Pirate Zuko

This is the beginnings of a Zue au where Zuko is banished to the North Pole/used as a pawn to keep the water savages under the Fire Nation thumb. If their prince marries Yue, he becomes the chief consort, so it's like the Fire Nation took over without having to actually do anything.

At first they are distrustful, since they've both been raised with stories of the other nation being evil. But Zuko is such a sweety and Yue is smart, they figure out that they are actually destined to be bffs!

Also, the person giving Zuko away here isn't Ozai. It's some diplomat.

MAI used WITTICISM.

It doesn’t affect enemy ZUKO!

Some of my Atla headcanons nobody asked for part 6:

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

Some of my Atla headcanons nobody asked for part 4:

Aang names every single animal he meets. He can see an insect chilling right next to him and be like "oh, hi Bob" or something

When Zuko told the Gaang about how he got his scar they all climbed on him and forced him to be hugged for a few (tearful) hours afterwards

Suki likes to draw and when Sokka finds out about it he definitely signs them up for these artistic dates or something

Toph made her statues herself

When Sokka admitted to his family that he forgot what Kya looked like everyone was utterly shocked and told him he's almost identical to her (yes, Sokka cried after hearing that)

After the war Iroh starts calling Zuko "son" instead of "nephew"

Zuko still can't get rid of the bad and scary burden the word "father" has so he still calls Iroh "uncle" but being called son by him makes him so so happy

Iroh has a tea blend for every member of the Gaang so when they come all exited and he can't catch what they order in between their conversations (or when they come sad and can't utter a word) he knows just what tea to make

AZULA GET BACK HERE-

Any fire siblings concept that gives them this vibe is an automatic favorite 

Concept: there's so much pushback against Zuko marrying someone from the Water Tribe (something about foreign interests idk) that he turns around and says "ok I'll find someone else"

He turns up the next day, and introduces his new suitor. "This is Wang Fire, respected veteran and citizen of the fire nation."

He produces all of the legal documents proving that Wang Fire is a citizen, and the council wants to argue that it's just Sokka in red with a beard, but they can't because whenever he shows up in blue, Zuko refers to him as "Ambassador Sokka."

*crashes through ur ceiling* can we have dad joel n ellie caring for the horses and/or going on a horseride,,,,maybe ellie challenges him to a race n zooms off,,,

* you crash right onto my work table * ah ! right on time . here's a funny ! i accidentally spilled a dash of panic attack into it btw my bad !

ps : i watched that spaceship museum scene 18 TIMES while writing both this and the larger fic abt joel n ellie OOHMHJGOD pls tell me if i got their characters right IM SO BAD . IMSO BAD AT THEM . also rip callus my beloved but dw ellie gets a new horse :-] ! (* said horse dies later as well * we can't have SHIT in seattle)

...........................................................................

There’s only three things that Joel had told her when it comes to horses; one, she never, at any given time or situation, should stand behind a horse. Two, that one charged kick from its hind legs is enough power to kill a grown man, especially a tiny teensy girl like she is (much to her dismay). And three, don’t kiss the horse, Ellie, it’s dirty.

Now that they’re in Jackson, though?

“They’re not dirty anymore, Joel,” she snipes, tongue stuck at him while the man rolled his eyes from across the stable—and then she resumed her cooing, stroking the fur of one of the horses unlucky enough to find herself at her hands. “You’re all clean and pretty, aren’t you, big girl?”

Somewhere behind the other stables, Joel lets out a laugh. “I thought you came along to help me clean up.”

“I did!” Ellie says in defense, holding a hand up, “I just really like this horse!”

“Any particular reason why?” He teased.

“Nah,” Ellie frowns lightly with a shrug, “I don’t—”

She felt something stuck at the back of her throat.

The cannibals closing in. Her thoughts going Joel Joel Joel, grabbing on the reins and leaping on, bullets flying everywhere, a ledge, a sharp gasp, a fistful of brown fur—

Her chest tightened.

“Ellie?”

There’s a large hand pressing on her shoulders, her back. “Hey, hey—what happened?”

“I,” Ellie tries to breathe, but it came out all gasped and shaky and pathetic, “I’m—”

“Hey, hey. S’ okay. C’mon,” Joel shushes, low and reassuring, guiding her to slide down against the wall and sit on the dirt floor of the stables. “Breathe. You’ve got this. You’re okay.”

