Edited: 10-22-2012

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar The Last Airbender

…

Not a Monster

Zuko could hear them fight, could hear Azula make snide remarks towards Katara. He felt as though he needed to help Katara, only he was in no condition to do anything but listen to their fight. Then suddenly all noise stopped, and with that, Zuko started to pass out completely. The only thing he was still aware of was the pain in his chest when he felt something cold being pressed against his wound. Zuko began groaning as everything slowly came back into focus. He opened his eyes and saw Katara healing him, unshed tears in her eyes.

"Thank you, Katara." his voice was quiet and still sounded weak, but at least he could talk.

The tears in her eyes began to stream down her cheeks. "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you." She helped him to slowly stand up and leaded him towards where Azula was chained to the floor.

The Princess was screaming, blue flames coming out of her mouth. Slowly, the fire and screams started to die and Azula was crying. The tears were streaming down her face as she gave up to get free from the chains that held her to the ground. Katara looked sadly at the boy standing next to her, who was staring at his sister. However, said boy didn't notice her anymore, the only thing he could see was his little sister, breaking down in front of him.

Azula had always seemed like she was in control of everything around her to him. When they had arrived she had already looked paranoid, but now she was just totally out of it. The last time the Prince had seen his sister cry had been when they'd been little children, and he had stolen some sort of toy from her. At that time Father had snatched it away from him, given it back to Azula, and slapped the back of his head which had made Azula laugh again. Zuko doubted it would work this time. She was a lot more upset this time, besides, Father was somewhere in the Earth Kingdom getting his butt kicked by Aang. At least Zuko hoped Aang had been back in time to help Sokka, Toph and Suki stop the airship fleet and the Firelord, only he couldn't seem to care right now. He knew he would want to punch himself later for not caring about it, but right now his only concern was for his little sister, who was still crying just few feet away from him.

She looked younger and a lot more vulnerable than the last time he'd seen her, when she had attacked them at the Western Air Temple. He wanted to walk towards her only he was held back by something, or better someone. Katara had her arm around his waist to keep him upright. He shook himself out of her light grasp and walked to his sister.

"What are you doing, Zuko?" He could hear Watertribe girl ask as he walked over to Azula, but at the same time he also couldn't. His focus was on Azula and the rest of the world just didn't seem to matter.

The boy knelt down in front of his sibling, trying to look her in the eyes, only every time she would turn her gaze away from him. "Azula." His voice was soft and sad, yet somehow demanding.

"What do you want, Zuzu?" Azula spat. She wanted to sound angry at Zuko, only because of the sobbing she sounded more like a sad child throwing a tantrum than anything else.

Zuko leaned forward and captured his sister in a strong, loving hug. "Nothing, Zula. Nothing."

Azula tried to get out of her brother's embrace, only he wouldn't let her go. Eventually she gave in and leaned her head against Zuko's shoulder and began to cry freely. "Everyone always wants something, or they don't want me at all." Her voice was muffled by the fabric of Zuko's torn shirt.

"Who doesn't want you?" Zuko asked worriedly.

"You, Mother… Mai, Ty Lee… all the servants… they only do what I say because they're afraid of me…" The mention of himself made the prince wince a bit. He knew he played a part in Azula's breakdown, only he hadn't realized until now how big of a big part that was. Only the next person Azula said Zuko wasn't expecting. "Father."

"What makes you think Father doesn't want you?" Zuko sounded confused and he was. He'd always thought that Azula had the feeling that their father had truly cared about her. When he had realized that the Fire Nation was wrong and his father didn't love or care about him he'd also thought that Azula was also nothing to him, except something that could help him win the war. Only he had never thought he would actually hear it coming from the girl herself.

"He let me stay. He didn't let me come with him to help defeat the Earth Kingdom. It was my idea." She sounded so young and broken when she said it, another thing Zuko could add to his 'all things my father did which made other people feel miserable'-list.

"Azula, you shouldn't care about what Father thinks if he doesn't care about you." Zuko thought it helped because she started to calm down a bit. "Do you understand?" Still, he wanted to be sure if it was because of what he'd said, or if she was just beginning to feel tired of all the crying. He felt Azula nodding, her head still lying against his shoulder. She mumbled something which Zuko couldn't quite catch. "What did you say?"

"Am I going to jail?" Azula asked again hesitantly.

"No, you're not going to jail. I'll think of something." Zuko tried to sound convincing, however, he didn't know if he succeeded in that.

"But what if everyone else wants me to go there?"

"I won't allow them to send you there. You're my little sister, they'll have to listen to me." He would find a way to keep her out of prison. When they were younger she had never needed him to protect her, and now, when she needed him to, he wouldn't let her down.

"Why do you care? I'm a monster." As she said it he pulled her away from his shoulder. Their gazes locked and Zuko asked with his eyes for an explanation. When she answered Azula looked away. "No one ever said it right into my face but I know they think so."

"Azula, you're not a monster." His voice was firm, without any doubt. With one hand he turned her head towards him so that she was looking him right in the eyes again. "You are not a monster," he repeated. "say it."

"I'm not?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"A monster." Zuko wanted to let her go, but he would only do so when she had told herself that she wasn't a monster, because she really wasn't.

"I'm not a monster."

…

A/N: So finally there is my first story. I'm not sure if I got everything right but I hope you enjoyed it. I don't really have anything else to say… Please tell me what you think.

10-22-2012: I finally got to editing this thing. Two and a half years have passed and I read this little one-shot of mine again. In that time my English has improved, so I saw that I made some really stupid mistakes. I corrected all the mistakes that I saw, so hopefully the story just flows better now.