Agni's Children

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/49816063.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Categories: Gen, M/M
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Relationship: Roku/Sozin (Avatar)
Characters: Roku (Avatar), Sozin (Avatar), Kuzai (Original Character), Miss Yu
(Original Character)
Additional Tags: Mutual Pining, Mutual dumbassery, Slow Burn, Humanizing the evil
murder grandpa!!! Yay!!!, Roku and Sozin go on a field trip and acquire
a child and that prevents a war!! and genocide!!!, Accidental baby
(youngin') acquisition, Dadku and Dadzin (Dad Roku and Dad Sozin),
OC as a plot device, Fix-it fic, Teaching Sozin that imperialism is BAD
through the power of love and friendship ❤, ← If you think I'm kidding
think again, maybe ooc???, Some political shenanagins, Some Flower
Language as well so look out for that!, Pre-Canon (by a LOT), Grown
Up Rozin, Oblivious Sozin, and Oblivious Roku, Repressed Sozin, Gay
Yearning (as is necessary), More Tags to be added and warnings may be
altered as the fic updates, Childhood Friends to Enemies(?) to Lovers,
Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-09-02 Updated: 2024-02-14 Words: 47,757 Chapters:
9/?
 Agni's Children
by Chaotic_Tired_Bastard

Summary

Roku is finally back. He's back after 12 years; 12 years of mastering the elements, 12 years of
honing his power, and 12 years of being away from Sozin. Now he's back, and he's starting to
leave Sozin again. Desperate to keep his only friend by his side, Fire Lord Sozin joins Roku
on a trip to the Southern Earth Kingdom to investigate a mysterious duo of benders, a
Firebender and a Waterbender, who have been terrorizing a mountain passage between two
towns. However, on the trip, an opportunity arises but multiple things start to go wrong. Will
Sozin and Roku's friendship weather these issues and come out stronger than ever, or will
they break apart?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update schedule undetermined

Notes

CW for slight insecurity, mentioned/hinted death (minor character), and mentioned violence

If I missed any CWs, please tell me and I will update the warnings
 Chapter 1
Chapter Notes

CW for slight insecurity, mentioned/hinted death (minor character), and mentioned

violence

If I missed any CWs, please tell me and I will update the warnings

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Roku was drifting away. Sozin knew this—he could see it all as clear as day, as if it were
scrawled across a scroll that had been thrust in his hands when they had already been full,
sending everything else tumbling down. He could see it in the way Roku’s eyes unfocused
when they were talking, staring into the distance as their conversation lapsed; he could see it
in the way that they started spending less time together, Roku opting to spend more time with
Ta Min instead of Sozin; he could see it in the way his place in Roku’s life was slowly getting
smaller and smaller until it was gone, vanished as if he had never really been there in the first
place.

It was terrifying. It chilled him to the bone in a way nothing else had. Roku had been his
friend for so long, his one and only connection to a life not flooded with paperwork and
meetings and official decrees. He was his everything. Losing that precious connection, losing
Roku, was almost akin to Sozin losing his mind.

He couldn’t do anything, either. He couldn’t intercede on his own behalf. He couldn’t hang
onto Roku’s arm and whine like he had when they were children; he couldn’t beg for Roku to
ignore Ta Min and spend more time with him, even if he wanted to so very badly. Roku was
allowed to have others who weren’t Sozin. Roku was allowed to… cherish people who
weren’t Sozin. Had Roku ever even cherished Sozin in the first place– cared for him in the
way that Sozin achingly, desperately cared for him?

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Sozin’s days in his youth had been monotonous and dull, full of paperwork and boring
training and lessons to prepare him for his eventual duty as Fire Lord. Roku, his sweet friend
Roku, had been his lifeline. Their friendship had been the sole reason that Sozin hadn’t done
as his cousin Mingyan had when faced with such large amounts of responsibility and turned
to the bottle to soothe his worries.

Being around Roku, talking to him, laughing with him (and half of the time at him) was…
nice. Roku made him feel calm, let him forget who he was for a while and let him be a person
in a way that the court and his family never could. Roku’s presence had gone from ’nice’ to
’needed’ as Sozin had matured, as he had grown older and started to take on more and more
and needed more and more time to be Sozin, not Prince Sozin of the Fire Nation or The To-
Be Fire Lord Sozin, but just Sozin.Roku had always been there, ready to spar or study or even
sneak him out of the palace to spend a night at a festival, letting them whittle the night’s
hours away staring at awesome displays of bending from the travelling performers.

They had been inseparable, tied together on the eve of their births and bonded even further by
their friendship, a relationship that fate had forged in iron and blood. Until they weren’t. Until
they couldn’t be. Until Roku was pronounced the Avatar and needed to leave, to travel and
train. Until Sozin had to be left behind.

It was supposed to be their birthday; they were supposed to get cheesy presents and too many
bowls of noodles. Sozin wasn’t supposed to have his only friend ripped away from him. Roku
wasn’t supposed to have his world turned upside-down.

When Roku left, Sozin made a promise to himself. He promised himself that he would wait,
and he did. He waited for him on their first birthday apart. He waited for him when his father
got sick. He waited for him on their fifth birthday apart. He waited for him when he was
crowned Fire Lord. He promised himself he would wait, and he did. And it hurt so badly.
Missing him hurt so badly.

When Roku finally came back, Sozin had just gotten out of a meeting and had been hiding
waiting for a report on the agricultural situation in the southernmost region of the Fire
Nation’s islands. Roku had walked in, a smile on his face and his almond-brown eyes alight
with joy and power, his voice spilling from his lips like an idle dragon spitting lazy flames.
Sozin had felt the ache in his chest deepen at the lines of maturity on his friend’s face, the
handsome cut of his cheekbones and the newfound confidence pouring off of his being.

They were not the same as they had been when they had parted. They both had grown–
grown into the men they had to be and, in Sozin’s case, grown all too aware of the desperate
loneliness that had taken root when they had started maturing and had bloomed in their
separation. Though, despite the time past and their new lives, they were still friends. Roku
was Sozin’s friend and he was his. Or at least they had been.

Now, Roku was leaving him again. Not outright, like a normal person would leave their Fire
Lord, but bit by bit. It hurt even more than when he had left for those twelve years– even
more than it had hurt to have nothing from Roku for those twelve years, not even a letter.
Roku hadn’t really left entirely when he had to leave to train– Sozin had been comforted by
the fact that Roku would eventually come back. He had to eventually come back. This time,
he had no such assurances. If Roku left now… would he ever come back?

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

That day had been like any other day Sozin had suffered as Fire Lord—meeting-filled,
document-filled, and angry ambassador-filled. Sozin groaned as he sat down heavily next to
Roku in one of the many gardens of the Fire Nation Royal Palace, thwacking his head into
his hand. He had been somewhat panicked when he couldn’t find his friend at first, but now
that he had, he felt his entire body relax. Roku had that kind of effect on him.
“Rough day?” Roku hummed, glancing over at Sozin with a peaceful look on his face as he
tossed breadcrumbs into the small pond in front of them for the tiny turtleducklings.

“You have no idea.” Sozin grumbled, closing his eyes. “I swear, my life will be perfect if I
never see another Ba Sing Se ambassador again.”

Roku chuckled and Sozin felt his hand pat his back comfortingly. “I wouldn’t know what the
people of Ba Sing Se are like; I trained nearer to Omashu than I did to the Earth Kingdom
Capital,” he said, no doubt smiling that Agni-blessed smile that made Sozin’s chest feel
fluttery for some odd reason.

Sozin sighed, lifting his head to stare forlornly into the pool. He looked tired and he had a
small amount of ink on his crown, which he wiped off with his sleeve. He had gotten a rather
large amount of ink on the front of his robe, which he couldn’t wash off. “Then let me give
you some advice, Roku– never trust a Ba Sing Se ambassador with an ink pot after you reject
one of their… suggestions. It won’t go well,” he said bitterly, frowning at his reflection.

He could see Roku’s reflection beside his own, and he looked to be barely containing
laughter. His face was all screwed up, his cheeks were slowly turning red, and he looked to
be biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing. How could a man go from
being like a serene statue to a mischievous child so quickly?

“A-And why is that?” Roku managed to choke out, his usually steady voice pitching high at
the end of his question. If Sozin weren’t so fond of Roku, he would have banned him from
the capital already.

Sozin turned to Roku, the fierce scowl on his face and the dark ink stain on the front of his
robe on display, and that apparently did it for Roku. He burst into laughter, not even
bothering to hide the delighted look on his face nor the way his shoulders shook with mirth.
Sozin frowned even further and Roku only laughed harder. Roku tried to stutter out
something, probably some sort of childish teasing or slapdash excuse, but he was laughing
too hard for it to come out as anything other than jumbled syllables and sounds.

While Sozin was disgruntled at the fact that Roku was currently laughing at him to his face,
he couldn’t help but try to imprint this picture onto his mind permanently; Roku in the throes
of joy, his head thrown back as he laughed like he was a teenager again. His cheeks were
flushed a rosy pink and there were small tears beading in the corners of his eyes, glittering
like diamonds. He looked so very happy. Sozin’s chest hurt.

Finally, it became a bit too long to stare and Sozin knew he had to do something before it
became awkward. Roku was still laughing, but it had devolved into senseless giggles that still
rendered him unintelligible. Sozin made a split-second decision, probably one of his worse
ones, and pushed Roku into the pond, watching the water splash and the turtleducklings
swarm his friend, all of them squeaking their tiny quacks while their mother tried her best to
herd them away.

Roku sat up, his surprised face dripping wet and his robes soaked through. Sozin allowed
himself a little giggle at the sight, a small smile making its way onto his face. That smile
didn’t last long, though, as Roku swept his arm and the pond grabbed Sozin by the arm,
tugging him in like he was a rag-doll. He let out a yelp and tried to stand up, but the pond
tugged him back down. “Roku!” He yelped, trying his best to break free of the water that was
currently covering him like a very alive, very insistent blanket.

Roku laughed and, oh, that wouldn’t do. Sozin drew his hand back and splashed Roku the
best he could, letting out a laugh as Roku spat pond water out of his mouth. From there it
devolved into a full on splash fight, Roku using his waterbending to one-up every splash
Sozin managed to get in. “No fair!” Sozin cried as Roku bent about half of the pond onto
him, turtleducklings floating atop the wave and quacking in excitement while their mother
chased after them, squawking insistently.

“What, I can’t splash you but you can splash me?” Roku retorted, smiling crookedly as the
mother turtleduck swam to float beside him, watching her offspring play with a rather
resigned look in her coal-black eyes.

Sozin yelped as Roku bent the water around him to rock back and forth, ensuring that he
wouldn’t be able to leave any time soon. “Of course not! You can’t disrespect your Fire Lord
like this!” Sozin cried, his words structured to be commanding but completely negated by the
giddy smile on his face.

“Ah, but the Avatar can!” Roku laughed, a devious smile on his face.

Sozin glared and splashed at him, missing by about a foot (Roku’s fault– he probably
waterbent it away). Roku cackled and the pond swept over Sozin again, leaving him dripping
wet and with a turtleduckling sat on the top of his head, quacking joyfully at its new perch.
Sozin shook his head, spitting out strands of hair as he attempted to remove his newfound
passenger. The turtleducking squeaked with joy, but did not move.

It was then that Sozin realised that his hair had come out of its topknot and was hanging
around his shoulders like thick, dark cloth. His crown no longer adorned his head.

Normally, if he lost his crown he would be panicked to the point of anger and would have
started yelling, but he felt no distress. Instead, he felt light. He felt like he was a little kid
again, playing around with Roku and pointedly ignoring any and all attempts made by his
tutors to get him back into his classes. Roku looked similarly happy, the perfect grin on his
face glowing like the sun. Sozin could have stared at him for the rest of his life.

“Sozin, it seems as if you’ve taken a disciple,” Roku said teasingly, and the turtleduckling
atop his head quacked in agreement.

Sozin tried to muster up a scowl, even the slightest slant to his eyebrows that could indicate
anger or annoyance, and came up empty. He couldn’t scowl at Roku now, not when
exhilaration and joy still ran in his veins. The turtleduckling quacked again and Sozin
plucked it out of his hair, settling it back in the water. The little thing didn’t seem all too
happy at its relocation, but swam back to its mother with its siblings, quacking all the while.

“I have no time to be a master to anything or anyone, especially little turtleduckings,” he

said, trying his best to look regal in all his waterlogged glory. By the look on Roku’s face, he
was failing spectacularly. “I’m too busy fighting unfair fights with the Avatar to tend to a
disciple.”

Roku gasped theatrically, slapping his hand over his chest and staring at Sozin with a
flabbergasted look on his face. “Me??? Fighting an unfair fight??? Impossible– the monks
would never allow me to even imagine such a thing!” He declared, fixing Sozin with an
exaggerated look of disbelief.

Sozin knew this was all in good fun– Roku’s face was so much thicker than his own, which
was, dreadfully, rather thin. Sozin had no wiggle room to be shameless, whereas Roku could
get away with so much more as the Avatar. “Ah, but the monks aren’t here! So you are free to
be nefarious and cruel to your poor, sodden Fire Lord!” Sozin pointed out triumphantly,
grinning.

Roku hummed in agreement, his smile fading as he looked down at himself. “We should
probably get cleaned up– it wouldn’t do well for either of us if someone saw us so sopping
wet and asked as to why,” he said, grimacing at how his sleeve flopped around when he
waved his hand.

Sozin grimaced and nodded. He didn't want anyone to see him like this—the Fire Lord,
sopping wet and play-splashing with the Avatar. His reputation would dissolve in an instant.

Roku rose out of the pond, waterbending himself onto dry land and also pulling all the water
out of his clothes, the bastard. He then moved his arms and Sozin found himself being
carried out of the pond by a tendril of water. It was… uncanny. The water felt solid and yet so
very not where it was wrapped around his waist, caressing him so softly that it almost felt
like a hug or the touch of a lover.

Sozin quickly banished that thought from his mind, filling his head with paperwork that had
been done and needed to be done and foreign policies. He could not allow himself to think so
impetuously, so recklessly, so inappropriately. He was the Fire Lord, and that meant he had
no time or space to pursue love outside of a professional setting, much less ponder it because
of something Roku, his best friend, did.

Roku’s water arm-thing set Sozin down on dry land, patting his shoulder before retreating
back into the pond. Sozin opened his mouth to thank his friend for the gesture, but Roku held
up a finger to silence him and then pulled his hands back, as if he were pulling a sheet, and
the water that had weighed him down was pulled out of his clothes. The blobs of liquid hung
in the air for a few seconds before Roku sent them back into their source, the droplets hitting
the pond rather loudly.

Sozin looked down at himself in surprise; he would have thought that he would be at least
somewhat damp, but he was completely dry. His silk robes were smooth and cool against his
skin, completely free of any uncomfortable moistness and with no ink stain. He reached a
hand up to feel his hair, thinking that at least that waterbending couldn’t dry fully, but was
pleasantly surprised to find that his hair was dry as well. “So… that’s what waterbending can
do…” he marvelled, looking at Roku with barely concealed awe and gratitude.
Roku grinned and spread his arms, as if accepting praise. “Yes, yes, I’m amazing, thank you
so much, Sozin. I’ll take ten silver pieces for the drying service and then five more for your
hair,” he said jokingly, but his gaze remained far away, as if he were no longer there.

Sozin snorted and held his hair out of his face to fix Roku with a playful glare. “I’ll give you
twenty if you get me back my crown,” he said, trying to regain his composure. Damn, when
did his hair get so thick? This was why he always kept it up in a topknot– it was nigh
unmanageable when it wasn’t being held up in some sort of hairdo.

Roku’s eyes widened, the playful look in his eyes replaced with something that burned far too
bright for Sozin to name. “Oh, Agni– sorry, Sozin, I didn’t realise– shit–” He quickly turned
back to the pond and pulled a hand back sharply, like he was getting ready to stab someone.
A bubble of gold-shimmering water shot out of the pond and into his other hand, which was
already open. The water trickled away to reveal Sozin’s crown, the golden flame, band, and
pin glimmering in the dappled sunlight. Roku was about to hand them back, his hand already
stretching out, before he paused. Sozin raised an eyebrow, still holding part of his hair away
from his face, silently worried about his friend. “Is there something wrong?”

Roku blinked and then shook his head, as if he were trying to dislodge a leaf that had gotten
stuck in his hair. “No, nothing’s wrong. I just don’t think I’ve seen you with your hair down
before,” he said, a strange cadence to his words.

Sozin couldn’t keep his face from turning red and he snatched his crown back, holding the
metal in his hand in a way that was probably too tight. “It’s difficult to manage when it’s
down. As Fire Lord, I’m expected to maintain a certain level of professionalism– I can’t go
gallivanting about with my hair down like a young maiden,” he muttered, very pointedly not
looking Roku in the eye, suddenly wishing that Roku would stop playing around. No, no, no.
Bad heart, bad brain.

Roku chuckled. “You’re saying you aren’t a young maiden? But you’re so pretty!” He said, a
teasing grin on his face as he strolled towards Sozin, poking his shoulder.

Sozin barely kept himself from exploding into a ball of flames, glaring at the ground as he
recited the first twenty laws to have been ratified in the Fire Nation– functionally useless
information that would distract himself from the fact that Roku had called him pretty. Roku
called him pretty. Anger and joy at being called such a thing, by Roku of all people, swirled
in his chest, ugly and dark like a thunderstorm hovering just above. “Slander me any further
and I’ll have you thrown in the dungeons,” Sozin snapped, turning away from his friend
sharply.

He couldn’t afford to take this friendly teasing as serious, even if some part of him wanted to
so very much. Roku liked to joke around, even after his twelve years abroad. He joked
around a lot less now, but he still joked enough that you couldn’t take everything he said
seriously. Sozin could not allow himself to be distracted by thinking that his friend could
even possibly believe that he was… pretty. If anything, it was Roku who was the pretty one
out of the two of them.

A hot coil of shame curled up in Sozin’s chest, bright like fire and twice as painful. Shame at
believing Roku for a split second, shame at himself for being weak and foolhardy enough to
care, shame at himself for allowing this situation to happen in the first place. “I have other
things to attend to. I trust that you can handle yourself without my presence.”

Sozin then stalked off, hair held back in one hand and his crown in the other. He didn’t look
back; he couldn’t look back. Roku didn’t follow.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Sozin was sitting at his usual desk in the extensive library of the Fire Nation Royal Palace,
paperwork piled to the left and right of him and his hair back up in its usual topknot. He had
a report in one hand, the other settled on his desk, ready to grab a brush and mark down any
notes he needed. The trade routes with the Earth Kingdom, especially the ones leading to
Omashu, were suffering from more and more attacks from bandits. He had a letter to the
Queen of Omashu regarding the attacks from last month that had yet to be sent sitting in the
desk in his quarters, alongside a staggering amount of letters to and from various nobles and
a stack of letters that he had gotten from the Earth King, Jialun. The man was extremely
stupid, proven by his ignorantly-worded letters, but there was something in the way he wrote
that unsettled Sozin.

Sozin returned his thoughts to the report in front of him, focusing on the characters and
forcing himself to get back to work. Most of the attacks recorded had been from non-benders,
a few renegade Earthbenders who were driven off easily, and one extremely drunk and lost
Waterbender. Sozin couldn’t help but chuckle when he read that; how did a Waterbender
outside of one of the poles manage to get that drunk and that lost?

Other than the trade routes to Omashu being disrupted, trading with the Earth Kingdom was
the same as ever. The bandit attacks could be deterred with some soldiers being added to the
Fire Nation trading troupes, two Firebenders and three non-benders per group; he had revised
the training for the Fire Nation Army soldiers a few months ago and was eager to see how the
new techniques would hold up to an in-field engagement. He noted this down on a spare
piece of paper alongside all the other things he wanted to implement.

He put down the brush and sighed, setting the report to the ’read’ side of his table and
picking up the next paper, frowning at the messy characters. He was just about to start on it
when he sensed someone’s approach, a small, flickering flame at the edge of his senses’
reach. He turned his head to see a servant hurrying his way, moving quickly but not exactly
running. “Your Majesty, I apologise if I’m interrupting you,” she said, bowing and holding it,
waiting to be given authorization to continue.

Sozin put the paper down and turned to her, internally thankful for the distraction. This
paperwork was killing him. “What is it?” He asked.

She straightened up before speaking, her amber eyes meeting Sozin’s golden eyes. “There is
a villager from the southern Earth Kingdom who has requested an audience with Your
Majesty and the Avatar,” she said, her gaze unwavering.

Sozin’s face didn’t change, but he was intrigued. Why would there be a villager from the
southern Earth Kingdom seeking an audience with him and Roku? “I will see them in the
throne room, thank you,” Sozin said, standing up. “And notify Avatar Roku that he is
needed.”

The servant bowed and left, leaving Sozin to walk to his throne room alone. It was a quiet
walk, occasionally disrupted by a servant coming across him and bowing, acknowledging
him before he dismissed them with a wave of his hand, letting them get back to whatever
they had been doing. Sozin liked quiet walks—they let him think and wander at the same
time, his feet taking him wherever they wanted to go as he walked his way through decisions
on trade disputes, new legislative proposals, and import-export balances. More often than not,
though, his feet would lead him to Roku’s old room. That didn’t help him think in the
slightest.

Sozin arrived at his throne room and sat down, glancing around the magnificent hall. It still
seemed only yesterday that his father was the one sitting on this throne, Sozin kneeling
before him and basking in his glory, listening to his lectures about the Fire Nation’s glory and
beauty. The throne still felt a bit too big for him at times, like it was looming over him,
casting him in his father’s shadow. He felt like a child playing dress-up.

Roku walked in, pulling Sozin out of his head, his head held high and his face perfectly
poised, the flawless picture of an all-powerful Avatar. He didn’t bow to Sozin at first—he
should never need to, Sozin thought to himself—but did so when he reached the secondary
podium, where a chair had been set up for him earlier. He bowed and then he sat, his posture
perfect and his entire being radiating power. Sozin felt a little overshadowed by his friend’s
presence, but ignored the feeling and instead directed his attention to the person being shown
in.

A young man was waved in, looking a bit out of sorts. He was dressed in tattered, old clothes
in varying Earth Kingdom colours, the cloth stitched together and patched enough that it
looked less like it had been made from a textile and more like it had been cut from a
decorative quilt. His long hair was held back by a strip of thick, brown leather and he was
covered in a layer of dust that seemed to cloud around him with every step he took, like an
aura or a screen of fog tethered to one point. He bowed once, looking extremely nervous.
Roku must have noticed this, as his face went from ‘righteous and powerful Avatar’ to
‘understanding and sympathetic nobility’. Sozin made himself swear that he would not stare
at Roku for the entire meeting.

“What reason do you have for requesting an audience with me and Avatar Roku?” Sozin
asked, his voice commanding and overpowering in the silence of the hall.

The man jumped a bit, startled at how unexpectedly loud Sozin’s voice was, and Roku shot
him a disapproving look. Sozin unconsciously bristled at this, sitting up straighter and
slightly frowning. This was Roku’s first time watching him deal with outsiders– he had to be
stern and strict or they would not see him as a Fire Lord, but as lesser. It was a Fire Lord’s
place to be above his subjects, above his family, above it all so he could rule the Fire Nation
as it needed to be. There had to be a clean, clear line between a ruler and his subjects, and this
was one of the ways that Sozin and his father and his father’s father and so on would do so.

“Your Majesty,” the messenger started, bowing again as he spoke, “for a few months there
had been a delay in imports to the west my village, and the popular rumour was that a
Waterbender had taken up camp in the hillside path that borders my village and was attacking
anyone who passed through. Any traveller we met confirmed this, but it would have taken
months for any of us to reach either of the Poles, so we couldn’t do much about it. We don’t
have a very strong police force, so we couldn’t take care of it ourselves. That part, uh, is why
I asked for the Avatar to be here.”

Roku cocked an eyebrow in interest but remained silent. “Uh, the reason why I came to you,
your Majesty, is because a few weeks ago, another travelling party came to our village
through the hills, but they were badly burned. We helped as many as we could, and we did
manage to keep everyone alive, but a few were unable to move for a few days. All of them
said that they were attacked by both a Waterbender and a Firebender.” Roku’s eyebrows
raised and Sozin couldn’t help but do the same.

“The travelling group chose to continue their trading route, so they couldn’t tell you directly,
or really tell anyone, and we don’t have any means of communication with the rest of the
world other than direct messengers, so I volunteered to come and ask for help from the both
of you. Uh, and that is, if you would be so kind and generous to have this Firebender and
Waterbender removed? So our village won’t have to deal with this anymore?”

The man looked far too nervous, as if he had asked for his war-criminal father to receive a
royal pardon instead of asking for his village to be rid of a disruptive pair of benders. The
situation was unusual, though; the Southern Water Tribe and the Northern Water Tribe both
kept a tight grip on their Waterbenders, to the point where seeing an unattended Waterbender
anywhere that wasn’t the poles or the islands close to them was like stumbling upon a golden
crown in the middle of nowhere. Firebenders didn’t stray from the Fire Nation all too often
either, and people from the Fire Nation just didn’t travel in general unless it was important or
if they just wanted to; there was just no reason or need to.

It had been silent in the hall for quite some time as Sozin thought it over, long enough for
Roku to glance at him and raise an eyebrow either out of curiosity or impatience. Finally,
Sozin replied. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I would like to ask for Avatar
Roku’s stance on this before I proceed with my decision.”

Roku didn’t hesitate before speaking. “This could potentially be a delicate situation, with
both a Water Tribe citizen and the Fire Nation citizen being involved, but I see no need or
reason for your village to suffer from these rogue benders any further. I hope that Fire Lord
Sozin does not need me saying this to pass his own judgement,” Roku said, raising an
eyebrow at Sozin at the end of his statement.

Sozin felt a bit affronted. Did Roku think that he needed his verdict to think, as if he couldn’t
think for himself? A small flame of anger lit underneath his ribcage, threatening to overtake
his years and years of discipline and burn him to ashes. First Roku disapproves of his
greeting, and now he shows disdain for Sozin asking what he thought of the situation? Of
Sozin asking for his input? “I do not need your input to make decisions on my own, Avatar
Roku. The situation will be dealt with appropriately,” Sozin forced through gritted teeth,
hiding his fisted hands in his sleeves. Roku nodded in agreement.

The Earth Kingdom man jumped to his feet, reminding Sozin that he was there. “Oh, thank
you, your Majesty! Thank you, Avatar Roku! Thank you so much! I am forever in your
debt!” He cried, bowing over and over again.

Sozin nodded, acknowledging him. “You may leave. You will be fed, housed, and provided
with new clothing until you are able to make the trip back to your home village,” he said,
gesturing to the guards and servants waiting by the entrance to the hall to escort him out.

When he was gone, after several awkward smiles as he continued to thank Sozin and Roku to
the point where Sozin was starting to be concerned that he would faint from all the bowing he
was doing, Sozin finally let out the sigh he had been holding back and rubbed his brow, tired
from the stress of his day. Roku didn’t– he was perfectly fine, as always. Sozin rose first,
wanting to get back to his paperwork before he fell asleep; he didn’t need to see the sun to
know that it was almost dusk.

Roku rose right after him, straightening up to that unfairly attractive towering height that he
must have stolen from Sozin somehow. “Do you really have a plan? Or are you going to
throw me at the benders and consider it a job well done?” Roku asked, his tone teasing and
warm as they started to walk out of the hall.

Sozin deflated at his words, feeling foolish. Ah. So Roku wasn’t mocking him– he was trying
to joke in an improper situation and Sozin had taken it badly. “No, I’m going to throw you at
them with a stick and consider it a job well done,” Sozin replied, his face blank but his tone
not lacking its own humour.

Roku laughed and Sozin’s heart lightened, forgetting whatever rage he had harboured for him
in an instant and replacing it with overwhelming warmth. How could he stay mad at Roku?
“Seriously, though, do you have a plan? Do you want to send some soldiers with me, or will
you let me go alone?” Roku continued, his face dropping that smile that Sozin liked seeing so
very much and morphing into a mask of seriousness.

Sozin huffed a laugh, letting himself smile for a second before reverting back to his usual,
neutral face. “I’m not going to let you go alone, Roku,” Sozin said, quickening his pace to
walk just a little bit faster than his friend.

Roku sighed in resignation, closing his eyes for a few seconds. “Just as I suspected. Who will
be going with me?” He asked, looking forward, past Sozin as they walked out into the open
air, the dying sunlight blooming around them like flowers.

“Me.”

Roku stopped dead in his path, Sozin continuing on for a few more steps before he realised
his friend was no longer walking with him. He circled back, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
“Did I say something inappropriate?” Sozin asked, his hands loosely joined behind his back
as he came to a stop in front of the stunned Avatar.

Roku levelled him with an odd look, looking confused, terrified, and stupefied all at the same
time. Finally, he shook his head as if shaking away spiderfly webs and smiled, righting
himself. “I’m sorry, I thought you said that you were going to go with me. Which Lee are you
talking about?” He replied, his smile looking somewhat strained.
Sozin’s eyebrow was no longer raised in confusion, now more in suspicion. “I did say that I
was going to accompany you. Is there a problem with that?” Sozin asked.

Roku’s face fell from that strained smile to his earlier one, now more stupefied than ever.
“But… you’re the Fire Lord,” he said, as if Sozin were a child that needed this to be
explained.

