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attackfishDisclaimer: If I owned Avatar: the Last Airbender, parents would sue me for their children's nightmares.
Summary: Former Earth Kingdom rebel Zuko has a difficult time adjusting to being a Fire Nation prince.
Author's Note: Written for an anonymous asker on Tumblr for my ten thousand words celebration after reaching ten thousand posts. More information for this AU can be found on my Tumblr at the tag: "#Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko": [Link].
Warnings: dark themes
Set in the same universe as Inosculation.
The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood
"You?" The Fire Princess laughed, incredulous. "Who are you? You're nobody, just a jumped up peasant my uncle likes. You really think you're going to face me?"
"I don't have to be anybody," Zuko said as calmly as he could with the power of the comet thrumming through him, plucking at his nerves. "Today is your coronation. Until the crown is on your head, you have to confront all challengers."
"Did my uncle teach you that?" she asked, smirking. "It's archaic. Nobody does that any more. You're adorable."
"It's still the law." Zuko glanced over her shoulder. "And the Fire Sages heard me challenge you. I challenge you on behalf of your uncle, Prince Iroh, for the Firelord's crown."
Instead of answering, she walked down the length of the courtyard to stop in front of him. It shouldn't have seemed as strange as it did that she was shorter than him. "So you're the firebender gutter trash my uncle wants to graft onto our family tree," she murmured. "I know all about you. You're not Fire Nation. You're not even a colony brat. You're just a halfbreed peasant. And Uncle must not care about you very much if he sends you to face me." Her smirk widened as she spoke for the Fire Sages to hear, "Okay, You can have your Agni Kai. This'll be over quickly."
It was. When her lightning came for him, he was ready.
o0O0o
At Firelord Iroh's coronation, the new Fire Prince knelt next to him, dressed in a prince's red silk, his short peasant hair gathered into an almost respectable topknot over the bandage. In the crowds below, the whispers had already started, whispers that Iroh was old and weak, that he had promised the boy the throne after him in exchange for fighting Azula, that he should be the one taking the throne as the one who had beaten Ozai's daughter, that he was Iroh's real son, hidden away all these years to hide the shame of a halfbreed bastard.
Zuko's one good eye wandered over the crowd. The burn Azula had given him to remember him by before she died, throbbed. His head swam. The royal physician had ad told him they wouldn't know if he had lost sight in that eye until the bandage came off. All he wanted to do was lie down. But as the crown came down into Iroh's hair, Zuko knew his day was far from over.
o0O0o
Zuko pushed aside the scroll as the Firelord walked in. "It doesn't matter how many times you make me read Sozin's writings. You're never going to convince me the war was a good thing for the Earth kingdom," he told him sourly. "I lived it, remember."
"I am not trying to," Iroh said, amused. "But it is wise to consider why Sozin believed himself justified so that you do not make the same mistake, Prince Zuko."
"Not likely."
"No," Iroh acknowledged. "Your mistakes will likely be entirely your own."
o0O0o
Zuko had visited orphanages before, in the Fire Nation, clapped politely when the children sang to him and asked them about what they were learning. He had been the grand and remote Fire Prince he knew he was supposed to be. It was about the show of royalty, and playing the part for his new people.
The journey to the Earth Kingdom wasn't about that. It was about meeting with the Earth King to discuss reparations repatriation of captured Earth Kingdom territory. It was about speaking civilly with a man who had stayed safe behind his walls as the war raged around him, so sheltered he didn't even know it was happening.
The stop in the small, unimportant Earth Kingdom village was not part of the official itinerary, but Zuko knew the Firelord had to know he would come. As one of the guards knocked on the door, Zuko pulled out the flame hairpiece and the ribbon holding his topknot in place. His hair fell down around his face, a little too long, except in the places it had been burned away, a little too smooth from the lotions and shampoos a prince could use, but still his hair, still something a little familiar. He longed for his scavenged red tunic and unscarred face, for something that would make him look less different.
The door opened. It was Smellerbee. Her eyes bulged. She dashed off, and a few seconds later came back with a round woman in country women's finery. Her eyes flicked to the hairpiece and the ribbon.
"Your Highness," she called him. Zuko barely heard. From within the tiny orphanage in the middle of the Earth Kingdom, endowed by the Fire Prince himself, the children poured out. Zuko fell to his knees as his forest children rushed into his arms.
