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Chapter Text

"So let me get this straight, you want to sneak into the fire nation for reconnaissance before meeting the rest of the fleet for the invasion on the day of the black sun? A mission I'm still not 100% on board with you going on, and live among the people to gather information?"

"Yep," Hakoda's son said with a cheerful voice.

Hakoda looked over at Sokka. He was grinning.

I love my son. I love my son. 

It was true, he had loved and missed Sokka, and Katara, every day that he had been at sea. Besides, it was partially his fault that Sokka thought that sneaking into the Fire Nation was a good idea. After all, Hakoda hadn't been around to teach him otherwise. He had little strategic training, and it was showing. 

No, he reminded himself. Sokka was a good strategist, with or without his help. His plan for the invasion, while a bit rough so far, was brilliant. He was just a bit.. ambitious. 

Still, it was his job as a fellow strategist, and parent, to point out when a plan was too far fetched to do.

"How exactly are you going to infiltrate the Fire Nation? It's not an easy place to get into under the best of situations, and without Appa, well, that's not exactly ideal."

"Um, well… you see…" Sokka sputtered. 

"You don't have a clue, do you?" Hakoda asked in a gentle voice. He had made his critique, he didn't have to be cruel about it. 

The Kiyoshi Warrior - Suki? decided to speak up then.

"I know a guy."

Hakoda looked at the girl incredulously. 

"You… know a guy?" he questioned, trying to push his disbelief into the words. 

His disbelief either didn't land, or she was trying to ignore him. 

She sent him a glare and continued as if he hadn't spoken. The second one then. 

"Yes, I know a guy. He can get us into the fire Nation safely and secretly."

"I've only heard of a few being to sneak goods into the fire nation, let alone people. How do I know your guy can?"

"Ever heard of the Blue Spirit?" Suki asked with a tiger shark smile. 

Hakoda paled.

• °○•●°○•●°○•●°○•

Sokka had not, in fact, heard of the Blue Spirit. 

"Is he like an ex," he asked the moment the meeting had ended and they were alone again.

Suki laughed at this.

"Blue? No way. If anything he's like an annoying cousin two times removed." Suki said as if the very thought was ridiculous. 

'Good ' Sokka thought, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. 

"He's a thief, who sometimes does murder and smuggling." His girlfriend said with a fond smile. 

"What?!? Your friend is a murderer?!?"

"Only sometimes! And the people totally deserve it… usually…."

What had he gotten himself into?

Chapter Text

The bar they met at was dark and gloomy, with torches every few feet casting deep shadows. Add in the skull motifs everywhere, and the whole place felt as though it was built to intimidate strangers.

Sokka gulped. It was working. 

The spookiness had no effect on Suki though. She walked over to the bar like she belonged there, and tapped the bartender's shoulder to get her attention. Almost immediately a knife came out of nowhere, pointing at Suki's throat. 

She just raised an eyebrow, as if having a knife to her throat was an annoying inconvenience that happened all the time. Sokka could feel himself falling deeper in love with her. 

"Come on June, we've talked about this. Holding a knife to your friend's throat is Not a proper way to greet said friend. Not to mention, it's bad for business." Suki chided. 

"And we've talked about this," June gestures at the hand still hovering around her shoulder with the hand not holding a knife. "You know better than to startle me by now."

So Suki was friends with the scary bartender. Cool...cool…

The after mentioned bartender - June, slowly lowered her knife and sheathed it. 

She gestured at Sokka and the rest of the group who had elected to stay by the door. 

"Who are your friends?"

Suki beckoned them all over. Sokka complied reluctantly. 

She pointed at Toph, the first one to come over. 

"Meet the Blind Bandit, in the flesh."

If June was surprised that such a notorious Earth Rumble Winner, and sometimes thief was a young blind girl, she didn't let it show. 

"Good to finally meet you bandit."

Please, call me Toph," she corrected.

Suki then gestured at Bato and Sokka. 

