134 AG
"And then Zari was born in the summer of 124, completely healthy."
"I never asked," Zuko cut in, "Why Zari? I don't remember anyone from our family tree with that name."
"Not like you'd remember if there was someone, Zuzu... But you're right. He's named after my favorite person from Fire Nation history."
"I thought you were your favorite person from Fire Nation history..." he smirked.
Azula raised an eyebrow at that and took a threatening step towards her brother.
"I'll let you have that one, because it's funny. But watch yourself." she smiled and turned back to the sea, "I named him after the best royal advisor the Fire Nation ever saw."
"Why the advisor and not the Fire Lord?" Mai asked.
"Because he is the best diplomat in living memory who conquered three cities without even a fireball, while the Fire Lord of the time sat around and drank all day." Azula explained, "Becoming parents did change us somewhat, but make no mistake, we were still just as feared."
oooooooooo
125 AG
Azula was woken up by crying, like most nights now, but that wasn't her son. During the last year she'd developed a keen sense for recognizing and reacting to his little screams and this wasn't it. Next thing she knew she was kicked right into her ribs.
It was Wen and his nightmares again. First time in a long time... He was thrashing around, sobbing and mumbling something incomprehensible. Azula tried to hold him down so he doesn't hurt himself, like she always did.
"Wen. Come on, come back to me... Wen." she didn't even have to be particularly loud, he woke up, violently sitting up ad screaming.
"Sir, Ma'am, is everything alright?" they heard through the door from their guards.
"Yes, everything is in order!" Azula answered back and started gently wiping the sweat of her husband's forehead, while he was slowly coming to his senses.
"It's not real. You're home, safe. I'm the only one that's here." she told him, trying to recall what he told her when she was a little bit out of it, "It's over."
"Did I hit you?"
"No." she lied.
He exhaled deeply and fell back onto the mattress, still trying to steady his breathing.
"I can't believe this is happening to me again, like I'm a kid."
"I can." she placed her head on his chest, "You started bloodbending again, this is what happens."
"It's not even a full moon."
"Oh, I know, love. If it was you'd be out there practicing for whatever you seem to think is coming for us, but isn't."
"I'm not preparing for one specific thing, I want to live up to my potential. I mean, what if at some point it's the only thing that can get us out of trouble alive. I'm doing it for Zari."
"Oh, are you? You know what, you're done."
"Forbidding it, are you?"
"Yes. I want you to swear to me." she said and turned so she could look at him, "Wen."
"I swear, I'm done with bloodbending."
After being satisfied with his promise, she leaned in to kiss him and closed her eyes to go back to sleep.
They didn't discuss it during the day. There was just too much to do with Zari and some lost cargo... The next night, with a full moon this time, Azula woke up again and realized she was alone in the bed. It could just be that Wen decided to sleep elsewhere so he wouldn't hurt her, but it could also be that he lied.
After a lengthy search she found him on the floor of Zari's room, looking at their son through the bars of the crib.
"You thought you were going to bust me?" he heard her coming and whispered.
"Pretty much." she sat down next to him on the floor and took his hand.
"He needs parents who are not crazy, so I'm not going to continue."
"I don't think we're crazy. Actually, we've been quite boring since we became parents."
That made Wen smile, "Yeah, just your average, boring criminal masterminds..."
"What's this about?" she continued, "Since I clearly remember you convincing me a long time ago that I was more important than my bending."
"Our spies talked about a man who can bloodbend during the day, and I thought, how could I stop him... No firebender can take you. But this guy, if he decided to attack our family-"
"I was at that briefing too, don't forget. And Yakone won't attack us. Not now, not ever. Because he's a little man with little dreams. He's got nothing on you."
"Is that why we're dealing with him secretly?"
"Exactly. Our people losing their lives, or sleep, over him is stupid. I already have a plan. We send a couple of people to follow him and little by little expose him to the Avatar and his friends for what he truly is. Then they'll take his bending and deal with him for us."
"That feels good to hear, but I still don't think I can go back to sleep. You should go, though."
She was going to, but then Zari made the tiniest little noise and she looked over. In the short time since the toddler got his own room she forgot how much she loved idiotically gawking at him sleeping. So she stayed. It was a few second of silence before Wen spoke up.
"You think he'll be a bender?"
"There's no way of knowing until he bends something."
"But have you tried showing him?"
"Are you asking me if I showed our son to put his hands in fire?" she asked a bit louder than she should have around a sleeping baby, "Because the answer is no."
"Not fire, water. He's got those icy-blue eyes..."
