in which the reader has had to live with zuko training aang after breaking her heart. eventually emotions come to a head, leaving her vulnerable to his pleas.
warning: language, smut toward the end (18+. MINORS DO NOT INTERACT), fingering, oral (female receiving), unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it kids!) general pining and what not. bolded line will indicate the point of no return, if you aren’t comfortable with sexual content don’t read past that line!
my first smut outside of the one direction fanfic i wrote when i was twelve go easy on me besties. also i have no fucking clue what his ember island house looks like besides the fede sections they showed in the show so apologies for that. as explained in the first part, our beloved zuzu and the reader are aged up because i’m not comf writing anything sexual with minors!
living with zuko hasn’t been easy. no matter how much you try to avoid him he always seems to be right behind you. in a short time he’s seemed to be able to win everyone over, well everyone but you.
it started with sokka. after their big adventure to boiling rock, zuko has been in sokka’s good graces. even katara has been able to tolerate him after he took her to avenge her mother. he hasn’t even attempted to mend what he broke between the two of you.
after his grand confession of love at the western air temple, you could no longer keep your past with zuko a secret from your friends. sokka was the first to ask you about it, cringing when you brought up any sort of intimate detail, but this was also when he wasn’t zuko’s biggest fan either.
“we can’t work as a team if you’re still mad at him,” aang was the second to talk to you about it. he was mostly concerned with the group dynamic going forward. he didn’t want to sacrifice his training with zuko, but he cares more about his relationship with you than keeping zuko as a teacher. “do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive him?”
everyone was asleep on the ride to ember island beside you and aang. you lied to toph and sokka, telling them time and time again that you weren’t still hurt from what zuko did to you, rather what he did to aang, but aang saw through it.
“he hurt me really bad, aang,” you say quietly. you’re sure everyone is asleep, zuko snoring only a few feet from you, but you were still nervous to say it out loud. “you can train with zuko without me liking him, it won’t affect you at all i promise.”
he doesn’t seem convinced but he lets it go for now. in his mind, there’s no use in the two of you fighting over something you’ve already seemed to make your mind up on.
zuko doesn’t make any attempts to speak to you, just makes his presence known to you at every second of the day. after watching the ember island players, how they paint zuko and katara in such a romantic light you feel sick. you wish you didn’t, that you could just move on from him but his constant being around makes it unimaginably harder.
that night you lay in the room of zuko’s childhood beach house and hold back tears. you feel so stupid, like some idiot teenage girl obsessed with the last boy who broke her heart. you didn’t want to sleep alone so you shared with katara and toph, their light snores almost comforting as you fight the insomnia that has overtaken you.
it takes you a minute to realize it isn’t just the trees outside tapping on the window, but a light knock on the door. you roll over on your cot and contemplate pretending you didn’t hear it. then again it could be aang or sokka in distress. you push off the makeshift bed and walk toward the sound.
zuko stands there, shirt gone, hands wringing in front of him. you can’t help but roll your eyes at his indecency and cross your arms over your chest, covering yourself as best as you can as you become painfully aware of your lack of clothing. when he doesn’t say anything you speak up.
“can i help you?” you ask, obviously annoyed at his interruption of your attempts to fall asleep. he stands there for another minute, mouth moving like he has something to say but no words come out. “guess not.”
before you can turn back around he reaches out to you, catching your elbow which makes you shiver.
“please talk to me, y/n,” he’s begging again. “i promise it won’t take long, i just can’t bear fighting.”
you think it over for a minute. his face is giving everything away, he looks visibly shaken to be speaking to you. you let out a sigh, shaking him off your arm lightly and cocking your eyebrow as if to say talk.
“not here, i don’t want to wake them,” he nods toward toph and katara’s sleeping bodies. he reaches out his hand for you to take to follow him but you don’t. “alright, follow me i guess.”
you follow him down the long hallways of his abandoned family beach house. you can’t help but feel bitter about the fact that he has enough homes for one to be abandoned while the southern water tribe was diminished due to his family’s rule. he leads to an empty room, what you can only assume to be his bedroom when this place was in use.
“will you sit?” he asks meekly as you stand leaning against the wall, the farthest you can possible be from him in this room. “please?”
you can’t bring yourself to hear another round of his begging and whining so you take a seat on the opposite side of his bed. his hands lay fidgeting in his lap and his eyes hardly ever meet yours.
“you’re wasting my time zuko we all need to sleep if we’re going to defeat your father,” you say which makes him immediately look up. any mention of his father elicits that kind of reaction. “if you have something to say get on with it.”
“i can’t keep being here if you won’t talk to me,” he finally replies.
“i’m talking now, aren’t i?”
