Tabula Rasa (or a villain learns to be a hero)

Summary: She'll try to be a hero. Just this once. /or, in which Princess Azula of the Fire Nation dies and lives again in another world, while simultaneously trying not to murder everyone in sight. Dimension-travel!Azula. Yes, you've read that right.

Warning(s): Our lead character's unstable mind (which is entirely canon btw)

Fun Fact: In the Avatar world, most of their animals are hybrids of two different types.

III.

.

.

.

be a good girl and smile for them, honey

(or, alternative title: the beginning of a long-lasting rivalry)

.

.

.

"There. Stand there. Smile, Yachiyo!"

She's in front of the school gates, wearing her nursery-school clothes and carrying her bright red backpack on her back. Semi-amused glances from passing onlookers and fellow parents are aimed at the lively mother and her frowning daughter.

She doesn't even try to feel embarrassed. Her head slightly strains with pain from the too-tight pigtails that her mother did to her hair-she's going to take off her stupid hairstyle the first chance she gets-and Azula's just so tired and weary already, she just wants the day to be over with.

And so she smiles, even though it looks forced and unnatural. Apparently Yukimura Yui doesn't care and just keeps snapping away with her camera.

She poses for five more minutes in the exact same position and when she's had enough, blue fire starts to tingle in her fingertips, fully prepared to use it on her annoying mother. Thankfully, Yui finally stops and takes Azula's hand to guide her to her new classroom.

The nursery school-Azula didn't bother to remember its name-looks a bit wide from the outside but is actually smaller on the inside. It doesn't take too long for them to find her room. The transparent glass entrance door looks as imposing as it shouldn't be. She can already see the tiny heads of plenty of children.

There were so many brats inside.

She's never liked children. Never found them cute, never wanted to have them.

"Goodbye, Yachiyo," Yui says to her, eyes starting to tear up. Azula resists the urge to roll her eyes. "You have your lunchbox? Good. I made your favorite: fried shrimp. There's ketchup in the small container, if you'd like."

"Okay."

"My baby girl's all grown up," she sniffs. "I can't believe you're old enough to go to school. Time really flies so fast."

It's just a stupid school for peasant brats.

"Are you going to be alright here?"

"It's fine, Mom. I can manage by myself."

Her mother looks as though she's the one who's going to nursery school, not Azula. She extends her arms out to hug her daughter, and Azula reluctantly complies. They hug awkwardly for half a minute until Yui pulls away and Azula sighs with hidden relief.

"Bye Yachiyo."

"Bye Mom." Good grief.

Azula stares at her mother until she disappears from view; taking a deep breath, she turns around and braces herself as she pushes open the door.

Heads turn to glance at the new arrival.

Oh joy.

"Yachiyo-chan, dear, why don't you play with Rei and the others?"

Azula tries her best to hide her scowl. Instead, she gives her pseudo-I'm-a-clueless-little-girl smile and turns her head up to look at Ms. Fujioka with her big adorable baby eyes.

"I'm okay, Ms. Fujioka. I'll just play with them later. Thank you, Ms. Fujioka," she says, loathing the way she needs to act just to make sure that she doesn't seem too off-putting.

Her nursery teacher gives her a look which she thinks is meant to be understanding, and then pats Azula's cheek like the stupid little toddler she is. "What a polite little girl," the blasted woman murmurs, and Azula barely, barely restrains herself from setting the peasant's face on fire, for even daring to touch her.

"Okay. Don't be shy to play with your classmates, Yachiyo-chan. We're all friends here."

No, we're not, you cretin.

The peasant smiles before finally letting go of her cheek and moving on to grace her fellow schoolmates with her annoying presence.

Which was a good thing, since Azula was literally just moments away from committing homicide.

Azula takes a moment to scan her surroundings, trying to filter out the irritating noise of children in her brain. Takes a moment to register the harsh, cruel reality she's in.

Nursery school.

She's in nursery school.

Stuck with a bunch of drooling, thumb-sucking, mindless little midgets-most of whom haven't even gone passed the toddler phase-for almost a whole day. She, a grown woman in a child's body.

What.

It would have been funny if it wasn't so sad.

She didn't want to be here. She wanted to disappear.

It wasn't enough that she had to endure the torture of being stuck in a baby's body. Now she had to interact with a bunch of preschooler brats, too?

It was too much. By hook or by crook, she was getting out of this toddler hellhole, the Yukimuras be damned-

"Yachiyo!"

Her head instantly turns towards the direction of the voice, and sees two girls running towards her.

"Yachiyo," a girl with short black hair chirps. "You're Yachiyo, right? That's a pretty name! Let's be friends!"

Thanks, but let's not.

"Come on, play with us," the girl besides her says. "Let's play together."

I'm sorry, but I'd rather not.

