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f0xfordcomma · 3 years

Text

re:union (kataang week 2021) DAY SIX

prompt: tease

re:union

chapter six: his hands (again)

rating: T*

*note: I updated the rating because this chapter is ever so slightly ~ahem~ suggestive in places

words: 1338

summary: “Exactly!” She jabbed him playfully in the chest with a finger. “I was clearly trying to help you out! And you’re welcome for dealing with Zhu, and for providing you with a much needed cold shower.”

read it on ao3

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“Get back here, Aang!” Katara was dripping wet and propelling herself on a wave across Yue Bay in pursuit of her screaming sparring partner.

Aang, in a similar state of saturation, produced a small tornado to shoot himself up into the air and out of the way of her water blast as she neared him. He almost missed the chance to evade her attack, unable to see through his tears of laughter.

“That’s cheating!” She hollered up at him, her hair whipping around her face from the force of the flurry, her hands planted on her hips, and her lips pouting out in protest.

“It’s just self-defense! I was being hunted by a crazed waterbender!”

“Oh shut up, you deserved it.” She made a show of wringing the water out of her hair with her hands (even though she could have used her bending to quickly dry it) and maintained scowling eye-contact with him while the droplets rejoined the sea. “You messed up my hair.”

“You messed up mine first.”

“You don’t have hair!”

“Well, no. But still! You started it!”

“Oh hush, you needed a shower anyway.”

“Did I really smell that bad?”

“Appa smells better.”

“I was planning to freshen up… thanks for the save with Councilman Pointy Nose back there, by the way. I just got a little caught up with everything and then my shoulder and… well, here we are.” Aang lowered himself back down to the water and stood in front of Katara, shrugging in feigned composure.

“Exactly!” She jabbed him playfully in the chest with a finger. “I was clearly trying to help you out! And you’re welcome for dealing with Zhu, and for providing you with a much needed cold shower.”

Her cheeks burned. His burned too. The insinuation had been an accident, but Aang couldn’t exactly deny the veracity of the statement. Waterbending practice with Katara had always been one of his favorite things. And it had everything to do with the push and pull and peace of the water and absolutely nothing to do with Katara’s waterbending outfit (or lack thereof) and the way that her hips swayed and her hair swished and her lips puckered and her hands… it had nothing to do with any of that.

Aang quickly averted eye-contact, worried that Katara could read the thoughts running rampant through his mind. He took her hand, which had gone slack on his chest, in his own and brought it down to her side, squeezing it gently. “I’m sorry I ruined your hair. C-Can I help fix it for you?”

For someone who didn’t have any hair of his own, Aang was surprisingly skilled with the stuff. When they were kids, still schlepping around the world on Appa and hiding out from the fire nation, they’d sometimes pass the time by practicing braids.

Katara had mastered a wide assortment of braids and knots, thanks to her childhood spent with women and fishing nets. First, she taught them to him using strings or reeds or fabric scraps, whatever they could find laying around.

He had taken to the act easily, creating an impressive collection of woven jewelry. Sometimes, they would hand them out to the people that they met on their journeys.

He made her necklace in secret, searching for the most fragrant grasses around their campsite and practicing the most complex braid sequence that she had taught him. He made seventeen imperfect necklaces before settling on the one that he finally ended up giving to her. Perhaps, handing the rejects out to the girls in Makapu village hadn’t been his best idea.

“Can’t you guys find anything better to do?” Sokka had complained once, while digging through a saddle bag full of bracelets in search of some squirreled away seal-jerky. “This is getting excessive.” After their sojourn in the great divide, the storage bags on Appa’s saddle where they��d kept all of the twisted trinkets had been mysteriously emptied.

They moved on to hair. Appa was an exceptional pet for someone learning how to braid. For a time, his entire hide was covered in a variety of plaits. Sometimes they collected flowers to weave in. Appa’s hair became a tapestry of their travels. Flowers from Omashu and Chin and the foggy swamp and Gaoling detailed where they had been. Sokka, though prone to some grumbling at how effeminate it made the “big and burly” bison look, did appreciate the way the floral fragrance nearly disguised his smell, nearly.

Then, Appa had been taken, and Aang’s hands had gotten anxious. One night Katara watched him absentmindedly pick at the skin on his thumb, dig the dirt out from under his nails, wring his fingers together until they were red, tap a stuttering tune on his knee. He needed something to do with his hands. She pulled her hair out of its braid and sat in front of him wordlessly, letting him brush his fingers through it, plait and unplait and replait sections of it. His hands were hesitant at first, drawing back with a start if he accidentally grazed her scalp, her ear, her neck. Over time, though, they both grew comfortable with the closeness. It became normal to him, routine. Run, hide, bend. Eat, sleep, meditate. Play with Katara’s hair until my hands stop shaking.

“That—actually that would be great.” Katara’s scarlet blush deepened as she babbled on. “I was kind of wanting to do something special with it for tonight anyway and Toph isn’t exactly the ideal girlfriend to have when it comes to hair and it's too late to make an appointment and—”

“Katara.” He was still holding her hand, he squeezed it.

“Hmm?”

“Shall we?”

“Oh! Right!” She allowed him to lead her out of the water and toward a shady spot along the bay.

She sat down. He squatted behind her, taking care not to fall into old habits and allow his legs to wrap around hers, settling her into his lap, the way that they would sit when they would do this before.

His fingers were gentle as they brushed the tangles out, bent the lingering water from her locks. He separated her water-born waves into four chunks, braiding each in turn, then wrapping the sections together into a detailed top-knot. He’d left her signature hair loopies out, and they now dangled limply around her face while the rest of her hair was pulled back.

“Can you face me, real quick?”

Gingerly, Katara lifted from her seat and positioned herself on her own knees in front of Aang. Their eyes parallel with one another. Their breaths catching simultaneously.

With trembling hands, Aang reached up to braid the sections of hair around her face and slowly secured them into the bun, as well. He surveyed his handiwork. She closed her eyes against his gaze.

“It needs something…”

A flash of yellow, a sprig of daylilies growing along the beach, caught his eye. He stood to retrieve a bloom and felt her eyes following him as he went.

When he returned, she was standing, watching him with a fond smile on her face and one hand gently patting her head to survey the detailed hair-do. “Aang, this is beautiful.”

He was in front of her. He towered over her. His hands were warm where they brushed her ear as he stuck the flower into the hair there. “Now it is.”

Grey.

Blue.

She licked her lips. In her mind, there were only clouds.

A pebble hit Aang right between the eyes. He grunted, he drew away from her in pain and confusion.

“Glad to see you missed me, Twinkletoes! Been in town five whole hours and didn’t bother to even say hello. Get your lily-livered asses up here, I was sent to find you. It’s almost time for the feast and ol’ pointy is having a conniption fit about the dumplings, or something.”

Toph chuckled to herself the whole walk back to Republic Square, flanked, on either side, by the quickest heartbeats she’d ever felt.

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In which Aang and Katara tease each other, and I tease YOU. (Mwahahahahaha)

@kataang-week

chapter one

chapter two

chapter three

chapter four

chapter five

chapter seven

#kataang week 2021 #kataang #ao3 #foxford writes words #avatar the last airbender #atla #katara #aang #tease #re:union

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bisexuals4zuzu · 4 years

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Blush

PAIRING: Zuko x reader WARNING: None

You and Katara were sitting by the edge of the water. You were both talking about what it was like traveling with the boys. You mentioned how annoying Sokka could be and how hyperactive Aang was making the both of you laugh.

“What about Zuko? Katara asked.

“What about him?”

“What do you find annoying about him?”

“I don’t know,” you felt your face heat up, “I don't know anything about him really.” It was true you didn't know him for very long.

“Oh Gosh, look at your face, you look like a tomato,” Katara jokes. Since you joined the gang on their travels, you and her had grown close. You thought of her as your sister.

“What?” you shrieked covering your face with your hands.

“Oh, do you have a crush on him?” Katara asked with a giggle as you looked back to see the rest of the gang in groups. Sokka and Suki were sitting further down the beach talking while wrapped in each other's arms. Toph was off practicing her sandbending. While Zuko was teaching Aang firebending.

“W-what! No!” you stuttered out.

“Oh my God, you’re in love!” she said loudly, poking your sides. Her voice carried and you turned your head to see Sokka and Suki now looking in your direction before turning your head to see if Aang and ZUko heard anything. Thankfully they didn't seem to notice.

“What! No, no, no!” you said trying to get her to be quieter.

“Yes! You are!” She thankfully whispered this time but you could feel embarrassment and anger rising in your stomach.

“No, no! Damn it, no!” you yelled slightly louder, causing the others in the groups to glance in your direction once more.

Sokka walked over to the two of you while you had your face buried in your hands.

“Katara, what did you do and why does (Y/N) look like a tomato?”

“She likes a certain someone,” she shifted her head in the direction of the two benders as you smacked the top of her head, “and won’t admit it.” she finished rubbing the spot you had just smacked.

“I don't like him” you hissed quitely, “and if i did why would you tell the resident loud mouth,” you snapped getting up and walking back to the beach house.

You flopped down on the bed in the room you were staying in. You covered your face with a pillow and screamed into it. You didn't notice when there was a knock at the door or when it was opened. It was only when you felt the bed shift as someone sat down on it, that you uncovered your face and sat up on the bed. Much to your surprise, you saw zuko sitting at the edge of your bed looking at you with a small smile.

“I wanted to come see if you were okay,” He said, shyly, “Katara seemed to think it was for the best that she didnt come and check on you.”

“I’m going to hurt her,” you mumbled under your breath.

“I can go if you don't want to talk to me or just dont me here,” he said, shifting slightly.

“No,” you spoke a little to quickly, “you don't have to go,”

“What did Katara do that made you run away?”

“She was telling Sokka that…” your sentence trailed off.

“What was she telling Sokka,” He asked, quirking his brow.

“That I like, um,” You tried to think of a lie that you could say but you were already in too deep, “She was telling Sokka that I have a crush on you.” you looked down at your lap.

You were sitting so close you could feel Zuko's breath get caught in his throat.

“You,” Zuko said quietly, “You like me.” He said under his breath like he was trying to convince himself.

“(Y/N),” he said, “I like you too. I just didn't think you would or could like me back.”

“I mean my father gave me this hideous scar.”

“Your father?” you questioned. You had obviously noticed his scar but never really knew how he got it.

“Yeah,” he said.

“I do like you,” you muttered, feeling your heart race at the closeness of the two of you. His eyes looked down at your lips, as you felt your breath get caught in your throat. He pulled you closer to him closing the gap between the two of you.

“(Y/N), are you really this mad at me?” Katara said as she swung the door open to see. You and Zuko with your lips pressed together.

“How can you be mad when I was right?” she said as you and Zuko pulled away from each other. A blush on both of your cheeks.

“I’m mad you told Sokka and his loud mouth.” you said before Katara stormed out of the room. You shifted away from Zuko slightly but he placed a hand on the small of your back pulling you closer, placing a small peck on your lips.

“I have you go train Aang some more,” he placed another kiss on your lips before getting up and leaving you there a blushing mess.

@thyunnamed @astroninaaa @knaite-solo @oddment-niwit-blubber-tweak @the-firebender-girl @coldlilheart

#zuko imagine #avatar zuko #prince zuko #atla zuko #zuko x reader #zuko #alta #atla aang

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milkypompon · 4 years

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𝕋𝕠𝕠 𝕃𝕒𝕥𝕖 Pt.2 | Reader x Sokka x Zuko | ℤ𝕌𝕂𝕆'𝕊 𝔼ℕ𝔻𝕀ℕ𝔾

𝕐𝕆𝕌 ℂℍ𝕆𝕊𝔼 ℤ𝕌𝕂𝕆'𝕊 𝔼ℕ𝔻𝕀ℕ𝔾

< ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤 || 𝕊𝕆𝕂𝕂𝔸'𝕊 𝔼ℕ𝔻𝕀ℕ𝔾 >

𝕀𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕖 | Y/N and Sokka crushed on each other for the longest time, but neither of them had the guts to tell about their feelings. Sokka tried to ignore how he felt by flirting and dating other people, which left Y/N confused. Until, Y/N met Zuko, firing up something within Sokka.

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 ℕ𝕠𝕥𝕖 | Okay, cutie Zuko is here! I took the opportunity and answered a request as well, I hope this will suffice for your flaming hotman needs!! Thank you to everyone that’s waited!

WARNINGS: Angst! Fluffy! Smut! Few cussies??

𝔼ℕ𝕁𝕆𝕐

Sounds of whispers and giggles were carried by the wind of the night. The Gaang sat around a flickering flame, shuffling their hands together near the fire to keep warm. Each one of them leaned their backs against a tree to support their dropping frames. There was still tension from the interaction between Sokka and Y/N, which neither of them returned yet.

Their heads whipped to the approaching sounds of leaves crunching under quick boots.

It was Y/N.

Y/N released wavering hiccups and occasional sniffs. The fire illuminated their wilting features. But, it wasn’t a lasting sight for the worried friends because Y/N ran further into the dark forest, only guided by the dotted stars.

Toph dusted off her tunic from dirt as she stood up, “I’ll talk to Y/N-”

Zuko was already walking towards Y/N’s direction, “It’s alright, I think I know what this is about… But, I hope I’m wrong.” He muttered the last part to himself.

Zuko began to feel Y/N’s presence in a different way everyday: The sight of their eyes lighting up with the sunrays and hearing their laugh jingle like happy bells softened his heart. But, he didn’t want to intervene between Sokka and Y/N’s established relationship. Zuko hoped that he didn’t break their bond just because he happened to be there. The tears that streaked their face was an image that he could not forget because Zuko caused that.

“Y/N! I… I think we need to talk this out!” He yelled into the towering trees and the sky above.

Zuko walked for what seemed like miles, or maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him because he was anxious about the thought of having to let go of them when it was time to relay his thoughts onto Y/N.

A feeling of warmth washed over his anxious thoughts when he was greeted by Y/N’s back. They mindlessly dangled their legs over a clifftop, picking at blades of grass that tickled the palm of their hand. Y/N was well-aware of the voice that’s been carried by the wind, but they didn’t want to face them with such a horrendous face and incomplete thoughts.

Zuko slowly approached Y/N, careful not to startle them. “Can I sit next to you?” He tried to catch their eye, but they only turned a way and hummed a yes.

Y/N picked another blade of grass, rolling it around between their fingers.

He leaned back with his arms supporting him, looking into the dark sky decorated by flecks of glowing stars. “Y’know Toph wouldn’t be so happy if you treated her element like that,” Zuko turned his head and offered Y/N a small smile.

Still looking into their lap, Y/N retorted with a wavering voice, “Speaking of Toph, I bet she was gonna talk to me, huh?”

Zuko ignored their comment, not out of ignorance, but his mind was running a thousand miles per hour. “I… I’m not sure if this is the best time to tell you-” He paused when Y/N’s eyes began to gloss over.

Y/N said in a dangerously low voice, “What? That you like me or some shit? I don’t even know what love means.” Tears began to slide down their cheeks.

Zuko was taken aback by what they said. Then, he was startled by the onslaught of rain that began to sprinkle onto them. Slowly, but surely, the stars were covered by heavy, water-filled clouds. His mouth gaped, “I knew that Y/N was a waterbender, but being able to control the weather with their emotions…”

Zuko quickly recovered from his discovery. “Y/N, please. At least head into camp with me,” he pleaded as he shielded his eyes from the rain.

Y/N’s tears were beginning to mix with the salty drops of rain that became larger. “Just leave me alone!” Y/N threw their hand out towards Zuko’s chest.

The clouds clapped and emanated grumbling sounds of anger. Zuko’s eyes widened when a rope of lightning approached him. He couldn’t catch it in time to scoop it with his fingers, down towards his stomach, then shoot out to the opposite direction- Just as Uncle Iroh taught him.

It all came too quickly.

Y/N was stunned at the sight of electricity dancing around Zuko’s quivering frame that fell harshly to the dirt.

His eyelashes batted slowly.

“Y/N…” Zuko groaned.

Darkness enveloped him.

Soft cushions supported Zuko’s body and a thin blanket layed over his legs. He looked up only to be greeted by the fabric of a tent.

Zuko attempted to prop himself up with his elbows, but he came down with a loud thud and a pained moan. He scanned his body for any visible pain and not to his surprise, was a crawling scar on his chest, specifically on the skin above his heart.

Zuko squeezed his eyes shut in agony, memories of last night came flooding into him, which made his heart wince even more.

“How could I be so stupid?” He thought. Zuko was pulled back from his trance of blame and sadness with the sound of the tent’s entrance being pulled open. Quickly, he shut his eyes, quipped up a calm face and pretended to be asleep.

Y/N shouted behind their shoulder, “It’s alright Katara! I’ll take this shift.” They held a bowl of glimmering water, collected from their rainy rage last night.

They carefully set down the bowl next to Zuko’s head and slipped off their boots, careful not to track in any mud.

Y/N didn’t make a single sound, no sighs escaped their lips as they wrapped their hands with water. It languidly slid between their fingers, glowing a little brighter each time a droplet joined their hands.

They brought the healing water onto Zuko’s scarred chest that angrily glowed red, contrasting the cool blue hue. To Y/N’s dismay the wound didn’t diminish, not even by the slightest.

Zuko pried his eyes open, knowing Y/N was too concentrated on healing his wound, just enough to see their luscious lips whisper, “I hate it when Katara’s right about waterbending and my damn emotions…”

He shut his eyes again when Y/N slowly trailed their eyes up to his face. “Zuko, I…”

Zuko’s ears warmed up, already feeling the embarrassment he’d have to face when they told him that they knew he was awake this whole time.

Y/N released a heavy sigh, “I’m sorry…”

He was stunned at Y/N’s words.

“I’m sorry that I led you on and hurt you like this!” Their eyes began to dampen. “You stayed with me when you could’ve left, instead you dealt with my dramatic ass last night,” Y/N laughed a little at the end.

“I wanted to share the stars with you last night and see your face light up, instead I lit you up, literally…” They confessed.

Zuko couldn’t help, but tear his eyes open just a little. Y/N’s tears came down like rainfall, it splashed into their hands, joining the preexisting water on his chest.

Y/N’s lip quivered, “You make me feel warm everytime you look at me with those amber eyes of yours. What I’m trying to say is… I love you too…” They were bawling at this point.

Suddenly, the once languid pools of water surrounding Y/N’s hands and Zuko’s chest, swirled up to Y/N’s arms and covered their upper body.

“UHMM!” Y/N’s mouth gaped open in surprise and uncertainty. They tried to pry their hands away, but it stuck onto him like glue.

“ZUKO!” They yelled, now in fear.

Zuko’s eyes immediately shot up at the blue hue of water glowing brightly, not to mention Y/N’s hands pressing lightly on his scar. He would be blushing profusely at the contact, but that was the last thing he had on mind at the moment. The water swayed and flicked faster, releasing sounds similar to ocean waves crashing onto rocks.

No one outside seemed to hear the raging sounds that occurred in the tent. They didn’t even hear Y/N’s cries of help.

Zuko and Y/N were stuck.

Zuko propped himself up with his arms, frantically scanning his eyes at the situation. His eyes were blown wide, “Y/N! YOUR- YOUR CHEST!”

Y/N felt their ears heat up. “MY WHAT?!” Out of instinct, they attempted to lift their arms to cover themselves from Zuko, forgetting they were glued onto him.

Realizing what Zuko implied, he replied with a stutter, “N-No! I mean look down!”

