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Chapter Text

Time slowed down for Zuko the moment he received a summons to the war room from one of his father’s servants. His father requested that he join in on the War Meeting of an unknown purpose, it sounded too good to be true, it had to be. This had been his dream for so many years, he was finally being respected by his father and the people of his country, something that had kept him going through those miserable three years of his banishment.

Ignoring the feeling of dread coursing through his veins, as a small voice in the back of his mind questions of what the meeting could possibly be about, Zuko leaves the room, scroll in hand, and walks silently down the hall of the palace, his mind racing.

The last time Zuko had walked down this hall to enter this room had been 3 years ago, when Zuko was just 13 years old, with his uncle at his side. Zuko grimaced at the memory, trying to repress the guilt of knowing his Uncle, the man who protected him and sheltered him for all those years, now rotting in a cell under the floor he now treks down. The interaction that occurred those 3 years ago had caused the following years to be the worst of his life, sent to an Agni Kai against his father, where he embarrassed himself, and was burnt and banished.

Something deep down in Zuko’s mind retorted to that, maybe the part left over from his Uncle, saying he didn’t embarrass himself, that he tried to save the 41st division, even as meaningless as it turned out to be.

Walking into the war room, Zuko immediately felt the eyes in the room turn to him, while he avoids meeting the glances of the commanders and Generals, as well as his Fathers and Azula’s, both who seemed to be smiling at him, but not kindly.

His father’s voice echoed and pounded through the room causing Zuko to take a sharp intake of breath as he walked to his place.

“Welcome, Prince Zuko, we waited for you.”

As Zuko took a short bow to his father, and sat on his knees next to him, opposite Azula, as his father began to ask one of the generals about his update on the state of Ba-Sing-Se, which brought back further conflicting feelings in remembering his Uncle and his time in the city, as well as the kind people he met upon hearing about the Earth Kingdom rebellion stopping their fire nation forces.

“Prince Zuko-”

Zuko looked up suddenly at his father, attempting to maintain his composure despite his shock of his father addressing him so suddenly.

“-You’ve been among the Earth Kingdom commoners. Do you think that adding more troops will stop these rebellions?”

He took another sharp intake of breath, taking a moment to compose himself and process what his response should be. In just a moment, he exhales and responds to his father as unfeeling as he can muster,

“The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. They can endure anything as long as they have hope.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Zuko silently hoped that the blanket information he gave his father and the generals would amount to nothing, but seeing his father start to grow that sadistic smile he’d grown up seeing, he began to feel his heart sink in dread, as his father spoke those fateful words.

“We need to destroy their hope.”

Zuko felt his heart drop, and his eyes slightly widen at his father’s suggestion. Time slowed for him as his ears started to quietly ring. In the background he could hear somewhat through the fog his sister proclaiming they should burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, and Zuko’s breath hitched when he heard his father agree. Zuko’s mind started racing as he heard his Father begin talking about how he could use the comet to destroy the earth kingdom. To commit genocide again.

Once more he felt like the thirteen year old boy who was sitting in on a war meeting, the boy who stood up for what he believed was right and the one who faced the consequences for those actions.

“We will reign fire over their lands-“

Three years of suffering.

“-A fire that will destroy everything-“

Three years of wanting more then anything to go home

“-And out of the ashes-“

Three years of just wanting his fathers approval again

“-A new world will be born-“

And the worst part was, Zuko was right all those years ago

“-A world in which all the lands are fire nation-“

Zuko could see right through his father, through his charisma, through his facade of greatness.

All the fire nation had done was hurt people.

All his father had done was hurt people.

Why had it taken a horrific remark by his father, a promise of eradicating a civilization off the map, for Zuko to realize his Uncle was right, that he was always right.

Zuko had just been too blind to see it.

“-And I am the supreme ruler of everything.”

Zuko stood abruptly and silently, cutting off the claps of the generals, as Firelord Ozai turned to look at him with a bemused expression.

“Prince Zuko, do you have something you would like to say to the room-?”

Amused and awkward chuckles emerged from all corners of the room, a couple loud ones coming from Azula, parallel to him and still kneeling.

“-Or might we remind the room what happened the last time you chose to make a quick remark during a war council and embarrassed yourself.”

At that remark, Zuko let out a small flinch, and glared at his father, who returned a pointed glare in return.

He could feel his heart beating, and his body shaking. He knew what he was planning to do wasn’t smart, but what fueled him more then revenge in this moment was rage and pain, and he had already put a spotlight on himself, why not follow through with it. He glanced at the lower-class servants who continually flocked in and out of the room to re-fill generals tea, He knew that while the Generals would gossip, they would leave out parts of the story. The servants wouldn’t. He had hope his moment of epiphany and breakthrough could get past these doors and to the rest of the people.

Zuko spoke with a confident yet deeply shaken tone, “The plans my father, Firelord Ozai, plan to follow through on in the earth kingdom-“

“Zuko.” His father said sternly

“- are nothing less than treason. The act of committing genocide on innocent people is one that the foundations of war rules are rested on-“

Ozai turned from his locked glance with Zuko to look back at the observers, and say sternly- “Out.

“- this is something we’ve already done to the Air Nomads when my great grandfather abused his power and killed them-“

Ozai yelled at the remaining stragglers, “OUT.”

Zuko glared at his father, seeing Azula in his peripheral in a stunned silence

“They were INNOCENT.” Zuko yelled

Ozai rushed forward towards Zuko to grab him with his hands burning, yelling “SILENCE”, as Zuko quickly ducked down out of the way, shoving his father to the side.

As Zuko moved to the side, Ozai let out a frustrated yell and in a swipe of his hand in Zuko’s direction, likely meant for his heart, sent a stripe of white hot flame, that hit Zuko not in his chest, but over part of his face and eyes, letting out a guttural scream.

All Zuko could feel was white hot pain. And the very familiar feeling of burning skin, and part of his hair.

In a moment of panic, Zuko backed away and sent his left arm out swiping in an ark with fire coming off of it.

Because of the condition of his eyes, he could only see very foggy shapes, which even then it hurt impossibly bad to do, but he could somewhat see his bright fire hit his father somewhere near his face, maybe hitting him slightly on a cheek, which was confirmed by a yell of pain from his father.

In a sudden terrifying moment, his father reached out at him, and Zuko could feel his father’s hand grab him by the hair, as he tried to pull away. His father’s hand was still burning hot; and he could smell his hair sizzling. His father yelled at him again,

“I thought you had learned better, but no, suffering could not teach you, I guess you must DIE-“

“Father.”

Azula spoke in a cold tone, and Zuko could hear her getting closer to the two of them.

“Father, look at him.”

There was a moment of silence, as Zuko could feel white hot tears running down his burnt face. He could barely see his father and sister right infront of him. He was struggling not to pass out in this moment, purely awake because of adrenaline but in unbearable pain.

Azula let out a small laugh, and continued “he looks miserable. And while killing my brother would certainly be fun, wouldn’t keeping him alive make such a better example-?”

Ozai’s grip loosened on his hair slightly, but not enough for Zuko to be able to get away, as he responded calmly, “How so-?”

Zuko could barely breathe at this point, but he could hear his sisters smile in her words

“Traitors like Zuko don’t deserve the “peace of death”, they deserve to suffer, as you’ve said. So, if we keep him alive, we can continue to make an example of his cowardice”

Despite how much the words hurt, deep down Zuko thought that maybe through all the insults and terrifying assumptions, that Azula wanted him to be safe.

She wanted him to live.

He thought maybe for a second he could see his 14 year old sister who didn’t want him to die.

But for now, he couldn’t see her reactions, and even if he could she would be impossible to read, so he might never know.

“What do you suppose we do with him now-?” His father said, coolly

“Keep him around. Maybe in the prison under the castle. If any sliver of a rebellion begins, he can be the example. But in order to make him an example, he has to live. He’s living proof of what happens to rebels”

“Fine.” Ozai let go of him, and Zuko dropped to the ground, as his father snapped his fingers and Zuko could hear a couple people quickly step into the room, as his father ordered them around, “handcuff him behind his back. Take him to the dungeon. Give him a scrap of fabric to wrap his burn, and some water. That is more than generous, on my part.”

Zuko heard a chorus of ‘yes Firelord Ozai’ as Zuko’s arms were tied behind his back, and was lifted and moved.

His face still felt like it was on fire, and he couldn’t see, at most he could see foggy colors and imperceivable blobs of shapes, his face was throbbing and he was barely conscious with tears streaming down his face in pain.

After what felt like an eternity, Zuko was let go and thrown to the ground, and he could hear a cell door click closed, and lock as he attempted to get himself up, failing to do so.

“Now we have two traitorous criminals in this cell, what are the chances”

The guards laughed as Zuko’s mind raced, he couldn’t be in the same cell as him right-? No one would do that intentionally, to put them together in a cell. What kind of idio-

“Nephew-?”

Chapter Text

The seconds after his uncle spoke were silent and awkward, as Zuko assumed his Uncle was staring at him, taking all of him in, and Zuko stared back in the direction he roughly thought his Uncle would be.

That silence was filled with fear, Zuko was still on an adrenaline high from his fight with his father, his shoulders were tense and he was frozen in fear, all he could think was what his uncle would do to him, he betrayed him, and he’s already so weak at the moment.

Zuko backed up slightly on his hands, scooting backwards, while apologies fell out of his mouth, trying to say something that would get his Uncle to not enact revenge on him “uncle I’m so sorry please don’t- no I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to-“

Zuko heard his uncle quietly move forward, and he spoke softly, almost too softly, like his uncle was calming a hurt wild animal

“Zuko, nephew, can I touch you-?”

Zuko flinched at that, before nodding silently, still tensed up, as he shut his eyes painfully. Every movement of his eyes hurt like they were still on fire, and his entire face still felt hot, as he turned his head away from his uncle.

Iroh put his hands gently on Zuko’s arms, and pulled him softly into a hug, being sure to have Zuko’s head in a way that his burn wasn’t being touched, and Iroh started running his hands through his nephews hair.

Zuko hesitantly hugged his uncle back, still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but slowly starting to feel dizzy and like he was going to pass out from the pain, and his adrenaline was likely done masking the immense amount of pain from the burn.

“..uncle…”

“It will be alright, nephew. I’ll take care of you. Rest.”

As his uncle told him to rest, Zuko lost consciousness and slumped down in his Uncles arms.

…

Zuko was in and out of consciousness for what he assumed was likely a few weeks.

His uncle had convinced one of the kinder servants bringing them food to grab some herbs and ointments for his burn, then after wrapping it in scrap fabric, leaving Zuko entirely in the darkness.

The lack of a real doctor or anyone with (beyond military) medical training wasn’t helping either, as Iroh feverishly attempted to keep Zuko from getting an infection.

In those weeks of weak consciousness and struggling to regain strength, Iroh laid out a plan for the two of them while others weren’t around.

“On the day of the black sun, while all of the firebenders lose their bending, we will escape”

“How-?”

“The guards aren’t made aware that they will lose their bending, so when the lock is undone for food, we escape.”

“No I- Uncle, I’m not-“

“I will not leave you here. We’re going together or not at all”

“I’m just going to hold you back”

“You will not. Prince Zuko, you could never be a burden on me.”

Zuko wished that was true

…

When Zuko finally began to feel better, and was able to sit up on his own, Iroh immediately began to heavily encourage Zuko to meditate, to be able to sense where the sun is in the sky, and therefore the time, trying to get him connected to the fire, and heightening his senses. Zuko, while hesitant, eventually gave in, and as he spent his time trying to feel the sun through the walls, and focusing on the candles lining the prison walls, and feeling them flicker.

While he isn’t positive, he can feel that there are candles along the walls outside the cell, leading down a twisting hallway and then suddenly stop at what he thinks could be a door.

Zuko has to intensely concentrate to feel that, however, and he isn’t sure how long the hallway is or how many turns there are or anything. He just knows there is a decently long hallway, and a door.

Zuko refers all of this back to Iroh, and while he can’t see his smile, he can hear it in his uncles thank you.

…

As the day arrives, and the time comes, Zuko meditates as Iroh packs up their herbs and ointments into pockets of his cloak. They had reapplied his burn with more of the healing concoction before retying the bandage over his eyes, which still felt immensely painful because of their lack of real medical supplies, but seemed, according to Iroh, to be healing or at least scarring over.

At the moment, Zuko was trying to concentrate on the suns position, as he felt it slowly disappear and be covered by the moon, attempting to track the exact moment he can’t feel it anymore.

When that moment arrives, and Zuko can’t feel the sun at all, he hesitates before telling his Uncle, thinking it could just be he isn’t concentrating enough, before his Uncle laughs and speaks as he helps Zuko onto his feet”

“It looks like it’s about time! Come, nephew, let’s get out of here.”

Zuko heard the sound of chain breaking, and a swinging metal door, as he followed the lead of his uncle out of the cell, putting his hand on the wall so he could feel where they were going. He could hear a lot of yelling of soldiers approaching them, and heard a lot of his uncle fighting and taking out soldiers.

One guard, in attempting to get some kind of advantage over Iroh he assumes, attempted to grab Zuko, who had been staying consistently behind Iroh, as he wasn’t really in a position to be attacking, despite how much he wanted to.

As Zuko felt the guard’s hand grabbing his arm, he swung his arm away, forcing the guard to stumble closer to him, as he kicked the guard in roughly where the crown prince thought the guard’s chest would be, and doing so the guard fell roughly to the floor, as Zuko backed away slightly and glared at him.

