#& hopefully azula wasn’t around because she just wouldn’t understand

[gladerwolfstarkimagines]

Imagine getting Azula a present for her birthday

The first thing you noticed when your family returned to the fire nation was how serious everyone was. You’d been born in a fire nation colony so had little experience with the capital of your nation. Your parents were high born but even they’d relaxed in the colonies and allowed you to have a mostly normal life. However once Ozai declared your parent’s mission over and summoned them back to the capital that all ended. Rules patroling you seemed to spring from everywhere. Don’t wear your hair fully down, don’t meet the eye of anyone who ranks higher than you, bow from the floor to all members of the royal family...the list was endless! Due to your parent’s being very well respected you were introduced to Azula and she took you into her group. Part of you wondered if she only did it to please her father or because you were considered an oddity here in the capital but as time went on you didn’t think either was the case. Everyone here was very strict or distant and even Azula’s closest friends didn’t know her very well. Mai seemed to tolerate her mainly because of her titles and brother. Ty lee, while seemingly fond of Azula, obviously didn’t try getting closer to her than necessary. That wasn’t how friendships worked in your town and you were determined not to pick up this capital custom. So you put time and effort into all three of the girls and made progress with each. You’d go shopping with Ty lee, discuss popular and obscure theology with Mai and help Azula think through her battle strategies. Azula was the one who reacted the strongest to your attention and friendship. She began spending more time with you alone, seeking you out regularly and inviting you to events where even Mai and Ty lee weren’t permitted to go. You found yourself drawn to Azula because she seemed like the one who could most do with a friend. Mai had Zuko, Ty lee seemed content flitting from numerous different people but Azula didn’t really have anyone.

So you continued nurturing your friendship and when Azula’s birthday came around you set out to get her the most meaningful present you could to let her know she was cared for. You were very excited with your choice of present and rushed into the palace, the box you’d spent hours wrapping and unwapping until it was perfect, held tightly in your hands. “Good morning” you smiled finding Mai, Ty lee and Zuko in the royal wing. “Good morning” Ty lee beamed back but Zuko and Mai just nodded not being morning people. Mai noticed your present first. “What’s that?” she asked and you smiled “Azula’s present!”. They all looked at you confused and Zuko spoke first “why are you buying my sister a present?”. “Because it’s her birthday” you explained but that didn’t seem to help, they all still stared at you blankly. “It’s her birthday so I got her a birthday present...is that not something you do in the capital?”. “No but it sounds very sweet” Ty lee grinned. Mai shrugged “I would like presents every year just for being born but I can’t say I understand the logic”. Zuko nodded but you shrugged “ow well, hopefully Azula will enjoy it anyway”. “You’re still going to give it to her”? Zuko asked shocked and you paused “well why wouldn’t I?”. “She might think it’s weird considering you only give people presents when you’re...”. Mai hit Zuko’s arm before he could finish and shook her head. You stared confused “if you’re what?”. “It doesn’t matter” Mai said quickly “Zuko was thinking of something else, I think Azula’s in her study if you want to see her”. You frowned but Mai and Ty lee smiled at you encouragingly so you shook Zuko’s words from your mind and went to find the birthday girl. 

You knocked on Azula’s door and heard her call come in. “Happy birthday Azula!” you cried as soon as your eyes fell on her. Azula jumped vividly, the  brush she was writing with dragging messily across the page ruining her letter. “I am so sorry” you gaped “can it be saved”. “No it cannot” Azula sighed angrily “please in the future don’t scream just because it’s my birthday”. You nodded “is wishing someone a happy birthday not a thing here either?” you asked “just when I think I’m getting a handle on the capital I mess everything up”. “Birthdays are not a big deal here” Azula nodded “only important ones are given any recognition but I have heard of some places where every single birthday is celebrated. I take it your home town is one such place?”. You nodded smiling at the memory “Yes! Every year you usually have a party or do something special with the people you love most! You eat your favourite foods and someone usually makes a cake, it’s lovely”. Azula nodded her head but looked unconvinced and then her eyes fell on the box in your hand. “And what is this?”Azula asked. “A present” you smile brightly but Azula blushed and looked away for some reason. “For my birthday right?” she asked “this is one of your odd traditions nothing more?”. “Yes” you agreed unsure what else a present could mean “you also give the person whose birthday it is a present, something you think they’ll like and wrap it up nicely for them...can I give it to you?”. Azula was still red but nodded so you placed it down on the desk before stepping away. 

Azula picked it up hesitantly and undid the bow before removing the lid carefully. You watched her face excitedly for any reaction but all Azula did was stare inside. You were dying for a sign however small to know if she loved or hated it but Azula continued to stare until you thought you would burst of anticipation. When you couldn’t contain yourself any longer you sighed “so do you like it? It’s the trinket we saw in that glass store in town”. Azula nodded her head “yes I recognise it...how did you decide on this for me?”. “Well I thought I saw you admiring it when we were there because you kept staring at it but now I’m not sure if you staring at something means you love or hate it”.

Azula remembered the day a few weeks ago when you went into town together and she recalled how you’d mysteriously disappeared before reappearing minutes later. She picked up the small figurine carefully. It was a rose that fit in the palm of her hand made of different orange, red and yellow coloured glass all intricately folded together. When the light hit it looked as if it was on fire and Azula remembered thinking it looked very beautiful and she had the same thought now. 

“So...is it okay?” you asked nervously “If you don’t like it then I can always return it and get you something else?”. “No!” Azula said sharply before she composed herself and rid her face of the emotion she felt underneath. “It is a nice present, I like the colours...” she said awkwardly aware she was blushing “I will keep it, thank you”. The look on your face made Azula’s heart beat faster. You were so happy that she liked the tiny piece of glass and Azula figured if such a small thing could cause you so much happiness maybe it wasn’t such a stupid tradition after all. “I’m so glad you like it” you grinned “I was going to suggest we have a meal or something to celebrate but as that’s probably not a thing here either I’ll leave you to your work. Have a lovely birthday day Princess” you smiled and with a bow to her you disappeared.

Later

All day your gift didn’t leave Azula’s mind. Usually when you gave someone a present it meant you were interested in courting that person. For a second when you entered Azula thought that was what you intended, she thought this was your declaration before she realised what your intention’s really were. As she stared at the small rose she recalled the slight relief she felt realising you didn’t mean to court her but she also felt another feeling, larger and deeper inside herself which she refused to acknowledge. 

Azula placed the rose back in the box and got back to work. A while later a servant let her know that her father was ready for her and she prepared to meet with him. She hesitated to leave the present you gave her and frowned. She saw the servant glance at it and blushed furiously. “Tell my father I will be there soon” she commanded and he scurried away. Azula sighed and lifted the lid off the box once again. The rose was still shining beautifully and Azula hesitated before picking it up and slipping it into her pocket. 

The meeting did not go well. Ozai didn’t mention Azula’s birthday which wasn’t odd but the fact he didn’t even seem aware it was today stung a little considering a girl she knew for only 8 months did. The meeting went from bad to worse as Ozai started snapping at everyone in the room and through it all Azula gently held your rose. It was cold in her palm and she liked the coolness. She carried on with her meeting, holding the rose whenever she needed something positive to focus on, and got through the meeting. 

When Azula was finally dismissed she was relieved and felt the toll it had taken on her. She started back to her study aware she still had work to do but honestly her eyes were tired and her brain hurt. She didn’t want to do any more work and your offer suddenly came into her head. You’d mention something about food...a tradition you’d thought to try before figuring Azula wouldn't want to. Azula thought it over before she found a messenger and dispatched them to go find you.

You arrived at Azula’s apartments in the palace confused. Her note hadn’t said much just that she wanted to see you and to come quickly. So you dutifully dropped your very busy schedule (which concerned lounging and reading in the gardens) and made your way to her door. Two guards let you in and you called out for Azula. “Ah y/n” a voice replied and you turned to see Azula descending the stairs. “Azula” you smiled before remembering the note “is everything okay? Your note just said to come here”. “Everything is fine” Azula assured you “I just...thought we could entertain that custom of yours”. “The meal?” you asked excitedly. Azula nodded looking away to disguise her blush “exactly, what must we do?”. You laughed “we don’t have to attack it like a battle! I have everything planned, I’d already gotten the picnic ready and I still have the spot in the gardens although I do need to decorate it and call the others...if you give me an hour I will have everything ready!”. Azula nodded “that is fine” and with a smile you rushed for the door. Before you could disappear Azula called out to you “ow and y/n there’s no need to disturb the others i’m sure they’re too busy on such short notice”. You paused “are you sure? You’re their friend so i’m sure they’d happily drop whatever they were doing to celebrate your birthday, I mean it only happens once a year”. Azula smiled at the sentiment but shook her head “somehow I doubt they’ll think that way but it doesn’t matter, I will be happy with just the two of us”. Now it was your turn to blush. You nodded and bowed slightly “of course princess” and left the room. 

An hour later Azula made her way to the gardens, following the instructions you’d sent her. She usually avoided the gardens for obvious reasons but she was hoping you’d give her a good memory in the place her mother cherished. You’d said to follow the yellow flowers and so Azula did that until she saw a raised area. There was a small platform with food all arranged along a small table. A small cake perched in the centre with the words “Happy Birthday Azula” frosted on the top. Lanterns hung around the platform and lines of colourful fabric hung from the ceiling of the structure. Cushions were placed on the floor in a seating area and the whole area looked very inviting even if it wasn’t very fire nation. Azula took in the scene for a few seconds before she realised you were there. You were muttering about something as you re-arranged some of the decorations your back to her. “Y/n” she called and you jumped “Azula! I promise I’m almost done I was just trying to work out where to place the balloons”. Azula smiled “there’s balloons too?” looking at the sea of decorations all over the small structure. You paused “why is it too much?”. Azula stepped through the doorway and saw due to the streams of decorations you were practically hidden away from the rest of the garden. Azula liked that idea and surveyed the rest of the platform. The lanterns made the light that passed through them change colour and they chimed nicely in the breeze. The food looked and smelled delicious and the cushions looked very comfortable. “No this is just perfect” Azula smiled. You beamed at her happily and squeezed her arm “I’m so happy you like it! You deserve a special day”. Azula blushed and wasn’t sure how to respond to something like that, especially while you were staring at her just inches away. So Azula just avoided the topic. 

“Shall we begin?” she asked and you nodded. You placed a selection of all the foods (which were all Azula’s favourites of course) on a plate and passed it her before doing the same for yourself. You joined her on the cushions and smiled “so! How was your birthday? What made you decide to indulge me?”. Azula looked down at her food “it was fine...I had a really long war meeting and honestly the thought of doing more work after it was not appealing, so I contacted you. I know it’s not ideal, a whole evening wasted on being frivolous but there’s nothing to do about it now. I’ll just work extra hard tomorrow”. You frowned before looking up at her “it’s your birthday so I think you’re allowed to have a more chilled day just enjoying yourself. Plus you already work so hard anyway, if anyone deserves a rest it’s you”. “Yes but I work hard for a reason, you don’t become the best by being lazy”. You nodded “yes but you’re already the best!” you grinned “so sit back and relax for one evening. The world will still be waiting for you to conquer it tomorrow”. You nudged her shoulder and despite your words going against everything she’d been taught Azula found herself smiling “okay”. 

The two of you chatted while you ate and when you finished you began cutting Azula a piece of cake. She watched the concentration clearly etched on your face fondly. You passed Azula the piece and she took a bite cautiously but she had no reason to. It was wonderful. “This is rather nice y/n what type of cake is it?”. You smiled “it’s based off a red velvet cake because you know fire nation but I also added some spice because I know you like it”. “You made this?” Azula cried and you nodded “yes but it was no bother...i’m just glad you like it”. “I do” Azula agreed “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this silly custom of yours. It is nice to be spoiled”. You nodded grinning “it is! My birthday is in January just so you know”. Azula froze at the thought of having to plan something like this for you when you laughed “don’t worry I was joking, you don’t have to do anything for me”. “Well I doubt I’d be able to match this” Azula said gesturing around her “but I will remember, you have my word”. You smiled blushing but didn’t break your eyes away from her “thank you Azula, I’m really glad I met you”. Azula went red matching you and nodded her head “I am too...although I should be going soon. I have a meeting early tomorrow morning”. You nodded standing “of course, would you like me to walk you back to your room?”. Azula shook her head “that is fine thank you y/n...do you need any help with all the decorations?” she asked hesitantly. You shook your head “no it’s fine, the decorations will take 5 minutes to pack away and i’ll take the spare food to the kitchen...the only thing is the cake, would you like to take it or would you like me to?”. Azula eyed the cake remembering the delicious taste and nodded “I will take it with me”. You packaged it up for her and smiled “well I hope you’ve had a nice birthday”. “I have thank you” Azula nodded “now I must be going”. You nodded and waved as Azula left the gardens. 

Azula walked through the palace to her room your cake in her hands and she felt proud. Her friend had made this to celebrate her birthday. She hadn’t asked you to, you did it because you wanted to do it for her, because you cared for her. Azula stepped inside her room and looked about her. She couldn’t help but realise after all the colourful decorations you’d used just how dull her room was. Despite all of the finery none of the room was really hers. None of the pieces had been bought just for her, they were all things passed down for generations. Azula placed your cake on a table and took your present out of her pocket, running her hand over it softly. Nobody had ever bought her something just because they wanted her to be happy. Azula wondered where to place your present. She didn’t want it out in the open where anyone could see or break it. She couldn’t find anywhere suitable so she changed and got into bed still undecided. She toyed with the figurine remembering the way you’d smiled when she said she liked it. Now safely in her own room alone she recognised she’d been slightly disappointed this was a token of friendship and nothing else. She enjoyed having your attention and liked you most out of all her friends but in a very different way. Still, even if this wasn’t a romantic gesture it was still a gesture of love and such an open un-fire nation one. 

Azula smiled to herself before placing the rose under her pillow where she could hide it but also keep it close to her while she slept. “What a strange day” she muttered to herself but she knew it hadn’t actually been strange, it had been the best birthday she could remember having and it was all because of you.   

___

I’m constantly sad Azula never had anyone really love and care for her like Zuko did, she deserved better. But even if someone had shown her affection, based on her sad upbringing, I feel like Azula wouldn’t know how to respond to it because she’s never been shown what love is so I want to shower her in it!!  Hence this story :)

[ssreeder]

hi hypothetical anon back again B)

anyways!! i have a hard time thinking of these but i think i found a good one. hypothetically, what would happen if mai found zuko? like current time line in the story but it’s just her and zuko (and sokka since they’re never separated). what do you think would happen? does she still have a crush on him?

the story is absolutely awesome sreedy i love reading it! it always makes me evening

OLLO HYPOTHETICAL ANON!!

I like Mai, I think she has a depth to her that canon didn’t have time to explore, and I think if she saw Zuko she would be sad?

I think she would be sad for so many reason but that sadness would turn into whatever feeling she had during Boiling Rock? Idk like this fierce need to protect him even if it meant her turning against her beliefs?

I think Mai would be happy Sokka loved Zuko the way he deserved to be loved. I think she would threaten Sokka with a knife to treat him right and if she saw Sokka overstep she would correct him but she would be thankful Zuko had someone.

As long as Zuko is loved the way he deserves she is happy for him. & she would protect him always. But there would be a lot of sadness, because he had to suffer so much and no one wants that for someone they love.

[enmy-writes]

Just Let Me Help You

Summary: Zuko, trying to keep is girlfriend safe, unintentionally gains the trust of the Gaang after a showdown with Combustion Man.

Word Count: 2728

Fandom: ATLA (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Pairing: Zuko x Fem!Reader

Genre: Mostly fluff, is fluff-angst a thing? Idk guys I’m soft, you tell me.

Rated: 18+

Content Warnings: Profanity, some gore graphics (brief mentions of blood, killing, murder), uhhhh that’s it I think I’m sorry if I forget anything else.

****Huge shout-out to my friends Kenz and Jenna for editing this and hyping me up. Hopefully, since this semester from Hell will be over soon, I’ll be able to write more. Please request things! Thank-you all for supporting this and let me know more of what you want to see in the future :) Also, feedback is always welcome. Enjoy!****

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They had landed the war balloon days ago, stalking the tired and defeated Team Avatar and trying to figure out how the complicated Fire Prince would convince the people he chased for months that he wants to help them now.

(Y/N) was stoking the hot flame provided by the fire bender, making sure the coals were burning a cherry red before she added leaves and herbs into a pot to make a stew for the two to enjoy. Her eyes followed Zuko as he paced back and forth, practicing what he was going to say when he finally decided to confront the rebel group, lips turned upward in an amused smirk.

“Hey, Zuko here…” she heard him say before he started rambling a bunch of nonsense about his past; from his discovery, to Azula, to his father-- all the tragic topics. It took him about three minutes, but he finished with a hopeful look in his direction.

“Well?!” He clenched his fists at his side in a nervous gesture, only wanting to get this right.

The girl on the log cleared her throat before speaking, obviously hiding her laughter from the sensitive boy. “Well… it’s perfect. I especially liked the ‘Hey, Zuko here’ part. I’m sure that Aang and his friends with be very pleased to finally learn your name instead of thinking you’re called ‘Angry Ponytail Hotman’.’’

He groaned loudly, rubbing his eyes with clenched fists. The melodic laughter from his companion tempted him to give up his quest and just run away with her and live a happy life free of his father and his destiny… whatever that may be.

Still laughing, (Y/N) stood from her log by the fire and made her way to Zuko, coming up behind him. Her arms slid right around his slim body, holding on tight as she tried to pull his mind from the depths of his insecurities.

“Zuko, love.” Her voice is soft, but intense. “Just go down there. I won’t lie, they might not take you right away. You have done a lot of damage to them and their goals.”

His warm hands slide down the tops of her forearms and slide between her chilled fingers, entwining them together as Zuko grips her like she’s holding him down on the land they’re on.

“I… I just…” He struggles to get his feelings out, finding it hard to convey how he feels even to the girl wrapped around him.

She shushes him. “I know.” Is all she says, as they stand there in a momentary comfortable silence before she detaches from him to continue dinner.

____________________________

Zuko had told her to stay behind, that he’d be back to either get her or because he failed to convince the group that he came to support them, instead of harm them.

“Zuko! I could easily be an alibi for you. A reason for them to trust you!”

“No. End of story. They could attack me and you’re in Fire Nation clothes. You’re staying here.”

A staring match between the two only lasted a few seconds, but (Y/N) let it go; remembering Iroh’s advice that sometimes the boy has to do what eases his mind to grow.

The empty pot gleamed an orange glow from the flames, a light in the dark woods that surrounded the two as they lounged by the fire.

(Y/N) was carding her fingers through the upset prince’s hair while he stared at the sky; confused. His emotions spilling onto (Y/N). He didn’t talk much about the encounter, only enough to tell her that they wouldn’t be helping the Avatar defeat his father anytime soon. Rather than pressure him, she offered her solace with calming actions rather than words.

The two had met in their early childhood, (Y/N)’s father being the leader of the Yuyan Archers and of course the Fire Lord wanted the talented girl to meet his… troubled son. In hope that she could help bend his son into the ruthless leader the nations needed to proceed him. Though they didn’t see each other as much as they should have due to (Y/N)’s schooling, the two quickly became close friends and were often found with Lady Ursa quietly running around the palace grounds.

His banishment led to (Y/N) perfecting her skills, and becoming the master she was destined to be, given there was no more distraction. No one could understand her in the way that Zuko did— they fit together like they were made for one another. Where he was hotheaded, she was cool; Where he was nimble and direct, she was resourceful and hidden. The two were the perfect set of opposites who ultimately balanced each other. And one without the other was a heartbreak everyone could see.

When she heard the news of his return, she rushed to the palace; radiant as ever. In an instant, the two fell back into where they left off;  barely any words needed between the two. Her fingers and lips had trailed over his scar often in those few days, brushing away the tears and insecurities that came with it.

Leaving the Fire Nation with Zuko wasn’t even a debate in her mind. She was tired of the life of lies and torment that her nation inflicted upon the world. She had spent the last two years relocating and rebranding people who were targets to the Fire Nation. In total, about one hundred innocent lives were saved from her dangerous missions. Her skill level was better than even her father’s, and she prided herself in her abilities. (Y/N) was truly a professional in her art with the eye of an eagle.

When she caught Zuko writing a letter to her with packed bags on his bed, she instantly went into the shadows and caught up with the boy easily, hiding in the balloon behind the engine for a while until it was too late for him to turn back. It was hot and the most uncomfortable thing she has ever done, but she regrets none of it. She joked with the boy; how did he not question a pile of fabric behind the piece of equipment that holds fire? She let it go after he hugged her close and cried for a while.

“Don’t do that shit again, Zuko.” Her voice was stern, though her voice stern, she held him close. She ghosted her fingers over his tense shoulders; the shoulder that carried such burdens. She pressed her fingers into his shoulders; trying her best to rub the tension from his body. 

“I won’t. Never again. Don’t leave me, I need you.”

A rustle of leaves and broken trees in the forest near the edge of their little camp put the two into defense, instantly gripping her perfectly crafted bow and quiver. Her ears pricked at a slight movement and she aimed her bows in the direction of the noise without even looking. Suddenly, green clothes fill the area as a younger girl makes her way into the clearing. Startled, Zuko sends a wave of fire towards the intruder, burning the girl.

Everything happened fast.

(Y/N)’s left foot—her plant foot—sunk into the ground and twisted inward, releasing a loud crack into the air. The Earth girl was long gone now; Zuko had been screaming at himself when he heard the cry of pain and the sickening noise that left the lips of his girlfriend.

The earth has released its hold on her, but the damage was done. She kneeled, trying to hold back tears but failing as they kept streaming down her face in a pain response. Zuko’s own eyes filled with tears as he ran over to her, helping her sit down and take the tension off of it.

The joint was already beginning to swell, black and blue and purple and yellow starting to show up in swirls around the area. Zuko carefully tried to feel the injury, barely touching the girl in fear of hurting her more. (Y/N) sighed, pushing his fingers away and ignoring his protest. She rotated her foot outward, cringing at the pain, but crying out when she turned it the other way. Zuko cupped his hands around her ankle, hands heated slightly to hopefully alleviate the pain.

“Baby… it’s okay—”

“No, you’re hurt! I knew this would happen!” He cuts her off with a panicked yell. (Y/N) places her hands on the sides of his face, forcing his eyes upon hers with a slight wince of discomfort.

“It’s most definitely, at worst, a fracture. I can still move it outwards without a lot of pain. It’s, like, a week off my foot at most and then another week with a splint and a crutch. I am okay, Zuko.” They stared at each other for a solid minute, saying nothing.

"Promise?" Zuko whispered.

"You think I would lie to you, Zuko?" She says as she wraps her pinky his for good measure

They turn in not too long after, (Y/N)’s ankle wrapped up in some extra clothes for stability. Zuko’s arms hold her to his chest as they slip off into the world of dreams.

_________________________

Oh shit. She thought from her perch on top of the cliff edge. The assassin that they have also been trying to find has been blowing up the place, really testing the stability of the edge of the cliff in shakes after shakes like an earthquake. Zuko had told her to stay at camp, but unfortunately for Zuko; (Y/N) was never that good at listening to commands.

She was sitting down, watching the Avatar, his friends, and her boyfriend try to figure out how to win this fight against the combustion bender, feet dangling over the edge. She didn’t want any pressure on her foot from standing on it; settling for the dull throbs of pain coming from the force of gravity alone.

Some third eye. (Y/N) thought to herself as she watched her boyfriend get too close to being blown off the edge of the cliff, wincing. She quickly strung her bow, aiming it at the man. She smirked, a devious smirk, and aimed it in a precise location.

Zuko was still trying to talk the man out of it when suddenly, his eyes went blank and the grossest sound he has ever heard reached his ears. Everyone watched the man, confused as to why he just stopped. It’s not until red trails down his forehead and around his nose in a slow trickle that they look at his eye.

In the middle of the red eye, that at one point seemed indestructible; an arrow sat; a perfect shot — his perfect shot. "Bullseye!" (Y/N) howled, her voice resonating in his ears.

In the midst of Zuko's panic, he failed to recognize the cliff he was standing on becoming increasingly unsturdy; turning he locked eyes with the archer. A ghost of a smile graced her lips, pride radiating off of her. Though he was angry, he couldn't help but share her pride. He locked eyes with his girlfriend who was sitting nonchalantly on the cliff edge above them all, waving nonetheless, when he told her to stay back. It’s then that the earth beneath him rumbles and falls, taking him with it.

“Zuko!” She screams, jumping to her feet; a loud crack coming from her ankle, buckling under the pressure and bringing her to her knees.

With a hobble in her step, (Y/N) climbed down the cliffside. The tears ran down her face at a ferocious pace, making her way over to the cliffside, a loud sob relented from her mouth as she saw Aang helping Zuko up over the edge of the cliff. 

"Spirits, Zuko!" She breathed, limping her way over to him and hugging him tight. "I should kill you, you fucking idiot!" She sobbed, pulling him into her chest. 

Zuko huffed out a laugh, wrapping his arms around her. He took deep breaths, calming his nerves from his near death experience; he focused on the feeling of her hand carding through his hair to grip it tight, and the hold on his shoulders. As he calms down, he remembers that he told her to stay put; and he sharply pulls away.

"I told you to stay at camp!" He huffed, "I told you I was coming back for you!”

She scoffs pushing on his forehead with two fingers. “In case you have forgotten, Zuko, I have authority issues. If I weren’t here, who would be saving your stupid royal ass? No one! You’re welcome, by the way. He wasn’t going to negotiate, Prince Pouty, and you and everyone else here is no good to the world dead.”

“You—You---You could’ve been hurt! (Y/N)! Or worse!” His protest was a whisper, trying to make the scene more private as he’s aware of the crowd around them.

“Zuko, love, I can handle myself. I’m a master at my craft--.”

"—your craft of carelessness, you could've been killed—"

"—but I wasn't Zuko!"

"That's not the point." His voice stern, making it clear that the conversation was done for now. (Y/N) simply nodded, pulling away from him and fixing her clothes.

Aang, Toph, Katara and Sokka watched the two as they argued; watching as they continuously tried to out-care the other. They watched as the two eventually stopped arguing, instead remained staring, as if daring each other to speak

“That was a ... nice shot? I guess?" Aang spoke, clearing his throat and drawing the couples attention to him. "He's definitely you know, dead."

(Y/N) smiles at the boy. “Thank you, Avatar, for helping save this dumb ass from falling off a cliff.” She gets up and bows to him. Zuko suddenly picks her up, the world turning sideways as he put her bridal style in his arms.

“Stop putting weight on your ankle!”

“I’m literally showing respect to the person who just helped you, is that a crime?”

“What if you break your ankle so much that you have to cut it off.”

“Oh, now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Okay well you were first when deciding to sit on the edge of a cliff with a broken ankle.”

“You’re right! Sitting is dangerous. Next time, I’ll make sure to stand so at least I’ll have a better chance of reacting if the cliff side starts falling from under me. Oh wait, you were standing, and you still fell.”

Zuko sets her down on a broken rock that’s suitable enough for her to sit on. “Will you just shut up already and let me help you.” He reaches for her ankle, but she moves it from his grasp. Their eyes meet again and narrow in competition.

A mess of limbs as the (Y/N) evades the grip of Zuko, occasionally slapping his hands away if they get too close.

Sokka tilts his head in confusion and opens his mouth. “Is he—is he actually caring for someone?”

Aang nods. “I think? I don’t know, they’re kind of fighting a lot.”

Toph cringes, “Guys, I think it was me who hurt her in the first place. Last night at their camp. Zuko instantly stopped trying to help me when I heard her scream.”

“Guys… I think I’m supposed to let him be my master. I mean, he did just risk everything to save us.” Aang says, eyes locked on the one member who he cares more about than anyone.

Katara, still holding off on agreeing, looks to the two Fire Nation kids again.

“Ow! You bit me! Are you crazy?!” Zuko yells, shaking his left hand out.

The stranger girl laughs cheerfully. “Only crazy for you, stupid.”

And a phenomenon occurs. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation blushes and looks down at the ground, a huge smile on his face.

“I hate you.” Is all he says.

“Yeah, I love you too.”

Katara, seeing the humane side of the prince, finally lets her guard down and walks over to them. Zuko’s eyes widen at her proximity, but the water tribe girl holds his gaze.

“I’ll heal the girl if it gets you two to shut up. And you have to find dinner for tonight.”

Katara’s eyes widen again at the sight of the crying prince who suddenly bows to her feet, thanking her with his whole heart. He then turns to his smiling girl beside him and pulls her into a hug.

“Thank you, (Y/N). For everything.”

“I’ll always help you… stupid.”

[firelxdykatara]

Touching Zuko’s Scar

It’s entirely possible that someone has written meta on this before, and possibly done it better/more eloquently than I’m about to. However, I have Things To Say and I’m going to say them, and hopefully my point comes across! This post is largely spurred on by a few posts I’ve seen in the tags lately which have... rather baffling takes on the whole ‘who touches Zuko’s scar and why’ situation, particularly in regards to feeling the need, for some reason, to diminish the scene in which Katara touches his scar and the importance of that moment for both of them.

From what I can tell, this was done in an attempt to prop up Maiko, which I suppose makes some amount of sense since that is a ship which can barely stand on its own without tremendous amounts of headcanoning to fill in the gaping holes left by the fact that the entirety of their relationship development happened off-screen (and the glimpse we do get into it in the ‘going home’ midquel comic leaves a lot to be desired in terms of why Zuko would even want to be with her, but that’s another discussion entirely). But it still doesn’t quite fit, because the scenes with Katara and with Song are so much more meaningful, both in terms of Zuko’s arc and the way the girls relate to him (and it also ties into Katara feeling so hurt by Zuko’s betrayal, and needing more than any of the others before she can forgive and accept him into the gaang).

Now, that out of the way, I do want to say up front that the intention here is not to be particularly anti Maiko, but to examine the situations in which Zuko’s scar is touched (or almost touched), and the similarities two of these scenes have which are not shared by the third (at which point, you’re obviously free to draw your own conclusions).

Also, please bear with me--I can’t take screenshots or anything, so I’ll reference scenes and the episodes they come from but there won’t be images.

Under a cut bc this got long

To start off, there are three moments in the entire series where a character touches, or tries to touch, Zuko’s scar with her hand. (I say ‘her’ because all three instances occur with girls near Zuko’s own age.) The first moment is in The Cave of Two Lovers, the second episode of book two--this is the moment where Song sees Zuko’s scar, recognizes it for the intentional burn from a firebender that it is, and reaches for it.

Song: Can I join you? I know what you’ve been through. We’ve all been through it. [looks at Zuko’s scar] The Fire Nation has hurt you. [she slowly reaches for his scar, but before she can touch it, Zuko grabs her wrist and stops her; she puts her hand back in her lap] It’s ok. They’ve hurt me too. [pulls up the leg of her pants to reveal the burn scars there]

The second moment comes at the end of book 2, in The Crossroads of Destiny, in a moment that is a deliberate parallel of Zuko’s connection with Song--but this time, he lets Katara touch him.

Katara: [she holds up a vial] This is water from the spirit oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I’ve been saving it for something important. [moves closer to Zuko, standing in front of him] I don’t know if it would work, but... [Zuko closes his eyes, and Katara’s fingers touch his scar; the scene holds there as the music swells, before they’re interrupted]

Like Song did, Katara felt a connection to Zuko via a similar trauma he suffered. However, unlike Song, Katara knew who Zuko was--the banished prince of the Fire Nation, and someone who had been her enemy for most of the past several months. However, she still feels compassion and empathy for him, and it is for this reason that she takes his subsequent choice harder than anyone else in the gaang does (and why it takes more for him to earn her forgiveness).

Now, the third moment is... rather incongruous. There is neither compassion nor understanding involved in touching his scar, there is no real emotional connection, and it comes right on the heels of his girlfriend--someone we’re supposed to believe cares about him and his emotional wellbeing, since they’re in a relationship (which happened off-screen, but I digress)--shutting down his attempt to talk about his feelings, something that will present a conflict in their relationship later on.

Mai: [yawns] I just asked if you were cold, I didn’t ask for your whole life story. [she moves forward, smirking, and then chuckles, putting one arm around his neck and pulling his face towards her with her other hand] Stop worrying. [they kiss, and then Mai walks away, leaving Zuko to stare out at the horizon again; the wiki transcript says he looks relieved, but to me he looks resigned more than anything]

What’s interesting about this moment is, for one thing, it’s unclear if Mai is even supposed to be touching his scar at all. Giancarlo Volpe, the director for this episode, put the original storyboards for the scene up on his DeviantArt, and in them, it seems he was fairly careful to make sure Mai was not touching Zuko’s scar. This would make sense, considering that touching Zuko’s scar was presented as a very big deal--he specifically prevented a girl from touching his scar in the beginning of book 2, and at the end, he allowed another girl to touch him, showcasing vulnerability and trust in that moment. It is the culmination of one small part of his character arc, and that makes the moment that Katara touches his scar even more meaningful.

Of course, I can’t say definitively that it was an animation mistake or something that was deliberately changed during production (which, considering there is a moment later in the book where Bryke mandated a change, isn’t outside the realm of possibility), but it does present interesting implications.

However, even if you take the scene at face value and assume that Mai was intended to be touching his scar....it’s still presented in an entirely different framework than the previous two scenes, despite occurring almost immediately after Zuko’s moment with Katara in the caves (at least as far as episode count).

The different framework being, of course, the fact that it.... doesn’t mean anything at all.

In the first two scenes, Zuko’s scar and his pain--as well as the pain of the girls who are forging an empathic connection with him based on understanding each other’s trauma--is the focus. Touching, or attempting to touch, Zuko’s scar is the point--it is very deliberate, and there’s no way to argue against it because the writing is very explicit, and nothing else would make sense for those scenes. On the other hand, you could take out the moment where Mai touches Zuko’s scar and lose absolutely nothing--because the focus is not on Zuko, but rather on the fact that he was attempting to open up emotionally to his girlfriend (and note that this is the first indication we get in the show that they are together--take out the kiss completely and no one would even know they’re dating, let alone supposedly like one another even as friends), and was shut down with a sarcastic quip, ostensibly because Mai simply didn’t want to hear it. (This is in keeping with her later characterization, where she would much rather distract him and keep him from actually talking about any of his problems, but @araeph goes into the nature of Mai and Zuko’s emotional intimacy [or lack thereof] in much greater detail in this essay, so I won’t get too deep into it here.)

Mai touching Zuko’s scar doesn’t mean anything to the audience because it doesn’t mean anything to Zuko. He doesn’t react to or acknowledge it in any way, it’s as if he doesn’t even notice it happening (perhaps because it wasn’t supposed to? but again that’s speculation), and nothing in the scene would change if it didn’t. It simply doesn’t matter. On the other hand, Song nearly touching Zuko’s scar and then Katara actually touching his scar? They matter to him--and to the show, and therefore the audience--very much. Both moments are incredibly important to Zuko’s overall arc, because together, they show how far he had come in his own emotional journey over the course of the book.

Of course, it isn’t enough to keep him from choosing to side with Azula, because his journey was far from complete--but the fact that he was able to show such trust and vulnerability to a girl who had been his enemy not very long ago? That was huge. Because Zuko didn’t just let Katara touch his scar--he closed his eyes. She could have hurt him in that moment, but he trusted that she wouldn’t. He trusted that she was willing to use special water she’d been saving for something important--and he trusted that, in that moment, he was important to her.

It wasn’t just Zuko showing trust either, though--Katara showed trust in him. She trusted, after a few minutes of conversation and learning about the loss of his mother (and, specifically, the fact that the Fire Nation was responsible for the loss of his mother, just as it was responsible for the loss of hers), that he had changed--that he was different, and she could trust him. She was willing to use the spirit water she’d been carrying around for months on someone who had recently been so much an enemy that she fled from the tea shop, convinced that he’d somehow infiltrated the city and was planning something.

The fact that she trusted him in that moment is exactly why she took his next choice so hard, but it is also why their relationship cemented itself so solidly after The Southern Raiders, giving them quite possibly the strongest relationship in the gaang outside of Katara and Sokka.

Anyway, that was a lot of words for what essentially amounts to this: Song attempting to touch Zuko’s scar in the beginning of book 2 is explicitly paralleled by Katara being allowed to touch his scar at the end of it, and both moments occur during scenes where Zuko’s pain and trauma are acknowledged and validated, and where the person he’s speaking with feels a connection to him because of that shared trauma--because they understand what he has been through. It’s likewise important to note that while Song didn’t actually entirely understand, because she didn’t know who Zuko was or what being traumatized by the Fire Nation actually meant to him, Katara did--and she still was able to feel for him, connect to him, and want to help him.

By contrast, the moment with Mai occurs in a scene where Zuko’s pain and trauma are invalidated and dismissed, where his girlfriend attempts to distract him rather than help him through what is clearly a moment of great emotional turmoil. No, she shouldn’t have to be his therapist, but emotional support is vital in any relationship--especially when one party is traumatized and desperately needs support and love--and it is notably lacking from Maiko, starting from their very first romantic scene together.

Make of that what you will.

[talas-starlight]

Close to you - Azula x fem!reader

SUMMARY: When you visit Azula to help her wind down for the evening, she begins to wonder why you’re so affectionate towards her

WORD COUNT: 1.2K

WARNINGS: a lot of non-sexual touching? Kissing but like its not a lot tbh. Soft azula? Mentions of a lonely childhood? Also I didn’t proof read this HAHAHA

A/N: look imma be real honest,, the reader makes azula soft as fuck and if you want 100% on brand azula- this probably aint it for you oopS but looK I couldn’t help it!! She deserves the sweet lovin  

Warm, orange tones of the steady fire lamps illuminate Azula’s face, and in this moment, she looks nothing short of peaceful. The sun has long set, and as she prepares to finally conclude her day, you can’t help but admire how beautiful she looks from your place at the doorway of her unnecessarily spacious room. She knows you’re there, of course; she knows you better than anyone, and you made it no secret as she heard the door softly click shut.

Your feet softly pad on the chilled floor, making your way to your love. She looks down at her lap, trying to look casual as she stalls her routine, which she could have easily had the servants rush through by now. Yet then again she wouldn’t have it any other way since she’s been ordering them to leave as soon as they finish washing her for the past four months. It’s the smallest of movements, but you can’t resist but smile fondly as she scoots forward on her oversized vanity stool for you to take your place behind her.

Adjusting your legs so that they’re on either side of her waist, you wrap them around her slightly so that she is closer to you, but not so close that its awkward or in the way. Making eye contact through the mirror before the both of you, you place a kiss to the side of her head before nodding softly. This prompts her to hand you the brush you’ve become quite accustomed to holding, soon beginning to through her long hair. To Azula, nothing feels more perfect than this. The warmth radiating from your body behind hers feels more like home than any other form of fire she’s ever experienced.

This isolated moment in her day is oh so precious as you slowly bring the brush from the top of her scalp down to its perfectly trimmed ends. It relaxes her unlike anything else. All of the pressure and subtle nudges to push her further than any other normal person alive simply washes away. To any unknowing onlooker, the current scene depicts everything but a usually pretentious princess and her love. The scene is nothing more than domestic bliss.

Finishing up the last section of her hair, you pass the brush back to her to be placed back on the vanity. Weaving your arms securely around her waist, you pull her back closer towards you. The closer proximity allowing you to place a kiss on her left shoulder before resting your chin upon it.  Finding yourself comfortable, you move your gaze towards her bare face. Despite being as beautiful as ever, you know something has squeezed its way into her mind as her eyebrows come together in thought.

“What’s on your mind, love?”

Clearing her throat, she shakes her head. “It’s nothing.”

You sigh, “hmm... I’m sure it’s anything but nothing.”

Taking your left hand, you move the hair that’s made its way in front of her face to behind her ear before caressing her cheek. Briefly closing her eyes, she casts her gaze towards her lap.

“W- why are you so affectionate towards me?”

Eyebrows raising in surprise you’re unsure if you should be completely honest straight away or ease her into it. “Hmm… well, I suppose it’s because I’ve always been affectionate. I’ve always thought my love language might be physical touch.”

Unamused by your efforts to dim the truthfulness of your answer, she gives you a pointed look. “In all my years of knowing you y/n, not once have you been remotely as affectionate towards others as you have been towards me. So, you can either tell me the truth or I think it’s best we sleep separately tonight.”

