I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Marred
Zuka looked into the water. She usually avoided looking into reflective surfaces. She would move her eyes around, sometimes just focusing on what was below the forehead. Never making eye contact with herself. She hated what her father had done to her. She hated what she had become. But yet, that time she could not help but look into the water after she had taken a drink. She pushed back her bangs and scowled. She hated that scar, which covered her entire forehead. Bangs could cover it, mostly, but they didn't make it dissapear. She never forgot about the scar on her forehead. She was never without a care in the world.
She would have been gorgeous without that scar. She knew that. Even prettier than her younger sister Azula, who had always been a beauty. With soft wavy dark hair, large golden eyes, well shaped lips and nose. She would have been the pretty child, if she hadn't spoken up in that war meeting. She had always been book smart, but that did not matter to her father or grandfather. All that mattered to them was fire. Not the sharpness or solidness of the mind. So in their eyes all she would be good for was being married off the highest bidder.
That was, until she was marred.
She had also been good with weapons, but those were for the lower people, ones who had not been blessed by the gods of fire. Using swords was a disgrace, unless it was to show off. But if you were better at it than firebending then it was a disgrace. Even if she had kept her stupid mouth shut she still would have been a disgrace.
It wasn't that she was untalented in firebending. Sure, she got angered easily, but then again so did Azula. She was fairly talented. But not like Azula. Azula didn't have to work hard at all. Maybe if the teachers had focused on her instead of her prodigy sister some Zuka would have been great. But the teachers had been busy awing over her fantastic little sister, ignoring her so much they didn't even notice when she ran away to cry. Though she never really did cry. She just sat their contemplating her miserable life.
She felt sickened with herself for being jealous of her younger sister. Azula should have been jealous of her. But what was there to be jealous of? A scar on her forehead and the loyalty of a fat, albeit amusing and wise, uncle?
Uncle Iroh would always tell her that if she worked hard then she would surpass Azula, because Azula didn't think she had to work hard and therefore would be easy to beat. But Zuka knew better. Azula was obsessed with being perfect. She couldn't beat her. She had both the determination and natural skill.
When she pointed this out angrily, Iroh would always tell her that Azula had been born a fully grown tree, and Zuka had been born a determined little seed. She had the potential to grow even larger than her sister. She also had a reason to get better. The only reason Azula wanted to get better was to, well, get better. Zuka wanted to prove everyone, to climb up from the bottom of the tree.
She never understood him and his plant related puzzles. Sometimes she worried she would be like him one day. Iroh had been the smart child too, like her. Was her fate to be travelling like a mad woman with her failure of a niece spouting gibberish? With her luck.
Even if she somehow made it home then her scar wouldn't be fixed. Not even all of the fine power in the world could cover up her brand of uselessness. The mark of deficiency.
She was marred.
No matter what her path may be.
So yeah, I might eventually write up this crazy AU I have in mind, in which Zuko is a female. It also has a crazy twist, which I won't talk about here. Because I really want to write this AU. XD I know, I hate it when people do that too, but still.
I came up with it because, while Zuko hates his scar, if he were female it might be a bigger deal. Because, come on, ladies, a scar on a man is fiiiiiiiine *snap* but on a lady it is just unattractive if it's on the face. Unless you have a scar kink, which I don't. SCARS ARE SO SEXIST.