His uncle appeared noticed either Zuko holding the wall and glaring down at the guard, or the guard himself, and chained him up

“Good job taking care of this one. See, nephew, I knew you would protect me.”

Zuko could basically hear the smirk in his uncles voice

“He just attacked me to get the upper hand on you. I didn’t ‘take care of’ anything.” Zuko said with a frown

“I believe you did! Even if you claim to have not, but nevertheless, we must continue.”

…

Eventually the two ex-fire nation royals made it out of the prison tunnels, and back (very slowly) up the stairs and back into the Palace walls, all of which seemed to be in absolute chaos, with palace guards running amuck, something that was absolutely not in the pairs plan of escape. Among the chaos, the sounds of running and stomping feet, the yelling of orders and instruction, fleets going all to different locations.

“There’s an invasion.” Zuko spoke under his breath.

“That there is.” His uncle responded with a smile in his voice. “A good distraction, as well.”

“Did you know-?”

“Oh of course not, Prince Zuko! However it does make sense, and how shocked can we really be.”

Zuko began putting two and two together, and inhaled sharply, “Do you think it’s- you know-“

“It could be. However, let’s keep going, the eclipse is near completion.”

The pair continued to flee, eventually getting into some trouble as soldiers realized who they were and attempted to restrain them, and quickly failed to do so, and as they fled the scene carefully as to avoid Zuko tripping or to make things super obvious how much of a disadvantage the 16 year old was in at the moment.

However as they walked, Zuko felt his inner fire re-light, and turned to where he thought Iroh was, and just said “uncle-“ before he got grabbed by his shirt and dragged towards someone who clearly had it out for him, as they were almost nose to nose and the man was fuming.

“Look at this. The little blind fire nation Prince got out of his cage. Let’s put him back in.”

Zuko likes to think of himself as a very angry person. He spent 3 years at sea living off nothing but the blind rage of knowing he couldn’t go home until he solved a task that hadn’t been accomplished in the last 100 years.

In the prime of this anger he could light his entire room on fire accidentally in just a moment of doubt.

Zuko had never felt more angry than he did in this moment.

He took a big inhale, feeling his inner fire surging even with only the slightest sliver of the sun being exposed, and exhaled flames in his assailants face.

It was nowhere near as powerful as his Uncle’s fire breathing, who could use it much better offensively, and while Zuko couldn’t see the flames that came out of his mouth, he could feel them, and his assailant immediately dropped him and hit the ground running, fleeing immediately the opposite direction of Zuko and Iroh, yelling and screaming about the pain.

Zuko stumbled back, clearly thrown off, after the man let go of him and growled in anger as he continued walking with his Uncle, who had up until then been silent, and Zuko spoke up.

“Don’t say it.”

His uncle chuckled, and spoke with what sounded like a very smug grin, “Prince Zuko I would never! However-“

Zuko groaned “Oh my Agni-“

“-I am just saying-! Not many firebenders can breathe flames like that! Seems like your years of travel with the Dragon of the West may have taught you something-!”

“All it taught me was how to make Jasmine tea ‘properly’,” Zuko made Air quotes over the word ‘properly’ “, and how to play pai-sho, which might be a struggle now.” He moved his hand over his wrapped eyes in a joking reminder of his lack of sight.

Iroh chuckled again. “Did I ever tell you about the Avatar’s young earth bending teacher-?”

Zuko looked his direction, confused “No-? Why?”

“The Avatar’s earth bending teacher is blind as well. She has lived her entire life that way. And yet she is likely the most powerful earthbender this world has ever seen.”

“… how-?”

“I’m not quite sure, we could always ask.”

“No-“ Zuko stopped dead in his tracks

“Nephew.”

“They hate me. They wouldn’t want me to be around them. What would I even say-??” He spoke up in a sarcastic tone, “‘Hello! Zuko here! Sorry I followed you across the world and attacked you! I’m good now! And blind! Attack me please!’” Zuko scoffed as he kept walking.

“Nephew, I’m sure they would help you.”

“No, they wouldn’t. Why would they-? I’ve done nothing but torment them, and try to kill them, and Azula almost killed the avatar-!”

“Nephew..“

“Forget it. We’re better off alone together, plus if they saw how weak I am-“

“Zuko wai-“

“I’m terrible for what I did to them. To them I’m better of de-“

Zuko hit something as he was walking, and tumbled forward, scratching up his hands on the ground, mumbling curses under his breath, pushing off the ground to get back up, before being pushed back to the ground by- nothing-? His breathing quickened as he sat up and felt something sharp on his neck, and heard a familiar voice,

“Is that- Zuko-?” The Avatar spoke with hesitation, as Zuko’s eyes widened under his wrapped blindfold.

Of course, it was just his luck that the group that hated Zuko the most would find him at his weakest.

Zuko backed away slightly, and felt a sigh of relief come when the blade didn’t stay pressed to his neck, and another when his Uncle came running up behind him, and he heard a young girls voice from the avatars side say “old man!!”, in an excited tone, and heard footsteps run towards his uncle.

“Toph- be careful-“, Katara spoke up, immediately reminding Zuko of the last time he saw her and he flinched

His uncle laughed as the girl ran up to him, and said “hello young Toph. How are you?”

“Great!!” The girl, apparently named Toph, replied. “I can’t believe you’re here! You escaped?”

“Yes, we did, me and my nephew.”

“Sick! We’re doing the opposite actually, we tried to break in and stop the war, but we couldn’t find Ozai and it might be too late-“

“Toph-!!” Katara said in what seemed to be disappointment and anger, “stop telling the enemy what we did-!”

“Who cares, he was put in jail by his brother, he’s not pro-Ozai”, Toph replied

The boy who had the blade against him spoke up as well, Zuko was pretty sure his name was Sokka but wasn’t positive, “What about sparky over here? He chased us across the world and tried to kill Aang multiple times!”

“I can assure you, my nephew is a changed man, he no longer has any reason to be opposed to you-“

“Oh yeah-? And why is that.” Katara said harshly

“He has gone against Ozai, and was imprisoned alongside me.”

Silence followed that statement, and Zuko turned his head away from where the Avatar group was, as he sat up completely, and nodded softly.

“It’s uh- it’s true.” He said quietly

He heard Katara scoff but silence from everyone else, as Sokka spoke up again, “So? How can we know for sure?”

“Because I-“

Zuko was interrupted by a rush of footsteps stomping in their direction, and stood up and got into a fighting position towards the noise, and realized the rest of the group had joined in around him getting into position.

All of a sudden the battle started and Zuko felt entirely lost in the chaos, with the earth shaking under his feet, the rushing of waves and air shooting around him, as well as hearing hand to hand and the sound of sword fighting. What Zuko could do however was redirect the sea of fire that was consistently rushing around and at him. While he couldn’t see, at all, he could feel all of the fire coming at him, and was able to dissipate it all in a swipe of his arms.

Zuko did mostly defense, stifling down his absolute fear of the flames coming at him, while also shooting some swipes of fire where he could tell the previous bolts of fire had come from.

The battle seemed like it was going relatively easy, and was all going good until Zuko was just out of range for one bolt of fire, and as he went over to snatch it out of the sky, while focusing purely on the energy of the fire, ran into Sokka, and both of them went rolling and tumbling on the ground.

“What the hell, Sparky? Watch where you’re-“

Sokka stopped talking immediately, the silence being sudden and jarring, as Zuko looked his way, confused.

“What? What is i-?”

In this moment of turning his head, he realized that he could feel the breeze on his face, and more importantly, over his eyes. His eyes widened as he realized his wrap must have fallen off when they both fell, and he reached around on the ground to try and find it.

“Are- are you-“

“Shut it. I’m- I’m not really bl-“ he realized in this moment, that even though he had his wraps off, he couldn’t see anything, not even his hand infront of his face, and flinched, “just- shut up-“, he looked away from Sokka.

“Did you- get it from- you-know-who-?”

“Shut up.”, he hissed

The fight raged on around the two of them, and after a long silence, Sokka spoke up again “I’m not- calling you weak because you’re-“ he paused as Zuko glared at him, “uh- not- blind- but, Toph is blind too-? And shes the toughest person I know-“

Zuko paused and let the moment simmer in silence, before he felt another blast of fire coming at them and stood infront of Sokka and redirected it away.

“I’m doing my best, okay. I’m not- good. At this. But, I’m… trying..”

“I think that’s all you can do. We can help-? You can bring your cool Uncle too.” Sokka responded, and after Zuko’s silence, spoke up again.

“You know, Aang’s been trying to find a fire-bending teacher.”

Chapter Text

“..really..?”

Zuko stared Sokka’s direction in shock. Was the water tribesman really offering such an important role to Zuko this early on? What had he done to deserve this? All he had done was accidentally reveal himself as blind and apologize for trying to kill him. Was that all it took?
He didn’t feel deserving of that trust. He hadn’t proved himself yet. Not enough. Not for all the pain he had caused.

This inner monologue was cut off by reassurance from Sokka, who grabbed him by the shoulder reassuringly, saying “yeah really!”, before trying to make a joke out of the tender moment, and immediately following it with “I mean- it all worked out for the first blind person to try and teach Aang bending, so odds are the second will work too!”.

This comment was immediately followed up by a shaking of the earth, and the sound of Toph yelling at some soldiers.

The two boys immediately started to laugh in the moments following the bad joke and the karmic response. Zuko was flushed as he smiled and laughed quietly, but wanted to be even more quiet as he listened to Sokka’s laugh.

Sokka’s laugh sounded like bubbles, it was loud and rambunctious, just like he was, and he snorted too, which just made it impossible not to laugh along with him.

Zuko wondered if staying with him and the Avatar would mean he got to hear that laugh more often. It seemed like he was winning the lottery if so. It was amazing to him that someone could be and sound as happy as Sokka did. No one laughed like Sokka in the Fire Nation.

It was different. Good different.

The cute moment was quickly cut off by another blast of fire coming at them, which Zuko immediately sent flying back to its source as he stepped infront of Sokka again.

The battle raged on for a little while longer, before Zuko started hearing the sound of people rushing past himself and Sokka, with the Avatar (Aang-?) yelling “Get to Appa!!”

Zuko was generally confused and had no idea what an ‘Appa’ was, as he felt Sokka grab his hand, and turn to go.

Zuko pulled Sokka back in confusion and mild fear, asking him “What are you doing-??”

“We have to get to Appa, duh, so we can get out of here, come on your Uncle is already headed that way with everyone else, we need to go. I’ll yell directions but keep up”

Zuko nodded and squeezed the others hand as they started to run away from the palace, Sokka yelling directions and warning of sharp turns while Zuko gave directions on how to avoid the fire still actively coming at them.

The two ran for what felt like hours until Sokka halted to a stop and Zuko followed suit, and Sokka let go of his hand and said more instructions quickly “I have my hands down as a foothold for you, you can hop on and should be able to hoist yourself up on the side of the saddle”

The saddle?

Zuko stepped up on Sokka’s hands and felt fur immediately, and flinched, finding and grabbing onto a wooden ledge as he pulled himself up with the help of his Uncle and someone else, Zuko wasn’t sure who.

Immediately as Zuko grounded himself on the platform, he felt a swarm of fireballs fill the air as he stood and took as many as he could physically manage, combined them into one massive fireball that he dissipated, and then reached down over the saddles edge to help Sokkq up, who immediately grabbed on and climbed into the saddle, as Katara yelled at Aang to get moving.

The sky bison immediately and quickly lifted off the ground and began to fly away, as Zuko held onto the ledge of the saddle for dear life.

Zuko felt his Uncle’s hand on his back, reassuring him that they will be safe.

“Why are THEY here?? The two of them are fire nation royals, and one of them has been chasing us around the globe trying to kill us!” Katara yelled in anguish.

“I’m sorry, I’m trying to be better, I’m just here to help the Avatar learn firebending. Then I can be out of your hair.”

Katara scoffed again, and as Appa turns to change directions according to Aangs choices, Zuko flinches and holds tighter onto the saddle side, as Iroh keeps a steady arm on him as well.

He felt a hand touch his arm, and Sokka leaned in close to him asking if he was okay quietly.

Zuko muttered back a quick “I’m fine.” and tried to avoid drawing attention to himself again.

Toph chuckled and spoke up after Sokka sat back down, saying “I was terrified of flying my first time, so cheer up.”

“I’m not scared” Zuko countered

“You’re literally shaking.” Katara pointed out. “Why are you so scared anyway-?”

Zuko looked her direction in slight annoyance before going to turn away again before he heard her gasp, and paused.

“What-?”

“It’s- What happened to your scar-?” Katara said in shock

Zuko turned away sharply and frowned, muttering “I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Toph spoke up after Zuko was done talking, “what is it-?”

“It’s- his eyes- how can you-“

“I said I don’t want to talk about it” Zuko said quietly, no malice in his words, just exhaustion.

He heard some quiet shuffling, then heard Toph quietly ask “are you blind-?”

Zuko thought about it for a moment and exhaustedly responded, “I don’t know. I guess.”

“Huh.”

“…”

“You’re sitting on Appa wrong.” She said, “Crouch more. Hands here.” She kicked his legs and moved his hands to push him into a more comfortable and safe seating position.

Zuko had decided that in his 5 minutes of knowing her, that he liked Toph. Not that he LIKE-liked her, but thought she was cool. She seemed to sympathize with his situation, but also wasn’t babying him, which was exactly what Zuko needed at the moment.

