#'oh you talk about him like he's Zuko but what he did was much worse'
Text
.
#so the thing about Dara from the Daevabad trilogy is#or rather the thing about the fandom reception of Dara#is that I think he's neither a poor little meow meow nor an intolerable piece of garbage#and I think reading his EoG arc as 'Shannon Chakraborty caving in to Dara fans' does it a massive disservice#like yes he's committing atrocities while whining about how sad that makes him but simultaneously continuing to do them#but have you considered#that we're not supposed to uncritically agree with his perspective here#EoG gives us a lot of detail on Dara's personal history and thoughts and interior world#and yes part of that is seeing his perspective on the war crimes he committed#and - surprise! - he has ways of justifying those to himself to varying extents#and those justifications start to fall apart more and more#but it's still a PROCESS#like the point here is to trace the psychology of someone who committed a slew of atrocities#and to understand why that happened#why he did those things#that is NOT the same as excusing or absolving his actions#we're supposed to understand the internal logic of Dara's thought process but that doesn't mean we're meant to agree with it#Dara's story is about redemption and it's about how that is HARD#'oh you talk about him like he's Zuko but what he did was much worse'#I don't know how to explain this to you but Zuko's arc isn't the end of all redemption narratives#some people do bad things for reasons other than 'having the emotional maturity of a 13-yo and being goaded by your abusive father'#and the books make it very clear that he's not fully redeemed at the end#he's SEEKING redemption. he's at the START of that journey. and he's very aware that he doesn't know where or when it'll end#but that that end is still very far away#also I think it IS good and thematically important that he chooses his own punishment actually#in part because what he goes for very much leans towards restorative rather than punitive justice#but more (thematically) importantly because the horrible things that he did were all fulfilments of other people's orders#part of why he allowed himself to not take responsibility is because he 'just did what he was told to' 'he was just an instrument'#(this is bullshit of course)#but I think it's really important that his life from here onward
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
excerpt from in-progress "timebending with Zuko" fic
Zuko wakes up and everything hurts.
Most specifically, his scar hurts.
That . . . doesn’t make sense, he thinks, and reaches for it automatically. A strong hand catches his wrist before he can touch it, which seems–fair, yes. Probably a good idea, anyway, because spirits does it hurt. Just . . . so much.
“Uncle?” he asks reflexively, attempting to open his eyes. It’s surprisingly difficult. And Uncle is in Ba Sing Se, of course, but he’s on his back on a futon or bedroll or something similar and someone’s sitting beside him and his head is swimming and he’s injured, clearly, so options for who said “someone” might be are limited, really.
So it’s not Uncle, obviously, but . . .
“Nephew,” Uncle says, very quietly, and Zuko . . . blinks.
At least, half-blinks. The one eye’s in too much pain to open.
The ceiling is metal, he notes absentmindedly. That’s . . . odd. He was in the palace, wasn't he?
“What happened?” he asks, vaguely bemused. Uncle pauses in a very concerning way, and Zuko has about three heart attacks about just how badly he doesn’t want to know what he’s about to say before–
“The Agni Kai,” Uncle says, very carefully. “Do you remember it?”
Zuko frowns–just with the one side of his face, because again, his scar hurts right now. To the point that his whole body feels wrong, does his scar hurt right now.
“Um–which one?” he asks, because there’s been about a dozen this month alone, and frankly he’s getting really sick of fighting them at this point but if the old guard of nobles are just going to keep dragging everything out like this–
“With your father, Nephew,” Uncle says, very carefully.
Zuko . . . blinks.
“Oh,” he says, vaguely perplexed. Uncle never talks to him about that. “Yeah, I remember that. What about it?”
“Do you remember what happened?” Uncle says.
“The part where I disgraced myself or the part where he burned my face?” Zuko says, because it’s so fucked up and awful and horrible that he can’t even get upset about it anymore, except when he’s really upset about it. But if Uncle’s bringing it up, presumably he has a good reason to be, so . . . “Or the whole ‘go find the Avatar who no one even believes exists anymore or you can never come home again’ part?”
“. . . all of that, yes,” Uncle says, still sounding very careful. Zuko frowns a little–again with just the one side of his face–and then looks over at him. His body still feels weird and wrong, but . . .
But . . .
They’re on a ship, he realizes. A Fire Nation one.
Well, explains the metal ceiling.
It doesn’t explain why Uncle is wearing red armor and a topknot like he hasn't in years, though, or why he looks so unspeakably sad.
“Um,” Zuko says, and attempts to sit up. His head immediately starts swimming even worse, and Uncle catches his shoulders and keeps him pinned against the . . . futon? Looks like a futon, yeah. “Where are we, exactly?”
“We are aboard a ship,” Uncle says. “I . . . may have slightly commandeered it.”
“. . . you paid for it, right?” Zuko asks, a little skeptical at that idea.
“Yes, Nephew, I did,” Uncle says, giving him a very tired, pained smile. Zuko doesn’t feel much better, seeing it.
“Is someone dead?” he asks, because he can’t think of anything else that would make Uncle look that way.
“Ah–no, no one has died,” Uncle says.
“Then what’s wrong?” Zuko asks warily.
“. . . you are injured, Nephew,” Uncle says, slowly. Zuko frowns, bemused. “And your father . . . I did not know he was going to do this. I am so sorry.”
Zuko . . . pauses. Looks around the room again, and then realizes: he knows this room, doesn’t he. He knows this ship.
This is the same ship he woke up on after the Agni Kai.
“Hold that thought, Uncle,” he says, then lifts his hands and looks at them. They . . . well, they are his hands, obviously.
But they’re not his hands, obviously.
“Huh,” he says, frowning in bemusement at them; turning them around like he half-expects them to stop being a thirteen year-old’s or something equally ridiculous. They don’t. They are very definitely a thirteen year-old’s hands.
Specifically, his thirteen year-old hands.
Huh.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” he says after a moment, putting his hands back down and glancing back to Uncle, who’s obviously the more important concern. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I took you into that meeting,” Uncle says, his voice tight. “And I watched the Agni Kai. And I did nothing to stop any of it.”
“I know,” Zuko says. “But it wasn’t your fault.”
“It was,” Uncle says, his smile a sad and terrible thing. “You were there because of my actions. My mistakes.”
“You’re not the one who wanted to sacrifice all those soldiers,” Zuko says. “Or the one who decided to throw fire at my face.”
“You were there because of me,” Uncle repeats, his voice tight and his smile no less terrible. It occurs to Zuko, briefly, that Uncle must be thinking of Lu Ten.
He only ever looks like that when he’s thinking about Lu Ten, so . . .
“Uncle,” he says. “Really. It’s not your fault.”
“Nephew,” Uncle says, and his voice is somehow even tighter. Zuko tries to get up again, and his head swims again, and Uncle moves to stop him again. This time he grabs onto Uncle’s wrists and uses them to pull himself up, and then . . .
Well, then he’s sitting up, at least.
So that’s something.
He tilts his head and his hair slips into his eyes. It’s loose, and long. Not shaved on the sides yet, like he wore it the last time he was thirteen. He supposes he should cut it, but then again, why should he? He's not changing anything, after all.
Except for this conversation, he supposes, because that went very differently last time.
. . . hm.
"Uncle," he says one more time, and reaches out for him. Uncle doesn’t seem to understand what he’s trying to do, so he has to reach out a little farther, and then Uncle makes the connection and leans in and lets him wrap his arms around him and alright, yes: that’s better, Zuko thinks, and clings to him.
Just a little, perhaps, but . . .
Yes. He clings to him.
Uncle wraps his arms around him in turn, very carefully, and makes an awful sound.
“My boy,” he chokes. “I’m so–I’m so–”
“I forgive you,” Zuko lies, because of course there’s nothing to forgive.
But of course Uncle doesn’t understand that, does he.
4K notes
·
View notes
Note
HIII
ok so I know it says you do fem but r u also able to do gender neutral? If not, it’s ok!!
Anyways
Hcs of Zuko w a S/O who’s like, blunt as hell, and doesn’t rlly express emotions a big majority of the time lmao
‘Taken’- Zuko x female!reader
Masterlist <3
An: JASMIN DISAPPEARING FOR ANOTHER FEW MONTH?? Why’re you surprised?
Also, this isn’t gender neutral. I know you asked for it but I said on the guidelines that I’m only writing female :( I didn’t wanna blow off the whole request tho
Summary: hc’s of zuko and you being falling for each other - but both of you such at love.
Warnings: reader was meant to be blunt but idk how to be blunt.
A shrug.
That was all Aang got when he asked for your opinion on Zuko’s joining of the team.
(“Couldn't care less,” you said when questioned about it later, on the soft beach of ember island)
Truly, it didn’t make a difference to you
Yes he was needed - firebender and all - but it’s not like he’ll be teaching you right?
Wrong.
Turns out you can learn loads from just different fighting styles and stuff, and you were intrigued in the foreign moves
Zuko would 100% get worse at what he was doing under your scrutinising gaze.
I mean that's how he interpreted it
Really there was no emotion
The firebender definitely asked you about why you were watching - took much courage though (poor boy)
“You’re good at what you do.” you paused, “Sometimes,”
“Sometimes?” he rubbed his neck, confused.
“Yeah, sometimes I’m surprised a twelve year old beat you that easily,”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” you shrugged.
“You think you’re better than me?”
You cocked your head to the side, furrowing your eyebrows, “I think we both know the answer to that,”
So that’s why you're now in this position.
Zuko’s pinned under you, arms immobile, heaving heavily
“Fine! I surrender!”
“No, I won,” you said, getting up and dusting your clothes.
“Whatever,” he walked away
That very night, Zuko laid awake in his hard bed space, thoughts of you plaguing his mind. He replayed the spar like a thrilling movie, his heartbeat soaring as he recalls just how close you were to him.
He didn’t like the feeling rising in his heart, it felt like it was bursting. He placed pale, slender fingers onto the centre of his chest sighing heavily to attempt to rid himself of this awful feeling.
“You’re breathing too loud,” you whispered, careful not to wake other people in the room.
“What do you want me to do?” he frowned, sitting up, and matching the intensity of your glare.
“Breath like a normal person, not like a fish just discovering oxygen,”
Nothing better to describe his face than this: ._.
“Was that supposed to be a joke?” he whispered back, confused.
“Good night Zuko,”
He grinned, “It was funny,”
“GOOD NIGHT ZUKO” you whisper shouted.
You assumed he would relent, but the sleep deprivation mixed with the high of having a small (huge) crush gave him the confidence to talk to you just a little longer.
“Do you wanna fight me?”
“With the intention to knock you out? Sure.”
And now you’re both outside, and I guess he had the upper hand.
He wasn’t tired, and you were exhausted
Your muscles were fatigued, but you weren’t going to back down
After an embarrassingly short rematch, you’d found that Zuko had beat you, and you laid defenceless.
“I win,” he mocked, getting up.
“Did you really?”
He whipped his head back around, any faster would’ve given him whiplash, “Um? Yes?”
“Are you sure?”
“YES!?”
“Okay then, whatever you say,”
You rolled onto the sandy area, spreading your limbs with a heavy sigh.
Zuko looked up slowly at the sky, hesitantly nearing your resting body.
“I don’t bite prince,” you rolled your eyes.
“I wouldn't take your word for it,” he giggled.
You simply looked at him, not a glare though, or a smile or smirk or scowl or anything.
You seemed to be thinking about something, an internal war. On one hand, you wanted to reach out to him, pull him closer to you, tell him how you felt. And on the other, you didn’t want to. It was too mushy and feely for your character, you felt embarrassed you even thought about it. You looked away promptly, unable to conceal the frown on your features.
“You okay?” he asked, worry laced in his words.
“Sand’s not comfortable, it’s gonna give me a headache,” that wasn't a lie, it was disgustingly hard to get comfortable when laying on bare sand.
Zuko gathered up whatever confidence he had left, and scooted so he was sat criss-cross above where your head rested.
He gave a dopey smile, before opening his mouth to say something. You looked upwards at him, his grin contagious, contaminating your annoyed features.
“You could lay your head on my lap?”
Your heart skipped a beat, and you scooted up, carefully rested your head onto his body, a look on your face.
And after a little more staring, he came to realise what it was,
You were shy
All the signs pointed to it; your averting gaze, fidgeting fingers, feet working antagonistically from point to flat (like when you point your feet and then like put them how you stand idk how to describe it ), and your quickened breathing.
He leaned down slightly, his nose practically touching yours.
“Hi,” you breathed out, fighting the urge to look at his lips.
Who gave him this confidence ??????????
Sleep deprivation that's what
“Hi,”
You reached your fingers into his hair, slightly tugging down at him, trying to infer what your words failed to tell.
His eyes glistened with adoration, before fluttering shut as he contacted your lips.
The firebender’s lips were cut, you assumed maybe he did that, a stress coping mechanism you’d frequently told him to quit
When the kiss broke, neither of you moved.
You stayed on that beach the whole night - eventually even falling asleep.
You on his lap, and him lying down uncomfortable in order to keep your head comfy on his lap
Zuko woke up before you, rubbing his eyes as Katara came into view
She had been on a stroll, with the intention to swim, when she came across the scene
She’d never seen you look so soft, or Zuko look so tender
Her eyebrows flew up as she made eye contact with the boy, eyes snapping between your curled up figure and his sandy-hair covered face
Then furrowed again as she clocked in the scene
Zuko’s face glowed red as he realised Katara saw this, and even more so when he felt you shift, burying your head in his knee area to avoid the light of the scorching fire nation sun, a quiet groan leaving your lips.
A gentle smile tugged at the corners of the firebender’s mouth as he watched you intently, a blurry emotion behind his irises.
“Can I ask: what?” She whispered, eyes blown wide.
Her voice, albeit quiet, brought you out of your trance.
You yawned, spreading your limbs then covering your face from the sun.
Suddenly, you gained enough consciousness to acknowledge your surroundings, and you quickly opened your eyes, despite the blinding light.
A gasp left your lip as you sat up, making eye contact with the flushed fire bender.
“Good morning?”
“Hi.”
You said at the same time, an awkward silence over taking.
Your eyes suddenly followed a sound of shuffling - only to see katara standing there looking rather out of place.
“Hi.” She said.
“Hello,” you replied, embarrassed.
“I’m just gonna-“ she pointed off to the side, before basically running away.
You both watched her leave, then turned to look at eachother.
The fire bender was dazed in the view of you, the way your eyes twinkled, and your lips remained pouted.
But the way that your face was illuminated, despite not even facing the sun, you looked straight out of a movie.
He was so entranced, that zuko was convinced that if the moon was to see you - it would be jealous of your effortless beauty.
You, on the other hand, were about to slap him for staring.
You tilted your head to the side, so confused that a question mark could’ve popped up above your head.
Immediately he looked away, attempting to rid the feeling of his heart in his throat.
“Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to stare?
Bye he was so embarrassed
“Shut up.”
You narrowed your eyes, pushing him onto the sand so that he was under you,
“And what if I don’t?” You leaned in, whispering.
His heart was running laps, his mind equally pacing.
“Hm? What would you do?”
He sat quietly, eyes wide, as he took in the proximity. Your lips just looked so…
Hey is it just you or is he about to kiss you?
It’s not just you because he did!
It was a sweet, long lasting, testing the waters type of kiss
And that’s basically how you started dating
Did I or did I not get carried away?
Anyways now that you're dating !!!
Being his S/O was definitely something you could get used to
Zuko is absolutely the type of guy to give you constant princess treatment
He’d act like you’re already married - at this point you’re just missing the ring
He always made it a point to make sure you were fed and hydrated, warm too
Maybe he’d abuse that warmth power a little
You’d be lying in the same tent and he’d be like “Come closer you’re cold,”
“Zuko im room temperature im not cold,”
“No You’re cold come here,”
“Just say you want a hug,”
“Shut up,”
He tugged you closer so you laid against his chest unable to see his face - probably cuz he was redder than his tunic.
It was all the tiny things he did that get you really comfortable being affectionate
Even though he himself was shy, he knew he had to be the one initiating touch
Another instance is when you go eat - he'll ensure he sat closest to you, and always brush hands with you when passing you your bowl. Of course he thought he was slick when he would sit close enough so your knees touched - but you noticed.
You noticed but you didn’t tell him you noticed, you knew he’d be embarrassed if caught red handed.
As someone who felt like he was never enough, physical affection was something that really made an impact on him
Something as simple as tracing his scars with gentle fingers, or rubbing his arm soothingly after a particularly rough day
Although your words couldn’t convey how you felt, you weren’t raised to be touchy feely, you knew he understood what you meant
He could hear the words of affirmation even while you slept, he could feel the comfort radiating off of your curled body in his tent
He knew you felt comfortable around him, and that alone was a great achievement in his mind
Zuko was used to coming off as gruff and mean, but you know it was a facade - a coping mechanism
You knew he was the same thirteen year old mommy’s boy that he was years ago
These hc’s are so long 😨
You always made it a point to treat him gently - despite being such a blunt person
You found yourself holding your tongue more often, being nicer to people around you because you got used to only having compliments for Zuko.
Maybe, you’d even try to put your affections into words - and although not formulating like you wanted, with fumbling words and fidgeting hands - the thought was what counted
He knew being super fluffy was a struggle for you, and that you were trying your best to be your best for him
He could see your effort - and you could see his.
The gang definitely saw you as a weird pair at the start
They found out once they saw Zuko laughing, hiding his face and you smirked at him.
Your hands rested on his torso as you willed him to take you seriously
You just said he looked nice when he trained - you both know what you meant
His shirt was clinging to his skin and his hair stuck to his face - my man was just out of a movie scene.
After the gang had long dispersed, you spoke your mind.
This brought the shyness out
Unfortunately, it was Aang who saw the interaction
“Zuko? YN? What’s so funny?”
When the rest of your friends heard Zuko, YN, AND FUNNY in the same sentence, they peeked.
“Nothing,” Zuko mumbled, his ears tinting.
You flinched your hand away from him, coughing awkwardly.
“Wait a minute,” Sokka narrowed his eyes at you.
“Why’re you guys on the floor?” Toph asked.
Zuko lifted his head, looking at you with panic, you returned just the same
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “I don’t know..”
The prince looked to you for help, only to find you trying to hold back a laugh.
Your lips tucked inwards and eyes pointed downwards.
He looked forward again, side eyeing you so aggressively.
“What am I watching?” Sokka asked quietly.
“I wouldn’t know,” toph mumbled.
You were laughing as Katara seemed so puzzled, and yet so sure of what her discovery could mean.
“Wait a minute,”
“Well that’s my cue!” you got up abruptly, dusting your clothing before practically beelining to the house.
The group was left staring at Zuko, who was on the verge of burning you alive
Eventually they got it out of him
Jk they got it out of katara
“Wait, what were you gonna say?” Aang asked katara.
“I was just gonna ask about that one time she was asleep on his lap,”
Zuko looked like he was contemplating drowning himself
“SHE WHAT”
“Yeah on the beach before… like two days ago,” she paused, “What was that about?”
“Umm, she was sleepy?”
“Why didn’t you sleep in a room then?”
“…Fresh air.”
“Fresh air?”
“Fresh air. Mhm”
“And what about when you kissed?” Toph added.
She was blind, but she knew how to sandbend.
It just so happened that that night seemed to be a sleepless night all around, the young earth bender was perched on a small chair, where her feet could touch natural ground so she could experience the surroundings.
(Or because she wanted to know what you and Zuko were doing, she’s blind not deaf)
“W H A T” sokka yelled, everyone staring blankly at Toph.
“Yeah, two days ago, this very beach, sparring in the middle of the night… ring a bell Zuko?”
“Not at all.” He stood his ground.
“Cut the crap,” Suki giggled, “it’s obvious!”
“What’s obvious?” He played stupid.
“Tha-“ suki was cut off by the dramatic show Sokka was about to put on.
“Oh YN! You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met!” He twirled, “I just wanna-“ he made a loud kiss noise.
The gang erupted into laughter, mainly because of the poor fire boy's reaction. His face was not only red, no, his eyes were wide, his mouth agape.
He dropped his head into his hands and groaned.
“I think that’s enough teasing,” katara giggled.
Aang and her went off to go do- whatever they do.
Suki, sokka and toph remained. As they were busy laughing,
You overheard what he said as you were just around the corner, and decided to take a jab at his previous theatrics.
You walked up to them from behind, kicking sokka’s knees inwards.
He yelped as he fell to the ground, immediately looking up to the source.
You towered over him, the ghost of a smile on your face.
You paused, a rare smirk making an appearance on your face.
“I’m flattered, but unfortunately I’m not single,”
An: I’d like to imagine chaos would start here
#zuko x reader#zuko#prince zuko x reader#prince zuko#atla#avatar the last airbender#fluff#zuko fluff#zuko x you#atla zuko#zuko fanfic#zuko fic#zuko x f!reader#avatar zuko#zuko atla#zuko x y/n#zuko hc#zuko h/c#zuko headcanon#headcanon#headcanons#zuko angst#zuko atla angst#xreader#x reader#atla x reader
724 notes
·
View notes
Text
Union
Zutara Week 2023: Day 3
Read it on AO3 | @zutaraweek
Everyone seems to know that Zuko and Katara plan to get married someday. The only question left is when they'll finally get around to it.
For what feels like the dozenth time in a row, Zuko checks his own pocket. In his thick polar leopard fur parka, even a set of solid gold hair beads and combs is small enough, light enough to feel insubstantial. Still, he is aware of its presence. Almost too aware of it at times.
“I’m surprised the two of you haven’t gotten this all settled before now.” There is a familiar look in Hakoda’s eyes, the same one that Uncle gives him every time the subject of marriage comes up. A look of curiosity and impatience that usually comes just before another casual inquiry about when Zuko plans to marry Katara. But Hakoda isn’t quite as pushy as Uncle. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d decided to elope before you made it back to the South Pole.”
Zuko offers a sheepish shrug. “Apparently that’s not the proper way to do things. I’ve thought about it every day for months now, and I doubt Katara would have minded, but I don’t need to make her life any more difficult by proposing the wrong way.”
“And what about my life?” Kanna thumps her walking stick against the floor. “I’m not getting any younger here. If you two don’t hurry up, I’ll never get to meet my great-grandchildren.”
Hakoda frowns. “Mother.”
“It’s a fact of life, dear. We can’t all be King Bumi and live as many centuries as we please.”
“I’m going to ask her,” Zuko says. “Before we go north again, I swear.” His pulse quickens at the sound of his own admission, and he checks his pocket for reassurance. The engagement gift itself is as close to perfect as he can ever hope, but he’s less sure about his ability to actually propose. “I’m not sure about kids yet, but you’ll at least know if she wants to marry me before we leave.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that part.” Kanna waves a knobby hand at him. “I’ve known my granddaughter long enough to know the look she gets in her eyes when she’s made up her mind. She’s decided what she’s going to say. And frankly, I don’t think she would have dragged you all the way down here if it was no.”
Though Zuko’s heart still races, he manages a smile before Katara bursts into the house, cheeks flushed with cold, and hair glistening with ice crystals at its tips.
“There you are,” Kanna says. “We were just talking about you, weren’t we, boys?”
Zuko feels his face flush, and Katara looks from him to Kanna and back again. “Well, that’s always reassuring. Thanks, Gran-Gran.” Before there can be any further response, Katara grabs his hand and pulls back toward the door again. “I think we’re going to leave before you fill my boyfriend’s head with any more embarrassing stories.”
He makes no effort to resist, and before he knows it, Katara has led him out into the snow and halfway down the street toward the burgeoning waterbending academy.
“So how bad is it?” she asks, looping her mittened hands around his arm. “Did they tell you about the time when I froze all my dad’s underwear to the side of the council hut because he wouldn’t let me keep an otter penguin in our tent?”
His eyebrow creeps ever so slightly upward. “You did?”
“Okay, I’m going to take that as a no, and also as a sign that I need to stop giving away my secrets.” Still walking, she buries her face in his arm. “Stop me the next time I try to embarrass myself, okay?”
A snort bursts out of him. “I would, but I know for a fact that Uncle tells you so much worse about me every chance he gets. Even Sokka is too busy to tell me any embarrassing stories about you most of the time.”
“I’d really like to keep it that way.” They make it only a step or two farther before her mood seems to lighten again, and she pulls just far enough back to steer him around a corner. “Maybe you can come with me to watch waterbending lessons tomorrow instead of spending the whole morning alone with Dad and Gran-Gran.”
He certainly isn’t opposed to the idea. Any excuse to spend more time with her is always welcome, even if all that entails is sitting quiet at the sidelines while Katara guides a group of noisy, energetic children through their waterbending forms.
He agrees, and as Katara leads him past the bending academy, pointing out all the practice space and sparring areas, he checks his pocket one more time. The combs and beads still rest there, exactly where they should be, and Zuko lets out a long, slow breath. Two opposing impulses battle inside his chest—on the one hand, he’s been waiting to find the right moment, the perfect moment for weeks now. If she’s going to remember this for the rest of their lives, the least he can do is propose to her properly.
But on the other hand, his patience with himself is running thin, and the brilliant warmth of her enthusiasm strains his resolve to its breaking point. If he doesn’t ask her soon, he might well lose his mind.
So when their winding path takes them to the far side of the village, he can hardly bring himself to stop alongside her.
“Oh, spirits, we should probably go back before you freeze out here.”
“What?” Though his face tingles a bit when a breeze passes by, though he’s certain that his cheeks are crimson from the chill, he doesn’t feel cold. Not enough to turn back, at least. “No, I’m fine. It isn’t that cold.”
Katara raises an eyebrow.
“It isn’t,” he insists. “I was just—thinking.”
“About what?”
Under the intensity of her gaze, his mouth goes dry, and it takes all his will to keep from checking his pocket again. Instead, he nods toward the path leading out of the village. “I was thinking that there’s probably a great view from the hill over there. Especially around sunset.”
Her lips twitch into a crooked smile, and the grip on his hand tightens ever so slightly. “You do realize that the sun isn’t really going to set for a few more days, right? If you want to wait out there until sunset, you really will freeze.”
“In that case, I guess I can settle for half an hour. But I think you’re underestimating my ability to keep myself warm.”
“I could never. You’re the one who keeps my feet warm every night.” She bumps him lightly with her hip before starting up the path. “But you might be underestimating the South Pole’s wind.”
It’s all that Zuko can do to keep his composure as they make their way up the sloping path. But he waits, and when they reach the crest of the hill, Katara stretches before turning a brilliant smile back on him.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. Freezing or not, this view is worth it.”
Though Zuko has trouble focusing on the landscape, he can’t help but agree with her. The afternoon sun paints shining bronze streaks through her hair, and her eyes shine as bright as he’s ever seen them before.
He grasps her hand before she can go any further. “Katara—I wanted to ask you something.” His heart sits in the back of his throat. Despite her family’s confidence, despite his own suspicion that Katara will say yes, he can’t seem to push the worry away.
“Oh?” She looks up, and her gaze pierces him.
Silently, he thanks the spirits that it’s cold enough to keep his mittens on so that Katara won’t know how much his palms are sweating. He fumbles in his pocket until at last his fingers close around the little box of combs and beads. “Being with you has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Every day that we’re together, you mean more to me, and now—” He succeeds in extracting the box from his pocket and fumbles to turn it right side up.
Before he can finish, Katara lets out a squeak of surprised excitement and claps her hands to her mouth. “Yes. Yes, of course I will.”
Zuko blinks, and a surprising amount of tension leaves his chest and shoulders all at once. “You—you realize I haven’t finished the question yet. Right?”
“Oh! Right, I knew that.” She makes an apparent effort at bringing her expression back under control, then motions for him to continue. “Go on.”
Despite his best effort at solemnity, a smile breaks across his face. “I’m not sure I can remember what I wanted to say anymore. I swear I had this all planned out yesterday.” Looking down, he clears his throat and slides open the richly engraved lid so that she can see the beads and the combs lying in neat rows inside their case. “But I love you, Katara. And even if I can’t remember the right words, I would be honored if you would marry me.”
This time, Katara isn’t content to merely smile at him. This time, she springs forward and throws her arms around his neck. “Yes. Of course I’ll marry you.”
Zuko laughs, and as his arms close tight around her waist, the world seems to slow.
Right now, with Katara in his arms and the future opening up around them, all the urgency in the world is gone.
#zutara#zutara fanfiction#zutara week#zutaraweek#zutara week 2023#zutaraweek2023#Union#soopersara's scribbles
57 notes
·
View notes
Text
hopelessly devoted
Summary: Danny had been crushing on Y/n since they started high school, when he finally told her, he was over the moon when she agreed to a date.
Warnings: swearing, NSFW, adult themes, based of GREASE (1978), p n v, Oral female reeving,
Pairing: Danny Zuko x Fem! Reader
Y/n is no girl Danny's ever seen before, she's absolutely different compared to the rest of the girls that went to Randell High School. She didn't care about skirts or frilly dresses; she got her hands dirty while looking gorgeous at that. Danny was head over heels.
He was at lunch with Kenickie, Soony, Doody, and Putzie.
"Guys, she's just, ugh!" Danny said, trying to get them to understand where he was coming from. "She just effortlessly gorgeous," he finished.
"Man, really sounds like you're in love with this girl," Kenickie commented, smothering his cigarette against his boot.
"Hey, hey, maybe you should get her to, ya know..." Danny glared at Soony,
"Is that really all you think about?"
