Would love hearing Valentine hcs about the rarepairs
I have so many rare pairs from so many fandoms under my belt but using the rare pairs from this post, in order >
Azulanette
My beloved rare pair that I can't write for to save my life. I don't know if you've seen ML and/or ATLA but these two are 100%, without a doubt, in love (they don't even live in the same universe)
I completely doubt that Azula would use pet names but Marinette canonically uses them so I've always loved the idea that Marinette calls her "Lotus"
Going off of WereDads, I'm sure the Dupain-Chengs would lovingly accept Azula into their family.
Constant reassurance from both of them. They have late nights "would you still love me if I was a worm" conversations. They both need it.
VaniLily
Blood/water toxic yuri! They've never met!
They support each other, through thick and thin, they're together. They both hold the powers of healing and destruction and they're so in love.
Since Lily has spent so much time in the church, I doubt that she's had many times when she's been allowed to have chaotic thoughts. Then you have Vanica and she encourages all the bad ideas.
As enemies, Vanica loves being hit with the Holy Fist of Love and will try to goad Lily to use it.
MereoNessa
Under rated pairing I swear! I remember when I first joined the fandom, I thought I would be bombarded with MereoNessa shippers but there's hardly any. Imagine my surprise when I saw I wrote the second MereoNessa fic on AO3.
Two heavy drinkers with cat motifs! Mereoleona canonically has a high alcohol tolerance, higher than Vanessa's, so I like to think that if they were to go out drinking together, Vanessa turns into a clingy cat. Head butts galore.
Mereoleona humors Vanessa and will bridal carry her if she's drunk.
Mereoleona is Vanessa's personal heater. It's an excuse to cuddle and they love each other.
BowaJohn
I don't know if you've seen To Be Hero X but this is a couple that I first started shipping as a joke, then it quickly became not a joke. This is because I know they're in love (they have never made eye contact nor even said a word to each other).
I think that, like Queen, Bowa hasn't had many moments in her life where she was able to enjoy something cute so having the Johnnies around is very nice for her. She loves Big Johnny a lot but will never show it in public.
Whenever I think about these two, I always think about that yellow post. This is mostly because Little Johny's flower motif is a sunflower and I like to think that in the universe that they are actually dating, she didn't have a favorite color to begin with but now it's yellow because it reminds her of Johnny.
They both wear crop tops and baggy clothes, they're a clothes sharing couple. I will die on this hill.
I brought up this point a lot, but Johnny wants to be stronger and he gets along with women around him. Bowa is the most muscular woman in the cast so I like to think think that he would like to refer to her as his "greatest inspiration."
Johnny is one of the few people who's seen Bowa smile in person and Bowa is one of the few people who's seen Johnny frown in person.
CharGrey
Wholesome blue yuri, my beloved. I don't often think about wholesome yuri but these two are so cute.
They both have issues in the past with their appearance that has led to both of them hiding/obscuring it in some way or another but when they're together, they can feel free to express themselves.
Charlotte's briars now make her think of Grey and she hates them less.
Grey likes to turn into Charlotte to get more courage to do something.
I loved this idea you brought up earlier and in another life when Grey joined the Blue Rose Knights instead, they're peak-> Charlotte: "who ate my food, I swear I'll ki-" Grey: "it was me." Charlotte: "kiss you and make sure you're okay. Are you eating enough?
CharLily
I got a new pairing and by new I mean not even 24 hours old. Fresh off the presses new. I'm passing the nun around like a blunt and totally not projecting my own experiences with my sexuality onto her. But they're water x nature, both with a flower motif. It's like the universe wanted me to ship them.
Had Lily not joined the church, she would've been a Blue Rose Knight, partially because she admired Charlotte so much but also because this would be a good squad that plays into her strengths and would feel comfortable to her.
Charlotte loves it when Lily uses the Holy Fist of Love. They both punch pushy men.
(Alluding to a moment in the manga but nothing explicit) I like to think that Lily and Charlotte had actually met before Lily went to the church. They could've been together but Charlotte was too focused on trying to break her curse (since the curse had to be broken by "a man" and not "a person") that it didn't work out.
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005)
Relationship: Azula (Avatar)/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Characters: Azula (Avatar), Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Zuko is mentioned but he's not there for long
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, if you can call it that, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Knight Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, plot convenient storm, poorly proofread (i just need to publish this or else i'll die), azula is slight more mentally stable, by like 0.02 more mentally stable, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, POV Alternating
Summary:
Azula runs away and stays alone in an old watch tower until one knight finds her.
Hello beautiful people and welcome. If you’re new here, welcome to hell, glad to have you here.
This fic was originally supposed to be a completely different one but so so so SO many things happened that led to this fic being the one I published and let me regale you a tale.
