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chitsangenthusiast · 3 years

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can i get an uhhhhh zukka fluff number 10?

me, walking in two days late with a venti caramel flat white: hey lol

(sorry for this lateness! i wasn’t expecting to be so exhausted after irl stuff this weekend BUT in my defense you did give me the hair braiding prompt so. really. ofc it was gonna get out of hand and need more time lmaooooo rip)

i hope you enjoy!!

the prompt: "stop moving and let me braid your hair"

"Ugh, I’m so going to get sick. This sucks.”

Zuko lightly knocks an elbow into his chest and starts separating the hair next to his temple into three small groups.

“I woke up sick and you woke up next to me. Hate to break it to you, love, but it’s going to happen regardless," he states, then elbows him again when Sokka moans in sorrow. “You're such a baby. Stop moving and let me braid your hair.”

“Bossy,” Sokka grumbles, but he does bring his free hand to rest on his husband’s thigh while he works, and shoots him a small, grateful smile.

(the full ficlet under the cut!)

—

The sound of his husband’s footsteps has Sokka turning—and he’s met with the sight of Zuko already glaring at him before he can even properly raise a judgmental brow.

“I thought I told you to stay in bed?” he asks anyway, and rolls his eyes in amusement when Zuko petulantly crosses his arms with an annoyed sniff.

And then sniffs again, harder, in a useless attempt at clearing his clogged nose.

“I heard Izumi,” he says, and immediately has to cough a few times into his elbow to try to smooth down the dry, painful rasp in his throat.

Sokka just snorts, and doesn’t come closer.

Instead, he repositions their daughter so that her sleepy face can be better seen across the room. Covered in her favorite blanket and wrapped tight around her dad’s shoulders, she looks exhausted. Her eyes only barely open from being jostled around, acknowledging her baba’s presence before slipping shut again with a small whine, and Zuko’s pulse can’t help but trip over the sickly flush on her own cheeks or the tiny wet coughs she occasionally lets out. He quickly steps into the room toward her.

“Uh, what do you think you’re doing?”

Sokka’s derisive tone stops him from getting too far. It’s softer, not it’s usual brash volume in an effort to be gentle on Izumi’s ears (and Zuko’s headache), which means it’s also entirely ineffective.

Zuko stares hard at him as he determinedly makes his way over, and Sokka lets out a loud groan.

“Hon, you’re sick! Get back in bed!” he tries again, this time in mounting horror when Zuko starts to get close, and he quickly pivots so that her body is blocked from view by his own. “She doesn’t need any more of your germs!”

“It’s just a cold, Sokka. Don’t be ridiculous,” Zuko scoffs—then has to cough into his elbow again before he can continue. He ignores the exasperated look he gets. “It’s just colds for both of us. Let me see my daughter, she’s not going to get any sicker if I’m around her.”

“Alright, well, you just saw her,” Sokka shoots back. He still hasn’t moved Izumi back into Zuko's line of sight, in case he tries to reach out and take her from his arms. “Now go lay down until I can come take care of you next.”

The complaint is heavy but without heat, and it makes Zuko finally look up at him with a frown. This close, he can see the clear exhaustion on his husband’s face; Izumi had come to his bedside early in the morning, sniffling and tearfully frustrated from not feeling well, so Sokka has been the one up with her all morning, alternating between taking care of her and passing along messages to the attendants about Zuko’s cancellations for the day since, naturally, he also woke up sick. He’s only half-dressed for work, with scruff still on his jaw and his hair draped over the shoulder that Izumi isn’t resting on, and Zuko’s mouth twists in quiet guilt.

“Your hair’s not done,” he blurts out, knowing better but too tired to think of a better way to phrase it, and Sokka grumps at him.

“Yeah, well, between a fussy sick husband and a poor little one who refused to be put down all morning—” here, he drops a quick kiss on Izumi’s head and rubs a sympathetic hand up her back— “I haven’t really had the time to put it up for the day yet.”

Zuko cuts a glance to the clock. “Don’t you have a meeting in an hour?”

He winces at Sokka’s hard sigh.

“I’ll just—” Suddenly, Izumi lets out a big sneeze, quickly followed by an agitated cry, and Sokka shifts her around so that she’s better cocooned in his arms as he starts to sway a little to calm her. “I’ll get to it eventually. Or I’ll just show up like this and guilt everyone into doing what I want. Could be a good tactic actually, I think some of the committee members are parents who would empathize.”

“Let me do it for you.”

Sokka immediately steps away from him with a deep frown. “Nope, keep your sick hands away from me. I’m the only one left!”

“I won’t get you sick,” Zuko snaps, and doesn’t care about Sokka’s complaining as he drags him over to the couch to gently push him down into the cushions. Izumi fusses, wiggling against her dad’s hands so that she can pull away from his shoulder—then does a hard tilt over, startling both of her fathers as she dives into the pillow right next to Sokka’s leg.

“Izumi!”

As soon as her head hits the cool fabric, she lets out a happy, relieved noise and snuggles down into it. Her blanket comes up tighter around her shoulders, her feet shuffle around slightly in Sokka’s lap as she works to get comfortable, and she doesn’t even bother giving either of her dads the time of day before closing her eyes to try to find sleep.

Zuko promptly plops down next to his husband, shocked and a little woozy. “She’s not allowed to hang out with Toph anymore.”

“Does she think she’s an earthbender, just falling back like that without a care?” Sokka quietly seethes back in agreement. One of his hands comes down to wrap around her ankle as he lets out an explosive sigh, and he drops his head heavy against the back of the couch. “The two of you are going to be the death of me, I swear.”

Zuko pouts. “I haven’t even done anything yet today.”

“You’re out of bed when I told you not to be,” Sokka fires back, then quickly leans away when he notices the hands reaching out for his hair. “Ugh, I’m so going to get sick. This sucks.”

Zuko lightly knocks an elbow into his chest and starts separating the hair next to his temple into three small groups.

“Bossy,” Sokka grumbles, but he does bring his free hand to rest on his husband’s thigh while he works, and shoots him a small, grateful smile.

The sight makes Zuko press a tiny kiss into the braid. “You know, I missed getting my ‘good morning’ kiss from you.”

Sokka immediately snorts. “Izumi got all my kisses this morning, sorry babe. I’ll give you one when you can finally breathe through both nostrils again.”

“Too long,” Zuko complains back, as he finishes off one of the braids. With Izumi half draped over his lap, Sokka will likely only be able to wear the two on his right side today since Zuko can't really get to the other side of his head, so he moves to start pulling his hair up into a wolf tail.

Sokka hums, and looks over with an sad, wistful smile. “Yeah, I can agree with that.”

With his hair held up in a fist, Zuko can now see the bare stretch of his husband’s neck, along with the dark fuzz of hair on his scalp that will need to be shaved at some point. He spends more time than necessary trying to catch any flyaways, sliding his hand up and around his head just so he can relish this moment of touch, and smiles at the quiet sigh he receives.

“I love you,” Sokka murmurs, one hand still on their daughter’s foot and the other rubbing light circles on his husband’s thigh. Zuko chuckles as he makes quick work of securing the wolf tail.

“I love you too,” he whispers back, and then leans in. He takes a moment, just a quick one, to press his warm forehead against Sokka’s skin—his body temperature does nothing too soothe, but Zuko’s spirits are still wonderfully lifted anyway—before pulling back to leave a lingering kiss on that same spot.

“There, without any worries of catching my cold.”

Sokka’s responding exhale is fulfilled, contented, and definitely whiny. Zuko drops another kiss there, just so he can appreciate the whining part again, then presses a few more along his hairline because the elated inhale he gets is too good not to be rewarded.

And then he keeps going, covering his husband’s head in little kisses as he loosely wraps his arms around his shoulders—only to be surprised into a long, firm kiss when Sokka suddenly (carefully, to not disturb a snoozing Izumi) twists around to pull him close. Zuko laughs into it, utterly pleased at finally getting what he’s wanted all morning, and curls around his husband as they indulge themselves in kiss after sweet kiss.

“You’re definitely going to get sick now,” he eventually mumbles into Sokka’s mouth, but he doesn’t pull away, and neither does Sokka.

He does let out a long-suffering laugh though, and lands a quick kiss on the space right between Zuko’s eyes. “Oh, I'm well aware, hon. Izumi kept blowing raspberries in my face earlier. Like I said, the absolute death of me.”

Still, the fingers that have found their way into Zuko’s hair push on the back of his neck anyway, beckoning.

Zuko grins, and dutifully falls back in to collect more of his husband’s kisses.

#sokka calling zuko hon/honey is something that can be so sweet <3 #when i tell you i've been thinking abt this prompt 24/7 #i lit ended up w three possible drafts and landed on this one bc it ended up as the /shortest/ one #also pls forgive any potential mistakes i only edited this once bc i'm v tired rn lol #zukka #zuko #sokka #izumi #dadko #dadka #my writing #ask #littlespoonsokka

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gladerwolfstarkimagines · 3 years

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Not just a soft princess - Azula x female reader imagine: Part Six

You and Azula plan to leave the fire nation but will you make it?

Part one here

Part two here

Part three here

Part four here

Part five here

Your POV

As soon as Azula got her confidence and motivation back she was as focused and calculating as ever. She developed a full proof plan as well as many back up options should anything go wrong. Mai and Ty lee were recruited and helped Azula get messages to you about the progress of the mission. Of course Azula was allowed nowhere near you but with the help of Mai and Ty lee you got word to each other and the 12 Di Lee agents in the fire nation with you. You refused to leave any behind knowing they’d face Ozai’s wrath and so Azula worked out a plan to have some slip off before the eclipse and the rest would accompany you personally. The only downside was in the mean time you couldn’t see Azula and had to act realistically miserable so Ozai wouldn’t suspect anything. He’d kept you locked in your room the entire time so it was realistic but still exhausting having to put on a show anytime a maid came in to give you food. Apparently your marriage to Zuko had already been announced but for Azula’s Ozai was waiting for the grand party he was throwing a few days before the eclipse to make the announcement he was selling off his daughter. The thought made you sick and the night got closer and closer until it was finally time. Ozai had told you that you’d be let of your room for this one party. He had to show you off or it’d look odd to the nobles. He needed to show a united front to keep up the perfect fire nation image he loved so much. You would attend the party, stay by Zuko the entire time and were warned if you so much as approached Azula you would be locked away in an actual cell until she was married and gone.

So you dutifully got dressed alone (Ozai didn’t think it was a good idea to let a maid anywhere near you) and dolled yourself up as the earth nation stereotype one more time. Zuko appeared at your door right on time and he met your eye for a second before looking away “are you ready to go?”. You nodded and fell into step beside him. You walked towards the throne room where you could already hear the party. Your stomach clenched and your legs suddenly felt like lead. You were trying to calm you breath when Zuko suddenly held out his arm to you making you glance at him. He shot you a look and so you took his arm stepping closer to him. “I just wanted you to know” he whispered so quietly the guards wouldn’t be able to hear “I’m sorry about you and Azula, but I promise I will try and protect you both as much as I can from my father”. You struggled not to react to Zuko’s words especially when they made you want to burst into tears. “Thank you” you said squeezing Zuko’s arm and he nodded to you, his eyes filled with sympathy “we can get through this” he told you as you reached the ballroom.

A round of applause followed as soon as the nobles spotted the two of you and Ozai called to you both. Zuko led you to the front of the room where you stood on a raised platform beside Ozai. “To the future of the fire nation” he cried gesturing to the two of you and everyone raised their glasses repeating him. You cringed as did Zuko but you both just smiled and held onto each other tighter. This was just for tonight, one night and you’d be free, you just had to get through this. You were doing rather well repeating that as a mantra to yourself while Zuko led you around the room and then all your resolved fell away when you saw her. You knew seeing Azula would be painful but you didn’t expect it to be so shocking. Azula was dressed....well nothing like Azula. Instead of the usual armour or shoulder padded shirts she wore Azula was in a traditional fire nation dress. Make up and jewellery overly adorned her and it looked forced and false. Her hair was pulled back away from her face sharply and in a position that looked painful. You realised with a sinking realisation that Ozai had done to Azula what he’d done to you. He turned her into the “perfect fire nation woman” and in the process she didn’t even look like herself...but that wasn’t the worst part. When you saw the man she was engaged to your stomach sunk and you legs felt weak. If Zuko didn’t have a hold of you, you’d have fallen but his grip alone kept you upright. The man Azula was stood next to was just awful. He was at least triple her age and from his facial expressions alone seemed cruel and entitled. He was surrounded by an adoring crowd of men who hung on his every word, no doubt because he was about to shoot up in standings by marrying a princess. He didn’t even acknowledge Azula’s presence as he talked to his friends and acted as if she wasn’t there. The only evidence showing her was aware of her presence was the large hand he had clasped around her, resting on her lower back. You never thought of Azula as small or vulnerable but with that horrible man holding onto her, trapping her beside him, you wanted to grab Azula and protect her from him. Azula looked up as if she sensed you but she shot her head down as soon as she met your eye. You’d both agreed to act the part of pining for one another but it wasn’t hard. Zuko pulled your arm and you tore your eyes away from her which were now full of tears. Zuko hurried you to a quieter area and hid you from everyone else standing infront of you. “Are you okay?” Zuko asked and you sighed at how stupid that question was. If it wasn’t for the fact you knew this time in a few days you’d both be free you’d have launched rocks at everyone in the room. “Look I know it must be hard for you seeing Azula...but you have to hold it together, at least until we can leave okay?”. You nodded your head and met Zuko’s eyes but had to look away again as they reminded you of Azula’s. “As soon as we can retire...” you started and Zuko nodded taking your hand “I promise, now are you ready?”. You took a deep breath and nodded “lets go” you said, a fake smile plastered on your face.

True to his word as soon as you could Zuko whisked you out of the ballroom and you were returned to your prison. You were surprised to find when you were in the privacy of your own room you didn’t break down crying. You were so emotional you were shaking but not in sadness, you were angry. You were more determined than ever to get away from the fire nation and to take Azula with you. Nothing would stop you and if the firelord dared to try...in the mood you were in, you’d catapult him off the earth.

Azula’s POV

Azula had hated this evening more than anything in her whole life. From the tight dress she was contorted into, to the face paint they called make up that was smudged heavily all over her face but of course the worse thing was her fiancé. Any time he looked at her Azula felt her stomach churn and the fact her was so excited about the marriage made it worse. Azula was forced to listen as her “future husband” bragged about what he’d do with his new titles and land. He didn’t ask her opinion of course, she was just part of the deal. A body not a person. Azula had never been good at holding her temper and all evening she’d been itching to burn this man’s hand from her waist and she was losing her restraint. So when Azula saw Mai and Ty lee waiting for her by the door, the signal she could retire, Azula felt like collapsing in relief. She glanced at the man beside her and cleared her throat. He carried on talking and so she tried again, louder. He narrowed his eyes and gave her a side glare but apart from that ignored her. Her patience running thin Azula sighed “general Yamun my ladies are waiting for me”. The man paused and slowly turned around “so?”. “So, with your permission, i would like to retire for the night”. Her fiancé sighed and waved his hand “yes yes whatever you may leave” and waved her away. He turned away from her taking his arm and Azula felt her whole body relax. She rushed to Mai and Ty lee and only felt safe when she was between them and walking down the hallway to her bedroom. Both her friends seem horrified and didn’t know what to say. “Azula i’m....” Ty lee started but she didn’t get far. “No” Azula cut her friend off, she knew her father had placed people to spy on her and she couldn’t risk them overhearing anything. “I enjoyed the party I am just tired” Azula said pointedly hoping her friends would get the hint to not speak until they were alone. As Azula reached her room the guards parted but as Mai and Ty lee went to follow her they held out a hand. “Sorry princess, your father has told us no females are allowed to enter your room”. The guard couldn’t even look her in the eye as he said that and Azula thought that was wise, she might’ve spat fire at him if he dared to look up. Azula sighed deeply angered at the tricks her father was pulling, as if she couldn’t be trusted around women because of her feelings for you. “Fine” she said stiffly and Mai and Ty lee paused surprised “really?”. Azula nodded her head “yes if my father commands it” she said managing not to sound sarcastic. Mai nodded her head but Ty lee was frowning. Worried her more sensitive friend would burst and ruin her plan Azula blinked “Ty lee...” when the girl flung her arms around her. The guards cried out and Ty lee glared suddenly looking very intimidating and scary “what can’t i hug her? She’s my best friend I will not stop hugging her because you forbid it”. The guards looked away and Ty lee hugged her tightly “don’t worry we’ve got the plan memorised, we’ll sort everything even if he stops us seeing you I promise” Ty lee quickly whispered into Azula’s ear. Azula was shocked and touched by Ty lee’s promise and when they pulled away Azula smiled at her friend fondly. “Do exactly as you have been told and everything will be fine” Azula said pointedly and Mai and Ty lee smiled “of course princess” and turned and left.

The day of the comet Azula woke up bursting with energy and was itching to get the plan under way. She struggled to wait till the appointed time but when it finally came...she took it. Azula knocked her guards aside easily and freed herself from her own prison. She met Mai and Ty lee on their way to help her and they jumped surprised “Azula...you already made it this far? How many guards did you...”. “I stopped counting after 30, now you guys go and clear the way to the ship, i’m going for y/n” she said with a grin and took off into a run.

