#both fire nation or earth kingdom brands

[witchering10123]

serving up some fire nation toph!

(template by mondlichtkatze)

[mugentakeda]

i saw fanart for this age old unfinished fic and was so interested by the premise that i simply HAD to give the concept my own spin.... Ill put my notes under the cut cus it got kinda long lol

-FIRST OF ALL. i headcanon lu ten as a powerful firebender (like, lightning bending powerful. not an expert at it yet, but can generate it at will. only recently picked it up before the siege.) that can Also use a weapon. he picked it up for funsies and ended up taking it seriously and then excelling. he learned under piandao and in turn later introduced him to zuko. His weapon that he made with piandao was a more traditional jogekama yari, which he had on him when he was captured. long feng destroyed it and had a new jogekama yari made for lu ten in a more sleek earth kingdom style, with longer and more savage blades. **ALSO: lu tens jogekama yari is based on saras yari from samurai champloo!!!! i just made the side blades curved in opposite directions (which made it a jogekama instead of saras type of yari) -lu ten does not interact with the other agents. whether brainwashed or amnesic in this, hes not even one of the secret police that go around arresting people. hes a lone agent that works Directly under long feng and is more of an assassin and spy thats permitted in and out of ba sing se for the missions and jobs long feng sends him on, unlike the rest of the agents. as a gift for his (made up) birthday, long feng gave him a hand carved stone earring. Yes, its a tracker. yes, lu ten knows that. No, he doesn't care and wears it anyway. his boss can do what he wants, and he trusts his boss with his life (lol). the other dai li agents know of lu tens existence, less have seen him with their own eyes, none are permitted to speak to him if they do. they dont know hes a "nonbender". -i havent decided on whether or not i want lu ten brainwashed in this or simply amnesic?? it would be neat if he was the brainwash soft launch since the ba sing se conspiracy brainwashing only started After the siege. lu ten is a firebender, has that fn royalty brand iron willpower, so youd think thats hard to brainwash especially if he was the soft launch, but if long feng kept up the sessions regularly over the course of 6-ish years (and as their brainwashing techniques improved), id doubt it would rub off. its a seven layer salad of brainwashing. and even if he was amnesic rather than brainwashed, theyd still need to do some adjustments in lu tens head to TOTALLY wipe out any idea of firebending, on top of regular chi blocking. -as for the amnesic part, i read a theory that introduced the idea that lu ten being killed was an inside job orchestrated by ozai. which i dont think would be canon, but it would be pretty cool?? like especially considering how FAST he jumped on azulon about heirs. very suspicious indeed. and all too convenient: have a group of moles set in irohs army, once lu ten moves out away from iroh then corner him, kill him, make it look like the earth army did it, sneak back to the fire nation, ozai gets the crown. easy as pie. -and to combine one of MY OWN aus with the above, aka the one where zhao and lu ten were both taught together under jeong jeong, the first time that zhao REALLY made a big move into ozais pocket was offering to be the head mole in irohs army. it made perfect sense to ozai, and he gladly sent zhao on his way- him being close rivals with him will catch him off guard and make the job far easier. and if zhao succeeds, and KEEPS succeeding, when ozai undoubtedly snatches the crown, he will grant zhao all the rewards and titles he could ever want until the cows come home. snazzy deal.

so whichever one of those you guys find cooler will be the one i go with because frankly both of them have the same amount of fun angst and drama idk......................

-as for lu tens face and arm, i base that off how i think lu ten died, not even gna lie. in the case where he is dead i think half his skull got crushed open and his arm was blown right off from the bicep. the stitches are just for aesthetic purposes. i was inspired by how scars are drawn in one piece, and because they give a "frankensteins monster" type look, which i found fitting, since this is a 'came back wrong' trope/winter soldier-esque au. the bandages covering his face was a suggestion from an anxious long feng to hide his face in public, while the ba sing se conspiracy was still fresh and the citizens might recognize the spawn of the dragon of the west if they looked long enough.

-as for lu ten and long fengs relationship, i havent thought about it enough, but im definitely imagining smthn along the lines of "you were always working for me, i picked you up and trained you when you had nothing, you owe me your life and loyalty", mixed with some gentle stockholm syndrome. like, a combination of "the king and his most loyal guard dog", a very strange psuedo father-son relationship??? (which was honestly accidental on long fengs part. but he kept it up because he found the irony amusing. yes he will try and rub that in irohs face. yes iroh will beat his skull in for it. its chill)

-this has nothing to do with the au but please see iroh and zukos body language in the third panel of the comic... i love to portray them as protective of each other... zukos blade placed before iroh, irohs arm switching from shoulder to shoulder as zuko turns, always placed between him and whatever is approaching... Heurghhh (GRIPS HEAD

[comixconnection]

Free Comic Book Day 2023

Here we are again folks, getting ready for the first Saturday in May with great books you can get your hands on FOR FREE!

The following titles will be available while supplies last! Everybody gets to pick THREE. Unlike previous years, we will NOT be accepting FOOD DONATIONS. We will however be collecting monetary donations to give to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank if you feel inclined to donate.

We know the line for the FCBD comics can get long (if you want to come in and shop first, you can skip the line and head straight inside!) so in an effort to both entertain you while you’re in that long line and to help it go a little faster by giving you a preview of the various titles so you can decide ahead of time what looks good, the Comix Connection Counter Monkeys have read and reviewed all of the available FCBD books! Take a peek!

CHOOSE YOUR FREE COMICS:

Get set for adventure with stories from the farthest reaches of a galaxy far, far way, as well as the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender! In Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures the galaxywide conflict between the Jedi Order and the Nihil intensifies, and a shuttle full of younglings gets caught in the crossfire!  In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and his friends come across a village decimated by the Fire Nation. One survivor—a young child named Luumi—refuses to open up to anyone except fellow Earth Kingdom native Toph. BRAND NEW STORIES!

[all ages]

Ahead of the highly anticipated premiere of the new Netflix animated series, return to Sky Corps Academy in this exclusive reprint of the first issue of Mech Cadet Yu. It's the perfect time to revisit this iconic story by bestselling writer Greg Pak and fan-favorite artist Takeshi Miyazawa! And if you’ve never read it before, it’s a perfect time to get in on all the fun before Netflix introduces these giant robots and the kids being trained to guide them in their war against the alien threat to a whole new audience. Wait, what’s the janitor’s son doing here? He’s not a cadet...

[all ages]

Spidey, Ghost-Spider, and Miles will face off against Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and more in this spectacular special of BRAND NEW STORIES. Filled with easy-to-read comic stories based on the hit Disney Junior show, this book is perfect for the youngest readers aged 5-7. Young fans will even be able to test their wall-crawling skills with thrilling interactive activity pages! Kids will love this not-to-be-missed comic: the perfect primer for the newest generation of Spider-Fans!

[all ages]

Get a sneak-peek at the next graphic novel in this fun spin-off series of The Baby-sitters Club, featuring Kristy's little stepsister! Karen feels like an ugly duckling. She already has to wear glasses and now her baby teeth are falling out, too. Fortunately, she knows exactly what will make her look glamorous: a new haircut. But the beauty parlor lady cuts Karen's hair all wrong! Karen is devastated and worried about what the kids at school will say. Can Karen get back to feeling like her usual confident self?

[all ages]

Dog Man and the League of Misfits is a short comic featuring the beloved characters from Dav Pilkey's #1 worldwide bestselling Dog Man and Captain Underpants series! Filled with hilarity, hijinks, and heart, this supa-epic action-packed comic features fan favorite Petey the Cat before his transformative journey began. Celebrating 25 ½ years of laughs and inspiring kids to love reading, Dog Man and the League of Misfits is featured in the Captain Underpants 25 ½ Anniversary Edition, which released on March 8, 2023.

[all ages]

Preview not one but two upcoming original Middle Grade graphic novels from DC: Clark & Lex and Fann Club: The Batman Squad! In Clark & Lex, Being the only kid with powers is tough…not being able to use them is even worse! When LuthorCorp holds a competition to find the best and brightest for a summer internship in Metropolis, Clark has no problem using his X-ray vision to cheat his way in if it means getting out of Smallville. Amazingly, Clark is not the only competitor with special abilities…just ask his newfound friend, Lex Luthor! Then, in Fann Club: Ernest Fann idolizes Batman. It might not even be much of a stretch to say he wants to model his life after him. So, with no training or superpowers, young Ernest takes on the name of Gerbilwing and decides to set up a crime fighting unit consisting entirely of his immediate friends and his dog. But things get complicated when Ernest and his friends visit a bank that happens to be in the middle of a robbery being committed by a werewolf! Will The Batman Squad taste defeat on their very first day of crime-fighting?

[all ages]

Get ready for an exclusive sneak-peek into the all-new Sweet Valley Twins: Teacher's Pet! It's Elizabeth's turn in the spotlight... but does Jessica deserve it more? Jessica knows she's the better dancer — but their teacher only seems to have eyes for her sister, Elizabeth! No matter how hard or perfectly she dances she's not getting recognized — which becomes a huge problem when it becomes clear that her sister is going to get the main role of Swanilda instead of her. Even worse, Elizabeth refuses to believe that their teacher is favoring her! With Jessica's attitude rapidly souring and Elizabeth slowly realizing that Jessica might actually be right, will they be able to find a way to get Jessica her leading role? Preview the next graphic novel adaptation of Francine Pascal's beloved Sweet Valley Twins series with Claudia Aguirre offering her fresh and modern artwork just right for today's contemporary middle-grade graphic novel.

[all ages]

Pedro Martin is an American-born Mexican kid who's always felt not quite Mexican and not quite American. Now, he and his family are piling into their Winnebago to bring his mysterious, Mexican-Revolution-era Abuelito home to live with them. This preview introduces you to the graphic novel memoir which details Pedro's road trip of a lifetime, full of laughs and heartaches, and a new understanding of his abuelito and himself.

[all ages]

How did Jack Skellington become the Pumpkin King? Explore Jack and Oogie Boogie's early days in Halloween Town and learn how their infamous friendship turns sour as they battle to become the next Pumpkin King. Discover the mastermind who's pulling the strings and relive the fantastic world of The Nightmare Before Christmas in this preview of the all-new upcoming manga adaptation!

[all ages]

Get a sneak-peek at book seven in the bestselling InvestiGators series! When a cruise captain is found drifting at sea, super-sleuths Mango and Brash begin the search for his missing ship and passengers! Did it sink? Was it boat-napped? Are supernatural forces at play? And can the InvestiGators unravel this maritime mystery before a second cruise befalls a similarly unfathomable fate?

[all ages]

In 1987, the world at large was introduced to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by way of a catchy theme song and an action-packed cartoon, shell-shocking the world into an era of Turtlemania! Since then, the characters have appeared in countless comics, a multitude of animated series, and several motion pictures. Turn the nostalg-o-meter up to 11 this FCBD and revisit two fan favorite eras of TMNT animation in comic book form with this special presentation of stories from IDW's smash-hit Saturday Morning Adventures and the recent small-screen venture Rise of the TMNT!

[all ages]

Two stories in one! Read the gag-filled adventures of four goofy residents of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons characters! Then in Kirby Manga Mania, jump into dream land with Kirby and gobble up some fun! Everyone's favorite pink puff teams up with his friends to keep arch-frenemy King Dedede in line. Fans of all ages can enjoy this sampling of a classic Kirby comic; just take a deep breath and hop on in!

[all ages]

The Last Kids on Earth are creating THEIR OWN COMIC BOOK! From worldwide bestselling author Max Brallier comes a full-color graphic novel spin-off series based on the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling Last Kids on Earth! In this preview of the series opener, Jack Sullivan, Quint Baker, June del Toro, and Dirk Savage decide to carry on the legacy of their favorite comic book character by writing the next volume in the collection. What could go wrong? Just about everything!

[all ages]

The book follows Kotto, an average Puerto Rican (parrot!) who runs an empanadilla food truck. His daily life is always an adventure, thanks to his boisterous friends. Check out their BRAND NEW STORY here!

[all ages]

2023 marks the 65th Anniversary of the Smurfs!  To celebrate their smurf-tastic anniversary, Papercutz continues to publish the hit graphic novel series THE SMURFS TALES. These stories are three times bigger than previous titles, and that means even more Smurf fun. In this preview, join Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, and so many smurfy others for fun and adventure in the comics that inspired the cartoons, toys, Nickelodeon series and upcoming new movie.

[all ages]

The heavyweight champions of gross meet again in this all-ages title as we will pull the best stories from Madballs Vs. Garbage Pail Kids for this special FCBD comic that's sure to appeal to consumers age 5 to 50.

[all ages]

It's time to enroll in a bold new take on the Power Rangers mythology in this Free Comic Day Special! Class is in session for the start of an epic saga that is sure to delight longtime Rangers fans, and provide an excellent jumping on point for brand new readers. PREVIEW THE NEW STORY HERE!

[all ages]

The Wide Plains Fighting Tournament is finally here, and orphan Pitch will do whatever it takes to convince his idol—and possible father-fighter Sonny Han—to compete alongside him in this Free Comic Book Day sneak-peek of Zachary Sterling's upcoming shonen manga adventure Punch Up! Vol. 1.

[all ages]

Preview the very first graphic novel biography of the legendary Stan Lee, co-creator of Marvel's many superheroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, and more, from Eisner-nominated artist Tom Scioli. I Am Stan gives Lee's life the comic book treatment and reveals the inner workings of the legendary creator.

[all ages]

Give your summer some extra thrill-power in this collection of BRAND NEW All Ages stories from the wildest comic in the universe: 2000 AD Regened! Featuring fan-favourite characters like Pandora Perfect, and starting points for new stories like Full Tilt Boogie, this issue is the perfect introduction to the incredible world of comics for rookie readers, or a gateway to a whole new array of stories and characters for comic book readers looking for their next reading adventure!

[all ages]

This issue invites readers to the groundbreaking and critically -acclaimed Marvel's Voices series, which spotlights creators and characters from across Marvel's diverse and ever-evolving universe. This includes a range of stories from previous Marvel's Voices issues, as well as A BRAND NEW ONE!

[Rating: Teen]

The story stars as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman discover the dead body of one of their earliest enemies at the Hall of Justice. Their investigation takes them past the land of the living, beyond the land of the dead, and into a realm of nightmares. The only way to save the world is to call for the help of an unlikely hero: Deadman. This can't-miss prelude issue, also including behind-the-scenes looks at the chilling design work for this unique story, sets the stage for DC’s two-month Knight Terrors event!

[Rating: Teen]

This issue features a pair of BRAND NEW STORIES that set the stage for the next evolution in mutant adventures, FALL OF X, and introduces an uncanny new lineup for a new team book launching next year. PLUS: a preview of Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti's upcoming mystery project.

[Rating: Teen]

For years, the symbiote family in the Marvel Universe has grown, and the latest smash-hit run on VENOM is no exception. With the violent and dangerous Meridius readying for war, the stage is set for catastrophe and this year's Free Comic Book Day will mark the beginning of the end of the symbiotes with the start of a BRAND NEW STORY!

[Rating: Teen]

To boldly go, join us for the exclusive prelude to IDW's FIRST Star Trek Summer Crossover Event as STAR TREK and STAR TREK: DEFIANT collide in STAR TREK: DAY OF BLOOD! But that's not all! Join the crew of STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS as they take to the holodeck, enjoying some much-needed recreational time—until a bloodthirsty visitor joins in on their games in these BRAND NEW STORIES!

[Rating: Teen]

Did you miss Animal Castle when it first debuted and captured all our hearts? Then make sure you don’t miss this preview of the start of the second volume, which also includes an excerpt from Animal Castle Vol 1 to fill you in on some of what you’ve missed! Volume Two picks up with Miss B trying to convince the animals not to give in to violence in order to put an end to Silvio's reign. But Silvio the bull dictator is trying to keep them under his hoof so he can hold onto power. Helped by his cruel canine militia, he decides to have the rebellious animals imprisoned in the dungeon. But Miss B and her friends will respond once again with trickery…and solidarity!

[Rating: Teen]

Tomorrow is a harmonious paradise thanks to the careful oversight of five families who make everything perfect…for the price of one child per household. Now, as that bill comes due, a son expected to give everything for a family that never loved him, and an affluent daughter determined to destroy utopia, must unite to end one generation's unnaturally protracted reign. Bestselling writer RICK REMENDER joins forces with the insanely talented MAX FIUMARA to take you through the dark science fiction world of THE SACRIFICERS! Get an advance look at 2023's most stunning new ongoing series with this Free Comic Book Day special!

[Rating: Teen]

Preview two new stories in one! In Choujin X, best friends Tokio and Azuma do everything together, even if most of the time it feels like Tokio is just stumbling along in Azuma's cooler, more talented footsteps. But when they're attacked one night by a superhuman mutant called a choujin, Tokio finally has a chance to shine-by turning into a choujin himself! Then in Rooster Fighter, in a world where terrifying monsters walk the earth, one heroic rooster is destined for greatness. When giant demons threaten the innocent, he's going to show them who's boss!