“And I can take a week or a few more off; my advisors will be able to handle the nation for a
while in my absence. This is one of my citizens doing something that they have no reason to
do– I would like to see if there was a root cause or something else that led them to act in such
a way,” Sozin replied, brushing off Roku’s utterly confused tone and expression.

Roku sputtered, looking like he was mentally rereading each transcript that they had read
about being Fire Lord when they were young, going over each passage regarding vacations.
Sozin knew that there were none allowing the Fire Lord to take such lengthy “vacations”
outside of sickness and marriage celebrations, but what could anyone do? Everyone who
could have challenged his choice was dead, and Roku couldn’t really stop him.

“Sozin, I don’t think you should go with me. If you get hurt, what would happen to the Fire
Nation?” Roku pressed further, his voice rich with concern.

“I won’t get hurt. I can take care of myself, Roku, and if something does happen, you can
protect me. Of course, since you’re the Avatar, you should have some experience with that,”
Sozin said, smiling and bumping his elbow into Roku’s.

Roku didn’t look amused. “Sozin, I really think that this is a bad idea. I don’t think I can let
you go with me,” he said, frowning.

Sozin felt a bolt of disbelief shoot through him, lancing through his lungs and sticking
straight in his heart, leaving fiery licks of anger in its wake. Roku… didn’t think that he could
allow Sozin to go with him? What was he going to do– stab him? Club him? Tie him up and
leave him in his bedroom like a damsel in distress? Who was Roku to tell him, the Fire Lord,
where or where not to go? “I am not someone you can allow or prohibit to go with you,
Roku. I will go with you and that’s final, as both your Fire Lord and your friend,” Sozin said,
his voice firm.

Roku’s scowl deepened and Sozin thought for a single, tense moment that Roku would
actually prevent him from going, either by creating a situation in which he couldn’t leave the
palace or literally locking him in his room via his Avatar abilities. Then Roku sighed and
rubbed his forehead, looking like a stressed tutor, and Sozin knew he wouldn’t do anything.
“Fine,” he said, looking disgruntled, and a smile grew on Sozin’s face, blossoming like the
annual asters that lined the walkway they were currently occupying. “But we’re doing this
my way.”

“Very well,” Sozin agreed, still smiling as they resumed their walk. The scent of fresh air
enveloped him and his friend like a curtain of the finest silk as they walked, freeing his lungs
and mind. Maybe today wasn’t as bad as he had thought it was.
Chapter End Notes

Hey yall! I'm finally publishing this! I hope that yall enjoyed it, and please feel free to
leave a kudos and/or comment! If not, thank you for reading regardless, and I wish yall
an amazing day!
 Chapter 2
Chapter Notes

CW for fire, seasickness, vomiting, and insecurity

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The sky was dark and empty, letting the moon shine her ghostly silver light down on the Fire
Nation Capital and her occupants. Two of those occupants, however, were in quite a hurry to
leave. Roku and Sozin made their way through the alleys and streets surely, quickly, like a
jackal through high, wild reeds; they had to leave during the night, or Sozin wouldn’t even
make it past the artisan’s sector.

They would be missed, but not worried about. Sozin had left letters explaining his
disappearance with his top advisors and with a select few of his staff; everyone else thought
that Fire Lord Sozin had left to go and talk to Queen Guo Xun of Omashu and wouldn’t be
back in some while. Where Avatar Roku wanted to go, he would go; because of this, he
didn’t feel the need to leave any letters or notes behind, not for anyone. Sozin took some
selfish glee in knowing that he would have Roku all to himself for this trip, no way for him to
be squirrel-ratted away by inquisitive advisors or Ta Min.

Getting out of the Palace was easy, but leaving the Capital itself was more difficult. Sozin
knew of the security surrounding Royal Caldera City, as he had ordered the instalment of
many of the security checkpoints littered along the way in and out of the city, but if he had to
be stopped by yet another guard inquiring as to who he was, where he was from, and where
he was going, he was going to burn himself into a crisp.

“You’re looking rather aggravated,” Roku hummed as they walked away from what felt like
their ten-millionth stop by a soldier.

“I keep reminding myself that all these security measures are so there’s no assassins slipping
in and out, and to help catch criminals and the sort, but I swear I will set something on fire if
I have to talk to yet another person this late at night,” Sozin hissed, gripping the
badgermoose leather strap of his bag tightly.

Roku chuckled, looking to the side to gaze at the night sky as they walked down the path
Sozin had carved into the side of the volcano, long and already slightly worn down with use
by the civilian population going to and from the richer part of the Fire Nation capital. “I don’t
count, right? I’d hate for you to set something on fire on my account,” he said, his eyes
gazing up at the stars.

The moon was full, so there was no reason to hold a fire to show their path, and the pale light
cast an almost ethereal glow on Roku’s frame. He looked almost like a heavenly enlightened
spirit, descended from the Spirit World to walk amongst the mortals and live amongst their
lowly towns and cities, clothed in the clumsy textiles of a commoner when he should have
been clothed in silk so fine it felt like water on his skin. “No, you count. I set your hair on fire
three checkpoints ago,” Sozin replied, hoping his stare came across as scathing yet playful
instead of distracted and awestruck.

Roku yelped and his hands flew to his hair, patting frantically for a few moments before he
realised it was a rather obvious lie. “For that, I should actually set your hair on fire,” he
groaned, shooting Sozin a quick, insincere glare.

“You won’t,” Sozin replied, smiling.

Roku cocked an eyebrow, bringing a finger up between them, and a small flame flickered to
life at the tip of it. Sozin’s eyes caught on it, his expression very quickly morphing from one
of smug satisfaction to cautious hesitancy. “You won’t.”

Roku grinned evilly and moved his hand closer to Sozin’s unadorned topknot, waggling the
finger threateningly. Sozin yelped and jumped away, glaring at his friend. “Don’t you dare!”
He hissed, batting at Roku’s hand in an attempt to put the small flame out.

Roku laughed and prepared another pass, but a light up ahead stopped him. It was a Fire
Nation Soldier, one hand holding a flame as they walked toward the two, a neutral expression
on their face. Sozin scowled. Roku smelled burning leather and sighed.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

The boat rocked to the side again and Roku seemed to rock alongside it, leaning with its
movement and looking thoroughly unbothered. Sozin gripped the rail like it was his only
lifeline and fought back the urge to hurl. “Why are we travelling like this? Can’t you just fly
us around with your Avatar powers or something of the like?” He gritted out, feeling woozier
and woozier with each word he spoke.

Roku chuckled, flashing Sozin a grin. “If I could fly us around with my Avatar powers, don’t
you think I would be flying everywhere instead of walking?” He replied.

Sozin groaned and then groaned again as the ship rocked to the other side, making the Fire
Lord lean on the rail like it was the only thing keeping him from falling to his knees, which it
very well could have been. “This is why I never travel outside of the Fire Nation,” he griped,
clenching his jaw. “Boats are the worst thing to have ever been invented.”

Roku tutted, shaking his head. “Oh, if you don’t like this, then you definitely wouldn’t like
how the Air Nomads get around. They have these gliders and Sky Bison; riding on a Sky
Bison is like being on a moving platform—something more common in the Earth Kingdom
—but you’re flying and you can feel that you’re flying and it’s amazing, but I think that you
would hate it,” Roku said, smiling at Sozin as he described the sensation.

Sozin felt his stomach flip-flop and he groaned, closing his eyes. “I… hate you… so much
for this…” He hissed, his nausea lingering at the back of his throat like an unsure messenger
bearing bad news, trying to decide whether to go in or wait until later.
Roku shrugged, looking out to the sea. “You did say that we’d be doing this my way, and this
is my way. Suck it up,” he said, patting Sozin’s shoulder good-naturedly.

Sozin paused, his face paling, before he leaned over the railing and hurled. Roku made a face,
stepping back from the railing a bit, though he continued patting Sozin’s shoulder, this time
in an attempt to be soothing. “If it makes you feel any better, we only have two more hours
on the boat. From there, it’s nice, solid ground,” he said softly, smiling at Sozin in a way that
always made his chest burn with a soothing warmth. Unfortunately, he couldn’t appreciate it
well, as he was still emptying his guts over the side of the boat.

When he was finally done, Sozin sank to his knees and thunked his forehead against the
railing, groaning miserably. “I hate you,” Sozin rasped, closing his eyes in an attempt to dull
the ache growing in his head and the queasiness that consumed him like an ocean.

“No you don’t,” Roku said happily, sitting down beside the queasy Fire Lord calmly.

“Yes I do,” Sozin retorted, opening his eyes to glare at Roku. Roku smiled and Sozin found
that he, in fact, didn’t hate Roku.

“No you don’t,” Roku repeated childishly.

Sozin groaned again. “No, I don’t,” he affirmed.

Roku smiled so bright that he may as well have been the sun in that moment, his face lighting
up with a type of smug joy much more befitting of a young child than a fully-grown adult.
Sozin closed his eyes, if only to spare himself from the burning in his chest and up his neck
that would undoubtedly make him feel worse.

Roku took this as further evidence of Sozin’s seasickness and tapped him on the shoulder,
prompting Sozin to open his eyes. Roku held out his waterskin to him, one of the gifts from
his Waterbending master that Roku had told him about, and looked at him expectantly.
“Thank you,” Sozin croaked, taking it and washing out his mouth, cringing at the sharp taste
of vomit. He spat the dirty water over the edge of the ship and then took another drink,
grateful for his friend.

“You’ll owe me,” Roku replied bizarrely, standing up and looking out over the waves.

Sozin snorted in amusement, sitting down with his back against the railing, still holding the
waterskin. “I’ll owe you? Okay, sure, next time you throw up, I’ll be there with a fireball to
burn your mouth out,” he said, all too aware of how strange his sentence was as he said it and
desperately wishing that he hadn’t. However, Roku threw his head back and laughed, a look
of pure delight on his face, and Sozin thought that maybe a little strangeness every once in a
while was acceptable. Maybe for Roku.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Sozin was miserable when he realised that he would have to get back on another boat to
return to the Fire Nation. He had almost cried when they had reached land, prompting Roku
to call him ‘a big baby’, which led to some playful threats being tossed back and forth before
they moved on. He’d get even with Roku later. Eventually. Maybe with a fire eel-worm in his
shoe.

Renting the ostrich-horses was the easy part; it only took some minor haggling on the price,
done by Roku—Sozin was prepared to pay full-price before his friend pointed out how much
of a cheat the price had been—and the promise that the ostrich-horses would be returned to
actually procure the things. Roku mounted his ostrich-horse with all the grace expected of an
all-powerful Avatar, while Sozin managed (but only barely) to mount his without looking like
a child, which prompted some teasing from Roku and a few rude gestures from Sozin. It took
a few minutes to help Sozin get the hang of directing his ostrich-horse, and then they were
off.

The day passed slowly. Roku kept a continuous stream of conversation between them, talking
about what he had wanted to have for breakfast that morning instead of their packed dried
jerky, what he would do if a rabid platypus-bear attacked (“Don’t worry Sozin, I’d protect
you; we can’t have anything happening to the Fire Lord!” Sozin’s heart had thudded painfully
and he’d glared), and many other things before he had lapsed into silence, the little sleep and
the day’s travel finally starting to catch up with him. Sozin took the time to look around at his
surroundings as they went, trying to focus on anything other than how his ostrich-horse
wobbled from side to side as it walked.

The Earth Kingdom, as much of it as he had seen, was beautiful. Tall forests smoothed out
into low fields, wild flower blossoms brushing at the ankles of their mounts and making them
snort. Little rivers ran through the fields like children through crowds, bubbling and singing
small choruses that filled the air with peace. Roku bent some of the water into a fish and sent
it to swirl around Sozin in little loops, its little fish-face ogling at Sozin like he was
something special. Sozin couldn’t help but let out a little laugh, which made Roku smile.

The fields then fell away into dry prairies and Sozin took a few hours to focus on the sun, the
power relentlessly beating down on him from above. He felt the heat slowly cover his body,
seeping into his skin and blood and bones, before he blew it out, letting the energy slide off of
him like rain. The power offered by the sun was intoxicating, warm and slow and lazy in the
best way possible. Sozin popped an eye open to survey his surroundings, pulling himself out
of his heat-induced meditation session. Roku was right beside him, his eyes closed as well
and his breathing steady. “Roku?” Sozin hissed quietly. Roku didn’t say anything– he must
have been meditating as well.

The sun made its way across the sky like a lazy lizard-hound slithering its way into a sun-
warmed pool; slow and lumbering. The sky darkened bit by bit, the rays of the sun growing
longer and longer and the footsteps of Roku and Sozin’s ostrich-horses growing heavier and
heavier in turn. Finally, with the sun wavering on the horizon, Roku stopped and said, “We
should camp here for the night.”

Sozin practically fell off of his mount, just barely landing on his unsteady feet when he hit
the ground. “Agni spare me, I never thought I would ever be so sore,” he groaned, stretching
his back and feeling his vertebrae crack satisfyingly.

“You’ve only been riding all day; this is nothing. My Earthbending Master, Sud, put me
through exercises that had me aching for days afterwards,” Roku replied, dismounting
perfectly and elegantly in a way that made Sozin both irrationally jealous and the slightest bit
moony.

Sozin snorted and grabbed the leash of his ostrich-horse, which was beginning to attempt to
wander off. “Well, then your Earthbending teacher is a particularly cruel man who delights in
torture. Maybe you need to take an extended vacation in the Fire Nation to allow your bruises
to heal, if they aren’t permanent,” he said, his tone impassive but clearly also teasing. He
paused after he said that– he actually meant it. He wanted Roku to stay in the Fire Nation,
with him and only him. Was this a side effect of their time apart? It must have been– there
was nothing else that Sozin could attribute this feeling to.

Roku chuckled. “Maybe I will,” he retorted before bending a post for their ostrich-horses,
stomping his foot and bringing it out of the ground with just that. Sozin buried the shock that
still came with seeing his best friend bend things that weren’t fire (the 12 years hadn’t caught
up with him yet; he still looked at his friend and saw the goofy 16 year old who let him
sprinkle grass onto his face like they were children) and slung his ostrich-horse’s reins across
it.

Roku did the same and then pulled his sleeping bag off of his saddle, shaking it out with a
snap and throwing it on the ground. He then threw himself down with a sigh, the ground
cracking loudly at the impact. “You gonna join me?” Roku asked, still face-down on the
ground.

Sozin scoffed and removed his own sleeping bag from his saddle, tucking it under his arm.
“Eventually, maybe. But for now, I’m going to find some ground that isn’t comprised of pure
rock and eat the plums I brought,” he said, summoning fire in his palm and using its light to
look around.

They seemed to be in a valley of some sort, hills popping up on either side of them and only
stretching on into the distance. Little patches of foxglove flowers were scattered around the
place, popping up every few yards like they had been sprinkled onto the ground like water
droplets onto a cloth. Sozin found a nice patch of grass and laid his sleeping bag down,
sitting down on the thick cloth and reaching into his bag to pull out one of the plums he had
managed to smuggle out without squishing.

Roku’s head finally popped up and he stared at Sozin, excitement and curiosity clearly
burning in his eyes. Sozin drew himself up a little bit, smiling smugly as he brushed his plum
off and took a bite. The sweetness and juiciness of the plum burst into his mouth and he
almost cried, the delicious taste washing away whatever foul taste had lingered in his mouth
after a day of so-so meals and the faint lingering bitterness from his upheaval so many hours
ago.

Roku immediately got up and walked over, his sleeping bag thrown over his shoulder as he
scuttled over like one of Sozin’s extended family’s many, many baby cousins. “Can I have
one?” Roku asked, settling his sleeping bag down next to Sozin’s and looking at him intently,
his face cast in stark shadow from the fire in Sozin’s open palm. Well, more like he was
looking intently at the plum in his hand, though why a plum deserved such a look was
beyond Sozin’s knowledge.
“No,” Sozin replied, nonchalantly biting into his plum again and savouring the tartness of the
skin and the juxtaposition of the fruit’s sweet flesh.

Roku pouted, looking at Sozin with big, pleading eyes that glistened in the firelight.
“Please?” He asked, leaning in far too close to Sozin’s face, enough so that Sozin could
almost feel his breath on his cheek.

Sozin’s cheeks reddened (because of Roku’s shamelessness? His unabashedness?) and he

turned his head away. “No. If you bow, though, maybe I will consider it,” he said playfully,
taking another bite. There was no way Roku would actually bow- he would probably groan
and complain and then Sozin would give in, like usual.

Roku suddenly got up and walked a few feet away, a determined look on his face. Sozin
looked up, a bit startled and wary at Roku’s sudden movements. Why did he get up? Was
something wrong? Did they need to fight something?

However, something even stranger happened. Roku got to his knees and prostrated to Sozin
thrice, bowing with his forehead to the uneven ground. “Fire Lord Sozin, Ruler of the Fire
Nation, Descendant of Agni the Fire-Giver and Life-Bringer, I beg this of you: share your
plums, pretty please?” Roku recited in a deep, regal, honey-smooth voice, the rhythm in
which he spoke quickly becoming hypnotic and making Sozin’s head swim for a moment
before it pitched up into a childish tone at the end.

Sozin stared at Roku in shock for a few moments, his eyes wide and his body frozen before
he shook his head, trying to get a grip on himself and banish the redness, which seemed
rather fond of his cheeks that night, from existence. Eventually, words returned to him, but
the only thing he could force out of his mouth was a stunned– “Huh?”

Roku, still bowing with his head to the rocky ground, popped open an eye, which twinkled
mirthfully. “Do I need to repeat myself? Fire Lord Sozin, Ruler of the Fire Nation,
Descendant of Agni-” “No, stop, fine, here,” Sozin quickly cut Roku off, setting his plum to
the side and pulling a plum out of his bag and throwing it Roku’s way, desperate to escape
whatever spell Roku’s voice had put on him.

Roku caught it and hummed happily, sitting up and brushing whatever dust may have been on
his plum before biting into it. Sozin picked his fruit up from where he had put it down, his
mind still reeling. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it,” Sozin said after a beat of silence, his
grip on his plum flexing before he took another bite of it, trying to find something to do to
make the situation less awkward (at least on his part).

Roku shrugged, grinning at Sozin with his lips faintly tinted red from the juice of his plum. “I
thought it would be funny. You’d give me a plum eventually, so I just decided to do what you
asked me to,” he said casually, leaning back on one arm and looking at the steadily darkening
night sky.

“And you’re shameless,” Sozin added.

“And I’m shameless,” Roku affirmed with a crooked smile.

Sozin chuckled into his sleeve, trying to write it off as a cough. Roku didn’t seem to notice
and looked up into the night sky, his expression melting into one of peacefulness, as quiet as
Agni’s children who were starting to flicker into sight above them. A quiet sense of sorrow
started to creep up from the back of Sozin’s mind, wrapping its cruel, careful claws around
his mind and sinking them in deep, aching to draw blood. He would probably never have
another moment with Roku like this. As Fire Lord, he would always be too busy and with
Roku as the Avatar, he would have no time either. This night—they would never have another
one like it again.

Sozin looked down at his hand, where the small amount of his plum was left sitting. There
was about a quarter of the now-pale flesh left, clinging to the pit and slowly drooling its juice
all over his hand. Sozin grimaced; he should have brought a handkerchief or something of the
like along.

“Is that all? Or do we want to tuck in for the night?” Roku asked, his calm voice breaking the
silence between them.

Sozin remained silent, staring at the small amount of plum left in his hand. Finally, he ate the
rest of the flesh and threw the pit somewhere into the field, leaving it up to nature for whether
it grew into a tree or was eaten by an animal. Sozin didn’t know or care what Roku had done
with his. “We should sleep if we want to be well rested for tomorrow,” Sozin muttered,
finally extinguishing the flame in his hand as he rubbed the plum juice off onto his dusty,
coarse robes. They would be even more dirty, but at least the plum juice wouldn’t dry on his
hand, sticky and uncomfortable on his skin.

Roku made a noise of agreement and then there was silence. The last thing Sozin saw before
he closed his eyes was the thin sliver of moon above their heads, shining in the night among
the thousands of tiny pin pricks that were the stars.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Sozin awoke, cold uncomfortably prickling at his skin. He squinted up at the dark sky, still
twinkling with tiny white lights and groaned internally, closing his eyes again. He should
have planned for this; brought an extra blanket or two, made a fire, meditated more during
the day or something. Instead, he didn’t, and now he was cold, tired, and awake.

Sozin grumbled and turned over, trying to summon a small flame to warm himself with so he
could get back to sleep and to the dreams he never could remember. He was too tired, though,
and he couldn’t concentrate enough to get the fire larger than a tiny spark. He groaned again
and closed his eyes, curling into himself in an attempt to preserve heat.

There was a small shuffling sound and Sozin’s eyes snapped open, instantly using all of his
ability to reach out to see if he could sense any flames other than his and Roku’s, maybe even
sense the heat from another person. He didn’t feel anything, but he didn’t let his guard down;
he had read more than one report of nighttime attacks, and none of them had ended well. “...
can’t sleep?” came Roku’s sleep-hoarse voice and Sozin simultaneously tensed and relaxed,
his body loosening but his chest tightening almost painfully.
Sozin paused for a few seconds, arguing with himself about whether or not he should reply,
before he finally just answered. “... yes,” he whispered back, his voice unable to create
anything other than one quiet little word. It was still nighttime, after all– it was just common
courtesy to be quiet. It had nothing to do with how his throat had closed up momentarily.

There was some more shuffling before Roku’s hand tugged at Sozin’s shoulder, as insistent
and tired as Roku probably was. “C’mere, we can cuddle. Share body heat and whatever,”
Roku hummed, his hand still lazily resting on Sozin’s shoulder, his fingers curling slightly to
grip Sozin’s arm.

Sozin paused, too many emotions suddenly coursing through his body. He wanted to cuddle,
almost desperately so, but it also terrified him in some weird way. He wanted to share in
Roku’s warmth but he also wanted to run and hide, sense and instinct warring violently in his
chest. This was getting to be too much—Sozin was half-asleep for Agni’s sake, he shouldn’t
have to be thinking so hard with his brain like mush.

Eventually, his sense won and he rolled over, scooching his sleeping bag over until he felt the
dark lump of Roku’s own sleeping bag. He then laid down and snuggled close to him, resting
his head next to Roku’s (surprisingly soft) chest, listening to the rhythmic thump-thump of
his heart. He somehow felt warmer already– probably because, since both of them were
Firebenders, their already heightened body heat was combining and mixing, warming them
further.

Roku grunted and then Sozin was suddenly being pulled closer into Roku’s grasp, being
smushed right against his chest, which was so wonderfully warm. “D’nt be scared, I’ve been
told I’m a good cuddler,” Roku muttered, wrapping his arms around Sozin and holding him
close like a child would a toy.

Sozin felt something ugly start to burn in his chest and pushed it down, smothering it. Roku
was his friend and also an adult; he was allowed to go around snuggling whoever he wanted
whenever he wanted to. Even if it made something in Sozin’s chest twist harshly. “And who
told you that?” Sozin asked before he could stop himself, his voice snappy.

Roku chuckled lightly, groping around in the dark to find Sozin’s face and poking it gently
when he did. “Once lost a bet and had to be in physical contact with a friend for a day.
Gyatso said I’m very cuddleable when I’m quiet and asleep,” Roku mumbled, patting Sozin’s
cheek before he pulled Sozin closer again (how was that even possible?) and sighed
contently.

Sozin felt an inexplicable warmth fill his chest, slow and sunny like a hearty soup or the
feeling of laying in the sun on a sunlight-dappled spring day. He… he never thought that
cuddling with someone would make him this… happy. That feeling the warmth of another
would make his chest light up with little fizzling sparks. That he would feel like this with
Roku, let alone anyone.

Sozin glanced up, trying to see if Roku was still awake. He couldn’t see much of his face, on
account of his friend’s beard and his own awkward positioning, but from the way he was
breathing he was probably asleep. A gentle inhale, a soft exhale– the rhythm was like the tide
going in and then out, subtle and slow and enthralling. So lovely, and yet so far away.
 The warmth from within him dimmed and Sozin’s fists tightened. Yes, so far away. That
certainly described his friend nowadays. Always out of reach, up on his pedestal as Avatar,
walking away from Sozin to spend time with his precious Ta Min, even actively discouraging
Sozin from accompanying him on something he had every right to do so on. Sozin had every
right and reason to be here, here with Roku, but his friend had been upset when he’d even
offered the idea!

The warmth inside of Sozin died and the only heat left was the amount radiating from Roku’s
sleeping form, burning like a small fire. Roku didn’t want him here; this was all to make
Sozin more comfortable, to make sure he didn’t complain more and get in the way. Roku
would never have done this if Sozin hadn’t forced him to allow him on this trip with him.
Roku didn’t want him here, he never had.

Sozin wanted to pull away. He wanted to curl into himself and pretend that Roku wasn’t
there, like he was just back at the palace in his own chambers, having another fitful night
because of the nagging reminder of impending paperwork. He couldn’t, though. The ground
beneath him poked at him though his sleeping bag and the air around him was cold,
smoothing over his cheeks with icy hands. And Roku was right there. He was right there, and
he was so warm.

Sozin reluctantly cuddled closer to Roku, seeking more of his warmth. If he were to sleep,
then he would need to be at least warm enough to not freeze to death. Not that he was in the
danger of doing so, but Sozin liked to allow himself to be dramatic at least a bit of the time.
He focused on Roku’s steady breaths; in and then out, in and then out, in and then out again.
He let the rhythm pull him in and under, slipping off into sleep once again like a fish were to
slip into a current. He slept under the twinkling light of Agni’s children, wrapped in the arms
of a man who would rather be alone.

Chapter End Notes

Hi :)
Thank you so much for reading!! I hope you have a great day!! Any/all kudos and
comments are appreciated!!!

ALSO some context for a few lines- in this AU, Firebenders can control their body heat
and even preserve some heat that they gained for up to 8~ hours. Usually this storing of
heat (energy) is done during meditation.
 Chapter 3
Chapter Notes

CW for imperialism/imperialistic ideals (it's Sozin, what did you expect), fights
(yelling), anger issues, fear, and slight inferiority issues

See the end of the chapter for more notes

When Sozin woke, the sun was steadily creeping over the horizon, sending orange licks of
light curling through the sky and across the hills from the east to the west. Roku was already
up, securing his sleeping bag to his ostrich-horse with deft hands that suggested that he had
been awake for quite some time. Sozin would have risen with the sun alongside Roku, as was
the instinct imbued in all Firebenders, but he must have been so exhausted that his internal
cycle was thrown off a little.

Roku glanced over when Sozin sat up, rubbing his eyes and staring towards the sun. “Oh,
you’re up. I never knew you to sleep in, Sozin– you’re getting lazy in your old age,” he said
teasingly, tossing a bag at his friend’s face.

Sozin batted it away and groaned, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to dislodge the small
amount of dirt that had somehow collected in his eyelashes. “The only thing getting lazy in
my so-called “old age” is your humour,” he replied, stretching his back and sighing at the
responding pops of his back, which did not support Sozin’s “I’m not old” argument in any
way.

Roku rolled his eyes, grinning. “Mhm. Get up, old man. We have a lot of ground to cover,”
he said, hauling himself up onto his ostrich-horse.

Sozin groaned again and got to his feet, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep from his
eyes. He made quick work of his sleeping bag and the rest of his things, joining Roku on his
own ostrich-horse (and he threw the bag Roku had thrown at him back, of course. He hit him
square in the face).

Roku didn’t talk about what happened last night. He seemed so nonchalant that Sozin thought
he dreamed it up, something his tired brain had made up to entertain himself with as he slept,
but the lingering scent of Roku (ash and wood and the sweet scent of rain-heavy dirt) was
still on his clothes and he couldn’t ignore that. Still, Roku didn’t talk about it, so neither did
Sozin.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

It only occurred to Sozin to ask if Roku actually knew where they were going about halfway
into their third day travelling. He felt like sinking into the ground and dying when he realised
this. “Roku…” Sozin called out to his friend, who was a few feet ahead of him. Roku looked
back over his shoulder, humming in acknowledgement. “Do you actually know where we’re
going, or are you guessing?”

Roku rolled his eyes and grinned. “Of course I do– I asked the messenger to point out where
his village was on a map before we left. I packed that too, if you wanted to take a look at it
and give it your Official Fire Lord Seal Of Approval, your impeccable majesty,” Roku said,
bowing his head while pitching his voice dramatically.

“Oh, shut up. I just wanted to know if you were guessing or if you actually knew. It wouldn’t
be unlike you to make stuff up if you didn’t know what was true,” Sozin replied, fixing a
playful glare on Roku’s back.

Roku squawked indignantly and turned around, his mouth open in faux-outrage. “I thought
we would never talk of that again!” He cried, pointing an accusatory finger Sozin’s way.

Sozin laughed, grinning. “I didn’t even bring it up; you’re the one who thought I was
connecting things,” he said smoothly. If he had been back in his palace, he would have then
taken a sip of tea and smiled calmly, the same way he did in the court to get his advisors to
stop yelling at him about grain prices (they were fine, the best they’d been in years).

Roku sputtered for a second before turning around with a huff, dramatically swishing his
head back so quickly that he almost hit himself in the face with his own hair. Sozin chuckled
into his sleeve but did not comment further.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

After three more days of travel, they came upon a village. Well, it was less of a village and
more of a bunch of ramshackle houses stacked next to each other. Sozin had been the one to
spot it, dark and crumbled against the horizon. At first he had thought it was the blackened
shell of a town, burned from a fire and abandoned, but then he saw someone walk out of the
town, a rake thrown over their shoulder and whistling a merry tune. Roku nodded when they
eventually passed him and the stranger nodded back, a time-weathered grin on his face. Sozin
didn’t know what to make of it.

