Friend

by leslina

“If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?”

FRIEND

By Leslina

30.5.06

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender © Michael Dante DiMartino, Nickelodeon Studios et al.

Author Notes: Watched today's rerun of The Blue Spirit and needed to get this scene in my head on paper. I may likely post future Avatar drabbles/snippets I've an urge to play out here. Oh, and please do not defile this little scene by assuming there is anything between Zuko and Aang besides friendship. Cos there ain't.

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"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?" Zuko thinks that maybe in another time, another place; perhaps, maybe, he and the Avatar could have been friends; annual visits, running amuck around the palace; tormenting Azula and her friends; games of pai sho with Iroh in the gardens as his mother watched and laughed at the boys' accusatory glares at the potbellied man's schemes—and maybe Lu Ten too… but they hadn't known each other back then.

Still, they did now and perhaps, maybe, they were friends—now.

"There's someone you should meet Aang."

The Avatar's response was a curious quirk of his brows and a relaxed, "Ok."

Zuko nodded, the guards saluting and pulling back the tapestry; on the other side a not unusual looking Fire Nation girl, dressed in not unusual Fire Nation attire that was about Aang's age. She bowed with not unusual courtesy in the presence of Zuko and Aang and waited patiently for the Fire Lord to continue the exchange.

"Aang, this is Kuzana, daughter of Nazuk, son of Nazuki, son of…" Aang's eyes lit with ever mounting recognition.

"Kuzan!"

The Avatar tackled the newly coroneted Fire Lord with a raucous whoop and swish of air that left all near him in a disheveled state not usual for a Fire Nation citizen.

"You're a good friend Zuko."

FIN

End Notes: Aang has mentioned old friends of his from around the world. We know Bumi is still alive and kicking 112 years later. Then I wondered about the Fire Nation friend Aang mentioned in the Blue Spirit and it made me think of Nazi Germany and German sympathizers who aided Jews, at the risk of their own lives during WW II. I wonder if Kuzan would have been a sympathizer of those people the Fire Nation attacked and if for years, have he and his family aided the other side in secret.