AN- okay, so this story is more of a chapters thorugh their lives kind of thing. Each chapter will tell a different story about their life or about a part of their lives. Enjoy!

There's no rule about not seeing the bride before the wedding as far as Azul is concerned and he's sure Aang doesn't mind. Besides, for people who are getting married they barely know each other. Apart from a few brief scuffles in the Earth Kingdom and the takedown of Ba Sing Se where he did a marvellous job of killing her they've never spoken. It was odd how warm she was towards him in her cell. Considering he'd made multiple attempts on her life (and actually succeeded once) it certainly was odd. She was kind and almost eager to see him. He shakes his head slightly. It was probably the human deprivation. It caused her to latch onto the first person she could find. He reasons to himself that must be the truth.

Though it doesn't explain the massive smile on her face as he enters her temporary room. She'll move into the master bedroom with him that night anyway. She bounds up with a bit of air-bending grace and scoops him into a hug.

In a second she's crying completely unexpectedly.

"Thank you." She cries into his shoulder, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you."

He can simply stand there in shock as she pours out her heart. Why is she thanking him? And all of a sudden he can't help but try to find out the truth even if it means shattering the illusion. He feels like he's in a dream and if he says something he'll wake up and be left in a world where Aang realises what he's done and how much she hates him (if she had the capacity to hate that is). He swallows, he's never cared about anyone's opinion that much before and it scares him just a little. He's a neophobic at heart. Aang is everything bright and shiny and new and scary. But he's Prince (no- Fire Lord) Azul and he's the master of conquering so he bites back the fear and takes up his sledgehammer with a smile.

"Why don't you hate me for what I've done?"

The question is honest and deserves an honest answer.

"Because you're not a bad person."

"How do you know that?"

"Because. Because."

"Because what?"

"You held back when we were fighting. I could see it."
"So? I was still fighting you."

"You never hurt me."

"I could have. I killed you."

"But you didn't. You didn't kill me very well anyway."

The playful tone of her voice makes something in his chest ache. He's never had human contact like this before. He's never had anyone speak to him like this before.

"Oh."

And Fire Lord (Not prince) Azul is struck dumb.

He looks down at Aang. Shiny happy new Aang and swallows back fear. She's the only think that's ever been his and maybe that's the most frightening part.


When they return to the bedroom after the wedding Aang is shaking and he can practically smell the fear on her. But he doesn't comment and instead moves over to the bar and pours them both small glasses of sake that he heats using his fire bending.

Aang is still shaking when he hands her one and he watches as she down it in a gulp and immediately begins coughing. It's a painful show of how young she is and when he sets down his glass and moves closer to her she begins to tremble in earnest.

"I- I- I-" Her words are slurred slightly and garbled and she's stuttering a bit in fear. That's when he truly realises how under prepared she is for this. How she really isn't ready.

He pulls her into his lap and strokes her hair until she calms enough to relax against him. She's worn out from the fear and when he speaks it's the first thing he's ever been really proud of. These are the first words he's ever actually heard himself say with pride.

"We don't have to." He whispers into her hair. "We don't have to."

He repeats it like a mantra, again and again and again. And although a small perverted part of him does want to. Does want to hold her down and make her beg and scream and see the look in her eyes as she comes apart he knows she's too young. Too young.

So when she finally looks up at him with those big grey trusting eyes and whispers "Thank you" all he can do is feel the pride burn through him like fire-whisky as he rocks her to sleep.

He takes good care of his belongings anyway.


Affection comes easy to the two of them. There's a kind of natural affinity that's surprising. They mesh well (for lack of better words) and they seem to understand each other.

Trust is earned though.

They sleep in the chair that night with her curled up in him arms and wake up with sore muscles and aches in their bones because of it. However when they do wake it's quite clear it's worth it. Aang no longer looks at him with any semblance of fear (because lets face it; no matter how much she tried to hide it he could always see the slight spark in her eyes when he turned to face her) and is even more generous with her touches than before. The physical affection comes easily as well and they spend the nights curled up in each others arms. She often holds his hand and he rests his head on her shoulder. They're both familiar gestures that they associate subconsciously with the war ending and her being freed from her cell.

He's lighter. Like some burden's been lifted (which in a way it has) and no one dares to ask whether or not the marriage has been consummated. The new Fire Lord makes his own rules and anyone can see by the calm way the argues during meetings (and always wins) to the methodical disappearance of his opposition that the new Fire Lord isn't one to be trifled with.

So they leave him and his new wife alone.

