So, the great 'General Iroh' wants us to get along and his master plan to do so is to basically kick us out," Azula snorted as she and Zuko rode along together on a pair of ostrich-horses. Her uncle had 'kindly suggested' that they both take a trip together, clearly expecting that the two of them would get along with some time alone, something she found as likely as her father being the next Avatar.
To make matters worse, they had to change out of their Fire Nation attire and were now dressed in Earth Kingdom clothes, she was dressed in what she thought was a rather plain dark green and black attire, she wasn't a fan of it but at least it was better than Zuko who was dressed completely head to toe in brown clothes, including the straw hat that he was wearing on top of his head. Even the sword sheath and bag he had were brown. She herself was also wearing a straw hat and carrying a disgusting little brown bag, after several minutes of arguing that she did not want or need a hat and bag, she had been outvoted, rather unfairly, of course.
Iroh probably because he genuinely thought it was important, Zuko likely agreed just to annoy her. Speaking of...
"Uncle is confusing at the best of times," Zuko sighed. "I've questioned his sanity many, many times. But I've come to learn that he usually has a good reason for what he does. At least to him."
"All those years out in the world and you're still just as naive as when you left, Zu-Zu," Azula said, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "He asked us to get lost so he could get a moment of peace without the two of us bothering him."
"Perhaps he wouldn't need to if you weren't such a wackjob," Zuko grunted.
"Perhaps he wouldn't have needed to leave the comfort of the Fire Nation if you weren't such a stupid weakling," Azula replied. "All of our problems come down to you,"
"All of them, huh?" Zuko glared at her. "And you're just a perfectly innocent little girl?"
"I don't know about little, but other than that, it's pretty accurate." Azula agreed with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"There's no point talking to you," Zuko decided.
"Oh, and why's that?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Forget it,"
"Why should I? Go on, Zuko, you have my curiosity now. Why is there no point in talking to me?"
"Ask Harry, he realised it as well, obviously, or he would never have left." He said, glaring at her once more. "Keep it up, Azula, maybe Harry won't be the only one that leaves you soon."
"What in Agni's name is your problem?!" Azula demanded. "Why are you acting -"
"Why are you acting like you hadn't just tried to kill me?!" Zuko cut her off. "I'm your brother, aren't I?!"
"What?! Of course, you are but - "
"But what?!" Zuko cut her off. "I'm sorry I'm not as perfect as you Azula, I'm sorry I wasn't born a damn prodigy! I'm sorry that Dad would have been happier if I was never born and you were his only child! I'm sorry that no matter what I do, I'll never be good enough for any of you! I'm sorry you'd prefer me dead than trying to get along with me!"
"Zuko...I...I'm -"
"Forget it,"
"But I just -"
"I said forget it,"
"Fine,"
They rode in silence.
"So, can you suggest any good Earth Kingdom food for us to try?" Azula asked as they walked around the village, picking up the supplies that Uncle Iroh had tasked them with.
She did not appreciate having to go and buy some supplies, having never done anything like this in her life. She had people for that, after all. Besides, she was not good at haggling and haggling apparently became very necessary, the shop keepers were able to recognise that they weren't local and a few of them tried to charge them extra. She hadn't even realised that at first, having never brought anything once in her life, as far as she had known the prices had been more than fair, though Zuko was quick to realise that they were being overcharged. Apparently, all that time he spent going around the world had paid off somewhat.
Realising that they were being taken advantage of, she wanted to use her extremely effective and very fun method of threatening the shopkeepers but Zuko proved that wasn't necessary as he began debating (sometimes arguing) with the shopkeepers for decent prices. Sure, it was longer than her way but she couldn't deny it produced results.
"Most of it's good," Zuko shrugged, he had chosen to only respond to her with the minimal amount of words possible, evidently he was still mad at her. She pursed her lips but didn't say anything else as they stopped at one last shop, their bags were nearly full, mostly with what appeared to be various different bits of food, perhaps Iroh intended to have the chefs make them something tasty as a reward for not killing each other. "Could I get some water, two bags of feed and something hot to eat for the both of us?" He said, handing the shopkeeper a few coins.