"You bet!" Kenickie shoved him away before turned back towards Danny,
"Look, here she comes!"
"Stupid skirts," Y/n groaned, Frenchie wasn't too far.
"Well, my suggestion is to wear shorts under your shirts so don't feel so exposed," she explained.
"You think that's a good idea?"
"Uh-huh, Rizzo did it all the time when were in the 7th grade, I did it too when I was younger. My daddy always told me to because boys were gross," she explained.
"Heh, they are," Y/n agreed. There was one boy that she could never think that about and that was Danny Zuko, he was something she couldn't explain.
"Hey, Y/n are you all right?" Frenchie asked, noticing Y/n dozing off into space.
"Uh, oh yeah, Frenchie, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You were all up in the clouds," she explained. Y/n only nodded before glancing at the bleachers where Danny was staring at her. She gave him a wave and soft smile before continuing down the path with Frenchie.
Danny watched until they were out of view, "She's just...too good for me."
"Huh?" Kenickie, Doody, Soony, and Putzie exclaimed.
"What do you mean she's too good for ya?" Doody asked confused.
"Y/n is...Y/n and I'm...me, she's too good for me."
"That's why you make her worse!" Soony concluded.
"No," Kenickie shoved him slightly. "Danny, you and I have been friends for a long time. Y/n, she's the best for you, believe me!"
"I do, I really do but she'll never say yes to a date with me."
"Well, you never know until you ask her," Putzie pointed out. Danny glanced back in the direction where Y/n and Frenchie had left,
"You know what, you're right!" he smiled, "I got this!'
"Yeah, you do!" Kenickie encouraged as Danny headed down the bleachers. There is one spot where they would be and that's with the other Pinks. He came up to them,
"Hey, ladies," he said as nonchalantly as he could. Stuffing his hands in his pockets; Y/n glanced up a smiled,
"Hey, Danny, what's up?" Marty asked, Danny shrugged.
"Nothing much; hey, Y/n, can I talk to you?"
"Sure, what about?"
"Um...it's more of a just you and me conversation, if that's alright," she nodded and followed him away from the lunch tables. Danny spun around to face her,
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I uh...wanted to ask if you would like to go and get a bite with me tonight?"
"Like a date?"
"If that's what you want then sure, why not?" Y/n paused for a moment; Danny felt like he was sweating buckets.
"Sure," she smiled. Danny almost let out a sigh of relief when Y/n put her hand up, "You have to meet my parents first, is that okay?" Danny glanced over and saw that no one was watching so he nodded,
"Yeah, that's okay. I pick you up at five?"
"See you," she began to walk away.
"See ya," he whispered under his breath. When she was out of ear shot, he screamed to the sky. Kenickie, Doody, Soony, and Putzie emerged from their hiding places. Kenickie slightly lifted Danny off his feet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny stood outside Y/n's house; he knocked a few times before the door opened. A woman that looked a lot like Y/n but older opened the door, "You must be Danny, come in," she greeted. The woman let Danny in the house as he looked around, "Y/n, your date is here!"
"One moment!" Y/n called from upstairs, Danny turned and was now facing her father.
Alright, Danny don't mess this up.
"Hi, Mr. L/n, I'm Danny Zuko."
"I've heard about you, you're taking my daughter out, where?"
"Well, I was hoping that we could go to the diner in town and catch a movie at the drive-in." The older man nodded before speaking,
"Bring her home no later than midnight, understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"No funny business!"
"Yes, sir."
Y/n emerged from upstairs, "Dad, stop scaring him." Danny turned around and he felt his jaw drop, Y/n was wearing jeans with a long-sleeved blouse.
"Are you ready?" Danny asked, feeling the glares of her father behind his back.
"Uh-huh," she followed him out the house.
"Use protection!" her mother yelled, causing Y/n to blush in embarrassment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny and Y/n were at the movies; the diner was a bit packed but nice since Danny and Y/n were up at the top and no one else was.
Danny had his arm wrapped around Y/n's shoulders; she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Danny," she whispered. "I had a lot of fun tonight," he smiled.
"I did too, baby," he turned towards her. He paused glancing down, her breast right at the best angle. Danny soon felt his jacket being tugged on as his lips were met with Y/n's. "Fuck, Y/n."
"Danny," she whispered.
Y/n tugged on Danny's shirt; he quickly tore it off his body throwing it in the back. He ran his hand down her chest to the rim of her shirt, pulling it over her head.
"Do you have a condom?"
"Uh-huh," his voice muffled against her mouth as he continued to pull at her clothes. "Baby, let me see," he groaned. He pulled away, her hair was disheveled; he glanced down pulling at her bra, managing to unclasp the back and pull it off her.
"Danny," she whispered. He glanced up, seeing the nervousness across her face.
"Don't worry, Baby, nothing is going to happen, promise," he kissed her cheek.
He tugged on his jeans while simultaneously kicking off his shoes. Danny lifted her hips, so he rubbed against her, she moaned, gripping his shoulders as her nails dug into them.
"Baby, you're driving me crazy," he moaned as he slipped the condom on and shoved himself into her.
"Danny!"
"Fuck, fuck," he hit her neck trying to silence himself which caused her to moan more. He thrusts began to pick up as Y/n wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him back into a harsh kiss. "you're so beautiful," he moaned. "Fuck, Y/n, I love you."
"I love you too, Danny," he looked up at her. He smirked leaning his head against her shoulder and continued to thrust into her. "I need you," she whispered.
"You can have me, have all of me."
"Y/n," he groaned as seed filled the condom. She whined as he pulled out, "Let me help." She nodded as he tossed the condom out the window and lifted Y/n's legs, so her vagina met his face. "You sure you want to do this?"
"Yes," she agreed.
"Okay, if it gets too much just say stop, okay?" she nodded. Danny shoved himself in, Y/n screamed in delight as his lips met her. His tongue did its magic, swirling and teasing her until she came undone,
"Danny I... I can't," she moaned. He continued faster and harder until she came against his face. He whipped it away with a napkin before pressing his lips against hers.
"Baby, you're one of a kind," he chuckled.
Y/n glanced at the clock on the dashboard, "Danny, I have to get home, it's getting late."
"Sure, baby, sure," he shoved his clothes back on and helped her back into hers before starting the car and heading out of the drive-in. "I had a really nice time tonight," he confessed.
"I did too," Y/n paused as Danny pulled into her driveway. " She glanced back at him before placing a kiss on his cheek, "Bye."
"Bye, see you."
"See you."
Y/n quickly rushed back into the house as Danny drove out of the driveway with a big smile on his face.
#x reader#reader insert#fanfic#grease#danny zuko#john travolta#1970s#1970s movies#fanfiction#movies#love this movie
242 notes
·
View notes
Text
absolutely ravishing - maiko week ’24 day 3/4
prompts - jealousy / parents
inspired by this tweet by kvohru 'maiko headcanon zuko puts baby izumi's hair into mai's buns anytime he pisses mai as a way of silly apology/getting her to soften up & talk to him WALK WITΗ ΜΕ'
in which maiko go to a party and mai feels left out. baby izumi is the cutest. zuko is a good father. amongst other things lol.
It was a lovely, sunny morning, and Mai was pissed off.
Normally, this wouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary—after all, she was famously ‘angry at the world’, but this was different. Today, Mai was pissed at the Firelord.
Also known as her husband.
He was, admittedly, unsure as to what he’d done to warrant her annoyance today, but he didn’t want to risk upsetting her further by asking. God, no. He’d rather pluck every hair off his body than have Mai think he was an inattentive, dismissive, careless husband who didn’t care about his gorgeous, beautiful wife! He was better than that, thank you very much. So he did the next best thing and tried to rack his brain, thinking over his actions over these past few hours.
Okay, he thought, pulling out a teapot from the cupboard. This mood started at, like, 8 pm last night? He put on some water to boil, falling into that familiar rhythm of making tea.
Because he was the Firelord, he rarely had the chance to do things for himself, and while that was an insane privilege he frankly enjoyed, it was nice to take a break from everything and just be with his family, away from the hubbub of the palace.
Hence this vacation at Ember Island.
The moment he realised he had a few off-days in his calendar, he decided to plan for him and his wife to go on vacation.
He let the teapot boil and started on breakfast. Rice for the rice porridge, what remained of the dumplings and steamed buns they’d bought, and whatever else he could find. Oh, and eggs and chopped fruit for baby Izumi.
He smiled at the thought of their pudgy little 9 month old. She was just starting to speak, though that mostly came in the form of incoherent babbling with the occasional Mama. Yeah, she called them both Mama.
And yes, Zuko was a teensy bit sulky about that, but I digress.
Just as he was about to put his hair up and start on breakfast, he heard that distinct baby voice he was just thinking about. He glanced at the clock— yup, 7.30 a.m., on the dot. Izumi was awake.
Right now, it was usually a race with time. He had a very short window of time before Izumi’s good-tempered giggles would turn into wailing screams, and he was determined not to wake Mai up any earlier than she needed to be.
She was on vacation and she deserved to rest.
Also, she was mad at him. So. He really didn't need to make it worse for himself.
“I’m coming, darling,” he called out in a whisper when he was close enough, crossing the distance in long strides. At the sight of that little girl in her crib, all chubby limbs and big golden eyes, he smiled and reached to grab her. “Hi, baby,” he whispered, nuzzling into that space between her cheek and shoulder and kissing her. “D’you sleep well?”
She made an incoherent baby noise and happily grabbed a strand of his long hair, which was, positively, one of her favourite pastimes, it seemed. He winced, regretting not putting it up earlier. “Let’s get you changed,” he said, trying to untangle her fingers from his hair— that is, trying to undo that vice-like grip babies seemed to have. I mean, at least that meant her fine-motor skills were good? Pincer grip, and all, right?
She didn’t let go. He sighed.
“Sweetheart, you need to let go so I can get you out of this nasty diaper.”
She didn’t budge.
“Don’t you wanna change so we can surprise Mama with breakfast? We won’t have time if you keep this up.” Just as he had begun to suspect that reasoning with a nine month old was a lost cause, she actually let go.
“Mama!”
“Oh, of course that’s what gets you to let go!” He clicked his tongue.
She giggled again, and, instead of grabbing his hair, she valiantly took to doing her other favourite pastime. Which was just, like, smacking him on the face repeatedly.
Think like, someone clapping their hands, but instead it’s just his face between her hands.
Since he was almost always on morning duty, this was more or less how every morning went.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Finally, after much trials and tribulations (i.e. Zuko violently getting his hair pulled and cheeks pinched), Izumi was changed into an adorable onesie and strapped into her high chair in the kitchen.
Oh, also, the water had completely evaporated in the time it took them to do all that, so he needed to refill the teapot. “What would Uncle think if he sees this,” he grumbled, opening the window to let the steam out.
Now that that was all over with, he was again plagued with the fact that Mai was mad at him, and he didn't know why! So, being the mature Firelord he was, he decided to take that issue to council.
“Your mom is mad at me,” he said to Izumi, quickly tying his long hair back and away from his face, in a loose bun at the bottom of his head, and rolling up his sleeves.
Izumi babbled excitedly and kicked her feet at the reference of her mother. “Mama!”
“Yup, that’s the one,” Zuko agreed, chuckling. He pulled out a bamboo steamer and started preparing the dumplings and steamed buns, planning on letting them steam while he washed and cooked the rice. “Anyway, as I was saying, Mama is mad at me, but I don’t know why. I tried asking her last night, of course, but she said she was ‘fine’, which is, obviously, a blatant lie.”
He cut up some fruit on a plate for Izumi to hold her off while everything else was ready. He had approximately twenty minutes until Mai got up, which he figured would be enough.
“I can’t really recall doing anything to upset her last night, and I don’t even know when she got upset, you know? She was fine and then she suddenly wasn’t!” He finished washing the rice and transferred it over to a pot to cook. Drying his hands, he continued, “But” —he turned to Izumi seriously, crouching down to her eye level— “of course, me not remembering or knowing why Mai is upset does not mean that I am not at fault!” He cupped Izumi’s cheeks, interrupting her mid-chew. She grinned happily at him with her whopping six (!) teeth. (New development, by the way). He continued, determined to set a good example for his daughter, “Even if I don’t understand why Mama’s upset — even if she has told me, and I still don't get it — she still deserves an apology, because at the end of the day, I upset her, and that’s all that matters. Understood, Firelord Izumi?” He playfully pinched her little nose (which was identical to her mother’s), and she giggled, reaching for him with fruit-sticky hands.
“Anyway…” and so he continued, thinking out loud with his daughter and trying to puzzle out the reason for his darling wife’s anger at him, all while making breakfast for their family of three.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
“Mai, come on, we'll be late!” Zuko called out, fastening his red robes around his waist.
“Well I don't know what to wear!” she called back from her place in the closet, frustrated.
“It doesn't matter! You look—”
“—And I love you, but you telling me that ‘I look beautiful in everything’ does not help!”
Zuko sighed. He'd dressed himself and Izumi in the time it took for his darling wife to… affectionately, make a mess of their closet and complain about having nothing to wear.
Placing Izumi in her little chair, he said with an affectionate roll of the eyes, “Yeah, yeah, I'm coming.”
“Is this good?” Mai asked, bashfully, when Zuko rapped his knuckles on the closet door and walked in, leaning against the doorframe.
He breathed out. She looked beautiful.
She was wearing a long, pretty, dark red dress that hugged her curves and flared out at the bottom. It had a row of buttons that sloped from the neckline down to her side, and dainty golden embroidery that matched her eyes and the gold and red fan earrings she wore. Her hair was in the usual hairstyle she'd adopted in her adult years— half of it in an elegant bun at the back of her head towards her nape, and the rest in two strands over her shoulders and down over her chest.
He noticed she put two beautiful gold pins through the bun.
“Do you like it?” she asked again, and he had an inclination her rosy cheeks weren't just due to an excess of powder blush. She adjusted it over her hips. “Is it too tight? It doesn't fit the same since” —she bit the inside of her cheek, averting her eyes and smoothing the fabric over her stomach— “Izumi.”
Zuko moved closer, slipping an arm around her waist and pulling her against him. Her hands went to his chest automatically, a familiar affection built over years of being together. “You look,” he rasped, hoisting her up by her waist and wrapping his arms around her middle, “absolutely ravishing.”
He craned his neck and caught her bottom lip between his teeth, kissing and gently tugging back. She wrapped her legs tighter around her and grinned despite herself, cupping his cheeks and looking down at him. One thing she enjoyed about being carried was the limited height she gained over Zuko.
She leaned down and kissed him again, their lips interlocking in an easy embrace. “Are you sure? You're not just saying that to get me to hurry up?” He could still hear a hint of unsurety in her low, raspy voice.
“Positive,” he responded in kind, slanting his lips over hers, “but if you don't want to go…” his hand slipped down her back to her ass.
