Chapter Text
The fire slowly consumed the ship.
Zuko had no time to react before being blown through the cabin window.
He was above water. He knew if he tried to aim for it, he'd survive. He tucked his limbs close and turned his body, angling feet-first toward the water below.
His feet broke the surface tension as he was submerged in the ice-cold water of the North Pole.
He could feel the water currents changing as debris struck it. He needed to move, to get out of the way before he got hit.
He quickly started moving his arms, forcing the water down while simultaneously pushing himself upwards.
He broke the surface, taking large gulps of air as he watched his ship burn. He narrowed his eyes. Someone did this deliberately. And he had a pretty good guess who. They were aiming to kill him. He could feel his anger simmering; Zhao would regret this.
He saw Uncle standing on the docks, watching the ship. The ship was positioned right next to it, but the force of the blast had shot him far out into the water. Even from afar, he could see the devastation on Iroh’s face. He needed to let him know he was fine.
The safest route would be to go around the burning ship, but that would take too long. He needed to tell Uncle before he left - before he believed he had died. That meant he would have to swim through the burning pieces of rubble. He'd be fine. He was a firebender, after all. He wasn't completely immune to fire, but he was more resilient than others.
He started swimming as he watched Iroh sit on the dock, watching the fire burn. It wouldn't completely destroy the ship; it was mostly metal, but it would ruin many of his and Zuko's possessions.
Zuko swam past the bits and pieces scattered across the ocean. Most of the metal had already sunk to the ocean floor, but there were still many things burning - wooden beams, scorched fabric, half-melted crates. He winced as he narrowly avoided a drifting, smoking plank.
The heat radiating off the debris made the water around him feel like a battlefield of temperatures - ice biting at his limbs below, fire simmering above.
Then he spotted something. Something small that he couldn't decipher. It was directly in his swimming lane, so he didn't have to go off-course to inspect it. He approached the small thing and quickly realized it was Iroh's sandal. Specifically, the one he 'lost' when he got kidnapped by the Earth Kingdom soldiers.
It was the only thing that seemed to survive the explosion. Everything was either on fire or torn apart by the impact.
An idea popped into his mind, and he frowned, thinking whether he should actually do this. He eventually sighed and bit into the sandal, wincing at the taste of it. He needed to talk with Uncle about washing his footwear. But he'd like to keep at least something. Nothing else had survived. Biting it was gross, undignified, but it was practical. Holding it would just slow him down.
He continued swimming towards the dock. He couldn't call out to Iroh with the sandal in his mouth, but his Uncle wasn't known as The Dragon of the West for no reason. He seemed to have sensed him because as soon as he approached the dock, the old man looked up, and he looked directly towards Zuko's direction.
Iroh's eyes widened as his eyes landed on his nephew's form. "Zuko?" He whispered, almost not believing his eyes. He smiled as he watched the boy swim towards him. "You're okay."