you..." Iroh sighs and stands, stretching before he moves to the adjacent meeting room. When he arrives, he finds the others already in attendace. He bows humbly. "My deepest apologize. I had to attend to family matters."

"It's no trouble. Family should always be a man's first concern." Chief Hakoda smiles warmly at the Fire Lord. "I only just arrived myself." He directed a pointed glance at the lanky teenager sitting beside him.

Chief Arnook, King Kuei, King Bumi, Chief Hakoda, Fire Lord Iroh, and Avatar Aang sit around the low table with a map spread between them.

"Alright, so... This is what I had in mind." Aang reaches up to the western shore of the Earth Kingdom and traces a circle with his finger. "This land is technically Earth Kingdom, although it has been occupied by the Fire Nation since the first years of the war. This region is now completely uninhabited, but entirely capable of supporting structures and crops. I would like to establish a city with elected leaders from every nation, where everyone can live as equals. Keeping the nation separate has worked in the past, but I think for lasting balance, that separation needs to be broken down. It will have to be slow at first, though. One city. It's a start."

"A single city... A pilot program, to see if it can work. I like it." Kuei smiles happily at Aang. "I have no objections to turning over this land for such a cause."

"Some of my water benders can help with the initial irrigation. It will take time for everything to settle in the way we need it for a lasting establishment, but it is certainly possible." Arnook nods his agreement.

"Aang, this is the kind of mad genius I always knew you had in you!" Bumi grins.

"I have a minor concern that the Southern Water Tribe has too few citizens to contribute much as it stands. Immigrants from the north have been bolstering our tribe, but it may be several years before we could fully participate in this project as equals." Hakoda said.

"It will be several years before anyone more than initial settlers will be able to live there, anyway. My concern is non-benders." Aang said, sitting as lightly as a cat. "I want people from every nation to be able to live here as equals, and that includes non-benders. But there isn't really a way to elect a representative for all non-benders of every nation as things stand now. It would be unfair to have a Fire Nation non-bender making proposals on behalf of non-benders from the Earth Kingdom, but it would also be unfair not to have representation for them at all. I was hoping you would have some wisdom to shine on that, Fire Lord Iroh."

"Hmmm... The simplest solution I could think of would be to allow two representatives per nation, one bender and one non-bender, to fully represent their people. Another option, although it would require treading very lightly, would be to assemble non-benders from every nation, then find a way to mix them in such a way none of them knew where the others were from, then have them vote among themselves for a representative."

"Lu Ten!" Zuko grinned as he called out to his cousin. The man, looks, squints, and then leaps over the railing of the ship's ramp to land on the dock and hug Zuko tightly.

"Zuko! You've gone and grown up! You're the same height as me!" Lu Ten held his cousin at arms length and looked him over. "And you let your hair grow out some! Good! Shaving everything but the top knot was a dreadful fashion choice for our nation!" He turned his gaze to the girl standing awkwardly beside them. "Azula!" He pulled her into a hug as well, catching her off guard. After a moment's hesitation, she returned the hug as well. "How long have I been gone? You've become a beautiful young woman without anyone telling me!"

"Far too long, my son." Iroh smiles warmly at the reunion of his family. "Your trip was safe?"

"Of course." Lu Ten nearly lifted his father from the ground with his embrace. "I missed you so much, Dad..."

"I missed you too, Son. I am sorry I could not accompany you. I am so glad to have you back..." Iroh brushed away his tears and gestured grandly at the two less familiar faces. "Azula and Zuko have brought two young ladies they would like you to meet."

Azula felt her cheeks burning as she reached a hand out to take one of Ty Lee's.

"I... I think you may have seen her with me before you went to Ba Sing Se this last time, but I don't believe you have ever been properly introduced. Lu Ten, this is my... girlfriend, Ty Lee. Ty Lee, this is my cousin and the crown prince, Lu Ten." Azula stepped aside slightly so the acrobat could give her most winning smile and bow to her cousin.

"My turn, I guess. Toph, as you heard, this is Lu Ten. Lu Ten, I would like you to meet Toph Bei Fong. The greatest Earthbender in the world. If she had been born ten years earlier, Ba Sing Se might never have fallen. Or she might have taken it first. Hard to say sometimes." Zuko grinned as the blind girl punched his shoulder. She stepped forward and shook hands with Lu Ten, surprising him slightly.

"It's nice to meet you. Zuko has told me a lot about you, but no story is as good as feeling someone's heartbeat for yourself." Her comment makes Lu Ten raise an eyebrow.

