A Mousie requested Zuko and Aang visiting each other's homes for the first time. (It occurred to me while working on this that the story I posted yesterday, Childhood Gardens, might fit that prompt as well - more literally.) Zuko is in his mid-twenties here, and Aang of course in his early twenties.
"Zuko!"
Zuko's lips twitched, and he raised a hand even as Aang bounded off the train, bag slung over his shoulder, and trotted towards him, grinning.
Mai arched an eyebrow and angled a look at Zuko. "That's your boyfriend?" she asked.
Zuko met her sharp look with one of his own, and she gave a little amused hum.
Aang dropped his bag on the ground and flung his arms around Zuko's shoulders, hauling himself up even as Zuko grabbed him tight, supporting him. Zuko laughed softly and picked Aang up fully, bringing him closer.
Aang's happy laugh drowned out Zuko's own until Zuko kissed him and quieted both, then let him slide down to his feet. "It's good to see you again." he said softly, releasing Aang as he stepped back and realising how much he had missed his boyfriend.
"I missed you." Aang said, glancing around and then reaching down to retrieve his bag.
"This is my best friend, Mai." Zuko introduced, gesturing. "Mai, this is Aang."
Aang looked up, still bent down. "Oh! Hello!" He straightened and held out a hand to Mai. She tilted her head and extended her own, and the corner of her mouth twitched just a fraction with surprise as Aang bowed over it. "A pleasure to meet you, lovely lady."
Mai snorted quietly. "Interesting."
"Really, Mai?" Zuko asked, holding his hand out for Aang's bag. He paused, frowning, and Zuko beckoned, curling his fingers. Aang gave it up and Zuko slid the strap over his own shoulder.
"He's not what I expected." Mai said, resting a hand on Zuko's bicep. "It is interesting to meet you. I was . . . very curious. It will have been nice if you keep making Zuko happy." she added with a tiny smile. "I'm sure I'll see more of you soon. I have to go; I'm afraid I just wanted to meet you first."
"Oh." Aang blinked, then smiled again. "Well," he laughed, "I will certainly do my best." He angled a look at Zuko.
"See you later, Mai." Zuko said, dipping his head to her. Mai leaned up and brushed a kiss to his cheek.
"How do you deal with that all the time?" Mai asked quietly, a puff of breath against his ear.
"You've put up with Ty Lee for fifteen years." Zuko muttered back before she pulled back. Mai was on her way to meet Ty Lee today, in fact. "Can you really comment?"
Mai huffed even as she drew away, but didn't say anything further - she could hardly argue with that, he supposed. "Goodbye." she said with a final nod, then slipped away through the crowd in the station.
Zuko watched her for a moment, then turned back to Aang. "Do you need to get Momo or," he paused, "from. . ." He gestured back to the train vaguely. Zuko had no idea how it would work if Aang had brought them; he had never had a pet to try and travel with.
Aang looked surprised for a moment, then laughed, shaking his head. "Oh no. Appa would have been lonely if I brought Momo, and, uh," he rubbed a hand over his head, "Appa is a little much to travel with. Or . . . bring to people unexpectedly."
Zuko frowned slightly as he guided Aang out of the station with a hand on his shoulder. "It would have been all right if you brought him." he said gently. "At least with us; I can't speak for the travelling part. Is someone looking after him - them - for you?"
"Oh, yeah." Aang said, glancing up at him with a grin. "My housemates are taking care of them while I'm gone. Well. Sokka, probably, mostly. Katara's really busy this week and Momo and Sokka get along pretty well anyway." He didn't mention Toph, but Zuko would have been surprised if he had, in this context.
Zuko nodded, dropping his hand from Aang's shoulder to dig his car keys out of his pocket and unlock it. Aang's bag slid neatly into the boot and he opened the passenger door for his boyfriend, smiling at the look on his face as he examined the car and glanced at Zuko holding the door. "It won't bite." Zuko told him.
"I didn't remember you had a car." Aang said, sliding his hand over Zuko's on the top of the door before folding himself into the seat.
"There are a lot of people on trains." Zuko said, shuddering. "You know how I feel about that." he teased, leaning down closer. "So yes. As soon as I could drive, and I could afford one - and then my Uncle bought me this one. The train system here also . . . wasn't always as good as it is now." he added with a shrug and closed the door, moving around the car to get in himself.
"If you hadn't been on the train that day," Aang said, leaning over the centre console towards Zuko as he turned the key, "you and I wouldn't ever have met!"
