Ghosty👑

Zuko was expecting to fight an old man over a century old, master of the elements, slow on his feet, and the key to regain his honor.

But it wasn't a man he faced that day.

It was a boy.

A boy in bright clothes not fit for the South Pole, monk tattoos, and a grin that didn't match the situation.

A boy who could bend air, but nothing else.

Zuko had faltered.

He wasn't supposed to. But he also wasn't supposed to care, to think, to wonder. He was supposed to get his honor back and make his father, his nation, proud. He was supposed to capture the Avatar.

But suddenly he didn't feel so driven, so determined, so painfully angry that all he did was fight and hurt and burn.

Suddenly...he didn't want to capture the Avatar so badly.

Because he remembered that day, three years ago when his search began. He remembers that he couldn't have been much older than the kid standing before him. He remembered how he was treated and disciplined and made to live by his father and he was his son. This boy was the enemy, and suddenly Zuko felt sick at the thought his turning this boy over to his father.

His father who burned and banished him at thirteen.

His father who stripped him of his honor and provided him an impossible solution.

His father who beat and scrutinized him.

His father who always favored Azula more than him.

His father who had planned to kill him more than once.

His father who always brandished his luck as being something he no longer had, because he'd used it all just to be born.

His father who...

"Um, sir?" One of his men called out. Zuko snapped his eyes to him, scowl twisted his lips once again (when had it fallen?).

"What?" He snapped, glaring at the man who spoke.

"Um...the Avatar?" He muttered. Zuko released a short breath, steam leaving his nose. He couldn't have a crisis here, and he could feel a headache making itself known, the limited vision in his left eye going even blurrier.

His gaze went back to the young boy stood across from him, watching expectantly, curiously. Zuko almost couldn't stand it.

"Yes, I can see that." He growled before the silence could go on for too long, and fell back into one of his katas. He's already here, he may as well pretend to follow through with his plans. Agni, his stomach churned at the warring thoughts behind his eyes. He needed to lay down.

So he fought the Avatar who was a child, and couldn't bother to put in a real effort because his head hurt and he couldn't even pull off more difficult attacks even if he wanted to because it made him sick and he was already getting sloppy.

But then the Avatar came willingly, and Zuko somehow felt worse.

But he grit his teeth and enforced his scowl, taking the boy and leaving the small tribe behind.

He didn't even try to fight much when the boy escaped. He simply stared after him as his beast flew off into the distance, his Uncle sending him curious glances out of the corner of his eye all the while.

Frustration bellowed in his chest, pain and anger beating against it like war drums. He growled beneath his breath, turning on his heal as he stomped down the ship.

"Nephew, where are you going!"

"I'll be in my room!" He shouted back.

"But what are we going to do about the Avatar?"

"I don't care!" The prince yelled, because he shouldn't, but he did. He shouldn't be alive, but he was. He shouldn't be on this mission in the first place, but he was.

He shouldn't, he shouldn't, he shouldn't, he was, he was, he was...

---

Maybe father would show mercy, Zuko reasoned. Yes, he would take into consideration that the boy was not a master of all the elements, and that the boy was just that, a boy. Why, he couldn't be any older than-

In that moment Zuko had happened to catch his own gaze in the small mirror laying on his desk used to help him shave his head. He froze, eyes locking on the brutal scar maring half of his face. His thoughtful frown turned into one of pain and disdain, quickly morphing into a scowl as more traitorous thoughts made themselves known.

The boy was no older than Zuko had been upon his banishment, probably even younger. And even when Zuko had been younger, his father hadn't shown him mercy. In fact, when had his father ever been capable of it? Of forgiveness, of kindness, of the gentle care his mother often showed him before she too was dismissed in the cruel ways that his father presented.

He looked away, but found himself tracing the textured edge of his scar all the same, his own screams creating a cacophony in his mind.

No, his father would not show this boy mercy, not if he came between him and the Fire Nations victory.

And Zuko wasn't sure he'd be able to stomach the thought that he'd be responsible for this young boys pain, his torture.

His gaze went back to the mirror, catching into the conflict warring behind his eyes.

