Atla Zuko X Reader - Tumblr Posts
right down the line: zuko x firebender!reader | part 7
You grew up close to the Royal Family due to your father's position as a General, but you ran away from home after the agni kai against your best friend, Zuko. Now, you've joined the Gaang and plan on doing your part in ending the 100-year war.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
hi part 7... picking up right where we left off... i think I'm going to post a masterlist & keep it linked on my pinned to make it easier to sift through and find, esp since i do plan on posting other fics once i finished my very first >.< also i want to post the songs i listen to while I'm writing and some visuals hehe... just to make it much more immersive. again i do not own these characters and they are not mine! (except my mc i guess) like comment reblog if ya like... enjoy! about 1785 words
⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙
We’re standing on a sand-colored platform of a structure currently being renovated or changed to fit Fire Nation standards. The usual for when they occupy lands that don’t belong to them. Aangs in front of me, with Sokka to my left and Katara to my right. We form a triangle and I'm thankful for the partial covering.
I’m thinking of the best way to summarize the threats ahead of us, just in case they try to change the plan. There’s a good chance this will go south.
“Mai, in the center, has good aim with her blades, but it’s Ty Lee, on the left, you should keep an eye out for.” I try to give my friends the run-down on my, I guess, old friends one would say. But we’ve only got so much time before all three of them realize that I’m here.
They lower King Bumi from the top of the building using a metal crane. They’ve got him in a coffin-shaped cage with only his head showing.
“You brought my brother?” Mai speaks first, breaking the silence between the two groups. She squints at the sight of me, but I’m too far away for her to be sure it’s me.
“He’s here.” Aang solemnly replies. “We’re ready to trade.” In these moments, he’s got the grace of a 112-year-old.
Suddenly, Azula speaks to Mai in a hushed tone we can’t quite hear. Fine is never fine with Azula, nothing is ever the way it should be with her. There’s bound to be some trick up her sleeve that only feeds into her misery.
“I’ll help with the girl on the right, she’s the most vicious,” I warn them. I briefly make eye contact with Sokka. We haven’t talked about what was said and now wasn’t the time, but I couldn’t help but yearn for his gentleness. A reminder that I wasn’t like the enemies in front of us, but someone new. Someone he couldn’t hate.
Then, Mai steps forward. “The deal’s off.” With a lift of her gloved hand, King Bumi is raised once again by the crane.
“Bumi!” Aang cries out for his old friend and starts heading towards him, defying the laws of gravity bestowed upon the rest of us. It’s enchanting to see an air-bender. It’s so different from the rest of the elements. He looks like he’s flying.
As he does so, Azula strikes, and I see her blue flame for the first time. She must’ve perfected her oxygen levels for complete combustion; but if she’s the Azula I’ve always known, I know how to beat her. This time, I won’t go easy. I won’t make that same mistake again for nostalgia.
Aang’s head covering flies away as the air moves around him and his arrow is exposed.
I look down at Azula’s reaction and she’s close enough now to hear.
“The Avatar. My lucky day.” The princess smirks, re-organizing her plans for Omashu in her head.
“Remember, don’t let Ty Lee touch you!” I warn Sokka and Katara and dash toward Azula, offering Aang some support against the crazed fire-bender.
I follow her upward, burning the knot on the pulley to cause the rope to lift.
Azula can see me through the grids as the ropes pull us to the top of the building, and I can see her in real-time realize who I am.
“Well, if it isn’t the Royal traitor. Seems like you and Zuzu still share a brain.” She gloats.
“Leave the Avatar alone, Azula. I mean it!” We break through the ceiling made from wood and reach the roof of the building under construction.
She attacks Aang with a blue blast, causing him to break the metal chain. Aang instantly heads downward with King Bumi. He cushions their fall with an air bubble, and they land on the well-known ramps of Omashu. Azula quickly follows them using a cart, and I’m on her tail. If only I had Sokka’s boomerang right now, it makes so much sense to carry one in these situations.
We catch up to Aang, giving Azula the chance to strike him and Bumi.
I distract her with my own fire-blasts, making sure to lean forward and crash into her cart.
“Out of practice?” She questions.
“Out of patience.” I growl, punctuating my sentence with a blast from my right hand.
As we continue our fight by speeding through the ramps, I see Appa in the distance. Relief washes over me as I conclude Sokka and Katara must have gotten away from Mai and Ty Lee.
Aang attempts to lift Bumi onto Appa’s saddle with his bending, but he miscalculates and Bumi’s off to land on the ground. But his friend won’t let him go on his own. Together, they land on another ramp and head down to ground-level.
Azula’s right behind them, and I’m right behind her.
She attempts another attack, but a rock blocks her offense and bursts her cart into dust. I leap off mine before the impact breaks my cart too and we both land on our feet, an homage to our identical upbringing.