Your POV

You paced back and forth in your cell waiting for Azula. It was actually a proper cell now. You’d been moved into the barracks like everyone else but given that there was earth everywhere down here Ozai had locked up away in a tiny metal cell to trap you. So the plan depended on Azula coming to free you meaning all you could do was wait and it was excruciating. However the plan also depended on Azula reaching you before the eclipse. Otherwise her strongest attack, her fire bending, would be gone and your escape over. You stared at your watch anxiously and counted down the minutes until Azula was scheduled to appear. There wasn’t much time for a delay, she had to get you out before the eclipse and then with most of the fire nation defenceless you could literally sweep aside the guards using your earth bending, but she had to get here first. As it got closer and there was no sign of her you began to panic. What if she’d been caught? What if someone had told Ozai? As the time for Azula to appear passed you were ready to try destroying the box with your bare hands in frustration when suddenly one of your guards paused “what was that noise?”. You looked up hopefully as a guard was selected to investigate. You watched discreetly and saw the man approach the corner cautiously. He peered around the side and was blasted with a wall of fire instantly. He fell back unconscious and Azula appeared. Well you assumed it was her, it was hard to tell given she basically looked like she was on fire with how fast she was fire bending. The guards closest didn’t stand a chance as she rapidly shot debilitating shots making them fall heavily to the floor. The guards further back were lucky and had time to duck before retaliating. Of your 8 guards Azula had taken out 4 but 4 more remained and they obviously knew their was strength in numbers. A fire bender’s strength was attack and speed and so they worked on taking that away from her. They backed her into a corner slowing her down and Azula had to switch to a few defensive shots as their plan worked. You knew Azula would win eventually but the time was ticking further and further away, taking your chance of escape with it. “Azula get me out I can help” you yelled as you saw she was tiring. Azula looked at you and launched into a flurry of attacks. She propelled herself over the guards using sheer power and landed infront of your cell. Before her feet even hit the ground she sent a stream of fire to the hinges of your door. Azula them turned to defend herself and you threw your body weight against the door. It gave way and clanged loudly against the ground making the guards all pause. You walked out of your cell and came to stand beside Azula. You grinned at all the earth surrounding you and looked directly at the guards. “So who’s first?” you asked.

The guards taken care of Azula took your hand and led you as quickly as possible to the launch pad. Neither of you talked, both too set on escaping. Azula let you know the eclipse was close and you nodded, any guards you encountered were yours. Surprisingly after the eclipse hit it got easier. The guards weren’t used to not using fire bending and so you knocked them aside like dolls. Azula finished off any with close combat and you got closer and closer to freedom. As you got closer to the surface you began to see signs Mai, Ty lee and your dai li had been here. Soldiers pinned to the wall with knives or guards limp on the floor unable to move their muscles. Azula risked a grin at you as you neared the airships “we’re going to make it” she told you and you squeezed her hand tightly “don’t jinx us”.

You burst onto the air field and both blinked trying to adjust from the gloomy tunnels to the bright sky. “Azula y/n!” you heard someone yell and turned to see Ty lee waving to you widely. You rushed to her and she grinned “you made it! Mai’s inside with the engine all started, the dai li are on board too, everyone made it”. Mai appeared rushing off the air ship “you have to go now” she yelled “the eclipse is almost over!”. You nodded but Azula paused looking at her friends “you two are....I should say...”. “You should say nothing” Mai interrupted her “don’t waste all our effort getting caught now, go!”. “Yeah don’t worry Azula we know what you want to say” Ty lee nodded and Azula smiled. She nodded to her friends and then looked at you “lets go”.

Azula was the only who knew how to fly the air ship and so while she sailed it out of the fire nation you watched the horizon for any signs of attack. Apart from a lone air ship sailing in the opposite direction there was nothing. Still you stared out watching long after the fire nation has disappeared and jumped when a hand touched you. “Y/n” Azula said softly and you paused “who’s flying the ship?”. “The Dai li, at this stage it’s just steering so it’s easy”. You nodded your head and looked down. Azula watched you worried, you still looked so stressed even though you were safe. She went to try and comfort you when you suddenly grabbed her and held her tightly. Azula jumped caught of guard but let you bury your head in her neck emotional. “I...you’re”. “It’s okay y/n” Azula told you as you finally let yourself cry “I was so worried you wouldn’t make it, that they’d keep you”. “I’m here y/n, we both are we did it!”. Azula smiled but you couldn’t “watching that man treat you like he did made me so angry” you told her and Azula nodded. “It made my skin crawl but this moment got me through it, knowing I’d be free with you and now we are...together”. “Free” you smiled and Azula nodded “free”. You buried your head against her neck and held onto her tightly, it was all finally over.

Ba Sing Sei

When you reached Ba Sing Sei it was only too easy to get back inside. The fire nation guards waved the fire nation air ship in and Azula got the ship manoeuvred to the general of the city. Ozai had kept her disgrace quiet so although the people were confused why she was here when her wedding was tomorrow they didn’t dare question it. Once Azula was alone with the general she easily over powered him. Then together you organised the dai li to clear the city of fire nation soldiers from the inside out. You started at the palace and worked swiftly until every solider had run back to the fire nation.

The work was tough and there were many close calls but finally after 3 weeks the city was yours, the earth kingdom flag flew proudly above the palace and Azula stood beside you admiring it. “What you told me on the beach....about how I took your city, I hope giving it you back helps to make up my debt to you”. “It more than does” you smiled grabbing her hand “now the next thing we have to do is defend it.

You had no doubt Ozai would be sending a large army against the city and with so little time to prepare new additions were always welcome. Mai and Ty lee showed up one day, apparently Ozai had blamed them for your escape and when Zuko left there was nobody there to protect them and so they fled. You weren’t surprised they outmanoeuvred the fire lord and welcomed them warmly. Then a small group of men called the white lotus appeared. You agreed to meet with them and so you and Azula walked to the assigned meeting place. The second Azula walked inside the building a flame shot out for her. She blocked it just barely and you identified the attacker and laughed a large rock at his head. It only narrowly missed but your dai li soon joined in and you had the man trapped in rock. “Who are you and why did you attack her? Did Ozai send you?” you yelled but Azula grabbed your arm. “He’s not working for my father y/n, he’s my uncle”. You frowned looking from Azula to the man “if that’s true then why did he attack you?”. “We’ve never seen eye to eye...” Azula said awkwardly. “We heard Ba Sing Sei had been freed and came to help but when I saw you...i thought it was a lie and you were in charge, how do i know it is not?” Azula’s uncle asked and your temper flared. You glared tightening the rock that held him “your niece helped me reclaim the city, she helped me escape the clutches of her father and rescued my people from the fire nation. You say you are here to help the city? Attack her again and I’ll have you thrown away so fast you never get an option”. Iroh blinked “okay I believe you, i’m sorry for attacking her it won’t happen again”. You looked at Azula and she nodded so you let the rock fall away. Iroh massaged his wrists still confused by the situation until he saw you and Azula together. He had burnt Azula’s hand and he saw you fussing over it while Azula blushed and told you it was fine. He saw you agree to leave it but still your eyes never left her for more than a few seconds and he was surprised that what had obviously saved his niece was the one thing he’d figured her incapable of...love.

With the white lotus, Mai, Ty lee, the dai li and the entire ba sing sei army you defended the city and defeated all of Ozai’s troops easily. The avatar defeated the fire lord and finally it was all over. You worried Azula might see the open spot on the throne and become enticed to battle her brother for it but she didn’t. Zuko had appeared with team avatar in Ba Sing Sei the day before the comet and they’d had a long talk. Azula didn’t tell you everything but apparently they’d both come to an understanding that their father had pitted them against each other for his own gain and they both vowed not to let him anymore. Azula told you the fire nation was of no interest to her anymore and you believed her.

After the war your Uncle came out of hiding and took over Ba Sing Sei again. You and Azula remained and helped the earth kingdom reach it’s full potential. The two of you openly began dating and despite the earth kingdom being rather old fashioned, in your home of Ba Sing Sei nobody had a bad word to say about the two princesses that ruined and then saved Ba Sing Sei.

Epilogue

After a long and happy reign your uncle decided to abdicate and as next in line you were crowned queen of Ba Sing Sei. Azula became your queen consort and you ruled together, historically being the first same sex royal couple.

You had been on the throne 5 years now and everything was peaceful. Relations with the fire nation were better than they had ever been. The water tribe was a close ally and friend thanks to the avatar’s companions and the avatar himself regularly visited Ba Sing Sei due to your close friendship. But the best thing about your life was Azula.

You were thinking about how lucky you were when like magic she appeared. “Y/n are you busy?” she asked peaking into your study and you smiled “for you? Never too busy, what’s wrong?”. Azula blushed “well for once nothing actually, our city is thriving and the other nations are all at peace”. You nodded smiling “so what did you want to talk about”. “Ow it’s just gossip really” she smiled coming to sit on your desk. “I was doing some archival reading and found something interesting...did you know avatar Kyoshi’s life partner was a woman of the fire nation called Rangi?” Azula asked and you frowned. “I did not, how have I never heard of that?”. Azula shrugged “apparently as soon as my great grandfather Sozin decided it was wrong he erased all records of her or well he tried to, I’ve spoken to Zuko and he’s ensuring every single fire nation child learns about the heroic fire bending body guard companion of the avatar”. You smiled “that’s really nice Azula, tell me more about her”. Azula launched into an extensive account of the fire bender, how her mother taught avatar Kuruk, how she’d actually been the first fire bender to use jet stepping and how, like Azula, her fire wasn’t the tradition orange but white. You smirked half way through Azula’s story and she paused “what?”. “I was just thinking...do all earth kingdom girls have a weakness for short tempered beautiful fire bender women or is it just a coincidence?”. Azula blushed and you laughed trying to pull her to you. Azula resisted before just giving up she crashed against you. “You’re adorably annoying” she huffed and you smirked “see you’re short tempered and difficult but i’m smitten...I wonder if Kyoshi ever had these problems?”. “Problems?” Azula called and you smiled “this privilege” you corrected yourself smiling. “Maybe it is a trend or a pattern, you may be onto something here y/n” Azula smiled indulging you “either way I don’t care, i’d want nobody else for my wife”. You’d been married for several years now but it still made you embarrassingly proud whenever Azula spoke about it, so she did it all the more. You rolled your eyes blushing fiercely and Azula laughed “don’t make that face I know you love me”. You grinned despite yourself “you’re right I do more than anything” and Azula smiled softly. “It goes without saying I love you too”. “I know” you smiled and Azula grinned before getting off you “come on we have to get ready, my family, the avatar and all his friends will be here soon to celebrate your 5 year anniversary as queen and you can’t be late to that”. You nodded standing up “you go ahead i’ll be right behind you”. Azula nodded and left your office and you watched her before smiling softly. You looked out of your window at your city below, the districts based on class long since disbanded, and watched as everyone bustled around with their day. You city was happy, your friends and family safe and you had the best wife in the world. Life was good.

___

That’s it! I had to get some Rangi and Kyoshi in there of course because I am obsessed with them (i’m convinced that fire nation women are just the best thing in the four nations at this stage) and love the similarities between Azula and Rangi.

Thanks for all the support it means a lot :)

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canonspyglass · 3 years

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Goddddd, i used to hate ATLA criticals, especially the “Aang deus ex machina” criticism

A personal rant here:

I’m an og fan, dove into atla when book 2 just wrapped up (i know, it was unfortunate timing). I loved the finale. I was ok with the ships, i think, i was too distracted by the battle epicness to care and I was also at the age where i found kissing disgusting so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Also, i’ve never engaged with the fandom (until this past week), though i’ve heard since forever that the shipping wars are notorious.

Yearss later, I was watching first time reactors on youtube and I came across a comment criticizing the “deus ex machina” ending and mannnnnn did it piss me off. So i went on a rampage defending Aang, the Lion Turtle, and even the Rock (pfft). I argued, with unwarranted cussing, that it is not thematically coherent for Aang to emerge victorious via murder! And i stand to that point till this day, but… i had also secretly begrudgingly acknowledged that, they’re not wrong.

So after some laborious denials, i rewatched the show and paid a closer attention.

I can’t help but notice the romance subplots (which i’ve dutifully ignored in the past decade) and found that Sokka’s romances are well written, the best written. Whereas, considering the ending, the book 3 love stories are, um: mediocre at best. have weird progression. unearned.

And bizarrely, i noticed that Kataang is literally Aang’s obstacle in his Avatar State arc. The guru directed, in order to master the Avatar State, Aang must let go of his attachment to Katara. Did he? Did he not? I don’t think he did. He was shot mid power-up. He fell off the cosmic bridge, again. So that’s null, right? Plus, why wouldn’t he have demonstrated his letting go of attachment in book 3 if he had actually succeeded then?

It occurs to me that, at the very least, if Aang had let go in some way, like love her more maturely or something, and demonstrated this change clearly, like how Zuko take accountability; then the avatar state and the lion turtle and even the rock wouldn’t feel that unearned, because Aang would’ve fulfilled what the narrative required to master it.

And geez, i love ATLA, i love Aang, but i have learned that loving something blindly is never good, it’s dishonest. I love it still, flaws and all, and I think even more wholesomely this time.

#atla take #atla meta #atla critical #aang #pro aang #aang critical

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backhurtyy · 2 years

Note

LAST for the writing asks!! <3

hi hi hi so this is from the zukka fic i’m working on for jo… a little more than two sentences but does one word really count??

Safe in his room, a spare thought in the back of Sokka’s mind nagged at him, telling him it sounded an awful lot like he’d asked Zuko on a date, but he dutifully shoved it down— they'd hung out together plenty of times, and he’d always been able to ignore the stubborn crush that he’d had on Zuko. Surely, going to the fair together wouldn’t be any different.

Right?

no excuses ask game!

#thank you beloved!!!!#i actually love this fic i need to keep working on it #be still my foolish heart #answered #hannah tag

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zukofenty · 4 years

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Day 4: bad decisions

➜ The one where Katara (might) be in love with the campus drug dealer.

“So why won’t you go out with me? Is it because I’m a drug dealer?” Zuko’s mad, twisting the rings on his fingers while impatiently waiting on her answer.

“Not exactly,” Katara quips, averting her eyes from his fiery gaze. “It’s mainly because you don’t tip when we go out to eat.”

➜ Genre: Modern!AU, humor, teeny bit of angst, DrugDealer!Zuko

➜ Words: 5.3k

➜ Warnings: I love DrugDealer!Zuko more than I love myself 😩

AO3, Zutara Month Playlist, @zutaramonth hi i love u!

➜ Notes: hehe listen to “Bad Decisions” by Miss Ari! life changing!

“Zuko’s dead? ” Katara nearly screams into the phone. She pulls on one of his hoodies and is scrambling to find her slides and keys.

Toph sighs. “We all knew this would happen. The sky’s blue, Beyonce needs to stop forcing her boyfriend on us. Basic facts. Get it together , Katara.”

“Toph, how does your disdain for Jay-Z make it into every conversation you have?” Suki wearily states. “All we know is that a dealer got shot near the frats today. So in conclusion, Zuko’s dead.”

“Donezo.”

“Bitch is gone .”

“God bless his beautiful ass.”

“A moment of silence for his fake Chanel blouses.”

Katara does her breathing exercises. “ Enough .” She hears a knock at the door, and immediately grabs her expandable baton. “Oh my god , someone’s at the door.” She whips out the baton to its full length.

Toph gasps. “Bitch, it’s 2 in the fucking morning. Are we getting a two for one deal tonight?”

Suki cheers. “I call dibs on her Fenty highlighters.”

“Oh hell fucking no ! You do not have the range for Trophy Wife, whore!” Toph shouts right into the microphone. Katara winces, and takes out an Airpod. She’s heaving, nervous at who could be at the door. Toph and Suki were trying to negotiate with each other on who was getting Katara’s brand new Hydrating Foundation when she takes an experimental glance out the peephole. Her gasp reverberates through the phone.

“She’s died, Suki! She’s died!” Toph wails, her screams nearly unintelligible.

“ Zuko? ” Katara screeches at the top of her lungs, launching herself at him so violently her other Airpod pops out.

He chuckles when she locks her legs around his waist, his arms coming out to support her from underneath her ass. It’s domestic, and he relishes in the attention. “Hello to you, too.” She’s smiling at him and it’s beautiful and soft and everything he wanted to see after the shitty night he’s had. Dealing in college was an easy route to Balenciaga and bitches. Everyone did it, it was as easy as catching HPV at your school. Yet, Zhao, the Kingpin of dealers, just had to get his side-chick pregnant and then just had to get shot by his girlfriend. Even if he did get shot up because he was a slut (#FreeZhao), the campus dean had called the cops and was in the process of launching an extensive campaign to fuck up any current dealers. Even if you possess the slightest hint of addy for your ADHD, you still had to haul your ass to the campus police station. It wasn’t fair though. Coke is what makes college campuses around the world run as smoothly as they do.

“You promised me you’d stop,” she’s murmuring in his ear, curled up beside him in her cramped twin bed. Her roommates went back home for the weekend, so it makes it just that much easier to pretend you two could be like this. Lost in the sheets, hopelessly in love with her head on his chest.

“If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get you this,” Zuko whispers in her hair. He slides a ring on her finger and she smiles lazily back at him, placing a tender kiss on his cheek. God, is this what love feels like? If she accidentally got pregnant with Zuko’s spawn she wouldn’t immediately reach for Plan B? The ring was a simple thing, just plain silver because she wanted one to be “edgy,” obsessed with rings after playing with the handful that adorn Zuko’s fingers. After making sure she was sound asleep, he lets himself smile. Finally , he’s getting somewhere with her.

Seemingly a too perfect, impenetrable forest, he’s finding himself finally being let into her world. As corny and lovesick it sounded, Zuko understood how easy it was to love someone when he laid eyes on you. All those damn John Green books were right, he begrudgingly admits ( Eat shit John Green.) She truly could not do one wrong thing in his eyes, her soft giggles as she attempted to explain commas and semicolons and gerunds or whatever the fuck he doesn’t quite remember because he was busy being infatuated and trying to make her laugh. They’d met freshman year, and have remained in this weird limbo ever since. Where he would call her to remind her to eat when she was stressed, and he could plant kisses in her hair when he’s showing up to her apartment at night, cuddling her without her pulling away because it always felt right. At the same time, Katara felt so unattainable, so out of reach. It’s never progressed past simple, flirtatious touches. Yet, being with her feels different than any other relationship he’s been in, as though his heart was permanently and solely hers.