"This is my boyfriend, and a family friend. They're both Southern Water Tribe Warriors."

June raised an eyebrow.

"So this is the mysterious boyfriend you wouldn't shut up about?" She said, unimpressed.

"Yep, this is him. And he's a great warrior!" Suki defended. 

"Sure. Look, it's great to see you again, but what are you doing here? Last I heard you were running with the Avatar, and his group of do gooders."

"I need to see Blue. I have a job for him"

June raised the other eyebrow. 

• °●°●°●°○°○°●°●°●°○•○•○•

The figure in the corner of the room was dressed in black and shrouded in shadow. He had what appeared to be a blue and white theater mask with a demon-like face on, currently hiked up enough so that he could slip on the mug in front of him. 

Seeing them approach he slammed the mask back down.

"Go away," a scratchy voice demanded from under the mask.

"Now that isn't how you greet a friend either. First June and now you? What is this place coming to?" Suki bemoaned.

The guy scowled. Sokka could feel it. 

"Fine. How are you Suki? Life been treating you well?" He said in a falsely happy voice.

"I'm good, life's been treating me horribly, but what else is new?" Suki said in the same false voice. It was kind of creepy.

Dropping the false voice Suki said. "Look Blue, it really is great to see you, despite your lackluster greeting, but I need a favor."

"No." Blue said shortly. "The last time I did a favor for you I almost lost a hand, and my boyfriend almost died."

"Ok the hand thing was not my fault, and your boyfriend is an idiot."

"I'm still not doing it."

"Oh cut the bull-mouse Sneaky, you owe Suki for saving your terrorist boyfriend in Ba Sing Se" Toph said.

"I told you, Jet and I were handling it before you showed up!" Spirit dude snapped. 

Wait. Terrorist  boyfriend? JET???

"YOU'RE THE MYSTERIOUS BOYFRIEND JET WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT???:

"Jet talks about me?" Blue asked with an almost hopeful voice. 

"Not the point I was trying to make, but yes. He talks about you. Like ALL THE TIME." Sokka said. 

A dreamy huh escaped Blue's mouth. Apparently the couple needed to work on communication. 

"Yes  Blue, you love your boyfriend and your boyfriend loves you and you both are ridiculously sappy about each other. Now onto the real reason we're here. I need a favor." Suki said in a matter of fact voice. 

"What do you need?" Blue asked a bit dreamily. 

He was apparently still in shock.

Suki, always one to take advantage of such opportunities, spoke. 

"We need a way into the Fire Nation. Fast, and secretly."

"How many?"

"Five."

Blue looked at the rest of the group assessing them.

"The four of you and another person?" He asked. 

Suki shook her head. 

"No," she gestured to Bato. "He's not coming. We have two other members of our group."

Blue narrowed his eyes.

"I've heard the rumors, Suki. One of those members wouldn't happen to be the Avatar, now would they."

A flash of annoyance crossed her face before she could stop it. 

Sokka was confused. Why would he care that one of the passengers is the Avatar? Really he should be honored. 

"And if they are?" Suki questioned, a hard edge to her voice that Sokka had come to associate with danger. 

Blue either didn't know that tone, or decided to ignore it. 

"You know how I feel about the Avatar," he said gruffly. 

"Me and everyone else who knows you," she snapped. Sokka couldn't tell but he thought he could see Blue tense up. Realizing her mistake, Suki backtracked and added in a softer tone. "Look, I know you hate him, and Toph knows why, but. But this is really important Blue. I promise I wouldn't ask if it wasn't."

He seemed to be looking straight into Suki's soul, looking for something. He seemed to find it, because in the next moment he nodded his head.

"Fine. But you owe me big time."

"Ya know, twinkle toes needs a fire bending teacher too."

"Don't push your luck."

• °●°●°¤°

Hours after they had all left the tavern and arrived at the camp, Sokka came to a realization.

"Wait… YOU'RE A FIREBENDER???"

Chapter Text

"So how did you and Toph meet anyways?" 

