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English
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Published:
2023-09-18
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1,255
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1/1
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Family Business

Summary:

“So. Body.” She prompts, and her voice cracks and shatters and it’s horrifying, but he doesn’t notice. Doesn’t care, most likely.
Zuzu takes an even deeper breath and holds it for a second, and then lets it out slowly. He nods, and blinks, and then sits up. She climbs off of him and kneels at his side, but he doesn’t bother with proper posture or anything.
“Here’s what I’ve got.” He says, and they plan.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes and other works inspired by this one.)

Work Text:

              Azula wipes the back of the hand holding her knife across a smear on her cheek, and straightens. She looks up and meets Zuzu’s big, round eye head-on.

“What?” She demands sharply, and then hesitates because she really should help him up but there’s –

“I need like. Fifteen minutes.”

“For what, a panic attack?”

“Yes!”

“No! You don’t – “

“Azula, you just murdered Dad! I think fifteen minutes to process is pretty reasonable!”

“We have a body to get rid of!”

“We have more than a body to get rid of!” Zuzu shouts back, and flings a hand at the –

Ah. Maybe, taking five minutes is a good idea.

“How am I supposed to get over to you, genius?” She asks sharply, and he just…blue-screens.

She waits it out.

“Um. Jump?”

“I don’t want to land on it.”

“I’ll catch you.” He says, and as unsure as he sounds, he pushes himself up and braces himself.

“I do not weigh enough for you to crouch like that.”

“I’m going to fall back anyway, this way we get hurt less.” He fires back, and she narrows her eyes at him, but he is shaking, and – well. So is she.

She sets her knife down gingerly atop the – the fabric – in front of her, and then smooshes herself as close to the wall behind her as she can get.

Her foot narrowly misses getting snagged on – on it. But Zuzu catches her and tumbles back and then holds onto her and –

He doesn’t get up immediately. She doesn’t get up immediately. One of them is trembling so hard her teeth are chattering. Zuzu’s arms are firm and warm around her, and he tucks her head under his chin and she growls into his chest but doesn’t move and –

Her hair is wet, by the time she’s finally stopped hyperventilating. Zuzu’s shirt is too, but when she squirms enough to sit up – he doesn’t let go of her, not really, not even then – he is staring up at the ceiling with his best I-don’t-have-emotions face on and breathing so evenly and deeply she knows it’s deliberate.

“So. Body.” She prompts, and her voice cracks and shatters and it’s horrifying, but he doesn’t notice. Doesn’t care, most likely.

Zuzu takes an even deeper breath and holds it for a second, and then lets it out slowly. He nods, and blinks, and then sits up. She climbs off of him and kneels at his side, but he doesn’t bother with proper posture or anything.

“Here’s what I’ve got.” He says, and they plan.

 

X

 

She suggests it first, and she expects it to be a fight. Everything between them is still so fragile and new and tense and they keep jumping like Dad is going to reanimate and climb out of the lake just to glare at them from around a corner, and some small part of her has already given up on their peace lasting.

She does not expect him to slump with relief over the dining table and moan out a thank god.

She stares at him, and he doesn’t move, and then she nudges the phone over to him because she’s not going to call if this is some kind of trap or something.

But he takes it without hesitation and smashes Mai’s number in and fifteen minutes later there’s a knock at the front door.

Ty Lee has a backpack stuffed to near bursting in her arms, and a manic grin on her face.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Mai says blandly, and something in Azula finally settles.

They can do this. They will do this.

 

X

 

And they do.

It’s unnervingly easy.

 

X

 

They clean the house and dispose of the evidence and put Dad’s jacket and his wallet and his phone in his car. Ty Lee takes his watch and smashes it in the backyard. They seal it up in a bag and then weigh it down with rocks and dump it with his body.

They work out their stories, and then Azula needles Zuzu into making popcorn and they watch shitty movies until they pass out.

In the morning, they iron out their stories, and set up a schedule for when they will start acting on their father’s disappearance. Mai and Ty Lee test them and quiz them and harass them until neither of them slips up, and they return the favor.

Then they go to school.

 

X

 

 They act like everything is normal, is the thing.

They have no reason to hide their father’s absence, so they don’t. They have no reason to follow Dad’s rules anymore either, so they don’t. They go to school and do their homework and attend their clubs and then order delivery for dinner and do all the petty little things they were never allowed to do when Dad was alive.

It takes Zuzu a week and a half to find evidence that Dad actually did murder Mom. They’re going through his room, and his study, poking and prodding at things. They’re both hesitant about it, jumpy, but fuck Dad.

“Shit.” Zuzu says, clearly, and Azula turns curiously to find him staring into a metal box. Inside is a picture of Mom, and a handful of trinkets – jewelry and ribbons and dried flowers – and a thick bundle of papers. There is also a polaroid of Mom lying prone on the ground, a pool of blood beneath her head.

Dad was a fucking moron.

“Oh, perfect. Now we have an excuse to call Uncle.” Azula says, and she’s afraid Zuzu will get – weird – but instead her brother brightens.

“Good call.”

 

X

 

“If Uncle doesn’t take us I’m going to become a serial killer.” She says.

“You could do that anyway.” Zuzu consoles her, and Azula has to fight the urge to giggle. She could, of course she could, and she still might – but the thought sits with her and keeps her sane through the parade of police and social workers and medics and investigators and Uncle’s weird friends that ensue.

Mom’s not dead, as it turns out. Azula loses interest when she hears amnesia. She declines to meet her, and Zuzu does too, expression pinched like he gets when Dad tells the truth. The officials get weird about it, but Uncle soothes them and given the whole amnesia thing, a whole other family and the obvious evidence of an unhappy home Dad wasn’t smart enough to hide –

“I’m proud of you.” Uncle says seriously, when they have finally been officially handed off to him, once he has them bundled in the back of his car with fast food in their hands and their belongings in his trunk.

“You could be a contract killer.” Zuzu says suddenly, like he’s just had an epiphany, and Azula should run damage control but she’s tired and spent and it’s a good idea, and Uncle has only ever pinged high on her threat radar for what he could tell Dad, so –

“I feel like that’s a hard industry to get into.” Azula replies.

“Not as hard as one might think.” Uncle says thoughtfully, perfectly calmly.

Grandfather’s death, Azula remembers, had been a little…fortuitously timed. She and Zuzu stare at each other, a whole conversation in minute facial tics and twitches.

“Do you have a friend, Uncle?” Zuzu finally asks.

“My ex-girlfriend.” Uncle says jovially. He never gets wistful about women, not unless he’s talking about the aunt she and Zuzu never met.

Maybe, Azula thinks, begrudgingly, they should have called Uncle sooner.

Notes:

Yeah so they get away with Ozai being 'missing' for literally months and end up calling Iroh before the school gets nervous enough to call/report about it. School faces some Serious Shit for that in the aftermath, so Iroh does switch them to a different school district (where...a particular pair of siblings attends...) and Mai & Ty Lee follow a couple months later, just after Azula's had enough time to terrorize everyone else into submission.

The ex-GF is June, who strenuously objects to being called such. Unfortunately that was Iroh's cover story to get her into the house w/Azulon back in the day, and Agni himself will descend on the earth before Iroh breaks his cover story smh.

Iroh inherits the family business that Ozai had been running in the aftermath, and he eventually dumps it on Zuko to retire, who promptly delegates most of it to Azula bc she needs a 'hobby', and as long as he remains the public face she's okay with it. His career becomes 'mascot' and he's totally okay with that.