Lips briefly coming together in a tight line, you nod, understanding that it’s best to tell her. She deserves honesty.

“The short answer is, I love you.”

Mouth hanging open ever so slightly at your confession, you continue, not allowing her to question it. “Growing up, I always seemed to be quite observant since I never had much courage to go out and interact with everyone like you did. Even after we became acquainted at the Academy, I never came out of my shell unless I was alone with someone. Clearly, you still remember. Anyway… what I’m getting at is, Zula, every day you walked into that Academy I noticed how different everyone treated you. Sure, it was understandable since you were the Princess, and they were terrified of hurting you in any way. But it broke my heart watching you arrive every single day and not get a hug or a kiss goodbye from anyone. Not even a sincere goodbye or letting you know they’ll miss you.”

Pausing for a moment, you take in how she’s processing all of this information. You’re unsure of how she feels about this. Her face is relaxed and neutral, yet you can’t help but feel slightly afraid that she thinks everything you’re saying is ridiculous. As a moment goes by and she still hasn’t said a word, you continue, unable to handle the tension that is starting to encompass the room.

“I- I… just couldn’t understand how anyone could possibly deserve to be treated like that Zula!” Breath hitching, you try to hold back a small sob. Reliving how heartbreaking it felt watching her have to go through that every single day tore you up inside.

“No one deserves that, so I promised myself. I promised that if you’d let me, I’d make up for everything and always be close to you. I’d hold you, even if it was just my pinkie locked with yours. I’d tell you how much I appreciate you. How I’ll miss you, even if you leave for just a day. I’d do all of it… Although, while I tend to do it more so out of love for you now, I still don’t want you to ever experience those things again.”

Squeezing your eyes shut, you release your arms from around her waist to wipe away a few tears that are now making their way down your face. Yet before you’re able to do so, you feel her long, slender, fingers grasp around your wrists. Snapping your eyes open in surprise, Azula’s heart swells as she takes in your tear-filled eyes.

“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I love you.”

Overcome with emotion, despite being for different reasons, more silent tears fall. Leaning forward, Azula gently presses her lips to your fallen tears. “Don’t cry, my love.”

Leaning back, she takes the initiative to be physically closer to you, caressing your face in both of her hands. “I appreciate everything you do for me, more than anything.”

Breaking out a smile, you wrap your arms around her waist once again before pressing your lips softly against hers. Azula freezes for a moment, surprised, despite your tender approach. Both of your thoughts and worries dissipate as she allows herself to completely fall into the mind-reeling kiss. Melting into each other’s warmth, your bodies to rest against one another even further than they already were.

Soon, after a few moments, you pull away gently for some air, but only just enough to still rest your forehead against hers. With her cheeks flushed, Azula can’t help but smile. Her heart pounding in her chest, overjoyed in this moment with you. It felt like everything was right in the world. “With you y/n, I’ll never feel lonely again.”

a/n: thank you so much for reading!! i hope you liked it hehe - this was my first time writing azula so was kinda nervous tbh so hopefully it wasn’t crap lmaO - anywho! feel free to lmk what you think! hehe

tags:  @kaylove12​ @simpinforsukka​ @lozzybowe​ @firelordazulaaaa​

my masterlist:  here!

[hopekiedokie]

That’s Rough Buddy (Seokjin)

SUMMARY : You were invited to your friends' annual Halloween Costume Bash™ and were supposed to go on a matching couples costume but your date cancels at the very last minute. Nevertheless, you pushed through with going to the party in your costume not knowing that you would still end up matching with someone. But unfortunately, it was with that very annoying (yet very attractive) guy that you despise so much.

PAIRING : Seokjin x reader

GENRE: humor, fluff, a sprinkle of angst in the end, enemies to lovers or frenemies to lovers (kinda?)

WORD COUNT : 16.6k+ words

WARNINGS: A swear word or two or seven, Jin is a crackhead (shocker), too much halloween games, excessive use of Avatar The Last Airbender quotes and references (aka Jin channeling his inner Azula)

NOTES: I originally was gonna make y/n and Jin dress up as Team Rocket and title this AU "Prepare for Trouble" but I ultimately decided on this. It pained me to do so because I am such a simp for purple haired Jin. Even if there are SO many hidden ATLA references here, I don't think you need to see it to understand this AU. Although, what on earth are you doing with your life if you've never watched the show?? Anyways, I hope you like this even though it's well into November now. Also, this is my very first fic so hopefully you’d enjoy this! Appa yip yip!

The smell of pumpkin seems to be enveloping the entire Park residence. You have barely reached the front porch and the scent has already hit your nostrils. How could a simple scent have possibly diffused into such a huge proximity, you wonder to yourself as you knocked on your best friends' front door. It wasn't until you entered the household when things became clear to you. Dozens upon dozens of pumpkins in different sizes were littered from their front hall to their living room. Some were already carved, some were sitting idly, and some were lined up to be carved by Park Jimin and Park Luna.

You were invited here on this lovely afternoon with the promise of free food. But after being handed a plate of pumpkin muffins and a bunch of carving tools, you felt a strong urge to just go home and maybe sleep through the holiday. Of course the two gremlins sitting on the floor, seemingly a pair on a mission, did not allow that to happen. So here you are on your seventh pumpkin, scooping out its contents, definitely not thinking of a million other things you'd rather be doing now. You were just about to stab your eye out with the sharp stabbing tool due to a possible mental breakdown when you got a text from Kim Taehyung.

Taehyung is Jimin’s best friend whom you might have had a crush on for about a year now since you’ve become friends with him. The two of you are going in matching costumes for the annual Park Halloween Costume Bash™ and have been texting non stop for two weeks now. Everyone in town takes this party seriously, including the adults. Even their parents are in on it though unfortunately this year, they're out of town so they aren't really involved. But the chosen winners for best costume are still to be awarded with a free dinner at the famous Park's family restaurant.

Tae Tae 🌻 : So that's a solid no on shaving my head? Cause I really wouldn't be opposed to it if it means a free heavenly meal from Papa Park 👀👀👀

You quietly chuckle at the thought of a bald Taehyung running around. The commitment of this man amazes you. You were about to type a reply when you felt something aggressively tap against your forehead. You look up to see an annoyed looking Luna.

Feeling something is stuck to your forehead, you slowly brought your hand up to touch it and you instantly felt a bit of pumpkin mush. "Did you just hit me with your filthy ladle?!" You disgustingly shouted at her.

"Dude, now is not the time to be all lovey dovey when the party is in three days and we still have about...uhm..." She looked around, started counting and then went to add stuff with her fingers, "A total of 27 pumpkins to stab and a whole house to decorate!"

You groaned loudly and fell on your back on the floor. You feel a headache start to develop from being surrounded by too much pumpkin flavored and scented things. If your two best friends' goal is to put any pumpkin patch to shame, then they definitely have achieved it. At this point, the stench of halloween in this area is strong enough to linger until the holiday comes back next year.

"Okay, but I don't understand why I'm being subjected into pumpkin slavery as well when this isn't even my party to throw?"

"When you're this behind on everything, all hands on deck are needed. We literally have not started on any of our to do list aside from pumpkin carving." It was Jimin who replied to your question. You watch him puncture a bunch of holes on the purple pumpkin he is working on. If you hear the word "pumpkin" one more time, you just might spontaneously combust or repeatedly bash your head with the wooden ladle in front of you. (A/N: Tbh, same here. It's only been a couple of paragraphs and I've already used the word 12 times.) 

"I thought we'd be on top of this without mom and dad's help!" Luna started as she too began poking holes on her [word redacted]. "We are so behind! I mean, this guy still doesn't have a costume!"

"YAH! Stop exposing me like that! I told you, it's a…a work in progress."

Luna snorted at his step brother's remark. "In order for a work to be in progress, it must first be started-" Jimin cut her off by throwing her some [word redacted] meat. 

It effectively stopped her from further embarrassing Jimin from his lack of costume days from the single most important party of their year. But it did start a revolting [word redacted] meat fight which lasted about a good minute. For the good of everyone, you stomped over to the war zone and pried the two idiots from each other. For a bunch of fools who are supposed to be rushing to get things done, they seem to be just fine with wasting their time. 

"OPPA STOP IT!"

"I wouldn't have declared war on you if you hadn't outed me like that to y/n!"

"Well, it's not my fault you're so unready!"

"ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH FROM YOU TWO!" You shouted as you yanked Luna off of him. Why on earth did their parents think it would be alright to leave these two on their own is beyond you. You gave Luna a reprimanding look and said, "Seriously, you'll make no progress if you continue with your antics." 

Her eyes widen, looking like a little child being scolded by her mom. "He started it!"

From behind you, you can hear Jimin snickering. Probably feeling smug from her sister taking all the scolding. Honestly, are they five? You faced him with a much dirtier look than the one you gave Luna and he instantly stood straight, lips pressed into a thin line. 

"And as for you!" You started, "I can't believe you still don't have a costume! This is so disappointing coming from you. How could you have let this happen?"

This may seem over dramatic, but this costume party is really THAT important. It's the highlight of the autumn season. This family really knows how to celebrate it and they do not fail to over shine what they had the year before. So this is really a bunch of steps back for these two.

"I know, I know!" Jimin yelled exasperatedly. "It's not that I haven't been planning. It's just that, how could I possibly top what I dressed up as from last year?"

He does have a point. He and Luna teamed up last year on what might be the most iconic costume ever. They both dressed up as the Wilson sisters from the movie White Chicks. They even had prosthetics on just like how Kevin and Marcus impersonated the twins. You guess you would not know how to beat that costume as well.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you're just uncreative cause I found a costume that will surely be a big hit to the people." Luna taunted her brother.

"What is it?" You and Jimin asked at the same time.

"You'll just have to wait and see!" She answered in a sing-song tone and proceeded to clear up the mess they made.

Jimin began helping her sister pick up [word redacted] mush with a long face. "Well that sucks hard for me. How about you y/n? What are you dressing up?" 

"Oh, she's going as Katara, alongside Taehyung who is dressing up as Aang!" Luna answered for you, uttering the latter part in a way that sounds like she's teasing you.

"Oh, sweet! A date with Tae! I didn't know you two were finally going out?" 

"What? No, don't listen to her. It's not a date! We're just friends." The two stared at you with a "yeah right" kind of look so you were compelled to explain further.

"Look, we were talking about The Last Airbender a few months ago and I mentioned how much I really wanted to cosplay as Katara. One thing led to another then poof! Here we are going as Aang and Katara to your party. It's not a big deal."

Jimin had a knowing sly smirk that made you somewhat uncomfortable. "Yeah, except Aang and Katara were madly in love and ended up making babies AND you obviously have a crush on each other." He said.

You reached for the nearest bowl of discarded [word redacted] meat and flung it towards the boy whose eyes have now disappeared and is in a laughing fit.

"No, no, no! You've got it all wrong! Y/n doesn't have a big fat crush on Taehyung." Luna defended you. Thank God for her! Between the two goons, she really is the one you can truly count on. You were about to say thank you when she added, "It's obviously Seokjin she has a huge ass crush on!"

Your mouth fell agape.

"Wait, oh yeah it's him!" Jimin agreed and tag teamed with his sister to tease you. Sometimes, you forget that they were born with different parents. Apart from their DNA, they’re pretty much identical. And it's scary.

"Okay, you know what? I take it back. You both deserve this!" You grabbed the mushy bowl and threw gloop after gloop towards the siblings.

Needless to say, you spent more time cleaning up afterwards than working on the decorations.

The next few days went by like a huge storm. Chaos definitely ensued. You spent more time and effort on making this party possible than you ever did with anything in your life. All you see are purple and orange with a hint of red even when you close your eyes. Halloween seems to haunt you even in your sleep. Just last night, you dreamt you were being wrapped in spider webs (Which let's be honest, is pretty much just cotton) by that huge scarecrow standing in your best friends' lawn.

You were out in town with Jimin doing last minute shopping, telling him that weird and disturbing dream of yours when he suddenly told you he has something to do and pretty much dashed away to the direction of a women's shoe store. What's that all about?

He's been absolutely frazzled since that afternoon you spent terrorising [word redacted]. You can't blame the lad. It's hours away from the party and it seems like he still doesn't have a costume. You and Luna don't know how he's gonna pull this off. If he does though, you'll thoroughly be impressed and would never question Park Jimin's capabilities.

On your way to the nearest bus stop, you received a message from Taehyung. You instantly felt giddy. The fact that you're going to a party with him in matching costumes have only sunk in this morning when you finished with the party preparations. You opened the text and your face instantly fell.

Tae Tae 🌻 : Y/n! I really don't know how to say this. But I don't think I can come to the party tonight. My little sister woke up to a very bad fever this morning and both my parents are working this evening. I'm so so sorry to cancel on you. I know we've been looking forward to this for so long 😔

You know you can't be mad at him. It's not like he planned for this to happen. But you can't help but feel absolutely gutted. He's right, you've been looking forward to this for so long. Since April this year actually. If he's not coming, everything just seems pointless.

You : Aww that's a shame. Don't worry about me though. There's always next year. Worry about your sister! I do hope she'll get better soon. She shouldn't miss out on halloween ☹☹☹

Tae Tae 🌻 : I know. She's not gonna be able to go trick or treating. But I'll make sure we'll watch halloween films! 

Tae Tae 🌻 : Wait what do you mean there's always next year?? 

You : We'll just have to wait for next year to debut our costumes!

Tae Tae 🌻 : WAIT NO. Don't tell me you're not going to the party?? Just because I can't come??

You : Well yeah. It seems pointless to go.

Tae Tae 🌻 : Don't be like that! You're making me feel guilty 😭 Your costume deserves to be flaunted. Go or else I'll never talk to you again 🤧

Despite his order for you to come to the party, all desires to go left you the moment you read his initial text. The entire point of coming is to go as a pair. You both have been working hard to make your costumes as accurate as possible. To come alone doesn't make sense.

You were too engrossed with your phone that you did not realize you were going to crash into a person when you took a turn at the corner of the street. "Oww." You clutched the top of your head, as if you hit a hard wall instead.

"I'm so sorry-" the guy began to apologise but stopped short after he saw you. "Ah y/n! Watch where you're going! Don’t just mindlessly walk around!” he said, rubbing his chest where your head presumably collided with.

“Oh! I bet you're going as Wonder Woman tonight. Get it? Cause you wander too much around!" 

The hollering buffoon in front of you, laughed at his own joke so hard that people around you started looking at the both of you. Wanting to get out of this embarrassing situation, you circled around him and proceeded to walk towards the bus stop. But he unfortunately followed right after you.

"Hang on." He jogged in front of you and held both of your arms. He looked you in the eyes with such seriousness that you think he has something very important to say. But alas, you should’ve known that nothing intelligible ever comes out of his mouth. 

He opened his mouth and said, "Are you actually going as Wonder Woman?"

You made an annoyed sound and slapped his arms away as he said things like "I knew it!" and "I am such a genius!".

"No Seokjin! I'm not going as Wonder Woman.” you said as you reached the bus stop.

“Well that’s a relief! Honestly that’s super low and pedestrian even for you.” He jabbed at you but you stayed silent, not wanting to banter with him, unlike the usual. He carried on blabbering for the remaining time, telling you how “Spicy and scorching” his costume is. Whatever that means. At this point, you have half the mind to believe that he’s dressing up as a jalapeño. Knowing Seokjin, you wouldn’t put it past him to do so.

“You know what, actually, I'm not going at all." you butt in as an attempt to shut him up. His head whipped towards you at such a lightning fast pace, you were sure it would have snapped off. Oh how you wish.

"You're not going?" He said in what sounded like a very disappointed tone. Huh, why would he be disappointed, you thought to yourself.

You shake your head no.

For once, Seokjin seemed rather speechless and something else. Dare you say sad. This is really weird for him but you chose not to analyse him further and stood at the bus stop. You both just stood there in silence for a couple of seconds until a bus came parking.

You were already inside, swiping your bus card, when you heard him say, "Well that's rather disappointing. Who would go and scare the little kids away now?" 

The bus doors closed just as his infamous laugh came rolling. You weren't able to hear it but the sound of his signature windshield wiper laugh still rang in your ears. You flipped him off and hastily took a seat after an old man looked at you with such distaste. You took one last look at Seokjin giving him the finger once more but much discreetly as the bus abandoned his still laughing form.

When 8:30pm arrived, you were sprawled on your bed watching this god awful halloween film starring Adam Sandler. You, honest to god, love Adam Sandler. But this film isn’t it. You stopped paying attention half way through the movie and started scrolling through your phone when your mom unceremoniously barged in your room.

“Mom, for the last time! I’m not coming to the party!” You told her for like the thirteenth time since you got home this afternoon. It most probably wasn’t the thirteenth time and was probably just the third time. But you’re really not in the best mood.

“Are you extremely, positively, a hundred percent sure about that, honey?” 

You rolled your eyes at that. Your mom is never the one to keep repeating stuff as she is also easily annoyed just like her daughter. “Yes, mom. I am firmly, undoubtedly, and conclusively stating that I am staying in this room for the rest of the night.” You proclaimed, not even sure you can string up further words to describe how sure you are with your decision.

Your mom sighed as you closed the movie, not interested in it anymore. You look up at her with a raised eyebrow, silently asking why she’s still in the room. She fully opened the door and said, “Well, if that’s the case, then you need to tell that to Freddie Mercury downstairs.”

Not really understanding what she meant, you just stared at her dumbfoundedly until your brain finally started to function properly. “Uh, excuse me. But come again?”

She sighed once more, probably already tired from the night and the high jinks that came along with it. She never really liked halloween.

“Just come downstairs. Now.”

You hurriedly got up from your bed and sprinted out of your room. You haven’t even stepped foot at the top of the stairs when you indeed caught sight of the one and the only Freddie Mercury at your front door, rocking his iconic Live Aid outfit, topped with a lavish red robe, and a completely blinged out crown. Of course, we can’t forget the aviators and his emblematic moustache.

“Ay oh!” Freddie yelled at the top of her-I mean his lungs. It was so loud that your cat ran out of your house. Meanwhile, you shamelessly gawked at the person in front of you as you descended downstairs. You were absolutely confident that your best friend wouldn’t be able to top her costume from last year. Oh you were wrong.

“Darling, I know I’m fabulous but don’t ogle at me like that. Now do tell me, what’s this news I’ve heard from the grapevine that you’re not coming to the party??” She asked annoyedly in a pretty decent posh London accent. You on the other hand, ignored her.

“Woah that looks utterly real.” You touched her moustache and she slapped your hand away. 

“Oi! Focus, lass! How could you possibly spend the last three painful days with us on what seemed like the halloween edition of Amazing Race, only to bail on us at the finale?!" Her accent slowly slipped away as her voice progressively got much louder. Once again though, you chose to ignore her.

"Your crown is so beautiful! Is this custom made? Oooh can I touch it?" You asked while reaching for it, not even waiting for her approval.

"Y/n stop it! I asked you a question. Answer it! Why all of a sudden, you decide to not go--"

"Dude, you really hit the nail on this one! Although I have to say, I don't think Freddie had protruding boobs."

Luna dramatically gasped at your statement and covered her chest using her robe. "I do not have protruding boobs! You make it sound like they're massive!"

"Well, compared to Freddie Mercury's, I guess they kinda are."

She hit you for the second time since she got here. "This is as much squeezing I can handle to flatten them out. Nevertheless, I believe I have normal sized breasts! Besides, I'm sure Freddie would've loved to have protruding boobs anyway."

A couple of seconds passed with you two just staring at each other, feeling the weight of your conversation. Realising how stupid your topic is, the both of you burst into laughter.

"What on earth are we talking about? I can't. This is too stupid. What the heck are you even doing here?" You managed to spit out in between laughs 

Luna stopped laughing and gasped once more. She hit you for the third time now and ignored your protests of pain. "You little shit! What are you still doing here in your pyjamas! The party started 30 minutes ago! Come on, let's get you dressed up!"

She yanked your arm towards the direction of your room but you stayed planted to where you stand. "I can't. I told you, I'm not going."

She dropped your arm and took off her aviators. She had a really disappointed look which must be mirroring your own expression. "You can't be serious. We've been working hard for this. We've been excited for it since the first day of autumn!"

You didn't reply to her, you just looked at the ground. "But what about Taehyung?"

"Taehyung isn't coming."

Confusion spread across her face so you told her about his dilemma with his sister.

“Well that’s just bullshit.” She concluded with such spite. Your eyes widen at her aggression towards Taehyung. You can’t believe she would be this hostile about him choosing to care for his sick little sister. What else was he supposed to do? Abandon her for you?

“What the hell, Luna! HIS SISTER IS SICK! How could you be so bitter to him?”

“Woah! Woah! Woah!” She waved both hands up in a defensive manner, “I’m not mad at him! I’m mad at you!” 

You rubbed your face with both of your hands. You guess it makes sense for her to be mad at you but now is really not the time for you to agree with her. You're not in the best mood to carry out an argument. You just want to crawl back to your room. That dreadful Adam Sandler movie suddenly sounds so temptingly riveting. Having said that, you still made it clear to her as to why you would prefer staying in tonight. 

Luna, being the stoic person that she is, completely disagreed with your reasoning. "Oh quit being dramatic! He already gave you the heads up to go tonight. What more do you need?"

"I don't know, Luna. I just feel like I'm betraying him if I go."

She glared at you for a good second as if trying to telepathically make you change your mind. When it dawned on her that you're not conceding, she sighed the longest sigh you've ever heard from anyone, dramatically placed her aviators back, turned around while flicking her robes on your face, and then strutted away from you. 

"Fine then! If you'd rather sulk here over a boy rather than spending an astounding good time with your friends, then be my guest! I guess all that hard work you've put in will be for nothing. But that's fine! There's always next year anyway, right?"

You watch her shimmy her tush towards the front door as she spews out reprimands after reprimands. And she says you're dramatic. Birds of the feather, really do flock together.

Her hand is on the doorknob when she gave you what meant to be her last look on you. It seemed more of a plea to you though. At that moment, you felt a pang of guilt. Are you really going to abandon your best friends for Kim Taehyung? 

You gave her a small smile and said, "I'm sure you'll have a fucking marvelous party!"

Finally, she gave out a groan of defeat and opened your front door. "Oh whatever y/n! I should've left the second your mom told me you're not coming. Jimin needs my help, anyways"

Jimin. Somehow, you remembered that that boy didn't have a costume even until this morning. You wonder what on earth did he pull at the very last minute. So you called out to Luna.

"Luna, wait a second!"

"WHAT NOW?!" She yelled exasperatedly 

"I just want to know what Jimin dressed up as."

She let go of your front door knob and crossed her arms. "Why'd you wanna know? It's not like you care about this party."

"Oh give me a break! Just tell me what it is!"

The smirk she has on her face tells you that she's not giving you what you want. Which you are absolutely correct.

"I'm not telling you what he dressed up as. If you want to know, then you find it out yourself. All I'm saying is that his costume is literally everything."

Some way or another, that statement of hers stirred something inside of you. Somewhere, a few blocks down, is a Park Jimin dressed up as something "literally everything" (Park Luna, 2020). If there's something you know about Jimin is that his definition of marvelous is a normal person's definition but times ten. She could be bluffing, but your curiosity is really peaked. 

Damnit, you need to know what he dressed up. Right now.

You stood at the doorway of the Park residence living room with your mouth on the floor. 

In the middle of their room is where a really cool light up dance floor is. You already know that since you were there when it was set up yesterday. What caught your attention was the guy dancing wildly right smack in the middle of everyone. A wild Jimin was twerking, doing high kicks, and *gasp*! Did he just do a split???

Beside you, stands a preoccupied Luna, too busy taking a video of his untamed brother. “What did I tell you? Fucking everything!” She hollered and yelled at him to do some more of his high kicks.

You looked at your thick blue Southern Water Tribe coat lined with fur and then at Jimin, wearing his Patrick Star hooker costume. Suddenly, you feel overdressed. He was only wearing a tight pink sweatshirt, Patrick’s famous green shorts, fishnet stockings, and some sexy thigh high leather boots. Yet he is indeed stealing everyone’s attention. How could he possibly bust out those kinds of moves in those thin stilettos? A normal woman can even barely stand in them. Hold on, so that’s why he bolted to that women’s shoe shop this morning, you thought to yourself. It all makes sense now. 

Luna was left enabling his brother's thotty attitude as you walked to the kitchen. Luna was right, staying at home was a dumb idea. You can't help but admire all the halloween decorations the three of you have placed everywhere. Now you understand the vibes the two siblings were going when they said they wanted the house to be illuminated by jack o lanterns only. It looks really pretty here. Let's just hope and pray that this house won't burn down at the end of the night because this is definitely a fire hazard.

A guy approached you as you were standing by the snack bar. You don't really know who he is but he's dressed up as Dumbledore so you felt obligated to talk to him. "Your Katara costume is so cool! I'm a huge fan of the series! (A/N: Honestly who isn't?) Is it okay if I take a pic with you?" He asked and instantly whipped his phone out. 

Who were you to say no? So you awkwardly stood close to him and smiled for the camera. Is this what fame feels like?

"Gee thanks! I'll have to take another picture with you later but with your date too." 

Your face fell for a fraction of a second for being reminded by Taehyung. How does this guy know that Taehyung and you were supposed to go in matching costumes?

"Oh, I'm sorry! Taehyung won't make it tonight which is a huge shame." 

He looked at you weirdly. "Who's Taehyung?"

"Uh my date..?" you stated but ended up sounding more like asking a question.

"Oh, your date!" Realisation hit him and you slowly nodded. "But he did come!"

"WHAT?" 

"Yeah. I saw him arrive earlier. I must say, he looks sick!"

Taehyung came? But what about his sister? Did she magically get better? Why didn't he text you or something? You are so confused.

"Have you seen him anywhere?" You asked rather hopefully.

"Yeah! He's out back giving palm readings in his fortune telling booth."

Well now you're even more confused. That booth was meant to be a prop display only. What the hell is Taehyung doing, playing fortune teller with it? 

You thanked the guy and zoomed out to the backyard as fast as you could. There were no signs of Taehyung anywhere. You roamed around for a couple of minutes, trying to maneuver around the massive crowds towering over your pretty small form, until you heard a loud guy complaining about some drink.

"I'm telling you man! We need cactus juice up in here!" Oh, that annoying voice, you're sure you'd recognise that anywhere. It's only a matter of time until you run into him.

"It'll Quench Ya!" Hold up, that’s a Sokka line! Why would he be quoting from “Avatar: The Last Airbender”?? 

"Nothing's Quenchier, It's The Quenchiest!" You hear him say before he bust out his windshield wiper laugh. His voice seems to be coming from that large group of people by the fortune telling prop. You approached the group not for Seokjin, but to see if Taehyung was around. The two of them are in the same friend group.

It was difficult to scout around the group since everyone is a lot taller than you. You jumped around until you caught a glimpse of the hollering man in the middle, wearing something red and what appears to be a large scar on his face. Why does that scar look familiar? Realisation hit you like a ton of bricks. It seemed like time stopped for all the wrong reasons when you took in the entirety of Seokjin's costume. 

"Hey, look! It's Seokjin's date!", someone said and every single head there was in that group turned towards you at the same time. Even Seokjin, himself. It's so comical and stupid that you'd think you're in some sort of sitcom.

You looked like a deer caught in headlights, just stood frozen in front of the crowd. To be fair, how were you supposed to react anyway?

“Damn, she looks really pretty!

“Those are some fine hair loopies!”

“I don’t understand why they would go as Zuko and Katara. It doesn’t make sense.”

“ZUTARA MOTHAFUCKAS!!!”

One, you agree that you look banging tonight. Two, You also agree that if the two of you were indeed on a date, it wouldn’t make sense to go as Zuko and Katara when they weren’t even a thing. But three, yes, Zutara all the way and you would go down with that ship faster than you can say Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis The Third.

Although the crowd had valid points, you would still think that Seokjin would contradict some of them. You know, like the accusation of the two of you being on a date? So it was a shock when he approached you with open arms and a huge smile while saying, “AH! There’s my sugar queen! Flameo, hotman! I was beginning to think you’ve bailed on me.”

You stepped back even before he got the chance to hug you. 

“Uh what the heck is this all about?” You were pointing out the ridiculousness of him acting like the two of you twinning was planned but he thought you were talking about his fortune telling booth.

“Oh you know me! As a theatre arts major, I can’t help it when situations arise that forces me to slip into a different character.”

You looked at him unamused. “That’s literally a mental disorder you just described and literally, NO ONE forced you to do this. That prop was happily chilling in the background and you just have to go and torment it.”

He shushed you with a finger to your lips and it took all the will in you to not bite it off. “You’re just saying that cause you haven’t tried getting my expert opinion.”

“Expert opinion- You know what? Whatever! I don't have the patience to do this right now. I'm out here looking for my date so this night could get better. So why don't you just tell everybody here that we are not- hmmp!" Seokjin's rather large hands covered your entire face to shut you up or maybe slap you. Honestly you weren't sure. He was intending to cover your mouth but in his haste, he managed to smack you instead.

"Hey, guess what? I think you're the only person here I haven't told their fortune yet! That's just a shame, that won't do. No, no, no. What's that? You wanna go now? What a brilliant idea! Let's go, sugar queen!", he said all that in one breathing then pushed you towards "his" fortune telling booth that YOU had set up before the sun even rose this morning.

It was a very small purple tent (Actually, it was just a massive piece of cloth hanging from a tree trunk) with a little table set up and a crystal ball in the centre. He yanked the front part close for some privacy and you think you've never been more repelled in your entire life. To be stuck in such a small confinement with Seokjin and his ten foot wide shoulders is something that should be illegal.

He pushed you aside so he could sit at "his" table with you nearly falling through the cloth at the process. Once he's settled, he looks at you expectantly with a huge grin as if you actually wanted to get your fortune read by him. As if you volunteered yourself to be in this position.

His brain really is something and whatever that something is, you don't even want to try and decipher it.

Against your better judgement, you dragged yourself to sit in front of him. You're already here, might as well just try and enjoy the ride. Right? 

Your butt had barely touched your seat and Seokjin was already declaring some insights about your future.

"Your future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it, self-inflicted.", he said in all seriousness.

And of course, this is just some mischievous way to rile you up. What else did you expect from this guy? Or better yet, why do you even bother with him? 

"You're not even gonna read my palms or bust out some tarot cards? Maybe do a little gazing into the crystal ball?"

"I didn't need to. It's written all over your face."

It took you a second to realise that he just directly quoted from Avatar again. You are quite annoyed at his childishness and slightly amused at his apparently extensive knowledge for Avatar references.

"I'm gonna give you the count of three to get the hell out of my face. If you're still here, I'll make sure your destiny ends right here." You replied, also quoting from the series.

He chuckled at your threat, finding it real cute just how easy it is for him to irritate you. "Okay, calm down. No need to get murderous."

"One."

"Hey, it's not my fault you're bound for failure!"

"Two!"

"Wait, are you actually being serious now?"

"THREE!", you yelled and lunged at the scarred boy.

He made a high pitched scream as you went and grabbed one of his shoulders. Your tiny chair went tumbling down and the crystal ball rolled off to the ground in your vicious movements. 

"Please, not the face! Anything but the face! It's too VIP!"

"Oh, I'll make sure that stupid scar becomes a permanent part of your face!"

One of his hands were on your arm while the other was held tightly around your hand that was trying to claw his "VIP" face. For a small person, you seem to be putting up a big fight against him.

The scene that was unfolding inside that small tent is a sight to behold. If anyone ever walked in right now, they definitely would think that a more salacious thing is going to go down. All of the ruckus the two of you are making can probably be heard from the outside. But the both of you are too out of it to even consider the embarrassment you might get if someone barges in. Which is why you didn’t notice Jimin’s head poke inside the tent.

"Wow you guys. If y'all wanted a room, you could've just asked. As a very supportive friend, I would gladly give you one." The voice of Jimin rang from behind you and you instantly let go of each other, feeling a bit flustered.

"It's not what it looks like!", you tried reasoning with the boy. "He's being his usual little shit self and I'm just trying to purge it out of his system!"

Jimin, equally being a little shit like his older friend, brushed your reasoning aside. "Y/n, y/n, y/n. Out of all the people here, you're really the one to mess this perfectly set up prop? Didn't us setting this up at midnight meant anything to you? Couldn't you have just let Seokjin hyung here to peacefully give you his readings?"

You rolled your eyes at him. “Can you just shut up? Also, you knew this shithead was using our prop and you just let him be?”

“Of course he did! He’s taking 25% of my total earnings tonight.” Seokjin muttered. 

“Total earnings- You’re making people pay for your made up bullshit?!” You hollered at the wide shouldered guy. Why are you even surprised about this? It’s Seokjin we are talking about. He could probably convince people to pay him just by walking past him.

“Oh you bet! But don’t fret, I’m not gonna charge you. With that kind of fate that you have, I’m sure you need every bit of kindness.”

Steam could might as well visibly come out of your ears right now with how enraged you are at him. You wanted to strangle him, bloodbend even. You didn’t have the chance to do anything though because Jimin was pulling you away. “Would you two stop with the lover’s quarrel for like a goddamned minute?”

He shoved you outside then did the same to Seokjin. “Everyone’s already inside about to play games and you two are still out here, too busy being all over each other!”

Jimin didn’t even need to say anything else or to further force you two. Just the word “games” made you both run inside at record speed. If people got real competitive with the costume contest, the halloween games are a whole other thing. Usually, after an hour or so since the party has started, the Parks hold a series of halloween themed games. The winners get various coupons. They aren’t as good as a free four course meal but that’s better than nothing especially if we're talking about the Park’s restaurant.

Sometimes, these games are done in groups but usually it’s in pairs. You weren't surprised that this year, all games are going to be done in pairs but unlike recent years, the games are going to be done in a "last man standing" manner. You knew all of this since you helped pick these games. You'd be more hyped up about them if it weren't for the fact that you don't have a pair to play with.

All these talk about games reminded you of Taehyung. You completely forgot you were supposed to look for him. But it became clear to you that he didn't really come when almost everyone who you came across with to your walk back inside pretty much assumed that Seokjin was your date. They all made some comment regarding your matching outfits which Seokjin didn't even try to deny. He was just gobbling up their compliments.

You listened to Freddie Mercury and Patrick Star explain the mechanics of this year's "Halloween Olympics". Now, what you didn't know was that they also changed the prize system. Apparently, they upped the prize since it's going to be a bit more difficult to win and there's only going to be one winning pair. This year, the winning pair is also going to win a free dinner. That got people buzzing.

With that, Luna explained that only the first 20 pairs to find a small, red, and hidden [word redacted] could compete in the games. Chaos ensued as you watch everyone scour around the house. All at once, you felt like you don't want to be competing against anyone in this room. Everyone seemed too terrifying as they went berserk. But alas, tonight doesn't seem like your night.

One by one, pairs came towards the siblings with their [word redacted] until only one was left hidden. Some guy, for some stupid reason, made the wrong decision to point and scream out the location of the last one. Obviously, everyone else made a beeline towards it. 

Everything went in a complete blur for you. All you remember was seeing a tall guy in red jump for it. Then you were yanked by the said guy. Next thing you know, you were competing in the first game. Well, “competing” is a strong word. Seeing as you were dragged here unexpectedly without your consent and were in a total daze, your partner took full control of the reins. Now that you're coming back to your senses, you think this is for the best if you want to win. For once in his life, he can finally put his frat boy skills to good use. 

The first game was announced to be a game of eyeball beer pong. It seems like the siblings are trying to get people drunk this early. You guess it’s a good strategy to easily kick people out of the games. But you and your partner ain’t going to be one of them. You watch your partner make perfect shots after shots, hitting every cup of the opposing pair. It wasn’t long before you both had won and eliminated the other pair.

“I can’t believe we lost! I really thought we had it in the bag.” One of the other guys had the audacity to say in front of Kim Seokjin, a true blue frat boy.

“Oh don’t flatter yourself! You were never even a player.” Seokjin muttered to the guy and held his hand up to you as if you were actually going to give him a high five. Instead, you gave him a long hard stare as cold as any of the water tribes. Any sane person would be decent enough to feel remorseful. He didn’t. Instead, he grabbed one of your wrists and gave himself a high five. 

You smacked him upside his head. “You insolent fool!” You hollered like a villain in a Disney movie.

“Yah! What was that for?” his feigned innocence made you want to tear out not only his hair but also your own.

“You think I want to compete with you?” 

He crossed his arms and slowly shook his head at you. Almost as if he is disappointed in you. “Tsk tsk tsk. I carried the whole bench and this is what I get from you? Just say ‘thank you’ and go.” 

You scoffed. “For your information, I didn’t ask to be paired with you. You just yanked me from nowhere!”

“Well then, you're welcome, sugar queen!”

“YOU’RE WELCOME?? I don’t want to be paired with you!” 

Your seething rage seems to somewhat alarm him. “Okay, okay, calm down!” You opened your mouth to interrupt him but he didn’t let you. “I admit that I did just yanked you and didn’t ask for your permission. Sure, that wasn’t really cool. BUT! In my defense, I was so deep in my competitive zone that I didn’t take the time to notice who I was pulling.” 

He looked at you to see if you had anything to say but the annoyance remained etched on your face so he continued reasoning with you. “Listen, we both just want the same thing and that is to win. That ain't happening to you seeing as you're all alone. So really, I kinda did you a favor here. Come on, it'll be fun!"

You hate to admit it, but he does have a point. Maybe it's not that bad of an idea to pair up tonight. You both are pretty competitive. Besides, you do need a little cheering up err- a distraction, I mean.

"I guess we could try and not tear each other apart even just for tonight. This is for a good cause. We do both really want that free meal. Fine, I'll call truce for now." You finally conceded and held your hand out to him. He took it and you shook hands.

"I'm glad you're seeing it my way. Because to be honest, you're not winning a free meal with that costume." He confidently said with a shit eating grin.

You squeezed his hand a little too tightly and ignored his yelps of pain. "And neither will you because guess what?! Your scar is on the wrong side!"

"Ah! I knew someone's gonna tell me that sometime tonight. I can't even be mad at that reference."

"No Seokjin. Your scar really is on the wrong side."

"Yeah, and tea is just hot leaf juice."

"Uh, it really is though. But I repeat, your scar’s on the wrong side, buddy!"

“No it’s not.”

“Believe it or not, it is!”

"Are you actually being serious?"

You let out a really long sigh of disbelief to what you'll have to put up with. This is for sure going to be a long night.

To your surprise, the night did not go on as a drag. The next game did start off rocky with you not being able to guess any of the given Halloween charades. Either you are not as cultured as you think you are or you just don't get the mind of a theatre major. Or maybe, it's just his mind you don't understand, to be honest.

"How on earth was that Silence of the Lambs?!"

"What do you mean 'how on earth was that Silence of the Lambs'? What else does this even mean?" He replied while acting like his arms are pinned to his sides then proceeded to cover his mouth and then did a fluttering motion with one of his hands that seemed to be coming out of his lips.

"That could literally mean anything! For all I know, that could mean The Mummy!"

He scoffed at you as if you just told him the most offensive thing in the world. "The Mummy?? Oh, you are absolutely hopeless. We are so doomed if we keep letting you guess."

"No, we are SO doomed if we let you act out the things! You dare call yourself a theatre major?" To any other person, you would think that your comment is in fact just downright offensive. But that's not the case with you two because it seems like you could push all the wrong buttons of the other person and somehow still not end up really hurting anyone. You wouldn’t admit it, but maybe both of you find this weird comfort in these silly banters and in the midst of it all, you've unknowingly built some form of bond.

You collectively agree to switch roles and just like that, the tides shifted. The two of you were suddenly getting the correct guesses each round. At the very last round, you drew the movie Caroline from the witch hat. If it were you and Luna playing, you guys would have guessed this in a heartbeat since it's your favorite movie. But you're with Seokjin and you are extremely positive that he has never even seen the movie.

When the one minute and thirty second counter started to tick down, you immediately made a circle around one of your eyes and made a sewing motion to it. You thought it couldn't be anymore obvious than that but he just stared at you. By the time forty seconds have passed, your hope for him trickled down. You could hear the opposing pair celebrating prematurely on the side which ticked you off so much.

