Miyuki sometimes carries Zuko/Spirit around like a kitten when they're still small.
It's slightly annoying when they steal her favorite sun spot. But they caught a mouse for her as an apology.
The soldiers that come to the herbalist are very concerned about the new pet, that reacts to the same name as her kid that keeps disappearing for some reason.
I hope this makes sense. Sorry for any mistakes.
"I told you," the tiny talking lizard says, "I'm a Spirit."
"Uh," says the Fire Nation solider whose chest is under his teenie-tiny claws.
"Now," it says, and it's impressive how much menace it can exude with the slow cattish undulations of its tail, or the way its little fluffy mane starts standing up hair by hair, "are you going to let me change your bandages, or will I need to burn out an infection?"
Its teeth are like needles and the soldier has a very good view of them. Its breath is very very warm and smells not unlike a coal fire.
"...Could you have opposable thumbs, first?" the man asks.
"Miyuki says thumbs are for the weak."
Teeth and claws approach the his face. The soldier whimpers, as eight ounces of baby dragon start methodically mauling his bandages off.
Zuko: „Miyuki, do we still have some of that white jade bush? I‘d love to prepare a special tea blend for master Pakku as a thank you for teaching Aang water bending“
I think even though Spirit!Zuko gets taught from the norther water tribe healers, he would still be lowkey threatening Pakku for being such a prick. I mean he’s still an angry teenager. Miyuki would be amused.
Hakuddles aside, I think the real question is what sort of ship mascot/pet does Hakoda's crew that can snuggle up to Zuko in adoration while the crew looks on in bemusement
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
Okay but really this is in my outline with lots of questions marks next to it. Now accepting Water Tribe ship’s-cat-equivalent suggestions! Bonus points awarded for some version of a Southern cat that is just as instinctively off-putting to Zuko as mimic-catopuses are to Sokka.
And Zuko really does get a lot of cats in my fics, so MuffinLance theatre is proud to present, in conjunction with @also-proximally’s terrible wonderful mind:
The Giant Isopuppy.
So many body segments. So many legs going click-click-click. Such a waggy-tailed good boy when it is not chitter-growling at intruders from between its mandibles.
(Clearly it is some kind of rat terrier working dog. Combined with a giant isopod. Hunting vermin thoroughout the ship, and occasionally stealth-creeping into the crew’s baths.)
Name concept: water tribe crew named Isopuppy Snowstorm, because dangerous and very water tribe and also because naming took place after a 30 hour no-sleeping-sailing-through-fire-nation-waters-lets-not-get-caught session, so sailors were boiled down to their primal brain that just wanted a cool name, ya know?
Zuko was not informed, instructions on handling ennemy pet unclear, has named the Isopuppy “Seal jerkey”, because Uncle would insist on beinh culturally sensitive so he ll name it after primitive water savage food and Uncle will eat his tea pot at how sensitive Zuko is being.
The worst part is when the first time Zuko asks where Sealjerkey is and everyone knows *exactly* who he is talking about. He doesn’t even go here!
I feel like this combines well with the “it’s named Sokka because it follows Hakoda around” idea. When Sokka finally shows up on the ship, and asks what his dad’s dog is called, Hakoda rushes to blurt out ‘SEAL JERKY’ before the rest of the crew can spill the Sokka-beans.
And Zuko is just like, ‘But I thought you said–’
'SEAL JERKY IS THIS DOGGO’S NAME AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN’
And the rest of the crew is like, 'Now taking bets on how long until Sokka finds out about Other Sokka. Especially now that the secret rests with Prince Literally Can’t Lie To Save His Life.’
ORBSJB AGNI AS A TURTLE DUCK I'm sorry but LIKE HOW CUTE AND then it's like he's this turtleduck in the pond bc depending on how people treat animals, small ones that need help, that's how he knows if they're good and he blesses the ones that treat him kindly and then Zuko and I'm sorry of this sint coherent (I'm a long time fan of your content btw, all the his and the books and omg I wish I could've gotten some)
Azulon looked down. His grandson, along with the turtleduck in his arms, looked up.
“This is Agni,” the boy said. “He says you should stop now.”
QUACK, said the duck. It was a strange red-gold. It was glowing. It was staring at him, even through the flames of the throne.
“Stop what?” humored the Fire Lord.
“The war,” the boy said. “It’s killing too many firebenders. Also his sister has been yelling at him, so we should let the waterbenders go, too, and be nice to them from now on so he can get a good night’s sleep and not have her redirecting comets at him any more. Probably we should leave all the other benders alone too because he’s pretty sure it was the air spirits that made him a flightless duck. He says that’s their sense of humor.”
QUACK, said the turtleduck.
“…Guards,” said Azulon.
This proved to be an ill-advised action.
ALTERNATE TAKE THAT WENT NOWHERE AND ISN'T EDITED HAVE FUN WITH THAT:
There is a Fire Nation child in Hakoda's village. The child has a softly glowing turtleduck in his arms and a quietly oozing wound under his bandage. This is not how Hakoda thought his morning would go.