“you know what i mean, y/n,” he snaps which shocks you. he hasn’t shown his, for lack of a better word, fiery attitude with you since he proposed teaching aang to fire bend. “sorry i didn’t mean it to come out like that, but you do know what i mean. i’ve tried so hard to fix this but i can’t do that when you won’t even look at me.”
the way he’s speaking to you like he deserves something makes you angry, but it makes you even angrier that you, in the tiniest bit, agree with him.
“what is there to fix zuko? it’s not like we were together,” you remind him.
“don’t give me that bullshit, we were,” he pushes. “by the end i wasn’t even sure if i was chasing the avatar or you, we were together and that’s why what i did is worse.”
you’re quiet, unsure of how to respond to such a thing.
“you have to know that i loved you then too. what i did was awful but it was because i loved you,” he continues to explain himself, but it sounded like excuses to you. “if i didn’t go with azula and she figured out it was because of you she wouldn’t hesitate to take you out of the equation. she’ll eliminate anyone that stands in her way and i couldn’t let her do that to you. i won’t lie and say it was the only reason that i left but it sure as hell was the biggest.”
your face stays stone cold, you aren’t sure if he’s making this up to save his own ass or if he’s telling the truth. the idea of letting him ramble on long enough to figure it out feels like a good enough idea to you.
“i know i should have told you why, but i was stupid and i was a coward,” he drops his head when he says this and your heart almost skips a beat. months ago in the desert, zuko finally talked about his mother, how she up and left him to be tortured and scrutinized by his father and sister. you noticed whenever he talked about something important to him, he couldn’t keep eye contact, just like he’s doing now. “i’ve been trying so hard to change, y/n, i don’t want what i did in ba sing se. i don’t want to be fire lord, i don’t want my fathers honor, i just want you.”
“what about mai?” you ask, honestly afraid of the answer. he lets out a pained sigh before lifting his gaze to meet yours.
“i never thought i’d be able to be with you again after what happened,” he replies. “i was trying so hard to move on but i realized i couldn’t just forget about you. no matter what i did, you were always there in the back of my mind.”
you’re quiet again. you can try to convince yourself you’re over the feelings you had for zuko as much as you want, but the jealously that rises in you when you think about him and mai, even him and katara, is undeniable.
“you hurt me really bad zuko,” you confess in a whisper, head dropping so he can’t see the pain in your face. “how am i supposed to believe this isn’t just for show.”
you know he’s itching to be close to you, reach out and grab your hand to assure you of his feelings but he stays in his place to respect your boundaries.
“i know, i was such an idiot then. i’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if i have to,” his tone of clear and strong, no hesitation behind it. without lifting your head, your eyes turn to look at him, he’s almost shaking. “it’s always been you, only you. i’ll do anything to prove it to you.”
you’re finding it particularly hard to breathe. even with so much distance between the two of you, you feel suffocated. your heart is telling you one thing but your mind is saying another. the time that has passed between now and ba sing se has softened your anger toward him, one could even call the feeling indifference, but your brain is warning that you’ve been down this path with him before. something, however, feels different.
the glint of hope mixed with deep sorrow in his eye is something you’ve never seen in him before. the way he’s openly criticizing his own actions is wildly different from the zuko you knew even a few months ago. you haven’t ignored the fact that he’s given your friends so much closure since he’s tagged along. with your brain turning into mush trying to comprehend what the hell to do in this situation, you do the unthinkable.
“y/n-” before he can spit out more word vomit, you close the distance between you, pressing your lips against his after so many weeks apart. you can hear him suck in a breath through his nose before he realizes what’s happening. his hands hold your cheeks, afraid if he let go you would disappear and this would all be a twisted dream.
all the hurt he caused, the shattering of your heart, slips away for even just a moment. logically, you know this is a terrible idea, but every part of you wants to believe him.
when you pull away from him gasping for air, you rest your forehead against his. you don’t know where to go from here. on one hand, you could get up and leave, pretend like this never happened. on the other you can give into what your body is screaming at you to do.
“i believe you,” you finally whisper and you can feel the tension drain from his shoulders. he lets out a sigh of relief that sounds like it’s been held in his chest for weeks. your hand moves from his cheek bone to push a piece of his now shaggy hair behind his ear.
without another word, zuko cautiously tilts his chin toward yours, almost afraid that you’ll pull away this time. when you don’t, he closes the gap between the two of you again. his lips feel like fire against yours, burning into your skin but you never want to pull away. like your bodies are magnetic, you pull yourself closer into him, perching yourself on his thighs. before his hands can wander he pulls away from you again. your lips connect to the spot under his ear that used to drive him crazy.
“wait,” you immediately stop your actions to sit back and look at him. “i don’t want you to think i brought you in here just so we can fuck and move on like nothing happened. that’s not what this is for me, i need you to know that.”
his words pull at your heart. it was always a mutual decision that you two were never anything more than a body to lie next to on your intertwined journeys to your different goals, but this expression of the need for something different eases any sort of doubt you had before.
