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Aang’s not really one for tea but he was passing by the shop and thought why not. He’s about to leave Ba Sing Se anyway finally and this’ll be his last stop before doing so. They just got Appa back and Aang still wants to cry from relief at even getting to see the bison again.
He had no idea when or if he was ever going to see him again. He was so afraid that the last connection to his past was just gone, that Appa was gone even though their souls are literally supposed to be intertwined for all of their time in this life, and –
But at least he’s back now.
And Sokka is happily packing for his trip to get to see his father again, and Toph already left to go meet up with her mother, so he had a minute alone since the Water siblings were busy without him.
He really doesn’t want them all to split up again after they only just got back together but they don’t have much choice right now so he’s trying not to think about how afraid he is that something will happen to one of them while he’s away, the same way they lost Appa when he wasn’t there for a few hours.
He can’t believe he yelled at Toph about that. He still feels horrible for that.
A shadow falls across Aang’s table as he sits, waiting for his tea, and he looks up to see the waiter approaching… Except it’s –
“Zuko?!” the name slips out, strangled and panicked, and Aang is jolting to his feet instantly, heart hammering wildly.
Zuko.
Who they haven’t seen in a long time, but who also every single time they do, it’s because he’s attacking them and trying to capture Aang and nearly hurting one of the others and –
“I didn’t think I would see you here.” Zuko is holding himself stiffly, but he doesn’t look overly surprised at seeing Aang here, which only sets off more alarm bells.
“What are you doing here?” Aang’s breath is coming in shaky, panicked gasps and nothing makes sense. Why isn’t Zuko attacking him? Why – why is he even here?!
Other customers are turning to look over at them and Zuko drops his voice a bit lower, as though trying to avoid anyone overhearing. “This is my uncle’s tea shop.”
What?
“We came here, to start a new life,” another voice offers from behind him, and Aang jumps at the sight of Iroh approaching. “My nephew will not harm you.”
Aang looks between both of them, panic still clawing at his chest, and how none of this makes any sense and he’s literally an Air user all his life he shouldn’t be able to just stop breathing but he can’t breathe at all right now, and Aang makes a break for the door without looking back.
He’s supposed to be the Avatar and he’s running away from Zuko how is he ever going to face Ozai it’s pathetic –
Aang barely makes it out the door before he hears footsteps behind him. Someone grabs a hold of his shirt, yanking him out of sight of the street into an ally behind the tea shop.
It’s Zuko again.
“Let go of me!” Aang grabs his wrist, trying to pry him off, but he’s not nearly strong enough and then just hits the other boy with a gust of air that sends him stumbling backwards.
“Stop fighting!” Zuko sounds frustrated, but Aang is mostly just confused about why he hasn’t gotten a face full of fire yet.
New life.
Right.
Iroh wouldn’t have been lying about that, right?
But… that doesn’t even make sense, does it?
“If you’re here for a new life, why are you following me?” Aang demands, hands clenched.
“I’m making sure you aren’t taking this to the Dai Li,” Zuko counters, which…. is actually fair.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Aang promises, even as he’s still edging away from the fire prince.
“One of your friends might,” Zuko argues. Yeah, they might. And what would Zuko do to them if they did? Actually, Aang doesn’t want to know, not that he would ever turn someone over to those people, but still.
“What’s different now?” Aang asks instead, because he’s just confused, a million questions buzzing in his mind despite his fear, “Every time you see me, you – You hate me, and I don’t even know why. So why did that suddenly change?”
Zuko scoffs, turning his head away. For a moment, Aang doesn’t think he’s going to answer. “I don’t hate you.”
Aang blinks at him. “I asked you if we could be friends and you tried to set me on fire.” The hurt in his chest still feels raw when he thinks about that. All he wanted was a connection with someone in the Fire Nation again, a reminder of what he always thought these people were, of what he had with Kuzon before he woke up to a world that makes no sense and where everyone despises the nation that one of his best friends was from as though they aren’t people too, regardless of what some of them have done.
“I have to capture you – had to,” Zuko corrects, “It’s the only way I can ever go home.”
Aang frowns. “Why?”
“Because that’s what Father said,” he snaps. He stalks a few steps away, pacing back and forth. He’s breathing fast, too fast, in a way that Aang recognizes far too well after feeling that way so much himself. He’s spiraling, about… something, that Aang doesn’t fully understand but he’s still hit with a well of horror as realization starts to sink in.