"And I will be forever grateful for that," Zuko replied easily, stealing a kiss, "but I still prefer my car." He wrinkled his nose. "In the main."
Aang laughed. "All right. I suppose that's fair." He trailed his fingers up and down Zuko's arm as he settled back into his seat, pulling away from the train station. He'd originally planned to take Aang home with him immediately - at least to let him get settled in a bit - but. . .
"How was your trip here?" Zuko asked as he instead turned towards the Jasmine Dragon.
Aang's trip had been fairly uneventful, as it happened, but his week prior to embarking on it had not - which Zuko had already known - and he had more to tell Zuko now he was here in person rather than he had over the phone. Zuko was aware he was not great at talking over the phone - he wasn't that great at talking in person, either, but you didn't have to be, with Aang, really.
He was surprised when Aang trailed off mid-sentence and glanced over to see that he was only distracted by looking around. Well, Uncle's tea shop was just off a very pretty plaza. Zuko passed by the tiny parking area used mainly by proprietors, which was less of a walk from the shop, and parked instead in the larger, open one further away. Not because he wasn't officially working today, but because the walk would give Aang a better look.
Zuko was amused to see that he got around the car and opened the door for Aang before his boyfriend had even stopped looking around enough to unbuckle his lap belt. Zuko leaned down into the open door, waiting, and Aang grinned sheepishly, unbuckling himself and climbing out.
"You live here?" Aang asked, and Zuko snorted and closed up the car, rolling his eyes as he led the way up to the Jasmine Dragon.
"May as well, just about." Zuko said wryly. "No, not actually," he assured his boyfriend, trailing a hand up and down Aang's spine, "but you wanted to meet my Uncle-"
"Yes!" Aang said happily, and Zuko could hear Mai's how do you deal with him again in his mind, and tugged Aang to a stop to kiss him again, quick and soft. Aang gave a little sound of surprise, then hummed, wrapping a hand around Zuko's arm.
"Well," Zuko said as he drew back, Aang smiling up at him, "he's here more than he's home." Zuko slid his arm up to twine his fingers through his boyfriend's. "Tonight's his music night, too," he shuddered at the memories of being dragged off to them every week when he'd first come to Uncle Iroh after his father had thrown him out, "so he won't be home until late. If he actually comes home tonight."
"Oh, I see." Aang nodded, then hesitated, pulling Zuko to a stop with him. "Will- I mean, will he mind us turning up here?" he asked, frowning slightly. "We don't have to, I don't have to meet him now, if it'll be a nuisance." He looked at the teashop. "If he's working."
Zuko smiled. "Oh, he won't mind. We may not get out again for who knows how long, depending, but he'll be glad to see us." he promised, squeezing Aang's hand reassuringly. "Even if it's busy today."
He opened the door and Aang slipped behind him as he walked inside.
"Hello Uncle!" Zuko called as the soft chime above the door rang.
"Zuko!" Iroh came around the counter with his hands full of a tea pot. "I need an afternoon tea service for the orchid society ladies, if you would?"
"Ah-" Zuko began to protest, then glanced around. It was indeed busy today.
"Please, Zuko?" Iroh asked, not looking at him but turning his attention to the table he was serving. The shop was crowded, though not too noisy, and Yori, who should have been there, weaving among tables and assisting Iroh, was nowhere to be seen.
"I've got it, Uncle!" Zuko called, squeezing Aang's hand. "Sorry; let me help Uncle get a handle on this mess and then I'll introduce you." Aang nodded, waving him off with a promise that he didn't mind, and Zuko left him there. Ducking behind the counter, Zuko threw on his apron, wrapping the ties around his waist before beginning to assemble the tea service.
It went quickly, with Zuko having no other orders to fill at the same time, only delayed by so long as the tea needed to steep. Once there was no way his uncle would have entrusted this kind of fancy spread to him - or much of anything beyond carrying trays back and forth or washing dishes - but Zuko had . . . improved quite a bit since he had first started helping out here, even if it had initially been somewhat under duress.
He smothered a smile, assembling the set on a tray and weaving through the crowded shop to the ladies in the corner, bowing as he arranged their tea before them. He escaped as quickly as possible, glaring at his Uncle, because the orchid society ladies were terrible and Zuko could feel the faintest beginnings of a blush from their comments even as he tried to suppress it.
