Chapter Text
The first time Aang asked he was laughed at.
Ba Sing Se was safe, for now at least. Azula had escaped because of course, she had. No prison could hold the Fire Nation Princess.
Not that she’d even made it to prison.
But most importantly, Zuko had saved Aang’s life.
They hadn’t even known Zuko could bend lightning.
It wasn’t perfect, his uncle had said so after he’d collapsed. The lightning had spent too long in his stomach. But they were reassured the next morning that he was up and as cranky as ever, apparently content to work in his uncle’s tea shop like nothing had happened.
They stayed in Ba Sing Se to plan for the Day of Black Sun. The two Fire Nation Princes’ just… stayed.
It was actually Toph’s idea. Aang still kept up on his training, after all, it wouldn’t do for the Avatar to get lazy. And one day she just brought it up while throwing chunks of the Great Wall of Ba Sing Se at him.
“Hey, you should ask Zappy to teach you firebending.”
Aang didn’t bend the wall in time. It hurt to pick himself back up, but that’s part of the training anyway.
“What?”
“Zuko, you should have him teach you firebending. That way you can learn that weird lightning thing you guys were talking about and I don’t have to worry about getting zapped every time his crazy sister shows up.”
“Are you nuts?” Sokka piped in from the sidelines he was sharpening his boomerang like it may someday hit someone in a way that actually cuts them. They both know it never will.
“Why not?”
“Do you know how long we’ve spent running from him?”
“Not his fault you’re chicken.”
“Yes! Yes, it is!”
“Okay stop,” Aang said to placate them both. “Toph has a point. He’s here, we’re here. And I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be hard for him to figure out where we live. He’s found us in stranger places. But Sokka’s also right. If I train with Zuko he’d have to come with us when we invade the Fire Nation. His home. Between that and our… history together I don’t think any of us would be comfortable with that arrangement. We’re family, if Sokka’s worried one of us will char broil him in his sleep it’s not going to turn out well for any of us.”
“So guess that makes you the tiebreaker, twinkle toes.”
“What no it doesn’t. This isn’t a tiebreaker decision, Toph. It has to be unanimous or nothing.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“You’re never going to find a firebending teacher then. Oh well, it won’t be all that useful anyway I guess. Eclipse and all that.”
Toph threw another chunk of wall at him. This time he threw it back.
She didn’t want to admit that she was tired of being the new recruit.
They brought it up to Katara at breakfast the next day. Or rather, Toph did.
“I visited Iroh’s tea shop last night,” she said smug as the day she’d chosen her Earth Rumble stage name.
“By yourself!?” Sokka said after he finished choking on his turkey-pig bacon.
“Yep. Zuko was there too. He tripped over a customer. It was great. His heart rate was so fast.”
“Toph, that’s not very nice. I hope he’s okay, he’s probably still healing from that lightning burn. I wish he’d let me take a look at it.”
Toph smirked in Sokka’s general direction.
“Eh, he didn’t hit the floor. Didn’t even spill the tea as far as I could tell. A couple of customers clapped, so I guess it was a pretty impressive save. Guess you’d have to be pretty agile to shoot fire from your feet, huh? No wonder he’s so good at it.”
“Yeah, too bad he’s been using it to HUNT US DOWN!”
“I don’t know, Sokka, when we were in that prison together it really seemed like he wanted to change. That he had changed. And then he saved Aang’s life. That seems pretty legitimate proof to me doesn’t it?”
“He probably only did it so he could capture Aang himself.” Sokka stuffed so much food in his mouth that they could barely even understand him. But the general gist was obvious.
“I think, I think it’s too late for that.” Aang pushed his non-meat tofu thing around on his plate, not eating any of it. Toph didn’t blame him, she couldn’t even see and she thought it was gross. “The way General Iroh danced around the subject I get the feeling they’re both going to get blamed for the Fire Nation losing the city a second time. They’re probably officially traitors now.”
“But pretty good firebenders,” Toph added. “Maybe even good enough to teach.”
“Well…” Katara started lowering her chopsticks and staring at her plate. “He is a really good firebender. That thing he did with the lightning was incredible, even if it wasn’t perfect. But he’d have to come with us and I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
“I know right? We can’t have him sleeping next to us. We can’t feel safe with the Avatar Hunter five feet away.”
