#and then in the next breath say azula wasn’t mistreated at all she was already just a monster

[stinkysarai]

me when i see someone loving zuko and hating azula at the same time (im taking you to LOSERLAND)

in the tags im more specific i guess . 💔

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Phoenix Prince /// Dragon Princess AU

Aka a healthy (ish) fire siblings au (thats still super angsty im so sorry) where Zuko and Azula love/take care of eachother and earn the love of their people

———————————

Ursa dies in child birth, though thankfully Azula survives. Zuko’s only three at the time but he’s devastated by the loss of his mother, and vows to protect his baby sister at all costs

He’s super super involved with Azula growing up, and does everything in his power to protect her from Ozai. Bc when she’s little Ozai’s very bitter bc she “killed” Ursa, plus he already hated zuko for being too weak, plus there’s no Ursa to challenge him. so he can basically do whatever tf he wants to them and be an abusive fucking dick

But then, Azula starts fire bending and is clearly a prodigy. Ozai suddenly takes an interest in her. She’s terrified of her dad so she does w/e tf he wants to keep him happy.

Except she refuses to hurt zuko. he’s her big brother and she loves him. She (secretly) stays really close with him, though is skilled enough at manipulation that Ozai thinks she’s basically cut herself off from zuko/hate him. Which zuko is fine with, he wants Azula to be safe from Ozai and if that means she needs to pretend to hate him when their dad is in the room? He doesn’t care, he knows his baby sister and knows she loves him

Anyway yeah Ozai starts to like her better and treats her.... “better”. (Note the quotations.) but she still feels guilty that Zuko’s getting the brunt of ozai’s wrath, so she does her best to keep Ozai’s attention on how good she is instead of how much of a failure zuko is.

Quick side note: if Azula seems ooc that’s on purpose. We know her toxcicity is a result of Ozai’s influence. But here he has way less control over her. Bc Ozai mainly controls her by using fear. And while she is afraid of him, she’s not nearly as afraid in this AU. a) bc Azula has her over protective big brother being over protective and b) Ursa’s dead so there’s no mother who is supposed to protect her failing to protect her and making Azula feel unsafe

So in this she’s much closer personality wise to like a “season 1 zuko” version of herself. She’s in general cool but tends to loose control of herself. Though she also has a lot more self confidence than zuko did, and maybe a bit too much pride. She’d never hit someone who was already down and cares for ppl, but pretends that she cares for no one

So yeah. The two are just kinda surviving living in the castle and love eacother a lot

Until they hear about the whole kill ur first born thing....... (which happens about 2 yrs after cannon bc Iroh came home when he heard his sister in law died and the whole siege of ba sing se was postponed)

Instead of like. Waiting for her brother to get murdered tiny 9 yr old Azula packs up their shit and gets ready to go on the run

Unfortunately she’s (almost) too late. While she’s getting ready to leave Zuko is trying to cover for her (Ozai would be murderus if he knew Azula was gonna betrey him by leaving) and somehow manages to insult Ozai while trying to protect Azula from being found out

Ozai gets big mad, and in a fit of rage tries to kill zuko by burning half his face off.

Azula runs in at the sound of her brother’s screams, at the exact same time two gaurd rush into the royal chambers. The guards are frozen in shock, but Azula is pissed

Azula attacks her dad. At first she has the upper hand/element of surprise but... she’s 9.

she starts loosing. Her forearm gets really badly burned in a suspiciously hand-shaped pattern.

During the fight Zuko’s struggling to lift himself from the ground and help. He manages to save Azula from a killing blow by throwing some fire at Ozai, but collapses immediately after. Azula barely has a second to breathe before Ozai starts attacking again.

For a moment it legitimately looks like Ozai is going to murder his two young children in cold blood

Until one of the guards snaps.

She uses the whole fucked up situation to knock Ozai out, though she doesn’t kill him. The other gaurd is just standing there, and she has no clue who he’s gonna help so she just knocks him out

Then the gaurd grabs zuko and Azula, and fucking BOOKS IT from the castle. She does a blue spirit type thing to escape (threatening to kill either Azula or zuko) and eventually gets them somewhere safe where she can get their wounds treated

The next day the fire lord puts out this whole sob story about how an assassin pretended to be a gaurd, killed his father, then kiddnapped his children. And how he’s sending out a whole manhunt for his lost children yada yada yada

The other gaurd that was there mysteriously disappears a few days later, but not before he can spread some “rumors” about the prince and princess’s disappearance. Ozai ascends to the throne and publicly offers an enormous reward for the return of his children,,,,,, while secretly sending assassins after them. (Like.... Azula attacked him and he already tried to kill zuko he don’t give a fuck)