She rolled her eyes without any heat, picking up on his very obvious implication. “Alright, horndog. Hands off.” She hopped down and adjusted her dress before looking up at him through her lashes and, teasingly, parroting back, “We'll be late.”
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
The sight Mai was met with when she walked downstairs was, she thought, a sight she could never get bored of. It was such a quintessential picture of domesticity she, at one point in her life, could've never imagined would've been hers.
Her husband in the kitchen making breakfast while their daughter sat beside him, babbling incoherently the way babies did.
“Really?! And what after that?” he asked animatedly, humouring said daughter while still focused on the plate he was assembling. Mai exhaled softly, leaning against the doorframe and just watching.
Watching her husband’s overly focused face as he diligently placed the fresh steamed buns onto a plate using chopsticks, a furrow in his dark brows and his hair tied back, all the while nodding along with Izumi’s story (which was, of course, all adorable gibberish).
And Izumi, who was sitting in a high chair and shoving eggs into her mouth using her entire fist, no doubt making a mess around her. What struck her though was Izumi’s hair, which was in two little buns at the sides of her head, and the front was smoothed over her head in a silly imitation of a fringe.
Mai bit back a smile.
This was obviously Zuko’s attempt at recreating Mai’s infamous hairstyle on their daughter. Which was a regular occurrence.
“Mai!” Zuko had finally noticed her.
Even after all these years of being together, and a whole child together, he still had a way of lighting up so genuinely every time he saw her. And no, this is not a firebending pun.
The way his eyes widened in an almost child-like excitement and his immediate awestruck kind of smile that made him resemble his sixteen year old self were almost enough for her to forget the fact that she was upset with him. Almost.
He set down the food, which was all ready now, and wiped his hands before walking up to her. “Sleep well?” he asked gently, tilting her chin up to kiss her. His touch was feather-light, so she could tell he was hesitant. Clearly, he hadn’t nor was he pretending to have forgotten about her mood, so. One point for him.
She let him kiss her, and she kissed back, because over their years of being together, one of the things she realised was that dealing with conflict did not mean that they had to rescind their love from each other— and especially for them two, whose primary language was physical touch.
“I slept pretty well,” she replied, her raspy voice full of that polite disinterest most people were used to hearing from her. To someone else, maybe, this wouldn't have been any cause for concern or anything out of the ordinary, but Zuko was immediately alarmed.
He could always tell.
So she's still upset. That was fine. He hadn't really expected otherwise. In fact, this was good for him, because there was no chance she could dismiss his questions about it now and say that ‘Oh, it's nothing, don't worry about it’.
They sat down to eat, and after a moment of awkward silence that made him feel like a seventeen year old in an argument with his girlfriend (also Mai) again, he broke.
“What did I do?” he blurted out. It wasn't an accusatory or patronising or deliberately obtuse question in any way. He sounded painfully earnest. “I know I did something to upset you, but I just… don't know what it is. I'm sorry. I tried to think, but I still don't know. I love you. Please tell me.”
If any of his friends could see him right now, the high and mighty Firelord, practically (unintentionally) giving his wife puppy eyes, they'd probably say he was pathetically in love.
And they'd be right.
Mai sighed and put her chopsticks down.
Another thing she'd realised over the years was that, as corny as it sounded, communication really was key. There was no use going in circles and beating around the bush and waiting for the other person to figure it out. Sometimes—most times—you just needed to have the conversation and move on.
Butttttt that doesn't mean that she didn't enjoy making him sweat sometimes. Most times.
“Last night,” she supplied. “At the party.”
“Yeah, I figured,” he responded without missing a beat, spooning a bit of dumpling into Izumi's mouth. “Good, huh?” He grinned when she got all excited and signed more. He directed his attention back at Mai, “Sorry. Keep going, baby.”
She feigned frustration, turning her face away from him while stroking Izumi’s hair, playing with the tiny buns. The feeling of the soft sprouts of hair between her fingers almost made her crack a smile. She knew it was Zuko's way of softening her up, but she didn't crack, wanting to make him sweat a little longer.
She shrugged nonchalantly, saying, “Your little… girlfriend was there last night. You didn't tell me she'd be there.”
He blinked. “Jin?!”
Mai scoffed. “Still on a first name basis, huh?” She shook her head in bewilderment, muttering, “You'd think the Firelord would have some respect for his wif—”
“Darling,” he breathed, interrupting her, in so much theatrical disbelief she almost laughed. He was so dramatic. He left his chair and immediately went to kneel in front of her, taking her hand in his.
Out of everything he could've guessed, it never would've been this. Mai was never jealous—not of his old girlfriends (just the one), that is. And of course, he wasn't faulting her for that or anything, but it was just… unexpected.
They'd met Jin the previous night unexpectedly at the party, and having already been well acquainted years ago (and having gone to Jin's wedding and having invited her to theirs, and having had Jin visit them on numerous occasions, the most recent being Izumi's birth), he'd safely assumed that speaking to Jin was fine. Right?
I mean, come on, Jin and Mai were closer than Jin and Zuko ever had been! They'd gone on one date, for God's sake!
But he wouldn't dare discredit Mai's feelings, no matter what.
“Did I say something specific that upset you? Or was it just the fact that I was having a conversation with her to begin with?” he asked, stroking her cold knuckles with his thumb, the contrast between their body temperature making him want to just scoop her up and take her to their bed to warm her up. In any means necessary.
Again, his question was nothing more than earnest.
“I… don't know,” Mai answered honestly, because even though she thought she didn't really care, she realised that she really was a little hurt, still. She had, of course, had time to think about it the previous night in the shower, and she'd come to the conclusion that while, yes, she was a little hurt at him barely paying any attention to her the whole night, busy both with Jin and everyone else who kept flanking him for a chance to speak with the Firelord, it was mostly the hormones speaking and after taking a little time to cool down, she understood that her feeling left out didn't mean that he was intentionally leaving her out. “I guess I just felt a bit jealous. And left out.”
“Mai…”
She squirmed. Even after all these years, she still felt that vague discomfort in the pit of her stomach when vocalising her feelings.
She rushed to say, “I know it's nothing and that you love me and that you're the Firelord and it's your duty to—”
“I am your husband before I am the Firelord,” he fiercely interrupted and pulled her down to join him on the floor. The gentleness of his touch contrasted the tone of his voice, both determined and desperate. “I am yours before I am anyone else's. My duty is to you, first and foremost, and I was wrong to neglect you in a party I brought you to. We came here to relax— to enjoy time away from all that Firelord bullshit, but I still found away to sink back into that role.”
“Zuko,” she said quietly with a hint of a smile, leaning into him and looping her arms around his neck, “it really isn't that big of a deal.” She kissed him sweetly once, his arms instantly going around her and pulling her closer against him. “I was just hormonal.” Then with an adorably teasing smirk that Zuko wanted to kiss off her face, she jested, “You can stop with the melodrama now.”
He huffed a laugh and spoke sincerely against her lips, “Still. I don't care if it was ‘the hormones’. I still upset you, and I'm sorry.”
“It wasn't a big deal,” she insisted, but deep down, she was really glad he cared so sincerely for her feelings.
“Don't care. I'm still sorry.”
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the smile and the rumble of laughter in her chest. “Fine, you drama queen.” She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. “I forgive you.”
He ran his tongue across her bottom lip, one side of his lips tugging up in a smirk. “So soon?” he murmured against her, slipping his fingers in her long silky hair. “I was ready to make it up to you.”
Before the kiss could escalate any further—their daughter was right there, hello?—Mai pushed Zuko away, laughing. “Are you in heat?” she asked, giggling.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “For you? Always.”
She shook her head with laughter and pulled him up to stand. They made a good couple.
#maiko fanfic#maiko fic#pro maiko#atla maiko#maiko#maikoweek2024#maikoweek#mai atla#mai x zuko#fire lord zuko#zuko#zuko x mai#atla fanfic#atla#avatar fanfiction#avatar#avatar the last airbender#fanfiction#ao3#ao3 fanfic#tooth rotting fluff#fluff#fluffy#maiko fluff#maiko fanfiction#domestic fluff
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
as promised. the first 1k words of aidays10:
“Jet,” Sokka repeats. Nearly chokes on it.
He thinks, fleetingly, terribly, that this must be how wild animals feel before an earthquake.
“It’s good to finally meet you, Sokka,” Jet says. Something icy prickles up Sokka’s spine at the sound of his name in Jet’s mouth. “Zuko’s told me a lot about you.”
Jet is handsome, athletically built, and his smile drips charm like venom on the fangs of a snake.
Sokka’s gaze shifts to Zuko and finds him looking right back, his cheeks burning red.
“I would’ve let you know,” Zuko says, uncharacteristically shy, “but we were already running late –”
“And I can’t say no to a party,” Jet – fucking hell, breathe, Sokka – says. “I hope I’m not crashing.”
Sokka can feel everything starting to bottleneck inside him; all the feelings – the shock, the fondness, the anger, the bone-deep wanting – trying to overwhelm him at once. There’s no time to breathe, no time to think through any of it, no time to process.
The world is ending, and Sokka is still shaking the guy’s fucking hand.
He needs another drink.
“No, it’s, um –” Sokka clears his throat. It doesn’t help. “You said it yourself, man, it’s a party. The more the merrier.”
Jet opens his mouth to speak again, anxiety grips Sokka’s heart in a tight fist –
Someone bumps into Sokka, and he drops Jet’s hand to steady them by the shoulders. Ty Lee giggles as she thanks him. Her lips are the colour of sparkling rosé.
She’s still laughing as she says, “This place looks amazing, thanks so much for inviting us!”
“Thank you for coming,” Sokka says, manners tumbling out on autopilot. He’s not even sure if he means it, it’s just what he knows he’s supposed to say. He needs to get out of here, before he says something stupid – or worse, something he does mean.
“I see you’ve met Jet,” she preens, “isn’t he just a peach?”
She smacks a loud kiss onto Jet’s blushing cheek. He doesn’t wipe away the smear of lipgloss she leaves behind.
“Oh, he’s a charmer,” Sokka says, scanning over her head for a way out, any way out of this nightmare.
Jet starts to say, “Well, I –” when Sokka finally spots an opening. Katara, standing by the bar, waiting to be served. Her fingers tap out a rapid beat on the glass display case.
Sokka puts on the most apologetic smile he can muster and does not look at Zuko. “Would you excuse me? I think my sister needs me for a minute.”
“Oh, I know all about that,” Ty Lee says, and a laugh spills from Jet’s mouth, like it’s an inside joke.
“Good!” Sokka says, in response to nothing but the anxiety bubbling in his blood. “Great. Thanks. Uh –” He snags Aang by the arm on his way past, presumably also heading for Katara, and turns him to face Ty Lee and Jet and Zuko. “This is my best friend, Aang. He’ll give you guys a tour, okay?”
Aang throws Sokka a bewildered glance over his shoulder, asking with his eyes, I will?
Sokka gives him a pleading look, hoping to high heaven that no one else sees it, and Aang plasters on a crooked grin. Right before he slinks away, Sokka hears him ask, “Did you know the Dance Dance Revolution here has the Star Wars soundtrack?”
Sokka doesn’t falter a single step on his way to Katara, even when he’s sure he can feel eyes on his back. He just throws back the rest of his drink and keeps walking.
Katara is ordering when he reaches her. He tells Haru, “I’ll have what she’s having,” because if he knows his sister at all, she’s having something strong and evil.
“You don’t like what I drink,” Katara says, as Haru sets down four shot glasses. “In fact, I believe the word you use for what I drink is yucky.”
“That’s because what you drink is basically moonshine,” Sokka says. “And moonshine is yucky.”
“Coward,” she says. Haru pours, and she raises a shot glass. “Bottoms up.”
Sokka taps his shot against hers with a quiet, plastic clink, and drinks before he can talk himself out of it. He holds his breath and chases it with the second one.
The burn is cruel and merciless and exactly what he needs. It grounds him. Gives him something to focus on that won’t send him into a spiral of what if and maybe and should have.
He buries his head in his hands.
Katara scoffs. “That yucky?”
Sokka groans and looks up. He glances over his shoulder. Aang is at the concession stand explaining the intricacies of the Suki-related pun names of each menu item to Ty Lee and Jet and Mai, who Sokka swears wasn’t there when he left them, and –
Zuko is looking right at him.
That spiral starts up again, deeper than before.
Sokka looks away.
There’s another shot in front of him. He takes it, to clear his head, to cloud his inhibitions.
He turns to Katara.
“Don’t look now,” he tells her, “but the guy listening to Aang talk about onion rings is Jet.”
She ignores his advice, frowning as she cranes her neck to see over the other partygoers. “The one who broke up you and Zuko?”
“We didn’t – we were never together. There was nothing to break up.”
The jacket stretched across Sokka’s shoulders still smells of tea leaves and lilies. A voice in the back of his mind whispers, yes, there was.
Katara looks back at him, eyes rolling. “Forgive me if stopped sleeping together so one of you could try dating another guy and it didn’t work out but you didn’t start sleeping together again because you don’t think he loves you back takes too long to say.”
Sokka puts his head in his hands again.
read and i'll do anything you say (if you say it with your hands) here
#mine#zukka#my writing#aidays#and ill do anything you say#pls enjoy. thank u for ur hard work zukka nation#fic
505 notes
·
View notes
Text
To help get us through the Long ao3 Night! Some Zukka for the community <3
I know what you are (I just don't mind)
CW: alcoholism, self-harm
Tags: hurt/comfort, hurt Zuko, tender loving Sokka <3, depression
Summary:
“Is it stress?”
Zuko lays back gingerly on the bed.
“No,” he says. “I don't know.” He laughs. “There's always been something wrong with me, Sokka.”
Sokka makes the noise again, the one Zuko doesn't know how to describe, and then he's holding Zuko tightly, and when their faces brush Zuko can feel how wet his cheek is.
“You're a wonderful person,” Sokka chokes. “You don't deserve to live like this.”
No, Zuko thinks; I deserve so much worse.
---------------------------------------------------
He doesn't expect the knock on his door; never expects anything anymore, really. It's so late it's almost early, and Zuko is not as drunk as he'd like to be.
“Hey man,” Sokka says.
“Everything okay?”
Sokka shrugs.
“Couldn't sleep,” he says. “Figured you couldn't either, maybe.”
He's talked about it with Sokka, the relentlessness of his insomnia, but it had been years since that conversation; years since they were that close.
It's only gotten worse since he became Fire Lord, although he'd never tell Sokka that.
He invites Sokka in. The room is spare, mostly clean, except for the empty bottles lined up by his desk. Zuko doesn't care enough to hide it anymore. He's exhausted and sleepless and here Sokka is, looking healthy and strong and a little concerned, settling across from Zuko at the low table.