The town was decrepit even as they passed through it. Sozin thought nothing of it—every
nation has its poorer towns and regions where people don’t have enough to live in lavish
luxury. It was nothing to take exceptional notice of or worry about. Then they passed through
another town that was barely being held up. And then another. And then another. The prairies
started to be dotted with sloping hills and then the hills grew higher and higher into the sky
alongside the trees, and each town they passed through seemed to be sadder than the last;
some were even in the process of being abandoned or torn down.

When they entered the nth town that they had passed through in the last two weeks, Sozin
was both stumped and starting to become angry. What was wrong with the Earth King to
allow so many people to live in such a low quality of life? Most, if not all of the population
was covered in some kind of dirt or further filth, stained deep into their clothes and marked
dark against their skin. Children wore clothes more rags than anything and ran through the
streets unattended, their tiny ribs sometimes visible and straining against their skin as their
lungs tried to keep up with their youthful energy. Adults kept their heads down and did their
work with a single-minded focus that Sozin had never seen before, their grimy hands doing
all different kinds of tasks. A few people laughed here and there, and some people smiled
when they talked, but most of the adults had a tired energy about them.

They stopped for dinner at an inn, stopping beforehand for two bags of feed for their ostrich-
horses at a shop that was kept up by a few sticks and far too much hope. Sozin didn’t talk,
didn’t laugh, didn’t joke– he was too caught up in his mind to do so. He was worried.
Worried and angry.

The Earth Kingdom was prospering, growing and thriving as one of the major World Powers
of their time, tied only with the Fire Nation. The Earth Kingdom had enough money and a
good enough economy to sustain even its outermost towns and give everyone a good life, but
that wasn’t happening. From what Sozin could guess, there was no sort of financial aid
program for anyone anywhere in the Earth Kingdom. Was King Jialun just that useless?
Sozin drew a line over that thought– of course he was. The man probably relied more on his
advisors to rule more than his own intelligence; from what Sozin knew from letters and
reports, he was as dumb as a rock. Still, Sozin was filled with quiet contempt for the man.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

When Roku finally finished eating, Sozin asked, “What do you know about the Earth King?”

Roku looked up from stacking the plates on top of each other, looking a bit startled. “Not
much. King Jialun is a very private man, but seems pretty incompetent. He doesn’t seem to
be able to serve his people very well and he isn’t very popular among the poorer of his
subjects, which now makes up around 45%-ish of the population, or those who aren’t the
10%,” Roku spoke, looking irked but carefully keeping any strong emotion out of his voice.

Sozin nodded but didn’t speak further. He couldn’t speak; instead, he was focusing on what
Roku had said and trying not to burst into flames. What in Agni’s blessed name was wrong
with the Earth King.

The Earth Kingdom had a 45% poverty rate?!?!?! One of the richest Kingdoms in the entire
world had a 45% poverty rate?!?!?! That was like looking at a cake and slicing it open to
find a good amount of it mouldy or rotten! What kind of bumbling oaf was King Jialun to not
be able to take care of his subjects even with the help of his advisors?! Sozin had been
unprepared when his father had died and when he took the throne, but he had never let his
subjects down to such a degree that more than a quarter, almost half of them lived in
poverty!

Roku glanced up, the small amount of frustration bleeding out of his shoulders and concern
quickly growing in its place. “Sozin?” His voice was careful and quietly inquisitive, like he
was handling an untamed dragon-moose. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Sozin gritted out through his teeth, curling his hands into tight fists. “Are we going to
camp tonight or book a room?”

Roku furrowed his brow, obviously not believing him, but he let it be, standing up and
brushing himself off. “We’re getting a room tonight. C’mon, up with you and your old bones,
we gotta get you to bed before you crumble,” Roku said, offering his hand with a gentle
smile.

Sozin took it and stood, but he did not smile back. His mind was burning with a quiet rage,
flickering madly back and forth. Among that wildfire of anger, though, an idea emerged;
from the flickering flames and charred ashes, a single, simple proposal emerged like a
phoenix from its deathbed. It consumed Sozin’s mind, so very simple but so very effective in
solving the problem.

If King Jialun wasn’t going to take care of his own subjects… why couldn’t Sozin just do it
for him? The Fire Nation was experiencing a time of extreme wealth and peace, why couldn’t
he share that with the rest of the world? Why shouldn’t he share it with the rest of the world?
Echoes of Sozin’s father’s voice rang through Sozin’s head, reminding him of just how many
resources the Earth Kingdom had, just how much they could help the Fire Nation in turn. It
seemed a reasonable trade– Sozin would improve their lives and they would give the Fire
Nation resources. Why would anyone say no to him when he was making peoples’ lives so
much better by introducing Fire Nation infrastructure?

Roku walked the both of them over to the innkeeper’s desk at that point, a man whose face
was deeply lined from years of age and hard work with a long, droopy moustache the colour
of the moon hanging from just below his nose. “We’d like a room for the night, please,”
Roku requested, smiling politely (So polite, so proper, and hiding so much power, Sozin
thought, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully).

The elderly man looked up, his slightly milky eyes drifting from Roku’s face to Sozin’s, and
he smiled ruefully. “I apologise,” he said, his voice slow and creaky like an ancient tree, “but
we do not have any single-bed couple’s rooms left. Will you be alright with a regular single-
bed room, or would you like a double-bed room?”

Sozin’s mind paused in its restless churning and his face felt like it burst into flame with how
red it was. Roku coughed jerkily into his elbow, his cheeks also a bright red. “I– n-no, we’re
good with a double, we’re not, uh, not–” Roku stuttered, tongue-tied, such a different picture
than the one he had been only seconds ago.

Sozin hid his face in his hand, trying his best and failing to make his face cool to a
temperature that would be normal, at least somewhat understandable. This was Roku, why
would Sozin react in such a way when it was insinuated that they were… together? He and
Roku were very close, so close that Roku’s mother sometimes accidentally called Sozin her
nephew and his own father had sometimes forgotten that Roku was not, in fact, his child from
a forgotten affair, but that didn’t mean–! Besides, he didn’t have time to think about this—he
didn’t want to lose his stride and forget everything that had been running through his head.

The old man eyed the two of them, his eyes making another pass over their red faces, before
he shrugged and dug a key out of one of his drawers. “That will be three gold pieces and five
copper ones. Your room is the one at the end of the second hall, on the far left,” he said,
holding out the brass key to Sozin.

Sozin took it quickly, refusing to make further eye contact with the man as he pulled out his
money purse. If there were a few more gold coins in his payment than there needed to be,
well, he wasn’t going to point it out; he was going to help these people in any way he could,
even if they made inappropriate comments. Sozin led the way, Roku trailing behind him
much like one of his many, many advisors. Something about that made Sozin a bit bitter,
unhappy—Roku was his equal and better in so many ways, why was he simply following?

The room that lay behind their dry, pale wooden door was simple, somewhere between
homely and barren. There were two beds pushed to one side of the room and a small table
between them. There was a desk made out of old, crumbling wood in one corner and a
decent-sized window on the furthest wall, a small table beneath that as well. On the table near
the window, there was a small vase of Red Spider-Lilies, their petals as vibrant as blood or
fire. The vase and the flowers within were the only elegant things in the entire room– the
vase was made of pure white porcelain with blue brush strokes detailing a river flowing
down, around, and then back again over the sides of its graceful, sloping curves.

Roku sighed with relief and threw his pack to the side before he fell onto his bed, a big grin
on his face. “Ahhh, finally. After weeks of sleeping on rocks and dirt and grass, we finally get
a room! With beds!” He said happily, turning over to bury his face in the patched sheets.

Sozin hummed and sat on the side of his bed, setting his pack to the side. His fingers itched
for paper, a brush, literally anything to write on and with; his brain was back on track and
plans were coming to his mind, preparations yet to come. He started tracing characters on the
palm of his hand, if only to allow himself to get the urge out at least somewhat.

“Sozin?” Roku asked, his voice confused.

Sozin hummed in response, still focused on writing out orders in the palm of his hand. He
was getting somewhere; he could start in the isles of the Eastern or Southeastern Earth
Kingdom, where the lines between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom were drawn only by who
the citizens paid taxes to and the colour most people wore. They would suffer the least
amount of change in the transition; it was when he got to the main continents where he would
face the most resistance, as the Earth King would probably not be willing to give up so many
taxpayers and resources. That was fine, the Fire Nation Army and Navy would be able to
handle it if Sozin put out a draft–

“Sozin.” Roku said firmly, pulling the ruler out of his thoughts. “You’ve been agitated about
something ever since dinner. Was it something I said? Something that someone else said?
Something your ostrich-horse said?” Roku’s last question was obviously joking, but his tone
was still concerned.

“No, Roku. Well… maybe, but not what you think.” Sozin was too caught up in his head; he
could make this work– he could take what parts of the Earth Kingdom that King Jialun
couldn’t handle, which was most likely the entirety of the Earth Kingdom, and he would rule
over them instead. It would benefit both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation; the Earth
Kingdom was vast and its resources rich, the Fire Nation could use the extra materials to
boost production and industry. In return, the Fire Nation could share its power and industry
with its new cities and colonies in the Earth Kingdom.

Roku frowned and sat up, facing Sozin. “Sozin, something is on your mind. What is it?” His
voice was firm but so very cautious, like a child poking at a sleeping tigerdillo on a dare.
Sozin looked up and stopped writing on his hand, excitement gleaming in his eyes. “Roku–
Roku, we can do it,” was all that he said; he was too caught up in his mind to say much else
at the moment.

Roku raised an eyebrow, looking wary and confused. “We can do what?” He asked, standing
up.

Sozin stood as well and rushed over, taking care to gently hold him by his arms and not grip
them sight like an excited child. His brain was going a mile a minute, plans and preparations
and ideas all rushing through his head like a wildfire. “Roku, you’re the Avatar and I’m the
Fire Lord. We have the might, the ability, the power to do anything,” Sozin said, raising his
head to look his friend straight in the eyes (right into those rich, clay-brown eyes that sparked
with such bright fire).

Roku looked less wary and more alarmed now. “Sozin, where are you going with this?” He
asked.

“We can fix this. Together. Roku, as Avatar and Fire Lord, we can fix the Earth Kingdom. The
Fire Nation is experiencing a time of great wealth and peace, Roku, and our people are happy.
Why shouldn’t we share that with the rest of the world? Expanding is not only good for the
Earth Kingdom, but good for the Fire Nation as well; with enough troops, we could do it!”
Sozin said passionately, his grip unconsciously growing tighter on Roku’s arms.

Roku’s face paled and then his expression flattened, falling into a carefully schooled look that
Sozin knew was for handling advisors. That was weird, why wasn’t Roku responding? Why
wasn’t he saying yes?

“Sozin, no.” Roku said. Sozin’s chest froze. “The four nations are meant to be just that: four.
Taking over the Earth Kingdom would not only upset the balance, it would throw everyone’s
lives in the Earth Kingdom into chaos! I don’t want to hear you talk about this again, not a
single word more!” Roku’s voice grew more and more passionate as he spoke, his neutral
expression breaking down and outrage taking its place.

Sozin felt his expression crumble just a little bit, despair seizing him for a split second before
his anger surged up, swallowing him and melting the ice in his chest. “You won’t even
consider it? Roku, think about it– we’d be helping not only the Earth Kingdom, like I said,
but also the Fire Nation! The Earth Kingdom has many resources, some of which the Fire
Nation needs but has a small, limited supply of. If we take over, not only are we improving
the citizens’ lives on both sides, but we-”

“Why do you keep on saying we? I’ve already said no, Sozin!” Roku burst out, tearing his
arms out of Sozin’s grip. “I couldn’t say yes even if I wanted to, which I don’t! I may be of
the Fire Nation, and Agni may have blessed me with his power first, but I am the Avatar; I
am of all the nations and my loyalty is to those who are in need. There is no we, Sozin, not
anymore.”

Something in Sozin’s chest cracked and he stared numbly at Roku. “I see,” he said flatly.
“Because you’re the Avatar, we aren’t friends anymore.”
Roku groaned and buried his face in his hands. “You know that’s not what I meant. I can’t be
loyal to the Fire Nation only—I’m the Avatar, and that means that I have to put those who
need my help first: the sick, the injured, the hurt and lost. I maintain peace and balance in the
world, and what you’re asking of me would defeat the entire purpose of my duty,” he
responded, his voice raising in volume as he pulled his hands away to glare at Sozin.

“But you were Fire Nation first! You were and are my friend! Doesn’t that mean anything to
you?” Sozin shouted. He felt like bursting into flames, burning everything around him and
condemning everything to a fiery death in his anger.

“Of course it does! Why do you think I like visiting you instead of roaming around the
world?! Why do you think I went to the Fire Nation first after I mastered all of the elements
and the Avatar State?! Because I wanted to, on a whim?! I may not be able to put the Fire
Nation first, but it is still my home, Sozin, and I still care about it! I still want to be friends
with you! But when you come to me with this crazy proposal to take over the Earth
Kingdom, I can’t exactly say yes, because it goes against everything that I am and everything
I stand for! Sozin, this isn’t about you—it’s about the balance of the entire world!” Roku
yelled, throwing his hands above his hair as he glared daggers at Sozin. A breeze suddenly
flew in out of nowhere, sending Roku’s hair flying up for a second and making both of their
robes flutter. His eyes glowed a terrifying white, casting stark shadows over his face, and
Sozin’s heart stopped. The light then faded and it was just Sozin and Roku alone in the room,
one staring and one glaring at the other.

Sozin knew that he was afraid of Roku at this moment. The fact that Sozin had upset him to
the point of almost invoking the Avatar State, especially after Roku had mastered it… it made
his throat seize up with terror. The way Roku was glaring at him, his hands curled into tight
fists that didn’t dissuade Sozin’s belief that if his friend didn’t have better control of himself,
he would have started punching fire at him. Or just plain, fire-less punches, whichever suited
his anger best.

Finally, after too much eye-contact filled to the brim with seething, burning rage, Sozin
spoke. “I’m going to go out for a walk,” he gritted out. He knew that it was also a silent
challenge, seeing if Roku would dare to stop him, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get
out; get away from the angry Avatar who could pummel his head in if he so wished to—get
away from his best friend who was glaring at him like he was a stranger, an enemy.

“Fine. Great. Go,” Roku hissed, narrowing his eyes.

Sozin turned, his heart still clogging his throat, and tried to ignore how Roku’s eyes were
boring hot, burning holes into his back. As he left, he thought he heard something crack,
maybe even break, but he didn’t turn to see what it was. He couldn’t; it would be a clear sign
of weakness. And he didn’t want to see Roku looking at him like that.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

The moon was just a sliver of silver in the sky, high above everything and watching distantly,
hanging so cold, so lonely in the sky. Sozin walked through the dirt-paved streets and out into
the woods surrounding what could barely be called the town they were staying in, his mind
racing. His fear had long since faded, and the only thing left in his mind was burning rage.
How- How dare Roku speak to him like that? How dare he say no?! Sozin was his Fire Lord,
how could he so openly and blatantly reject him like that?! They were supposed to be friends,
they were supposed to lean on each other for help, they weren’t supposed to fight like that!

Sozin didn’t even realise when his fists began to spark, his mind circling over and over and
over on how could he betray me like this. It was only when Sozin smelled burning cloth and
looked down to see his arm on fire that he remembered that, oh yeah, he should start reining
himself back in before he burned something important. He batted the fire on his arm out and
continued to walk, forcing himself to focus on the world around him instead of focusing on
the fire roiling inside of him.

The trees around him reached up like long, spindly bones into the sky, the leaves atop the
trees already browning and reddening from the changing seasons, summer fading into fall.
The wind danced around Sozin, blowing through the sleeves of his coarse robes and running
its cold fingers up and down his arms, leaving goosebumps in its wake. He remembered that
sudden burst of wind back in his and Sozin’s room, how Roku’s eyes had flashed a bright,
blinding white, and his stomach sank.

He had just wanted to fulfil his father’s wishes, do something that would do more good than
bad, do something that would benefit the Fire Nation but also have the added bonus of
helping the Earth Kingdom, but… Sozin sighed and sat down, closing his eyes and trying his
best to detach himself from his thoughts. Dwelling on it would do nobody any good, much
less ease Sozin’s mind. Instead, he focused on breathing in and then out, feeling the steady
flow of his blood through his veins and the flickering of the fire within him. He ignored how
his rage threatened to send his inner flame blazing, flickering wildly and out of control, and
instead focused on keeping it small and calm, a tiny thing that could do no harm.

Sozin then focused on everything around him; the feeling of damp leaves beneath him, the
cold air around him, the scent of leaf-rot and the dew-soaked night almost overbearing. He
focused on the cold light of the moon above him, smiling wanly down at him with either
sympathy or scorn, her light slimly reminiscent of her brother.

It was only when he heard the call of a bullfrog, lonely and echoing, that he opened his eyes.
The moon had moved, travelling further westward across the sky and leaving the rest of the
stars behind. Sozin could feel that the sun was close to rising, unseen flames from the sun
already reaching over the horizon to call to the flames within his chest and bid him to rise
with them. He had to go back to the room (back to Roku) eventually. He didn’t want to.

Sozin rose to his feet, brushing the dead leaves clinging to him to the forest floor again,
wrinkling his nose at the sticky, strong smell they left on his robes. The walk back to the inn
was as silent as the way out, but Sozin was no longer charged with the same fury that had
accompanied him on the way out. He… wasn’t sure how he felt. He still felt betrayed by
Roku’s rejection, but he wasn’t angry anymore. The hurt in his chest was no longer raging
like a stormy sea, now small and simmering like a pot of boiling water.

The night was calm as Sozin walked back to town, through the inn, back to the room where
Roku was. It felt like the world was standing still, waiting and watching to see what would
happen. Opening the door felt like braving an inferno; something that Sozin was pretty sure
he could do, but would take probably more courage than he had.
 It was dark when Sozin opened the door, the only light in the room being the light from the
candle in the hallway and the dim light cast by the moon. Roku was in one of the beds. He
hadn’t taken his hair down, like usual, but he was facing away from the door, as if he didn’t
want to see if Sozin returned or not. Sozin’s chest ached and he summoned a small flame into
his hand, wanting to be able to see and not bump into too many things as he made his way to
his own bed.

In the orange light cast by Sozin’s fire, he could see that the vase underneath the window was
cracked. A dark, jagged line ran down the centre of it, disrupting the river’s flow and marring
its beauty. The Red Spider-Lilies seemed to droop in the dim, flickering light, their petals
wilted and their stalks withering. He didn’t know how they got like that. He didn’t care to
find out.

Sozin managed to make his way to and into his bed silently, the loudest sound he made being
a small spark when he almost tripped on a loose board. He let the fire in his palm fizzle out,
plunging him back into the darkness of the night. It was only minutes before he fell into a
fitful sleep. He was cold.

Chapter End Notes

Fun fact- King Jialun does exist in canon- I didn't make him up just to be a shitty ruler! I
guess everyone in those times were useless huh /hj /lh

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Any/all kudos and comments are
appreciated, and have a lovely day!

Oh shit almost forgot thank you for 100+ hits already!!!

 Chapter 4
Chapter Notes

CW for a brief mention of death (not Main Character related) and fighting

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sozin woke only hours later, blinking his eyes open to the gentle first rays of sunrise. He sat
up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, trying to clear his mind. There was still a pit in his
stomach, roiling with despair and betrayal, but it felt more like an afterthought instead of the
raging inferno of anger and hurt that it had been last night.

The sound of shuffling cloth drew Sozin’s attention outwards, away from the inside of his
mind. He looked over to see Roku slipping on his shoes, obviously still half-asleep from the
way his hands fumbled. “Roku?” Sozin muttered, his voice hoarse from sleep.

“Hm?” Roku hummed in lieu of a reply, his eyes moving to look at Sozin as his body moved
to put on his other shoe. There was something in his eyes… something that said that, if Sozin
asked or told him something he didn’t want to hear, he would have no qualms about shutting
him up.

Sozin’s mind ran in circles, thing after thing after thing to say coming to his mind just as
quickly as he dismissed them. Finally, he blurted, “Are we going to reach the village today?”

Roku blinked, as if surprised that Sozin wasn’t pressing yesterday’s issue. “…yes, we should
reach the village today. You seem a bit more… eager today,” Roku replied hesitantly.

Sozin tried not to flinch. “I just want to get this over with,” he quickly responded, and then
immediately wanted to stab himself.

Roku’s posture immediately stiffened and he got up, hauling his pack off of the floor, “Of
course. We both just want to get this over with,” he replied, his voice wooden and aloof as he
hauled his pack off of the floor, turning away from Sozin. “I’ll give the key back to the
innkeeper. Meet me outside the inn in about 15 minutes. Don’t be late, or I’m dragging you to
the town myself.”

He seemed to be attempting to make a joke, to slip into their usual back-and-forth teasing, but
his heart obviously wasn’t in it. “I… of course,” Sozin agreed. How the hell was he supposed
to salvage this?

Roku left, and the room felt so much bigger without him. He always seemed to fill up a room
with his presence, his laughter, his scorn, whatever. If he was feeling something, everyone
else would feel it too. It was one of the reasons that Sozin liked him; he didn’t feel like he
had to be the one to dictate the room. He could just sit back and let Roku direct, let him drive
the conversation instead of him. And… and Roku was nice to listen to. His voice was
soothing, deep and melodic and slightly rough in the best way possible. His voice would
pitch up and then down when he spoke, attention-drawing in its vigour and spirit and utterly
captivating. He was– Sozin shook his head, dislodging his thoughts. No, he just needed to
leave. Thinking and remembering would do nothing to better the situation.

Sozin made quick work of changing before he left the room. He glanced back only once, to
make sure there was nothing that he had left behind. He hadn’t; the room was bare, nothing in
it that hadn’t been there beforehand. The little vase still sat on the table, half-wilted Red
Spider-Lilies drooping over the lip of the pot and the black crack down its side jagged. His
eyes lingered on the vase, pitying it for a moment.

What would have happened if they had never come? Would those Spider-Lilies be off
growing in a field somewhere, never picked in the first place, or would they remain alone in
this room? Would the little vase be perfect and unblemished, untouched by the rage brought
by Sozin and Roku? Sozin pondered this for a single moment more before leaving, closing
the door and leaving the little vase and its occupants alone in the sun–warming room.

Roku was waiting for him in front of their ostrich-horses, his bag already secured to his
mount as he leaned against the hitch. The rising sun seemed to give the illusion that Roku
himself was glowing– not in the way that his eyes did as a side-effect of the Avatar state, but
like Agni had blessed him with power. Or like he was a firefly, glowing in the night.

Sozin did not voice these thoughts aloud; he didn’t think they would do much to better his
friend’s mood (at least… he hoped Roku was still his friend). Instead, he fixed his bag to his
ostrich-horse and mounted it, ignoring how Roku slung himself onto his own mount, as
graceful as a dancer. Then they were off again.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

It was a few hours past noon when they finally got to the town. It wasn’t as terribly decrepit
as some of the other towns that they had gone through, but it still was a far fetch from
acceptable. Sozin felt another stab of anger go through his chest and silently cursed King
Jialun. He glanced over at Roku, trying to see if his expression had changed from the silent
neutrality he had worn for the past hours, and found it hadn’t.

The look on Roku’s face sent a shiver of silent dread down Sozin’s spine for some reason; he
had never seen his friend look so… aloof for so long. Roku usually had an unconscious smile
on his face or some other expression– he showed his emotions off like they were as good as
gold. He was also the kindest man that Sozin had ever met, and always had a smile to offer
someone when they needed it most. That same smile had gotten Sozin through some of the
most stressful days of his life, barring his coronation and the day he reached adulthood.
Today, however, even the slightest traces of that smile were gone, swept under the mask of
distant neutrality that adorned Roku’s face. It was concerning, and Sozin opened his mouth to
say something (something, anything to get Roku talking with him again) but closed his
mouth. He forcibly tore his thoughts away from Roku (and his kind, Agni-blessed smile) and
forced himself to survey the area.
This town was situated in an area unlike the rest of the dilapidated town that they had passed
through in the past few days. Around half or so of the ground gave way to rough rock and
rose into cliff sides, hanging overhead like a dark, menacing stormcloud. High peaks
stretched up behind the town, tall enough to intimidate but not tall enough to be labelled
mountains. Right behind the town, where the houses gave way to the hillside, there was a
clean cut through the rock, like a path. It had probably been cut ages ago, by Eathbenders
looking to shorten the journey through the hills.

It was only when they were a few metres into the partially rock-encompassed town that Sozin
realised, oh shit, the messenger would recognise him as Fire Lord Sozin and blow his cover.
He wanted to go through this anonymously– he did not want people bowing and grovelling at
his feet, especially when this was supposed to be discreet and quick. “Roku,” Sozin hissed,
trying to catch his attention.

“Hm?” Roku replied uninterestedly, turning his head to look at Sozin with a bored
expression.

Sozin felt like a wounded dog when Roku looked at him—he had never looked at him like
that—but he buried that feeling deep inside his chest, alongside the anger that still fizzled
from last night. “I can’t be recognised by the messenger from before,” he whispered, looking
around at the people lounging and working alike. He didn’t see the messenger yet– that was
good.

Roku sighed and closed his eyes, making Sozin feel a bit offended. Was it so out of the
question for Sozin to not want to be recognised as the Fire Lord in a deteriorating Earth
Kingdom town? “You can wait on the outskirts of town. I’ll find out what we need to know,
and then we ca-” “AVATAR ROKU!!!” Roku was cut off by an ecstatic cry as a familiar man
came bounding towards them, waving excitedly. Sozin cringed and Roku sighed again,
though it was somehow different from the sigh he had given Sozin, somehow more… happy.
Affectionate.

The man came screeching to a halt as he neared Roku and Sozin, bowing deeply to Roku
before rising. His face paled when he caught sight of Sozin and his mouth dropped open.
“You… you… you’re-”

“Hello, Chen,” Roku interrupted, smiling kindly at him. From what Sozin could tell it was
genuine, and an ugly feeling of jealousy bubbled up in his chest. Of course Roku would be
more comfortable smiling at anyone who wasn’t Sozin after last night. “This is my
companion, Lieutenant Lee. Fire Lord Sozin assigned him to me in case I would need any
extra help.”

Chen narrowed his eyes, squinting at Sozin’s face. “Ah. You know, Lieutenant Lee… you
look a lot like Fire Lord Sozin. Are you related?” He asked, tilting his head a little.

Sozin cleared his throat, trying to not be awkward (he was the Fire Lord for Agni’s sake; he
knew how to handle rooms full of angry advisors and his entire nation. He should not be
getting this frazzled over this one, small interaction.). “Many people have said that. I’m not
related to the Fire Lord, I just have similar facial features to His Majesty,” Sozin replied,
trying to make his voice sound airier and more nasally than it actually was. He wasn’t sure if
it was working; he hadn’t taken any performance classes and didn’t care all too much for
theatre.

Chen narrowed his eyes at Sozin, looking suspicious, but then shrugged. “Alrighty then.
Now, do you want somewhere to rest or…? Because I was under the assumption that you
would, uh, just get down to it? I mean, if you want to prepare, that’s fine, you can stay in an
inn until y-” “I think we can address your problem right now,” Roku cut him off, smiling
gently at him again. Sozin’s fists clenched around his reins and he could feel blistering heat
starting to build up in his palms.

Chen nodded, smiling at Roku. Sozin felt like bursting into flames and focused on keeping
his breathing easy; in and then out, his inner flame blazing higher and then evening out with
each breath. Chen grabbed Roku’s ostrich-horse’s reins and pointed towards the craggy
mountains to the west. “The benders have been attacking over there. Be careful, they can be
pretty vicious in their attacks. If you need any assistance, don’t hesitate to ask any of us. I’m
pretty sure everyone would be happy to help,” He said, gently guiding Roku’s mount to face
that way.

Roku smiled and bowed his head. “Thank you for your help, Chen. We will do our best to
help your village,” he said, his voice soft and caring and all-too gentle.

Chen beamed at Roku, smiling widely. “If you’d like, I can lead you to the trail that the
attacks have been on. It’s the big crack in the hills, but going through town can be confusing
and I wouldn’t want you to get lost. N-Not that you’d get lost, Avatar Roku! I’m sure if I left,
you’d be more than capable of finding it on your own,” Chen rambled, looking a little
flustered.

Roku smiled (Again!! Why was this random man getting more attention than Sozin?!?!) and
nodded. “We would appreciate your help, Chen, thank you,” he said, loosening his grip on his
reins and nodding, giving Chen permission to begin leading him.

Sozin stewed in his anger as they set off again, Roku and Chen engaging in polite,
comfortable conversation as they went. Each minute that they talked was another that Sozin
was tempted to set something on fire. Why was Roku talking with Chen so much, when
Sozin was right there? His best friend since childhood, riding right behind him, and he was
talking to a random man. The nerve! Sozin was getting ready to snap at them before he
stopped. Why was he getting so worked up over this? They had a fight, and Roku needed
space until he was comfortable talking to him again. He may not like it, but that was just how
it was.

“So, Chen, what happened to the hillside? That rift doesn’t look natural,” Roku asked,
gesturing to the fissure in the mountainside.