When Y/N did, their chest glowed, no-

Y/N’s heart illuminated blue through their chest. The sensation was unexplainable. They felt warmth and comfort, though there was a mixture of power that surged throughout their body. The energy would have been unbearable, if it weren’t for the contact that they and Zuko shared at the moment.

Y/N was sharing something with Zuko through his own glowing heart.

“SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!” they yelled back.

When Zuko looked at his chest, underneath Y/N’s hands, there were blue flares. It resembled the flickering flames of fire, but it was cool to the touch like ocean water.

The flares were kept at bay by their hands.

They both realized this, causing them to look up and lock eyes.

The brilliant light that emanated from their elements coming together became unbearable, causing them to close their eyes. The sound that followed it was a deafening pop!

Zuko was the first to comment on the situation after the rageous situation died down, “Look…”

Y/N noticed the water dissipating into mist, floating away calmly as if nothing at all had happened. Their nose scrunched up and their mouth turned up in a small smile.

There was wonder that twinkled in their eyes, Zuko noticed.

He cleared his throat, “You can, uh, let go now.”

“Sorry!” Y/N’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment as they felt his toned chest under their light fingertips. They couldn’t look away from Zuko’s state: His usual tousled black hair was pulled back with occasional strands meeting his forehead. His pupils dilated in the tent that was no longer illuminated by Y/N’s water. Y/N lingered on a little longer at the sight, until they slowly looked down.

The pair sat face to face now: Y/N’s legs were tucked in under their knees, while Zuko’s was pulled close to him in a criss cross fashion. They both gasped at the sight of Zuko’s once scarred chest, now it was a small tattoo that resembled the Water Tribe crest.

“YOU MARKED ME?” Zuko’s hands scrambled up to touch the mysterious tattoo.

Y/N flinched at his voice and made their cheeks puff, “That’s what you ask after all that emotionally driven magic?”

“And if you’re so angry about it, then maybe I can make more marks to match it,” Y/N muttered to themself.

Zuko wasn’t sure if they heard them right, but his interpretation made his cheeks blush profusely. “I… okay,” he looked past Y/N not wanting to meet their eyes.

“You- you mean it?” Y/N was absolutely stunned.

“I mean it if you do as well,” Zuko timidly scratched the back of his neck.

“I’m not really sure where to start,” he admitted.

“Don’t worry, I'll take care of you,” Y/N propped themself up on all fours and crawled closer to Zuko. They brought a gentle handle to his jaw and kissed the corner of his lips.

Y/N placed their lips near his ear, “...because I love you so dearly.”

Zuko’s hair stood straight at the sound of Y/N’s sultry voice.

The feeling was short-lived as they pulled away and asked him to position his legs in a way that would allow Y/N to straddle his hips comfortably.

Y/N felt Zuko’s unsure hands trying to get a hold of them, his eyes were a little lost, but there was a sense of satisfaction at the way they connected together. Y/N carefully grabbed his wrists, guiding his hands to their hips.

Once again, Y/N whispered into the shell of Zuko’s ear, “Grip them here. Don’t worry, I won’t break.” Their little giggle made his spine tingle. Y/N slowly trailed their feathery-light fingertips along Zuko’s toned arms. The sensations that he felt were electrifying, it made his hairs stand on edge and toes curl.

Y/N took their time on drinking up Zuko’s unraveling state. But they knew that he needed more. They snaked up one hand to his shoulder, while the other cradled the nape of his neck. Y/N licked their luscious lips and began to press soft kisses along his jawline. Slowly making their way to Zuko’s neck, Y/N began to nibble, receiving whimpers. They swirled their tongue on the little marks that they promised to leave.

Zuko was ecstatic with this new feeling of warmth quite different from fire. He couldn’t help but groan as Y/N began to grind their hips onto his, each touch made him want to beg for more.

Y/N saw Zuko bite his reddening lips, he was holding back.

“Zu… just let it out,” Y/N said into his bruising collarbone.

Zuko moaned, “Ah… Y/N, that feels so good. Don’t stop doing that-”

“Doing what?” they thrusted into him quickly.

“Hnnngg… Fuck,” he groaned in delight. “Keep going!”

Y/N smirked and stopped. “Keep doing what? You gotta use your mouth of yours, baby,” they said innocently.

“Thrust into me l-like there’s no tomorrow!” Zuko managed to gasp out.

Of course, Y/N did because just as much they loved teasing Zuko, they wanted to feel their body grind and connect in a different way. Y/N leaned into Zuko’s swollen red lips and latched onto it. He gasped and gapped his mouth open when they tugged on their hair roughly, allowing Y/N to slide their wet muscle in.

Y/N weaved in and out of his mouth, then allowed Zuko to explore theirs. His tongue was shy, but sure enough their saliva mixed leaving it to string out on a long strand between them when the pair pulled away.

Y/N’s eyes dilated and looked deep within Zuko’s, “I love you with my whole illuminating heart.”

“And I love you with my little tattooed heart.”

𝔼𝕟𝕕𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖 | I’m sorry loves that we didn’t get a Sokka and Zuko interaction! This had way more words than I intended with a whopping 2.4k-ish, which is more than Sokka’s ending.

Anyways, gimme your LOVE AND THOUGHTS!!

@aidela @mochminnie @boxofteenageideas @hakunamatatayqueen @a-hopeless-fan

#sokka #sokka imagines #sokka x reader #zuko #zuko imagines #zuko x reader #atla #atla imagines #avatar #avatar imagines #reader x sokka x zuko #reader x zuko x sokka #sokka x reader x zuko #zuko x reader x sokka

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soopersara · 4 years

Text

Rebirth

Zutara Week 2020: Day 7

AO3 | FFN

@zutaraweek

While Katara is resting, a still-injured Zuko wanders off and gets stuck by the turtleduck pond.

Just a few minutes, she told herself. After so much time healing him, monitoring the slow rise and fall of his chest, she could hardly keep her eyes open anymore.

A few minutes of sleep couldn't hurt. In one of his brief moments of semi-lucid consciousness, Zuko had assured her that the palace staff and the Fire Sages—the few who remained—could be trusted. Katara was less than convinced, but Zuko's condition was more stable than before, and her head kept drooping toward her chest for a few moments at a time before she jerked awake again. She couldn't keep watch over him forever.

It should be fine. So long as she stayed close, nothing bad could happen to him. Not in a few minutes. Not if Katara just curled up in the chair beside his bed for a little snooze. She would wake up at the slightest disturbance, ready to protect or heal him at a moment's notice.

Or that was the idea. Instead, Katara let her eyes slide shut for what felt like a single blink, and when they opened again, she found herself staring at an empty expanse of rumpled, blood-red silk.

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.

She shot out of her chair, bleary-eyed and only half awake. "Where is he? Where did he go?"

She crashed her way into the corridor, then rammed into a timid looking servant woman.

"Where is he?" Katara repeated, a frantic edge to her voice.

The servant fumbled to keep her stack of clean linens from toppling. "Where is who, Miss?"

"Zuko? Where is Zuko?"

"The Fire Lord ordered that you not be disturbed, Miss. I believe His Majesty mentioned fresh air—"

A bit of the sleepy fog lifted from the edges of her mind, and Katara's expression darkened. "Oh, he'd better not."

She took off at a run, careening down one hallway then the next and the next. By the time she realized that the light blanket she'd worn for her brief nap was dragging after her, it was too late to turn back, and she hitched it up around her shoulders like a cloak and kept running. For all the palace's beauty, it was entirely too big. There were too many rooms and balconies and gardens—too many places where Zuko might have wandered in his fevered and dazed state. She ran toward the northern wing of the palace, peeking through doors and shouting for directions whenever she crossed paths with a servant.

At last, she saw a patch of pallor lying in a shady spot beneath a tree. Zuko. She darted out the door toward him.

Zuko lay on his back, one arm bent behind his head like a pillow, bare feet dangling a few inches over the surface of the pond. Katara's heart sat in her throat.

He was okay. He was safe, and he was still breathing.

He was an idiot.

"You were supposed to stay in bed and rest," Katara called as she marched toward him.

Zuko rolled his head her way and blinked, eyes unfocused. "Katara?" His voice came out thin and cracked. "I told them not to wake you up."

She crossed her arms. "They didn't. You wandered off."

"Mmm." His eyes slipped shut, and his forehead creased as though he were deep in thought. "You were tired," he eventually rasped.

She wanted to be annoyed with him. She wanted to fuss about how worried she'd been to find him missing, she wanted to raise a stink about how his servants ought to intervene when Zuko did stupid, dangerous things like wandering the palace alone while injured and disoriented. But even with his forehead creased like it took all his effort to string words into coherent sentences, even with a feverish sheen on his brow and his hair clinging to his forehead in streaks, he looked easier, more peaceful than he had in days.

He was safe. He was going to be okay.

Katara sat beside him, letting her feet dangle over the pond beside his. "I was tired, but I'm not the one who jumped in front of lightning."

His eyes opened a slit. "When was that?"

She studied him. Though his eyes were open, they drifted a bit, struggling to focus. She wasn't sure how she should feel about it. There were hundreds—thousands—of questions she wanted to ask him about the Agni Kai. Why he'd agreed to it in the first place. Why his eyes, his voice had gone so soft when he promised that she wouldn't get hurt. Why he'd taken the bolt of lightning when he knew he couldn't redirect it properly, and why, even after he'd fallen, he kept reaching for her. And yet she remembered all of it. The horrific cry that tore out of him as the lightning burned him from the inside out, the tremors that ran through his limbs even hours after the fight was over, and the weak, stuttering pulse that took far too long to mend. She wasn't sure she wanted him to remember any of that. He'd lived through it once, that ought to be enough. She never wanted to see him in that kind of pain again, even in memories.

"Do you remember it?" she whispered.

Zuko's brows crept downward in thought. "I remember jumping. I remember you coming back. And your hands—" he made a feeble attempt at mimicking her healing stance, and again his eyes closed. "The water felt good. Everything else is—fuzzy." His expression slackened. "Appa is fuzzy."

A small laugh bubbled out of her, and her shoulders eased a bit. "Weirdo." She pushed his hair away from his eyes. "The comet was a few days ago. You've been sleeping most of the time since then."

"I had weird dreams," he mumbled.

"I'm not surprised." She hugged her knees to her chest, staring across the pond at the remains of what must have once been a lush, beautiful garden. "Is that why you came out here?"

Zuko shook his head slightly. With a slow breath, he opened his eyes again. "No, I—" he tried to push himself upright and made it almost to his elbows before a pained groan tore its way out of his mouth. He fell back, clutching his bandaged middle.

"Zuko!" Katara rose to her knees, bowed halfway over him. His breathing came too harsh and too fast, and the sudden shock of pain had drained all the color from his face. She cupped her hand gently around his cheek. "Zuko, look at me."

He only managed to open his eyes for a second before he clenched them shut again and curled inward.

"I know it hurts, Zuko, but you have to let me see it so I can help."

Zuko couldn't seem to respond, but he allowed her to pull his hands away and unwind the bandages. The lightning wound looked the same as it had for days, the same sunken red splotch just under his ribs, the same pinkish rays of burned skin reaching outward. Katara tried not to feel the heavy lump of guilt that settled into her chest. Encasing her hands with water, she pressed them to the wound and pushed past the sunburst pattern etched into his skin. Between the scar and his life, she would choose his life every time.

She poured herself into the work, feeling for the still-raw edges of the lightning's path and for any fresh damage. His heart, thankfully, was as strong as she could remember it being since the comet, and his lungs, though knotted with painful energy, still shrank and swelled with his breath. She kept working, smoothing the tattered edges and drawing out the set to work mending the burned flesh and drawing the knots of energy away until Zuko's breathing finally eased.

Katara let out a breath she hadn't realized that she'd been holding and sat down, suddenly spent. Zuko was paler than before, his forehead creased, and his eyes pressed shut. She rested a palm against his forehead.

"You should still be in bed," she told him.

"Mmm." He drew in a slow, shuddering breath, and his eyes opened a slit. "Too late. I'm stuck here."

She almost wanted to argue with him, to order him back to his bed so he could rest and heal properly. So that she could keep him and the supplies—the fresh bandages, the clean water, the medicines—all within reach. But he had a point. If he couldn't sit without being overcome by pain, he wouldn't be able to walk back to his room. And the thought of trying to carry him was too much for Katara. She was tired too.

"No wandering off without me next time," she ordered. "I don't want you getting stuck anywhere dangerous, understand?"

Zuko gave a small nod. "Mmhmm."

Slowly, Katara exhaled. He was okay. Even if he was a little fuzzy, a little confused right now, he was going to heal, and he would be healthy again.

"Here." She picked her blanket up from where it had fallen behind her and spread it over the prickly, dry grass. "This should be more comfortable."

Slipping her hand beneath his shoulders, she pulled him up just far enough so that she could help him scoot onto the blanket an inch or two at a time. Zuko grimaced and groaned at the motion, but when Katara finally lowered him back to the ground, his face relaxed again. With a contented little sigh, he nestled against her side, and his hand crept out to find hers.

She gave in, squeezing his hand in response before lying down on the blanket beside him. Her head rested lightly against his shoulder, and he smiled, soft and small, eyes still shut.

"I came out here because I wanted to see the turtleduckies," Zuko said, barely over a whisper. His brow creased. "Tlurtleduckings. Turtledluckings."

"Turtleducklings?" Katara offered.

He nodded. "Those."

She smiled and snuggled into his shoulder. "I think you might be delirious."

"Am I?"

Reaching upward, she smoothed the hair back from his eyes. "Maybe just a little."

"Mmm." He let out a small sigh. "The turtleduckies must be sleeping."

Katara couldn't help herself. Hand still cupped around his face, she stretched upward until her lips brushed against his scarred cheek. She hovered there, pressing all the affection, all the care, all the love she could muster into a small, soft kiss. When she finally pulled away, the faintest hint of a smile playing across his lips was the only sign that he was still awake.

"I'm sure the turtleducklings will be very happy to see you when they wake up," she whispered to him.

His mouth twitched into another small smile, then he lapsed into silence, his breathing growing slower, steadier, until he finally dropped off to sleep.

Beside him, Katara rolled onto her back and stared into the arching branches overhead. Someday. Someday soon he'd be well enough to kiss her back.

#zutara #zutara week #zutara week 2020 #fanfiction #zutara fanfiction #Rebirth #soopersara's scribbles

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radishaur · 4 years

Note

2, 7, and 19 on making a reader swoon with Zuko? 😍

I’d be more than happy to! I hope this lives up to your expectations. :) For those who haven’t read the prompt lists, here are the prompts requested. #2 is “Oh god, how can you manage to switch from cute to sexy in under a second?”, #7 is “The more I look at you, the more I think we need to leave”, and #19 is “If you don’t stop looking at my lips without doing anything about it, I will take you right here on this counter.”

- Zoe

•••

Secrets (Zuko x Reader)

Warnings: Implied NSFW

Genre: Fluff, Implied NSFW

Part: 1/1

Summary: See request

•••

Ever since Zuko had joined the group, we had been having a secret relationship. Well, technically it was more of a friends with benefits situation which was why you two were keeping it a secret.

What can I say? War is stressful and sneaking around with someone takes the stress away. It makes me feel like a teenager for once. It’s quite easy to forget that fact when the fate of the world rests in your hands.

So yes, I was indeed messing around with Zuko. But what did it matter? It was only fun and games. I mean nothing would ever come of it anyways, no matter how much I wanted it to.

No this was simply temporary and I knew that. Allowing myself to have feelings for him was only going to get myself hurt.

“Y/N! Are you listening to a single thing I’m saying?” Sokka asked, scowling at me as I shook my head.

“No, I’m sorry. I got distracted watching Aang train. He looks so graceful,” I said, looking over to where Zuko and Aang were training.

Aang was definitely not what I was looking at. Especially not when Zuko was shirtless. But Sokka didn’t need to know that.

“You’re so easily distracted these days,” he grumbled, clearly annoyed that I hadn’t been listening.

“I’m sorry, Sokka. Really. I promise I’m listening now,” I assured him, turning my body to face him.

He continued telling me about his journey with Zuko to rescue Suki and his father Hakoda and I listened like I promised. Eventually, the sun began to set and everybody made their way inside to eat dinner.

The Ember Island house was unkempt, but it was still a house. Having a kitchen to cook in and a table to eat on was refreshing after so many months of camping. Everybody was talking to each other, engrossed in their own conversations when I decided to go to the kitchen and grab seconds.

It was as I was scooping some more rice onto my plate that I felt an arm wrap around my waist and turn me around. I knew it was Zuko.

“Hello to you too,” I mumbled, biting my lip to fight down my smile.

“Y/N,” he replied, his voice low.

He sent shivers down my spine whenever he spoke like that. It was enough to make my knees weak.

“To what do I owe the pleasure,” I asked him, looking over at the doorway to make sure nobody was coming.

“Don’t think I didn’t see you watching me when I was training with Aang. You’re not very subtle,” he whispered, taunting me by pulling away.

My body instantly missed the heat of his body against mine. I rolled my eyes and smirked.

“Maybe I wasn’t trying to be,” I replied, biting my lip once more.

“You’re getting bold,” he said, stalking closer to me.

My eyes never left his lips as he came closer and closer. I had to resist the urge to kiss him as he brought his boxed me into the counter, one hand on either side of me.

“I always have been. I’m pretty sure it was me who introduced the idea of this dynamic in the first place,” I reminded him, still not looking away from his lips.

“Maybe so,” he smirked, bringing his mouth right next to my ear and whispering so only I could hear, “but we all know who’s in charge when it comes to the actual actions.”

I couldn’t stop the shiver from running down my spine this time. He pulled back enough so that his face was in front of mine. My eyes flickered to his lips once more.

“The more I look at you, the more I think we need to leave,” he growled, bringing his hands to my waist and pulling me as close to him as physically possible.

“They would definitely notice our absence. I guess you’ll just have to wait,” I teased, trailing my hand down his chest.

“I’ll have you when I decide I want you. End of story,” he said, picking me up and setting me down so I was sitting on the counter.

My body screamed at me to leave. It wanted him so badly that I could feel myself pulsating with need. Every cell in my body wanted him. I flicked my gaze back to the doorway and saw that still nobody had come to check on us. I looked back at Zuko and trailed my eyes over his body before stopping back at his lips. Oh, those beautiful perfect lips.

“If you don’t stop looking at my lips without doing anything about it, I will take you right here on this counter,” he whispered, his hands now gripping my thighs and bringing them around his waist.

God I wanted nothing more than to have him do exactly what he just said. The idea of getting caught was both exhilarating and terrifying. I found myself kissing him passionately before I could stop myself.

I only pulled away to catch my breath. Thankfully I did, because not two second after we had stopped kissing, I heard Katara from the other room.

“I think I’ll start cleaning up in the kitchen.”

I shoved Zuko away from me as fast as possible and we both scrambled to fix ourselves up to look normal. I continued piling my plate with food and Zuko pretended to be looking for something in the cupboards.

“Oh, hey guys. I’m surprised to see you two in the same room,” she joked, referencing our tense relationship when he first joined the group.

Turns out all that tension wasn’t from hatred but something else entirely.

“Very funny. I’m over it now. Zuko’s proved that he’s changed and I’m not going to hold his mistakes against him,” I said, picking up my plate from the table.

I could see an expression of surprise cross Zuko’s face at my words. For a second, I could have sworn he had smiled softly but just as quick as I had seen it it was gone. I figured I was just imagining things.

