#jetokko

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 66:

Zuko starts to rush forward but stands still when he realizes what had happened.

“Uncle, I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me. But I want you to know, I am so, so, sorry, Uncle. I am so sorry and ashamed of what I did. I don't know how I can ever make it up to you. I left you and betrayed you. But I'll-”

Zuko was sobbing at this point and feels them get harsher as Iroh pulls him close and hugs him tight, a few tears slipping from his eyes too.

“How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me,” Zuko says, choking on his tears.

Iroh clutches him tighter. “I was never angry with you. I was sad because I was afraid you might lose your way with me gone.”

Zuko looks off to the side for a moment. “I didn’t lose my way but that’s only because I had friends.”

Iroh lets him go to look him in the eye. “Friends can only help, Zuko. You did it on your own. And you did it by yourself. And I am so happy you found your way here.

Zuko lets out a wet laugh. “It wasn't that hard, Uncle. You have a pretty strong scent.”

Iroh grins. “Like the scent those boys left on you, no?”

Zuko flushes. “Uncle, please no.”

Iroh laughs. “Just know if those boys ever hurt you, they will know why I am known as the Dragon of the West.”

Zuko smiles. “I would expect nothing less.”

***

A squirrel runs along a branch before cutting to an aerial view of the rock formation. 

Birds fly past as Momo and Aang sleep on the rock formation. 

Aang slowly wakes up and yawns. 

He drowsily sits up and notices something.

Aang squints at something in the distance. “Wait. Is it just me, or are those mountains getting bigger?”

Momo chitters, grabbing a berry to eat it. 

Aang bends down and uses airbending to launch himself up. 

A tall tree that Aang lands on is his support to gaze across the vast forest. 

As he looks forward, Momo flies around and lands on his shoulder. 

Aang turns around to show a wake behind the ‘island’.

Aang jumps off the tree, panicking on his face. “They're not getting larger, They're getting closer! The whole island is moving!”

Aang leaps out from the brush and jumps into the water. 

Aang dives down as Momo lands on a branch looking down at where Aang entered the water and chitters. 

Aang swims down to inspect the ‘island’. 

Suddenly, a giant paw moves past him. 

Aang hovers for a moment in shock before swimming up to the surface. 

Aang emerges, gasping for breath, and Momo lands nearby.

“It's amazing, Momo! The biggest animal in the world! I've gotta to swim around and find its face,” Aang gushes.

Momo flies above Aang, who is swimming in the water below. 

***

Zuko sighs. “I hate to say this but Uncle, you're the only person other than the Avatar who can possibly defeat the Father Lord.”

Toph frowns. “You mean the Fire Lord.”

Zuko huffs. “That's what I just said!”

Iroh gives him a look before thinking. “Hmmm….”

“We need you to come with us!” Zuko insists.

Iroh puts down his tea cup. “No, Zuko, it won't turn out well.”

Zuko continues to speak. “You can beat him! And we'll be there to help.”

Iroh sighs heavily. “Even if I did defeat Ozai, and I don't know that I could, it would be the wrong way to end the war. History would see it as just more senseless violence, a brother killing a brother to grab power. The only way for this war to end peacefully is for the Avatar to defeat the Fire Lord.”

Zuko thinks for a minute. “And then….then you would come and take your rightful place on the throne?”

Iroh smiles at him. “No. Someone new must take the throne. An idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor. It has to be you, Prince Zuko.”

Zuko briefly looks away. “Unquestionable honor? But I've made so many mistakes.”

Iroh nods. “Yes, you have. You've struggled; you've suffered, but you have always followed your own path. You restored your own honor, and only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation.”

Zuko looks down. “I'll try, Uncle.’

“Well, what if Aang doesn't come back?” Toph inquires.

Iroh purses his lips. “Sozin's Comet is arriving, and our destinies are upon us. Aang will face the Fire Lord. When I was a boy, I had a vision that I would one day take Ba Sing Se. Only now do I see that my destiny is to take it back from the Fire Nation, so the Earth Kingdom can be free again.”

Realization dawns on Suki’s face. “That's why you gathered the members of the White Lotus.”

Iroh smiles. “Yes. Zuko, you must return to the Fire Nation, so that when the Fire Lord falls, you can assume the throne and restore peace and order. But Azula will be there, waiting for you.

Zuko huffs. “I can handle Azula.”

Iroh shakes his head. “Not alone. You'll need help.”

Zuko nods. “You're right. Katara, how would you like to help me put Azula in her place?”

Katara grins maliciously. “It would be my pleasure.”

Sokka interrupts them. “What about us? What is our destiny today?”

Iroh looks at him, knowing glint in his eyes. “What do you think it is?”

Sokka ponders it for a second. “I think that, even though we don't know where Aang is, we need to do everything we can to stop the airship fleet.”

Toph nods. “And that means when Aang does face the Fire Lord, we'll be right there if he needs us.”

Jet grins. “We’ll kick some Melon Lord butt.”

Toph and Jet fist bump and the heavy mood lessens slightly.

Toph and Suki board an eel hound, careful not to make it angry. 

Jet, Sokka and Piandao are on the ground beside it.

Piandao pats the Eel Hounds side before handing Jet a map. “Nothing runs faster over land or swims quicker than a giant eel hound. The air ship base is on a small island just off the Earth Kingdom shore. You should be able to intercept the fleet within a day's journey.”

Sokka bows. “Thank you, Master.”

Jet salutes lazily before jumping on the eel hound.

Sokka hugs Piandao tightly. 

Zuko watches from on top of Appa, next to Katara.

He was terrified.

What is he never saw these people again?

“Wait!” Zuko yells.

He jumps off Appa and goes to the eel hound.

He goes to Toph first.

He holds the young girl tightly in his arms.

“Please don’t die,” Zuko whispers. “I’ve always wanted a good younger sister.”

Toph smiles, but there are tears in her eyes. “Thanks for being such a good big brother.”

Suki grabs Zuko tightly. “I’m gonna miss you, princess.”

Zuko laughs wetly into her neck. “I’m gonna miss you too, Suki.”

And finally came the hard part.

He goes up to Jet and Sokka. 

Sokka looks at him with one look and surges forward to kiss him. “We’re going to make it.”

“You better,” Zuko responds.

Jet hugs him and presses his lips to the top of his head. “We’re going to win, sweetheart. I know it.”

Zuko nods shakily, unable to say anything.

Piandao smiles at him gently as the rest get on the eel hound again.

Zuko walks over to Iroh after hugging Piandao.

Zuko clears his throat. “So if I'm going to be Fire Lord after the war is over, what are you going to do?”

Iroh looks wistfully into the sky. “After I re-conquer Ba Sing Se, I'm going to re-conquer my tea shop, and I'm going to play Pai Sho every day.”

He flips a pai sho piece into Zuko’s hand.

Zuko hugs Iroh close. “Good. You deserve it.”

Zuko gets back on Appa.

The two groups nod at each other, ready for what’s about to come.

Katara smiles gratefully down at Iroh. “Goodbye, General Iroh.”

Iroh smiles at all the children looking at him and feels his heart shatter.

Because they were all children in the end.

Orphaned, abused, neglected, and oppressed kids.

“Goodbye, everyone. Today, destiny is our friend. I know it,” Iroh whispers.

The eel hound sets off followed soon after by Appa. 

The White Lotus wave the kids goodbye.

“They’ll make it,” Piandao says to Iroh.

Iroh smiles.

“I know they will. They must.”

[starshinew]

I wanna play a game: type out the two of the same letter in the tags and see what comes up

[amixiifish]

Spin the Bottle

“Yo, Zuko!” Sokka calls, running up to him. Zuko glances behind him, and slows his pace to match the other’s.

“Yeah?” he responds, continuing walking. 

“We’re having a post-finals party tonight at seven, my room. Wanna come?” 

“Uh, sure, I guess? I’m not really busy or anything, so it’s ok,” he replies, uncertain. Sokka keeps his stride. Day classes had just ended, so they were just walking back to their dorms. They lived on the same floor, right across from each other, so walking up wasn’t awkward. Soon, they reach their floor and come to their doors.

“Crap, I forgot my keys, and Jet’s not supposed to be back until later. Mind if I crash at yours for now?” Zuko shrugs; it was a common occurrence by now, so he turned to let Sokka in. Closing the door behind them, he drops his bag haphazardly on the floor and goes straight to the fridge. 

“Do you want something to drink or eat?” he asks, rummaging through it for something to eat. Sokka makes a noncommittal sound. 

“I mean, there’ll be tons to drink tonight, if you get what I mean,” he says from his newly acquired place on the couch, where he was scrolling through Netflix for something to watch. 

“But if you have any chips or something I could go for that.”  Zuko pulls out a Sprite and a bag of Doritos and goes to sit with Sokka. 

“Did you find anything good to watch?” he asks while opening the large bag and popping his drink open. 

“Mhm, yeah. This one’s pretty good,” he says, the screen showing a crime and action TV show. They watch maybe the first five minutes before Katara, Zuko’s roommate and Sokka’s younger sister, bursts into the apartment. She runs frantically towards her bedroom then comes back out towards the kitchenette. 

“Zuko, do you know where I put my lab report? I need it to pass my final, and my final’s in less than 10 minutes,” she asks, still panicked. He wracks his brain; didn’t he see that report on their shared desk earlier? 

“Uh, I think it’s on the desk-” he barely manages to say before she runs off again. 

“Thanks, see you later guys, bye!” Katara says as she practically sprints down the hall. He looks at Sokka who just shrugs and unpauses their show. 

