#yes i am exploring this in my Zutara fic

[eponastory]

About bending lightning...

This is a little snippet from Part 2 Chapter 1 (17 if you go by Chapter count) where Katara is practicing her bloodbending on Zuko. While doing this, she learns that the heart generates electricity, and Zuko explains that is why lightning can't pass through the heart.

This is a real thing.

Our bodies naturally generate low quantities of electricity. This is a concept used in The Matrix if you've ever seen it. Humans are used as 'batteries' in that universe. It's a cool concept and actually based on real science. Our bodies are also conductors for electricity as well. We are, in a sense, actual lightning rods.

Because of the minerals, elements, and water content in our body, we make excellent lightning rods because the lightning can pass through without interruption to the ground where it is dispersed. Remember, lightning is energy. It is neither created nor destroyed. It becomes other forms of energy. It is a visible energy that is the fourth state... plasma.

So how does a firebender like Ozai and Azula generate that kind of energy?

Lightning is a lot of energy. It is measured in volts and amps. It is also hotter than the surface of the sun... which is also plasma.

I'm exploring this because lightning both fascinates and terrifies me. But again, how does one generate that kind of energy?

I'm actually glad that lightning is used sparingly in the show because to generate a true bolt of lightning, it would require a lot of energy. Energy that you have to consume and convert from things you eat. I'd imagine that once you use lightning, your body will be depleted, causing fatigue and sluggishness. They don't show it in the source material, but that is something to think about.

But could lightning be absorbed by a well trained firebender? Maybe. Remember, lightning is energy. The body can only take so much and be able to sustain it. Redirecting it, in Zuko's case, means absorbing and releasing in a short amount of time. You aren't really taking it all on, just redirecting it. Iroh teaches Zuko to redirect through the stomach, not the heart, because the stomach is what helps convert energy. The Sea of Chi, as Iroh calls it. This is why Zuko was able to survive Azula's lightning, where Aang was severely compromised from it. Aang was also hit in the spine where the nervous system is compact.

Bending lightning is a high-risk, high reward move if used correctly. But it can also weaken the bender at the same time. So that is definitely a reason not to use lightning as a weapon all the time. Which is why you don't see firebenders using it much.

As for why it should not cross the heart? Because that much electricity passing through the heart could disrupt the rhythm. This is why we use defibrillators to correct tachycardia (rapid heartrate) and myocardial infarction (when the heart can't beat correctly or in layman's terms... a heart attack).

Anyway, this was my deep dive into why bending and redirecting lightning is not used much in the series.

And it was a little morsel from the recent chapter.

I will probably go deeper into why Bloodbending is the strongest form of bending. At this point, we should just call it Body Bending.

[cleverheroine]

Here's another hot take from a Zutara shipper: the more I see fanart/fics about Katara keeping her scars the more I come to this solid conclusion --- it's straight up bullshit that she didn't. Sorry.

Why does Aang get that special treatment? And let's not pretend it wasn't *Aang* deliberately getting special treatment. Yes, Katara has healing powers. Woo-hoo. She could have discovered them another way. And everyone else on the planet keeps the firebending scars they receive.

And yes, I love Aang. I'm not an Aang hater. And yes, I get it was an accident.

He's just a kid blahblahblah. I get that.

Accidents can leave scars, too.

Friends can leave scars, too.

We can be scarred by people who sincerely care about us and would never, ever do anything to hurt us.

The fact they took Katara's and *just Katara's* scars away is just them not wanting Aang to ever have to carry the burden of his behavior. They don't want us to have the constant reminder that he hurt her -- because then we can have a mark to hold against Aang.

It would have been infinitely preferable to me that Aang grew from that experience. He has to constantly see that because he was childish and didn't take things as seriously as he should have someone he cared about got hurt.

Wait, that sounds familiar. Kind of like it's a significant part of Aang's arc.

A significant flaw Aang has *always* had to overcome is how often he's wanted to avoid and run from problems, responsibilities, and consequences. He always wants to approach things from a different angle if they are difficult for him. It's why earthbending is so hard for him.

It's a behavior Toph has to work out of him.

In my opinion, a good mark that he has come to the other side of this hump in his development would be looking at Katara's scars and being able to address the mistake he made directly and come to a healthier conclusion of what the problem was. Not the firebending, but the firebender.

But...it probably would have been too big a conflict for the Aang worshippers on staff (and y'all know exactly who I'm talking about) if there was a mistake *he* directly made, damage that *he* directly caused that he had to learn from.

Aang's biggest mistakes always seem to be "I did a booboo that allowed someone *else* to cause damage."

Aang isn't responsible for the fire nation destroying the air nomads. He's just a kid who ran from something he didn't like. He didn't cast the fire that killed them.

But the dark past that looms over him, the ghost of his past he has to get over is, "because I, a ten year old boy, ran away from home when I got scared -- a big powerful imperialist army came and destroyed my home. Somehow this is my fault."

If Katara had kept her scars, that would be different. Aang's ghost would be that he hurt his friend because he wouldn't treat something with the sobriety and respect it deserved.

Katara should have kept her scars.

Even if it meant fodder for voracious Zutarians like me.

Again, I don't hate Aang. But the more I explore this small slice of fanon the more on board with it I am.

[sokkastyles]

I have a question, I know we know that shipping does not equal morality. And I get that, and I really like that. However, on my other blog, that should have been my main blog (yes I am that dumb). I have talked about Aang's non-consensual and criticized how Kataang is written, however, if you ship Kataang I won't come for your throat because that's not my style. I know the few misogynists/antis on here and on Twitter, and I don't want to let a few bad apples be my impression of a fandom, that's not fair, So now I'm side-eyeing myself over my past remarks. Likewise, I know shipping is not equal to morality, but I also want to criticize Kataang because of how flawed it is and how wrong that kiss was (and other things). I have no idea what I'm saying because at this point I'm rambling. What do you think?

Well, there is a difference between criticizing a ship and criticizing canon. I don't honestly care what people ship. I use the antikataang tag because I don't want to argue with people who do ship it, but that doesn't mean I won't be critical of what is in the show. I think expecting people not to engage critically with media is absolute nonsense. But there is a difference between engaging critically with the actual media and criticizing people's fanon or headcanons, which is where you get away from critically engaging with canon and move into the area of criticizing other people's opinions, which is how arguments start.

Like, there isn't really any actual concrete argument you can make to criticize zutara, because zutara does not exist in canon. It's all fanon and headcanons and speculation. And criticizing other people's opinions just makes you look like a dick.

You also have to take into account the intention behind something. The thing about the way Katara's relationship with Aang is presented is that we're supposed to root for Aang to get Katara, and every obstacle towards that end is just there to create dramatic tension for the male point of audience identification. That's the real problem with the noncon kiss, and people who are critical of it are right to point it out.

In contrast, when I say shipping isn't morality, I'm talking about people who write, let's say, dubcon zutara fics. Fanfiction as a genre is largely female-centered fantasy. Yes, even those lurid fics you're thinking of. People write and read these fics for completely different reasons and have completely different expectations than when watching a series like ATLA. Trying to say that someone can't criticize the way the show presents Aang kissing Katara after she said she was confused as a mistake to be glossed over (that is forgotten as soon as it happens) because they also happen to like reading darkfic is nonsense. There's also a long history of women's interests being policed that informs my views here, vs the fact that consent has only fairly recently become a conversation in mainstream media. You have only to look at the way the show itself portrays Katara having interests (especially in boys) outside of Aang as dark and dangerous to see this happening in ATLA itself. Or the way the creators got away with saying that zutara shippers are doomed to end up in abusive relationships while painting Aang as a typical Nice Guy stereotype who expects Katara to magically become his girlfriend (and gets angry when she doesn't) and seeing nothing wrong with it.

The thing is that zutara, if we look at the way it's written in canon as a metaphor for a romantic relationship, follows the same tradition of how fanfiction has historically existed as an exploration of romantic and sexual dynamics. Those conversations about consent are actually happening and being explored in fanfiction, even the dark stuff, whereas relationships that are presented as "wholesome" often push us to NOT have those conversations. So when I say shipping isn't morality, what I actually mean is that noncanon shipping and darkfic actually has more of a moral leg to stand on than uncritically engaging with relationships on the grounds that Aang is the hero so his goodness and worthiness to get the girl should just be assumed. Zuko has to work for his right to be in a relationship with Katara because he didn't start out from a place of goodness, and that, on its own, is very female centered because instead of starting out from the perspective of the male hero deserving a relationship by virtue of being the hero, we see the idea that a man has to work to gain a woman's respect and affection.

So it's not so much that I hate KA, but I hate the idea that we should engage in it uncritically. And that would be true even if it really was the most wholesome relationship in the world. The same thing cannot be true of zutara because even the darkest of darkfic are about women centering themselves in the narrative and engaging with power dynamics in ways that are subverting patriarchal norms about relationships by definition.

[erisenyo]

Hi yes a question from the audience: Zutara blood bending bdsm??? Can you elaborate on that? (Sorry if this is weird. I just know I won’t see it if I reply on AO3 and I am desperate to hear the details of this idea)

Lol you got over here FAST. Absolutely I can elaborate on my like, one true vision for Zutara, which is more of a vibe than any kind of coherent story idea.

This would be something set in/around/after Zuko joins the Gaang of course, Zuko taking this risk joining them, being on edge, and being very aware of Katara's power in particular (and maybe more aware of her own strength than she is, even, since he has broader context).

And I have no idea how it would come about, but Zuko would be kind of scared, kind of awed, kind of into Katara's power, and the bloodbending in particular, like starting morbidly fascinated and going from there. And there would be this thread of Katara simultaneously exploring and understanding and embracing her power/bending/sexuality all at the same time (my fave combo lol).

I think it would be more of a submission/dominance thing than the sadism/masochism side. Zuko willingly giving his body to her to bloodbend on, and all the trust that it requires, and him wanting that trust even if he isn't entirely sure of her yet and pushing himself to it anyway because that's what he does is push himself regardless of his current reality, and being all scared-exhilarated by it the whole time because someone controll your body with bloodbending is probably horrifying, but if you're giving yourself over to it instead of fighting (if you're making yourself relax and give in and submit)...

And he's an adrenaline junky so he wouldn't be able to stop coming back, because it would be this total rush mixed with like a shared secret and this tenuous-growing-stronger connection when he's just walked away from his prior life, and telling himself it's helping someone too (because Katara would be working through her bloodbending is evil baggage, and isn't helping her by offering up his body the perfect excuse).

Basically I think Zuko would be hard from go if only from the adrenaline, but Katara's bending would be inside him and in his blood and where is all that blood going, and, well. They'd dance around this like, kinky D/S stuff for a while, maybe never touching but edging more and more openly into something sexual, Zuko being the one getting stripped bare and vulnerable but it and also the one getting this sexual and larger gratification from it, but only as much as Katara will give him.

And meanwhile there's Katara recognizing and owning and mastering her power, and realizing how much of her power in the situation is her bending vs just herself, this simultaneous exploration and risk in pushing Zuko and realizing she likes it, or at least likes having that kind of power over him specifically. And add in all the baggage of Zuko being on his knees for someone and vulnerable to bending in particular, and Katara might start off angry and suspicious but it wouldn't stay that way.

And...that's what I've got haha. More vibe than fic, I regularly mourn the untapped kinky potential of bloodbending, and totally unrelatedly, can I direct you to a deep delight of the blood by eruthos over on ao3?)

[redbayly]

Zutara Fic Progress

Currently trying to get my next chapter finished for "Hot Ice, Strange Snow" and I'm getting close to smashing my laptop in frustration. It's been over a month since I've updated and I'm furious with myself.

I am so close. So very close and I want to post the chapter so badly. I probably shouldn't even be distracting myself by writing this, but it's like 1:00am and I'm tired and want to ramble.

I've been reveling in Northern Water Tribe worldbuilding and developing Gran-Gran's backstory beyond just "she was engaged to Pakku and ran away because arranged marriage sucks." There's this whole thing about how regressive policies get passed and some stuff about access to education and student activism and protests.

