A/N: I'm just really emotional about Zuko and his family, okay? It's been literally ten years and I'm still not over it, so I decided to start writing some drabbles about the Fire Nation Royals. These will likely be stand-alone one-shots that occasionally reference each other since that kind of story structure tends to work best with my writing style.
Disclaimer: If I owned Zuko, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.
Sparks
Azula can't firebend.
She's four years old tomorrow, or so her mother tells her, and she is acutely aware of the fact that she can't produce so much as a flicker. Ursa brushes her hair, the way she insists on doing every single night because Azula has such pretty hair even if the child can't stand people touching her head, and she remains unaware of whatever it is that has Azula in a mood tonight. She mentions the new dress that was delivered from the colonies especially for her birthday celebration, and Azula bitterly thinks that if she could firebend, no one would ever try to stuff her into an uncomfortable dress again.
Zuzu can firebend. Azula knows because she used to sneak into the training room and watch him from behind a curtain. She secretly thinks he's quite good at it, but her father doesn't feel the same way. Once, he came in and challenged her brother to strike the target dummy across the room in the heart. Azula watched him take a deep breath and plant himself in a strong stance before a small fireball formed in his equally small hand and soared towards the dummy.
It landed on its left shoulder, singeing the prop and filling Azula's nose with the smell of burnt fabric. She pressed her hands over her nose and mouth and willed herself not to cough.
Ozai swept his arm and released a shower of white-hot sparks onto Zuzu's tiny feet. Her big brother sank to the ground and clutched his feet, but he didn't cry. He seemed used to it, as did the instructor who steadfastly looked away from the scene.
Azula stopped sneaking into the training room after that. She wonders if Zuzu is able to strike the dummy in the heart yet.
"There you go, darling." Her mother finally places the brush on the tray next to her and runs her fingers through Azula's jasmine-scented hair one last time. "Good night, now." Ursa kisses her forehead.
"Good night, mother," Azula replies politely as she knows she should. Her mother takes the tray of hair tools away with her as she leaves the room, and Azula is alone in her bed.
Zuzu didn't firebend until he was four years old either. She knows because she still remembers the first time it happened, and she was almost more surprised than him. She told him idly that some noblewoman had called her a brat while she was throwing pebbles into the turtleduck pond, more out of curiosity about the word than anything. Her brother squeaked and set his pillow on fire. He never did tell her what that word meant, or why it was bad, or how he even knew what it was, but Azula heard him complaining about it to their mother. She never saw that noblewoman again after that.
Azula thinks that maybe if she firebends tomorrow, she'll be able to hit that dummy in the heart by the time she is Zuzu's age. Her feet are sensitive- she once stepped on a splinter that sank into her heel and hurt for days- and she doesn't want to know what burning them would feel like. She can still imagine the sting of that splinter sometimes. Wincing at the memory, Azula squeezes her eyes shut. She doesn't like where her thoughts are heading.
Surely her brother isn't asleep yet.
Azula creeps out of bed and delicately lifts her yellow nightgown to avoid tripping on it as she tiptoes to the door of her room. There are guards stationed outside, but their job is to watch for threats, not babysit her. They're not particularly good with children. She peeks through a crack and notes there are only two guards between her and her brother's rooms. Easy.
Rubbing her eyes until they're red, Azula steps out of her room sniffling pathetically. Both guards immediately notice her and become uneasy as she approaches them in tears.
"I- I had a bad dream," Azula whimpers, bottom lip trembling.
"Now, Princess, there's no need to cry," the first guard reassures her with a quiver in his voice. She's practiced this enough times to know no one likes seeing a girl her age cry, and they definitely don't want to be the cause of it. "Dreams are just in your head. I promise it wasn't real."
"But it felt real," Azula whines. "You don't understand!"
"Do you want us to fetch your mother, Princess?" The second guard is calmer than his partner. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind."
"N-no, Mommy says I'm a big girl now…" Azula trails off and glances at her brother's door. "Can I go see my brother instead?" she asks, pretending the thought just now occurred to her.
Zuko's door opens, and Azula barely manages to hide her smile. She knew her brother would be awake, and he would always listen to any commotion at his door.
"Come on, Azula." He waves her into his room. "It's okay."
The guards look like they want to say something, but Azula sobs even more pathetically and runs into her brother's arms and interfering with that isn't exactly in their job description. Zuko closes the door and embraces his baby sister until she's sure the guards are no longer listening and stops crying.
"What did you dream about?" he asks softly. He never was able to figure out when Azula was playing a trick, but she supposed she wouldn't hold it against him when he always did what she wanted.
"Do you think I'm a firebender, Zuzu?"
"Of course you are," he tells her, and Azula knows he believes it. He's an awful liar, and he still thinks she is too.
"But I still haven't made any fire." Azula pouts. "And I try all the time."
Zuko shakes his head at her and tugs her over to his bed. Azula knows what he has in mind now, but that doesn't stop her from laughing when he pulls his blanket over their heads to make a little tent. This is their secret fort. They only come here on very special days, like birthdays or the first time Azula did a cartwheel.