They sat there like that for nearly an hour before the party was supposed to start, so Zuko left Sokka there to watch the show while he went and changed. They cross the hall together and knock on the door. Jet opens it, and gestures at them grandly; he’s already tipsy, because otherwise he wouldn’t have welcomed them as such. 

“Do you want to help us set up?” 

“Sure, why not?” 

The two of them (plus a useless Jet) get the drinks, food and audio system all set up to use. After setting up, people pour in quickly. Jet gets even more wasted, and by ten minutes, Zuko’s the only one who’s still sober. 

“Zuko, come dance with us!” Sokka says, sidling up to him, slightly drunk. 

“Uh. No thanks, I’ll pass,” he replies, inching away from the drinks so that Sokka doesn’t get completely inebriated. 

“Why not? You never drink with us,” Sokka says, practically throwing himself on top of his friend. 

“That’s okay. I’ll dance later, when Kat gets here.” Sokka frowns, despondent. 

“You only ever hang out with her! She’s not even cool, like me! Am I not good enough?” He pouts, like a child. Zuko laughs mirthfully. He reaches over to ruffle at his hair. 

“Of course not! Kat’s just the only one who doesn’t get completely wasted like you guys,” he explains. Sokka still pouts. 

“Hmph. Suit yourself,” Sokka says, turning away from him. Zuko rolls his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll dance.” 

Five songs and three drinks later, Zuko is incredibly tipsy and high-strung. Katara made it to the party during his third song, and she had watched him from the food and drinks table amusedly as he danced. She laughs as he makes his way down to her, attempting to weave through the throngs of people. 

“Damn. Pretty boy went off,” she teases good-naturedly. 

“Shut up, stupid,” he mumbles drunkenly as he pours himself another glass of the probably-most-likely-poisoned punch. She glances at his face and laughs again.

“Stupid? That’s the best you can do?” 

He screws his face up at her like a child. “Shut up.” 

“Whatever you say, stupid,” she shrugs, turning back to her drink.  He scowls at her. Then he proceeds to drunkenly sway over to the speaker. He picks up the phone that was playing the music and switches it to a much better song- Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, the king of the century. Immediately, the room is filled with drunken singing and the dance floor is completely clogged. 

Katara sighs but watches them all amusedly. These were honors and AP students in one of the best universities of the world, and yet they all acted like children. 

Slowly, people start pouring out, leaving an amused Katara, wasted Sokka, dizzy Jet, drunk Zuko, emotional Aang, and slightly high Toph. 

“Let’s play spin the bottle,” Sokka says, slurring his words.Quiet murmurs of agreement fill the room.

Aang ends up kissing Toph, with many noises of disgust. He pecks her lips as quickly as humanly possible and they both wipe their lips aggressively afterward. 

Sokka goes next, and lands on his boyfriend. He crosses over to Jet and their kiss goes on… for a bit too long, until Katara clears her throat. 

“Uh! That’s enough of that, thank you. We don’t need to see your exhibitionism.” Toph looks in Aang’s direction, and both of them make retching noises. Zuko looks oddly flushed and hurries to spin on his turn. 

He lands on Katara. They share a quick kiss and pull away as soon as possible.

“It’s like I just kissed Sokka but I actually care about the person this time,” Katara said, gagging.

“Preach,” Zuko mumbles, wiping his mouth. Toph spins again, landing on Sokka. They barely brush lips. 

“This is gross! Why are we even doing this?” Toph complains. Zuko shrugs. 

“It was Sokka’s idea, not mine,” Aang says when everyone turns to look at him. 

“Sure,” Katara said. She spun and landed on Jet. 

Both make a face but kiss very quick and pull away.

Aang laughs and Sokka grins. Zuko spins. He gulps when he sees where it lands. The tip of the bottle points at Sokka. Zuko looks up- Sokka grins at him.Zuko leans in, and Sokka meets him in the middle. 

His breath tastes like the beer they’d been drinking earlier, and he nips at Zuko’s lips, biting lightly. Zuko opens his mouth slightly, allowing Sokka in. Sokka slides his tongue into his mouth, and Zuko practically moans, until Katara clears her throat. 

“If y’all want to make out there’s a bedroom literally right behind us,” she informs them, deadpan. Sokka smirks, wolf-like, and pulls Zuko and a thoroughly inebriated Jet into the aforementioned room. 

Zuko's blush lights aflame- was this really happening? 

The door clicks shut. Sokka pushes them onto the bed, kissing him soundly. 

“You know,” he says between kisses, “I’ve had a crush on you since we met that day at the library.” 

“R-really?” he gasps as Sokka kisses his neck. 

“Yeah.” 

Jet sits next to them, slightly more sober after drinking a glass of water. 

“Me too. Even though we were dating at the time, we decided that if we ever wanted a… plus one, so to speak, we would have you.”

 Jet kisses his cheek softly. 

“You two really-” he starts, cut off with a gasp as Sokka presses a kiss to his navel. 

“Really liked me?”  Jet smirks, kissing and biting where Sokka had just moments earlier. 

“Yeah.” 

“Mm- me too,” Zuko says between moans. 

“Say it louder, sweetheart.” 

Katara opens the door after an hour to see if Zuko wants to go back to their room, but instead finds the three boys half-dressed, asleep on top of each other. Yeah, they would be alright. 

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 25: Bloodbending

Zuko was reaching for his sash to tie his top together but is stopped when Jet grabs it. 

“Oh, do you need this?” he teased, holding it up high.

Zuko pouts but tries to reach up and grab it. He goes on his tippy toes but even the top of his head only reaches Jet’s nose. Sokka was about half an inch shorter than Jet but both of them had him feeling tiny. He reached only their shoulders and it was a horrifying prospect that Jet and Sokka had yet to grow taller.

“Give it back,” he whines.

“I don’t remember you being this short, sweetheart,” Jet coos.

Zuko glares for a half a second before purring, “Oh really?”

Before Jet could ask what inspired this sudden change in mood, he’s yanked down by his robe and pulled into a kiss by his usually shy omega.

Subconsciously, his arm lowers, and Zuko pulls away to try and grab it. Jet instinctively moved his arm away, causing them to have a slight miscalculation in the distance between them and the bed.

Zuko trips and falls onto Jet. They both land on the bed, with Zuko sprawled across Jet’s chest. Jet laughs and hugs his omega closer.

“Why have you been acting so skittish lately?” Jet asks after his laughter died down, absentmindedly playing with Zuko’s hair.

“Hama. Her body temperature is lower than Katara. She can do something Katara can’t. I don’t know what, but something is telling me it’s bad. Also, Sokka and his stupid schedule means he’s so busy, he won’t spend time with me,” Zuko replies, half whining.

“Hmm,” Jet says, a small smile on his face. It was a good sign for a relationship if an omega is actively craving their alpha’s attention if it starts to lack. Sokka bursts into the room and whisper-yells, “Tonight’s the full moon and people keep disappearing. Toph keeps hearing voices under the mountain so we’re gonna go there tonight, ok? Also, were you spoiling our omega without me? Jet, we talked about this! Share the pretty omega.” 

Zuko flushes and Jet chuckles while saying, “Fine, give us a second to prepare to go.”

That night, Zuko lit a small flame in his hand to guide the way. They stop at a cave at the base of the mountain.

“We should probably lower the flame. If anyone’s there, they might notice us and attack,” Aang says to Zuko. 

The firebender nods and extinguishes the flame.“Man! I can’t see a thing,” Sokka says.

“Oh no, how horrid,” Toph replies dryly. Sokka winces apologetically and Aang tries not to laugh. They go further into a cave and come across people, chained and tied to the walls. Zuko gasps and immediately moves to try and help the woman closest to him.

“What are you guys doing here? Are you not being controlled?” the woman asks.

“Controlled?” Jet asks as Toph metal bends the woman out.

“An old lady does some freaky bending. You can see where you’re going and what you’re doing but you can’t control your body,” the woman says, rubbing her wrist where the chains had cut into. Zuko presses fiery hands to the metal band of another and carefully melts it enough to let the man escape but not burn him.

“Hama!” Aang yells, realization hitting hard.

“We need to help Katara!” Jet says, alarm clear on his face.

“Go! I’ll stay here with Toph to help these people.” Zuko says.

“But..” Sokka starts.

“No. My dad hurt Hama as a little girl. Clearly she’s taking it out on these people. I need to help them. Go, before it’s too late!” Zuko yells.

Jet looked like he was about to argue but decided against it. The 3 run out and leave Toph and Zuko.

The two of them work in quick succession, burning and bending the chains to help the people.

But the time they’re done, the Moon is at its peak.

“Go. Run. I’ll find you guys with the villagers,” Toph urges the omega.

“Are you sure?” Zuko asks.

“Positive. Go save your alpha’s lives, Sparky,” Toph says with a grin.

Zuko tore through the forest. When he came to the clearing, his blood froze in his veins at what he saw.

Katara held a different bending pose than before while Aang, Sokka, and Jet were in various positions of collapse. Hama’s body contorted and fell in sync with Katara’s movements.

Realisation hit Zuko. He had read a scroll about this before. He had thought it to be a myth but seeing it…. Blood bending. An art only capable of being done on the full moon by a truly capable water bender.The villagers came from behind him and grabbed the old bat. They tied her up and locked her in the chains she had captured them in.

“It doesn’t matter. I already did what I set out to. Congratulations Katara. You’re a blood bender!” Hama shrieks, eyes containing a madness that made Zuko’s whole body shiver. 

