#when making burn salve Kustaa curls dragon nephew up like a heating coil and puts the pot on top

[muffinlance]

I propose a triple crossover: little scaled salvage. zuko is at approximate "can still be worn as a scarf for cuddles" size, his horn nubs are just barely starting to come in. akhlut crew wary until they find that dragon zuko is much less fighty (if just as reckless) than human zuko. winter rolls around and theyre a lil alarmed to find out that all the firebender talk about "agni gives us life" is more literal than they thought, as their scrawny lil dragon son basically starts hibernating

Oh my gosh little dragon Zuko--

He initially tries to escape by flying but can't make it far enough, because he is smol. (Ranalok and Aake just trail him in a boat until he has to land. Aake suggests wing-breaking as a future deterrent, kid doesn't even need those in human form. Ranalok says that's the Chief's call and spends the rest of the trip back with a tired shaky noodle hiding inside his coat. Later, Human Zuko insists he was just COLD, okay, that's ALL.)

Laundry involves their water heater occasionally being IN the tub, sporadic bubbles rising from the wiggly heating coil at the bottom, how long can dragons hold their breath because Panuk and Toklo are starting to discover the relevance of that question-- (Warm baths help with molting, of COURSE he has to get his head wet too, put him back--)

Apologies after burning Bato include a clearly ceremonial handing over of his last molt. Bato is now holding the shed skin of a child and this is just one more thing he Does Not Know What To Do With, in the rather long list he's acquired since returning to the ship.

Human Zuko walks around with a dog in his arms and/or clinging ridiculously to his shoulder. Dragon Zuko rides Seal Jerky around the deck like an epic mount, scaly nose raised high, scruffy little mane blowing majestically in the wind. Human Zuko DOES NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS. (Seal Jerky is a happy pupper either way.)

On cold nights, Human Zuko steals blankets to his growing nest, and glares at anyone to dare mention it. The first time it was extra cold and he was a dragon, they thought they lost him again. Then Kustaa got into his own hammock--Wake me up if he's hypothermic when you catch him--and just kind of... paused. Dragon nephew had been waiting hours for his warm cuddles. (Toklo hereafter took to piling extra blankets on his own hammock as a dragon-lure. It has not to date been effective, because Toklo is a small inefficient radiator. Acceptable heaters include, but are not limited to: Kustaa, Hakoda, Ranalok, and Aake. Bato is too boney. Aake consistently scruffs the prince and sets him on the floor. This does not stop him waking up to a warm wiggle-snake against his back. Human Zuko insists it's Aake's fault for being so warm and huge and warm.)

Dragon Zuko is trying to teach the albatross-gulls how to land properly via demonstration. Effective communication has yet to be established. (Under the roosting birbs is also an acceptable place to take warm!naps. The crew would like to know how he squeezed through their cage mesh, do dragons not have bones?)

One of Ozai's letters includes a line about his son's skin. Hakoda originally takes this as a metaphor. This is not a metaphor. (Later, Zuko reads the letter, and does not explain to the Chief the difference between 'skin' and 'molt' that Hakoda can't be expected to know but Ozai definitely does. Little Zuko gets to the crying-hugs part of this conversation more quickly than older Zuko did.)

General Fong's letters contained occasional mentions of skin, as well. Fong has always wanted a piece of wall art to match that in the Earth King's palace, and if Ozai won't pay ransom... (NO WE ARE NOT SELLING YOU TO THE EARTH KINGDOM, says Hakoda, when he finally gets it.)

The crew was deeply unsettled to find that the Fire Lord's line were literally inhuman monsters. By the time they reach their first port, nobody had better say anything about their tiny inhuman monster, he is a BLAMELESS NOODLE.

(Aake submits to being a dragon-scarf-perch. Nobody had better say anything about that, either.)