Inosculation
Summary: Former Earth Kingdom rebel Zuko has a difficult time adjusting to being a Fire Nation prince.
Author's Note: Written for an anonymous asker on Tumblr for my ten thousand words celebration after reaching ten thousand posts. More information for this AU can be found on my Tumblr at the tag: "#Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko": [Link].
Warnings: dark themes
Set in the same universe as Inosculation.
The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood
"You?" The Fire Princess laughed, incredulous. "Who are you? You're nobody, just a jumped up peasant my uncle likes. You really think you're going to face me?"
"I don't have to be anybody," Zuko said as calmly as he could with the power of the comet thrumming through him, plucking at his nerves. "Today is your coronation. Until the crown is on your head, you have to confront all challengers."
"Did my uncle teach you that?" she asked, smirking. "It's archaic. Nobody does that any more. You're adorable."
"It's still the law." Zuko glanced over her shoulder. "And the Fire Sages heard me challenge you. I challenge you on behalf of your uncle, Prince Iroh, for the Firelord's crown."
Instead of answering, she walked down the length of the courtyard to stop in front of him. It shouldn't have seemed as strange as it did that she was shorter than him. "So you're the firebender gutter trash my uncle wants to graft onto our family tree," she murmured. "I know all about you. You're not Fire Nation. You're not even a colony brat. You're just a halfbreed peasant. And Uncle must not care about you very much if he sends you to face me." Her smirk widened as she spoke for the Fire Sages to hear, "Okay, You can have your Agni Kai. This'll be over quickly."
It was. When her lightning came for him, he was ready.
o0O0o
At Firelord Iroh's coronation, the new Fire Prince knelt next to him, dressed in a prince's red silk, his short peasant hair gathered into an almost respectable topknot over the bandage. In the crowds below, the whispers had already started, whispers that Iroh was old and weak, that he had promised the boy the throne after him in exchange for fighting Azula, that he should be the one taking the throne as the one who had beaten Ozai's daughter, that he was Iroh's real son, hidden away all these years to hide the shame of a halfbreed bastard.
Zuko's one good eye wandered over the crowd. The burn Azula had given him to remember him by before she died, throbbed. His head swam. The royal physician had ad told him they wouldn't know if he had lost sight in that eye until the bandage came off. All he wanted to do was lie down. But as the crown came down into Iroh's hair, Zuko knew his day was far from over.
o0O0o
Zuko pushed aside the scroll as the Firelord walked in. "It doesn't matter how many times you make me read Sozin's writings. You're never going to convince me the war was a good thing for the Earth kingdom," he told him sourly. "I lived it, remember."
"I am not trying to," Iroh said, amused. "But it is wise to consider why Sozin believed himself justified so that you do not make the same mistake, Prince Zuko."
"Not likely."
"No," Iroh acknowledged. "Your mistakes will likely be entirely your own."
o0O0o
Zuko had visited orphanages before, in the Fire Nation, clapped politely when the children sang to him and asked them about what they were learning. He had been the grand and remote Fire Prince he knew he was supposed to be. It was about the show of royalty, and playing the part for his new people.
The journey to the Earth Kingdom wasn't about that. It was about meeting with the Earth King to discuss reparations repatriation of captured Earth Kingdom territory. It was about speaking civilly with a man who had stayed safe behind his walls as the war raged around him, so sheltered he didn't even know it was happening.
The stop in the small, unimportant Earth Kingdom village was not part of the official itinerary, but Zuko knew the Firelord had to know he would come. As one of the guards knocked on the door, Zuko pulled out the flame hairpiece and the ribbon holding his topknot in place. His hair fell down around his face, a little too long, except in the places it had been burned away, a little too smooth from the lotions and shampoos a prince could use, but still his hair, still something a little familiar. He longed for his scavenged red tunic and unscarred face, for something that would make him look less different.
The door opened. It was Smellerbee. Her eyes bulged. She dashed off, and a few seconds later came back with a round woman in country women's finery. Her eyes flicked to the hairpiece and the ribbon.
"Your Highness," she called him. Zuko barely heard. From within the tiny orphanage in the middle of the Earth Kingdom, endowed by the Fire Prince himself, the children poured out. Zuko fell to his knees as his forest children rushed into his arms.
Inosculation
no subject
Date: 2019-07-30 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-30 03:02 am (UTC)