#pre-azutara

[marvelousazula]

I think I've rewritten this fic four times at this point (: [it's one of my favourites]

[marvelousazula]

a little draft on how this AU could start (basically: people think Azula is being stubborn for not speaking to anyone, meanwhile her vocal chords are just terribly damaged – kinda want to write it in Azula's POV actually, but Katara's sorta my default for some reason). (buy me a coffee)

In every interaction of theirs, Azula was polite enough when she wasn't trying to kill them. Or trying to capture them, actually, in hindsight it didn't quite look like she was going for the kill. (She was too deadly, too efficient, for not having killed them if she wanted to.) Surprisingly pacific for a perfect princess soldier.

Which means Katara isn't that surprised by Azula good behavior in the asylum Zuko sent her to. She's more annoyed by how long it took him to bring her home, being stuck in a place where she was locked up in her room all day, forced to take teas to keep her malleable and with her bending weakened didn't seem like the ideal way to deal with yet another child soldier.

It's ironic, really, that knowing Zuko better is exactly what made Katara feel any sympathy towards Azula at all.

Knowing more of Zuko's childhood is also why she's here. It took not much convincing for him to believe that if Azula is behaving well, maybe she doesn't need to stay stuck in there. Reports say she's quiet and cooperative, there are group activities and she seems to tend to have a teamwork mentality – that explains why she's that good at strategy. The only issue is that she doesn't talk.

She never talks. Not even back in the palace, not to servants that have been around her her whole life. She silently acknowledges them, with nods and glances. There are no threats, and no fire, even after a few weeks and there's no trace of that chi-weakening tea. She's not even hostile towards her, and she had been expecting lightning in her face instead of a nod before Azula went on to do whatever she was going to do.

In one of her walks around the palace, late at night, Katara finds herself in that courtyard. It has been over a year, the ground is still scorched. It's disturbing to look at the grate and remember the chains – it's a weird feeling, knowing she did the right thing, stopping Azula, but feeling so bad for the way she did it.

The chains, the armor, had been deformed where Azula's fire touched. Fire hot enough to soften metal.

She blinks, fire hot enough to soften metal.

Firebenders aren't immune to fire, look at Zuko's face.

She's not surprised that Azula is up when she knocks at her door, the princess just frowns at her and tilts her head. It's kinda cute- what? She's quite expressive, actually, Katara had formed the image of cold and stoic, when Azula says more with her eyebrows than with her words.

"I want to test something, I-" this is something they should have checked, yes? Treated, like they treated the burns on her wrists and her chest and shoulders- "You can't speak. It's not that you don't want, or that you're this stubborn, you just can't."

Azula looks astounded for a second, like she expected nobody to notice it. She didn't seem to mind that people thought she was a stubborn brat, letting it slide and just being... a quiet presence. Like she was tired of fighting, of taking up space, like she wanted some peace.

You know, like she was exhausted from a life of being someone's pawn in a senseless war.

"Does it hurt? Your throat?" Azula blinks, like nobody has asked her if anything hurts- then she nods. "I can try to... soothe it a little. I can't really heal anything..."

Azula seems to calculate the risk of allowing someone to bend water on her throat, but maybe it hurts enough to be worth the risk. She nods, steps aside and allows Katara into the room.

Not in a million years Katara thought she'd be in the Fire Nation's Crown Princess chambers to offer her relief for her pain, but here she is.

The war is over, everyone deserves their pain to be soothed, their wounds healed.

[marvelousazula]

part 2 of this, so more of the "and who knew spitting blue fire during a mental breakdown might cause damage?" AU because some people liked it. I guess cw for more detailed mentions of burn and implied past child neglect. (buy me a coffee)

Katara's not surprised that the room smells like jasmine and bonfire smoke, the princess smells like jasmine and bonfire smoke – not that Katara paid any attention, they simply stood almost close a few times. Like right now. Like right now when she's sitting on the bed, Azula in front of her and patiently watching her.

There's curiosity there, behind the instinctual apprehension, Katara ignores it. She hasn't noticed that there's specks of glimmering, pure gold among the sea of bronze so dark it looks brown sometimes. Any other situation, it'd all feel oddly intimate. Healing has that power sometimes, holding someone's life under your fingertips.

Katara focuses on not showing it on her face: the damage is nearly catastrophic.

Katara has seen terrific burns before, fresh and healed, she grew desensitized to it for her own sake. She never saw internal burns. People aren't meant to survive fire melting the flesh inside them.

No wonder Azula doesn't talk, what's supposed to be delicate vocal chords is a mess of scar tissue. It explains her general lack of firebending, or could be one of the reasons, there's no way Azula is breathing properly when the inside of her throat is narrowed by the tissue.

Katara has assumed the tenseness on her shoulders is from the general stress of her current predicament. She assumed the slight grimace that seemed set on her face has been some sort of discontentment with her situation. But then the water glows around her neck and Azula just relaxes.

All this time, she has been in pain all this time.

Katara pulls the water away, palliative care like this tends to last for a few hours, she can do the same again later the next morning. She doesn't dare poking around, testing if she can make Azula's throat just a little less swollen. She has messed around with a small scar on her thigh, one she doesn't remember why she has, and it has made it hurt and look even worse. She doesn't want to risk what might happen to Azula if she does.

Once the water is back on its pouch, Azula gently touches her own neck. She looks at Katara with what seems like some sort of thank you, or at least as much as a thank you a look can be from a princess like her.

"Do you have any other old scars that still hurt you?" Her hand moves to her shoulder but then she places both, fists tight, on her lap and shakes her head. "I wouldn't... I wouldn't mind." She shakes her head again. "Can I check your wrists then?"