"Why do you want to know?"

"Um, dude, we know next to nothing about you, besides that, you're apparently a murderer. It might help us to trust you more."

"Why in the world would you trust me?"

"Ow, Toph, that hurts. Fine, we met when I was hired to kidnap her."

"You didn't do it right?"

"Right?"

"…."

&&&&&&&

When Zuko first heard about the job offer he immediately refused.

He had sunk low in his time fending for himself. Had done some horrible things to survive and make sure he had food to eat. But he hadn't sunk low enough to kidnap a defenseless young girl. Not yet at least.

&&&&&&&

Winter was coming and Zuko was desperate.

It would be his first winter outside of the Fire Nation, and he wasn't sure what to expect. The Fire Nation had a temperate climate and rarely dipped below 16 degrees. Zuko had never even seen this thing the Earth Kingdom Citizens called snow, and only knew of it from a few old plays his mother had shared with him in his youth. 

In the plays snow was a beautiful thing that topped trees, and covered the earth's ugliness, making the whole world look pure. 

&&&&&&&

He soon found that in reality, snow was a natural disaster, at least for Zuko who had no clothes thick enough to keep out the cold, and no warm home to go home to. 

'You could buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes if you took the job. In fact, you could buy a whole house, and stock it with enough food that you wouldn't have to leave till spring.'

He had been thinking such things a lot recently, and every time had pushed the thoughts away. Sure he was cold, but at least he wasn't preying on a young girl. 

Still, as time went on he was finding it harder and harder to find reasons not to take the job. His first reason had been his honor, but that had burned up along with half his face. His second was his moral code, but he had broken that plenty after leaving the palace. After all, it went against his moral code to kill, and he had. It didn't matter that the creep had deserved it, Zuko had still killed them. 

The only argument he had left was that his mother had raised him better and that she would be ashamed of him. As time wore on the argument grew staler and staler. After all, he hadn't seen his mother in years. She was probably dead.

&&&&&&

It was now full-on winter. The snow that he had first found horrible had turned deadly, and he was eying the ransom sum with hungry eyes. He couldn't keep going like this, he was in such bad shape that unless something changed he might not make it through the week. 

'Well, it's not like I'm killing her. Just giving her a bit of a scare, making her parents pay an even higher ransom fee. I won't even touch her except to nab her. She'll be fine.'

&&&&&&&

Zuko knew three things about the Beifong's youngest (and only) child Toph:

1. She was an earth bender
2. She was 9 years old
3. She was blind

The guy who had offered him the job had only told him number three, probably to market the job as an easy one, and he had found out number 2 in casing the place. 

He had just learned the first from Toph herself. 

&&&&&&

"So let me get this straight, you didn't even know she was an Earth Bender? You thought she was completely defenseless, and you were still going to kidnap her??"

"And? I wasn't going to hurt her or anything, besides, no one told me she was an Earth Bender."

"Yeah that's my parents' fault, they tried to keep the fact that their blind daughter was blessed with the gift of bending on the down-low. Some stupid thing to do with some rich person taboo probably, they never explained why."

"So what happened?"

"I went along with his plan till we were well outside the house walls, then overpowered and trapped him"

&&&&&&

"Hey, look, I'm sorry I kidnapped you, but can you please let me out of here?" Zuko pleaded.

"Why?" 

"Why do I want to get out of this cage? Well, I don't really like small spaces and.."

"No, I know why you want out of the cage, I'm asking why you kidnapped me," Toph said from what sounded like on top of him. Was she sitting on top of the cage?

"Oh," Zuko replied stupidly. Why would she want to know that?

"So.."

"So what?"

"Why did you kidnap me?"

Figuring that there was no harm in letting her know now, he let out a sigh and explained. 

"I needed the money, and this was the best job I could find."