He'd always been weak.

A failure.

A coward.

A disgrace.

A dishonor.

A fucking worthless-

He sweeped the mirror off his desk, the shatter of glass falling on deaf ears, instead hidden beneath the pounding of his heart, the ringing of his ears, and the heaving of his chest.

He glared at the empty space in front of him, fists balled up so tight they were shaking, unaware of the blood slipping through his fingers.

He needed to meditate.

---

"What's he gonna do? He's not even that scary! All he ever did was chase us around..." Sokka trailed off as Zuko kicked a stream of fire from his foot (he didn't even know firebenders could bend from their feet what the fuck) and flew through the air like a bird or Aang or something.

Zuko was...a really good fighter.

Like, really good.

Slightly terrifying.

Just a bit, just a itsy bitsy-

Did he just take down eight men with one punch?

Where the hell was this guy when he was fighting them in the South Pole? Had he been holding out on us?

---

He should have known at the Air Temple. He should have known, and paused, and thought about it. There were bones, singed and charred but not burned in the honorable way a person should be after death. They had been burned to the bone alive.

His scar itched.

He should have known.

---

Zuko's sister catches him leaving on the day of the invasion. She brings him back to his father, who scoffs and tells him he doesn't have anymore time for this, and that Zuko should go learn his lesson where the traitors belonged. At the Boiling Rock.

He is treated poorly, but has few allies when word gets out about who he is. There were family members of the 41st division, and they respect him. They are willing to help him.

---

Hakoda noticed a young man sat in the corner of the courtyard, head up and basking in the sun like the Fire Lily's he'd seen in passing while stopped at a port. He frowned to himself, because the man didn't look too much like a man at all. In fact if he squinted, he could still see baby fat clinging to the cheek facing him and youth in his pale skin.

Tui and La there was a boy, a child on this boiling hell rock.

"Who's the kid?" He muttered to the prisoner beside him after a few more minutes of staring, because the man didn't look too hostile. The man glanced up briefly where Hakoda was looking, but was already speaking before his eyes caught sight of the boy.

"What, the banished prince?" He spoke as if it were common knowledge.

The prince? As in the Fire Nation Prince? Banished?

Questions sprung to his mind as he tried to get a grasp of the situation.

"Does his father know he's here?" He asked, the word father tasting like ash in his mouth. The man snorted indelicately.

"Who do you think put him here?"

*Hakidas thoughts*

Taking Hakoda's silence as the end of the conversation, and oblivious to Hakodas stricken thoughts, the man continued munching away on their burn jook.

"He shouldn't be here really," the man continued as the silence stretched. "But the Fire Lord plans to give him a proper execution once all this "invasion" and "sozins comet" stops taking up so much of his time. Rumor has it he gave the Warden orders to torture the boy/ he wanted the boy to what a true criminal lived like."

Hakoda's blood turned to ice.

"He's going to kill his own son?"

The man beside him snorted crudely, rolling his eyes to give him a bemused look. "The man already burnt half the kids face off. Death would have been a mercy the first time around. I heard he nearly died of infection right after."

As if on cue, the boy turned his head, following the slight shift of the suns rays as the clouds above paved their path. There, taking over nearly the entirety of the left side of his face was an angry red mark Hakoda quickly recognized as a burn scar, as did Bato, who was tense as he sat beside him.

Deciding to approach the boy, the slack of his expression was nothing but calm and content, replaced in a blink by an ugly scowl as soon as he heard their footsteps. He opened his eyes - bright, molten gold that reflected his uncertainty - and sized up the Water Tribe men.

"So, you're the angry prince that's been chasing my children across the world." He declared, strong arms crossed over his prison jumpsuit. The boys brow furrowed and his good eye darted across Hakoda's face before widening with recognition, his scarred and apparently permanently narrowed eye trying to do the same.

