city of walls and secrets
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Tags
Summary
His nephew stands underneath the diamond-patterned window, blinking in the brightness. He often keeps the still-tender burn on his face shielded from the sun, but now he tilts his face up to catch the light. For an instant, with his wide-open eyes and softened expression, Zuko looks the way he might have been if terrible things had never happened to him.
Series
- Part 1 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
He fears that he will awaken one morning to find that he is alone in their small apartment in the refugee tenement, that Zuko has disappeared over the walls of Ba Sing Se, vanished to somewhere Iroh cannot reach him.
Another day, Iroh begs. Let him still be here when the sun rises.
Series
- Part 2 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
It’s just that he wanted Li to come with him and he didn’t; Li hadn’t wanted anything to do with Jet. And he really shouldn’t, Jet’s nothing but bad luck to anyone.
But Jet can’t let it go.
Series
- Part 3 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
Far away, over the great walls of the city and beyond the wild seas, past the lychee groves that grow for hundreds of acres at the base of the Caldera, there is an estate with his name on the title, bequeathed to Iroh the day he came of age; his official residence when not at war or court. The rooms of the manor house are furnished with lacquered wooden furniture and decorated with gold silks and crimson velvets, and outfitted with other fine things as benefitting the crown prince of the Fire Nation.
Here in the Lower Ring, all Iroh can afford is a squalid set of rooms scarcely larger than a wardrobe, with a hastily-patched hole in the wall and torn rice-paper screens. But this apartment will keep Zuko safe, perhaps even become a home for him.
Shelter and security are fortune enough for Iroh, now.
Series
- Part 4 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
Lee’s been lying all night long. Lee’s lied about his name and the village where he’d spent his childhood, he’s lied about how he’d gotten his scar and about how much he’d liked the meal he’d ordered after one hasty glance at the menu at Jin’s favorite noodle shop.
But Jin doesn’t really mind. She had known that he wouldn’t tell her anything about himself from the moment she’d first asked him to dinner. She’d looked into Lee's handsome, wary face and known right then and there that he was going to spend the evening lying to her as though his life depended on it, and that she was going to let him.
Series
- Part 5 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
There’s a small yellow flower on the table, the color of the sun, encircled by a row of fat, ruffled petals. Zuko stares and stares. He doesn’t know what to do with it. If the flower had been wilted at all, he would have just tossed it out the open window into the street to get trampled by the carts and rickshaws without a second thought. But this flower isn’t wilted. It’s fresh.
It must have been an accident, Zuko argues with himself unconvincingly. Maybe the flower fell out of Jet’s pocket, maybe it was dropped by some other customer entirely.
But this was Jet’s table.
Written for Jetko Week 2022
Series
- Part 6 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
The pipa fades away, until the only sounds left in the garden are the rustle of leaves and the wind stirring the long grass. Jin stands on her tiptoes and leans forward, dropping a kiss on his cheek.
There’s just a hint of jasmine in his hair. Jin breathes it in.
When she draws back, Li looks a little surprised and a little indignant, the way he had when she’d ruffled his hair so long ago. It makes her hide her mouth behind her fingers so he won’t see her smile.
“It was good to see you again, Li,” she says, and turns to slip back through the hedge.
Written for Jinko Week 2022
Series
- Part 7 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
Zuko sweeps and his thoughts swirl and rise and descend, like leaves caught up in an eddy of wind. He finds himself thinking of old memories, ones he hasn’t thought of in many years. There’s something he’s close to remembering, some thought he’s close to uncovering.
But he always shrinks away before he can discover what it is.
Series
- Part 8 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
Zuko smashes crystals with his fists until his knuckles are wet and ragged with shredded skin, then he slams his head against the jagged rocks over and over until his vision goes white, until blood trickles down his chin.
And Uncle never says a word to stop him.
Series
- Part 9 of city of walls and secrets
-
Tags
Summary
The city guards don’t seem to care who had won, and who hadn’t. The guards take them both in.
But only Jet gets released.
Series
- Part 10 of city of walls and secrets