"Oh, that makes sense I guess," Toph said unsurely. "I don't really know what that's like, my parents won't even let me touch our money. They probably think that I could hurt myself by holding it or something stupid like that. They're always doing that, telling me that I'm too fragile and that I can't do anything on my own. It drives me crazy. Honestly, I'm kinda glad that you did kidnap me, it got me away from them for a bit."

"You're welcome then I guess? And I'm sorry your parents treat you like you're helpless, you're, like, really scary, and the exact opposite of helpless. Parents suck," Zuko said, unsure what else to say. 

Apparently, he had said something right. He could hear Toph huff out a laugh from her perch above him. Zuko thought he could feel Toph jump down, and then a moment later the solid walls encasing him in earth disappeared, and a hand was stuck in his face. 

Blinking at the sudden onslaught of moonlight, pale though it was, he took the hand and used it to pull himself up. 

When he finally got his bearings he realized they were still in the clearing he had taken Toph, the clearing that he was supposed to meet Rako to conduct the handoff. Zuko's job was just to kidnap the girl, but from what he could tell, Rako's job was to motivate the Beifong family to pay all the ransom, and quickly.

Zuko also realized that in the short time that Toph and he had been talking, he had grown to like her, and he didn't want to see her get hurt. 

Coming to a split-second decision Zuko grabbed her arm and started pulling Toph out of the open clearing. 

"We need to get out of here. Fast."

Zuko looked around the forest for cover. There wasn't much. The trees were tall, but pole-like, with few low hanging branches, and even fewer leaves, and the ground was barren of growth, save for the occasional shrub. 

"How do you feel about climbing?"

&&&&&

"So you and Toph decided to climb a tree to get away from the bad guy?"

"Ahahaha, absolutely not. I can't see with my feet off the ground, remember? And I wasn't as willing to do that then as I am now."

"So what did you do?"

"We fought him."

&&&&&&&

Zuko looked at the young girl next to him in awe. He shuddered to think about what could have happened if they hadn't hit it off. If he hadn’t already had a healthy fear of her before, he definitely did now. 

"I'm planning to go out for a local earth bending competition in the spring." Toph said out of the blue. 

"That's great! I'm sure you'll beat all of them to a pulp." ‘ If tonight was anything to go by.’ Zuko added in his head. 

"Ya know, I could do a lot more with a partner," she said in an almost shy voice. 

A partner? Toph had barely known him for a day, and already she was offering him a spot as a partner?

Zuko was tempted, but he wasn’t naive enough to think it would be a good idea.

"Wait, you don't even know my name. How can you be sure I won't betray you? And plus, I'm not even an earth bender, I couldn't even do the competition." 

"You technically don't have to be an earth bender to participate. At least I don't think so. We're close enough to the shore that we've had some firebenders participate, and I've heard there's even been a water bender."

"And about the name thing, well you can just tell me." 

He debated whether or not telling her his name would be ok. Deciding it really didn't matter (loads of people were named Zuko, it was a popular fire nation name, and he had a feeling Toph could already tell that he was a Fire Bender.) he answered.

"Zuko"

"What?"

"My name is Zuko"

The earth bender stuck out her hand, and Zuko gingerly took it. The following handshake almost pulled his arm out of his socket. 

"Nice to meet you Zuko," she said with a self-satisfied smile. "Now about that partnership..."

&&&&&&&&&&&&

"So what happened next?"

"Blue said yes to my offer, and we went on to trump the competition."

"And thus began a friendship that would rock the world. Literally."

"Aww, see you can make a joke Sparky!"

"Shut up."

Chapter Text

"So…" Blue started off awkwardly.

"So what,” the young Water Tribe boy snapped angrily. 

“So what’s your plan after I smuggle you into the Fire Nation?”

Water Tribe, (Sokku, Soki? Suki talked about him all that time but she always said ‘her boyfriend’) scoffed. 

“As if I’d tell you, Assassin,” he sneered. 

Blue looked at Suki. 

“It’s, er, a work in progress. The main goal is for Aang to defeat the Fire Lord, and stop the War.” Suki said very convincingly. 

