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attackfishDisclaimer: Oh how I wish I had created or owned such a thing as Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Summary: When Iroh comes to Ba Sing Se to meet with a White Lotus contact, he gets a lot more than he bargained for in the form of a boy who looks startlingly familiar.
Author's Note: This story takes place in my Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko AU before Zuko has his scar. More for this AU can be found on my Tumblr at this tag: [Link].
Inosculation and The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood are set in the same universe.
Warnings: Oblique references to rape and other war crimes.
No Matter how Gently Meant the Wound
The door to their apartment was open when Zuko reached it, and his heart leapt into his mouth. Dread pooled in his stomach, his skin going hot and cold, as if he were plunged into ice water and burning alive all at once.
But as soon as he shoved his way inside Smellerbee jumped to her feet. "Zuko! I ran over as soon as I knew what was happening, everybody's okay, but..."
Zuko didn't hear the rest. Buzzing filled his ears as every muscle in his body relaxed at once.
Mushi's shadow stepped up behind him in the doorway. "We have to get you and the children out of the city, now."
When Smellerbee's eyes fell on him, they narrowed into a glare. "Why? Who are you?"
"Your friend made an unfortunate acquaintence," Mushi told her, answering only the first of ther two questions. "Jet. His real name is Prince Jiten. He is the son of Firelord Ozai, and now that the city has fallen, he will want your friend."
Longshot glanced at them, and at Mushi, and started throwing their meagre belongings into packs, but Smellerbee only planted her feet and stood in the doorway. "How do you know this? Who are you?"
Mushi smiled. "Just an old soldier."
Zuko's eyes narrowed and snapped to Mushi. "You said he was family."
"He's my nephew."
Even in a colony town, like their village had become, it was possible to catch the whispers that the new Firelord's wife had vanished into thin air when he had taken the throne, and that no one was allowed to speak of her. Zuko wondered if this had something to do with why her brother would be willing to help them.
o0O0o
They had to sneak out of the city into the farmland that supported it, surrounded within the outer wall. But all of them were used to sneaking. And besides, even with The Duke's knees digging into his back, and Baoshi's hand gripping his so tight it had gone yellow and bloodless, he felt better out in the fields, where the buildings didn't hem them in.
As soon as they were far out in the fields, with neither farmers, nor columns of massed Fire Nation soldiers in sight, Mushi pulled something out of his robe. A whistle. When he blew it, it made no sound.
"You're whistle's broken," Zuko told him.
"No it isn't." Mushi blew it again, and again, no sound could be heard from it.
Baoshi tugged at Zuko's hand. "I'm tired."
"I know."
"Can you carry me?"
"I'm carrying The Duke." And his drool was soaking through Zuko's shirt as he slept.
"You could put him down and carry me," she reasoned.
"It's his turn." Zuko glanced at Mushi. "But maybe Mushi will carry you."
"No child, my child carrying days are over."
"If you have strength to keep blowing that broken whistle, you have strength to help carry something," Smellerbee snapped, half buried under packs.
"Oh believe me, I'm helping."
"By blowing a broken whistle?" She glowered. "Whoever you got that from, cheated you, old man."
"The whistle is doing exactly what it's supposed to, young man."
Zuko winced.
"I'm a girl!" she spat.
Mushi merely smiled and bowed his head. "I'm sorry. My mistake."
One-eyed Li tugged on Longshot's arm. "I want to be carried too!" But Longshot only shook his head. He had his arrows on his back. It wouldn't be safe.
And Mushi kep blowing his stupid soundless whistle. On the other hand, it could have been worse. The whistle could have actually made noise.
o0O0o
It was late in the afternoon when a shadow fell over them from above. Mushi grabbed the whistle and blew, and blew, until the shadow grew larger, flying closer with a thundering roar. "That's the Avatar's bison," Zuko said stupidly, like that wasn't obvious."
"And this is a bison whistle," Mushi said with a broad smile. "I picked it up a few weeks ago. I thought it might come in handy."
Smellerbee only stared as Longshot and Zuko helped the children into the bison's saddle and pulled the packs off her shoulders to load them.
"We should probably return him," Zuko said.
Mushi beamed. "My thoughts exactly!"
o0O0o
The bison seemed to know his own way, so Zuko was content to let him chart their course. As they flew far above the fields and over the walls, it was hard to fathom what was happening to to the city below, hard even to connect the rows of slowly marching red lines to human beings. The broken wall looked like a child's mud fort, dried and smashed, more than it looked like the famous wall of Ba Sing Se. Zuko passed around the waterskin to the kids and dug through the packs for the dried berries and nuts he knew were in there somewhere.
The sun hung low and red over the horizon, and Baoshi, who had missed her afternoon nap, dozed against the wall of the saddle.
