What are your headcanons on Zuko and Izumi’s relationship?
ah!! Thank you for asking :) I apologize for the wait!
- in my mind, zuko and izumi are really close, to him, she is the most perfect person on earth and the two of them have a very healthy relationship
- zuko panics before izumi is born for Many Reasons, but once he sees her everything changes
- the first time she gets sick he makes katara fly across the world to heal her (it was a mild fever)
- ok this feels more canon than hc at this point but zuko fs calls her turtle duck
- I love the idea of Izumi being a little dorky and zuko just completely matching the energy Bc he’s a nerd and Bc he grew up in a home where his dad/those around him were unsupportive of “unnecessary”/“useless” interests
- zuko takes izumi to all of his mother’s favorite plays, they buy the same snacks and sit in the same seats he would as a child
- sometimes when they would go out to plays, he and izumi would dress up in a disguise so they could sit closer to the action (izumi found this particularly hilarious)
- zuko teaches Izumi in fire bending most of the time, she has an instructor but he’s really involved
- zuko takes zooms to the dragons when she’s 16
- zukos actually pretty cool about izumi dating, it’s part of how she can be a normal teenager
- izumi almost can’t picture the version of her dad from her aunts and uncles stories, bc the person who raised her is so incredibly gentle/caring/sweet/patient/dorky and not as abrasive as he was in his teens
- zuko, Mai, and izumi have family dinner nearly every night, have family days every other (if not every) weekend of her childhood, and family week around the holidays before/after their time with the Gaang (reversing generational trauma for both parents)
- izumi grows to be as tall (if not taller) than her dad (aang knows it’s from her grandmothers side)
- izumi has a big fear of losing her dad
- Ik there’s two sides but im really team “Izumi is not only a fire bender but a prodigy like her aunt” for a bunch of reasons and I think it’d be cool also cause it kinda forces zuko (and Mai tbh) to like learn and unlearn what being a prodigy can mean
- there’s actually a phenomenal fic that encapsulates what I’m trying to say called “The Gift of the Blue Dragon” by CameraLux(TinCanTelephone) - makes me cry each time
Thank you so much for asking!!