Ever have a pairing you don't really ship but once an idea for it in in your head it just won't go away?

Like I ship Kataang and Zukaang, though not Kataanko or whatever the OT3 is called. I like Zutara fanart but I really can't see them together romantically, even if Aang is in the middle.

Then out of the blue Azula came in an threatened me to make a Azuaang or whatever this pairing is called. Does it have a name? I never seen fanart of it and only one fanfiction that I didn't read.

Enjoy my madness and please comment.

I have no idea how I want this story to end!

Seizing the Avatar

Chapter 1

First Meeting

A smile is the first thing that catches Azula's attention about the Avatar. Sure she had assessed him the moment he was in view; child wearing brightly colored clothing in the style of the Air Nomads and a hat covering the give-away arrow tattoo if he possessed one, carrying some sort of staff. His body was lithe, probably capable of speed but it was hard to assess his ability to fight while he was standing still. She surmised that he was the Avatar but she could not be for sure yet; she couldn't afford to act rashly if he was indeed the Avatar.

Still with these observations and theories the first thing that was really note worthy was when the boy smiled. The smile wasn't even in her direction, pointed upward as the chain lowered the captured old fool, the former king of the former city Omashu, to the ground behind her Mai and Ty Lee. Very oddly she found the smile rather appealing, coming from looking at someone the boy was obviously rather fond of. Not many, if any, ever smiled around her in such a way, not even Ty Lee whose smiles were always so wide or sunny it looked like it hurt her to smile that way. No this smile was small, soft, relieved and so obviously caring it bothers her when the smile fades, when the boy turned to her, becoming serious.

"Do you have my brother?" Mai asked, voice as monotone as ever.

"He's here, we're ready to trade," the boy confirms.

The older girl and older boy behind the first boy, acting as their leader in this, appeared to be from the Water Tribe and look similar enough to be siblings. Just like the ones said to travel with the real Avatar. She still needed to get him to air bend to prove it though.

"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me," Azula steps forward and turns slightly to Mai, already knowing her answer without asking, "Do you mind?"

"Of course not, Princess Azula," Mai predictably answered.

As Azula points out the folly of trading a powerful Earth Bending king for a toddler, she watches the boy's serious expression turn into a frown. He was wonderfully expressive, making him all the easier to read. Watching his eyes widen in reaction to Mai calling off the deal, causing the old fool to be lifted away was just delightful.

The boy called after the fool, calling him rather informally by name and suddenly started running forward, in her direction, holding his staff differently than before. As interesting as he was to watch she couldn't just let him do as he pleased, shooting fire to block him, secretly amazed when the boy leaped high into the air to evade her attack. She watches as he briefly touches the scaffolding around the statue of her father and pushes himself off, opening his staff into a glider in mid air. To confirm her suspicious the action causes him to lose his hat, leaving his arrow tattoo exposed, too late to hide as he holds on to the hat with his teeth.

"The Avatar," Azula felt herself grin, "My lucky day."

From her lessons, Azula always thought Air Bending was a useless element for fighting. The Fire Nation had taken care of the Air Nomads a hundred years ago easily enough after all. Still as she watched the Avatar she could not help how clever the boy was, using his breath to freeze the chain and holding up the old fool's coffin, how easily he deflected her fire with a bit of air, quickly breaking the chain with his staff to get the old fool and himself away from her. The boy then used air to keep them from crashing, using the old fool's coffin like a sled to glide down the mail chutes to quicken their escape.

As she chases after them in a stone mail box of her own, she can hear the boy laughing but not what was being said between him and the old fool. How could the boy be so carefree as to laugh when she was his opponent? She would have to show him not to take her lightly.

Their fight as they rapidly shoot down the mail chutes was fascinating. The Avatar continues to block her attacks and makes her fight for opportunities to attack him with his own attacks of strong winds. He continued to use his cleverness to try to evade her, his body moving quickly as she predicted to dodge her attacks and also agile in his movements.

It would have been interesting to see how the fight would have ended if that giant furry beast didn't come swooping in to save the Avatar and the old fool. She manages to make the beast dodge away from the Avatar with an attack but when the Avatar tried again to get himself and the fool onto the beast's back the water tribe siblings miss catching them and they fall.

Their fall is broken by another chute as they land crosswise on it, breaking right through. They land on another chute and start to slide down once again but she stays right behind them. She attempts to use a fire disk attack but someone, somewhere Earth bended protection for them and blocked her path, forcing her to abandon her cart and her chase.

She watched as they escaped her, swearing that the Avatar would be hers.