Rather than sympathy or remorse - not that he'd expected it - he only got another request for help with another table from his Uncle. And then the table he was passing stopped him with a hand on his apron - he nearly lashed out at the man by practised instinct before he realised - to ask for a fresh pot of the tea he'd been drinking, and Zuko was soon caught up in the familiar chaotic whirl of the tea shop. He hoped Aang was all right until he could extricate himself again, though he thought he had at least seen his boyfriend sliding into a plush chair in one corner, getting comfortable. Zuko didn't have time to look for him again to be sure, juggling the brewing for three orders and assembling another tray at the same time, preparing to wade back out among the customers.
Zuko paused as he put a dirty cup down, glancing around. He had lost track of time - although he could have counted it out in orders he'd filled - but now no one was calling for his attention, the kettle wasn't shrieking, there was no fresh tea in front of him to be delivered. . .
Zuko untied his apron and hung it up again, glaring at the one that should have been worn by the assistant that should have been here today, but seemingly hadn't shown up at all.
Now where was his Uncle. . . Zuko looked around the shop - everyone now evidently content, their tables all stocked with tea - and found him heading off into a corner, probably to sit down and rest for a few minutes now he had the breathing room. Well, he wouldn't mind being sidetracked to meet Aang.
"Uncle, you really need to fire Yori and find a better replacement if he keeps. . ." Zuko trailed off. The corner Iroh had wandered off to was not empty, and he was expounding on a variety of teas and their characteristics to whoever he had- "Uncle!" Zuko squeezed around Iroh and put a hand on Aang's shoulder, clasping it firmly. "He's not a customer," he shook his head, glancing down at Aang, who leaned into him just a little, "this is my boyfriend, Aang. He wanted to-"
"Boyfriend!" Iroh said, eyes wide, then wrapped them both in a hug, crushing them to himself. "Of course Zuko told me you were coming, but I am delighted to meet you!"
"Oh!" Aang squirmed a little in Iroh's hold. Zuko didn't bother, having eventually come to the realisation as a teenager that it was mostly pointless and he might as well indulge his Uncle. He might - only might; his Uncle no longer looked like the champion martial artist he had once been, but he'd hardly lost his touch - be able to get loose, but Iroh would only try again anyway.
Zuko hadn't really been used to open affection when he'd come to his Uncle, for lack of anywhere else to go. Not that he'd had to go to Iroh - Iroh had come to get him from the street outside his father's house, half of his face still swathed in bandages from the hospital. Zuko still didn't even know how his Uncle had known to come for him; he'd never quite brought himself to ask.
"Aang," Zuko said as Iroh's arms loosened a little, "this is my Uncle Iroh."
"It's nice to meet you!" Aang said, slightly muffled against Iroh's robe, and Iroh let go of them - well, shifting to clasp their shoulders rather than squashing them into a hug. "Zuko talks about you a lot." Aang said with a grin.
"Oh really?" Iroh asked, glancing at Zuko and then back at Aang.
"Well," Aang said impishly, "it's been a lot for Zuko."
Iroh chuckled, patting Aang's shoulder. "Then I am flattered. He is my dear nephew." He pulled Zuko back to himself, and Zuko endured another half-hug and more patting before moving around to the small table Aang had been sitting at, hooking another empty chair over beside Aang's with his foot. "I admit, I am very curious about you. Zuko does not tell me very much."
Zuko flushed, looking at Aang apologetically.
"Young people." Iroh waved a hand as he sat down opposite Aang and Zuko. "Your prerogative, I suppose, but indulge an old man's curiosities now you are here, won't you, Aang?" he asked with his sweetest 'doddering old man' expression. Zuko narrowed his eyes at his Uncle, because he had not been foolish enough to fall for that in years. "You are staying with us this week, aren't you?"
"Um, yes; if that's okay with you?" Aang hurried to ask. "I mean, if it's not-"
"No, I insist!" Iroh said loudly, clapping his hands. He smiled. "It will give us all more time to get to know each other. Not," he added, leaning over the table with a knowing look that made Zuko want to sink beneath it himself, "that I will be around so very much. The two of you will have plenty of time to yourselves, I'm sure!" He winked.
"Oh, um. Thank you." Aang said uncertainly, clearly not picking up his Uncle's implication, and Zuko hid his face with one hand.
Iroh laughed and Zuko sighed, glancing between his Uncle and his boyfriend.
