Chapter Text
Zuko hated everything about this. His scar itched, his body ached, and weeks at sea had him still feeling sick. He and uncle were traveling the Earth Kingdom–alone–after he had told uncle he’d given up his search for the Avatar. Following uncle’s advice, they left the Wani and its crew at a random port and left without a word, Zuko cutting his topknot off. Now, because of uncle’s whims, they were at the neutral island of Kyoshi, and already in trouble.
“Who are you?!” The woman (girl?) demanded as she pointed her strange weapon like fans at him and uncle. They had only been on Kyoshi for half a day before being captured and tied to a post by a group of female soldiers. Each of them wore dark green Earth Kingdom dresses, reminiscent of the Avatar their island was named after. Their makeup was strange as well, with white-painted faces contrasting deep red lips and eyelids. It reminded him of the exaggerated kabuki makeup worn by performers in the plays mom would take him to see. Shaking the memory, Zuko distantly remembered mentions of them and their island during history lessons. He quickly shook the thought of skillfully placed burns and cane lashings.
Uncle had spoken first, “I am Mushi, and this is my nephew Lee,”--Lee? Was that really the best uncle could come up with?--”We are but humble refugees who have heard that Kyoshi island is neutral and seek refuge in is lands.” Uncle answered smoothly, as if they weren’t on a fire nation ship searching for the world's last hope under the fire lord’s direct orders just two months prior. It was times like this that reminded Zuko that this man used to be known as the dragon of the west and that title was still feared throughout the Earth Kingdom.
Somehow uncle managed to convince the warriors to let them go and Zuko had found himself sipping tea while uncle Iroh conversed with the leader–who later introduced herself as Suki–as well as the rest of the warriors. The leader and two of the warriors had sat at a table with them while the rest had sat at a different table near theirs. They were giggling at uncle’s stupid proverbs and it was at that moment that they seemed less like highly skilled and trained weapons and more like young, carefree girls. It was honestly a bit frightening, the contrast between their moods and attitude now and just an hour ago.
“So,” the leader Suki turned to Zuko, dragging the last syllable with a perfect o-shape on her lips, “Lee, right? You’ve been pretty quiet, are you alright?” She asked, seeming genuinely interested in Zuko’s response.
“Ah, I apologize for my nephew. The past few months have been hard on us and he never was much of a talker!” Uncle interjected, slapping Zuko on the back.
Suki stared blankly at the two before she seemed to suddenly remember something.
“Oh, right!” she exclaimed, leaning down to where her bag was propped against her seat and beginning to dig around, “These are yours! I confiscated these just to be safe. These are your swords, right, Lee?”
Suki pulled out Zuko’s dao, still sheathed, and he automatically began to reach for them. Suki pulled them away before he could grab them and held them slightly behind her.
“Those are mine. Give them back.” He brusquely stated, already becoming impatient.
“Ah ah ah, not so fast Lee! I might like your uncle but that doesn’t mean I trust either of you yet. For all I know you two could be fire nation spies; or even worse, carrying around weapons you can’t even use.“ Suki smirked with a mischievous glint in her eye.
“That’s ridiculous!” Zuko shouted, shooting up from his seat, quietly noting that the two other kyoshi warriors whose names he hadn’t caught tensed at his sudden movement, “Those are my dao! Why wouldn’t I be able to use them?!”
Sure, Zuko should be more nervous by the fact that Suki had been half right in saying they could be fire nation spies, even if they were technically traitors now, but somehow found himself more insulted by the fact she could insinuate that he didn’t know how to use his dao!
“I apologize for my nephew's sudden outburst, he can be a bit.. Difficult sometimes.” Iroh intervened, “Maybe we can pay everyone’s tab to settle this.”
“Oh that’s fine Mr. Mushi! I wouldn’t have refugees pay for our tea, and I have a better idea anyways. Why don’t you and your nephew settle at an inn for now, and tomorrow at dawn Lee can come to our training dojo and prove he can wield these swords.” She said, putting his dao back in her bag.
Before Zuko could intervene, Iroh bellowed, “That sounds wonderful! Maybe my nephew could learn something from you, Ms. Suki!” He acquiesced, not allowing Zuko to have a say in the matter.
So, when Zuko awoke with the sun the next morning, he told uncle he was going to find the dojo and get his dao back.
Zuko had asked around for the dojo’s whereabouts, although admittedly there weren’t many others awake aside from some elderly shopkeepers. The sun was still just barely over the horizon as he arrived at the dojo. Hesitantly, he stepped inside. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, Zuko observed the weapons decorating the walls. They were unlike any weapon used in the fire nation, especially those fans the warriors had used when capturing him and uncle. Admittedly, Zuko was quite excited to see those fans in action when he fought the warrior girl Suki.
