Irrel's AU 001-010 (closed)
Drabbles written for Irrel's AU Kids Comic Challenge; withdrew from challenge but like to keep them drabbles coming. XD
For your and my sake, I divided these drabbles. One post will contain 10 drabbles/One-Shots, they are all tagged with 'irrel's au', so you'll have an easier time finding them.
* * * * *
001 Low Batt
She was lurking not 10 feet away, keeping her watchful blue gaze trained on them. Jet had seen her once or twice when checking out the captain of the girls' senior swim team. She'd never paid much attention to him.
Which was why her watching him like that was kind of unnerving. Not that Jet would ever admit to being 'unnerved' by a slip of a girl like that.
Until she came over to where he and Zuko sat hunched over the PSP (that display was kinda small for two boys to watch).
"Hey Zuzu, what'cha doing?" she asks in a casually teasing tone of voice. Zuko stiffens slightly.
"Go away, Katara. We're busy," his 'friend' replies (stalker victim would be more appropriate).
She clucks her tongue in an eerily familiar way (Mom?) and then leans forward to disshevel Zuko's hair violently and saunters off.
Jet chuckles.
"Cute. Your girlfriend?"
"I.. what.. no! That's just Katara," Zuko says, trying to hide his blush by leaning further over the handheld. "I don't get her."
Jet smirks.
"What?"
"I bet you 5 twinkies that I can get her to kiss me," the other boy says and Zuko doesn't like that grin at all.
He figures he should mention Sokka, who is pretty big for a 14 year old or that Katara can hold her own just fine. Instead he pulls the PSP out of Jet's hands and switches it off.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Jet asks indignantly. "I almost beat that level!"
"Low battery," Zuko mutters.
* * * * *
002 Photographs
Song is a nice girl, Iroh thinks. She is kind and gentle and just the kind of girl Zuko needs to help himself heal.
She makes him eat her homebaked cookies and smile (a forced, but polite smile) on occassion. But she doesn't manage to draw him out of his bedroom for more than a handful of hours.
The rest of the time, Zuko spends staring at photographs of his old neighbourhood and the children that lived there. Nothing Iroh or Song can do or say helps him let go of his grief and his homesickness, however. Even twinkies failed.
The sight of Zuko's sinister bedroom (dark red walls because Zuko wanted dark red) plastered with those pictures makes Iroh's heart break a little bit more every time he steps into it. It's a life this boy no longer lives, a life that is over, a life that no longer wants him.
The scar is a painful reminder of that, too.
But months later, when Zuko finally puts those pictures away (safe for the framed picture of a blue-eyed, darkskinned girl sticking out her tongue carefully hidden inside of his pillow case), Iroh realizes for the first time how much more lively his nephew was when he could still hold on to them.
* * * * *
003 Prom Night
He watches his ex-date dance and laugh with someone else, with him of all people. She knows how much they hate each other.
It's a low, low move on her part and he really ought to be out there making a scene or something (at least it feels like he should be), but instead he leaves. He isn't entirely sure how he is supposed to feel (hurt? confused? insulted? lonely? sad?) and to cheer himself up, he thinks of Katara.
He tries to envision her here, in the gym right next to him, dressed in some frilly or glittery thing, flowers pinned to her hair. He fails miserably (Katara and a dress just doesn't mix) and instead his mind conjures the image of a twelve year old Katara in a shirt that is a tad too big, those jeans shorts she'd swear she'd be buried in and her knees scraped open and he knows she'd probably make funny faces or try to buy him with a twinkie or a dozen. (What would she say if she knew he'd overcome that addiction in a rather painful way?)
She'd probably march right up there and tell Lian just where she could shove that prissy attitude of hers. She might feel tempted to introduce the other girl to the punch bowl, too (she's done it before, he remembers, on his birthday party, the last one before he got sent away). And afterwards she'd rant about how stupid he was taking Lian to the prom in the first place. The thought makes him smile. It also makes him feel a whole lot better.
"Zuko, hey. I heard what happened. You ok?" Yosuke asks him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turns slightly, smiling at Yosuke and his date.
"I'm fine," he says. "A friend helped me sort things through," he murmurs and reaches for the proffered cup of punch, wondering what Katara is doing now.
* * * * *
004 Sweet Revenge - inspired by sporkyadrasteia's first response to Irrel's AU challenge.
No one knew how they had managed it but fact was, that the day Zuko Sozin and Katara Hakoda emptied 30 cans of whipped cream into the locker of some poor idiot called Jet, who ended up covered in it almost from head to toe, was the stuff legends were made off.
("And I tell you; Zuko's girlfriend digs me!")
* * * * *
005 The van / Pride
It was a dirty, rather non-descript van and it had been following them around for 2 weeks now. No, that wasn't right: it had been following Katara for 2 weeks now.