And then she grabs Azula's arm like its nothing, and it's been three hours since she's been in this stupid kindergarten school and she already feels like screaming.

The headband-wearing brat is the second person to have touched her besides their dumb advisor, and it makes her skin crawl. She'd already-reluctantly-admitted defeat in preventing Yui from placing her grubby hands on her, but she hadn't truly anticipated the danger of being surrounded by dirty peasants and idiots alike.

She stares at the two brats in front of her, and decides that committing mass murder isn't worth the disaster that could possibly ensue, so she lets them drag her away to who-knows-where.

It's recess time, so they get to play at the playground outside. The sun is blaring hot, but her classmates are all just a couple of dumb, energetic children, so they don't care about the heat.

The two girls leading her runs towards a secluded area near the shade of a tree hovering above. Azula immediately snatches her arm away and tries to wipe the excess sweat and possible drool or god-knows-what that the stupid brat had on her hand.

"This can be our secret hiding place," short-hair whispers in an exaggerated manner. "Don't tell anyone about this place, Hiyori, Yachiyo."

The headband-brat-Hiyori-nods earnestly and Azula refrains from rolling her eyes in the back of her head.

"What's your name?" she asks short-hair instead. It was protocol to know a possible subordinate's information.

The girl blinks, a shy smile forming on her gap-toothed face.

"Rei," the girl answers. "But my full name is Terizawa Reiko. Rei's also my name."

"I'm Hiyori! Hiyori Minami!"

Azula hums in response. "Well, my name is Yukimura Yachiyo. My first name is Yachiyo," she says, even though saying her new accursed name makes bile rise up her throat. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"What's "pleasure" mean?" Hiyori asks, and Azula almost palms her face in growing exasperation.

"Nevermind."

"Let's play house! I'll be the mama!"

"I don't want to be the daddy! It has to be a boy."

"I don't want a boy playing with us! Boys are yuck."

Azula sighs. "Girls, girls…how about let's play a different game then? How about tag?"

Rei and Hiyori look at each other, and they seem to make a mutual silent decision. Azula's almost impressed.

"Okay!" They yell in unison, and Azula grins. Now is her chance to escape.

"Who wants to be it?"

"I don't want to be it!"

"I also don't want to be it."

They stare at Yachiyo. "Do you want to be it?"

Azula smiles, sharp and deadly. "Sure."

Shortly after, she hears their screeching as they try to find and claim a place to hide away from her, and she shakes her head in amusement. She could easily find them, with all the noise and racket they were making.

But she won't. Because she's not playing their dumb kiddy game.

Instead, she also finds a place where she can stay and hide, far away from everyone.

There's a small grove area near the school gates, a place everyone avoids because of a rumor of a child getting spirited away when he went there once. Supposedly, a malicious ghost was there, waiting for children to take away in order to devour their souls.

What a stupid rumor. Ghost or not, she doesn't care. She's going to claim the place as her own.

Thankfully, it's a bit far from where the other children are playing at, and Ms. Fujioka's nowhere in sight. There's a cluster of trees which can help her hide from plain view. For some reason, the entire area is completely silent except for the faint rustling of trees. No one's around. Good.

Azula hunches down and slowly opens her right palm. She breaths in, breaths out, and remembers how she had first summoned her fire, the orange tinged with cerulean blue, proud and alive. She had been five then. She's four now (again) but she knows she can do it again. She's descended from Fire Nation royalty; the blood of Sozin runs in her veins, and she can do it.

There's a spark, small but there, and then a bigger one. A flicker of blue fading in the space of air.

The glow from the fire shines on her face.

Breath in, breath out.

The fire sitting on her palm grows large, larger, until it grows so large it reaches three-feet high, and she marvels at it, doesn't even feel the sting on her skin-

"Yachiyo! Yachiyo, where are you? Ms. Fujioka says class is starting, she says you should go back to the class-aaahhhhh!"

She whirls around and sees Rei staring at her face with wide eyes. The fire patiently sits on the palm of her hand, waiting for her command.

"Yachiyo…"

Azula waits for another scream of terror.

"…that's so cool!"

She blinks, surprised. The blue flame dies down a bit, lowering into a feet tall, a hint of it weaning into smoke and wafting into the open air.

Rei bounces up to her, eyes gleaming. "You never said you already had your quirk! That's so cool!"

Why? Do I need to?

It's not even a quirk.

Something rustles, and Hiyori pokes her head in. "That was mean! You didn't even try to find us…ohisthatyourquirk?"

Azula blinks some more. That wasn't the response she was expecting. They weren't looking at her in fear. They were impressed.

"It's so pretty! And scary!"

"Can I touch it? Will it burn me?"

"You want to try?" she says, amused.