I took my plate back out to the table and sat down to finish eating. I’d be lying if I said Zuko didn’t get me riled up, but that was something that could be taken care of later tonight. For now, I simply enjoyed the company of my friends.

It wasn’t until everybody had finally fallen asleep that I snuck into Zuko’s room. He was in the process of getting undressed when I entered. He smirked as he saw me leaning against the closed door.

“Thanks for the view,” I joked, looking his bare chest up and down.

He rolled his eyes and ignored me. He grabbed the silk robe from the bed and carelessly threw it over his shoulders.

“Always,” he replied as he made his way over to me.

I bit my lip as he came closer, but this time I didn’t hesistate to kiss him. I grabbed the edges of his robe and pulled him closer to me. His arms snakes around my waist and then pulled me into his arms. I continued kissing him until he dropped me onto the bed. He crawled on top of me and I wrapped my legs around his back, pulling him down. I let my hand ghost across his lower area before pulling it back up to his face.

“You’re such a tease,” he said, his eyes filled with lust.

“And you’re not?” I quipped in response.

Zuko and I continued to make out and various pieces of clothing were removed as things amped up. We only stopped when we thought we heard footsteps out in the hall. Zuko fell off of me and laid on the bed at my side as our hearts raced. After a few moments, we both relaxed and figured the noise was probably just the house creaking. Zuko let out a small chuckle that made my heart flutter. He looked so adorable. And then he was looking at me with that familiar glimmer in his eyes that made my knees weak. It was like night and day.

“Oh god, how can you manage to switch from cute to sexy in under a second?” I asked, saying the words I was thinking before I could stop myself.

He immediately blushed a furious red and his eyes widened in shock.

“W-what?” he asked quietly.

My mind raced for answers that never came. Oh spirits I was an idiot. Our relationship was purely physical. It had never crossed the line into affectionate in any way. At least, not out loud. There were many times in my head where I had called him cute or had felt my heart flutter when he laughed.

“I umm....I didn’t-“ I stuttered, stopping immediately when I realized that speaking was only going to dig me deeper into the hole I had dug myself into.

We both sat silently and the tension in the air was practically tangible. I picked at the skin around my nails nervously.

“I’m sorry,” I forced myself to say.

He paused for a minute and I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him. He looked conflicted as he sat next to me. As soon as my eyes met his, he seemed to come to a decision.

“Did you mean what you said earlier?” he asked, his eyes searching for an answer.

“What?” I replied, not quite sure what he was referring to.

“When you said you forgave me. That you didn’t hold anything against me anymore,” he clarified, his gaze moving into his lap instead of my face.

“...Of course I did. You’ve shown me that you’re working to fix your mistakes. I can respect that. I mean, I wouldn’t be sneaking around with you if I still hated you,” I answered, laughing slightly at my last sentence.

“Oh,” was all he said.

“Do you want me to?” I asked cautiously, afraid to head his answer.

“No! No, of course not,” he rushed to answer, biting his lip slightly before saying, “It just....makes things more complicated.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” I admitted, cocking my eyebrow at his odd statement.

He gulped slightly before finally looking at me once more. That same expression that I saw earlier was written clear as day on his face. It made my breath hitch and a million butterflies go haywire in my stomach.

“This was a lot easier when I thought you hated me because I......well I......you....,” he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before taking a deep breath and saying, “It was easier for me to think you hated me because it made it easy for me to repress my feelings for you.”

I let his words sink in. I blinked a few times in disbelief.

“You like me back?” I asked quietly.

“Wait, you like me?” he asked in shock.

I was silent for a moment before a smile broke out onto my face.

“Yea. I do. I really really do,” I admitted, forcing the butterflies I felt to calm down.

I caught the glimpse of a smile before Zuko’s lips came crashing down onto mine. I kissed him back like I would never get to kiss him again. I let myself go in the moment and things progressed like they usually did, except this time it was different.

This time we weren’t just two teenagers sneaking around to lift the weight of the world off our shoulders. This time we were two teenagers who felt the same about each other. And I liked it much better that way.

#zuko imagine #zuko x reader #zuko #prince zuko fanfic #prince zuko fanfiction #prince zuko fic #prince zuko

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naireides · 4 years

Text

you drew stars around my scars

katara learns the story behind zuko's scar; coaxed into writing this by @hooksandheroics aka my zutara screaming partner

zutara week day 6: affirm rated G | wc: 2.2k read on ao3 here

affirm /əˈfəːm/ offer (someone) emotional support or encouragement.

As with most things, it starts with Sokka.

“I got this one when I was a four and slipped on the ice, and I got this one when Katara was practicing with her water knives, and, oh! This one is from when we escaped from Ba Sing Se. It kinda looks like a koalaotter if you squint,” he says eagerly as he rolls up the hem of his pants to show off the slightly raised patch of skin on his shin.

“It does not look like a koalaotter,” Katara says with a roll of her eyes. “It’s just a scar .”

“That’s because you don’t have an artist’s eye,” he sniffs in disdain. “Aang, you see a koalaotter, right?”

He hesitates, looking between the siblings “Uh, well,” he fumbles, leaning to get a closer look of Sokka’s leg, “I guess if I squint --”

“Don’t mind them, Sokka, I think it looks like a koalaotter,” says Toph, where she leaned back against Appa’s side, flicking pebbles in the air.

He grins triumphantly. “See! I told you-- hey .” He glares at her as she starts to laugh.”I’ve got to stop falling for that.”

“You make it too easy,” she giggles before turning over onto her stomach. “I don’t have any cool scars.”

“How would you even know?”

“I just do, Twinkletoes,” she says, blowing a raspberry his way.

Aang looks sour for a second before he brightens and yanks his pants up over his knee. “One time in Omashu I was Bumi and I got this,” he says excitedly gesturing to the hypertrophic scar that graced his knee. “It looks like a map of the Fire Nation!”

Sokka leans in closer, trying to get a better look at it in the flickering light of the campfire. He strokes his chin and says, “Yeah, it actually kinda does.”

“Let me guess,” Katara says flatly, “You and Bumi had a slide accident, didn’t you?”

Aang’s responding sheepish laughter and the faint colour that rises to his cheeks tell her everything that she needs to know.

“What about you, Katara?” he asks, directing the attention to her instead of himself, “Do you have any cool scars?”

She shrugs. “No, not really.”

He pouts. “C’mon. Not even a little one?”

“Yeah Katara, not even a little one,” taunts Sokka, “You know, like when Gran-Gran taught you how to sew and you accidentally stitched your glove to your thigh.”

“Sokka!” she snaps, cheeks ablaze, while the others roar with laughter. “At least I know how to sew. You still ask Gran-Gran to darn your socks!”

It’s his turn to flush now, embarrassment creeping over him. “Zuko!” he calls out, eyes falling on the other boy who’s been surprisingly quiet this whole time. He’s sitting in the shadows, just out of their little fireside circle. “You’re up. Story time.”

His good eye widens as they all look towards him, waiting. “Uh,” he stutters for a moment before pulling the neckline of his shirt. “I have one on my shoulder that kind of looks like a fire lily?” He twists, giving them a glimpse of it for just a second before fixing his shirt to rights. “Azula pushed me into the turtle duck pond when I was ten.”

“Your sister is a psychopath,” Sokka says unimpressed.

“She’s not a psychopath,” he says, still awkward as he rubs the back of his neck, “Just… misunderstood.”

“If you say so.”

“I’m going to take a walk,” he says, abruptly standing up and stalking off into the night before anyone else can get a word in.

They all watch him leave but Katara’s eyes linger the longest, even as Toph changes the topic by saying, “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? I’ll go first! It was sand!”

They continue on with their usual fireside banter until they start yawning more than talking and then, one by one, they tuck in for the night, curling up in their sleeping bags as the fire dwindles to just embers.

Katara waits until Sokka’s sleepy mumbling trail off into snores before she unfurls herself and heads down the rocky pathway to the shore that Zuko had taken earlier.

She finds him there, standing on the still warm sand and staring out at the ocean, nothing but the faint glow of the moon to illuminate his profile. The moon tugs at something in her veins, calling her towards the water, but she ignores it in favour of padding across to where he stood in complete silence.

He doesn’t say anything as she comes to stand next to him, shoulder to shoulder. The heat radiating off of him is a nice contrast to the cool night’s air that swirls around them, laden heavy with salt and sea.

They stand there together, watch the waves lap against the shore, just far enough inland that the water barely brushes against their toes.

“Everyone’s gone to bed,” she says after a couple moments have passed.

When he doesn’t say anything in return, she shifts closer, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Hey. You should get some rest too.”

“I’m fine.”

She sighs inwardly before moving to step in front of his gaze and his head jerks back. “Look, Sokka didn’t mean anything by asking about-- he just lacks tact.”

There’s a faint quirk of his lips at the corners. “I think at this point Momo has more tact than your brother.”

“And you’d be right,” she murmurs in agreement. It’s then she realises how close they’re standing, the way she can make out every line and edge of his face in the watery moonlight. She hasn’t stood this close to him since their brief time in the crystal catacombs together.

The memory of their time together sparks something within her and Katara can’t help but let her eyes drift to his scar, the reddened, raised edges that cover his face from eyebrow to cheekbone.

She expects him to turn his head as he does whenever he catches anyone looking at the scar, but to her surprise, all he does is swallow thickly.

“I should have let you use the magic water when I had the chance huh.”

“Spirit water,” she corrects him, automatic, “To be honest, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t. I ended up using it to save Aang after Azula shot him with lightning.” She fixes him with a look. “She really is a psychopath.”

Zuko shrugs half-heartedly. “She’s still my sister.”

Katara worries her lip, hesitating for a moment before she brings her hand to rest on his cheek, feeling the bumpy, irregular surface of his skin beneath it. He winces at the contact but he still makes no move to turn away from her.

“I don’t know-- you never told me how you got this,” she says softly, her thumb rubbing at the edge where smooth skin gives way to scar tissue.

He seems shocked at that. “You mean you don’t know?” At the shake of her head, his mouth presses into a thin line. “It’s not exactly a great bedtime story.”

“I didn’t expect it to be,” she says, and then adds, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine.” He flashes her a wry grin but there’s no humour behind it, just a long lasting sadness. “It was a spectacle in the Fire Nation. The Fire Lord duelling the crown prince in an agni kai.”

Katara stumbles back as the weight of his words hit her like a freight train. The hand she had on his cheek drops, coming to cover her mouth which had fallen open in shock.

“An agni kai? Your father did this to you?” she asks, her voice just barely above a whisper as she tries to even begin to comprehend just what Zuko might have gone through. Suddenly, his actions in the early days start to make sense.

“My uncle invited me to a war meeting. It was my first time there and they were discussing an invasion plan for the Earth Kingdom. A general proposed sacrificing an entire legion of new recruits-- children, barely sixteen-- and everyone just went along with it. They didn’t see anything wrong with that,” he explains, weariness dripping from every word and settling deep in her bones. “I spoke up. Said it was wrong to lead them to their deaths like that. But by speaking against the general, I spoke against my father and he didn’t appreciate that.”

“And he challenged you to an agni kai,” she finishes, horrified.

Zuko clenches his jaw and nods once before ducking his head. “I didn’t want to fight him. I begged him for forgiveness but my father saw it as a sign of weakness. So he burnt me and then banished me from the kingdom. The only way for me to return home was if I redeemed myself, redeemed my honour , by capturing the avatar,” he says, eyes flicking up to look at her from beneath his lashes.

It’s quiet for a long time, his words hanging heavy in the air. Katara feels hot and cold at the same time, the sickening chill of everything that Zuko had to go through leaking down her spin to mix with the bright, all consuming rage in her stomach. She doesn’t think she’s felt this much anger since she came face to face with Yon Rha.

Katara doesn’t realise that she’s shaking until he puts his hands on her shoulders, steadying her and the turbulent water she accidentally agitated in all of her emotion. The hems of their clothes are wet.

“Hey,” he murmurs, soft, stepping closer, into her space, “It’s okay.”

“It’s okay ?” She chokes out a laugh that sounds like fractured glass. “It’s certainly not okay.”

“I’ve made my peace with it,” he says, thumbs rubbing soothing circles into her biceps, “I thought that when he gave me the scar he took away my honour and that I had to find the avatar to regain it. But I don’t believe that anymore. I’m the only one who can get it back and by helping Aang restore order in the world… well, I like to think it’s a step in the right direction.”

She wants to laugh at how easy he says it, at how he truly believes that there’s still more making up that he needs to do before he can consider himself worthy again.

It’s that expression on his face-- half hope, half determination-- that melts the fight right out of her.

“Zuko,” she starts tenderly. Her hand finds its way back up to his cheek, brushing along the sharp line of his cheekbone, brushing over his scar. “You are the most honourable person I know of.”

She’s close enough that she can see the way his eyes widen at her declaration and the way his white-gold skin colours with a dull flush. His cheek is warm under her palm.

“All of this-- I hate that it happened to you, but you’re a good man. An honourable man. And I’m so glad to have you with us,” she tells him.

Out of everything, this is what gets him to look away, the praise she showers upon him, and Katara can’t help but grin.

She leans forward, closing the narrow strip of space between them, and brushes her lips against his cheek, soft, quick, perhaps too quick for both of them though they would never say it.

His smile is fond when she pulls back, the blush still swirling in his cheeks matching the new one that rises to hers when she meets his eyes. There’s a new warmth blazing in them as he looks down at her, and Katara feels herself colour further.

“Thank you, Katara,” he tells her, affection clinging to the simple words. He squeezes her arms once more before letting his hands drop to his sides. It leaves her strangely cold and she watches as he flexes his fingers, not looking at her again.

Tentatively, she reaches over, taking hold of his hand. It’s much larger than hers, pale with long delicate fingers, and surprisingly calloused for someone who’s a bender, and royalty on top of that. She supposes that it comes from years of training with his dao swords.

His eyes are questioning when she looks back up at him, and she offers a small smile in return.

“Come on,” she says, tangling her fingers in his as she leads him away from the shoreline. “Let’s get some rest.”

The weight of unsaid things linger between them as they slowly pick their way back up to the campsite, a quiet, sweet thing that blooms in the still air of the night. Neither of them say a word as they climb into their sleeping bags, but they lie next to each other, eyes roving across faces and drinking in the tiniest of details that are visible in the light of the dying embers.

Zuko drifts to sleep first and she finds herself looking at his scar again as sleep starts to consume her too. A reminder of his painful past, but hopefully a guiding light to shape his future.

As Katara finally succumbs to sleep, her last thought is that she hopes she’s part of that future with him too.

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #zutara week #atla #my writing #nai did a thing #i posted this on ao3 2 nights ago but forgot to post it here whoops

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yxlenas · 4 years

Note

zutara prompt: Zuko takes a shot of lightning a 2nd time to save katara's life

Please try and spot the exact moment where Zuko really has his priorities RE basically dying straight.

Assassin AU! Post canon.

“Don’t you dare do this to me,” Katara snarls, “Don’t you fucking dare do this to me, Zuko.”

It’s only her fury and her bending keeping him alive right now, her hand contracting rhythmically over his chest as he gasps for breath in time with the push of his blood through his heart. Her fury is what’s keeping her from sobbing as well, the frozen corpse of their target crumpled on the dirty floor of the barn.

Zuko gasps out of time with her bending and Katara feels her heart stutter in time with his. The second his heart can beat and his lungs can work without her help he starts to scream in pain, writhing on the filthy floor as Katara holds him as still as possible.

They hadn’t expected their target to bend lightning, and it had taken them by surprise. The bolt had struck Zuko in the shoulder and torn through him with a horrible crackling sound. He hadn’t even had time to cry out before he’d dropped and gone limp. Katara felt it in her own chest.

She’d frozen the blood in their target’s body without a second thought, not even considering how she could bloodbend right now under a waning crescent moon, and fallen at Zuko’s side. The burn on his shoulder is oozing blood and clear fluids, and the edges are charred. Lichtenberg figures are already forming on the red skin around the burn. Katara is too preoccupied with how weak and erratic his heart is to treat the burn right now. In her arms, Zuko seizes. It’s more aggressive than his usual seizures, the small ones that remind her of the damage from the first time he took lightning. Bloody foam oozes from his bitten lips and Katara gets him on his side and forces his airways open with her fingers, clearing the back of his throat with a swipe of her index finger. Toph bursts through the earthen floor of the barn they’re in and the second she feels Zuko’s heartbeat she screams.

“Katara, it’s a heart attack, he’s having-”

“Shut up,” she snarls, as she feels the uneven pulse of Zuko’s heart get worse beneath her hands. Katara takes his blood and pulls, and Toph sobs as Zuko screams again. He vomits with the pain as Katara forces his heart to beat evenly.

“Send the signal,” she orders Toph, “and do it fast.”

By the time Sokka and Suki pull their unassuming cart around from the road to the barn, Katara has Zuko’s heart beating as well as it can and she’s trying to soothe the tissue damage tearing through his shoulder and chest. His head rests in Toph’s lap as she strokes through his hair, still sobbing. The burn is bad, third degree in places. Katara can feel the hysteria building. He’ll have another scar, likely more neurological damage. She wonders if this is what will completely take him out and away from her.

Sokka lifts him silently into the back of the cart and Katara wraps him in a blanket in an attempt to stave off worsening shock. Zuko drifts in and out of consciousness, shaking with residual electricity. Katara shakes him awake.

“Hey,” she murmurs, “You need to drink.”

Zuko can barely swallow, and his left arm won’t move. Katara knows it’ll fade as he recovers but it’s terrifying seeing him half paralyzed and so weak.

His ribs and shoulder joint are fractured, and the upper bone in his arm is covered in hairline cracks. His collarbone needs to be reset. They can’t do this until they reach the ship. Katara holds him tight and brushes his hair back from his sweaty face.

It takes them 14 excruciating hours to make it back to the ship. Her father looks at Zuko with horror in his face as he lifts his son in law from the back of the cart. Toph crashes into Bato with a sob of exhaustion and terror. Katara follows her father down into the ship and then sends him to get water and herbs. Zuko has been seizing periodically and Katara reaches for the heavy stuff they give him when they cannot be controlled, forcing some down his throat. Zuko moans and gags but the tincture stays down.

It takes two days for him to gain any sort of lucidity, two days of agonizingly difficult work on his damaged body. There are things that will never be the same. His heart is healing nicely, but his lungs are weak and filled with fluid, and his burn is infected and weeping fluid. It’s all Katara can do to keep him hydrated. His left extremities still won’t move. When his eyes open, he moans at the light and slams them closed again.

His first words to her are “Make it stop.”

“Make what stop, love?” she asks quietly, massaging his temples with cool water. It glows blue around her palms and seems to help with whatever he needs her to stop, because his golden irises are visible again shortly. Katara helps him to sitting. His head flops back and his breathing gets weak, heart stuttering in his chest. It may be healing, but it’s still weak.

“Hurts,” he groans, words slurring off his tongue. His left foot twitches. She checks the splinting around his shoulder and collarbone.

“What happened,” he rasps after a few sips of water and a few spoonfuls of broth he insists on feeding to himself. The slight exertion of that and a trip to the toilets has made him a sweating, limp heap of firebender, propped against pillows and curled in her lap. His legs are tangled in the sheets and her loose pants, head on her collarbone.

“Is he dead,” he mumbles, when Katara hesitates, “Did we get paid?”