Zuko knew it was always just around the corner. Even Azula had noticed that it was there.
It's waiting just outside of school today. Zuko can see just behind the front window and frowns at the man behind the steering wheel. He has a feeling, a strange kind of feeling.
"Jet?" he asks the boy sitting next to him.
"Yeah?" the other grunts, eyes fixed onto the expensive handheld in his grasp.
"Watch Katara for me for a second, ok? I need to make a call. If she gets ready to leave, tell her to wait here for me."
"Ok," Jet replies, his eyes still fixed onto the video game.
Half an hour later, Zuko, Katara and Aang are on their way home when the van pulls up next to them.
"Hey kids," the driver says, smiling toothily at them. "You want a ride? I got a litter of kittens at home and I'm looking for someone nice to take one or two of them home," he added. At the mention of kittens, Katara's and Aang's eyes lit up.
"Kittens!" Katara exclaims. "Oh, I always wanted a cat!"
The man chuckles and opens the passenger door.
"The moment I saw you I knew that you're a girl that likes cats. You'd give me little babies a good home, wouldn't you? Well, hop in."
"No, thank you," Zuko says in a strong voice that is very much unlike him, taking a hold of Katara's wrist. "Our ride is just around the corner and we need to get home."
"But Zuko it's kittens!" Katara says as if that were all the reason you'd need, turning pleading blue eyes towards him.
"No," he repeats firmly, shaking his head.
"But he seems like a nice guy," Aang pipes up. "And he's looking for someone to take care of the cats he can't keep. Grampa Gyatso always says that if you can help someone, it is your duty to do it."
"See!" the brown haired girl says and pulls her wrist out of his grasp.
"Katara, no!" Zuko says again and this time, there is that strange lurching sensation in his stomach because he knows Katara and how her perchant for adventure overrides common sense faster than he can eat a twinkie. She's also way too close to that van for comfort and if that guy wants to he can just grab her and drive off and gods where is his --
"There you are; I've been worried about you three," Ozai says from behind them. The children spin around, wide-eyed and the man in the van swallows hard.
"The car is parked over there. Azula is already in the backseat. I'll take you home," he says and his tone of voice leaves no room to argue. Zuko gladly endures Katara's accusing glares.
That night, when Zuko is lying in bed, there is a knock at his door.
"Are you already asleep, son?" his father's voice asks and Zuko sits up and shakes his head.
"I wanted you to know: what you did today ... has made me very proud. You've shown me that you are a responsible young man that can take care of himself and others. I am proud of you, Zuko."
* * * * *
006 Valentine's Day
Katara has received at least 20 Valentine's (a couple of them are hastily scribbled love notes and crooked hearts drawn on napkins during lunch when Haru and Aang made a competition out of giving Katara the most Valentine Greetings) but not one of them is signed with Zuko. Or The Blue Spirit, alternatively.
It is highly frustrating (and yes, it also hurts a little) but she decides to be a sport and to leave Zuko's valentine (a Blue-Spirit-Poster she'd very much like to keep and 10 twinkies ductaped together in a heart-shape) at his door step, running away and hiding in the bushes after she's rung the bell a few times.
The next day, when Zuko complains about all the cards and candy he received, the twinkie-heart and poster aren't mentioned at all, curiously enough.
On White Day, however, Katara finds a penguin plushie and a slightly crooked twinkie heart (there are only 7 instead of 10 twinkies) sitting on her window sill.
* * * * *
007 Twinkie Cake
Everyone knows who Uncle Iroh is, eventhough he doesn't visit very often.
Uncle Iroh is special which is ridiculously obvious to Zuko and Azula.
Uncle Iroh knows all 236 episodes of the Blue Spirit by heart. Even the not-so-famous 'Birth of the Spirits'-Arc. On Saturdays, he gets up as early as 5 AM to eat cereals and watch the show. Often, Zuko is already in front of the TV, waiting for him. They discuss the arcs, the transformations and which Blue Spirit is the strongest (alright, so they call him 'Epic Blue Spirit', but he's a joke in comparison to the Blue Spirit from the 'White Flames of Eternity' Arc), and why the evil Megalord always fails to take over the universe. (It's all in the name, naturally - and even 'Epic Blue Spirit' is a way cooler name than 'Megalord' - hell, even Bartholomew Eugene is a cooler name than 'Megalord'!)
Uncle Iroh also knows the difference between Poochie Dogs and regular bean bag toys. He knows which ones are in Azula's collection and which aren't and he never fails to get her one of the rare, limited edition Poochies mom and dad refuse to buy for her because they are too expensive. Uncle Iroh also has excellent taste; he often brings pretty dresses, purses or other accessories for Azula, sometimes even all the way from Asia, and they always fit just fine and are just her style (which means they are a lot more stylish than everyone else's because these are hers, after all).
