#(it started out as a waterbender sokka study of some sort and turned into this hahaha)

[madbalalaika]

Last line written

Thank you so much for tagging me @okthisway!! Sorry it took this long to respond, but I did see your tag right away and didn't forget!

I've recently decided to brush up on my long-forgotten writing skills, but even all the storytelling knowledge I'd been passively accumulating throughout the years couldn't make it any easier to put the words on proverbial paper.

Aghghggh turns out to get better at something, you have to actually do it. Turns out the only way out is through. Unbelievable.

Anyway, speaking of Zukka--

Warning: disgusting tooth-rotting fluff (before this, they were laughing like love-struck madmen in the dead of night)

"Eugh, get a room, you two, I'm gonna puke," they suddenly heard from an open window closest to them, and both flinched so hard they nearly jumped, breaking the hug abruptly. Deep red flush crept up both their cheeks and necks and ears, and after a minute of awkward silence they snickered again, not being able to hold it together. Zuko'd forgotten Toph could normally hear their heartbeats, let alone any louder noises happening almost right behind the wall. He couldn't see her but whispered apologies in her direction anyway, face ready to burst, as Sokka was giggling silently at the side, trying not to wake up the others. Once they'd stopped and caught their breaths, Zuko came closer, still smiling, and traced the outline of Sokka's hot red cheek, planting a quick peck on his lips and making his flush stay and eyes flutter closed. The sight of that made Zuko's guts twist into a tight knot. "The night is lovely," Sokka said, looking only into his eyes. "Wanna stay outside a while?" And Zuko smiled and pressed another, longer kiss to his lips in response.

Tagging (no pressure, of course) @boltlightning, @bluerose5, @beepbeepsan. I'm actually not sure who else to tag, so anybody who sees this is welcome to join! ❤

[su-univeralai]

MAILEE???? AS PARENTS???? Tell us more Su.

Ok, Joy, so I was thinking about this a lot last night, and had originally thought that they would have 3 biological kids, Mai and Ty Lee get different sperm donors. Mai would get pregnant first and have a girl, and then Ty Lee would have twin boys. They would also foster orphans and teach them etiquette and how to defend themselves (but I'm not going to include them since they're only there until they age out of the system with some dope skills, or are adopted)

BUT THEN!!!

I thought.... Ty Lee is 1 or 7 identical sisters WHAT IF instead of having twin boys, she had like quintuplet (5) boys!!! But she gave them all very different names and made them do very different activities so they were their own people, unlike how she felt with her sisters. Of course the five of them would end up forming some sort of group gymnastics team or something so they could spend more time together.

IDK Joy! I'm conflicted on which route I wanna take. I'll lay both groups of kids out for you (and anyone else who's interested) and y'all can help decide which Mai Lee family will make the cut lmao.

Also going to put a cut here because... well this is gonna get looong

Yaisha (F) Firebender, 29: Yaisha is Mai's biological child, yet very much has personality close to her Titi (Ty Lee). She isn't a very skilled firebender when she starts, but cousin Ichika (Azula's daughter), trains her to become a pretty an average bender before heading off to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. She latches onto Kya (steambaby) who is 3 years older than her and they become close like sisters. Seeing that Yaisha isn't the strongest bender, she is also taught dagger throwing, which she excels at like Mama. Although her firebending skills are quite avaerage, she uses them masterfully in the kitchen, specifically as a baker. She ends up marrying an earthbender at some point in the future (I have no other info on this dude yet, sorry lmao) and they settle down in Ba Sing Se and open a pastry shop next to the Jasmine Dragon.

Yaisha is there in both iterations of my idea. The rest of these OCs will be split between Ty Lee having twin earthbending boys (bc her sperm donor was an earthbender) or two firebenders, an earthbender, and two non-bender quintuplets.

Twins:

Siju and Dizai (M) Earthbenders, 27: Siju and Dizai are pretty skilled earthbenders for people who live in the Fire Nation without any proper training. While Yaisha trains at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, the twins are shipped off to train with Toph. The twins get super close with Suyin they become a trio until Su gets sent to Gao Ling to live with her grandparents. Siju is quite a skilled metalbender, but Dizai turns out to be a lavabender. Once they hone their skills, both of them come home to show Mama and Titi their skills. Everyone is very impressed.

Siju stays home and meets a midranking officer in the Fire Navy and they fall in love.

Dizai travels around the world and meets Sokka and Suki's daughter, Alayi. Even though Dizai is 6 years younger than Alayi, the two fall in love and settle in the SWT where Alayi wants to teach the new waterbenders how to master their element. Together, they have two children, an earthbender and a firebender.

Quintuplets:

Jaree (M) Non-Bender, 20: Jaree is a skilled chi blocker like Titi, but is also interested in welding. He becomes the youngest and best-known welder in the world but the age of 15. People come from all over the world to get beautifully designed weapons made by the boy. Jaree makes customized weapons for his Mama and Zaija on a regular basis as 'practice'. When he turns 18, he only does commissions because he enjoyed spending his time with his brothers dancing and messing around.

Zaija (M) Non-Bender, 20: Zaija on the other hand, takes after his Mama and is a skilled thrower. Jaree makes customized throwing stars, daggers, knives, etc for him. They are perfectly balanced and ensures that he never misses his target. when he's not small weapons and going on top secret missions for Shushu Zuko, he writes under the name Wang Fire (courtesy of Sokka). Wang Fire is the best-selling author for teen dramas. Only Sokka knows his secret.

Mozu (M) Firebender, 20: Mozu is an awful combat firebender, but he's very skilled in firebending as a healing art. He studies under the Bhanti sages to learn how to energy read with firebending. From there he learns the power of Reiki and massage therapy to heal people. Mozu and Shain start a healing business together, as Shain is a skilled acupuncturist and acupressurist. In his small amount of free time, he likes to study teas. Eventually, after the quintuplets stop competing, Mozu goes to help Iroh in Ba Sing Se at the tea shop.

Yaro (M) Firebender, 20: Where Mozu could barely fight, Yaro excels. Yaro is sent to the Sun Warriors to learn firebending from Ran and Shaw. After returning, he makes it his life mission to learn how to control the colors of his fire. By 17, he is able to create any color flame he wants. He explores how different things react based on the different temperatures and colors the flames are. Yaro becomes a potter, creating unique bowls, plates, etc for the nobles. He and Jaree open a gallery together to sell their masterpieces.

Shain (M) Earthbender, 20: Shain is the odd man out, being the only earthbender in the family. He is sent to train with Ayi Toph and discovers he's a very skilled metalbender. Between his metalbending abilities and knowledge of muscles and pressure points, Shain creates a better way of doing acupuncture than the experts have done for the past 300 years. Shain spends one season each year in Zaofu with Suyin and Bataar to better his metalbending and teach other metalbenders his acupuncture technique.

The five of them are all super flexible and able to get some height when jumping. They form a gymnastics and dance troupe of the five of them. They compete in the group version of bending dance competitions that Tiao Wu does. He's a big fan of them and is always siked when they let him dance with them.

OK! Here is a much longer than I intended answer to your Mai Lee babies ask. Please let me know what you think and which direction you think I should go because both would be interesting to have.

[that-one--book-nerd]

because i believe in you (zukka)

this was originally posted to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25519252

here’s a zukka thing I wrote! enjoy! :)

Sokka can’t pinpoint the exact moment he started feeling nervous around Zuko. Which is weird, and Sokka can’t figure out what his deal is.

Why would I feel nervous around Zuko? He just went on an insanely dangerous prison-break rescue mission with me? He’s clearly changed and is making actual efforts to be a better person. So why does my stomach start to twist in a not-awful way whenever I’m around him?

Sokka contemplates this the night after the Boiling Rock rescue. Everyone else is asleep, and he’s on his side, watching the fire slowly die out. On the opposite side of the fire lies Zuko, who has started to sleep in the main outdoor area with everyone else rather than hole himself up in his room on warm nights. Sokka shifts onto his other side, so he’s facing out into the forest. When he glances up, he sees the moon.  He always thinks of Yue when he looks at the moon. It used to hurt; he wasn’t able to stand the permanent reminder of one of his all-time worst failures. But over the past few months, as the wound in his heart slowly healed, he found the moon a comforting sight. Sokka was drifting off when suddenly, the weird feeling in his stomach made sense.

Oh, shit, he thinks to himself as his eyes snap open. He quickly turns back around to face Zuko, as if daring his heart to prove him wrong. When his heart speeds up at the sight of Zuko looking more peaceful and young than Sokka had ever seen him—spirits, we’re nearly the same age, aren’t we?—Sokka feels his stomach drop into the center of the earth and his heart leap into his throat.

••••••••••

“You never loved me, huh, Zuko?” Mai asks, her voice so much more emotionless and cold than normal that it sends a chill running up and down Zuko’s spine.

“Mai, no, I’m sorry, I just—it’s not—”

“Not what? Not my fault? Yeah, no shit, Zuko,” Mai snaps. Her arms are crossed. She’s standing over him, he’s tied up in the chair in the interrogation room in the Boiling Rock. He pushes down the tears welling up in his eyes.

“Of course it’s not your fault, Mai. I just…I couldn’t be there any more.” Zuko does his damnedest to not sound like he’s about to cry.

“First your uncle, now me. Which loved one are you going to turn against next, Zuko? Is there even anyone left who would care enough about you?”

“Mai,” Zuko starts, the pit of dread eating through his stomach so slowly yet as fast as Azula’s wit and lightning.

“I doubt it. After all the horrible shit you’ve done, I’m surprised your father ever wanted you back.” She leaned down and looked at Zuko right in the eyes as she continued, “He probably didn’t and just had you return to give off a merciful facade.”

Mai’s words feel like hundreds of thousands of knives cutting into his face and chest. He’s crying in earnest now, gasping for breath against the ropes that seem to tighten around him every second. He’s shaking his head, trying to tell Mai that he’s so, so sorry.

Mai leans down so her face is mere inches away from his. He can feel her breath. He can’t help but look into her eyes. Her eyes, which are full of pain and betrayal and rage.

“Ozai regrets giving you that scar Zuko,” Mai whispers. She grabs a handful of his hair from the back of his head and somehow tugs Zuko and the chair above the ground. She stands up straight and holds Zuko at eye-level. She pulls him close so that she speaks into Zuko’s ear.

“I wish I killed you that day, three years ago. The only decision I’ve ever regretted was letting you live.”

But Mai’s not Mai any more. When she stood, she grew taller. Her facial features grotesquely morphed into that of his father’s. Zuko can feel every single particle in his body shaking with terror.

“How dare you even consider the possibility that I could ever love you? That I could ever care about you? You’re a damned disgrace to your nation and to firebending as a concept. I should have just ended your pathetic and worthless life when you surrendered like the coward you are.”

Suddenly, the room is on fire. The ropes are digging deep into his skin. He can’t escape. And an enormous hand made of flames begins rushing towards his face—

••••••••••

Zuko wakes up crying. He sits up at an unnatural speed, and for a moment, he forgets where he is. He feels like he’s falling into an endless abyss. He shakes his head and lets his eyes adjust to the brightness. Seeing the number of concerned people rush up to him, he remembers where he is.

“Zuko!” Aang calls out, running up to him. “Are you okay?”

Katara, Toph, Suki, and Sokka aren’t far behind. Despite her evident distrust of him, Zuko thinks he sees something that looks like worry etched across Katara’s face. Suki runs at a faster pace as she approaches him.

They were probably all training, Zuko thinks to himself. He doesn’t have the mental space or energy to beat himself up over not being there training with them and helping Aang with firebending, or oversleeping and not gathering supplies they might need.

Zuko furiously wipes his eyes. “I’m fine,” he manages to get out.

“I don’t need my powers to know that you’re lying,” Toph says, kneeling down next to him.

Zuko takes a shaky breath. “It’s just nightmares,” he says. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Aang asks. “It sounded like a really bad one.”

Sokka and Suki kneels down next to him on his other side. Out of the corner of his good eye, Zuko can see Suki slowly raise her hand to place on his shoulder. Instinctively, he tenses up, and Suki’s hand stops before she places it in her lap.

“…It was,” Zuko quietly admits. “They happen all the time. I’m fine. Go back to doing whatever you guys were doing.”

After a few seconds of scanning him with her steely eyes, Katara quietly sighs. In another universe, she’d be an incredible firebender.

“I have some clean water if you need it. You know, to drink, splash on your face, whatever.” She sets her canteen next to him.

“No, thank you,” Zuko says. He’s trying to learn how to accept gifts and kind offers, but he feels like he can’t ask any more of his…friends, he supposes.

Yeah, these people are my friends, he tells himself. He knows it’s true, but it still doesn’t feel real.

“Well, it’ll be on my sleeping bag if you want it.” Katara picks up her canteen and gently tosses it on her makeshift pillow. She doesn’t look back at him. Suki gives him a sympathetic smile before rejoining Katara.

“Well, we’re here for you if you need anything, Zuko,” Aang offers. He follows after Katara, but he keeps glancing back over his shoulder, like he’s worried that if he looks away for too long then Zuko will freak out again. Zuko closes his eyes and counts to ten as he breathes. He tries the calming techniques that Uncle had taught him, but he couldn’t remember if if was inhale for four seconds and exhale for three, or the other way around, or—

“You coming, Sokka?” Aang calls out.

Zuko opens his eyes to find that Sokka didn’t leave with the others; rather he was still sitting next to Zuko, leaning back on his arms and his head tilted slightly to the side, as if he was studying Zuko. When Zuko meets Sokka’s eyes, Sokka blinks and startles and nearly falls over.

“What? Oh, uh, I’m good. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

Katara narrows her eyebrows at Sokka, but Aang just smiles and says “Okay! See ya later, Sokka!” as he cheerfully glides past Katara. Katara finally rejoins the rest of the group after glaring at her brother and the banished prince for what feels like weeks.

For a moment, it’s just Zuko and Sokka. They’re both quiet, both a bit unsure of what they’re doing, until Sokka clears his throat.

“I, uh, I found a clearing not far from the other side of the temple,” Sokka starts as he fidgets with his boomerang holster. “Wanna go practice sword-bending?”

Zuko raises his eyebrows.

“There’s a stream that flows through it, and there’s a small freshwater pond with koi,” Sokka continues.

Is he blushing? Zuko thinks to himself, squinting, trying to get a better look at the exact color of Sokka’s face.

“Okay,” Zuko replies—and immediately mentally kicks himself.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Say something nice, like ‘thank you,’ or…Oh! how about—

“I mean, uh, thank you for the offer. I’d…I’d love to join you. For…sword-bending.”

Sokka’s face lights up and it reminds Zuko of the sun. He feels himself blush and immediately turns away to get his dual-swords. As he’s readying the straps on his sheaths, he forces himself to push down the rising feelings of butterfly-birds in his stomach.

I shouldn’t—no, I can’t—put someone through that again. All I did to Mai was hurt her, I can’t do that to Sokka. He deserves someone better for him…he deserves someone who deserves him.

Zuko tried to nail these ideas into every part of his brain, but the beating of his heart kept causing them to fall and break.

••••••••••

“Okay…can we…take a breather…please?!” Sokka gasps in between his exhausted breathing.

Zuko nods and they collapse onto their backs next to each other, both staring up at the sky. The sun had already made its arc over them and it was just starting to set. They had been training for hours, and they finally decided to rest next to the small pond.

“We should probably start heading back soon,” Zuko suggests. “You sister will get mad.”

“Eh, let her be mad. We were training our bending abilities!”

Zuko raises a single eyebrow.

“‘We’?” he asks

“We’re all sort of benders in a way,” Sokka jokes, turning on his side to face Zuko. “Katara has her waterbending, Aang has his airbending, Toph has her earthbending, you have your firebending, and I—” Sokka pulls out his favorite weapon “—have my boomerang-bending!”

“I thought you said ‘sword-bending’ earlier?” Zuko replies, his mouth curling into a small smile.

“Well, this is my boomerang, and I like the sound of ‘boomerang-bending’ more than I like ‘sword-bending,’” Sokka smirks.

“Nah,” Zuko gently nudges his foot against Sokka’s. “‘Sword-bending’ is catchier.”

“Well, maybe it is, but I like ‘boomerang-bending’ better! Besides, I’m better at boomerang-bending than you’ll ever be,” Sokka says as he nudge’s Zuko’s arm. “I’m a boomerang-bending master!”

Both of them pretend like their casual touches don’t feel like a small electric shock of warmth. Zuko and Sokka both chuckle.

“Well, you’re right about that,” Zuko replies, easing himself up. Sokka also sits up properly, and the two boys face each other.

Zuko looks into Sokka’s eyes for what feels like hours, and Sokka looks into Zuko’s eyes intently, studying them as if they’re the last thing he’ll ever see.

They’ve been subconsciously moving towards each other before Zuko blinks, stops, and clears his throat. Sokka blinks and gives Zuko a quizzical look.

“What’s wrong?” Sokka asks.

“Nothing,” Zuko replies, quickly looking down at his lap and fidgeting with his fingers.

Sokka looks down at the ground and begins drawing swirls in the dirt. He draws (what Zuko can only assume are) boomerangs, waves, and flames.

“I, uh…” Zuko starts, not meeting Sokka’s eyes as the other boy’s head shot up to look at Zuko. “I want to thank you.”

“Oh, no problem. We all need to be training for when the comet arrives. Gotta be on our A-game for taking down the Fire Lord!”

Zuko can’t keep himself from chuckling a little bit.

“That’s not what I wanted to thank you for. And you do realize that when—if—you defeat my father, that either I or my sister will take the throne next?”

Sokka doesn’t miss how Zuko’s voice grows slightly more unsteady as he speaks about the possible future.

“Why wouldn’t you take the throne?”

“Have you met my sister?”

“Fair enough.”

“And even if there was no succession crisis, you guys realize that I’ll be the new Fire Lord, right?”

“Yeah, and what about it?”

Zuko’s ember-golden eyes meets Sokka’s ocean blue ones.

“What do you mean ‘what about it?,’ Sokka?! I can’t be the Fire Lord! I don’t know how to lead an entire nation! Let alone one whose current legacy is that of imperialism, destruction, and genocide! And ending the war that my great-grandfather started? The war that the Fire Nation is currently winning—”

“Well, I’d say we’re almost tied—”

Zuko rolls his eyes.

“The war that’s been going on for a whole century that my whole nation has been in support of for its entire duration! How will it look to my subjects when I end the war that’s been providing them with their entire livelihoods?! I know that they should get new livelihoods—that sounds like something you’d say—” (Sokka nods) “but it’s not that easy! And what about the conquered territories? How can I help them? Will they even want my help? And what about—”

“Hey!”

Sokka interrupts a clearly overwhelmed Zuko by placing his left hand on Zuko’s cheek and his right hand on Zuko’s shoulder. The touch came naturally to Sokka, who’s used to grabbing Katara by the face whenever she gets overworked and needs a clear head. He’s able to tell his right hand to not touch Zuko’s scar, thankfully. He doesn’t fear it, but he doesn’t want to find out from experience if Zuko reacts negatively to other people touching his scar. Sokka stares deep into Zuko’s eyes, which are starting to tear up. Sokka feels his heart crack and it takes every remaining ounce of self control he has to not physically wince at the pain of Zuko crying. Sokka begins rubbing tiny circles into Zuko’s cheek, and Zuko practically leans into the touch as he closes his eyes. Zuko brings his hand up to Sokka’s and places his other hand on Sokka’s knee. He’s not sure if he feels Sokka shiver or his own hands shaking. (It’s both.)

