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Language:
English
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Published:
2019-12-26
Completed:
2019-12-28
Words:
1,312
Chapters:
5/5
Comments:
23
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573
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Avatar Zuko AU drabbles

Summary:

Just some drabble based off of Muffinlance's tumblr and the Avatar Zuko we didn't know we needed till recently.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Vaatu Learns to Write... Among Other Things.

 

Humans are strange. More specifically the human larvae.

When they are not sleeping they are eating. When neither of those activities are occurring they are playing. Well, when they are not going to the dreaded - according to his vessel -lessons.

This dread boggles Vaatu as he doesn't understand why his vessel is so against gaining the power the lessons provide. Granted the power of calligraphy is not as impressive as the bending arts or weaponry. However you will not be able to convince the sages and their protection talismans that their power is lesser. Don't, the vessel tried, the resulting loudness gave Vaatu a headache.

Anyway power is power, and the vessel will need all the power he can possess in order to absolutely destroy his, er their, he said their, enemies.

So calligraphy lessons. Just one step of many. Once mastered the rest will soon come to him!

(Uh hi, Zuko here. By the way Vaatu I am a Prince not a larva, and I am ten. Besides can you even read any of this? It doesn't do much if you can't understand it. Or do you need help? I can help, I learned all of this when I was five.)

...

...

(Vaatu?)

Turtleducks.

Chapter 2: Ozai Replaces Wan on Vaatu's Enemy List

Summary:

A rant from a spirit.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Ozai Replaces Wan on Vaatu's Enemy List

Wan is the one, with the help of Raava, that trapped him in a tree. Stupid, but somewhat understandable as one can't expect much from a moron.

Wan however just got demoted from being Vaatu's Number One Enemy and replaced by a new human. The new human Enemy Number One's name is Ozai.

Why has the first Avatar been replaced with this person? Allow him to explain. Ozai is a stupid, overgrown, waste of air, flesh maggot of a fire human!

Just who or what does that human think he is to say that about Vaatu's vessel? Oh, that's right, a human Prince and poor excuse of a father. Ozai being called a father is a poor attempt at a joke that needs a rework on the humor with a punchline that earned an energy beam to the face.

Seriously, who tells their son that they thought about tossing them when they were just newborn over a palace wall. Much less that said kid was lucky to be born. The answer is an abusive ass who doesn't deserve his family.

Why doesn't he deserve them? Azula is a prodigy but her social skills need work. Sorry kid but copying your biological father won't get you very far other than feared.

Then there is Zuko, a talented boy that his father refuses to acknowledge. What, because he isn't a firebending prodigy? What a laugh considering it's Zuko whom mastered the sword at a young age. It's Zuko that goes to every lesson, no matter how boring or tedious, with the intent to learn. Zuko is the one who has more compassion in his heart than his father had in his entire lifetime. Just like it is Zuko that freed him from his prison in the Tree of Time and became the world's second Avatar - for whom suitable teachers will be found. And it is Zuko that practices his fire everyday in the vain hope of gaining his father's love and affection.

Safe to say Ozai is lucky that Vaatu isn't also a human. Otherwise Ozai would be getting very well acquainted with the ground and Vaatu's heel for the treatment of Vaatu's vessel.

(Thanks, I think? But please don't do that. He loves me.... He's just not very good at showing it.)

Notes:

Ozai deserves an energy beam to the face. Enough said.
Kudos and feedback welcomed here.

Chapter 3: Zuko Turns Eleven and Gains a Pet

Summary:

Pure fluff coming up.
Ao3 ate 3 drafts of this chapter.
Art is welcomed.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Zuko Turns Eleven and Gains a Pet

The other spirits are laughing at him, Vaatu knows this, and it's for a very good reason.

For he, Vaatu, Primordial Spirit of Chaos and Darkness, lost a fight to a turtleduck. (He admits it is funny but will vehemently deny it later. Will you please stop rolling on the ground? It isn't that funny.) He lost not to just any turtleduck however, oh no. For you see he, with all of his power and immortality lost to a turtleduckling.

