#long hair zuko you will always be famous
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Fire Lord For a Day (Zuko x Reader)
-> There’s a new Fire Lord in town because Zuko lost a bet.
A few years after Zuko was crowned as the Fire Lord and ushered in a new era of peace and harmony, all is finally well between the 4 nations.
The progress of building the war-torn world back up was hard, but not impossible. Under his rule the Fire Nation work to regain its honor and clean its name, doing whatever they can to help restore what they had destroyed. And having the Avatar on his side definitely doesn’t hurt his chances too.
Besides working on the nation, he has worked hard on bettering himself, becoming a better man, someone more deserving of his title. And I think it’s safe to say that he’s well on his way there, Zuko has always been the sane one in the family, the one with a moral compass although he did get somewhat confused in the past before he found who he’s meant to be. Changing for the better is his watchword now.
That thing with Mai didn’t work out too, for the best perhaps. Although they’re compatible and have known each other since they were little, perhaps it wasn’t meant to be anything more than a simple childhood crush, but it can’t really grow past that. They crave for different things in a relationship, Mai was too emotionless, too closed-off, too cold for his taste. After living a life full of loneliness and rejection, all he needs is warmth and acceptance, a pair of welcoming arms.
Perhaps that’s why he’s immediately hooked to her. Y/N. She’s like the sunshine of his life. Her presence brings him so much joy and unconditional love. It was a chance encounter between them. Zuko was walking around the capital in disguise, watching as the world unfold and ran its course around him, how his people are living their life when he bumped into her. Nearly knocking her onto the ground, thank Agni he didn’t.
She apologized profusely when the impact caused his hood to fall back, revealing his face. She wasn’t sure of this new Fire Lord, well he did promise to be different than his ancestors but she needs actions not words. When she won’t stop repeatedly bowing even though he was clearly the one who got in her way, he frowned, and stop her mid-bow.
“You can stop doing that now, i’m okay, there’s nothing to be worried about” He said softly, assuring the poor girl.
“I’m truly sorry Fire Lord, what can I do to make it up to you?” Face still latched with worries, eyebrows tightly knitted.
“Well I still have to think about that” He pretended to contemplate it in his head, one hand positioned under his chin, “In the meantime, how about we discuss it over tea?”
“O—of course Fire Lord Zuko, anything” He can’t help but grimaced, still was not used to the title.
“Zuko please, just call me Zuko”
“Zuko...” She said, testing the name out, how he loved the sound of it.
“And what can I call you, fair lady?”
“Y/N, just Y/N”
“Okay then just Y/N, should we go now?” Zuko said, offering one of his hands for her to hold, which she took gratefully.
“By all means, lead the way Zuko” Finally letting her worries melt away, giving a way in for a smile.
———————————————————————
That was a few years ago.
Turns out that Y/N’s family is the owner of Zen Dimsum & Tea House, the most famous restaurant in the capital. Even Uncle Iroh always squeeze a visit there everytime he comes home.
“Rival only second to Jasmine Dragon itself!” That’s what he claimed.
And now she is officially his girlfriend, him asking her out was anything but romantic. Spirits know how much he lacks in the wooing department. She doesn’t seem to mind it though and said yes in a heartbeat.
She has met the Gaang on several occasions and they all love her. Even the palace servants and guards adore her too. Zuko came to the conclusion that it’s just impossible not to took a liking to her.
That’s what brought us here today. You see about a week ago Zuko had lost a bet to Y/N, and the price she asked for? being a Fire Lord for a day.
Zuko was skeptical at first of course because everything could go downhill real quick, but she assured him that she wouldn’t do anything that could put a permanent damage to his reputation, not too much anyway.
They agreed on this day for his schedule was pretty much empty, no meetings, no strategizing, no council. It’s as perfect as it can be.
Even the Gaang are here too to witness this hilarious once-in-a-blue-moon occasion. Zuko’s never known for being one to let go of the reign. But this girl somehow manages to pulled it off, oh she’s going to be the death of him for sure.
“All hail Fire Lord Y/N” Sokka said in a booming voice, as he puts the Fire Lord headpiece into her top-knot, crowning her for the day.
“All hail Fire Lord Y/N” Aang, Katara, Toph, Suki, and Ty Lee repeated back solemnly while giving an exaggerated bow.
Zuko can’t help but facepalmed himself at the scene that he’s witnessing, Fire Lord Sozin would no doubt have his head if only he were to see this.
“Ahh it feels good to be king” Y/N said, mustering her voice to be as regal as can be, but her grin definitely ruins it.
Uncle Iroh who has somehow founds himself stumbling onto this scene can’t help but let out a loud laughter.
“Now what do we have here? I must say i’m disappointed to see your reign came to an end so soon dear nephew”
Zuko lets out an exasperated groan to which everyone in the room exploded into a series of laughter, this is just too good to be true.
———————————————————————
“What will be your first decree, Your Majesty?” Sokka asked her.
The Gaang, Ty Lee, and Uncle Iroh surrounded her like an entourage, not wanting to miss out on all the fun while a grumbling Zuko trailed not too far behind them.
“Hey Iroh? do you remember when you reigned as the temporary Fire Lord?” Y/N said.
“Of course dear one, it was short but sweet, what about it?”
“I think it’s about time that we bring back what matters most to the people, I hereby declared that National Tea Appreciation Day would be permanently etched into our calendar!”
The Gaang cheer while Uncle Iroh had almost cried on spot, he shrieked happily, hugging the girl tightly.
“You are a blessing to this nation Y/N”
She smiles back at him, “Anything for you, Iroh”
“National Tea Appreciation Day it is then! Toph, mind giving me a hand on drawing the illustration for the official announcement?” Sokka said asking his poster drawing partner, just like old times in Ba Sing Se.
“You got it, boss” Toph grins back at him, giving a thumbs up.
Looking back and forth between his positively glowing uncle and the happiest the Gaang has ever been for some time, Zuko can’t help but feel the tension leaves his body.
“Maybe this won’t be so bad after all”
———————————————————————
“NO! absolutely not! you can’t change our national color to pink and peach Y/N, what do you think we are?” Zuko nearly lose his shit at this madness.
“But I think it’s brilliant, Zuko! red is sooo last centuries” Ty Lee comes to Y/N defense, sticking her tongue out to her childhood friend.
“You guys are crazy” He’s shaking his head frantically, “This nation is doomed” He dramatically said while pulling at his hair, his top-knot has hair sticking out in all directions.
“Oh knock it off, drama king. It’s just for a day! the people deserve to let loose and have some fun. You know you can always revoke it later” Y/N said, pulling her puppy dog eyes at him, lips pouting slightly.
“Please don’t do that... you’re not playing fair Y/N, you know I can’t say no to that face” Zuko grumbles, he’s trying very hard, but she got him putty in her hands.
“You know what? do what you like, it can’t get any worse than this” He said in defeat.
Oh boy if only he knew how wrong he was.
Zuko cannot recognize what he is seeing in front of his eyes. The proud Fire Nation, his nation, is now a seas of pink and peaches.
To his surprise after the announcement of Y/N’s second decree, the people responded to it giddily. They began to dress up in all sorts of pink and peach, their normal red and black outfit long forgotten. Even the usually reserved and standoffish nobles are participating in this event. Excitement buzzing in the air of the capital.
The people are rejoicing, merrily welcoming the arrival of the new ‘Fire Lord’ amidst them with the sound of cheers and clapping. Petals of flowers are thrown to the air, creating a rain of blooms in a flurry of rainbow shades. It’s nice to see them this light-hearted after living under a tyrant for soo long, the constricting rules don’t help either.
For the first time Zuko sees the people of the Fire Nation becoming one, with no clear lines separating between the nobles and the commoners, together right here and now, they are just human who longs for freedom. Freedom that Y/N just gives them, to do as one’s heart content without having to fear for their status or images.
———————————————————————
“Can we have some music over here? real music not the usual propaganda ones, I wanna hear some beat!” Y/N screamed out into the crowd that has filled the Royal Plaza.
“This one really brings the party with her doesn’t she, Sparky?” Toph said to Zuko, as together their eyes sweep over the continously growing crowd.
“Yeah... that she does” Zuko smiles fondly at his girlfriend and the way she enchants the crowd, it’s like they are gravitating towards her.
“Oh no...” Toph said again with a teasing wicked grin, she pointed her finger at him.
“You are so whipped, Sparky”
“That I am Toph, that I am...”
———————————————————————
“WOHOOOO it’s like the secret cave rave all over again!!!” Aang screamed with happiness as he crowd surf. People of all ages dancing below him.
“Aang! you get down here this instant! you’re gonna fall” Katara freaks out watching the Avatar being passed on from hands to hands. Biting her lip so hard she nearly drew blood.
“Oh let him live, Katara! loosen up, it’s a party” Suki said as she elbows her side lightly.
“Why are we just standing here? COME ON” Ty Lee said as she dragged both girls right to the middle of the crowd.
Katara’s screams of “No no no” was the last thing that can be heard before it’s swallowed by the sound of thrumming beats and off-tune singing.
———————————————————————
As the day come to an end, the party died down and people are returning to their respective home. Worn out but as happy as ever.
The Gaang is beaming, their feet light as they make their way back to the palace. Even after all of the heroic things that they had accomplished, it felt nice just to be a bunch of teenagers again.
“I’m beat you guys, i’m probably gonna sleep for the next 2 days” Aang said, pausing mid sentence to let out a yawn.
“Yup good idea, i’m gonna copy you on that” Sokka replied, entertaining the idea of just passing out on the floor right here right now, it looks so tempting. That is before Suki offers him her shoulders to lean on, shaking her head at his antics.
“Goodnight everyone” Katara said, earning back a chorus of “Goodnight” from everyone in return.
“Thanks for the awesome day Y/N” Ty Lee said as she half hugged Y/N before she too makes her way to her room.
Uncle Iroh gave Zuko and Y/N a warm smile, “Go on and rest you two, you both earned it”
“Goodnight uncle”
“Sleep well, Iroh”
———————————————————————
Back in Zuko’s bedroom, they both have cleaned up and changed into their sleepwear but decided that this is a rare moment to just enjoy each other’s presence without the usual pressure of being chased by time constraint.
“Had fun?” Zuko asked as he approaches her who is currently standing in the balcony that looks over the town below.
He wraps his arms around her as she snuggles into him, enjoying the extra warmth that he provided. Zuko leans down to press a kiss atop the crown of her head.
“I’m kinda sad that this day is over but it’s good while it lasts, I had a good run” She said while chuckling a bit at the ridiculousness of the situation. Never in a million years had she imagined this happening to her.
“You certainly made quite an impression on the people, they all adore you, not that i’m surprised it’s about time they all see you the way that I see you”
Y/N tilted her head a bit so that she can see him better, he looks handsome under the moonlight and stars, some pieces of his hair falling down lazily covering one of his eyes.
He looks at her with an intense look in his eyes, suddenly getting all serious.
“If you like it that much, it doesn’t have to end tonight you know?”
This got her letting out a scoff, “What? you’re gonna resign your position to me now?” she asked incredulously.
Zuko rolls his eyes at her, “No, you silly girl”
“How does Fire Lady sounds to you?”
Y/N swears that her heart stopped beating for a milisecond after hearing the words that just came out of her lover’s mouth.
“Are you really proposing to me right now, Fire Lord Zuko?” She said, feigning out a scandalous gasp.
“Spirits you’re dramatic aren’t you”
“You’re one to talk, Zuko”
She pretends to think about it, eyes looking upward, eyebrows scrunching creating a line in her forehead.
Now Zuko is the one who’s starting to get cold feet, what if she rejected him? what if it’s too much? too soon? how brash of him to just throw around this responsibility so carelessly. Before he can start hyperventilating, she raises her hand to cup his cheek gently, rubbing a soothing finger in a left and right motion to calm down his strung nerve.
“That sounds perfect” Sincerity evident in her voice, “I’ll be honored Zuko, if you’ll have me”
“Oh thank the spirits”
He’s in a state of euphoria, pulling her in even closer, he gently takes her face into his hands and lean down to kiss her. A slow, passionate kiss where they pour as much love as they can muster into it.
As they broke apart, Zuko takes her hand and entertwine their fingers together. Leading her back into his room and walk to the front of the vanity.
He opens one of the drawers, taking out a beautiful box decorated with carvings of dragon and fire lillies. Inside it is a gleaming piece of gold in the shape of a flame, the Fire Lady headpiece.
“May I?” He asks her.
She can only nods, emotions threatening to make her burst.
Zuko takes the headpiece and carefully inserted it into her top-knot, it sits perfectly, right where it should be.
“My Fire Lady” Zuko said as he can’t help but smile as he stares at her reflection in the mirror, leaning down to give a kiss to her cheek.
———————————————————————
The national colors went back to the normal red and black but the smiles on his people’s faces remains. Especially after hearing the official engaged-to-be-married announcement of their Fire Lord to she who has brought happiness not only to him, but to the people as well.
That day as she stood beside him from the top stair of the palace, hands waving to the cheering crowd of people below, proudly adorning the Fire Lady headpiece in her hair, Zuko thought to himself.
Yeah Uncle Iroh is never wrong, she is a blessing to this nation.
“All hail Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Y/N” Uncle Iroh said, giving his salute to the new reigning monarch.
“All hail Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Y/N”
———————————————————————
A/N : I’ve been very productive lately and there’s a lot more stories waiting to be finished in my draft😉 this is my second Zuko fic and as for me i’m very pleased with how it turns out but I really want to hear from you guys too soo feedbacks are definitely hoped for so that I can improve my writing♥️ anyways thank you so much for reading til the end and i’ll see you on another fic lovelies!
#aang#atla#atla aang#atla rewatch#avatar the last airbender#avatar the legend of aang#atla zuko#avatar zuko#zuko#zuko x reader#fire lord zuko#prince zuko#prince zuko fanfic#prince zuko imagine#prince zuko x reader#prince zuko x you#zuko drabble#zuko imagine#zuko smut#zuko x reader smut#atla fandom#atla fanfic#atla imagine#atla drabble#atla smut#uncle iroh#iroh & zuko#katara#sokka atla#toph beifong
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Could you write a Fire Lilies blurb about Princess! Reader and Zuko 's date night in their tale of Ba Sing Se?
a/n: you have no idea how excited I was when I got this request!!!
~ part of the fire lilies series ~
It’s a quiet day in Ba Sing Se as the Princess sweeps the floor of the tea shop and prepares for the morning rush of customers. She doesn’t get paid nearly as much as Zuko and Iroh due to only working part time, but she makes up for it by working in the dress shop across the street. It’s easy work and her employer is very kind so she can’t complain. Besides, this was the kind of simple life she had been longing for ever since her departure from home. The transition hadn’t been easy, especially not for Zuko, and she knew it would take some time to get used to, but now that they were in Ba Sing Se they had all the time in the world to settle down and finally begin a life together.
Across the way at the front counter Zuko watches y/n work silently, an unreadable expression on his face as he does so. He’s doing his best to at least try to make a life here despite how adamant he feels about the city being nothing but a prison, if not for him then for her, because she deserves it after all. It was something he had promised her long ago, and though their relationship had become worn and strained it was still there altogether, and the knots that had formed along the way were finally beginning to loosen now that they were here in Ba Sing Se.
“You know, it has been a very long time since the two of you last had the chance to be alone,” Iroh points out. “Perhaps the Princess would appreciate a romantic night out with her boyfriend.”
“There’s nothing to do here,” Zuko complains. “Where could we possibly go?”
“I’ve heard they have a beautiful fountain here,” Iroh suggests.
“I have to work.”
“Nonsense. I can cover your shift for you so that the two of you may go out together,” his Uncle offers, and before he has the chance to protest y/n approaches the counter with her dustpan and apron in hand.
“The shop is ready for customers,” she says with a small smile. “I should get going. Miss Tai asked me to open up the store today.”
“Of course. Zuko, is there anything you’d like to say to the Princess before she leaves?” Iroh asks, giving his nephew a gentle nudge to the ribs. Zuko scowls before clearing his throat and attempting a gentler approach to the question as you stand there expectantly.
“Would you like to go out on a date tonight?” He asks in a strained voice, obviously uncomfortable and out of his element. He’d never really had to ask her on a date before, she’d always just kind of been there, by his side and ready to spend time with him. Since when did a simple bowl of ramen together not count as a real date?
“I’d love to,” she giggles, obviously appreciative of his efforts, “you can pick me up from work.”
“He’s looking forward to it!” Iroh grins, and Zuko blushes with embarrassment at the delicate laughter that escapes y/n as she exits the shop and heads to work. Spirits, help him.
~~~
Zuko waits impatiently outside of Miss Tai’s shop, a permanent scowl on his lips and the urge to fuss with his hair stronger than anything he’s ever felt. He isn’t sure why he allowed his Uncle to do his hair or why he’s putting so much work into a date with his longtime girlfriend, but he knew Iroh had been right about the fact that it had been much too long since they’d last went out like this. But it wasn’t Zuko’s fault, at least not in his eyes, because he had been busy and couldn’t tend to y/n right away like she had hoped he would. The pair had been so close together yet so far apart in his years of hunting the Avatar, and when it was quiet enough his thoughts were often loud with doubt over whether or not she still loved him as much, if at all, as she did when they’d last met in their secret tunnel.
A muffled giggle is what catches his attention, y/n’s hand held over her mouth as she tries to stifle her laughter for Zuko’s sake. He wants to complain but the words die in his throat at the sight of her. Dressed in Miss Tai’s finest silk dress, the Princess looks absolutely radiant and quite literally takes Zuko’s breath away.
“Do you like it?” She muses with a sweet smile. “Miss Tai let me borrow it for our date.”
“You look... really pretty,” he finally says with a small smile of his own.
“And you look absolutely adorable!” y/n squeals, prompting Zuko’s smile to immediately morph into a scowl. She gives his cheeks a light pinch and laughs when he gently swats her hand away. “You should do your hair like that more often.”
“It took Uncle ten minutes to do my hair,” Zuko sulks as the Princess finally puts him out of his misery and ruffles the awful hairdo away.
“I’ll have to thank him when we get back,” she giggles before taking his hand and dragging him off to venture out into the city. “So what should we do?”
“I don’t know,” Zuko grumbles. “This city is nothing but dirt, I don’t know how I can possibly enjoy it.”
“Well you can’t enjoy it with an attitude like that,” the Princess argues. “There’s a cake stand over there. You like cake, don’t you?”
“I’m not in the mood for cake.”
“Then what are you in the mood for?”
“Nothing,” he grumbles, and the Princess’s once cheerful demeanor dwindles into one of disappointment. He doesn’t want to be here, she knows that better than anybody, but she had hoped that maybe by going out together he’d at least warm up to the idea of living in the city. Y/n loved Zuko more than anything in the world, but she was starting to doubt whether or not he still felt the same way about her. Their flame was beginning to dwindle and though she was desperate to keep the fire going it seemed that wouldn’t be possible without his help.
“Maybe you should just go home,” she offers quietly, releasing his hand and turning her back towards him in order to hide her growing tears. “That way you won’t have to be here when you don’t want to, a-and I can just explore the city by myself.”
Guilt weighs heavily upon Zuko’s shoulders at the sound of her trembling voice as he yet again manages to disappoint her. He wants to apologize but the words are stuck in his throat, so instead he lets out a small, awkward cough before coming up and gently resting a hand on her shoulder.
“That fortune teller booth looks kind of fun,” he suggests, and when she gives him a pointed look he says, “I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.”
“Okay,” y/n sniffles quietly, a weak smile present upon her features as Zuko intertwines his fingers with her own and guides her towards the booth. He doesn’t miss the manor in which she tightly holds his hand, almost as if she’s afraid she’ll lose him if he lets her go, and it urges the Prince to increase his pace as he guides her towards their destination.
“Yes, step right up, lovebirds!” The eccentrically dressed man encourages, immediately taking the Princess’s hand and yanking her forward to read her palm. Zuko bites back the threat that rises up his throat, and y/n watches with childlike excitement as the fortune teller scans the grooves and lines of her hand. “Ah, this is very interesting.”
“What is it?”
“I see that you’ve lived a very happy life, though it hasn’t been easy as of late. The love you have in your heart is strong, but this love will be put to the test when the time comes.”
“Sounds like a bunch of nonsense,” Zuko mumbles only to earn a glare from the Princess in return. Put to the test? Hadn’t they already been through the hardest parts of their relationship already? What else could possibly make things worse?
“You will live a content and comfortable life and die a peaceful death. Oh, and you’ll most definitely be having twins!”
“Twins!” Y/n repeats delightedly, but all color drains from Zuko’s face at the idea and suddenly he feels very lightheaded.
“Okay, thank you, that’s enough,” he finally interjects, making sure to pay the man before dragging you off to your next destination.
“We’re going to have twins!” The Princess squeal delightedly.
“How do you know he’s not just some crazy old man?” Zuko retorts.
“He could be,” she admits with a shrug, “but it’s nice to have something to hope for even if it isn’t real.”
He says nothing in response to her wishful thinking, but he must admit that he does enjoy the idea of settling down with the Princess, starting their own family, creating a new legacy. Maybe staying in one place wouldn’t be so bad after all.
After a few minutes of aimless walking the two stumble upon the famous fountain of Ba Sing Se, though it doesn’t look like much to either of them due to the fact that the lanterns aren’t lit.
“This is the fountain everyone always talks about?” The Princess retorts with obvious disappointment. “I thought it would be prettier.”
“Hold on,” Zuko says, and before y/n can question him the Prince begins to use his bending to light the lanterns around the fountain. It’s dangerous and absolutely foolish to use his bending out in the open like that, but he’d rather be thrown in jail by the Dai Lee than have his Princess be upset. Her eyes sparkle with complete and utter awe at the sight of his fire bending, recognizing the flow of his movements and admiring the beauty of the flames that dance among the lanterns.
Now lit in all of its glory, the two stand side by side and admire the shimmering water that flows from the fountain. Zuko wraps an arm around the Princess’s waist, and she happily rests her head upon his shoulder once she’s safely nestled into his side.
“Thank you for taking me out tonight,” she murmurs quietly. “I’ve missed spending time with you like this.”
“Me too... I know I’ve been difficult with the transition into our new life here, and it’s going to take some time for me to get used to. But I also know that this should have happened a long time ago, and I’m sorry it took me this long to fulfill my promise to you.”
“I don’t care about how long it took us to get here,” y/n replies earnestly. “All that matters is that we’re finally together in Ba Sing Se just like we planned all those years ago. We can be happy now, but only if you allow yourself the chance to enjoy it.”
“I want to,” Zuko utters, turning to face her and gently cupping her cheek with his hand, “and I know with your help I can.”
The Princess smiles faintly at his proclamation, and when he leans down to kiss her she meets him halfway to seal their lips together in a tender kiss. It isn’t very long or very passionate, Zuko still not used to the idea of public displays of affection due to the fact that he’d refrained from act during his time on the ship with the crew, but it’s special and beautiful all the same.
Ba Sing Se is the start of a new beginning for the a coupe, a second chance at happiness and a place where they can start over. It won’t be easy, and the transition won’t happen over night, but at the two kiss underneath the ember glow of the fountain’s lanterns, the Princess knows that they’re finally going to get their chance at happiness, and so she savors the feeling for all it’s worth.
Because the spirits know it won’t last for very long.
| tags: @rainteslerrrr @oddment-niwit-blubber-tweak @thebluelcdy @royahllty @the-firebender-girl @coldlilheart @ilovespideyyy @yiyibetch @eridanuswave @lammello @a-monsters-love @knaite-solo @zukh03s @titaniafire @dekahg @emberislandplayers @kikaninchen-2 @lozzybowe @izzieserra @melacholy @music-geek19 @thia-aep @thyunnamed @haylaansmi @nataliahaslosthershit @idkdude776 @aangsupremacy @thirstyforsometea @ihaveaproblem98 @brown-eyed-thang @djskfkdkkf @xapham @yeetletzgetitjae @misnmatchedsox |
#zuko#zuko x reader#zuko imagine#prince zuko x reader#prince zuko imagine#zuko and the princess#avatar the last airbender#atla#atla x reader#tales of ba sing se#fire lilies#request#gif used above is not mine!
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Incense
“Are you really that excited about this?” Katara asked, laughing at her husband, ‘the mighty Avatar’, and the giddy way he trotted next to her.
The two walked together hand in hand through the red-tapestried halls of the Firelord’s palace, Katara leading the way to this oft-visited location, navigating which corridors to take, effortlessly winding her way through the mammoth palace like it was a well worn path.
As Aang turned his grey eyes upon her, Katara noted the way his eyes still shone with excitement as they did back when they were kids, even though the smile-lines beside his eyes stayed in more permanent creases now. “Well, I should say so!” he teased, “After you’ve withheld this little pleasure from me all of these years. Yes! Yes, I’m excited to finally be invited to join you!”
Katara stifled a laugh, the sound coming out more as a snort. “Really, Aang? Really?! I just never knew you wanted to come.”
“What?! Why would you think that I wouldn’t want to come?!”
“Well…” Katara began as they rounded the final corner and a woman in a red and gold robe opened the door to the room for them. “I guess I just never thought you would have any… interest in this particular thing.”
Aang looked affronted. “But you’ve come here with everyone else over the years, Katara! Mai, Sokka, even Zuko when he can relax long enough to take a break. You brought Kya even when she was just a little kid, and Bumi can’t seem to get enough!”
Katara turned toward her husband teasingly. “Well, they all, you know…” she rose up on her tiptoes and ran a hand over the smooth arch of her husband’s bald head as she finished, “have hair.” Her eyes laughed even when her mouth held it back.
Aang looked insulted. “Who says you need to have hair!?”
Katara couldn’t hold back her laugh anymore. “Well, it is a hair wash, Aang!”
Aang smirked at her, stroking his beard. “I have hair.”
Katara slapped him playfully across the chest. “You need it on your head, you doofus!”
Aang’s forehead creased as his puppy-dog eyes looked at her dolefully. “Well you took everyone else… I just felt left out.”
Katara laughed again shaking her head in baffled amusement. “All you had to do was tell me you wanted to come."
Aang smiled a flirtatious, one-sided grin. “I figured this was an exclusive ‘by invitation only’ activity.”
Katara laughed and linked her arm through the crook of Aang’s elbow, leading him further into the palace spa. With her other hand she gestured magnanimously “Well then, here you are! The very ‘exclusive’ Palace Hair Wash!”
Before them was a reception room with dimmed lights and a strong aroma of orchids. The calming sound of trickling water could be traced to a fountain that fell from high on the back wall, running over a slanted stone slab carved in the shape of two flying dragons. At the bottom the water ran into a trench that split and continued down two small creeks lined with smoothed stones on either side of the room, creating a cheery trickling sound as it passed. Around the perimeter of the spa heavy red curtains hung covering the entrances to several smaller rooms. A few of the curtains were tied back with thick gold ropes revealing massage tables or big tubs of water within the lowly-lit rooms. In the center of the room stood an elaborately carved golden colored desk, with an elegant, overly made-up elderly woman sitting behind it.
As Katara and Aang approached the center desk, the woman stood with prim stiffness. The elderly woman bowed slightly in Fire Nation custom, the large, ornate black hairpiece on her head tipping forward, causing the beaded strings that hung from either side of her hairpiece to clink softly. “Master Katara, you come again,” she greets with formal curtness. Then turning towards Aang, “And you, Avatar,” her sharp golden eyes darting to his tattoos, her voice laced with cool decorum, “We are honored to have your presence among us.”
Aang bowed to her, replying with jovial warmth, “I’m happy to be here!”
Katara tipped her head to the woman, her voice a bit cooler than usual, “Thank you Madam Uriko. My husband and I have come for a hair wash.”
“Of course,” the woman responded with a smile restricted to just her red painted lips, her eyes still sharp. She waved her large sleeve once and a young woman in red robes rushed forward from where she had stood quietly at the back of the room. “As always,” Madam Uriko’s barbed voice spoke, her piercing eyes not leaving them, “we are at your service.”
As the young woman led Aang and Katara away, Aang glanced back over his shoulder toward Madam Uriko, and shivered. “Is it just me, or does she feel predatory somehow?” Aang asked Katara in a hushed whisper.
Katara leaned in towards Aang whispering, “Madam Uriko has been in charge of this place for decades. One of the old relics of an older time. She’s harmless, just still seeped in beliefs of Fire Nation supremacy. I think it hackles her that Zuko allows non-Fire Nation royalty to use the spa…”
Aang’s brow furrowed for a moment, and Katara guessed at what he was thinking. The two had lamented frequently together of how difficult it was to change the perceptions of those who had been raised on war propaganda. Their little band of child warriors had been able to stop the fighting almost overnight, but the perpetuation of racism, animosity and false-ideologies were much harder to eliminate.