Iroh is obviously devestated when he finds out. and while he thinks the whole thing is a bit suspicious he starts on a journey desperately looking for his lost niece and nephew

While all this BS is happening this poor gaurd suddenly has 2 damaged af kids to take care of and a bunch of assassins to run from

So once zuko and Azula are healed enough to travel and they know zuko won’t die, they go on the run. They can’t stay in one place bc of all the assassins after them and end up going all over the world

They don’t spend a lot of time in the fire nation (for obvious reasons) but they do spend bits and pieces there. Connecting with their people, meeting freinds of the gaurd who saved them that can help (like Lt Jee who ran Zuko’s ship in cannon) and spreading the truth of what happened.

Stories about the damaged prince and princess who were so hurt by their father begin to spread. But even more stories about how the prince and princess care for their people spread ten times faster. Stories they take time to rebuild small fire nation villages damaged by floods, or how corrupt military commanders suspicious disappear after they come to town start to spread.

Ppl start calling them the dragon princess and pheonix prince. Because the princess protects her people like a dragon protects it’s hoard, by killing everyone who dares to endanger it. And the prince has risin from the ashes (you can see the burn clear as day on his face), to heal the land and his people

(Though really..... the prince and princess are both dragons and pheonixes. Because even if she seems invincible and more ruthless than her brother, the princess has been hurt deeply. Though her wound is more easily covered. And she aches for the pain of her nation, the nation she feels she wasn’t strong enough to protect. She just hides her emotions better than her brother....)

(As for the prince, yes he shows more kindness than his sister seems too. But he is just as ruthless as her if someone threatens their hoard. He’s just a bit calmer.... less trigger happy than his twin. It was his idea to take out the corrupt commandor stealing a small town’s livelihoods, after all)

They call the gaurd who saved them “the Kitsune”. They say she is a flame wielding spirit, sent by Agni himself to protect the true leaders of the fire nation

Iroh overhears bits and pieces about them. He starts to get an idea of what’s happening, but for the most part he really struggles to track them. Ppl can recognize him, and they won’t sell out their prince and princess to someone who might take them away

So yeah. The three of them are on the run together for a long time. They can never spend long in one place (assassins never stop coming after them) and dart all over the earth kingdom and fire nation, seeing first hand the effects of the war. And gaining a positive reputation both for caring about their people in a way no one since before Sozin has, as well as shaming dishonorable fire nation soldiers who mistreat those in the earth kingdom

(They almost never hurt foot soldiers who are just following orders, but any one (especially upper command) who take clear pleasure in other’s suffering are often challenged to Agni kai’s in exchange for said soldiers leaving.

Though usually just being publicly knocked on their asses by a couple of scarred kids who turn out to literally be the lost prince and princess holy shit, is enough to put them in their place)

So yeah. They travel together earning a good reputation from as soon as they’re healed until zuko and azula are 14 and 11 respectively

At that point they get separated from the gaurd.... (she doesn’t die, either captured or separated for some other reason)

So now.... all they have is eachother

The two spend the next two years on their own. They still try to do the same types of stuff they did before but now they’re in a lot more danger w/o an adult to help them. They’re basically just.... 2 increasingly ferel children struggling to survive. They live mostly off of like foraged stuff and whatever money they can make/steal from rich assholes

They continue to dodge Iroh as well bc they have no clue if he’s gonna return them to their father or kill them or w/e. Which is wayyyy harder than it would seem, the only reason he hasn’t caught them yet is that they have an alliance with June the bounty hunter who keeps sending Iroh on wild goose chases bc she has a soft spot for the weird ferel kids. (And a huge crush on the gaurd who was basically their mom/older sister for a while. But we don’t need to talk about that)

so zuko and Azula are just these absolutely feral kids being hunted by 12 dozen bounty hunters from their father, plus the “dragon princess and pheonix prince” have officially been declared “traitors to the nation that are impersonating the late children of Firelord Ozai” so there’s a good amount of the actual military after them, and they’re trying to keep away from their uncle and all his fucking white lotus freinds

They’re a little bit stressed ok??? And like super protective of eachother by this point

And then who joins the fucking search??? The goddam avatar

Bc he heard these stories about these good firebenders who protect everyone no matter what side of the war they’re on. And ofc Aang wants one or both of them to teach him

So Aang like the lovable idiot he is, is just trying so hard to adopt these crazy feral firebenders.

