Dreamers (Zuko x Yue)

Childhood pt. 4

Zuko was tired.

Lu Ten had just died and Uncle had disappeared after Ba Sing Se.

Now he had to listen to Azula taunt him about how dad was apparently going to 'kill' him.

"I know you're lying Azula, just go away."

Azula had become mean since he learned to Firebend.

At first, it was fun, their weakly sparring sessions were always entertaining and he learned a lot from them. It was also the only time he and Azula spent alone together, and he liked hanging out with her.

Sure she always beat him, but she told him what he did wrong. And she would help him come up with new ideas on how to improve.

After they were done they would even try to mix their flames, trying to see what colors and shapes they could make out of them.

The best one they got was when his gold and her blue mixed and created a bright neon green. They showed mother their green dragon and she told them it was a 'jade dragon that would make the earth king jealous'.

But one day their father caught them training and it wasn't fun anymore.

He started making it a daily occurrence, not letting their spar end until one of them was unable to continue.

That always ended up being him and he hated it.

He wasn't even allowed to give up either.

He usually was stubborn, but after fighting with an injury for the third day in a row he had enough.

He tried to take one of Azula's blasts without defending himself. He figured he would lose the spar faster and that would be the end of it.

But his father realized it and he was punished heavily for it.

After the week it took to heal all his injuries he fought Azula with everything he had in every spar.

He still lost, he never even hit her, but he wasn't punished and that's all that mattered.

Now he and Azula barely talked, and when they did she usually just made fun of him.

Like she was doing right now.

"I'm serious Zuzu. Gramps got all mad at dad because he wanted Uncle Fatso's birthright. Gramps told him,"

She lowered her voice in an imitation of their grandpa.

"You must learn the pain of losing your firstborn child. And dad agreed."

Zuko felt his stomach clench in dread, trying not to think of his father trying to kill him.

"You're lying Azula, father wouldn't kill me."

Azula just patted his shoulder, "It's okay Zuzu. Who knows, maybe we can get a nice Earth Kingdom family to adopt you."

He screamed at her to go away as his mother walked into the room.

"What's going on here?"

Ursa walked in to see her two children arguing. It was how she usually found them these days and killed her a little inside.

There was a time when she thought they would be able to care for each other, she still held the Jade dragon they made close to her heart, after all.

But after Ozai turned their weekly meetups into daily training any chance of that was ruined.

He imprinted the idea onto Azula that she needed to be better than her brother, and try as she might Ursa was never able to convince her otherwise.

Now any time they're together they fight, and the only thing she can do is try to stop them from fighting each other. She had wanted to teach Azula how to be nice to her brother, but Ozai made it very clear she wasn't allowed to teach Azula anything.