“Hey,” Sokka says again, quieter. Zuko opens his eyes and finds Sokka intently staring at him.

“Look, Zuko, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re, like, already a better Fire Lord than your dad. You clearly care about your people as people and not as a means to an end—that end being like power or whatever. If you carry that attitude with you throughout your reign, you’re going to be the best spirits-damned Fire Lord in the history of all the nations. I know it, Zuko.” Sokka’s voice quiets as he takes a deep breath and finishes with: “I believe in you.”

Zuko thinks about how easy it would be to get lost in Sokka’s eyes, and then realizes that he is lost in Sokka’s eyes.

Sokka isn’t sure what brings him to pull Zuko more towards him, and Zuko doesn’t know why he simply lets himself be pulled, but they both know that this is exactly where they’re supposed to be—together.

Sokka closes the remaining distance between them by pressing his lips against Zuko’s.

Zuko feels himself falling, but this time it’s a good feeling.

Because he knows that somehow, Sokka will catch him.

[chaoticevilbean]

Firebender!Sokka AU

Just a Scene Part 1/?

Pakku and Katara separated from their hug, smiles still firmly in place. Katara opened her mouth to continue their conversation, but snapped it shut as a realization hit her.

“Where’s Sokka,” she asked, her head swiveling to look for the other. Pakku’s brow furrowed as the waterbending master came to the same thought. The boy hadn’t come over, despite his sister’s exclamation at the sight of her old teacher and now grandfather.

“He’s over there, Sugar Queen,” Toph pointed from where she stood by Zuko and Suki. All three seemed at least slightly confused and waiting for some sort of explanation. Katara glanced over at where Toph pointed, seeing her brother speaking with the masters, and strode over to the rest of the team. It would be better to clarify the situation now instead of waiting.

Master Pakku did not walk over to another person. He did not call after his student and granddaughter. He did not move in any way besides turning to face the other adults. His mind was reeling at the sight before him.

Sokka was speaking to Piandao with more respect than the waterbender had ever seen the boy use. He spoke in a similar manner to Jeong Jeong, but he was also looser with the former admiral, occasionally nudging the man on the shoulder in a playful way. Bumi did not receive any formality or the respect he might elicit as a king. Instead, the royal threw his arm around Sokka, and even from his distanced position, Pakku could hear the terrible jokes his colleague was interjecting with. All four of the people were acting friendly with each other, and Sokka fit in with them like the winning move in a game of Pai Sho.

Pakku had heard about the other masters’ experiences with the Avatar and his friends. He had shared his own at the same meeting. He would’ve joined the group if it had just been the strange behaviors. He was not in any way prepared for when Jeong Jeong threw a fireball at Sokka’s head and the teen caught it, laughing like it was an inside joke.

His grandson… his Water Tribe grandson… was a firebender. A strong one if he could catch such a close attack with the ease he did. And had he not been informed from the others about the firebender of non-Fire Nation heritage? The very same men now conversing as though there had been no fire, no strangeness to the situation. His grandson, the very same he had passed off as an annoyance; who he’d assumed was as idiotic as his actions; who was cocky and was cut from the very mission he’d joined despite having a team to protect; that very same boy was one of the most powerful, if not the most, powerful firebender in the world.

And the boy hadn’t even greeted Pakku in passing. He’d simply joined the other elders and struck up easy conversation. It hit home in him more than learning that he’d attacked his granddaughter. More than finding out that Kanna had left him and married another. It somehow even hit harder than realizing he had driven his love further away by not fighting for what she’d believed in so passionately. Sokka had no reason to greet the waterbender. When had Pakku been anything but brusque with him? Shown any interest in the boy or his life? He’d ignored him for Katara and her strong bending.

It seemed Pakku was destined to keep driving his family away.

~_~_~_~_~_~

Sokka wasn’t paying attention to his sister’s reunion with her teacher. He knew she’d missed the grouchy old man despite the fact that he was, well, grouchy. Sokka could now understand it better himself, having missed Jeong Jeong after their group had had to flee. So he gave the two space and instead moved over to greet his friends and masters.

“Master Piandao,” he greeted, bowing to his mentors, “Master Jeong Jeong… Bumi.” For the last man, he changed the bow to that of the Earth Kingdom, beaming at the King as he did so. It really was just for show when it came to the royal.

The bows were instantly returned, despite the superior positions of the elders not demanding it. Jeong Jeong rose swiftly from his, making intense eye contact as he did. Sokka remained calm, remembering the first time he’d been subject to the almost-glare.

“Is there something you need, Master Jeong Jeong?” he tried. It was apparently the wrong move as the deserter’s gaze hardened sharply.

“You’re injured.”

“No…”

“Then why did you call me by name?” Sokka frowned before the question clicked.

“You seriously think I’m injured just because I didn’t call you J2?”

“J2,” Piandao repeated, a grin forming quickly at the nickname.

“We can discuss my questionable naming skills later,” the younger firebender intervened before the conversation could wander. “Now is the time to discuss what is going on and what is going to happen before we try to avoid dying tomorrow.”

“When did you develop aangxiety?” Bumi asked as he threw his arm across the teen’s shoulders. A few chuckles escaped before he could stop them, not that he was trying that hard.

“I’ve always had anxiety. Then I got a little airhead and suddenly I can’t go a day with aangst.”

“Agni, there’s two of them,” Piandao muttered, running a hand down his face. Jeong Jeong let out a huff of amusement at the duo, who were giggling at the puns. “What is it you wished to talk about, Sokka?” the master swordsman continued, now making his own attempt at changing the subject. The Water Tribe warrior raised an eyebrow at the mock pain in his master’s expression but obliged the man.

“I wanted to discuss what you’re all doing together, as well as the plan for Sozin’s Comet. Both Aang and Momo,” Sokka directed that last part at Bumi, “have disappeared. We know that Aang will likely show up when the Comet comes to fight the Firelord, but we don’t have a solid plan. Until Zuko informed us of Ozai’s plan to wipe out the Earth Kingdom, Aang was going to wait for the Comet to pass before he fought.”

“So our intel was correct,” Jeong Jeong stated solemnly. “Ozai plans to destroy the other nations as his grandfather destroyed the Air Nomads.”

“It will be easier to thwart the plan if Aang handles the Loserlord,” Bumi earned himself a couple of snickers at that, “and we have these kids to help.”

“I believe it would be best to discuss this with the other masters.”

“There are more of you?” Sokka asked curiously, wondering what other old people had gathered.

“There are a few, but only one will likely be available with all of our preparations. General Iroh, the Dragon of the West.” The teen nodded at that. It fit with what he had seen of the group's apparent association.

“I’ll go get the others and then you can lead us to your camp. I’m guessing you’re going to take back Ba Sing Se?”

“Yes. We will wait,” Piandao told his former pupil. Sokka bowed once more to the trio before hurrying back to his team. He passed Pakku again, surprised that the old man had not joined his companions seeing as Katara was no longer speaking to him. He ignored the thought in favor of addressing his friends.

“Gaang, pack up quickly. We’re gonna head to the old people camp and plan for tomorrow. Do any of you want to forgo the meeting?”

“I’m coming and you can’t stop me,” Toph stated firmly. Sokka nodded and looked to the others.

“I’ll sit this one out,” Suki said. “I think I’d be better with helping preparations.”

“I’ll sit out, too,” Katara added, drawing surprised faces from her comrades. “I don’t think I’ll be much help with the planning.”

“Alright. Zuko?”

“I don’t know. I’m not one for planning but I know more about the Fire Nation.”

“Well, your uncle is here, and he’ll be at the meeting.” The prince startled slightly at the comment, likely remembering their parting. He’d never mentioned the terms they ended on, but the group assumed they weren’t good ones.

“I’ll go,” Zuko finally decided. “But I might leave.”

“Understandable. I’ll keep that in mind. Now put the gear away and we’ll head out.” The team split up seamlessly, heading to do the jobs they each unspokenly had. The only ones who didn’t move to join were Toph and Sokka, the latter because the earthbender had latched onto his arm.

“Not so fast, Snoozles.”

“What’s the matter, Toph?” Sokka studied his younger companion. For the first time in a long while, she appeared uncertain or uneasy. The firebender couldn’t figure out which.

“Why don’t you like your grandfather?” she inquired quietly. It was so uncharacteristic of her and, coupled with the weird question, caused the young chief to pause.

“My grandfather? Both my grandfathers are dead,” he informed the girl before him.

“Pakku’s marrying your Gran-Gran, at least according to Katara.”

“Oh.” He paused again. “I don’t… not like Pakku. It’s just that I don’t really have anything to talk to him about. He’s closer to Katara than me.”

“But you ignored him.”

“He was talking to Katara.” Toph opened her mouth to continue, but Sokka cut her off, feeling the conversation was going nowhere. “Is this all you were concerned about? Because he’s a good man, if still a little sexist. And I have no problems with him. So let’s help the others and then we can head out. If you’re still worried, talk to him on the way over.” The preteen huffed, blowing her bangs to the side as she turned on her heel and stomped away. Sokka sighed as he went over to pack up his tent and help Katara with the sleeping roll. He would definitely need to watch how he acted around his apparent-grandfather.

~_~_~_~_~_~

The Gaang were at the large camp where the Order of the White Lotus, the group that the masters belonged to, had set up for the taking back of Ba Sing Se. Suki and Katara quickly left to lead Appa to a safe place and begin aiding in the preparations. Zuko and Toph noticeably pressed closer to Sokka, drawing comfort from the father of the group. He noticed their tension and discreetly started rolling his tile, knowing that the motion would likely only draw attention from his teammates. Predictably, the flanking duo relaxed at the sight of the round piece of wood. Sokka would need to paint it again after the meeting.

Piandao walked off to wake up Iroh, who had taken an early night, while the others entered a large tent with a table and exactly eight chairs within, one on each end and three on either side. A map was weighted on the wooden surface, several Pai Sho tiles marking different spots of the world. Jeong Jeong and Bumi sat on the right side of the table with Pakku across from them, a seat saved for Piandao next to the waterbender. Sokka moved to sit near Jeong Jeong but found Toph pushing Zuko into the chair. Upon moving to sit across from the prince, Sokka was shoved out of the way by Toph, who smirked as she made herself a rock stool.

“Toph, from the bottom of my heart, why?” She smirked more.

“You’re forgetting that I’m nobility. I know how we’re supposed to be seated, Snoozles.”

“Yeah, I do, too,” he retorted. “The most important people go on either end, and the ones on their right are the second most important. But I’m not the highest in position. Zuko is.”

“Zuko’s a prince,” Toph smiled smugly. “And I’m a lady.”

“Exactly. So why did you reverse our positions?”

“You are absolutely right. I’ll fix that for you.” With a stomp, the stool was pushed back into the ground and Toph stalked over to Zuko. She tugged him up and dragged him over to the other side of the table, pressing him into the chair she’d just vacated. With yet another smirk, she sat in his old seat, feet once again propped up.

“Toph, I’m not higher than a lady, and definitely not a prince.”

“Oh really?” Sokka did not like that look. “Remember when you and Katara told us about the Southern Water Tribe’s hierarchy? Well, I do. Actually really interesting to learn about the Water Tribe since no one ever thought to teach me. You’re going to teach me more when Loserlord’s dead. Anyways, you and Katara are royalty by your Tribe’s standards. You’re the children of the Chief. Only, Katara told us something after you left to meditate.”

“She didn’t,” the firebender groaned out, throwing his head back in annoyance.

“She did,” the little earthbender responded proudly. “You, Snoozles, are the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, which means you not only outrank me, but also everyone else here including our resident prince.”

Sokka didn’t attempt to fight it at that point. He simply sat down at the head of the table between his two friends, resigned to just accept Toph’s unusual behavior. Normally, she would take any opportunity to be the one in charge, but here she was, pushing the lead onto the older kid.

“Sokka, are you really the Chief?” Pakku’s questions caught three adolescents off guard, Zuko having been fully invested in seeing who would win the argument.

“Yeah,” the boy confirmed, settling back as they waited for Piandao and Iroh. “Dad left with the other warriors, so I was made Chief. Gran-Gran’s Chief in Absence.”

“She told me such, but I assumed her son was still leading.”

“That was Dad. He knew that they weren’t going to be back for a long time, so he seceded the position to me. He was following tradition and passing it to me as I was the eldest male and his son. Should’ve just given it to Gran-Gran.”

“But you’re fifteen,” Jeong Jeong interrupted, leaning forward with a glare. “How long ago did you become Chief?”

“It was about four years ago. I was eleven.”

“Wait, you ran a nation at eleven?”

“Not you, too! C’mon Zuko!”

“You ran a nation at eleven! Yet when I came for Aang, you said you were a warrior, not a chief!”

“Why are you all shouting?”

Everyone sitting at the table jerked towards the entrance to the tent, staring in surprise at the duo standing there. Piandao walked in first, sitting between Pakku and Zuko and peering around the prince at his old student. General Iroh entered after, moving to take his place across from Sokka, at the other head of the table.

“Apparently no one but the Gaang knew Sokka’s a king.”

“Toph! Chief, not king!”

“Same thing.” There was a loud thud as the teen’s forehead hit the wood, which was repeated at a lower volume as he began to bang lightly with his skull against the surface. It continued for about thirty seconds with the others staring amusedly at him, before Zuko slid his hand between the two opposing forces. Sokka looked up at his friend with a tiny pout before exhaling and pulling himself upright.

“Whatever, let’s just start this meeting. General Iroh, what are your plans for tomorrow?” The atmosphere snapped into a tenser feel, a seriousness falling over the group.

“Earthbenders will aid in our entrance, with all firebenders directly behind. Once we are within, we masters and the more experience benders will combat those aided by the Comet. All other warriors will begin taking down the lesser threats, such as nonbenders and earthbenders. We assumed your team would have a plan for fighting my brother.” Sokka nodded, lips pursed in concentration as he studied the map. He was able to figure out what most of the pieces marked, and it was with that that his mind worked out a strategy. He began rolling his tile again, something he had stopped when entering the tent. It was a movement done under the table but still visible to his friends.

“There’s going to be an airfleet, correct?” Iroh tipped his head in confirmation at the inquiry. “That means that they can travel far and fast in the relatively short time of the Comet. And they could split up easily to cover more area. It’s a given that Ozai will be there with the fleet. When Aang comes to fight, that will separate them from the ships. We’ll then need to take them out, or else the destruction will be exponentially larger.”

“No one but powerful and loyal Fire Nation engineers ever saw the blueprints,” Piandao commented. “We don’t have the time to get them and figure out how to take them down or find a way around the crew.”

“Why would you- oh, you guys don’t know. Makes sense.”

“What don’t we know?”

“I invented airships. You won’t need to get blueprints, I’ll just go there myself. They’re made of metal, so Toph will need to come as well. A smaller team will be better, so us and maybe one or two more people. That will nullify the fleet and prevent most of the destruction. Someone will need to take out Azula as well. She’ll be controlling the Fire Nation while Ozai makes the attack. I would suggest Zuko for that, as he’s got the best knowledge of the Caldera and Azula’s tactics.”

“Regarding your attack, I think that it would be best if you sent your most powerful earthbenders underground with a strong group of warriors. If you go deep enough, only the Dai Li could possibly sense you and you could make an attack from within the city, forcing the soldiers to fight on two fronts. From what Zuko told me, most of the Dai Li went with Azula. Maybe all of them but it’s better to assume some are there. They could be defeated easily by Bumi, so he definitely should go. If the nonbenders went through the tunnels after the main group, then some of the weaker earthbenders could make separate paths and pop up at different places throughout Ba Sing Se. Not only would that ensure that they aren’t attacked by Dai Li, it would also allow them to sneak up on the nonbenders and any other combatants they might meet. Warn them that some people have been brainwashed. We don’t have a way to figure out who and with the Fire Nation, who knows what they did with that technology.”

“Healers and medics should remain behind for the first ten minutes or so before following the second group underground. That way they won’t be attacked. They should wear something to distinguish them from soldiers. Maybe have them wear white, as it’s not going to be a color that blends in. If they help everyone regardless of the side they’re on, then they also won’t be attacked.”

“When did you have the time to plan this?” Jeong Jeong asked, his tone shocked.

“He’s the Schedule Master,” Toph spoke up in glee. She always loved seeing people on the opposite side of Sokka’s plans.

“Right now, it doesn’t matter when I made the plan. We just need to figure out who will go and where they’ll go to. Toph and I for the airfleet, Aang fighting Ozai, and Zuko with someone else against Azula. Katara can take on the role of both healer and fighter, so she can fit anywhere, and Suki’s a great warrior.”

“Very well.” Iroh moved a few of the markers around, rearranging them to represent the modified plan. A white tile in the Caldera’s location was moved to the center instead of the outer edge and a yellow one was placed on top of a red. Zuko and Aang. Without waiting to see the tile that Iroh would move for himself, Sokka took his white lotus and placed it on the coast of the Earth Kingdom most likely to be attacked.

“I see you kept the tile,” Piandao mused, a proud look in his eyes.

“Yes. You gave it to me, after all.” It came to the boy’s realization that the Order of the White Lotus probably had some special meaning to the tile, especially since they held Pai Sho in such a high regard that even Jeong Jeong had a board.

“Piandao was right to do so,” Bumi stated with a finality that moved them back to the plan.

“The strategies would work, and it is a thought none of us had to include healers in our battle. A fine idea to lessen any causalities on both sides. However, we need to decide on the whereabouts of your team. And we need to discuss the effects the Comet might have on you, given your peculiarity.”

“Katara can go with Zuko. She’ll fight with him and keep him alive. That’s extremely necessary, both because he’s a friend and because he’s next in line. Zuko, you’ll need to take over as fast as possible. The Fire Sages should be there due to Azula’s possible coronation. I don’t really understand how all that works, but if they’re there and you defeat her, you still have the most right to the throne outside of your father and any position held by Azula is rightfully yours. They’ll listen to you if Katara’s there to yell at them.”

“Are you sure we can take my sister? She’s insane and incredibly powerful.”

“Who knows dragon fire? Not her. Who is the only person Lan stays with besides myself? Not her. You are powerful enough to stop her in a fight, and you have the world’s greatest waterbender to aid you if anything goes wrong, which it will. You can do this.”

“Who is Lan?” Sokka, Toph, and Zuko all stared at Pakku for a moment, before their expressions changed. Toph was grinning with mischief, knowing perfectly well how the reactions would go. Zuko became utterly embarrassed as he would have to admit he was special when it came to the little Bluey. Sokka was grinning like Toph, but his was in pride at the thought of showing off his baby. With steady hands, the Spirit-touched boy reached into his shirt and withdrew the complacent being.