The rule goes, if you have one person staring at a spot on the ground, you're a weirdo. If you have two, there must at least be something slightly interesting, and others will surely stop to see what you're looking at. In that vein, more of their schoolmates flocked to them like hungry lion-vultures, their arrival announced by more rustling.

Pretty soon, there's a crowd of chaotic children swarming around her.

"Wow! She's just like Endeavor!"

"He's my favorite hero!"

"That's awesome!"

"It's unfair! I want to have my quirk soon!"

"Make it bigger! Make it bigger!"

In spite of herself, Azula smiles.

"Rei, Yachiyo, where are you? What are you doing here?"

Ms. Fujioka appears behind them, a stern expression on her tired face. When her eyes land on Yachiyo, it widens into large saucers.

"Yachiyo…is that your quirk?"

"I think so," Azula mumbles, even though she's cursing everyone in her head for interrupting her solitude.

"Wow," her teacher breaths out. And grins.

"You're just like Endeavor. Fire's also his quirk, you know…"

.

.

.

"How was your first day, sweetie?"

Azula stops playing with her dinner and stares at her mother's inquisitive eyes.

"How was it? Well," she starts, "I made two new friends today, and the whole class discovered my quirk. They said it was amazing."

Yui beams at her as she finishes chewing her fruit salad. "That's good! I'm so proud of you, Yachiyo. What are your friends' names?"

"Hiyori and Rei. Anyway,"-Enough about that nursery school, Azula thinks-she mulls over another thought, thinks about how she should phrase it. Yui gives her a share of the fruit salad and Azula politely says no, I'm already full, before she lets her voice turn into a curious tone.

"How can a person become a registered hero?" she blurts out-of-the-blue, and her clumsy new mother almost accidentally drops the pitcher of water on her hand, startled.

Her baffled mother's brown eyes widen in surprise. "Why? Why are you asking?"

"Just curious, Mommy."

Yui sighs and sets her spoon down. "To tell you the truth, sweetie-I don't really know. I suppose you have to apply to a hero agency first-I'm not sure you know what that means-before doing other complicated stuff. I'm not really the right person to ask this-your daddy, he wanted to be a hero once. You can ask him about that."

"You weren't interested in becoming a hero?" Azula genuinely asks.

"Once. I thought of becoming a hero before. I mean, everyone wanted to be a hero, so-" Yui stops herself, frown in place. "Anyway, that's not important. Yachiyo…you want to be a hero, don't you?"

Azula morphs her expression into an undistinguishable one. "I just think it's very interesting."

Silence reigns for a few seconds, and then Yui levels her apprehensive gaze at her. "I'd say being a hero is a noble, admirable thing," she says, slowly, carefully, as if testing the words on her tongue. "I'm sure most children your age think that it's the coolest thing ever. And I'm sure any parent would say that it's the best job in the world. But I'm only going to tell you this because you're my intelligent little girl, and I know you'll try to understand when I say that I don't think being a hero is good for you."

"Why?"

"Because it's dangerous, Yachiyo. Being a hero means risking your life on the line every single time you're on the job. It means…it means dying, Yachiyo. Getting hurt in painful ways. You're only four, so you don't really truly understand the gravity of it all."

Oh, you have no idea.

"Okay," Azula says. "And I do understand."

"Yachiyo, baby, I'm sorry for being too serious on you. It's just…when I think of you being in danger, I just want to cry. You don't want your mommy to be sad, do you?" Yui stands up and walks over to her daughter before pulling her into a hug. Azula grimaces.

"But, if you truly want to be one, I won't stop you. You're young, so you have plenty more years to think about it."

"I just…." I just wanted a headstart on how to begin my plan of becoming a famous hero. "I'm sorry for making you sad."

"It's alright; I should be the one who's sorry, baby," Yui sniffles pathetically. "Turning a simple question into something like…god, your mama's such a drama queen sometimes."

"Sweetie, why do you want to become a hero so badly in the first place, anyway?"

Because it might be my only chance of satisfying those bastards up there. Because even someone like me wants to go to heaven.

"That strong man named Endeavor just seemed so cool," is what she says instead.

"Endeavor, huh," Yui mumbles. "He's good, but my favorite is All Might."

The rest of their conversation is diverted unto more mundane topics, much to Azula's disappointment and frustration.

When her father comes home, she asks him the same question.

"You want to be a hero, dearie?"

Azula doesn't even bother to reply; she just shrugs, and pouts dimly, like a child being asked if he just broke the expensive vase.

Arima chuckles. "You're really your father's little girl. Well, the first thing to do before everything else is to enroll in a good, respectable hero-nurturing school. One that helps hone and develop a person's skills in using his or her quirk."

Azula nods; she decides on that moment forth that she likes this man more than her new mother simply because he treats her seriously, not like an idiot.

