His walls are full of plaques, medals, and ceremonial regalia with his name printed in bold on all of it. Zuko tries desperately to fight the bitterness pooling in his stomach. He is at his uncle's house – in secret of course – standing in his room that he dedicated to his awards. They are endless and it seems as if he has acquired every one of them imaginable.
Zuko's fists clench as he reads the name Iroh Fujiwara. It is even more disheartening to see the name Lu Ten Fujiwara sprinkled in here and there. Every boy is required to enlist for at least two years in the army when they come of age. It is a symbol of the transition from boyhood to manhood. Every boy hoped to be sent off to come back as a stronger, more respectable man.
Too bad Zuko would never experience that. He was born with a hole in his lung. Anyone with disabilities was prohibited from serving in the military. Some of the boys in his class thought him to be lucky. The draft was random. You never knew when you were to be taken in and it could be potentially disastrous to your future if you were still in college or trying to court a future partner.
He didn't care about any of that though. His birth was the beginning of the end for him. Even though he couldn't know for sure, he knew that that was when Ozai decided that he would never be worthy as a son. He was a weakling as soon as he appeared in this world. His father had always said that he was lucky to be born.
His jaw clenched considerably. He wanted to prove himself. To be the man he knew he could be. But the decision had been out of his control before he could even decide what he wanted for himself. In his younger days and since then, there had been a movement to allow women to be included in the draft. It wasn't without pushback, but it was constantly being brought before courts and government officials to be considered.
Zuko thought it was all bullshit.
If even a girl could participate in the war before he ever did, then he was just as disappointing and useless as his father said he was.
He punched the wall in frustration. The pain shot through his hand immediately. He flailed around trying to nurse his now bruised fist. He hadn't even made a dent in the wall. All of a sudden, his uncle rushed into the room, frantic with worry. He assessed the situation and made to solve it in the same fashion he solved everything else.
"Nephew. Why don't we have some tea?"
….
Spending time with Ruon Jian wasn't half as bad as she thought it'd be. He was actually a pretty good conversationalist when he wasn't being completely daft. They watched 'Shutter' together amicably and made the appropriate noises of excitement or disagreement at the right time without annoying the other.
He sat a bit too close to her for her liking, but the evening went off without a hitch. Luckily enough, her father still wasn't home when he dropped her off, so she was able to sneak back into her house without much problem.
Besides Lo and Li of course. Those old bats were always on her case. They hounded her down with their silly, cryptic language until she admitted where she'd been. She hadn't told them that she was at a boy's house, but she did tell them she had been hanging out with a friend and lost track of time. When they asked about her new clothes, she simply told them that her friend's brother had offered them to her.
Azula was now walking down the corridors of her school this morning. She felt well rested and almost forgot about how shitty the year had been so far. That was until Chan rolled up next to her with an evil grin. She scoffed as she sped up her pace towards her locker.
Chan's shit eating grin didn't lessen as she entered her locker combination. As she opened her locker, she couldn't keep her mouth from dropping open. Somehow, this devil child had gotten into her locker and created some kind of slime that stuck to every surface of her locker. Nothing was left unturned.
She couldn't mask the horror she felt as she picked up one of her multiple, VERY expensive class textbooks. A loud, sinister cackle sounded off next to her. She turned to her side to see Chan with his head drawn back dramatically as he laughed like a hyena. She couldn't hold back her rage any longer. She took the soiled textbook and buffeted him upside the head with it.
"Hey!" he yelled with his hand nursing his head. "That hurt!"
She growled as she thought of how callous he had been with her things. She raised the book over her head again, "I hope it does you moronic bastard!"
She smacked him around senselessly. He was lucky to be able to hold his hands up to shield himself from her blows. Azula was in no mood to show mercy. Did this twat even think of what he had done? She had to study with these textbooks this week.
There was no telling when she would receive new copies if she ordered them now. This didn't even compare to what she'd allegedly done to him. He'd pay for this misstep.
It wasn't until she was physically ripped apart from the idiot by Principal Roku that she realized that this whole incident was being recorded by amused bystanders.
She blanched. She hoped that this wouldn't reach her father.
….
"I'm very disappointed in the both of you."
Principal Roku's office was just as she'd imagined. Menacing and unwelcoming. He didn't even draw the curtains on his window to allow light in.
Azula fidgeted in the chair across from his desk. Chan sat next to her tapping his foot furiously. It was probably because he'd just had his parents called on him as a result of Azula again.
She couldn't care about his anger though. Ozai had been called too. Thankfully he hadn't answered – he rarely ever did when he was at the office – but she'd have to find a way to make sure that voicemail was deleted before he could hear it. ASAP.
"Chan. You will purchase new books for Azula in place of the ones you destroyed."
"WHAT?! That's not fair!" Chan yelled, rising from his chair in one quick motion.
Roku didn't bother to flinch. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and folded his hands together neatly.
"Fair is suspending you for the next two weeks. I think a week of detention is sparing you. If you'd like, I can always increase the severity of your quite mild punishment."
Chan sat back down, his mouth strained into a thin line. When he finally settled down, Principal Roku nodded his head approvingly and averted his eyes towards Azula.
She took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. She'd take her punishment bravely. There was no fault in what she had done in retaliation to that imbecile.
"Azula. I understand your frustration in the situation, but I must caution you in the future to not be so impulsive. You could've easily reported this situation to one of your teachers or our other staff and had this handled in a more civil fashion. I'm afraid that I'll have to give you a minimum of three days of detention."
"But I have volleyball practice right after school ends," she tried to explain.
Roku simply sighed and moved a few things around on his desk. "Well. I guess you should've thought of that before whacking a student with a book."
