Lol I Have A Baby Zuko Au In The Works Where He Angers A Spirit Who Says If He Acts Like A Child So He

More ‘Zuko and Jin reunite’ fluff

I was wondering, how bad was Ozai's abuse even before this Agni Kai? And how much did Piandao know about it?

Piandao was born into wealth and prestige, but he was not raised in it. He was raised in an orphanage, and the workers there would click their tongues and mutter pitying words. Poor young Piandao, his parents are still alive and well, they simply didn’t want him. If only he’d been a firebender.

When Piandao had excelled at the art of the sword, become recognized, and started taking students, he only got nonbenders. People claiming to be the best in their village, wanting glory that they found harder to gain without having bending of their own.

That was why it was such an oddity when he received a letter requesting (commanding, technically, he supposed) that he train the young Prince Zuko in the art of the sword. He’d agreed (there was no other choice), and a few weeks later, the eight-year-old prince arrived for his first lesson.

After two weeks of learning what Zuko was like, Piandao had decided to train the boy in the dual broadswords. 

Those two weeks, and all the time after that, taught Piandao a lot about Prince Zuko. More specifically, about his life back at the palace.

He wasn’t sure the prince even noticed. Piandao, actually, suspected all the movements were involuntary. 

Piandao would test a possible new student. He’d deny them. The student would raise their voice, anger seeping into their tone, spitting in Piandaos’ face about what a valuable pupil he would be to have.

Piandao would see Prince Zuko sitting in the corner wince as the yelling got louder, looking more wary than before.

The first week that Piandao actively was teaching the boy, he brought him to the town square to watch a friendly fire duel. He watched as the boy leaned back when fire came in his direction, even when it was nowhere near him. Piandao would narrow his eyes at the way the prince would rub at his forearm, and the way his eyes would widen a bit and he would flinch minutely when the flames came too close.

They didn’t go to sit and watch the duels much, after that. When they did, they sat far, far away from the front.

All of this could be written off, but Piandao couldn’t ignore what happened the first time that Zuko got a cut during their training.

Zuko was practicing dodging. It was an accident, and not even a major one, just big enough to put a pause on training for the day. The prince hadn’t moved fast enough and the blade he had been dodging struck him in the middle of his arm. The blade was not very sharp, as it was a training one, but it managed to get through the fabric a bit, and blood slowly seeped out.

Before Piandao had been able to speak, to apologize and call for bandages, Zuko had grit his teeth and spoken instead.

“I’m sorry, Master Piandao.”

Piandao had paused, blinking at the eight-year-old boy. “Why are you sorry?”

“I should have been faster. I shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Does it hurt?”

Zuko nodded, a few stray, sweaty stands of hair getting in his eyes. “Yeah. It stings. I’ve learned my lesson, I won’t do it again.”

Piandao had been quiet for a moment before asking, “What... What are you talking about?”

Zuko looked tired, more than anything, and annoyed at himself, glaring at the arm he clutched to his chest. “I mess up and get hurt, I deal with the pain.”

Piandao felt sick, but he had replied simply, “No, I only get the summer with you. No reason to waste time waiting for that to heal without help. We’ll get it cleaned and wrapped.”

It made him want to throw up when he saw how surprised the boy looked as he met his gaze. “I...” Zuko looked down at his arm, then back up and said, “Thank you, Master Piandao.”

The flinches, and way he talked about pain like he deserved it, and the small burn scars, both fresh and fading, that Piandao soon found lay beneath the sleeves, were all enough to paint a rather unwelcome picture, but as Zuko got more comfortable, he would talk all about his mom, waiting back at home, as well as his cousin and uncle, and sometimes his sister.

Never his father.

Things changed when Zuko came for training the summer after his mother disappeared. 

Training was normal, other than the fact that Zuko was rather glum the entire time. He was lost in thoughts, and talked less, and was less excitable. It was rather... upsetting to see.

Then, though, the day before Zuko was to leave, a day that they normally spent relaxing, Zuko came to him, his eyes red, and said, “I don’t wanna go home.”

The next day, the prince had gone home.

Piandao knew about the Agni Kai. He didn’t know what happened to the boy afterward.

He missed him for the three years after that fateful day.

Piandao didn’t train anyone with passion, again, until he met Sokka. The boy reminded him so much of Zuko sometimes that it ached. So alike, yet so very, very different.

Piandao was born a nonbender to two powerful firebender parents. They abandoned him because of it.

When he thought about the way that Zuko’s father (a powerful firebender) treated Zuko himself (a less powerful firebender), Piandao found himself thinking that maybe growing up in the orphanage, parentless, was actually for the best, after all.

okay so GENUINELY I was just supposed to make this mini taob comic for @hella1975 but my brain was like "no that's not enough. It's not even shaded. provide more" soo uh yeah there are a lot more doodles added to this than I intended lmao

Somebody asks zuko why ty Lee and she says “because I was the prettiest.”

Long time, no see y’all

Please enjoy this long abandoned messy sketch, pose referenced from that meme photo that I can no longer find anywhere!

my favorite ship dynamic is betrayal. not when they betray each other but when one or both of them turn against their cause, their principles and/or loved ones for the other. bonus points if the person they're abandoning everything for didn't remotely expect it. ultimate declaration of love. "you mean more to me than everything i ever believed in. i am more loyal to you than my conscience. i love you more than the thing i would die for."