"Man, I could still remember the day when I got accepted into U.A. after graduating from junior high school. Happiest day of my life, before, you know, I married your beautiful mother. Don't tell her that, though," Arima playfully says.

"U.A?"

"U.A High. It's a school for aspiring heroes, and a rather hard school to get into, mind you. I was so proud when they accepted me. Not that it did me any good in the long run," her father gives a self-depreciating laugh.

She had to enroll in some school like that? Azula frowns, mind in deep thought.

The official Japanese school system was composed of a compulsory education spanning a total of nine years, (after nursery school) from grades one to nine, typically starting from the young age of seven: six years at elementary school to complete one's primary education and three years at junior high school. Three more years of secondary education would be spent at high school after junior high (by then, she'd already be at least eighteen years old). A grand total of twelve long years.

Twelve more years of studying, of being forced to learn alongside snot-nosed brats and interact with them.

Agni help her.

"I ended up in the General Studies course. That's where most potential sidekicks end up in. Of course, it didn't surprise me; my quirk's not exactly one for combat or for saving people literally. I wanted to be in the Hero course, but you can't always have what you want," Arima continues, already lost in a sea of memories.

"Of course, you can skip all that and just apply to an agency and expect that they'll be able to see your potential, but where's the fun in that? Preparing to be a hero is half the fun, I think," he says, and pauses. "I got lost in my thoughts there, little lady. It's just easy to talk to you."

Despite her reluctance to accept these two buffoons as her new parents, Azula feels a tiny bit of pride and warmth at those words. Fishing for compliments never came easy for her; Ozai wasn't exactly a person who'd give praises easily, and Ursa always paid more attention to Zuko, the problem child, which Azula always resented her for. And then she disappeared-banished by their father-and Azula never forgot those feelings of bubbling resentment, never had time to move past it and find out for herself on what extent she truly loved her mother.

But the Yukimuras…they were touchy-feely, maybe too much so, but…from time to time, it wasn't so bad. Sometimes-dare she say it?-it was…nice.

Did she hate them for all the wrong reasons?

Dear Agni…she was going soft.

"If you do want to become a hero, Yachiyo baby-"

And if they would just stop with the stupid names. She just wasn't used to being babied.

"-I'd say you'd make a great one."

She glances at him, astonished.

"Mom says she doesn't want me to become a hero." The words are out before she stops them, but she doesn't try to look bashful at all.

Arima goes quiet, and nods. "I understand. Being a hero's a dangerous job, after all. She's not wrong."

"But?" There was something else in that sentence.

"Yachiyo, even though you're our little genius, you're still our baby girl. You're still young, so you're not sure what you want to be in the future. But you have a great quirk, and there's a fire in you that needs to be stoked. What I mean to say is...if ever you think about becoming a hero, I'm sure you'll be able to do it, because you're you. Just be careful on the way, alright?"

He gives her a disarming smile, and Azula sees no pretention in this man. He's honest. And she starts to understand why his quirk involves being able to see and roam the dreams of people he meets.

This one, he's a dreamer, through and through.

"Dad," she says, and swallows. "I want to be a hero because I might be able to go to heaven if I become one."

The truth. She's telling him the truth.

She can at least give him this much.

Arima stares at her, an unreadable expression on his face. And then he laughs.

"Good deeds beget a good future," he says, grinning. "Let's not think about the afterlife first, sweetie. That's a long time into the future. Just enjoy life, and continue wanting to do good."

She listens, and thinks: okay.

Maybe she will.

.

.

.

.

The next day, news of her quirk spread throughout the whole school like wildfire.

She's the first ever in her entire year to manifest a quirk, and a strong one at that. The teachers whisper, she's a prodigy, that one, she's special, I heard she can already speak and read like a fourth-grader and she smirks whenever she hears it.

Well, she's not complaining. Back in her old world, she was the princess of an entire nation, and everyone was expected to bow down to the ground in respect whenever she so much as walked by their path or glanced at their direction. She's missed the feeling of everyone kissing her feet.

In her new world, she didn't have that status anymore. So, right now, everyone sucking up to her-it fills her with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

That's right. It wasn't just a feeling of entitlement; she was destined to be rightfully worshipped, in whatever world she ended up in.

School became significantly more tolerable after that.

Her classmates would aahhh and oohhh whenever blue fire would pop out from her tiny hands, or if she willed it to take various shapes and lengths. It was actually humbling, seeing the art of bending getting appreciated by all the non-benders around her, even though they mistook it for a quirk.

Ms. Fujioka has to keep order before her classroom becomes too noisy. "Everyone, please sit down and behave! I'm sure Yachiyo-chan will have time to bond and play with you all."

Azula mentally adds the teacher to her hit list.