She frowns, but allows. The scars are almost worse than she expected, but they have been somewhat taken care of during the healing process, they're almost faded at this point, not as deep and unattended as the one in her throat. Katara's fingers flex, in her brain, somehow, she imagined the chains leaving imprints where she had wrapped her wrists and forearms.

"Your armor burned you," she whispers. She looks up, Azula looks at her like she's saying yes, obviously. She has seen the armor in a leap of deformed metal. "They didn't check your throat for injuries? If they treated everything else."

A person shouldn't look so... nonchalant about medical neglect.

(Azula looking somewhat surprised by Katara asking if she was in pain flashed in her mind.

When was the last time someone genuinely cared about her well-being?

No surprise you were acting like that.)

"I can do healing sessions a few times a day, keep most of the discomfort away," she hopes Azula hears the I know there's more things bothering you, and I'll make you tell me. "But I can't heal any of it, I'll make everything much worse for you."

She seems impressed enough by the offer of help for the pain, so it's not like she'll demand for healing. In position to demand or not, she looks like the kind that would be quite the inconvenience about it.

Katara eyes her shoulder, one of the burns from that Agni Kai? A training accident or a wound from the war? Or maybe a too-warm hand on her shoulder, paired with honey-leaking words from the forger of a weapon.

"I'll take my leave now," she's almost reluctant at letting go of her warm, soft hands. She does, after a moment. "Tomorrow we'll do it again. Have a good night, your highness."

[marvelousazula]

fun fact: the ciano dragon's, well, dragons can change their size at will. I was talking with @waterfire1848 on discord and had this idea for how the Gaang discovers Azula can do that. there's also a little bit of feels, I guess.

brief context: Aang and Katara found Azula living in the abandoned Fire Nation ship, they got the grumpy lizard to travel with them. at this point, they have no idea who Azula is. here's a drabble about the night Azula's having a nightmare about.

It wasn't like Azula went around announcing her skills, seeing she didn't have the skill of speech in this form. A form she had been in for years, and roughly the same size since then. She trained the size change, of course, but this seemed optimal to live inside a ship designed for average-sized Fire Nation men. The form was about the size of, well, an average-sized Fire Nation man. That was also a perfect size to travel with this group, sometimes she flew alongside the furball, but young dragons weren't fit for long distance travels, she'd allow herself to curl up in a ball on the corner.

So.

The group knew she could fly, spit blue fire and be a pretty good defense against "the inconvenient Fire Nationals".

It has been a few calm days, a rarity, and peace called unpleasant memories. Like the escape from the palace. Her fire swallowed by blue-ish white flames, kicking and squirming. She woke up tasting ash and blood on her mouth, it has taken months for the blisters to heal.

She got up, walked in circles in the same spot before laying down again. Closing her eyes brought images of the palace hallways and echoes of damning words. She huffed, sat up. They slept peacefully, the three of them, side by side.

It reminded her of some of the good old days. When she, Mai and Ty Lee would drag Zuko to a sleepover and the four of them would sleep under the stars. She didn't think too much about that. It brought other pleasant yet painful memories.

Sokka was as spread around as he could, lanky limbs all around, softly snoring. Aang at his left, in a position not much different, but occupying way less space as the smallest of the group. (As the youngest of the group.) Katara was on Aang's other side, back turned to him and the only one properly on her bedroll. On her side, hands tucked under her head.

Azula couldn't sleep, it didn't matter how many times she tried.

Back in the ship, she'd just go awake until her body collapsed in a corner from days of staying up. Now, she couldn't do it. They needed her protection – her help, they were kids (she hasn't been a kid in a long time). She needed to be well-rested, at her best performance at all times.

In the palace, when she couldn't sleep, she had two options: Zuko's bed, Mother's bed. Climb on it, curl up near the bottom and not move until sunrise. She hadn't shrunk (further) since joining them, but it was as easy as ever. She made herself a little smaller than the annoying lemur, found a perfect spot at Katara's feet. The girl irradiated warmth even through the bedroll, and was a firm presence.

It has been awhile, since she fell asleep this quickly.

///

"Why's Blue so tiny?" Azula could be very sleepy still, but she snapped her teeth at Sokka anyways. He should know to not try to poke her.

"She'll bite your hand off one of these days," Katara commented. "Maybe it's a dragon thing?"

"Flying and spitting fire are a dragon thing, not turning into a teeny tiny lizard."

Katara was looking at her like she was seeing the most precious thing in the world, Azula half-flew half-jumped to her shoulder: "Hello there. Slept well?" She nodded.

"It's a thing I heard in the legends," Aang chimed in, now fully awake, apparently. "Dragons are very, very large. It's convenient for them to shrink." She nodded along.

"Blue here doesn't look that large when she's, like, in her usual size."

Aang shrugged: "Unless she shows us, we don't know how large she actually is. We don't know how old she is. Or why she was in the South Pole. Or even her name. We literally call her by the color of her scales and her fire."

That was fair, she guessed. She thought they wouldn't take well if she shifted into a very Fire National-looking girl wearing clearly high society clothes. Or a girl that was very much obviously related to the Prince trying to capture the Avatar.

She liked this little life, stressful as it was, at least it was a little less lonely.

[marvelousazula]

The Convenient Side of Having a Dragon

Dragon!Azula, pre-Azutara (and also pre-knowing the giant lizard happens to be the Fire Nation princess)

Katara’s used to cold, she’s from the South Pole.

It doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy comfortable warmth. The winter nights in the Earth Kingdom aren’t as cold as back home, but they’re still cold.

So when the dragon, the stupid dragon, huff like she's saying “let me keep you warm”, Katara takes five seconds to decide that she does want the dragon to keep her warm. There’s something like smugness in her bronze eyes when Katara accepts the offer, but doesn’t hesitate in curling tighter around the waterbender.

It’s nice, sorta cuddling with a member of a extinct spcies.