Chapter Text
The first time Zuko met Aang was when he had snuck out of the palace at age 14. There was a group of Air Nomad representatives in Caldera and Zuko had been barred from seeing them by his father Fire Lord Sozin- Which was extremely unfair. He was a master fire bender for gods sake, he was the youngest person in the last 300 years to have a dragon companion at such a young age aside from the last Avatar, Avatar Roku, and that doesn’t count because Fang was literally reborn with Roku to be his animal companion as all Avatars had.
But back on topic, it wasn’t fair and Zuko had always found Air Nomads interesting and wanted to see them for himself, which is the reason he is now roaming Caldera hoping to catch one of Monks and ask them a bunch of questions, especially if it was that one monk his father kept complaining about Monk Gatsyo or something like that
Somehow this led to Zuko instead finding a baby Monk and fire nation boy yelling their lungs out for help from the top of a tree that they very clearly couldn’t get down from.
***
“HELP”
“This is not going to work,” Kuzon said with a frustrated sigh
“You don’t know that,” Aang said with a pout, “Someone will probably be here any second and we will be on our merry way.”
“Aang it is the middle of the night nobody in the fire nation would be awake at this time.”
“Not true.” Aang said grumpily, trying and failing to cross his arms in his upside down state.
“Is.” Kuzon replied just as stubbornly.
“Not.”
“Is.”
“Not.”
“Is.”
“Not.”
“Is.”
“Are you okay?” a voice suddenly said, startling both Aang and Kuzon out of their petty squabble, causing them to look down.
Except the voice didn’t come from below them, even as they tried and strained to try and see the base of the tree there was no one there.
No, the voice came from a boy with sharp golden eyes perched up on the branches with them, a teenager only a few years older than Aang was himself, a smile on his face, mouth quirked in a way that made him look slightly amused as he looked down on them.
“WE’RE SAVED!” Aang cried out in joy, body wiggling to get a better look at the stranger while Kuzon stayed weirdly silent, staring up at the teen in awe but that may just be out of gratitude for being saved or just because he was proved wrong but Aang wouldn’t gloat.
The stranger just chuckled and tilted his head slightly, looking at the two of them with crinkling eyes before stating a small but steady, “Here,” before drawing his swords (and holy spirits how did Aang not notice them before they were so cool and there were two of them, awesome) and pulling on the vines that kept Aang hanging, cutting them carefully so that he wouldn’t fall halfway to death and depositing him on the branch next to him before moving on to Kuzon who had weirdly enough still not said a single word and continue to stare up at the guy with awe which Aang could relate to because how was this guy so effortlessly cool.
The teen guided Aang and Kuzon back to the bottom of the tree and even helped Kuzon on the bits he looked too afraid to while Kuzon still refused to say a word and was becoming increasingly weird because he wasn't even reacting to Aang's endless babble as he talked to the swords guy that just laughed and added his own comments to in his all his teenage wisdom as they reached the bottom of the tree.
That was at least until they were finally about to separate and Kuzon just dropped. For a moment Aang was afraid that his friend had fainted and it looked like the stranger thought the same thing as well before realizing it was a bow as Kuzon suddenly shouted, “Prince Zuko! It is an honour to meet you and we are sincerely sorry for any trouble we may have caused! Please may you forgive us?”
Wait, what?
Prince Zuko?
The stranger - Prince Zuko - just tilted his head like an amused owl cat and said, “You have nothing to apologize for.” Smiling lightly though his voice held a firm, self assured note to it as if to say don’t you dare apologize kid
What?
“YOU’RE A PRINCE! OH MY KOH’S PANT I JUST MET A PRINCE, I JUST GOT SAVE BY A PRINCE, OH MY SPIRITS THIS IS SO COOL I JUST MET THE FIRE PRINCE ZUKO, YOUNGEST FIREBENDING MASTER IN THE WORLD THIS IS AMAZI- Mmph” Aang was cut off as Kuzon’s hand slapped his mouth forcing him to stop talking, which yeah fair, Aang probably shouldn’t be word vomiting on the prince of a foreign nation but that was still rude.
Said prince was laughing whole heartedly, his golden eyes looked like they were glowing in the limited light of the moon as he clutched his stomach and wheezed, staying that way until he finally managed to pull himself together and returned to his straight backed princely manor.