“Yes and yes,” Katara murmurs, caressing his cheek and holding a cup to his mouth, “but he could bend lightning.”

“Oh,” Zuko grimaces. His face twists with nausea and Katara bends the bile and water he brings up into a basin. Zuko spits and pants, sagging against her. She tries to ease some of his discomfort with cool water over his sick stomach and throbbing head.

“He-” Katara stops and presses their lips together with a gasp, tasting her own tears. Zuko’s trembling fingers tangle in the end of her ponytail.

“You thought he was aiming for me. Took it right in the shoulder to keep it from hitting me.”

“That why it feels like I got trampled by a komodo rhino?” Zuko mumbles into her chest.

“Yeah,” Katara snorts, “Probably.”

“I’m okay,” he whispers, “Really, Katara.”

“Yeah you’re gonna be out of commission for months, dumbass,” she tells him, getting him to swallow some more water down. Zuko grimaces and lets out a wet cough.

“Naw,” he slurs.

“Yes,” she grumbles, “You’ve got pneumonia, and your heart got damaged again. It’s healing well but very slowly. You are done for a while.”

Zuko wraps his right arm around her, his left shaking and moving just a few inches. Katara kisses his sweat soaked long hair.

“I want a shower,” he groans into her chest.

“We’ll be on Kyoshi soon,” she murmurs to him, looping his silky strands around her fingers.

“Wanna do it together?” he snickers, “I’m sure I owe you for saving my life again.”

“Maybe when you can stand,” Katara teases, “and stop throwing yourself into danger, you idiot.”

“I do it out of love,” Zuko yawns, his eyes falling shut.

“I am a master waterbender fully capable of taking care of myself,” she reminds him with no real bite in her voice.

“You could kick my ass,” he slurs, tongue thick in his mouth with pain and sleep, “but it scares me to see you hurt.”

“I know,” she whispers, “get some rest, Zuko.”

“Stay,” he whispers.

“Always and forever.”

#Zutara #Cecilia writes #prompt #Zuko #Katara #Sokka #Suki #Toph Beifong #sukka #whump #Hakoda #Bato

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getinthering · 4 years

Text

Taang Week Day 2: Modern AU

“Thursday, never looking back,”

[ @taangweek Day 2: Modern AU

After only two weeks of spring semester, Aang is fed up and ready to drop his geology class.]

A/N: i wanna redo this and make it better and i really struggled with the world-building here ngl so I couldn’t really come up with good names for the buildings or profs. what can you do¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Inspired by tumblr user @rllyjohnrlly’s modern au, specifically this post.

Read on AO3

***

Science, as Aang was learning, was absolutely not what he had thought it would be. When he was still in high school, he excitedly declared a zoology major on all of his college applications, thinking he would turn his love for animals into a lifelong career.

All it took was his first college-level biology class to quickly bury that idea. Between that and chemistry for non-majors, he felt resigned to the idea that all science classes were a bad idea for him, and that he’d better just pick the easiest one in the catalog to round out his general requirements. Which is how he found himself enrolled in the Introduction to Geology class his freshman spring semester. He’d learned the three types of rocks and the basics in high school, how hard could it be?

(the answer was very hard)

(but slightly less hard than biology)

After the second week of class, he sat on the floor of Katara’s dorm, textbook draped across his lap as she sat at her desk, diligently working on her homework. She really excelled at the very classes that almost killed him and he admired that about her.

“Ugh!” Aang groaned, slamming his textbook shut and throwing his head back onto her bed. “Katara, this is awful.”

She set her pen down and shifted in her chair to face him, the look on her face one of confusion and concern. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t do this! I hate this class,” he replied, pressing his palms into his eyes.

“Aang, what are you talking about? You can’t hate a class already, we’re only two weeks into the semester! What could possibly be so bad about it now?” Katara asked, getting up from her chair and walking over to sit across from him.

He sighed and let his hands fall back into his lap. He rolled his head to look at her. “Because it’s awful! I knew it probably wouldn’t be much fun, but I thought at least it would be pretty easy. And it’s not! It’s so hard and so boring and the professor is the most lame professor I have ever met.”

(she couldn’t help but smirk at that)

“Okay, well, you’re not going to find a class that’s easy, especially in your weakest subject. It’s just not going to happen. Maybe it’ll get more interesting after the first few chapters. Those are always just introductory anyway, they’re way more boring than the rest of the class.” She could see he wasn’t convinced and added, “The drop period was over Friday, anyway, so if you’re going to take a withdrawal, you might as well wait until after the first test. Maybe it won’t be as hard as you’re expecting.”

Aang sighed. She was right. He hated when she was right. “Fine. I’ll stick it out through the first test, but can we please take a study break now?”

***

Thursday morning, Aang walked into the lecture hall, trying his best not to drag his feet. It took all of his determination that morning to make his way to class instead of staying holed up in his dorm, playing video games until he got hungry. But he’d promised Katara and he knew he would get an earful if he broke his promise. Maybe if he just pretended he was Katara for a period, he’d have more ease with the class. Katara wouldn’t sit in the back, as was his first impulse, she would sit in the very first row.

He compromised and sat about four rows back. Earbud in one ear, he set his notebook on the table and pulled out his phone, scrolling through the texts from his friends that he’d missed on his walk. He didn’t notice when a dark-haired girl sat in the seat next to him until she tapped on his notebook. Startled, he yanked out the earbud and looked at her. “Um, hello?”

The girl looked at him

(he couldn’t help but notice how pale her eyes were and the weird quality to her gaze that he couldn’t pinpoint)

and said, “You normally sit all the way in the back. What are you doing up here now? We haven’t even had a test. Did you get in trouble or something?”

His cheeks felt warm and he knew he was blushing. “No, I just felt like maybe I’d learn better closer to the front. This stuff has been kind of hard for me so far, I guess.”

The look on her face was a little unsettling, like she was staring straight through him. She finally shrugged, turning away from him. “What’s so hard about geology?”

“I don’t know. I guess science classes just don’t come very easily to me.”

“Well lucky for you, geology is, like, as easy as they get,” she said. He didn’t feel especially reassured, but smiled a little anyway.

“So what you’re saying is you’ll help me study?” Aang asked sheepishly.

She snorted, but replied, “Maybe I will. What’s your major, anyway?”

“Oh, um,” he stuttered, feeling the redness in his face deepening and rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “I was a zoology major, but right now I’m undeclared.” He wanted to ask her the same question, wanted suddenly to know everything about this brazen, somewhat guarded girl who had sat next to him (and had noticed that it was not his normal seat), but was cut off by the professor calling the class’s attention to the lectern.

***

Seventy-five painstaking minutes of trying

(and failing)

to pay attention to the powerpoint in front of him instead of the dark-haired girl leaned back in the seat next to him later, the class was dismissed. The girl had stood, grabbing her bag, and Aang panicked for a moment, trying to think of something to say. He finally settled on asking if he could walk her to her next class.

She paused, turning her head towards him. “Well, it’s all the way over in the Humanities building.”

“That’s okay, that’s on the way to my dorm, and I don’t have another class for an hour, anyway.” He swore he saw her smile as she rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. You can walk with me.”

They talked the whole way there, never seeming to run out of topics. He was disappointed at how short the walk felt, having so much more to ask her. He’d found out she was an architecture major with a lifelong special interest in geology, lived in the freshman dorms by the Physical Sciences lecture hall, and that despite being blind, she was as in-tune with her surroundings as anyone. It was only after they said their goodbyes that he realized he’d never learned her name.

***

Her name, as it turned out, was Toph.

Every Tuesday and Thursday over the next three weeks, they sat next to each other and Aang walked her to her next class. He actually found motivation to study his notes for the first time, if only for the fact that the recordings she shared with him featured their conversations in the background of the lecture.

Once, he had been running late after sleeping through his alarms, and while his first impulse had been to go back to sleep and skip his first class of the day, he bolted out of bed and rushed to get dressed, worrying that someone would take his seat next to Toph.

(or worse, she wouldn’t even notice)

He nearly ran all the way across campus. Heart pounding, he snuck through the doorway as the professor lectured on and slipped into his usual seat next to Toph. She lifted her head; something he couldn’t quite place flashed over her face.

(relief?)

“Finally decided to show up, huh?” she whispered.

He started to explain himself, but stopped short, deciding on a better way to embarrass himself. “Yeah. I got caught up trying to figure out why you’re so good at this class.”

“Did you figure it out?”

“It’s because you don’t take anything for granite.” He looked over to catch the way the corner of her lips tugged upwards through the taken-aback look on her face.

“That was awful. Don’t do that again,” she hissed at him.

“Okay, okay,” he conceded, chuckling to himself. “You know what I would’ve been if I hadn’t shown up today?”

“What’s that?”

“A skipping stone.”

The irritated expression she wore intensified, fending off the smile he so desperately wanted to see. “Seriously, you have got to stop doing that. I don’t like puns, especially when they’re that bad.”

“My sediments exactly.” He almost expected her to hit him, but was delighted to hear a giggle escape. A warm feeling spread through his chest and he knew then that he would spend every last moment he had for the rest of her life trying to make her laugh again.

***

“You guys!” Aang exclaimed, slamming the door to Sokka’s apartment closed a little harder than he had meant to. He continued into the living room, all but throwing himself onto the couch next to Katara without so much as a “hello” to her, Sokka, or Suki. “I had the most amazing date today.”

Sokka looked up from where he sat, getting his hair braided, between Suki’s legs. “You had a date? With who?”

“Was it that girl from your geology class?” Katara asked.

“Yes! Her name is Toph and I finally got her number and we’ve been talking, like, non-stop,” he blurted all at once.

“Slow down!” Katara giggled. “Are you going to tell us about the date?”

“Right, so I’ve sat next to her in geology since I’ve been wanting to do better in that class. That’s been a bad idea as far as paying more attention, but spirits, it’s been the best. I was almost late this morning because I slept through my alarms.” Seeing the admonishing look on Katara’s face, he added, “I actually got up as soon as I realized and went to class, don’t worry, Momtara. Anyway, I got to class just as the prof was starting the powerpoint, and when I first walked in, I was worried someone else might have taken the seat next to her that I’ve been sitting in, but no one had. And she actually seemed like she was looking for me. I mean, she can’t see, but still, when I finally got there and sat down, I swear it looked like she was happy to see me.”

Not leaving room for Sokka to make a disparaging joke, Aang recounted the jokes he’d told her,

(which he definitely stayed up several nights in a row to come up with)

how she’d acted like she’d hated them, but he’d caught her snickering a few times.

“So you asked her out after class?” Suki asked.

Aang blushed and ran a hand through his short hair. “Not exactly.” He held up his hands in protest of his friends’ exclamations. “I always walk her to her next class because it’s on the way to my dorm and I always want to keep talking to her. Well, we get all the way to the Humanities building and she looks at me and says, ‘I don’t really feel like going to this class today.’”

“She skipped class?” Suki asked with a mock-scandalous tone. “Maybe you two are meant for each other.”

“I know!” Aang said, ignoring the jab entirely. “And, Katara, don’t give me that look. I would have convinced her to go to class, but the opportunity was there and I couldn’t pass up taking her to lunch.” Grinning, he told them about how Toph had loosened up while they ate, even agreeing to try his favorite vegan restaurant in the main commons, how cute she was when she smiled at him. She had even agreed to a study date the following night.

He couldn’t wipe the smile from his face when he asked, “So would you guys be okay if she came to hang out with us this weekend?”

#ok sorry im on mobile the read more broke #taang #atla #taang week #taangweek #taang week 2020 #my fics

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merakiaes · 5 years

Text

Dirty Little Secret - Zuko

Pairing: Zuko x reader

Requested: By @felicity291

Prompts: #42 and #43 from the smut-list.

Warnings/notes: Smut! I didn’t know if you wanted full smut or not but I ended up writing it anyways. This Is my first time writing smut in a long time and I’ve only written about four smut scenes all in all in my life so it might be a bit cringy, but I’ll work on it xD Hope you like it! (I haven’t read through it so sorry if there’s any mistakes)

Wordcount: 2571

Summary: Some shitty Zuko smut where you’re a part of the Gaang and secret lovers.

You didn’t remember how it started; all you knew was that Sokka was going to kill Zuko when he found out that the two of you had been having a relationship behind their backs. You didn’t know why you kept it a secret. At this point, Zuko was just as much a part of the Gaang as the rest of you.

But you guessed there was a certain charm about the forbidden that made it unspeakably desirable. What everyone failed to mention, however, was that it was all fun and games until feelings showed up to the playground.

It hadn’t started out with feelings. It had just been a temporary solution to let out trapped in frustrations, at first. Nothing too major, some oral here, some hand jobs and fingering there, but never the whole way.

You were never supposed to mean this much to him, and you were never supposed to fall so hard, or at all, for that matter, but you did. You both did. He was a risk, a mystery, but the most certain thing you’d ever known and you couldn’t get enough.

He, just like you, didn’t understand where exactly along the way he had developed such strong romantic feelings for Sokka’s big-mouthed, annoying best friend. But you guessed it was pretty much inevitable when you had gone through as much as you had together, not to speak of all of the nights you had spent with your hands stuck down the other’s pants.

So, yeah. It happened. You had never felt this way about anyone before, and neither had he. Neither of you were very good at talking about your feelings. Pretty much the only way you knew how to express them was through discrete, gentle touches when people were looking the other way, or by sex behind closed doors.

But when you were stuck on a giant flying bison several days in a row, it wasn’t very easy to sneak off to be alone. Not even when you stopped to pee, clean up or get food did you get a chance, as Sokka would be glued to your side the entire time, until you had to get going again.

Today had been a particularly rough day for all of you. You hadn’t left the sky in two days, you had run out of food and water that morning, and Sokka, being the child he was, had gotten moody from the lack of food and started picking fights with everyone but you.

Instead of picking a fight with you like he did everything else, he had clung to you like you were a married couple, holding on to your hand, playing with your fingers and your hair and resting his head in your lap.

You didn’t really have the energy to protest, and even if you did, it wasn’t like this was anything out of the ordinary for you and Sokka; you had been raised together, you were as much brother and sister as him and Katara were.

But Zuko didn’t see it that way in that moment. The only thing he saw, was another guy being touchy-feely with his girl. Now, he knew he couldn’t be reckless and reveal your secret before talking to you about it yet, but that didn’t stop him from picking fights with Sokka about other things, his attitude being one of them.

This in turn, started a whole war, leaving you to sit in between the two boys to keep them from throwing hands as they had almost fallen off Appa. Unbeknownst to each other, both Sokka and Zuko had tried to grab your hands where you sat, but you had just snatched them both back before they could get a grip on them, too mad at both of them to be able to even look at them.

Luckily, you had come across a temple that stood empty and untouched in the mountains, where you would be able to set camp for the night.

The mood was anything but happy as you all got off of Appa after landing, each and every one of you going your separate ways after you had hugged Aang thank you for helping you try to keep the peace while in the air.

The young Avatar had gone off into the mountains in search for food with Katara, Sokka had marched off to find firewood, which only left you and Zuko. But before he had been able to say a word to you, you had gone off into the temple in search of, well, you didn’t really know, but you needed to clear your head.

You were pretty sure your mood wouldn’t have been as bad if you had food in your stomach, but you couldn’t care less in that moment. Everything and everyone around you was just getting on your nerves with their attitudes and bad moods.

You desperately needed to blow off some steam, and as if hearing your prayers, Zuko rounded the corner just then, not that it made any difference, as you, in the mood you were currently in, weren’t sure you wanted to forgive him for starting a fight yet.

“(Y/N).” Zuko spoke as he laid eyes on you in the middle of the corridor, approaching you with calm steps, his shoulders slightly slumped and his face sad and obviously regretful.

You stood still, crossing your arms over your chest and leaning against the wall, not moving a muscle as Zuko came over to you and wrapped you in his arms, sinking his face into your neck.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was muffled from being pressed into your shoulder, and his arms hugged you tighter as the words left his lips.

“You can’t just start fights with Sokka just because you get jealous.” You just scolded, turning slightly to make him look at you.

His face was now scrunched up into an angry frown. “I’m not jealous! It’s just, you’re mine!” He spoke in a stuttering manner, the volume of his voice forcing you to cover his mouth with your hand to stop him from yelling any further.

“Be quiet!” You scolded, resisting the urge to laugh at his sour pout. “That’s exactly what a jealous person would say, you idiot.” You pointed out, finally breaking a small smile, which in turn caused him to drop the frown.

“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty to me.” He said then, instantly latching himself to your body, pushing you against the wall and bending down to press a kiss to your neck.

You slapped his chest, trying to push him away. “Are you insane? Not here! The others could walk in any second!”

But he embraced you just as quickly as you had pushed him away again. “We need this.” He mumbled into the skin of your neck, continuing to prepper it with kisses. “You’re in a mood, I’m in a mood. I haven’t gotten to touch you in almost three days. Please.”

You leaned your head against the stone wall to be able to look at him as he came back up from your neck. Studying his face you took in the bags under his eyes and the hint of anger behind his eyes, mixing with the exhaustion you were sure all of you were currently feeling.

After thinking long and hard and taking a look down the corridor, you finally brought your eyes back to his and answered. “If we get caught, I’ll kill you.” And then you brought your hands down to start untying his pants, the small action being enough to make his head fall against your shoulder in relief of what was to come.

He let out a shaky breath as your cold hand came under the hem of his pants and pressed against his length through his underwear. While you rubbed him slowly, he brought one of his own hands into your pants to cup your heat, and your head instantly fell back against the wall with a thud, a wave of pleasure and relief shuddering through your entire body as the feeling of his thumb stroking along the core in search of the place where you needed him the most.

It didn’t take him long to find the sensitive spot as he was more than familiar with your body, at this point knowing it better than you did yourself, and you keep the moan in when he started rubbing the small bundle of nerves.

“Zuko.” You moaned, having a hard time focusing on touching him with the pleasure he was giving you.

Zuko brought his other hand up to cover your mouth at that, shushing you quietly as he was breathing heavily into your neck. He pressed his thumb down harder, and at that point you had completely forgotten to touch him back, instead bringing your hands up to nestle them in his hair, fingers pulling at the black strands.

But he knew his turn would come, it always did. It was this he had been craving all day, every day that you hadn’t been able to touch each other; touching you, hearing you whimper and moan out his name and having you tremble under his touch.

He let out a husky moan in the crook of your neck as you tugged on his hair, feeling himself get harder and harder just by hearing you moan under his mouth and feeling your chest pressed against his, no matter if it was still fully clothed.

All while continuing to rub your clit, he brought his other fingers down to your heat slowly, prodding them just inside your opening to gather your wetness, spreading it around all the way up to his thumb to make it even more pleasurable.

You shook at the new sensation, and before you even got the time to think about it, he slowly slid a finger inside your heat, letting you adjust for a second before starting to move it, instantly finding your G-spot.

As it had been days since you had even come close to touching each other like this, you found yourself getting close sooner than you would’ve liked. Zuko recognized the way your body started trembling and tensing better than he did anything else, and wasted no time in sliding in another digit all while adding pressure and speed to his thumb.

Not even a minute later, you found yourself toppling over the edge, your eyes rolling to the back of your head, your whole body tensing and your teeth biting down on Zuko’s hand in order to keep quiet as you released yourself on his hand.

Zuko kept going until you had rode out your high on his fingers, slowly kissing his way up your neck and to your lips as you caught your breath. You opened your eyes once your lips had parted, and he looked into your eyes as he brought his hands out of your pants and up to his lips, sucking his fingers clean of your wetness.

