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The late afternoon sun painted the world golden on Turtleduck Ranch. Not the most creative name, Zuko could admit, but freshly banished at 13, with little but his pet turtleducks and his uncle’s tea case to show for it, it was the best he could come up with at the time.
“Hey now, wait your turn,” he crooned to the gathered flock of baby ducklings, their shells barely hardened. They squawked and puffed up, crowding around him and his bags of food. Sencha, Matcha, and Oolong preferred the green vegetables he grew in his garden, while Rooibos, Darjeeling, and Ginger enjoyed the bread he bought from the baker in town. Occasionally he would get deliveries from his Uncle, fancy pastries and fruit stolen from the palace kitchens, sent for both him and his little friends.
Mama Ceylon and a few of her last brood, Hibiscus, Chai, and Chamomile, floated across the still pond waters, quacking loudly to the newly hatched turtleducks. All but Matcha swarmed around their mother and siblings, a cacophony of happy noise. Matcha always stayed with Zuko, though. She curled up on his bare foot, soaking in the firebender warmth that was as much a part of him as his crooked smile and brutal scar. He scooped her up and gently, always so gently, rested her back in the water. “Go on, little leaf. I’ll be back in a little while to put you all to bed.”
Zuko dusted his hands off and wandered back to his small, unassuming house and stretched idly, his muscles sore from a long, satisfying day. Auntie Jai’s favorite cherry trees would bloom soon, and the arctic tubers he’d planted on a whim actually seemed to be breaking ground. The moonberries would need the covers removed too, but there was still a risk of frost this early in the season.
He opened the door to his home, a weird shiver of unease working its way up his spine. He lit a small flame in his palm, tossing fire towards the lanterns with his other hand. With an inexplicable feeling of dread, he eased into the large, homey kitchen.
“Hello, Zuko.”
Zuko immediately slipped into a fighting stance before clocking that it was not, in fact, Azula sitting at his table, back straight and topknot perfectly smooth, but Sera, Jai’s oldest daughter.
“Hey Sera. How are the kids?” he asked, surreptitiously extinguishing the flame he almost threw at her.
“Fine. Grown. Not that you care.”
He sighed, already on his back foot, and sat heavily across from her. “I was not aware that care was welcome.”
“Look. Let’s skip uncomfortable niceties. Since Mother died, I have been patiently waiting for you to do the right thing.”
“And what is that?”
“Leave. Give the farm back to me and my sisters.”
Zuko shoved away from the table and paced. “You didn’t want the farm! You swanned in and out over the last ten years while your mother toiled!”
“I had a newborn, Zuko. Mah and Song had their own small kids too. We couldn’t manage the land, which you knew, and you took advantage of! You weasled your way into her life and now you lay claim to our home like the colonizer you are.”
He reared back like he was slapped. “Is that what you think happened?”
“I know it is. There’s no other reason why she would leave all of this to you.”
He crossed the kitchen and lit the stove, going through the soothing motions of making tea. The silence stretched like spun glass as he measured, heated, poured. After a steeling, calming breath, he turned and gently placed a cup of chamomile before her.
“I know the Fire Nation has brought unspeakable pain to your family, to you personally. I know they - we - have rained this horror and fury on you. But Sera, what do you think your mother would have done if I hadn’t shown up? She was already struggling to take care of the farm on her own back then. It wasn’t firebender trickery or sole desperation that made her take me in, though, and if you truly think that, you didn’t know her at all.”
She leapt to her feet and moved to throw the tea in his face. Shocking fast, Zuko grabbed her wrist. “One scar to my face is enough.”
“How dare you?”
“Sera. I loved Jai. She saved my life in every way imaginable. Everything I do is to honor her. She did not replace my mother, nor did she try. But I loved her, and I grieve every day for her loss. Even now, I find myself turning to her to share a story, or automatically brewing a second cup of tea. And she loved you. You don’t know how lucky you are.”
He saw the exact moment all the fight left her and barely moved in time to catch her as she collapsed into gasping sobs.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, unsure of what else to do. “I’m so sorry.” He held his almost-sister until her breathing leveled out and she pulled away, cheeks flushed with tears and embarrassment.
“I miss her, Zuko. I miss my mom.”
“So do I. Your mother and mine.” He sighed and made a decision. “Look, I need to do the rounds before night falls, but there’s some soup in the larder I can heat up for us, and you can sleep in my spare room. There’s no point in you traveling back to Gang Zu this late.”
Sera gave him a shaky smile. “I’ll heat the soup. It’s the least I can do.”
