Zuko adds a ton of spices to his meals, Sokka pretends he can stand it as well but we all know what his reaction to fire flakes was so it always ends the same
Aang bakes the best pies
Katara modified bloodbending so it could be used to heal instead of hurting people
Sokka was absolutely delighted when he noticed that Zuko is sarcastic as well, the rest of the Gaang in turn, were mortified
The Gaang must have had these hug competitions where the one who hugs the strongest is the winner and after finding out Zuko doesn't know what it is (I mean, he and Azula wouldn't really compete over hugging Ozai, come on) they compete on him (it's all just an excuse to hug him, really) and Zuko acts confused, but deep inside he feels nice
Toph has an unnamed job to sit on Zuko's council meetings as a Earth Kingdom's ambasador and feel who is lying to him, then after the meeting Zuko and Toph go into his office and make a list of people to fire or look out for
On Lu Ten's birthday Iroh always does the rituals like in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" but on the anniversary of his death he can't force himself to do pretty much anything, those days Zuko never fails to come to make sure uncle eats something, drinks some tea and then he just sit with him just so his uncle knows he's there for him
Ty Lee keeps a drawing that Zuko made of them playing with turtleducks together. Zuko keeps a sparkly bead bracelet with a little golden flower charm Ty Lee made for him when he mentioned it was his favorite color. They gave these things to each other when they were little, and they mean the world to them - even acting as comfort items despite their initial friendship having faded away and not having seen each other in years.
I always wonder about how yue occupies her time in the spirit world. I bet she’d enjoy the library :)
“I had a vision of my own death.”
“Spooky. Was I there?”
...that i couldn't get out of my head:
(warning: SUPER LONG POST i havent figured out how to trim posts yet)
he's the one who unchains azula despite iroh's protests. she doesn't even try to fight him, just cries into his shoulder and keeps mumbling about how father's going to be so disappointed in her. he takes her to her rooms and has her drink a sleeping draught, then stations the best guards he has left outside her chambers.
his first council meeting takes place literally a day after sozin's comet. he hobbles into the council chamber shirtless with his entire torso covered in bandages and every council member just looks at him like '...what'
he does NOT sleep for like,,a week after sozin's comet and then another two weeks after his coronation. katara, aang and suki try to persuade him to sleep and he doesn't listen. eventually sokka, toph and mai team up to literally drag his ass to bed and tell him he's not allowed to get up until he sleeps (does mai pin him to the bed with her knives? yes. is it kinky or sexual in any way? definitely not.)
he drinks So. Much. Tea. at this point it's practically tasteless to him but he drinks it anyway because he just needs something to do and tea is something familiar. he keeps iroh on his toes because he's constantly asking for new tea blends, uncle, i think i actually tasted the last one,
he flat-out refuses to grow his hair for at least a year after ozai's defeat. the second it starts getting close to his chin he shears it off himself, with his knife, and his stylist has a heart attack every single time
when he's tired he'll occasionally jump up when one of his guards moves. it stops after a bit, but for the first month and a half or so he's really twitchy. when sokka asks, the only explanation he can come up with is that he's not used to having people stand behind him silently and not want to kill him, much less want to protect him (sokka immediately takes him out for a shopping trip and makes a point of walking behind him the entire time, but only on zuko's right side, where he can clearly see it if sokka moves towards him)
when the healer declares azula mentally unstable and in need of an institution, he shuts himself in his office for the rest of the night. no one's allowed in, not even iroh. he finally emerges in the morning, eyes red from crying and sleep deprivation, and tells the librarian that he'd like a list of the best mental institutions in the country, please, the best in the world if you can get them
he loves theatre (is this even a headcanon?). unfortunately it practically died out in the fire nation along with the rest of the creative arts, leaving nothing but small troupes like the ember island players. one of zuko's personal goals (meaning things he wants to accomplish that aren't as important as restoring his country) is to bring back theatre; he finally manages to do it after about eight months or so of being fire lord, along with other arts like dancing, music and sculpture
he establishes a national day of mourning, on the first day of autumn every year, to commemorate the genocide of the air nomads. from 100AG onwards, every calendar printed in the fire nation has it marked. at first it was called the day of repentance, but aang persuaded him to have it changed (by arguing that he didn't want guilt to be a literal staple of fire nation culture)
he introduces literally So Many educational reforms, plus a mandatory class that teaches students about the cultures of the other nations (air nomads included) and how some of their traditions overlap
he turns down the offer of having a statue put up of him in the capital. toph ignores him and does it anyway.
he visits azula regularly, makes sure she's (relatively) comfortable and well-fed, and sometimes just sits down outside her door and tells her about everything that's going on right now ('some of the far colonies have developed their own standardised writing, azula, you wouldn't believe it, and i've asked the fire sages to come visit more often—but you never liked them, did you? oh, well; i'll make sure none of them go into your chambers by mistake')
(he doesn't know it, but when he does this azula sits by the door and listens. she wonders what kind of writing the colonists have developed, and whether or not the fire sages have taken on some new recruits.)