"What's with the turtleduck?" asks Hakoda's son, who is wrapped around Hakoda's arm and his spear in a way that makes it very hard to instinctively stab at red-clothed things. Hakoda... expected more of them. But the tiny sail boat the kid just ran into Sokka's lumpy watchtower seems to be empty, now that its single feverish passenger has stumbled over. With his duck.
"It's a turtleduck-phoenix," says the Fire Lord's heir, answering exactly none of Hakoda's actual questions. "...You remember?"
"That your hair is going to get worse before it gets better?" says Sokka. "Absolutely."
The Prince scowls. "Then where's Aang?"
"Katara's been looking for him. He's still in the iceberg."
"...The Ember Island Players' iceberg?"
"The Ember Island Players' extremely accurate and well-researched iceberg."
The Fire Prince stares at Hakoda's son. The Fire Prince stares at Hakoda. The Fire Prince flips his duck around to face himself, then starts shaking it. "Give me a less stupid reality."
QUACK, protests the duck, with a burst of accompanying immolation that does nothing to dissuade the prince.
"Sorry, buddy," soothes his son, "you were always in the stupid reality. Remember the frozen frogs?"
I like how Lu Ten is so supportive of his cousin. While Iroh is lowkey skeptical of what the hell is happening.
So far this is reading like one of those timetravel ones where they speedrun the plot and end up having to deal with the consequences of not having the character development of the side-characters happen in the same way. There's going to be a lot of earth kingdom and water tribe politics to get people into some semblance of good behaviour.
Oddly enough, I think the fire nation might be the best off, Zuko has some idea of what he's doing (depending on the time travel departure point), the backing of Agni, and I think the Lu Ten and Azula eventually form some sort of unholy alliance to set fire to all his adversaries. Iroh and even Ursa might cause some problems, but Lu Ten and Azula are also on that.
ORBSJB AGNI AS A TURTLE DUCK I'm sorry but LIKE HOW CUTE AND then it's like he's this turtleduck in the pond bc depending on how people treat animals, small ones that need help, that's how he knows if they're good and he blesses the ones that treat him kindly and then Zuko and I'm sorry of this sint coherent (I'm a long time fan of your content btw, all the his and the books and omg I wish I could've gotten some)
Azulon looked down. His grandson, along with the turtleduck in his arms, looked up.
“This is Agni,” the boy said. “He says you should stop now.”
QUACK, said the duck. It was a strange red-gold. It was glowing. It was staring at him, even through the flames of the throne.
“Stop what?” humored the Fire Lord.
“The war,” the boy said. “It’s killing too many firebenders. Also his sister has been yelling at him, so we should let the waterbenders go, too, and be nice to them from now on so he can get a good night’s sleep and not have her redirecting comets at him any more. Probably we should leave all the other benders alone too because he’s pretty sure it was the air spirits that made him a flightless duck. He says that’s their sense of humor.”
QUACK, said the turtleduck.
“…Guards,” said Azulon.
This proved to be an ill-advised action.
ALTERNATE TAKE THAT WENT NOWHERE AND ISN'T EDITED HAVE FUN WITH THAT:
There is a Fire Nation child in Hakoda's village. The child has a softly glowing turtleduck in his arms and a quietly oozing wound under his bandage. This is not how Hakoda thought his morning would go.
"What's with the turtleduck?" asks Hakoda's son, who is wrapped around Hakoda's arm and his spear in a way that makes it very hard to instinctively stab at red-clothed things. Hakoda... expected more of them. But the tiny sail boat the kid just ran into Sokka's lumpy watchtower seems to be empty, now that its single feverish passenger has stumbled over. With his duck.
"It's a turtleduck-phoenix," says the Fire Lord's heir, answering exactly none of Hakoda's actual questions. "...You remember?"
"That your hair is going to get worse before it gets better?" says Sokka. "Absolutely."
The Prince scowls. "Then where's Aang?"
"Katara's been looking for him. He's still in the iceberg."
"...The Ember Island Players' iceberg?"
"The Ember Island Players' extremely accurate and well-researched iceberg."
The Fire Prince stares at Hakoda's son. The Fire Prince stares at Hakoda. The Fire Prince flips his duck around to face himself, then starts shaking it. "Give me a less stupid reality."
QUACK, protests the duck, with a burst of accompanying immolation that does nothing to dissuade the prince.
"Sorry, buddy," soothes his son, "you were always in the stupid reality. Remember the frozen frogs?"