"That has nothing to do with it. My brother didn't have the spark in his eyes either. You'll see."
"Care to wager?"
"Always."
oooooooooo
127 AG
"Again!"
Three-year-old Zari kicked the air with his right leg as hard as he could manage. This was his third again and he didn't like it one bit.
"Good." Azula nodded and made an effort to smile since she noticed her little student liked that far more than any sort of verbal praise, "I think you're ready to go higher."
"I can't. I'm little." the boy crossed his hands on his chest mirroring his mother's stance. Or at least trying to.
"Not as high as me, just a little bit higher. Like this." Azula put her hand in the air.
"I think... I... I think I can do that." Zari nodded and took his stance again. He tried the move a couple more times while his mother just watched from a distance.
The boy was getting better with every try, there was no doubt about it. She didn't exactly love teaching beginner's moves, but there was no way in the world she's allow a stranger to form her son's first attitudes about firebending.
While watching him struggle with his balance she heard a door open behind her.
"Are you almost done, love?" Wen walked up and put his arms around his wife from behind.
"No, Dad." Zari cut in before Azula could say a word, "It's Sifu in here..."
"Oh right, my mistake..." Wen smiled since Zari seemed so serious about the correction, "Sifu, when will the young master be done with his training?"
"Can I show Dad? Can I show?" Zari forgot all about the exercise and jumped up and down in front of his mother.
"I suppose it cannot hurt. The whole set from the beginning." Azula said, "But slowly."
Zari didn't even wait for her to finish, he already formed the first figure. Then as both his parents watched he suddenly stopped.
"Can I use fire?" Zari babbled almost incomprehensively.
"Love, you need to try that one more time, slower." Wen said.
"No, I got him." Azula looked down at the little boy, "You can, but I want you to be slow and careful."
"Yes, Sifu Mommy." Zari smiled, spread his arms and started spinning in place.
"I've never seen you preform that particular firebending move." Wen whispered to his wife as Zari finally stopped, waiting a few second for the dizziness to pass.
"That's to check if anything's in his way that could be set on fire. Safety first." Azula was quite proud for coming up with that little preparation move that saved a lot of their furniture, "I'm warning you, he's been taking this really seriously. So don't you dare laugh."
Wen nodded, all the while wondering why he would be laughing in the first place, but it soon became clear. Watching Zari stomp his feet and wave his arms into the figures his mom taught him while having maybe the most serious face any three-year-old ever had was objectively funny. He wondered how Azula could keep a straight face watching this for hours. Maybe she was used to it by now, but he had to cover his mouth at one point not to laugh.
Then, came the time for the final fiery jump-kick. Zari leapt off the ground, reached even higher than his mother said was enough and then landed straight back onto his face rather than his legs.
Wen immediately moved to help, but Azula stopped him.
"What else did we learn today, Zari?" she asked, "What else? What do you do when you fall?"
"Get back up. Try again." the boy didn't cry but stood up slowly and started his set from the beginning.
This time it wasn't funny. When it was time for the jump again Wen was awaiting the worst, but Zari leapt again, and this time landed safely. He forgot about the bow he was supposed to do to end the lesson since before he knew it his dad lifted him into his arms.
"Good job! You'll be able to take on Mommy soon..."
"Was it good? Was it good, Mommy? Did you like it?"
"It was your best yet." she said.
"How about you run down to the kitchens now and tell the cooks your parents said you can have a little treat?" Wen asked and got an immediate enthusiastic nod, "Yeah? Go on then."
"He didn't mean run, he meant walk!" Azula yelled after, but Zari was gone so fast she doubted he'd heard her.
"My son the firebender..." Wen smiled, "My father would disown me."
"And mine would be thrilled about this for sure..." Azula said as sarcastically as she could.
"I just got word from our spies in the Fire Nation." Wen said, serious suddenly.
"What? It's bad, isn't it?" she immediately knew she wouldn't like this from his expression. But what? Did something happen to Zuzu, little Izumi or...
"The Fire Lord's mother died two days ago." he thought it best to just come out with it, "There was a funeral today, big and regal. Half the Nation is in mourning."
"That's it?" Azula chuckled slightly, "Your tone had me thinking about civil wars."
"She was your mother." Wen tried.
"It's been twenty years since we last saw each other and even before that she's never been a mother to me."
"My mother didn't like me much either, I still cried when she was gone."
"You were eleven. Just..." she cupped his face, "Save it, since I'm not sad. I'm not going to miss that woman. She had no role in my life. None."
