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shootingwords · 4 months ago

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My Favorite ATLA Fics

I wanted to make a post compiling all my favorite ATLA fics in case anyone is interested in checking them out! These fics are of various genres and feature various pairings or lack-there-of, I've highlighted the relationships that are the focus of each fic! Additionally, fics that have a star next to them are my absolute favorites! Might update this list in the future when I come across more fics I really enjoy!

Avatar: Between Two Doors ★

Relationships: Azula & Toph, Toph & Zuko, Azula & Mai, Azula & Ty Lee, Mai/Zuko Completion status: Complete work: 44/44 Words: 146k+

Toph was bored. Stuck at the palace waiting for that life-changing field trip after having saved the world, Toph Beifong decides to talk to Azula, trapped in a prison that she deserves. It'll be fun, she thinks, seeing of Azula can still lie to her. See if she could have just a little fun taunting her. What's the worst that could happen? Azula was bored. Trapped in a prison being preached at by her useless brother, the new Fire Lord, she has nothing better to do than to start a game of sorts when Toph arrives, one aimed at earning her freedom at any cost, even if it means digging into the similarities that lay between them. Who's going to care, anyway? When you're trapped and stuck, where are you going to go?

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle ★

Relationships: Katara/Aang, (onesided) Aang/Azula, Aang & Azula, Aang & Ozai, Aang & Zhao Completion status: Complete work: 25/25 Words: 141k+

AU: Aang was never found in the iceberg by Katara & Sokka, but by the Fire Nation instead. Firelord Ozai adopts Aang as his son, a Prince of the Fire Nation, with hopes of using the Avatar as his Weapon — after all, the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. Aang has mastered all the elements but one. But what will happen when a certain waterbender is brought in as his teacher…?

you make a really good girl (as girls go)

Relationships: Yue/Azula Completion status: Complete work: 4/4 Words: 38k+

“Oh spirits,” Azula says, grinning widely. The Water Tribe is full of idiots. “You don’t want to marry Zuko, he’s useless. Also, he’s already engaged.” “He is?” Yue blinks at her. “Of course he is, he’s going to be the Fire Lord, he’s been engaged since he was twelve,” Azula says. A useless Fire Lord who she’s going to have to prop up, if not outright usurp, but Fire Lord all the same. The things she does for this family, she swears.

Et Tu, Brute?

Relationships: Azula/Katara Completion status: Complete work: 14/14 Words: 168k+

Azula hated Katara. That maybe if Katara believed it, then maybe Azula truly had changed. Or One time I was talking to my mother about my anger issues and she compared me to my father and I have not been the same since

The "All's fair" Series

Relationships: Sokka/Zuko Completion status: Ongoing series: 2/? (War Crimes: complete, 12/12, War Games: ongoing) Words: 600k+

Book one ends with two major diffrences: 1. Sokka went on the mission with Hahn (it did not go well) 2. Zhao survives the North Pole and that proves unfortunate for everybody (except Zhao, obviously) Imprisoned on Zhao’s war ship, Sokka and Zuko have to work together to survive. They are not very enthusiastic about this prospect. And they argue. A lot.

The "Big-Brother-Itis" series

Relationships: Azula & Zuko, Gaang & Zuko, Zuko & Zuko's Crew, Iroh & Zuko Completion status: Ongoing series: 2/? (Team Zuko (first work): 5/5, Lightning Flowers (second work): 9/9) Words: 75k+

Azula is born prematurely and gains her bending when she's nine instead of three. For six years longer than she should have been; Azula is raised as a non-bender. She's favored by her mother while Zuko wilts beneath their father's scrutiny. This should change nothing. It changes everything. Years later, Zuko is sixteen and staring down the southern water tribe with the realization that the Avatar is younger than his little sister. Behind him, his crew exchanged looks of dawning horror. In which the source of Zuko's bending is a terminal case of Big-Brother-Itis and Sokka just wants to know if the scary fire bender is trying to capture them or take care of them. Zuko, who doesn't know either, just wants these children to learn what a survival instinct is.

Broken Bird

Relationships: Iroh & Ozai, Ozai/Ursa, Zuko & Ozai Completion status: Complete work (oneshot) Words: 5k+

The former Fire Lord had wished to leave his mark on history in a way that wouldn’t be forgotten, only to crumble at the peak of his greatest battle. But when an old, familiar face showed themselves once again, something vital inside the man shattered to pieces. What he becomes in the aftermath, no one predicts.

flame to a vapor ★

Relationships: Jet/Zuko, Jet & Longshot & Smellerbee, Iroh & Zuko, Jet & Jin Completion status: Complete work: 24/24 (first part of an ongoing series) Words: 42k+

Across the room, Jet's gathering up empty bowls — ahem, hiding the evidence. He grins over his shoulder at Zuko. "We didn't make a bad team, did we?" he says, sitting down crosslegged across from him. His dark eyes glitter in the light coming from the lanterns. "No," Zuko says, looking down at his bowl. "We didn't." (the fic where Zuko uses his big brain cells to prevent his uncle outing them as firebenders in an Earth Kingdom city; this has unforseen consequences. Not all of them are bad.)

if she seems as lonely as me

Relationships: Azula & Zuko, Azula & Gaang, Sokka & Zuko, Azula & Toph, Azula & Iroh Completion status: Complete work: 10/10 Words: 61k+

“Where’s your brother?” It’s the first sign of expression Iroh’s seen on her face — a flash skipping across impassive brown eyes, twined fingers twitching ever so slightly, before they go as still as the curtains in Lu Ten’s uncombed room. “Did they not tell you? He’s dead,” Azula says. or: azula is fourteen when she becomes an only child, leaving her in the unasked-for aftereffects of zuko’s calculated suicide.