“Your father banished you unless – unless you bring me back,” Aang realizes. He’s heard rumors of Zuko being a banished prince. He never really thought about why until right now, though something gives him the feeling that asking the details about why he got banished is probably only going to make Zuko’s spiraling worse so he doesn’t push. But that’s… awful.
Ozai is literally Zuko’s family, even if he’s a monster to the rest of the world, but he doesn’t even care about his own child.
“It’s the only way to regain my honor,” Zuko replies, bitterly, “But I failed at that, too.”
The way the boy is looking at him makes Aang instantly stiffen up with tension, because what if Zuko changes his mind and attacks him right here. Aang could probably get out of here but he doesn’t know that and it won’t make having to fight him again any less terrifying.
Or – or whatever would come after if he lost the fight and Zuko actually did drag him back to the Fire Nation.
We’ll keep you alive… but barely.
“What changed now?” Aang asks tentatively, fingers still curled tightly around his staff to lash out at a moment’s notice if he has too.
Zuko doesn’t look at him, but still huffs out a sharp breath. “My uncle kept telling me that there is nothing wrong with a life of peace and prosperity. That I need to think about what I want my own destiny to be.”
He… does. He should. Everyone should get to do that.
Aang still has no idea what that means himself. He thought he did, until the day he was told he’s the Avatar, and everything he’s done since then has revolved around what everyone tells him his destiny is supposed to be. Like how everyone now expects him to kill the Fire Lord, even if killing anyone is against everything he believes in.
“That’s why I let your sky bison go,” Zuko adds.
Aang goes entirely still. “You – you’re the one who let Appa go?” He knew someone had, because the bison got away with no explanation. He’d thought maybe Appa was able to free himself somehow, but Zuko let him go?
When he could have easily used Appa to blackmail Aang into turning himself over.
But…. he didn’t.
And he’s pretty sure Zuko is too brutally honest to lie about something like that.
He doesn’t actually know what to say to that at all.
“I’m sorry about your father,” Aang says, tentatively because he can’t not say so even if the thought of mentioning it when it could risk Zuko attacking him again is terrifying, “No one should have to be afraid of their own family.”
Zuko scoffs. “Like you would know anything about family. Or fear. You’re the Avatar. You have all the power you could ever want. What would you have to be afraid of?”
The question stings deeply, in more ways than he wants to think about. “Being the Avatar doesn’t mean I’m not afraid,” Aang argues, quietly, “I’m afraid of losing my friends again, like everyone is. And I’m afraid of the Fire Nation, of the people they’ve sent after me, and of – what they’d do if they got me back.”
Zuko actually turns fully to look at him then, something odd in his face. “You’re afraid of me?” He sounds incredulous, like he can’t quite imagine it, when Aang is more terrified of him than he is of anyone, when nightmares of Zuko haunt him nearly every night.
“You chased me everywhere for weeks and we could never stop looking over our shoulders for when you’d show up and attack us again and – “ How is that even a question?
Not that he’s trying to make Zuko feel terrible. But he doesn’t know how Zuko could even doubt that.
Zuko lets out a quiet sigh, looking away again, something that sounds maybe ashamed, maybe… a lot of things Aang can’t make sense of. “I don’t want anyone to be afraid of me.”
He really doesn’t want to be unkind to anyone, not even to Zuko, but the incredulous, “What else did you expect?” slips out before Aang can stop it.
“I didn’t think about it,” Zuko replies, honestly.
“You just wanted to go home,” Aang deduces, “I – I understand that.”
“How could you understand that?” he objects, “I thought Air Nomads didn’t even have homes and families.”
How much about his people has been completely forgotten?
“My entire people were my family,” Aang replies, as every bit of the grief and longing hits him full force, strangling him, “And now they’re all gone.”
“So you want revenge?” Zuko asks, “That’s why you’re trying to kill my father.” There’s the slightest edge to his voice as he says it, like that still makes him angry, like he still loves Ozai even though the man couldn’t care less about him.
“I don’t want revenge,” Aang counters immediately, because it’s true. Hurting more people won’t change the pain his entire people went through as they were destroyed. Or how they’d still be gone. It won’t change anything. He just misses when his people were still there and when the Fire Nation wasn’t hated. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just can’t let people keep getting hurt. That’s my responsibility as the Avatar.”
Zuko looks like he has a lot of things to say to that, but then decides better of it.
And then it’s just the two of them awkwardly looking at each other, with neither of them certain how to break the silence.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Aang promises again finally, “If you’re trying to start a new life, that’s – You should get to do that, to make your choices and your own destiny, not whatever the Fire Lord is telling you it has to be. No one’s destiny ever has to be to cause pain.”
