Chapter Text
Steven was normal.
Just a normal firebender working at an average museum in the fire nation capital’s Ashen district. Thankfully tourists from Republic City were often coming in and out, and even if the Fire Nation had been the bad guys during the hundred year war, people were interested in their history, but sadly, not the spirits, which were what Steven liked the most…
He dreamed of giving tours, talking about the myths and legends of the region that had been lost to time.
But he was just a gift shop clerk, what else could he do?
Each day he spent at the counter keeping careful tally of who came through, who nicked this or that, and who bought what. His ledger was clean and he was careful to never smudge the ink, his boss always hated when it was hard to read.
The smallest, brightest joy in his life came when curious children asked about the pretty carvings or soft dolls of spirits and gods. He could talk for hours about their history and their legends, watching the children smile in awe.
However, his manager hated him doing this, and would reprimand him whenever she could, but Steven didn’t care. Sure it hurt that she seemed to find flaws in everything he did, but he knew he was trying his best. He only ever played tour guide on breaks or on lunch, and besides, he got more people to buy the plushies and the other knick knacks his boss would always complain about never selling.
This day was a quiet one, it was winter, and while the fire nation rarely got so cold, here it was, and there was snow falling outside the museum. The little rivers around had frozen over, frost edged the windows of the museum gift shop, and something about that made Steven nervous, even if he didn’t know why.
Cold, can’t breathe, Where’s-
Steven shook his head. One of those stories he read must have left more of an impression on him than he thought. He liked snow, he’d always liked snow, it was nice. It was familiar.
A shout rang out from the inner part of the museum, distracting Steven from his thoughts of snow, and he rushed out to the entrance of the giftshop. Storming towards the exit, he saw an angry mother dragging her son towards the door by his wrist.
"What were you thinking!? You don't touch things in a museum! You're lucky that other guest was an earthbender or that would've shattered and it would've been your fault!" The mother screamed at the boy, making Steven’s heart clench in his chest.
She shouldn’t be yelling, the child made a mistake, he was crying and apologizing over and over…
The mother raised an arm to gesture back at the door they came through, but the little boy flinched, and Steven’s eyes widened, someone needed to step in.
Before he had a chance to realize, he was walking over.
“Ma’am, Ma’am please… it was a mistake, it happens to the best of us..” Steven said, trying desperately to keep her from hurting the little boy.
The woman turned to Steven, practically spitting in his face as she yelled. “Who do you think you are? I am disciplining my son and you question my parenting?!”
“He doesn’t need to be hurt over a mistake!” Steven barely noticed his hand starting to ball into a fist and heat up. “He obviously already knows what he did wrong!”
“Shut up! He needs to know what he did was wrong!” She yelled and poked Steven in the chest hard.
“M-Ma’am, please!” Steven flinched a bit from her tone and the jab. He suddenly couldn't breathe…
“I do not need some random counter worker telling me how to be a mother!” She continued, mouth twisting into a snarl as she raised her hand again.
His non-hot hand suddenly snapped to grab her wrist when she attempted to jab her finger into him again.
“Ma’am you’re only teaching him to be afraid of you!” Steven said, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Let go of me you creep!” The woman snapped, pulling her arm back. “Maybe he should be scared of the consequences!”
Neither notice the sparks fly from Steven’s free hand.
“He-he won’t learn at all if he is scared of you! Miss, Do you really want-” Steven was cut off when the woman screamed, and Steven turned to see the banner hanging over the entryway, talking about a new exhibit, igniting into flames with a violent burst.
“Fire!” Steven yelled as he staggered back. He had no idea what could have caused this, who could’ve caused this, because he may be a firebender, but he’d only ever been able to light a candle, and not that well!
Steven could only stare as one of the other workers brought buckets of water to douse the flames and the mother and son were ushered outside by a guard. Until suddenly, he’d been grabbed by a security guard.
“What was that mate?!” He asked, almost sounding angry.
“She was going to hit him!” Steven insisted.
“No, with the fire!” The guard pointed towards the smoldering cloth that lay in the doorway
“The fire?! You can’t seriously believe I did that?! I can barely light a candle!” Steven began to shake, feeling panic creep into his chest again.
The guard’s eyes narrowed, “You know how many firebenders we have on our staff, don’t you?”
“Well-well yes of course and I-”
“Just come with me Steven, okay? We’ll talk about this with the boss.” The guard said, beginning to pull Steven by the arm.
Steven didn’t fight it, that couldn’t have been him! He wouldn’t have done something like that, even if he wanted to he couldn’t!
His boss didn’t see it that way.
“Steven, you have been late multiple times this month,” she began with a cold look, hands clasped on her desk. “You’ve been falling asleep at work, and you’ve just lit a banner on fire. Listen Steven, you are the only firebender we employ. Firebenders are very dangerous around such artifacts, and you’re lucky you only burnt a banner we can replace.”
His boss squinted hard at him, and he shied away in shame. Man he hated that gaze…
He hated her office too. It was so perfect it felt fake, as if everything had been placed specifically to make her seem more intimidating, and more assertive. He’d only been in here twice before, during the interview, and when he’d smashed his face on the counter while sleepwalking. That had been the first strike.