It was easy to fall in love. Katara was so kind, yet so dead set in her ways. Never detracting her focus from school, she had no time for anything else in her life. Her older brother Sokka had raised her when their parents had disappeared shortly after producing the “accident” child. They handed Katara off to him, who hadn’t spoken to them in years. While Sokka was in college and attempting to care for Katara at the same time, he had struck gold with recording labels interested in his music producing work. Soon, he was making songs you could regularly hear on the radio and not just on Soundcloud, and the royalties were ensuring Katara got the best. The best schools, clothes, life. Even if her brother was obsessed with flexing his regular Bugatti purchases on Instagram, she wasn’t nearly as preoccupied. She was always in oversized hoodies that once upon a time ago belonged to Sokka before he decided on dressing like a 30 year old hypebeast Instagrammer still trying to hold onto their youth. Always volunteering her time and doing things rich people had time to do to make themselves feel good about their tax breaks.

It made Zuko feel jealous in a sense, with his uncle struggling to make ends meet his whole life. He ran a small fried chicken and tea shop (Iroh was convinced about this combo) in his neighborhood, and he hated to admit that he was ashamed. That he dreamed of shoving Chanel anything up his ass. He would take the perfume sample cards from the mall that said Givenchy , pinning it to his wall as inspiration for what he would buy in the future. It didn’t make sense to him, when Katara had all this money and couldn’t care less. She penny pinched when she didn’t need to, wore clothes from Forever 21, as though Sokka wouldn’t drop thousands for the Fendi boots she always talked about.

“Damnit, you’re dick sick, aren’t you?” Toph sends her a look that screamed pity. Katara tried to fix the frown, but her eyes always revealed everything. So she nods in agreement, and Toph wraps her up in her arms. Zuko had invited her and Toph to a quote unquote “exclusive party” thrown by the rich kids whose parents owned the university. The Olivia Jades of the world. Schmoney shmoney . It didn’t help that she felt so out of place, circling all throughout the frat house before settling on the cleanest couch near the one window that wasn’t broken. She wanted to be a part of Zuko’s world for a night, see where he was disappearing to on the weekends.

Although Toph spent the better part of the evening prepping her hoe fit, Katara stuck to an uneventful long t shirt (Zuko’s shirt, of course) paired with thigh high boots. She had planned on only staying half an hour, tops. She didn’t drink, smoke, it just wasn’t her thing. Her worst fear was contracting herpes from a wax pen. Even when she was a college freshman and people were busy coming back upchucking all over the communal dorm bathroom, she instead dutifully held hair back, and changed drunk girls’ clothes. She quickly learned the tricks of the trade after cleaning up Sokka’s messy weekend self during his quarter life crisis phase. Admittedly, she was boring . So, she reasoned 30 minutes gave her enough time to walk around the place and see Zuko schmoozing with rich kids, and then leave to have enough time to do her skincare before bed.

“More like sick. He deals coke now! Coke! That’s a prison drug, ma’am. The real deal,” she whimpers into her tits. She had caught Zuko in one of the trust fund babies’ enormous rooms in the frat house, daddy’s credit cards and student IDs out and about with lines of something she’d only seen in movies. Since all the dealers were on the low with the campus crackdown, and since it was midterms season, the demand amongst the student population was unbelievably high. Zuko was the only brave stupid enough to keep selling. Katara had burst into the room to alert Zuko that Toph and her were about to make a dramatic exit without him to go back to her place and watch John Tucker Must Die instead of studying.

She had expected a lot of things, hell even coke (maybe). What she didn’t anticipate was seeing a girl in Zuko’s lap, kissing up his neck, wearing practically nothing. He had an assertive hand on her thigh, massaging it, manhandling her like Katara wished he would do with her. He’s talking and acting like he belonged with the assholes of your school. Like he wasn’t the gentle guy who Katara always saw in sweats always talking about his half sister, or memories of his uncle’s restaurant. She had made eye contact with him and promptly shut the door, feeling as though her heart would burst any second now.

So Toph and Katara go back to her place, calling up Suki who Ubers over, ready to rag on her (sort of) mans. Both Toph and her were in Suki’s t shirts that she “gave” to the duo. Both girls ignore her protests when she shows up and demands for them back. “Hey, that is premium Aliexpress Yeezus Tour shirts! They don’t sell fakes like these anymore!”

Katara was eating Target generic brand ice cream out the container, her heartbreak palpable, especially to Toph. The two girls were best friends after becoming roommates freshman year. Katara’s a sweet thing, too sweet in Toph’s opinion. Always remembering little things, people’s birthdays or favorite brand of instant Udon packages. She was always the one defending Toph against those who found it too easy to take advantage of her. Toph, in turn, was always there to mend her big heart after no one remembered her birthday freshman year. In many ways, Katara won a permanent place in Toph’s heart. She was always the one showing up to her dance performances, even if they were a two hour bus ride away. Always making sure to take off her makeup after recitals when she was too tired to move. It hurt her to see Katara like this, in pain.

“All I’m saying is that he uses you to play house. It’s time to cut the cord. Don’t be Beyonce, don’t keep letting a man bring down your worth. Plus, you don’t have the range to come out with Lemonade in the middle of all this heartbreak and betrayal.”

She scoops Vanilla bean into her mouth, eyes downcast. “What do you mean? Just because he comes here and sleeps over all the time?” She settles her head in Toph’s lap when she sees Suki begin to straighten her back, prepping for the rant she was about to deliver.

“Katara, sweet, pure, virginal Katara.”

“Hey!” Katara yelps.

“I’m going to be honest with you, and it’s going to hurt. Like pap smear at the gyno hurt.” Katara nods, interest piqued. “Do you see you on his Instagram? Do you? Any posts, any tagging done when I know you took this photo of this overpriced matcha soy latte?” Suki tries her hardest not to break her tough girl role when she sees hersad fucking eyes. Why are they built like that? Like she could break her heart with just a watery glance? “Tell me, who do you see on Zuko’s Instagram and Snapchat?”

“Hotgirls,” she jumbles the words in her haste.

“Louder!” Suki shouts.

“ Hot. Girls. ” she admitted defeat. Toph strokes her hair gently to try to comfort her.

“That’s the thing with guys like Zuko, ok? They want the hottest girls on campus to suck and fuck, but they’re even more cruel with girls like you. Girls who are meant for dating to marry and cute gender reveal parties and pastels and shit. He knows that you guys aren’t meant to be together, the universe says so. But he’ll still play with your feelings because he likes pretending he deserves you. Pretending that in this world, girls like you and guys like him can be together and make it work.”

Katara’s jolting her head out of Toph’s lap in protest. “Well, what if I want to be a slut? What if I want to be the kind of girl that Zuko wants?” She was tired of being the cute girl who looks like she goes to volunteer at the community center regularly and is destined for some picket fence with a balding, accountant husband and loud, undisciplined kids. She wanted sex, hell she wanted to wear skimpy clothes without worrying what Zuko was going to think about how her tits looked, or if her pants showed enough of her ass to be considered hoe. Katara wanted the confidence of those girls Zuko would put on his social media, she wanted to be them. Being with Zuko felt like being with someone who got her, and she liked, hell loved the attention he gave her. As though she felt pretty, and not adorable. He was someone she just couldn’t get out of her head, someone that was so dangerous to her because she was feeling herself change for him. Is it wrong that she liked it? The way he called her gorgeous when he comes over, or how he lazily grinds against her ass when he’s half-asleep, hands on her hips grounding her.

Suki squeezes her chipmunk cheeks between her musty hands, and interrupts Katara’s protest about an acne breakout. “Even if you try changing everything about you to become exactly what he wants, do you really think he’s going to treat you the same when it isn’t on the down low?”

Ouch.

Suki’s honesty still stings, but it was the cold hard truth. She was willing to change herself, be someone for a guy promising her trips to Paris when he could never meet when the sun was up. Suki’s words hurt as bad as the dress Toph was squeezing you into. “You wanted slutty, I’m giving you waist trainer, Insta model slutty!” She had convinced Katara to go on a date with some guy who was “perfect” for her. Code for boring, she was sure of it. Probably an engineering major who didn’t know how Twitter worked.

Even with all of Toph’s efforts, Katara decided all the shapewear in the world wasn’t going to contain her “post depression ice cream for all three meals” belly. So, she decided to keep it simple with her “knock-off Ariana” outfit as she calls it. Pairing just a pair of thigh high boots with a long sweatshirt.

“Look, I know you secretly get off to the thrill of dating a lame drug dealer, knowing the cops could bust down your door and cause a scene at your apartment. I know you live for the drama. But I promise, this guy will be good for you. Let’s just have fun for one night. Please put the dress back on? I know you haven’t washed that hoodie in a week,” Toph pleads with Katara.

She just rolled her eyes while Toph reapplied a layer of gloss to Katara’s lips. Deep down, she just knew in her heart there was no getting over Zuko. At least immediately. But, it didn’t hurt that Jet was cute, harmless fun. He was taking her out to a diner near her apartment, frequented by students at their college deluded by the aesthetic photo ops, and not too concerned about how the restaurant was serving up microwaved Mac n cheese. He showed up looking exactly like his Instagram photos and in a well ironed H&M button up. She could feel Toph hiding behind her futon, snapping clandestine photos for Suki, who was in the bathroom with the Taco Bell shits.

“ How dare you?! ” Jet screeches, dropping a cold fry in disbelief. “You’ve never watched anime?”

“Ok, a scream was not what I was expecting. I just asked if Teen Titans counted. Sue me.” Katara’s laughing, and hates to admit that it was fun being with Jet. He’s nerdy and sweet and most importantly so, so tall. A good guy.

“It doesn’t! ” he huffs petulantly.

Katara juts out her lip. “How can you ever forgive me?”

“Hmm. I guess a second date. Maybe an anime sesh will have to do. Your place, and we’re pulling an all nighter.”

“Why not your place?” she questions.

“I live in a living room, and I don’t have a mattress. But why not? My place it is!” His aggressive thumbs up makes her laugh so hard it sends her into a choking fit.

“So, we’re watching Teen Titans first, right?” she teases, pounding at her chest to stop the coughs.

His smile reaches his eyes. “You know, I was kinda scared going out with you tonight. No offense, but you have, like, no pictures on your social media. All Toph promised me was ‘you’re really pretty and heartbroken as well. ’ And, not to try to win any brownie points on this date, but I have to agree, you’re really pretty.” Katara rolls her eyes, and he blushes.

“I was expecting something along the lines of ‘ Goddess like,’ but I guess ‘really pretty’ works, too.” She’s laughing along with his obnoxious giggles, and she feels almost lighthearted. Not quite ready to fall in love again, but considering the possibility. “Let me guess, she cheated on you?”

“Worse. Walked in on her with...drumroll please!” Katara lightly began drumming her fingers on the dining table. “You guessed it! My brother!” he sheepishly admits, bringing out the jazz hands and everything to emphasize his point.

She audibly gasps. “That’s some Kdrama shit right there! Please tell me you started a fist fight with him, kicked a nut or two.”

“Nah, I had an essay due. No time for that shit, you know? I just shut the door, banged out my paper, and haven’t spoken to either of them in about four months.”

She takes a sip of her milkshake. “That’s healthy!” Jet tilts his shake in Katara’s direction in agreement, before taking a long gulp from the cup.

He quirks a perfectly shaped brow towards her. “So, let me guess. Your guy saved his side chick’s name as Chick-fil-a in his phone, you found out and tried to strangle him with his belt, and he pressed charges?”

“Oddly specific, but sadly no. Let’s just say he had the biggest heart. Big enough for bitches on the side as well.” Jet makes a grunt in disapproval. “It wasn’t like I could be mad, anyways. We weren’t in anything official. But it felt like it could’ve been something, you know?”

It was like an unspoken agreement, an energy that the two felt when they met each other. A “my heart was just shattered into a billion pieces but hopefully a rebound will lessen the pain just for two hours tonight” kind of vibe. It felt good with Jet, like the two of you guys had known each other forever. He serves her with corny joke after joke, and she lets herself laugh. She hated being around men, and besides, Sokka threatened any that even made eye contact with her for longer than 20 seconds. Aside from Sokka, Zuko, and Aang, the kid she babysat, Katara was afraid to let any other men in her life. Three was already enough emotional labor.

They both go out for boba afterwards, and Jet makes sure to pay for their drinksand then drop his change into the tip jar. He knows that Katara swoons immediately. It always works. That’s why 30 minutes later, she’s slamming him into her futon. Soon after, he’s shirtless, pressing at her core with impatient fingers. She’s grinding helplessly in his lap, his moans egging her on. He insisted she keep the boots on.

“I was not raised to leave my shoes on in the house. That’s just vile ,” she protested. Jet silences her with a gentle kiss, and a press of his throbbing cock against her.

“Please, baby. Make an exception for me tonight,” he whispers against her lips. Her shorts and underwear are suddenly missing. When the fuck did he do that? She’s dizzy and horny and so full when he starts fingering her. His fingers so fucking long and is making her whimper and ready to have his kids. She closes her eyes because staring at Jet’s fucked out ones made her want to combust. She was focusing on the feeling of being stuffed while trying to tamp down on the fear of losing her virginity, because that seemed like the logical course of action with how the night was playing out. Damnit, what if it hurts like a pap smear ? She thinks pathetically. In the middle of all her inner monologues, she’s suddenly shoved off of Jet’s warm body, tumbling on the ground. She opens her eyes to see Zuko pummeling Jet to a pulp.

“Not the face, Zuko! Not the fucking face! He’s too pretty for this!” Katara yelps, shoving Zuko’s muscular frame off of Jet. Jet sends her a sad smile before slipping his shirt over his head and heading out the door.

She’s fuming, too angry, too confused. “What the fuck was that ?” She’s at maximum screech levels tonight, much to her neighbor’s dismay.

“You tell me!” Zuko cards his hands through his hair. “You’re fucking some other guy? Don’t know if you’ve forgotten, Katara. But this,” he gestures between the two of them. “Did you forget about us? Forget about me? What the fuck?”

“Hold up, Walter White.” She’s sticking a hand out in his face. “We are a situationship, at best. Don’t you dare accuse me of whoring around when we aren’t even official.”

“I thought what we had, what we were...I don’t know? It’s different,” Zuko rubs at his neck awkwardly. “Did you not feel the same way? Why do you care about all these labels all of a sudden? Why didn’t you fucking tell me you wanted us to make it official?”

“It’s because you’re supposed to know! You’re supposed to know that I hate what you do, that I hate loving you, because it hurts me.”

“So why won’t you go out with me? Is it because I’m a drug dealer?” Zuko’s mad, twisting the rings on his fingers while impatiently waiting on her answer.

“Not exactly,” Katara quips, averting her eyes from his fiery gaze. “It’s mainly because you don’t tip when we go out to eat.”

“Bullshit!” he howls.

“You need to tip at least 20%!”

“Katara.” He takes a deep breath in. “Why don’t we just make this official?”

She’s worrying at her lip. Trying desperately to remember the breathing exercises her therapist had recommended before she started crying and did something crazy like suck his dick because he looked hot when he was angry. “Zuko, as much as you’d like to keep pretending that we could ever be a thing, I can’t. I can’t keep holding onto this fucking unrealistic dream. These unrealistic expectations! What do you want me to do? Pray for the day you get bored of dealing or hanging out with the rich kids or making out with sorority girls so you could come back to me at night? Because I’m fucking pathetic and let you back every single time?”

She sees him spluttering, trying to desperately hold onto a solid response that could sway her decision. “Katara, you know how much I care about you. But you would never get it! You would never get someone like me!”

She scoffs. “Try me. What don’t I get about you, Zuko?”

“That being with those people, and dealing makes me feel like more than just a poor kid with no parents and no fucking future.” Zuko huffs out the confession as though he was holding it in for a millenium.

“I get it, ok I understand but-”

Zuko steps back from her, as though she’s slapped him straight across the face. “No, Katara. You don’t. You don’t fucking get it. You get to cosplay as poor. Pretend that you have to budget when Sokka could easily handle everything if things go wrong.”

Katara’s angry, angry at herself. For hurting Zuko with her careless words, for looking so fucking stupid. “Ok, fine. You’re right.” She surprises even herself at her confession. "I don’t get it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be fucking worried about you? That I’m terrified about what could go wrong? One wrong move and you could fucking die! You think the dean is going to let any of those rich assholes take the fall for anything? No, they’re going to blame it on the disposable kid on Financial Aid,” she wails at the top of her lungs.

She searches his eyes for any understanding, for any reaction to what she was saying. His jaw is set in a determined look, the kind of look she knew was unwavering, was unable to be changed no matter what. She sucks in a breath of air, praying for any sort of strength. “How about you do you, and I do me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Zuko squeezes out. He’s rushing out the door, slamming it on his way out.

“I knew I could smell the cock on you! You rode that dick like a stolen car, didn’t you?” Suki bellows, cackling.

“Please, I will fucking block you,” Katara wearily threatens, without any might behind it. She’s, predictably, in one of Zuko’s old t shirts from when he played soccer in high school, slapping on moisturizer before she could retire to bed. “Zuko stopped anything from happening when he came in and went 'New York after Hottie said she looked like Beyonce' on his ass.