Tag preservation because @muffinlance's tags always include a whole nother chapter of the fic:
#Lu Ten at the front lines: oh how cute I got a letter from baby Zuko <3<3<3#dad look at this letter from Zuko <3<3<3#dad he got his hands on the Fire Lord’s seal isn’t that adorable <3<3<3#Iroh staring at official courtly letterhead and his nephew’s new titles in the head scribe's hand: ...#Lu Ten: I’m gonna squish his little cheeks when we get home#Iroh who’s just gotten to the part ordering their immediate and complete retreat: …#Lu Ten: <3<3<3<3<3<3#avatar the last airbender#atla#zuko
I know I say this a lot, but it’s crazy to me that the atla fandom has any sort of tendency at all to portray zuko as rational, levelheaded, clever, knowledgeable, studious, meticulous, practical, reasonable, logical, or otherwise intelligent. while he does possess certain strengths, his greatest are his grit and tenacity, resilience built up through a lifetime of failures born of a tendency for heedlessness, rushing into choices without thinking through the consequences or weighing his options whatsoever. he has his moments, to be sure, but that’s largely because he happens to be far luckier than he gives himself credit for. oh, and while we’re at it, he’s also certainly not stoic, aloof, even-tempered, mature, or quiet. the fact that he’s foolhardy and impulsive and reckless and dramatic and loud and emotionally expressive and myopically driven and strong-willed are sort of his defining qualities, actually. they’re also the traits that make his character actually endearing, so im not really sure why people seem so determined to negate them.
#thinking again abt how he literally had aang's exactly address and instead decided to kidnap appa. #which means he's either illiterate or an idiot #at least one of which is certainly true
prompt: Ozai has Azula watch Zuko (his progress or rather lack thereof) from way earlier on, possibly even before Aang gets away from the iceberg in the first place
There it is, written at the bottom of his banishment notice, wobbling in and out of his vision and he’s not sure if it's his eyes—
(Father wouldn’t have meant to blind him. Being blind won't help him catch the Avatar, so he’ll just not go blind.)
It’s either his eyes, or. Or the rage. It has to be the rage.
So Zuko reads the line again, and lets the fire brim up and overflow, until sparks chase the shout from his lips.
“Banishment to be overseen by Crown Princess Azula?”
- - -
“Prince Zuko,” Azula says, standing as tall as an eleven year old can. She’s using his title, so that he’ll use hers. And if he doesn’t then he’s ill-mannered and not fit for his own.
“Crown Princess Azula,” Zuko grits out.
“I’ll just be inspecting your ship, then. Father’s orders.”
Two men are in shackles by the time she’s done.
“—Fostering mutiny against your prince,” she is yelling, and somehow her voice is just as high-pitched as his without sounding childish at all. “When our father hears about this—”
- - -
“So you had them executed,” Fire Lord Ozai inquires. Lightly. And from behind his flames.
“Of course, father,” says the kneeling child. “It was an attack on our family.”
Her father doesn’t say anything.
Azula is eleven. Eleven, she had presumed, was old enough to count.
One, two, three. Four, with Uncle. The royal family.
Her father is silent still.
One. Two.
“Forgive my impertinence, Fire Lord,” she says. “I will bring them to you for judgment next time.”
“Do so,” Fire Lord Ozai says. He does not contest the ‘next time.’
- - -
“Crown Princess Azula,” Zuko says.
“Your bandage is off, brother,” Azula says. “Are you blind?”
“No.”
(The blur of her red robes, the eye-searing glint of sunlight off her headpiece—he’s not blind in that eye. He’s just… still recovering.)
“Lovely,” she says. “Then what’s your excuse for the condition of this ship?”
…He has an increased budget for repairs, by the time she’s done.
- - -
“Brother,” Azula says, “traditionally knives are to be delivered to the back.”
“I… what?” her brother says, still holding out the inexplicable thing. “No, I bought it at port. For you. See, it matches the one Uncle got me.”
“How original,” she says.
Her brother turns a shade of red that puts his bending to shame. Not that it’s a particularly high bar. “Fine, I’ll just—throw it out.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. At the least, Mai will want it.”
- - -
“Nice knife,” says Mai, looking at the hilt peeking out of Azula’s boot.
“Be silent,” Azula says, thus ending that conversation.
- - -
“Did great-grandfather… did we…” starts her brother, fresh from scurrying about the Eastern Air Temple like some particularly dim-witted pheasant-monkey, the dust not even brushed from his clothes even though he knew her ship was waiting down here. “Azula, there were children—”
“Be silent,” she says.
- - -
“You’re leaving frequently,” comments father, as his knife cuts through the pheasant-monkey, clicking against the plate below. The persimmon-cherry sauce is thick and red and smearing.
“I find it advantageous to cultivate a working knowledge of our nation’s tactics,” Azula answers. She does not push around her meat like a child, but she does eat only lightly; the dish is more sour than she remembers.
“And your brother?”
“Oh, him,” she says, to which her father smiles.
- - -
“...What?” Zuko asks, blinking down at the scrolls.
“It’s your birthday,” Azula says. “Apparently, I should have gotten you a calendar.”
“Thank you?”
She sighs.
- - -
“Do we… tell him we can hear him?” asks the assistant cook, as the prince continues monologuing. Dramatically, and loudly. Through the pipe connecting the drain of the kitchen sink to the ones in the shower.
“Ssh, I think this is one of his new plays.”
- - -
She gets him a calendar for his next birthday. It’s not funny.
- - -
He gets her a doll, for hers. The look on Uncle’s face as she torches it in front of them both is hilarious.
- - -
“Brother,” she says, looking up at the damage to his ship. “This is not the way to requisition additional repair funds.”
