A'N: Written for Steve in the Rule 63 Exchange on AO3. Prompted for F!Zuko & Azula
The fire siblings are a hot mess and yet that only serves to make them more interesting. Thanks Steve for the interesting R63 setup!
Split Up, Brought Together
"You're coming home a hero, Zuzu," Azula said as they boarded the ship. She clasped a hand atop Zuko's armor, not quite able to grip her sister's shoulder in a comforting fashion. Once they had left the catacombs, Zuko had found her way into a set. With her hair long and shaggy, she didn't quite look the same intimidating presence she had adopted on her old ship. Her sister's soldiers seem not to know what to do about her. There was a wide berth given to both of the Fire Lord's daughters.
Dogging their footsteps even while bound is Uncle Iroh. Zuko eyed her sister and turned to join Azula on the other side of the deck. She can't bring herself to watch her uncle as he is brought past them to the bowels of the ship. "You said this would be worth it?" Zuko asked.
She wanted to believe it. She has been fighting to trust her decision down in the catacombs of the palace. Gazing at the ocean and knowing their bow will soon be pointed directly for the heart of the Fire Nation once more, Zuko gripped the railing ahead of her.
Azula's face twisted in a way the two never shared before - a smile. "Of course it will be, sister," she insisted. "Father will be honored by what you've done here."
Searching in her bright, golden eyes, Zuko can't tell what she saw. The ship rocked as the gangway was pulled and the engines ignited. "Easy there," Azula insisted. Her hand returned to Zuko's shoulder, this time to keep her steady on her feet.
Zuko murmured a quiet thanks. It's all that she can manage now. It was still too much - Azula being kind. Azula offering an olive branch. Azula bringing her sister home. By some small mercy, her sister disappeared below decks. It gave her a brief window of time to consider the situation once more.
Crossing her arms and leaning on the railing, Zuko allowed herself to relax into a slump. She was going home. After three painfully long years at sea she would finally be allowed to see her homeland again. How Azula had managed it, Zuko still couldn't fathom. But nothing of this had been understandable from the start. Being thrown out from the palace for refusing to adhere to the Agni Kai? Getting the task to find the Avatar after a hundred years of silence? Abandoning her quest for the Avatar? This had been three years of waiting for the wind to turn in her favor and here, now, it had finally happened.
Because of Azula.
Zuko laughed, just once, to herself and shook her head. She had been so ready for another twist. Another knife in her back. Azula always lies! Yet here she was, back on a Fire Nation ship about to be in her father's good graces again. All that she had to do was take credit for defeating the Avatar - which had been her quest regardless! There had been so many close calls to it. She might have well already captured the airbender a half-dozen times already. This was just getting credit for them, finally.
Her father had to acknowledge it all. That was all that Azula was doing here and now.
No, not getting credit. Taking credit. She had done so much, yes, but not this. "Stop it," she growled under her breath. Zuko closed her eyes and took a handful of calming breaths. She had earned the recognition. Her efforts had brought the Avatar and his little clan of miscreants into hers and Azula's hands down there. Without her help, Katara might have scrounged some miraculous tactic and spirited them all away. Instead, Zuko had kept her distracted until Azula could strike her final blow on the Avatar.
So what if it hadn't been Zuko's?
Her stomach flipped in her gut. Zuko stepped away from the railing. She had spent too long away from the sea. She was getting nauseous from the waves. The salt spray was welcoming; the rocking under her feet quick to readjust to. The Fire Nation was just a few days' journey. Then she would be back at her father's side.
Diving under the deck of the ship, Zuko wound her way to the living quarters. Her hand had already pressed open the door to the room next to the captain's before she realized her mistake. Azula looked up from her bunk, confusion swiftly painted over with that unfamiliar smile. "Missing me already, Zuzu?" she cooed.
Zuko rubbed the back of her head and tried to back out. "N-no, just made a mistake," she replied. Her reflexes had taken her to her old room's position. Of course it would be Azula's here. She moved to close the door but Azula stopped her.
"You can stay if you want," Azula offered. She sounded hesitant even as she did, but it was an offer nonetheless. Zuko stalled and settled on resting her shoulder on the doorframe instead. Azula sat up more stiffly, her fingers picking at nonexistent blemishes on her sheets. "I want things to be different this time," she said after a moment of silence between them.
Zuko raised her eyebrow. "Different how?"
Azula waved a hand dismissively and placed them in her lap. She didn't have the same confidence that she usually sat with. "Different with… everything. It has been a long three years without you, Zuko. Longer still when you were running with Uncle. That treachery hurt, you know."
A mixture of emotions swirled in Zuko's gut. She choked back her anger, if only marginally. "I'm here now," she spat in response. And Iroh was in the brig. Another emotion surged in her stomach only to be swept up in the relief that came from Azula's next words.
"I just don't want us to hate one another again," she sighed. "That's why I'm telling Father… you know." She looked up through her eyelashes, refusing to voice their plan with the door open to the hall.
Zuko felt again the precipice beneath her feet. She wanted so badly to feel confident in the path ahead of her. And she agreed with Azula. "I don't want to hate you, either," she said. It meant accepting the lie that was bringing her home. It meant ignoring her guilt simmering in the belly of the ship. But even more so it meant after so long that she might be able to have a sister again.