"Don't be fooled. She may be blind, but she sees more than anyone I have ever met." Zuko looked fondly at the green-clad rumble champion. "Mom wanted to come with us, but it is a bad idea to leave our father unsupervised when he is in a bad mood. Servants tend to end up crispy..."

"Ah... So my uncle hasn't changed much, since I last saw him, has he?" Lu Ten looked sad.

"I'm afraid that if he has changed, it has not been for the better." Iroh put an arm around his son's shoulder and the group began walking away from the dock and toward the palace.

As father and son catch up on years apart, the four younger members of the group fall back to talk.

"He's super cute." Ty Lee grins as Azula gives her a jealous nudge. "Not as cute as you, Princess. But still, woah. No one needs to worry about him producing an heir or twenty..."

"He feels like Uncle. I like him. You picked a pretty good guy to idolize, Sparky." Toph comments idly. "He was genuinely happy to see and meet all of us. That's not something I have seen before."

"Sparky?" Azula grins and her brother groans. "That's adorable, Zuzu."

"Ty Lee, just go ahead and kill me now." Zuko gives the acrobat a look of despair as the other two laugh at each others nicknames for him.

"Oh it's not that bad! I used to call you Awkward Turtle Duck." Ty Lee contributed, enciting another round of laughs from Azula and Toph.

"I almost like that one as much as Sparky!" Toph said. "Why didn't you let me hang out with these two more before?!"

"Because my father is psychotic and I didn't want him to attack you and get himself turned into a royal carpet stain." Zuko took her hand and fell into step behind his sister. "With Lu Ten around again, there are probably enough royal Firebenders to get him out alive."

"She could take Dad?! Where did you meet this girl?!" Azula turned in shock to her brother. "Can you teach me anything? I've mastered everything about Firebending I can find, but Uncle was able to invent his own techniques from watching Waterbenders. Maybe we can invent something even greater!"

"I taught the Avatar to Earthbend, and he was like a flighty rabbit on a constant sugar rush. If I can teach him, I can teach a Firebending prodigy to do anything." Toph grins and holds up her hand, the strip of metal around her wrist flowing off like a liquid. "I haven't shown this off to anyone but Zuko and Uncle yet, but I invented Metalbending."

"Marry her. Dad can go ahead and disown us both. Marry her now. We're keeping her, and if you make me marry her, Ty Lee will probably kill you." Azula says very seriously to her brother.

"Give us a few more years, Azula." Zuko laughs at the look of awe he has rarely seen pass over his sister's face. "You can help us work on Lavabending, though."

"Lavabending... Lavabending!? Zuko, how long have you kept this a secret from me?!" Azula looks genuinely hurt and Zuko feels guilty.

"Only a few weeks... We had the idea after my birthday, but we hadn't made any progress yet. If we managed anything, I would have told you. We haven't kept secrets from each other since I was fourteen or so..."

"I know... Sorry. Lavabending... Even Sozin and Roku could only do so much against lava..." Azula intertwines her fingers with Ty Lee's as she walks, her thoughts wandering to the possibilities.

Year - 108 AG

"Izumi... She's beautiful, Zuko." Azula carefully holds the newborn girl to her chest. Ty Lee is nearly beside herself with excitement. The princess knows she will probably be having a long talk tonight about their own options for conception. "Think she'll be a Firebender or an Earthbender?"

"Who knows? Maybe she'll be both and Aang will be out of a job." Zuko shrugged, his exhausted wife cradles against him. Katara had already come and gone, preforming a complete healing on the stubborn Earthbender. She wanted to stay and make girly noises over the baby as well, but she and her brother were scheduled to set out for their tribe that evening with their father.

"Zuko, can I leave you alone for ten minutes without you trying to replace me?" Aang slips through the door like the wind, grinning at his friend. Azula and Zuko had taken on the arduous task of teaching the Avatar Firebending at the request of their uncle. That was how Zuko had met Toph and the rest of the gang. "It's an interesting idea... Then if Katara and I have a Water and Airbender, they could get together and have a little Avatar, and I could stop with the whole reincarnation thing."

"Isn't half the point of the Avatar to give some mother a heart attack when her child bends the wrong element?" Azula passes the child to the Airbender reluctantly and pulls her girlfriend onto her lap instead.