he hates being above anyone else. never sits in the throne if he can help it, nor does he sit on the dais in the council room. when he talks to people shorter than him, he finds himself stooping a little bit to talk to them on their level (the exception to this rule is sokka, who he mocks for being shorter all the way up until sokka grows taller than him, the bastard)
the first time he visits the earth kingdom, the earth king's ministers call a toast. he ends up being the only one who has to sit out, because he's too young to drink by earth kingdom law
once his servants figure out he won't kill them for talking to him, they start becoming a lot more bold, telling him off when he doesn't take care of himself. at one point, they force him to let them take care of him so much that he literally just bolts into the gardens and hides there until the staff rope in mai and ty lee
when he needs to escape, he does one of two things: (a) he dresses up as the blue spirit and does some parkour until he calms down, or (b) he goes to work at the jasmine dragon. (b) happens less often bc the jasmine dragon's in ba sing se, but there's been a few memorable incidents when an earth kingdom diplomat walks in and yells, 'LEE?!' when they see the fire lord
the first court artist who draws him also happens to be the one who drew azulon and ozai. he draws zuko without his scar. zuko takes one look at it and tells him, very calmly, that he'd like him to leave, please.
zuko burns the portrait. he doesn't fire the court artist, but he never calls on him again unless he has to. a second court artist is called, and can't help but be a bit confused when the fire lord tells him to be sure to include the scar
he forgets the crown. a lot. sometimes he walks into council meetings in his sleepwear with his hair tied up in a messy ponytail and a bunch of scrolls tucked under his arm. none of his councilmen have the guts (or the heart) to tell him that this is not, in fact, formal council wear
he goes to feed the turtleducks when he's stressed. he thinks he's being subtle. he's not. the entire palace knows, and they consciously give him space when they see him in the turtleduck garden
most of his staff are older than him, so they look at him and see this teeny tiny fire lord who is So Small and who Must Be Protected. the day after zuko's coronation, the head chef holds a meeting where they commence Operation Do-Not-Let-That-Boy-Turn-Out-Like-His-Father (subsection He's-The-Only-Good-Thing-We-Have)
one night he wakes up to find suki sitting in his room, decked out in full kyoshi warrior garb and makeup, and just about screams blue murder. suki tells him there are suspicions of an assassin in the palace, and would you please stop yelling it's very distracting, we won't be able to hear anyone coming over that racket
zuko gets very, very paranoid of random spirits after that. yeah, suki looks like a possibly malevolent spirit when she's wearing her makeup, what about it? (when he tells sokka he's highkey terrified of spirit shenanigans, sokka just looks at him and says, 'man, the stories i could tell...', and THAT'S when zuko remembers sokka spent like six months more than he did travelling with the avatar)
on his first visit to the southern water tribe, he removes his boots and leg guards, rolls up his pants and kneels barefoot in the snow. even though chief hakoda immediately starts trying to pull him up, he's stubborn as hell and stays kneeling for the entirety of his very long, very sincere apology-on-behalf-of-the-fire-nation speech. he nearly loses his toes to frostbite after that, and both sokka and katara never stop giving him shit for it
the first time he grows a 'beard' is completely accidental. he's stressed over some trade miscommunications with chief hakoda, hasn't slept in a few days...and then when sokka arrives as water tribe ambassador to help smooth things over, he takes one look at zuko and says 'man, facial hair does not suit you'
zuko: facial what now
he checks a mirror to find that he's got stubble covering his chin, dark enough that it almost looks intentional, and holy gods how the fuck did he not notice this before
'UNCLE WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME' 'i assumed you were doing it on purpose' 'WHEN HAVE I EVER DONE ANYTHING ON PURPOSE'
he shaves it all off immediately, of course, which prompts a lot of teasing and rib-poking from sokka until zuko finally snaps that he's scared it'll make him look like his father. sokka stops after that.
(the day after sokka leaves, zuko finds that a mysterious someone has scribbled all over ozai's royal portrait, giving him a frankly ridiculous beard and moustache that literally CANNOT be grown in real life. oddly enough, he can't bring himself to care about the defamation of royal property. he's too busy laughing.)
his paths cross with toph and sokka more than any of the others, because sokka is ambassador and toph is technically still a beifong. most of the time, at formal functions, he ends up sequestered in the corner with toph and a hoard of snacks, and they talk and swear much more than they usually do (zuko's ministers once heard him when he was drunk with toph, and the servants swear the older ministers' ears started bleeding)
he restores fire nation cultural festivals, and in doing so subjects himself to learning a lot of complicated dances
during one memorable week, he wrote so many letters and drafted so much legislation that he ran out of paper. he had to go visit the nearest school and ask for some
he keeps up with his firebending and sword training even though it's hard to fit into his schedule. his ministers refrain from reminding him that he has guards to protect him now; it's still hard for zuko to trust his safety with anyone but himself (team avatar is the exception).
