Summary: Two royal siblings eat lunch with the twelfth son of an emperor. Azula doesn't like the way the boy keeps on making googly eyes at her and Zuko just wants to dig in the food. /crossover-fic, childhood days [multi-chapter]

Disclaimer: Don't own anything (although I wish I did, Ling my babyyy).

Just another one of my ideas, as usual.

LUNCH TIME

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CHAPTER I: Three's A Crowd

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"Let's play tag."

"No."

"I'm bored."

"Me too."

"So let's play."

"I said no."

"I said I'm bored."

"I know. Now stop bothering me and…do some girly things like you girls usually do."

Ten-year old Azula rolled her eyes and settled down on the grass. The two Fire Nation royal siblings were staying in the palace's main royal garden in the meantime, bored out of their minds. Their Father, Fire Lord Ozai, was currently entertaining some important guests from a faraway land called Xing. As much as she liked occasionally (always) poking her nose into her Father's business, Azula-even though she was the Crown Princess and was expected to care about her own nation's political connections-couldn't care less about her Father's endeavors in the present. Right now she was just a little child and she was bored. Bored out of her mind.

Bored enough to request her older brother, Zuko, of all people, to play with her. Her two best friends, Mai and Ty Lee, were both busy. Mai went with her father on a business trip and Ty Lee…well, was doing Ty Lee things. Azula couldn't be bothered at what the ditzy, cheerful acrobatic was doing right now.

"Let's play Hide-and-Explode."

Zuko looked at his sister with weary eyes. "You'll just burn my clothes again," he muttered agitatedly-almost to himself-but Azula caught on and huffed scornfully, folding her arms in annoyance. Evident scorn marred her pretty features. Zuko's response was inevitable.

Only one thing to do then.

Slowly and quietly, crouching slightly, she crept closer to Zuko, who was currently watching some turtleducks paddle and play around with each other. Azula felt her small fingers grasp the knife her older brother had unwittingly and carelessly placed on one of the rocks near the royal garden pond. Zuzu was just so gullible. Feeling the silver hilt on her sure fingers, she grasped it tightly.

"Hey, Zuzu; where's the knife Uncle Iroh gave you?"

"What?" Zuko spun around. "I set it down-wait. Azula, what are you doing with my knife?"

"Hmm? Oh, this?" Azula spun the small knife and twirled it with her fingers with expert ease. "Let's just say…this knife right here is the prize in a game we're going to play."

"Azula!"

"Come on, Zuzu. Catch me if you can!" Setting off into a run, the little firebending prodigy ran as fast as her legs could carry her, blood pumping with that familiar adrenaline. An excited smirk crawled up her tiny lips as she ran. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Zuko trudging after her, annoyance and exasperation plainly written on his face as he struggled to catch up with his mischievous sister. Well, at least this was better than doing nothing but watch turtleducks paddle around each other.

After a few minutes of running around, she stopped running. Her small legs were too tired to run fast anymore. Breathing and heaving slightly, she looked back again and saw her older brother sprawled on the green grass, chest rising up and down fervently, breathing hard as if he'd just had a hard sparring lesson. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead, her legs ached a little and her head was spinning dizzyingly, but a triumphant sense of satisfaction settled over her as she registered the fact that her older brother didn't-couldn't-catch up to her. Even in terms of stamina, she was better than him; no doubt because of the intense training sessions her Father always supervised just for her. Letting a huge smirk settle on her lips, she propped herself down onto the ground and-

Accidentally sat on something soft.

Or someone, to be more precise.

She yelped in surprise. The thing-person-she just sat on was a boy, sprawled face-first on the grass. The figure of the boy was the soft thing she sat on a while ago. Who the heck…? Her small mouth opened slightly in shock. Who the…the boy…was he dead?

She could hear soft footsteps coming near. "Azula, come on, stop playing games and give me my knife back! It's mine, not yours, so…" Zuko stopped in mid-sentence, his small chest rapidly rising up and down in fatigue, as his annoyed and exhausted expression morphed into shock, something identical to hers. Azula would've laughed at the flabbergasted expression he wore at that moment-his face complete with his jaw on the floor and his mouth gaping open widely- painted it even, in a portrait for all to see and for her to laugh at it more later, but she was also feeling as equally bewildered or even more at the sight in front of her. Or rather, beneath her. Wait, she was still sitting on the boy?

She immediately stood up and backed away from the body of the boy, as if he had an unknown disease. For all she knew, maybe he had an unknown disease. Why else would he be lying on the ground, face planted on the ground, looking lifeless and half-dead?

The presumably dead boy was lying on the ground, completely still. Zuko and Azula shared a glance at each other, and one look was all it took for sibling intuition to take over.

"What…is that?" Zuko asked, mouth wide open in shock and jaw dropped on the floor.

Azula sighed. "Are you that dumb?"

Zuko scowled a little. He ignored her retort. "Is he dead?" Zuko whispered quietly to his younger sister. Azula didn't notice how he got his knife back since almost magically, it just appeared in his fingers, his hands gripping and holding the knife firmly as if his life depended on it, his shaking fingers grasping the silver hilt tightly until his knuckles turned deathly white. He held and grasped the sharp side of the blade in front of the anonymous boy.

"I don't know," she whispered back. "I don't want to know."

"Me too."

"Why don't you…I dunno, wake him up?"

"How do you wake up someone who's already…dead?"