I want a scene, post Azula reconciliation, where there's a quiet moment between her and Zuko and Iroh on Lu Ten's birthday when she starts laughing. She looks at Zuko and is like 'do you remember when Uncle and Lu Ten came back from Lu Ten's military training and we decided to jump him to test him?"

Iroh, who has not heard this story, is curious and confused as Zuko digs for the memory.

'Oh yeah! It was so late and we'd stayed up for hours! Mom sent us to bed but we wanted to stay up because' he looks at Iroh 'you were in your gift-giving phase and we wanted to see what you were going to bring us'

Azula continues the explanation to Iroh. 'We snuck into Lu Ten's room, we waited for HOURS.'

Iroh, bewildered but intrigued, nods. 'We had been delayed on our way home'.

'Right,' Azula continues. 'So we're almost asleep hiding behind Lu Ten's curtains and he FINALLY gets there. So we wait and then...'

Azula's giggles are punctured with a snort as Zuko continues the memory, looking at his sister as though it had been her idea, but he had been far too eager to see his cousin and play again.

'You charged and grabbed him; he screamed so loud. Then I tried to follow, but I had been tying knots in the curtain cords and got caught up and tore the whole thing off of the wall. We were all covered and couldn't see anything and you were still trying to fight him under the curtain-'

'While you were both screaming!!' Azula howls in laughter.

Iroh listens happily; beaming and very happy to hear an unheard tale.

Azula continues. 'He picked us up by our collars like it was nothing. I was still trying to fight. He puts us on the floor and says 'So help me Agni if you do that again I'll make sure Dad never has to buy gifts while on tour ever again.'

Iroh laughs at Azula's spot-on imitation if his late son.

Zuko laughs as well. 'But then we hugged him.'

'Oh he MELTED,' Azula adds. 'He hugged us back so tight. I... I think that had been the first hug we'd had in a while. We dogpiled in his bed and he told us stories until we passed out.'

'Which wasn't long.' Zuko says.

Iroh looks at the siblings as they reminisce; he wipes a tear and hugs them, hoping to emulate Lu Ten's hug that had once given them comfort they didn't know they needed.

'Thank you.' He says. 'He never shared that with me.'

'It... might not have seemed important.' Azula says, still getting used to hugs from her uncle. She awkwardly pats his arm as they part.

Iroh laughs. 'Or maybe he didn't want to admit to his father that he had been ambushed by children. But... often the things that may not seem important, in time, become the most special.'

This flashback in ATLA, Azulon becoming enraged with Ozai for disrespecting Iroh and the recently deceased Lu Ten, is usually interpreted as Azulon then ordering Ozai to kill Zuko. I disagree with this for two reasons. 1: We don’t actually hear Azulon say that, it’s only referred to by Azula (who was around seven or eight at the time and might have misunderstood what she heard) and by Ozai, years later, when he is taunting Zuko on the Day of Black Sun. Neither Azula nor Ozai are reliable narrators. 2: Azulon is, at the time of this flashback, the ruler of the Fire Nation who has just lost one of his only two grandsons and heirs. What kind of monarch loses one heir and then turns around and demands the death of another, especially when losing Zuko would hardly bother Ozai? My interpretation of this situation is Azulon ordered Ozai to give Zuko into Iroh’s care, replacing Lu Ten as Iroh’s heir, neatly removing any argument Ozai had about Iroh’s line having ended. Ozai of course would never accept this. He either lied to Ursa, claiming Azulon wished Zuko dead, or outright told his wife he’d kill Zuko before seeing him get ahead of him in the line of succession, thus manipulating Ursa to help him assassinate Azulon. I think this theory makes far more logical sense than ‘Azulon ordered the murder of his nine-year-old grandson’.

[Kindergarten AU]

Lu Ten: You wanna talk to her?

Baby Zuko: Yes.

Lu Ten: Go on.

Baby Zuko: *nods*

Lu Ten: Oh, and Zuko?

Baby Zuko: Yes?

Lu Ten: Don’t come on too strong.

Baby Zuko, gets on one knee: Come home with me.

Baby Katara: Who are you?

Baby Zuko: The man who’s gonna marry you.

Lu Ten: *facepalms*

Artist Zuko really is one of the best things in the world!!😍

HE IS!! I love the idea of it being therapeutic for him (hence his characterization in All the Lights are Shining). I also love the idea of him just being super casual about it. I headcanon that it was something he had to learn as part of his formal education like all of the other noble kids, but he just became exceptional at it. His mother encouraged him (of course) and Iroh continued to do so once Zuko was in his care. So Zuko is just like, “Yeah. This is a skill I was required to learn, but it’s also one of my favorite hobbies and it helps me work through all of my emotions and trauma. And I guess I’m kind of decent at it?”

Also, when the Gaang finds out he can draw, Suki and Toph mercilessly tease Sokka about how much better an artist Zuko is than him. And Katara and Aang want Zuko to teach them how to draw. They keep asking him and he finally relents. It turns out Aang is pretty decent, but Katara is just as bad as Sokka. Zuko is just perplexed by that because Katara excels at so many things, so how is she so bad at this?

(I just have a lot of ideas surrounding artist!Zuko. 🥰)