he started sleepwalking about two months into his reign. no one knew why. one time, he nearly sleepwalked right off the edge of a balcony, and one of his guards had to grab him by the back of his robes.
the sleepwalking stopped after around a month and never happened again. at this point it's practically palace legend.
after freeing the war prisoners, he went around collecting every single earthbender-proof wooden cell he could find in the capital and surrounding areas. when he'd gotten most of them, he gathered them into a huge pile in the city square and set fire to them with his own hands.
unfortunately he couldn't do that with the waterbender metal cells but he did get toph to come in and bend them all into pretty shapes (well, toph thought they were pretty shapes. everyone else thinks they're meaningless squiggles)
he learned how to write with both hands at the same time out of sheer necessity (he refused scribes until it became clear that he'd be putting some people out of a job; that was when he started letting scribes write very, very minor things, but all important documents/drafts/letters are still written by him)
he once put the wet end of an ink brush in his mouth instead of the wooden end by mistake. didn't even realise until he bit down to keep it in place and ink went oozing everywhere
when his guards rushed in to find him coughing and spluttering black liquid all over his desk they thought he'd been poisoned but no he's just stupid
on his 17th birthday, his first one after being crowned, he got tackled by team avatar in the middle of the ballroom and ended up at the bottom of a cuddlepile for like ten minutes
this cuddlepile happened at an event that was very much public and very much formal. it was a scandal for weeks
just. fire lord zuko, guys. so much potential
On the one hand I feel like Lu Ten absolutely would buy Zuko a bunch of expensive stuffed animals to try to one up the GAang, but on the other hand I really need to resist the urge to give Zuko an army of stuffed animals.
Another Library!Zuko sketch dump + some Song ✨
Ohmygods Jee in the cooler talking about how it’s nothing compared to the North Pole 😭
And then hearing Zuko get put in the one next to his and immediately thinking ‘must get him out of here’
I love this so much 💜💜💜
oh gosh, really glad you liked the drabble!
And yeah -- all of Zuko’s crew would probably go into “protect child mode”, mostly because they can all remember when zuko was ACTUALLY a child. hell, to lt jee zuko is STILL a child and still needs to be protected n
All 12. I just need time to do the actual calendar bit but it’s almost done and will be up on my ko-fi shop as soon as I’m done.
For a prompt could u do one where zuko finds some of his old crew at the boiling rock and they escape with everyone. I've never seen this done before and I thought of it like last night but I think it could be fun
The coolers aren't so bad.
One day in the coolers is enough to crack most of the firebending inmates in Boiling Rock, but most of them haven't been to both Poles. Jee and his crew have a lot of experience in swimming in the polar seas — both of them, and for weeks in the North Pole, with nothing but half-remembered lessons on the Breath of Fire from General Iroh to keep them alive. The cooler is nothing compared to that. He's dry here, for one, and it's not truly isolation if he can still hear Teruko mouthing off at the guards in the cooler right next to his.
“I can take you back to your cell if you’ve learned your lesson,” a guard jeers at the prisoner in the cell on the other side.
The voice that answers is a punch to Jee’s gut. “I have — completely,” Prince Zuko says, sounding sullen and angry and alive, definitely alive.
Teuko suddenly shuts up; that's confirmation enough for Jee.
The brat had managed to survive Zhao's fucking pirates. The wave of relief that hits Jee is short-lived; the prince might be alive, but he's in the cooler next to Jee's. The Fire Nation's prince, thrown into his own country's most secure prison, and locked into the worst torture chamber ever conceived of for firebenders like them.
They need to get that boy out of here. Jee has to round up the old crew tomorrow; figure out where the brat's regular cell is, make an escape plan —
But first, he needs to survive the night in the cooler. Jee takes a deep, fortifying breath, and settles down to wait.
Atla Gen Week 2022.
Day 2: Culture.
The Fire Nation has some strange and extreme customs. Some just.
[ID: Mini comic with four vignette in monochromatic magenta.
In the first vignette, teenage Azula, Zuko and Lu Ten walking uphill toward a volcano. The setting is tropical and the three are seen from the back. Azula says “Since the last eruption of that volcano 50 years ago, new species of plants continue to be found”, Lu ten replies “Excellent! It is an opportunity to see first hand what is there”, and Zuko mentions “Who knows, we might find some hallucinogenic mushrooms that I’m missing”.
In the second vignette, Zuko and Azula are shown in the foreground observing some mushrooms on some rocks with other plants. Azula says “I don’t think you have those in your collection, Zuzu” and Zuko adds “I had never even seen this mushroom before”.
In the third vignette, Lu Ten quickly snatches the mushroom from the rock and chews it, saying “For science!”, while Zuko and Azula look scared and surprised yelling “Lu Ten, no!!”.
In the fourth vignette, there is a note in the Recipe Book that says “An investigation after the incident with the Fire Lord Lu Ten, the use of that mushroom was allowed as an ingredient for an exotic culinary sauce, which properly prepared and depending on its concentration, its effects vary from sweating to hallucinogenic visions”. End ID]
@atla-gen-week