"Oh." Was all he had to say,before seeming to gather that this was not an appropriate response. "They fought well - obviously." He began rubbing the back of his neck, wincing at his own words. "They were truly valiant and masters in battle. They are very capable companions of the Avatar." (OR) "Ah..." The boy froze a moment before standing quickly and bowing at the waist, and Hakoda got the strange feing he would have gone lower were they not in such an open space of a prison. "I regret the course of my actions when trying to capture the Avatar." At this he cringed, but continued, not raising his bowed head. "But they fought with skill and valiantly - obviously." He glanced at Hakoda and then the prison around them, and Hakoda got the message of, "I'm here and they're not so, - obviously."

"It's true then?" The Chief asked, interrupting the boys defensive ramblings.

"...what is?"

"It's true then, that you're a traitor to the Fire Nation." Hakoda repeated, eyebrows rising. The ex-Prince bristled, scowling at the man who had a good foot on him in height.

"I'm not a traitor!" He growled, an emotion not dissimilar to pain crossing his face before he shuttered off. The boy then crossed his arms, and it wasn't until then that his fists were smoking. Hakoda fought the urge to take a step back out of instinct, ignoring the fear that came with fire and instead standing his ground against the struggling teenager.

"I'm not a traitor of the Fire Nation." The boy repeated, glaring at the Chiefs shoes. "I am a traitor to my father though, and that's no mistake." He spoke quietly, but with resolution, glancing around like he expected the Fire Lord to appear from the shadows of he didn't keep an eye out.

At the unconvinced scoff of Hakodas second in command, the boys yellow eyes shot up to him, good eye narrowing farther, and his scowl turned into a glower.

"He's cruel and manipulative, and he just gets in your head and- Agni, he tried to kill me again-" The boy began muttering cut off sentences, his hand running through and gripping his too short hair.

"Wha- kill you?"

"Again?"

Despite the men's exclamations, the boy wasn't listening, a look of realization taking over his features.

---

When confronting his father, he shoots lightning at Ursa instead of Zuko, and Zuko doesn't move fast enough. She dies. Zuko freezes, breaks down, and Ozai tries to shoot lightning again, but Zuko brutally redirects it, and collapses part of the ceiling. He then goes to the Boiling Rock. (Ursa had 'disappeared' but was really in the dungeons the entire time. She was revealed to Zuko after Ozai asked if he'd ever wondered)

---

(After the prison escape)

The group is in a forest and whispers are called. The group was trapped together, the fog creeping in, and everyone could hear. It was one person at a time, vague images appearing on the fog. (Sokka, Zuko, Aang, Katara, Toph) (Zuko goes last) Zuko's is when his father burns him (you will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher, the crowd cheering and jeering, his own pleading), and when Azula says father is going to kill him ("you're lying!" He shouts out of habit, searching for the voice, desperation clawing at his throat. "You're lying Azula! You always lie!"), ("Father wants you home, you need to come home.") and his mother leaving, and his uncle, and then more of his father's and zhaos words. Katara has been holding Aang and Toph with Sokka at her shoulders. Zuko is in the middle of the clearing, as they had all been forced into, on his knees and gasping for air. At the end the spirit gifts them all something they need or have lost. She gives Zuko his dao, but with an inscription.

---

Zuko has a slight tremor in his hands from the lightning, as well as marks and bruises from the electricity up his arms and dipping along his torso. He is now almost completely deaf in his left ear. He gets spasms of pain, but learned to ignore them while in prison.

However a week after he joins the team at the temple, Katara hands him a bowl with a glare, and he takes it, but the heat of the stew doesn't react well with the trembling nerves in his hands. He winces and drops the bowl, curling in on himself and pressing his hands close to his chest.

He can hear everyone's sounds of surprise and Katara's of anger -shit had he burned her?

"Sorry-" he grit through his teeth, eyes squeezed shut as pain radiated through his body. "Shit." He gasped.

There was a sudden hand on his shoulder and he flinched, jerking up to see it was Hakoda who was on his right- he had made sure no one was on his left - with a look of concern.

"Zuko?" Aang asked with concern.

"I'm fine." He responded automatically. When he looked at the group, he found that no one believed him. Yeah, he wouldn't believe him either right now.