Zuko cleared his throat for a second, coughing into his hand, “Please do not feel intimidated by my presence, helping you was no bother and I am honoured to know that you think so highly of me,” he smile with twinkling golden eyes, “If you don’t mind, could you tell me your names and where you are staying? I would like to see both of you off considering two nine-year olds should not be left unattended in the middle of the night, no matter how lax Air Nomads are about supervision.” he added when Aang opened his mouth to protest.
“My name is Kuzon,” Kuzon said, bowing low with a flame, “ and this is Aang,” Aang copied Kuzon but instead of using a flame he bowed with the unified symbol for all nations.
“I live right in that house down by the river,” Kuzon continued pointing at his home, “While Aang is staying with the Air Nomad convoy at the East Winds inn.”
Zuko nodded slowly taking in the information as he instructed Kuzon to go rise and go home before he turned to Aang, “Let me walk you back to the inn, for my own sake.” he said, gesturing to Aang to follow him.
He allowed Aang to bid goodbye to Kuzon before they walked.
“So Aang, how are you liking the Fire Nation?” asked Zuko, warmly.
“It is very nice, your highness.” Aang kept his answer even and measured, careful not to offend.
“Please drop the formality, it is not needed when I am not in the place.” Zuko paused before adding, “Especially not since I snuck out to be here,” he winked.
“Why did you sneak out?”
“Because,” Zuko added conspiratorially, “ I wanted to meet an air nomad, so if you think about it, this all worked out nicely.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
When they reached the inn Zuko bid Aang a warm good bye and turned to leave, but not before Aang could say, “If you want to see any airbending I could show you, I’m pretty good!”
Zuko turned around and smiled, “I’d like that.” he said simply. And even though Zuko had been not but warm and welcoming this entire time this felt like the most genuine of all of them.
***
After that day Zuko and Aang stayed friends for the next two years, where Zuko more often than not treated Aang like the little brother he always wanted but never had.
Aang gave Zuko a sense of freedom that he would not be able to otherwise have and was Zuko’s only friend due to there being no other noble boys of the same age range, the closest being a 5 year old.
Eventually Kuzon had also loosened up around Zuko and Zuko taught him firebending in the style of the dragons, using his own dragon (so cool) Druk to help him and Aang was even able to introduce Zuko and Bumi.
Things were nice, and then 8 weeks before the comet festival Aang was told he was the Avatar.
***
Aang had known that technically tensions between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world were rising but he was always under the impression that when Zuko became Fire Lord (which shouldn’t be too long now considering Sozin was old) things would ease up, however he never realised how bad it actually was.
That is why when he was visiting Kuzon and Zuko for the comet festival before he was set to start his avatar training he didn’t expect to find a frantic Zuko with half his face burned off, running towards him on his third day in the caldera. Guards followed him as he begged Aang to go, to run as they climbed on Appa, Druk following after them.
Zuko told him of Sozin's plan with only 11 days to spare ordering Aang to get to the Southern Air Temple as soon as possible so that they could spread the word to the rest of the Nomads.
Zuko whose face was covered in burns and melted skin and blood- there was so much blood- what happened? How was he still awake? Who did this? Did it not hurt?
***
Aang was scared.
Everything went wrong so quickly. One moment he was celebrating the comet festival with Kuzon and the next Zuko was dragging his the city with news of death and a life threatening injury marring his entire face, it made Aang feel sick just looking at it
Zuko when he found Aang had been running on pure adrenaline, and he knew this. The moment they were on Appa he wasted no time explaining how his father had invited him to a war meeting disguised as regular council. He described his fathers plan to kill the Air Nomads with the power of the comet due to the current Avatar being born and airbender because of him but Zuko didn't know that . He described how when he objected his father had guards hold him down as he burned his face in front of the entire court on accounts of treason to the throne and blasphemy of Agni's will. He described how he kept burning him until Zuko managed to burn him back with a sting of fire that came out his mouth. He described how Druk sensed his pain and broke in while Sozin's own dragon helped in attacking the councilmen and how Druk helped Zuko as they ran to find Aang.
Zuko passed out not long ago. His temperature keeps rising and Aang is so scared for his friend who is so close to death that he does not notice the storm until it is too late.
They never did make it to the Southern Air Temple.