Kindle the Wind Drabble: The Turtle-Crab and the Hawk

[attackfish]

Summary: Ozai and his son share a moment, and he lets Zuko in on a secret.

Author's Note: Written in honor of the release of "The Promise: Part Two". As such, there are spoilers.  (And yes, because this is in the Kindle the Wind universe, Zuko is accidentally waterbending at the beginning.  The universe is lucky Ozai didn't notice.)



The Turtle-Crab and the Hawk

He didn't think he was ever going to be able to forget the way the water had swirled over his head, and the way the more he had thrashed, the more the water had spun, dragging him down. Zuko curled up in his father's lap and shivered in the heavy, tropical air. "I just wanted to save the t-turtle-crab," he sniffled. "And I couldn't even... And then the wave came, and it's probably drownded." He buried his face in his father's chest.

"Drowned," Ozai corrected irritably.

"Oh Zuko," his mother murmured, petting her son's hair. "Turtle-crabs live under water like fish, they can't drown. It'll be fine. Now." She kissed his forehead. "Your sister needs a changing. I'll be right back."

As she disappeared into the beach house, Zuko looked up at his father. "Do you think Mommy's right?"

Ozai stared down at his son, utterly bemused. "About the turtle-crab?" Zuko nodded, biting his lip. "I suppose, but I have something a lot more important to talk about." He glanced back at the beach house and pulled Zuko up. "Look out over the water. Do you know what's beyond the horizon?"

"Home," he mumbled. Zuko couldn't see it, but he knew it was there. They had sailed over horizon after horizon to reach Ember Island.

"That's to the west of us," he said harshly, and Zuko flinched down. "You're looking east. East of us, beyond the water, lies the entire world."

"Wow," Zuko whispered, the way he knew his father wanted him to.

"Someday, it will all be yours. I will conquer it for you. You will be Firelord." He ruffled his son's hair. "And it will be your strange little whims that decide the fate of nations."

Zuko's tiny brow creased. "But Uncle-"

"Hush. My brother is no concern."

Comments

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

Yes, the rest of the world should be grateful Ozai didn't realize Zuko was waterbending. He on the other hand, would be overjoyed by the news and probably would have trained Zuko to be a good loyal minion and help Daddy conquer the world.
Little Zuko is ADORABLE here. Wanting to save the turtle-crab and "drownded". Awwww..:3.
Ozai is already power hungry here with wanting to conquer the world. Little Zuko does NOT understand what Daddy is talking about. After all, Uncle's the one who's going to be Firelord. Doesn't Daddy know that ;)?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

And Zuko doesn't even know what "strange little whims" and "fate of nations" even means. He's like "All I picked up from that is that you think I'm going to be Firelord, but everybody always says that'll be Uncle, so now I'm really confused." Also, why is Ozai annoyed at Zuko being unintentionally adorable? He's a very small child, and that's what very small children are. Let's try not to begin on the utterly unreasonable expectations just yet, Mr. Firelord's Second Son.

If Ozai had realized his kid was waterbending, I have this sudden horrible idea that he would try to make one of the captive waterbenders teach the young Avatar. Has Hama escaped before this point? Please dear Bryke let Hama have escaped before that point.

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

Dear God, Hama would KILL little!Zuko. No way in hell is she going to teach a Fire Nation Avatar waterbending!
In any case, I think she's already escaped by this point. From what I remember in "The Puppetmaster", she escaped with her hair still dark. On the other hand, while she may have been the last waterbender captured, it doesn't mean that she was the last surviving one when she escaped. If there are any other waterbenders left in that prison, Ozai'd DEFINITELY get one of them to teach Zuko. Maybe in exchange for their freedom?
"Strange little whims" indeed. Ozai doesn't seem to understand why Zuko cares so much about the turtle-crab. It's just a dumb animal after all.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Or she could do what every other person does when looking at Zuko and thinks "I will mold him into my image, muahahahahaha!" Either way... good thing she escaped earlier, huh?

And this is Ozai, who goes from "it's just a dumb animal" to "they're just common soldiers". Zuko's "strange whims" will get bigger.

Idea. After Lu Ten's death, when Ozai is showing off his children for Azulon, after Azula does who whole firebending protegy thing, Ozai gives a litt smile and sends young and rather clumsy Zuko out there with a bowl of water to surprise his granddaddy bigtime. AUs of AUs... where will it end?

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

Azulon might get a minor heart attack at that. And Ozai'd go, "You see, Father. This is why you should make ME your heir. Not just because Iroh's line has ended and I had 2 kids. But because MY kids are a brilliant prodigy and the FREAKING Avatar."

And Azulon is like "kill it, Ozai, kill the demon spawn before it becomes powerful enough to stop us

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

And Azulon is like "kill it, Ozai, kill the demon spawn before it becomes powerful enough to stop us!" And Ozai is like "are you senile, or have you always been this stupid? I'm not killing the most useful thing that has fallen into my lap in... ever! Bye daddy, hope you like the afterlife."