And ik I keep saying feral but like. I need to emphasize this bc these two spent 2 years on the run + 2 more years on the run while basically living in fucking forests cus they’re out of money, connections, and the gaurd was the only one out of the three of them with social skills. They’re a little stressed okay???

And idk I just love the idea of Aang trying to befriend these crazy feral firebenders acting like they’re just like. Wild animals or smthn. Like cornering them in a clearing and trying to offer them jerky as if they were wolves and the two giving him the blankest fucking expression

Anyway this post is about 200x longer than I meant it to be and I am so so sorry. (Especially since I can’t put in a read more on mobile)

Anyway bc it’s so long i’m just gonna do the last bit in bullet form and try to finish as quickly as humanly possible

- obvi they join the avatar and stuff

- the gaurd (who ima call kit/kitsune cus I don’t have a name for her) eventually meets/joins with Iroh. June later joins them as well as they try to find the idiot fire children

- Sokka has a big gay crush on the feral firebening guy

- Katara has a very tiny crush she refuses to admit too on Azula

- there’s also a lot of drama between her and Azula at first bc Azula is brash and Katara kinda gets annoyed at a mix of that/the lingering bias she has against fire nation ppl but they get past it

- also Azula has ~issues~ where she blames herself for their mom’s death/ is sure their mom hates them but asp their mom comes to her in spirit form and says she loves her (no fucking clue when that would happen but I love that idea)

- instead of having zuko/Azula chasing them they have a really fun variety of different random bounty hunters. Obvi including sparky sparky boom man

- the siege of the north.... happens. Though Zhao doesn’t kill the moon spirit so yue lives, and Azula and zuko manage to make a huge speech and get many of the soldiers to defect to their side instead so it ends with minimal bloodshed

- when Toph joins the group she and Azula are chaos incarnate

-mai and ty lee hear rumors and stuff and join team avatar eventually

- when they find out about the day of black sun they just. Skip trying to talk to the earth king. Cus they can just stage a cou lol they have the people on their side?? Forces from both water tribes, random earth kingdom ppl they’ve managed to befriend,,,,

- though they have to find uncle first bc he could challenge zuko for the throne. Obvi they think they’ll need to get rid of him bc they don’t really know him and think he wants to hurt them but all of a sudden??? 

- so they kinda have a few side quests as they’re preparing and gathering everyone but then it’s the day of black sun!!! And it works and shit and I actually have some other ideas too but FUCK this is SO LONG i am so sorry and will shut up now

[bellatrixobsessed1]

The Art Of Remembrance (Part 5)

A bitter wind whips at her face bringing with it a bitingly cold sting. Azula has come to find that the only thing worse than the poles is the poles at sea. She curls her fingers around the rails and looks out at the rolling waves. Their captain carefully navigates the water, weaving between large blocks of ice. On the odd occasion they come to a block that they can’t avoid, and so the few firebenders on board melt it away. 

Having nothing better to do as well as no desire to float in the icy ocean, she takes to helping them clear some of the ice. 

She folds her arms over her chest, wondering just what the hell is taking Sokka so long. She lets a few more minutes pass before wandering below deck to seek the man out. As far as she is concerned, she has waited more than long enough to learn a thing or two about her past, especially with the way people look at her. 

It isn’t lost on her that they seem to slink back as she passes. That they exchange glances and hushed words and take special care to avoid meeting her gaze. 

Finally she succumbs to boredom enough to try to make conversation. She doesn’t quite know where to begin so she simply finds a spot next to girl and mutters, “it’s aggravatingly cold on deck.”

The girl seems to go tense and gives a nervous laugh, “yeah, cold.”

“I suppose that you’re used to it?” Azula asks.

“Just because I’m from the tribes doesn’t mean that I like the cold…” She pauses. “That’s like assuming all firebenders can’t swim.”

“We can’t.” Azula confirms. But the girl doesn’t laugh. Perhaps her delivery had been too deadpan. She is certain that she hasn't said anything particularly unsettling, but the girl seems absurdly uneasy. And so she retreats, finding herself rather isolated and without knowing why. 

Yes. It is definitely time to pry answers from Sokka. 

.oOo.

The waters roll and rock the boat, but they aren’t the reason for his nervous jitters. He sits in the corner of his quarters and waits for Katara to arrive. She will either be compassionate and sympathetic or completely off-put and angry. There is seldom an in between during the initial discussion.

“Hi, Sokka.” She greets with a cheerful smile. She holds out a steaming cup of tea. 

Sokka accepts it but isn’t quite ready for a drink. 

“What did you want to talk to me about.” 