Katara collapsed on her knees, tears leaving her eyes at what she had just done.Sokka and Aang stood next to her as comfort.That night on Appa’s back, Katara asks all of a sudden; “Am I a monster for blood bending?���Jet shook his head. 

“No, but you shouldn’t ever do it.”

“Why not?” Zuko immediately asks. Everyone looked at him in surprise but Zuko’s eyes were lit with fiery determination.

“I’ve read scrolls of the most powerful bender having unimaginable powers to hurt and heal. Blood bending is one of them. Fire benders and water benders can raise and drop the temperatures respectively of a person. If they are frozen, they can thaw. If they have a fever they can cool down. But you can also use it to slowly burn or freeze a person. For air bending, oxygen. If a person can’t breathe, an air bender can direct air into their lungs. But they can also rip it out, leaving the person to suffocate. Katara can and will blood bend. It’s a part of her and she could cure wounds with the ability to control someone’s blood. She’ll use it when she is ready,” Zuko said, finality in his voice.

“Preach, Sparky,” Toph said, blowing the hair out of her face. Katara smiles and pulls the omega close and curls around him. “Thank you,” she whispers. 

Zuko smiles. “Always,” he vows.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 56: Apologies

Zuko woke up in the morning, enveloped in the comforting scent of alphas.

“Toph?” Zuko asks blearily.

“Hm?” The earthbender responds.

“You’re breaking my hip.”

“Deal with it, Sparky.”

Zuko just laughs.

He pulls Toph closer to him, rousing Katara from her sleep.

“What?” The disoriented water bender murmurs.

“Morning, Sugar Queen,” Suki teases from the other side.

Katara huffs, and rolls onto her side.

“We should get up,” Zuko said, stretching on the bed.

“I agre- watch it!” Toph exclaims when Zuko hits her face.

Zuko immediately grabs her chin and analyzes her face to check whether she was going to bruise or not.

“I’m fine, really,” Toph grumbles.

Suki and Katara get up first, Zuko and Toph quickly follow.

By the time they made it to the kitchen, there was breakfast in the kitchen but no boys in sight.

“I’ll check the beach,” Zuko says.

“Me and Suki will go into town. We need groceries. I’ll grab Aang and Toph to go,” Katara said.

Suki’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you and Aang…”

Katara shook her head. “That can’t get between our friendship.”

Toph slaps the counter. “Let’s go, people, don’t got all day. I want to go sightseeing.”

Zuko rolls his eyes. “Hilarious, Toph. Real classy.”

Zuko leaves and walks around the beach for a while.

He finds Jet and Sokka on a rock by the shore, their faces unreadable.

Zuko climbs up and sits next to them.

They don’t react.

Zuko bites his lip unsure of what to say.

“Look, I wanted to-” all three say at the same time.

Zuko shakes his head. “No. Me first. I wanted to apologize. I reacted badly. You guys were just trying to make me feel good and I fucked up. I’m sorry and I realized I have to spend as much time with you as possible in case….”

Jet quickly grabs him and pulls him into his lap. “Sweetheart, no, we’re sorry. We messed up badly too. We should have taken you because we love you not for some stupid memory.”

Sokka presses a kiss to Zuko’s temple. “And nothing’s gonna happen. We’ll all make it and celebrate when Fire Lord Jerkbender goes down.”

That pulls a laugh from Zuko.

The three sit like that for a while, basking in the sun.

That is until Aang came barreling into them, shrieking about a snake Toph threw at him.

No one was able to stop laughing then, even Suki and Katara were from the other side of the beach who probably knew what Aang was talking about.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 34: The Airship

“Zuko?” Sokka’s bleary voice said from somewhere on Zuko’s right.

Zuko opens his eyes to see everyone awake but him and Sokka.

Sokka was curled around the smaller teenager, inhaling the scent of content omega.

“Yeah?” Zuko replies.

“Where do you think my dad and the rest are?” Sokka asks.

“Sokka-”

“Just tell me. I won’t do anything stupid.”

“If I had to guess, probably the Boiling Rock.”

“What the fuck is the Boiling Rock?”

“An inescapable island prison inside a volcano surrounded by boiling water.”

“Wow.”

Zuko snorts. “Yeah, wow.” 

Sokka pouts but hugs his omega closer. Suko turns and presses his face into Sokka’s collar.

“Get up!” Toph yelled, throwing mud at them.

Zuko’s nose wrinkles distastefully. Haru laughs from where he’s helping Katara cook rice.

Jet was speaking intently with Teo about something. Jet blows an over-exaggerated kiss to Zuko when he notices him staring.

Zuko rolls his eyes but gets up. Sokka whines at the loss but allows him to leave.

“Zuko, Zuko, Zuko! Duke stole my beads!” Aang cried.

“No, I didn’t! I just borrowed without asking. And my name isn’t Duke, it's The Duke!” The Duke cried.

Zuko was completely lost (when did we get beads), and Katara was wheezing she was laughing so hard.

Zuko eventually calmed the two down and they managed to compromise. 

“Hi, Katara,” Zuko said, hugging the taller bender from behind. He buried his face in the back of Katara’s neck and his hands were held loosely around her abdomen.

“Nice to see you haven’t forgotten me,” Katara teased.

“How could he forget about the person who’s breathing down his back 24/7 to make sure he doesn’t do something stupid?” Jet said from the side.

“Haru, could you make the rice? I’d like to spend some time with Zuko,” Katara asked the Earth bender.

Haru nods and waves them off.

Katara turns and hugs the omega back.

“Wanna go on a walk?” Katara asks.

“Let’s,” Zuko said with a smile.

“Don’t die,” Teo calls from the back.

“Yeah, yeah,” Katara said, waving them off.

“So…” Katara says, looking at Zuko as they walk through the southern side of the forest.

“So what?”

“Have my dad’s gifts had to be used yet?”

“Dear Agni, Katara, no!”

“That’s disappointing.”

“If this is our conversation then I’m turning back,” Zuko threatens, turning around slightly.

Zuko turns but is stopped by a giggling Katara.

“I’m joking, let’s go,” She said, her eyes crinkling with a smile.

They lay on a stream, Katara bending a nice fluffy snow bed to lay on. She made sure it wasn’t cold. Zuko laid his head in Katara’s lap. 

“I missed you,” Katara murmured, carding her fingers through his hair.

“I’ve been by your side this whole time.”

“Not like this.”

Zuko hums in acknowledgment.

They lay like that for a while, Katara half asleep and Zuko already passed out. They are rudely awoken by a crashing noise from their right.

Katara immediately raises a wall of water and Zuko takes a bending stance.

They slowly creep towards the noise to see a couple of monkey-squirrels jumping around on an airship.

“Is that a-” Zuko starts.

“Yeah. And by the looks of it, it’s been here a while.” Katata said with worry etched on her face.

Zuko pokes her cheek. “Don’t do that. It’ll give you worry lines.”

Katara snorts. “Like you don’t already give me worry lines.”

Zuko huffs in irritation.

“Should we tell everyone else?” Zuko asks.

“No,” Katars said, shaking her head. “They’ll only worry. It’s fine. If needed, we’ll tell them.”

Zuko nods. “Can we go and eat now?”

Katara looks shocked. “Oh my god, I didn’t give you breakfast.”

Zuko suddenly sees a turtle duck in the pond. 

Katara was pacing trying to remember the way back when she’s bombarded with the smell of happy omega.

She turns to see a baby turtle-duck sitting in Zuko’s lap.

Zuko, though he would deny it, squealed with joy when more joined the first in his lap.

Katara felt her heart both explode with joy and convulse with pain at the sight. She knew how much Zuko’s mom liked turtle-ducks. She sits next to him and smiles as the mother waddles up to her. She climbs onto Katara’s lap but still watches her kids from her comfort zone.

“We need to go,” Katara said quietly, hating the looks of sadness on Zuko's face.

Katara picks up the babies and puts them into the pond one by one. The mother lets out a sound of thanks and follows her children.

“But I want to pet them more,” Zuko whines.

Katara rolls her eyes. Then a smirk forms on her face.

Zuko looks up too late as Katara throws him over her shoulder, a shriek leaving the surprised omega.

“Put me down!” Zuko demands.

“No,” Katara said as they walked into the temple.

Everyone laughs as Katar puts a blushing Zuko down.

They all laugh, eat and enjoy the rest of the day.

That night, Sokka slipped away from the nest and went climbing on Appa.

He gets to the top only to fall back with a silent yell as he sees his omega with Jet sitting on top of Appa.

Zuko looked over the edge of the saddle with an accusing glare. “You said you wouldn’t do anything stupid!”

“I’m not! I’m saving my dad!” Sokka snapped back.

“Not without us!” Jet hisses.

“What?” Both Zuko and Sokka whisper yell.

“Thanks, man,” Sokka said, grinning as Jet pulled him up on Appa.

“What a great idea. When we get there we can go to the flying bison daycare, have some tea with Avatar Roku, get pedicures with Sozin, and then ask to get your dad back. Clearly they’ll give him to us with no fight at all,” Zuko said, sarcasm dripping with every word.

Sokka looked like he was about to argue but Zuko gave him a look, making him shut up.

“We can take a war balloon. I saw one crashed here on the southside with Katara,” Zuko said.

Sokka huffs but jumps off Appa to walk towards the forest.

“He does know that’s north, right?” Jet asks.

Zuko just sighs.

Eventually, they make it on the balloon with Zuko regulating the flight with his fire.

Jet’s as relaxed and Sokka was anything but.