Re: And Azulon is like "kill it, Ozai, kill the demon spawn before it becomes powerful enough to sto

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yeah, that WOULD happen XD. Ursa'd help Ozai. Nobody threatens her babies and gets away with it! And he called her son "demon spawn" as well. That is SO not on.

Re: And Azulon is like "kill it, Ozai, kill the demon spawn before it becomes powerful enough to sto

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

And Zuko has a happy family now!

The world is screwed.

The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[(Anonymous)]

So Zuko grows up with Hama and Jeong Jeong (or more likely Zhao since Ozai couldn't talk his father into sparing the legend) and somehow Long Feng (cause things never can go well for our boy) as his teachers, so that by the time he meets any of the Gaang he's convinced that all teachers make your skin crawl and are horribly manipulative and that's part of being a good teacher since his father was always telling him he had the best teachers...and then he has to learn airbending which is all about freedom.

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[attackfish]

Lol! well, I have Jeong Jeong teaching him firebending on Ozai's instruction elsewhere in the kindle the wind verse, so... Also Aang's dead.

Yeah, Zuko's like what's this freedom thing?

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT (sorry for the delay, I thought I'd passed this along months ago): I always tend to think along the lines of this video (or rather, the implications therein) in any AU where Ozai knows Zuko is the Avatar. I just think he'd pull this kind of stunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS9Fl0HPx4w

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[attackfish]

Oh yes. Yes he would. Luckily for the world, Zuko at 16 is a little too experienced for that sort of thing, but Zuko at three or four, yep. Easy pickings for just this sort of manipulation. Though I doubt he would call him a monster, since I think he would show Zuko off, and proclaim him a sign of the spirits' blessing for the Fire Nation conquest.

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT: Maybe not the monster bit (though I could imagine him claiming that he's the only one who sees past his son's 'curse' and still cares about him or some such thing), but just that I think Ozai'd pull a Frollo/Mother Gothel with the isolation and control and 'I am the only person you can trust, who cares about you' thing. Especially with layers of the whole 'for your own good' or 'to protect you' approach.

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[attackfish]

Oh I agree. Ozai would be downright gleeful, and the very first thing he would do would be to clamp down on Zuko so hard, and make sure he had absolute control over a submissive, adoring Avatar. Oh Ozai, you effective bastard you.

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[(Anonymous)]

And now that is a creepy and scary potential AU...and the worst part is, I almost want to see someone pull it off if only for the awesomeness of the resolution and growing beyond what others have tried to make him be (a la Ty Lee and Mai, Boiling Rock). That, and I'd kinda like to see (at least one of) the Gaang getting to know him and being all indignant on his behalf and his being confused that they think this is somehow a bad thing.

Re: The horrors of letting Ozai choose one's teachers...

[(Anonymous)]

Or maybe where Ursa saw it and however she reacted...

[floranna.livejournal.com]

I find this fic really warming and sad, knowing what will come in the future.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I know. It's strange thinking about this point in their father-son relationship where Ozai actually loves him, insomuch as he is able to love anyone (loves him the way he will come to love Azula, anyway, as the fulfillment of his dreams) and when as Zuko put it, their family was actually happy.

[grandiose666]

Dude this is awesome! I loved that bit of the comic and I love this spin on it!

[attackfish]

Thank you! I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one (or one of the only ones) who likes seeing Ozai and Zuko interact in The Promise. Good to see another person.

[unjapanologist.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, Ozai trying to fill Zuko's wee little ears with tales of conquest while Ursa isn't listening.

I love Zuko snuggling up to Ozai, and Ozai letting him. Somehow, it seems like something that might have worked at some point.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Zuko alludes a couple of times in the show to there being a time when his family was "actually happy", and I imagine that before Ozai decided that Zuko was a failure, he probably treated him the same way he treats Azula in the show, which was way Zuko was s sure his daddy loved him, and why he would try so hard to get those days back, I think. Then of course, when he does get home, while he's also deciding he doesn't like who he has to be to keep his father happy, he's also completely forgotten how to handle his father actually approving of him and being semi-affectionate towards him, because for years before he left, his father saw him as a useless waste of space. Now wait, he wants to listen to what he has to say? That must be a frightening adjustment, and must have thrown into sharp relief just how bad it had gotten before his exile.

He also must have felt what Azula always did, now he has his father's love back, now he has to work like hell to keep it. (and that's without what his sister's holding over his head about who killed the Avatar, and oh, he might just be alive...) Screwed up family.

Which makes anything that touches on their relationship before it went sour a little more disturbing than sweet.

[unjapanologist.livejournal.com]

before Ozai decided that Zuko was a failure, he probably treated him the same way he treats Azula in the show, which was way Zuko was s sure his daddy loved him, and why he would try so hard to get those days back, I think.

*nod* that makes a lot of sense.