“ I wanted to talk to you about the woman I saved…”

Katara nods, “what’s her name, anyways?” And then she seems to recall something. “Oh, that’s right, she doesn’t remember it. What have you been calling her?” 

Sokka takes a deep breath. “I lied, Katara. She does remember her name. But…” he pauses. “That’s the only thing she remembers.”

Katara crinkles her brows, “why would you lie about something so stupid?”

He supposes that it is better to rip the band-aid. “It isn’t stupid, trust me.” And yet he still finds himself stalling, even if it is only for a single sentence. Katara tilts her head and he knows that, he hasn’t even bought himself that much. “It’s Azula. She’s Azula.”

Katara opens her mouth in a silent sputter. 

“I didn’t know that when I saved her and even if I did, we couldn’t have just let her die.” 

Katara sighs. “Of course we couldn’t have let her die. But we don’t need to keep her around either. We need to get her back to the institution.” 

Sokka reflexively cringes, before logic settles; she was only speaking of sending the princess back to the Fire Nation hospital. His nerves don’t subside, if anything his paranoia hightents. “What if that institution is linked to the one she escaped in the poles?” In which case, he notes, she would have had to have been taken back to the Fire Nation one somehow and then transferred to the location in the poles. Katara leaves him no time to reflect on that theory.

“What if it is?” She may as well have added a ‘so’ at the sentence’s front with that tone. 

“She ran away from it…” 

“Why are you assuming that they mistreated her and that she didn’t escape to go after Zuko again?” 

“She can’t remember a thing.” Sokka replies.

“We last saw her in the Forgetful Valley, Sokka. You don’t think that she might have done this to herself?” Katara asks. “She wasn’t exactly stable when we saw her last.”

“I don’t know. Something isn’t right. I don’t know what it is but I think that it’s more than than. She wasn’t all there,” he gestures at his head, “but she’s not dumb enough to go around pissing off spirits.” 

Katara quirks a brow. 

“Look, I just think that there’s more to it. She was in the Fire Nation and then I find her, almost dead, in a snowstorm.” 

“Here’s what I think happened.” Katara pauses. “I think that she wandered back into that jungle, angered a few spirits, wandered out of the jungle, and was found and re-committed.”

“Then how’d she end up in the poles, Katara?”

“She’s dangerous. TyLee couldn’t be there all the time to block her chi so they sent her to a facility that could...contain her. Like the coolers in the boiling rock.”

“We can’t just send her back there. Not until we know what happened.”

“Nothing happened, Sokka. Nothing that she didn’t do to herself.” Katara insists. 

“She has nightmares.” He counters. “I think that she’s afraid.” 

This gives Katara pause. A halt that he takes advantage of. “How can we punish her for things that she doesn’t remember doing?”

“She’s still dangerous.”

“I don’t think that she is.” Sokka says. “How can she remember that she wants to hurt us or overthrow Zuko if she doesn’t even remember us at all? Her fire is orange now, I think that she can only bend by instinct.” 

Katara hesitates again. “Her being able to bend without remembering any forms...that’s scary. That’s a sign that she is dangerous. We’re going to bring her home and then she’s going back to the institution.” 

“We’re at least going to talk to Zuko--you know, her brother--about this, right?”

“She tried to kill him and then me while I tried to save him; he’s going to say the same thing.” Katara replied. “But, yeah, of course we’re going to talk to him.” 

The unease in his stomach only intensifies. He truly hopes that he’ll have better luck convincing Zuko. The butterflies double twice over at the realization that he might have just made Katara angry. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner.” He calls to the empty doorway. He flops down onto the bed with a resigned groan. He wonders just why he cares so much, it isn’t as though she had treated him any better in the past. 

“There you are.” Azula remarks. 

Sokka bolts upright. “Spirits! Don’t do that.”

Azula gives a little laugh. “Priceless.” 

“That’s not funny.” He grumbles. 

“Well you’re pleasant company.” She frowns. 

“Says the one who can’t appreciate the southern water lights!” 

Azula shrugs and makes herself comfortable at the foot of his bed. “You said that you would tell me about my past.” She pauses. “Do it.”

“You were always this commanding.” Sokka shrugs. 

“So you have a sense of humor afterall.” 

“I am the funniest guy on team Avatar!” He declares. 

“Team avatar?”

Sokka sighs, “I’ll tell you about that later.” He tries to pick his brain for a pleasant memory. Anything that doesn’t paint her as someone evil. He rubs his head, having trouble doing so. Maybe he ought to just cave in and tell her that she’d been stark raving mad the last time that’d met. But is that really any better than telling her that she was out to conquer or destroy the world in the name of her father?  