What occurred next was hysterical in many different ways. Jeong Jeong tipped over his chair as he jumped back in his seat, and Bumi barely managed to get out of his own before it, too, was knocked over. Piandao fell into Pakku, who caught the man and tilted back as far as he could go. Iroh sat frozen and tense at the end, eyes unbelieving. A huge slew of expletives exploded into the air from various masters, drawing Toph into a cackling fit. Sokka was clutching Lan protectively against his chest, angry at how no one seemed to appreciate his baby, and Zuko was trying to comfort the boy without breaking down into laughter.

Lan, sensing her caretaker’s distress and woken from her nap, wrapped carefully around Sokka’s neck and growled. When the attention was successfully drawn her way, she moved further up into the black hair above her, and hit her small paws against the firebender’s head. It was an action that somehow conveyed “be nice” without any previous knowledge of Lan’s antics.

“You all need to be nicer to my baby,” Sokka pouted, gently tugging said baby into his arms again. “She deserves better.”

[zutaraangtastic]

If I'm not to late to join in on this inappropriate use of bending may I suggest temperature play? A tied up avatar between the mercy of katara running ice up and down his body and then zuko playing with fire a little. Heating his hands up slightly Letting small flames ghost over his skin not ever touching but close.

(#2) Prompt: more dominant katara pls she honestly my favorite

(#3) Prompt if you're still taking them: More bloodbending please!

3-in-1 this time, hopefully our wonderful prompt-givers don’t mind! (Reminder that we are not accepting new prompts; we received these before July 1.) - Mod J

The evening air off of Yue Bay is cool, brushing refreshingly over Zuko as he sits on the temple steps and watches Katara and Aang circle each other in the courtyard.

When the caress of the breeze gets a little too friendly, billowing through his loose pants and lingering between his thighs, he knows it’s not nature’s doing. He catches Aang smirking in his direction and shakes his head. 

Katara takes advantage of the distraction to knock Aang into the fountain with a blast of water. Serves him right, Zuko thinks—he’s just had his own duel with Aang, still sweaty and winded from it, but he certainly wouldn’t be playing around if he was the one who won and had to go up against Katara.

Aang launches out of the pool on a jet of his own, stray droplets shimmering off of his graceful trajectory. He turns them into an icy rain to pelt down on Katara’s back before he lands behind her, making Zuko wince sympathetically for her mostly-bare skin. She cries out sharply and grabs at her shoulders. Zuko starts to stand, and Aang freezes before hurrying to her with hands raised in a worried, surrendering gesture.

“I’m sorry, are you okay?”

From his angle, Zuko can just barely see her smile, and some of the tension drains from him. He starts to ease back into his seat, but stops in his tracks at the sight before him. Aang is raising his arms high above his head, standing ramrod straight. His shoulders quiver with resistance as they go backwards, and his arms lower to fold together behind his back. When he sinks to his knees, giving Zuko a clear view over his head, Katara is facing Aang, her hands tilted in a familiar position.

“Uh,” Aang says, though it doesn’t exactly sound like a complaint. He tips his head forward—or Katara tips it for him, with a flex of her fingers—to rest against her thigh, blue arrow to brown skin below the simple cloth wrap at her hips. “Wait a minute. You fought dirty!”

Katara laughs, crystalline and guileful. “You never made me promise not to. All you said was you’d stick to waterbending for me.”

By now Zuko is no stranger to her bloodbending or its many titillating uses, but something feels off. The courtyard is dark, illuminated only by the lanterns lining its edges. When he sparred with Aang earlier, it seemed so much brighter, their multicolored fire swirling all around. Without it, he realizes it’s a night with no moon.

Her eyes, blue as dark as the ocean’s crushing depths, find him. He draws towards her and doesn’t know whether it’s of his own will or hers.

He hasn’t been so surprised by her ability since he first saw her demonstrate it, when they hunted down her mother’s killer—and she’s told him about it since then, what it requires of her, how it feels to use for combat, healing, pleasure. But this is a whole new level.

“Zuko,” Aang says, struggling to glance up at him, “has she been practicing on you without telling me?”

Before Zuko can respond, Katara interrupts, “I honed this all on my own, thank you very much.”

“For people who can’t wait until a full moon for treatment,” Zuko realizes. He’s piecing things together, though his brow remains furrowed. “But how…?”

“Well, it’s the same as you being able to firebend at night, even if you’re stronger during the day. Except during the eclipse, you could always feel it, right? Just because I can’t see the moon, doesn’t mean it’s not there.” She looks pleased with herself, and probably at Zuko’s half-open mouth. “Maybe Sokka helped a little,” she adds in admission. “Or at least, helped me put words to what I was trying to do. He’s been studying more astronomy from—”

“This is all very interesting, but do you think we could save the details for pillow talk?” Aang asks from below, shifting minutely and restlessly on his knees.

“Why, is someone getting desperate?” Katara croons, turning her keen gaze on him. 

She curls her fingertips and turns her wrist at a different angle, and Aang’s spine straightens again, his legs pushing him up to stand unsteadily. With a gesture of her palm, she backs him up against Zuko’s chest. 

There’s the telltale tingle of her control in Zuko’s veins, too, starting with his arm, and he doesn’t resist it. He notices the sweat beading on Katara’s forehead.

The feeling washes out like the tide, in the middle of raising his hand to wrap across Aang’s neck and shoulder. 

Katara’s mouth tightens with concentration, but Zuko’s arm falls limp. Puzzled, he looks at it, then back at her, flexing his hand to test the sensation and finding unexpected freedom. Normally she can bloodbend him and Aang at the same time with little issue, after years of full moons spent together in their bedrooms—but maybe that’s the problem, that this new form of hers isn’t as strong yet.

Aang seems to pick up on that too, and Zuko can hear the smirk in his voice when he says, “Having trouble?”

In one fluid motion, Katara spins Aang so he faces Zuko and wraps his wrists in a tight coil of water behind his back. “I still have other ways to keep you how I want you, sweetie,” she says. “Zuko, be a dear and show him a little fire.”

For just a moment, Zuko has the urge to challenge her, the spark of competition that always flickers between them flaring up. But Aang looks perfect like this, restrained and eager and a little on-edge. Over Aang’s shoulder, Katara stares expectantly at the flames that have crackled to life on Zuko’s fingertips, sharing a conspiratorial smile with him. That’s all he needs to decide he wants to play along.

While he trails one hot hand up to Aang’s sternum, making him squirm, Katara raises another bubble of water. She shapes it, freezes it in the form of a dagger that she presses between Aang’s shoulders, making him arch his chest. He gasps at the lick of heat to skin, the bracing cold flat of the icy blade down his spine, caught with no escape.

Zuko fans the fire out to dance tantalizingly across Aang’s collarbones, but almost loses control of it when his body jerks forwards, a different sort of warmth blooming suddenly in the pit of his stomach. He extinguishes it all together, for fear of hurting Aang, until Katara says, low and dangerous, “You’d better not stop.”

The throb in his blood is there again, Katara swaying him to press up close to Aang’s front, wobbly legs between legs. Aang exhales a breathy laugh, which turns into a gulp and a shiver with the ice skimming up his throat. Zuko’s eyes linger on Katara for a moment. The focus is clear in the crease of her brow, even as she digs her teeth into Aang’s shoulder. 

He knows he can trust her to keep them all safe, power play aside. His hand lights up again, gently curling hot and orange at Aang’s side, but it slides in the opposite direction than he intends.

Maybe it was his own folly, to think that he was ever actually out of her control.

[jaxsteamblog]

Hidden

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

In the morning, Katara walked into the kitchen to see Suki draped on Sokka as he cooked something at the stove. Her arms were around his waist and her chin perched on his shoulder. They swayed together and then there was a pop before a streak of Sokka’s swearing.

“You’re at least wearing a shirt while making bacon right?” Katara asked as she sat on one of the stools at the small island. Suki turned around and smiled at her, letting Katara see that her brother was appropriately attired.

“Want some coffee?” She asked and Katara nodded.

“So that was a lot.” Suki said as she poured coffee into two mugs. Still swaying around the kitchen, she opened the fridge with her foot, held onto the mugs by their handles in one hand, and grabbed a container of creamer with the other. Using her hip to close the door, Suki hummed a little bit before putting everything down next to Katara.

“You’re in a good mood.” Katara remarked and Suki beamed at her before turning again to open a drawer. Sokka turned into her place, depositing strips of bacon onto a plate padded with paper towels.

“A lot is happening.” Suki said cheerfully, returning with small spoons. They started to make their coffee while Sokka returned to the stove, swiftly cracking eggs into a bowl.

“Too much.” Sokka added gruffly and Suki rolled her eyes as she leaned over the island, holding her mug up in her hands. She still drank hers black, as they all had when running through war zones, but Katara liked the extravagance of cream and sugar. She sometimes took it a step further and splurged on flavored creamer.

“So, the Blue Spirit huh?” Suki asked over the rim of her mug, raising her eyebrows before taking a sip. Katara scoffed but took a drink as well.

“It’s not a big deal.” She replied.

“I don’t know, I remember you being awfully reluctant to talk about the help you got at the river factory.” Suki said.

“That was years ago and doesn’t matter any more.” Katara replied.

“Do you think he still has the mask?” Suki asked.

“SUKI!” Both Sokka and Katara yelled in unison.

“What? I do.” Zuko interjected.

Katara groaned, slapping her palm to her face as he took a seat next to her.

“It was my mother’s. I wasn’t going to get rid of it.” Zuko continued.

“You absolutely should have. That is going to be the thing that ignites a coup you know, when someone like your sister finds it.” Sokka said, bringing over a platter of scrambled eggs.

“I’m not worried. But hey, it makes sense now why you’re always thinking about that kind of stuff. I guess you’re a prince like me now, huh?” Zuko remarked. Katara looked up to see Sokka give him a withering look.

“I don’t like talking about that.” He said firmly, almost angrily.

Katara turned her face away, but still saw Suki go to him, putting a hand on Sokka’s back before leaning her head onto his shoulder.

Sokka was a lot like their father and fell in love quickly. And it was hard enough for anyone not to have fallen in love with the radiant light that filled Yue.

“And the royal family isn’t really going to work like that anymore. Apparently, Arnook is going to invoke some ancient law that says only a Waterbender can inherit the throne. If Katara doesn’t have a magic water baby, I get nothing.” Sokka said, sounding calmer.

“What if you have a magic water baby?” Zuko asked.

Sokka and Suki looked at each other; he chuckled while Suki smiled.

“Two non-Benders? One of whom is from a long line of people living in Kyoshi?” Suki replied.

“Doesn’t the Fire Nation have something like that though?” Katara asked.

“Sort of. It’s a mix of bending ability and bloodline. If I were to have a non-Bender heir, it might still work out considering I’m the descendent of Avatar Roku.” Zuko answered.

“Excuse me? You’re what?” Katara asked.

“Are you serious? You still haven’t looked up anything about me?” Zuko asked.

“There’s a whole HummFeed Unsolved about the disappearance of his mother.” Sokka said. Zuko winced.

“And I don’t like talking about that.” He said, then sighed. “Plus, that episode is banned in the Fire Nation. She wouldn’t be able to watch it here anyway.”

“Okay, let’s just air everything out. No more secrets, no more hidden knowledge.” Katara said and turned to Zuko. “Give me the rundown.”

“Ah, okay. Um.” He stammered and ran a hand through his hair. “My father is the Fire Lord, I’m his heir, but I was also the vigilante known as the Blue Spirit that tried to disrupt imperial forces. After the war, I went to college under a fake name to study, met Sokka, we survived an assassination attempt when I was discovered, and so my uncle paid for his store in thanks for his saving my life.”

“WHAT? YOU SURVIVED A WHAT?” Katara faced her brother who, holding a forkful of eggs, shrugged and continued eating.

“What about you?” Zuko asked as Katara vigorously rubbed her face.

“Sokka and I left home to find our parents and we quickly got tagged by the Fire Nation navy when they found us on the wrong side of a blockade. We escaped with the help of the Kyoshi Warriors, but they trailed us to the North Pole thinking that I was,” Katara drifted and Sokka stood rigid.

“Kat, you don’t have to-” He started but she held up a hand.

“Fair is fair.” She replied.

“They thought I was the Avatar.” Katara continued. “So when they attacked the North Pole and Zhao, did what he did, I made a pact with the ocean spirit and dragged him down into a canal to drown him.”

“What.” Sokka croaked.

Tears fell down her cheeks but she smiled, her breathing hitched and ragged.

“Afterward, not finding either of our parents, we went from prison to prison to find them. Along the way we met up with Suki and her people. Suki got arrested and ended up in the same prison as my father, so two birds, one stone. Then we got into another prison and found my mother. And Hama.” Katara stared into her coffee, stirring the liquid slowly. “I learned things that still haunt me, my mother died, and now that I’m saying all of this out loud, I probably have PTSD.”

“Katara, you burned eight prisons to the ground and you’re a Waterbender.” Sokka said. “Yeah, I think you might have a little PTSD.”

Katara laughed but they all very quickly fell silent. Sniffling, Katara wiped her eyes and slapped her hands on the island counter top.

“But none of that is going to get fixed today so I’d like some breakfast and more beach time.” She said.

“I’m down.” Suki said.

“I don’t feel like that’s the healthiest course of action.” Zuko said weakly.

“Oh yeah? You got a Ph.D. in psychology to help out with that? Or did you study PoliSci?” Sokka retorted.

Zuko and Sokka started to bicker while Suki got plates for everyone, handing one to Katara and giving her a one armed hug. Kissing Katara’s cheek, Suki leaned her head against hers.

“You okay Tara?” She asked. Katara shrugged and pressed her head back toward Suki’s.

“Yeah. I’ll talk to someone when I get home though.” She replied.

“Good.” Suki said and dumped a large scoop of eggs onto Katara’s plate, making it tip away from her. “I know a good veteran’s group in Ba Sing Se.”

After breakfast, Katara got her wish and they started packing up for the beach. This time, Suki unearthed an instant camera from her suitcase. She started to take pictures, shaking the wobbly film as she avoided Sokka in the hall. Her laughing shrieks made Katara relax but she was still surprised when Suki thrust the camera into her hands.

“I need you to be in charge of this for awhile.” Suki said and winked before lowering a pair of sunglasses on her face.

Right as they were about to head down, Katara stood in the back sunroom. Zuko stood on just the other side of the screen, looking down into the cooler. Slowly lifting the camera, Katara took a picture of his peering thoughtfully down into the ice. At the snap, Zuko looked up and smiled.

“You look awfully contemplative.” Katara remarked.

“One always has to consider the most effective way to move supplies.” Zuko said.

“You guys ready?” Sokka asked, tossing a towel at Katara before pushing open the screen door.

This beach day was much calmer. Katara swam while the others stayed in the shallows. Suki moved through the water, her pants rolled up as she bent over picking up shells.

As Katara waded up through the water, Suki gestured with her head and winked. Confused, Katara wrung out her hair as she walked to the towels. As she sat down, Zuko came and sat beside her.

“I got kicked out.” He said and Katara looked down at Sokka and Suki. They were standing close together and Suki was pulling shells out of her bucket.

“Hand me the camera.” Katara said. Quiet, Zuko fumbled through their bag and handed Katara the camera.

As she raised it, she saw Suki look up and toward her.

Katara took a picture of Suki showing Sokka the bucket. She handed Zuko the picture. She took a picture as Suki pulled out a shell. She handed the undeveloped picture to Zuko. She took a picture as Suki knelt in the sand. She took a picture of Sokka putting his hands in his hair. She took a picture as Sokka fell on Suki.

“Did she just…?” Zuko asked. Katara lowered the camera and nodded.

Zuko started to laugh and Katara smiled as Sokka and Suki got back onto their feet. When the two came up to the towels, Katara could see her brother shaking.

“Congratulations!” Zuko said and Sokka fell onto his knees before plopping facedown on his towel.

“Since we were getting everything out in the air.” Suki said and sat down, rubbing circles on Sokka’s back.

“Let me see.” Katara said, poking Sokka in the ribs. He flopped out his arm and Katara picked up his hand. The band was titanium with a Water Tribe motif carved around the ring in the middle.

“That’s amazing.” Katara said and then looked over at Suki. “Sorry for making your morning so depressing.”

Suki let out a breathy laugh.

“That’s what it always was though right? Falling in love with the world falling apart?” She said and looked down at Sokka. “We take the good with the bad. Pain is a part of life.”

Sokka turned his head to lay on his cheek, looking up at Suki.

“Well isn’t this just adorable.” A chilled woman’s voice said. Zuko’s eyes widened and Katara turned to look.

Azula, Mai, and another woman stood, looking back.

“Still taking the good with the bad?” Sokka groaned.

“This world likes to test me.” Suki said.

Their beach day was cut short and Zuko closed himself in an office with Azula. The rest of the group could hear them shouting, but Mai looked bored. The third woman had introduced herself as Ty Lee and looked strained enough for two people.

“So why are you all here?” Sokka asked.

“Azula found out Zuko was here and decided to drop in.” Ty Lee said with a massive dose of forced cheer.

“It was mostly that she found out he was here with you.” Mai said, looking pointedly at Katara.

“And how’d she find that out?” Katara retorted.

“I’m allowed to talk about where my boyfriend is.” Mai said.

Katara put her hands on the back of a chair and ice formed around her fingers. Noticing the chill, she took a deep breath and pried her fingers free.

“I’m not going to be here for this.” She stated. Pushing the chair away, Katara marched toward the front door.

“Katara.” Sokka called out.

“I need some space.” She said gently. “I’m sorry I keep walking away.”

Suki held onto Sokka’s arm and he held her hands.

“We’ll be okay.” Suki said.

Katara walked out of the beach house and into the wide cul-de-sac. The other beach houses were spread out, quietly ignoring each other to create the illusion of isolated privacy. Sand soaked the lawns and covered sidewalks, making Katara’s flip flops slip over the surface and spray grit up the back of her legs.

Taking a walk wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. It wasn’t what drew her, and she quickly abandoned her route. Taking a wide berth around the house, Katara skidded down the sand dunes and walked to their part of the beach. Hiding behind a dune, she shed her clothes and darted to the water.

Here she could think.

Katara spent a few hours in the water, her thoughts slowly floating through her mind. Nothing really came from it, except that she realized she needed to think more about a few things. It felt like she kept trying to walk away from a lot.

As the sun started to inch toward the horizon, Katara got out of the water. With her bending, she dried herself and pulled on her clothes. While not damp, they were still covered in sand and she grimaced.

Heading up the stairs, Katara sighed but froze as she heard voices.

“Why are you talking to me about this?” Mai asked.

“Right, I should definitely talk to Sokka about my feelings toward his sister.” Zuko said.

Katara looked around, hearing the voices advance, and she darted into the outdoor shower. She pulled the curtain closed as the porch door creaked open.

“Well you absolutely shouldn’t be talking to your girlfriend about your feelings toward another woman.” Mai remarked.

Leaning against one wall, Katara peered out of the gap from the weathered curtain. Mai and Zuko sat on the small steps leading down to the sandy space before the dunes.

Zuko looked uncomfortable and Mai sighed.

“No, I get it. I do.” She insisted and pushed Zuko’s shoulder. “I used to have a crush on Sokka.”

Katara covered her mouth and nose, stopping her attempt to gasp. Zuko looked just as stunned.