[Rating: Teen]

Chuck Chandler grew up under the wings of his loving parents. His father was an amazing investigator, and his mother an equally brilliant chemical engineer. While Chuck didn't have as much time with his father as he would have hoped, the skills he learned—coupled with a keen eye for mystery—have become a part of his very DNA. That's why when the Borealis attacked earth and his mother was declared missing, something just didn't sit right with him. Now, with the help of some young allies, Chuck plans to unravel the mystery by pulling on every thread. Let's just hope everything doesn't unravel before he solves it! Preview the BRAND NEW STORY here!

[Rating: Teen]

This BRAND NEW FCBD STORY leads directly into an epic new 4-part series launching June 2023! Read the first story to be set in the iconic medieval fantasy realm of Gielinor, which is home to humans, elves, dwarves, and dragonkin alike. Filled with vibrant characters, daring adventure, and mysterious magicks, the series will kick off in an epic Free Comic Book Day issue.

[Rating: Teen]

Two of the hottest new shonen manga in one sampler! The ghosts, gods, spirits, and zombies return in SHAMAN KING:FLOWERS, the sequel to the smash hit SHAMAN KING. Then, in Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, a boy sold into the Netherworld, must survive a demon's education.

[Rating: Teen]

It's a whole new generation of World Warriors! In this issue, mixed martial artist Luke puts his special forces training to use against a group of art thieves, while sadistic kickboxer Juri faces off against graffiti ninja Kimberly! It's all out action in this official prequel to the new Street Fighter 6 video game! Pick this special one-shot up before the Street Fighter 6 4-issue miniseries, also launching in May!

[Rating: Teen]

Throughout the years, we have seen Chilling Adventures and gruesome outcomes emerge more frequently in various versions of Riverdale. As creatures gathered and teens were corrupted, the town became a hotbed for cruel and unusual events. Yet the question remains: why have Archie Andrews and his friends faced such terrifying tales? Who is responsible for creating these dark worlds, and how is babysitter Jinx Holliday at the center of it all? A story years in the making starts here in this BRAND NEW STORY! Beware the Cursed Library and all the horrors within!

[Rating: Teen]

The 50th Anniversary of Red Sonja begins here, with a BRAND NEW STORY telling the first of her all-new adventures! With a new film on the horizon, Dynamite Entertainment opens the flood gates of Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword!

[Rating: Teen]

From legendary SHADOWMAN creator Bob Hall, preview this BRAND NEW STORY that delves into the secret past of Valiant's premier horror character. Includes an inside look at the 2023 series X-O MANOWAR UNCONQUERED from the acclaimed writing team of Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad and award-winning artist Liam Sharp!

[Rating: Teen]

In the small town of Arcadia Heights sits an abandoned house with an open door, daring anyone to enter it. Soon a ragtag band of teenage misfits will do just that...and return with a darkness the likes of which this world has never seen. Featuring an original prologue to THE DARKNESS WE BROUGHT BACK, a YA OGN from the minds of Alex Segura, Rex Ogle, and Joe Eisma, plus a BRAND NEW STORY from the critically acclaimed and much loved world of ANIMOSITY, written by series creator, Marguerite Bennett! A perfect blend of fun, suspense, adventure and intrigue, SEISMIC STORIES breaks new ground in the AfterShock FCBD tradition.

[Rating: Teen]

Welcome back to the world of Tom Holland's Fright Night! The 1985 film delivered a world full of horror, humor, and heart that captivated audiences and became an instant vampire classic. American Mythology is proud to celebrate the story of Fright Night with this incredible issue that continues the tale after the original screenplay ends and gives a first look at the brand-new Fright Night Origins series! Origins is written by Holland and delves into the official history of our favorite sweater-wearing, apple-eating vampire, Jerry Dandrige! Adapted by James Kuhoric and illustrated by legendary comics artist Neil Vokes, this new series is the perfect addition to every Fright Night fan's collection! The issue will also feature behind-the-scenes extras and artwork only available in the pages of the Free Comic Book Day special edition!

[Rating: Teen]

The newest series from New York Times bestselling and Eisner Award-winning writer/artist JEFF LEMIRE. The town of Belle River is infested with fishflies and the streets are carpeted with tiny insects…but that's just the start of the strange happenings and bad omens! When Franny Fox runs away from home, she befriends a strange, silent monster and sets off a chain of events that will unite the entire town in terrible ways. FISHFLIES #1 will clock in at an expanded 64 pages and land in stores this June-so don't miss out on this exclusive Free Comic Book Day preview issue for an early look!

[Rating: MATURE]

Presenting fan-favorites for FCBD: a squad of superpowered siblings and the infamous monster hunter! In The Umbrella Academy: Safe, Hargreeves and Abhijit embark on an interdimensional journey and find a cosmic horror that will have repercussions for our heroes and the universe. Then, in The Witcher: Frog Kiss, Geralt must uncover why the young women in Novigrad are turning into frogs!

[Rating: MATURE]

A beautiful vampire must flee monster slayers in New York City and reclaim the ancestral soil that restores her undead flesh. But the world has changed since she was reborn in the New Mexico desert, and now Constance der Abend and her loyal assistant Dooley must adapt to life in the rough frontier town of Sangre de Moro, where all sorts of monsters have settled. A western tale of survival starring a cast of literary horrors from the diabolical minds of Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell, and Jim Terry.

[Rating: MATURE]

Preview the new ongoing series by Jim Zub, Roberto De La Torre, Jose Villarrubia here! On the eve of his first major battle, young CONAN OF CIMMERIA pictures a life beyond the borders of his homeland and yearns for a life of adventure undreamt of in his small village. Visions of future allies and unspeakable evils he will eventually encounter throughout his fabled career fill his mind as he makes the choice to take his first fateful step into the HYBORIAN AGE!

[Rating: MATURE]

An all-new adventure of Death Dealer headlines this fantastic voyage into the FrazettaVerse! The War of the Horsemen has arrived! You will also witness the rise of Dawn Attack in the far reaches of space. Then, the weirdness of Mothman unfolds in an excerpt from the limited series debuting this month! Read previews of all these BRAND NEW STORIES here!

[Rating: MATURE]

  It's a Fabulous Furry Free Comic Book Day from Fantagraphics! Fanta's new hardback series collecting the full run of Gilbert Shelton's stoner-comedy-turned-social-satire will be the first time that the globally millions-selling most popular underground comix characters have been collected in North America in over three decades. Classic cartooning, timeless comedy, and trend-setting cat comics, for semi-mature readers.

[Rating: Teen]

Before all the fantastic movies, TV shows, and video games, there were comic books (and just saying, where would Hollywood be without us?). Take a look at the world of comic book collecting through a comic book centered on that very topic! Includes contributions from Mark Wheatley (Breathtaker), Joe James (Dark Dominion), and Daniel Krall in addition to J.C. Vaughn, Brendon Fraim, and Brian Fraim (Vampire, PA). From the team that brings you The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide comes this 48-page Free Comic Book Day special full of exclusive original material.

[all ages]

[ao3feed-zukka]

These Are My Twisted Words

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/GDLZXKd

by kodakren

Zuko was almost killed the moment he was born. Ozai said he lacked the spark necessary of a fire-bender and almost cast him over the palace walls, only saved by Ursa’s powerful, motherly conviction. Pleading to give Zuko a chance. Agni, please, just one chance.

He wasted that chance at thirteen years old, during an Agni Kai, forever branded to be the banished son of Ozai. He was honourless, irredeemable, and yet still, somehow, he found his way. Zuko knows how it feels to be worthless, he knows how he it feels to desperately claw at that accusation and prove otherwise. This is why, with the Fire Nation's carcass resting on his shoulders, he knows he cannot buckle underneath the pressure. It is his responsibility, his duty to both his people and the world, to fulfil this role, for fear of his father's tyranny seeping back into the palace walls. He has a chance to do good here...and he cannot waste it. -- OR

The war is over and Zuko is the Firelord...Now what? How did we get from Zuko's coronation to republic city, and was the journey to peace easy? Spoiler, no..no it very much wasn't. Featuring: Decolonisation, the mystery of Zuko’s mother and the palace staff being chaotic (+gaang adventures)

Words: 13065, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M

Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Katara (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Original Characters, Ursa (Avatar)

Relationships: Fire Nation Citizen(s) & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki & Zuko (Avatar), Hakoda & Zuko (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)

Additional Tags: Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, the entire palace is just trying to get him to eat and sleep, zuko refuses because "responsibility", Zuko-centric (Avatar), Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko's Scar (Avatar), Partially Blind Zuko (Avatar), Partially Deaf Zuko (Avatar), basically what if the comics got a fanfic?, but it's filled with my dumb vision, zuko's journey as the firelord, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Lynn is concerned for this self-sacrificial child, Gay Zuko (Avatar), Assassination Attempt(s), like so many of them...this is also canon, Ozai Being an Asshole (Avatar), Slow Burn, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), had to include some dadkoda at some point this is me tagging so I don't forget, Earth Kingdom (Avatar), Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Fire Nation Colonies (Avatar), healing using fire-bending is a thing, because reiki is really cool and I feel like it would've been canon, Zuko Has Nightmares (Avatar), Zuko Has PTSD (Avatar), Zuko Has Chronic Pain (Avatar)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/GDLZXKd

[sokkastyles]

I know your post is defending Iroh, but this really isn't something he needs defending for in the first place.

Azula was absolutely aiming the lightning directly at Zuko. We are shown this. We get a POV shot of Azula getting ready to shoot the lightning through Zuko's eyes while he's down, and she's aiming straight at him, and doesn't hesitate to shoot. If Iroh hadn't acted it absolutely would have hit Zuko, and as is established in the show, it would have killed him.

It is not comparable to her shooting Iroh in "The Chase" while surrounded, because she was the one who had tracked them down with intention to hurt them. The fact that they combined forces to defend themselves from her took her by surprise. She's still not the underdog, though. She did not have "every right" to burn Iroh to "get back at him" for protecting Zuko from her or for any other reason because she is the aggressor in both situations. She just didn't expect the people she's antagonized to work together to fight back against her. Saying that she has a right is like saying that Zuko has a right to "get back at" Aang after Zuko attacked him the first time and failed and Aang blasted him into a wall in self defense. He doesn't have a right because he was the aggressor in the first place, and they did nothing wrong by defending themselves from him. The idea that Iroh somehow went too far, when this is a cartoon where characters regularly get blasted into walls, and Azula is not shown suffering any damage at all, is ridiculous. Azula was not hurting after she was knocked off the boat. The only thing she suffered was a little lost dignity. Azula DID almost kill Iroh when she burned him, though.

Also, Azula definitely did know that Iroh was branded a traitor at the North Pole. Ozai told her at the end of season two when he sent her out to capture him, and she uses that word to refer to him several times after that. She may not know the details about how Zhao had threatened the moon spirit, but Azula has the same respect for the natural balance of things as Zhao or Ozai or any of the Fire Nation villains: that is, none. I doubt she would listen if someone tried to explain to her that destroying the moon would destroy them all, just like she believes she is above the tides themselves and suggests burning the entire Earth Kingdom to the ground. If Azula really had the understanding to know why destroying the moon was bad, she would not be trying to capture the Avatar in the first place, the physical manifestation of natural and spiritual balance.

Azula is doing as she is told and more, because she acts directly in contradiction to what Ozai tells her for her own benefit several times. Ozai did not tell her to kill Iroh or Zuko, just to capture them, but she has no qualms about attempting it. She also has no qualms about lying to Ozai about killing the Avatar so she can have that against Zuko. But even if she were only doing what she was told, she would not have "every right" to do so. History is full of people doing awful things because they were told to, but that was never an excuse and certainly not a right. Azula is not forced to do things and she's not justifiably defending herself, either. In fact, "The Chase" is one of the biggest examples of Azula not just following orders but going out of her way to capture Aang, even at the expense of the mission Ozai gave her.

As for the thing about Ursa, Azula may have felt that lording Ozai's favoritism over him was getting back at him for Ursa "liking Zuko more than me," but it's so obviously not the same thing and we know that Azula is an unreliable narrator. Even if Ursa did favor Zuko (and a few scenes of her scolding Azula for bad behavior, mostly for hurting Zuko, are not favoritism). But it would make sense for Azula to perceive both Ursa and Iroh trying to protect Zuko as unfair favoritism because she believes, and was taught by Ozai, that Zuko did not deserve protection. But this is a horrific belief and it's one of the things that makes her villainous. The same way that Ozai resents the bond between Ursa and Zuko or Iroh and Zuko. Azula isn't justified for thinking and acting this way, she's a villain who gets what she deserves because she behaves in villainous and selfish ways, and it's honestly troubling how much her stans make this huge deal out of a single scene of cartoon violence which isn't shown to affect her at all, mostly because it hurt her dignity that the people she was hurting actually fought back against her. Imagine if Zuko stans acted this way about Aang blasting Zuko down a well in season one. They're scenes of cartoon slapstick comedy meant to make you laugh because a villain is getting what they deserve.

I'm sure that Azula did want to hurt Uncle Iroh after that, though, because she is shown as the kind of person who cannot take any criticism or question of her authority, and she definitely can't take being made to look like a fool. And, of course, she recognizes Iroh as a threat to her attempts to have control over Zuko. That's why she attacked him in "The Chase," because she knows he's one of the biggest threats to her.

The Iroh simp is here for her piece on the ‘shoving Azula off the ship’ scene 8D

Keep reading

[absolutelyfizzing]

cruel and spiteful

anon - If you take requests, can I have Zuko X reader, where Zuko tells them about his scar?

description - zuko tells y/n how he got his scar. he also has a very important question to ask her. (established!zuko x reader)

warnings - fluff, some tears, description of violence and abuse (no more vivid than is in the show), no connection to the content after the original series, some kissing, zuko is aged up (probably 20-24 years old)

word count - 1700

a/n - I tried on this one but I make no promises that its good

MASTERLIST

You stayed in peaceful silence next to your boyfriend as you read and he worked. Your leg was draped over one of his so you could have some contact but not enough that either of you would get distracted. You often thought about how thankful you were that you could have moments like this. That you had been together long enough and were comfortable enough with each other that you could spend evenings like this.

Zuko fidgeted a bit in his place and you glanced over at him. He had bags under his eyes and they looked red. You knew that he had been overworking himself lately and not getting enough sleep. Many nights he would come to bed after you had fallen asleep and then leave before you woke up simply because there was so much for him to do. You also knew that you wanted to take care of him and to let him know that his mental well-being was just as important as getting his list of tasks done. At that thought, you closed your book and sat up a bit.

"Zuko?" you asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace in the room.

"Hm?" he hummed out but he did not look up from his work.

"Zuko, honey, you have to stop working for a minute." You tried to reason but he just huffed. You didn't say anything else but you slowly moved to take his things off of his lap, giving him time to finish reading the paragraph he was on. He let you slip the papers into your hands and you placed them on his nearby desk. You stood silently and grabbed his hand to pull him up.

He didn't complain or make any indication that he didn't want to get up as you led him to your shared bathroom. You had him brush his teeth and you pulled his hair into a bun for him before you both headed back to bed, this time in your pajamas and with the intent of going to sleep.

"Actually, can you mess with my hair?" he almost whispered. He requested you touch his hair every so often because he loved the feeling of your fingers carding through it.

"Of course, my love," you assured and he smiled at you.

You sat on the bed, your back against the headboard. He laid next to you so his head was on your lap and you were looking down at him. You began to brush through his hair with your fingers, running your nails along his scalp. His eyes closed at the feeling as he sighed. You could tell that the anxiety of the day was leaving him.

After you had been brushing through his hair for some time and his breathing had evened out, you moved to run your fingers over the lines of his face. You just assumed that he was asleep from how calm and still he seemed. Your fingers traced along his brow lines and his eyes. You moved them down towards the shape of his nose and then his jaw. When you moved back up his face, you traced along the edges of his scar. You never asked him about it and you didn't actually know how he got it. You were from the earth kingdom and had never heard any conversation around the palace about it so you assumed that he was in some sort of accident. You knew that he would eventually tell you how it happened if he wanted to. As you were lost in thought you hadn't even noticed that his eyes were open, gazing at you from your lap. When you accidentally met his gaze, you flinched, like you had been caught doing something wrong.

"You can touch it, it's okay." He whispered out to reassure you and you hesitated before tracing it again. "Have you already heard the story?" he questioned. He knew that you hadn't known much about him when you met and that stories around the palace had ceased, mostly because it was old news and he no longer seemed self-conscious about it.

You shook your head shyly.

"Do you want to?"

You made eye contact with him. "If you don't mind telling it." You tried to make sure that he knew he didn't have to. He smiled up at you and sat up from your lap. He moved so that he was sitting in front of you, legs crossed under him to match yours. His knees were touching yours and he pulled your hands onto his lap. He looked up into your eyes and felt anxiety despite your non-judgemental gaze. He paused for a moment.

