Chapter Text
It was a vindicative avenging victory. Wielding a righteousness befitting as the true heir to the throne, the newly crowned Fire Lord Zuko has at last been elevated to his one true destiny. Through humbleness and discernment, then Prince Zuko was already working on negotiating the peace talks between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world, heading the delegation of hosting the first ever four nation meeting. With the friendship and guidance of the esteemed Avatar, the Fire Lord shall lead with grace and humility, ushering in a new age of peace and prosperity of the people of the Fire Nation.
Showing his merit as both a firm but just ruler, the Fire Lord had dealt with an unbiased hand, to the fate of his disgraced predecessor. With a merciful passing of judgment, the Fire Lord has—
“This is ridiculous,” Zuko gestured with a free hand accusingly towards the news article. The teen folded the news parchment in half, dropping the paper to look across to the group in the small space. “They’re making me out to be like some kind of… some kind of…"
“Some kind of hero?” Katara completed his sentence, from being seated across him in the confines of the carriage. “You are a hero, Zuko.” She added on, emphasizing the words with a look towards him for a moment.
The Fire Lord groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, grumbling the opposite. He had this headache that came and went, thumping against his skull from inside his head.
He broke out of his self musing, looking up to catch the cerulean pure eyes of the girl across catch his yet again. It had a calming effect on him, the invitingly peaceful stillness drawing him in and granting him release of the worries of life. Katara hummed a smile, as she lingered her eyes on him a moment more, before turning to continue focusing on her task.
Azula made a face, sticking out her tongue in mock disgust. That headache came again.
“Come on, don’t keep moving.” Katara admonished the girl, frowning in a way Zuko strangely found cute.
Azula muttered something, before surrendering the side of her face back towards Katara, the water bender holding out a hand coated by glowing water. Zuko watched the girl continue to do a final healing session, for a particular nasty hit his sister had taken on the side of her head from the throes of battle. He had written an urgent letter to the Southern Tribes via an airship, which he found answered within a mere set of days, indicting the girl had set off from her homeland almost immediately.
Aang prodded him with an elbow from his side, the boy juggling his eyebrows in a silent hint as he turned to look. Zuko raised a warning finger, pointing sharply back at the boy, before quickly jabbing at his sister who sat opposite.
The quote on quote ‘esteemed’ Avatar blew a raspberry, lips wavering with little spits of saliva.
Zuko cringed, pulling at his robes and trying to scoot away in the tight space.
The carriage rumbled, shaking lightly around them as a wheel bounced on a pothole in the road.
“Fire Lord, we have arrived.” Came a muffled call through the doors of the carriage, as the vehicle slowed to vibrating halt.
Zuko gave another scowling glare back at the boy who was trying to whistle innocently, before shaking his head and sighing in exaggeration.
They exited the vessel, Zuko first and giving quick instructions for the drivers and his royal guard to stay with the vehicle. Leaving the parked transportation behind, the four would wordlessly cross the road where they stopped, walking the last few steps to the small grove where Appa waited patiently.
“Good boy!” Aang bounded ahead, greeting the Sky bison and patting the snout of the beast.
Zuko watched with his arms crossed, as giggles rang out, the Avatar squirming from being greeted by a slobbering lick. He saw Katara standing quietly a bit away, giving him the moment with his other companion.
“I’ll see you in a year, Zula.” He spoke, pulling a soft smile on his lips as he tilted his head slightly to the side.
Azula made a sound, doing her version of nervous pacing by inspecting the non-existent lint under her nails.
“Don’t burn the palace down in the meantime, Zuzu.”
Zuko chuckled, relaxing his arms and letting them fall apart. He paused for a moment, before slowly inching the limb closest to his sister around her. Azula made no indication of stopping him, staying still as a statue as Zuko wrapped his arm around her shoulders, gripping her other side with his hand.
“Goodbye, brother.”
She walked out of his grip, back facing him as she started towards the Avatar.
Zuko found Katara closing the empty space by his side, a gentle hand on his shoulder in comfort. He gave her a sad smile of thanks, before forlorn eyes once more moved to trace the leaving form of his sister.
Banished, the papers screamed. In the mercy and understanding of the Fire Lord, the disgraced Princess Azula had been banished. The Fire Lord himself spoke, quoted that ‘there is no better consequence’. For as once the then Prince Zuko travelled the world in exile, the Princess Azula, shall too only regain her honour in the charge of the esteemed Avatar for the span of a year.