"That's a lie." Toph point out unhelpfully.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Sokka asked, brows furrowed. Zuko was about to brush it off again - in vain, he would have learned - but made the mistake of looking at Katara, who looked a mix of reluctant worry and a don't-you-dare-say-youre-fine look. He sighed.

"Just...on the day of the eclipse- ah" he hissed and hugged his hands closer to himself even as Katara tried to coax them away to see. "On the day of the eclipse, I confronted my father. He shot lightning at me."

A collective gasp of horror.

"I redirected it the second time. Uncle taught me. He actually invented it by studying waterbenders."

"What about the first time?"

Zuko's head shot up, giving Sokka in incredulous look. "What?"

"You said you redirected it the second time. What about the first?"

Zuko opened his mouth, ready to tell him to fuck off, when another shock of pain spared through him.

"Agh!" His eyes screwed shit at the agony.

His father aiming at him.

His mother released behind him.

The striking sound of lightning cracking.

The brighter light of its appearance.

The haunting cacophony of his mother's screams.

The wafting smell of her burning flesh.

Her lifeless body cradled in his arms.

And then everything was black once more.

---

He often wakes up to the strike of lightning in his nightmares, or his mother's scream.

---

Zuko finds ways to try and kill himself in the prison. A true soldier would rather die than be captured. No one has ever escaped the Boiling Rock, and he doubts he could be the first. With each attempt, the Warden locks him away for days without food or water, keeping anything sharp away from him.

---

On the cliff when Azula finds them, she tells Zuko Iroh is dead (he's not) and he breaks.

At first he fights her with a vengeance, truly aiming to hurt and burn and the group weren't sure he would kill her or not.

As soon as they were leaving, he just went silent, staring at his hands.

When they get somewhere safe, they're around the fire.

"Zuko?"

"Don't." His only word was quiet and choked as he jumped to his feet. "I- I need to-" and then he was walking away. Someone followed him. He's sobbing.

---

Zuko goes with his sister during Ba Sing Se because he can't leave his Uncle behind. He does his best to give Sokka a look as he goes, but he doesn't know for sure. While he's with his Uncle, he can take them down from the inside.

None of it goes to plan.

---

"Oh yeah, life in a palace was so hard." Katara snipped. "Did you have to worry about the next time you ate?"

"No." His father wouldn't let him leave the oppressive silence of family dinners until every last crumb was eaten, even if it made him sick to eat the turtle ducks from the pond.

"Did you have to fight for a proper education?"

"No." He had to fight for proper education, pitted against his baby sister and his father's unreachable expectations. Every time he got something wrong, or did unwell on an exam, or his foot was just slightly too far back in his stance, his tutors would burn him. Suffering was a hell of a teacher, he was forced to find out.

"Did you have to wonder if your father was going to come home every night?"

"No." He worried for his mother, once he was old enough to realize why he would have to. He was worried his uncle had left them, or would die over the loss of his son. Lu Ten never came home.

"Did you have to grieve for your mother?"

"No." After all, how can you give someone who isn't dead? (Easily, he grieve so easily, he just doesn't have the words.)

"Did you have to fear that someone could kill you at any moment, just because you were different?"

"No." He hadn't feared, he had been terrified. But he was also the most stubborn person he knew, and he survived. Through everything, even just out of sheer spite, he had survived.

---

"Why would you go along with him?? Why would you tolerate that? Why don't you fight for yourself??"

"If you don't learn to swim, you drown." Zuko said, eyes down turned. "He doesn't give you lessons, you have to learn along the way. If you aren't quick enough, he leaves you for the Unaqui."

---

Zuko sat, staring at Aang. He really was just a child, what he could only guess a normal twelve year old would be like. He was a child, and Zuko knew intimately what Ozai did with those.

"What are you looking at?" Sokka sneered, glaring at him. But Zuko continued to stare, meeting Aang's eyes when he turns to look at him. He seems a bit surprised, but holds his gaze, their gray shine shocking from the gold and brown Zuko was always surrounded with.

"You're a child." He whispered, devistated.

"So are you." He murmured back. Zuko could argue that he wasn't, he hadn't been for a long time, not since the Agni Kai, possibly before that.