"Lu Ten told me he couldn't firebend until he was six," Zuzu whispers. He conjures the smallest flame in his hand, just enough for the siblings to see each other's faces. "He says he wasn't able to hit anything more than five feet away from him for almost a year. And he's going to be a soldier now."
Azula gives this some thought. Her cousin Lu Ten is nice enough to her. The two younger cousins are allowed to watch him sparring with their Uncle Iroh sometimes, and they have very interesting fights. Lu Ten knows how to breathe fire. Azula never saw anyone breathe fire before he and Uncle Iroh showed it to her. She wonders if Uncle Iroh burned his son's feet until he was able to do it properly.
"What if I'm not as good as you and Lu Ten?"
"You're super smart, Azula. I don't think you need firebending to be strong, but you'll be a great firebender." Zuzu's flame flickers, and he makes it a little bigger. It's soft and warm, just like her brother's voice. "It doesn't matter if you and I are good at firebending anyway. Lu Ten says once he's Fire Lord, we can do whatever we want."
Lu Ten being Fire Lord is a funny thought. Their grandfather is old, but Uncle Iroh will be Fire Lord after him, and he's a very strong man. It'll be ages before he dies and Lu Ten takes the throne. Azula can't imagine a life outside of the palace at that point.
"What will you do when Lu Ten is Fire Lord?" Azula asks. Her brother always has an answer to these things, even if he makes it up.
"I asked him if I can be a general like Uncle Iroh," Zuko says proudly. "He says he'll make me a general if I beat him in a sparring match. I told him I'll do it when I turn thirteen."
Azula recalls how he couldn't hit the dummy in the heart and thinks to herself that seven years is not a lot of time to be able to beat Lu Ten, but she doesn't say it. Her brother doesn't know she watched him that day. She focuses on the dancing orange flame in his hand.
"Zuzu, how does it feel to firebend?" She asks him this at least once a week, ever since he first made fire, and has the answer memorized by now. She just likes hearing him say it.
"It feels like you're taking your heartbeat and growing it bigger and bigger..."
She stares at Zuzu's fire and feels her heart thudding as he speaks.
"...until it explodes and you can barely breathe anymore but you know you still have to…"
She takes deep breaths, picturing Lu Ten and Uncle Iroh breathing fire.
"...and there's something surging out of you faster than anything…"
Her blood is roaring in her ears now.
"...so you're hardly able to grab it before it can get away…"
There's something strange itching at her fingertips.
"...and then it's fire."
Azula lifts her hands, half-expecting fire to flow out now. It's hard not to be disappointed when her hands remain empty and cold, even though this has happened several times before. She looks up at Zuko, who just smiles at her.
"You'll get it soon."
Azula stares at her terrible hands and wishes to be like her brother, who wasn't even trying when he burned his pillow. She squeezes and flexes her fingers, recalling that little itching sensation, and yelps when she sees a small spark light up.
"Did you see that?"
"I did!" He looks even more excited than her. "Can you do it again?"
She wriggles her fingers all over the place, but nothing comes out. The itching is gone now. She huffs in frustration.
Zuko tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. He's thinking of a plan.
"Why don't you try borrowing some of my fire?"
"That's not the same thing," Azula tells him.
"I know it's not, but it's still firebending. Maybe it'll help you make your own again."
She's upset now because she knows she's smarter than her brother and shouldn't need so much from him to create her own fire, but Zuzu only ever wants to help her. She places her hand next to his and wills the orange flame to hold still.
Slowly but surely, the flickering stops.
She tries to pull the flame over to her own hand, but it stubbornly refuses despite listening to her earlier orders. Azula's prepared to dismiss the whole endeavor until she tries again and a smattering of sparks dance around her palm before dissipating again.
"Look at that! Try doing it again."
Azula tries, and it takes a few dozen attempts with varying degrees of success. The sparks grow in size and number until a proper flame finally appears in her hand and rivals her brother's fire.
"Awesome!" Zuko flings the blanket off- it's getting quite hot in their fort with the fire and all- and that's when Azula notices that the sun is starting to peek through the curtains. She hardly feels tired, but she knows her mother will soon be in her room to insist on birthday preparations and things like that. The thought of it makes her eyes droop.
"Ooh, looks like we took a while in the fort." He grins unabashedly. "Go back to your room before Mom shows up."
"Okay," Azula deftly leaps off the bed. "See you soon."
"Hey, come here." Zuko follows her off the bed and hugs her, kissing her forehead just like their mom always does. "Happy birthday, Azula."
Azula allows her brother to hug her for a few more seconds before leaving and darting past the half-asleep guards to get to her room. She crawls into her own blanket and makes her fire again, just to admire it.
Her fire is hotter than Zuko's.
A/N: Hope you folks enjoyed that. While this technically a complete story, I will be updating periodically with more one-shots about the Royal Family as they occur to me. I am accepting any ideas or prompts you have!
Let me know what you think of the story with that wonderful review button, please and thank you.
~Bobbi