#atla fic
My favorite thing about fanfic Zuko is that he just does not have a reference point for sexism. Like:
Some person: isn’t that women’s work?
Zuko, thinking of Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee: women’s work? You mean homicide?
When Zuko becomes Fire Lord he’s sitting in a meeting where there happens to be only one female advisor, Takiko (Which strikes him as a bit weird but for now he’s got bigger gazellefish to fry because he’s still trying to figure out who is worth keeping around even if *sometimes* (every day) he’s tempted to just turf them all out and start from scratch rather than deal with the paranoia) and Takiko’s in the middle of giving a presentation when they run out of tea. One of the male advisors remarks on this loudly, staring pointedly at Takiko. Because some female in the room “obviously” she’s the one who should be making the tea.
Takiko, used to this nonsense, starts to move towards the pot but to the collective shock of everyone in the room she is waved away by the Fire Lord.
“No, no, you’re in the middle of your presentation, I’ve got this,” says Zuko.
Male advisor: *sputtering* “My Lord! Surely Takiko can do that. Is it not below your station to pour tea?”
Zuko: “It’s fine. Uncle Iroh always pours his own tea and he’s ranked above all of you.”
*Room collectively recalls that Uncle Iroh is Dragon of the West*
Male advisor, changing tack: “She has uh… much more experience with such things.”
Zuko: *displaying an impressive level of control in using a fire technique to heat the pot that he learned during his time working in the Earth Kingdom tea shop* “I doubt it.”
(The kicker: Zuko makes better tea than anyone in the room has had in an official meeting in *years*.)
I’d like to believe that after the meeting, Takiko privately thanks Lord Zuko for making tea and awkwardly laughs how all the other male advisors always have her do it because she’s female. And Zuko later commands the first male advisor who looks Takiko’s way the next time they run out of tea to make it instead.
Actually, alternative idea: He brings Azula in as part of her rehabilitation and let’s them try to explain to Azula why she should make the tea.
beta readers hello
hello!!! a friend and i are looking for beta readers for an atla hunger games au fic!! we’re almost done the planning stage, and we’ll start writing soon, so we need 2-3 active beta readers, basically first come first serve jfdhdkjfh
anyways, here’s the list of tws/cws for the fic (below the cut) the list may also expand as we write, so be prepared for that, if you want to help. tysm :D
death (lots)
major character death
suicide
minor explicit gore
stabbing
freezing
poisoning
various ways of dying, including getting crushed
child death
starving
blood
some ways less, some ways more
pairings: mailee, (background ships→) zutara, sukka, azirin
characters: mai, ty lee, azula, katara, suki, june, original female character
after the war, mai’s redemption arrives in a shade of bright pink.
inspired by a twitter prompt by @kataraslove . see replies for ao3 link.
If any of my followers are into Avatar….
Airbenders can hear inconceivable frequencies and hear every sound as complex as a drawn out symphony.
Waterbenders can smell things that would be faint to anyone else.
Firebenders learn the deep complexity to the spectrum of light from childhood.
And Sokka… is pretty handy with a boomerang.
(or, bending has a place in even the most mundane places of a bender’s life, but the spirits didn’t leave non-benders without any advantage)
Four nations, five senses - a_6yearold_inside - Avatar: The Last Airbender [Archive of Our Own]
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38652570
(Tagging@jamiejar because it’s their fault)
February, Day 1
Katara and Sokka are young WaterTribe students who recently moved out of their homeland with their naval-commander father, to start fresh as a 9th grader and 10th grader at Fire Nation Academy after the recent death of their mother.
Headmaster Iroh is aware of this sad news, and takes the liberty of assigning his nephew Zuko, a sullen-but-sharply-dressed 11th-grader, to show the new students around campus on their first day.
This is right at the beginning of February, and while Sokka can’t stop asking Zuko questions about Mr. Mechanist’s engineering lab hours and Geography Club (”I do like expensive atlases!”)… Katara remains quiet. She’s culture-shocked by the amount of pink, purple and red paper hearts bannered and dangling along the hallways of the school. She’s also mesmerized by how Zuko’s face – that scar, dressing most of his left side – carries the same tones and hues of that school’s decor. Unlike herself, Katara says nothing throughout that entire tour, holding her backpack straps tightly… and Zuko glances at her as they return to the headmaster’s office.
For the first time, Katara notices the rustic gold of his eyes.
Zuko frowns. “Any last questions?” His face moves to obscure his left side.
