Burning Pile

[erza155]

Written for: Femslash February, 2021

Fandom: Avatar The Last Airbender

Pairing: Azula x Katara

Characters:

Additional notes:
Last edited February 26 2021
Keep tagged '0A'

Date Archived: September 16 2023
 

Day 5 Azula/Katara Orange

Title: Burning Pile

Azula/Katara Burning pile [https://genius.com/Mother-mother-burning-pile-lyrics]

[It goes, all my troubles on a burning pile

All lit up and I start to smile

If I catch fire then I'll change my aim

Throw my troubles at the pearly gates]
 

Azula had always loved the color orange. But much like everything else in her life, she had to keep it hidden. And it was fine. It was ok. She's proud of her blue flames, but warmth comes orange and she has always known that.

 

The water tribe savage looks **beautiful** with the orange glow of the flames reflecting in her eyes. She has her teeth bared and she looks like she's going to try bashing Azula's head in with her bare fist. Azula would honestly love to see her try. It obviously wouldn't hurt her, but she wants to see how the water tribe savage *moves*. She takes these lumbering steps as if she's expecting snow to meet her knees. And yet, she is as swift as the water she commands. Azula cannot help but be intrigued.

 

This time it wasn't Azula who lit the flames (a rare occasion really, so rare that they should perhaps hold feasts when it happens) yet she still benefits from their warmth. She breathes in the smell of smoke and of fire dominating all and she is... not at peace, but she knows where she is and what she has to do.

 

She knows she's not in the imperial palace because the flames there smell different. Caustic and acrid, it had nearly driven her mad. She *recognizes* the smell. Some part of her hindbrain is screaming about it, but Azula is always in control and she will not give in to baseless fear. Humans burn the same, Azula knows from copious experience. So whatever is going on in the imperial palace that her father is making sure to keep it away from her, it can't be good. And Azula will not be a victim of circumstance due to ignorance. Azula will not be a victim to anything.

 

Ok, so canon adjacent au where Azula is like Ozai is crazy cause he's leaned into some human experiment shit and she doesn't want to be the next 'project' [The natural next step for all evolved firebenders, her father had said. Our greatness and might will increase and prosper even more. Azula doesn't even think about the number of their citizens he must have burned before he got satisfactory results. And she knows his standards, what he considers satisfactory is a weapon that when backfires will kill 100 allies rather than 1,000 allies. Plus, Azula doesn't think about the little people. She's too busy carving out her place in the world.]

 

Maybe this is a sci fi AU where benders are still a thing, just spread across planets on a Federation system (like in star trek) and Ozai is a conquering warlord from The Caldera planet whereupon sits the seat of power that governs firebenders, and colonies under their Jurisdiction. Maybe Azula's line are like Klingons in that they are war mongering nomads with one solid seat of power. Katara's bloodline is like Vulcan types of ancient, but they didn't really do the whole record keeping thing considering they were too busy trying to survive a fucking ice planet. Plus she has some 'gifts' cause her grandmother gave her some recessive genes from the Northern coalition of Waterbenders. Everyone has a lot of genetic diversity and a little bit of tweaking to certain bloodlines here and there, and Bada Bing Bada Boom, evolution. [It would be so fucking hilarious to call Azula's bloodline The Pale Ones or The Pale Death Bringers as long as it involves the word 'Pale' because they're like obnoxiously white😂😂😂😂]

 

Check star trek species database

Scrapped

~~Maybe modern AU where Azula has burned a lot of bridges and she's now trying to reach out but there isn't anyone who will help her, so she's internally falling apart~~