Toph grunts over the line. “So what’s the deal with you guys? He’s dealing you drugs and dick now? You’re fucking the weed man for weed? Or are you fucking the dick man for dick? At least you’re not fucking the tweet man for tweets.”

Katara pauses in patting in the cream on her face. “How does this make any sense to you? Like do you not hear yourself speak?”

“It makes perfect sense to me, slut.”

Suki jumps in before low blows could be dealt and the girls start making fun of each others foundation not matching. “You know what, I bet Zuko’s selling whole ass cilantro and/or oregano and no one says anything because he’s fine.”

Katara pauses in applying her lip balm, a call from Zuko popping up threatening to end her call with her girls. “Zuko’s calling?” she questions.

“This late?” Toph is in between bites of her pepperoni Hot Pocket.

Suki sighs. “Listen, Katara. Girls don’t win when it comes to love, we never win. Maybe you should take a break from all this Zuko mess, and I don’t know. Pick up a hobby. Go back to therapy.”

But Katara knew something was wrong. She could sense it, just feel it inside her. Something was inherently wrong. As though the universe was whispering this to her, pleading with her to listen. “I’ll call you guys back, ok?”

“This is the future Stephanie Meyer wanted. For girls to be pathetically in love with pale, emo guys,” Toph miserably whimpers after Katara leaves their call.

Katara heart felt like it could fall out of her ass and then jump back in her mouth with how loudly it was beating. She’s running, clad in only the t shirt and her slides. They were threatening to slip off at any second from how fast her feet were forcing them to pound at the pavement. Word of the wise, don’t fucking run in slides.

“Don’t fucking hurt him!” She screams, expandable baton whipped out and ready to pummel any bitch dumb enough to hurt Zuko while she’s around. A few guys were standing around Zuko’s limp body, about to lay another painful blow against his bruised visage when she starts wildly beating them with her baton. She’s shrieking at the top of her lungs, scaring them enough for all of them to disperse. They all ran off before they had to deal with whatever the fuck Katara was doing. Crazy wasn’t in their agenda that night, only beating up good looking dealers.

“Oh, Zuko.” Katara immediately lets go of the weapon, dropping down to her knees to look at him.

Turns out, everyone wants a shot at the king.

She sits herself down and gently cradles Zuko’s head in between her hands before placing it in her lap. He closes his eyes and musters the strength to give her a small smile.

“Thank you, Katara.” She’s trying her best to hold back her tears. The gravel is scraping unforgivably against her legs, the cold causing her throat to begin to itch. She’s shivering as she types in “911.”

Zuko lifts a battered arm to swat quickly at her fingers. “Can we just Uber to the hospital? I don’t want to drop two racks on an ambulance.”

“Zuko!” Katara squeals. It works, he’s got her to smile in spite of all the drama, all the tears. It’s so easy for them to be like this together. Just enjoying the moment, just being themselves. “You know, I’m sorry for ever saying you look like an angry snake. You still do, but I’m sorry.”

“I hate you,” he says without any commitment to the spite.

“You don’t.”

“I know.” He lets her finish ordering the Uber before speaking again. “I love you.”

She runs her fingers in his hair. “I know.”

“Say it back, please?” He has the audacity to pout despite being beaten nearly half to death.

“I’m scared,” she can’t bring herself to break eye contact with his intense gaze.

“I know.”

“Zuko! What happened?” Iroh’s running as fast as he can, still clad in his sleepwear. He sees the pretty girl that the nurses warned has refused to leave the boy’s side for the past few hours, never letting go of his hand. She’s even had the gall to snap the nurses who would show up to their shift a few minutes late.

He sees his nephew rub comforting circles in the girls’ hand with his thumb, looking at her before he could make eye contact with his uncle. Right when he’s about to say something, he’s interrupted.

“He was protecting me. We were walking in a bad part of town because I really wanted to get ice cream, and...we got mugged.” She finishes lamely, whispering the last few words. “They hit him first and then were trying to steal my purse. They got even more mad when he started yelling ‘don’t hurt her!’ He jumped in front of me before they could do anything.”

The two share a look and a smile. Zuko’s grip on Katara’s hand grows impossibly tigther.

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #day 4 zutara month #katara #Zuko #zuko x katara #zutaramonth #zutarafic

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catie-does-things · 5 years

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Zutara Week Day 5: Youth

@zutaraweek

Katara hates Zuko. A little something set in the Southern Sun AU. Katara is 11, Zuko is 13, and he has been banished to the South Pole.

AO3 / FF.N

Katara still practiced her waterbending in secret.

Ever since Zuko had come, Sokka wanted her to forget about her element altogether, and he would give her one of his “I’m your big brother and I know what’s best” lectures if she so much as stirred a pot of soup with her bending. The worst part was this time Gran Gran took his side.

Katara knew they were only trying to protect her. If their new Fire Nation chief found out what she could do, she would be sent away to some remote prison, or worse, just like all the other waterbenders before her. It might have been better - it certainly would have been safer - if Katara had been a nonbender.

But she wasn’t, and she couldn’t just go her whole life pretending she was. So whenever she could find a moment to steal for herself, Katara would take a bowl of water and practice twisting it into different shapes.

It was hard. The water seemed to have a mind of its own sometimes, more than it would obey her commands. And the more frustrated she got, the more unpredictable it would become - sloshing everywhere, or suddenly freezing solid, or one time even shattering the bowl to pieces. Katara had been forced to feign ignorance when Gran Gran asked her why there were now only three bowls stacked neatly by the cooking fire instead of four.

They could get by with just three anyway, now that her father was gone.

The truth was, Katara had no idea what she was doing. As long as she could remember, she had been the only bender at the south pole. But there were two other benders here now.

Zuko had regular firebending lessons with his uncle, always conducted near where their small ship was moored, about twenty paces from the low village walls that had done nothing to keep him out. (Sokka said Zuko wanted to improve the villages defences once they got the hang of building houses, but Katara would believe it when she saw it.) Curious children often loitered at a safe distance to watch as General Iroh drilled their young chief on his firebending forms, occasionally correcting his footwork or his breathing. No one thought anything of it if Katara joined them.

The firebending forms looked powerful and intimidating, and if Katara didn’t join in the younger children’s awe-struck oohs and aahs, it wasn’t because she wasn’t impressed by what she saw. She could tell, even from a distance, that Zuko would often get frustrated with himself, just like she did. But he could produce jets of fire with ease. He got to wield his element out in broad daylight without caring who saw. And he never lost control.

Katara hated Zuko, and she didn’t care who knew it. But secretly, she also envied him.

-----

Zuko hadn’t expected anyone at the south pole to actually like him.

He knew from the moment his father had sent him here that his task would not be easy. Governing the small, isolated, primitive tribe presented its own challenges, of course, though Zuko was determined to rise to meet them. It was the conditions for his return to the Fire Nation that posed the greatest problem - first of all finding a waterbender, when there were apparently none left, and then on top of that somehow winning that waterbender’s loyalty.

For the former condition, Zuko was prepared to be patient. Any of the younger children might manifest waterbending abilities someday. But as for the latter...well, Zuko was less confident in his own ability to win people over.

The Water Tribe peasants respected his position as chief, but Zuko quickly learned that this was not the same as respecting him. Even Sokka, who proved to be the most willing to work with him, could not be counted as loyal to him. When they weren’t working on one of Zuko’s building projects together, Sokka kept as much wary distance from him as everyone else in the tribe.

And then there was Sokka’s little sister.

If the rest of the tribe was wary of him, the looks Katara gave him were positively lethal. Unlike the cool neutrality her brother had adopted, Katara seemed to be brimming with anger at him. Zuko hadn’t expected anyone to like him, and the daughter of the disgraced chief he was replacing least of all, but it still got under his skin, being outright hated like that, and by a child, no less.

But he also knew the last raid had resulted in her mother’s death, and there was nothing he could do about that.

Yet for all Katara’s hatred, he was its sole target. To the rest of the tribe, she was warm and kind, looking after the younger children, dutifully helping the women with various chores, and even though she bickered with Sokka, Zuko could tell it was nothing like how Azula treated him. And Sokka, for all his grumbling, was obviously as fond of his sister as the rest of the tribe was. Everyone loved Katara, and she made being loved look easy.

Zuko knew why Katara hated him, and he even felt sorry for her. But secretly, he also envied her.

#zutara week #zutara week 2019 #zutara #catie writes things #southern sun

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advocaado · 5 years

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Day 15: Courting (of a sort)

@thirtydaysofzutara

This is the continuation of Day 7: Historical AU

Find the whole collection on fanfiction.net User: Advocaat

August

Katara threw open the doors to the Ember Steelworks. So far she hadn’t had much luck in her quest to rid her town of this horrid company, but she was going to continue to harangue its intolerable owner until he finally caved and slunk back to wherever it was he came from. She was determined.

She found him in the usual place. He was testing another rifle while his bookkeeper and personal secretary, a former navy lieutenant named Jee, stood by.

Seeing her coming, Zuko waved his hand, dismissing Jee. “Katara,” he greeted her as she joined him by his makeshift firing range. “Right on schedule, as always.”

It took every ounce of Katara’s self-control not to punch the mill’s owner in his smug face. It had only been a few days and already he was treating her like she was his 2pm meeting.

Aggressively straightening her miles of skirts to stop herself from doing something violent to the young man in front of her, Katara brought her eyes up to his and gave him a look full of murder. “Is there a problem with me coming to check in on you every day?” she questioned in a dangerously calm voice. “Because if you don’t like how we do things in this town, you’re invited to leave it.”

Zuko’s lips curved into an infuriating smile that fell upon her like a ray of light from heaven. “Absolutely no problem at all. Your visits are a pleasure and a joy.”

Katara ground her teeth together in anger. Oh, how she hated this man. No matter how big an inconvenience she tried to be to him—how much she surely annoyed him—he never showed any disdain for her. It was quickly driving her up a wall.

“Splendid,” she ground out, her eyes flashing to show exactly how little she meant the word. “Then I’ll continue to drop by and make sure you’re running this mill honestly and fairly. And if I catch even a whiff that you’re exploiting any of the labor you’ve hired or are inflating prices, I’ll have you thrown to the dogs faster than you can draw a revolver. Am I clear?”

Zuko’s smile faltered just slightly. It was only for an instant but Katara caught it. He didn’t let on any change in demeanor however when he answered, “I don’t expect you will take any fault with the way I run this mill, but I’ll keep your promise in mind.”

Katara merely nodded stiffly and then left him to make a show of inspecting the compound as she’d threatened to.

She would expose his villainy. It was only a matter of time until his angelic façade cracked and he showed who he really was. She would be ready when that time came.

September

Katara was confused. It had been a month now since the Ember Steel Company had moved into their town and so far nothing at all dastardly had been done by its proprietor. This was perplexing to her because just that morning she’d picked up a copy of the national press at the general store and the front page story was about how a town just a few miles from their own was on the verge of economic collapse due to hiked up steel prices. Everyone knew that Ember Steel had a monopoly on the steel industry. The article even specifically named Ember Steel as the root of the problem.

So then why weren’t they seeing the same thing in their own town? Perhaps, she conjectured, Zuko was waiting until he had a firm enough grip on their town before he showed his true colors. Or maybe her father’s railroad deal was keeping Zuko too busy to concoct any evil plots. It would explain why her dad had acted so certain that the company moving in wouldn’t be harmful to them.

Still, Katara could abide by her father’s decision. Sooner or later, they would begin to go the route of all those other towns. She needed to convince Zuko to leave before that happened.

October

“Why are you always out here shooting guns, anyway? Shouldn’t you be overseeing the building of the tracks?”

Zuko lowered the rifle he’d been pointing at the poor, beaten up target and gave her an inquisitive glance with yellow eyes.

“I mean, eight times out of ten when I come to visit you’re out here shooting these things.” She gestured to the case of firearms at their feet. “Shouldn’t you be focusing more on your job?”

Zuko straightened into a more natural position and places a hand on his hip. “This ismy job.”

Katara blinked back at him. “Pardon?”

Zuko nodded and held up the rifle for her to see. “All the metal you see here is made by our company. Not many people know this, but Ember Steel is actually part of a weapons manufacturing conglomerate called Empire. Originally, Empire was just a firearms company, but over time, my father’s wealth and prestige grew and he began acquiring steel mills so he could expand his influence and better control the means of production. I prefer to work more on the steel end of things, but I also build rifles and pistols for government use.”

Katara’s eyes widened as she absorbed what Zuko had just told her. “Wait. You said your ‘father’. Does that mean Ozai’s your dad?”

Zuko confirmed this by nodding. “That’s right.”

Katara took a step back in shock. So, that’s how Zuko became branch head at such a young age. Being Ozai’s son would make him heir to the Ember Steel empire.

More than that, it made him the son of a dirty crook.

Katara’s lips pulled down into a severe frown. “Well,” she said, recovering somewhat. “I’m sure the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. You’ll show your true colors one of these days, and I’ll be ready.”

With that, she turned around and marched away.

November

Katara’s teeth chattered as she walked down the packed-earth street to the general store. She needed to buy more feed for the chickens and she also needed to stop by the butcher’s and pick up some steaks. today was her father’s birthday and she’d promised to help her grandmother cook him a nice meal.

She tossed the heavy bag of feed over her shoulder and was preparing to move on to the butcher’s when the door to the general store opened suddenly and a figure collided with her. The impact wasn’t hard enough to be painful, but it knocked her back and the weight of the bag on her shoulder displaced her center of gravity. She resigned herself to falling right onto her rear when a hand appeared on her back and straightened her.

“Sorry,” Zuko’s apologetic voice rang in her ears and that’s when she realized exactly who it was that had run into her.

Katara had been all set to tell the person not to worry about it and thank them for catching her but now knowing that it was Zuko she closed her mouth and breezed past him without a word.

She’d made it to the street before Zuko caught up to her. “Wait, Katara!” he called as he hopped the short set of wooden steps down to the street and came up beside her. “I’m sorry for bumping into you. I didn’t realize you were right on the other side of the door.”

When she kept walking, Zuko merely sped up to keep pace with her. Katara shot him an annoyed look over her sack of chicken feed. She was cold, laden with eighteen pounds of dried corn, and she just wanted to finish her shopping and go home.

Zuko seemed to understand her predicament because he tentatively asked, “Um, are you okay? Do you need any help?”

Katara turned up her chin and continued walking. “You can help by leaving my town.”

Zuko exhaled a short, put-upon sigh and suddenly the weight of the sack on her shoulder disappeared. “I’ll carry this for you,” he said, not giving her any room to argue. “It’s the least I can do for running into you.”

Katara scowled at him but allowed him to help her. It would be far easier to carry the meat without the sack of feed weighing her down and if Zuko was willing to go out of his way to be her mule she supposed there was no reason to deny him.

The two walked in silence down the row of buildings to the butcher’s shop. Katara thought Zuko would make small talk or attempt to sweeten her with flattery but he didn’t. He did exactly as he’d promised, merely carrying her burden and giving her shoulders a break.

When they reached the butcher’s Zuko hopped up the short set of stairs ahead of her and opened the door for her. As Katara walked into the shop, she had to admit, however grudgingly, that even if he was an evil business tycoon’s son, Zuko was a gentleman. He entered behind her and dutifully kept step with her as she approached the counter.

“Well, if it isn’t Katara,” Bato, the owner of the shop, greeted her fondly. “I had an inkling I’d be seeing you today.”

Bato was an old friend of her dad’s. They’d been in the army together for a time back before her dad had met her mom and they’d remained the tightest of chums ever since. To Katara, Bato had always been something of an uncle figure and Bato accordingly treated her and her brother as his niece and nephew.

Bato’s eyes travelled past her to land on Zuko and one of his eyebrows rose. “But this is quite a curious development. I always knew I’d be seeing you in here with a man one of these days, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that one.”

Katara felt her cheeks flush and she leveled Bato with an unimpressed glare. “Please,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “I’d sooner eat my own hair than accept the affections of that son of a crook.

To her surprise, Bato threw his head back and laughed. When he’d composed himself, he shot a grin at Zuko and said, “You’re in for the long haul with this one. Prettiest girl in all the West, but with a stubborn streak as wide as the Mississippi. She gets it from her mother.”

Zuko merely offered Bato an amused smile, saying nothing. Katara ignored both of them and ordered her meat.

Her shopping done at last, Zuko dropped her off at her home, setting the sack of feed under the porch as instructed. Begrudgingly, she thanked him for his help. “Thanks, Zuko. It was kind of you to help me with my shopping.”

Zuko smiled and nodded. The chilly November wind tousled his hair and Katara inwardly kicked herself for thinking the picture he made standing out front of her family’s house with his hands in the pockets of his work trousers was quite fetching.

Annoyed at herself, Katara hurried inside and slammed the door shut behind her, determined not to waste a single thought on Zuko for the rest of the day.

December

“You know, Katara. I can’t help but notice that you’ve seemed a little more tolerant of Mr. Redford in recent weeks. I knew you’d warm to him sooner or later.”

Katara shot her father a glare across the table. “There has been nowarming, I assure you,” she corrected him promptly. “I’m treating him civilly simply because he has yet to do anything dastardly, but I’m confident that will change come spring.”

Hakoda raised his eyebrows at his daughter. “Oh?”

Katara nodded. “Spring is when demand for steel becomes the highest. He’d be a fool of a businessman not to take advantage of that.” She stuck her fork with force into a boiled carrot and the matter was dropped.

January

Katara shivered as she stepped into the warm steelworks and closed the doors tightly behind her to block out the chill. January was the coldest month of the year and she’d made a point of spending an increased amount of time at the mill to escape the weather.

The air inside the mill was cozy and warm from the forges and Katara unbuttoned her woolen frock coat with a happy sigh. No sooner had she pulled her arms from the sleeves, the garment was taken from her and placed neatly on a hook near the door. Katara made a show of taking her time to physically acknowledge Zuko’s presence. “Oh,” she said tonelessly when her eyes finally landed on him. “You’re still here.”

