Lifting the Mask - When Aang looks under the mask, he unveils more than just the Blue Spirit.
The Faces We Wear - Removing the mask comes with a price. Sequel to Lifting the Mask.
Multichapter fics:
Charade - [in progress] The war is over, and the Avatar and the Fire Lord grow ever closer. Unfortunately, the world begins to notice. Written for the Zukaang Week 2024 prompts: Getting into Trouble, Stay Close to Me
Oneshots:
Warm Hands - Aang is perfectly capable of warming his own hands, but Zuko doesn’t care.
Marked - Wounds heal. Scars form. But that doesn’t mean the pain has gone away.
Unworthy - While Aang sleeps, Zuko lies awake.
What You Became - After a nightmare, Zuko tries to comfort Aang—but old fears resurface. Written for Zukaang Week 2024, Day 6: Fear/Trust
Flash fiction:
Nebulous Roads - Navigating peacetime can be hard, but Zuko doesn’t have to do it alone.
Unmasked - After asking Zuko to join the Gaang, Aang begins to question if he made the right decision.
No Choice - The question of heirs comes up, and Aang awaits some unwelcome news.
Thank you to everyone who voted! The theme for Zukaang Week 2025 will be Soulmates.
This year, we organized prompts related to each other into a group for each day, with three prompts per group.
For example, on June 26, the group is "Bond" and the related prompts are "Unspoken/Interrupted/Unbreakable." The group name "Bond" is not intended as a prompt, but you are free to use it as a prompt if you'd like!
You can pick as many prompts from the group as you'd like, whether it's one, two, or all three. We don't expect you to use all three prompts for a specific day.
And while the theme inspired the prompts, fanworks do not have to be related to the idea of soulmates - they can be about anything, as long as it's Zukaang!
Before you get started, please read the Rules & FAQ
Remember to tag your posts with "zukaang week 2025" (you can also tag us with @zukaangweek)
Don't forget to add your fic to the AO3 collection (will be available when Zukaang Week begins)
We're super excited for Zukaang Week this year, and we can't wait to see what everyone creates 💛❤️
- The Mods
Mori (@convertedzukaang) | Graphics
Ginger (@woodlaflababab) | Social Media
Choco (@chocomd/@theavatarandthefirelord) | Organization
Thank you to everyone who participated in the interest check!
First, we would like to announce the dates for Zukaang week this year:
Zukaang Week 2025 will be held from June 23 to June 29!
Our interest check received 52 responses, so there is a lot of support for holding Zukaang Week this year!
A total of 27 people responded "yes" to being a contributor this year, with almost the same number answering "maybe":
We can hope to see many different types of fanworks, with fanfic and fanart receiving the highest number of responses:
Last but not least, thank you for all your suggestions for a theme! Over the next few days, the mods will put together a list of the most popular theme ideas and open up voting to select a theme for this year's Zukaang Week.
Once we have a theme, the mods will determine the prompts based on the theme. (Not sure what it means to have prompts based on a theme? Please see this post!) We plan to release the theme and prompts later this month.
Thank you all again for your responses and interest in Zukaang Week! If you have any questions, check out our Carrd for more info, rules, and FAQ, or send us an ask.
We'll open up theme voting soon, so stay tuned 💛❤️
But first, we're holding an interest check survey, which will be open from March 21 to March 31. The dates for Zukaang Week 2025 are TBD, but tentatively during the last week of June. The results from the interest check will help us plan - so the more responses we get, the better!
Take the survey HERE
If you have any questions or suggestions, just send us an ask!
But first, we're holding an interest check survey, which will be open from March 21 to March 31. The dates for Zukaang Week 2025 are TBD, but tentatively during the last week of June. The results from the interest check will help us plan - so the more responses we get, the better!
Take the survey HERE
If you have any questions or suggestions, just send us an ask!
Happy Valentine's Day! While we're all celebrating love, we'd like to announce that Zukaang Week 2025 is official!
We've moved up the schedule a bit this year, but overall it'll be much like last year. Be on the lookout for our interest check, our theme voting, and then our prompt drops! As we get closer to Zukaang Week this year, we will be reblogging past entries to spread a little more Zukaang love.
This year's Zukaang Week is brought to you by the same mods as last year: @chocomd, @woodlaflababab, and @convertedzukaang! We are super excited to host another year and see what everyone creates. As always, feel free to send asks our way if you have any questions!
