Fic: Salutations From Across the Nation, Avatar
Title: Salutations From Across the Nation
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Word Count: 1718
Eventually, the people who knew them from before, who knew about them and opposed them, began to disappear in that quiet, mysterious way that suggests nobody should ask any questions.
But things like that used to happen all the time in the Earth Kingdom, way back in the days before the comet and the Avatar and all that stuff everyone knows about, back when people never saw the king and there were fire nation soldiers in the court (some even say the princess herself, but that's silly), so nobody whispered about it any more than necessary and that was the end of that.
***
Now when people talk to them, they don't see the way their cheekbones arch in the exact same way or the way they both say, "what?" with the same degree of patient disgust or the fact their eyes were the exact same shade of honey gold (because nobody remembers the unspoken rule that airbenders are grey-eyed, waterbenders blue-eyed, earthbenders green-eyed, firebenders brown-eyed, and everybody else is just some odd shade in between.)
They don't see anything but the crowns on their heads and the cruel set of their mouths, and they kneel in front of the throne and say, "king" and "queen", and never assume they've been anything but.
***
When a comet reaches the atmosphere, it becomes a giant, hurtling fireball, but few people know that before it does that, it's nothing but rock and ice refracting light to make a pretty picture in the sky, and it would take an entire village of extremely powerful waterbenders and extremely powerful earthbenders to alter its collision path from the ground.
Or maybe it would just take an extremely powerful waterbender, an extremely powerful earthbender, and the Avatar.
Which it did.
And then the Fire Nation fell.
***
The Fire Nation fell, and it didn't bother Azula one way or another.
The Fire Nation fell, and it was the best news Zuko had ever heard.
If anyone asks (which one one ever will), Azula will say she knew all along that the Avatar could do it, because he promised he would and she thinks promises are more precious than lives (lies).
If anyone asks (which a few people have), Zuko will say that of course the Avatar did it, because when the Avatar's around there's no such thing as destiny.
***
It was Zuko's idea and Azula was the one who carried it out, and when the dust settled around the Earth Kingdom palace, the Dai Li had collapsed, all the palace servants had been turned out and seemed to be missing a huge chunk of their memory, the Earth King was dead and his daughter had taken his place on the throne.
There was nobody left to say, "I didn't know the Earth King had a daughter," and anybody who might have said, "The princess looks an awful lot like the Fire Lord's daughter," disappeared in a quiet, unobtrusive way and everybody learned quick not to ask questions. It wasn't that hard; many people had learned that coming out of their crib, somewhere between one, two, three and goodnight, moon.
Some people recognized the princess's chief advisor, though, and when they asked after his uncle and his tea shop the reply was always the same; Iroh had been a wonderful man with a good sense of humor and even better tea, and wasn't it a shame when he fell down all those stairs like that?
***
Would you really do that? Azula had asked shrewdly, and in the dying lantern light all the sharp features of her face were defined, harsh and sloping and angry. Would you really die to keep our power here?
I would die so you could keep your power, he had replied, and the dying lantern light made the flesh of his scar stand out like a masquerade mask. It's all you ever wanted, isn't it? The largest kingdom on the planet, all your own?
If we do this, we'll never be able to firebend again. We can never call each other by our given names -- and his lips quirked and she knew he was thinking of "Zuzu" and had to admit it was not the most convincing argument --and we can never go home.
He shrugged. You'll be giving up more than I ever will. Think, Azula; with the Fire Nation gone, we have nothing to lose. Besides, maybe now I'll have a chance to find Mom.
She narrowed her eyes. You've changed.
He had just smiled enigmatically, and went, Oh, you noticed? like she commented on a change of shoe or tunic, and she never draws attention to it again.
***
The Avatar's too laid-back a person to be truly insulted when the lady at the front gate of the palace says sorry, the Earth princess refuses an audience with you, on the account that you let her father die at the hands of the fallen Fire Lord's children. Perhaps some other time?
Aang points out that Ozai, Azula, Zuko, and the Earth King have been dead for years and if the princess was anything like her father she'd let bygones be bygones, because he certainly couldn't do anything about it now.
The lady holds her hands up helplessly and tells him to not take it personal, the Earth princess really didn't see anyone.
And Aang wants to know then why does she have someone at the front gate greeting visitors?
Smellerbee laughs and says, "Mostly to tell people like you to go away."
***
The wedding dress Azula wears definitely did not belong to her mother, which she supposes will mean more to Zuko than it ever will to her, and it had been made for her by some thin wraith of a girl named Jin, who looked a little wistful when she held it up to Azula's naked frame.
No, Azula was not married in any heirloom fitting a princess, and the only thought she gives to the dress she does wear is to wonder how fast could her brother remove it.
***
It will be difficult, she had told him like he didn't already know that, to avoid the people who will recognize us.
We'll burn that bridge when we come to it, he had told her, looking around the palace courtyard like he really did believe he could come to call this city home, or like he already did believe it was home and was just now realizing it. Then he looked back at her and saw the expression on her face, and said, Azula, think of it like making a clean slate. You'll always be the greatest fire princess the Fire Nation has ever seen. But if you become the strongest earth princess the Earth Kingdom has ever seen, there will books written about you. Women will name their brats after you. You'll have more influence than you'll know what to do with. The fire princess Azula will never have that. You can.