He observes her drumming her fingers upon the mattress. 

He recalls her chasing them down, tracking them and keeping them up all night. He remembers how she’d taunted him about Suki, the way she used her as bait. He remembers Katara recounting how she didn’t think that she’d make it out of that final battle alive. 

And he begins to resent the woman sitting on his bed, twirling her bangs around her finger. Maybe he should just throw her back into the institution and let her solve things herself.

“I’m a bad person, aren’t I?”

Sokka flinches. “Why would you think that.”

She gestures around the ship, presumably to people that aren’t present. “Why wouldn’t I?” The question hangs for a moment. “No one will talk to me. You don’t want to tell me anything about me…” 

Briefly his mind wanders to how the crew would recognize her when Katara did not. Perhaps she was simply trying not to see the truth. Having let the silence drag for too long already he starts, “Azula…” 

Her deadpan expression unsettles him as she cuts in, “I’d rather know that I’m dreadful than know nothing at all.” 

.oOo.

Sokka’s expression softens. Whatever resentment that had built up inside of him--no doubt the same breed that is harbored by everyone else on the ship--seems to ebb away. His face softens. “You’re not a bad person.” 

“Don’t lie to me!” She snaps. He winces. 

“You don’t have to be a bad person…” 

“Don’t patronize me either.” She warns, her voice taking on a sinister sort of low. 

He lifts his hands, “I’m not trying to.” 

His expression, the fear and retreat. She is only confirming what she now knows to be true. “Alright. Fine. I’m sure that there are plenty of people around who will have no problem telling me exactly who I am.” It is probably better this way, she’d find more truth from someone who would disregard her feelings completely. 

He catches her hands, “your mom was banished and your brother wanted to find her.” Sokka starts. “We went on this whole journey and there was this thing that happened.” 

Azula rolls her eyes. “A thing?”

“We were attacked by some kind of spirit wolf that threw up spirit moth-wasps. It was about to ruin everything and then you made this big ball of lightning and all of the moth-wasps flew into it. The wolf and the rest of the swarm retreated.” He says. “You saved us.” 

Sokka’s grip on her wrist loosens and she finds herself sitting back down. 

“You told me that I smelled like a wet possum-pidgeon.” 

She succeeds in not laughing but can’t suppress a faintly humored smile. She supposes that, that does sound like her. “Why?”

“Because we were trying to sneak around and we needed disguises. I made a beard out of fur. I had too, it’s a classic! But you didn’t like it.” He declares. “On that same quest, we were attacked by...nature.”

“By nature?” 

“Long story. The point is, I was about to get strangled...or something...by a bunch of vines. You saved me from that too…and then you said that you only did it so that you’d have more peasants around to keep you safe.”

“If I help people, then why do they look at me the way they do.” 

Sokka bites his cheek. “You...uh...you went a little…” he holds his finger up to his head and twirls his finger. 

She stares at her palms, “oh.” 

“Yeeeah…” 

He isn’t making her feel any less awkward. 

But she had asked for...demanded answers. “That’s how I ended up in that institution, isn’t it?” At least she can piece together some of the how’s.

“That’s the thing that doesn’t make any sense.” Sokka replies, practically throwing his hands up. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while...you escaped…” he reconsiders his words. “You made a deal with your brother and he let you leave and then you ran away. You were still in the Fire Nation when that happened.”

“Exactly where did I run to?”

“Right into the Forgetful Valley.” 

Azula’s belly tickles unpleasantly. She rubs her hands over her face, “so I did this to myself?” She feels a disorientation to match that which she felt in the tundra. Had she taken her own memories? Had they, those people, taken her for her own protection? Perhaps she has simply filled the holes in her mind with visions as ominous as they are untrue.

“I. I don’t think so.” Sokka puts a sudden halt on her self-doubt. 

Azula cocks her head. “Why?” 

“Mostly because of your nightmares. But I guess it’s also because why would you run away if they didn’t hurt you?” 

Azula shrugs, “because I’m crazy.” 

She ought to start keeping a tally on how much she makes him flinch.

“You said that they did something to you.”

“I thought that they did…” now she is beginning to doubt. “Maybe I did something to me, Sokka.” What if they were just trying to save her from herself? She rubs her hands over her face again and lets them rest there. It could be that they were trying to save her from herself. That she is a cocktail of mental affliction; simply a mess of amnesia accompanied by paranoid delusions. 

A hand presses itself, comfortingly, between her shoulder blades. “You didn’t do this to yourself.” 

“I did.” She persists. “You said it yourself, I lost my mind. And then I lost it again...”