“What’s wrong?” Jet asks the other alpha.

“We’re very close to the moon. My first girlfriend turned into the moon,” Sokka said.

Zuko turns away from his bending of the firepit. He questions his wording. “That’s rough, buddy,” Zuko says finally.

“That was so condescending, it’s not even funny,” Sokka deadpans.

Zuko smiles but kisses Sokka’s cheek. The water tribesman visibly relaxes after the show of affection.

“I made these balloons with a friend of mine,” Sokka recalled.

“Oh?” Jet says, mildly interested.

“Yeah. Balloons but for war. Then the Fire Nation started to use them for war,” Sokka said.

“If there’s one thing my father knows it’s war,” Zuko mutters.

“Runs in the family, I guess,” Jet said.

Everyone freezes. Zuko suddenly looks beyond pissed.

“How could you say that?” Zuko snapped harshly at the alpha.

“I didn't mean it that way, you’re a good person and-” Jet placates but tears are already burning Zuko’s eyes.

“My uncle was such a great person! He would never fight unless made too. He was like a father to me. He stood by me and showed me love when one else would. And I hurt him. I left him to Azula, no less,” Zuko said, sobs wracking his frail body.

Jet shushes the omega and wraps his arms around him, gesturing Sokka to join.

“Oh, honey, you didn’t leave him. You're going to save him, ok? We’ll bring him back,” Jet coos to the omega.

“I’m sure he still loves you, darling,” Sokka said, the pet names making the firebenders’ sobs lessen.

“I’m sorry,” Zuko says after a minute.

“No, I am. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry,” Jet said firmly.

“It’s fine. I think we’re here,” Zuko informs the two looking over Jet’s shoulder.

“Holy shit,” Sokka whispers, and , yeah, that pretty much covers it.

A giant fortified metal brick filled with living, breathing people surrounded by scalding water. 

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 42: Guardian Bond

Aang sits up blearily. Appa and the rest are still asleep: Momo wakes up to chitter at him. Aang stretches, enjoying the peace of being an early-riser. 

A boom resonates through the air temple, and Aang jumps to his feet to airbend the debris and rubble away.

Two more bombs make contact- everyone’s awake now, no doubt. Aang takes his glider and jumps off of the building to scope out their attacker; upon seeing the Fire Nation airships, he retreats and turns back to inform the others of it. He airbends the doors shut, but the bombs keep hitting, the noise echoing through the chamber. Soon the top of the temple crumbles, and an enormous chunk of debris nearly hits Katara before Zuko tackles her out of the way. “What are you doing?” “Saving you from being crushed by rocks?!” Zuko calls over the sound of stone hitting the ground. “Okay, I’m not crushed. Get off, you’ll get hurt!” “I’ll take that as a thank you,” Zuko grumbles under his breath as he obliges, moving away from Katara. Toph and Haru bend a tunnel for them to leave through. “Come on! The faster you get over here, the faster we can get the fuck out of here!” Aang tries to get Appa through the tunnel, but the bison refuses to move after what happened in Omashu. He looks to Zuko, who stands facing the airship. “What are you doing?” he calls anxiously. “You guys go! I think this is a… family visit,” Zuko responds, voice laced with venom. Katara looks at him. “Don’t do that! She’ll kill you!” “Zuko, no!” Aang calls at the same time. Sokka sprints up to Zuko. He kisses Zuko soundly before whispering, “I know this is important, but be careful. Meet us when you’re done?” Zuko nods, and Sokka pulls Aang and Katara away from him, leaving to huddle in the tunnel. Zuko winces when a bomb comes close, detonating a few feet in front of him. He firebends a plume of fire at the airship closest to him. Azula rises from a podium-looking device. “What are you doing here?” he hisses at her. “You mean it’s not obvious yet? I’m about to celebrate becoming an only child!” she says, smile unwavering as she kicks two blasts of fire from her feet in quick succession. Zuko aims for her, but it’s difficult to see through the smoke that their blasts have created. He shoots haphazardly, missing her every time. Instead of wasting his time trying to hit her from afar, he jumps onto the airship. Aang and the others still can’t get Appa in the tunnel. “I can’t get him to go in there! Appa hates tunnels!” Aang says frantically. “Aang, there’s no way we can fly out of here!” Jet says with mounting irritation. “We have to find a way!” Sokka intervenes. “We need to split up,” he says, then turning to face the others: “Jet, you lead the others, take the tunnel to the airship. Me and the others’ll take Appa.” Katara whips around to face him. “No! The Fire Nation can’t separate our family again.” Hakoda turns to face his daughter, putting his hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay, Katara. It’s not forever.” Katara pauses before hugging him tightly and running back to Aang and Appa. Sokka hugs him too before running over, too. “Hey, I can see a way through here! If I clear this away, we can fly out through there,” she says, unnaturally optimistic. Suki looks over where she’s pointing. “Uh, there’s a lot of fire in that general direction…” she says, trailing off as she sees Zuko take a hit from Azula, getting knocked down. Aang dismisses her. “We’ll get through, let’s go.” Sokka yanks Toph, Suki and Jet with them. The four of them fly on Appa, Toph raising a wall of rock in front of them as a shield. Azula aims a blast at Appa, and Zuko takes the moment to strike at her. Azula pushes Zuko off the airship, and Katara gasps in shock. The rock wall in front of Appa absorbs most of the blast but disintegrates soon after. Toph curses loudly- they’re too high up for her to get more. Zuko rises on a second airship, and Katara breathes again. Azula and Zuko face off again, exchanging quick blows and blasts, evenly matched. Meanwhile, the other Fire Nation soldiers have caught on that they should be attacking them, so Katara and Aang are occupied, warding the fire off. Aang switches between airbending and waterbending, transferring some of the water to Katara when she needs it. 

Azula and Zuko hit each other with fire-packed pouches, the force enough to knock them both off of the airship. Appa swooshes down in time to catch Zuko, Katara reaching down and pulling him up. 

“She’s not gonna make it…” Zuko says, watching Azula fall. Azula propels herself up, using her firebending like propellers. 

“Of course she made it,” he says, sounding slightly resigned. Katara pats him on the back awkwardly. 

“Huh, camping. Just like old times,” Aang says later, laying on The Duke obnoxiously. 

“Yeah, if you want it to be like old times, I should run around trying to capture you,” Zuko responds jokingly as he passes tea around to everyone. Everyone laughs except Katara, who frowns. 

“Don’t say that sort of thing about yourself, Zuko. We all know that you’ve changed,” she says, and they all grow quiet. The silence is awkward and uncomfortable. 

“Ok, that’s it. Katara, what the hell is wrong with you?” Suki says, exasperated.

Katara recoils. “Nothing.” 

“I’m going for a walk, ok,” Katara said, standing and turning crisply to walk out.

“I’m gonna go follow her,” Zuko said softly, standing to leave.

Sokka and Jet tried to join him but it was Toph of all people who stopped them.

“Look, I know you care. But he needs to do this alone. So sit your sorry ass down before you fuck things up,” Toph deadpans.

“So she can swear but I can’t,” Aang whines.

Over on the other side of the temple, Katara was sitting on the edge of the cliff.

“Katara. Please can you tell me what’s wrong?” Zuko questions.

“Nothing,” Katara said through gritted teeth.

“Katara-”

“STOP TALKING! Spirits, don’t you get it? You aren’t a good person! You chased us around the fucking world and then we forgive you because what? You decided to help Aang once, he forgave you. Sokka and Jet should have left you with Azula- she could have dealt with you just fine. And that's just the beginning! You betrayed your uncle too! You left him when he was nothing but kind to you. My mom was killed because of the stupid Fire Nation. So you wanna know what you can do to make up for your mistakes? Die!” Katara snarled, tears flowing down her face.

Then suddenly, a clear snapping noise echoes in Katara and Zuko’s head.

The Guardian Bond had broken.

Katara recoils.

Zuko looked appalled but his eyes were brimmed with tears, spilling freely.

“Wait, Zuko, I didn’t mean to-” Katara starts.

“No, Katara. You were right. I’m not a good person, but that doesn’t mean you can talk shit about me. I’m done talking. Good night, Katara,” Zuko said, his firm voice betrayed by his tears.

Katara felt her heart shatter. 

What had she done?

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 37: Burning Memories

The bell rings in the morning and Zuko shrieks, falling out of bed. Before he can hit the ground, Suki catches him and pulls him back up next to her.

“Hey, princess,” Suki purrs, holding Zuko bridal style with one arm.

Zuko flushes a deep red.

Suki laughs. “If Jet and Sokka hadn’t gotten to you first, I would have courted you.”

Zuko lets out a small smile and gets up.

He stretches and sees Suki stand to do the same. He grimaces. This was going to be a long day.

The second they stepped out the door, Zuko was grabbed by two alpha guards.

He yelps in surprise and Suki snarls and tries to keep Zuko close. It takes 4 guards to hold the enraged alpha back and another 3 to pull Zuko away.

Zuko is dragged to a small cot. He’s unceremoniously tossed inside.

Zuko hisses in pain when he hits a wall rather roughly, but he brightens significantly when he sees Sokka and Jet come in.

He refrains from hugging them when The Warden walks in.

“You’re being claimed by these alphas,” The Warden said plainly.

Zuko blinked in surprise. He looks questioningly at Sokka and Jet.

They look at him through their helmets in reassurance.

The Warden grabs a hot iron from the fireplace from the side; Zuko immediately tries to move but is held down by two guards. He squirms uncomfortably.

