Five A:tLA Drabbles of Varying Lengths
Jan. 25th, 2011 12:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
attackfishWritten for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
comment_fic, which may be my new favorite thing. Yeah, I know.
Breach
Iroh had watched the great outer wall of Ba Sing Se crumble into dust.
Ozai had ridden the power of Sozin’s comet, and fought the Avatar until he lay pinned pinned down and buried and Ozai could taste the fear through the stone.
But there they were anyway. Iroh folded his legs and faced the prison bars with a friendly smile, reaching through them to touch his brother’s face.
But when Ozai’s nails sunk into his wrist, and Iroh wrenched his hand away, he swore it felt the same as the moment he left the great, gaping, fractured wall behind.
Black Spirit, White Spirit, Blue Spirit
Treason was a crime.
Treason meant forsaking everything that made someone a human being, everything that made them worthy of love, trust, friendship, respect. Treason meant throwing away something noble and worthwhile. It meant throwing away everybody that meant anything.
But treason was something people did. A choice they made, a vow they broke. People weren’t supposed to become traitors without a choice.
Theft was a crime.
Theft meant taking away something that belonged to someone else. Theft meant taking food out of the mouths of their children. It meant violating their their secret places and carrying away what they loved.
But there wasn’t any food in his mouth, or his uncle’s. And if someone had so much money and so many nice things that they couldn’t keep track of, was it so bad that Zuko took away what they wouldn’t miss?
His face was on wanted posters. He had no cause, no purpose, no reason to fight. Why shouldn’t he be a thief if he was already a traitor? He was a good thief.
Zuko didn’t want to be a thief. He didn’t want to be a traitor. He just wanted to do something he was proud of again.
Replacement
It was possible to love someone and not notice them, Iroh insisted to himself, and Zuko had been easy not to notice, easy to forget about, always just a little too worried, a little less skilled, a little less able to live up to standard.
That would have been okay. He would have been a royal nephew. Iroh would have tucked him away somewhere safe.
Then Lu Ten was dead.
And Ozai was Firelord.
And Zuko was going to be Firelord.
And Iroh started noticing. He started noticing just how hard Zuko tried, and just how hard he worried, and how everything kept falling apart. He started noticing the slow, steady build of fury in his belly that his brother would ignore his own son when Iroh so badly wanted his son back.
And sometimes, Iroh wished Ozai could have lost his son instead, and then he hated himself for it.
It would have been so easy for Zuko to have been Iroh’s second chance, but many people had more than one son. They weren’t chances.
There were so many things that went wrong to make Zuko Firelord.
Iroh wasn’t sure what kind of Firelord Lu Ten would have been.
Best Party Ever
Chan was never going to stop being in trouble. The house burned down. Seriously. There was no way he was going to get out of trouble, ever. There went a promising career in the Fire Navy, maybe if he was lucky his father could get him a commission with the home guard...
“I didn’t burn it down!” he’d insisted.
But his dad just put a hand on his shoulder and said “Don’t lie to me.” with a strange sort of pity on his face, and Chan felt sick, because he wasn’t.
And his dad wasn’t an Admiral anymore. There went the home guard idea, not like there was any way to blame it on Chan this time, and his dad dragged him to court, because the new Firelord was his age, and maybe they could make friends. That was suddenly important now.
Trying to make friends with Prince Zuko hadn’t won anybody any points when Ozai had been Firelord.
But he couldn’t even figure out how to meet the guy! It wasn’t like-
The figure leaning back against the paneled wall, frown deepening as he read something from a scroll was the dweeb from Ember Island who completely trashed the house. “Hey you! You’re the guy who burned down my dad’s beach house! You and those crazy girls-”
The man looked up from the scroll and straightened himself up, pushing his shoulder guards back into place.
Three shoulder guards. Chan swallowed. “My Lord.”
The Firelord grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, sorry about that, I um, yeah, you kind of really annoyed Azula, and-”
“Wait, that girl... I flirted with Crazy Princess Azula?”
“Don’t call her that!”
Chan wasn’t listening, not really. “I have to tell My dad. I have to tell Ruon-Jian!”
“Uh-”
But Chan didn’t wait for him to finish. He turned back down the corridor and ran with the excitement, weaving his way through the palace and the city streets until he stood huffing and puffing in front of his mom’s town house. “Hey Dad! You’ll never guess who burned down the beach house!”
