Chapter Text
When they go to leave the next day, the kid’s badgermole flatout refuses to swim. Zuko can’t believe this. “You’re the Avatar, and your pet is scared of water?!”
“She’s a badgermole, why would she—”
“You know what, never mind!”
The kid says something else, but Zuko blocks him from mind, turning to Iroh for guidance only to feel the earth below them suddenly shift. Their eel hound whines, and Zuko turns back to Aang to see him doing what almost looks like some type of bending—albeit much more rigid than the movements of firebenders—as a wall of rock rises up from the water, splitting and separating to create a dry path between. So that’s what earthbending looks like.
Zuko doesn’t realize he’s gawking until Iroh says, “Welldone, Aang.” Quickly he clamps his jaw shut, nodding in muted agreement as the Avatar beams and climbs onto Tai again.
He doesn’t say anything else about the Avatar’s badgermole and her apparent dislike of water.
A couple of hours later, though, Zuko is going crazy. He has no other choice at this option.
Thankfully, the kid is on his own badgermole, and not sharing the eel hound with him and Uncle. If Aang had been on the same mount as them...Zuko shudders at the thought.
The kid is just talking, endlessly.
“So one time, Tai and I wanted to see who could earthbend a tunnel the fastest, so—”
“She’s a badgermole. You can’t talk to her!”
Aang shoots him an unreadable glance. “Well I did! So anyway—”
He opens his mouth to interrupt again when Iroh clears his throat quietly, tapping his shoulder. Zuko turns.
“Let the boy keep his happiness,” he says. “It will only last a little while.”
Swallowing hard, Zuko nods. “Sure,” he says hoarsely.
So the kid keeps prattling. And Zuko has to let it happen.
They break for lunch on a level rock outcropping, thankfully, and the kid is hungry enough to stay quiet. Zuko turns to Iroh.
“I need to ask you something.”
Nodding, the man rises, and the two walk to a spot just out of earshot of the earthbender and his badgermole.
“How do we return the Avatar to Father without him escaping?”
Iroh strokes his beard for a minute, thinking. Finally, he says, “You could always...not bring him back.”
Zuko scoffs. “What, and risk being marked a true traitor? No. I’m bringing him back, and I’m going to get my honor back by doing so.”
Iroh gives him a long, critical stare, and Zuko gets the feeling he’s being judged. “What?!” he says finally, frustrated.
“You must regain your own honor, Prince Zuko. Your father is not the one who decides who has honor or not. That is a decision you must make on youri own.”
Zuko’s already shaking his head, sighing. “Yes, he is, Uncle. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You left of your own accord.”
His uncle doesn’t respond this time, and a quick glance over reveals him deep in thought. Zuko sighs inwardly. He should try to make up for that, at least. After all, it’s fairly common knowledge that though his uncle wasn’t formally disowned, his departure alongside Zuko still put him under mass scrutiny. And he doesn’t know how long he would’ve made it out here alone without Uncle, either.
“Look, I...how am I supposed to stand by and let everyone else get slaughtered when I could have brought the Avatar back to help? Regardless of what Father says, it’s the honorable thing to do.”
Iroh only hums noncommittally, and Zuko feels his heart sink. The only person whose approval he cares about as much as his father’s is his uncle, and it seems he doesn’t have it any longer.
“I’m gonna go eat,” he says finally, walking back to the kid. He feels Iroh’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t react.
They stop for the night on a large, flat rock fairly early, while it’s still light out, and Zuko has a feeling that’s in large part due to his uncle’s not-so-subtle nudges to talk to the kid. Sighing, Zuko finally acquiesces after the third glance in as many minutes, and walks away from Iroh to where Aang is talking to his pet.
“Hey.”
Aang glances up. “Hello.”
“So what’s your plan for fighting the Water Tribes?” he begins bluntly. The boy blinks.
“I can’t fight them.”
“Of course you can. You’ve got to!”
“But...I don’t know how to fight.”
“You’re the Avatar. You’ll figure something out!” Zuko replies, frustrated with the kid’s insistence on pacifism rather than simply standing up for himself and the rest of the world. “Your job is to fight and save the rest of us!”
“But—”
“No buts,” he snaps, gaze dark. The old pain in his scar creeps into his mind, reminding him of what happens if he fails. “You’re saving us. You’re destroying the Water Tribe armies. Case closed.” Zuko turns away, intending to go work on his own firebending technique somewhere where a 12 year old can’t track him down to protest against the war that’s taken everything from him and his people.
“But I don’t even know how to bend anything else!”
Zuko pauses at that. He turns halfway back toward Aang, raising a brow.
“What do you mean you don’t know how to bend? Doesn’t that come with the title?”
“Yeah, but I still need a teacher for everything else.”
Agni, this kid is going to be the end of him. Sighing loudly, Zuko walks back toward him. “You have earth down pat. Anything else?” The boy shakes his head. “Alright, well, fire comes next in the cycle, so...looks like you’re headed to the right place.”
“Are you saying you’ll teach me?!”
Him, teach somebody?
“Uh, no.”
Zuko considers himself to not be swayed easily, but the disappointment in the kid’s eyes is hard to ignore. It’s definitely not Uncle’s constant reminders that he is in control of his honor, or the fact that his country needs someone to save them. Definitely not those, just some Avatar trick the kid’s pulling. Yeah. Of course. “I’ll teach you the basics,” he rasps. “But only the basics. Got it?” The kid nods eagerly, and Zuko adopts the first of the basic forms. “Okay, follow what I do.”
By the time Iroh comes to stop them for dinner, nightfall has crept up, ambushing the both of them before they can even realize it’s dark. Zuko coughs, cinders flying out and landing in the damp earth beneath them. Aang raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment, and the two head over to the small cook fire. Zuko moves to sit by Iroh but just as quickly his uncle rises, making up some excuse about checking on the eel hound before moving off, abandoning Zuko to the mercies of Aang and Tai. Great.
“Thanks for teaching me, earlier,” Aang says after a moment. Zuko grunts.
“It’s nothing.”
“Yeah, but...you’re a really good teacher.”
He raises a brow in surprise at the comment, but doesn’t reply otherwise. Aang takes a bite of his bread roll, hand absently winding through the badgermole’s fur as his gaze falls on the fire. Zuko finds his own eyes drawn there, too, the flames’ constant dance hypnotic.
“So, uh...what’s gonna happen to me when we get back to the Fire Nation?”
Zuko blinks, looking up. “What...do you mean?”
He shrugs, reaching to pick up a pebble and rolling it around in his palm, increasing and decreasing the density by turns. “Like...I don’t think they have Avatar school there, and I have to learn water and earth at some point too.”
“You’ll be fine,” Zuko says automatically. He’s not sure where the response comes from, only it seems like the kind of false reassurance his father would say. He suppresses a shudder.
The Avatar nods, looking back up with a smile. “Thanks, Zuko.”
He can’t accept gratitude for lies. Instead, he simply nods, and lets his gaze drift back to the flames of his native element.