If you follow me on tumblr, you probably saw that all the way back in June I said I was going to post an Azulanette fic in a few days. I was 80% done with the rough draft when I made that post and I was on a roll to finish it in about a day or so but two things happened that stopped me from finishing it.
One of those things is that I hurt my wrists at the end of May from all the writing I did for another fandom event amongst other things in my life (don’t write 17k words in less than a month). Since I have a rule about not letting fandoms cause me any type of pain like this, I had to take a break and stopped working on it and which killed the momentum I built up.
The second thing is, when my wrists had recovered, something really scary happened to me (to put it lightly) which killed my creative drive. If you know, you know, and if you don't know, don’t ask (unless you’re a mutual) because I don’t want to talk about it. Now, I had no momentum and no creative drive.
When I recovered yet again, I tried to finish that WIP again, but that scary thing created a really bad association with it and I literally couldn’t even touch it without thinking about that scary thing.
As the months passed, I tried to write another fic to take its place but I struggle writing Azulanette fics and my life got busy again so fanfic writing as a whole had to be put on the backburner.
The last act of this story is that I finally thought of a fic to publish but it's a lot longer than I thought it would be. I would lock-in and finish that but I’m at a point where if I don’t post another Azulanette fic, my brain will grow mold. Luckily I remembered that Marinette is a knight-coded character and Azula is a princess so I wrote this instead.
This is a long winded way of saying, I’ve had a very hectic 6.5 months, and now with that out of the way, enjoy.
Azula will never forget the day her brother’s face was burned off in an Agni Kai. Zuko was more than just her older brother, he was the person who she admired more than anyone else. She would never forget just how loudly he screamed when it happened and least of all the smell. Everything about that day was permanently seared into her mind. Even if someone were to hit her hard on the head to the point where she'd forget her own name, she would still able to perfectly recount this moment clearly.
Two days after the Agni Kai, she was allowed to see him. Half his face was bandaged, he was hardly recognizable, and (to her young mind at least) looked like he was dead. They didn't say much to each other, what was there even to say, and she spent that night just thinking about him and just asking herself questions. What if something else happened? Would she end up like that one day?
The anxiety of everything stayed with her that she was pushed over the edge. She had to get out of the Fire Nation before something worse happened. The night she made her choice, she sneaked into the medical ward and found Zuko. They talked about their current predicament and made a decision that night. They left.
Just like two thieves in the night, they sneaked out of the palace and ran away together.
Since they both knew the guards schedule and espionage plans, it was fairly easy to sneak away and were able to leave the capital by sunrise.
Once they escaped, they realized that they didn't come up with an actual plan beyond just leaving. They didn't account for the fact that they would probably need to find a few places to stay, find food to eat, and stay hidden from any of the guards around that would get orders sooner or later to take them home. That was a lot of work to do in the short run but in the long run, they would also need to find a new place to stay and now with Zuko injured, it was only harder on them.
With all that was going on, they had to realize, it would be better to find a place to stay first then go from there. It took a while but they found it. It was an old, abandoned, watch tower. It was far enough away from the rest of civilization that no one would bother them. The fact that it was a watch tower was also helpful because there were some old weapons stashed here and it was harder for people to suddenly just sneak up on them.
This is how they lived until as they thought their plan for the future. They knew that there would probably be a bounty put on finding them soon and with Zuko's injury, he would get both of them identified easily, meaning it would be best to find a kingdom that had little to no ties to the Fire Nation. That was the hard part. Nothing short of someone from another kingdom that had no relationship to the Fire Nation just happening across them and gladly offering to give them a place to stay in their kingdom would get them out easily. Meaning they had to do this the hard way.
The hard way included doing their best to stock pile on as much food, water, and other supplies to sneak past their borders undetected. Even though it was a hyperbole, it was always said that not even an ant could sneak past their borders. Trying to do all of that with just the two of them never ended well. If they had finally gotten their appropriate water supply, suddenly all their food they were planning on bringing had spoiled. If they finally learned the guards' schedules, they'd run out of food and so and so forth. It was a demoralizing and the idea of escape soon became a dream.
The other day Azula will never forget is the day she realized that she was alone. Call it sibling intuition or whatever you want but one day he went out to find food and never came back. Something happened when he left but she didn't want to face it. She assumed that someone recognized him and took him back to the Royal Palace. With a giant scar on his face like that, it would be easy to tell who he was.
She wanted to go out to look for him but she decided not to. She ran away from the world for a reason and there was no way that she was going to ruin that for a fool’s errand. It would be better to just stay. Stay in this tower and leave occasionally for food and water and nothing else.
This was her new home. It's not what she wanted but until something changed, this was it for her.
Marinette has always liked helping people. Helping people was just second nature to her. She would even do it if it meant that she would get hurt in the process.