The Aang could be 'not' a child by being the only remaining member of a nations genocide. By being the Avatar. By having to save the world, to kill his father. None of them were children, and yet, they all were.

Zuko is captured by Zhao. When he got there, Bato was there. (Zhao had heard he got a visit from the Avatar and seemed he had information on Zuko, aka the little traitor)

---

"What did you do to get on his bad side?" Bato asked the fuming boy who sat with his back to the bars, watching both the door and his fellow prisoner. Well, watching was an misconception. He glared at the doors as if he could burn holes through it if he tried hard enough.

"None of your business, Water Tribe." He snapped, cutting his gaze to him. Ugly, flaming golden eyes. Well, eye. The left was a dull and foggy yellow, pale in the flickering candle light, most likely blind. Bato noted the large but old scar smeared across half of his face and wondered what happened.

---

The scarred boy was taken above deck, and despite his hostility, Bato couldn't help but feel unease settle in his chest as hoarse screams met his ears.

(Zuko Pov)

Zhao had read him a letter for his execution. Zuko had seen the seal, but couldn't believe it. He snatched it out of Zhao's hands, and he let him, looking far too amused. It wasn't his fathers handwriting, he wasn't even sure what it looked like, considering he'd never written him. It was his father's advisors familiar scrawl that he saw, no doubt written straight from the Fire Lords lips. Any color left in his face had vanished, and Zhao grinned from ear to ear. He yanked his head back by his Phoenix Plume and Zuko found sick irony in the fact that it only was he born at night, but he would die under the stars as well, far, far away from Agni's light.

Even though fear coursed through him and threatened to douse his flame, he held his head high and glared at the guards and soldiers surrounding him, taking great pleasure as a few refused to meet his gaze.

"Agni will never forget this. She will never forgive you Zhao!"

"The Fire Lord has Agni's blessing, brat." Zhao rolled his eyes. "And so his commands are supported by the spirits. You should know, of all people."

Zhao didn't kill him. No, he cut his hair from his scalp, blood swiping with him and trailing down the ex-Princes neck.

Zuko screamed, falling forward on his elbows, cursing Zhao with shaky breaths.

"You are a coward!" He screeched. "You dishonorable hog monkey! How dare you!" He was backhanded with an armored hand, a cut and bruised blooming on his cheek.

"You are the coward, Zuko. Couldn't even fight for your life like a man." He sneered.

"Agni will never shine her rays on you the same. You will be punished! There will be retribution!"

This time, a knee to the ribs. "Stupid boy." He tsked. "Take him back below."

Despite ignoring the boys warning, Zhao refused to admit that Agni did feel different the next morning. She felt cold, distant, as if she wasn't hanging over his head.

Zhao refused to believe.

---

Bato had heard the boys screams from above, gutteral and blood-curtling. He heard the sound of a blade unsceathed and the smack of a hand against skin. Bato winced, expecting to smell the reak of blood soon.

But instead, not even five minutes later, the screams and curses stopped abruptly, and then the metal door leading to the deck cranked open and the sound of heavy footsteps accompanied by a constant thud followed.

Looking up, Bato saw two guards march down the hall, an unconscious scowling boy being dragged between them, his head hanging and rolling with each step.

The guards opened his cell and threw him in, where he laid like a ragdoll. Bato noticed there was a patch of blood where skin and hair should have been. Bato grimaced, watching the boy's chest rise and fall haltingly, like there was something wrong with his ribs, a wheezy wince leaving his lips each time.

Bato didn't watch the guards leave. He just watched the boy sleep, scowl ever present even in his ill-fitted sleep.

---

Where Zuko's scalp and hair was cut off, it miraculously grows back gold. A blessing of Agni. It sort of looked like yin, though instead of the white dot, it was gold.

---

"Not all of them are like that!"

Bato/Sokka looked at him incredulously. How stupid was this kid? (Later he would recognize that he wasn't really stupid, just stupidly desperate)

---

His father only THINKS he's a traitor, once he escapes and captures the avatar, he'll prove his loyalty and this will all be just a huge misunderstanding. It IS a misunderstanding. It HAS to be-

"You alright, kid?"