So we've established that Uncle Iroh is a very special adult and when a very special adult like Uncle Iroh comes to visit, a very special welcome is in order.
Which is why Zuko and Katara (because really, you can't leave Zuko alone with something like that; they'd be nothing left for anyone else) are currently hunched over the kitchen table, stacking twinkies on a plate and smearing dark chocolate icing over them to make them stick together. They've used 4 boxes of twinkies so far.
"I think we're running out of twinkies," Zuko says, eyeing their creation critically.
"We wouldn't if you'd stop eating them," Katara replies. "Oh, and we're running out of icing," she adds, dipping a finger into the gooey mass and licking it off. Zuko glares.
"Are you sure your Uncle Iroh will like that cake?" she asks.
"It's a twinkie cake. How can he not like it?" the dark haired boy asks, baffled. Katara shrugs.
"I'm just saying--"
"How far is the cake?" Azula interrupts from the kitchen door.
"We're out of twinkies," Katara says.
"You weren't supposed to eat them, Zuzu," the other girl admonishes her brother.
"What... I... Katara!"
"I told you," Katara says with a smirk and spreads the remaining icing on the cake.
Azula looks at the cake with a raised eyebrow.
"It's not a pretty cake, but it'll taste awesome," Zuko says defensively.
"Leave the pretty part to me," she says and pushes her brother off his chair to climb on it herself.
When Ursa, Ozai and Iroh arrive at the house they are greeted by a chocolate and icing covered Zuko, Azula and Katara (because she helped and Uncle Iroh asked to meet her), carefully balancing something that looks like a lump of icing with a face made of tiny sugar flowers, lollypops, strawberries and bananas.
Uncle Iroh swears it's the most beautiful, tasty cake he's ever had.
It's twinkies, after all.
* * * * *
008 Watch my back
Going to school after having been absent for so long is difficult for Azula. She knows how junior high works; there will be talk and lots of it. No one will dare to say anything to her face, or perhaps no one will think she's worthy to be addressed like that - she'll be an outcast. At least until she can proof herself again.
Azula is deadset on proofing herself. She doesn't know how, not yet, but it's not going to stop her.
On Monday, her first day back, she receives a lot of pitying glances, a lot of I'm sorry's from people she doesn't even know and is generally treated like something that is both fragile and highly volatile.
The pity lasts until Wednesday afternoon.
Azula isn't clumsy, but when she stumbles and drops her lunch, spilling her carton of milk onto the ground she knows that it wasn't an accident. Still she pretends to not have noticed because deep inside she is scared and desperate and she just wishes it were over already.
The taunts start the same day and Azula realizes that children can be very, very cruel. "Have I ever been like that?" she asks Mai and Ty Lee, who ever so faithfully stand by her side.
"No," Mai says.
"Yes," Ty Lee says.
Azula frowns and apologizes.
But when Hahn and his gang block her way after school, Azula is all alone. She tries to ignore them, because she remembers her mother (Mom, I miss you...) telling her that the worst thing that can happen to a bully is someone who doesn't care. But it's hard. They call her a murderer's sister, they ask whether she's going to burn down their house, too, and get rid of her dad because he's a bastard, they ask her for Zuko's number so he can get rid their math teacher for them, they call Zuko a murderer and ask her what it feels like to have a murderer for a brother. The insults make her head spin and she tries, she really tries to ignore it but when Hahn reaches out to shove her, the tears begin to fall.
Azula is not the kind of girl that cries easily, but she is drained, she is tired and it's only just begun.
The shoves become harder, someone hits her because she refuses to be a good victim and argue with them, refuses to hand them more ammunition. Someone leers at her, grabs her arm and that's when a cry pierces the still air around them.
Azula doesn't know whether it's her own cry or someone else's, but suddenly there's someone scratching and biting and kicking and tearing the boys away from her and it's Katara - who's Zuko's friend, not hers - and she yells obsceneties Azula's never heard before.
"Get your filthy hands off her, you bastards, I swear if one of you ever touches her again I'll scratch out your eyes and nail your balls to the ground!"
Hahn isn't impressed; he lands a punch on Katara and that's when all hell breaks loose.
They sit outside of school an hour later, nursing their scratches and bruises.
"You need to watch your back," Jet says and Katara nods grimly.
"Don't walk home alone; Hahn and his croonies have been dying for a chance like that," Sokka adds. Azula nods.
"We're here for you; we're friends," Haru says quietly and the blackhaired girl wants to say "yes, but you are Zuko's friends, not mine" but somehow the words won't come.