As she got older, she kept her heart and that drive to help people. It's also because of that drive that she started to not only get tougher but she also got stronger. This is why it didn’t surprise anyone when she decided to become a knight when she got old enough. Despite being the youngest knight on her squad, she was dependable and was affectionately known as the Scarlet Knight by the others. Her skills with strategy and sword fighting were second to practically none. She technically qualified to be a superior but the only thing that stopped from reaching that position was her age.
That led her to today. She was given a solo mission to head to their eastern borders to settle some type of disturbance. They didn't have all the details but she was trusted with this mission because this wouldn't be the first time she's done something like this. She left by first morning's light with her trusty stead.
By noon, she looked at the cloud coverage and could tell that it was going to rain. She couldn't tell exactly when or how hard exactly it would rain, but she still mentally prepared herself for it. That's when she pulled out her map of the area. If she kept her current pace and kept riding in this direction without stopping, she could probably stop by a village to spend the night there if it starts to rain.
That was now her plan. It was a fitting plan and one she was going to stick to but it wasn't nature's plan. It started raining much sooner than she thought it would. At first, she kept going forward because she was too far to turn back now and there was practically nowhere to go anyway. By the sunset, the rain had only gotten worse. It was much faster and it only got heavier by the minute. There was no way that she could make it any further without putting herself or her stead in danger. So she did her best to look around for something to keep them safe throughout the night but each passing second only made it that much harder.
As much as she wanted to find that village, there is no way that she would be able to find it, at least safely, in this weather. It was too dangerous to keep going and it wasn't worth putting her stead in danger over this. Finding something else would be better. Then again, there's not much else that would be better.
She took her stead off of the main road and into the nearby forest. The trees provided some coverage but finding something like a cave or a shack would be great. She walked forward and soon found a small clearing under some trees. It wouldn't be enough for both of them but at this point, keeping her horse safe was what she cared about the most. She made a quick make-shift roof with the leaves and reigned it in.
After a few minutes, it finally calmed down. This is where it would stay the night.
“Now where am I supposed to stay for the night?” She said to herself out loud and as she looked around, trying to see if she could find some place to take shelter but rain and darkness made that nearly impossible to do. She couldn't even see her own nose in her current predicament. Anxiety started to fill inside her. If she couldn't find something, anything, in this mess, she would get swept away in this storm sooner or later.
In a small fit of frustration, Marinette slammed the tree next to her. This storm surely wasn't the end of the Scarlet Knight, right? She regained her composure and just in time to notice she didn't actually hit a tree. This was a different texture. She took a closer look at it and realized what it actually was. Those were bricks, meaning this was a structure and she could probably spend the night here.
It was hard to make out the structure entirely in all this darkness but it seemed like it was a tower. Normally she wouldn't want to stay in a place like this but this wasn't a normal situation. It would be dangerous to keep looking around for something else. She looked up and noticed there was a window at the top which would probably be a way inside. It's not like there was a ladder or a staircase that would take her up there and even if there was, she was clumsy enough that she would find a way to mess it up. It would probably be best to climb then.
That's what she did. She started climbing. Climbing up the side of tower in a storm with full body armor was anything but easy but that didn't stop her. All that training she put in was being put into good use.
The sounds of the raging storm kept Azula up. She tossed and turned as she tried to sleep but it was days like this that would make her the most anxious. It was days like this that made her the most vulnerable because there would be no way for her to see nor hear anyone that would be plotting to break into the tower. Even though it never happened, that part of her brain just couldn't be turned off. In hopes to silence it, she turned her head towards the window, expecting to only see darkness but what she didn't expect is the fact that lightning would strike at that very second, giving her a very clear image of gloved hand.
Her stomach dropped. Someone was here and climbing in the tower with her. Due to the storm and darkness, she couldn’t see this stranger too well. She could just barely hear this person and could just barely make out their silhouette but she easily tell that this was a solider. The armor sounded too heavy to be from the Fire Nation, so this wasn't someone who was trying to bring her back, but it didn’t stop her from being on the edge.
There were only a few options she had at this very moment. She could stay hidden and hope this soldier doesn’t bother her until they leave. That probably wouldn’t work. If this was someone who was here to potentially raid the place, they would probably find each other so that was out of the question. Her other option could be to run away but with a storm like this, it’s not like she could escape and if she could, it wouldn’t be far.
That left only two options. Try to talk through this or stand her ground and fight.
Neither of those options were good. It’s not like she couldn't fight, she was very skilled at doing so, it's just that she would prefer not to do so with someone who was armed, protected, and had probably had more training than her. Didn't change the fact that fighting would still be easier for her though. She was terrible at trying to talk to strangers and has always been known to be disagreeable on her best days. Then again, it would be the better option to handle it so she did it.
Azula watched as the soldier finished climbing inside. They stood up and put their hand in their hair, wringing out some of the water from it. That made her grimace, hoping that this wouldn’t ruin the old flooring.
It would be now or never. “Who are you?”