Prosperity

Relationships: Iroh & Zuko Completion status: Complete work: 10/10 Words: 17k

Zuko sweeps and his thoughts swirl and rise and descend, like leaves caught up in an eddy of wind. He finds himself thinking of old memories, ones he hasn’t thought of in many years. There’s something he’s close to remembering, some thought he’s close to uncovering. But he always shrinks away before he can discover what it is.

i'll come crashing ★

Relationships: Jet/Zuko, Jet & Longshot & Smellerbee, Iroh & Zuko Completion status: Complete work: 4/4 Words: 72k+

Li's scar is suddenly all Jet can think about. The scar, the scar, the old man’s hot hands warming his tea like he thought he could get away with firebending in the middle of a crowd. or: After getting to know Li on the ferry, Jet sees Mushi heat his tea. Instead of assuming Li is also a firebender, Jet assess the situation and comes to a rather different conclusion.

Welcome to Commie-fornia: A College AU ★

Relationships: Ozai/Zhao, Ozai/Ursa, Bato/Hakoda/Kya, Hakoda & Ozai Completion status: Complete work: 4/4 Words: 11k+

It’s a new era in their lives, and Zhao and Ozai have each come a long way from home for a taste of freedom and independence — but life rarely goes according to plan. In a time of growth and personal change, sometimes you must choose between hatred and acceptance, sacrifice and selfishness, isolation and making the effort to reach out. And sometimes you end up fistfighting your soccer rival behind the local marijuana dispensary, and he retaliates by stealing a sculpture of your best friend’s cock and leaving it on your doorstep. (Doesn’t that happen to everyone?)

An Unknown Variable

Relationships: Lu Ten & Zuko, Iroh & Lu Ten, Lu Ten/Original Male Character, Lu Ten & Jee, Jet/Zuko, Jin/Zuko, Lu Ten & Original Male Character, Lu Ten & Gaang, Azula & Lu Ten, Lu Ten & Jin Completion status: Complete work: 16/16 Words: 146k+

During the 600 Day Siege of Ba Sing Se, Prince Lu Ten, rather than dying, was injured. It was through his recovery, that Lu Ten, and his father, gained a greater perspective of the world. Now, four years later Lu Ten and his father were sailing the world with Lu Ten's cousin Zuko, in an effort to capture the Avatar. At least, that was Zuko's plan, Lu Ten's? Well that's a bit more complicated.

Aang, Sokka, and Katara are Awkward Turtleducks (Literally)

Relationships: Gaang & Zuko Completion status: Ongoing work: 11/15 Words: 39k+

Aang, Sokka, and Katara should take more care in where they sleep. Now three little turtleducklings don't know what they are going to do. Fortunately, Prince Zuko has always liked turtleducks.

The "I Don’t Care If You Want To Tear Me Apart (I Don’t Care If You Do)" Series

Relationships: Aang/Zuko, Azula/Mai, Aang/Katara, Mai/Zuko Completion status: Ongoing series: 3/? Words: 7k+

Take The Body (Leave The Heart) (Complete oneshot: 1k+ words)

Zuko takes a single step more. He’s close enough now that the heat radiating off his skin can be felt through Aang’s clothes and he wants terribly to remove the layers between them. To feel how warm Zuko really is. Or, Zuko and Aang have a talk. About the things they want. (And the things they can’t have)

25% (Complete oneshot: 600+ words)

Katara is aware that there is something sad in how firmly she’s holding on to Aang when she knows he’d be just as happy — perhaps happier, though she hates considering that — with someone else. Or, Katara’s view of the relationship between Zuko and Aang.

Do I Keep You Up At Night? (Complete oneshot: 5k+ words)

Mai meets Azula’s eye directly as she speaks to her for the first time since the roles were reversed, “I’m leaving.” The statement feels final and like a freedom in itself, and as swiftly as the feeling comes— “I can’t bend anymore.” —it all leaves her in an instant. Prequel to the first two parts. Basically a breakdown of why and when Mai left.

Born Lucky

Relationships: Azula & Zuko, Azula & Iroh, Iroh & Zuko, Lu Ten & Zuko, Azula & Lu Ten Completion Status: Ongoing work: 64/? Words: 708k+

Fire Lord Azulon once was told that bringing together the bloodlines of Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin would create great firebenders for generations to come. However, he misunderstood at what cost this blessing would come to his family and to himself personally. The cost of power is high, and the cost of perfection is ever higher.

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