Whew, I've been out of the ATLA fandom for a minute lol. Let's do Zuko first:
How I feel about this character
I enjoy Zuko very much! He has a fantastic redemption arc, and he had to go on the journey that he did (with all his struggles) in order to become the ruler the Fire Nation needed after the war. I love his prickly and hotheaded personality, which adds a lot to his character and his dynamics with the Gaang.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Aang, Mai, Jin, and Jet.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
Aang! They are foils in every sense and that served to bring them closer together and gave each an understanding of the other than no one else possesses. Even if I'm not shipping them romantically, they're soulmates to me.
My unpopular opinion about this character
Not sure if this is really an unpopular opinion, but he had to fall hard and hit rock bottom emotionally and morally in order to change the way he needed - and he didn't change on his own merits, but rather by the grace and care of the people around him, namely Iroh and Aang.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
Can't think of anything tbh. Anything I might want to see would be either pre- or post-canon.
I absolutely love her as a villain! Cold, calculating, manipulative, and ruthless, but also very human in her complicated relationship with Zuko, her parents, and her friends. I think ATLA did a very well-balanced portrayal of her: as a villain to be feared and whose goals are nefarious, but also as a villain to be pitied as the trajectory of her actions led her down a path that ended in isolation and the breaking of her mind and spirit.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Chan, the hunky dude she flirted with in The Beach. I lowkey want to write a fic about them 😂
My non-romantic OTP for this character
The Dangerous Ladies - Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee ❤️🖤🩷
My unpopular opinion about this character
That she doesn't need to be redeemed. Not every villain needs to be redeemed, and the narrative is usually better for it.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
Can't think of anything for her either. ATLA is a pretty complete work and I don't feel like there's too much missing.
send me an ask from the give me a character ask game!
Title: it was your rule in the first place (and i would have done anything you asked)
Rating: Explicit!!
Word Count: 15.4k
Summary: First they fell in bed, then they fell in love, Zukaang best friends post war politicians version.
Some Tags: One shot, Friends to Lovers, aged-up characters, post-canon, future-fic, Aang is 24, Zuko is 28, Gaang Characters make an appearance
Hey zukaang buddies- it's been a while. How's everyone doing? Are we okay? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, here's something that flew out of my fingertips with so much energy it's like I was barely in the room. Please enjoy.
Blurb:
“Never?” Aang asks incredulously, quirking an eyebrow as he tilts his face over the back of the plush red chaise in Zuko’s chambers.
Fresh off a long spring of successful reparation renegotiations in Ba Sing Se, the dynamic political duo, the Avatar and the Firelord, treat themselves to a well-deserved week off. Even if it’s as hot as Agni’s asshole this summer in the Fire Nation, nothing could steal the jittery freedom they’ve been buzzing with after being cooped up in a packed city with virtually no time or space to themselves for months.
“Yeah, never.” Zuko laughs a little, his ankles crossed on his writing desk, while he lazily fans himself.
“Not even in Ba Sing Se? It’s been a while for you and there are so many hot men in that city.” Aang smirks. Then, swishing one hand boisterously through the air he adds, “And you’re the Firelord, one of the hottest, most eligible, powerful men in the world. Find me a man that would say no to you and I’ll give you my entire life’s savings.”
“You’re a monk, Aang. You don’t have any money,” Zuko retorts with a smile.
“You know what I mean!” He grins.
“So you think I’m hot, huh?” Zuko says with an air of conceit- amused and comfortable.
“Come on, Zuko.” Aang flips over onto his elbows to face him with a suspicious smirk. “Stop doing that thing where you pretend like you don’t already know that to get me to shower you with compliments. But, yes, you’re hot. Platonically, of course.”
“I am doing that again, aren’t I?” Zuko shakes his head, lips slightly pursed, “ Agni, it has been a while.” He laughs, hand over his eyes, full of self-deprecation. “So is that where you conveniently disappeared to when all those emergency evening sessions were convened? To call on all the hot men in Ba Sing Se?”
Aang snorts. “Not always.”
"Must be hard for people to say no to the elusive, all-powerful, all-mighty Avatar,” Zuko says playfully, wiggling his brows as he stares at the ceiling.
“Whatever!” Aang waves it away with a laugh, then narrows his eyes amusedly. “Why, are you jealous?”
“Aang.” He says flatly, somewhere between a clear joke and not a joke at all.
“No, come on. Not like that!” Aang says, a wide smile turning into a mockingly serious face. “Jealous that you don’t have as much freedom. Or time. To... explore, I guess?”