“Captain Zhao,” her uncle says in the background, with heights of pleasant antagonism she can only aspire to. As if a general could mistake Zhao’s new insignia. Particularly with all the polishing he does.
“It’s commander now.”
“How did you manage this?” she asks.
“Uh,” Zuko says. “Can we… speak alone?”
She eyes her brother’s shifting stance. Eyes, too, the way Zhao’s men are already moving to intercept and interrogate his crew. One of the new commander’s more noxious habits is stalking her brother’s every move.
Well. She’d been meaning to deal with that, anyway.
Azula snaps her fingers at the commander’s guards.
“Detain him,” she says. And for a moment, just a moment, her dear uncle freezes, as if she were talking about someone he actually cared for.
The guards don’t. She’s trained them better than that.
“Princess,” Commander Zhao says, his snarl well hidden behind a smile. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Crown Princess Azula,” she corrects. “Now hush; the adults are talking.”
- - -
They have an Avatar to catch, apparently. Her brother is coming home.
The tags are sending me. I would like to believe that she didn't even meet the Avatar or any of the Gaang (except maybe Toph on a side quest*), Azula just knows that the Fire Nation isn't a safe place for her brother and, since he will soon legally be able to come home, has decided to fix that.
Of course it’s not that she doesn’t care about the war, it’s just that to her the war was about proving the Fire Nation’s supremacy and power over the other nations. So in this particular time continuum, influenced by Zuko’s reaction to the Air Nation temples and her own interactions with other nations and the front line troops, Azula will chose other ways to express this. This is, after all, the person who conqueror Ba Sing Se, not through martial prowess, but through deliberate subterfuge. If you don’t think that she’s even worse on the diplomatic scene then the battle field, you’re deluding yourself. (Her interaction with the Northern Water tribe is going to be interesting**).
*Toph gets her Zuko side quest. They have some awesome adventure that involves Earth Rumble fighters, Zuko makes friends with Toph largely on the basis that it is not at all surprising to him that the scariest bender there is a 12 year old. He knows how terrifying they can be. Azula meets them at the end because Zuko has gotten really separated from his crew. She askes him why he has the Beifong heiress with him, Zuko did not know who she was. Cue moking on all sides.
**Azula doesn’t actually do anything too threatening about the gender divide. At least not on the surface. She just carefully makes it apparent to everyone else at the negotiating table exactly what kind of society the North is fostering. It’s an easy bit of good press for the Fire Nation. Say what you like about them, but women are far less constrained by gender roles then almost every other nation, with the possible exception of the Air Nation. Then, four or so months after the conference the Nations receive an announcement that the Chief of the Northern Water tribe has chosen to abdicate in favour of his daughter. That is all.
prompt: Ozai has Azula watch Zuko (his progress or rather lack thereof) from way earlier on, possibly even before Aang gets away from the iceberg in the first place
There it is, written at the bottom of his banishment notice, wobbling in and out of his vision and he’s not sure if that’s his eyes—
(father wouldn’t have meant to blind him, so the way his eyes flinch away from bright lights and reading, even from the scrolls Uncle brought for him for some reason--this is a serious mission, why did he bring play scrolls, if they don’t take this seriously it’s going to take forever to get home--the way his eyes flinch away doesn't mean anything, because being blind isn’t going to help him catch the Avatar so he’ll just not go blind—)
It’s either his eyes, or. Or the rage. It has to be the rage.
So Zuko reads the line again, and lets the fire brim up and overflow, until sparks chase the shout from his lips.
“Banishment to be overseen by Crown Princess Azula?”
- - -
“Prince Zuko,” Azula says, standing as tall as an eleven year old can. She’s using his title, so that he’ll use hers. And if he doesn’t than he’s ill-mannered and not fit for his own.
“Crown Princess Azula,” Zuko grits out.
“I’ll just be inspecting your ship, then. Father’s orders.”
Two men are in shackles by the time she’s done.
“—Fostering mutiny against your prince,” she is yelling, and somehow her voice is just as high-pitched as his without sounding childish at all. “When our father hears about this—”
- - -
“So you had them executed,” Fire Lord Ozai inquires. Lightly. And from behind his flames.
“Of course, father,” says the kneeling child. “It was an attack on our family.”
Her father doesn’t say anything.
Azula is eleven. Eleven, she had presumed, was old enough to count.
One, two, three. Four, with Uncle. The royal family.
Her father is silent still.
One. Two.
“Forgive my impertinence, Fire Lord,” she says. “I will bring them to you for judgment next time.”
“Do so,” Fire Lord Ozai says. He does not contest the ‘next time.’
- - -
“Crown Princess Azula,” Zuko says.
“Your bandage is off, brother,” Azula says. “Are you blind?”
“No.”
(The blur of her red robes, the eye-searing glint of sunlight off her headpiece—he’s not blind in that eye. He’s just… still recovering.)
“Lovely,” she says. “Then what’s your excuse for the condition of this ship?”
…He has an increased budget for repairs, by the time she’s done.
- - -
“Brother,” Azula says, “traditionally knives are to be delivered to the back.”
“I… what?” her brother says, still holding out the inexplicable thing. “No, I bought it at port. For you. See, it matches the one Uncle got me.”
