Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, Teo, Haru and the Duke are sitting around the campfire eating dinner. Zuko sighs and walks towards them.

“Listen, everybody”, he says. “I’ve got some pretty bad news. I’ve lost my stuff”

Top shrugs her hands up in denial. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t touch your stuff.”

“I’m talking about my firebending. It’s gone.”, he says sadly as he looks down. It’s no good. How can he ever teach the avatar firebending if he can’t firebend himself? He knows the group is gonna be down about this to. At least, that's what he thinks. He is therefore surprised when he hears a cynical laugh.

The group turns to Katara, who is the one laughing.

“I’m sorry. I’m just laughing at the irony. You know how nice it would’ve been for us if you lost you’re firebending a long time ago?”

“Well it’s not lost. It’s just…” Zuko thinks about the best word to describe it. “Weaker for some reason”

“Maybe you’re not so good as you think you are.”, insults Katara him.

“Ouch”, says Toph, who thinks it’s a pretty good insult.

“I bet it’s because I changed sides"

“That’s ridiculous”

“I don’t know. Maybe it isn’t”, thinks Aang.

“Maybe you’re firebending comes from rage”, he says looking at Zuko.

“And you just don’t have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to”

Yeah, the kid is probably right. When he usually firebends he is full of rage and anger. Now… He just don’t feel it anymore. Not like before.

“So al we need to do is make Zuko angry”, Sokka suggest. Happy with the thought of teasing Zuko.

“Easy enough”

Sokka bangs his stick against Zuko's side and head. Zuko gets irritated and yells: “Okay, cut it out!”

The stick falls to the ground. Sokka places his arms in front of hishead to protect himself.

“Look…”, Zuko says. He wants to begin to explain something, but gets interrupted by Katara who yells: “Look!” She points to something behind him.

Zuko turns around. A boy stands there. About ten feet away from Zuko. His hair is white on his right and red on his left. There is a scare over his left eye. His left side is burning. Fire coming out of his left arm and side. He looks exhausted. Like he can fall asleep every minute. What is exactly what he does. His flames extinguish when he falls to the ground.

Zuko runs towards the boy. He checks the boy for injuries. Which are not there except for a few scratches and a scare on his eye, but that’s a old wound. Aang comes stand next to him.

“Is he alright?”, he asks.

“Yeah, no serious injuries. He’s only exhausted, I think”

“Are you sure? He has a nasty wound on his eye”

“That’s an old one”, Zuko explains. "A scar"

“Oh, like yours”

Zuko is a little shocked by the remark. He has always be shy about his scar.

Katara lies a hand over Aangs shoulder. “Aang, can I talk to you?”, she asks. “Oh, sure”, the boy answers.

“What do you want to talk about?” Katara glances sideways at Zuko with a vicious look. "In private Aang," she adds.

“Oh, alright” Katara doesn’t trust him. Zuko knows that that’s normal, because he has be their enemy for so long. It still hurts to see it.

Aang and Katara go in the temple for their talk and Zuko and Sokka carry the mysterious boy to the campfire.

“I've never seen anyone with such weird hair”, Sokka says while studying the boy.

“Yeah, me neither” Sokka turns to Toph. “Not funny”, he says. A little smile appears on the girl's face.

“Where do you think he comes from?”, asks Teo. “Well, he’s definitely a firebender”, Sokka says.

“If he’s a ashmaker, we should kill him”, tells the Duke. Zuko looks at the boy in shock. Amazed at the words that come out of such a small child. And maybe a little bit scared because he’s an ashmaker too. “We’re not going to kill anyone”, Sokka says.

“Why not?”, the Duke asks.

“Because… you don’t… he…” Sokka did not know what to say. Then he turns to Zuko. He wraps an arm around his neck and pulls him a little more forward.

“Zuko is also an ashmaker” sokka says. “Do you think we should kill him too?”, Sokka asks.

Zuko know that he means it good an that he doesn’t want to kill him. At least he thinks so. Zuko was never good with people.

“That’s different”, The Duke says.