Zuko smiled and began walking away from her toward the stairs that led to the overlook where his office was situated. Katara followed out of habit and didn’t protest when a mug of hot milk with honey was deposited into her hands. She took a sip, shivering again as the pleasantly warm liquid heated her insides. “How’s progress going on the tracks?” she asked with honest curiosity as she lowered herself into the cushioned chair adjacent to Zuko’s desk. The chair had magically appeared one day several weeks ago and Katara suspected Zuko had put it there expressly for her use.

“Well, actually,” was he started. He pulled a sheet of paper from a cubby hole above his desk and laid it in front of her. “We’re ahead of schedule and predicted to remain that way so long as we don’t have to deal with any equipment malfunctions due to inclement weather.” He pointed to some numbers on the paper that Katara didn’t really understand but she didn’t let that on to him. “You father is looking to start laying the tracks come March so we’ve been organizing shipments for transport. The goal is to extend the rail service as far as Tofteville by the end of the summer.”

Katara raised her eyebrows at this. That was certainly an ambitious goal. Now that she thought about it, she did remember her father meeting with Tofteville’s mayor a few weeks ago. They’d been discussing timeframes for the building of a train station there.

Katara looked down at her mug pensively for a moment before looking back at Zuko and saying. “Well, then. I suppose it can’t be helped. I’ll have to endure your presence at least until the end of summer.” Setting her mug delicately beside the paper, she injected sternness into her voice and added, “But no longer.”

Zuko smiled. “Of course.”

February

“Don’t you dare even think of throwing that snowball at me or I’ll see to it that you’ll be quite sorry!” Katara warned as Zuko encroached on her, tossing the item in question up and down in his hand menacingly.

Zuko didn’t falter in his approach. “You nailed me in the head just a moment ago. It’s only fair that you be repaid in kind.”

Katara turned her nose up in a show of rebelliousness. “I wasn’t intending to hit you. I mistook your hair for a shaggy weasel is all. It was an honest mistake.”

Zuko gave her an unimpressed look. “You’d been talking to me just a minute earlier.”

Katara couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face at Zuko’s disgruntled expression. Apparently, Zuko didn’t find her grin in line with her professed innocence, because faster than she could react, a ball of puffy powder pelted her right in the chest.

Katara gasped in outrage and used her mittened hands to wipe the snow from the front of her coat. “Oh, it is on,” she called back to him, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Zuko just laughed and danced out of the way as she sent another snowball flying at him. Katara wasn’t deterred, though. She would make good on her threat of punishment.

March

Katara stopped in surprise when she heard voices from within Ember Steel Co.’s town office. Zuko hardly used the place so she didn’t pay it any mind on most days, but today it seemed he was in.

Curious, she walked closer and tried to hear what was being said. As far as she was concerned, if it was business of Zuko’s, it was business of hers.

Sure enough, one of the voices belonged to Zuko. It was difficult to hear what was being said but he sounded annoyed—even angry. The other voice belonged to a woman and it was one she didn’t recognize.

“…know…going…be impressed,” the unknown female was saying. Her voice lacked the edge of irritation that Zuko’s held. She sounded calm and composed.

“He doesn’t…anymore,” Zuko shot back. “…paperwork…gone through. I’m…Ember out.”

“That…Zuko!” This time the woman’s voice sounded far less composed. “… …Mai? …you just…abandon...?”

There was a long moment of silence after that. Katara wondered what they were arguing about. She’d never heard Zuko sound angry before. Who on earth could he be talking to?

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and Katara had to dodge out of the way as a woman came storming out of the office. She wore an expensive-looking velvet gown of deep burgundy and her makeup was immaculate. Her eyes caught Katara’s own as she descended the wooden steps and Katara could see that they were a rich honey-amber. The woman looked her over briefly then sniffed disdainfully and brushed past her without a word.

A moment later, Zuko appeared in the doorway in his typical cotton shirt and heavy work-trousers. His eyes followed the woman as she disappeared down the street and Katara saw him sigh tiredly and raise a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

He must have been very distracted by whatever it was he and the woman had been arguing about because he didn’t even notice her standing there. He just grumbled something under his breath and went back inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

To be continued in Day 29.

#Zutara #Zutara Month 2018 #zk month 2018 #30 days of Zutara #part 2 of the Western AU #I'm really enjoying this AU #never thought I'd say that

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akaiikowrites · 7 years

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to build a home pt 3

Summary: “I’m just… Fucking… Look, my heart burns for you.” Katara’s the most terrifying girl in the world. Zuko’s kind of in love with her.

Notes: It took almost ten months but we're back at it again with more High School AU. Light on the "high school" in this chapter. But for a good cause? There's going to be one more chapter after this, so we're in the home (ahahahaha bad puns) stretch. Thank you again for all the kind feedback on my trash.

Rating: PG-13/T for cussing, sexual(ish) content, and pure old fashioned Wisconsin cheese.

Part: One and Two

Uncle doesn’t complain that he spends a lot of their remaining vacation taking pictures and texting. Actually, once Uncle catches on that it’s Katara on the other end, he makes a game out of finding things for Zuko to tell Katara about. It’s both obnoxious and endearing. Because he feels generous, Zuko decides it’s more endearing than obnoxious, and humors his Uncle.

(It helps that Uncle found the weird statue of a crab in hula gear that had Katara laughing so hard that Sokka was able to steal her phone and get a picture of her mid-cackle.)

But their last night in Ember Cove, Zuko leaves the phone in their room and goes out onto the porch. It’s not that he doesn’t want to talk to Katara it’s just that he’s realized soon they’re going to have to actually talk about things that matter again instead of whatever dumb thing they just snapped a picture of. Uncle is out on the porch with a cup of tea. When Zuko takes a seat on the porch steps, Uncle says, “It is a beautiful night. Very peaceful.”

With a sigh, Zuko lets his head thump back against the railing and wonders how he’s supposed to explain any of this. Part of him had hoped Uncle would pry. Instead, it seems that his Uncle is feeling philosophical enough to let Zuko come to him. Fuck.

It takes almost a half hour for Zuko to figure out what he needs to say. During that time Uncle finishes his first cup of tea in slow, deliberate sips. Then rises and disappears back into their rented cabin to make himself another cup. Zuko finds the exact words as Uncle emerges back into the humid night and takes a seat in the well-worn rocking chair he favors. There’s a creak from the chair and a satisfied hum from Uncle as he takes the first sip of his fresh cup. Zuko breathes in deep and says:

“Katara knows about Mom. I didn’t tell her but she knew. That’s why she became my friend. Because she felt bad for me and wanted to fix me. Help me. I don’t know.” The old frustration surges up. Fresh and raw as it had been the first time. He can feel his hands curling into fists but he doesn’t try to stop it. Just lets the feeling rush through him because he needs to do this. Bleed the poison out of this wound. He just doesn’t want to hurt her again. “That’s why I didn’t talk to her. Because it’s fucked up. Making someone your friend so you can fix them. But she called. Christmas morning. Told me that her mom died and she blames herself and that’s why she does it. Fixes people. Helps them. Whatever it is she does. I don’t want to be a fucking project to her but she needs me and I don’t know how to forgive her but I can’t—”

There are no more words and he’s honestly amazed he made it this far. It feels like the inside of his mouth has been all cut up with razor blades, like he needs to punch something to focus the pain, like he’s exactly the kind of wounded creature who needs a beautiful girl to save him. Zuko knows his eyes are pleading as he looks at his Uncle.

“Katara is?” Uncle says. Philosophically.

Zuko launches to his feet and begins to pace across the width of the porch. “I don’t know. Katara’s…Katara.” Pacing isn’t helping but he knows he can’t vent his anger by hitting something. So he growls, and tangles his fingers in his hair, and clenches his eyes shut. “Katara is someone gentle, and smart, and fierce. She sees all the worst things about life and then decides she can somehow change it. She takes in people because they need it, not because they deserve it. She stays kind even though nothing else is kind. She demands a better world.” Without meaning to his feet come to a stop. He opens his eyes. His hands slide from his hair to fall to his sides. “She makes me want to demand a better world.”

Out here the light is pretty shitty. Reliant on the small lamps that light the pathways between cabins and the heavy moon above them. But Zuko’s pretty sure he’s not imagining the faint gleam to Uncle’s eyes. Or the hoarse edge as he says, “Then the question is, nephew, if your pride is worth more than all that Katara is.”

No. It’s not.

Zuko Himura 11:48PM we need to talk when i get back

Katara Foster 11:49PM i know

It takes them all day to get back to Republic City. They nearly die once because Uncle sees a tea shop and whips their car across five lanes of traffic to get at it. When they pull into the driveway there’s a good six inches of fresh snow that’ll need to be cleared tomorrow. Zuko goes straight upstairs because a week and a half solid of socializing with Uncle is exhausting. (It’s good, too, in a way that he can��t articulate.) After kicking the door shut and dropping his bags, he collapses face first onto his bed, ready to take the world’s longest nap.

The world’s longest nap is only about three hours long.

Zuko wakes up blearily to the faint whine of the tea kettle. It stops but he’s awake, now, so he half rolls onto his side. For a while he just lays there. Cocooned in the warm dark, looking out the window, at fresh snow that swirls backlit against streetlights. Somehow the room feels safe, and cozy, and less like a place he just goes to fall asleep or do homework. The therapist would call that progress if he still went to them every Tuesday.

Falling snow reminds him of Katara. Of that day when they went to the coffee shop. With a groan that sounds more like a growl he rolls onto his back and puts an arm behind his head. The hand resting on his stomach taps out a rhythm.

Even a month later his body remembers her—warm and small and laughing—cuddled against him. It had seemed like too much to handle at the time. What kind of loser jerks off to the memory of giving a girl a piggy back ride? But now he wonders what would’ve happened if he’d pulled her into an alley that day and kissed her. Maybe everything would’ve been different if he’d been braver. Probably not.

Reaching into the front pocket of his jeans, he fishes out his phone and turns it on. Light flares brilliant and white and makes him squint. It’s almost eight. He ignores the next texts from Sokka, the Ultimate Frisbee group chat, and an unknown number to pull up Katara’s conversation.

Katara Foster 2:49PM text me when you get home k?

Feeling a little like a jerk, he taps in, got home a couple hours ago but needed a nap. Then he erases that and sends home instead. That makes him feel more like a jerk but he’s barely had time to feel the full weight of his jerkish behavior when the three little dots that signal an incoming response pop up.

Katara Foster 7:53PM good

Katara Foster 7:54PM are you like super tired?

Even with the nap he feels kind of worn at the edges. But he dutifully says not really why? She reads the message immediately but it takes a full six minutes for her to reply. Zuko imagines it might be because Sokka started doing something obnoxious or GranGran needed help with something. That doesn’t help the nerves. Especially when the three dots pop up and just. Stay there. Taunting him.

Katara Foster 8:02PM meet me at the coffee shop

Katara Foster 8:02PM please

Of course she’s beaten him there. She’s hunched over a steaming cup of coffee that’s cradled in her hands. When the bell above the doorway goes off she looks up, instinctively but not hopefully, like she’s already done this a few times. Except this time it’s actually him. Or at least he assumes that’s why her entire face lights up and she straightens her shoulders and the coffee cup is left forgotten on the table. Zuko barely has time to brace himself and open his arms before she’s in them, face pressed tight into his chest, fingers digging deep into his leather jacket.

“Hey,” he says. It feels like the air’s been knocked out of his lungs and it’s not just because she slammed into him. One arm’s curled around her waist reflexively but he tries to smooth the other over the back of her skull because he’s fairly certain she’s shaking. “Hey, are you okay?”

Katara pulls back very carefully but stays in his arms. It’s okay. Now that he’s touching her, he’s not sure he could let her go, even with everyone in the coffee shop eyeing them. He can’t remember if she’s always felt this delicate or if maybe he only thinks she feels that way because he knows she’s not invincible now. Zuko wants to pull her closer and wrap her up in his jacket. Keep her safe for once.

“I’m okay, I’m just so glad you’re here,” she says. There’s a very soft lilt to her voice that makes him think she’s holding back tears.

Not thinking about the consequences, he leans down and presses a soft kiss to her forehead, lets himself stay there for a moment as he breathes in the scent of her. He pulls back. Katara’s got her eyes closed. The lines of her face are still and easy in a way they hadn’t been before and he realizes suddenly how tense she’d actually been. Slowly, like someone coming up from a deep dive, she opens her eyes.

“I’m here,” he says. Their eyes lock. It occurs to him that she is steel and glass layered together so firmly that he’s not sure if he’s glimpsing the vulnerability beneath her strength or the courage beneath her fragility. “I’m here,” he promises.

Somehow they manage to completely avoid talking about it.

At first, in those hazy moments in the coffee shop in the hour before closing, Zuko thinks maybe it’s because they’re still too raw. Or because the coffee shop is too public. Or even because they’re too enamored of being around each other again, their knees bumping under the table, her hand eventually settling on his bare forearm like an anchor.

But the last three days of winter break go by and they’re around each other constantly. They have the opportunity. It’s just that they don’t want to, maybe. So it’s like:

One day, they’re sledding in the park with everyone from the Foster’s neighborhood, including one boy with a shaved head who watches Zuko with intense suspicion. Another day, they’re walking through the mall with Sokka and Suki, playing with the Christmas decorations that haven’t been stripped down yet. That last day, they’re going to the indoor pool at the local YMCA so Katara can do some back to school thing for underprivileged elementary students, and Zuko can’t even remember how he got dragged into this when he hates the pool but it’s worth it for the way Katara smiles at him over the heads of thirteen shrieking eight year olds.

After the YMCA, Katara offers to drive him home but Zuko says he’ll walk. It’s only a mile and a half. It’s not even snowing now. What he doesn’t say is he needs time to think because it finally occurred to him as she ruffled her towel over his chlorine damp hair that she’s waiting on him.

Walking is a bad idea. He wakes up the next morning with a sore throat, a stuffy nose, and the kind of vague headache that feels like being underwater. Uncle takes one look at him and says to text Katara for the homework.

The door to his bedroom creaks open. Uncle left him alone after lunch to nap. He’s not sure if he actually slept. It feels like maybe he has.

“No more tea,” he groans. Uncle force fed him an entire pot, he’s pretty sure, and his throat feels better but if he never has to drink another cup it’ll be too soon.

Someone laughs and says, “You sound terrible.” Dread, or mucus, clogs his airways as he turns over to face the doorway. Hazy winter sunlight softens her edges. Zuko watches, feeling bemused and enchanted, as she pushes up the sleeves of her loose cable knit sweater to her elbows and puts her hands on her hips. Purposeful. Amused. Fond. Home improvement stores don’t have paint that can match the blue of her eyes. Zuko can’t breathe and he’s pretty sure it’s not just because he’s needed to blow his nose for the last nine minutes. “You look terrible.”

“You’re awful,” he says. Rolling away from her, he fishes around in the covers for his little packet of Kleenex. Nothing immediately meets his fingers. So he tries to sniffle without it being loud just to get the worst of the snot controlled. Which of course means it seems to echo off every available surface.

Another laugh, muffled this time. “Wait, I need a picture for Sokka.” Floorboards creak beneath her weight and he hears a heavy bag dropping to the floor. The bed dips beneath her as she puts a knee on the edge.

“No,” Zuko says. With great feeling.

“Aw, c’mon,” she says. One day he’s going to figure out how she can sound teasing and worried at the same time. Leaning over him, she grabs the packet of Kleenex and puts it into his hand. “A picture for me then?”

“No,” he says. With even greater feeling.

Katara’s lower lip juts out just a bit. If she’s trying for a convincing pout then she’s failing because he knows what he genuine pouts look like. They involve a slight crinkle at the corners of her eyes, like she’s trying not to cry. It’s a manipulative pout and he’s on to her. “But…” she says. “I need it.”

“Why?”

One of her shoulders lifts in a shrug. “To prove a point. Mostly to Song and Jin. This would prove that you are not handsome and brooding at all times.” Arguably, he’s not handsome at any times. He can’t say much about the brooding. Why Katara would care about any of this in the first place he can’t imagine. “None of the girls at school would think you were some mysterious bad boy if they could see you with a runny nose.”

Since he clearly has no fucking dignity left as she looms over him and confirms that he looks exactly as pathetic as he feels, and that she plans on letting everyone relevant in his age group know as much, he makes deliberate eye contact and blows his nose in a fresh Kleenex. Being herself, Katara maintains eye contact, and then once he’s done goes, “Feel better?” It’s a challenge. Like he’s ridiculously gross and she knows they’re both acknowledging that fact. But also like she wants him to know she saw that petty display of pissiness and she’s above it. Zuko could tell her she doesn’t have to bother. Everyone already knows she’s the most terrifying girl in school. Reaching toward his nightstand, she grabs an entire box of Kleenex, probably one that Uncle left during one of Zuko’s many naps. Handing it to him, she says, “I think you need these.”

“I might hate you,” he says, batting the box away so it thumps onto the floor.

There’s a flicker behind her expression. Fleeting helplessness writ large in the way her eyebrows nudge toward one another and her teeth catch her lower lip. Gone before most people would really catch it. But he caught it and now he’s reminded that she’s not the most terrifying girl in school when it comes to him.

Feeling like a jerk, again, he reaches out and wraps a hand around her wrist. It’s cool to the touch because of his fever. Rubbing a thumb over the soft skin of her inner arm, he says, “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Don’t be,” she says. “I shouldn’t have pushed. You don’t…” It kills him a little, how she pauses, her eyes settled on some loose thread in his comforter. Even though he knows she won’t say it he knows what she’s thinking. You don’t let yourself be vulnerable. Disappointment clings to those unspoken words. Because Katara’s waiting on him. After giving him all the rawest parts of herself on a silver platter. Katara’s waiting on him. Or maybe not, because her eyes are shuttered and her smile now is strained, and she’s saying, “I’m sorry,” like it’s an absolution.

