#Baby Dragon Zuko: *burns with indignity*

[muffinlance]

I'm dying for more Tiny Danger Noodle Zuko content. I can't decide which I wanna see more; someone accidentally hurting the noodle (resulting in dramatic Miette-esque "betrayed" looks on Zuko's part and lots of pampering and cuddles to beg forgiveness from the crew) or them hurting Zuko on purpose when they first meet him and immediately regretting it from the heartbreaking noises he makes and how scared of them he becomes 🤔

(Continued from this ficlet.)

Bato swore, which ended Hakoda’s good day.

“Fire Nation?” he asked.

“Who else,” his second-in-command said, lowering the spyglass.

“Ship?”

“Scout.”

“Shoot it down.”

* * *

Zuko landed on the mast. And sort of… wobbled, but his claws were sharp and the mast was wood, so. He clung on. And blinked hazily down. The dogs had brought him here, so… this was safe, right? He… he needed help. There was only so much that good-intentioned tongue licks could do for a burn wound. 

The sails were blue.

The men had bows.

Zuko’s day got worse.

* * *

It was hard to see how big the scout was, between the sails. So Hakoda was not expecting how very small it was, when it hit the deck. 

The hatchling dragged itself into something of a defensible position. It braced its legs and arched its neck and flared its wings, like a kitten-otter trying to scare off a predator. It bleed on his deck, much less intimidatingly.

“Hold your fire,” he ordered.

Which was just as well, given that the ocean took that moment to erupt all around them.

“Woof,” boomed a very disappointed isodog.

* * *

Healer Kustaa could feel the ground under his feet rumbling with growls as he stepped down onto the dog’s back.

“Easy, boy,” he said, and very carefully picked his way over the ridges of the isodog’s shell, towards where another dog’s big head was trying to lick something that was smaller than its tongue. Said thing was hissing. 

The hissing increased exponentially as he drew closer. The little dragon’s size, on the other hand, seemed to shrink as it coiled more tightly around itself. There was a wash of red mixing with the water on the first dog’s shell, like watercolors diluted. The puddle had been much starker up on deck.

“Easy, boy,” Kustaa repeated, and set his bag down, hopefully out of immediate range of incineration. Unlike himself. “I’m a healer.”

The hissing continued.

“Can I take a look?” 

The hissing did not abate.

“I know you’re scared—”

The hissing intensified.

“—And I’m sorry my chief is an idiot—”

A slight decrease.

“—But we’ve got to get that out and get it wrapped. And unlike your big friends here, I’ve got opposable thumbs.”

A scaly snout poked tentatively from the dragon’s coils, a little red tongue flickering in the air, like it could taste his sincerity.

A scaly snout with a pustulant burn wound. 

“...We’ll take care of that, too.”

The head retreated back into the coils. The hissing resumed.

Kustaa sighed, and pulled out the most secret of healer techniques: a bulky wool blanket.

He carried the wrapped-up dragon back to the sickbay, hissing and wiggling.

[silveryinkystar]

Some deleted scenes from my latest atla fic!

#1: In which Zuko adopts a dragon, and Mai really should be used to this by now

Just when she thinks he can’t surprise her anymore, Zuko goes and does something that proves her wrong. Like bringing home a baby dragon.

“I’m going to call you Druk,” he coos at the little coiled lump in his hands. “You’re lucky I’m here, otherwise Sokka might have called you something like Firebreather or Noodle.”

Mai has been introduced to Zuko’s turtleducks both before and after his banishment. Sokka’s not the only one who would be tempted to name a dragon Noodle.

“When Ty Lee said you wanted some time away,” Mai says conversationally, “I don’t think this is what she meant.”

He starts badly at her voice, but when he spins around to face her, he’s beaming widely. Spirits, he could light up the entire Fire Nation with that smile. “Mai! I thought you were coming back next week.”

“I got bored,” she repeats, smirking. “I missed Ty Lee, and gave my parents the slip when they said they were taking a detour. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who ran away. You’ve been up to a lot, hm?”