"My father did it." He started, looking at your face as you gasped a bit but you tried not to react, wanting him to continue uninterrupted. "When I was younger, I think I was thirteen, I sat in on a war meeting with my father and his advisors." His gaze had drifted down towards where your fingers were tangled with his.

"I disagreed with something, I spoke up. One of the generals had recommended sacrificing men as bait for a trap and I felt like I had to say something. It was seen as an act of disrespect so my father told me I would be fighting in an agni kai to settle the matter."

You kept your gaze on his face. You had only seen one agni kai in your time in the fire nation and it was not something you wished to see again. You struggled to believe anyone would expect a thirteen-year-old to fight in such a match.

"When I showed up, I had assumed I would fight the general, that was who I disagreed with. Instead, my father stepped forward to fight me. I knew I couldn't have won but I also didn't want to fight him because he was my father and I didn't want to show him violence. I got on my knees and asked him to forgive me but he saw it as a sign of weakness."

Zuko took a deep breath. He hadn't had to tell this story in a while and remembering the traumatic fight made him feel emotional.

"He burned me for my vulnerability. I was then exiled by my father, my scar a brand to let the kingdom know of my shame, and he sent me on my impossible mission to find the avatar. To find Aang." He finished, looking up to your gaze again. He was a bit surprised to see tears streaming down your face and he immediately cooed at you, shushing you and wiping your tears away.

You let out a broken sob and he brought his hand to the back of your neck to pull you into him so your face rested against his shoulder. Your fingers moved so that they were latched onto his shirt. You cried quietly for a few minutes, Zuko's hand soothing you by rubbing along your back.

"I'm so sorry." You whispered out. Zuko didn't respond immediately, thinking about his answer. For a while he would have said 'it's okay or 'i had it coming' but he now knew that it wasn't true. That it was cruel and he shouldn't have had to go through that.

"I'm okay now." He decided on and you nodded against him. You sat up a bit and moved your hand to cup his jaw on the side of his scar, your thumb just barely grazing over the edge of it.

"You are beautiful." You breathed out and Zuko was surprised by your words but they almost brought tears to his eyes. "Your father was a cruel and spiteful man and for him to have taken his anger out on his own child when you were just a kid is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry you had to go through that and I am so proud of you for having become such an amazing man in spite of your cruel upbringing."

You wiped away the single tear that trailed down his face.

"Will you marry me?" He whispered out, surprising himself a bit. He had of course been planning on proposing to you but he had a plan set up months from now. It was elaborate and romantic but as he sat in front of you, he wanted to be able to say he was your husband as soon as possible. Your face cracked into a smile and you giggled a bit. Zuko wanted to hear that sound for the rest of his life.

"Of course I will, Firelord Zuko." Your words reminded you of your future and your face paled a bit. Zuko was ecstatic that you said yes but worried as your face showed anxiety. "I'm going to be royalty." You choked out, your fear showing. You had, of course, hoped that you would be spending the rest of your life with Zuko, but you had never given your future rank much thought. Zuko let out a laugh at your realization.

"You already are." He added and you quirked your eyebrow in question. "You are the person I care for the most in the world, you are my closest advisor and you help me in all of my decisions, you are under my protection at all times. You are already queen in practice, just not in title. You will rule by my side as an equal as you already do. As you have done for the last 2 years."  

You smiled at his reassurance and leaned forward to pull him into a searing kiss. You hoped that he could feel all of the emotions you were trying to express through it. He hummed against your lips and brought his hand up to rest in your hair. When you both pulled away, out of breath, he leaned his forehead against yours.

"I love you." He mumbled out and you smiled.

"Nowhere near as much as I love you." you replied easily.

[spacecasehobbit]

Does the internet need more Season 1 Zuko meta? Yes? No? Doesn't matter, the internet is getting it anyway! Specifically, meta about Zuko's portrayal in The Storm - the first time we really get to dig into Zuko's backstory and start to see his potential to be more than just an antagonist. (Put under a read more to make it easier to skip for people who don't care/dislike Zuko/just don't want to read meta about him at the moment!)

Obviously, Zuko starts off The Storm looking like a selfish asshole who prioritizes his personal mission over the lives and safety of his crew. However, as the episode progresses we learn why he acts that way, and we see a glimpse by the end of the more compassionate person he still wants to be underneath his trauma.

There's a lot of obvious discussion already out there about how The Storm provides us with Zuko's tragic backstory and thus sets him up as a sympathetic villain. What I feel like I haven't seen a lot of is a discussion of just how directly relevant the story of Zuko's burning and banishment is to his behavior at the start of The Storm, and just how meaningful it is that Zuko chooses to turn back for the sake of his crew rather than continuing to pursue the Avatar in that moment by the end of The Storm.

We learn from Iroh that, at 13, Zuko wanted to be let into a War Meeting he wasn't supposed to be at, promised Iroh that he would be silent, and then broke that promise because a general suggested a plan to sacrifice a bunch of young and inexperienced soldiers for the sake of advancing the Fire Nation's war efforts in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko yells at the general for suggesting this plan to sacrifice loyal soldiers, and in the midst of his anger he characterizes the plan as a betrayal of those soldiers' loyalty. In response, his dad who is also the Fire Lord demands that he defend his honor in an Agni Kai.

Of course, we all know how that went for Zuko. He was effectively tricked into an Agni Kai with his father (he initially thought the Agni Kai would be against the general, not Ozai, and doesn't learn that his opponent is Ozai until he turns around in the arena), he was horrifically burned by his dad while crying and kneeling on the floor because he refused to fight, and then he was banished and tasked by the Fire Lord with capturing the Avatar as the only way to restore his honor.

So now, at the start of The Storm, we have a Zuko who is trying desperately to prove that he has learned the lesson that was literally branded onto his face - the lesson that the lives of individual soldiers matters less than successfully advancing the Fire Nation cause in the war. Zuko once tried to argue that the lives of individual soldiers should matter, and for that he got half his face seared off and was barred from returning home until he completed a quest that was at the time largely assumed to be impossible.

Yet here he is, the object of his supposedly impossible quest alive and potentially within his grasp against all reasonable expectation, and what is he told by the people around him? That he should prioritize the lives and safety of his crew over completing the task he was given by the Fire Lord - a task that moreover would significantly improve the Fire Nation's odds in the war. The crew are essentially repeating Zuko's 13-year-old self's priorities at him and telling him those priorities are right, while all Zuko has to do is look in a mirror to remind himself of what the Fire Lord, the Fire Nation's highest authority, would prioritize.

So Zuko, who is still clinging desperately to the idea that he can both do the right thing/be a good person and please his dad/"earn" his dad's love at the same time, stomps and shouts and demands that his crew sail into the oncoming storm against all reasonable safety advice.

And then, in spite of how desperately Zuko wants to be the man his father wants him to be, in spite of how desperately he wants to be capable of "earning" his father's love and going home, we see that Zuko hasn't managed to fully crush the compassion and care for his people that got him into this position in the first place. He risks his own life to save the life of a crew member who's safety harness breaks, even though that crew member probably doesn't much like or respect Zuko as a leader and even though Zuko gets injured in the process. Then he finally agrees to turn back - to prioritize the safety of his ship and his crew instead of the mission he was given by the Fire Lord - even after seeing the Avatar flying away as they pass through a temporary break in the clouds.

Ozai literally tried to burn Zuko's compassion for other people out of him when Zuko was 13, and he failed. When Zuko tries to be the man his father supposedly wants, he is a furious, stompy, raging disaster. Because underneath all the pain and rage grown from the traumas of his past, what Zuko really wants is just to be allowed to care about his people and to be loved by his family at the same time.

Deep down - very deep down, still, in Season 1 - Zuko knows that Ozai was wrong and he was right that day, when he prioritized compassion and lives over military conquest.

[cielrouge]

YA SFF Books by Black Authors 

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow: About the strength of black sisterhood set in Portland, OR, best friends Tavi and Effie discover their true supernatural identity when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical siren voice during a police stop.

A Chorus Rises (A Song Below Water #2) by Bethany C. Morrow: Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw is an Eloko, a person who’s gifted with a song that woos anyone who hears it. Everyone loves her — well, until she's cast as the awful person who exposed Tavia’s secret siren powers. When a new, flourishing segment of Naema’s online supporters start targeting black girls, however, Naema must discover the true purpose of her magical voice.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown: Inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess, Karina, and a desperate refugee, Malik, find themselves on a collision course to murder each other, despite their growing attraction.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor: Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.

Akata Warrior (Akata Witch #2) by Nnedi Okorafor: Now stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny Nwazue, along with her friends from the the Leopard Society, travel through worlds, both visible and invisible, to the mysterious town of Osisi, where they fight in a climactic battle to save humanity.

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis: For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi: After he eats the sin of a royal, Taj, a talented aki, or sin-eater who consumes the guilt of others whose transgressions are exorcised from them by powerful but corrupt Mages, is drawn into a plot to destroy the city, and he must fight to save the princess he loves and his own life.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray: Two Black teenagers, talented Beastkeeper Koffi and warrior-in-training Ekon, must trek into a magical jungle to take down an ancient creature menacing the city of Lkossa, before they become the hunted.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton: In the opulent world of Orléans, where Beauty is a commodity only a few control, Belle Camellia Beauregard will learn the dark secrets behind her powers, and rise up to change the world. 

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney: A whimsical and butt-kicking Alice in Wonderland retelling featuring a black teen heroine who battles Nightmares in the dark and terrifying dream realm known as Wonderland. 

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves: 16-year-old Hanna reunites with her estranged mother in an East Texas town that is haunted with doors to dimensions of the dead and protected by demon hunters called Mortmaine.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury: Set in near-future Toronto in which, after failing to come into her powers, 16-year-old Black witch Voya Thomas must choose between losing her family’s magic forever or murdering her first love.

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley: Set in Victorian England, African tightrope walker Iris cannot die; but soon gets drafted in the fight-to-the-death tournament of freaks where she learns the terrible truth of who and what she really is.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: 17-year-old Zélie and companions journey to a mythic island seeking a chance to bring back magic to the land of Orïsha, in a fantasy world infused with the textures of West Africa.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) by Tomi Adeyemi: After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron: 16-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia flees, hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris: A gripping, evocative novel about Black teen Alex Rufus, who has the power to see into the future, and whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death.

Crown of Thunder (Beasts Made of Night #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi: Taj has escaped Kos, but Queen Karima will go to any means necessary--including using the most deadly magic--to track him down. 

A Crown So Cursed (Nightmare Verse #3) by L.L. McKinney: Alice is ready to jump into battle when she learns that someone is building an army of Nightmares to attack the mortal world, before she learns of a personal connection to Wonderland.

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron: In Jim Crow South, black teen Evalene Deschamps finds her place among a family of women gifted with magical abilities, known as jubilation - a gift passed down from generations of black women since the time of slavery.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: The Civil War is over, but mostly because the dead rose at Gettysburg—and then started rising everywhere else. Fighting the undead is a breeze for Jane McKenne, an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. But the fight for freedom? That’s a different story.

Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland: After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler. But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America.

A Dream So Dark (Nightmare Verse #2) by L.L. McKinney: Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates) Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all in Wonderland.

Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds: Jamal’s best friend Q is brought back to life after a freak accident … but they only have a short time together before he will die again.  How can Jamal fix his friendship without the truth?

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley:  Before they can save the world from the monstrous phantoms, four girls who have the power to control the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water must first try to figure out how to work together. 

For All Time by Shanna Miles: Tamar and Fayard, two Black teens, are fated to repeat their love story across hundreds of lifetimes, from 14th-century Mali to the distant future, as they struggle to break the cycle.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna: Inspired by the culture of West Africa, a feminist fantasy debut traces the experiences of 16-year-old Deka, who is invited to leave her discriminatory village to join the emperor’s army of near-immortal women warriors.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis: The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls--they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a "welcome house" as children and branded with cursed markings. When Clementine accidentally kills a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape to find freedom, justice, and revenge.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron: Set in a West African-inspired fantasy kingdom, Arrah comes from a long line of powerful witchdoctors, yet fails at magic. When Arrah trade years off her life for magic to stop the Demon King from destroying the world—that is if it doesn’t kill her first.

Legacy of Light (The Effgies #3) by Sarah Raughley: After Saul’s strike on Oslo—one seemingly led by Maia herself—the Effigies’ reputation is in shambles. Belle has gone rogue, Chae Rin and Lake have disappeared, and the Sect is being dismantled and replaced by a terrifying new world order helmed by Blackwell. If the Effigies can’t put the pieces together soon, there may not be much left of the world they’ve fought so desperately to save.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn: In this King Arthur retelling, Black teen Bree Matthews infiltrates a secret society of powerful magic wielders to find out the truth behind her mother’s untimely death.

Mem by Bethany C. Morrow: In alternate reality Montreal (1925), a young woman’s personality is the result of a startling experimental procedure, leaving her to struggle with the question of who she really is.

Miles Morales, Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds: But Miles Morales accidentally discovers a villainous teacher's plan to turn good kids bad, he will need to come to terms with his own destiny as the new Spider-man. 

Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard: Half-mortal teenager Helen Thomas goes to live with her father—who is Zeus, masquerading as a university professor—and must do her best to keep the family secret intact.

The Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds: After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met, but he soon learns that his actions have consequences when someone else close to him dies.

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith: Set in a futuristic, hostile Orleans landscape, Fen de la Guerre must deliver her tribe leader's baby over the Wall into the Outer States before her blood becomes tainted with Delta Fever. 

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney & Robyn Smith: When Nubia’s best friend, Quisha, is threatened by a boy who thinks he owns the town, Nubia will risk it all—her safety, her home, and her crush on that cute kid in English class—to become the hero society tells her she isn’t.

A Phoenix First Must Burn: 16 Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope edited by Patrice Caldwell: Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron: In this contemporary fantasy inspired by The Secret Garden, Black teen Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants with a single touch. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family, when a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir.

A Psalm of Storm and Silence (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #2) by Roseanne A. Brown: As the fabric holding Sonande together begins to tear, Malik and Karina once again find themselves torn between their duties and their desires.

A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) by Amanda Joy: After learning the truth of her heritage, Eva is on the run with her sister Isa as her captive, but with the Queendom of Myre on the brink of revolution, Eva and Isa must make peace with each other to save their kingdom.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko: In a West African-inspired empire, Tarisai is raised by The Lady and sent to kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?

Redemptor (Raybearer #2) by Jordan Ifueko: For the first time, an Empress Redemptor sits on Aritsar's throne. To appease the sinister spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer.

The Ravens by Danielle Page & Kass Morgan: The sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. For Vivi Deveraux, being one of Kappa Rho Nu’s Ravens means getting a chance to redefine herself. For Scarlett Winters, a bonafide Raven and daughter of a legacy Raven. When Vivi and Scarlett are paired as big and little for initiation, they find themselves sinking into the sinister world of blood oaths and betrayals.

Rebel Sisters (War Girls #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi: Though they are working toward common goals of helping those who suffered, Ify and Uzo are worlds apart. But when a mysterious virus breaks out among the children in the Space Colonies, their paths collide.

Reaper of Souls (Kingdom of Souls #2) by Rena Barron: After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy: A North African-inspired feminist fantasy in which two sisters, Eva and Isa must compete in a magical duel to the death for the right to inherit the queendom of Myre.  

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves: In Portero, Texas, teens Kit and Fancy Cordelle, daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, bring two boys with similar tendencies to a world of endless possibilities they have discovered behind a mysterious door.

Siege of Shadows (The Effigies #2) by Sarah Raughley:  After Saul reappears with an army of soldiers with Effigy-like abilities, threatening to unleash the monstrous Phantoms, e-year-old Maia and the other Effigies hope to defeat him by discovering the source of their power over the four classical elements, but they are betrayed by the Sect and bogged down by questions about the previous Fire Effigy's murder.

The Sisters of Reckoning (The Good Luck Girls #2) by Charlotte Nicole Davis: The blockbuster sequel to an alternate Old West-set commercial fantasy adventure.

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow: Set in the near-future, in which a captive teen human and a young alien leader—bonded by their love of forbidden books and music—embark on a desperate road trip as they attempt to overturn alien rule and save humankind. 

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi: Set in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria, sisters Onyii and Ify, separated by a devastating civil war, must fight their way back to each other against all odds.

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst: When the goddess Bayla fails to take over Liyana's body, Liyana's people abandon her in the desert to find a more worthy vessel, but she soon meets Korbyn, who says the souls of seven deities have been stolen and he needs Liyana's help to find them.

The Weight of Stars by K. Ancrum: After a horrific accident brings loners Ryann and Alexandria together, Ryann learns that Alexandria's mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system.

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson: Black teen Marigold and her blended family move into a newly renovated, picture-perfect home in a dilapidated Midwestern city, and are haunted by what she thinks are ghosts, but might be far worse.

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle: Black teen Rue, from a poor neighborhood who, after learning she is half-human, half-goddess, must embrace both sides of her heritage to unlock her magic and destroy the racist gods poisoning her neighborhood with violence, drugs, and crime.

