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Aang's visiting the Fire Nation for 'Avatar business' (he missed Zuko and Sokka), and he's embroiled in the latest chaos at the palace. It's hilarious (and also a little concerning), and it starts with a lantern.
The initial conversation had gone something like this:
Zuko: I suppose we should retire for the night, I enjoyed catching up with you, Aang. I hope we ca- *rattles doorknob* Huh?
Aang: What's wrong, Zuko?
Zuko: My chambers are - locked, or barricaded… perhaps an assassin -
Suki, jogging down the hall: Firelord Zuko! Uh - don't open your chamber doors, please!
Zuko, confused: What's going on?
Suki: There's, uh, currently like a thousand lanterns in your chambers.
Aang: Lanterns?
Zuko, distracted: Yeah, from the royal lantern makers - a thousand? What do you -
Aang, to himself: Royal lantern makers…
And that's where Aang had zoned out trying to picture the royal lantern makers. (They probably had beards, right? Ooh, or maybe not, the beards could be a fire hazard. So they were clean-shaven people and had shaved heads?)
Apparently, General Yu Dao was supposed to commission the royal lantern makers (which is a real, actual thing? Aang is mostly impressed but also concerned) to make some new lanterns for the hallways - basically he just had to put down a number and stamp the paper.
So the General put down the number and stamped the paper and sent it out. Except the number he'd written down had 3 extra zeroes.
Which means the royal lantern makers thought the firelord wanted 35,000 lanterns. By the end of the week. And the way they'd discovered this was by virtue of the fact that there were now around 500 lanterns sitting in the throne room because they ran out of room in the firelord's chambers.
Zuko's consort aka Aang's favourite to-be brother-in-law, Sokka, was then decided to be the best way to fix this. So they called up Sokka and he decided the best way to fix this was to do it all himself. So he decided to start donating slash selling lanterns to the citizens and reusing parts of them to create other stuff, which was all fine except Sokka was the only one doing it so he had apparently been running on two consecutive all-nighters during today morning's meeting. And he fainted.
Which, obviously, caused a great deal of distress and Zuko nearly combusted. And then Aang discovered what Sokka had been doing and reported back to Zuko who was pissed. Like, super pissed. It would've been funny to see Zuko literally steam in any other situation, Aang thinks.
"That was, by far, the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do," Zuko hisses, face pinched. "Which is mind blowing, considering the fact that I've seen you every day for 4 months."
"Hey!" Sokka protests. "I'm not that bad!"
Aang raises his eyebrows and Sokka glares at him. "You don't even get a say in this Aang, you're the exact same!" Wow, harsh.
Zuko just gestures wordlessly at Sokka. "You're so - ! I'm going to die of blood pressure and it'll be your fault," he says, deadly serious. The idea of a firelord dying via blood pressure is really, really funny.
Sokka's brows furrow, gearing up for a lecture that Aang has no intention of listening to. Clearing his throat, he hops off the dresser. "I'm going to get us some tea and snacks," he interrupts. He's actually genuinely a little bit hungry (it's like 9pm and he hasn't eaten anything, he's a growing boy!) but mostly he wants to leave Zuko and Sokka alone for a few minutes so they can kiss and make up or whatever it is they do.
Humming a little tune under his breath, Aang carefully balances the trays and walks down the corridor. Arriving at the consort doors, he goes to knock but then pauses. The door is open a crack and he can hear the conversation.
"-I don't, I can't do this without you, Sokka."
"I'm not going anywhere, you know that."
"Just - take care of yourself. Please."
There's a long pause, and then -
"I'll try. As long as you do too, Zuko."
Aang grins, a light feeling settling in his chest. They've worked it out! They're all friends again!
He's about to enter the room when he hears the distinct sound of making out and freezes. Oh hell no. Absolutely not.
Spinning 180 degrees, Aang hurries away from the room.
No thanks.