He chuckles. “Kind of,” he admits, and his expression turns serious. “The palace was getting to me, so I needed a break. I wasn’t intending on bringing Druk back, but I don’t mind.”

“Do the turtleducks like him?” she asks dryly.

“They love him. It’s weird, they’ve never actually seen a dragon before.”

“And you have? Before… Druk, I mean.”

He flushes, opens his mouth to speak, and closes it again.

“Zuko, that’s a yes or no question.”

“It’s… confidential?” he squeaks, flicking his gaze to the tiny hatchling winding around his hand, weaving around the limb before lying across Zuko’s shoulders like a very short scarf. It’s adorable.

She exhales. “When it stops being confidential,” she allows, “let me know before the others? And by that I mean the Fire Nation officials. I’m going ahead and assuming the Avatar and your other friends know.”

“Aang knows, but the others don’t,” Zuko corrects. “Of course I’ll tell you the whole story first.”

“Good.” She walks up to her best friend and embraces him tightly. He stiffens momentarily but hugs her back, careful not to dislodge Druk. “I didn’t just miss Ty Lee, you know.”

She can feel his smile against her shoulder. “I know. I missed you too, Mai.” He pulls away and holds her at an arm’s length. There’s a wicked smile on his face that’s somehow also completely devoid of malice. Not that she could ever see malice on him. “But you mostly missed Ty Lee.”

“One more word and you’ll find a knife on your royal person,” she warns.

#2: In which Sokka takes Zuko into the towns outside the Caldera to show him how much the place has changed

“You know what I think?”

Zuko hums and looks over from a scroll to his friend, who’s lounging on the bed with a map held above his head.

“I think the council members are jealous,” Sokka says.

Zuko raises his eyebrow. “What of?”

“Huh?”

“What would they be jealous of?”

“Oh,” Sokka exclaims, blinking in surprise. “They only have a few supporters among the nobility. Mostly in Caldera City. The people love you and your reforms, and your latest repeal of Sozin’s marriage laws won you even more favours among them.”

“There were more dissenters,” Zuko says with a frown. “I thought it was massively unpopular, even if it was the right thing to do.”

Sokka turns over and waves a hand vaguely at him, grinning like a fool. “See, that’s what I mean. You don’t care about popularity. You saw the marriage laws and knew that you couldn’t put boundaries on love, so you changed the rules. You found out why the war was wrong, and you ended it. Not without help, of course, but you did it all. You care about your people, and they know it.”

Zuko doesn’t know what to say to this, so he resorts to throwing a cushion at his friends face for having him confront feelings. His indignant yelp is a sound that leaves him chuckling for a good minute, so he lets it slide.

But the matter isn’t done yet, at least according to Sokka. On the last day of his visit, Zuko finds that there are no meetings scheduled for the day. He thinks he’ll spend some time in the gardens with his friend, like old times, but Sokka seems to have other plans.

“You guys have fun,” Suki says with a kiss to Sokka’s cheek and a clap on Zuko’s shoulder. “I’ll catch you later.”

Sokka pulls Suki into a proper kiss on the lips before he calls out a quick goodbye and drags Zuko out of the palace.

“Have you been to the towns and villages before?” Sokka asks as they make their way down the slope of the inactive volcano housing the capital city.

“Not nearly as much as I’d like,” Zuko admits. “I’ve been around the capital and Ember Island, but there wasn’t any reason for me to go down to the rest of the Fire Nation.” By reasons, he trusts Sokka understands that he means Ozai had strict rules to stay within the city limits.

“Huh. That’s not great.”

“I went to one of the towns once with my cousin, though,” he adds, expecting the familiar pang in his heart at the mention of Lu Ten before it hits him.

“He’s one of the good ones?” Sokka guesses.

Zuko smiles sadly. “He was like an older brother to me. You know, he was the one to tell Mom and Uncle that I was good with swords?”

“No way.”

“Ozai knew that I was leaving for a change in instructors,” Zuko continues, “but he never really cared either way at the time. He only really became a problem when Uncle and Lu Ten left to fight.”

