All on a Summer's Night

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters there within—they're property of Mike and Brian.

"Where's Zuko?"

Azula had spent the better part of a minute searching faces and scanning over heads for her royal-pain brother, but he was no where to be found. Relenting in the search herself (it was below her anyway); she went over to Ty Lee who was, once again, surrounded by boys. Having elbowed her way through the throng of poorly flirting teens who staggered to the wayside in her presence, the princess directed her question at the pink-clad girl. But Ty Lee seemed to have been caught up in the daze of attention and did not immediately respond.

"Well?"

"Oh," Ty Lee shook her head lightly, glancing back and forth over the room. "I'm not sure."

Keeping her irritation in check, Azula crossed her arms over her chest. More and more of the boys were slinking away, made uncomfortable by the apparent quarrel taking place between the two girls.

"And Mai?"

"Oh wait, I remember. Zuko got kicked out because he broke one of Chan's vases, and then one of the boys said 'your boyfriend's crazy' and Mai got really upset. I think she went outside."

"Kicked out?" Azula repeated, her arms slipping to her sides, an eyebrow cocked high. At Ty Lee's affirmation, she spun around, golden eyes flashing as she looked for the architect of the entire pathetic affair of a "party." The boys that had surrounded Ty Lee quickly scattered at this hostile glare and the acrobatic girl, having lost her drooling fan club, quietly followed. Azula stormed over to where Chan was laughing with a group of teens. She pushed through this group as well, though with less reserve for politeness, and strode directly up to the host until she was a breath from Chan's face. His expression panicked for a moment, before trying to brush off his discomfort as he leaned casually against a support beam.

"No one. Kicks out my brother." She ground out venomously, eyes flashing. Chan ran a shaking hand through his hair and shrugged unconcernedly.

"So what if I did?" he said coolly, undoubtedly made braver in a crowd than on his own.

"You're a misinformed, ignorant, idiot."

A shocked gasp of collective "oohs" passed through the throng as everyone in the immediate vicinity looked at the host for a comeback. Emboldened by the synergy of the crowd, Chan gathered his most articulate and persuasive volley of insults.

"Oh yeah? Well, we…we don't need crazies like you and your bro here; acting crazy and breaking stuff. You guys should have seen it—she went all psycho and said all this stuff about 'world domination.'" He mockingly waved his hands through the air that elicited a bout of laughter from everyone within earshot. One of Azula's eyebrows twitched and Ty Lee tensed visibly behind her. Braver still, Chan continued. "Yeah I know," he agreed with the crowd then pointed his chin rudely towards Azula. "So you can just take your friends and leave. Get out."

Ty Lee had backed away by this time, giving the princess ample space to wreck absolute havoc on all present for the insult, but the princess staggered her with a very different action. After a moment's pause, Azula shrugged indifferently.

"I was just leaving. This party is below us." She mimed leaving for an instant. "Oh and Chan," she sneered and turned, moving very close to his face, enough to make him lose all pretense of any bravery he had mustered from the crowd. "When I do become ruler of the Earth, you'll be the first to go." Silence met her words and her golden gaze left scorching heat every which way they looked before she turned to leave. "Ty Lee, let's go."

Shocked stares followed them as everyone at the party had fallen silent to allow Azula and Ty Lee pass. It was about time they had some respect for their princess. These simpletons and their ignorant stares weren't worth their salt. Azula would make them all pay. But later…later…

Shoving open the door until it banged loudly on the opposite wall, Azula discovered Mai standing alone against the banister in the night. They locked gazes for a moment before Mai looked away. Ty Lee caught the door before it could slam shut and quietly closed it behind them. The murmur that rose in their absence was sure to be the gossip of the week on the beach. Azula cast Mai a questioning glance about the whereabouts of her brother, but Mai simply shrugged. That flame of irritancy was burning through the princess again; she couldn't depend on anyone. Her tight unit had diminished to a disjointed and dysfunctional array of shoddy teenagers. She had to look after all of them. Her clearly crafted, meticulous plans for her friend and brother were looking murky.

"So I guess things didn't go too well with Chan, huh?" Ty Lee said from behind the princess. Azula tossed the girl an incredulous stare; had Ty Lee fallen asleep during the whole confrontation with Chan? How dense did one have to be to not put two and two together?

"What do you think?" She snapped at Ty Lee, who looked elsewhere and bit her lip, unconsciously rubbing her arm. Azula bit out another annoyed accusation towards Mai. "Where's my brother?"

"Zuko's gone." Mai said softly, not meeting Azula's gaze for another intense staring competition.