“Why’s that different?”, Sokka asks. “Because he saved us from that scary boom man”

Sokka's expression changes from serious to indignant. “

He didn’t save us! I did! With my boomerang.”

Sokka apparently forgets that he still has his arm around Zuko. He leans forward while talking to the Duke and takes Zuko down with him. Zuko loses his balance and falls. Sokka, who had his grip rather tightly around Zuko, falls to. Zuko is the first one to touch the ground and Sokka lands on him.

At that moment, Aang and Katara emerge from the temple.

“What are you two doing?”, asks Katara with a slight anger in her voice.

“We fell”, Sokka replies while crumpling up from Zuko's back.

“Aang and I had a conversation. We’re going to keep the boy here, but we’re going to tied him up” Sokka looks at them in surprise.

“Why?”, he asks.

“He might be dangerous”, Katara says still with anger in her voice.

“But he’s unconscious”, Sokka says.

Aang looks away. Like he’s embarrassed about the decision.

“He’s a firebender, we can’t take riscs!”, Katara says, yelling this time. Sokka sighs.

“Fine” He realises that he cannot persuade Katara if she has already made up her mind. Katara walks towards the unconscious boy.

“Can you make me some chains, Toph?” Toph sighs and sits up.

“Fine! Just give me some metal” Aang gives her the metal they found in the temple.

“I need to bend it around him. I can’t make chains that can open and close”

Sokka tills her up and brings her to the boy, cause she can’t walk on her one now her feet is burnt. Katara turns the boy, so that he is lying on his stomach and holds his hands behind his back. Toph holds the metal by the boy's arms and begins to bend it. The metal liquefies and deforms as Toph moves her hands.

She puts her hands forward and the metal forms around the boys wrists. The metal hardens and around the boy's wrists are now misshapen, lumpy and heavy. The two metal rings are fixed to each other and there is no possibility of movement.

“Thank you, Toph. Can you attach it to the ground now?”, asks Katara.

Toph sighs irritably. “Jeez, can’t you do anything yourself?” Katara becomes angry, something that Toph cannot see. But the group does see it. Katara stares angrily at Toph. Sokka sighs, he feels an argument coming up.

“Oh, you think I can’t do anything?”
“Yes, I do think that. You always let me do the work.”
“That is not true!”, Katara yells. “Is that so?”
“Yes, and to prove it, I'm going to fasten that firebender to the ground” Sokka and Aang look at each other, not knowing what to do. They sigh and look again at the two quarrelling girls, waiting for the argument to end.
“Oh, and how?”
“With ice”
“To you’re information, fire melts ice”
Katara stares at Toph in silence. Toph does not see the defeated expression on Katara's face, but her silence tells her enough. A victorious smile appears on the eartbenders face. Katara throws her hands in the air.

“You, little…”

Aang puts his hand on Katara's shoulder. “Come on Katara, calm down.” Katara turns her head, still with an angry expression on her face.

"I'm completly calm!"

Aang is a little frightened by her anger, but he keeps a straight face. “Katara, whatever it is you want, let me do it” Katara's anger subsides a little and a small smile appears on her face.

“Thanks Aang”

Then she tells us what she wants: that the chains are stuck in the ground. But to do that they need a metal cord to connect the chains to the ground. So they end up still needing Toph. Toph helps them because she knows how much Katara hates it.

“So, it’s done”, Toph says looking at the chains an the metal cord. The rope is not very long. The boy would be just able to get up, but would not have enough rope to move.

“Good, now we can get to sleep”, Katara says while walking away. Zuko doesn’t follow. He stares at the boy in the chains. He cannot believe what they have done to him just because they know he is a firebender. They just let Zuko into their group. Okay, they don't trust him. But they didn't pin him down like the boy, even though he had been chasing them and trying to catch them for almost a year. What makes them more cautious with the boy than with him? Is it because he has said he is sorry? Because he had offered himself as their prisoner? Or is it because...

“Zuko!”, a voice screams behind him. Zuko looks up.