“Ah.” Sokka rests a hand on his shoulder and squeezes lightly, and Zuko knows to draw comfort from the gesture. He misses Lu Ten dearly, but the sting of loss is numbed, now. He can think of his antics with his cousin during his early childhood without the accompanying sorrow threatening to overwhelm him.

They’re at the base of the volcano now, so Zuko slips up his hood. His hair is free of its topknot and falls over his scar so that he can blend with the crowd unremarkably. There’s no sign that he might be discovered, though, and no repercussions even if he is (except perhaps from his guards, but Ming won’t really mind once she understands why).

The first thing he notices are the sounds. There’s laughter, chatter, and the occasional yelling interspersed with off-key music. He’s already taken aback by how different it is from when Lu Ten helped him sneak out one night when his parents were away with Azula.

“I…”

Sokka smiles and loops an arm around his shoulders. “You haven’t seen anything yet, buddy. You’re going to love this.”

The wind blowing around them is cool enough to be uncomfortable, so Zuko tugs up his collar and raises his internal temperature to compensate. Sokka seems to be unaffected by the chill, which is only to be expected considering his friend spent most of his life in harsh southern winters. They stop every few paces to look at what the roadside stalls were selling, and more than once Sokka actively considers the merits and demerits of buying something they sell before deciding against them, moving forward, and darting back only to walk away again.

The fifth time this happens, Zuko finds a permanent solution in the fire-dancers performing in the streets. It’s his turn now to haul his friend over to them, and Sokka is all too willing to oblige as Zuko watches the performers exaggerate their movements with graceful bending.

“You know, this was pretty cool in the Fire Days Festival too – spirits, are you okay?”

From how distressed Sokka suddenly looks upon seeing his face, he automatically reaches up to touch the scar only to find his cheeks wet. He hadn’t even realised he was crying, but he scrambled for an explanation to keep the other boy from panicking.

“I used to watch the fire-dancers with my mother every year when we went to Ember Island,” he says, swiping at his eyes. “I always wanted to learn their bending style, it’s much more flowy than any other form of firebending. And… it’s been a while since the Fire Nation was this happy outside of festivals. And, well, Ember Island.”

Sokka nods slowly, but he doesn’t look any more placated.

“I guess it never really felt real to me,” Zuko mumbles, ducking his head as his eyes start to burn and glaze over once more. “I’m always stuck at meetings or fighting the council to pass a reform that would help my people, but…”

There’s a lump in his throat that stops him from speaking further, but Sokka leads him away from the crowd gently and finishes it for him.

“You never saw how your decisions impacted your people.”

Zuko manages a strangled chuckle. “They’re happy,” he whispers.

Sokka holds him an arm’s length away, hands firm on his shoulders. “That’s what I wanted to show you,” he says. “They’re healing, and they’re happy. I know most of the people you see are the ones who benefitted from the war, but when we were making our way to the capital before the eclipse, we noticed that it had left its mark on the Fire Nation too.”

Zuko nods, thinking about how he’d received news of an important weapons factory suddenly stopping production because of some problem with the river it was located on. He’d investigated it further and had declined to deliver that information to Ozai once he heard how badly the nearby town had fared.

“We’re the ones who instigated the war,” Zuko says, slumping against the wall of some building. “There were so few people who didn’t suffer for it.”

Sokka slides down next to him wordlessly. It’s not self-deprecating for him to say this – it’s the truth, and Zuko’s doing his best to make up for his ancestors’ terrible choices. They weren’t mistakes, not when each tragedy piled up on top of each other with the sickening, deliberate motive painting them red with blood.

He’s going to help the world heal, and if that starts by healing the Fire Nation? Well, that’s all for the better.

[firelord-zuzu-the-jerkbender]

Curled Up Small

Read on AO3

Tw: references to canon child abuse

Sokka didn't exactly know what he'd done to be blessed like this, but he wasn't going to question it. They were travelling overnight, taking it in shifts to pilot the bison, keep a lookout, and sleep. Aang was piloting currently, Katara keeping a lookout. Toph was sprawled out in the middle, and Zuko? They certainly hadn't fallen asleep close together, but Sokka had woken up with a dead arm and the firelord napping on his chest. Zuko had his face buried in the fabric of Sokka's shirt, gripping it in his hands like a blanket. 