“What?” He asked.

Mai blushed a bit, turning her face away and tucking her hair behind an ear.

“It was when you started college. I always liked the idea of being with someone,” Her blush deepened and she kept her hand at her ear, slightly shielding her face. “Silly.”

“Silly?” Zuko repeated in absolute shock.

Mai covered her face and actually made a strangled noise that sounded like amusement.

“It’s just, I never experience life like that!” She said and opened her hands. “People like him and Ty Lee make everything more colorful.”

“And I’m not silly?” Zuko asked.

Mai leaned her head back, looking at him from an angle.

“Zuko, you’re awkward and soft. Our relationship has made me feel like I’m swimming in pudding.” Mai said and turned in her seat.

“Ouch.” Zuko replied and winced.

“Katara is dramatic, strong-willed, and, from what I’ve been hearing, she’s kind. You don’t need someone that’s your opposite, you need someone that compliments you.” Mai laid her hands down on her lap, palms up. “We were put together because of politics and I know I can be happy with you. But will you be happy with me?”

Zuko looked down at her hands and slowly put his on top of hers.

“I don’t think I can.” He said softly.

“But you’ll do the honorable thing and marry me anyway. Forever miserable but never straying to make sure you don’t make me lose face.” Mai said. Zuko sighed and his shoulders sagged.

“I don’t really know what to do here.” He said.

“I can’t make any choices for you. But I’m your friend Zuko. I’ll help you figure it out, no matter what you choose.” She laughed and looked down at their hands. “It’s not like I haven’t stood up to my parents before.”

“Thank you Mai.” Zuko said.

“You can thank me after you actually made a decision. Which, knowing you, will take a stupidly long time since you’re-”

“-soft and awkward. Yeah, I got it.”

They laughed and Katara felt her chest tighten.

“I’m going to go back inside and get your sister to leave.” Mai said and leaned in, kissing Zuko’s cheek. “Try not to burn anything down.”

“One time!” Zuko remarked as Mai stood up.

Katara pressed her back against the wall of the shower and stared up at the open sky above her. Water dripped slowly from the shower head, hitting the sandy floor with heavy splats.

It did feel a little bit like she was walking through pudding.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

[is-that-another-soulmate-au]

Zukka Soulmate AU part 12

@mypureessence

@chaoticidiott

@ari-shipping-stuff

@knightedbot

@idkhowbutimgayer

@swampy-beans

@angrylittleintrovert

Traveling on foot was definitely... not fun, but hey, what are you gonna do right? Definitely not avoid the guy you just confessed your undying but also irritating love to. Totally not. Sokka was only at the front because he had the map and is the only one that knows how to read it is all.

"I think we should stop here and camp for the night, its got a good bit of water so we can refill the canteens and you two can practice waterbending" Sokka said with a sigh while he rolled up his map and took a stance in front of the small oasis sort of looking place he picked.

Lily grinned "so what you're saying is I finally get to see waterbending other than water out of the canteen to drink?"

Katara and Aang gave confused looks "yeah? Didn't know you wanted to.."

"Well, with an earthbending boyfriend and a firebending boyfriend while living nowhere near any waterbenders you can guess that I've never seen anybody bend water so I am DYING to see you guys bend some water"

"Me to" Kurt raised his hand

"Yeah, me three" Tarren said with a smirk.

The two waterbenders only gave awkward chuckles before everyone started to settle into their spots, Sokka ontop of a rock, iroh and Jee under one of the trees with a small fire going and some tea over it, ginger as requested by Lily. Lily Tarren and Kurt all watched Aang and Katara bend water between the two of them, the two earthkingdom kids mesmerized by the gentle movements of the water just before Kurt joined the pair in the water.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked with a raised brow without stopping the waterbending.

"Joining" was all Kurt offered before he lit a small flame and started bending in the same forms as Aang and Katara, the flames seeming to mirror the image of the water but with heat and less liquid control. "I learned my bending from water scrolls" he said with a smile.

"I... didnt know it was possible to learn one bending from another kinds form..." Katara said with a clearly interested tone

"Its all I've ever known," kurt shurgged while bending the fire "you could bend wTer similarly to fire if you were more on the aggressive offense, more like earth if you were aggressive defense, more like air if you were more like a breeze, light and free." Kurt extinguished hus flame "I've only ever studied water scrolls and earth scrolls for bending but reading what little Ive found on air nomad culture and bending and seeing Aang in action I might be able to pick up a bit of the style"

"Wow! Your Sokka but with firebending!" Toph chimed in.

"He's... what?" Sokka turned to Toph with a confused look

"You.. you know the nonbending style of each nation and kurt knows the firebending style of each nation" Toph said with a shrug

"No wonder I trusted him" Sokka gave Kurt a thumbs up

Zuko who was filling canteens during this entire conversation and just finished tossed the last one onto the pile of their belongings loudly before storming off with a shout. He knew that comment shouldn't have gotten to him, Sokka was just making light of the situation but with all that had went down over the past week Zuko was drained and didn't have the energy to try and decode Sokka. He wouldn't have to decode him if Sokka would just talk to him like a normal person. But no. Its, be standoffish, be gentle, be harsh, confess, and then avoid.

He normally didn't want to talk to people so it pissed him off to no end how much he wanted to talk to Sokka even though Sokka wanted nothing to do with him. He was lost in his heas long enough he came to a small Boulder by a tree and plopped his brooding self on said boulder to rest against the tree. A badgerfrog hopped out infront of him and croaked "Why can't I just express normally" Zuko groaned out "not like he does, but hey, one of us should right?" He got a short croak in return "I mean, hes better at talking to people than I am! And he knows that! Everyone does! I suck at... socializing in general..." Zuko shrugged but once again got a short croak in return "wellz yeah, I was raised in a palace but my dad never wanted me to take the throne so I wasn't really taught how to... act around people? If that makes sense"

"Yeah it makes sense"

"Really? I us- wait a second" Zuko turned to see Sokka standing there with a smirk, to which he yelped and fell off the boulder with a thud and an "ouch you jerk!"

Sokka let out a giddy laugh while helping Zuko to his feet "sorry, sorry, I just... usually its me being walked in on like this."

"You... talk to animals to solve your problems?"

"No goofy, I talk to Yue" Sokka gave a grin

"Yue? You mean the northern princess?" Zuko narrowed his eyes with confusion

"Yeah! Except she's the moon now so I talk to the moon... I doubt she can actually hear me but I know she's there, yknow, when she was little she had a burning on her left eye just like you and me but the spirit water was able to heal her and prevent the scar from ever showing up"

"Wait, are you saying Yue was supposed to be our soulmate? But she... turned into the moon?" Sokka only laughed in response "Sokka I'm serious! What do you mean she turned into the moon"

"Oh, right you weren't there for all of it. Well, the moon spirit gave Yue life when she was born si after Zhao killed the fish she... gave it back" Sokka looked down "I had to watch her turn into the moon spirit and disappear"

Zuko blinked once, twice, and thrice before responding "thats rough buddy"

"Yeah, well, at least I have you right?" Sokka grabbed Zuko's collar "say, why did you run off, you were saying something to toady over there, but I wanna hear it"

"I was jealous" Zuko said plainly which caught Sokka off guard

"Of?"

"You trusting Kurt so easily"

"Oh... wait you want me to trust you? Thats all? You're being broody because you want me to trust you? Zuko I already do trust you"

"Hey! I am not broody!"

Sokka pulled Zuko in for a quick kiss "yes... you are, but its okay, your cute when you brood. Now lets get back to camp Lily said she was going to make dinner and I dont know about you but I'm starving"

Zuko didnt get the option to choose he was instead lifted up and hoisted over Sokka's shoulder "hey! Put me down! I can walk just fine"

"Sure you can, but were you actually going to follow me back to camp?"

Zuko stayed quiet for a bit before mumbling "no..."

The walk back was quiet and short but he was, instead of being set down, thrown down but the fall was gentle because Aang managed to bend some air for him. "Jerk"

"Yeah, but I'm cute and you forgive me right?" Sokka made puppydig eyes and Zuko couldnt help but laugh at him

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say oh cute one"

[vulcan-highblood]

(Blue) Spirited Away

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Pairing(s): Gen Chapter: 2/? Words: 4k Summary: Prince Zuko wasn’t able to escape the Northern Water Tribe after the disastrous conclusion to the Siege of the North. However, Aang is more than happy to invite his old pal, the Blue Spirit, to join him and his friends on the first leg of their journey to the Earth Kingdom. (An AU where Aang never learned the true identity of the Blue Spirit, Zuko is desperate, and Spirits enjoy interfering in the lives of mortals)

Chapter 1

Read it on AO3

Chapter 2: Hide and Seek

It had been a long night, Aang reflected, flopping down between Sokka and Katara, who were already sitting and staring deep into the fire like it was telling them a story, or something. Now that the daylight shone overhead and the fighting was pretty much over, he’d found his way back to where he’d been staying with the two Water Tribe siblings. He still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. He’d been conscious, within the grasp of the Ocean Spirit, but he hadn’t really controlled what was going on. It was more like he watched what was happening, locked behind a wall in his own mind, as the Ocean Spirit demanded vengeance for the wrongs done to it.

Aang understood why it was angry - it was wrong to kill, and Zhao had killed Tui, the most important person in La’s entire life. Of course La had been upset by that. Swallowing hard, Aang stared into the fire too, and unsuccessfully tried not to think about Gyatso. It was still so hard to think about how he was gone. He thought he understood, at least a little bit, how sad La must have been, and why the Ocean had lashed out in pain.

Still, he wished he hadn’t been there to see the damage it had done in its anger, not only to the Fire Nation ships, but to the city, too. La hadn’t been very careful when it swept the Fire Army away, and a lot of people’s homes and businesses had been destroyed by the same Ocean they respected and worshipped. Aang wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, he’d also destroyed a lot of things when he first saw Gyatso. He’d been lucky to have friends to calm him down. Maybe if he’d tried harder to be a friend to La, not as much of the city would have been destroyed...

Better not to think about that, Aang decided quickly. What’s done is done, the monks used to say. Live in the present, accept the past, and await the future. Even though he was an airbending master, he still had a hard time following those rules. Sighing, he turned to look at Sokka, whose face looked really glum. Oh yeah. He’d really really liked Princess Yue. He probably missed her a lot. Aang wished there had been some other way to save the moon, but that was another one of those things he couldn’t change, and just had to accept. He hoped Sokka would be able to accept it, too.

He had a feeling Sokka didn't want to hear that, though, so he kept the thought to himself. Instead, he quietly asked the room at large, “Now what do we do?”

“I don’t know, Aang. With all the damage done to the city, I don’t think we’ll be having any more waterbending classes for awhile,” Katara said, her voice quavering slightly.

“I guess I really meant to ask how do we help?” Aang admitted after another few seconds of silence.

“We leave,” Sokka said, voice weary in a way Aang couldn't remember ever hearing before.

That couldn’t be right, Aang thought, frowning. He was the Avatar! It was his job to help people! How could leaving possibly help the Northern Water Tribe? “Why would we do that?” Aang asked, genuinely confused. Unfortunately, Sokka seemed to think he was making an inappropriate joke - which, he wasn’t!! Sure, he was a fun guy, but Aang could tell humor wouldn’t be appreciated right now!

“Why do you think?” Sokka snapped, finally lifting his eyes from the fire to glare at Aang, and ooh, he looked really mad.

“Sokka!” Katara scolded him before Aang even had the chance to defend himself.

Sokka sighed, the look in his eyes softening. “Sorry, Aang,” he said. ”It’s just… all this? It happened because we were here. And the longer we stay, the more time the Fire Nation has to regroup and try again.”

Aang swallowed hard. He didn’t want that to happen! Plus, he really didn’t like what he did when he went into the Avatar State. It was scary, losing control like that. He hated it. If leaving meant they had a better chance of avoiding another invasion, avoiding the Avatar State? Well, then he was all for it.

“When do we leave?” Aang asked cheerily, trying to show his support for the idea.

“Tomorrow, at the earliest,” Sokka answered, a small crease forming between his eyebrows as he slipped into planning mode. “Appa is exhausted, and honestly, so are the rest of us. An extra day to rest won’t hurt our chances, I don’t think, and we’ll do a lot better with some rest, especially considering how much open ocean we have to cross.”

“Plus, we need to figure out what we’re going to do about waterbending lessons before we leave,” Katara added, glancing at Aang.

Nodding to show he understood her concern, Aang voiced his own. “We should probably tell Chief Arnook that we’re leaving, then. Right?” Aang saw but chose not to comment on the twin winces from Sokka and Katara.

“I… guess you’re right,” Sokka finally admitted, his voice dropping back down into that tired sound from before. “I just have a feeling he's not going to be in the mood to talk.”

Oh yeah. Because if Sokka was sad about Princess Yue, her dad was probably pretty sad, too. “I can just go, tell him real quick that we’re leaving tomorrow, then come back here,” Aang suggested. He was tired, too, but still full of nervous energy and a desire to help. The Avatar State hadn’t really felt like helping. Just angry. So Aang was actually pretty happy to find something he could do. Him. Not just the Avatar State.

“Thanks, Aang,” Katara said, giving him a soft smile. “That would be a big help.”

Feeling his whole body warm at the compliment, Aaang fought not to show his pleasure at her words on his face. “Thanks Katara,” he said, then popped to his feet with a light puff of air.“Well, see you in a few minutes!”

Sokka made a noise that could have been agreement, and Katara smiled again, nodding. With that, Aang eased out of the room, heading for the big hall where Chief Arnook had been the last time he’d seen him.

~~*~~

When Aang made it to the big room, it was a lot more busy than he expected. People were shouting, waving their hands, and not really listening to each other. Chief Arnook stood in the center of the whirlwind of noise, looking as tired as Sokka had sounded. Aang almost turned around and left when he heard someone say “And somehow he cut through the wall of ice with a pair of broadswords!”

Whoa, that sounded amazing! Curious, Aang eased his way through the crowd to get closer to the people telling the story. As he got to the front, he spotted Chief Arnook, pressing the palm of his hand to his forehead the way Sokka did when someone said something dumb. “Did you at least catch this masked intruder?” Chief Arnook demanded, sounding even more exasperated than he looked, which was impressive, because he looked pretty exasperated!

Judging by the looks on the faces of the storytellers, Aang already knew the answer to that. So did Chief Arnook, because he sighed heavily. “How many firebenders escaped?”

“That’s the strangest part of the story,” one of the Water Tribe warriors said. “He didn’t let anyone out of their cells - he broke in, spent at least twenty minutes in there, smashed his way out the other end of the prison, and vanished like a polar bear dog in a snowbank!”

“Wow!” Aang exclaimed, ”That’s amazing!” Eyes all over the room turned to him, and he suddenly got the distinct impression that he wasn’t meant to be a part of this conversation.

Chief Arnook cleared his throat before finally saying. “Yes, well, true as that may be, it doesn’t change the fact that we need to find him.”

Finally! A chance to help! Aang grinned. “Can I help? I’m great at finding people! What does he look like?”

A few of the warriors tossed disbelieving glances in Aang’s direction, but Chief Arnook just nodded. “We don’t have much to work with, but we do know he was dressed in colors that blend in with the terrain, and he was wearing a blue and white mask.”

Blue and white mask? Why did that feel important? “Blue and white mask, huh?” Aang repeated slowly, trying to remember any reason why that meant something to him. After a few seconds, he gave up. It would come to him eventually. “I’ll keep an eye out!” he promised, running back to tell Katara and Sokka what he’d heard. It wasn’t until he was almost halfway back that he realized he’d never told the chief they were planning on leaving.

“Monkeyfeathers!” Aang muttered under his breath, then glanced around. Maybe he would try and catch the guy in a blue mask. Then he could show up with the mask person Chief Arnook was looking for and tell him they were leaving, all at the same time.

Aang wasn’t sure where to look, he’d left his staff back with Sokka and Katara, and Appa was still tired, so he just picked a direction and started walking, confident that he would be able to find some sort of clue, if he just looked hard enough.

~~*~~

It turned out that searching for a guy in a blue and white mask in a city where everything seemed to be blue and white was a lot harder than Aang had thought it would be. He’d been certain that he could find the guy in thirty minutes, an hour tops, but he was well into his second hour of searching and he still hadn’t found even a clue!

He was also very lost. He hadn’t really had a good chance to explore before the invasion because he’d been studying waterbending most of the time, and now with the invasion over, a lot of places were still damaged. Everything looked different, and Aang was used to seeing the city from the air, anyway.  Now that he thought about it, searching from the air was probably a good idea - he’d tried searching from the ground, and turned up nothing. He wanted to use his glider, which would have the double advantage of giving him a bird’s eye view of the city, and help him reorient himself so he could find his way back to Katara and Sokka. But he’d left it behind, since he hadn’t really planned on being gone all that long. Still, Aang supposed that didn't stop him from climbing on top of the houses.

Airbending to aid his scramble up to the top of a nearby house, Aang swept his gaze across the city, frowning at the damage and destruction. Several neighborhoods had been completely evacuated, because there was so much damage that any of the few houses still standing could collapse at any moment. A lot of people were staying with friends, or they’d gone to stay in temporary shelters further in the city. That’s part of why waterbending training was out - the entire arena had been turned into a staging area for families whose homes had been destroyed. And of course, the healing huts were full of people who needed healing.

All that to say, there were sections of the city that shouldn’t have anyone in them. But there was still one distinct column of smoke, rising in the distance. That struck Aang as odd, since there wasn’t much fuel for fire to still be burning, was there? So where was the fire coming from? It couldn’t be from the catapults, or there would have been more smoke. For there to only be one, thick column… it had to be intentional.

Huh. If Aang was a weird blue and white mask-wearing guy breaking into prisons with broadswords for fun, he probably wouldn’t stick around places where there were a lot of people. And even a few hours ago, there had still been a few scattered fires burning. In fact, there still were. For most people, the difference between smoke from scattered blazes and a specific hearth fire wasn’t immediately obvious, but Aang knew air. He knew how smoke moved, how heat affected the motion of air, and that smoke was definitely from hearth fire, not ‘a catapult hit some furs and now they’re burning’ fire. If Kuzon was here, he’d definitely back Aang up on that one. A twinge tugged at Aang’s chest at that thought. Kuzon wasn’t here.

Shaking his head to dislodge the uncomfortable reminder, Aang took a flying leap from the roof, aiming for the next one. If someone was really trying to stay in the houses over there, whether it was mask-guy or not, he needed to find them. The area had been evacuated for a reason, and Aang didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt.

~~*~~

The only thing that saved Zuko was the fact that he was a light sleeper. He heard a soft whumf of something landing near the house he’d sheltered in and sprang to his feet, instantly alert. His face felt weird, probably because he hadn’t bothered removing the mask before crashing, and it had pushed up against one side of his face. He barely paid attention as he shoved the parka (still half damp, that was the problem with dense furs - they took forever to dry) over his head. It caught on the mask, despite the fact that he’d gone to the trouble of unbuttoning it when he hung it on the drying rack. Panic made him sloppy, he knew that, but it didn’t make his fingers work any faster as he plucked at the pale furs, finally shoving his head through the top before he grabbed the pants (also damp, sigh) and then jammed his feet into the (still soggy) boots.

