Written for floranna for the prompt: "Zuko does something to prove he is not Bellatrix and Voldemort's kid, but his own good person. To someone who doubted him before."


Chip on his Shoulder

"You're not a teacher."  Zuko looked down his nose at Professor Smith.  "You're a bully."

"Detention, Lestrange," the professor said boredly.  "Move along.  You don't want me to take any points.  Your house doesn't like you much as it is."

Zuko's fists clenched, but he left his wand in his pocket.  "He's going home on the train tomorrow already.  You don't have to scare him like that."  He glanced down at the eight-year-old stowaway, glaring back and forth between Professor Smith and Zuko himself.  "He's gonna have to come back in a couple of years."

"And that's why he needs to learn now that you don't play with Hogwarts."  Professor Smith glanced down at the kid, who was looking at Zuko like he was the dangerous one.

"You're Zuko Lestrange?" the kid spat.

"Yeah," Zuko unclenched his hands and tried to smooth the front of his robe, nervously.

"My brother told me about you," the kid, Sensu's brother, growled like it was supposed to be a challenge.  "I don't want any help from You-Know-Who's kid."

"If you're so worried about the kid, you can take him back to the Headmistress, Lestrange."  Professor Smith gave him a cruel smirk.  "Have fun."

Written for elrhiarhodan's Promptfest VII (f-locked)

Summary: Because Zuko hunted the Avatar for three years, and Peter hunted Neal for three years. See? Meant to be. What do you mean that's just a coincidence? Crazy talk!


The White Collar/Avatar: the Last Airbender Fusion That Was Always Meant to Be

"It's about honor."

"What?"  Neal's forehead wrinkled, and his mouth hung a little bit open with bemusement.

"Honor," Peter tried again.  "You need to stop stealing things and going around lying to people, because you need people to think you're honorable, so they can trust you."

"I've never really had a problem getting people to trust me."  Neal leaned back against the pillar, and gazed out over the edge of the Western Air Temple and into the mists beyond, mirroring Peter.

"You're the Avatar.  Word's going to get around."

Neal heaved a sigh and stood up.  "Don't we have firebending to practice?"

"Later."  Peter didn't move.  "This is important.  You're going to be ending the war, remaking the world.  People have to be able to trust you."

"Wow," Neal said.  "Diana's right, you really do suck all the fun out of everything.  I mean, I thought she was bad, with the waking me up at the crack of dawn for earthbending practice, but no, you're the worst."

"I am not!" Peter yelped, startled.

"Are too..." Neal singsonged, pressing his advantage.

"I'm not."

Neal grinned and started walking away, back towards the temple and his friends.  "Just keep telling yourself that."

Written for avatar_500 prompt #62, Anonymous.

Summary: Other people worked hard to put him where he is.

On the Building of a Fortune

She sucked in a breath and made the flames as hot as she could.  Metal melted and fused together as each half-finished satocycle passing her got an exhaust pipe welded into place thanks to her firebending.  When the break bell sounded, she grabbed her lunchbox and joined the escaping throng.

~*~

The healer bent the water low, close to the burn on his client's chest.  The water glowed blue as it soothed the pain.  "Try to keep it clean, Mr. Sato," he said with a bow when he had finished.  "That's a nasty burn.  You don't want it to get infected."

~*~

"So, boss," one of the earthbenders said as she bent the rubble into the underground wall.  "Why you been having us clear out this hole under your place?  Wine cellar?  Laboratory?"

Hiroshi's expression slammed closed.  "That really isn't any of your business, is it?"

"Okay," she said.  "Just curious, sheesh!"

~*~

He almost left the arena twice.  It just wasn't right for his kids to see that kind of cheating.  He worked hard, had a good job at the power plant, that was the right example.  But when the Equalists stormed the arena, he felt his own lightning crackling in their gloves.

Written for avatar_500 prompt #60, Fanatic.

Summary: Two strangers talk before the Probending tournament.


Light that Shines in the Shadow of a Doubt

"I've been waiting for this all year!" she told him, hefting her juice cup high.

He slid into place next to her on he bench. "Hah, I've been waiting a lot longer than that."