"And you don't know where he is?" Azula asked coldly. Her brother was some distant place, emotionally ravaged. Again. Mai's dark eyes flickered toward the princess with chill impatience, a far cry from their usual indifference. "You didn't stand up for him when he was thrown out?"

"Mai was talking with another boy and Zuko sorta blew up." Ty Lee interjected, trying to clear up the misunderstanding since Azula had disappeared with Chan at about the time the prince knocked Ruon Jian down. Mai's eyes flickered towards Ty Lee but the raven-haired girl said nothing. Azula did not miss the message.

"Oh?" The princess' voice had that dangerous tint to it and her eyes were locked shrewdly with Mai's. Though Mai's face only betrayed a hint of displeasure, her eyes were smoldering on Azula. Spiteful.

Mai. Mai was difficult to control. Where Ty Lee was firmly obedient and pleasant for stroking the princess' ego, Azula had to use Zuko to keep Mai close to her. Mai was intelligent and independent, but perhaps growing a little too autonomous for Azula's taste. The governor's daughter never let on to her real emotions very easily, compared to Ty Lee, and it made her act like a bucking Mongoose Lizard spitting out the bit that controlled her. Free-willed creatures needed to have their spirits broken. The stare the raven-haired girl gave her now was treacherous. That needed amending. Azula changed tactics.

"It doesn't matter now. Let's just go down to the beach." She started forward without pause to see if the girls followed after her. She knew they would.

The three of them found a set of flat rocks in a semi-circle, most likely set up as a meeting place for teens. It was empty now because every teen that had any brains and social standing were at Chan's party. Ty Lee and Mai settled on two of the slates in the dim moonlight, while Azula stayed standing. She looked out over the sea, the salty, cool breeze causing her hair to ripple behind her. She reached up and curled a stray lock behind her ear and glanced at Ty Lee, who was nervously fidgeting with her braid, trying to fix how messily the hairs had fallen out of place. The acrobatic girl was still recovering from the shock the turn of the party had taken for her; swamped with admirers one moment, then dishonorably discharged in the next. Azula looked over at Mai who sat stoically with her arms folded and legs crossed, staring at nothing in particular. The governor's daughter was struggling with her own feelings over Zuko, but it was obvious she still cared and regret was hovering in the slant of her posture. Good. They weren't going anywhere for awhile.

"Well," Azula sighed aloofly. "I guess I'll go and get Zuko."

"You know where he is?" Mai said doubtfully. Azula's sharp glare quickly melted to superior nonchalance.

"I have a hunch." She turned and waved one hand airily before departing.

Despite Azula's coolly detached manner, she was gallingly thrown into the same situations time and again. Her brother had run off and she had been left the obligation to fetch him. This tireless cycle was fatiguing. The frustrating flare that burned in her chest slowly faded as she walked up the winding path to the old summer home, and a new feeling was replacing it. Indifference. A cold void was gaping wider and wider in her chest and she was soon missing the fire that usually dominated there. The slip in her carefully manicured composure left her open to the attack—the wellspring of feelings that were evoked from this place.

Ember Island.

The place…the time they had all shared together…

With each step came a memory, stronger than the first. She saw Zuko and herself as children running over that grassy hill playing tag, the outcropping of rock where Zuko had stubbed his toe, the spot they had picnicked, together, as a family.

Family. Azula scoffed. They had long been broken as a family years ago.

But the angry fire did not return with these thoughts, only a desolate hopelessness. It disturbed her. The life they had all lived could not be returned to and it was foolish to hope for anything else. She knew this. Then why were these memories tugging so painfully at a heart she had long since closed to hope and tears she had sworn never to shed burned her eyes? She narrowed her eyes until the salty discharge faded and the glistening memories shattered to return to the bleak and darkened beach and nothing more than a house on the hill. She preferred this cold to the ache. Why would Zuko want to return here? Why chose to torment himself this way? To purposely invite this agony of a past that could not be reclaimed? Stupid Zuko. He had forced her to come here and relive the experience, those hot summer days on the beach and the race for ice cream—the days before her mother's treason and her father's ruthlessly high expectations, childishly wishing after an impossible future. Her brother was weak to come here and revive the past.

Reliving the past is a weakness.

Zuko had made her remember. Made her regret.

Her stupid brother.

The brother that had played tag with her.

He is weak.

The brother that had shared ice cream when hers had fallen in the sand.

He is foolish.

The brother that taught her to fly a kite.

He is too emotional. Unstable.

The brother that shielded her from a fly ball.

He is below me…

The brother that defended their sandcastle from bullies.

