Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Precious Illusions ❯ Happy Ending ( Chapter 5 )

Author's Notes: The word of the day is `legs.' Let's go back to my place and spread the word.

 

Disclaimer: Is not mine, I could never make up something so beautiful and predictable as it, though I do wish I had Zuko (I would lock him in my room and never leave). It belongs to Nickelodeon (I think) and its creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

 

Warnings: language (the f word is used twice in the fic), a bit of violence, emotional turmoil, insanity, yuri (light and far away), shoujo ai, mentions of shounen ai/yaoi. Original characters, made up avatar creatures (that's all the warning I can think of off the top of my head).

 

Song: Happy Ending by MIKA

 

Chapter Five

Happy Ending

 

Zuko woke up knowing his day was going to be busy, which included doing a hell of a lot of formal things to raise moral among his people. He would meet a few people who would blame him for everything that his father did and insist on his help, and with old men who thought that he should rule with the same iron fist as his father had. Zuko found that juggling all these complaints from his people, and the various regions around the world, exhausting. He often found that many things he wrote or ordered done he had to go over a second time because his advisors would skip out or make matters worse when they made small changes, something would happen and he would end up trying to fix it without actually going to the area because he needed to be with his people to give them a good example. He spent so much time with scholars correcting history and trying to convey the state that the fire kingdom was in while under his father's command without them appearing to be completely evil. Of course that was a little hard, so he just stuck to trying to only include crude facts and taking the edge off in some other areas of the action that the fire kingdom had taken during their reign of terror.

 

Zuki sighed, He had a few more places to go to, in the fire nation there were a few places that still taught by the books his father had supplied. He also had places to go outside the fire nation to help show that the Fire Nation was willing to extend their help to all those they helped and that they would keep a peaceful relationship with them from now on. There were a few people who still idolized his father that he had to learn to deal with.

 

He almost longed for the old days, when he had lived free on the open sea hunting the allusive avatar and going through teenage angst and depression. Chasing the avatar would be more rewarding than this. His life as Firelord was almost pathetic; he would rather be evil and chasing the avatar than helping to fix his country. It was probably the fact that people kept acting like he approved of what his father had done; they acted like he was his father and seemed to think that because he had left his father alive that in some way Zuko loved his father. Zuko knew better, while he could feel pity for both his father and sister, but he did not love them, just because they were his family, blood, did not mean he had to love them.

 

“Fire Lord Zuko!” Zuko cringed at the question yet demand in the servant's voice. He allowed the servants to dress him. During the beginning of his reign he had insisted on dressing himself, it helped him relax to know that he could still do something's by himself, but now - now he just felt too tired to do much of anything.

 

“Tell the councilor I'll be with him soon,” said Zuko as the last servant turned toward him. The man bowed his way out and Zuko was left to wander out the door. He just wanted a second of freedom, if it meant being late for some stuffy old man then all the better. The man he was meeting was `conservative' and deserved a quick death by fire, for his action when his father was in power. But the councilor had gotten away with the rest by saying that he couldn't go against his father, he was a victim, all that crap. Zuko wished that the man would drop dead and he could definitely help that dream become a reality. But politics stayed his hand, getting rid of people just because they deserved it when king, it often enough would diminish his already low support system within the palace.

 

“Zuko, what are you doing here?” the Fire Lord just lifted an eyebrow at the Water Tribe peasant. Sokka didn't spend much time at his birth place, he usually was somewhere with the avatar, or Toph, even Zuko from time to time. Sokka had recently been in the fire kingdom with his sword master helping around in various villages.

 

None of the water tribesmen friends were comfortable with the dark boy going anywhere on his own. It was not even a year since Suki had been killed. Her death had been traumatizing and surprising. The Kyoushi warriors had been chasing Azula at the time it happened. They had run into the group that they thought had been harboring the past fire princess and had been greatly outmatched. The avatar hadn't gotten the message that she needed help until a week after the group had been sent it. The ironic thing was that all the rest of the Kyoushi warriors were fine, a few scrapes, but it had been their leader Suki who had taken the real damage. The poor girl had hardly been recognizable after what had been done to her.

 

“I live here, are you leaving already? Shouldn't you wait until Aang comes?” even if Zuko's life seemed to be going steadily downhill he stilled cared about his friends, even if they were illogical most of the time.

 

“Nah, a dragon hawk came telling me that he was held up in Bejing so I'll be heading out alone,” he through some stuff onto Appa. “Don't worry I'll be keeping in contact with Aang and my sister. I'll send you a note if you want?”

 

“That would be…” Zuko trailed off, he had so many papers already. Still, he didn't want to be rude, it was just that the messages would probably be lost in the rest of the papers on his desk to be looked over.