Even if that’s kind of what everyone’s telling him his is.
Zuko eyes him. “It is if I ever want to go home.”
Aang gnaws on his lip. “If your father already did… this, is going back really worth it? What if he hurt you again anyway?”
The other boy exhales sharply, nearly flinching visibly. “That’s none of your concern.” He turns away, pacing agitatedly, even if he’s never fully turning his back on Aang.
This… is giving him the feeling there’s way more to whatever happened with Zuko when he was banished than he even realizes.
“Thanks for saving Appa,” Aang blurts out finally, because he doesn’t know what else to say or do, and it’s one thing that really does need to be said. It feels so weird to be saying that to Zuko.
The other boy nods, all awkward and stiff. “Safe travels, Avatar.”
The words themselves are more than a little startling.
Aang doesn’t really know what to say in reply to it. The last time he asked if they could be friends, he nearly got set on fire. He’s too scared to try asking that again. Just because Zuko doesn’t want to keep being used as his father’s weapon doesn’t mean that he wants to be friends with Aang anyway, so he doesn’t ask.
He just twirls his staff instead, drawing Air to him and launching off into the air, leaving the teashop where the literal Fire Nation prince works far behind.
With Toph already gone, Sokka too excited at the prospect of getting to meet Hakoda again to think about anything else, and Katara distracted with her own duties, none of them notice if he’s acting weird.
***
Aang almost didn’t think they were even going to run into Zuko again, but then he has a vision of Katara being in danger, and when he meets up with Sokka and Toph again, Katara’s nowhere to be found and then Iroh shows up at their home door, telling them that Azula somehow got into Ba Sing Se, and –
“She has captured my nephew as well,” Iroh adds.
“Then we'll work together to fight Azula, and save Katara and Zuko,” Aang replies, heart flipping with fear. He’s terrified for Katara, but he’s going to admit to being worried about Zuko too – he has no idea what the Fire Nation would do to him if they got him back after he’s already apparently been hiding from them.
“Whoa there! You lost me at "Zuko"!” Sokka protests, hands flailing.
“I know how you must feel about my nephew,” Iroh intervenes, “But believe me when I tell you that there is good inside him.”
“"Good inside him" isn't enough! Why don't you come back when it's outside him too, okay?” Sokka complains.
That is… slightly harsh, even if it’s… also fair.
“Katara's in trouble. All of Ba Sing Se is in trouble. Working together is our best chance,” Aang points out, because it’s not even only about Zuko. They don’t have any other choice.
***
Aang goes with Iroh to find Katara down in the prisons, and they run in to see both her and Zuko there.
“Aang!” Katara runs to him instantly, arms flinging around him, “I knew you would come!”
“Why are you here?” Zuko asks, eyes darting to Aang.
It’s… weird to see him again, remembering their run-in at the tea shop. “Iroh said you needed help,” Aang replies, “So we’re saving you.”
“I didn’t think you would,” Zuko says, sounding a bit baffled.
“You needed help,” Aang answers seriously.
Katara is eyeing both of them like she almost thinks she’s missing something – which she would be right about, but now’s not the time to explain.
“Go help you other friends. We'll catch up with you,” Iroh interjects, as he finally goes over to Zuko, pulling him into a hug.
Aang throws one last glance over his shoulder at Zuko – that he’s almost surprised the other boy returns – before he and Katara break into a run down one of the passageways. They’ve got to find Sokka and Toph.
***
Except, they don’t make it to finding their friends before a blast of blue fire is flung at them from behind, and Aang rips a boulder out of the ground to block it barely in time. Another blast comes and Katara intercepts it with water bending, the fire fizzling out and water splashing around them, but Azula’s running right at them again anyway.
She’s fast and deadly, and Aang calls on all kinds of Bending he knows to fight her off. It’s not actually as terrifying as fighting Zuko was, and nor is it going to be so long as her two friends don’t show up but the fight is fast and dangerous, with the constant fear that she could literally start one of them on fire and then that would be the end of it.
Azula’s about to hit them with another blue fire blast when a rush of orange fire comes at her from behind, and she whips around to block that fire aside barely in time.
Zuko is standing there, hands still glowing with fire.
Azula’s eyes go dark. “What are you doing, Zuzu?” she demands, “You have the chance for a redemption. Don’t waste it.”
Zuko hesitates.