“i don’t think that,” you tell him and his face softens. you can’t help it when the corner of your lips pull up into a small smile. “but i need you, zu.”
the nickname makes him groan lightly. after the seemingly endless tap was shut off in ba sing se, you had been in a dry spell for weeks now. with the only other men in your life being sokka and aang, you were left empty handed and empty bedded.
“let me show you how much i love you,” he nudges his nose against your ear as he says it, attaching his lips to your neck for a brief moment. “god i missed you.”
he gently takes a hold of your back and adjusts the two of you so you’re lying beneath him. suddenly you’re back in the same place you’ve been countless times with zuko but you feel like you’re worlds away from the first time.
he returns his lips to yours, taking his time with you. one hand stays holding your head in place while the other trails down the side of your body, over the swell of your breast in your thin sleepwear. his hand eventually creeps under the hem of the cloth and rests on your hip. his cold fingers cause your lips to part, allowing zuko to slip him tongue into your mouth, exploring every inch like it’s the first time.
his lips began to move further down your body as he pushes the hem on your nightgown further up your abdomen. removing his body from yours for just a second, he pulls the fabric over your head and continues his ministrations.
“you’re perfect,” he mumbles against your collarbone as he continues south, taking your hardened nipple into his mouth. the warm sensation sends your head back into the pillow behind you. your hands run up his bare back and find their way into his hair, giving it a light tug which has him groaning against your chest. before you makes his way to where you need him most, he presses a kiss to your naval and meets your gaze. “you’re sure?”
“i’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” you say, breathless, which turns his lips into a crooked smile. nothing about this feels rushed or hypersexual like it has in the past, it’s evident that he’s taking his time but he’s not teasing. pressing his lips to every inch of your lower half, your hip bones, your thighs, he eventually makes his way to your dripping heat.
the second his mouth attaches itself to your clit, you’re done for. his left hand holds your hips in place as the other snakes between your legs to run under where his tongue is drawing figure eights. you can’t hold back the moans that are spilling from your lips.
“baby, you don’t want everyone hearing us, do you?” he asks, pulling away from your cunt which pulls a whine from your lips. you shake your head, unable to form a coherent sentence. “didn’t think so, better keep quiet for me.”
he continues his work on your clit when you feel his fingers push into you. the hand that isn’t trapped in his dark hair goes over your mouth to stifle your whimpering and moaning. this only seems to egg him on as he thrusts his fingers in and out of you at a mind blowing pace. his fingers curl to reach that certain spot inside of you that has your vision going white and the knot in your stomach tightening by the second.
“zuko—fuck—i’m gonna cum,” it comes out broken as you try to keep as quiet as possible. “don’t stop, please.”
he hums against your sensitive bud, his fingers continuing to rock in and out of you, and you’re sent over the edge. with your back arched and your hand muffling the screams that would have been coming out of you, zuko slows his pace to ride out the high. once you’re settled back down, he moves his tongue to catch your release that’s dripping from you.
“still as sweet as i remember,” zuko says, almost as if he’s not even talking to you. he lifts his body to be level with yours again, pressing your lips together again. the taste of yourself on his tongue forces a moan into his mouth.
with your lips still moving together, your hand trails down his toned chest and over the evident bulge in his pants. zuko has always gotten off on pleasuring you, tonight is no exception. giving him the hint that you need him, you attempt to push his bottoms as far down his thighs as you can.
quickly pulling his lips from yours, he steps out of the material and fits his body between yours once again. just the feeling of him hard against you makes your stomach flip. you wrap your legs around his waist to give yourself any sort of friction you can find and he catches the hint.
“fuck,” he grunts out, pushing your centers together. “you don’t know what you do to me.”
“show me,” you beg, tugging on his hair again. “please zuko, need you so bad.”
without another word, he leans onto one elbows and teases his tip up and down your sensitive cunt, making your writhe underneath him. slowly, he pushes himself into you. you both gasp at the feeling you’ve been missing for weeks. he bottoms out, stilling for a moment to let you adjust to his size after so much time apart from him.
“move, zu, please,” you whine. usually he’d snap at your for fussing but the sound of your sweet voice is music to his ears.
he starts slow, rolling his hips into yours but he eventually falls into the same quick pace he always has. he swallows all of your moans in a sloppy, open mouthed kiss as he rocks your body into the bed beneath you. when his lips can’t contain the flow of noise coming from yours, he brings his hand up to cover your mouth to keep this moment between the two of you.