A tiny, yellow-black ball of fuzzy murder fluff called a turtleduckling. It is this same turtleduckling victor that is currently resting its little eyes on the head of her defeated opponent and using its human disguise hair as a makeshift nest.

As far as Vaatu is concerned she can stay there while they both wait for Zuko to complete whatever it is that humans do for the traditions of birthdays and Spirit Nights.

(He should have remembered that those traditions can take a while, and that humans- even spirits disguised as one- fall victim to boredom and drift off to sleep. Perhaps that is why he did not stop the foreseeable and preventable events that happened around midnight.)

It started with Vaatu being poked awake by a terrified slightly scared Zuko. Followed by Vaatu explaining to the larva that he was indeed Vaatu just in human disguise and that the turtleduckling is indeed for him. Which resulted in Vaatu being hugged as tightly as a fresh eleven year old can manage. Receiving a crash course about the difference between happy and sad tears (he'll never understand human emotions). Only to be attacked by an irrate you-idiots-woke-me-up fuzz ball of fury.

It took an hour to untangle her from his hair.

"Happy Birthday Zuko."

"Best Birthday ever, I think I'm going to name her Muffin. What do you think Vaatu?"

"Sounds perfect to me."

(Vaatu lost to a turtleduckling named Muffin... twice. How is this his life?)

Notes:

Alternative chapter title 'Vaatu Loses to a Turtleduck...Twice'.
This is inspired by Muffinlance tumblr, this is not Canon nor Muffinlance Canon (possibly) just what I was inspired to write.

Chapter 4: Zuko and Vaatu Flee the Fire Nation

Summary:

Essentially what the chapter title says. As well as a lot of hurt.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Zuko and Vaatu Flee the Fire Nation

Zuko is eleven when his cousin Lu Ten dies. He is still eleven when Iroh, his uncle, The Dragon of the West, calls off the 600 day Siege of Ba Sing Se. An eleven year old was told goodbye from his mother during the night and she is gone in the morning. His grandfather, a bitter and cold man, is declared dead that very same morning as his father takes the throne.

It's an eleven year old that is having tea with his twice grieving uncle when he mentions Vaatu in passing.

An eleven year old is visited by fire sages to try to exorcise Vaatu from him. A worried uncle stands in the background. When the exorcism fails the same uncle tells the boy's father about his spirit possessed son.

Zuko is eleven when he almost dies by Ozai's hand when he alights Zuko in flame to 'purge him by fire'. An eleven year old boy suffers excruciating pain while the man who betrayed him watches in numbing horror as his brother burns away half of his own son's face and a portion of the boy's left side.

The scream of a terrified boy cuts off into an ancient roar as Vaatu rises to the foreground. Vaatu shows Ozai no mercy as he beats Ozai into the ground while he focuses the rest of his energies into healing his broken vessel.

Iroh can only watch as his younger brother is beaten within an inch of his life by a human looking spirit. The same spirit that gently picks up his nephew as if he were made of the most fragile glass and departs without a glance or word behind them.

Zuko is eleven when he almost dies. He is eleven when Vaatu nearly kills Ozai. Eleven is when he leaves the Fire Nation for years. It's at age eleven, almost twelve that he meets two more spirits, Tui and La, as well as the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe Yue.

Notes:

Last drabble.
Think I'm going to attempt something bigger but we shall see.
Thanks all who read these, liked them, and or left comments.

Chapter 5: New Thing

Summary:

Author Note

Chapter Text

Well I have something in the works that will be based off of these drabbles but goes much deeper in detail and world building.
If interested check out the summary for Running with Spirits which I will be posting shortly. Ciao.

Notes:

Not what I intended to write but this is what demanded to be written. Kudos and feedback welcomed!
First fic!