“How original,” she says.
Her brother turns a shade of red that puts his bending to shame. Not that it’s a particularly high bar. “Fine, I’ll just—throw it out.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. At the least, Mai will want it.”
- - -
“Nice knife,” says Mai, looking at the hilt peeking out of Azula’s boot.
“Be silent,” Azula says, thus ending that conversation.
- - -
“Did great-grandfather… did we…” starts her brother, fresh from scurrying about the Eastern Air Temple like some particularly dim-witted pheasant-monkey, the dust not even brushed from his clothes even though he knew her ship was waiting down here. “Azula, there were children—”
“Be silent,” she says.
- - -
“You’re leaving frequently,” comments father, as his knife cuts through the pheasant-monkey, clicking against the plate below. The persimmon-cherry sauce is thick and red and smearing.
“I find it advantageous to cultivate a working knowledge of our nation’s tactics,” Azula answers. She does not push around her meat like a child, but she does eat only lightly; the dish is more sour than she remembers.
“And your brother?”
“Oh, him,” she says, to which her father smiles.
- - -
“...What?” Zuko asks, blinking down at the scrolls.
“It’s your birthday,” Azula says. “Apparently, I should have gotten you a calendar.”
“Thank you?”
She sighs.
- - -
“Do we… tell him we can hear him?” asks the assistant cook, as the prince continues monologuing. Dramatically, and loudly. Through the pipe connecting the drain of the kitchen sink to the ones in the shower.
“Ssh, I think this is one of his new plays.”
- - -
She gets him a calendar for his next birthday. It’s not funny.
- - -
He gets her a doll, for hers. The look on Uncle’s face as she torches it in front of them both is hilarious.
- - -
“Brother,” she says, looking up at the damage to his ship. “This is not the way to requisition additional repair funds.”
“Captain Zhao,” her uncle says in the background, with heights of pleasant antagonism she can only aspire to. As if a general could mistake Zhao’s new insignia. Particularly with all the polishing he does.
“It’s commander now.”
“How did you manage this?” she asks.
“Uh,” Zuko says. “Can we… speak alone?”
She eyes her brother’s shifting stance. Eyes, too, the way Zhao’s men are already moving to intercept and interrogate his crew. One of the new commander’s more noxious habits is stalking her brother’s every move.
Well. She’d been meaning to deal with that, anyway.
Azula snaps her fingers at the commander’s guards.
“Detain him,” she says. And for a moment, just a moment, her dear uncle freezes, as if she were talking about someone he actually cared for.
The guards don’t. She’s trained them better than that.
“Princess,” Commander Zhao says, his snarl well hidden behind a smile. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Crown Princess Azula,” she corrects. “Now ssh; the adults are talking.”
- - -
They have an Avatar to catch, apparently. Her brother is coming home.
#her brother is coming home#it may be time for some other changes as well#how does the pheasant-monkey taste father?#oh of course I haven’t had any#you know I haven’t liked that since I was a little girl#are you feeling well father?#why don’t you have a little lie down father#oh is your crown uncomfortable?#let me just remove that for you#hush now#sleep#goodnight father#say hello to grandfather for me (tags from @muffinlance)
Ok but Sokka is romance pilled and Zuko doesn’t even think about it, so Zuko will beautifully flip his hair and offer a hand to help Sokka up with an angsty look in his eyes and Sokka will have a minor heart attack while Zuko is thinking about dinner
Can Drama Plant Zuko get sunburnt? Or is one of those lucky plants that never needs to worry about getting too much sun?
Like all plants that prefer full sun, if kept indoors for the winter, a gentle acclimation to direct sunlight over the course of the spring will prepare your Zuko for a burn-free summer sunning.
Which, you know, Zuko did. On a raft. And then fleeing cross-country with limited shelter. So GOOD NEWS, no sunburn!
Okay so about Fire Lily! Zuko in the poles: I feel like as long as he was there in the summer, he would THRIVE. Because the sun is out all the time and the snow only increases its reflection, so as long as Fire Lily Zuko only visited in the summer, he would do great. Of course, in the winter he’d be a sad little plant-person, but we don’t need to talk about that.
The first time Fire Lily Lord Zuko visits the South Pole in summer he is MANIC. He gets All The Work done, infinite energy, can he just move from pole to pole and chase summer forever--
Sokka, in a letter to Iroh: Not gonna lie, I was never jealous of the "doesn't need to eat" thing but the "doesn't need to sleep" is amazing
Iroh, in a quicky returned letter: the what
Sokka: Yeah he hasn't slept in like a week and a half--
Iroh: *is on the first ship south because the doesn't-need-to-sleep is NOT A THING and also apparently his nephew is refusing to leave and is too slippery for the Royal Guard to wrangle back on a ship*
oh no fire lily/salvage au. they hit winter and their pet firebender is going Full Drama Plant withering
Salvage canonically starts during winter. So.
They drag Ozai's Spawn out of the water and get him warmed up and non-feverish but there is still something wrong with him. Hopefully his father replies soon, because Healer Kustaa can't find this in any of his books and none of them really want to accidentally kill the kid. Maybe on purpose, occasionally, but not accidentally.