A Little Like Normal
“So.” Mai sat folded herself down beside the turtle-duck pond, sitting rigidly, just barely not touching him.
He looked up, the last chunk of bread falling to the water untorn and too large. “Hey, Mai.”
“So,” she repeated. “The Avatar is coming.”
Zuko nodded, slipping his hand into hers.
“And the two Water Tribe siblings, and the Earthbender girl.” But not Suki, and therefor, not Ty Lee.
Zuko didn’t really smile, but the pinched look he’d been wearing for as long as she could remember smoothed a little, and he looked like he was supposed to be smiling. “Yeah.”
He sounded so happy, so relaxed. “What was it like, traveling with th- him?” she wondered out loud.
“Ugh,” he finally smiled at her, and rubbed his face with his free hand. “He’s just like Ty Lee. You wouldn’t believe how-” He stopped and wrinkled his forehead. “It wasn’t anything special. It must have been a lot like traveling with Azula and Ty Lee was for you. They were... friends.” He lay back, head in her lap. “We slept outside a lot, cooked over a campfire, you know, normal things.”
Mai leaned over him. “You did all that while you were running from Azula, too.”
Zuko swallowed. “It was different.” He tried to find something to say about the gray, frustrating terrifying way things had looked when it was just him and Uncle, and how things had gone from gray to black when he’d left his uncle behind, and the way everything looked clean and possible, and there was no weight crushing him when he was with Aang, and Sokka, and Toph, and Katara, and Suki, and the rest. His lip quirked up, and he curled against her, gazing up at her face against the sky, hazy and yellow with the humidity and the sunset. “It’s different with you, too.”
“Yeah, that’s just the sex,” she said without inflection. “Don’t let it fool you.”
Zuko shook his head. His hand trailed down her hair to the nape of her neck, ruffling the thin, pale whisps of peach fuzz hidden there below her hair. He wanted to tell her it wasn’t just the sex, but she already knew that. She was just saying it because... Because she was Mai, because she was bored, because... Because. “Stay out here with me tonight?”
She nodded, letting herself sink down onto the warm, wet grass.
comment_fic, which may be my new favorite thing. Yeah, I know.Breach
Iroh had watched the great outer wall of Ba Sing Se crumble into dust.
Ozai had ridden the power of Sozin’s comet, and fought the Avatar until he lay pinned pinned down and buried and Ozai could taste the fear through the stone.
But there they were anyway. Iroh folded his legs and faced the prison bars with a friendly smile, reaching through them to touch his brother’s face.
But when Ozai’s nails sunk into his wrist, and Iroh wrenched his hand away, he swore it felt the same as the moment he left the great, gaping, fractured wall behind.
Black Spirit, White Spirit, Blue Spirit
Treason was a crime.
Treason meant forsaking everything that made someone a human being, everything that made them worthy of love, trust, friendship, respect. Treason meant throwing away something noble and worthwhile. It meant throwing away everybody that meant anything.
But treason was something people did. A choice they made, a vow they broke. People weren’t supposed to become traitors without a choice.
Theft was a crime.
Theft meant taking away something that belonged to someone else. Theft meant taking food out of the mouths of their children. It meant violating their their secret places and carrying away what they loved.
But there wasn’t any food in his mouth, or his uncle’s. And if someone had so much money and so many nice things that they couldn’t keep track of, was it so bad that Zuko took away what they wouldn’t miss?
His face was on wanted posters. He had no cause, no purpose, no reason to fight. Why shouldn’t he be a thief if he was already a traitor? He was a good thief.
Zuko didn’t want to be a thief. He didn’t want to be a traitor. He just wanted to do something he was proud of again.
Replacement
It was possible to love someone and not notice them, Iroh insisted to himself, and Zuko had been easy not to notice, easy to forget about, always just a little too worried, a little less skilled, a little less able to live up to standard.
That would have been okay. He would have been a royal nephew. Iroh would have tucked him away somewhere safe.
Then Lu Ten was dead.
And Ozai was Firelord.
And Zuko was going to be Firelord.
And Iroh started noticing. He started noticing just how hard Zuko tried, and just how hard he worried, and how everything kept falling apart. He started noticing the slow, steady build of fury in his belly that his brother would ignore his own son when Iroh so badly wanted his son back.
And sometimes, Iroh wished Ozai could have lost his son instead, and then he hated himself for it.