And then I began writing in stuff about classism and bullying and academic pressure and domestic abuse and reproductive rights and how inherently horrifying the idea of forced marriage actually is. I kind of went off when thinking about all the ways NWT culture probably messes with the people who are part of it. Not that I'm making everything and everyone terrible, I've just been thinking far too much about how sexism influences and shapes culture and people.

Obviously, Katara ain't having any of this shit.

Also, I've decided to make Yugoda a more notable character because she deserved better than, like, five or six lines of dialogue and two background appearances.

Anyway, here's where I'm at story-wise.

(spoilers ahead)

I've dived head-first into Katara starting an underground waterbending class as part of her master plan for a full-on social revolution. In doing this, I ended up giving Katara a bunch of new friends around her age and made things ten times more complicated for myself by building those OCs as characters and using them to explore the effects of NWT sexism.

Aang is having some problems in Pakku's class and unintentionally offends people wherever he goes. He also gets caught up in some tension among the Water Tribe boys that he doesn't really understand.

Sokka gets to witness the effects of sexism on a society and has a proper epiphany about why Katara has always been so mad about it. Like, not just realizing girls can fight, but finally understanding the deeper problems. He has therefore decided to be a supportive big brother who aids and abets in illegal activities if they are for a good purpose. Also, he's thinking of busting out the Kyoshi Warrior uniform for good measure because non-bender girls need a teacher, too (yes, he still has the uniform. He was wearing it when they left Kyoshi and he's not going to get rid of something that important. It's a travesty that he never got to wear it again in the original series).

The main part I'm struggling to get through is the Zuko sections. I've got him into and out of a seedy tavern and onto a northbound merchant ship where he's learning that, while being a deckhand isn't great, you can't yell at people to solve your problems. I'm trying to figure out him having a meaningful chat with the captain who hired him to give him some sort of important life lesson but I'm still feeling stuck.

I'm so sorry, Zuko. You've been taking kind of a back seat in this chapter. I promise, you'll get your spotlight back soon. You just need to get up north and reunite with the Gaang (and especially with Katara).

[caius-hhhhhh]

following up on this fanfic emoji ask game: I know this is not the general convention but i tend to like responding to an ask game all at once rather than waiting for prompts. so I’ve just answered every single one of the questions below the cut. Again, if you wanna play or use the game for your own purposes, please do! you don’t have to repeat my strategy, although you’re free to do so too.

i was about to say “this is a bunch of autofellating nonsense” but that’s the point. who cares. i wrote a lot about disability. if your mental illness also significantly impacts your ability to write, this might be triggering.

I’m still a baby ao3 user (@ is spitemonger) with only one published fic (it’s Zutara. It’s not that I’m not proud of it but I wrote it on a deadline and thus spent a lot of the creative process going “i don’t want to i don’t want to”). but a) I have generally been writing since I was a teenager, and b) I want to write more and publish more.

So I’ll be mostly referring to unpublished wips, with a primary focus on a long-form one-sided radiostatic fic covering Vox’s fall to Stayed Gone, and a minor focus on two shelved Magnus Chase (PJO spin-off) fics, one for Fierrochase and one for Blitzstone. [if you haven’t read Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgaard get the fuck on it, there’s a genderfluid character]

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

my entire trunk novel? If I’m embarrassed by a scene I delete it during edits. So the only thing I’m even minorly embarrassed by is the fandom-specific plot I wrote by the seat of my pants (Magnus goes to Camp Half-Blood) — I’ll get more into that in a later question

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

love that this emoji doesn’t fucking register on my computer. I’ve never thought about this before! It’s hard for my own writing to get me emotional, I tend to look at it so clinically and dispassionately I kind of get caught off-guard when people say an emotional moment hit them. I do get very easily fucked by other people’s writing about transness. No prizes for guessing why, characters exploring their own gender and other people telling them they see them as their proper gender always get me feeling some type of way. calam4r1’s comic about Alastor’s “what have you done to me” makes my heart EXPLODE

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

I am exceedingly proud of this Cave Johnson-ass line: “All projects, collaborations, products, and endorsements featuring or even vaguely mentioning that crimson ass’s likeness are to be liquidated. And burned. In fact, trap and seal the gases from the fire, freeze them back into liquid, and then burn them again.”

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Oh fuck yes. It is a major twist that I’d be stupid to spoil, but! There is a red herring at the start of my current fic that you don’t get resolution for until three-quarters of the way through. It involves Vox’s real name.

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

My close associate SpaceWall is a fan-fucking-tasting editor who understands my need for my writing to be completely eviscerated. She has the balls to tell me when I’ve got a shite idea, and I could not ask for a better editor. Go fucking read her fics and tell her she’s excellent. On the subject, I really like editing and am fully open to reading your work. I’ve a slightly longer post about it here but please reach out to me if you’d like me to look at anything you have.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Disability. It’s well and truly quite hard to find a story that doesn’t deal with disability — hell, it’s hard to find a human that doesn’t have a relationship with disability — but it’s something canon so frequently either tacitly ignores or doesn’t pick up on. If I’m going to do anything in a fic, it’s explicate the characters’ canon disabilities or headcanon new ones. This is my favourite part of Cold Bodies btw, and basically the only part I wrote without explicit prompting. It’s in the last subsection if you don’t want to read the 8k words of prep

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

idk man I’m really bad at pacing so even if the content is whack I go about it too slowly to really shock anyone

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

fuck off.

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

Love the implication that I don’t fall asleep every night fantasising about a thousand different first kiss scenarios.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I’m very picky when it comes to listening to music while I write. I can’t think about words if the song I’m listening to also has words, nor if it has a really tangible melody that I want to follow along with. So I need really slow, atmospheric music without a real tune. Undertale genocide themes are actually fucking excellent for this, I’d highly recommend them. I’ve created a massive fuck-off OSRS playlist (on itunes, not spotify, so I can’t share it, sorry) basically comprised of the entire Portal 2 soundtrack (special fucking shoutout to The Friendly Faith Plate, which is SO VOX CODED YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IDEAAAA) and Sim Gretina’s electro swing (Enemy Like Me is my favourite), plus Kira’s Piece of Art and Dua Saleh’s mOth. The first because it’s giving Vox’s obsession with Alastor, and the second because, duh.

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

I’m a google docs hoe. I know I shouldn’t be, but fuck man, I know how it works. It feels natural when my writing is on there. I’ve tried Scrivener and it made me angry. What the fuck ever And “tools”, that’s really funny — I’m the type of grad student that does all my citations manually because switching to Zotero is weird and scary. I know how to do it manually! Why would I ever accept help for something I know how to do?? (< ocpd symptom)

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

The world doesn’t fucking need any more Nico di Angelo fics. It really doesn’t. There’s plenty. He’s a skinny white boy, he’s got the entire internet in the palm of his hand. You wanna compete with Robin? Really? You wanna do that to yourself? I don’t even have catholic guilt, I’ve got nothing to add

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

SpaceWall and I are irl friends, but we hold each other’s secrets in equal regard. The secret is that she is a good writer and I’m a poet I wouldn’t actually mind if people I knew irl found and read my fics. It’s just writing. I don’t find anything to object in it, and in fact I’d like it if I could talk about Hazbin with other people irl. I would hate it if people I know irl found my tumblr, but that’s principally because I’m significantly more open about my ocpd here. I’m not a person on the internet, I’m just words and a drawing. You haven’t seen the kinds of fucked up shit I do in front of my peers that would suddenly Make A Lot Of Sense if they knew I had a FUCKING personality disorder.

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

The Blitzstone origin wip, which is mostly “ostracised gay dwarf learns ASL because he saved this dying elf’s life”. come to think of it the first chapter of that fic is technically perfect and there’s very little stopping me from putting it the fuck on ao3 and abandoning it for three years before coming back. huh. i might… just do that.

🍷 Do you drink and write?

Always. It turns the judgemental part of my brain off and I have a much easier time making things and getting ideas down. Such a shame I don’t smoke too! I’ve tried writing whilst high and it was not writing. It was in fact lying back and rereading 666

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

“the spicy stuffs” porn is the word you’re looking for. You can say it. It’s four letters. The internet police won’t get you. See look, porn porn sex penis tits ass fucking Writing erotica was a really instrumental part of unlearning the self-destructive writing habits that made me suicidal scrap my original work. My initial intention was that because it’s erotica, it’s not for other people: it’s for me. And having that barrier of “this is not for other people to see” was liberating and necessary — I turned it off eventually, because erotica is not something to be so ashamed of that no eyes but yours can look upon it — but I needed to force myself to write something that I couldn’t imagine being scrutinised and therefore needed to be Purposeful and Say Something.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

11pm–2am is when I get my best work done. Unfortunately, I write the most frequently between 1–3pm because I have the energy and motivation to, but those are Self Doubt Hours and I have a hard time getting into the swing of things I actually have the best writing luck when I get up early but that’s not gonna fucking happen

💖 What made you start writing?

In general, pathology, but I’ve kind of made that clear already. What made me want to write a Hazbin fic was seeing how exceptionally creative this fandom is and how much fun people seemed to be having sharing their ideas. I feel like in the circles I’m running in, there’s not a lot of pressure to make Good Art, and it’s… not really a big deal if your work gets a lot of attention or not. Everyone seems to be getting the same tone of feedback, all cheer and encouragement, and the vibe to me seems really casual and fun. I’m not thinking to myself “how will I compete with these other authors”, but “I wonder if the user I idolise will see and like my work”. And the answer is often yes. It’s not just that people are creating and playing so freely, it’s that it feels like a lot of us are here to support one another, and that’s been really reassuring. Because I feel like people will like anything I put out

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

I was about to say “anything related to pregnancy, thinking about my uterus makes me nauseous” but I uh. Wrote about a miscarriage. So I guess writing about a wanted pregnancy is the real limit

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

This is a super interesting question I haven’t seen spoken about very widely: it is considered extremely normal to commission fanart, but whenever the subject comes up, people seem incredibly reticent to ever commission fanfiction. I’m not fully sure why — in principle, it seems like there should be no real distinction in paying for fanart versus paying for fanfic. They’re both derivative work, they’re both made by enthusiastic artists who deserve to be compensated for their thousands of hours of expertise. I’m not certain what causes the disconnect. I have seriously toyed with the idea of doing podfics for money. I am in fact a professionally trained actor, and I own a USB microphone; which puts me ahead of like 50% of all of AO3’s userbase. Not sure if I’d fully commit to the idea because it’s still rather contentious. Were I to read my entire fic out loud I would put it behind a patreon though. It is in fact a very labour-intensive process, and again, I do have professional training.

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Hoo boy.

this is my fic folder. For most fics I write, I have a draft document and a research document: I’ve colour-coded the related documents: so dark green and dark green are the draft and research, pink and pink are both parts of the same project, etc. Let’s compare the word count in each of these draft documents and research documents, shall we? The dark green draft is 8k; its research document is 16k. The pink document is Cold Bodies. Including the html coding and my author’s notes, it’s edging on 13k. Its research document is 8k. It’s the only fic I’ve completed. The light purple draft is 21.5k. Its research is 96k! The light green draft rather conspicuously titled “botw script” is in fact a script, not prose, so it’s only about 4k. Its research, which is in fact titled “I don’t like botw’s story”, is 25k. The dark purple draft is a rather tragic 6k. Its two research documents are a combined 104k!!! One of the documents is called, rather tellingly, “I think I like research more than I like writing.”

My research process involves a not insignificant amount of textual analysis. For Cold Bodies, it looked something like this:

I haven’t done a lot of that kind of work for Hazbin because most info is fanon or only vaguely canon-adjacent, but I have compiled a list of headcanons many of you have put out into the world.

that’s gabrielsbubblegumbitch’s post and soot-and-salt’s And Not From Head To Toe. The other significant form of research I do is scour books I think are interesting or relevant so I can take plot or thematic inspiration from them. Previously, I’ve combed through Creating A Champion (and cannot recommend the experience. it’s kind of racist 😬) and made a fic a loose parody of Emma so I could fall back on its plot when I needed inspiration. For this Vox fic I’m rereading David Sedaris’ When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Eden Robinson’s Traplines (the last short story has a Monkey Beach spoiler, read that first), Catcher in the Rye, The Chocolate War, and, for some reason, Cary Elwes’ As You Wish.