“Hi there!” a cheery voice called from the doorway.

Zuko grabbed the swords from the ground and spun around to face -

The Avatar? Who was apparently in a chatty mood.

“I don’t know if you know this, but this whole area is supposed to be evacuated,” the Avatar was saying, “The houses could break at any minute, so it’s not really safe-” His eyes widened comically as he took in Zuko’s bedraggled, soggy appearance. “YOU!”

Instinctively, Zuko flinched, wondering if the Ocean was coming to take him next.

“You’re the guy that saved me from that Fire Nation prison!” The airbender was pointing at him, apparently gobsmacked by his presence.

As his heart rate returned to something slightly more normal, Zuko breathed, pointedly not connecting to the fire burning at his back. The last thing he needed right now was to look like a firebender. Still, if he had to be caught by someone, he could think of worse options than the Avatar, especially as he didn’t seem particularly inclined towards anger and posession-by-the-ocean-spirit at the moment. Considering that Zuko had been on the receiving end of an angry Avatar Spirit more than once, he mentally sent a quick prayer of thanks to Agni that he was only dealing with the flighty chatterbox version of the Spirit of the World.

He lowered his swords cautiously, considering his options. With how badly things had gone the last time he’d tried to capture the Avatar, Zuko wasn’t in the mood to tempt fate. He didn’t need another blizzard followed by an angry ocean to contend with, especially since he still didn’t have a plan for taking the Avatar back to the Fire Nation. Though maybe he could come up with something on the fly. After all, this just seemed too convenient. How would he get the Avatar to come with him? How would he even get away from this giant block of ice these barbarians called a city?

...he could steal a ship. Maybe.

The idea of trying to crew an entire ship himself (a Water Tribe ship, very flammable, with sails and probably requiring waterbending to reach any reasonable cruising speed) while also corralling the Avatar did not appeal to him. Take that, Uncle! He could think things through. Sometimes. So that was out for the moment. It really stung, because if he did have transportation, this would be the perfect opportunity to capture the Avatar. No one else around, nothing around but streets and streets of abandoned city blocks, no annoying Water Tribe siblings to throw boomerangs at his head or freeze him in a block of ice…

“You’re not wearing black, though,” the airbender said, still talking, though mostly to himself as Zuko had mostly tuned him out to muse on possible capture strategies. “Why not?”

This question reeled Zuko back in, as he wasn’t sure how to explain to the idiot Avatar that black wasn’t exactly a good way to blend into the background of a city made entirely of blue and white ice.

“Is it because it’s too cold?” the kid asked, as if it were somehow impossible to make a parka from the hide of an animal with black fur.

Then again, the Air Nomads had something of a reputation. Zuko had learned this while digging for clues about the Avatar, reading old scrolls from the Earth Kingdom (because Zuko couldn’t very well access the Fire Nation libraries when he was banished, could he? He had no other option but to use whatever he could get his hands on. Of course he knew the Fire Nation’s resources were better, he simply hadn’t had any other choice!).

Considering their pacifist teachings, and the absolute ignorance of this airbender in particular, i t was entirely possible that the current Avatar had no idea how clothes made of fur worked. To be fair, Zuko’s experience was mainly in the leather department, so he hadn’t known much about furs until his first venture into arctic waters. He hadn’t had the benefit of a Water Tribe sibling duo feeding him information, though. How could the Avatar have so much access to knowledge and assistance and still be so dumb?  

“Why aren’t you talking?” the Avatar asked, then.

With that simple question, Zuko was instantly reminded of his incredibly precarious position.

When he’d broken into Pohuai Stronghold, he had remained silent because he hadn’t wanted to run the risk of his voice being identified by any of the soldiers. Sure, they worked for that creep Zhao, but they were still his people, and he wasn’t going to force them to choose between him or Zhao. Mostly because, if previous experience was any indication, they would choose Zhao. Zuko had refused to speak because he couldn't risk giving them the chance to identify him. That the Avatar hadn’t been able to identify him either had been a bonus, sure, but Zuko hadn’t planned on maintaining the ruse any longer than it took him to hog-tie the kid and lug him back to his ship.

Now, though, it suddenly felt much more important that he not speak. He was in enemy territory. Facing the Avatar with no backup in a city chock full of waterbenders. He couldn’t eve leave yet, because he still hadn’t found Uncle! He needed his anonymity. But would the airbender believe him if he pretended to be someone else? Could he pretend to be someone else?

Well. He’d already pretended to be a non-bender for the Pohuai Stronghold break-in. He could pretend to be non-verbal, too. It would just require a lot of self-control. (He could already hear Uncle proverb-ing at him, but really, what choice did he have? Self-control may not be his strong suit, but survival was. If he needed it to survive, he was sure he’d be able to hold his tongue.)

Reuniting the dual dao into a single blade, Zuko bent over to pick up his makeshift sheath, slipping the sword back into it before turning back to the Avatar and shrugging.

The Avatar looked worried. “Can you speak?” he finally asked.

Extending one hand, Zuko waggled it noncommittally. He wasn’t going to claim total muteness, just in case he slipped up and made a noise at some point. The Avatar was exasperating, and if he didn’t manage to stifle a groan in time, he didn’t want this whole ruse tumbling down around him.

“So you can speak?” the Avatar pressed, obviously confused.

Zuko sighed, but was sure to keep it voiceless. It made his point either way. Zuko lifted a hand to his throat, and made a slight choking noise, focusing on not sounding like himself so hard that he wasn’t actually sure what noise he made.

“So you can’t speak,” the Avatar surmised.

It was like talking to a brick wall. Or rather, not-talking . Deciding to just leave it, Zuko nodded.

“Right. Well, I’m glad you’re okay,” he said, “You disappeared after getting hit in the head with that arrow - are you okay? It looked like it hurt!”

Zuko contemplated that injury, weighing it against being blown up in his own ship, or being frozen in a block of ice, or even carrying the avatar through a stupid blizzard. Eh. He’d definitely had worse. The concussion hadn’t been fun, and he’d vomited, which was never a joyous experience, but all things considered, his continued survival was something of a miracle at this point.

“It’s so amazing that you’re here!” the Avatar exclaimed.

Suspicious, I think you mean, Zuko thought bitterly. But the Avatar didn’t seem suspicious at all. Absolutely guileless. How did he keep evading capture when he was so utterly dense? It boggled the mind.

“This is great!” the airbender continued. “I really wanted to introduce you to my friends-” Friends. The Water Tribe siblings. In other words, people who, unlike the Avatar, would definitely find his presence here suspicious.

Besides, Zuko didn’t have time to socialize. He still needed to find Uncle Iroh!

“…and Katara would definitely be glad to meet you, she’s saved me from the Fire Nation a lot of times, too! And Sokka would probably think your swords are really cool, even though he mostly uses a boomerang, he’s used a fan before too, but never a sword, I think…”

Zuko’s eyes darted around the room, looking for an exit. The one door to the place was directly behind the Avatar. How was he going to get out of here?

“…let’s go!” the airbender bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, tugging on Zuko’s arm and moving for the door.

Well. That was one way to leave, he supposed. He allowed the flighty airbender to tug him out the door, but shook him off after that. Fortunately, the Avatar seemed fine with that.

“So, I think it’s this way,” he mused, turning to look in one direction. “Or maybe that way…?”

Zuko edged backwards, praying that he could get another foot or two between them. He’d figure out a way to hide, he just needed a bit more space to work with.

“Or maybe that way,” the Avatar pointed, fully turning his back on Zuko.

Zuko leapt on the opportunity and fled, cursing himself all the way for getting dragged into this mess in the first place. How had the Avatar found him? Would the Avatar find him again? He didn't know.

Scrambling down a narrow side-street strewn with half melted frozen rubble, Zuko skidded across slick ice, his half-soaked boots failing to provide adequate traction, and he lost his balance, careening into a collapsed wall. His breath escaped him in a huff of pain, his ribs eager to remind him again that they were still feeling the effects of some serious bending battles and having been recently almost-murdered. Pulling himself back to his feet, Zuko paused to listen for the airbender, though of course, he moved so silently that Zuko wasn’t holding out much hope. More likely he’d just appear directly behind Zuko and ask why he’d been running, or something equally stupid.

He couldn't stay in the open like this. Glancing around, Zuko wriggled his way into the first bit of shelter he could find, a portion of the collapsed wall he’d slammed into with a hollow just big enough for him to cram himself inside. About thirty seconds later, over the frantic pounding of his heart, he could just make out what sounded like the Avatar shouting himself hoarse. Zuko closed his eyes, desperately begging Agni for protection, hoping that the Avatar Spirit wouldn’t be angered by his escape and emerge once more just to tear the city apart looking for him. After several more minutes of shouting, the yelling abruptly stopped. For a minute, Zuko was tempted to believe that the Avatar had given up and left.

…Or perhaps he was waiting for Zuko to think he’d left, so that he would be tempted to come out of hiding. Zuko wasn’t going to fall for that. Folding his arms and fighting the chill working into him from the stupid damp clothes and soggy boots he hadn’t finished drying, Zuko waited. And waited. And…

[chemicalmagecraft]

A Black Wind Howls Chapter 4: Winter Solstice Part One

Previously on Avatar... 

"You can run but you can't hide, airbenders!" the leader of the firebenders shouted.

"I'm sorry," Dorji said quietly, seemingly to thin air. "This is all my fault."

Dorji grunted lazily and touched the thumb of her open hand to her chest and then her chin."

I also managed to find a scroll on healing with waterbending. It's not anything you can use in a fight but, well... Let's just say I speak from experience when I say that healers are the kind of thing that are always great to have around. I'll try to find practical waterbending scrolls to get to you."

"And finally, I added in a few scrolls on Earth Kingdom Sign Language," Tsering said. "While it's not my place to tell you why, Dorji sometimes prefers talking in it so it'd be for the best if at least one of you learned enough of it to hold a conversation."

"I... Sometimes I have... problems processing sounds. It's not too bad anymore, I hope anyway, but please be patient if I need you to repeat things," Dorji muttered. "I would also prefer if you faced me while speaking to me, for similar reasons. I can read lips, in case I'm having trouble with hearing."

Dorji turned to Sokka. "Perhaps you would like to learn chi blocking? You seemed pleased with the concept of disrupting firebending. And it can do more than just disable bending for a few seconds."

oOoOo

"Bending is connection to an element," Dorji said, her hands on Appa's reins. She was sitting backwards, though, so she could talk to the others more comfortably, and only occasionally looked behind her at where Appa was going. She held her hand out to a passing cloud, causing a miniature funnel cloud to form from it. "When you move air, when you lift water, you become one with it. To a truly masterful bender, their element is an extension of their very body."

"What does this have to do with us wearing blindfolds?" Aang asked from Appa's saddle. He and Katara were both sitting down on opposite sides of the saddle, wearing blindfolds. Sokka was sitting in the back, studying Dorji's chi blocking scroll.

"The reason the Air Nomads used to shave their heads was to give them more connection to air, was it not, Aang?" Dorji asked. When he nodded, she continued, "By shaving their heads, the Air Nomads made themselves more sensitive to the air currents around them, if only a bit. My grandmother trained me in a more... advanced version of this. Thanks to her I learned to feel the very air around me in a wide range, as another sense. Think of the blindfold like... a weight, I suppose. By restricting one of the senses you use the most, you will unconsciously draw on other senses. And once you begin to feel the elements more, your control over them will only increase."

"That makes about as much sense as bending always does," Sokka snarked. He looked at the diagram on his scroll, then carefully pressed his thumb into a spot on his other arm. "Tingly," he muttered.

"Is this really going to work?" Aang asked.

"I learned your little trick, didn't I?" Dorji stated. With the same deadpan expression as always, Dorji showed off the spinning stone trick that Aang entertained the people of Kyoshi with. "At least try to learn mine, please. Though I suppose the blindfolds work better when you're being forced to move around or something else that you would otherwise rely on sight for, which isn't something you can safely do on a flying bison..."

"You didn't do it right, though," Aang noted.

Dorji winced. Despite the blindfolds, Katara and Sokka glared at Aang.

"Sorry, sorry," Aang raised his hands apologetically. "I meant that it doesn't have the same affect if you don't have the expression right." He frowned. "How did I know that, actually?"

"I can have that affect on people," Dorji said. "Or perhaps you're beginning to learn. Regardless, let me try that again."

As if the mental exertion required to even think about purposefully adopting such a whimsical expression was too much for Dorji's brain to handle, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she went limp. The only thing that prevented her from sliding and falling off of Appa was the fact that she somehow managed to drop the reins in such a way that her foot got caught in them and she ended up dangling off the side of Appa's head.

"DORJI!" Sokka screamed in horror.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad, Sokka," Aang said, oblivious to what just happened due to his blindfold. Katara just scowled at him.

oOoOo

Dorji groaned as she woke up. "I hate the spirit world..." She rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was sitting in Appa's saddle, and it appeared that they had landed in a forest that had been burnt down. Work of the Fire Nation, she judged from the komodo rhino tracks. She tossed herself off of Appa's saddle, slowly falling to the ground.

"Ah!" But when she touched down, she cried out in pain despite how lightly she landed. She dropped to the ground and clutched her knee.

Dorji's awake!" Katara shouted. She and the others rushed over to her. "Are you okay?" Katara asked.

"I probably just twisted it when I fell..." she muttered, pulling some bandages out of one of the pouches on her belt and taking off her shoe.

"Here, let me," Katara offered. She took the bandage and started wrapping up Dorji's foot for her.

Dorji blushed and fidgeted.

"Sorry, am I putting it on too tight?" Katara asked.

Dorji's blush deepened. She pressed her fingers together nervously. "Mmh. N-no, sorry. I'm just a l-little... ticklish, I guess..."

Katara finished bandaging her foot. "There, is that better?"

Dorji gingerly tested the range of her ankle's motion, then nodded. "Thank you." She pulled the two halves of her staff from her belt, then used them to push off the ground. She balanced on her good leg, then put her staff together and started leaning on it. "It doesn't feel too bad. Hopefully it'll be better in a few days if I keep my weight off of it."

"So what happened back there?" Sokka asked.

She sighed. "I'm... afraid I lost track of the days when I was in that prison. Is the winter solstice approaching?"

Katara nodded. "It's in a few days, but what does that have to do with you passing out?"

Aang gasped. "Did you... pass over to the spirit world?"

She nodded. "That... happens to me sometimes, at times when the two worlds draw closer."

"How is that even possible?" Sokka asked.

"Airbenders, for whatever reason, have souls more easily separated from their bodies. So those among us who are more receptive to the spirit world can actually cross over without meaning to, especially when near areas with strong spiritual ties." She nodded at Aang. "You were warned about this, right?"

Aang nodded back. "Yeah, when we were really young the monks took us aside before one of our holy days and warned us about how we could cross over on accident if the circumstances were right." He thought of something. "Actually, I think they might have asked us to be extra cautious because of me. Sorry, did I accidentally make you cross over? I am supposed to be the bridge between worlds..."

Dorji rubbed her chin. "No... You might have exacerbated it slightly, but I knew that might happen when I decided to travel with the Avatar. The real reason, I think, is that there's something near here that is very connected to the spirit world." She closed her eyes for a few seconds, as if concentrating on something else. "It looks like... a statue to a bear spirit. Maybe the guardian of this forest?"

The other three looked over at a bear statue, which was on the other side of Appa from where Dorji was standing. "Amazing," Katara said. "How'd you do that?"

"As much as I don't act like it, I'm very spiritually receptive. I was born that way," Dorji explained. "Grandmother told me a theory she had, once, that because most of the airbenders died, when my father and myself were born we were given a high degree of spiritual power by the universe in an attempt to restore balance."

Sokka raised his eyebrow.

"I... probably didn't explain that very well, did I?" She leaned against Appa. "In all honesty, I don't get it. But... I don't have any other explanation for it. Because of my strong spiritual receptivity, my ability to sense the air around me also allows me to sense... other things. Spiritual presence among them."

"That makes sense, I guess," Aang said.

Sokka frowned. "I still don't get this whole spirit world thing, but that's good to know, I guess."

"That bison... could you be the Avatar?" an old man asked as he walked through the ruined forest to the group. He smiled when he saw Aang's tattoos. "Please help my village, Avatar."

"Um, I'll try my best, whatever you need," Aang said. "Just take us there."

"I don't suppose you know anything about medicine?" Dorji asked.

"How bad is it?" the man asked, seeing how Dorji was leaning on a staff and not using her bad leg.

"Just a sprain, hopefully," Dorji told him. "Would like for someone who actually paid attention in their first aid lessons to take a look, though."

Everyone stared at her. "Flopsie wanted cuddles," she explained with a shrug.

"As in the King of Omashu's pet Flopsie?" Katara asked.

"He likes it when you scratch him behind the ears," Dorji smiled slightly. "Now, perhaps we should get on Appa? That way he can examine my ankle on the way to his village."

oOoOo

"Its name is Hei Bai," the village chief said after the old man brought them to his house. "It started attacking the village every night recently, I'm sure you saw the houses it destroyed, and it has been spiriting people away, too. The winter solstice, when the boundaries between this world and the spirit world begin to weaken, is drawing near, and we would prefer not to find out what sort of havoc Hei Bai could wreak on that day of all days."

Dorji, who was given the comfiest chair in the house and a footrest to prop up her injured leg, cleared her throat. "A spirit's powers don't grow on the solstice, thankfully. It only takes less effort to cross between the worlds, and powers that involve a connection to the spirit world are easier to use. It might even be that this spirit can only cross over the way it does thanks to the solstice approaching, and the amount of power it'll 'gain' on the day of is negligible at best. Or, I suppose, worst."

The chief nodded in thanks. "That is reassuring to hear, thank you. Regardless, I think that we would all rest much easier if there wasn't a monstrous spirit that wants to attack us. Avatar Aang, please help us and pacify the spirit besieging our village."

Aang bit his lip. "I'll... I'll try."

"Thank you, Avatar."

Katara put her hand on Aang's shoulder. "Let's talk," she said gently, then brought him over to the part of the room where Sokka and Dorji were still sitting. "Are you okay? You seem a little nervous."

"I'm not too sure, but... I have to try." Aang looked at Dorji. "Actually, what else do you know about spirits?"

She shook her head. "Not much. My father apparently used to explore the spirit world frequently, but I have a few... issues with it, so I didn't pay much attention to what he told me about it, except for a few things."

"I'm beginning to notice a pattern with you," Sokka noted.

Dorji blushed a little. "I swear I'm normally more competent than that, but in my defense I don't like the spirit world."

Sokka stroked his chin, like he was stroking an imaginary goatee or beard. "And what about your first aid lessons, young lady?" he asked in a weird, authoritative, father figurely voice.

"You can't stare into Flopsie's soulful eyes and tell him no," Dorji defended. "But Flopsie's soulful eyes are irrelevant to our current situation. What I do know is that most spirits will not attack humans without first being provoked... though sometimes the provocation is something that one would not expect a normal person to react so strongly to."

"That's extremely helpful," Sokka snarked.

Katara elbowed him.

"I apologize that I can't offer much more advice," Dorji said. "It's probably something recent, though. If the spirit looks like a bear you might want to start with the forest."