"We're not sure yet if he's dead, dum-dum. The healers should check his pulse and see if his heart is still beating."

"Maybe he's asleep."

"Maybe. Try nudging him with your foot, or checking his neck for a pulse."

"I don't want to! And how do you know all these things? You're only ten."

"Girls mature faster than boys, Zuzu. Didn't you know? Why, you're a living example of this. You should at least have knowledge beforehand."

"What? I don't care…"

"Wake him up."

"No, you wake him up, since you're the one who's so eager to do so."

"I'm not eager, idiot. I'm just ready and attentive enough to know what to do in these kinds of situations, especially emergencies. And right now this seems like an emergency."

"Psh, you just want me to do all the things you don't want to do!"

"You've only realized that much this time?"

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Come on, Zuzu-don't tell me that's all you found out…"

"What-quit teasing me! And I don't care about your sick mind games. You're sick, Azula."

"And you suck!"

"No, I don't! You do!"

"Yes, you do! Even Father agrees with me!"

"No, he doesn't! He just says I need to train more so I would stop failing my bending forms all the time…"

"That's basically the same thing, dum-dum!"

"Shut up! Why are we even having this conversation, anyway? A passed-out person is in front of us!"

"It's because you're a dumb, oblivious, idiotic little prince, Zuko. Why else would we…?"

"Just wake him up yourself!"

"No, you do."

"Please…ugh, fine! I'll wake him up…" Zuko growled under his breath. He honestly didn't want to fight with his sister any more than he wanted to risk their Father's patience and wrath; and his body felt too worn-out because of running around so much, anyway.

Damn Azula and her stupid dumb games.

The little prince crept down, cautiously poking the immobile body in front of him. The sprawled boy didn't move.

"Let's carry him," Zuko turned to Azula. "Maybe the palace healers could-"

Suddenly, there was a sound. The two siblings both sat up in surprise, startled, as the sprawled boy in front of them shifted slightly. A sound-was it a moan?-which came from the young boy was heard, and then the boy rolled over to his side.

"Food…" he moaned, as if he was literally dying right at that very moment. "Give me my food…please…"

The two royal siblings gawked and turned to each other in confusion. "What?" Azula asked while frowning.

"I think…he said he wanted food…" Zuko said, confusion obvious in his voice.

"Food…" the boy moaned again, agitation now clearly evident as an inhuman sound came from his stomach.

Azula sweat-dropped. "I think he's really dehydrated and weak from starvation."

"Well, duh. So…what do we do?"

"Come on, let's carry him."

"That was my idea!"

"This is so boring."

"I know. But Father wants us to come."

"I know that too, dum-dum. But…it's so boring."

"Yeah…I know."

Zuko sighed and rested a hand on his cheek.

He was fairly sure no one can-and is allowed to-eat as much as the young Xingese prince in front of him.

Beside the young firebending prince was his little sister. He really didn't want her to sit so close next to him, considering the little prank she did to him just two nights ago ("It isn't my fault Zuko firebends when he farts!" "Hey, my butt doesn't suddenly goes up in flames or produces smoke when I fart! Butts don't firebend!") which earned the two of them that look of disappointment in Mother's eyes that hurt Zuko as much as his Father's glare, and Father's eternally scary and terrifying scowl directed at the two Fire Nation siblings. Since that night Zuko swore never to let Azula near his clothes again. But sadly, these days, for some kind of weird reason, he never gets to keep his promises.

Azula wrinkled her nose at the young boy in front of them. "Ewww, how can anyone eat that much?"

"I don't know," Zuko answered truthfully. Really, how can anyone eat that much? The boy in front of him and Azula was devouring plate after plate like a hungry hog-monkey. He ate every dish piled up in front of him as if it were his last. Food literally flew everywhere and a piece of roast duck accidentally smacked and planted itself onto Zuko's head. Azula tried to hide her laughter, but Zuko saw just in time and gave her the stink-eye, in which she responded back by showing her tongue.

"Awren't wyu toh howngry?" The strange boy asked, his black ponytail flicking back and forth as he continued to annihilate food after food.

"What?" Azula frowned.

After five more bites from his roast duck, the strange boy with the white ribbon around his black ponytail set down his plate (finally, Zuko noted, with an inwardly quiet sigh of relief) and grinned at them fully. His eyes looked as though it was closed (how can anyone's eyes be that squinty?) and just a while ago, Zuko thought he had been sleeping while sitting (but that premade assumption was changed the moment the servants piled food on top of the dining table). The boy was smiling in that weird, cheerfully lopsided way as his head tilted slightly as he observed and gazed (as much as his squinty eyes could) at the two Fire Nation siblings. Simultaneously, he and Azula awkwardly squirmed on their seats because of the weird boy's scrutinizing, intense gaze. But the two siblings would never admit that they felt a little uneasy, no matter how uncomfortable of a stare the boy had.

The boy was strange. Definitely strange.

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To be continued...

NOTES: Aww, aren't they cute? Who knew they'd grow up to be such formidable fighters? One would be a skilled swordsman and proficient firebender, one would be a gifted and amazing prodigy, and another would be a talented and skillful martial artist in his own right. (Sadly, only two of these would get to be kings. Oh snap-)

Here I am, making another story, when I should be updating my other ones, huhu. But I needed to get this out of my system lol. I have some more ideas for the next chapter, so stay tuned.

Anyway, please REVIEW. And most importantly, thanks for reading!