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

Only got one. Shoutout to grownupchangeling for fucking SPRINTING into my inbox to ask for the answer to this question, really admire their(?) tenacity and dedication to squatting in my notifs like a spider in the corner

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

Never really crossed my mind. I do like a good beach fic, and anything set in winter makes me happy, but I’m not a massive holiday story enjoyer.

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

I spoke about this a bit in response to soot, but if your readers are able to accurately guess a plot point or twist it means you have done it successfully. It means you have given your readers the tools to reach the same conclusion you did: and those tools are foreshadowing, atmosphere, subtext, and tension. Those are how a twist or beat feel that they belong in the narrative, because they gel with everything that has come before it. It in fact should be the author’s goal for readers to be able to guess the twist! It’s not that it should be blindingly obvious, but more that a seed should exist somewhere that smart readers (which are all readers!) should be able to see it and notice when it takes root.

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

Who doesn’t like fan art? Who’s the fucking Anne Rice of AO3 that’s going to be like “you may read my fic but do Not make art inspired by mine” literally who does that

📈 How many fics do you have?

Guess.

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

I outline wherever possible. How detailed the outline is depends on the scene rather than the fic: “Vox goes house hunting” is in fact a very very long scene and a scene that amounts to two pages might well be described beat-by-beat in the outline. Pants-writing gets me incredibly stressed out because I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know where I’m going, I have no direction in mind, and because of that panic impulse I cannot be open to serendipity. It’s also really hard for me to do complete rewrites, so as soon as I have something down on the page and it’s made it past the first, worst, round of excruciating edits it tends to remain as-is in the final draft. So I often need at least a vague idea of what’s going to happen before I can start my work. I don’t do drafts, inasmuch as I’ve used that word pretty consistently throughout this post. I think. I think, think, think, research, ruminate, think, tentatively write less than 100 words, think think think consider scrapping the whole thing and then I detonate like a firework and the vast majority of the ink that first splatters on the page in that initial explosion stays until I know it’s done. I write like a shotgun: with a very intensive buildup and lots of preparation with a very short but very powerful discharge. I’ve told this to people and received the kind of expression you typically only get were you to remove your shoes and begin licking the sole of your foot. So please do not compare your own writing process with mine. Okay? This is not normal. I don’t know how often I’ve mentioned this but I have a disorder. No one but me does this. You should not expect yourself to.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

No <3

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

I am literally the last person you should ask. Never pour water on a grease fire? Your face mask should completely cover your mouth and nose? Always make sure the base is larger than the widest point?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

I don’t actually find that there’s a single character who brings me comfort to write about. I write about someone if I have something to say about them. I do have a comfort trope, which is sleeping together.

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

I think that Valentino used to be a porn actor before he became a director. During a shoot, he would wear an earpiece so his director could feed him lines, given that he couldn’t read the scripts.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

Alastor! I also talk breezily and with an emphasis on slightly elevated language, so I find his dialogue to be incredibly natural to spit out. Plus, who doesn’t love dated exclamations and turns of phrase like “By Jove!” and “take a powder”?

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

I well and truly don’t care. I don’t publish anything I’m ashamed of. I only publish things that I think showcase my skills, and that I think are worthwhile pieces of art. And if I had a friend who thought fanfiction or erotica was something to shame or scorn, well, they would not be my friend.

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

Finishing it.

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

Romantic partners becoming the main character’s therapists… I mean, that’s one of the great things about writing villain protagonists. They don’t fucking have to go to therapy.

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

Buckle up, cunt. I had a novel I was working on as a teenager. It was about toxic masculinity and MLM sexual assault. I said to myself, this will be a piece of art that defines a generation. It will say something that our (western) society desperately needs to hear, and one day a young gay kid just like myself will be tilting their head at a 90° angle to see the titles of the books lining the shelves of their local bookstore, see my novel, pick it up, and discover that it spoke to them: in the same way that I felt seen and heard by the books I loved. So as I wrote and worked on it, I often looked at my own writing with the harsh and uncaring eyes I knew it would be faced with when I inevitably contacted an editor. I wanted to make it flawless, bulletproof, do everything in my power to make this work perfect before an editor could see it, so that way I could wholeheartedly say that it was ready for other eyes. So nothing was perfect. Every part of it wasn’t good enough, fix it, FIX IT, I know you can do better so stop acting like THIS is the best you can accomplish. Come on, pick yourself up and do it right this time. And I tortured myself with that. To this day I cannot look at my draft without thinking of all the mistakes I made, what needed to be improved, what still needs to be improved, and after I’ve grown more and gotten diagnosed and met with people who have been published — met publishers — I know that I can’t trust myself enough to let this become a career. Do you know how hard writing this post has been? Did you know it’s taken me two days? Did you know how long I leave my posts in the drafts for, rereading, rereading, rereading, making sure there’s no chance this can be fucked up in any way, that it is totally within my control? I cannot become a professional writer. It’s my disability.

so, you know. rock make stick hit hard on head, cock make dick real hard in bed

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

A lustrum.

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

B-plots! I kind of get regular plotting, in that I know how to build and resolve tension, but I am so bad at finding other things for the characters to DO in order to take a break from the main plot. I already worked so hard to make a main plot, you want me to do another one??? To say what? I did everything I wanted to, I tied it all in a neat bow, if the readers want a break from the main tension why can’t they just tab out

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

I love trans Vox, but in order for him to be in character he has to hate being trans. I’m really used to writing about trans joy, for my own health and for everyone else’s, so writing a character that wishes they weren’t trans is really sad.

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

I actually love criticism. Your work can only get better through education, and one of the easiest ways to get education is by having another person read your work and tell you something about it you didn’t know. I need other perspectives because my own perception of my writing is exhaustive and exhausting: I feel like I’ve done everything I can to improve my work and I am so tired of looking at it that I need a fresh pair of eyes to show me something I’d not found. Getting better is always something to strive for; and even in mean comments it is entirely possible to find the thread of a lesson. More often than not it’s a threat of a lesson, but personally, I take what I can get. Criticism is something I find easy to receive because I can turn it into something productive, either “okay, this is something I need to improve upon, let’s do that” or “this is so clearly in bad faith it is costing me nothing to ignore it”. It’s something I can easily take control of. It’s positive comments that feel like apple-bobbing in a tub full of syringes.

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

#Psychological Horror immediately followed by #Eventual Smut. One of my favourite tag jokes I’ve written is #falling in love, #unrequited love, #friends to enemies, #on-again off-again relationship, #don’t date your coworkers holy shit don’t do it. And you really can’t go wrong with Cold Bodies’

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I suppose I’m kind of asking for it at this point.

I’ve left this one for last so it will have the best dramatic impact. Thank you, heartily, for sorting through that much shit!! I hope this is a worthwhile reward for your efforts.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

The shadows lengthen. The room is small, bereft of light; the darkness has plenty of recesses to establish itself within. His chest distends and recedes with a languid, heavy pulse: good. He will not wake. He dares not take a step. He contorts with the gloaming, letting it carry his weight like waves on the wine-dark sea. Ink creeping along the fractal contours of incautious skin, on paper pulp. The blanket is drawn too far up his shoulder, but his hands have wisely ventured away from its grasp. He has nestled them close to his face: the right palm faces the ceiling. His overgrown claws, weightless, curl around the soundless air. The cuffs of his shirt have drawn back to reveal the skin on his left wrist.  He casts a faint but adequate illumination. Regrettably — he discovers — he has not flesh but casing. Whether it be titanium or catalin, it protects the veins underneath. What seams it must possess, he cannot access at present. He cannot smell his blood. Only the hot hiss of his breath, of bertholite and alkaloids. Experience has had the good grace to train him to anticipate the worst-case scenario. Thus, he suspects his knife would dent upon contact with his skin. This would likely require blunt force, something messy and more out of his weight class. Which is unideal: his own strength is formidable, naturally, but imprecise. And somewhat unsubtle. He sees the power buzzing underneath his grip. A live wire ready to snatch at the first hint of energy, snapping, sparking, antsy and unfulfilled. He likely isn’t trained enough to feel it himself, but again, the danger is too tangible to risk tripping over it. Were he more experienced, older, had experimented enough to test his limits, it would be a safer estimate; but as he is now, untapped and spring-loaded — fisticuffs would result in a significantly less assured victory. It is not a lack of confidence. It is simply a risky bet he does not want to get caught foolishly trusting himself with. That is smarts, not sheepishness. He does not hiss aloud. Nor does he retreat: he takes stock. The room offers little relevant information. His possessions are scarce, no letter drafts upon the writing desk, no bandages or weapons. His wallet is useless. He’s laid out nicotine patches and topical creams upon his toilet table: an invasome, it seems, may be a possibility. Unfortunately, he would have to synthesize it himself. He despises inconclusiveness. He returns his gaze to the picture box, his screen dim and vacuous.  Loathed as he is to admit, this may be a somewhat longer project than he had initially envisioned. More’s the pity — what a spectacular send-off he would have been able to provide! Keep your chin up, now, old boy. This was hardly a trip for biscuits. It was, however, strike two.

[brilla-brilla-estrellita]

Trope Grading Game

I do not have Six Sentences for you this Sunday, so instead I'm finally doing this trope game that the lovely @artsyunderstudy tagged me in... some time ago. And thank you to @shrekgogurt for tagging me in Six Sentence Sunday this week!

Prior to Carry On, I mostly read Harry Potter fanfiction with a little bit of Percy Jackson and a little bit of Avatar: TLA thrown in there. I was pretty specific about what I liked in my fics in those days (which were primarily 10+ years ago), but the Carry On fandom has absolutely changed me. I'm not yet sure what is Carry On-specific or what applies outside the fandom because I haven't ventured back out again yet. So let's see who I am now...

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 - don’t care either way

+10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: -7

Would make me hesitate for sure. Depends a lot on the characters. If they're like... under 20, I'm probably not interested. If they're a little older, maybe? Idk, definitely sensitive here, but not quite a hard no.

Codependency: +3

Given how much I love Snowbaz, there's no way this is a turn off for me 😂

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: +4

I'm going to quote artsyunderstudy's answer here because she already explained it perfectly,:

Complicated feelings. I'm kinda into it, so it definitely wont put me off, but jealousy as a trope can either be really fun in a story or really toxic. Like, I'm a little obsessed with Simon's jealousy in the series, because its not the kind where he gets mad at Baz, really, or lashes out at him, its very internal and about his own insecurity, but also really indicative of how very attached he is despite his assertions through wayward son that he was going to end things. I love a bit of possessiveness as long as its not the kind that hurts their partner or turns really bad to the point of me disliking the character. So, yeah, in most situations i'm a fan of exploring this, though I can't say I specifically look for it.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): +7

Yes! I do love a good grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever combo. Solangelo, anyone?

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +10

Boy do I love me an enemies to lovers, and this has always been true (Dramione was my first non-canon ship... followed by Zutara, so. There's a theme here.) That was one of the major selling points of Carry On when my friend told me about it.

And enemies with benefits only if they end up actually having feelings for each other, ya know? If it's like... enemies that evolve to have benefits but never really have the emotional connection, meh. Though I can't say I've really run into that.

Friends with benefits: -2

Aaaand quoting artsyunderstudy here again because she nailed it, which... um... hm. I maybe am questioning certain aspects of my sexuality now... so... anyway......... 👀 Though I changed the rating to -2 because unless there's a tag telling me emotions are involved and important and leading somewhere, it's a turn off.

Ehhh is it benefits to full on love? I don't really connect with allo perspectives on sexual relationships, like I get them intellectually but I don't jive with them on an emotional level, so there has to be that emotional draw for me, that underlying romance. I mean tho, @fatalfangirl stacy is writing an excellent fic on this premise right now that I absolutely love because there are clearly feelings involved. But it also might fall more into the realm of the next trope on this list ... which is ...

Sex to feelings: -5

This one is new with Snowbaz (this was not at all a thing I read in previous fandoms. I was not ready for sexy fics back then.) It's another kind of weird one for me. I feel like it has to be accompanied by something else, but I can't tell you what off the top of my head. Like I don't know what this is missing right now... I think I just want the feelings to be there first? Idk, maybe I'll go read some fics like this and see if I can work out what I'm feeling here.

