#azula/ningka

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Her Only Companion

Azula Week Day 1: Lonliness

Summary: Until finding Ningka and thea other Kumurikage, Azula had only one unkind companion.

It is strange how old companions become distant. How she had spent days and days hand in hand with her only friend. Azula had grown to know her companion so well. Eventually she couldn’t imagine them being without one another. 

It is strange how one instance can put a wedge in something so familiar. 

How time whittles it away.

The wedge in her longest standing relationship has a name. A name and a face and a peculiar and peculiarly agitating personality. 

Her name is Ningka.

She wears her hair half shaved and half swept over her dark eye. The frown seems fixed on her face and she lays her eyeliner on thickly. 

She is bold and upfront and seems to be adverse to the phrases ‘no thanks’ and ‘get lost.’ 

Azula had been sitting with her longtime companion then. She had only been trying to enjoy her drab excuse for a lunch. She had found that her appetite has been hard to come by these days between the stress of her new lodgings and all of the clutter in her mind. Of course the bland, tasteless lack-of-quality of the food itself did nothing to persuade her to give it a try.

Most days she was hungry.

Most days she didn’t care. 

She really couldn’t be bothered. 

She had been staring into a bowl of what might have been egg noodles–just one step below completely dry and hard–and carelessly chopped vegetables. No seasoning. Ningka very nosily clattered her eating utensils onto the table. 

Azula had jerked. 

Ningka laughed. No apology. Just a loud burst of laughter.

The kind that made Azula uneasy.

Everything made Azula uneasy in those days. 

She gets snappy and standoffish when she is afraid and uncomfortable. And in those days dread and suspicion had become her baseline. 

She was not a likable person and it was just as well. It was better if people left she and her usual companion alone. 

Not Ningka though. 

No, Ningka paid Azula’s closest friend no regard at all. “I don’t get you!”  She remarked bluntly to the princess. 

“I don’t want anyone to.” Azula replies just as plainly. The conversation should have ended there. If not there, then at her addition, “let alone you.”

She had learned then that Ningka had a dark, self-deprecating sense of humor. “Yeah, that’s what most people here say. Imagine being a freak amid freaks.” She picked at her teeth. “It’s kinda fun sometimes. I like doing this thing where I just stand behind people all quite like and wait for them to notice! Priceless!” She paused. “It works really well on Zirin. One time she threw her fork…”

And she had continued on and on, stealing away what remained of Azula’s sense of peace bit by bit. 

Ningka sits next to her now. She and Azula are the last two awake. That’s how it usually is. Zirin always falls asleep first and the others aren’t slow to follow. But Azula still finds herself on edge more often than not and it makes sleep hard to come by.

Azula stares into the fire, only looking away from it when Ningka finds a spot next to her. “It’s kind of chilly tonight.” She remarks as she makes herself comfortable. 

“A bit, yes.” Azula admits. It is on nights like these when she craves home. Craves the palace’s walls and all of its luxuries. Nights like these when she misses her bed and the mountains of blankets and comforters. 

“I can keep you warm.” Ningka offers. She doesn’t wait for an answer. She usually doesn’t. It is something that they have talked about on a few occasions but Azula supposes that old habits aren’t so easy to break. She decides that she will let it slide this time. But only because it is rather nice to have let someone hold her every now and again. And only because everyone else is asleep. 

One of these days she is going to have to get over her aversion to being affectionate in front of people. One of these days…

But right now she has an image to upkeep and cuddles don’t exactly spark obedience and intimidation. Which is precisely why Ningka seems to enjoy holding her close and stroking her hair until she lets her guard down enough to nuzzle her cheek against the other woman. 

One of these days one of them will wake up, probably Zirin, and then her image will be shattered. Azula both dreads and craves it. She fears and longs for people to see a different side of her. Something softer. Kinder. The type of person that can be approached and given the comfort that she needs. 

For now she has Ningka. Annoying, brazen Ningka. 

But of course it takes a certain type of aggravating boldness for someone to be able to approach someone like Azula. 

“You should let me do your hair some time.” Ningka suggests. 

Azula’s face pales and Ningka cackles. 

“You would look amazing with short hair.” Ningka shrugs. 

Azula sweeps her hair protectively over her shoulder. “No thanks.” 

Ningka huffs. “Fine.” Her added mutterings are not lost on Azula. “One day.”