Chen nodded. “It isn’t. Legend has it that way back in the day, there were two lovers, one in
the village on this side of the hills and one in our sister village on the other side. One day, our
sister village was attacked, and the chaos was so great that the screams and sounds of battle
could be heard on this side of the hills. The lover that belonged to this village was an
Earthbender, and when he heard the sound of his lover’s village being attacked, he grew
enraged and carved out a path so he could help our sister village,” Chen confirmed, trying to
look cool but the expression on his face betraying how much he actually liked telling the tale.

“No one really knows what happened to them afterwards; it’s rumoured that his lover was
found dead, and so he entombed himself in the rock out of grief. It’s also rumoured that they
ran away together either after or during the battle, as one of their fathers didn’t approve of
their union.”

Roku nodded, looking back at the hillside and the path with a warm expression. “That sounds
like quite a tale. We can only hope that the two of them found peace together, in this life or
the next.”

Roku’s eyes flicked to Sozin’s face for a slip second, something unreadable in his eyes,
before they went back to the hill. Sozin felt both bitter and slightly panicked, his heart
dropping into the bottom of his lungs. What was that look for? What did Roku want from
him, or expect him to understand? Was there some secret double meaning to his words that
Sozin just didn’t understand?

Chen nodded, still looking at the hillside, his eyes far away. “We can only hope. I wish I
could have that kind of love someday, though. That would be wonderful.” His eyes cleared
and strayed for a second, wandering to Roku’s face before he quickly looked back to the
hillside, his cheeks blushing a small amount.

Yep, Sozin was bitter again. They finally arrived at the start of the path after a far too slow
trip for Sozin’s tastes, the road laid out in front of them carved straight out of the hillside and
the ground worn flat from travel. Chen let Roku’s ostrich-horse’s reins go and bowed deeply.
“Thank you for allowing me to escort you, Avatar Roku, Lieutenant Lee. I wish you luck on
your mission,” he said, straightening up and smiling at Roku again, his cheeks slightly pink.

Roku bowed his head in return, smiling softly. “Thank you for escorting us, Chen. We will
return, and hopefully your village will be free of your problem soon,” he replied, his voice
cool and soothing and definitely in the wrong tone for a stranger. Chen’s cheeks reddened and
he bowed again.

Sozin bit back a growl, his grip tightening on his reins, maybe scorching the leather darker,
and he hissed, “Avatar Roku, shouldn’t we get going? We should strive to find these benders
before nightfall.”

Roku shot Sozin a look, one that made Sozin’s stomach sink with quiet dejection, before he
nodded. “Yes, we should. Thank you again, Chen. Have a good day,” he acknowledged,
offering Chen one last smile before he flicked his reins and set off. Sozin followed, discreetly
shooting Chen a death glare as he passed.

The ride into the hills was silent, almost eerily so. Roku didn’t say a thing to Sozin and Sozin
didn’t try to make any conversation. Sozin wanted to talk, to make things better somehow,
but he didn’t know how. He couldn’t apologise—he was the Fire Lord, he didn’t need to
apologise, and he wasn’t even in the wrong truly—but how else could he make this better?
Despite having hours upon hours to think, he couldn’t come up with a single idea other than
apologising. Which he just couldn’t do.
They were only halfway through the path through the rock when Roku’s ostrich-horse
stopped, Roku holding up a hand for Sozin to do so as well. Sozin did so. “Sozin… what can
you see?” Roku whispered, glancing around.

Sozin glanced around, surveying the area. There was a small stream to their left, trickling
down the rocks and bubbling calmly. The terrain around them was rough, the only smooth
land the worn-down path in front of their mount’s feet. The terrain around them was uneven
and irregular, sloping upwards into craggy, rocky cliff sides. There looked to be some caves
higher up, but Sozin couldn’t tell for sure.

Sozin decided to look a little deeper. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching out
to see if he could feel any other sources of heat. It was an extremely underdeveloped skill of
his, something he had started training on a whim, but it was developed enough that he could
sense non-Firebenders if they were close enough. He let his senses take over, spreading his
awareness though the terrain until– there!

Sozin’s eyes snapped open and he looked up at what seemed to be a cave, where a spark had
caught his attention. It was weird, like a Firebender’s flame was half-drowned or muffled in a
way. Regardless, it was a Firebender’s spark– he was sure of that. “Up there,” Sozin
whispered, nodding in the direction of the cave.

Roku turned his head in the direction of the cave, squinting. There was no discernible
movement in it, but Sozin knew it wasn’t vacant. “How do you want to do this?” Sozin
hissed. He was ready to fight or dismount or bargain, anything, but he knew that in this case
Roku had the first call.

Roku glanced back to Sozin, his face smoothing out into true neutrality, instead of the false
neutrality he had been wearing all day. “We’ll try to talk it out, first. Be ready to fight if
necessary,” he replied, dismounting and turning towards the cave.

Sozin was about to do the same when a burst of fire came careening his way, bright and
dangerous and right out of nowhere. Sozin threw himself off of his ostrich-horse, pulling it
out of the way as he did so. The fireball flew right over his head, crashing into the rocks just
feet away and burning away what little shrubbery had been growing out of the cracks in the
rocks. Roku threw himself out of the way and grabbed his ostrich-horse’s reins, grabbing
Sozin’s as well. He looked surprisingly calm, as if someone hadn’t just fired a fireball at his
head, possibly in an attempt to kill him. The ostrich-horses bayed loudly, crying out and
struggling to get away, but Roku’s grip was as good as iron and they couldn’t flee.

Speaking of attempted murder, another fireball flew over their heads and hit the rocks a bit
closer to Sozin, close enough that he could feel the warmth lingering in the rocks beneath and
beside him. “We need to get the ostrich-horses out of here, I don’t want to have to pay to
replace them,” Sozin hissed, glaring at a cave halfway up the mountain. He could feel a
strong fire in there now, one equal to that of an enraged Firebender. He was certain that the
Firebender was in there, and he no longer needed to argue his case.

“I’ll lead them away. Are you okay fighting on your own for a while?” Roku hissed back,
loud enough to be heard over the screaming of the ostrich-horses, quickly glancing towards
the source of the fire and then back to Sozin.
Sozin nodded, but he felt a little irked; he was more than capable of taking care of himself, he
hadn’t been trained by the best Firebenders in the Fire Nation for nothing. Roku nodded and
then he flipped back onto his ostrich-horse before he took off, dust flying out behind their
mounts’ feet as they disappeared into the rocky landscape. Sozin didn’t have time to stand
and gawk, even though he so very much wanted to, as the fire blasts started up again, now so
very much closer to burning Sozin’s face off.

Sozin squared his stance and shot a fireball back. He hadn’t sparred with anyone in a while,
and he felt a bit rusty as the fire left his palm. but it hit the top of the cave regardless, briefly
illuminating the inside. There was only one figure in it, surprisingly short but in a fighting
stance, however sloppy it was, and Sozin’s stomach sank. The Waterbender was hiding
somewhere else. Sozin’s eyes shot around, trying desperately to look for any other movement
that could be someone scurrying around, but the Firebender fired a blast at him and his
concentration was broken as he dodged.

Sozin fired another blast at the Firebender, but they broke it and fired one back. Sozin batted
it to the side and swept a wave of fire towards the cave with his heel, bounding to the side
immediately afterwards to hide behind a crag of rock. Staying in these fixed positions would
do neither of them any good; he needed to get this person out of the accursed cave, then this
could go somewhere.

Sozin drew back, fixing his gaze on the top of the cave as he built power up inside of his
chest. He held it there for a few seconds, feeling and savouring the feeling of the energy and
fire burning within his ribcage, before jumping back into the fray and firing it at the mouth of
the cave. He saw the wave of flames enter the cave and curve off of the stone, down towards
the Firebender hiding within. They let out a high-pitched shriek and dove forwards, out of the
cave. They missed the small ridge in front of the cave and they fell down the small cliffside,
rolling down the rough rock before they landed squarely on their feet. Finally.

Sozin moved to attack, but before he could the person had already regained their bearings and
blasting a firebolt at him. He dodged, but before he could counter-strike, he was dodging
again to avoid being burnt to a crisp. This person’s technique was sloppy and their stance was
weak, but they made up for it with almost deadly speed and accuracy. Where in Agni’s name
was Roku? It wasn’t all too difficult to just tether the ostrich-horses to a rock or something
and run back. Did the Waterbender catch up with him? Was he fighting his own battle?
Sozin’s worrying was cut off by yet another attempt from this small person to fry him alive,
fire whooshing by his face and far too close for his tastes.

Sozin concentrated and threw out a thin line of fire, moulding and shaping it to make it take
the form of a whip. He slashed at the Firebender, forcing them to jump to the side in an
attempt to not be burnt. As they moved, Sozin took the time to try to discern who they were.
They were wearing dusty and tattered Earth Kingdom clothing, more of a sickly yellow than
the usual green that Earth Kingdom citizens wore. Their hair was loose, dark, and long,
covering what little of their face that wasn’t already concealed by the dark strip of cloth over
their lower face that served as a mask.

When their feet struck the ground once more, Sozin whipped at them again, forcing them to
jump to another spot in order to avoid getting burned. Keep them moving, don’t give them
time to counterstrike, don’t allow them to get any more strikes in until Sozin could defeat
them or until Roku could come back and maybe do something else. That plan would have
worked if the world didn’t hate him so much. Unfortunately, the world did hate him that
much and the person remembered, oh yeah, you can firebend mid-air. They punched a
fireblast right at Sozin’s face mid-jump, and Sozin had to lose his fire whip to break the blast.

Sozin readied himself to fire back, but right as he broke a second fire blast a third came
careening at him and he had to break that one as well. Just as Sozin broke that one and pulled
his hands back to counter-strike, fire was blazing at him far too fast for him to block. Sozin’s
eyes grew wide but he pulled his hands back in an attempt to block it, knowing that he was
too slow. Maybe Roku had a point about him not coming after all.

Suddenly, the fireball wasn’t there anymore, and fire was blazing all around Sozin. Not
touching or burning him, but just… around him. Sozin then became aware of the giant rock
in front of him that had popped out of nowhere, shielding him from the flames, and he
breathed a sigh of relief. Roku was finally here.

Sozin heard a yelp and then the fire blast stopped, flames no longer licking around the rock
that Roku had summoned to keep Sozin from becoming an extra-crispy Fire Lord. “Sozin, get
out here!” Roku’s voice called, sounding somewhere between frustrated and stern.

Sozin wanted to snap back, something in the area of “Yes, mom,” but chose to just do what
Roku said; there was a chance that enraging Roku now would turn both of them on him, and
he really didn’t want that to happen. He stepped out from behind the rock and was greeted
with the sight of Roku advancing on the Firebender, breaking each fireblast thrown at him
and retaliating with one of his own. The Firebender was being forced back towards the rock
wall behind them, where they would be trapped. When their back hit the wall, they noticeably
tensed, their entire body one tight mass of nervous energy.

Sozin moved forward, ready to fight in case Roku wanted his help. Roku may be the Avatar,
but two against one always were the better odds. Roku side-eyed him but didn’t look cross
(thank Agni). Instead, he stomped his foot, driving twin rings of rock out of the ground and
into the air, and launched them forward towards the Firebender. Huh, Sozin thought, smart.
Instead of them having to knock out the person, Roku could just bind their hands in rock and
cut off their firebending that way.

The Firebender’s eyes widened, and in a split second, they threw their hands out in front of
them and slashed down. However, there was no fire.

Instead, water jumped out of the stream only a few feet away and sliced through the rock
handcuffs, rendering them useless pieces of rubble. They moved their arms in a wide
sweeping motion and the brook answered to their call, a wave pouring out of the stream and
transforming into a path of ice. The person slipped out of their grasp, away from being
cornered and travelling down the ice several feet before swirling back to face them, balls of
fire igniting in their palms once more as they stumbled back onto solid land.

Sozin was speechless, his blood icy in his veins and his mind frozen with shock. This was
impossible. Not just because Sozin had never seen anything like this or because it was
 improbable; this was completely, physically impossible. This literally could not be happening.
The Firebender and the Waterbender were the same person!?

Chapter End Notes

Roku: *Does literally anything*

Sozin: What does it MEAN

Thank yall for reading! Any/all kudos and comments are appreciated, and have a lovely
day!
Also yall are insane, the hit count has doubled!??!?/pos
 Chapter 5
Chapter Notes

CW for graphic depictions of violence, violence against children, mentions of death, a

tiny bit of self-hatred, and graphic depictions of wounds

This one is gonna be fun yall :)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sozin stared in shock at this person, this impossible individual who could bend both fire and
water, who wasn’t the Avatar. “Roku?” Sozin managed to choke out, his eyes rapidly jumping
back and forth between the ice path that was still frozen solid to the rock below, slowly
starting to melt in the sun, and the fire flickering and dancing in the stranger’s hands.

“I see it,” Roku replied, his voice firm and grim. “Just focus on what we’re here to do. We
can figure this out later.”

What is there to figure out?! Sozin thought hysterically. There’s a person in front of us who
can bend two elements, not even to mention they’re opposite elements! What is even
happening?! However, he didn’t say this aloud. Instead, he nodded and shifted into a fighting
stance, letting his muscle memory lead him rather than his brain, which was rapidly starting
to disintegrate.

The stranger stared at the two of them, their amber-golden eyes visible for the first time and
burning with a ferocious light. When Sozin shifted into the correct combative stance, their
eyes snapped to him and they sliced their hand through the air, fire flying from their
fingertips. Sozin broke it and returned fire, punching flames forward. The person redirected
the fire into the air, but Roku thrust his hands forward and a gust of wind shot from his
palms, unstabilizing the stranger further.

Sozin shot another burst of fire, forcing the bender to move back on their already unsteady
feet. Roku raised his hands and then moved them apart forcefully, and the ground beneath
their feet started to shift. The stranger was clearly disoriented, but they stabilised themself the
best they could and summoned water, whipping it towards Sozin and Roku in a wide arc.
Sozin evaporated the part heading right for his face with a burst of fire, but Roku caught it
and sent it back in a condensed bolt.

They managed to redirect it, but they had to jerk back to avoid the impact and their feet
slipped on the unsteady ground. They gasped as they fell, and they let out a loud ‘oof’ as they
hit the ground. However, before Roku could pin them to the ground with his Earthbending,
they were scurrying back onto their feet like a furious elephant-squirrel.
They continued to fight, Roku and Sozin forcing the bender back further and further, making
them fall over and over again. They kept getting right back up onto their feet immediately
afterwards, though, and the fight raged on. As they fought, Sozin realised that, ignoring the
actual fighting, he was at peace. He and Roku were back in their usual pattern, even if it was
only when they were fighting; one moving when the other couldn’t, their motions smooth and
in sync with the other’s. Sozin had missed this. He had missed having this rhythm with Roku,
this silent understanding. He had missed it more than almost anything.

The stranger suddenly made a hissing sound and they jerked their hands up, holding them
there for a second before swinging them in a tight circle and then shoving them towards Roku
and Sozin. Water leapt from the stream at their command, circling in a tight ring above their
head before transforming into sharp icicles and launching right at the two. Sozin moved to
bend a wall of fire, no small feat but not impossible, especially for a Firebender of his power,
but Roku beat him to the chase.

Roku stiffened his stance and then brought his hands up quickly and swiftly, his entire body
moving in one powerful line. A giant mass of rock surged out of the ground in one giant wall,
dark and layered with small lines of white and black. There was the sound of ice shattering
and sinking into rock, crystals falling to the rock path beneath their feet, before Roku moved
his hands apart viciously. The rock wall broke in two, crumbling to rubble as it did so, and
Roku shoved a fist forward, the rocks moving to his will. The only thing the bender had the
chance to do was gasp before they were knocked to the ground, their body making a loud
thud as they hit the ground.

Sozin and Roku were silent and still for a second, waiting for this person to jump to their feet
and continue their battle, but they didn’t. They just lay there like a limp ragdoll tossed aside
by a bored child, dusty and unmoving. Sozin cautiously took a step forward, expecting them
to suddenly leap up and attack him with all the fury of an enraged turkey-duck. They didn’t.
“Roku… did you kill them?” Sozin asked warily, glancing over his shoulder at his friend.

Roku looked exasperated at his question, but didn’t try to murder him for it (thankfully—
Sozin didn't have any heirs to pass the nation on to). “No, Sozin, I didn’t kill them. They
should just be unconscious; it’s safe to approach,” he responded. However, he paused before
raising an eyebrow, a small, sly smile coming onto his face. “Unless the great Fire Lord Sozin
is too chicken to approach an unconscious person?”

Sozin huffed, glancing over his shoulder to glare at Roku, playful but also hesitant. This
peace of theirs was shaky, unstable; it would come crashing down around their heads sooner
or later. The best thing he could do now was tread lightly. “The only chicken around here is
you, staying back there and making me do all the work,” he retorted, starting to walk towards
the unconscious bender. They may be out cold, but that doesn’t mean that they still couldn’t
be dangerous; unconscious people could have the habit of flailing around, bending in all
directions or tossing knives.

Roku chuckled quietly but didn’t join him. Sozin knelt, surveying the stranger for any
weapons they may have had. Their clothes were thick and loose, but obviously not hiding any
daggers or the like based off of how it hung off of their body. They were very small too,
almost disconcertingly so; had they suffered from malnutrition growing up, leading to their
gangly form and shortness?

After checking them over three times, Sozin sat back on his heels and sighed. “There’s no
weapons on them, we’re good. Now, have you heard of anyone who could do this kind of
thing? Bend two elements and such while not being the Avatar?” Sozin called, looking over
his shoulder for a moment before turning back to the stranger. Something was off, but he
couldn’t discern exactly what yet.

“No, not that I know of. None of the history scrolls I’ve read say anything about someone
who could bend two elements, let alone anyone who could bend two opposite elements. It’s
entirely possible we’re dealing with an entirely new type of bending ability,” Roku replied,
his voice echoing off of the high rock walls all around them.

Sozin felt a small shiver of dread go through him. Discovering something new. Discovering
something new meant paperwork, and that meant figuring out who this person was, their
hometown, their family, their lineage, and so many more things that it made Sozin’s head
hurt. Not to mention that he’d be cross-filing as well, since this could potentially also involve
one of the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom as well. Why hadn’t he made a position so
someone could do this for him yet?

Sozin sighed wearily. He reached out and began to undo the mask covering the person’s face.
He’d need to see if he recognised them, and he’d have to get acquainted with that face one
way or another, as he was sure he’d be staring at it a lot while trying to get them to help fill
out their own paperwork. Something was nagging at him though, yelling that something
wasn’t right, but for the life of him he just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.

He finally undid the knot and pulled away the mask carelessly, the dark cloth fluttering in his
hand. And then he froze. Oh, no. Oh, Agni. “Roku,” Sozin called, his voice so much calmer
than he actually was, “get over here.”

He heard Roku approach, his pace quick and light. “What is it? Is something wrong? Is it
someone we know?” He asked, his voice cautious and concerned.

“Roku—oh merciful Agni above us—Roku, this is a child,” Sozin shakily spoke, his voice
quavering as his grip on the mask tightened and loosened sporadically. “Roku, we fought and
knocked out a little boy.”

The boy’s face was still round and smooth with baby fat, his cheeks still soft and his features
not fully developed yet. The fact that he was so short and tiny made sense now– he hadn’t
even really begun to grow yet! Sozin felt a yawning chasm open in his stomach, dread and
guilt filling him like he was a bucket in a rainstorm.

Roku sucked in a harsh breath, and Sozin heard him whisper, “Oh Agni’s sacred flame.”

“What are we even going to do? This is a kid, Roku, what are we even supposed to do in a
situation like this?” Sozin hissed, his hand tightening around the boy’s mask in his hand. “We
knocked out a child! Who was living alone, in the wilderness!”
Roku was silent for a second before Sozin felt his comforting hand on his shoulder, giving
him something to focus on (that wasn’t the passed-out child in front of him). “He can
Firebend– that means that at least one of his immediate family was Fire Nation, and we
technically have a claim to him. We can take him back with us, put him on trial for what he’s
done. He may be a child, and that may make his sentence more lenient, but he’s still hurt
people. He tried to hurt you and me, and he has hurt others,” Roku said, his voice
surprisingly calm and level for such an insane situation.

Sozin nodded, but he was still stuck on this is an actual child. How did this happen? Who
allowed this to happen? “…of course. Thank you, Roku. Could you please get the ostrich-
horses? I would like to start back to the Fire Nation as soon as possible,” he said, his tone
carefully neutral.

He had to carefully control himself– if he didn’t, he was liable to start raging and looking for
this kid’s parents, probably for less than helpful reasons. Something about this situation, this
child, made him strangely volatile. The fact that this child was out here, all alone, without
any supervision made his chest hurt from how incensed it made him. It was stupid, it was
neglectful, it was pointless.

Roku nodded and Sozin heard him walk away, his footsteps slowly fading until he couldn’t
be heard anymore. Sozin stayed with the boy, looking down the other end of the path to
watch for anyone approaching. He had already been taken by surprise once today, and he
wasn’t all too keen for it to happen again.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

It was a few hours before nighttime when the boy gained consciousness, around the time
when the sun started wavering on the horizon, painting the sky deep oranges and reds while
the purple-black of night crept in around the edges. They had already left the town (very
quickly, due to Sozin’s incessant demanding) and they were travelling through a woody area,
quite a few hours away from the next village. It was nice to travel in the shade, the trees
stretching up on either side of them with the rich, flaming light dappling through the leaves
and the crickets singing their chirping song as the sun sunk deeper and deeper on the horizon.
It was easy to forget that there was an unconscious child just within arm’s reach.

Sozin was looking around at the scenery, not paying attention to Roku in front of him, who
had the child bound behind him, but he knew that the boy had woken when he heard a voice
yell a curse word in the loudest shriek he had ever heard such a thing done in. His head
snapped forward to see the boy struggling against his bindings, in serious danger of falling
off of the ostrich-horse. “Stop struggling—it won’t do you any good to break a bone falling
off,” Sozin called, smothering a laugh as Roku turned back to steady the kid, a subtle
annoyed look on his face.

“Well, I wouldn’t be struggling or in this situation if you hadn’t attacked me!” The kid
hissed, swinging his head to glare at Sozin full-on, his cheeks flushed with rage. Now that he
was awake, Sozin could clearly see him and analyse his voice. While his accent and
complexion suggested Water Tribe, his features were sharp and his eyes were amber-gold like
a Fire Nation citizen’s.
Sozin raised an eyebrow. “Last I remembered, you were the one who shot the first flame,” he
responded.

The boy huffed, clearly unfazed by Sozin’s note of his hypocrisy, and continued his struggle
to the point where Roku had to stop to focus on keeping him on the ostrich-horse. Sozin
stopped as well, to not leave him behind. “Stop struggling please, I don’t want to have to
encase you in rock or knock you out again,” Roku said, trying to steady him without falling
off himself.

“No! I won’t stop, let me go!” The boy cried, starting to wholeheartedly thrash around on the
back of Roku’s ostrich-horse.

Roku gave Sozin a tired look, one that made him feel like giggling like a child—at least it
wasn’t him dealing with the kid. “We should stop for the night; we’ve already gone a good
distance today,” Roku said, trying his best to keep a grip on the struggling kid behind him.
The child flailed a specific way and clocked Roku in the jaw, sending them both backwards a
bit, as Roku still had a firm grip on his unwilling passenger.

Sozin stifled an amused sigh and nodded. “Agreed.”

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

The sun had set, and Sozin, Roku, and their new companion sat around a fire that Sozin had
made. The kid’s lap was encased in stone, compliments of a very tired Roku who didn’t want
to deal with escape attempts, and his hands were now free. He didn’t try to Firebend or
Waterbend at them, thankfully. Instead, he just sat there, glaring at the two of them with his
arms crossed.

Sozin was content to sit there and let the kid glare at him, even if it made him feel even worse
than he already felt, for some reason. Roku, evidently, was not. “So… how old are you, why
were you out here alone? Where are your parents?” He asked, offering the child a calm smile.

The child’s eyes blazed hot with rage for a second before the fires died down, and he looked
at the ground, glaring at the patchy grass. “My dad died and I didn’t want to stay with my
mom. You don’t get to know anything else about that,” he spat, his fingers digging into his
coarse sleeves and new scorch marks joining the many already littered along the dusty green
cloth. “And I’m nine.”

Sozin blinked, taking it in. Okay, his father died and he didn’t want to stay with his mother—
why? Did he not like his mother, did he not like where she lived or who she lived with, was
the environment not suitable for him? He did a mental double-take as his mind caught up as
well. NINE??? The kid was only nine years old, was living alone, and was already that
talented with bending?! What kind of crazy parent would let their child roam around the
world, nine years old, with that kind of ability and temperament?!

Questions seemed to fill his mind like a ditch filling with dirty water after a storm, but he
knew that he wouldn’t get an answer if he asked any of them, so he left them unsaid. Roku
nodded sympathetically, the look in his eyes clearly stating that he had also been somewhat
horrified by the child’s age. “Alright, I understand. What’s your name, if you don’t mind me
asking? I don’t think I want to call you ‘kid’ for the rest of eternity,” he continued, chuckling
a little.

Sozin felt himself relax a little, some stress and tension bleeding out of his shoulders, and a
smile threatened to overtake his brooding expression. This was why he liked being around
Roku– he was so sweet and genuinely caring, and he really wanted to help everyone he
could. In all of Sozin's years, he had never met someone more kind and compassionate than
Roku. He was truly the best person to be the Avatar—anyone else would be wholly
undeserving of such a duty and honour.

The kid looked a bit surprised, like he hadn’t expected such a question from a person who
Sozin thought to be one of the kindest and most caring in the world. “Uh… Kuzai. My
name’s Kuzai,” he said, warily raising his eyes to meet Roku’s. His fingers’ grip on his
sleeves loosened and he glanced from Sozin to Roku, his bright eyes full of caution. “Who
are you? I’d like to put the definite names of my captors to their faces.”

Sozin looked at Roku and raised his eyebrows in a silent question; do we tell him who we
are, more specifically who Sozin is, or do we continue with our ruse? Roku returned the look,
a glint of childish joy in his eyes, and Sozin knew they were doomed. “Well,” Roku drawled,
shaking out his sleeve and placing his hand fancily on his chest, “I am Fire Lord Sozin, and
my friend here is Avatar Roku.”

“You know, it’s a crime to impersonate the Royal family,” Sozin commented, crossing his
arms and leaning back, trying to remain aloof. He would not rise to the bait, he would not rise
to the bait…

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Avatar Roku, I confess! I am not the handsome, stunning Fire Lord Sozin!
Alas, if only I could be him, then my life would be perfect with you, Avatar Roku, at my side,
offering boundless wisdom!” Roku cried, dramatically swooning backwards.

Sozin’s cheeks burned, but he didn’t know if it was from anger or embarrassment. Was Roku
ever going to get a joke that wasn’t based off of “Oh, Sozin’s so pretty/cute/handsome/etc…!”
How immature– you’d think the Avatar would have more than one joke! And only that one
joke since their childhood, how unoriginal!

“I know you’re the Avatar,” Kuzai said to Roku, cutting him off and preventing him from
making fun of Sozin any further. “You Earthbent, Firebent, and Waterbent at me earlier.” He
then turned to Sozin, narrowing his eyes. “And the Avatar called you Sozin.”

Sozin silently cursed out Roku in his mind. There goes his plans for staying truly anonymous
for the trip- way to go Roku! But it would have happened eventually–Sozin would have had
to be involved with his court case, as it would probably have to have a representative from
one of the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom, and he would be fully addressed as Fire Lord
when they got back to Royal Caldera City and the Royal Palace. “Yes, I am Fire Lord Sozin,”
he confirmed, shooting Roku a quick look before turning back to the kid. Roku made a face
in response behind the kid’s back.

Kuzai raised an eyebrow at Sozin, looking disbelieving. “The Fire Lord himself found me so
cool that he decided to travel out here just to see what I was up to?” He asked, looking both
sceptical and amused.

Sozin, surprisingly, didn’t find himself angry at Kuzai for his words. Instead, he felt some
sort of strange affection, as if Kuzai wasn’t a random child and was somehow related to
Sozin in some way. He felt almost… paternal in a way. He’d have to think more about that
later. “I had to get out of the palace sometime, didn’t I?” He replied, the sides of his mouth
quirking up as he raised an eyebrow in response.

Kuzai scoffed but didn’t reply, turning back to look at the fire flickering in front of them.
None of them spoke, the only sound the crackling of the fire and the slowly but steadily
rising song of cricket-cicadas. There was a strange tension in the air, fizzling and sharp and
something that Sozin definitely didn’t want to touch.

Kuzai sighed, breaking the silence, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the rock slab
encasing his legs and putting his face in his hands, drawing both Sozin and Roku’s attention.
He stared into the fire through his fingers, his amber eyes glittering in the dancing light.
“So,” he said, sounding half-choked. His voice was slightly shaky, as if he was attempting to
sound brave but was far too scared to do so. “When are you going to kill me?”

Sozin’s heart dropped into his stomach, his aloof façade breaking like glass, and Roku’s face
fell like a stone through air. The only sound there was for a moment was the fire crackling
and the faraway croaking of dove-frogs and cricket song, sounds all too cheery considering
the words that Kuzai had just uttered. Finally, Sozin made himself speak. “…Why would we
kill you?” He asked. His voice sounded weird, like he was listening to himself speak on a
stage in a cavern, his voice echoey and hollow.

