#churning these out as quick writing exercises ngl

[vomara]

atla daemon au snippet: azula & zuko.

(ao3)

“Dad’s gonna kill you,” Azula singsongs from his doorway. Anantachai curls around her leg, mirth written on his feline features. “Really, he is.”

Zuko tries not to startle at her voice, but he can’t help it. “Ha, ha, Azula, nice try.” She’s lying. She has to be.

“Fine, don’t believe me,” she says, approaching the bed. “But I heard everything. Grandfather thought father’s punishment should fit his crime.” Her voice lowers as she imitates grandfather’s threat. “You must know the pain of losing a firstborn son by sacrificing your own.”

A wave of terror overcomes Zuko, and he grasps his blankets helplessly. Rahmi hides under the covers, quiet as a mouse, tucking her face into the side of his leg. “Liar.”

“I’m only telling you for your own good,” Azula replies, standing up next to his bed. Her form is hazy in the darkness, the edges defined only by the light coming through the door.

Behind her, a single color draws Zuko’s eye. Ananta shifts, his form slipping, his musculature becoming all at once flat, his skin brilliant in tone. A pure, sharp blue, the likes of which Zuko had never seen on a daemon. He swallows thickly, an instinctive fear coursing through him. Azula’s daemon had never taken this form before.

The daemon flies circles around them, silent as Azula continues to taunt him. “I know. Maybe you could find a nice Earth Kingdom family to adopt you.”

Zuko squeezes his eyes shut. “Stop it, you’re lying,” he starts, but his voice falters, because at that moment, Ananta lands on his hand. He feels the scritch-scritch of his insect legs before he sees the creature, but the moment he recognizes it, his eyes fly open.

Blue consumes his vision as the daemon languidly stretches his wings. He seems almost mocking as he sits on him, digging his appendages into Zuko’s arm. Zuko can count the number of times Ananta’s spoken to him on both hands, but he still recognizes his voice when he hears it. “Why would we lie?” Ananta asks, laughter in his tone. “Sometimes the truth is worse than anything we could ever come up with.”

Azula’s smile cuts like a dagger, and fear runs down his spine. No discomfort on her face, even though Ananta is lounging on his hand. She’s smiling as she leans on his bed. And through the sheets, Zuko feels her fingers pry, searching for a hidden form. She finds what she’s looking for, her hand pressing down.

Rahmi squeaks, trying to escape Azula’s grasp, and Zuko’s heart beats faster. “Azula, stop it!” He pushes against her hand, and Ananta flies upwards, landing on his nose. The blue obscures his sight completely, Ananta’s beady eyes boring into his own, and now Zuko’s sweating, and shaking, and he feels sick, panic coursing through him. “Azula, stop! Stop!” He grabs at Rahmi with one hand blindly, while the other reaches up to pull Ananta away and then --

Azula’s looking at him with wide eyes, her expression dropping away, and suddenly, Zuko can feel the silky membrane in his hand. The daemon. He’s touching her daemon. He’s grabbing her daemon, practically crushing it.

He lets go.

Azula steps back for a moment, before her lip curls. Her fist tightens sharply around Rahmi’s form, choking her out.

He barely manages to cry out before a voice cuts through the air. “What is going on here?”

Azula retracts her hand quickly, so as not to get caught, and Rahmi burrows into his leg, clinging to him like a newborn koalacub. She’s trembling, and Zuko reaches a hand under his blanket to calm her down.

Ananta lands on Azula’s shoulder as a parrot-shrike, the blue disappearing as rapidly as it came. His previous form is no more, but Zuko will never forget it.

---

The next day, mother is gone.

From across the courtyard, a large butterfly daemon sits on Azula’s shoulder. Non-hybrid, rare. Size, remarkable. Color, prized.

It’s settled.

---

Three days after that, her fire burns blue.

---

[End notes:

Azula -- Anantachai (Thai name meaning "infinite victory", Ananta alone is "infinite/boundless"), Blue Morpho butterfly. Zuko -- Rahmi (Indonesian name meaning "mercy"), unsettled.

azula's daemon is a non-hybrid, which makes it exceptionally rare, and a sign of power. it may seem like it doesn't suit her, but consider the image of a giant blue butterfly silently flying ahead of her, an ominous symbol to come. her daemon is also... peculiarly quiet for a daemon, so take of that what you will. ozai doesn't consider her daemon to be a sign of weakness, due to its rarity. to him, it shows that she's simply that much more powerful, in that she'll never have to use her daemon in combat.]