She patted his shoulder with a sharp laugh. "I know it seems a lot longer, but they do have these things every year."

"Sure does." He smiled at her, eyes sparkling. "Feels like I've been waiting my whole life for this."

"So this is your first match?"

He nodded.

"Don't worry, I'm old hat at this." She grinned. "I'll get you through it without embarrassing yourself."

He blushed. "I wasn't worried."

"Don't be," she said more seriously. "Just relax and have fun." She cocked her head, uncertain. "It's been really nice meeting you, by the way, after the match, if you want to go out for drinks or something..."

"I'd like that." He blushed again.

"Then it's a date." She slipped her hand into his.

He held his popcorn in the other hand and felt the electrified gauntlet shift comfortingly within. "This will be some show."

"Yeah," she said, snagging a few grains of popcorn before he could stop her, grinning on obliviously. "It'll be great."

Written for avatar_500 prompt #58, Silence.

Summary: Zuko should say something, but he remembers what happened last time

Words Lying Dead in Him

His father's war room had loomed so much larger in his memories than it did in the real world.  Zuko tried not to glance at his sister as he crossed the floor and sat down next to his father's throne, palms sweaty, skin clammy, a thirteen-year-old boy and sixteen-year-old man pulled back together and into one.  He took a deep breath and forced the memories far away.  He had permission to be here this time.  He was wanted.

The war meeting flashed by around him, through a frozen carefulness, foreign to him, that kept him pinned to his seat, and when his father looked to him to ask him to speak, his tongue stuck to the bottom of his mouth.  Song with her scars, and Lee with his lost brother, the refugees pouring into Ba Sing Se, and Jet's band of fierce, damaged souls forced their way to the forefront of his mind.  "The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. They can endure anything as long as they have hope."

"Yes, you're right," his father said with a small smile, and sense of dislocation that accompanied those words, after he had imagined them in the dark of his ship's cabin so many times, left Zuko empty.  "We need to destroy their hope."

And the cold feeling that had been born when he had come home, the shiver in his spine that said his father approved of him, but only for things he didn't do, or didn't mean, only when someone lied for him, or... knocked his mouth open.  "Well, that's not exactly what I..."

Azula pressed her lips together in a thin, cruel smile.  "I think you should take their precious hope  and the rest of their land, and burn it all to the ground."

"Yes," the Firelord hissed.  "Yes, you're right, Azula.  Sozin's Comet is almost upon us and on that day it will endow us with the strength and power of a hundred Suns.  No bender will stand a chance against us."

One of the generals blinked.  "What are you suggesting, sir?"

Ozai rose to his feet.  "When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads.  Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom, permanently."  He stepped onto the map and cast his shadow, thick and heavy over everything.  "From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands. A fire that will destroy everything.  And out of the ashes, a new world will be born.  A world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!"

The generals burst into applause, and Zuko couldn't help but wonder if underneath it, they were as horrified as he was, if underneath Azula's mask, their father's words made her sick too, or if he was all alone.  The last time he had spoken, but this time his tongue wouldn't move, and he felt his honor wither away.

This fic will make a lot more sense to the people who have played The Legend of Korra: Last Stand game on Nickelodeon.  I may have gone a little crazy on the token gathering.  As such, this makes no character or plot sense as far as the show itself is concerned, and is just meant to be silly.

To the Rooftops

Noatak's heart pounded as he coiled his legs to spring to the next piece of scaffolding.  That little...  She was fast.  She leapt from balcony to ledge, to scaffold like she was flying, ceaseless and sure-footed, like some kind of machine, never letting him stop, never letting him catch his breath as she chased after him, ready to bring him down.  His face behind the mask was slick with sweat.  He had tried to bloodbend her, but she flitted around, too fast to catch.

She soared into the air.  Noatak fingered the gas canister tucked into his robe, hoping it would distract her for long enough to put a little distance between them...

She flew right over his head. Noatak stared as she climbed higher and higher on the scaffolding, bending over to snatch something up.  "What are you doing?" he demanded, before he could stop himself.