Sokka was beginning to get cramp in his legs, but every time he shifted, Zuko whined softly in his sleep and frowned, holding him tighter. Sokka didn't have the heart to wake him up, not when he looked so comfortable and restful. Zuko didn't sleep much, and often when he did sleep, it was fitful, full of thrashing nightmares and abrupt wakings. He only really slept peaceful when he was completely exhausted, or when he felt completely safe, although that wasn't always a guarantee. This seemed to be a decent night for Zuko, so it was the right thing to do, really, to let him nap. 

And maybe… maybe Sokka was being a little selfish, enjoying being so close to such an oddly cuddly firebender. There was no way he could cuddle Zuko like this out of the blue, so if Zuko decided that Sokka was a pillow, then Sokka was a pillow if it meant being close to him.

Sokka couldn't help but make small observations about Zuko like this. He didn't snore, but he did exhale tiny puffs of smoke through his nose, kinda like what Sokka would imagine a baby dragon to be like. He breathed slow and calm through his nose- his breathing was barely audible, but his chest moved as he breathed each time. Zuko had freckles, Sokka noticed, but they were pale and barely visible. You had to be close to notice them, but they were dotted over the bridge of his nose and across his cheekbone. Sokka wondered what the freckles on his left would have been like before.

Sokka had the urge to pet his hair, kind of like if the firelord was a cat- although, Sokka figured he shared some traits with cats, like being an asshole for no reason sometimes, being angry but tiny… Sokka reached out, gently smoothing Zuko's hair back behind his ear, lightly scratching at his scalp. Zuko huffed a puff of smoke out of his nose, a few embers landing on Sokka's shirt. He smiled slightly in his sleep, and if Sokka wasn't in love before, he certainly was now. 

Zuko shifted, and for a moment, Sokka feared he'd woken him, but instead Zuko put his leg over Sokka's and rolled further onto his chest. Sokka was pretty sure he was gonna have the worst case of pins and needles when the guy woke up, but for now, he didn't mind. Zuko looked comfortable, and he deserved to be comfortable. He'd suffered so much, struggled so much. Maybe Zuko would only have a brief respite from all of that pain in moments like these, but that's what made them so special. Sokka wanted Zuko to rest, to recover, to be okay.

Zuko shivered, and Sokka supposed it was probably pretty cold for him. The fire nation was hot, even of a night, but where they were now, above the ocean, it was freezing. And whilst Zuko had spent time at sea, he'd been surrounded by fire there, and he had a room indoors. There wasn't a warm campfire or a roof on Appa, and whilst Sokka didn't find it particularly cold, he was used to polar conditions, so he supposed Zuko, who grew up in a warm climate and only carried thin clothes, was probably freezing his nuts off. 

Sokka reached for one of the spare blankets in the pile beside him and carefully wrapped it around Zuko, bringing it over his ears to keep them warm but making sure his mouth and nose weren't covered so he could breathe easier. He even managed to get the blanket over Zuko's feet, so his feet wouldn't get cold. Zuko mumbled, pulling the blanket over his head and burying his face further into Sokka's chest, but aside from that, he didn't rouse from sleep, his breath soon evening out again.

Zuko slept peacefully through most of the night, but at the first peek of sunrise, he slowly began to stir. At first, he just huffed, frowning and burying himself deeper in the blankets with an indignant huff of smoke embers from his nose, drifting back into a short nap before consciousness seemed to slowly start to return. 

And that's when it occurred to Sokka that he was cuddling the firelord, his completely platonic buddy who Sokka had non-platonic feelings for. Zuko shifted again, knee painfully digging into Sokka's thigh. Zuko frowned, forcing his eye half open- the scarred eye was still sealed shut with sleep, and Zuko was trying to blink the sleep away before he sighed and tried to settle back down for another nap, although it was only a minute of shuffling and elbows digging into Sokka that Zuko gave up sleep with a soft groan. 