"Yes?"
"Is something wrong?", Aang asks with a concerned look that Zuko can't place.

"Oh, no everything is fine"
"Okay, that's good, I guess."

Chapter Text

Shouto slowly opens his eyes. His senses begin to work and some things become clear to him. First of all, he is chained. His arms are tied up behind his back. It feels like metal. He can probably break it with his ice and maybe even melt it with fire, if its hot enough. But he doesn’t. He don't know who he's up to. This people could have super strong quirks, he should be carefull.

That brings him to the second thing he noticed. The people who kidnapped him. He assumed that he was taken by the league. They are the ones who kidnapped his classmate, Bakugo. But now he sees them for him he knows they're not them. There not even grown-ups.

Not everyone in the league of villains in grown-up. But most of them are. These people are only kids and teenagers. They sit around a campfire. They are eating.

He sits up straight. It's not easy, because his hands are bound, but it works. And he feels more comfortable this way than when he is lying down. Lying on his arms kinda hurts. And so he can see his captors better. He counts six people. They all got dark hair. They’re wearing blue and green clothes. The clothes look old-fashioned. No jeans or T-shirts. Just pieces of fabric sewn together.

Six heads turn in his direction. They probably heard him when he sat up. Some look at him with hostility, others with curiosity.

And then a girl walks over to him. The one who has the most hateful look of them all. He feels a little scared, but he keeps a straight face. He isn't going to let her know what he feels. “Okay firebender, I’m going to ask some questions, okay?”, she aks, but it sounds more like an order. He did not answer, he did not think it was necessary.

The boy looks at Katara with a look without any emotions. It’s kinda intimidating.

'Annoying fire bender.', Katara thinks.

She doesn’t need to feel intimidated. He’s tied up. He can’t do anything against her.

“Who are you? How did you get here? And what do you want from us?”

They don’t know who he is. Wow, that’s a surprise. He had thought that if he wasn’t kidnapped by the league he would be by some Endeavor haters. But they don’t know who he is. That’s weird. He is the son of the number one hero. He was the runner-up from the UA sports festival, the most watched sporting event. How is it possible this people don’t know him?

'How did you get here? What do you want from us?'

They didn’t kidnap him. They think that he wants something from them. That he wanted to attack him or something. What? If they did not kidnap him, how did he get here? The last thing he can remember before he waked up is that he was fighting someone. But he can’t remember who it was.

“Hello! I asked something!”, the girl yelled, pissed that he is ignoring him. “I’m sorry, but I think this is a misunderstanding”, Shouto says. “A misunderstanding? What the hell do you mean with that?”

“I don’t know what how I get here. And I do not want anything from you. Really.”

A grin appears on the girl's face before she begins to laugh sarcastically.

“Really? And you expected me to believe that? You’re fire nation. You were literally on fire when you appeared here. You were clearly ready to fight.”

“Katara, he passed out. He didn’t do anything.”, a boy says. “Yeah”, the girl next to him agrees. “And I know he isn’t lying”, she adds.

'That’s probably her quirk.' Shouto thinks.

“Well I don’t trust him”

The boy walks towards the girl and now they’re standing next to each other Shouto can tell how much they look alike. They’re probably siblings.

The boy put a hand on his sister's shoulder. “Look Katara, I trust Toph and if she says he’s not lying then I believe her. We should untied him” He says it in such a calm, authoritative way that even Bakugo would listen to him.

No not Bakugo.

“Fine, Sokka”, the girl sighs. “But I still don’t trust him”
The boy turns to the girl with the lie detector quirk. “Toph, untie him.”
The girl, Toph puts her arms forward, moves them and the chains lose. Shouto looks back and sees the chains lying open on the ground.

'Two quirks. The girl has two quirks.'

With a smirk he thinks about Midoriya. He would probably gets super-enthusiastic and start to write about it in his notebook.

'Midoriya.'

Is he all right? He was also there when he was fighting. Maybe he’s also here. He has to be, right?

"Have you seen my friend?", he asks.