“You know I’m jealous of your freedom, asshole.” Zuko crumples up a scrap of parchment and throws it at him. “Rub it in, go ahead.” Zuko laughs as Aang winces at the paper smacking him on the temple.
Shoulders still shaking with amusement, Aang adds, “Well you’ve got some time now. Have you ever been curious?”
Zuko ponders for a moment before admitting, “A little,” with a shrug.
“Well, then, lock the door and come over here,” Aang says, bright and friendly as he always was.
“What?” Zuko half laughs half says, sitting up sharply, hands bracing the chair on either side of his thighs as he pins Aang with a questioning look.
“What, what?” he says, cocking his head to the side, “When was the last time you had a full week of no obligations? Never try, never know.” He says like it’s as simple as 2+2. “Oh come on, Zuko, you’re acting like we haven’t shared a bed a thousand times or seen each other naked a thousand more than that.”
Considering it all, Zuko’s knee bounces up and down, “Yeah, but don’t you think fucking is in a different category?”
Aang shrugs, “I was raised a little differently when it comes to that. To me, it can be but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. If it is for you, it’s no big deal. No pressure.” He waves a hand rolling onto his back and throwing his hands behind his head.
Eyes dancing over Aang watchfully, Zuko chews his bottom lip and thinks. He has been curious, and Aang is right: he doesn’t have as much freedom or time, every detail of his life is planned out for him. When would he find time to go discover if he likes fucking men or not? And with Aang... Aang is his best friend, of course. They do everything together. They’ve done everything together- their professional lives, their personal lives, the lines are so blurred they are nearly nonexistent. They even usually took each other as plus ones to weddings and other official events. Even when they were still dating Katara and Mai. Neither of them ever minded, because it just made sense. They made sense. They always had. They had each other's backs as diplomats, they kept each other's secrets, and they shared nearly everything. After 8 years of that- what's a little fooling around really going to change?
Plus, Zuko could admit, objectively, Aang was hot. Not the scrawny kid he met years ago, Zuko amicably admired how rigidly muscular and surprisingly tall Aang had become as an adult. He watched fondly as Aang had grown up alongside him into a thoughtful, charming, and whip-smart leader. He understood the appeal. And on top of that, Aang was experienced. And, as Aang’s best friend, Zuko knew, with a startling amount of detail, just how experienced he was. He knew Aang would be gentle with him, and like everything else they did together- he knew he’d at least enjoy himself.
Bouncing knee coming to a halt, Zuko says, “Okay.”
“Okay?” Aang face flashes brightly before he furrows his brow and says, “Wait, are you sure?”
Standing, shoulders shaking with the strange comedy of it as he pads to the door, Zuko turns the lock then turns around and says, “Yes, I’m sure. Now come over here and fuck me before I change my mind.”
Aang quirks an eyebrow over pink-tinged cheeks and says low and slow, “Yes, sir.” As he walks toward the bed, he shirks his shoulder to let his sash slump off, bare chest already flushed a soft pink with the summer heat. “Although, for your first time, I wouldn’t suggest bottoming. Learned that the hard way.” He says with a wince before meeting Zuko at the edge of the bed, hands instinctively on his waist in a way that feels somewhere right between very weird and very comfortable. With their faces just a breath away from one another, Aang says, “You should probably fuck me this time.”
“You’re planning on another time?” Zuko jests before throwing his arms over Aang’s shoulders.
“I don’t know, depends on how good it is.” Aang retorts.
Zuko rolls his eyes, then adds, “Okay, one rule.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t kiss me on the mouth,” Zuko says easily, almost laughing because fuck if this whole thing wasn’t hysterical. “I feel like that’s self-explanatory.”
“Works for me,” he confirms like it’s any ordinary thing- like he’s ordering dumplings from a stall in the city. “Any other rules?”
He pulls Aang close, bodies now brushing, and says, “Keep your expectations low?”
"Unfortunately my expectations are already completely unattainable,” Aang teases, untying one knot after the next of Zuko’s tunic as he goes, “I’m expecting demigod Agni-incarnate levels of fucking. I’m expecting to not know up from down and left from right after you rearrange my insides with your Firelord-ly, rumored-to-be-prodigiously-large dick. I’m expecting that when this is over, I won’t remember my own name.”
Rolling his eyes with a scoff, Zuko slides one hand into the place where the fabric of Aang’s trousers rests against the skin of his waist. He tugs hard, crashing Aang’s hips to his. “Will you shut up already?” Zuko says defiantly as he shoves a hand beneath Aang’s waistband.