"Morning," he mumbled, blindly reaching out and patting Sokka's face as he opened his eye a little bit. He cupped Sokka's jaw and kissed him softly without thinking, snuggling back onto Sokka's chest to try and sleep again, and Sokka was having a fucking crisis because Zuko just kissed him good morning and they weren't even dating, were they dating? 

Sokka didn't get to overthink it before Zuko shot up, eyes wide open. "I. Uh." Zuko blushed a blotchy, mottled puce, cheeks ruddy with probably embarrassment and humiliation, and it occurred to Sokka that Zuko hadn't really thought about it, that he'd just kissed Sokka like it was normal. "Um. I- I'm sorry," Zuko apologised, scrambling across to the other side of the saddle. He hunched over completely, folding in on himself like he was ashamed, and he looked about ready to cry.

Sokka took a few moments to process what happened, before slowly moving to sit beside Zuko. Zuko didn't move away, although he did look away. Sokka caught a glimpse of a tear running down Zuko's cheek, heard a quiet sniffle. So he was crying, after all. "Zuko…"

"I said I'm sorry, please, just, leave me alone!" Zuko's voice was breaking, vulnerable. He looked and sounded small, like he was trying to make himself small… Sokka had seen Zuko the opposite, had seen him explode with anger when he felt threatened. He'd scowl and yell and puff his chest out and he'd physically fight anyone, especially if they were taller than him, but now…?

Now Zuko was trying to protect himself, trying to make himself small and invisible. It looked like his hunched posture was an attempt to protect himself, to protect his body. He kept his arms and legs locked tightly in front of his torso, head ducked down and face protected. 

He looked scared, like he was waiting to be hurt, to be yelled at or pushed, maybe hit, or… or burned…

Fuck.

Sokka's heart dropped, because he'd never fully registered just how hurt and traumatised Zuko was until now. "Zuko…" he began gently, careful to keep his tone soft, "I'm not mad at you, or upset. I- I promise. I just want to talk…"

"I'm sorry," Zuko repeated, "I- I won't kiss you again, I- I am so, so sorry that I- that I kissed you, and, I understand if you're uncomfortable about it, and I'm sorry I-I'm gay!"

"I'm not uncomfortable," Sokka replied gently. He scooted closer a little, but Zuko flinched, so Sokka didn't get any closer. "And, there's nothing to be sorry for. You were half asleep anyway, and… I guess maybe I… kind of don't want to forget it happened." Sokka took a measured breath, reluctant to confess whilst Zuko was so upset and distressed, but he knew that if he'd kissed Zuko half asleep, he'd rather be nervously asked out than pretend it didn't happen and have his heart crushed. "I liked the kiss," Sokka confessed quietly. 

Zuko inhaled sharply, going rigid, before he breathed out slowly, his breath shaking, but he relaxed his posture slightly. "Y… you…?"

"I like you," Sokka confessed carefully, "a lot. I'd like to fall in love with you, and all that soppy stuff. Not that I'm not already in love with you, but, I'd like us to fall deeper in love together, if that makes sense? So, uh… yeah, I'm into dudes too." 

"I-" Zuko cut himself off, taking a measured breath and breathing out a small poof of flames. "Have been flirting with you since I joined team avatar," he continued, which certainly isn't what Sokka was expecting, but he certainly wasn't against this unusual development. "Thank you for noticing." That smirk Zuko gave him in the cooler when he breathed fire did things to Sokka, and now Sokka knew that it was meant to. Oh boy, Zuko was good at this and Sokka was screwed. 

"Oh," Sokka replied eloquently, because he was smooth like that. "Cool! Wanna, uh..."

"Do an activity together…?" Zuko added awkwardly, and Sokka snorted at the irony- he'd once said that to Yue, and it was oddly reassuring and endearing to find out that Zuko was just as bad at this as Sokka was. He was an awkward little turtleduck.

"Sounds good," Sokka replied, reaching out to rest his hand on top of Zuko's. Zuko smiled softly to himself, blushing, so Sokka added, "and you're free to nap on me whenever you need to." Zuko lightly shoved him over with a smile.