Katara knew that Aang sorrowed, not only for his lost people and culture, but also for the way that even the memory of them had been defiled. Despite Zuko’s efforts to reform education in the Fire Nation to teach the Air Nomad genocide accurately, it was still common to encounter people who still believed the lies taught during the war. It churned Katara’s stomach to know that in 100 years of Fire Nation propaganda, the people had been taught that the Air Nomads were the aggressors, that they had been war-mongers and child-stealers, who swooped in on their flying creatures to slaughter parents and carry away the children of helpless villagers.
Katara still remembers the first time Aang had been called a baby-eater from a terrified old granny. They were in one of the more remote Fire Nation islands, when the old woman had run and swooped up her toddling grandson who had been watching Aang juggle leaves in an airball for a bunch of the local kids. They had still been kids back then, and Katara had confronted the woman, yelling passionately in defense of her boyfriend and the Air Nomads. But Aang had just turned and walked away. When Katara caught up to him, she had listened as Aang quietly recounted a seemingly unrelated story of trying to comfort his crying friend, Samten, when he’d accidentally stepped on a scorpi-beetle while playing airball. Aang told how the two of them had carefully scooped what was left of the tiny squished bug onto a pipa leaf, and performed their best approximation of the “Soaring of the Dead” ritual to send the soul of the scorpi-beetle on gentle breezes into his next life, praying for it to be a good life, full of freedom and enlightenment. Katara and Aang hadn’t talked about what the woman had called him, and he didn’t bring it up again. But Katara knew that the Air Nomads, the memory of whom Sozin and his children slandered, were real people to Aang. They were his culture and heritage, yes; but they were also individuals he had known.
The contrast of what the peaceful Air Nomads had been, and how they were remembered was devastatingly unfair.
In an effort to distract Aang from whatever thoughts he might be slipping into, and pull him back into the present, Katara decided to share a piece of juicy gossip. Pulling on their linked arms to bring Aang’s ear down closer to her, she spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, “Rumor has it Madam Uriko was, um, very close, with Fire Lord Azulon.” The implication of her words caused Aang to wrinkle his nose in disgust. Katara continued, “She’s been working in this spa since she was a young woman, and has bragged to me more than once about how Lord Azulon used to come to her for ‘solace’ from his heavy duties as Fire Lord.”
Aang grimaced comically. And Katara laughed at his expression as she continued, “Madam Uriko is just one of those unchangeable parts of Fire Nation imperialism. I asked Zuko why he keeps her around, and he told me that she technically hasn’t done anything wrong (apart from being super creepy), so he can’t really get rid of her. Aaaand,” Katara dragged the word out with a smirk, “frankly I suspect Zuko is intimidated by her.”
Aang chuckled and chanced a glance back towards the woman again as their host untied the golden rope holding the curtain to their room open. The Madam’s narrowed golden gaze was still on them as the heavy red curtain fell across the doorway, obscuring her from view. “I can see why…” Aang said with a commiserating shudder.
Aang stood still a moment longer, before brightening excitedly, rubbing his hands together eagerly as he said enthusiastically, “Well! Lets bring on this famous hair wash!”
……………….
“So that’s when Zuko gave me that fancy hairbrush set. It was in retribution for the pocket lighters Sokka and I both got him for his birthday.”
Aang spoke from his place lying on the hair wash bed next to hers. Katara smiled as she opened one eye to glance his way, appreciating the large bubbly lather his spa worker had managed to lather on his baldhead. Katara had stifled a laugh at the woman’s expression when Aang had initially lain down, her hands hovering unsurely over his baldhead. But he had smiled affably up at her saying, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out” with a wink. Apparently she had figured it out, because Aang had spent the last twenty minutes sighing in pleasure at the experience.
“Well I really appreciated that gift from Zuko,” Katara said smugly as she closed her eyes again, enjoying the feeling of the spa worker’s hands in her hair as she massaged her scalp and combed out her long tresses in the warm flowing water. “I still use that brush to this day. You’ve got to admit, even with a gag gift, Zuko gives quality.”
Aang chuckled from his place on the hair wash bed next to hers. “Oh absolutely. I kept one of the combs from that set for years, remember?”
Katara laughed again, “Oh yes, I remember. You kept it in your pocket for the sole purpose of pulling it out and combing your beard whenever Zuko was giving a serious speech.”
“I remember fondly the special way he’d glare whenever that comb came out!” Aang laughed jovially.
Katara turned her head to look at her husband again, who now had a warm folded washcloth over his eyes. Even so his hands still gestured animatedly while he talked, his spa worker needing to dodge an especially enthusiastic hand here or there.
Katara smiled as she settled back into her hair wash, sighing in relaxation. She really did love a good palace hair wash – the calm of the dimmed lights, the smell of the flower water and the oils they used in her hair, the sound of the warm water running over her scalp as the woman massaged the base of her neck – it was a little piece of heaven! It was fun to share it with Aang this time.
“Was that before or after Sokka gave Toph those dark glasses?” Katara asked lazily.
“Before, I think,” Aang replied as he sighed again, clearly relishing his ‘sans-hair-head-wash’.
Katara smiled. “Sokka had thought that would be so funny, giving our favorite Blind Bandit sunglasses. Little did he know that she would wear them proudly. Before long, nearly every police officer in Republic City owned a pair.”
Aang chucked. “But that wasn’t nearly as big a backfire as the time I gave a single chopstick to Zuko.”
“Remind me again how a single chopstick is a useless gift for a firebender?”
“Oh it wasn’t because he’s a firebender, Katara! It’s because a single chopstick is useless to anyone! … Or so I thought…” Aang said with chagrin, “But that was before Zuko handed the chopstick to Mai, who with a flick of her arm managed to skewer it securely in the cushion I was sitting on, squarely between my thighs!” Katara could hear the shudder in his voice. “That was before we’d had Tenzin, Katara! Do you know what that could have meant?! For an instant I’d thought that was the end of the Air Nomads for good!”
Katara snorted, knowing full well that Mai would have had that little threat in mind when she threw the chopstick. Although it had taken some time for Katara to warm up to Mai, she now fully appreciated the understated, off-kilter wit of the dark-humored Fire Lady.
“But I thought I had her the next time when I gave her a bag of bison-fur yarn-balls.” Katara could hear the irritation in Aang’s voice when he continued, “Who knew she could make even those hurt…?”
A small snicker had Katara glancing up at the woman washing her hair. Apparently their talking was amusing to those washing their hair; these women undoubtedly would have encountered Mai here as well, and perhaps could appreciate the image of their Fire Lady harassing the Avatar.
But the woman’s mirthful expression hurriedly returned to a professional neutral when the curtain opened and Madam Uriko entered.
The old woman moved gracefully as she stopped in front of the shrine at the front of the small room. Removing a small pressed incense cone from a pouch at her waist, Madam Uriko lit the cone with a small snap of her fingers. Katara was mildly surprised; she hadn’t known that Madam Uriko was a firebender.
“Well Sokka’s birthday is coming up soon, and I’ve got to get him something really useless.” Aang continued talking, probably unaware that Madam Uriko had entered the room.
Madam Uriko lifted the elaborately carved lid of a brass incense burner standing on three spindly legs on the shrine and placed the lit incense pellet inside. After replacing the lid and folding her hands delicately in front of her, Madam Uriko breathed deeply, firebending to coax the fragranced smoke out through the intricate pattern of holes in the lid.
Katara looked toward her husband, washcloth still over his eyes, still moving his hands dramatically as he continued to talk, maybe a bit too loudly. Madam Uriko sent a disdainful look his direction.
“And not useless like that art kit we gave him a few years back,” Aang continued. “I mean, he loved that gift! Sokka completely failed to see any of the irony we all saw when we got it for him…”
Katara decided to ignore the Madam and closed her eyes again, breathing deeply to take in the relaxing aroma of the incense. Katara loved this smell. “You could try finding one of those cloud reading books Aunt Wu used to tell the future…” Katara suggested.
“Hey, that’s not a bad idea, Katara! I’m sure he would— Wait!” Katara heard Aang’s hair washer gasp in surprise. Katara’s eyes sprung open to see Aang sitting up abruptly on the side of the bed, water running down his back from his wet head, the washcloth falling to the floor.
“What is that smell…?” Aang asked, an unexplained apprehension in his voice. Then pointing at the incense burner, he addressed the Madam. “What’s in that burner?”
“It’s incense, Master Avatar,” Madam Uriko said condescendingly. “Surely you’ve smelled incense before.”
Aang ignored her rudeness, and closed his eyes breathing in the scent deeply. His forehead furrowed slightly above his closed eyelids. Katara watched his expression carefully, troubled by her husband’s sudden intensity. Katara noticed Aang swallow thickly, this brows arching in… longing? Sadness? Why was Aang reacting this way?
“Sweetie?” Katara asked softly. But he ignored her, turning instead towards Madam Uriko with a sudden fire in his eyes.
“Where did you get that incense?!” Aang demanded of the woman.
“Get it?” the woman replied coolly, uncowed by Aang’s aggressive tone. “Why it comes from the spa’s private stores. We’ve been burning this incense here in the palace spa for generations. It was a favorite of Firelord Sozin. And of his son, Firelord Azulon.” Madam Uriko said the name like a caress.
Aang took another halted inhale before quickly standing and pushing past the woman, unceremoniously ripping the lid off the burner and tipping the burning cone into his hand. Katara watched his back stiffen visually.
Katara sat up, concerned, her hair washer reaching forward to wring her hair as best she could as water streamed down Katara’s back from her heavy wet hair. But Katara ignored it. “Aang?” she asked anxiously. “What’s wrong?”
Aang turned towards Madam Uriko, holding the cone up in his fingers. “How did this get here?!” He shook it once angrily at her. “This doesn’t belong here!”
Katara was unaccustomed to seeing Aang this heated. He was notoriously even-tempered, and almost never lost his cool. To see Aang this upset alarmed Katara. “Aang?!”
Aang finally turned his eyes toward his wife, anger burning behind them. “This belongs to the Air Nomads!” Aang declared furiously. “See!” Aang turned the cone over, revealing one air spiral symbol pressed into the bottom of the cone. Turning back towards Madam Uriko Aang’s voice nearly yelled, “You have no business having this!”
Madam Uriko stepped back, her expression now clearly daunted by Aang’s intensity. “I assure you, this comes from the palace stores…” she stammered, trying to keep her composure. “It’s been here from before I began working here… as a young woman… I assure you, we--”
Aang’s nose wrinkled in a snarl as he cut her off, “This belongs to the Air Nomads! This is… was… sacred to us!”
And with that Aang fisted the incense in his hand and stormed from the room, knocking the brass burner over with his arm and leaving everyone’s clothes rippling in a stiff wind left in his wake.
…………..
It was late when Katara finally heard the snap of Aang’s glider on the balcony of their guest room in the Fire Palace. The sun had set hours ago, and it was now late enough that the moon had nearly completed her arch across the sky and now hung low over the crest of the volcanic rim of the Caldera, sending her ghostly silver light sideways into their room.
Katara was lying in bed. But she hadn’t slept.
After Aang had stormed out of the Palace spa earlier this evening, Katara had run after him. But even as she had searched for Aang, Katara knew that trying to catch up with a fleeing airbender was futile. The best she could hope for would be to find him wherever he stopped.
Katara had checked with Appa first, but the bison was snoring lazily in his favorite place in the courtyard of the stables, undisturbed. Katara checked their room, the garden, and even the rooftop. No Aang. But Aang’s glider was gone, so Katara knew that the best she could do was wait for him to return.
Knowing this didn’t keep her from being irritated with her husband. And concerned, of course. Mostly concerned. Katara hadn’t seen Aang this upset in years, not since they were very young. She wondered what it was about the incense that had upset him enough to run like he was a child again?
She now lay quietly in their bed and waited as her husband crept noiselessly into their room, his footsteps silent. She watched his profile as he propped his staff carefully against the wall, and removed a satchel from his chest, setting it noiselessly on the ground. The moon’s iridescent glow was on his back, his face in shadow.
“Aang…?”
His shadow stilled.
“I’m sorry, Katara. I’d hoped you were asleep.”
Katara let out a breath from the darkness inside their room. Did he really think she could sleep without knowing where he was and that he was okay? Had twenty years of marriage taught him nothing?
Aang spoke softly from just inside the doorway, his face still in shadowy profile. “I’m sorry I left so rudely this evening. And I’m sorry it is so late…”
Katara wasn’t angry anymore, well not very angry anyway, mostly just concerned. His apologies were secondary to his wellbeing to her at the moment. But she didn’t say anything, sensing that he wasn’t finished.
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that. It wasn’t fair to you, and it wasn’t fair to those women doing their jobs at the spa either. I’ll return tomorrow and apologize.”
Something in his voice told Katara that as sincere as his words were, there was a much heavier burden behind them. But he didn’t say anything more. Just stood there facing the darkness, the light of the moon highlighting the blue line on the back of his head, making it look almost silver.
“I just needed some time to… uh, to work through some things.” Aang finally turned towards her, the light now illuminating half of his face. Katara caught her breath at the sadness in expression. Despite the shimmering moonlight, no light danced in Aang’s eye as it usually did. Instead his eyes looked at her with a dark forlorn blackness.
“Oh Aang,” Katara murmured as she pushed the blankets off of her and swept over to him in the darkness, her bare feet cold on the polished floor. “I’ve just been worried. Where were you?”
“I, uh, flew north for a while. Found a small island. Really small. Almost all rocks. I just needed some space to, um… to…”
“Meditate?”
“… well… I did some of that too...” Aang looked down and to the side, a little sheepishly. “But I might have spent most of the time breaking things. Throwing around fire and rocks to cool off a bit.”
Aang looked at her penitently. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run off. I shouldn’t have worried you.”
“Oh Aang, I don’t need anymore apologies.” Katara reached up with her warm hand to touch his face in concern. “But please, let me know how I can help you. Why were you so upset? Why do you look so… so sad?”
Aang brought his hand up between them, opening to reveal the small incense cone from earlier lying benignly on his palm.
“This,” Aang spoke softly, his shoulders slumping, as though the burden of a nation weighed on him.
Katara swallowed a lump in her own throat, remembering that it did.
Katara reached forward, picking up the small pressed cone with her fingers. She ran the pad of her forefinger over the small air swirl stamped into the bottom of it before looking back up at him. “What is it Aang? You said it belonged to the Air Nomads?”
“Yes.” Aang’s brow creased and he took a steadying breath before he continued, trying to explain. “This incense is something I haven’t smelled in… well since before. But it’s a scent I will never forget. One I thought I would never smell again.”
Aang took the incense from Katara, and with a snap of his fingers a flare of yellow heat illuminated their faces for a moment as he lit the end of it. They both watched as a tiny stream of smoke began to trail upward in lazy loops, filling the space with the rich aroma of cedar resin and cardamom, and with a fragrance unnamed but potent, both light and substantial, like the air and the mountains themselves.
“This smell is unmistakable for me.” Aang said as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, his brow softening in memory. “The monks lit this incense during the Ceremony of Mastership. I was wrapped in this scent for ten days while Master Dun and his assistants bestowed my tattoos. Breathing this incense helped fortify me through the, uh, difficult parts of the ceremony; it deepened my meditation.”
Aang swirled a hand lightly above the incense, airbending the smoke into an upward spiral, his eyes unfocused, drifting into the past. “Of course I knew the smell before I ever got my own tattoos. It was part of the ceremony we all participated in to unveil a newly tattooed Master Airbender. Wisps of it were often in the air of my childhood.” A small smile appeared on Aang’s cheek. “But that day… when I got my own tattoos… this smell meant belonging. It was completion. It was a connection to the spirit of Air itself, a bond I shared with all the other Masters.”
Katara watched her husband carefully, her heart throbbing with the pain of knowing that even Aang’s happiest memories were so often undercut with grief.
Aang let out a long breath, relaxing just a bit. “The tattooing ceremony was one of the most spiritual events in my life – back in a time when I knew nothing about being the Avatar; when my greatest aspiration in life was to be a monk, simple and at peace. I tasted that future that day, that peace.”
Katara ached as his shoulders sagged once more and he said quietly, “Of course it didn’t last…”
Aang sighed, looking down at the incense. “I thought this was lost, just like so many parts of my culture. I’m trying to be grateful to have this at all…”
He hesitated. So Katara prompted him, “But?”
“But sometimes I just miss them so much…”
Aang looked sadly into Katara’s eyes. “I would never want you to think that I’m not happy with our life together – I am! Our family, the kids, you in my life, is better than I could ever have asked for.”
Katara took his hand, “But that doesn’t change what you’ve lost, Sweetie. It doesn’t make it all better.”
Aang swallowed, and nodded. “Sometimes I forget. I don’t think about them for a while. Just live in the moment. It’s easier that way. Then it doesn’t hurt so much. I can just move on with my life. Sometimes I believe that I really have moved past it.” He smiled again, despite the wetness in his eyes. “Sometimes it feels like it was all a dream anyway, like my childhood was someone else’s… like maybe it wasn’t even real.”
Aang stood silently for a moment, before looking back down at the incense in his hand. “But when I smelled this today, it all came back to me in an instant. Like I was there again! And they were there, and we were worshipping and celebrating together.” Aang’s face crumpled in grief, his voice a whisper. “For a split second they were all alive again.”
Katara’s heart lurched for Aang, but before she could touch him Aang’s anguish suddenly turned to anger, his face scowling as his words cut out fiercely. “But who knew that all this time our ceremonial incense has been used as ambiance for our, our murderer’s bathhouse!?”
Katara took a surprised step back as Aang’s hand fisted tightly around the incense, his hand turning hotly to flame and crushing the little cone.
“That they used it as perfume for when they bedded their concubines!?”
The flame danced angrily in his eyes as he seethed.
But Aang extinguished the flame, letting it die as quickly as it had flared, the anger in his face dissipating with it, replaced by that same dark sadness.
“What does this,” Aang looked sadly down at the smoking ash in his hand, “teach us about about Sozin’s destruction of the Air Nomads?” A large tear rolled down Aang’s cheek as he closed his eyes tightly. “That apparently Sozin liked how we smelled when we burned.”
A sob caught in Katara’s throat as she scrubbed at the tears she hadn’t realized were falling down her own face. Katara pushed down her own temper that was threatening to flare. One thing she had learned over the course of their marriage, was that when one of them was struggling, the other needed to be strong. And she needed to be calm and strong if she was to help Aang today. Otherwise, she knew him, and he would feel the need to focus on her. But this was all about him right now.
She reached for Aang, wrapping her arms around him. After a moment, Aang grasped her tightly back, bowing his head to lay his chin over her shoulder.
He shook; and so did she. Crying together for the disgrace and tragedy and uselessness of it all.
“Oh Aang,” Katara whispered into his neck, compassion welling within her. She pulled him closer to her, even as a sob shuddering through his body as he gripped her, holding onto Katara as if to remind himself that not _everyone_was gone, he hadn’t lost it all.
“I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t want to hate them.”
Katara nodded against him. “I know, Aang.”
It’s easy to do nothing. It’s hard to forgive. Words that Aang had spoken to her long ago. And Aang didn’t just spout these words — he lived them. Katara had seen how Aang had chosen forgiveness, over and over again, even-- no especially-- when it was hard.
What many people mistakenly thought -- even herself, before the end of the war -- was that forgiveness came naturally for Aang, or that somehow it was easier for him. But after years of living with this good man, what she had come to learn is that forgiveness was only easier for him because he practiced it all the time. He believed it in, and worked at it everyday.
But sometimes it was still hard.
Katara held him tighter, telling him through her embrace that he is not alone, and that she is here. That she bears this burden with him.
Forgiveness was hard, but he didn’t have to do it alone.
……………
Katara inhaled deeply. She didn’t need to look around at the many smoking burners lining the back of the ceremonial hall to know that the incense was there. The smell was incredible! Enveloping the entire room in its fragrance like the embrace of a supportive friend.
It had been ten years since Aang had disconcertedly discovered that for generations the Fire Nation royalty had been using the Air Nomad’s sacred incense in their palace spa. Although Zuko, Aang and Katara had all tired their best to uncover how the royal family had gotten a hold of the incense in the first place, they were never able to find anything conclusive. Procurement of a conquered people’s incense was apparently not significant enough to merit any documentation.
However, with the help of a surprisingly accommodating Madam Uriko, they were able to study the remaining cones and records in the spa stores. Apparently the royal chandler during the early period of Azulon’s rule, had studied the incense himself, and written out his own recipe. It was likely that the modern cones in the spa had not been made by Air Nomads at all, but had been replicates made by chandler himself. Katara and Aang had wondered in length together about why the royal chandler would continue to include the air nomad symbol on the bottom of each incense cone he made – perhaps he had done it as his own small rebellion against the Fire Nation’s campaigns? Or perhaps he had wanted to keep record of the incense cultural roots? Or perhaps he had just done it to more authentically mimic the original? – there was no way to know. But Aang liked to think that perhaps the chandler had known an Air Nomad personally, perhaps had lost a friend, and maybe he included the symbol in memory of what was lost.
The discovery of the chandler’s recipe had been an incredible find for Aang. He and the acolytes had worked hard to replicate the recipe, and now were fully capable of making their own incense. A scent Aang had thought was lost to time and tragedy, was now a viable part of the new Air Nation’s culture once again!
And now it was time to finally use it for its original purpose. Tenzin was being unveiled a Master Airbender today!
The anointment was a big day for Tenzin; big enough that Kya had delayed leaving on an extended trip she had planned, and Bumi had even taken leave from his service in the United Republic of Nations so he could be present.
However, important event or not, Katara had had to roll her eyes at her grown children’s antics. It seemed that the act of simply stepping foot back on Air Temple Island caused Bumi to reverted from ‘distinguished soldier’ to ‘annoying older brother’ instantly. Even though no one except Aang and his tattooing assistants had been allowed to see Tenzin since his Ceremony of Mastership had begun ten days previous, this hadn’t stopped Bumi from teasing Tenzin from through the closed door. He would gleefully call in suggestions to his dad about how to modify Tenzin’s tats to be a little more interesting. It didn’t help that Aang would flippantly play along, before seeming to remember that this was a sacred ceremony, and finally tell Bumi to get lost.
In addition to bothering his younger brother, Bumi had also taken to flirting with Kya’s girlfriend. While this was mildly amusing to Katara, it was seriously beginning to irritate Kya. Katara tried to remind Kya that Bumi flirted with everyone, while also sternly admonishing Bumi to cool it.
As much as Katara loved having everyone together again, she had to admit that keeping harmony in her small family of strong personalities was harder than it looked. Where was the docile, peacemaking child they so desperately needed? Whenever she would ask, Aang would only stifle a smile and raise his hands in surrender, jokingly claiming that he was not the one to blame for their children’s temperaments! And as exasperated as she might feel, Katara had to laugh at herself, knowing that he wasn’t wrong.
In preparation for the tattooing ceremony, Aang had called in two different tattoo artists – one from the earth kingdom and one from the fire nation, both reportedly the best tattooist in their perspective nations – to help teach Aang how to give Tenzin his tattoos. As Tenzin had neared the end of his training, Aang had admitted to Katara that just being ‘the Last Airbender’ didn’t automatically make him an expert on all Airbender skills. “Giving someone their tattoos is very different than being on the other side of the needle, Katara!” he had worried out loud. The closer Tenzin had gotten to mastership, the more nervous Aang got about how to bestow his tattoos. It was Katara who had suggested he ask for help.
After consulting with the tattoo experts, Aang had told Katara later that although their methods were different than what the Air Nomads had done over a hundred years ago, they seemed to understand enough of the process to take the details and tools he remembered and turn them into a working process. One of them even offered to give Tenzin his tattoos herself. Aang had declined, but expressed how grateful he was for to them for teaching him how.
The night before the commencement of Tenzin’s Ceremony of Mastership, Katara didn’t know who was more anxious: Tenzin or Aang? They were both bundles of nerves, but expressed their apprehension in characteristically different ways: Tenzin tried to hide his concern behind stoic meditation, while Aang couldn’t hold still, needing to “take a little run around the island” about ten times before bedtime.
When Aang had come in to bed the first night after beginning Tenzin’s tattoos, the smell of incense strong on his clothes and body, Katara had asked how it had gone. “I got better at it as the day went on.” Aang had replied. Then with a self-depreciating chuckle he added, “Hopefully nobody will look too closely at the back of Tenzin’s thigh…”
But the process had gone better from there, and ten days later, Katara now sat with Bumi and Kya on cushions near the front of the ceremonial room on Air Temple Island awaiting Tenzin’s anointing.
Katara was immensely proud of Tenzin, and all of his studious hard work. She knew he was aware of the burden he was born with, and in some ways she was sorry to have her son shouldering such a responsibility, but she was proud of the way he took it seriously. She knew Aang worried that Tenzin was ‘too serious’, but Katara, as a serious student of her own bending art, could not be more proud of his diligence and discipline.
Katara had often reflected on the irony that, of her three children, the one that was the least silly and carefree, the one who was a homebody with the seeming least amount of nomadic drive, was the one born with airbending. She’d wondered if perhaps it was meant to be; that airbending could be a way for Tenzin and his father to bond, when their personalities were so singularly opposite.
But as her mind wandered over these thoughts a hush fell over the audience, and she turned to see Aang and Tenzin, wearing a long hooded cloak, walk into the room and down the center aisle to the raised dais. Tears pricked at Katara’s eyes as the tall hooded form of her youngest son knelt reverently at the center of the stage. She looked at her husband, dressed in a formal yellow robe not unlike the one he had worn to Zuko’s coronation, and, catching his eye, noted that Aang’s eyes were also moist with emotion.
Katara cried for most of the ceremony. The image of Tenzin removing his hood to reveal a new blue arrow on his forehead brought a loud sob from her. Kya reached an arm over her shoulders, while Bumi refrained from being irreverent (which was more than Katara would have expected from him). From then on the rest of the ceremony was one big tear-clouded blur.
But the smell of the burning incense was potent and clear, and got even stronger as she felt it swirl around her, ruffling her clothes and inciting the song of the many wind chimes hung throughout the room.
Katara drank in the aroma carried on the wind. Despite the way the incense had found its way back to Aang, Katara couldn’t help but be grateful for this piece of Aang’s culture, of her family’s culture, that had been restored. Aang had admitted to Katara that although for a long time it had bothered him that his people’s sacred incense had been dishonored, he was grateful it had been. At least this way it had been preserved.
Katara breathed in deeply, taking in this scent that was both ancient and new. And something powerful stirred with in her.
Perhaps it was the power of the scent in the air, coupled with the way the wind chimes sang, but as Katara closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, she felt a spiritual tingling across her body, as though they were not alone. Like perhaps the energy of the Air Nomads, the ancestors of her children, were there and rejoicing with them as the first airbender in well over a hundred years, was anointed a Master.
…………….
A/N: I don’t know about you, but sometimes the smell of something can bring back very vivid memories/emotion for me. That was the genesis for this story.
(P.S. Also, I really do have a bald friend who loves getting hair washes. ;)
..................
Other works in this series:
Chant
Artifacts
#older Aang#older kataang#kataang family#air nomad genocide#katara POV#Aang#the last airbender#ALTA#avatar the last airbender#best boy aang#forgiving is hard#hair wash fic#incense fic#tenzin's tattoos#angry aang#aang's tattoos#air nomads#false fire nation propaganda
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𝑀𝑦 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑃𝑡.2 (𝑆𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎×𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)
Part One/ Part Three / Part Four
Pairing: Badboy! Park Seonghwa (Ateez)/ Reader (Female)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, College Au.
Summary: Y/N has no idea what to make of the mysterious Park Seonghwa. Does he really like her or is he simply playing with her?
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Flipping the light switches off, Y/N typed in the security code into the pin pad before closing the door behind her, the faint beeping from inside letting her know that the alarm was functioning properly. She honestly wondered at times about if anyone would ever think about robbing a coffee shop. Granted it made a lot of money during certain seasons, but unless you actually work in one, you probably wouldn't think so. Yet it was surprising to know it could make as much money as any famous fast food restaurant. Well.....with those sky high prices, it made sense.
She stopped and checked to make sure she had everything in her bag, not wanting to risk having left her keys inside and find out until she reached her apartment. Satisfied by the confirmation, she began her walk home. If it had been fall or winter, she would have seriously considered taking a bus, even though it wasn't that far away. But it was summer and thankfully there was still an hour left before the sun finally set. She truly believed she was lucky to have found a place to live that was close not only to her workplace, but also her school, even if it was a tiny studio apartment. She felt proud to say it was hers.
