Like Yeah He's All About Helping The Avatar Of Course - Tumblr Posts
Zuko's always had weird dreams.
He's in a small Fire Nation village, but there's other benders present. Sometimes he's playing with another boy, an Air Bender, who in his dream he just knows is his best friend. In those dreams, his name is Kuzon, his best friend's name is Aang, and he lives a simple but happy life.
In those dreams, his favorite ones are when he and Aang went to go find dragons and fought off poachers. The adventures they'd have were the kind he could only partake in in the comfort of his dreams.
Then he wakes up, and has to face the crushing expectations of his father. After that fateful Agni Kai, the only difference is that he wakes up to those expectations while on a ship.
But in the South Pole, there's a flash of light. A flash of hope.
He finds the avatar.
He's knocked down the "wall" to the small village, has the people properly scared so that none of them will attack and force his hand, and...he knows that kid.
He knows that kid.
"I'm the avatar, so you can-"
"Aang?"
The Fire Bender Prince and the Avatar stop. They stare at each other.
Zuko, internally, is having a crisis.
Because how could he justify to his uncle, not to even start mentioning his father, that the avatar is his dream best friend?
The dreams, the...the memories, of his times with Aang, are conflicting with his current duties as a Prince of a nation.
Does he help the avatar escape because of some stupid dreams?
Does he follow his father's orders?
The avatar, Aang, is getting closer and squinting at him, his eyes and tattoos flickering a strange blue light. Zuko's men don't know what to do. Uncle has dropped the tea he'd carried out of the ship.
"...Ku...zon?" Aang asks hesitantly, seeing something that, apparently, only he can.
He and the avatar stare at each other, lost.
Two friends, a lifetime apart, and they're on opposite sides of a field that hadn't even existed when they'd last seen each other.