"I guess that depends on the Avatar... I didn't bend anything but air until I was twelve. Until then, the elders were only mostly sure I was the Avatar. They had three children born the same night Roku died, so they were sort of guessing until I froze a pool to skate on." Aang laughed. "I heard that Roku bent earth before fire. There was a whole scandal about who his mother had been with until it became clear he was the Avatar."

"Just imagine how much easier my job would have been if you had done that! You had absolutely no natural talent for Earthbending, Twinkletoes." Toph snapped, then snuggled closer to Zuko's chest. "Hey Bendy, it's your turn to hold Izumi before I take her back."

Ty Lee leaped from Azula's lap and eagerly accepted the child from Aang's arms.

"She is so small!" Ty Lee let out a quiet squeal and bounced gently on her toes. "Oh Azula... We have to have a baby someday..."

"We'll... discuss the options." Azula has to admit, the baby is adorable. The thought of training her own son or daughter to Firebend makes her smile. She would be a far better teacher than her father's brutal instruction. She already had some practice from Aang.

"Discuss it after you find out how much trouble babysitting is." Zuko suggests.

"I've babysat Lu Ten's son as much as you have, Zuzu." Azula points out. "And Mai's, while she was home. She's going to be the non-bender representative of the Fire Nation in Republic City." She's sad that she won't get to see her friend as often, but proud that the stoic girl has reached for something of her own, rather than following in someone elses footsteps.

"When will we all be babysitting some little Airbenders?" Toph directed her suggestive grin at Aang. "You're the same age as me, Twinkletoes. You can't use the 'we're too young for that yet' excuse anymore."

"Eh... It might be a little sooner than I had planned..." Aang blushes slightly and avoids the four pairs of eyes fixed on him. "Chief Hakoda says the wedding is set for the middle of summer and I have no say in it."

"Way to go, Aang!" Toph laughs and holds out her arms. "Give me my screaming poo larva!"

"You can not call her that!" Zuko slaps his hand to his face as Ty Lee passes the baby to her mother.

"It's just a place holder until something more appropriate emerges." Toph brushes off her husband's concern. At twenty years old, trivial concerns like royal propriety matter less than ever to Toph Bei Fong. After two years of marriage, Zuko should know better by now.

Year - 110 AG

"Hey Sis." Toph feels Azula's foot steps approaching through the tiles on the roof. "Sparky told me this was your favorite spot when you guys were younger."

"Yeah... When I was twelve, Uncle came back from Ba Sing Se and chewed me out for the way I treated everyone and I came up here to cry. No one had ever really tore into me like that before. I was a princess, so I thought I could get away with everything. Zuko came up an hour later and held me till I stopped crying. We've been close ever since. It's amazing how one little thing can change everything."

"I know what you mean... If your dad had been the elder child instead of Uncle... It's hard to say, but it wouldn't have been good." Toph crosses her legs. "So... You and Ty Lee are finally going to get married? I was beginning to think you would never get up the nerve to ask her."

"Scariest moment of my life, and I have had my father throw lightning at me in the name of 'practice'. I think my whole world would have collapsed if she said no." Azula breathes a small stream of blue fire. "Can you see a difference between my fire and Zuzu's?"

"Only a little. Uncle's is more different than either. Sparky's fire is like a pygmy puma purring, and yours is like a pygmy puma growling. Uncle's is like a sleeping dragon. Have either of you ever seen him really cut loose?"

"Only once, and even then it wasn't his full strength... Dad challenged him to an Agni Kai for the throne at their dad's funeral. Uncle wiped the floor with him without breaking a sweat, and Dad may be crazy, but he is not a push over. He taught me, after all."

"Zuko likes to think I am the greatest bender in the world, and I don't mind him thinking that, but Uncle is terrifyingly powerful and I don't think anyone knows it but me. He could take Aang and I at the same time, I bet. Unless Aang went all Avatar Spirit on him, then it would be close."

"He's really that powerful?" Azula is surprised. She knew her uncle was a great general, and a well respected Fire Lord, but she had never heard of him being as strong as that...

"I'm kind of nervous to ask him about it, so I wanted to ask around and see if anyone else knew before I did."

"Not me... But if you find out, I'd love to hear that story." Azula thinks for a minute, then smirks. "Sis? That is what you finally decided to call me?"

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

"No. Not one bit."

Author's Note Again - So... I finished reading Embers recently, and the idea of Azula and Zuko as friends intrigued me. I thought about what things might have been like if they had never been the bad guys, and what events would have had to change for that to be the case. I'm sure it is completely wrong, but i wrote it for me, not anyone else. If you like it, that is just a bonus.