In the dark quiet of the dojo, Zuko felt a feather light pressure on his shoulder and jumped backwards to assume a fighting position. He recognized the touch as coming from the girl in front of him. Her skin was a sienna, clearly tanned from constant sun exposure. Her cropped auburn hair framed her round face and silver blue eyes. She looked to be about 16, the same age as Zuko, and would’ve seemed innocent if it weren’t for her clearly built figure underneath her clothes and the callouses on her hands.
“You’re up early, Lee” The girl remarked, shooting him a lazy smile.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” He asked. Zuko was never good with faces or names, but he was sure that he’d never met this girl before.
“Seriously? What, you don’t recognize me without the makeup?”
Zuko stared blankly.
“It’s me! Suki! We met YESTERDAY!” she exclaimed, though seeming more amused than angry with him.
“Oh. Right,” he cleared his throat, “I knew that.”
“Here, I brought your “dao”, let’s warm up first,” she shouted, throwing the sheathed dao to Zuko as he caught them seamlessly.
Zuko decided not to tell her that he didn’t need to stretch, and so the next few minutes passed in relative silence as the two got ready. Suki stretched as Zuko fiddled with the handles of his sword, feeling how easily they became an extension of himself.
“I hope you don,t mind if we have a little audience, Lee. My girls wanted to watch me kick your butt,” Suki declared, as if the outcome of their spar was already decided.
He scoffed, "Or maybe they’ll just be watching their leader get humbled.”
Sure enough, there was a group of five girls in the dojo, who Zuko assumed were also Kyoshi warriors despite their lack of makeup and armor. Zuko wasn’t stupid, he knew these girls were here to ensure that Zuko wasn’t going to actually try to seriously arm Suki in the off chance that he really was dangerous to their island. While they all looked relaxed, he was sure they were all armed with concealed weapons.
Zuko placed the sheath of his dao against the wall before walking towards Suki and readying his stance. The shorter girl had also taken a stance, opting for a long sword. And pointed it towards Zuko. Without hesitation, Zuko took the first move, charging towards Suki with his dao and aiming to disarm her with the hilt of the right one. Suki sidestepped him as she raised her sword in the defensive, the sound of metal clanking filling the dojo.
The spar was like a dance. One would go forwards on the offensive and the other stepping back on the defensive. They continued on for what felt like hours, stuck in a tie until Suki had managed to disarm him from his left. He was getting sloppy, and had accidentally revealed that his scarred side was a weakness. He didn’t have time to berate himself for accidentally revealing this to a stranger as she continued her onslaught of attacks. Zuko was left on the defensive, dodging non lethal blows as the girls cheered Suki on.
When he realized Suki wasn’t going to let him pick his dao up again, he swiftly sidestepped yet another one of her attacks and used his left foot to sweep her off the ground. Caught off guard, she stumbled and her grasp on her weapon weakened, and that was all Zuko needed. Within seconds, Zuko was on top of her with her weapon feet away.
“Hey! That’s not fair, this is a weapons spar! You can’t just start kicking!”
“Your enemies won’t care what’s fair in a fight to the death.”
Suki grinned, “It was a spar, you’re not my enemy, Lee. Now go get your dao, I expect a rematch later one”
Zuko nodded, getting off of her and lending her a hand to pick her up before she waved it away and picked herself up. As soon as he picked his dao up and sheathed them, the crowd of girls began to bombard him with questions as well as requests to spar with him. He stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to say and who to respond to first.
With a resounding boom, Suki shouted, “Shoo girls! I’m sure Zuko’s overwhelmed with you all crowding him.. AND don’t think you’re off the hook from training today! Paint and uniforms, chop chop!” Suki commanded. The sudden shift in her tone from a friend to a leader was impressive, reminding Zuko of their original encounter the day before.
“Uh, thanks. I’m gonna go now.” He stated, walking towards the dojo’s entrance. Huh. The sun was fully up now.
“Alright, bye Lee! Tell Mr. Mushi I said hi and that I’ll take him up on his pai sho offer. Come by and train with us once in a while, don’t be a stranger!” She yelled out to him as he walked away. Zuko internally groaned at the mention of pai sho as he continued walking back towards the inn he and uncle were staying at.
When he made it back, he found his uncle sitting at the desk in their small room with a serious look. He shimmied into the room, placing his dao against the wall.
“Uncle,” he paused, “what’s wrong..?”