“i need you to touch yourself, baby, can you do that?” he whispers, taking the skin of your neck between his lips, careful not to leave a mark that the others could see. you quickly nod your head and snake your fingers between the two of you, finding your clit. “such a good girl, you gonna come for me? want to feel you squeeze my cock with that tight little cunt.”
his filthy words send your brain into overdrive. without his hand over your mouth, you’re sure the entirety of ember island would hear you. between zuko’s harsh thrusts and your own fingers circling your clit, your release hits you like a train. your walls clench around zuko as he continues to push his hips against yours, chasing his own high.
“atta girl,” he groans as he feels you pulsing around him. he takes his hand off your mouth for a second to reach down and pull your leg over his shoulder before returning to keep your moans at bay. you’re seeing stars as zuko reaches a spot deeper inside you, so far you could feel him in your stomach. “look so perfect like this, just hang on a little longer baby i’m almost there.”
even if his hand wasn’t silencing your every sound, you still wouldn’t have been able to reply, your entire vocabulary seemingly stolen from you. his thrusts become sloppier and you can feel him twitch inside you. before he can pull out you start to shake your head, whining for him to take his hand off.
“c-cum in me zu, n-need to feel it,” you stutter out, earning a groan from him as his hips falter. you let out the softest moan you can when you feel his warm release pour into you.
“fuck—i love you,” he cusses as he slows his pace to extend his high as long as he can.
not even bothering to pull out, zuko collapses onto your chest as you both attempt to catch your breath. you run your fingernails up his heaving back as the two of you settle down. zuko presses a soft kiss onto your collar bone and the crook of your neck before rolling next to you. turning on your side, you find your way under his arm and curl yourself against him.
you can feel the mix of your releases dripping from your core but you can’t be bothered to get up and clean yourself just yet.
“i love you,” he repeats once his heart returns to its normal pace. you press your lips into his rib cage and wrap your arm over his torso as he speaks.
“i love you,” you reply, your tone quiet and completely content. after a few moments of blissful silence you speak up again. “i’m still mad at you for sleeping with mai.”
you feel the rumble of his chest as he chuckles at your words. somehow, you two have returned to exactly where you were a few weeks ago, but this time unafraid to say how you feel about each other.
“i know,” zuko replies once he composes himself. “only you though, remember?”
after what feels like an eternity of laying next to each other again, you reluctantly bid each other goodnight so you can slip into the rooms you fell asleep in to avoid any sort of suspicion in the morning. with one last kiss, you float back to your makeshift bed on the floor next to katara. before you’re lulled to sleep, there’s a tug on your nightgown.
“any particular reason you’re covered in sweat?” katara whispers as she nudges your side. even in the dark you can see a knowing smile form on her face. “and what’s this? you fall down the stairs?”
her finger pokes at your neck and you immediately go to cover it with your hand, face burning red. you can tell she’s holding back a laugh so she doesn’t wake toph.
“shut up!” you whisper shout, gently pushing you away from her. “i’m serious, you’re going to wake toph.”
“toph is already awake,” you hear the younger girl groan. you and katara can no longer contain your laughter. “i’m blind, not deaf. try and keep your activities to a minimum, these floors are stone.”
this sets katara off as she rolls back into a belly laugh, rotating between holding her stomach and smacking your arms. the feeling of being the stupid teenage girl, obsessed with the boy who last broke her heart is back but you aren’t embarrassed by it, it was exciting. with the three of you awake, without any sort of sleep on any of your agendas, you talk all night. not about you and zuko specifically, toph wasn’t too fond of that topic.
the air feels lighter on ember island, now maybe sozin’s comet won’t feel so daunting.
a/n: I just started watching ATLA for the first time since I was 9 and needless to say i am hooked. been bouncing around ideas for this.
in which you are a part of the gaang. you grew up with sokka and katara and followed them along their journey with the avatar. during your run in’s with the fire nation, more specifically it’s banished prince, unbeknownst to your friends, you grow closer to zuko in the hopes that one day he’ll change.
warning: sexual allusions, cussing, idk what else
also this timeline is not going to make sense, sorry i wanted it to be before zuko and azula “killed” aang but there wasn’t a good place to put it. we can also pretend that zuzu isn’t a baby prince so he and the reader are freshly eighteen love you!
“stay the night” zuko grumbles out a beg. he presses his lips to your temple in an attempt to seal in his pleas. “i just want to be with you a little while longer.”
you were wrapped in the sheets of whatever apartment zuko and iroh had in ba sing se this week. you stayed back with katara to help the earth king with the plans of the invasion of the fire nation. you knew you’d have to leave soon, but zukos tone made it seem like he wouldn’t be following you this time.
this back and forth has been going on for months. zuko and iroh are always hot on the trail of the avatar and his friends, you just happened to grow closer to the banished prince following his siege at the north pole. saving him that day made you feel…different about him.
so you met in secret, only after he figured out aang was in the city, you would never betray your friends and give up your whereabouts. the two of you never spoke about his plot to steal aang or your friends plans to defeat the fire nation. for those few hours you weren’t y/n y/l/n and he wasn’t prince zuko. you were simply who people who liked each other.