Azul smiles into the darkness as he feels Aang wrap herself around him in her sleep. Her leg is thrown over his torso leaving the other one to lie parallel to his and have the foot brush his ankle. Both of her arms hug his right arm and her head is buried in his right shoulder. He feels his cock twitch of the feel of her just budding breasts pressed against his side. It's slightly sick and wrong but the age difference isn't anywhere near vast and thirteen is of age in some of the water tribes or in some areas of the Earth kingdom. He's always thought she was beautiful. Ever since first seeing her after tracking her down in the earth kingdom. He'd read the reports. Knew what to look out for. But he's been unprepared for the innocence. For the only untainted piece of life he could find. The only thing that hadn't been touched by a hundred years of war. The only surviving relic of a long gone time. Sometimes he wonders what he would've been like if he hadn't been born into war. If he wasn't Fire Nation royalty. If he was just another person. But of course he's always believed in nature. Not nurture. He knows that no matter where and how he could've grown up he would still be the same. Maybe that's what's so sad. She's just so warm, so affectionate, so loving, so Aang. She beautiful and accepting and the only thing that had ever belonged to him. Though she doesn't fully belong to him yet.

Yet... she's the only thing that's ever come this close to being his.


As trust begins to grow and bloom they become closer. Closer until they're best friends, husband and wife, almost lovers, brother and sister and everything else rolled up into one. They've only been together for two weeks. But that's two weeks worth of intertwined nights. Two weeks worth of conversation. Two weeks worth of presenting a united front against delegates. Two weeks worth of hand holding and head resting and smiles and whispers and affection. Two weeks worth of childish love. Two weeks worth of teasing.

They're far too close now to ever separate. They're far too close for this to just be a convenient way out of a sticky situation in any respect.

It's love.

Or belonging. Pure possessive obsession. Or maybe that's just Azul.


They've got different opinions. It comes from being raised differently. Aang likes to favour mercy and wants comprise while Azul prefers to stamp out rebellions and opposition rather than risk them getting to him or his Queen first.

Above it all Aang is still the pacifist air bender that her people taught her to be. She learnt that every life is sacred and violence can never be the way. She's still the girl that cried when Azul explained how he'd defeated Ozai. She's the only person who knows the truth anyways and the pride of her being the one he trusts is squashed under the weight of the truth. "Why did you kill him?" She had cried, "Why would you kill someone?" Azul had faced it head on; "The only way to kill the serpent is to cut off it's head." As Aang had stared wide-eyed and tearfully at him he had explained, "Ozai may have been the one to give orders but there were people loyal to him who carried out the attacks." Aang had started to understand. She wasn't stupid and her innocence had taken a severe beating. "I needed to show them that I mean business. That I was ready to do whatever it takes to destroy them."

That's when Aang understood something. She understood Azul. They were different. They weren't meant to be the same. She couldn't try and pretend that he wouldn't kill because he would. The Azul she knows is made of hundreds of different parts. There's playful Azul who teases her and laughs with her. There's in control Azul who she sees in battle and in court. There's sweet Azul who holds her while she cries and pats her back when the weight of being the Avatar- alone- becomes too much. There's funny Azul that sometimes comes hand in hand with playful Azul; he teases the guards and tickles her and makes jokes and funny faces. There's ruthless Azul, it's the mask she's shown when an angry ex-general tries to attack her in the street. Azul burns his face off in a breath of fire and it's deadly and beautiful and she had watched with a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes. Then there's calm Azul. The man who walks down to the dungeons to "talk to" various prisoners. Will full ignorance is something that Aang can't tolerate so when she follows him one night and sees the blood- oh god so much blood she simply disappears upstairs to their bedroom and dry retches on the bed until she falls asleep. It's sweet Azul that holds her hair back as she throws up for real in the morning. He pats her back and explains and to some degree she understands but it still takes a while to reconcile her air-bending principles with the man stroking her hair so she cancels meeting for that day and spends it in the barn with Appa (who had been captured on the Day of Black Sun and locked up. Being the last of his kind he could be an asset and Ozai hadn't wanted to kill him immediately. Of course Azul had made it one of his first calls of duty as the new Fire Lord to release him and give him back to Aang. Now he spends him time in the stables where Aang visits to ride him and stroke him and feed him. It's the most relaxed Appa's been in a while too). She cries into his fur and retches a bit more before she mulls over the argument. When she decides she's ready she gives Appa one last pat and goes back to the meetings. She knows her principles but she knows Azul wasn't brought up the same way. She can't brush it off and bury it under the rug but she can file it away until she's ready to face it. She's facing it now and as she stares into his eyes and sees that familiar gold brushed with the darkness she understands. It's just one part of Azul. She can't make him fit her mould. She won't make him fit her mould. He doesn't try to box her or make her fit his ideals so she returns to favour. She understands. And she's proud of it. This is what marriage is. Understanding and compromise. Suddenly she feel a tiny bit older.