"You may not be a customer, of course, but still, you must enjoy some tea while you are here!" Iroh said, not surprising Zuko in the slightest, save that he had dropped his prior topic so easily. Then again, it was tea . . . . "Zuko, you should go and brew something special. I'm sure your judgement-"
Zuko dropped his hand and gave his Uncle a hard stare. "You want me to make the tea." he said flatly. "No way. You always make the tea when there's someone new you're getting to know. 'Sharing a cup of tea with a stranger' and whatever."
"Zuko makes very good tea." Aang said defensively before his Uncle could respond, and Zuko glanced at him, surprised.
Iroh, he noticed, was now giving Aang a very warm look.
"He knows that." Zuko said, sliding a hand over Aang's shoulders calmingly and then just letting his forearm stay there, resting across them. "It's all his doing." he added wryly. "And he'd never let me serve the customers if he didn't at least find it satisfactory. I know. There were years I wasn't allowed to make tea except for practise. I wasn't even allowed to make tea to drink it myself." he added only half-seriously.
"Zuko was, ah. . ." Iroh gave Zuko a fond if somewhat strained look. He could get so very distressed over his tea. "A little . . . rough for the tea, at first. But he's learned quite well." He beamed proudly. Zuko rolled his eyes, but smiled a little. "You enjoy tea, Aang?"
"Yes and he's already tried mine, so you've no reason to hold back, Uncle." Zuko arched his eyebrow at his Uncle. "You and I both know you have been planning for this."
Iroh pursed his lips, then smiled, bowing his head in acknowledgement. "Zuko has not always understood the allure and beauty of a truly well made cup of tea." he confided to Aang.
"No!" Aang said with wide eyes, his shoulders twitching with suppressed laughter. Zuko bit the inside of his cheek to control his own laugh.
"Curious, though." Iroh said, and Zuko eyed him. "He was always curious."
. . .when he had come to his Uncle Zuko couldn't have cared less about tea - or much of anything else except that he had somehow been a disappointment to his father and he had desperately wanted to make up for it. Tea still wasn't exactly his favourite thing, but Zuko thought he'd have had to be a rock not to have picked up some appreciation of it, along with at least basic skills, by this time.
"Curious?" Aang asked, tipping his head, and Iroh beamed at him. Zuko smiled slightly at them both, distracted. "How do you mean?"
And it made his Uncle happy. Zuko liked the familiarity of the tea shop, and didn't mind that he was still caught up working in his Uncle's shop now, making tea and dealing with the sometimes aggravating - or faintly terrifying - customers. At least when he wasn't taking his classes, or covering for other instructors, at the dàochǎng.
Zuko glanced over the shop, checking to see if there was anyone in need of service that his Uncle - with his back to most of them - hadn't noticed yet, and vaguely heard his Uncle saying something about a kettle. No one looked unhappy or neglected.
Zuko hadn't expected to like teaching as much as he did when his Uncle nudged him to step up and fill in for an instructor who had skipped out on no notice for one of his Uncle's friends - nor to be as good at it as he was - but it made him happy. After that he had promised to teach another class there, and gone looking for a dàochǎng that would take him on as an instructor on a permanent basis.
After years listening to his Uncle - and at least some of those years actually letting the words sink in - Zuko had figured that was enough of a reason to spend his time doing it. Besides, he was good at it.
"And there he was with the tea pot still in his hands, completely unharmed - I mean my nephew of course, but the tea pot, too, amazingly," Iroh said, and Zuko frowned, confused, "sitting right there in an enormous kettle just grinning up at us!"
Zuko groaned. He knew this story after all; and he'd thought Uncle was just retelling one of his admittedly-disastrous days towards the beginning of his time helping out at the shop. His still new and rather disorienting lack of depth perception at the time had certainly not helped him in making a good showing. Not that he had been trying very hard, for all he'd been painfully aware that if his Uncle turned him out as well there was nowhere else for Zuko.
"Oh, no!" Aang said, clapping his hands together right in front of his mouth as he rocked forwards in his seat. "He wasn't!"
"Somehow he had climbed all the way up - he wanted to see, you know - and then once he knocked it aside he had tumbled along with it and ridden the kettle all the way back down, and tipped into it along the way!" Iroh said, laughing at his own recollection. Zuko barely had any memory of it himself - it was a very long time ago, when Zuko had been very small - and the recollection might honestly be stitched together from Uncle's retellings.
"His mother was laughing so hard she couldn't even take a picture!" Iroh said, leaning forwards and lowering his voice. "Naturally, however, I was far more composed. I managed to contain myself until after I got the camera."
"Oh, good!" Aang said, giggling. "Was Zuko upset?"