“Wh–” Katara gestures to the hallway with her nose. “What’s with all the decorations?”
Zuko blinks, giving her this look that says ‘you’re kidding, right?’ and when he turns over to Sokka, it’s clear that these WaterTribe siblings have no idea what sappy Fire Nation tradition this is. Zuko sighs, his eyes back on Katara.
“Valentine’s Day,” he rasps, almost like a groan as he turns on his heel to finally bid them goodbye with his shoulder and quick wave of the hand.
Katara watches him leave, puzzled.
February, Day 5
Throughout that first week, Katara finds herself making more friends with the teachers than the actual students, offering to help Mr. Piandao organize his library while discussing ancient military combat techniques, drinking tea with Mr. Jeong Jeong and talking about Eastern philosophies, and stopping by Ms. Ursa’s office to talk about poetry homework… but more just to say hello, because she’s so nice. Katara has no idea how Sokka’s managed to make best-friends in the span of a few days, but there he is… laughing away with Chan and Rion Jon in the hallways, discussing boys’ volleyball practice. Sokka’s never even played volleyball. Who is this person?
There is one 9th-grader, Ty Lee, who seems sweet and willing to get to know Katara as a friend, but she wonders if it’s all to try to get closer to Sokka.
Because wow.
Katara can’t keep herself from chuckling by the handful of girls already looking for her brother’s affection. Must be the eyes, Katara thinks, because if she had a copper piece for every time someone complimented her on her blue eyes, or her wavy hair, or the natural tan on her skin that first week of school…
Zuko hasn’t, strangely. Not that she cares.
Occasionally, Katara sees him walk the hallways, holding hands with a girl with a matching gloomy face as they head to class together. Katara thinks about her parents… how theyused to hold hands like that… how they never looked gloomy when they did. Katara shrugs. Perhaps love is different with everyone.
When Katara attends a Student Council meeting that week, she finally understands what “Valentine’s Day” is, thanks to the Student Council President Azula. The council has themed activities planned out for the entire week. Katara has been assigned the Valentine’s Card Crafting Table before school, during lunch, study hall and after-school all throughout that week. She feels slightly excited about this, as crafting was something she and her mother loved doing together.
But, glancing at the mountainous array of colorful glitter, gel-pens, markers, scissors, glue, construction paper and stickers all mixed around in these various plastic containers… Katara also understands why this was the assignment nobody had volunteered for.
She spends the rest of that Student Council meeting hour organizing all the materials to have them ready for the next week. Nobody stays after the meeting to help her. When Sokka’s Geography Club gets out and he finds her on the floor, alone, knelt with a pool of multi-colored construction paper that’s being organized by shade… Sokka approaches her sadly. He doesn’t even open his mouth when she instantly holds a palm to him. “Don’t say a word,” she says sharply, still looking down out at her mess. “I just need a project.”
Sokka quietly puts down his schoolbag, kneels next to her, and assists.
February, Day 8
The table is all set up in the morning as students arrive. Sokka is there helping her set up, but then immediately dodges Ty Lee’s advances when she shows up to support Katara’s first day behind the Valentine’s Day craft table. "Who wants to make me a Valentiiiiine??” Ty Lee shouts in her bubbly song, and a couple of boys head over to the table a proceed to make a card for her.
Katara instructs them on how to best cut out a heart out of construction paper with crafting scissors. They compliment her on her eyes.
She braces herself for the lunch period, and a few girls from Student Council stop by to make cards for each other and their own friends. Katara chooses to not make hearts but instead a mixed-media card with little ice-huts and snow-men and penguins… which looks slightly ridiculous in the shades of pink and purple. They love seeing Katara feel in her element with all of these crafting supplies, and tell her so, and the girl feels somewhat more comfortable behind that table. Just as she’s about to ask them about fun things to do in the Fire Nation, the girls leave with their cards, and Katara remains alone at the table.
Just as she’s watching them all leave, she notices Zuko standing there at the doorway to the cafeteria, serious. Katara’s face immediately winces down, back to her work. But Zuko then approaches the very edge of the table.
“Did Azula make you do this?” he rasps.
Katara shrugs, grinning to herself. “I volunteered.” In her salesman-type voice, she looks back up at him and says: “Would you like to make a Valentine’s Day card for your Valentine?”
Zuko stares at her, and then at the array of crafting supplies on the table, and then at her mixed-media card of her Water Tribe home, and then back at her.
