I posted a new story based on an ask and response posted on @muffinlance blog! The idea was great and I couldn’t help myself, so thanks to everyone involved! Anyway, here’s the link and sneak peak! Thanks!
——————
According to the stories father tells him, a phoenix is a mythical and magical creature. They live long lives, never to be cut short by anything. When they do die, they come back in a burst of flame and emerge from ashes. Zuko’s father likes to talk about phoenixes.
He thinks it’s kind of funny. Mother laughs at father whenever he tells stories about phoenixes. Zuko laughs too, even though he doesn’t understand why his mother finds it so funny. Even Azula, who is only a baby of two, laughs, but Zuko is sure she doesn’t understand what’s so funny. His mother always tells him that she laughs because father is too interested in pretend creatures for his own good. Even if they are pretend, Zuko likes them a lot. His father has many stories about phoenixes and he loves to tell them to Zuko.
His father tells the best stories. He makes funny noises and faces every time he tells a story and the faces and voices that make mother laugh even more than she already is at father’s tales of phoenixes. Father sometimes grabs Zuko and throws him in the air before catching him and tickling his sides. Mother joins in whenever father does this, then Azula will jump up and down on the floor and demand, “Me too! Me too!”
His father has so many stories about phoenixes, but Zuko’s favorite is the one about his great-great-great-great-great, etc. grandfather, the very first Fire Lord. He fell in love with a phoenix and wooed her until she agreed to marry him and they lived happily ever after. Sometimes, Zuko thinks that his father makes all his stories up, but if there is one Zuko wants to be true more than anything, it is this one.
Mother teases father whenever he tells this story. Father always sticks his tongue out at mother and tells Zuko to do the same.
Read More