Actually I'm already having thoughts. I think the context of the sex has to be right. I'm not super into things like hookups because that sounds personally terrifying. Like... character a meets character b at a bar/event/etc and there's physical attraction and that's all they need. Just doesn't jive with me.

The only example I can think of off the top of my head that gets close, though doesn't exactly fit, is @facewithoutheart's "to do, to know, to want" with Gareth the Cherry Plucker. Except for this Sex to Feelings scenario it would need to be Baz falling for Gareth (which... HAH. I... I can't with that image.) But anyway. Context. Baz is going to Gareth for help and would then would develop feelings during/after the fact, and that would be fine. And I guess that's probably still about emotional vulnerability. Also hatefucking. That's fine too? Anyway, I'm losing my train of thought on this one.

Fake dating/relationship: +8

I quite enjoy the fake dating trope, especially when combined with enemies to lovers.

Friends to lovers: +5

Yes! Very cute. But also can have a lot of angst and I am more cautious about reading those and making sure I'm emotionally equipped to handle angst. So yes, but handled carefully.

Found Family: +10

I looooove found family stories! I love seeing people choose to care for each other even though they don't have a traditional familial or romantic bond. This is a big part of what I've loved about all of my favorite YA series. People taking care of and understanding each other in ways their families can't or won't and filling voids... I'm actually getting emotional just thinking about it ok moving on.

Hurt/Comfort: +10

As artsyunderstudy said: "It gives me the swoops." Yes. 100%.

Love Triangle: -10

I'm not sure I ever loved this trope, but I was ok with it. Now I think I am just generally over love triangles. The angst doesn't usually hit right and I end up feeling more annoyed with the character doing the choosing than anything.

Poly, open relationships: -3

I'm pretty sure this is my bias coming through. My introduction to the concept of open relationships was through some people that were... not... great... imo... I recently realized how much that first introduction colored my perspective and I'm trying to undo some of that. In addition, just the idea of my partner also being with other people makes me so incredibly jealous, which I know is also my own issue to work on. So I should probably actually read more fics in this area. Fics often help me work through these kinds of internal issues.

Mistaken/hidden identity: 0

I don't know if I've ever read a fic with this trope? Not feeling any particular way about it either.

Monsterfucking: +8

Oh, this is certainly new with Snowbaz. I remember a time when I was like "wow, no, absolutely not. I do not get it." And then Spadey came along...

Does this apply outside of Snowbaz? TBD. I so far haven't been interested in even Shepard's scandalous stories, so this may be Simon specific.

Pregnancy: -1

I am very confused. This is new with Snowbaz, which on it's own was a "?" moment for me. I was very unsure about mpreg at the start of this journey, but wanted to try it out and very quickly became fine with it. mpreg specifically is probably at a 0, maybe -1.

But pregnancy in general terrifies me. Not in the way where people are like scared of/grossed out by pregnant people. Other people being pregnant is fine. It just sounds so incredibly uncomfortable and painful that I'm like... no thanks? Don't really want to think about it for me. Very excited about it for you, though. But I haven't really read any non-mpreg fics, so I'm not sure where pregnancy as a whole falls... I'm going to go with like -1 because if it's not me it should be fine... maybe...

Second Chance: -9

artsyunderstudy again:

breakup angst wounds me deep ya'll. I hate thinking of them not together. I hate thinking of them thinking they are better off not together. I hate IT it makes me cry all of my tears.

But where she loves the coming back to each other, I just can't get past the breakup/betrayal/whatever it is that needs a second chance. It hurts too much to even finish.

Slowburn: +8

YES, but in the right mood. Sometimes I just need fluff and falling fast and I need it NOW. But otherwise, yes yes yes.

Soulmates: +6

I feel like I've missed out on this entirely. I can't think of any soulmate fics I've read? Or what qualifies as a soulmate fic as opposed to other fics with magical ties between people. So maybe I have read them? Idk. Sounds nice though.

I don't think I've seen anyone's posts for this game come across my dash aside from Ashton's, so if you've already done it... oops! My bad. Or consider this a last-minute Six Sentence Sunday tag: @onepintobean @thewholelemon @technetiumai @iamamythologicalcreature

[justanotherghostwriter]

Hi Twin! Here you go for the ao3 wrapped asks: 6, 17, 20, 30 please! Sending love!

Twin! Hello! Thank you for asking questions <3 I answered 6 and 30 in another ask, but I'll copy and paste the answers here for easier reading for you :'D Hope you're doing well!

6. Favorite title you used

The letter W, I found out this evening when reviewing the title of my fic for the year.

I don’t like writing titles, actually; they’re the most difficult part of writing for me, in many ways. And with so few fic to choose from, this was a struggle for me to answer. If I had to choose one of the five fic... We Saw a Spark. Even without knowing the song reference, that line speaks a lot about hope and the sudden striking of new things that could be dangerous, yes, but could also bring light.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

You know, I sat with this a long time trying to figure out if I enjoyed Katara or Zuko more this year. It’s like choosing between my children. xD I think I’m going to say Katara because 1) I’ve done it more and stats speak, right? And 2) the space I was in this year really leant itself to writing Katara with my heart in deeper ways than I ever have before. Especially in We Saw a Spark which was (and will be, when I get back to it, eventually lmao help) a bit of an exploration for me of parts of the need to help others to deal with pain. The good and bad and un-lable-able bits of that response. I never went through Zuko’s coping mechanisms, per se, but Katara’s are a lot more familiar to me, at their core, if not in their actual outworking. And that was something special to do.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Here I am to drag myself fully. The actual work of mine I’ve re-read the most is A House Built With Many Stones (ATLA, gen) which was written in 2020. I will fully admit I love the scene of Aang and Zuko and the big reveal so much that I sneak back there to relive it. Also Suki and Zuko friendship. And then I lie there and imagine what I would have done if it were a Zutara piece and —

The piece from this year I’ve re-read the most was probably We Saw a Spark, but that’s because I wrote it all out of order and on my phone in bits and pieces and I needed to quadruple check for errors and the reminder of what on earth I was trying to get at weeks ago in the line to the bank, or whatever. It’s still less to get through than Atlas, which I’ll only re-read to empathise with what I put my poor readers through ;)

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

That I didn’t finish any of the event fic that I swore I would be done by their deadlines? No, honestly, We Saw a Spark somehow gained chapters and is months and months overdue. I’m Pikachu surprised meme that, wow, breaking my self-vow never to post something before it was complete ever again led to me ghosting my own fanfic. I guess I’m just really living up to my username in ways I never, ever expected.

Less cheekily, the biggest surprise is always the feedback. The love in the comments and the tags and the bookmark notes. The recs. The fanart (thank you <3). I hope I never stop not expecting it.

Ask me AO3 wrapped questions.

Fic from 2022:

Atlas: Rebuilding (Zutara)

Dog Days (Zutara)

We Saw A Spark (Zutara)

What Goes Must Come (Agent Carter)

While the Music Lasts (Zutara)

[gentil-minou]

do u have any atla fic recs 🥺👉👈 pls i am begging

Okay so it's been quite a bit since I read atla fics and I'm a hardwired Zutara shipper so if that's your jam I got some stuff I super recommend! But because it's been so long and I can't remember them all I would say go through my Ao3 bookmarks here for a better list and my fanfiction.net account that has another list with old fics too I think (just remember that this account is from 2008 and will be cringe sdhgs)

Though I will plug a couple of my faves (though some of these are ancient in fandom years dsfjkshd):

Tempest in a Teacup by akaVertigo (T, complete with a sequel WIP)

Fate puts Katara in the Fire Nation to grow up in the company of a Dragon, a prince, and a lot of good tea. AU Zutara...of a sort.

BABY ZUTARA. They are everything to me and this fic is a staple of early zutara fandom I think. Also the writer reemerged last year after a decade and I almost cried I was so happy dsjfhds

Finding You by PearLynn (AU, complete, M)

"For each life you live, you shall suffer. This is your punishment: never to die, never to settle. Never able to love nor truly live, cursed to jump back and forth through time. You will spend the rest of eternity repenting for your actions, living a half life with no purpose."

No matter where, no matter when, he always found her. A Zutara story.

I think about this fic a lot. So much. All the time. Just read it. It's beautiful.

Moonlight and Sunshadow by GrapefruitTwostep (M, AU, Complete)

The dragon offered Katara a deal: protection for her family and tribe if she lived with it for a year and a day. And she said yes. Because what other way was there to save her people?

But there was more to the dragon than Katara bargined for.

An "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" retelling.

I love everything this author writes but this one was just...it was incredible. A literal epic with a wonderful story of romance and adventure and ahhhh I love it so much. Also Zuko is a cuddly dorky dragon and that's great I think

Enslaved by sharkflip (on ff.net) (T, incomplete but ends in a good place)

A triumphant war party returns with an exotic slave, a gift for the ruling house. Katara and Zuko AU

A common trope was capture fics but this one was Zuko getting captured and I LOVED it. It explores an interesting dynamic where he has no idea how to communicate with his capteurs and it's fascinating as a reader because the writer has us learn about Katara's culture along with him. I consider this a must read because it's just incredible.

Acquiescence by Ladyflick (ff.net) (T, complete)

Zuko, Katara and Sokka go under cover into the Fire Nation.

This is also super old but I remember loving it so much.

The Sparrowkeet Series by audreyii_fic (E, canon divergence, series)

Ba Sing Se has fallen and Katara has been captured by the Fire Nation; a more adult take on the potential progression of S3. AU series of interconnected one-shots. Zutara.

What kind of person would I be if not for Sparrowkeet? I don't know but I think I read this wayyyyyy back over ten years ago when it was on ff.net and I still love it man.

didn't know my heart by babyfairy (E, canon divergence, complete)

And yet, in a matter of days, she has managed to worm her way under his skin, has cracked open his rib cage and has begun to patch up the endless amount of wounds on his heart.

A retelling of the show but with added Zutara. I don't remember much of it as it's been a few years but I remember loving it! (EXPLICIT CONTENT)

Anything by damagectrl and brotherkupo, who also write for ML! (seeing their stuff when I started reading ML was so lovely ahhh)

Honestly I have so many recs now that i started sgkhfdjk but I really recommend checking out some blogs on tumblr for a better more updated list. I know there was also a Zutara Mini Big Bang that you can check out here, but I am grossly behind on the fics there but they look so good!

And if you're not a zutara fan then rip i guess i read them pretty much exclusively jfhsdjk

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

I don't mean to discourse in your inbox, but I'm not as well versed in Kataang fandom as you and others are. I only ship fanon queer couples. I was wondering if you or maybe one of your followers could let me know the idea behind Kataang fandom being disingenous.

I have a close mutual who ships Zutara. I find that ship weird but w/e. We agree to disagree. Today though they told me some things that gave me pause and it's not the usual anti Aang arguments I've heard.

The main thing they said is that Kataang fandom does not engage with the "unsavory" parts of their canon and that it's an annoyance. I asked for clarification and they mentioned that in The Southern Raiders Aang when tells Katara she has to forgive her mother's murderer, Kataang fans don't understand how unfeeling he was being. I'm assuming my friend used this example because I lost my dad to gun violence because she asked me how I'd feel if I was told that I needed to forgive the person who shot my father. I just said that Katara pushed back on Aang when he said that just as I would if anyone said that to me, and that Aang and Katara have different viewpoints on that but it doesn't mean Aang was unfeeling. My grandmom forgave the guy who shot her son. She knows I never will, and she's never pressed me on it just like Aang didn't press Katara on it.

My friend kinda backed off on that but said that Kataangers don't acknowledge was Aang said was not okay, even though Katara did push back. But he's 12? And has a different mindset?

