A I R B E N D E R

Examples:

Terms of Service:

There had been enough assassination attempts to make anyone think it was highly plausible that he'd been taken somewhere and killed. The fire sages implored Iroh and the avatar to consider what a permanent Fire Lord Iroh would look like and how they were going to go about an heir. The Earth King and Chief Pakku pleaded with them to make a plan. It had been assumed by nearly everyone that Zuko was dead.

It was a shock to hear that he had been found alive — if only barely, and intentionally so.

Zuko had no idea how long he'd been out for as he began to stir in his bed. Slowly, and very groggily, Zuko began to come to. He was malnourished and didn't feel anything like himself. His head still was pounding and spinning and every inch of his body was sore. The familiar lights around him and smell of herbs felt like another dream or hallucination he'd started to have a month into his capture.

He attempted to sit up, but winced, lying back down. Some of his ribs were surely broken. He heard a familiar warm voice and he really thought he was imagining things now. There was no way he was back in bed in the Fire Nation with Aang here. Zuko scrunched his features together, which hurt to do from the bruising. His face was swollen from knocked out molars and slams of his head against concrete.

"This isn't real," whispered Zuko, his voice hoarse, though he wore a smile as his eyes closed. Screaming and underuse had made his throat so dry. He couldn't believe it was real because if he was wrong it would be too painful to return to that frigid concrete cellar. "But it's nice to pretend," muttered Zuko with an exhausted, small smile, still a bit delirious from it all.

There were times he would daydream about seeing his friends and family again, what it would be like to see their faces. Talk to them. Laugh with them. He also fantasized about sleeping in a bed often, and eating. He thought a lot about eating.

The moment Zuko's voice broke the silence, relief crashed through him so hard it left him almost dizzy. For weeks he had clung to hope while nearly everyone else had begun preparing for a future without Zuko. He had listened to council meetings that spoke of succession, watched Iroh bear the impossible weight of ruling in his nephew's absence, and endured conversation after conversation in which people gently urged him to accept what they believed was inevitable. Every instinct in him had rejected it. He had refused to believe his closest friend was gone, and now Zuko was awake, and the smile that touched Aang's face was warm, but it carried a sadness, too.

“I’m now imaginary. I'm really here, and you’re home, Zuko. You're back in the Royal Palace. The fishermen who found you got you safely to Agna Qel'a, and Iroh sent the fastest ship in the Fire Nation to bring you home. You've been asleep since you arrived.” He watched the confusion flicker across Zuko's face, recognizing it for what it was. Months of captivity had taught him that hope could be cruel. Aang couldn't blame him for believing this was another dream.

“I know it doesn't feel real yet,” he continued softly. “If I'd been in your place, I don't think I'd believe it either.” A gentle smile returned to his face. “But this is real. You made it back.” When Zuko asked how imaginary Aang was doing, a quiet laugh escaped him despite the ache in his chest. “I've been better,” he admitted. “You scared all of us. We searched everywhere we could think of. Appa and I crossed the world so many times I lost count.” He let out a slow breath. “Eventually... people started telling us we had to stop hoping but… I couldn't. I never stopped believing we'd find you. I didn't know where you were or how we'd get you back, but every time someone told me to give up, something inside me refused. I'm glad I didn't listen.”

The room settled into a comfortable silence before Aang remembered something. His expression brightened just enough to let a little warmth back into the conversation. “Oh—and Jin's here.” He nodded toward the door with an affectionate smile. “She insisted on helping the healers as soon as she heard you'd been found. She spent half the morning making you a pot of jasmine and ginger tea because she thought it might be easier on your stomach whenever you woke up.” His grin widened slightly. “She's been hovering outside with Katara ever since.” Aang looked back at his friend, his smile softening. “You don't have to worry about anything, Zuko. Right now, all anyone wants is for you to rest.”

He gave Zuko's arm a gentle squeeze before withdrawing his hand so as not to crowd him. “You've spent months surviving. Let us take care of you for a while.”

For the first time since he'd entered the room, the weight pressing on Aang's heart eased. Zuko was battered beyond anything he had imagined, and healing would take far longer than mending broken bones. There would be nightmares and wounds no medicine could touch. But he was here. He was alive. After months of chasing ghosts across the world, Aang no longer had to imagine this moment. His brother had come home.

Zuko looked around as his head spun as he wheeled through the palace. He never thought he'd see this place again, and part of him was grateful about that. Zuko hated this place, but after coming back from there, he wanted to kiss its floor.

The fire lord had been on business in the former colonies when he was ambushed. A group of masked men had caught him the one moment he stepped out without guards to have an apple beneath a tree with a local farmer. It was an attempt to seem more personable, to show the people there that he really did care and he wasn't some shadowy figure to fear.

Zuko did his best to fight the rebel group with firebending and the farmer did his best to help, but he was an older man, and they were outnumbered. They knocked Zuko and the farmer unconscious, leaving the farmer and abducting the fire lord. Unbeknownst to Zuko, he was hurled onto a closed ship, locked below deck with no sunlight to both obscure their location and lower his firebending abilities without the sun. The rebel group's mission was to get Zuko to abdicate the throne. They didn't want Ozai or anyone else on the throne either. They wanted the position of fire lord eliminated. The only way they figured they could cement that was if Zuko made it into law. Many of the rebels had lost loved ones in the war and blamed the fire lord's office and throne itself rather than the men in the seat. They wanted to torutre him into abdicating and also exact revenge for what they saw as hell Zuko had put them through, making their ends justify their means. The rebels dragged Zuko to a remote area of the Northern Water Tribe, knowing that firebenders fared far worse in the cold and that no one would come looking for him there, in an underground bunker.