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Thomas: In this Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut, two witches from enemy castes—one seeking power, and one seeking revenge—will stop at nothing to overthrow the witch queen, even if it means forming an alliance with each other and unleashing chaos on their island nation.

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood: An Ethiopian-inspired Jane Eyre retelling in which an unlicensed debtera, or exorcist, Andromeda, is hired to rid a castle of its dangerous curses, only to fall in love with Magnus Rochester, a boy whose life hangs in the balance.

Yesterday Is History by Kosoko Jackson: Black teen Andre Cobb undergoes a liver transplant and as a side effect winds up slipping through time from present-day Boston to 1969 NYC on the eve of the Stonewall riots, delivering a story that is part romance, part gay history, and part time-travel drama, exploring how far we have and haven't come. 

[chaos-deimos-et-eris]

There have been multiple countries who have historically had a ruler that the people have seen as a god, or akin to god, or believed spoke as god. There have been multiple atrocities even to this day that have been explained away to "I was just doing my job/ following orders".

However I would like to point out that iroh was ashamed to not even be able to have watched. The crew did not know what happened to Zuko's face. The incident that caused the scarring is never brought up by outsiders. Katara and sokka do not know about it. Nowhere in the earth kingdom is it being used as propaganda to prove why the fire nation is full of monsters that must be killed before they start going after earth children. None of the fire nation children are afraid of acting out lest they get the prince zuko treatment. Assholes like Zhao, high on power aren't burning their subordinates in the face (zuko needs to hide his scar in the fire nation because it is unique). Even the play, which was made to make fun of zuko iroh and the gaang, had no reference to the agni kai as another point against zuko.

Thats werid because they made a show of actor ozai claiming that the world was finally his. This is a propaganda piece, so that greediness is off. After all, zuko thinks that the war is spreading greatness. It is not weird, if Ozai is acting as a god, or a direct messenger of the gods. then ozai taking over the world, even by overwhelming force, would be spreading that "greatness" because of course the fire nation is under that idea that the rest of the world is too dumb to know any better for themselves.

They make zuko wishy-washy, betraying people's left and right to get the most power. they could have twisted the first agni kai into a young zukos first bid for power and had ozai brand and banish him as a way to both warn people away from him and be merciful, or protect azula or save the nation, or any number of things to make zuko seem unsuitable and ozai and Azula look good, or at least willing to make the hard choices to protect the country.

But they didn't. Zuko is not a cautionary tale or a boogeyman or an example of fire nation cruelty, him and his scar are a secret which makes me think that ozai did a big no no with the agni kai against a thirteen year old. Maybe the only actual rule is the other person has to be a firebender, but actual rules and social rules can be and in cases of very vague rules like this, will be different. Like in some states u can technically marry any minor as long as u have parental permission but if u ask a stranger for the hand of their five year old in marriage, you're more than likely going to get shot.

For the Ozai is trying to help zuko by being an absolute bastard. While there are two types of child abusers, the power hungry and the doesn't realize that slightly less abuse than what they went through is still abuse, I've never been particularly sympathic towards the second kind. Mainly because in media they are finally realizing they were doing the wrong thing when all their children are grown and hate them, when I've seen people like that in real life change when they when see their own trauma responses in their kids and even at a hey, you shouldn't that to your kids that's bad for them. Because these people actually want better, they ask and search and are watching their children's body language constantly to make sure they're not fucking up.

Ozai from the show is not like that. In every flashback that zuko is aware of him, he is nervous and afraid. Even azula has noticeably different body language around Ozai, less expressive and more still, her voice softer, steadier, smoother as if she's trying not to get noticed. The only time she acts more her around him, she gets shut down and fast, its a little jarring to see azula, than fear, than quiet obedience, because up until then, its had seemed that azula was of some importance to ozai and azula had great agency in her alliance with the Fire Lord. She is a pawn to her father, and in that moment she realizes that her accomplishments have not earned her the safety that she was promised and with zuko gone again, she was back on the chopping block.

Ozai from the comics does seem more like that second kind. But there is one important difference here that u should be aware of. The shift in power. When Ozai was buring kids, threatening to throw babies out windows and banishing minors he was that one that had all the power over his victims. He was is the one in charge.

Now he is in jail and Zuko is the fire lord. Zuko, in theory, is the one with all the power now. Except, Ozai didn't spend years terrorizing his two children for him to let that go to waste. He still has power over zuko as his former abuser. and as long as he can get zuko to come visit him, he can rule through him. if he plays his cards right and ozai can convince Zuko it was all done to better him or the nation, like he did for years, ozai might even be able to get out as and advisor, and rule or kill a puppet king.

As for the get up and fight, I do genuinely think that he wanted zuko to fight him, if only to give him an excuse to legally murder him on the spot in a socially acceptable way. If it makes it any better I do not think he was doing so to exert power over zuko, but rather as a warning to iroh. Just a if you try to take away my power over my children from me, I will kill them and make you watch, before starting over with a new one. I do not think the agni kai was a punishment for zuko disagreeing but one for iroh, for shielding zuko and taking him into the war room in the first place because ozai seems like the kind of monster that would kill his own child to remind someone else of his place.

I came here from the Game of Thrones fandom, the “it was just like that back then in ye olden times” excuse was ridiculous there, and it’s especially ridiculous as an excuse to justify something that is clearly framed as NOT justifiable by the show in a fantasy world. As much as ATLA takes inspiration from Asian cultures, it is not a historical show.

But even if we look at what was considered culturally acceptable in the Fire Nation, what Ozai did to Zuko isn’t justifiable. Not that it matters in any case, but what Ozai does is not even reasonable by any rules of agni kais that we might get from what little canon says about it and historical influences that we might use as examples. The fact that we have so little given to us in canon makes the “oh, it was culturally acceptable” thing rather silly at best because we don’t know what was considered culturally acceptable. At worst it’s rather racist to be like “that’s just how their culture is, oh those brutal and primitive nonwhites,” especially when it is specifically established in the series that the roots of Fire Nation culture from which the agni kai originated are NOT the war-mongering military-obsessed values that the FN embraced after Sozin.

Even if we took the agni kai between Zuko and Ozai at face value, there are a number of things about it that immediately make it an unfair fight. Zuko himself tells his father “how can you possibly justify a duel with a child,” and that it was cruel and wrong. Zuko was thirteen years old. And since Zuko specifically mentions his age when he tells Ozai it was wrong, I think we can say that we would not be remiss in imposing modern standards. There’s no evidence that ritualistic duels between children and adults would be considered normal. It may have been accepted because Ozai was the Fire Lord, but I’m sure there were plenty of people, even people who witnessed it, like Iroh, who thought fighting a child was despicable but maybe wouldn’t say anything to go against the Fire Lord. 

We do know that an Agni Kai carries spiritual and cultural significance, and we also know from “Winter Solstice” that not all of the Fire Sages, the religious authorities in the Fire Nation, were down with the way Sozin ran things. It is made explicit in the series that Ozai and his ancestors were responsible for creating a spiritual imbalance in the world, so I think it can also be assumed that what we see of the agni kai ritual in the series itself is a twisted version of what it was originally intended to be. The wiki says that before Sozin’s rule, agni kais were rarely fought to the death, but that changed after Sozin’s regime and the emphasis on mercy and compassion being seen as weakness.

In addition to the fact that Zuko was a child when he was challenged by Ozai, I think it also goes without saying that the fact that Ozai is Zuko’s father as well as the Fire Lord means that there is a huge power imbalance there. This isn’t a duel between equals. Let’s look at what the wiki says about the agni kai ritual:

Any firebender may participate in an Agni Kai. Fire Lords can also be challenged, but that rarely occurs, as most Fire Lords are among the most powerful firebenders in the world.

I hear you saying “but sokkastyles, it says any firebender can participate and surely that means that children can fight duels with adults!” To which I say, common sense is your friend, please get to know it.

What I wanted to draw your attention to, though, is the statement that Fire Lords are rarely challenged to agni kais because they are among the most powerful in the world. Makes sense, right? It’d be pretty stupid to challenge the most powerful firebender alive to a firebender duel, unless you were pretty sure of your abilities. That doesn’t prohibit the Fire Lord from challenging others or fighting in the place of someone else, but it does ensure a pretty unbalanced fight. Which brings me to the next point, which was that Zuko did not even know he was fighting the Fire Lord. I think a lot of people forget this but it’s a key detail in whether or not you can consider this to be a legally or culturally justifiable fight. Even if you consider Zuko able to fully consent as a thirteen year old to fighting against an adult, against the Fire Lord, against his father, Zuko very obviously cannot knowingly consent to fighting someone that he didn’t even know he was fighting until the last moment, when it was too late to back down.

I’ve also seen people say that Ozai only burned Zuko because Zuko refused to fight, but here’s the thing. Given what I just outlined, Zuko was put in a situation that he could not reasonably consent to, that he obviously could not win, and then is punished for backing down. This is not a mere cultural ritual. This is Ozai deliberately manipulating the situation so that no matter what Zuko did, he would get hurt. And I don’t for a minute believe that Zuko would be spared if he had chosen to fight. If Zuko had chosen to fight, he would most likely have been cast as disloyal, the kind of disloyal son who would attack his father, and quickly defeated, and Ozai probably would have branded him as a result of his dishonor just the same. As it is, Ozai exerts his will against an adolescent who is begging and crying on the ground in front of him.

The wiki also says that a challenge has to be accepted, and we don’t see Zuko accept the challenge in the flashback, but even if he did, he was accepting it without the full knowledge of who he would be fighting, which renders his ability to accept moot if we go by most people’s understanding of legal consent (and, again, children cannot legally consent in any case, but anyway). Once he does see who he is fighting, he immediately tries to back out of it, but by then it isn’t an option. If Zuko isn’t given an option to decline then he can’t actually meaningfully accept the challenge.

Here’s another interesting tidbit from the wiki:

The Agni Kai is an ancient Fire Nation tradition. Fire duels have been fought for hundreds of years. However, such a duel is a grave matter, meant to be a last resort when all else fails or is insufficient to settle a dispute.

Did Ozai fight his son to settle a dispute? Was it a last resort, after other means of peaceful resolution had failed? I’m not gonna debate about whether a teenager speaking out during an important meeting justifies a duel or if burning a child’s face is an acceptable form of corporeal punishment. I think even by the rules of hypermasculine fantasy violence this would be considered a disproportionate response. My purpose is to point out that even by the established rules of hypermasculine fantasy fire land, it still would be considered a gross abuse of the system. Even the people on Zuko’s crew, who are all Fire Nation military, are shocked to hear the story. Jee says he assumed that Zuko was in a training accident and is nicer and more sympathetic to Zuko after learning how Zuko was scarred. Which would not be the case if the narrative that Ozai spins about Zuko losing his honor and being disrespectful and thus deserving to be burned were universally culturally accepted as true. I think there were enough people who thought it was, the Zhaos who bought into the fascist regime and glorification of violence. And yes, learning that it wasn’t justified was part of Zuko unlearning all the fascist BS his nation had been indoctrinated with, but it’s also made clear that Ozai wasn’t just acting within the rules of his society and that Zuko had to unlearn a lot of psychological conditioning due to his father’s abuse, and that included the idea that he deserved to be hurt. Ozai uses fascist values to justify hurting Zuko but what lies behind it is Ozai’s desire to use his power to hurt his son, and abusive people will frequently find ways of justifying their actions, by whatever means.

It’s also funny that people who bend over backwards to justify Ozai attacking a crying, surrendering child (from any direction, legally, morally, culturally, I don’t care) are often the same people who claim that Zuko was somehow taking advantage of Azula by fighting her when she was unstable and would have tried to kill him and harm others regardless of whether he had accepted her challenge.

[ask-ozai]

You may have everyone else fooled, even Azula, but I know what you really are and what you are really up to. The plan to use Sozin’s Comet to attack the earth kingdom was merely the bait for a much larger trap. You don't plan to become the phoenix king, you plan to become the one true avatar. One even more powerful then the current avatar.

You are actually Vaatu. During every solstice, you eventually spoke to Sozin in his dreams, projecting dreams of ambition and Sozin ruling the world into his head until he gave in to his desires. You sought out and manipulated Iroh's spiritually attuned mother, Ilah. In her astral form, Ilah phased inside the tree and she fused with you. You both quickly returned to Ilah’s body but Your dark power depleted, you were weakened to reach the level of a human soul. But you used your limited energy and the energies of Ilah to construct a physical form for you to inhabit. In addition, Ilah was pregnant with Ilah’s second child, she died birthing this second son and was coincidently named; Ozai. Just as Sozin's comet returns by the end of summer, Harmonic Convergence will come by the end of fall. When the end of fall comes, your dark and chaotic powers will return, and you will become a new Avatar: A dark avatar.

To the outside world you were an ambitious heir of Sozin looking to live up to his legacy but secretly you followed the footsteps of Iroh and Ilah, in studying the spirits, lion turtles, and the other nations, learning all of their ways. When you left the fire nation, leaving the people under the assumption that you were going to search for the avatar like Sozin and Azulon did, What you actually did was visit the foggy bon yon grove swamp and encountered the tree. You were able to concentrate your energy on to the tree and connect your life and your bending on to it. Should you die or lose your bending, the tree will explode. From the inside out. Creating a third new spirit portal, the two OG portals would also automatically open.

When Aang first used energybending on you, you gained all memories, thoughts, knowledge, experiences, wisdom and level of bending from all avatars, even Aang's. Every last twisted detail. Just as you planned all along. But even before then, you've been stalking and studying the gaang for some time, that's how you're nation managed to present a half-accurate play starring the gaang. You will fight the lion turtle, not only do you slay it but you absorb its soul, accessing it's powers, potential and attributes.

When Raava fused with Wan, her life has been linked to the lives of the elemental spirits all benders draw power from. Once Raava dies, so will the elemental spirits, the elements will succumb to chaos and all benders will lose their bending except for you're own, in fact, it’ll increase exponentially to the point you are the source of the very concept of bending. Throughout ten thousand years, you will naturally shred the plane of spirits and material world down to their last atom, but when Raava regenerates inside you, you will bend your own energy along with Raava’s. You’ll make it where you’ll draw power from light and peace instead of being weakened, and Raava will be weakened by her own power as if it was your darkness, that way you can evolve into the spirit of balance itself.

Ergo, the one true avatar who's also the supreme ruler over everything, even the two concepts of balance and bending themselves. You will be able to create brand new worlds, teaming with life, that knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given. Once your physical form finally rests, You will have created an avatar cycle of my own and all your future incarnations will preserve your new era the way they see fit for all eternity.

Good luck, Ozaatu.

That monk is a sadistic mastermind

[atlabeth]

everything happens for a reason part 7 - zuko x fem!reader

I think my ways are wearing me down

part 6 | masterlist | part 8

a/n: as said very astutely in my outline, "y/n just keeps taking L's"

i actually had to take breaks while writing the final scene and watching the episode LMAo i forgot how fucking sad this scene was!!

warning(s): you know what happens in this chapter. its siege of the north part 2. its so much more angst like SO MUCH ANGST. im so sorry i got so sad while writing this

wc: 4.0k

chapter title comes from brand new city by mitski!

Y/N adjusted her hold on the basket of clothes as she knocked on the door with her free hand, pushing it open after waiting a few moments.

“Prince Zuko?” she called in a whisper. They had gotten past the point of formalities, but it was a precaution she opted to take when they met like this. She spotted him sitting on his bed and he gave her a thumbs up, a sign she took to mean they were in the clear. Y/N closed the door behind her and bounded over, then set the basket on his bed.

“Alright. I brought you the book that you wanted to borrow.” She unearthed the novel from the pile of clothes with caution, taking care to not ruin the hard work that went into folding all of them. “I had to hide it so I could get in here — no one thinks anything of a servant bringing clothes around, but books are a little more suspicious. But here you go! My very own edition of ‘Keiko and the Koalaotter’.”

“Thank you!” The prince grinned as he took the book and examined the cover. “I’ve always been curious about Water Tribe culture, even more after you started teaching me about it. They don’t really tell us about it in our classes.”

“It’s not really accurate to actual Water Tribe stuff, but it is cute,” she laughed. “I remember begging my parents for a koalaotter for weeks after I finished it. They told me that there was no way to get one all the way in the Earth Kingdom, but I never listened to them.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” His eyes lit up as he ran over to the windowsill. “I got you a gift too!”

“Zuko, really? You shouldn’t have.”

“Well, I did. So don’t even think about not accepting it,” he joked. He picked something up from a vase and bounded back over, doing as good a job of hiding the flowers behind his back as his excited grin.

“What is it?” she questioned.

“They’re silver wisterias!” he exclaimed as he presented the bouquet. “They grow in the palace gardens. They’re really pretty, and so are you, and I know how much you love the gardens, so I thought you’d like it.”