“why are you saying that like I won’t see you in the next city,” you chuckle, assuming you’ll hear the rumbling of his chest at the preposterous idea that you two could stay apart from each other. when he’s quiet you move away from him slightly to study his features. his face is like stone, no indication that he found what you said to be funny. “zuko…will i not see you again?”
he doesn’t answer, just lets out a sigh. instead of looking at you any longer, he drops his gaze and pulls you back into his bare chest.
“can we talk about this in the morning?” he pleads with you, not letting up on his tight embrace. you aren’t sure what exactly he’s planning on doing, but if he truly believes he won’t see you again after tonight, it must be bad. you can only assume it has something to do with aang.
your heart breaks a little at the thought. zuko has been so different these past few weeks. he’s not as angry, his actions don’t feel like they have ulterior motives, he seems like he finally began to enjoy this life he had in ba sing se. as much as you wanted to hold onto that image of the boy you adore, you can’t.
“no, we can’t talk about this in the morning,” you push back from him again. you pull on the sheets to cover your chest as you sit with your arms wrapped around your knees as far away on his bed that you could get from him. “what are you going to do zuko?”
he tries to move closer to you but you hold your arm out to keep him at a distance. tears begin to well in your eyes as your heart drops into your stomach. if he wasn’t going to do something truly terrible, he wouldn’t look so guilty.
“y/n, please,” his voice is calm and steady but his face suggests otherwise. the quiver of his top lip doesn’t go unnoticed. “we promised we wouldn’t talk about this stuff.”
“bullshit, we promised that when this was a stupid cat and mouse game not when you’re putting my friends and i in serious danger,” you say sternly, unsure of what to feel right now. his beautiful, sad face stares back at you while betrayal fills your heart. you so desperately wanted to believe he changed. that iroh broke through to him when he asked zuko what he wanted. “you don’t have to do this zuko, please think about this. what it will do to us.”
he shakes his head and drops his gaze once again. he doesn’t attempt to move closer to you before he speaks again.
“yes i do have to do this,” he retorts. “that’s why i have to say goodbye now, i know what it will do to us.”
you can’t believe what he’s saying. he hasn’t even really said what he has planned but you know too well what is on his mind. best case scenario he’s planning to capture aang again, you can’t even bring yourself to think about worse case scenario.
“i won’t let you do it to him.”
“y/n, you know how important my honor is.”
“that’s what this is all about? your stupid honor?” you scream at him, not even bothering to keep your voice down for iroh’s sake. he sounds like the zuko you were faced with that day he attacked the southern water tribe, the monster he portrayed before you knew him. “i can’t believe how selfish you’re being!”
you push yourself off his bed and rush to put your clothes on so you don’t give iroh any sort of show when you storm out of here and hopefully never return. zuko is quick to stand up as well, beginning to pace.
“honor is everything!”
you scoff at his lazy response. again your faced with remnants of the man zuko once was, at least you thought he was. maybe you were too naive to see someone like him wouldn’t change, but you hoped he was different.
“no you absolute imbecile!” you shout again, this time getting up in his face. “happiness is everything. friendship is everything. love is everything.”
this shuts him up. you two hadn’t said it yet, but you were both too magnetically drawn to each other for the feeling to not be there. you loved zuko and he loved you. he was too proud to say it and you too scared. he swallows thickly, not breaking your gaze. he nears dangerously close to you but you keep your place, unwavering even under his intimidation. he brings his lips to brush against your ear before uttering:
“love makes you foolish.”
the final straw. you shoved him back with every ounce of force you had in you and quickly gathered your things to escape this hell of a room and never see the sorry excuse for a man who couldn’t even admit his own feelings for you.
With a swift slam of his door, you’re suddenly wrapped in the cool air of the night. as fast as your feet can take you, you make your return to the home your friends have shared since your arrival in the city. you don’t know if zuko bothered to follow you, it wouldn’t make any sort of difference if he did. part of you always knew he was still the same banished prince you and met all those months ago, but you still hoped that all of this wasn’t just surface level for him. maybe he was right, maybe love had made you foolish.
as quietly as you could, you close the door behind you, catching your breath and attempting to keep any tears at bay. he doesn’t deserve to be cried over, he never has. while you’d never want to be caught in such a vulnerable state, you can’t help but feel some sort of relief when katara’s face appears in front of you, taking your cheek into her hand.
“it’s zuko isn’t it,” she says plainly which makes your eyes go wide. you had always been careful when it came to meeting with him, always returning before the sun rise. “you don’t have to hide it, y/n, i’ve known for a while.”
you let any wall you had built down and allow a tear spill onto your cheek. it’s no use masking your feelings, she already knows.