He is…

The brother that protected.

He is…

The brother that nurtured.

He is…

The brother that loved.

Her thoughts gratefully cleared when she rose up into the breeze again; the wind catching her hair, whisking her first breath away, and bearing warning to the shocking sensation of wetness on her cheeks. The wind rose and took her mixed feelings with them to leave her mind blissfully blank. She looked up at the beach house, not just a house on the hill, but a symbol of a distantly removed memory, and spotted a figure sitting alone at the steps of the old summer home. The barest of smiles tugged a corner of her lips.

I knew it.

"I thought I'd find you here."

Zuko had seen his sister coming in the corner of his eye, but he did not acknowledge her until she spoke. Her presence brought memories rushing to Zuko and looking at her now, how she had grown into a young woman, nothing like the young girl that used to laugh at everything he would say, he felt strangely isolated. She was knowledgeable now, mature, advanced, none of that youthful glow remained. She was a cold, hard-edged weapon, not the teasing playmate he grew up with. In reflection, it reminded Zuko of how he had grown too. Those happy days in the sunshine were but a distant memory.

"Those summers we spent here seem so long ago." Zuko sighed, placing the plaster mold of his tiny hand he had made with his mother down on the veranda. The stretch of years from the small imprint to his larger hand pulled hard at him. He had been happy as a child, now he was just angry, hurt, alone. Ursa was gone, Ozai never truly loved him, and Azula… "So much has changed."

Azula was silent at these words. She studied her brother a long moment before glancing up at the home. Zuko could not imagine what she thought about, but he hoped she felt even the slightest bit as nostalgic as him. The breeze was sighing through her brown hair and Zuko was suddenly struck at how like their mother she looked standing there. Quiet, mellow demeanor, refined, with softened eyes and that distressed knit between her eyebrows. For as long as Azula stood there, gazing up at the house with an indiscernible expression, without a mocking word or jeer towards him—Zuko thought her very elegant.

When she spoke again, her voice was surprisingly soft, almost dare he say, sympathetic.

"Come down to the beach with me." She turned partway back to the path, shattering the illusion of Ursa in Zuko's mind. No, Azula had grown into a beautiful young woman of poise and wit, but she was no Ursa. Her golden eyes pierced his and the quiet power in her voice swept over him. "Come on, this place is depressing."

He looked up at her. So, maybe she had felt it too on the walk up here, the pang of memories, the nostalgia. Azula was better at hiding her hurts than he was, but it was her words that struck him. Depressing. Zuko felt a sudden burst of familiarity with his sister, a special, quiet understanding they had of each other for this place. Her sincere invitation kindled the affection he thought they had lost for one another, their shared wound, and Zuko rose tiredly to his feet. Azula had known he would be here. His forcing her to find him had provoked an upset in them both. The looming shadow of the summer home stretched over the siblings and its significance had brought them together. Zuko had not felt closer to his sister in that instant than he had in years.

Azula silently took the lead and they were quiet on the path. Zuko watched her back as they walked. His sister was such a complex person. Many times they had waged fights in their bitter rivalry that left them both battered and bruised, but there had been happier times too. Times they shared as brother and sister should share, laughing and playing games in the sun. But this instance, where Azula was actually consoling, maybe even as depressed as he was, was so rare; it was almost an alien feeling. Zuko wanted to appreciate how deep his sister could be, but suspicion stopped him from trusting her with that sort of gratitude. He felt terrible for it because they had been slowly repairing their relationship since the takeover of Ba Sing Se; but that nagging feeling of ultimate betrayal would not be silent. Zuko shook his head lightly. That wasn't fair.

When it came down to it—despite everything—Azula was still his sister.

"Don't you ever miss those days we used to spend up here?" he grated over the wind. Azula didn't even break stride.

"Those days are gone, Zuko. Living in the past is futile." The deadpan in her voice reminded him a lot of Mai and a sudden, sharp guilt rocked through him. He shouldn't have yelled at the governor's daughter like that. Must being in the company of diabolical, hyperactive, and depressing girls be so taxing?

"Do you remember that time—"

"Leave it, Zuko."

Azula's blunt comments were disheartening. She simply was not willing to broach the subject; she hadn't been ever since their mother left. With Ursa gone, Zuko had no one to support him, and though parents should never chose in such a way—Azula had always been Ozai's favorite. She was groomed for appearances, diplomacy, politics, while Zuko had been shunted to one side, pushed into the shadows from the blazing fire of his sister's glory. Ozai was cold to him, and Azula had been brought up to match her father; but none of them were truly happy. Zuko sighed.

