ultraviolence | avatar, the last airbender

07

*flashback, 6 years prior*

☼

KIARA ALWAYS ENJOYED VISITING THE PALACE. The palace was pretty in the spring time. Although Kiara's house was quite nice, it was only a townhouse in the royal city. The palace was much more grand. She especially enjoyed sitting in the palace garden and soaking up the sun's rays. Kiara noticed that Zuko's younger sister, Azula, didn't appreciate its beauty the way she did.

Azula was the Fire Nation princess. However, unlike Zuko, Azula had a tendency to abuse her title more often. The two girls practically grew up together because of Kiara's father's connection with Firelord Ozai. Since Kiara's father was an admiral of the Fire Nation army, he worked closely with the Firelord. Kiara wondered half the time if she even considered Azula a friend.

Azula was usually blunt and sometimes rude to her, choosing to poke fun at Kiara rather than be a normal friend. She was very controlling, often throwing a temper tantrum if things didn't go exactly her way. Kiara would consider her friends being Ty Lee and Mai, the daughters of noblemen. They all attended the Royal Fire Academy together, naturally becoming friends because of their family's connections. Part of Kiara was scared of Azula. Knowing Azula's rashness and how impulsive she could be, Kiara knew it was better to keep Azula happy and on her good side rather than angry with her. Kiara knew of how much power Azula had, so it was better to appease her than fight her.

"Kiara! Can I show you a new trick I learned?" Kiara heard Ty Lee's cheerful voice say.

Kiara was pulled from her thoughts. She sat with her back against a tree. making a chain full of dandelions. "Knock yourself out," Kiara said with a small smile.

Ty Lee beamed. She walked forward, spreading her arms out. She did two backhand springs and a flip, but her landing was a bit wobbly. Kiara clapped her hands. "That was good, Ty Lee," She complimented.

"Watch me do it, Kiara," Azula demanded, suddenly standing up from where she was sitting next to Kiara. She attempted the same trick, but fell after she landed. Azula groaned and kicked the grass from frustration.

Ty Lee stood up again. "I'm going to try again," She said. She attempted the tricks again and executed it flawlessly. Ty Lee smiled, happy that she was able to do the trick without any mistakes. Azula frowned, standing up and pushing Ty Lee to the ground. Kiara didn't know why Azula would do that. She assumed it was because Azula was jealous that Ty Lee did the trick better than she did. Kiara held back a sigh. Azula always had to be the best one. Azula put her hands on her stomach and laughed. Ty Lee turned over and stuck out her bottom lip. "Azula!" She said in a disappointed voice.

Kiara heard shuffling nearby. She looked to her right and saw Zuko and his mother walking back towards the palace. A faint blush tinted Kiara's cheeks as she looked away. She's always had a little crush on Zuko. Maybe it was because he was the Fire Nation's prince, or because Kiara always thought that he was cute. Perhaps that was why she liked going to the palace the most, so she could steal a few glances at Zuko. She kept her crush hidden most of the time because Azula would probably be furious with her if she knew. Kiara and Zuko practically grew up together, but they weren't really friends. Zuko always saw her as his little sister's friend. Kiara knew that Zuko didn't and probably would never look at her the way that she wanted him to.

"Watch this," She heard Azula whisper quickly to Ty Lee before running over to her mother. "Mom, can you make Zuko play with us?" She asked politely. "We need a fifth person to play a game."

"I am not cartwheeling," Zuko grumbled. "I don't want to play with you."

Kiara locked eyes with Zuko but quickly looked away. She tried her best to hear what Azula and her brother were arguing about. Kiara assumed that Azula won the argument, as she saw out of her peripheral vision that Zuko and Azula were approaching. Her heart started to flutter. She quickly readjusted her hair and took a deep breath.

"I want to play a game," Azula declared. Zuko stood next to her with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What game?" Mai asked.

"A new one," Azula said. She had that look in her eye that she was plotting something. Azula walked over to the apple tree Kiara was sitting under and plucked one off the bottom branch. Azula turned to Kiara. "Kiara will go first," She smirked. Kiara stood up. Azula grabbed her by the wrist and led her over to the fountain. "Now what you try to do is knock the apple off the other person's head, like this," She said, placing the apple on top of Kiara's head. Kiara looked really confused, as she's never seen a game where she would have to balance fruit on her head.

Azula suddenly shot a blast of fire at Kiara's head. It caught the top of the apple on fire. Kiara started to feel the heat get closer and closer to her scalp as the fire consumed the apple. Zuko's eyes widened. Before she knew it, Zuko was running at her at full speed. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and threw the both of them into the fountain. Kiara landed in the water with Zuko on top of her. Her hair and clothes were now completely soaked, just like Zuko's.

"Aw, look at how cute they are!" Azula mocked them. Kiara wanted to roll her eyes. Now she knew why Azula wanted to play the game: to embarrass her. And it totally worked. Kiara sat up, trying to hold back tears as she pushed her long wet hair out of her face.

Zuko stood up, annoyed at the entire situation. Kiara did as well. "What is wrong with you? We could have hit the turtle ducks!" He shouted at Azula. Kiara looked to her left and saw a few turtle ducklings that were swimming in the fountain.

"Oh, these ones?" Azula asked. Suddenly, took a nearby rock and threw it at the ducklings. Zuko and Kiara gasped. Two of the turtle ducks resurfaced, but one of them didn't at first. The water around it was stained red. Kiara immediately bent down and scooped up the duckling with her hand and placed it on the edge of the fountain. It wasn't dead but severely injured. It's wing was definitely broken. It was a sad sight to see. She wished she had healing powers so that the duck wouldn't be in pain anymore.

Zuko turned his head away from them. At first Kiara didn't know why he was acting so strange. Then, she noticed tears that made his amber eyes sparkle. She could have sworn she saw one roll down his cheek before he aggressively wiped his face. Her heart sank. She didn't know that Zuko would be so upset over the turtle duckling being injured. It made her think that under that tough exterior, he had a bleeding heart. No one else noticed, but she did.

Zuko shook his head and stormed away fast, not allowing anybody to look at his face. "Girls are crazy!" He shouted.

Kiara glanced down at the turtle duckling. "It's injured," She said dismally. Kiara didn't even care anymore about her clothes being soaked. She just didn't know why Azula would purposefully hurt an innocent animal. Kiara looked up at Azula. "Why would you do that?"

Azula shrugged, giggling. "Maybe this will teach the turtle ducks a lesson to stop swimming in the fountain," She joked. Kiara didn't laugh. She didn't find the joke funny at all.

Kiara stood up, holding the injured duck in her hand, cradling it close to her chest. "I'm going home," She said flatly, wading through the fountain and stepping out. Kiara listened as her shoes squished the whole way back to her house.