It was peaceful. If Zuko hadn't been awake since before dawn, if he hadn't been walking for half a day with The Duke on his back, maybe the reality of it wouldn't have so easily slipped away from him. Maybe then the emotional weight of the fall of the great city of Ba Sing Se, last bastion of strength against the Fire Nation left in all of the Earth Kingdom, last place of refuge for all of them, would have fallen. But he was too tired, and all that fell on him was numbness. It was easy to let the tranquility of the wind and sky lull him.
It took him precious moments to notice when the bison began to descend. Below them loomed a great, hulking black Fire Nation warship. Zuko's stomach dropped. He grabbed the reins and pulled as hard as he could, yelling at the bison to stop, to keep flying, away from the ship, but it shrugged him off as if he were only a mosquito-gnat.
All the while, Old Man Mushi sat in the saddle, watching him placidly. He almost couldn't breathe. "What did you do?"
Mushi blinked. "Nothing!"
Zuko would have demanded more if the bison hadn't touched down in the deck. Zuko grabbed his swords as Longshot drew his bow and Smellerbee clutched her knife. It wouldn't do them any good, but at least they would go down fighting.
Then one of the Fire Nation soldiers pulled off his helmet. "Sokka?"
"Zuko?"
"Hey!" A girl as short as Smellerbee, wrapped in a red Fire Nation military cape like a blanket, shouted. "Who are you and how did you steal Appa?"
"Who are you?" One-eyed Li retorted from the relative safety of the saddle.
Mushi took that as his queue. As Zuko sheathed his swords, and Smellerbee and Longshot put away their knife and bow, he carefully slid down the bison's tail, to the deck of the ship.
"You!" The short girl in the cape blanket yelled joyfully at him. "Good to see you again, old man."
Mushi bowed to her. "You too, Toph. Sokka."
"Wait a minute, how do you know the Avatar's friends?" Smellerbee asked, more confused than suspicious.
Mushi was about to answer, when a door opened and Katara stepped onto the deck. She waved to him before coming over. "General Iroh! How did you get here?"
If the Dragon of the West ever made his answer, Zuko couldn't hear it over the roaring in his ears.
o0O0o
Katara brought the cool water up to his shoulder. "I didn't know you were a firebender."
"Yeah, well." He flushed. "It's not like I go around telling people."
"I thought you were Earth Kingdom."
"I am."
Her brow creased. "How does that work?"
"My mom was Earth Kingdom," he mumbled.
"And how did, oh, I guess your dad, right?"
He nodded.
"Was he nice?"
Zuko didn't know what to say, how to explain, or if he even should, when with all of the horrible things she had seen, she had missed out on this one.
The silence dragged on between them until she stopped looking at him for an answer. "Iroh's really helped us a lot," she said at last. "It's hard to remember, you know, that he used to..."
"Yeah, well, he did."
"I know what it feels like," she told him. "The Fire Nation killed my mother too. I was right there when it happened."
"I ran off into the forest. I didn't find out until after."
"I'm sorry."
"I was going to tell you that you should give him another chance. He's changed a lot since then." She grimaced. "But..."
"Yeah." What he had done was already done. It wasn't like Zuko's mom was going to come back just because the Dragon of the West had decided to change his mind about the war.
o0O0o
"Can I have a cup of tea?" He fetched a cup down from one of the shelves and set it down in front of her. Tea vanished from the weight of the teapot in his hands, only to materialize in the cup in front of her. "Thanks. How did you find a tea set so fast anyway?"
"These ships are all built on a standard plan," he told her with a sigh. "They all have a tea service for the highest ranked officer stored in the same place in the galley."
"Oh. Uh... That's convenient, I guess." He hmmed, as she took a sip. "I'm sorry that guy attacked you."
"I'm not."
"Why not?"
"I am sorry he burned himself. I am sorry he has gone so long with no one to teach him. But he was not wrong, and he has every right to hate me." He sipped his tea. "You said you were from Gaoling?"
"Yeah, why?"
"The war must have seemed very distant there."
Toph shrugged. "I guess."
"In some ways, it seemed very distant to me too." He sighed a sigh so heavy it rumbled through him and into the table. "I went to fight the war. It didn't come to me. It all seemed very distant, until it didn't. I was the one who ordered the Rough Rhinos to ride ahead of the army, to pacify the land on the way to Ba Sing Se. It wasn't that I didn't realize what that would mean, that innocent people would die. I did not think it mattered. It did not occur to me that I should care."
Toph didn't know what to say to that. She choked down the rest of her tea.
Iroh closed his eyes. Toph felt the minute fluttering of his lashes against his wrinkled skin. "I can't blame Zuko for attacking me. He is the one who had to live with the consequences of my actions."