Feeling something tug on her sneaker, she looked down and realized one of her shoes was untied. She bent down and began tying it up again, carelessly placing her bag right next to her on the street. She was so focused on her task in front of her, she failed to notice the looming figure in front of her.
"You know anybody could just whisk away your bag and run at this moment?"
She snapped her head back up and saw Seonghwa standing in front of her, an amused smile on his face. He bent down and picked up her bag, dusting off the dirt that had gotten on the bottom part of it in the process.
"Tsk. Tsk. And here I thought you were a more.... what's the word? Meticulous person."
Y/N gave him a questioning gaze before standing up, quickly grabbing her bag from him.
"Not even a thank you?" Seonghwa shook his head.
"What are you still doing here? I thought you went home." Y/N said, clearly confused as to why he'd be there still.
Seonghwa raised an eyebrow at her.
"I thought I told you back in the shop that I'd see you later?"
Y/N recalled the moment, it did seem weird to her that he'd say that.
"Well doll, it's later......and I wanted to see you." He explained, a slight smirk tugging on the corners of his lips.
Y/N let out a tiny scoff.
"Why?"
Seonghwa blinked at her response.
"I thought I made myself clear the other day Y/N. I like you."
Y/N blushed slightly at the memory of him confronting her back in school. She was hoping the shadow from the building in front of her casted enough to hide it from him.
"And I said there would be plenty of time to get to know each other.....well I'm free right now and obviously so are you. So why don't we get something to eat? My treat."
He grinned at her, obviously not expecting her to turn down his offer. Any other girl wouldn't say no to Seonghwa. But Y/N wasn't any girl, and she wasn't about to say yes to someone she hardly knew. Especially not when he acted so strange for her liking.
"No thank you."
She quickly responded and took a step to walk away from him, but his hand reached out and stopped her from moving any further.
"Why not?" He asked.
Y/N tried to think of an excuse, any quick excuse to get out of this.
"I'm not hungry." Was the best thing she could think of.
The loud grumbling of her stomach was a dead giveaway of her fat lie. After working 8 hours straight with only a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a muffin on her only break, of course she was borderline starving and needed something in her stomach before it began eating itself. Her hands clutched her stomach, hoping to silence the obnoxious noise, but ultimately just making it more obvious.
Seonghwa looked down at her figure and snorted softly.
"Seriously, I know a really good place here that sells burgers and shakes. Are you really going to say no to free food?"
At this point she could either tell him to fuck off and stomp away home, but ultimately she'd leave even more hungry and would still have to whip up something on the stove that would take approximately half an hour or more. Or she could accept his offer, but it'd mean interacting with him, not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but she honestly didn't know what to make of him. He's been straightforward with her all this time, but how was she to know he was being serious? For all she knew, he could just be playing with her. After all, isn't that what all bad boys are known for?
Guess there was only one way to find out.
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Y/N looked around at the 50's themed diner she was in:
Black and white tiled floor that was so clean it almost looked slippery. Cherry red leather seats, either in the form of booths, tables or chairs on the front white counter that stretched at least 40 feet. An array of old records hanged on the wall, whether or not you could actually play them on a record player or if they were just flimsy decorations would forever be a secret. An old juke box was stationed in one of the corners of the counter currently playing The Beatles, its color combination of yellow and blue not quite appealing to the eyes. And of course, a pinball machine was placed near the entrance for kids to waste their quarters on. They even had a light blue 1955 convertible Chevrolet Bel Air for people to go take pictures of or with. At this point it wouldn't have surprised Y/N if waitresses came out of the kitchen in roller skates and started singing songs from Grease or Hairspray.
It became an even more ironic thought when she saw Seonghwa walk back to her with their food. Dressed in a white shirt, distressed jeans, black combat boots and black leather jacket with his hair slicked back, he could almost be a modern day Danny Zuko and for some reason, that thought made her bust a tiny giggle.
"What's so funny?" Seonghwa asked as he sat the tray down in front of her.
"Oh....nothing." She was not about to get caught.
Seonghwa looked at her funny, but ultimately decided not to pry.
"Here you go."
He slipped her food in front of her: a burger the size of her two hands and a 32 ounce chocolate shake with whipped chocolate and a cherry on the top. A well sized platter with regular fries and curly fries made it obvious that they were going to share them. She didn't mind though, the portions were so big she doubted she'd even finish half of it.
She dug into the food, her stomach thanking her for finally putting something in her body. She was so hungry that she didn't care if she was eating like how she usually ate when she was at home, messy and slobbish. She was halfway through her burger, when she caught Seonghwa just staring at her. That's when she started to feel self conscious. She quickly swallowed what was currently in her mouth and grabbed a napkin to wipe the corners of her mouth.
Seonghwa giggled at her.
"Don't worry about it. It's pretty refreshing to see a girl not care about how she looks like when she eats, and to actually eat. You have no idea how many girls I've brought here who only get salads and nothing else."
He cringed slightly at past memories of awful dates that make him wanna kick himself for even thinking they were attractive. He blamed himself though. He tended to only look at pretty faces and end up regretting it when he found out they were all self-centered, shallow, and prissy girls that just made his blood boil.
"Maybe that's why I like you. You're different."
He didn't even realize he said that out loud until she whipped her head up at him. He was stunned that he accidentally let that slip, but he was able to play it off coolly.
"How......how can you..... we've never even..?" Y/N couldn't even completely form her question but Seonghwa knew what she was referring to.
Sighing softly, he began:
"Well I'm going to sound like a total creep now but that's inevitable. It was a few months back, when you had changed majors and had to be transferred to our class..."
Seonghwa ignored the usual reprimand of the professor, telling him he was late again. As if he didn't do it on purpose. He just hated this class. It was undoubtedly one of the most boring subjects one could possibly take. He began to stare off into space, not even bothering to listen to what was being said.
He looked around at the familiar faces he saw in class, the same people from last year. Until a head of (insert hair color) hair caught his eye. She was definitely not there before. Seonghwa tried to think if he had ever seen her around before, but couldn't quite remember.
Unknowingly, he found himself staring at her more and more each time they had class together. He found out she had a habit of tapping her pen against her cheek when she was trying to concentrate, she kept everything in her bag organized and hardly socialized with anybody.
One time he followed her to her locker, just to briefly see what was inside of it. You can always tell a lot about a person based on how they decorate their locker. But Seonghwa only saw a few pictures of what he assumed was her family, few friends and a lot of sticky notes with motivational quotes written on them in various sharpie colors, with either stars or diamonds as decorations.
That just peeked his curiosity even more in trying to decipher who the mysterious girl was, and his curiosity turned to fondness for the girl, so he had no choice but to admit that he was attracted to her and wanted to get close to her.
"Wait. Is that why you were staring at me in class the other day?" Y/N asked after he told her all that.
"Took you long enough to notice too. You were so oblivious to it that it was kinda funny." He chuckled.
Y/N looked back at that moment and realized she still had so many questions left.
"But then why did you look angry after I looked away?"
Seonghwa shifted his position, sitting up straighter so he could look at her.
"Why? Cause you looked at me with such a bitch face and even rolled your eyes at me. I was kinda angry and hurt that you did that given how I feel about you." He explained.
Y/N looked at him confused.
"I did not roll my eyes at you."
"Uh....yeah. You did. You looked at me as if I was a bug or something." He corrected her.
"Well..... I was tired and hungry! I'm not in control of my actions or emotions when I'm in that state." She tried defending herself, feeling somewhat embarrassed that she had no control over her facial expressions.
"Yeah, I've noticed. You weren't all that happy 25 minutes ago when I asked you out on this date." Now it was Seonghwa's turn to roll his eyes at her previous behavior.
"This....this isn't a date!" Y/N exclaimed.
Seonghwa raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Oh no? Do enlighten me then. What is this?"
Y/N thought about it for a moment.
"We are just 2 individuals, having a meal together and conversing." She stated.
"Why are we conversing though?" Seonghwa continued to pry.
Y/N hummed.
"Because you said you wanted to get to know me better?"
Seonghwa smiled at that.
"Sounds to me like a date then."
Y/N mentally face palmed. She practically walked into that one herself. She sighed as she picked up one of the fries and dipped it into her milkshake before eating it.
"And now I've learnt one more thing about you: we have similar tastes in eating."
Y/N watched as he mirrored her actions and dipped his fries in his strawberry milkshake. Y/N decided to just finish eating as soon as possible so she could go home early. The sun was starting to set and she didn't like walking home in the dark, even if rarely any crime happened in this neighborhood. She was planning on not saying anything else, but then something popped in her mind that made her ask:
"Wait a minute! The day after the.....incident." She began.
"You mean when you were a total bitch?" Seonghwa teased.
"Haha, funny." She threw a fry at him, causing Seonghwa to laugh even harder.
She had to admit though, he had a cute laugh.
"Anyways, the day afterwards, I heard 2 girls talking in the bathroom about you. They said that you were pissed off at me-"
"I kinda was." He interrupted her again.
"Let me finish!" She cried out rather annoyed.
Seonghwa bit his lip as he stifled another laugh. He found it adorable when Y/N got agitated.
"They made it sound like you were going to beat me up. Something about 'giving it to me'" She held up her fingers in quoting signals.
Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, trying to decipher what she meant. Then it hit him.
"Oh! No. Trust me, I wasn't going to beat you up. As for 'giving it to you' "
He mimicked her quotation signs, causing Y/N to glare at him for teasing her again.
"I was referring to the notepad you dropped. Remember? I gave it back to you?"
Now she face palmed literally as she realized she hadn't thought about that. And here she thought she was dead meat for sure.
"Was that why you were avoiding me the rest of the week? You actually believed I was going to fight you?"
Y/N swirled her milkshake with her straw, unable to look at Seonghwa in the eyes anymore.
"Y/N? I'm talking to you. You really believed that?"
The authority in his voice made her look up at him, his expression showing offense and indignation at the thought that she actually believed him capable of such a thing.
"Why would you think that?" He continued his interrogation.
"Well..... I don't know! Ok? Maybe cause I've heard so many rumors about you. You don't exactly have the best of reputations at school. Everyone says how you're...."
Her voice trailed off, afraid to finish her sentence, afraid to offend or hurt him in anyway .
"That I'm a delinquent? A criminal?"
Y/N blinked when he said that, as if he could read her mind.
"I know what people say about me, I'm not blind nor deaf to their gossip." He stated, not at all unfazed by what he often heard.
"So does that mean none of it is true?" She couldn't help but want the answer to her question.
"Well depends. Have I gotten into a lot of fights with other guys? Yes. Do I have a temper at times that gets me in trouble? Yes. Have I fucked a bunch of girls just for fun? Definitely. Do I smoke or drink often? I'm not denying it."
Seonghwa reached into his pocket and took out his lighter, twirling it around in his hand a few times so Y/N could get a glance at it before putting it back in his pants.
"But have I ever vandalized, stolen or done anything remotely illegal? No. Have I beaten someone up for no good reason? No."
Y/N listened to his words very carefully. She was amazed how he was calmly telling her all of this.
"And I most certainly have never even thought about lifting a finger against a woman. Especially not one I'm interested in." He confessed abruptly, causing Y/N to gulp her drink a little fast, nearly making her choke.
"I'm sorry." She apologized.
Seonghwa chuckled softly.
"Don't be. I get why you'd be scared. I just wish you'd get to know the real me......"
He reached his hand out and lightly brushed his finger on the top of her knuckles.
"Kinda like how I want to know you..."
The physical contact sent a weird feeling down her body. It was chilly, yet warm at the same time. She wanted to reach out and lace her fingers in his, and she would have, until a high pitched voice interrupted them.
"Seonghwa! Is that you?!"
They looked over to see a purple haired boy waving his hand in the air, as if his loud voice didn't make his presence already known. A pink haired boy was standing next to him, looking embarrassed as his friend jumped up and down. Having had enough of that, he pulled the boy by his arm and ran over to Seonghwa and Y/N's table.
"Hi! What a coincidence to see you here! Why didn't you tell us you would be here? You could have joined Yeosang and I. He promised to take me out to eat." He pulled whom Y/N assumed to be Yeosang closer to him.
The purple haired boy spoke so loud and fast Y/N had a hard time understand what he was saying.
"Promised? I was threatened." Yeosang replied, causing the other boy to let out a loud laugh, making Y/N think of a hyena.
"Hyung, where are your manners? Aren't you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?"
Seonghwa blushed and cleared his throat. It was the first time Y/N saw him get flustered and it was definitely funny.
"Y/N isn't my girlfriend-"
"Oh really? Great! Cause she's cute."
The boy wasted no time and held his hand out to her.
"My name is Wooyoung, I'm single, Bi, and I have a driver's license." He winked at her.
"For a moped." Yeosang corrected him.
Wooyoung sent a glare towards his friend.
"Y/N, these are my friends: Wooyoung and Yeosang. They go to our school, but you've probably never seen them cause they're a grade below us."
Y/N nodded and waved awkwardly at them.
"Yeosang, Wooyoung, this is Y/N. She's not my girlfriend, but she's off limits. Ok?" Seonghwa made sure to lock eyes with Wooyoung, silently warning him not to step any further into his territory.
"So if she's not your girlfriend, does that mean she's a fuck bud-"
Yeosang stepped on Wooyoung's foot, causing him to bend over in pain. Yeosang however smiled sweetly as if nothing happened.
"Anyways, it was nice seeing you Hyung. We wouldn't want to take up more of your time. Besides, we'll be seeing you tomorrow at Hongjoong's party. Right?"
Seonghwa nodded.
"You know I never pass up an opportunity to party."
"Will you bring Y/N with you?" Wooyoung asked, hoping she'd come.
Seonghwa looked over to Y/N, who tried to think of an answer.
"Uh... no thanks. I wasn't invited so-"
"Who cares? No one needs an invitation these days. It's a frat party anyways, a bunch of strangers end up coming in the end." Wooyoung insisted.
"I'll....think about it." Y/N knew she wouldn't.
"Ok! I'll take it as a yes. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Taking a hold of Yeosang's hand, Wooyoung made his way over to another table, the pink haired boy already looking exhausted at the thought of spending at least 2 more hours with his highly energetic friend.
Y/N smiled softly at them. They were definitely an odd pairing, but they seemed to compliment each other.
"It's getting late. Want me to take you home?" Seonghwa asked her.
"It's fine. I can walk. It's not that far." She refused.
"I insist. I want to make sure you get there safely." He insisted.
Y/N smirked at him.
"Are you really concerned for my safety or do you just wanna find out where I live?"
Seonghwa's mouth dropped at her insinuation.
"I don't..... ok you got me there."
She chuckled at his reaction, but ultimately got up.
"Ok. Fine. Take me home. The worst you can possibly do is murder me and throw my body in a lake."
Seonghwa shook his head and picked up his jacket. He made sure to hold the door open for her when they went out. Y/N didn't even notice he had stopped walking until she heard him whistle behind her. Turning around, she saw him standing next to a black Harley-Davidson motorcycle. She raised her hands and gestured him to explain.
"I told you I was taking you home."
He tapped the seat.
"So come on. Hop on doll."
He began taking out the spare helmet for her to put on. She walked back to him and placed her hands on her hips.
"You kept it parked here the entire time?" She asked him.
"Uh huh." He responded.
Her face was full of shock.
"Did you know that I would say yes to coming here with you?"
"Well not exactly 'knew'.......more like....hoped."
He winked at her before placing the helmet above her head, making sure to strap it tightly.
"Safety first."
After putting on his own helmet, he got on the motorcycle and waited for her to get on. She awkwardly threw her leg over the seat and hesitated to wrap her arms around him. Seonghwa huffed and simply grabbed her wrists to put them on his stomach.
As soon as he started revving up the motorcycle, Y/N tightened her grip around him. Even through his shirt, she could feel rock solid abs underneath it. It made her wonder what he looked like without a shirt. The thought temporarily distracted her from the worry of actually riding in a motorcycle for the first time.
Sensing her fear, Seonghwa grabbed one of her hands and gave it a light squeeze.
"Don't worry doll. I'll keep you safe."
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*part 3 coming soon*
#ateez#ateez seonghwa#park seonghwa#ateez scenarios#ateez school au#badboy!seonghwa#ateez fluff#ateez fanfic#ateez angst#ateez seonghwa scenarios#ateez seonghwa fluff#ateez seonghwa fanfic#ateez seonghwa angst#park seonghwa fanfic#park seonghwa fluff#park seonghwa angst#park seonghwa scenarios#ateez yeosang#ateez wooyoung
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Two Halves - Chapter One (Zuko x Reader)
Word Count: 3,700
Author’s Note: I decided to set this a few years after the war, when Zuko is Firelord. I didn’t want to stray too far from what was canon in the series - what with Katara being the only bender left in the Southern Tribe and also trying not to add extra family members because that always feels weird to me - so the reader in this story is a girl from the village who lost her parents to a raid and was essentially adopted into Sokka and Katara’s family; she stayed behind to watch after the tribe when they left to help Aang, and now, as the chief’s surrogate daughter, is arranged to marry the Firelord to help bring the two nations together. Chaos and sweet, tender romance ensues. This is also going to be a mini series! I have no real plot and no idea how long it’s going to be, but that just adds to the fun of it all. Stay tuned.
~ Muerta
“You can’t be serious.”
Sokka, seated beside you, instinctively offers you his hand, which you willingly, eagerly take, gripping it tightly in your lap. You can’t decide if you feel anger or fear; the two mix sourly in your stomach.
“I am,” Chief Hakoda says. His tone is even, and infuriatingly understanding. It makes you want to scream. “Your presence in the Fire Nation will be key to unite the nations in peace once again. They’ve been closed off from the rest of the world for too long - you’ll be an ambassador for our people.”
“Then make me an ambassador,” you snap. “Marrying me off to the Firelord is no better than letting him come here and colonize us.”
Hakoda glowers sternly at you. You shrink back, Sokka giving your hand an assuring squeeze.
“Firelord Zuko has made great strides to restore what his ancestors destroyed in the years since the war,” Hakoda scolds. “He’s an honorable, respectable man. I expect you to treat him as such.”
You look back up at him, letting out a heavy, defeated sigh.
“I don’t have a choice in this, do I?” you ask softly. Your voice quivers, revealing the terror behind your rage.
Hakoda’s expression softens as he stands. He helps you onto your feet, holding you gently at the elbows and looking apologetically into your eyes, one of his hands reaching to brush your hair behind your ear.
“Just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean the need for sacrifice is,” he tenderly says. “You’ll do great things as the queen of the Fire Nation. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t trust Zuko to treat you well.”
In Hakoda’s eyes, you see the man you knew as a child, the man who brought you into his family when you lost your own to a Fire Nation raid. You love him as much as you loved your own father, and know he loves you as much as his flesh and blood children; you trust that he would never put you in harm’s way.
Hakoda leans forward and kisses your forehead, holding you close for a long moment before letting go, breaking contact with you completely. The pain on his face tears a gaping hole in your heart.
“You leave in three days,” he tells you. “You’ll be in good hands - I promise.”
Though you know it isn’t for the last time, leaving the Southern Water Tribe hurts so much you think it might kill you.
You cruise across a calm ocean in a Fire Navy ship; luckily Sokka was allowed to come with you as emotional support, as well as to represent the tribe at your wedding. The presence of Zuko’s uncle is also calming to you, despite how little you know him, and how not long ago you would have considered him an enemy. There’s just something about Iroh that makes you feel safe, and you only hope the same holds true when you meet your husband to be.
“Zuko sent me to ensure your safe passage,” Iroh told you when you first boarded the ship. “Think of me as your guardian spirit.”
You stand on the deck, basking in the newly warm weather and taking deep breaths of fresh ocean breeze. The peace of the moment helps you lose yourself, forgetting your fate entirely, if only for a moment.
“How ya feeling?”
Sokka sidles up next to you, placing an assuring hand on your shoulder. You reach up and curl your fingers around his, sighing.
“Awful, now that you’re here,” you tease.
Sokka chuckles.
“I could still make good on that promise I made when we were kids,” he offers, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you into the side of his sturdy, familiar body. “I don’t think Suki or Dad would be really happy about it, though.”
You let out a huff of laughter, remembering all the times you used to play together before the war brought you closer; you used to have intense crushes on each other, and Sokka always promised that he would marry you when you both got older - plans that changed when you effectively became siblings. You lean your head into his shoulder, finding comfort in his presence.
“I’m just scared,” you tell him. “I always planned for great adventure in my life, and to help people, but… this doesn’t seem like the right way. It feels like I’m being taken prisoner.”
“They say that having too many plans for one’s life keeps one from finding their true potential.”
You turn, meeting Iroh’s gaze as he crosses the deck to where you stand. You part with Sokka and bow respectfully, trying to hide the embarrassment that heats your skin.
“I apologize, General Iroh,” you greet him. “I didn’t mean any offense.”
Iroh tuts at you, placing a hand on your shoulder to gently straighten you up. He meets you with a kind gaze and a soft smile.
“Fear is to be expected, my dear,” he says. “You can’t have a great adventure without also facing a great fear.”
He turns and peers out across the water, inhaling and releasing a deep, contented sigh.
“The weather is lovely today,” he notes. “Why don’t we all enjoy it together, with a pot of tea?”
And so a tea set is brought, along with a table and cushions, and you and Sokka join Iroh as he demonstrates how to brew the perfect pot of jasmine green, generously serving each cup. He toasts to your being together, and you drink heartily, savoring the exquisite taste of his famous tea.
“I understand how you must feel,” Iroh addresses you once you’ve all settled. “Coming to a strange country, among people responsible for so much of the pain you’ve experienced; you’re exceptionally brave for doing what is best for your people.”
Iroh takes your hand, cradling it between both of his.
“I am sorry for how my nation - my family - has hurt you,” he says. “My nephew and I only want happiness for you with us, and we will do all we can to ensure it; I give you this vow among his.”
He squeezes your hand tightly, and you grip back, accepting his promise. You bow again, lowering yourself so that your face is almost level with the deck of the ship.
“Thank you, General Iroh,” you reply. “Your generosity means everything to me.”
When you sit up, Sokka places a hand at your back, giving you a comforting smile.
“Zuko’s a good guy,” he assures you. “I really think you’ll learn to like him.”
Your arrival in the Fire Nation, much to your surprise, is met with celebration. As your ship pulls into port, army and navy officers in full ceremonial regalia perform displays of their bending, a traditional band playing cheerful, joyous music to welcome you to shore. A procession of military vehicles escorts you through the streets of the capital to the palace, citizens emerging from their homes and businesses to catch a glimpse as your carriage rolls by. The people who manage to see you are elated, if not curious, staring at you with wide eyes and rapt attention; Iroh explains that many of them have never seen a foreigner, as travel to the nation is only just starting to become somewhat commonplace. You’re confronted by the beauty and grandeur of the city - the tall, elegant buildings with their ornate details are far from anything you’ve ever seen in person, even with the rapid development of the Southern Tribe.
In the palace, you’re immediately whisked away to your own wing, your quarters designated to a set of quaint buildings circling a scenic courtyard. Tradition dictates that, from the time of your engagement, you aren’t allowed to see the man you’re meant to marry until you’re both at the alter; the first few days of your time in the Fire Nation are spent in seclusion, resting off the fatigue of travel and acquainting yourself with the new culture you must now call your own. Though you have to keep your distance, you’re relieved when, on your first morning in the palace, you find a letter on your doorstep, scrawled in a refined, graceful hand and addressed from the Firelord himself.
Hello, it says, Zuko here.
I wish I could introduce myself in person, but unfortunately, this will have to do for now. Sokka has told me much about you in the years we’ve known each other, and he always speaks of you highly. My uncle is also already enamored with you, and tells me he already considers you family, so I hope this brings as much comfort to you as it does to me. I don’t think I could have chosen a better woman to rule at my side.
I have to admit that I’m nervous about getting married. I still feel like I’m too young, and still just figuring things out. But I guess if I can lead a country and make peace after a hundred years of war, I can have a wife and make her happy. I hope I do make you happy - I hope we can be close friends and lead the nation strongly together, for the better of both our homes.
Please write to me if you need anything. Sincerely yours, Firelord Zuko.
The candidity and awkwardness of his writing makes you smile, your mind at ease being able to put a voice to his name. You decide to write him back immediately.
Hello, Zuko, you write.
Your letter has already made me feel much better. Your uncle is a very sweet, very wise man, and I’m thankful that you sent him to watch over me - he makes me feel like I already have a little piece of a home and a family here. Meeting the man who raised you, I have faith that you’ll be a good husband to me.
I’m very scared because, unlike you, I’ve never led a country or had to negotiate peace - getting married is the biggest responsibility I’ve ever had. I want to help people, though, and if I can help people by leading them out of the darkness of war, I’m very happy to do it. It isn’t as terrifying knowing you’re also nervous; I’m glad we can be nervous together.
Please write to me as much as possible until the wedding. It would be nice to get to know my husband before I marry him. Sincerely yours, the bride.”
For the following days, you and Zuko exchange multiple letters; you have one waiting for you every morning, receive a reply by midday, and end each night wishing him pleasant dreams. You learn that he’s very intelligent and, though quite subdued, has a sense of humor much like your own. He has a passion for weaponry and the art of combat, as well as for storytelling and music (he tells you that dancing has recently been unbanned in the Fire Nation, and wonders if you’ll be able to teach him any Water Tribe dances; you promise to help as much as you can). The more you write to him, the less daunting the idea of your marriage seems, and you find yourself feeling excited by the idea of finally meeting him.
The day of your wedding starts early. You’re woken at dawn, fed a breakfast of tea and jook (both prepared by Iroh, and sent on a tray beside a polished wooden box - inside is a traditional hair comb and a note from the old man, explaining that the comb was given to his mother by his father on their wedding day; the gesture sends you to tears), then sent to the palace baths to be buffed and primed for your wedding attire.
You’re stripped down and steeped in multiple perfumed liquids, scrubbed with an array of soaps and exfoliants, and washed so thoroughly you think your handlers might have exposed an entirely new layer of skin. They wax every single hair from your body as well; you only attempt to draw the line when they reach your nether area.
“Please don’t,” you request, firm but not commanding. “I don’t think I’ll need it.”
The beautician scoffs at you, pushing you back onto the waxing table and forcefully spreading your legs apart.
“Foolish girl,” she huffs. “Of course you will. Royal marriages must always be consummated on the wedding night - the Firelord will want as many heirs as you can give him, as soon as possible.”
Her brute words make you sick to your stomach, and as she rips away the hair between your thighs, tears roll down your cheeks from both pain and horror. You want to believe the man who’s been writing to you for the past five days would never force himself onto you in the name of tradition, but it dawns on you once again that you don’t truly know him, and can’t anticipate his actions.
Once you’ve been wrung out from your time at the bath house, you’re sent back to your sleeping chambers, where you’re pleased to find not only lunch waiting for you, but visitors as well.
“Katara!” you cry, flying across the room and into her arms. She laughs, hugging you so tightly you can hardly breathe.
“Oh, I’ve missed you!” Katara cries, whirling you around a few times before setting you back onto your feet. “You already look so beautiful! How do you feel?”
“I’m terrified,” you tell her, “but so much happier now that you’re here.”
“Don’t forget me!”
Aang waves from behind Katara and you shout with glee, greeting him in the same manner you did her. He also crushes himself against you, and when you pull away, you cup his face between your hands.
“You look older!” you exclaim, squeezing his cheeks. “You grow every time I see you!”
Aang laughs, pushing your hands away with a pink blush creeping over his nose and ears.
“I’m a grown man, and the avatar,” he says, teasingly poking your shoulder. “You can’t keep treating me like I’m still twelve.”
“I can and I will,” you jest, lightly punching him in the stomach. He cackles and puts you in a (gentle) headlock, rubbing his knuckles into your skull to tangle your freshly washed hair.
“Hey, kids, that’s enough,” Sokka scolds playfully as he enters the room. “Let’s eat, otherwise I’ll be way too tempted by the spread at the reception tonight.”
Lunch with your siblings is the last moment of relative calm you have before the wedding and its reality truly start to set in. After the meal, Sokka and Aang leave to help Zuko with his own preparations, Katara staying to help you with yours. Your handlers navigate you into your dress, a traditional gown and robes made of many layers of fine silk and embroidered with dragons and native Fire Nation flowers; the train and sleeves fall so far behind you, you worry about tripping or scuffing the fabric. Once you’re dressed, your face is painted white, your features then outlined as if they were being drawn anew into your skin. You hardly recognize yourself once the handlers are finished with you, the anxiety you felt upon learning of your engagement returning with newfound ferocity.
