Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

"Evil, Evil Azula"

Chapter One

The sounds of laughter and joyous children rang throughout the palace's courtyard on one particular sunny afternoon. It was just an ordinary day for three Fire Nation girls. The royal kids were looking for ways to pass time while their fathers were busy with boring "grown-up stuff" like politics. And as usual, Azula and Ty-Lee were having a cart-wheeling contest while Mai sat in the shade of the big tree and observed as judge.

There was a look of determination in her eyes as Azula attempted the cartwheel and backflip. Despite her focus, she couldn't quite get the landing right, and ended up straight on her butt on the courtyard's green grass.

The child prodigy watched enviously as her friend executed the move perfectly. With a wicked grin, she picked herself off the well-manicured lawn and shoved Ty-Lee to the ground.

"Azula!" whined Ty-Lee as the Firelord's daughter laughed at her doing.

Just then, Azula spotted her sorry-excuse-for-a-brother passing by with Mother. She cringed at the sight.

Looking away from the two, her eyes fell on Mai, whose cheeks were colored a serious shade of red. At first Azula was confused. She stared at her friend, who sat against the tree with an expression that was puzzling to Azula. She then directed her gaze to Zuko and connected the dots.

How or why her friend could feel like that towards Zuko was beyond her, but that didn't matter. Azula, being the scheming little demon she was, planned to take full advantage of that.

A mischievous grin graced her lips as an idea popped into the girl's head.

"Watch this," Azula whispered in Ty-Lee's ear. Ty-Lee giggled as Azula ran off towards her mother and brother.

"Mo-om," she whined as she approached the two, performing her "innocent child" act. "Can you make Zuko play with us? We need equal teams to play a game!"

"I am not cartwheeling," her brother growled as he stopped walking.

"You won't have to. Cartwheeling isn't a game, dum-dum." Azula rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"I don't care. I don't wanna play with you," Zuko shot back, fixing her with an angry glare. He saw right through her act. She wasn't as innocent as many people made her out to be, and Zuko knew that.

"We are brother and sister... it's important for us to spend time together. Don't you think so, Mom?" She asked, smiling so sweetly towards their mother it made Zuko sick.

"Yes, darling. I think it's a good idea to play with your sister. Go on now. Just for a little while," Mother said as she ruffled her son's hair. And with that, she walked off. Zuko knew there was no saying no to Mom, so he was doomed to suffer whatever torture his blasted little sister had in mind. With a frown and a grumble, he followed his sister to the center of the courtyard, resisting the urge to smack that stupid smug grin off her face.

After Azula assembled them near the fountain (Ty-Lee had followed her immediately while she practically had to drag Mai to the fountain), she plucked a perfect red apple from its branch. Zuko and Ty-Lee stood facing her while she had told Mai to stand with her back to the fountain.

"Here's the way it goes," the princess announced as she walked towards Mai, apple in hand. "Now what you do is, try to knock the apple off the other person's head. Like this."

Azula placed the fruit on her friend's head and backed up so she was level with Ty-Lee and Zuko.

Mai looked up at the apple atop her head disapprovingly. An annoyed expression marked her face as she glared back at Azula. She was clearly dubious of the firebending girl's intentions.

Then, Azula shot a burst of flame at the stem of the apple, which subsequently caught on fire. She crossed her arms and looked expectantly at her brother, quite amused.

Mai stared at the ball of fire above her, too shocked and scared to even react.

Meanwhile, young Zuko looked on with a horrified expression. Without a second thought, he sprinted towards Mai.

Mai averted her gaze from the flaming fruit only to see Zuko charging at her like an enraged rhino-bull. Terrified, she yelped as he swatted the apple from her head, and unable to stop his momentum, collided into her. They both fell into the fountain with a splash.

An embarrassed Zuko laying on top of a surprised Mai? Soaking wet in the fountain? Ooh, this was just too precious for Azula. Quite the spectacle.

"See? I told ya it would work!" Laughed Azula as she gave Ty-Lee a light, playful shove to the shoulder.

"Awwww. They're so cute together!" Ty-Lee teased, pointing at the two lovey-doveys with a smirk.

Ozai's eldest child was absolutely livid. He wordlessly rose to his feet and stomped out of the fountain angrily.

Mai was no less infuriated either. She stood up, fists clenched with fury, and glared at the other two girls, trying to conceal her blush.

"You two are such..." She trailed off. She struggled to describe her anger towards them in this moment. She didn't even think there was a swear word in the book strong enough for these two. "Ugh!" Mai huffed.

This only prompted giggles from the other two, of course.

Meanwhile, Ursa appeared from the palace, walking towards Zuko.

She just had to choose this moment to appear. Of course, he thought bitterly.

"I was just coming to get you. Uncle Iroh sent us a letter from the warfront," she called, waving the scroll in her hand. She stopped walking abruptly when she noticed the pool of water trailing behind her son with every stomp. "You're soaking wet."

"Girls are crazy!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air as he marched past her, towards the palace.

She could only sigh and shake her head with a small smile as she followed him in.

"Oh, and Azula? Be inside in five minutes," she called to her daughter before going indoors.

"Be right there, Mother!" Azula called back with a cheery fake-smile, watching her mother leave. Once she was out of sight, she dropped the façade. "Well. That was fun."

"I'm never talking to you again," Mai growled. "And I'm going home."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. See you later. And come back soon, or poor Zuko will miss you."

Mai blushed despite her angry expression, tearing her gaze away from Azula's eyes.

Ty-Lee happily joined Mai as they exited the courtyard and called a servant to escort them out of the palace.

"I bet you enjoyed being in the fountain with Zuko," Ty-Lee grinned. "You should be thanking us."

"Stop it, Ty-Lee," Mai muttered as she looked away. Her blush deepened even more, and a small smile was tugging at her lips.

The acrobat just shrugged. She started cartwheeling down the hall at Mai's side. When they finally came to the exit of the palace, the servant opened the door for them and they left the royal property.

...

After that fateful day, Azula made it her sworn duty to embarrass Mai and Zuko. There were just too many laughs to be wasted if she didn't.