"You would not believe how much money's gotten dropped up here," she called back.  "I mean, I've collected a thousand yuans already!"

"What!"  His eyes bugged.  The only reason she hadn't captured him already was because the Avatar was broke and greedy?

"Hey, I do not get an allowance," she justified sulkily, folding her arms.  "And if I want to go out somewhere nice with my friends for a change, that's none of your business.  And personally, I think Tenzin's just being..."

He sighed as she continued her tirade.  He was going to lose to this... this child, he just knew it.  Pathetic.

Written for avatar_500 prompt #55, Fire.

Summary: Suki reassures her student.  Part of the Firebender!Suki AU, set directly after this.

Out of Order

"Do you think Jeong Jeong was right?"

Suki folded her fan and glanced at her student warily.  "About what?"

"That I'm messing everything up by learning firebending now, instead of waiting until I've learned waterbending and earthbending?"  Aang fiddled with Appa's reins.  "I mean..."

She snorted delicately and unfolded her fan again, running a cloth over the fine metal joints, rubbing away the rust.  "You think you're the first Avatar to try it out of order?"

"Well..."

"Kyoshi came to the island when she was too little to walk," she said.  "And she might have been an Earth Avatar, but she learned firebending from the dragons first."

"Oh."  He turned back around and flicked the reins.  "That's good to know."

She glanced at him around the fan.  "You know, if this is some scheme you cooked up to avoid firebending practice..."

"No!"  Katara yelped.  "Aang wouldn't do that!"

"Uh huh, sure."

~*~

She trudged up the steps of the headman's house and didn't look up when the fans came down to bar her way.  "Why have you come to our village?"  Her baby squalled. "Is that-"

"No!"  Not the Avatar, not the baby Chin was destroying villages to find, not her Kyoshi.

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 )

Written for avatar_500 prompt #52, Party.

Summary: He isn't sulking, and she isn't bored.

Social Caterpillar

When she had been a child, her parents used to take her to the kind of parties where everybody was in constant danger, where a wrong word could end someone.  They would tell her to keep her mouth shut and then parade her around, and wonder why she wasn't charming and adorable like Ty Lee. That had changed.  There wasn't a party her parents wanted to go to that she wasn't invited first, and her words were the ones that could trap somebody else.

Glaze eyed introspection, the kind that had made the people her parents had tried to show her off to ask if there was something wrong with her was even less forgivable now.  She glanced sideways at her husband.  "Your sister warned me you sulked through these things."

Zuko jerked at the mention of Azula, she-who-no-one-mentioned, she-who-had-brought-them-together.  "I'm not sulking!"

"Whatever."  She rolled her eyes.  In the back of her mind, she wondered how many of the people below watching them so earnestly would think from that little thing that their marriage was on he rocks already, here at their wedding feast.  "It's not like I care.  It's the only thing I ever managed to do at these things."

"It's supposed to be for you too," he said, poking a bean curd ball around his plate with a chopstick.  "I mean, it's your wedding feast."

"That's big of you."

He ignored that.  "We can sulk together, if you want."

"I guess."  She put her hand over his.

Written for avatar_500 prompt #50, Return.

Summary: Conquest is a rush.

Snow Melt Floods

Hanook disembarked from his flagship inside the ice covered harbor.  In the gloom, waterbenders sculpted the walls, expanding the harbor, spilling water out of dry docks for new ships to be built.  Outside the harbor, waterbenders all over the city kept up the frenetic pace.  They had to rush.  This had to happen fast.

He passed through the new streets, around the new houses, pushing aside the memories of the skin tent he had grown up in. 

He knocked on the door to the largest house in the new city.  The woman who opened the door smiled and threw her arms around his middle before leading him inside.  Her one-legged husband sat on low bench, bouncing a blown up turtle-seal bladder ball off the floor and into the hands of a little boy who kept stopping to hold the ball and suck on his thumb.

It was that missing leg that sometimes kept Hanook awake.  He wanted the little Avatar with his thumb in his mouth to think of the conquests and the new empire they were building as great things, good things.  He would shower the little Avatar with all the glories of empire.  He just had to hurry.