…

“If you don’t want me to be your firebending teacher, I can go.” Zuko proclaimed after an extremely long silence.

They had arrived at the Western Air Temple not long ago, reminding the ex-fire nation royals of their previous visit to the location, at this moment feeling eerily similar, yet so different.

At the time, Zuko had been recovering from the Agni Kai, but had refused to take any kind of moment to rest, instead immediately attempting to find the avatar by searching the air temples.

All he had wanted was to go back home, to capture the Avatar so he could make his father proud again.

Zuko was blind now, but he was blinder then.

His father never wanted him to return, and he never cared about Zuko in the slightest.

And now, Zuko and Iroh were back. Zuko recovering from another burn from his father, and his uncle supporting him through all of it, something he absolutely did not deserve after betraying him. But this time he was here to help.

More silence continued after that statement, until Aang spoke up

“We can try, and you did help Sokka and try to keep the firebenders from attacking us”

Zuko let out a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding, and nodded.

“Katara is there any like- magic-y healing water stuff you can do to help his burn-?” Sokka spoke from somewhere behind him

Katara didn’t respond, and Sokka spoke again “come on, it’ll make it easier for Aang to learn firebending-?”

“Fine. Come with me, I think I saw a river as we flew by,” she replied begrudgingly

“Cool! I’ll go with you guys and Aang and Toph can help scout out the place.” Sokka spoke excitedly as he stepped closer to Zuko, on the side his uncle wasn’t on.

It was weird to have this much help to Zuko, and that was even considering he had lived his entire childhood with servants up until his banishment. Typically when he struggled he could shove his uncle away and deal with it himself, but because of the nature of his situation, he physically couldn’t be by himself at the moment.

What did normal blind people use to get around? Canes right?

Zuko was pretty sure there wouldn’t be a walking stick in the western air temple.

He was pretty sure he didn’t need a cane. He was getting pretty good at avoiding specifically fires flying at him. And that was all he had needed up until then.

This would be fine.

…

It was not fine. In what must have been 10 minutes of walking, Zuko had tripped over almost every step he had taken, multiple times crashing into his uncle and Sokka, who had both said it was alright despite multiple apologies on Zuko’s part and a lot of general embarrassment. It had been much easier to get around when he had been on the solid stone flooring of the Palace, and even then he had lost his footing multiple times, but walking through the woods on an unsteady incline was not what Zuko was built for. Zuko felt mortified everytime he would stumble into Sokka and would feel his hands on his shoulders, always quickly followed up with a “are you alright-?”, much to a very embarrassed muttered profuse apology. Even then Sokka and Iroh would consistently tell Zuko about the surroundings, if they were moving over for trees or if there was mud or large roots. Zuko deeply appreciated this but was also ashamed to have needed this much help to get around, something he used to be able to do simply and quickly By the time Katara had announced their arrival to a river, Zuko was positive his face was beet red in embarrassment. “Is- do you want me to like, sit somewhere specific.” Zuko said awkwardly “Yes. Come here.” She replied as she took his hands and led him to the side of the river. “Lay down on your back, and try to relax.” Zuko did, taking a deep breath as he tried to relax. “Alright. The sensation is a little weird, but not painful. Try to stay calm, it helps.” she continued Zuko waited a moment in suspense, before feeling a cold sensation over the top part of his face. The feeling felt very cold, but refreshing, like a cold bath after training. He flinched a little bit as the water covered his eyes, which were still open, as it had gotten harder to close them after they got burned again. When he had explained that to his uncle, all he had gotten in return was silence and a hug that felt very sympathetic. The cold river water felt like it was cooling off his burn, finally. It still hurt, a lot, a deep hurt that felt more than surface level, but it had stopped burning so painfully. When he had gotten his scar in the Agni Kai, it burned for a year, even after it healed. His face always felt hot still, and it still felt like it was sizzling some days, until one day he had just, stopped noticing it. It was still there, it still burned, he just managed to live with it. He had felt the same after this most recent burn over both of his eyes. The memory was hazy but he remembered the many nights of agonizing pain while in the prison cell with his uncle, crying and yelling in his delirium. His uncle had put up with all of it, holding him while he cried and reapplying ointment on his scars, and keeping it clean with whatever water they were given. It was a miracle Zuko had survived those initial weeks. If he had been placed in a different cell then with his uncle, he would have died within the day. Despite everything Zuko had done, Iroh had saved him and kept him safe. It took his own betrayal and a tragic accident for him to realize that. As Zuko finished reflecting on his experiences and trauma, he felt the water leave his face, and heard Katara get up from where she was sitting, as he sat up as well.
“The burn was really bad, so you probably still can’t see, but it looks better so it must feel at least slightly better” Katara proclaimed. Zuko took a moment as he sat up to examine how he felt, and did realize he felt much better as he smiled slightly, looking Kataras direction “Feels a lot better. Thank you, Katara.” “Now let’s get ba-“ Katara was cut off by a loud explosion in the direction they came from, leading everyone to immediately become startled and tense. “Did that come from the Air Temple?!” Sokka spoke in shock “Unclear if it’s FROM the air temple, but likely hit it. We should return as fast as possible,” Iroh replied, “Zuko, what’s the source-?” Zuko flinched and tried to focus as he heard a second explosion, and stood up, “it’s not fire- but it’s- close-? It’s just- explosions-“ Instantly both Katara and Sokka spoke in unison, in shock and annoyance, saying “Combustion Man.” “-We need to get back there. NOW.” Katara continued. “You and Sokka go. We’ll meet you there since I’ll be a little slower, we’ll try and get there as fast as possible.” Zuko replied. He heard the two of them pause for a moment (maybe they nodded-? Or some kind of silent affirmation-?) before the two ran away. Zuko sighed and looked his uncles direction before saying “the way back should be easier-? Lead the way.” … It was only slightly easier, seeing as they had tried to run back, and while Zuko stumbled much less, he did fully wipe out a couple of times, resulting in pauses. Overall it took a shorter amount of time to return as well, only a couple minutes behind Sokka and Katara according to Iroh. As they arrived to the western air temple his uncle pulled him towards the direction the rest of the Gaang was hidden from whatever ‘Combustion Man’ was. “What is happening??? What’s a ‘combustion man’-?” Zuko whispered to the rest of the group “He’s this creepy bald dude who’s been chasing us around. He has like- an eye on his forehead that shoots explosions-? I named him combustion man” Sokka said the final sentence with a smug tone. Zuko immediately realized what was happening and froze. In everything that had happened in the last month, Zuko had completely forgotten about the assassin he had sent to kill the Avatar and his friends. Look- he had been hired at a time of Zuko’s life where had been making poor decision after poor decision, and this was absolutely one of them, but he had no idea how to call the assassin off at the moment. “Zuko. What did you do.” Shit, Zuko had forgotten for a moment that he could be perceived. Zuko couldn’t see, but he could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he started sweating. “I- um- look I made a lot of bad decisions when I returned to the fire nation-“ That statement was followed up by an explosion of outrage by the entire group, as Zuko tried to shrink down as much as possible to almost appear invisible.
Zuko felt another explosion start to form as he yelled “RUN”, and dashed forward, as he heard everyone else scatter as well. Soon after Zuko yelled that, and after everyone had run away, an explosion hit the pillar where the group had been hidden moments before, as Zuko stepped out into the open and yelled the direction he was about 80% sure the assassin was standing on the cliff, “STOP ATTACKING. CALL OFF.” In this moment, he could feel the man ready a blast directly in his direction but had no time to get away, until he felt the earth around him shift and shove him out of the way of the attack, and from there, Zuko could move to safety. He continued to call out rough locations of where blasts were headed, despite not knowing where the rest of the group was, until suddenly there was an explosion high up on the cliff, and there were no more after that.
After a second, Zuko came out again, asking if it was over, to his uncles response of yes. Katara immediately went off on Zuko, yelling at him about why he would do this and why he wouldn’t tell them he had hired him sooner, with Sokka and Aang agreeing. Zuko took a second to let them get their anger out at him before quietly apologizing, and explaining “my sister claimed I killed you. That made me look good to my father, despite the fact both me and Azula knew you probably weren’t dead. If it had come out you were alive, my father would have likely killed me. That- doesn’t make up for how wrong what I did was, but know it wasn’t out of a place of malice, I did what I did out of pure fear of my Fathers wrath.” The group was silent after that admission, and Zuko took a second to continue. “I want to help you, and I want to put a stop to the war my family started. And the best way to do that is to teach you firebending the right way. Fire-“ he paused for a second with a sharp intake of breath as bad memories came swarming forward, and quickly continued, “it’s hard to control. It can easily hurt people. I need to improve my own control, and I hope to do that by helping you as well” More silence followed that, until eventually Aang spoke up. “I think you were always meant to be my fire bending teacher,” that statement surprised Zuko, who’s eyes widened slightly, and Aang continued “, with that- I would love it if you were my fire bending teacher. But I can’t agree to keep you and your Uncle here until everyone else agrees too.” Toph immediately spoke up with a smile on her voice, “Sure he can. Doesn’t change the fact I’m the coolest blind bender in the room.” She laughed after that, and Zuko smiled her direction. “You’ve gotta tell us the next time you hire an assassin to kill us, but besides that, welcome to Team Avatar, Sparky.” Sokka followed his statement up with a slap to Zuko’s back, and he stumbled but caught himself, still smiling. There was silence for a moment before he heard Katara sigh and say “If Aang says it’s okay, it’s okay I guess,” before walking away. Iroh spoke up in excitement, holding Zuko’s shoulder in a kind-of half hug, saying “Thank you all for accepting us into your new home. We are immensely grateful.”
Aang responded “of course! Toph can show you to one of the rooms that can be yours” Toph said “of course I can, now come on.” She started walking, and Iroh helped him follow her to their rooms. … Zuko quickly got settled in with what little clothes he still had, and was given some extra fire nation clothes from Sokka and Aang to replace his prison outfit, which instantly made Zuko feel more at home. He had set up his medical stuff next to where his small mattress was, and was excited to sleep somewhat comfortably for the first time in a couple weeks, comforting to know his Uncle was in the room next to his As he stood to get up, he heard someone step into his doorway, and heard Katara start talking in an angered tone “you might have everyone else buying your ‘transformation’, but you and I both know you’ve struggled with doing the right thing in the past,” he heard her walk closer to him, “so let me tell you something, right now. You make one step backward, one slip-up, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won’t have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I’ll make sure your destiny ends right then and there. Permanently.” Zuko was silent as he heard her walk away, and sighed, before laying back down in his bed and thinking about all that has and would happen.

Chapter Text

Less than 24 hours after arriving at the Western Air Temple, Zuko was attempting to teach his first firebending lesson to Aang.
His uncle had found a decently sized stick for Zuko to use as a sort of staff to get around, because while he was spatially aware when it came to fire, he still incredibly bad at getting around the temple without falling.
Zuko had at the time refused, but after a close call of Zuko almost falling off the side of the western air temple, only being saved by Toph violently shoving him away from the edge using earthbending, Zuko had reluctantly taken the stick, and had found it was slightly easier to get around.
Zuko leaned against said staff as he felt the usually very chatty Avatar become awkwardly silent, as he attempted to revive the conversation, saying “I know you’re nervous about firebending. But remember- the act itself isn’t something to be afraid of”, he heard the avatar sigh in relief, before Zuko flinched and continued, “however, you do still have to respect it. Fire is dangerous and can ruin your whole life.” He paused. “Well that’s just- personally- it’s not the fire itself to be scared of- it’s some people who wield it.”
Aang was silent for a moment, before speaking up quietly “like- Firelord Ozai-?”
“Yes exactly. And my sister. But we don’t have to worry about them yet.”
“… okay…”
Zuko stood up straight, and crossed his arms, still holding onto his staff.
“Alright. Show me what you’ve got. Any amount of fire you can make.”
Everything was silent for a moment, before Zuko heard the rustling of clothes as the Avatar moved, and felt nothing after. Zuko didn’t sense anything, and he was silent for another second, before hesitantly speaking up again “did- you do something-?”
The avatar hesitated again, before saying “… yes-?”, and Sokka, yelling from far off in the distance, responded “if that was ‘fire bending’, then I’m earthbending-” Zuko vaguely remembered the water tribesman was checking the boarders of the Air Temple for damages after Combustion man attacked yesterday “-It was literally just a puff of smoke”
“Mm.” Zuko responded, and Aang groaned in defeat.
“Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps- a demonstration-?” The Avatar said.
Zuko put his stick against the wall and nodded, saying “Alright. You should back up.”
Zuko took a deep breath and exhaled, as he shot his fist out and a tiny flame came from it. Zuko almost physically recoiled in confusion, as he said in shock “what was that-? That’s the worst firebending I’ve ever seen-!” He tried it a couple more times to no avail, groaning in anger.
Sokka walked up at some point, half heartedly chuckling at all of Zuko’s lame attempts to firebend, and making sarcastic comments, as Zuko glared his direction and yelled “don’t patronize me-!”
Sokka took one step away, and Zuko feared for a split second that he might have gone too far, before hearing the boy with a smile on his voice say “I’m just saying! Would’ve been nice if this happened any other time you were with us- like when you chased us around the world.” Zuko scoffed for a moment, and smiled as he turned away, not wanting to give Sokka the satisfaction of a grin. Despite his attempts to hide it, Sokka started laughing and shoved him playfully saying “I saw that!”, as Zuko shoved him back and lost the grin, subbing it out for a snarky smirk, yelling back “you saw NOTHING”
“No YOU saw nothing”
Zuko chuckled in disbelief, still grinning, and gently pushed him again, saying “Too soon”
“Come onnn, it was right there!!”
The playful exchange almost got Zuko’s mind off the fact that he was struggling to produce fire, as he told Aang their lesson was over, and walked over back to the general camp site with Sokka and his staff, and as he sat down near where they had previously set up a campfire, he looked in the other teen’s direction, asking “can you help me set up a campfire? I just- need to test something”
He was silent, before sputtering and saying “oh yeah sorry- I nodded- yeah, I can grab some wood.”
Zuko chuckled again as he heard Sokka walk away and walk back, and then set down wood infront of him, as he used his extremely small amount of firebending to start a blaze, and Sokka helped with spark rocks.
Eventually the campfire started and Zuko sighed as he felt the power of the small fire infront of him.
A moment later, Sokka spoke up next to him “so- what’d you need the fire for-?”
Zuko took a second to find the right words, before saying “I can kind of see fire. It’s not at all like actually seeing, but that’s the easiest way to describe it. It’s like- an energy- I don’t know how else to describe it.” Zuko paused for a moment before clapping his hands together in realization and turning to Sokka’s direction “ok-! So- you know how sometimes, when a storm is coming, you can smell the rain-? Even before it’s really dark out yet-?”
Sokka responded “yeah-?”
“Well- it’s like that- I can’t actually see the fire, but I know it’s there, and I know where it’s coming from, like which direction the storm is coming from, so- I thought maybe because my firebending is so awful..”
Sokka continued Zuko’s sentence, “.. you thought you were losing your weird fire-sight too-?”
Zuko nodded, and turned to the fire again “But it’s not. It’s just my bending.”
It was silent for a moment, before Sokka spoke up again “what can you do about it-?”
“I- don’t know. I think I’m going to talk to my Uncle.”
Sokka was silent for another moment (maybe he nodded again? Zuko had learned over the last 36 hours of knowing the boy that Sokka mostly tried to communicate non-verbally, in nods and head shakes according to Toph), then spoke again, “You need help getting there-?”
Zuko thought on it for a moment, before nodding again, saying “just until we’re outside his room, I don’t want him to think I need help”
Zuko could hear Sokka’s smirk as he said “but you do need help”
Zuko responded, “Never have, never will,” with a smile on his face.