Panic claws at him and he fumbles for explanations. Zuko’s never been good with words and sick muddled as he is they refuse to come at all. In his mind there are the memories—of being sick after his mother left and burning his hand on the stove while he made chicken noodle soup because his father would not feed him if he was weak and he hadn’t eaten for two days—that he needs to share with her so she’ll understand but he can’t figure out how and she’s standing up with that same strained smile as she murmurs goodbyes about letting him rest.

If he lets her go now, he thinks, there will never be another chance.

Zuko uses his grip on her wrist to tug her hand to his face. Most of the skin of his scar is dead, nothing to feel there but pressure and the occasional pain that comes with sudden weather front, but he swears he can feel the rasp of her fingertips as they settle over the ruined skin. Katara doesn’t look like she’s breathing. “Stay.”

Now she sucks in a shaky breath. Her free arm wraps around her own waist like she’s trying to hold herself together. “Why?” she asks. “You haven’t forgiven me. You haven’t even asked if I still—”

Focusing on her glassy eyes, he says, “It doesn’t matter.”

Katara lets out a choked sound and pulls her hand free of his grasp. Wraps her other arm around herself. “The hell it doesn’t,” she says.

Later, he thinks he’ll try to figure out how things went this bad this fast. How they got from gentle teasing to restrained tears. How they even managed to reach this point in the first place instead of exploding or fizzling out so much earlier.

But this, at least, he has words for. Zuko’s voice is hoarse and awful and steady and he tries to gentle it for her but he has to say it, whether she wants it or not, because he can’t lose her like this. “I realized I’m going to choose you being in my life because I can’t imagine not choosing you.” In the hazy winter sunlight, she’s still soft at the edges and so beautiful it aches, and he’s willing to beg. “Please,” he whispers, “Stay.”

Tears build like a flash flood in her eyes and go spilling down her cheeks. One of her knees bumps his ribs as she scrambles onto the bed and tumbles into him. Ignoring that he’s sick and gross and wearing a sweat stained tee she crawls under the covers and presses against him full length. All their limbs are tangled up together. It feels natural to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer. Anchor her into him so that maybe the world will stop tilting wildly on its axis or maybe that’s just his inner eardrums protesting. But when she touches his scar again it’s achingly gentle and she’s saying “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.”

#what do you mean i'm several months late?#i am several months late but i'm trying y'all #like zuko i'm trying #and failing #kaii writes zutara

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lykegenia · 6 years

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The Things We Hide Ch. 10

The Southern Water Tribe stood for a hundred years against the Fire Nation, indomitable until Sozin’s Comet tipped the balance in Fire Lord Ozai’s favour. Now, as planned, the South is decimated, Chief Hakoda is a puppet on his throne, and Princess Katara is a political prisoner held in the Fire Nation capital to ensure his good behaviour. But Ozai has little time to gloat. A vigilante masquerading as the Blue Spirit is causing unrest among the people, rebel ships still hound his navy, and right under his nose the South’s most powerful waterbender waits with the patience of ice to strike at the very heart of his empire and bring it crashing down.

Chapter 1 on AO3 Masterpost here

Words: 3611 Pairing: Zuko x Katara Chapter Summary: The Blue Spirit unmasked! Chapter warnings: violence, blood, nothing explicit

“I give you the Blue Spirit.”

Katara wasn’t aware of standing up, though she hoped she might be able to pass it off as mere surprise. The Blue Spirit. He looked to be in a bad way. He hung limp from the arms of the two foremost guards as they dragged him onto the stage, and he had clearly been beaten, though his shaggy mane of dark hair hid the worst of the damage to his face. He groaned as he was forced into a kneeling position, his wrists pinioned behind him with bonds tied cruelly tight, but he made no move to run or fight back, not even when the cold light of Azula’s flames cast a close, sickly sheen against his pale skin.

“Oh my…” Ursa whispered at Katara’s side. Her hand had gone to her mouth, though she did a better job of schooling her expression.

Ozai was on his feet, too. “What is going on here?” he demanded. “Azula, explain yourself.”

Azula bowed. “Honoured father, I present you with a gift on this fine day of celebration. I felt the search for the masked criminal known as the Blue Spirit was stumbling, so I took matters into my own hands.” Her face split into a feline smile. “Behold, the true face of the monster who’s been terrorizing our capital unchecked, stirring up sedition among those who should know to respect their betters.” In one fluid movement, she stepped behind the figure kneeling on the stage and shoved her hand into his hair, yanking his head back with a jerk that made him cry out. Katara’s eyes widened in shock.

“No…”

“What’s going on?” asked a husky voice behind her.

She startled and quickly smoothed her features. “Zuko!” She had forgotten all about him. “It’s…” She faltered, too distracted by the sudden, horrific turn in her day. The boy on the stage was the same one whose mother she had healed all those weeks ago – Haku. He had offered them shelter and a safe hiding spot from the city guard, and had been generous despite his few possessions. It was impossible that he could be kneeling in front of her now, a spectacle for all the gathered nobles and the preening princess, and yet, in the part of her mind that was still managing to function under the weight of her surprise, it made a ghastly sort of sense.

The Fire Lord was laughing.

“The Blue Spirit? That is a prize indeed.”

She noticed out of the corner of her eye Zuko’s head snapping to the sound of his father’s voice, and then to the stage, his fine features clouded over with something she guessed was disapproval.

“Father,” he tried, “I don’t think –”

“Be silent!” his father snapped. “Do not dishonour me by allowing the first words out of your mouth be anything other than an apology for your lack of punctuality.”

Zuko’s mouth clacked shut.

“Do I not recall entrusting you with the task of capturing our famous Blue Spirit?” Ozai asked.

“Yes, Father.”

“Hm. And yet your sister is the one standing before me with the prize.”

The Fire Lord swept out of his seat in a dry rustle of silk and strode through the ranks of nobility towards the stage, with Ursa dutifully following behind him. Zuko scrambled after his parents, his mouth a thin, downturned line, with Katara and Bato close on his heels. Katara’s mind whirled trying to think of some way to save Haku and get him safely away from the Fire Lord’s wrath. After everything the Blue Spirit had done, all the embarrassment he had caused the guard, it was unlikely anyone accused of his crime would get off lightly. Only once she climbed onto the stage, through the milling cluster of curious actors, did it occur to her that there was a risk the boy might recognise her, but it was too late to retreat.

Close up, he looked dazed as well as bruised, the skin on the left side of his face swollen and almost black, with a frame of crusted scarlet blood from a cut in his scalp. When he realised exactly who it was standing before him his eyes widened as far as his injuries would allow, and, forgetting where he was, he scrambled backwards until Azula’s grip tightened like a pincer on the back of his neck and made him whimper again. There were titters from the audience of nobles.

“Please!” he cried. “This is a mistake!” He stared up into Ozai’s expressionless face, eyes wild. “I’m loyal to the Fire Nation, and my family – so are they! My mother works in the munitions factory, ever since my father died in the southern campaigns, and my brother’s in the Earth Kingdom, fighting with the army near Omashu! I swear, I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You could at least try to have a little originality,” Azula sneered at him. “That’s what all traitors say

“I’m not a traitor!”

“Are you then calling your princess a liar?” Ozai interjected in a tone that was almost a purr. His eyes danced as the prisoner before him flinched away and tried to bow his head to the floor. He forgot Azula was still holding his throat exposed.

“N-no, Your Majesty,” Haku stammered. “But there’s been a mistake – you must believe me!”

Ozai smiled, but to Katara, it was chilling, the gesture of a street puma toying with a half-dead sparrowkeet, letting it flutter away just to the edge of hope before pouncing again. “It seems you are asking me to accept your word over that of my own daughter,” he said.

“Y-your Majesty –”

“Do you deny that which you have been accused of? That you are, in fact, the Blue Spirit and a traitor to your nation and your Fire Lord?

“No!”

“To which?”

The entire scene was abhorrent. Katara could feel Bato’s disgust through the iron grip he kept on her arm – wanting to make sure she wouldn’t do anything rash – and Zuko, standing next to her, radiated heat as if struggling to keep his firebending under control. But he made no move to intervene, and she couldn’t read either Ozai or Azula well enough to figure out how best to deflect their attention. Ursa stood to one side, her face impassive in the growing silence.

Haku, sensing he was in a trap, began to shake. “I – I’m not a traitor,” he insisted, more quietly this time. “I didn’t do anything. I swear you have the wrong person.”

The Fire Lord folded his hands into the ends of his sleeves, the eager light in his eyes replaced by a bored curl of his mouth.

“He does seem so very insistent, and a bit of a lackwit. I admit he’s not quite the man I expected behind the mask. Daughter, I assume you have reason for your suspicions?”

For the first time, Azula’s smirk faltered slightly. “I found witnesses who saw a figure matching the Blue Spirit’s description climb into the upper window of this traitor’s house. They said the Blue Spirit didn’t come out again, even though they watched for hours.”

Whatever was left of Haku’s courage fled. He twisted in Azula’s grip, trembling like a willow stalk as he looked everywhere for a line of escape and found none.

“A most interesting reaction,” Ozai commented, as if examining a curiously-shaped salad leaf. “Very well.” He motioned to the guards who had brought Haku onto the stage, but before they got a chance to hoist their arms under his shoulders, the boy propelled himself forward and fell grovelling at the Fire Lord’s feet.

“I – I can tell you what I know! Please, Your Majesty, my mother is sick. She’ll die if I’m not there to care for her. I’m not the Blue Spirit, but I… I can tell you about him. Him and the witch.”

Katara felt like she had been dropped into the winter sea. Her muscles locked. There was nowhere to run, and if she was exposed here, then there would be no escape. She might manage to get to Ozai, but under the scorching Fire Nation sun she was at a disadvantage, and once she and Bato were dealt with, the royal guard would descend on the house and likely raze it with her attendants still inside. Hama, Nila, Attuk – they would all be burned alive without even having a chance to fight back, and then there would be no hope for people, no chance the plan would succeed.

“What witch?” Azula snapped.

“I saw…” Haku shook himself. “There was a woman with the Blue Spirit when I saw him, one with unnatural powers. She healed a cut on his arm.”

“And her face?”

“It was dark. She wasn’t from the Fire Nation.”

“I see.” Ozai picked at a loose thread on his sleeve in an attitude of complete disdain. “So all you are able to tell me is that the Blue Spirit is indeed capable of bleeding. Pitiful.” He gestured to the guards once more. “Get this filth out of my sight.”

“No!” Haku flinched, but couldn’t escape the guards, who reached down to haul him to his feet. “I have to get back to my mother. She doesn’t know where I am – she’s sick – she needs me – please!”

His cries grew more and more frantic as the guards dragged him away, and he struggled, but the two men flanking him were larger, and well fed, and armoured, and they only tightened their grips on him as his panic turned to shrieks for mercy. Ozai remained unmoved. Zuko had turned his face away, hands in fists at his sides and face carefully empty as he let Haku’s pain wash over him. He did nothing. Nobody was doing anything.

“Wait!”

Katara’s bark held a tone of command, one that she had used on battlefield and in judgement, equal parts hauteur and the raw, uncompromising strength of a glacier, and it carried a compulsion that could not be ignored. The guards paused, Haku stopped struggling, Bato’s hand remained outstretched where he had tried to stop her planting herself in front of the Fire Lord, who now stared at her with an expression of blank astonishment.

“This boy is not the Blue Spirit,” she told him, fearless.

Ozai’s hands folded back into his sleeves as he shook off his surprise. She noticed the way his eyes glittered, and how Zuko, apparently caught between amazement and fear, tried to catch her eye to get her to back down, but the warnings meant nothing to her, not with the sting of Haku’s pleas in her ears.

It was Azula who found her tongue first. “What would you know? How dare you interfere with –”

“Peace, Azula,” the Fire Lord said calmly. “Let us hear our ally’s opinion on the matter. Tell me, my lady, what makes you so certain of your claim?”

Bato took an unconscious step forward, as did Zuko, but the frisson of energy connecting Katara to the Fire Lord allowed them no closer. She glared straight at him, hot blue into cold yellow, knowing he meant to trip her, to play with her like he had played with Haku, but she was a chief’s daughter and had spoken before the council of elders. She searched under the concealing layer of makeup for the scar that cut across his cheek, and when she found it, the last flutterings of nervousness died in her chest.

She raised her chin. “I cannot be certain, Your Majesty,” she said. “But the word of one absent witness should hardly be enough to sway the judgement of a wise ruler. Besides which, look at this boy.” She gestured towards Haku but didn’t dare turn to him, in case he recognised her. “My attendants have brought me the marketplace tales of your Blue Spirit, and while I am sure most of them must be exaggerated, there are many who say the Blue Spirit can fight a dozen men at once. The man who is able to do so would need to be fit and martially trained. This boy is neither. And there is another thing I have been wondering,” she added, turning to Azula. “Did you find the Blue Spirit’s attire at his house when you arrested him? I understand he wears a mask to hide his features.”

For an instant, silence reigned. Azula’s mouth twisted into a sour line and her eyes narrowed.

“You make an eloquent argument,” Ozai conceded, though the corner of his lips quirked in a way that sent goosebumps trailing along Katara’s arms. “Did you find any such evidence, Azula?”

“We haven’t searched the peasant’s house yet,” she bit out, still fixated on Katara’s neutral smile. “But I’m confident that when we do, we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

“Then I have heard all the evidence I need,” Ozai replied. “Traitors cannot be suffered. Take him to Keijo.”

“No!”

“That isn’t fair!”

“This display is no longer amusing to me, my lady,” Ozai snarled. “Curb your tongue.”

“Is this what passes for Fire Nation justice?” Katara demanded instead, stepping forward. “Your word against that of someone without the power to defend themselves, everything as you say because nobody dares to challenge you? It’s sick. How can you –”

The blow came faster than she could register it. Ozai backhanded her across the face with a ringing slap that sent her spinning to the lacquered boards of the stage. For an instant her senses whirled with the odour of varnish and the metal tang of blood in her mouth, her sight lost as her hair fell stinging into her eyes. She felt Bato kneel by her side, and felt the warmth of his calloused grip as he turned her over to see the damage. To everyone else, it was the action of a concerned guardian, but the pressure on her upper arm was restraint rather than encouragement. She laid her hand over his own to tell him she understood, to say she was alright, even if every nerve in her jangled body fired with the urge to have the entire court watch on as she tore the Fire Lord to shreds with her bending. Would the Earth Kingdom traitors and Fire Nation sycophants titter then?

The whine in her ears narrowed into focus. Ozai spoke in a voice like needles.

“Have I not been generous to you? Have I not given you wealth, a home, your own attendants?” he spat. “Without me, you would still be crawling across that frozen wasteland at the end of the world, a filthy barbarian scraping out seal hides to keep warm. And consternation is the thanks I get for raising you into the realms of civilised society? You should be thanking me, you little Water Tribe bitch.”

Bato squeezed her arm again, this time to keep himself from reacting to the insult. He shifted behind her, giving her a clear path should she wish to take it, and a body at her back to protect it as she took her vengeance. She knew he had already marked where their most dangerous opponents were standing. Strangely enough, his fury was enough to quiet her, to drain her anger away like rain off a mountainface and bring her back to herself. Graceful as the arc of tea from pot into cup, she raised herself onto her knees, and with the fate of the entire Southern Water Tribe in her reply, she bent her head towards Ozai in a gesture of contrition.

“Your Majesty shows great generosity to my people,” she murmured. “A generosity we do not deserve. Forgive my outburst. I will strive in the future to make my actions better match the courtesy you have bestowed upon me.”

She kept her head bent, waiting. Ozai took in the blood on her flushed face, the way her shoulders slumped and her hands lay limp on her knees. He didn’t know water, or the way of deep, swirling currents, and so took the calm he saw as defeat rather than the stillness of a blizzard on the horizon. When he spoke, his voice had lost the rasp of swarming insects and now dripped like honey.

“What is there to forgive, my dear?” he asked. “We cannot expect you to be civilised all at once. Come, enough of this. Let us be free of this distraction and return to enjoy what remains of the evening.”

He turned and left the stage, letting the actors in the wings scurry out of his way like wheat stalks before the wind. It was the signal for the rest of his entourage to follow, but most were still too stunned to move. Rarely did Ozai display his anger with such crude physical violence, and to those who knew him, it showed an unusual loss of control. Something in Katara had unsettled him. Ursa made the first move. She stepped after her husband, but hesitated and turned back to help the younger woman to her feet.

“I don’t know what your people use for bruises, but most of the plants won’t grow here. A liniment of gardenia and sweetgum should help,” she whispered, so only Katara could hear. “I’ll send a maid with my recipe for Dit Da Jao later, if you like.”

“Thank you,” Katara replied. She wobbled as she stood up, and not entirely for show.

“Mother, you should go along with Father,” Azula said from the other end of the stage, before turning to supervise the guards leading Haku away. The boy turned back just before he disappeared out of sight, though he was too far away for Katara to tell what he saw when he looked at her.

Only when the princess had gone did the stage master emerge. He bowed to Ursa, who followed after Ozai as outwardly serene as ever, and then came up to Katara and Bato, wringing a silk handkerchief between his hands.

“I’m sorry, my lady,” he said, subtly passing it to her, “but I must ask you to leave. The play, you know…”

“Thank you, master,” Bato replied. “We wouldn’t want to add to your trouble.”

