Zuko finds Aang a month into his banishment. They're both 12. Expect not-a-kid-person!Zhao, gratuitous saving from pirates (dangit Katara give little Zuko back his shirts), and some solid Appa/Zuko bromance. It is the hole in your life you didn't know needed filling.

Zuko botches his escape on the day of the eclipse and sits out the war in prison. What will the Gaang do with a new Fire Lord they can't trust? Season Four "Zuko never joined the Gaang, and he's really bad at being good" AU.

"You said you were the Avatar!" "...I lied?" Aang doesn't get rescued in episode two, and no one's seen him go glowy yet... so he starts bluffing. Hard. Or: "The Avatar joins Zuko's quest to find the Avatar." In which Zuko doesn't join the Gaang, the Gaang joins Zuko.

The arrows rain down a little faster and the Blue Spirit finds himself on the other side of Pohuai Stronghold. Zuko is trapped in more ways than one. [Canon divergence from s1e13 The Blue Spirit]

Iroh is the Avatar. This changes things. For Zuko, it changes everything.

If Uncle hadn't insisted on making Zuko wait tables filled with giggling girls, this wouldn't have happened. If the damn Water Tribe peasant hadn't heard about the amazing new tea shop, this wouldn't have happened. If Zuko didn't come up with such terrible ideas while panicking, this wouldn't have happened.

"They asked if we'd heard the news... about the Fire Nation prince. He was thirteen. Sokka's age. I was... fascinated." Hakoda does not know Zuko, but he knows of him. [set after 3x15 TBR]

After the war, Iroh retired to Ba Sing Se. Retired; yeah, right... There's another reason why he didn't become the Fire Lord, and it's got nothing to do with jasmine or ginseng.

Lulls in the action are hard to come by for Aang and his friends. Zuko discovers one way they unwind is by telling stories around a campfire, which amuses him right until they ask him to tell one!