"So, class!" their teacher announces with a smile. "Get your notebooks and your pencils. Today we're going to practice writing kanji. You're going to be helping each other out in a group of two. Your partner will be your seatmate. I'll be showing you flash cards and you'll try to guess and write the complete kanji of the picture."

Azula turns to the boy sitting beside her, not being able to remember his name when they stood in front of the class to introduce themselves one-by-one. "Hey, you," she starts, and the boy stares at her, almost shyly, unruly green (odd, she thinks, but then everything in this world is odd) hair flying around. "What's your name again?"

"My name?" the boy squeaks out. "Um…I-I'm Izuku. Midoriya Izuku."

It's annoying to try to interact with a stuttering little boy, but she manages to give him her best saccharine smile. "I'm Yachiyo," she says.

The boy stares at her some more, cheeks turning to pink. "You have a cool quirk, Yachiyo." He beams at her and then immediately reddens. He gets his notebook from his bag and flips to an empty page while sneaking glances at her. "Aren't you also going to write in your notebook?"

Azula doesn't bother to reply and turns her attention back to their teacher showing them a picture of a gray feline. "That's a cat-owl."

Izuku blinks. "Um, I think that's a tabby cat."

"No, it's a cat-owl. The drawing looks strange but I'm sure it's one."

Izuku looks confused. "Is there a thing like a cat-owl?"

"You're questioning me?"

"I-I'm not, I've just never heard of a cat-owl before…"

"Fine then. I suppose you've never heard of a catagator?"

"A what?"

Azula opens her mouth to respond, but chooses to close it. She'd forgotten that they had different kinds of animals in this world. Now she looks like the idiot between the two of them.

"Okay. You're right, it's a cat. Now write it down," she says, now irritated. Izuku looks at her nervously before slowly starting to write in big, squiggly kanji characters.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry. I don't really know how to write."

Azula sighs. "Give me your pencil. I'll write it down for you."

"What? No, it's okay-"

"Just give it to me."

He hands her his notebook immediately. Azula writes the kanji for cat in her elegant, precise penmanship, a stark contrast to the crude handwriting above it. "There."

If possible, Izuku's face turns redder, his ears also turning red. "Thanks," he mumbles in his small voice.

"You're welcome."

"Are you all done? Pencils up!"

The classroom of excited children follows, except for Azula, staring at the front with a bored expression.

"Next! What's the kanji word for this?"

Now that's something she's sure of. "A platypus-bear," she intones proudly.

"Um…Yachiyo…I think it's just a bear."

"Really? That's strange."

Izuku stares at her. And then he giggles once, before quickly covering his mouth, clamping it shut. " 'm sorry," his muffled voice says.

Okay, enough of this. She huffs and crosses her arms, turning away from him. Resists the tempting thought of burning him alive.

From the corner of her eyes, she sees Izuku look down at his hands in shame. "I'm sorry for laughing at you. I just thought it was funny."

"Well, I didn't." She hates how she's starting to sound like a sulky brat.

"I'm sorry-"

"Yachiyo-chan? Izuku-kun? Everything all right there?" Ms. Fujioka's concerned voice calls out.

"Yes Ma'am," both of them say in unison, and Izuku immediately splutters in embarrassment while she tries to tone down her glare as he fidgets awkwardly in his seat. The entire classroom is silent, looking at them.

Ms. Fujioka stares at them silently, and then continues the session.

"Okay…next up, what's the kanji word for this object?"

The bell rings when dismissal comes, and Azula instantly makes for the exit, mood already sour. But then something grabs her arm, and she almost wills her fire to come out.

It's Izuku, and he's looking down in embarrassment, afraid to meet her eyes. He lets go of her. "I want to apologize again."

Azula rolls her eyes and sighs. She's not going to act like some petty kid. It was beneath her.

"It's fine. You don't need to."

"But-"

"But nothing. I was stupid for not knowing those simple words."

The boy's eyes widen. "You're not stupid, Yachiyo! You're smart, pretty,"-his voice lowers so much on that part that she has to strain her ears to hear it-"and you're kind." Lie of the century, she thinks. "You're just like my best friend! He can already read, just like you."

"Uh-huh," Azula drawls, already disinterested. "Okay, I have to go home now. My mom's going to pick me up shortly, so-"

"Wait!" Izuku shouts, almost desperately. "Let's be friends."

What is wrong with this kid?

Azula scoffs and folds her arms. "Listen, Izuku, first off, you're not that important to me that I'd hold a grudge. Second, I'm not interested in making friends."

"B-But I want to! I don't care if you're a girl…I just think we should be friends. You're really cool and smart, and I think your flames are pretty, and they look powerful, almost like Endeavor's-but I'm not saying it makes it any less cooler, it's just-"

"You're mumbling."

"Sorry!"