I'm sorry, I'm losing the plot. I guess the tl;dr is that my Zutara friend claims that most people push back on Kataang because Kataang fans don't engage in good faith about mistakes Aang made with Katara, and I guess I wondered your feelings about that.

hi anon! for one, im deeply sorry you lost your father, and - though this may be just me - im sorry your friend felt it was appropriate to try to compare fictional circumstance to the very real tragedy that befell you and your family. i don’t know how long ago the instance you describe was, but i send healing and good things your way 💛

(also, a reminder for everyone: there is no pressure to ever share personal/life details in my inbox. for one, your life is your life and there’s no reason you should ever feel like you have to put personal information out onto the internet! and two, of course, im just a teenager behind a screen lol.)

moving onto the atla-related aspects of your ask. i mean,, my gut instinct is honestly to just shake my head in amusement, because the fact of the matter is that yeah, i know why someone who primarily (or perhaps only) ships zk might believe this:

they don’t interact with kataang content.

it’s incredibly easy for someone to label the kataang fandom as being “disingenuous” if that person isn’t regularly engaging with kataang content 😂 so that’s my natural conclusion! no, the kataang fandom isn’t disingenuous, your friend who ships zk simply isn’t an active part of the kataang fandom and thus they aren’t going to see kataang fics/metas/arts/etc. related to tsr.

and in that same vein, i wouldn’t be surprised if there are kataang shippers out there who would call the zk fandom disingenuous for similar reasons, i.e. that they don’t feel zkers engage with the “unsavory” aspects of zuko and katara’s relationship (when zuko and katara were still enemies). i guess some specific examples would be him tying her to the tree and manipulating her with her mother’s necklace, as well as his betrayal at ba sing se? like, i can say with total honesty that i haven’t seen any zk works grappling with the severity of those events - particularly the latter - but i can also say that i don’t go out seeking to interact with zk content! just bc i haven’t seen that zk content doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! just bc your friend hasn’t seen that kataang content doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, either! you see where im going with this?

and i’ll also admit that i of course disagree with your friend about aang being “unfeeling,” lol. i discuss in this post aang’s comments to katara in tsr, specifically how aang - as the sole survivor of genocide - is essentially the only person who can fully understand katara’s grief. i also touch upon the parallels between gyatso’s and kya’s deaths and the respective discoveries of their bodies, which further reinforces just how much aang does understand katara’s circumstances and was thus not being “unfeeling” with his comments to her. honestly, i still think zuko was such an ass in tsr 😂 but to each their own interpretation! your friend can think whatever they want, no skin off my back

anyways, as i’ve started to do when i get tsr-related asks, time for some self promo: everybody should go read broken pieces still belong, my 20k katara-centric fic exploring her emotional journey from the events of “The Western Air Temple” through those of “The Southern Raiders” 😎✌

i hope this answered your question, anon!! ultimately, i really do think it’s a case of yeah, obviously a zker might feel that way, because they aren’t actively seeking out any kataang content 😂 it’s scarily easy for people to slap labels onto entire fandoms, yk? which is why i always try to emphasize that yes, i’ve had negative experiences with both zk and kataang shippers. i’ve seen content from both sides that i don’t and will never like. but i know that my experiences are not universal, and i know that this negativity does not make up the vast majority of either fandom. pretty straightforward, am i right?

[paintingcranes]

hi, I just wanted to say that your "poison leaves bit by bit" is one of my favourites fics ever. the stunning prose and how all the characters feel so in character and also how each of the relationships be that platonic or romantic are so fleshed out and are done justice. the internal conflict and feelings of the characters feels so visceral and realistic and their trauma is actually acknowledged, both the gaang's and background characters. often with zutara fics the imperialist history of the fire nation is just not acknowledged or even just allowed to continue which makes it questionable when some fics make katara fire lady and she just has no problems with that especially when we know the fire nation is responsible for her mother's death. your fic doesn't do that and takes the time to explore the characters before jumping headfirst for the endgame relationship.

i just wondered if you are still continuing that fic, I ask this knowing that you have a life and problems of your own and if I'm bothering you, I am really sorry!

Hello anon! I'm sorry for taking almost two weeks to respond to this thoughtful message, but I wanted to properly say thank you for your kind words <3 This message meant very much to me and lifted my heart during some quite tiring weeks! I'm so touched to know that my fic is one of your favorites because it's definitely a labor of love. Exploring the many different ways that atla characters experience trauma, but still express love in their own messy ways (even when they don't fully understand each other), has been cathartic for me. I was also happy to read that you appreciated my exploration of the Fire Nation's imperialism - it's something that I've always deeply wished was explored more in fandom. Beyond the fact that characters like Katara, Sokka, and Aang deserve the chance to process the full extent of their grief and/or anger over colonization and the FN, I also think a love story between Katara and Zuko is most meaningful when the fight for them to come together as equals reflects their fight to create a more just world - making both things happen is genuinely very hard when they live in a world of injustice and colonial power imbalance, but I think it's all worth fighting for. Please don't apologize at all for wanting to know more about my next update, because I love knowing that you're still following the story after I've spent so much time away. The short answer is yes, I am continuing the story, and I'll definitely be updating before 2021 is over :) The long answer is that like you suggested, there have been a lot of major changes taking place in my life during this past summer and fall, which have occupied most of my time and energy. So the draft for the next chapter has been sitting over half-finished on my computer (along with writing for several other fandoms far different from atla), waiting until I'm in a more stable place to finish. The other half of the truth is that I also really needed a break from the zutara fandom, after there were a bunch of events during the summer when poc (and woc in particular) were treated quite poorly, and several of my friends subsequently left the zutara fandom. These events, in my opinion, were examples of wider issues that have been going on for years in both the zutara and broader atla fandom. But the distance has really helped me come back to this fanfic story (and zutara as a ship in general) on my own terms over the past few months. At this point, I really just want to write about the characters in a way that connects to me. It's obviously completely okay if my interpretations of the ship and characters and story don't appeal to everyone, but when I do finally update my fic, it'll just be for myself and for anyone who finds joy in my writing. Basically, I'm slowly feeling better about where I'm at, and I hope anyone who reads the upcoming chapters of my story will feel that come through. I hope you know that your message also reinvigorated my desire to share my ideas, so thank you again, and I'm wishing you all the best <3

[experiment-000]

My Top 10 Ships of 2020

It's been a weird year but I've seen other people doing this. Plus this year I've been way more into gen fics (love a bit of found family especially in clone wars and marvel) than anything shippy. So I genuinely don't know what imma put on here aside from two ships for sure. Sorry this post is super long idk how to do the below the cut thing and I've had this app for 5 years...

10) Viktor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki - Yuri!!! On Ice

It was a real toss up between this, supercorp, kanera and wolfstar cos they're all very integral ships to my fan heart but this son because of the Yuri on Ice fandom's rebirth this year. I've never stopped shipping this, never stopped reading fanfic of them for any extended period of time, they're still my most bookmarked ship on ao3 (although I think now star wars - all media types may have overtaken them for fandom). They were one of the first things I watched where the queer ship I loved became canon and I can't wait for the film (and hopefully someday a season 2). Heck I even made my mum watch Yuri on Ice with me so I think that says it all.

9) Edelgard Von Hresvelg and female Byleth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

My first fire emblem game was fates when I was like 14 (and finally gay awake lol). I was so disappointed that I had to be with a guy character because the only female option was kinda creepy and also I wouldn't get the character of kana. So when three houses came out I was so happy because finally there were beautiful incredible female characters my female byleth could romance (I'm so sorry mlm you deserved so much more than you got). I got the game as soon as it came out (had to search a lot of shops let me tell you) and started on black eagles. I was actually kinda disappointed back in 2019. I didn't like the explore the monastery bit (still find it kinda tedious) and the battle mechanics weren't quite the same as fates (no pairing up?! Aka my main battle technique for protecting the weaker units). So I got like 20 hours in and put it down. Came back to it in lockdown and finally finished it! I'm so proud of myself I virtually never finish games. And I fully fell in love with the useless lesbian edelgard in the process. When I started back playing in 2020 I was like eh I wish I'd picked a different character to romance (like shes an emperor that's morally very shady) but then the romance stuff started with edelgard and I fell the heck in love.

8) Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter (and Topanga Lawrence) - Boy Meets World

Disney+ was released in the UK this year and I finally got the opportunity to watch boy meets world in its best quality (aka not on YouTube). I watched it back when I was like 12 or 13 and it's such a nostalgic show for me. Watching it again I still absolutely adore it (and my bi ass was low-key crushing on Shawn especially in chick like me - I'm 18 btw and I got so scared for a sec but rider strong was 18 when chick like me came out so it's fine woah). And of course now I see the possibilities of the beautiful Cory and Shawn relationship like they were so bromance it was basically romance and throw in topanga it's the perfect ot3 (but I'm also fine with just Cory and Shawn or just Cory and Topanga). Read some good fanfic for them this year. My favourite was one about Shawn stealing makeup and stuff and exploring gender (need more fics like this I'm biiii).

7) Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes - Marvel Cinematic Universe

I rewatched all the MCU films this year too. And got really into Peter parker whump and irondad. Plus my eternal obsession with identity and relationship reveals of course led me from Spiderman identity reveals (and found family cuteness) to stucky coming out. Especially when it involves the internet and social media. Not my favourite ship but it's been significant to my year due to the sheer amount of marvel stuff I've read.

6) Satine Kryze and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I rewatched clone wars in prep for season 7 and wow Satine's death was sad and sudden. She first appeared in S2 E13 I think and just the sheer sexual tension of their bickering. "The sarcasm of a soldier. The delusion of a dreamer." Just ugnnhhh my bi ass can't take much more of this. And Anakin just sipping his wine in the background grinning. And I fully believe korkie is a Kenobi.

5) Commander Cody and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I am very much an Obi wan multishipper. I don't really have a favourite but I fully believe he was with satine and Quinlan in his life. I don't think be would've actually done anything with Cody because of the whole superior officer thing. And this probably isn't even my favourite Obi wan ship - that honour probably goes to quinobi or obitine. However the most popular ships in the fandom are codywan, quiobi and obikin. No offence to anyone who ships these they're just personally not to my taste, but I can't stand quiobi, and obikin I find only slightly more tolerable and I think that's just because there's so much obikin content so if I like the concept of a fic that happens to be obikin I'll read it. I'm just not a fan of the mentor/student relationships. So I generally favoured the codywan fics when there was shipping involved meaning I read a lot of them this year. Needed that nice fix it content post season 7.

4) Zuko and Katara - Avatar: the Last Airbender

Again I am a multishipper I have nothing against zukka it's cute. But I'm a zutara shipper first and foremost because when I first watched avatar I was like 13 and denying my gayness and gayness in general so I shipped the straight things and the straight things only. Most of these ships I stopped shipping - dramione, spuffy, some my little pony ones which we don't talk about. Zutara stayed. (I have nothing against any of the things I used to ship I just stopped shipping them so much/shipped new things more). I've continuously shipped zutara since I first watched avatar even if I didn't necessarily spend that much time on it it has always been here as one of my favourite ships. It has such good fanfic I swear including my favourite ever fanfic from any fandom - love thy enemy. Plus like the black games (reread this for the millionth time this year), a delicate subterfuge (which I read for the first time this year and damn it's so good) and so many more. With the avatar resurgence this year I haven't actually rewatched avatar aside from my normal random episode every now and then when I feel like it. But there's been a lot of avatar on my dash from people I follow getting into it and people I followed for avatar returning so naturally I returned to the fandom and read quite a lot of fanfic. I also read just a lot of avatar gen fics which were great at the whole found family thing I've been so obsessed with this year.

3) Catra and Adora - She Ra and the Princesses of Power

Catradora is canon! They kissed! What more is there to say. Arguably they should've been top but I never shipped them that much since I was always very much a multishipper when it came to she ra so yes I was very happy it became canon because we actually won for once but also I've never read much fanfic for them etc. But they are very much a dynamic I love and watching she ra all again in prep for season 5 I really enjoyed the build up of their relationship. The other two only go above because Buffy is my favourite show ever and damn there's some good fuffy fanfic and Aphra and Tolvan is both fresh in my mind and star wars owns me. Would love some catradora fic recs btw if anyone has them tho.

2) Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I didn't realise it was last year that I got super into them but according to my ao3 bookmarks it was lol. 2020 I swear it's lasted an eternity. I got into them about a month before lockdown (which feels like another lifetime). I've loved Buffy since I first watched it when I was 13. It's arguably still my favourite TV show. I've been through a lot of ships for Buffy - bangel to spuffy and now fuffy. I still think angel and her were a beautiful ship back in season 2 and especially in the angel episode I will remember you. But faith and Buffy had so much chemistry in season 3 - she would've been a fresh start for Buffy and the amount of fix it fics I read I swear. My favourite has to be one where they met in LA during Anne and how that changed everything feat Buffy's internal homophobia.

