Sozin Academy's Savior
Summary: Zuko and Azula are practically royalty in their high school, which happened to be founded by their great grandfather Sozin and their father is the current headmaster. That is until a happy go-lucky boy transfers from Southern Air Temple High, and decides that he needs to brighten up everyone's day! Zukaang, SokkaxSuki, and many more!
A/N: hehehe, I decided that I should do an AU story that involved Zukaang, because come on! These two need a little love too! P.S. This is my first Avatar fic woohoo!
XxX
To Zuko it was any other day, he didn't particularly care that it was the very first day of school. Hell, the whole reason he was even going to school was because of his uncle (who was also a teacher). The old man dragged him out of bed with surprising strength and practically threw him into the bathroom with a hearty chuckle and a promise of breakfast.
The young man sighed, he hated school. There he was always tormented by his father or Azula, mocking him and throwing his bitter circumstances in his face over and over again. Though, he thought with a snarl, his popularity in school was untouched. They had to keep up appearances, it was everything in their family after all.
"Zuko, you need to hurry up!" His younger sister Azula hissed as she banged on the door. The golden-eyed teenager wrinkled his nose in irritation, he really disliked his sister, to put it delicately.
"I'll hurry up when you shut up!" He barked and quickly dressed nevertheless. He stepped out in the Sozin Academy uniform; black pants, blood red shirt, and a gold lanyard that held his ID. He opened the door and was promptly shoved aside by his sister. Sighing, he decided that today would be a good day to walk to school…or he could hitch a ride with his uncle. Just as he was going down the staircase, Azula popped her head out of the bathroom.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Father left earlier today to deal with…something. Or, well, should I say someone…I will also be leaving early to set up a little surprise for a new exchange student." She smirked and closed the door.
"Exchange student?" He murmured to himself, frowning. He would've known about this exchange student hadn't it been for a fall-out he had with his father and some his father's…Prefects. He shook his head and decided that sulking over it wouldn't do much for his mood, he entered the kitchen and was somewhat pleased to see his uncle by the stove with his favorite metal kettle.
"Jasmine tea?" He asked softy and sat at the table. His uncle turned around and offered him a knowing smile, he nodded and placed two empty cups on the table.
"How did you know?" He chuckled and placed the tea leaves in the cups.
"Lucky guess, I suppose." Zuko smiled and offered to pour the water, handing the tea cup to his uncle with a small smile.
"Aw Zuzu, what a touching moment." Just like that, Zuko's bad mood returned. Azula smirked and took the other tea cup and downed it, placing the now empty cup a little too hard on the table.
"What would everyone say when they hear about you being a big softie?" She scoffed, grabbed her bag, and left.
Iroh shook his head amusedly and cleaned up the table, patting Zuko's back in a comforting manner.
"Do not take what she says to heart, she has been this way since I could remember." Zuko just sighed in response.
"Uncle, can I drive with you today?" He asked sullenly, Iroh just smiled and nodded.
"Of course Zuko, by the way, did you hear about the new exchange student that is coming today? We haven't had one from that region in a long time." He chuckled and disappeared into the living room to grab his suitcase.
"What region?" Zuko asked, grabbing his backpack along with some money for lunch.
"It's a rather small town a few hours away from here. It is so small in fact, the last school there happened to close down." Iroh explained, climbing into his old car while Zuko got into the passenger seat.
"What? Why?" Zuko turned to look at his uncle, and nearly had a heart attack when the old man nearly rear-ended somebody.
"Something happened to the headmaster…" Iroh said and quickly rolled down his window to offer his apologies to the man who was driving a cabbage truck. Zuko wasn't exactly pleased with his answer since he knew his uncle was just holding back the information regarding the Headmaster, however, he didn't push his luck.
"That was an eventful drive." Iroh chuckled happily and entered the building with his nephew. Zuko nodded in agreement.
"UGH!" Someone yelled in disgust, Iroh grimaced and pushed people (albeit gently) out of his way to see what was going on. Zuko meant to follow, but with one swift look from Uncle Iroh, he decided that class was his best bet.
"THAT LITTLE RUNT IS GOING TO PAY!" Zuko didn't really bother to listen to anymore, if it was important he would hear students talking about it all day.
XxX
It wasn't until he was in his philosophy class (which was taught by Uncle Iroh), that he had an inkling of what had happened. His sister was nowhere to be seen, in fact Uncle Iroh didn't seem to mind much.
"Listen up class, I was supposed to present the new student but it seems that it will have to wait until tomorrow. All of that aside, let's begin!" His uncle turned to write something on the board. Zuko was boredly writing his notes until a paper ball landed on his desk.
He stared at it and turned around to say Mai, she glared at him and gestured toward the paper ball. Zuko opened it and furrowed his eyebrows.
Did you hear about Azula?
Zuko frowned and wrote 'no' as his response. He crumpled it up and tossed it back to the Vice President of the Student Council, Azula, of course, was the President. Despite himself, when the paper ball came back, Zuko opened it without hesitation.
The new kid made her plan backfire. Instead of getting dumped in a trash can and humiliated, he somehow got Azula in trouble and covered in trash.
Zuko hid back a laugh and quickly wrote down his reply, he sent the paper ball back with a smirk. Soon class ended and it seemed the halls were alive with gossip about his sister and the new kid.
"I heard he's from some broken family or something!" One girl spat, glaring at Zuko as he passed by.
"Really? I heard he's like some religious zealot who's in a cult!" Her friend said behind her hands. Zuko's eyebrow twitched as he made his way to the lunch room, he got in the line and paid for his lunch. He sat in his usual seat, the popular table as some people dubbed it.
