(I don't own Avatar or any of its characters, only this fanfiction's plot)
It was a relatively normal day on the ship Wani when the messenger hawk came.
Zuko had just finished going through a set of katas when he spotted the creature, and for a brief moment, he hoped it might be from his father.
Maybe he had changed his mind and wanted him home? Or perhaps he was just interested in learning how his training was progressing.. That would make more sense, actually. Zuko hadn't earned his way home yet, and his father was probably worried about how his.. injury.. would be affecting his combative abilities.
It wasn't from his father.
Zuko brow creased in confusion when he saw the Captain's seal on the letter before he checked the ship number on the hawk. Then it made a lot more sense.
"That fucking ash-pisser.."
"M-my Prince!" Lieutenant Jee exclaimed, and Zuko felt his cheeks warm and shot the man a nasty look.
The lieutenant had no room to talk!
Zuko set the hawk on his shoulder (where it happily began fussing with his phoenix plume) and unrolled Captain Zhao's letter. He honestly shouldn't have been surprised, the hubristic asshole always sent him a missive whenever he got a promotion, a special assignment, or anything else he thought would piss Zuko off.
He was usually correct; just not today.
"I'm afraid our sparring session has ended, Lieutenant. Get back to work."
"Prince Zuko, is something..?"
Zuko shot him a glare, and if there were any benefit to having half his face seared off, it was being able to shut grown men up with a look.
He watched the Lieutenant walk off before he pulled on his shirt (the messenger hawk was now perched on his head) and marched back to his room.
It was most certainly meant to be a gloating, bragging missive. Zuko was completely aware of that.
That being said, it wasn't every day one could interrogate the Princess of North on the whereabouts of the Avatar, now was it?
Zuko had always had his suspicions that the old coward was hiding up there, safe and sound and ignoring the mess that they had created. That being said, even Zuko was aware it would be nothing short of suicidal to try even approaching the fortified city with nothing short of an armada.
Not that Zuko wasn't willing to die for his mission, because he was! He was just also aware it wasn't right to ask his crew and Uncle to try unless he was completely sure the Avatar was there.
They'd have probably thrown a mutiny and killed him if he tried, anyways.
With that cheerful thought in mind, Zuko swung his bedroom's door open and headed towards his desk, grabbing some blank scrolls of paper out.
"Okay.. Captain Zhao, I appreciate you for informing me and my crew and I will be.. No, no no that's stupid.. Maybe I should order him to meet me so that I can interrogate her?"
The messenger hawk gave his hair a tug, and Zuko slumped against his desk.
"You're right, he wouldn't listen to an order.."
Zhao didn't respect the fact that he was fucking royalty because of his temporary banishment.
Zuko groaned and ran his hands over his head, causing the hawk to squawk and fly off. He looked over to see it had landed on his sword rack.
"Get down from there before you turn yourself into the world's fluffiest shish kabob."
When the hawk only hunkered down in response, Zuko sighed. Getting up he pulled his chair and dragged it over so he could reach up and get the hawk down with ease. Not because he was too short to get it otherwise.
Gently smoothing the hawk's feathers, Zuko hummed to it softly. Poor thing, he doubted Zhao petted it or gave it any attention.
"Prince Zuko, I heard that.. Oh, I see you've made a friend." His Uncle's smile widened at the glare he received. "The handsome bird doesn't look like one of ours, though."
"Lieutenant Jee snitched on me, didn't he?"
"The Lieutenant informed me you received a distressing missive, may I?"
Zuko sighed and made a vague gesture towards his desk, his Uncle wasting no time in his snooping.
"Ah, it's from Lieutenant Zhao. He's been promoted again." His Uncle sounded less than impressed.
Zuko's lips twitched, before forcing a frown in place. "It's hardly the highlight of that letter."
His Uncle lowered the missive and quirked an eyebrow. "Does the Fire Nation's victory displeasure you, Prince Zuko?"
"Of course not!" Was said Prince's thundering response. "I.. I just have a suspicion that the North has or at least is aware of the location of the Avatar, so questioning her would be beneficial to our cause."
"Ah, I see."
"Uncle.." Zuko knew that look, it was his Uncle's Oh-spirits-he's-still-on-about-that look.