1) Cheili Lona Aphra and Magna Tolvan - Star Wars

I read Darth Vader (2015) and Doctor Aphra (2016) for the first time at the end of 2020 (got a comic subscription which has served me very well already I've nearly finished the star wars canon comics). Just to see canon queer ladies in star wars was so magical for me as a queer lady. I didn't think star wars would be so overt yet as to have a queer kiss in canon (even if it's in the comics) and especially not with the main character of arguably their main comic series. Now we just gotta hope that we'll get it in live action someday soon. They weren't the ship I consumed the most content of in 2020 but they were the highlight of my 2020 because star wars did that and I finally found out about it

Honourable mentions: Vivian and Elle - Legally Blonde, Candace and Vanessa - Phineas and Ferb, Stevie and Alex - Wizards of Waverly Place, Xander and Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I actually don't ship this but damn some authors are good - this was the ship that made me realise I don't need to like a ship if the author is good enough to write it well), Eli Vanto and Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Star Wars (started reading the books last year but finished this year and only started with fanfic this year), Villanelle and Eve - Killing Eve, Kanan and Hera - Star Wars, Barriss and Ahsoka - Star Wars, Remus and Sirius - Harry Potter, Kara and Lena - Supergirl (let's hope this becomes canon next year!) (Those last four are ones I've shipped forever some of my og ships but nothing particularly big has happened for me this year with them so)

I got Disney+ this year so rewatched a fair few things from my youth and though hey my obsession with that character may have been a little gay.

[soopersara]

I just realized you have changed Only by starlight into a series. I’m excited for moreeee. It’s the fic that i obsessed over for weeks. I love your characterization, it’s spot on and the ANGST tho. I love each of it

Awww, thank you!!! I'm so glad that you enjoy the story!!!

And yes, I did create a series for it! I had some pretty elaborate ideas about how Zutara's lives would continue to play out beyond the end of the main fic, and there was enough interest in the comments that I decided to go ahead and commit to at least a few follow-up oneshots. I'm not planning on writing anything super long (because I really want to get back to focusing on my main WIP, which I adore, and which I updated this morning 😉, and anything bigger than that would take more time than I think I want to commit to), and I can't promise to post anything soon or to update regularly, but... I've written something like 4k words for the first follow-up at this point? So... maybe I'll have something to show for it sooner than I'm expecting.

I don't know how well the mood of the sequels will follow the mood of the original, since I mostly have fluff ideas (with a side of hurt/comfort, obviously, because of Zuko's situation, and also the fact that the oneshot I've been working on comes immediately after the final chapter of ObS), but at the moment, I have 5 rough ideas that I want to explore a little - mostly dealing with further healing and family and such - and a possible 6th if I decide that I want to dig my claws into something more serious (the actual end of the war, which would have to play out very differently because... well, everything). And at a guess, I'd say that I'll have a completed draft of the first oneshot within the next few weeks, then get through editing... when I can. The series is definitely becoming a side project at this point, but I am making decent progress on it anyway!

Thank you again, anon! Your message really made me smile!!!

[smylealong]

1, 21 and 39 for the fic meme! :)

1. What’s your favorite character(s) to write for?

Oh my, I’m have so many fandoms. But yes, I do have some favorites.

Zuko- ATLA- He’s such a ball of angst, anger, righteousness, strong morals and overall, a beautifully mature and complex character, that writing him is just a joy.

Yi Jeong- BOF- While the drama is s*it, Yi Jeong is truly a fascinating character. He has layers of complexity, pain, intelligence and just enough cruelness in him to make him a character with grey shades and fun to write.

Ulquiorra Schiffer- Bleach- My erstwhile favorite. He is cold and emotionless on the surface, but is a very deep character. I loved writing him till the author of the series made the series unwatchable.

Toph Beifong - ATLA- Wonderful badass. She is the right mix of badassery and chaos and evil to make her a treat to write.

Azula- ATLA- OOOH!! She is my absolute favorite. There is just so much to explore in this character. There are so many shades to her that it is a writers delight to depict her.

Selim Bradley- FMA- Even though I have only written one fic involving him, I had so much fun. Someday, I would like to revisit him.

Nam Seon ho- My Country:The New Age- Oddly, I am having trouble writing him, even though he is one of my favorite characters of all time. When I wrote him through Hwang Sung Rok’s POV, I had no issues writing him. But his own POV is proving to be a nightmare. 

Wei Wuxian - The Untamed - I’m writing him in first person present tense and enjoying every minute of it. He’s a fun character to write.

21. Is there an idea you’ve always wanted to write, but haven’t yet?

Oh so many! But I’ll enumerate a few.

ATLA: I always wanted to do a Zutara take on Hunchback of Notre dame, where Zuko is the Quasimodo equivalent and Katara as Esmeralda, while Ozai is Calude Frollo’s counterpart. In this case, however, Quasimodo and Esmeralda do fall for each other.

The Untamed: Lan Wangji is an efficient, ordered and no-nonsense cop. His longtime partner, Nie Mingjue, just got promoted so a new transfer from a different station is appointed as his partner. In comes Wei Wuxian and upsets everything that Lan Wangji holds true. Things get further complicated when Wen Ning, someone Wei Wuxian knew during his high-school days, is accused of a murder. To make matters worse, Xue Yang is hovering around them. Poor Lan Wangji cannot catch a break!

Fullmetal Alchemist- Brotherhood: I have always wanted to do a fic about Ling Yao’s first years as the Emperor of Xing.

There are more but I will stop here, lol.

39. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

I am very good with emotions and getting into a character’s head and sticking to POVs. Nam Seon Ho is the only one (apart from Zane Bertholdt from my original novel) who has given me as much trouble as he has.

Thank you @drivingsideways for the questions. It was fun. The questions are from here.

#Fandom asks

[zkfanworkweek]

Zutara Fan Creator Interviews: Emily (@fictionissocialinquiry)

Hey everyone! We hope you’re all excited for ZFAW, and to   honor (ha!) ZFAW’s commitment to supporting and celebrating fan content creators in the Zutara fandom, we’re going to be rolling out a series of interviews with well-known and widely-beloved content creators over the next few weeks. We’ve got artists and fanfiction authors, some names you recognize as well as a few phenomenal up-and-coming talents, and we can’t wait for you to meet them all! 

First up, we have fanfiction author @fictionissocialinquiry, aka Emily, the author of “Rumour Has It” and “Mending Wounds.”

You can find her works on AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionIsSocialInquiry/pseuds/FictionIsSocialInquiry

INTERVIEW TIME! 

1. Tell us about how you came to ship Zutara! What does this ship mean to you?

I watched AtLA as a kid/teenager but it wasn’t until a long hospital stint gave me the time to rewatch it as an adult and be wowed all over again! I started getting more into practicing writing and couldn’t get the symbolism behind Zuko and Katara’s characters out of my head. They have a really interesting tension that I love to explore and that helped me practice a dynamic I wanted to write about in my original fiction. This ship has helped me become a better writer!

2. What inspires you to create Zutara fanworks?

The nostalgia I have for AtLA. I was obsessed with it as a kid but there’s a different appreciation as an adult. I love creating stories that make people freak out and get emotional and spam me with their thoughts and feelings. I’ve had some amazing conversations with folks about things going on in their own lives that are playing out in the story— that stuff just makes my day! Feedback on new things you try out in your writing is why I keep coming back haha!

3. Be selfish— if you could request one fanwork based on your own art/fanfic, what would it be? What would you absolutely love to see someone create?

Oh lord… like anything? Haha! I recently discovered podfics and would be 300% stoked if someone turned Rumour Has It into a podfic or drew a scene from that story. RHI is my favourite completed story of any fanwork I’ve ever written so to be able to listen to it or see art of it would be a GIFT!

4. Any words for people who are new to the fandom and/or nervous about sharing their work for the first time?

It’s okay to be nervous but its not okay to let the nerves hold you back! They always make it feel worse than it actually is. I dreaded posting for so many reasons with my first stories but once I did, it turned out not nearly as bad as I thought. Fake it til you make it with your confidence is an adage that really helped me.

5. What’s an idea for a fanwork that you have but haven’t gotten around to making?

I’ve been workshopping a dark!verse zutara story for like a year now. I’m insanely time poor so don’t like to post a story before its at least mostly drafted because I don’t want to leave people hanging if I don’t have time to finish it. This story is about 50,000 words so far with maybe another 20,000 to go. 

It’s an AU where Iroh and Lu Ten (and later Zuko) escaped the Fire Nation before Ozai’s coup and used their White Lotus connections to turn the WL into an underworld gang— but they’re fighting for the greater good. Destabilising the Fire Nation, providing undercover support to the Earth Kingdom, putting bounties out on criminals of all nations to help the people… Katara, Toph, and Suki are The Runaways: a group of bounty hunters who get themselves onto the White Lotus’s radar and are “recruited” to join their cause. 

Katara has a lot of baggage in this story— with her past and her tribe— so its really about her stepping up and overcoming the things that are holding her back. Zuko’s arc follows a similar trajectory.

It’s dark and bloody and delicious and so much fun to write. Antagonistic!zutara is absolutely golden!

6. Are you participating in ZFAW? If so, want to give us a hint as to your plans?

Oh hells yes! I’ve just checked out the ZFAW week outline and am definitely going to get something written for Tuesday and put together a fic rec list for Saturday!! 

Thanks so much, Emily! Be sure to check out @fictionissocialinquiry��s works on AO3 and show her some love this ZFAW :) 

Until next time, 

Mod Sarah (@thereisnocabbageinbasingse)

[markedmage]

Ten Truths

Title: Ten Truths

Pairing: Zuko/Katara, Minor Sokka/Suki

Summary:  Something pushes at the edges of Zuko’s consciousness. He remembers all those moments with Katara, the moments of shared silence where she waited, patiently, until he was ready to talk. He remembers how she pulled each little truth from his lips with just her gentle gaze and her willingness to listen without judgment. He remembers how they learned to trust again, in the simple breaths where truth became reality, where he talked and she listened. He looks at her again, sees the gentleness in her eyes, and knows it is time. He’s ready.

Rating: T

Notes: They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but you can bet your ass that this fic was. Partially because I am insane, and don't like to eat, drink or do anything else once the Zutara fix takes hold, but also partially because Zutara are also crazy and I love them and they were begging to be written. That being said, if the flow of this fic is weird, don't blame me. Blame Zutara and the lack of everything nutritious I gave up in order to write this. TBH, I don't even remember most of it, I think my hands and brain just took over and threw a bunch of word vomit onto a document.

I wrote this for the last day of ZutaraMonth, Day 29: Flowers. Uh, not sure how well this follows the prompt exactly. I DID have an idea in mind, but as I said above, this kinda got away from me. But I wanted to participate, and this was the last day, so here ya go.I'm planning on participating in ZutaraWeek as well. I'm so excited- I hope you guys are too. I already have a fic in mind (yes it's already being written) and I plan on incorporating the week's themes once they come out. I hope you guys will read and enjoy my ZutaraWeek submission, as much as you've loved my other stories as well. Thank you guys for all the support.

Posted on AO3 as well. Read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24449281

The walls Katara had so meticulously built up around herself slowly crumble. The anger and hatred that she had so callously thrown at Zuko to keep him away from her turn into something else- definitely not trust, not yet, Zuko knows he has a long way before he can reach that pivotal moment with her- but she no longer pierces him with a frozen stare every time they catch each other’s eye, she no longer crushes him with a biting malice every time he offers her his help with the chores. The dynamic between them has changed.

I'll never forgive him. But I am ready to forgive you.

They settle into an easy companionship in the days before the comet. Zuko rises with the sun and settles into his morning meditation. He brews the tea, leaving a small flame under the pot to keep it warm until Katara rises, a little later. She joins him sometimes, sitting in amicable silence, but more often sets about with the day, making breakfast and folding the laundry. By the time Zuko has finished his meditation, Katara has woken the rest of the gang (kids, Zuko thinks, We’ve adopted a family of kids), and has set out a bowl of jook for him. Then Zuko takes Aang for his firebending lessons, followed by lunch, Toph, and Katara later in the day. Zuko spars with Sokka, keeping his dao blades sharp, and trains with Suki in hand-to-hand combat. 