“You doing okay?”
His voice is soft, too careful. Zuko tenses.
“Did Uncle put you up to this?”
“Up to…?” Sokka looks genuinely confused.
“Forget it,” he mumbles. “Just... Mmm.” He rubs his face with his hand.
“I didn't need anyone to tell me, Zuko.”
There isn't any recrimination in the way he says it, but Zuko feels it anyway, the dullness of shame. It's dull because he's already half-drunk; he feels it at all because he really needs to be drunker. He glances at the bottles of fire whiskey on his desk, fingers aching.
“Drink with me?” Zuko asks in a whisper.
Probably Sokka can see everything, like Zuko is transparent in front of him, his emotions shining through. He's never understood that, how his feelings always seem so abundantly clear to other people, when he barely understands them himself.
Sokka's smile is a little sad.
“Sure, buddy.”
Zuko decants the whiskey, warming Sokka's cup in his palm as he passes it over. He watches Sokka's face as he drinks it, wondering if he feels it too—the pleasure, the sleepy warmth, like being bundled in a blanket or held in someone's arms.
The oblivion. He likes the oblivion too.
“'S good,” Sokka says, and Zuko looks away, disappointed.
It's not good. It's everything.
Zuko tips back his cup and pours another, while the whiskey's still stinging in the back of his throat. He hisses a little, happy.
Zuko is happy.
“You okay?”
“Fine,” Zuko says. “I'm fine. I just drink a lot.”
He smiles clumsily at Sokka.
“Yeah, I... noticed.”
There's a lot Sokka could have noticed, if he's watching. From the way he says it, Zuko is afraid he's seen all of it.
“I have it under control,” Zuko says.
“I know, buddy,” he says. His smile is sad.
So what has Sokka seen? There's the way he drinks too much at dinner, how he sneaks drinks in between meetings, how his robes don't fit him like they used to. The shape of his face has changed. Zuko feels humiliated, thinking about that. He finishes his cup and tries not to.
“I don't see you anymore,” Sokka says, setting down his cup. “I miss you, you know that?”
“Yeah,” he says faintly.
“We all miss you." Sokka leans forward, touches Zuko's knee. “Where are you going, buddy?”
Oh, Zuko doesn't know, he doesn't know. There are tears stinging his eyes and he'd like to be drunker than this, more alone than this, more free.
“I'm really tired,” Zuko says abruptly. “Really…"
Sokka rubs his knee.
“So sleep,” he says. “I'll watch over you.”
Zuko flushes.
“You don't have to do that.”
Sokka is already getting up to sit on the side of the bed.
“You said it helps you,” he says. “If someone is there.”
“Yeah but... Sokka, you don't need to babysit me.”
“I know that.” He pats the bed. “C’mere."
Zuko pads across the room, feeling very old. He sits down stiffly and Sokka helps him lay back, which should be humiliating—how did it get this bad?—but instead he finds himself leaning after Sokka's touch.
No one really touches him anymore.
“There you go, Fire Lord,” Sokka says, tucking him in. He rests his hand on Zuko's forehead and just lets it stay there for a while. Zuko's throat is stinging again, his eyes too.
“You'll stay?” he asks, his voice soft as a child's.
“Right here,” Sokka promises.
—
In the morning Sokka is sleeping stiff-necked in a chair beside the bed and Zuko is terribly drunk. He curls up on his side and suffers.
“Doing okay?”
Zuko shakes his head.
Sokka reaches forward and rubs his back very gently.
“I'm right here,” he says.
“Sokka…”
“I am,” he says stubbornly.
Zuko fumbles across the bed, sticks his head off the side, and throws up. Then there's Sokka's weight on the bed, his hands stroking Zuko's hair back, holding him steady. Afterwards Sokka brings him a glass of water and Zuko sips, wincing.
“Do you want something for your stomach?” Sokka asks.
Zuko smiles at him, wobbly.
“There's more whiskey under the desk,” he says.
Sokka makes a sound he doesn't know how to interpret. Startled, maybe, but not surprised.
“I'm not getting you more whiskey,” he says.
Zuko turns his face away.
“Okay.”
“Please don't be mad at me because I won't do it.”
“I'm not mad,” Zuko lies.
He crawls out of bed and gets a fresh bottle, cracking the cap off the neck. The delicate smell of it makes his heart happy. He drinks half a cup at his desk before taking the rest of the bottle back to bed with him.
“Don't look at me like that,” Zuko says.
“Like what?”
“I'm not an idiot,” Zuko says, not elaborating.
Sokka rubs his leg.
“I know,” he says.
“I don't always start this early,” Zuko lies. He doesn't know why he's lying; he doesn't know what the point is.
This is exactly why he wanted to cut himself off from people, so he wouldn't have to lie to them.
Sokka is rubbing his face.
“Fuck,” he says simply. “I wish there was something I could do for you.”
“I could throw up again,” Zuko jokes, but it isn't really a joke; both of them know that.
“Is it stress?”
Zuko lays back gingerly on the bed.
“No,” he says. “I don't know.” He laughs. “There's always been something wrong with me, Sokka.”
Sokka makes the noise again, the one Zuko doesn't know how to describe, and then he's holding Zuko tightly, and when their faces brush Zuko can feel how wet his cheek is.
“You're a wonderful person,” Sokka chokes. “You don't deserve to live like this.”
No, Zuko thinks; I deserve so much worse.
—
He tries to go back to not caring, but it's impossible, with Sokka there. He feels so much shame doing all the things he normally does, limping across the room for his bottles, taking one back to bed.
“Are you hurt?”
“No,” Zuko says, humiliated. “I just walk like this now."
“Oh Zuko.”
Zuko drinks so he doesn't have to answer.
—
Sokka falls asleep holding him, arms around his waist, even though Zuko reeks of alcohol; even though Zuko reeks. He isn't clean. He doesn't know how to take care of himself anymore.
Even if he remembered how, he wouldn't want to.
Sokka is holding him the way you hold a person who's falling. He holds Zuko like he's falling off the edge of the world.
You don't understand, Zuko wants to tell him. I've already fallen off.
—
He doesn't like leaving his room anymore, but Sokka makes him go outside. He holds Zuko's hand and they walk through the garden. Zuko limps, because that's how he walks now. Everything hurts, but he doesn't mind; he thinks he prefers it. There's a certain satisfaction to his body matching his mind, his inner world aligning with the one outside, which has generally never agreed with him.
So Zuko limps, and Sokka helps him limp, and when he's out of breath Sokka helps him sit on a bench and then Zuko cries.
—
He'd wanted to destroy himself, but he didn't think he'd done it so totally.
—
“It can get better,” Sokka says, rubbing his back. “It'll be hard, but—”
“Don't look at me,” he orders. “Just... look away.”
“Zuko.”
“Don’t!" he snaps.
When they get back to his room, Zuko leaves him at the door and locks it.
—
He spends a long time in bed, drinking.
—
By the time he answers the door again, he's doing very badly. It's been days since he left his room—since he left his bed, really. There's a cellar’s of liquor in his room, no need to let the world in.
When he unbolts the door, he is very sick. He can barely stand.
“Oh,” Sokka breathes. “Oh…”
He holds Zuko tightly, rocking him back and forth, the motion just slight enough, calming. He smells like new grass, like the hint of blossoms in the garden, and his touch is like sunlight.
“Lie down with me?” Zuko mumbles.
“Of course,” he says.
He kisses Zuko's forehead, a little revelation.
—
So they're in bed, and Zuko has thrown up again, and Sokka is rubbing his back and murmuring to him, because Zuko can't take care of himself anymore and needs to be treated, apparently, like a toddler.
He would be angry with himself if he wasn't so exhausted. He doesn't have the strength anymore to be angry with himself.
“Feeling better?” Sokka asks, kissing the back of his neck. And it feels good—it feels so good—but Zuko doesn't even know if there's any implication of sex in it or if Sokka is just parenting him, the way he was never parented.
This is, obviously, no basis for a relationship.
“Hurts,” he rasps.
Sokka kisses his shoulder.
“I'm sorry,” he says. “I hate how hard it is for you.”
“’S hard,” Zuko agrees, shivering.
“Do you think a healer would help?”
Zuko starts to cry.
“I don't want anyone to see me,” he says.
“I'm seeing you.”
“You're different,” Zuko says. “You’re…"
He breaks off, sobbing into Sokka's shirt. Sokka squeezes him tight.
“I'm sorry,” he cries. “I'm so sorry, I'm making this impossible for you.”
“You don't have to be sorry,” Sokka says, but he doesn’t deny that it’s impossible.
“I think I'm going to die,” he says. “I think I'm going—and I don't know if I want to, anymore. I wanted to and now I—” Zuko breaks off, mouth wrenching down. “I used to be stronger than this,” he says.
“Wanting to live isn't being weak.”
Zuko shakes his head.
“Please don't let anyone see me like this,” he begs. “Please, Sokka.”
“I won’t," Sokka says. "Not unless you want me to.” He kisses Zuko's forehead. “You're safe with me, okay?”
And maybe that's what Zuko's never had, a sense of safety. Because even as Sokka tells him he has it, Zuko feels nothing at all.
—
He sleeps badly and wakes up in the middle of the night with Sokka holding him, and again Zuko wonders what this is, what it could possibly be. Sokka, not really asleep either, runs his fingers through Zuko's hair.
“It feels nice when you do that,” Zuko mumbles.
Sokka smiles at him, tired.
“I like that,” he says. “Making you feel nice.”
Zuko rolls over and pushes up his sleeves. There are long pink trails down the underside of his arms, a semaphore you can recognize in any language.
“I did that,” Zuko says.
Sokka touches one of the scars, following it to Zuko's wrist.
“Why did you want me to know that?” he asks softly.
“So you know the kind of person I am,” Zuko says. “So you don't have any illusions.”
Sokka hums and kisses Zuko's wrist, the tail end of a dying star.
“I know the kind of person you are,” he says. “It's too late to change my mind.”
—
It's been a long time since Zuko ate anything; he mostly drinks his food. You can live that way, even if it isn't really living.
They eat fruit together in bed, slices of guava-melon and tart berries, and Zuko is able to eat quite a bit before he throws up.
“Oh sweetheart,” Sokka says.
“I hate this,” he says miserably.
“It'll get better.”
The absurdity of the idea is too much for Zuko. He falls back on the bed and Sokka kisses his aching stomach, his aching body he wants no one to see or touch.
“I'm ruined,” he says. “I'm a ruined person.”
“You're not ruined.”
“I don't know how to do this anymore,” Zuko says. “I don't even know how to eat.”
“It'll get better,” he says again, and Zuko, who's starting to think he loves Sokka, doesn't want to look at him anymore.
—
He's in the bath and Sokka is soaping his back, and Zuko wishes he were drunk but he's not, he's just stupidly awake and alive to a world that keeps hurting him. He cries, his back hitching, and Sokka hugs him, getting his shirt wet.
And that's what's going to happen, if he stays, Zuko thinks wildly. He's just going to get his shirt wet.
“If you stay I'm gonna drag you down,” he croaks. “I'm gonna destroy you too.”
Sokka cups his chin in his hands, tilts Zuko's face up to his.
“Look at me,” he says. “Do I look destroyed?”
No, Sokka looks beautiful. He looks beautiful and warm and his eyes are blisteringly blue, like nothing the earth has ever touched.
“It just hasn't happened yet,” Zuko says.
—
He shakes all night and has vivid dreams: his father's hands on his face again, peeling it off, but this time underneath the burning skin there's nothing. Zuko was nothing, all this time.
He won't see a healer but Sokka comes back with syrup for the chills, for the hallucinations. He feeds it to Zuko with a spoon, because Zuko's hands are shaking so badly, and he lets Sokka feed him like a baby bird.
“Give it a minute to work,” Sokka says, warming his cold fingers.
“I don't have a face,” Zuko sobs. “I don't have a face under my face.”
“Shhh,” he says. “It's okay.”
What an impossible claim.
—
“I'm proud of you,” Sokka says in the morning, and Zuko feels nothing because he's trained himself to feel nothing, and one kind of emptiness (no alcohol) has come to feel about the same as another kind of emptiness (alcohol), and still he wants to drink until he's stupid.
The world is too sharp now, full of edges and vivid colors and impressions in the mirror he's spent a long time avoiding, and now that they've accosted him he doesn't like what he sees.
He would like to be stupid again.
—
He drinks again when he's alone, although Sokka doesn't notice; and Zuko secretly feels very pleased with himself until he's throwing up in the sink, arms shaking to hold himself upright.
“I won't do it again,” he says into the sink, and the problem with not cutting yourself off from people anymore is that you get so much into the habit of lying to them that you lie to yourself too.
—
Nights like this, sick and shaking, and Zuko wakes up so tired, his clothes pasted to his skin. Sometimes he's quitting and sometimes he's not, and sometimes he's in withdrawal and sometimes he's just panicked by how much he can feel. Sokka is fast asleep and Zuko doesn't want to wake him, not for the sake of his own loneliness, his sickness.
Sokka is asleep and the sun is touching his face in the gentlest, warmest way, with a skill Zuko wishes he had. He doesn't know how to be gentle anymore. He’s never known what warmth is like.
He knows how to burn and he knows how to freeze, and he hasn't found a livable place between the two, on the margins of how brutally a person can live.
He inches closer and buries his face in Sokka's chest, arms sliding around his waist. Sokka mumbles in his sleep, nuzzling against Zuko's head.
Well, he's not destroyed yet.
And Zuko doesn't care about himself, he doesn't, but he would like to not destroy Sokka.
He would like to be strong enough to hold something in his hands without breaking it.
But Zuko's been a storm for so long, he doesn't know if he can be anything else.
He kisses Sokka’s chest and imagines it—he's been deluding himself for years now, he can imagine anything—what it would be like to love someone without taking them apart. To be the shelter, and not the storm.
#I know what you are (I just don't mind)#bootstrapping Tumblr as ao3#ao3#atla#zukka#sokka#zuko#fire lord zuko#alcoholic zuko#hurt/comfort
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
On Whitewashing the Fire Nation
I've already talked about some of the problems with whitewashing various Fire Nation characters in my past posts. In particular with Ursa in regards to the comics, and how Azula got an unfair treatment compared to everyone else.
The thing is...Ursa was not an isolated incident. In fact, I would go so far to say that almost all of the Fire Nation characters (sans Azula of course), gets off easy in the narrative. At least in comparison to the victims of their campaigns of conquest during the Hundred Year War.
Now again, this was present in the original show. After all, the Earth Kingdom soldiers that went after Iroh were portrayed in a negative light while Jet and Hama were ultimately portrayed as antagonists for lashing out against the Fire Nation (ultimately in destructive ways but still). And again, this was mitigated by the Fire Nation being the ultimate bad guys and having needed to be taken down.