"Even if they did, it's not possible to check with our current arsenal." His Uncle made a vague gesture to their sad little out-dated ship, as if Zuko hadn't already known that.
"The Northern Princess might have information on how to evade the scouts that guard their waters and infiltrate the walls." Zuko picked up the letter he had been writing, "If I could only figure out how to make Zhao, or maybe even father, see that."
Something changed in his Uncle's expression for a moment, before thoughtfulness covered it up.
"Hmm.. You may be right," His Uncle admitted, stroking his beard. "Though I don't believe anything you say will convince Zhao to help you, considering how much he hates you."
Zuko tried to pretend that comment didn't hurt.
"Even if you do believe my brother would offer you any kind of assistance, which I highly doubt, Zhao would have already delivered the Princess to the Boiling Rock by the time he answers back."
"So what?" Zuko felt his temper rise. "Am I just supposed to give up?"
You told me to always keep fighting!
"I'm saying you have no way to pursue this lead short of breaking the Northern Princess out of Zhao's brig, which would be treason." His Uncle explained, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Picking your battles isn't the same thing as giving up, Nephew. I know this can be a hard thing for a determined young man like you to swallow."
Zuko gave a noncommittal nod, and his Uncle sighed before rolling the letter up and leaving him to brood alone.
Once the door clicked close, Zuko sat on his cot and stroked the bird absentmindedly.
He knew his Uncle hadn't meant it as a real suggestion, but Operation: Illegal Prisoner Transfer did have some real merit.
It was his only option, after all.
He gently opened his porthole and threw the bird out, watching and waiting to see where the hawk went.
Zuko felt like his heart was in his throat while he unloaded the skit into the water, just waiting for one of the watchmen to notice him hanging precariously off of the side of the Wani.
He should really yell at them more, they obviously weren't doing an adequate job guarding him or this ship.
Landing with a splash, Zuko held his breath and began his journey. He was setting off in the direction the hawk had gone.
The Mao (Zhao's ship) really wasn't that far away. It was just a few miles away from the river the Wani was currently cruising down.
Careful to keep to the shadows, Zuko crouched low in the boat as he made his way closer and closer to the giant warship. Once close enough, the young prince scaled the side of the tub and climbed in through a porthole. Now in a hallway, Zuko was forced to ask himself a rather obvious question, Where am I?
If Zuko had to make an estimation based off of the Wani, he'd say somewhere near the engine room. Not where he wanted to be, but better than the Captain's office. Mask or not, Zuko did not want to run into Zhao right now.
He made his way towards where he assumed the Brig was located.
The last month of Yue's life was less than ideal, to say the least.
It all started when their first bender fell ill, with symptoms of high fever and inflammation.
Colds weren't an abnormal thing up at the Poles, and they weren't usually a big deal between the toughness of their men and the capabilities of their healers.
No, what was troubling was that Urrick had lost his ability to bend before his symptoms began worsening drastically. Unfortunately, he was only the first to fall to this new disease.
"It's an epidemic," Yugado had told her, fighting through her own fever. She explained what Yue would need to look for to save her people. She, along with a small group of non-benders, would travel to the Northern Earth kingdom to find the herbs her Tribe would need if they were going to beat this plague.
Perhaps it wasn't very womanly, but Yue just couldn't sit back and let her people suffer without doing anything. She had to act, she had to fight for them!
..Which was how she had ended up aboard Mr. Muttonchops ship in the first place.
Her women had been making their way back through the Northern Earth kingdom, just alongside the Wanabi River, when they had been spotted by the soldiers.
Yue had heard about the Fire Nation and how it's people craved for the taste of human ash since she was a little girl, but never in her wildest dreams did she believe that they were capable of such blatant evil.
She had fled with the other women while the men tried to give them cover to escape. Yue wasn't sure how many had gotten away, but the screams hadn't been reassuring.
The only reason she was alive was because the man who had caught her had found her hair.. appealing, and had brought her back to his leader in hopes of a reward.
Said leader, Mr. Muttonchops himself, had unfortunately realized the significance of her the pendants she wore.
Yue could only hope someone had escaped. Her tribe needed those herbs.
Zuko noted that it was really, really dark in the brig.
Aside from some sparse torches, there were no windows, and the bars created shadows everywhere.