The hot poker comes close to his ribs where his shirt has risen upward.

Sokka and Jet looked like they were about to protest but a look from Zuko shut them up.

Zuko closes his eyes and bites the inside of his cheek as the hot poker engraves a marking into his skin.

The smell of burning flesh sends everyone in the room into a nauseated state.

Zuko blinks back tears as the burn cools down and The Warden gives Sokka and Jet keycards with a symbol matching the burnt skin on Zuko’s side.

The Warden looks sympathetically towards Zuko.

Zuko makes a face.

Sokka and Jet immediately rush to Zuko’s side.

“What the fuck?” Jet hisses.

“I didn’t know they did that,” Sokka snaps, gently caressing the skin next to the brand.

Zuko flinches from the caress of the sensitive skin. Another burn wouldn’t mean too much, would it? The skin was sensitive from the brand, red and starting to inflame.

“It’s fine. We should go,” Zuko assures his alphas.

When he enters the courtyard, he’s immediately assaulted by the scent of concerned alpha.

Suki looked him over before lifting up his shirt to glare at the brand on his side.

“Bastards,” Suki snarls under her breath.

“It’s fine,” Zuko murmurs, pushing Suki away as people start to stare.

Suki gives him one worried glance before judo flipping Sokka who snuck up behind her.

“Fucking hell, Sokka! You don’t sneak up on a Kyoshi Warrior with years of training and PTSD!” Suki snaps.

Sokka groans. “Ow. But I have a plan to escape.”

“I want in,” a voice says from behind them.

Chit Sang jumped the railing to join them.

“No,” Jet scoffs.

“Then I’ll tell the Warden,” Chit Sang counters.

The three alphas by Zuko seemed to be about to argue but Zuko cut them off with a short and cropped, “Fine. Just shut up about it.”

Sokka sighed but proceeded to tell everyone about the plan.

Everyone nodded and split up to follow the plan.

They put on a show. Chit Sang slams into Zuko on ‘accident’.

“Watch it, bitch,” Chit Sang snaps.

“Who are you callin a bitch, fatass?” Zuko snarls.

Chit Sang swings a fist at Zuko who dodges and retaliates with a whip of fire.

“No firebending!” Sokka dramatically yells.

“Cooler,” Jet said cooly, grinning under his helmet.

The two alphas put Zuko inside the escape cooler.

The Warden approaches. “After your little stunt, I decided to tell Princess Azula to come faster. Watch yourself, omega.”

Jet silently fumas and Sokka tries not to shove The Warden into the cooler.

A few hours later, Jet goes to the cooler.

“Learned your lesson, sweetheart?” Jet cooes, leaning on the doorway.

“Completely, alpha,” Zuko purrs, showing all the nuts and bolts that he unscrewed.

Jet smirks and presses a kiss to his omega’s lips.

They all met up at Suki and Zuko’s cell.

Sokka came running with Chit Sang.

“War prisoners are coming tomorrow. That might be my dad!” Sokka said excitedly.

Chit Sang frowns. “We’re leaving tonight.”

Sokka frowns. “But-” he starts.

Suki interrupted him. “We’re staying. It’s worth the risk.”

Jet shook his head. “Azula will take Zuko if we wait too long.”

Sokka decided.

“I’m staying with Suki and Jet. Chit Sang, take Zuko and go,” Sokka declared.

Zuko immediately scowls. “Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Jet asks.

“Just because I’m an omega, I can’t help? I’m staying,” Zuko said, arms folded across his chest.

Suki lets out a chuckle at the omega’s spite.

“Let’s hope your dad is in that batch,” Jet warns. “For all our sake.”

Sokka nods.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 62: Lost

Sokka snaps his fingers. “Hey, I remember her! She helped you attack us!”

Zuko nods. “Yup. Back in the good old days.”

June hums and spins Zuko around, hands resting on his waist and chin on his shoulder. “Oh great. Where's your creepy grandpa?”

Zuko shrugs off her arm. “He's my uncle. And he's not here.”

June squints at Katara. “Oh. Now I know why you aren’t having any fun. I see you worked things out with your alpha.”

Katara snorts and Zuko starts to flush.

“I'm not his alpha,” Katara says dryly.

“She's not my alpha!” Zuko shrieks.

“He’s ours,” Jet snaps.

June backs off slightly. “Okay, okay. Sheesh. I was only teasing. So what do you want?”

Zuko looks at her seriously. “I need your help finding the Avatar.”

June sips her tea. “Hm. Doesn't sound too fun.”

Zuko locks eyes with her and relaxes a breath of white hot fire, the flames licking June’s face. “Does the end of the world sound like more fun?”

***

Appa and Nyla growl at each other playfully before playing a little tag.

Appa licks Nyla, and they lay down to rest. 

They both stand up attentively as the gang and June walk towards them. 

June holds up a piece of meat for Nyla.

June throws the meat to Nyla before approaching him to pet him. “Nyla. Who's my little, hmm, Snuffly-Wuffly?”

June barely dodges his tongue when he tries to lick her from joy. “Whoa! Careful there. Okay. So who's got something with the Avatar's scent on it?”

Katara jumps onto Appa's back to grab Aang’s glider. “I have Aang's staff.”

June approaches Nyla and holds the staff out in front of him. 

He sniffs it. 

Nyla starts pacing in circles, nose on the ground to pick up a scent.

He keeps walking till he comes back to June.

He lays down and covers his nose.

Zuko looks speculatively at Nyla. “Well, what does that mean?”

June pets Nyla again. “Means your friend's gone.”

Topj rolls her eyes. “We know he's gone. That's why we're trying to find him. Are you actually dumb as shit?”

Zuko hits her in the back of her head and June snickers.

June turns to look at them. “No, I mean he's gone gone. He doesn't exist.”

Zuko’s eyes widen and Toph’s jaw drops.

Concern is etched on both Suki and Katara’s face and Sokka and Jet share a look of worry.

***

Momo chases a squirrel creature in a tree, wringing when it goes out of reach.

Momo chases the squirrel after it comes down and Aang walks around, not understanding what is happening around him.

Aang ponders what’s happening. “Where are we, Momo? Maybe I'm in the Spirit World? But wait. You can see me. We could both be in the Spirit World.”

Aang bends a short gust of wind. “Nope. My bending works. Maybe if we climb to the top of the island, we can figure out where we are.”

***

Sokka rubs his temples. “What do you mean Aang doesn't exist? Do you mean he's….you know, dead?”

June climbs onto Nyla. “Nope. We could find him if he were dead. Wow, it's a real head-scratcher. See ya. “

“Helpful. Real fucking helpful,” Toph says sarcastically.

Zuko stops June. “Wait. I have another idea. There's only one other person in this world who can help us face the Fire Lord. I'll be right back with a smell sample.”

Zuko comes back with a small bag in his hands.

Sokka looks at it, fascinated. “What’s that?”

Zuko looks at it sadly. “It’s my uncles tea bag. Had all kinds of tea and tea pots. It was his favorite thing in the world. I guess I couldn’t let it go after figuring out Uncle escaped.”

Jet snaps to attention. “Wait, he escaped?”

Suki nods. “We saw bounty posters of him when me and Zuko went to throw pies at nobles.”

Toph smiles. “I think it's sweet you kept it but why didn’t you incite me for some of that pie action?”

Nyla jumps forward. 

He carefully examines the bag and sniffs it.

June determinedly pulls on Nyla’s reins. “Let's do this.”

“Hey! Wait up!” Zuko yells.

June quickly grabs a surprised Zuko and puts him on Nyla’s back.

The rest quickly get on Appa. 

Appa’s tail hits the ground with a loud smack as he takes off in the same direction. 

Nyla tears up a hill as Appa flies behind. 

The shirshu jumps over a cliff edge. 

Zuko shrieks I surprise and grabs June’s waist.

“Kinda trying to drive, sweetheart,” June muses.

Zuko glares at her.

Appa and Nyla slowly approach the destroyed Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se. 

Nyla jumps over the muddy field before the rubble.

The Gaang look confused at the rubble. 

Appa lands and Nyla starts digging at the wreckage.

Zuko looks at the wall, confused. “We're going to Ba Sing Se?”

June watches as Nyla starts scratching the wall for a little before coming back to her. “Your uncle's somewhere beyond the wall. Nyla's getting twitchy so he can't be too far. Good luck.”

Zuko turns to join the gaang when June calls, “What, no goodbye kiss?”

Sokka and Jet look slightly irritated but Zuko goes up to June smiling sweetly.

He presses a big love filled kiss onto June’s cheek, stunning the alpha into silence.

Toph snorts as Suki and Katara chuckles.

Sokka nods. “Zuko’s kisses just do that to you.”

Zuko laughs as June manages to control Nyla and run off. “It's been a long day. Let's camp and start our search again at dawn.”

Jet stretches, almost falling off of Appa.

“Sounds good to me.”

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 41: Return

“Dad! Suki! Zuko!” Katara screamed, hugging the three people.

“So much love,” Sokka said dryly.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t leave a note, Zuko did,” Katara said, her voice muffled from where she was hugging Hakoda.

“You left a note?” Jet asks Zuko.

“Katara would have hunted me down then beat me up to heal me then beat me up again,” Zuko defends.

Suki laughs. Katara suddenly pulls Zuko close to her. She leans down and scents his neck.

“Suki, you guardian bonded him?” Katara asked, shocked.

Suki smiles and hugs Zuko from behind. 

“Yup!” she said, popping the p.

Katara just sighs and drags Suki away to get her a change of clothes.