…

Sokka walked with Zuko down the halls, while also walking with his staff to make sure he could get a good visualization of their path. After a couple minutes, they arrived, and Zuko thanked Sokka as he walked off.
Zuko took a deep breath, then walked into his Uncles room, quietly saying “Uncle-?”
He heard some quiet shuffling, and his uncle’s laugh, as he said with a smile “Prince Zuko! Come, sit next to me.” He felt his uncle’s hand grasp his own as he led him to a spot on the floor to sit, with a pillow under him.
Zuko smiled softly at his Uncles kind actions before frowning, and looking down “Uncle- I don’t know what to do-“
The tone in the room seemed to change as his Uncle immediately placed a hand on his bicep and lost the smile in his voice, becoming comforting and concerned “Is everything alright, nephew-?”
“Yes- no? It’s- my firebending. It’s weaker than it’s ever been and I don’t know why-“ Zuko said in frustration
“Hmm..” his uncle said as his uncle went quiet in thought, “you haven’t lost connection with your energy feeling have you-?”
“No, I haven’t. I can still feel the fires, it’s just that my own firebending is weak.”
He paused for a moment, and continued saying “you should teach Aang, he needs a powerful firebender and I’m not that, you are, you could teach him like how you taught me-!”
“I will not,” Iroh replied “Teaching him is your destiny, not mine.”
Zuko went silent, as Iroh paused as well, then continued
“Alright,” Iroh stood as he spoke “I think it may be time to consult other ways of firebending, I am going to grab the Avatar, I’ll be back soon, Zuko.”
Zuko looked his direction, confused, but nodded again, waiting for a couple minutes before hearing two sets of feet coming back towards his door, and felt someone (he assumed Aang) sit next to him.
As Zuko turned to face Iroh’s (rough) direction, as he started speaking “The reason the two of you might be struggling could be for two completely different reasons. My nephew has just gone from being fueled by rage snd fear, to a passion for change,” Zuko twitched at the emotional read from his uncles as he continued “while you, Aang, seem to be frightened by the nature of fire itself.” Aang, too, seemed to be called out by the read, as he sputtered out an attempt to prove Iroh untrue, while all his uncle did was smile and continue “What I recommend is to visit the old Sun Warriors tribe.”
Aang speaks up, sounding confused “what are the Sun Warriors-?”
Zuko responds, also confused, “They’re the first people to have learned firebending from the Dragons. But they’re all gone-? Along with-“ He paused and kinda muttered “the dragons-“
Aang sounded extremely confused as he spoke up again, “Wait what do you mean? Roku had a dragon, there were plenty of dragons around when I was a kid.”
Zuko muttered “not anymore,” somewhat awkwardly.
His uncle was silent for a moment before saying “it’s worth exploring the ruins, at least. I believe in the two of you, but I will not join you. This is a task I believe you two need to partake in.”
The two boys were silent, and Iroh continued
“I trust that you two can learn something great from this. Be safe.”

…

“How long have we been flying?! It feels like forever-“
Zuko proclaimed from is place on Appa’s saddle, clutching the side in an attempt to ground himself in his mild fear of flying.
Appa growled from under him, as Zuko flinched, and Aang spoke up from the front, “Maybe we could be a little more up-beat about this-? Plus Appa isn’t even flying as high as usual, so the view is-“ his statement went silent as he realized what he was saying, and Zuko stared his direction before jokingly saying “how is the view-?”
Aang quietly said “it’s nice-“ and Zuko snorted before saying “great” with a small smile on his face.
One of the few things Zuko had done while he was at the Western Air Temple was pay attention to how Toph treated people and was treated. A couple of times people tried to point out only seeing-things to Toph, like how food looked or commenting on the way something was written in their notes. Zuko liked how Toph responded jokingly, she wasn’t uncomfortable about her blindness, and people made mistakes all the time.
In the same sense, while the pain and subsequent feelings that came with his injury and newfound disability hadn’t gone away yet, if he didn’t want people to find him weak because of it, he had to make it feel normal. He thought maybe in a similar way, it might convince him to see his injury as okay someday. He was trying to not be sensitive about it.
So, Zuko was okay with blind jokes. As long as they weren’t trauma-related or hurtful. But he was new to the jokes. And the blindness. And having friends who made jokes like that.
This was all very new to Zuko.
Surprisingly to him, no one had ever even come close to making rude jokes about it, at most it would be Sokka making comments whenever Zuko said something insinuating he was seeing, like earlier when he was first realizing his fire bending was bad. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Sokka had already asked if the jokes were alright before making them.
Typically all that happened was someone would forget he was blind, and Zuko would try to jokingly remind them, without making them feel bad.
In his observation of the Avatar’s group and their relationships with humor, he learned that Sokka mostly communicates through jokes, something Zuko is inherently bad at.
Zuko wasn’t good at jokes. He hadn’t ever really grown up with people who made them, besides his Uncle and Azula, but he was pretty sure she didn’t count.
When his little sister made jokes when they were kids, usually they would leave Zuko crying, or at least scared. Sokka’s jokes were never like that.
When Sokka cracked a joke, rooms would light up. Even the most serious conversations would fizzle out and the people start to chuckle.
Zuko thought it was magical.
“Soooo… you and Sokka huh-?”
Zuko turned beet red as he immediately turned to Aang with a mild flinch, as he yelled back “What’s that supposed to mean-?!” In shock and mild horror.
The avatar responded very defensively, and said “nothing! nothing! It’s just-“ Zuko glared at him again as he continued, “-you aren’t really the ‘best friends’ kind of person, and I think you really like being around Sokka-? A lot more then, no offense, everyone else at the Western Air Temple. How did that happen-?”
Zuko took a moment and reflected on the Avatar’s statement. It was all true, he did really like being around Sokka, but wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened that way.
All Zuko had really done was accidentally show off his disgusting injury, deeply apologize for everything he had done in the past, and fend off attacks from firebenders.
Is that how you make friends?
Otherwise, the water tribesman had been extremely kind to him, helping him escape the palace in one piece, and generally helping him get around safely, which often left Zuko embarrassed but also with a funny feeling in his stomach.
Zuko found that he was flustered easily when he was around. Small touches, annoying jokes, soft smiles, playful shoves.
Everything Aang had said was true, but he was implying couldn’t be.
“It’s not like that,” He said, still flushed “plus it’s- not super allowed in the Fire Nation-“
Aang responded, sounding sad and confused “What do you mean-? When I was little, anyone in the fire nation could be married to anyone”
Zuko frowned and looked away, “not anymore. Sozin tried to get it as illegal as possible. It’s been slightly reformed since then by Azulon, the Fire Lord before my father, who made it not illegal but heavily frowned upon, because a lot of citizens threatened to flee.”
“So- it’s not illegal just- bad-?”
“Exactly. Not necessarily bad, but being a queer couple is very frowned upon in Fire Nation society, and it’s really hard to be allowed in the first place to be married. It takes years to get paperwork through.”
Aang inhaled sharply, and said “that’s unfair.”
“It is.”
The two went silent for a moment before Aang spoke up in surprise “I think we’re here-“
Zuko sat up in surprise, “really-?? What does it look like”
As they descended, Aang described really pretty ruins with giant buildings, similarly described to how Zuko remembered some Fire Nation buildings nowadays looking.
As the two hopped off of Appa, Aang let out a small “woah..” in amazement at their surroundings, as Zuko grabbed his staff
“Those buildings you described sound like they might be what the Fire Sage buildings are based off of” Zuko said as they started walking
“Well we’ve learned about architecture, hopefully we can learn about firebending too. The past can be a gre- AHH-“
Zuko took a step back as he heard a mechanical sound start up and heard the sound of air bending and Aang land somewhat-far away, before saying “I’m good! There was a booby trap! Be careful with the spikes-“
Zuko looked confused as he inspected the trip wire, and said “this must be centuries old, and it still works-?”
“There could be a lot more then- maybe we shouldn’t-“
Zuko took his staff and put on the ground to get a sort of measure of how long the jump was, before walking back and getting a running start to jump it, landing on the other side and grabbing his staff “People don’t make traps like these unless they have something to protect. Let’s keep going.”
The two explore, Aang describing the surroundings for Zuko, before they arrive at one place and Aang describes the mural of a man surrounded by two dragons having fire breathed at him.
Zuko flinched at that one as Aang said “I thought the Dragons were friends with the Sun Warriors.”
Zuko responded “They had a funny way of showing it, then.”
The two continued walking, as suddenly Aang said “Zuko”, and Zuko paused to look back his direction, as he continued “Something happened to the dragons in the last hundred years. Something you’re not telling me.”
Zuko took a deep breath and started to explain, “My great-grandfather Sozin happened.” He paused and the continued as he walked “He started the tradition of hunting Dragons for sport. If you defeated one, your firebending talents would be considered legendary, and you’d earn the honorary title, Dragon. The last dragon was conquered long before I was born, by my Uncle.”
Aang sounded shocked as he said “What-? But your uncle is good, he’s helping us-!”
Zuko flinched and nodded “he is. It’s a complicated past, a family tradition thing.”
As the two continued walking, Zuko’s staff ran into something that Zuko begins to investigate, as Aang runs up to something and Zuko hears the rustling of chains, and Aang proclaims “it’s locked up!”
Zuko looked back at Aang and said “is there a sunstone at the top of this-?”
“Uhhh- there’s like a reddish stone-?”
Zuko grinned “And there’s one at the top of the gate?”
Aang said yes, and Zuko continued “it’s a celestial calendar. But it’s not the time or date it’s supposed to be opened yet.” Zuko got out a smaller machete-type sword from his robe and handed it to Aang “try and bend the light towards the other with this.”
While he had been preparing to leave for the Sun Warriors temples, he had made a sarcastic joke to Sokka about how useless he was without his swords or his firebending. Sokka had told him to wait a second, left, and then had returned with a hunting blade he had brought from the Water tribe, because he ‘couldn’t trust him with his space sword yet, but you’ll be fine with this one’.
Zuko had almost started crying when he handed it to him.
The ground started shaking as Zuko assumes Aang moved the light to hit the right place, and heard the metal gears open, as Aang nudged him in the elbow, and said “Zuko, I don’t care what everyone else says about you. You’re pretty smart” he said that and walked off, as Zuko smiled before realizing the rest of the statement, and following behind him “wait- what does everyone else say about me-??”