Defeat the Fire Lord and stop the war. Suki said it like it  was so simple, easy. Like the rest of the World hadn’t been trying to do the same thing for 100 years. Why Suki of all people thought a 12 year old boy could succeed where generals with 5 times his age with decades of experience, and entire armies at their disposal was beyond him. 

Sure the Avatar could bend all 4 elements, but the Fire Nation had been perfecting the art of war for a century, and Blue knew first hand how painful Ozai’s fire really was. The only reason he was still alive was because Ozai hadn’t hadn’t wanted to kill him. Just teach him a lesson. 

He looked over at Toph, trying to convey every bit of the incredulousness he was feeling into his next words.

“So they have No Clue what they're doing, huh.”

“Pretty much,” Toph said with a ‘what can you do’ shrug. You could teach them a bit of common sense, Toph .

“Do you even have a plan?” He questioned the rest of the group, burying his masked face in his hands. He was afraid of the answer.

Sikka, deciding to breath his vow of silence, spoke up.

“It’s a work in progress, ok?”

Blue sighed. A deal was a deal, and if he was being completely honest with himself (something he tried to actively avoid) he really did owe Suki for helping Jet and him out in Ba Sing Se. He and his boyfriend had been in a rough spot.

Still, with every passing second spent with this group, he could feel his already small will to live diminish. 

How did Suki and Toph stay sane hanging around these monkey-feathers?

Suki gave him a smile, and pecked Suzza on the check, and Toph looked at him with a wicked smirk. 

With a sinking feeling, he realized they hadn’t.

What had he gotten himself into?

Chapter Text

Sokka had been trying to figure Blue out for the past few weeks now, but hadn't gotten anywhere besides. 'Likes wearing masks', 'firebender, and 'friends with a lot of scary people', which, while successful in causing him to lose sleep, told him nothing about Blue as a person. 

He had tried and failed at the detective approach, so now he was just gonna be direct. 

"So, what's your deal anyways," Sokka asked.

"I'm sorry. What?" Maskie said.

"You. Deal. What." Sokka elaborated beautifully.

The other boy seemed to get it though, which was an unfortunate point in his favor. 

"Ohhhhh. Well, right now at least, I'm in it for the money. And for Suki and Toph of course. And most importantly, because my boyfriend would kill me if he found out that I had the chance to support the group most likely to actually beat the Fire Nation and I didn't take it. Mainly that, since I'm not actually getting paid to do this." Blue forced out in a rush. 

"Really?" Sokka questioned. "You're risking life and limb to smuggle the Avatar and his friends, a known fugitive of the Fire Nation I may add, into the heart of the Nation. Because your boyfriend would kill you if you didn't."

Sokka didn't phrase it like a question, but Blue still nodded.

"You don't even like our plan!" He felt the need to add.

"That's because you don't actually have a plan", Blue said. "And again, I would be actually murdered."

Fair enough. Sokka could understand not wanting to die by the hand of an S.O. Still, he had expected the firebending assassin's plans to be a bit more nefarious.

Chapter Text

It wasn't long before Zuko discovered that the mighty Avatar, protector of all four nations, bringer of peace, etc. Was at heart just a hyperactive 12 year old boy. 

Which made sense since he was in fact, just that. So when Suki and Toph revealed the big secret plan to top the Fire Nation was just a wish list, he wasn't surprised as he wished he was.

The only problem with knowing this was that now he had options besides take them there and watch them fail. 

A) let them do their plan and probably all die. 

B) help them make an actual plan, not his strong suit. He mainly just winged it and hoped for the best 

C) go kill the Fire Lord Himself in the hope the political fallout wasn't as bad as he knew it would be. 

For the last one he would have to find Jet, since his boyfriend had threatened him with bodily harm and possibly death, probably death, if Zuko ever killed his dad without him. 