Aang was facing them a distance away, an open inviting grin towards her, hand outreached and waiting. Then the Avatar faltered for a moment, eyes lingering on her face, before nodding and gesturing backwards to Zuko.
Azula sprinted back, slamming herself into his chest, blocking the sight of her features as she pressed her face tight into his robes. Arms hugged tight around him, fingers clawing painfully across his back.
“… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, brother…”
Zuko closed his eyes tight, returning the squeezing embrace with protective hands guarding around her. Some part of him didn’t want to let her go, stubbornly refusing to part with his little sister. He felt his emotions take him too, leaking out past the mask of the Fire Lord, exposing the teen who stood underneath.
It took about half an hour, before the group of four once more mirrored the positions they were meant to take. Zuko nodded in farewell, waving as Aang called for Appa to take to the skies, Azula holding onto the edge of the saddle, casting one last look downwards.
“… remember to watch Yu Dao! The colonies, Kuei’s planning…” the final call came echoing in the wind, as the Sky bison lifted away, carrying with him the set of passengers.
Zuko laughed, feeling Katara by his side, both sharing a chuckle about how the Princess never seemed to stop working.
“I know, Zula, I know.” Zuko whispered his reply into the air, gaze lingering on the little speck in the blue expanse above a second more, before sighing loudly and cutting his eyes back downwards.
“Thanks again, Katara.” He nodded to the girl by his side, as they both began back to the carriage. “I’ll drop you off at the harbour then? I can arrange for an airship to send you back to the South.”
Katara popped her lips, feet trailing alongside his as they strolled through the woods back to the waiting carriage.
“There’s no rush, maybe I’ll stay around and make sure you don’t overwork yourself again.”
Zuko laughed it off, beginning to speak on how those early days of adapting to palace life force feeding was behind him, and how he was now perfectly capable of handling himself. He caught himself mid-sentence, trailing off about how he was the Fire Lord after all, stammering something at the sideways look Katara gave him.
“…oh, well, I—I do suppose it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.”
Katara hummed, a light touch of pink on the brownish dark tones of her cheeks. Slightly bashful eyes met his, curious and searching but still withholding a venture for now. But perhaps, just perhaps.
The Western Air Temple was silent, save for the distant howl of wind as it flirted through the many empty corridors. Not that much was to be expected, the place had been devoid of its residents for over a hundred years now. Even then, the temple had recently seen a forceful renovation, once strong and sturdy pillars holding a stone ledge now crumbled, destroyed and reduced to blocks of cracking stone. Along the walls, spots and streak of black soot still adhered itself on the bricks, discolouring the ancient greenish grey with scars of battle.
Azula alighted from the flying mount upon landing, hopping nimbly from the back of Appa the Sky bison and tapping unto the ground. The beast made a low growl, before calming down to the voice of the Avatar, the boy patting the shaggy creature and trying to convince it that she was no threat.
Instead, she walked from the landing point, eyes tracing the lines and signs of destruction wrought to the ancient refuge.
“You know I don’t blame you for it.” Aang had quietly managed to slide to her side, voice calling attention to her gaze flirting among the damaged stone.
“It doesn’t change the fact, that I was the one who bombarded this temple with fire and brimstone.” Azula replied, finally pulling her eyes away to look at the boy besides.
“So why here?” She changed the topic, breaking away and making a sweeping gesture at the upside down infrastructure of the temple. “Let me guess, because you’re a sentimental relic who enjoys nostalgia?”
Aang laughed, the boy’s features breaking out in a picture of mirth.
“A bit of that,” He admitted with an infectious grin. “But also a bit of how we have this place completely to ourselves.”
Azula’s mind went somewhere with that.
“It’ll be great for meditating!” The Avatar declared, looking proud of himself.
Admittedly, that was nowhere close to the thoughts that had crossed Azula’s mind, almost the complete opposites, in fact.
“Mediating, right. How fun.” She deadpanned, making sure Aang got a full view of how excited she was over the prospects.
He had no right to grin as such, laughing as he slapped a hand on her shoulders, telling her to cheer up.
The rest of the day was spent unpacking, Azula carrying the sole bag of luggage she had packed, containing mostly of changes of clothing and basic amenities. Aang frowned when she pulled a rather ornate looking dagger from her bag, to which she replied with a teasing smirk. As she said, basic amenities.