She felt her cheeks heat up when she accepted the gift, twirling the stem in her fingers as she inhaled its sweet scent with a smile. “That’s really thoughtful of you, Zuko. Thank you.”

“Of course! You could wear one in your hair, pin one onto your uniform, put them in your room, whatever you want.”

As she carefully ran her fingers over the petals, she couldn’t stop the nagging question at the back of her mind from escaping.

“Why are you so nice to me?” she blurted out, causing Zuko’s brows to furrow in confusion.

“Because you’re my friend. Friends are nice to each other.”

“I know, but why are we friends?” she pushed. “You know that you could get in trouble for talking to me like this, but you still do it. Why?”

He pondered the question for a moment before he answered. “Well.. you don’t treat me like everyone else. I’m the prince, so everyone here has to do what I want and be nice to me. But you’re not like that. When it’s just the two of us, you treat me like anyone else, and I like that — I know that you always mean what you say, so when you’re nice to me I know it’s because you like me, not because you have to be. Why do you do that?” the prince asked as he turned the tables. “You know that you could get in trouble for talking to me like this, but you still do it. Why?”

She punched him playfully on the shoulder and giggled. “Someone’s gotta keep you humble.”

His cheeks flushed a bright red as he rubbed his arm shyly. “I’m really glad we’re friends. Sometimes it feels like you’re my only one in this whole nation.”

“So am I,” she beamed. “Always and forever, right?”

“Right.”

-

Y/N’s eyes snapped open and she gasped, immediately whipping her head around frantically to see if the Avatar was still there, but Katara shook her head.

“He’s gone,” Katara said miserably, confirming her suspicions. “I woke up a few minutes before you and I checked everywhere.”

“Great,” she muttered. She rubbed the back of her head and winced — she had a feeling she would be plagued by headaches for at least the next couple of days.

“So…” Katara began. “You and Zuko both recognized each other. He— he said he thought that you were dead.”

Y/N pursed her lips, wondering how to start that story, when Sokka and Yue burst into the oasis on Appa.

“What happened?” he questioned. “Where’s Zuko?”

“He took Aang,” Katara mourned. “He took him right out from under me.”

“It’s not your fault, Katara,” Y/N insisted. “It really looks like he’s improved since… since last time.”

“‘Last time’?” Sokka asked, prompting a sigh from Y/N. She looked to Yue for help, and the princess nodded supportively.

“We have… history.” She looked at her hands for a moment before continuing. “I’m not from the Northern Water Tribe. My mother is, but I was born in a small village in the Earth Kingdom. I told you that my village was invaded, Katara, but after it, my mother and I were captured for being waterbenders, and they took us to the Fire Nation to work as healers and servants in the palace.”

“I became friends with Zuko there. He was nothing like you saw today, or like anything you know from the past. He was kind, and caring, and passionate, and he made my dismal life a little bit brighter. And… we ended up falling for each other.”

“We went too far, the Fire Lord found out, and— well, he was going to kill me. My mother managed to get me out, but she stayed behind, and I haven’t seen her since that night. I haven’t seen Zuko since that night. I always held hope that I would find my way back and see them both again, but now that Zuko is like… like that?” She bit down on her lip and shook her head.

“Now I don’t know what to think. He’s completely different than anything I knew, than the boy that I fell in love with. And I can’t help but think about what happened to my mother if that is what happened to Zuko.” And I can’t help but think that it’s my fault for not being there for him.

A collective silence hung in the air for just a moment before Sokka broke it. “You had a thing with Zuko?”

Y/N let out a surprised laugh as Katara hit him on the shoulder. “Sokka, now is not the time!”

“No,” she chuckled. “No, it’s alright. It’s a lot, I know. It’s just… impossible. That the Zuko I knew turned into someone like this. I mean, you saw, Katara— he didn’t even hesitate to try and hurt me.”

Katara pulled her into a warm embrace before separating and looking her in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Y/N, for all that you’ve been through. And I know that fighting against Zuko hurts, so if you can’t come after Aang with us then I completely understand—”

“No,” she said once more, something hardening in her eyes. “I’ll help you find Aang, it’s the least I can do. Besides, I… I have to see him again. I have to see him again to know that this is actually real, that— that this is actually who he is now.”

Katara nodded solemnly; Sokka had already started walking back to Appa with Yue. “Well, Zuko couldn’t have gotten far. We’ll find him — Aang’s gonna be fine.”

Katara looked back hopefully at Y/N and she met her eyes with a smile, though slightly strained, as she jogged to catch up with them. But as she climbed onto Appa with her fellow waterbender, the anger in his eyes was all she could see.

The boy she fought might’ve been the Fire Prince, but it was not her Zuko.

-

Cold.

That was all Zuko seemed to know as he trekked through the frozen tundra, the blizzard around him threatening to end him at any moment. No more had he despised the Water Tribes than he did in this moment, but the weight of the Avatar on his back and the promise of his honor was enough to push him onwards.

The only thing on his mind that he couldn’t shake was her.

Zuko thought she was dead, honestly and truly. Few were lucky enough to escape his father’s wrath once it was incurred upon them — Zuko himself wasn’t even an exception — and though he wanted nothing more than for her to be one of the few, he knew that she was dead. There was no other explanation.

For years, the waterbender had been a staple in his mind — a memory of a childhood love, of a better time. He thought about her when he fought against his soldiers on slow evenings on the ship, her words of encouragement and joking retorts echoing through his ears as he went through every form. He thought about her when he talked to his uncle, his attitude often mirroring hers. The morning of the Agni Kai, he almost turned to her for reassurance before remembering.

Spirits, Zuko thought about her every time he looked at the water. And even all these years after her disappearance, he was still plagued by nightmares of her fate.

He had resigned himself to mourning her. Zuko truly thought she was dead.

But there she was, in the flesh, with the Avatar and his friends. Breathing. Alive. His enemy.

How the fuck was he supposed to deal with that?

She was even more beautiful than he remembered, but it was obvious the years since her escape had weathered her. He noticed a certain emptiness in her eyes, the brightness from their childhood a distant memory. It was obvious she had grown — she carried a certain elegance that he didn’t remember, and her skill in waterbending had improved so much since the days of their sparring sessions.

It felt like he had betrayed her. The expression she wore after his first blast was like a physical weight, the guilt of broken promises heavy over his head when he struck the final blow. So familiar to their friendly fights, yet such a far cry.

But they weren’t kids anymore. She had changed, and so had he.

It had been years. Any feelings he still harbored for her didn’t matter anymore.

Zuko had a mission, and he was going to complete it no matter what.

-

The tundra was treacherous, the blizzard making it difficult to see anything at all. Y/N had taken to holding Yue’s hand, something the princess had offered when she had seen how restless her friend was, as well as gnawing on the bottom of her lip. She feared for both Zuko and Aang, and she could only hope that they would be able to find them before something happened to either of them.

“Don’t worry,” the princess reassured. “Prince Zuko can’t be getting too far in this weather.”

“I’m not worried they’ll get away in the blizzard,” Katara murmured. “I’m worried that they won’t.”

“They’re not gonna die in this blizzard,” Sokka said as he gripped the reins tighter. “If we know anything, it’s that Zuko never gives up.”

Y/N chuckled softly and nodded. “You’ve got that right.”

Yue gave her hand a squeeze and a small smile, a sentiment that Y/N returned as Sokka continued. “They’ll survive, and we’ll find them.”

It took a few more minutes of riding and searching, but eventually a bright blue light streaked through the air. Katara gasped and pointed up. “Look!” she exclaimed. “That’s gotta be Aang! Yip yip!”

Appa groaned once more and Sokka turned to follow the light — it had stopped in a small cove before glowing brilliantly then disappearing — and sure enough, Zuko and Aang were down in the snow.

“Appa!” he cheered as they landed, causing Zuko’s eyes to flick up too. Y/N met his gaze for just a moment before he broke it, throwing Aang to the side and easing into a bending stance as Katara slid off of Appa’s back.

“Here for a rematch?” Zuko challenged, the undeserved confidence he spoke with a glimpse of the past.

“Trust me, Zuko,” Katara countered as she raised her hands, “It’s not going to be much of a match.”

She blocked his fire blast then sent a current of snow at him, launching him up into the air on a frozen column before letting him fall to the ground and knocking him out. Y/N couldn’t help but wince, and as Sokka jumped down to free Aang, she slid down as well.

She ran over the pile of snow and bent it off of Zuko, then knelt down next to him and pulled off her glove. She put two fingers on his neck and confirmed what she already thought, but it was still a relief. He was alive, but he wouldn’t be for much longer if he stayed out here.

“What are you doing?” she heard Sokka yell. Y/N turned to find everyone back on Appa already, staring expectantly at her.

“We can’t leave him!” Y/N protested.

“Sure we can!” he countered. “Now come on, let’s go!”

“No,” she insisted, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead. It was ice cold. “If we leave him, he’ll die!”

“She’s right.” Aang airbended himself off of Appa and helped her pick up Zuko; Aang bringing himself and the prince back onto the bison with his element and Y/N climbing back up with a hand from Katara.

Sokka rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Let’s bring the guy who’s constantly trying to kill us.”

Y/N ignored the remark and met Aang’s eyes, mouthing a silent ‘thank you’. He smiled and nodded, then grabbed the reins and took off.

As they flew through the sky, Y/N glanced down at Zuko. He looked so much more peaceful now than a few moments ago, his features relaxed rather than tense. It was strange seeing him like this after all these years; angry, scarred, changed. Nothing like the reunion she had imagined.

She bent some of the snow falling down into water and molded it over the cuts on his face, the element taking on a slight glow as she started to heal him.

“Oh, Zuko,” she murmured. “What happened in those four years?”

As if her concentration had broken, the water previously under her control lost both its shape and glow as it pooled on his face. She frowned and attempted to bend it off, but none of the usual power she felt at night was flowing through her veins.

It was at that moment that Y/N looked up and noticed her surroundings.

Everything was cloaked in a veil of red, a crimson moon their backdrop as they continued through the air. “My bending isn’t working,” Y/N muttered, earning a curious look from Katara.

And to make matters worse, Yue winced and held her head, Aang doing the same.

“Are you okay?” Sokka questioned as he reached out to comfort her.

“I feel faint,” she muttered, the effort it took not lost on Y/N.

“I feel it too.” Aang pressed his palm against the side of his head and grimaced as his gaze shifted upwards. “The Moon Spirit is in trouble.”

Y/N’s eyes widened immediately as they flicked towards Yue, the princess choosing not to meet them as she began to tell them all the story of her birth and how she owed the Moon Spirit her life. By the time she was done the Water Tribe siblings were staring at her with disbelief, but there was no time for questions as they flew into the Spirit Oasis.

The sight that awaited them shocked Y/N to her core. A Fire Nation admiral — one she recognized from all the years ago, yet unable to place a name — held a bag with one clenched fist, the other posing the unsaid threat.

“Don’t bother,” he spat in response to their fighting stances, the two words overflowing with unearned confidence. But as cocky as he may have been, it worked — he knew that they were rendered helpless when he held the possibility of a dying spirit against them.

“Zhao, don’t.” Aang dropped his staff and held his hands up in surrender, an action Y/N and the others mirrored.

Everything after that happened unbelievably quickly. After General Iroh — a man she knew as both the ruthless general that laid siege to Ba Sing Se for six hundred long days and Zuko’s surprisingly kind uncle — threatened the admiral with his own firebending, Y/N foolishly believed it to be the end once he let the fish back into the pond.

But any hopes of peace were dashed with the slice of firebending the admiral sent at Tui, plunging the world back into shades of grey just as quickly as it had returned.

“NO!”

A bloodcurdling scream rang in the air; Y/N thought whoever produced it must’ve been insane. It took her a moment to realize the strangled sound had come from her, and that Sokka’s grip on her arms was the only thing stopping her from foolishly throwing herself into the raging battle that had started.

Did the admiral not understand what he had just done? To attack any spirit was to inflict the rage of many others, to kill a spirit was to sign not only one's own death warrant, but those around him as well.

To kill the Moon Spirit meant to destroy waterbending as the world knew it. To kill the Moon Spirit meant to disrupt the balance of the world. To kill the Moon Spirit meant to kill Yue.

The admiral should’ve considered himself very lucky that her waterbending was gone. With it, Y/N knew she would’ve done something she would regret.

As soon as the flames of Iroh’s onslaught disappeared, Sokka’s grip loosened on her arms and she all but sprinted over to the pond. A choked sob fell from her lips when she saw the dead fish in the water, palpable horror in the air as the rest of the group joined her.

Not even Aang’s feat of merging with the Ocean Spirit could help — it might’ve saved the tribe from the attack on the Fire Nation, but it could do nothing for the dead spirit. Y/N watched on mournfully as Iroh placed Tui back into the pond, the mortal body of the fish laying there unmoving.

“It’s too late,” Katara lamented. “It’s dead.”

Iroh looked up and met Y/N’s eyes, recognition flashing through them for just a moment before they moved to Yue’s. The blue hues of her irises were even more striking than usual — they were the only sign of color in the world around them.

His own widened with surprise as he gestured at her. “You have been touched by the Moon Spirit. Some of its life is in you.”

Yue seemed to understand what he was saying as she raised her head, her features taking on a mask of stoicism. “Yes, you’re right. It gave me life… maybe I can give it back.”

It was as if lightning had struck Y/N, the way that fear was jolted into her heart. “No!” she cried at the same time as Sokka, a reprise of her earlier plea. “Yue, you can’t!”

“You don’t have to do that!” Sokka reached out for her hand but she wrenched it out of his grasp — nothing they could say was going to change her mind.

“It’s my duty.” The princess stated it so plainly, carving the letters on her headstone herself.

“I won’t let you!” Sokka insisted. “Your father told me to protect you.”

“Yue, your duty isn’t to die for your tribe!” Y/N cried. She couldn’t think, spirits she could barely breathe. She couldn’t go through this again. She couldn’t go through this again. “Please, there has to be another way!”

She smiled sadly at Y/N and shook her head. “This was what I was born to do.” The princess glanced at the pond then took a step forward, wrapping Y/N in the tightest hug she could muster. She pressed her lips against Y/N’s cheek in a feather light kiss before she pulled away and continued forward and placed her hands against the koi fish.

The fish began to glow, Yue closed her eyes, she collapsed into Sokka’s arms.

And that was it.

The color returned to the world, but Y/N was frozen in place. She couldn’t do anything to save her friend, the girl that she was pretty sure she loved, as she died in front of her. Her cheek was still burning from where Yue’s lips had touched, and she wanted to bottle that warmth because she knew that was the last time she would ever feel it.

The first tear to fall snapped her out of her paralysis as she fell to her knees next to Sokka, her body cradled in his arms as he mourned for a lost love. Y/N wanted to scream, she wanted to sob, she wanted to do anything to get this anger and sadness out but she could do nothing but stare, eyes wide and shimmering with unshed tears.

Her body slowly faded away, and Y/N could’ve laughed at the irony. Yue gave her life for the spirits and all they could leave them with was the fleeting memory.

The fish in Iroh’s hands began to glow and he placed it back in the water, and almost immediately it returned to its natural rhythm. The oasis took on the glow of the fish and it formed the cruelest joke of them all.

Princess Yue. She was ethereal, both her hair and white dress flowing down her back and a peaceful expression on her face. She was more beautiful than ever, and her voice echoed through the oasis as she spoke.

“I will always be with you, Y/N. Thank you for making me feel alive.” A small smile, much like the one she gave her just moments ago, played on her lips. “I love you.”

Y/N could do nothing but stare, awestruck and heartbroken, as she whispered something to Sokka and kissed him.

And then she was gone.

Her gaze was trained forward, tears spouting and falling down her cheeks, some dim part of her still hoping that it was just a cruel joke by the spirits. She couldn’t go through this again.

How could they do this to her again? How could they introduce a light into her life and make her fall in love, then wrench it away from her grasp? She felt selfish for only caring about herself. She couldn’t go through this again.

Yue was gone.

She couldn’t go through this again.

Another strangled sob fell from her lips and Katara pulled her into a hug. That simple motion seemed to open to the floodgates, and suddenly she was choking on her own tears. Katara’s arms around her were the only tether she had to the world right now, she had to focus on it or else she would lose herself to the grief.

It felt like the minutes were hours with how long it took until Y/N was finally able to walk out of the oasis, but Katara and Sokka stayed by her side the entire time. When they finally stumbled out into the real world, Y/N felt weaker than ever. The constant go go go of the siege had finally caught up to her, and she was so damn tired.

“Always and forever.”

“You’re stuck with me.”

She was losing hope in promises.