Azula was inclined to tell him that that's the longest speech she'd ever heard him give. Instead, she said very softly, I'm going to mess up.
He laughed like it was ridiculous. You'll master this like you master everything else, little sister. I'm here to help you; this is not the first clean slate I've tried to make.
She looked at him for a long time, and he looked right back, and when the lantern between them went out, she took a match and lit it manually.
Then, in absolute silence, they put their shovels to the side and lowered the unprotesting Ty Lee and Mai into the ground.
***
By the time it became public knowledge that the earth princess had gotten married, the fact was already a year in the past.
She didn't even marry any foreign ambassador or some failed Fire Nation soldier, just her scar-faced chief advisor, and it wasn't like she had gotten married in secret, either; there had been a ceremony, with guests; the messy-haired girl who had made the princess's dress, the woman from the front gate and her husband, several patrons from the groom's old tea shop, and the old, sweet-tempered, golden-eyed woman who had lost her memory and been begging in the city streets for who knew how many years, poor thing, though what she was doing at the princess's wedding was anyone's guess.
So maybe Ba Seng Se had been hoping for a holiday, or at least a parade and a feast when the princess -- no, queen -- married, but it didn't matter now, did it?
And nobody noticed how much the king and queen relaxed when they realized that no one cared, because people knew better than to guess that there was anything deeper to their relationship than two people who met and fell in love.
***
The end of the world has come and gone and Azula lives for the little victories, the little moments now.
Everything's gone and changed again, and Zuko thinks that there are no such things as little moments anymore.
So Azula will slip on earth-style robes and center the crown of the Earth Kingdom firmly in the middle of her forehead, and she will go and intimidate world leaders with her laugh and her flashing eyes and within no time she holds the world in her palm, and then she'll go home and kiss her brother, her husband, because nothing in this world is going to stop her.
So Zuko will put on the clothes that feel too fine even now and leave his crown on the bedside table, and he'll go and help his mother get her breakfast and pretend that it doesn't hurt when she gives him a confused smile and pats him on the cheek that isn't scarred, and then his sister, the queen, will come and kiss him and he'll kiss her back because she is everything he honors in this life.
Azula forgets the past in degrees, and makes promises to herself about the future (because she knows better than to waste her chances.)
Zuko thinks of all the bridges they've burned, and hopes it was all worth it (because nobody ever told him to stop.)
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Word Count: 1718
Eventually, the people who knew them from before, who knew about them and opposed them, began to disappear in that quiet, mysterious way that suggests nobody should ask any questions.
But things like that used to happen all the time in the Earth Kingdom, way back in the days before the comet and the Avatar and all that stuff everyone knows about, back when people never saw the king and there were fire nation soldiers in the court (some even say the princess herself, but that's silly), so nobody whispered about it any more than necessary and that was the end of that.
***
Now when people talk to them, they don't see the way their cheekbones arch in the exact same way or the way they both say, "what?" with the same degree of patient disgust or the fact their eyes were the exact same shade of honey gold (because nobody remembers the unspoken rule that airbenders are grey-eyed, waterbenders blue-eyed, earthbenders green-eyed, firebenders brown-eyed, and everybody else is just some odd shade in between.)
They don't see anything but the crowns on their heads and the cruel set of their mouths, and they kneel in front of the throne and say, "king" and "queen", and never assume they've been anything but.
***
When a comet reaches the atmosphere, it becomes a giant, hurtling fireball, but few people know that before it does that, it's nothing but rock and ice refracting light to make a pretty picture in the sky, and it would take an entire village of extremely powerful waterbenders and extremely powerful earthbenders to alter its collision path from the ground.
Or maybe it would just take an extremely powerful waterbender, an extremely powerful earthbender, and the Avatar.
Which it did.
And then the Fire Nation fell.
***
The Fire Nation fell, and it didn't bother Azula one way or another.
The Fire Nation fell, and it was the best news Zuko had ever heard.
If anyone asks (which one one ever will), Azula will say she knew all along that the Avatar could do it, because he promised he would and she thinks promises are more precious than lives (lies).
If anyone asks (which a few people have), Zuko will say that of course the Avatar did it, because when the Avatar's around there's no such thing as destiny.
***
It was Zuko's idea and Azula was the one who carried it out, and when the dust settled around the Earth Kingdom palace, the Dai Li had collapsed, all the palace servants had been turned out and seemed to be missing a huge chunk of their memory, the Earth King was dead and his daughter had taken his place on the throne.
There was nobody left to say, "I didn't know the Earth King had a daughter," and anybody who might have said, "The princess looks an awful lot like the Fire Lord's daughter," disappeared in a quiet, unobtrusive way and everybody learned quick not to ask questions. It wasn't that hard; many people had learned that coming out of their crib, somewhere between one, two, three and goodnight, moon.