Aang can see the conflict warring in his eyes. All the other boy wants is to go home. And Aang knows that feeling so well because most of the time, all he wants is to be back in the past with Gyatso and the other Air Nomads, too.
Zuko’s gaze darts from Azula, and then to Aang. Aang holds his gaze, his own heart pounding way too fast, a million things he wants to say but none come out.
“You always lie, Azula,” Zuko says finally, “Whatever I did here, you’d take all the credit anyway.” He flings another blast of fire at her, and the two siblings start fighting again.
Aang and Katara jump back into the fight, and it doesn’t take long when they’re all fighting together as weird as it is to be fighting alongside Zuko to knock down Azula long enough for them all to make a run for it together.
***
Ba Sing Se still falls. There’s nothing they can do about that now when there’s already so many fire nation troops here.
They land Appa a distance outside of the city and Aang settles on the ground next to the bison, idly stroking Momo as he looks out at the fallen city. Something else he failed at. He was supposed to save them. The people were counting on him to save them, and he didn’t. He failed them, just like he failed his own people, and…
“So are we going to talk about how weird it is that Zuko’s here?” Sokka pipes up finally.
“Or that he helped us instead of trying to take Twinkletoes again,” Toph agrees.
“If you want me to go, I can,” Zuko grumbles.
“No, wait,” Aang protests, “You don’t have to. If you want to stay – Well, if you want to go, you can, but…” Okay, nothing he’s saying is coming out right, right now.
Katara approaches Zuko, thankfully interrupting his ramble. “Thank you,” she says, sort of awkward and stiff but still sincere, “When you told me you’d changed, I wasn’t sure at first if I should believe you.”
“I believed him,” Aang offers.
Katara turns to look at him, totally confused. “You weren’t even there.”
“No, I meant before,” he fumbles out.
“…Before?”
Rrrright. Probably time for him to explain a few things. “Uh, Zuko and I… met? Before?”
“You knew he was in Ba Sing Se this whole time?!” Sokka squawks.
“That might have been information to share earlier,” Katara agrees.
“I didn’t know how to explain it,” Aang defends, “And… they didn’t want to be turned over to the Dai Li.”
“Yeah, those guys are no fun,” Toph agrees, “And… we might have turned them over.” She nudges him with her elbow. “So that’s why you didn’t think it was weird when I told you I’d already met Iroh.”
“Yeah,” Aang agrees, though his gaze is almost instinctively drawn back to the city.
Because it still fell and everyone is going to know that the Avatar failed all over again, and not even because he was gone this time. Why can’t he do anything right?
The others keep talking to each other and to Iroh and Zuko, but most of it fades to the background as Aang turns back to staring at the walls of the city. The city he was supposed to protect.
Sokka’s complaining about being hungry and getting food out for everyone, which Aang is almost grateful for because it’s keeping everyone else distracted, and he wants a moment to just… brood.
Quiet footsteps shuffle up behind him and when he glances up briefly, he’s really not expecting it to be Zuko standing there.
For a moment, they just look at each other, like neither of them is quite sure what to say.
“Why are you just sitting there?” Zuko blurts out, and then his expression twitches like the question made him feel more awkward than he’s already feeling about this.
“I was supposed to save Ba Sing Se,” Aang replies exhaustedly, and it’s almost uncomfortable to be talking about this to someone from the Fire Nation who he spent so long fighting, “And I didn’t. As the Avatar, I haven’t helped anyone.” And that’s all he’s supposed to be doing but he can’t do that one thing right.
“You said I should get to choose my own destiny,” Zuko says, “Shouldn’t you too?”
Aang pauses.
He…. doesn’t even know what to say to that, actually. “I – I don’t know.” He can’t just not be the Avatar.
“Well, you’re going to need a Fire bending teacher,” Zuko offers, as though in a sudden desperate effort to change the topic.
Aang’s head whips towards him. “You’re offering to teach me?!”
What does he even say to an offer like that?
“Well, you need one still, right? And you probably won’t find a lot of other fire benders willing – “ Zuko starts to fumble out.
Aang thinks of Joung Joung for a moment and how hard his training had been…. and how much Aang had messed everything up. He’s still scared to learn Fire Bending. But he also knows he’s got to eventually.
“I’d like you to be my teacher,” Aang says, with a tentative smile, “Thank you, Zuko.”
The fire prince returns it just as awkwardly.
And Aang feels the tiniest flare of warmth inside of him. Maybe… maybe they can still be friends.