"Sure thing, boss, the food menu's here," He said, handing Zuko the menu.
"I'll take the third one," Zuko said after a brief read before offering it to Azula.
"Same," She said, not even bothering to look at it.
"Be right back," The man said before heading into the back of his shop.
"You didn't even look at the menu," Zuko pointed out.
"Whatever you like, I'm sure I will like, or at the very least I'll be able to stomach it until we can get to the ship and have some good, proper Fire Nation food." She replied. "You must miss it? The food, I mean,"
"Hmm," Zuko grunted, not saying more.
"Am I going to get anything of substance from you today or are you just going to limit yourself to grunts and single sentences?" She asked, annoyed.
"Hmm," Zuko grunted again.
She opened her mouth to reply when she heard running, a small child was running in their direction, the boy appeared to be roughly about eight years old, dressed in horrible-looking clothes that even she could tell were worn and old. In his hands was a half-eaten piece of bread. As the boy got near she heard shouts a small distance behind him, it didn't take her long to realise that the boy wasn't running towards her, rather he was running away from someone. As he got near the boy tripped and nearly fell face-first onto the ground, he probably would have if she had not stretched her leg out, his chest landed on her shin and foot. She managed to keep him up long enough for him to get on his feet.
"Come here brat!" A voice yelled.
"In here, go!" Zuko hissed, picking the boy up and all but tossing him on the other side of the shop counter.
"Hey!" The shouting voice got near, she saw it was a Fire Nation soldier, not one she recognised, meaning he likely wasn't close to anyone important. Any people nearby had quickly ducked their heads down or run off as quickly as they could out of sight as if this lone soldier was the Fire Lord himself. He pushed over a scrawny old woman and snarled at a few other villagers before stopping in front of them. "You two!" He growled. "You see a little boy running up here?! Little bastard stole my bread!"
"He ran that way," Zuko said, pointing in the opposite direction, angling his head down so that his scar was hidden by his hat.
"The boy can't be that quick, can he?" The guard questioned. "You're lying to me!"
"He went that way and turned a corner two shops up," Azula added, honestly her brother was such a bad liar. Not that she really felt there was any need to lie, it was just a lone soldier, what was he going to do? She knew they couldn't reveal themselves, the last thing they needed was word of Fire Nation loyalty mingling amongst common Earth villages, but they could still handle this soldier easily enough. The soldier turned to her, his eyes widened for a brief moment before a silly smirk appeared on his face, he brushed past Zuko and leered down at her.
"Well, hello beautiful," He licked his lips, staring her up and down, she could tell that he was mentally undressing her.
She knew not what a normal girl in this situation would do, what she would feel, how she would act. Mai would likely be less than impressed, act annoyed and if it got too much she'd threaten him with her knives. Ty Lee might flirt back if she found him interesting enough (she doubted that she would find this guy interesting), if the guy started getting too handsy then she'd just paralyse him or knock him out and then be on her way. As for her, she felt a white-hot rage that filled her up from within, urging her to unleash her strongest fire blast directly onto this guy's face before channelling lightning straight down his throat. The guy might have noticed how angry she was if he was looking at her face instead of her body.
'Don't,' Harry's voice echoed in her head. 'Stay calm, don't attract attention to yourself. Focus.'
"My sister is not available, she's engaged," Zuko cut in, glaring at the soldier.
"I don't see her future husband around, do you?" The soldier raised his hand and allowed a small fireball to appear, he held it threateningly towards Zuko. She saw her brother's hand go towards his sword and decided to step in.
"It's alright, Brother," She said sweetly, gently placing one hand on the soldier's arm while placing her other hand on his chest. "This big, strong soldier is obviously quite stressed, I am more than willing to help out," She said sultrily.
"Oh," The soldier grinned stupidly, getting rid of his fire in exchange for wrapping his arms around her waist, not realising she was the slightest bit of self-control away from vaporising him. "Is that right?"
