Azula Cares For Her Brother (And Others Though She'll Never Admit)

Prologue

Cries filled the room as the second child of Ursa and Ozai was born. A nurse grabbed them in a blanket and brought them to the bathing sink.

Despite their fussing the child didn't cause much trouble.

"She's a girl, healthy although small," One of the nurses informed Ursa.

Ozai looked at the child with no love. She was a small thing, much like her older brother was. It was really no matter in the end. Physical strength and appearence had little to no help if someone was a good bender.

Young Zuko still had yet to firebend, and Ozai was getting impatient. Hopefully this one was better.

"Name?"

"What do you think, Ozai?" Ursa spoke softly. Ozai looked the small girl and thought for a second.

"Azula, named after my father of course."

Growing up Azula remained small. At 3 Azula sparked while Zuko at 5 years still hadn't. Ozai took a liking to the younger, believing her to be the better of the two.

Ursa didn't do the same. She didn't choose a favorite as she didn't want either of her children to feel as if though they had to be better than the other.

At four years old Ozai was already trying to teach Azula bending practices, while ignoring Zuko who had recently sparked for the first time.

"You're six and you just sparked, you're not good at all," Azula had taunted to her brother.

Ursa walked over and picked up the younger.

"Now, now, it's quite common for young benders to get their first sign of it at five or six, you're just a early bloomer, now you should apologize to your brother."

"Why, he's weak, Dad said so," Azula questioned. Ursa felt a realization git her. Of course Ozai would try and pit them against each other.

"Well, don't let him know I told you, but you dad didn't spark until he was seven"- she paused for the resulting gasps -"yeah, he doesn't want you to know, but is he weak?" Both of the children shook their heads, shocked at the news.

Azula's young brain was impressionable, so what ever her father told her, she believed. But mother had told her other wise. She didn't know who to believe. But father said Zuko was weak and herself was special.

So Azula decided to try something. She wasn't going to do any good at firebending. She if Father really though Zuko was weak if he progressed past her.

Despite being barely four Azula knew more than she let on. With books at the palace library she learned about all sorts of things. In many books lies and deception showed itself, so Azula had an idea of how to do so.

When lessons started for the four and six year olds, Azula made sure to first progress past her brother, but after four months of being the superior she made it seem as if she had started to slow. Although she practiced it and perfected it by herself, she let her brother surpass her in lessons.

The change wasn't very noticable at first. Ozai started to talk to Zuko more and Azula less. Then it seemed as if he had forgotten she existed.

Azula kept her discovery to herself. She let herself surpass Zuko again, and Father favored her again. Although she was now the obvious favorite now she disliked her father.

He so blatantly pick and chose what traits were strong and what were weak, and switched them if he so do pleased.

When he said that the turtleducks were weak and she hit them with bread, the mother chased her, and proved to not be weak. Later when watching Zuko do the same in front of Mother and say that Azula did it first, mother had lectured both children on the importance of not being unnecessarily cruel.

Azula in turn said what Ozai had said. Ursa explained that it was wrong. Azula searched in the library to determine who to believe.

Turns out neither was entirely, at least not to her. No, you should bot be cruel but sometimes it is necessary even without explainaton, but turtleducks had strong bills and stronger shells, so while they weren't apex predators, they weren't weak to any extent.

From the Azula decided to do her own research. When it came to the war and how it started, its reasons and other stuff everything was all weird, as nothing connected. The air benders had an army, but their temples had steep falls and lots of open space, so the Fire Nation could have easily been pushed to their death. It wasn't making sense to Azula no matter how it was stated.

When word came that Lu ten had died, Zuko was sad, and Azula could understand why, but didn't really know how to comprehend it.

So what he died, people died in war all the time, and its not like she was close to him. She voiced as such to her mother, who never lied when it came to things like this.

"Azula, people feel sad when others they know are gone. You weren't close to him so it's understandable that you don't know how to feel about his death, but imagine if someone you cared about died."

Azula imagined Zuko dying before she could stop it. Only the fact that tears only brought a scowl and a punishment from their father kept her from showing her tears and sadness. The paint in her chest felt empty and she hated it, so she simply shut hup her thoughts and detached herself from her emotions.

When Father met with Azulon, Azula found it hard to forget and ended up following them.

So many things happened that it was hard to keep her head on correctly. First father brought up that Uncle Iroh was still grieving and could not be trusted as fire lord if he was so upset from a little death. Azulon had gotten outraged and yelled, it was something Azula wouldn't forget for years to come.

"If you think this of your brother, then you shall lose your firstborn and see how it truly feels."

Azula left quietly as she could, and then ran to the parents room. Panicked she tried to explain the situation to her mother. Ursa heard her and understood through Azula's panicked breath and voice that sounded close to tears.

At that moment Ursa knew what had to be done.

"Remember that I will always love you, and that you don't have to be what your father wishes for you to be," Ursa said, while kissing her daughters head. Azula looked confused but nodded.

"Okay now lets go to your brothers room, I'll make sure Azulon doesn't hurt him." Ursa said picking up the eight year old as if she weighed nothing. Ursa gave the same speech with minor edits to Zuko, and promised them both that she would keep them safe.

The next morning Azulon was found dead, and Ozai was proclaimed Fire Lord, as Iroh couldn't in his grief and their mother had disappeared into the night, and neither child knew if she was still alive.

They prayed to Agni that their mother have a safe journey whether that be in the spirit realm or somewhere on earth.