He looks at her and she nods before grabbing his hand between her two smaller ones.

"Killing isn't always the way." She told him. It wasn't an argument or a rebuke. Simply a statement.

He nodded in agreement. "Killing isn't always the way. But.." He hesitated then ploughed on. That was one of the things Aang loved about him. He didn't candy-coat things for her. He didn't try and soften blows with soft words and empty promises. He treated her like she was the Avatar. The saviour of the world and like she deserved to know everything. "Your people Aang," His voice had lowered to a whisper, "Your people are still dead and nothing can bring them back. You have to understand that sometimes the only way is to stop someone or something is to kill them."

Aang had looked up at him with her wide grey eyes; her mouth was pressed in a firm line and the tears had dried up. She had looked up at him with that expression on her face an all she could say was, "Don't make anyone suffer undeservedly."

They're in one of these disagreements right now. The attack happened late last night but between him and Aang the twenty men never even stood a chance.

Twelve were killed and the rest were subdued. Aang looks as though she's going to cry at the sight of the dead bodies but she managed to steel herself. Azul was proud of her; she was learning about how harsh the world really was and he appreciated the way her decisions now made tactical sense as well as incorporating her own brand of air-bender mercy and forgiveness. She was growing into a fair ruler and Azul knew she was the best choice for Fire Lady.

But the next morning still finds them in a disagreement.

"You can't torture them." Aang pleads desperately.

Torture is one of the more unsavoury things Azul is good at. It come naturally at him and part of him is slightly disgusted by how easily he's able to prolong suffering without inducing death. The body doesn't have any secrets from him and he knows the exact combination of mental and physical before his captives will sing their secrets. He knows that it's a good skill for the Fire Lord to have and he can't help but notice the way that nobles give him an appraising look where respect is thinly veiled with shock and how the guards on the way down to the dungeons bow lower than required when he enters the small prison cells. Ozai never did this himself; that much he is sure of. And he knows that getting into plots himself is respected. So he tells his guards to take all the broken bodies after he's done with them and bury them in unmarked mass graves under the cover of night.

He smirks to himself as he gives the order. Those that oppose him obviously have the Palace under watch and when they see the bodies of their friends...

But Aang doesn't fully understand all of this, doesn't understand the respect, the message and the fact that above all it's an art that it's taken him time to perfect.

Azul doesn't say anything for a moment as he pulls on his boots. "I have to." He answers finally.

"I need to know what's going on. The fact that there were twenty of them worries me." It does worry him. Twenty assassins. Twenty is a high number and although he knows both would be fine on their own the fact that his enemies are being so bold worries him. Either they're scared. Or they're angry. Or they've got something big coming up.

He turns sharply to look at her.

"I can't have it happening again."

Aang looks at him, but her gaze isn't pleading anymore. It's understanding. It's strange how much compassion that one small body can hold. But Azul takes what he's given and a little more besides.

"Don't hurt them too badly." She whispers. It's an empty request; they both know that. But if it makes Aang feel better then Azul is willing to comply with a just as empty answer.

He reaches forward, Aang's grown a little and at fourteen she's finally starting to fill out, and grasps her chin like he did in her cell so long ago.

"Not if I don't have to."

He leaves the room.


Conflicts often end like that, he muses to himself, as he hurries to way to the dungeons. Either he will see her way (in the case of high reparations to the Southern Water tribe) or she will see his (in the case of executing one of Ozai's old generals who tried to stab her on a walk around the capitol when he recognised her tattoo). He's convinced Aang to get a fringe in order to conceal the blue arrow when she goes out. He doesn't want her to be recognised and hurt.

He wipes his bloody hands on a piece of cloth and considers the new information. Looks like some people weren't happy about the fact that Ozai was killed in his sleep. They expected an Agni Kai. Azul snorts to himself. The man was too dangerous to risk it. Even without his bending Azul still had to work quickly. Besides; they don't have any evidence that it was him who killed Ozai or even ordered Ozai killed. There's the concubine's tea of course; but who knows what that even is? He's completely in the right. It's not about who did the deed. But who can prove it.

"Anything else you need sir?" The guard at the door to the cell touches his head to the floor for longer than necessary. In fact it's a bow that's not even necessary considering the circumstances. Azul muses it over to himself before turning back to the guard in question.

"No captain." He gestures to the obviously dead bodies. By the end they were begging for the sweet embrace of death and who was he to deny them. "Take these away. You know what to do."