“why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“no point,” she replies with a shrug of her shoulders. “i know you well enough to know you’d never turn on us, on your family. you seemed happy and the bird brains in those boys never caught on so i thought it best to keep it that way.”
a half smile forms on your face at the thought of sokka and aang completely oblivious to all of this, but it fades in seconds. katara takes your hands and leads you to sit.
“what happened?” she asks cautiously, unsure if you’d actually divulge any details of your relationship with the enemy. “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
you shake your head. katara is the closest thing you’ve ever had to a sister, you’ve wanted to tell her all about your rendezvous with the enemy for a while now, but you never thought you could.
“i thought maybe he would change, maybe i was getting through to him,” you say, wiping your nose with the sleeve of your shirt. “i can’t believe how stupid i was katara, i genuinely believed he loved me too. all he said was that love makes you foolish.”
she squeezes the hand she’s still holding out of sympathy, unsure of what she could possible say to make your pain a little more bearable. you cried with her all night, the heart that you worked so hard to keep guarded breaking more and more with each thought of him.
so you hated him, the only way to keep yourself from loving him was through bitter hatred, and he didn’t make it too hard to do so. maybe if you hadn’t fought that night he wouldn’t have sided with his sister, but it’s too late to ponder the what ifs.
in some ways it was a blessing, he thought aang was dead so he had no reason to follow you around anymore, you didn’t have to see his face and be reminded of the way he broke your heart into a million pieces. seeking shelter in the western air temple, you assume you’re safe from ever having to see his scarred face again.
you were painfully wrong.
“don’t you dare come in here,” you call after you hear a knock on the frame of the room you were staying in. you didn’t want zuko’s help, but you’d never want to inhibit aang’s journey. if zuko could help him, who were you to stand in the way? with the bitter cold shoulder he had been receiving from you and katara, he thought it best to speak to you for the first time since ba sing se. ignoring your request, he sheepishly steps into your room, making you turn your harsh gaze toward him. “are you deaf?”
“you have to talk to me eventually, y/n!” he pleads making you scoff.
“i don’t have to do anything,” your reply is pointed, dripping with the venom of your disdain for him. “get out, i’m not going to tell you again.”
with that, you turn over in your bed, back now toward him. when you thought he couldn’t invade your space anymore, you feel a dip in the bed and you’re sure that your head will explode. before you can turn over and give him a matching scar, he speaks up.
“i never meant for us to end that way,” he’s quiet, he sounds like he used to, not like the ego-maniac, obsessed with restoring his honor back in ba sing se. “you have to know that i never wanted to hurt you.”
“hurt me? you think that you of all people could hurt me?” you put on a brave face when you speak to him, he doesn’t deserve to know he had any impact on you whatsoever. “you tried to kill aang, you just expect me to trust you after that, to like you after that? you didn’t really believe this was all because of you and me did you?”
you expected him to switch over to the cocky demeanour he always wore, to scoff at your words and say they weren’t true. to be fair, they aren’t true, but he doesn’t need to know that. instead his face remains the same, somber and disappointed. it almost hurts to see him like that. It makes you want to reach out to him, say it wasn’t true but that’s how he roped you in the first time and you know how that turned out.
“i’m sorry i didn’t say it then…” he trails off as your chest continues to rise and fall at a rapid pace. you want him to say it, to hear him admit it so you could be just as cruel. “i love you, y/n, i have for so long. i didn’t want to hurt you then by saying those things and then tearing it all to shreds in front of you.”
he doesn’t get to do this, to make a grand statement of love and expect everything to return to the way it was.
“you do?” you ask, giving him the same false sense of hope he gave you that night. “is that why you fucked mai? because you loved me so much.”
he doesn’t reply, his lips are sealed shut because he can’t say anything to you. he can’t come up with an excuse or say it isn’t true.
“you can’t even deny it, zuko! don’t throw around that word like you’ll ever understand what it means.”
it was cruel to say, but not uncalled for. you push off your bed and go to storm out and find katara to calm yourself down, this whole situation giving you déjà vu. as expected he gets up to follow you but you don’t stop this time.
“i mean it y/n, i love you,” he calls to you, his words echoing through the temple. everyone is sure to know about what you kept secret for so long now.
“apparently, not enough,” you spit back as you come to katara’s room, you look to him one more time as he’s stopped ten or so paces behind you and he just looks defeated. with one last glare you slam katara’s door shut and let your legs give out.
