Where to Reach (джен)

Crown Prince Zuko discovers his bending when he is five and his sister is three, and she’s the first person he tells, juggling a flame while she admires its beauty. When he shows the rest of his family, his mother’s chopsticks clatter to the table, and when Zuko looks to his father, his eyes are wide with shock.
His grandfather speaks first, the head of the table, and approval runs thick through his tone: “Well, look at that. A true prodigy, wouldn’t you agree, Ozai?”
“Indeed,” he hums.
//
(Princess Azula won’t summon her first flame—a guttering, timid thing—until she’s seven.)
//
Or, in a world where Zuko is the prodigy and Azula is the one banished, destiny shifts accordingly.