"Oh no, he was quite happy in the kettle once he was sure his mother and I weren't angry with him." Iroh said with a grin.
"Uncle. Tea?" Zuko said before Iroh could say anything else. "For Aang? You said he needed tea?"
"Of course!" Iroh said brightly, slapping his hands lightly on the table and then rising from it. "Do excuse me, I shall return very soon! With tea." He gave Zuko a knowing look, then inclined his head and hurried away, stopping by several tables on his way behind the counter, checking on them.
"Oh, Agni, please don't listen to anything he says." Zuko said, sinking down in his chair and hiding his face.
"He's great!" Aang said, shoving against Zuko playfully. "And his Zuko-stories are awesome." Zuko spread his fingers wide enough to look at Aang with one eye. "Do you think he'll show me tiny Zuko pictures too?" he asked, looking excited.
Zuko winced, lowering his hands, though he didn't sit up any further. "Ah. . . No." he said, and shrugged weakly when Aang looked at him. "There, er, aren't really many left. Pictures of me when I was little. Mother kept them, of course, but after she. . ." he faltered. "There weren't many taken after that, either. And Father destroyed most of them, either then or. . ."
"Oh. Oh, Zuko." Aang said softly, rising from his chair to perch on the arm of Zuko's, wrapping his arms around Zuko's shoulders. Zuko stiffened a little - he wasn't uncomfortable with affectionate gestures, exactly, but they were still in the Jasmine Dragon, which was still crowded with most of the same customers from when they arrived - but then let his shoulders slouch under Aang's embrace. "I'm sorry, honey." he murmured, free hand resting on Zuko's chest.
"It's all right." Zuko said, though his throat was a little thick. It wasn't that he minded not having photos of himself when he was young - it didn't exactly make much of a difference to him, and it wasn't as though he much remembered anything else - but thinking of his mother . . . and his father. . .
Well.
He swallowed, taking a deep breath, and Aang leaned his head against Zuko's, light fingers playing with his collar. "Still," Aang said, voice low, "I didn't mean to remind you of anything. . ." he trailed off, lifting his hand to run his fingers through the loose part of Zuko's hair before letting it rest on his shoulder again.
"Is everything quite all right?" Iroh asked as he returned, gently placing an almost overfull tea tray on the table with barely a clink.
Zuko looked up at his Uncle, then nodded, and Aang hugged him a little tighter. "Yes! I just, uh. . ." Aang faltered.
"Aang is cuddly." Zuko said dryly, smoothing his fingers over Aang's wrist. "Particularly when distressed, but also in general."
"Cuddling is important!" Aang said, loudly - probably enough to be overheard by several other tables - and Zuko cast his gaze towards the ceiling. Aang squeezed himself closer, almost into Zuko's chair - halfway into his lap, as the chair wasn't quite big enough for that much sharing - and almost curled bodily around him as though making a point. "You're very snuggly," Aang said, nestling against his shoulder, "you're just shy."
"Aang," Zuko said dryly, extricating one arm and wrapping it around Aang's waist, "I mean this in a most caring way. . ."
"Mm?" Aang said, tipping a cheerfully expectant look up at Zuko.
"Stop helping." Zuko growled in his best I could break you in half voice, eyes narrowed, and Aang laughed, leaning into the curve of his arm. Zuko pulled him down off the arm of the chair - well, if he was going to be cuddly - and mostly into Zuko's lap in the process, hugging him tight and resting his chin on Aang's shoulder.
Aang hummed, tucking his legs comfortably over Zuko's and leaning against his chest with a soft sigh, squirming to settle comfortably.
Zuko looked up and startled as he met his Uncle's eyes. "Uncle?"
"Ah, tea!" Iroh said, clearing his throat and dabbing briefly at his eyes with a handkerchief he produced from his sleeve. The odd expression - warm and soft, faintly surprised perhaps - cleared from his face as he set out the cups and reached for the tea pot.
I was going to add a scene of Zuko taking Aang to his actual home after the tea shop, but really it seemed to me that the tea shop, and meeting Uncle Iroh, counts enough. . .
A dàochǎng is a martial arts hall/studio of course, because I figured Zuko probably had some other occupation than teashop assistant . . . and I think teaching there suits him.
If you choose to read this as implied background Mai/Ty Lee. . . Well. . It may have occurred to me as I was writing the story. (Mai/Ty Lee were actually one of the earlier 'ships I saw while watching ATLA for the first time.)
Oh, and the name Yori means 'rely', which I chose for irony's sake.