As he exits the cell he thinks he sees a small flicker of pride in the old captain's eye.

Loyalty's given where loyalty's due.

The fact that he got names in good though. He could send assassins after the culprits. Or, he muses to himself, he could always go alone.

He thinks about it, decisions decisions.


Crown Prince Azul's biggest talent when he was younger was invisibility. He used it well. He avoided his father. His mother. His uncle. His brother. He limited the amount of human contact he had but he was always a people person.

The servants adored him. He won them over with tiny shows of kindness in a household where there was none. He knew as well as anyone else that the kindness he gave them also gave them hope. He helped up an old maid from where she'd fallen in the hall and personally carried her to the physician. He never reprimanded them for broken objects and instead helped them clean up.

They were loyal to him to the end. It was easy asking them to procure some bending suppressants for him. They would have risked anything for the young prince.

The guards liked him. He had an easy going personality that he created to curry favour. He oversaw drills and helped with small tasks such as decided the exact number of soldiers to send into battle and the overseeing of new recruits. The small tasks that his father couldn't be bothered with and yet were integral to the war effort. They liked him since he helped them. They liked him since he didn't pretend to be above it all. They admired him for his skills. It was easy to request to see the Avatar and change the guards on duty even when the Fire Lord had requested no visitors.

His tutors liked him. He was eager to learn and respectful. He only had one request; that they never requested an audience with his father or his mother concerning his work. He wanted to be invisible.

The tutors knew about the unstable life of the Fire Lord's family and pitied him. They granted his requests partly out of like for him and partly because they didn't even want to speak to the head of the royal family. They had played right into his hands.

The public liked him. He often went on walks through the city and he allowed people to approach him. He never went out with him palanquin. He gave money to beggars and patted small children on the head. He made small talk with the middle class, the nobles and the working class. He was kind and respectful. There was no wrong he could do. The country was his before he'd even thought up the plan to take the throne. The resistance during his coronation was non-existent.

Azul wasn't stupid. He was sharp. He knew things and he knew how to get to the throne. He avoided his family. Most of the time he was sure that they didn't even know the second son even lived. His mother never made an effort to talk to him. His father never made an effort to summon him. His uncle barely knew he existed and his brother had bigger worries than a sibling with a knack for invisibility.

Azul knows from as young an age as he can remember that Zuko wasn't meant to be Fire Lord. He does owe most of his unscathed childhood to him though so he doesn't resent his brother. Because of Zuko their mother is preoccupied enough with giving him love to leave her younger son alone. Because of him his father too busy between hating his elder son and trying to get the throne to bother Azul. But Zuko just isn't meant for court life. He's too brash, too loud, too honest. He doesn't understand how to handle nobles and courtiers.

Azul is the opposite. He knows how to flatter and win over and talk and use. Azul is a master politician before he can talk. He knows the second his brother was challenged to the Agni Kai that there is more at work here. He knows the second he sees his father in the ring that this is the beginning of the end.

By the time Zuko's on the ship sailing away Azul already has a half-baked plan cooking in his mind.

No one can say that Azul was lonely. He had the people, the guards, the servants, the nobility. He just can't forget the way the heard his mother whisper goodbye to Zuko and not spare a second glance at his room. And yet.. Azul knows there's something broken in him. He knows there's something wrong with him. It hovers at the edge of his vision. Waiting to claim him. It's a horrible lingering darkness and Azul knows his father succumbed to it but he promises himself he won't. He swallows thickly as he mind fills with screams. He will try as hard as he's able to.


Aang is seated at his right side in the meeting. The proper place for the Fire Lady. He listens to his councilors talk and discuss the price of retributions to the other nations. He hums quietly to himself. He doesn't need to hear the argument because he doesn't care. The Fire nation can easily pay the retributions and more. It's just human greed that's causing some of his advisors to try and reduce the costs.

Azul breathes a sigh of relief as Lord Qin's voice dies out.

He stands and faces the room.

"I do not believe trying not to pay the full reparations will be possible." He starts. As Qin moves to speak he calmly puts up his hand and the man is quiet.

"We had to send an inventory of out treasury to both nations." He faces all of the cooly, "I'm sure they know that we can pay and more besides." He shakes his head, "We do not want to create tensions at this point."

The officials eye each other and murmur in agreement.

Even Qin bows his head, "I understand my Lord." And Azul knows he has won this battle.

He spares a quick glance at Aang and she mouths a "Well done." when no one else is looking. She also clasps his hand under the table and squeezes. He squeezes back and that's human contact isn't it? That's affection.

She's the first.