Title: Becoming
Summary: Hundreds of years after the war, when bending is a secret that's been covered up, Zuko and Aang have been reincarnated into a normal world, as anything but. For Zukaang week part 1: Dragons.
Pairings: Light Zukaang
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or anything else I may mention.
Notes: Yeah, them all being named the same thing in the future is unlikely. Lately I'm on a reincarnation kick, though, so it just wiggled its way into this one. Happy Zukaang week!
A/N: I have gotten a fantastically undeserved review on this story. Here is my response in case "I-don't-have-an-account-here" should happen to notice. This story (though it is called "Becoming" there) is on LJ under chtsmile. That is also me. If you have an account there, you can contact me there, and read my other sub-par stories. I am floored by your awesome review. Your points are spot on. I did simply have an idea floating around in my head, and I put it down in about an hour or so. I am sure that this could use a ton of work. I'd love to write the full version of what this story could be, with focus on all the characters, some sort of actual plot, and chapters, but I don't know that I'm up for the task. Thank you for all your kind words, and apparent deep understanding of exactly what I was writing, and your immediate recognition of my failure to write don't tell, which I think is one of my most predominant flaws. Well, if you should happen to see this, do try to respond somehow.
It should have bothered them, Zuko thought.
The day that he and Aang went back to school after winter break, they were teased in the locker room. The matching blue dragon tattoo on Aang's right shoulder, and the red on Zuko's. Matching tattoos after the whole school knows that they'd spend all of break together? One would think they were asking for it.
Jokes implying homosexuality fell from the lips of the guys closest to them, uncreative, and barely registering. How could it? After what Aang and Zuko had been through, people could say whatever they wanted.
Aang, Zuko, and several other people from different parts of the world, people they hadn't met, had all been contacted by the new World Government. They were told that, as soon as they were old enough, they had a duty as "protectors." Supposedly, they were to awaken some sort of magical sounding powers deep within themselves, powers that have been around since ancient times. Bending, they had called it. The Government had records of the tests performed on every new child, and were certain that they'd found those who were destined to protect. They'd all had a good laugh at this thought, the two siblings going as far as to compare this idea to the stories their grandmother had told them as a child. After questioning the identity of the grandmother, the Government officials had just nodded knowingly.
Zuko's uncle was there too, which, of course, made him angry that he'd never heard about any of this. He supposed it would have been more likely for him to find out if his uncle and his dad were on better terms.
The biggest surprise, however, came when they were told that Aang was to be the leader, bend all of the elements. He was the youngest save a small blind girl (whose role and abilities Zuko was also questioning.) Zuko had seen Aang around school before; though Aang was a few years younger, he had PE the same period. He didn't know much about Aang, except that he was decently athletic. With that in mind, he had been completely willing to go along with the idea of his future as a protector, until Aang was revealed as leader. Something about him didn't scream responsibility.
Apparently Aang agreed with this assessment, as he panicked a great deal. Incidentally, he was also to learn everything in a quarter of the time it took the others. Each respective bender (and the warrior, as he would become, the boy who'd insisted on coming with his younger sister) would have a month to master their trade. Aang was to spend a week with each one, learning. His week with Zuko came last.
Zuko had been struggling, a bit, until Aang showed up. It was not directly the arrival of Aang that sparked progress, but that Aang complained enough that the trainers decided that drastic measures actually were in order. Zuko and Aang were to be taken to "the masters."
The journey itself was confusing and tough. Zuko and Aang saved each other's skins a few times, a bond in and of itself that was hard to break, but they also found themselves passing the boring moments telling each other about themselves.
When they met the masters, they were floored. Real, honest to god dragons, still in existence, hiding in this world. They had every reason to believe this was just a crazy technological advancement. But somewhere inside they felt them to be real.
Aang said they were lucky to be judged as worthy. Zuko secretly thinks this was all Aang. He looked the dragons in the eyes, friendly as ever, not even blinking an eye, and greeted them with the same respect as he would a human. More, even, since they were the masters. Zuko had hastily followed along, not entirely convinced, and still quite nervous. He figures that Aang must not have noticed, being much too busy being a true, real future leader.
Maybe the tattoos they got after really were asking for it. It seemed weird, though, for something so life changing, so emotionally impacting their entire beings to happen, and for them to just go about their lives the exact ways that they had been previously doing. The tattoos were a bonding experience, yes, and also just a permanent physical reminder. People would notice them, and think them weird, but they almost wanted that to be the result.
It was, of course. Look at those guys, getting tattoos to show that they're boyfriends. Who likes dragons, anyway? Is this some sort of fantasy obsession? That was particularly ironic, since nothing had ever been more real to either Zuko or Aang.
That was why the second day after break, when the whisperings hadn't even come close to dying down, they both made sure to be in the locker room at the same time. So everyone could tell that they had the same tattoos in the same place. To make absolute certain that there was no doubt it was intentional. They talked about them, drew attention to them, and generally were gluttons for punishment. Of course, they were happily inviting the gossip in. They'd had their shirts off for longer than necessary, too. How could they care? They'd gone through something so amazing, something so entirely sacred, something that nobody here could even begin to comprehend, given a century to deal with it. They were proud. They wanted to be able to be openly proud, but they would certainly deal with the best that they could get. They respected the secret far too much to even imply it, to mention the World Government's involvement, or the cover up of the intense past history of the world. They had respect for the problems that they were slowly trying to solve, and looked forward to their roles.
The same comments were uttered that day, and some newer, more creative ones were thought of by some of the quieter students, and repeated by the louder ones. Zuko and Aang even found some of them genuinely amusing. They laughed at themselves, laughed with the others, easily and naturally.
Perhaps tomorrow they'd try holding hands.