…

As the two walked in, Zuko tried to feel around for any traps, as Aang wandered, and said “there’s like- forms on the walls- like people in positions, kind of like bending forms?” He paused for a moment and Aang grabbed his arm and said “I think it’s a dance! Let’s do it-!”
Zuko immediately pulled away and said “What-??”
“The forms are called the dancing dragon! I’ll teach it to you, but come on let’s do it!”
The two took a couple minutes to teach Zuko the forms, as he couldn’t see the forms on the wall. He caught on quickly, as the dance seemed to be made up of mostly firebending kata’s Zuko had ingrained into his muscle memory. Eventually after Zuko had learned the dance, they stepped into place and performed it, as in sync as the two could manage with Zuko’s inability to tell where Aang is.
As the two finish the dance, Zuko stumbles back as he hears the sound of stone moving close by him, as Aang cheers and says “wait what is that? It looks like the thing outside-?”
“The sunstones-?” He steps towards it and goes to touch it, as Aang’s hand slaps him away “ow-! What-?”
“Remember what happened with the spikes? This is- suspicious-“
Zuko rolled his eyes as he picked up the egg-shaped object, and says in surprise “it feels almost alive.”
As he goes to set the gemstone where it was, something liquid erupts from the pedestal, and he rockets up to the ceiling, with his back against what feels like maybe a grate to open air.
Zuko attempts to pull away from it as Aang proclaims it’s a trap, and realizes he can’t get down, and begins to panic “I can’t pull free- it’s some kind of glue-“
In this moment, Zuko completely panics, he is in the air and can’t move, and his dumb little staff is probably buried in the glue.
As he breathes shakily, Sokka’s machete weighs as a constant pressure against him, as terrified as he is.
Aang lets out what Zuko assumes is a massive gust of wind, that simply flips Zuko around, so his face is towards the open air of the grate, but he still can’t move.
He struggles for a moment, before hearing Aang cling on next to him, as the room fills with glue.
The two are silent for a moment before Aang says “it’s stopped-“
Zuko closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath before saying “at least we have air. Maybe there’s a way out of here-?”
They’re silent for another moment before Aang yells “Help-!”
Zuko opens his mouth to make an annoyed comment in response, but doesn’t, choosing to be silent
The two stay in that silence for a while, before Zuko hears footsteps, and a man’s voice comes from above them
“Who is down there?”

…

The two were rescued from the slime, and surrounded, as Aardvark Sloths cleaned the gunk off of them.
Zuko yelped and flinched away from the aardvark sloth as it licked part slime off of his burn scar, backing away a little from it.
The sun warriors were silent for a moment, before a man’s voice spoke up and said “That burn is recent.”
Zuko hesitated, and responded with a yes.
“Accident, or in Combat.”
Zuko hesitated again, before responding “..Combat.”
The man paused for a moment, seeming to be taking in information, before continuing. “Was it not combat-?”
“It’s- complicated,” Zuko responded. “Technically it was combat.”
Zuko chose not to give anymore away, as he could tell even without seeing him that Aang was paying close attention to Zuko’s words.
One of the other men of the group yelled that the two should be “severely punished” for their actions.
Zuko responded saying “We didn’t come here to take your sunstone. We came here to find the ancient origin of all firebending.”
One of the men scoffed, before saying “yeah right, they are obviously thieves here to steal Sun Warrior treasures.”
He heard Aang shuffle next to him, and stand, saying “Please, I don’t normally play this card, but.. I’m the Avatar. Please just hear us out.”
Zuko stood with him, and continued on the Avatar’s statement “my name is Zuko, crown prince of the fire nation.” He paused for a moment, before hesitantly saying “Or- or I used to be.” He continued with as much confidence as he could, saying “I know my people have distorted the ways of firebending, to be fueled by anger and rage. I-“ he paused for a moment again, and continued “I would know. But now I want to learn the true way. The original way. When we came here, I could have never imagined the sun warriors civilization to be secretly alive. I am truly humbled to be in your presence.” He bowed to them, and said “Please, teach us.”
After a moment of consideration, one of the men closest to them said “if you wish to learn the ways of the Sun, you must learn from the masters, Ran and Shaw.”
Zuko was shocked as he realized the Sun Warriors weren’t going to kill or roast them alive, as Aang questioned “Ran and Shaw? There are two of them?”
The man continued, his voice sounding closer then before “when you present yourself to them, they will examine you. They’ll read your hearts, your souls, and your ancestry.” Zuko winced at the last comment, as the man continued “If they deem you worthy, they’ll teach you. If they don’t, you’ll be destroyed on the spot.”
Zuko gulped at the bluntness of the statement, as it seemed the Sun Warriors began to move away, and turned Aang’s direction and spoke quietly, “did you get your glider back?”
“No, but I think the chief has it at least, I think he’s waiting for a second”
“Is the chief the man who was just speaking to us-?” “Yes. I mean- I think so, that’s what it looked like” Zuko nodded and stepped forward before saying, as respectfully as possible “um- excuse me, Chief, sir.” The general commotion stopped, as the man’s voice Zuko now knew as the Chief of the Sun Warriors spoke up “Yes-? What is it.”
Zuko was internally cringing at the fact he would even need to ask this, but he took a breath, and spoke up “there- there was a wooden stick in the temple, I know you all found it because I heard someone make a comment about it, but I need it. It’s not a weapon, it’s not dangerous, I just.. need it.”
The sun warriors chief went silent once more, before replying “Please explain why you need it, or else we cannot return it to you.”
Zuko took a big inhale before replying “It’s a walking stick. My burn inhibits my sight. I need it to get around.”
The chief replied with a hum of understanding, and responded “I see. As it clearly is required for you to have it to meet the masters, we can return it to you.” There was some general shuffling, before Zuko heard someone walking up to him, and felt his wooden staff back in his open hands, and a sigh of relief followed, as he bowed once more and said “thank you, Chief”
“It is no issue. Come now, the both of you, and prepare to meet the masters.”

…

“If you are going to see the masters, you must bring a piece of the Eternal flame. This fire is the very first one. It was given to man by the dragons. We have kept it going for thousands of years.”
While Zuko couldn’t, in the most common sense of the word, see the flame, but he could feel it. It was powerful, unlike anything he could have ever imagined. It felt ancient, and powerful but still in a way new and young, as it has been clearly well maintained over the centuries.
“It’s beautiful..” Zuko spoke quietly, more in awe of the sheer power of the fire.
“You can feel it-?” The chief responded, as Zuko looked his direction, having kind of forgotten there were other people around him, in focusing on the flame.
Zuko sputtered out a response as put together as possible, despite his surprise “I- yes. I can-“
“What does it feel like-?”
Zuko paused for a moment, then responded “it feels like ancestry. Like old and new all mingled into one.”
The Chief hummed as a pleasant response, and he continued on “you will each bring a piece of it to the masters, to show your commitment to the sacred art of firebending.”
Aang hesitantly spoke up, saying “um- Mister Sun Chief sir, yeah I’m not a firebender yet, couldn’t my cool blind firebender friend carry mine for me”
Zuko glared Aang’s direction at the comment as the warrior chief responded “no. The ritual illustrates the essence of Sun Warrior philosophy,” Zuko felt the Chief take a part of the flame, and split it in half for him and Aang, still staring at it in awe, as the Sun Chief continued “You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small. Make it too big, and you might lose control.”
Zuko nodded in response, as the took the flame in his hands, as he heard Aang continue on saying “I’m sorry I’m just a little nervous”, the Avatar paused then continued, after Zuko assumed he held the flame “it’s like a little heartbeat”.
“Fire is life, not just destruction. You will take your flames up there. The cave of the masters is beneath that rock.”
With one hand holding his staff/walking stick, and the other clutching his flame, Zuko and Aang began walking, with Zuko quickly realizing he is many steps ahead of his companion, saying to him “hurry up-“
“I can’t- If I walk too fast, my flame will go out!”
“Your flame’s going to go out because it’s too small. You’re too timid, give it more juice” Zuko replied
“How can you even tell it’s small-?” He paused for a second, expecting a response from Zuko, who just smirked slightly, and Aang sighed and just said “what if I can’t control it”
“You can do it. I know you can. You’re a talented kid.”
As the two arrived to another platform, Aang signaled him to stop so Zuko didn’t keep aimlessly walking.
The Sun Chief stood infront of them again, saying “Facing the judgment of the masters will be very dangerous for you. Your ancestors are directly responsible for the dragons disappearance. The masters might not be so happy to see you.” Zuko turned his head down, and nodded in understanding, while one of the other Sun Warriors commented “I know I wouldn’t be.” Aang spoke up next to him and said “But once they find out I’m the Avatar..” The Chief continued saying “Have you forgotten that you vanished, allowing the Fire nation to wreak havoc on the world? The decline of the dragons is your burden as well”
Zuko heard a lot of walking, and the chief took a small part of each of their flames, with more moving and rustling around them, as Aang nudged his shoulder, and said “We could turn back now? We’ve already learned more about fire then we had hoped-“
Zuko considered it for a moment, before responding “No, we’re seeing this through to the end. We’re going to meet these masters and find out whats so great about them.”
“What if they judge us and attack us?”
Zuko smirked again and said “we’re the fire prince and the Avatar,” he reached slightly into his robe and showed off Sokka’s hunting blade “I think we could take these guys in a fight, whoever they are.”
Zuko took a deep breath before saying “Bring em out!” As the Chief yelled “Chanters!”
Aang and Zuko walked up a number of stairs, to a platform where the two stand back to back.
The Sun Chief’s voice amplified to them, saying “Those who wish to meet the masters, Ran and Shaw, will now present their fire.”
“Sound the call!”
The ground started shaking, making Zuko clutch his staff tighter, as he heard Aang move behind him,
“What’s happening?” The avatar said behind him, silence followed then a gasp from Aang, as he whispered “Zuko, my fire went out”
Zuko whispered back “what do you want me to do about it??”
“Give me some of yours!”
“No- make your own-“
“I can’t-!” Zuko felt Aang start trying to climb over him to grab his flame, as Zuko replied “Get some from the warriors, stop trying to steal mine!”
“Quit being stingy!”
Zuko felt his hold on the flame disperse, from his struggle, and his stomach dropped, as Aang eloquently replied “uh oh”
Suddenly the wind around the two of them changed, as something large came rushing at them, circling them
“What is happening?!”
“It’s- it’s dragons?”
“What?” Zuko stared Aang’s direction in shock as Aang replied, also seemingly in shock “still think we can take them-?”
“Shhhh I never said that”
Nothing happened to them for a moment, as Zuko waited in suspense.
Aang quietly said, at some point, “Zuko, I think we’re supposed to do the dragon dance with them”
“What? What about this situation makes you think they want to dance!”
“Well- I think they want us to do something. Let’s just try it”
Zuko hesitated, before saying “fine!”
The two preform the dragon dance, Zuko having no insight on if it’s going well or not, not being able to see the dragons themselves, but assuming based on the fact they hadn’t been roasted that it was going pretty good. As they landed the final pose, the wind stopped as the dragons seemed to have settled.
After a moment of fearful silence, Zuko felt fire coming at him, as he went back to back with Aang and covered his face in fear.
Instead of being hit by the flames, they circled him and the Avatar in a powerful vortex of gorgeous fire. If Zuko had thought the original flame was gorgeous, this was incredible. He couldn’t see the flames, but he could feel them, they weren’t orange like his own, but weren’t blue like his sisters, it was white hot and seemed to be every color, in Zuko’s mind.
It was everything.
He didn’t know fire could be this pretty.
In Zuko’s mind, fire had only been associated with pain and force, with power. Violence and conquering.
This was special, it was different. It was new.
He wanted his fire to feel this safe. Not like the flaming blaze that covered his eyes, but a warm blanket he could sink into.
How had firebending strayed so far from this-?
“I understand” he said quietly.
As the flaming vortex dissipated, the two began to descend the stairs, Zuko saying “Their fire was beautiful. I could’ve never imagined Fire to feel like that.”
“Like firebending harmony” Aang replied
As they reached the bottom, the Chief said “Yes they judged you, and gave you visions of the meaning of firebending”
Zuko nodded, and realized that his energy sight had actually improved after the meeting with the Masters, he actually thought he might be able to tell where people were based on their inner fires, if only slightly. Zuko voiced this realization, and the Sun Warrior Chief replied “I’m not surprised, the fire they showed you was one of life, and everyone has an internal flame, even those who aren’t firebenders.”
Zuko nodded, and said in shock “I can’t believe there are still living dragons. My uncle Iroh said he faced the last one and killed it.”
Aang responded saying “he must have lied!”
The sun warrior chief, who Zuko now realized had an incredibly powerful inner flame which made sense, replied commenting “Actually it wasn’t a total lie. Iroh was the last outsider to face the masters. They deemed him worthy and passed the secret onto him as well.”
“He must have lied to protect them, so no one else would hunt them” Zuko replied
As shocking as the revelation was that the dragons were alive, it wasn’t all that out of character for his uncle. His uncle was the most powerful firebender he knew, and this would explain it.
Aang spoke up, saying “All this time, I thought firebending was destruction. Ever since I hurt Katara, I’ve been too afraid and hesitant. But now I know what it really is. It’s energy and life.”
Zuko smiled, and said “that’s why my firebending was so weak when I tried to teach you! My entire life I thought firebending came from anger and rage, and I let that fuel my firebending in chasing you, but since I’ve been trying to win my respect back, I haven’t had a stable source of rage and fear, but now I think that’s different” he moved his hand back and shot out a bolt of fire at nothing in particular, and one more after it, both being much stronger then they were before, and grinned as Aang followed suit and let out a blast of fire, and Zuko smiled, and shoved him as a reassurance with a grin on his face.