“Friend?, the boy – Sokka was it – asks. “Yeah, green hair, about five feet long, talks a lot”

Sokka chuckles. “Green hair? What are you the club of weird hair?”

Why does he find it so strange that Midoriya has green hair? Nowadays, with so many crazy quirks, green hair is the most normal thing.

“I’m sorry”, Sokka apologises while wiping away tears of laughter. “We didn’t see you’re friend”
_______________________________
Sokka looks at the boy while he’s eating. They invited him to join them for lunch. The boy had gladly accepted the invitation. Katara was wrong about the boy being dangerous. The fire bender had made no attempt to attack them. While it was clear from their clothes that they were from the earth kingdom and the water tribe. Plus, he is calm unlike the aggressive fire benders.

Even though Sokka has to admit that the boy is a bit weird. Half of his hair is white, which he had never seen by anyone so young except Yue, and the other half is red. His colours are also two different colours, one is grey and the other blue.

Sokka learned that eye colours each represent one of the four nations. Green is for the earth kingdom, blue is for the water tribe, grey is for the air nomads and red is for the fire nation.
So if he has to go by eye colour, the boy is both air nomad and water tribe. That's not right because he is a fire bender.

Then there are his clothes. It is a fabric that Sokka has never seen. The top is grey with a red ribbon (what is that thing?) and the bottom green.

All in all, a lot of strange things. He would like to ask him about it, but doesn't think it's a good idea. The boy seemed hurt by his joke earlier and he doesn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

So he decides to ask a more simple question.

___________________________________
“What’s your name again?”

Shouto looks up from his foot to meet Sokka’s eyes. Right, he didn’t introduce himself probably. “My name is Shouto Todoroki”

“I’m Sokka and that’s Toph, Katara, Teo, Haru and the Duke” Sokka points to everyone while saying their names.

'Weird names. And he didn’t say their last names.'

Shouto eats the last of the food up and stands up. “Thanks for having me, but I need to get back to my school”

“Oh, yeah no problem. See you.”

Shouto wants to leave but stands still and turns back around. “Where are we?”, he asks, ‘cause he has no idea.

“The western airtempel”, Sokka answers.

Western airtempel?

“And how do I get from here to Musutafu?”

“Musu… what?”, asks Sokka confusedly.

“You know, in Japan”

“What’s Japan?”

Shouto thinks he’s gonna lose it. How the hell can they not know what Japan is? What the hell…

His vision becomes blurred. He feels that he loses control of his body before he hits the ground. The shouts of Sokka are the last things he hears before everything falls away into one big darkness.
____________________________________
Sokka sees that Shouto is starting to falter. “Shouto, are you all right?” Then he falls. “Shouto!” He jumps up and runs towards the boy. Sokka grabs Shouto by his shoulders and shakes him. “Shouto!”, he shouts again. But there’s no reaction. He turns to his friends. Haru and Teo also look worried. The duke and Katara do not seem so affected. They even look bored.

Toph is confused. “What’s going on?”, she asks. "The fire bender fainted again", Katara answers. “Oh, is he all right?”

Chapter Text

“With this technique the dragons showed us, Zuko and I will be unstoppable”, Aang says while doing the technique with Zuko. The two finish with their fists against each other. The group starts clapping.

“Yeah, that’s a great dance you two learned there”, Sokka says.

“It’s not a dance. It’s a firebending form.”, explains Zuko a little angrily.

“We’ll just tap dance our way to victory over the Fire Lord.”, Sokka jokes.

Zuko walks over to Sokka while yelling: “It’s a sacred form that happens to be thousand of years old!”

“Oh yeah? What’s your little form called?”

Zuko sighs. “The dancing dragon”

The group starts to laugh. For a moment, Zuko looks at them in annoyance, but then he lets go and starts laughing too. It's hard, he didn't laugh so openly in a long time. But it feels good to laugh. It makes him feel better. And laughing with other people makes him feel that he belongs with them. That he's a part of something.

