Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

when Aang woke up, for a fleeting moment he expected to be surrounded by the ice again. but soon he remembered that he was on a ship, tied up, and generally not having a good time.

“you’re up”

I also don’t like you and your ponytail, Aang thought, but remained silent. not that he didn’t want to say it out loud. he literally couldn’t. it appeared that Zuko knew a thing or two about airbenders after all.

“are you hurt?”

Aang kept still on his bench, which wasn’t really that comfortable, but better than the rigid floor of the ship. he even had a pillow and some kind of a blanket.

“answer me!! I’m... I want you to be in presentable condition when we’ll arrive!”

Aang looked away.

“...you can nod, you know?”

Aang nodded, avoiding eye contact.

“then answer my question!”

Aang didn’t move an inch.

“ugh, fine! then suffer, for all I care!” with these words Zuko stormed out of the... cabin? or was it a cell? Aang wasn’t sure. he didn’t get a guided tour of the ship’s insides, so he had nothing to compare it to. but what Aang was certain about is that he wanted to be anywhere but on this excuse of a ship, tied up and heading to the fire nation.

Aang listened. his prison rolled peacefully with the waves, getting closer to its destination with each passing minute.

he was surrounded by metal, which was surrounded by water, which meant there is no way for him to get out. just great.

though if there is water, could he possibly bend it? Aang didn’t know how to make ice yet and thus couldn’t stop the ship, but he did start learning waterbending before his... escape. even though his hands were tied, maybe if he concentrated hard enough...

“good afternoon, Avatar. I hope you won’t mind a little company.”

Aang’s thoughts were interrupted by an old man who was carrying a wooden tray with what looked like a teapot and was also...smiling? it was very unusual for Aang to meet someone from the fire nation who was not trying to kidnap or/and kill him. but after all, Aang didn’t really have a say in the matter of who’s keeping him company, so he was relieved to see that this stranger looked rather amiable.

his visitor sat in the nearby chair, which was usually occupied by a certain moody fire nation prince, put the tray on Aang’s bench and began pouring tea in... two teacups? wait, why...

“would you like some calming tea? sadly, I didn’t know which one you would prefer, so I choose this Jasmine brew. I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy it as I made it myself”

the tea had a nice herbal smell, but in order to take a sip and taste it Aang’s cloth gag would have to be removed, and that bothered him. he felt like he was missing something. was this man mocking him? Aang didn’t understand why this stranger would suddenly want to give him tea, of all things, or potentially become a target of Aang’s airbending.

as a monk, he was trained to get by without food and water for long periods of time, but his physical body still needed it. maybe that’s why so far he was fed just once. Zuko claimed that only he was allowed to complete this responsible task, and that’s how Aang experienced the worst meal in his short 115 years.

his lunch consisted of three stale crackers, half of a boiled turnip, and one watery cucumber. when Zuko finished his speech about the reasoning for not including soup (so that Aang couldn’t waterbend it into Zuko’s face (which the air nomad didn’t even consider, but now desperately regretted not getting a chance to try), the prince realized that he hadn’t really thought this through. Aang couldn’t eat with his mouth closed, and that was an obvious yet unexpected problem for Zuko. Aang stared at his lunch, then at Zuko, then at the lunch again, as if asking:” what are you gonna do about this? let me starve or let me airbend? ”. the answer was sadly none of those things, as fate worse than death awaited him: being force-fed stale crackers and cucumbers by an angry fire prince. what Zuko did was remove the gag quickly and shove a piece of food inside Aang’s mouth with one hand, while holding the face with his other hand. after a few feeble attempts at spitting out chunks of turnip at Zuko, Aang have given up. after all, he was hungry. it was one of those moments when the air bender desperately wished to be back in the giant block of ice.

so, keeping in mind his last experience with lunch on this spirits forsaken ship, Aang was embarrassed, confused, and somehow looking forward to what would happen this time. the old man didn’t look like a fool. on the contrary, he couldn’t have said more than five sentences, but has already given Aang an impression of someone wise and sensible. well, at least more polite than Zuko, which was probably not that hard, but still. why would he decide to throw a tea party with a prisoner?

“out first meeting was not as pleasant as I would have wished, but it was long enough for me to notice something.” the man slowly took a small sip from his white cup, savored the taste of jasmine for a moment, and then turned to the airbender. Aang lifted his head and looked him in the eyes.

“do you by any chance know a certain water tribe girl?”

Aang nodded. actually, he didn’t know any water tribe girls, but he wanted to see where this was going. the man closed his eyes, hummed and calmly put his cup down with a soft clink.

“then I think I may know how to help you escape”

Aang didn’t move an inch.

everything went quiet for a moment. the waves monotonously hit the outside walls of the ship. the old man poured more fragrant tea into the cups, and then moved the second one closer to Aang. 

“Avatar, you are able to waterbend, aren’t you?”

if Aang’s hands weren’t tied behind his back, he definitely would have facepalmed. look at him, planning an escape in the middle of the ocean by bending water through metal walls, only to immediately forget about his abilities whatsoever when presented actual water on a silver platter (well, not really silver, more like porcelain, and not really a platter either, but anyway). Aang just hoped that his 100-year-nap still hasn’t worn out completely, and this Zuko-level-thinking was a temporary side-effect.

Aang shuffled closer to his teacup, leaned in, and concentrated hard. he was suddenly very aware of the tea’s nice smell and his own thirst. even though Aang has never tried waterbending without his hands before, he had enough motivation to try. at first, nothing happened. but soon enough, a wobbly drop slowly emerged from the surface and hung in the air for a moment before splashing down into the cup.

“my nephew will be meditating for another half hour. soon I’ll be back to take the tea away from you, but for now, you have some time to practice”

the man was already standing in the doorway when he asked: “one last question, Avatar. I suppose you’re not injured in any way?”