…

As soon as they made it home, Aang started showing off his fire to Katara, and Zuko hung out around the campfire. He still needed his staff in order to get around properly, but was infinitely better at telling where other people were now.
He could tell because Sokka tried to walk up behind him and scare him a little, and was able to throw a small spark of fire over his shoulder at him, not enough to do anything substantial.
Sokka yelped and backed away, as Zuko laughed a little, and said “that’s what you get”
“How can you tell??”
“I just can.”
“Unfair! But- you have your fire bending back?”
“Yes I do.”
“Awesome! You can finally do your job” Sokka had a smile on his voice, and Zuko scoffed and shoved him gently “I would’ve taught him anyway, even without fire. Or my uncle could have.”
“Sure sure- but you’re much more helpful to the group with firebending”
“thanks, good to know my value” he sarcastically replied with a smirk, “next time you get lit on fire, I won’t have your back”
“Nooooo” Sokka half-hugged Zuko and Zuko blushed but scoffed “come on, you know I’d help you.”
“Nope, but thanks for confirming!” Zuko chuckled again, and said “what’s up? Why’d you come over?”
“Is it too much to say I wanted to make sure you were okay-?”
Zuko smiled, and said “yes it is, what do you need”
Sokka sighed and let go of him, saying “okay but just so you know-! I did also want to make sure you were okay!”
“Fine. I believe you. What is it-?”
Sokka paused for a moment before saying “is it ok to ask where you were when you were imprisoned in the fire nation-?”
Zuko frowned but nodded, and replied “I was kept in a cell under the Palace with my Uncle. But that’s just because we were Royalty, and my father wanted to keep it under wraps”
“Where do people normally go.”
“If I hadn’t been kept under wraps, I would have been sent to the Boiling Rock.”

Chapter Text

“… why do you want to know-?”

Zuko spoke to interrupt the silence Sokka was giving him, curious in why he was asking.
He figured it was most likely that Sokka, like everyone else in the wartime world, had friends or maybe family who were off fighting, and to clarify, Zuko continued.

“Well- only the worst of the worst go there- yes prisoners of war too- but only if they were dangerous or of upmost importance, it’s inescapable for a reason.”

“Would the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and the leader of the Kyoshi warriors count as ‘of the upmost importance-?’” Sokka replied.
Zuko paused for a second in surprise, before nodding and saying “probably.”

The two were silent for a moment, before Zuko grabbed his arm gently and continued
“Sokka, I know what you’re thinking but it’s impossible, the Boiling Rock is impossible to enter and exit, it’s the most secure prison in the world, it’s ruthless.”

“You escaped your prison”

Zuko hesitated again before saying “it’s not the same. It was mostly my Uncle, and I’m not even sure what happened really.”

Sokka hummed in acknowledgment. Soon after, Katara called Sokka over and the boy said a small goodbye before leaving.

…

For the next couple nights, Zuko meditated a lot as he taught Aang, and tried to get used to his new sketchy form of sight. If he was around someone for long enough, he could tell who they were based on the pattern recognition of their inner flames, but it took memorizing to remember who was who. They were all slightly different, which was magical to Zuko.

Aang’s was soft and nice, like a candle flame moving in the wind. When he got passionate it flared up but never seemed to be able to hurt anything or anyone.

His uncle Iroh’s was powerful but kind, like a campfire a group of kids left going for too long. It was powerful, and could do some real damage, but was in and of itself a kind soul.

For the non-firebenders it felt different. They all still had inner flames, but they felt stranger than the fires, but not bad, just new.

Katara’s inner flame wasn’t really a flame. Well- physically it was- but it didn’t act like it. It rippled like water, and when she got mad, mostly at him, it would flare up big like it could crush him.

Toph’s inner flame didn’t act like fire either, it was big and strong, but hardly moved, flickering when she was especially passionate about something going on, or was excited.

Sokka’s inner flame was probably the one he was most familiar with, it was liquid-y like Katara’s but a strong and powerful flame on its own. Sparks would fly off of it when he laughed, and it would puff up when he acted tough.

The soul flames weren’t as literal as the real fires, which he felt very strongly. He could feel a candle being lit 5 rooms away, and despite not knowing how to get there without his walking stick knew it was there. The soul flames were different.

For Zuko, it was like the feeling of feeling someone’s warmth who is right next to you, except they didn’t have to be next to him. He could just feel it.

This still came with downsides for Zuko, though, as he could only vaguely tell where peiple were, and would still bump into them often, or if they were carrying anything he would more often then not bump into that. It also took a lot of focus to tell where his associates were and who they were.

When he first started doing it, he would get massive headaches at group gatherings, trying to see where a massive group was at one time was tiring, and often took a lot of concentration that more often then not gave him massive headaches.

He eventually figured out that if he focused on just a couple of people he wouldn’t get headaches, and that he could probably work up to seeing everyone at once with little effort.
Over those couple days, Sokka rarely talked to him about the Prison, but often was restless at nights, which he could only tell because they had rooms connected by a wall, which culminated in Zuko realizing Sokka was packing a bag, based on the motion and sound, before the rest of the group fell asleep.

Zuko hesitated, before getting dressed and grabbing just his burn medicines and his bandages, deciding that if Sokka’s plan really was to go where he thinks he’s going, then he’s not going to let him go alone.

He stepped out of his room with nothing but his staff, his medicine and bandages, and the clothes on his back, and began to walk away, as he heard a voice come from behind him-

“Nephew, where are you off to this late-?”

Zuko froze as he turned to his Uncle, and hesitated before saying “Sokka’s going to meet some friends. I’m going with him.”

It wasn’t a total lie, it actually was the truth, maybe lacking some crucial details, but the truth nonetheless.

“And- where would Sokka’s friends be-?”

… shit

Zuko paused before saying “The Boiling Rock.”

There was a moment of silence before Iroh spoke up once more, “I trust you know the dangers, for you especially?”

Zuko nodded and reinforced it by saying “I do.”

His uncle sighed before hugging him and saying “I won’t stop you. But I urge you to be careful. Return home safe.”

Zuko hugged him back, saying “I will, I swear.”
His uncle pulled away slightly before saying again “Be safe, take care of yourself, and remember your strengths.”

Zuko nodded, and hugged him again quickly, before walking away.

Eventually, he reached where Appa was, as he pet the large creatures face, before hopping on its back, and waiting.

…

It didn’t take long for Sokka to come out after packing up to leave, and as he reached the top of Appa’s side, Zuko smirked and said “Going somewhere-?”

Sokka yelped and fell on the ground, Zuko had to hold himself back from a laugh, as Sokka said “fine. You caught me. I’m gonna rescue my dad, you happy?”

Zuko responded “I’m never happy” with a smirk on his face.

Sokka moved on the ground, moving to sit up with a deathly serious tone “I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea, it was my idea to stay when everything went wrong. It’s my mistake and my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor, Zuko, you can’t stop me.”

Zuko stared his direction before nodding, and saying “I know a lot about regaining honor. And I’m coming with you.”

“Zuko, no. I have to do this alone”

“I can help you get there. I know ins and outs of fire nation prisons, I saw documents back at the palace.”

Sokka paused for a moment, before saying “fine.”

Zuko smiled, and dropped a hand down for Sokka to grab, which the other boy quickly did, pulling him up into Appa’s saddle, where Sokka immediately toppled into Zuko, who somehow managed to catch him.

Zuko snorted before shoving the boy off him gently, muttering “you’re clumsier than me.”

Sokka gasped offensively at his comment with a smile in his voice as Zuko got a playful shove back, “you wish, I’ve seen you trip over nothing!”

The pair laughed for a moment, before Zuko spoke up saying “Not saying this is my greatest idea but- it doesn’t seem like there’s any other way to get there besides Appa, even though this is a terrible idea.”

Zuko felt another gentle shove to his shoulder as Sokka let out another cackle “Let me tell ya Sparky, we’ve had way worse plans than this.” The way Sokka emphasized ‘way’ scared Zuko to a degree, how poorly could this group have planned in the past?

…

Extremely poorly, that’s how.

The pair soared through the air on Aang’s flying Bison, with Zuko, as always, holding onto the side for dear life as Sokka steered.

They had been mostly silent for the flight thus far, minus Sokka quietly humming a song Zuko had never heard of.

The silence was almost painful between the two, Zuko couldn’t see Sokka’s expression, but could just tell the other felt the same.

“… the uh- the view is nice…”

Zuko smirked and turned to Sokka’s direction, “hm is it? I hadn’t noticed.”

Sokka froze and the pair were silent for a moment, before Sokka let out a muffled groan of pure shame as he started laughing quietly “Shit- I’m sorry but that’s so funny. I didn’t mean it-!”

Sokka’s laugh was so infectious that Zuko started to crack up with him.

He couldn’t help it.

He was still trying to adjust to the environment and norms around being with the Avatar’s group, especially after how long he had spent at the castle and growing up in such a strict and competitive environment.

Dinner at the palace with his father and sister was silent unless his father needed to talk to an advisor. Zuko was always silent, even if his father and Azula weren’t.

His first meal with the Avatar’s crew and his uncle was loud and very much so informal. People yelled over each other and laughed loudly and ate clumsily.

Zuko was silent at that dinner as well.

But with Sokka, he felt like he could let go a little. Maybe it would be okay to.

After the conversation died again, Zuko spoke up quietly, asking “So, we’re going to save your dad and the leader of the Kyoshi warriors-?”

“Yeah. Her name is Suki.”

Zuko nodded in understanding before responding “Did you guys meet her before I got there-?”

“Right before. She’s great though, she helped us across Serpent’s Pass too.”

Zuko nodded again before looking Sokka’s direction in confusion “Wait you all took Serpents Pass to Ba Sing Se? Why didn’t you just take the Ferry?”

Sokka groaned exhaustively and simply said “This refugee family couldn’t get on the boat, so we offered to help them cross the pass.”

Zuko nodded, before pausing and saying “I was on that boat.”

Sokka was silent for a moment, which knowing the boy meant he was probably making an expression Zuko couldn’t see.

After a moment Sokka spoke up again with a smile on his voice “Really?? Then I guess I’m glad we weren’t on that boat, we would’ve kicked your ass.”

Zuko snorted and smirked “you wish.”

Sokka laughed then continued “No but what was the ferry like-“

He shrugged “Pretty boring. I mean there was one guy. But- that went bad.”

Sokka quietly ‘ooooo’ed as Zuko scoffed “it wasn’t like that. Me and this guy named Jet stole food from the well off part of the ferry. Then I guess bonded over being ‘enemies of the fire nation’.”

Sokka was silent again. For too long. Again, likely doing an over the top reaction.

“… what-?”

Sokka exploded, with what seemed like shock but still maybe a smile on his voice “You know Jet-??”

Zuko was very confused, “um. Yes-? I mean, things didn’t really go well. He found out me and my uncle were firebenders then tried to fight me in a tea shop.”

“No yeah he was a TOTAL dick, he treated Katara horribly, and his morals were super corrupt.”

Zuko was surprised that Sokka actually knew Jet, but was hung up on one thing “‘was’-?”

Sokka inhaled sharply in a hiss of maybe shame, then responded “I think he probably died in Ba Sing Se-“

Zuko stared Sokka’s direction in shock before simply asking “how??”

“It’s… complicated. To sum it up, he got brainwashed, then possessed, then he got hit with a rock.”

Zuko went silent again in shock, before just saying “…huh.”

“… yeah…”

The pair was silent for a moment until suddenly Sokka spoke up loudly “I think- we’re here?”

Zuko sat up quickly and frowned “what does it look like?”

“We’re just about above it now- like a- boiling lake? Is that why it’s called the boiling rock-?!”

“Shit,” he responded, “that is why though. It’s dumb.”

“Wait is it bad we’re coming up on it? Why?” Sokka sounded confused

“I don’t have a plan for getting down without being spotted. Do you?”

Sokka hummed, then responded soon after

“I do, but you won’t like it”, the tone the water tribesman was using made Zuko positive that he would be disappointed

“Sokka, we don’t have time, what is it-?”

“We jump, you rocket us to shore.”

Zuko was dumbstruck, and it took him a moment to respond as he simply said “you- you can’t be serious right-?”

Sokka spoke with a level of confidence Zuko simply couldn’t understand. His words were outrageous, but there was no question in Zuko’s mind that he was dead serious.

Of all the things Sokka could have said, this was the one he was least prepared for.

It took him a moment to collect himself, he had just been staring Sokka’s direction in shock.

“Sokka,” he replied quietly, “I’m blind. More likely then not I will launch us into the boiling sea instead of making it to land”

“You have your like- heat-sense- right-? You’ll be able to tell where the water is! And I can tell you where the water is, and I can tell you where the land is!“

The worst part of Sokka’s plan was that to a degree, it sounded possible.

Zuko went to respond, but Sokka continued, talking Appa “Hey bud! We need you to fly home to Aang and the rest of the group ok? We’ll be ok”

The sky bison made a grunt and all of a sudden Zuko felt arms and legs wrap around his middle tightly as Sokka said “We’re just about over, now or never.”

Zuko had barely any time to process, but he quickly said “wait-“, then grabbed rope out of a supply bag, tying the two of them together chest to chest.

“If I die you’re dying with me”, he had said. Really he had done it so he wouldn’t loose Sokka or have him fall off on accident.

If he made it to the boiling rock alone, he’d be useless. And, he would rather they both burn then just Sokka. Damn, he thought, when did he become so soft towards this guy?

He felt Sokka’s head rest against the inner side of Zuko’s neck, likely in a way to stay as close as possible to the other. Zuko could feel himself flush. Sokka’s hair still somehow smelled like the sea.

“I’m going to leave my staff behind, it would be a dead giveaway. You’re- seriously okay with this plan? This- this could be it,” he had said

He felt the corners of Sokka’s mouth turn up into a smile as he replied “wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t believe in ya.”