Your sewing motions got a lot more aggressive as you gave Seokjin the most desperate look you could ever give him. He in turn, gave you a very rare apologetic look. Yup, you guys were doomed from the beginning. All you can think of is how much this night really sucks for you. You probably should have stayed at home.

Once everyone started counting down from fifteen, you bid goodbye to the grand prize. The idea of it was just too good to be true. You stopped with your motions and gave Seokjin a small nod of defeat. He acknowledged this by giving you a slow nod as well and this seemed like the end for your pair. His gaze on you, however, flitted towards something or someone from behind you. His eyes stayed there for a good five seconds, appearing to be in deep concentration. You didn't even have the chance to look back since right before the audience counted to one, Seokjin was screaming the correct answer.

"CORALINE! It's Coraline! Of course, how could I not know?" He announces while flapping his arms wildy just a second before the timer rings. Everyone cheered at this sudden victory. The turn of events left you stunned. You thought for sure he wouldn't get it. He just keeps surprising you.

Seokjin approached you with a huge smile on his face and you can't help but return it to him. Not only that, you gave him a big hug which caught him off guard. You didn't know what came over you to do that but it felt like the right thing to do. He didn't seem to show any signs of protest as well.

"What the fuck? I really thought that was the end of the line for us!" You told him after sharing a brief hug.

"You really need to put a little trust on me. What can I say? I'm a genius." Just like that, you went back to wanting to punch his face again.

Rolling your eyes, you murmured, "Did the definition of genius change in the last 100 years?"

While you turned your attention to Jimin who was already announcing the next game, Seokjin glanced towards Luna and gave her a smile. Unbeknownst to you, this so-called "genius" partner of yours actually had help. He, did in fact, was never going to get the correct guess. He has never seen Coraline nor does he know anything about it. But your best friend, Luna, decided that she wanted to keep you two in the games so she tried so hard to discreetly mouth "Coraline" to Seokjin a couple of times.

You didn't need to know that though.

He didn't mind receiving a few assistance to win, but it does hurt his pride and it will hurt more if you find out. Fortunately for Seokjin, he didn't need any further helping hands. Even from you. 

Either the games are too easy or you're just completely and utterly incapable because Seokjin pretty much breezed through them without even batting an eye. If you didn't know any better, you'd think he's trying to impress someone. You, maybe? Wait, no. That doesn't make any sense. Why would he do that? Besides, he made sure to gloat on you everytime your pair wins with you contributing nothing.

A couple of games and one harrowing round of What's Inside the Box later, just six pairs remained. It wasn't exactly all fun and games since along the way, your pair or rather, Seokjin made a rivalry against another pair. This couple dressed up as Team Rocket really got on his nerves. You can't blame him though. They kept on flirting with each other after every round and not to mention, they also kept taunting you two. You'll bloodbend them if you hear "Prepare for trouble and make it double" one more time before a game starts. To be fair, they do play very well. Actually, they seem to be the only other pair that puts up a good fight.

By this time, everyone has migrated outside for the last few games. For this one, as you already knew, you'll be playing blindfolded bean bag toss. One person would have to guide the other as they go through three different levels. The pairs that don't make it through would obviously get eliminated.

"Oh, we are so gonna dominate on this one!" You hear the girl dressed up as Jessie says.

"For sure. Why don't they all just pretend to be a tree and leave?" The guy dressed up as James condescendingly said and they both laughed out loud at his joke.

You visibly cringed at that. Can they get anymore intolerable? That's saying a lot coming from someone who knows Seokjin, arguably the most abhorrent creature in your life. Jeez, and you thought his jokes were the worst.

Seokjin made a gagging noise beside you, voicing out your sentiments. You can't help but laugh out loud with him until Patrick and Freddie approached you two.

"Okay, who's going to lead and who's the blindfold wearer between you two?" Patrick said and snickered a little after realising the other implications of his question. This little shit.

"Well, seeing as her skills are lacking, I'm gonna once again step up to the plate and handle this one." Seokjin reached for the blindfold but you snatched it from Luna's hand before he could.

You can't just let this night go down like this. Honestly, you're kind of having fun watching all the chaos ensue from the sidelines. But you're a woman of honour. You can't possibly go for a win while doing the bare minimum. You dare dress up as Katara and let some man take over?

"I'll be playing this one." You calmly but confidently declared.

"Sugar queen, I love the assertiveness. But I think you should-"

"I'm playing this one." You interrupted him with such firmness in your tone, they couldn't do anything but just nod to you.

Hell no are you gonna let Seokjin annihilate this night all by himself. You need to prove that you can match up to him. You'll show his stupidly pretty face and wrongly placed scar not to mess with your capabilities.

You took a long hard look at the three targets. Each one going higher and farther than the one before. You are to be given a practice round each level to get your bearings. Yada yada yada. You tuned the siblings out, of course you already knew all this. As the person who placed the goals, you'd think you have the upper hand. You were overly confident, bordering the line of cockiness, that you could do this. You even had the audacity to sneer at Team Rocket when they uttered their catchphrase to you.

You watched each pair try and make their shot. Surprisingly, everyone made it. That only added fuel to your fire. You were excited. You couldn't wait to finally do something. On top of that, Seokjin kept muttering things to you that if they can do it then so can you. 

When it's your time to play, you are extremely buzzing. Going last is always an overwhelming feeling. All that built up confidence died down though the second you put on your blindfold. The darkness that enveloped you instantly made you feel unbalanced and disoriented. Confusingly, it's as if all your other senses heightened but it also felt like they all shut down at the same time. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." You chant in your mind as you feel your awareness of your surroundings slip from you.

This is not good. Why did you subject yourself into doing this, again? You should've let Seokjin play when he had the chance. You clearly cannot do this.

In the midst of your swelling panic, you feel hands place on both of your shoulders. You jumped at the unexpected contact but it was just Seokjin. "You can do this, Okay? Just focus on me." He whispered in your ear with such comfort and softness that you had to shiver a little.

He rubbed small circles on your back with his thumbs, soothing you for a second until Luna gave you the go signal.

You slowly walk as straight as you possibly can even if you feel like toppling over the entire time. Please don't. The entire time, Seokjin was behind you. You halted when he told you and to the best of your abilities, you "delicately", as he instructed you to, tossed the bag to the left.

"Okay, that was shit." He truthfully told you in a nice tone as you hear the people around begin tittering at what you assumed to be such a horrible shot. You think you just heard Team Rocket announcing their victory. Shit, shit, shit, shit. You are royally fucked.

"Seokjin..." You can't help but whine, your anxiety creeping up ten fold.

"Hey, hey, hey. That's fine! What are practice rounds for?" He tried easing you.

"But everyone-'

"Forget about everyone. It's just you and me right now. Calm down and focus." The gentleness of his words and the lulling of his voice somehow allowed your breakdown to dissipate a little. If you're in a better state, you'd be surprised at how he is behaving towards you. You'd probably dismiss it and reason that he just badly wants to win. That's the only fitting explanation.

Sensing that you've calmed down a little bit, he let out a breath that he unconsciously has been holding. Your sudden mood shift made him really nervous. "Okay, sugar queen. I know you're a waterbender but mind channeling a little bit of your inner Toph for now? Just try and maybe get in tune with the surroundings? Come on, you set this thing up. Can’t you, like, use that to your advantage somehow?”

Easier said than done. But the way he’s practically cooing at you as he talks makes you want to subconsciously do anything for him right now. He could ask you to go find him a dragon egg and you’d most probably follow his orders blindly. Which is a concerning thought that you’d mull over later. For now, you focus only on his voice and try your best to toss the bean bag inside the goal.

You took a deep breath and said you're ready to attempt your shot. Seokjin instructed you to make your throw a bit more vigorous. By how much? You have no idea. Hell, you don’t even remember how hard you threw your last shot. This is literally all up to chance, if we’re being real. So you prayed to every spirit out there to put all odds in your favour. 

Around you, some people began cheering. Some people were kind of waiting for you to completely miss again to get some good laughs out of it. Other pairs were taunting you, making a distraction. But you tried your hardest to tune them all out. Right now, all you can focus on is your aim and the nice words Seokjin is throwing at you. With shaking hands, you make a swing with what you hope is enough force to get to the next level.

You weren’t aware of it but to everyone else, it’s as if time went in slow motion. People’s heads comedically followed the direction of your bean bag. Your two best friends were both wide eyed, Jimin had both of his palms on the top of his head and Luna had her mouth wide opened. Seokjin stood nervously behind you with his hands intertwined in front of his lips as if reciting a prayer. Your bean bag’s hang time felt like an eternity but it was more than enough to realise that you still weren’t going to be able to make it. Seokjin almost cried on the spot at that realisation until your bean bag hit the rim of the basket. That split second of it hitting the rim made all the difference in the world. Everyone literally went silent as the bean bag bounced off the rim and went straight inside the basket.

With your vision completely obscured, you were clueless to all the spectacle that’s happening. In contrast to everyone, everything went in fast forward to you. Right after you made your shot, you instantly heard people yelling your name and a pair of arms encaged you from the back. Seokjin lifted you up and started spinning you around, obviously a sign that you made it. 

With everyone’s reaction, you would think you made a championship winning shot. You don’t really understand the hype but you were just glad that you did it and it did wonders to your confidence.

“I told you that you were doing great! You just need to follow my voice.” Seokjin told you as he set you down and you took your blindfold off. Everyone still kept cheering wildly as Luna declared the start of the second round.

“Well, it is hard to ignore.” You joked at him but for some reason it made him blush. If his long hair weren’t hiding his ears, you would also see how harshly they’re flushing. He didn’t have a witty comeback and just avoided your gaze. He is flustered. How cute. You openly thought to yourself without even feeling an ounce of shame. It seems that the tides are indeed shifting and you’re not even fighting against the current.

The game continued with less dramatics, oddly enough. Even more odd is that you easily made it through the entire game. In the end, you weren’t even sure why you panicked in the first place. Two pairs got eliminated so you are now down to four. That’s fortunate for you. What’s unfortunate is that Team Rocket still hasn’t blasted off.

The next game was a round of Paper Dance. You were relieved that you both had to actively participate on this one and not have one of you slacking off to the side. You weren’t quite relieved when you remembered the mechanics of the game. Basically. You are given a sheet of newspaper and are forced to dance around it. When the music stops, both persons need to step inside the paper and stay there. Every round, the paper gets folded in half so the pair gets pretty close and intimate with each other. 

The thought made you nervous and you slightly broke into a sweat. You were feeling rather uncomfortable with your heavy layers so you opt to take off your outer coat. Some tall and lanky guy dressed up as a sunflower, which you believe is also one of Jimin's close friends, started hollering, “Take it off now girl, just take it off!” 

As objectifying his words are, you choose to laugh at how ridiculous he looked. A soft delicate flower uttering such promiscuous things. You thought maybe humour could divert your fluttering heart long enough for one pair to get eliminated so you could all move on to the next game. It didn’t, of course, what were you even expecting?  

As the newspaper shrank, the more agitated you became. The fact that it was taking so long for one pair to get eliminated makes you weak in the knees and you don’t know if it’s a positive or a negative reaction. At this moment, the paper is still relatively in a decent size but it could only accommodate one pair of feet inside. Due to your lack of communication, you both stepped one foot inside when the music stopped and you collided with one another rather harshly. You immediately went flying down to the ground but Seokjin managed to grab your arm and pull you towards him. Once you were flush against each other, both of you instinctively wrapped an arm around the other person to gain balance.

The action might have saved you both from getting eliminated but it definitely put you two in quite a dangerous spot. Just like when you were blindfolded a while ago, everything around you tuned out and all you can focus on is you and Seokjin. Only this time, you weren’t facing just an empty dark abyss. You were face to face with the dark abyss of his eyes. Your faces were mere centimeters away. An hour ago, you would willingly defenestrate yourself, horrified at the idea of getting this close to this guy. But right now, as you two stare and hold on to each other, you weren’t so repelled. Neither is he.

You two were just getting comfortable with each other if it weren’t for Jimin blatantly calling you out for this really personal moment. “Oi! The music is back up! You two can get back to your lovey dovey moment later but for now we game.” The actual buffoon roared at the mic. His very public comment made everyone start hollering and teasing the two of you. Just like that, you went back to square one, an awkward mess.

At one point, Seokjin almost fell off when he gave you a piggyback ride. You thought it was either because you were too tense to even jump properly on his back or you are just plain heavy. You’re not even sure which option is better. The way that you are so conscious around him has never been a problem to you. You have an inkling as to why this is happening but you refuse to say it to yourself.

While you mentally kept cursing yourself, Seokjin was having the same problems. He was too shaky to properly hold you. He too was cursing at himself for acting so muddled around you all of a sudden. This is getting pretty bad. He needed to get a hold of himself fast. By that, he means go back to being a cat and mouse with you. In other words, go back to insulting you. But his inner self is telling him to just let this moment be and to let himself indulge in it. 

Another agonising round later, one pair finally got eliminated. Thankfully for that, Seokjin was only tiptoeing on one foot at this point whilst carrying you. You, on the other hand, had other reasons to be thankful for.

Now, you were down to just three pairs. The semi finals are up next so you really need to get back to your senses. You are so close to achieving the grand prize. Remembering what the next game is, you knew you were monumentally screwed.

The semi finals, as Jimin is explaining, would be a bat doughnut eating contest. Five doughnuts shaped in a bat are individually hung on a string in their clothesline and both pairs would have to stand on either side, eating them all as fast as they could without using their hands. Both pairs are only allowed to work on one doughnut at a time. Now, that’s just on a completely different level of invasion of personal space. But you can’t blame anyone because you came up with half of these games, including this one.

“Let’s quickly push through this one.” Seokjin told you from his side. “We can’t let the others win. Remember, only the first two pairs get in the finals.”

You admire how composed he is right now. Why can’t you be as unaffected as he is? This is for the sake of the grand prize. Do you even want it? If yes, then you badly need to keep your eyes on the prize and nothing else. Definitely not on Seokjin, or on his piercing eyes, or his soft looking lips. NO STOP. Just what on earth is happening to you?

Realising you haven’t given him an answer, you simply nodded. With that, you heard the go signal and all three pairs started devouring the doughnuts. 

They are [word redacted] flavoured. Of course, what did you expect? You try not to gag at that and you also try to avoid accidentally making out with Seokjin while making sure you eat the entire thing at lightning speed. There were way too many things going on at the same time for you to handle. Your brain could not possibly keep up. It’s like your brain and body were being controlled by two separate things.

One doughnut down and you move on to the next one, then the next one, and the next one. “That’s it, keep going!” Seokjin kept on muttering motivating words whenever he could. Again, how could he be so composed at a time like this? Somehow along the way, your brain completely shut down and your body went into autopilot. The two of you fell into an unspoken strategy of having sides so to have some boundaries. The moon spirit knows you badly need that.

Your pair is on the lead when you reach your fourth doughnut. For the first time since this game started, you felt comfortable. Did you stay like that for the entire game? Of course not. Naturally, the universe just loves aggravating you tonight. 

Half way through your fourth doughnut, you accidentally brushed lips with Seokjin. The action was absolutely brief, but it was enough to halt you two and send tingles that you would feel throughout your body down to the tips of your toes. You two stared at each other for a second too long because Luna was announcing Team Rocket to have taken the lead. You two couldn’t care less though. For the third time tonight, all you could focus on is each other. 

Wide eyes filled with something you two are too embarrassed to accept, lips slightly molding into shy smiles, and faces covered with icing and powdered sugar. In that moment, you two seemed to have some sort of self understanding that didn’t need to be said.

The moment didn’t last though. As brief as your little kiss was, you two were back at the game instantaneously. The other pair seemed to have gotten past you two as well. With a new found comfortness, you find yourselves working together without anymore awkwardness. You were back to your old competitive selves. You gobbled up the doughnuts at a jaw dropping speed. All that matters now, is winning especially since Team Rocket is advancing to the finals. The two of you didn’t even bat an eye when your lips would unintentionally touch a couple of times in your haste. You certainly weren’t complaining about it now. As a matter of fact, you felt him linger a few times. So were they really unintentional? We would never know.

You amazingly caught up with the last pair even with a few cheeky antics on the side. The two of you are currently on top of the world and just breezing through. For sure, you would end up beating them. There is no need to worry about anything. 

What sealed the deal was when one person of the remaining pair mildly choked at a particularly large chunk that she had swallowed. You two took that opportunity to finish up your fifth and final doughnut. You swallowed for the last time and cheered for your partner to finish chewing. Everyone else was completely yelling at this point, it was such a euphoric feeling. Once Seokjin finished, you went and engulfed the larger man as best as you could in a bone crushing hug.

You two were all laughs, happily celebrating even if you haven’t won yet. “We are so going to come home with that prize.” You declared with such finality while you break away from the hug. You kept each other very close though.

“Oh yeah? You’re not gonna freak out on me again?” He teased you but you can’t help but just hit him. 

“Only if you keep yourself in check.” You playfully replied. You fell into a comfortable silence, once again staring at each other with shy smiles. His eyes dropped to your lips for a second and you felt compelled to lean in. When he realised what you were allowing him to do, he leaned in too. You were slowly leaning towards each other, taking your sweet time and savoring every second of it. Your lips were pretty much fully touching, you could feel the warmth and softness of his.

“You’re lucky that chick choked up.” James, whatever his real name is, from Team Rocket woefully stepped into your moment. It took every fibre in you to not punch the guy. 

“She’s obviously inexperienced. Couldn’t be me!” Jessie quipped and they both started laughing together. This time, it took every fibre in you to not bash their heads together. But as mentioned before, you are a woman of honour. You are willing to take the higher road and settle this fairly through the games.

Seokjin, well, he is Seokjin so he didn’t let the two slide so easily.

He let go of you and approached the two. He laughed along with them in such a forced and sarcastic laugh that it pained you. “Yeah, you’re right. We are lucky!” He said then squished himself in between the couple and placed his arms around them. What on earth is he on about, now?

“We definitely were just born lucky. But at least we’re not like other people who are only lucky to be born. Right, hotmen?” He said and slapped their arms in a playful manner but ended up being too hard. He left them completely offended, sauntering back to you with his windshield wiper laugh that you know all too well.

"Was that necessary?" You scolded him with both hands on your hips.

"Don't be such a Katara! I know you're dressed as her but please don't take it too seriously. Unless you really do want to be a sugar queen?" He wagged his eyebrows irritatingly. 

You rolled your eyes at his usual foolishness. Glad to know he hasn't gotten fully soft on you. You would prefer for him to stick to his playfulness even if it annoys the crap out of you.

"And then there were two." Jimin starts, grabbing everyone's attention. Yeah just two left and it just had to be with Team Rocket. Oh, it would feel even better to win knowing you were up against them.

You were one step closer from a satisfying free full course meal cooked by Jimin and Luna's parents. Is that heaven or what? In the middle of fantasising and practically drooling about the impending prize, it dawned on you that once you win, (Yes, once and not if) you'd have to go on that dinner with Seokjin. An actual dinner. As in a date???

The thought made you slightly pale. You don't get why the thought of going on a date with him made you all nervous when you were practically stealing kisses from each other just awhile ago. The idea of going serious with him is nerve-wracking when just this evening, you wanted nothing more than to punch his guts. Now, you still do want to punch his guts but also kiss him. 

You needed to snap out of it. All you did tonight is think of this guy. You were probably overthinking things. He probably doesn't even want anything serious with you. Maybe, he's just playing with you. Wait, no. That's too cruel even for him.

Your internal battle was stopped when Seokjin, himself, flicked your forehead.

"Oww! What was that for?" You grumply asked as you rubbed the sore spot.

"Your brain seems to be flying a couple hundred miles away. Y/n, now is not the time to be daydreaming about me. Did you even catch what I said?" Is he a mind reader? Most definitely not but even so, you are too embarrassed to say anything so you quietly hummed to him.

"What do you think? You agree with me?" You absentmindedly hummed again.

He clapped his hands together so loud, it made you jump out of your haze. "Good! That settles it. You're bobbing then." 

"I'm sorry, come again?" You think you misheard him but it sounded like he said you're going bobbing? As in bobbing apples? What?

He stared at your dumbfounded expression. He realised that you weren't listening to the siblings' explanation and you obviously weren't also listening to his plan of attack just a few seconds ago.

He sighed and repeated everything to you even if he didn't want to. "We're bobbing apples for the last game. Since I don't want to ruin my perfectly good scar, you're up for it." 

You scoffed. "And I want to ruin my perfectly good hair and makeup?"

"Hair dries off and without your makeup, you're still Katara. I, on the other hand, would just be some random handsome firebender without my scar. So really, it's better that you do it."

"But I don't want to do it!"

"Well boo hoo for you. You already agreed to it." He said and dragged you towards a large basin near Jimin and Luna.

"Wait, no I wasn't fully aware of the situation!"

"That's what you get for zoning out at a crucial time. It's too late now, you already agreed. A consent is a consent."

He was seriously being mean right now. You pulled your arm back to stop him but he wouldn't let go of you. So you kept your feet planted firmly on the ground. It ended up looking like he was dragging a very stubborn kid. "Y/n quit playing around! You need to do this."

"But Seokjin, I really don't want to do this." Your innocent looking eyes paired with that same whining voice that you used when you didn't make your first shot with the bean bag instantly turned him soft. 

He stopped pulling you and placed a hand on your neck. The way he is genuinely looking at you makes you think that he'll probably switch with you. He didn't. Big shocker.

"Y/n, I know you don't want to do it but you need to." He started using that gentle voice of his that he used on you earlier. You knew you were a goner now. He's definitely found your weakness and he isn't afraid to use it on you. Curse him and his captivating soothing voice. What are you supposed to do now other than obey him?

"I, without a doubt, believe that you can do this. I'm sure you can defeat those two wobbuffets over there and we'd win! Don't you want that?" You nod your head yes.

"So will you please do me the favour of winning this game for us?" You nod your head yes without thinking twice. So much for being a woman of honour.

He smiled at you and caressed his thumb over your cheek. "Good girl." He said and you'll be damned if you're not going to do whatever it takes for him to call you that again. Forget everything. You want him to call you that again.

That is why you find yourself involuntarily walking up to the water and apple filled basin assigned to you. 

"Step aside, filth." Seokjin jokingly muttered at James from Team Rocket. You hear Jimin and Luna giggle but you were too out of it to even appreciate his Zuko reference. 

To your left, Jessie stands in front of her basin. She gives you a sly smirk and winks at you condescendingly. You want to burn your eyeballs. 

You can't believe you're in this position. You can't believe you would willingly let your hair, makeup, and quite possibly even your costume get ruined. Lastly, you can't believe at just how much power Seokjin has had over you in a single night.

You stared hard at the apples. You've only bobbed for apples once when you were nine and it was one of the worst things you've ever done. You weren't even able to successfully capture an apple with how bad you were. Well, you're back more than ten years later and you're back with a newly found determination. Vengeance will be yours.

You hear Luna count down from three.

Seokjin's "Good girl" rang inside your head. No one's letting this magenta haired girl beside you win. You gripped the sides of the basin hard. Alright apples, it's time to face your doom!

"...One and go!" 

Inhaling a sharp breath, you plunge your face inside the deep basin. You tried to keep your eyes open to see the apples but it was proving to be difficult as light was barely passing through the metal basin. Nonetheless, you kept biting around until you reached one apple. You tossed it outside the basin and took another breath, repeating the same actions. 

You don't know how many times you did your little routine. All you know is that this is the longest minute of your life and you just want it to end so much. You were having such a miserable time. Your snot, your saliva, and even your sweat too were mixing with the water. Even though you avoid it so badly, you still manage to drink the water in your haste. Some of it even got inside your nose at one point. Bobbing for apples just might be one of the most disgusting things you could ever do. This must bloody well be worth it in the end.

Everytime you come out of the water, you hear the cheers of the people. You most certainly hear your partner, ear piercingly shrieking your name. It further feeds into your hunger to win. You don't care if you look absolutely ridiculous or that you were probably gonna end up throwing up later. All that matters is to win this for you and Seokjin.

At long last, Jimin blows an air horn to dramatically end the game. You came up gasping and snorting for air. How fucking graceful and beautiful. Seokjin rushes to you with a towel in his hand and wraps it around you right away. He pats you dry, careful to not smudge your very wet makeup. 

Luna began making a speech on how much fun this year's Halloween Olympics were. You didn't pay much attention to her as Seokjin kept murmuring words of affirmation while he was still gently patting you dry. In all honesty, you could've done that yourself. But after what you were just subjected to, you definitely could use a little pampering.

"Again, thank you to everyone who participated in the games. As for the rest, you've been absolutely wonderful, cheering our players. Until next year's Halloween Olympics!" Luna concluded. Well, they did more than cheer, alright.

"And now, let's count the apples these lovely ladies bobbed so we can find out this year's victors!" Jimin continued and everyone counted magenta head's apples with him.

"Twelve apples in total!" Everyone cheered wildly and you felt your heart clench. That's a lot. What if you had less?

"Twelve?? Ha! Suck on that!" James ridiculed.

Seokjin just glared at him and he grabbed hold of one of your hands. He squeezed it tightly as everyone started counting your apples. Oh please be higher than twelve, please be higher than twelve, please be higher than twelve, please, oh please, oh please.

"Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen!"

"A grand total of eighteen apples! Wow that's a lot more! Which means we have this year's victors!" Jimin announced.

Eighteen? You bobbed six more apples than her? Wow, your nine year old self would be proud of you now.

Seokjin couldn't contain himself, he grabbed you by your waist and lifted you up in an embrace. "Y'all hear that? My girl just beat your asses badly! Suck on my poké balls!" He finally cracked and straight up insulted Team Rocket while still holding you up. You ignored the sickly sweet feeling that bubbled inside you when he referred to you as “my girl”.

"You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!" Instead of a maniacal laugh, his windshield wiper laugh came out. The punchline was already perfect if only his stupid laugh didn't ruin it. As annoying as it is, you didn’t seem to be complaining about his laugh now in your head unlike always. Actually, it’s kind of endearing in a way. Crazy to think just how much one night can change. You wonder what happens now to the two of you.

Jimin and Luna called the both of you up on their makeshift stage to properly announce your rain of terror- I mean, your victory. Along with that, they are also going to announce the winner for best in costume. With all the action that’s been happening, people have forgotten that the awarding for best in costume is actually the main event of the night.

As Seokjin predicted earlier, you didn’t win. Some guy, Jung something something, dressed up as Shrek won by popular voting. You think he is also a part of Jimin’s friend group. You can’t be too sure as there are too many guys in that circle of friends for you to care. Which leads you to believe that maybe Jimin did some rigging of the results because his Shrek costume kinda deserves to be kicked out of the swamp. Not that you care though. As far as you’re concerned, you already won the grand prize as well.

“Told ya, you wouldn’t win best costume.” Seokjin says as you leave the stage. 

“Neither did you. All because your scar is definitely on the wrong side.” 

He groaned loudly. “You’re never gonna drop that, aren’t you?”

You laugh, thinking just how stupid he is for messing up his scar. For someone who seems to be able to quote directly from the show with ease, it’s really funny that he would overlook such a crucial detail. 

“Neverrr!” You said in a singsong voice.

“Whatever.” He said while waving his hand in a dismissing manner. “It’s not like anyone else noticed it. I guess you were paying too much attention to my face, huh?”

You blushed at his remark. “Jeez, get over yourself, will you?” 

You rushed your steps towards the house to leave him. You are sure Jimin and Luna are now tearing it down on the dance floor. He easily caught up with you though with those long legs of his and draped an arm over your shoulders.

Cackling at your flusteredness, he said, “Okay, then! So let’s say you weren’t gawking at me the entire time for you to notice my mistake.”

You hummed at him.

“Then I guess the only explanation why people seem to have failed to notice is because of my handsome face! They are too distracted by my beauty to notice my misplaced scar. Don’t you agree?” You elbowed him hard and left his yelping, laughing ass. What a weirdo. You giddily smiled though.

The rest of the night went by pretty fast. It was filled with dancing and laughing with people you know and don’t know. You even got to hang out a little bit with Team Rocket. You wouldn’t say you’d become friends with them but they aren’t all that bad. 

The only missing thing though is that you didn’t share any more “personal” moments with Seokjin. He disappeared off with his group of friends after you left him. Not that you were fully expecting anything to happen, but you were slightly disappointed. Luna was quite chill about it at the start. She was probably wanting to discuss it in private. You know, for your own sake. But as she got tipsier and tipsier until she was full on drunk, she was practically squealing about it every few seconds. Hence, why you decided to socialise with other people which you would never do. Honestly, what is going on tonight and who are you even?

After the party, you remained to clean up. But Jimin told you that none of you would have to deal with the mess right now. He understands that everyone is completely knackered at this point. There were still a few people left but he ushered you to go home now. He assured you that he could deal with them and his hammered sister. 

With that, you said thanks and hugged each other goodbye. 

Walking out of their house, you thought back to earlier when you were thoroughly convinced to stay at home. You wonder how things would be if you had stayed. You would have totally missed out on so much! But you also wonder what would happen now. It seemed like Seokjin was unmistakably giving you the vibes that he likes you. You were too. So why did he suddenly vanish?

“You want me to walk you home?” A very familiar voice said from behind you. Ah, speak of the devil.

You faced him and smiled a little too big of a smile. “You live in the complete opposite direction. What are you talking about?”

He chuckled and made his way to you. “I was just thinking, what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you walk home all by yourself at 2 in the morning?”

He stopped a few feet in front of you. You find yourself a bit irritated with the distance between you two. You wanted to be a bit closer than that so you made the move to get nearer to him. “I think I can handle myself pretty well.” You said as you approached him until you were inches away from him.

“Oh, I’m sure you can.” 

There was a brief moment of silence that fell between you. It wasn’t at all awkward or anything unpleasant. Actually, it was the complete opposite. You were just drinking everything in.

“Surprisingly, I had heaps of fun tonight. I never thought I would ever say that in the company of Kim Seokjin.” You said in a hush tone. You don’t know why you were speaking in such a way. The entire moment just seemed too delicate.

“I told you, you need to put a little faith in me, sugar queen.” He whispered. You smile at the term of endearment he had given you tonight due to your Katara outfit.

“I think I already have.” You said and his face started inching down towards yours.

Just the mere thought of finally getting to properly kiss him released thousands of butterflies in your stomach. You wanted to rush him to finally feel his lips but at the same time, you wanted to drag this moment as long as you possibly can. If someone told you this morning that you would be having these thoughts as you were about to kiss Kim Seokjin tonight,you’d laugh at their face. You’d probably also tell them that you’d rather slam your tongue in a car door.

He took his time with you, also wanting to milk every second of this moment. There was no need to rush anything. He was literally ghosting his lips against yours. He was probably teasing you. It annoyed you so much. So much so that you made the executive decision to take full control of the situation. You made the move to press your lips against his but before you could, someone walked out of the house and started yelling towards you two.

“SEOKJIN HYUUUUUNG!” A guy dressed up as Snoopy literally yeeted himself between you two and placed an arm around him. What is everyone’s deal with interrupting you two? At this point, it’s like the universe is telling you a sign or something. Wait, what?

You frown at the thought you just had. It’s a stupid thought. But then why are you having this sinking feeling inside you?

“Hoseok, for the last time, I’m walking home. I live just two blocks away. I don’t have a car to drive you home.” He told the guy, obviously exasperated just like you.

Hoseok started whining and arguing at the older guy. It’s clear that he was dead drunk. You wouldn’t try to argue with him right now. Seems pointless since everything will fly over his head.

“But why walk when you can drive???”

“Hoseok-ah! You’re really gonna ask Seokjin hyung to get you home when I’m here?” Another guy came out of the house. You turned to the voice and saw Yoongi approaching, dressed up as Garfield. You’re friends with him because he seemed to be the closest to Seokjin so you see him more often than not.

Hoseok immediately let go of Seokjin and went to hold on to Yoongi. Yoongi seemed to be in a rush to get home. Can’t blame him. It’s really late and it’s been a long night. So he said goodbye right away. But before they could leave, he turned to you.

“Before I forget, by the way, Taehyung wanted me to tell you to call him. He said you haven’t been replying to him all night. I think he wants to take you out later.” He made a fast but pointed stare towards Seokjin when he said the last part. It seemed like his way of telling him to do something about it. You didn’t notice though.

“Oh, okay. Thanks Yoongi. Good night and drive safely!” 

With that, the two went off.

Another silence fell between you two. This time though, it wasn’t as comfortable. You didn’t know whether to continue off from where you got interrupted and how to continue. The both of you looked like you were in deep thought. 

Taehyung. You completely forgot about him. Now, you feel really bad and shameful.

You notice Seokjin pulling something from his trousers that appeared to be two small envelopes. That’s probably your prize. 

He held them both and looked at them for a few seconds. “I want to ask you something.” He started, not looking you in the eyes. He’s nervous. Is he going to ask you on a date? Well, that just made you nervous. 

“Yeah?” 

He didn’t say anything for a while. You watch him clearly having some sort of argument with himself. It felt like an eternity when he finally looked you directly in your eyes.

“Y/n, I want to-” Once again, he got cut off. Maybe the universe really is saying something here.

Your phone started ringing. It was Taehyung, calling you. 

“I...You should answer that.” He instructed you. You should. But you didn’t make the move to. Your eyes switched back and forth from your phone to Seokjin a couple times. You were completely torn and didn’t know what to do. 

You were just going to answer his call. What’s the big deal about that? It’s not like he knew everything that happened and was supposed to happen between you and Seokjin. It’s not like he was going to chastise you for all of that.

Before you pressed the answer button, the call dropped and you became tense. 

Seokjin sensed your inner turmoil. He didn’t like seeing you like this. But he thought that this was becoming too much to handle right now. He looks at the envelopes he is holding. Sighing, he can’t believe he is about to do this.

He reached out both envelopes towards you. “Here, take them both.”

“What? Why?”

“Take Taehyung with you.” You could not believe what you were hearing right now. To say you were dumbfounded is an understatement.

Seeing as you made no move to get them, he took your free hand and placed the envelopes in your grasp.

“Listen, it’s bad enough that Taehyung didn’t get to enjoy the night. I think it’s only fair if he went with you.” 

“But you worked hard for this too. It was a team effort between us.” You told him, still not understanding why he would give up the prize just like that when he was so adamant to win them the entire night.

“I know. But it’s fine, really. Don’t worry, I could always find a way to get free food from Jimin. Besides, you deserve to spend some time with your Aang.”

You still didn’t fully understand the situation at hand. But it appears that he is not going to let you go until you accept the prize from him.

You finally conceded and pocketed the envelopes.

“It’s getting late. We should really go home. It’s been one hell of a tiring night.” You nodded at his statement. 

“Thanks for being an amazing partner tonight, Y/n. I genuinely enjoyed every single moment of it.”

“Me too, Seokjin. Me too.”

You wanted to hug him. But he didn’t make any other move. He was clearly just waiting for you to leave. You thought, maybe this isn’t the right time with him. With all the interruptions and should haves tonight, it’s most likely for the best to leave things here.

With a heavy heart, you gave him one final look and said goodbye. With an equally heavy heart, he watched you leave and disappear down the street.

“What the fuck was that all about?” Jimin’s sudden appearance from the front door made Seokjin jump.

“Yah! Couldn’t you have been a bit more careful?” He asked the younger boy while placing a hand over his chest to calm himself down.

Jimin paid no attention whatsoever to his agony. “You deserve to spend some time with your Aang.” He mocked Seokjin. “What on earth were you thinking?”

“I don’t want to- hang on. You were listening to our conversation???” Seokjin felt violated. Does this boy not know the meaning of privacy? First he kept interrupting you two all night then now he eavesdrops on your conversation and has the audacity to mock Seokjin.

Jimin did not feel nor look like he regretted what he had done. If anything, he looks really mad at Seokjin. “That’s besides the point. The point is, why are you just letting her go? You already had her!” 

“No, I don’t think I ever had her to begin with. I mean, come on! She went dressed up as Katara and I’m dressed as Zuko. I think it was never meant to be.”

Feeling utterly frustrated, Jimin rubbed his face harshly. He had half the mind to take off his boots and impale his older best friend with them.

“That’s just bullshit! You’re too superstitious. You don’t listen to these signs! You take matters to your own hands.”

Seokjin knew that Jimin wouldn’t understand his point of view. He’s the type of person to chase anything and everything if he so pleases it. Which fair play to him, isn’t a bad thing. But that’s not how Seokjin rolls.

“Listen, you won’t understand me.” Seokjin started and Jimin openly agreed with him. “All I’m saying is if it’s not your time, then it’s not your time. You need to accept that and patiently wait. I did what I had to do tonight.”

Jimin did not respond to him. Truthfully, he does get what Seokjin is trying to explain. He does not agree with it at all though and still thinks it’s bullshit. But he can’t really do anything other than to support his stupid best friends and to let them learn things on their own. When that happens, he’ll for sure throw another party.

“Wow. Just wow. That’s rough, buddy.” Is all he can reply to Seokjin. 

Indeed it was.

[gloves94]

Sunburn [Prince Zuko] 39

Warnings: Cursing Rating: PG-13  Pairings: Zuko/OC  

Sunburn Chapter M A S T E R L I S T My fan fiction M A S T E R L I S T

It had been three days since the end of the One Hundred Year War.

Parts of the Fire Nation Capital had been burnt to ash during the sibling’s conflict for the Nation’s crown. Traditional red roofs had been turned into charcoal black and were missing walls and tiles.

Regardless of it all it was a beautiful morning and the Fire Nation people seemed eager to welcome their new Fire Lord and for the war in which they gained yet lost so much to be over.

Tsai stood on the Capital’s entry docks, her arms crossed over her chest. Wind swaying her hair lightly. She held her arms lightly embracing the comfort of her recovered hidden blade gauntlets. Who would’ve thought Azula had kept them as some type of sick trophy all this time?

The warship approached and she stood with her back straight ready to welcome her guests into the nation. The ship docked and after several moments two figures emerged from behind a several escorts.

“Welcome to the Mainland- the Capital- I mean- the Fire Nation? I still can’t get used to these terms.” She said nervously holding the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Home will do,” one of the emerging figures said dully.

“How do you jail birds feel?” She laughed nervously unsure of how to interact with Mai and Ty Lee.

She was taken aback when she was engulfed in a tight hug. She looked down at Ty Lee uncomfortably.

“Tsai, your aura is golden! Oh! It just makes me want to hug you!” The brunette cried out dramatically. “Yeah,” the other dead panned. “It’s because I’m the sun.” She explained awkwardly slowly leeching her hands from around her.

“Is it true?” Mai asked, her pose mirroring Tsai’s proper one. “About Azula?”

“Yeah…” She trailed off. “Physicians said she had some type of schizophrenic meltdown. She was also badly burnt. Most of the right side of her body suffered second to third degree burns.” She paused for a brief moment and a shiver went up her spine as she remembered Azula’s horrifying screeches. “She’s been committed to a mental health ward where hopefully she’ll get the help she needs.” She offered the princess’ ex-friends a small sad smile.

“And Fire Lord Ozai?” Ty Lee asked bringing a hand to her chin in a pensive pose.

“He’s alive as well. Imprisoned. The Avatar succeeded and took his bending away, so he won’t be able to hurt anyone any time soon.” Her smiled widened slightly.

“That is not going to go well. I can assure you my father is not happy about that. I’m assuming yours won’t be either.” Mai sighed sounding irritated. “I wouldn’t count on the Fire Lord to sit pretty and still on his cell…” She trailed of.

“Yeah,” her tone lowered enough to match Mai’s. From what she had heard Ba Sing Se had been taken back by the Earth Kingdom with the help of the White Lotus. The Fire Lord had been defeated by the Avatar and Yu Dao had been taken by her brother who was rumored to sit as the new Vice Royal Governor of the colony. “I’m still waiting to hear back from my brother. It sounds like things went… well as well as they could go.”

It was then that a lightbulb went off in her head as she remembered something she had been pending.

“Speaking of-,” She said reaching for a scroll she kept tucked in the back of her sash. “My brother asked me to give this to you Mai. I’d more than understand if you want nothing to do with it, or him.” She rolled her eyes lightly and handed the girl the scroll just as she had promised.

Mai starred at the scroll with a dead expression that was first natured to her. She had no reaction to this. Man, she really was hard to read. Ty Lee on the other hand bounced eagerly and snatched the scroll from her best friend’s hand excitedly opening it, breaking the seal.