The Duke runs up to Hakoda begging for some prison stories. Haru and Teo also ask questions pertaining to their parents.

Before Sokka and Jet could comprehend, they both lunge forward to catch Zuko before he falls as Aang and Toph tackle the omega.

“Don’t scare us like that again,” Toph whispers into Zuko’s neck. 

Zuko presses a gentle kiss to her forehead. 

“I won’t, promise,” Zuko murmurs.

“Good, it would be a lot of work to care that you died,” Toph said, trying to brush off the affection.

Sokka and Jet’s hearts swell with affection for their omega. Regardless of not having loving parents himself, Zuko treated Aang and Toph as though they were his pups. Haru, Teo, and The Duke were also treated in a similar manner.

“I should kill you for almost killing my omega,” Katara’s voice rings out, deadpan,  from behind them.

“He’s our omega too, and I tried to send him home,” Jet defends.

Katara rolls her eyes. “Whatever makes you feel better,” she says, starting to cook.

It was a full moon that night. Katara was walking when she saw Zuko and Aang practice. 

She smiled when she saw Zuko try to calm the hyperactive airbender.

She frowned slightly when Aang’s face turned solemn at something Zuko said.

She watches for a second as Zuko raises two fingers in a very familiar fashion. Before she can calm herself, she is reminded of a terrible memory.

At the Crystal Cavern

Katara watched helplessly as Azula raised two fingers and hot bursts of lightning left their tips.

She watches the cold fire strike Aang right in the back as Zuko tackles Azula so the lighting doesn’t hit Aang’s head.

She felt helpless as she saw Aang topple and she ran. She ran towards her fallen friend, hot tears streaming down her face. She vaguely feels Zuko pry her fingers off him as Sokka picks up Aang’s body and Jet helps everyone onto Appa.

She uses the spirit water and heals the injury, releasing a breath that she didn’t know she was holding when she felt Aang take a breath. She promised she would never feel that helpless again.

Current day

Katara immediately snaps into a bloodbending position and focuses on Zuko.

Zuko let out a startled cry as he started fire bending without meaning to. He sees Aang reach towards him as he starts to try and burn himself.

“Katara, what the fuck?” A voice came, cutting through Katara’s haze.

Her red vision clears as she sees Aang hugging Zuko, who recently gained control of his body. Suki was pissed and holding her arms. 

“How could you do that?” Suki snarled.

Katara blindly stumbles towards Zuko.

She felt as though a knife was tearing her apart slowly when Zuko flinched from her touch.

“Your omega, huh?” Jet said, leaning over to pick up Zuko after coming from the shadows.

“Katara, when we calm Zuko down, you're going to tell us what happened,” Hakoda said, speaking rationally.

“Hadn’t she done enough?” Sokka snapped as Zuko’s shaking body was deposited in his lap.

A couple of hours later, Katara explained what happened during her panic attack.

“That makes more sense,” Toph said.

“You think I’m like my sister?” Zuko said, his voice small.

“No, no, I swear, no,” Katara said, horrified.

The fire died slowly and everyone went to they separate rooms that night, the nest forgotten.

Katara retires to hers and lays down on the covers.

She closes her eyes and is about to sleep when a knock so light reverberated through the room, she almost missed it.

“Come in,” she calls, tired.

Zuko looked uncomfortable as he walked in. Katara couldn’t help but feel pain and happiness that he’s wearing her coat.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Zuko said softly.

“I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t want to hurt you again and I-” Katara starts, panic swelling in her chest.

Before she can continue her rant, a small warm body is next to hers, curled into her.

Katara looks to the ceiling, her eyes closed, a single tear trickles from her eyes and disappears into her hair.

“I love you, Katara. I know you didn’t mean to do that. But I’m always going to love you. Till the day I die,” Zuko whispers, hugging Katara as tight as he could.

Katara wraps around the omega.

“I love you too. But I think I need time to make sure I don’t hurt you. I almost hurt you and I hate myself for it. Just, I need some time.” Katara responds.

Zuko nods.

“I’m staying tonight though,” Zuko warned, cuddling closer.

Katara smiles.

“Of course.”

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 39: Escape Plan

“Dad!” Sokka cried, wrapping his dad in a huge hug once he saw him.

“Easy, Sokka! I’m not that young anymore!” Hakoda said, chuckling.

“Nice to see you again, Hakoda,” Jet said with an easy smile.

“Right back at ya, kid,” Hakoda said.

“We made a new escape plan.” Sokka said with a grin.

“What was the first?” Hakoda asked.

“Unimportant,” Jet said.

They explain in careful detail what they plan to do before they are interrupted.

Suki ran through the door at this moment, Zuko skidding in behind her.

Zuko let out an ‘eep!’ as he slipped and almost fell if Hakoda didn’t catch him.

The three male alphas would have laughed if not for Zuko’s panicked face and Suki’s stoic expression.

“Azula’s here. She brought Mai and Ty Lee. Chit Sang is also supposed to be saying which guard helped him pull off the ice cooler thing.” Suki said through clenched teeth.

Sokka looked horrified at Zuko.

“No,” Jet whispers, clearly having the same thought.

“Mai wants a private meeting with me,” Zuko said quietly. “I’m going to say yes.”

“Like hell!” Sokka yells.

“No!” Jet snaps.

“Why?” Hakoda asks.

“What do you mean why? It’s Mai! It’s a no,” Suki said, her jaw set.

“But she cared about me. Azula doesn’t want to see me because she doesn’t care. Well, I hope, anyways. Mai visited me in Ba Sing Se at the tea shop. She kept me updated about Azula in case I need to run,” Zuko mutters, not liking the fact that everyone was against him.

Jet’s eyes softened. “Fine. But if anything happens, tell us.”

“Ok,” Zuko said, trying but failing to hide his smile.

Hakoda looks like he’s having an aneurysm.

But eventually he relents, and hugs Zuko tightly.

“I care about you, kid. Don’t get hurt,” Hakoda murmurs into Zuko’s hair. 

Zuko smiles and nods.

Suki just groans. “I’m not winning this argument, am I?”

A chorus of ‘no’ filled the room causing the Kyoshi Warrior to sigh.

“Whatever, lets go,” Suki grumbles, grabbing Zuko and taking him with her.

“You owe me,” Suki said once they were in bed and half asleep.

“For what?”

“Listening to your bullshit idea.”

Zuko looks up and kisses Suki’s nose, causing the alpha to return a delicate pink.

“Thank you,” Zuko said.

Suki mutters something about ‘stupidly cute omegas’ but wraps her arms tighter around Zuko.

Zuko closes his eyes, trying to forget about the meeting tomorrow.

Zuko was nervous to say in the least. He was sitting cross legged in the middle of a meeting room and was pretty sure he would have a panic attack if forced to wait any longer.

“Zuko,” a voice said, cutting across the silence.

“Mai,” Zuko said, standing to greet her.

The alpha in front of him looked at him in increasing irritation.

“Out,” she said, pointing toward the door while looking at the guard.

“B-but-” the guard stuttered.

“Out,” Mai snarls.

The guard leaves quickly.

“How did you know I was here?” Zuko asks.

“My uncle sent me a hawk. Are you serious, Zuko? Treason! How could you?” Mai yells, anger now prominent.

Zuko flinches but holds his own. “This is for the Fire Nation. We were once great. Now we’re just power hungry.”

Mai’s eyes flash with an emotion Zuko can’t quite detect.

Mai then sighs and pulls Zuko into a tight hug. “I missed you, dumbass.”

Zuko hugs her back. “I missed you too. I’m being courted right now and I have 2 guardian alphas.”

“That's amazing. I’ve started to court Ty Lee. We want Azula too but she isn’t in the right state of mind right now,” Mai whispers.

Zuko nods in understanding.

“RIOT! RIOT! THERE’S A RIOT!” A guard yells.

“I need to go,” Zuko said, panicked.

Mai gives him one look.

“Well?” She says, expectantly, pointing to the door. “What are you waiting for?”

Zuko’s smile threatens to break his face in two as he presses a kiss to Mai’s cheek.

“I love you,” Zuko whispers.

“I love you too. But not that way any more,” Mai responds.

Zuko grins in understanding and rushes out the door.

He wonders how Sokka managed to start his plan off so fast.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 35: The Boiling Rock

They were about to land the balloon before they started falling.

“Why are we falling?” Jet hisses.

“I don’t know!” Zuko snaps back.

“The air outside and inside the balloon is the same. We can’t fly,” Sokka says, panicking.

They splash into the water, a little landing on Sokka’s hand causing the alpha to bite his fist to stop himself from crying out in pain.

Jet sighed. “There goes the idea of flying out.”

Zuko nods.

They slowly land onshore, looking up at the huge building.

They end up dressing like Fire Nation guards to fit in.

The second they leave the supply closet as they are told to follow a guard as a fight has broken out.

“Sokka. Jet,” Zuko mutters under his breath.

“What?” Sokka whispers back.

“I forgot to tell you but some guards own the prisoners. As in sexually. Especially the omegas. They get special access to the prison cell too,” Zuko says.

Jet and Sokka looked shocked.

“Is it consensual?” Jet finally asks.

“From the guards' side,” Zuko responds before they’re led into a courtyard.

A man is in the middle with a guard.

They seem to be squabbling about something.

“I didn't do anything! I'm going back to my cell,” The man yells.

The guard whips fire at him. “Stop right there, Chit Sang.”

Zuko tries to approach them, but Sokka grabs his arm to stop him.

“We can't blow our cover, sweetheart. I’m sorry,” Sokka says.