"We'll watch your back," Katara finally says and stands, brushing off her shorts and then offering Azula a hand.
"Thank you," Azula says and smiles; a genuine smile, although a little watery and tired.
She's back on top in two weeks following the incident with Hahn.
"I say... look at Hakoda. Those shoes - where does she get something as run-down as that? Looks like she robbed the Salvation Army," one of the girls at Azula's lunch table says distatefully. Azula quirks an eyebrow.
You guys watch my back; I'll watch yours.
( -"Ugh... what is she thinking? Look at her--" -"Holly?" -"Yes?" -"Shut up.")
* * * * *
009 White
The room is white.
The walls, the floor and the ceiling are white. The curtains and his bedsheets are white, too. The bandages on his arms are white. So are the ones covering half of his face.
But Zuko is not white. Zuko is burned red and black. He is a stain in the pristine white room just as he is a stain on his father's pristine white life.
Which is why he has to go. Something so purely white is not supposed to be stained. And if you can't wash out the stain, you have to find another way. Ozai has cut out his stain. It leaves a hole, but he prefers it to the stain, apparently. Zuko wishes he were in another's place. In his mothers.
Then she could be lying here and the room wouldn't be pristine white, but filled with flowers and get-well-soon balloons and candy and people coming to visit. All those things his father threw out of the room because Zuko didn't deserve them.
If he were dead, Zuko is sure his father would still love him. But he's alive and lying in a cold, white room covered with uncomfortable white sheets and his father hates him.
He is not allowed to have visitors. His father forbade it. The doctors argue that Zuko needs to see a psychologist at the very least because he suffers from trauma (it's been 9 days and he can still feel himself clutched against his mother's body, can still smell her blood and the ashes, feel the heat eating away on his face, feel his mother's ragged breathing in his hair, still hear the screams), but his father forbade that, too. It's his punishment. So is being sent away.
The perfect white around him makes Zuko sick. So sick, that he is infinitely relieved to find that under all those white bandages, he bleeds red.
Eventually they strap his arms down so he won't continue to scratch himself bloody and drug him with some bitter sort of M&M to keep him in a stupor. Zuko is grateful for that because whenever his father comes to yell at him, the M&M doesn't let him understand what it is and all he can remember afterwards is his father's angry face. That alone is almost too much to bear.
When Iroh finally comes to visit and make plans about Zuko's future, he takes only one look at the boy strapped to the bed and begins to cry.
A distant part of Zuko wants to cry, too, but mostly, he marvels at his uncle's tears, the gentle hands that cradle his face and the shaky voice that promises him that he'll make it all better.
Through his drug-induced apathy, Zuko can barely summon the will to believe him.
* * * * *
010 Jack D. & Johnny W.
The bottle is empty. Mr. Daniels has officially left the building. Ozai grabs another bottle (Why hello Mr. Walker) and unsrews the top.
His wife hated it when he drank. It made his kisses taste funny, she'd say.
Ozai chugs back the first glass. He shouldn't by doing this; he needs a clear head, needs his wits, his five senses, but he doesn't care. He's hurt and he's damn well going to do what he thinks will take the pain away. He should have asked for one of those pills they've been feeding Zuko.
Iroh keeps telling him that Ursa wouldn't have wanted this - he doesn't have to be specific because nowadays, there's a lot happening in his life that Ursa wouldn't have wanted. She wouldn't have wanted him to get drunk every other night. She wouldn't have wanted him to abandon their son, to punish him by sending him away and taking away everything he's known and cared for.
But Ozai is driven by a petty urge for revenge and Johnny and Jack are very inspiring - Zuko has taken all that Ozai ever knew and cared for. An eye for an eye. Now they're even.
He knows, of course, that if it were the other way, if Azula were the one lying in hospital and he himself were dead, Ursa and Zuko and all of Azula's friends would be there for her. Ursa always wanted the same for both of their children.
But it's Zuko strapped down in that bed; Zuko, whom he had trusted because he's shown time and time again that he is smart enough to know what is right and what is wrong, Zuko who should have known better, Zuko who almost killed Ursa with his birth, back then when they hadn't been married, Zuko who took away all Ozai had ever wanted.
It was an accident, Iroh insists and deep down, Ozai knows its the truth. But that doesn't make it better, doesn't make it any different. Because Ursa is gone. She's never coming back.
His bottled friends won't change a thing, won't take away the hurt. But for a while, they make him forget that the other side of his bed is empty, that his wife is not tucking the children in, that she will not come to his study in a few minutes to massage his shoulders and tell him it's enough and to call it a day.
Try as he might, however, no amount of alcohol can make him forget the sight of her burned, lifeless body or the sound of her voice, giddy with excitement when she called him at the office shortly before the fire broke out.