He sits down next to Sokka and the boy. “Is he still unconscious?” A stupid question with an obvious answer. “Well actually he woke up before, but he fainted again”

“Oh, really?” He looks at the boy. The chains are gone. That is a good thing. “Did he said something?”, he asks.

“He said that his name is Shouto Todoroki and that he doesn’t know how he get here. He also asked if we had seen his friend. And he said that he comes from Musatafo or something”

“Musatafo? Never heard of that”, Zuko says.

Is that in the fire nation? He is a fire bender, so it’s logical that he lives in the fire nation. But Zuko had learnt every city when he was a kid. Maybe it’s a small farmers' village. Or It’s a new colony.

Zuko doesn’t know much about the new colony’s. He knows the older ones, the ones that already were there when he was little. Probably new ones had come in the three years he had been banished. When he was looking for the avatar, he didn't really keep up with when new ones were founded. And when he was back in the Fire Nation, he also didn’t care.

“Hey, Zuko?”

He looked up at Aang's happy face.

“Yes? What do you want?”, he asks the boy.

“Now that you can firebend again, can you teach me?”

The kid is clearly keen to learn how to fire bend. That is good. Before, Aang was afraid to fire bend. The bad people of the Fire Nation had a clear influence on it. The visit to the Sun Warriors has thankfully changed his mind about fire bending. Now he knows that fire is not bad.

“Yeah, of course. Let’s start”

Chapter Text

Zuko is sitting by the campfire. He sits turned towards the fire and enjoys the warmth. The others are already asleep, but they had agreed to take turns keeping watch. They did this to make sure no one attacked them unnoticed in the night and to keep an eye on Shouto. Shouto had planned to leave yesterday. And they suspected that when he woke up he would leave. But he is not physically well. He had fainted for a second time yesterday and they were afraid that if he left for home he would not make it and something bad would happen to him.

He hears a groan and turns around. Shouto slowly gets up. Zuko walks up to him and gently pushes him back down.

“Stay put, Shouto. You are not well.”

“I'm fine”, Shouto says. He pushes Zuko's hand away from his shoulder, but remains seated.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Who are you?”, Shouto asks.

This boy wasn’t here before. He had not seen him when Sokka introduced everyone.

“Oh, I’m Zuko”

“Shouto”, he holds out his hand to Zuko to shake hands.

“Yes, I know. Sokka told me. But…”

He takes Shouto’s hand and they shake hands.

“… nice to meet you”

Meeting Zuko brings peace to Shouto. He is kind and friendly. So was Sokka, but when he spoke to him, he had to endure those hateful looks. Now it's just Shouto and Zuko. That's good, because then he can think better and sort everything out. He is not Japan, that much is certain. But where exactly he is, he does not know. He cannot understand why they do not know Japan. It is quite well-known, especially because of the sports festival. But they won't know that either. Since they did not recognize him either. Maybe they are nomads? That might explain why they did not know him. But why are there no adults? And why did they find it strange that someone had green hair? Now that he thinks about it, they all have the same hair color. Nowadays there were so many different hair colors that if you put any random people together they would never all have the same hair color. And you also have mutation quirks. Nobody here seemed to have those either. Shouto wondered. It seemed impossible. Yet...
There is one question and then he would know for sure.

“Do you know what quirks are?”

Shouto is anxious for the answer, but prepares for it.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zuko is startled when Shouto says something again. Shouto seemed so sunk in thought. Zuko had thought he was going to fall asleep again. Only then does he realize what Shouto has asked.

Quirks?

Is this kid okay?

“Quirks?”, he asks. “Like oddities?”

What a weird question.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

He doesn’t know what quirks are. Fortunately, he had prepared for this because otherwise he would have fainted again from surprise. He must have ended up in another dimension, or something. He guesses that's because of one of those villains' quirk.

In this dimension, they must have some kind of quirks. Toph had liquefied the metal around his wrists. And then she can also sense when someone is lying.

He lets everything that has happened go back through his mind. He has to find out how this world works.

Katara had called him a fire bender. Then they had to have seen him when he had used his fire. Shouto can remember that before everything went black he had set his left side on fire. So they think he's a fire bender.

