L.

Sometimes you forget that Bakugou’s a full time hero. 

You and Katsuki are enjoying a quiet evening at home, lounging on the couch. Well, you're lounging, legs folded on the cushion, your head resting on Katsuki's shoulder. He, however, has his reading glasses on, his feet braced on the coffee table so he can balance his laptop on bent legs.

His phone dings with a notification that he checks and promptly ignores. When he deposits the offending device onto the coffee table to return to his furious typing, you reach for it yourself; the lock screen showcases one of your favorite photos of the two of you, a selfie you took at a hero gala a few months ago.

You put Katsuki's phone in his face and offer him a quick kiss when it unlocks. "Thank you, baby."

"You're welcome," he says, face turning pink. "But why do you need my fucking phone for?"

You open his text messages with Eijiro and snap a new photo of you and your beau - Katsuki with his brows furrowed at the camera while you hold up a peace sign, lips puckered as if to give him a kiss through the phone.

“Mine’s about to die," you say. Eijiro responds with a selfie featuring his flexed bicep.

"So charge it."

You open up a new tab on the web and start browsing a sale. "No."

"Why?"

“Cause I want to spend time with you."

Even without looking at Katsuki you already know the look on his face is one of pure incredulity. “You’re with me right now. Using my fucking phone at that.”

“Yeah, for good reason. I’m gonna kill your battery too so we can talk to each other. It’ll be fun.”

Katsuki plucks his phone from your grasp just as you’re about to confirm your order, places it back on the table. “Newsflash, you don’t need an excuse to talk to me.”

“I know, but I don’t want anyone to interrupt us,” you say with a shrug. "No one can reach me at the moment. It's only fair if the same is true for you, too."

Katsuki pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks like he's in pain.

“Baby," he sighs. "You can't let my phone die."

“Why not?”

He gestures to his work computer. You glance at it then furrow your brows right back at him.

"What, you want me to drain your laptop battery too? You can just close it."

He puts the screen right in your face. So what? He's only typing up a report about a rescue...

“Oh my god." You cover the bottom half of your face with your hands. "Oh my god, why am I so dumb?”

“You’re not that dumb–"

“No, I’m actually so embarrassed,” you laugh. “Let’s just talk then.”

He closes his computer and pulls you into his lap instead. “See. That simple.”

Thinking about a soul bond with shared physical pain. About Sokka waking up screaming at 13 because his face BURNS. It aches for weeks as GramGram looks at him with worry(after all, how could a child hurt that badly?)

Thinking about Zuko with hands that ache with the phantom pains of working fishing lines, tying nets, practicing weapons he never held. About his face tingling with cold too sharp for the mild weather of the fire nation. He never tells anyone.

Thinking about Sokka who knows he’s eating enough food, knows he’s been hunting enough for the group, but still his stomach aches with hunger when Zuko travels alone.

About when Iroh is hit by fire from Azula and he feels guilt so sharply it becomes a physical pain and Sokka can’t understand why he hurts so badly.(for a foolish moment he worried Iroh was somehow his soulmate.)

When Zuko has his fever, Sokka feels sluggish.

Just… ugh so much possibility for angst.

Sokka landed bad on his leg during the comit because the feeling of being struck by lightning is fucking distracting, okay?(Zuko is confused when his leg aches along with the lightning wound)

After when Zuko is the fire lord and pushing himself too hard, that is when Sokka finally admits it. He takes care of Zuko because the idiot is too self sacrificing to do it on his own.

Zuko didn’t connect the dots at all.

Specifically, about the Coolers. And about Zuko.

The Coolers are, first and foremost, a means of firebender suppression. They are invoked as a punishment against unsanctioned firebending. They are designed, specifically, to shut down firebenders who have toed out of line. Like the metal prison in Imprisoned, like the suspended cages in The Puppet Master, these are prison facilities designed with a specific sort of bender in mind.

So then - Zuko.

Why throw Zuko in the Cooler as part of the escape plan? He should be EXACTLY the sort of person the Cooler is designed to work most devastatingly against. It would almost make more sense to try to get Sokka thrown into the cooler - he’s from the South Pole at least. Or maybe Suki, who’s not a bender at all. But they choose Zuko. And he’s successful. Subjected to the most severe form of firebender suppression in the Fire Nation’s most high-profile prison, Zuko is able to dismantle the Cooler and walk away smiling.

Why? 

I want to walk you through some facts:

In a tidbit of behind-the-scenes trivia, it was revealed that airbenders can regulate their body temperature with their breath alone. This is why Aang is so weirdly comfortable traveling around the South and North Pole (and really any climate in the series) in his normal monk garb. Everyone else changes outfits to reflect the changing climate, but not Aang, his breath has that covered.

It would be quite useful if a technique like that could be adapted to another style of bending. The same way that a waterbender’s redirection of their opponent’s energy could be adapted to the redirection of a firebender’s lightning. I bet the man who invented lightning redirection by studying waterbending would have some brilliant insight into using the breath for warmth by studying airbending.

In fact, that exact man tells Zuko “Remember your breath of fire. It could save your life out there.” back in Siege of the North. We see Zuko use his breath to warm himself that very episode, per his uncle’s instructions.

And we see Zuko use his breath of fire in one other case:

To endure the cooler.

I’m willing to bet - Breath of Fire, as a means to keep oneself warm, is not a native firebending technique. If it was, the whole concept of the Cooler would be laughable. Any prisoner would just Breath-o-Fire himself warm in there, and the prison guards would all collectively say “oh wow, the Cooler was a stupid idea, time for a new plan.”

But we know a traditional firebender would be sapped so cold in the Cooler that his firebending becomes unusable. If Zuko were relying on traditional firebending techniques, the same would happen to him. But he’s not.

Zuko’s Breath of Fire is an airbending technique. 

One that Iroh taught him. One the Fire Nation has no precedent for. One which lets Zuko ward off the freezing effects of the Cooler like it’s nothing, and allows him to dismantle it from the inside and come away smiling, unhindered, unaffected, warm to his core. 

thank so much! its a random doodle.

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tfw you’ve been tasked to murder the prince of the northern water tribe but he’s really majestic

(they make a compromise)