I'm a sucker for modern ATLA AUs. The four nations still exist but in a modern setting:)
The last of his boxes was deposited in the trunk of his "Ship" as he liked to affectionately call his grey, beat up caddy van, before slamming the door shut with a sort of finality that felt weirdly like resignation and excitement at the same time.
A gust of cool wind carried the smell of baking apple pie from the adjacent house to their noses, the trees in front of the neatly lined up houses dancing in the breeze.
Zuko's neighbourhood was definitely the "sitting down type", the streets were so eerily quiet sometimes it reminded him of an abandoned desert town.
Indeed, not a single car was on the street, the singing of birds a prominent sound.
He had already said his dramatic goodbye to his uncle this morning, filled with hugs and well-wishes and some more hugs.
Contrarily to them, Iroh did not have summer holidays, and had thus gone off to his tea shop, which left Zuko with his friends grouped around his "Ship". Sighing, he looked at them.
"Well," He shuffled awkwardly, "that's it, I think. Thanks for helping me out with my stuff, you guys."
He received nods and "No problem."s in reply, followed by "I'm expecting you at my front door in four years precisely, Sparky", which earned a certain cheeky fourteen-year-old a collective laugh.
And then, there was silence.
All previous thoughts of making this quick and painless were suddenly forgotten as Zuko made the mistake of allowing himself to take a good look at the people before him.
The sudden, powerful wave of nostalgia nearly choked Zuko, his last two years of high school flashing before his mind's eye in the form of snap shots, as though he had opened a photo album-his photo album-where he collected what mattered most to him.
And glued to the thin paper were pictures of the five amazing people that were surrounding him.
Katara yelling at him for being such a huge jerk and so defensive with everyone all the time for seemingly no reason. It had wounded him at the time, but as he realized how true those words were, even though technically speaking he did have a reason for his behavior, Zuko suddenly started acting differently, feeling differently.
He also started to understand just how awesome Katara actually was in the process, understanding her facade, her many moods, her passions. And heck, did he fall for her. Hard. Knowing she loved him back made Zuko so happy, knowing that HE made her just as happy was nearly more than Zuko could handle.
He might not always show it, but he knew that she knew because with the psychic power she apparently had, she could understand him like no-one else.
He saw Aang pulling the cigarette from Zuko's lips, telling him to cut it out already with a calm and patience seldom found in a twelve-year-old. Lecturing Zuko on the notion of self-love.
Standing before him, Aang's grey eyes still twinkled with the same strange mixure of the mirth of the ever present child in him and wisdom beyond his young age.
Sokka had taken Zuko to his first high school party ever, that was at the age of sixteen when Zuko was in tenth grade and Sokka in ninth.
He had helped Zuko deal with his social insecurities, if not overcoming them completely, lessening them a great deal and that sure had to count for something, When he found out about it, Sokka's lonely enthusiasm for strategy games like Pai Sho was strangely contagious to Zuko, to his uncle's utter amazement.
Because Zuko had loathed playing Pai Sho with Iroh since always, really. Yet Zuko assumed that he had come to like those games mainly at the cause of the affection he had slowly, but surely, developed for the Water Tribe.
Then, there was Toph, the blind arm-wrestling champion in her age group with an incredible sense of hearing that allowed her to perceive the slightest shift in the air.
She didn't care for many people, but damn did she know something was up when one of their group walked just the tiniest bit differently than usual
Zuko remembered her just randomly walking up to him in the lunch break and asking, in that straight forward , no kidding way that was so uniquely Toph's why Zuko never talked to anyone.
He had been so startled by the blunt question Zuko had literally spilled some things to her-it had been especially bad that day. He remembered confessing that he was scared people wouldn't want to have anything to do with him if he opened his true essence up to them;
Zuko had never told anyone this deep truth about his miserable social life (or the lack thereof), wanting to slap himself harder than ever before as he word's tumbled out of his moth like birds when their owner had forgotten to close the cage after feeding them.
Instead of the expected recoil or mocking, she gave the weirdest declaration, managing to surprise Zuko yet again:
"You're an honest dude, Sparky. I like you!"
Punching him in the arm with the force of the arm-wrestling champion that she was, she stood from the chair next to Zuko, fully intending on leaving.
Zuko yelled indignantly what that had been for, at which she replied over her shoulder "That's how I show affection." as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
Zuko'd had a bruise on his bicep for several days afterwards.
He couldn't for the life of him stop the corner of his mouth twitching whenever he happened to pass his new acquaintance in the hallways, pleasantly surprised when, additionally to her usual "Sup" or "Yo, Sparky" she'd invited him over to a movie marathon they were having at Aang's place.
The movies hadn't been something Zuko would have watched on his own, but the gathering had been more than a crappy movie marathon to Zuko. It had allowed him to for once get no know know the people he only knew by sight.
Zuko couldn't describe how much that had meant to him, still meant to him.
That night, Zuko'd learned that Suki was part of the gang as well. He hadn't known her as a person back then, but had trained with her during their martial arts club.
Suki, he had come to know, was almost just as much of a busy body as his girlfriend, always hustling and bustling, leading her dancing group ("The Kioshi Warriors"), participating in martial art festivals, doing part-time jobs...they didn't see much of her but they knew she was around, belonging to the group just as much as all the others.
Sokka gushed about her to Zuko like a lovestruck school girl more often than not, about how beautiful and talented and smart she was. He really hoped his friend would finally muster up the courage to ask her out when Zuko left.
A lump formed in his throat as those many thoughts and emotions rushed through his brain in seconds.
"Dude!", Sokka cried, both amusement and astonishment in his voice.
Zuko was blinking rapidly to try and shake off this pathetic display of his.
Katara stepped forward, throwing herself at him. Zuko inhaled the scent of her shampoo, vowing to come back as often as he could.
The others soon followed, making a full-blown group hug out of it. Zuko would usually have found this incredibly annoying, but at that moment he didn't mind. Even enjoyed it.
Katara, as prone to emotions as she is, was clutching his shirt like a lifeline, sobbing into his chest. Toph was talking of how him going to uni wasn't the end of the world and pointing out that they could still chat online (using their WhatsApp group creatively named Team Avatar, reminiscent of a series they all happened to love). Aang was heartily agreeing.
Suki was telling Zuko not to worry, too, encouraging him to instead be excited about this new adventure he was going on. Without them, Zuko added in the privacy of his thoughts.
He was missing them so damn much already.
Sokka promised to visit him with Katara when Zuko's first week of school was done, at which Suki, Toph and Aang swiftly joined in.
That fact made Zuko's heart warm a little as he guided the Ship onto the street, glancing at his friends' waving hands in the rearview mirror, hearing them shout goodbyes and wish him luck.
He gave a honk of his horn in response.
Everything was going to be alright.
Since Zuko is the oldest of the Gaang, he'd be the first to leave school if they lived in the modern world, right? What did you think of this quicky? Tell me in the comments, I'm curious! And it's super helpful!
Thinking of giving some of the relationship developments between Zuko and another Gaang member a seperate oneshot (like Sokka and Zuko. Or our boi and Toph). So stay tuned! Also, oneshot suggestions for this series are always welcome!
Peace out yall( insert toothy Boomy smile XD XD XD)