"She was family..."
"You know, who's my family?" she leaned in for a gentle kiss, "You and our son. No one else really matters."
oooooooooo
134 AG
"Is that how you really feel?" Zuko raised his voice slightly, obviously trying to hold back anger.
"Zuko, she never treated me like her daughter. She never cared, I've accepted that."
"How can you say that?!" he felt his wife's hand on his shoulder, but still refused to calm down, "She loved you! She missed you until the day she died and on her death bed she begged me to keep looking for you, no matter what. We all accepted you were dead, but she believed... She always believed we'd find you someday."
"I bet the thoughts of her monster running around, terrorizing people, kept her up at night. Nothing would have made her happier than seeing me in a cell right next to Father." Azula paused, "Is that... Is that why you wanted me to come home? Is it because of her?!"
Zuko said nothing to that, only kept staring at his sister, remembering why they could never talk for long without it ending in a fight.
"I'm an idiot! Of course, that's why you did it... I can't believe I thought there was any other reason you'd want to talk to me again. Even after I saved your life... Don't worry, Zari and I will be out of your life on the next stop."
"That's not what I- Why do you have to be like this?!" Zuko screamed into the air and stormed into the ship.
"He's just touchy about his mom." Mai said, "He'll cool down and everything will be alright again."
"Why did you have to mention that?" Katara asked.
"Because... That's what happened. That's what I said." in retrospect she could have skipped it. It probably would have been easier, but she chose not to. "He didn't even listen to it till the end. Later that day Wen noticed I disappeared suddenly, so he walks into our room and finds me..."
oooooooooo
127 AG
Crying. Wen was a bit surprised. Yes, his wife had a good reason to get emotional, but over the years he'd come to associate her crying with her psychotic episodes. And a long time had passed since either of them had to deal with one of those.
"Azula, are you alone?" he asked, taking a seat by her on their bed. Over the years he found that she didn't like using the word hallucinations.
"Yes, yes... I'm alright. I'm just..." she wiped most of her tears and leaned on him, "You weren't right."
It was like she could hear him think it.
"Of course not."
"No, really. I'm not crying for my mother. I'm crying because of Zuko."
"He's fine." Wen assured her, "Probably more than a little sad, but he'll survive."
"It makes me sad, because he did care for our mother. He... This must be hard for him. He didn't get that much time with her because she left when he was very young. And now he'll never have a better relationship with her, he'll never get to say everything he wanted to say, she'll never get to see how his child will turn out..."
"Yeah, poor Zuko..." Wen knew those sentences weren't talking about how Zuko was feeling, but he wasn't going to say it aloud. Azula left it unspoken because she liked it that way. He just put his arm around her and sat there with her for a few minutes.
That is, before he heard tiny footsteps entering the room.
"What are you doing?"
"Zari, why don't you go show Shi your new moves? I hear she loves firebending..." Wen tried to get the boy out of the room for now at least.
"Then Mommy should show. She is Sifu. Mom?" Zari ignored his father's words and walked further into the room, finally realizing his mother was crying.
"Look, Mommy. Look!" Zari did the only thing he could think to do and that was repeat the set he learned that day. She smiled when he first succeeded so why shouldn't it make her smile again?
After he was done he was disappointed to discover his mom was still sad, so he prepared to do it one more time. Azula stopped him and pulled him onto her lap and into a hug.
"I swear I'll be fine, love." she said.
"What's swear?" Zari asked.
"Promise. I promise I'll be fine." she wiped the remaining tears, "I'm sad right now, but not because of you."
oooooooooo
134 AG
Usually, when Zuko wasn't feeling like talking to anybody, he'd just find an empty room in the palace to brood in peace until he got over it, but now, on this ship, he was working with limited options. He simply found himself an empty hallway and sat down on a bench to mull everything over.
Mainly his relationship with his sister and the complicated cocktail of emotions he was feeling towards her, manly consisting of anger and guilt.
"Fire Lord." Zari said, realizing his uncle did not notice him standing just a few paces away.
"Oh, Zari. Hello. I remember telling you to call me Uncle Zuko."
"May I sit, Uncle?"
"Sure, go ahead. Are you excited for Capital City?"
"I am, very." the boy carefully sat down next to Zuko, "Would it be possible for you to show me your dragon one day?"
"Yes, of course. But it feels more like introducing, than showing. They're very smart, you know."
"Oh, I know. I've read everything ever written about dragons."
"They interest you?"