“Mai! Is that the dreamy rugged boy with the body scars and the green eyes you were telling me about? Wait- he’s your brother?” She gaped for a moment. Tsai’s sighed lightly irritated. “’Mai, I just wanted to say-’” Ty Lee began reading and slowly her face grew from pink to red to marron.  

“Woah,” She fanned her face. She turned to Mai with a sheepish expression. The other girl simply took the scroll with a stoic expression and hid it inside her sleeves without much enthusiasm. “You colonials are something else,” Ty Lee giggled.

“We all know the stereotype,” she shrugged with a lazy smile. “Also, we’re going to the Earth Kingdom tomorrow. To Ba Sing Se for King Kuei’s coronation and to regroup with Uncle Iroh, my brother and everybody else. You two should come. You’re more than invited.”

“Really?” Ty Lee clapped her hands together, eyes shinning in excitement. Mai quirked an arched eyebrow as if testing her.

“Of course,” she responded timidly. “You’re both Zuko’s oldest friends. I know he’d want you both to be there.” She paused and looked at the onyx haired girl. “And Mai you’ve been a friend to me too, so I want you to come as well. I also never thanked you for saving my brother and my friends at the Boiling Rock. It must’ve been a hard decision to make. Considering your dad’s political post and your uncle’s... So, because of that I thank you. She stretched out her hands and reached for the other girls which she gave a light squeeze.

Mai simply nodded averting her eyes away from the girl. Maybe she didn’t smile back but the gesture might as well have been the same.

Regardless, it was an accepting one.

Xxx

The former banished prince stood on a parlor room. The massive balcony windows allowed him to the city. His city. The nation that he was now responsible for, his empire. Ha gazed at it lost in thought as he attempted to dress in his ceremonial robes.

The room was traditional with a red carpet that sprawled out across from one wall to the other. Giant lanterns hung at the top from the ceiling. The entrance doors were carved with golden arches. Four story, red, velvet curtains adorned the large windows.

He let out a low hiss when he picked up his robe and attempted to slip it on. He grimaced slightly at the slight pain he felt on his chest. Struggling he managed to get one arm through one sleeve. The other proving to be more challenging.

“Need a hand?”

He turned excited a rare smile on his features. The smile stretched as he drank up her ceremonial appearance. She wore a golden ochre long-sleeved traditional dress with a golden trim. Both of her hands were hidden inside of her sleeves just like she wore when they first met. Her hair was clean and parted to the side, worn half up. She wore a small diadem composed of thin golden rods which resembled a sun’s halo.

“You look… nice,” he struggled to find his words.

She approached him and walked around him helping him put his robe over his arm and tied his robe. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Better than nice,” he added gawkily.

“You look…” He said tenderly really struggling to find the perfect word.

She accepted the unsaid compliment and interrupted him by placing a deep kiss on his lips, both smiling through it. “Thanks.” She knew he meant well.

“How do you feel? Your Lordness,” She joked resting her hands on the neck of his robe lightly stroking the fabric.

“I still can’t believe it. A year ago, my whole purpose in life was to hunt Aang down and now it’s like I’m in a completely different place.”

“We both are.” She agreed. “A year ago, my purpose was to unite the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. My grandfather was still alive…” She sighed. “But now that I think about it, we probably wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for the funeral.” His uninjured arm snaked around her shoulders bringing her close. “Do you remember? The same funeral in which you were extremely rude to my family?” She poked.

He rolled his eyes slightly. She was never going to let that go was she?

“You didn’t even say anything when I introduced myself to you! You just walked away!”

“I didn’t say anything because I was nervous,” he admitted sheepishly. “You’re an awful liar.” She laughed pushing away. Who did he think he was fooling? He had been simply and plainly terribly rude.

“So, what are we going to do now?” He asked her as she walked back to him holding a different part of his Fire Lord armor. “You could… move here?” He suggested brashly. “You could have your own room. Your own everything,” he added apprehensively, swallowing a nervous knot that had formed in his throat.

“About that… I actually wanted to talk to you and Aang.

Xxx

Aang was sitting against one of the walls outside of a Royal Balcony, the one which lead to the Royal Plaza just where Zuko and Azula had had their face down Agni Kai a couple of days ago. He sat with his legs crossed underneath, a solemn expression on his face as he meditated on the events that had transpired the last couple of days. Despite the time he felt as if his trek from Ember Island to this moment had been one very, very long day.

He heard light laughing from the distance and looked up to see Zuko dressed in his new Fire Lord armor. His hair was combed and pulled back in a traditional Fire Nation topknot and he seemed genuinely happy as he made his way down the hall that lead to the coronation temple. His girlfriend walked next to him laughing at some comment he had just said. He wondered just what he could’ve said to make her laugh like that. Let’s be real, Zuko was known for a lot of things and being funny wasn’t one of them. Both looked regal as they walked down the hall together standing tall in their elegant robes.

Aang felt a pang of jealousy hit him. If the war was over then why- why couldn’t him and Katara be like them? ‘Ugh…’ He thought irritated.

The couple stopped walking and stood before Aang. Zuko smiled faintly at him and paused before the curtain that lead to the balcony.

“We were just talking about where we were a year ago. I still can’t believe a year ago my purpose in life was hunting you down." Zuko commented with small shake of his head, "And now..."

Aang opened his eyes and looked over at his friend with a smile, "And now we're friends."

"Yeah." The Fire Nation prince agreed with his own smile, still kind of amazed at all the growth and development they had accomplished. "We are friends."

"Well," Aang pushed himself to his feet and stood in front of the couple. He shrugged and smirked slightly, "I can't believe a year ago I was still frozen in a block of ice. The world's so different now."

Zuko walked towards Aang and put his hand on his shoulder, "And it's gonna be even more different. We'll rebuild it together."

Aang smiled and hugged his friend warmly, Zuko easily returning the embrace before they separated.

“That’s actually something I wanted to talk to you two about…” Tsai stood at a close distance both hands hidden inside of her sleeves. “But it’ll have to be some other time.” She smiled at the two.

“Good luck Aang.” She turned and gave Aang a hug. “Good luck handsome,” she kissed her boyfriend’s face.  

She walked away, making her way to meet the others on the Royal Plaza. Aang noted the lovesick expression the Fire Lord wore on his face. Toph was right those two, they were just way too much sometimes… ‘Fire Nationers.’ He shrugged to himself.

“Uh, shall we go?” Aang interrupted Zuko’s lost train of thought.

“Y-Yeah!” He said his cheeks turning slightly pink in embarrassment of being caught distracted.

The Fire Lord cleared his throat composing himself and brushed the curtains aside stepping through them, Aang following in a moment later.

Xxx

Tsai made her way outside, wavering through the heavy crowds sticking her head up trying to find any familiar face in the crowd.

“You’re that girl,” a burly man in the crowd suddenly said looking down at her. She looked at him oddly. “The Blue Spirit, the one that freed the Avatar and took down the Pohuai Stronghold.” He stated his expression blank. She was about to respond when his expression shifted into an angry one. “You’re the one that costs us the siege of the North!” He accused pointing a finger at her. “My brother died because of you!”

She gave a small step back feeling unsafe wanting to create as much distance possible between her and the threatening man.

“Tsai! There you are!” She turned just in time to see Suki reaching out to her from the crowds. She exchanged a look with the man who made a vulgar gesture to her with his hand before spitting at the floor. Without another word she parted with an uneasy feeling taking Suki’s hand.

“Hey!” She greeted with a cheesy grin. “Everyone ready?” She asked excitedly.

Everybody was there: Sokka, Katara, their father, Toph, Suki, Ty Lee, the Kyoshi Warriors, Mai, some of the people that had been with them during the in the Western Air Temple and even some swamp people and others she had never seen before.

Just in time.

All eyes turned towards the Royal Balcony when a Fire Sage stepped forward and struck a gong three times. She smiled proudly as she watched Zuko cross to the front of the stairs. The crowd loudly cheering and applauding to their new Fire Lord. The only person that was missing was Iroh. She still couldn’t believe he was missing his nephew’s coronation.

“Please,” Zuko spoke to his people raising an arm. The noise diminished as the people quieted hoping to hear their Lord speak. “The real hero is the Avatar.” He said stepping to the side. Aang stepped from behind him wearing a pair of elegant robes which were shaded in the traditional colors of Air Nomad fashion.

"Today, this war is finally over." Zuko declared. Again, the crowd went wild in cheer and applause. The people in the plaza raising up their arms in pomp. "I promised my uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire Nation, and I will," He continued with a serious expression. "The road ahead of us is challenging. A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided." Zuko looked over at Aang who was looking back at him. "But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right back, and begin a new era of love and peace."

The crowds cheered in applause once again and Zuko inclined his head bowing to his people and others. Aang stepped to the side. A Fire Sage stepped forward holding up the Fire Lord’s headpiece crowning artefact in his hands.

He lowered his body coming down on one knee. The crowds held their breaths waiting for the coronation. Tsai watched with her eyes peeled holding onto Suki’s arm tightly with emotion. She hid her proud smile behind a half-closed hand she had brought to her lips.  

"All hail, Fire Lord Zuko!" The Fire Sage said loudly, his voice carrying across the entire Royal Plaza. He lowered the headpiece officially crowning the banished prince.

The crowd went wild. The Fire Nation specially. It was obvious that his own people loved him. The girl from the colonies cheered loudly raising both hands up in the air proudly. Suki grimaced and lightly clapped, just happy to feel the circulation in her arm once again.

The Fire Lord rose to his step and walked towards the stairs that lead down to the Royal Plaza. He paused for a moment and looked over at his friend, the Avatar, motioning him forward to join by his side. Aang returned the smile and came to a stop behind him also marveling at the cheering crowd.

“So, how does it feel to have your boyfriend he the new Fire Lord?” Sokka teased a certain red head in the crowd nudging her side. “Ha!” She said to him giving him a flat look. “You should ask him what it’s like having me as a girlfriend.” She said with an arrogant chuckle.

Xxx

Sometime after the coronation ceremony, Zuko somehow managed to slip away from his friends and girlfriend and snuck out of the palace grounds. He took a path that was much too familiar to him, the one that lead to the Fire Nation’s Prison Tower. He walked alone; his brow twisted as he was determined to get answers to questions he had had for years.

Guards opened the metal doors of the cells and he walked inside the narrow, humid hallway, coming to a halt before bars at the end of the room in the secluded isolation corridor.

All of his life Zuko had been tormented by the sight of his father, but now. Looking at him down and disheveled with his hair loose, oily and tangled around his face, he looked like a completely different person. He looked like a slimy, small man. Not the terrifying man he had once feared.

His father’s golden eyes narrowed as they flickered towards him. "I should count myself lucky. The new Fire Lord has graced me with his presence in my lonely prison cell." Ozai grimaced.

"You should count yourself lucky that the Avatar spared your life." Zuko replied coolly, standing his ground. He ignored his father's scornful sarcasm.

"Hmp." His father scoffed looking away from him.

"Banishing me was the best think you could have done for my life." Zuko admitted after a moment. "It put me on the right path. Perhaps your time in here can do the same for you."

Perhaps there was some redemption in his father’s future. Ozai glanced over at his son in disinterested and asked in an almost weary voice. "Why are you really here?"

His scarred son certainly hadn’t come to grace him with his lordy presence on the day of his coronation.

"Because you're going to tell me something." Zuko said and leaned closer to the cell bars continuing in a low, unforgiving tone.

"Where. Is. My. Mother?"

Ozai remained silent. He simply glowered at his son. The man had nothing else to lose. Why would he surrender the last clutch of power he had over his son?

“Ran your tongue out?” Zuko pressed.

An evil smirked graced Ozai’s gaunt features. “Tell me Fire Lord, do you still keep that filthy half-blood around for entertainment?”

“That’s none of your business.” Zuko snapped defensively. He never wanted to hear mentioning of her or her name coming from his father’s tongue. It unnerved him and made him feel ill. As if it was something was his and only his, something private. His father let out a low malicious chuckle as if holding back a cruel inside joke with himself. His laughter mocking, almost haunting.

“What’s so damn funny?” The young Fire Lord snapped.

“Your forefathers are probably rolling in their tombstones. As if you couldn’t bring enough shame and dishonor to the crown. To your name. The one thing you could’ve done to redeem yourself and this nation... You don’t. A colonial…” He scoffed. “Let alone a mudblood with tainted Earth Kingdom blood sitting on the throne! This… Her… You… It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to our nation.”

“Worse things have happened.” Again, he responded cooly in his best attempt to maintain his cold composure.

Again, the man began to cackle.

“Enjoy it while you can…” He threatened his words ominous.

“What are you going to do about it? Nothing-bend at her? You better watch yourself or she’ll break your nose again.”

His smirked edged further to the sides of his face. It was vile, evil, threating and heavily filled with menace.

“I wouldn’t be so careless if I were you or your blushing moll Fire Lord Zuko.”

Struck, he faltered his emotions betraying him. “Guards!” He called. “Take him to the dungeons! Where he’ll be placed in isolation. I don’t want this man to see the light of day every again!”

Zuko excited the prison his mind racing with violent thoughts as he made his way back to the palace. His mind now corrupted flooded with concern at his father’s empty threat. He told himself it was most likely a mind game the man was playing, that there was nothing he could do to bring any actual harm to him or his – what had he called her again? Moll. Whatever the fuck that was it didn’t sound complimentary. But- today was not the day for that. He forced himself to push those thoughts to the back of his head.

After all, today was a day of celebration.

The war was over.

Xxx

Team Avatar found themselves enjoying lunch in the Royal Dinning room. The friends laughed and shared roast duck, apple tarts and pork dumplings toasting with cranberry juice and others with some fine wine.

They had been here for a while and the Fire Lord himself was nowhere to be found.

Tsai was currently sitting in between Sokka and Toph. The three currently bickering if a duck’s quack actually had an echo or not.

“Lady Tsai!” A courier suddenly stormed in making quite a dramatic entrance. Everybody froze, stopping in their celebrating, looking up to see the panting man holding his rising chest with one hand, on the other he held a sealed scroll.

“Urgent message, from the colonies,” he said breathlessly. “News from my brother!” She clapped her hands before excusing herself from the room with a poker face. ‘Finally, a word from the man…’

Once outside the room she took the scroll from the courier’s hands and as if it were on fire, she ripped the Vice Royal Colonial wax seal open and read her brother’s messy handwriting.

‘Tsai,

Word of Zuko’s and the Avatar’s triumphs over the Fire Lord and the Nation have reached Yu Dao. And I have to tell you. It has not been well received. The colonies, not just Yu Dao, are in turmoil. People are protesting in the streets revolting in uprisings.  The news of Ozai’s fall has not been well received by most and people are scared of the uncertainties the future brings.

Our people, some don’t know if to embrace a Fire Nation identity, others want the territory to be reclaimed by the Earth Kingdom. I know mom does... Mom is well, I’m with her. She wants you to come home as soon as possible. She’s not even mad anymore, she just wants you home. Dad on the other hand well… It’s best if I explain in person.

I wish I knew what to do, but you’re the diplomatic genius. I am simply the muscle. I feel so lost. I know I told you to go back to the Mainland, but I need you here. Your city needs you. Now more than ever.

Be well and travel safe, things are about to get very ugly.

I’ll see you on the other side of the pond. - Mecha’

You knew it was serious when he didn’t even mention Mai or the scroll, he had asked her to give to her. She guessed going to King Kuei’s coronation was out of the question too…

She took in a deep breath and rolled the note up tightly, squeezing it, hugging it against her chest still holding that deep breath.

Of course, it wasn’t over.

“Lady?” She blinked back the tears that had welled in her eyes and looked at the courier with a frightful look. “Oh, um...” She fished out a coin from her back pocket and thanked him quietly dismissing him.

She would take care of this tomorrow. Today was not the day for this. She forced herself to push all thoughts of fear and concern to the back of her head.

After all, today was a day of celebration.

The war was over.

Xxx

The celebrations continued well into the night.

Presently the Fire Nation’s people gathered outside in the streets of the capital toasting, cheering and celebrating the end of the war and the coronation of their new monarch.

Fire Nation Dragon costumes composed of rows of people underneath filled the streets in celebration. Children ran around laughing loudly holding sparklers. Fireworks set off continuously dazzling the skies with sparkles of red and gold. From all the celebration you’d think the Fire Nation had won the war…

The group was currently gathered in the Royal Plaza. Paper lanterns were about to be released into the night skies. A celebratory tradition in which people wrote and burned notes with their good wishes and hopes that were supposed to elevate the paper lanterns into the skies. Tsai looked around concerned. She hadn’t seen Zuko since the crowning ceremony at noon. She guessed he was busy with his new Fire Lord duties, but she was beginning to grow concerned. She looked at Aang, Toph and Katara who were getting ready to light their own lantern. Then at Sokka and Suki who were also nearby.

‘Where on Earth was he?’ She shook her head lightly and ascended to the top of the stairs that lead to the temple above the plaza where the crowning ceremony had taken place earlier. She hoped she’d be able to gain a better look at the mingling crowds and spot him somewhere in between.

“Sorry I’m late,” she heard a mumble next to her. She turned to see Zuko descending from the steps. “There you are.” She let out a worried breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. The stress from the news she had received earlier getting the best of her.

“Do you have your wish?” He placed a hand on her waist, and they stepped forward standing directly under the skies as the fireworks ceased once again painting the skies black, ready for the lanterns to float. “Yeah,” She smiled slightly holding the folded note up between her fingers.

“What did you wish for?” She nudged nosily.

“You can’t say what you wished for. Then your wish won’t come true.” He shot back defensively. “I’ll tell you what I wished for if you tell me,” She again nudged his side a sly look on her features. “No,” he responded irately.

“Well, I wished for-“He removed his hand from her and covered his ears. “Don’t say it Tsai.”

“I know, I love you too,” she reached for his arm affectionately lowering it slightly. She couldn’t help but laugh a little at their inside joke about not saying certain things. “I wished for times of peace to come and here we are. So, in a way it already came true, right?”

He couldn’t help but look back at her with a dumbfound expression. “That’s what you wished for? World peace?” The irritated expression becoming more pronounced, almost laughable.

“Yeah?” She raised a brow. “Now, are you going to tell me what you’re wishing for?”

He remained silent for a second and turned away from her hiding his folded paper in a hand behind his back. “No,” he said self-consciously. “Fine,” She rolled her eyes lightly with a small smile caving in, accepting he wasn’t sharing and that it was okay. She walked towards the closest balcony railing placing the paper lantern on it as she got ready to light it.

He looked at her and then at the small paper he was holding his hand and sighed in defeat. He approached her and without saying another word held it up in front of her between his index and middle fingers.

He looked away from her sheepishly. He would never admit it to her, but he had spent hours pondering on what to write and then actually writing it. It was one of those things he felt he just had to do right. She took the note from him and a moment later upon hearing weak sniffling turned to see her struck expression. Her eyes were wide and pooling with a cocktail of emotions.

“Y-You can’t burn this,” she managed weakly starring at the seven words that were written on the small paper with large, watery eyes.

“Are you… crying?” He asked confused. How had he royally managed to fuck this up now? He knew that words weren’t his forte, but he wasn’t expecting her to react in such a way. She wiped away a handful of fat tears and shook her head lightly. “I’m keeping this,” she said holding it against her chest.

“No. You have to burn it,” he insisted.

“This isn’t even a wish!” She exclaimed her voice cracking with emotion.

“It-It’s not the words. It’s the intent behind them,” he argued back.

She opened the note again and quickly glanced at the words that had shook her to her core savoring the sentiment in them.

‘Tsai, My heart burns for you. Always.’

Again, for somebody that was terrible at communication and overall painfully awkward Zuko still managed to surprise her.

“I’m keeping it.” She said in defiance turning away from him. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me.” She said tucking the paper inside one of her sleeves for it to be hidden away forever.

He was about to protest but was interrupted as she turned back just as quickly. “I have an idea.” She said a wide smile stretching across her features. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a small charcoal twine. What else did she keep hidden under those sleeves? She unwrapped her paper and leaned on the railing to write.

“Why don’t we share our wish?” She smiled at him brightly. He couldn’t help but smile back. They were late. Everybody else had already let go of their paper lanterns which currently hovered in the air illuminating the night sky and their surroundings with hundreds of warm lights.

“Together, we wish for a new era of prosperity, peace and love.” She read out loud holding the wish in her hands.

“It’s perfect,” he said taking her hands in his. Both holding on to their wish. He firebended a small flame and both held it, together, in their hands. The flame was small and beat like two heartbeats as one as it slowly consumed the parchment paper.

They placed it inside the paper lantern making it lightly glow with a heartening warm light. Together the two released it.

He wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned into his body resting the back of her head on his shoulder. She held onto his arm tenderly. Both looked up content enjoying the moment, enjoying each other as their hopes, dreams and wishes elevated into illuminated sky of the night.

The End?

xxx

Here’s the link to the short Sequel: Kingdom of the Sun MASTERLIST

Xxx

Sunburn Chapter

M A S T E R L I S T

PREV https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/623698183927758848/sunburn-prince-zuko-38

AN: AHHHH!!!! I am so emotional. I can’t believe we have reached our ending. I know what some of you are thinking. WHAT is this the end----?

Yes. It is the end of Sunburn. However, the people have spoken, and I read what you guys wanted to see/read so here’s what’s going to happen. I felt like I couldn’t make a lot of things happen because let’s be real they’ve known each other for less than a year and they are both 16 (17, at the most.)

Soooooooo I’m making a short sequel 10-15 chapters at the most called Kingdom of the Sun.

In the sequel both of these dorks will be in their 20’s. And we will have: - A very awkward proposal - A Who-dun-it type of murder of a main character - And a Zutsai mission field trip (yay) - A revolution - Plenty of NSFW activities *clears throat*

I’m really excited for what’s to come and thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed.

Love,

-       G

[bollywood-and-phoenix-feather]

manic hours opened yesterday and @just-another-trans-twink and I went on a 24-hour zukka lockdown. this was the result!

essentially: more sokka and azula content is absolutely necessary in this fandom, so here are five times sokka and azula collaborated for the better, and one time it was definitely for the worse

Read on AO3 above!

1. the gaang threatens murder

Sokka hadn’t felt this anxious in nearly six years – since the end of the war. Well, not counting the numerous attempts on his boyfriend’s life; those set him on edge for weeks afterwards. Today was different, though. It wasn’t just he and Zuko and the guards who were unusually tense and hyper-alert. The whole palace felt like it was holding its breath, terse silence stifling in the late summer air.

Sokka checked his timepiece. Thirty minutes until Azula arrived to move into the palace, hopefully (or unfortunately?) for good.

Zuko had been back in contact with his sister for years now. He’d been to visit her in the hospital many times, and she’d even visited the palace occasionally. The fact that she and Zuko could now hold a conversation without setting each other on fire was testament to how she’d changed. Even the doctors said she was better, more stable.

But Sokka still didn’t trust her - couldn’t trust her, after everything she’d done to Katara, Suki, his dad, Zuko… they were his family, and he had to be ready to protect them. Sokka wasn’t the only one that felt that way. Zuko might have started to trust her again, but everyone else was skeptical.

Katara was pissed; Sokka didn’t need Toph’s seismic sense to know that. She, Aang, Toph, Suki, and a few other Kyoshi warriors had arrived a few days ago for extra security. Zuko had stubbornly maintained that it was unnecessary, but he’d finally conceded it was probably a good idea after Sokka had asked them to come anyway.

Zuko, in his earnest quest to be a good brother, wanted to give Azula a proper welcome to the palace, with a small celebratory dinner with their closest friends - which were Zuko’s closest friends, since Azula didn’t really have those anymore. Ty Lee and Mai declined to come, and he was pretty sure everyone else had only agreed to come to provide moral support and physical protection for Zuko. Sokka was just hoping a fight wouldn’t break out.

-

Dinner was, well. Tense.

Katara did little but pick at her food and glare icy daggers at Azula, who pretended not to notice, acting coolly unperturbed by the tension around her. Suki looked relaxed, but Sokka knew better. Her fans sat on either side of her plate, ready for a fight, and she never quite shifted her weight to the back of her seat. Toph might have been the only one actually having a good time, irreverently picking her nails and drinking more sake than a person her size should have been able to.

Aang was desperately trying to ease the mood, chattering on far too cheerfully about new trade routes between the Earth Kingdom and Southern Water Tribe, while Zuko passively nodded along, glancing over at his sister occasionally like he wanted to talk to her.

“... so then, shipments will move primarily between Akahime, Kyoshi Island, and the Southern Water Tribe, like they did when I was a kid! Or was a kid for the first time, I guess! Huh. Anyway! This is gonna be great because it’s a relatively short and easy trade route but the quality of goods -”

“Aang,” Sokka snapped, physically unable to listen any longer. “I love you like a brother, but that does mean that if I have to listen to you recite the trade proposal that I helped write for any longer, I will shave your eyebrows off while you sleep. And Katara -” Sokka whirled on her - “I know you’re upset, but can you please return my water to a liquid state? And everyone else’s, for that matter? Otherwise someone’s gonna have to deal with a hungover Toph tomorrow, and it sure as hell isn’t gonna be me!”

Sokka glared at his sister across the table. Her face was stony, her eyes slightly narrowed. Was this going to end well for Sokka? No. Did that mean he was going to back down? Absolutely not.

“Fine,” Katara muttered through gritted teeth. With a twitch of her fingers, the ice filling everyone’s cups of water melted back to liquid - all except Sokka’s.

“Real fucking mature, Katara - ” he began, and then she flicked her fingers out towards him, melting the water in his cup and sending it right at his face.

“You little shit!” Sokka shrieked in what he was sure was a very, very manly tone. As he rose to confront his sister, Zuko and Suki turned to exchange a fond look, both of them struggling to hide their laughter. Sokka took a breath, feigning sincerity. “You know what? I take it back. You’re ALL a bunch of assholes.” He yanked the tablecloth towards him, sending food and drink flying, before attempting to make a hasty escape.

Chaos erupted. Katara bent the water off herself and onto Zuko, apparently declaring him guilty by association. Toph began shooting grape-oranges at people with alarming precision, while Suki deflected them just as easily. Sokka didn’t get more than a few steps away from the table before his feet were earthbent into the floor.

“You’re not going anywhere, Snoozles!” Toph bellowed, now pelting him with various fruits. He tried to dodge without falling on his face, and was only saved by Zuko grabbing both his arms to keep him balanced. Sokka looked up to see Zuko with a wide grin on his face, and Sokka, hopelessly-in-love bisexual that he was, had barely started his usual inner monologue about how beautiful Zuko’s smile was when Zuko leaned in to smear egg custard on his face.

Just as Sokka opened his mouth to voice his betrayal, another shrill scream split the room: “Are you fucking kidding me?!” Everyone turned to see Azula standing in the corner of the room, irate, steaming the water off her shirt and picking a few stray noodles out of her hair. “I lost to you?! You?”

Tense silence returned, dragging on as everyone tried to anticipate Azula’s next move.

Toph, who had remained unscathed by using the metal plates as shields, and who was somehow still sipping from a full, intact glass of sake, broke the silence. “Yep,” she said, popping the “p”.

Azula stared at Toph for a few moments before sitting down, a look of resignation on her face. Hm. That was new. So was the “Whatever,” Sokka thought he heard her mutter under her breath.

Slowly, everyone returned to the table to pick at what was left of their food and exchange uneasy glances with one another.

Aang cleared his throat. “Did anyone try the chicken? I thought the chicken was lovely.”

-

“I’m going to bed. Are you coming?” Zuko’s hands rested lightly on Sokka’s shoulders, and Sokka sleepily tipped his head back, away from the scroll he was reading, for a kiss. Zuko smirked, a few strands of hair that had escaped his topknot softly framing his face, and obliged.

“I’ll be there soon, okay? I just have a couple more things to take care of,” Sokka murmured in response. As usual, they were up late working in their study. (Technically, it was Zuko’s study, but Sokka almost always worked in here and was steadily covering any available flat surface with his scrolls, reference books, and blueprints. Not that Zuko was complaining.)

Zuko hummed, “Okay, love you,” against Sokka’s lips, before striding out of the room. Sokka waited until his footsteps had faded down the hall before rising, hoping he remembered the way to Azula’s room. He really didn’t want to ask for directions.

A few minutes and wrong turns later, he found Azula. She yanked open her door before he had really finished knocking, snapping an acidic “What?” in his face.

Sokka shouldered his way inside, closing the door behind him and choosing to ignore the fact that she could fry him like a pig-chicken in an instant if she decided it was worth it. He couldn’t think about that right now; he had to do this.

“Listen,” he growled, not bothering to hide the years of hurt and anger behind his voice. “I don’t know if you’re actually better or if this is part of some elaborate scheme of yours, and you know what? Right now, I don’t really care. You’ve hurt too many of the people I love. But you have Zuko convinced, and I guess -” His voice cracked, and he took a breath, trying not to wince visibly. “I guess that’s all that matters right now. He cares about you. A lot. So if you hurt him again, know this: consequences be damned, ending you will be my sole mission. Understand?”

Azula, level and unflinching, arms crossed over her chest, held his gaze for a long moment before huffing and breaking eye contact to inspect her nails. “Bold of you to assume I can be killed, Water Tribe.”

Sokka could only continue to stare, gritting his teeth to prevent his mouth from drifting open in astonishment. The fuck kind of response was that? What did that even mean?

Apparently satisfied with her nails, she turned her face back up to look at Sokka, a new, hard glint in her eyes. “Don’t worry about me. The threat is mutual. Guards!” A royal guard stepped through the door, standing at attention. “Please escort Ambassador Sokka out. I need my beauty sleep.”

And before Sokka could even begin to form a response, the door was closing behind him, and his feet were guiding him to Zuko’s chambers.

2. the gaang goes crafting

Sokka placed two thumbs on his temples, rubbing vigorously before giving up his headache for a lost cause with a sigh. This was the second Four-Nation (well, three-nation plus Aang) diplomatic council meeting he had attended, and as both the Southern Water Tribe representative and a young man who had seen far too much over the past few years, he was deeply frustrated.

When he'd been younger, he'd sat through enough war meetings to know how they usually went: chaos and argument, with Hakoda listening carefully before picking out the bits and pieces that mattered. It was a lot like hunting: waiting and watching for the correct moment to strike. Sokka had learned long ago how to listen, and listen well.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he might be the only one. The Earth Kingdom generals had not taken kindly to being placed in a small room with their Fire Nation counterparts, and every word out of their mouths demonstrated all too clearly that the war, for them, was not yet over. Zuko's position was still precarious - twice-banished and once-crowned - and so he could only do so much. The Earth King's travels had clearly done him some good, but the bar for improvement was unbelievably low. And Sokka did not yet have his dad's ability to command the room.

So this wasn't, at all, like hunting. It might actually be more like the moment after the hunting was over, when the offal was thrown to the polar bear dogs and they went wild, howling and yelling and stomping down the snow.

"I know that face," came a snide voice to his left.

Sokka jumped and drew his sword, mostly on instinct. Azula met his eyes over its point, and then pushed it away, lazily. Sokka let her.

"You're thinking," she said. "If you were my brother, I would say it was a rare feat. But you're not him, are you?"

Like everything Azula said, this question was a test, or a game, or both. Sokka rolled his eyes and chose not to play. "What do you want?"

"I want what you want," said Azula. "And I can help you get it."

Spirits. Even when she was trying to help you, she sounded like she was planning world domination. "Tell me how to get General Wu to shut up for more than five minutes, and then we can talk."

Azula examined her nails. They were much shorter, now, than they had been at the start of the war, so the effect was less like a predator picking its claws, and more girlish; it made her look her age, for once. Sokka wasn't sure if Azula knew, and if not, he certainly wasn't going to tell her.

"General Wu's daughter is studying at the Royal Fire Nation Academy, in her third summer. That means she's currently memorizing the fifty-eight rhetorical principles, and she's probably been practicing them so much that he can recite them by rote. If you bring up the one about the value of being concise - "

"He will finish it, embarrass himself, and then keep quiet for at least the next five minutes so that I can shut down his stupid air-balloon outreach plan." Sokka blinked, surprised at the words coming out of his own mouth. "Did I just agree with you?"

"Of course you did," said Azula, smiling. Her palm was sparking a little, in the way it did before she said something about collective power for utter domination, etc., so Sokka took the opportunity to head her off early.

"Come back to the library with me," he said. "We still have nine generals to go."

Azula looked at him. Sokka looked right back. He had the upper hand here, and he knew it - Azula must have been bored out of her mind after months nothing interesting to do but watch the path of the odd frog-fly. As far as Sokka knew, she wasn't even allowed out of this wing of the palace unattended, let alone permitted to read anything more recent than her great-grandfather’s time.

"Fine," said Azula, finally, feigning boredom. Sokka smiled.

-

Zuko stared. "What is this?"

"What does it look like?" said two voices at once. Sokka and Azula looked at each other in brief, honest shock, before turning back to him as one. Zuko swallowed nervously and resisted the urge to draw his swords.

"Um. It looks like the librarian is gonna be mad at you for defacing the general's royal portraits," said Zuko.

"What did I tell you?" said Azula, scornful. "I knew he wouldn't understand."

"We just have to give him a minute," said Sokka, patiently. Zuko stared. We? he mouthed.

"Oh, well, let him be," said Azula. "Zuzu - " she began, sweetly, and Zuko didn't even flinch this time - "you take all the time you need. If you have questions, we will be in my chambers."

"In your chambers," agreed Zuko, haplessly. "Why?"

"We're finishing the border agreement," Sokka threw over his shoulder. Azula was already halfway down the hall.

"The border agreement. The one that - they've been working on that for months! What do you mean you're finishing it?"

"Oh, you know, teamwork and whatever. It wasn't that hard." Sokka grinned brightly at Zuko, giving him a large thumbs up, and then skipped after Azula.

3. the gaang does science

As much as Zuko was unnerved by the...alliance? working relationship? collaboration? between Sokka and Azula, he had to admit that they were making great progress. They had resolved the border agreement, a messy affair Zuko was sure would take the rest of the year and possibly also Aang’s moderation to conclude, in less than a week.

That had been months ago, and since, they had gotten everything from education reform bills to reparations proposals approved by the council and various world leaders. Sometimes Zuko wondered who was really running the country right now. He didn’t mind, though. It was fun to watch the dusty old men on his advisory council squirm in meetings when Azula sat in the corner, staring them down and taking meticulous notes.

Plus, he got more sleep this way.

Zuko rose and stretched after signing off the Power Duo’s latest proposal for terracing the mountainside of a nearby village to grow rice. Dismissing his constant internal struggle over whether their partnership should make him thankful or fearful for his safety, he went to find Sokka. He got more time to eat in places that weren’t his study now, too. He’d thought a surprise picnic by the turtleduck pond might be nice; it’d been so long since he and Sokka had been able to go on an actual date.

He’d already asked for a blanket and a basket of food to be sent over to the pond, so all he had to do was find Sokka, who…wasn’t in his office. Zuko frowned; he must be outside.

Zuko headed towards the courtyard behind the building instead, lost in thought about their last date - Sokka had talked him into seeing The Ember Island Players’ most recent atrocity, which had lived up to Zuko’s rock-bottom expectations, but they’d gone swimming afterwards, and then -

Zuko’s train of thought (and the accompanying flush in his cheeks) was cut off abruptly by the truly alarming sight greeting him in the courtyard.

Azula was elaborately strapped and tied to Sokka’s back like a baby hog monkey, her arms falling in front of his shoulders to tighten a couple last straps. Both were wearing large, ridiculous, leather-framed goggles that fit snugly around their eyes. As Azula worked with the straps, Sokka unfurled two triangular pieces of cloth that bore suspicious similarity to the wings of Aang’s glider. The bottom part of the cloth appeared to be attached to his boots, the top edge to his arms.

Before Zuko could even say, What the fuck, Sokka? , Sokka grinned over his shoulder at Azula and said with far too much vigor, “Ready?”

Azula, clearly still focused on the straps, snapped, “I’m always ready. Are you sure this will work?”

“No, but there’s only one way to find out! That’s science! Sokka-POW!” And with that, Azula lit a massive flame under her feet, sending them both flying above the roof of the palace. Immediately, despite Sokka’s best efforts with the cloth flaps, they careened wildly out of control before plummeting directly into the roof of the residential hall on the opposite side of the courtyard.

As he sprinted towards them, calling for his guards to send a healer, he could think only two thoughts: (1) spirits, please let them be okay, and (2) if they’re not dead, I’m going to kill them.

Crashing through the door of the building, he found Sokka and Azula on the (very charred) floor, a few small fires surrounding them, which he snuffed out with a wave of his hand. The two were still mostly strapped together, Sokka rolling around on the floor in an attempt to dislodge Azula, while she tried to undo the straps at Sokka’s front with mixed success.

Zuko unsheathed one of the daggers at his waist and willed himself not to breathe fire as he launched into a tirade that bald-ponytail, sixteen-year-old Zuko would have been proud of. “What the fuck were you two thinking! Are you stupid? Don’t answer that, smartass,” He glared pointedly at Sokka while he sliced his way through their bindings. “What would I have done if something happened to either of you? There’d be a fucking diplomatic crisis, I’d have a dead ambassador and a dead sister and a very, very angry Southern Water Tribe -”

“In my defense,” Sokka muttered hoarsely, head lolling back onto the floor, “my dad would definitely believe you if you told him that I did something like this.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” He sheathed his dagger and whirled on his sister. “Azula,” he pleaded, “why?”

She shrugged, and offered only, “Science.” A smirk spread over her face, splitting streaks of soot. “Maybe if you’d let me read a book published in the last two hundred years, then I’d know it was a bad idea.”

Zuko’s imminent death threat was cut off by Sokka’s chuckling from the floor. “Nice one, ‘Zula. Up top.” He raised his hand weakly for Azula to give him a high five.

I can’t believe I’m in love with this concussed idiot, Zuko thought (not for the first time). Healers rushed in to save the two from Zuko’s remaining wrath. “I’m telling Katara,” Zuko muttered.

“Nooooo, babyyy, please don’t tell Katara, she’ll -”

“I’m telling Katara, mostly because you deserve to be yelled at by someone else, but also because she and Aang get here in a week, and I don’t know how else I’m going to explain why it looks like a comet crashed into the palace. And, you know what? Royal decree - you two are not allowed to hang out unsupervised any more.”

Azula glared at him - less her old I’m-going-to-mount-your-head-on-the-palace-gates glare and more the usual your-existence-tires-me glare that he saw pass between Sokka and Katara so often. That was better, though, and Zuko decided that he would take it. Sokka just pouted, jutting out his bottom lip and batting his eyelashes. Zuko found this look cuter than he should, and Sokka knew it.

Zuko steeled his resolve. “I’m telling Katara, and I’m not going to stop giving you shit about this until we’re approximately eighty, okay? But you can read whatever you want in the library. Happy?”

The Power Duo cheered, and Zuko couldn’t hold back a soft smile.

4. the gaang hoards the brain cells

Maybe it was a lifetime of being the oldest sibling and also the responsible sibling, or maybe it was just because he had grown up around Katara, but despite all appearances to the contrary (see: the as-yet unrepaired roof of the residential hall) Sokka was actually a great influence on Azula.

Part of this was definitely due to the fact that Azula, like, listened to him. Sokka wasn't sure that he'd ever been around someone who did what he said without question. Zuko supported him, but in a boyfriend kind of way; sometimes Sokka would jump in with a plan fully formed, and then Zuko would make him explain it back and work out the kinks; other times - and especially in fights - by the time Sokka had come up with a workable plan, Zuko was already in the middle of it, flaming-feet first, and Sokka had to improvise (brilliantly, but desperately) to keep up.

Katara, conversely, never actually listened to him. She just did what she wanted. If what she wanted happened to line up with Sokka's exact plan, she would never admit it. It was her right, really, as a younger sibling; Sokka knew this, and he loved her.

But Azula understood his plans almost before he said them out loud -  most of the time because she was thinking the same thing. And somehow, out of everyone - she respected him the most; sometimes Sokka felt like she was trying to earn his approval, like she knew that if Sokka trusted her, so would Katara, and even Zuko. If she was a sail, Sokka was just a rudder, steering her: they didn't have to be pointing the same direction, but their boat would never crash.