Some people recognized the princess's chief advisor, though, and when they asked after his uncle and his tea shop the reply was always the same; Iroh had been a wonderful man with a good sense of humor and even better tea, and wasn't it a shame when he fell down all those stairs like that?
***
Would you really do that? Azula had asked shrewdly, and in the dying lantern light all the sharp features of her face were defined, harsh and sloping and angry. Would you really die to keep our power here?
I would die so you could keep your power, he had replied, and the dying lantern light made the flesh of his scar stand out like a masquerade mask. It's all you ever wanted, isn't it? The largest kingdom on the planet, all your own?
If we do this, we'll never be able to firebend again. We can never call each other by our given names -- and his lips quirked and she knew he was thinking of "Zuzu" and had to admit it was not the most convincing argument --and we can never go home.
He shrugged. You'll be giving up more than I ever will. Think, Azula; with the Fire Nation gone, we have nothing to lose. Besides, maybe now I'll have a chance to find Mom.
She narrowed her eyes. You've changed.
He had just smiled enigmatically, and went, Oh, you noticed? like she commented on a change of shoe or tunic, and she never draws attention to it again.
***
The Avatar's too laid-back a person to be truly insulted when the lady at the front gate of the palace says sorry, the Earth princess refuses an audience with you, on the account that you let her father die at the hands of the fallen Fire Lord's children. Perhaps some other time?
Aang points out that Ozai, Azula, Zuko, and the Earth King have been dead for years and if the princess was anything like her father she'd let bygones be bygones, because he certainly couldn't do anything about it now.
The lady holds her hands up helplessly and tells him to not take it personal, the Earth princess really didn't see anyone.
And Aang wants to know then why does she have someone at the front gate greeting visitors?
Smellerbee laughs and says, "Mostly to tell people like you to go away."
***
The wedding dress Azula wears definitely did not belong to her mother, which she supposes will mean more to Zuko than it ever will to her, and it had been made for her by some thin wraith of a girl named Jin, who looked a little wistful when she held it up to Azula's naked frame.
No, Azula was not married in any heirloom fitting a princess, and the only thought she gives to the dress she does wear is to wonder how fast could her brother remove it.
***
It will be difficult, she had told him like he didn't already know that, to avoid the people who will recognize us.
We'll burn that bridge when we come to it, he had told her, looking around the palace courtyard like he really did believe he could come to call this city home, or like he already did believe it was home and was just now realizing it. Then he looked back at her and saw the expression on her face, and said, Azula, think of it like making a clean slate. You'll always be the greatest fire princess the Fire Nation has ever seen. But if you become the strongest earth princess the Earth Kingdom has ever seen, there will books written about you. Women will name their brats after you. You'll have more influence than you'll know what to do with. The fire princess Azula will never have that. You can.
Azula was inclined to tell him that that's the longest speech she'd ever heard him give. Instead, she said very softly, I'm going to mess up.
He laughed like it was ridiculous. You'll master this like you master everything else, little sister. I'm here to help you; this is not the first clean slate I've tried to make.
She looked at him for a long time, and he looked right back, and when the lantern between them went out, she took a match and lit it manually.
Then, in absolute silence, they put their shovels to the side and lowered the unprotesting Ty Lee and Mai into the ground.
***
By the time it became public knowledge that the earth princess had gotten married, the fact was already a year in the past.
She didn't even marry any foreign ambassador or some failed Fire Nation soldier, just her scar-faced chief advisor, and it wasn't like she had gotten married in secret, either; there had been a ceremony, with guests; the messy-haired girl who had made the princess's dress, the woman from the front gate and her husband, several patrons from the groom's old tea shop, and the old, sweet-tempered, golden-eyed woman who had lost her memory and been begging in the city streets for who knew how many years, poor thing, though what she was doing at the princess's wedding was anyone's guess.
So maybe Ba Seng Se had been hoping for a holiday, or at least a parade and a feast when the princess -- no, queen -- married, but it didn't matter now, did it?
And nobody noticed how much the king and queen relaxed when they realized that no one cared, because people knew better than to guess that there was anything deeper to their relationship than two people who met and fell in love.
***
The end of the world has come and gone and Azula lives for the little victories, the little moments now.
Everything's gone and changed again, and Zuko thinks that there are no such things as little moments anymore.
So Azula will slip on earth-style robes and center the crown of the Earth Kingdom firmly in the middle of her forehead, and she will go and intimidate world leaders with her laugh and her flashing eyes and within no time she holds the world in her palm, and then she'll go home and kiss her brother, her husband, because nothing in this world is going to stop her.
So Zuko will put on the clothes that feel too fine even now and leave his crown on the bedside table, and he'll go and help his mother get her breakfast and pretend that it doesn't hurt when she gives him a confused smile and pats him on the cheek that isn't scarred, and then his sister, the queen, will come and kiss him and he'll kiss her back because she is everything he honors in this life.
Azula forgets the past in degrees, and makes promises to herself about the future (because she knows better than to waste her chances.)
Zuko thinks of all the bridges they've burned, and hopes it was all worth it (because nobody ever told him to stop.)