I Was Wondering, How Bad Was Ozai's Abuse Even Before This Agni Kai? And How Much Did Piandao Know About

I was wondering, how bad was Ozai's abuse even before this Agni Kai? And how much did Piandao know about it?

Piandao was born into wealth and prestige, but he was not raised in it. He was raised in an orphanage, and the workers there would click their tongues and mutter pitying words. Poor young Piandao, his parents are still alive and well, they simply didn’t want him. If only he’d been a firebender.

When Piandao had excelled at the art of the sword, become recognized, and started taking students, he only got nonbenders. People claiming to be the best in their village, wanting glory that they found harder to gain without having bending of their own.

That was why it was such an oddity when he received a letter requesting (commanding, technically, he supposed) that he train the young Prince Zuko in the art of the sword. He’d agreed (there was no other choice), and a few weeks later, the eight-year-old prince arrived for his first lesson.

After two weeks of learning what Zuko was like, Piandao had decided to train the boy in the dual broadswords.

Those two weeks, and all the time after that, taught Piandao a lot about Prince Zuko. More specifically, about his life back at the palace.

He wasn’t sure the prince even noticed. Piandao, actually, suspected all the movements were involuntary.

Piandao would test a possible new student. He’d deny them. The student would raise their voice, anger seeping into their tone, spitting in Piandaos’ face about what a valuable pupil he would be to have.

Piandao would see Prince Zuko sitting in the corner wince as the yelling got louder, looking more wary than before.

The first week that Piandao actively was teaching the boy, he brought him to the town square to watch a friendly fire duel. He watched as the boy leaned back when fire came in his direction, even when it was nowhere near him. Piandao would narrow his eyes at the way the prince would rub at his forearm, and the way his eyes would widen a bit and he would flinch minutely when the flames came too close.

They didn’t go to sit and watch the duels much, after that. When they did, they sat far, far away from the front.

All of this could be written off, but Piandao couldn’t ignore what happened the first time that Zuko got a cut during their training.

Zuko was practicing dodging. It was an accident, and not even a major one, just big enough to put a pause on training for the day. The prince hadn’t moved fast enough and the blade he had been dodging struck him in the middle of his arm. The blade was not very sharp, as it was a training one, but it managed to get through the fabric a bit, and blood slowly seeped out.

Before Piandao had been able to speak, to apologize and call for bandages, Zuko had grit his teeth and spoken instead.

“I’m sorry, Master Piandao.”

Piandao had paused, blinking at the eight-year-old boy. “Why are you sorry?”

“I should have been faster. I shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Does it hurt?”

Zuko nodded, a few stray, sweaty stands of hair getting in his eyes. “Yeah. It stings. I’ve learned my lesson, I won’t do it again.”

Piandao had been quiet for a moment before asking, “What... What are you talking about?”

Zuko looked tired, more than anything, and annoyed at himself, glaring at the arm he clutched to his chest. “I mess up and get hurt, I deal with the pain.”

Piandao felt sick, but he had replied simply, “No, I only get the summer with you. No reason to waste time waiting for that to heal without help. We’ll get it cleaned and wrapped.”

It made him want to throw up when he saw how surprised the boy looked as he met his gaze. “I...” Zuko looked down at his arm, then back up and said, “Thank you, Master Piandao.”

The flinches, and way he talked about pain like he deserved it, and the small burn scars, both fresh and fading, that Piandao soon found lay beneath the sleeves, were all enough to paint a rather unwelcome picture, but as Zuko got more comfortable, he would talk all about his mom, waiting back at home, as well as his cousin and uncle, and sometimes his sister.

Never his father.

Things changed when Zuko came for training the summer after his mother disappeared.

Training was normal, other than the fact that Zuko was rather glum the entire time. He was lost in thoughts, and talked less, and was less excitable. It was rather... upsetting to see.

Then, though, the day before Zuko was to leave, a day that they normally spent relaxing, Zuko came to him, his eyes red, and said, “I don’t wanna go home.”

The next day, the prince had gone home.

Piandao knew about the Agni Kai. He didn’t know what happened to the boy afterward.

He missed him for the three years after that fateful day.

Piandao didn’t train anyone with passion, again, until he met Sokka. The boy reminded him so much of Zuko sometimes that it ached. So alike, yet so very, very different.

Piandao was born a nonbender to two powerful firebender parents. They abandoned him because of it.

When he thought about the way that Zuko’s father (a powerful firebender) treated Zuko himself (a less powerful firebender), Piandao found himself thinking that maybe growing up in the orphanage, parentless, was actually for the best, after all.

Fic Snippet!

“Are you out of your mind?” Zuko rushed across the courtyard and bore down on Aang with an intense, almost palpable fury. “Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt her?”

“I was just…I didn’t mean to-“ Aang stammered.

“Fire is not a toy!” Zuko bellowed at him. He turned to Katara, examining her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she assured him, her voice shaking. “I’m fine.” She was trembling visibly, and there were singe marks on her clothes, but she otherwise seemed unharmed. Zuko turned back to Aang, how was looking down at his feet in shame.

“What were you thinking?” Zuko demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aang mumbled, kicking at the ground. “I was…mad.”

“About what?” Zuko was absolutely bewildered. “What could Katara possibly have done that you thought it was a good idea to do that?”

“Nothing,” Aang admitted sullenly. He didn’t say anything after that. Zuko glowered at him, took a few deep breaths to quell his own anger.

“You’re going to clean this mess up,” he said gesturing to the torn up stones, dirt and cooling lava. “Then you’re going to do 100 fire squats. Then you’re going to work on your forms for an hour. And I don’t want to see so much as a curl of smoke out of you. You’re not responsible enough for fire. Understood?”

“What? That’s not-“ Aang’s protests died on his lips when he saw Zuko’s expression. He huffed, kicked at stone, and finally nodded.

“Get started,” Zuko ordered through clenched teeth. He turned back to Katara, who was watching the exchange. She was still shaking a bit. Zuko draped his arm protectively around her back and guided her away. He glanced back once more at Aang, and almost rolled his eyes when he saw the younger boy still moping at the ground. It was hard sometimes to reconcile the awesome might and eminence of the Avatar with the reality of Aang, the child.

“I’ll be back,” he warned Aang. “Have this mess cleaned up. And don’t even think about asking Toph to help.”

I know canonically, the Lava Fissure Incident takes place while Zuko and Sokka are rescuing Hakoda, but I wanted to have Zuko see and react to it. Personally, I think it was another accidentally accurate depiction of how unready Aang is to be the Avatar. And it is also another incident that the narrative decides not to call Aang out for, so the chances of him growing from it are...well, we all know how things turned out in LoK.

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

drew some fanart from one of my favorite jetko AUs: boarding school! jet and zuko are sneaking some alone time on the school roof after closing hours

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

Fruit of knowledge

Bonus:

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

For Hearth and Home by @sword-and-stars has been giving me brainrot for the better part of a month

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

Zutara Month 2022

Day 7: Soft Kisses

I love that point in the relationship where Katara just can’t handle Zuko being all suave and soft, probably without him even meaning to be.

(I saw a similar 2-panel thing a while ago on Instagram and needed to draw it with Zutara!)

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dadriusstan

2 years ago

Anyone who tries to tell me that Azula doesn’t end up being the shortest in her family other than Iroh is wrong.

Zuko is taller, Mai is super fucking tall already, Ty Lee gets one of those weird growth spurts at like sixteen (it happened to me I got +2 inches), and Kiyi is eventually taller than Azula too. The entire concept of her being the strongest Firebender ever while she is (conceptually) the smallest is hilarious to me.