Zuko’s jaw clenched but he relents.

“I've had it with your unruly behavior!” The guard snarls.

“What did I do?” Chit Sang asked, exasperated.

“He wants to know what he did. Isn't that cute?” The guard said, addressing Jet and Sokka.

“Uh, very cute, sir,” Jet replied, unsure of what to say.

“Super cute,” Sokka said, following Jet’s example.

The guard walks up to Chit Sang. “You didn't bow down when I walked by, Chit Sang!”

“What? That's not a prison rule,” Chit Sang snaps.

“Do it!” The guard bellows.

“Make me,” Chit Sang said through gritted teeth.

The guard walked away, but before he left, he whipped fire at Chit Sang. 

Chit Sang blocks it and redirects it at him. 

The guard breaks the blast with a kick.

“Tsk, tsk. Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler. You! Help me take him in,” The guard snapped, pointing at Sokka.

“Meet back here in an hour,” Sokka whispers. 

Back inside, Chit Sang is led to a cooler.

“Man, can you believe this guy?” The guard said, clearly irritated.

“Yeah, prisoners, right?” Sokka jokes, feeling uneasy.

“Tell me about it,” the guard scoffs.

Sokka watched Chit Sang shiver in the cold.

“It sure looks cold in there,” Sokka said, inwardly wincing at his lack of adequate conversation starters.

“That's why we call it the cooler. He won't be firebending there. Look alive!” The guard says as he sees the Warden.

The Warden opens the cooler. 

“So Chit Sang, I hear you used firebending to try to escape. You should know better,” The Warden tuts.

“I wasn't trying to escape,” Chit Sang said through clattering teeth.

“He's lying! I saw it with my own eyes,” one guard snaps, attempting to move forward but pushed back by the Warden’s bodyguards.

“No one has ever, ever escaped from here. I'd sooner jump in the Boiling Lake myself than let that record fall. Don't forget it. Now go back to your shivering,” The Warden said coldly.

He stands up to leave.

Sokka really hoped Jet would find his dad.

Jet enters the break room.

“Hey, new guy! I know it's the rule to have your helmet on at all times, but this is the lounge. Relax,” A guy called to Jet.

“But what if there's an incident? If I'm not prepared, someone could strike me on the head.” Jet said, not willing to risk his cover.

The guards laugh.

“Give it a week, he'll loosen up,” A female says.

“Can the new guy ask you veterans a few questions about the prison?” Jet said, a joking lilt to his voice,

“No, you can't date the omegan guards,” A woman deadpans from the side.

“Trust me, you don't want to. The omegan prisoners are better. If you're an omega, no worries. I’m sure some beta or alpha in here would be willing to taste some pussy,” another man said, causing the rest to snicker.

Jet felt sick.

“No, that's not it. The Boiling Rock, it holds the Fire Nation's most dangerous criminals, right?” Jet starts. Everyone nods. “So what about war prisoners?”

A guard nods. “A few.”

“Any Water Tribe?” Jet presses.

“Why?” Someone asks.

“He probably has a type,” another says.

Jet feels like he’s about to barf and in his helmet.

“Nah, no Water Tribe. Oh, and before I forget. You can ask the Warden for a plaything. They give enough cards and access codes,” A man said, holding a card with several different applications on it.

“I’ll think about it,” Jet said, lying through his teeth.

He hopes Zuko is having better luck.

Zuko was just wandering. He had no idea what he was doing.

He was looking for Hakoda but couldn’t find him.

Instead, he found someone else.

“Hello?” Zuko calls quietly into the cell labeled ‘Earth Prisoner: Kyoshi Island’.

“What,” A voice snaps back.

“Do you know Sokka?” Zuko said, his voice a hushed whisper.

Silence filled the cell.

“Open the door. Quickly,” The girl snaps.

Zuko opens the door and walks in.

“Who-” Zuko starts before he’s pinned to the wall.

The woman takes off his helmet and snarls, “Prince Zuko, what a surprise.”

Zuko just whimpers. The alpha was radiating anger and hate.

“Please, I’m with Sokka, I swear,” Zuko says, the ability to breathe seemed more of a dream.

The Kyoshi Warrior drops him.

“How are you related to him?” The alpha snaps.

“I’m here to help him find his dad. He’s here too. I’ll bring him to you. He and Jet are courting me,” Zuko explained.

The alpha seemed to relax.

“I’m so sorry, honey. I didn’t know. My name is Suki,” The alpha, now known as Suki, says.

“It’s fine. You have a right to be wary,” Zuko responds.

Zuko hears footsteps.

“Who’s that?” Zuko hisses under his breath.

“Some stupid omega guard that owns me or some shit. Go. Visit soon. I wouldn’t mind getting a visit from a cute omega guard such as yourself,” Suki coos. Zuko flushes but takes his leave.

He wonders if Sokka has died yet.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 61: Tavern

Katara, Suki, and Toph turn to stare at Zuko expectantly.

Sokka was sitting and tried to rid himself of bison saliva while Jet gave him a towel from a distance with a disgusted look. 

Zuko sighs. “I don't know. Why are you all looking at me?”

Katara winces. “Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang.”

Toph nods. “Yeah, if anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar….it's you. Sorry, Sparky.”

Sokka tries standing up, but falls back down.

Zuko nods thoughtfully. 

He snaps his fingers. “I know what we’re going to do.”

***

Appa flying along the coast, led by Zuko.

Sokka sighs. “Zuko, I don't wanna tell you how to do your job, but why are we heading towards the Earth Kingdom? There's no way Aang's there.”

Zuko looks more determined than before. “Just trust me.”

Meanwhile, at the Fire Nation

Ozai and Azula travel in palanquins to a ship.

“Come on slowpokes! Faster!” Azula snaps at her palanquin bearers.

Ozai walks out of his palanquin and up the stairs. 

Azula runs behind him and gets on one knee to bow.

Azula pants from running. “Sorry I'm late, father. Good palanquin bearers are so hard to come by these days. So, is everything ready for our departure?”

Ozai faces the ship. “There has been a change of plans, Azula.”

Azula looks slightly worried at her father.  “What?”

Ozai gazed contemplating at the airships. “I've decided to lead the fleet of airships to Ba Sing Se alone. You will remain here in the Fire Nation.”

Azula blanches. “But I thought we were going to do this together.”

Ozai gives her a warning look. “My decision is final.”

Azula rises, anger on her face. “You….you can't treat me like this! You can't treat me like Zuko! Like a filthy omega whore!”

Ozai turns on Azula. “Azula, silence yourself.”

“But it was my idea to burn everything to the ground! I deserve to be by your side!” Azula snaps.

“Azula!” Ozai snarls. She immediately bows her head in respect. 

“Listen to me. I need you here to watch over the homeland. It's a very important job that I can only entrust to you,” Ozai continued.

Azula blinks in surprise. “Really?”

Ozai nods. “And for your loyalty, I've decided to declare you the new Fire Lord.”

Azula lets out a breath of pleased shock. “Fire Lord Azula? It does seem appropriate, but what about you?”

Ozai turns, smirking at the airships while Three Fire Sages put on Ozai’s new royal garments.  

“Fire Lord Ozai is no more. Just as the world will be reborn in fire, I shall be reborn as the supreme ruler of the world. From this moment on, I will be known as the Phoenix King.”

Servants pull up the phoenix emblem behind Ozai.

Soldiers raise the phoenix flags beside the Fire Nation flags. 

Two more soldiers firebend into the base of the flag pole, causing fire to shoot out at the sides. 

The crowd bows before their new king. 

Ozai smirks at the crowd.

At a tavern with Team Avatar

Team Avatar approaches the tavern. 

Inside the tavern, lively music plays. Zuko enters, followed by Katara, Sokka, Jet, Suki, and Toph.

Katara glares at Zuko. “And the reason you've brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?”

Zuko points to the bar. “June.”

June is holding a drink. 

A thug tries to attack her, but she makes him fall down and uses him as a footrest. 

Another thug tries to punch her, but she dodges every punch, still holding her drink.

Sokka lights up with recognition. “Oh yeah, that weird bounty hunter with the giant mole.”

Suki frowns. “Mole? Her skin is flawless.”

Sokka shakes his head. “No, she has this giant mole creature she rides around on.”

Zuko nods. “The shirshu. It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the world. It's the one shot we have of finding him.”

The second thug continues punching June. 

She throws her drink into the air, throws the thug at a table, catches her drink, and takes a sip.

Toph steps forward and grins. “I don't know who this June lady is, but I like her.”

Jun seems to notice them and approaches them.

She smirks and leans over to Zuko, lips ghosting his.

“Hi, Zuzu,” she coos. “Decided you want some more fun?”

Sokka and Jet bristle while Katara and Suki bare their teeth.

“Damn, Sparky got some,” Toph cackled.

Zuko flushed as June snickers.

***

Aang wakes up when Momo licks his cheek.

Aang wakes up drowsily, petting Momo’s ears. “Hey, Momo. I just had the strangest dream. Wait.”

Aang squints at his surroundings. “Where are we?”

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 1: Reveal

“Katara! I need your help,” called Zuko. Katara whips around to assess for danger but smiles softly when she sees Zuko struggling to redo the bandages. The alpha walks over and gently starts to redress the wound on his arm. As she gets closer to his shoulder she smells the air and blinks in surprise.

“You’re an omega,” she says softly. Zuko looks startled for a minute but then nods.

“Why do you hide your scent?” she asks, gently.