At his left was another one of Azula's friends, Ty Lee, was her name. She was cheery and happy, anything personal that Zuko knew of her was that she had several sisters that all looked alike. To his right was his girlfriend Mai. To be completely truthful, the relationship wasn't very much a relationship. Just a couple of kisses, a few hugs, and a very rare 'I don't hate you'. They stayed together because their social statuses demanded it.
Across from them were countless and nameless people that had joined their ranks in popularity, and Ty Lee's list of ex-boyfriends.
"Did you hear about what happened to Azula?" Ty Lee chattered, many of the boys hung onto her every word. Mai and Zuko didn't reply, instead they glanced at each other knowingly.
"The new kid, like did this weird martial arts move and like," Ty Lee started flailing her arms in an attempt to recreate the move, "got the trash all over her! It was funny! There was this banana peel that landed in her hair!" She started to giggle and the boys followed suit.
"Ty Lee…" The girl immediately stopped laughing and bowed her head, Azula was standing over her like a dictator.
"Azula…I didn't mean it!" She pleaded and Zuko could see she was trying not to cry. Azula was about to say something else until her brother spoke up.
"Azula, calm yourself down. Ty Lee didn't mean anything by it." Zuko stated and played with his food, refusing to look at his sister.
"Didn't mean anything by it?" Azula mocked, "Zuzu, don't tell me you're love struck too?"
"I'm surprised you still even have friends." He muttered darkly, Azula lifted one regal eyebrow in response.
"Oh? Compared to you? You don't even have friends!" She laughed and everyone except Ty Lee and Mai joined in.
"I've had enough of this!" Zuko's temper flared and he stomped his way out of the cafeteria.
"Zuko…Wait." Mai said, but it was too late. Zuko was already out of the cafeteria doors. She sighed and went back to her lunch.
XxX
Zuko was so angry he couldn't even see straight, his sister had defiantly hit a nerve there. He stomped his way into the boys' bathroom and splashed himself with water, he hoped he would be calm enough to attend his next class.
"Hey…" A childish voice chirped beside him. Zuko jumped in surprise and glared at the boy whom frightened him. He saw a boy that couldn't be older than twelve, he had on a different type of school uniform than Zuko. His was orange and yellow with a blue lanyard, the only thing that looked slightly like the academy's was a red headband.
"Hi! I'm Aang!" The boy tried again, smiling widely and holding out his hand. Zuko shook it, he was too disoriented to argue differently.
"Zuko…" He offered, the boy peered at his ID card instead.
"Zuko Firelord? Now that's an interesting name." Aang chuckled, Zuko felt his eyebrow twitch.
"Are you making fun of my name?" He spat, Aang stopped laughing immediately and put his hands up in defense.
"No no! I thought it was really cool! Better than my name!" Aang smiled sheepishly.
"Then what is it?" Zuko demanded, Aang looked at him curiously.
"What is what?" He asked, eyebrows furrowing.
"Your last name."
"Oh…It's Aang…Aang Gyatso…Stupid huh?" The younger blushed and looked away, Zuko just shook his head.
"Look kid, I-" Aang cut him off.
"I know, you can't be seen with me. I noticed how popular you are!" Aang just grinned and patted his back.
"I understand." Zuko sputtered in surprise and silently watched the boy walk out of the bathroom.
"What is with that kid?" He asked himself quietly.
XxX
"Good Afternoon Zuko," Uncle Iroh chirped happily from behind the counter. In the afternoons, Zuko worked at his Uncle's teashop to prolong his arrival home. Though, working at the Jasmine Dragon was quite calming, right beside it was a quaint little bookshop called Wan Shi Tong's Library. The man who ran it, Mr. Wan Shi Tong himself, was quite a harsh shut in, he always wore black and had black owl-like eyes. Zuko only ventured into the dusty place if Uncle Iroh (who surprisingly was in his good graces) or Mai needed a book they couldn't get anywhere else.
"Good Afternoon Uncle." Zuko greeted as he put on his apron, he went to the back and put on several kettles of water. When he came back to the front he heard his uncle laughing heartily, brow furrowing in confusion he made his presence known.
"Zuko, come meet our guest," Iroh waved him over with a smile. Sitting beside him with a huge smile and steaming cup of tea was Aang, he wasn't wearing the uniform instead he was wearing an orange and yellow shirt with dark red pants. He had the Sozin Academy headband still wrapped snug around his forehead.
"Oh hi Zuko! I didn't know you worked here!" Aang chattered excitedly, Iroh glanced at Zuko before excusing himself to make more tea.
"Ah yes, my Uncle owns the shop." Zuko explained, pouring more hot water into Aang's teacup.
"Aang! Get away from him!" A boy's voice called out and grabbed the Aang off of the stool.
"Sokka!?" Aang questioned as he was pulled into the boy's arms, said boy held him quite protectively.
"What did I tell you about going to the Jasmine Dragon?! He works here!" Sokka glared at Zuko, Aang chuckled and pushed his protective friend off of him.
"Calm down Sokka, it's just Zuko." Aang laughed again and sat on the stool.
"Sokka, this Zuko. Zuko, this is Sokka. He's my host brother for the year." The boy explained happily.
"Yeah and we should be going now, Katara's worried sick!" Sokka grabbed his friend once again and practically yanked him off the stool and out of the teashop.
"Sokka wait! I didn't pay for my tea!" Aang called out, but it was too late.
Zuko just sighed and attended to the other customers.
XxX
A/N: Aang's age is fifteen, Zuko is Seventeen, Sokka is seventeen, Katara is sixteen and so is Azula. Hopefully I cleared some things up ^.^ Also, I know this seems a bit harsh, but I probably won't continue this unless someone wants me to...I just don't want to waste my time with it if no one wants to read it ^^u I hope you guys understand. Though I do like this story myself.