Katara is the one to style your hair. Keeping with custom, she knots a portion of it atop your head in a tight bun, using the comb Iroh gave you to hold it in place. She then takes the remainder of your hair and braids it into two sections on each side of your face, the way it would be worn in the Water Tribe; she laces each braid with a string of beads from home, crystalline blue totems to ensure happiness and long life hanging at the end of each, contrasting beautifully with your gown. She cries when she steps back to look at you, carefully dabbing at her tears so as not to ruin her own makeup and dress.
“You’re so gorgeous,” she tells you. “I’m so glad Sokka never married you like he said he would, he would look awful at the alter next to you.”
You laugh, opening your arms and hugging her tightly, forcing your own tears back for the sake of the effort that’s been put into your costume.
For the last few minutes before the wedding, you’re alone; you stand outside the doors of the palace’s grand courtyard, flanked on both sides by guards, listening nervously as Iroh (who’s officiating, per his nephew’s request) praises you and recites a poem in your honor. His sentiments are exceedingly affectionate and should move you, but all you can think of is Zuko; what will he think of you? Will he like you as much in person as he did in writing? Was he just pretending to like you for the sake of your union? What if he didn’t think you were pretty? What if, like the beautician said, he forced you to sleep with him tonight, simply because it’s what’s meant to be done? You chew at your nails, biting them so hard that some of them start to bleed.
Music swells from inside the courtyard, and suddenly the doors before you swing open. You hold your head as high as you can, stepping forward with as much grace as you can manage and beginning to traverse the impossibly long aisle to the wedding altar. You breathe deeply, scanning the group of people standing before it - you see Katara first, and she nods encouragingly, looking like she’s about to cry all over again. Your eyes sweep over to Sokka, standing beside her, and he seems somewhat shocked by your appearance - not that you blame him, seeing as you look like a complete stranger, even to yourself. Iroh gazes at you from the center of the altar, wearing the expression of a proud father that makes you wish Hakoda were there. Aang stands beside Zuko, and you can tell from his face that he was bored by this whole display until you emerged from hiding; you stifle your laughter at his predictable, endearing disposition.
Finally, your eyes fall on the groom. The first thing you notice is his stare, cutting into you as he watches you approach; his chiseled, angular features have fallen into an awed expression, one that causes a giddy tickle in your chest. He’s tall, slim, with broad shoulders that carry his wedding robes proudly - his clothing matches yours, the only difference being the armored sheath across his chest that signals his status as ruler of the Fire Nation. You’re reminded that his father wore it before him, and a shudder runs through you as you recall all you suffered at his hands; you push it from your mind, climbing the altar steps to stand beside your betrothed. He gently takes your arm, a warm, timid smile breaking across his lips.
“Spirits,” Iroh addresses the crowd, “we gather before you to join this man, this woman, and our two great nations in a union of peace and prosperity. With your blessing and guidance, their souls will form two halves of a great whole, coming together to foster a new era of love and commitment not just for their people, but for each other. The bride and groom will now recite their vows.”
Iroh nods towards you, and you lower yourself onto your knees, bowing before the Firelord. You clear your throat, hoping that the entire country doesn’t hear the quiver in your voice.
“My lord,” you begin, “I give myself to you as completely as I give myself to my tribe. I swear, from this day forward, to walk confidently by your side in all your endeavors, to uphold the honor of our nations and families, and to be a guiding light into the future for every citizen of the Fire Nation. I will be your support, your comfort, and your ally in all aspects of our life together, and will serve you as loyally and dutifully as you serve me.”
You stand, taking one of the rings that sits upon the altar and slipping it onto Zuko’s finger; his skin is warm, his palms rough, and he shakes as violently as you do.
“I give you this ring as a symbol of our union, to represent the bond that holds us for all our days.”
Once you finish, thankful you didn’t stumble over your words or forget them completely, Zuko kneels, mirroring the way you bowed to him.
“My lady,” he recites, “by my word, I will serve you honorably and affectionately for all our time together. If you should ask for my compassion, I will give it; if you should seek after my heart, I will offer it willingly; and if I should stray from my path, I will follow you back onto it. I vow to you my devotion, and to bring you happiness and freedom. I trust in you the power to lead and govern my people as justly as I do.”
He stands and takes the other ring, delicately placing it as you did his.
“I give you this ring as a symbol of our union, to represent the bond that holds us for all our days.”
In most weddings, this would be the moment when the bride and groom embrace each other in a devoted, passionate kiss; instead, Zuko takes your arm and you face the court of respected leaders and diplomats from across the four nations, gripping each other tightly - you hold each other as if you’re the only support the other has to keep standing. Iroh’s typically soft, pleasant voice booms from behind you:
“I present the lord and lady of the great Fire Nation.”
Everyone in attendance folds onto their hands and knees, bowing as the band once again begins to play. You descend from the altar, your head feeling like it’s floating miles above your body, and exit through the doors you’d been shivering behind only minutes before - this time, with your husband beside you.
#muerta's works#two halves#zuko#zuko x reader#zuko x you#prince zuko x reader#prince zuko x you#prince zuko#prince zuko fanfic#zuko fanfic#zuko fanfiction#prince zuko fanfiction#atla fanfic
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So the ATLA Movie Is... Good, Actually?
Just kidding, of course it’s not, it’s so bad it sucked the paint off my walls. But after ten years of people pointing out its glaring flaws, why would anyone bother talking about this garbage heap if not to go the other direction? So here’s a very brief and very superficial list of things the movie does get kinda... not atrociously wrong.
And they won’t be fake hipster pokes, like “It’s fun to laugh at”, “The Rifftrax for this is OK”, or “Kudos to the actress for managing to say we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs with a straight face”.
(though now that I mentioned it, it is fun to laugh at, the Rifftrax for this is OK, and massive props indeed.)
Rasta Iroh
Yes, I know it’s not exactly the aesthetic of the real Iroh or that it makes no cultural sense for him to sport this do when no one else in the racebended Indian “OMFG what were you thinking Shyamalan” Nation does but goddamn, long-haired dudes are my one mortal weakness and I will ogle the hell out of him.
Jesus is that a man bun I see that’s it mum I’ve been deaded
Yue’s hair
No.
Now we’re talking. Yue’s hair turned white when the Moon spirit gave her life, so it makes sense for it to go black again when she sacrifices herself to revive the koi fish. It’s a neat detail I find myself expecting whenever I rewatch the scene in the show. Yes, I realize it’d be a pointless hassle to animate since she, unlike in the movie, immediately goes on to become the Moon herself but still. I like.
The Blue Spirit’s mop
Zuko, hun, what’s with the dance-off?
First of all, I want to imagine that Zuko the Theatre Nerd was about to leave his ship with just the mask like in the show but then stuck his head into the cleaning cupboard and went, “Yeah, more coverage might be good, even though it do seem mighty fried to shit”.
Which makes me giggle. I like to giggle.
And secondly, the hair’s movement is what makes the static mess of the Blue Spirit’s solo fight scene appear at least bit more dynamic because God knows the cinematography isn’t doing it.
Any particular reason why it’s at the edge of the action, shot all boring-like?
Now, I get why circular shots would be reserved for Aang while he’s in the practice area and then used once the two join forces. What I don’t get is why Aang’s part of the action scene has a defined visual style while Zuko’s delegated to a few stationary wide shots from afar as though he’s a tertiary goon, meaning that when the time comes to combine the respective pieces of cinema language and visually convey collaboration, there’s not really much to combine.
But as long as Zuko is stuck in this static mess, it’s that awesome disaster on his head flopping about that draws the eye, helping me understand that something even is going on over there.
It also prevents me from paying much attention to how the extras are mostly just staying put and a lot of the hits don’t land, so that’s good.
The music slaps
James Newton Howard is too good for this.
youtube
Pls ignore that the word “gods” is used in the ATLA universe
I can’t be the only one who constantly uses this piece to daydream about writing specific fanfic scenes instead of, you know, actually sitting down and writing them. It’s just so good at communicating a sense of sorrow while speaking of rebirth that I find myself getting misty-eyed whenever I listen to it. Unfailingly, the soundtrack as a whole manages to break through the mile-thick crust of horrible acting, confusing writing, and uninspired cinematography and make me feel things. And considering how everything on screen is working against it, that’s no small feat.
Imagine what a powerful experience it would be if the score was used in service of an actual movie.
Dev Patel
No wonder since he’s the only one in the film occupying that crucial intersection between “is a good actor” and “was given something to work with”. It also doesn’t hurt that he breaks with the trend of actors starring in martial arts flicks despite never having done any martial art.
And all EIP-jokes about “stiff and humorless” aside, he’s a pretty decent Zuko considering how abridged this version of the character is. A while ago, I remember hearing a reviewer say that with his comedic chops, Patel should have been cast as Sokka. And on one hand, yes, god, absolutely, I need to see that asap. But on the other? He captures all layers of Book 1!Zuko, the desperate obsession, rage, and self-loathing, and at the same time gives you a peek at the soft momma’s boy dork that’s buried underneath. For Christ sakes, he exudes intensity and ambivalence even when acting against an emotionless hunk of wood that’s giving him nothing in return.
Oh, and I guess there’s a tree in the frame.
Ba dum tss
What can I say, the guy’s good.
Showing vs telling
OK, so this movie is all tell and no show, except for one single moment. And it’s the exact moment where the original goes in the other direction in terms of how information is conveyed.
See, I never liked this. The revelation is preceded by Iroh giving advice to Zuko who scolds him for nagging. Iroh then apologizes, moves in to say the line above, and is interrupted by Zuko who seems rather uncomfortable with Iroh laying his feelings out like this. And once they’re out, Zuko verbally confirms that he knew already and Iroh didn’t need to bother.
All this extraneous information and pussyfooting ends up weakening what should be a profound scene that reveals to us, the viewers, how deep the relationship between these two in fact runs.
Compare to the movie where Dadroh acts like a parent by fussing and worrying, with Sonion needing a single look to tell him and us that he understands what it’s all really about.
It’s genuinely efficient and just good.
No Cataang
Fine, a bit mean-girl bitchy from me since I only start minding the ship in Book 3. And probably unintentional on the part of the creators since there are moments where I think they’re trying to set the romance up? There’s a, well, an attempt to recreate the famous introductory shot of fateful meaningful destiny of meaningness, there’s some slight note of saving each other’s bacon going on, I’m pretty sure they’re the only ones in the film who smile, and oh, right, Katara’s shoved into her post-canon useless role where she doesn’t ever do anything, and is all about Aang right from the get go.
Yes, I will blame the “executive producers” because a) I’m incredibly petty, and b) it’s perfectly in line with their vision of the character so why the hell not.
Hilariously, none of it reads on screen because the actors are just... yeah. These poor kids are struggling so much with delivering their own lines and portraying their own characters they don’t seem to have any strength left to create something between them. To be fair, the bare-bones shot-reverse shot style of their scenes doesn’t exactly lend itself to the idea they occupy the same universe, let alone are friends or each other’s crushes.
And I enjoy this immensely because it allows me to forget the depressing horror show Katara’s life turns into post ATLA.
Yes Zutara
I need to delve into this because it’s fucking hilarious. So in a movie which fails to establish the original’s central romance so spectacularly that if Aang got lost in a crowd I don’t believe Katara would notice, SomEOnE thought it’d be a good idea to add an utterly unnecessary non-canon moment where Zuko for some reason feels the need to pause his character-defining hunt for the Avatar which otherwise has him ignore everything and snap at everyone, and explain his central conflict to an unconscious peasant he doesn’t know, complete with gently pushing the hair from the pretty girl’s the soulmate’s the Water Tribe Ambassador’s the Fire Lady’s the love of his life’s her face away, AFTER his uncle nagged him twice to find a girl and settle down.
I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page and this is what we really saw.
Celibate Avatars
I have no idea why the decision was made, if TPTB thought expecting viewers to understand the story through the lens of Buddhism would be too much, or if the “executive producers” already worked their retconny magic. What I do know, however, is that there’s a big shift in worldbuilding and Aang’s struggle with his role as the Avatar stops being a personal conflict defined by a) his grief for Air Nomads, b) his notion of being robbed of the loved ones in his life, and c) the selfish attachment to Katara he confuses with true love. Instead, what he has a difficulty to accept is apparently a general notion of who Avatars are supposed to be, i.e. a fantasy version of Catholic monks, no family and worldly relations, period.
I guess either someone understood the original’s portrayal of de/attachment as “hermit no freaky”, or thought the audience would so why not go there outright.
Now, do I like this on its own? No, God no, it makes the world infinitely poorer and changes the story from an exploration of ideas which aren’t all that ingrained in the West, to a cliché tropester about a Catholic priest going Protestant so that he could be with a girl.
At least I assume that’s where they were going to take this eventually.
I mean, I think the direction was “look conflicted, this isn’t the final stage of your journey”?
But consider this—the show went there, it built on the concepts of Eastern philosophy and touched upon the ideas of spiritual awakening, only to swerve in the end and strongly imply they’re bullshit and Aang should have never wasted his time with them.
So honestly, I much prefer scanty worldbuilding to an insulting retcon by a damn rock.
Multiracial Air Nomads
Probably the most substantial “no hint of irony” point on this list and a genuinely good addition to the universe’s worldbuilding.
See, the notion of the elemental nations being perfectly separate and never mingling before Sozin has always been sketchy but it’s especially ridiculous in the case of airbenders. It never made sense to me for all airbenders to be Air Nomads and for all Air Nomads to be monks and for all monks to be chilling at the temples all the time to facilitate a quick everyone-dies genocide should an imperialistic warlord ever decide to commit one.
Because committing everyone to a single way of life at a handful of places kinda goes against the central philosophy behind airbending. Like the freedom and nomadism part.
Instead, there should be more variety to the airbending culture, with some staying at the temples as monks, hermits, and teachers while others live as nomads, travelling the world and creating more airbenders, with the resulting children in turn being influenced by the non-airbending cultures they grew up in.
And thus, not only should airbenders not be modeled after a single culture to create a one-size-fits-all lifestyle, but they should have the most diverse and dynamic culture out of the four nations.
And it’d be precisely this diversity which would pave way for an eventual reveal that some of them survived, that their complete extermination is impossible.
Because they’re everywhere.
You know.
Like air.
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ROSES | ZUKO
PAIRING: Zuko x Reader x Azula [fem]
PLOT: Zuko’s main focus was always Azula’s health, that was until he reconciled with the girl behind all of her improvement—from then on, all he saw was Y/N. companion piece to thorns
WARNINGS: angst, fluff, mutual pining, unrequited love (azula)
WORD COUNT: 5.1k
A/N: this connects to the events that occur in thorns. this piece can be read as a standalone, but thorns gives more detail to the reader’s feelings and struggles with azula
ALT. END: Blossoms | AZULA’S POV: Thorns
MY MASTERLIST
orange · roses : a symbol of love in the sense of enthusiasm and passion. bright colors denote life, energy, passion, and excitement—whilst softer hues speak of sincerity and gratitude.
Year three, day twelve.
Zuko groaned, facepalming as he listened to the pattering footsteps of his advisors leaving the throne room. His shoulders dropped, the formal demeanor he usually wore dissolving almost immediately.
Meetings with his advisors were far from his favorite of the Fire Lord duties, but they were necessary to reassure the people that he was doing right by them. Their trust and support was what held the dignity of his rule in balance.
This meeting in particular had gone on for far too long. His advisors were always able to drone on about his least favorite topic, the topic of Azula’s mental state of health.
His sister had been in recovery for a little over three years now, keeping her promise to him that she would learn to be better. Azula’s goal was to understand compassion and honor—and maybe even love.
Zuko had been taken back by the idea at first, Azula having brought it up during her time in the Fire Nation’s most secure prison cell. He didn’t think she was capable of knowing guilt, but happily obliged to her wishes.
He and his advisor’s had determined that she’d be given a total of five years to begin her rehabilitation. Five years to prove to his nation that she was no longer the monster that they knew her as.
It’d been going fairly well as of yet, only a few tantrums and outbursts here and there, but overall well. Azula’s progress was undeniable, she had finally begun to leave her demons in the past.
As he entered the kitchens which were empty of any royal staff members, Zuko heaved a deep sigh. It seemed as if there was very little time that he was able to have to himself these days, constantly being bombarded with his duties.
He felt like his mind was in chaos, millions of ideas and plans storming in his head like a hurricane. The storm brewing beneath his facade was overwhelming. His only wish was for a simple breath of air.
While Zuko sat in silence, leaning against the large counter with his head held in his hands, his ears perked up to the sound of the door opening.
Without bothering to look up, he waved his hand in admission, not interested in whatever servant had come to fetch their leader. “Not now,” he called out, “the Fire Lord is out of service for the day.”
Whoever had accompanied him began giggling, their voice ringing in Zuko’s ears like the melody of a choir. His head shot up, knowing full well that it was no servant interrupting his time alone.
“Y/N!” He smoothed out his wrinkled robes, fixing his hair in a hurry as she gracefully stepped into the room—gracefully meaning that she ran into a pile of pots and pans before tripping over her own feet.
Zuko rushed over to help her stand, taking one hand in his while the other supported the rest of her body. This wasn’t uncommon, Y/N had a tendency to make a mess wherever she went, unintentionally of course.
She’d been working in the palace for the past three years to help Azula honor her promise to the nation as the advisor’s were unable to put all of their trust into Zuko alone.
Which had actually been an extremely helpful conclusion. Without the help of Y/N, Zuko didn’t think Azula would’ve been able to make any progress, let alone the amount she had made now. Y/N was the light to Azula’s darkness.
She was also the girl that Zuko had a little bit of a crush on, which he’d admitted to himself early on in their relationship—not that he’d call their relationship a “relationship”. Zuko wasn’t actually sure what they were.
When he’d met Y/N, she was nothing but a tool that he was forced to provide for his advisors. There hadn’t been many applicants due to the dark cloud of Azula’s stigma, but Y/N had shone against the few that’d applied.
He’d selected her himself, reading through her resume and immediately liking what he saw—and after speaking to her in person for the very first time, he knew that if anyone could help Azula, it’d be her.
What he didn’t know, was that he’d begin to notice how utterly and undeniably amazing Y/N was.
She was kind to the servants, never failing to remember their names. She’d wish each and every one of them a happy birthday, even if she’d never spoken to them before.
The nation’s people were in love with her, thankful that she was brave enough to take on the challenge of spending one-on-one time with the princess, and for the pure goodness of her heart.
Zuko had become enthralled by her mentality and love for life on the first day of Azula’s treatment. However, he’d still been involved with Mai, leaving little to no room to explore friendships with other women.
But now that he and Mai had broken up, Zuko was free to make his own decisions without having to worry about her constant attitude. Mai was in no way a bad person, but she was a bad person for Zuko.
As he helped Y/N to her feet, Zuko’s face was flushed bright red. If he was being honest, she made him nervous—more nervous than any person had ever made him.
“That was a pretty bad fall,” he said sheepishly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robes to avoid Y/N seeing how much he was shaking. “Are you alright?”
Y/N smiled, her expression warming Zuko’s heart. “I’m perfectly fine, Fire Lord Zuko. You don’t need to worry, I’m quite used to falling over.”
He laughed, dropping his head to hide the deepening blush dawning his face. Zuko took a breath, preparing to end the disaster of an interaction so he couldn’t embarrass himself any further.
“Well then,” he started, beginning to back away from Y/N in the most natural way he could manage. “Is there anything I can do for you before you’re on your way?”
Y/N nodded her head, gesturing to the large kitchen space surrounding them. “There is actually!” She exclaimed, pulling out a wrinkled piece of paper from her bag.
“I wanted to surprise Azula with some of her favorite treats, but I’m afraid that I’m not sure what those are. This is all I have to work with.”
Zuko peered over her shoulder, studying the various names of deserts and snacks that had been carelessly written across the page. He knew by the handwriting that it’d been Azula that had given Y/N the list.
His sister hadn’t made it easy on Y/N, only providing a few of the many Fire Nation delicacies that she enjoyed—but Zuko was going to make sure that Y/N’s plan went perfectly.
“I’d be honored to help you with this, Y/N.” He grinned, taking the list from her hands and heading towards the exit. Y/N stood still behind him, shocked that Zuko would jump to the task of her aid.
She stumbled, doing her best to follow along without causing more havoc. “Are you sure?” She asked, concern laced in her voice. “Don’t you have any Fire Lord duties to attend to, Fire Lord Zuko?”
Zuko shook his head, stopping to a halt in order to be beside her. He looked into her eyes, trying to show that he was unbothered by his titles and that his duties could wait.
“Call me Zuko.” He requested, hating the way his authoritarian name sounded coming from her lips. “And of course I can join you. The Fire Nation can miss me for one day.”
Y/N’s face lit up, excited to hear that she had the honor of calling her leader by his first name. “Okay Zuko,” she trailed on, grabbing one of the woven baskets sitting on top of the counter. “I guess we’re spending the day together.”
Zuko nodded, grabbing a basket of his own before holding the door open for Y/N, which she gladly walked through, proud of herself for befriending the most famous member of the Fire Nation—who’d finally come up with his response.
“Then, I guess it’s a date.”
Year three, day eighty-seven.
Zuko cursed to himself, pricking his fingers on yet another rose bush. Little scratches and marks graced his fingertips, encouraging his hatred for the thorn covered stems.
He’d been in the royal gardens for what had seemed like hours, searching for the most perfect flower he could find. However, with spring time just beginning, there were few plants that had fully grown.
Normally Zuko wouldn’t be caught dead in the middle of the gardens, dirt all over his formal wear, and leaves caught in his traditional bun—but for Y/N, there was no telling the lengths Zuko would go to make her happy.
They’d been seeing each other romantically ever since their trip to the market in search of deserts. While their goal had been to provide food for Azula, he and his love had ended up spending all of their time at the beach.
Distractions had come early on, intrusive thoughts and worries erupted in Zuko’s mind. Y/N, having noticed this, had suggested that they worry about Azula another time.
He’d wholeheartedly agreed with her, happily getting to know and understand Y/N for the entirety of their night, quickly falling for her natural charms. It wasn’t long after that when Zuko had asked her on a real date, one without the original nerves.
Which brought them to now. He and Y/N’s relationship had progressed beautifully, Zuko could confidently say that he’d never felt as seen as he did with her.
His flaws complimented her strengths and vice versa. They both knew that they were nowhere near perfect on their own, Zuko could pick out each and every one of Y/N’s flaws without hesitation and he was positive that she could do the same for him.
Y/N wasn’t held on some high pedestal where she could do no wrong in Zuko’s mind. She was just a human girl with human qualities that he happened to fall in love with.
The girl that he loved who deserved the gift of the most amazing, gorgeous, and beautiful rose in the royal gardens. A rose of only the highest quality that Zuko’s eyes had finally landed on.
He reached down into the thorn filled bushes, wincing as he plucked out a single flower. His face lit up at the sight of the petal’s soft orange hue, seemingly in the midst of bloom.
The stem was free of the pesky thorns, smooth and welcoming of his grasp. The flower itself seemed to embody his love for Y/N perfectly, his love that he was planning on admitting to his girlfriend later in the day.
He hustled out of the gardens, quickly heading towards the kitchens where he’d informed the staff of his evening plans. Zuko had asked for the whole night off, wishing to be free of his lordly duties, and thankfully getting his wish granted.
The fresh breeze whipped across his cheeks, rejuvenating his senses as he rushed through the halls and past the courtyard, barely taking notice of the two hysterical girls sitting under Y/N’s favorite cherry blossom tree.
Zuko’s steps halted, being frozen in awe at the contagious beauty that was emitting from his girlfriend. Her smile lit up the whole space, outshining the sun itself in his eyes.
As Azula took notice of her lurking brother, Zuko frantically stuffed the rose in his pocket, crossing his fingers that neither his sister nor Y/N had seen his surprise.
He waved sheepishly at Azula, hoping that his posture looked natural and not at all shuddering in complete nerves. Zuko was counting down the seconds to which Azula would call him out for his strange behavior, silently thanking the spirits when she chose not to.
“Zuzu?” His sister called out, her voice echoing among the wind. Y/N perked up at the sound of his name, curiously looking out to see Zuko’s awkward position. “What is it that you need, brother?”
Zuko shrugged, internally panicking and attempting to come up with a reasonable excuse for interrupting Azula’s time with Y/N. Normally he’d never intrude on Azula’s Y/N hours, believing that she deserved to have fun with her best friend without his presence.
His feet began to rock beneath him, his heels alternating positions on the stone ground. Zuko gestured to Y/N, pointing at her in response. “I need to speak with, Y/N. I have some business that we need to cover, it’ll only take a second.”
Y/N stood up as fast as lightning, nearly falling over in doing so. Zuko chuckled at her eagerness, eager to talk to her as well not having had any time together earlier in the day.
“I heard that the Fire Lord requested me?” Y/N grinned, standing beside Zuko at a comfortable distance, not wanting to flaunt their relationship in front of Azula for some unknown reason.
Zuko brushed it off, knowing that whatever it was that Azula and Y/N had was nothing but a friendship. He didn’t want to be jumping to conclusions, no matter how confused he was about it all. Y/N would tell him whenever she was ready.
“What could the infamous Fire Lord need with someone such as myself?” Y/N pondered jokingly. Zuko rolled his eyes at her ridiculousness, ruffling her already unruly hair in doing so.
He felt a smile bear his cheeks, unable to contain the utter joy that came with being with Y/N. “I just wanted to tell you that you have plans for tonight.”
Y/N raised her eyebrows, giggling at the information she’d been given. “I have plans?” She repeated, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “And who might these plans be with?”
Zuko laughed as she went along with his ruse, her humor was also one of the million things that he loved about her. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, Lady Y/N.”
She shook her head in amusement while beginning to turn away from Zuko, feeling the need to return to Azula. She’d already kept the princess waiting for far too long, finally having gifted Azula with her surprise deserts. “I suppose I will.”
As her figure began to retreat, Zuko’s mind was at war with itself. On one hand, he wanted to wait until that night to reveal his gift to Y/N—but on the other, he couldn’t contain his excitement.
Choosing to follow his latter instinct, Zuko reached out to take hold of Y/N’s forearm. She let out a gasp, nearly running straight into his chest. Her eyes radiated with confusion, wondering what Zuko could possibly still need.
He took one of her hands into his, relishing in the feeling of the perfect fit, before revealing the blooming rose that had been stuffed into his robe’s pockets and offering it to the girl in front of him.
Y/N’s cheeks flushed bright red, becoming a much deeper hue than the rose itself. “What’s this for?” She asked, gently taking the rose from Zuko’s light grip.
Zuko watched as she spun the stem around in her palm, studying the beauty of the flower. He once again contradicted himself, most likely ruining his evening plans in doing so.
“For the sole reason that I love you.” He admitted shyly, praying that she felt the same. His heart thumped in his chest, jumping at the idea of her being in love with him.
Y/N reached forward to wrap her arms around his neck, her hands playing with the stray hairs on Zuko’s head. She pulled him in for a tight hug, before whispering into his ear.
“I figure you’d meant to save that for later.” He could hear the grin on her face through the tone of her voice. “I suppose I might as well save my words for later, considering you couldn’t yourself.”
With that, Y/N pressed a light kiss to his cheek, lingering slightly before skipping back towards Azula—who’d begun to look bothered by their intimate interaction.
Zuko’s hand caressed his own cheek, his mind doing a dance of its own at the news that Y/N felt the exact same way. This day was amazing, he’d determined. She was amazing.
Year four, day two-hundred and one.
Fear. That was the only emotion on Zuko’s mind. Fear of rejection. Fear of being alone. Fear of losing the person that mattered most in his life. The person who he considered to be up in the ranks of Iroh and Ursa.
It’d been over a year and a half since he and Y/N had begun dating and about one year past the date in which they’d admitted their unconditional love for one another.
Their relationship had only gotten more close and intimate since then, causing Zuko to come to the realization that he wanted to spend the rest of his life by her side. There was no one else for him, he was sure of it.
Of course, the only logical thing to do would be to propose, which had caused an immense amount of stress on Zuko’s life.
He’d gone and gotten Y/N’s parents blessing, his own family’s blessing, and his advisor’s blessing before going out to prepare for his proposal. Zuko had picked out the finest jeweler in the Fire Nation, helping design and create the perfect ring for his beloved.
Now, the only thing left to do was actually propose. Which was one of the few things Zuko was certain would happen that night. What he wasn’t certain of, was if Y/N would accept.
“Please, please, please.” Zuko mumbled to himself, standing outside of Y/N’s chambers, itching to knock on her door. Every nerve in his body was screaming with positivity. “Please let this go to plan.”
