"I think there's something going on. Something wrong."
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure, but that bandage on her face can't be a good sign of anything."
"You're overthinking things. She plays a sport - volleyball if I'm remembering correctly. Injuries come with tossing a ball around the court."
"But it's not in Azula to get an injury like that. She's a perfectionist in every sense of the word. She'd never get hurt."
"Exactly. She didn't get hurt. She just wasn't so perfect one time and missed a serve."
"Iroh. I'm serious. I think something is happening in that house between Azula and Ozai."
"Like what?"
Ursa frowned at the jolly old man as he gave the most condescending smirk she'd ever seen. Now wasn't a good time for him to want to be a comedian. She was trying to be serious about her daughter for once. She feared for her safety as Ozai lost control of his usual punching bag. What would become of her daughter now that Zuko was no longer there to take on Ozai's rage?
Iroh, realizing that Ursa wasn't in a joking mood, raised a cup of tea to his lips and sipped carefully.
To be honest, he was sick of hearing about this girl and his brother. Ursa was playing this never ending game of cat and mouse with two people who just would never relent until they had her on her knees begging. If Azula didn't want to come over, who were they to force her to see reason?
Ozai wasn't a good person. He hadn't been for as long as Iroh could remember. That coldness - so calculated and unfeeling - had festered underneath the surface even as a child. Iroh had been on the other side of his brother's ruthless attacks before. He knew how far he could and would go if pushed.
He couldn't make Azula see that. If she was stubborn enough to stay, then maybe she'd have to experience it first-hand before coming to grips with the kind of person her father really was.
"I'm sure it was Ozai who did it. Her entire cheek was bruised - even if we're seeing the tail end of it in the healing stages. I don't want her to stay there anymore. She should be with us. Where she can be safe," Ursa rambled as she paced back and forth. She nibbled on the nail of her thumb, eyes unfocused, and feet unsteady.
Iroh could only watch in apathy. He couldn't bring himself to see in Azula what his sister-in-law did. A rather sickening, but true quote came to mind whenever he thought of his niece: "Those who cannot hear must feel."
It would be a shame to see the inevitable collapse of his brother's and niece's fragile relationship, but they were on the horizon of something about to go horribly awry. Iroh shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of tea. It was out of his hands.
No one ever listened to him anyway.
….
The morning had started off with a blast.
As Azula grabbed textbooks out of her locker, she could hear the familiar, heavy footsteps of a boy who had fucked up by deciding that he ever stood a chance against her rage. She couldn't fight the smirk that curled her lips upward playfully.
He stood behind her locker door seething, his breath rushing in and out in harsh gulps. She decided to play dumb. She'd already gotten everything out of her locker that she needed, but she lingered around a little longer pretending to read and check herself in the mirror.
When she thought he was appropriately tortured, she slammed her locker door shut and gave him just the barest amount of recognition with a tiny flick of her eyes. That was all the bait he needed to move in closer to her furiously. His breath was so ragged, he was practically breathing fire.
"I know it was you," Chan stated matter of factly.
Azula - still playing dumb - placed some of the books in her bookbag that she had resting on the floor between her legs.
"Good morning to you too, Chan," she replied nonchalantly, flipping a piece of her bang out of her face.
His fist slammed into the nearby locker causing a good amount of the students in the hall to zero in on him. He was too emotional to be embarrassed at this point, though. She didn't think he'd noticed that there was anyone else there except for the two of them.
"Don't fuck with me!" Chan shouted, getting all up in her face in the process.
A few more passers-by stopped or slowed down to bear witness to the confrontation. Azula's smirk only grew. This was perfect. His buttons had been easier to push than she'd previously thought. Right about now, he was digging a hole he wouldn't even be able to imagine to get out of.
"I know it was you, bitch!"
Azula prepared her best shocked and offended face. She backed up a little to add some dramatic flair.
"Excuse me?! Is there really a need for misogynistic slurs so early in the morning? Especially as I don't even know what you're accusing me of, Chan."
All eyes were on them at this point. Azula could make out a few in the crowd, eyes bulging out of their sockets, looking scared shitless.
Of them, there were a few that were making dashes down the hall, most likely going to get help from someone on staff. The others that stopped still either gawked at them nosy as the neighborhood gossip or had brought their phones out ready to record.
She reveled in the joy that his misery caused. He'd think twice before pulling some shit like this again.
He stalked closer to her. Azula took his threatening gait in stride, unable to hold back the smirk she wore. That only seemed to piss him off more. He bum rushed her until he had her pinned against a locker. She didn't even flinch at the contact.
Azula could hear the excited cheers of the crowd around her. They were silently egging it all on and Chan wasn't immune to their fervor. She could see his resolve building as the soft, low chants of students saying "fight" surrounded them.
He slammed his hand dangerously close to her head on the locker. Azula didn't bother to move. He was surely dead meat if he ever thought he'd hit her and get away with it.
Instead, he leaned into her, bridging the gap between them, and settled near her ear. His breath made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she remained unfazed.
"You've been fucking up my life since the moment I met you," he breathed harshly. Azula fought the urge to roll her eyes at the drama of it all. "I intend to ruin you," he threatened, his voice taking on a surprising edge. "I'm not holding back anymore. I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure you never recover from what I'm going to do to you."
Chan pulled away from her ear smoothly. Seeing his face again, Azula couldn't help but notice the devious look in his eyes. Something feral and cruel had been unleashed. Her eyes hardened as she stared him down.
In her peripheral vision, she could see one of the students holding onto the sleeve of a security guard as she frantically pointed in their direction. He was coming over now, his untailored pants making an annoying swishing sound to announce his presence.
Chan didn't care at all. He backed away from her slowly, that crazy look still in his eye. He arranged his hands into a finger gun, pointed at his head, and made an exploding sound. Azula - just as crazy - smirked at him and laughed.
"Challenge accepted."
….
Zuko was back in his uncle's trophy room watching them shine and shimmer in a way that he could only interpret as mocking.
Sometimes, his blood would boil thinking about just how right his father truly was about him. What could a boy with such a weak and broken body do for a man such as Ozai?
No wonder the guy hated him.
He was a boy - a supposed shoe-in for an heir that would bring glory to the Fujiwara name and take over the family business. But instead he'd ended up with Zuko. A boy as temperamental and flaky as the weather.
Zuko clenched the end of one of the dressers he stood before. What had his father done to him? He couldn't even spare a thought for himself without Ozai's nagging voice prattling on about how useless and unlucky he was.
Zuko didn't understand how Azula managed to put up with the guy.
But all thoughts of Azula always quickly turned awry. He could feel his grip harden on the counter. His breath hitched unnaturally and his eyes bulged with fury.
Azula…that bitch! She wasn't his fucking sister! If he thought hard enough, she was the reason for all this family strife. If she hadn't been born, if she had never become better than him, he could only imagine how much easier his life would be.
She had come into his life and turned everything upside down. Hadn't it been her who was at the center of most of their parents' domestic battles? He only felt his body shake as he thought longer and harder about it all.
Unfortunately for him, his little problem of a hole in his lung decided to act up. Zuko began to hyperventilate violently. His chest heaved so thunderously, it felt like he was swallowing water instead of air.
Eventually his balance suffered under the weight of his hacking coughs that bordered on gagging sounds. His hand splayed across his chest as he began to scrunch the fabric of his shirt in a feeble attempt to still his rapidly beating heart.
He chuckled darkly to himself. Of course Azula had been the cause of yet another one of these attacks. Zuko coughed until vomit with specks of blood splashed against the floor. He could barely hear the sounds of the door opening and his cousin Lu Ten shouting at him to open his eyes.