The Fire Prince is still an angry shouty mess. But he also, just... occasionally conks out on the shoulder of whoever he's eating next to. Or pretty much anytime he sits down for a break, which they are starting to realize he will never do unless physically forced, because they're also starting to realize the kid is terrified. Of them, but also of whatever this is, because he clearly has no idea what's wrong either but (he confides to Kustaa, who is not going to clear him leaving the infirmary ever again unless he talks and the idea of being trapped inside with just that little window for sunlight has Zuko hyperventilating what is wrong with him--) but. But it started back before the winter solstice and it's been getting worse and he never got the chance to talk to his own ship's healer.
(Never felt comfortable telling the man that he wasn't feeling sick and he wasn't injured, he was just weak. As if that wasn't an accurate and incurable summary of his life.)
Fresh air seems to help. They let him on deck from sunrise to sunset and sit him down with the light chores. Watch him fall asleep on the edge of laundry tubs. Sokka/Scuttles stops barking at him and starts cuddling. There's never any question of giving him to the Earth Kingdom. He's Ozai's kid, but he's still a kid. He's not that much trouble to keep around.
(If he's dying, they're not sending him to die in a lightless Earth Kingdom cell just because they weren't men enough to watch it happen.)
Hakoda writes to the Fire Lord with increasing urgency. His son's condition is not improving and the Water Tribe is not heartless, send a ship to meet at a neutral port and the Prince can go home. No terms, just a hope that their compassion may inspire similar sentiments in the Fire Nation--
The port is a trap they barely escape.
Hakoda holds a crying sixteen year old who is too tired to fight hugs. He's useless and he's dead weight and his father used him to try and kill everyone, he doesn't understand why they haven't just thrown him overboard or slit his throat, he's a waste of food.
Not like he's eating much, anyway.
Winter gives way to spring. The former prince is still alive, still on their ship. Still doing their laundry and falling asleep on convenient shoulders. They're pretty sure he's doing it on purpose now, he certainly doesn't complain when they wrap an arm around him or set a hand in his hair, but it's not like he'll ever admit it.
The only illnesses Kustaa have found that are anywhere near this all talk about pain in their descriptions, about the body attacking itself from the inside. The kid says nothing hurts, but. He stops eating entirely; no one presses him on it.
He doesn't die.
The days get longer, he sprawls out in sunbeams and blinks sleepily up at them, he still doesn't die.
He gets enough energy to shout at Toklo and Panuk about women's work, and he hasn't eaten anything in two weeks, and he still doesn't die.
He climbs the spirits-damned main mast and refuses to come down, grinning like an idiot at having the energy to cause trouble again and it's been a month since he had anything but water and how is he not dead.
Kustaa returns all his well-paged reference books to the shelf. Shrugs. Orders the kid to keep up his sunbathing and his mast climbing and any other physical activities that feel good, they seem to be helping.
It is high summer and the kid is a squid-monkey up in their rigging and still not dead, the only thing he bothers even trying to eat are the sea prunes he's getting really good at stealing off their plates. He's a nervous ball of very healthy energy about the coming fleet rendezvous at Chameleon Bay. And they just.
They didn't sign up for this when they hauled him on deck all those months ago.
But he's their problem now, and they're keeping him.
Zuko sighed in relief when his feet finally hit the ground after spending all day on Appa, allowing his bare feet to touch the earth. Invisible roots made of chakra extending down into the soil, pulling nutrients into his body. Traveling on a flying bison may have been good for speed, but it was terrible for Fire Lilies, who needed both sun and soil to thrive.
Zuko sighed in relief when his feet finally hit the ground after spending all day on Appa, allowing his bare feet to touch the earth. Invisible roots made of chakra extending down into the soil, pulling nutrients into his body. Traveling on a flying bison may have been good for speed, but it was terrible for Fire Lilies, who needed both sun and soil to thrive.
Okay but in that situation the BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME would be that he pulls a Toph and feeds off the impurities in the metal, so when he reaches land his body is like "finally some good f_ing food"
...Or of course, he could ALMOST pull a Toph. Then we have a Tantalus-like situation
So my friends and i came up with a sort of AU where people sprout flowers in their hair when they feel any sort of love. So anyways, ahklut crew teases Zuko about how many blue family flowers have been growing in his hair the longer he stays on the ship.
This puts his Season One hair into a whole new perspective.
---
Uncle's hair has dried flowers: his wife's panda lily, Lu Ten's dragon ivy. Everyone knows that dead flowers aren't as fragile as they seem, but he has the crewmen carry an umbrella over him when it rains, anyway. Carefully, he combs around them every morning. Leaves from the vine, Zuko hears him crooning sometimes, even though Lu Ten won't ever lose his leaves. He won't grow any new ones, either.
(Tucked away under his greying strands, still too close to the scalp to be easily seen, a bud has been growing for years. Iroh does not pressure it to bloom, but he does look forward to the occasion.)
