We Were A Family Once

Part title

Azula had never met her brother's grandson. Which she expected. It had been years since she had last seen her family, when she and Zuko were much younger than they were now.

After she had been released from the mental institution, the doctor citing that she was no longer a danger to herself or others, she had expected Zuko to push for her to stay there.

He hadn't, though. Once she had relocated to their family's old place on Ember Island, far from Caldera and the home she had lost, Zuko had sent her a letter congratulating her on her health. He had also included a small portrait of his and Mai's newborn daughter, writing, "I'm sure Izumi would like to meet her aunt one day. But that's up to you."

Azula couldn't find it in herself to go back home. The humiliation she felt from the Agni Kai had never gone away, and even at her age, she wasn't sure she could face Zuko. She had tried to kill him multiple times, she had almost succeeded in one of them. And she couldn't understand why he was still trying to talk to her, after everything that had happened.

Even after they had found their mother and she had betrayed him again, he still somehow managed to forgive her - well, forgive might be too strong of a word, but he was trying to reach out.

He had sent three letters in her time out of the institution. She was twenty-four when she received that first letter, three days after moving to Ember Island; this is the one that held the portrait of her niece. She didn't respond to the letter, but she did keep the picture. Call it her weakness, but the picture of a baby she had never met, one who she could swear almost looked similar to her, was something she liked to see every day.

The second letter she received when she was forty-nine. He told her that he had a grandson. That one had surprised her. Had time really passed so quickly? She had almost wanted to write back just to tease him, like she had when they were kids, when they were a family. She wanted to say, "A grandfather at 51, Zuzu? I suppose I'll see you at your funeral in the next few days with how old you are." But she didn't write that, she couldn't write that. So she wrote nothing.

She got the third and final letter when she was fifty-three. Zuko said that he now had a granddaughter. "She looks just like you when you were a baby," he had written. "Mai hates it." Azula had rolled her eyes at that. "But I think it's nice, it's almost like looking into the past." He had finished the letter with, "We were a family, once. You are welcome to come home. You're still the princess. You're still my sister."

She had burned that letter. She couldn't bear to see it mocking her. A girl that looks like her, but isn't mad. How perfect for Zuko, maybe it'll feel like closure for him.

Besides, what is home? Ember Island is her home now. She doesn't do much here, but what would she do in Caldera? She would still be doing nothing, it's not like Zuko would trust her input or let her help with his Fire Lord duties.

Ty Lee came to visit her every so often, but she had almost grown to dread the visits. Ty Lee would always want to go down to the beach, and all Azula could see was their time at the beach when she was fourteen, the last time she had been with her friends and brother before everything fell apart.

It's better for her - for everyone - this way. She wasn't really made for family life anyways.

One morning when she was sixty-five years old, there was a knock at the door. She hadn't been expecting anyone. She peeked out of the window, and nearly gasped. There was no mistaking who was at the door - he was a near replica of her brother when he was a teenager.

She opened it, and assessed the boy. He was standing straight, but his cheeks were tinged red. He was nervous.

"Hi," he began. "You don't know me, but - "