The soldier jumped a bit in surprise. The soldier immediately put their hands up in the air in defense then said, “sorry, I didn’t know if there was anyone here.”
This conversation was already stirring away from what she wanted it to be and she wanted to started to switch to plan B to get this whole thing over with but kept her emotions tempt down. Instead, she opted to ask this question again, hoping to get an answer this time. "Who are you?"
"Oh, right, right, you need to know. My name is Marinette."
Marinette, so that was the name of this mysterious woman. It wasn't a name she's ever heard before, that and her armor made it clear that she was truly from another kingdom. That was one sigh of relief she felt truly comfortable taking right now. Grateful in herself for not choosing to fight, she asked her next question. "Okay, Marinette, what are you doing here?"
"I just wanted a place to stay in the rain. If that's fine with you, since you're the one who lives here and all."
That made sense but why was she even out here to begin with? Actually, this storm picked up quickly and if she was off on a mission, getting caught in this would make sense. Marinette seemed like a somewhat level-headed person and under different circumstances, would probably just leave if asked nicely but that didn't feel right. That storm out there was awful and would probably only get worse by the second. Not even close to being safe for someone to just go out there by themself.
She wanted to find a reason that would be good enough to send someone into the death trap that is currently the outside world. That's when she took note that Marinette hadn’t unsheathed her sword which made Azula wonder if this was a test of some kind. Unlikely but she couldn't just take her chances with strangers. Whatever the case might be, she couldn't make sense of this situation so she decided to test the waters as best as she could before coming to her final conclusion. "Why haven't you drawn your sword?"
“Why would I pull out my sword when you haven’t done anything? Besides, I technically broke into your home. You’re the only one here who has the right to force violence but it doesn’t seem like you are so why should I?”
Marinette made a good point but Azula still couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling. That voice that loudly spoke in her head was screaming at her to remain cautious about this soldier. This was still a stranger who was armed.
There was something else she can ask Marinette that would be simple to ask to figure out more about her. "Why didn't you just use the door if you wanted to get in here?!"
With complete and total shock in her voice, Marinette responded, with another question. "There was a door?"
Suddenly, that's when that voice in the back of her head went completely silent. It was probably just as stunned as she was. Did this knight really think that the only way to get up here was to just climb the sides? What type of architect would allow something like that to exist? How would the average person even get up here?
When Azula had regained her presence of mind, she looked back up at this soldier. That voice in the back of her head was still silent, something that hasn’t happened in years, leaving her to finally just think. Think without an overwhelming shroud of anxiety engulfing her. It was strange, when was the last time she’s been able to think like this?
Without that voice there to stop her, she made her decision. “You can stay here for the night.”
When morning came, Azula had to ask herself if last night was even real. She wished that it was. It would be easier that way. She wouldn’t have to confront certain feelings if it was a dream but it wasn't. She looked up and towards the window of the tower and there she was.
Marinette peaked her head outside of the window. She stared at the sky for a while before turning around and the two made eye contact with each other. “It doesn’t seem like there’ll be a storm for the rest of the day. I should take my leave then.”
Suddenly, Azula was filled with conflicting emotions. She wanted Marinette to leave but to also stay. It was hard to figure out what she really wanted in this moment.
"Before I leave, I want to ask you something?"
Depending on what this question was, it would probably decide on whether she wanted Marinette to stay which would make their parting easier to handle. "What is it?"
"Why are you living here?"
That was an understandable question. This was a strange predicament to be in and since Marinette was from another kingdom, she didn't even know that she was even a princess. Should she reveal it? That's when she once again remembered Plan B. If this went bad, she could always fight about it.
It was hard but she told Marinette the truth. The full truth. Who she was, her family, her brother's disappearance, everything. It was hard to recount where her life took her but her story was that of a tragedy. Nothing else.
At least, that's what she thought it was supposed to be, until the unexpected happened.
“Come on.” Marinette said, putting a hand out. “I know a place where nobody will know who you are. Even though I’m from another kingdom, I’m still a knight who’s trained to keep princesses like yourself safe.”
Azula looked at Marinette’s gloved hand. This was an opportunity, an opportunity to finally leave without the lingering shadows gazing from behind her anymore.
That’s when the memories came back. The memories of her brother, their escape, but worst of all, the loneliness. The loneliness was the hardest part.
If Marinette had really sworn herself to protecting others, then surely there was no better person to keep her safe. The dying embers of hope that still burned in her flickered to life once more as she grabbed Marinette’s hand and stood up.
On her feet, for the first time in her life, she felt safe.
Azula will never forget that morning, holding onto Marinette, finally starting a new life.
I hope you liked this fic. The inspiration behind this fic was the whole knight x princess stuck in a tower.
Next time you hear from Azula and Marinette's love life, it'll be on chapter 2 of Blue Birds and Fire where I will also explain why it took so long to update. Thanks for your patience on that.