I’ve finally watched ATLA and awww how not to love him? I plan doing more ATLA fanart in the future, I just love them so much ❤️ for now, have some Zukos!
atla is the best show in the world because they let uncle iroh open his tea shop while his nephew the prince of fire nation is procrastinating on becoming a good person so he has no other option but to be a waiter while hes stalling on doing good i hope the writers knew when they wrote this how fucking funny that concept truly is
Customer service was either going to reform him or make him more evil. That was the Ultimate Test.The rest of his arc was just filler.
Kinda wanted to draw an AU where the world was at peace and Katara and Zuko were just Princess of the southern water tribe and Prince of the fire nation. They’d hang out…maybe more.
Master Pakku: It’s not natural for women to fight.
Katara: It’s not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall, and yet there you stand.
Sokka: Trust me, this plan’s going to work!
Katara: Fine. But if Combustion Man kills us all, I’m going to get Aang’s spirit to teach my spirit how to play the tsungi horn just so that I can annoy the heck out of your spirit.”
Sokka: I’ll just hire Zuko’s spirit to kick your spirits’s butt!
Zuko: My spirit won’t associate with your spirit.
Iroh: You are going to… kill the Moon?
Zhao: Tui made the decision to return to the physical world. If she makes herself such an available target, she can further the Fire Nation’s great destiny.
Iroh: Men mock the spirits until they need them, Zhao.
Ty Lee: Spirits, Mai, you actually look happy.
Mai, clearly smiling: Don’t be ridiculous.
Zuko, at the Agni Kai: What’s the matter today, no lightning? Afraid I’ll redirect it?
Azula: Oh, I’ll show you lightning!
Katara: Zuko, this whole ‘shoot lightning at me’ thing is starting to concern me.
Sokka: Aang, maybe the monks didn’t cover this lesson, but you do not negotiate with a powerful firebender with lightning crackling around him during Sozin’s Comet.
alternatively,
Sokka: Zuko, maybe your fancy tutors didn’t cover this lesson, but you do not argue with a guy who can start glowing and harness all the power and skills of his past lives at any time.
Sokka: You were early, Toph!
Toph: I was on time!
Sokka: For you, that’s early. Next time you plan to impress me give me some warning!
Toph: The animals are free, and I found you a boat. This is when a thank you would be in order.
Suki: Thank you, Toph.
Toph: Hey, no problem, Suki.
Toph: See, Sokka? That’s how the civilised folk do it.
Sokka, to Zuko, at the Boiling Rock: Well, we’ve managed to get ourselves locked into the most secure prison in the world. We’re either geniuses or the dumbest sons of bitches to ever breathe air.
Aang: We’re all gonna die!
Sokka: Well, statistically speaking, only SOME of us are going to die.
Sokka: It was a calculated risk.
Zuko: It was cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best. Believe me, I know the difference.
Sokka and Aang: *doing their spirit magic impressions, i.e. waving their arms and making vaguely creepy sounds*
Zuko: What are they doing?
Katara: Performing an ancient Spirit-summoning ritual.
Zuko: Really?
Katara: No.
Aang: Sure, I’m skinny, but I stay drier in the rain.
Sokka: How?
Aang: Less falls on me.
Sokka:
Sokka: You can WATERBEND.
Hakoda: Good luck hitting a skinny little Water Tribe boat, cutting through the waves and staffed by a crew of men who’ve spent their whole life dodging obstacles in boats.
Bato: I’ll quote you on that when a fireball lands in my lap.
Random Boiling Rock guard: Please, have mercy!
Suki: I like it when men beg. But this isn’t the time for it.
Chief Hakoda: How are you finding our country?
Toph: It’s a magical place. If you like ice and more ice.
Sokka, about Zuko: Would it kill him to smile every once in a while?
Katara: Very possibly.
Toph: Katara and Zuko? Far be it from me to doubt anyone’s determination to get this done, but is that really the ideal pairing?“
Sokka: Zuko knows guard procedure, and Katara can handle any guards without a noisy fight. Your job is to keep them from killing each other.
Toph: Because I’m definitely the diplomat of the the group.
Sokka: Aang is the diplomat of the group. But he’s busy, so you get to do it.
Jet: What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s money?
Smellerbee: Knife to the throat?
Pipsqueak: Bludgeon to the head?
Sneers: Poison in his cup?
Tea Shop Lee, the new recruit: You’re all horrible.
Jet: Have any of you wondered what I did with all the gold we got from the Dai Li?
Smellerbee: Weapons?
Pipqueak: Ships?
The Duke: Bombs?
Sneers: Political bribes?
Smellerbee, to Lee: This is where you tell us how awful we are.
Lee: They all seem like practical choices.
Zuko: Has anyone noticed that every nation in the world is looking for me, mad at me, or wants to kill me?
Toph: So?
Zuko: Well, usually it’s just half the nations.
Suki: I am grateful that you’re alive.
Sokka: Suki, you’re better than meat and boomerangs!
Suki: Let’s not say things we don’t mean, Boomerang Guy.