The entrance swung open, Zuko’s hand still midair. Y/N was bouncing in excitement, having suspicions of the big question Zuko was meaning to pop. She’d been waiting for hours for his arrival, sitting by the door with anticipation on her mind.
“Y/N!” Zuko yelped in surprise, nearly falling over at the sight of her face so close to his own. She laughed at his unbalanced posture, glad to see the tables had turned for once.
She held out her hand, taking his in her own and led him out of the hallway and into another. “So what’s the big surprise?” She wiggled her eyebrows, trying to suppress the large smile forming on her lips.
“A little bird told me that you asked the entire staff to keep out of the kitchens tonight?” She let out her smile at the sight of Zuko’s flushed face. He shook his head in disbelief, loving the fact that his staff adored her as much as he did.
“That little bird can’t keep a secret.” He wrapped an arm around her body, leading her towards their destination—the place where they’d first discovered their connection.
As they entered the kitchen, strong smells of freshly baked bread, warm wood logs, and most prominent of all—roses, filled the room. The aroma was overwhelming, dominating all of Y/N’s senses.
Zuko pulled out her chair for her, making sure that she was comfortable before taking a seat of his own. He took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the ring box in his pocket, before continuing on as if everything was normal.
His plans went off without a hitch. They shared a meal, some laughter, a few kisses here and there—now came the time for Zuko’s big question. The question that would determine their entire future.
“I love you so much.” Zuko breathed out, sitting beside her at the small table. He held her hand, pressing a light kiss to the back of it and stuffed his own into his pocket.
He took out the ring box, placing it on display in his grasp above the table. “I’m well aware that you know what I’m going to ask you.” He smiled, biting his lip and looking into her beautiful eyes.
Her expression was indescribable. Tears welled in her sockets, dripping slowly down her cheeks. Her hands were covering her mouth, trying to prevent any soft sobs from escaping her lips.
“And I just want to lay everything out, before you say yes.” He explained, furrowing his eyebrows. “I don’t want you agreeing to something that you may come to hate.”
Zuko set down the box, now taking both hands into his. He squeezed them, trying to calm down Y/N’s rapid breathing. “By saying yes, you’d not only become my wife, but a leader of my people.”
“They already look up to you so much, but as the Fire Lord’s wife—their expectations could get out of hand.” Y/N nodded at his words, taking in his reservations and understanding his concerns.
“I want you to accept this proposal for the sole reason that I love you.” He confessed, having confessed it a million times before. “I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Y/N leaned forwards, cupping Zuko’s face in her palms before kissing him deeply. She poured all of her emotion into the single act, expressing her feelings and acceptance of his proposal.
“You are everything to me, Zuko.” Her eyes sparkled with tears, her hands shaking. She let her arms hang loosely around his neck, bringing him even closer. “I’d love to marry you.”
Zuko felt his eyes begin to water, sweeping her into a large hug, causing the both of them to lose their balance and fall to the floor. They laughed together, radiating happiness as Zuko slipped on the ring—marking their engagement.
Year four, day two-hundred and two.
Zuko rushed through the hallways, his footsteps rapidly hitting the pavement in urgency. Staff members and servants swerved to the side, trying their best not to get in the way of the famous Fire Lord.
His hair had come undone in the midst of his sprint, his robes flapping behind him in the wind. The rain was pouring outside of the palace, washing away the clear skies that had taken up the day’s morning.
The thunder rumbled, echoing down the vast walkways, filling the palace with dread. Worry had overcome Zuko’s mind—worry for the girl who’d become his fiancée just the night before.
“Please be alright.” He mumbled to himself, stepping into their shared bedroom which was filled with the sound of her beautiful soft sobs. Zuko dropped the soaking robes, letting them fall from his shoulders before calling out. “Y/N?”
The cries began to settle, quieting for only a moment before picking up again. “I’m in here!” He heard Y/N exclaim, choking back her sadness. “Although, I’m afraid I look like quite a mess.”
Zuko shook his head, his royal mannerisms being thrown out of the door the minute his love came into view. He knelt down beside her, holding her close as she continued to let out her agony.
“One of the servants interrupted my meeting earlier.” He said quietly, his arms wrapping around her shaking figure in an attempt to calm her nerves. “They said you made a bit of a ruckus at the beach.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek, resting his head on top of hers. A deep sigh escaped his lips, confusion and concern being his only emotions in that moment. “What exactly did happen at the beach?”
Y/N breathing began to even out, her sobs subsiding as she relished in the feeling of being in Zuko’s warm arms. She stared at the engagement ring resting on her finger, as she began to give the explanation that she’d been dreading.
“I told Azula about what happened last night.” Her voice sounded numb, the usual merriment and joy was void from her tone. She gulped, preparing herself for Zuko’s inevitable shock. “And she wasn’t happy, at all.”
Zuko’s eyebrows furrowed, trying to piece together why Azula wouldn’t find excitement in their happiness. Their engagement was a definite sign of love between her brother and best friend. Why wouldn’t she want them to be happy?
“What’d she do?” He asked, trying to get definite answers that would suffice the questions on his mind. “Yell? Scream? Did she hurt you?”
“No.” Y/N shook her head absentmindedly, she turned to face Zuko in his embrace, her eyes bloodshot. She bit her lip, preventing any more cries from escaping, before taking a shallow breath.
“She kissed me.”
Nothing. That was all that was running through Zuko’s head. Absolutely nothing. He had no thoughts on the matter, no opinions, no ideas that had ever even come close to that explanation.
He’d always known that Azula and Y/N were close, far closer than typical best friends would be—but he’d never guess that his sister had had feelings for the love of his life.
He’d never have guessed that his love used to have feelings for her as well.
“It just happened, I don’t know how.” Y/N explained, her eyes beginning to brim with tears once again. Zuko shushed her, bringing her closer to his chest to show her that he would always be there to comfort her.
“One second we were laughing and talking and the next thing I know she kisses me and I’m storming away.” Y/N clenched her fists, closing her eyes whilst trying to repress the anger she’d felt in that moment.
“I just don’t understand why she did this now!” She exclaimed angrily, slamming her hand onto the soft floor of the carpet. “I don’t understand why she did this after she told me that she didn’t love me, two years ago!”
Zuko felt immense rage bubble up inside of his chest. Not at all angered at the idea of them loving one another, but at the notion that Azula had intentionally broken Y/N’s heart.
He took a hold of her shaking hands, suppressing her anger with the natural comfort his presence brought her. They sat in silence with nothing but the sound of the thunder outside, holding each other as if they were all they had left.
Year five, the last day.
Serenity. That was the only thing left to feel on the wide spectrum of Zuko’s emotions. He’d found the person that brought him inner peace, someone who could calm his fire, rather than smother it.
Y/n was his soulmate, there was no denying that. He knew it, she knew it—spirits, the entire world knew it. There had never been two people more overwhelmingly compatible in all of Fire Nation history.
With the support of his people behind him, Zuko and Y/N had felt no need to keep their engagement a secret. Their only reservations being the topic of Azula, which was a sore subject on both of their minds.
Neither of them had been in contact with his sister in the past few months, afraid of pressing the issue further and making more of a mess. Y/N wanted to be on good terms with Azula, perhaps even friends again.
Azula, however, had refused Y/N’s requests for any meetings or sessions. She’d caved herself in her room, only allowing servants to come in and out with meals.
Zuko hadn’t seen his sister behave in such a manner since they were just the two little children of royalty, pitted against each other. He hadn’t seen her like this since she had her spiral.
In all honesty, Zuko was worried about Azula. He saw his sister’s improvements and the good nature breaking down her bad—but without Y/N, he didn’t know if she could continue the path upwards on her own.
Her struggles would come witness later today as Azula had accepted their formal invitation to the wedding. The wedding that they had specifically scheduled on Azula’s last day of rehabilitation for the sole purpose that she could attend.
Not that Zuko was even positive that Azula wanted to attend the ceremony. He feared that his sister was still lost in her feelings for Y/N, and wouldn’t have the strength to be present.
That’d been on the back of his mind all morning. While he was getting his robes fitted, his hair tied up—even while he was reuniting with his old friends, the friends he hadn’t seen in months.
Azula was the only thing he could think about, because while he never openly admitted it—his sister did matter to him. She actually mattered more than most things, and her feelings for his soon-to-be wife brought Zuko a sadness that he would never be rid of.
Knowing that his little sister would never be able to be with the person she loved most in the world was heartbreaking, and knowing that he was the reason behind that—it was just wrong.
Their lives hadn’t been fair growing up and he’d expected adulthood to be somewhat better than the hell they’d lived, but life wasn’t like that. It simply wasn’t.
There’s good and bad in the world. Sometimes the good outshining the bad and other times where the bad overwhelms the good, crushing it under its darkness—but despite that the world still needs balance, never tipping the scale too far one way.
With these thoughts constantly running through his brain, taught to him by Iroh in his own darkest moments, Zuko knew that Azula had a happy ending. Someone, somewhere out there, would be the person to make her happy.
He knew this by simply knowing her, and knowing the new person she’d become. He knew by the look on her face as Y/N walked down their rose covered aisle, her veil trailing behind her against the petals.
Azula’s expression was solemn, heartbreak and sadness rolled into one. However, there was a gleam in her eyes at the sight of Y/N’s smile, knowing that she’d never been the one to make her grin like that.
One glance, one second of eye contact between the two siblings gave Zuko the notion that Azula would be okay. She’d grow from this and continue on with her life, loving every second as the new and improved person she’d become.
The feeling of serenity had finally devoured Zuko’s concern, inklings of content reached his soul, settling his worries and letting his full attention focus on the beautiful girl standing in front of him.
The beautiful girl who was the perfect fit to his broken puzzle. Y/N, his perfect person—that he was now able to call his wife.
TAGS: @practicallylivesonline @cherryskyies @shell-bells-ringding @xapham @mochminnie @bombardia @lammello @user12345321 @xxspqcebunsxx @missmorosis @mysticpeacecrusade @akiris
#zuko x reader#zuko imagine#zuko imagines#zuko fanfic#zuko fanfiction#zuko oneshot#zuko fluff#zuko angst#zuko#prince zuko#azula x reader#azula#princess azula#fire lord#fire nation#avatar#avatar the last airbender#the last airbender#atla#atla x reader#atla fanfic#atla fanfiction#avatar x reader
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Daughter of the Spirits; chapter 8
➳ pairing: zuko x f!reader
➳ genre: a retelling of the show from season 2 onwards with a heavy focus and expansion on zuko’s story (canon divergent)
➳ warnings: violence, swearing, smut (underaged if your age of consent is above 16), spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the show
➳ word count: 3534
➳ rating: 18+
➳ summary: In which y/n comes across the fire nation prince during her stay in Ba Sing Se.
➳ tags: @harmlessoffering, @lammello (i’m sorry if i’m forgetting anyone, lmk if i am or if you want to be added)
Chapters: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13,
Vacation - Part One
It was the middle of the night when Zuko slipped away. You had felt him tossing and turning, mumbling in his sleep, but it wasn't until he climbed out of the bed that you were fully aware of it. By the time you turned over, all you saw was a glimpse of his back as he left the room.
Of course, you wanted to follow after him. Even if only to see where he was going. But this place was still new to you and, if he was perhaps going somewhere he shouldn't, you'd only get him caught. And so, you remained in bed. You had to have trust in him, even after everything that happened in Ba Sing Se — especially after what happened in Ba Sing Se. You believed that he would do the right thing in the end which is the only reason you managed to go back to sleep in peace.
By the time morning rolled by, he was back by your side as if he'd never left.
"Morning." You smiled, resting your hand on his chest as you woke.
"Morning."
Although Zuko smiled at you, he seemed somewhat grumpy. Well, grumpier than usual. Whatever he did last night clearly didn't have the desired outcome and now he was being moody again. However, it was sweet of him to try and ignore his foul mood for your benefit.
Thinking about how to cheer him up, you came up with an idea. "How about we do something fun today? Have a day just for ourselves?"
He cocked his head to the side and asked, "Something fun? Like what?"
"Maybe you could show me around the Fire Nation a little? Outside of the Palace I mean."
Zuko let out a sleepy grumble and sat up as he ran a hand through his tangled hair. "Okay, get dressed then."
Making him take you out for the day seemed to lift his spirits a little. Or, at the very least, helped take his mind off of whatever was weighing on his mind. When you thought about what had happened last night, you could only think of far too many reasons why he was like this. Perhaps he met with Azula only to have her anger him with something pointless? Or maybe he was wondering about Iroh, worrying about how his uncle was doing after being made a prisoner upon his arrival?
Whatever it was, keeping him occupied and making sure that all of his attention was on you seemed to help somewhat. First, he had taken you for a walk. It lasted for a good few hours as you walked the streets he had grown up in.
The Fire Nation capital was fun to explore and not quite as scary as you always believed it would be. In fact, it was full of life. People were laughing and smiling, although it wasn't quite as fun as you had hoped. So, you had dragged him away from the richer areas and into a local marketplace. He pulled his hood up, hoping not to draw too much attention to the two of you as the crown prince. Although, he was recognised by a few people here and there when you dragged him over to look at different stalls.
He chuckled when you tried the famous flaming fire flakes, eyes watering at just how fiery they were. For lunch, he took you to an expensive-looking restaurant and brought you roast duck which was, most definitely, the most delicious roast duck you had ever had in your life.
You spent the whole day just being teenagers for once and it was nice. Almost like there was no war, no duties, no death and destruction. No missing parents or imprisoned uncles. All things considered, it was one of the most pleasant days you'd had in a long while.
By the time the day grew near to its end, Zuko took you up to the outskirts of the city to watch the sunset. He put down a blanket and sat down before you, tugging your hand for you to sit beside him.
"Today has been so much fun," you yawned and rested your head against his shoulder.
Zuko wrapped an arm around you, pulling you closer. "Yeah, it has. Thank you."
Lifting your head so that your eyes could meet his, he smiled and leaned down to press his lips against your own. You only got to kiss for a moment, however, before you were interrupted by an almost annoyed cough.
The two of you broke apart, eyes falling on Azula as she began to speak. "Zuko, could I have a word with you?"
He sighed and turned his attention back to you. "Can't you see we're busy?"
"This is important," Azula insisted, drawing his scowling eyes back to her, "So could you ask your little girlfriend to leave us for a while?"
"Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of her."
You could tell from his tone that Zuko was getting angry. His day of blissful distractions had been cut short thanks to his sister — the one person he seemed the least likely to want to see.
"Very well," she hummed, her steely eyes glancing over to you for the briefest of seconds, "So, I hear you've been to visit your uncle fatso in the prison tower."
Instantly, Zuko sprung to his feet, fists clenched tightly as he spoke, "That guard told you?"
"No, you did. Just now." Azula smirked.
Zuko calmly sat back down, looking into your eyes as if to say we'll talk later, and sighed. "Okay, you caught me. What is it you want, Azula?"
"Actually, nothing. Believe it or not, I'm looking out for you. If people find out you’ve been to see uncle, they'll think you're plotting with him. Just be careful, dumb-dumb."
The way she almost spoke as though she truly did care for her brother, which you knew to be far from true, sent a chill down your spine. You knew what Azula was like, you had known the moment you met her for the first time exactly what kind of person she was. But, to think that somewhere deep down inside she might actually care about her brother showed just a sliver of hope that she wasn't completely irredeemable.
With the conversation she wished to have now over, the warning she wanted Zuko to heed said, she left.
"You went to see Iroh?" you questioned, although that wasn't what you were really asking since that fact had become clear as day the moment he admitted it to his sister.
"I- yeah, I did. He's quiet, different. He wouldn't talk to me,” he cast his eyes to the ground in shame, “he wouldn't even look at me."
The hurt he was feeling, gnawing away at him, was evident in his voice. Even if he sometimes struggled to admit it, Iroh was the only true family he had. His father and Azula didn’t care about him, not after all they’d done to him, but Iroh… Iroh loved him as though he were his own son.
Zuko loved him too, of course, and he knew deep down that Iroh was the only person aside from you who was on his side. Iroh only ever wanted what was best for him, even if it meant they would wind up on different sides for the time being. You envied that, Iroh's strength to leave Zuko in order to pursue the right path, having trust that one day Zuko would join him on it too. That was something you had realised you couldn't do. You couldn't leave Zuko, no matter how conflicted he was because you needed him just as much as he needed you. Like him, you were just as frightened of being alone in the world.
"Zuko..." You cupped his face, lifting it towards you with a soft, sympathetic smile.
When his saddened eyes met yours, he pushed you away. "Don't do that. Don't pity me. It's his fault that this happened to him. He did this to himself."
With a sigh, you reached for his hand and silently interlaced your fingers with his. This time, he didn't push you away and instead leaned into your touch. What he needed wasn’t a lecture or shared sorrow. No, he just needed someone by his side — someone to hold his hand when the world grew dark.
He left again that night, presumably to go speak to Iroh once again. You left him to it, hoping that speaking to his uncle would help push him onto the right path, but you had a feeling it would only frustrate and confuse him more.
In the days that followed you didn't get to see Zuko that much. He was busy with all sorts of trivial things but at times it felt like he was avoiding you. So, when you were informed that you would be accompanying him, Azula and a couple of other Fire Nation girls to Ember Island for a weekend break in the sun, you were more than pleased.
A break from everything and not one like that day you had made Zuko show you around the city. A proper break away from home, a holiday of sorts.
"It's gonna be great to hang out on the beach and do nothing." Ty Lee, one of Azula's friends you had grown quite fond of, grinned as she imagined the weekend that was in store for you.
You couldn't help but agree with her. You'd never really been on a beach before so you were excited to get to spend your first time at one with Zuko. Although he wasn't as enthusiastic as the two of you.
"Doing nothing is a waste of time," Zuko complained, standing up to lean against the edge of the boat, "We're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child."
Of course, you wanted nothing more than to remind him that he was a child. Well, at the very least in that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood. He was sixteen, an age much better suited to having fun than fighting a war.
"Lighten up. So dad wants to meet with his advisors alone without anyone else around," Azula sighed, looking more relaxed than usual, "Don't take it personally."
She surprised you once again when she made an attempt at calming Zuko down. In the short time you had known her you had gotten the impression that she much preferred it when Zuko was angry, grumpy, and annoyed. So seeing her actually trying to get along with him somewhat was new to you and certainly out of character for her. You supposed that was exactly the reason why you couldn't shake the feeling that she was up to something.
You stood by Zuko, placing your hand gently against the top of his back. It made you smile when he relaxed somewhat under your touch but you couldn't shake the feeling that Mai was watching you with dissatisfaction in her eyes. They had something before you came along, you had noticed that from the way they were around each other. If Zuko hadn't met you then perhaps he would have been coming here with her instead.
"Doesn't your family have a house on ember island?"
You glanced back as Ty Lee spoke, interested to hear what Azula had to say. Zuko hadn't spoken too much of his childhood and as it seemed like nothing but a crushing weight of bad memories to him so you hadn't pushed him to tell you. Still, you couldn't help the curiosity of knowing what he was like when he was little. The things he liked to do, games he liked to play.
"We used to come every summer when we were kids," Azula stated, not seeming to want to elaborate any further than that.
Ty Lee smiled, her always cheery personality lightening the mood as she exclaimed, "That must have been fun!"
Zuko, without so much as glancing away from the blue ocean, spoke with a voice almost void of emotion, "That was a long time ago."
When you finally arrived, you were greeted by two elderly women, twins by the looks of it. They smiled at the five of you and spoke completely in sync, as though they were one and the same person, "Welcome to Ember Island, kids."
Upon seeing the small shack they were leading you to, you seemed to be the only one who was still as excited as you were when you stepped foot on the boat. After living surrounded by Earth for so long, seeing even a little beach hut was more than enough to amaze you.
"It smells like old lady in here." Zuko frowned, making you laugh softly under your breath.
Mai simply rolled her eyes. "Gee, I wonder why?"
You walked further into the hut, following Ty Lee as she pointed at a painting of two girls. "Who are these two beautiful women?"
"Can't you tell? It's Lo” — “Li and me." They both spoke in sync once again, although this time each saying a different name.
With names so similar, telling them apart was going to be difficult. When they copied the pose in the painting, Zuko gagged and you somewhat softly elbowed him in the side for being rude.
"I love the seashell bedspread!" Ty Lee grinned as she threw herself down onto the bed, testing how comfortable it was. Her enthusiasm and joyful spirit was something the others lacked — something that you had needed in your life ever since leaving your parents behind in Omashu.
Mai, however, was the complete opposite of Ty Lee in terms of personality and groaned, "Are you serious? It looks like the beach threw up all over it."
The two of them may have been complete opposites but there was no denying that they were really close. From what you had learned about them since meeting them was that they had been friends with Azula pretty much forever, although you couldn't understand why they both stuck around. Azula was horrible to them. Always ordering them around, yelling at them when she couldn't manipulate them into doing what she wanted. It was a miracle she had any friends to begin with.
Once you had all settled in and picked your rooms, you obviously rooming with Zuko, you got changed and headed for the beach. You were excited, you'd never been to the beach before. Well, not one like this. Not to mention, a proper holiday was pretty much unheard of thanks to the war. Kyoshi Island was the closest thing you had ever had to a getaway.
You felt almost too exposed in your bikini but it wasn't too bad once you finally reached the beach and noticed that everyone else was looking exactly the same. It was just a bunch of half-naked teenagers enjoying the sea, the sun and having fun in the sand. It was nice.
Zuko, however, didn't look happy. He was hiding under his parasol with a frown on his face. He didn't seem at all impressed but then again you supposed he must have come here a lot when he was younger. Perhaps those happy memories only brought up thoughts of the things he no longer had.
You stopped walking when Azula presumably found a place to sit and slammed her foot down into a sandcastle. The two young boys who had been making it ran away in fear although Azula didn't seem phased. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it. That simple action only further solidified your opinion of her, she truly was a malicious bitch.
Boys were already hitting on Ty Lee, which you could understand. She was very pretty and, thanks to her joyful personality, really approachable. Even if she didn't really show any interest in the boys herself.
Zuko sighed and pulled out a towel, throwing it down onto the sand before stabbing his parasol into the ground and crawling underneath it as if he was hiding from the sun. You softly chuckled to yourself and sat down beside him.
"You don't like the beach, huh?"
He turned to you, face softening into a sigh as he scratched the back of his neck. "It's not that I don't like the beach. I just-"
"Wanted to stay at home for a while after being away for so long?" you finished, hitting the nail on the head.
Zuko nodded and leaned back on his arms. "I just wanted to be by my father's side. I regained my honour, didn't I?"
Taking a hold of his hand, you smiled. "I don't think you ever lost it."
Despite not really believing you, Zuko appreciated your words and gently stroked the back of your hand with his thumb. It only lasted a moment, that quiet second in which it was just the two of you alone on the beach and not surrounded by others, as Zuko quickly climbed to his feet.
He pulled you up with him, dragging you across the sand as if he was on a mission.
"Zuko," you giggled, relieved to see him lightening up, "Where are we going?"
"To get some ice cream."
"Ice cream?"
Just as Zuko had anticipated, you'd never had ice cream before. After a careful moment of thought, he picked a flavour for you and handed it over with a smile, watching intently to see if you liked it. Which you did, it was actually really good. Strange at first and cold, but good.
There were so many things in the Fire Nation, as you were learning. So many good things. Normal things. Kids playing on the beach, building sandcastles and playing volleyball. That in itself was new, a game you hadn't seen before.
You were watching them play as you walked back to where you had been sitting, asking Zuko all about the game. He seemed more than happy to explain the game to you, going over how you play and what the rules are. It was clear he had played before, even if he hadn't in a while. In fact, you doubted he had done anything purely for fun in the time since leaving the Fire Nation at all.
You had only just sat back down with Zuko when Azula called out to the four of you, although it seemed less like she was talking to you, "Hey beach bums, we're playing next. Ty Lee, get over here now!"
It annoyed you to see her ordering her friends around, although it seemed as though they were used to it. Mai simply sighed and muttered something under her breath whilst Ty Lee climbed up onto her hands and walked over, showing off her acrobatic skills.
"Here we go." Zuko sounded less than enthusiastic but stood up and discarded his robe nonetheless, readying himself for the game ahead.
A group of nearby girls ogled him with flushed cheeks, their dazed giggles striking up a pang of jealousy within you.With a pout, you licked at the ice cream he had passed you, noticing that he had gotten a different flavour to you. They were both nice but somehow, he had judged what flavour you would like the most very well and didn’t just get you the same thing as him. That or he had planned to swap flavours with you if you didn’t like it.
You sat on the side, trying not to let his ice cream melt onto your hand as you licked at your own, and watched as the four of them huddled together. They actually looked like friends, like a team even, if that were possible. They were coming up with a plan of action, although from where you were sitting it seemed more like Azula was ordering them around again. She was good at that, you supposed. A good team captain, if not a strict one.
Azula threw the ball into the air and the game began. It was fascinating, how well they worked together, all coming together to form a team. Zuko and Azula especially. Watching them made you realise that she must not have always been the way she was now. Once, although clearly a very long time ago, Azula was simply his little sister. In some ways, she still was.
The game was over almost too quickly. They had won, although, with their determination, you weren't particularly surprised. The net was on fire, the opposing team in ruins and, in the centre of it all, was Azula yelling about their glorious victory. It was then, at that moment, that you realised something was seriously wrong with her.
A couple of boys, clearly too cocky for their own good, strutted over and spoke to Ty Lee directly, inviting her to a party they were having. Then, they gestured to you and Mai, stating that you could come too. It was clear they didn't know who Azula and Zuko were, not realising that they were royalty, but invited them anyway after Azula started to make a scene.
This could be fun, you thought. Or it could be really, really bad...