“Steven, are you even listening?”
He looked up, swallowing hard and nodding. “Yes ma’am, of course.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Steven. I know how much this job means to you, but you almost assaulted one of our customers today. For everyone’s safety, I’m going to have to let you go.”
Steven felt his throat knot up, but he nodded. “Of course, yeah, yeah right… can’t, can’t have a dangerous maniac running around eh?”
“Your badge, please.”
He hung his head, dutifully unclipping the charm from his tunic and setting it on the desk for her to take.
“Go empty your locker, and please, don’t come back.”
The one place he felt happy, the one place he didn’t feel so utterly alone…
And here he was, being forced to leave and never come back. For a long time, anyway.
He wrapped himself in his big winter coat as he walked out of the museum, and down the street towards home, snow crunching beneath his feet. The tears he tried to fight were clouding his vision, and he was so lost in his misery that he didn’t hear, didn't realize when more snow crunched behind him.
Until he walked into a big man before him. Slowly, he looked up at the giant of a man, with only a black topknot and literally no other hair on his head. He glared down at Steven, folding his arms
Steven started, instinctively putting his hands up in surrender.
“Sorry, I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention..”
"Should be more careful, there's dangerous folk around here," Said a voice from behind him. Steven immediately thought of a snake when he saw the shorter the man's smile as he walked to stand beside the larger man. "Folks like you who set mothers on fire for kicks."
“W-What?!” Steven looked between them in a panic. When he glanced back, there were two more, a nearly identical man and woman in dark greys, both holding knives and smiling.
“They’re real’ lucky we were around… to make sure you don’t go unpunished.” The snake grinned, putting his hands in his pockets.
“I didn’t! I didn’t try to set her on fire!” Steven said, looking for a way out and finding none. He couldn’t even bend to defend himself, and the hopelessness was a horrifically familiar feeling. He hated it.
Steven was grabbed roughly by the twins from behind until the giant of a man could lift him clean off his feet. He tried to struggle, but to the three others, it was just pathetic. They laughed.
“Oh I'm sure you’re totally innocent,” the snake chuckled, wiping away a tear. “Well, we're just going to make sure you don’t make this ‘mistake’ again. Lovely bridge up there isn't it?" The snake looked towards it, and Steven did too.
It was a tall, old bridge made of red painted wood with stones laying the path itself. Lanterns swung gently in the night light, and no one was walking it at this hour. Beneath it, a lazy, half frozen river drifted by.
Dread filled Steven’s entire body.
“No! No!!” Steven struggled more as he was dragged up the bridge. The ice had split, and there was the frigid water, he could hear it rushing and swirling and he wanted to puke. But the giant wouldn’t let him go.
No, Steven could not go in that water. He simply could not! He knew how to swim but, the thought of that frozen water made his entire body tremble.
“Don’t worry, it’s just till you cool off!” One of the twins laughed.
And he was thrown over the bridge, and into the freezing water, where he made quite an impressive splash.
Suddenly, as his mind reeled against the cold, Steven found himself lying face down on his bedroom floor, a pain in his face and chest fading, and he looked to find he was still restrained to the pillar by his bed, the sand disturbed where he had fallen. He was, home.
He was home?
It was a dream. It was all a dream! He hadn’t been thrown in frozen water, he’d simply walked home and went to bed! He must’ve been so upset he had a nightmare, or rather, his old nightmares came back to haunt him.
Slowly, Steven got up and released himself from the intricate lock and knot around his ankle. But when he tried to make his bed, he found it damp.
He realized his topknot was undone, but the tie was just laying on the pillow, damp as well, and his streak was uncovered. Not only that, the charcoal he had used to painstakingly dye the strands had been washed clean away, revealing the unnaturally white hair. The white streak he shared with the Moon Knight, with the avatar…
He kept it covered and dyed when he could because he didn’t want to be accused of being the avatar. The Moon Knight had always been masked, but he always had that white streak on display. And Steven just wasn’t the Avatar, he was barely a firebender! It saved everyone a lot of trouble to just hide it and move on.
When Steven brought his hand down from playing with the streak, letting it pop out of his face into a curl, and he was surprised to find a bandage on his face when he touched his cheek.
His brow furrowed, his breath caught in his throat, how had that happened? Did he really hit the water? Had he scratched himself on the bottom of the river? Had one of those jerks punched him?
How had he escaped?!
A knock came to his door. Steven froze up, no, no one could see him without his streak covered, especially not those goons from the bridge, but then the familiar voice came.
“Paper!”
Steven let out a breath, it was just the morning paper.
Steven checked the peephole to make sure no one would see him before quickly grabbing the paper from his doormat and rushing back inside. The front page surprised him, it made his heart skip a beat as he connected the dots.
“The Moon Knight Spotted in the Southern Ashen District.”
Below it was a picture of a magnificent frozen wave, arcing up over the bridge as if the river had exploded. He could see police pulling the thugs from a snowbank, and in the photo, they looked frightened.
That’s where he had been walking. Those were the people who’d attacked him.
So the only logical conclusion for how he made it home had to be-
He had been saved by the Avatar!