She lets out a dry sob, and Joel rubs on her back, gentle and grounding and her fist tightens on his jeans instead, trying to shake the feeling of fur from her hands. “I’m—M’sorry.”

“Hush,” he says, “I don’t need apologies, El. I need you to breathe.”

“Okay,” she nods, barely a whisper, inhaling shaky breaths one after the other. And then, like it was supposed to make sense to Joel, “he—Callus.”

“Oh,” he exhales softly.

“They—they shot him.”

Joel reaches out round his arms over her shoulders, pulling her closer. “I know.”

“I didn’t even get to bury him.”

“I know, baby girl,” he murmurs, calloused fingers stroking on her baby hair, “I know. I’m sorry.”

Ellie finally gives up, leaning against his side with another shaky breath. Joel feels strong and sturdy on her side, like an anchor—the crying comes slowly, this time; the thick pain in her throat, rising up and up until it forms a choked-out sob, and she stares into the distance, letting the tears burn its way down her cheeks. And Joel didn’t wipe them away. Not this time.

Her lungs ached, hands grabbing on Joel’s jeans tighter, and he lets out another soft shush before he holds her hand for her, squeezing it back just as tight. As his other hand rubs her arm up and down, the feeling in her ribs begin to lighten. Another sob lightens it, and then another, and there’s a small smile on her face when she looks up at Joel again.

“Okay?” He whispers, and she nods at him.

“Okay.” It hurts, but it’s okay to hurt. She’ll let it hurt. And then, maybe, one faithful day when her hair is as gray as Maria's—she'll finally learn how to grow around it, like wild vines that grows all over the remnants and ruins.

“I’m sorry,” there’s guilt in Joel’s voice when he spoke up again, patting on her shoulder gently, “I didn’t mean to make you remember things like that. When I asked “any particular reason why”, I meant as in that girl Dina you’re—”

“Oh my god, Joel,” Ellie groans with a laugh, throwing her head back before pushing him away. “I told you we didn’t break up, we’re just friends!”

“Well, she’s been scowling whenever she sees you and Cat around, and I’m sensing there’s some kind of triangle between—”

“—Joel!”

“Alright, alright,” Joel laughs gruffly, raising both hands in defeat, “although, Dina’s got a particular liking to horses too, don’t you think?”

“Fuck you,” Ellie laughs, returning to stroking the horse’s fur gently. This time, the feeling calms her again. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.

“So,” Joel says, gently again, nudging his head towards the horse, “you naming her Callus junior?”

“Nah,” she shrugs lightly. “I was thinking… Shimmer would be nice.”

He gave her a look. “You’ve got a horrible taste at naming horses.”

Ellie smirks at him. “She still likes me a lot, though, so suck it.”

Joel huffs out another laugh at that, leaning back against the wall with crossed arms. “You look like the kind of gal horses would like.”

“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

now i cant turn down a happy moment,, remember when pai sho didn’t get in the way of avatar hunting?

“whatcha doing?”

“strategizing, zu.” 

[i.d. a digital drawing of zuko, lu ten, and iroh from atla. lu ten sits on one side of a pai sho board with one hand thoughtfully on his chin, across from a smiling iroh. a tiny zuko is peeking over the edge of the table. the characters on the pink background translate to “what are you doing?” “strategizing, zu.” end i.d.]

Lol I have a baby zuko au in the works where he angers a spirit who says if he acts like a child so he should be one and the crew thinks hes gonna be a brat but hes really sweet and kind until he accidentally breaks something and cries begging not to be hit and the crew and iroh are ready to commit treason for this baby

Lieutenant jee becames papa jee and basically adopts zuko lol

Baby Zuko AU’s are honestly amazing because whether or not he has memories of being a teen changes the whole ass dynamic he has. Because actual baby Zuko is the absolute epitome of a well-behaved child who would do anything to make sure people are happy, but teenage Zuko in a child body is the one who’s like “I can trick them- wait they’re nice and don’t know... I’ll enjoy this a bit longer” and then never actually does shit because he’s getting positive attention from people.

Also, the crew finding out how bad Zuko had it as a kid because of his reactions to breaking something (likely inconsequential) is absolutely perfect.

Also, Jee gets a kid and the rest of the crew is just like, “This is fine.”

**Much time later**

Hunter, to Luz, lying facedown on the bed, regretting everything: And then I called him dad, oh Titan-

Darius, downstairs in the kitchen with Raine and Eber, holding back a tiny smile: And then he called me dad-