of course i had to draw my favorite atla ship as this scene i love from the amazing spider-man!! jin and zuko have become my favorite atla ship for some reason and idrk why. maybe its interesting bc of the the identity dynamics that come into play with zuko being prince of the fire nation AND the blue spirit AND presenting as lee the tea shop worker. like he’ll try to play the character and jin will be confused, but charmed as we’ve seen before. but at some point the act will end up slipping and he’ll have to reveal himself as not lee. in the show he does slip, but all she knows is that he’s a potential firebender, not anything more.
but i imagine if he stuck around there longer (like multiple years) and really did give his best shot at people and friendships, jin would be a regular in his life. they might get closer and jin may wonder why this boy broods so heavily, but he’d never truly share why. he would probably attempt dismantling the corruption of ba sing se within, starting with the dai li. so he’d have nightly escapades as the blue spirit. i think jin would be curious about his brooding and be nosy about him which would make his blue spirit activities harder to hide. then at some point, zuko would encounter some dai li as the blue spirit and tank way too many hits before running away and stubbornly asking for help (he’s getting better at interpersonal relations and depending on others) from jin who lives close by. and though he’d like to try to get to his own place, no way he’s making it there. so jin is greeted by a bleeding blue spirit at her window with a pathetic plea through gritted teeth. she helps him, surprised that he’s a physical being and not a magical spirit. and then she unmasks him. now she has a million more questions she wants answered and she can’t hide her concern at all. it’s a strange thing having to help someone you care for but also demand an explanation and she feels bad for it but it’s a messy moment and it can’t be helped. she sees and feels way too many scars on his body that can’t be explained by the normal life he claims to have lived and he tries to say it was all from training with swords, but now her suspicion is growing. she really doesn’t know who lee is. he reveals very little information about his situation and the seed of suspicion in her mind festers. maybe the person she thought she grew to know was not lee. he’s more than tea shops. he’s the the blue spirit. now she has to grow to learn the blue spirit. all while zuko is realizing maybe he’s juggling far too many secrets identities. and he is not good at juggling.