Chapters: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13,
#zuko x you#zuko x reader#zuko smut#zuko fluff#zuko angst#zuko#atla#atla zuko#avatar#Avatar The Last Airbender
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ATLA BATTLE OF THE BANDS AU SETUP PT. 1
oK SO I’VE HAD THIS AU IN MY HEAD FOR TWO FKN DAYS AND I HAVE COME TO EVER SO GRACIOUSLY INJECT IT INTO YOUR MIND- THE GAANG PLUS YUE AND THE FIRE NATION GALS IN BANDS. a battle of the bands au. tHINK OF THE aRt. n i’m thinking zukka and yueki, and they meet at battle of the bands but yk...we got 2 sets of pining idiots yk yk. i thought this up five (5) days ago and iM DYING
(tw: mentions of canon-typical abuse, and past death)
this is basically just the setup but i’ll add little tidbits and worldbuilding and art later
zuko (18): drums + backup vocals
mai (16): bass guitar
ty lee (15): keyboard
azula (15): lead guitar + vocals
suki (17/18): rhythm guitar
they do some group vocals/harmonies but not that often
so like azula has this really strong, really powerful voice, and that means she could do really moving rock ballads/power ballads, and etc etc. she took extensive guitar and voice lessons as a kid because of That Fucker Ozai™ and thats why she has so much control. same with zuko, except he didnt take voice lessons (he just liked singing) and quit guitar after ozai went to jail (it was a painful reminder of The Shit He Went Through) and took up drums to let out his anger and frustrations instead. Azula stuck with guitar because it was something she loved to do, despite her past.
where azula has a bold voice, zuko has a raspy-yet-smooth-at-the-same-time one that matches azula’s really well. while she’s off singing power notes, hes singing the lower, raspier undertones and it sounds really nice.
zuko also took up art classes and is genuinely proud of his work.
he’s secretly (its not that much of a secret) an art nerd
zuko, azula, and suki wrote a few songs together, kinda
for lack of better explanation, ozai was (canon-typically) abusive, and he got drunk one day and got mad at zuko and pushed him. zuko fell into the fireplace, and boom. scar.
azula got mainly mental trauma because zuko would take the blow for her, but she got therapy and theyre both for the most part better (there are still some relapses)
azula’s secretly a DC nerd
zUkO wEaRs riNgs
the canon-typical atla “ozai pitting them against eachother sibling rivalry” comes into play through guitar (hence why zuko drops it. he wanted to let his sister have something she loved for herself. also, he didnt like it). ozai was a classical guitarist and famous [the money and the “royalty” canon aspects]
should i….mullet zuko?
aro azula and toph >>>>
ty lee is still from the circus, except this time mai was there too, which is where she learned knife-throwing. they both ran away from the circus summer after freshman year and met azula though mai’s bass lessons (alternatively, they met at martial arts classes). theyre 14/15. they moved in with azula, zuko, and iroh around the middle of sophomore year (grade 10) when ozai was arrested. the azula and ty lee were 15, mai was 16, and zuko was 17 at the time, around the ages they were in the show when the war ended (i think??)
azula said it didn't matter cause they had a huge house. she says it was half-empty, anyways, but mai and ty lee know that meant she liked their company.
they get along really well with suki
everyone realizes they can all play instruments, the core parts of a [rock] band. they start playing together, and eventually decide to become a band
their band is called ‘the kyoshi warriors’ (or something idk this is off the top of my head) in honor of the girls’ martial arts instructor, master kyoshi, who passed away
WAIT SJITGHHFSD FAN THE FLAMES IS A GOOD NAME TOO WHAT (although i can see that being more of a song name) credits to boom ( @boomerangsandadora) for that (go check out their ideas on this au)
theyre inseparable
together, mai, ty lee, suki, azula and zuko look fucking menacing. just imagine that. fucking bamfs
mai skateboards. just. this is a kind of important plot device. shh.
suki joins their friend group gradually. first, she’s attended azula’s martial arts class since they were in second grade, and moved up the belts like wildfire (along with azula). she tried to befriend azula a few times, but gave up over the years because azula wasnt interested in friendship (no thanks to ozai pressuring her to always be first. azula saw her as a rival, suki saw azula as a particularly competitive classmate and but equal in skill). She was zuko’s classmate since freshman year (grade 9) but only became his friend in sophomore year through a literature assignment the two were paired up in. she was really his only friend, cause everyone was too busy sizing up his scar. the two became inseparable then on.
she plays rhythm guitar because she loves guitar but agrees that azula is better at being in the (relative) spotlight
on the outside, suki and zuko looked tough, but underneath that, they’re two bumbling, pining gay idiots
suki’s parents both died in a fire, so she grew up with her “cool gay aunt” who was also a feminist and a mixed martial arts instructor.
suki spends her time teaching the beginner classes at the dojo
she met azula + the girls thru martial arts and zuko
overall thingies:
even though zuko is oblivious to sokka’s reciprocate feelings, no one else is. mai, azula, and ty le are just like “zuko wtf you’re more blind than toph”
he thinks the rest of his friends dont know about his crush bu he forgets who his sister is. honestly. all he talks about is sokka, it isnt hard.
unlike a lot of other bands, they actually have more complicated and interesting bass riffs, and a lot of times when writing songs they start with bass and build up from there
azula and toph get along becaus theyre the only sensible ones around. all their friends are pining idiots and they bond over their mutual superiority 🪄🧃🧃
mai skateboards at the same skatepark as sokka and aang. she’s long since past trying to teach zuko (he’s an uncoordinated gay mess) (who can somehow still play drums ??what???)but once she sees him agree to learn to skate from sokka she knows what’s up
suki’s birthday is during th time this fic happens, and she invites yue to the party (she tells zuko he has to invite sokka because even though she loves her bestie, he really is dumb)
“hey yue, we’re having a little get-together for my birthday, and i was wondering if you wanted to come?” compare to zuko’s “uh—hey sokka? i, um. suki’s birthday is pretty soon, and, well. we’re having a get-together to celebrate? and i—she asked me to invite someone? andifyoudontwannagothatstotallyfineimsorryforbotheringyou-” (includes much stammering and heavy blushing)
on the outside suki’s all calm (someone has to be the “i’m a mess but i dont look it” friend🙄🙄. honestly)but on the inside she’s like
“oh my gOD is that dyed hair hOLY FUcK thats so badass and she pLAYS BASS TOo that’s hOt”
“WAITWHATTHEFUCKISSHESPEAKINGTOME- ?? she’s laughing now she’s gORGEOUS- ThE giGGLEs i CANt bREatHE-”
“hOLY mOtHEr of kYosHi sHe’s wEAriNG lEsbiAn riNgS sHIT and her voice is so nice too fUCK i think i’m in love-”
#battle of the bands au#atla#i dont know what happened but i drank a gallon of fic idea juice and this happened#iT HASNT WORN OFF#THIS IS JUST PART ONE I HAVE THE REST TOO#im drowning in this fic idea#@writers 😏😏 hey#anyone wanna cowrite#zukka#yueki#possibly mailee#mailee#ITS ON#i’m so excited#im drafting some art too#avatar the last airbender fanfic#ideas#AYYO IF YALL HAVE INPUT AND IDEAS ILL TAKE IT#zukka fanfiction#yueki fanfiction#its a gay mess#okay imma stop it with the tags now#bye#suki#yue#sokka#zuko#azula#toph#aang
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Hiya! Can I request headcanons for Denki, Todoroki, and Bakugou where their s/o has a waterbending quirk¿ kinda like Katara from Avatar
kaminari, todoroki, and bakugou with a s/o with a waterbending quirk
thanks for requesting! i love atla so much omg
kaminari
he would def praise you all the time omg
“woah y/n!! that’s so cool! not only is your quirk so powerful, it’s so beautiful too! just like you hehe~” he would cheekily say, enjoying the red flush creeping on your face.
whenever you were fighting villains and you saved him from a villain he didn’t seem to notice creeping up behind him he would give you a thumbs up, “thanks cutie!”
this boy is literally your number one fan
okay if atla existed in their world he would def call you katara all the time
he def would want you to cosplay her.
especially when she’s in the fire nation cuz her outfit is fire. pun intended.
if it was hot outside he would literally drag you outside with a bucket of water and would force you to make it rain lmaooo
whenever y’all are swimming you would put on a little show for him, making the water in the pool into like dragons or a lil tsunami omg he would be in awe omg
he’s so amazed at your quirk he loves u so much
todoroki
would be interested in you immediately because you have similar quirks
he wouldn’t show it though outwardly though, he’d just tune in more whenever you were fighting
he thinks that you would make a good team together, because of your quirks
not bc of your attractiveness ofc
okay so you guys are literally so famous because everyone ships you?? like your quirks are so compatible??
he’s aware of how powerful you are and def trains against you
it kinda sucks because you can put his fires out. you always end up having to use your ice powers instead of water when he uses his ice so the battles are very long
you guys are tied a lot
endeavor would love you. for your quirk ofc. whenever endeavor talks about you and todoroki having kids he glares at his dad. he hates that old bastard sm.
ppl would def call you zuko and katara lmao. when you forced him to watch the show you teased him because they were both emo boys with parental issues
“why does the internet like this zuko so much? his hair is ugly.” he would ask lmao
you beg him to cosplay as zuko at least once with you as katara and tbh you broke the internet
bakugou
he would definitely acknowledge your powerful quick and would see you as an obstacle at first
“oi, stay out of my way, got it? i’m gonna surpass all of you!”
whenever he watches you in battle he too, like kaminari, is mesmerized with your quirk
you move so gracefully yet so cunningly as you will the water to move
“hey bakugou? you okay?” kirishima would ask
“OF COURSE I AM SHITTY HAIR!” he was not, because he was starting to notice how cute you were
he would def force you to train with him. both to spend more time with you and to help him improve against your quirk.
“oi, you’re training with me later today, got it?”
he would know about atla and would make fun of you sometimes
“it’s like you ripped the show off! your quirk is exactly like that damn water girl’s.” he would guffaw as you two watched the show
bakugou loves you and how powerful you are. in his mind, you are literally the best and strongest couple out there.
#bnha x reader#todoroki x reader#kaminari x reader#bakugou x reader#bakugo x reader#bnha#my hero academia x reader#todoroki shoto x reader#kaminari denki x reader#bakugou katsuki x reader
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Do you have any headcanons about gaang grandchildren and if they all lived how each one of them would be to them? We don't see much about them here
okay SO i love the gaang grandkids - and actually we see quite a bit of them in the legend of korra, probably just as much as we see the kids.
canonically, all the gaang members who had kids also have grandkids :)
so, for the headcanons:
- in canon, aang never met his grandchildren. however, canon is fake and these headcanons will assume he lived and they’re all best friends
- aang, ikki and meelo get into the wildest shenanigans. tenzin complains that aang brings out the worst in his kids but aang always insists it’s worth it - besides, tenzin was always too serious
- constant air scooter races. aang lets the kids win every single time and this always results in meelo running around, screeching that he defeated the avatar. tenzin rolls his eyes but doesn’t quite have the heart to burst his bubble
- he encourages jinora’s spiritual and serious side, teaching her the more obscure airbender myths that her hyper younger siblings aren’t as interested in. they meditate together and discuss the spirit world and the things aang has seen in his role as the bridge between the humans and spirits.
- we know literally nothing about rohan since he was a newborn in LOK, but I like the idea that he’s a bit of a dreamy, artistic free spirit. more like jinora than meelo, but even more prone to getting lost, wandering around with his head in the clouds. aang loves rohan’s imagination and creativity, and definitely introduces him to artists in republic city
- katara and jinora get along like a house on fire. they’re very similar people - jinora is an airbender, but as a kid she would watch katara waterbend and secretly practice her movements. katara passes on water tribe traditions to all her grandchildren, but they resonate the most with jinora. she loves listening to the stories and the mythology of the water tribe, learning about tui and la, about the moon spirit who was her grandmother’s friend and who promises to watch over jinora and her siblings as long as they live
- ikki loves it when katara braids her hair. she wears hair loopies all the time, even though they’ve long been out of style in the water tribes. her grandma likes them, so ikki knows they must be cool. ikki and katara go penguin sledding together every time they’re in the water tribe - it’s ikki’s favourite activity and she’s never quite sure why katara tears up slightly every time they do it. katara also teaches ikki SWT cooking - it’s very meat centric and tenzin isn’t thrilled with his airbending kids eating meat, but katara always reminds him with a glare that those kids are as water tribe as they are air nomad
- zuko has the best relationship ever with his grandson iroh. when he found out that izumi was planning to name her son after uncle iroh, he straight up sobbed
- zuko ends up being a very uncle-iroh like figure to his grandson iroh II. lots of sage advice, tea-making and pai sho sessions. zuko sees a lot of himself in his grandson - they have the same impulsivity, reckless streak, ruthless determination and voice. he recognises that iroh II needs that same guidance and voice of reason to help him channel his intensity, turn it into something productive. it’s too easy for people like them to turn to self-destruction when things don’t go their way, so zuko makes sure that iroh II knows how to develop healthy coping mechanisms so that he never ends up suffering the way zuko did
- zuko’s a little unsure when iroh chooses to go into the military, but he sees how well he takes to that life. he’s the proudest grandpa ever when iroh II gets the title of the youngest general in history
- toph has the most complicated relationship with her grandkids. it’s not strained, but it’s not too close either given that she retired to the forest and became a hermit when they were very young. but we see in korra that opal has only fond memories of her grandmother and clearly loves her a lot.
- toph shows affection brutally. she’s never brutal, exactly, but she can be stern in the best way possible. she always makes sure her grandkids know to never take shit from anybody, to always get back up and never to let anyone talk down to them. she’s insistent that opal, especially, learns this - opal is naturally shy and reserved, and toph is determined that nobody ever takes that as an excuse to talk down to her
- opal’s a little insecure about the fact that her mother and grandmother are such famous earthbenders while she is a non-bender. when toph hears about this, she ruffles opal’s hair and says “don’t be silly, kiddo. my best friend’s a non-bender, and he’s the strongest guy i know”
- she then threatens to end the life of anyone who gives her granddaughter shit for being a non-bender. nobody dares say anything to opal after that
- as toph feels herself growing older, she starts returning to zaofu and republic city more often. she spends more time with her grandkids, becoming their go-to advice person and resident eccentric old lady.
- bonus: i love the concept of bumi having an airbender daughter before he develops airbending himself. it would create a really interesting family dynamic since the child would have to spend a lot of time on air temple island with tenzin. also it would help bumi feel more connected to his airbender roots. this is the most out there headcanon but it’s my emotional support headcanon and i love it. it actually has nothing to do with your ask but i felt the need to share anyway
#atla#avatar the last airbender#aang#zuko#katara#the legend of korra#korra#jinora#iroh ii#ikki#opal#opal beifong#tenzin#toph#toph beifong#gaang kids headcanons#my posts#asks
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𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 𝖎𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖊𝖞𝖊𝖘
✭ part fourteen ✭
✭ masterlist ✭
After a long and exhausting day at the beach, the group settled around a bonfire as the sun started setting. Everybody was huddled in a circle waiting for midnight.
Their laughs could be heard a mile away as stories were exchanged within the group. “Remember when Sokka tried to become a famous sound cloud rapper?” Katara said as the whole group bursted into laughter.
Sokka’s face got red as he tried to hide by putting his hoodie up. “Oh I remember that, junior year of high school was a dark time” Toph said “It wasn’t even that bad! I could have made it big if you guys didn’t shame me into stopping!” Sokka yelled
“Oh shut up Sokka, nobody shamed you into quitting, you decided to quit after Yue didn’t want your weird mixtape you made for her” Katara said between giggles.
“It wasn’t weird! It was a real act of love, and she listened to it and said she liked it” Sokka replied to his sister. “Was that before or after you found out she was moving across the world?” Toph said. “Too far, Toph. Too far” Sokka said.
“Oh you think junior year was bad for you? Azula literally made an instagram account where she talked shit about our friend group. We were so concerned about who it was too” Y/n said.
“I forgot about that! She literally made a hate page for us because she ‘just felt like it” Ty Lee added as everybody looked at Azula with raised eyebrows. “I would say I’m surprised...but” Aaang said. “Well you deserved it, you guys were really unreliable in high school”.
“Wait, how did you guys find out it was Azula?” Zuko asked the girls. “Well the account just stopped posting, I’m guessing Azula got bored and she just told us out of the blue ‘oh hey remember the account? It was me” Mai said as she rolled her eyes “Yeah it was pretty funny” Y/n said as everybody laughed. Comfortable silence fell among the group as everybody engaged in their own conversation.
Y/n scooted over closer to Zuko “Hey it’s almost midnight. You wanna go on a little walk?” Y/n whispered in his ear. “But… Everybody’s here.” Zuko said as he looked at the rest of the group. “Yeah I know, but I wanna give you your present in private” Y/n said as she smiled at the boy. “O-okay then. Let’s go” Zuko said as he got up from his place.
“Where are you guys going? It’s almost midnight?” Azula asked them with a smirk. She knew exactly where they were going “Yeah, we’re just gonna take a walk, we’ll be back soon” Y/n replied to her as they started walking away. She looked back and saw everybody giving her a thumbs up. She playfully rolled her eyes and smiled as she catched up with Zuko. “Use protection kids!” Sokka yelled at the pair. “Oh shut the fuck up Sokka” Zuko said as they both blushed and walked away.
They walked for a few minutes before they sat on a white wooden bench overlooking the ocean. “The sky is really beautiful today” Y/n said. “Not as beautiful as you” Zuko replied.
“Wow, that was smooth” Y/n said as she laughed “Pick up lines were never your calling, were they?”
“No not really, I have no idea how I got Mai to date me when we were 17” Zuko said as he looked at the sky filled with stars. “Hmm, you’re probably the reason she’s gay now” Y/n said as she giggled. Zuko took in her smile and laugh. He wished he could stay in this moment forever. He missed her laugh. He remembers how excited he would be when Y/n would come over to play with Azula when they were kids. He always found her laugh endearing. He remembers chasing her and his sister around their house when they were 6. Although many years have passed, her laugh seemed to stay the same
“It’s almost midnight, do you want your present now?” Y/n asked as she turned to look at the boy. His face shined in the moonlight. Their faces were inches away. Before Zuko could process the question, her arms were around him. As they kissed, the world around them went quiet. The kiss was the kind that breaks open the sky. The kiss had Y/n realise that every kiss she had in her life had been wrong.
They started kissing like their life depended on it. It’s nothing like she had ever experienced before. Her fingers grab her hair as she pushes him closer to her. His lips tasted like honey and she couldn’t get enough. Just as they were about to lean in again they could hear their friends in the background.
“Finally!” Sokka and Azula said at the same time. Y/n looked at her phone and saw it was exactly midnight. “Happy birthday, Zuzu” She whispered in his ear as she kissed his cheek.
taglist: @khaleesi-of-assassins @shortmexicangirl @whoevenfrickenknows @marvel-ing-at-it-all @whalerus @roastbeats @astralsaf @bison-whistle @degenerationarmy @fanficflaneuse @emogril @royahllty @blushbadger @theblueslytherin @justab-eautifulmess @korina-dujmovic @mochminnie @chilifrylizard @firedancer016 @liw-the-melancholic-apple @notso-average-writer @grapesauze @mikeys-thighs @thathoneybee3 @cece-lives-here @someoneovertherainboww @drarrylov3r @bostwickellin
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an: FINALLY THEY KISSED !!!! lmk if there are any typos it’s 10 pm rn and i’m so tired from school :) ty guys for liking this fanfic and reading it as we’re getting close to the end :)
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The Dragon Egg (Parts 14-18)
If she knew that that night would be her last good night, she might have savored it more.
Oh, Agni, she would have smiled wider and laughed more freely.
But how could she have known that she would be smiling again.
.oOo.
Azula holds her hand against the swell of her belly. It has grown more prominent, seemingly overnight. Pregnancy test or none, morning sickness or peaceful awakenings, mood swings and unstable hormones; until the bump she had still been able to pretend like it wasn’t real, that she still had a chance.
She can’t see her father anymore, not unless she buries herself under bulky layers of sweaters and jackets. Even then her father will know that something is amiss. She used to never wear baggy clothing, of the opinion that it looks sloppy and lazy.
He’d surely question why she has traded her crop tops and--formerly--form fitting dresses for loose fitting t’s and sweatpants.
She is some five months along now and certain that it is far too late to terminate the pregnancy. Her window for making that decision has come to a close. As have the window to keep it a secret. Trying to pass it off as a few extra pounds no longer cuts it and even if it did, it wouldn’t earn her a much better reaction than the truth would.
Spirits, what was she thinking, keeping this baby. She should have just ripped the bandaid and told her father. Should have dealt with the screaming and scolding, perhaps a good slap. Those things would have come to pass. The guilt over terminating the pregnancy would have come to pass. She would have given such a stellar performance at Audio of Agni that he’d be forced to forgive her, to love her, and to recognize that she is still his perfect, talented, gleaming star.
This, she runs her hand along the bump, won’t come to pass. It will be with her forever, should the delivery go smoothly. Spirits, she doesn’t want to think about the delivery. And, Spirits, what if she finds herself in the hospital during Agni of Audio?
She is certain that her due date will fall around the same date as the performance.
She rakes her fingers through her hairline. Fuck, she doesn’t even know her fucking due date. She is a mess and it is her fault. She can’t even be sure that she and this baby are healthy. She isn’t sure that her diet has been good for the baby, isn’t sure that her lifestyle is safe for it. She knows that the stress can’t possibly be doing it any favors.
She feels her phone vibrate and unlocks it to confirm that they are still on for practice. It won’t be a practice so much as a meeting and, by, Agni she isn’t ready. Not even slightly, but she has to tell someone. She has to tell Chan specifically.
Maybe she should talk to Seicho first.
Maybe she should speak with Chan alone.
She closes her eyes and taps her phone against her lips. She will assemble all of them and speak with Chan first. It is time to stop delaying. Time to stop stalling. Time to grow up faster than she already has been.
.oOo.
Mai still refuses to speak to him outside of practice. Other than a curt reminder that he is lucky that she was generous enough to snatch her mother’s money and pay his bail, thus incurring the woman’s wrath.
Zuko is certain that Michi’s wrath is nothing like that of the magazines and morning shows. The ones that won’t let his arrest become old news even months later. Somehow they always find some fresh new angle to talk about it from. Some brand new perspective. Seldom are do any of these perspective’s paint him in a good light.
The boy, Kei-Lo, has been getting more attention than he. What started off as a ridiculous clickbait video titled ‘Almost Killed By My Idol!!’ grew into an entire platform. He has been on talk show after talk show, retelling the story of how he almost got ‘murdered’ by the lead singer of From Ashes To Phoenix. He recounts have gotten more and more absurd--“for humor’s sake, I promise!”--to the point where Zuko had allegedly picked up a chair after splintering his guitar. And when that hadn’t worked, he’d allegedly begun trying to stab Kei-Lo with the splintered end of his guitar.
And somehow the media has latched onto that image, churning out t-shirts of him wielding his guitar like some sort of stone age brute and foils stickers of his enraged expression. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so horrible if he were receiving a cut of the cash. Or, at the very least, if the publicity were doing him any good.
No, it is only kickstarting Kei-Lo’s career as a comedian and talk show host. And in the wake of his goals, From Ashes To Phoenix is taking the fall. Even Azula hasn’t so directly kicked him down to lift herself up. At least Azula could say that she was bringing him down on talent alone; that she is simply better without having to make him worse.
Zuko’s brows furrow, when he comes to dwell on it, Azula has been rather quiet lately. Quiet, even after being the subject of talk shows herself. Raava and Vaatu of the Tui La’s and Wan Shi Tong have only been raving about she and the rest of Blue Talon.
It has only been fantastic press for her.
And she hasn’t even sent him a link to remind him of that.
Maybe she is simply too busy to do so; too important to bother with even mocking him anymore. He balls his fists, if he grips his pencil any tighter, he might break it. And he hates her with more fury than ever. He picks up his phone to tell her off. Why not? He needs an outlet for the anger brewing within him. And she is perfect for it, she could do with someone telling her that she isn’t so great.
He pulls her number upon his phone. He cringes all over again when he sees that he has already messaged her. At least several times and with variations of the same few messages; ‘You think that you’re so great don’t you? You’re so perfect. That’s fine, it’ll make it better when everyone else realizes that you aren’t’, ‘dad start beating you you yet?’, ‘oh so you’re too famous to insult me now’, and one final comment about her one failure, ‘how’s it feel to be in the tabloids, fatass?’ It is a wonder that she hasn’t blocked his numbers. Likely she sees that as a weakness. Likely, she finds his insults laughable, a sign that he’s doing worse than ever. Likely, it entertains her.
He rakes his hands through his hair. He doesn’t even remember sending those.
A lot of things are fuzzy these days. He writes songs, he even records them, but he forgets to include Mai and TyLee in them. And on the days that he doesn’t wake up there, he forgets that he has gone to the recording studio at all.
He rubs his hands over his face. His heart is beating so fast and, no matter what he tries, he can’t stop shaking. He can hardly breath, the room feels so small and the more he thinks about those texts and the other things he has forgotten, the smaller the room seems.
He raps the heel of his hand against his forehead.
He should try to sleep, that might do him some good. He hasn’t slept in a while. He is damn certain that, even if the coke wasn’t making him restless, he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Every time his head hits the pillow it seems to whisper to him, telling him that he is a waste. His life is a waste. That he is no better than his father.
And the pillow--his own inner voice is right. Just because it isn’t alcohol, doesn’t mean that he isn’t the exact person he hates. He wonders how he’d let this happen, all he needed was a small boost of energy, a shot of confidence, and euphoria when he couldn’t produce it on his own. He supposes that, that is the problem exactly. He never can produce it on his own.
He was just going to use it until he had his first singles out.
He wishes that the plan hadn’t worked so well. He wishes that he would have had a trip so horrible that he’d never want to do it again. But he had pumped out singles at a rate that Azula would envy--that she did envy when she saw that he had released his new singles before she did.
And just like that, ‘only until I finish my single’ became, ‘I will only use it until I finish the album.’ By the time he finished the album he found that he couldn’t stop. That he needed the extra kick. He can’t produce anything worthwhile without it.
And now he can’t function without it.
Oh, Agni, he wants to function without it.
He slaps at his forehead again. He is more useless than ever and the press is finally catching onto his horrid habits. He wishes that uncle were here to offer him advice, and yet he can’t bring himself to tell the man just how much trouble he is in. He wonders if an hour long video chat a day is enough for him to be able to tell.
He wishes that he were home and not sleeping on a tour bus or in some sketchy motel, where dealers make exchanges in the alley over. He wishes that he hadn’t dragged Mai and TyLee into this one with him.
He has let Mai down; he thinks that she is falling out of love with him and in love with TyLee.
Has let TyLee down; she is scared to be alone with him.
Has let uncle down; he just doesn’t know it yet.
He has let himself down; if he had the opportunity to walk out on himself, he probably would.
He always lets everyone down
He sits in his room, pencil in hand.
He can’t seem to write songs when his head is so turbulent. When his hand is so twitchy. When his arms are so soar and bruised.
And yet he can’t stop himself from putting down the pencil and taking up a needle.
He has let everyone down and he is doing it again. He can’t stop doing it. His band is a lost cause.
He can hear in his head, his father sneering about how he’d told him so; he told him that he would never make it big. He can hear Azula’s dainty little laugh, “oh, Zuzu, you’re pathetic, Tom-Tom can upstage you by banging on pots and pans.”
He cups his hands over his head.
He just wants to succeed.
He just wants a chance.
He just wants to be happy.
.oOo.
For a moment she allows herself to hope. Perhaps everything will just be okay. Maybe father will handle it better than she anticipates. Even if he doesn’t, she has made a name for herself. She is revered by the metal masters. She has a strong voice, a sharp mind, and the tools to make something of it. Even if he doesn’t, she has her bandmates. She won’t lose everything.
Perhaps her father will take well to knowing that there will be someone to inherent the family legacy, another little prodigy to teach.
Perhaps, Chan will make a good father.
Perhaps the Blue Talon fandom will find a baby dragon to be precious.
She should know better than to get idealistic. It never does her any good.
She swallows hard before pushing the door to the recording studio open. As things are, she is the first to arrive, it is just as well, she can use a few moments to prepare herself. She inhales and exhales several times, until at least some of her nerves settle.
Azula is more than relieved when Chan arrives first, it makes speaking to him in private that much easier. She waits for him to prop his guitar against the wall before greeting him. He looks her up and down. It is the first time in a long while that she has worn something that isn’t baggy. He keeps his thoughts tactfully to himself. “Yes, this is what I want to talk to you about.” She clasps her hands over her bump and clears her throat. “We will proceed with practice, but first I have to tell you something.”
“Are you…? You’re not…” He sputters, his eyes are fixed on her belly. She finds herself growing heavily uncomfortable under his stare.
She swallows, the look on his face tells her that she is in for a difficult time. That he isn’t going to take this well at all.
“I am.” She confirms. “I have been for the past five months.” She looks up from her hands. “It’s your baby, Chan.”
He shanks his head. “No. No way.”
She nods. “I’ve only ever…” she trails off. “You’re the only person I got that close to.”
He rubs his hand over his face. “I can’t be a father!” When he pulls his hands away from his face it looks as though he has aged several years. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I wanted to make sure that there were no distractions along the way to battle of the bands. Now that we have a stable standing…”
He shakes his head, “you’re only telling me this because you can’t keep it a secret anymore. Why did you keep it!?” He is pacing rather frantically now. “I don’t want a baby! I don’t want to be tethered to you for the rest of my life!”
Poor word choice or not, it comes like a forceful kick to the teeth. She furrows her brows, “we’re in a band together. And if we make it big we’re going to be spending plenty of time with one another anyhow. If anything, Lo and Li can watch the baby. They took care of me after my mother died.”
The laugh Chan gives is unsettling. “I’m not going to be a father. I have a career to focus on.”
“So do I.” Azula hisses. “You don’t get to just walk away from this.” But that’s just the thing, he very well can. He can walk away in a way that she can’t. “You...we don’t have to keep it. But you’re not going to pretend like it isn’t your baby.”
“Do you know what my dad will say if he finds out?”
“Do you know what my father will do when he finds out?” She isn’t even certain of this and, spirits, does she dread it. She needs someone to be there even if that someone is the asshole who put her in this position in the first place.
“It’s not my fault that you got pregnant!”
“I don’t know if things have changed since I last looked at a biology textbook, but from what I remember, this is a two person job.”
“What’s with all of the shouting?” Zirin grumbles.
“We have a band whore, that’s what.” Chan declares.
Azula’s face colors, a cross between outrage and mortification. “It’s your baby.” She insists through gritted teeth. “Who else’s would it be?”
He turns from her and appeals to Ruon and Zirin instead. “Who knows how many people she’s had backstage.”
“That’s not exactly characteristic of Azula.” Ruon mumbles.
“Neither is party sex.” Zirin shrugs.
“Chan is the father.”
“Just own up, dude.” Ruon frowns.
“Let’s say that it is mine. What the hell am I supposed to do about it? Her dad’s wallet can cover everything, she doesn’t need my help.”
Her eyes narrow, he has missed the point entirely; it isn’t money that she is seeking. She is yearning for something that her father will most certainly deprive her of--something that he has never been that good for in the first place. She craves comfort. She needs reassurance. And yet she is hesitant to ask for either. “Do you really think that my father is going to take this news very well?”
“I can’t do anything about that!” Chan throws his hands up.
