Forged In Fire || ATLA

I Don't Belong Here

The Beach

"Those days it was all I wanted, nowadays it feels all the same. Used to stare at my bedroom ceiling, wishing everything could change. Now it's hard when you're always searching for the life that you left behind, time disappears, year after year, how the hell did I get here? 'Cause I feel so far away, minutes turn to hours and the hours into days. I gave up everything, you don't know what you got until you throw it all away." - I Prevail

🌊⛰️🔥🌪
Five Years Prior

The summer sun beat down on the Ember coast with a furious heat even a firebender could find unbearable. Compared to its black sands, the water just beyond the shores felt nearly freezing. Eleven-year-old Aelita relished in the contrasting glory. She basked in the light that warmed her exposed skin and welcomed the cool embrace of the waves she bobbed on. She would've been completely and utterly at ease had she not been so worried about her friend. The whole point of the last-minute trip had been to make Zuko smile. Instead, the Prince sat alone on the nearly empty beach.

Children and worried nannies alike had clucked that the black sand was too hot for bare feet that morning. Children, worried nannies, and General Sukomo Kenshin. Aelita's Dad all but demanded that his girl stay inside and away from the scorching rays of the sun because the thought of his baby getting a sunburn was blasphemous. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't often tell his daughter no. Zuko's father never had such a problem.

The Fire Lord's oldest son looked so much younger to Aelita than he was, sad and scared as they avoided reality. His eyes stared vacantly in the direction of Bhanti Island. He didn't flinch when the waves rushed past his waist or pulled slowly away. He made no move to join her swim. He didn't frolic or play or grin the way he used to on vacations here.

It was the first time they had been back to Ember Island since his mother disappeared and his father took the throne. Newly twelve and under more pressure than ever, Prince Zuko didn't often allow himself to be a child, certainly not since Zetzu had been sent away. Aelita knew that her friend worried he'd be dismissed next. She wasn't sure he could handle that kind of rejection.

Her Dad thought it was sad, and Aelita was inclined to agree. So did Master Piandao. She had overheard the two men saying as much when they thought she and Zuko were sleeping.

"The boy is terrified."

"It was always a competition between them all."

"It's no secret that Ozai prefers the girl."

The girl in question was Princess Azula, and there was denying the General was right, Ozai far preferred her. It left his sons in a constant state of battle for any remaining shreds of their father's approval, but Zetzu had given up on that fight long before Zuko. Any signs of the bond the twins had once shared in their youth had been nearly erased by the time Aelita arrived.

"Spirits," she had heard her father whisper to his old teacher, a rare shadow of fear in his words. "And to think my little girl will be a part of that family one day."

But that day was a long, long time away, so Aelita wouldn't dwell on that future yet. For now, she'd worry about Zuko. She no longer had room in her heart to worry about Zetzu. After all, as her Dad had gently reminded her, he wasn't the brother with whom her loyalties lay.

"Five years isn't as far off as you think, firefly," he said as he gently pulled a brush through her hair the night before. "Before either of us know it, you'll be married, and Prince Zuko will be staring down our nation's throne. He'll have to bear the weight of our world on his shoulders one day. He'll need someone kind, strong, and steady in his corner to help guide him away from our present and into a peaceful, prosperous future. That will be your duty, my sweet winter child, and I wouldn't ask you to do it if there was any other way." His hands stilled their melody. "It's not right that you inherit a war you had no choice to be born into.'