“Oh, um I suppose so. But that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Why not?”
“Well, I was more worried about how it would affect him.”
“WHY!!!!?”
“The Fire Lord is his father, right? I don’t know if I want to ask someone to help us get rid of their dad.”
Sokka hit his forehead hard enough to make a noise, Toph imagined a big red mark there though she had no way of knowing if there was one… or what red even looked like. Really she just imagined that it hurt.
“I doubt he’s a very good dad. Considering how both his kids turned out.” Toph huffed, blowing hair out of her face more out of boredom than it actually bothering her.
“But still…”
“That would be up to him.” Aang finally ate some of his slop. Gross. “Just because I ask, doesn’t mean he has to agree.”
“Yeah, and we can always just leave him somewhere before the actual invasion. It’s not like he’ll be very useful, with the no bending and all.”
“Hehe, yeah about that… Zuko’s just as terrifying without his bending, trust me.” Aang gave a shiver, not a real one, just one of those fake ones people do to prove their point.
“What seriously?” Sokka’s voice went all high pitched. “Yeah, now I want him sleeping next to me.”
“When have we ever fought him without his bending?” Katara sounded worried but Toph just wished Aang would stop arguing both sides.
“It's a long story.”
“Look, the point is. We know he doesn’t want to hurt Aang or he’d have just let crazy head shoot him full of lightning. He’s a firebender who doesn’t want Aang dead or locked up. And Aang needs to learn firebending eventually anyway. Not to mention he lives close enough that I can walk down the road and feel people come in and out of that tea shop. Firebending teachers don’t come gift-wrapped any more plainly than if his uncle had used actual wrapping paper.”
Everyone looked at Sokka who whined like a baby.
“Uhg, fine. I guess I can always kick his butt if he turns on us or something. Might give me something fun to do later.”
So the group decided to buy dinner that night from a Fire Nation Prince’s Earth Kingdom tea shop in the hopes that Aang could get a chance to ask.
Zuko was working when they arrived. And sure enough, he immediately quit.
His uncle assured them he didn’t mean it. Zuko apparently quit once a week, maybe twice if someone looked at him funny. Iroh didn’t seem bothered so they didn’t let it bother them. They did have to ask him where they went because they had something to ask… no wait Katara wanted to try and heal him again. Apparently, they were lying now.
The old man wasn’t fooled, the way his heart thumped he was either lying through his teeth when he told them Zuko was probably sulking in the backroom or it was the proudest day of his, very long, life.
Toph wasn’t surprised when she felt Zuko throw his apron out the back window of the shop.
Aang politely asked for permission to go in the back rooms. He could have asked for the key to the whole store and it wouldn’t have changed a thing.
“What do you want, Avatar?”
“Aang, my name’s Aang.”
“I don’t care.”
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t as clear cut as Toph had expected it to be. That didn’t make her wrong.
“Right… Well I was wondering if you-”
“No, I’m not letting your waterbending pet shove her magic water down my throat,” he snapped.
“I’m right here.” Katara took offense though that was exactly what he’d hoped for. She was so easily played and Zuko was actually kind of afraid of them, just a little, so she made a convenient distraction. “And that’s not how it works.”
“That’s not actually what I wanted to ask.”
“Then say it or get out.”
Aang bowed in a very poor version of the Fire Nation’s traditional bow. Toph knew how to do it right because she was handled.
“Zuko, I would be honored if you would teach me firebending.”
There was a beat of silence before the laughing started. The calm before the storm apparently because it was loud, loud, and hard. Like people stopped moving in the shop proper because it sounded like someone was dying. Zuko was wiping away tears and everything. Aang’s heart rate skyrocketed in his chest.
“I… uh, I was being serious…”
“And there’s the punch line.” Zuko managed to choke out before he shoved them all back out into the shop the door slamming behind them. The laughing didn’t stop.
Later that night, as they all slept on the floor together, ignoring the house’s many perfectly serviceable bedrooms, Sokka told her that in all the time they’d known him, Zuko hadn’t so much as smiled at them in a way that wasn’t condescending.
Toph could feel the heat from Aang’s blush across the room.