“No, I suppose you can’t.” In the silence to follow, she thinks to just walk away. What more is there to say? And, really, what had she been expecting? That Chan, immature Chan, who draws phallic imagery on restaurant menus and attempts keg stands, would readily embrace the responsibilities of having knocked someone up. “Forget it. I’ll deal with it on my own.” She mumbles. “Let’s just get on with practice.”
Ruon seems to cringe.
“Really, I can deal with it on my own.”
His expression doesn’t change. If anything he is flinching harder still. “Azula, should there even be a practice?”
She furrows her brows, “What? What are you talking about, of course there should be a practice.” She thinks that her voice has raised a pitch or two.
“You’re pregnant.” He says gently, carefully. “Should you really be focusing on music right now?”
She swallows, feeling almost nauseous with nerves. “I can do both. I’ve been doing both. I can think about two things at once.”
“Realistically,” Ruon begins, “are you really going to have time to tour?”
She nods almost frantically, “I’ve been managing.”
“You haven’t been going to the doctor.” Ruon points out. “That takes up time.”
“If Zuzu was able to manage school and being in a band, then I can manage being in a band and one appointment every now and again.” She rolls her eyes, “are you really underestimating me now?”
“Am I? Or are you overestimating yourself?” Ruon asks. “Being in a band is a lot of stress and pressure without a baby…”
But he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand how essential being in the band is. Doesn’t understand how every aspect of her life hinges on it. On how well she performs at Audio of Agni. The competition will be the make or break moment of her life. Things have fallen into place so well and so neatly, she can’t imagine that she will have another chance at it. “Ruon, I can handle it.” She punctuates every word.
“Well maybe we don’t want to.” Zirin throws in. “Every fucking time it’s all about you. What you want. How being in this band effects you. I need this band too, and I can’t afford a wild card.” Her eyes wander to Azula’s bump.
“It’s not a wild card, I can plan…”
“Even if it’s not a wild card, it’s a risk. Zirin can’t afford risks right now.” Ruon replies. “She needs to be able to get out of that home and this band is her way out.”
And Azula is reminded of each time that Zirin has wandered into the recording booth with a collection of fresh bruises on her arms and legs, on her ribcage and back. “Which is why I need to be here. I can get where we need to be and Zirin will be able to…”
Zirin shakes her head. “You don’t get it do you? You’re still making this about you.”
“You’re not the only person in this band who has talent!” Chan speaks up again. “Zirin can sing too. I can sing. You aren’t creative and you need to be creative to be an artist.”
“I am creative.”
“No, you’re good at planning and organizing. You’re good at taking our ideas and fine-tuning them. Anyone can do that. Ruon and I write the lyrics and concepts for our videos.” He pauses for a breath. “You shoot down any ideas that aren’t copies of what we’ve already done. You refuse to try new sounds and styles.”
“I wrote the last few songs.”
“And they sound like everything else that we’ve ever done! Fine. Maybe surf rock isn’t it, but we need to change our sound somehow. We need to try something new. And you’re holding us back.”
“Holding you back, I--”
“And you’re going to hold us back more and more the further along you are.”
She clutches her belly, unsure of which emotion has the strongest grip on her--anger, distress, hurt, or anxiety. She can feel the baby kick, adding another layer of pulsing to the unsavory emotions already throbbing and throbbing within.
“Chan, that’s enough.” Ruon puts a hand on his shoulder.
He shakes it off. “Is it? She’s been giving us demands, talking down to us, and blaming us for setbacks this whole time! And this whole time she’s been carrying a bigger setback than any of us.”
“Because of you!” She hisses. She is nearing her compousre’s very end and she isn’t sure what is going to tear out when the last of it is worn away.
“We’ve been pushing along and pretending like nothing is wrong. Something needs to change.”
Her stomach sinks even further and the queasiness in her tummy grows, twice so with the shifting of the baby. “And what needs to change, Chan?” Her voice has dropped so dangerously low. Not that it can vocalize anything more than an empty threat. She is outnumbered and out of cards in a hand that wasn’t even winning to begin with.
“The lineup of this band.” Zirin puts in. Chan nods in agreement.
She waits for Ruon to tell them that that is ridiculous. She looks to him, letting her mask slip long enough for the plea to reflect in her eyes. He only turns his head. “Ruon?”
He sighs heavily. “I’m not saying that I agree with everything Chan said just now. But I do think that it might be a good idea if you...took a break from Blue Talon.”
“Ruon!?” Her composure splinters further and her voice cracks.
He takes her hand, she knows that he means it as a comforting gesture but she doesn’t want it. She doesn’t want to be touched right now. She snatches her hand away.
“I guess I can’t tell you what’s best for you but I don’t think that being in the band is good for you right now. How are you going to handle the headlines and the bad press? It’s going to be a lot. I don’t think that I’d be able to deal with it very well.”
“I’m not you, I can handle it just fine.”
“You can’t even adjust to changing the band’s style, how are you going to adjust to…”
Ruon cuts him off.
“How far along are you right now, Azula.”
‘Five months.” She answers, her voice so small and quiet now.
“From the looks of it, by the time Audio of Agni comes around, you’ll be expecting to have your baby at any time.”
She swallows hard, tears are finally starting to well up behind her eyes. Because he is right. Even if they don’t kick her out of her own band, she is almost certain that she won’t be in any shape to perform, especially not to the degree she would like. It was a lost cause from the start. A losing battle that she tried to fight single handedly anyways.
What is the point in wasting her energy on a battle that can’t be won; perhaps it is time for a while flag. Perhaps the time to wave one is well overdue.
She takes a deep breath, regaining as much composure as she can and mustering all of the poise as she can manage. “Good luck with Audio of Agni.” She picks up her microphone stand and hastily strides away.
The slamming of the recording studio door is the closing of the door to her aspirations, her future.
__________
She wonders how long it will take for the tabloids to tear her self-esteem to thinner ribbons than it is already in. How long it will take for them to churn out headlines officiating her departure from the band. She supposes that she could save herself some dignity and post an open letter of sorts on her social media before the other three can.
If only she had the drive.
If only it mattered.
She is already simmering in shame, what’s one more layer?
Anyways, she has to conserve her planning and word play for when her father comes home. And her time is running thin, his vacation expires two days from now. She has a feeling that there is no adequate dialogue; that even the most seasoned authors, poets, and intellectuals wouldn’t be able to scrape up a speech that would satisfy Ozai.
She longs to pull her knees up to her chest and bury her face in them. This is just one more thing that her baby gets in the way of. She settles for leaning her head against the wall and rubbing her hands over her face.
Her phone vibrates again.
She ought to put it on silent.
Once or twice the doorbell had rung.
She wouldn’t have answered even if she had the willpower to do so.
The phone vibrates. This time it is only a text. She has a growing list of missed call notifications. A steady steam of names; mostly Ruon and Seicho but Chan and Zirin are in the mix. There is one or two from her father and a voicemail message from Zhao.
She doesn’t answer any of their calls or texts. She doesn’t want to. They are just like Mai and TyLee. Perhaps worse. She’ll leave it to them to explain her departure to Zhao. Chan has left her with a mess to clean so she will leave him one.
Her phone lights up with an incoming call, Seicho’s name appears on the screen.
She should answer it.
It would have been better if she did. But her life has been reduced to one mistake after another, just what is one more anyways?
.oOo.
The empty pouch lies several feet from her. She hadn’t meant to. But she is at her wits end, her sanity’s very edge. And she hates to admit it, but she loved it. She loved it so much. She hadn’t felt that energetic and inspired in a very long time. For a time, her appetite hadn’t been so horribly ravenous. And by Agni, conversation had come much easier when she finally got around to responding to that stream of missed calls. It was a sublime half an hour. She finds that she can no longer blame Zuko at all for craving the drug so furiously.
She can’t quite remember what she said to everyone. She doesn’t think that it matters anyways. She is so thoroughly drained, so much so that she can’t fathom leaving her bed. Can’t fathom anything at all. And this is a mercy to what comes next. To the slap of awareness that comes the next day.
Azula hasn’t felt so dreadful about herself since seeing her pregnancy test marked positive. She thinks that she might feel worse now than she had then. Her mind is a whirlwind of shame and guilt. She wishes she could pretend that she hadn’t done cocaine but she had been too lethargic in the crash to have even discarded the pouch.
It sits upon her dresser amid a light dusting of the powder, reminding that she is a failure just as miserable as her brother. That she is more so. At least Zuko never had a chance. She had all of the cards in line for her, all of the game pieces set in place and she still has managed to lose.
The noise that tears from her throat is hideous, tortured. The product of a failed attempt to conceal a sob. She used cocaine.
There is a baby in her belly and she used cocaine.
Spirits, she has probably killed it. She digs her nails into her hairline. She didn’t want to kill it. Whether she wanted it or not the baby is still hers. It is still a part of her. It might be the only thing that she will have left. And she might have just killed it or poisoned it.
She can’t stop the tremors and shakes that run through her body and she isn’t sure if it is an effect of the drug or if she is simply an anxious mess. Can cocaine give someone the shakes after one use? She trembles harder still.
She needs help.
She should call someone.
She is scared.
She has no one to call.
She wipes it her nose, she can still feel tingles and tickles. A faint static dancing on her nostrils and it won’t go away. No matter what she does or tries to think about, it doesn’t go away. The feeling builds in her sinuses until she is overtaken by an urge to claw at her nose.
It is ludicrous, the power is not there anymore--she has been to the mirror five times over to check.
She rubs her hands over her face.
She hears her phone vibrate.
She covers her ears.
She still hears it vibrate and it vibrates in unison with the static.
She slides onto the floor and bunches herself up as much as her bigger belly would allow. She finds that she is no longer even allowed to take comfort in bunching herself up. And so she lays there, strewn haphazardly, on the kitchen floor, tangled locks of hair fanning out around her.
Maybe she should lay there and die. Maybe she should go fetch the rest of her father’s stash and hit it all in one go. Maybe it is a mercy that she has probably gotten her baby killed. It doesn’t need to be born into a world that will emotionally rip it to tatters. It doesn’t need to be born to an inept mother...an inept person like her.
She should get off of the floor.
She can’t.
She is terrified.
She still has no one to call.
________________
Azula doesn’t remember opening the door. She doesn’t think that she had. But Seicho is there all the same. There and cradling her tightly, running her hand over her hair. Azula feels so, so weak. Weak and somehow more drained than she had even before.
“What happened, Azula?” She mumbles into her hair.
“They kicked me out of my own band.” She says softly, her voice straining as she tries to choke back a fresh batch of tears. “Chan got me pregnant and they kicked me out. It’s my band. My father is the one who…” she loses it at ‘father’, her words falling into the sob that she tried to suppress. “He’s going to...Agni, he’s going to disown me. Just like he did to Zuzu.”
Seicho’s brows furrow. “He’s your father, he wouldn’t…”
Azula shakes her head. “He’s a drunk, Seicho! I found the drugs in his desk.”
“You took drugs!?”
Azula grits her teeth. “I…” she what? There is no excuse. “I fucked up.”
Seicho squeezes her tighter and mutters, “let’s get you to the doctor.” She helps Azula to her shaky feet. “You should have seen one months ago, anyways.”
“What’s wrong with me, Seicho?”
“You’re stressed and pregnant and stressed because you’re pregnant.”
“I can’t afford to see a doctor. My father isn’t going to pay for that. I only have so much money saved up from the band…”
“Let’s just get you to this first appointment.”
Azula sucks in a deep breath. Seicho is right. She needs to regain rationality and start figuring out what to do. Really figuring it out as she should have done in the first place. Seicho helps her into the car.
.oOo.
Watching a dragon lose its wings is worse than finding out that her idol is the sort of asshole who would abandon his daughter for drugs and then abandon her twice over when she makes a mistake of her own.
Azula had been such a proud woman, head held high and vibrant. She is pale now, her eyes baggy and bloodshot, hair in a state of disarray and her clothes unkempt. She is softer, her face rounder. But there is no warmth in it; there is no glow of pregnancy. There is no glow at all. It is hollow and grey.
She squeezes Azula’s hand as she lingers in front of the door. It is as though walking in will put the final nail in a coffin that has been sealed for quite some time now. “Come on,” she implores softly, “I think that you’ll feel a lot better once the doctor tells you your options.”
Azula nods.
“How far along are you?” Seicho hears the receptionist ask.
“Five months.” She sounds so small.
“And you haven’t seen a doctor yet?”
She shakes her head.
“Why have you waited so long?”
“I didn’t want to tell my father…”
The receptionist sighs. “I’m sorry, we can’t take you as a patient.”
Azula’s dreary eyes grow that much more dismal. “What do you mean?” Her voice is caught somewhere between distress and anger. Seicho thinks that it is pure shock. “Why not?”
The receptionist has the decency to cringe. “You’ve already missed several important screenings, tests, and milestones. You’re also very young…”
“So?”
She flinches back further. “You’re a liability. There are a lot of risk factors and most physicians don’t want that liability.”
Azula grows paler still. “I-I don’t know what to do. I need to see someone.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. We can’t accept new patients that are this far along.”
Azula doesn’t speak another word. Stiff and tense is her walk back to the car and all Seicho can do is rub her hand in small circles on her back as they walk. Azula lays back against the headrest, almost limp in defeat. “Is there anywhere else we can go?”
“We can try the next place over.” Seicho suggests. And she suggests it again and again until she has to look up clinics she has never heard of. Azula finds one, a small practitioner. And they drive there.
.oOo.
Azula is under the impression that they have only taken her as a patient as a good will gesture. That the receptionist had taken one look at her dejected state and called for the doctor herself. Azula shifts uncomfortably in the chair as the woman looks her down with a smile that is much too big.
“Geez, that Joo Dee woman is creepy.” Seicho whispers.
Azula shrugs. “At least she’s giving me a chance.” She will stomach the creepiness as she stomachs everything else that is thrown at her. At last a woman appears, she is terribly old with bright white hair and fierce blue eyes.
“Azula, is it?” She greets.
Azula nods.
“My name is Hama.”
“You’re going to take me as a patient.”
“You’ve come unorthodoxly late.” She clicks her tongue. “But I’ve been doing this for a very long time so I’ll see what I can do for you.”
Azula exchanges a glance with Seicho. One that is not missed by Hama. “You’re nervous.”
“I am not.”
The old woman chuckles. “I suppose it’s strange to be in a place like this instead of some facility that smells like ammonia. But I think that better births happen in a relaxed environment. Hospitals are not relaxing. Nothing comforting about giving birth when someone is dying just down the hall.”
“No, that’s not comfortable at all.” Azula agrees but it is no less comforting to be in what looks like someone’s house. “Do you even have…”
“The medical equipment necessary to deliver a baby?” She quirks a brow. “I get asked that all the time, girl. I certainly do and if you will follow me I can show you. Forgive me, I know that I just criticized the scent but it does smell like disinfectants back here.”
Azula doesn’t think that there is anything to forgive. It is a comfort to know that the woman is properly sanitizing everything. She supposes that, that is a good sign. The room Hama leads her to is much like a standard doctor’s office, save for the wallpaper, a helping of potted plants everywhere, and a faint odor of incense that cuts through the disinfectants.
“Please sit. We have quite a lot of things to go over. Namely your situation with your father, Joo Dee informed me that he is not aware.”
“He isn’t, no.”
“This first visit will be free of charge, dear.”
For the first time all day, perhaps in months, she feels a refreshing current of relief. She could very well cry.
“Thank you.”
“Because you are coming in so late, I need you to sign a waiver. There could be complications that are...difficult for me to work with, things that haven’t been detected because…”
And she hasn’t even told the woman about her cocaine use. She isn’t sure that she should, Agni forbid she loses her last chance. She reads the forms over and signs them. Hama hands her more of them. “I need you to fill out your medical history. Allergies, past illnesses, the usual. After you do that I will give you a general check up and we can schedule your first real appointment.”
“What if I can’t pay?”
Hama considers for a moment. “I will work with you, dear. My daughter is a fan of your music. Perhaps you can sing for her some time.”
.oOo.
Azula looks better, if only a little, now that she is sitting in the car with a rather clean bill of health; a healthy heart rate and body temperature, no fever nor infection, and a body weight that is rather typical for someone at five months.
She looks better still to see that Ozai’s car is still not in the driveway.
“Spend the night with me?”
“I can do that. Just let me text my parents.” Seicho smiles.
_________
It is a mercy that her father is so late to return home, she thinks to call and ask him why he hasn’t come home. She is beginning to wonder if the man has overdosed in his hotel room. Drank himself to death and yet to be discovered. More likely, he has heard word of her departure from the band and is leaving her to fester in her dread for a while.
Still, it is better this way; she had needed the extra time with Hama unable to get her in for another three days. It is just as well, the cocaine should be out of her system.
It has been decided that she will pay for the treatments using her band savings, it isn’t as though she has any use for them anymore, anyhow. She still feels awkward sitting in Hama’s chair. Though the woman has been more than friendly.
Seicho lounges in the corner while Hama lifts Azula’s shirt above the bump. The ultrasound gel that she applies is cool on her belly, uncomfortably so.
“We will call you with the results of your blood work as soon as we receive them.” Hama says as she carefully sweeps the transducer over Azula’s bump.
“Alright.”
“So far, it looks like your baby’s development is on the right track.”
She wouldn’t say that if she knew about the drugs.
“It’s a girl.”
“A girl.” She repeats distantly. At least she can stop calling the baby an ‘it’ now.
Hama cleans the gel away and pulls Azula’s shirt back down. “Based on what we’ve discussed I’ve given you a care plan going forward. I also have a list of foods and drinks to avoid. I’d like to see you again in two weeks.”
.oOo.
Ozai’s car is in the lot when Seicho pulls into the driveway. Her throat constricts.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
Azula shakes her head. It is better if she faces him alone. It is better if she is alone when she is shamed. She takes a deep breath and steps into the foyer. She looks to the recliner that he usually occupies when he is seeking to yell at her. It is vacant.
She finds him at the dinner table, with a bottle that is already half empty. She feels nauseous but she forces herself into the room. She tries to be quiet about it when she pulls out her chair but it still squeak and scrapes upon the floor. Not that she isn’t in plain sight of her father anyhow. Even still she feels as though she should take her seat with a stealthy silence. As though sound will break whatever peace there is left. She shifts uncomfortably in her chair.
Her father looks her over, taking her in. And she realizes that it has been several weeks since he has seen her. She wonders how she looks to him with her belly swollen and her sad eyes. She braces herself for a good scolding but he doesn’t say anything at all. Somehow this is so much worse. She clears her throat, “father.”
“Don’t call me that.”
The lump in her throat grows, swelling until she can barely breathe. “I can fix this.”
His expression says it all. She has made a perfect fool of she and him both. He wants nothing to do with she and her baby. He simply lifts his arms and slides the sheets of paper that were underneath them over to her. She picks them up and looks them over, they are printouts from various online newspapers.
Now that she has seen the headlines she is grateful that she had been too busy fretting over appointments to seek them out and pay them any mind at all. Surely there are article that lament her departure, sympathize with her, or wish her a safe pregnancy. But the ones that Ozai has selected for her to read are brutal and merciless; ‘Blue Talon to Enter a New, More Creative Era Following Departure of Lead Vocalist’, Blue Talon Vocalist Lets Down Fans’. ‘Disappointing News: What Losing Their Vocalist Means for Blue Talon and Audio of Agni.’ The ones addressing her pregnancy are worse still; ‘Tour Bus Sex: Blue Talon Vocalist Pregnant’. They quite bluntly imply that she is slut, that she is easy all the while they try to speculate who the father is.
There is an interview with her former bandmates. She only needs to read Chan’s denial of being the father to decide that the article isn’t worth reading.It is teeming with lies and stirs the rumors. And she has missed her window of merit; to tell her side with some scrap of believability.
Chan has ruined her and she thinks that he probably knows it.
She supposes that it is better her than him in his mind.
She can’t say that she wouldn’t do him the same if the roles could be somehow swapped.
She looks up from the printouts. She opens her mouth but she doesn’t trust herself to speak without choking up or sobbing.
She waits for Ozai to begin yelling. She practically yearns for it as the silence drags on.
“I finished reading them.” She manages finally. Maybe now he will begin his tirade, now that she has a full understanding of how disgraceful she is, he will elaborate. He still holds his tongue. She shifts in her chair, absently and nervously rubbing circles on her belly.
He reaches for his bottle and takes a swig, he refuses to look up from his phone. But he finally speaks, “get out.” He noisily clatters the bottle against the table top.
She swallows. She must have misheard him. He wouldn’t just kick her out without a discussion. “What?”
“Get out of my sight.” He says it with such finality that she can only rise shakily to her feet and hope that Seicho will answer her phone. Her mouth is dry and her fingers shake as she punches Seicho’s number into her phone. She can barely see the numbers with her eyes as misty as they are.
She makes her way to her room and tosses her favorite clothes into a suitcase alongside her microphones and critical recording equipment. She takes her comb, her toothbrush, a bar of soap. Her fingers hover over her first musical award and her invite to Audio of Agni. She retracts her hand, they will only take up necessary space in her suitcase.
Upon gathering everything that she needs, she drops onto Ozai’s recliner and sits there, shaking, until she sees the headlights through her window.
“What’s going on?”
Azula shakes her head. She isn’t sure where Seicho is taking her, she isn’t sure that Seicho knows where she is driving to. Right now she is just driving. Right now Azula wants to just drive. Right now Azula wants her to drive into a lake.
“Are you alright?”
She is anything but.
“Please tell me what happened.”
“He...he told me to leave.”
“Like, just for tonight, or…”
“He doesn’t want me back.”
And Seicho’s parents want nothing to do with her. They want their daughter to have nothing to do with an influence so negative; with the sort of tramp who would find herself knocked up at sixteen.
Despite scathing protest from Seicho, they evict her from their daughter’s car. She finds herself wandering down the streets, suitcase in hand. She finds herself a park bench, the metal is too cold for sleep but she can’t imagine herself getting any anyhow.
She opens her phone; Seicho is already apologizing profusely, making promises to find a way to see her. Right now she doesn’t have the optimism to believe that she will be able. She scrolls through the names on her phone; Chan, Father, Mai, Mother, Ruon, Seicho, Tylee, Uncle…
She scrolls all the way to the bottom, her finger hovered over Zuko’s number. She can’t bring herself to enter it.
She can’t think of anything else to do so she decides to return Zhao’s call. Maybe he can help her work out how to salvage her musical career and her reputation. She finds that he can do no such thing; he is no miracle worker. She needs a miracle worker but she will settle for a samaritan.
It isn’t ideal by any means, but she doesn’t see any other options so when his car pulls up she gets in. Her head is dizzy with many scenarios, many unsavory possibilities. She braces herself to just deal with them, take whatever ugly things life throws at her.
Of all of the dark stories she has written in her head, she could have never anticipated what did happen; she is greeted by three children and a rather plump woman with gentle eyes and a warm smile to match. She kisses Zhao’s cheek and welcomes him back home as his children fuss about at his feet. “Misaki, this is Azula. She is going to stay with us.”
She is so inexplicably relieved that the worst discomfort that Zhao gives her is informing her that her options are the floor or the sofa.
__________
While they get better, she gets worse.
Blue Talon rises and Azula falls.
They rise on her material, on her story, on her hardwork and soul.
She doesn’t know why she has taken to keeping such close tabs on Blue Talon. There is nothing to be gained from watching each new live performance. Nothing to be gained from stalking about their social media and viewing their announcements about introducing a brand new sound.
Nothing to be gained but more self loathing, a heavier heart, and a renewed hatred of her former friends. She can’t even be sure if she can call them that; were they ever her friends, they would have the decency to stop performing songs about her abuse. Bad split or not, they can afford her the respect of not letting Ruon sing her story, her pains.
It is a mockery, a hollow rendering of the person wrapped in those lyrics. Really there is nothing she can do; though it is fully hers, Blue Talon has the right to those lyrics, to that story. She doesn’t have the legal backing or the funds to take them back.
Azula supposes that she shouldn’t be surprised, she doesn’t have the ability to reclaim the story she has yet to tell either.
And so she clicks the next link.
She does this for hours, an endless stream of mindless scrolling. Her only comfort comes in the form of radio silence from From Ashes To Phoenix. An arrest and then total silence is never a good sign. At least she is not alone in her failure. At least it, like most sufferings, is a family activity but without the bonding that could make it worthwhile.
Late in the night, she shuts the computer down. She drags herself to her suitcase and finds herself a pair of pajamas. She curses herself for--in her moment of distress--forgetting to make sure that she grabbed pajamas that would fit.
It is an extra kick when she needs it the least to find that she has packed only one set of pajamas designed for pregnancy and only a few accommodating day clothes. She sinks to her knees and grips the sides of her head, nails digging into her hairline--it is just one impulse disaster after another, ranging from minor to major.
She’ll deal with the awkwardness of asking Zhao’s wife to take her shopping or borrow clothes in the morning. She slips out of her day clothing and into the pajamas, they are just snug enough to let her know that these pajamas she had brought during month four.
She lays herself down on the couch.
Agni, she wishes that they didn’t have a mirror hanging across the room from it.
Now that her eyes are locked on her reflection, she thinks that it would have been infinitely healthier to have kept her eyes fixed on the computer screen. It is so much better to hate her old bandmates than it is to hate herself.
Her life is a mess and her entire being reflects it. In her life she has never looked so dreadful. Her hair is such a mess--she hasn’t bothered with it in several days--it frames a face that seems swollen and puffy to her. Her entire person seems swollen, no doubt, the result of eating for two. She wraps her hands around her middle only to be dismayed by the way her shirt stretches over her chest. It doesn’t feel right and her only comfort comes from the knowing that the occasional tenderness in that area has already reached a peak and subsided.
She should tear her eyes away from the glass but they have already locked on patches of discolored skin. She furrows her brows, unsure if this is normal. She supposes that, that is just one more uncomfortable question that she will have to ask Zhao’s wife. Each and every one of her birthmarks and freckles seem to have darkened as well.
To some degree, she has trouble recognizing the haggard person who stares back at her as herself. She could reach out her hand but she doesn’t want the extra confirmation.
But worse than her bump, her softened face, her swollen chest, and those unsightly discolorations is the inky blue dragon curling around her bicep. Its blue talon stretches out to remind her of what she no longer has. She brushes her fingers over it, with a sudden impulse to claw it away. To rake her nails across her skin until scar tissue engulfs the whole of the inkwork.
She resists the impulse and swaps it for another.
She punches Seicho’s number into the phone and screams at her until her voice goes raw and her mind numb to the point where she can’t even remember what she had said. She knows that at least part of it had to do with yelling at the girl for tattooing her with no questions asked.
Lucidity only comes back in with a slap when Seicho, tearfully from the sound of it, shouts, “my parents were right about you!” The line goes dead before she can even begin to explain why she’d called in the first place. Before she could even try to articulate some sort of apology.
In that one end call tone, she knows that she has no one left.
No one and nothing.
#Avatar The Last Airbender#2021atlasummerevent#Azula#Zuko#Azula/Background Character#Mai#Maiko#Fanfiction
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Sunburn [Prince Zuko] 7
Warnings: None
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Zuko/OC
Summary: “You have everything you’ve ever wanted.” “No.” He said softly. “Not everything…” His golden eyes looked at her with a melting intensity she had never witnessed before. “I guess not.” She responded with glassy eyes as tears welled up threatening to break the dam of her eyes.
My fanfiction: M A S T E R L I S T
Feeling smug about the events at the abbey and riding that beast around the land Tsai decided to go for a walk to clear her head.
Should she have done more to capture the Avatar?
It would've been wrong to steal Zuko's glory. After all he had made capturing the Avatar his life's mission and who was she to try and take that away from him? And then he always said that she only got in the way. This thought irked her to no end. 'If only he knew,' a cocky smirk made way to her face.
xxx
'Again!' Her grandfather had once said to her.
'But grandpa! I'm so tired. We've been practicing all day the nine year old dropped to her knees exhausted. 'Mecha doesn't even have train half as much as I do with his fire bending.'
He looked at her with hard brown eyes.
'Mecha can afford to be weak. He has the gift of fire bending and I'm afraid you don't.' She lowered her light brown eyes sadly. 'You're always going to work twice as hard for everything that you want Tsai. Both as a woman and as a non-bender.' He explained.
He took in a deep breath before the older man took a fighting stance. The man was about to bark again but instead changed his mind. 'Come with me,' he had said turning away calmly instructing his grand daughter to follow. 'I want to give you something.'
xxx
The girl toyed with the choker sunstone necklace around her neck. He had given it to her that day and she had seldom taken it off. Her grandfather had said it had once belonged to her grandmother. An elegant lady from the Fire Nation whom Tsai had never met since she passed the day in which she was born. Her grandfather rarely spoke about her, she always assumed the memory was too painful for the man. However, in family portraits and paintings she had seen that they both shared the indistinguishably blazing red hair.