"I think I'm pregnant."
* * * * *
For your and my sake, I divided these drabbles. One post will contain 10 drabbles/One-Shots, they are all tagged with 'irrel's au', so you'll have an easier time finding them.
* * * * *
001 Low Batt
She was lurking not 10 feet away, keeping her watchful blue gaze trained on them. Jet had seen her once or twice when checking out the captain of the girls' senior swim team. She'd never paid much attention to him.
Which was why her watching him like that was kind of unnerving. Not that Jet would ever admit to being 'unnerved' by a slip of a girl like that.
Until she came over to where he and Zuko sat hunched over the PSP (that display was kinda small for two boys to watch).
"Hey Zuzu, what'cha doing?" she asks in a casually teasing tone of voice. Zuko stiffens slightly.
"Go away, Katara. We're busy," his 'friend' replies (stalker victim would be more appropriate).
She clucks her tongue in an eerily familiar way (Mom?) and then leans forward to disshevel Zuko's hair violently and saunters off.
Jet chuckles.
"Cute. Your girlfriend?"
"I.. what.. no! That's just Katara," Zuko says, trying to hide his blush by leaning further over the handheld. "I don't get her."
Jet smirks.
"What?"
"I bet you 5 twinkies that I can get her to kiss me," the other boy says and Zuko doesn't like that grin at all.
He figures he should mention Sokka, who is pretty big for a 14 year old or that Katara can hold her own just fine. Instead he pulls the PSP out of Jet's hands and switches it off.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Jet asks indignantly. "I almost beat that level!"
"Low battery," Zuko mutters.
* * * * *
002 Photographs
Song is a nice girl, Iroh thinks. She is kind and gentle and just the kind of girl Zuko needs to help himself heal.
She makes him eat her homebaked cookies and smile (a forced, but polite smile) on occassion. But she doesn't manage to draw him out of his bedroom for more than a handful of hours.
The rest of the time, Zuko spends staring at photographs of his old neighbourhood and the children that lived there. Nothing Iroh or Song can do or say helps him let go of his grief and his homesickness, however. Even twinkies failed.
The sight of Zuko's sinister bedroom (dark red walls because Zuko wanted dark red) plastered with those pictures makes Iroh's heart break a little bit more every time he steps into it. It's a life this boy no longer lives, a life that is over, a life that no longer wants him.
The scar is a painful reminder of that, too.
But months later, when Zuko finally puts those pictures away (safe for the framed picture of a blue-eyed, darkskinned girl sticking out her tongue carefully hidden inside of his pillow case), Iroh realizes for the first time how much more lively his nephew was when he could still hold on to them.
* * * * *
003 Prom Night
He watches his ex-date dance and laugh with someone else, with him of all people. She knows how much they hate each other.
It's a low, low move on her part and he really ought to be out there making a scene or something (at least it feels like he should be), but instead he leaves. He isn't entirely sure how he is supposed to feel (hurt? confused? insulted? lonely? sad?) and to cheer himself up, he thinks of Katara.
He tries to envision her here, in the gym right next to him, dressed in some frilly or glittery thing, flowers pinned to her hair. He fails miserably (Katara and a dress just doesn't mix) and instead his mind conjures the image of a twelve year old Katara in a shirt that is a tad too big, those jeans shorts she'd swear she'd be buried in and her knees scraped open and he knows she'd probably make funny faces or try to buy him with a twinkie or a dozen. (What would she say if she knew he'd overcome that addiction in a rather painful way?)
She'd probably march right up there and tell Lian just where she could shove that prissy attitude of hers. She might feel tempted to introduce the other girl to the punch bowl, too (she's done it before, he remembers, on his birthday party, the last one before he got sent away). And afterwards she'd rant about how stupid he was taking Lian to the prom in the first place. The thought makes him smile. It also makes him feel a whole lot better.
"Zuko, hey. I heard what happened. You ok?" Yosuke asks him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turns slightly, smiling at Yosuke and his date.
"I'm fine," he says. "A friend helped me sort things through," he murmurs and reaches for the proffered cup of punch, wondering what Katara is doing now.
* * * * *
004 Sweet Revenge - inspired by sporkyadrasteia's first response to Irrel's AU challenge.
No one knew how they had managed it but fact was, that the day Zuko Sozin and Katara Hakoda emptied 30 cans of whipped cream into the locker of some poor idiot called Jet, who ended up covered in it almost from head to toe, was the stuff legends were made off.
("And I tell you; Zuko's girlfriend digs me!")
* * * * *
005 The van / Pride
It was a dirty, rather non-descript van and it had been following them around for 2 weeks now. No, that wasn't right: it had been following Katara for 2 weeks now.