“Because I’m a monster,” Kuzai clarified straightforwardly, as if he were explaining why the
wind blew instead of why he, a young child, should be killed. “I’m unnatural. There’s a
reason why nobody alive other than me can bend two things, and that’s because they
deserved to die for being wrong. I’m only alive because nobody’s managed to kill me yet.”

Sozin was both in shock and enraged, fire coursing through his veins and curling up in his
throat, hot and bordering on painful. Who in their right mind would say such a thing around
children?! Or, even worse, to a child?! What kind of parent would allow their child to hear
such a thing?! “Why would you say that?” Roku asked calmly, his tight smile and pale face
suggesting that he was thinking the exact same thing that Sozin was.

Kuzai shrugged, his face still in his hands. It didn’t hide the way he trembled with every
breath he took, his shoulders shaking like a loose icicle in the warm wind of a spring gale.
“Because it’s true. Normal people aren’t supposed to bend more than one thing,” he said, so
casual that Sozin wanted to burn something to ash. “I’m a freak.”

“Ah,” Roku said, leaning back and raising an eyebrow. Sozin knew that look—it was that
look that he got when someone was being stupid and when he knew he just had to call them
out on it. “I see. So, as the Avatar, I can bend all four of the elements. Since I can do so, I’m
not normal, and am therefore a freak, is that correct?”

Kuzai looked up, his face slowly reddening and an ashamed look coming onto his face. “No,
no, that’s not what I mean! You’re meant to be that way, you’re the Avatar. I’m not, so that
means that what I can do isn’t normal or natural,” he explained. “I’m not meant to even be
alive.”

“And why is that?” Sozin inquired, keeping his voice carefully neutral. It wouldn’t do well
for Kuzai to think that Sozin was angry at him and try to defend himself accordingly; he
didn’t want Kuzai to get seriously hurt if they had to restrain him again or even further than
he already was.

Kuzai froze before turning his head to glare at Sozin, his eyes still glistening but with the
sharp, angry look back in them, blazing like a forest fire. He was back on the defence, then.
“What, you think that because you have me trapped in a rock you get the rights to my life
story?” He hissed, crossing his arms. His sleeves began to smoke underneath his fingertips.
“If I don’t want to tell you something, you’re not gonna get it out of me. And I don’t want to
tell you.”

Sozin held his hands up in surrender, leaning back a little bit. “That’s fine. If you don’t want
to tell us, then we probably don’t want to know,” he replied, trying to keep his voice
indifferent. It was difficult—Sozin was usually a man who kept his feelings behind a stone
wall, had to do so in order to rule justly and aptly, but the look of despair and anger that
Kuzai had worn on his face broke through the wall like a rampaging badger-mole. Who had
pushed this kid so far that his every reaction was so defensive? Who was it, and what was
wrong with them?

Kuzai glared at Sozin, still bristling with angry, nervous energy. His sleeves stopped
smoking. “You still haven’t told me when you’re going to kill me,” he spat, tearing his eyes
away from Sozin to glare into the flaming, crackling wood.

Sozin swallowed the fire that had licked its way up his throat. “We’re not going to kill you.
We’re taking you back to the Fire Nation with us, so you can stand trial for your actions. If
the Earth Kingdom wishes, you may be extradited so their court can judge you instead. You
did commit multiple crimes in their territory, so it would be within their power,” he
explained, leaning forward to flick tiny sparks from his fingers into the fire.

“If the Earth King wishes, he may even oversee the case himself. What’s more likely, though,
is that he’ll send a representative to oversee the case and interject when needed.”

“And then the Earth Kingdom can kill me, got it,” Kuzai deadpanned, still staring into the
flames. “Nice to know that the Fire Nation cares enough to have someone else kill me for
them.”

“Stop with that talk, nobody’s killing anyone,” Roku finally interjected, obviously vexed. “If
anyone’s going to die then it’s going to be me listening to the both of you argue. Kuzai,
nobody’s going to kill you. You’re a child, and unless you’ve killed anyone, which you
haven’t, you won’t be sentenced to death.”

“How do you know I haven’t killed anyone?” Kuzai taunted, grinning sharply at Roku as he
glanced at him with bright eyes. Were they bright with manic delight, or were they bright
with unshed tears and fear?
“Because if you had, then the Earth Kingdom would be dealing with you right now, not the
Avatar and the Fire Lord,” Roku answered steadfastly and assuredly as he threw a stick onto
the fire.

Kuzai opened his mouth and then shut it like a fish before huffing, turning back to the fire.
He still didn’t bend to attack them, get himself loose or anything else. Instead he just sat there
and stared at the fire, the dancing light reminiscent of the fire that had made its way over the
horizon minutes ago, and dimly similar to the tiny little dots that were starting to emerge
from the dark depths of the sky.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

The sun shone overhead, beating down on Sozin’s head through the leaves high above his
head as he, Roku, and Kuzai rode through the woods. The trees were thankfully very thick
with leaves, providing ample shade for the trio, but still letting enough light peek through to
not shroud them in a stifling, cold shadow. It was just past noon, and the light spotted the path
behind and in front of Sozin like the back of a baby tapir-deer.

Roku and Kuzai rode ahead on one ostrich-horse and Sozin brought up the rear. The
arrangements were nothing new, the same as they had been for the past few days but the way
they had been decided was slightly insulting—Roku had asked Kuzai who he wanted to go
with, and Kuzai had taken one look at the both of them before proclaiming that Sozin looked
“grumpy” today and that he wanted to ride with Roku. Which was fine. Sozin wasn’t grumpy,
he just sometimes… looked like that.

“Hey,” Kuzai proclaimed loudly, turning a bit to look at the back of Roku’s head. He wobbled
a bit, as his hands and feet were bound in rock again, but he was energetic and his face was
bright. He seemed to have opened up a lot after being assured (multiple, multiple times) that
he wasn’t going to be killed, and the sight brought a strange, sweet warmth to Sozin’s chest.
“Can you un-rock my hands and feet? I wanna stretch.”

“The last time you said that, you almost burned the forest down around us,” Roku replied, not
looking back at him. “The answer is no.”

“Awww, come on! I only lit a teeny fire, and you blew it out immediately! I promise that I
won’t try to set anything on fire, Firebender’s honour,” Kuzai insisted, wobbling around to
make gecko-puppy eyes at Sozin. “Pleeeeaseeee?”

Sozin steeled himself against Kuzai’s eyes and looked right back. “No,” he said. Oh no, did
his voice crack?

Kuzai grinned and leaned back a bit, continuing to make those Agni-cursed gecko-puppy
eyes. “Pretty please?” He prodded, batting his eyes and pouting.

“No.” Sozin could feel his resolve crumbling like a wall or a delicate preserved flower, paper-
thin and so very fragile.

“Double pretty please?” Kuzai widened his eyes, making a comically exaggerated pouty face.
“Stop leaning back like that, you’re going to fall off,” Roku interrupted, reaching back and
pulling Kuzai back onto the ostrich-horse, as he had been leaning half-off of its back. Sozin
could tell that he was holding back a smile.

“No I won’t!” Kuzai bleated, leaning back again to make even more gecko-puppy eyes at
Sozin. “Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaassssssseeeeeeeeeeee?”

“No.”

“You’re no fun,” Kuzai scoffed, leaning back onto the ostrich-horse and sighing dramatically.
“You don’t even like me, you want me to die of boredom.”

“Alas, that is true. I wish for you to die of boredom so I can finally get some peace and
quiet,” Sozin replied, unable to keep the corner of his mouth from quirking up into a smile.

Kuzai glared at Sozin, puffing his cheeks up so he could blow air at Sozin. "Ahg– you jerk!
Just see what I’m going to do to you for wanting me to die in such a terrible fashion, just you
wait and see! I’m gonna-” WHIP

Kuzai was cut off from his grand description of his revenge by an arrow whizzing by his
head, nicking the corner of his ear. It thudded into a tree, the shaft quivering like a plucked
string. There was half a second where everything was quiet, blood starting to well up where
the arrow had nicked Kuzai’s ear, and then everything exploded.

Kuzai threw himself off of Roku’s ostrich-horse, falling to the dirt path with a terrified shriek.
Roku’s ostrich-horse let out a cry and threw Roku off, galloping off down the path. People
dressed in dark colours burst out of the trees, some drawing swords and bows and others
blasting earth or water or fire. Sozin didn’t have time to think before his own ostrich-horse
threw him off, bolting after Roku’s.

“Give us all of your money and we’ll let you live!” One of the benders snarled, the others
surrounding the three. “Well, maybe. It all depends on how you act.”

Sozin rose to his feet, his hands clenching into tight, sparking fists. Roku rose as well, his
almond eyes narrowing. Kuzai remained on the ground, wiggling his way to hide behind
Sozin, his breathing quick and sharp. “Don’t think that your attempt to intimidate us will
work. Your endeavour is, quite honestly, pitiful,” Sozin hissed through his teeth, glaring
lightning bolts at the robbers.

The bender who had spoken before barked a laugh, the fire in their hands sparking alongside
their clipped voice. “Oh? And I suppose you want us to not rob you? Just because you said
so?” Their tone turned infantilizing and mocking, some of the other attackers sneering and
laughing at the statement.

Sozin bit back a reckless reply and looked around, surveying the group. Four benders, two of
them Earthbenders, one Waterbender, and the one Firebender, and three nonbenders, one with
a bow, one with twin spears, and one with a rather large sword. Dealing with all of them at
once while getting Kuzai out of the way would be tricky, but doable.
Sozin glanced at Roku and raised an eyebrow, hoping to Agni that he understood. Roku
nodded and his stance shifted, falling into a discreet offensive position. Sozin sighed quietly,
relieved. Thank Agni that Roku was competent and more. “Well? You gonna give up or
what?” The Firebender called, their voice starting to get snappy.

Sozin’s gaze turned back to them, as piercing and golden as a dragon’s flame. He could see
them falter in their stance, crumbling just a little bit under his stare. How pathetic– hadn’t
even begun to actually look angry yet. He smiled calmly, bringing his hands up in a show of
surrender, slow and sure. Then he sharply swung them in a wide arc, flames roaring from his
fingertips and building into a small inferno in a second, fire swallowing the foliage around
them and forcing the robbers back.

“So that’s how you wanna do it, huh?! Alright then— attack!” The Firebender shrieked, and
then the fight began.

A humongous slab of earth cut through the fire and careened straight toward Sozin and
Kuzai, crude looking but still deadly nonetheless. Sozin stopped bending and grabbed Kuzai,
hauling him out of the way with all his strength as Roku stomped a rock out of the earth to
counter it. Now that Sozin’s mini-inferno was no longer blazing, the robbers were free to
advance forward, and that they did.

The swordsman, archer, and the Firebender went after Sozin while the Earthbender,
Waterbenders, and spearman went after Roku. Sozin couldn't take the time to assist Roku, not
with an angry Firebender and two people with sharp, pointy things running at him.

Sozin lost track of what was happening from there. Someone shot flames at him, he shot
back, he dodged the swinging blade of a sword and incinerated an arrow flying at his face
only to dodge another fire-blast. His world was reduced to the small area around him, the
weapons and fire coming at him, and his own counter attacks. He could hear Roku’s bursts of
flame, the attackers he was fighting letting out grunts and cries as they were steadily being
beaten back, but he couldn’t focus on that either.

The thing that he was wholly focused on was defending Kuzai. He was a child, for Agni’s
sake, and Sozin was going to die before anything happened to him. He sliced an arc of fire
through the air, pushing his attackers back, and grabbed the back of Kuzai’s shirt with his left
hand, turning around to run him off into a safe patch of bushes.

He only got a few steps away, a few steps closer to Kuzai’s safety and the turning of the
battle, before his left shoulder erupted in sudden agony before going dead.

Sozin halted, his eyes going wide as his breathing stopped, his face rapidly paling. He heard
someone gasp, and Kuzai jolted in his grip. He felt his bones grind against each other at the
motion, whatever was currently embedded in his shoulder halting and disrupting their correct
movement. He dropped Kuzai, turning his head to look at his shoulder, see what had
happened to him.

An arrow was stuck through his shoulder, the very tip of it just poking through the skin of his
chest—he could somehow feel the iron scraping against the cloth. It hurt, a lightning-strike
kind of pain, but it was so far away, so distant that Sozin couldn’t really feel it. He didn’t feel
 anything. And then someone grabbed it and the arrow came out, tugged out of his body like it
was no more than a splinter.

Ah, there was the pain he expected. Blood poured out of the wound, dripping down his back
and front; the most that he could bring himself to emit was a pained gasp. Someone was
screaming. Who was screaming like that? It couldn’t be Sozin, he could barely even breathe.
He reached up, slowly and clumsily grabbing at his wound. He was so dizzy. Why was he so
dizzy?

Sozin’s knees gave out and he fell to the ground, his knees knocking painfully yet distantly
against the forest floor. The rest of him followed, and his cheek soon found the dead leaf-
covered ground to not be a very good pillow. He could smell the blood leaking out of him,
coppery-iron mixing with the damp smell of leaf-rot. He was concerned, he should get up,
but he couldn’t. He could only just lay there and wait to bleed out.

Something hot blazed behind him and then he was being rolled onto his back. Someone was
moving around him, and then he was being dragged back. He made a soft sound of protest
and pain because ouch, he was clearly wounded, what are you doing.

His back hit a tree and then he was propped up, rough bark scraping against the back of his
neck. His vision fuzzed in and then out, so he couldn’t ( didn’t, couldn’t, he could never do it
right-) see who had moved him. What he did see, though, was Roku. Roku fighting,
Firebending at his opponents and smashing rocks mid-air and liquefying shards of ice just
before they made contact with his soft, fair skin. Roku turning Sozin’s way, clearly on the
offensive, before freezing. Roku’s cinnamon-brown eyes meeting Sozin’s golden eyes and
widening, taking in the bloody mess that was now his shirt.

Something cool and cold slipped over Sozin’s chest, cold enough to numb, but Sozin couldn’t
react. He was too tired. He was far too tired, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier with
each passing second, slipping further and further closed. Before his eyes closed completely,
gold met cinnamon again. Cinnamon turned into blinding white and then everything went
black.

Chapter End Notes

Kuzai: *breathes*
Roku and Sozin, already taking out adoption papers:

Thank yall for reading! I know that this chapter is long, so rejoice in knowing that the
next will be shorter. Any/all kudos and comments are appreciated and Happy
Halloween!!!
 Nightmare
Chapter Notes

CW for Violence, attempted murder, graphic depiction of pain, and implied murder
Heavy angst in this one, be warned

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sozin sat upon his throne, fire flickering calmly in the braziers lining up and down his throne
room. The walls reflected no sound, the air quiet and still. Sozin felt powerful, like he had
truly grown into the seat of his rule instead of being a poor excuse of a stopper used to seal a
power vacuum, like he had earned the crown on his head and the legacy that ran in streams
of golden fire in his veins.

A thud sounded outside of his doors, dark and heavy. Something in Sozin didn’t like that
sound, feared it even, but he pushed that feeling down. He was Fire Lord Sozin, son and heir
of Fire Lord Zhiyou, and for him to be afraid was him letting shameful weakness overtake his
mind. He straightened his back and stared at the door, waiting for whatever was on the other
side to make itself known.

The doors burst open and smoke billowed out, staining the air with its heavy gloom and
obstructing whoever was intruding on Sozin’s privacy. Then it cleared and there stood Roku.
He looked older, his dark hair streaked through with grey and his face no longer smooth, but
he was still the same gentle, kind Roku that Sozin knew. But he wasn’t looking particularly
gentle or kind. Right now, Roku looked incensed.

“I’ve seen the colony, Sozin! How dare you occupy Earth Kingdom territory!” Roku’s voice
boomed as he advanced, pointing an accusatory finger Sozin’s way.

Ah, so this was about the colony. Roku had no say in this—it was Sozin’s duty to take care of
his citizens and preserve the glory of the Fire Nation, and it was not the duty of the Avatar, of
Roku, to tell him the bounds that he had to stay in to do so. Regardless, Roku’s tone and
words (how dare he speak to Sozin in such a way) fuelled the anger that had been packed
away underneath his ribs for so long, fanning the flames higher and higher until Sozin could
feel them roaring in his mind. “How dare you, a citizen of the Fire Nation, address your Fire
Lord this way,” he replied, his voice cold and yet simmering with red-hot fury. “Your loyalty
is to our nation first. Anything less makes you a traitor.”

“Don’t do this, Sozin. Don’t challenge me. It will only end badly,” Roku seethed, scowling
ferociously at Sozin.

There was a look of complete rage in Roku’s eyes that Sozin had never faced, had never even
seen before. Nevertheless, he met his glare head-on. He was the Fire Lord, and though Roku
may be the Avatar, he was still a Fire Nation citizen. He was still under Sozin’s rule. Sozin
just maintained eye-contact, keeping himself calm and cool, despite the inferno that
threatened to explode from within him.

They were silent for a second, the only sound their breathing (so quiet on Sozin’s part,
growing so so furious on Roku’s part) and the crackling of the fires in the braziers. Roku
scoffed, breaking the silence, looking Sozin in the eye with… was that disdain?! “Well then,
Sozin, it’s over,” he said oh-so casually, now strangely calm instead of burning with rage.

Sozin’s heart froze in his chest. He could only stare at Roku, his eyes wide and the frozen
shards of his heart tumbling through his lungs and slicing open the soft, sensitive inside of his
chest. The wounds inside of him bled hot, blazing blood, painful and infuriating and
miserable. No, It couldn’t be over, it could never be over. They were a matched set, Roku and
Sozin, The Avatar and the Fire Lord. They couldn’t part like this.

“You know what, Sozin? I think I’m finally just going to say it. I denounce you. I denounce
you, I denounce the Fire Nation, and I denounce everything you stand for,” Roku continued,
looking happier and happier as he spoke.

Sozin’s lungs burned to ash as the angry fire in Sozin’s gut rose up, evaporating his icy,
shattered heart. “How dare you! Have you forgotten who your parents were, where you were
born, whose crown you still wear upon your head?!” Sozin fumed, rising to his feet. “Who
are you to denounce me when you carry something of mine every day?!”

Roku’s eyebrows rose and he pointed to the crown atop his head. “Oh, this?” He spoke.
“Thank you for reminding me, Sozin. I had almost forgotten.”

Roku reached up and pulled the crown off of his head, leaving his topknot unadorned except
for the simple band that he used to tie it. His eyes met Sozin’s, cherry-bark meeting burning
gold. His face broke into a warm smile and his hand tightened and then no no Roku no—

Gold and iron and brass crumbled to the floor, bent and distorted and misshapen beyond
recognition. Sozin could only watch in horror and anguish as a priceless artefact, something
that had been handed down through the Royal Family for generations, something that Sozin
had given away freely, with all of his goodwill and affection, was destroyed so brashly. His
chest ached. How could his heart, which was already so, so broken, break even further?

“I’ve always wanted to do that, you know. I’ve hated it ever since you gave it to me, just as
I’ve hated you,” Roku said, his voice tinted with some kind of sick joy.

Sozin looked up numbly, his eyes starting to glimmer with unshed tears, tears that he would
not let himself shed. “Wh…what?” He managed to choke out, his voice quiet with shock and
despair.

Roku blinked, looking a bit surprised. “Oh, you didn’t know? Wow, I must be a better actor
than I thought. I hate you. I’ve always hated you—you’re the most annoying person I know.
It’s surprising that I haven’t killed you yet, but I do have an image to maintain as the Avatar
so I can’t go around just killing whenever I want,” Roku clarified, crossing his arms.
Roku wanted to kill him. Roku, his one and only friend, wanted him dead. Roku, the man he
would trust with his life in any and all situations, had never liked him and wanted him gone.
Despair turned into anguish and then into blazing fury. A cry built up in his throat and he let
it out, as well as the inferno that had been building for however long, fire exploding in one
giant burst towards Roku. He let his rage consume him, flow through his veins and out of his
hands and into the air as flames.

Sozin had to eventually pull his hands down, panting harshly as he tried to lower the heat
that threatened to cook him alive. When he did so… Roku wasn’t there. Sozin couldn’t make
himself feel anything about it, fury and despair and anguish all mixing together to further the
numb feeling inside of his chest. Had he… killed Roku? Had he killed the man he thought was
his best friend, the man who had secretly wanted him dead?

Sozin took a step forward, and then another, and then another. He walked down the wide
stairs that led up to his throne, a storm of emotions raging unrestrained in his mind as he
started trembling. Oh Agni, what had he done? What had he done?! He stumbled a little bit,
looking around like a lost child, his breathing rapidly growing quicker and quicker as tears
continued to roll down his cheeks. His brain was running in circles, sad and then angry and
then sad again. What had he done? Roku had wanted him dead. Where was Roku? It was
him or me. What had he done to his best friend? He would have done the same if I had been
slower.

There was a rumbling and then Roku burst out of the ground, wind howling forth at his
bidding and throwing Sozin into one of the doors to his throne room, the force of the gale that
Roku had summoned slamming the heavy, twin metal doors shut. Sozin groaned and fought
back a shriek, the curve of his back cracking against the metal door handle, sending
lightning bolts of pain up his spine.

He fell to the floor for a split second before he was being hauled up into the air by a giant
stone pillar caught on his robe, breaking through his roof. He gasped for breath, blinking
pained tears out of his eyes in a vain attempt to see. However, he didn’t need to see to know
that Roku had probably destroyed about a quarter of his palace by now. Roku floated up to
him in a column of swirling wind, loose debris stuck in the whirlwind rotating below him,
stuck until the Avatar decided to let them loose. “Well, Sozin, I think you’ve just given me my
opening. You did attack me, after all,” Roku mused, grinning at the Fire Lord with a cold,
cruel look in his eye.

Sozin couldn’t do anything other than struggle for breath, feeling so, so weak and useless. He
just wanted this over with, why couldn’t it be over already? “If… if you say… you’re going to
kill me… then do it,” he hissed, still winded. He kept blinking tears out of his eyes, his vision
of Roku growing blurrier and blurrier with each passing moment. Why couldn’t he stop
crying?! “Don’t be… a coward… Roku.”

Roku’s playful coldness matured into frozen malice, his beautiful eyes narrowing at Sozin in
contempt. “Me? A coward?” He enunciated slowly, leaning forward and wrapping his hand
around Sozin’s neck, his hateful eyes meeting Sozin’s glaring ones. He could feel heat start to
build up, start to sizzle and burn his skin an angry red, but it felt far away. It didn’t feel real.
It couldn’t be real.
 Roku chuckled, slow and menacing and so new and unfamiliar. “Oh no, Sozin, you’ve got it
all wrong. The only coward here… is you,” He purred.

Roku’s hand tightened and then it was too hot too hot hurts hurts it hurts stop Roku Roku
please stop please stOP ROKU PLEASE HELP ME-

Chapter End Notes

I got the name of Sozin's Father—Zhiyou—from the Chinese characters for "progress"
(Zhi-陟) and "excellent/superior" (You-优)

Welp, thank you all for reading! Due to scheduling mishaps, the next update will be on
the 26th. I know that's so far away, but I had no input in the making of said plans so
yeah :( Enjoy this lil scrap I send thy way.
I would also like to thank you all! I've noticed that, for the past few updates, the hit
count has gone up by about ~100 every update, and I cannot thank yall enough for that
:D

So, yeah! Thank you for reading and your kudos, and please leave a comment! I love
reading and replying to them! Have a great day!
 Chapter 7
Chapter Notes

He he :3
CW for injury description, mentions of burn wounds, pain, mentions of violence, self-
blame and hatred, guilt, and crying

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sozin’s eyes flew open and he blindly shoved the thing behind him away, his body rolling
with his momentum as he flew off of whatever surface he had been laying on. The only
reason his throat wasn’t producing a terrified scream at the moment was because his lungs
were spasming, fluttering like trapped birds. His back collided with the cold, wooden floor
and he curled up on his side, his eyes wide yet unseeing.

He still felt the fire, still felt the flames dancing through his esophagus and down his
windpipe and everywhere, the scalding sensation still burned deep into the skin circling his
throat. Still lingering there, heavy and dark, seeping through his flesh like a dark miasma
through mist, the memory of it fogging his brain. He didn’t move, couldn’t move, couldn’t
bring himself to do more than sit there and shiver, sweat rolling off of his face in thin rivulets.

A single feeling brought him back, brought him out of the depths of his mind where he roiled
in agony and despair. His shoulder hurt, a sort of pain that actually felt real, more than a
phantom sensation . He focused on that instead of the false pain blazing through his neck and
down his spine and chest, doing his best to even his breathing, to calm his mind and inner
fire, cut his flames off from the false source that they were reaching for.

Slowly but surely, like the spring thaw gradually warming the mountains and melting ice, the
trembling stopped and the illusory pain receded, his mind slowly calming as his eyesight
slowly came back into focus, a warm wooden grain replacing the blurred space that had been
his sight. However, the pain in his shoulder flared up like a candle near an angry Firebender,
his sudden, jerky movements finally catching up with his foggy brain and nervous system.
Sozin bit back a groan, gingerly touching his aching shoulder and wincing at the contact.

He didn’t have the time to survey his wound or even what had become of him before he
heard movement somewhere, footsteps against wood and slowly, steadily getting louder.
Sozin quickly hauled himself up into a crouch, his stance coiled and still, like a serpent about
to strike. He faced where the footsteps were coming from, which was, apparently, a doorway
sectioned off by a bolt of thick cloth, and waited. He may be injured, and also possibly one
wrong move away from death, but he would rather go out fighting than die helpless at the
feet of some unknown enemy.
The curtains fluttered open and there stood an Earth Kingdom woman, her hair in a low bun
and her clothes a dry, dusty green, like her eyes. Her cloth was poor and her wide hands,
which were raised to pull the cloth to the side, were covered in small, thin scars and healing
scrapes. She had eye bags darkening the space underneath her eyelids and her eyes were dull,
but she had a lively energy to her, as if she could outpace him in a race and then beat him
around his palace. Not that it would be hard to do that, given his current condition.

She looked down at him, staring at his tight, stiff posture, and she sighed, shaking her head.
“Welcome to the waking world,” she said, entering the room, apparently not intimidated in
the slightest by Sozin’s clearly offensive stance. “Now get back up on the table. You may be
awake now, but you’re still injured. Come on, up you get.”

Sozin paused, utterly and completely confused. Who was this person? Where was he? What
is going on? He blinked a couple more times and glanced around, still keeping his front to the
woman. He was in a room, an open window to his left and a low table to his right. There
were pillows stacked in a neat, orderly pile in the corner alongside a folded tablecloth. This
was… this was someone’s dining room. He had been laying on someone’s dining table.
“What…” he rasped, his voice hoarse from apparent disuse.

The woman walked over to Sozin’s side and impatiently manhandled him back onto the table,
a surprising amount of strength and ease in her movements. Sozin wasn’t giant by any means,
unlike Roku, but he was still not the smallest and lightest person ever.

“You’re in the village of Yan Ban,” she proclaimed, kneeling and feeling around Sozin’s
shoulder, which hurt , “and you were quite the unexpected houseguest. It was about a day or
two ago when Avatar Roku knocked on my door, dragging you and a kid, and demanded that
I fix you—almost shocked me out of my shoes, I tell you. What kind of a person are you to
have the Avatar so worried about you?”

Sozin stared at her, his voice failing him. Both fond memories and scenes from his nightmare
flooded his mind—Roku laughing as Sozin tripped over a loose tile while sparring and
hauling him to his feet; Roku’s cruel, calm smile as he shattered Sozin’s gift into pieces of
scrap metal; Roku’s playful smile as he teased Sozin about the turtleduckling on his head, the
little animal squacking in agreement; Roku’s blazing, burning, scorching hand on his neck,
his grip so tight and hot and suffocating that it sent licks of fear up Sozin’s spine, even now.
“… a really lucky one, I suppose,” Sozin grumbled.

“Hmph, I’ll say. By the way Avatar Roku was hovering over you, I’d think the two of you
were married,” the woman scoffed, letting his shoulder go.

Sozin choked on nothing, his face burning a bright red. “What- we-we’re not- wh-what-” he
sputtered between coughs, trying his best, and failing, to get his temperature back to a normal
one as he hid behind covered his face with his hand.

“Hey now, none of that,” the woman chastised, pulling Sozin’s hand away from his face and
inspecting it. “Does your throat hurt?”

Sozin pulled back, more than a little affronted. He may have not obviously been Royalty, and
thus not likely to be treated as such, but did this woman need to be this close to him?
“Pardon? Why would my throat hurt?” He asked, his voice smoother than before, now that it
was getting used to being used again.

The Earth Kingdom woman let his hand go, opting to yank Sozin’s mouth open instead. “I
need to check to see if you’re coughing up blood,” she said, peering into his mouth like it was
something normal she did every day. “If you are, then you would need to go to a more
experienced healer. But you're not, so you’re fine.”

Sozin wrenched his jaw out of her grasp, glowering at her. “Who are you, and why do you
presume that you can tug me about every which way?” He snapped.

The woman raised an eyebrow and leaned back on her feet. “My name is Yu Jian, and I
presume that I can tug you about because I’m the healer who saved your life. Now, lay back
and stay still while I check your meridians,” she spoke, her voice firm.

Sozin narrowed his eyes at her, detesting the tone she spoke to him in, but did so. He was in
no place to refuse her, and he was sure that she would take things into her own hands if he
tried to.