“And you also, Prince Zuko,” the stage master said. “Your honoured father is waiting for our story to begin.”

“Huh? Oh, of course.” Zuko turned away from the shadow where his sister had disappeared, shaken from private thoughts. He hovered as Bato helped Katara into the recess beyond the wings, noting the ashen colour beneath her brown skin.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she told him, without looking at him.

His brows drew together. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“And what was I supposed to do,” she snapped, “stand by and do nothing, like you?” Her eyes darted to where he bit his bottom lip, obviously fighting back a retort.

He sighed. “Nothing you said would have helped. My father has wanted the Blue Spirit too badly for too long.”

“Of course nothing you do will help if you don’t try to do anything in the first place. How many times have you stood by and watched while innocent people are punished like that?”

Zuko’s eyes blazed. “You don’t know anything about me,” he growled. “You don’t understand how it is here. All you do is sit in your garden, drinking tea and – and reading poetry. This isn’t one of your sagas, where everyone ends up happy.”

“No, I’m sure it’s one of your renga, where all happiness is fleeting and any action is pointless because despair is the ultimate state of the universe!” she shot back. “It doesn’t matter to me. I will never turn my back on people who need my help.”

Whatever retort Zuko had prepared, it died on his tongue.

“What happens when your father realises that boy isn’t the Blue Spirit?” she asked, still with a bite in her voice.

“It doesn’t matter.” His voice dropped as he shrugged. “Either way, my father wins. If the boy is the Blue Spirit, he’ll be rid of a traitor. And even if he’s not… he still helped him, which makes him a traitor by association, and he’ll serve as a suitable example to maintain order. He’ll just be pardoned… after.”

“You mean after he’s been executed,” Bato said. He had remained silent during the argument, watching the Crown Prince with wary curiosity.

Zuko nodded and sighed. “Yes. This… wasn’t supposed to happen.” He seemed to be talking more to himself, but the weariness in his voice was enough to sooth Katara’s temper.

“They said you were the one meant to catch him,” she said.

To her surprise, he chuckled and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I am. And any of his accomplices, I suppose.” His voice trailed off and he looked thoughtful, distracted enough to miss the sudden tension in her shoulders.

“What’s Keijo?”

“It’s a prison built into the old lava tubes of the Caldera. It houses anyone who needs to be watched closely, or who presents a danger to the state.” He shrugged. “The real problem is my sister.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s up to something,” Zuko explained. “I believe you when you say that kid isn’t the Blue Spirit, but when it comes out, my father won’t be happy, and she has to know that.”

Katara frowned, digesting the significance of this information, and the little flicker of gratification she felt when Zuko said he believed her. Either way, he was right. There was nothing more she could do to help Haku – at least not until after dark.

“The play’s starting,” she said. “We’ll be missed.”

#zutara #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #zutara fanfiction #a:tla #avatar #avatar: the last airbender

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 3 years

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Speak No Evil (Part 28)

Seicho holds her fingers to Azula’s lips and Azula curls her hand around her wrist. It is a new little habit that she has picked up and the princess seems to enjoy it quite well. Azula gives her thumb a kiss before laying back and rubbing her head against her pillow. For a change, the princess seems to be resting easy. She should savor it while it lasts. She feels almost guilty about it but it is far past time for the princess to begin talking more freely again. She had pitched the idea to Zuko and the man agreed that it would be a good idea to go through with it. She just hasn’t gotten around to informing Azula of what she has been volunteering for.

She brushes her hand over Azula’s hair. “You almost ready to wake up?”

“Yes.” Azula mumbles.

“I thought that you’d enjoy a day at the spa, I asked your servants if they could have a nice day ready for us.” She smiles. “So whenever you’re ready, we can go down there.”

“That sounds nice.” Azula slowly sits up again and rubs her eyes.

“Afterwards I was thinking that we could go to the hot springs if you’d like. Mai knows a good one. I figured that, since Zuko and Zhang-Zin are taking a day to themselves…”

Azula interrupts her rambling, “that sounds fine, Seicho.”

Only a week of use and her voice already sounds better, quite notably so. She is still terribly quiet and off pitch but her speech is smoother and doesn’t crack as often. Seicho gives a Azula a good squeeze. The woman stands, stretches and gestures for Seicho to follow her.

Breakfast is much too long for Seicho with a good spa day waiting for her. Azula, very much accustomed to being spoiled like so, doesn’t seem to be in any rush. She supposes that it is just as well to be able to hear Azula request various condiments.

After Azula finally pushes her platter to the side, Seicho finds that the spa was more than worth waiting for. She doesn’t think that her hair has ever felt so clean and her face so fresh. Beach fragrances tickle her nose and bring her back to sunrises on the sand and collecting ocean worn rocks. Now she carries the ocean with her in the form of a gentle aroma.

The servants massage her hands and feet and run a comb through her locks. Their fingers work at her scalp dutifully and masterfully until her whole body tingles pleasantly. She has never felt so deeply relaxed. Spirits, Azula is definitely a spoiled thing if this is what many of her days began with.

When she is sufficiently groomed she grins and finds Mai and then finds her way to the hot springs. She hadn’t realized that it was possible to feel more relaxed than she had already but watching, the steam curl in languid spirals, she feels absolutely serene.

Azula leans upon her shoulder, her finger traces lazy circles on the water’s surfaces as her locks fan out around her.

“You picked a great place, Mai.” Seicho smiles.

The woman shrugs, “it’s my favorite. I haven’t been here since…” She trails off. “Nevermind, it’s just nice to come back here with company again.”

“You’re having a good time too, right?”

Azula stirs, readjusting the way she leans upon her. “It’s nice, thank you, Seicho. Though I have to wonder about the occasion.”

So it would seem that Azula knows that she is trying to soften her up for something.

“I’ll tell you when we get back to the palace.”

.oOo.

Azula curses Seicho for the idea and curses Zuko for taking her up on it. Her hands shake as she makes her way to the balcony. The crowd below her is so alarmingly large. Frankly she had been counting on no one showing up when Zuko had announced that she would be the one addressing them that morning. But a plentiful crowd has amassed already and stragglers are still approaching. She is almost certain that this assembly, in spite of her wishes and anticipations, is fuller than Zuko’s.

She isn’t certain that they are there to cheer her on and welcome her back to the public eye or to gawk at a tragedy in the making, to listen for themselves and see if the rumors are true. Regardless of intent, she feels as though she has just been set up to fall.

The crowd takes notice of her and falls silent. She wishes that they would keep chattering, talking over her until Zuko calls for her to come back inside where she won’t have to look upon them anymore--where they can’t look upon her.

Azula curls her fingers around the banister and inhales. She parts her lips, trying to will herself to let words come from them. She knows her speech, she knows it well, every little detail. And yet she can’t seem to find them on her tongue. The silence drags and her nervousness heightens. She is taking too long, leaving them with plenty of room to speculate and judge. Her grip tightens, her hands shake. She should be able to do this, she has done is so many times before and it has never been a problem.

She takes another breath, she supposes that the only thing more shameful than assaulting them with a grating voice would be to stand their dumbly, wasting everyone’s time and her own. She clears her throat, regretting that she hadn’t taken a glass of slippery elm tea beforehand. Her throat is dry, she beckons for Lo and Li to fetch her some. She will take her drink and feign that that is the reason for her hesitation. Her nerves settle some, she hasn’t made a fool of herself yet.

She is thankful that the crowd doesn’t antagonize her with murmurs. They are patient as she empties the tea cup and hands it back to Lo. She steps forward, “good evening Caldera City.” She begins, trying her hardest to ignore her own voice as she tries to project it. It occurs to her that she can always tell Li that her throat is sore if she grows exhausted by this speech. “There are several things that myself, Fire Lord Zuko, and the council should like to address.” She pauses, she might not have to lie about the strain in her throat. “Namely, we have decided to legalize several things including dancing, dance parties, and several other art forms. We would also like to discuss changes to our education system…” she pauses again and requests another cup. She isn’t even sure that they can hear her, even projecting as loudly as she can, her voice is so faint. She downs the second cup, the soreness only alleviates a touch. “Up until now our education has been regrettably less about knowledge and more about propaganda.”

The crowd seems to murmur in favor.

“So to begin, the Fire Nation prides itself on its culture, rich culture of course. Lately the other nations have begun associating our culture with war and brutality…” For such bold words, her voice is so weak. It makes her sick. “And to a degree, they might be correct. We have lost forms of art to military and in an era of peace, the crown would like to push for a recover of dance, music, and visual art.” This speech could be empowering, bold, respectable. In falls short in all regards without the right tones and volumes to deliver it in. She speaks of bringing song back but with a voice that demonstrates nothing but rejection of music.

The crowd claps no less, most likely for the content alone and not for the woman and the voice delivering it. She pushes forward. “In order to rejuvenate the arts, we will be adding art and music back into the school system alongside literature from other nations and texts that have…” She motions for a third cup. “Been previously banned. The prospect shows promise and we are eager to see the things that make the Fire Nation’s culture so glorious be revived.”

Another series of claps alongside a murmur of approval do very little to absolve her of her humiliation. Of the feeling that she has made a perfect mess of what could have been a grand speech, a powerful moment in Fire Nation history. Her voice is too somber and weak for such a magnificent occasion.

She bids her people a good night and retreats into the safety and comfort of the palace. “You did amazing!” Seicho declares, throwing her arms around her.

Perhaps she has simply been rendered emotionally vulnerable by that horrible speech but the reaction reminds her so much of TyLee. Of the way that the girl would always gush over her speeches no matter how trivial. She finds herself breaking down again and she hates herself for it. She wishes that she weren’t so delicate. She isn’t sure when she has become so. Maybe she has always been like this. Maybe she is only just expressing it now because it is safe to do so.

Safe… She realizes that she is safe. Seicho rubs little circles on her back. She doesn’t ask her what is wrong and Azula feels like she already knows. She isn’t ridiculed for her sadness. There is no one to yell or shout about the display. There is only Seicho leading her down the hall and Mai--albeit reluctantly--offering her more slippery elm tea.

She hears Zuko dismiss the crowd. Seicho promises her that she did wonderful all the way down the hall. Azula only nods, her voice is shot anyhow. She unbinds her hair and slips into the bathtub, she gestures for Seicho to join her if she pleases.

She splashes water over her face and allows Seicho’s hair strokes to relax her. She is safe. She considers that, mayhaps, Seicho is right. Maybe her speech had been fine even if it isn’t up to her own standards. Seicho takes her hand. She is safe.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Azula/Cupholder girl #Fanfiction

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gladerwolfstarkimagines · 3 years

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Imagine being the reserved quiet niece of Ursa and cousin of Zuko and Azula, a powerful fire bender who catches Ty lee’s attention. You struggle to find a way to show her you return her affection until Azula threatens her....

(Note: this is loosely based on the comic the search which takes place after the tv show ended and follows Zuko finding his mother)

You’d grown up in a village terrified of the fire nation. Your family used to be the proud respected descendants of Avatar Roku....and then Fire lord Azulon showed up and demanded one of the line marry his son Ozai. Your aunt was stolen away just for being linked to a fire bender and so when you developed fire bending your family were horrified. They forbade you from ever using your bending but refused to explain why. So of course you ignored them and carried on working to be the best fire bender ever. You absorbed every technique you could read about and were advancing quickly....until your family caught you. They were furious but you were determined never to stop and so they saw there was nothing else to do but tell you the truth. They finally told you what fire bending had done to their family and urged you never to show your power. Who knew what the royal family would do if they knew you existed, if they’d take you too...and so you stopped. You stopped fire bending but you were restless, so much energy bottled up inside you, and so trained in other physical disciplines. Your family disapproved of your boisterous activities but they were better than fire bending so they allowed it. Even when your aunt returned from the fire nation they didn’t lessen their rules on you an inch. You listened to them dutifully but continuously felt the itch your fire in your palms. You vowed you would get to use your fire bending some day...some how.

8 years later

Your family had socially and physically isolated themselves so much you were unaware the war had ended even months after Zuko had been crowned. It wasn’t until said new fire lord appeared on your doorstep that you realised everything had changed.

You were outside with your little cousin Kiyi when a well dressed man appeared. You immediately identified him as some noble man from the fire nation or maybe even a royal and tensed. The fear instilled in you was strong and you swept your cousin behind you before getting in a defensive stance. "Who are you and what do you want?" you called adrenaline pulsing through you. The man started towards you and you drew the knife you always kept on you "don’t come any closer". The man raised his hands and you realised he wasn’t quiet a man yet, he was about your age and had an odd burn across his eye. "What do you want" you said louder and Kiyi clutched your legs. "I’m looking for a woman, Ursa...does she live here?". "No" you said "go away". "Are you sure?' he asked "please it’s important i find her, here’s a photo of her". He went to step forwards and you raised your hand. "Okay here" he said and put it down before walking away. You picked the photo up and before you could do anything Kiyi frowned "mommy!". "Mommy?" the boy asked confused "so you do know her? She’s here? I have to see her!". He started walking closer and wasn’t slowing down. You didn’t want him to get near you and so used your best attack. Your fire practically leapt from you after being supressed for so many years and hit him square in the chest sending him flying backwards. "Go away" you yelled loudly "now or i will hurt you". "Zuko!" someone yelled and you saw a group come running around the corner. "Kiyi run! Tell Ursa to run!" you yelled and turned to face them. You shot some warning jets of flame “leave now” you yelled trying to feign confidence. A girl dressed in blue threw up protection while a girl in pink worked her way towards you with super human agility. You fired at her but she dodged your flames as easily as if you were a beginner bender. The girl reached you and you switched to close range attacks and the two of you became locked in a close combat. “No stop!” the boy yelled but neither you or the girl stopped. The girl was dodging ever single attack you threw her but you were getting closer. You singed her t-shirt when the girl landed some punches along your muscles. Your body cramped in pain and you flinched clutching your arm. You raised your other arm but nothing happened. You raised both hands but again no flame. Your fire was gone. “My bending....” you gasped and the girl knocked the knife from your hand. “Ty lee stop it!” the boy yelled and the girl in pink simply backflipped back to the group. “I don’t know what you did to me but I still won’t let you take her” you growled. The others matched your defensive stance but the boy pushed past them “no leave her I think she’s my...” when a voice cut him off. "Zuko?". You turned to see your aunt running forwards her eyes fixed on the man. "Zuko!" she cried and rushed past you to throw her arms around him. They were both sobbing by the time the rest of your family arrived and you were utterly confused. "What’s going on?" you asked loudly and Ursa smiled "y/n dear it’s okay, this is my son Zuko, he’s your cousin, it’s okay!".

You family flocked around Zuko and all had similar reactions to Ursa. You watched still clutching your arm as they all headed to the house. The group with Zuko went to follow and you zoned in on the girl who had done this to you. “Hey you” you called at the pink girl. She glanced at you before bounding over “i’m Ty lee, it’s lovely to meet you, your fire bending is really pretty!”. “What did you do to me?” you cried in reply and the girls smile wavered. “Sorry about that, I’m sort of swore to protect your cousin so I had to attack you, i used Chi blocking on you don’t worry it’s not permanent”. “Chi what? That’s not important...what do I do to reverse it? Undo what you did!”. “ I can’t make it come back instantly” Ty lee frowned “it takes a while for your body to repair but it’ll come back soon I promise”. You stared at your hands “you swear it’ll come back”. “Totally” she smiled crossing her heart and you stared confused why she was so happy. Was she mocking you or something? You were about to ask her when your aunt called “Y/n come meet your cousins Zuko and Azula” and with a glance to Ty lee (who was still smiling) you made your way inside.

Ursa introduced you but that was all the encouragement Zuko needed, he seemed thrilled to have a cousin his age and launched into a thorough interogation to work out everything about you while his sister just glared. It was hard not to be caught up in his infectious happiness. He called over his friends to meet you and you noticed how proudly he called you his cousin, a large grin on his face. When the group reached you Zuko smiled “guys this is my cousin y/n! Y/n this is Sokka, Katara, Ty lee, Mai and Aang”. They all shot greetings at you and you blinked in reply. “Aang as in avatar aang....”. “Yeah” the boy smiled awkwardly and you stared “my cousin the firelord is friends with the avatar...the avatar and fire lord are in my house right now...”. “It gets old soon I promise” Zuko’s girlfriend Mai told you and everyone laughed. Zuko was called away by your adoring family but his friends stayed around you. They all began asking you questions excited to get to know you and arrived at your bending pretty soon. "You took Zuko out surprisingly easy" Mai smirked "you must be a skilled fire bender". You glanced at your elders worried but none of them were even listening, they were all staring at Zuko amazed. You’d never seen them look so relaxed before and it dawned on you that Zuko being fire lord would change everything. It would free your family from their fear and you smiled emotional at the thought. “Y/n?” the avatar asked bringing you back and you nodded "sorry yeah i’m a good fire bender" you admitted "well i guess...i’ve never had any training or actually met another fire bender". "Really?" Katara asked and when you nodded she smiled "so you’re a prodigy!" she cried and you blushed when someone started to laugh. You followed the laugh to it’s owner, your cousin Azula who was watching you with a cruel sneer. "A prodigy? How can she be growing up here?". You narrowed your eyes but another girl scolded her "you don’t need resources to be a prodigy that’s the whole point Azula" Ty lee snapped before turning back to you "I bet you’re awesome!" she smiled winking and you blushed.