It would have been so easy for Zuko to have been Iroh’s second chance, but many people had more than one son. They weren’t chances.
There were so many things that went wrong to make Zuko Firelord.
Iroh wasn’t sure what kind of Firelord Lu Ten would have been.
Best Party Ever
Chan was never going to stop being in trouble. The house burned down. Seriously. There was no way he was going to get out of trouble, ever. There went a promising career in the Fire Navy, maybe if he was lucky his father could get him a commission with the home guard...
“I didn’t burn it down!” he’d insisted.
But his dad just put a hand on his shoulder and said “Don’t lie to me.” with a strange sort of pity on his face, and Chan felt sick, because he wasn’t.
And his dad wasn’t an Admiral anymore. There went the home guard idea, not like there was any way to blame it on Chan this time, and his dad dragged him to court, because the new Firelord was his age, and maybe they could make friends. That was suddenly important now.
Trying to make friends with Prince Zuko hadn’t won anybody any points when Ozai had been Firelord.
But he couldn’t even figure out how to meet the guy! It wasn’t like-
The figure leaning back against the paneled wall, frown deepening as he read something from a scroll was the dweeb from Ember Island who completely trashed the house. “Hey you! You’re the guy who burned down my dad’s beach house! You and those crazy girls-”
The man looked up from the scroll and straightened himself up, pushing his shoulder guards back into place.
Three shoulder guards. Chan swallowed. “My Lord.”
The Firelord grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, sorry about that, I um, yeah, you kind of really annoyed Azula, and-”
“Wait, that girl... I flirted with Crazy Princess Azula?”
“Don’t call her that!”
Chan wasn’t listening, not really. “I have to tell My dad. I have to tell Ruon-Jian!”
“Uh-”
But Chan didn’t wait for him to finish. He turned back down the corridor and ran with the excitement, weaving his way through the palace and the city streets until he stood huffing and puffing in front of his mom’s town house. “Hey Dad! You’ll never guess who burned down the beach house!”
A Little Like Normal
“So.” Mai sat folded herself down beside the turtle-duck pond, sitting rigidly, just barely not touching him.
He looked up, the last chunk of bread falling to the water untorn and too large. “Hey, Mai.”
“So,” she repeated. “The Avatar is coming.”
Zuko nodded, slipping his hand into hers.
“And the two Water Tribe siblings, and the Earthbender girl.” But not Suki, and therefor, not Ty Lee.
Zuko didn’t really smile, but the pinched look he’d been wearing for as long as she could remember smoothed a little, and he looked like he was supposed to be smiling. “Yeah.”
He sounded so happy, so relaxed. “What was it like, traveling with th- him?” she wondered out loud.
“Ugh,” he finally smiled at her, and rubbed his face with his free hand. “He’s just like Ty Lee. You wouldn’t believe how-” He stopped and wrinkled his forehead. “It wasn’t anything special. It must have been a lot like traveling with Azula and Ty Lee was for you. They were... friends.” He lay back, head in her lap. “We slept outside a lot, cooked over a campfire, you know, normal things.”
Mai leaned over him. “You did all that while you were running from Azula, too.”
Zuko swallowed. “It was different.” He tried to find something to say about the gray, frustrating terrifying way things had looked when it was just him and Uncle, and how things had gone from gray to black when he’d left his uncle behind, and the way everything looked clean and possible, and there was no weight crushing him when he was with Aang, and Sokka, and Toph, and Katara, and Suki, and the rest. His lip quirked up, and he curled against her, gazing up at her face against the sky, hazy and yellow with the humidity and the sunset. “It’s different with you, too.”
“Yeah, that’s just the sex,” she said without inflection. “Don’t let it fool you.”
Zuko shook his head. His hand trailed down her hair to the nape of her neck, ruffling the thin, pale whisps of peach fuzz hidden there below her hair. He wanted to tell her it wasn’t just the sex, but she already knew that. She was just saying it because... Because she was Mai, because she was bored, because... Because. “Stay out here with me tonight?”
She nodded, letting herself sink down onto the warm, wet grass.
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Date: 2011-01-25 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 11:34 am (UTC)I just imagine them having a major panic attack
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Date: 2011-01-26 03:04 pm (UTC)He has an image, man.
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Date: 2011-01-26 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 03:36 pm (UTC)