First post!! That’s so exciting! Okay so for just a quick one here’s some headcanons I have from the time where Iroh and Zuko were at the tea shop
Lee was a….really bad employee. Like genuinely awful. He poured tea in people’s laps a lot, he was never where he was supposed to be, and his attitude was at best grumpy. In spite of all of that the regulars really liked having Lee around! They were mostly a bunch of old people who had seen their sons and grandsons all leave to go be a part of the war, so having a young man around them, even a young man who was so abrasive, was nice. Besides even under all of his anger there was clearly a good natured side to Lee.
When the shop was slow and the manager was out, Mushi would break out a Pai Sho table and challenge anyone to beat him in a game. If you did you would win free tea for a week and a generous serving of cake to go along with it. No one ever even came close to beating him
No one ever asked about Lee’s scar. It was one of those unspoken things that was just never mentioned. It was obvious what had happened, and none of them needed to know the whole gruesome story. Still most of the people who came by the tea shop and saw the boy’s face were more than a little grateful he had found his way to Ba Sing Se with his uncle
The regulars also found it a little sad that Lee couldn’t find any good buddies to pal around with. Even though there were few boys his age left in the lower rings (and those that were left were mostly thugs or low lifes) they still wished that their boy would have some friends of his own. It seemed that all Lee ever did was work. They were all happy to hear that Jin had asked him on a date. Nothing came of it, but Jin and Lee kept up a quaint but charming friendship afterward.
Even after Iroh got the Jasmine Dragon, he kept the prices pretty low, and the old regulars who came up from the lower ring drank for free They didn’t want any “charity” or anything, but Mushi simply wouldn’t take their money. He claimed that they had all beaten him in Pai Sho before, he was shocked they didn’t remember besting him. Lee just grumbled and threatened to push them out of the shop with his broom if they kept trying to give him money. They were also adamant that any customer who had anything bad to say about the customers from the lower ring would be asked to leave and not come back.
father son camping 👍
headcanon that uncle iroh was very scary so the sailors on zuko’s ship never swore around him and zuko knows no swearwords. aang, however, knows all of them and just chooses not to use them
U know how everyone had a crush on zuko at some point? Everyone had a crush on zuko at some point.
My sister gets me:
Bonus Aang having a Realization
No outbreak AU where Sarah and Ellie are sisters and Joel's their dad. Sarah does soccer and Ellie does ballet (to everyone's surprise, she's pretty good). Except whenever Joel tells people that one of his daughters dances and the other one plays soccer they think it's the other way around. Just bc I think that could be fucking hilarious.
Bonus: Ellie and Dina meeting at dance :)
Cut Fruit 🍎🍓🍈🍊🍑
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In Asian cultures, one of the most common forms of affection by a parent is to carefully peel and cut fruit. My mom would typically cut apples, but parents will prepare any fruit that’s available. I am loathe to think Iroh wouldn’t do the same for Zuko.
(this is also a nice article that explains the feelings behind it more)
whoever wrote on tiktok after the finale that “anna’s taking care of sarah whilst joel’s down there taking care of ellie”, i’m in ur walls tonight
AU where when Zuko and Katara board the Southern Raiders' ship, they discover, like in canon, that the current captain is not the man who killed Katara's mother. However, having a look around the ship, they find a room in which there is a small, terrified child, dressed in clothing that Katara recognizes as resembling that worn by a village that neighbors hers, but which her people lost contact with years ago. The child is about five or six years old, and when questioned, says that she is the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.
Eda: Listen, kid…
Luz: Oh, you can call me Luz
Eda: I’d rather not. If I named you I’d get attached.
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.'