"Happy birthday, prince Zuko" the creepy twins said, bowing respectfully and then ofering him a gift.

Calling Li and Lo strange was putting it midly. The two women had the habit of speaking in an odd way, always in the exact same tone and in unison, and the topics were always confusing. Legends nobody else seemed to have ever heared about, and some of which were impossible to find in any book, no matter how old. Proverbs even uncle Iroh didn't understand the meaning of. Spirits that had supposedly whispered something to them during meditation. Ocassionaly they'd even talk about notorious people that had lived in the Fire Nation many, many, MANY years ago, as if they had personally known them.

That last one was always the one that gave Zuko the worst headaches. Sure, they were visibly old, but not that old. The young prince had heard the some people could live for an absurdly long time - Avatar Kyoshi that been 230-years-old when she died - but even with that in mind, Li and Lo's very existence seemed to puzzle even most adults.

So, naturally, Zuko never knew how to feel about the twins, even when they were being kind to him.

On that day however, one could have wrongfully assumed they were among his favorite people in the whole world. He took the gift, thanking them for it a million times, and hugged the two old ladies like they were as dear to him as his mom, which seemed to surprise them quite a lot as they took a step back and exchanged a confuse look.

"Sorry" he mumbled awkwardly, cheeks heating up.

"We are happy the gift is to your liking" they said, a bit unsure of themselves, bowing politely once more and then leaving.

The book about dragons seemed perfect, but it was not the source of his gratitude.

Nobody else other than his mom and Azula had seemed to remember his birthday, or so much as looked at him all day. He wasn't sure he had ever been this upset in his whole life - and with all the wisdom and perspective of an 8-year-old, he was sure that no other moment would be this devastating to him again.

It was all Azula's fault. Azula and her stupid blue fire.

First she spends years making his life miserable by following him around everywhere, acting like everything he owns is actually hers, and copying everything he does - firebending moves, trying to meditate, studying, playing with his toys, feeding the turtleducks, and even wanting to nap at the same time, for Agni's sake! She just never left him alone!

But since yesterday, she wasn't by his side. She was doing her own thing, getting all of everyone's attention, and barely even seeming to remember that Zuko existed, and he just couldn't stand it! It was driving him crazy! Why was she suddenly too good for him? And why did she have to figure out how to do something that would blow everyone away mere hours before a day that was supposed to be about him!

Her flames weren't even that impressive anyway. Sure, it was rare, or possibly even the first time someone had done that, ever. And it was pretty to look at. And somewhat hotter than regular flames, and seemed to do more damage. But that didn't make it special! There was no need for everyone to constantly be asking her to demonstrate it.

...At the very least dad could have wished him a happy birthday, and let him spend sometime with his sister. He had already been asleep by the time the Fire Sages were done seeing what she could do, to confirm it truly was super powerful. She was already showing off to every noble in the whole country when Zuko had just woken up for breakfast. During both lunch and dinner, Azula's firebending was all that Ozai could talk about, and Azula herself was too busy fighting off her exhaustion and shoving as much food in her face as possible to even try to talk to anyone. She had spent practically the whole afternoon sleeping.

Zuko had just gotten a quick 'happy birthday, dum-dum', and that was it. She didn't get to give him a hug, and he didn't get to congratulate her for the blue flames - and after this awful day in which even two creepy old ladies seemed to find him too needy, he didn't feel like doing it anymore.

The only truly good thing about his birthday had been spending so much time with his mom. She had not left his side for one minute, and it helped distract him from the fact that Azula, for the first time since she learned to walk, wasn't. While being ignored by his sister wasn't fun, he had to admit he had liked not having to share mom with her for once. It was just the two of them, and Zuko quite liked it. He could even get used to it happening more often.

...As long as it wasn't like that all the time.

After a bedtime story, he had managed to relax enough to sleep. But he ended up waking up far too early anyways, the sky still dark outside. After several long minutes of tossing and turning in bed, unable to go back to sleep, he decided to go play in the garden. It always looked far prettier at night.

But that particular time, it was as if the place had become full on magical.

Azula was there, with a few brasiers surround her - brasiers she probably dragged outside herself, and the mental image of someone so short dragging those light, yet tall things around was quite comical.

Still, his sister's display of firebending was nothing to laugh at. Her bright blue flames underneath only the moonlight, no other source of fire or light to distract from it or make it more muted. Just that eirie blue shining on everything around his sister as she repeated every stance she knew, over and over, never letting her flames die or dwindle as she moved. It looked every flower, every tree, and even the grass looked way better when under her light, the red of autumn contrasting beautifully with her blue.

Why exactly did she choose to practice her bending in the garden instead of in one of the many rooms of the palace that had been created for that exact function, he didn't know, and he wasn't going to find out since he was hiding behinds some trees and bushes, so Azula wouldn't be aware she had an audience.

He couldn't explain why he was choosing to not let her know she was being watched.

Another thing he had not been able to undertand at first was why Azula looked so frustrated. She was doing great! Her movements were as gracious and precise as ever, and the color of her flames made it even more fascinating to watch her. It reminded him of performers during festivals, using all kinds of tricks and add-ons to make their bending more impressive - only Azula didn't need any trick at all. So why did she looked angry?

It wasn't until she actually started blasting some of her flames into the brasiers that Zuko noticed what the problem was. The larger the flame, the more it's blue color was replaced by a green-ish tone. The blasts that hit the brasiers perfectly were the ones that looked more like regular flames, while the ones that almost missed had the color his sister wanted. And once she wasn't manipulating them, they turned completely orange.

Azula's blue flames were more dangerous and beautiful than the ordinary ones, but that also made them more difficult to control.

She went back to practicing her stances, this time while trying to let the flames be even more powerful - and while they looked at bit bigger, the green would appear again ocasionally, and the struggle to concentrate on keeping them blue led to her making many mistakes even in the basic firebending stances.

For a prodigy like her, not at all used to having to try that hard to achieve something amazing, the sudden struggle with even the basics that had never given her trouble before must have felt like the universe itself playing some kind of twisted prank on her.

Zuko's thoughts were interrupted when she launched at fire ball right at his hiding place, making him jump away scared while she laughed at his misery.

"Not funny, Azula!"

"This is what you get for spying!"

"I was not spying" he pouted.

"Then why were you hiding in the bushes?"

"Doesn't matter! Why are you even up this late?"

"It's well past your bedtime too"

"Stop being difficult and answer me!"

She sighed "Fine. I just slept too much during the afternoon, got bored and decided to practice some more. Now explain why you were spying on me"

"I already told you, I wasn't spying. I was just walking around"

"And happened to trip and fall behind a bush and stay there for nearly an hour?" she asked in a sarcastic tone, sticking out her tongue when said tone made Zuko mad "Go back to bed, dum-dum"

"You should sleep too"

"I'm not tired"

"Then at least stay in bed to rest a bit"

"I don't want to! Leave me alone!" Azula complained, and those particular words upset the young prince.

"I ask you to leave me alone all the time and I still gotta put up with you following me around, but when you want some space I'm supposed to listen?"

"Yes" she turned her back on him to continue practicing, like the matter was resolved.

Zuko disagreed.

He grabbed her arm, forced her to turn around, and then dragged her back to the palace, not letting go of her no matter how much she tried to free herself from his grasp.

Eventually, she surrendered, just holding his hand and giving it little squeezes as they walked through the halls, Azula always just a step or two behind him, following him along.

The world made sense again.