“Zuko,” Iroh said gravely, “we have a very important mission tomorrow.”
Mission? What kind of important mission could they have as fugitives on a neutral port? Maybe uncle-
“Tomorrow, we will become tea servers.” Uncle stated, his expression stone cold serious.
.
.
.
“Seriously?! Uncle, I thought it was something serious! And a tea shop–I shouldn’t even be surprised, you always managed to find them everywhere we went.” Zuko sighed frustratedly. For a minute he believed that maybe their covers were blown, or worse.
Uncle Iroh’s face broke into a grin, “Nephew, I am glad to see you so fired up and passionate about your new job. Perhaps you will learn a few things!” He said jovially, briefly patting his hand on Zuko’s shoulder.
“We must work to make ends meet if we plan to stay in Kyoshi Island.”
Of course. They were going to be staying in Kyoshi. This was their lives now; Lee and Mushi, refugees of the 100 year war.
What felt like decades was only just a year of living on the neutral island. Zuko had continued to spar with Suki and the other Kyoshi warriors whose names he learned were Min, Suya, Chun, Nomi, and even two Li’s. Suki seemed to like to joke that now they had a third Li, even if he argued that he wasn’t even a Kyoshi warrior. Sure, there were other girls in training but he didn’t speak to them much unless he was helping Suki with training after his shifts at the tea shop. Oh yeah, uncle Iroh had somehow managed to open his own tea shop after just a year of living on the island, naming it The Jasmine Dragon. Uncle had also decided that Zuko would need to be a tea server despite the shop not being busy due to the village’s small population, because apparently Zuko would “attract younger customers” Zuko doubted that anyone younger than 50 would become a regular at the shop, excluding the Kyoshi warriors who’d occasionally visit to bother Zuko and “taste some of uncle Mushi’s amazing tea!” Seriously, when did his uncle suddenly become theirs as well?
Something Zuko did discover while on the island was that the fire nation occasionally made stops at the island because of its neutrality and convenience. Well, that part wasn’t the shocking one. The shocking part was when he almost ran into Zhao, who Suki had later told him would semi regularly stop at the island for supplies, much to both of their displeasure.
Aside from avoiding Zhao during his rare stops at the island, life was peaceful. Zuke would wake up at dawn and meditate with uncle every morning, help uncle open and close shop, and then either train with the Kyoshi warriors, with only his dao, of course. The only firebending he had done in the past year was to sneakily light burners for tea, or hangout with Suki who seemed to like him and he found himself becoming tolerable of.
Maybe things were too peaceful. Zuko was used to being unlucky, and now he had gotten too comfortable. Too used to the mundane life he had been living. Maybe that’s where it all went wrong.
The Avatar was back. It had been a normal day until he had heard the rumors halfway through his shift at uncle’s tea shop. All across Kyoshi island were whispers and murmurs of the Avatar returning. After all, that had to be the only explanation as to why Kyoshi’s statue had begun to glow blue from its eyes, and similar pillars of light shot up over the horizon. The Avatar was back and he was going to save the world–or at least that’s what everyone thought. Zuko disagreed. The Avatar wasn’t back. The Avatar couldn’t be back. It was impossible. The Avatar was dead, or at the very least had chosen to abandon the world.
Uncle had been eyeing Zuko the whole day. It was hard not to notice when he felt a watchful gaze on him every time he turned his back to serve The Jasmine Dragon’s customers. He wanted to scream, but he also wanted to assure uncle that he was fine. Zuko didn’t, couldn’t believe the rumors, and he wouldn’t ruin his uncle’s life to childishly chase after the Avatar. To chase after his father, his nation, his honor. Zuko could be content with this life where uncle was Mushi and he was Lee, Mushi’s poor nephew who had been burned by a fire nation soldier. They were refugees who sought a peaceful life on the neutral ports of Kyoshi island.
Uncle was happy. He got along easily with the villagers and was able to get his own tea shop after just a few months of living on the island. Uncle was happy when Zuko had told him he’d abandon his search for the Avatar just a year earlier, cutting his topknot and leaving the crew of the Wani at an Earth Kingdom colony’s port. Uncle was able to live his domestic dreams with Zuko, and Zuko was able to be happy with what he had. They had settled well as villagers in Kyoshi, despite their not so warm welcome from its warriors. Hell, he had somehow become friends with their leader.
Anyways, Zuko didn’t believe the rumors. He was fine with staying on Kyoshi, he didn’t need to confirm the rumors because he didn’t know what that would mean for him.
So why? Why did the Avatar have to come to Kyoshi island with his water tribe friends just a few months later, right when the rumors began to die down.