red strings of fate au but make it atla...
aang is born without a string, but that’s okay. the air nomads believe that your string will lead you where you need to go, and that you shouldn’t chase fate
sokka is born with a string pulled taut north, no matter which way he faces. he enjoys its simplicity and its reliability.
katara is born with a limp string that tugs down into the ground, if she’s not paying attention. she wonders constantly where it might lead.
zuko’s string is cut at birth. Fire Nation nobility marry for politics, not love, and they have no need for fate.
he secretly wonders, though, where his string might point. after the agni kai, it isn’t like it really matters.
when aang wakes up from the iceberg, it’s to bright, wide blue eyes and his hand pulled forward
katara gasps, because her string is pulling her, too, and suddenly she realizes that their strings are one.
and so they know from that moment forward that aang is more than just a rogue air nomad or the avatar; he’s katara’s fate
on their book 1 travels, sokka meets suki, and his string wavers for the first time. but it remains steadfastedly north like a compass pointer
it isn’t until they reach the north pole that it relaxes for the first time, pulling him right to the steps of the palace
yue was born without a string, but after being blessed by the spirits, hers is not red and visible only to her, but silver and visible to all who see her, and always pointing south
to her tribe, it indicates her eventual partnership with their sister tribe, a metaphorical love rather than a human one. she is still engaged.
but when yue meets sokka, and her string tugs him towards her, she knows it isn’t a metaphor at all
after the siege, though, sokka’s string doesn’t fade like it’s supposed to, instead leaning south to the earth kingdom. it seems that fate doesn’t take heartbreak as its stopping point.
mai and ty lee’s strings were both severed when they were children. but somehow they know which way they would have pointed, had they still existed. they don’t talk about it.
toph was born with her string tangled up in her own palm. her parents don’t know, and toph can’t see it, but as a child she plays with the string and knots its ends. she is her own fate.
azula is born without a string. perfect for royalty, the princess unburdened with dangerous and weak connections. but she always wonders what it might feel like, to have a person as your fate instead of a metal crown.
as he travels the earth kingdom, zuko can’t help but wonder if he will meet his fate in this new life as lee. is it song? jet? jin? he doesn’t know. another thing lost to the war. he wants to know, terribly so. it’s driving him mad.
sokka’s string orbits wildly, pointing south and then east and then north again. he isn’t used to this changeable nature, this energy and lack of control. he misses yue’s steadiness.
suki’s string has always pointed south, and even though she noticed how it followed sokka’s movements, it never matched his. no matter. she doesn’t need fate to tell her what to do.
it isn’t until they meet again before they get to ba sing se that their strings connect
but then suki leaves, and somehow sokka knows that she’s in trouble when his string stops orbiting around his finger. but what can he do? he has a war to end, and no way of knowing where she is.
and so ba sing se ends the way it does, and katara’s string falls slack for a terrifying moment. she will not let that happen. she bends water across aang’s back; her string pulls taut again; she allows herself to cry tears of relief.
the day of black sun invasion: and sokka knows now that his suspicions about suki in danger were correct. but what can he do? he has a war to end.
and so the western air temple comes and goes, the boiling rock comes and goes. sokka knows the minute he’s there that suki is too; his string is spinning in that alert liveliness he’s come to love
(mai and ty lee finally talk about the way their strings would point, had they not been cut. their fingers will have to link together instead.)
and zuko knows now that without his string, he is not tied down to another person, to a fate he can’t decide. he is free to make his own choices; and he chooses himself and his country.
and so fate pulls them inexorably forward, and together, and towards themselves.