As she held her fingers firmly to each of his Yin meridians, Sozin closed his eyes and focused
on his body. There was a glaring, pulsing pain in his left shoulder, courtesy of his wound, and
the rest of his body ached from laying on Yu Jian’s table for however long. He flexed the
muscles in his left arm, testing to see if any were seriously damaged, and he got a swat on his
uninjured shoulder for his troubles, which irked him. Still, it would seem that he would make
a fitting recovery. His range of motion would probably be lessened, and maybe his shoulder
would be prone to locking up, but nothing compared to how bad it could have been. The
arrow had been dangerously close to his heart. He could have died.

Cloth fluttered and Yu Jian’s head snapped up, her hands leaving Sozin’s arm. “Now, what
did I tell you about coming back here?” She snapped, but her voice was more maternally
playful and worried, rather than scornful.

“…to not do it, and that Sozin needs to rest, but it’s been a week and I- uh, I mean Avatar
Roku is getting concerned. Are you sure he’s going to be fine, Miss Yu?” Kuzai spoke softly,
an unusual cadence to his tone. It was like there was a cloud hanging in his voice, quiet and
dark and somehow so, so heavy and stifling. That was… concerning.

“Yes, I’m sure I’m fine,” Sozin replied, sitting up and grimacing as his wound twinged in
pain. Something in his chest was aching, and it wasn't because of his shoulder wound. What
had made Kuzai so dejected?

“You lay back down right now! What are you, allergic to letting me do my job?” Yu Jian
snapped, swatting Sozin’s uninjured arm again.

Sozin jerked away, hissing and shooting her a glare. She levelled one right back at him,
planting her hands on her hips in a way that said “I’m not tolerating your nonsense.” Sozin
begrudgingly lay back down.
All the while, Kuzai was staring at Sozin with wide eyes, whatever expression that had been
on his face gone as he gaped at Sozin like he had just sprouted horns and started spitting
flames. “Kuzai? Is everything alright?” He asked, trying to sit up to properly address him but
meeting a very firm Yu Jian halfway up and laying back down.

“I… uh, yeah, I guess. I’m just gonna… go,” Kuzai replied, that weird cadence still in his
words before there was the sound of fluttering cloth, signalling his departure.

“… is he okay?” Sozin asked Yu Jian, turning his head to look at her as she sat back and
removed her hands, rummaging around in her pockets.

“He’s been like that all the while he’s been here—sad and mopey. Poor boy seems lonely, and
he was likely worried about you too,” the healer replied, digging a small jar of poultice out.
“He probably wasn’t all too happy his father was hurt.”

Sozin’s brain ground to a shocked halt and Yu Jian, taking advantage of his current stillness,
peeled back his shirt to expose his bandaged shoulder and stripped off the bandages with
alarming speed. She then dipped her fingers into the jar and spread the goop over his wound,
and oh Agni above us blazing bright and strong. OW. It took all Sozin had to not let out a
screech of pain, tears immediately springing to his eyes as he jerked back, biting his tongue.
“Give me a warning next time,” he hissed, closing his eyes tight to try and bear the lightning-
sharp pain that coursed through his shoulder and down his spine.

“You’re a grown man, you can take it,” Yu Jian replied, but her touch was noticeably lighter
as she spread what Sozin could only hope was medicinal paste over his stitched-up wound,
gently rubbing it into the red-bruised skin and the raw edges where the arrow had pierced his
flesh.

There was now only silence in the air as Yu Jian rubbed the poultice into his wound and
rebandaged it, gently wrapping the off-white cloth around his shoulder, down his arm, and
across his chest for extra security. The medicinal paste must have done its job, as the burning
pain in his arm had weathered away and softened into a dull ache, barely even noticeable. It
was only then when Sozin remembered what the healer had said, had assumed about Kuzai
and him. “…Kuzai isn’t my child,” He said into the silence as Yu Jian secured his bandages.

She paused, looking at him with an expression in her eyes that was unreadable. “…you don’t
need to have fathered or birthed someone for them to be your child,” She replied in the
softest and most neutral tone Sozin had heard from her yet. “You’ve only talked about him
once, in one sentence, but I recognise that look in your eyes. It’s up to you to decide whether
to face it or not.”

Sozin frowned. What did she mean by that, “it’s up to you to decide whether to face it or
not?” He opened his mouth to respond, to ask for further emphasis, but a door slammed
somewhere in the other part of the house and the thought flew out of his head like a vase
through a window. Sozin sat up quickly, wincing at the responding jolt in his shoulder and
ignoring Yu Jian’s hissed objections. There was the sound of quick footsteps, the curtain flew
open, and suddenly he had an armful of Roku.
“You idiot,” Roku seethed, clutching Sozin tightly around the waist, his face buried into his
bandaged chest. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? You think you can just up and
die because you got shot? Agni bless me with his strength and courage, Sozin, I was so
worried about you. Don’t you ever do that again.”

Sozin was silent, frozen for two very different reasons. The first was because of his
nightmare—it had rattled him to the point where his muscles had tightened in fear when he
first saw his friend, his body ready to throw itself out of the way of potential danger. The
second was because, Agni above, Sozin had missed this. He had missed hugging Roku, being
hugged by Roku, just everything about physical contact with Roku. Despite his tall, angular
body, he was soft and warm and his arms were the comfiest that Sozin had the privilege of
being enveloped in.

Sozin knew that he had to talk sooner or later, respond in some fashion to quell Roku’s worry
and reassure him somehow. “So it’s my fault I just happened to be in that spot when an arrow
wanted to be there? For shame, Roku—how could you accuse me of putting myself in harm’s
way?” He chose to say, doing his best to keep any pain out of his voice.

Roku chuckled, but it sounded strained. “I wouldn’t put it past you. Remember that one time
with the komodo-chicken?” He probed, his voice soft and cheerful, but the way he was
clutching Sozin negated any trust that Sozin might have put in such a tone.

“I remember. I also remember that we were three, and that I got bitten pushing you away,”
Sozin corrected, patting Roku’s shoulder in a way that he hoped was comforting. “So you
can’t blame me entirely for that.”

“Hmm,” Roku hummed, his grip weakly flexing around Sozin’s waist. “Always getting hurt
instead of others. You’ve got to stop that, you know. There are people who depend on you.
People who need you.”

Sozin’s heart warmed and he couldn’t help but blush a little, feeling… happy in a way. Was
this Roku’s way of saying that he needed him? That he needed Sozin's company just as much
as Sozin needed his? That those twelve years apart, those long, tortuous years, had been just
as bad on him as they had been on Sozin?

Sozin thought a bit more and his happiness fell flat. Ah. Roku was probably talking about the
Fire Nation, all of his subjects and citizens. Of course, what was he thinking? The Fire
Nation would fall apart if he died like this, out in the Earth Kingdom wilderness, without a
child to succeed him. It was Roku’s job to worry about the stability of the world, and Sozin
dying would upset that stability quite a bit.

“I understand that well, Roku. What kind of man do you take me to be?” Sozin replied, his
voice coming out colder than he wanted it to.

Roku didn’t wince, didn’t show any physical signs of anger or hurt, but Sozin knew that he
had said the wrong thing. He didn’t apologise, though. He couldn’t. He was the Fire Lord,
and so he couldn't apologise.
“Alright, alright, that’s rather sweet, Avatar Roku, but off. I need to see if you’ve damaged
my patient further. Great Spirits, it’s like you’re trying to make sure he doesn’t heal,” Yu Jian
griped, glaring at Roku in a way that no sane person ever would.

Roku abided, his hands lingering around Sozin for a split second before the Avatar peeled
himself off of his friend, straightening up to his normal, regal height. Even dressed in
commoner’s clothes, he still had the overwhelming, attractive power that came with being the
Avatar. It was almost unfair, in a way—Roku always had a regal air about him, even on sick
days, while Sozin could be in full Fire Lord regalia and look like a wet rat on a bad day.

As Sozin tried to not stare at Roku standing right beside him, Yu Jian peeled his shirt off yet
again and started gently pressing various parts of his shoulder, asking if it hurt, how badly if
it did, and other things. Sozin answered every question to the best of his ability. She then left,
leaving Sozin and Roku alone.

Sozin suddenly found himself very, very nervous, like he had gotten when he was younger
and had been summoned by his father with no preamble. It was less of the bone-cold fear,
and more of the creeping, prickling nervousness that danced up and down his spine like
demented millipede-flies.

He didn’t know why he was so unsettled; was it because of his dream? How Roku had closed
off due to his reply earlier? Something about Roku was off, but what… was Roku reminded
of Sozin’s plan for the Earth Kingdom, somehow, and still angry about it? He had no right to
be angry—Sozin was just planning to expand the Fire Nation’s influence and territory to gain
materials that the Fire Nation needs, and who was Roku to tell him how to run his nation? It
was the duty of the Fire Lord to tend to the needs of his citizens, as Sozin's father had done
and his father before him, and if Roku wanted–

“Does it hurt much?” Roku asked softly, breaking Sozin out of his thoughts.

Sozin paused, suddenly thrown off. Roku was just… worried about him? Was he even angry?
Had he read this entire situation wrong? “… it does hurt. Yu Jian put something on it, so it
doesn’t hurt as bad as it did before,” he replied hesitantly.

Roku sighed and covered his face with one hand, his entire frame slumping a bit, like he was
a tired old man instead of a 28 year old, not yet truly in his prime. The energy from earlier,
that attractive aura that buzzed around him like true power, was gone, replaced by a thick
miasma of fatigue.

“I’m sorry, Sozin. I should have seen this coming, read which routes were more likely to be
attacked by bandits, just scared them off in the first place, anything. It’s my fault, Sozin– I’m
sorry,” he spoke quietly, sounding so very guilty.

“What are you talking about?” Sozin exclaimed, absolutely astonished and slightly angry at
himself. He should have known Roku would blame himself and that that was what was
wrong—how stupid was he? “How were you supposed to see this coming? This was just bad
luck. If anything, it’s the robbers’ faults. They were the ones who attacked us, were they
not?”
“Well, yes, they were, but–” “No ‘but’ s, Roku. You’re the one who’s supposed to lecture me
on the stupid things I say, not the other way around. I say, what will the world think when
they find out the Fire Lord is giving the Avatar advice?” Sozin cut Roku off, looking into the
distance “thoughtfully” as he stroked his beard the way a wizened old man would in a play.

Roku snorted a laugh, shaking his head as he crossed his arms. “Dammit– Sozin, I’m trying
to be serious, you can’t– ah, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you’re awake.” He smiled, and the
small gesture lit up the room like ten thousand suns. There was no trace of the hesitance that
Sozin’s earlier dismissal had put in his voice, his cherry-bark brown eyes soft and happy.
Something in Sozin’s chest twirled like a falling leaf.

“I’m glad I’m awake, too. Though…” Sozin frowned a little, sitting up further and bracing
himself on his uninjured arm. “I want to talk about Kuzai. Is he alright? I saw him earlier and
he seemed unhappy, maybe even a bit unwell.”

Roku’s smile faltered before falling completely. “Kuzai… he’s been like that since you were
injured. He hasn’t said more than a few sentences ever since then, and when I try to talk to
him he…” Roku sighed, rubbing his forehead like a stressed schoolmaster. “He won’t even
look me in the eye, Sozin.”

“Why? Did something happen?” Sozin probed, lurching forward and hissing as his shoulder
burned in protest.

Roku jerked forward a little, his arms unwrapping to stretch to catch Sozin, before he
remembered himself and folded back into his previous stance. Even so, he looked guilty.
“Yes, Sozin, I… something did happen,” he affirmed. “Something that really shouldn’t have,
something that I should have prevented.”

“What? Roku, what happened?” Sozin pressed, fear and a tiny bit of anger starting to build
within his chest, for some reason. “What did you do?” he was tempted to ask. No, that was
stupid. Roku wouldn’t have done anything to Kuzai, he liked the child far too much.

Roku sighed, closing his eyes and turning away from Sozin’s piercing stare. When he turned
back, his eyes were open, and there was an emotion in his eyes that Sozin couldn’t put a
name to. “I… I went into the Avatar State.”

Sozin’s brain ground to a screeching halt for the second time in the last hour. Roku… Roku
had gone into the Avatar State? Over him? “…you did what?” He managed to force out, his
shock evident in both his voice and on his face.

“I went into the Avatar State. When I saw what had happened to you, I… I lost it. I went into
the Avatar State, and that frightened them off. Kuzai managed to get free of his bonds,
dragged you away, and was trying to heal you when I regained full control of myself. I don’t
remember exactly what I did, but Kuzai hasn’t really spoken to me since.” Roku wasn’t
meeting his eyes, but he wasn’t looking away either.

Sozin blinked. “You… went into the Avatar State… over me.” He said slowly, trying to
process it in a way that wouldn’t fry his brain. “And Kuzai broke free from three-inch thick
rock shackles. That’s what happened?”
Roku nodded, finally looking away. “That’s what happened.” When he spoke, that unknown
emotion soaked his words, making Sozin unsure how to feel.

“I… see. How did Kuzai break free?” He asked, pushing the fact that Roku had gone into the
Avatar State to the side. It was irrational, Roku would have no reason to do so… but he did.
And it confused the hell out of him, enough that he would have to wait for later to talk about
it. If he tried to face it head-on right now… it would probably not end well.

“I don’t know exactly, as I was fighting the bandits when he did so, but I think he heated up
the rock until it was weak enough for him to break,” Roku replied. “He has promise as a
Firebender, that’s for sure, but he also has promise as a Waterbender. As I said, he was
healing you when I regained control of myself.”

Sozin nodded, leaning back a little to give his shoulder a break. Kuzai had both a large
amount of promise and great talent, doing such things at such a young age. “That’s more than
promising, Roku—that’s raw talent,” he corrected. “And it would do well for you to not
alienate a young, talented dual bender from us via shows of awesome power. It doesn’t bode
well for our survival.”

Roku laughed, the sound sending small, excited fireflies through Sozin’s bandaged chest. “I
apologise,” he replied, bowing grandiosely. “I’ll try to not mentally scar the young, promising
dual bender any further. My mistake, Your Exquisiteness, I humbly beg for your
forgiveness.”

“You’re forgiven, Avatar Roku,” Sozin replied jokingly, but a heavy feeling remained in his
lungs, hanging like a dead man. “Still,” he continued, his small smile falling into a frown. “I
want to talk with him. He won’t talk to you, so I’ll probably have better luck. Is there any
way I could get him alo-”

“Okay you two, that’s enough talking,” Yu Jian cut him off, reentering the room, dragging a
silent but bristling Kuzai behind her by his scruffy, frayed collar. “Dinner’s soon. Now that
you’re awake, I can have my table back and we can eat normally! So, off, and put everything
where it’s supposed to be.”

Sozin nodded and scooted off of the table, standing. His shoulder was starting to hurt again,
the poultice Yu Jian had used on it wearing off, but his legs were in no way injured, so he
would stand. Yu Jian nodded, waved Sozin to the side, and set Roku and Kuzai to work
reconstructing her dining room. Sozin had tried to interject once, assert that he should be
helping as well, but one glare from the Earth Kingdom woman had shut him right up. And so
he stood to the side, watching as Roku and Kuzai put Yu Jian’s dining room back together, bit
by bit, piece by piece.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

Dinner was simple and neat. Yu Jian's possum-chicken and rice didn't have the punch that
Fire Nation food usually had, the same heat and spice that danced around your mouth like
tiny firecrackers. Instead it had a deeper flavour, one that burst along Sozin’s tongue and
lingered down his throat, strong and vibrant. However foreign it was, it was far more
favourable than the sour taste lingering in his mouth. There was also the fact that he was
starving and had asked for seconds and then thirds, allowing him to fully experience
everything Yu Jian’s cooking had to offer.

Kuzai ate in silence. Roku talked to Yu Jian about something, and Sozin sometimes paused in
inhaling his food to ask Roku things or just talk in general, catching up on things he missed,
but Kuzai did not say a word. He didn’t even look up from his bowl.

He looked thinner too. Before, when Sozin had last seen him, he didn’t exactly look to be a
healthy weight, but now he looked worse. His cheekbones jutted out and his knuckles were
acutely pronounced, his clothes hanging off of his frame a little more than they were
supposed to. He looked less like a little boy and more like a tired worker. A tired, wretched,
numb worker who could barely keep himself up.

Sozin decided to talk to Kuzai after dinner, whether the kid wanted to or not.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

Kuzai tried to escape the moment Yu Jian had stood up, bowl in hand, and announced, “Okay,
bowls and chopsticks, pass them here.” He had all but shoved his bowl and chopsticks into
the Earth Kingdom woman’s hands and was about to sprint out of the room, quick as a rabbit-
jackal. However, Sozin grabbed his collar and pulled him back down to the ground, shooting
him a firm look that made the kid huff sulkily, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground.

“Roku, how about you help Yu Jian with the washing? Our host has been so generous and
kind as to let us stay with her this long; you might as well do something to repay her,” Sozin
said, smiling affably and using the same voice he did when sweet-talking advisors into
quelling their worry about silk exports.

Roku shot him a look of silent anguish and betrayal as Yu Jian nodded, setting her hawk-like
sights on Sozin’s friend. “It wouldn’t be all too much to ask for some help, now would it? I’m
an old woman, Avatar Roku, would you subject me to such a workload all by myself when I
have a capable, strong young man nearby? Up with you, it’s time to earn your keep.”

“B-but–” Roku stuttered as Yu Jian pulled him to his feet, her pile of dirty dishes balanced
expertly in one hand as she did so. “I’m the Avatar! Doesn’t that give me a free pass or
something?”

“No, it means I’m more inclined to offer my help when you need it,” Yu Jian corrected,
grabbing the collar of Roku’s dusty, travel-worn clothes and hauling him after her, not unlike
how she had been handling Kuzai earlier. “Now, get to washing.”

Roku shot Sozin one last look of furious betrayal before he was tugged through the cloth
divider that separated the dining room from the rest of the house, leaving Sozin alone with
Kuzai.

It was so quiet. The air was filled with a tense silence, even though the sounds of Yu Jian and
Roku starting to wash the dishes rang clear from wherever they were, and the crickets were
certainly not letting up their repetitive, ceaseless song. Neither one of them wanted to say the
first word, start this conversation and unearth the problems that were simmering just below
the surface.

Silence. Sozin opened his mouth to say something, he wasn’t quite sure just what it was yet,
and the words died in his throat. He just… didn’t know what to say. How to start this
conversation, what to ask this boy who looked like he was on far better terms with Pain and
Suffering than he had any business being.

Kuzai was the one to break their silent stalemate. “So… what is it?” He asked, his voice
monotone and small. “Are you going to yell at me?”

Sozin hesitated. Was he going to yell at him? …no. Kuzai was a child, a scared child, and
yelling at him would do no good. Besides, he had nothing to yell at him about. “No, I am not
going to yell at you,” he said. “But I do have a few questions.”

“First of all…” Kuzai tensed a bit, shrinking back as if Sozin were about to accuse him of a
heinous crime. “…when was the last time, before now, when you had a full meal and a full
night’s sleep?”

Kuzai blinked, looking up at Sozin with confusion evident in his eyes. “Huh?” He asked.

“When was the last time, before now, when you had a full meal and a full night’s sleep?”
Sozin repeated, crossing his arms and hiding his wince when his shoulder twinged in pain.

“I… uh… a few days?” Kuzai replied haltingly. “Uhm… why aren’t you yelling at me?”

The question was both confusing and understandable. On one hand, Kuzai had nothing to be
yelled at about, so why did he expect that he was going to receive as such? On the other
hand, he didn’t do much of anything during the fight, which could be interpreted as shameful
weakness. However, Kuzai was nine. There was no way that Sozin would expect him to fight,
or punish him for not doing so.

“Because you don’t need to be yelled at. Why, do you believe that you should be?” Sozin
asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

Kuzai turned away, refusing to meet his gaze. “Well… you should be angry at me…” he
muttered.

“And why is that?” Sozin pressed. He had a feeling that he knew where this conversation was
going, and he didn't like it.

“Because…” Kuzai cut himself off, looking at the ground with a strange, firm expression on
his face. “You got hurt because of me.”

Sozin's heart dropped into his stomach, but he was also so, so exasperated. He wanted to sigh,
like his mother had done so very often, so badly. “Kuzai,” he started, uncrossing his arms as
his shoulder jolted in protest. “I didn’t get hurt because of you. I got hurt protecting you, but I
didn’t get hurt because of you.”
“But you did!” Kuzai hissed, plopping his face in his hands. “You got hurt because I didn’t
get out of the way on my own, when I could have and should have done so on my own! I was
useless and because of that you got hurt!”

“No, that’s not what happened. You were afraid, and because of that you froze up and-” “I
could have moved! I have legs, I can walk and run! And even if I didn’t, I could pull myself
along the ground with my arms! I’m not useless—I have no excuse for being such a pathetic
mess!” Kuzai cut off Sozin, rising to his feet and pacing back and forth, his hands clenched
into fists. Sparks danced around his hands as he paced, jumping from his mouth as he spoke.

Sozin didn’t join him, didn’t move, but he was rapidly becoming even more concerned. This
wasn’t how he thought it was going to go—maybe Kuzai would start crying, or something of
the like, but he didn’t expect him to start spitting flames. “Kuzai, you are a child, neither me
nor Avatar Roku would be in our right minds to-” “Yeah, right! You two have fought me
before, you know I’m not all that bad. I’m fast, I’m good, I could have helped! But I didn’t! I
just sat there, being stupid!” Kuzai cut him off again, waving his hands around in the air as
he ranted, sparks following his fingertips.

“I would appreciate it,” Sozin finally snapped, his voice sharp and firm, “if you would let me
finish my sentences, Kuzai.”

Kuzai paused and clenched his jaw, looking Sozin straight in the eye. His eyes were blazing,
burning with anger and roiling in despair. “As I said, Kuzai,” Sozin sighed, “you are a child. I
would never expect you to partake in a battle unless we desperately needed your help. It’s
almost insulting that you would assume that I would be angry about you for not partaking in
something you had no business in doing so. Now, sit down.”

Kuzai stared at Sozin for a few seconds, anger roiling in his eyes, before he plopped to the
floor, crossing his arms and looking at the floor. “Thank you,” Sozin said, “now, listen to me.
I do not blame you for my injury. The fact that you did not fight doesn’t mean that any of
what happened was your fault. Do you understand that?”

Kuzai paused before nodding sullenly, his grip on his arms tightening, the cloth starting to
smoke a little. Sozin sighed, exasperated. Now he knew what his mother and father had felt
when they had scolded him as a child, and how they had felt when he made sure that they
knew that he was less than pleased about being reprimanded. “Kuzai, do you not believe
me?” He asked.

“No, I don’t,” Kuzai hissed shakily, starting to blink rapidly. “Because I got you hurt. Miss
Yu said that you could have died. You got hurt because I didn’t move. You don’t blame me,
but you should.”

Sozin’s heart dropped a bit. “Kuzai-” “No! You should blame me! Why don’t you blame
me?! I deserve it- I-I deserve to be yelled at- I-” Kuzai interrupted before bursting into tears,
burying his face in his palms and sobbing wretchedly.

Sozin froze, staring at Kuzai and desperately trying to keep calm. Okay, Kuzai was crying.
What do you do when a child is crying?! Give them candy?! Find their parents?! Sozin could
do neither at the moment—what else could he do?! Hug them? Yeah, hug them—that’s what
his aunts and uncles had always done when their children had broken down crying when they
were sad about something.

Sozin reached out and pulled Kuzai into a hug, being careful not to use or jostle his injured
arm too much. Instead of pulling away and yelling, like Sozin fully expected the child to do,
Kuzai buried his face into Sozin’s chest and just sobbed, hugging Sozin back tightly. “I-I’m
sorry– I d-didn’t mean to– I-I just-” Kuzai managed to stammer out a few words before
devolving into tears again, shaking and sobbing.

Sozin hummed softly and tugged Kuzai closer with his good arm, awkwardly placing his bad
arm over the kid’s shoulder. “It’s alright, I’m not mad at you. You have nothing to be sorry
about,” he murmured.

“B-But-” Kuzai sniffled out, looking up at Sozin with big, watery eyes full of guilt.

“No ‘but’s, you hear? You aren’t at fault for anything that happened—anything that happened
to me has nothing to do with you. It was all just a run of bad luck,” Sozin murmured, hugging
the kid a tiny bit tighter. “Nothing is your fault.”

Kuzai nodded into Sozin’s chest, still shaking and sniffling. He looked so, so small and sad,
almost nothing like he had when they had first met, almost nothing like the fireball that he
had been only a minute or so ago. That strange paternal feeling was back, and for some
reason, Sozin didn’t ignore it, didn’t push it away. Instead he embraced it, just as he was
embracing Kuzai. Nothing else mattered right now, there was only Kuzai crying in his arms
and the need to let him do so, let him cry it all out, safe in his arms.

Kuzai’s sniffling eventually died down and then he was just leaning against Sozin, his arms
loosely hugging him, limp like bolts of unsewn cloth. “‘m sorry for making you worry…” he
mumbled out, his voice hoarse from crying.

“Thank you,” Sozin replied, making sure to keep his voice low and soft. At this point, he had
completely given up on following his relatives’ actions and was winging it. He didn’t seem to
be doing all too bad of a job, though. “Do you feel better now?”

Kuzai nodded, pulling away from Sozin. His eyes were red, as well as his cheeks, and he
looked a mess. He looked better, though. His eyes were clearer and he seemed to sit up a bit
straighter, less hesitant to look Sozin in the eye. Oh, wait–

“Kuzai, I have a question for you,” Sozin said, unwrapping his arms from around him and
wincing slightly at how his arm twinged in pain, making its protests at how much it was
moving known.

“Hmm?” Kuzai nodded, wiping salty tear tracks off of his cheeks with his dusty sleeve,
leaving behind a thin film of dirt. Sozin cringed inside of his head; he would definitely need
to get Kuzai new, better fitting, less dirty robes when they got back to the Fire Nation.

“I was talking with Avatar Roku earlier, and he told me that you won’t talk to him. Is this
because of what happened during the fight, when he went into the Avatar State?” Sozin
tipped his head to the side slightly, a small yet understanding frown creeping onto his face. “I
 understand if you were frightened by that, the Avatar State is a truly terrifying thing to
witness and-”

“No,” Kuzai interrupted, apparently going back to not letting Sozin finish his sentences
anymore. “I just thought that he hated me because I got you hurt. Because, well, you two
are… you know…” Kuzai brought up his hands and pressed his pointer fingers together.

Sozin squinted at the youth, utterly confused. They were… what? Friends? Close? Well, yes,
they had been close with each other ever since they were children, it would make sense for
Roku to be upset if he got hurt, but that didn’t– Oh. Sozin’s eyes widened as he realised what
Kuzai had meant, what he had been mimicking, and he felt his cheeks reddening.

“KUZAI-” Sozin’s embarrassed cry rang through the air, as well as Kuzai’s ecstatic laughter.
Outside, Roku dropped a bowl into a bucket of water, his sleeves already drenched from this
same mistake over and over again, and he reached into the bucket to fish it out. Yu Jian sat
nearby, calmly drying a blue-patterned bowl with a brown rag, smiling amusedly when
Roku’s grasp slipped on the side of the bucket and he dunked his arm up to the elbow in the
soapy water. Overhead, the sun crept closer and closer to the horizon, the sky’s light blue
turning ultramarine and plum-bruised purple, the northern star’s shine slipping into the early
dusk sky.

Chapter End Notes

Ohmygods Miss Yu I LOVE YOU

also
Roku: IT'S ALL MY FAULT
Kuzai: NO IT'S ALL MY FAULT
Sozin, who has been up for about an hour and his mind blown twice in said hour: I'm a
dad?

Yu Jian's name comes from 愈坚- 愈 for "heal" and 坚 for "firm". Wow, I'm so creative
in naming my characters /j
Source for Meridians things

And after this, I have no idea when I'm next going to post! I'll try to keep to the
biweekly schedule, but I have no idea if I'm going to be able to do so. I just hope that
yall will treat my slowness kindly lol

Thank you so much for reading, and feel free to leave a comment or kudos! They make
my brain explode /pos
Have a great day!
 Chapter 8
Chapter Notes

Hey there! Just some quick notes before we get going-

Paappak is one of the Inuinnaqtun words for father. Source here

A-Niang is made up of the Chinese word for mother ("娘"-Niáng) and a
familial/affectionate diminutive ("阿"-A)
For the random Fire Lord's name I used "花" huā (Flower) and "占" zhān (Fortune-
telling)

I hope yall enjoy this chapter!! :D

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The days and weeks crept by slowly, each and every second oozing by with the pace of a
tortoise-snail with no real place to be. Sozin’s arm healed just as slowly, good on some days
and bad on others, aching with such a fierce heat on some days that even the lightest brush
against it made him spit smoke. Yu Jian, or as Sozin had come to know her, Miss Yu, had
fashioned a sling from bandages for his arm to keep his stitches from tearing. She had also
asserted that she would not allow Sozin to leave until he could go without his sling for two
hours without pain, and since there was basically nothing the group could do about that, they
waited.

It was about a week and a half when Miss Yu started putting Sozin to work, assigning him
small, menial tasks, such as grinding herbs or, when she found out that he was a Firebender,
tending the fire while she made poultices and elixirs for her patients and clients. Miss Yu was
a stubborn, opinionated woman, and Sozin was a stubborn, opinionated man, so more than
once Sozin had been sent out back to “cool off” or had just been told to shut up. It was
humiliating; Sozin was the Fire Lord, he ruled a nation , he was powerful, and here he was
being ordered around by an Earth Kingdom woman like he was no more than a mere servant.

