Plot Bunny you can steal : Lu Ten gets adopted by an Earth Kingdom family !
Lu Ten doesn't die at Ba Sing Se. He's injured by assassins sent by Ozai and left for dead.
He wakes up, realises he can't go back home because, if Ozai learns he's still alive, he would die for sure. So, he wakes up, changes his clothes, undoes his topknot, and pretends to be an Earth Kingdom refugee. It works, for a while, but then, he slips up, uses his bending, and has to run away.
He keeps doing this for a while : finding a place to settle in, staying for a bit, and, then, when people start asking questions or when he's discovered, he runs away.
He quickly learns to avoid the big cities, and keeps a low profile.
At some point, he gets recognised as a firebender again, and, this time he almost doesn't make it out alive.
He runs away without looking where he's going.
He ends up, injured and starved, on Gansu and Sela's doorstep, who take him in.
In exchange for helping around the farm, they let him stay. He smiles and is nice so he gets along well with them. He ends up being part of the family, but he obviously doesn't tell them anything about his past. He thinks he's doing a good job at deflecting without appearing suspicious (he's not. Sela immediatly clocks him as avoiding the questions.)
The more time passes, the more he learns about what's actually going on with the war, the more he hates himself.
One day, Gansu and Sela take him aside and ask him if he's half fire and if that's why he doesn't talk about his past. Lu Ten feels awful about it but doesn't correct them. He cares too much about them now to risk losing them by telling them the truth. So, he lies.
He doesn't tell them he's a firebender.
It ends up biting him in the ass when Sensu and Lee start noticing things. He's careful, he really is, but sometimes, he meditates, because it reminds him of his father. It's Sensu who notices it at first, and Lee decides to follow him, because they're discovering things about their new, very mysterious, older brother ! It could even serve as blackmail material !
They both hide behind a door, and see him light a candle. They... don't take it well. They immediatly inform their parents about it.
The day after, Lee avoids Lu Ten's eyes, and Sensu glares at him. Gansu and Sela look at him but they look... Scared. His hands start to shake. He asks them what's going on. They ask him why he didn't tell them he was a firebender. He doesn't lie, this time. He keeps his composure, but his voice breaks when he tells them he was scared they would hate him and throwing him out.
They... Don't throw him out, but they're still wary of him. In his periphery, he can see them keeping track of his hands. He doesn't dare firebend in their presence. They slowly warm up to him, but, for months it doesn't entirely goes back to how it was, and they trust him less. He realises it's not just the firebending, it's the lies. And he realises he can't tell them the full truth, ever. It's too late now.
They finally, slowly, start to trust him again. It's a slow process, especially for Sensu and Lee, but they... start asking questions. And he does his best to tell the truth without revealing too much about who his family is. But he also can't keep lying. Not like that.
They learn he's actually from the fire nation.
They learn for a time, he believed the lies he was told. They learn he now hates that he fell so easily for propaganda.
They learn he loves his father very much, and his father loves him in return.
They learn his uncle isn't nice.
They learn he tried to kill him.
They really don't like that last part. Lu Ten only realises once he said it how horrible it sounds.
He starts to use firebending to lit up candles, or the hearth, and even though they flinch every time, they keep asking him to do it.
He misses his dad, but he feels at home here.
