No, But What If Zuko Is Adopted By The Avatar Spirit? Not Aang, But The World-Spirit-that-resides-in-him

Ellie can have 2 girlfriends. As a treat.

Zuko (as Lee) to Jet: is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to, yeah fuck he’s got a knife, everyone run

ZUKO HCs PLEASE (and maybe some zukka if ya feel like it)

Zuko Headcanons!!

Zuko is terrified of lightning. I mean who wouldn’t be after your father and your sister both used it to try and kill you. Zukka side of things, Sokka absolutely holds Zuko during thunderstorms.

Zuko spends time with Uncle Iroh drinking tea at the Jasmine Dragon, and still helps his uncle make tea from time to time.

Zuko loves theater and hates the Ember Island players with a burning passion. On the other hand, Sokka loves the Ember Island players and will drag Zuko to see them. Zuko will subject himself to horrendous theater if it makes his boyfriend happy. Sokka will also go to classy theaters (even though he can find it sort of boring at times) for his boyfriend.

Zuko loves cats. Like he just adores them and absolutely makes a baby voice at them. Which was embarrassing the first time Sokka saw him do it but Sokka just thought it was cute.

Zuko likes having his hair played with and braided! Like he super loves having Sokka braid his hair (which I think Sokka would know how to do because he grew up with Katara and probably had to braid her hair at some point).

Baths! Baths are sooooo something I see Zuko loving. Like a good hot bath with a bath bomb and some Epsom salt. Like he is definitely a bath person.

Also, Zuko likes to cook. Like I can see him in a kitchen and cutting up stuff and making food. Like I know he can have anything done by servants but after his moral conflict there’s the scene where he basically insinuates that bossing around servants doesn’t make him feel happy. So I can see him wanting to make some of his own food.

Zuko is someone who has really good manners and always says thank you to the servants because he knows that they work hard.

He is not a fan of parties and formal settings. Having to go through all the political people he has to talk to just so he can get to a table to sit and then have to talk to more political leaders is really stressful. He’s not a people person.

He likes to garden. Specifically he likes to plant flowers in the garden and study them. He is just infatuated with the gentle yet brilliant plants.

Also I kinda headcanon Zuko as autistic because I feel like he definitely can get special interests. Like I can see him talking about all the flowers he has planted and how he plans the layout of the garden.

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.

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.'

its so funny how katara stays being the only person zuko doesn't yell at when they're rightfully mad at him.

zuko with everyone: 🤬😤😡🙄

zuko with katara: im sorry 🥺 thats something we have in common 😔 what can i do to make it up to you queen i waited outside your tent all night 😕

AU in which Zuko is painfully aware that his dad is an asshole and decides to vibe on his ship rather than chasing Aang-

rewatching ALTA rn (cough quarantine really do be like that) and- I cant help but laugh when watching Zuko act like a spoiled brat with heavy daddy-issues throughout the first season, knowing how awkward he’ll become later on (”Zuko here” is all I’m gonna say rip-)

now, instead of waiting for uncle Iroh to spill the tea (no pun intended) about his scar and chasing the avatar without telling his crew a word about wHY he’s so hellbent on steering his ship all over the fucking world to chase a ghost… Zuko’s just aware of why exactly he was put on this ship and decides “well, might as well enjoy the ride”

One of the first things he does after boarding the ship (after waiting for his injury to heal rip) is ask Iroh or Lieutenant Jee to cut his hair for him, since,,,, well he’s a banished prince that was sent out to chase a ghost,,, no real reason to cling onto the illusion of royality any longer, is there? so off with the hair-knot

*cue tiny, 13 year old Zuko with a bandaged eye and freshly shorn head walking up to the ship-railing and chucking his hair overboard. he waves the severed hair-knot goodbye, Uncle Iroh just brews himself another cup of calming tea-*

He knows his dad’s not expecting him to come back, or… even wants him back, for that matter.

“Sir, where is our next course leading?”

“Idk, you decide.”

Either spends his time holed up in his private quarters or fucks around on the ports whenever the ship needs to stop for supplies. Instead of spending his ‘pocket money’ on anything that could help him find the avatar he just buys whatever crap would unnerve the crew the most. (last time they let him run off on his own he came back with 67 tiny, wooden sky-bison figurines and has hidden them all over the ship. It’s been 3 years and the crew is still finding bisons hidden in their belongings.)

If it weren’t for the nasty scar you’d just assume he’s the bastard-child of one of his crew-members they’re letting tag along, not, y’know, the crown-prince of the fire-nation.

He still trains a lot- just not to capture the avatar. Just because there’s literally nothing else to do on the ship-

Because he doesn’t have such a nasty temper, the crew doesn’t wanna throw him overboard all the fucking time. Instead they just all collectively decided that they’re adopting the brat- no one’s sure how Iroh feels about suddenly having to share his nephew with 20-something sailors, but no one caught him complaining so far.

Zuko can and will take advantage of that. Watch him yell “Uncle!” on the main bridge and grin like a demon as he sees 5 old sailors’ head snap around and give him a concerned look.

His dad may be an asshole but at the very least he got 20 new uncles-

People tend to recognoze him, because… uh. Well. When he was freshly banished he easily took offense when he was recognized as the banished prince of the firenation, even in the middle of bumfuck-nowhere…. as he grew older Zuko just came up with creative ways to change the topic.

“Nah, his scar’s on the other side.”

“Oh, no, I was just seeing a firenation-girl for a while and learned the hard way why you shouldn’t get them too excited in bed.”

“A scar? What scar- OH MY GOD UNCLE WHY CAN’T I SEE???”

When he eventually stumbles into team avatar, he *could* technically capture the avatar and bring him to the firelord to restore his honor and reclaim his throne… but he’d rather fuck with his old man for a bit.

Cue him inviting them onboard to play Pai sho with uncle. Zuko and Sokka going around, terrorizing the locals with Sokka’s terrible humor and Zuko’s scar. Toph and Zuko befriending each other, using the excuse “We only have one eye between the two of us.” whenever they end up in deadly situations together-

He sleeps in the rhino-pen. No real reason behind it, it just terrifies Lieutenant Jee and if anything brings Zuko joy, it’s terrorizing his crew by endangering himself in the most creative ways

that’s it. that’s their relationship

I was just reading For Hearth and Home by Haicrecendo on a03 and I was thinking how amazing it would be for Firelord Zuko to offer a daycare within the palace so parents don’t have to worry about their young children and can pick them up after work. I just love Our Firelord.

I love this so much

Zuko likes to check in on them (re: procrastinate from paperwork) and inevitably ends up on the ground getting used as a jungle-gym

The kids aren't really young enough to remember Ozai, and the idea of a monarch is nebulous and far-off. To them, Zuko is just Some Guy in pretty robes and with a shiny headpiece, who they can easily bully into getting them more snacks and letting them go hang out in the royal gardens and see the turtle-ducks

The new staff are horrified. Everyone else just laughs and continues going about their business. Another day, another toddler drawing on their Fire Lord's face while he naps on the floor.

father son camping 👍