Sokka frowned, trying to imagine himself as a boat. Would his wolf-tail be the rudder? Or would his whole body just be triangle-shaped?

It didn't matter. (It did. He would figure it out later.) Right now, he needed to talk to her about some of the villages at the southern border; heavy rains had induced mudslides, wiping out shrines and causing the spirits to run amok. Sokka thought that maybe, this village might be a kind of Heroism Starter Pack for Azula, that they could - what was that noise?

Sokka looked down. The castle floor should not be splashing his feet, and yet it was; he was standing in a giant puddle. He looked up, suddenly focused; there was a trail of muddy water making its way down the hall.

Sokka followed it. The water grew muddier and deeper as he went, and Sokka despaired for whoever would have to clean it up. Finally, he caught up to the source: his very bedraggled sister, and his equally soaked boyfriend, trudging toward the baths.

"Um," said Sokka. "What's happening, here?"

Katara turned around. "Well, someone had to do it." Her hands were on her hips, her nose upturned.

"Yeah," agreed Zuko, smiling. "We took care of it. It was fun."

Don't get him wrong - Sokka was all for Zuko's little smiles, and Zuko having fun, but - "Take care of what? What did you do?"

Zuko and Katara scowled, eerily identical. "What we did," Katara said, edging from 'self-satisfied' to 'fiercely righteous', "was settle the spirits and save the villagers, since obviously the Earth kingdom civil forces don't have the bending knowledge to do it yet!"

"Yeah, like I said," said Zuko. He was frowning like a kicked puppy, which was unfair to Sokka specifically. "We took care of it."

"Oh," said Sokka, relaxing. "That's great! So you guys talked to the villagers?"

"Um," said Zuko. "About what?"

"...the mudslides. And, like, preventing them? The tiered rock formations?"

Zuko stared at him, a little furrow forming between his eyebrows which meant he was totally lost. Katara avoided his gaze, shifting from foot to foot.

"Katara," said Sokka, using his absolute best big brother voice, "remember my designs? Which I told you about last week?"

"Look, Sokka," said Katara, gently. Sokka frowned and crossed his arms; Katara had not been able to fool him with that voice since she was about ten years old, and she knew it. "We solved the problem. The spirits are settled and everything is okay now! Your designs were great, but we just...didn't need them?"

Sokka stared her down; Katara stared back.

"If you're going to -" "Well, what exactly was your - " they began, at the same time, and Zuko sighed; before they could really get into it, a rush of heat interrupted them, shrinking the puddles on the floor to sad little piles of dirt, and blowing Katara's hair dramatically into her face. Sokka stifled a laugh.

"I think the real question is, what did you actually do?" Azula asked, appearing from the shadows. She was holding Zuko's Blue Spirit mask, which was dripping with mud.

"Dramatic entrance high-five," said Sokka, because she deserved it, and because she was going to be on his side. Azula obliged, and then raised an eyebrow to Katara and Zuko, who reminded Sokka a bit of blow-dried cat-herons.

"We're not dumb," said Katara, smoothing down her robes. "We entered the village in disguise, and then cleared the mud and repaired the shrines. The spirits calmed down pretty quickly after everything was fixed."

"Right," said Azula. "Until the next time it rains. You know, what might have worked better would be to educate the villagers about flood barriers, or perhaps even offer them assistance in moving their shrines."

She sounded about as scornful and sarcastic as usual, but Sokka knew better; her ideas were legitimate and compassionate. He was so proud. Their murder baby was all grown up and trying to save people.

Katara did not pick up on the fact that Sokka was swelling like a pig-chicken about to crow. "You don't know that - "

"What we do know," interrupted Sokka bossily, "is that at some point it's going to rain again, and then the villagers are going to sit and pray to the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady instead of building these custom-designed flood barriers on the mountain."

Zuko shuffled his feet. "I didn't really think about that."

"Zuko, I love you," said Sokka. "but in my humble opinion? No, you did not."

"I don't agree," began Katara, but Azula cut her off. "I do. I feel the same way Sokka does."

Zuko stared at her, like he was desperately trying not to ask: about what? But Azula was biting her lip and kind of looked like she was about to break into hives, so Sokka let her have this one.

"Here," he said, thrusting his plans into Katara's arms. "I support the fact that you guys got to do your dramatic spirit thing, but now please go back and give them my plans."

Azula brought two fingers up to her nose, showily. "And do take a bath, please. I doubt the villagers will appreciate your particular stench.”

5. the gaang plans a proposal

“...and that’s why you can’t trust General Yin, but you can use him to gain influence with Ambassador Xi and her supporters,” Azula finished, emphatically pointing at a few points on the elaborate web of papers tacked up on the wall of Sokka’s quarters. It’s not like he’s slept in there in years, anyway.

Zuko’s bed is much nicer. Because it has Zuko in it.

Sokka jotted down a few notes from Azula’s monologue, absentmindedly passing her their (stolen) bowl of noodles. He dropped his pen and rubbed his eyes. On to more important work. “So,” he said. “I’m proposing to Zuko. Wanna help?”

Azula met his eyes and stared him down. Sokka waggled his eyebrows, smile as big as his face.

“You’re serious,” she realized.

“Of course I am! It’s the biggest tactical challenge of the century, because Zuko is the most suspicious guy we know and he absolutely cannot suspect.” Sokka tossed her a scroll. It was long - and detailed. “What do you say?”

“With my help, this will be the best proposal ever made. Together, you and I are unbeatable!”

“Cool beans,” said Sokka. “Plan over breakfast tomorrow?”

-

Zuko stared at Katara. Katara stared at Zuko.

“Okay, so. I love your brother.”

“Obviously.”

Zuko shifted in his seat; his tea was untouched. “No, I mean. I really love your brother. He’s - the love of my life.”

Katara narrowly resisted the urge to say: if you love him so much, why don’t you marry him? Then, abruptly, she got the point.

“Are you asking for my blessing?”

“No,” said Zuko, and in response to Katara’s murderous glare, backtracked immediately. “Yes? I mean. I already asked Chief Hakoda.”

“Oh,” said Katara. Then, more gently, and possibly because she was worried Zuko might pass out, she asked, “What do you need my help with?”

“Planning,” he said, letting out a breath. “I want to propose and do it right, but Sokka’s the plan guy. Everyone knows that. And I thought, that since you know him, you could - “ He cuts himself off. “Forget it. It was a dumb idea anyway.”

Katara wills him to meet her eyes, because she is completely certain that they are actually sparkling. “Zuko,” she says, hand to her heart. “I would be honored.”

-

“Hello, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Your boyfriend, Zuko, here. Well, you probably know me because of...all the time we spend together. You know, dates and other things. Like meetings - “

Sokka’s hand was suddenly on his forehead. “Zuko, babe, are you feeling all right?”

In short succession, Sokka examined his eyes, ears, and tongue, and took his pulse (ripping his robes open to do so). Zuko flushed, which just seemed to make Sokka more concerned.

“Sokka!” he growled. “I’m fine. Everything is fine. And also normal. Fine and normal.”

“Of course!” said Sokka, laughing a little maniacally. Maybe he was spending too much time with Azula. “Fine and normal. Why wouldn’t it be?” He laughed again.

“Uh, guys,” said Toph. “Are you two okay?”

Zuko blinked, and came back to himself. In front of him were ten to fifteen very important diplomats, and all of his best friends. He was in public, at dinner. And his robes were ripped wide open.

Sokka was suddenly jerked back in his chair, presumably by Azula. His eye twitched. “Nothing to see here, Toph! Look! I’ve finished my dinner!”

Toph frowned. “You haven’t, and I can tell when you’re lying.”

“Fine, I’m not hungry!” Sokka declared. “What are you, a cop?” His eye twitched again. “I have to go now, for unrelated reasons. To, uh, review some paperwork. Bye!”

He was gone so fast Zuko was pretty sure he left a little dust cloud behind. Toph looked nonplussed. “But,” she said, “I am a cop.”

Katara reached over to help Zuko straighten his robes, giving him a sympathetic look. He felt Suki’s glare from across the room. When he and Sokka had started dating she’d threatened to - quote - remove his entire spine from his body by way of his mouth if Zuko broke Sokka’s heart, and with the way Zuko was acting right now…he couldn’t blame her for being suspicious.

Katara followed his gaze. “Hey, Zuko,” she said, brightly. “Didn’t you have that - thing?”

“What thing?” said Zuko. Oh, god. He had forgotten something, hadn’t he? He -

Katara pinched his arm, hard. “You know. That thing. That you had to do in your chambers?”

He couldn’t lose face any more than he already had. “Of course, Katara,” he said. “I will go now to do that thing.�� Zuko stood up and retreated with dignity, praying that whatever it was, he would remember when he got there.

The table was quiet in their absence. The diplomats - who seemed to be inured to this sort of thing - soon began chatting peacefully, or placating Aang, who had helpfully pulled out his usual marble trick.

Azula watched Katara steadily over the table; Katara refused to meet her eye. “What,” Katara said, finally. “Is there something on my face?”

Azula leaned forward, bangs shadowing her face. “Tell me everything you know.”

“About what?”

“You know what!” Azula snapped. “Is my brother planning to propose?”

Katara shifted in her seat. “Unlike you,” she began, haughtily, “I know when to retreat. So, fine. I will tell you some of the things I know.”

“Where,” Azula demanded, “and when?”

“Princess, Sparky,” Toph said, irritated. “Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter whether you know, because those two dumbasses haven’t figured it out!”

This brought the table to a halt. Even Aang stopped his marble, because it was true: Sokka and Zuko might together be the force that had liberated Boiling Rock, but when it came to each other? That famed intellect went sailing out the window.

Katara deflated, laying her head on the table. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, don’t we?”

Azula reached out and, wonder of wonders, patted her arm with something close to sympathy. “Might as well get started.”

-

Zuko paced his chambers restlessly. What had he forgotten? Oh god, was it something related to the proposal? His hands flew to a fold in his robes, finding the necklace he’d engraved for Sokka - a smooth, deep blue leather band with a perfect moonstone pendant, which Zuko had engraved with a dragon and a wolf, nested together in a loving embrace. He sighed in relief.

Spirits, Zuko was so in love with him. He was desperately trying not to fuck up this proposal, but it seemed he was fucking up the not fucking up and -

He needed to take a walk and clear his head. He could almost hear his uncle sagely murmuring, “You rarely find answers in a crowded mind, Nephew.” Or something like that. Zuko made his way from his and Sokka’s room to the turtleduck pond. It seemed he was usually able to find answers there; it reminded him of his mom.

Approaching the pond, he saw a familiar figure sitting at the base of the cherry tree, already starting to bloom. Sokka seemed lost in thought, staring down at something in his lap, but jerked to attention once he heard the rustle of Zuko’s boots against the grass.

Zuko sat down next to his partner, nerves momentarily overshadowed by the sweet, peaceful movement of wind through the branches of the cherry tree and his abundant love for the man sitting next to him. Zuko reached up to brush a stray blossom from Sokka’s wolf tail, cradled his face to run a thumb over his cheekbone. “Hi,” Zuko murmured, gently pressing their foreheads together. “I’m sorry.”

Sokka pulled back slightly, face contorted in confusion. “For what? I’m the one that should be apologizing. Zuko, I -”

“Apologize? For what? I’m the one who acted like an absolute ass. Ugh, spirits, ‘Zuko here,’ what was I thinking,” He dropped Sokka’s gaze, his hands drifting towards his lap, getting painfully frustrated once again. “And then I just - I couldn’t - fuck!” Zuko was interrupted by Sokka’s hands grabbing his hips and pulling him onto Sokka’s lap, and by Sokka’s lips meeting his.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Sokka murmured in between tender kisses, and his lips were soft and warm and everything Zuko wanted right now and for the rest of his life, and if he had to keep this a secret anymore, Zuko thought he might literally die.

Zuko pulled away, just enough to look Sokka in the eyes. “Marry me,” Zuko breathed. “Please, Sokka. I love you so much, and I don’t know where I’d be without you, and I - I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Zuko only realized he was crying when Sokka ran his thumb under Zuko’s good eye, brushing away tears while Zuko fumbled in his robe for the necklace.

At the sight of the necklace, tears began to spill from Sokka’s eyes, too. “Zuko… it’s beautiful, I - yes. Zuko, yes.” Zuko released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, and they were kissing again, and then all of a sudden, they weren’t, because Sokka, the absolute fucker, was laughing uncontrollably.

Zuko immediately began imagining worst-case scenarios. What if he didn’t mean it? What if the past five years with him have been some extremely elaborate prank, and -

Sokka, noticing his now-fiance’s abrupt silence, attempted to quash his laughter and held Zuko’s hands - still clutching the engagement necklace - in his own. “Zuko, love, hey, look at me. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing because, well…” He pulled a small pouch from one of his pockets and opened it to reveal two delicately engraved golden bracelets, traditional Fire Nation engagement gifts. One held the image of a dragon; the other, a beautiful motif of waves crashing against a shore. They glinted warmly in the moonlight alongside the pendant of the engagement necklace. “I’m laughing because I had the same idea, I guess. I love you so much, and I want a life with you. Will you help me put this on?”

Zuko first let Sokka slide the bracelets over each of his wrists, then lifted his hands, shaking slightly, but steadied by Sokka’s warm touch, to clasp the necklace behind his neck. The tension bled out of Zuko, and he melted into Sokka, pushing him to the ground and kissing him senseless, from his mouth to the stone now resting at the base of his throat.

Sokka started laughing again, and Zuko joined in, overjoyed at the beauty and the absurdity of it all, at how lucky and in love he was.

6. the gaang commits arson

Librarian Hirai had been working at the royal palace since before Firelord Zuko had been crowned, going on forty years, now. His vast experience hadn’t prepared him for everything, certainly; the time with five Kyoshi warriors and a badgermole had been unprecedented, and he wasn’t sure he was going to lift the ban on platypus-bears in the palace anytime soon.

Hirai’s experience, however, had prepared him for this: the Fire Nation’s most formidable duo, Ambassador Sokka and Her Highness Azula, together, with access to children.

Hirai did not know the children’s names. He classified them solely on their capacity to irritate him; the only name he knew was that of the youngest, Tenzin, because the sweet child had never caused him any trouble. Naturally, Tenzin was to be found nowhere near this unholy gathering: instead, Hirai saw the bouncy one (liable to cause things to fall over), the Princess (insolent, with her fathers shamelessly wrapped around her finger), and the Teenager (arms always crossed, eyes forever rolling).

Her Highness Azula’s hand was alight with blue fire. To the courtyard and everyone within earshot, she was saying: “If you want to burn it, just go ahead. Everything important, your uncle or I have memorized.”

Hirai stopped listening, in an effort to avoid a coronary and possibly death. There was a protocol. Everything would be fine.

He moved methodically, double checking fire suppressant stations and tightening the seal on the vacuum chambers holding the oldest scrolls. He closed every entrance except the main one, and he stood guard outside of it.

This was not a long process; their royal Highnesses were still gathered like a storm cloud in the courtyard. A particularly loud storm cloud. Hirai had weathered storms before.

The ground rumbled, slightly. Republic City Chief of Police, Toph Beifong, emerged from it, and dusted herself off.

“You know,” she said conversationally, “arson is illegal. I can have you arrested for that.”

Hirai relaxed, infinitesimally. Beifong was known to be tough and fair; perhaps, after so many years, the spirits had thought to grant him an ally.

“So,” said Toph, rubbing her palms together. “Today, I’m going to teach you how not to get caught.”

It was interesting: Hirai had never before actually lent weight to the expression that one’s life could flash before their eyes. In that moment, swaying slightly where he stood, he was forced to concede that there might have been some truth to it after all.

He turned around, very calmly, and made his way to his desk. He groped vaguely for some parchment and ink, and in precise lettering dictated his resignation from the palace staff, effective immediately.

Somewhere out in the courtyard, their Highnesses’ Uncle Sokka and Aunt Azula high-fived.

[jaxsteamblog]

Summer Camp and (mostly) Lost

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

On the first day of classes, Katara was already looking forward to the first break. Someone had recognized her from the debut and people were hounding her between lectures. Even in the halls with more than a hundred students, she could hear her name whispered among the ducked heads. Inevitably, someone near her would check their phone and their head would whip around, settling on her for a second before typing a furious reply.

Armistice Day was two weeks into the first semester, which would at least give her a long weekend.

However, when she tried to find something to do, nothing seemed to come together. After taking off so much time, Sokka was adamant about keeping the shop open. Especially, as he reminded her, now that he had to save for a wedding.

Rohan was traveling with Thuy to Gaoling. The Beifongs - who had worked with Avatar Kuruk’s companions - had a daughter that was a professional fighter. On the one hand, it was assumed that such a wealthy and well-connected family like the Beifongs would be the ones to teach the new Avatar if they had the ability. On the other, Rohan knew it was because Thuy’s unusual upbringing was the perfect match for the fact that Toph Beifong was blind and undefeated.

“So does that mean you’re going to be Thuy’s airbending instructor?” Katara asked as she screen chatted with them while in bed. “I mean, you’re plenty unusual.”

“Unfortunately, Pop is pretty insistent that she have some sort of reasonable and level-headed teacher. So Jinora is doing it.” Rohan said.

“Has her firebending-”

“AZULA.” They interrupted her and Katara dropped her phone as she fumbled. Diving for it, she fell off her bed.

“Azula will teach her?” She asked, popping up onto her knees. Rohan nodded vigorously.

“Now, none of this is being confirmed in the press at the moment. But someone leaked our travel plans to the Fire Nation.” They answered.

“You’re going to the Fire Nation with her?”

“Yeah, I’m like her guide for a minute until she finds her group.”

“Hmmm.” Katara rested her head on her bead, staring up at the ceiling. It might be interesting to go travel the world with the Avatar. Maybe in another life.

“Hey, I gotta go, but chat soon? Unless you’ll be elbow deep in some guy’s guts.” Rohan said and Katara looked down at her scream, grimacing.

“I told you-”

“I know, I know. Class work first, cutting up people later.” Rohan flashed a quick grin and Katara sighed. “Say hi to your brother for me.”

They ended the call and Katara pushed herself up, stretching her arms over her head. She could study, go over her anatomy notes one more time, but her head just wasn’t in the right place. Laying back down on her bed, she pulled up the info page on Toph Beifong. She was only a little younger than Katara, but was a bit on the small side. Watching the recommended video, Katara guffawed loudly as she watched the woman launch a man twice her size into the stands.

This was exactly the thing Sokka was into. Hopefully as Queen of the Water Tribes, she could get the Avatar to introduce them.

Sighing, Katara dropped her phone onto her chest and put her hands over her eyes. She had to think about something happy.

Her thoughts for years had circled around being a physician. She wanted to go home to be a village doctor, spending her days assisting births and treating ailments. Katara fantasized about being a hero not for the destruction she wrought, but for ending the regular tuberculosis that plagued the tribes. Murdering viruses was much easier to swallow than the human body count that haunted her.

But now that was being taken away from her. Arnook had, for all of her attempts to avoid it, gotten her alone. He expounded on her the importance of her position, the necessary responsibility she needed to take for her people. She would be an icon of strength, of prosperity, and would be able to keep all three tribes safe.

Because Thuy was still vulnerable, and didn’t Katara want to save her from the same fate of losing her home and her mother?

Thuy was capable for her age. She had told Katara that Avatar Aang came to her first when she was at the heart of the swamp. A massive tree, that was simultaneously all of the trees in the swamp, was where she went to hide from her noisy family. It was there she meditated and found how the tree was connected to all things, and how she was connected to all things through it.

It was then that Aang found her, and taught six-year-old Thuy hilarious things to do with mud. It didn’t even strike her that she was earthbending.

Thuy explained that all of the elements were connected to each other, and that the Avatar was the heart of that forest. All she wanted, she said while they looked over the group of Avatar descendants, was that everyone would find their commonality and be able to celebrate their differences.

“Like how fire and water both flow so beautifully.” Thuy had added.

Katara rolled her eyes just as she had then.

There was a certain romantic aspect to fire and water. And steam could be pretty, but more often than not it just scalded people who got too close.

Her phone started to ring and Katara picked it up.

“Well speak of the hogmonkey.” She said as Zuko’s face showed up.

“You were talking about me?” He asked.

“Tangentially thinking about.” Katara said and then sat up. “Hey, I never got to ask, what did you think of Thuy?”

“She was nice. She said I looked like I belonged at the North Pole.” Zuko answered and Katara snorted.

“I think that brat is trying to set us up.” She said.

“Girls at that age are wild.”

“I wouldn’t know. I was getting ready to fight my way through Fire Nation territory.”

“And Azula was leading a hit squad against me so I think you’re going to need to take your trauma card elsewhere ma’am.”

Katara laughed, shaking her head.

“A little birdie told me that Azula is going to be teaching the Avatar firebending.” She said.

“Oh yeah? Did that little birdie also mention that they were the one to spill the beans to the press? I swear, Rohan can’t keep a secret to save their life.” Zuko said. Katara chuckled again and looked at Zuko’s face.

“If you had been a normal teenager, what do you think you would have done at her age?”

Zuko let out a breath and looked off into the distance as he thought.

“If I were normal, my mother would still be around. And.” He suddenly smiled and rubbed his eye with his hand before pushing his hair back. “Okay, so in my mother’s village, there’s this theater camp that runs in the summer.”

“No way.” Katara said, her voice breathy in astonishment. “Zuko, you are such a nerd!”

“I can’t help it! You saw my father, I inherited the drama!” He retorted and they both laughed.

When they settled, Katara lifted the phone high above her face.

“Have you ever gone to your mother’s village?” She asked. Zuko looked thoughtful, which made her feel better for asking.

“Once. After the war but before I was recalled.” He said. “It’s nice but homely and made me realize that I could never not be rich now.”

“You’re soft.”

“I’m so weak Katara you don’t even understand.”

As they laughed, Katara saw him smile at her.

“You have off on Armistice Day right?” He asked.

Katara nodded.

“Why don’t we go to Hira’a? The tourist season ends there really early and the people there don’t mind me so much since I’m Ursa’s son.”

“Are we going to go to summer camp?” She asked.

“Maybe we can tangentially think about it.” Zuko replied.

~

Katara focused on her schoolwork during the week prior to leaving. She didn’t want to have to think about tests or her first research paper the entire weekend. What did bother her was a lack of supplies for the trip. Zuko said there was a legend about the woods surrounding Hira’a and suggested they go hiking. At first she had agreed, but then Sokka informed her that she would need gear for such a trip.

Luckily, a person in her lab had his from a cross kingdom trip. As Katara collected some of the basic things, she shook off others. Her hike wasn’t going to be as intensive and she could just rely on her phone for directions.

Flying out, Katara was too excited to be nervous going through the airport. Her anxiety resurfaced only briefly when she made a layover in a larger Fire Nation city to board a very small charter plane.

There were a few other passengers on the plane and one little boy chattered endlessly for the entire trip. Katara, tired, smiled but looked out the window, trying to focus on something else.

The woods around Hira’a were thick and the canopy resembled broccoli florets. What was unexpected was the massive mountain and the few shining discs of the lakes.

Zuko met her as the plane landed, standing under a shaded area while the plane taxied to a stop. Suddenly shy, Katara held onto the straps of her borrowed backpack while she walked down the stairs.

“How was your trip?” Zuko asked as he met her on the strip.

“It was good only,” Katara looked up with a small frown. “Do you think it’ll rain?”

Zuko looked up at the sky as well. “The weather says no. And it tends to get overcast like this every day in the afternoon.”

They looked at each other and Zuko held out his hand.

“Come on,” He said. “Let’s get to the house.”

At the small luggage carousel, Zuko grabbed her suitcase and rolled it as they left the airport. Katara glanced up at the sky once more as they walked through the cool air curtain at the exit. It definitely felt like a storm to her.

To her surprise, they walked past the taxi stand.

“The house is close.” Zuko assured her, having seen her face. “And the villagers prefer that there not be a lot of cars. It disrupts the environment.”

The village was beautiful, even in the subdued light. The trees were a deep green, and bright flashes of fruit or clothing stood out against the leafy backdrop. There were roads, but people on bikes or motorbikes swarmed over them. Every once in a while, a delivery truck would rumble past, coughing out black smoke and Katara understood the facemasks.

“Ah, Prince Zuko!” Someone called out and they turned. A middle-aged man on a motorbike walked up to them, his flip-flops slapping his heels.

“Noren?” Zuko asked in disbelief.

“It’s good to see you, la!” Noren replied and Zuko, leaving Katara’s suitcase on the sidewalk, went to shake the man’s hand.

“I didn’t think I’d run into you.” Zuko replied and Noren waved a hand in front of his face.

“I heard the crown prince was in town, so I knew I had to come and see.” He said. Zuko laughed and rubbed the back of his head. He then stopped and looked back, waving Katara over.

“Katara, I’d like you to meet Noren. He runs the theater in town and was a friend of my mother.” Zuko said as Katara got closer. “Noren, this is my friend Katara from the South Pole.”

“Ursa was part of the theater troupe.” Noren said as he shook hands with Katara. He then slapped his thighs and looked at Zuko. “Now, dinner?”

Katara and Zuko made it to the house and Katara insisted on changing before they went to Noren’s house for dinner. His wife Noriko was a sweet lady who doted on Zuko, but more hilarious was their teenage daughter Kiyi. While she tried to hide it, Kiyi was clearly excited to see Zuko and showed him photos of her latest pictures on her phone.

Noren told Katara about Zuko’s visit to the village years ago. Trying to find some piece of his mother, Noren had offered his assistance in any way that he could. During that short time Zuko spent in the village, he got very close to Noren and his family, becoming like an older brother to Kiyi.

While they were at dinner, all three of them turned on Zuko when he spoke about his plans to take Katara into the woods. Noren didn’t like the woods at all and Noriko insisted that it was going to rain. Still, Noriko packed them both up with extra food and Noren gave them a ride in the dark on his bike.

Tired, full, and covered in sweat, Katara laid face down on her bed and fell asleep.

In the morning, Zuko packed their lunch while Katara reheated leftovers from Noriko to eat for breakfast. Zuko handed her a mug of coffee just as she served up the plates and they both looked over a map. The route Zuko plotted out was simple and they went over their supplies. Water, sunscreen, bug spray, and even a portable battery to recharge their phones should the worst happen. It was just a day hike, and the sun was even poking out behind some of the clouds, so it wouldn’t be too bad.

“Can you bend humidity?” Zuko asked as they shoulder their backpacks.

Katara rolled her eyes and started toward the door.

The trailhead was further from their rental than the airport, so Zuko called a taxi. Unsurprisingly, a young woman on a motorbike showed up and they piled on like they had when Noren had driven them home last night. What was nice was the moment when the driver handed them a face mask each, shaking her head at their clumsy application.

The humidity was disgusting and Katara was panting by the time they stopped at the park. Zuko peeled money out of his wallet and handed it to their driver, who saluted them before puttering off.

“Are your babysitters here?” Katara asked.

“No. Hira’a is small and they know when there’s a visitor. And again, I’m Ursa’s son.” Zuko said.

“Oh good, so if I drown in this air, it’s only you who can save me.”

“We’ll be fine.”

The rain started fifteen minutes into their walk.

There was no warning. It was clear one moment and the next a gray sheet had dropped all around them. The rain fell like bullets and they ran to the nearest tree with leaves sturdy enough to hold up against the onslaught. It took awhile and Katara felt the sting of the rain on her scalp.

“It’s just a burst.” Zuko said, rubbing his hair vigorously. “It’ll pass quickly.”

Right as he finished speaking, a crack of thunder went off like a shot.

“We need to get to shelter.” Katara said, her body tense as she prepared to run. Zuko sighed and nodded.

They moved blindly through the rain, stumbling over tree roots and exposed stone. Small rivers of muddy water rushed down the path and Katara worried about slipping. Finally irritated, she used her bending to repel the water from her. It was unnatural and made her feel weird, but she couldn’t even see three feet in front of her.

“That’s a lot of water you’re holding.” Zuko remarked as he stood in the dry spot with her.

“I can do better.” She said and moved sinuously around. The ball of negative space undulated, but burst as Katara thrust out her arms with a sharp breath. The rain around them stopped.

Turning her head, Katara saw Zuko staring at her, open mouthed.

“Like what you see?” Katara quipped.

Zuko nodded and Katara blushed, losing her smirk and feeling her ears burn. Suddenly aware of her attention, Zuko coughed and swung his backpack off a shoulder, pulling it to his front.

“Where did you learn to bend like that?” He asked as he unzipped the main pocket and rummaged through it.

“War.” Katara said simply. This was oddly easier to hold than the negative space, since she wasn’t trying to keep the water away from her. The fat droplets simply hung in their air like strands of glass beads.

“It didn’t do anything like that for me.” Zuko said. “All I got out of it was this face.”

“Zuko, your face is fine.” Katara remarked.

“You only say that because you like me.”

“I didn’t find you ugly before I liked you. It was just surprising.” Katara paused, listening to the heavy rain that fell around them. It was much more enjoyable now that she wasn’t getting drenched.

“The burn surprised me too.” Zuko said and held up his phone. “Here we go.”

Katara walked over to him, pushing the rain out of her way. The fat drops burst against her hand the same way boba pearls would against her tongue.

“How did it happen?”

“The burn? After my grandfather died, my father insisted that my uncle step down since my cousin had died. My uncle is older and had no heir, whereas my father had two children and was young. My uncle refused and the war started. I defended my uncle and my father punished me.” Zuko explained as he pulled up a map of the woods. He didn’t look at her as he spoke and Katara stared at his burned eye.

“Zuko…” She murmured and lightly touched his face. Wherever Zuko went while telling the story, he certainly wasn’t with her and her touch shocked him. Jolting back, he surprised Katara, who fell with a yelp. She lost her hold on the rain and it, plus everything held up on top, dumped on them, soaking them instantly.

Zuko went to her and picked her up, running with her in his arms.

“I saw a cave.” He yelled over the sound of the rain. Katara just held onto him, feeling the wet soak into her skin.

When Zuko dipped into the cave - which was only moderately drier than the open - Katara used her bending to dry their clothes. Zuko found windblown debris and made a scant fire, again shaking out his hair.

“Sorry.” Katara said softly.

“It’s fine. It was an accident.” Zuko replied with a weak smile. “The only downside is, I dropped my phone and it’s fried.”

“Okay, so that is bad.” Katara said and then brightened. “Wait mine is in my-” She stopped as she reached into her back pocket. Slowly pulling out her phone, she stared dumbly at the shattered screen.

“But we do have the map!” Zuko said and went to his pack. He pulled out the map and sat down to open it over his lap.

“That sure is a map.” Katara said as she sat down next to him.

“I know these are elevation lines, but…” Zuko tapped the map.

“You don’t know where we are.”

“Not a clue.”

“And we can’t call for help.”

“No.”

“So what do we do?” Katara asked. The thunder and lightning was short lived so at least now she could breathe.

“Wanna makeout?” Zuko replied. Katara scoffed and then, seeing his grin, started to laugh.

“When the rain stops, we can try to find our way back to the path.” Zuko said and put his arm around Katara’s shoulders. “For now, let’s just hang here and rest.”

The rain lasted for nearly an hour and Katara forced Zuko to wait until the air felt right to her before leaving. As they walked out into the forest, nothing looked familiar. Having peered through heavy rain, the shimmering brilliance of wet leaves was disorienting. Zuko kept the map out, turning it in his hands before picking a direction.

“Zuko?” Katara asked cautiously and Zuko looked up from the map.

“Yes?”

“Why did you even go back if your father burned you?”

Zuko’s thoughtful face was nuanced, as Katara now saw. He looked pained, but in a way that made Katara think he was going to tell her bad news.

“My uncle and I believe that my father wanted me to refuse to return. That was always an option you see. I could renounce my claim to the throne and stay with my uncle in Ba Sing Se. But if I did that, Azula would inherit.” Zuko shook his head. “And I don’t want to live in a world where Azula is a political force.”

“But does that make you happy?” Katara asked.

“The future makes me happy. Knowing that I’ll be able to do the things I want when I’m the Fire Lord.” Zuko answered.

“But that might be decades away!”

“But it will happen. And my father can’t really do much harm since he knows I’ll oppose him.”

“You made a really brave choice Zuko.”

Stepping over a fallen log, Zuko took Katara’s hand and helped her over. As she hopped onto the ground, he held onto her.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m all that brave.” He said softly. This pained look was more internal; something that hurt him alone.

He then patted her hand before releasing it and they started off again.

“Do you think I’m making the right choice?” Katara continued. “To be the Queen of the Water Tribes?”

“Well what does being queen mean to you?” Zuko asked.

“No more war.”

“Then I think you’re at least giving it an honest go.”

“But I could do so much more for my people if I was a doctor.” Katara replied.

“Really? Because what do you think will happen when Arnook dies?” Zuko questioned.

“What do you mean?”

“Yue was his heir, right? And not even a proper heir; she was going to have to be married so some guy could be the King of the North Pole.”

“And?”

“My kingdom went to war over the prospect of there not being an heir to inherit. If Arnook were to die without someone clearly next in line, I can tell you war is exactly what will happen.”

“No, my father wouldn’t let that happen.”

“It might not have anything to do with your father. Or it’ll happen with or without him. The South Pole might want to keep their independence, same as the Swamp Tribe, but Arnook has made it clear that the North Pole wants unification. War would happen regardless.”

“And you just know this to be true?”

Zuko gave her a look and Katara threw up her arms.

“Why does this have to depend on me?” She asked. Zuko shrugged.

“Circumstances of birth.” He said nonchalantly. Katara lowered her arms, having them fall loose and slapping the sides of her legs.

“Spirits, is it really just that?”

Zuko walked up to her and rubbed her arms.

“Even something so mundane as when you were born can change everything. I mean,” Zuko paused and huffed out a laugh. “If Thuy had been born a moment earlier then she wouldn’t even be the Avatar.”

“I don’t want my whole life plotted out just because of when and where I was born.” Katara said.

“Okay, so what’s one thing, within reason, that you want that you can get while stuck with these choices?” Zuko asked.

“I want to be with you.” She blurted.

When Zuko blushed, his skin turned yet another shade of red that didn’t match any part of his scar. He gripped her arms for a moment before suddenly releasing her and walking away.

“Zuko?” Katara called.

Zuko whirled around and pointed at her.

“You wanted to go on a date.” He said fiercely.

“Yes?”

“Let’s go on a date.”

“We’re sorta lost right now.”

“Not now.” Zuko rubbed his hands on his pants and looked down for a second. “After midterms. A proper date.”

Katara laughed, nodding.

“Okay. But how are we gonna get out of here?” She replied.

“I don’t-” Zuko started but stopped as a call went through the woods.

“Zuuuuuukoooooo?” A woman yelled.

“Is that Noriko?” Katara asked. Zuko chuckled and took her hand. Jogging, but watching out for roots, they moved in the direction of the calls. Noren, Noriko, and Kiyi all were shouting from in front of them.

When they finally broke the treeline, the family was standing, each one holding an umbrella.

“Ay! There they are!” Kiyi shouted.

“Ah, thank goodness!” Noriko said and fanned herself.

As they all gathered, she swatted Zuko’s arm.

“Why didn’t you listen to me, boy?” She asked and Zuko laughed, rubbing where she had hit him.

“Mom! You can’t just hit the prince!” Kiyi said.

“When the rain came, Noriko was really worried about you and insisted that I drive out. When you weren’t at the trailhead, she knew you were lost.” Noren explained.

“Tourists always get lost.” Kiyi added.

“The prince isn’t a tourist.” Noriko said sharply. “He’s just not as familiar with these woods.”

“Well, we were lost and I’m really thankful you came out here.” Zuko said. “I’ll make sure to listen to you better, Auntie.” He leaned in and hugged Noriko, making her blush.

“Dad borrowed our neighbors van so we can take you back.” Kiyi said. As she looked at Zuko and Katara, she shook her head.

“It must be nice to be a waterbender.” She remarked.

“They are very handy to keep around.” Zuko agreed. Katara glared at him as he chuckled.

“I will put you in ice.” She hissed. Zuko didn’t reply, but took her hand as they all started to walk to the trailhead. His hand was warm and dry, which made Katara aware of the cool dampness that lingered on her skin. But she wasn’t cold. At least, not with him.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Wan High Weeping (Part 1)

Avatar high school AU. After a long summer, with Sokka in college, Katara is left  to fend for herself at Wan high where rumors about her are still running wild and her new teacher June is out to get her. Sokka also leaves Suki behind when she needs him the most. Aang, newly out of the closet becomes a target for the school jocks. The summer has been cruel to Toph, whose family has lost everything. It had left Azula, the captain of the volleyball team, with a set of broken ribs. And it has treated Zuko, Mai, and TyLee even less kindly.

AN: A few of the character’s ages have been tweaked to fit the plot frame. 

Content Warning: rape mention, abuse, drug abuse, eating & mood disorders, suicide, and self-harm. 

Katara weaved her way through the crowd. She found herself more nervous than usual. It was her junior year and her first year wandering the halls of Wan High School without Sokka for company. Without Sokka for protection. She took the care to be as quiet as possible, the less attention she received the better especially these days. 06-31-09, at this point in time she knew the combo like the back of her hand and felt as though I would be ingrained in her for years after she graduated. The locker door swung open. She had hoped that summer vacation would be enough to let old problems be forgotten, she truly hoped. That’s how these things normally went. “Normally,” she muttered to herself as she plucked a sheet of folded paper from her locker. She hadn’t even had the time to arrange her books and the notes were already appearing again. With a scowl contorting her face, Katara stomped up to the rubbish bin and ripped the paper to bits. She already knew the basics of what it would read. After all the shreds had drifted to the bottom of the trashcan, her anger subsided and a helping of despair filled its place. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone already? It wasn’t even true what they were saying. She wrapped her arms around herself, willing herself not to cry.

She wished she had Sokka right now, she could really use his support.

 “Hey Kat!” Aang greeted cheerfully. She didn’t know how he did it, how he managed to hold his chin up so high with jocks like Chan and Jet pinning him up against the lockers between verbal beatdowns. An activity they part-took in since middle school. And when they moved onto high school, a boy named Hide filled in their shoes for another two years.

 “Good morning, Aang.” She tried to return the greeting with a smile. But she wasn’t in the mood for conversation—much less a smile—with her day starting the way that it had.  

 “How are you?” He asked.

 “Oooh I’m fine.” She replied.

 “You seem down.” He cocked his head. He always did seem very sensitive to others’ emotions.

 “Just sad that the summer is over, ya know?” She fibbed. “Sokka and I were having an amazing one but now he’s at college so I don’t get to talk to him much…” Now that wasn’t a fib at all. That had been bothering her since Sokka stated that he was moving states away to attend a rather prestigious school. She could only imagine how hard it must be on Suki.

 “I’m gonna miss him too. You’re brother was a pretty cool guy.” He rubbed the back of his head, “not that I’d know much about that, ya know.”

 “Don’t let them get to you Aang, you’re a pretty cool guy yourself.” She nudged him on the shoulder. “Soon enough guys from all over this school will line up to date you.”

 “That would be nice.”

 “Hey, twinkle toes!” Came an energetic shout.

 “Who is that?” Katara asked.

 “Oh, that’s Toph, she’s from my soccer team.”

 “Our team is co-ed?”

 “It’s not the school team.” Aang replied. “I don’t think I could handle being here for extra hours.”

 Now there was something Katara could completely understand. Aang gave a quick wave and a ‘talk to you later’. It was nice to see that he had at least one person on his side.

 Katara unfolded her schedule. Math with June…what a great start to her morning.  She just hoped that Jet wasn’t in her class, that would make it at least a little more tolerable. She found herself wishing that she was a year older, that way there would have been a chance that she’d have Suki in her class. Naturally though, everyone she liked was either a year or two younger or a year or two older. And even more naturally everyone who made her time at Wan High difficult were just the right age to earn assigned seats next to her.  Katara rummaged through her backpack—a kiddish looking thing, iridescent shimmery teal in color with golden seahorse, starfish, and mermaid patches. It was just another thing people jabbed her for. “You’re in high school.” She recalled Azula asking with an eyebrow raised and arms folded over her chest.  

“Yeah, why do you have a kiddy bag?” TyLee asked with an eye-roll from Mai to annunciate the point.