Inosculation | The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood
Summary: When Iroh comes to Ba Sing Se to meet with a White Lotus contact, he gets a lot more than he bargained for in the form of a boy who looks startlingly familiar.
Author's Note: This story takes place in my Prince Jet Rebel Leader Zuko AU before Zuko has his scar. More for this AU can be found on my Tumblr at this tag: [Link].
Inosculation and The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood are set in the same universe.
Warnings: Oblique references to rape and other war crimes.
No Matter how Gently Meant the Wound
The door to their apartment was open when Zuko reached it, and his heart leapt into his mouth. Dread pooled in his stomach, his skin going hot and cold, as if he were plunged into ice water and burning alive all at once.
But as soon as he shoved his way inside Smellerbee jumped to her feet. "Zuko! I ran over as soon as I knew what was happening, everybody's okay, but..."
Zuko didn't hear the rest. Buzzing filled his ears as every muscle in his body relaxed at once.
Mushi's shadow stepped up behind him in the doorway. "We have to get you and the children out of the city, now."
When Smellerbee's eyes fell on him, they narrowed into a glare. "Why? Who are you?"
"Your friend made an unfortunate acquaintence," Mushi told her, answering only the first of ther two questions. "Jet. His real name is Prince Jiten. He is the son of Firelord Ozai, and now that the city has fallen, he will want your friend."
Longshot glanced at them, and at Mushi, and started throwing their meagre belongings into packs, but Smellerbee only planted her feet and stood in the doorway. "How do you know this? Who are you?"
Mushi smiled. "Just an old soldier."
Zuko's eyes narrowed and snapped to Mushi. "You said he was family."
"He's my nephew."
Even in a colony town, like their village had become, it was possible to catch the whispers that the new Firelord's wife had vanished into thin air when he had taken the throne, and that no one was allowed to speak of her. Zuko wondered if this had something to do with why her brother would be willing to help them.
o0O0o
They had to sneak out of the city into the farmland that supported it, surrounded within the outer wall. But all of them were used to sneaking. And besides, even with The Duke's knees digging into his back, and Baoshi's hand gripping his so tight it had gone yellow and bloodless, he felt better out in the fields, where the buildings didn't hem them in.
As soon as they were far out in the fields, with neither farmers, nor columns of massed Fire Nation soldiers in sight, Mushi pulled something out of his robe. A whistle. When he blew it, it made no sound.
"You're whistle's broken," Zuko told him.
"No it isn't." Mushi blew it again, and again, no sound could be heard from it.
Baoshi tugged at Zuko's hand. "I'm tired."
"I know."
"Can you carry me?"
"I'm carrying The Duke." And his drool was soaking through Zuko's shirt as he slept.
"You could put him down and carry me," she reasoned.
"It's his turn." Zuko glanced at Mushi. "But maybe Mushi will carry you."
"No child, my child carrying days are over."
"If you have strength to keep blowing that broken whistle, you have strength to help carry something," Smellerbee snapped, half buried under packs.
"Oh believe me, I'm helping."
"By blowing a broken whistle?" She glowered. "Whoever you got that from, cheated you, old man."
"The whistle is doing exactly what it's supposed to, young man."
Zuko winced.
"I'm a girl!" she spat.
Mushi merely smiled and bowed his head. "I'm sorry. My mistake."
One-eyed Li tugged on Longshot's arm. "I want to be carried too!" But Longshot only shook his head. He had his arrows on his back. It wouldn't be safe.
And Mushi kep blowing his stupid soundless whistle. On the other hand, it could have been worse. The whistle could have actually made noise.
o0O0o
It was late in the afternoon when a shadow fell over them from above. Mushi grabbed the whistle and blew, and blew, until the shadow grew larger, flying closer with a thundering roar. "That's the Avatar's bison," Zuko said stupidly, like that wasn't obvious."
"And this is a bison whistle," Mushi said with a broad smile. "I picked it up a few weeks ago. I thought it might come in handy."
Smellerbee only stared as Longshot and Zuko helped the children into the bison's saddle and pulled the packs off her shoulders to load them.
"We should probably return him," Zuko said.
Mushi beamed. "My thoughts exactly!"
o0O0o
The bison seemed to know his own way, so Zuko was content to let him chart their course. As they flew far above the fields and over the walls, it was hard to fathom what was happening to to the city below, hard even to connect the rows of slowly marching red lines to human beings. The broken wall looked like a child's mud fort, dried and smashed, more than it looked like the famous wall of Ba Sing Se. Zuko passed around the waterskin to the kids and dug through the packs for the dried berries and nuts he knew were in there somewhere.
The sun hung low and red over the horizon, and Baoshi, who had missed her afternoon nap, dozed against the wall of the saddle.