"Yes, they always have. But you're literally the only person in the world with one." He said that in a much calmer tone than one would expect a child to use to describe something exciting, but he was Azula's son after all.
"Literally means for real." Zari explained, confused about Zuko's lack of response.
A few more seconds passed.
"Are you alright?" the boy asked.
"I am. I just had a disagreement with your mother. You don't need to worry about that."
"Oh. Well, I've come to believe siblings fighting amongst each other occasionally is normal."
Not the way him and Azula did it, Zuko was sure.
"Did your mother tell you that?" he asked the boy.
"She doesn't really like to talk about the time she was a kid. But she also says others will never forget about where you come from, so neither should you."
Zuko couldn't imagine Azula had anything particularly nice to say about her family to this poor boy.
"Did she ever tell you about our father?" he was curious to see how his sister described the man who started and nurtured all this hatred between the two of them. Spirits knew, he had a hard time talking about it to Izumi.
"Fire Lord Ozai. She said he was a skilled bender and strong-willed man, but he lacked in matters of strategy. He failed to recognize he needed people to work with him, because he thought he was above them. She said this made him a bad Fire Lord."
"He was a bad man overall, Zari. A very bad man..."
"Mother taught me never to call people good or bad." Zari corrected, "They can be good or bad at something, but there is no right way to be a person. Like perhaps they are bad at following rules, or bad at being empathetic, or bad at controlling their anger, but they are not bad themselves."
"She might be right about that, my sister." Zuko turned to the boy with a small smile, "And what does she say about our mother?"
"Lady Ursa. She was Avatar Roku's granddaughter and became Princess Ursa when she married grandfather. Mom says she was a bit strict with her sometimes. But she was very beautiful and liked gardening, as well as the theatre."
"Azula told you that?" Zuko was sure Azula put in an immense effort to come up with those few nice things to say.
"Yes. I liked the part about the theatre, because I love it too. To be honest, I've only ever seen half of an official play, but I enjoyed it so much."
"And me? What does your mom say about me?" Zuko asked, but Zari looked away, "You know, you're not tattling on her, she'd repeat everything she told you to my face and more."
"That's true... She said you're silly and that you think too much, and not in a good way. But I mostly asked about the dragon." Zari paused as his uncle chuckled, "And she told me that if anything ever happened to her I should go find you. That you'd keep me safe."
oooooooooo
128 AG
"Dad, help! Dad!" Zari ran from inside the ship, yelling like he was chased by a spirit monster, not just Shi making silly noises. He spotted his father immediately and made a break for his arms where he knew no one could get to him. "Save me!"
Wen smiled at how Zari buried his head in his chest, but obeyed the boy's command and growled back at Shi. Zari soon joined in and the woman immediately stopped running and staged one of the most dramatic fake deaths any of them have ever seen.
"Can you handle her from here?" Wen asked and, after getting a nod from Zari, let him go play some more.
That day, Azula suggested they take out one ship and a handful of men just to see the open ocean again. They were beginning to feel a bit cooped up in their hideout, day after day, reading all the letters, running the numbers, planning the operations. These days their empire grew constantly without them ever having to leave the comfort of their throne room. But that comfort was getting a little boring, to Zari most of all.
"So you were saying?" Azula moved her gaze back to her husband.
"Yes... I was suggesting we all take another trip like this, but to the South Pole. I think it's about time Zari saw where his dad was from."
"You know we can't be seen..."
"I know, and we won't. I just want- Zari, no! You can't use fire, Shi can't deflect it like Mom can." Wen turned to their son who was just threatening Shi with a little fire blast.
"Sorry, Dad!" he boy yelled back and continued wrestling with just his fists.
"So what do you think?" Wen turned his attention back to Azula.
"If it's important to you, we'll find the time."
"I just want our son to see real snow. Not just the one I can make..." Wen waved both of his hands slowly and pulled some water from the sea, turning it into gentle little snowflakes. Zari immediately stopped what he was doing and started jumping around, trying to catch as much of them with both his hands and his mouth.
With the corner of his eye he saw his mother breathe a little bit of fire into the air to stop the snowflakes from reaching her. He was delighted by it and immediately started blowing, trying to breathe fire as well.
"Mom, when can I blow fire?! When?" Zari kept trying, blowing with more force each time. It resembled airbending more than firebending and made all the adults smile.
"Five more years, maybe..." Azula decided to go with honesty.
"I can't wait that long!" the boy yelled and continued what he was doing.
"Although, the Pole would provide me with an excellent opportunity to teach Zari how to keep himself warm with bending." Azula said, but noticed Wen wasn't really listening. He was staring into the horizon, so she turned to see what was so interesting.