How many times had he said the word "sorry"? It was putting a damper on her mood, making it even worse.

"I'm so sorry for making you mad at me! Please, Yachiyo-I'll make it up to you! Here, you can borrow my All Might figurine!" he says with a puppy-dog look in his eyes, and she almost starts to pity him. Almost.

"Did you even listen to what I just said? I said I'm not interested to be your friend, so just let me go home before I get really angry."

"But-"

"Just give it a rest, stupid Deku," a new voice says.

Azula turns around and sees a boy with a pair of eyes the color of blood. Another brat, looking almost as annoyed as her.

"Kacchan!"

The boy named Kacchan tuts and lets out a huge sigh. "You were taking so long. It's bad enough that you're such a dumb Deku, but you're also slow. It's really annoying when you make me wait for you-"

And then his eyes meet hers. They stare at each other for an awkward second, two, and Azula looks away as she adjusts the strap on her bag and ignores Izuku's cry of protest when she goes out the door.

"Hey you, pigtail girl!"

She turns around and sees the brat with red eyes and spiky hay-colored hair still staring at her. "You're Yukimura Yachiyo, right? The one with blue fire as a quirk?"

Azula tilts her head and places a hand on her hip, trying to look as petulant as she can. "Yes, that's me. Who are you?"

"Um, he's the one who I said was my best friend-"

"Shut up, Deku."

And then the unknown boy gives a cocky grin and raises his chin up, a perfect picture of an arrogant brat. "I'm Bakugou Katsuki. Don't you remember?"

Azula hates him already.

She has no time for these brats, so she puts on her fake smile and says, "It's my first time meeting you, so of course I don't remember."

The brat-Katsuki-glares at her. "We're classmates. What, you think you're so above the rest of us just because you already have your quirk that you don't even care to remember our names?"

This brat. For Agni's sake, we're all a bunch of preschoolers with the attention span of a fruit fly.

But if you ask me, I honestly couldn't care less what your name is.

But because she's feeling particularly vicious that day, she gives him a sardonic grin of her own, and says, "Pretty much."

The spiky-haired brat scowls.

Azula decides to drop her nice girl act and lets her voice turn threatening, the subtle voice she uses whenever she would try to intimidate people and get them to listen to her or else. "Listen, you peasant. You're really testing my patience. Does a little brat like you not have better things to do than pick a fight with a girl?"

Izuku backs away from her as she speaks, and the brat beside him has his mouth agape, before he closes it into a furious scowl and tries his best to glare at her, hands balled into fists.

Oh, he's angry? Good.

"You-"

"Kacchan! Please, let's try not to make her angrier."

"You siding with her, Deku?"

"No, it's not like that, let's all just be friends here-"

What an annoying pair of peasant children. They were giving her a headache. So irritating.

"Oi, Yukimura," Katsuki growls at her. "Don't call me a brat. Don't call me little-we're just the same age. You're so annoying, with that stupid look on your face as if you're better than us-"

Azula continues walking away from them, thoroughly done with the conversation. How dare those stupid brats take away a portion of her precious time? She had no time for them when she had plans, grand plans to do.

She entertains the thought of burning them alive-especially that spiky-haired brat-and hiding the bodies afterwards.

"-oi! Are you listening to me? I'm going to get my quirk soon, just wait and see, and it'll be better, cooler than yours will ever be!"

Azula doesn't try to hide her scoff and turns to give a sideways-look at the two children standing behind her. "That's nice. I'd like to see you try. Bye."

And then she's gone, leaving a fuming boy and his disheartened friend.

Katsuki makes do on his promise. His quirk reveals itself the very next day.

Like déjà vu, their classmates surround him, cooing and marveling at the tiny sparks he creates with his palms. Ms. Fujioka sings him praises, and all of them start saying how it's such a flashy quirk, how it's perfect for an aspiring hero, all except Azula, who chooses to remain in her seat and read a magazine about up-and-rising heroes for the past year instead.

She's in the middle of reading an article about the importance of female heroes when she decides to glance at the brat-who's no doubt thinking that he's the center of the world right at that very moment.

She looks up, and sees him staring at her, not at their fellow schoolmates, not at their teacher. Her.

And his eyes are gleaming with challenge.

They say bring it on.

She holds his stare, and hers say, with pleasure.

.

.

.

(She tries not to think about how much those eyes remind her of Zuzu.)

If it was even possible, the brat becomes more annoying when he discovers his quirk.

"I can create explosions with my sweat," he explains to their awestruck classmates, and he's looking so proud and smug that it makes Azula roll her eyes. A tiny bit of her whispers how hypocritical it is for her to criticize a person for taking immense pride in his abilities, but she squashes it down.

And because she finds him both irritating and amusing, she says, "That's disgusting."

Even with all her classmates' excited chatter, her voice is clearly heard over the garbled noise.