(And then a storm, and the Dragon of the West realizes there is no way to tell a dead bloom from a live one without prying its petals open, and this he cannot do. A dead bloom can never heal.)
The Akhlut's crew find the Fire Prince's shaved head profane. When he's caught stealing razors, they crack down. Stubble grows around the black ponytail. Flowers don't.
(At thirteen, the Fire Lord set a hand on Zuko's face, and burned Ursa's sheltering rose bramble away. It would have grown back if she was alive.)
("It would have grown back if she still loved you," Azula corrects him, and he's never sure it if was a fever dream that placed her next to his sick bed, or if she really was there, her precise flames as good as any garden shears as she burned his fire lily from above her ear.)
"Whose is that?" Toklo asks, delighted and too loud, when he catches sight of the little sprig of blue flowers that are only visible when the Fire Prince lets his hair down to wash.
"No one," Zuko says, loudly. "My little sister," he says, more quietly.
Uncle's white jade flower is too large, too showy, it sticks out as it curls above his head. He snips it off between his fingers each morning, but it never stops trying to come back.
The crewmen, their own heads in ruckus and unashamed bloom, watch his daily pruning with distaste. No one ever catches what the Fire Lord's flower looks like; they can never catch him pruning it.
(They assume it's there to be pruned.)
(Zuko would like to know what his father's love looks like, too.)
His outrage at Toklo's snowdrops peaking their way through his black fuzz is as hilarious as it is worrying.
("Don't get attached, Toklo," they warn.
"But warm water," says their younger crewmen, who has never seen a reason to be stingy with his love.)
The Fire Prince shouts and steams. The snowdrops shake quite merrily in his rage. He doesn't pluck them.
He doesn't pluck Kustaa's grudging little cloudberry flowers, either.
"Are you loving me to spite me?" the Fire Prince accuses.
"Yes," says Kustaa, who parted his hair specifically to show off the new little bud trying so hard to hide.
They don't give the boy to the Earth Kingdom. They forget to scowl while they teach him how to do new things. They stop threatening him, mostly. That shouldn't be all it takes for those little buds to start spreading among the crew.
(The Wani's crew had them, too. Back when the prince was a shouty little thirteen year old monster, they'd taken it as a sign that things would soon get better. Things did not get better. Most of them forgot about those under-developed buds, except on the odd occasion when their combs would jar against them.)
Then they fight a Fire Navy ship, and find the prince curled up as far as he can get from the man he's killed. Kustaa holds him as he shakes, a fire lily in full bloom on his head. It would look ridiculous, if it didn't look so much like blood.
He's not the prince for long after that.
His hair isn't so barren of flowers for long after that, either. Eventually, he even lets his real uncle's bloom find its place among the rest. It doesn't look so overbearing, when it's not so alone.
"I miss him," The boy admits, as they sit on the main mast (as one does).
Somewhere far, but not too far, a tired old man passes his mirror, and catches the impossible flash of something new. A red fire lily, finally unfurled into bloom.
"Zuko," he says.
This neatly accelerates his plans for active treason.
Wait, is Ursa actually dead? Or is the flower just not growing back because she had forgotten her children and has a new face?
Because if so, that puts a whole new layer on it! Ursa can't love someone she doesn't know, so no flowers for them. Zuko and Azula assume she's dead (or never loved them, in Azula's case) and Zuko doesn't hold on to the hope that she will come back. He'll still want to know what happened, but he won't as actively look for her/ask about her/try to figure it out, because he assumes the worst.
Maybe in the background, Ursa catches herself wondering where three more flowers are. (White Jade flowers make her think of a kind man, Fire Lilies like her own make her think of a sweet little boy, and tiny, ever so small blue flowers, cuz you bet Azula loved her mom when she was little!) Of course, Ursa doesn't know what this means. She's never met people like that.
There are flowers on momma's head that she doesn't see. Momma sees daddy's chrysanthemum, which is in Kiyi's hair too, big and real hard to miss and sometimes when Kiyi was a baby (she is NOT a baby now, she's BIG), she would try to grab the thick strong stem and dangle by it which momma said was a No Never Do That even though Kiyi didn't see why, if it fell out a new one would grow back so quick she could make a bouquet just from daddy's love for them and that was real pretty see? But momma's eyes were pinched and she didn't put them in water like she would have for boring ground flowers.
And Kiyi's flowers were on momma's head, too! They were a little lilac sprig which she tried to make bigger by sucking in a breath and puffing out her cheeks and loving momma more, but it didn't work, probably because she already loved momma the Most.
("Dear," momma said to daddy, "please stop telling her that will work."
"But it's hilarious," daddy said.)
Kiyi knew the lilacs were hers because daddy had them too, and so did grandma and grandpa On Daddy's Side. She wanted to meet the ones On Mommy's Side too because she wanted to see if she'd loved them hard enough to make flowers grow without ever meeting them, but momma didn't ever remember her asking about them, the same way she didn't remember the other flowers in her hair.