Perhaps one day–maybe the same day that she lets herself be vulnerable–but not tonight. Ningka is quite lucky that she has been permitted to hold her princess. Most people don’t even get that. Ningka is always pushing that limit. 

Tonight she kisses Azula on the forehead. Just a small and fleeting peck. But it is more than enough to make Azula’s chest tighten and her tummy tickle.

“Good night, princess.” And with that she ruffles Azula’s hair and makes herself nice and cozy. 

The audacity! 

Azula finds her own sleeping back and lays upon it, arms folded across her chest, glaring at the cave ceiling. 

The sheer audacity!

Azula recognizes that shit eating grin; Ningka knows what she has done. And she knows that Azula knows.

It is terrifying and alluring all at once, the thought of a lover. Some thinly concealed romance. 

It is frightening and kind all at once to embrace a new start, whatever that means for her. To embrace new companions.

And with one little gesture, Azula realizes that she doesn’t miss her old friend. 

What they had was terribly unhealthy.

Azula hardly remembers loneliness anymore. 

[ao3feed-zukka]

Flower-Hearted People

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/6lEzqay

by whiskeyfire

Zuko has been Fire Lord for four years, and half of his life is looking up. The New Ozai Society is crumbling, he has a baby half-sister that he adores, and his mental health was finally... fine. It was fine. Zuki was married to a woman that he did not love, the Crimson Sails Armada had their sights trained on him, Sokka had been forced to replace Suki as his bodyguard under circumstances that absolutely no one wanted, and Zuko could not lead the Fire Nation when said bodyguard was swinging violently between depression and too-good for this world.

Okay, so maybe only ten percent of Zuko's life was looking up.

Words: 1427, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar), Mai (Avatar), Ty Lee (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar), Ukano (Avatar), Kei Lo (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Ningka (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Kiyi (Avatar)

Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Kei Lo/Mai (Avatar), Mai/Kei Lo/Ty Lee

Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, The Gaang Learns How Zuko Got The Scar (Avatar), Past Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), this is not a Mai or Suki bashing fic, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Bisexual Disaster Sokka (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), The Crimson Sails Armada, takes place after smoke and shadow, New Ozai Society (Avatar), major character death only in the first chapter, all aboard the sadness train choo choo, but it gets better later I promise, Canon-Typical Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, this is just me trying to make sense of the timeline, and the answers that we do not have, so I'll answer them myself, Post-Canon

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/6lEzqay

[ao3feedzukka-blog]

Flower-Hearted People

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46213162 by whiskeyfire Zuko has been Fire Lord for four years, and half of his life is looking up. The New Ozai Society is crumbling, he has a baby half-sister that he adores, and his mental health was finally... fine. It was fine. Zuki was married to a woman that he did not love, the Crimson Sails Armada had their sights trained on him, Sokka had been forced to replace Suki as his bodyguard under circumstances that absolutely no one wanted, and Zuko could not lead the Fire Nation when said bodyguard was swinging violently between depression and too-good for this world. Okay, so maybe only ten percent of Zuko's life was looking up. Words: 1427, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar), Mai (Avatar), Ty Lee (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar), Ukano (Avatar), Kei Lo (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Ningka (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Kiyi (Avatar) Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Kei Lo/Mai (Avatar), Mai/Kei Lo/Ty Lee Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, The Gaang Learns How Zuko Got The Scar (Avatar), Past Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), this is not a Mai or Suki bashing fic, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Bisexual Disaster Sokka (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), The Crimson Sails Armada, takes place after smoke and shadow, New Ozai Society (Avatar), major character death only in the first chapter, all aboard the sadness train choo choo, but it gets better later I promise, Canon-Typical Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, this is just me trying to make sense of the timeline, and the answers that we do not have, so I'll answer them myself, Post-Canon April 02, 2023 at 11:23PM

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Just Hair

Note: Quick little one shot inspired by the preview pages (more specifically that Chiyou has a name now so I can properly ship it).

Summary: Azula lets her friends give her a haircut. She isn't sure of the results.

“I don’t know about this.” Azula mutters, folding her arms over her chest. 

“Come on, it’ll be cute.” Zirin insists. 

“Cute?” Azula frowns. “I’m not aiming for cute.”

“Neither are we.” Ningka quirks a brow. “Trust me, neither are well.”

She does trust Ningka on that one and that is precisely what scares her. That and the scissors in Chiyou’s hand. The scissors that are snipping away. Locks of hair fall to the grass below and with each strand, Azula’s heart leaps. 