They fall silent, and Katsuki glares daggers at her, until his fans start conversing with him again, making comments about his quirk, and he chooses to bask in the attention instead of arguing with her. She smirks in her chair.

Come lunch time, and she sees him approach her, mouth already set in a scowl that doesn't nearly fit his young face, glare aimed right at her.

"What's your problem?" he says. To his back are two boys, and Azula thinks ah, the lackeys.

She would know; she had them before. Before they chose to betray her like the traitorous little fiends they were.

"What do you mean?"

"Trying to make me look bad! What, afraid you're gonna get stood up by me and left in the dust?"

"You wish."

Katsuki thrusts out his hand in front of her, and erratic little sparks form on it. "You wanna get a taste of this?"

Azula almost laughs, and as gracefully as she can, calls forth her bending. Hot blue fire rises up and almost reaches the ceiling of the classroom. Katsuki's lackeys immediately back away in fright, but Katsuki holds his ground.

"You were saying?" It's hard not to keep the smug tone in her voice.

"It's not that impressive," the brat grouches. "Endeavor has cooler-looking flames. Yours don't even look that cool."

"Actually, it does a bit-" the taller of his lackeys say, and Katsuki instantly turns around to glower at him, effectively shutting him up.

It takes a while for Azula to realize that, as impossible as it sounds, she's being bullied.

No one had dared to bully her before. She was the Princess; even the most snotty and pretentious girls in the academy would cast their eyes downward whenever she was in close vicinity. It was, after all, protocol to show royalty the respect they demanded. Those girls were from a proud line of nobility, yes, but she was the crown princess.

It didn't help how she'd always had an intimidating air around her, even as a young child.

"You don't scare me," Azula sneers. She levels her glare at his other lackey, and this time it's the boy's turn to gulp and back away a little.

"Whatever. Just don't try to get in my way."

"I'm not going to follow orders from a peasant boy like you."

"I hate you. Everyone sees you as this nice girl but you're just annoying. And stop calling me that stupid word! What does that even mean?"

"Peasant means you're just like me, a genius. Look it up. You'll thank me."

"Come on Kacchan, let's just leave, she's not worth our time-" one of the brat's tag-along whines, and both Azula and Katsuki say "shut up" at the same time, much to Azula's eye-rolling exasperation and Katsuki's annoyance.

"Tch. Fine." He turns away from her, but not before saying, "We're not done yet."

She makes a shooing motion with her hands, as though he's some sort of rabid dog invading her space, and it's worth it to see the look on his face before he heatedly scampers out of the room, his friends struggling to keep up with him.

She sinks down to her chair.

She can't believe she had argued with a four-year old boy over such a petty thing.

How the mighty have fallen, she laments to herself.

Rei and Hiyori force her to eat lunch with them and to have her join them in playing with dollies. Her mood's already souring, but she chants inside her head, Act like a princess. Act like a princess. Act like a princess to keep herself from hurting them with her temper.

It's easier when she tries to imagine Ozai saying the words, with his no-nonsense voice.

Act like a princess.

Izuku clams up whenever class starts and they have to seat next to each other as seatmates. He still gives her those indiscreet gazes she feels burning at the side of her face when he thinks she's not looking, but he doesn't talk, instead wallowing and being miserable in his self-appointed silence of shame. And she's fine with it, even prefers it because it means she doesn't have to talk to him.

Amidst the clatter of noisy children, they're both quiet.

.

.

.

She could burn Bakugou Katsuki to a crisp.

Really, she could. The thought of burning him alive is a tempting and entirely possible one.

It would be so easy. Just a flick of her wrist, and he'll end up as a burnt scorch mark on the ground.

He doesn't have the near-heat resistance that most firebenders are forced to have.

(Not yet anyway.)

It would take just a couple of minutes, maybe even seconds. So easy.

He'll scream and scream and scream, until his voice goes hoarse and dies out, until his heart stops inside his chest.

But she doesn't.

Because she's changed.

.

.

.

She's willing to bet all the ill-begotten gains of the Fire Nation that the Spirits are laughing at her distress from above.

It's dismissal time when she finds her singed notebook.

It's not entirely damaged, but the far right corner part of it is mottled and covered with ash-black. It also strongly smells like smoke, so it must've been burned just recently, when she went out of the classroom to take a restroom break.

Bakugou Katsuki.

He was really getting on her nerves.

The next day after that, Katsuki's staring at her with a triumphant look on his face.

So she decides to burn his belongings as well. And not just one, no.

All of his notebooks.

She's not guilty at all. He started it.

She even arranges them-well, the remains of it-in a neat stack on top of his desk for him to find.

And, she thinks with great satisfaction, she's sure that his enraged shout could be heard all over the hallways.