She settled down into her new residence for the foreseeable year ahead, one of the many rooms in the Air Temple, which hadn’t been too run down by the years. There was cleaning to be done, lots of it. A study stick bound with a bundle of leaves and twigs made itself into a makeshift broom, sweeping the dust bunnies out from her room and cleaning the hallway she would frequent. It felt weird, having to do chores for herself, but Azula followed through without much complaint.
Then she realized the Avatar was using his air bending to vacuum his room, a path of action she quickly shut down with thinly veiled threats of accidental wildfire sparking in his residence, unless he used the broom she graciously provided.
Night came before they knew it, as with rumbling stomachs in unison as both took a break from their work. A pot of broth simmered over a campfire, a variety of vegetables and mushrooms bubbling with the thick stew. Unlike her rather light packing, Aang had prepared for an extended stay, with various crookery and supplies stuffed away in Appa’s saddle. The Air lemur he introduced as Momo joined them, from foraging his own stash of nuts and berries, the creature casting suspicious looks at her between bites.
Aang was no royal chef, but Azula found his dishes acceptable, giving a warmth of a campfire meal. After dinner, they cleared up, Aang darting a nervous look to her as he pulled water from the mists to help wash the dishes.
“…no convenient wildfire raging in my room, right?” He prodded, holding the glob of water in his hands.
“My, I don’t suppose I feel any errand flames, no.” Azula giggled back, covering her parting lips with a hand.
Maybe life like this wasn’t so bad after all, Azula mused, rising and handing the Avatar her plates and cutlery.
The next day proved her wrong, greeting Azula with a sore back, courtesy of the stiff and unyielding slab of stone that dared try to masquerade as a bed. Aang, much to her ire, seemed in high spirits, for some reason or other excited to begin mediating.
“Come on, there got to be something or someone that you’ve been putting off, right?” Aang reasoned, after a quick breakfast comprising of fruits and berries.
Yeah, you. Azula grumbled in her mind, sighing as she felt the calming lull of his gaze take her.
“…Mai, and Ty lee,” she said instead, making a quick and soft mention of the two other girls, voice glum as she continued, “and how I ended up throwing them into prison to rot.”
“…Don’t look at me like that.” Azula whispered, seeing the look of pain Aang was giving her.
The boy muttered out an apology, dropping his gaze and lowering his eyes.
“They… did visit you.” Aang added on weakly, visibly regaining confidence at the curious look she gave him. “You were out for about a day, after… err… you know, Zuko…”
“After me and Zuzu tried to kill each other, yes.” Azula interrupted, rolling her eyes and making an impatient gesture for the boy to move on.
"Your friends—” Aang winced at the withering glare she gave him for that term, but pressed on nonetheless, “—did come to visit you; they do care about you, Azula.”
The boy ended with a nudging grin, twiddling his thumbs and trailing out a nervous laugh.
“…I maaay have kiiinnd of promised Mai not to tell you that, sooo…” Aang broke the wringing of his hands, slapping them together in a pleading prayer position, grey eyes wide and begging for secrecy.
Azula giggled.
“What’s this? The upstanding Avatar lying and breaking promises?”
Aang mumbled something. Azula raised an eyebrow, humming a challenge.
“…just… for you…” Aang repeated, voice barely a forte louder.
Oh. Azula bit the bottom of her lip, feeling her jaw waver as heat rushed across her cheeks. In all fairness, Aang didn’t seem to be faring much better, the boy’s face streaked with a bright blush from the tips of his ears to the bridge of his nose.
What am I? Five? Azula struggled to fight the passion pulsing beneath her skin, feeling as if her entire form was heating up and radiating wave of fire. For Angi’s sake she didn’t even behave as such when she was five.
“So… erm… meditation?” Aang suggested, beaming and pretending his face wasn’t several tones too red.
Azula made an exception this round, rapidly nodding and agreeing to the notion, refusing to look up to face the boy.
Needless to say neither of them actually meditated.
Aang had a problem, and it so happened to involve the sharp piercing gaze of the fire bending Princess. Or perhaps more accurately the usually sharp gaze, Aang mentally corrected, feeling the little twinge of fluttering in his heart at the phantom sight of the blushing girl.