A lone ship. Otherwise not that interesting at all, but this one looked like it was packed with gold from rim to rim. Ships like that often had smaller ones guarding it.
"We should get it." she said.
"No... Zari's onboard. The weather's going bad..."
"Cap, the storm did half our work for us," Shi cut in, "Aren't we gonna do something?"
"She's right. That's why it's alone, it's weakened." Azula said, looking behind the ship where waves raged and clouds blocked the sky.
"Alright. Crew, prepare for battle!" Wen yelled and took his waterbending stance, forcing the ship into a sharp turn. Most of the pirates left their post immediately to find a bow and then lined up on one side of the ship awaiting command.
"Draw!" Azula yelled and then after the crew obeyed fired up their arrows in one blast, "Loose!"
"Whose flag are they flying?" The enemy ship was pretty run-down from the storm, so Wen couldn't make out the appearance of their flag. But Azula could. She'd know that flag anywhere...
"Fire Nation." she said quietly, as when she realized that the whole ship started to look familiar. How hasn't she noticed it before? Yes, the storm had given it a hard blow, but she could never forget that color and that gold work... "It's the Fire Lord's ship!"
"It's what?" Wen stopped waterbending them forward as Azula pulled his arm.
"Listen to me, my brother has to be on that ship. We can't take them, because he can't see me. And we cannot bring his attention to us."
"Are you sure? We've already engaged, we can't-"
"They also have the best-engineered catapult of our time onboard." she said and Wen shook his head in disbelief.
"We have nowhere to go, but that storm!"
"Well, at least they won't follow us there!" Azula said and jumped onto the ship's railing to redirect lightning coming from the enemy ship.
"Waterbenders, with me!" Wen called and together with three more men turned the ship towards the storm so suddenly it nearly tipped over. Zari, being unprepared, fell over as the ship made the turn, but didn't seem bothered by it.
"We shouldn't be hitting the waves at this angle..." Wen concluded after one almost flipped them again.
"Why don't you do something about it then?!"
He was just about to go closer to the front of the ship to separate the waves when she pulled him back. Their enemy seemed to finally make that catapult work, since a giant stone projectile was flying towards them. Azula quickly shot it with lightning, breaking it up into hundreds of pieces, and Wen placed an icy shield to stop them from reaching the ship.
"We'll be out of range soon." he said.
"I'll get Zari."
"Be careful."
Azula looked around for their son, and finally spotted him trying to hold up a bow.
"Absolutely not." was all she said before dragging him inside by his little hand.
"But I wanna see!" the boy whined.
"What's that tone?" Azula sat him up on the bed in their cabin.
"Mom, I want to be with you and see. Please." he tried it one more time, calmer.
"Not this time, love. You'll stay right here, where it's safe." she put the covers over him since it was getting quite cold.
"But you'll stay, right? Right, Mom?"
"Someone will."
In a few minutes Wen ran into the room, soaking wet from the increasingly heavy rain.
"Good news, that ship is no longer chasing us. Bad news, it's because they're not dumb enough to go back into this storm. It's ugly out there, but don't worry, Zari. Your mom will stay-"
"She will not." Azula said.
"Someone has to."
"Is there lightning?"
"There might be..."
"Then I have to be out there to redirect it. You stay and read Zari a story." her tone was dead serious.
"You know they're not strong enough without me!"
"So what then? Shi?"
"Everyone out there already has something to do, we're really short on men." he explained and then both of them turned to their son slowly.
"No. No, I don't want to." he shook his head.
"We need you to be brave now, Zari." Azula stroked the boy's cheek.
"We'll leave the door unlocked, but you can't go up there for any reason, do you understand?" Wen asked and Zari nodded while tears collected in his eyes.
"But we'll come down and get you the second it's safe."
"You swear, Mommy?"
"I swear to you."
And with that Azula and Wen left the room. They were just about to climb to the deck when the ship tilted, throwing Azula into a wall and Wen right onto her.
"You think he'll be alright?" Wen whispered.
"He's strong. And we won't let anything happen." she whispered back, "Let's go home."
In a few seconds they made it to the deck finally to deal with the storm while Zari stayed put under his blanket. Thunder never scared him before, because it reminded him of his mom, but this time, when they were out on the sea like this, it was different.
With all the clouds blocking the sun, it was hard to believe it was daytime. Wen tried to focus on the damn waves and the rain, but he just couldn't. His heart wasn't in it, so to speak... And the more he tried to concentrate, the more he remembered every lightning flash, every time the boat leaned Zari had to deal with it alone.