Saying nothing, he takes a seat at the table and grabs a piece of paper.
“Mai’s gonna love this,” is all he says, attempting to cut a symmetrical heart.
‘Mai’ must be his girlfriend, Katara thought, but she notices the furrow in his eyes, the thinness of his mouth as he works quietly. Perhaps love is different with everyone.
She returns to her own card. In certain instances, she can feel Zuko looking at her. After a quiet set of minutes, he asks her about what exactly she’s making on her card, and Katara tells him. They spend the rest of that lunch hour talking, and crafting.
Zuko doesn’t compliment her on her eyes.
Not that she cares.
February, Day 9
“… and next thing we know, Sokka’s yelping like a baby seal and running from the wolf-pups… and he sprains his ankle and trips into this 20-foot ice-canyon. My mom and I had to run to the neighboring village to help get him out.”
“Wow– all for some seal-jerky?”
“Dad told us to leave all the food back at camp! Ugh– Sokka’s impossible.”
“I’d be happy to trade him for my sister— Hey, can you pass the stickers?”
“Sure– the pink hearts?”
“The white ones. Mai hates pink.”
“I like the border you cut for the card. You can add dots of glitter if you want, to give it some character.”
“Maybe. What are those swirls of green and yellow that you’re making?”
“Oh– it’s called the Southern Lights… when we were kids, Sokka and I would go swim to the closest iceberg to see them up-close.”
“You’d swim there? Wouldn’t you freeze to death?”
“Haha! We had thermal suits. I’m actually thinking of joining the Girls’ Swim Team here, but they’re not fancy national champions, like the Boys’. They sound like snobs.”
“They’re not all like that.”
“You know the whole team?”
“I’mon the team.”
“… … … oh.”
February, Day 10
“You’re staring at it again.”
“Wh–What? No, I wasn’t.”
”You were.”
“I wasn’t! Your sister was passing by, and she gave me a weird look!”
“Whatever.”
“Fine–Don’t believe me.”
“ …Do you wanna know how I got it?”
“Um… only if it’s okay to ask.”
“It’s nothing crazy. Azula and I snuck into our father’s fireworks supply for the Summer Solstice party at our house. They were a surprise, but my sister always finds out about these things. She loves fire. She wanted to light some up in our backyard before it got dark. She was only eight… my mother was tending to the party, and our father was supposed to be watching us, I guess. I knew, the moment Azula lit one up, that she was standing way too close to it… so I pushed her out of the way, and it got me.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. My parents split up, soon after that. He didn’t fight for custody.”
“…Do you miss him?”
“No. Sometimes. I don’t know. –Where’s the glue?”
“Here.”
“Thanks. Anyway… Uncle’s always been more of a father to me.”
“Iroh seems really great.”
“Yeah. He tells the best jokes. There’s this one, about tea leaves…”
February, Day 11
"She was always more my person, you know? Not that Sokka wasn’t close to her, or anything, but… it was just different. He still has Dad.”
“I know what you mean. My mother and I have a closer thing, compared to Azula. She doesn’t talk about it, but I can tell.”
“Yeah. Hey, are you done with the silver gel pen?”
“Sure– here.”
“Thanks. Anyway… I can’t talk about it, with them, at least… because I don’t want to make them feel like they have to watch out for me, here.”
“You seem like you can take care of yourself quite well.”
“Thanks– I mean, I have to. Dad’s got work, and Sokka’s… you know… joining a bunch of clubs and playing volleyball, and making girlfriends– it’s not funny!–”
“I wasn’t laughing.”
“You’re smirking!”
“..the scissors were jammed.”
“Ugh–whatever. The point is– I can’t be anyone’s little girl anymore. I have to grow up, keep all these feelings in, and just do what I can to keep us all going.”
“I get it. It’s like you have to constantly hide a part of you to just survive each day.”
“It really does. Do you feel that way, too?”
“Oh,constantly–By the way, I think these scissors are busted.”
“Here– I’ll trade you.”
“Thanks. Anyway– after a while, you kind of stop seeing your life as your own, and you begin to accept whatever it is that people want from you.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, though. I won’t go down that slippery slope.”
“Good. I don’t think there’s a force of nature that can tackle your kind of strength, anyway. Not even my sister.”
"Thanks, Zuko. And… I hope it’s not too late for you.”
“What?”
“You know… to still turn things around? Figure out what you really want?”
“I– I don’t know. Maybe there’s still time, I guess.”