Zuko took a deep breath and exhaled, stepping to the edge of Appa’s saddle. Sokka was right, he could feel the heat radiating off the boiling lake underneath them, despite the great distance between Appa’s flying and its surface.

“Yell loud enough to go over the wind. Which way are we going now?”

“Trust me, I will. And from where we’re standing right now, we’re trying to go right, so aim fire left”

Zuko nodded, before taking another deep breath and yelling “Hold on tight!” before jumping off the side and shooting off two streams of fire from his feet and throwing them forward further with his hands as he oriented himself.

“You’re faced the right way, now shoot from behind you! We’re not too far!” Sokka yelled over the wind into his ear.

Zuko nodded and sent off two more fireballs from his feet, propelling them forward in a spiral, Zuko finally being able to see where the heat from the lake stops and being able to assume that was land, so he did just enough to get them there but not enough to crash into a wall or something.

“This might be a rough landing, hold on!”

The pair curled up tightly to eachother and as they hit the sand began tumbling over eachother until they eventually stopped with Zuko’s back to the ground and Sokka laying over him as the pair groaned in soreness, but Zuko took a moment to breathe deeply just thankful that Sokka’s dumb plan didn’t fail.

Sokka let go of Zuko, and got up, or just leaned away from him, he wasn’t sure.

“That went pretty well-!”

Zuko sat up and rubbed the back of his head gently “this is about as well as it could’ve gone,” then in a more concerned tone, looking towards where Sokka’s voice had come from, continued “are you okay-?”

Sokka grabbed Zuko’s hand and pulled him to his feet, saying “yeah! I mean- my adrenaline is pumping but I feel ok!”

He nodded and held onto Sokka’s shoulder for stability in the sand, and after a moment sighed and said “I hope the rest of your plans are more thought out then this one.”

Sokka clapped Zuko on the back before walking forward with him and laughed saying “me too.”

…

Zuko had never been more thankful that a helmet had eye coverage.

He put on the helmet last, after putting on the rest of the guardsmen’s attire, and turned to where he heard Sokka changing, “can you still see it?”

Sokka was quiet for a moment before answering, “No, not really. I mean? Kinda?”

Zuko didn’t really know what that was supposed to mean

“Um. Elaborate-?”

“Oh. Well. I definitely can’t see where your eyes would be under all the bandages and stuff but I can kind of see the bottom of the scar? It’s not too bad though.”

Zuko hummed. He had never previously cared all too much about his appearance, but after the Agni Kai, it had become difficult to see himself as anything worthy, though that was likely his self worth talking. Nowadays he tried not to think about what his face may look like to others, scarred charred and burnt over. He didn’t have much info to go off, besides his uncle insisting he’s perfect the way he is.

And the way Sokka and Katara had initially reacted to seeing him.

Hisses of sympathy, gasps of shock. And empathy, at least from Sokka, though he appreciated Katara’s healing more than he could ever express. He figured she still might see the burn as karma for betraying her in Ba Sing Se, a decision he had regretted ever since. But that’s besides the point.

In a way, he found a sort of freedom in growing his hair back after cutting it with his uncle. It had been cut all around his top knot after the Agni Kai, and had been a reminder for three years that he was never going to be worthy enough to his father. Growing it back, especially now being free from his Father’s expectations, felt like a breath of fresh air as opposed to the constricting bandages on his face.

“Sokka, is it bad-?”

The water tribesman sounded genuinely confused as he replied, “What do you mean-?”

“The scar. My uncle won’t tell me.” It was the truth, but it hurt to admit that his uncle had never truthfully answered this question.

Sokka paused for a moment, then took a breath and said, “It’s gotten a lot better since Katara healed it a little. But it’s still a lot, though I’m sure the ointments and bandages are helping.”

Zuko found himself longing for more “this is bad timing, but- describe it-?”

Sokka snorted, but obliged. “It goes across the whole upper part of your face, and down your left cheek further then it used to with just the one scar. When I saw it, it was red across your face, and where it overlapped the other scar and under your eyes was a darker red. Your left eye is almost all white now and your right is still gold, just with a clouded iris. The burn goes over a bit of the bridge of your nose, but not the whole thing, and what I’ve seen of it since then, it looks like it’s getting better.”

Zuko couldn’t help but smile at the detailed description before standing up and saying “Thank you, Sokka. I needed that. You ready to go-?”

“Oh! One thing!” Sokka grabbed Zuko’s hand and he felt a familiar weighted leather handle be placed in it, Sokka’s water-tribe Machete.

Zuko’s hand twisted around it as he looked up to Sokka confused, as the boy said “I have a space sword and a boomerang! I don’t need three weapons, and you have zero. Keep it.”

Zuko smiled as he stowed away the machete under his uniform, replying “thank you. Really.”

“It’s no problem, now stop thanking me, you’ll give me an ego.” Sokka shoved him gently, with a grin on his voice.

He snorted and responded “You already have one.”

“What-! Not true, how dare you!”

“It’s absolutely true. You tell me about how you killed my bounty hunter 10 times a day.”

“Uh, YEA. Because it’s awesome-!”

“Whatever you want to believe.”

“Hey-!”

Chapter Text

Just as the pair managed to finish putting their disguises on Sokka grabbed his arm as Zuko began to hear the sound heavy boots on metal floors moving quickly, and Zuko stood up straight, assuming it’s one of the guards but unsure overall.

“Guards, there’s a scuffle in the yard, come on!”

The man spoke with an authoritative tone which confirmed for Zuko that this man was a Guard, and as the man ran away, Zuko pulled Sokka back for a moment as he started to move

“Sokka, I’m not.. great.. with large groups of people so- can you just give me one tap for guard and two for prisoner-?”, Zuko asked, despite not feeling great about it

However, Sokka responded immediately and positively, simply replying “oh yeah! For sure.”, which made Zuko sigh in relief.

Sokka grabbed Zuko’s arm and began to walk quickly towards the direction he heard the guard walking away from, quietly whispering left or right when they started making turns, which Zuko greatly appreciated.

…

Eventually, Zuko feels Sokka stop and he feels Agni’s rays hit his skin, as they begin to hear arguing from a little bit away

“I didn’t do anything, I’m going back to my cell,” he felt Sokka tap him twice quickly, confirming what he had assumed already, that this was the conflict between a prisoner and a guard.

A more authoritative voice replied “Stop right there, Chit Sang,” as Zuko felt the man form what he could only assume was a fire whip and striked where the prisoner’s voice had just come from, making Zuko scowl and go to step forward almost involuntarily before he felt Sokka hold him back and whisper “We can’t blow our cover.”

Zuko grumbled a response under his breath and went back to focusing on the conversation at hand

“I’ve had it with your unruly behavior.” One tap

“What did I do?” Two taps

The guard snorted, then said “He wants to know what he did,” he then heard him walk closer, as the guard continued speaking, almost directly infront of them, “Isn’t that cute-?”

The guard went silent for a moment too long, and just as Zuko was pondering what had happened, he felt a small shove from Sokka next to him and heard him reply- “Uh- very cute sir.”

Now getting the memo, Zuko quickly responded after Sokka “um- yes- super cute.”

The man’s boots clicked on the stone floors as he walked away, and Zuko quietly sighed in relief

“You didn’t bow when I walked by, Chit Sang.”

“What-? That’s not a prison rule!” Two taps

“Do it!” One tap

“Make me,” Zuko felt Sokka’s hand twitch as he gave him the two taps, fearing the worst for the prisoner who had all things considered seemed innocent.

Zuko ‘saw’ the fire before he could feel it, the whip going to strike and dissipating before it could make contact.

Zuko squeezed Sokka’s forearm with a small, nearly unnoticeable flinch as he suspected he knew what would come for the prisoner. Sokka twisted his hand up and gently did circles with his thumb on Zuko’s forearm in return, and Zuko took a calming breath in as the guard clicked his tongue in false sympathy.

“Firebending is prohibited. You’re going to the Cooler. You-“ Zuko felt Sokka immediately drop his hand off of Zuko’s arm, causing Zuko to immediately drop Sokka’s arm in return, “- Help me take him in.”

Zuko inhaled sharply as Sokka quickly and quietly whispered “meet me back here in an hour-!”, and just like that, Zuko was stuck in the biggest prison in the Fire Nation, alone and blinded.

…

As Zuko walked through the Halls of the Boiling Rock, his eyes were closed. Not that it mattered, he wouldn’t be able to see either way, but he did so almost instinctively as a way to ground and focus himself on his other senses and what he could feel.

While he strode through the halls, he stayed close his nearest wall at all times incase he needed to put a hand out to catch himself, and while he couldn’t see the twisting turns of the hallways, he could, in a way, see the torches on the walls. As they twisted into multiple paths, Zuko could vaguely tell the curvature of the wall, at least well enough so he didn’t run into it.

Every once in a while he would feel someone approach and hear them walk by, and unsure of if they were guard or prisoner, always stood up straighter and let go of the wall in fear of being realized.

A near constant thought while a headache began to form because of all of his intense focus was ‘Agni, I wish I had that stupid stick.’

But, he couldn’t use his walking stick. Being a new guard was a weak enough excuse for being here, but a new blind guard was too much.

So, he was pretending not to be blind, and he can only assume it looked as bad as he felt like it did.

Eventually, he started hearing a lot of talking coming from an off room, and felt a gap in the wall (what he assumed was likely a door) and in the room a number of torches, so he took a deep breath and walked in.

He realized immediately based on the smell he was likely in some kind of cafeteria. There were people talking and in tight knit groups, and multiple fire sources not related to the walls, which he assumed were for keeping food warm.

As he pondered this, a man yelled from across the room at him, “hey, new guy! I know it’s the rule to have your helmet on at all times, but this is the lounge, relax!”

Ok, not a cafeteria, a guard lounge.

Zuko sent a silent thanks to Agni for his luck.

Oh but they were still talking to him, he had to come up with an excuse.

“I- uh- what if there’s an.. incident? If I’m not prepared, someone could strike me on the head-?”

The guards laughed, Zuko knew it was a terrible fake excuse, but he still flushed in embarrassment under his helmet and visor.

“Give it a week,” a female guard said, “He’ll loosen up.”

Zuko paused for a moment, then walked over to where the voices were coming from, and asked “Can a new guy ask you veterans a few questions about the prison-?”

“No you can’t date the female guards” the woman replied

“Trust me, you don’t want to,” that was followed up with the sound of something being thrown and hitting contact, making one of the guards burst out laughing.

Zuko didn’t really get the joke, so he clarified his statement, “No, that’s not it. The Boiling Rock, it holds the fire nations most dangerous criminals, right-? What about War Prisoners.”

“Oh yeah, plenty,” one of the guards replied, “Why, you got a vendetta against someone in particular-?”, she almost seemed teasing in the way she said it.

“Yes, actually. A Water Tribesman in particular, he… got me bad- but I heard he was captured.” Zuko once again thanked Agni for the good excuse to question the guards.

The group of guards he was talking to all gave him quiet ooh’s of sympathy before one replied “Sorry man, there aren’t any Water Tribe people here. But if one comes in, we’ll find ya, you can get first dibs on revenge.”

Zuko nodded, then thanked the group and as he began to walk away, turned back to the group “if you don’t mind me asking, what time is it-?”

Silence fell over the group before one of the female guards chuckled and responded “Did you not see the clock on the wall newbie? It’s around fourteen-hundred hours.”

Zuko winced under his visor, and quickly responded “I- no I didn’t- thank you-“ as he left the room to more laughter.

Zuko was pretty sure it had been around thirteen-hundred hours when they had arrived, so it was likely around the time Sokka wanted to meet back up, and as Zuko stepped out back into the hallway, he groaned, realizing he would have to concentrate on the flames again and recall all the odd twists and turns he had taken to walk all the way back to the courtyard by himself.

Zuko closed his eyes, saw the torches in his minds eye, and began to attempt to walk back.

…

After much longer than expected, Zuko felt Agni’s rays on his skin again, and knew he made it back to the courtyard.

Zuko took a moment to just stand in the sun and try not to focus on anything for a moment, before remembering what he came out here to do, and realizing he still needed to find Sokka.

He took a deep breath in and out before concentrating on soulfires so he could hopefully find Sokka.

Soulfire was a complicated thing Zuko didn’t fully understand yet, but the gist of it was that if he focused hard enough, he could tell where human beings were based off their souls and bodyheat. Usually, all this meant was that if he focused really hard, people looked like powerful floating fires with a vague outline of a body. But not with Sokka.

Zuko had spent a lot of time with Sokka over the last week, and in that, his soulfire had become a regular sight for him, it became familiar. At camp, he could, in this way, tell differences between some of the people he surrounded himself with, much to Toph’s delight.

So when he began to scan the room, and saw a familiar looking soulfire in the corner, he sighed in relief and began to walk over until he was standing next to him.

“So, fellow guard, how goes it-?” Zuko spoke quietly, with a hint of teasing in his voice

He felt Sokka let down his guard immediately as he quietly replied “Zuko-?”

Zuko shoved him gently and said “shh-! Don’t say my name here!” Zuko said with a hint of exasperation, he was positive that if someone in the prison found out the Prince of the Fire Nation was here, it would be terrible. “Sokka, I asked around in the lounge, there aren’t any people from the Water Tribe here-“ he turned to Sokka, and spoke with a deep amount of sympathy “.. I’m so sorry Sokka.”