-

perm tag list: @dv0412 @siriuslyslyslytherin @maruchan77

ehfar: @chandies-sideblog @persica27 @anzanity @randomthingssss @escapingthoughtsandsecrets @shanksfav @shephard17895 @ilovespideyyy @carisi-sonny

atla: @marianne1806

[dickpuncherdraws]

zuko from my old abandoned centaur au! his outfits were all so much fun to draw

the fire nation royal line is known for having pure black coats, so when zuko was born with four little white socks, ozai was both horrified and humiliated. then when zuko was banished, to add insult to injury, ozai also had him branded like a common soldier. zuko always made sure to cover up his brand when he was undercover as the blue spirit or travelling in the earth kingdom, so that nobody would know he was fire nation.

aang | sokka | yue

[starlightments]

                                     PREVIEW: part one

    The Galra, a hostile nation of magic-wielders, have finally been banished from the kingdom’s borders. The war is over, once and for all. The Crown City is more determined than ever to re-establish peace to its people when a mysterious boy is discovered in the outlands. Keith is taken under the wing of the Royal Guard, where he is to be groomed for knighthood, but his inherent and untamed magical abilities have branded him a threat, alienating him from the only family he’s ever known — until he meets Lance, a rambunctious young prince in search of a playmate.     But as the boys grow older and feelings grow stronger, their days of childhood whimsy evolve into a deeply unshakeable bond; one that is soon tested by rumors of a Galra counterattack and perhaps even a state-mandated betrothal to assuage political tension. Now, with both hearts and lives on the line, the two lovers find themselves at a complicated crossroads: duty or desire?  

Language: English  |  Rating: TBD  |  Art Credit: here  

FANDOM: Voltron: Legendary Defender

GENRE: Royal AU, childhood friends-to-lovers

PAIRING(S): Keith/Lance

                                                     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  A flash of light comes blazing through the half-parted curtains, followed by a violent clap of thunder that rattles the floorboards and, consequently, startles the young prince awake.

  Lance sits up with a gasp, clutching at the elaborately embroidered duvet, keeping it tucked under his chin for protection. The bedroom goes pitch black again, save for the bluish glow of a star-shaped nightlight in the corner, but the storm continues to rage outside. He can hear rain beating behind his window and the blustery sway of tree branches as they scrape up against the glass like fingernails.

  “Marco,” Lance whispers into the darkness. His brother remains fast asleep, snoring softly, on the other side of the room. “Marco.”

  Still no response. Lance spends a moment rooting around under the covers for his raggedy stuffed lion, then squeezes it close to his chest as he scuttles over to his brother’s bed and shakes him urgently by the shoulder.

  “Go away,” Marco grumbles into his pillow.

  “But the noises!” insists Lance. “What if it’s a—”

  “It’s not a monster, it’s just a storm. Quit being such a baby.”  

  Lance puffs up at that, bottom lip jutting out with defiance. He’s fully prepared to remind his brother that he turned seven last month — and is, therefore, no longer a baby by any means, thank you very much — when another loud noise cries out in the dead of night; except this time it’s unlike the rumbling thunder and howling winds. It’s a mighty whoosh of the front doors being flung open downstairs. Wet footsteps slapping against the marbled foyer. Low, angry-sounding voices.

  “Marco,” says Lance, shaking him again. “I mean it, I think there’s something—”

  “Cut it out, Lance,” Marco says, and then swats at the younger boy’s hand with an agitated grunt before rolling away to face the wall.

  But the noises persist. If anything, they’re only getting louder, more conspicuous, and Lance’s curiosity is not so easily brushed aside. So, bracing himself, with his trusty lion in tow, he pads across the room and pokes his tiny head through the door.

  Across from him, Lance’s older sister is doing the exact same thing, peering furtively down the dimly-lit corridor in a satin nightgown, her hair done up in curlers.  

  “Ronnie—”

  “Shh!” she hisses at him, a finger pressed to her lips in warning. “It’s Papa.”

  Lance’s mouth parts into a bewildered little ‘o’ shape as Veronica proceeds to slink out of her room and toward the staircase. At the opposite end of the hall, he spots Coran, the royal family advisor, where he appears to have dozed off in the middle of watch duty again, slumped over in a chair, his big orange mustache wiggling with every exhale, and so Lance decides to tiptoe after his sister.  

  The Citadel’s east wing is a winding labyrinth of passageways and gilded alcoves, but the further they creep into its bowels, the clearer the commotion becomes. One of the many chamber doors has been left slightly ajar, a strip of lamplight pouring out from the gap, along with their father’s voice, hushed and stern.

  “—What on earth were you thinking, Takashi?”  

  They both scamper up to the door, peeking inside. It’s a thin opening, just barely enough space to make out glimpses of shifting bodies: their father paces around a large wooden conference table, his brow drawn tight, while Shiro, in contrast, stands perfectly still like the soldier he was born to be. There’s a small boy hovering at his side in tattered clothes, similar to Lance in size, and his face is obscured by a curtain of damp fringe.  

  “I found him in the outlands, alone, with nowhere to go and no way to survive,” Shiro answers firmly. “That’s what I was thinking, your Majesty.”

  “You should know better,” the king fires back. “After everything that’s happened, you, of all people, should know better than to invite danger into this household.”

  “He’s not dangerous,” says Shiro. “He’s a child.”  

  “No, he’s Galra.”

  At that, Veronica inhales a sharp breath, then immediately clamps a hand over her mouth. Lance is startled, too, but only because he knows he should be. Only because he’s heard grown-ups murmur that word when they think no one is listening, like it’s something terrible and blasphemous. This boy right here looks like neither of those things.  

  Through the crack, Lance can see Shiro lift his arm; the mechanical one. “And so am I, now,” he states. “The very magic that this kingdom fears, the very magic that’s now a part of me, is what saved my life.”    

  A pause. “That’s different,” the king growls. “It was our only option.”  

  “Well, pardon me, your Majesty, but then what is his only option?” argues Shiro, pointing at the boy. “Death?”  

  “Death,” Lance echoes, scandalized, his grip on his stuffed lion tightening. He reaches for his sister’s ruffled sleeve and tugs. “Ronnie, did you hear that, he just said—”

  “Lance,” she shushes, “be quiet or they’ll hear—”  

  The sudden halting of footsteps lets them know they’ve been caught. But before either of them can think to run, the chamber doors are being swung open wide and their father’s long shadow is looming from above. His expression, however, has been transformed into one that Lance recognizes; gentle and warm.

  “Aha,” he chuckles. “I thought I heard some little mice scurrying around these halls.” Swiftly, the king scoops Lance up into his arm and takes Veronica’s hand with the other. “Back to bed, you two. What would your mother have to say if she knew you were up this late, hm?”

  Shiro, in the background, says, “Your Majesty, I—”

  “We will finish this discussion in the morning, Captain Shirogane,” the king replies tersely. He doesn’t even turn halfway to meet the other man’s eyes. “Right now, I have a family to take care of.”

  “Yes,” mutters Shiro, nodding. “Understood.”

  As Lance clings to his father, peering curiously over the top of his shoulder, he discovers that the strange Galra boy is staring at him with the darkest, saddest eyes that Lance has ever seen in his life. It makes Lance’s skin tickle, being looked at like that.

  So, he waves.  

  The boy freezes in place for a moment, but eventually waves back, looking a bit ashamed, as if he’s not sure whether he should be doing it. When he does, though, Lance notices that the skin of the boy’s palm is covered in black calluses, almost charred straight through to the bone.

  It’s the last thing Lance sees — and the only thing he’ll think about, later, tucked away in bed — before his father rounds the corner and carries him out of sight.

[today-only-happens-once]

out of focus

title: out of focus

word count: 3955

summary: 

The actions of a Fire Nation admiral during a meeting causes some problems for Sokka. The words of that admiral causes some problems for Zuko. They try to take care of each other. 

“What did the admiral mean,” Sokka blurts out without really thinking about it, “when he talked about insubordination?” 

Zuko freezes, the rag half-out of the bowl and his other hand still bracing Sokka’s (not quite holding it… far too gentle to be holding it). “What—uh. I, uh.” Zuko stops. Takes a breath. Tries again. He still doesn’t look up at Sokka. “When I was younger, I spoke out at a meeting.”

Warnings: burns (description of), violence, threats of violence, discussion of canonical child abuse, characters curse but no curse words are written, character is non-permanently injured, yelling/arguing, trauma

A/N: me? writing a zukka AtLA fic and posting it an hour short of midnight? Apparently, it’s more likely that you’d think. 

Read on AO3

--

Zuko has the patience of a saint, Sokka thinks to himself.

It’s an unusual thought, he realizes. A year ago, if you’d told Sokka that he’d come to think of the Banished Prince as ‘patient’, he’d probably have thrown his boomerang at you. A year ago, Zuko was one of the most short-tempered people he knew. A year ago, Zuko was the face of the enemy.

A lot changes in a year.

Sokka barely stifles a frustrated sigh. The attempt does not seem to go unnoticed by Zuko, who glances at him quickly before the corner of his mouth twitches with something like amusement. The meeting had been going on for hours, and Sokka can’t help but feel that very little progress on the treaty had been made. It wasn’t for lack of trying, Sokka knows, but war leaves messy problems in its wake. He knows that both the literal and metaphorical shrapnel left behind by a century of conflict can’t be swept away in a night or a week or a month.

It doesn’t make these meetings any easier to sit through.

“I want immediate release of all prisoners of war,” an Earth Kingdom ambassador demands.

“I second that,” Sokka hears his father--sitting across the table from him--add, a bit more calmly but no less firm. “I have men in those prisons that haven’t seen their family in a decade.”

“Of course,” Zuko replies at the same time a Fire Nation soldier snaps, “absolutely not.”

Zuko levels a hard look at him. “Admiral, people who were arrested as prisoners of war have no need to remain so after the war has ended.” He looks to Hakoda, then to the Earth Kingdom ambassador. “I’ll draft that mandate tonight and will ensure it’s circulation as soon as possible.”

“This is an outrage!” The slam of a fist against the table makes Sokka’s hand fly to the boomerang strapped to his hip instinctively. The admiral is on his feet.

“Admiral,” Zuko says, his voice steely as he rises from his own chair. The Fire Nation soldier cuts him off.

“Where is the justice for the Fire Nation families whose sons and daughters were slaughtered by those criminals?”

“Admiral--”

“I remember a time when you cared about Fire Nation soldiers! And it’s hard to believe you’ve forgotten, seeing as you ought to be reminded every time you look in the mirror--”

“Enough!” Zuko snaps. “You will watch your tongue or you will be escorted out. You approach insubordination.”

“You are a child,” the admiral sneers. “Though one that ought to know a thing or two about insubordination, given your father’s attempts to brand you with a permanent reminder of its consequences--”

“Warriors!”

“Then again, he always was twice the leader you will never be. Long live the Phoenix King!”

Sokka sees the warning signs—the slight shift of weight, the clench of the man’s fists—and leaps to his feet. “Zuko--!”

“Sokka!”

There’s a blinding light and scorching heat. Sokka feels something slam onto his shoulder and he dives instinctively for cover as the familiar roar of a fireball explodes in front of him. The flames are bright and lick around him, and Sokka throws a hand up to protect his face. He blinks the spots from his vision as he yanks his boomerang out of his belt.

Zuko is standing beside him, his stance ready and his hand outstretched, having evidently dispelled the fireball that had been launched at him. Sokka leaps back up to his feet and hurls the boomerang in his hands towards the Admiral, hitting his hand right as he moves to launch another attack and forcing it to go wide. A burst of flames slam against the wall to the left.

The room is in chaos.

Sokka barely hears the shouts of alarm and curses over the roar of dying flames. He sees his father, already on his feet, diving underneath a bolt of red fire. Across the room, the Earth Kingdom ambassador jerks their hand. There’s a rumble in the ground before it rises and anchors around the Admiral’s feet, holding him in place.

Sokka sees the admiral’s gaze meet his own and narrow. The Fire Nation soldier bares his teeth in a snarl, his fist shooting out. Before Sokka can blink, Zuko steps in front of him, dispelling the flames just as the door ricochets open. Two Kyoshi Warriors flood in and in a series of quick strikes, the admiral drops. Awake, but limp.

Sokka thinks idly that he’s grateful that Ty Lee taught them how to block chi.

“Your father should have killed you that day!” the admiral shouts as he’s dragged through the doors. “He showed mercy on your pathetic, worthless—” the door slamming shut cuts him off.

The silence that follows makes Sokka’s ears ring. He can still feel stale adrenaline coursing through him, his heartbeat pounding in his chest. For a moment, nobody moves. Zuko awkwardly clears his throat.

“Apologies for the, uh, disruption. It shouldn’t happen again.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Firelord Zuko,” Hakoda assures him, but there’s something odd in his father’s expression when he looks at Zuko that Sokka doesn’t understand.

Zuko says something in response, but Sokka doesn’t catch it. As the adrenaline bleeds out of him, his muscles relaxing, Sokka realizes that his fists are still clenched. Sokka forces them to relax, and hisses as it sends a jolt of hot pain through his left hand. When he looks down, he realizes that the skin on the top of part of his hand near his knuckles is a blistering, angry red.

Sokka’s hiss doesn’t go unnoticed. Zuko looks at him over his shoulder, his brows drawn together in confusion before his eyes fall to Sokka’s hand. Then, they go wide.

Zuko turns back around suddenly to address the room, his back straighter. “We will adjourn the meeting for the afternoon. We will reconvene tomorrow.”

“Firelord Zuko—” an ambassador from the Northern Water Tribe protests, but Hakoda interrupts him.

“I think we could all use a breather, Kovrik. Coming back tomorrow with a clear head is a good decision.”

“Yes… yes, I suppose that’s fair.”

Sokka is finding it increasingly difficult to follow the conversation. His hand hurts, and it’s taking every last drop of his willpower and pride to grit his teeth and swallow back the whimper that wants to push up his throat. It’s not until Zuko’s face is taking up his entire field of vision that Sokka realizes everyone but the two of them and his father have left the room.

“Let me see,” Zuko says quietly, then curses under his breath when he looks at Sokka’s hand. “Where’s Katara when you need her.”

“Do you have anything that can help?” Hakoda asks from behind Zuko.

“Yes, sir,” Zuko replies, his brows still furrowed in concentration. “Though it’s not quite as immediate as waterbending healers. But it should help with the pain, and prevent infection. Follow me.”

Sokka feels Zuko take his elbow and guide him out the door of the meeting room and down the hall. He’s distantly aware that Zuko is moving quickly—not quite a jog, but only barely shy of it—through a network of corridors. His hand feels like it might still be on fire, and Sokka looks down at it again just to be sure that’s not actually the case. He tells himself that he’s endured injuries more painful than this. The broken leg was worse, he thinks, though it does little to actually help with the burning sensation in his hand.

He’s vaguely aware that Zuko says something quickly to two guards that are flanking a set of doors before he rushes in. Sokka looks up and realizes it’s Zuko’s chambers. He’d only been in here a couple of times before, largely while Zuko was still recovering from Azula’s lightning strike in the weeks following the end of the war.

“Wait here,” Zuko tells him before disappearing through another door on the far side of the room.

“You had good reflexes in there,” Sokka hears his father’s low, soothing voice speak up. He’d had almost forgotten he was there. Hakoda moves the chair that had been beside the bed closer to Sokka in a clear direction to sit down.

“Lots of practice,” Sokka replies as he sits. He hisses a little again as his hand flares and grits out a swear behind clenched teeth.

“Easy,” Hakoda says softly. He places a bracing, comforting hand between Sokka’s shoulder blades. It’s grounding, and he’s grateful.

“Wish Katara was here,” Sokka tells him, echoing Zuko’s comment from earlier.

“I know. Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s coming to Caldera for a while. She’s still in Ba Sing Se with Aang.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Her magic water comes in handy though.” Sokka gives his father a tight smile. “Get it? Hand-y?”

Hakoda snorts just as the door opens again. Zuko has his arms full of a large bowl, his hands fisting a few vials and some bandages. There’s something pinched about Zuko’s expression, and the way he doesn’t meet Sokka’s eyes as he kneels in front of him feels odd. The bowl is full of water, Sokka realizes, as he sets it on the ground and begins to empty the vials into it.

“Can I see your hand?” Zuko asks, and the question—for some reason—catches him off guard.

Sokka blinks. “Yeah. Sure.” He grimaces as he places his hand in Zuko’s, but the excessive gentleness surprises him so much that Sokka almost forgets that his hand hurts.

Zuko was many things, but Sokka can’t remember a time—even after he started to get along with the Fire Prince—that he would have described Zuko as gentle. But his grip on Sokka’s hand is careful. Almost excessively so.  

Zuko hums in the back of his throat as he inspects the burns. “I don’t think it’ll have permanent damage,” he says quietly. “But I still need to treat it so it doesn’t get infected. It… might hurt, a little. But then it should feel better.”

“No permanent damage. That’s good,” Sokka says. He swallows, and nods. “Okay.”

For a long moment, the only sounds that fills the room is the quiet splash of water in the bowl as Zuko submerges the cloth rag again and wrings it out. Sokka lets his gaze float around the room.

Zuko has left it mostly bare. There’s a portrait of Iroh and a woman that Sokka remembers being the Fire Lady—Zuko’s mother—hanging on the wall near the headboard of the bed. On the dresser beside it is a drawing that Sokka did of the group of them months ago. He sees a pile of papers on the desk across the room. He thinks one of them has Aang’s signature at the bottom, but it’s too far away for him to know for sure.

