[“I just—“ Zuko begins, cuts himself off, opens his mouth to try again. Nothing comes out, and Sokka gives him a full-body squeeze to encourage him. “Maybe next time, you could, uh…” “Yes?” Rushing him does nothing but make him shut down, Sokka’s learned the hard way. Patience isn’t something that comes naturally, but it’s something that he’s learning, just like Zuko’s slowly learning to communicate. “Maybe next time, I want you to, uh, hold me down.”] Or, Zuko learns to use his words.

[It’s all Mai’s fault. It was never going to work out between them at the end of the day, romantically, but Zuko will love her until the day he dies, and that love is how he gets bullied into putting it on in the first place. It’s a little square of deep red lace and ribbon that weighs next to nothing. Mai presses it into his hands with a smirk and tells him to put it on. It matches her black one, she says. Hurry up. Zuko loves this woman with every drop of blood in his body. He takes the...whatever it is and hurries up. He changes in her closet—there’s no mirror in there, but Zuko doesn’t need it. He knows what this is.] Or, Zuko explores some options.

Not the Pokémon AU you asked for but the one you’re getting anyway. Featuring: full time gym leader and local cryptid Zuko, badge challenger Sokka, and Katara who can only look at so many memes before she flips.