 If Katara had her way she would have had a new backpack something in a sleek and solid metallic blue. They couldn’t pick on that. But her mother refused, telling her that getting a new backpack when that one was in perfectly good shape was a waste of money. Sokka didn’t help her case either, but at least tried to appeal to her; “Aww but you love that backpack? Are you really going to stop using it because three people don’t like it?” He smiled that charming smile and ruffled her hair. So she promised him that she’d keep using it and that she’d text him a few pictures of herself holding it by her locker. She looked to the left and then to the right—no teachers. She snapped a quick photo and sent it off. Hopefully it would make college move-in that much better for him.

 She quickly put her phone back in her backpack and continued ruffling through it. Water bottle, check. Summer reading assignment, check. Pencil and highlighter, check. Spare pencil, check. And calculator, check. Katara smiled, never a day unprepared. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and sprinted across the hall, never a day tardy either, she noted to herself. And she planned to keep it that way no many how many jocks and jerks she had to plow through.

 “Kiss ass.” She heard a girl scoff. She knew she shouldn’t have, because it only made them laugh harder to know that they got her attention, but Katara looked back. It was one of Azula’s friends. Not Mai nor TyLee, but the one with the pigtails. Katara could never remember her name, Osha or Usha, or something like that. She just knew that the girl was on Azula’s volleyball team and was on par with Azula herself in terms of relentless bitchiness. Katara cringed, if her mother caught her saying something like that…

She cringed again harder, realizing that she just winced for something she thought about. It’s not like she said it aloud.  “No wonder everyone things I’m a dork.” This she did vocalize. She looked at the clock, she had about three minutes left to get to homeroom.  Deciding that, that wasn’t enough time for her to get to class and get settled in, she beelined it.

 Wrong move. With an soft oof, she collided with another student. “Hey” Katara greeted awkwardly with a sheepish smile.

 “Hey.” TyLee returned quietly.  So long as the rest of the poms team wasn’t there, the girl was actually pretty decent to be around.

 “I can pick that up for you.” Katara offered, scrambling to pick up a rose gold iPod with a bunny key ring, some stencils, and a scatter of glittery gel pens.

 “No, I got it.” She muttered. “Don’t worry about it.”

 Katara bit the inside of her lip. Since the beginning of last year the other girl seemed quieter, a lot less bubbly. “Are you sure?”

 “The bell is going to ring in one minute. Everyone knows you don’t like being late.” There was a bitter edge to this refusal that made Katara wonder why she offered to help in the first place.

 Katara scooped up her own things and shuffled to class. No sooner than she sat down, did the bell ring. Quickly she splayed her pencils and notebooks over the desk. “And here I thought I’d be giving you your first tardy strike.” June remarked.

 Katara stammered out an apology, despite not really having anything at all to apologize for. Katara watched those who should have been muttering apologies saunter into the room without a hassle from June save for a half-hearted, “don’t be late again.” Already, Katara was getting a sense that she and her teacher weren’t going to click—this would be a first. For the most part the teachers at Wan high were focused and firm, but easy to talk to. She could already tell that June was going to have a rather laidback manner of teaching. On its own math was a task for her, she feared for her grade now that she would be learning in a style that didn’t bode well with her.

 “She’s fine as hell.” Chan remarked, dropping into his seat. Katara closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. At least he wasn’t Jet. She could tolerate Chan.

 “Alright.” June declared, slamming a stack of papers onto her desk. “Here’s how this is going to work.” She leaned herself against it. “I’m going to teach, you’re going to learn. This will be the easiest class you’ll ever take, or you’ll go home crying every night. I’ll let you all decide.”

 Katara cringed, what a promising start to the class. She had half the mind to shoot her hand up and ask, “aren’t you supposed to pass out a syllabus.” Instead she remained as quiet as possible, hoping that she wouldn’t go home crying every night.

 “Let’s start out with a little icebreaking activity. I’ll tell you all about my tattoo and you’ll tell me anything you feel might be worth sharing.” Lowering her voice some, she mumbled, “you’d be surprised at how boring you all are.”

 This drew a few chuckles, apparently June was going to be a hit with the rest of the student body, especially the boys. This time Katara couldn’t hold her tongue, “what about attendance?”

 Chan sniggered. Turning to one of the guys on his volleyball team, Chu-Leng, he mimicked “what about attendance?”

 “Attendance?” June asked.

 “Before class starts, especially on the first day, you’re supposed to take roll.” Katara continued, fighting hard to ignore the snickers from behind.

 June shrugged. “You’re either here or you aren’t, it’ll show up on your report card.” She moved to sit on her desk. “Besides, I’m a math teacher, I can count. I have a class of twenty-six students, only twenty-five are here.”

 “Yes!” Katara replied, trying to sound as level as possible. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but shouldn’t you know who, is missing?” Frankly, Katara wanted to know who she was supposed to be sitting next to. The only two open seats were the ones next to her.

 “Well, since you seem so eager to run the class, how about you start. Introduce yourself and tell the class a little bit about you.”

 “Big nerd.” Chu-Leng remarked.

 “Big slut.” Chan added, quiet enough for her ears but not June’s.

 Katara stood and made her way to the front of the class room. “Hi I’m Katara, I love with my mother, father, Gran, and brother…well my brother just moved out to go to college. You all know him though, or most of you do.” Why did she have to ramble when she was nervous, it was almost as bad as stuttering. “Anyways, I’m going to try out for the swim team…”

 “Of course she is.” Chan commented, “has to put her swimsuit pics in the year book.”

 “…If I don’t make the team I’ll be running for student council.” She didn’t know what else to say, she didn’t feel as though she was as interesting as Sokka or Suki. The thrill of going back to her seat was overpowered by Chan ramming into her as he made his way up to the front.

 “For those of you who don’t know, not that there are many of you, I’m Chan. I throw the best parties this school knows…”

 Katara felt herself zoning out for the rest of the class, it was all the same year after year and next period she would be in for a different version of the same icebreaker games.  She didn’t see Suki at lunch either so her spirits dimmed that much darker. Hoping that she wasn’t in class, she sent her a quick text, ‘when do you have lunch?’ She unpacked her lunch as she waited for the reply. She smiled as she drew the note from her lunch bag. It was simple, as it always was; Good luck with your first day. Enjoy lunch. – Love, Mom. She wished that those wishes of luck were more than just that, but she would apricate lunch. Her mom took the care to pack it for her.

 Her phone buzzed and the words, ‘fourth hour’ appeared in the chat bubble.

 ‘Me too. Where are you?’ She hit send.

 This time the three little dots appeared right away. ‘Doctor’s.’

 Katara bit her lip. ‘On the first day? Everything o.k?’

 For a while the dots didn’t reappear. Katara finished peeling her orange by the time they did.

 ‘Yeah. Everything’s fine.’

 As fine as they could be, Katara thought, Suki didn’t have to say it for her to know. Her fingers hovered above the touch screen as she thought of what to say next. But it was hard to think with the cafeteria chatter and banter.

 “Hey! Give that back!”

 Katara looked behind her to spy a game of keep away, a classic among Chan’s lot. Should Teo or Haru be particularly unlucky, Jet’s team would join in too. She always wanted to step in and say something, anything, but as soon as she stood the words left her tongue and her nerves plummeted away. When had she become so…terrified? Back in elementary school she was reprimanded almost daily for throwing crayons and erasers at kids who took them from others. She would give an earful to any playground bully that needed a lecture. But now, when it seemed to matter the most, she sat uncomfortably, her stomach squirming as Teo’s lunch sack was tossed from one person to the next. The game only met its end when Chu-Leng fumbled it. “Nice going, dipshit.” Chan grumbled.

 “Hey, the point is to keep it away. I think we won.” He shrugged. “He can lick it off the ground if he wants to eat so bad.”

 “Can he?” Chan sniggered, giving the boy’s wheelchair a good shove.

 This time Katara opened her mouth. All she had to do was push it out, a simple, “leave him alone” or a bolder, “eat this” before chucking her own sandwich in his direction. How satisfying would it have been to see a paste of peanut butter smeared all over the jock’s face. She balled her fists but by the time she decided that she’d intervene Chan had found his seat and Teo wheeled himself away. Katara slammed her fist on the table, an outburst that was mercifully unnoticed. She hadn’t even had a chance to offer him some of her food. If only Sokka were there she would have sprung right into action. Hell, if Suki had been there it would have been the extra boost she need.

If only, if only, if only!

It was driving her crazy.

 With her mood more somber than before, Katara worked on finishing her sandwich. Suki had stopped replying to her texts, probably wrapped up in her appointment. For the time, Katara was wholly alone. Aang, Toph, Haru, she had a healthy amount of friends but so typically, none of them shared the same lunch hour with her. She swore that headmaster Roku had to be doing it on purpose, not that he actually kept track of the cliques and dynamic duos of Wan high. So it was that Katara found herself peeping in on various conversations. It wasn’t her intent to do so, but with no discussion of her own to uphold she found it unbearably hard to tune everyone else’s out. In her defense one boy a few tables over practically screamed, “have you seen Miss June’s ass yet!?” Katara’s attention left that discussion very fleetingly.

 “Is my mascara running?”

 “I heard that Long Shot’s joining the chess team this year.”

“Really, I thought that he was in archery?”

“Can’t expect a nerd to keep up with anything cool.”

 “I think that I should join theater this year…”

 It took her awhile to find a voice she recognized. “It’s actually disappointing really.” This was Usha’s slick mutter. Katara assumed she was catching the tail end of the conversation. “But I guess I’m the captain now.”

 So she found another one to follow.  “You know what, Zuko? No, I have my own things to deal with…” The girl paused. “How about this? How about instead of…hold on.” She fixed a set of dull eyes on Katara. They were so thickly coated in black eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara it was almost menacing on principle, never mind that the glare was a very pointed one. Katara mouthed a quick apology for eavesdropping.  “Whatever.” She grumbled and at a much lower volume, she carried on her conversation.

 Officially flustered, and rightfully so, Katara decided to curb her curiosity, lunch was almost through anyhow. She began tucking away what remained of her lunch, she never did eat the strawberries. For the remaining minutes spent in the cafeteria, she dutifully went over each and every one of the syllabi—cursing June in particular for having such a vague one when she finally did hand it out. With the bell’s ring she slung her backpack on and huffed, she was long overdue for a trip back to her locker. Only three classes in and her textbooks were practically conditioning her for the school wrestling team.

 She read over her schedule as she fought her way through a swarm of peers and groaned to herself. She had June for Chemistry too? For the first time in her educational career, Katara thought about taking one from Sokka’s book and playing hooky. She fumbled with her locker. “Are you kidding me!?” She tried the combination again and gave it a good pound.

The hall was nearly empty, but it wasn’t like anyone would have come leaping to her aid anyhow. “Come on, open. Please.” She winced. She looked at the time, two minutes left to get to class. She groaned, looks like June would be giving her, her first tardy after all.

 With the hall so nearly vacant the slam of a locker near her own caused her to jolt. She should have ignored it, it was always best to ignore loud sudden noises when on Wan high territory. But she didn’t, instead she locked eyes with the only other person in the hall. Straggly locks obscured much of her face, but not enough to spare her an intense furious glare—she wondered just how many of those she’d be on the receiving end of that day. Though these eyes had an exhausted undertone that took the edge off of the anger. She was paler than Katara last remembered and had put on some weight, wearing less makeup than Katara herself. And the makeup that she had bothered with was applied with a degree of carelessness. Overall, she was disheveled, leaving Katara with the impression that she wasn’t the only person having a tragic first day.  She heaved herself away from the locker she was slumped against, allowing Katara to assess that even her posture was wrong.

Everything was off to the point where Katara almost didn’t recognize her.

[evilcharming18]

Azula Week 2018 #7

Okay I know this one is also a day late but it’s so long and I just didn’t want to cut it off, I wanted to make sure the ending was good. Plus it’s just over 4000 words. I don’t even know how to describe the AU, its like the war never happened, there’s no bending and Sokka is a con artist so :^)

Sokka usually didn’t feel bad about his jobs. He needed the money and he usually only conned horrible rich people, they type of people who didn’t deserve all the money they had. But this time it was different. He thought conning the spoiled rich Fire Nation brat would be easy. He take her out a few times, get to know her little bit and then once he had a way into the palace he take all of her jewelry and money, anything that looked expensive and he’d be on his way.

That was almost two years ago.

He hadn’t expected to fall in love with the princess. He hadn’t expected the princess to be as complex as she was. On the surface, Azula seemed as spoiled at they come, bratty, rude, inconsiderate, selfish and materialistic. All of that wrapped up neatly in one breathtaking woman. She wanted the finest clothing, best jewelry and she deserved nothing less than that. And while she showed those traits off to the public, she hid the ones that would have people move mountains for her. Like the fact that she was super smart, and that she was kind, that’s she cared about others.. most of the time. The fact that she only acts the way she does to keep people from getting close to her. The facts that while she likes being alone, she wished she had true friends sometimes but it was too hard to drop her persona permanently. Especially after her mother left her.

Sokka had never thought that Azula would mean something to him. At least not when the con started. And he knew now that he couldn’t go through with it. That he couldn’t break her heart, not now. Not after learning about how troubled she was, not after learning her fears and wants in life. He could never hurt her that way. But he had to go home and figure out what to do, his family was counting on the money he was supposed to be bringing home. His sister would be having a baby soon and he wanted to make sure she would be taken care of. Of course, her husband Aang would be there but it never hurt to be prepared.

He thought about telling Azula about his troubles, not the con of course, but about his money troubles. That way, maybe, he’d be able to keep Azula and help his family as well. Maybe she would understand and he could just go con someone else. And sometimes he thought about coming clean to her, telling her everything and having faith that she would understand. Sure, she would be pissed at first but she would eventually forgive him  and learn to trust him again. But that wasn’t a risk he wanted to to take.

He sighed as he finished his letter and sealed it in an envelope. This was the main way he kept his family updated on his progress, or lack there of in this situation. He signed the letter off and prepared to take it to the post when Azula came into the room.

“Babe.” She says as she approached him, kissing his lips softly.

“Hey baby, how was the meeting with your father?” He asked and she rolled her eyes.

“Terribly boring. I thought of you the whole time.” She smiled at him and he grinned.

“Dirty thoughts I hope.” He jokes and and she slaps his chest.

“Is that all you think about?” Azula asks with a raised eyebrow and he shrugs.

“Maybe but they’re always are about you.” He grins and she kisses his lips.

“They better be.” Came her reply.

They spent the rest of the morning relaxing with each other. The couple had a special dynamic that no one had ever expected from a common boy and a rich princess. It had always been interesting for people to see them out in public and around the palace. When Azula was pulled away for another meeting, Sokka decided that it was the right one to go mail off his letter. He had told his father that the job the was way more complicated than he could have expected aka he fell in love with her and didn’t know what to do. He just hoped to god that Azula never found out his initial true intentions in their relationship.

Azula returned to their room later, in search of her favorite necklace. She had important event she had to do to later and the necklace pulls her outfit together. It was missing from her jewelry boxes and her closet. She checked the floor and under the bed and came up with nothing. She went over to Sokka’s drawers to check just in case and was met by a bunch of letters. She knew his family had been struggling and she had planned to surprised him with a trip back home. She cared about him a lot and wanted to make sure that he was okay in life. She had also hoped to meet his family eventually. This was the first boyfriend she had ever been serious about and she didn’t want to mess this face up, she wanted to go about it properly. She simply picked up a letter and decided to read it. She hoped he wouldn’t be too angry with her.

The letter went as follows:

Sokka,

I hope you’re doing well. We miss you dearly and can’t wait to see you again. How is the job going? I hope you aren’t suffering too much with princess Rich Bitch. I know you said she wasn’t that bad last letter but I don’t believe you. I hope you’re getting close to the end. How much do you think you’ll get from her? Enough to never con again? I hope so, I hate sending you away for this, it’s a huge risk. But she won’t miss the money and she’ll probably won’t even notice you’re gone before she’s on to the next guy. I hope to hear from you soon and hopefully you’ll be on your way home to us.

With much love and luck, your father.

Azula’s crushes the paper, ripping holes in it with her fingernails. Her nails pierced her skin through the paper almost drawing blood and her tears filled her eyes. She had trusted him, she had told him so much about herself and he was playing her. All he wanted was money from her. Like everyone else. He was damn good at his fucking job because she believed every second of it. She looked further in his drawers frantically to find a small bag of her jewelry. She inspected the bag to find the necklace she was looking for and even more precious jewelry she loved. In addition to that, there were more letters from his family, his father and sister. They were all consistent, speaking about a con that he was supposed to pull off. Her body was practically trembling at this point, her heart in shambles. She wanted to kill him, she could kill him but that would break her heart more than what was happening now.

It was nearly perfect timing as Sokka reentered the room with a grin on his face. He was happy to spend the rest of the day with his girlfriend. So was surprised to see her standing over his drawers.

“Zules, what’s wrong?” He asked as he approached her and he was met by a slap and a distraught Azula, tears streaming down her face.

“You fucking piece of shit! How could you?” She hits his chest as she cried and Sokka was in too much shock to stop her. When his brain finally put two and two together, he sighed as he backed away from her.

“Azula, I-“ He started but the look on her face told him to shut up.

“I trusted you, I told you everything and you were only using me! For something as stupid as money! Something I could have easily given you. Why did you stay for so long? Why didn’t you just take what you wanted and ran?” She screams at him and he tries to touch her but she slaps his hand away.

“I fell in love with you.” He answers softly, his eyes filled with regret and anguish. She scoffed and glared at him.

“You expect me to believe that shit!” Azula laughs and it was nothing like that beautiful laugh he was used to hearing. This was something sad, something he had never heard before.

“It’s the truth! I’ll tell you everything right now.” He practically pleaded. He had hoping this would never happen because he never wanted her to doubt his love for her. Despite his true intentions he loved her more than anything.

“What! What’s the truth? That you’ve using me from day we’ve met. That you probably stalked me to meet me. That you’ve been stealing things from me while you laid in my bed.” He can see the emotion start to leave her, her wall being quickly built back up in place. Her voice was cold as he had ever heard it.

“Azula I’m begging you to listen to me.”

“I want you out!” She said and Sokka froze.

“No, Zules, please. I’ll do anything, anything at all to prove it. To prove that I love you.” Sokka is on his knees at this point and Azula turned around, snatching her jewelry out of his drawer before walking to the door. She swiftly opened it and refused to look at him before saying, “I don’t ever want to see you again. I’ll have your stuff outside the door by tonight.” Sokka looked up at her, just hoping to get through to her but she held strong. He sighed before standing and walking over towards the door. He had planted one last kiss on her cheek, revelling in the fact that she didn’t push him away before he walked out of the door.

Sokka returned later, when it was dark out to collect his things. He had spent the day beating himself up about what he had done. He was stupid for not throwing away all of those letters away. For thinking he could just hold the jewelry in his drawer like that. The con artist in him was disappointed in how he forget essentials of the job that quickly. He didn’t even want to get started on how angry he was at home self for doing that to Azula. He loved her and once he had made that clear he should have told his father. He should have stopped then and found a different way to get the money. There were so many things he should have done to prevent this from happening. During the day, he decided to write a final letter to Azula, hoping to at least get her to understand and hopefully she would at least get some closure.

Sokka approached the door, all of his things placed in bags outside of the door. He sighed as he began to gather his things, he had already found an inn to stay in for the night. Once he had everything, he had slipped the letter under her door, hoping that she wouldn’t instantly disregard it. That she would take the time to read it. He quickly left and made his way back to the inn, hoping not to run into anyone.

Azula heard someone approach her door as she was getting ready. As much as she wanted to stay in bed and cry, she had to make her event and put on a brave face. She heard the bags moving and rustling and knew that it had to be Sokka. She sucked in a breath, wishing she could go out there and see him. She listened as he grabbed everything and felt the stab in her heart. It seemed like no matter what she did no one was there to stay. As she was putting on her necklace, she heard something enter the room and noticed a envelope at the foot of her door. She immediately noticed Sokka’s handwriting and threw down on her desk. She refused to let him ruin her night.

That was something that seemed inevitable because as she talked to people during the event, her mind went back to that letter. She eventually left early to go back home. She could help but to want to read what he said. When she finally got home, she went straight to the letter, immediately ripping it open.

Zules,

I don’t know how to start this but I want you to know that I do love you. No matter my initial intentions were, I fell in love with you. I want to explain why I did what I did and hope that one day you could forgive me for hurting you. I simply wanted to help my family. I won’t lie to you, I’ve done this to others but it quickest way to get the money we needed. I thought I would just get the money and go. I didn’t intend hurt you like this. And I know that doesn’t make it any better but I want tug to know that I am terribly sorry that I did this to you. You didn’t deserve this at all and is do anything to make up for, to gain you’re forgiveness. And I don’t expect you to ever take me back but I’ll never stop loving you. Loving everything about you. I hope that one day you could forgive me, and that you don’t write everyone off because of my stupid mistake. You deserve happiness. And while I want to be that person, I get that you can’t trust me and that’s all my fault. But I’ll always be there.

Sokka.

She was in tears by the end of it. Drops staining the paper as she read through his words over and over. She hated the fact that she believed him. That she still believes him after what she learned. But she wouldn’t go after him, she couldn’t let herself. She refused to do that, she deserved better than someone who only wanted to use her.

And she kept her word for months. She meant what said and didn’t reach out to him. And while she did that, her cold, unbreakable persona took over again. She was then again the resident bitch and she took on that character with stride. She hadn’t seen Sokka in months and was glad. She didn’t want to because she fall back into him and she didn’t want to. She couldn’t trust herself. So she thought she was seeing things when she saw a dirty, sad looking Sokka outside of an inn on her way to a party.

“Sokka?” She quickly walked over and was met by the same blue eyes that trapped her the first time.

“Zules.” He practically jumped on her as he hugged her tightly. Azula sighed as she almost fell into him and his strong comforting arms. “I never thought I’d see you again, not like this.” He tells her and she frowns at the sight of him.

“I thought you went home.” She says, her voiced cold, almost completely void of emotion.

“Yeah...I wanted to but I couldn’t really and-“

“Why didn’t you come back?” She asked and he shrugged.

“I….I didn’t deserve your help. I didn’t deserve anything else from you.” He admits and she sighs.

“Come with me.” Azula sighed and Sokka’s eyes widen in shock.

“No, I’m fine. It won’t be too long before I-“

“Come. With. Me.” Her voice was firm and he nodded, throwing his bag on his back and walking quietly behind her as she looked to be taking him back to the palace.

“Where are your bodyguards?” Sokka asked as they approached the doors.

“I snuck away from them. I needed to free my mind.” She tells him and he frowns.

“I’m s-“

“Don’t even start.” The princess cut him off and he instantly shut his mouth. The pair made their way to her room and she laid out a towel.

“Go take a shower, you’re filthy.” She tells him and he nods, taking the towel and going to the bathroom to do as she said.

“What the hell am I doing?” Azula thought as she paced around her room. “He’s no good for me. He’s no good for anyone. He’s nothing but a liar. A liar and a thief, a con artist. He doesn’t deserve anything from me.” The words swam around her brain as she paced and she frowned.

“Thank you.” She was brought out of her reverie by Sokka’s voice and she frowned.

“Mhmm.” She mumbles before walking toward her closet. She pulled out a shirt and trousers before throwing it at him.

“You still had some of my clothes?” He asked and she rolled her eyes.

“I should have burned them.” Was her reply.

“I’ll be out of your hair.” He told her as he picked up his dirty bag and she grabbed his arm.

“Why?” She asked and he stopped.

“Why?” He responded and she rolled her eyes.

“Why everything you good for nothing savage!” She practically growls, her repressed anger taking over and he sighs.

“Did you read my letter?” He asked and she nods.

“Yes.” She almost spat out. The more angry she seemed to get as she looked at him. His hair was longer and he clearly needed a haircut, his beard also grew out and she could tell he was beyond tired. And despite all of the anger she had in her about what he did, she was angry with herself that she still loved him.

“I- I wish I hadn’t done it. I’ll never could never make up for it but I want you to know that.” He tells her and she shakes her head.

“That didn’t answer my question.” She took him and she sighed.

“My family had always been in trouble with money. And when my mother died, it had just gotten worse. And I happened to be good a tricking people so it was just something I did to bring in extra money. And it was working and we were fine then we weren’t. You were supposed to be the last one.” He told her and she scoffs.

“Of course I was.”  She says.

“I was going to tell you. I was trying to find the right time.”

“And what did you think was going to happen if you told me. That’s I’d say everything was okay and we’d just continue on?” Azula says angrily and he shakes his head.

“No of course not but-“

“You lied to me for two year, you betrayed my trust. You stole from me but because you love me I’m just supposed to accept that?” She shouts and he takes it. He takes all of her anger because it’s what he deserves.

“Of course not. I’d never ask you to do that but I didn’t want to lose you. Everyday with you was amazing, even in the beginning when all you could call was a snow savage.” He tells her and a small chuckle leave her mouth. It wasn’t angry but it wasn’t happy either.

“I hate you, you know that.” She tells him and he can hear the seriousness in her tone.

“I know.” Sokka tells her, rubbing the back of his neck.

They sat in that room silently for a while as she tried to figure out how she felt about this. About what he had to say. She looked at him and she still felt her heart yearn for him. She let out a ragged sigh as she began to pace again. It went on like that for a few minutes before Sokka stood up and stopped her. She glared at him as he gripped her arms, his soft eyes practically begging her to stop. A small breath left her mouth and before she knew what was happening she kissed his lips softly. Sokka kissed her back, moving his hands from her arms to her hips as he pulled her closer. They broke apart when they both could barely breath and backed away.

“No…” Azula whispered as she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I’ll...I” Sokka began stuttering and Azula stopped him.

“What did you do to me?” Azula asked, more to herself than to Sokka but he heard her anyways.

“I-“

“No. No matter how angry I am with you, I still want you here. What the hell did you do to me? I would have never cared. I’ve had people banished for less and I can’t seem to shake you. Did you know I was gonna take you home? Right before I found those letters, I had a whole surprise trip planned for you. I would’ve taken you home and helped your family because I wanted to. That’s the only reason I read those stupid letters.” She spat out at him. She was avoiding looking him because she knew she’d fall back into his trap. His face dropped at the thought, his girlfriend preparing to do something life changing for him just did her to find out he was using her at some point in their relationship.

He felt as if there was nothing else he could say that could make her feel better, the only thing he could have ever wanted to do. He had to something to get her back, to earn her trust again. He do anything for it.

“Give me one chance!” He said loudly and her head snapped up to loom at him.

“What?”

“Please, give me one last chance to prove my love for you. To prove that everything I told you, I meant it. That I’d do anything for you.” Sokka tells her. He was met by silence for a few moments while she started pacing again. It was a long three minutes before she stopped in front of him.

“I...I’ll….you can take me on one date Sokka. One date to prove to me wrong. That’s all I’m giving you. You’re lucky you’re not in a dungeon somewhere.” She tells him and he smiled at her, a sign that told her she might regret this in the long run. That smile was able to make her do anything. But as she stared at him, she couldn’t fight a small turn of her lips.

“I swear to you. I won’t let you down.” He tells her and he moves closer hoping to kiss her once more but she shakes her head.

“Nope. I’m not doing that again. Not now.” Azula tells him and he nods, respecting her space.

“Of course, so I’ll see you tomorrow night then.” Sokka tells her as he prepares to leave her room and her eyebrow furrows.

“Where are you going?” The princess asks him and he shrugs.

“I...uh… maybe back to the inn, who knows.” Was his answer and she sighs.

“I’ll let you stay in a guest room. Any date of mine won’t be homeless.” She tells him.

“Any?” He asks and she nods.

“I could have any guy I wanted whenever I wanted.” Azula answers truthfully as they leave her room and head towards the nearest guest room. “I just unfortunately want you.” She whispered softly but Sokka would never let her know that he heard her. The pair finally made it to the room and she let him and allowed him to get comfortable.

“Thank you,” He tells her as she walks to the door.

“Mhmm.” She replies as she walks out.

That night they both laid awake in separate beds hoping that tomorrow night would be a good one. Hoping that everything would work out fine, but that the spirits would work in their favor. Neither of them knew what they were would have done if they hadn’t found their way back to each other. Back to the person they loved the most.

[secret-kkh-fics]

Set Fire to the Rain  | Chapter 2

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like but DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

Future Dream - You swap places with your future self to a time when you and your soulmate are most content.

Author Note:

I honestly love this AU. It’s really fun to work with and I usually chuck children or pregnancies in there. It was also really fun to come up with what their future world would look like, at least directly within their little circle of the morning.

What the Future Holds 

The driving rain felt like a thousand tiny pinpricks, stabbing at her and stinging her skin. She could barely see as they fell heavily in her eyes, and she was too exhausted to waterbend them away. Not that she would be able to see much anyway, it was late, and the sky was so dark with clouds you couldn't see the moon or the stars. She doubted you'd be able to see far through the rain anyway, but she didn't care, she just kept driving Appa forward, her mind reeling.

"Katara." Zuko's voice sounded like it came from miles away, but his hand coming down on her shoulder grounded her, snapping her back to reality. "Katara, I think it's too dangerous flying in this weather. We don't know where we're going, and neither does Appa. I think we should land." She looked up at him dumbly for a moment, seeing the concern in his molten gold eyes, then nodded. He smiled in relief. "Okay, there's a small island just down there. There's not much, but there might be some shelter, and at any rate, it's somewhere to land and rest until this storm has passed." Again, she nodded, but didn't move from the position she was in. The concern grew in his eyes and he squeezed her shoulder. "Do you want me to fly." She nodded her head numbly, and he sat down beside her, taking the reins from her frozen hands.

She was barely aware as he guided Appa downwards. As he took Appa around the perimeter of the island, looking for some shelter, she replayed the day's events over and over in her head. The look on his face... That face.

She didn't move until Zuko found a cave that was big enough to fit the giant bison and landed as far in as he could. He gently helped her up and guided her off. She was shocked back once more when Appa shook, splattering her with water and she smiled as Zuko groaned in annoyance, holding his arms out at his sides, as if he weren't already wet.

He looked about a bit and sighed before turning back to her. "Do you think you could bend the water out of our clothing? We need to get warm, and there's nothing here I can make a fire with."

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said, before pulling the water from their black clothing and dumping it on the ground. Then she turned to Appa and did the same to him to get the last of the water off his fur. He let out a soft growl, and she could tell he looked much happier.

Zuko smiled in relief, happy to be dry again and went back and sat on Appa's tail. He looked up at her expectantly, and she joined him. Once she was sitting, he created a fireball, large enough to fit in both hands, and placed it on the ground.

"I thought you said you couldn't make a fire here," she said, glad to have the warmth of its glow. It was much easier to see in its light.

"I can't, or at least, not a proper fire. I can keep a fireball lit, so long as I concentrate on it, but it won't last. The moment I stop channelling energy into it, it will disappear."

"Oh, I see."

Zuko seemed to hesitate a moment, his mouth open slightly before he actually managed to get anything out. "Katara, are you alright?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I... I don’t know what I feel. I hate him. I hate him so much, but I just couldn't kill him. But he deserved it. And I just... I don't know if I made the right choice."

"Well, for what it's worth, I'm proud of you," he told her.

Katara scoffed, scowling at the fire. "Why? Because it was right not to kill him?"

"No, because you did what was right for you," he told her gently. "Despite what Aang said, despite what I said, you confronted him, and you chose the path that was right for you."

"I didn't forgive him" she spat. "I could never forgive him."

"I didn't expect you to, and I would never ask you to. This wasn’t about forgiveness, and it wasn’t about revenge either. It was about closure. You never got the chance to confront him when you were younger. You never got the chance to say goodbye to your mother like I sort of did, so all you could do was look her killer in the eye. But you didn’t have the strength or the means, and without that, all you had was anger. But you did it. You faced him, and you made your choice. No one else’s, yours. It's hard to confront those who have wronged you, those who have taken away ones you love, but you did it."

Finally, she looked up at him to see a gentle smile on his face. He sounded as if he were speaking from experience and her head tilted in curiosity.

"Have you ever confronted the person who took your mother from you?" She asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "But that was difficult for a whole other reason. Mostly because I was telling him he was a terrible father and that I was betraying him to join the Avatar. He only told me about what happened to her because he wanted to stall me until the eclipse was over."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Your father made her disappear?!" He nodded solemnly. "I really shouldn't be surprised. What happened?"

Zuko let out a heavy sigh, staring at the fire ball, making his eyes look like flickering flames themselves.

"Years ago," he started, "my Uncle Iroh was leading an assault on Ba Sing Se that lasted 600 days. But then, on the 600th day, his son, Lu Ten, was killed on the front. On that day, Uncle realised that the war was pointless, and called off the siege. With his wife and son gone, he lost all joy for life and ended up going on a journey through the spirit world to find meaning again. Grandfather was angry, but I think he understood. Father and Uncle had a middle brother who died before I was born...

"But because of this, my father thought that Uncle was weak,” he practically spat the statement out, his fits tightening in anger. “One night, after a family gathering, Father stayed behind to talk to Grandfather, and Azula and I hid in the curtains to listen. He told Grandfather that Uncle was not worthy of being Fire Lord. That Uncle's line had ended, while he still had two children. He asked that he be made Fire Lord instead, and Grandfather became angry. He yelled that Father dare betray Iroh, and told him that Iroh had suffered enough, but his suffering had just begun. At that point I got too scared and left, but Azula stayed.

"When she came back, she started teasing... well, tormenting me again, telling me that Grandfather had ordered Father to kill me."

"What?!" Katara gasped in shock.

"I thought she was lying at the time, she did things like that a lot to upset me. But during the eclipse, Father told me it was true. He’d told him to kill me as punishment for trying to usurp Iroh, so that he would know the pain of losing a son."

"That's horrible!" She exclaimed.

"That's my family," he sighed in resignation. "Still, at the time I refused to believe what Azula said and shouted at her. Mum heard the fighting and came to see what was happening. She left, dragging Azula with her. Later that night, she woke me up to... well, to say goodbye, telling me everything she's ever done has been to protect me, and not to forget who I was. I guess I kind of did. I was half asleep and didn't realise what was happening... That was the last time I ever saw my mother. The next morning, I woke up and she was gone, Grandfather was dead, and my father was crowned Fire Lord."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Father told me that after she found out what Grandfather had told him to do, she came to him and begged him to spare me. In the end, they struck up a deal. She killed my grandfather so that my father could become Fire Lord. Probably poisoned him... she had a way with herbs. My father immediately banished her for it. She's alive somewhere, hopefully... I just have no idea where."

Katara placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "You'll find her one day," she told him. "I promise. After this war is over, we can find out everything we can. Find out where she is."

"W-we?" He stuttered, surprised by the word.

"Yes, we. I don't know about the others, but I am going to help you. I will do anything to help you. I won't stop until we find her, Zuko. You will be with your mother again."

Zuko just stared at her with an open mouth, unshed tears glittered in the firelight. And suddenly, he threw himself towards her, wrapping his strong arms around her and enveloping her in a hug. He pressed his face into her shoulder, holding her tightly. After a moment of shock, Katara smiled and hugged him back.

"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely. "You have no idea what that means."

"I think I have a small idea," she told him, stroking his back. She would do anything to have her mother back, and she wouldn't wish what she had upon anyone. She would willingly help anyone if she could help them reunite with their mother. And after hearing just how bad his family was, how they had been all along, she doubted that such an offer was something he was used to.

She suddenly felt guilt wash over her. Zuko had not had an easy life. He had a horrible family who tried to kill him and banished him, and then tried to kill him again. And from what she had seen when he was hunting them down, he always faced constant adversity from both the people of the Earth Kingdom, and his own people. And she had been no better, so angry at him since he had come to help them. He had just been trying to redeem himself. But she was so angry, so scared of being hurt again that she opposed him at every turn.

But that was over now. She was beginning to understand why he did the things he did, even if she didn’t agree with them. She understood his desperation to return home and be accepted by his family for once. And she was beginning to see that he needed a lot of love and care in his life. She was willing to help him with that. From now on, things were going to be different between them.

Zuko finally drew back, sniffing and subtly wiping away a stray tear. "W-we, ah... We should sleep," he said. "We need to rest and wait for the storm to pass..."

She nodded, and Zuko let the flame go out. She heard him lay back and try to get comfortable on Appa's tail and she did the same. Without the flame, it grew cold quickly, with the icy wind still blowing in from the cave entrance. She tried snuggling deeper into Appa's thick fur, but it wasn't long till she was shivering. She found it ridiculous. She was from the South Pole, for crying out loud! She was born on ice, she should be used to this. But still, she shivered and her teeth chattered in the cold wind. Then again, back home they’d had thick furs laid over them, and even on the ice it could get too hot. But here, she had Appa’s fur below her, and the rest of her was entirely exposed. The small cave may be enough to keep them dry, but the bitterly cold wind still whistled in and chilled her to the bone.

"Come here," Zuko said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Snuggle back towards me."

Katara didn't even think before she did it. She knew that body heat would help keep her warm and she quickly moved to the nearest source of heat. Zuko. Only she didn't expect him to be quite so warm and gasped the moment she made contact with his body.

"You're so warm!" She gasped.

He chuckled at her surprise. "Firebender, remember. Fire is internal. I can raise my body temperature when needed."

"That would be really handy back home. Sure, we have furs, but being your own source of heat would be better."

"And yet we live in the hottest part of the world," he chuckled. "Being able to bend water and blow ice would be incredibly wonderful in the Fire Nation, especially in summer."

Katara giggled. "We almost need a swap of powers... Almost. I wouldn't give up my waterbending for anything."

"Neither," he whispered. "You know, I wonder... you can freeze water by lowering its temperature. Can you boil it by heating it up?"

This made her pause. "I don't know... I've never tried it before. I know I can unfreeze ice, so I don’t see why I can’t… I don't know if anyone has tried before. Hard to know when you’re the only waterbender from your tribe."

"You've got a point there... it would be interesting to try, though."

Katara smiled, but ended up shivering again, despite her proximity to the human heat pack, and Zuko frowned in concern. After weighing up how likely she was to punch him and how much she needed to be warm, he slowly reached over and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, so she was flush up against his chest. He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he didn't movie for a moment, the awkwardness of it making him blush. But then she relaxed, snuggling down into him as much as possible, a soft sigh escaping her. Zuko smiled.

Katara tried to hide a smile herself, trying not to let him see just how much it affected her. She tried to quash down the fluttering in her stomach that made her feel as if there were a thousand bumbleflies in there. She tried to ignore how nice it felt to be pressed up against Zuko. And she would deny with her last breath that she ever thought the words 'I could get used to this'.

And so, curled up together in a cave, sheltered from the raging storm outside, the two benders fell asleep.

  When Katara woke, she was nice and warm. A gentle breeze blew across her face, making her smile. She stretched in her half-asleep state, her fingers brushing smooth, silky sheets. Her eyes blinked open in surprise. Silky sheets? She had fallen asleep on Appa. The last time she’d slept on silky sheets had been back in Ba Sing Se.

Surrounding her was so much red that for a moment, she thought she was back in the Fire Nation. She sat up, and looking around she was struck with the strange realisation that the Fire Nation was the only place she could be. Most of the room was decked out in red and gold decorations, with the only exception being items that were clearly from the Southern Water Tribe. Even the wood and marble were red or black in colour. The bed she was in was large and soft, with a giant canopy of sheer red fabric and dragons carved into the wood. Off to the side was a large open door that led out onto a veranda. Sheer red fabric fluttered in where the curtains framed the door. And through the doors she could see a sprawling city of red rooves and past the crest of the rim of the giant crater the city was built within lay the sea sparkling in the distance.

This was the Fire Nation!

She almost thought she was dreaming, but if it was a dream, she felt very awake and very aware.

She jolted up to her knees quickly in alarm and confusion. The light, silky blanket slipped off her, revealing that she was naked under the sheets and... pregnant?! Even more alarmed, a hand flew to her stomach to find that, yes, there really was a baby bump there. She would guess that she was around six or seven months along.

“What the fuck!?”

She jumped from the bed, still staring down at the swell of her stomach in utter shock. She didn’t have long to ponder her odd situation, though, when she heard footsteps coming her way. She instantly took up a defensive stance as a girl around her age came running in. She was dressed in nice, but simple Fire Nation robes, and looked surprised when she saw Katara ready to fight.