It was peaceful. If Zuko hadn't been awake since before dawn, if he hadn't been walking for half a day with The Duke on his back, maybe the reality of it wouldn't have so easily slipped away from him. Maybe then the emotional weight of the fall of the great city of Ba Sing Se, last bastion of strength against the Fire Nation left in all of the Earth Kingdom, last place of refuge for all of them, would have fallen. But he was too tired, and all that fell on him was numbness. It was easy to let the tranquility of the wind and sky lull him.
It took him precious moments to notice when the bison began to descend. Below them loomed a great, hulking black Fire Nation warship. Zuko's stomach dropped. He grabbed the reins and pulled as hard as he could, yelling at the bison to stop, to keep flying, away from the ship, but it shrugged him off as if he were only a mosquito-gnat.
All the while, Old Man Mushi sat in the saddle, watching him placidly. He almost couldn't breathe. "What did you do?"
Mushi blinked. "Nothing!"
Zuko would have demanded more if the bison hadn't touched down in the deck. Zuko grabbed his swords as Longshot drew his bow and Smellerbee clutched her knife. It wouldn't do them any good, but at least they would go down fighting.
Then one of the Fire Nation soldiers pulled off his helmet. "Sokka?"
"Zuko?"
"Hey!" A girl as short as Smellerbee, wrapped in a red Fire Nation military cape like a blanket, shouted. "Who are you and how did you steal Appa?"
"Who are you?" One-eyed Li retorted from the relative safety of the saddle.
Mushi took that as his queue. As Zuko sheathed his swords, and Smellerbee and Longshot put away their knife and bow, he carefully slid down the bison's tail, to the deck of the ship.
"You!" The short girl in the cape blanket yelled joyfully at him. "Good to see you again, old man."
Mushi bowed to her. "You too, Toph. Sokka."
"Wait a minute, how do you know the Avatar's friends?" Smellerbee asked, more confused than suspicious.
Mushi was about to answer, when a door opened and Katara stepped onto the deck. She waved to him before coming over. "General Iroh! How did you get here?"
If the Dragon of the West ever made his answer, Zuko couldn't hear it over the roaring in his ears.
o0O0o
Katara brought the cool water up to his shoulder. "I didn't know you were a firebender."
"Yeah, well." He flushed. "It's not like I go around telling people."
"I thought you were Earth Kingdom."
"I am."
Her brow creased. "How does that work?"
"My mom was Earth Kingdom," he mumbled.
"And how did, oh, I guess your dad, right?"
He nodded.
"Was he nice?"
Zuko didn't know what to say, how to explain, or if he even should, when with all of the horrible things she had seen, she had missed out on this one.
The silence dragged on between them until she stopped looking at him for an answer. "Iroh's really helped us a lot," she said at last. "It's hard to remember, you know, that he used to..."
"Yeah, well, he did."
"I know what it feels like," she told him. "The Fire Nation killed my mother too. I was right there when it happened."
"I ran off into the forest. I didn't find out until after."
"I'm sorry."
"I was going to tell you that you should give him another chance. He's changed a lot since then." She grimaced. "But..."
"Yeah." What he had done was already done. It wasn't like Zuko's mom was going to come back just because the Dragon of the West had decided to change his mind about the war.
o0O0o
"Can I have a cup of tea?" He fetched a cup down from one of the shelves and set it down in front of her. Tea vanished from the weight of the teapot in his hands, only to materialize in the cup in front of her. "Thanks. How did you find a tea set so fast anyway?"
"These ships are all built on a standard plan," he told her with a sigh. "They all have a tea service for the highest ranked officer stored in the same place in the galley."
"Oh. Uh... That's convenient, I guess." He hmmed, as she took a sip. "I'm sorry that guy attacked you."
"I'm not."
"Why not?"
"I am sorry he burned himself. I am sorry he has gone so long with no one to teach him. But he was not wrong, and he has every right to hate me." He sipped his tea. "You said you were from Gaoling?"
"Yeah, why?"
"The war must have seemed very distant there."
Toph shrugged. "I guess."
"In some ways, it seemed very distant to me too." He sighed a sigh so heavy it rumbled through him and into the table. "I went to fight the war. It didn't come to me. It all seemed very distant, until it didn't. I was the one who ordered the Rough Rhinos to ride ahead of the army, to pacify the land on the way to Ba Sing Se. It wasn't that I didn't realize what that would mean, that innocent people would die. I did not think it mattered. It did not occur to me that I should care."
Toph didn't know what to say to that. She choked down the rest of her tea.
Iroh closed his eyes. Toph felt the minute fluttering of his lashes against his wrinkled skin. "I can't blame Zuko for attacking me. He is the one who had to live with the consequences of my actions."
Inosculation | The Sweetest Fruit, the Strongest Wood