Sokka: You’re stupid about a lot of things, Zuko, but you are not stupid. And if I ever hear you call yourself a moron again, I’m going to tell Katara you tried to kiss Aang. With tongue.
Zuko: She’ll never believe it.
Sokka: Then I’ll tell Aang you tried to kiss Katara. With tongue.
Sokka: Don’t worry, Gran-Gran. People firebend at each other all the time in the Fire Nation. It’s basically a handshake.
Toph: Who’d deny a poor blind girl her precious meteor bracelet?
Sokka: If the blind girl is you, then anyone with sense.
Toph: When people see a little blind girl walking down the street, what do they feel?
Toph: They feel pity. Now, what do they think when they see me coming?
Zuko: They think they’d better cross the street.
Toph: You’re not weak because of your scar. You’re weak because you’re afraid of people seeing your scar and knowing what it means. You’re letting shame decide who you are.
Sokka: Do you really have a flying ship?
The Mechanist: No.
Sokka: Oh.
The Mechanist: I have several.
Sokka: Take me with you.
Ty Lee, to post-redemption Azula: He was going to break my legs. Would you have come for me then, Azula? When I couldn’t walk a tightrope or chi block a squad of benders? When I wasn’t useful anymore?
Azula: I would come for you.
Azula: I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—with fire blazing and lightning crackling and fingers blocking. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.
Zuko: Sokka, I’ve thought about this-
Sokka: Thought of me? Late at night? What was I wearing?
Zuko:
Zuko: I’ve thought about your diplomatic skills.
Zuko: Do you know what Ozai’s problem is?
Aang: No honor?
Katara: Rotten parenting skills?
Sokka: Receding hairline?
Zuko: Katara—
Katara: Don’t you start in on me.
Zuko: It will all work out. Let Azula do what she does best.
Katara: She’s horrible.
Zuko: But effective. Being angry at Azula for being ruthless is like being angry at a fire for being hot. You know what she is.
Hakoda, meeting Master Pakku: Why doesn’t the Northern Water Tribe let girls fight?
Master Pakku: They don’t want to fight.
Hakoda: How do you know? Have you ever asked one?
Pakku: Northern Water Tribe women are to be venerated, protected.
Hakoda: That’s probably a wise policy.
Pakku: I agree, seeing as-
Hakoda: Think how embarrassing it would be for you when you got trounced by a little girl.
Hakoda: Like my daughter.
Zuko: We were fools.
Sokka: You were children. Was there no one to protect you?
Zuko: Was there anyone to protect you?
Sokka: My father. He went to war so that we might have a better life. My mother. She died protecting Katara. They would have done anything to keep us safe.
Sokka: We … uh … we were having a disagreement.
Gran-Gran: I can see that. I have been very patient with all of this, Sokka, but I am at my limit. I want you down here before I count ten or I will tan your hide so you don’t sit for two weeks.
Toph, snickering: You are in so much trouble.
Sokka: Katara, Toph conned a rich man into paying us off because he thought he’d killed her with his carriage.
Toph: I am going to turn your teeth inside out.
Sokka: That is physically impossible.
Toph: I just invented metalbending. Do you really want to argue with me?
after Ba Sing Se falls, except Zuko goes with the Gaang:
Sokka: So, other than Zuko having an unplanned family reunion, what the hell happened out there?
Katara: Let’s see. Aang was shot with lightning and fell twenty stories.
Toph: We put a serious hole in the Crystal Catacombs of Ba Sing Se.
Zuko: Katara can bring back the dead.
some random Fire Nation official: Why does your weak king send an ancient loony to do his bidding?
Bumi: I suppose he thought my good looks would give me the advantage. Not a concern where you’re from, I take it?
Fire Nation official: Preening, ridiculous peacock. You stink of dirt and poverty.
Bumi, sniffing the air: I’m amazed you can detect anything over the reek of ashes and inbreeding.
Neil: *constantly wary about being murdered by the mob for not holding up his end of the deal or by his father’s old associates* Well, at least I’m no longer actively being hunted by my father and my psychotic, exy prodigy nemesis now.
Zuko: *constantly wary about being assassinated by disgruntled citizens of his nation, vengeful citizens of other nations, or his father’s old associates* Well, at least I’m no longer actively being hunted by my father and my psychotic, firebending prodigy sister now.
Neil: *constantly wary about being murdered by the mob for not holding up his end of the deal or by his father’s old associates* Well, at least I’m no longer actively being hunted by my father and my psychotic, exy prodigy nemesis now.
Zuko: *constantly wary about being assassinated by disgruntled citizens of his nation, vengeful citizens of other nations, or his father’s old associates* Well, at least I’m no longer actively being hunted by my father and my psychotic, firebending prodigy sister now.
