Title: One Ship, Three Lines
Rating: PG
Summary: Ten three-sentence ficlets on various characters. A compilation of my Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra responses to a Tumblr meme, "Send me a ship and a plot word."
Characters/Relationships: Mai/Zuko, Zuko/Aang, Katara/Aang, Mako/Korra, Iroh/Mulan's grandma (lol what), Smellerbee/Longshot, Katara/Zuko? (not really)
Genres: General, Romance, Friendship, Humor
Spoilers: Vague ones for the ending? And major plot points of Legend of Korra.
Warnings: Brief descriptions of violence.
Words: 965

Disclaimer: Aang, Korra, and their respective stories ain't mine, my fellow hotman.
A/N: On Tumblr I asked people to give me a ship and a plot word/theme/situation for me to write a three-sentence fic with. Here are the gathered results!


001. queenrodgeriii requested, "Mai and Zuko: moose-lion"

"Explain to me why we're out in some middle-of-nowhere desert and a group of small moose-lions are watching us make out."

"Look, Sokka said it could be a nice getaway vacation place for us, but he didn't mention the wildlife…"

"I decide where we honeymoon."


002. googleberry requested, "Zukaang"

((During "The Firebending Masters"))

"Zuko, get over here! I want you to dance with me!"

"R-really?"


003. Anonymous requested, "Katara/Aang: Katara seeing Aang in Korra and missing him"

It doesn't even take five minutes into Korra's first waterbending lesson for her to feel it.

"Like this?" Korra asks, testing the water whip's flow in her hands, bringing her back to another time, another Avatar, another waterbending training session on the beach with her brother floating in the river and Momo flying around overhead —

"Exactly like that," Katara responds quietly, torn between fierce pride and an overwhelming sense of loss when the young girl smiles at her with blue eyes instead of gray.


004. Anonymous requested, "Mulan's grandma/Iroh: because yes"

In her opinion, a former General being invited to her granddaughter's wedding reception (one of her fiance's father's old war buddies, apparently), taking three steps into their estate to smell the steam rising from her teacup, and asking, "Jasmine?" is about the best the ancestors could ever give her.

"I take it you're a fan?" she asks.

"Only of the finest quality," he replies, smiling, and so she invites him to take a seat at her Pai Sho table with a wave of her hand.


005. Anonymous requested, "Mako/Korra or Bolin/Korra: Korra keeps almost getting herself killed"

Their fifth run-in with the equalists ends in an chase on the rooftops before the three of them finally manage to dive through a fifth-story window of a large department store — only for Korra to collapse, clutching the back of her skull, and Bolin discovers that one of the bastards had damn near cracked her skull open when he had roundhouse kicked her head into a brick wall.

So Mako waits in the doctor's lounge twiddling his thumbs, and it takes all it has in him not to set the place ablaze and storm out of there to ignite that man's eyeball fluid, to torch Amon's bone marrow to a crisp —

But Bolin's hand is suddenly steady on his shoulder, a reminder that they need him here — she needs him here, in the now, not off in his heroic fantasies — so he calms, for her, and waits it out.


006. Anonymous requested, "Mai/Zuko: Zuko tries to be romantic"

Mai can't remember the last time she had been truly at a loss for words when she freely had the opportunity to share them, but being handed a scroll filled with scratched-out lines and scribbled poetry in shaky handwriting crafted by the Fire Lord himself has seemed to do the trick.

"I tried to get Aang to help," Zuko says quickly, "but his poems were too sappy, and Sokka just writes in weird haikus, and Katara's made no sense, and Toph — well, you know — plus there's no way I'd ever ask my uncle, so I figured — "

Mai shuts him up by pressing her lips to his.


007. Anonymous whispered, "Makorra: Korra is hot, Mako is frustrated. use your headcanon! :D"

It's kind of ridiculous that it takes him until it's warm enough to wear a swimsuit to notice — nearly six months, Bolin loves to remind him with a laugh, gosh Mako you must be blind — and since Korra grew up in climate with less-than-average temperatures, it's no surprise she'd start shedding layers before anybody else.

Because of course he isn't the only one who's noticed the Avatar is a girl — a really hot girl, and though he doesn't like to simplify Korra's appearance like that, there's no denying she's attractive. And he should've predicted the guys that flocked like flies to honey when you had a strong, mature… physically appealing young woman in a swimsuit enjoying her time at the beach with her friends: and it's not like he had any claim on her whatsoever, he reminds himself, so the only thing he's left to do is cross his legs and grit his teeth, because really, he only has himself to blame.


008. Anonymous requested, "Smellerbee/Longshot: different"

She's always appreciated the silence.

It's not as if she always understands it, but it works; when even the most polite folk will mistake her gender or opponents tease at her unnatural size or his quiet persona, just his hand or a look, a silent confirmation that it's okay, we can be unnatural together, could calm her temper and ease her into the mindset she needs for battle.

It isn't until she's left with Longshot and their fallen leader alone in a cavernous underground base (it feels too much like a tomb, a crypt, Jet's final stance shouldn't be here) and he looks at her with no words, as usual, that she knows what he's been trying to say all along.


009. Anonymous requested, "Katara and Zuko remembering the one time when Sokka and Mai did the Fire Nation tango"

"Apparently the dance was an ages-old art passed down for generations from before the War, or so says Aang…"

"I don't care how you decide to explain it, you could not have enjoyed watching your brother perform what very well could've been a hog-monkey mating ritual as much as it could've been an ancient dance with my girlfriend."

"Well, I admit the elaborate dip-under-the-legs was a bit unnecessary, but it did have its own sense of… style…"


010. nansays requested, "Korra and Mako: lost at sea"

Korra's pretty sure this is her fault for not checking whether or not the tidal island would be causing problems when they were five miles out to sea at high tide, but it's not like she's about to admit that.

"Here," Mako says as they sit on the beach waiting it out, taking off his jacket and draping it over her head and shoulders, "Republic's heat can get pretty unbearable sometimes if you're not used to the weather here."

She pauses, for a moment unsure of what to say, before quietly thanking him and taking the shelter from the scorching heat as she leans back in the sand, waiting for the moon to rise and the sea waves to reveal their way home.


A/N: A tidal island is a piece of land that connects a small island to the mainland, but it's only exposed at low tide when the water is receding. Basically, Korra was like "Hey let's go check out this cool island" at low tide when they could walk across to it, but they stayed there all day and the tides changed, so now that it's high tide the water has washed over the strip of land. Since neither of them are sandbenders and they're so far away from the mainland that waterbending their way in any direction would probably get them lost, they decided to wait. Yeah, this made a lot more sense in my head…