Your family celebrated well into the night and you wanted to join them but something was worrying you...your bending still hadn’t returned yet despite what Ty lee had told you. You walked away from the house and practiced the basic moves you’d known since you were 5 but could conjure a single flame. “Maybe wait a bit longer?” a voice called and you saw the said cause of your predicament. “Sorry I don’t know exactly how long but they will come back I swear” Ty lee frowned. You frowned staring down at your hands “I’ve spent so long having to hide my bending and now I can show it, they’re gone”. “Only temporarily!” Ty lee assured you “but I get it and i’m sorry....it must’ve been hard hiding who you were all this time?" she asked and you nodded "i guess". Silence settled and Ty lee stared at you. "You don’t talk much" she observed and you blushed. “I noticed in the party you’re rather quiet, that does not run in common with your family” she smirked as your family could be heard from your position outside. "Sorry i was always told to never speak about what i can do and so to have an audience just waiting to listen....it’s pretty anxiety provoking". The girl frowned and laid a hand on your hand "i’m sorry i didn’t realise, we don’t have to talk about that, we can talk about something else". You didn’t get why the pretty girl was with you at all but suspected she felt bad for disabling your bending. "Thank you" you said politely and a silence settled again. You winced, fearing this would get awkward but Ty lee seemed to be a cunning socialite. "So what’s your favourite colour?". "My favourite colour?" you asked amused. Ty lee nodded "your aura is hard to read....you’re quiet hard to read actually and that intrigues me so humour me". You blushed as the beautiful chi blocker stared at you intensely and answered her questions.

A lot of time had passed and still the two of you were outside and Ty lee’s constant chattering broke past your nervous nature. "So what’s your life like?" you asked now more comfortable "growing up so high born must’ve been cool, so much power and freedom..." you said wistfully. Ty lee frowned and you were immediately worried you’d upset her. "I’m sorry have i...". "No" she smiled at you "you didn’t say anything wrong, you’re right, i had many opportunities women don’t get but they came with expectations and set backs" she said glancing back at the house "i did things i wasn’t proud of just to be different...you see i have 6 sister who look exactly like me and so i struggled to stand out and be different. I tried desperately to not fade into the background and guess i fell to extreme measures in the process". You frowned and Ty Lee sighed before smiling "but that was in the past! Now i’m a kyoshi warrior hired with the protection of the fire lord!” she cried “my life’s pretty good now”. “I’m pleased for you” you smiled and Ty lee smiled back at you. You noticed she had a habit of staring really intensely and with how beautiful and nice she was it was a bit too much for your tired state “we should go back to the party” you blushed looking down and Ty lee nodded “sure!” not seeming to notice the effect she had on you.

2 days later

Your cousins arrival had certainly shaken things up but things were slowly getting back to normal and your chores were still expected of you and so you took your cart into town to get the shopping like every week. You were almost back to the secluded area of you home when you noticed a group of green women on the path ahead. They all had their faces painted white and had fans. You frowned confused at the entourage your cousin travelled with when one of them popped out infront of you. "Y/n!" Ty lee cried "these are the women i work with the Kyoshi warriors, everyone this is y/n Zuko’s cousin" she said exposing you to the large group of women. "Hi" you smiled awkwardly and they all nodded to you “is Zuko okay?” you asked her. “Ow yeah Suki and the girls are just here to make sure it stays that way...that is a lot of shopping, do you need some help?" Ty lee asked looking at your full cart and you shook your head "i’m fine thanks". "Are you sure? It’s no trouble” she smiled and before you could protest she spun around to her friends. “Suki i’ll be back in a bit" Ty lee called and twirled back around to you. She hopped up beside you on the cart and you blushed as she perched on the armrest of your seat. “Lets go” she smiled.

Ty lee had a habit of finding you and joining you in whatever you were doing. You didn’t mind, she was nice company but that was also the problem. Any time she was around you became a soft slow thinking mess, made worse by Ty lee’s lack of boundaries and intense kindness.

Case in point, Ty lee was quiet for 3 seconds before she began complimenting you. "It’s so cool you can drive one of these things" she smiled and you blushed "it’s not hard really i snap it when i want the horse to go and pull it to stop...". "Well i still think that’s cool" Ty lee cried and you looked away so she wouldn’t see your blush. You’d have to learn to stop blushing around her or she’d realise you liked her. You reached your home and climbed down as Ty lee somersaulted off. You watched impressed before turning to the cart "if we unload it here that’ll be best". Ty lee nodded and watched you pick up three boxes. Ty lee stepped forwards and heaved two but they didn’t lift up. Ty lee frowned and tried again but they wouldn’t budge. "Those are probably a bit heavy" you frowned "try a bag". Ty lee lifted a bag of vegetables and then saw you discreetly lift the two boxes she’d been struggling with. "Wow you're so strong" she cried and you blushed "i’m not...” you stammered but Ty Lee wouldn’t drop it. "No you are i couldn’t move them and you just picked them up like that...i bet your arms are huge". Your blush was painfully obvious and there was no hiding it which made you angry, was she doing this on purpose? Why was she showering you in compliments if not to try embarrassing you? "I...i’m not...you're one to talk" you replied glancing at her toned physique before becoming horrified at what you’d just said and done. Ty lee didn’t seem to mind though she just blushed and carried on helping to unload the cart.

When you’d unloaded the cart Ty lee lingered as you sorted the supplies away and when you’d finished she still hadn’t made a move to leave. You liked being around her but knew you were so obvious with your crush she had to leave or she’d easily work it out. “So that’s all the shopping sorted, thanks for helping” you said and Ty lee smiled “no problem”. You nodded staring at her waiting for her to leave but Ty lee just smiled at you. “So i guess i’ll see you around?” you asked and Ty lee took the hint “ow i’m so sorry I bet you’ve got so much work...i’ll get out of your hair”. Ty lee smiled but you noticed she seemed a bit embarrassed and it killed you that you’d hurt her. So against the sensible part of your mind telling you to avoid the girl if you didn’t want to make a fool of yourself, you called after her. “Ty lee” you called “would you...do you want to stay for dinner?” you asked. “Really?” she asked smiling again and you nodded “we always cook too much so you’d be helping but of course you don’t have to...” you started when Ty lee cut you off. “I’d love to!” she cried and you nodded cheeks pink as you led her into the house. Zuko and Mai were inside already with your family and everyone looked up when you walked in together. “Y/n’s here great we can start” your grandmother smiled “and she brought a guest”. “You all know Ty lee” you said awkwardly as Ty lee beamed beside you “y/n invited me! I hope you don’t mind”. You blushed as your family all told Ty lee she was welcome and made room for her beside you. “Your family’s so nice” she grinned at you and you blushed very aware of said family watching you and Ty lee very smugly...they knew you had a weakness for nice girls.

Mai was also watching and she smiled to see you blush any time Ty lee grabbed you or came close to you, two thing with Ty lee seemed to do to you a lot. Her friend has definitely brought her A-game.

You saw Ty lee around a lot, especially as your family seemed to find any excuse to bring the talented chi blocker anywhere near you. The excuses varied from sending Ty lee to help you with the horse, to calling you in for dinner, to having her bring you spare change on your daily errands. Ty lee seemed more than willing to help and no matter how crowded the room was she’d somehow notice you and make her way over to you. It didn’t matter who she was with she’d drop what she was doing and appear by your side, usually not moving away from you for the rest of the night. At first you found the constant attention and looks from your family embarrassing but you soon realised embarrassment was worth it just to have Ty lee by you. She made you feel special and important in a town and family that had always wanted you to be quiet. Ty lee seemed to make it her mission to get you to open up and you found you liked it. And her of course....a lot. The situation where you realised you couldn’t deny it anymore was when you ran into Ty lee in town. Ty lee surrounded by adoring suitors from your village what she caught sight of you. She called you over but never a fan of the boys your age you waved her away and expected that to be the end of it. Seconds later you heard heavy breathing and Ty lee appeared. "Phew your village has a lot of friendly people sometimes it’s a bit much...can I walk with you?”. You blushed realising she'd ditched all the boys in your town just for you and nodded "sure" and led her away from the group of simmering boys watching. As much as every encounter with her left you feeling dazed and humiliated at whatever embarrassing thing you’d done, you hoped Zuko would never leave so Ty lee could stay. You were well and truly smitten.

1 week later

Your whole family had been anxious for so long that when something did go wrong their response time was impeccable. You were all gathered out of bed minutes after Zuko called and stood around listening as he explained how his sister Azula had escaped his custody and was raising a revolt against him. You listened worried as your cousin explained what Azula was capable of and watched as everyone hurried to set protection plans in place. You wouldn’t be called on for your opinion or skills so you were just listening in the background when someone mentioned Ty lee. You perked up and noticed she wasn’t here. "I’m sorry but what was that about Ty lee?" you called and Zuko frowned "Azula kidnapped her, she took her as a hostage so we wouldn’t follow her". "What? We have to get her back!". Mai nodded "that’s the plan". "Well i want to help, if you need fighters i volunteer, I can leave tonight". "Y/n" your mother gasped but you shook her away "i’m a good fire bender I can help get Ty lee back". Zuko smiled "thanks y/n but were not actually planning on engaging with Azula". "But how will you get Ty lee back?". "Hopefully with a trade she likes those" Mai said dryly "it’s too difficult to sneak into Azula’s base so that’s our only option. She'll offer one we just have to wait". "Just wait?" you asked and Zuko frowned "I know it sounds backwards but we could do more harm than good attacking Azula". “That’s only if we lose” you pointed out and Zuko nodded “that’s true but my sister is hard to beat one on one and a group is too easy to spot, we’ll just have to wait”. You took in what Zuko said and fell silent. You stayed mute the rest of the meeting and may’ve seemed calm or passive to the others but you weren’t. You took in every single thing they said, every detail about Azula’s camp and snook away before the meeting had ended.

Azula’s camp was not as impressive as you thought it would be, just a small compound that was very easy to break into. Ty lee seemed to be the main prisoner and so you listened to some guards and found her location. You arrived outside the house you were sure Ty lee was being kept in and calmed yourself slowing your breathing and concentrating on what you were here to do. You waited for a guard to approach and took his keys before knocking him unconscious. You hid him in a shaded area before opening the door to Ty lee’s prison. You took out the first guard you saw with fire bending and he went down unconscious. A second tried to rush you but you winded him with fire bending and then kicked him over for good measure. The man fell over and went to get back up but your flared your fire "stay down" you yelled and he did. You straightened and looked around when a voice cried out to you. Relief flooded through your body to see Ty lee stood there and you rushed to her. "Ty lee! You’re....please tell me you’re okay?". She nodded "i’m fine! I can’t believe you’re here”. You smiled at her before spinning around to the conscious guard. "Open her cell!" you commend and the man scrambled to get it open. Ty lee swept out as soon as it was open and you pushed the two guards inside locking it and taking the keys. "You saved me" Ty Lee cried and she flung her arms around you. You hugged her back and smiled, going as pink as her top, "well i....we should go" you tugged Ty lee’s hand and noticed as she winced. "What’s wrong?" you asked and she shook her head "nothing lets go". "No you’re hurt...". You noticed how she stood awkwardly putting more weight on one foot and frowned "your ankle, you can’t walk". Ty lee shook her head worried how you’d escape if she couldn’t run "no i’m fine i promise". "I’m not letting you injure yourself more" you told her. Ty lee went to assure you she could exert it a bit more when you suddenly picked her up. Ty lee yelped as you carefully swept her up in your arms. "Is this okay? Does it hurt if I do this?". Now Ty lee was the blushing embarrassed one, you were holding her up so easily and securely, it was impressive. "It’s fine" she smiled "thank you" and you nodded. "Okay hold on" and took off into a run.

You made it back to your town with only minor incidences. It had been a rough night regardless and your arms ached painfully when you put Ty lee down having reached your home. Zuko and the others were still gathered inside and you hooked Ty lee’s arm around your neck helping her to the door. You pushed the door open and led Ty lee in. Mai glanced at you before doing a double take registering who was beside you. "Ty lee, you’re okay!" she cried rushing to hug her friend. You stepped away from her so Mai could hug her but rushed to grab Ty lee a chair. You seated it behind her and tapped Ty lee’s shoulder lightly. She took the seat shooting you a smile as the others all frowned. "But how?" Zuko asked. "Y/n" ty lee said proudly "she was amazing! She stormed Azula’s camp and carried me the whole way back!". Mai noticed how you brushed away Ty lee’s compliments and were blushing vividly. She also noticed how you stood protectively behind Ty lee and how Ty lee twisted in her seat to look up at you. "No it’s the bravest most valiant thing i’ve ever seen!" Ty lee cried and launched into a full blow by blow retelling. Mai watched as her oblivious friend made your blush worse and Mai smiled. It was clear you liked Ty lee but even clearer you didn’t realise Ty lee liked you too. Ty lee may come across as perpetually friendly but Mai could tell when she was just being nice and when she was genuinely impressed. Ty lee was indeed very impressed with you.

Ty lee’s POV

“I can’t believe you got yourself kidnapped” Mai scolded her and Ty lee rolled her eyes. Katara had worked on her ankle but it was a bad sprain so would take some time to heal. So Ty lee was forced to go to bed when all she wanted to do was help with the Azula problem. Mai however was very strict and seemed just as determined as you to make sure she was okay. “I didn’t mean to get kidnapped, plus it’s fine i’m back now!”. “Thanks to y/n” Mai commented and Ty lee nodded “I know, the way she risked everything just to help me...she’s really something” she sighed wistfully. Mai scoffed glaring at her and Ty lee paused “what?”. “You are not this clueless!”. “What?” Ty lee cried and Mai rolled her eyes. “You seriously don’t see that y/n is smitten with you?”. “What!” Ty lee yelled going pink “why do you think that?”. “Ow I don’t know maybe because she’s an introvert who avoids anyone but the two of you are always together, or because she brings you to her family dinner every week, or how whenever she’s around you she can barely look you in the eye without blushing....or how she tore down Azula’s camp risking her life just because you were there and then literally carried you back in her arms”. Mai sat next to Ty lee with a bounce and Ty lee stared “I....I never noticed”. “Figures, you never notice all the people infatuated with you but please tell me you realise you’re just as smitten for her?”. Ty lee blushed profoundly and looked down “i’m that obvious huh?”. “Yup, you’re not fooling anyone with all those excuses to run y/n’s errands with her”. Ty lee chuckled and then paused “you really think she likes me too?” she asked coyly. Mai rolled her eyes at how clueless her friend was but smiled despite herself ”definitely, so go get your girl”.

Your POV

After Ty lee was safely returned home and her ankle seen to by the healer Katara you promptly collapsed into bed. Your mission had been a resounding success but that didn’t mean you weren’t bruised and tired. You had just extinguished the candle when there was a knock on the door. You dragged yourself out of bed angrily and yanked open your door “what is....Ty lee?”. Ty lee stood there smiling at you and for once she didn’t have her signature confident aura. “Sorry were you sleeping? I can come back....”. “No it’s fine come in”. You led Ty lee into your room and hurried to tidy it and relight the candles “sorry for the mess I....wait what are you doing up! Katara said no walking" you cried realising she was on her feet. "It’s fine I have crutches!" she said happily gesturing to them but you shook your head "you should be in bed resting!". "You should know by now i can never stay still" she grinned and you rolled your eyes "fine but please sit down".

Ty lee would’ve argued she was fine but you seemed so certain she took the chair you offered her. You fussed around her, getting a cushion for her foot and one for her back and Ty lee blushed to see how much care you were taking. Maybe Mai was right....

"There" you said finished, satisfied Ty lee was comfy. "Now how can i help?". "It’s kinda the opposite...i’m here to thank you" Ty lee beamed "you saved my life tonight y/n and literally carried me to safety". "It was nothing" you tried to brush it off but Ty lee shook her head grabbing your hand "it wasn’t! Mai told me how everyone told you not to do it and how you actually disobeyed them by coming to get me". You glanced at her hand over yours and relaxed "well i...i was worried Azula might be being harsh to you, i figured even if i got caught i might distract her from you...". Ty lee blushed "that was very sweet of you but you don’t need to risk yourself just for me". You shrugged "i think you’re worth it" and Ty lee frowned "what do you mean?". You shrugged embarrassed "well you’re the nicest person i’ve ever met! I actually thought it was an act at first you’re that nice but it’s not" you smiled "you were so kind to me and for no reason...you just cared" you chuckled "i think we need more people like you in the world Ty lee, you’re very special". Ty lee let out a mini exclamation of emotion and suddenly threw her arms around you. You let her hug you, used to surprise hugs by now but you weren’t used to her kissing you. Ty lee wrapped her arms around your neck and pecked your lips with her own. You broke away immediately thinking it was a mistake but Ty lee just blushed looking at you "was that...was it not okay i did that?". "I...you mean you actually meant to kiss me?". "Yes silly!". "Because i saved your life?". "No because i like you". When you blushed Ty lee smiled "that’s a good sign right?" and when you nodded she leant back in. You were prepared this time but not for how great it would feel. Everything about her, how she felt, how her arms felt wrapped around you neck, how you felt wrapped together just made it bliss. It was a sweet but long kiss and when Ty lee pulled away you blinked your eyes open and stared at the wall in a daze "wow". Ty lee giggled looking up at you before you gasped. "You’re stood up! Ty lee!" you scolded her and she rolled her eyes "i’m fine, plus you realise you’re practically holding me up?" She asked and you realised without meaning to you were, you had your arms around her waist and she was hovering off the floor. "Ow well...i guess this works". "So if i want to stand up i just have to hold onto you ever time i guess" Ty lee grinned and you blushed. "I mean i don’t object to that". Ty lee smiled and stared up at you "good". Ty lee kept gazing at you and you lasted second before you looked away embarrassed. You blushed and Ty lee laughed so you just pulled her into you so you couldn’t see her face. Ty lee chuckled “you’re adorable” and settled her head against your neck. “You’re one to talk” you replied and Ty lee blushed too.

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So I got Ty lee feels which has honestly never happened to me before but now I am obsessed! So might do a part 2 because I have lots of Ty lee ideas rn 😂

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