"Of course," She purred. "Come with me, I know a nice spot for us to 'talk'." She wrapped her arms around one of his and gently dragged him away, he didn't put up any resistance and followed after her, sending a smug look at Zuko as he did so.
"You can come out, kid," Zuko told the boy once they were gone.
"I got to get out of here!" The boy said worriedly as he climbed out. "He's going to come back and..."
"Trust me, he's not coming back for you, if he comes back then he'll be far too troubled to even remember you."
"So," Azula said as she came back and found Zuko and the boy sitting at a bench, eating food, apparently the boy had taken her food, either that or Zuko had brought some for him as well. For both of their sakes, it had better be the second one. "Where's my food?" She asked, hands on her hips.
"Didn't you fill yourself by drinking all of his blood?" Zuko snorted before gesturing to some food that he had placed on the side of the bench.
"I'll have you know full well that I have never drank blood once in my life...on purpose." She sat down, placed the food on her lap and began eating, she could admit to herself that it wasn't that bad, she just wouldn't admit it to others. "So, boy," She spoke up.
"Umm...my name's Kirito,"
"I couldn't care less," She stated bluntly. "Why was the soldier chasing you?"
"I...stole his bread." He admitted, blushing as he did so.
"What would possess you to do something so stupid?" Azula couldn't help but wonder. "You do realise that if he had caught you then he would have burnt you, right?"
"And my hands," Kirito mumbled.
"What did you say?"
"They'd burn him and then cut off one of his hands," Zuko cut in, looking quite solemn. "They remove a hand or a foot to serve as a lesson, after that, they'd burn him to remind him and everyone else who taught that lesson." He revealed to her.
"But...why would..."
"The Fire Lord has given soldiers free reign to act as they see fit, who is going to stop them?" Zuko stared at her with a blank face. "Power corrupts all, you should know that,"
'It didn't corrupt Harry,' She wanted to say, Harry didn't do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Neither did she and she was definitely powerful, she trained non-stop and performed all the tasks her father instructed her to do. She was hardly doing anything and everything she wanted, despite what people thought.
"They took my grandpa," Kirito revealed, sniffing with his little nose. "It was just him, me and my sister left. They caught him earthbending and took him away, now it's just me and my sister."
"Where is she?" Azula frowned.
"Working," He shrugged. "She's trying to make money but we've barely got any left, whenever we make some the soldiers come and take it away."
"Soldier tax," Zuko began explaining, evidently she had looked somewhat confused. "They go to villages and charge everyone there a tax for their 'protection', if the people don't pay then they might just be unlucky enough to find their homes and shops up in flames."
"They're extorting them," Azula understood. "The money they take, it goes somewhere to help fund the Fire Nation?"
"Some of it might if the soldier's feeling generous, but no," Zuko shook his head.
"They keep it for themselves," Little Kirito scowled. "And we can't do anything about it. If we fight back then they kill us or lock us away, if we don't fight back then take all of our stuff and bully us."
"The Fire Nation is supposed to be here to make things better," Azula couldn't help but frown.
"Well, they don't!" Kirito snapped at her, tears dripping from his eyes. "They make things worse, that's all they ever do is make things things worse. All of our lives are horrible because of them! Look at him," He pointed to Zuko. "I bet it was a firebender that did that to his face, right?" A low growl escaped from Zuko as he looked away from the both of them. "That's all they do! They take and burn whatever they want! I hate them! I hate them all! The whole world would be better without them! If it wasn't for them then I'd have my grandpa! My parents! My sister wouldn't have to work all day! They ruin everything!" He cried, his tears dropping into his food.
Azula stared at him, unsure what to say, comforting people was never her strong suit, she was typically the one that made people cry. She looked at Zuko, but he didn't say anything, he didn't need to, she knew that he would not be defending the Fire Nation.