 

“Hey man, don't worry about it, you're the Fire Lord now, you're busy,” said Sokka he smiled at Zuko.

 

“My friends should be important enough to keep in contact with,” said Zuko his voice soft. He looked at the rising sun, sighing as he felt its power soak into him. He hadn't been in the sun enough; he had almost forgotten how refreshing its beams had been sinking into his skin and adding to his inner fire. “The avatar can run the world and still do it.”

 

“Yeah, but he doesn't have to do with so many openly hostile people, and even the hostile people are less hostile around him then when they're with you,” said Sokka and shrugged.

 

“Thanks, that really helps,” said Zuko with a glare.

 

“Hey, I'm just saying, running the Fire nation after all its done and trying to keep everyone from taking advantage while your nation is confused and trying to start must be hard,” Sokka pulled himself onto the top of Appas head. “Hey, you don't look so good. I heard about Mai, and I know this is an awkward question but is she really getting married this fast?”

 

“What do you mean fast?”

 

“But it only sounded like you two had been broken up for…” Sokka was cut off.

 

“Yeah well, it seemed she had been with someone from Ember Island for a few months now, she said something about knowing she'd choose him for quite a while and that… it doesn't matter, all there was to it was that while she loved me, I hadn't been around her enough and that she had just grown bored,” Zuko shrugged and touched his scar slightly with his hand. “She also said she knew I'd become enough of a bleeding heart that I wouldn't do anything to her.”

 

“Can't be too good for her,” said Sokka, he seemed a little shocked. Zuko shrugged. “I mean her reputation.”

 

“I don't think she cares, apparently the boy has enough money from his father to keep them and her parents comfortable even if I decide to take away her families positions,” Zuko sighed and stayed rather annoyed.

 

“Her parents seemed more interested in the status than the money,” said Sokka having met Mai's parents, oddly enough.

 

“I don't think she cares, I think she really loves this guy, the way she looks at me, it's like I'm someone who disappointed her,” he shivered and reached for the warmth that was deep inside. Sokka looked at him with pity. He played with the black wristband that showed he was mourning. Zuko had always found that odd, the fire nation mourned in white, it made more sense. Zuko also noticed that Sokka looked like he wanted to leave more than he had before. Not that he could really blame the boy. Sokka didn't need any more complications in his life.

 

“Look, Zuko, Aang's having me look in the old air temple areas, see if there's anything you should know over there,” said Sokka, Zuka sighed. The avatar was looking to give him more work, pain in the ass.

 

“Don't look like that, Zuko, you don't want to let things like this fester.”

 

“No, but it'd be nice to be cut a little slack,” said Zuko.

 

“Don't worry, Aang will probably do most of the work, if you're really lucky then they'll be air benders and you'll never even get started before Aang will take over,” said Sokka, Zuka smiled, thankful that Sokka seemed to once again have found his jokes again. He still didn't have his humor back; it seemed Suki's death had affected him more than the moon spirit's had. Perhaps because he had had a very close connection to the warrior, that he had loved her totally. Sokka had learned from one of the soldiers that had examined what was left of her body that she had also been pregnant. He had lost two lives, one he had to find out after her death. There had been a good chance that she hadn't known before this that she was pregnant, that's how small the fetus had been.

 

“Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better,” said Zuko rolling his eyes.

 

“Come on man, why don't you let someone else help you? You look like you're taking too much onto your shoulders. I mean, no offense, but you didn't even really have any real training or experience in running a whole…”

 

“I know!” snapped Zuko, his fire gathering around his fist in a second. He took a deep breath, it would be no good taking his anger out on Sokka; he didn't need to alienate his friends just so he could have someone he could actually take his anger out. For a second he truly wished that someone would be able to assassinate him. Zuko blinked and rubbed his head, no he had to lead his people into peace. Forget the pain he was suffering, there were thousands of people worse off than him, what right did he have to be depressed?

 

“I can't trust anyone yet, I'm still having trouble weeding away all the generals and politicians who actually agreed with what my father was doing without creating an uproar. That and every time I'm able to I don't have time to properly replace them and get someone who's brainwashed. I have one kid right now who I can trust, but he's young and I'm driving him to insanity with what I load on him and all the lessons he has to quickly learn and then unlearn when I tell him how I actually want it done.”

 

“I'm sure it will get easier,” Sokka tried to console. He looked reflective for a second and Zuko waited impatiently for the joke. “I hear that you have a lead on Azula.”

 

Zuko sighed in disappointment.

 

“It was another dead end,” he shrugged. “Well, good luck, try to come back with as few complaints and demands to the Fire Kingdom as you can. I'm going to go sit and talk to the councilor, that way I can hopefully get out of something that will damn him enough to be one more nuisance less.”

