Mid-Season-One Zuko is held ransom by Chief Hakoda. Ozai's replies to the Water Tribe's demands are A+ Parenting. Hakoda is… deeply concerned, for this son that isn't his, and who might be safer among enemies than with his own father.

accidentalGuard!Zuko AU. A Ba Sing Se crime noir where, instead of totally ignoring that Zuko stole a guard's swords to fight Jet, the guards lovingly gangpress this crazy-good-swordfighter who is the nephew of this crazy-good-teamaker into helping out around the station. They quickly learn that the tea skills are not hereditary. And trouble follows this kid.

When Boba shows signs of a very old ability from his mother's side of the family, Jango puts out a call to his mother's homeworld to find him a teacher, and to recruit two new trainers to join the Cuy'val Dar. Hakoda assumes it will be an easy way to earn a few extra credits and help his tribe. He's very, very wrong.

Her daughter is five years old when Ursa realises what she and Ozai have been doing to their children. By each choosing one to bestow with their approval, they’re pitting them against one another. Perhaps Ozai is doing it on purpose, but Ursa isn’t. She resolves to heal the damage she has done. In which Ursa tries to be a better parent to Azula, and it doesn’t change very much. And then, quite abruptly, it changes everything.

Zuko's soul marks have been regularly burned away since before he knew what they meant. He knows that he cannot be loyal to his father and his nation while also being loyal to a soul family, so he doesn't look for them. Unfortunately, that means that he doesn't know when he's found them.

Zuko doesn’t have time to deal with pressure for an arranged marriage, especially since he isn’t even sure he likes women that way. (A realisation that has absolutely nothing to do with Ambassador Sokka - shut up, Suki.) Katara and Aang have broken up again, and the Northern Water Tribe are pushing for a match between the North and South. Which leads Zuko and Katara to develop a genius, foolproof, only slightly drunken plan: they can pretend to date for the length of Katara’s stay in the palace, giving them both a brief reprieve from political pressures on their love lives. What could go wrong?

High Sage Kenji blesses Fire Prince Zuko with the resilience of the reed, who bends in the wind and never breaks. When he is done, Fire Prince Ozai narrows his eyes, seemingly displeased by this blessing. But Kenji does not speak for himself; he is only a vessel. * The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.

‘…H-how am I still alive?’ Zuko thinks. Sokka flinches back. Whoaaa, how in Spirits name did Zuko project his voice like that? Sokka didn’t even see him move his lips. As if he can hear Sokka’s thoughts, Zuko turns his head to look directly at him, eyes bewildered. And this is where Sokka realises something is very, very wrong. Two minutes later: “No way!” Sokka shakes his head wildly, just as prince jerkbender across him curses. “I’m soul bonded- To him?! No way! That’s just spirit mumbo-jumbo!!!” -or, through some freak Spirit accident involving Zhao, the Avatar, and the continuous joke that is both their existence, Sokka and Zuko have been soul-bonded and mentally linked. Neither of them are particularly happy with this.

He’d been pacing across the deck, considering in which direction to search next, when a great beam of light suddenly shot up into the sky far ahead; a beacon, a herald, a return. Surely, such a powerful thing could only come from one source, one which had to be- Zuko collapsed to the deck before he even had a chance to demand if Uncle Iroh knew what it meant.