But, surprisingly, he doesn't tattle to Ms. Fujioka or his parents, because the school's not phoning the Yukimuras for their child committing acts of bullying and vandalism. Probably thinks tattling is a sign of weakness and admitting defeat.

In the non-existent rule of petulant children, in situations like this, tattling was considered a big no-no. You had to gain the upper hand, sooner or later, until the other concedes defeat. The brat understands that.

.

.

.

But she doesn't care about that, so one night she tells her mother about a boy who's bullying her in school.

"He burned my notebook, Mom," she says, and holds up the evidence. Yui looks concerned, and Azula thinks Good. Report that brat. Azula doesn't want to take the matter into her own hands, doesn't want to tell Ms. Fujioka herself, partly because she finds her presence nauseating and partly because an angry parent is a credible one.

Yui's with her Aunt Kasumi, who just happens to be there to hear Azula complain about this boy who always tries to annoy her. Kasumi shakes her head when she hears about it.

"He went that far, huh? What a little shit. I think he-"

Yes, Azula thinks. You think he's a brat. You think he should be reprimanded by the teacher. You think we should have the school attempt to contact his parents, just to let them know how much of an unruly brat their son is being.

I'm going to drag him in the dirt.

"-has a secret crush on your daughter, Yui. You know how boys are."

What?

"That's not it at all," Azula protests in bewilderment. "He's always trying to rile me up during lunch break and dismissal, always trying to make me mad."

"Isn't that right?" Kasumi mutters. "Trying to take your attention for himself. God, the things boys would do for a fucking puppy crush."

"It can't be helped," Yui sighs. "My Yachiyo is a pretty girl. Intelligent, too."

You fools! That's not it at all!

"Mom-"

"What's his name again? Bakugou Katsuki?"

Azula almost strangles the woman for interrupting her.

"Hey, he might be related to Masaru! We were study-buddies back in high school. Good man. Tried to date him once, but unfortunately it didn't work out between the two of us."

"Isn't he that costume designer for heroes?" Yui asks.

And now they're getting out-of-topic. She wants to scream.

"Listen, Yachiyo," Yui says to her in a serious voice. "If he tries it again, don't hesitate to tell me. But try to talk to him about it. You're a smart girl; if you speak to him civilly, he might stop."

Kasumi snorts. "Boys like that are hard-headed. He's just going to tease her more. I remember one time this boy with a strange quirk…"

Yui turns to listen to her, and Azula thinks Don't indulge her!

Useless. They're both pathetic and useless.

She tells Arima instead, because apparently he's the only sensible adult in the house with enough common sense.

"He probably just likes you," he says in an off-handed manner, and Azula visibly wilts. Not again. She doesn't see nor understand the logic in their statements.

"I remember when I was your age. I used to be like that, too, until I shaped up and matured. Thank God, or your Mom wouldn't have looked at me."

I don't care, she thinks.

"Dad, please take me seriously."

"I am, baby girl," Arima gently says. "You kids are just experiencing all these emotions for the first time. He's probably lashing out at you because he doesn't know how to deal with it at all. It's unusual for you because you're different, you're a mature little lady. Try to talk to him. Tell him politely to stop."

That's not what I wanted to hear. Azula wants to say in frustration. What did she expect? Her present father was a psychologist so he thought-and talked-like one too.

But for some reason, she swallows down her protests, and says, "Okay. I'll try." I'll try burning him like a roasted possum-chicken.

Arima beams at her. "That's my little girl," he says softly, and reaches out to ruffle her hair. Surprisingly, she lets him. There's still a feeling of discontentment expanding in her chest, and she tries to ignore it.

"Just don't scare him too much, okay?"

As if she's the evil one.

Not for the first time, she wishes someone would just listen to her.

Years later, she'd look back at this moment and dread how much it foreshadowed the start of many terrible, terrible things to come-

-for her, at least.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Azula's starting to warm up to her parents (sorta), Izuku's being the ray of sunshine he always is, and let's be honest, if Bakugou and Azula ever truly meet they'll instantly want to kill each other.

AKA the chapter where Azula/Yachiyo finally meets canon for the first time.

Poor Azula. She just can't take a break, can she?

And Bakugou's probably gonna try to bully her some more (pray for him guys)

Thanks for reading, and please review! I appreciate constructive criticism. And tell me what you'd like to happen in this story, so I'll get even more inspired.

Till next time! *heart eyes*

P.S: Anyways, have you all watched the newest/latest BNHA episode? Oh god I'm so hyped

(also I've fallen in love with Zuko again while writing Bow to the Sun, watch the video "Long Live the Prince" by TheLoaLok in Youtube, aaaaahhhhhh it's so good

and yes, that bear thing was an obvious reference to that one episode where Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph visited the Earth Kingdom)