Zuko knew it was always just around the corner. Even Azula had noticed that it was there.
It's waiting just outside of school today. Zuko can see just behind the front window and frowns at the man behind the steering wheel. He has a feeling, a strange kind of feeling.
"Jet?" he asks the boy sitting next to him.
"Yeah?" the other grunts, eyes fixed onto the expensive handheld in his grasp.
"Watch Katara for me for a second, ok? I need to make a call. If she gets ready to leave, tell her to wait here for me."
"Ok," Jet replies, his eyes still fixed onto the video game.
Half an hour later, Zuko, Katara and Aang are on their way home when the van pulls up next to them.
"Hey kids," the driver says, smiling toothily at them. "You want a ride? I got a litter of kittens at home and I'm looking for someone nice to take one or two of them home," he added. At the mention of kittens, Katara's and Aang's eyes lit up.
"Kittens!" Katara exclaims. "Oh, I always wanted a cat!"
The man chuckles and opens the passenger door.
"The moment I saw you I knew that you're a girl that likes cats. You'd give me little babies a good home, wouldn't you? Well, hop in."
"No, thank you," Zuko says in a strong voice that is very much unlike him, taking a hold of Katara's wrist. "Our ride is just around the corner and we need to get home."
"But Zuko it's kittens!" Katara says as if that were all the reason you'd need, turning pleading blue eyes towards him.
"No," he repeats firmly, shaking his head.
"But he seems like a nice guy," Aang pipes up. "And he's looking for someone to take care of the cats he can't keep. Grampa Gyatso always says that if you can help someone, it is your duty to do it."
"See!" the brown haired girl says and pulls her wrist out of his grasp.
"Katara, no!" Zuko says again and this time, there is that strange lurching sensation in his stomach because he knows Katara and how her perchant for adventure overrides common sense faster than he can eat a twinkie. She's also way too close to that van for comfort and if that guy wants to he can just grab her and drive off and gods where is his --
"There you are; I've been worried about you three," Ozai says from behind them. The children spin around, wide-eyed and the man in the van swallows hard.
"The car is parked over there. Azula is already in the backseat. I'll take you home," he says and his tone of voice leaves no room to argue. Zuko gladly endures Katara's accusing glares.
That night, when Zuko is lying in bed, there is a knock at his door.
"Are you already asleep, son?" his father's voice asks and Zuko sits up and shakes his head.
"I wanted you to know: what you did today ... has made me very proud. You've shown me that you are a responsible young man that can take care of himself and others. I am proud of you, Zuko."
* * * * *
006 Valentine's Day
Katara has received at least 20 Valentine's (a couple of them are hastily scribbled love notes and crooked hearts drawn on napkins during lunch when Haru and Aang made a competition out of giving Katara the most Valentine Greetings) but not one of them is signed with Zuko. Or The Blue Spirit, alternatively.
It is highly frustrating (and yes, it also hurts a little) but she decides to be a sport and to leave Zuko's valentine (a Blue-Spirit-Poster she'd very much like to keep and 10 twinkies ductaped together in a heart-shape) at his door step, running away and hiding in the bushes after she's rung the bell a few times.
The next day, when Zuko complains about all the cards and candy he received, the twinkie-heart and poster aren't mentioned at all, curiously enough.
On White Day, however, Katara finds a penguin plushie and a slightly crooked twinkie heart (there are only 7 instead of 10 twinkies) sitting on her window sill.
* * * * *
007 Twinkie Cake
Everyone knows who Uncle Iroh is, eventhough he doesn't visit very often.
Uncle Iroh is special which is ridiculously obvious to Zuko and Azula.
Uncle Iroh knows all 236 episodes of the Blue Spirit by heart. Even the not-so-famous 'Birth of the Spirits'-Arc. On Saturdays, he gets up as early as 5 AM to eat cereals and watch the show. Often, Zuko is already in front of the TV, waiting for him. They discuss the arcs, the transformations and which Blue Spirit is the strongest (alright, so they call him 'Epic Blue Spirit', but he's a joke in comparison to the Blue Spirit from the 'White Flames of Eternity' Arc), and why the evil Megalord always fails to take over the universe. (It's all in the name, naturally - and even 'Epic Blue Spirit' is a way cooler name than 'Megalord' - hell, even Bartholomew Eugene is a cooler name than 'Megalord'!)
Uncle Iroh also knows the difference between Poochie Dogs and regular bean bag toys. He knows which ones are in Azula's collection and which aren't and he never fails to get her one of the rare, limited edition Poochies mom and dad refuse to buy for her because they are too expensive. Uncle Iroh also has excellent taste; he often brings pretty dresses, purses or other accessories for Azula, sometimes even all the way from Asia, and they always fit just fine and are just her style (which means they are a lot more stylish than everyone else's because these are hers, after all).
