"Zuzu?" A 5 year-old Azula trudged over to his brother with a bored expression on her face.

"Yeah?" His brother laid on the sand, trying to set it on fire.

"I'm bored to death... Mom and dad always leave us here on the beach to 'play' after watching those plays... But there's really nothing we can do..."

"I agree... Hey, what's that thing doing grabbing onto your foot?"

"Oh, the turtle crab?" Azula looked down, and the turtle crab looked up. It was clinging onto her foot, reluctant to let go, and it looked devastated and furious. It wanted to make Azula feel painful for some reason, apparently.

"Saw it sunbathing on the beach. Thought it looked imbecilic and a thought came to me: If it liked the light and the heat so much, why not bring it closer? I set its shell on fire."

Zuko abruptly shot a glance at her sister. Azula smirked.

"I was just having a little fun, unlike you, who's doing nothing but lazing around." She sighed playfully, grabbed the turtle crab off her foot and threw it across the beach.

"Azula!" Zuko scolded and went to help the turtle crab which was now upside down and struggling to flip over. He could still hear Azula's laugh from over at his position, so he hollered.

"Haven't you done enough already?!"

"Oh, Zuzu, don't be like mom! That was nothing!"

Zuko sighed unhappily. He didn't get why Azula had to be so mean to everyone and everything. He recalled the time when she set a flower on fire and told him and his mother it wasn't as pretty as the others and it deserved it. He just didn't get it.

Later on at night, Zuko snuck out to write on the sand. Firebending would be too loud, it would wake everyone up, and he couldn't find another way to let everything out. He wrote everything he wanted to say on the sand, and poured seawater over them. He had to admit, that made him feel a bit better, but still not enough. He had to find that turtle crab and check on it, even though it seemed impossible-

"Zuko? What are you doing outside?" A warm voice came from behind.

He tensed up and turned around, seeing the owner of the best face in the entire world: Ursa, his mother.

"Mom?"

"Zuko, dear, what's wrong?"

His mother always knew when he was troubled by something. For that, he was content, because she would comfort and console him even if he didn't ask for it, but also infuriated that he couldn't hide anything from Ursa.

"It's nothing..." Zuko knew lying was no use, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Zuko..."

"It's Azula..."

"What'd she do this time? Did she bully you again today?"

"No... It's even worse than that... She set a turtle crab on fire and then threw it halfway across the beach... When I went to help it, it looked like it was about to go to the spirit world..."

"It's alright... You just have to know that not everything is fair in this world. Sometimes the victim gets what the bully deserves, and gets away with it. But that's just how the world works, you'd just have to look out for bad people, and avoid being one in the first place, okay? And when you become Fire Lord someday, be sure to protect the innocent and make the guilty realise that they're wrong."

Zuko looked at her mom with a slightly happier expression.

"Does it mean that I can tell Azula that she's wrong all this time when I become Fire Lord?"

Ursa beamed. "You could say so, my dear. Alright now, it's time to go back in, it's past your bedtime already."

"But mom... Can we build sand castles before we go?" Zuko asked excitedly, grabbing onto his mother's hand and pointing at the sand. "Please?"

She chuckled. "Alright, just for a while though."

Then, they set off to the tranquil and prepossessing shoreline.

(705 words)