Ficlet: Marks

[terajk]

From a prompt for fic-promptly: "Zuko + Gaang: The moment he realised he actually liked these people."  


Characters: Zuko, Aang, mini!Azula (kinda)
Rating: G/PG
Warnings: Reference to violence, genocide  


The Avatar didn't seem so special, not like this.

Azula would've killed him, he knew--and he was an easy target, with his eyes closed and his tattoos glowing softly in the moonlight. But Father had said to capture the Avatar, and Zuko was not his sister, no matter how much he wished he were.

He was not as heavy as he'd expected. Perhaps he'd gotten stronger in his banishment, on the rough seas, without the amenities of the palace he'd never gotten used to anyway. Or perhaps the Air Nomads were a lighter people, with bones less dense so that their element could carry them. Not that there was a "them"--not anymore.

When the tutor had told them what had happened to the Air Nomads--what had been done to them, not just by his own people, but by his own family--his stomach yawned into a bottomless pit. While his four-year-old sister drew pictures of bald men on fire, he sketched empty temples in his head: temples where no one prayed, temples full of dead that no one could burn incense for. (Or...whatever it was Air Nomads did to honor them).

And he had wept.

And his father had known.

But a small part of him, even then, had been glad--no, relieved--that at least all the Air Nomads were gone. Because with all that loss, if one were left...

A small ache in his shoulder.

No. The Avatar was the hope of his people. No, of...of the world. Even without his people, he had friends--a family--who protected him from harm. Who would risk their lives to keep him safe. He was like his sister.

So why, when he saw the glowing tattoos out of the corner of his right eye, did he think of the mark over his other one?

Comments

[fulselden]

This is sad and lovely: I especially like Zuko wondering if airbenders had - or have - light, birdlike bones. And the parallel between Zuko and Aang in terms of defining facial markings is one of my favourite of the tricks the series used, and yet I can't remember ever having seen it used explicitly in fic - so your last line was awesome.

Also: oh, mini!Azula... And also mini!Zuko, though I have to say you give your Zuko a lot more credit at that age than I do, I think. But, hmm, he was I suppose a sweet kid - and I like the idea of him being solicitous enough even to wonder just how it was that the Airbenders used to honour their dead.

And just generally I love the (essentially canon!) idea of Zuko tearing himself up inside and thinking deep thoughts while heading off into a blizzard. Oh Zuko.

[terajk]

This is sad and lovely

Thank you! Though I hope to write something not-sad soon. (I think things are funny--really!) But I seem to have a thing for Everyone Being Gone right now in relationship to Avatar, for some reason.

And the parallel between Zuko and Aang in terms of defining facial markings is one of my favourite of the tricks the series used

Some of my favorite parallels between them (though they don't have to do with facial markings specifically) are in Some Early Episode where the battles Aang, Sokka and Katara are having blend visually into the separate battles Zuko is having. This is where I first noticed that Zuko and Aang were connected in some way. Despite this being a big deal for me, I forgot which episode it is and don't remember if Iroh was involved.

And also mini!Zuko, though I have to say you give your Zuko a lot more credit at that age than I do, I think.

Now that I think about it, I probably gave him more credit than he deserves. *g* I was probably too inspired by esmenet's Academic!Zuko. I liked the idea of even mini!Zuko thinking a lot about honor..which the slightly-less mini canon version of him does, I think. At least, I read the knife-play as playing at dying honorably (if melodramatically). But even then, his idea of honor is very centered on himself. So an even mini-er Zuko thinking about honor as it relates to other people is probably...unlikely.

[fulselden]

I seem to have a thing for Everyone Being Gone right now in relationship to Avatar, for some reason

Well, it's not as if I can talk! My version of Avatar is all overwrought royal melodrama and woe all the time!

And, hm, early fight-scene parallels between Zuko and Aang. Perhaps you're thinking of the third(?) episode where Zuko is Agni Kai-ing it out with Zhao while Aang is facing up to an empty air temple and Gyatso's body? That's certainly where I first started to feel less than exasperated with Zuko, if only because he was such a doofus thinking of excuses at to how his ship had got smushed. Little did I know he would turn out to be awesome and also hilarious!

And, ahahahaha, have you seen that sprawling thread where I invaded poor esmenet's journal with my ISSUES with academic!Zuko and then s/he proceeded to give me a masterclass in world building? Good times! And, yes, aca!Zuko would definitely feel for the airbenders. But I could imagine canon!Zuko doing so as well - I think my version of him is just pretty thoroughly indoctrinated.

And it hadn't really occurred to me that the knife-game was, beside being hilarious and also adorable (even when he play-fights with himself he loses! Oh Zuko), a very explicit honooooour moment. But, yes, very much a matter of imagining himself in the spotlight, even if only by dint of dying heroically, oh (again) Zuko.