The problem comes along the moment when the Fire Nation become the good guys...and not a whole lot about their behavior changes.
I'm gonna be using images from the comics so...get those goggles on.
As mentioned before in various posts, the comics seem to take a belief that colonialism isn't inherently bad, and that progress supersedes tradition and whatnot. Case in point:
He says things are better in the colonies...despite seeing a citizen in Earth Kingdom garb shine the shoes of an old Fire Nation citizen.
Now there have been a lot of discourse and posts about the pro-colonialism on display in the comics so I'm not going to go into much depth there. What I am gonna go in depth though...is Zuko. I will admit I am not the biggest fan so feel free to take my opinions with a grain of salt.
I feel Zuko's character has regressed to his Book 1 self without the narrative actually calling him out on his bullcrap. Aside from his colonial attitudes, he does a lot of the same shit he did in the beginning: being hungry for the throne, hotheaded, picking fights, and overall just making things worse. Yet because he's now a "good guy", none of these actions are called out on.
Hell, in *North and South*, he shows up in this:
Yeah! That's not gonna cause problems for a people who got raided and brought to the edge of extinction!
Oh! And when somebody rightfully questions Zuko on why the hell he's even there and calls him an Ash-maker (an apt title since Zuko did raid Katara's village and ash became a feared substance following the raids)?
Zuko is able to get away with shit he pulled in Book 1 because he's on the "good side" now. And anyone who's against him is automatically treated as being a bad guy or at the very least in the wrong.
To be fair, it's not like Zuko can't regress. That is obvious. The problem comes when he's not called out on any of his shit. Which of course includes:
No I won't let him live that down. Ever.
Also let's talk about Azula for a minute.
In stark contrast, Azula's demonization often goes hand in hand with this whitewashing. Aside from Zuko of course, almost every character from the Fire Nation hates Azula's guts and think she's some kind of bogeyman out to get them. Since Azula is our designated villain here, that means that whoever hates her is automatically a good guy or at least treated better by the narrative.
There's just one little problem with that.
None of the characters who hate on Azula automically look better. In fact, I'd argue it makes them look even worse.
Take Mai and Ty Lee for example:
They just flat out admitted that they were fake friends to Azula. Even though she genuinely enjoyed their company in the series proper, otherwise their betrayal wouldn't have affected her so damn much.
Not to mention this is a piss poor attempt to garner sympathy since even if they didn't like Azula, they sure as hell didn't mind going along with her to cause trouble in the Earth Kingdom and conquer Ba Sing Se.
Hell, Mai was raring to go without much convincing:
As for Ty Lee...did you see her face when she was ambushing Katara?
Yeah, I call bullshit on their attempts to whitewash those two.
Then we get to Ukano. Ukano...you know this asshole:
The guy who canonically was in control of an occupied territory by the Fire Nation, the guy who canonically was responsible for Mai's terrible upbringing and made her feel like a doll, the same guy who wanted to put Ozai back on the throne...STILL GETS TREATED WITH MORE SYMPATHY THAN THE LITERAL CHILD SOLDIER!!!!!!!
...clears throat...
I'm sorry, but you cannot have Ukano pull all that shit and have him be sympathetic when he's against Azula.
And the same goes for the rest of the Fire Nation characters. Azula is a scapegoat to try and make them look better, but it fails since it seems like they're trying to dodge responsibility instead of improving themselves. And they STILL haven't changed meaningfully at all from the series proper. Meaning they still have that Fire Nation colonialist and imperialistic attitude yet somehow they're the good guys.
In the process of whitewashing and playing the blame game, the writers made the Fire Nation look holier-than-thou and thus utterly despicable. Like they never needed to change outside of having Zuko as a ruler. Sorry, but that's not how it works people. Especially since these guys are the ones in power while Azula is labelled a terrorist despite not pulling any of the crap mentioned above.
#atla comics critical#atla critical#smoke and shadow#the promise#north and south#the search#anti atla comics#azula#princess azula#azula deserved better
223 notes
·
View notes
Note
controversial atla take: Katara's arc in learning to trust Zuko feels less thought out than other parts of the show. It takes place almost entirely over TSR, an episode where Katara is dealing with her trauma from losing her mom. She learns to trust him through familiarity and comradery with the mission, but she doesn't get to work through the harm and terror he's inflicted on her and her friends. I don't hate the arc, it just feels like they don't actually deal with her issues with Zuko and his connection to the fire nation. I like the tie of her learning that hate wasn't worth her energy, and that she had moved on, I just wish her distrust of him was explored further.
oh man. i disagree, but i do... understand this take. this episode is controversial for a lot of reasons. personally, i really love it.
grief is complicated, and often incoherent. but i think if you read this episode not as "zuko trying to win over katara" (which yes, is certainly a part of it, and yes, he is being a whiny bitch baby. massively so even) but as an episode about katara working through her grief and coming to a realization during her confrontation with yon rha that is crucial to her character arc, it becomes easier to realize that everything else in this episode is merely a framing device for that necessary step in her development.
to me, this episode is so fundamentally about katara that zuko feels almost like an afterthought. but fine. let's talk about katara coming to forgive zuko.
during their entire revenge sequence, they barely speak once. they're perfectly in sync, their rage mutual, they almost become one. zuko acts as an extension of katara. they are on the same page because they are undergoing mutual catharsis. katara was angriest at zuko because she believed that he "pretended to be human" in the catacombs so that she'd let her guard down, but that's not actually what happened. he was honest and vulnerable with her. he did lose his mother in the exact same way katara did. but unlike katara, whose hatred towards yon rha is uncomplicated, the man who killed zuko's mother is also his abuser, the man who's been exploiting him his entire life, the man he has been desperate to impress and be accepted by.
katara experiencing this catharsis with zuko, with them being so totally on the same page in their grief, shows her that a) he didn't "betray" or manipulate her in ba sing se, but was merely struggling internally in a way she could not see or understand and b) he no longer wants to be accepted by his mother's killer, now he only wants revenge.
the fire nation took their mothers away from them, made them carry these burdens of guilt, the knowledge that they are only alive because their mothers sacrificed themselves, and they know the same rage and grief because of it. katara and zuko are two sides of the same coin, the same person on opposite sides of the war. when they come together, they share one mind, for better and for worse. as much as katara comes to understand that bearing the guilt and the duty of kya's death is unproductive and unnecessary, she must accept zuko, her mirror, if she truly wants to move on.
i don't think her going from hating his guts to being best friends with him is unnatural at all. it's how they are as people. but to get that you need to understand the symbolic resonance of their friendship. you need to see how they are the same. you need to understand their internal states in this episode, and what remains unspoken.
#unholygrass#asks#hot takes#katara#zuko#katara&zuko#theres so much to unpack in this episode#its like. my favorite episode of the show but also one i struggle with rewatching#because its so . emotionally draining to watch#but its soooooo good
86 notes
·
View notes
Text
Jet is not worse than Iroh
Defending Jet feels weird sometimes because I don’t condone what he did but I also really understand how it happened and still consider him a good person.
People can like or dislike any character, but something has always pissed me off with how people talk about Jet and I finally found a coherent way to express it.
Let’s look at Iroh. He fought in the war and killed many people to the point he made himself known across the Earth Kingdom. He was once friends with the Rough Rhinos who were the cause of Jet’s loss. He breached the walls of Ba Sing Se and the only reason why the Fire Nation didn’t succeed then was because Iroh lost his son.
Iroh was an adult. Iroh was a powerful firebender. Iroh had strong political power. Iroh had an army. Iroh could go anywhere he wanted. Iroh lost his son at war as an adult.
Yet the fandom:
praises him
says he’s a great person
even wants him to be Zuko’s father
feels horrible he lost his son
says he felt sorry
doesn’t see a reason why any character should hate him
and will argue it was the propaganda he was fed
Now Jet manipulated the Gaang into flooding a village. We don’t know much about Gaipan beyond that there were soldiers there, but the show didn’t color in the scene of Sokka warning them (wonder why). I think we could assume there were EK civilians there. The only reason why no one died was because the Gaang interfered.
Jet was a child. Jet wasn’t a bender. Jet had other children fighting with him. Jet had nothing to his name. Anywhere Jet did go there were Fire Nation soldiers. Jet lost his parents as a child. Jet lost his home.
Yet the fandom:
demonizes him
calls him a monster
compares him to the Fire Nation
barely acknowledges his trauma
only considers him remotely likeable because he tried to change
or still doesn’t think that’s enough
believes there’s no way Katara could ever forgive him
and will argue he should have seen past his prejudice and trauma
If people look at Jet and condemn him, Iroh should be treated even worse because he was in a much better situation and did worse. He had wealth, he had a nation supporting him, he was an adult.
What did Jet have? Trauma, a home where soldiers are constantly passing through, a bunch of other orphans to take care of, a nation that’s losing more and more, a nation that doesn’t care about orphans, and a mind and body not old enough to deal with it (if you could be old enough to deal with it).
Jet didn’t even kill anyone. Iroh killed hundreds if his title is anything to go by and would have probably won the war had his son not died. Meaning he didn’t stop because he wanted to. He stopped because he was forced to.
Which is the same thing as Jet except every other disadvantage Jet had.
What about Jet is worse than Iroh? What about Jet makes people say he should have seen passed his anger and trauma, but Iroh is excused as a functioning adult? Even people who like Jet act like he’s worse than Iroh or that it will require a lot for him to be accepted by the Gaang.
Oh Iroh was fed propaganda his whole life.
Yeah and Jet was fed death and killing and homelessness and cruelty at least half of his life. I wonder what that does to a person.
Jet didn’t get the opportunity to see the Fire Nation living as regular people, but Iroh sure did with the Earth Kingdom and he still killed them.
Also Jet actually cared about the war and what happened to his people. Iroh did nothing until the very end. He didn’t fight in the Invasion, and he never confronted Ozai.
Jet would never
#I should change the title#Jet is better than Iroh#do people even defend Iroh with propaganda?#I just used that because what else do you have?#honestly I rarely see Iroh fans acknowledge his actions deeply#Jet#atla jet#Jet meta#Jet defense#Iroh critical
169 notes
·
View notes
Note
OMG ⭐ for to cleave these roots we’ve made!!!! <3
Oh man, where to even begin, this fic was like a private little love letter to the Zukka nation over here on tumblr, it's full of so many little references to things I've loved about people's art and headcanons and ways they think about the two of them.
But instead, I'll talk about two little quick lines (because why pick just one) that had a lot of in-fic backstory to them!
“It creaks so much! I had to WD40 it like once a week when you were dating Adam!”
“You—” Zuko gapes, face caught somewhere between laughter and outrage. “You what?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything,” Sokka huffs. How was that conversation going to go? He and Zuko have joked plenty about things like that, but Adam was already so weirdly reserved around him that he didn’t want to say something that would make it worse. “But I wasn’t going to just listen, either!”
Adam's 'weird reserve' here is because he clocked ASAP after he started dating Zuko that Sokka was in love with Zuko, and could never fully tell whether Sokka was flirting with Zuko in front of him on purpose or not. Definitely a weird situation to step into as the unknowing rebound from a realization of feelings, and all the unrequited feelings in the air were a big reason of why he broke up with Zuko--and Sokka here is continuing, so soon after realizing to himself his own feelings, to understand how truly obvious they were to basically everyone on the outside of them.
And...
Sokka sighs into the silence, flopping back against the slope of the roof. “Maybe she was right that we’re basically just friends who happened to have sex,” he says, face twisted with discontent at the idea.
“You guys were more than just fuck buddies,” Zuko protests. “You cared about her.” It was obvious in every gesture and comment and enthusiastic greeting, in the way Sokka lit up at even the thought of her, in the way just saying her name makes—made—him grin.
“Yeah,” Sokka agrees after a beat, shrugging. “But I still care, you know?”
“It takes a while for feelings like that to fade,” Zuko points out. Emotions don’t just turn off at the drop of a dime, regardless of how convenient it would be if they did.
“Except,” Sokka says slowly, eyes fixed on the sky and restless fingers now fidgeting with the edges of his pockets, “It feels like I care about her the same way I care about you. Like the only thing that’s changed is that we won’t hold hands and always sit next to each other anymore. And the sex,” he adds, belated, and Zuko raises his eyebrow.
Sokka here talking about breaking up with Suki and how he feels about her relative to Zuko could have been an early signal of his feelings for Zuko, that he cares about her the same way except for some little differences. But instead, he misread his own feelings as meaning he was just friends with both Suki and Zuko, rather than being a little bit in love with both of them.
He is definitely being something of an idiot about his own feelings here, but he did have some genuine anchor points for his ongoing confusion! This is just what really good friendship feels like, after all.
For this Fanfic Director's Cut ask game!
