An old hc (but tumblr wont let me reblog the post?? that i made?? tumblr plz??):
Zuko, nervous about sitting for his Fire Lord portrait, has been avoiding it for months. Consults have not gone well: the artists his council have brought in are highly praised for their skill and not without merit, but initial sketches minimize the scar, or draw him from an angle to hide it. Another reminder that the world views the evidence of his past struggles he fought to overcome as something shameful to be hidden.
Another reminder of how many in his nation would like to sweep their bloody past under the rug instead of rising to the challenge of fixing it.
At some point he confides his frustrations with Sokka. Sokka is always so clear-headed and no-nonsense about practical things, and he has studied art himself somewhat, though his own skill remains hobbyist at best. But a second opinion couldn't hurt. Maybe Zuko is just making this into a bigger issue than it actually is.
Sokka listens as Zuko vents his frustration, nodding along while flipping through the sketches. When Zuko finally runs out of steam and turns to him for his wisdom, he snorts and tosses the papers into the burn pile on Zuko's desk. "Nah, these are trash. I got something better."
What he brings to the palace a few week later, fresh out of the workshop, is a funky little box that Sokka swears up and down will just make a picture happen! Well, okay, the process is a little more involved than that, but the point is that it takes way less time than sitting for portrait painting sessions for several weeks and the result is like looking in a mirror!
So Zuko agrees to let Sokka work whatever mad science he’s cooked up with this funky little box (“it’s not going to explode, is it?” “Hey! The only inventions of mine that exploded are the ones I designed to do that!”) and while Sokka is setting it up he’s just yapping away about the different versions he’d tried before, and the process of getting from those first little plates of silver-on-glass to this. Zuko doesn't realize he's sitting there, smiling fondly at his friend until Sokka turns around and says, “Perfect, stay just like that!”
A couple weeks after that Zuko gets a package delivery of a framed cabinet card. In the picture his face is open, full of affection and unguarded joy, and it’s the first portrait in all of the history of Fire Lord portraits to wear a truly happy expression.
(This understandably sparks something of a craze.)
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