(Seo Yun from school said they were probably dead, which is why she punched Seo Yun, which was why she had to stay home for three days. She wasn't sure why that was a punishment, except that next week it had been her turn to take the class goldfish-hamster home for the weekend but Sifu Jian wouldn't let her because Little Girls Who Punch Don't Get Pets, which is why Sifu gave it to Seo Yun instead, which is why Kiyi pulled Seo Yun's hair. But she didn't pull at Seo Yun's flowers, because smelly hamster stealers didn't deserve bouquets.)
The flowers that momma couldn't see weren't hiding, but sometimes Kiyi forgot them too. She'd forget for days and days, but then she'd open her Future Master Artist sketch book and see the fire lily and bluebell picture and she'd remember. She'd remember that she'd drawn them on page one so she wouldn't forget, but she'd forgotten anyway, so she needed to remember harder. She needed to remember harder for momma, who would gasp and clap a hand over her mouth and start to stand and start to cry when Kiyi pointed her Forgetting Flowers out, but before she could finish saying "I need to--" she would forget again, which made her scared and confused, so Kiyi would finish the sentence for her.
"You were making me cookies," Kiyi would say, or "You were taking me to the park," or "You were braiding my hair." And then momma would smile and it would start like a fake smile but then it would turn real, which is how Kiyi knew momma had forgotten again.
She made a bouquet of the Forgetting Flowers once to put on the table so momma could remember longer (it was mostly fire lilies, because they grew back So Fast). But that was the day momma came in and saw them and fell down and started scratching her face and it was really scary so Kiyi didn't do it again.
But somewhere there were two people that loved her momma as much as Kiyi and daddy did, except that momma didn't remember them enough to love them back, so Kiyi decided she would love them instead.
When she braided momma's hair at night, she'd tell them about her day. She called them Brother Red and Sister Blue, because she'd always wanted siblings, but talking about that made momma forgetting-sad too.
And then there was an earthquake and a tsunami and the ocean ate part of the town, which daddy said was because she took too many seashells and it got hungry...
("Ikem, do NOT tell our daughter that."
"But," he said, "it's hilarious.")
...and then the Fire Princess came to visit them with a lot of stuffy people who started passing out blankets and gross dry food.
"Say thank you, Kiyi," momma said.
"Thank you for the gross food," she said, which made the Fire Princess toss her head back and cackle. It was a very good cackle, and Kiyi told her so.
And then she noticed a fire lily just like Brother Red's and a little lilac just like one of hers, and she got really excited, which the Fire Princess did not seem to know what to do with the same way Kiyi didn't know what to do that time she'd jumped in mud except it wasn't mud it was dog-horse doodoo and now it was inside of her shoes.
"You're my sister!" Kiyi said, which is when momma apologized and tried to drag her away, which was probably also because momma looked like she had a real bad headache, like looking at the Princess made her hurt.
"I think not," the Fire Princess said. "As if I would be related to a filthy peasant child--"
Which is when Kiyi wiggled out of momma's grip and stomped back and punched her.
And anyway that was how she learned that momma had another face under hers, which was weird and Kiyi didn't like, but also that Kiyi really did have a brother and sister, which was AWESOME.
And her Best Sister Azula heard about Sifu Jian not letting her take the goldfish-hamster home for the weekend and then Sifu Jian's house was on fire.
"You can't do that!" said her new brother, who was the Fire Lord, except he seemed too young and too easy to bully to be the Fire Lord and Kiyi told him so, and also promised to stomp on the feet of any ministers or generals who gave him trouble, because momma said No More Punching.
"Oh, like you've never burned down someone's house before," her new sister said. "Besides, it's hilarious."
Which is how Kiyi knew that her new sister and her daddy would get along. New sister said that was stupid and Kiyi was stupid, and also that she would have to learn new attacks if she wanted to retaliate, because Sister Azula had seen that foot stomping coming from a mile off. So that's when Kiyi started learning to be Deadly Like a Proper Big Sister.
"She is not my big sister!" her new brother said.
"What do we say to our little brother, Kiyi?"
" 'Quiet, Zuzu, your betters are plotting.' "
And Zuzu shouted that he hated them both, but they both had big fire lilies in their hair, so Kiyi's new little brother the Fire Lord didn't know what he was talking about. And Kiyi was a Big Girl, and a Big Sister, and also a princess.
First of all, you made it better, ily. Second of all, Azula would freak out (subtly) about a random purple flower in her hair.
Like she sees it coming in, and Azula is trying to figure out who it is from. It's not Mai, whose brilliant black Dahlia's are perfectly apparent on Ty Lee, nor is it Ty Lee, who left some light pink cherry blossoms on Mai. Zuzu already has a Fire Lily on her head (that only recently bloomed and is already a source of frustration).
Azula likes to think that it's her father's. She has no way of knowing, of course. Father doesn't love anyone. (Not even her).
After her brother becomes Fire Lord, she eventually meets this small child. This small child who is not afraid of her, which means she isn't afraid of anything, who has the audacity! To say that they are her flowers! That Azula is her sister! No way are those flowers from some tiny, little peasant-
Who hits her. Azula smiles.
A few weeks later, Azula sees some blue flowers sprouting in the small child's hair, on show in more prominence than Zuzu's Fire Lilies.