#asks and answers#ask games#lesmiserablol#Truly this story is just full of private little references to my favorite posts and art about the two of them#Seeing as this was a fic for Jo and Jo is Zukka Nation centraal
28 notes
·
View notes
Note
Another taob chapter of you seeing inside my soul and writing it all out. The Gaang seeing what Zuko is doing and being hurt by it but still not letting him self destruct while Also still being like “you have to apologize that wasn’t cool” while holding his hand to show “you’re still valued, we still want you here, you deserve kind things” is making my chest hurt. I have always wanted that and never gotten it. Taob Zuko is the most character of all time for me and every chapter he gets closer to my chest. Also I’m sorry you relate to him bc so do I and it fucking sucks lol. Seeing yourself be mean while internally going “what am I doing! Stop you’re making things worse!” But being unable to stop? Oh my god I had Never seen that described by someone who gets it. You can feel guilty in the moment it’s not always hours after, you can feel bad and want to shut up before you even get the first word out because you already know you’re gonna say it. I think me and you are made from the same mold because what the fuck. Also I send you asks about taob so often I’m gonna start signing them just so you know all the things in a collective that I think about it - 🫐
blueberry anon we are starting a support group for people like us i am holding ur hand so tight this means a lot to me bc even though i wrote the chapter ive still - like you - literally NEVER seen this actually be illustrated in a... forgiving (?) light before. like i understand it's a fine line between saying this behaviour is okay and completely demonising it, but just having it be treated kindly is huge. like it's such a horrible horrible side of mental illness bc not only is it really hard to glamorise and therefore gets sidelined/not talked about, but you also are FULLY aware of how much of a cunt you're being. sometimes - like you said - you are literally aware of it in the moment and there's a voice screaming at you to just please shut the fuck up but you CANT, and other times it takes a bit to calm down before you snap out of that mindset and just look at the mess you've made like 'what the fuck', but regardless of the guilt, the accountability is still yours. i wanted to show in this chapter that a person can take accountability for those things and still be treated kindly. so often the moment you lash out or actually show a mean/ugly side of mental illness, people drop you and it's hard to even blame them, which ironically tends to make that need for self-destruction worse and you get stuck in a really awful cycle. but katara was clear that zuko had done wrong and needed to apologise, and she still held his hand in spite of it.
im glad you could find the same comfort in that as i did x
#like i am guilty of being mean as a self-destuction tactic AND as a defence mechanism and neither of them are pretty#bc they both boil down to 'get these people away from me'#and it sucks bc there's ALWAYS collateral damage and i dont want pity bc i feel like i dont deserve it#but im always a little upset when people blanket statement decide im a bitch from that point on#which seems counterproductive like if you dont want to get called a bitch then dont act like a bitch#but just once i wish someone would look a little closer at WHY im doing these things#like sometimes i'm spitting the rudest shit you ever heard and it's literally bc im SCARED. how pathetic is that#so yeah it was important to me in this chapter to show both zuko and aang in sympathetic lights#bc just as it's important to acknowledge why zuko's doing these things and that he's not doing it to be cruel#it's also important to acknowledge that aang probably wont forget what zuko said. like that is permanent damage#that even forgiveness wont spare him from and zuko needs and deserves to understand that#ask#taob asks
18 notes
·
View notes
Note
Of course and sure thing. Oh damn, that’s so horrible. I was actually kind of spoiled about the events as well, not in what happened exactly but that it did happen since at the time of the chapter’s release I was away on holiday with my mum’s side of the family and I usually don’t bother to block the tag since most spoilers are something I can scroll past and they’re usually not too big since I read it every week but yeah, I saw something referring to what happened in that chapter and gods that hurt so we both unfortunately had to deal with it being spoiled, though with you it’s obviously much worse. And yay. Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts on everything that happened if you want to share it all. Oh, there really aren’t many chapters of Persona 3. I see. I also hope you don’t have to stay late and I’m glad to hear that you have another day off tomorrow. I see. Can imagine that being quit annoying. You calling caffeine god is amazing. And wow. How long does it take you to get through a pot? If you don’t mind answering. I managed to write a few points about the things that stood out luckily so yay to that. Oh damn, he really does look like Lavi from D. Gray-Man. And I see. That’s nice to know. Sure thing. I finished the last season of Demon Slayer that’s out now so I’ll probably be getting to it soon. Yeah, which is really understandable since A:TLA is just such an amazing series in so many ways. Of course and glad to hear you adored Zuko and true to his redemption arc. And I can’t blame you for Sokka being your first initial favourite since I also really like him and like every time he tells one of his silly jokes, I laughed so he’s definitely someone fun to have around.
Yeah, the Demon Slayer manga is just 205 chapters long. And the fact that it’s so short and still tells such an amazing story is yet another reason as to why I love it so much. Yeah. Like the final arc consists of two mini-arcs, one of 47 chapters and the last one is 22 chapters long, so it would entirely be possible to split it up since the last arcs that they adapted were like 30 chapters long, but I actually do presume that they won’t since the first season of Demon Slayer put all of the mini arcs of the first main arc into the season. And I honestly don’t mind what they do since I’ll always be looking forward to whatever there is of it. So I presume we’ll probably just have a longish last season, but I’m up for anything, as long as it’s adapted well. Okay. Cool. And I did and I was just like constantly fangirling and at times I couldn’t tell whether it’s because I was enjoying the sound of his voice or because what his character, Genya, was doing because he’s just such a precious boy. Thank you for saying that. He actually has a small first appearance in the fifth episode of the first season and then he’s gone and doesn’t properly appear until The Swordsmith Village Arc.
Thank you. It’s wild since I usually don’t forget things entirely so it’s a whole new experience for me. But the fact that it happened so early does help it make sense. Yeah. Though later on, there is this arc in Fairy Tail called ‘Key of the Starry Heavens arc’ and it is entirely filler but it’s still really enjoyable to watch. Gods, that’s me with Lawless’s song. And I see. I’m not sure about the Beyblade that you watched, but the Metal Saga series does have the opening song translated like that as well. The fact that Iruma is very musical does sound very nice. Of course it’s adorable. And now I’m looking even more forward to seeing it but I’ll still wait until I’m done with everything else I have to do and watch.
Yeah, true. Like I think the movie does but from what I’ve heard / seen, the movie concentrates more on the characters themselves than the actual match which makes no sense because both are really important. And yeah, it definitely did. Like this match that was adapted is 34 chapters long and when the movie was first announced, people were talking about how it’d have to be a 5 hour long movie for all of that to be properly adapted. And the thing is, the saddest thing of all is that we’re not even sure we’ll be getting another season. There were two movies set to be released, so this one and another one that will come out who knows when, and the initial poster to advertise it was ‘Haikyū!! Final’ which just does not sound great so now me and other Haikyuu!! fans are hoping that the studio will use all the money they got from the ticket sales and other stuff to make a proper fifth season. Sure thing 💕 Hell yeah and Hinata has such an amazing moment at the beginning of the second season that people still referrer to to this day. I see. That makes sense. But yeah, none of the Haikyuu!! babies are one-note and that’s just another great thing about the series. And yes to all those things of you describing him.
Me too but it’s really difficult because she’s not very good at seeing the wrong in her ways. Like say if I were to tell her about it, she’d get so offended and she thinks she’s in the right for saying what she did. Yes, the fighting style really is. Like it is hinted at in the opening, but it’s nothing compared to seeing it in action and it’s just so cool 😭 And yes, be excited about him. I love the Shinazugawa brothers, what more can I say. Oooh. That sounds like such a lovely flavour. And that makes perfect sense. I hope you and your friend had a wonderful time together. Oh and that does sound like a good idea since then it’s all nicely together.
C
I’m so sorry to hear you got spoiled on that as well! I can definitely get not blocking the tag – I just did it because I know that if I see a spoiler, I’m going to read it instead of scrolling past, just because I can’t resist that temptation, haha! It sucks though that you got spoiled like that on such a big reveal, because I can imagine how much impact it would have had for people who didn’t know it was coming! And you know, it’s funny, because I’m as caught up as my manga app had (up to Chapter 254), but I don’t really have a lot of thoughts on it. I feel like the story is an absolutely brilliant one, the author is an insanely gifted technical writer because his use of things like foreshadowing and visual storytelling is gorgeous. I feel like I have solid grasps on the characters enough to write them; I know quite a few people excited to have me write them, so I’m going to. Overall, I very much enjoy the story and am excited to see how the rest of the story plays out to it’s ending, which is very close obviously. The writer’s storytelling has been well-paced for the most part, there’s little unnecessary drag or tangents, I’m going to be surprised if the series is still going active in even December of this year. I figure by early fall, absolutely latest, it’s ending with it being weekly. However, I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with this one like I have some of the other fandoms. Comparing my love for say, Servamp, K Project, or KHR and my love for Jujutsu Kaisen – my love for Jujutsu Kaisen is the little, tiny plastic cup you get to take your medicine with and the love for those other series is the big bottle of medicine. Again, the creator is absolutely a gifted storyteller. I fully believe they’ve known a least a full half an arc to a full arc ahead of where the story was currently what was going to happen, and I have zero doubts whatsoever that they’ve had at least a couple ideas as to an ending since the beginning and have a full, clear view of how everything’s ending now. Their world is well-built and constructed, their power-sets well figured out. They’re a tight writer with great focus and there are parts of their writing and visual storytelling that I wish I was even 1/10th as good at as a writer. However, I always kind of feel like JJK is very much a case of the story driving the characters and not the characters driving the story. When it comes to the JJK characters, I very much do feel like they were all created because the creator needed a character to advance the story or to fill an essential role in the story and that when it came to creating them, their characters were built around what role they needed to play and what they needed to accomplish so they feel less to me like real, actual people like some characters from other media and more like…just characters. Don’t get me wrong here, because both types of storytelling and character creation are entirely valid and both can be exceptionally well-done. JJK is a prime example of story-driven media done exceptionally well, if not completely brilliantly (because let’s remember, at the bottom of story-driven media, we have things like Twilight, which is that type of storytelling done exceptionally poorly). But I feel like most people are drawn more to one type of story-telling process than the other and I’m just more overall compelled by character-driven storytelling so JJK is in that ‘technically brilliant, I really enjoy it, but can’t get obsessed with it like some others can’ field.
Anyway, now that I’ve probably infuriated or offended some of the JJK fans, onto the rest of the message, haha! There really aren’t that many chapters of any of the Persona manga that I’ve found, so I’m kind of hoping that they’re all just really sort manga and that I’m not reading incomplete ones! And thank you for the well-wishes for the day off. Unfortunately, I had impromptu plans sprung on me that day that ate up most of my day, which made me a little cranky, not going to lie. I’m doing all I can to keep with commission timelines though, even with Etsy and real life…might require some burning of the midnight oil, but I’m holding up and doing well 😊 Yeah, caffeine is the god I worship, haha, as someone who isn’t overly religious. I don’t usually go through a pot that quickly though. Most mornings, I make the standard 12-cup pot around 6:30 and keep it on warm until I finish it around noonish. That day though, gone in about three hours, give or take. It’s not even keeping me awake so much anymore, thanks to having such a high caffeine tolerance, it’s more to keep away the migraines and because I find coffee soothing and sometimes, all I need is a short break to make a cup of coffee, just move and have a moment away from the computer to get the next burst of inspiration for what to write next. I’m excited to read those then! And I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the resemblance then, even if it’s been a dog’s age since I actually watched or read D. Gray-Man. I wonder if that series ever wrapped up…things for later Dee to look up, I think! Speaking of Demon Slayer though, I paused everything else I was watching because I got in the mood to watch that. So I’m done the first season and the Mugen Train movie. However, when I go to the next season, it’s a really short season that just looks like the movie? I need to figure out if Crunchyroll just screwed up and put the movie into episodes or if those Mugen Train episodes are actually episodes or not, so I need to Google that too. Just every time I sit down at the computer, I get to working on creating playlists and storyboards for all the commissions instead of googling that, haha. I’m really enjoying it so far, though I’m pissed at the movies ending, because I thought I finally found a character that would be my favourite and then it was like the anime decided to just be laugh and be like ‘ha, fuck you’ lmao. I’m excited to continue it, just need to clear that up first! And Avatar is just incredible. I hope everyone has at least given it a try, and if any of my readers haven’t, please go check it out. You won’t be disappointed you did, I promise 😊 Sokka was definitely my initial favourite because of the comic relief, though I remember really liking Toph after her introduction too!
It still amazes me that the author was able to tell a complete and full story of the magnitude that Demon Slayer seems to be setting it’s story up in that few of chapters. It must have been very well-paced and without any extras then! I wish I could find the manga to read, though I am very much enjoying the anime (and to answer before the question is asking, I am watching the dub because it makes it so much quicker to watch). Thank you for explaining that and it’s really neat that the final arc was divided like that! I wonder if they’ll do a season for the first mini-arc then and a final movie to end it all, because that might be interesting if they do. I really enjoyed the first movie, felt it moved along well and was mostly well done (my biggest complaint about Demon Slayer so far is that sometimes the CGI is super noticeable and visually jarring and fuck me, were those CGI train tentacles something else and entirely unpleasant visually in that movie). I haven’t got to see much more of Genya other than Selection, where obviously you weren’t seeing the best of him. In fact, he was pretty damn easy to hate in that episode but still interested me, so I’m looking forward to re-encountering him in The Swordsmith Village Arc.
No problem, of course 😊 And I feel like a lot of the Bleach filler arcs were very forgettable, so I wouldn’t worry any! I definitely haven’t seen that particular filler arc of Fairy Tail, or if I have, I forgot it entirely, but I will check it out when I do a Fairy Tail reread! Thanks for the heads up on that! You know, I hadn’t thought about that, but I’m pretty sure the Beyblade I watched had an English opening song too, come to think of it! It’s been a real long time since I watched it, though it’s in my rewatch list (along with Digimon Adventures and Yu-Gi-Oh!, like the child I am, haha!). Yay, I’m excited for when you eventually get around to it 😊 And that sounds like a movie that I would absolutely adore, since I do love me some character focus, but if that was the only adaption the match got and it was an important match, then it also should have been shown and focused on in its entirety as well, so I can get the frustration. And it definitely sounds like it was a very important match, to have stretched across that many chapters, so I am so sorry the movie was such a let down. It also sucks to hear there might not be another season! It doesn’t make sense for them to wrap everything up in just two movies! Especially since a movie can’t realistically cover more than 20 decent-length chapters without rushing! I’m excited to get to that Hinata moment then 😊 And yeah, I’m noticing that about the Haikyuu characters and am appreciating the characterization in it, especially compared to some other sports manga I’ve watched or read. I’m sorry to hear that. I know people like that and do know how hard they can be to deal with, so I wish you luck and peace! I am very excited, actually, to see all the Hashira’s fighting styles, now that I’ve met them and seen at least one of theirs (somewhat…the Hashira did really little fighting in comparison to the others but we won’t get into my feelings on that.) And thank you 😊 We had had a lovely time! I hope you’re doing amazing, my dear!
1 note
·
View note
Text
warmth - zuko x fem!reader
summary: the two times he notices her shivering and the one time he does something about it.
a/n: lmaoo we have been in a DROUGHT my people. i have barely given you any content this whole month and i feel bad. i wrote this out over the course of a few hours after getting the idea in the shower. i did not proofread. i am not sorry. enjoy.
and NO that end part is not dirty it is simply two kids sharing a bed for warmth bc they got cute lil crushes on each other 🔫🔫🔫🔫
wc: 1.6k
warning(s): this is pure fluff bbbbbb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three times.
It happened three times before Zuko was finally able to get over himself and have a real, face to face, one on one conversation with the one person he hadn’t been able to get out of his head.
Y/N. It was a name that had made a home in his mind, belonging to a girl that had made a home in his heart. He knew that she was a waterbender from the Northern Tribe and that she had joined the team after the Siege of the North, but apart from that, her life was a mystery to him. She was a mystery to him.
It was pathetic. How could he become so enraptured with a girl when he didn’t even know the first thing about her? When he had spent the past couple of months fighting against her, trying everything in his power to hurt her? When she had no idea he even thought about her that way?
Sometimes Zuko questioned himself, but then he caught a glimpse of her — the gleam of her hair, the way her eyes crinkled at the edges when she laughed, the fierceness with which she fought rivalled only by the way she cared for her injured friends afterwards — and he laughed inwardly.
There was no way he couldn’t feel that way about her. She was simply enchanting.
But there was only one thing he questioned more than his affections — why in the name of Agni could he not just walk up and start a conversation with her? There was no one else in the world that made him as nervous, as flushed, as completely incapable of basic speech as Y/N, and it drove him insane.
It drove him insane that it took three times.
~~~
The first time he noticed her shivering, it wasn’t on purpose.
Zuko was serving tea to everyone as they gathered around the campfire, chuckling as Aang recounted one of their earlier adventures, back when he was still trying to capture the Avatar. Thinking about his past, who he used to be, was painful, but it gave him all the more reason to be thankful for where he was now.
