Namesake
June 86AG
Zuko was just tall enough to open doors. He would have to reach as high as he could to get the knob, but then he could just open it. Usually, he'd spend most of the day with his mother, but today Princess Ursa was hosting some noblewomen for some tea party. The women were wives of Ozai's associates and he wanted Ursa to butter them up and get them speaking favorably about him to their husbands.
Left alone for afternoon, he decided to visit his baby sister Azula. She was only a year old and could really only babble and crawl. "Hi Azula," he said as he made his way into the room. She looked at him with innocent eyes.
"It's me, Zuko."
"Zu-zu!"
"Zu-koh!"
"Zuzu!"
Well, she sort of got it. He couldn't get into her crib to get her out, so he had to play with her through the bars. After about ten minutes, she started to yawn and he left her to go back to sleep. Their mother told him that babies need lots of rest.
When Zuko left, he forgot to close the door all the way.
Zuzu for the win!
Azula took a screwdriver she hid under her baby pillow and used it to lower the side of her crib. She then used the blanket she had to slide down and crawled out of the room.
She got bored in there. Ursa seldom came for her. Azula had a wet nurse feed her instead of a mother and there wasn't much to look at in her room, not even a mobile.
She crawled down the hall, careful to make sure that the guards didn't see her.
A servant appeared with a cart full of snacks for the Fire Lord. Azula crawled onto it, hidden by the cloth that surrounded the cart.
She inadvertently made her way into the Fire Lord's chambers and crawled into connecting his office while the sovereign got ready to eat tomato carrot cakes and pine taro puffs.
Azulon preferred dim sum with himself. He spent most of the day listening to reports and having to give directions. It was nice to have some treats and some peace and quiet.
"That will be all!"
The servant promptly left, knowing Azulon did not want anyone around more than necessary. He was even aloof with Crown Prince Iroh, and Iroh was his favorite.
Azulon was about to finish his first pine taro puff when he heard a clanging. Unsure of who could have gotten into his office, he got ready to fight and carefully opened the door. He didn't see anything, but a stack of papers that got shoved to the floor and then he saw that his ink had been spilt and someone had been drawing on the back of his papers.
"Who would?" He crouched down and saw Princess Azula on the floor, her hands covered in ink.
"How did you get past security?"
Hopefully, the resistance wouldn't learn of this and start training baby assassins.
He scooped her up and washed her paws.
"All I wanted was to eat dim sum alone. Was that too much to ask?"
"Zu!"
"What?"
He put her down on the bed and continued to eat. He would deal with her negligent parents later.
Azula managed to climb up to the table and reached for his food.
"No food for babies."
She pouted, giving him the saddest look.
"I don't fall for cute babies!"
She kept trying.
Finally, he put a small plate in front of her and cut a piece of tomato carrot cake for her to eat. She happily put it to her lips. He wasn't sure if she was eating solid food yet, but he figured if she could climb to it, she could eat it.
Other than the occasional giggle, she was mostly quiet.
"I wish my generals were as disciplined," he told her. They wouldn't shut up.
After he finished his lunch, he was ready to put her away when she started waving her hands.
"What do you want?"
She kept wriggling.
"Are you trying to play or something?"
She grinned.
"I don't play with babies." He only plays with concubines.
She gave him her adorable pout.
"Not going to work, little Princess."
She wore him down.
"Well, I only know one game to play with babies."
He lied on his back and tossed her in the air. She laughed loudly as she went up and down.
Suddenly, the lights in his room turned blue.
"How did they?" He waved his hand, turning them back to orange.
She mimicked him and they were blue again.
He tried one more time, just to make sure and then she turned the flame back to blue.
"Amazing!" he had never seen a blue flame before, and she could control her own chi at such an early age. Usually, firebenders couldn't do this until they were three and then they could start to generate somewhere between 5-7, but if she could do this at one year old, then she could likely start firebending by the time she was three.
She's truly a prodigy.
Azulon put her back on the bed and told her to wait here.
He started looking for the firebender's toy that Sozin had given him at an early age. He knew he had it somewhere.
Meanwhile, the wet nurse came to feed Azula just to see she was missing.
Maybe her mother brought her to the tea party. She went looking for Azula.
"I don't have her," Ursa said. "Maybe one of the other servants has her."
The wet nurse checked, but they didn't know either. They checked with Zuko, but she wasn't with him. They tried Iroh's room. He had no idea where she was. Lu Ten hadn't seen her all day and Ozai had been reading reports in his study.
"I haven't seen Azula," Ozai said. "Maybe she's with her mother."
They went to the guards, but no one had seen the princess.
Princess Ursa started to panic. "What if she was kidnapped?"
"Who could breach these walls?" Iroh questioned.
They decided to look around in case she just crawled away some how, but there was no indication of her anywhere.
"We should send out a search team," Ozai said, baffled by how she could have left.
They got a group of guards ready, and Ozai went to inform the Fire Lord.
"My Lord, Azula's gone missing."
"What?" He questioned.
"We can't find her anywhere."
"She's right here," Azulon pointed to Azula who was playing with this metal toy. There was a flame on it and Azula had to use her chi to guide it through the course.
"Is she firebending?"
"She's starting to learn. She shows a lot of aptitude, unlike her parents." He said bluntly.
Ozai grunted in frustration, but if his daughter was truly talented, this could prove useful to him.
"Is her flame blue?" Lu Ten questioned, having gone to see Azula play.
"Yes, I had the librarian research that. I don't know she learned how to turn flames blue."
Just then, the librarian came back. "My Lord, she has the first blue flame in 100 years. The last man to master it was a sage who hadn't developed a blue flame until he was 40. She must be blessed by Agni or something."
"Interesting," Azulon said. When Azula was done, her grandfather handed her to Ursa. "Try watching her next time," he said, making Ursa blush.
Then Azulon turned to his guard. "And how did she get past you?"
"I don't know my Lord."
"Well think about it, while you clean the mess she made of my office."
"Yes, my Lord."
Other than the guard, Azulon kicked everyone out of his chambers. Azula smiled at him. He smiled back. For the first time, he was proud that she was his namesake.