“I hide my scent because it’s supposedly unbecoming for a future fire lord to be an omega. But then Azula presented as alpha and the throne went to her. The habit of hiding just stuck. I guess you can smell it because I’m in preheat,” he says quietly. Katara smiles gently pressing a motherly kiss to the top of his head.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she says gently against his hair. Zuko smiles and leans to her touch. Toph smirked from her spot behind a rock. She had struck gold with this kind of gossip.

All hell broke loose that evening.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE ZUKO’S AN OMEGA!” Sokka screams at the top of his lungs.

“And he’s about to go into heat,” Aang adds unhelpfully. Zuko sends a look of betrayal to Katara that soon morphs into confusion as she shook her head at him.

“Sorry, Sparky. I overheard and just had to tell someone,” Toph says, walking to the fire. “Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Aang.

“In the fire nation, omegas are just used for breeding and aren’t allowed to be warriors or benders. I didn’t want you to see me any differently just because I wasn’t an alpha or beta,” Zuko mumbled, shrinking under their gaze. Jet’s face turned to anger as he said, “The fire nation doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You’re a great fighter and an even better bender. We would never judge you for something you can’t control. You’re part of the group, Zuko. You can trust us to help you.” Katara nodded in silent agreement as mumbled phrases of “yeah” and one “preach” from Toph made Zuko crack a smile.

Sokka and Jet talk in their tent later that night.

“Zuko’s an omega,” Jet says.

“Yeah,” Sokka says, nodding slightly.

“He’s bunking with Katara.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s an alpha.”

“Yup.”

“They’re both unbonded.”

“Sounds about right.”

“They’re getting comfortable around each other.”

“Hmm.”

“I saw them cuddling with Zuko as the little spoon and his head was tucked under Katara’s chin.”

“Ok.”

“Fuck.”

“Sounds about right.”

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 38: Gondola

“The Gondola is moving,” Zuko whispers.

“No shit, Sozin,” Suki deadpans, earning a glare from the omega.

They watch tensely as it lands.

People come out, all different sizes, shapes, and color.

Sokka looks in abject horror as his father never emerges.

“There’s no way that’s it,” Jet said, voicing their concern.

Sokka was about to leave when a guard yells, “You! Hurry up!”

And out of the Gondola comes Hakoda.

He was weathered but still looked prideful.

“Line ‘em up for The Warden.” Another guard yells.

Zuko and Suki reluctantly leave but watch over from the railing in the courtyard.

“Excuse me, The Warden wants us over there,” Jet apologizes and walks over to a spot behind Hakoda with Sokka.

“Listen up, Scoundrels. Welcome to hell. Everything will be fine as long as you listen to me. Do as I say or there will be consequences. Talk shit, get hit. Clear?” The Warden said, his voice booming across the large field.

He walks up to Hakoda and looks at him. The Water Tribe Chief looks at a point on the wall beyond him.

“Look me in the eye when I speak,” The Warden spits, glaring at the alpha.

“No,” Hakoda responds rudely.

The Warden quickly slams him to the ground with his shackles.

Zuko grabs onto Suki’s arm and Sokka almost flies at The Warden if not for the hand  from Jet on his arm.

“Do you take me for a fool, Hakoda, Chief of the Water Tribe. I know who you are, you resilient excuse of an alpha. You’re stubborn but I’m sure we can break that. Now look at me when addressed.” The Warden snarls.

Hakoda slowly looks up to meet The Warden’s eyes in a fiery glare.

The Warden smiles. “See how easy that was?”

He moves to leave, but Hakoda pulls his chain so slightly to make The Warden trip and fall.

Sokka bites back a laugh and Jet covers his mouth to fake shock but was truly doing it to hide his growing smile. The guards near them ran to help up The Warden.

“Are you ok?” One guard asks.

“Yes just get these prisoners out of my sight!” The Warden yells, glaring at Hakoda.

Less than a moment later, large sirens were ringing as a yell was heard from the east of the volcano. Guards were thrown around and Sokka and Jet somehow ended up next to their omega.

“What’s your plan now?” Zuko hisses as they watch the trio of prisoners get caught ferrying across the boiling water. The Warden cackles at the three of them, saying something about “not letting my record drop.” 

“Uh, if I’m being completely honest, I’m kind of winging it right now,” Sokka whispers back. Jet whips his head around to glare at his boyfriend. 

“What do you mean, you’re winging it?” Jet growls at him. “Our fate is resting on you!”

Sokka rubs his neck awkwardly. Zuko gives Jet a look. 

“Look, I’ll make a plan after I meet my dad.”

“Okay…” 

Jet gives Sokka an untrusting look before turning back to look at the guards leading Chit Sang and his friends away.

Sokka and Jet are pulled away once more and are out on patrol. They were walking the high walkway of the west side when they hear the bell ringing for the prisoners to be let into the courtyard.

Sokka and Jet watch as Hakoda looks shocked but hugs Zuko and Suki as tight as possible.

“What the hell are you doing here, Zuko?” Hakoda asks, still happy after seeing his future son-in-law.

“Sokka,” Zuko said, as if expecting that word to explain everything. And it did.

Hakoda just sighs.

“That’s what I said!” Suki exclaimed.

“Is Jet here too?” Hakoda questions.

“Yup. They were dressed as guards. I was too but I had to reveal myself to save their sorry asses,” Zuko grumbled.

Hakoda laughs. 

“I’m happy to see you, but why did you guys come?” Hakoda asks.

“To save you. Then we met Suki. Then I got caught. Then we bonded. Then, we’ll, then this happened.” Zuko said, pointing to himself then Hakoda as if to explain the exchange.

Hakoda nods thoughtfully before grinning. “Will I be a grandad soon?” 

Zuko outright says no and keeps rambling about different reasons he can’t parent yet and Suki is laughing so hard, she’s in tears.

“I hate you all,” Zuko grumbles.

“We love you too, my Prince,” Suki said with an exaggerated bow.

Hakoda chuckles at the display but it hurts his heart to see them that way. They were still children. They didn’t need to be in prison or risking their lives to save the world.

But here they were, laughing and joking.

Hakoda allows himself to release the guilt. These kids were strong. They’d make it through.

[amixiifish]

Heat- Chapter 65: Reconcile

The moon shone brightly overhead the group as they got closer to the White Lotus campsite.

Bumi lowers a rock wall to allow entrance to the camp.

Bumi steps in and claps his hands. “Well, here we are. Welcome to Old People Camp.”

Zuko swallows thickly. “Where….where is he?”

Piandao looks at him before pointing to a lone tent on the other side of camp. “Your uncle's in there, Prince Zuko.”

Zuko immediately becomes worried at his actual title being used before walking toward the tent. 

Zuko was about to open the tent when he hesitated.

Katara steps forward.

She thinks for a moment before deciding to go simpler. “Are you okay?”

Zuko frowns as he sits. “No, I'm not okay. My uncle hates me, I know it. He loved and supported me in every way he could, and I still turned against him. How can I even face him?”

Katar sits next to him. “Zuko, you're sorry for what you did, right?”

Zuko looks at her, honesty shining in gold eyes. “More sorry than I've been about anything in my entire life.”

Katara smiles softly. “Then he'll forgive you. He will.”

Zuko stands up. 

He exhales deeply, a small lick of fire leaving his mouth.

He enters the tent, head held low in respect for his uncle.

“Uncle?” Zuko asks tentatively.

Zuko frowns as he hears snoring. 

Zuko stood at the entrance, a stupid smile forming on his face as he sees a sight he didn’t realize he missed. 

Iroh lay there, deep asleep, snores leaving the old firebender.

Zuko sits next to him, feeling slightly better about seeing his uncle.

He presses a gentle kiss to the old beta’s forehead.

***

Aang flops down. “All these past Avatars. They keep telling me I'm gonna have to do it. They don't get it.”

Momo chitters.

Aang sits up. “You're right. Maybe an Air Nomad Avatar will understand where I'm coming from. I know you can't really talk. Pretending you can just helps me think.”

Momo chitters again.

Aang scowls. “I'm going to pretend I didn't pretend to hear that.”

Aang strats meditating one last time for luck.

The spirit of Avatar Yangchen, a female Air Nomad Avatar, appears before him. 

Yangchen smiles warmly at Aang. “I am Avatar Yangchen, young airbender.”

Aang bows slightly. “Avatar Yangchen, the monks always taught me that all life is sacred. Even the life of the tiniest spider-fly caught in its own web.”

Yangchen nods thoughtfully. “Yes. All life is sacred.”

Aang smiles. “I know, I'm even a vegetarian. I've always tried to solve my problems by being quick or clever. And I've only had to use violence for necessary defense. And I've certainly never used it to take a life.”

Yangchen sighs. “Avatar Aang, I know that you're a gentle spirit, and the monks have taught you well, but this isn't about you. This is about the world.”

Aang feels panic rise slightly. “But the monks taught me that I had to detach myself from the world so my spirit could be free.”

Yangchen looks at him wearily. “Many great and wise Air Nomads have detached themselves and achieved spiritual enlightenment, but the Avatar can never do it. Because your sole duty is to the world. Here is my wisdom for you: Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs, and do whatever it takes to protect the world.”

Yangchen vanishes.

Aang feels an oncoming panic attack when Momo jumps into his lap for comfort.

Aang pets him for a moment before collecting himself. “I guess I don't have a choice, Momo. I have to kill the Fire Lord.”

***

Zuko blinks awake when he feels eyes looking at him.

When he finally awakens, he sees Iroh looking him dead in the eye with not a single expression on his face.