So we've established that Uncle Iroh is a very special adult and when a very special adult like Uncle Iroh comes to visit, a very special welcome is in order.
Which is why Zuko and Katara (because really, you can't leave Zuko alone with something like that; they'd be nothing left for anyone else) are currently hunched over the kitchen table, stacking twinkies on a plate and smearing dark chocolate icing over them to make them stick together. They've used 4 boxes of twinkies so far.
"I think we're running out of twinkies," Zuko says, eyeing their creation critically.
"We wouldn't if you'd stop eating them," Katara replies. "Oh, and we're running out of icing," she adds, dipping a finger into the gooey mass and licking it off. Zuko glares.
"Are you sure your Uncle Iroh will like that cake?" she asks.
"It's a twinkie cake. How can he not like it?" the dark haired boy asks, baffled. Katara shrugs.
"I'm just saying--"
"How far is the cake?" Azula interrupts from the kitchen door.
"We're out of twinkies," Katara says.
"You weren't supposed to eat them, Zuzu," the other girl admonishes her brother.
"What... I... Katara!"
"I told you," Katara says with a smirk and spreads the remaining icing on the cake.
Azula looks at the cake with a raised eyebrow.
"It's not a pretty cake, but it'll taste awesome," Zuko says defensively.
"Leave the pretty part to me," she says and pushes her brother off his chair to climb on it herself.
When Ursa, Ozai and Iroh arrive at the house they are greeted by a chocolate and icing covered Zuko, Azula and Katara (because she helped and Uncle Iroh asked to meet her), carefully balancing something that looks like a lump of icing with a face made of tiny sugar flowers, lollypops, strawberries and bananas.
Uncle Iroh swears it's the most beautiful, tasty cake he's ever had.
It's twinkies, after all.
* * * * *
008 Watch my back
Going to school after having been absent for so long is difficult for Azula. She knows how junior high works; there will be talk and lots of it. No one will dare to say anything to her face, or perhaps no one will think she's worthy to be addressed like that - she'll be an outcast. At least until she can proof herself again.
Azula is deadset on proofing herself. She doesn't know how, not yet, but it's not going to stop her.
On Monday, her first day back, she receives a lot of pitying glances, a lot of I'm sorry's from people she doesn't even know and is generally treated like something that is both fragile and highly volatile.
The pity lasts until Wednesday afternoon.
Azula isn't clumsy, but when she stumbles and drops her lunch, spilling her carton of milk onto the ground she knows that it wasn't an accident. Still she pretends to not have noticed because deep inside she is scared and desperate and she just wishes it were over already.
The taunts start the same day and Azula realizes that children can be very, very cruel. "Have I ever been like that?" she asks Mai and Ty Lee, who ever so faithfully stand by her side.
"No," Mai says.
"Yes," Ty Lee says.
Azula frowns and apologizes.
But when Hahn and his gang block her way after school, Azula is all alone. She tries to ignore them, because she remembers her mother (Mom, I miss you...) telling her that the worst thing that can happen to a bully is someone who doesn't care. But it's hard. They call her a murderer's sister, they ask whether she's going to burn down their house, too, and get rid of her dad because he's a bastard, they ask her for Zuko's number so he can get rid their math teacher for them, they call Zuko a murderer and ask her what it feels like to have a murderer for a brother. The insults make her head spin and she tries, she really tries to ignore it but when Hahn reaches out to shove her, the tears begin to fall.
Azula is not the kind of girl that cries easily, but she is drained, she is tired and it's only just begun.
The shoves become harder, someone hits her because she refuses to be a good victim and argue with them, refuses to hand them more ammunition. Someone leers at her, grabs her arm and that's when a cry pierces the still air around them.
Azula doesn't know whether it's her own cry or someone else's, but suddenly there's someone scratching and biting and kicking and tearing the boys away from her and it's Katara - who's Zuko's friend, not hers - and she yells obsceneties Azula's never heard before.
"Get your filthy hands off her, you bastards, I swear if one of you ever touches her again I'll scratch out your eyes and nail your balls to the ground!"
Hahn isn't impressed; he lands a punch on Katara and that's when all hell breaks loose.
They sit outside of school an hour later, nursing their scratches and bruises.
"You need to watch your back," Jet says and Katara nods grimly.
"Don't walk home alone; Hahn and his croonies have been dying for a chance like that," Sokka adds. Azula nods.
"We're here for you; we're friends," Haru says quietly and the blackhaired girl wants to say "yes, but you are Zuko's friends, not mine" but somehow the words won't come.
"We'll watch your back," Katara finally says and stands, brushing off her shorts and then offering Azula a hand.