"That... thank you," Aang said. He smiled and hugged her. "I'm feeling much better about this than I did earlier."

She nodded. "I'm sure you'll do fine. Now, you may want to start preparing yourself."

"The girl is right," the village leader said. "The sun is starting to set. Hei Bai will be here soon."

Aang nodded and retrieved his staff. "I'm ready." He walked out the door, a serious look on his face.

"Yyyeah, we're all gonna die..." Sokka said.

Katara hit him. "Don't say that!"

Dorji nodded. "I have the utmost faith in him. And not just because I, as the disabled girl with the sprained ankle, would be the most screwed should Hei Bai attack us, even with my father's staff." She tapped the staff, which was currently leaning on her chair

"In any case, it won't do us any good to worry about it," Katara said. She coated her hands in water from a pitcher that she was given. "And speaking of your ankle, I read that one scroll on healing your grandmother gave us. I'm not sure how successful I'll be, but I still wanna try it."

"It can't hurt," Dorji agreed.

Katara placed her hands on Dorji's foot, which she had left bare other than the bandage after the old man took a look at it. Dorji's cheeks and ears turned pink as Katara closed her eyes and started rubbing her foot. "Does it feel any better?" Katara asked.

"I-it does, b-but only because of the c-cool water, I think," Dorji answered. She smiled slightly, and her blush turned very red. "A-and, a-a really p-p-pretty girl g-giving me a f-foot rub also m-makes me feel a l-lot better."

Katara started laughing so hard that she dropped her water. "Sorry," she said as she retrieved more water, "but that sounds like the sort of thing Sokka would say to some girl." Dorji's face was burning now, though Katara hadn't noticed because she was concentrating on trying to heal Dorji.

Sokka raised his eyebrow at Dorji. "Yeah," he said with a smug grin, "that does sound like the sort of thing I'd say. With someone other than Katara, obviously." Dorji shrank down in her seat and timidly tried to hide her face. Sokka, with an even more smug expression, pointed to the left with two fingers and then made a fist with his thumb pointing up, the signs for 'h' and 'a.' Dorji looked like she very much wanted to use her grandmother's invisibility technique.

"Dorji, are you sure you're okay? You're starting to shake a bit," Katara asked.

"Y-yeah," Dorji squeaked. "M'fine."

"I have no idea what you three are doing, but Hei Bai just showed up in case you want to watch your friend," the village chief said.

"Katara, help Dorji stand," Sokka ordered as he got up.

"Th-that's not really..." Dorji started to say, then trailed off when Katara grabbed her hand. Katara smiled at Dorji as she helped her up. Dorji leaned on her, still blushing heavily, and summoned her staff to her free hand with airbending. "Th-thanks..."

"That is not a bear," Sokka said about the monstrous spirit Aang was trying to talk to.

"I hope Aang knows what he's doing," Katara said.

Dorji stared at the spirit as it smashed down a house with a roar... or perhaps a scream. "He's crying," she muttered.

"What was that, Dorji?" Katara asked her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Aang looks fine to me," Sokka said.

Dorji shook her head. "Not Aang, Hei Bai."

"That monster is not crying," the village leader said. "It's creepy."

"I think he looks kinda cute, rampaging aside," Dorji shrugged. "He's fluffy and I wanna pet him."

The chief raised his eyebrow at her, then looked at the four-armed monster attacking the village. He stepped away from Dorji.

Aang shouted at Hei Bai to gain his attention, causing Hei Bai to turn around long enough to hit him, sending him flying, before turning back to smashing a building. "That's it, I'm helping him," Sokka said, then ran for the door.

"Sokka, wait!" Katara shouted.

"You can't fight it!" the village chief shouted as Sokka ran out the door.

"I'm going out there too," Dorji said. She defenestrated herself, and once she was clear of the window she unfurled her staff. The revealed glider wings were as black as the rest of the staff. An air current had already formed when she opened her staff, catching Dorji and causing her to shoot off in the direction of the rampaging spirit. She was just a little too late to stop the spirit from grabbing Sokka, who'd thrown his boomerang at him to get him to stop, and running back to the trees.

"Sokka!" Aang shouted, and unfurled his own glider. He joined Dorji in chasing the spirit through the trees, until they reached the part of the forest that had been burned away. Dorji grabbed hold of one of Hei Bai's arms, using her glider to try to slow him down. Aang got close enough to reach out to Sokka, but as soon as Sokka grabbed Aang's hand the spirit shimmered and disappeared, taking Sokka with it. Aang and Dorji remained, but they both fell despite their gliders and were knocked unconscious.

oOoOo

"Ow, my head," Aang said as he woke up. He rubbed his head as he sat up and looked around. While it was still nighttime, it looked like a few hours had passed after they'd been knocked unconscious. "Sokka?" he shouted. "Are you there?" He sighed. "I failed, didn't I?"

He heard a sob. Aang turned around to see Dorji, cowering by the foot of the bear statue. She was curled up in a ball, trembling and covering her head with her arms.

Aang knelt down in front of her. "Are you okay, Dorji?" He asked. She didn't respond at all. "Hey, is your ank-" He gently touched her shoulder.

She shrieked and jerked back. She looked at him, startled and with eyes red and puffy from crying. "A-Aang, y-you're up." She gave a shaky sigh of relief. "Y-you wouldn't w-wake up, a-and I was s-scared..." She sniffled.

"I'm sorry, I guess." Aang looked around. "Do you know where Sokka and the spirit went?" he asked, not looking directly at Dorji.

"U-um... c-could you p-please look at m-me?" Dorji asked.

"Hm?" Aang looked at her. "What's wrong?"

Dorji hugged her knees nervously. "I-I..." She bit her lip. "I... c-can't hear y-you..."

Aang tilted his head, confused. "You... can't?"

"I... I can't hear in the s-spirit world..."

"That... sounds arbitrary," Aang said, then looked around again. "But we're not in the spirit world, are we?"

Dorji's grip on her knees tightened. "It's... more complicated than that. A-and we are. T-this is a sort of... borderland, that only appears at times like the solstice. It's... a thin layer that forms over the material world. I-it's what makes it so easy to cross over to the spirit world. We can see the material world, b-but only those attuned to the spirit world will be able to see us."

"So... how does that translate to you not being able to hear? Or is that too personal of a question to ask, sorry?"

"Well... it is a personal question... but I suppose I should tell the truth..."

"Oh, don't feel the need to tell me if you don't feel like it," Aang said, shaking his head.

Dorji frowned at him. "...It's hard to read your lips if you do that."

"Sorry!"

"It's... fine..." Dorji took a deep breath. "The reason I can't hear in the spirit world... is because I was born deaf."

"You were what?" Aang asked.

"P-please let me explain," Dorji said. "I hear through my ability to sense air, and when a bender crosses over to the spirit world in spirit alone, which is what we did, we lose all bending ability..."

"Including air sense," Aang finished. "Though how does air sense translate to hearing, if you don't mind me asking?"

Dorji nodded slightly. "It's a valid question. The sound you hear is basically just... vibrations in air, so I was taught to read those vibrations." She sighed. "It's... not perfect, though. I have trouble detecting tone of voice sometimes, and if I'm too distracted..." She bit her lip. "I... That's how I got found out..."

Aang put his hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

She took a deep breath. "I... was practicing. Alone. In a clearing. I shouldn't have, but I wanted to surprise Father by learning a technique he had showed me. I let myself become distracted, and while I was practicing it seemed that a Fire Nation soldier snuck behind me." She sobbed. "I-i escaped, b-but the soldier called reinforcements and they chased me. I... I led them right to my father."

"That's not your fault," Aang assured her. She didn't react because her eyes were closed, so Aang squeezed her shoulder. "Hey, that wasn't your fault," he said when she looked at him.

She shook her head. "Father is so much stronger and faster than me. Some call him the most powerful bender in the Earth Kingdom, if not the world. Had he not had to protect me, Father could have slipped away invisibly, or killed them all. But I was there, so he had to slow himself do-"

Aang hugged her. She sobbed and buried her face in Aang's chest. Aang let her cry, neither of them trying to speak, and rubbed her back in an attempt to soothe her. Her sobs abated eventually. Aang gently pushed her off of him and squeezed her shoulders lightly. "I think... Maybe, we did make mistakes. I ran away from the Air Temple, and more recently I said some horrible and uncalled for things to you. And you might have been surprised by some Fire Nation people. But... we're both kids. Sometimes we'll make mistakes. We should apologize for them, and try not to make the same mistake again, but beating ourselves up over it won't change anything. Tsering didn't blame either of us, and while I don't know your father I do know that if he's anything like Tsering he wouldn't blame you for what happened." Aang got up and held a hand out to Dorji, smiling. "So let's not blame ourselves either, okay?"

Dorji sniffed. It felt as if a weight lifted off her chest as she processed Aang's words. "I think... I think I needed to see that." She took Aang's hand and let him pull her up, leaning on him due to her bad ankle. "Thank you."

"And for what it's worth, I'm still really sorry for the 'you're not a real airbender' thing..."

Dorji nodded, but still frowned a little. "Let's just... not talk about that again, please. Now, what are we going to do."

"If you want, you can try to go back to our world. I'll try to look for Sokka until morning, if that's how it works here."

"There is morning here." Dorji bit her lip, then squeezed Aang's hand a little. "I think... I think I'll stay with you. For now. I don't know how how much help I'll be, but I want to try. And it might be better for both of us to have someone else."

Aang nodded. "Thanks." Then he squeezed Dorji's hand. "How about we hold hands, and when I need to talk to you I can squeeze your hand or something to get your attention?"

"That sounds good, thank you."

He smiled at her. "Great. Now, let's try to find Sokka."

The walked around the ruined forest in silence, looking for anything out of place. Eventually, Aang heard something. He quickly turned to face Dorji and squeezed her hand. "I think I hear... wings flapping?" he said when she looked at him. He wasn't quite sure that was what it was, but it was his best guess.

"I'll take your word for it." She looked up, then her eyes widened and she pointed at a figure approaching from above. It was a red, serpentine creature that flew towards them on great red wings. "Could that be it?" she asked, surprisingly calm. She glanced back at him for his response.

"Is that a dragon!?" Aang asked. The dragon landed in front of them.

"It looks like Avatar Roku's dragon. Could it be here for you?" Dorji speculated.

The dragon nodded, then leaned forward. Aang flinched back, but calmed when the dragon touched his whiskers to his head.

"Oh. Thank you," he told the dragon. He turned back to Dorji. "He wants to show me something. Is it okay if I leave with him?"

Dorji nodded, then bit her lip. "Go, but I think... if you're going I want to leave the spirit world."

Aang squeezed her hand. "That's fine. There's nothing wrong with leaving somewhere that makes you uncomfortable."

"Thanks," she nodded, then closed her eyes. She breathed in, then out. Her body glowed and turned transparent, then she shot back off to where they'd entered the spirit world. The sleeping form of Dorji's body in the material world stirred when her spirit body entered her. Dorji got up, leaning on her staff again, then nodded to Aang and the dragon. As Aang got on the dragon, Dorji twirled her staff. The motion generated more wind than should've been possible, allowing Dorji to shoot herself up into the air, then unfurl her staff. The wind shot her back to the village.

oOoOo

Dorji landed in the center of the town.

"Dorji, you're back!" Katara shouted, then ran over to hug her.

Dorji squeaked.

"Oh, I was so worried about you!" Katara exclaimed, letting her go. "What happened? Where are the others?"

"A-ah..." Dorji fidgeted a little. "Sokka... is probably in the spirit world. I know Aang is in the spirit world, we entered there on accident. He was contacted by a... representative, of sorts, of Avatar Roku, so hopefully he'll know how to best resolve the situation when he returns."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "A representative of..."

"Avatar Roku, the Avatar before Aang. I've heard that the Avatar before the current one acts as a spiritual advisor for the current one, so he's in good hands. All that's left for us to do is wait."

"That's good to hear," the village chief, who had walked over to them, said. "Is there anything we can do while we wait for the Avatar to come back?"

Dorji slumped into Katara's chest. "Food, please," she muttered, still keeping eye contact with the village chief. "Going to the spirit world can be draining. I need food, Aang will need food, and when he gets the others back they'll need food. And I have an idea that might help, but I'll need to regain some energy before I try it." And then she closed her eyes and started snoring.

Katara picked her up. "I'll take her somewhere more comfortable. Can you get some food for her?"

The chief nodded. "I'll get right on that."

oOoOo

The sun was beginning to set, though it was hard to tell under the cover of the clouds that blanketed the sky, but Aang was still nowhere to be found. Katara was waiting for him outside the village chief's house, but she was starting to look worried. "Where are you, Aang?"

"He's approaching," a soft voice said from behind her.

Katara jumped, then turned to see Dorji standing behind her. She wasn't leaning on her staff anymore, as her ankle had healed up a bit. "Oh, Dorji, you scared me."

Dorji bowed her head slightly. "Right, sorry."

"It's okay. What did you want to tell me?"

"I... sensed... Aang's spirit moving towards his body. Very fast, too. He should be back in our world by now." She tilted her head slightly, as if "listening" to something, then pointed at the sky behind Katara.

Katara turned around and looked at something in the distance where Dorji was pointing. "Aang!" she shouted.

The small figure flying in the distance grew to reveal that it was Aang, and Aang landed in front of Katara and Dorji. "Sorry, am I late?" he asked.

"I think you'd know if you were late," Dorji said flatly.

"You're back, Aang!" Katara hugged him. "Do you think you know what to do about the spirit now."

Aang gave her a determined expression. "I'm not entirely sure, but I'll try my best."

Hei Bai seemed to fade into existence right behind him.

"As soon as Hei Bai appears I'm going to..." Aang felt something breathing down his neck. "It's behind me, isn't it?"

Dorji and Katara nodded.

Aang turned around and stared at Hei Bai, determined. "You're angry because the Fire Nation destroyed your forest, aren't you?" he said.

The spirit growled at him.

Aang pulled out an acorn. "I was so angry when I saw it, too. But my friends showed me that, even if it looks bad now, there's still hope for it to regrow in the future."

Hei Bai's expression softened.

"Actually," Dorji butted in, "I heard that forest fires can cause the soil to become even more nutritious, because the nutrients from dead trees get turned into ash and then mixed with the soil, or something. Obviously it's still better for the forest not to get set on fire, but with some rain to let the ash absorb into the soil..." As if on cue, a raindrop fell on the spirit's nose. More started falling, a light drizzle at first but slowly getting heavier. "The forest might regrow healthier than ever."

Hei Bai seemed to be processing that, his expression softening further as the rain soaked it. He shimmered and morphed into a panda, then picked the acorn Aang had offered him up with his mouth. Dorji stepped forward, holding her hand up in front if his face.

Interestingly enough, Dorji didn't seem to be getting wet at all despite the pouring rain coming down all around her.

The bear spirit pressed his forehead into Dorji's hand, accepting her invitation. Dorji hugged him, then started scratching him behind his ears. He made happy bear noises in response. Aang slowly placed his hand on Hei Bai's neck, then started rubbing it when he didn't object to it.

"That's nice and all, I suppose," Katara said as her friends cuddled with the spirit that had attacked them and took her brother away yesterday, "but could you please give back the villagers you spirited away? And my brother?"

Aang stopped petting Hei Bai, but Dorji, whose face was buried in his neck, didn't seem to notice what Katara had said. "Sorry," he said.

Hei Bai made a noise that sounded like it might also have been an apology, then slipped through Dorji's grasp, heading to the forest. As he walked, ethereal bamboo started to sprout from the ground. Aang and Katara walked after him.

"Huh?" Dorji said when Hei Bai passed through her arms, then noticed Aang and Katara following Hei Bai. She trotted after them, walking in between the two.

"How'd you know it'd rain just then?" Katara asked her. As with before, Dorji didn't seem to hear her.

Aang grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Dorji turned to him. "Sorry, did you say something? I have trouble hearing things when it's raining."

"I didn't, but..." Aang pointed at Katara.

"Sorry, I should've gotten your attention first," Katara apologized when Dorji looked at her. "I asked how you knew it'd rain, it seemed like you already knew it was about to rain when you said what you said."

"Those rain clouds have been gathering since I woke up," Dorji pointed out.

Aang frowned. "I know you probably meant that you just guessed it might rain soon, but to be honest it kinda sounded like you were implying you caused the rain."

Dorji didn't seem to notice what Aang said, and instead ran forward as Hei Bai started to disappear into a thicket of bamboo of his own making. As people started to emerge from the thicket, she ran through some bending form that both Aang and Katara thought looked a little familiar, but couldn't quite place. As she did, the effect that caused the rain to avoid her expanded, a swirling field of air that looked something like a lazy, hemispherical funnel cloud protecting the people who were coming back from the spirit world from the elements.

"Wow, how are you doing that?" Aang asked her.

"Airbending," she muttered. "Perhaps we should check on them?"

Some of the villagers, led by their chief, ran into the air shield, small gaps forming in it whenever they were about to touch it. It seemed like Dorji had somehow talked with them about it beforehand, as they didn't pay it much mind aside from a small amount of wonder at the barrier made from of wind and clouds. They came with towels and hot meals (though unfortunately they were a little wet...) for the people who just came back from the spirit world.

"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed when she saw her brother stumbling from the bamboo. She ran up to him and hugged him. "I was so worried about you! How are you doing?"

Sokka danced weirdly. "Thanks, but... I really have to pee!" He wiggled out of the hug and ran out of the cloud barrier. He went so fast that Dorji didn't have the time to fully open a hole in it.

"There are no bathrooms in the spirit world," Dorji noted dully.

oOoOo

Sokka left the bathroom, sighing in relief.

"I'm glad you're okay," Dorji said. She was leaning on the wall near the door, holding a bowl of curry. She offered the curry to Sokka. "Courtesy of the village chief." Sokka reached to grab it, but then Dorji pulled it back. "Actually, did you not wash your hands?"

Sokka growled at her, then went back into the bathroom. A few seconds and sounds of water later, Sokka came back out, still growling, and snatched the bowl from Dorji.

"Seriously, though, are you okay?" Dorji asked him as he downed the soup. "While there were... circumstances that made my first time in the spirit world more terrifying than if could've been, chief among them being the fact that I was five, the spirit world is a confusing place to just randomly be dropped against your will in regardless of circumstances."

Sokka shrugged. "It was pretty freaky, but to be honest that's just been my life since we met Aang."

"Still, if you do need to talk about it I'll be there for you," Dorji said. "And... thanks, for not being weird about it when you noticed..."

Sokka nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Though I do feel like I should remind you that, as Katara's older brother, I will have to tease you about having a crush on her."

"I was worried about that..." she muttered. "Now, I think Aang's about to do something rash, so let's go catch up with him."

Sokka gulped some of his curry. "Yeah, let's go."

oOoOo

"What was Aang just about to do?" Sokka asked Katara. Aang and Katara were standing in front of Appa, who looked like he was being readied to fly.

"I was-" Aang started to say, but was cut off by Katara.

"He was about to leave without us," she said. "Something about Avatar Roku."

"I have to go to an island in the Fire Nation by tomorrow," Aang explained. "I didn't want..."