Zuko had been terribly rude to her the day before so he deserved to suffer out his paralysis for a little while longer. She did not want to be around by the time that June awoke and face her wrath and she had the feeling that Iroh was in a heavenly bliss with the beautiful woman laying on him. And so she traveled the local market and took her sweet time buying rare herbs, tea and even some local perfumes and lotions as souvenirs for her family.
She took her sweet time, even pulling her wrist to her nose every once in a while to enjoy the scent of her new perfume. However, as she attempted to steer her thoughts clear she kept on flashbacking to the Avatar's expression as their eyes met across the abbey. She still hadn't figured how to interpret that. The Avatar, he was a symbol for equality. Maybe just maybe he would be able to help her bring some peace to her nation... Would she be considered an aid to him? Letting him go like that? She would've become a blood traitor to not only her family but to her nation. The daughter of the Vice-Royal Governor a traitor to her own people- she shook her head not even wanting to think of the royal chaos that would be.
She still debated if she had done the right or wrong decision in not fighting the Airbender. There was something about it that bothered her to no end.
The sun was setting by the time that Tsai arrived on the ship. She arrived just in time to see the soldiers stepping out.
"We're going to the local market for some supplies," explained the cook. "While the mechanics check the ship engine and make sure everything is well functioning." Not giving it much mind the girl nodded and walked in. "Also-" Added the lieutenant. "This arrived for you," he said handing her a scroll that arrived with one of the ship's fire hawks.
It had to be from Mecha! She grinned broadly and leaned against the one of the ship's walls cooly as she unwrapped the scroll snacking on some mixed nuts she had gotten at the market.
Her heart stopped and a nut went the wrong way when she read the words that her brother had writte. She beat her chest in an effort to lodge it out of place and gasped at the attached paper he sent.
It was a WANTED - REWARD poster with her face plastered on it.
The charges were the following: obstruction of justice, breaking in entering restricted military premises and being an accomplice and aiding of enemies of the Fire Nation. Under the information was a very well descript drawing of her.
Names: Unknown, alias "Haru".
'Tsai,
Tell me why my sister 's face is on a wanted poster and goes by the alias of "Haru?"
This is either the coolest of the dumbest thing you have ever done. (Know that I am having it framed and hanged in my room). I have been hiding the posters from mom and dad and the rest of You Dao but it won't be long before somebody realizes that it is you and identifies you. I'm afraid you can't get very far with that bloody hair color of yours my dearest sister.
A traitor to the nation huh? Just what are you doing in that boat with the banished prince and his uncle?
I have been taking care of all of your governing duties, so do not worry about that. Baku, Moss and Ana send their helloes. It's been nice getting to know some of your friends.
(Mother keeps asking if we should plan a Royal wedding- ignore that. (She insisted that I wrote that.) I had to remind her that you are ONLY just sixteen.)'
She rapidly flipped the page of the scroll and read his inked words in the back.
'And in regards of the Avatar.' He began.
'I wish I could just ship the library to you. But after extensive research I'm afraid I didn't find much. I mean why would there be any texts about the Avatar in the Fire Nation colonies to begin with?
However, here is what I can tell you. Air benders are particularly skilled in defensive techniques. They were known to be peaceful people, have mainly vegetarian diets, their leadership was guided by monks- they are known to be fast and easy on their feet. One hasn't been seen in more than a hundred years. Also apparently they were famous for their custard pies.
In regards of the Avatar- His last life was Avatar Roku born in the Fire Nation, the next will be born a water bender. You see the Avatar follows a cycle. Fire, Air, Water and Earth. It follows this cycle over and over again and must master the elements in that order. In this case it's going to be Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Get what I mean?
I hope I was of help. I miss you Tsai. Please be safe. Do not make me worry. I don't know how much dad can do to pardon you if you get into too much trouble.
Be safe, please.
If you're getting in trouble... I hope it's worth it.
- Mecha'
The nuts slipped off her hand and spilled all over the floor. She ran inside of the Captain cabin on the deck's floor where she knew that all of the maps and Avatar information was being kept. She pointed a finger at it and lightly traced the map with her finger. It seemed as if Zuko had been following the Avatar's trail all the way from the Southern Water Tribe up north. He had been traveling north for some months now and simply seemed to be climbing higher and higher in the map. It was then that the realization hit her like a ton of bricks.
"He's going to the Northern Water Tribe," she breathed her finger landed on the icy north pole. It made sense. The Avatar had already mastered air, he had to master water now if he wanted to advance to the next element.
"He's going to the water tribe," she repeated again almost in disbelief. She had figured it out. Her grip tightened around the letter her brother had sent. Dropping the goods she had bought she sprinted outside and tore the letter into the ocean. She leaned over the rail her eyes following the bits and pieces of paper that drifted down to the black waters and vanished into the darkness of the sea.
She had to get out of here. And fast. Before Admiral Zhao's men came to lock her up and collect their reward. She felt that Zuko wouldn't hesitate in fingering her over to the Fire Nation authorities. He'd be more than glad to have her of his ship! What if they got in trouble? What if her family got in trouble?
She had done a grave mistake. Feeling her anxiety churning in her stomach she quickly turned around ready to gather her belongings and leave but suddenly stopped in her way. Prince Zuko was standing a few feet away on the ship's deck and he did not look happy. He wore his hair up, his eyes appeared to glow with the sun which was setting behind them. It took her a moment to realize that he wasn't only unhappy, he was fuming, absolutely and completely livid.
"You!" He snarled out. He stomped towards her. "You had him in front of you and you let him go!" He put his hands on her and shoved her in a provocative matter.
"What are you talking about?" She scoffed back pushing his hands of her person.
"The Avatar!" The other roared. "He spoke to you! You had him in front of you and you let him go!" He raged.
In Zuko's eyes this was the greatest betrayal. She had had the opportunity to capture his honor. To help him. To for once to help him reach his ultimate goal and she didn't. Instead she stood there and conversed with the enemy. She was a snake. A beautiful venomous red snake that would slowly consume him.
"How could you do this to me?!" His voice cracked and he shuffled uncomfortably at the crack of his emotions.
"How could I do this?" She raised an eyebrow confused. "What did you want me to do? Knock him out with my bare hands?," She once again scoffed at his ridiculous suggestion with heavy sarcasm. "I guess I just didn't want to "Get in your way,"" She said nastily before brushing past him brushing past his shoulder as she passed him.
She didn't see it. The rage and anger that was boiling inside of him like a volcano ready to explore.
"Agni Kai! You and Me. Now!" He demanded, his voice hard and void of emotion. She looked over her shoulder and huffed before shaking her head.
"You can't do that," she turned once again granting him her full attention. Her eyes momentarily drifted to the dock. Just where was Iroh? Or anybody else? SOMEBODY that could intervene.
"Now!" He roared once again.
"You're insane," she said eyes blowing wide with a blend of shock and fear. "You've gone mad. I'm not like my brother. I can't bend fire."
It was then that he walked towards the nearby wall and grabbed a broom that was leaning against the wall. With one swift movement he split it into two breaking it over his knee.
"Who said anything about fire?" He said raising up he a half of the broom in one hand and aggressively thrusting it in her direction. She shifted her body dodging it and looked at him perplexed before he threw the other half at her, the half with the hay sticks at the end that was functional for sweeping. She barely caught it and held it awkwardly between her hands.
She was beginning to regret ever coming abroad this ship. This was a huge mistake. Coming on this trip. It was then that he charged towards her, and now Zuko was going to make a roasted kabob out of her.
"I am not going to fight you!" She protested as she dodged his swift attacks. She blocked another with her makeshift broom sword. "Zuko stop!" She pleaded.
He attacked again. "Good reflexes, "he complimented the slightest grin on his face.
"I'm trying my best," she struggled but failed to hide the odd smirk that was also growing on her features.
It was finally that with a handful of clever hits and swats he whipped the wooden sword out of her hands. Her back was pressed against the deck's railing she was cornered and heaving. Sweat slid down her temple from the strain of fighting him. He presently had the wooden stick directly pointed at her throat.
It was almost night now. With the sun glowing an orange light and the clouds turning shades of pink, lavender and dark purple.
"I said, I wasn't going to fight, and there's no honor in winning a one sided battle." She appeared distraught as she looked down at the pointy end of his 'weapon'.
He wanted to push her to the edge. He wanted to see that darkness he knew she was hiding beneath the layers of poise and properness that she carried herself with. He wanted to know who was that vicious person he found skulking around the Pohuai Stronghold. He had to know what she was hiding - all of her vile secrets.
"Ever since you arrived on my ship you have been nothing but a pest! You are irritating! You distract my Uncle and I can't stand you." He took a deep breath. "What do you want?" He demanded inching the stick dramatically. She remained silent, only looking at him with horrified eyes. "What do you want? Why are you really here?" He shouted his voice getting rougher and louder with each sentence He tossed the broom stick to the side and his hands pried themselves to her upper arms as he held her in place. "Why are you-"
This. It was just like that other night. She knew that Zuko had many inner and outer demons to fight, but would he actually hurt her? She wanted to slap herself for letting out a vulnerable whimper as his voice became more stern. He saw her eyes become large as they welled with tears. "Why are you-" His voice was softer now, almost a whisper. The strong grip on her arms became more gentle.
Zuko hated this part of himself. The instinctual one that reminded him of his father. The one that made his blood go and his temper fly in an uncontrollable rage which had been feed by years of mental and physical abuse. For a split second he saw himself in her eyes. And then it happened- He saw the shift in her poise as her eyes darkened with ill intent. Her hand jolted forward fisting the neckline of his armor just like she had done that fateful night of the Blue Spirit. She pulled him close, so close to her that she could see drops of honey being reflected in her eyes.
"Listen," she managed to utter in a menacing tone. He silenced her threat by kissing her.
Tsai felt as if a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on her. Her grip on his armor weakened, she attempted to inch back but was caught between the railing and his body. His kiss was soft, gentle, almost shy. She had not expected it to be like this. She wasn't expecting to feel a full body chill and a fire stir in the core of her stomach. It took her a full moment to react and with a hand flat against his chest she pushed him back, keeping him at arms length. Her eyes wide, her expression unreadable.
He turned away before she could speak. What had he done?
What had she done?
"Zuko!" She reached for his arm and held it. "Wait!" She held him back. He pulled his arm back and glared at her. His eyes filled with hurt and rejection. For a moment she had forgotten all about the anger, about the fight, about their agni kai and honor. The wanted poster and her plan to run away.
"I'm....confused," she admitted.
His expression remained stoic, lips drawn into a thin line as he remained silent. "You always remind me how you want me off your ship. You repeatedly address me as a pest. I thought you hated me- and now you- you kiss me?"
"Why don't you make your rejection less painful and just tell me it's never going to happen?" He snapped.
He was presently beating himself up for what he had just done. Unsure of his uncontrollable emotions. He regretted it so much. There was no way that a girl like Tsai would ever be interested in somebody like him. Specially somebody as hideous and temperamental. A banished prince with an obvious facial deformity. A beast. It was impossible.
"It.. It's not that," she admitted shyly. Her face glowing with a tint of a red blush.
He could not believe it. He felt her hand reach for his and hold it. He marveled at how perfectly it fit against it. Her fingers tucked in between his. He held it tightly, proudly. Not knowing when he would miss the absence of her heat.
"I've seen good in you Zuko. I've seen compassion, I've seen empathy," she stepped closer. "I know there's goodness in you and it's not only because of your many redeemable qualities," she spoke tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She gave a step closer to him.
"But you are also troubled, you're obsessive, and very rude towards your loving uncle, towards me, and let's not forget my family, which is something I cannot forgive." She leaned in close and he flinched slightly when she gently placed her hand on his cheek, leaned in and kissed his scarred face lightly. He felt as if he had been brushed with a rose's petal.
"What you're saying is, you can't be with me until I've regained my honor." he gave a step back.
"No," she sighed feeling a growing frustration. This is exactly what she was talking about. It was always about honor and the Avatar and redemption with him.
"I can't be with you until you are a changed man," a light breeze blew by and she let go of his hand. He clenched it empty, being more than aware of the coldness of it.
"You need to fight your inner demons and- that's only something you can do. I will only get in the way."
"Goodnight Prince Zuko," she whispered before leaving.
xxx
AN: D-D-Damnnnnnn Finally we are getting some fiyahhhhhh burning up in here! I just wanted to say that I do not support abusive relationships and let's be real Zuko is a total prick in Book 1. Also I wouldn't let Tsai be with him with (not with that attitude at least (and don't even get me started on that haircut (the ponytail? Really?))) all the growth and development he still has to go. This idea seemed a little unrealistic to me. Both still have a long way to go!
Thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think!
xxxx
FIRST https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/621142853126602752/sunburn-prince-zuko-1
NEXT https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/621256367939993600/sunburn-prince-zuko-8
PREV https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/621233046237184000/sunburn-prince-zuko-6
CHAPTER MASTERLIST
#prince zuko#zukoxreader#Zuko x oc#Zuko x you#zuko#oc#avatar#avatar the last airbender#avatar fanfic#avatar x oc#avatar fanfiction#fanfiction#fan fiction#katara#sokka#toph#aang#iroh
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Shame and Necessity* (an ATLA ficlet)
Zuko instinctively rose with the sun. It had not always been that way, but his training in the techniques of firebending had made him as attuned to the movement of the sun as he was to the rhythms of his own body, feeling its presence or absence as he felt satiety or hunger, alertness or fatigue.
Part of teaching Aang to be a firebender was instilling in him this same attunement to the source of their power. But until he attained it himself, that meant that Zuko had to force him to wake up at sunrise to do breathing exercises and basic forms and to feel how his power waxed as the sun climbed into the sky.
But because the rest of the temporary inhabitants of the Western Air Temple saw no reason why they should also wake at the sweaty asscrack of dawn (Toph’s expression), it was agreed that the firebending master and his pupil should take quarters at some distance from the rooms where the rest of the party slept, so that whatever measures Zuko needed to take to roust Aang out of bed would not wake the whole camp. The one exception was Katara, who mistrusted Zuko even more than she hated morning. She chose a room near Aang’s so that she would be able to hear if anything was amiss. This meant that she was also woken by Zuko’s hammering on Aang’s door and drill-sergeant yelling at his trainee to shift himself, Aang’s panicked “Yes, Sifu Hotman!”, and Zuko’s near-daily “Stop calling me that!” (punctuating expletive optional). She usually went back to sleep for an hour or so, then rose before the rest of the camp to start preparing breakfast, keeping Aang and Zuko within her line of sight.
It was a week since Aang and Zuko had returned from their journey to find the Sun Warriors. That morning Zuko had already pounded on Aang’s door and received an assurance that he was awake and would be out shortly, but almost ten minutes later, Aang’s door was still closed. So Zuko barged into his student’s room, shouting, “Aang, what’s taking so long, we’re wasting dayligh--- oh.”
He had expected to find Aang still in bed, or else dawdling about getting dressed. But instead he was seated at the little dressing table with a washbasin, shaving his head. His head stayed smooth enough that he must have been shaving it every day, but usually at a different time of day, because Zuko had never caught him at it first thing in the morning.
“Sorry,” Aang said, not stopping the practiced movement of the razor in long stripes up his scalp. “I’ll be done soon.”
“It’s fine,” Zuko mumbled, already turning back toward the door. “I’ll wait outside.”
“You can stay. I won’t be long.”
“I don’t -- I don’t want to intrude,” Zuko said, looking away.
Aang paused. “You’re not.” He gave Zuko a long, assessing look. “Something can be sacred and important without necessarily being private,” he said at last.
There was another pause. “It’s a last connection with your people, their traditions,” Zuko said, still not looking up. “I’m the great-grandson of the man who...” He trailed off.
“That’s not your fault,” Aang said steadily, firmly. Zuko finally raised his head to meet his gaze before he turned his eyes aside again.
“You used to do this, too,” Aang remarked. “When I first met you. Was that a tradition of your people, too?”
Zuko gave a short, humorless chuckle. “At first? No. The hair had to be shaved off the left side of my head to treat the burn -- what hadn’t already burned off, that is. After that, I shaved the rest for symmetry -- and kept doing it as a mark of my shame. But I kept the tail as a sign of the nobility I had lost, and hoped to win back. When Azula made clear that my father would not welcome me back, I cut off the tail and let the rest grow out... to blend in in the Earth Kingdom, yes, but also to acknowledge that what I had to be ashamed of, and what I could still hope for, weren’t what I had thought they were.” He paused again, then with another humorless laugh added, “I wasn’t sure the hair would grow back. I guess I got lucky.”
Another pause, a look that went right past Aang and through the wall behind him. Aang waited patiently for him to continue. Abruptly he said, seeming to address whatever or whoever his gaze was fixed on behind the wall, “I don’t even remember what the pain felt like... not with any specificity. But I remember the smell of my hair burning. And my face, like...” He caught himself and stopped. “Sorry,” he said, returning to the present moment. “You’re a vegetarian, aren’t you?”
Aang filled in the train of thought that had led to that apparent non sequitur and his stomach turned. “Raava have mercy...” he breathed.
“Who’s Raava?” Zuko asked, frowning.
“I don’t know,” Aang admitted. “It’s just something the monks used to say.”
“Ah.” Zuko looked down again, in guilt or shame.
“Can you tell me what happened? How you were burned?” Aang asked gently.
“I ---” Zuko opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Not yet,” he said. Then a quick self-correction in a sharper tone: “Not now. We’re still wasting daylight. Stories about our troubled pasts can wait until after dark.”
Aang knew Zuko’s explanation for the delay wasn’t completely honest, but he took it as a not-quite-promise to tell him -- not tonight, not tomorrow night, but at some point. And the reference to “our troubled pasts” was a subtle indication of reciprocal curiosity: he wanted to know about Aang’s old life in the Air Temple, to understand what his ancestor and his nation had destroyed.
“Finish with that and meet me outside in two minutes,” Zuko barked. “I’ll be counting, and every second you’re late will cost you another hot squat.”
“Yes, sir, Sifu Hotman, sir!” Aang gave Zuko a strange version of a Fire Nation military salute, which was probably not only a century out of date, but also incorrect even for last century. Today Zuko just responded with a long-suffering sigh.
* I’m only calling it that because I went to a talk about Bernard Williams today, and he wrote a book called Shame and Necessity (which is actually a joke about another famous lecture series-turned-book, Saul Kripke’s Naming and Necessity). I decided not to go with the more obvious stupid jokes, including “Water, earth, fire, hair” and “Hair Nomads.” You’re welcome.
#i'm back on my bullshit#atla ficlet#zukaang brotp#conversations about hair#zukaang#platonic zukaang#aang and zuko#atla#avatar the last airbender#warning: graphic descriptions of violence
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Alright gang I got two rounds of next gen kids done, let's move onto the ones who names I struggled the most with. The previous two posts can be found here and here, showing Zuko and Kataras family, and Sokka and Sukis families, respectively. So, here's the next family on the list:
Taang Kids
Jai Bei Fong is the eldest child of Avatar Aang and Toph Bei Fong. An Earthbender trained in the art of Metalbending by his mother, he has been requested numerous times to take over her school by others. He has simply refuted numrrous times that those running it now are more than capable and prefers to keep to a more minor teaching role in coaching. He has become a Pro Bender instead and has become a part of a very famous team -- and boy does he love to showboat, even if just a little. He does coach minor league and junior teams. He uses a lot of his jovial cockiness for the purpose of getting people to underestimate him and his skills, and to aggravate his opponents to cause them to mess up so he can strike at the perfect time. He has, however, been dealing with a lot of frustration in his own personal life with relationships that never seem to lead anywhere, the struggles of a single father and feeling a responsibility to try and help his family more with his own father gone and them all being...not really about it. Jai is considered the most handsome between him and his brother, with styled black (greying) hair, green eyes and fair skin with his fair share of scarring from fighting. He chooses to wear a lot of darker greens and silvers to match his metal, always wearing a metal cuff with him presented to him from his wife.
Jai lost his wife Reilah a mere few years sgo but it has felt like an eternity without her. She was his biggest supporter in his matches...and a bit of a rival for him, as they had been Pro Benders on separate teams. They always made playful bets on what would happen if one lost -- and one of those times he used to propose to her. He still lost that fight, but she told him that she wouls have said yes regardless. She was mischievous and free spirited, and a little hotheaded. But she was a very formidable Firebender who picked up some tips to better her bending from her in laws. Her career, however, would be cut after she fell ill. Her illness spread slowly and try as they might, there was no permanent solution to heal her and she eventually succumbed to it, breaking his and their daughters hearts. She had short dark brown hair, piercing golden eyes and tanned skin and had an intricate tattoo sleeve that included Jais name and their daughters name.
He has tried to find love again after her, as that was something she was very poignant on. "Don't you dare try and shut your heart off. Don't swear off finding someone who can make you happy. Or I'm coming back and lighting a fire under your ass." But, so far, all of those attempts have failed, either because of a lack of chemistry between the two and from rifts between his daughter and some of his potential girlfriends.
Their only child is named Anzu. She is a rough and tumble, bright eyed Earthbender who has her Dad wrapped around her finger, especially after the loss of her mother. She struggles connecting her extended family, however, as it feels like they all grew apart way back when, but she idolizes her Grandma and Toph is rather close to her as well. She's been struggling to learn Metalbending, but she's stubborn and does not want to give it up. She's also very adventurous, loving every "life changing field trip" she and her Dad go on, and has a collection of various souvenirs on a shelf in her room. She's on her own Pro Bender team that she's currently struggling to whip into shape and has been dealing with that stress on top of trying to be happy for her dad finding love again...but with the ones he brings home constantly trying to replace her Mom. Anzu has shoulder length black hair that she keeps in a messy ponytail, gold-green hazel eyes, and tan skin.
Nyima Bei Fong is the second born child of Aang and Toph. A skilled Earthbender who found herself drawn to the art of Sandbending as well as Metalbending, she has pushed herself to make her own lot in life. She has opened her own resorts across the Earth Kingdom, and one that'll be opening on Ember Island soon. She has wanted to open one close to one of the Air Temples as a way to find a reconnection with her Dad, but her sisters are absolutely against it. She's a very business savy woman who also wants to expand into other new horizons. She's also a complete smartass and doesn't take anyone's nonsense. In her youth, she, like her sisters, was very vocal in reformation to make better changes across all four nations and Republic City, and she was always the most ready to go full out for a cause, even if it stressed both of her parents out. She's claimed she's held herself to a higher standard in recent years and wants to find success while creating a relaxing environment for everyone. Though, if you press the right buttons, her old streak may come out. She's got short, curled black hair, grey eyes and fair skin, and wears muted colors that's topped off with a colorful, stylish scarf.
She has been in an on/off relationship with her childhood romance, Bo. The two have been almost married on four separate occasions, but things have always put a stop to it -- usually things started by Nyima and what people have suggested could be a fear of commitment. Bo is a good humored, free spirited boy raised in the Air Acolytes by his father Teo and has always had a passion for romance and making a positive change in the world. And he's always been able to pull her old spirit out of her when she needs it. He has medium length brown hair with some pulled back in a ponytail, grey-brown eyes and fair skin.
Their eldest child is their daughter Jesa. She is a happy go lucky girl who is very close to her Dad and trying to develop a closer relationship with her Mom, but sometimes feels like she can be too busy and lost a sense of herself, especially when finding old pictures of how her Mom used to be. The two have gotten a bit of a closer bond upon the discovery that she is an Airbender, like her Grandfather before her, though it's lead to even more tension between her parents and aunts who have polar oppositr ideas as to what Jesas' furure should be. She wants to define her own future, like her Mother did for herself and how her Grandmother did. Her best friend in the world is Lian, who she's always felt a big connection to. And after she finds out she's the Avatar...it leads to a whole new world of adventure. She has long dark brown hair, grey-green eyes and fair skin and she wears bright colors, namely golds and greens to honor both her heritages and and she wears a headband similar to her Grandmothers.
Their youngest child is their toddler son Bisang. He's a rambunctious little boy who loves wandering around the resorts and getting to be strapped up in a baby sling while his Dad air glides through the air. He knows no fear and loves to be unabashedly himself. He also is a bit of Mamas boy and clings to her and has been showing promising signs of being an Earthbender.
Tophs final pregnancy shockingly resulted in the birth of triplets. The eldest of three being Hien Bei Fong. A gifted Airbender, she was the first to get her Airbending tattoos after mastering the 37 levels of the practice and it's something she holds in great reverence. She has since gone on to become a leader amongst the reborn nation of Air Nomads and sits among the council, residing on Air Temple Island in Republic City. She works with the newest wave of Airbenders to teach them the old ways and do what she can to revitalize the culture her father almost lost. She was once far more free spirited as a teenager and even though she was a very loud advocate for change, she could find when she could relax and enjoy life. Now her top priority is the politics to keep the balance and to preserve history in the name of her Father -- something that has put a strain between her and Toph, who reminds her that Aang wanted her to be her own person and to have fun. She keeps her bangs shaved off to show her arrows, and the rest of her black hair pulled into a side braid, and has piercing grey eyes, and many remark her glare reminds them of an owl.
Hien has no spouse and prefers not to find someone to be married to. She actually used to date a lot in her youth, but as the years have gone by, she does not want to settle down with someone, feeling they'd never be able to selflessly love all of her and her responsibilities, nor could she do the same.
She does, however, have two children of her own from very brief, unknown relationships.
Her eldest child is probably the eldest out of all of the next generation, her daughter Dema. Dema has struck out on her own, away from her mother's strict thumb and rigid traditionalist nature. She ran with a circus for a time after first running away, before finding herself starring in the new and upcoming phenomenon of Movers. Her actress life has landed her a cushy life in Republic City, which has lead to awkward encounters with her mother, but she stands her ground on the decisions she has made for herself. And Toph always tells her "I think you looked amazing in your new film!" And she always laughs along. Currently, Dema is engaged to one of her more frequent costars, a nonbender named Raiden. She has long black hair, with long bangs, dark blue-grey eyes and and olive skin.
Her youngest is her teenaged son Tenki. Tenki is an Airbender wise beyond his years and is an avid bookworm. He's also the most relaxed member of the family and is very go with the flow, and wants to simply travel around, experience the world with his nothing but his books, and maybe rediscover Wan Shi Tongs library. He has a shaved head, having just gotten his arrows and dresses in typical Air Nomad clothes, with a prayer bead necklace on him at all times.
The second born of the triplets is Hayato Bei Fong. Nobody really knows why Hayato always had a chip on his shoulder. Born with the same airbending abilities as his sisters, he found himself struggling with it and his spiritual side, having more of a stubborn, hardheaded side to him. He rejected getting his tattoos and took to heart the idea of going out on your own and making a name for yourself, though it broke Aangs heart when he left after a fight and never fully reconciled with him. A fact that hit harder following Aangs untimely death. Hayato has since gone off to work in his mothers home town of Gaoling to help bring in industry and has been working on his own company to produce automobiles and motorcycles, rathering to focus on making waves towards the future than tapping into the past and to the spiritual side. Now if he could just get his mother to stop trying to drive one of his automobiles... Hayato has shoulder length black hair, usually pulled back into a bun, dark grey eyes and a small scar going through his left brow. He's discarded any bright Air Nomad colorings for blacks, greys, silvers, and dark greens.
Hayato has a husband named Kazu. He's a nonbender, and an author out to publish his own books and also writes news reports as a gig to bring home money. He has a taste for the darker fashion style of his husband and writing about the struggles and triumphs of mankind in a post war world. He has layered black hair, hazel eyes and pale skin.
The two are looking to adopt in the near future!
For now though, they are quite happy with their Crococat, Boots.
Born the last amongst the triplets and the subsequent youngest child, Huuro Bei Fong is her own terror twister of an Airbender. She was the wild child of her siblings, always getting into her own antics and probably the protestor that almost got her and her sisters arrested numerous times in their youth. She gained her tattoos after the creation of her own move. She has since moved to the restored Southern Air Temple and is always causing trouble for the new elders to show the newest generation how to have fun. She's also been known to be quite skilled on the Sungi Horn, much to somes delight...and others dismay. Huuro wants to help the Air Nomads to find fun, lively and searching for new purpose, to establish new traditions and celebrations while acclimating to the modern world. She keeps her black hair long, flowing and down, and her grey eyes always are full of life.
Huuro is here and looking for love around every corner! She wants to find someone who loves life as much as her and wants a life full of new experiences.
#atla#atla ocs#avatar oc#avatar the last airbender#avatar lian#atla oc#avatar ocs#taang#taang kids#avatar#zutara au#atla au#avatar au#toph bei fong#aang
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