Azula was preceptive, most of the time. Almost always she saw right through him, quickly discerning his intents from the slightest of actions he took. That unassuming small casing was growing ever heavier in his pocket, weighing down with each missed opportunity. Again that tempting cowering thought came to him; to chicken out and just leave things as they were. There were pretty clear signs of mutual affection between them, so wasn’t it enough to just continue as such?
Aang sighed, darting a quick look around before pulling out the little box. The contents sat soft in the embrace of some cloth, marginally smaller than the outer casing. Yet the object was full of many a days and nights of hard work and toiling. The fusion of annealed gold doped with reinforcing carbon was forged with his fire bending, a concentrated effort involving a delicate control. The raw metal had then seen travels across the world, finding the tutelage and help of his friend Toph in bending the intricate weaves of the metal, little threads of tempered gold eloping the carefully cut sparkles. The rubies encased, had been a plucked from the heart of a submerged magma stream, where the pressure and temperature was just right, to condense the minerals into the deep red gemstone. The final product was sleek and polished, dainty and refined with a simple inscription he made on the inside, with a thin blade of sharp air.
And now, the ring sat gleaming, the hints of gold and the little catches of red glittering in the shadowed light, ready and waiting to be slid around a finger. Aang stared down mutely at his masterpiece, the cumulation of countless drafts and failures, compounding all the effort he had spent in attempting to attain perfection. All it would take, was that one last step.
They had already been here for a week, the days passing sometimes fast and other times slow. Time seemed to have a different pace, moving to its whim and fancy in the isolated world. The two had seemed to fall into an easy rhythm, rising early with the Sun for a round of warm up exercises, sometimes a jog around the yard, or other times kinetic stretches. They would break for breakfast, then either followed it up with one of the Aang’s meditative sessions, of Azula’s sparring ones. Lunch followed, and the afternoons were a repeat of the morning, or perhaps exploration of the temple, opening the untold secrets of the many chambers the temple provided.
Life had seemed so easy, so simple, yet with each passing day the press of the hidden box in Aang’s pockets continued to burn at him. He wanted it to be perfect, the ultimate moment to outclass everything, for she deserved at least that much. Yet at each turn he found himself hesitating, the steady golden eyes on him seemingly melting the very confidence on which he stood.
“Boo!”
Aang yelped, screaming at the sudden sound in his ears. He fumbled with clumsy hands, unresponsive fingers grappling with the box in the air. The sudden motion jutted the singular content seated in the cloth inside, and with a sparkle in the air, the ring flown free, bouncing away and rolling out of sight.
Aang watched, horrified as the box and ring both dropped off the edge of the temple, falling away into the abyss of the valley below. A million thoughts rushed through his head, the forefront cursing carelessness.
“…opps.”
Aang turned, defeated and seeing the slightly guilty face of Azula come into view.
“What was that?”
“…”
Aang lied uselessly, already knowing that the Princess was going to see right through him.
She frowned, but for once since meeting her Aang didn’t feel like staying any longer, looking away and rising with a stumble. As if it would make a difference, he trudged over to the edge of the temple, eyes staring down into the shifting fog and mist below in complete devastation.
Aang felt Azula besides him, joining in looking at the misty layer below. She was trying to say something, stealing now worried and confused looks at him. A moment passed, before she began rummaging at her own attire, hands pulling forth a hint of gold in the Sunlight.
She held it out to him without a word, the stroke of the golden metal piece becoming recognizable in his eyes. Then Azula opened her hands, yielding the crown that once sat atop her head to tumble past her fingers, dropping to gravity’s touch and falling likewise into the abyss.
“…!” Aang made a sharp sound at that, instinctively trying to catch the hairpiece before it fell, fingers too slow and closing on air.
The gleam of gold flickered one last time, before the fog claimed it, the speck of light disappearing into the valley below.
Down, down, down, it would fall, tumbling and turning, racing downwards.
A moment passed, seconds stretching into infinity, before Aang broke the silence with a whisper of a question.
“You came for me,” Azula answered him, "and now it's my turn."
Maybe… it didn’t have to be perfect after all.
“Azula.” He breathed, almost unheard, but audible to the one and the only recipient.
“Aang.” She whispered back, still like the unbroken sea of liquid gold.
“Would you… be my forever girl?” A mere whisper drafted over the air, little tones picking across the flows of the invisible streams.
The girl behind the blue flames reached out, and held fast to the arrow of light. She had made it, in the end, of course she did.
She gave her answer, and there, tucked in their little corner of the world, they were complete at last.
Forever.