Sokka sounded shocked as he replied “What-? Are you sure? They could have been lying-“

“I’m sure Sokka.”

“No. No-!”, Zuko flinched as he heard the sound of something hitting the wall quietly.

“Sokka, I’m really sorry,” he responded gently

“We came all this way, just for nothing-?” Zuko winced at the amount of pain in the other boy’s voice as Sokka continued, saying “I failed again..”

Zuko grabbed Sokka by the shoulders and corrected him strongly “you are not a failure. Um-“ he let go of Sokka quickly, struggling to find the right words to articulate what he wanted to say to help Sokka, not knowing what to say to help him feel better “My- my uncle would say something like- uh- there’s always two sides- a light and a dark- and a silver lining inbetween-! Like- a uh- silver sandwich! So when life has you down..” Zuko paused, not really knowing where he’s going with this “uh.. eat some silver-?”

Sokka was silent for a moment, before he quickly gasped and ran just past Zuko and hit something metal as he said “maybe we haven’t failed after all-!”

Zuko looked his direction in surprise, smiling and replying “that’s the spirit! I can’t believe that worked, I didn’t even know what I was saying” he muttered the last bit, and Sokka quickly replied “No, what you said made NO sense, but look-! It’s Suki!”

Zuko quickly ran over where Sokka was, realizing it was a railing over the rest of the courtyard. “Wait- Suki like- the Kyoshi Warrior Suki? The one you told me about?”

“Yeah-!”

Zuko smiled his direction, but frowned as he heard a guard yell “prisoners! Back to your cells!”

Zuko heard the sound of the prisoners beginning to get up and walk away as Sokka immediately ran off to follow them, Zuko quickly deciding to run after him, muttering under his breath about the other boys impulsive choices.

…

“- and you’ll keep watch! It’s the perfect plan!”

Zuko stared Sokka’s direction with judgement evident on his features.

“What-?” Sokka asked innocently

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose in mild annoyance, before simply responding “Sokka, I’m not a good lookout. I can’t ‘look out’” he made sure to emphasize the last words so Sokka understood

“I mean yeah- but you have your people magic stuff. And you can listen for if people are coming!”

“It- it doesn’t really work like that,” he tried to explain, then just sighed and continued “Sokka, be quick. Okay?”

Sokka quickly replied “yeah- of course.”, he then felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and heard a smile in Sokka’s voice as he replied “Hey. I trust you, thank you for doing this. Actually just-” Sokka corrected himself quickly, “-Thank you for being here.”

As Zuko flushed red, he had the weak thought that no one should be able to have this power over others. Damn it, this boy was charming.

“Of course-“

He heard the cell door open as Sokka continued, saying “Ok, tap on the door if anyone comes by, thank you Zuko.” He closed the door before Zuko could even reply with a ‘your welcome.’

He sighed, and just waited it out, focusing on the sounds around him and the torches on the walls as he leaned up against the cell door, unable to hear any of Sokka’s conversation inside.

Someone came by too quickly, it had been less than five minutes when Zuko heard heavy boots walking down the stairs and towards his direction.

He curses quietly under his breath, and gives the wall of the cell a couple knocks before the walking suddenly stops and he feels a presence infront of him as Zuko stands up straighter.

“Excuse me, I need to get into that cell.” The woman who apparently was a guard before him states.

Shit, this was like worst case scenario for them.

Zuko was stunned for a moment before quickly realizing that he needed to draw out enough time for Sokka to leave unnoticed, so he needed a good excuse and fast

“No-! You can’t go in there! The uh- lights are out, the prisoner could sneak up on you-!”

Once more, in his moment of need, his mind and luck failed him, she didn’t believe him whatsoever.

“Step aside, fool.”

He felt her reach out to push him away from the door, and his instincts kicked in as he grabbed the arm touching him, and swung the guard around against the wall.

“What the hell are you doing-!” she yelled at him

Zuko shoved the guard into a position where he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to see the door to the cell open, and as he heard the door quietly open and close, he felt an elbow hit his chest as the guard tried to regain a stance she could defend herself from.

“Guard, help! I think he’s an imposter, arrest him!”

Zuko felt arms on him, and felt himself be thrown off the other guard and hit the ground, with his arm twisted behind him.

Zuko’s breath quickened as the realization of being arrested dawned on him, and he pulled against the admittedly soft grip of the guard holding him

“You’re under arrest.” The man holding him said, if Zuko had been in a better state, he would’ve realized this was obviously Sokka, but in a mind filled with fear and panic, this was just another guard trying to arrest him, so when he picked him up off the ground with his hands behind his back, he exhaled smoke out of his nose angrily, glaring the direction of the guard, and pulling away from him again.

“Woah, hey” the guard spoke quietly and gently as they began to walk away, a stark difference from the way he had been thrown to the ground earlier, “It’s me, it’s Sokka. We’ll figure it out, it’s ok”

Zuko’s eyes widened as he finally took a second to relax the tension in his body, and he nodded, quietly responding “okay. I trust you.”

…

The guards who had taken his fake uniform from him had laughed at him.

A lot, they’d laughed at him a lot.

To be fair, it must have been a pretty funny sight, a skinny blindfolded kid was all they saw after the helmet came off, and especially after they got curious enough to take off the bandages over his eyes, they got a good laugh at what they had seen, quietly giggling amongst themselves as he pretended not to notice.

He felt wind infront of his face at some point, as one of the guards waved his hand infront of Zuko’s face.

He glared in the guard’s direction and when he exhaled in anger, smoke came out, which just made them laugh harder.

After changing into a prisoners uniform he was thrown into a small silent metal holding room, where after pacing for a while, he ended up just sitting with his back against the wall and trying not to panic.

Zuko was almost positive he looked nothing like himself anymore, so there was a chance that no one would recognize him with his hair longer and very-changed face.

Speaking of his massively damaged face, it felt weird not to have the bandages over his eyes, the air on his face stung slightly, but it wasn’t like he could do anything about it, he couldn’t even cover it up.

It felt like three years ago, but worse, at least then he could see the judgmental looks on people’s faces as he walked past.

Eventually, the door opened, and Zuko quickly stood up and leaned against the wall behind him, as he heard footsteps approaching

“Well well well, what do we have here? You look different nowadays, Prince Zuko.” Zuko could hear the smile in the man’s voice as he looked up in surprise

“Who are you, how do you know who I am?” Zuko said in shock

“Sure your eyes may be different, but you still have the face of the boy who disappeared on my niece.”

Zuko blinked in confusion, “You’re Mai’s uncle? I- didn’t know you worked at the prison-“

“I run the prison.” Mai’s uncle (the Warden?) corrected, cutting him off.

Zuko went quiet for a moment, he wasn’t sure what to say. When he had escaped the prison with his Uncle, he had been so focused on surviving that he hadn’t thought about the fact he had up and disappeared to Mai. Deep down, he had kind of hoped that Azula had told her what happened. Bold of him to assume she would be so kind as to do that for him.

And Zuko didn’t know what he could say to her, so much had happened. They had never really broken up, but in a way it felt like they did. The time he had dated her felt like a lifetime ago, and he had just stopped thinking about her in lieu of the fight with his father and the imprisonment.

The warm feelings he had for her had disappeared, and- been replaced by a slowly growing feeling for his silly overconfident water tribe companion.

He didn’t want to think about that right now.

“I never meant to hurt her” he said honestly

“Quiet!,” he yelled in response, “You’re my special prisoner now. And you'd best behave. If these criminals found out who you are, the traitor prince who let his nation down, they'd tear you to shreds.” He almost seemed excited at the notion of Zuko being torn to shreds.

Zuko’s eye twitched and he stepped forward and replied, “Why go through all of this-? Why wouldn’t you just tell my father and collect the reward?”

Zuko suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder as he was pushed back against the wall, and heard the Warden’s boots step further away, towards the door as the warden replied snarkily “Oh, in due time, believe me. I intend to collect.”

Zuko winced as the door slammed shut.

Shit.

…

“I heard blind people are good with a stick, now shoo.”

The guard handing out mops for cleaning duty shoved one into his hands with enough force that Zuko took a step back

Zuko glared the man’s direction, “I can’t even tell what’s clean and what isn’t-!”, he responded irritatedly.

Some of the other guards, and prisoners for that matter, laughed at the response, as the same man replied “Seems like it’ll take you longer then. Get started.”

Zuko’s eye twitched as he walked away. He ended up mopping in one of the less crowded parts of the room as to be less judged, but he still heard the occasional giggle from people off watching him.

At some point a girl tapped him on the shoulder and just said “I’ll be on your right”, and started mopping next to him.

It was strange, but mildly nice.

Zuko heard footsteps coming towards them and put his head down and tried to be invisible, until he realized he recognized Sokka’s presence and immediately picked his head up and towards his direction.

Sokka stopped infront of the two of them and said “Oh, good, you guys have met-!”

Zuko looked at Sokka confused before both him and the girl next to him replied “We have-?” and the girl continued quietly “am I supposed to know him-?”

Sokka went silent for a moment before whispering something to the girl, and she just responded with an ‘ooooohhh’

Zuko, very confused and feeling left out, just looked Sokka’s direction with a confused expression before the girl continued with anger in her voice “We HAVE met, you’re the one who burned down my village-!”

He froze and stared her direction before quietly saying “are you Suki-?”

There was a distinct skin-to-skin slapping noise before Sokka grabbed his arm and the three of them pulled off to a different part of the room.

Zuko focused for a moment and realized Sokka had pulled them somewhere further away from other people, likely more hidden.

He involuntarily flinched when his headache spiked after focusing, realizing that he had been using this very focused technique a lot while in the prison to get around and avoid people, and he was starting to form a migraine from the concentration.

That probably wasn’t great.

He felt a hand on his arm, and looked up from his internal dialogue.

“You okay man?” Sokka said quietly

Zuko paused for a moment then hastily replied “I’m fine- just lost in thought”

Sokka hummed in acknowledgement before starting his explanation

“So, listen,” he said, “I think I have an escape plan. I checked out the coolers again, and the point of them is to keep firebenders contained, right?”

The pair were quiet for a moment before Zuko responded “yeah-?”

“So, they're completely insulated and sealed to keep the cold in. Well, to keep the cold in, it also has to keep the heat out, right?” Sokka had a smile in his voice, and Zuko was hesitant to find out what kind of hygienics that meant

“Get to the point, Sokka.” Suki interrupted.

“Okok! It’s the perfect boat for getting through the boiling water.” Sokka stated.

Silence fell over the trio again, the idea wasn’t bad, but it was certainly risky, and the result of failure was certain death.

“The cooler as a boat-? Are you sure?” He said cautiously

“Im telling you, it’ll work” Sokka continued on explaining that he’d already scouted out the place, and tested his idea, that it was foolproof, and all Zuko could think about was how crazy and smart he was.

Sokka made insane plans, but as crazy as they were, his plans almost always seemed to work. He defeated combustion man with his boomerang, he got the both of them out of the Fire Nation capital when he could barely walk straight, and he had trusted Zuko to launch them off of Appa in the direction of the prison despite being blind and not knowing even where the prison was.

While this idea was crazy, it seemed like it was the only idea that would work, and Sokka wouldn’t have mentioned it if he wasn’t confident in it.

“- and bing-bang-boom, we’re all free-!” Sokka concluded.

Suki quickly replied with the smart counter argument, “But how are we going to get the cooler out-?”

Zuko opened his mouth to respond before a slightly familiar voice responded from… above them-? “Yeah, how are you going to get the cooler out”

Before he could really process what was happening, the man jumped down from wherever he was and hit the ground, rattling the floor slightly and causing Zuko to instinctually latch onto whoever was next to him, which turned out to be Suki as she patted his shoulder, and he very quickly let go of her, his face burning from embarrassment.

Sokka immediately sputtered a response, saying “what- we- we didn’t say that-“

Zuko responded almost immediately after, adding “Yeah, you must have heard us wrong.”, trying to sound as calm as possible.

The man responded, just as interested as before “I heard you were hatching an escape plan, I want in”

Zuko glared his direction, hoping he came off as intimidating and not just sad “There’s nothing to ‘get in on’”

Sokka immediately cut in after Zuko responded and replied “Yeah-! The only thing we’re hatching- is- an.. egg-?”

Silence followed that response, as Zuko just stared Sokka’s direction dumbfounded.

“Okay, well,” the man continued “I come with you or the Warden hears about this too.”

The trio went silent for a moment before Suki spoke up “I guess we have no choice”

Zuko nodded and Sokka sighed as he said “Ok, you’re in.” He seemed to hesitate for a moment before he continued “We need someone to unbolt the cooler from the inside,” Zuko felt a cold metal tool be placed in his hand, and as he felt it more, realized it was a wrench, “Can you do it-?”

As Zuko opened his mouth to affirm, the other Prisoner started laughing, and quickly said “The entire plan revolves on the disfigured blind kid being able to ‘feel out’-” the mocking way he said that made Zuko’s skin crawl and his eye twitch “-where the bolts are-?”

Zuko’s fist clenched around the wrench as he glared at the man, feeling the wrench slightly heat up more and more in his anger.

Sokka cut off the man before Zuko could do anything and said “Don’t talk to him like that, Chit Sang. He could kick your ass with his hands tied behind his back. He’s more than capable.”

Zuko smirked at Sokka’s response, and let his temper cool down, and he responded “I can do it. Just get me in there.”

“Oh, I can get you inside” Chit Sang responded with a smile in his voice.