A/N: I've had this plotbunny in my head for quite a while, I must say... It's been hopping there, becoming bigger and bigger.
And it's finally here!
I think this is the first time in a long time that I start a longfic with an actual plot, without having it finished already. That's a risk. But maybe it's a risk I want to take.
So the basic plot revolves around one thing: What if Zuko had actually found Aang before Katara?
In my version, Aang, not knowing anything about the war, wasn't just as wary as he should've been, and after being taken to the Fire Nation, well... Let's just say he didn't receive a very truthful version of what happened during his absence.
It was originally meant to be a oneshot, then it slowly escalated, and now it should be around ten chapters, plus Epilogue. If my plotbunny doesn't go crazy again.
It's rated for safety and there will be some serious Kataang in later chapters (you know how I am!)
Well, I'll just stop ranting. I will try to explain everything through narration, but if any point seems obscure, just let me know and I will clarify.
Also, thanks a million to Snows of Yester-Year for offering to beta this little thing. You're a real life-saver, dear!
1.
See you in your dreams
Even if they are nightmares
"No, no! You have to widen your stance!"
"I have no time to widen my stance if you keep shooting fireballs at me!"
"You have to be quick! Spirits, I thought you were an Airbender!"
Aang rolled his eyes and emitted a frustrated sigh. He set his feet further apart from each other and glared up at his companion. "Happy?"
Zuko regarded him crtically and nodded, assuming a Firebending stance of his own.
"Don't get snappy at me, I'm just trying to help."
"Yeah, I know," Aang answered, quickly dodging the sequence of fireballs coming his way. As the last one was about to hit him square in the face, he parted it with a swift motion, using his own Firebending.
"That was good," granted Zuko, stopping briefly and stretching back his sore arms. "But you have to be more aggressive. You play on defense too much."
Aang let himself fall to the ground, resting his arms on his knees and breathing deeply. "I feel like we've been on this forever," he lamented, glaring at the stone floor. Zuko looked at him sympathetically.
"More like weeks, really," the Firebender corrected half-heartedly.
Aang raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, if a certain someone had agreed to let me begin my training earlier..."
Zuko looked away in hearing the Airbender's words, feeling his stomach twist unpleasantly. It hadn't been his decision, to delay Aang's training so much. In all truth, not much of what he did these days was his decision.
Aang wasn't really waiting for an answer, as he lay down on the floor. The stone under his back was hot, warmed by the bright and unavoidable summer sun.
He had pushed hard, for months, to be able to begin Firebending, but he had soon found out that it was no picnic.
It had been tedious and tiring, especially at first, with all those terribly boring breathing exercises... And then he had managed to send a flock of maids running for their lives, having lost control of his fire due to impatience.
He glanced up at his companion, flashing him a pleading look with his wide, grey eyes.
"Five minutes break?"
Zuko rolled his eyes, but agreed, sitting down in front of him, on the floor.
"Just five. We still have to go through the next set."
Aang sighed in relief and Airbended a small breeze to sweep past them, in order to cool down his burning skin.
Their heavy breathing and the chirping of a few birds were the only sounds filling the courtyard they'd chosen to train in. So far into the summer, the Fire Nation Royal Palace was fairly quiet and devoid of life, especially outdoors.
Aang could bet that everyone was hiding in their shaded rooms, windows open to try and coax a nonexistant current to enter. He grinned a little as his own personal breeze ruffled the hair he'd absentmindedly let grow during the past year.
Almost a year, since it had been Winter when Zuko's ship had crashed in the Iceberg, at the South Pole, freeing the icy cocoon that had been Aang's hiding place for over a hundred years.
The first contact he'd had with Zuko hadn't been exactly friendly, he remembered with a half-smirk. So much had changed since then. Fortunately, General Iroh had managed to calm everyone's nerves and gave them a chance to talk like civilized people. Then, they had traveled towards the Fire Nation, and everything had been explained to him, the loss of his people, the war between the Nations...
Pain shot through his temple, making him grimace and raise a hand to rub the stinging spot.
"Still that headache?" asked Zuko, interrupting his useless search for clouds in the sky. He regarded Aang with a concerned eye.
The Avatar nodded and sighed. "I'm pretty sure it's the sleep deprivation," he said, tangling one arrowed hand in his hair.
Zuko shuffled his feet uneasily, wondering what he could do and especially if he should do anything to... Oh, he didn't even know! Comfort him, he presumed.
He'd never been good at comforting people.
"So, uhm... You can't sleep?" he asked lamely, scratching the back of his head.
"Not through the whole night," Aang answered, eyes still closed and fingers rubbing circles on his forehead. "I have... nightmares, if you could call them that."
A weird sinking feeling, like the shadow of a bad omen, settled in Zuko's stomach. "Nightmares about what?"