The sight in itself was enough for your eyes to darken a significant amount, and Zuko couldn’t help the smirk rising to his lips as you suddenly turned him around, pressing his back against the wall. All while keeping eye contact, you leaned in and pressed the softest of kisses to his lips, before kissing your way down his chin, his chest, and finally, his stomach, until you found yourself at the edge of his pants.

Looking up at him through your eyelashes, you brought a hand up and palmed him through the fabric, feeling his hardened length twitch under your fingers at the sensation and watching as his head fell back like yours had done only minutes before.

But that wasn’t the way you wanted it. Snapping your fingers, you brought his attention back to you, giving him a small smirk as you spoke. “Don’t look away.”

There was no quicker way to make that boy to come than having him look into your eyes as you sucked him off, which was why he usually never did. But right now, quick was exactly what you were going to need as you could be walked in on anytime.

He didn’t say anything, only nodding ever so softly to told you he wouldn’t, his chest starting to rise and fall heavily in anticipation as you slowly pulled his pants down his hips, just enough for his manhood to spring free.

You gathered as much spit as you could in your mouth, wasting no time in taking his head in between your lips, giving it a soft suck before taking all of him in.

You chuckled slightly as you noticed he way on his way to lean his head back again, the vibrations being enough to bring his head back to face you, one of his hands shooting to hold onto the wall for support while the other went to your hair.

He said nothing as you sucked him off, long and hard, but his eyes said everything with the way they flickered with fire. The hand on your head gently nudged you further down, and getting the memo, you let your head sink even deeper on his length, your cheeks hallowing for extra effect.

You sucked him like that for a while, enough to get him riled up for the big finale, because when you would bring in your tongue, you knew he would be done. You let your hands rise to grab his thigh gently to hold him in place, before you finally started using your tongue, licking around his shaft.

Zuko moaned loudly at the new feeling, and before you could think about it, you slapped one of your hands against his thigh lightly in a way to tell him to be quiet, but it seemed to do just the opposite, instead riling him up even more.

Feeling his legs start to get wobbly, you picked up the pace, brought one of your hands up to pump what you couldn’t take in your mouth and sucked your cheeks in even harder, taking him even deeper into your mouth and moving your tongue from his shaft to swirl around his tip.

The grip he had on your hair tightened, and one look at the determined look on your face as you looked up at him through your eyelashes while devouring him whole was enough to send him over the edge, his warm fluids hitting the back of your throat only a few seconds later.

He thrusted himself into your mouth a few times as he came, and you let him ride out his high, pushing back the gag reflexes. Then he stilled, and you pulled away from him, swallowing every single drop while still not flinching away from his gaze.

His eyes were dark of lust but his face was relaxed of relief. After looking at each other for a long few seconds, he took you by your hands and hauled you up to your feet, hugging you close to his chest while leaning into the wall tiredly.

None of you said a word as he scanned your face tenderly, lifting a hand up to your face to wipe away some left-over spit before leaning down to capture your lips in a soft kiss. But you quickly broke apart, as Katara’s voice broke through the silent corridor.

“(Y/N), Zuko! Aang found food, where are you?”

You looked up at Zuko with a small smile, taking his hand in yours and pulling him off the wall. “Think it’s time to tell them?”

“Probably.” Zuko answered with a small smile, his fringe falling in front of his eyes. He squeezed your hand in his as you started heading in the direction of Katara’s voice, and you didn’t let go as you entered the room where the others had set camp.

#avatar #avatar: tla #avatar zuko #avatar the last airbender #zuko x reader #fire lord zuko #prince zuko #sokka #sokka x reader

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just-another-author-i-guess · 5 years

Text

Heartbeat:

Requested: yup

Warnings: she/her pronounced reader, mentions of boobs because I’m kinda gross, also I didn’t edit it through

Pairing: Zuko x blind! Reader

Authors note: I’m really sorry it took me this long to do this request, I don’t really have a good excuse or anything I’m just kinda lazy. Anyways, the other requests I got will come up soon, I promise! Okay, so in this you’re a blind waterbender, the only thing you can see are colors but everything is very blurry, luckily you’re able to see better through your bending. Kinda like Toph can see through her earthbending, are you able to feel the blood in other people and therefore know where they are. I hope you enjoy it!

The first thing you saw when you woke up was red. Something red standing over you. Or was it someone?

Quickly a blurry, blue form moved in front of the red, and you heard a girls voice. So it was someone.

“Zuko, can you get me some water?”

The girl in blue said, and the red figure let out a little grumble, before disappearing out of your sight.

Quickly, you tried to sit up, scared of what the two figured might do to you, but two gentle hands pushed you back down.

“Calm down, we’re not here to hurt you, actually I’m trying to heal you,”

The feminine voice explained, and you cocked your head slightly as you allowed her to push you down on the bed.

“Heal me?”

Your voice came out a little hoarse, surprising yourself, as you wondered why in the world she was trying to heal you.

Where you hurt?

“Yes, heal you. You it your head pretty bad, back in the village,”

The girl explained, and you closed your eyes again, trying to remember.

You had left the North Pole with your aunt a few years back, and moved into a little peaceful village in the earth kingdom, sadly your aunt died a couple months back and you’d been living on your own. The last you remember was going outside your house when you heard screams, you didn’t see much except some blurry black and red figures, before you woke up here.

“W-what happened?”

You asked, this time a little scared as your head were spinning, desperately trying to remember why you woke up here.

You heard the girl sigh sadly, before sitting down on the bed next to you.

“Your village was attacked by fire nation soldiers, we tried to stop them, but..”

You saw the blurry outlines of the girls head drop, as your eyebrows furrowed.

“Wha- is everyone okay?”

You asked, voice a little hesitant, scared to hear the answer.

“You..”

The girl stopped mid sentence, and turned her head fully to you, her long hair tickling your arm slightly. She swallowed hard.

“You where the only survivor, they’ve become much more ruthless,”

She started, sorrow lacing her voice and instantly you opened your mouth in shock, fists clenching.

You didn’t cry, only swallowed hard a couple times, before tilting your head up again to look in the girls direction.

“I’m so sorry-“

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

You demanded, instantly going into defense mode, fingers already moving, ready to search for nearby water.

“Sorry, I should have introduced myself first. I’m Katara, from the southern water tribe-“

“You’re from the south?”

Your defensive demeanor was quickly changed to overjoyed, when you heard where Katara was from.

“Yes, I’m their last waterbender,”

She stated, voice still filled with sorrow, but you ignored it and beamed up at what your blurry vision identified as her face.

“I’m from the north,”

You stated rather proudly, extending your hand.

“(y/n) (l/n), a bender from the northern water tribe,”

Instead of taking your hand, she instantly pulled you into a bonecrushing hug, a sharp pain erupting from your lower back all the way up to your head, and Katara instantly pulled away once she felt you cringe.

“I’m so so sorry, I completely forgot for a moment-“

She started, and you just shook your head.

“Don’t worry about it, but, what exactly did you forget?”

You tilted your head once again, the sharp pain slowly fading away.

“You got knocked out pretty hard, we saw you being thrown right into a wall, does your burn marks hurt?”

“Which burn marks- shit!”

You hissed when your hand made contact with a rather large burnmark, stretching up your neck, anger returning to you once again.

“Sit still, I’m trying to heal that-“

Katara explained, removing your hands and placing them in your lap, as you sat fully up, the blanket falling completely off you, as you bares your throat for Katara.

The water she bended around it didn’t hurt, quite contrary did it cool and soothe, and you sighed contently as the burning sensations slowly faded.

“Hey Katara-“

Thump.

Splash.

The sound of a bowl full of water being dropped to the floor, hit your ears, and you quickly turned your head in the sounds direction.

Closing your eyes, you focused what little engery you had left to feel the water and the person who had dropped it. You where able to locate the water, but as you focused deeper and felt the persons blood you noticed a male with a rather frantic heartbeat. It was much quicker than your own and Katara’s.

“Zuko, what in the world are you doing?”

Katara’s stern voice snapped at the boy, and you felt him shudder slightly.

“I-I’m- why isn’t she wearing a shirt?”

The boy asked, blood rushing to his head, you presumed he was blushing. And suddenly you knew why.

With a quick squeak you realized you were completely bare chested, except for a small string of bondages covering the most important parts of your chest.

Instantly you felt blood rush to your face, and with shaking hands you quickly covered your chest opting for staring pityfully at Katara.

“Zuko! Out!”

Katara was quick to squeak at him, and it took no more than a few milliseconds before you heard scrambling out, what you presumed was a tent.

“I’m so so sorry-“

Katara rambled on, quickly helping you into one of her shirts, before silently continuing to heal your wounds.

It had been a couple days since the incident with Zuko, and thankfully no one had brought it up afterwards.

You had decided to stay and help team avatar, and everyday you, Katara and Aang would go down to a nearby lake and practice waterbending. Katara has already learned you lots of cool tricks, you didn’t even knew existed.

The burn marks on your neck were slowly starting to fade, and you were finally able to be hugged without your back and head killing you.

“Earth to (y/n)!”

Aang yelled, right before a big wave of water washes over you, instantly breaking your train of thoughts as you gave Aang the nasties glare you could muster.

“What was that for?”

You yelled, and splashed water back at the grinning avatar, as soon as you surfaced from the water again.

“We’re going back to the camp, wanna come?”

Aang asked, voice still full of laughter and you couldn’t help but smile.

“No thank you, I think I’ll stay here for a little while,”

You shook your head as you spoke, and it wasn’t long before you felt them leaving the water, leaving you alone.

You sighed contently, and laid back in the water to look up at the sky. Even though you couldn’t see much, one of your favorite activities was to stare at the sky. For you, all the colors blended together creating a beautiful mess of white, yellow and blue.

Suddenly, your ears perked up, upon hearing footsteps approaching the lake. Your body relaxed, once you caught onto Zuko’s heartbeat, but quickly a warm blush spread across your cheeks when you realized that once again he would see you in only undergarments.

“O-oh, hi (y/n), I didn’t think anyone was here,”

He stammered, sounding more flustered than startled.

“Y-Yeah, where do you think we go to practice, dummy,”

You joked back, becoming a stuttering mess yourself, quickly folding hour arms over your chest in attempt to cover it even the tiniest bit.

There was silent for a bit, before you heard a little rustling and suddenly felt Zuko approach you in the water.

“Mhm, there’s tons of lakes around here,”

He grumbled, righ behind you, and a little startled you turned around to face him, chuckling.

The water around him was already starting to heat up, due to his high body temperature, and you couldn’t help but enjoy it, slowly moving closer to him.

“Why is it, you’re never wearing prober clothes when I’m around?”

He jokingly asked, and poked the hand you held protectively over your chest quickly, making you shudder and look up to look at the blurry outline of his face.

“Hm, what do you look like?”

You wondered out loud, smoothly ignoring his joke, when you felt a gentle pair of hands grip your wrist.

“You can feel,”

Zuko mumbled, and before you knew it, you were placing your hand over the scar he had told you about a couple days earlier, the other one moving down to place itself right over his heart. It was beating more frantically than ever before, you noticed.

You took you time, gently brushing your hands over his face, and before you knew it, you had come to the conclusion that he in fact was pretty handsome.

“Thank you,”

You muttered, feeling flustered, as his heartbeat sped up.

“Your heart, it’s beating very fast,”

You informed him, before gently removing your hand, sliding it down his stomach slowly.

“Y-Yeah I know, it does that a lot around you, you know?”

He said smoothly, and you let out a little squeak at his attempt at flirting, face going even redder and you playfully hit his chest.

“Stop that,”

You mumbled, voice just above a whisper, when you felt his hands come to rest on your hips, and before you knew it, a soft pair of lips was pressed against your own.

Your eyes widened, but you still leaned into the kiss, placing your hands on his shoulders and standing on your tiptoes.

His careful kiss, soon turned heated, and when you pulled away for air, he had your legs hoisted up around his waist and both your hands cupping his face, as you both were sat on a big rock in the water.

“Is my heart still beating fast?”

He wondered, leaning his head on yours and gazing into your white orbs, trying to imagine what you were seeing.

“Not anymore,”

You breathed, chest pressed against his, and you felt his increasingly slowing heartbeat against your own.

“Good.”

He mumbled, before bowing his head down and capturing your lips again.

#i hope this is okay #zuko x reader #prince zuko fanclub #prince zuko x reader #katara x reader #avatara the last airbender x reader #atla #atla sokka #atla zuko #avatar aang #avatar the last airbender #atla toph #atla katara #blind!reader #atla zuko x reader

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sukiandthemarauders · 4 years

Text

FIRELIGHT (Zuko x OC) C2

word count: 3,707

warnings: mature language, drinking, and just cuddling :D

a/n: Chapter 2!!! Zuko and Kai are finally getting closer again after a gajillion years apart, and I just can’t wait to let their relationship unfold! Let me know what you think, MUAH <3

<- Chapter 1 | Chapter 3 ->

Masterlist

——————-

Chapter 2

—————

Unfortunately, Aang wasn’t able to celebrate his birthday with the rest of his friends because he had to take care of business first upon arrival at Republic City. So instead he took Zuko and Sokka to continue planning the democratic council they were forming along with Toph and Suki, for they were in charge of training the new police force.

Kailani claimed that she had been a part of enough reconstruction of the world to last a lifetime, so she sat out from the trip to the rest of the city and hung back with Katara. As the waterbender had mentioned before, the girls hadn’t seen each other in two years, and so they realized that the newfound alone time they were granted gave them an opportunity to catch up. In fact, they were reminiscing so much about the past that they remembered their shared love of red wine, and popped open a bottle.

Kailani had already given Katara a full tour of Air Temple Island, let the both of them try on all her clothes, baked some desserts in the kitchen, and tried to figure out which of them could bend hot steam better. They finally found themselves sitting on top of Appa in his saddle with their lips painted red, and their eyes glossed over with drunkenness. Katara usually never drank, for she quickly became the designated mother of the group whenever they were all drinking together. But seeing as it was only the two girls (and Kailani insisted that Appa and Momo would watch them), the blue eyed girl decided to let loose for the night.

“Momo’s a very handsome lemur.” Katara spoke in between giggles. “Do you think he would be a lady’s man—sorry, lemur— in the...lemur world?”

Kailani stretched her arm to scratch the top of her head, but seeing as Momo sat perched atop the airbender’s brown crown of waves, she scratched the lemur’s leg instead. “I met a rather dashing ring tailed lemur at the Western Air Temple. Momo would have charmed the stripes off of Paya’s tail!”

Katara burst into an endless fit of giggles— a side effects of the intoxication—while Kailani pulled Momo from her head and hugged him close to her chest (and ignored him trying to claw his way out), expressing her inner neediness that was projected in her inebriated state. The two girls agreed that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea getting drunk together because they didn’t necessarily have any unpleasant or annoying traits with a bottle of alcohol in their hand. At least, neither of them were like Sokka who was a crying drunk.

“I’m kinda scared.” Katara admitted randomly after taking a particularly long swig of the wine. “I-I think Aang is going to propose.”

Kailani’s eyes widened, but in slow motion for her mind was working at a very slow pace. “Whoa...what?”

“He keeps talking about how the South Pole would look beautiful decorated for a wedding...” Katara trailed off as she began to giggle once again. “And he talks about how he can’t wait for little air or waterbending babies!”

“All I can say is...” Kailani spoke while stroking a struggling Momo’s ear. “They’re going to have a cool ass aunt.”

Katara let her back fall flat against Appa’s saddle. “I’m serious, Kailani! I don’t want to get married yet, we’re still so young!”

“Okay, okay. Well... you just have to talk to him. If anybody will understand, it’s Aangy.” Kailani said with a shrug.

Katara motioned widely through the air with her arms as she faced the starry sky. “I know he’ll understand. H-He’s perfect! But he’ll think I don’t ever want to get married with him. I can already envision his beautiful eyes get slightly bigger, a-and his soft lips—”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” Kailani interrupted before she had the chance to throw up all of the alcohol in her stomach. “Unless you have someone else to do your dirty work, it’s up to you sister.”

Katara’s eyes widened as she sat up and stared at Kailani who was cooing at Momo (who had begrudgingly accepted defeat). Kailani met Katara’s gaze as soon as the latter girl let out her signature drunken giggles combined with the excited look in her eyes.

Kailani began to shake her head. “No! Katara I’m not going to talk to Aang for you!”

The waterbender dramatically stuck out her bottom lip as she pleaded. “Please, please, pleaseee!”

“Absolutely not!”

“So Aang.” Kailani said as she folded her hands in her lap and looked at the Avatar before her. “I was wondering if we could talk.”

Aang raised an eyebrow, a little confused as to why the fellow airbender was addressing him in such a proper yet cautious manner. The girl usually just spoke her mind to him, considering how tight knit their relationship was.

He had only come to Kailani’s room to bring her a special hangover tea that Iroh had told him about, since he and the rest of the Gaang were freaking out about a missing Kailani and Katara until they found the two passed out on Appa with a bottle of wine and Momo in hand. But when he arrived, Kailani’s eyes fluttered open and she immediately sat up (although not without letting a loud groan from her inevitable headache) telling Aang to take a seat.

“Okay...?” Aang spoke. “Am I in trouble? I’m eighteen now, I think I’ve grown out of you grounding me.”

Kailani gave the boy a blank stare. “I grounded you once when you were twelve as a joke, sheesh! And no, you’re not in trouble.”

“Oh, okay.” Aang said with a renewed sense of ease and nonchalance. “What can I do you for?”

Kailani hadn’t planned on how to tell him subtly.

“Uh... did you know that I was dating someone?”

Aang furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “No, I didn’t—like right now?”

“No, no! We...broke up.” Kailani stuttered, unsure of what explanation she was going to pull out of her ass. “And it’s why we broke up that I’d like to offer you some relationship advice.”

“Who was it?” Aang asked innocently.

“That’s besides the point—the point being that he asked me to marry him!” Kailani made up hastily. Aang’s eyes almost bulged out of his head.

“Really? Well, why’d you say no?” Aang inquired with a slight tilt of his head. It was times like those when Kailani could almost see the resemblance between the Avatar and his lemur.

Kailani sighed and slumped her shoulders. “Because I didn’t want to ruin what we had, and I felt too young at the time.”

“How old were you?”

“...Eighteen.”

“Was—“

“Aang!” Kailani blurted with a hasty wave of her hands. “Enough with the questions! Because of my experience, I just want to advise you to wait a while longer if you ever propose to Katara.”

Aang’s cheeks suddenly became a slight tint of pink and a shy smile overcame his lips. “Well, I was actually thinking of doing it soon. But if you said that you don’t think you were old enough when you were eighteen...”

Kailani offered the airbender a comforting smile. “I think you should wait until you really believe you’re both ready.”

Aang was quiet for a moment, nodding to himself with his eyebrows narrowed and his eyes looking downwards as if he were in deep thought. He then looked back at the girl. “I’m ready now.”

The girl sighed deeply. “Aang, maybe Katara’s not ready, and you don’t want to ruin something this good. Look at Sokka and Suki; they’re not married.”

“Actually Sokka’s tried to propose like three times.”

Kailani scratched her chin, wondering why nobody had ever told her that. “Well, Toph hasn’t even had a boyfriend yet, and she’s fine!”

“Actually she was seeing—sorry, dating— this guy Kanto for a while. It’s kind of on and off.” Aang revealed, unaware of Kailani’s confusion swirling within her thoughts at the lack of her knowledge.