He shot a tiny fireball to the stove and lit one of the burners. “It kind of only works if you’re a firebender now. Broke ages ago and there wasn’t a reason to fix it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Zuko took the dismissal for what it was and crossed back out into the milky twilight. He whistled twice and all the turtleducks lined up behind Mama Ceylon. “Come on, my friends. Let’s get you inside before some viperhawk eats you for dinner.” The tiny animals filed behind him into the barn he had rebuilt with his own hands. Wildflower and Saffron, his two ostrich horses, stirred a little. He smiled and handed over the berryplums he had stashed in his apron, patting their heads. All of the turtleducks ushered into their coop as usual, except for -
“Matcha? Where’d you go?”
He looked around the barn but couldn’t spot her milky green shell. “Matcha?”
A flash of yellow caught his eye near the door. That’s weird.
“Little leaf, come on. It’s time for bed and munchies!”
He saw another bright yellow streak, this time up in the loft. Zuko slid into a fighting stance for the second time that day. “Show yourself!” he shouted, a larger than usual flame in his hand.
Eerie, uncomfortable silence stretched, broken only by the rustling of feathers. He almost relaxed when he heard the unmistakable sound of boots trampling across the field.
Shit.
He slammed the gate closed on his turtleducks and sprinted to the back door of his house.
“Sera. Fire Nation patrols are here. You have to hide.”
She blanched. “Why would they come for you?”
“They don’t even know it’s me, but when they do, things are about to get really, really bad. Take care of the farm.”
“But!”
“No,” he hissed, hearing the shouts from the yard. “Promise me. Hide. Take cover. And take care of the farm.”
She gave him another shaky nod. “I promise. But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Colonizer, remember?” he said lightly.
“Zuko.”
“Hide. I’ll be fine.”
He charged out the front door, away from her. “State your purpose!”
One soldier straightened up. “Mind your tone, peasant. The Avatar was sighted on your property.”
The fucking Avatar?? That was a myth. It was a death sentence. It wasn’t real. That’s why Uncle Iroh had sent him to the Earth Kingdom in the first place. There is no Avatar, Prince Zuko. The belonging you seek is ahead of you, not behind.
“The Avatar? We’re too old for fairy tales, Lieutenant.”
The soldier sneered. “Didn’t you hear? The last airbender has returned. And he’s somewhere on your property.”
He moved into an easy firebending pose. “I keep a very close eye on my farm, friends. And I would never miss such an intruder. I suggest you leave. Immediately.”
“You dare threaten us?”
He lit an incandescent flame in his palm, starkly illuminating the scar on his face, and smirked. “Who said anything about a threat?”
They bristled but then awareness spread like a ripple on a pond. “The Prince,” someone murmured. Zuko suppressed a groan. He was hoping to get at least one good hit in before they tried to capture him.
Suddenly, every one of the soldiers were all drenched in a wave of ice cold water. A figure in blue blurred past him, sliding across a wave of her own creation, throwing ice that they could barely parry. What the FUCK?
“Are you going to help or not?” she shouted, nearly impaling one officer with an ice spear thicker than his arm. Zuko shook off his stupor and blasted his white-hot fire at the crowd, burning some and leaving the rest to flee with their tail between their legs. He paused, chest heaving as the last of them were chased off by the waterbender’s attacks.
“Monkeyfeathers,” she muttered. “Are they all gone, then?”
He could only nod. She spared him half of an appraising glance then, before marching into the barn. “AANG!”
There was another rustling on the loft. “Aang I swear to La, get your ass down here.”
“I don’t want to!” a small voice replied, accompanied by a tiny quack.
“When Sokka catches up to us, he’s going to skin you and tan your hide. Come here.”
“You can’t make me!”
Zuko reached his hand out to stop any further argument. “Allow me?”
The formidable (beautiful) Waterbender eyed him carefully, her big blue eyes calculating but not cold. After a long, heavy moment, she nodded.
“Hey Matcha?” he crooned again. “Baby Matcha! Come out and get your snackies, little leaf!”
A small, high pitched squawk sounded from the loft, followed by a very human “no hush!”
He grinned. “Come here, Baby Matcha! Let Papa know where you’re hiding.”
The turtleduck squeaked excitedly again, while the other voice tried even harder to shoosh her. Zuko slowly climbed the ladder to the loft. “Come on, now. Where did you go, little one?”
He reached the landing and the duckling began excitedly waddling towards him. “Hey baby.”
He was immediately hit with a hurricane gust of air that knocked him clean against the furthest wall of the barn.
“AANG!” The waterbender yelled again. “He’s trying to HELP!”
Zuko shook his head and realized that she was leaning over him, doing something with water that made it glow and made him feel all tingly.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Mmmm. Think so. You’re really pretty.”
She blushed but sat back on her heels. “Aang, I think you gave him a concussion.”
“Nope,” he grinned. “Had bunches of those before. Just a little stupid now. You’re really pretty.”
