Howdy everyone! Welcome to day three of my writing extravaganza. Today's rolls were Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender (13), Not a crossover (2), Minor pairing (5), Writer's favorite pairing (2), Yes a song fic (1), Playlist: Softie Boi, song: Lover is Childlike by the Low Anthem (3), and Plot: MC hates pranks and spends April Fools doing good deeds instead (101). The roll for main character was Zuko.
Honestly kind of pumped about this, I feel like this will end up being really cute. I was worried that I was going to get a bunch of rolls that I felt would be unsalvageable, but this one really worked out, not mad at all.
Zuko woke with a start upon hearing Sokka shriek across where Team Avatar had bedded down for camp, relaxing marginally when he saw that his teammates weren't under attack. Rather, Sokka was the only one under attack with Katara as the perpetrator, the Water Tribe boy soaked from head to toe, sputtering at his sister from underneath his bedroll.
"That's no fair, we both know that the pranks aren't supposed to start until all parties are fully awake!"
Katara smiled smugly, towering over Sokka's soaked form, "Well, I think you're fully awake now, so you have all day to get your revenge. Besides, you looked like you needed a bath!"
Aang leapt down from where he had been sleeping on Appa, directing a blast of cold morning air at Sokka, "Hold on, I'll dry you off!"
No doubt an attempt to actually be helpful, but Sokka was less receptive to this perceived grace—setting off running the second the blast of wind hit his skin. Zuko shut his eyes, willing the day to have moved on already, that it was any day other than a day filled with pranks.
"It's April Fool's Day, isn't it?" he wondered out loud to nobody in particular, though his fears were actualized when both Katara and Toph quickly responded with a 'yes'.
Toph seemed less than pleased, so Zuko turned towards her, thankful that there was someone with a bit of sense in camp.
He voiced this opinion to her, but she laughed him off, "It's not that I don't like April Fool's Day, it's just that everyone else is so bad at pranks! I don't think a single person in this camp could get one over on me."
It was as if the heavens broke loose, both Water Tribe siblings speaking in unison, unleashing the ferocity of their competitive sides, "Wanna bet?!"
Zuko tuned the proceedings out after hearing Toph say, "What go I get when you lose?", instead turning his attention to tiding up his things, meager though they may be. After they were in a neat stack by a nearby tree, Zuko set about finding more firewood for the camp, foraging for what Zuko thought might be edible plants and checking previously set snares along the way. He figured he could always ask Aang about the plants, the Airbender was their resident vegetarian (or rather, he was their resident vegetarian that could speak. Momo and Appa would be no help on the matter).
He recognized some herbs and spices throughout his trek (all thanks to his time with Uncle Iroh), thankful to have something to season their food with. The others might be happy with the bland food that was available on the road, but Zuko was dying for some actual flavor. He didn't see any peppers unfortunately, but Zuko thought that was likely for the best as the others probably weren't used to the level of spice that he was.
When he returned to camp, various pranks had already been set into motion—all of which Zuko deftly avoided. He set a small fire and retrieved the pot that Katara and Sokka had brought along with from the Northern Water Tribe. There wasn't much they had in the way of fat or cooking oil, so Zuko retrieved water from a nearby spring and waited for it to boil the normal way rather than through Zuko's normal ways. Whatever Uncle Iroh had said about superheating water changing the flavor of things stuck with him and Zuko wanted this meal to be as good as possible.
As he was waiting for the water to boil, Aang walked over and the two made ready conversation about what plants Zuko had gathered were edible and what tasted good with what. The water reached a boil and the Fire Nation Prince brought out one of his swords to begin slicing things, creating a good base for a vegetable stew. Aang sat on a stump nearby, taking in the chaos of the surrounding areas.
"Do you not like April Fool's Day?"
"You don't have Azula as a sister," Zuko replied with some pause, dumping the vegetable and herbs into the water, and moving the pot further away from the flames, "There are pranks and then there is outright cruelty. With her, there is no distinction. I choose to abstain."
Aang fell into an uncomfortable silence, obviously thinking too many thoughts that Zuko didn't want him to think about. Still, it was better not to mince words. Azula and her friends had been cruel to Zuko in the past under the guise of pranks and it had been up to Zuko to turn the other cheek. It wasn't until a couple years back that Zuko decided to turn the holiday on its head, intentionally being overtly kind when given the chance. It was a way for him to get some control back in the situation as Zuko really liked having control. People often treated him with caution until they realized that that was what he was doing, but he was fine with it.