Shouto better keep up appearances. It could create panic that there is another dimension. He could endanger himself and the rest of his dimension. Maybe people would start looking for their dimension. Shouto doesn't know if people would actually manage to get into his dimension, but he'd better not risk it.

So it's best if he doesn't tell anyone. And maybe it's also best that he doesn't use his right side. He doubts that fire benders can produce ice.

But how is he going to get home? He doesn't know. By now, the heroes must have noticed his disappearance and will be looking for him. He has to trust that they are going to find him and bring him home.

But, would they find him in another dimension?

Chapter Text

After waking up during the night and having a conversation with Zuko, Shouto had fallen back asleep. His head had been full of worry, but he felt so tired that he had no problem falling back asleep. Which was actually kind of strange since he had slept a lot during the time he was here. Perhaps Zuko had been right when he had said he was not well.

Fortunately, Shouto is feeling much better when he wakes up the next morning. The others are already awake. They are busy making breakfast or are talking to each other. Shouto sees Zuko and Sokka, who are having a conversation together. He also sees someone he hasn't seen before. A boy with an arrow on his head. And then they say green hair is weird. He is talking to Katara who is busy making breakfast.

Shouto thinks about going up to him and starting a conversation, but he's not very good at that. Fortunately, at that moment Sokka and Zuko notice that he is awake and come to him.

“Hey Shouto, did you sleep well?”, Sokka asks.

“Oh, yes. I slept well. Thank you for asking.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better”

They don't quite seem to believe him. They look at him with searching eyes. As if it could be read on his face whether he is telling the truth or not.

“Are you planning to leave?” This time it is Zuko who asks a question. Shouto bites his lower lip and looks down to avoid looking at them.

“No. No, I’m not.”

“Food is ready.”

Shouto never thought he would be happy to hear Katara's voice. Not that he has known her for so long. He gets up and sits with the others around the extinguished campfire.

“I'll go get Toph and the others.”, says the arrow kid before he walks away.

They wait for him to return with the others before Katara begins to hand out the food. Shouto thanks Katara when she hands him his bowl, but he doesn't get a "You're welcome" or even a look from her. He eats his food in silence while the others hold conversations. But he does listen carefully to their conversation.

"My fire bending training is going well. Zuko is a good teacher."

“Yes, I'm sure he's very talented.” It sounds sarcastic and not really like a compliment. Apparently Shouto is not the only one Katara has something against.

“I'm really not. Fire bending was never one of my greatest talents. In fact, it was a disaster when I was little. My sister was always better even though she is younger than me. But that was back in the day. Now I know how to redirect lightning and to fire bend in a calm way, without having to be mad. So I'm getting better, but I wouldn't call myself talented.”

It is around that moment that Shouto stopped paying attention and his mind wandered. He intended to pay close attention, but he couldn't help it. It's a stupid habit of his. It's a real pain when he's in class. There he still manages to pay attention if he concentrates well. There he still manages to pay attention if he concentrates well and pushes his thoughts away. But now there is too much to worry about. Like Midoriya, Shouto has no idea what happened to him. He knows they were fighting villains, but what exactly happened he doesn't remember. He can remember blood, though. But the problem is that he can't remember who's blood it is. He knows it not his, since he's not injured.

He feels a punch in his side.

“Aah”

He jerks awake from his thoughts. He looks to his left, to Toph.

“Finally, I called you like 10 times or something!”

Shouto rubs the sore spot, where Toph had hit him. For such a young girl, she can hit hard.

“Are you okay Shouto? Toph said your heart rate went up.”, Sokka asks.

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

Chapter Text

It had been Zuko's idea. He had thought it would be a good thing for Aang to be taught by more than one firebender. Shouto had admitted that his 'firebending' wasn't that good. He had hoped that he wouldn't have to do it that way. But Zuko had insisted. He had been impressed by the fact that Shouto was on fire on his left side when he arrived. And he couldn't deny that since his clothes on that side were destroyed by the fire.