The woman rolled her eyes and settled her palms against his temples, glowing water just outside of his periphery. “As I thought. Though Tui and La, you’ve been knocked around a lot, haven’t you?”
He nearly melted into her touch. “Said it wasn’t the first time.”
She shifted and seemed to come to a decision. “We have to get inside. We’re too exposed here.”
A boy, probably no older than 12, slunk from the shadows. He was wrapped in saffron linen and bore the distinctive blue tattoos of -
“Agni, Koh, and Hei Beh, that’s the motherfucking Avatar.”
He felt the waterbender do something sharp before he fell into a deep, deep sleep.
When Zuko woke up, it was an argument.
“What the FUCK did you do to him”
“Nothing. I just let him sleep so he could heal.”
“That’s fucking convenient! Why hasn’t he woken up yet?”
“Please calm down,” a small, young voice interjected. “We’re all on the same team here.”
“Like fuck we are!” Sera shouted. “My brother is in a coma because of you!”
He slowly clambered from the bed and stumbled to the hallway, down to where the waterbender and his almost-sister (perhaps sister?) faced off in the kitchen.
“Sera,” he slurred, leaning heavily against the doorframe. “I’m all right.”
“What in Tui and La’s name are you doing out of bed, you idiot?” the waterbender tutted, rushing to his side. “Go away. Rest.”
“No rest for the wicked,” he grinned.
“For fucks sake, Zuko. Stop flirting and let Katara heal you.”
He tilted his head with another dopey smile. “Mmmm. Like that name. Pretty like you.”
Katara wrapped her arm around his waist and turned to Sera, all business. “I’ll make sure he’s healed before morning, but then, Aang and I have to go. You won’t be safe as long as we’re nearby.”
Zuko shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “Not safe now. Sera. You have to take it.”
“What? You’re not making any sense.”
“Wait! Are you a firebender?” the Avatar interrupted with way, way too much excitement for the moment. He nodded slightly. “That’s great! You can come with us and teach me how to bend too!”
Sera cut him off with a searing glare. “Both of you, out. I would like to speak to my brother alone.”
Katara guided Zuko to a chair with a curt nod, then bodily hauled the loudly protesting Avatar into the hallway. “We’ll give you as much time as you need, Lady Sera.”
The door closed behind Aang’s complaints with an audible click.
“Zuko. What the FUCK?”
“Sorry.”
“Explain. Now.”
“Like I said before. Promise me you’ll take it. Promise me you’ll take care of it. Continue and grow. Jai is important and I made a vow. Listen to me.”
Sera’s face cleared with dawning understanding. “I promise. But I have to ask, little brother…”
He swallowed hard at the name. “Anything.”
“Who are you? Really? Why is this such a danger?”
Zuko took another deep breath, leaning hard on the table for support. “I am, well was, the crown prince of the Fire Nation. Got scarred and banished maybe ten years ago? Can’t really remember now. The Father Lord and my batshit evil sister will come since the soldiers found me. I can’t stay.”
“Great bleeding badgermoles, what are we going to do? Will my family be safe here?”
He wobbled but shrugged. “I think so. They only care about me, really. Well, and the Avatar,” he spat with as much venom as he could manage with a headache threatening to slice his head in two. “As long as we’re gone, they shouldn’t give you much trouble. Unless it’s Azula. Then you’re fucking screwed.”
She sat heavily across from him, hands fluttering around her long-cooled tea. He took it and bent just enough warmth to bring it back to steaming. “Thanks,” she murmured. “Will you be safe? What are you going to do?”
“Dunno. Probably follow Katara around like a lovesick turtleduck.”
Sera barked a startled laugh. “You definitely have a concussion and a type.”
“Don’ tell her, though. I’m sleepy.”
“Oh no you don’t. Let me get your girlfriend so you don’t die in your bed. I already feel guilty enough.”
“Why?”
She helped him to his feet. “Let’s just say it’s been a very enlightening evening, Zuko.”
Zuko awoke again to the sharp light of morning and sat up with a start. “My turtleducks!”
A man dressed in blue chuckled from a nearby chair. “Take it easy, lover boy. Our sisters are making sure everything is taken care of. That little critter of yours with the green shell has charmed everyone.”
He smiled. “Matcha likes people.”
“Are they tasty? Meat’s hard to come by when we’re traveling.”
Zuko nearly blasted him with fire before he caught the shit eating grin on the other man’s face. “Don’t joke about my babies. And just who are you?”
“Sokka of the Water Tribes, Master Swordbender and the only reasonably sane member of Team Avatar. I caught up with them here after you and Katara made some quick work of those Fire Nation assholes last night. Thought my ears were going to ring for weeks after the ass-chewing Sera gave the three of us.”
Something weird and warm grew in his chest. “She and I have a… interesting relationship. It’s nice to know she cares.”