Sometimes, late at night, he sits at the overlook beyond his house, staring out over the calm ocean. He thinks about the last time he’d been here, back when his heart was still troubled and his soul was still split between doing what was right and what he thought he wanted. Sometimes Katara joins him, and it’s so different from the last time they spent a night under the moon (Maybe you can bring my mother back!). She sits with him, close enough he can almost taste the questions on her lips, but she never asks. He knows she’s desperate to speak, curiosity burning in those deep blue eyes of hers, but the thing he loves the most about Katara is that she always seems to know when he’s ready to talk, and so she waits until she knows. 

It’s something he’s always loved about her- the easy way she simply waits until he’s ready, unlike Sokka and Toph and Aang, who talk and talk and ask and badger him with questions until he feels like he may explode. He loves the gang, he really does- the loyalty, the love, the friendship- but so much exploration into his personal life can be too much for him to bear sometimes. 

But with Katara it’s different. Silence- which once held so much pain and fear in Zuko’s heart- becomes the thing he relishes the most with her. He finds peace in the calmness of quiet, tranquility settling in his soul in the heartbeat of Katara’s breaths. In the soothing serenity of Katara’s presence, Zuko feels his heart stitching itself back together, and every day that passes he feels himself falling a little bit back into the person he wants to be. He thinks he’s ready. 

Ready to let someone in.

________________________________________________________________

Zuko feels his peaceful world, the one he so desperately created around him, the one built on friendship and companionship, crumble around him at the weight of Aang’s words. “About Sozin's Comet... I was actually going to wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came.  I'm not ready.”

It’s his worst nightmare really. Of course Aang needs more time to practice firebending, and he agrees with Toph- his earthbending really needs some work as well. But he remembers with dreadful clarity what his father planned before the invasion, the cruelty of the plan and the morbid fear in his heart of what was to come.

“Things can’t get any worse,” Katara says, and the pain in Zuko’s heart weighs heavier on his chest. 

“You’re wrong,” Zuko says, and even his voice sounds hollow with despair. “It's about to get worse than you can even imagine.”

He tells them about Ozai’s plan. The plan to crush the Earth Kingdom’s hope, to bury it’s very foundation under an inferno of ash and destruction. He watches the hope die in their eyes, replaced by a growing seed of fear. Sokka looks devastated, Suki looks terrified. Toph’s, for once, speechless, Aang looks hopeless, and Katara looks stricken, looking at him with eyes filled with terror and concern. She reaches out a hand, but one look from Zuko has her dropping it, stepping back with lowered eyes.

Zuko knows how much this hurts everyone, how much it hurts him. But as he looks at them, the brave Water tribe soldier, the Kyoshi Warrior, the Beifong Heiress, the Avatar, and the greatest Waterbender he’s ever met, he knows he’ll do anything to protect them. And right now, that’s making sure they defeat his father, no matter the cost. “I know you're scared,” He says, placing a hand on Aang’s shoulder. The boy looks up at him with scared eyes, and Zuko remembers when he looked at his father the same way. Only this time, Zuko is not his father, and he won’t hurt a young boy just for speaking his mind. He smiles encouragingly at Aang. “And I know that you're not ready to save the World. But if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes, there won't be a World to save anymore.”

That seems to be the right thing to say, and he sees the fire once again burn in Aang’s eyes. Sokka once again shines with the energy of his people, and he raises a fist in the air. “Team Avatar is back!”

Zuko smiles, and lowers his head as Sokka continues to crow with excitement. But a little part of him can’t help but be afraid, be afraid for the people he’s come to love and cherish as his own family. And when he raises his eyes once more, he finds himself being stared down by Katara’s watchful gaze, and knows she feels it too.

________________________________________________________________

She finds him later that night, sitting under a sky full of stars. He makes no inclination that he’s heard her, but she comes over to him anyway, sitting down next to him. He blinks, then pulls his gaze from the heavens to look at her. She’s staring out over the water, hands folded neatly in her lap. Even under the pale moonlight, he can see the reds and golds of her silk robe standing out against the rich caramel of her skin, and he finds himself thinking that the rich colors of his nation suit her well.

(Red symbolizes passion and power, represents the Fire Nation. But Zuko wishes to tell the world that red symbolizes Katara, symbolizes the strength in her limbs and the power in her heart, the desire and will to do what is right and to never give up on people who need her. Katara may be of the Water Tribe, but her heart burns with the fire of a thousand suns.)

He turns his eyes back to the sky, and sees her do the same. They sit in silence for a moment, and Zuko finds himself unable to bear the silence (a silence that he’s always craved from her). “When I was younger, my mother used to tell me stories of the stars,” he begins, and raises a hand to trace out a constellation. Katara’s eyes trace his fingers, and he maps out the Azure Dragon of the Fire Nation. “The Azure Dragon is the guardian of all the stars,” he recites. “The dragon was created by Agni so that he could rest during the night. Under the watchful gaze of Tui and the Azure Dragon, Agni sleeps, and the dragon circles the night sky, ever watchful for danger against his master.”

Zuko looks back at Katara, then chuckles awkwardly and scratches the back of his head awkwardly. Katara’s gaze is too bright, too warm, too knowing, and he feels like she is taking him apart bit by bit. “Of course, that’s just a story my mother used to tell me.”

Her eyes soften, and she rests a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You must have loved your mother very much,” she says, and his shoulders sag.

“Yes,” he says, raising a hand to his face, touching the scar that mars the side of his face. “I loved her more than anything in the world.” Katara’s gaze follows his hand, landing on his scar. She raises her other hand and cups his cheek, resting her palm over his fingers. “Your father gave that to you, did he?” she breathes.

Zuko’s heart stutters to a stop in his chest, and gasps, long and low in his throat. He meets Katara’s gaze, half expecting disgust, anger, hatred, to be swimming in the blue depths of her eyes, but he’s only met with compassion. She smiles at him, and he knows that she won’t press him if he doesn’t want to, that she’ll give him space if he needs it, but Zuko knows this is a story he has to tell. She deserves to know.

“Truth,” he says, and meets her kind eyes. He tells her the story of a young boy, a young prince, who stood up for the soldiers who didn’t have a voice, how he expected to face the general he dishonored in the Agni Kai- how it was his own father who maimed him. Suffering shall be your teacher.

By the time he’s finished there are tears pooling in Katara’s sky blue gaze. “Oh, Zuko,” she whispers, and leans over, pulling her into his arms. She buries her head in his neck and holds him tight, her shoulders shaking. “You should have never had to go through that.”

He buries his face in her hair, inhales the sweet scent of wind and rain, and Katara. She didn’t say I’m sorry, but she didn’t need to. Zuko has had enough pity in his life, and once again, Katara knows exactly the right thing to say to put him at ease. So he holds onto her, he clings to her, and relishes in this moment- this one fragment of time where everything feels right, where he is home and the person he cherishes the most is here with him, under the watchful gaze of Tui and the Azure Dragon.

________________________________________________________________

They share another moment after June has led them to the outskirts of Ba Sing Se. They make camp for the night, and longer after Sokka and the others have turned in for the night, Zuko joins Katara to sit by the fire. He pokes at the embers and convinces the flames back to life, and Katara smiles at him, and places her hands closer for the warmth. They sit in the companionable silence Zuko knows all too well, until Toph appears in an explosion of earth, screaming, “Someone’s coming!”

It’s chaos, and suddenly their tiny camp is surrounded in a ring of flames. But just as quickly as the flames come roaring to life, they die down, and Zuko recognizes Jeong-Jeong, and Master Piandao, and suddenly they're surrounded by the order of the White Lotus. And his uncle is in the Lotus camp, waiting for him.

He finds himself standing outside the tent of the Grand Lotus. It makes sense that his uncle holds the title- he’s the most righteous individual the Fire Nation ever produced, and balance between the four nations was one of the things he stressed the most in life (that and tea). He sits in front of the tent, and he doesn’t know how to bring himself to enter. The last time he saw his uncle, he was sitting in a jail cell, left to rot. The last time he met his uncle’s gaze was at the crossroads of his destiny, of the avatar’s, of Katara’s, in the old city of Ba Sing Se. Shame courses his veins, shame from all those months ago, in the same place, rises up and threatens to overwhelm him. 

A hand on his shoulder brings him back to reality, and he blinks while Katara sits next to him. She’s dressed in the blues of her nation, but her eyes still burn with that fire that threatens to set the world alight. 

“Are you okay?” she asks quietly, the hand resting on his shoulder providing a quiet comfort that Zuko leans into. He turns his head away and sighs, eyes fixed on the lotus symbol painted across his uncle’s tent.

“No,” he says finally. “My Uncle hates me, I know it. He loved me and supported me in every way he could and I still turned against him. How can I even face him?

Katara sighs, and Zuko can feel her heartbeat pounding to the rhythm of his own. “You’re sorry for what happened?” she says, looking at him with her clear gaze. “In the catacombs?”

He’s more sorry than he’s ever been in his life. Of all the people in the world, uncle Iroh was the only one who saw him for who he was, who supported him no matter the cost, and followed him to the end of the world and back. He betrayed the only person who loved him, mistakes and all. Sorry can’t even begin to describe how Zuko feels.

(Shame, anger, frustration, disgust, guilt. Sorrow)

He looks at Katara. Another person who was willing to love him through the scars. Another person he’s hurt. Another person he’s betrayed. “More sorry than I've been about anything in my entire life.”

Another truth, about his uncle, about the Avatar, about her. Judging from the look in her eyes, she knows. She understands, knows how truthful he’s being (not just about his uncle). Katara smiles, and leans over, kissing him on the cheek, over his scar. He jolts, but she pulls back, and the fond look in her eyes is enough for Zuko (he thinks he can conquer the world on the sole basis of that look).

“Then he'll forgive you. He will.”

The strength she offers- the quiet, enduring support and kindness- is enough to send Zuko through the flaps in the tent. And later, when his uncle wakes and pulls him into a high, her strength is what brings him to tears, with how can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me falling easily from his lips. Partially for his uncle, and partially for her.

________________________________________________________________

Katara’s not the person who shows weakness easily. If it’s anyone, Zuko thinks it’s Sokka. He’s a strong, brave soul, but he’s still a teenager, and the idea of taking on the Fire Lord without the possibility of Aang there frightens him-Zuko can see it in his soul. But Katara’s always been such a solid, reassuring presence to the gang, and Zuko doesn’t really know what to do when he finds her overlooking the city, and she looks so utterly broken.

“Wherever he is, I’m sure he’ll be alright,” Zuko says, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him and smiles at him, though her eyes are watery and she looks so small.

“I know,” she says, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “I’m just so scared though. The whole world is relying on us, and I just don’t know what I’d do if any of you got hurt. Especially you.”

He blinks, and she laughs at his expression. “Yes, even you. That’s the truth,” she says. “I know what facing Azula means to you, what it means to me, but I can’t help but feel terrified.” She leans in and rests her forehead against Zuko’s chest, taking a deep, shuddering breath. “I can’t lose you. Not again.”

Ba Sing Se.

He closes his eyes and pulls her tight, wrapping his arms around the small of her back and holding her close. “You won’t lose me,” he breathes, stroking her hair. “I know you’re scared, and I’ve never been more terrified in my life. I have to face Azula.”

She nods into his chest, and Zuko pulls away, but holds her by the shoulders and meets her gaze, gold boring into blue. “But this I know is true,” he says. “There is no one else I trust with my life than you, Katara. And you’re the one I want by my side when I bring my treacherous sister to her knees.”

_______________________________________________________________

Later, when they’re flying over the Fire Nation, Zuko turns to Katara with fear in his heart. He doesn’t know how to tell her that he wants her safe, that no matter what he’ll protect her, that he’ll die to make sure she survives, but he doesn’t know how. Katara makes eye contact with him and misreads his fear, saying, “Zuko, don’t worry, we can take Azula.”

He blinks, and shoves away the feelings simmering under his skin, looking up at the sky, Sozin’s Comet painting it bloodred. “I’m not worried about her,” he says, truthfully, after a moment. “I’m worried about Aang. What if he doesn’t have the guts to take out my father? What if he loses?” Katara looks away. “Aang won’t lose,” she says quietly. “He’s coming back. He has to.” She turns her fierce gaze back on him, and smiles grimly. “And so will you.”