Strangely enough, it was also somewhat satisfying to butt heads with her. In the Fire Nation,
Sozin had nobody to verbally spar in such a way with. Sozin would say something, whoever
he was talking with would either agree superfluously or disagree oh-so politely, their tones so
sugar-sweet that it made Sozin grind his teeth. When he said something to Miss Yu, the
woman would already have a retort coming out of her mouth, usually one directly opposing
whatever Sozin had said. It was refreshing to meet someone who could snap back at him,
disagree without immediately grovelling and begging for forgiveness.

It was interesting, it was new, and it got old the tenth time Miss Yu sent him outside for
accidentally making the fire flare up, just barely singing her sleeve.
 [─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

It had just been a normal day. Sozin had been holding his hand out to the fire under Miss Yu’s
pot, this time filled with a brewing tea, while holding his injured arm close to his waist. Miss
Yu leaned over, checked inside the pot, leaned back, and then noted, “Your hands are pretty
smooth. What type of lotion do you use?”

Sozin blinked, a bit startled. Usually they didn’t talk when Sozin was working, usually to
help him focus and also to prevent fights. This was new, but not entirely unwelcome. “Thank
you. I use a special blend, the same one that my mother used to. I never could remember the
recipe or name—I can only really remember what it is because it smells like Fire Lilies.”
Sozin’s voice faltered and he swallowed, focusing on the flames. There was a pit in his
throat, as there always was when he talked about his mother. His grip on his bending always
flickered and faltered when he talked about her. “It was her favourite scent.”

Miss Yu hummed in affirmation, grabbing Sozin’s hand and turning it over, inspecting it and
ignoring Sozin’s sound of protest. “You must use it quite a bit, I can barely see any calluses
on your hands,” she said, giving the control of his hand back to Sozin with a careless flip of
her own.

“Not as frequently as you may assume. The calluses on my hands are all from writing—
drafting things, approving things, that sort of thing,” Sozin corrected, turning his gaze and
concentration back to the fire.

“Oh,” Miss Yu spoke, her tone suddenly darker, disgruntled and bitter. “You’re a Royal then,
eh?”

Sozin’s heart skipped a beat. The flames underneath his fingers flickered down, almost dying
out before he regained control. “Pardon me?” He managed to force out somewhat normally,
hoping to Agni that he didn’t sound suspicious.

Had she figured it out, somehow? Yes, he had been known as “Sozin” to her for a time, but
usually folk in other nations didn’t know the other nations’ rulers off of the top of their head.
Had she heard someone talking about “Fire Lord Sozin,” or had she already known that it
was him from the start and was just revealing this to him now? Had Roku told her?

“Oh, I keep on forgetting not everyone uses my words the same way I do. I call you fancy
nobles all Royals—you’re all the same type of person. You prance through the countryside
while cringing at the common folk, our dirty towns and our backward lives,” Miss Yu
clarified, her voice leering into a sneer.

Sozin blinked, a bit uncomfortable. It was true, he did think that the towns he had passed
were dirty, and yes, their lives were rather backward, but just how could Miss Yu read that
from him so clearly? “I believe… that your lives could be better. Is it so bad that I find your
lives to be less than suitable?” He hesitantly asked, keeping his focus on the fire flickering
underneath his fingertips.

Miss Yu scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Sure, you can think that. I think that my life is less than
suitable, but not because of the same reasons as you,” she said. “You Royals need to be
pampered and fluffed up with the finest furs, smoothest silks, and airiest perfumes. All that I
want is a roof that doesn’t have the chance of collapsing on my head, a decent amount of
customers each month, and a nice bed. Maybe then I can start worrying about how I’m going
to get some fancy things that I don’t need.”

Sozin’s chest burned with offence, his brows furrowing. “I don’t need all the luxuries that
come with the benefits of my station. Besides, I’d say that I’ve adapted to your life pretty
well. I’m not as snobbish and stuffy as you make me out to be,” he replied tartly, trying to
calm the wave of frustration that was starting to surge up in his chest.

Miss Yu rolled her eyes again. “You’ve adapted to my life well, I must admit that, but you
don’t have to live my life. You get to go back to your high-end house and family and job, you
don’t have to stay here and pray that you get enough customers to pay your damn taxes. You
don’t have to worry if you have the herbs you need to heal your neighbours, and you don’t
have to worry about how much the herbs you need to have imported could be, you don’t have
to rely on a good spring and summer for your job and livelihood. You get to go back to your
privileged life, your only reminder of this unfortunate happening the ache you will no doubt
have in your arm. You’ve adapted, but you Royals would never be able to fully survive as a
commoner.”

Sozin gritted his teeth, the flames underneath his fingers starting to flicker violently. “Fine.
Yes, I get to go home to a better life. But you keep on talking about how difficult your life is
—if someone came here, trying to make your lives better–” “Do you think we want some
Royal to waltz in here with a sack of golden coins and give it out like some heavenly spirit?
It would be nice, pretty damn nice, but the gold would run out quickly and then we’d be back
to square one,” Miss Yu cut him off, mumbling vague curses underneath her breath as she
peeked back into the pot.

Sozin’s eyebrow twitched and he withdrew his hand—the flames would continue to flicker
and grow, even without him focusing on them. “You people are struggling, and yet you
complain when people try, or even put out the concept of offering you aid. If you just-” “We
struggle to pay the taxes, and we struggle because of the taxes. We don’t have the money to
fix houses or heal the sick because it all goes to the Earth King. Giving us more money
wouldn’t help, because it would all go to the Earth King one way or another. If Avatar Roku
knew anything, he would march up to King Jialun and whap him across the face,” Miss Yu
cut off Sozin again, scowling at him before peeking into the pot yet again.

She must have liked what she saw, as she made a sound of approval and took the pot off of
the fire. She then poured a cup of tea and held it between her palms, cupping the drink with
both hands but not yet drinking. If she had, it would have scalded her lips. If she waited for
too long, though, the tea would cool and she would have to start all over again. Sozin didn’t
want to wait– he wanted to grab a cup of tea and force it down, swallow the scalding liquid
and steel himself against the hot, bitter taste.

“Avatar Roku is a very busy man. I am sure that he’s doing his best in the given situation,” he
hissed out from behind gritted teeth, his free hand curling into a fist. The fire was flickering
higher and higher, reacting to his emotions, which were steadily loosening from his tight grip
of control. “I would appreciate it if you did not speak of him so offhandedly.”
Miss Yu raised her cup to her face and inhaled slowly, savouring the scent of the tea. “Avatar
Roku is a kind man, that’s for sure,” she said, lowering the cup. It was still too hot. “But I’ve
noticed that he prefers to let a problem work itself out when he doesn’t know how to
approach it. I’d rather he not do the same with King Jialun.”

Sozin bit his tongue to prevent himself from spitting either insults or fire. On one hand, she
had a point. Roku had always preferred to skate around an issue when they were kids,
avoiding it completely if he didn’t know how to even start talking about it. Her criticisms
were valid. On the other hand though, how dare she speak about Roku in such a dismissive
and derogatory tone! He was the Avatar—how dare she not show him the proper amount of
respect!

“I believe that you no longer need me.” Sozin hissed coldly, standing up and forcefully
brushing whatever amount of dust that had accumulated on his robes off with his good hand.
“I’ll go find something else to do.”

Miss Yu didn’t stop him, didn’t get up. She just watched with sharp eyes as he stalked out the
door, silent and cool. It was almost infuriating how calm she was; if she just showed the
slightest bit of frustration, then Sozin could return in kind and vent off the anger sizzling in
his chest, hiss and spit like a wild viper-cat. But she didn’t, and so Sozin stalked off to a small
peninsula of open land into the forest surrounding Yan Ban, plopping himself down on the
ground and closing his eyes, attempting to meditate.

His mind wouldn’t focus, though. It flitted about like a sugar-drunk moth, tumbling from one
subject to another and then to another. He was angry at Miss Yu—he hated how brash she
was, how stubbornly resistant to outside thought and how quick she was to shut him down.
He hated it, he hated her, and he hated himself for listening. Because her statements had
actually made sense. The Earth Kingdom people were strong and proud, and they would not
appreciate it if someone did something for them, especially on such a scale that Sozin wished
to, without asking for it. They would fight back. They would revolt.

Sozin’s inner voice, the voice of his father, crept into focus unbidden. It may make sense now,
but it is just your mind being weak. Refocus yourself, realise that what you say is the truth.
The Earth Kingdom is a mess, faulty, corrupt. The Fire Nation can bring stability and order.
In return, it would not be inconceivable or outrageous to take resources as payment. In fact,
they should bow at your feet and sing praises, pledging loyalty to the Fire Nation and its
glory.

The voice of Sozin’s father was stern, firm, and just as convincing as it usually was. But…
this time his words fell flat. Sozin knew that, in the face of Miss Yu’s argument, his was
hollow and worthless. His plans were worthless. Roku needed to take action. Sozin hated it.

Sozin stalked back to the house when the sun began to waver on the horizon, the sky turning
a bruised blue-purple, tiny licks of gold still clinging to where the last light of day hovered.
Miss Yu had brewed a new pot of tea. It was just cool enough to drink.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

Miss Yu’s words tore through Sozin’s mind like a wildfire, raging out of control. Whenever
he thought that he had a grip on himself, on his thoughts, her words would flare up and he
would be consumed once again. It continued again and again and again and again, his mind
faltering and allowing for the Earth Kingdom woman’s words to smoulder and burn his
thoughts.

Where Sozin’s Father’s memories and voice once brought peace and stability, now it only
brought chaos. His words no longer held unwavering confidence, no longer soothed Sozin’s
temper with words of cool wisdom. Instead, it felt like Sozin was being yelled at, berated as
his mind struggled back and forth, his father’s voice thundering through his thoughts as Miss
Yu’s words yelled back just as loud. It was madness. The only time Sozin could rest was
when he was asleep.

He couldn’t figure this out on his own. He needed help. He needed a second opinion.

About a week later, when the sun was hiding his face behind a curtain of rock-grey clouds,
Sozin reached out. Kuzai had been sitting outside in a secluded corner of Miss Yu’s yard, his
brows furrowed in concentration as he held a globule of water in one palm, a small, flickering
flame in the other. The water was slowly circling around his fingers, and the flame rose and
fell periodically, clearly an attempt to make controlling both elements at the same time easier.
Sozin felt a bit guilty that he was intruding on the youth’s training, however simple it may be,
but then Kuzai broke both of the elements in his hands, snuffing out the fire in a fist and
water trickling between his clenched fingers, and that guilt vanished.

Kuzai’s head snapped up the moment he heard Sozin approach, turning around swiftly with
alert eyes, before relaxing when he saw that it was only him and not some murderous bandit
or something of the like. “Your Flameoness, I didn’t hear you. Is something wrong?” He
asked, the humour in his voice poorly hiding the apprehension that lay underneath.

Sozin nodded. “Yes, there is. May I sit?”

Kuzai nodded and waved at the patch of grass beside him. Sozin sat slowly so as to not
disturb his arm, grimacing when it twinged anyway. It was a good day, but that didn’t mean
that his arm was taking the day off.

“Kuzai, I would like your… input on something,” he said.

“What? Oh, it does sound like you’re in trouble,” Kuzai replied, his voice lilting up into a
teasing tone. “Did you do a bad, Fire Lord? Did Avatar Roku send you to the corner?”

Sozin smacked Kuzai on the back of the neck, albeit lightly. “Don’t talk to your elders that
way. I want you to take this seriously, Kuzai,” he scolded, feeling a bit like his mother.

Kuzai rubbed the back of his neck, pouting. “Fine… What do you want to know?” He asked,
sounding a bit salty.

“Well… what’s it like, living in the Earth Kingdom? I assume that it’s very different from
living as the Fire Lord in the Fire Nation,” Sozin hesitantly asked. Did he sound suspicious?
Was he giving away his inner turmoil? Great Agni, his father would be so disappointed if he
could know what he was thinking now.

Kuzai’s pout disappeared and he sighed, leaning back and looking up at the sky. The clouds
were still grey and heavy, threatening rain and maybe lightning. Sozin didn’t know if he
wanted them to clear, or if he wanted them to unleash their burden right upon their heads. He
didn’t know how he wanted Kuzai to respond, what he wanted the kid to say. Positive or
negative, affirming or opposing. His mind was a mess.

“Well… it was nice, at first,” Kuzai finally answered, looking down as he rolled a blade of
grass between his right hand’s fingers. “Paappak worked at the restaurant down the road from
our house and A-Niang was a seamstress. I got to go to school and learn from my teachers,
and then Paappak and A-Niang would tell me about legends and heritage stuff when I got
home. I had some friends, and my room had big windows.”

His eyes were growing distant, focused on something far away and invisible to anyone who
was not Kuzai. “But then… Paappak died.” The blade of grass between his fingers sizzled
and fried. “We had to sell our house and move; I couldn’t work, and A-Niang’s job didn’t pay
well enough to support both of us and also pay for everything else. …A-Niang thought it was
because of me, because I had just started bending then—that I had been cursed by the spirits
and would bring bad luck to everyone. I didn’t want to live with her after that, so I left. None
of the orphanages could take me in, and I didn’t want to go there anyway, so I just didn’t.”

Sozin didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t expected a full-length report of tax numbers and
percentages, he wasn’t that disillusioned, but he hadn’t expected… well, this. Kuzai had his
life flipped around just like that, had needed to acclimate to a strikingly new lifestyle in such
a short amount of time, and he had done so at or around the age of nine.

“Kuzai… I’m so sorry. That sounds very difficult,” Sozin said slowly, carefully. What the kid
had just said was depressing, miserable-sounding. But it hadn’t given him the information he
wanted to know. “You said the orphanages couldn’t take you; why?”

Kuzai started picking at another piece of grass, rubbing the pale stalk between his fingers, not
caring that doing so would turn his fingertips green. “Where I used to live, the orphanages
could only take in a set amount of kids. If they got any more, they’d have to pay for more,
and they couldn’t do that with the money that they got from the Earth King. I didn’t want to
be the reason why they couldn’t pay for all the other kids,” he muttered, glaring at the roiling
clouds above. “I hate the Earth King, he sucks.”

“That seems to be a very common sentiment…” Sozin grumbled.

He had his answer, however weak it was—King Jialun needed to have the lands he couldn’t
take care of removed. Sozin’s plan to invade had support, would do good for the Earth
Kingdom people. His father would be proud of his cause. And yet… it still felt wrong,
somehow.

“What’s a sediment?”
“Sentiment, not sediment. A sentiment is a-” Something plopped onto Sozin’s forehead, cool
and cold and made of liquid. Sozin looked up, and another raindrop plopped onto his cheek.
Ah, the clouds had decided to free themselves of their burden after all.

Sozin hauled himself to his feet, fighting back a hiss as the movement jostled his arm. “Come
on, up you get,” he said to Kuzai. “I’ll explain more when we’re inside.”

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

Hair was an important part of a Fire Nation Citizen’s life. It was sacred, a symbol of honour,
a symbol of status. It was necessary for a Fire Lord’s topknot to be in top condition at all
times; flawless and not a hair out of place.

It was for this reason that, when Sozin’s topknot started to deteriorate over the course of his
stay with Miss Yu, his mood took a nosedive. Every day, when he woke up and found his
topknot messier with no way to easily fix it, he sunk deeper into despair. After all, he couldn’t
just ask someone to do it for him. He put his hair up every morning back in the Fire Nation—
he allowed nobody except himself to touch it. He didn’t trust Kuzai or Miss Yu with his hair,
and he couldn’t just ask Roku to do his hair for him—he knew exactly what that meant, and
how... unseemly it would be.

On the fifth week of Sozin’s stay, he couldn’t take it anymore. He weaselled his way into
taking the entire day off via annoying Miss Yu until she gave in, and managed to snag the few
things he had packed for bathing before skulking off. He found a little stream in a part of the
forest, and then spent the next few hours washing his hair the best he could with one hand,
doing his best to rake a comb through the tangled knots that plagued him like nightmares. It
was a painful, long process, and his comb snapped halfway through, making Sozin resort to
clawing his fingers through his hair like a beast.

Finally, though, Sozin’s hair was free of knots and tangles. He let it dry in the sun, using the
time to meditate and calm the licks of fury that had flared up throughout his humiliating
ordeal. The sunlight was warm, peaceful, and the soothing heat spread deep into his back,
allowing him to relax his muscles and mind. The most peaceful moment he had ever had in
the past month and a half, and it was just minutes after he had had one of the most
humiliating struggles of his life.

Sozin didn’t know how long he sat there, meditating. It could have been one hour, it could
have been five or more; he hadn’t really paid attention to how long he had taken when
washing his hair. It was because of this shaky sense of time that, when he pried his eyes open,
the warm magenta of the sunset starting to creep its way into the cooling evening sky wasn’t
a surprise.

Sozin stared at the sunset for a moment, taking in the majesty of the source of his power, the
power of his father, the power of his forefathers. The honey-golden rays smoothed over
Sozin’s face like a curtain of warm water, the blood red that simmered around the sun’s white
mass seeming to reach out to the blood in Sozin’s veins, the fire in his veins, and bid them
adieu before dipping further over the horizon.
Sozin watched for a moment longer before he rose. His shoulder didn’t twinge this time as he
rose—finally, a welcome break from the pain. The colours of the trees around him as he
walked back were enriched by the setting sun, everything washed in a soft orange glow. It
was a calming feeling to be out here like this, warmed by the sun’s rays and with nothing
other than the sunset and nature to accompany you. It was so calming, in fact, that Sozin
forgot that he had his hair down until he caught sight of Miss Yu’s house. Oh no. Oh shit.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Sozin stalked in through Miss Yu’s front door, his head held high and his cheeks burning a
ferocious red. Kuzai paused when he saw him, his eyes squinting and then widening as his
mouth dropped open. Miss Yu glanced at him and scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Stop looking so
smug. Don’t think you’re getting out of any more work—you’re helping me make the
poultices I need tomorrow,” she said tartly, taking a sip of her tea.

Roku looked over and then back to the table, where he had been moving around a small rock
with his airbending. Then he inhaled sharply and choked, spitting out his tea, his eyes wide
with shock. He quickly rose to his feet and scurried over to Sozin, his cheeks cherry red with
embarrassment. “H-Heh, uhm, please excuse us, Miss Yu, Kuzai. I need to speak to Sozin
about- uh- something? Yes, something—something very important. Please excuse us,” he
stuttered out, grabbing Sozin’s elbow and then proceeding to pull him into a separate room.
He hadn’t grabbed Sozin’s wounded arm, thankfully, but it still hurt a little.

“Sozin, what are you doing?! You know you can’t just walk around here like… like that!”
Roku hissed, letting Sozin’s arm go and then gesturing at his hair, which was loose and
hanging down to just below his waist.

“Why not?” Sozin forced out, fighting against the mortification that still coloured his cheeks
red. ”You’ve seen me with my hair down before, and nobody here has a clue as to the
importance of a topknot.”

Roku sighed, closing his eyes. “I only saw you with your hair down because of an accident,
and it was fine because we were having fun. Sozin, do you want to be walking around with
your hair down?” He pressed, opening his eyes and staring at him with a faintly exasperated
look on his face.

Sozin’s face flushed even further. “…no,” he groused, crossing his arms and glaring at the
ground. “No, I really don’t. But I can’t put it up myself, and it’s not like there’s anyone
around here who could do it for me.”

Roku fell silent, a strange look that Sozin couldn’t decipher coming onto his face. It was a
pensive sort of look, some embarrassment still lingering , but there was a strange undertone
to it that was unknown to him. “Sozin…” Roku slowly spoke, the words coming out of his
mouth like they were unknown to him, alien. “… would you allow me to put your hair up for
you?”

Sozin’s face flushed even darker, but it wasn’t from embarrassment. Heat spread up the back
of his neck and down his chest, the flames in his chest growing and manifesting as heat
simmering off of his skin. “…w-what?” He croaked, his wide eyes locked on Roku’s.
“I said,” Roku repeated, his cheeks flushing, “would you allow me to put your hair up for
you? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, and I’d be willing to do so.”

Sozin’s heart simultaneously dropped into his stomach and boomeranged into his throat.
Roku? Touching his hair? Putting his hair up for him? He had only seen his mother put up his
father’s hair, and the experience always brought a blush to both of his parents’ cheeks. Only
his mother had put up his hair before, and the last time she had done that was when he was a
child. Could he allow Roku to do this for him, this action that was only performed by those
who loved each other? Could he?

Sozin’s face burned and he closed his eyes. “…yes, Roku. I…I’ll allow you to put up my
hair,” he hesitantly said, his voice getting softer with each word. He felt like he was melting
into the ground.

Roku nodded and gently led Sozin over to one of the windows, his grip so light on Sozin’s
arm that he could barely feel that it was there. Sinking to his knees beside the window, the
evening light hitting his face, felt the most vulnerable and intimate he had ever felt with
Roku. He knew his face was burning, his cheeks a deep red, and he had no idea as to why.

There was a feeling roiling in his stomach, different from embarrassment, and he couldn’t put
a name to it. The feeling grew larger as Roku knelt behind him. His fingers—skilled, lithe,
gentle—ran through Sozin’s hair and he couldn’t help but shiver. The vulnerability of this,
the trust that he was putting in Roku’s hands (hands that Sozin had batted and played with as
a child, hands that Sozin would put his life in, hands that had wrapped their way around his
throat in his dreams and burned, burned, burned) , it was almost unbelievable. That
vulnerable, roiling feeling licked up Sozin’s chest and throat like flames as Roku gathered his
hair together at the nape of his neck, gently, almost reverently. “Sozin? Is this okay?” Roku
asked softly, his voice as smooth as silk.

“I… yes. This is… okay,” Sozin breathed, his wide eyes staring at the floor. His heart was
beating hard, loud, so loud that he could hear it pounding in his ears. Could Roku hear it too?
Could he feel the heat pouring off of his skin, how his breath trembled with every exhale?

Roku made a sound of affirmation and then he lifted Sozin’s hair up, positioning it at the
crown of his head and pulling a red ribbon out of a pocket. Gently, carefully, he wrapped the
ribbon around Sozin’s hair and secured it. He could feel the brush of Roku’s fingers against
his hair as he secured the knot, pulling it tight.

“There… it’s done,” Roku murmured, his hands lingering for a second before drawing back,
drawing away, taking with them a comfortable warmth that Sozin hadn’t even realised was
there. He already missed it.

“…thank you, Roku. I appreciate it,” Sozin forced out, standing up. His voice felt shaky, like
it was a droplet of water vibrating on the body of a guqin being played, dancing back and
forth to the whims of the strings. “I trust that you will tell no one about this?”

Roku stood and rested his hand on Sozin’s shoulder, a friendly gesture that seemed so much
more personal now, so much more intimate in this light. “Not a soul,” he replied. “It would
ruin your reputation as much as it would ruin mine.”
Sozin nodded. He wanted to walk over to where Kuzai and Miss Yu were probably still
sitting and sit down, lose himself in a cup of tea. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t make his legs
move when Roku was right there, his hand right on his shoulder and so gentle.

Roku nodded once, smiling at him with a gentle, soft look on his face, and then lifted his
hand. Sozin’s body unfroze, embarrassed, flaming heat licking through his veins. Then he
was gone, and Sozin was left standing in the room, alone, his cheeks dark and his trembling
hands clenched in fists.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

It was dark outside, and Sozin couldn’t sleep. Agni’s children were blanketed by a layer of
grey; a cover of clouds had rolled in just after sunset, hiding their twinkling lights and the
moon from sight. Sozin wished that they were out, not hidden by a sheet of slate grey and
shining so far out of sight. He wished that they were visible so he could have something to
glare at, something to count, something to distract himself with.

He couldn’t quiet his brain, but for a different reason than before. He almost preferred the
turmoil about his political choices, his father and Miss Yu yelling back and forth in his mind,
than whatever this was still fluttering around in his chest. The heat that spread wherever the
fluttering touched down was almost unbearable, making his face flush and his body curl in on
itself with embarrassment and something that he just couldn’t name.

He hadn’t tried to take down the topknot for multiple reasons. The first was that, once he did,
he wouldn’t have been able to put it up again. The second was that taking down the topknot
would require some creative hand dexterity that he wasn’t going to deal with at that late hour.

The third was… he didn’t want to take it down because Roku had put it up for him. He could
almost feel the phantom touch of his friend’s fingers running through his hair, pulling out any
knots he may have missed and looping the dark locks in on themselves, gentle yet firm. He
could imagine further, Roku’s hands moving to gently stroke his cheekbones, cupping his
cheeks and heating slightly, enough so that it would make Sozin relax and his eyes flutter
shut. And then… and then… Sozin’s mind stopped there, unable to continue.

Roku had done that one thing because he was equally as embarrassed as Sozin was, seeing
his hair down like that. It was like adjusting your friend’s rumpled sleeves when he had
rushed to class—a simple, single helpful act. It was nothing more.

“Psst, Sozin,” came Roku’s hushed voice, jarring in its suddenness. “Hey, Sozin, you up?”

Sozin didn’t reply at first—something in his chest had flipped, and he needed a moment to
make sure he could breathe and talk normally. “…yes,” he eventually answered.

There was the sound of shuffling and then someone poked Sozin’s shoulder, a finger that had
only hours ago run through his hair and rendered him a mess. Sozin peeked over his shoulder,
ignoring the burn on his cheeks as he looked into his best friend’s gleaming eyes. “Come on,
get up, I want to show you something,” Roku hissed quietly, a grin on his face.
Sozin blinked. What could he want to do so late at night? Regardless, he hauled himself to
his feet and followed Roku outside into the dark night, summoning a flame to his hand for
light. “What’s all this about, Roku?” He grumbled—his eyes ached like he had just been
awoken from a nap, even though he hadn’t been able to surrender to sleep.

“You’ll see. Come here,” Roku replied, holding out his arms at Sozin like he was expecting a
hug. “I want to show you something, like I said. You trust me, don’t you?”

Sozin stared at Roku’s open arms, and then looked back at his face. “Why do I have the
feeling that I shouldn’t trust you?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Because you’re a suspicious old man with trust issues,” Roku replied instantly. “It’ll be cool,
I promise. Please?”

Sozin glared at Roku, objecting with an “I’m not old,” but he stepped forward into his arms
anyway. The flame in his palm flickered out and then they were standing alone in the inky
blackness, cricket–cicadas chirping off in the distance. Roku’s arms were warm, and so was
the rest of him. Sozin shivered, but he didn’t know if it was from the cold night air or not.

Then they moved, but instead of left or right, or backwards or forwards, they went up. “Ro
kuUU–!” Sozin cut himself off before his exclamation could turn into a full-on screech,
clinging to him like he was his only lifeline. There was a long, terrifying moment where he
was a weightless thing, a leaf blowing in the wind, and then his feet made contact with the
top beam of a house, wooden and thin. And Roku was laughing.

“Heh, did you think I’d drop you? I’m astounded by your lack of trust in me, Sozin,” Roku
snickered, squeezing Sozin like a child would a toy before letting go of his waist, keeping his
hand on his shoulder to steady him. “How’s your arm?”

Sozin didn’t answer at first—his heart was beating too fast and loud in his ears, and his throat
was strangely tight. The heat of Roku’s grasp still lingered around him like a fog, thick and
heavy and unignorable, almost suffocating in a way. But it could never suffocate him. It was
Roku. He would trust Roku with his life, his death, and the fate of his place in history.

“It’s fine,” he managed to get out eventually, a curt grumble under his breath that made his
friend laugh.

“I’m glad. Now, sit down and look up,” Roku instructed, his voice sounding amused and yet
carrying an undertone that was unidentifiable.

Sozin did just that but slower, making sure to not move in a way or sit in a way that would
send shocks of pain up his arm. He was all too aware of Roku’s presence as he settled, of the
warmth radiating off of his skin and how it was so starkly juxtaposed with the coolness of the
night. He wanted to speak, say something, but there was a ball in his throat that rendered him
silent.

They sat there, quiet for a moment, before Roku broke the silence. “You wanted to know
what I wanted to show you, right?” Sozin made a sound of affirmation—he still couldn’t
bring himself to speak. “Well, it’s for this.”
 Sozin heard Roku’s arms move, and then the clouds above them parted, making way for the
distant glimmer of the stars, Agni’s children who had been hidden away when Sozin needed
them. The show of raw power made Sozin’s breath halt for a second, and the feeling of
familiarity that followed it made him exhale sharply.

“Remember when we would sneak out at night to stargaze?” Roku hummed. Sozin could see
his face now, illuminated dimly by the stars and then a bit more by the moon, distant and out
of sight, but still powerful and bright. “You always had to leave your window open—it
creaked too loudly for you to open sneakily after the sun went down.”

“And you once almost fell off of the Minister of Agriculture’s rooftop,” Sozin added, unable
to choose between looking up at the sky or looking at Roku. They were both so beautiful. “I
had to grab you by your collar and drag you back up. The next day the Minister was
complaining about how he thought his house was infested with rat-bats.”

Roku laughed, the sound ringing out in the night like a melody. “Right, I remember that. Your
mother still got angry at us because we got dirt on your expensive nightclothes. Made us
copy lines from Fire Lord Huazhan’s peace treaty with the Earth Kingdom, if I remember
correctly.”