“My Lady, are you alright?” she asked in alarm. “What’s wrong? Do I need to call the guards?” She looked at her once more, and seeing no signs of injury, she averted her eyes.

Katara faltered. “N-no, I…”

“Did you have another dream, My Lady?” the girl asked quietly. When she didn’t answer, the girl walked over to the side of the room and opened a large closet. Inside Karara could see many beautiful dresses of different styles. From casual to incredibly fancy, but even the casual clothes seemed nice and high quality. Most interesting was the colours and styles. She could make out a decent blend of reds and golds, but also blues and whites and the occasional bit of fur. The girl grabbed out a two-piece set of blue fabric, then ushered her towards a divider. “How about we get you dressed? Your husband is already at his first meeting, but he wanted me to tell you he wished to have breakfast with you when you woke.”

Katara started when she mentioned ‘her husband’, but said nothing. This was a dream, right? It had to be a dream. That or somehow, she had forgotten a very long amount of time in which a lot of very unlikely circumstances happened.

When the girl handed her the clothing, she slipped into them without question. There was a large sheet of silver backed glass on the wall that served as a mirror and her eyes widened in shock. She was clearly older, at least by five years or more. She was taller and had filled out more, though, it was hard to tell how much considering she was pregnant. She took a moment to study herself, and then her head tilted slightly as she studied the outfit. It was beautiful, made of multiple layers of sheer fabric with gorgeous embroidery. It was set in two parts, a crop top and a long skirt, keeping the roundness of her stomach exposed. Her stomach had patterns stained into the skin and for a moment she thought that she had a tattoo. But the ink wasn’t the black-ish green she had seen members of her tribe with. It was more of a redish-orange and she could see parts that looked more faded than others, like dye being slowly washed away. She remembered seeing something like this while they were at a festival in one of the Fire Nation colonies. It was a herb that was turned into a paste and used to dye the skin. Her stomach was covered in in it, making her look like a work of art. The most curious thing about the garment was that though the colours were clearly Water Tribe, the style was undoubtedly Fire Nation. She also noticed that the skirts were designed in a way that it was easy for her to wrap around her hips, instead of struggling to bend.

Once she was done, she came out from the divider to see the servant girl standing by a chair and a vanity with a carved bone comb in her hand. It didn’t take much for her to know what to do, and she sat in the chair. The girl instantly began to brush her hair and started chattering away about some friends of hers and something silly they had done the night before. She watched the girl work as she quickly and efficiently brushed out all the knots and styled it into a half-up-do with a top knot and her signature ‘loopies’. Then she grabbed a hair piece from a shelf of them and pinned it into the top knot. It was a Fire Nation crown, though more intricate than what she’d seen Azula wear... And instead of gold, it was made from carved bone. Altogether, her look pulled off the perfect blend of Water Tribe and Fire Nation cultures.

“You’re very quiet today, Lady Katara,” the girl suddenly said, looking down at her in concern. “Are you alright? You seem a little out of it.”

“O-oh, yes. Sorry, erm… Thank you. I’m just tired,” she lied.

The girl sighed heavily. “And here we let you sleep in and everything,” she teased. “Let’s get some breakfast in you.”

She helped Katara from the chair and led her from the room. Not knowing where she was going, Katara tried to keep in step with her. Considering the girl was a servant and was calling her ‘Lady Katara’, it probably wouldn’t look right with her following behind. Or at least, she guessed it wouldn’t. The girl was giving her a strange look.

“Katara!” a somewhat familiar, husky voice called out.

She whipped around to see Zuko moving down the hall quickly towards her. He seemed to have just come from one of the rooms that they had just passed by, and she could see people coming out of the room behind him. He looked older, more muscular and broader in the shoulders, his jaw was squarer, and his hair was neat and pulled back off his face in a top knot, and he was also wearing formal robes. Though, the outfit had been modified from the robes she’d seen depictions of his father wearing while they had been in the Fire Nation into something more modern and sleek. It looked a little more like a combat outfit than what she and her brother had once referred to as a ‘night dress’. The outer robe, instead of one long piece to the floor, wrapped across his chest and fell to his knees in three panels, tied with a thick, gold belt. And instead of the wide, stiff and pointy shoulders from the other robes, this outfit had black and gold pauldrons made from soft leather that sloped gently down his shoulders. He looked good, and for a moment she felt her heart stutter in her chest.

However, she didn’t have much time to reflect on that reaction as she was overcome with relief at seeing someone familiar, even if he was very obviously older. His appearance really backed up her idea that she had probably somehow forgotten a good few years. She would have to try and get him alone and ask him what the hell was going on. There had to be some explanation for this insanity. Maybe she’d been in an accident and gotten amnesia, or maybe it had something to do with the spirits and-

Her thoughts were silenced when Zuko reached her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Her eyes widened in surprise and her breath caught. The kiss was rather chaste, but it was searing. If she could even think at that moment, all she would probably be able to think would either be ‘Spirits, he’s kissing me!’ or ‘frozen hell, this is the best kiss of my life’.

When he pulled back only a few seconds later, she was left breathless in shock, staring up at him with wide eyes. She barely had time to regain her breath when he looked down at her with a brilliant smile. She had never seen him smile like that before – heck, she wasn’t entirely sure if she had seen him smile before – and it made her knees weak. He had a stunningly beautiful smile. And once again, she found her heart pounding rapidly in her chest. She could imagine that if Toph was here right now, she would be cackling her ass off.

“I have been waiting all morning to do that,” he told her with a grin. “It was not a very fun meeting.” When she didn’t say anything and just continued to stare at him, his brow furrowed, and he cocked his head slightly.

“Ah, Lady Katara has been a little… off this morning. I’m hoping some food will get her back to normal,” the girl said to him holding a hand to the side of her mouth as if that would stop Katara from hearing her.

“Ah, good idea, Azara, food will be exactly what she needs.” His grin was almost cheeky, and he pulled her even closer to him, one hand on her cheek and the other sliding around from her waist to the swell of her stomach, caressing gently at the taut skin. “Is baby brain getting to you again, Kat?”

She let out a nervous laugh, deciding to play along with whatever insanity she had found herself in. “Yeah, must be.”

He chuckled in response. “Right then, shall we? I’m sure everyone else is already there.”

Her eyes widened, worried about who ‘everyone else’ could be, but kept her mouth shut, forced a smile on her face and nodded. He looped his arm through hers with a wide grin and led her through the palace halls until they came out into a sunny garden. It was clearly still inside the palace somewhere, surrounded by high walls, but it was filled with exotic flowers she had never seen before and a sprawling expanse of grass with a pond and some large trees. The trees had some lanterns still hung in them from some other time of celebration, and turtle-ducks swam happily in the pond. On a patch of grass not far from the pond, a small group of people sat around, preparing a light meal. She immediately recognised Zuko’s uncle, General Iroh, who was brewing tea for six. Beside him sat an older man and woman she didn’t recognise, but they were old enough that their hair was beginning to streak with grey. Around them, a young girl of about 10, perhaps a little older, was laughing gleefully as she fed the turtle-ducks.

“Zuko! Katara!” the woman greeted happily when she saw them approaching. “You finally made it!”

“Sorry, Mum. The meeting went a little later than it was supposed to.” He bent down and kissed his mother on the cheek before sitting down, supporting Katara down with him. As he did, a few servants began placing down platters of fruits and bread and cheese. With a thank you, the royal family began to grab the food and begin their breakfast.

“What is so important that those stuffy old men had to keep the Fire Lord from breakfast with his family?” Iroh asked as he began to pass the cups of tea around to everyone.

“Mostly celebration preparation,” he told them, taking a sip from his tea and smiling. “Ah, jasmine tea, thank you, Uncle.”

“Yes, I would imagine that with the 10-year anniversary of Ozai’s defeat, the end of the 100-year war, and your coronation, the celebrations will be quite large this year.”

Zuko nodded. “Since they are both considered important events here, they want to have the main celebrations here in Caldera. The United Nations agree, though it’s been rather hard trying to sway Lady Guan. She’s been arguing that the celebrations should be held in the Earth Kingdom as originally scheduled. Thankfully, Sokka worked out something like a swap to appease her. So, the Earth Kingdom will be hosting next year instead of us. And then the cycle goes back to normal.”

“So then, we can expect the whole gang to come visiting in the next few months?” his mother asked hopefully. “And the rest of Katara’s family?”

“Absolutely. I was thinking Katara and I could send out personal invitations today. Maybe spend a week at Ember Island with everyone before the celebrations commence. Like old times.” He grinned over at her, raising his brows cheekily.

“Does that mean Suki is coming back?!” the young girl cried excitedly, cartwheeling over to them. “And Ty Lee?!”

“Yes, it does, my little Kyoshi warrior!” the man said, grabbing her up in a hug and making her giggle as she tried to squirm away.

“Dad!” she cried, a little annoyed but still giggling. “I can’t be a Kyoshi warrior. I’m a bender! And I’m going to be the best bender, like Zuzu! And then I can teach the little one when they start bending!” She surprised Katara when she rushed over and excitedly placed her hands on her stomach. “Right, baby?!”

Iroh chuckled. “And what if your little niece or nephew turns out to be a waterbender?” he asked her. She pouted as she tried to think that one over, making Zuko laugh as well.

“It’s fine, Kiyi. This one is going to be a firebender and you can teach him as much as you like,” Zuko told her. “It’s Kya who will be the waterbender… third one is still a surprise, though.” Katara stared at him in surprise. He seemed so certain, but it wasn’t possible that he could know that. Yugoda had told her that not even the most experienced and skilled water healers that specialised in being midwives could tell the gender or bending ability of a child before it was born.

“Is Azula coming?” Kiyi asked apprehensively. At her question, everyone in the group grew a little grimmer.

“No, sweetheart,” Zuko’s mother told her gently, reaching out for her. The girl came willingly and sat in her lap. “She has been doing better over the last year, but I don’t think she will want to come to a celebration of the day that she-”

“Of when Katara kicked her ass!!!”

“Kiyi!” she abolished.

“What? She did!”

“Kat’s incredible bending aside, I don’t think she would be particularly happy about the celebration,” Zuko told his sister, his lip quirking up.

“Are you alright, Katara?” Iroh’s soft voice grabbed her attention. “You’ve hardly touched your breakfast.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine!” she said quickly, her voice higher than normal and she grabbed a slice of mango and took a bite. “Just fine! Thank you, Iroh. Just feeling a little…” Confused. Overwhelmed. Lost. Out of her element. Not herself. The words she wanted to say would likely only bring up more questions. And she didn’t want to draw attention to herself and how out of her depth she was. She was hoping that she could make it through this without anyone noticing and just get through… whatever this was. Spirits, she really hoped this was some kind of strange dream and not that she’d somehow forgotten the last ten years.

She looked back up from the piece of fruit she’d been staring at blankly to see everyone looking at her in concern. And, though he was clearly concerned too, Zuko’s eyes were narrowed slightly in a way she knew meant he was suspicious of something.

Quietly, he stood, and panic rose in her once more, terrified of what he was going to do. But all he did was hold his and out to her. When she just stared at his hand uncomprehendingly, he rolled his eyes and jerked his head in a ‘come on’ motion, a soft smile touching his lips. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his, and he helped her to her feet, then began guiding her off. They moved a little deeper into the garden, but not too far. Just enough that they were out of earshot of everyone else. He took her to a spot on the far side of the pond, just underneath the red leaves of cherry blossom tree. It was beautiful and calming here, but she felt anything but calm as he turned to face her once more.

“You’re acting weird,” he said. She pursed her lips and looked away, unsure how to answer that. Her hands drifted up to tug anxiously at a lock of hair that hung over her shoulder. “Kat, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she finally told him.

He reached up and gently pried the hair from her grasp, pushing the hair over her shoulder, his hand lingering against her skin as he did. Then his hand came up to cup her cheek and found herself leaning into it for comfort. “I know you, Katara. This isn’t just hormones. What’s going on?”

Tears welled in her eyes and her voice shook as she spoke. “I don’t know!” she said honestly. “One- one moment we’re curled up in that cave on Appa’s tail going to sleep, and then I wake up here. And it’s suddenly ten years in the future and everything is different and strange. And I don’t know if I’ve forgotten all that time, or if I’m going insane, or if this is just some crazy dream. But I have no idea how I got here!” Her voice began to rise in pitch with her distress, and she glanced over at the rest of his family, worried that they would overhear. But they were all laughing joyously, and she got the feeling that Iroh was intentionally keeping up a loud, entertaining conversation for their sake.

At first, Zuko looked startled and almost scared by what she’d said, but then a look of realisation came across him, followed by a fond smile. “Ah, so that’s what’s going on,” he said, a slight tone of amusement in his voice. “That would explain it.” He guided her to sit down in the grass with him and she followed him down, sitting awkwardly because of her large stomach. He didn’t let go of her hands, instead holding them between them, his thumb stroking soothingly at the top of her hand. “You’re not going crazy, Kat. I promise. And I don’t think you’ve lost ten years either. At least, you haven’t had any injuries or spirit encounters lately that would justify it.” He shot her a wry grin.

“Then what’s going on?” she said shakily. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re probably right about it being a dream. A special one, gifted to you by the spirits.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I had one too back when we were young. I went through the same thing, waking up eighteen years in the future and freaking out because I had no idea what was going on. But you – future you – told me it was soulmate dream.”

“A soulmate dream?!” she cried in astonishment.

She’d heard of soulmate dreams, of course. Her grandmother had told her about them. Not everyone would have a soulmate dream in their lifetime, and it was believed that not everyone had a soulmate. But they were common enough that you often heard tell of people marrying their soulmate or mentioning the dreams that the spirits bestowed upon them. It was said that the dreams were given to you the night you first begin to fall in love with your soulmate, and during the dream you would see a day in your future where you and your soulmate are most content and happy. It was even said that the spirits would place your soul in your future self’s body for that time, as there were plenty of stories of people waking up confused about suddenly being in the future, just as she had done.

But, if this was a soulmate dream, then that would mean that she and Zuko were soulmates! She and Zuko! And not only that, the fact that she was having this dream meant that… she was starting to fall for Zuko. But that was ridiculous! She wasn’t even sure if she’d stopped hating him yet!

“Mm-hm.”

She shook her head in bewilderment. “This is…”

“Overwhelming? Confusing? Strange? Terrifying?”

“Yeah.”

“I remember.”

"When did you have yours?" she asked him curiously.

"I had mine back after Ba Sing Se, the not long after the catacombs..." he told her softly.

Katara stiffened and only just stifled a squeak. "So, he already knows?!" she said, her voice high pitched with distress. This seemed to make Zuko chuckle.

"Not a bit," he said. Katara's brow furrowed in confusion. "The night I had my soulmate dream, it was the first night in over three years I had spent at home in my own bed. I had just betrayed my uncle, the man who cared for me more than my own father and saw me as his own, which landed him in prison. I had betrayed and disappointed the nicest girl I know, right after gaining her trust." He looked at her pointedly. "I had just started dating Mai. And as far as I was aware, Azula had just killed the Avatar. In the dream, I woke up in what I knew to be my father's rooms, woken up by two beautiful children calling me dad, next to you. People called me Fire Lord, they spoke of time 'since Ozai's defeat', my uncle joyfully greeted us for tea, and my mother played with her grandchildren by the pond. You figured out that I was having my dream pretty quickly, I guess I probably looked so bewildered. And you tried to tell me that it was a soulmate dream, but I didn't believe you. I still didn't, in your time. Also didn’t help that I didn’t know that soulmate dreams were… well, a thing at all. Since royalty rarely ever marry for love, we’re generally raised not knowing of the existence of them so arranged marriages weren’t ruined by them. I didn't even entertain the idea it could be true till well after we won the war. Not until I had my uncle's forgiveness, a kiss from the prettiest waterbender, my father was behind bars, I was crowned Fire Lord, and my mother found."

"I'm really glad you found her," she said, looking back at the others. “And some others, by the looks of it.”

Zuko looked over the other side of the pond too, smiling fondly at the sight of his sister excitedly telling the adults something with exaggerated gestures. He seemed so content, so comfortable in who he was now. And far more relaxed than she had ever seen him, despite the fact that he was now ruling an entire country. He looked happy. “Best family I could ever wish for,” he said softly. “And I know it’s only going to get better.” He reached out and touched her swollen stomach once more, his warm hand on her bare skin bringing the pregnancy back to the front of her mind.

It was a strange and overwhelming sensation to suddenly be two thirds of the way through a pregnancy when you certainly hadn’t been pregnant when you went to sleep. She’d seen many pregnancies before, and even helped deliver many children. But she’d never experienced it herself. It was bewildering, feeling the movements within her, knowing that there was a small life growing inside her. A life that she and Zuko had created. And that thought, in itself, was completely overwhelming. And came with a whole other realisation she had not been prepared to deal with right now. If she was pregnant, that meant that she and Zuko had had sex. They were married! They’d probably had sex many times!

“I can’t believe that this might all be my life one day!” she cried, burring her face in her hands to hide the rising blush. “It’s just all so insane. Living in a palace, kids, being in love with you! No offence.”

Zuko snorted, but a wide grin remained on his face. “You don’t have much room to talk. You’re the one having this dream right now,” he teased.

“Ugh! Don’t remind me! How embarrassing. And apparently, I become Fire Lady?! How did that even happen? I didn’t think a waterbender could ever be the Fire Lady!”

“Honestly, it almost didn’t happen,” he told her, growing serious for a moment. “It wasn’t easy and took a lot of work. I almost abdicated the throne to Uncle Iroh, but that brought the line of succession into question. If I wasn’t eligible, the only person left was Azula, and very few wanted that. Thankfully, the fact that you’re one of the heroes of the war, your initiates to clean the lakes and rivers of the Fire Nation and installing healing hospitals in all nations, as well as being  a princess of your own nation helped quite a bit in the end. We managed to pose it as an alliance between the Fire Nation and Southern Water Tribe.”

“Ah… I’m not a princess.”

“Your father is a chief, you are equivalently a princess.”

“But we’re not like the Northern Tribe. Chief Arnook is the chief of the entire North Pole, but my father is just one chief of many in the South Pole. He-”

“Was temporarily made head chief during the war, but that is an elective title amongst the chiefs of the South in times of need where the tribes need to band together,” he finished in a bored tone, as if he had heard this all many times before. “I’m well aware. But in your time, your father is currently the head chief of the South. And after the war, you, your brother and your father worked on restoring the South Pole. With input from Master Paku, you did take a lot of Southern influences, though, and the chiefs of the South decided to appoint your father Head Chief permanently. Ergo, you were a princess, and now you are a queen.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, rolling her eyes in fond annoyance. “I get it. You clearly know these things better than me… How many times have we had that argument in the last ten years?”

“Too many times to keep count,” he told her, shaking his head in amusement. “Even now you struggle to accept the mantle of nobility, but you wear it so well. I swear you were born for it. You should see the things you will do, Katara.” He was looking at her with pure admiration, and she almost felt like shyly hiding away from his intense attention. “The things you’ve helped rebuild, or build, the things you’ve done to help people. You’ve achieved such amazing things, you’re a compassionate humanitarian, a wonderful, respected politician, a… Well, I won’t give too much away before you get to it yourself. But you’ve done so much that has earned the love and respect of everyone. Here, back in your home. In every nation. You’re so beloved by the entire world and I’m so glad that I’m the one that gets to keep you.”

“I… I have no idea what to say to that,” she admitted. “This is all so much! Knowing that this will be my future. That I’ll end up here with you and do all these amazing things! I… I’m just a fourteen-year-old girl. I’m still fighting in a war most kids don’t have to join, let alone practically lead the fight! And yesterday I didn’t even know if we would make it out of it alive. But now there’s just this whole other future before me, and I can’t…”

“Katara, this dream can mean whatever you want it to,” he told her, his voice low and serious. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently running his thumbs over them soothingly. “Just because we’re soulmates, doesn’t mean we have to instantly be in love. Like I said, I didn’t even realise my dream could be true until much later. Not for years after the war. And even though I fell in love with you, I didn’t think you liked me back and kept those feelings hidden. Even from myself, at times. What you see here and now doesn’t have to shape and dictate every moment of your life from then until now. Don’t let it stop you from doing whatever it is that you truly want to do. Look what’s happened in the last year for you, a lot more can happen in ten years… Ugh, I should leave the philosophical stuff to Uncle. I guess what I’m trying to say is… Well, I’d say ‘try not to worry about it too much’… but I know you too well.” He grinned at her, then leaned forwards and placed a kiss on her forehead.

“Thanks, Zuko,” she said, looking up at him, her eyes shining with gratitude and affection.

Suddenly, she felt horribly lightheaded, the world spinning around her and black dots dancing in front of her vision. Her lids grew heavy and she had to grip tightly onto Zuko to remain sitting. She knew that pregnant woman sometimes experienced fainting spells, especially if they sat the wrong way for too long as it blocked the blood vessels. But she’d never experienced it until now.

“Katara! Are you okay?” Zuko said in concern, holding her up with one hand and frantically checking her over with the other. His hand pressed against her forehead and cupped her cheek, his face close to hers, his golden eyes so full of worry her heart truly went out to him for a moment and all she wanted to do was bring back that gorgeous smile he’d been giving her so much in this dream.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” she told him. “I think it’s just… pregnancy… dizzy spells…”

As she spoke, the dizziness returned once more, overcoming her completely and blacking out her vision. Amongst the horrible sensation of vertigo, she was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling forwards into Zuko’s arms before the darkness consumed her completely.

   When Katara’s eyes blinked open, she was met with the hazy, early morning light and an empty spot beside her on Appa’s tail. Her hand went down to her stomach, finding that her stomach was flat and clothed in thick black cloth. A heavy breath of relief escaped her. She was back!

A small part of her was also relieved to see that Zuko wasn’t beside her, mostly because she had no idea how to deal with the dream she’d just had. Especially if he was right there. But the larger part of her was worried by his absence.

Sitting up, it didn’t take long at all to spot him. He was just outside the opening of the small cave, easily within view. The rain had thankfully stopped, though the ground was still wet, and she could see the sun still coming up over the horizon behind him. He had stripped down so he was only wearing the black pants from his outfit, and was going through his bending forms. It was almost a sort of ritual she’d noticed of his. On mornings when she woke up early enough, she was able to catch him at it. One time she’d been woken up at the crack of dawn, hearing him sneak off. She’d been suspicious of him sneaking about so early in the morning and had followed him to make sure he wasn’t getting up to anything devious. Instead, she had seen him sit down at the edge of a secluded section of the temple and mediate as the sun rose before him, then proceeded to practice his forms. She’d caught him doing it several times since, and she soon got used to him rising at dawn to bend. She remembered him once telling her that he rose with the sun, and she imagined that he felt a similar pull to the sun as she did to the moon.

Watching him, the thought crossed her mind about how good he looked. His forms clean and precise. His pale skin covered in a slight sheen of sweat, glowing warmly in the sunlight. His bending magnificent and beautiful. Normally she wouldn’t call firebending beautiful, seeing as she’d had nothing but bad experiences with it. But watching him now, she couldn’t help but think that it was beautiful. He was beautiful. And such a powerful bender.

That thought took her back to a moment months back now, in a small town, sitting with Madam Wu as she told her that she would marry a powerful bender. A blush rose to her cheeks as she thought about it. At the time Sokka referring to Aang with those exact words, she had thought for a moment that perhaps Madam Wu had meant him. A thought that she had thought once more after Aang had kissed her before the siege. But Madam Wu had never specified what kind of powerful bender she would marry. And it seemed like she would end up married to him. It was a strange thought.

He was her soulmate. A fact that he both knew and was ignorant to. A fact that apparently wouldn’t be addressed for years, but one she couldn’t stop thinking about now.

 Shaking herself from her thoughts, she stood and began to stretch, walking out to the mouth of the cave to breathe in the relaxing scent of the sea air. She could hear ottergulls calling out above them, and looked out to see them diving down into the ocean for fish to catch.

After a moment, Zuko seemed to notice her standing there, and brought his practice session to a close, stopping and pushing his hands together and down from his chest to his stomach, as if releasing the energy. Though it was more ridged, and a different sort of action to what she did, she recognised it as the same sort of action she did at the end of practice.

“Morning,” he greeted her.

“Yeah, morning.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you” he said, walking over to where she stood, picking up his shirt from near her feet and pulling it back over his head. “I thought I’d get some katas in while you slept.”

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I know you do this most mornings. You didn’t wake me up this time.” Zuko nodded.

“I have some good news,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“I recognise where we are. We’re on a small uninhabited island in the archipelago. You can see Ember Island from here. It gave me an idea. My family have a holiday home on the beach. No one’s been there since I was a kid. Actually, last time Azula and I were there, we didn’t even stay in the house. We just broke in and burnt a bunch of stuff. It could be a good place to hide. It’s isolated, and most locals don’t know its location so that security didn’t have to be so high while we were on holiday. It’s big and comfortable, and more than enough space to train with all elements. And it’s close enough to the Caldera that we don’t have to travel very far to face my father when the day comes. There’s a market not too far away, so we wouldn’t have to forage for food either.”

Though Katara knew he was pitching the place as a hideout, she couldn’t help but wonder if they had used it other times in the future. She remembered future him saying something about spending a week there with everyone ‘like in the old days’. An isolated beach holiday home sounded like paradise. Had they spent their honeymoon there? Had they taken their kids there to get away from the pressures of ruling a country for a while? Did he take his mother and her husband and Kiyi there? Would Kya enjoy bending the waves at the beach as much as she found she did?

“Katara?” Zuko’s voice snapped her from her thoughts, and she realised she must have been lost in thought too long. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she assured him. “It sounds like a great idea. We should do that.”

He nodded. “Okay. How about we go there now. We can get changed and grab something to eat. Then, if you want, I could go back and grab the others. That way you don’t have to deal with being stuck in a bison saddle with everyone hounding you for hours. I’d probably be back by the afternoon. Unless, you don’t want to be alone or anything, because if you don’t, you don’t have to stay behind. We could go get the others together.” At first what he’d been saying had almost been posed as a question, but the rest had come out in a nervous rush. Katara just smiled at him gratefully.

“Thanks, Zuko. I’d like that. I could use some time to just…”

“Decompress?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” He gave her a hesitant, gentle smile. It was the first smile she could recall seeing this him give, and it set her heart fluttering. Spirits, maybe she really was starting to fall for him. “Let’s go.”

  A few extra notes about this AU:

🌙     This story is still mostly canon compliant. The rest of the show plays out as shown, with a few more ‘moments’ between Zuko and Katara. But Zuko still ends up with Mai, and because of that, Katara decided to give things with Aang a try, reasoning that she knows Zuko is her soulmate, and she was just going to wait and see how things went, trusting in the dream the spirits had given her.

ƒ     The comics is where it starts diverging from canon. For one thing, I like Katara being happy, so she didn’t miss out on all the projects she wanted to work on. She either convinced Aang to take her, went herself, or the project waited for her. These are things like helping rebuild her home, leading the lakes and river clean-up programme, and beginning on opening hospitals and medical clinics worldwide.

🌙     She does feel a little bit like she’s losing herself, with Aang so insistent on the things he wants to do and his way of live, along with his discovery of the Air Acolytes. She remembers how in the dream, even though she lived in the Fire Nation, everything about her life seemed to be a mix of her own culture and another. Life with Aang is very Air Nomad centric. And knowing where she is going to go in life, it does not seem as worth sticking through the issues. When things aren’t going so well between them, they have a small argument, making her suggest they break up. Aang tries to defend that she is his ‘forever girl’, to which she gently tells him she’s not. She tells him that she had a soulmate dream and knows that it’s only a matter of time before the events of the dream start falling into place. Aang is very upset, and storms off for a bit, but he does understand and eventually agrees that they should split, telling her he’ll always love her anyway. Out of curiosity, he asks who her soulmate is. Because he’s already grudgingly come to accept shew had a soulmate, and knows she is very close with Zuko, he isn’t too upset to find out it’s him.

🌙     When the events of ‘The Search’ happen, Katara is a much more active participant. Having lost her own mother, she knows the pain of being without one and does all she can to help Zuko get her back, especially since she knows that he will find her. The reveal happens a little faster, because when they meet Kiyi, Katara recognises her, and calls her by name before she introduces herself. It startles everyone that she knows the girls name, but Zuko most of all. He didn’t instantly recognise her, because his soulmate dream was set around 8 years after Katara’s, and Kiyi was 19. He thought she looked familiar but didn’t place her until her name was said. (He did, however, recognise Ikem, and was hopeful about following him for this reason). This also brings up questions of how she knew Kiyi’s name, which she brushes off and it gets forgotten in the following revelations about Ursa.

🌙     With Ursa back, and a hint that Katara knows about Kiyi, this is where Zuko finally starts to believe that his soulmate dream could have been just that, instead of a delusion. This is also around the time that things become rocky with Mai again. In the few years they’ve been together, they have always had a bit of an on and off again relationship, since their personalities aren’t exactly the best for each other and clash quite a lot. And realising that Katara might be his soulmate, they agree to break up again.

🌙         This is around the time that Katara starts up the hospital project, as well as the beginning of events of ‘Smoke and Shadow’. So, he invites Katara along with Aang and Suki to help with the New Ozai Society situation. It’s here that he finds out that Aang and Katara have been broken up for a good few months now. There is the addition of an almost successful assassination attempt which she heals for him. And their relationship begins to build from there. Azula is also recaptured at the end of ‘Smoke and Shadow’s events and is receiving psychological therapy.

Author Note:

I would actually be REALLY keen to explore this world more.

[talas-starlight]

Scarred Spirit - Zuko x fem!reader (pt.4)

SUMMARY: *queue beebo* ladies and gents this is the moment you’ve waited for  

WORD COUNT: 2.8k

WARNINGS: swearing, australian spelling (not a warning just letting you know)

OTHER PARTS IN THE SERIES:  pt1   /   pt2   /   pt3   /   pt4   /  pt5   /   pt6

MASTERLIST: Here!

As the Cherry Blossom trees were in full bloom, Iroh was basking in the peace he hadn’t felt in weeks. Zuko on the other hand, sat next to the entryway sulking. Of course, Iroh, being the caring uncle he was, wished to relieve him of all the angst within him on this beautiful day and approached him with a solemn expression on his face. “I see, it’s the anniversary isn’t it.”

Beneath his straw hat, Zuko scowled agitated his uncle brought it up, as if it wasn’t the first thing he thought about when he woke up this morning. “Three years ago today, I was banished. I lost it all. I want it back. I want the avatar. I want my honour. My throne. I want my father, not to think I’m worthless.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t! Why would he banish you if he didn’t care?”

Wordlessly Zuko rose and walked away from his uncle, frustrated and terrified of what else his uncle might say. Finding a cherry blossom tree far, far, away from Iroh, he sat down beneath it angrily. He hated this day. He hated what it did to his life. He hated how the memories of you consumed his mind more prominently today than any other day of the year.

He never said it out loud, but he wanted you just as much as he wanted his honour. He wanted to see you alive. Breathing right in front of him. And he’d be damned if he admitted it to his uncle. Why, he wanted you? He wasn’t sure. You have always lingered in the back of his mind, not constantly, but every once in a while, it always seemed to come back to you. Or at least what was left of you in his mind.

This annoyed him endlessly. How could someone, who he barely spoke a word to, stay in his mind for so long? He didn’t even know what you looked like! He let out a groan of frustration. He wished he could remember what your voice sounded like. Then, at least he would have something to hold onto. He tried desperately to cling onto the memory of you. The way your baby hair stuck out of your top knot, your posture as you shielded him the best you could, the feeling of your robes on his fingertips. But it was no use. There was no point in it all. None of it would lead him to you. For all he knew, you were probably dead.

That prospect terrifies him so much that he refuses to utter a word about you into existence.

After countless days of following the giant fire nation ship from a considerable distance behind, you were grateful when they finally docked. You were beyond starved, stupidly underestimating how long Azula would be at sea. It seems you got a little too cocky in your abilities over the years. Shaking your head, you put yourself into a more focused mindset, now more than ever, you couldn’t afford to be sloppy. Tying your small boat to a dock which situated behind some rocky mountains and far away from any view from where their ship was, you began your search for robes to blend in.

Swiftly moving about in the shadows to avoid any interaction with people off Azula’s boat, you manage to ascend the stairs leading up to an Earth Kingdom village. Upon seeing the first clothesline with clothes that look like you could fit into, you grab the pink robes. Grabbing some extra cloth, you make a makeshift mask to shield your face and neck, and wind small pieces around your hands completely. Finally, and most importantly, you double checked to ensure that all of your weapons were strapped securely underneath.

Satisfied with your disguise, you decide to head near the dock to check if Azula’s made any advancements in her plan to get her brother and uncle back. However, you faltered, hearing a small argument break out a few huts away. Initially, you dismiss it, although just as you were about to journey back down the mountain, you felt something… like a crack of lighting waiting to go off.

Azula.

You follow the sounds of the argument and Azula’s inner fire. Hiding within a bush near an open window; you listen in on whatever was going on inside.

“What are you doing here?!”

“In my country, we exchange a pleasant hello before asking questions. Have you become uncivilised so soon, Zuzu?”

“Don’t call me that!”

Eyes widening at the realisation, wait… that’s Zuko?

“To what do we owe this honour?” You quickly assume that’s their uncle.

“Hmm, must be a family trait. Both of you so quick to get to the point.” Azula’s voice is harsh, almost as if she’s ready to strike.

Must she be so dramatic?

“I’ve come with a message from home. Fathers changed his mind, family is suddenly very important to him. He’s heard rumours of plans to overthrow him—treacherous plots. Family are the only ones you can really trust. Father regrets your banishment; he wants you home.”

At Zuko’s lack of response, you grew worried. No Zuko don’t-

“Did you hear me?! You should be happy. Excited. Grateful! I just gave you great news.”

You felt Zuko come closer to the window. He felt more muted… less angry.

“I’m sure your brother simply needs a moment…”

Azula snapped at Iroh. “Don’t interrupt uncle! I still haven’t heard my thank you. I’m not a messenger. I didn’t have to come all this way.”

“Father regrets? He… wants me back?”

Fuck! Don’t listen to her you coal brain!

“I can see you need time to take this in. I’ll come to call on you tomorrow. Good evening.”

As Azula left back to the ship, you cursed under your breath. Yes, you knew your job. And yes, you knew what would happen to Zuko and Iroh if they foolishly believed the princess. You needed a plan.

Maybe if I could just… steer him in another direction, help bring light to the situation. Maybe they’ll listen. Quietly retreating away from the hut, you walked into the town, looking for a way to talk to them without being obvious.

A few hours later, the best you could come up with was to deliver them some food for the evening, pretending you worked for the owner of all the huts. It wasn’t your best plan, but most people openly welcome free food, so it was good enough. But for the first time in your life, you felt nerves, unlike any other. Sure, you were nervous when you jumped to save Zuko, but this was different. Then, your nerves activated your fight responses, but today? These were the kind of nerves that made you want to run away because you’ve already gone over the multitude of possibilities that might occur. But of course, you dismissed the thoughts of running away, because once again, you were on a mission to save his life despite the threats Ozai made you.

Did he forget about me as I told him to, all those years ago? Hopefully, he did. After all, he is alive.

Just as you were about to enter, you heard his voice inside. “We’re going home! After three long years. It’s unbelievable!” Your eyes widened at the excitement in his tone. That wasn’t a good sign considering what you were about to do.

“It is unbelievable. I have never known my brother to regret anything.”

“Did you listen to Azula? Fathers realised how important family is to him. He cares about me!” Now you began to seriously contemplate on walking in there right now, and beating him until he came to his senses.

It seemed Iroh wasn’t having it either. “I care about you! And if Ozai wants you back well, I think it may not be for the reasons you imagine.”

“You don’t know how my father feels about me. You don’t know anything!”

“Zuko, I only meant that in our family things are not always what they seem.”

“I think you’re exactly what you seem. A lazy, mistrustful, shallow old man who’s always been jealous of his brother!”

Okay, I’ve heard enough coal brain.

You let out a deep, shaky breath. It seems no matter how hard you try to keep your cool, you’ll never be entirely ready for what you’re about to throw yourself into. Balancing the tray of food in your left arm, you round the corner to the front of the hut, emitting a firm knock onto the side of the entryway.

Zuko whips around at the sound. “Who are you? What do you want!”

As he looks at you with his harsh and angry glare, you feel like you’ve been smacked in the face multiple times. Ironically, you also knew it had been precisely three years since you jumped to save him, and now you finally get to witness the full extent of your failure. Heart tightening at the severe contrast to how he sounded all those years ago, you take in his pain. His anger.

Feeling the intense fire burning inside of him from his anger and rage, it almost takes you back. It seems that the years he spent away from his old home has damaged the afraid, innocent boy you once knew. As you wear your stolen robes and mask shielding your neck, a nasty feeling forms in your gut. You have always been able to cover your extensive scars with clothing, but him? His scar is almost too much of a visual representation for you to bear.

I should have moved to the left a bit more; then he wouldn’t have it. If I just aimed better when I jumped, he wouldn’t have to live like this. Maybe if I succeeded, he wouldn’t be so bitter.

Not letting how frustrated you feel towards yourself show, you bow to him and his uncle.

“My apologies, I did not mean to disturb you this evening. I am only here to deliver you some food, it’s on the house.”

This only fuels his anger, irritated that you weren’t anyone of great significance. “Fine. Just place it over there and leave us!”

Iroh sighs, walking towards you. “Zuko, that is no way to treat a young lady. My apologies for my nephew’s behaviour Miss, he has recently received some unexpected news today. Thank you for your services.”

You give a light smile, even though he can’t see it. “No, it’s alright. I understand how hard it may be to truly know what is the right choice when brought with unexpected circumstances.”

“I’m sorry who are you? Who do you think you are?! You know nothing, not even anything remotely similar to the situation I’m in. So don’t go around assuming you understand anything! You have no right coming in here and thinking you can help me in any way.”

His hostility begins to feel normal; you knew you should have expected him to be like this. “Of course my apologies sir, how could I be so senseless. I don’t mean to overstep. I only wish you relieve you of some of your stress. I meant no disrespect.”

At that moment, you almost slapped yourself. Idiot, why did I say that?

Zuko faltered, overwhelmed with the words you just slapped him with. And you said them on today of all days?

“What did you just say?”

Iroh who was intently watching you throughout the interaction snapped his attention towards his nephew, “Zuko, please, she only-“

“I’m sorry I meant no disrespect sir I-“

“Get out.”

Understanding that he wasn’t ready to take any guidance or advice from you, you silently bowed, turning to leave.

Just as you were about to walk out completely, you glanced back at him looking him in his golden, raged filled eyes, “pain doesn’t leave you forever Prince Zuko. It lingers. You should take the past and let it guide your future journey, not let it control you.”

As you stepped out into the unforgiving cold air, Zuko was frozen, gaping at the doorway where you once stood. How you knew of his true identity was beyond him, yet there was something hidden, masked beneath your final statement that didn’t sit right with him. The hair on his skin is standing at the entire interaction that just occurred. Of course, he had no idea who you were, so why did it feel like you knew more than you let on? Did you know anything about his past? Shaking it off, he continued to pack in silence. Even Iroh didn’t say a word.

Descending the mountain back towards your ship, words that you had memorised and locked away for years, suddenly resurfaced.

Maybe Azula was right after all.

Early the next morning, you rose with the sun. Soon after eating some breakfast made out of the fish you hunted last night, you decided to make your way near the massive ship. As per Ozai’s orders, you hid behind some greenery into a position that left you unseen to everyone.

Eventually, they showed up to the docks, and honestly, you were upset that Iroh was unable to get through to his nephew. But there was nothing you could do about it right now.

Due to the distance, you weren’t able to make out what they were saying, leaving you to have to read Azula’s lips, as she was the only one you could clearly see. Yet that didn’t seem to matter because soon enough, a fight broke out.

That’s not looking too good.

Knowing better than to expose yourself right away, you waited. Telling yourself that if they needed help, then and only then, would you help them.

After a few minutes, you watched lighting make impact with one of the rocky cliffs, sending rocks all around. With Zuko and Iroh running off the ship to escape, you knew it was time to run after them. Help them find a way to get away from Azula for good. Although, as you stood, you suddenly felt lightheaded and your vision got blurry, sending you straight to the ground.

What the heck?