 

“The sacrifice of peace,” said Sokka with a shrug. “Yip, yip.”

 

“Yeah,” said Zuko watching the water tribe peasant fly up and away. He sighed and chuckled, thinking about how much Mai he was acting. He fought a deep ache that formed in his chest when he thought of her. He had loved her, he had been so happy with her, kissing her, but it seemed that she had lost her love for him. He felt betrayed, it was made worse by what she had done even while he had been using her as a rock that he could still find solace in, to find out that she had been going to someone else behind his back ripped at his heart.

 

Well, he had duties, better not to think of such a thing while facing a man like this.

 

-----

 

Azula calmly directed the annoying noise maker back into the circle. She instructed the kids that under no circumstances could they leave, but some little monsters had no regard for rules. This had been the job that the people had assigned her after finding out that not only was she insane but also had bleeding sores on her feet and a twisted ankle. They made her watch little devils. Azula decided that the men must have had the final say in what she'd be assigned to do because any sane woman could have told them that to watch kids it was recommended the watcher be sane and able to catch them when they ran away.

 

So Azula had set out that day, a week after the fire, to discourage them from allowing the children anywhere near her; it hadn't worked out as planned. She ended up with quite a few crying children who all listened to her while being scared to death. The parents had thought she was a God send, Saki had yelled at her for throwing sharp objects at the little demons. So the former princes had been given all the twerps again, they're eyes were bright and they respected her, but they also wouldn't take too much crap because they knew that Saki had Azula around her little finger.

 

The reason she had been given this job had mostly been because, while Gato had been too distracted to remember he had figured out she had hurt her ankle and that her feet were probably at least ridden with sores because of the new amount of traveling she had to do and the crappy pair of shoes she'd been wearing, they'd found out that she couldn't do construction to save her life, that she readily burned food even when she tried to even boil water, and that any grownup that tried to work with her soon found themselves on the edge with some sort of anxiety or anger -- or a combination of both. Saki had promised they'd work on her people skills. Azula had pointed out that she knew people very well; Saki had agreed that Azula was pretty good at reading people; it was her skills with dealing with such people in an appropriate way that they needed way that she needed to work on.

 

“Hey, Miss Mai, you're not seeing anyone again are you?” the girl was in very clean peasant clothes and Azula blinked in surprise at the girls sudden appearance and glanced at the other little ones, no they seemed to be doing what she told them; which was weird because she told them to sit still and at least pretend to meditate. Of course most of them were probably too scared because of the story she had told them and then what she had whispered to the first disobedient child which had made him a babbling mess and immediately cross his legs and try to figure out how reach a meditative state.

 

“Mum!” Azula jumped and looked down on another kid that had deemed her exercise not good enough to do. It was odd though; this little one almost looked like her when she was a kid, right down to her gold eyes.

 

“What is it that you deem more important than your life little air spawn?” asked Azula, her voice its usual cruel edge made crisp and whip like to lash at the poor little thing. The little girl only smiled -- a fake sweet smile and swayed back and forth on the spot.

 

“I wanted to show the dolly my mommy got me,” said the little thing still acting sweet.

 

“Oh?” Azula asked putting her cheek to one hand in boredom. Her eyes grew wide as the little girl pulled out a wooden earth citizen doll. It looked like the one her uncle had given her. The girl giggled and the thing went up in flames.

 

“Mai, teacher,” Miky was pulling on her skirt, she looked sharply at him. “You were staring at nothing.” The little thing explained. “I thought it'd be best to wake you up.”

 

Azula nodded, and Miky smiled before following the direction Azula's finger was pointing and going back to the circle to sit straight as a rod and try to do something he didn't even have the first clue how to begin going about.

 

“Mai!” Azula turned to see Saki running toward her. Azula brightened; maybe she'd get off from watching the brats early today!

 

“Saki, what are you doing here?” asked Azula already stealing herself to leave. Saki opened her mouth to talk but one the woman who had come with Saki was squealing.

 

“Oh, you did it again Mai! This is so amazing I can never get my little Fio to take a nap for me! I wish you'd share your secrets with me!” the woman gushed. Azula cringed a little but did nothing more then give her hands a weak tug to try and get them free since Saki was so near.

 

“I'm sure you don't want to know Rai,” said Saki with a sigh. “Are you sure you can handle the children by yourself?”

 

“I'm sure, they're all a sleep and the mothers will be looking for them soon,” said the woman and made shooing motions toward the pair. Azula smiled cruelly as she was pulled away. She remembered that woman, one of the people who had criticized her work without really helping and had suggested `putting her out of her misery.' Azula hoped the brats would wake up soon, as soon as they found out she was useless in most practical things and insane (according to Saki and her outburst during the forest fire).