Currently, he was leaning more towards A, simply because he was tired of his life getting derailed by spirits, Avatars, or anything else supernatural. Unfortunately for him, he still had a shred of a conscience, and that conscience balked at leading a 12 year old and his adolescent friends to death, which kind of put A out of the running, at least until he can be sure that the avatar wouldn't immediately die upon facing his father. Stupid conscience.

Plan B required too much work and foresight, neither of which were his strengths.

Which left Plan C. Kill his father. Yay.

He really needed to get Jet, and probably needed to talk to Azula again if there was to be any sort of Fire Nation when Ozai was gone. 

Chapter Text

The torches flickered all around June, casting longer and shorter shadows with each passing breath. The already haunted feel of the bar had successfully gotten even more haunted. 

Suddenly, all of the torches went out.

Footsteps echoed through the empty bar, and June could feel someone moving closer and closer.

All at once, the torches flamed back to life, tall, blue flames nearly burning her ceiling.

The light illuminated the yellow eyes and pale face of the princess of the Fire Nation.

"Hello June. Now, where's the Avatar," Azula asked. 

 "I'm doing great kid, thanks for asking. And no I haven't been seriously injured in your absence," June said gruffely. 

"You sound like Suki," Azula said with a scrunched up nose.

June sighed. The kid was right, she did sound like Suki when she was greeted with a knife or harsh words. Still, based on the dramatic entrances Azula always insisted on making, the sarcasm was valid. 

"Hi Azula. You're back from Ba Sing Se early," June greeted. "Anyways, yes, Blue left with the Avatar and the rest of Suki's group to do something. Infiltrate the Fire Nation I think."

"Are they going to kill the Fire Lord?" 

"The Avatar's a monk. Doesn't seem likely that he will. Pretty sure Suki at least won't let that happen. And it's very likely that Blue and that freedom fighter boyfriend of his will cook something up that results in a tragic accident for the Fire Lord." 

Azula sniffed.

"Good. I don't want anything to stand between me and the throne."

"What about your mission?" June asked curiously.

"My mission to capture the Avatar ends with father's life. I checked before I left on it." Azula said with a smirk.

Of course she knew this. She checked, double checked, triple checked everything. June knew it came with the turf of people wanting to kill you 24/7. On slow nights she wondered if she should be concerned to find the paranoid trait in someone so young, before deciding it was truely none of her business.

"Well, better hope he dies than, don't we princess."

Azula's smirk widened into a smile that looked terrifyingly genuine.

"Oh don't worry. He will"

June shook her head and moved from where they had been standing to behind the bar, picking up a wash rag and throwing it at Crown Princess Azula of the Fire Nation.

"Get to work. You can scheme after your shift ends."

"You don't even pay me!" An indignant voice called.

June closed her eyes. What evil had she done in the past life to be stuck with not one, but two moody firebenders.

Chapter Text

Truth be told, Azula was expecting Blue and Jet to hunt her down sooner or later. 

After all, one didn't just sneak into the Dragon of the West’s city without its guardian spirits knowing. She probably would have been fine, heavily surveyed the entire time yes, but fine. But then the Red Flowers had decided to show up. 

Turns out the sake June asked her to transport wasn't sake, but instead one of her favorite poisons.

Basically Azula had accidentally gotten the boys into a giant fight. Suki had helped them out, and now they were pissed at her. Which is why, when the first words out of Jet's mouth weren’t threats but a proposal, she was a bit surprised. 

****

"Congrats you made it out of the fire into the fire nation undetected,” Blue said gesturing at the barren strip of land their boat had just landed on, "Behold, its glory."

Katara and Aang looked around anxiously, while Toph started climbing out of the boat, anxious herself to get back on dry land. Sokka looked at Suki and then started a half half hearted slow clap.

“Trust me, it gets worse,” Blue said with a smirk. 

It was a lot less reassuring than he thought.

****

"Blue's going to kill the Fire Lord", Jet said in a casual voice as he helped her wash down. Dunes tables. 

"Duh," Azula replied, skating her hands over the surface of the table Jet had just washed, holding fire hot enough to evaporate the water left behind.