Struggling to gain any body strength, you tried to get up again, but it was useless. The hair across your body stood up, but you weren’t cold, you were sweating. Looking down, you saw that your hands were alit in fire.

W-what?! What’s happening to me! Stop it y/n. Stop. Turn it off.

Panicking you tried to shake it away, but nothing was working, and your breath began to quicken.

What’s happening?! No. Stop. No!

Suddenly, you lost all sight of what was in front of you, and a blinding white light encompassed your mind. You closed your eyes, but it didn’t go away. When you reopened your eyes, you were faced with scenery you had never seen before. In the distance, high above you, there was an older man in what appeared to be old Fire Nation robes, and a young boy dressed as an Air Nomad on a dragon.

Is that the Avatar?

Due to the distance, you couldn’t make out what they were saying, and they seemed so engrossed in their conversation, they didn’t see you. This prompted you to do the only logical thing anyone could do; you screamed.

“HEYYY! DOWN HERE!! I COULD USE A LITTLE HELPPPPP!!!”

Instead of hearing you, your surroundings began to change. First, there was a lady dressed in Kyoshi attire. Then suddenly, you were in the middle of the ocean with a man from the Water Tribe about to send a massive wave towards you.

Holy shit.

Before you could react, your surroundings changed once again, and you were in the middle of a field with a female Airbender, soon switching to a Firebender erupting volcanoes around him.

Okay, what in Spirits name is happening to me.

You tried to scream again, but it was no use. It was like an awful dream, unable to move and watching events happen before you. No matter how much you screamed or flailed your arms around, neither person on the dragon seemed to be able to notice you. Letting out a final scream of desperation, you were ready to give up.

Where the hell am I? Is this a dream? Am I trapped here? WHAT EVEN IS HERE?!

Nothing made any sense anymore; you were almost ready to admit defeat. But then you saw it. It happened so fast, and you nearly missed it. Yet as your body became frigid in shock, you knew it happened.

The dragon looked at you.

Is… is that dragon fucking smirking?! Ohmyspirits it’s going to eat me. Who would have known, death by spirit dragon.

Enough with your blabbering y/n. I apologise, but it’s not time yet. You were taken aback, shocked that you received a response from the dragon.

How did you get in my head?! And time? Time for what! For you to eat me?!

Completely disregarding your concerns, the dragon’s eyes turned to stare back at you. Almost as if it were peering into your soul. The people upon him didn’t even notice the dragon’s current focus. Look at what they’ve done to you… if only they knew. We will meet again y/n, when it’s time.

The white light re-entered your mind, blinding you once again. Only this time, you were met with darkness.

A/N: Thank you for reading!! What did you think of the lil reunion??

GAHAHAHA we lowkey on some kdrama energy out here but anywaysss! please don’t be shy,, let me know what you think or send a message! i feel like this series is going downhill a lot faster than i expected :// idk anyway! even if its not related to my fics,, homie gets a lil lonely so id love to chat 😊

TAGLIST:

@slythergirlimagines​​ @mangoberry43​​ @eridanuswave​​ @whiskeywinter89​​​ @kaylove12​​ @simplyfandomish​​ @khaleesi-of-assassins​ @callums-keith​ @ilovespideyyy​ @calciumcow​ @blackhood5sos​ @nnon-it-up​ @lozzybowe​

[talas-starlight]

Scarred Spirits - zuko x fem!reader (pt.6)

SUMMARY: Y/n has been tailing Azula since Omashu and struggles to carry out her mission while protecting what matters most (AHAHAH THIS WAS THE WORST SUMMARY EVER IM SORRY)

WORD COUNT: 4k (uh wow this is my longest piece ever and i- AHAHA)

WARNINGS: panic attacks, fighting, swearing, angst? Tbh if you’ve made it this far in the series nothing new I think (lmk if I forgot anything)

KEY: *** = flashback && italic = internal dialogue

PREVIOUS PARTS: part 1  /   part 2   /  part 3  /  part 4  /  part 5

MASTERLIST: Here!

The cool breeze swept through the palanquin as Azula sat assuredly, ruling everything she passed. “Okay girls, Father has sent word that the machinery and our wonderful new pets will meet up with us soon to chase down the Avatar until he’s too exhausted to even think anymore! Then, we’ll be off to capture Zuzu and Uncle! Victory will be ours.”

“That sounds extremely boring.” Grumbling as if Mai had so much more better things to do with her time.

“Hmm, I have to disagree Mai. What would be more fun than making them feel like there’s no escape but having to fight which they would inevitably fail at trying to win because they’re tired beyond repair!! It will be such a sweet victory.” Letting out a small laugh that sounded nothing but maniacal to you, Mai didn’t say another word as Ty Lee giddily nodded in approval.

Now, that is a tragic sight to see despite how understandably so.

Azula, Ty Lee and Mai have been planning how to hunt down the additional target from the moment they all stepped out of Omashu. Yet, based on that recent encounter, it was more so Azula rather than anyone else. Luckily enough, you were able to stay out of sight the entire time, and nothing requiring you to intervene has occurred. It was only a matter of time before that lucky streak broke.

After much contemplation and sleepless nights since the third anniversary, along with recent events, Zuko finally came to a conclusion. Approaching his uncle with great certainty, he finally let out what has been on his mind.

“Uncle, I thought a lot about what you said.”

“You did? Good, good.”

“It’s helped me realise something.” Letting out a deep breath, getting to the point came quite easily to him, especially since Iroh’s back was still faced towards him.

“We no longer have anything to gain by travelling together. I need to find my own way.”

Not wanting to stay for any of Iroh’s possible rebuttals, he silently reached for his belongings that he had pre-packed for the occasion and turned to make his solo journey into the forest. As he began to walk further into the woods on his own, Iroh knew he wouldn’t turn back for him, so he did the first thing he could think of to aid his nephew if he couldn’t physically be there for him.

“Wait!” Rushing over Iroh grabbed the Ostrich Horse and gave him to Zuko- for someone who has barely been exposed to the real world, he knew his nephew couldn’t do entirely on his own. Even if the animal couldn’t properly speak with him.

Accepting his uncles’ gesture, he climbed on top ready to get on with his own mission of sorts. On his own, Zuko would finally have the chance to do something he never had time to consider until now; find you.

Looking out onto the horizon, the giant, ugly piece of machinery continued to charge its way towards a hopeless group of young teenagers. “Despite how much I hate that girl, I will admit, her determination is unparalleled.”

“Eerrnngggghhhhh!”

“You can say that again.”

It had been approximately three days since Azula received her new toy, and she spent every single minute catching up with the Avatar. To your relief, she seems to have finally caught sight of him, and hopefully, this would also mean that you might finally be able to stop tailing her. In the past three days, you haven’t managed to catch a single minute of sleep or a break, and while this was something you have experienced before, you were sure that your ride was more than ready to collapse at any second.

In all honesty, when a Fire Nation hawk landed near your campsite four days earlier, the last thing you expected was word that you would be receiving assistance for your mission. Not once before had this occurred since you’ve been entirely left to your own devices. You supposed it was because the stakes were too high this round.

***

Y/N.

I am pleased to hear that my daughter is able to catch sight of the Avatar and his assistants in crime against my great nation. While I am sure you are clearly focused on your task with ensuring Azula succeeds in bringing my disgraceful relatives back to the palace, you must extend your attention towards the new targets as well. Regarding my son and brother, I was disappointed when I heard word that they got away since I made it perfectly clear that you must finish the job. On this occasion, I will take the benefit of the doubt since it would be too suspicious if you completed the mission on Azula’s first attempt.

I have dispatched 3 mongoose lizards for Azula and her company. A fourth will be on its way for your use, as it is paramount that you do not let her fail whatsoever.

I have taken the precious and personal time out of my day to write and send this letter so that word does not reach my daughter of your mission. Let this also be a reminder of the possible bounty on your head if you choose to fail. I am sure the pitiful state of your body is enough of a reminder of what I can do to you.

Regardless of your past services to me, remember this is the ultimate test of your loyalty to your nation and me.

Your Fire Lord, Ozai.

Despite informing you that help that was on its way, you spent the rest of the night in a state of turmoil. Talk about having a way with words.

How in Spirits name did that stupid bird find me?! It flew away quickly too so I guess I don’t need to send anything back but… What am I really doing here?

Ozai seems to have some way of finding me so clearly, I can’t run away. Yet, I’m not going to allow him to take anyone back to the Capital…

Frozen in your thoughts, your focus stayed fixated on the fire you ignited earlier in the night.

Fuck I wish I could talk to her. She’d know the right thing to say, and everything would be okay again.

Roughly tugging at your braided hair, you held your legs to your chest desperately trying to clear your head. Stop, don’t think about her too.

Oblivious to any concept of time, when the first rays of yellow and orange peak over the horizon, your mind instantly enters a state of calm. Almost as if it were able to strengthen you from your core. Although while the problem remained, with a stronger mindset, you forced yourself to accept that you were just going to have to work it out further down the line. At this rate with Azula’s split focus, you weren’t even sure if you would have to take care of the Avatar or Zuko first.

***

Funnily enough, it seemed that fate decided you would have to deal with both at the same time since Zuko has caught sight of Azula and friends and now you were tailing both him and his sister. How convenient.

I wonder where Iroh is? Didn’t he get away with Zuko when they ran off the ship?

After keeping out of sight through every moment Azula came even remotely close to Aang, you decided to follow her when she separated from Mai and Ty Lee. But before you entered the area to keep an eye on everything from afar, you noticed Zuko on his Ostrich Horse as if he was waiting for the right moment to interfere.

“Be careful Zuko.”

Whipping around at a speed that could give him whiplash, his face instantly turned into nothing short of a scowl when he recognised your voice.

“You again?! Whoever you are, you need to get away from me. Leave. Me. Alone!”

Attempting and failing to take a step closer to him as he steers his horse a few steps back. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just trying to protect you, that’s all I want to do. If I could have it my way, you’d be far away from this place; away from Azula. You can’t trust her. This isn’t right, and you should be somewhere that could give you a fresh start, like Ba Sing Se.”

“As if you would know anything about Azula or why I’m here! I need to regain my honour, and I’m doing the right thing! Stop trying to meddle with my life when your role in it is completely insignificant!”

An indignant sigh passes through your lips. “Fine. Just be careful. Please.”

Scowling at you once more Zuko tugs the reigns on his ostrich horse to take him further into the abandoned village. You try not to let his anger get to you, but at this point, you’re unsure if you’re more upset or annoyed with his attitude. Sighing under your mask, you do a quick check that all of your weapons are strapped in place since it seems that this interaction isn’t about to end peacefully.

“Let’s do this.”

Hopping off your new lizard friend, you stealthy broke through one of the broken windows of a nearby building, ensuring that you were staying out of sight.

Ah, it seems he wasn’t wasting any time.

“Back off Azula. He’s mine.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

As the three of them got into their fighting stances, you almost wanted to jump in right then and there to help Aang. The sight of his painfully dark under circles was too much of an indicator that this fight wasn’t going to be an easy one.

Making the first move, Azula strikes her blue fire towards Zuko. Luckily enough for him, he was able to deflect it with his own. Observing the fight take place before you, it eventually gravitates further away, leaving you to only listen to what is occurring from your hidden spot.

I wonder how long until I’ll have to step in. With both Zuko and Azula on the offence, it’s clear that one of them is going to get hurt. Something tells me it’s not going to be Azula either. If only he fought smarter rather than harder.

What. A. Pity.

Soon enough, your suspicions were confirmed when you heard Zuko let out an angered scream, followed by a loud crash. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t let out a small snicker at that.

As Aang comes back into view, you scan around for an exit knowing that if you stay where you are, you’ll get caught. Yet when you make your move to run, half of the roof is swiped off clean, causing him to plummet towards the ground. Abandoning any thought, you sprint back to where he’s about to land, quickly catching him.

Stunned that there was another person in a building, Aang frantically looked around, trying to identify who it was that caught him. Eventually, he noticed your eyes peering through some of the broken wooden ceiling around him, your black mask confirming that it was you. “Woah! What…? Oh spirits, it’s you!”

Eye’s widening at how fast he managed to work out that it was you, you desperately tried to dig yourself into the wreckage as you felt Azulas fire coming closer. “Shhh! She’s coming.”

“What? How do you know-?”

As Azula saunters into the building, her infamous smirk adorning her face. Wordlessly lighting up the room's perimeter in flames, Aang begins to struggle against the piece of wood on top of him, consequently crushing you further from under him.

Letting out a small grunt, you scold him under your breath, “stay calm.”

Your inner peace y/n.

Just as Azula raised her right hand to strike, you closed your eyes, imagining a moment you felt at peace. A moment that made you forget all of the chaos your created in the world.

***

Cold, smooth fingertips tenderly reached out towards you, instinctively making your lungs tightly squeeze together as she brushed the hair out of your eyes. The delicate giggle emitting from her pink stained lips was enough for you to lose all sense of constraint as you take a small step towards her. Hesitantly as you stare that the ground, you take her hand in yours, stroking the back of it with your thumb. The action is so small yet feels so loud in your chest because this is as close as its ever gotten.

Just when you’re about to pull it away completely, terrified that you’ve gone too far, her other hand reaches up, lifting your chin ever so softly as she makes you look at her.

“It’s funny y/n, because even though I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve never seen snow look quite as beautiful as it does in your hair.”

***

When you reopen them, the heat of your fire runs its way through your veins and your fingertips. The fallen remains all around you burst away, freeing yourself and Aang from its constrains. Seeing your golden fire of pure energy light up the room, Azula is stunned into place, instantly recognising it from the day she visited your cell all those years ago. Glowing golden, eyes peering into the deepest parts of her, it's unnerving how the unusual feeling sinks into her bones. Yet, her moments of distraction leave her as Katara reaches the entryway whipping her arm with water.

Complete rage fills Azula’s body. Not only had she been wholly blindsided by your presence, but she also lost focus. And Azula never loses focus.

Whirling around, she strikes at Katara, sending her running out into the open. Needing to make up for her prior incompetence, Azula runs after her.

“Woah! How did you do that?! That was so cool.”

“There’s no time; you need to go out there and help your friends. Never underestimate that princess.”

Aang’s amazement towards how you freed both of you from the crushing weight of the ceiling faltered as he noticed your choice of words.

“Come with me. Please. I need you.”

Sensing the certainty of his decision, you brushed off some ash from your clothing, wordlessly making your way out of the building.

I’m going to regret this.

With Aang following closely behind, you both join Sokka and Katara, and they face Azula, ready to corner her. Yet she wasn’t giving up just yet. Sending her fire with precision, she takes turns in having a shot at each of you. Luckily enough, you were all able to hold your own.

Backing away slowly, you can tell she thinks that she’s almost about to get a proper hold of the entire situation. But to your greatest joy, she falls flat on her face.

“I thought you guys could use a little help.”

This must be Aangs new earth bending teacher.

“Thanks.” Did Katara just smile?!

Not wasting the opportunity that came with their small distraction, she makes a run for an ally as an escape. Although, once again, she is faced with another hurdle being Iroh, ultimately allowing all seven of you to finally corner her.

In true fashion, she doesn’t allow it to bother her one bit, “well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together.”

Taking in everyone one by one, she pauses when her eyes lock with yours. “Even you. Pathetic scum, it seems you still haven’t learnt your lesson. I always told father we should have disposed of you from the moment we caught you.” With that comment, you see Zuko glance towards you in your peripheral vision. This is nowhere near the time right now coal brain.

“I’m done.” Raising her arms in surrender, you almost want to laugh. Do these people seriously believe Azula right now?

“I know when I’m beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honour.” Standing before everyone, you instinctively fixate yourself on her, searching for a microexpression to indicate what she’s really about to do.  Her smug smile clearly shows that she’ll most likely attack. But who?

By the time she decides on her target, it’s too late. Sending a direct stream of fire towards Iroh, Zuko lets out a horrified scream, instinctively setting off everyone to attack with their element, or weapon in Sokkas case. You on the other hand, rushed to Iroh’s side knowing that the others were more than capable on their own.

As he lays passed out on the ground, panic slowly swarms in your chest. Fuck, another person is dying because of me! I literally saw her focus on him!

Placing your hands on his chest, you let out a deep breath trying to remember a trick you learned on a mission a while back when you got a deep cut to your side. Focusing on him and his faint heartbeat, despite being a bit shaky, you were able to use your fire, providing him with enough energy to bring his breathing to a steady rate. But the moment was short-lived when you heard an explosion go off, giving Zuko the opportunity to get to his uncle's side, and in turn, shove you away from him.

“Get off him! You’re always in the way! Arghhhh!”

Haistly scrambling to your feet, you stand beside Sokka, understanding that it’s best you try not to help him right now. Katara, on the other hand, didn’t seem to share those feelings with you.

“Zuko, I can help.”

“LEAVE!” as he strikes towards you and everyone else, you stumbled backwards. Memories of a similar flame being struck towards you by his father felt like something inside you snapped. While not directly hitting you, the heat radiating down upon you caused your head to spin, and vision to blur.

It seemed that despite training with fire for the past three years, the action coming from him sent you down a spiral incomparable to anything else.

i-I can’t... I’m…

The earth bender girl immediately sensing what was happening to you didn’t hesitate, “Sokka! Grab her! Quickly, we need to go to Appa.”

“What?! Why me!”

“Shut up!! Her heart rate is literally through the roof right now. We need to help her! Can’t you see her shaking right in front of you?!”

Finally taking a good look at your trembling form, Sokka was too stunned to move.

Aang immediately agreeing with Toph, nudges him before setting off in the direction of Appa. “Sokka, NOW!”

Snapping out of his panicked, frozen state, he rushes towards you, scooping you up into his arms.

“Oh Spirits, I am so so sorry if I’m invading your personal space right now. Please, I’m so sorry. It’ll only be until we reach Appa, okay? I’m so…”

Fisting the cloth of his shirt, you shake your head. “It’s o-okay.” Pushing your face into his chest, you try to regulate your breathing in time with his heartbeat. Something was so unexplainably comfortable about having someone hold you that all of the memories of Ozai burning you, began to make its way back into the depths of your mind. So comforting, that at some point between the village and Appa, you passed out.

When you awoke again, you were high up in the clouds with the sun high in the air. How long was I out?

Deciding to sit upright, the first thing you see is the Water Tribe siblings and the earth kingdom girl facing you.

At first, you thought Toph was about to speak up, yet it seemed that Katara’s suspicions of you beat her to the punch. “Don’t think of moving too fast or trying anything! You're cornered now.”

Your eyebrows raised at that. “Alright, then. How would you like me?”

Upon, hearing your voice Aang physically perked up, completely beaming that you were awake. Without a second thought, he trusted that Appa would be able to fly for a bit on his own, making his way to all of you.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay! I was really worried about you.” Taking his place next to Katara, you were shocked at the stark contrast between his attitude towards you, and hers. It’s like he genuinely cares. Well… I guess that makes sense considering he’s an Air Nomad. Oh spirits, does this mean he’s going to pay even more attention to me than when we first met?!

“Uh… thanks. I appreciate it, but you really didn’t have to.”

“No, of course I did! Plus, I’m grateful that you helped me out with Azula! It’s the least we could do. Right guys?” Still having his glowing smile, he turns to his friends, and it seemed that the only one who truly looked indifferent with the entire matter was the earth kingdom girl who just nodded.

“Thanks, Toph!” Finally, a name.

Once again, Katara was displeased, “yeah whatever. If she’s going to stay with us, she’s going to have to tell us who she is. Don’t think we didn’t hear what Azula said back there about you. You need to explain what she meant by that. How does she know you, and what do you have to do with the Fire Lord?!”

At those questions, you weren’t too happy either, “I don’t want to stay with you! I just need to leave and find Azula again.”

For the first time since you woke up, Sokka decided to say something. “Why would you ever want to do that?! Why do you keep wanting to go back to her when you keep getting separated?! If you ask me it’s clearly a sign that you should stay away because she’s completely insane! She even knows you followed her and everything, so she’s going to have her guard up.”

“You don’t understand. If I don’t get back to Azula, people are going to get hurt. I’ve literally saved your lives on two occasions just by tailing her. Now, think about all of the people she can harm when no one’s watching. I’m also a threat to all of your destinies by being here.”

Uncomfortable with the tension that’s been building at an alarming rate, Aang moves so that he’s sitting in between you and the other three. “Okay, I understand, but could you please explain why you’re a threat by being here? You need to stay safe too, your life matters just as much as everyone else’s and even though you’ve proven yourself more than capable of protecting yourself, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll be safe if you go to her and I can't let you go knowing your life is at risk.”

“Aang, there are always risks. Spirits, all four of you are at risk, but you know that it's for the greater good to end this war.”

He shakes his head. “It’s not the same. We have each other; we look after each other. You don’t have that. Please. You don’t have to tell us everything now. I understand since we’ve only met once before, but I promise no matter what it will all be okay and you can be apart of our team. Our family.”

On that note, you hesitated. A family?

No. The spirits have made it clear enough that a family is not in my cards.

“That sounds great, but I don’t think it’ll work out.”

Sokka lets out a frustrated groan, “What? Of course, it will! I know I’m not your biggest fan, but it's clear you’re just as against the Fire Nation as the rest of us!”

Looking around at all of their faces, you can tell that even though Sokka and mainly Katara, still clearly have their reservations about you, they understand where Aang is coming from. Heck, if it meant that they had another person on their side and against Azula and the Fire Nation, that was already a win. You almost felt guilty when you saw their horrified faces as you revealed the truth.

“It won’t work because I’m the Fire Lords personal assassin.”

 taglist: @slythergirlimagines​​ @mangoberry43​​ @eridanuswave​​ @whiskeywinter89​​​ @kaylove12​​ @simplyfandomish​​ @khaleesi-of-assassins​ @callums-keith​ @ilovespideyyy​ @calciumcow​ @blackhood5sos​ @nnon-it-up​ @lozzybowe​ @scarletemeterio​ @reclusive-chicken-nugget​ @simpinforsukka​ @chewymoustachio​ @tiffy119​ @sokkassuki​ @spearbatty​

a/n: hehe hiya friends!! Thanks for reading hehe I hope you enjoyed!! Lelel lmk your thoughts or any predictions for what you think is guna happen next hehe

alsoooo did anyone spot my lil inserts for our second lead? AHAHAHAHAHA

don’t fear either!! Zuko will learn eventually hehehe

but anyway i would love to hear from all of you if you have any feedback as well :))

[bellatrixobsessed1]

The Fishbone and The Firelily (Part 7)

Okay, I didn’t like this chapter at first but I’m actually really proud of this one.I actually think it’s also one of the longest chapters I’ve ever typed. :’D

The fifth day was worse still, not that Azula would have known it from how well things began. The pair hadn’t meant for it, Sokka had fallen asleep in her arms. She was the first to wake and it took her a moment’s time to notice the weight pressed against her chest. He must have been a soothing companion, for she had fallen asleep not just in a sitting position, but with her back brushing up against the rough bark of a tree. Her head was still bowed with her bangs tumbling forward as she blinked the last traces of sleep away. Without a word or sound, she set Sokka on the ground and set off to fetch her pack.

 “Have you seen Sokka anywhere?” Katara asked.

 Careful not to respond too quickly Azula answered, “no, but I can’t imagine that he could have wandered too far.”

 “If you see him, tell him that I packed his stuff and that we’re ready to go when he is.”

 The man took it upon himself to come stumbling out of the woods a few minutes late. “Good morning!” The greeting was spoken to everyone, but he was looking at her. While everyone else returned the words, Azula turned her head and hustled to reassume her positon at the front of the group. That was her first mistake. She held her silence for the better part of the day, not that anyone took that to mean anything extraordinary. They’d come to view her as a quiet person. Save for an occasional instruction or a snide remark, she supposed they were right. Lately she didn’t have much to say. When she did speak up it was to offer some information. “We should be there in another three nights.”

 This brought a huge smile to Katara’s face and Azula very nearly felt bad in taking it away. “We should be at the mountain in three nights. Climbing it is a different matter.” She specified.

 “Are there any shortcuts?” Katara asked, hopefully.

 Azula pondered it. “From the base of the mountain, no. But once you’ve climbed a little way, there are a few.” Just thinking about beginning the climb had her legs aching. Not that she would actually be climbing.

 “Thank you for doing this for us.”

 Azula shrugged, “I suppose I have nothing better to do.”

 .oOo.

 Suki ran her fingers through her hair. At this point in the day she and Sokka would usually be talking about something either mundane or silly or they’d be musing about good memories that they shared. About a year or two ago this venture would have been exciting, thrilling, maybe even a good time—minus the fear of losing Aang. When had things become so cynical?

 “Are you okay?” Sokka asked.

 “I’ve been better.” Suki replied.

 “You and I both.” He forced a laugh.

 “This whole thing has been so stressful.” Suki sighed.

 “You’re not alone there.” Sokka agreed. For the first time she noticed the bags under his eyes, the gleam that they lacked. He wasn’t doing well, but God he was trying. He was still grinning at her, but the grin didn’t reach his eyes.

 “I’m sorry.” She apologized for probably the eighth time since they arrived on Fire Nation soil. “I don’t know why things have been so complicated.”

 “I guess it wouldn’t be a real relationship if…” he back tracked. “I guess it wouldn’t have been a real relationship if it didn’t have any complications.”

 “‘Wouldn’t be’ is fine with me if you want to just forget what happened yesterday. We were all exhausted and hungry and very itchy.” Suki pointed out. “I think that we just needed to get it all out, ya know?”

 Suki didn’t miss the brief glace he spared the woman leading them. Something in his expression changed. He seemed almost conflicted before saying, “you know what, I think forgetting about it sounds good.”

 .oOo.

 He was a leaf-thin distance away from saying, “no, we can’t just forget it.” Even as he agreed, he wondered how many times they would just be ‘forgetting the whole thing’. And even as he agreed he thought of the way his new friend held him. If he could guess, he would say that she didn’t even mean to be so warm and comforting. But all the same, she was such.  Regardless, it would seem that she had taken to ignoring him, like Suki had the night before. If he was being honest, it aggravated him how one minute she would be kind and in the next heartbeat she was being cold and standoffish.

 His temper had no time to truly flare, before Suki pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the cheek. “I knew you would understand.”

 He was trying anyhow. He really was.

 “We were all cranky.” He replied. It probably was for the better to let bygones be bygones anyhow.

 “Are you guys gonna stay together this time ooor…” Toph asked.

 “We’re staying together.” Suki answered for the pair, with an optimistic smile.

 .oOo.

 Azula tried not to look back too much, but she could hear the pair giggling merrily behind her. For whatever reason, their laughter annoyed her. She wanted nothing more than to put an end to it. “Could you two possibly stop fooling around and focus.” She snapped. “I don’t know about you but I’d like to make it at least halfway there by sundown and we can’t accomplish that if we keep having to stop while you two hug it out.”

 She felt a hand on her shoulder, Katara’s she noted. “It’s alright, you actually helped us cover a lot of ground.”

 “Let’s not lose that ground.” Azula muttered.

 Over the course of the day, she found many little things to chastise Suki and Sokka for—particularly Suki. What she didn’t find, was a reason for doing so, other than that she was in a dreadful mood. First it was Sokka’s cooking not being up to par and she had insisted that he had given her less than everyone else. Next it was Suki stopping to admire a peculiar jungle plant. And then it was Sokka who stopped to pick a flower and Suki for taking her sweet time in fixing it in her hair. Sometime later Azula came to a stop of her own to seek out a landmark. Somewhere around there—before she’d come across the group—she had tied her hair ribbon to a tree. After getting lost at that spot and going in circles for some time, she decided that the ribbon was a small sacrifice. Suki, still doting over Sokka had the misfortune of colliding with the firebender. With a surprised hiss she shoved Suki back.

 “What was that for?” The Kyoshi girl demanded after regaining her balance.

 “You shoved me first.” Azula replied as if the answer was obvious.

 “I ran into you. It was an accident.”

 “Naturally.” Azula sniffed haughtily.

 By this time Sokka had his ears tuned to the conversation and the rest of the group came to a complete stop. She knew what was coming, but decided not to back down, she’d been doing so too much lately. Before Sokka could even start Katara asked what everyone has probably been dying to know, “what’s your problem?”

 “She didn’t do anything to you.” Toph added.

 At last the four against one ordeal had begun. Even she knew that she had it coming after a whole day of nit picking and snide remarks towards one person or another. Her edgy mood was bound to flare some tempers. She had been bracing herself for a torrent of equally snarky comments or even a swift escort out of the group—after all, they could very well find the heart pool without her now—but the group always had a special way of catching her off guard in some way or another.

 “I just don’t understand.” Sokka began.

 “Well I’d imagine so, you aren’t very bright.” The lie came so easily to her that it took her a few seconds to realize that she wanted to take them back.

 “That right there is what I don’t understand. All I’ve done is try to make you feel welcome here and…”

 “Yes, yes, all I’ve done is tried to make you miserable.” Azula rolled her eyes.

 “Actually no.” Sokka replied. “What you do is worse. You make me feel like I’ve helped, you make me feel like you care and then you completely disregard it later.” She opened her mouth to protest but he allowed her no time. “I thought I had a new friend but I get it, you only talk to me when you’re feeling lonely, because I’m the only one who ‘isn’t bright enough’ to see through it.”

 Azula’s stomach hadn’t fluttered that much since she lie on the cave floor sobbing next to the heart pool. His gaze was bearing into her as he awaited a comeback. At last, and quite softly, she answered, “That’s not true.”

 “How many times do you think I’m going to fall for that. I’m not as dim as you think.” He answered. As if to drive the point home, he took Suki’s hand.

 That night she was feeling especially awful. Azula never knew anyone—save for maybe Zuko—who was able to fail so spectacularly as she, at forming any sort of bond. But this time Sokka didn’t come to her and she didn’t go to him. For the first time in a while she was left on her lonesome at the edge of camp to soak in every detail of the day. Every snappy, crass comment replaying in her head. Azula couldn’t come up with a reason for them either. The worst of it was listening to them all converse by the fire; they were telling ghost stories from the sound of it. The feeling of isolation weighed that much heavier on her. She drew her legs up to her chest and pretended to sleep. Some part of her was still expecting Sokka to check on her. Sleep befell her and she was still alone.

She didn’t speak to him that morning either nor through much of the afternoon.

 That left her with plenty of time to think. Among the things she thought of were various ways to inform them of her departure, form something resentful like, “good luck with the labyrinth”, to something as simple as, “good luck with the rest of you task.” She also thought of quietly slipping away again. But her mind was wandering too much for her to pick any one thing, even if she could she wasn’t wholly sure that she wanted to leave. For one thing, it would make her look weak. But she sensed it more than ever, that she wasn’t wanted. They didn’t say it but not one person invited her to join their conversations. She shifted her pack to her left shoulder to give her right a break.

 She found herself stuck again. As if all of the progress she might have made was for naught. To the point where she wondered if she’d made any progress at all in the first place. “We’ll make it easy.” She grumbled quietly to herself, imitating the cave spirit the best she could. “Easy.” She spat with a snarl.

 The truth was that she was hurting.

Terribly so.

She kept it to herself; Sokka had made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to lend an ear this time. She wondered if he was feeling any hurt at all.

 She listened in and pointedly decided that he wasn’t bothered at all. In fact, he seemed happier than he’d been since she’d arrived. Everyone seemed to be in good spirts that day.

At this, she felt twice as secluded.

 “How much further?” Suki asked. It took Azula a moment to realize that it was she who was being addressed. Regardless she pretended not to hear. They only talked to her when they wanted to know something. The Kyoshi warrior repeated her question.

 “We’ll get there when I want us to get there.”

 She could tell from Suki’s dissatisfied expression that her answer was every bit as useless and unsavory as she intended it to be. Azula never knew anyone else aside from herself to be so deliberately petty and cruel, so it came as a decent shock to see the woman nudge Sokka, look up with innocent eyes, and inquire, “it’s kind of chilly isn’t it, Sokka.”

 “I guess a little bit, now that you mention it.”

 Already, Azula was clutching the jacket possessively.

 “Can I borrow your jacket?”

 “I’ll have to get it first.”

Azula was relived to gauge that he sounded at least a little apprehensive. But he confronted her anyways.

 “Any chance I could get my jacket back?” Sokka so nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t had a hand in making her so terribly miserable. And then she realized that again, she was only being spoken to because something was wanted of her and it hitched her temper to an even hotter intensity.

 “Any chance you could piss off?”

 Just like that, he made a grab for his jacket.

 “Sokka, no!” Azula hollered as she evaded his hand.

 “It’s my jacket. I was nice enough to give it to you.” He huffed as he gave another snatch. “Now give it back.”

 “I won’t.”

 He was getting cross now. “Come on, don’t do this.” This time he had her by the sleeve. She realized too late that she should have fastened it shut. As it were, she had left it unbuttoned and it slid off at the first tug. At least the hood did. Knowing that its use was as well as over, she let him reclaim his jacket entirely.

 It was either Katara or Suki who asked, “what happened to you?” Through the dizzy feeling of panic, Azula couldn’t tell which had spoken but she didn’t miss the sympathy embedded in the question. She didn’t want it, she didn’t want sympathy. They weren’t even supposed to see…

She didn’t know if her face was red from anger, embarrassment, or anxiety. Whatever the emotion, she found herself in a cold sweat. The little mercy that the world spared her was that they either didn’t recognize the face they were seeing, or they didn’t process it yet. She met Sokka’s eyes very briefly before taking off into a dead sprint.

By the time she found herself out of breath, all of the anger gave way to crushing despair.

Perhaps if she really put the effort in, she could outrun it.

 .oOo.

 “You guys keep going, we’ll catch up.” Sokka wasn’t even sure if it would be a ‘we’, from the looks of things it was he who would be catching up by his lonesome.

 “Are you sure, Sokka?” Asked Katara.

 “Yeah, just keep going. Aang doesn’t have time to wait for us to get it together.”

 Katara nodded. By her leave he bounded thorough the trees. He was already painfully far behind the woman and was placing all his hope on that she’d tire herself out and stop for a rest. But he couldn’t see that happening with so much raw adrenaline coursing through her. He had to find some way to gain more ground. It took more time than he would have liked but an idea came; he would take the path with less jungle clutter and vines overhead. It would require a detour but a ground free of debris and less vines to entrap himself in, he assessed that it would likely be faster. In less time than he anticipated he caught sight of her, and to his surprise she had slowed her pace. He could see it on her, that she had much more energy in her, but she wasn’t using it. She must have assumed she wouldn’t be followed. He lingered to long though and she noticed him spying upon her. Without a hesitation to make she was back into an all-out sprint, and lord was she fast. She expertly ducked under low hanging branches and vines and leapt over fallen trees with a surprising degree of elegance and ease. This was going to be more difficult than he thought.

 It was just like their first encounter but without the playful overtones. His clear path had him on a level playing field with her though. He was a good arm’s length away from her, now. If he could just close a little more space.

 She too realized the current positioning of things for she turned around and with a demand that he stay away from her, sent a crackle of lightning in his direction. It exploded at his feet and knocked him on his ass. He scrambled to his feet, he had lost so much ground. From a distance he could see her fluidly navigating around the obstacles before her. There was something so familiar about the way she moved. He didn’t have time to dwell on it. From the looks of it he would never catch up. Unless…

 He didn’t particularly want to resort to it, but he gave his boomerang a flick.

He winced as the boomerang collide with her leg and he watched her tumble forward, just barely able to thrust her hands out to keep her face from meeting the ground. He was only halfway to her by the time she regained her footing. But from the look of her next few stumbling steps, he had caused her a considerable deal of pain. He had to give her credit for her determination, she was still running, though slowed notably. She knew she had lost, but he was determined to show her that it wasn’t a defeat at all.

 It was only when his footsteps became audibly near that she came to a stop and lowered herself to the ground, with her knees drawn to her chest and her chin resting upon her arms. Sokka had to admit that he expected her to say something first; he wasn’t sure what to do when she didn’t. Truth be told he was so preoccupied in catching her he didn’t have even a vague idea as to what he could say. ‘Sorry’ felt so cheap and so lackluster.

 “You want to tell me why you’ve been so angry?” He asked.

 When she said nothing, he rephrased. “Do you want to talk about it?” He waited for her to say that she would like nothing less than that. This time however, she didn’t even offer him that. She sat rigidly with her back to him. He almost asked why she didn’t talk to him if she was feeling that distraught, before vividly recalling how he guilted her for doing just that. He truly was at a loss as to how to help her this time.

 “Do you want the jacket back?” He tried lamely.

He observed her pluck a strand of grass from the ground and flick it away.

With nothing else to do, he took a seat next to her.

 When the silence became too much he mumbled, “I’m sorry I took the jacket. I didn’t think you’d actually leave.”

 She rubbed her bare shoulders. Sokka found himself wincing again, the sores decorating them looked painful. It tugged unpleasantly at his heart. He placed his hand on her back in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but she flinched at his touch so he withdrew his hand. In the same moment he wondered if her back was covered in those same tender looking welts and bumps. Perhaps her reaction was a response to pain. He shook his head, knowing that there was no sense in lying to himself, she flinched because it was he who had touched her and for no other reason.

 Sokka didn’t know how long it was that he sat there quietly before mustering up the nerve to sit down in front of her. When she finally noticed his new whereabouts, she buried her face in her knees and under her arms.

 “Come on, don’t do that.” He practically whispered. It took some effort to pry her hands from atop her head, but he did so at last. Almost immediately after, she reassumed the position. He supposed that he wouldn’t push it, she probably already found him invasive. “Okay, if you want me to leave, I’ll go.” He stood up and stretched. He took only one step before he felt a hand wrap around his wrist and pull him down.

 “Are you going to talk to me now?” He asked.

 “No.” She answered but lifted her head, her hair falling messily forward and obscuring her face. She made no effort to move it. But he did. With careful fingers, he brushed her hair back over her shoulders and tucked her bangs behind her ears.

Finally, he got a good glimpse at her face.

She shifted uncomfortably.

 “Azula, is that you?”

 She folded her arms across her chest with a soft pout, but didn’t look away this that time. Her skin was terribly pale where it wasn’t covered by rash and her lip looked as if it had endured multiple blows. Her eye too, was swollen, nearly shut at that. He thought it odd how much she resembled her brother. But he could clearly recognize the brilliant golden hue. Even thorough weariness, her gaze was still sharp.

 “It is you.” He confirmed to himself.  He could definitely see it. “What happened?”

 “Doesn’t matter.” The princess dismissed the question. And then, more hushed Azula added, “I really am a monster now.”

 Sokka could see the hurt and worry in her eyes, he wanted to get rid of it. “That’s not true.” He noticed her swallow and take a deep breath. For a moment he thought he was going to see her cry again. Instead she rubbed at her nose, for no other reason than to occupy her hand. Sokka himself looked skyward. They were going to have a long night if they didn’t get going soon. Yet he decided that he wouldn’t rush this, he didn’t want to.

 He took her slender wrists in his hands, they somehow felt so delicate—perhaps because she let them fall limp in his grasp. For a while the only sounds were a few late-staying birds, the rustle of palm fronds, and Azula’s breaths as she fought to level them.

To level herself.

 Her head was drooping down again, and her hair had come tumbling back out of place. Still she didn’t weep, maybe she’d run out of tears to cry. More likely, he wasn’t supposed to have seen her cry the first time, so she wouldn’t do it again. If he left for a moment and came back, he wouldn’t be surprised to see her doing so though. He wouldn’t leave.

 Presently, the only residual indication of her stress, was a slight tremble every so often.

 He knew he ought not to, especially after just reconciling with Suki, but Sokka stroked the back of her hands with his thumbs. Her skin was rough to the touch and—he couldn’t deny—rather unpleasant. He continued regardless, as it seemed to soothe her. He couldn’t imagine that she was at all used to being cared for in such a way. Maybe that was why she took his cold shoulder so hard. He thought of Suki again, she would be furious. He felt bad in thinking such, but no less he hoped that Azula would feel too awkward about the moment to make mention of it after the pair reunited with the rest of the group.

 Still she seemed tense and troubled, so he gently cupped her chin in his palm and tilted her head up so that he could look into her eyes. Those sorrowful, intense, golden eyes. Part of him still expected her to jerk away and look back down, but she held his stare.  “Actually, I’d say that you’re more human now than you’ve ever been.”