"Thank you," Azula says and smiles; a genuine smile, although a little watery and tired.
She's back on top in two weeks following the incident with Hahn.
"I say... look at Hakoda. Those shoes - where does she get something as run-down as that? Looks like she robbed the Salvation Army," one of the girls at Azula's lunch table says distatefully. Azula quirks an eyebrow.
You guys watch my back; I'll watch yours.
( -"Ugh... what is she thinking? Look at her--" -"Holly?" -"Yes?" -"Shut up.")
* * * * *
009 White
The room is white.
The walls, the floor and the ceiling are white. The curtains and his bedsheets are white, too. The bandages on his arms are white. So are the ones covering half of his face.
But Zuko is not white. Zuko is burned red and black. He is a stain in the pristine white room just as he is a stain on his father's pristine white life.
Which is why he has to go. Something so purely white is not supposed to be stained. And if you can't wash out the stain, you have to find another way. Ozai has cut out his stain. It leaves a hole, but he prefers it to the stain, apparently. Zuko wishes he were in another's place. In his mothers.
Then she could be lying here and the room wouldn't be pristine white, but filled with flowers and get-well-soon balloons and candy and people coming to visit. All those things his father threw out of the room because Zuko didn't deserve them.
If he were dead, Zuko is sure his father would still love him. But he's alive and lying in a cold, white room covered with uncomfortable white sheets and his father hates him.
He is not allowed to have visitors. His father forbade it. The doctors argue that Zuko needs to see a psychologist at the very least because he suffers from trauma (it's been 9 days and he can still feel himself clutched against his mother's body, can still smell her blood and the ashes, feel the heat eating away on his face, feel his mother's ragged breathing in his hair, still hear the screams), but his father forbade that, too. It's his punishment. So is being sent away.
The perfect white around him makes Zuko sick. So sick, that he is infinitely relieved to find that under all those white bandages, he bleeds red.
Eventually they strap his arms down so he won't continue to scratch himself bloody and drug him with some bitter sort of M&M to keep him in a stupor. Zuko is grateful for that because whenever his father comes to yell at him, the M&M doesn't let him understand what it is and all he can remember afterwards is his father's angry face. That alone is almost too much to bear.
When Iroh finally comes to visit and make plans about Zuko's future, he takes only one look at the boy strapped to the bed and begins to cry.
A distant part of Zuko wants to cry, too, but mostly, he marvels at his uncle's tears, the gentle hands that cradle his face and the shaky voice that promises him that he'll make it all better.
Through his drug-induced apathy, Zuko can barely summon the will to believe him.
* * * * *
010 Jack D. & Johnny W.
The bottle is empty. Mr. Daniels has officially left the building. Ozai grabs another bottle (Why hello Mr. Walker) and unsrews the top.
His wife hated it when he drank. It made his kisses taste funny, she'd say.
Ozai chugs back the first glass. He shouldn't by doing this; he needs a clear head, needs his wits, his five senses, but he doesn't care. He's hurt and he's damn well going to do what he thinks will take the pain away. He should have asked for one of those pills they've been feeding Zuko.
Iroh keeps telling him that Ursa wouldn't have wanted this - he doesn't have to be specific because nowadays, there's a lot happening in his life that Ursa wouldn't have wanted. She wouldn't have wanted him to get drunk every other night. She wouldn't have wanted him to abandon their son, to punish him by sending him away and taking away everything he's known and cared for.
But Ozai is driven by a petty urge for revenge and Johnny and Jack are very inspiring - Zuko has taken all that Ozai ever knew and cared for. An eye for an eye. Now they're even.
He knows, of course, that if it were the other way, if Azula were the one lying in hospital and he himself were dead, Ursa and Zuko and all of Azula's friends would be there for her. Ursa always wanted the same for both of their children.
But it's Zuko strapped down in that bed; Zuko, whom he had trusted because he's shown time and time again that he is smart enough to know what is right and what is wrong, Zuko who should have known better, Zuko who almost killed Ursa with his birth, back then when they hadn't been married, Zuko who took away all Ozai had ever wanted.
It was an accident, Iroh insists and deep down, Ozai knows its the truth. But that doesn't make it better, doesn't make it any different. Because Ursa is gone. She's never coming back.
His bottled friends won't change a thing, won't take away the hurt. But for a while, they make him forget that the other side of his bed is empty, that his wife is not tucking the children in, that she will not come to his study in a few minutes to massage his shoulders and tell him it's enough and to call it a day.
Try as he might, however, no amount of alcohol can make him forget the sight of her burned, lifeless body or the sound of her voice, giddy with excitement when she called him at the office shortly before the fire broke out.
"I think I'm pregnant."
* * * * *