"It'll get better though!" Kirito coughed before wiping his face with his ratty arm sleeve, a watery smile appeared on his young face. "You've heard? Haven't you? The Avatar is back! He'll save us all! And the Emerald Dragon's with him! He'll burn down all of the Fire Nation!" He laughed giddily. "He'll burn them all down and kill them all!"
Azula knew that Zuko wasn't going to say anything as they rode back, and that was fine, she didn't particularly want to talk at the moment as she was digesting what the boy - Kirito - had told her. Her whole life, she was told that the Fire Nation, the strongest and greatest nation in the world, was there to help people, to improve the world. That was its purpose. They would defeat those who rebelled against her and then the world would be alright. People would resist and complain, she knew that, she was told that, but whenever she thought about that she expected that to mean disgusting old politicians and battle-hardened generals, not little children.
For her, the most confusing part was why she cared at all. She didn't know the boy, the boy had nothing to do with her, she would likely never ever see him again. She would likely not know when or how he died, she didn't even know his last name and would probably soon forget his first. He was just a common little grubby thief who had dared to steal from a Fire Nation soldier (though that man was a humongous asshole, truth be told).
'Why the hell do you care about some little brat?' She wondered.
'Who cares?'
'You care,'
'I don't care!'
"What's that?" Zuko asked suddenly. She looked to her right, past Zuko's shoulder and saw what appeared to be a burnt pile of ash, ash that appeared to be leading somewhere. "What are you doing?"
"Checking it out," Azula replied, already following down the path.
"You haven't had enough drama for one day?" Zuko huffed before directing his ostrich horse to follow her.
"Zuko," Azula said suddenly. "About earlier, I just -"
"Forget it,"
"Zuko, I'm just trying to - "
"I said forget it,"
"But I really just - "
"Azula, I'm not in the mood for - "
"I'm sorry!" She said quickly, cutting him off, and shocking him enough for him to stare at her. "I'm sorry...really...I mean it."
"You...you've never apologised to me," He gaped at her. "Never meant it at least."
"I never tried to shoot you with lightning before, not that you haven't made it tempting in the past," She said with a small shake of her head. "Truth be told, I'm slightly envious of you."
"Of me?!"
"Slightly," Azula said firmly. "You...I surpass you in many things, but...you're heart, it's better than mine. You understand what's right and what's wrong, I never did. I had to rely on Harry for that, but now he's gone, and I can't tell the difference anymore." She said with a slight growl.
"You think I can?" Zuko asked softly.
"Better than me at least," She said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm just like you said, a wackjob. A crazy bitch, a problem child, a mad girl and all of the crap you called me."
"Queen bitch, lunatic, daddy's psychopath," Zuko listed. "Psycho-princess, sanity-reject -"
"Yeah, all of them," Azula rolled her eyes. "That's one part you have me beat on at least."
"Do I?" Zuko snorted. "I barely know right from wrong myself anymore, the Fire Nation is supposed to be good. The Fire Nation are the ones that terrorise these villages, it was our own father who burnt this reminder onto my face. What's wrong? I'm still wondering, I guess we both need Harry with us. He always knew right from wrong, even when we didn't."
"Yeah, I suppose," Azula agreed with a small sigh, they followed the trail for another twenty seconds or so before stopping. "Zuko, do you see what I am seeing?"
"It's hard not to," He gulped.
Standing in front of them was what appeared to be a large wasteland of black ash. Broken and blackened piles of wood suggested that there might have at one point been a village with plenty of buildings here, whatever happened to the buildings had probably also been the same thing that happened to the ash-covered skeletons, was that ash or had they just been burnt that colour? Neither of them wanted to get close enough to find out, though for Azula it was more because of hygiene than anything else. The number of skeletons was definitely in the double digits at least. Rat-Vultures flew away from the scene, apparently even they realised that there was nothing here worth feeding on.
"What happened here?" Zuko wondered.
"I have a pretty good guess," Azula frowned, eyes narrowing on the only thing in the area that was not burnt, a wooden sign painted with a green-coloured dragon.