Sozin hummed in agreement, and he couldn’t help but grin. Roku’s features were filled with a
serene happiness, handsome on his angular face, and something in his chest made him want
to reach out and trace a finger over those flickering eyelids, smooth a thumb over his best
friend’s cheekbone and caress one of those cheeks softly, like he was holding a delicate
flower petal. It was one of the things he loved most about him--how peacefully he seemed to
experience happiness and joy, how it flowed through his body like a river through mountains.

Sozin’s eyes permanently left the stars twinkling overhead, unable to focus on anything other
than his best friend, his love, the star twinkling right next to him for no one else to see. And
then his brain caught up with itself and a bolt of white-hot dread mixed with shock lanced
through his stomach. He almost fell off of the roof. Oh. Oh. Oh no.

Chapter End Notes

Wooo! Homosexuals! Anyways, thank yall for reading this chapter. Agni's Children has
about... half a year's worth of writing in it now, and I'm super proud of it. I'm so grateful
for all the feedback & comments I've gotten, and I'm so glad yall've liked this so far,
even with all the lil oopsies and my slow updating. I can't really express it fully, but I
hope you all know that each interaction from yall, whether kudos or comment, makes
my heart do happy lil dances in my chest :)

Thank you for reading, again, feel free to drop a kudos or comment, and Happy
Holidays! I'll see yall with the next update in the new year!
 Chapter 9
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

Sozin needed to leave. He just did. He needed to leave Yan Ban, he needed to leave the Earth
Kingdom, and he desperately needed to leave Miss Yu’s house, along with her damn roof.
Maybe, he thought, maybe if he left it all, he would be able to reorient himself, fix his heart
and head. Maybe he would be able to flee from the feelings that had forced themselves to the
front of his mind.

Kuzai hadn’t been pleased when he was told that they were leaving. He had collapsed to his
knees dramatically, asking profusely in an exaggerated tone for them to just stay a little while
longer, just a few days or so. His lower lip was pushed out into a large pout, his wet, amber
eyes looking up at Sozin pathetically, his hands clasped together in front of his chest.

The sight had reminded him of himself when he was younger, begging his mother for
something when he knew he probably wasn’t going to get it. His sweet, hopeful face looking
up at her, a pout crafted to be adorable plastered on his face alongside his large, glistening,
golden eyes. Kuzai wasn’t Sozin’s son, probably not even distantly related to him, and yet he
seemed to be exactly like he had been in his youth, give or take some elements. It made Sozin
want to give in.

His thoughts drifted to Roku’s hands running through his hair, brushing against the nape of
his neck and gently combing through whatever knots that had managed to spontaneously
appear, unbidden and unwanted in a direct contrast to his best friend’s graceful fingers.

Sozin said no.

Roku had expressed some worry (privately, of course) about if Sozin was rushing it, putting
himself in danger of not letting his arm heal properly in order to get back to the Fire Nation,
to the throne, sooner. Was he rushing? Was he putting himself at risk? Probably, maybe; it
didn’t matter. He didn’t care either way. What he cared about was running from what he had
learned on Miss Yu’s rooftop, the lightning bolt that had struck him in his heart and refused to
leave, searing burning hot fractals into his heart and bloodstream.

He hadn’t said this, though. He had offered the weak excuse of work piling up, and that he
wanted to get back before anyone started to get suspicious. Roku had laughed and put his
hand on Sozin’s uninjured shoulder. “My my, Sozin, I’d say you’re rather in love with your
work. Do you like to cuddle it to sleep at night? Get smoochy smoochy with your papers?”
He had asked teasingly, his smile radiant and the glimmer in his eyes even moreso.

“That’s not what I’m in love with, Roku!” His mind screamed, his cheeks flushing as his
hands curled in on themselves. “I’m in love with you!”

Miss Yu had expressed a similar sentiment just afterwards, though in a louder, more
disappointed tone. “Are you trying to make sure your shoulder never works right again?!”
She had scolded, so much disappointment and frustration in her voice that it made Sozin want
to shrink away, like a scolded child, but also yell back at the same time, like the adult he was.
“I don’t know why, but you seem desperate to fill my life with stress!”

Eventually, she had stopped yelling at him, settling for shoving a jar of poultice into his hand.
“Change the dressings every day and apply this every night. If I find out that you aren’t doing
that, I’m dragging you back to Yan Ban and tying you up here until your arm is healed, got
it?”

“Yes ma’am, ” Sozin muttered, ducking his head and feeling more like a child than ever. He
was the Fire Lord, and here he was, sulking in front of a woman half his height. “I
understand.”

Then Miss Yu had left, and Sozin was alone in the room, the small jar in his hand. The sun
had started to set, honey-orange licking across the oiled-paper windows and spreading over
the ceiling, wall, and floors like fine wine staining thin silk. The light brought a slight
warmth to his skin, and he closed his eyes to bask in the feeling.

The power of Agni’s radiance crept over his shoulders and swirled around his face, however
distant and diluted it was from passing through the windows. The flames of the sun called to
the fire within Sozin’s chest, and they responded, reaching out and rising in vain to grasp
something they would never be able to embrace until his death. A power forever out of reach,
the fire that spurred him to act and speak, the kindling that fed his lifeforce.

There was a light brush of fingers across the nape of his neck, coming to rest on his
shoulders. A pair of lips left a feather-light kiss on the crown of his head. Sozin’s eyes
snapped open and he spun around, his gaze panicked and his cheeks alight with a fierce red.
There was nobody; it was just Sozin alone in Miss Yu’s dining room, only the table he had
woken up on so many days ago and the pillows arranged around it to keep him company.

He forced himself to exhale, his hands shaking as he tucked the jar of medical salve into his
sling. He needed to leave. Soon. Now.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

Sozin leaned back against the cabin of the boat and groaned miserably, closing his eyes as he
steadied himself with his good arm. Roku, like always, was perfectly fine, and even Kuzai
seemed to be at ease, even though he had expressed that he had never been on a boat before.
Was it just something about Sozin being a Firebender, that he was just incompatible with the
sea? No, that wasn’t possible; Sozin’s father had loved to be on the water, sometimes even
dragging the rest of his family with him on a boat trip out to nowhere.

Great, so it was just something wrong with him, then. The boat lurched to the other side and
Sozin almost was bowled over with it, unstable and caught by surprise. He only narrowly
avoided crashing into Kuzai’s legs. “Roku, can’t you do anything about this?” He grumbled,
righting himself and blinking his eyes open, only to shut them a second later as nausea
tightened around his throat like a noose.
Roku hummed a casual rejection. “Nope. This part of the sea is usually choppy, as it’s where
a lot of the Southward currents meet the Westward ones. I can’t really fight against nature,
now can I?” He replied, his voice light and teasing.

Sozin swallowed a retch and opted to thunk his head back against the cabin wall. “You’re the
Avatar, you can do basically anything…” he groaned, nausea creeping up his throat like ivy.

“Not everything,” Roku corrected, his tone starting to waver between teasing and concern.
“Sozin, are you alright?”

At that moment, the boat broke through a particularly vicious wave and Sozin was thrown to
the side, hissing through his teeth as he landed on his hurt arm. The impact made him want to
swear roundly, spit so many curses that the words would cloud and poison the air like smoke,
but he didn’t. Kuzai was right there, and Sozin had an image to uphold; it wouldn’t do the
child any good if Sozin were to pollute his vocabulary at such a young age, and he didn’t
want to show any shameful weakness.

“Just great,” Sozin forced out through gritted teeth, unable to smother the pain enough to
keep his voice from quivering.

He opened his eyes to see that Roku had kneeled down beside him at some point, one hand
warily outstretched, as if he would pull the pain out like polluted water if he could. “Is your
arm alright? Did you open the wound?” Roku asked just as Kuzai yelped, “Spirits! Are you
okay?”

Sozin winced as he hauled himself off of the floor, leaning against the wall again. “It’s fine,
I’m fine. Except the fact that I feel like I’m going to lose my breakfast,” he griped, clenching
his jaw to try and stave off the inevitable. Even now, his stomach roiled like the sea against
their little boat, waves crashing back and forth against each other in a nauseating dance.

Roku narrowed his eyes and rose to his feet. Sozin didn’t bother to raise his head to try and
maintain eye contact, but Kuzai did, his worried face turning upwards. “What’re you doing?”
He asked, concern still colouring his tone.

Roku didn’t answer, instead moving to the centre of the cabin, his eyes closing. His hands
came up and then suddenly twisted, his arms moving in quick arcs around his body like wolf-
foxes circling prey, almost hypnotic in a way. Then he jerked them apart, one hand going up
and the other going down, palms facing opposite ways. The rocking of the ship stopped.

Sozin waited for the next swell, figuring that this was a brief, torturous moment of respite,
but it never came. “Woah, what did you do?” Kuzai asked before Sozin could, awestruck.

“I’m separating the currents,” Roku answered, his eyes still shut. “I’m going to need to do
this until we leave the area where the currents meet, which is about 20 minutes or so.
Someone go tell the captain to try and hurry us up.”

Kuzai nodded, gasping. “Ohh, that’s so cool! I’ll go, I wanna see what it looks like outside!”
And then he was gone, the wicker door slapping closed with a dull whomp.
There was a moment of silence, Roku concentrating on his bending and Sozin unsure of what
to say. Eventually, Sozin couldn’t take the silence anymore, and asked, “Why didn’t you do
this the first time?”

Roku didn’t respond for a second and Sozin feared that he might have offended him.
However, when his friend eventually did respond, his voice held no malice. “It’s
experimental. The form was originally taught to me by the Airbenders, and it’s for separating
air currents to provide for easier flights for gliders or Flying Bison. It’s also very difficult to
keep up for long periods of time.”

The side of Roku’s mouth twitched up into that crooked smile that Sozin loved so, so much,
and he continued. “Also because you’re a damsel in distress now, you and that arm; I need to
treat you like a glass vase that’s about to shatter. If I don’t, what will become of my
reputation as the Avatar?” His tone was teasing and light, filled with mirth, and it made Sozin
want to make a sound akin to a Messenger-Hawk’s screech.

“I’m the Fire Lord, Roku. I don’t need to be pampered,” he muttered, halfheartedly glaring at
his best friend. “It’s not that bad.”

Roku’s smile dropped and he grimaced, the muscles in his hands flexing as his eyes shut, his
eyebrows creasing slightly in a frown. “I never said I was pampering you. I don’t want to see
you hurt, Sozin. I can’t talk anymore, I need to focus on my bending,” he said tersely,
effectively ending the conversation.

Sozin repressed a huff and leaned back against the wall, Roku’s words swimming around in
his head like a dragon through smoke. “Don’t want to see you get hurt,” he had said. It was
nothing, just a friend expressing affection for another friend, but the words still made his
cheeks flush. Roku wanted him safe and happy; the thought brought a pleasant, fuzzy feeling
to his heart, only further fueling the redness on his cheeks.

Only fools listen to their hearts, Sozin’s father’s voice murmured from the back of his head.
He pushed the words aside, feeling a bit frustrated that they had chosen to resurface. Was he a
fool to enjoy Roku’s presence, to hope that, maybe, Roku’s worry went past the normal
platonic amount? To hope that, maybe, they could be closer, was that a fool’s wish?

He turned his head to look at Roku, not even bothering to be discreet. Roku’s eyes were still
closed, but the crease in his brow had smoothed out, and the look on his face reflected calm
concentration instead of the struggle that had been there before. Sozin wanted to reach out
and flick a palmful of smoke into his face, if only to see him sputter and return the attack
with a palmful of smoke of his own. He wanted to devolve into playful, silly giggles with
Roku like they had when they were younger, more carefree. He wanted to be a child again
with Roku. He wanted to do everything all over again with Roku.

Maybe it did make him a fool, Sozin thought as a small smile crept onto his face. A truly
heedless fool, but a happy one nonetheless.

Kuzai burst back in, a giddy smile on his face. “Sozin, look outside, it’s so cool! You can see
the fish moving with the currents, and you can also see the currents too! It’s so cool!” He
squealed, rushing to Sozin’s side and pulling at his sleeve, jumping up and down like the
giddy child he was. “Come on, you’ve gotta see!”

Sozin jerked in surprise, instinctively pulling his sleeve out of Kuzai’s grip. “Kuzai!” He
scolded, rising to his feet unsteadily. “Don’t do that again; you could have broken Avatar
Roku’s concentration!”

Kuzai stuck the tip of his tongue out and blew a raspberry Sozin’s way, grabbing at his sleeve
again. “But I didn’t—now come on! It’s so cool!” He pleaded, tugging on his sleeve like a
child begging for sweets.

Sozin sighed, shaking his head. “I’m going with Kuzai, Roku. I’ll be back soon,” he spoke.
His seasickness had all but vanished by now, only vaguely present in the back of his throat,
but he didn’t trust himself enough to say it was gone.

“Got it. Don’t fall over the side of the boat,” Roku responded, his body still locked in that
frozen, dance-like stance. But his mouth twitched up into a grin again, and his eyes opened to
reveal a playful glint. “I wouldn’t want to have to fish you back to dry land, your sogginess.”

Sozin couldn’t help how his cheeks flushed dark and he grumbled before turning around and
stalking out of the cabin, Kuzai bouncing cheerfully behind him. “I’ll shove you off the
boat,” he griped underneath his breath.

“Why do you want to shove Roku off the boat?” Kuzai asked, his grip still iron-tight on his
sleeve as he followed Sozin’s lead. “I thought you liked him.”

Sozin didn’t think his cheeks could get redder. He was wrong. “And what exactly do you
mean by that?” He hissed out from between his teeth, turning his face away from Kuzai’s
searching gaze. How pathetic—he was hiding his embarrassment from a child.

“Well,” Kuzai tipped his head to the side, letting go of Sozin’s sleeve in order to fiddle with
his own ratty sleeves. “I thought that you two were a thing, but then you were being weird
about it, but then Roku did your hair, but then-” “I get it!” Sozin cut him off, throwing his
good hand up in the air. “Agni’s great flame, burn me into nothing and scorch my bones—
Kuzai, Avatar Roku and I are not in a relationship.”

Kuzai huffed, clasping onto the older man’s sleeve again and tugging on it insistently. “Okay,
okay, I get it; You two want to wither away into wrinkly, gross old men with your own
wrinkly old wives. Gross. Now, look!” Kuzai suddenly pitched forward, hanging halfway off
of the boat and taking Sozin with him, the look on his face brightening into delight. “Isn’t
that so cool?!”

Sozin looked over the side of the boat, deep into the water. He could see where Roku was
separating the different flows of water, where the currents fought and raged to be allowed to
collide once more, twisting around and around like snakes. Fish swirled with the currents,
some of them coming close to colliding but being pulled apart by the power of Waterbending,
their shimmery, silvery bodies twisting and contorting as they travelled to wherever their
destination was.
The thought and sight of roiling water made his stomach turn, his face paling and his
breathing growing unsteady. “Alright, that’s enough, Kuzai. I’ve seen it,” he muttered,
leaning back. “Are we done?”

Kuzai huffed and shot Sozin a glare, pouting. “No, we’re not done. I wanted to show you a
thing. Please?” He clasped his hands underneath his chin, looking at Sozin with the biggest
gecko-puppy eyes ever, still half-hanging off of the boat’s railing. “Pretty please?”

Sozin tried to steel himself against Kuzai’s big, watery eyes, but to no avail. His heart
wrenched in his chest and he felt the overwhelming urge to squish the child’s dirty cheeks.
“… fine. But get back on the boat—you look like you’re about to fall off,” he conceded,
putting his good hand on the railing to steady himself, his nausea starting to creep back up his
throat once more.

Kuzai nodded and pushed himself off of the edge of the boat, hopping back to a safe distance.
He then frowned and widened his stance, slowly extending his hands out in front of him as he
shut his eyes. He then began moving his hands in a large, slow circle. Sozin didn’t see the
water moving, but he felt it swirling around, twirling in a little vortex and upsetting the boat’s
course. “Kuzai, what are you doing?” He asked hesitantly.

“Shhh! It’s gonna be cool!” Kuzai’s hands trembled a little as he slowly brought them up,
ceasing their rotation, his legs moving slowly until he was as straight as a reed, his entire
body tense as a drawn bowstring.

Sozin was… a little confused. “What am I supposed to be seeing?” He asked.

Kuzai frowned, prying an eye open. “You’re looking the wrong way! Behind you!” He
hissed, his teeth gritted as his arms began to tremble.

Sozin turned around, sighing internally, and was met with a wall of water. It was about three
metres or so in height, the form of it staggering between being a large, misshapen blob and a
contained block of rushing water, bubbling and flowing trepidatiously as it wavered a few
feet away from the boat. It was truly an admirable feat for a nine year old to achieve,
especially one with as little formal education as Kuzai.

“Impressive, Kuzai,” Sozin said before the water came crashing back down, returning to its
source. “Your skill is commendable.”

Kuzai grinned, breathing heavily. “I dunno what that means, but thanks! My appaak showed
me how to do it,” he replied, still energetic somehow. “I can do it again, if you wanna see!”

Sozin had the feeling that, if he tried to do so, he would pass out. “Maybe some other time,
hmm? Come on, back to the cabin. It’s cold out here,” he said, walking over and tugging the
kid up straight by the scruff of his collar, ignoring his offended yelp.

It wasn’t all too cold, actually; the Fire Nation was in the middle of the equator, and they
were already about halfway to the capital. Sozin just didn’t want Kuzai wandering about the
deck, bending himself into exhaustion and then subsequently falling over the edge of the
boat. He could just fall over regularly and then get caught in the underwater currents, which
still fought like furious cat-badgers to be allowed to collide once again, held apart only by
Roku’s concentration and immense power. He didn’t want to ruminate on such thoughts; they
made him even more nauseous than he already was.

Kuzai groaned but trudged back to the cabin, his arms crossed and a sullen expression on his
face the entire way. Roku was still in the same stance as he had been when they left, perfectly
still as a statue, even when Kuzai stormed in and sat down heavily with a pouty huff. “How
was it?” He asked, cracking an eye open and grinning faintly.

“I-” “It was horrible, Sozin didn’t let me do anything and he was boring,” Kuzai cut Sozin
off, sighing loudly and sniffling. “He hates me being cool.”

“Wha-” “I understand, Kuzai. Sozin’s a big killjoy, doesn’t even appreciate the finer things in
life,” Roku said sympathetically, cutting off Sozin before he could object. “If it makes you
feel any better, I think you’re really cool.”

“Excuse me, I am right here,” Sozin objected. “And we did do something; Kuzai showed me
the currents and then a very impressive Waterbending move.”

“Nothing,” Kuzai lamented, sniffling again. “He’s so boring.”

Sozin threw his good hand in the air and Roku laughed, almost unbalancing himself in doing
so. “I am not boring!” He insisted, peeved.

“That is exactly what a boring person would say,” Kuzai sniffed, nodding his head in
agreement with himself like he had just written the most beneficial and helpful piece of
legislation ever.

Sozin groaned, facepalming as Roku laughed. “I’m never going to get out of this,” he
grumbled, running his hand down his face. “I’m going to be boring forever.”

Kuzai stuck out his tongue and then sniffled yet again, rubbing his nose with the cuff of his
sleeve. Sozin’s eyebrows raised as he watched the kid curl in on himself a little, hugging his
arms and shivering a little. “Kuzai, are you alright?” He asked, leaning forward a little.

Kuzai sniffed again, wiping his nose for the second time. “Yeah, ʻm fine. Just cold,” he
mumbled, bringing his knees up to his chest and cupping his hands close to his face, gently
blowing on them. Still, he shivered.

Something bubbled up in Sozin’s chest and, before he knew it, he had reached forward and
tugged Kuzai’s hands down, much to his protest. “Get offa me, what are you doing?!” He
shrieked, tugging his hands back to his chest.

“Sozin, what are you-” “Calm down, I just want to show you something,” Sozin found
himself saying, cutting Roku off. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help.”

Kuzai continued to protest, even as Sozin scooted his way over to sit in front of him, having
long let go of his hands. “Hold your hands out in front of you like this,” he instructed,
cupping his hands out in front of him like he was expecting someone to drop something into
them. “And sit properly.”

Kuzai huffed but did so, unfolding his legs so he was mirroring how Sozin was sitting,
putting his cupped hands out as well. “Cross-legged, Kuzai.” He groaned and adjusted his
legs, crossing them and glowering up at the older man.

“Good. Now, light a very small flame in the centre of your palms. I trust that you can control
it?” Sozin went on, raising an eyebrow as a small flame flickered to life in the palms of his
hands.

Kuzai nodded, looking down at his trembling hands. He inhaled deeply and then puffed it out
in a harsh breath, a very small, rapidly flickering flame igniting in his hands. “Now what?”
He asked; his little flame gave off heat, but his hands still shook.

“Focus on the fire, and breathe. Inhale deeply,” Sozin inhaled deeply, “and then slowly blow
it out,” he exhaled slowly. “The purpose of this exercise is to tune yourself into both the fire
inside of you and the fire in your hands, thus improving control. This exercise may also be
used to generate heat, which is why I’m teaching it to you.”

Kuzai’s gaze glanced from Sozin and the little flame in his hands a few times, the look on his
face sceptical before he sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll try it…” he groused, fixing his stare on the
fire.

Slowly, he inhaled, and the fire grew in sync. He held his breath for a second before he blew
it out heavily, the flame in his hands flickering down to a candle’s spark in a mere few
seconds. “Kuzai, gently blow it out. In and then out, slow and gentle, that’s the point. Exhale
like so,” Sozin corrected, inhaling deeply before blowing it out in a long, slow breath.

Kuzai blew a raspberry at Sozin before following his lead, this time slowly exhaling. His fire
didn’t flicker and fade this time, staying steady and dancing in his palms. A warmth lit in
Sozin’s chest and he couldn’t help the smile that crept onto his face.

After a while, Kuzai stopped shivering. Then Roku joined them, sitting quietly with his eyes
closed, his own little flame settled in his palms.

[────────────── ⭒⭑⋅☼⋅⭑⭒ ──────────────]

With the arrival to the Fire Nation Capital came a sudden, jarring reminder, entirely
unwelcome but needed all the same. As Kuzai bounded off the boat, ooh-ing and ah-ing at
the architecture, Sozin remembered that the child was technically under arrest. That they had
been travelling to the Capital to put him on trial for his, admittedly, criminal acts. That he
could lose his freedom, all of it for the rest of his life, become as good as dead, here in the
Fire Nation.

These thoughts plagued him as Roku herded them into a carriage, paying with a few gold
pieces and a sweet smile that made Sozin’s heart flip-flop, even though it wasn’t for him. The
driver had noted “Hey, you look like Fire Lord Sozin,” and Sozin, half-paying attention,
replied with, “Good bone structure.” Roku had snorted and Kuzai had laughed. Sozin thought
about how that could very well be the last time the child would ever laugh.

It seemed that Kuzai was thinking something along these lines, as the closer and closer they
got to the upper-level of the Capital, the quieter and quieter he got. He stopped talking
altogether when the carriage began its ascent up the path that zig-zagged the side of the long-
dormant, long-dead volcano where the highest class of the Fire Nation was hidden, safe from
prying eyes.

It was only when they passed through the gates, underneath the looming rock face, that he
spoke. “What will you do with me?” He asked, his voice quiet and sounding as downtrodden
as he looked.

Sozin paused for a moment—he didn’t want to reply. However, he had to. He must. It was not
a question of if, it was a question of when. And now was better than at the very last second,
even if his chest ached at the thought of saying such words. “… you will be sent to a prison
before the trial starts, though it is most likely that you will be treated better than the other
inmates. You are a child, after all,” Sozin explained. His voice broke minutely when he said
‘child.’

“And during the trial? Afterwards?” Kuzai prompted, curling up into a ball against the
carriage seat as the wheels beneath them bumped over cobblestone, rumbling like water over
a ridge. “What will happen to me then?”

Sozin hated that he had to be the one explaining this to him, hated the fact that he had to tell
this child how he would be treated up to what could very well be the end of his life, one way
or another. “You will be held in a cell near the courthouse when not on trial. And
afterwards… it all depends on the verdict,” he answered. He hated how Kuzai curled in on
himself a little bit more at his words.

There was a pause before Kuzai leaned against the wall, looking miserably out the window,
watching the houses roll by. “I’m gonna die here,” he mumbled, burying his face into his
crossed arms. “I’m gonna die.”

“You’re not going to die, Kuzai,” Roku cut in, his voice firm. Thank Agni; Sozin wasn’t sure
that, if he had tried to cut in, his voice wouldn’t wobble as much as Kuzai’s was. “It’s illegal
to sentence a child to death in the Fire Nation.”

Kuzai harrumphed, curling up tighter. “Yeah, but I’ll be as good as dead,” he mumbled.

Sozin didn’t know how to reply to that. Roku lapsed back into silence. Kuzai said no more.

They remained like that until they arrived at the front gates of the palace, the guards standing
sentry turning their heads to scrutinise the carriage. One of them walked forward, rapping
their knuckles against the side of the coach. “Hey, you can’t stop here. Keep it moving.”

The carriage driver chuckled nervously. “My clients must be taking some time to get
themselves together, it’ll only be a second!”
Kuzai shrank away from the window, slipping to the floor and pressing himself against the
wall, as if he wanted to merge with it. “I don’t want to do this,” he whispered, his voice thick
and shaky. “I’m scared. Can I go back? I promise I won’t do anything bad ever again, I
promise.”

Sozin’s voice stuck in his throat; he couldn’t make himself reply to that. What could he even
say? “Don’t be afraid, Kuzai, I’ll be right there alongside you every step of the way,” Roku
assured softly, kneeling beside the boy and resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’ll make
sure you’re safe.”

“What about you?” Kuzai sniffled, raising his head. Sozin wanted to tear himself apart; there
was a watery look of fear in his golden gaze, wobbling like the Waterbent wall he had shown
him only days ago. The soldier knocked on the carriage wall again, his voice growing angry.
“I’ve told you that you can’t be here, now get moving!”

“Just a few more seconds?” The driver asked, his nervous smile making his voice waver.

“I can’t,” Sozin whispered, his heart bleeding into his throat. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go in with
you.” If he got out with them, his cover story would be blown. The Fire Lord can’t just go off
on waltzes with the Avatar through the Earth Kingdom for one little boy, it just wasn’t done.
If anyone found out that he had done just that, his image would crack, become weakened and
vulnerable. He didn’t want to deal with the messes that would inevitably rise out of the
ordeal.

The soldier raised his fist, ready to pound it against the carriage walls. “Whoever’s in there,
get out or get lost! You can’t-” The door swung open and the soldier was met with the figure
of Avatar Roku, a stern look on his face.

“I don’t appreciate you trying to hassle me,” he said, raising an eyebrow at the soldier, whose
face was turning a stark shade of white.

“I-I- Avatar Roku! I apologise, I didn’t know-” “No, you didn’t. But you do now, so I expect
you to address me with respect,” Roku cut him off. “Now, move aside.”

The soldier basically fell over trying to get out of Roku’s way, stumbling back clumsily. “Yes,
Avatar Roku!”

Roku glided out, elegant as ever, and Kuzai followed him, more like a small shadow than a
child. His hands shook where they gripped his sleeves, heat marks starting to fizzle
underneath his fingertips, adding to the other scorch marks already dotting his arms. The
soldier hurried forward to shut the door behind them, closing Sozin off from view. Good, at
least he wouldn’t have to shut it himself.

The driver snapped the reins and clicked his tongue, the dragon-moose he was directing
snuffling in response before lumbering forward, their hooves clicking against the stone road.
As they made their slow way off to their second destination, the back of the palace so Sozin
could sneak in through one of the servant’s entrances, he scooted forward, peering through
the shaded window.
 Roku said something to the pale-faced guard, who stiffened and bowed before running off,
leaving the other guard standing there, stiff as a statue and probably trembling. Then he knelt
down and pried Kuzai’s hands from his arms, placing one of his open palms in his own. He
said something, Kuzai looking at him, before standing, walking towards the entrance of the
palace with Kuzai’s little hand held in his own.

Then they were out of view, the carriage turning down a street. Sozin leaned back against the
wall, closing his eyes and sighing. It had started. It was over.

He felt so guilty.

[─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────]

Roku found Sozin in one of the studies. His shoulder had been redressed with fresh bandages
and he had changed, now clothed in a modified version of his normal Fire Lord regalia. He’d
been leaning against a windowsill, looking out at the setting sun. Agni’s power warmed his
face, but it felt cold in the evening spring’s wind.

“How’s Kuzai?” Sozin asked. He hadn’t needed to, the both of them knew exactly what had
been overwhelming his thoughts, but he still did. It soothed some strange part of his mind,
the part that had emerged when he first laid eyes on the boy, the part that was currently
screaming at him right now.

“He’s alright. His cell is more of a guarded guest room than anything,” Roku replied. He
didn’t join Sozin at the window, opting to linger in the depths of the room instead.

“Good. I’ve already sent the letter to King Jialun about the trial and have requested a
representative.”

There was a moment of silence. “I don’t like this, Roku,” Sozin quietly said. There was so
much more that he wanted to say— “I’m worried, Roku,” “I want to pull Kuzai out and
cancel his trial,” “I care about him, Roku,” —but he didn’t.

Roku sighed slowly, silently. “Neither do I,” he replied.

Chapter End Notes

H a I sincerely apologise if this is as bad as I think it is :/

I don't know when I'm next going to update, I've got a few big projects that I've gotta
juggle, as well as dealing with the transition from HS to College and burnout (yay me!)
so uh, see yall later? Hopefully soon.
Thank you for reading, and feel free to comment/kudos! I really love hearing from yall!
And Happy Valentine's day!
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