---

An Agni Kai is supposed to be a show of honor, not a spectacle.

A Father was supposed to be loving, not cruel.

A child was supposed to be protected, not banished.

A King was supposed to be fair, not selfish.

The people of Agni were supposed to create life, not burns.

Mortals...rarely followed the rules.

---

The Fire Prince returns after a longer session than usual but...he isn't the same.

He's not scowling or spitting sparks or so much as glaring at Bato or the guards.

His face is slack, his eyes vacant, his posture slumped and- is he limping? His gait is different, that's for sure.

Bato isn't sure the kid knows where he is right now.

---

Zhao looked at the kid different. It was malicious, it was dreadful, and it was hateful, but it was different from when he called Bato a Water Rat. Different than the lashes and burns.

Zhao looked at the little prince differently.

Bato didn't like it.

---

"Where's Zhao?"

"Distracted." Bato said, even when he had burns and blood on his hands. Zuko saw it too, but led him away anyways.

That night, as they stare into the fire (Bato doesn't know how the prince can manage when fire has harmed him so much), the prince speaks without looking at him.

"You killed him, didn't you."

Bato didn't pretend to be dumb. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because he hurt us. Hurt you."

"...I think he broke me." He admitted quietly. Bato looked at him for a long time before he spoke.

"I don't think he did."

Zuko looked at him now, brows furrowed, eyes narrowed, his blind eye straying in the right direction.

"You're still alive, for one thing." He said, looking him in the eye. "And if you of all people broke... you'd be dead."

When silence followed, he wasn't sure he said the right thing.

But then the prince tucked his head in his knees, and Bato saw him smile as the flames evened out, strong and steady.

Bato wanted to hug him, hold him tight and mever let the world at him again, but he couldn't. He could do something no one has managed to do, however.

Bato stayed.

---

The kid got nightmares in their cells. He got them even more after.

Bato lied awake until he heard the whimpers and bitten screams. He would wake him up, try not to get burned, and then stay up with him for the rest of the night. Neither of them for much sleep, but that was nothing new. They'd drop once they were exhausted enough, and sleep sightlessly for a few hours and continue to Chameleon Bay.

Then one night Zuko changes their routine. He wraps his arms around Batos waist and curls his knees towards his hip, half laying on the ground and half hugging him.

But Bato didn't mention it, feeling the shaking of his shoulders and shallow breathes against his leg, so he rested his arm across his shoulders and rubbing his arm lightly.

---

Bato watched the boy lean against his wall, eyes dull as he stared at the floor in front of him. His hair was growing in, a fuzz like that of a mango melon. Except for the back of his head where a scab continued to heal, stark and bloody since that day.

The kid is tired. Bato is too.

He tells him a story.

---

"Hakoda...he's my best friend." A soft smile was on Bato's face. "He's also my partner. We discovered our feelings after his wife, my other best friend, Kya died in a raid."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Zuko said, before frowning further in confusion. "Partner?"

"Yes." Bato tilted his head, now looking at him. "He's my partner. Like parents are partners, though I could never replace Kya."

"Like... romantically?"

Bato gave him a curious look. "Yes."

Zuko's face twisted, something between further confusion and fear. "But that's illegal!" He exclaimed, though not nearly as loud or angrily as he would have a few weeks ago.

"Not in the Water Tribes. Nor the Earth kingdom. And before they were murdered, the Air Nomads too."

Zuko winced, shaking his head. "But it's- its-" he stuttered until he grew silent, pulling and clasping his fingers in a pattern before repeating the process, staring at them intensely.

"Do you really think it's wrong? To be with the person you love? To freely love your life as yourself, to be happy?"

Zuko's mouth twisted as he thought, his hands moving faster as he seemed to grow more distressed, before they stilled all together.

His voice was so small.

"There...was a boy. At the palace, when I was young. One of the servants..."

Bato waited patiently.

"I thought he was pretty. Mother told me not to say that again."

Bato's heart ached, unable to imagine being shunned for a harmless crush.