Dorji jumped onto Appa. "Nope," she said, reclining in the back of his saddle. The rain started avoiding Appa, though without quite as much of the vision-obscuring cloud barrier around him.

"Yeah, we're not letting you go without us," Sokka said, then started trying to climb Appa. "We're going to the Fire Nation together."

Aang sighed. "Thanks, guys."

[soopersara]

Day 2: Speak

Read it on: FFN | AO3

@zutaraweek

Stealing from pirates doesn't go as well the second time around. But at least Katara doesn't have to be alone after she's captured.

This was not going the way she'd planned it. The boys had tried to talk her out of going—"Come on, Katara, let it go. You already have a waterbending scroll. A bunch of them, actually. You're not gonna shrivel up if you don't get your hands on this one."

But this scroll was special. All her other scrolls were from the North. Much as she appreciated what she had learned from Pakku and Yugoda, their bending wasn't her heritage. This scroll, though, this one was from the Southern Tribe. As the last surviving waterbender from the South Pole, it was her duty to take it back.

But she hadn't counted on the pirate ship being so heavily guarded in the dead of night—worse, she'd forgotten that one of them was an earthbender. The waxing gibbous moon gave her a slight advantage, but the river was narrow enough that the earthbender could still fight, and there were enough nonbenders, all armed to the teeth, that she couldn't hold her own for long.

It brought her a strange sense of satisfaction when the pirates dragged her below deck and she discovered that she wasn't their only prisoner. Katara remembered that horrible, grinning mask from countless wanted posters across the Earth Kingdom. If the pirates could capture the Blue Spirit, then at least she had lost to worthy opponents.

But sitting across from him, those empty black eyes boring into hers, was less satisfying. It was unnerving. Aang always insisted that the Blue Spirit wasn't so bad, that despite his less than legal activities, the Blue Spirit really did have good intentions. Katara wasn't convinced. That ominous, toothy grin and the empty, white-rimmed eyes staring at her from the dark blue mask hardly inspired trust or confidence in her.

So she was surprised when she found herself starting to speak. "I thought you were taller."

She heard a derisive breath from beneath the mask.

"I've seen your wanted posters all over the Earth Kingdom," she retorted. "The Blue Spirit. They only ever showed your face—your mask—whatever. I just thought that someone wanted for crimes against the Fire Nation would be taller." She wrinkled her nose. "My brother is your size."

That earned a snort from the Blue Spirit, and he turned away. Or he did as well as he could with his arms tied over his head and his ankles bound in front of him. At least the pirates had been thoughtful enough to tie Katara's hand behind her back instead. It wasn't comfortable, but it had to be better than having her elbows dangle next to her ears.

"Aang told me that you aren't as scary as you look." Katara wasn't sure why she kept talking—maybe it was easier than listening to the river rushing against the hull of the boat. She could feel the water's pull in her veins, and if she let herself listen to the call of her element for too long, she might give in and summon a blast of sharpened ice to plunge the boat to the bottom of the river. In theory, it wasn't the worst idea she'd ever come up with. In reality, she knew that while her bound hands and ankles would pose no problem in summoning ice spikes, they would make escape difficult. If not impossible. She rested her head back against a crate.

"I guess if you've been fighting the Fire Nation, he might be right."

The Blue Spirit visibly stiffened, somehow managing to exude annoyance without making a sound. But Katara still couldn't stop herself.

"What are you doing here, anyway? Pirates' trinkets seem sort of—trivial for the Blue Spirit. I don't know what you normally fight for, but all the stories made it sound so much grander than this." Katara fidgeted against her ropes. "I mean, risking your life for a few jewels isn't exactly the same as fighting for a cause. Whatever your cause is."

The Blue Spirit let out a long breath and shook his head slightly.

"What?" she asked, straightening. "You're not fighting for anything?"

There was a pause, then he shook his head.

Katara frowned. "I don't believe you. People don't just run around in spooky masks and risk their lives without reason."

He scoffed, and with some effort, turned to face her again. His hands twisted in the ropes until he managed to point a finger in her direction.

"Me?"

A nod.

"What am I doing here? What, you can't be bothered to actually ask the question?" She studied him, as if the mask might somehow give away something more than she'd seen so far. "Can you speak?"

He shook his head, but only after a long hesitation. He was lying. A part of her wanted to lie in retaliation—if he refused to tell her the truth, why should she extend him that courtesy? But as she stared back at those gaping black holes and tried to imagine the human eyes underneath, she realized that she didn't need to lie. She didn't even want to. She wasn't ashamed of her purpose here. The Blue Spirit might have things to hide, but Katara didn't.

"I heard a rumor," she admitted in an undertone. "These pirates are pretty well known for stealing priceless things. Cultural relics. A few months ago, I took back something that rightfully belonged to my people. A waterbending scroll from the Northern Tribe. And yesterday, I heard that they found something even rarer." She wanted to curl into a ball, but being tied as she was made that nearly impossible. She settled for lowering both her eyes and her voice. "A waterbending scroll from the Southern Water Tribe. My home. My people. I'm the last living waterbender from the South Pole. It's my responsibility to bring our bending traditions back to life, and I can't do that if the only thing I know is Northern style bending." Her hands clenched into fists. "I saw the scrolls. There's more than one of them. I held the box, and I just—stared at them. They were so beautiful, and so—" She paused to swallow before she could choke on the lump that had risen to her throat. "I could have gotten away. If I had just left with them, I wouldn't be here right now."

The Blue Spirit was listening to her. Really listening. His head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and it wasn't just the empty blackness staring at her now—she could feel the human gaze beneath the mask fixed on her face.

"I meant to be back to camp by now." The moon's weak pull on her was waning—it must be nearly daybreak by now. "I was going to sneak back into camp before my brother realized I was missing. But now—" Her shoulders curled inward. "He's going to be worried about me. Aang will be too." She let out a small sigh and studied the Blue Spirit, trying to spot anything that gave away who he was under his disguise. There was nothing to find. He was clad entirely in black, save for the mask.

"What about you? You must have someone. Friends or family? Somebody's going to worry when you don't show up."

She wasn't sure what sort of reaction she was expecting, but it wasn't the reaction she got. The Blue Spirit made a sound like he'd been choked—the nearest he'd come to speech so far—and began pulling at his ropes.

"What are you doing?" Katara hissed. "Are you planning on escaping?"

He nodded and hauled himself up until he managed to grab the beam he was tied to. Propping himself up, he tugged at the knots. Katara blinked at him.

She thought she saw a flash of light, but before she could figure out where it had come from, the Blue Spirit was busy unraveling the ropes from his wrists. Katara pulled against her own ropes. Sokka had taught her lots about different types of knots, how to tie them, how to quickly loosen them—the problem was, she knew them by sight, not by feel. She let out a noise of frustration.

Before she could manage to free herself, a hand grasped her shoulder—warmer than she expected. She looked up to find the blue mask looming over her. He held up a small dagger and mimed cutting through ropes, then paused, as if waiting for her permission.

Slowly, Katara nodded, and the Blue Spirit reached around her back and sliced her free in a single motion.

"Thanks," Katara whispered and reached down to untie her ankles.

The Blue Spirit hesitated a second before he nodded and motioned for her to follow.

They crept up the stairs together, Katara marveling over how silent and graceful the Blue Spirit was. He was a bit taller than she first thought—not by much, but taller than Sokka—slender and lithe. Young, too, she suspected. Without seeing his face, there was no way to be certain, but she had never known a grown man—a warrior—to balk at social interactions the way he did. But now, ducking around corners and dodging from one shadow to the next, he moved with absolute certainty. As though stealth and fighting came as naturally to him as breathing.

At the window to the pirates' storeroom, the Blue Spirit motioned her forward and held up a finger. Katara read his message clearly. Keep moving. I'll catch up in a minute.

She shook her head. "I'm not leaving without you. You helped me get untied, I'm going to help you get off this ship."

He huffed and jabbed a finger toward the outside again.

Katara folded her arms. "Not a chance, Blue Spirit. I'm a waterbender. You're going to need my help to get off this boat."

He stared at her. Really stared. She stared right back, into the inky blackness of his eyes. The mask's gleaming white teeth weren't half so intimidating when he was trying to argue with her. She had won far more difficult arguments with Sokka, and he had speech on his side. The Blue Spirit didn't. She raised an eyebrow at him.

With a sigh, the Blue Spirit shook his head and motioned for her to wait where she was. Dagger in hand, he wedged open the window and slipped silently inside.

Katara rolled her eyes after him, but hung close to the wall, staying hidden in the semi-darkness. There was some clattering inside the storeroom, and she peeked through the window. It was too dark to see much, but she thought she could make out the white bits of his mask as he moved through the rows of trinkets and treasures, occasionally whirling to one side or the other as if dodging an attack. He came near enough to the window that she could see another shadowy figure lunge at him, but the Blue Spirit spun out of reach and the other figure crashed headlong into a shelf.

The noise drew attention from the deck, and Katara crept farther down the hall. She could nearly reach the water from here—just a few more steps, and she'd have the entire river at her disposal. As the footsteps overhead grew nearer, she took hold of the water, poising to strike. But before she had a chance to send the approaching pirates sailing into the river, the storeroom door swung open, and the Blue Spirit emerged, a sword in either hand and a pack slung over his shoulder. He gestured toward the deck, and Katara nodded, falling into step behind him.

The pirates were waiting for them when they emerged, more of them than either Katara or the Blue Spirit could have fought alone. But the Blue Spirit sprang into motion, swords flashing in the early morning light, and Katara pulled a stream of water to her side.

They fought side-by-side, moving in near-perfect coordination. The Blue Spirit seemed to know exactly when to duck to stay clear of Katara's attacks, and Katara, in turn, had no trouble keeping out of his way. She smirked in satisfaction when she noticed several of the men she'd faced earlier hanging back and favoring bandaged limbs. They may have captured her, but she left her mark too.

Together, they thinned the crowd of pirates until there was a clear path to the railing. Then Katara grabbed the Blue Spirit by the arm and pulled him forward. She leapt up onto the railing and after a second's hesitation, the Blue Spirit joined her. Before the pirates could reach them again, Katara summoned a massive wave and threw an arm around his waist to drag him into the water.

The wave carried them to shore while the boat capsized behind them. Katara didn't need to look back. She could feel the pirates plunge into the icy river a moment before her feet met with the bank and she broke into a run, still side-by-side with the Blue Spirit.

They ran until the yells after them faded to distant echoes and they broke out of the trees and into a clearing. Both breathing hard, they stopped.

Katara couldn't help it. She started laughing, still breathless from the fight and the waterbending and the running. She had expected worse. So much worse, and yet here she was, safe and free, and unexpectedly standing next to an internationally wanted criminal in a blue mask, but she wasn't afraid of him. Not in the least. He made a better ally in a fight than almost anyone else, and he had gone out of his way to help her escape. Whoever he was under the mask, she would fight at his side again in a heartbeat.

"We did it," she said, beaming up at him. "That—that was amazing. You were amazing. I can't believe—" She threw her arms around his neck. "I can't believe we made it."

The Blue Spirit stiffened, and Katara pulled back.

"Sorry! Sorry—I should have asked—"

The movement knocked his mask askew, and for the first time, Katara got a glimpse of the face underneath. Just a sliver of exposed skin, no wider than her little finger, but it was enough. A patch of red, ridged skin in an otherwise pale face—she recoiled away from him.

She didn't need to say his name. The recognition, the accusation was evident enough in her eyes. Even she could tell that.

He straightened the mask as though covering his face could fix everything. As though she would forget the huge crimson scar over the left side of his face if she could no longer see it.

For a moment, she could do nothing but stare. Once the mask was back in place, he let his arms drop, and she almost thought she saw his shoulders curling inward in something like defeat or dejection. He didn't attack. Katara almost expected him to, but those hollow black slits simply stared at her. Underneath, she now knew, a pair of golden eyes were doing the same.

"Don't follow me," she said at last, turning on her heel. She could find her own way. Better than him, probably. Finding fresh water would be easy enough, and she knew how to hunt, how to fish, how to cook. It wouldn't be easy, but she knew where the others were headed. In a few days—weeks, maybe—she would be with them again.

"Katara." His voice was quieter than she remembered it, and almost—almost sad.

Katara paused, looking back over her shoulder. Zuko still hadn't moved, but she heard him sigh, and in a slow, fluid motion, he pulled the mask off. His face was pinched and tired-looking, and when he pushed his hood down as well, she could see that his carefully-shaved hair had been allowed to grow wild. The place where his ponytail used to be was scraggly and uneven and the rest of his head was darkening with an uneven black stubble.

"Wait." He let the mask fall to the ground with a hollow clatter. "I—um." He fumbled for something over his shoulder and eventually produced a narrow, ornate box. "I think—This is yours. I mean—you should have it. It's what you were looking for back there, isn't it?"

She stared in disbelief as he set the box on a flat-topped stone and backed a few steps away. That box, with its Water Tribe patterns and inscriptions—it almost looked like an offering. Like a truce. Katara folded her arms.

"Listen, you didn't have to help me get out. I didn't expect you to." Zuko shifted, looking uncomfortable. "I just—I guess I just thought that one of us should get what we were looking for." For a second, he was quiet, as if waiting for a response, then he shook himself and stepped forward to collect his mask. "I'm just looking for my uncle," he continued as he retreated to a safe distance again. "I know you don't have any reason to believe me, but I'm not going to fight you." At that, he paused again, looking almost hopeful.

Katara stared wordlessly at him. She couldn't believe anything he said. She knew that, deep down, and yet—and yet he didn't sound like he was lying. He didn't look like it either, he just looked—tired. And hungry. And, perhaps even more than her, lost.

Before she could decide how to react, Zuko turned away, angling southward toward the ocean. She crossed the clearing and ran a hand over the cover of the box, over the inlaid bits of pearl and brightly colored shell. With one hand, she cracked open the lid just enough to see that the scrolls were still inside before she hugged the box to her chest and stood.

"Zuko." She didn't speak loudly. She didn't need to. If Zuko wanted to hear her, he would.

He didn't turn immediately, but he did pause, shoulders tensed as if he expected an attack.

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

Peering back over his shoulder, he shook his head.

Katara took a deep breath. "Neither do I," she admitted.

Slowly, Zuko turned back to face her. "What are you saying?" His voice was a gentle rasp, more pleasant than she had given it credit for in the past.

"I'm saying—" Another deep breath. "Do you think we'd have a better chance if we stuck together?"

Even from across the clearing, she could see him swallow. He was wary. And somehow, that was reassuring.

"Truce?" he offered, something almost like hope in his voice.

She expected to hesitate. Calling a truce with the crown prince of the Fire Nation should have filled her with fear, but right now, all she could feel was relief. She may not have her brother or Aang at her side, but at least she wasn't alone. Tucking the scroll box under her arm, she held her hand out in offering.

"Truce."

[carnistcervine]

Twin Avatars + Zuko

Okay, so you know my Twin Avatars AU? I just thought of something. What if I combined it with Avatar Zuko and had Zuko be the Dark Avatar? :'D

-So while Aang ends up frozen in an iceberg, the current Dark Avatar dies fighting against the Fire Nation.

-While Aang is in the ice, Chiaro goes into stasis. With it's twin in hibernation, Scuro also goes into a sleep of sorts.

-Avatars are born and die, never knowing their fate and eventually the cycle swings back to fire and Zuko is born.

-No one knows that Zuko is the Dark Avatar, not even Zuko. Since Scuro is basically hibernating, when Zuko received his burn, he's unable to access the Avatar State.

-So Zuko is banished and sent to find and capture both Avatars, his father knowing full well that neither had been seen for a hundred years.

-Zuko scours every corner of the globe having no idea that he's one of the Avatars he's looking for.

-He doesn't consciously notice the pull of destiny drawing him to the south pole when Aang is about to be released.

-When Aang is released from the ice, Chiaro awakens.

-Instinctively, Zuko knows that the light he saw bursting into the sky was the Avatar. He can't explain why(or rather he doesn't want to accept the reason) but he just knows.

-When Zuko and Aang meet, their spirits resonate and they both just know. Zuko knows that Aang is the Light Avatar, but more importantly, Aang knows Zuko is the Dark Avatar.

-Zuko is confused, he feels like he's meeting up with a best friend that he hasn't seen in ages, but he knows(thinks) that the Light Avatar is his enemy.

-Zuko reacts to this confusion the way he usually does, with rage.

-Of course, Aang happily points out that Zuko is an Avatar too, and it goes poorly...

-Enraged, Zuko denies the accusation wholeheartedly.

-Both Zuko and Aang feel the draw of their inner spirit's platonic affection. Aang is heartbroken by Zuko's rejection. Zuko breaks his own heart by refusing to allow himself to be friends with Aang.

-Aang surrenders to Zuko, hoping that he can maybe talk some sense into him. It doesn't work, Zuko's only interested in fighting Aang.

-Aang hurts because his platonic soulmate hates him and is trying to fight him, Zuko is twisted up on the inside because a deep, ancient part of his spirit loves his fellow Avatar very deeply.

-While Aang is in the Avatar State, Chiaro tries to reach out to Zuko. Zuko resists wholeheartedly, nearly going into the Avatar state himself.

-When Aang escapes on Appa, Zuko finds that he doesn't have the heart to try and strike them down.

-Aang looks back at Zuko who just watches them as they get away.

-Sokka and Katara can hardly believe that Zuko is an Avatar, but being an Avatar himself, Aang can confirm.

-Aang suspects from the scar on Zuko's face that he was tortured into turning against him.

-Suddenly Katara really wants to help the scarred Avatar.

-Sokka doesn't like or trust firebenders, but he can't deny that letting the Fire Nation have their own Avatar would be disastrous.

-Of course Iroh immediately has several questions for Zuko. Because if Zuko is the Avatar... this is very important and it's critical that he is properly trained.

-Obviously Zuko completely denies being the Avatar and tries to make his uncle drop the subject.

-Seeing as Zuko hasn't bent any other elements(yet), Iroh decides to drop the subject.

-With Scuro finally awake, Zuko's avatar abilities begin to show.

-It's not too long before he starts to earthbend. The first instance being on Kyoshi, right in front of everyone.

-Everyone is shocked, but Aang is just like, 'I told you so!'

-Zuko manages to get away, but now the world knows the Dark Avatar has returned.

-The Gaang start making plans on trying to capture Zuko so they can help him.

-Iroh confronts Zuko about being the Avatar.

-Zuko continues to deny the blatant truth, and Iroh loves his nephew but sometimes the poor old man feels like he gonna have a stroke.

-Iroh is afraid that now Zuko's crew know what he is, they'll kill him, but instead they just go along with Zuko.

-Avatar, what Avatar? Zuko's obviously just a cranky firebender.

-Iroh isn't sure if he's relieved that the crew are willing to put themselves on the line to help Zuko, or concerned that they're more-or-less letting him skirt by on his denial.

-Either way, Zuko's crew refuse to turn against him. Though it's less to do with Zuko, and more to do with their undying loyalty to his kindly Uncle.

-They realize that Zuko's the only thing keeping Iroh in this world, and don't want to hurt the old man.

-Even if they think Iroh deserves better than his bratty Avatar nephew.