Aang looked up at him and made a wide, frustrated gesture with his hand. "That's the point! I have no idea! I just wake up with this horrible feeling... Like there's something I've forgotten, or overlooked and it's very important that I remember. But all I can recall it's shadows and whispers." His own voice faded to one, as his gaze stared in the distance.
Zuko looked at him in silence for a moment, then sighed and stood up, offering the Airbender his hand.
"Come on. Let's forget about training for today; you obviously need a nap. And I promised Mai I would go looking for her this afternoon."
Aang let Zuko pull him upright and his pensive expression faded in favor of a sly smirk.
"Oh, really?" he wiggled his eyebrows at the Fire Prince, who in turn regarded him slightly disgusted.
"What?"
"Nothin'," said Aang, turning around swiftly and picking up his discarded shirt. "You're right, you know?" He let out an exaggerated yawn and rubbed at his eyes. "I totally need a nap. And you should totally just go have fun!" His smirk broadened as he emphasized on the word fun.
Zuko regarded him in disbelief.
Thirteen-year-olds shouldn't be allowed to be this allusive, he thought with an uneasy groan.
"What in the name of Agni are you talking about? We'll be just hanging out and-... Oh, quit smiling like that!" he ended up yelling in frustration, as the young Airbender backed away, his arms raised in surrender.
"Alright, alright," he laughed, turning around to walk up the marble steps that led inside. He threw Zuko one last mischievous glance, before diving into the shade of the Palace.
"Whatever you say, Sifu Hotman!" His voice resonated through the stone hall.
Zuko slapped his palm on his forehead, glaring at the spot where Aang had once stood, his pale cheeks tinted red.
One year of teasing, playful bantering and occasional quiet moments when they confided in each other, and as each day passed, Zuko felt more and more like he'd acquired a new, younger, annoying sibling.
He shook his head with a disbelieving grin -which soon turned into a grimace, as guilt stretched in his usual spot -right above his stomach- like some sort of malicious cat.
"It sure looks like he's starting to have some trouble, brother."
Her smirk was cold and deadly. Just like her, really.
"Stay out of this, Azula," he growled, trying to move around her, for she was blocking his path.
"I'm just saying. Father won't be happy if the Avatar starts to have his doubts."
He stopped dead on his tracks, glaring at her.
"Aang is not having any doubts. Leave him alone, I can handle it."
Her evil smile was even broader on her scarlet red lips. He long talon-like nails tapped her crossed arms.
"Sure thing, Zuzu," she turned around to leave. "Though I'm saying it for you, really. I won't be the one to take the fall in case we lose the Avatar."
Her brother gritted his teeth, pretending her words didn't trigger shivers of apprehension to run all over his body.
Aang didn't take a nap, as he'd promised.
He didn't even sit on his bed, actually, though he did go to his room.
The window stood completely open, the Airbender sitting in front of it, staring up into the stark blue sky with a pensive look.
Truth was, he didn't want to sleep. He always ended up thrashing around, the covers tangled around him and drenched with sweat, result of anguish and hot weather combined.
He couldn't pinpoint what it was about his dreams that made his heart pound as if in fear, the adrenaline rush through his veins, as if... As if he was in danger. He just knew he would proably go crazy if it kept going on like this.
He sighed as he folded a white sheet of paper in his hands one, two, three times, smoothing out the wrinkles and straightening the edges.
A small paper airplane sat on the palm of his hand, by the time he was done; he looked out to the roofs of the Caldera city, the walls of the Palace and the people running about their business in the courtyards. He threw the airplane.
It was a nice throw; the plane glided for a moment, drawing a wide arc in the air, before it started to fall... And then caught an Airbender-made current that lifted it up again.
Up and around, swirling against the blue, making a somersault and then spinning up until it was only a small white dot in the distance... And then down again.
A couple maids had their noses in the air, and Aang would have smiled, if he'd still cared about impressing the maids.
As it was, he only cared about the paper airplane, and how utterly free it looked, just flying up and away, with nothing to bind him to the ground.
A/N cont'd: Oh, almost forgot. Both the title of the fic and the chapter titles come straight from the song Paper Moon, that happens to be one of the endings of the anime Soul Eater.
Of course, the whole thing being in Japanese, I had to resort to translations. Several translations, in fact, as I don't speak Japanese -YET!-... And I won't lie to you: most of the time I picked the translation that better suited my plot needs which might not always be the most accurate one.
Alas, take it as poetic license, if you want!
And, oh, the translations come really from all over the place so it would be pretty impossible for me to cite a source... Just know they're not mine.
As isn't Avatar and all his characters and the song etc.
You see, I barely own anything, here!
(Also, reviews make authors happy and more prolific. Just a note!)