So now he stood in front of Zuko and Aang with new clothes he had received from Sokka. Although he had taken off the top so he could not burn and ruin it.

"It's really not that good", he tries one last time.
"Just do it"

Shouto does his best to keep it to a minimum. He also just sets his left side on fire. Nothing special or anything. He does not know how real fire bending works. And he would rather not show that he is different. He does this for about five minutes. Then he stops. He does not want to overheat. Especially now that he can't use his ice.

“What about your right side?”, Zuko asks. “Can you do that on that side, or not? I've only seen you use your left side”

Shit, Shouto was afraid they were going to ask something like that. And he can't lie, because that girl is sitting a bit further down listening to him.

“No, I cannot use it. Because... It's been like that since I was born.”

That is not a lie. But, Zuko is looking at him strangely now.

“Really, I have never heard of such a thing. Someone who can only firebend with half his body.”
_______________________________________________________
Zuko already thought Shouto was a bit strange, but now he is completely convinced that something strange is going on. He doesn't think Shouto is some kind of spy, definitely not. Something else. Shouto’s arrival. His hair, white and red, and his eyes. His green-haired friend. And the fact that he can only fire with one side. And those quirks he talked about at night. All strange things that show there is something about him. Zuko considers spirits. It's the only thing he can come up with. Could Shouto himself be a spirit? For some reason, Zuko's intuition says he isn't.
________________________________________________________
The training with Aang and Zuko lasted another hour or three. Shouto doesn't have anything to keep track of time with, so he's not sure. He learned a few things from Zuko and in turn showed them some of his own knowledge. But he tried to be careful not to deviate too much from firebending. Despite his caution, Zuko seemed confused by Shouto's ‘firebending’. Shouto was afraid that he suspected something and tried not to show his fear. Fortunately, over the years he has become good at hiding his emotions. After the training, he went into the temple to investigate. He thought he might learn more about this world.

He is impressed. The temple seems centuries old, but it is still in good condition. Some buildings hang upside down, he wonders how they were made. Of course, if there is such a thing as fire bending, then there must be other quirk-related things as well. Like telekinesis, flying or earth manipulation. Earth bending? Maybe bending is their thing rather than quirks. He wonders how many types of bending there will be. With quirks it is infinite. Maybe not here. Fire bending for sure. Then Toph, who took off his chains. Metal bending. And then she could also detect when someone was lying. Lying bending? Well, that sounds stupid. That would also mean that she has two types of bending. In his own world, it's not often that someone has two quirks. But he has no idea how it is here, so maybe it is normal here.

He goes further into the temple and thoroughly examines the rooms. Unfortunately, he found nothing. Since, he has no idea what he is actually looking for. A hint, a clue, some information about this world, this place. He just doesn't know what to look for. Which object contains that information. And unfortunately, it doesn't come crawling to him on a golden tray by itself. Because of course it won't.

And then it is evening again, time to eat. Another day that is over, another day that he is missed at home. This is his second day here. It was Friday when he and Midoriya were attacked by villains. That means the weekend is over and tomorrow is Monday. He really doesn't want to miss school. He doesn't want to fall behind the rest. Plus, if they didn't know already, tomorrow his classmates would hear that he is missing. He doesn't want to worry them. Well, there's nothing he can do about it anyway. Just hope the heroes find him soon and stay unharmed in the meantime. Oh, and he'd better stay here, too. If he showed up here, so would they. Once they found a way to get here.

After dinner, Zuko makes tea.
“No one can make tea like uncle, but hopefully I learned a thing or two”, says Zuko as he pours the tea into cups. Shouto does not know who his uncle is, but decides it is not important.
“Would you like to hear uncle’s favorite tea joke?”

“Sure, I like jokes.”, Aang says.

“Bring it.”

“Ok, well, I can’t remember how it starts”, Zuko begins, handing out the tea. “but the punch line is ‘leaf me alone, I’m bushed’”

A silence emerges.

“Well, it’s funnier when uncle tells it.”, Zuko states.