He almost doesn’t believe her, especially when he’s lying on the ground at the palace, his tunic in tatters and his skin painted red with blood. Lightning courses through his veins, and he laments in the fact that he broke his promise to Katara, that there’s no way he can possible come back, that she’s going to lose him too, again, just like last time-

And she saves him, glowing water gloved on her hands and tears of joy and love in her eyes. He whispers, “Thank you, Katara,” and when she says “I think I’m the one who should be thanking you,” he thinks he’s fallen in love for the first time. 

When they stand over Azula, the broken princess, he almost doesn’t recognize her. He turns away, his heart turning to ash when he realizes that Ozai broke her as much as he broke him, Katara follows him. “I was so worried about you,” she breathes, cupping his face. “When you fell, I was so scared. I’ve never felt more scared for you in my life.”

He looks at her. “Me too,” he says, and takes her hand in his. “I was so scared for you. Katara, it wasn’t my life that I was worried about, but yours. I couldn’t let Azula hurt you.”

Her eyes fall to the burn scored across his chest. “You didn’t have to take lightning for me, Zuko.”

He breathes, and takes their hands, placing their entwined fingers on his burn. “I’d take the heat of a thousand suns for you, Katara,” he whispers, the truth of his words burning deep into his skin, deeper than his scars. “You must know that.”

Her eyes lower, and he leans forward, pressing his forehead into hers. “But you brought me back. You didn’t have to. Why?”

She smiles, tears pouring out of her eyes, and leans forward. “You know why,” she breathes, and kisses him.

(With sudden clarity he knows she’s telling the truth.)

________________________________________________________________

And suddenly, just like that, peace is the new normal. Aang comes back, bringing Ozai in his custody, and tells everyone how a giant lion-turtle taught him how to spiritbend (“Only you,” Toph says, and punches him).

Zuko is crowned Firelord. On the eve of his coronation, he finds Katara in his mother’s garden, feeding bits of bread to the turtleducks (he’s hit with such a wave of nostalgia that he stumbles under the weight of his mother’s love, of the memories of a young boy sitting with his mother feeding the turtleducks). 

Katara looks over to him and smiles, beckoning him to join her. He sits by the water’s edge, taking the bread she offers and tossing it into the water. Lulled by the quacking of the turtleducks and the peace of Katara’s presence, Zuko feels his shoulders lift from under the burden of ruling a broken kingdom. There’s so much he needs to do, to restore the Fire Nation to its former glory.

Katara nudges him, making him meet her gaze. “What’s up?” she asks, piercing him with her blue eyes. “You look troubled.

(He wants to tell her he loves her. He wants to tell her that she is his Azure Dragon, that she’s the one person in the world he wants by his side.)

But what comes out of his mouth is: “I don’t love Mai.”

She blinks. “What?” she says, after a moment.

He sighs. “It’s the truth,” he whispers. “Mai, earlier, she came to me, right before the coronation. She told me she loved me, and wanted to be with me.” Katara’s eyes are on him, but they’re not judging him, and he finds solace in the gentleness of her gaze. She rests her hand on his arm, and he wordlessly takes her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and marveling at the contrast of their skin color overlapping, brown and white. She smiles, encouragingly.

“It’s just, Mai was in love with someone who I used to be,” he confesses. “Someone I once was, back when I let anger and hatred fuel me. She was in love with a boy who was scared of his sister and weak against his father, who turned on his friends and the family who actually loved him. I’m not that person, not anymore. I can’t be with her- I don’t love her anymore. Not that way.”

Katara’s eyes soften. “I think that was very brave of you,” she whispers. He turns and blinks at her, and she smiles, looking back down at the pond. “Think of it this way. When you disturb the water-” she dips a hand in the pond and ripples spread out from where her fingers danced across the tranquil surface “-it creates chaos, and imbalances the real support that lies under the surface. But once the ripples fade, then the pond can go back to being what it always has been, peaceful, still, and sure.” She waves a hand and the water stills, turning back into a clear, shimmering pond that reflects the moon, Katara, and Zuko. She smiles and leans forward, pointing at Zuko’s mirror image reflected on the water. “This is who you are, Zuko.” She says. “This is what you’ve always been.”

He stares at the quiet reflection of himself. “You wouldn’t have been happy with her,” Katara continues. “And that doesn’t mean you don’t love her, because you do. But there’s a difference between loving someone for what they were and loving someone for who they are. And you’re not the person you used to be, Zuko. I know that to be true.”

He turns and pulls her close, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Oh, Katara,” he breathes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

It’s not what he wants to say, but he doesn’t know how to tell her his true feelings, at least not yet. And luckily, she is Katara, and he knows she’ll wait until he’s ready. Just like she always has been.

She smiles. “For the record,” she says, squeezing his hand. “I’m glad you’re not in love with her either.”

That pulls a laugh from him, and he pulls her close, feeling his soul stitch together under her healing gaze.

________________________________________________________________

They’re walking through the marketplace when Aang spots a flower vendor. He drags Katara over, and Zuko and Sokka, followed by Toph, creep over as well. Zuko stands passively while Sokka oogles over the variety, finally settling on a bouquet of sun roses to bring to Suki. Toph sulks next to him, and when the vendor tries to woo her over with some flowers, she silences him with an “I’m blind,” and a smack in the face with a pebble. He shuts up quickly after that, and Zuko stifles a chuckle (the last time he didn’t, he too got wacked with a rock, and he’s not rushing to repeat that again).

He ends up hovering near where Aang is gushing over the panda lily display. “Look, Katara,” he says. “They’re beautiful, just like you!”

Zuko bristles, because Katara isn’t Aang’s, she doesn’t belong to him, she can’t. But Katara is her own person, and she looks at the lilies with distaste. “They’re fine, Aang,” she says in her most dismissive tone (and Zuko cannot be any more prouder). She turns away from Aang, not seeing his shoulders slump, and continues to browse the flowers.

On a whim, Zuko turns to the display and picks out his favorite, a small fire lily, the rich ruby a reminder of Katara’s fierce passion. He drops the vendor a few coins and turns, walking over to where Katara stands. She looks up, eyes widening up Zuko’s arrival. “Here,” he says, reaching forward and placing it in her hair, right behind her ear. “This suits you.”

Her eyes widen, and she reaches up, touching the flower reverently. “Zuko,” she breathes, leaning up and hugging him. “I love it.” She leans in. “These are my favorite.”

He smiles, and nuzzles her hair softly, before stepping back. He catches a glimpse of Aang’s sad eyes in his periphery, but then Katara’s smooth hand slips into his, and the Avatar is forgotten.

________________________________________________________________

The moment Katara comes to him, tears falling from her eyes, Zuko is ready to drown whoever hurt her in an inferno of his rage. He’s in his mother’s garden (hiding from his advisors- they would never bother him here), when she comes storming in like a tsunami and throws herself into him, tears cascading down her rich brown cheeks like a waterfall. Zuko drops what he’s doing immediately- composing a letter to King Kuei, that can wait- and wraps his arms around her, rubbing her back while she lets out choking sobs.

He lets her cry, holding her close while she buries herself in his chest and releases her misery to the world. He’s got half a mind to find whoever hurt her and have them tried for war crimes, but then she pulls away, and he finds that he can’t rip himself away from her sad gaze. There’s a fire lily in her hair and the words they’re my favorite float around in his mind, but he focuses on the tears falling from her eyes and tries to figure out who in their right mind would do this to her-

“Aang,” she whispers, and in choking, heaving breaths, she tells him that Aang kissed her, that he told her he loved her, and wanted her to travel the world with him. Zuko grows cold, feels his heart come stuttering to a halt, and thinks his world is about to be destroyed.

She can’t go with him, he thinks, heart tearing into pieces. Agni, she can’t go with him.

“Katara-”

“I can’t go with him,” she wails, interrupting Zuko. “I can’t go with him and I’ve hurt him and it hurts so much, and I don’t know what to do!”

He cups her cheek and holds her close. “You don’t have to go with him,” he whispers (he begs). “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“But I broke his heart! I told him I didn’t love him!”

A part of Zuko rejoices at that, but he pushes that wave down and concentrates on soothing Katara. “Katara,” he says firmly, and she hiccups, looking at him with wide eyes. “You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do,” he repeats slowly. “It’s your life, your love to give out. Never let anyone take it from you. Only you have the power to give it. Even Aang, as young as he is, does not have the right to take your love. He’s twelve years old, Katara, he doesn’t even really know what love is. He’ll be fine.”

Katara’s eyes lower, and a single tear runs down her cheek. “I wanted to love him,” she confesses. “I wanted to be his, I really did. But I just...don’t.” Zuko runs his finger over her cheek. “And that’s okay,” he whispers. “But it’s okay to know exactly what you want, and if you know you don’t want to be with him, then don’t. You’re your own person, Katara. Aang will respect that.” She shudders, and closes her eyes. “I don’t love him,” she whispers, and the truth of it seems to sink in. She opens her eyes, and although there’s still sadness, Zuko also sees resolution and tact in her gaze. “I don’t love him.”

Something pushes at the edges of Zuko’s consciousness. He remembers all those moments with Katara, the moments of shared silence where she waited, patiently, until he was ready to talk. He remembers how she pulled each little truth from his lips with just her gentle gaze and her willingness to listen without judgment. He remembers how they learned to trust again, in the simple breaths where truth became reality, where he talked and she listened. He looks at her again, sees the gentleness in her eyes, and knows it is time. He’s ready.

“I don’t want you to be with him,” he blurts out, and her eyes widen. He takes her by the hand and pulls her close, drowning in the blue depths of her eyes-eyes which had never held him in contempt (once sadness and anger, but never contempt)- and has never felt more sure in his entire life. “I don’t want you to be with him, Katara, because I want you to be with me.”

Her mouth opens. “Are you serious?” she breathes, and Zuko nods, clarity in his heart and serenity in his soul.

“I’ve never been more sure in my entire life,” he says. “Katara, there is no one else I want by my side. Please, say you’ll stay with me. Please.”

She looks at him, really looks at him. She’s quiet for a moment. “I don’t love Aang,” she says. She rests a hand on Zuko’s cheek, caressing his scar lovingly. “Because I love you. I’ve always loved you, Zuko,” she whispers, and it feels like coming home.

It's always been you.

________________________________________________________________

There are fire lilies at the ceremony. They adorn the throne room, sit in bouquets in Suki’s, Toph’s, and Ty Lee’s laps, fill the vases at the dinner tables. Sokka has a fire lily pinned to his tunic, and Aang has a necklace of them ringing his neck. Zuko has one pinned to his robes, and there are fire lilies in her hair.

They are joined as one under the eyes of Agni, and Zuko pins the crown of the Firelady to her topknot. She’s wearing the reds of his-their-people, but the blue of her homeland hugs her throat. She kisses him, hands clasped tightly to his, and the nation cheers at their joining. 

During the celebration ball, he spins her around in the courtroom, her dress billowing out around her, her joyful laugh tinkling like bells. Zuko is the happiest he’s ever been, surrounded by family and friends, in the arms of a woman who loves him. 

And later, when they’re out by the turtleduck pond and he’s tucking a loose fire lily behind her ear, she looks up at him, love burning in her blue eyes. This is all he's ever wanted- peace in the world and love in his arms. This is what he needs, his beautiful Azure Dragon, and nothing else. She leans close and cups his cheek.

“You love me,” she whispers.

He leans in, kisses her softly, tasting their future on her tongue. 

“Truth.”

Notes: Ok, so I know Zuko was lowkey cheesy throughout this fic, but lets be honest. Boy literally used his firebending to light up a fountain to impress a girl- this kid's cheesy as heck and you cannot change my mind. 

I tried to keep the truths mostly to Zuko, but Katara is my girl and she couldn't help but bleed through in a couple places.Anyway, thank you so much for reading, please let me know what you thought. Also, please don't hesitate to talk to me so that we may revel in the beauty that is Zutara. 

See you for ZutaraWeek (UNLESS I find inspiration for another story, which, let's be honest, I most likely will).