Azula nodded politely. It was better to keep her comments to herself. Lord knows she wanted to tear the bastard next to her apart. Why did she have to get in trouble because he didn't know how to react to a harmless compliment normally?
Chan was not of the same mind. "I was brutally attacked and I'm the one stuck with all the consequences?! That's bullshit and you know it!"
"Chan," Roku spoke, a warning embedded in his tone. "It's best that you choose your words wisely when speaking to me from now on. This situation could become very ugly and involve more than just me and your parents."
….
"Mai, I feel kind of bad about this."
"Why? I'm sure Azula wouldn't care. We're not really friends anyway."
TomTom was running through the house being a menace again. Unfortunately, Mai was left to watch over him because her parents were oh so very busy doing whatever bullshit it was that adults did.
She wouldn't have minded taking care of her younger brother if they didn't make it seem like she just had to do it. It was unfair and affected her ability to attain friends at school.
Well…she wouldn't go as far as to say that. She thought herself too intellectually advanced for all those mindless plebeians she shared space with in the halls every day. They were so…one dimensional. Materialistic. Downright immature. If she had to deal with one more brat sticking gum on the back of her school uniform she was going to scream. What the fuck did they even get out of doing something like that?
"Still, Mai. We haven't hung out with her since before summer break."
"And we should be thanking the creator above for that," Mai quipped as she wrangled in TomTom.
In all of his rampage, he'd found a way to get into some markers. She opened his mouth to find that he'd been sucking on them like lollipops. She rushed to hold him over a sink and forcibly clean his tongue. Ty Lee, still sitting on the edge of Mai's bed, pouted.
"What are you so sad about it for anyway?" Mai called from the bathroom.
She fussed with TomTom as he thrashed violently against her in protest. The blue dye had barely budged from his tongue.
"I thought you said you were done with her after she had you drive your dad's car and we almost crashed into your house."
"Almost."
"It was pretty hard to distinguish from our position. My whole life flashed before my eyes."
"We were playing truth or dare."
"But Azula took it too far. You were only supposed to take it out of the garage and around the block. Somehow we ended up on a freeway. Only a miracle allowed us to get back to your house in one piece."
"It was just a game."
"Yeah! A game that she kept pressuring us to play until we almost died!" Mai shouted, scaring her brother even more in the process.
Ty Lee leaped from her position on the bed and grabbed TomTom from Mai's hands. She cooed to him softly as she grabbed a wet towel and dabbed at his blue stained tongue. Mai folded her arms. She was tired of all of this whining. From TomTom and Ty Lee.
"What are you defending her for? Yeah we were playing truth or dare, but Azula just doesn't know when to stop. She kept upping the ante until you almost shit yourself in the front seat. What kind of friend does that?"
Ty Lee paused for a moment, mulling over her next words. "I never heard you say anything during all of that."
….
Home is a nuclear war ground.
Azula creeps in through the front door looking just as shifty and nervous as she is. Lo and Li are standing near the entrance. They give her a silent welcome. She knows that this is bad. It means her father is well aware of what happened today.
His car is parked out on the front lawn. She glances at her wristwatch. He is almost never home this early unless something has gone terribly wrong. Azula gulped. The error was her's today and she had no idea how he planned to correct it.
She lightly brushed over her still aching feet. She hadn't even completely healed from her long walk from school.
The hall looms in front of her as it never has before. The distance seems longer, shadows of closed doors more pronounced, the quiet more eerie. With her shoes already toed off at the door, she tries to make the least noise possible. Every step is carefully made so as not to create a semblance of a sound.
She is almost past his home office door. He doesn't even bother to turn around. She can see him brooding in his office. She takes one second too long to look and he shifts minutely. It's a significant enough turn that he becomes aware that she's arrived home.
"Azula."
There is an edge to his voice – there always is – but one usually restricted solely for Zuko. She can feel her skin boiling in hot water.
"Yes, Father?"
His eyes never meet her's. He is looking straight ahead at something in his office. Azula adjusts the collar of her shirt. She can feel her throat locking up in fear.
"Come in."
She doesn't hesitate to obey. She is a good girl. She has never been anything less than stellar for her father. She stands a little past the threshold of the door waiting for his instruction.
"Close the door," he orders again, eyes still unmoved from some random space in front of him.
She slowly reaches for the doorknob. She can't move her body any faster. The door creaks shut ominously. When the familiar clink of the door locking sounds off, Ozai spins his chair around at breakneck speed.
He reminds Azula of an owl with how he is able to maneuver his neck so frivolously.
There is no amusement in his eyes – not that there ever is – but Azula knows that she has made a big mess of herself. He is raging underneath that façade of composure. His wrath will be unprecedented.
Silence overwhelms the room. Even the usual whirring of the machines that calm her are significantly muted. Neither of them makes the first move. Ozai's glare penetrates her, looks down at her core, unwraps and rewraps her at his whim. He is her maker and her undoer. She does nothing without his approval.
"Are you trying to sabotage me?"
"No, Father. I-"
"Made an ass of yourself and me," he finishes for her. "Did you think this wouldn't come back to me? That I wouldn't know?"
"I-"
"Didn't think at all. You're not unrecognizable in the video. I was able to intercept it before it went viral outside of your school's circle. It was a hassle. I expended more energy than I should've for a mistake that you made."
"But, Father-"
"I don't want to hear your bullshit. You have embarrassed me. I have gone so long without the disappointments that befall your brother. And now – of all times – you decide to follow in his stead. Are you an idiot? Are you trying to prove a point?"
Azula doesn't bother to respond. Her father is in no mood to respond to logical explanations. He never cared for rhyme or reason. Reputation and appearance are all that matters to him.
"I won't allow this kind of behavior. Your brother is far beyond redemption. With you, I can control the extent of your screw-ups. If you know what's good for you, a situation like this won't come again."