“Uhh, well Zuko and Mai aren’t married! And Zuko is Firelord so there’s a lot of pressure there.” Kailani said with a tight smile.

“They broke up.”

Kailani’s eyes bulged out of her head. “Why does no one tell me these things!”

But her outburst was mostly a coverup for the question that was running through her mind at a speed faster than she could imagine.

Zuko and Mai broke up?

Kailani couldn’t help but imagine what that meant for the feelings that she had buried so long ago, and she didn’t know what she would do if they somehow resurfaced. But now that Zuko was no longer dating the beautiful and skilled Fire Nation girl, there was nothing stopping the forbidden emotions from making an appearance.

“Was it an Air Acolyte then?” Aang asks, only offering her a cheeky smile when the girl stared back blankly.

“So are you going to tell me all the girly stuff that you two girls were talking about during your girl talk?” Sokka asked as the two walked passed the bamboo forest.

After Kailani and Aang’s talk, the Avatar went to look for Katara, not to propose, but to simply accompany her on their way to Aang’s delayed birthday celebration. She then barged into Sokka’s room, and demanded he wake up and get ready (which he did begrudgingly) before hauling him out the door.

“We just caught up, Sokka. I hadn’t seen Katara in so long.” Kailani explained, catching on to what Sokka may have been poking at.

“Really? So no talk about…boys?” The Water Tribe boy said. “Not even about a certain Firelord?”

Kailani threw her head back and let out a long groan. “You know that I used to like him, and you also know that I got over my feelings for him. It’s over; done.”

“Then why were you blushing and googly eyed when you saw each other again?”

Kailani narrowed her eyes. “You talk too much.”

Sokka let out a bark of laughter. “Okay, fine! But you have to promise me that you’ll tell me first if you do have feelings for him again. Not my wonderful girlfriend, Toph, Katara, or Aang!”

“Trust me, I won’t have to tell anybody anything because there’s nothing that will need to be told!” Kailani spoke exasperated before pulling out Sokka’s swimming trunks from her bag and slamming them against his chest. “Now enough talk of this. Go put these on.”

The boy’s eyes widened as he stared at the trunks, and then back at her. “Does this mean...”

“Oh yea.”

Kailani waited patiently with her back turned as Sokka changed into his swim trunks behind some bamboo, but found herself being left behind when Sokka raced passed her yelling ‘race you to the pool party’.

Sokka seemed to forget he was competing against an airbender who has the ability to run as fast as the wind. And so when she was in sight of the pool that Toph and Katara created together, Kailani stealthily threw her clothes and bag to the side, leaving her only in her green bathing suit.

“Canon ball!” She yelled as she jumped over the heads of the the rest of the gaang (it seemed that she and Sokka were the only ones missing) and catapulted herself into the body of water. Not a second passed before she used her bending to shoot out of the water and onto the ground beside the pool. “HOT HOT HOT!”

She quickly shook the water off of her and stood glaring at Aang and Zuko who undoubtedly used their firebending to heat the water. The two boys only offered her sheepish smiles back while Toph laughed obnoxiously loud in the background.

“Oh come on.” Sokka said as he finally reached the pool (although never openly admitting that Kailani had beat him), and flung his wrist in the air casually. “You’re a wimp. It can’t be that hot!”

But it seemed that it was ‘that hot’.

Sokka jumped into the pool lasting only a second more than the airbender before letting out a strangled screech and launching himself towards the ground next to Kailani. The girl looked down at Sokka’s body on the ground and blasted him with air to get the hot water off of him, leaving his hair standing vertically and his body stiff.

“Thanks.” The boy said to Kailani before turning to glare at the rest of the gaang. “Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to make the pool a bazillion degrees?”

Cue Aang and Zuko’s grins with Toph’s cackles in the background again, but this time accompanied by Suki and Katara’s giggles.

“The heat is supposed to help you relax and de-stress. We have hot springs all over the Fire Nation for just that.” Zuko said nonchalantly while thoroughly enjoying how the hot water felt. He stood up from the molded seat on the inside edge of the pool, and held his hand out to Kailani. “Come on in, you’ll get used to it.”

Kailani was incredibly glad that she had just jumped into the hot water, or else the blushing on her cheeks would have been even more noticeable. She spared a glance to Sokka only to find him smirking widely and winking at her before he made his way over to a smiling Suki. Kailani looked back at Zuko, and accepted his hand with a bashful expression.

Although the water was hot when she stepped in, she found that Zuko’s skin was blazing even more than the pool, especially when he pressed his hands against her back. He began to rub the knots that had formed on her neck, brushing her hair to the center of her back so that her shoulders were exposed to his massaging hands, and Kailani couldn’t help but bite her lip at the calming sensation that the firebender’s hands brought.

“According to all of these knots, you really need to relax.” Zuko murmured beside her ear making a shiver make its way down her spine. “You look nice. Seeing you in green makes me want to see you in other colors, too.”

All of her friends had already started their own conversations, so nobody questioned Kailani when she looked down at her green bathing suit. She always wore her usual yellow and red-orange clothing, but she very rarely liked wearing the colors of other nations to represent that the countries were really one, which was why she was wearing the jade bathing suit.

Kailani slowly began to raise an eyebrow. “Zuko, are you trying to flirt with me?”

The Firelord’s hands froze for a moment—a moment that didn’t go unnoticed by the girl. He cleared his throat before answering. “C-Can I not just say you look pretty?”

Kailani let a grin grow on her face as she turned to face Zuko, thus causing his hands to fall from her shoulders. “Answering a question with a question, I see. You’re flustered.”

The girl fed off of Zuko’s bashfulness, for that was the only time that she wasn’t the one being teased. His sudden shyness boosted her confidence, but soon Zuko’s lips quirked upwards and his timidness washed away.

“If you let me, I might just keep flirting with you everyday.”

Kailani let her lips part in surprise at his forwardness, but didn’t have a chance to respond (which she appreciated) because Suki spoke her name.

“Kailani!” Suki called out as she tossed her a wine cooler. The airbender girl caught the bottle and instantly twisted the top open, practically inhaling the drink. If she was going to keep up with Zuko’s game, she was going to need the liquid confidence. She heard Zuko chuckle next to her, and she looked at him with narrowed eyes—of course, only making him smirk more.

“So Kai.” Toph spoke casually while taking a swig out of her third bottle. “When was it that you had a boyfriend again?”

Perhaps it was the alcohol that had already begun to impair her memory, but Kailani was sure that the last romance she had was her and Sokka’s mutual crush on one another, for her duty always lied with the reconstruction of her culture.

“What are you on about, Toph. You know I’ve never had time for relationships.” Kailani spoke before letting her eyes widen.

“AHA!” Sokka shouted as he looked at her, and then pointed at Aang. “I told you she didn’t have an Air Acolyte boyfriend that proposed to her without telling me!”

Aang turned to look at the facepalming girl he called his sister with an incredulous expression. “You made up the whole story?”

Kailani sighed before taking a swig. “Pulled it right out of my ass.”

“Why?” Toph asked with a twist of her head.

Kailani opened her mouth to respond only to see Katara with a desperate expression on her face. The grey eyed girl then looked at a confused Aang who awaited the explanation to her lying.

“Uhh...”

“She told Aang that, thinking it would come back to me and make me jealous.” Zuko swiftly chimed in. “Isn’t that right, Kailani.”

The airbender ignored the jump in her heart when Zuko spoke her name so melodiously, and instead clenched her jaw so that she could accept the humiliation without spitting out the truth.

“Yes.” The girl reluctantly muttered before sinking down so the water covered her shoulders.

“Ha! This was so worth seeing Twinkle Toes distraught about Kai lying!” Toph laughed along with Suki who giggled and winked at Kailani. Sokka had his right arm slung over Suki’s shoulders, but his left hand was tracing a heart in the air around Zuko and Kailani while making kissy face. Katara sent the girl a grateful smile as she began to converse with Zuko.

“So...” Aang mumbled with a boyish grin settling on his lips. “You and Sifu Hotman.”

“What? No!” Kailani defended quickly. “I liked him when I was fifteen, and maybe I made a fake relationship to get him jealous—“ Kailani said this part through her gritted teeth before rushing her next words. “But that’s over, now enough talking and more drinking.”

And more drinking there was—except Aang who never drank claiming that anybody could take down the Avatar if he was drunk, and Katara who took on the responsibility of being the group’s mom. Kailani had scooted closer to Suki and Sokka in order to escape a conversation with Zuko, and she drank happily with Suki—who became far more flirtatious with every sip from the wine cooler while Sokka, just as she recalled, became more teary eyed as the night continued.

“You know Kai, your grey eyes look sooo good with your dark skin. Maybe I should trade Sokka for you!” Suki slurred with a grin decorating her lips.

Kailani’s eyes widened as she nodded vigorously. “Ooh can we cuddle? I love cuddling, I just want to hug anything and everything... where’s Momo?”

Sokka made himself heard as he spoke between sniffles. “I-I can’t believe... that Suki would... leave me for you! I love you Suki...don’t replace... me!”

Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko all stared at the the three with raised eyebrows and bemused expressions until Katara voiced all of their thoughts. “I think it’s time we cut them off.”

“I don’t know, it’s kind of amusing.” Zuko said with a chuckle as he eyed the grey eyed girl who wrapped herself around Suki’s back. “But I guess it would be the responsible thing to do.”

“Screw responsible, I’m going to scale the temple.” Toph announced with a wide drunken smile. Despite the fact that the earthbender could handle her liquor, she seemed to become exponentially more reckless with her inebriated mind’s confidence. That was why Aang bended a rocky step in her path that caused the short girl to face plant.

The Avatar then got out of the pool to lift a groaning Toph over his shoulder, and looked at Katara and Zuko. “You take care of the rest of them.”

“I’ll take the two lovebirds.” Katara said as she easily separated Suki from a latched on Kailani with her water bending. She then created a flat surface of water that carried a sobbing Sokka, and Suki who was giving her boyfriend suggestive looks. “At least they’ll have each other to lean on during their hangovers.”

That left Zuko with a very needy Kailani, staring at him with enormous eyes, and her arms out ready for him to help her out of the pool. The Firelord only shook his head with a smile as he helped Kailani onto the ground outside of the pool, but his amused expression became one of worry as soon as her legs gave out from under her.

“I take it you can’t walk.” Zuko said rhetorically before lifting the smiling girl bridal style. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. Zuko raised his eyebrows.

She really was a clingy drunk.

He had finally reached the women’s dormitories when he realized that she had fallen asleep in his arms. He laid her down on her bed, thankful that his body heat had helped her dry on the way there, and caressed her cheek with his forefinger. The girl was always either beaming or incredibly flustered around him, so it wasn’t common to see such a peaceful expression her face, and he cherished it.

One last long look was all he allowed himself to do before the firebender turned around and made his way to the door.

“Wait.” Kailani spoke softly causing Zuko to turn around surprised, having thought she was asleep. “Please, stay.”

Kailani shifted to the side and patted the spot next to her, immediately cuddling into Zuko as soon as he hesitantly sat on the bed. Zuko knew how to control his alcohol intake, and that was why he was still sober enough to make sure Kailani didn’t do anything she would regret.

So he held her for the night because even though Zuko wasn’t drunk enough to let them both make a mistake together, he wasn’t stupid enough to not be there for the girl who needed to be held.

Chapter 3 ->

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bisexuals4zuzu · 4 years

Text

Nightmares

SUMMARY: You were close with Zuko when he was Lee in Ba Sing Se and joined the group there too. When Zuko joins the group you are cold to him. You have a nightmare one night and wake up screaming. Zuko comforts you (Based on ask)

PAIRING: Zuko x Waterbender! Reader

Warning: Nightmares, Dreams about death

“I just can't believe this” you huffed, frustrated. Your Lee from Ba SIng Se was the fire prince that hunted the avatar and yet here he is standing in front of the avatar saying he has changed and wants to teach him how to fire bend. The person is standing in front of you looks exactly as Lee did in Ba Sing Se but the things that Katara, Sokka, and Aang are saying it makes you question everything. You watched as Zuko turned and walked away from the gang. You haven't heard much of what was said but you felt like you should go after him. He was Lee the boy from the tea shop, the one who knew exactly what time of day you were going to come in and always had a cup of tea ready for you.

You couldn't continue to watch this. You turned on your heels and headed back to the room you had been staying in. you sat on the floor in front of the fireplace and watched the flames flicker. Cinders from the air landed around your feet. You laid on the ground by the fire and closed your eyes. Letting the warmth of the air lull you to sleep.

The next morning while you all were eating breakfast toph came crawling in with the soles of her feet. You and Katara began healing her feet. You could feel the anger bubbling up in your chest but you just couldn't tell who exactly it was at. It could have been at Lee, no ZUko, you thought, or was it directed to the group because you knew that the person you knew could never in a million years hurt someone on purpose. Your anger grew even more when they suggested going after him because according to Sokka, “He was too dangerous to leave on his own.” With that statement you turned and left to go back to the room you were staying. In

You had barely even gotten a few feet away before you hear an explosion. Your head whipped around and you immediately opened the bottle that held your water, Running in the direction of where the rest of the group was. You look in the direction of where the explosion came from and you felt only what you could describe as shock when you saw Zuko on the ledge fighting the “Combustion Man” as Sokka called him. You weren't as close to the rest of the group but when you saw Zuko fall off the edge, a scream escaped your lips. Combustion man Jumped down from the ledge and began attacking. Aang sent a tornado toward him as you and Katara form a wave and send it his way after turning it into icicles. You were so angry you couldn't focus on anything the group was saying. You watched as SOkka threw his boomerang and hit the combustion man. Then you watched in shock as Combustion Man stood up and finally you saw COmbustion man blow himself up. You glanced up and saw Zuko pulling himself up by a vine, you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding back and let the feeling of relief wash over you.

“I can’t believe i am saying this but thanks, Zuko” Aang said as Zuko approached the group. You kept your eyes trained on the ground refusing to meet his eye.

“Hey, and what about me?” Sokka said, “I did the boomerang thing”

“Listen, I know I didn’t explain myself very well yesterday.” Zuko said, his voice made your heart swell, “I’ve been through a lot in the past few years, and it’s been hard.” You looked up as he scratched the back of his neck, a habit you really liked.

“But I’m realizing that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth,” he said, “I thought I had lost my honor and that somehow my father could return it to me” He explained.

“But I know now that no one can give you your honor,” he looked at the group, “It’s something you earn for yourself by choosing to do what’s right. All I want now is to play my part in ending this war”

Zuko cast his eyes at the floor, “And I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world. I am sorry for what I did to you, Toph, It was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild. So as a firebender, I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally.”

“(Y/N)” Zuko said, “I am so sorry I lied to you. I wish I could go back and do it differently. I am sorry I hurt you.” You couldn't bring yourself to look up from your feet but you could feel his eyes burning into you.

“I think you are supposed to be my firebending teacher.” Aang said, “When I first tried to learn firebending, I burned Katara.” Aang explained for a while long but you had zoned out, you were pulled out of your thoughts.

“(Y/N),” Aang said.

“Sorry, I wasn't listening,”

“Zuko lied to you, are you okay with him joining the group?” You heard the question and took a deep breath. You could Zuko starting to sweat. You could hear your heartbeat in your ears.

“Yeah, sure, whatever” you stuttered out before turning on your heels and walking wherever your feet lead you.

You ended up in your room before you heard Sokka outside your room, “Here you go, Home sweet home. I guess, You know, for now.” Sokka said, adding, “Unpack.. Lunch soon.”

You skipped lunch. Katara had brought some to your room when she realized that you weren't going to show up. You practiced waterbending all afternoon and when dinner rolled around you thought it might be best to stay in your room again. This time Sokka brought you your dinner.

“It's a bit awkward, isn't it?” Sokka asked you.

“I guess,” you said, “I don't know if Zuko is the person i met in Ba Sing Se, or the person who was hunting you guys for months, or just a different person entirely”

“I don't know either,” He said before leaving the room.

You sat the food on a table before climbing in your bed and trying to fall asleep. You looked at the ceiling for what felt like hours before you finally managed to fall asleep.

You woke up sitting straight up in your bed, a scream escaping your lips. You brought your knees to your chest letting the sobs rip through your body. You heard your door open and figured it was aang or katara, since they were normally the people who slept the lightest.

“(Y/N), are you alright?” you felt the bed sink as you recognized the voice, Zuko. He put his hand on yours. You almost pulled your hand away but you reveled in his touch. Zuko put his arms around you. The sobs kept falling out for a few more minutes before you finally calmed yourself.

“(Y/N), are you alright?” he asked again, looking at you wiping a tear from your cheek. You shook your head. You wanted to lie but when he looks at you like that you couldn't find it in yourself to lie to him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” you shook your head again.

“I thought you died today” You said trying to change the subject, “I thought you left me again.”

“Is that what you dream was about?” He asked. You wanted to lie and say it wasn’t.

“Yes, In the dream you were lying to us. You were here to kill Aang. You were going to but katara she used waterbending and pushed you off the cliff. I tried to stop her but I couldn't move. It was like I was frozen. Just like earlier when you feel off but...but,” You cleared your throat, “But you didn't come back. I had lost you. I can't lose you. I care for you too much.

“Oh,” he said quietly, “I’m sorry.” his arms wrap around you tighter pulling you into a hug. You let the smell of smoke and jasmine tea fill your lungs, calming you to your very soul. You could feel his warmth. You put your legs on either side of him sitting on his lap. Your head resting on his shoulder.

“Promise you wont leave me” you said quietly, pulling out of his embrace, “Please, don't leave me” saying those words made you feel weaker than you have ever felt. You couldn't bring yourself to look at him.

He grabbed your chin, lifting you face until your eyes met his amber ones, “I won’t leave you, I will do everything in my power to make sure I never have to leave your side ever again okay?” you nodded, a shiver running down your spine. He grabbed your waist lifting you and setting you on the bed as he got up and you thought he was about to leave but instead he walked over to the fireplace and lit a fire before returning to your side.

“I should head back and let you get some sleep,” He said, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“Stay, please,” you said, grabbing Zuko’s hand that was on your shoulder. You moved to the side before patting the bed next to you.

“Fine, but just until you fall asleep okay?” he said getting on the bed.

“Okay,” you said, laying your head on the pillow facing toward Zuko as he lays looking at you as well. You were soon fast asleep. The next morning you woke up on a very warm pillow but it was also hard. You realized that the “Pillow” had a heartbeat. Soon you connected the dots, you were using Zuko as a pillow. A blush crept on your face. You tried to lift yourself off of him and out of the bed without him noticing.

“(Y/N), Good morning” He said in a gruff voice, “I hope you slept well” he sat up in the bed and scratched the back of his neck. You were about to say some sarcastic comment but were interrupted by the door opening.

“Hey, (Y/N) have you seen Zuko,” Sokka asked before glancing at the man sitting on your bed, “Oh, I guess you guys figured it out” Sokka said before sending a wink in your direction and walking out of the room. Leaving you and Zuko with a blush on your cheeks.