"What happened to our family?" he asked.

"It's broken." Azula snapped coldly beneath the sigh of the wind. "So what else's new?"

That vision of Ursa seemed never to have existed now. They had dropped back into the protective wall of rock, blocking the wind. Their footsteps echoed as they descended the flight of stairs. Zuko's eyes burned into the back of his sister's hair.

"Don't you ever wonder what happened to mom?"

This effectively stopped her dead in her tracks. Surprised, Zuko stopped too. He had been trying to elicit some kind of reaction from her, but this response was very abrupt; dangerous. It was a long moment before she said anything; with the moan of the breeze absent, the silence was deafening. Even the crickets had gone deathly silent, as though waiting as intensely for her reply as Zuko. She turned slowly to face him and her golden eyes were flashing, her expression hard.

"No." she said so frigidly, Zuko could almost feel the blast of cold from her body. Though she spoke softly, her voice was cutting as it reverberated down the natural corridor of rock. "She abandoned us, Zuko. She left us while we were still kids; she left her duties, her responsibility. She brought shame on our family. What kind of mother does that?" Azula was slowly approaching him now with that predators stalk similar to a great cat hunting injured prey. "She ignored our needs for a maternal figure growing up; she denied any devotion she had for her family when she left. Mom really loved us, huh?" Azula turned back down to face the path, the detached chill in her voice froze Zuko where he stood. "She can be dead for all I care. She's dead to me." Azula headed down the path once more. Her words stung him more than he could have imagined. But…with that inadvertent confession came clarity. Zuko started after her.

"Azula wait!" she stopped again and turned back to him with tired annoyance, like a child suddenly bored with a game they no longer wanted to play. Zuko raised his arms partway before dropping them back to his sides. "I'm sorry."

She raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms.

"What are you sorry for?" The same sincerity had appeared in her voice as when she had invited him to join her on the beach, though a tinge of incredulity marred it.

"I know mom never really paid attention to you. I think you wanted mom's acceptance as much as I wanted dads." Zuko shrugged and glanced up at her. "We never got what we wanted, did we?"

Azula's expression was surprised, almost as though she were impressed with Zuko's deductions, that her brother even had the capacity to be that profound. The new strike against her composure emboldened him. "That's it, isn't it? You hate her because she wasn't as doting on you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, dum-dum." Azula brushed him off as casually as flecking a speck of dirt from her uniform and turned back down the path, leaving him to follow after once more, but Zuko was rooted to the spot.

"You can't run from it forever, Azula." He called after her; she didn't turn to address him.

"I'm not the one running."

Again, Azula did not break stride as she made the last steps for the beach. She called up to him only once more with the perfect needle to spur him forward again.

"Come on, Mai's waiting for you."

Zuko sighed and started forward. Maybe he couldn't make amends with his sister, as frigid as she was to the past, but hopefully Mai would prove to be a bit more forgiving. They had both had time to cool down right? Maybe things were better resolved in the present than in the past.

The prince sucked in a nervous breath of air and steeled himself for what was to come, though he carefully positioned himself behind Azula…for safety measures.

A/N: If the end feels cut off, that's because it is! I actually intended to go right through to the "Party's over." line and cut out there and thereby go through all the juicy character development from the episode--but a few elements stopped me: Time contraints, work ethic (I have a bazillion other ideas I'm chomping the bit (like Mai!) to write...), and good old fashioned writer's block. I have no idea whose point of view to write from. Ty Lee for Mai's revelation? Azula for Ty Lee's? Zuko for Azula? I actually wanted to do Azula for Azula, but what about everyone else? It's a tough scene, especially when I can't decide who reflects on who and the only real clear cut idea I had in mind writing this was Azula fetching Zuko and the lovely chit-chat about mama-san.

I'm just loving all this Zuko and Azula interaction--how shakily uncertain Zuko is and how cruelly calculating Azula can be, though I hope I gave her character another dimension here. She's not all: "Kill the Beast!" mentality, she's got a heart too. Family relationships intrigue me...She'll be going nuts when Mai betrays her for Zuko though, and she finds out Mom is still alive! I can see it all now, and it's going to be positively delicious.

I SO want to write the companion piece/chapter to this, but it cuts out just about everyone except Azula, because I've said it before--I like the dynamics between Azula and Ursa's relationship.

So, ah, I'm putting this on hiatus for now. Unless people are really charged to see this updated, I put it on the shelf for a little while. I hope to come back to it soon! crosses fingers

Please leave a review if you like! (Or--even if you don't! )

Blackfire 18