“Right… maybe that’s because he remembers the whole thing.”

That does make the group laugh. Zuko seems unaffected by Katara's statement and shows a small smile.

“It’s nice to get a chance to relax a little. It hardly ever happens.”

“What do you mean?”, Shouto asks. It seems to him the perfect time to find out more.

“Oh, we get in trouble a lot.”, Katara says. A lot in trouble. Reminds him of his class. First the U.S.J attack and then the attack at training camp.

“I guess that’s what you get for traveling with the Avatar.”, Toph says.

“Avatar?”

"Yeah, didn't you realize it yet?", asks Aang. Arrows, airbenders clothes, I thought you knew. I am the Avatar”

“Oh”

Shouto really didn't know what to say. Avatar, what on earth is that? Just when he thought he had the whole system figured out, they came up with new terms. Okay, logical thinking. He said THE avatar. That means there's only one of them, right? Otherwise he would have said an avatar. If there is only one of them then it means he is important and special. Just like the number one hero. No, it won't be anything like that. Aang is still too young for that. Or is that not a problem here? But, he's not even sure if there is such a thing as heroes here.

He begins to get caught up in his thoughts again. Fortunately, or perhaps not, Sokka pulls him out of his thoughts.

“Hey, can I talk to you two for a second?”

Chapter Text

Sokka takes Zuko and Shouto aside.

“So what’s up?”, Zuko asks.

“If someone was captured by the fire nation, where would they be taken?”

Shit, since they think Shouto is a fire bender, they naturally assume he knows things about the fire nation. But he doesn't, because he's not from the fire nation. He doesn't even know what the fire nation is. He assumes that is where fire benders live.

He also doesn't know why he's asking that question. Has anyone been captured? Why would another country capture someone? Are they at war or something?

“What do you mean, who was captured?”, Zuko asks.

“When the invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken.”

Okay they are definitely at war. Great, Shouto has ended up in a universe where they are waging war. Just his luck.

“I just wanna know where they might be.”, Sokka says.

“I can’t tell you.” , Zuko says, head hanging down.

“What, Why not?”, Sokka looks disappointed.

“Trust me, knowing will just make you feel worse.”

Zuko looks at Shouto, it seems as if with his gaze he wants to convince Shouto not to say anything either. He doesn't need to worry, there is nothing Shouto can say. Still, he nods to Zuko, even though he feels sorry for Sokka. He wishes he could help him. Zuko turns around, signaling that the conversation is over. For a moment, Sokka looks at Shouto, but from the look in his eyes, Sokka knows he can't help him. Then he grabs Zuko's shoulder. He flinches and turns around.

“It’s my dad. He was captured too. I need to know what I put him through.”

“It’s not good Sokka”

“Please?”

“My guess is… they were taken to the boiling rock.”

“What’s that?”

Good question Sokka, Shouto wonders about that too.

“The highest-security prison in the fire nation. It’s on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It’s inescapable.”

“Where is this place?”

Oh crap, Sokka wants to go there, doesn’t he? Shouto hasn't known Sokka very long, but he would rather not have Sokka risk his life there. After what Zuko has told them, it's pretty clear that this is a dangerous place. Even though he wants to save his father, it's just not a good idea. But Shouto can't say much, since he and a few classmates had gone to rescue Bakugo from the hands of the league of villains. And that wasn't a good idea either.

“Why do you need to know? What are you planning?”

Good, Zuko also sees through that Sokka wants to go save his father.

“Nothing”

This is clearly a lie.

“Sokka, you can't go and save your father. It's dangerous and you're never going to succeed.”, Shouto shouts.

“Geez, I'm not stupid. I know well enough that that is dangerous. You guys are so paranoid.”

“It’s in the middle of a volcano between here and the fire nation. You guys actually flew right past it on your way here.”

“Thanks Zuko”, Sokka yawns. “Just knowing makes me feel better.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it does”

Zuko and Shouto look at each other with a look of understanding. Before following Sokka to the group. They both know what Sokka is up to and they also know what to do.