Hello! This is my first serious Avatar fic, so please, tell me how it is. Thanks!

Azula always lies.

It didn't matter how many times he told himself this, Zuko always believed her when she lied. Because he remembered. He remembered a time before their rivalry got out of hand, a time when it felt like his family all got along and loved each other. A time when she always told the truth.

A time when she loved him.

She learned to bend at four and her flames were blue by six, but before their father took interest in her, she had always followed Zuko around like a lost turtle-duck. They were best friends back then, they were inseparable.

And he was happy.

He didn't know exactly when it happened, but one day he and his mother had come back from a walk and Azula was... Different. The mischievous glint in her eyes were gone, and it was replaced by something harsher, meaner.

She hadn't played with him that day.

By the time Zuko was able to summon sparks, Azula had been bending for years. Their father, who had rejoiced Azula's first flame, barely looked Zuko's way at his. Azula had smirked at him from across the hall that day. Neither of them knew it at the time, but it was this moment that would be the spark that caused the inferno of their rivalry. Gone was his innocent little sister, gone was her content older brother.

Someone else had taken their places.

Their relationship had never improved since. When their mother disappeared, Zuko had felt lost and cried for days. Azula never cried. She never even blinked.

Never that he saw.

She always had trouble showing her emotions. When her mother died, she hadn't been sad like Zuko. Her brother had practically worshiped the ground Ursa walked on. She was never that close to her. She had wanted to cry, but father said that crying is for the weak.

She wasn't weak.

She was strong. Stronger than Zuko, and she would prove it to everyone. She was a better bender; her flames had been blue since she was six, and she could generate lightning. She was better than him at everything, but everyone liked him better.

She didn't understand.

Mai and Ty Lee, the only people she had ever trusted, betrayed her for her brother. She felt her world crack. They were her friends, and they never should have left. She was smarter than Zuko, she was faster than Zuko, she was stronger than Zuko,

She was lonely.

After the Agni Kai, Azula felt the whole world crash down around her. Father was defeated, Zuko was Firelord, and she was trapped. Trapped in a prison, an asylum,

Trapped in her own mind.

And she didn't know how to get out.

I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review to tell me how I did!