Aang stayed still for a moment before slowly giving a nod. the man smiled brightly. “that’s good. my nephew is worried about you, even if it doesn’t seem like it.” with these words, he left Aang alone with tea and his thoughts.

Chapter Text

Zuko was not expecting this.

when he impulsively jumped on a small boat simultaneously shouting at his crew and calling them “idiots” that are “good for nothing” and that he’ll “just go out there and find the avatar by himself”, he wasn’t actually expecting to succeed. he knew that his words had no weight to them as they were spat out thoughtlessly during yet another one of his angry outbursts.

Zuko couldn’t quite acknowledge it yet but he has already began giving up on his search.

when he had just begun his search for the avatar, he was drunk with determination, the kind that burned fiercely in his heart even more than the constant pain on his face, drowning it out completely. however, everyday his resolve was tested by the reality of his situation. Zuko wasn’t sure when exactly it had began, but the ugly claws of doubt and helplessness started gripping his aching heart more and more ruthlessly with each passing day spent on this search, the search that took and took and never gave anything in return.

however, this futile, exhausting chase gave him some kind of purpose. at least something to live for, his last hope. the only thing that would give Zuko everything that he lost that one day three years ago. a goal so simple in its wording yet  impossible in its execution.

to find the avatar.

during many sleepless nights on the metal war ship, while imagining the glorious day when he would finally, finally return home with an avatar in tow, Zuko never referred to the avatar as to an actual person. what came to his mind was some abstract old man at best. sometimes with a triangular beard and a top knot, for some reason, but Zuko guessed it was just how his imagination worked. either way, he didn’t really care, as for Zuko the avatar has always been nothing but the means of achieving his goal - regaining his honour, coming back home. the avatar was a concept, a vague idea, a legend. something undefined and unreachable that he was sent by his father to chase.

however, from now on, in Zuko’s mind the avatar will be referred to as “a tattooed bald guy approximately my age found in an iceberg at the south pole, of all places”

at first, when Zuko in a fit of rage was aimlessly throwing a scorching fire blast after fire blast at the giant block of ice that had conveniently turned up in front of him, he didn’t even notice anything unusual about it. except that it was the biggest one around and easy to throw fire at.

but when the ice began to melt under the cascade of the fire blasts, Zuko saw it.

inside the iceberg glowing with faint ethereal light there was... someone. Zuko abruptly stopped and looked. he couldn’t define exactly what that person looked like, but a strange feeling inside of Zuko was pulling him forward, as if luring him in to get closer.

could it be...?

something dropped in his stomach. his heart started beating faster, a sound of blood pumping filled his ears. a shudder of anticipation ran through his fingertips. after getting out of his boat and taking a deep breath to steady himself, Zuko didn’t hesitate to quickly breathe out and send a huge burst of flames out of his right fist straight into the center of the iceberg. the action had a feeling of urgency to it, the one that you unconsciously feel just before something dangerous is about to occur.

cold and hard ice melted fast, becoming streams of warm water and immediately evaporating with a hissing sound into hot thick steam that covered everything around in big white clouds. after the blast destroyed the last remains of the ice wall, nothing stood between Zuko and the unknown.

however, the unknown didn’t make Zuko aftaid, and, frankly, fear was not something that has ever stopped him before. on the contrary, he was unusually calm and filled with a newfound sense of anticipation. this felt right, like he finally did something that was supposed to be done ages ago.

a scene that then opened before him was ethereal, and nothing like he had ever seen before. just when the fog began to dissipate, a blinding beam of light suddenly engulfed his whole vision. for a moment it felt as if nothing in the world has ever existed except for Zuko and this timeless, infinite, all-encompassing white void. he then felt a stinging draught of an ancient cold on his skin, even cooler than the frosting air of the south pole around him. that’s when the beam went out and the frame of a young guy in a lotus position with blue arrows glowing all over his body emerged from the freezing depths of the iceberg.

so yeah. Zuko definitely wasn’t expecting another one of his outraged escapades to turn out like this.

after the initial shock had worn off, he just stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do next. his newfound acquaintance certainly wasn’t going to be the first one to introduce himself or do anything at all, for that matter. as Zuko took a tentative step closer, now being two feet away from him, he saw that this person was sitting absolutely still with a neutral expression on the face where seemingly not a single muscle has moved in decades. for a split second Zuko had a disturbing thought of whether the guy was even alive at all, but after taking a closer look he saw that the chest was rising and falling in a slow steady rythm. everything was eerily quiet around them exept for their breathing and a slow timid sound of splashing waves accidentally colliding with Zuko’s boat and the surface of the now half-melted iceberg.

that’s when Zuko heard something in the distance that he quickly recognized to be the sound of his warrior ship approaching. his uncle must be looking for him.

this brought Zuko to his senses. turning towards the direction from which the ship was coming, with his back to the other person Zuko quickly began thinking of a plan.

a thousand thoughts went through his head at that moment, the first one being “this is definitely the avatar”. the guy was dressed in an unmistakable yellow of airbender’s robe, resembling those that Zuko saw monks wear in a scroll two years ago, not to mention distinct tattoos that just screamed “airbending master”. another thought was “father will be so proud of me”. but mostly Zuko was trying to come up with a way to transfer the avatar before he woke u-

-“what time is it?”

Zuko jumped from the sudden question that broke the silence of the desolate south pole that, as Zuko assumed, has not been broken in hundreds of years. after a moment of staring, he finally said:

-“… what”

-“what time is it?? please tell me, is it noon already? I sure hope it’s not, I’m in a bit of a hurry”

boy, even if you were, you are now a little too late, Zuko thought to himself with a bitter smile.