By some unknown force he found himself entering the cabin to check up on him. Just to sneak a peek, maybe say it's going well, but he was surprised to find Azula there on the bed, cuddling up with their son.
"Busted." Wen said from the door.
"I couldn't..." she confessed, "But from what I'm seeing, neither could you."
He could leave again now, Wen was aware. It was taken care of... But somehow, he didn't want to.
"I love you both so much." he lied down next to his wife and Zari immediately moved to sit in between his parents. Wen kissed the boy's forehead and then Azula.
"What about the storm?" she asked.
"They'll handle it. They've handled a lot worse on their own. What are you two up to?"
"Reading." she reached for a big colorful book, "At least I was reading to him until I made a remarkable discovery. Zari, what does it say under that picture?"
"A. Dra... Dra-gon. A dragon li- Li... I don't know the third one, Mommy." Zari looked up sheepishly.
"It's alright, love." Azula took the book and closed it, before turning to her husband, "Traitor. We said we weren't going to teach him how to read yet. You can imagine my surprise when-"
"Zari, can you please pick another book for us to read?" Wen asked and Zari jumped from the bed and walked to the book case on the other side of the cabin.
"I couldn't help myself." Wen continued, quietly this time so only Azula could hear him, "He's so special, love, so smart for his age, brilliant. He learned some things from simply watching me read to him."
"We agreed. We agreed we weren't going to call him special or a prodigy or treat him any different than if he was a normal kid. The firebending training is just so that he doesn't hurt himself." Azula paused and looked away, "You know this is important to me, you know what kind of pressure I was under as a child. I don't want any part of that for him."
"I know. And I'm sorry. I just got excited, because he's so much like us. And I didn't force him, he wants it, he loves learning new things... Do you know how hard I had to try to find someone to teach me that stuff? And now I can just give him that knowledge, how am I supposed to say no? I don't want to be the one to hold him back."
"Well, I don't want to shove him forward because it makes us happy. If we wait, he'll seek it out on his own."
"Mom, are you mad because I read?" Zari appeared next to her with a different book.
"No, I'm proud, very proud."
Hearing that, Zari smiled from ear to ear, only to be startled by thunder. He immediately returned to the safety of the bed, right between his parents.
"How about I tell you a story?" Wen stroked the boy's back.
"Does it have dragons?"
"Why do you love dragons so much?" Azula asked.
"Because they blow fire like you, Mom."
"Breathe fire." she corrected, "You say breathe fire."
"Why? It doesn't go in, it just goes out."
"He's got you there, love." Wen smirked, "And not, it doesn't have dragons, but it does have breathing fire. It's about the first time your mom was on this ship. You see, this is the first one I had, and I brought her here right after we met..."
oooooooooo
134 AG
"I'm glad about what we decided that day. After all, it was the last time we were all together." Azula said.
"Don't tell me the storm-" Katara started.
"No... We got out of the storm fine. We got back to our hideout in the middle of the night and decided to try and get a few hours of sleep until morning. That's when..." Azula stopped, seeing Zuko returned to the deck, this time with Zari.
"Before you say anything, Azula," the Fire Lord started, "I'd like to apologize for making you feel like you and your son are not welcome with us, because the truth is the exact opposite. I'm overjoyed to have you here and I think it would be best if we didn't bring up our past anymore because it only leads to arguments. Can we please continue our journey as planned?"
Zuko finished the entire thing in one breath and then looked over to Zari who gave him a subtle thumbs-up with both hands.
"We can, brother."
oooooooooo
Here, you go. This is a long one too. My semester's starting so any delays you can blame on that.
I know the story is kind of time-jumpy right now... I just wanted to give a run down of what their family life looked like.
I changed everything a thousand times, so forgive if there are mistakes.
For those of you who maybe forgot, Wen is supposed to have some light PTSD from the war triggered by blodbending because he used it for the first time to escape from there and he couldn't control it.
One thing that's different is that something actually started happening in the present (134 AG) time. I plan on keeping that going. Next chapter they arrive, finally.
Anyway, thanks for reading, comments appreciated... :)
Fun fact (that you probably don't care about): the ship in the storm scene is lightly based on real life events, since my parents and I found ourselves in a heavy storm on a boat once, while I was four. And while they were freaking out, I wanted to stand on the bow and look through my binoculars. And no, I'm not that brave anymore. And no, my parents are not pirates. And yes, everyone made it out OK :)