“Good.”
“Yeah. Um… so, what are those? Icebergs?”
”…Yeah! And this tiny thing is a canoe. My brother and I would go out fishing in the mornings…”
February, Day 12
With it being the last day of school before “Valentine’s Day Weekend,” the craft table is more or less abandoned, and classmates are bee-lining along their lunch tables, passing around chocolates and carnations, cards and heart-shaped balloons.
Devoted to her assigned task, Katara remains seated behind that table after school for fifteen minutes before she finally begins to pack up all of the materials and officially consider her shift complete. She hears all the laughter and smiling faces of students closing their lockers for the day, reminding her of the Winter Solstice celebrations back at home… the way her tiny hands would be so eager to take that warm cup of cocoa from her mother’s palms…
“Need some help?”
She blinks at the sound of Zuko’s voice, surprised to see him there with his messenger bag. There’s nothing celebratory about his face or his dress – it’s his usual serious look – but Katara thought he’d be somewhere sharing chocolates with his girlfriend. She decides not to bring that up, and just nods.
They pack up the materials appropriately into the plastic containers, making sure that the supplies don’t move about inside and thus become a mess for the next person who’s assigned Valentine’s Day Craft Duty next year. Between the two of them, Zuko and Katara are able to carry all of the boxes into the school’s supply room in one single trip.
When Katara locks up the supply closet, she sighs a deep breath of relief, and Zuko chuckles.
“You know? This whole Valentine’s Day thing isn’t so bad,” she smiles at him.
Zuko just shrugs. But in his hand, there’s a card with an envelope.
The color of the envelope is an unfamiliar rustic gold – not like the shades of pink and white that Katara saw in her craft bins all week. Zuko must’ve found this envelope on his own.
“What is that?”
Katara mentally kicks herself when Zuko raises his brow.
“Your Valentine,” he says flatly, bringing it out to her.
“But…” she feels a lump in her throat, “… I didn’t make you anything.”
“It’s okay– just take it.” Zuko insists, his hand gesturing with the card.
Katara does. She gazes at the envelope with both hands and proceeds to turn it over to slice it open.
“Not yet--” he rasps so suddenly, her hands flinch. “You can’t open it until the Fourteenth.”
“Oh- so you’re superstitious, now?” Katara raises her brow, laughing.
Zuko groans, pinching his nose. “Forget it. Open it, don’t open it. Do what you want.”
They walk back out to the student hallways quietly, back to the noise of students and closing of lockers.
“Are you doing anything special for Mai?” she asks him, out of courtesy.
He says nothing for a long second, and without turning to her, he speaks. It comes out of him like invisible torture, of mumbling sounds and a syllables.
“We’re… um… we’re– not together– anymore.”
Katara turns to him, over to the scarred side of his face as they walk. It’s impossible to read what exactly he’s feeling by that almost-permanent frown, but she tries to, nonetheless.
“Oh.”
That’s all that she says, and Katara kicks herself again. As they walk, she can feel the words sitting idly in her throat, the I’m sorry andWhat happened? andDid she hurt you? andShe doesn’t deserve you, you know that?and Sorry, do you want me to just stop talking?
But before any of those words could come up, Zuko chimes in, turning his good side to her.
“See you around,” and there’s a tiny, almost secret grin that catches her eye as his face turns to leave for the parking lot.
“See you– thanks for your help!” she calls after him, and she can tell he heard her by the way he waves his hand.
February, Day 14
She waits until the official stroke of midnight to finally open the envelope, and it feels like a bunch of paper-heart confetti that falls out of it.
Five large pieces of confetti, to be exact.
One card for each day of the week that Zuko had been sitting there at that table. She sees the monochromic card from the first day, and the small patches of red, purple, and pink showing up on the cards the following days. Nothing is written on them, but that is fine.
That is still enough to make Katara smile.
And she sees a creme-colored folded piece of paper attached to the last card.
She unfolds the paper nervously, fidgeting as to what kind of handwriting… what kind of words, what sappy poetry would be in store for her big blue eyes.
It reads:
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Katara.
I’m really sorry about your mother, but I hope that you will find something to call home here. You should definitely join Student Council and try out for Swim Team; the girls could use more talent (I say that as a fellow swimmer – not as a rival, or anything). Thanks for teaching me how to craft these cards - they’re actually not so bad.
Would you want to keep talking, maybe? At lunch?
Anyway– I’ll be around, if you need me.
Zuko”