-The crew end up helping Iroh go behind Zuko's back to find an earthbending teacher.

-The past Dark Avatars start to reach out to Zuko, the most recent ones visiting him in his dreams.

-While Aang is sad and heartbroken over Zuko's rejection, he has Sokka and Katara to help him. Meanwhile, Zuko is rejecting those around him and feels horribly sad and heartbroken deep inside.

-Going back a bit, because Zuko never has to get his ship repaired, Zhao never gets the opportunity to taunt him and find out about the Avatar's return.

-However, he does find out when Aang goes into the avatar state at the Southern Air Temple.

-Zuko tries to follow Aang, but he's a bit late and is incapacitated by strange headache when Aang goes into the avatar state.

-With the knowledge that the Light Avatar is alive and active, Ozai has all resources towards capturing him officially handed over to Zhao.

-Zhao of course throws this up in Zuko's face.

-Once it becomes revealed to the world that the Dark Avatar has returned, Zhao is officially relegated to his capture as well.

-Though, it's a well kept secret by the Gaang and Kyoshi warriors who exactly the Dark Avatar is.

-Iroh continues to slyly try to get Zuko to learn earthbending. He goes through his connections in the White Lotus to try and locate an earthbending teacher, but in the meantime, he has Zuko study earthbending scrolls.

-Obviously Zuko is pissed because he's in denial about being a damn Avatar, but Iroh manages to convince him to study and practice the forms by telling him that diversifying his techniques will strengthen and improve his firebending.

-Technically not a lie, but we all know what Iroh's really tryna do.

-The stress, past avatars trying to nag him, and heartache of being separated from Chiaro all have a severe negative impact on Zuko's mental state.

-He ends up restless, and sometimes slightly delirious.

-Iroh worries deeply for him, and tries to figure out ways to get him and the Light Avatar back together.

-When Zhao ends up capturing Aang, the past Avatars help Zuko break into the stronghold and break Aang out.

-The Light and Dark Avatars being kindred spirits, Aang recognizes Zuko even in his disguise. But Aang doesn't say anything. He plays dumb, because he'd do anything to have his platonic soulmate back by his side.

-When Zuko is knocked out, Chiaro takes out and sends out a blast of light in a fit of rage.

-With the soldiers and Zhao temporarily blinded by the dazzling light show, a Chiaro-possessed Aang flees into the night with Zuko.

-Aang doesn't even bother with the 'could we be friends' speech, he just fucking kidnaps Zuko while he's still unconscious.

-Zuko wakes up before Aang can bring his friends to coherency, and promptly bolts.

-Once Zuko gets back to his ship, he just tells his uncle that he's tired and he goes to bed.

-Zuko keeps trying to chase the Gaang down and capture Aang, and the Gaang keep setting up traps to kidnap Zuko.

-Zuko finds himself feeling increasingly torn about what he wants to do.

-Despite himself, he starts to enjoy the groups antics.

-He tries to tell himself that he hates them. It doesn't work. He tries, but it doesn't work.

-Getting his ship blown up makes him go into the avatar state.

-In the North Pole, Katara actually hides while Aang crosses over into the spirit world.

-The Gaang's plan is to use Aang as bait and to incapacitate Zuko. By either freezing or hitting him.

-Zuko is suspicious of when he sees Aang unguarded and all alone, but as soon as he touches him, Chiaro drags him into the spirit world and effectively incapacitates Zuko.

-While Zuko is trapped, the spirits circle around Zuko and nag the hell out of him. Talking about duty and his destiny and role in this world.

-Zuko isn't hearing a single fucking word of this and yells in angry.

-As soon as Aang comes to his senses, Zuko is dragged right back to his body as well.

-Only problem is that Zhao now knows that Zuko is the Dark Avatar and has the whole group surrounded and both Zuko and Aang captured.

-Zhao reveals his grand plan to kill the moon, and everyone is horrified.

-Iroh stands to defend the moon spirit and breaks out of his restraints and helps his uncle.

-The Gaang break out and defeat Zhao's forces, Zhao seeing that he's loosing, takes Yue hostage.

-Zuko takes exception to this and takes Zhao down, protecting Yue in the process.

-Thoroughly defeated, Zhao tries to take a parting shot at the oasis pool, but a dark shadow reaches out and drags him in before he can harm the spirits.

-Zuko tries to save Zhao, but Zhao is too prideful to accept Zuko's help.

-Now leaderless and unable to beat the waterbenders, the Fire Nation retreats.

-Zuko and Iroh sneak off before the waterbender guards can come to the scene to capture the defeated firebenders.

-Zuko and Iroh have already boarded their raft and set themselves adrift when an unknown passenger jumps on.

-It's Yue.

-Yue says that the moon spirit told her to join them.

-Zuko already hates it.

-The north is freaking out because their princess is missing and Aang vows to find her and bring her home safely.

-They trust his word because he is the Avatar who helped save their home, but they can't help but wonder where the mysterious Dark Avatar went.

-Yue ditches her royal robes and changes up her hair to help hide her identity.

-She also ends up going by Mochi.

-Iroh, Zuko, and Yue traversing the Earth Kingdom.

-Yue learns more about the world outside of the north, and Zuko starts to chill out a little more and gets closer to accepting himself as being the Dark Avatar.

-He even finally relents to learning proper earthbending, and disguises himself as an earthbender.

-He finds that he gets quite good at it.

-His uncle playfully jokes that it's cause he's a bit of a rock head.

-However Zuko does still end up going off on his own for a bit.

-When he goes to the village and confronts the asshole soldier, Scuro possess him and puts on a terrifying show.

-The horrified town chases him out with pitchforks and torches, calling him a half-spirit abomination.

-The world still doesn't know that Zuko is the Dark Avatar, but Azula figures it out fairly quickly.

-When Iroh is shot by Azula, Yue heals him and helps Zuko look after him.

-The Gaang are still trying to capture Zuko tho.

-It's only after Zuko scares them off by nearly going into the avatar state, that as the Gaang are flying off, they realize that was Yue with Zuko. 

-When they get to Ba Sing Se, Yue works at the tea shop too, and she's excellent at customer service.

-When Azula kills Aang in the avatar state, Zuko is too shocked to move. Part of him is deeply saddened, watching his platonic soulmate die, another part is enraged at Azula, and the rest of him just doesn't know what to do.

-It takes everything in him to hold Scuro back and he collapses on the spot.

-Azula takes Zuko back to the Fire Nation and tells Ozai that even though Zuko is the Dark Avatar, he slayed the Light Avatar in the name of the Fire Nation.

-In his time back at the Fire Nation, Zuko feels a deep pain and dread welling up within him.

-He can also feel Scuro writhing within his skin everytime he sees Azula.

-Scuro wants to kill Azula. Badly.

-Zuko knows, he can feel it in his Avatar Spirit that Aang is alive.

-Zuko doesn't have the heart to hire an assassin to kill Aang.

-The world thinks that the Dark Avatar has turned traitor. Perhaps corrupted by his own inner darkness?

-The Fire Nation attempts to groom and train their Avatar for war and destruction, but with his own inner conflict reaching a fever pitch, Zuko's strength wanes and he falls ill.

-He's tormented nightly by horrible nightmares. It gets so bad that he starts to drink drugged tea to get peaceful rest.

-Then, the war meeting happens and Azula gives the suggestion to raze the Earth Kingdom.

-Zuko doesn't sleep that night.

-The next day he confronts his father during the eclipse and tells him point blank that he's taking his rightful side by the Light Avatar and together their gonna come back and take him down.

-When Zuko goes to join the Gaang, the others are all "grrr" but Aang just immediately tackle-hugs him and starts crying because poor Aang has been waiting for his platonic soulmate to come around for SO LONG.

-Zuko can hardly believe it but, he's crying too.

-Also, while Zuko was in the Fire Nation, Yue joined the Gaang!

-Zuko teaches Aang firebending, and Aang teaches Zuko airbending.

-On the day of destiny, Yue and Katara take down Azula, and Zuko and Aang take down Ozai.

-Aang is a pacifist, and Zuko can't actually bring himself to kill his own father, so Aang ends up energybending that bitch.

And that’s all I got. I just wanted to write this out and get it down, because I actually really kinda like this idea.

[mattkenzie]

So I was watching people react to the Dragon Prince on Netflix today (I for one would love to watch that show even though I don’t have Netflix). But the funniest thing that I could remember that there was a post on Tumblr that stated that eventhough the Dragon Prince is done by the same people who done Avatar... the theory is that the characters from Avatar are playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons together.

So who is being the DM (Dungeon Master) in this campaign? A huge part of me is saying that Prince Zuko, because in one of the episodes in Book 1 (before Zuko got his scar) he always begged Uncle Iroh to join him in the war room (Iroh dissuaded Zuko by saying it’s “Long and boring”)... He has done it loads of times before though because he always kept quiet... Zuko saw all these ‘maps’ of the Earth Kingdom and these ‘game pieces’ on the table... Zuko thought of it as some sort of ‘game’ (until one day he spoke out of turn as one of those ‘sessions’ was in fact an actual war scenario). Those ‘soldiers’ ARE loyal but don’t have enough EXP/Levelled enough. (So he was turned off by playing this ‘game’ because of that traumatic episode) Which we fast forward to the epilogue so I could imagine that Fire Lord Zuko converted his war room into a game room because after his adventures with Team Avatar he doesn’t want to lose contact with Aang and the others. So now we are now coming to the conclusion of who is playing what?

We first start off see that Callum is studying magic and yet his voice does sound similar to Sokka doesn’t it? you see because Sokka is a non-bender he was kind of jealous of the things that Aang, Katara, Toph and Zuko can do with the four elements as he was always the ‘boomerang guy’ (in Book 1) and the ‘sword guy’ (in Book 3). Sokka is pretty much up for playing this ‘role playing game’ and wanted to do be a mage of the group so Sokka could do in this fantasy world what the others can in real life... ‘magic’.

So who is playing Ezran?

Next we see Rayla and her attempt at killing a guard (an NPC), I think outside the game this person asked the DM about killing someone eventhough it’s only a game which happens to have consequences, the person who I think would object to killing another person would have to be Katara. Like her brother Sokka, she wanted to step outside her comfort zone too, she can waterbend after all. So Katara wanted to know what it was like to fight in the frontline but instead of picking the fighter class she went for the rogue class. I think it’s because Katara wanted to be a badass (stealth, sneak attacks, acrobatics and most importantly be a moon shadow elf), I think Katara gave Rayla this Scottish accent by accident (and while the others around the table thought it was hilarious, Zuko decided to give these moon shadow elves the accent to make it canon).

Zuko would always allow his guests to play along as well (like how Matthew Mercer has guest stars appear on Critical Role). So let me get Soran out of the way first as he appeared first as a ‘guest character’ as he was beating up Callum (our squishy mage). Opening with Zuko explaining how combat works to Sokka as well as this guest player. With the bluntness and direct way of talking to Callum “Parry, parry, parry, your dead” can only mean that Soran is played by Mai. Mai decided that she wanted to play as a male character, I think it’s her way of poking fun at the gender roles of the male stereotype (really it’s to tease Zuko)

Claudia’s personality is quite cheerful and not to mention bubbly and clearly to see it a mile away and with no doubt about it, Claudia has to be played by Tai Li. Another non-bender like Sokka she wanted to try her hand at being a mage too. But as daft as it sounds, Tai Li has a really huge tendency to meta gaming (with Tai Li/Claudia making a lot of gestures ‘pointing to her nose and pointing at Zuko/). But it is her humour that keeps everyone at the table.

[carnistcervine]

Fire School AU

I originally got the idea for this AU while thinking about how funny it would have been if the whole Gaang was caught for "ditching school." And then I though, shit, let's force them to attend a Fire Nation school. Just the thought of these dorks trying to blend in with the common people of the Fire Nation, whom they have no reference for how they actually think or act just amuses me to no real end.

And I thought, hell, I really like this idea, lets go full on AU with it. So here we are.

-There's no war in this AU, I wanna focus on the Gaang having fun and ignoring their responsibilities so, I can't really have the end of the world looming over their heads.

-They aren't that irresponsible.

-Aang was still frozen for a hundred years, only in this case it was actually an accident. He wasn't running away because he found out he was the Avatar, he was just taking a regular trip when he got caught up in a freak storm and froze himself.

-There is still cause for alarm when the Avatar goes missing for a century, tho.

-At first the Air Nomads assume that poor Aang had died, but no new Avatar is born, so they can only assume he got lost somehow.

-But no one finds him, at least until a hundred years later when Katara and Sokka are out fishing and competing with each other over whether waterbending or using a spear is a more effective method.

-Things come to a head when they sabotage each other and get into a heated argument. While their arguing, they neglect to notice that they are drifting dangerously close to a fast moving current. They try to get out, but it's too strong and leaves them stranded in the middle of an ice field.

-Sokka takes this opportunity to roast waterbending as an art and Katara's goes off, snapping a glacier in two and revealing our bby Aang.

-She frees Aang from the ice, and Aang is weirdly chipper for someone that was frozen solid a few moments ago.

-Weirdest part? He's not even cold or anything.

-Seeing as their boat is ruined, Aang gives them a lift back to their village, and meets their dad.

-Hakoda is super nice and hospitable, he insists that Aang stay for dinner and Aang can't deny the offer. He feels like he hasn't eaten in a hundred years.

-During dinner the topic of the Avatar comes up. Katara asks Aang if he knows who it is, or anything about them. Aang just shrugs, he has no clue. Sometimes Gyatso would talk about his old friend, Avatar Roku. But Roku's been dead for Aang's whole life. Aang really doesn't know who the next Avatar is. (He hopes that it's not him, he doesn't know if he could handle that level of responsibility.)

-Apparently the Avatar has been missing for a hundred years. Poor Aang does a spit take. He's pretty sure Roku hasn't been dead for that long. He has many concerns but he doesn't voice them.

-Aang and Katara hang out for a bit after the meal, and Katara asks Aang about the rest of the world. It becomes clear pretty fast that Katara hasn't been outside the South Pole. Aang is set to leave in the morning, and Katara asks to go with him. Aang just says sure, assuming that she has permission to go where she wants. And temporarily forgetting that other cultures don't work like his does. :'D

-The next morning they're set to leave when Sokka confronts them. It seems at first like he's there to drag his sister back home, but he actually wants to go with them.

-Aang can't stop thinking about how weird it is that the Avatar has been missing for a century and it makes him nervous about going home. He still doesn't realize that he's the Avatar, but he does realize that he might have been frozen for longer than he initially thought.

-So he goes to the Earth Kingdom instead.

-On their way to Omashu(to ride the mail delivery system) they come across a young girl named Toph.

-She ran away from home about a week ago and is hungry and tired and getting close to just going back home when the Gaang find her. Aang offers her a ride, mentioning that they're going to Omashu to ride the mail delivery system.

-Toph doesn't know these strange people, but that sounds awfully fun, and they are telling the truth. So Toph decides to travel with them, casually mentioning that she's a run away when they ask her about where she was going.

-Aang doesn't think twice about welcoming her aboard, because he's used to picking up travellers and such. It was just part of the Air Nomad way to show hospitality to others.

-Katara and Sokka also casually mention that they're runaways and Aang stiffens slightly but doesn't say anything.

-They get to Omashu, ride the mail system and inevitably get into a fuck-ton of trouble. And Toph helps them escape and they flee Omashu, now wanted by the Earth Kingdom for wanton destruction of a major city.

-Ho boy they do end up having nothing but major thanks for Toph for helping them.

-While Toph was intially suspicious of the Gaang, she does warm up to them as she starts to realize that they see her for her and not her disability.

-While on the run from the law in the Earth Kingdom, they come across a runaway firebender who goes by Lee. When questioned, Lee gives some sob story about being a half breed and running away from home.

-Toph knows he's lying. It's super obvious in her opinion, but no one else is picking up on it and he doesn't give off any dangerous vibes so she wants to see how far this goes.

-Lee also happens to be in trouble with Earth Kingdom authorities. For stealing. :D

-So the group leave and decide to hide out in the Fire Nation.

-Lee is hesitant, but relents to not draw suspicion to himself.

-When they get to the Fire Nation though, Sokka goes out to find disguises for them and comes across a missing poster featuring 'Lee's face. Turns out, "Lee" is actually Prince Zuko.

-Sokka is not happy about this turn of events, but Zuko stays in the group.

-Sokka comes up with the idea to dawn new identities and wear disguises.

-Aang wears a wig and a headband so no one will see his arrows. They're kind of a dead give away that he's an Air Nomad.

-There's no beef between the Air Nomads and Fire Nation, but a random one hanging out with a bunch of Fire Nationers would draw suspicion/attention.

-Zuko puts on make-up to make a fake eye scar and covers it up with an eyepatch of sorts.

-They all come up with fake names, Sokka is Wang Fire, Aang is Kuzon, Toph goes by Blaze, Katara goes by Sapphire, and Zuko ends up going by Ryuko.

-The Gaang are inevitably caught by truancy officers are are enrolled in school.

-After school, they find a nice(ish) building in an abandoned part of town and take up residence in there.

-Zuko does his blue spirit thing to get them supplies and stuff. Katara is the only one that takes issue with this.

-In a way, they're living it up. No parents, no responsibilities, no rules, just a bunch of dumb kids having fun. Toph is in heaven.

-Hell even going to school is kinda fun, because there's no real consequence for failing. Zuko's the only native Fire Nationer, and he's a prince!

-Eventually though, Aang starts to have strange dreams of a tall man wreathed in fire calling out to him. He tells Aang he has a message, that he needs to meet. He shows Aang a vision of a crescent island and a temple with a statue inside.

-Aang's dream is vague and blurry, but the one clear thing that sticks out is the vision of the island and the temple.

-He looks around in the library at the school to try and parse some meaning from the dream.

-It just so happens that his class is studying Avatar Roku and Aang recognizes the island and temple.

-Aang starts to have some worries when he realizes that a previous Avatar is trying to contact him.

-He tells his friends and they all agree that it's supes weird. But they agree to help him break into a sacred temple anyway.

-They're chaotic gremlins like that.

-Roku confirms with Aang that he's the Avatar.

-But while Aang is chatting it up with Roku, the Fire Sages realize that the Avatar has returned and that he's with Roku.

-Cue to the Gaang creating a distraction so Aang can get away.

-In the confusion, the Sages only notice that who ever the Avatar is, they're wearing a school uniform.

-Now they're after the Avatar so they can get him trained(and lectured on why he shouldn't be breaking into sacred temples).

-The Gaang try to resume their fake lives as students, but the adults are slowly closing in on them.

-Especially now that word is out that the Avatar has returned.

Okay so some other notes on this AU:

-Iroh is the Fire Lord, Lu Ten is alive and well. And Ozai's a stuck-up douche, but not actually evil in any capacity. Also, he actually cares about his children. Not that it matters, because Zuko is a disaster bean anyway.

-Katara is a master waterbender because the South Pole was never stripped, and the South Pole is a thriving community just like the North.

-Relations between the nations are much better in general. Especially because the Fire Nation is notably not hostile.

-Also dragons never went extinct.

- :)

Side note- This idea was also experimented with in 25 Days of CATLA. :’D