There was beauty in what linked them and a perverseness too, one beyond human comprehension. He had been sundered on a level beyond the physical and through their gentle workings, he’d glimpsed the scale of the damage for the first time.
“It is not right for you to be here, Avatar Aang,” the spirit hums, black and white feathers ruffling as he slowly lowers himself from the banisters lining the top floors of his library. “Dare I say it is… unnatural.”
The way Aang’s grip tightens on the staff of his glider may betray his faux nonchalance, but then again, he is well aware Wan Shi Tong has never needed the obvious to be certain.
Aang lifts his chin. “My return was inevitable, Wan Shi Tong. I am not so foolish as to think you didn’t know that.”
If Wan Shi Tong could have smiled, Aang suspects he might have. “And what makes you think I will let you stay?” he whispers, his serpentine body at last weaving to a stop in front of Aang.
Aang exhales. “Nothing,” he says. The honesty in his response, he hopes, rings clearer than a bell. “You have no reason to let any humans return, much less myself, after my friends and I betrayed your trust. And for that betrayal…”
He swallows hard, thinking of the people imprisoned, the lives lost during the battle of the black sun. “We paid the price.”
Wan Shi Tong chuckles. “Indeed you did, Avatar.” He tilts his head, unblinking eyes seeing all, knowing all, examining the depths of the tremor, the tension, the trust that race beneath Aang’s skin. “And what will you do now?”
Aang takes a deep breath. He raises his right arm and tosses his glider aside before sinking to his knees. “I ask for your mercy,” he says. His voice shakes, but he presses onward. “I ask for your mercy, Wan Shi Tong, because you are the only one who can help me.”
The sky blue tattoos that run along his back, his arms, his legs, the ink aches, images ingrained with mastery and memories, each arrow burns as if they were still being pressed into his crawling skin.
“You… are the only one who still knows,” Aang says, and Wan Shi Tong hums. The silence that follows lasts ten thousand years.
“Come with me,” Wan Shi Tong instructs, and Aang’s shoulders fall.
~*~
Written for Day 5 of Aang Rarepair Week 2022: Nature/Spirit, hosted by @aangtheestallion. Wan Shi Tong/Aang.
In a desperate attempt to produce something for Aang Rarepair Week, here’s a little bit of an azulaang fic I was working on that I will probably never finish. Essentially, Azula is working as one of Zuko’s ministers, and is constantly undermining/arguing with Aang. Things come to a head after a particularly taxing meeting:
Aang lost what little control he had. In a flash he was against Azula, slamming her back into the closest wall. His hands clamped around hers, preventing her from bending. His lungs burned, and he realized he was breathing heavily.
“I knew it.” Azula’s painted red mouth curled into a smirk. His eyes flickered down to that mouth, the one that ceaselessly tormented and invigorated him. “You’re attracted to me.”
There was no point in denying it. Not now, when physically couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
“It’s more than that,” Azula argued. She shifted so her hips rolled against his. With the contrary nature that she brought out of him, he moved so their bodies were no longer so close together. “You like it when I argue with you, and make things difficult for you. Kind of fucked up, if you ask me.”
“You’re full of it,” Aang scoffed, but she pressed onward.
“I’m not like the other ministers, who pretend to play nice to stay on your good side. I’m actually honest with you, and you like that. I can tell you’re as sick of the political game as I am.”
Tagged by @twinkle-toph- I mentioned a few of these in this post, but here’s a more extensive list XD
Truth be told, I’m not *actively working on* most of these, but they are things that are currently unfinished that I swear on my dubious honor I will finish eventually………
1. Chapter 2 of Like Walking on Air, which is getting long enough that it might eventually be 3 chapters we’ll see……
2. A “how they get together” tokka fic featuring baby Lin and Sokka being Dumb About Emotions™
3.Destiny is a Funny Thing, as always……… I know it’s been a while it’s just that I’m in the middle of sort of a “filler chapter” rn so motivation is low
4. This silly rom-com style tokka fic that’s actually turning into kind of a Toph & Aang friendship fic
5.Tales of Dead Men, which hasn’t been updated for *a year* as of tomorrow (ouch), but I promise I still think about it sometimes and I WILL GET TO IT I PROMISE just pls be patient with me
Anyway that’s it haha… all I can say is writing is hard and I have like a real person job and as of a few months ago a real person significant other so y’know… Life has been Happening.
