Work Text:
“Zuko!” Azula may have just been getting this whole being verbal thing down, but her words already held an air of entitlement and command; fortunately her big brother didn’t mind.
“Hi Azula!” Zuko dropped the blocks he was stacking and ran over to see his baby sister who was sitting on their mother’s lap.
Her mouth widened into a bright grin as she reached up towards her brother’s face and buried her hands in his hair. A second later he gave a yell as she yanked him down toward her. She wanted to plant some spitty baby-kisses on his cheeks and he needed to be within reach for that to happen. Hurting him and getting a big reaction was just a bonus.
“Ow!” Zuko yelled, though he quickly softened his tone at the barrage of kisses, “Azula, that hurt!”
Ursa patiently reached down and unwound her daughter’s hands from Zuko’s hair, chuckling softly. She had such a forceful baby girl, much different from how timid Zuko was, even at her age.
“Now, now Azula, don’t hurt your brother,” she reminded, leaning down to kiss Zuko’s forehead herself, “She doesn’t mean it, honey, she’s just a baby.”
Finding her mother’s hand had trapped itself in her grasp, Azula quickly guided the unsuspecting fingers to her mouth to suck on.
“I know,” Zuko smiled, nodding, “It’s okay,” he returned the affection, kissing Azula’s cheeks, then nose.
After a moment of enjoying her children leaning on her together, Ursa stood up and carried Azula over to the pile of blocks, “Why don’t you play with your sister, Zuko? I need to go check something, can you keep an eye on her?”
Zuko sat down across from her, grinning with pride at being trusted with such an important task as watching his baby sister, “Yeah, I’ll make sure she’s safe, mom! I promise!”
“Thank you, Zuko,” Ursa sat her daughter down and pulled her hand away, “I’ll be back in just a few minutes,” she assured them before exiting the room.
Azula looked with interest at the stack of blocks that Zuko had made earlier. It was nearly taller than herself. But it wouldn’t be for long. Aiming for the second block of the stack, Azula pushed her little hands into the tower, sending all the blocks tumbling down with a clatter. Pleased with her result, she giggled happily and kicked her feet.
“Azula! My blocks!” Zuko’s voice held no anger, and he was barely keeping back a laugh himself- this would be a great game.
Quickly stacking them back up, Zuko pulled his hands out of the way just in time as Azula sent them crashing over.
“My blocks!” he mock wailed, happy to see the joyful expression on his baby sister’s face.
It was a game they’d play for hours at a time until Azula got old enough to be bored by knocking over her brother’s toys; eventually she’d want to find more creative ways to ruin his things and actually make him upset. But this was fun for them both for now.