For months, the rebels inflicted unspeakable horror onto Zuko, doing anything they could to get him to succumb. But Zuko was a stubborn and prideful man. He wasn't going to budge, even if he died, at least he knew his uncle would be there and he trusted him and Aang to sort things out. He didn't know what these men would do if he gave in. Zuko hardly ate but crumbs to keep him just barely alive. When he was found, it was by a group of waterbending fishermen. They went out to remote areas to catch rare, coveted fish to trade that could only be found in the wilderness. They'd heard commotion in the quiet tundra and rushed out to investigate. It was there they were able to fend off the rebels and retrieve Zuko, who they hadn't even recognized as the fire lord, even with his scar.

For weeks that had stretched into months, he had searched every lead, crossing oceans on Appa until they were both exhausted, but he’d refused to believe that finding nothing meant Zuko was dead. Even so, nothing prepared him for the sight that met him when he stepped into the Fire Lord's chambers. The room was warm, fragrant with medicinal herbs and the gentle crackle of the brazziers that lined the walls. It should have felt comforting. Instead, it felt unbearably still as Aang's heart clenched.

Zuko had been reduced to someone frighteningly thin beneath layers of blankets, his face hollowed by starvation, his skin pale beneath bruises that no healer's ointment could erase overnight. There were injuries Aang could see, but it was the ones he couldn't that frightened him even more.

For a long moment, Aang simply stood there looking at his brother. He’d  imagined this reunion a thousand different ways during the search and he’d mentally rehearsed speeches about never giving up hope. Now, every one of those words abandoned him as he crossed the room in silence and lowered himself into the chair beside the bed. His movements were so careful they barely disturbed the air, and after several quiet breaths he reached out, resting a gentle hand against Zuko's forearm where it lay outside the blankets.

“I'm here,” he murmured; his words weren't meant to wake him. They were simply a promise. Aang let his thumb brush lightly against Zuko's sleeve before withdrawing just enough that the contact wouldn’t feel confining if his friend woke disoriented. “I've got you.”

His gaze lingered on every injury. He’d spent his life helping people rebuild after unimaginable loss. Yet seeing those same wounds written across someone he loved as family felt personal and infuriating. His jaw tightened as he closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a slow breath until the anger settled. Anger wouldn’t help Zuko heal. Being here would.

When he opened his eyes again, his expression had softened. “You don't have to be strong today,” he whispered, though Zuko still slept deeply. “You've been brave enough.” A faint, sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth; his gaze drifted toward the window where the afternoon sunlight filtered through silk curtains. “Everyoner’s here,” he continued quietly. “your uncle’s barely left the palace since he got here. Katara's already arguing with every healer because she wants to take care of you herself.” A tiny breath of laughter escaped him. “Sokka's checked this hallway at least fifteen times.” He looked back to Zuko and let silence settled again.

If Zuko woke frightened, he wouldn't wake to an empty room. If nightmares came, someone would be there to remind him where he was. If all he needed was to sleep for another day—or another week—Aang would gladly spend every hour sitting beside him. After everything they'd survived together, this was the easiest promise he'd ever made.

@airlegacy inquired: “i didn’t see that one coming.” —• for Kira

⁕| Misc. Prompts |⁕

Kira assumed a very non-warrior-like stance, sheepishly running her fingers over the creases of her hands and shuffling her weight between each foot as she waited to hear the Avatar's reaction. He wasn't the first person she told about her secret. Actually, she had already explained the situation to Master Katara, who had quietly been helping her hone her bending. It was she who suggested Kira fill in Avatar Aang, and though Kira understood that this was an era of peace and that the Avatar was the safest person to tell... Secrets don't come undone so easily. Not after years of hiding.

Even so, Kira respected Katara's judgment, so she pushed aside that nagging feeling in her head and explained her situation to the Avatar. That she, a member of a nonbender team of warriors, had been a waterbender in secret. Surely this wasn't the strangest thing he had seen. Surely this wasn't as big a deal to him as it was to her. But the second time telling her secret was just as difficult as the first, and after she spoke her piece, Kira still found herself tensed up and waiting for some disaster to strike.

Obviously, nothing happened.

Aang's expression softened, the surprise fading into understanding as the pieces settled into place. His first reaction had been disbelief; not because she was a waterbender, but because he had spent enough time around her to think he understood who she was. She had carried herself like every other Kyoshi Warrior and he never once suspected there was another part of her she kept tucked away.

He smiled gently, “I think I understand,” his blue-gray eyes drifted toward the horizon for a moment before returning to her, “And I don't think you hid it because you wanted to deceive anyone. Your sisters know the person who's stood beside them all these years. They've laughed with you, trained with you, trusted you in battle, depended on you. Finding out you're a waterbender doesn't erase any of that. If anything, they'll probably realize you've been carrying this burden by yourself the whole time.” He tilted his head. “And if they're worthy of calling themselves your sisters, they’ll be upset because you've been afraid you couldn't trust them with the truth for a while, but not for long. I know telling them feels scarier than telling me, but they're your family.”

He stepped a little closer, offering her the same steadiness Katara had offered him countless times when he was facing hard choices. “For what it's worth...” he said, “I don't think less of you for keeping this secret,” a warm laugh escaped him. “I mostly feel a little embarrassed that you managed to fool me for this long. And a little excited.” He raised an eyebrow playfully. “Do you know how many Kyoshi Warriors can waterbend?” He answered his own question with an easy smile. “Exactly one.”

❝ 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲? ❞

I don't need luck, though, I don't want it. I've had to 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 and that's made me 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆. 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑰 𝑨𝑴.