 

“So, what are you pulling me away for?” asked Azula looking back at her friend.

 

“Oh don't be so happy about causing another person pain,” scolded Saki and then smirked. As soon as those children figured out that someone besides Azula was watching them they were going to go into hyper and destroy mode, Azula just wished she could watch it.

 

“Well, it must be pretty big to drag you from you're air bending scrolls,” prompted Azula. Now that the elders here had agreed to it, air bending had again started to be encouraged. Saki and the elder that could so air bending were learning everything as fast as they could so they could start to teach a new generation and type of air benders.

 

“It is,” said Saki with a touch of happiness and apprehension. “The lead air bender, the one that will start to invite air benders to come learn, and my father has arrived and are in the temple we constructed.”

 

That was news. Saki had been looking forward to seeing her father for a while now. She must have gotten Azula for emotional support. Or something she could show off to her dad. They entered the crudely raised new air temple and into a heated discussion between a balding and bald men.

 

“Yes, but what spirit would not only stop a fire but restore the trees that had been destroyed and then leave the village in shambles while also not return even the bodies of the people who had been killed in the fire,” said the bald one.

 

“Perhaps the spirit was trying to direct them here trying to tell us that it was now that the people it was time to start teaching the air benders and that the world had been depraved of them for too long,” Saki stopped Azula from walking toward them, she glanced at the girl and noticed that Saki was very interested in the conversation. It was a topic of confusion. The day after the fire they had found the forest completely intact like the trees had never been set aflame. The village was gone, but the people felt that the spirit that had stopped the fire had also restored the forest since it was only trying to make a point that they should go up to the top of the mountain and build a temple where air benders could once again start learning their bending once again instead of hiding it.

 

“Father, Mr. Heis, this is… Mai come back to me girl,” Azula blinked at her friend who made a quick motion over to the two men, Azula raised an eyebrow.

 

“What about them?” she demanded. “Oh, it's very nice to meet you Mr. Heis, Mr. Tuk,” she placed her palms flat against her thighs as she bowed, this bow originated somewhere in the earth kingdom if Azula's memory served her right.

 

“It's nice to meet you,” Saki's father looking at her with distrust. Azula looked at Saki, she had already greeted them, and they weren't important to Saki so until they had outlived their usefulness then she should try to be cordial with them. Threatening didn't work on these air bending didn't work like it was supposed to and often just got her into trouble.

 

Saki shrugged a smile on her face.

 

“So you're the bastard who left Saki and her family on their own without properly explaining the situation or considering what would happen to them?” said Azula with a wide smile. Mr. Tuk looked suitably put out and surprised.

 

“This is why I hate introducing you to people,” said Saki wrapping an arm around Azula.

 

“Young lady,” said Mr. Heis striding over to her with purpose. “Saki said that you are literate and had lessons somewhere in the earth kingdom and that you had an opinion on these air bending scrolls.”

 

“Um,” Azula glanced at her friend who made a move that directed her back to talk to the man. “Yeah, which ones are those? Hey, she thought I was cracked for what I suggested what these meant!”

 

“Yes well, she remembered one of the things you said and I'm…” he trailed off, Azula glanced at him sideways and noticed his eyes were concentrated on her hands… creepy.

 

“You have fighter hands,” the man said and then grabbed her wrist bringing it to his face. “Look at these calluses, you must be very skilled!”

 

“Sharp of objects near Mai,” said Saki with a smile. “Sounds dangerous,”

 

“It was, as a matter of fact,” said Azula, hoping that in some clique move her teeth looked sharp and glinting in the fading sun.

 

“How good were you, no that doesn't matter, who was your teacher, no, he's probably dead,” Azula calmly placed her hand over the old man's mouth. He looked shocked for a second and Azula removed her hand in time to see him puff out his chest. “Not very polite are you young warrior.”

 

“Don't call me that,” snapped Azula, she was not some novice.

 

“You must let me test her,” the man said excitedly. “Oh, don't look at me like that, the stereotype for air benders and their ancestors seems to run true, they're air heads and no good with a sword, the few that will actually pick one up that is. Oh, to teach a true apprentice.”

 

“You want the person my daughter referred to as the `crazy girl' to be your successor?” Azula glared at Saki, Saki just shrugged as explanation.

 

“At this point I don't have time to be picky. Stop glaring girl you don't have a say in this,” he grabbed Azula who wanted to strike out, but Saki's soft cough stopped her and she started dreading what was to come. At least now she would have dome sort of sharp object to help bleed away some of her anger.