She lets Aang go for a reason I can’t quite put my finger on until she turns around to face me. We're still standing on the ramps.
“The key to never losing is knowing when you’re beat.” She says with her hands in defense, signaling that she’s waving the white flag.
I’m still in fight mode. I’d never let my guard down around her, not now, not ever. “You’ll always be beat as long as I’m here.”
She pauses to truly grasp my presence. It’s been three years since we’ve seen each other, and everything’s changed. We used to be on the same team, never friends but bonded by our birthplace. It’s the first time we no longer owe each other pleasantries. Azula, however, uses sweetness as a weapon. “Where have you been, Y/N? You’re missed at the Royal Palace.”
“I doubt it.” Zuko and his mother haven’t touched that home in years, making it impossible for anyone there to actually miss me.
“Your father misses you.”
“I know you’re lying, Azula.”
“You’ve never trusted me; I’ve never liked you. Now we don’t have to pretend do we?”
“Leave us alone,” I get in my fight stance. “Got it?”
“Fine. Loud and clear.” She dashes away in her infamous run toward the unfinished building, probably to catch up with her friends.
Fine isn’t fine. It’s I’ll get you somehow. I think to myself.
I watch her figure fade into the distance, when it hits me: “Seems like you and Zuzu still share a brain.”
Did Zuko abandon his ship?
Is she lying? She would have no reason to lie about something like that, other than to get to me or Aang. I can’t pinpoint a motive. I still won’t believe her 100 percent, but I’ll keep it in my back pocket.
I slide down the ramp Aang took and find the both of them at the very end, standing on a platform in another unfinished building. Once I’m off and my two feet hit the floor, Bumi bends rock to lift his metal enclosure up the ramp in a fit of laughter.
We both watch him go. “Your friend is very… eccentric.” I tell Aang, as he’s standing with Momo on his shoulders.
“Yeah.” I turn to face him, something’s wrong. He’s disappointed.
“He’s not going to teach you earth-bending?” I assume.
“No, he has to stay here to protect Omashu. I guess I got to find another teacher.” Now, he looks like a twelve-year-old boy with the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. There’s no way he’s meant to do this alone. I’d rather be here helping him than with Zuko.
“We’ll find one in no-time.” I reassure him.
“Who were those three girls?” He changes the subject.
“They were old friends too. Azula is Zuko’s sister.”
“Wow.”
“I know.” I sit on the edge of the platform, waiting for our ride with my feet dangling. Aang sits next to me, and for now, we’re just two kids talking, staring at the beautiful Earth Kingdom in front of us.
“What was it like… to grow up with them?”
“It was easy with Zuko. Azula… not so much.” I wince.
Aang’s face contorts, as if he’s remembering a distant memory. “Was Zuko good? Yaknow, back then?”
A smile creeps up on my face. “He was.”
“Do you think he still could be?”
Aang and I stare at each other. We’re choosing to live in the moment before my answer. The moment in which the possibility of Zuko changing his mind, realizing his mistakes, and helping us stop his father exists.
“I don’t know.”
☆
The heat and the prickly bushes are upsetting him further with each and every single step. Looking for food when you’re used to someone cooking for you is daunting, Zuko realizes. How is he ever supposed to live like this? How did Y/N?
As he’s walking back to let Uncle know he couldn’t find anything edible, he touches the side of his hair. It’s grown back a bit since cutting it, slicing off his ties to the Fire Nation. Trading in the red for green, hoping to camouflage with the land and the Earth Kingdom people.
What a stupid idea, he thought. How could anyone ever confuse him with anyone else with the scar on his left eye?
But it seemed to be working so far. His sister hadn’t found them, and they haven’t been arrested for their crimes against every other nation.
In the humid morning, on his long walk back to where his uncle was staring at a tea leaf, he thought about the Northern Water Tribe.
He wondered if Y/N was okay from his strike. Maybe the water-bender girl could heal her, and she’d be okay again. He didn’t mean to. He’s been this hard and heavy with everyone else for the sole purpose of returning home, he forgot Y/N was his home. He’s been in fighting mode for so long, he’s forgotten to turn it off.
She wasn’t home, though. She was with the Avatar. Defending him and betraying her nation. How did she get there? He wondered. He had so many questions about everything. Zuko’s sure she had just as many questions for him.
Could he find her now that he was labeled a traitor?
Where his mind led made his empty stomach drop.
If he found her, he’d find the Avatar. Then, he could go home. But if Y/N was not there, would he still want to go back? Did his father’s acceptance matter above all else? It didn’t for Y/N, but she was always braver than him.
Zuko wasn’t ready for that thought, so he pushed it away.
It wasn’t hard to do when your stomach was louder than your thoughts.
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