#zuko x reader #atla zuko #alta #katara #atla aang #sokka #imagine #nightmare #zuko imagine #fluff

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atypicalkataangist · 6 years

Text

Daughter’s Day (Part 1)

Type: Threeparter - Part 1 [Family] Summary: Aang spends some time with his little girl. Word count: 1046 Author’s note: Hey guys, I’m back with some actual new stuff I’ve written! Since Kataang Week and the truly incredible Kataang-family-fics by @kristallioness I’m totally into the Family thing now and I’m trying my best to write some of that stuff myself now, too. So please don’t get upset if the next few posts aren’t that much about the romantic relationship between Aang and Katara, but about the whole family-love thing between both of them and their children. I think there is some pretty interesting and sweet stuff to write about.

However, I am aware that Kya and Bumi say in LoK that they often felt neglected by their father when they were little. I don’t know what you think, but that almost broke my heart when I watched it, because I couldn’t believe Aang, our Aang, the most loving and compassionate person in the entire Avatar universe would cold heartedly neglect two of his children in favor of another one.

So I’m trying to give this whole thing another spin here. Remember, this is pretty fluffy. I just can’t write a little girl being incredibly angry and disappointed with her Dad. So don’t expect too much family drama here, even though it’s not that realistic, I know. If you need something sweet to feel good about, maybe you’ve come to right place. I hope I didn’t overdo it with the sweetness :D Oh, and there will be a next part. Maybe I’ll make a series about Aang’s relationship with Bumi, or Katara’s relationship with Kya as well? What do you think? Let me know :)

But now, finally, enjoy! :)

"Come on Daddy, tell me where we're going!" The nine year old waterbender followed her father impantiently out to Appa's stable near the coast of air temple island. He only grinned, took her hand and carefully lept onto the big saddle on the huge beast's back.

"You'll see soon enough, sweetie", he said while smiling at his daughter from the head of the bison, "have a little patience. Are you ready?"

She nodded. "Ready for take-off, Daddy."

He held Appa's leash, ready to ascend, but paused before giving the command. "You know what? Come here. You wanna try steer Appa?"

She was wide-eyed all of the sudden. "Really?" He nodded and beckoned her to sit next to him. She took place right next to her father who carefully gave her the leash, teaching her how to hold it properly. After giving her a short instruction, they were ready to start.

"Everything okay, Kya? Ready for take-off?" She nodded, concentrated on the important task she that was ahead of her. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. Plus, I'm here as well."

She gulped and took a last deep breath before closing her eyes and screaming the command to start at their bison. "Appa, yip-yip!"

The beast only responded with a long and deep growl before leaping into the sky with ease. The young waterbender was totally overwhelmed by the new experience. It was one thing to sit on the bison's back, but it was a whole other thing to sit on his head and steer the huge animal.

"You did it!", he praised, "That was amazing, sweetie!"

She shortly smiled at her Dad before focusing on Appa again. However, the hard part was over now; Appa knew the direction and maintained his altitude. "Thanks, Daddy."

"I'm proud of you, you know that?"

"I know", the nine year old said, turning more into his direction. "Daddy, why are we doing this trip?"

Her father gulped and met her gaze with shame in his eyes. "Because... because I feel like I've been neglecting you recently. I don't want to make any excuses, but it was a really busy time lately."

"I know, Daddy. You're the Avatar! There are so many people who need your help! I understand you need to be there for them.", she spoke with pride, but he could sense that there was more behind that.

He smiled at her apologetically and padded his upper thigh. "Come here, sweetie." She took place on his lap and met her father's gaze. "You know, I don't expect you to understand everything yet, alright?", he spoke to her calmly. "You have a right to be mad at me when I'm gone for so long." He paused for a second. "You can tell me how you feel, sweetie. I promise I won't get mad or anything." She contemplated intensely for a few seconds before she stuttered her response, tearing up a bit. "Som... sometimes it feels like you have no time for us, Daddy. When you're at home, you spend most of your time with Tenzin since you started training him. I'm with Mom most of the time, and it's great training with her...", some more tears began trailing down her cheeks, "...but sometimes... I miss doing things like these with you, you know, Dad?"

It almost broke his heart seeing his little baby daughter cry because of his mistakes. He hurted her feelings.

He had a few talks with Katara about this where she said the same thing, and she was right as well. She didn't want her children to go through the same stuff that happened to her when she was young. Her mother gone and her father always absent. Now he had the chance to be there for their children. Now he could participate in their lives. And after all, he had more than one child to take care of and he had already done his deed to the world. Now he had to step up to his responsibility of being a father to three children.

He embraced his little girl firmly, but lovingly while he felt his own eyes get wet. He felt miserable. "I know what you mean, sweetie. And you're absolutely right. I'm really, really sorry if I haven't given you enough attention lately." She hugged her father back.

"It's okay, Daddy.", she whispered into his ear.

"No, it's not. I know this is a cold comfort, but do you wanna spend the afternoon outside republic City, picknicking at the lake? And tonight we can have a quick look at the festival in the big city if you want."

Her eyes widened and she grinned happily. He knew that it was one of her favorite places to spend s lazy day with the family and to practice some waterbending. And a big festival in republic city was always a good thing.

"Oh, Daddy, you're the best!", she yelled and hugged him even more tight.

He laughed and kissed his daughter's forehead. "No, my little waterbender. You're the best."

She climbed down from his lap and took place next to him again, resting her tiny body against her father's torso. "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"You know, it's okay that you leave for your Avatar business. You're like a real hero. You save sooo many people!"

He blushed a bit at his daughter's gushing remark. "Well..."

"But you must promise me that you'll always come back to us, okay?"

Another big boulder sank down to his stomach. He breathed heavily for a moment and rubbed her shoulder again, nodding sincerely. "Of course, sweetie. I will always, always come back and spend time with you. From now on, you're my top priority, I swear. I love you and your brothers and your mother more than anything else, you know that?", he whispered into her ear.

She smiled and cuddled a bit closer towards her father. "I know, Daddy, I know."

He was finally able to smile now. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have such a great daughter.

#kataang #avatar #aang #family #fluff #kya #legend of aang

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the-jade-cross · 4 years

Text

Love on Fire - Chapter 9

Korra shifted nervously on the back of the black dragon whom she had been introduced to. Across from her was Izumi who rode on the back of the white dragon.

“So, why are we up here?” the young avatar inquired.

Izumi smirked at the girl’s concerned face.

“We’re up here so that my father will not hear us,” Izumi remarked. “When my father told me, he was planning on telling you about... well… the Yin and Yang since him and my mother, I volunteered to do the background explaining to you.” “Whatever for?” Korra inquired.

Izumi sighed before glancing down, “Here. Land in front of the palace. There is something you need to see.” When they landed, Izumi led Korra into a side building near the side of the palace, sort of set to the side, surrounded by peach and apple trees that were green with leaves but no sign of buds yet.

When they entered, Korra gasped. Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier that was narrow and long, the tip touching the center of the floor, so it was sort of like a pillar. There were crystals of pale blue and pale gold and hanging from the tip of each spiral was either a little sun or a little star.

“My father had this building made after my mother died,” Izumi explained. “I was young…. about twenty-eight. My parents were barely in their mind forties when my mother was taken from us.” “What caused her death?” Korra inquired, noticing that the walls were lined with portraits.

“Exhaustion,” Izumi replied. “My mother had gone through so much in her younger years that her death was brought on by exhaustion. Also…. From what my father always told us was that she was too good for this earth and our Maker decided that we had been blessed with her presence long enough and that she deserved a happier life.” Korra glanced at the nearest portrait and saw that it was a portrait of Avatar Aang, his wife Katara and their three children. Next to it was a portrait of Sokka, his wife Suki and their children: Shawn and Suzie. The next one was one that made Korra’s eyes widen.

“Is that Toph?” she asked.

Izumi nodded, “Toph and her husband, Hirako. Hirako was my mother’s younger brother. Those are their sons: Thom and Terrance.” “And who is this?” Korra asked, pointing to the next portrait.

“That is Hirako and my mother’s older brother Kaname. His wife Ty Lee was a childhood friend of my mother and father. Those are their children: Ken, Kara and Tanya.” “This man,” Korra said, nodding to the next one. “He looks like Mako.” Izumi chuckled. “That is Mitsuru, my other uncle. My mother had three brothers. His wife, Mei was a close friend of Aunt Ty Lee. Those are their daughters: Minnie, Michi, Mari, Meena and Moira.” “And this….” Korra gasped, staring at the picture that stood at the head of the others.

Izumi nodded, walking over to touch the portrait of her family, “My family.” Korra slowly approached the large painting before touching each person in turn, “Fire Lord Zuko…. He looked so young!” “That was when he was young,” Izumi chuckled softly. “And when he used to smile…. Smile and the way his eyes would light up…. That has never happened since my mother died.” Korra then began to trace over each face of the children, “That is you…. You were so beautiful!” “And that is my brother Rekka,” Izumi said, fondly touching the painting of her twin.

“And these three girls?” Korra asked.

“My sisters, Yakira, Ena and Chika. They are all married now and living happily in Ba Sing Sa. Chika carried on our great-uncle Iroh’s tradition of tea making and she owns his shop in Ba Sing Sa.” “And…. These boys….” Korra whispered. When Izumi didn’t answer right away, the turned to see a pained look cross Izumi’s face.

“My younger brothers Katsu and Roku. Katsu died eight years after my mother did…. He was only thirty-five. Everyone thought that he died of the same that our mother did…. until it dawned on us that Katsu died of a broken heart. My mother was the world to him. Katsu loved our father, but he loved our mother more than life. When she died, he was the one who took it the hardest and he never truly got over it. His heart broke the moment he heard our father cry when our mother’s heart stopped. When Katsu died…. Someone else’s heart broke…. Roku’s.” “Don’t…. no….oh no,” Korra whispered. “Did he….” “Roku died three months after Katsu died. When they were children, no one would think that Katsu and Roku were close, but it was a friendship that only they could see. Katsu was the calm, intelligent while Roku was the energetic, rambunctious but they were the closest of brothers…. Maybe even closer than Rekka and I.”

“I’m sorry,” Korra whispered.

Izumi just shook her head and stroked the painting of her brothers fondly.

“And this….” Korra said, running her fingers over the pale blond girl standing next to Izumi in the painting. “Is your mother….” “Shirayuki Trusang, the Yang of our time, wife to the Fire Lord and the strongest person any of us have ever known.” “How did she do it?” Korra inquired. “I have heard of the things that she endured. Being brainwashed…. Thrown into a death prison….”

“Love,” Izumi whispered, walking to the next painting which made Korra’s eyes widen. “The love she held for my father lasted even through brainwashing and prison. Unto death and beyond, my parents will forever be in love and that is what keeps them alive… it is what has helped my father keep going for this long….though it is starting to hurt.” Korra ran her fingers over the painting of a few young people: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, Zuko and Shira.

“What do you mean?” Korra inquired.

Izumi sighed. “My father is dying.”

**********

“Fire Lord Zuko!” Korra cried, rushing over to where Zuko was preparing to mount onto Druk.

Zuko turned around slowly before turning back to Druk, covering his mouth and his shoulders shaking before turning to Korra fully.

“Avatar Korra.” “Izumi explained everything to me…. I just have one question….” The girl stuttered. “I know that your memories of your past lives as the Yin or Yang do not carry through to the next generation…. But…. Is there any assurance that… I will find him or her again?” Zuko smiled before placing both his hands on her shoulders, “I asked myself that the moment Shira died. I asked myself it again when Rekka died. All I know is, we will all find our way back home to each other in a world that has no death and no strife…. A place I hope to see one day.” Korra nodded before hugging the old man tightly, “Take care.” Zuko chuckled before patting her gently on the shoulder and mounting Druk. Just as Korra turned around and walked off, Zuko coughed into his hand, his shoulders heaving as he coughed heavily several times before taking a deep breath. He looked over to see Dagny and Gau watching him with concern in their eyes.

“I’m alright,” he assured them. “Let’s get home. It is the last time I have to return home without Shira waiting for me.”

********

Zuko sighed as he slowly walked up the steps to the palace. He paused on the 88th step…. The same step that Shira always stood upon when she awaited his arrival…. And if she wasn’t the one waiting, it was Yakira. Zuko turned his head to the side to look at the small building that stood to his right. Slowly he walked into the building and smiled fondly at each painting, walking by each one by one, trailing his fingers over them.

When he reached the final one, his hands paused on the petite pale girl in the picture….at her side, two young boys: one blond and tall, the other more strongly built with dark hair.

“I miss you….” His hands paused on the portrait when his eyes traveled to the small back door nearby which lead out to the small garden where Shira would sit so many times with the children. Zuko walked over to stand in the doorway, looking upon the garden which had changed so much. The apple and peach trees not yet blossoming even though they were overdue. Zuko remembered watching Shira sitting upon the grass by the pond, Chika in her lap, Katsu leaning against her side as he read something aloud to her. He could just imagine seeing Roku’s little body hanging from the limbs of the tree, playfully teasing his brother on his book knowledge.

Rekka and Izumi would play in the water or practice their bending. Yakira would run around the garden, filling her skirt with flowers only to dump them all into the water and watch them float away.

Sighing, Zuko turned on his heel and returned to his slow journey up the many steps to the palace. There was no one really around. The guards were like stone statues as usual so Zuko’s journey to his chambers seemed to go unnoticed. When he entered the room, he found Gau and Dagny sitting on either side of the door, waiting for his arrival. Zuko stroked each of them in turn before walking to his desk and sitting down. Drawing out his pen, he carefully wrote something down on the sheet of paper there before folding it and writing a single name upon it. Leaving it alone upon his desk, Zuko strode over to his bed and sat down on the edge of it, sighing at the relief it gave.

“Zuko,” a soft voice whispered from behind him. Zuko turned and found himself gazing upon the sight he had been waiting to see for almost forty years. Long golden locks fell to her waist, eyes as blue as the sky sparkled and her smile seemed to make her face glow with light.

“I am ready,” he whispered, smiling at her.

The girl slowly crossed the room before holding out her hand to him, just out of reach, “You are.”

Zuko slowly leant back before laying down on the bed. Dagny and Gau came to curl up around the base of the bed, intertwining their long bodies together in a protective manner around the fire lord. Zuko covered himself with the sheet before looking at the girl who still had her hand extended to him.

Reaching out, he touched it and found in shock that he could feel it…. warm….gentle…. and so light that it felt like it was not yet real.

“It is time,” the girl whispered. “To come home.” Zuko smiled happily at her when suddenly he saw three faces appear behind him…. Young faces…. And behind them…. More faces that had long been lost to him for years….he was going home.

Meanwhile, Izumi had been standing near the docks, watching as the familiar Ba Sing Sa ship approached, carrying her three sisters. She saw the three girls poke their heads over the side before walking down to greet her. Yakira’s hair was beginning to gray slightly but Ena and Chika still looked as young as the day.

“It is so wonderful to have you home!” Izumi said, hugging her sisters. “I am sure father will be overjoyed to see you.” The three girls beamed at the prospect of seeing their father when suddenly a shiver ran down Izumi’s spine and she clutched her chest.

“Zu?” Chika inquired, touching her sister’s shoulder, “What is it?” Izumi shook her head, “I don’t know…. I just felt like something in me…. Snapped…. Or…. disappeared. I haven’t felt anything like this since Rekka died….” “Fire Lord Izumi!” a young page cried, sprinting to them at an incredible speed.

The four girls turned to look at him to see a horrified look on his face, “You had better come see this.” When the page led the four girls to the doors of their father’s chambers, they stared in shock at what lay before them. The doors had been blown to smithereens and half of the doorframe was engulfed in a thin trail of fire that didn’t seem to spread…. But just kept burning softly…. And the other half of the doorframe…. Was encased in ice!

“Izumi?” Ena inquired, turning to her sister for assurance.

“Father,” Izumi whispered, the worst coming to her mind. The four girls burst through the doors, only to find that they were not the first ones there.

A white-haired woman stood by the side of the bed, staring calmly at the old fire lord as he lay motionless on the bed, the black and white figures of Gau and Dagny curled up around him, their eyes closed and the sound of their loud breathing no longer there.

“Aunt Toph?” Yakira inquired.

The old earth bender turned and smiled softly at the sight of the four girls standing there.

“I was wondering when he would finally decide to give himself a break. For as long as I have known your father, he never once went easy on himself. He took it upon himself to make up for those years of hunting Aang and in a way, I believe he blamed himself for all the things that happened to your mother in her childhood.”

The old woman turned back to Zuko and fondly touched his shoulder before leaning over to plant a kiss on his forehead.

“Rest now old friend,” she said gently. “You have waited too long.”

“Aunt Toph…” Ena whispered. “Does that mean….” The girl didn’t have to finish her sentence for everyone present saw how absolutely still Zuko was…. His chest no longer rising and falling with breath, his eyes closed and his face ashen white to match the paleness of his lips. His arms lay limp by his sides and he was unmoving just like the dragons.

“Fire Lord Izumi!” A maid cried, running into the room and not even noticing Zuko on the bed, her eyes wide.

“What is it Rose?” Izumi asked.

The maid clapped her hands happily. “You know how the peach and apple trees were late to bloom? They all bloomed just now! Every last blossom burst! It was amazing!” Once the girl had run back out of the room to spread to amazing news, the four girls turned back to Toph who had walked over to the window during the exchange and was looking out at the pink and white blossoms floating through the air.

“So, passes, another Yin and Yang,” Toph sighed.

“No….” Chika let out a choked sob, Ena quickly wrapping her in a hug to help muffle her sobs.

While Ena and Izumi tried hard to comfort her while holding back their own tears and failing, Yakira had crossed the room and stood at Zuko’s desk.

“It’s from dad,” she said simply, picking up a piece of paper. “It is addressed to Izumi.” The tall woman strode across the room to take the note out of her sister’s hand and slowly read it aloud.

Dear Izumi,

I do not know if Chika, Ena and Yakira will be in the city by the time you read this but if so, I also address this to them. I know this is unexpected and I know I did not properly say goodbye, but I had a reason. If I said goodbye, then it would appear that I was leaving you when I really am not. I found it hard to believe when we lost your mother that she would really be with us even if she was no longer amongst us physically. But she never really left us, we just had to look for her in the things she left behind: in the love she felt for each of us, in the people and things she touched with her gentleness and even just looking at the stars, I often found myself seeing her even if it was in my heart. I am not leaving you. I would never leave you nor would your mother. It is just time for me to leave you the duties and life that your mother and I shared even in the short time we had together. Chika, Ena and Yakira, you are married and have children of your own who look up to you and depend upon you. It is now your duty to no longer be the daughters but the mothers. Just as your mother and I had to learn how to be parents to Izumi and Rekka without our parents to guide us, you must continue to go on for your children until they no longer need you.

Izumi, the duties as Fire Lord and the peace of the fire nation is now in your hands. Rule well and be the good, kind leader that I know you to be. Rekka knew you better than anyone and I know that he did not give the duties of Fire Lord to you without knowing that you are what the Fire Nation needs.

I love you and remember, your mother and I shall always be with you.

Love from your father,

Zuko

“He just signed his name…. Zuko,” Ena whispered. “Without his title….” “Because he has given the title to Izumi,” Yakira explained, wiping her eyes, suddenly realizing how damp they were.

“No,” Izumi whispered. “That’s not why. It’s because…. That is who he was…. When he met mother. And that is how he chooses to leave. Just himself.” The four girls turned to see that Toph had walked over to where Zuko lay and had placed something between Zuko’s hands… the head piece for the crown prince.

“He may choose to leave just as Zuko, but he will always be the young prince that he was when he first met Shira."

*******

Zuko’s eyes cracked open and he found himself looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. It looked like it was made of pure marble…. But it almost seemed…. otherworldly…. Like Zuko was imagining it.

