If Aang had emerged from the iceberg decades earlier (?)

Well, for one Aang is prepubescent.

Two, I'm just really picky about ships in general.

Three, I'm primarily an M/F shipper.

Four, I have trouble seeing Ozai fucking another male. I think he's violently homophobic. A "Super Straight" (tm) and his pronouns are nor/mal.

He had spent a lifetime in service to the Fire Nation’s might, molding himself into a figurehead and crushing the corpses of countless thousands to reach the natural summit of his station.

But Azulon, in his inability to imagine defeat, neglected to mention the natural counterpoint to the law that once cemented Ozai’s dominion: a new authority, once imposed, demanded total submission.

Ozai’s existence no longer served any other purpose.

covariance

...time suffered a strange dilation in the four walls of Ozai's prison. To him, it passed in jumps and starts, but he realized his mistake when the Avatar persisted in his visits. Ozai’s account of the days and nights told him that he came four times a year. Each time, it was with clockwork punctuality as if he diverted himself from his routine to make sure he was there.

Ozai knew the responsibility that came with rule, and while the Avatar did not claim dominion over anyone, Ozai knew the impossibility of planning three months ahead in a life so marked by significance.

That was something his father had been quick to impress upon him as a child. Fire Lords bent the world to their will but the very act of exerting power exacted its toll, slaving one to the inevitable drudgery of then zealously guarding it.

If an Earth Kingdom reactionary group decided one day to bomb a crucial trade route, Ozai's time and attention were surely drawn to it. They were the acts of simple farmers turned reactionaries—powerless men who would have been doomed to a life of mundanity had Ozai not presented death as an option. Yet if Ozai hadn't directed his attention to them, the power wouldn't have been his to hold for long.

That's how he knew that the Avatar deliberately made time to visit him. There was no other explanation for the regularity of his visits.

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Written for Aang Rarepair Week 2022, Day 3: Rhythm/Breath