A/N: This is basically my version of 'Zuko Alone' except for Azula. Hope you enjoy!

Haze:

School bored her, and the days continued to melt together. The only consolation came when she spent time with Ty Lee and Mai, the only friends she seemed capable of making. Everyone else talked of her behind her back, all of them jealous, spreading spiteful rumors. Girls were cruel, but Azula had her fair share of revenge. For every rumor, she could only laugh. If people were talking about her, that only meant good things. If they were saying mean things, it meant they feared her. And for each rumor, she found the girl who started it, and gave them a real reason to fear her, and a new rumor to start.

She leaned nonchalantly against the wall in one of the corridors, waiting for one girl she didn't particularly like. A perk of being her meant she had an inexhaustible supply of patience, but after a few hours she started to drift, a haze of memories swirling around in her head.

The waiting reminded her of another time in her life, when at the age of three, she learned she was a firebender. Azula had sat for hours, waiting for Zuko to finish his training with their father. They'd been at it all day, and it was late at night now. Ursa had come out to sit with her, and Azula waited in her lap as her mother stroked her short black hair. One of Azula's few good memories with her mother, just the two of them, sitting outside, waiting for Zuko. The stars above shone brightly, and a light summery breeze stirred the leaves of trees in the garden.

"You have beautiful hair Azula," Ursa said with a smile. "My gorgeous baby girl."

Azula nestled further down in her mother's lap. She'd been wearing her soft crimson robes, and this late at night they felt like a blanket. Ursa stroked a stray hair from out of Azula's eye, when suddenly the large training room doors burst open and Zuko stormed out, anger clear in his dark features.

"Why doesn't anything ever work for me?" he shouted, slamming his fists through the air.

Azula jumped up from Ursa's lap, and her mother went to Ozai's side. Azula's father stood leaning shirtless against the doorframe watching his son storm back and forth shouting at himself. He'd always been moody, and the dark shadows cast black scars across his angst-filled features.

"Zuzu," Azula said, tugging on his shirt. She'd been too young to pronounce his name right, and the nickname had stuck ever since. "Teach me to firebend." She smiled and jumped readily into the stance she'd seen her father use so many times when he would bend.

"Go away Azula," Zuko said, shoving her aside. "I'm not going to show you anything."

Azula stared at her brother, crestfallen. She'd sat out for hours waiting for him. She'd been so excited, too. He'd promised to show her something today. She felt tears spring to her eyes.

"Zuko, you've upset your sister," Ursa said, approaching him, the whispers between her and Ozai disappearing. "Why don't you show her something? It might make you feel better." Ursa smiled, resting a hand on his shoulder.

Azula wiped her eyes, looking hopefully at Zuzu. He relented. "Fine," he muttered, the lines in his face disappearing. He even smiled at her a little.

"First, you need to take a deep breath," he said, and Azula followed his example, breathing slowly and calmly. "Because firebending comes from the breath." He looked up and got an approving nod from Ozai, whose golden eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Now, the movement of this one is pretty easy," Zuko told her. "It's just like punching through the air. Can you show me a punch?" He smiled at her as she threw her best punch with added sound effects, a small grunt.

"Like that?" she asked him.

He nodded in approval. "Now just put it all together, the stance, the breath, and the punch, but make sure you feel the energy traveling with you through your body. Like this." Zuko punched through the air, a small blast of fire exploding from his fist.

Azula pursed her lips, furrowing her brow in concentration. With a little pout, she punched through the air…and fire burst forward, soaring like a comet all the way into the garden.

"I did it!" she exulted, turning around expecting her parents and Zuzu to be smiling. Instead they all looked dumbfounded. Ozai had unlatched himself from the doorframe, his eyes wide. Ursa just pursed her lips.

"But…but you're three," Zuko said, his confusion spattered all about his features. "That took me weeks!"

"You must be a wonderful teacher, Zuko," Ursa said, immediately going to his side, beaming at him. "That was amazing. You did such a good job of showing your little sister how to do it."

Azula pouted. No one had said anything to her yet.

"Come here, Azula," Ozai said, grabbing her wrist and leading her towards the training room. She looked at him, puzzled.

"Ozai, be reasonable," Ursa told him. "It's late, she needs to go to bed. You can train in the morning."

"I'm going to train with Zuzu?" she asked excitedly.

Ozai's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps." He stared at Zuko for a moment, and then back to Azula. "I'm going to speak to my father."

And that's how Azula learned she was a firebending prodigy.

But everything changed after that. Her father started treating her differently, and she never got to play with Zuzu anymore, at least not much. They didn't even train together. The hours she spent practicing with her father hardened her, and by the time she was four she'd surpassed Zuko in skill. Her father obviously favored her, and the attention he gave her started going to her head. Maybe he was right – maybe she really was better than her brother.

Other things changed, too. Ozai became more distant from the rest of his family, and Ursa made up for the loss of him by overcompensating with Zuko. Everything was always about Zuko. Azula started feeling left out, and she began confiding in her father. He always knew what to say to make her feel special, wanted, useful. She believed him without question.

Now, years of being told what she deserved from other people finally paid off. Azula crossed her arms, lightly tripping the unsuspecting girl who came walking around the dark corner. Too easy.

"I heard," she said, "that you don't like my hair." She circled the girl, who looked dazed and confused by the sudden assault. "What did you call it? The ugliest haircut you've ever seen, if I recall correctly. I'm sure you got a few laughs. Now it's my turn. I'm sure people will get a kick out of this," she said, raising two fingers as a single flame flickered from the tips of her nails.

The girl looked terrified as Azula snatched a fistful of hair and sliced through it with the fire emanating from her fingertips like it was a blade rather than a flame.

"Now that's ugly," Azula said, admiring her work at cutting the hair of the young girl. It was some kid in her class who thought it would be funny to tease the Fire Nation Royal now that she had no status over them (according to the teachers, at least). Azula, however, didn't take kindly to criticism. And her hair was a subject she didn't allow anyone to touch.

"But it suits you," she mused, a vicious light in her eye. "And it will give everyone something to talk about."

She snickered at the girl, who stared at her, horror and anger mixing as she picked up the black strands of fallen, ragged hair. Azula sauntered down the corridor back to her room, pleased with herself. No one got away with criticizing her except herself. And her father, but he was always right. He helped her fix the problems, too.

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I've been out of the country for awhile and have been sick, so I just put off writing this. So to explain the idea behind this, I kind of wanted to explore the idea that Azula and Zuko actually did get along as siblings at one point, and Zuko was a really good big brother to her. The idea that he would unlock her bending powers came because he seemed to teach people in the actual shows a lot (Lee with the swords and Aang fire bending) so I thought, why not Azula, too?

As pertains to Azula, I'm exploring the idea that when she was younger, she was actually just plain mean, and as the stories progress she slowly begins to manipulate people, rather than outright attack them, like she did to this one classmate of hers. She blatantly pushes Ty Lee to the ground in 'Zuko Alone' so I figured she was probably a bit of a bully to others, too. And about her hair...I figure she's sensitive about it cuz her mom always complimented it before they grew apart (and her delusion in the series finale suggests that she did), so I figured I'd go for it.

Anyway, hope you liked it! Read and review please!