“Sisters, am I right? No one has ever yelled at me as much as Katara does. I get it, man.” He shifted and toyed with the boomerang on his belt. “So you’re the prince of the ashmakers, hmm?”
Zuko winced. “I really don’t like that term.”
“What, prince, or ashmaker?”
He just glared. Sokka grinned again and propped his chair back on two legs. “When your primary export is destruction, I don’t think you get to be real picky about the vocabulary, Your Highness.”
“Cut it out. I know the damage my family has done. And I’m hardly a prince anymore. It’s been a very long time.”
Sokka leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “Not so long that they won’t hunt you down, which is a very weird thing for us to have in common.”
“It might be the only thing we have in common, Master Sokka.”
“Ooooh, I like that. I get a title and everything. So what’s your plan, then?”
Zuko sighed. “I don’t know. I have to get them off Sera’s back, that’s a given, but this has been my home since I was banished at 13.”
“It’s a nice spot. How’d you end up all the way out here anyway?”
“That’s a very long story.”
Sokka grinned. “I’m a patient guy.”
“And that’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard, Mister ‘try to get one hook out of my thumb by using a second hook’,” Katara laughed from the doorway, startling them both.
“Hey! I can be patient!”
“Sure you can.” She eased off the wall and crossed the room, laying a cool hand on Zuko’s forehead. “How are you feeling today?”
“Sore. I still have a headache, but it’s not as bad as it was yesterday.”
She pulled a thin stream of water from the air and wrapped it around her hand. “I am so sorry about this. About all of this. Aang never should have led them here.”
Zuko turned to nuzzle into her palm. “I don’t think I could be mad at you if I tried.”
“If you’re done flirting, we have an actual problem to solve here. Well, a couple of actual problems.”
Katara slapped him on the back of the head with another stream of water.
“Fine, fine. I’m just saying. Those jerkbenders are going to be back, and they’re going to bring friends, so we need to move. Prince Hotness over here has no plan, so you’re probably going to have to stick with us at least for a little while, even though I don’t want to live with constant oogies while you two make eyes at each other.”
“I’m going to remember this when we meet back up with Suki and Ty Lee in a couple of weeks. Talk about oogies. You can’t keep your hands off them.”
Zuko gaped. “Ty Lee? Penchant for pink, walks on her hands, talks about auras Ty Lee?”
“You know her?”
“I did. She was friends with my sister. My Fire Nation sister, not my current sister.”
“Princess Azula? She must have been a handful to grow up with. I’d rather deal with a hundred crusty old generals than cross paths with her again,” Sokka shuddered.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure constant pressure from our fuck-lord father has only improved her with time. But yeah, Ty Lee used to spend a bunch of time at the palace. She’s sweet.” He blushed a little and added, “she was my first kiss.”
“That’s adorable,” Katara cooed. “She broke off from Azula and Mai about five years ago now, I think. Spent some time with the Kyoshi Warriors but the conformity ultimately wasn’t for her, so now she works with us.”
“And who is ‘us’? Are you in some kind of organization?”
Sokka and Katara had a whole conversation with a single glance. He frowned and shook his head.
Katara sighed. “He’ll find out sooner or later if he comes with us.”
“Not yet. It’s too dangerous.”
The siblings shared another speaking look before Sokka cleared his throat. “So here’s the thing. We need to get Aang to Caldera City, but first we need to find him an Earthbending Master and a Firebending Master.”
“Which, hopefully, is where you come in,” Katara added, turning her big, pleading blue eyes on him. “If you want. I mean, I’d like for you to -”
Zuko laid a hand over hers. “I’m with you.”
“Tui and La. If I wanted to see this mushy lemurshit, I’d go to the theater. Finish healing Lover Boy here. I’m going to round up Aang and make sure he’s actually doing what we told him to do, and then head into town. We’re low on lentils and I told Sera I’d try to find her some farm hands.”
“Go to Moyan’s. Her food is fresher and she won’t haggle as hard just because you’re not from around here,” Zuko said. “Fele will rip you off unless you’re willing to gossip, then he’s not so bad. Just nosy. He might be better for finding Sera some help, though. Old bastard knows everybody.”
Sokka stood and nodded. “Don’t knock up my sister while I’m gone.”
“For fucks sake, Sokka,” Katara spat. “Get out.”
He shot them both another cheeky, shit-eating grin and strolled into the hallway.
“So,” she said.
“So.”
“If you’re joining Team Avatar, we should probably introduce ourselves. I’m Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, Master Waterbender and babysitter to the Avatar and my bonehead brother.”
Zuko sat up a little straighter and gave her a lopsided grin. “Hello, Zuko here. Nice to meet you, Master Katara.”
She leaned in, her lips just a breath away from his. “Likewise, Prince Zuko.”