Jet had the gall to raise an eyebrow and surprise and really what did he expect her to say? Anyone who knew blue knew of his hatred for Ozai and Azula had heard of many bets on when he was going to off him. Why she had started a few herself.

"He wants to talk to you about the line of succession."

“What line of succession? General Ira publicly denounced himself as heir to the throne even before he took the walled city, and he won't leave his fortress for anything. Bhutan is long dead and both Zuko and my mother are long gone. And also most likely dead unless they somehow managed to evade capture for years and start a new life. I highly doubt that happened. That happens. That just leaves me, Crown Princess Azula.”

She was confused about why Blue wanted to talk to her. She knew he basically lived under a rock but even he had to know the history of the royal family. Everyone did. 

“Are you even still Crown Princess after all this happened?” Jet asked skeptically. 

Azula glared.

“Yes,” she said haughtily. 

He gave her an unimpressed look. 

“Well, no, not currently. But once he dies, I will be. I checked before I left.”

Jet mumbled something that sounded a lot like June's response. Azula decided they were complimenting her organization and planning. 

“Anyways, he wants to meet in person, but he’s kinda tied up at the moment.”

“Literally?” it was always a good idea to clarify with Blue. 

“Surprisingly no,” Jet answered.

“Then what's he doing that he can't visit me himself?” Azula questioned. 

“Well, he's kind of escorting the Avatar and his crew into the fire nation.” 

“He's not just going to off the Fire Lord himself? Why involve the Avatar?”

“The Avatar, keeper of peace, protector of all four nations. Who else do you think is going to kill the Fire Lord?”

“Blue? A literal assassin?”

“Yeah, and how do you think that would go? If you ever got the throne you'd never have legitimacy. Everyone will think that you hired him.”

Unfortunately, Jet had a point. Still, Azula wasn’t in the habit of giving up, and she wasn’t going to quit now. 

“Well, I mean, I’m not going to stop him.”

“Yeah, that's the problem. Your citizens aren't going to accept you for that.”

Drat, another point in his favor.  

“It's all over our history, though.”

Fire Nation history was painted in red, and it wasn’t because it was a cool aesthetic. The amount of blood spilled just between the royal family could probably fill a large pond, or maybe even a small lake. 

“Yeah, but a military coup hasn't happened in years has it?” Jet questioned, like an educated individual. 

Azula conceded him another point. A hundred or so years have passed since the last military takeover, probably more.

Sozin claimed that he got his throne legitimately. And well, all the history books that would dispute that were long gone. So his story held.

“Fine, him working with the Avatar makes some sense. But isn’t the boy a monk? Is he really going to be able to kill Ozai?” 

Jet looked impressed that she had caught on to that fact, which. Rude. She was the (former) Crowned Princess, and she had been trained in strategy since her early childhood. One of the first rules of combat was to get as much information about a potential enemy as possible. 

Granted, she wasn’t keen to make an enemy of the Avatar, but, well, things didn’t always go according to plan. She had done her research. 

“No, Blue doesn’t think he will. Which is one of the reasons he wants to talk to you.”

Interesting. 

Her people would only barely accept the Fire Lord’s death at the hands of the Avatar, but if the Avatar was unwilling….

‘What in the world have you planned Blue?’ She thought.

Outwardly she said, “Ok then. Pack your bags, I guess we’re headed to the Fire Nation. Home sweet home here I come.”

“You do know neither of us have any bags to pack, right?”

“Shut up.”

Chapter Text

“Ok so, mission Kill Sparky’s Dad is officially a go,” Toph said to the ragtag group gathered around the bright blue fire.

“Toph!” Blue, rather CROWN PRINCE Zuko of the FIre Nation, said in a scandalized voice. 

The girl in question just punched Zuko in the arm.

“Stop booing me I’m right,” she said angrily.

“No no, as much as I hate to admit it, my brother has a point,” Crown Pincess Azula said. Because apparently that was something she did now. 