What if this ends up looking stupid. The shaved hair works for Ningka. And the dye works well for Chiyou. But for her? She has always been so…

So traditional. 

Every little bit of her itches to tell Chiyou to stop. That she isn’t like them, that she is regal and extravagant. That she is the beauty standard that they juxtaposed themselves against. Her hair has been so long for as long as she can remember. It has always been elegantly combed and extravagantly styled, adorned with elaborate headpieces and hair ornaments. 

Her face is soft and delicate, with just enough edge to make her look fierce. 

She is so unlike her new friends. 

Her new friends who are so bold and unapologetic. 

She can wear her hair like theirs but she has a feeling that she will definitely be issuing some apologies not just to herself but to everyone who has to look at her and her perverse haircut. A style that is surely going to deviate very far from what the Fire Nation is used to seeing. Let alone seeing on her. 

Somehow there is intrigue in that. 

Somewhere deep down she craves it. 

Someplace within there is a need to cut and prune away parts of herself. 

But she is afraid. Afraid that it will look ugly if she does. That this new look won’t suit her. It is silly, it is just hair. It will grow back, just as it had the last time. And then she will be the same person that she had been before. And nothing will change.

“That’s enough, Chiyou.” Zirin closes her hand around the girl’s wrist. “She’s clearly uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine.” Azula insists. “Keep going, please.” She straightens her back. She needs this. She needs to be someone new. Even if it looks ugly and ridiculous. Even if it doesn’t flatter her at all. She needs to cut these parts of her away. Maybe she will like the result. Maybe she will just have to wait until her hair grows out again so that she can fashion it in a new way. 

“Azula…” Zirin frowns.

It isn’t just hair. 

It is never just hair. 

“Continue.” She prompts and so Chiyou does. She snips and snips until Azula is someone new. Her head feels lighter and her stomach sinks. She can feel the morning breeze on her scalp. Her tummy flops twice over. Just how much had Chiyou cut? She stares at the ground, at the total carnage. That has to be all of her hair! There is so much!

Chiyou reaches out and fluffs her hair so she certainly has some left on her head. 

One of the other girls whistles her approval; she wishes that those three would just take those masks off already; it isn’t as though they are on a mission at the moment and those are not toys. She had very painstakingly crafted all of them. 

“She does look kind of cute.” Says the tallest of the three.

“But you can tell that Chiyou styled her hair.” Adds the smallest. 

Azula isn’t certain if this is a good or a bad thing.

“Do you want to see?” Ningka asks. 

“I don’t think that she does.” Zirin laughs. 

“I–I do want to see!” Azula flushes. She gets to her feet and makes her way over to the pond and it’s undisturbed surfaces. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before letting her gaze settle on her reflection. 

She swallows, for a second she isn’t staring at herself, but someone entirely different. She has to touch her cheek just to be sure that the girl with the jagged, slightly asymmetrical bangs is her. It…it’s so short. Perhaps not shaved but a bit too close for comfort. She swallows again, her lips part slightly. 

“It’s not quite done yet.” Chiyou startles her. 

“N-not done!?”

“It still needs some floof!” Chiyou declares, giving her a peck on the cheek. 

“Volume.” Ningka adds. 

Before she can protest, Chiyou is massaging some sort of gel into her hair. By the time she is done, Azula’s hair is delicately spiked and her stomach is fluttering wildly. Chiyou’s face falls, “you hate it, don’t you?”

Azula shakes her head. “I–it’s different.” She replies quietly. “I didn’t realize that it would be so…” sharp, bold, dramatic. “Different.” 

Zirin chuckles. “I warned you.”

And she hadn’t listened. The haircut makes her chin look so pointy. She hadn’t realize just how starkly a simple haircut would alter her appearance. But she certainly seems to fit in much better with the group that she had created. 

“Is different good?” Chiyou takes her hand.

Azula squeezes it back. “I think so?”

Chiyou stoops slightly and kisses the tip of her nose. “Well let me know when you decide. One day I’m going to open up a haircutting place and I think that ‘princess approved’ is a good advertisement.” 

Azula sniffs. “We’ll see about that.” She runs her fingers through her hair. She supposes that she will see about many things. She takes Chiyou’s hand again, eyeing those black nails. Not for the first time she wonders what she has gotten herself into. Not for the first time, she considers that this thing, whatever it is, might be a good thing.