He wasn’t as focused on Aang’s story as he was on Y/N, though. She could hardly keep her thoughts to herself, interrupting every couple of seconds to add a detail that Aang forgot or give her own input on the events that he was describing. He started to frown as he noticed her shivering despite sitting right next to the fire — Zuko didn’t even realize how distracted he was until he felt someone hitting his arm.
“Hey!” He was snapped out of his reverie by the harshness of Katara’s voice, angrily gesturing at the broken teacup and now spilled tea all over Haru.
“Oh— I am so sorry,” he stammered as he crouched down and started to pick up the pieces on the ground. “Are you okay?”
“It’s just.. really hot tea,” Haru muttered with a small wince. “No big deal.”
“You’re right. It’s not a big deal.” Y/N raised her hand and with a small, fluid movement, she bent the liquid out of the fabric and formed it into a tiny sphere in the air. “See? Good as new. And you’re not even burnt.”
Haru chuckled and pulled at his tunic, giving Y/N a grateful nod.
“Can a sky bison drink tea?” She mused as she moved the liquid orb around in the air.
“I don’t think so,” Aang said with a small laugh.
“Shame we have to waste it.” Y/N bent it away from the group and let it fall to the ground, sinking into the rock below them. “Zuko can always make more though, right?” She said with a hopeful smile.
“Uh, yeah. Of course.”
“See, guys? No harm, no foul. You’re the best, Zuko.” She gave him an overexaggerated wink then began to pester Aang to get back to the story, leaving Zuko to continue handing out tea and keep his shaking hands as steady as possible.
She really had no idea the effect she had on him.
~~~
The second time? It was definitely on purpose.
The night was unusually cold, even with the bonfire blazing in the middle, and he found his eyes trained once more on Y/N. This time she was the storyteller, giving them all a taste of Northern Water Tribe culture as she recounted a bedtime story she was told as a child. She had a whole arsenal of character voices at her disposal, keeping everyone thoroughly entertained despite the numerous lines she forgot. Zuko didn’t even realize he was staring until Sokka elbowed him in the elbow, gesturing at her with a nod of his head and a cocky grin.
“What are you doing, just gawking at her like that?”
“Wh— gawking? I am not gawking. I’m— I’m just listening to her.”
“Yeah, sure. But I’m pretty sure Appa could start talking right now and you wouldn’t notice because you are hopelessly into her.” He gestured at Zuko’s eyes with his hand then in Y/N’s direction. “Gawking.”
“I— I am not!” He protested, tearing his eyes away from Y/N’s animated face to give Sokka one of his signature glares. He lowered his voice to a whisper to ensure that no one would hear them. “I’m not into her, I’m not gawking, I am appreciating her storytelling.”
“Uh huh, yeah.” Sokka looked at her and grinned before glancing back at Zuko. “If you’re not into her, then I can ask her out, right?”
Zuko didn’t respond, simply kept glaring at him in hopes that it would intimidate him into backing down so he wouldn’t have to say anything and risk embarrassing himself.
Sokka chuckled and held up his hands. “Alright, geez, I’m just joking. But maybe use some of that fire to keep it going? Looks like she’s cold.”
Almost immediately, he broke eye contact and fueled the fire with a simple blast. Y/N shot him a grateful smile and nodded as she continued her story, and Zuko noticed her hands falling back down into her lap from their former place on her arms.
No amount of fire could’ve caused as much warmth as her smile. He was sure of that.
~~~
There was no way he could miss it the third time. After all, she was the only one there.
Zuko hadn’t been able to sleep so he ended up outside, and there she was — sitting there, all alone in the middle of the temple grounds, shivering quietly with a moonless night sky as her backdrop. Before he could second guess himself, Zuko started walking over.
“Hey.” Y/N greeted him without even looking up as she pulled her arms around herself, bringing her legs up to her chest in an effort to conserve all the warmth she could.
“Hey.” Zuko took a seat on the ground next to her and crossed his legs. “Are you cold?”
She let out an airy chuckle and nodded. “Strange, isn’t it? I grow up surrounded by snow and ice and I’m perfectly fine, but after a few months away a couple of breezes are tearing me down. I don’t get it.”
“You’ve been shivering a lot lately,” he said after a beat of silence. Y/N raised an eyebrow and gave him a wry smile.
“What, have you been looking?”
That sent him stammering. “I-I— yes? I mean— no, I’ve noticed, but I’m not actively looking at you, that’s weird, I’m not— I mean—”
Y/N threw her head back and laughed, the same laugh that sent flutter bats through his stomach and made his heart burst with happiness. She set her hand on his and squeezed, giving him a gentle look that almost immediately ceased his rambling. “Zuko, it’s alright. It’s… nice that you’ve noticed. Like you’re looking out for me or something.”
He opened his mouth to respond but couldn’t find his voice — he was sure his cheeks were as red as his tunic, just at the simple touch of her hand — and it only got worse as she placed her other hand on top of it.
“You’re warm,” Y/N muttered. “Like… intensely warm.”
“Is that bad?” He wondered aloud, preemptively panicking. “Do you want me to turn it off? I can’t turn it off, but I could find a way somehow—”
“Thank you,” she interrupted with another small laugh, “but no. I don’t need you to uh, turn off your firebending. That already happened once. But you’re adorable to think of me like that.”
The two of them stared into each other’s eyes, the air between them heavy with something she couldn’t quite place. Y/N pursed her lips and bit back a growing smile as she glanced at the ground.
“This is, uh… really helping. With the cold, I mean. And I was… I guess I was just…” Another laugh. “I was just wondering if you’d maybe want to spend the night with me? Just because my room is especially freezing, and you’re so warm, and I think I would sleep a lot better if I—”
Now it was his turn to interrupt her rambling. There was something about her getting so flustered about him in the same way he did around her that made this easier. “I’d love to.”
“Great,” she breathed, the same smile from before returning just a little bit brighter. Y/N stood up and they began their walk back into the temple, hands still intertwined, warmth emanating between the two of them.
Three times.
Two strikes.
One success.
And that was all he needed.
#avatar#avatar the last airbender#avatar: the last airbender#atla#avatar fic#atla fic#avatar the last airbender fic#zuko#zuko avatar#zuko atla#zuko fic#zuko x reader#zuko x y/n#zuko x you#zuko x reader fic#avatar x reader#avatar the last airbender x reader
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
Love Conquers All
Zuko x Male Reader
Word Count: 1856
-------------
Y/n could understand where Zuko was coming from, but he knew he wouldn't be surprised if it didn't go as well as he had perhaps envisioned.
It was all very well and good that he had finally found his way, but he had hurt the Avatars group a fair bit before finding his way. Y/n also knew that as someone who had been a part of Zuko's attempts to hurt them, he had no leg to stand on in helping smooth the situation over. He hadn't been as single-minded in his focus on capturing the Avatar, but he had only cared because Zuko cared.
He didn't think that would matter to them, but then, Y/n didn't particularly care one way or the other how they felt about him. The only person who mattered to him was Zuko. Well, and Iroh, but that was a given of anyone who had met the calm old man.
When they made it to the kids campsite Y/n hung back, staying by the exit. It wasn't that he didn't trust them not to ambush him and Zuko, oh wait, it was that. Never mind.
Y/n watched the exchange carefully. He could feel it in the air mere seconds before she struck.
Faster than their eyes could follow, Y/n moved. By the time that everyone had caught up with the events, Y/n was standing in front of Zuko, sheathing his sword after having deflected Katara's water whip.
Silence reigned for a single heartbeat. Then Katara shrieked in outrage.
"How dare you!"
Y/n was sure she was still speaking, but he had a habit of being selectively deaf when it most benefited him.
And then, with almost no warning she was throwing water at him with increasingly wild movements.
It was no match for Y/n's technique.
It wasn't common knowledge, in fact, he had hidden it for most of his life, but Y/n was an airbender.
Yeah, literally the biggest lie in their world was that there were no more airbenders. The Air Nomads had had the practice of removing non-benders from their society and giving them to the other kingdoms.
What they didn't know was that all it took was for the right circumstances to happen and suddenly you had airbenders in the descendants of those non-benders.
It didn't change much ultimately, they were so few that they wouldn't ever be considered a threat to anyone, not that the Air Nomads had been when the Fire Nation had attacked them a hundred years ago.
What it all came down to, was a confused child suddenly developing powers that no one was able to control anymore.
Luckily for Y/n, the only person who had been around the first time he had bended was Zuko. As secrets tend to do, it had bound the two closer together than anyone would have thought ever since that day.
It was a loyalty that had seen Y/n stowing away on the ship Zuko had been banished on, and one that had been returned by Zuko had never once considered that the apparently Fire Nation child could be the reborn Avatar.
What it came down to, was that Katara was having no luck besting Y/n. Much as he wanted to put her in her place properly, Y/n knew that what they were trying to accomplish here would be hurt by that. From the looks of things though, they might have lost that chance.
Y/n stayed on the defensive, letting her tire herself out instead of outright attacking. He was worried about the look the Avatar was giving him though. That wide eyed expression couldn't mean anything good for his secret. He had always known that it would come out eventually, but he had hoped it would last longer than this dammit!
"Katara stop!"
The kid was trying to get in between then now, but the water tribe girl was apparently past the point of caring. She was just not backing down.
"Wait, I wanna talk to him!"
"No! They need to get out of here and never come back!"
Y/n was sure that her words might have been more intimidating if she weren't so clearly out of her league. He decided to ignore the voice in the back of his head that whispered that if he had used even half of his abilities properly before this they might have caught the Avatar long ago.
The element of surprise couldn't be taken for granted after all, and judging from the kid's reaction just now, all they would have had to do was show him Y/n's powers and he probably would have stayed on the ship that first day.
Y/n pulled himself out of his thoughts with a shrug. It was a bit late for that right now.
The Avatar had managed to get between Y/n and Katara, and seemed to be trying to talk her down from her rage. Y/n watched, only mildly interested. This wasn't how he had thought today would go.
He turned to Zuko, who was still standing behind him.
"Are you okay?"
He just looked Y/n over, head to toe looking for injuries.
"I'm fine, but are you sure it was a good idea to show them that? I could have taken a few hits. I've had worse before, you know that."
Y/n clenched his jaw at the reminder.
"I know. I'm sorry. You know how I feel about you willingly putting yourself in danger though. You didn't even try to defend yourself. Don't think I didn't spot that."
Y/n leveled a flat stare at Zuko.
He at least had the good grace to blush in shame and hide behind his fringe.
Y/n turned back to the group of kids gathered in front of them.
He gave them his best blank stare. He had nothing more to say to them, this was about Zuko teaching the Avatar firebending after all.
Besides, he was sure that anything he said would be twisted around and spat back at him by the water tribe girl.
"You're an airbender!"
Y/n refused to give up his secret that easily.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The little blind girl perked up.
"You're lying. You are an airbender? I thought they were all wiped out."
Y/n stubbornly refused to respond. He could see the water tribe girl's eye narrow at his silence. She was just about to explode on him again when Y/n felt a shift in the air. Less than a second later he felt Zuko's hand on his shoulder.
He slumped slightly. Damn Zuko's soft heart.
"Yes. I can bend air."
The shout of pure joy that the Avatar let out was enough to make Y/n feel slightly guilty about keeping it from him the whole time he had been after him.
"I'm not alone! There must be more, right? Some of the monks survived and hid right? Please tell me!"
Man, this kid was excitable, and as happy as he was, Y/n didn't want to be the one to tell him that he was wrong. He couldn't take the soft option of letting Zuko tell him though, they would probably turn on the both of them and Zuko wouldn't be able to fulfill his destiny.
"No."
"No you're not going to tell him?"
That girl was really starting to get on Y/n's nerves.
"No, they didn't survive."
That shut her up.
It also made the kid tear up, but there was no point building a lie just to make him feel better in this moment. That would be more cruel than the truth.
"The only reason that I exist right now is because of your ancestors though. Your people had a practice of testing their babies for airbending potential."
The Avatar was nodding along. Good, this wouldn't be a surprise to him.
"Well, when they showed to be non-benders your people gave them away. They were sent off to the other kingdoms, not welcome in, nor considered to be, a part of the Air Nomads."
"Air Nomads are airbenders, so if they aren't airbenders they aren't Air Nomads. That's just the way things are."
Y/n grit his teeth. It was an old hurt, but it still stung. He pulled in a deep breath and the only thing that stopped him from screaming about the injustice of it all was Zuko's hand that was still on his shoulder lending him the strength to continue.
"Your people were wrong. Occasionally their methods would be wrong, and they would let a bender slip away into another kingdom. But more than that, its in our blood, in the thing that makes us who we are. When enough of your ancestors were born from the Air Nomads, no matter whether they could bend themselves or not, you have the possibility to end up as a bender."
The Avatar's jaw was hanging open as he stared in horror at Y/n.
"But, they couldn't possibly have known that! If they had, maybe they wouldn't have done what they did."
Y/n's eyes shone with a dark light. This was something he would ultimately have to give up, but it was worth planting the seed if he could.
"So your saying that the only possible use non-benders have is the possibility of benders being born from them?"
The Avatar stopped cold and stared at Y/n in horror.
"What? No! Of course not!"
"Then what? You had no problem with the idea that they would be thrown away like yesterday's garbage up until now. The only thing that's changed is this piece of information."
Y/n pulled back as he saw the tears form in the Avatar's eyes.
"Think on that for a while. You have a non-bender in your group. Do you consider him to be useless?"
The kids all looked like they had been hit over the head.
Y/n was sure that this would be the end of their interaction for the day.
"We'll come back tomorrow. Maybe then we can talk without resorting to violence."
He turned back to Katara who looked like she was getting ready to unleash whatever thoughts had been happening in that head of hers.
"Before you put your foot in it, consider this. We have two things you want. One you desperately need, the other, something you desperately want. Have a good night."
Zuko turned and walked back the way they had come, with Y/n bringing up the rear. He didn't trust them not to attack them from behind.
Y/n hoped that with the reminder that they needed Zuko to teach the Avatar firebending, they would be more open to meeting the next day. If that weren't enough, then there was the added bonus of Y/n being the only other airbender that they knew. He was sure that the Avatar wouldn't be able to resist the pull to be around someone who was like him for long.
Either way, they still had a long way to go to convince them that they didn't want to hurt them and that this wasn't a trap.
'Oh well,' Y/n thought as he lay sleepily beside their fire, 'things always look better in the morning.'
430 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
demons-and-yeehaws
Gay, Depressed, and a Mess
transfembeauty
Sharing beauty of transgender women
h6xi
Unbetitelt
roadtripwithluciferofficial
Roadtripwithlucifer
thefatbodycoach
TheFatBodyCoach