Good for him, bad for the guards.
Once the last guard was down, the young prince grabbed a torch off of one of the brackets (no need for anyone to know the Northern Princess was rescued by a fire bender) and started methodically checking each cell. Finally stopping when he spotted the girl in Water Tribe-blue.
She looked up, and Zuko was taken aback by her eyes; they were blue, he hadn't even known that was possible!
The next thing that caught his attention was the lack of chains or rope. Why in the ever-loving warm ray of Agni wasn't the Water Witch gagged or bound? They were currently on a ship surrounded by water, and if this girl was trained half as hard as his sister, he shivered to think of what she might be able to do. Was Zhao really just that fucking stupid?
"Who are you?" She asked, pretending to sound scared.
Nevermind, Zuko decided. It doesn't matter anymore, it just made things easier.
Putting his index finger over the mouth of his mask in a shushing gesture, Zuko set the torch up against the bolt and strengthened the heat of the flames so that the metal would become nice and soft. Pulling his swords out, he sliced right through.
The Northern Princess stood, eyes wide as she stared at the now open door. Zuko made a 'follow me' gesture and started back towards the exit.
Hurrying after him, the Northern Princess whispered: "You didn't answer before, did my father send you?"
Zuko mimed 'shut the hell up' before turning down another hall.
Currently, the plan was to follow the pipes back to the engine room where they could slip back out the porthole and into his skit. From there he'd wait until they were sufficiently far from the Mao to make his move.
But of course, nothing goes to plan, because the world fucking hates him.
That was the only satisfactory explanation for why they had to run into one of Zhao's engineers, and why she managed to sound the alarms and why the Northern Princess just had to run because the skit was right there and if they could just get past these peasants-
Dodging a blast of fire, Zuko legged it after the Northern Princess, who was really fast for a girl who had been locked away for however-the-fuck the long Zhao had kept her holy shit.
Sprinting ahead, Zuko started haphazardly leading them through the warship until they made their way onto the deck. About a dozen or so soldiers were biting at their heels.
Blocking a pike, he looked over to see how his temporary-ally was fairing and swore loud enough to make Agni turn red.
The Northern Princess was currently being pinned to the deck by several soldiers and putting up a more pathetic resistance than Azula had when mother had forced her to see Love Among the Dragons for the tenth time that week.
Pushing his current opponent back, Zuko rushed over to help; kicking the first man holding the Northern Princess down, ducking down to avoid a fireball from behind, which knocked two more crewmen off their feet in front of him, and hit the last man holding the girl down with the blunt of his sword.
Everything moved in slow motion, Zuko could hear his blood pumping through his veins as he snatched the girl out of the way of another fireball and then parried another pikeman. The crew was slowly blocking off their escape, and a man in a Captain's uniform stepped forwards, scowling at the two with unhidden fury.
Holding his hand up, the soldiers held their fire.
"Men, I want you to take a good long look at this; this apparently being the best the North can offer, a savage in a theatre mask and a weak excuse for a royal." Fire alighting in his palm, a cruel grin spread across Zhao's face, "Let's show them the might of the Fire Lord isn't to be so disrespected."
Zuko felt the air leave his lungs and Zhao signaled for his crew to descend upon them and he was suddenly once again fighting backfire and steel while trying to look for an opening so they could escape this ship. Pressing his back against the Northern Princess, Zuko used his swords to block an incoming spear at the last second, the impact sending reverberations up his arms. They wouldn't last long like this.
"It would be a good time to use the ocean, Princess." Zuko pleaded, stepping around a thrust.
For her part, The Northern Princess yelped and whipped around to stare at him. "What do you mean 'use the ocean'?!"
Using some discreet bending to divert another fireball, Zuko leaped forwards to knock another crewman out. Turning on her, he yelled. "I mean drown them, you idiot girl-"
"Look out!" She cried, and Zuko turned fast enough to catch something hard and heavy to the face.
His world went dark.
My first A:TLA fanfic :D I really love Yue/Zuko even just as platonic soul-mates, so I'm really excited to write this! There really are a criminally small amount of works even featuring the two together for any significant amount of time, let alone exploring that whole "Two Royals who have been abused by our respective governments" dynamic they have going on
Thanks to my beta reader MegaFlash for helping me with this!