Bright, painful heat searing his hand slams his attention back to Zuko in front of him and Sokka yelps, yanking his hand away. Zuko grimaces, retracing his own hand.

“I’m sorry,” he says, sounding more earnest than Sokka expects. “This part is painful, but it’ll stop hurting in a minute.”

Sokka fights to pull his breathing back under his control. In through his nose, out through his mouth. “Right,” he manages, his voice tight. “Right, sorry.”

“Don’t be. I know it hurts.”

Something about that line—and about the fact that Zuko still hasn’t met his eyes since returning from the other room—drags Sokka’s thoughts back to the conversation in the treaty meeting. There were several things that the admiral had said to Zuko that Sokka didn’t quite understand. He could only remember pieces of things said, but they repeat in Sokka’s head like disjointed pieces of a puzzle that he can’t quite make fit together.

seeing as you ought to be reminded every time you look in the mirror… insubordination… your father’s attempts to brand you… consequences…

Sokka’s gaze falls back to Zuko, dutifully bowed in front of him. There had long been pieces about Zuko that Sokka had found puzzling. Things about him that didn’t quite fit together. Sokka considers himself a person pretty good at figuring out how things worked together, and that extended (with less success) to figuring out how parts of people make up the sum of their whole.

Zuko, though… Zuko had always been something of a mystery. But as the words of the admiral ricochet in his mind, there’s a picture beginning to come together that is still just a little too hazy, a little too out of focus, to fill in the spaces that Sokka felt were missing.

“What did the admiral mean,” Sokka blurts out without really thinking about it, “when he talked about insubordination?”

Zuko freezes, the rag half-out of the bowl and his other hand still bracing Sokka’s (not quite holding it… far too gentle to be holding it). “What—uh. I, uh.” Zuko stops. Takes a breath. Tries again. He still doesn’t look up at Sokka. “When I was younger, I spoke out at a meeting.”

Sokka’s brow furrows as Zuko presses the rag to the back of his hand again. Sokka realizes that his hand has stopped hurting, but he’s too preoccupied with what Zuko said to pay it much mind. “After the stuff at Ba Sing Se? When you went home?”

“No, I, uh.” Zuko clears his throat. “Before that. Before… yeah. Earlier.”

Your father’s attempts to brand you…

“What happened?” Sokka asks. The way Zuko’s shoulders seem to tense doesn’t escape his attention, and there’s a part of him that wonders if perhaps he shouldn’t have asked. But it also feels like a question that once asked, is too late to take back.

Zuko pats Sokka’s hand dry with another towel and begins to gingerly wrap a bandage around it. He keeps his gold gaze steady on the work. Sokka keeps his gaze steady on Zuko.

“My uncle allowed me to attend a war meeting where they were talking about some battle strategies to use against an Earth Kingdom battalion. There was a general that wanted our newest fleet to serve as a distraction while we mounted an attack from the rear,” Zuko begins. There’s something off about his voice, though. Something detached and careful. He keeps wrapping the bandage. Around and around and around.

Sokka frowns. “That’s not fair,” he says. “Your newest recruits? They’d be slaughtered by an experienced battalion like that.”

Zuko sighs, his lips pressing into a thin line. “Exactly,” he says in a low voice. “And that’s what I told them. I wasn’t thinking. I just… yelled at him.” Sokka opens his mouth to disagree—it sounds like Zuko was thinking, unlike anybody else at that meeting—but Zuko cuts him off as he secures the end of the bandage to Sokka’s palm. “My father didn’t… take it well. I was challenged to an Agni Kai, and I thought I would be facing the general in it, so I accepted.”

Zuko gathers the bowl and empty vials as he stands, crossing the room to set them on the edge of his desk. Sokka stands up slowly as Zuko does so. The pieces that had been out of focus for so long are starting to come together, and Sokka feels his stomach rolling with a leaden weight against what he can sense is coming.

“No…”

“It wasn’t the general,” Zuko continues, his voice so quiet that Sokka is sure he would have missed it if it hadn’t been dead silence around them. “It was my father.”

“You faced your father in an Agni Kai?”

“Not exactly. I…” Zuko stares down into the bowl of water beside him, his gaze distant. “I couldn’t fight my own father. Instead, I begged him for forgiveness. I was met with a fistful of flames.”

Zuko gestures vaguely at his face, and Sokka’s blood turns to ice.

“He…” Sokka’s throat closes, cutting off the rest of that sentence. All this time being chased by Zuko—all this time being friends with him—and he’d always assumed that the scar was the result of a training accident, or a fight with a firebender he lost. Sokka thinks bitterly and viciously that the second assumption wasn’t far off but his own father—

“I was banished after that,” Zuko says, and his voice is hollow and empty and wrong. And he finally, finally, meets Sokka’s gaze. “I was told to bring the Avatar back and all would be forgiven, or to not come back at all. That was before you and your sister woke Aang up from the iceberg.”

Sokka stands very, very still. He glances down and realizes his hands are trembling. He curls the non-bandaged one into a fist to get the shaking to stop. “How old were you?” he asks, and he doesn’t know why—of everything he could say—that’s the question that tumbles past his lips, but he feels like it matters.

“Thirteen.”

“Thir—” Sokka cuts himself off, scrubbing a hand across his mouth and swallowing hard. “Thirteen. Tui and La, when I was thirteen—”

Sokka breaks off again, his throat closing, his gaze falling to his father. When Sokka was thirteen, his father had left to go fight in the war and told Sokka he couldn’t come along. He’d protected Sokka, and though Sokka had found his way into fighting in the war regardless a few years later, he knows his father had only been trying to keep him safe. The idea of his own father striking him—let alone with a fist full of flames to his face—was incomprehensible.

Hakoda doesn’t look back at Sokka. His gaze is trained on Zuko, and there’s something in his eyes that Sokka doesn’t quite understand. But he’s seen it before. It was the same look Hakoda wears when he hears other water tribe soldiers recount war stories. The late-night ones. The ones where their voices betray the weight on their shoulders and tremble with the generations of nightmares on their backs.

Sokka takes a sudden, faltering step forward, and Zuko instinctively tenses. Sokka freezes. “Zuko…”

Zuko shakes his head. He coughs a little, as if trying to clear his throat. “Anyway. That’s—that’s what the admiral was talking about.”

“You…” Sokka tries again, his voice carrying just the barest hints of hysteria. “You were his kid.”

“Yeah, well.” Zuko’s gaze meets Sokka’s again. “He spent most of my life wishing I wasn’t.”

“Zuko,” Hakoda speaks up, his voice a low, soothing rumble to Sokka’s trembling nerves. “I… hope you understand that you didn’t deserve that.”

“I know, sir,” he replies, sounding steadier than Sokka feels. Sokka feels a little like the ground has shifted beneath his feet as he stares at his friend across the room. Zuko continues, frustratingly calm. “It… I didn’t at first. It took me a long time to understand that it was wrong of my father to do that. But I know now.”

“Where is he?” Sokka demands, flushing with a sudden and intense fury.

Zuko blinks, looking taken aback by the vehemence charged through Sokka’s voice like a steel rod. “Where’s who?”

“Ozai.”

“Sokka, what are you gonna do? Fight him? He already lost.”

“Against Aang, not against—did Aang even know?”

Zuko’s brow furrows and he rubs the back of his neck. “Um. I guess I don’t know. I never told him. I… never told any of you.”

“Yeah—and what’s that about, huh?” Sokka demands. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Sokka,” Hakoda warns, but Sokka’s words are already bubbling up throat and spilling past his lips, hot and bitter and angry.

“What, did you think we wouldn’t care? That it wouldn’t matter?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Zuko waves a hand towards the window that overlooks the courtyard. “My father already lost to the Avatar, Sokka. The war is over. The fighting is over. Aang took his bending. And that—I don’t know about you, but that’s the best, most justified end to his legacy I can think of.”

Sokka is still shaking. He can’t explain why. He knows, logically, that Zuko is right. He’s right. But Sokka can still feel his hands shaking, can still feel his heart hammering in his ribs with the urge to run something through with sword, can still feel the way his eyes sting with tears he won’t let fall. Sokka clenches his jaw and rips his gaze away from Zuko out towards the window, where he can see the sun setting on the horizon and painting the palace courtyard in an orange light.

“Wherever he is, I hope he rots,” Sokka says finally, and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough. “He deserves worse.”

Sokka looks back at Zuko, whose gaze is a little wide. He looks… taken aback. Sokka cocks an eyebrow.

“Don’t tell me you disagree—"

“No,” Zuko replies, shaking his head. “I just… Nothing.” The corner of his mouth tugs upwards in the barest hint of a smile. Sokka doesn’t understand why, just like he doesn’t understand why it uncoils the tight knot of burning anger in his chest.

Sokka takes a deep breath. Wills himself to relax. It helps… a little. There’s a beat, and then Sokka hears his father take a step forward. “Thank you for helping Sokka’s hand, Firelord Zuko.”

Zuko blinks, and Sokka swears his cheeks take a faint pink tint as he rubs the back of his neck. “Oh. Uh, of course, sir. And… just Zuko is fine.”

Sokka glances over and sees Hakoda smile, inclining his head. “Understood.” He looks to Sokka. “I should draft a letter to Bato tonight to update him on the treaty. Will you be okay without me?”

Sokka rolls his eyes teasingly. “Yeah, dad. I think I can manage.”

Hakoda squeezes his shoulder, nods to Zuko again, and quietly slips out of the room. The silence afterward seems to stretch, and Sokka feels the lingering tension bleeding out of him as he looks at Zuko, who quietly shuffles through the papers on his desk. Sokka watches him for a beat, his gaze lingering a little on the scarred tissue across his face. Sokka swallows.

There are other questions Sokka thinks he could ask. Like why—after doing that—Zuko was still so bent on returning home to his father. But there’s a part of Sokka that thinks he maybe understands.

Spirits know that he understood what it was like to crave the approval of your father.

“Hey,” he says, and Zuko’s gaze snaps over to him. “I… thank you for telling me. I… know that wasn’t easy, and… it means a lot that you trust me with that.”

“It… it wasn’t a question of trust, you know,” Zuko replies quietly, averting his gaze. “Not telling you, I mean. It was just—”

“I know,” Sokka says, and means it. “But I also know what it’s like to have things you don’t necessarily… want to relive. So it means a lot that you told me.”

The corner of Zuko’s mouth twitches again. He takes a deep, slow breath. “Thank you for listening,” he says.

“I like to think I’m a pretty good listener,” Sokka teases, shrugging.

“You are,” Zuko says, with far more sincerity than Sokka felt was warranted for what he’d meant to be a joke. Sokka blinks at him, and Zuko clears his throat, ducking his head a little. “I was thinking of getting some tea. There’s a place just outside the palace. It’s not as good as Uncle’s, but um. Did you want to come?”

“Yeah,” Sokka replies with a small smile. “I could use a cup of tea.”  

[madsthewordclown]

Stay | Zuko x Reader

warnings: none, mostly fluff, a little bit of angst

summary: Y/N and the Gaang are visiting the Fire Nation a few months after Zuko’s coronation, and Y/N is disappointed when he doesn’t have much time to spend with them. 

It had been a tough week.

You felt like that was the understatement of the century. It had been terrible. You usually loved travel and getting out of the frigid South Pole where you’d been staying with Katara and Sokka was a welcome vacation. But so many things had gone wrong, and your stay in the Fire Nation capital wasn’t off to a great start, either.

To be honest, things hadn’t been going well since the war officially ended. For some reason, you had expected that everything would be perfect, although you had no idea what life looked like without the war. It turned out that it could be pretty damn lonely.

You looked around the empty royal garden. There weren’t even any turtleducks out on the pond. You sighed. Your head was pounding after yet another grueling meeting. You hadn’t expected the Fire Nation councilmembers to be so… disdainful. Even the brand-new, younger councilmen seemed distrustful of you and lacking respect, even though you were a close friend of the Fire Lord. Your headache only intensified thinking about Zuko.

You’d barely even had the chance to speak with him yet, and you’d arrived three days ago. He had been able to great you and your friends when you arrived, albeit late, before he was rushed away to go to a meeting. You hadn’t seen each other in months, not since his coronation, and it looked like you might not see him on your visit at all.

You looked out at the sun that was beginning to set over the palace walls. The sky was beginning to turn a bright orange. You heard someone walking towards you as you sat on the grass.

“Doing okay?” Katara asked, taking a seat beside you.

“Yeah,” you lied, running a hand through your hair. “These meetings are driving me crazy.”

“You, too?” Katara made a face. “Aang won’t stop complaining. He says that they’re too boring.” You laugh. “I don’t know what he expected.”

“How’s Appa?” You asked, looking at the Water Tribe girl. That had been just one of your setbacks on the journey to the Fire Nation—Appa had been sick.

“He’s good,” Katara answered, fiddling with one of her hair-loops. “He’s back to eating a shipload every day, so Aang has finally stopped worrying.” You hummed, having seen firsthand how much the Avatar worries about his bison.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Katara prodded. That girl was too observant for her own good, but she was an even better friend. You were grateful that the two of you had met.

“Yeah,” you replied, looking into her blue eyes, which were filled with concern, “I was just hoping to relax a bit more, you know?”

“And see Zuko?” Katara added knowingly, raising an eyebrow.

“Shut up,” you gave a light laugh. “Yeah, I was. It’s just that we haven’t all been together in so long.”

“Just go find him and talk to him, Y/N. I’m sure he wants to see you, he’s just got a lot on his plate, and sometimes he’s a little too focused. Besides, I think he’s having dinner with us tonight.”

“You’re probably right,” you agreed, giving Katara a smile. “Thanks, Katara.”

“You’re welcome,” Katara beamed back. “Now, let’s go get some food. I’m sure Sokka is starving.”

“I’m starving!” Sokka groaned as soon as you and Katara entered the royal dining hall. You both giggled.

“Me, too,” Aang agreed, slumping back in his chair for emphasis. Katara laughed as she took the seat next to him. You took up a chair to Sokka’s left, while Toph sat on his right. You assumed the large, ornate chair at the end of table was reserved for Zuko. You could hardly contain your excitement at the chance to finally get to speak with him.

“Dinner will be served shortly,” one of the servants stated flatly. “Unfortunately, the Fire Lord will be unable to accompany you this evening.” Oh. You felt yourself deflate, and Katara shot you a sympathetic glance from across the table.

“You know Sparky,” Toph drawled. “Too bad he’s missing out.” Toph shrugged. “Oh well, more for me!”

Dinner went on without that much excitement. Although your disappointment still weighed on you, you had to admit that having your friends around made you feel a lot better. Just spending time with everyone—well, nearly everyone—for once was incredible. You couldn’t remember the last time you had all gotten to sit around a table together.

Eventually, you all dispersed and headed off to your rooms. You had expected the palace’s accommodations to be fancy, but nothing could prepare you for how lavish they really were. You had your own en suite and the bed was about as big as your old room back in the Earth Kingdom. It was probably the most comfortable thing you’d ever been in, but you still struggled to fall asleep.

You felt restless, and your own mind kept betraying you. You couldn’t help but worry about what would happen once your stay at the palace was over, and what the future held for you and your tight-knit group of friends. Aang was always away Avatar-ing, and Zuko had a whole country to run. Katara would follow Aang anywhere, and be a valuable asset to him, and Sokka would soon become Chief of the Southern Tribe. You tried not to let it, but the thought came to you anyway; what if this was the last time you were all together?

You sighed and kicked your legs out from under the covers, then swung around to sit up and get out of bed. Maybe a walk would be helpful, and there was plenty of ground to cover in the palace itself. You didn’t bother to change out of your light sleeping clothes—you pulled one of the plush white guest robes out of the closet and wrapped it around yourself tightly before slipping out the door.

The halls of the palace were dark and empty. You didn’t really know where you were going, but you figured you would find your way back eventually. You wandered for quite some time, admiring the portraits and mosaics of previous Fire Lords and Fire Ladies. You noticed that there was a blank space on the wall and stopped in front of it, looking at the chips in the chunk of stone in the otherwise immaculate palace.

“Fire Lord Zuko.”

You nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard the voice from down the hall. You turned to see a bearded man in Fire Nation robes; his face illuminated by orange light.

“The ambassador from the colonies is requesting to meet with you right away,” the man continued.

“Can’t it wait?” Another voice replied. Zuko. You felt like you should leave, but you stayed frozen to your spot.

“Sir, the ambassador has had a long journey…”

“So have my guests.” You can sense the irritation in Zuko’s voice. “You had no problem making them wait.”

“But sir—”

“Tomorrow, Lao,” Zuko said with finally.

“Yes, my Lord.” The man looked down dejectedly before disappearing down the corridor.

You felt like you should leave. Zuko was obviously busy, and stressed, and didn’t need you to be bothering him. You turned to go, and barely made it two steps before you heard his voice again.

“Y/N?”