“Thank you,” Zuko said.

“It’s much to long, and far to conspicuous.”

“Azula no,” Blue whispered disparingly.

“Have any other recommendations then oh mighty Princess?” Jet asked. 

“Yes as a matter of fact I do,” she paused for dramatic effect, but all she heard was a muttered ‘of course you do’ from Jet. SHe sent him a glare and continued. Haters gonna hate after all.

“We should call it a ‘family road trip’.

“Princess, hate to break it to you, but we don’t exactly give off Fire Nation vibes,” his darling Suki said.

Azula waved her hand dissmisively. “We’ll just say that we’re from the colonies.”

“Literally none of us look alike.”

“We’re adopted?”

Chapter Text

"I'm totally gonna hate myself for asking this, but how did you and Jet meet anyways?"

"Prison."

"Can you elaborate on that?"

"We were gay and did crime. The Earth Kingdom is homophobic."

"Pretty sure you got thrown in jail because you stole from the governer of Ba Sing Se Sparky."

"Usually? Yes, but in this case it was actually because the Earth Kingdom is homophobic. I was caught kissing one of the General's sons."

"Really?"

"Yep."

***

Zuko and Jet meet, as all good gay vigilantes do, in prison.

Ba Sing Se's underground torture chamber prison to be exact.

They took one look at the other, and the petty lads they were, decided that they hated each other.

The Di Li, in their infinite wisdom, picked up on the fact that the boys who had never met before were now mortal enemies, because they're classy like that. And also because it was very hard to mistake two 15 year olds screaming bloody murder at each other as adoration.

They decided to kill two turtleducks with one stone, and stuck the criminals in the same cell, hoping that the boys would do their job for them and kill each other. Less taxpayer money wasted that way, and a handy excuse too.

***

Suki, the interrupting interrupter that she was, interrupted their story.

"I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that you and Jet hated each other on first meeting Blue, you guys are way too sappy for that."

Jet, the loving boyfriend that he was, chimed in.

"Oh no. We despised each other. Probably would have started brawling the moment we got into the new cell if we weren't smart."

****

Teenage boys are not smart.

Or, well, they can be very intelligent. They're also just very dumb.

The guards left, and the boys immediately lunged at the other, grappling on the floor and trying to tear hair out.

A long time later, when both parties were completely covered in bruises and scrapes, they flopped down on the stone slabs the Di Li called beds.

"So, why are you in here?" Jet asked out of sheer boredom.

"I'm gay. You?"

"Hmm, me too. Also apparently blowing up part of the palace is illegal now, since Governor Iroh is a filthy dictator and doesn't believe in freedom."

Zuko nodded. This tracked with what he knew of his very estranged war criminal uncle, and also blowing up a palace really should be considered legal. How else were people supposed to have a say in what was going on in their government?

"That sucks," he added eloquently. "Anyways, wanna break out of here and do more crime?"

Jet sat up and turned his aching body to look at him.

"Of course," he said with a wicked smile.

****

"And thus our career as Ba Sing Se's greatest vigilantes was born."

Aang wiped a tear from his eye.

"That's so beautiful guys!"

"Thank you, thank you."

Chapter Text

The Fire Lord does not die in a grand spectacle after a stunning fight. 

He does not die in a room full of all those he had hurt staring down at him in disgust. 

He dies in his bed, in the middle of the night, alone. 

It is a mercy he does not deserve, but it is one he is granted anyways.

Zuko kills his father, twin Dao crossing at his neck, and cutting in a well practiced motion.

He does not feel anything. 

He thinks he should.

He wipes his blades, and exits the room as silently as he came in.

****

Dawn rises on the Fire Nation. 

Its citizens do not know it yet, but they have a new leader.

The golden light of the breaking day feels like a warm embrace. Like a promise.

'It will be okay.' Agni says to her sacred children.

****

All Hail Fire Lord Azula, Heir to the Dragon Throne and Ruler of Agni's Blessed land.