He tilted his head to the side and saw that there were windows all around the circle shaped room where he lay, the windows filled with lacy white curtains that billowed gently in a soft breeze. Zuko carefully pushed himself into a sitting position when he heard the sound of a small fountain or spring somewhere outside.

He saw that he lay on a large bed, covered in pure white sheets. He wore a pair of white pants and a white shirt over it. The shirt came halfway to his knees and around his waist was a loose white sash.

“Where am I?” he asked and froze.

Something was off…. his voice sounded weird…. Not husky or cracking like he remembered…. But…. Young again. The first thing he thought to do was look down at his hands and he stared when he saw that they were no longer covered in wrinkles but young and strong like when he was a teen.

“No way,” he whispered before reaching up to his face.

His beard was gone and when he ran his fingers through his hair, he found it shorter…. As short as it was when he first became Fire Lord…. Flopping in waves about his eyebrows and ears. As his hands traveled through his hair, his hand grazed over the left side of his face and he froze. Wait….

Slowly he touched the left side of his face and was shocked to no longer feel the rugged or scarred…. But smooth…. Like the rest of his face.

Zuko was snapped out of his thoughts by the gentle sound of a sungi horn. His head snapped around in the direction to find someone sitting in the corner of the room where he hadn’t looked. Sitting in a wicker chair, a sungi horn at his lips sat none other than….

“Uncle?” Zuko gasped.

Iroh stopped playing the horn before opening his eyes to look at his nephew. He smiled before setting the instrument down to approach the young boy. Zuko turned to him as Iroh sat down on the edge of the bed and drew him into a hug.

“We were waiting for you to wake.” He said, stroking his nephew’s hair.

“Uncle, what is going on? Am I dreaming?” Zuko asked. “Am I going through that fever I had in Ba Sing Sa long ago?” Iroh chuckled as he drew back, “No, Prince Zuko. You are not dreaming nor are you in a fever. This is reality.” “But….” Zuko whispered, feeling his face again before grabbing his uncle’s forearms to make sure the man was still there. “My scar…. Is gone…. And I’m younger…. And….aren’t you supposed to be……” “Dead?” Iroh chuckled. “Quite so Prince Zuko.” Zuko’s eyes widened when reality suddenly dawned on him, “So…. I am actually dead….” Iroh smiled before ruffling his hair, “Don’t think of it as a bad thing. You haven’t even gone outside.” “Outside?” Zuko inquired but was cut off when the door of the room flew open.

Both Iroh and Zuko turned to look at who had entered only to have to look down at a small figure who stood in the doorway, eyes wide and a toothy grin on his face.

“DADDY!” Zuko was out of the bed in an instant and his feet had barely touched the floor when the little black-haired boy totaled into him, wrapping his little arms around his neck and burying his face in Zuko’s shoulder.

“You’re awake,” The boy said happily.

Zuko slowly drew back, his eyes wide and mouth open in disbelieving shock. He ran his fingers over the boy’s face, through his hair and over his lids.

“Why aren’t I crying?” Zuko whispered. “I see you for the first time in years and….” “This is not the place of tears daddy,” The little boy chirped, beaming up at him. “You shall never shed tears again.” Zuko sat back on his heels, still holding the small boy in his arms before a smile spread across his face as he pressed his lips to the boy’s forehead.

“Roku.” As Zuko pulled back, he found his uncle standing near the doorway with a smile on his face and Roku pushed away from his father before grabbing his large hand in his little one…. the last time Zuko checked, Roku’s hand had been the one of a grown man…. And now holding the small child’s hand in his…. Made his heart seem to beat all over again.

“Come on daddy!” The boy said as he dragged Zuko out of the room. “Everyone wants to see you!” “Everyone….” Zuko felt his eyes suddenly close as he had to readjust to the lighting outside…. but when he did…. He found himself staring at what appeared to be a massive garden that spread for as far as he could see. Small paths made of pure marble wound all around peach, cherry and apple trees that were blossoming, their white, pink and peach petals falling to the ground. The grass was greener than any he had ever seen and littered with beautiful white roses that grew in abundance.

“Father?” a voice whispered from nearby.

Zuko turned and felt his heart stop when he saw a young boy sitting with his back against an apple tree, a pure white book in his hands, the lettering on the cover of gold that seemed to glow. The boy dropped the book onto the grass, a dove immediately flying over to take the book for him before he jumped to his feet.

The boy’s golden hair flopped in his face as he rushed over toward Zuko before wrapping his arms tightly around his abdomen.

“Father,” the boy breathed against his father’s chest, “You’re here.” Zuko bit his lip, feeling as if tears were coming but instead, a laugh erupted from him and he beamed as he hugged his son to him.

“Katsu.” Zuko looked down at his son as Katsu pulled away from him, a huge smile on his face before Katsu turned and nodded toward something nearby. Zuko lifted his eyes and almost choked on his own breathing when he saw several figures approaching.

The first person he recognized was his mother…. at her side was Kiyi…. Who was just a little girl again…. Ikem holding onto her other hand.

“Zuko,” Ursa said gently, embracing her son before Kiyi gave him a mighty hug.

“Mother,” Zuko gasped but he cut himself off from further words when he saw the other people with her, “No way…. Aang?” Zuko felt the air snapped out of him, literally, when the avatar, young, spry and completely bald again flew into him with a laugh. Zuko barely had time to catch his breath before he was drawn into a massive group hug consisting of Katara, Sokka and Suki.

“Group hug!” Sokka chirped.

“This is so strange,” Zuko said, pulling back to look at each of them. “It feels like yesterday I saw you all gray haired and old…” “That is insulting,” A familiar voice remarked.

Zuko didn’t have to look around Sokka’s head to know who stood on the other side. Sokka finally stepped to the side to reveal three tall figures walking toward them. The three tall figures turned out to be male, two of them with dark hair and the other blond. Hanging on the arm of the tallest brunette was a petite, agile girl with a long brown braid and upon the other brunette’s arm was a black-haired girl with a calm expression but kind eyes.

“Kaname, Hirako, Mitsuru,” Zuko whispered, staring at each of the young Trusangs, “Ty Lee and Mei.”

“Welcome Zuko!” Ty Lee chirped happily.

Kaname released Ty Lee’s hand, leaving the girl to walk over to a group of children who were picking roses who Zuko recognized as Ken, Kara, Tanya as well as Hirako and Toph, Aang and Katara, Sokka and Suki and Mitsuru and Mei’s children.

“Welcome brother,” Kaname said, giving Zuko a firm hug before stepping back. “I believe there is someone who particularly wishes to see you.” The tall man stepped to the side and Zuko’s mouth dropped as another young figure approached him…. young…. possibly in his early teens with pale blond hair but fiery amber eyes….

“Rekka,” Zuko gasped.

“Father!” The young boy cried, rushing over to wrap his arms around Zuko’s neck and bury his face in his chest. “You’re home!” “Mother has been dying to see you!” Katsu added.

Roku was just about to agree with his brothers when Zuko tensed and the three boys stopped, realizing what they had said.

“What?” Zuko inquired.

“Hello Zuko,” A gentle voice said from behind.

Zuko felt like everything slowed and even though a part of him wanted to snap and spin around, he slowly turned to see Kaname and Mitsuru step to the side to reveal a petite figure who stood behind them…. Golden hair falling to her waist in a long loose braid, eyes as blue as the sky that outshone the stars. A smile that seemed to put the sun to shame….

“Shira….”

************

Unlike the time earlier when Zuko rushed forward to embrace the person before him, he slowly approached the girl. She was young again…. Just like he was… she looked like she did when she got her memories back… still petite, slender and seemingly glowing.

When Zuko finally stood before her, he hesitantly reached out, wondering if when he touched her, she would just turn out to be an illusion or a trick of the light…. But he couldn’t help but want to touch her. She seemed so real. When finally, his fingers came in contact with the side of her head, Zuko let out a shaky breath he didn’t realize he was holding before he snatched the girl to him, clutching her against his chest as if afraid that if he released her, she would dissolve.

“It’s okay Zuko,” the girl cooed into his chest, wrapping her arms around his abdomen, “I’m here.” Zuko buried his face in her long hair, breathing in her scent and sighing, “Do you know how I fell asleep expecting to find you next to me only to be greeted by an empty bed? I would see you everywhere…. In the garden, at the docks, in the hallways and when I touched you…. You would just….” “Sh,” Shira said gently, pulling back to cup his cheeks in her hands. “That’s in the past. I will never leave you again.” Zuko felt his body shaking at her words before he grasped her behind the head and pulled her flush against him, kissing her soundly for the first time in years.

When he pulled back, he felt some sort of peace wash over him and he grinned at her.

“You look different without your scar,” Shira pointed out, touching the left side of his face which was as smooth as baby skin.

“It sort of scared me when I woke,” Zuko admitted, touching Shira’s hand and holding it to his face.

Shira smiled softly up at him before she turned her head to look at the two small figures who had come to stand beside her. The girl smiled before leaning down to scoop Roku into her arms. The little boy then held out his arms to Zuko who immediately complied and lifting him onto his hip while Katsu came to stand close to Shira, the girl wrapping her arm around her son’s shoulders.

Rekka came to stand on Shira’s other side before allowing her to wrap her arm around his shoulders as well, resting his head against his shoulder since the young boy almost reached Shira’s shoulder.

“I have something to show you,” Shira said, smiling knowingly as she walked off, still holding onto Katsu’s hand and Rekka following close behind.

Zuko glanced down at Roku in his arms, the little boy giving him a toothy grin and a big joggling nod. Making up his mind, Zuko followed his wife and two eldest sons as they walked down the marble path through the flower petals that seemed to perpetually fall.

It was not a far walk and soon, Zuko caught up to Shira who had stopped in front of what appeared to be a large arch made of wood…. But one side of the arch was pure white and the other was jet black…. wait…. That sounded familiar….

“You may recognize this,” Shira said. “Do you remember that time before Roku was born when I took you into the spirit world and showed you the Tree of the Yin and Yang?” Zuko paused when suddenly the memory came back, “Right. And the statues that showed each generation of Yin and Yang.” Shira nodded, beaming, “Well, one thing I learned when I came here after I died was that the Spirit World has glimpses of heaven. Obviously, some parts of the Spirit World are not glimpses of heaven like Ka’s lair and so forth, but many places in the Spirit World are little bits and pieces of heaven. This is one of them.” Zuko set Roku down, the boy going over to grasp Katsu’s hand and watch as their father stepped through the arch with their mother. When Zuko looked upon the giant tree, the branches weaving into the shape of the Yin and Yang, groups of black and white statues circling the tree in a spiral fashion.

The boy was snapped out of his thoughts when Shira grabbed his hand and drew him over to where the statues stood. Zuko saw that they all looked the same…. Except there were a few extra statues than he remembered. It took him a moment but soon he realized who they were. The most present: Korra and Mako. Before them stood Rayne and Seema, then Izumi and Rekka and….

“Look,” Shira said, pulling Zuko over to the fourth most recent, only for Zuko to see that they were different than before.

When Shira had taken Zuko to the spirit world when they were younger…. And alive, the statues representing Zuko and Shira were of when they were babies, their parents holding them. Now, the fifth to most recent statue was Zuko’s mother, Ursa hugging Shira’s mother, Yakira.

The statue after them: four to most recent…. Were two young children. They looked to be roughly about early fourteen years old. The girl was petite, barely reaching the boy’s shoulder. They had their backs to each other, but their hands were laced together, their free hands lifted, fire coming from the boy’s hand and ice from the girl’s.

“They changed,” Zuko whispered, approaching the two statues before touching the face of the boy. “It’s…. me….” Shira smiled as Zuko touched the part of the statue, which was obviously his scar that he possessed, when he was alive. The boy then walked over and touched the face of the statue of Shira…. Her face round and smiling, it was as if he could see her blue eyes even though they were white from the stone.

Zuko almost jumped when Shira hugged him from behind, burying her face in his back, sighing. “Everything will be alright from now on.” “And the girls?” Zuko inquired, “Izumi…. Ena…. Yakira and Chika?”

Shira smiled, “They are alright. Feel….” The girl drew back before placing her hand on Zuko’s chest and the boy felt a strange sort of relief rush over him…. and for a moment, he thought he could see the smiling faces of his four little girls…. all young again…. And happy.

“What does your heart tell you?” Shira whispered.

Zuko’s eyes flashed open before he smiled, pulling Shira flush against him and burying his face in her hair, “That they are happy…. and that makes me happy.” Shira smiled, wrapping her arms around his abdomen and feeling Katsu, Rekka and Roku come over to join in the hug.

“You know,” Shira muttered against Zuko’s chest, smirking. “As ironic as this sounds, you set my heart on fire.” Zuko chuckled, the sound rumbling in his chest. “Really? Even though I am the one with the fire, I think it was you Shira, who set me aflame.”

#zuko #avatar #avatar the last airbender #zuko x oc

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yxlenas · 4 years

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Zutara + "why are you awake?"

Post Agni Kai. Fairly gen, pre-relationship Zutara with a healthy dose of Zuko whump.

Zuko can’t walk anymore, once they stumble away from Azula’s screaming figure. His knees buckle and it’s all Katara can do to keep him from splitting his head open on the pavers of the courtyard. All he can do is moan, doubling forward to clutch at the burn splitting the skin of his chest, as Katara carefully maneuvers him so that he’s resting in her lap, forehead pressed to her collarbone.

“Hi,” she whispers, “You with me?”

He nods, squeezing his eyes shut, “Yeah, just hurts. M’tired, Katara.”

He sounds so young, vulnerable, shaking in her lap as leftover electricity courses through his body. Katara did what she could, and he wasn’t going to drop dead, but he was still in bad shape. She rubs his back, carefully avoiding the singed fabric over his lumbar spine, carefully measuring her breathing in a gentle attempt to coax him to follow.

“Talk to me,” she murmurs, “What do you need?”

“Cold,” he whispers, curling tighter into her body, “I’m not used to being cold.” Katara brushes a hand through his hair. It’s soaked in sweat, like the rest of his body as he shivers. He’s in shock, and Katara bites her lip. They need to get somewhere safe, but she can’t move him on her own, and Zuko is so limp in her arms that she’s not sure if he’s even awake. She tightens her grip on him, sheathing one hand in ice and waiting. She isn’t sure what she’s waiting for, because she has no idea what’s coming next.

Zuko sleeps in her arms. Eventually, as the comet disappears and the light fades, sun setting beyond the rim of the Caldera. Katara shivers, pushing a clump of her hair behind her ear, settling Zuko’s head in her lap and rubbing his back, avoiding the lightning wound. She starts to doze, completely incapable of staying awake no matter how hard she tries. Zuko whimpers in pain and it jolts her into awareness. His eyes open, slits of gold, and he moans. Katara palms his forehead, grimacing.

“Why are you awake, Zuko?” she murmurs, combing her fingers through his hair, trying to think about anything but the heat radiating from his pale skin. He shakes like he’s freezing, trying to force himself to sitting, but she presses him back down.

“Fuck,” he grunts, swallowing hard, one hand reaching for his chest. Katara laces their fingers to keep him from touching the raw, blistered skin. The edges of the burn are charred, the skin around it white, even with her healing. It needs a level of medical care she can’t provide. At least his heart is beating, she reminds herself. Zuko’s grip tightens painfully around her hand and his back arches suddenly, his breath stuttering in his chest.

“It hurts,” he moans, writhing like he’s trying to get away from the pain, “make it stop, make it stop, Katara please-”

She places cooling water over his chest, focusing on the hurt and willing it away. Zuko’s face goes slack. His breathing is still erratic and hitching, so she knows he’s still feeling pain, but at least he’s not writhing like a dying fish in her grip anymore.

“Shit,” he breathes, looking up at her, face pinched.

“Shit,” she agrees, tearing a piece of his tunic free and soaking it, placing it on his forehead. He grimaces at her, like he wants to say something or push the fabric off, but he relaxes into her arms, splayed out like a broken doll. Her chest contracts. He’s asleep again in seconds, and to keep him that way, Katara tries to relieve his pain every so often. He whimpers and groans in his sleep but doesn’t wake up, sweat soaked and limp. She’s so exhausted that she doesn’t even react to the airship that lands in the courtyard beyond sheathing both hands in shards of ice, lifting Zuko’s head from her lap and laying it on the pavers. Zuko shudders and whines, and Katara gets to her feet and stands in front of him, ready to kill. The realization makes her falter, but not for long. When her brother appears, limping and leaning hard on Suki, the ice falls from her fingers and Katara breaks. She bursts into tears and runs to Sokka, only avoiding throwing herself at him when she realizes that he’s injured. Her brother hugs her close, kissing the top of her head, and Katara lets herself breathe in Sokka, her heartbeat slowing.

“ZUKO!”

Toph is stumbling off the airship, sprinting across the pavers and falling to her knees next to Zuko, tears streaming from her eyes. Katara lets go of her brother and manages to get to Toph before she hurts Zuko further, wrapping the girl in her arms.

“It’s okay, he’s okay,” Katara murmurs, stroking Toph’s dark hair. She hears Aang behind her, and then footsteps. Zuko moans and stirs, rolling onto his side and squinting up at them. His eyes are bright and glazed, but he seems to recognize all of them, and his face splits into a lopsided grin.

“You’re all okay,” he breathes, grunting when he tries to sit up. Katara rests her hand on his collarbone. Toph sobs again, and Zuko reaches for her hand, squeezing. Aang sits next to Katara and leans into her side. He’s exhausted, but mostly in one piece. She’ll check him out soon.

In a strange tangle of limbs, Zuko in the center, held up between Aang and Katara, they stumble into the palace. Zuko gives faint directions to a room he thinks will be safe, but the Fire Sages stop them before they make it there.

“Crown Prince,” the oldest one says, “You have defeated Azula.”

Zuko nods, barely conscious, his face in Katara’s neck. The Fire Sages prostrate themselves in front of them, and Aang gently eases out from under Zuko’s side and steps in front of them, all Avatar. Zuko slumps into Katara with a pained cry, and then his knees buckle and they’re on the plush carpeting. She misses whatever Aang says to the Sages, because Zuko is crying, tears streaming down his cheeks, back arching, hands shaking. He passes out before the Sages finish answering Aang, and Katara steps aside to let them gently lift Zuko.

“He needs a doctor,” Katara mumbles, stumbling when she stands.

“We will find him one, Lady Katara.”

Things pass in a blur. Toph is crying, curled in Katara’s lap at one point, while a palace physician debrides Zuko’s burn wound. Sokka screams when she sets his leg, and Toph and Aang fall asleep, curled together on a low couch. Suki is holding Zuko up as Katara coaxes water into him, then holding him up again as he pukes it up, clinging to Katara’s shirt as the heaving jars his fractured ribs and the damaged muscles in his chest.

Soon it’s just her and Zuko, his head on her chest as she tries to keep his pain under control. Suki and Sokka are asleep at the foot of the bed, nose to nose.

“You should sleep,” he slurs, rolling his eyes up to her.

“So should you,” she murmurs. Absently, she kisses his forehead, ignoring the way her heart seems to skip a beat.

“Will you be here when I wake up?” he asks, as she lays down with him, covering them both with a blanket. She nods, cupping the back of his neck.

“I’ll be here as long as you want.”

#avatar the last airbender #Zuko #Katara #toph beifong #Sokka #zuko x katara #Aang #Cecilia Writes #electricbluebutterflies

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