You turned around, and the sight of him immediately made your heart beat faster. He walked towards you, concern written across his face, a fire alight in his hand.

“What are you doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” you replied simply as he neared you. “It’s a little weird being here.”

“I get it,” Zuko agreed. You knew he understood more than anybody about not belonging; you knew he felt out of place in his own palace. He looked over at the blank spot on the wall that you had been staring at, and the fire he held flickered. “My father’s portrait was there. I had it removed the week after my coronation.” Oh.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay, Y/N,” he said, giving you a sympathetic look. You noticed that his dark hair was beginning to fall out of its knot. How long had he been working? With the help of the firelight, you could also see the dark circles forming under his eyes. He looked so, so tired. “Walk with me?”

“Sure,” you answered. You were tempted to reach out for his empty hand as he fell into step beside you. A beat. “Why isn’t your portrait up yet?” Zuko blushed. It was odd to see such a light, relaxed expression on his face.

“I don’t really have the time. Besides, I don’t really want one, I think they’re tacky.”

“They’re regal, Zuko,” you teased, trying to ignore the way your heart sped up when his shoulder bumped into yours. Zuko sighed, the calm expression leaving his face as you turned your head to look at him.

“I’m really sorry that I haven’t gotten to spend much time with you, Y/N. You or the others.” He sounded so genuinely upset that you started to feel guilty for your annoyance at him earlier.

“It’s alright,” you reassured him, “I know you’re busy.” He shot you a look.

“That’s not an excuse.” You started to open to your mouth to retort, but he held up a hand to stop you. “We haven’t seen each other in so long, and you traveled for days, and I’ve been a terrible host and a terrible friend.”

“It’s okay,” you said again. “We can handle ourselves for a few days.” Zuko managed a smile at that.

“I’m starving,” Zuko admitted suddenly. “Want to get a snack?”

“What kind of question is that, Sparky?” You laughed, and Zuko scowled.

“Please don’t start calling me that,” Zuko pleaded. “And I’ll take that as a yes.”

To your surprise, Zuko didn’t lead you to the kitchens or the dining hall. He stopped in front of a door blocked by two guards, who stepped out of the way as he approached.

“My Lord,” one of the guards greeted while the other opened the door.

“Could you send someone to fetch us some snacks, please?” Zuko requested politely, stepping through the open door and motioning for you to follow.

“Of course, my Lord,” the other guard replied as you follow Zuko inside. The guard closes the door behind you, and then you realized that Zuko has brought you to his room.

Or, rooms, you supposed you should say. And if you thought your room was fancy… Zuko’s was over-the-top with regality and garnishment. The area you had just stepped into had a giant fireplace on the left wall and a large sofa in front of it, as well as a full table setting with four chairs. There were two doors on the right wall, and large windows overlooking the courtyard directly in front of you. Everything was deep reds, maroons, and gold.

“I’ll be right back,” Zuko told you. “Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. He walked away and disappeared through one of the doors to your right.

Even though it felt very odd, you walked over and sat down awkwardly on the sofa and waited for Zuko to return. You blushed as you looked around, and you silently cursed yourself for your immaturity. You weren’t in his room. The knot in your stomach didn’t listen to you.

You turned when you heard the door Zuko had gone through open again. He reenters, and you feel like you have the breath knocked out of you, even though he really doesn’t look much different than before; you suppose he just does that to you. After months apart, seeing him feels like a shock to your system.

He’d changed out of his Fire Lord garb into long, black pants and a robe much like yours, except his was dark red with gold trim and a gold Fire Nation insignia embroidered on the breast. He stopped at the door to the hall just in time for you to hear a servant knock; Zuko opened the door, and the servant brought a huge platter covered in all kinds of snacks, barely managing to balance it as they set it on the table in front of the sofa. Your eyes widened at the enormous spread in front of you.

“Thank you.” Zuko dismissed the servant with a nod. They gave a quick bow and exited curtly. Zuko took a seat next to you and immediately dug into the pile of rolls on the platter.

“Hungry?” You laughed. Zuko looked at you sheepishly.

“I haven’t eaten dinner yet,” he admitted, mouth stuffed full of bread. So much for Fire Lord manners.

“Zuko!” You swatted at him, hitting him on the arm. “You have to take care of yourself.” You let him hear your concern—the combination of the dark circles and the lack of nutrition was plenty enough to worry you.

“I know, it’s just…” Zuko looked up at you, a stray hair from his topknot falling in front of his face. “I have so much work to do, Y/N.”

“You can’t expect to do it all in a year, Zuko,” you reasoned, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. “No one else is expecting it, either.”

“I know,” Zuko sighed. “But I need to fix my father’s mistakes and make things right. It’s my job to bring back honor to my nation.”

“The walls of Ba Sing Se weren’t built in a day, Zuko. But the world sees the good that you’re doing. I’ve seen it.” Zuko’s gaze softened as he looked at you.

“What about you?” You’re surprised by his question.

“What do you mean?” You looked away and snatched a roll off the platter.

“I mean,” Zuko continued, eyeing you, “what have you been up to?”

“Nothing, really,” you admitted. You can tell your voice has betrayed your feelings, because you could see concern growing in his golden eyes. “I’ve just been hanging out in the South Pole, I guess. Nothing very interesting.”

“What’s wrong?” Zuko pressed, leaning in towards you as you took your hand off his shoulder. “You can talk to me, Y/N.”

“After the war,” you began, “I thought everything would be great. I can’t really explain what I thought would happen. I guess I didn’t know, but… I feel like I don’t really have a place anymore.

“My whole journey started when I joined the others. I had a goal, and it was to help win the war. And now it’s over, and Aang is still the Avatar. Katara and Toph are still two of the world’s most powerful benders. Sokka is going to become Chief. I feel like…” you sighed, not sure of how to continue. “I feel like my journey’s over. I can’t go back to my village in the Earth Kingdom. I have no one there, and the South Pole doesn’t feel like a home, especially when Sokka and Katara are hardly around.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” Zuko looked at you with sympathy. You averted his gaze. “I should’ve written to you more, or visited, or something. I had no idea how you felt, and I should have. I’m supposed to…” Zuko trailed off, looking down at his hands.

“Supposed to what?”

“I’m supposed to take care of you,” Zuko said. You felt your heartbeat race. “You’re supposed to take care of people you care about, and I didn’t even make the time to talk to you until now.”

“It’s not your fault,” you replied, but Zuko wasn’t having it.

“I should’ve just pushed back my meetings when you and the others arrived. I’ve missed you all so much. I’ve missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too,” you said, looking into Zuko’s eyes. His hands were warm as he reached and grabbed onto yours.

“You know,” Zuko said, what looked like a light blush rising to his cheeks, “you could stay here, if you wanted to.”

“What?”

“You could stay and work here,” Zuko repeated, before quickly backtracking. “I mean, if you wanted to. And not like, as a servant or anything. You could be my adviser. If you wanted to.”

“What?” You repeated again, dumbfounded by his offer.

“I actually meant to ask you a while ago,” Zuko rambled, “along with this other conversation I’ve been meaning to have with you, but I held off because I don’t know if it’s something you want.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to?” You asked honestly, wondering what he possibly thinks would keep you away. Zuko shrugged. “But you don’t have to give me place here.” You didn’t understand why he’d be making this offer now. You weren’t exactly qualified.

“Umm…” Zuko shifted, pulling his hands away from yours. You missed their warmth immediately. “I…” Zuko took a deep breath, seeming to steel himself to say something. “I want you to stay even if you don’t want to be my adviser, because I’ve missed you, and… I really, really like you, Y/N.” You felt your heart and jaw hit the floor. Zuko paled immediately and was about to say something else before you abruptly moved forward. Before you could convince yourself not to, you pressed a soft kiss to his lips.  

Zuko didn’t move for a moment, and you felt your whole body go cold. But then he was kissing you back, and you felt his arms wrap around you, filling you will warmth as you melted into him. He pulled away from you entirely too soon, and you looked up at him, brushing another dark, stray hair out of his face. His eyes were full of admiration and a light blush had risen in his cheeks. He looked beautiful.

“Woah,” he said dumbly, staring at you. You giggled. “So—”

You cut him off. “I like you too, Zuko.” You pressed another quick kiss to his lips. “Can I stay?”

He looked at you in confusion. “I told you, you can stay here as long as you want.”

“I mean here,” you said again, looking at him and tapping on his chest with one of your hands that was trapped between you.

“Oh,” Zuko looked at you. “Oh. Yes, definitely.” You felt his arms tighten around you, and you smiled as you tilted your head up to kiss him again.

[sokkastyles]

Zutara Month Day 10: Oma and Shu

I’ve seen some people point out that Zutara doesn’t necessarily fit Oma and Shu because the Oma and Shu myth is more Romeo and Juliet than enemies to lovers, and those people are not necessarily wrong. Romeo and Juliet, just like Oma and Shu, were never themselves enemies. They did nothing but love each other, but were forbidden from being together because of the feud. Zutara, in most interpretations, is less a “forbidden” romance and more a transition from enemies to friends to lovers. Most people imagine them growing to love each other after becoming friends, often after Zuko’s redemption and the end of the war. Nonetheless, the Oma and Shu story does share several parallels with Zutara that many fans have picked up on. What I want to do is examine some of these parallels from a meta angle, to look at the Oma and Shu story as it appears in the series and other similar stories that appear in ATLA, and to also compare them to similar stories in the real world, and analyze a bit the popularity of these various tales of forbidden love, why they are popular, and what their purpose is, as well as how Zutara fits into all this.

In universe, the Oma and Shu story, in addition to being a love story, is also an origin myth of sorts for the Earth Kingdom. It explains the creation of the city of Omashu, as well as telling the story of some of the first humans to learn earthbending. The message of the story, in addition to being a tale about love thriving between two unlikely people, and a cautionary tale about what happens when love is prevented from flourishing, is also a message about love being an act of creation and a force of transformation.

Love is brightest in the dark.

This sentence is a paradox, but it fits with the theme of balance that the show comes back to again and again, of breaking down barriers and deconstructing dichotomies to create something new, something more whole than the original. Something mirroring the harmony of yin and yang.

The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same. We are all one people, but we live as if divided.

The above quote by Guru Pathik is also similar to Iroh’s philosophy, which he tries to teach Zuko.

It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations will help you become whole.

Iroh also says something in “The Crossroads of Destiny” that echoes the Oma and Shu story.

Iroh: Perfection and power are overrated. I think you were very wise to choose happiness and love.

Aang: What happens if we can't save anyone and beat Azula? Without the Avatar State, what if I'm not powerful enough?

Iroh: I don't know the answer. Sometimes, life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, [Aang earthbends the rocks away one last time. Iroh's fire blows out. He smiles.] you will come to a better place.

Iroh says that Aang is wise to choose love over power, while walking through a dark tunnel, and advises Aang to trust in the darkness to bring him to the light. Meanwhile, Zuko and Katara, two people on opposite sides of a war, share a moment of unlikely tenderness in a cave lit by glowing crystals.

Zuko in the crystal catacombs does what Iroh has been trying to teach him to do, to let go of pride and the need for power, and to instead embrace compassion and humility. Which is what he does when he apologizes to Katara. This is also part of what stories like Romeo and Juliet teach us, that pride and petty grievances are destructive, and that only by embracing love do we become whole.

I know the prompt is Oma and Shu, but thinking about that story and its place in the narrative made me think about other mythic stories that appear in the series, so let’s look at another one that has significance for zutara: Love Amongst the Dragons, Ursa’s favorite play that she took young Zuko and Azula to see every year.

The actual story of Love Amongst the Dragons, according to the ATLA wiki, is this:

The play features the Dragon Emperor, bound to mortal form by the Dark Water Spirit, and forced to adopt the alias of Noren. The humble experience results in Noren falling in love with a mortal, and through this love he is able to break free of his curse. The play concludes with Noren defeating the Dark Water Spirit and embracing his mortal girlfriend, revealed to be the Dragon Empress.

What struck me when I found this description was that this is, with some slight changes, pretty much the Chinese myth of the marriage between Dragon and Phoenix, a representation for yin and yang and harmony in marriage, and which I compared in a meta to zutara as well.

Like the Oma and Shu story, it is a story about unlikely love, and about crossing divisions. It also has a lot of similarities with various myths involving shapeshifting love-interests, often referred to as “animal bride/husband” myths (which beauty and the beast is a subset of).

The symbolism of the tale in-universe is in its connection to Ursa, and thus Zuko’s connection to his mother. Zuko’s connection to his mother is contrasted with his connection to his father, which is representative of Zuko’s destructive side. When Zuko was trying to capture the Avatar, he was searching for his father’s approval, to become someone that would earn his father’s love. Ursa, meanwhile, taught Zuko kindness and compassion, and told him that it didn’t matter that he wasn’t the most powerful or strong. That Ursa took Zuko to see this particular play is significant, a play about a godlike being, the Dragon Emperor, being humbled and learning to love.

Only with your glory hidden in false form could you recognize my devotion.

Though different, and originating in a different nation, this is another tale about love shining through the dark, about letting go of pride and choosing compassion. Animal bride/husband myths are often about seeing past what is hidden to see the truth. They are stories of transformation, and like the Oma and Shu story, are about the transformative power of love.

It’s also from this play that Zuko gets his Blue Spirit alter ego, which Zuko uses as an exploration of his own identity apart from being the Fire Nation prince. In this story the same mask is worn by the villainous Dark Water Spirit. It is very interesting that Zuko uses an identity associated with water for this purpose. Also, like the Blue Spirit, the Dark Water Spirit seems to be a bit on the morally ambiguous side. Even though the spirit is defeated at the end of the story, its motivation for transforming the Dragon Emperor seems to be to teach him humility, and this is a message the play seems to promote.

Zuko and Azula’s dialogue from the above comic pages is interesting because it expands on what we already know about both characters. Zuko complains about always having to play the villain, just as he was made a scapegoat by his father and sister, and his adapting of the Blue Spirit identity is essentially him reclaiming that identity that was forced on him while trying to figure out who he really is. Azula sees herself as the Dragon Emperor, but she misunderstands the message of the story completely, and it’s not a coincidence that she talks over the love scene in the comic above and responds angrily and pridefully to the man who tries to shush her. Similar to Ozai when he names himself the Phoenix King, ironically misinterpreting the actual myth. I also think there’s something interesting to say about gender here, as this post points out. Not only does Ozai associate himself with a female figure, but Azula associates herself with the male Dragon Emperor, while Zuko is associated with the more feminine water spirit (water being a feminine element.) However, by the end of the series, Zuko embodies the transformed Dragon Emperor, while Katara I associated before with the Phoenix/Dragon Empress, as she is associated with healing and rebirth. Also notice the red and blue color coding in the comic page above, both with the Water Spirit and Dragon Emperor and in the coloring of the two lovers.

This also brings me to another play present in the series, the play that the gaang goes to see performed by the Ember Island Players. The same players that Zuko says his mother took him to see. The play we see them put on in the series is a Fire Nation propaganda play, promoting Ozai and the war. I actually can’t imagine that Love Amongst the Dragons, a play about a Dragon Emperor learning humility, was very popular during Ozai’s reign. We hear about it being performed before Ozai became Fire Lord, but we can assume that those visits to the theatre stopped after Ursa’s disappearance. The only other time we hear about that particular play being performed is after the end of the war. This leads me to imagine that it was necessary for the Ember Island Players to find a different play to perform while Ozai was in charge. While the play is not necessarily subverting Fire Nation superiority (the villain is a water spirit, after all), it is confrontational enough that I can imagine Ozai’s brand of narcissism seeing it as a challenge to his authority. Ozai who disdained love in favor of power and control.

“The Boy in the Iceberg” contains another love story between two people from opposite sides in their depiction of Zuko and Katara in the crystal catacombs. I wrote before about how I’ve seen interpretations of this that say that the Fire Nation was trying to portray zutara as an “inferior” Water Tribe woman falling for a “superior” Fire Nation man - essentially saying that the play is in favor of zutara as a piece of Fire Nation pro-colonization propaganda - but the problem with this is that that isn’t how zutara is depicted in the play. The play mocks zutara by portraying Zuko as submissive and subservient to Aang, and Zuko is later killed, as he is currently a traitor and threat to the Fire Nation. Thus, the “romance” between Zuko and Katara is not being depicted as supporting the superior masculinity of Fire Nation men, but rather portraying Zuko, who willingly chose to dissasociate himself with the Fire Nation, as emasculated and submissive to other, “lesser” men and aggressive “foreign” women.

This is a complete mockery of the real connection that Zuko and Katara had in the catacombs, the kind of love that is inherently subversive because it requires Zuko humbling himself in front of Katara and admitting that he was wrong, and working for her forgiveness. It is the kind of love that the Fire Nation under Ozai’s rule rejects. The kind of love that is truly transformative, revelatory, and brings light to the darkness. The kind of love that creates rather than destroys, that unifies rather than divides. That is humble and not prideful. That’s the appeal of zutara.