Recalling that their net on the river had caught some Silverskim Fish, Zuko retrieved them, as well as some sharp sticks to roast them over the fire with. Upon smelling the cooking food, the pranksters returned to their usual spots around the fire, eager for their morning meal. After handing out the bowls of stew to the team and telling the meat eaters that the fish was fair game, the three that had been pulling pranks all morning were quietly bickering about who had done what and if there had been a winner at all.
Zuko was growing restless in his spot next to Sokka, leg jiggling throughout their meal. Once everyone had finished eating, Zuko gathered all of their dishes, bringing them over to the river to wash them. He was about halfway through when he felt a drop of water drip down his back. Upon looking up at the sky to see if it was about to start raining, which in itself would be odd as it had been a gorgeous morning, Zuko knew upon seeing the massive ball of water over his head that this was to be an attempt to bring him into this prank war.
He vaguely heard Aang yell, "Katara, no!" before the water came crashing down on him, soaking him completely. Zuko didn't stay drenched for long, his body turning the water into steam in a matter of seconds. He counted to ten in his head before responding, trying not to be so quick to anger.
"It's okay, Aang, the dishes are washed now—I can fix that hole in your bag if you'll dry them and put them away."
Aang responded with a smile, "Okay!"
Katara turned back to Toph, confused at their plan falling through. Upon seeing the Earthbender beckon her over, Katara begrudgingly walked over, prank war on pause, belatedly noticing that Sokka was also joining them.
"What's his deal?"
Sokka had no answer, so the Water Tribe siblings turned to Toph to see what insight she might have, "That was… weird. I could feel him begin to react, but he made himself calm down last second."
Katara crossed her arms, "What, does he think he's too good participate in a prank war?"
Sokka shook his head, "It's not that—he seemed really nervous to be around people talking about pranks."
Nodding her head in agreement, Toph reasoned, "I heard him say to Aang earlier that he doesn't like to participate in April Fool's Day because Azula could be pretty mean. Maybe that's it."
"Whatever his reasons may be, let's just promise to leave him out of it from now on. Deal?" Sokka spoke, curious about what truly was going on in Zuko's mind.
"Deal."
(Page Break)
Hemming Aang's bag had gone off without a hitch, so Zuko was looking for his next good deed victim. It really only took a couple of seconds to come up with something to do, one of Sokka's favorite pastimes was complaining about anything under the sun (probably part of the reason why Zuko liked him, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind). As such, with permission, Zuko sharpened his moon sword, fashioned a better strap for his bag, and added more padding to his bedroll.
Katara was a bit harder to cater to, so Zuko just tried to think about little things that might make life easier for her. He filled up the various emergency water skins she had lying about and sewed a hole on one of her winter gloves shut, at a loss for what else to do for her. Toph was more of the same, filling up water skins and fixing where her bag had frayed edges.
At the end of it all, Zuko felt a lot better, having burned off a lot of nervous energy. He cooked the gang a late lunch before going off with Aang to practice their fire bending forms. The day ended with Sokka proclaiming that he had been the victor of the prank war as he hadn't reduced himself to any 'dirty tricks' i.e., water and earth bending. This got a fair about of lash back from the objects of that statement, but Katara and Toph couldn't say themselves who the true victor was, so they let the matter slide.
Sokka used gathering firewood with Zuko as a means of escape, which led to them chuckling about the day and the misadventures the team had experienced. The Water Tribe teen tried to ask about Zuko's refusal to participate, but Zuko brushed him off, insisting that it wasn't important. They bickered a bit about Zuko's feelings being important, but the conversation ceased when Zuko hip checked Sokka and pushed him towards camp. It was getting late, after all, and he could practically hear Toph's stomach growling from here.
Zuko's decision might be odd, but he was ok with it. Maybe the others had been the fools for not expecting the unexpected with the Fire Nation Prince. Either way, Zuko felt like the winner of April Fool's Day and that was all that mattered.
A/N:
Well, that kind of ran away from me! I had a ton of fun writing it, so hopefully you enjoyed reading it. Also, I paid no attention to the actual timeline of events for this fic—hopefully it wasn't super far off from the linear progression of the plot. If it was, oh well! This fic was basically Zuko turning something that gives him a ton of anxiety into something that provided betterment for others. I'm not sure how it would have turned out for the other characters of ATLA, but I think Zuko was the perfect MC for this. Let me know what you think! Stay tuned for what is to come, hopefully its awesome!
J.