Chapter Text
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He has grown accustomed to ignoring his gut feelings.
Stretching years of tamping back instincts, or anxiety, or fury. All in the name of keeping the appearance of regality.
He is the first born son, the prince who will inherit the conquered, who is currently journeying to the end of his life as he knows it.
Zuko can’t help but feel like his upcoming marriage is another little death in a line of many, another piece of himself torn free in the name of his family. Just another thing offered from his hand to be clawed from him hard enough to leave wounds in their wake.
At least it is Mai.
If it has to be anyone, at least it is someone he knows, and likes.
And someone who understands.
Zuko wishes she didn’t, sometimes. As if their youth hadn’t been a tag team of covering for one another as they slipped into bed with the most dangerous partners possible for people of their station.
Him, cloaked and silent along the rooftops to his favourite brothel, where he was beloved and kept safe if only for the danger of mutual destruction. Where beautiful men with eyes of jade and sapphire would beckon him into the comfort of their company. Where he was happiest falling into the arms of someone with broad shoulders and a chiseled jawline.
Her, to a circus.
And it was not as if there were not rumours about them both, but such is the life of nobility, and for the most part they were easily crushed under the weight of threat.
So it isn’t as if he despises their circumstance completely. He always knew he was never destined for the romances told in the epics and fables he used to read. No matter how many times he had laid on his back in the royal gardens and gazed at the stars above and longed.
And he wishes he could blame the cold streak of dread in his stomach strictly on nervousness for the upcoming event but-
It is too quiet.
The carriage trundles its steady pace, trees and mossy hills moving across the small window unaware of the sudden spike in his heart.
Zuko moves slowly, shifting his weight to stand and look out to get a better view, and all he gets is the snout of the ostrichhorse of one of the guards poking into the periphery. The foreign trees and rock of the Earth Kingdom slip past, geography he is unfamiliar with, which does not help his current state.
He takes a breath, holding it as he fiddles briefly with the golden silk sash of his robes, and has the split second of foreboding as he watches the beast’s ears perk and eyes widen before something hits the side of the carriage, hard.
Zuko doesn’t have a second to brace as it flips, landing with a pained grunt as his ribs catch the brunt of the impact, and wheezes as his breath is knocked free from his lungs. He shoves a hand beneath himself to lever back up, coughing as he gets to his knees, but can’t get much higher than that with the door crushed beneath him.
He shakes his head, trying to orient himself, and hears the shouts and chaos from outside as he weighs his options before eyeing the small window on what is now the ceiling.
Zuko glances around, lip curling as he realizes how horribly under equipped he is for something like this. “Oh sure, you don’t need your swords, Zuko, you will have guards, Zuko.” The council's words come back, even more irritating than the first time he had heard them.
But sitting like a trapped turtleduck doesn’t improve his odds with or without a weapon, so he forces himself upwards to grab a beam in both hands and swing up to kick through the window as hard as he can. It gives easily, shattering to rain glass and splinters back onto him, and the noise outside is instantly louder. It takes a hop to get his torso up, hooking his hands through to pull himself free, and the chaos he is greeted with feels like a dream.
He can already see two of his guards laid out on the ground, not obviously dead but at least unconscious. Their mounts have scattered, braying in fear as they bolt down the path, and the remaining guards eye him with something akin to horror as he stands up.
There is the suddenness of movement, and he ducks to the side as a bolt of ice shears through the air right next to him to further destroy the carriage, blowing it apart a second after he drops to the ground.
The ground that splits beneath him, and he glances up to see a smaller form in full stance as the earth heeds her commands in cracks and fissures. “Easy fire-boy, we don’t want you dead.” She shifts again, and the vibrations beneath him immediately begin to turn the surface almost to liquid.
Zuko curses, launching himself back and away from the sudden mire at his feet but he can already see that the remaining guards lack his nimbleness as they sink up to their chests before it solidifies to entrap them. “Forgive me if that doesn’t inspire confidence.” He slams a foot down onto a dropped javelin- not a weapon he is used to but at least better than nothing- and he snatches it from the air as it flips up towards him.
More ice arcs up in a wave towards his side, bolting outwards almost like lightning and he has to duck and roll again to avoid it, catching the eyes of the waterbender in question as she snarls something and pulls it to liquid once more.
His robes catch at his shoulder, ripping slightly and loosening from their tie, as if there were any possible way this could go less in his favour, it would seem he is half a second from being almost naked for it as well.
Zuko is fairly certain he has had this exact nightmare, actually.
Still, he takes a stance back and goes to launch the javelin towards her, the most obvious threat, if nothing else than to break her concentration long enough to run, but it doesn’t leave his hands before something slams down directly into it and shatters it apart midair.
Zuko doesn’t have a second to even look at his newest assailant before his elbow is being wrenched behind him in a move that pulls hard against his newly bruised ribs, and he freezes in place.
Because the new sensation of sharpness sits tight along his throat, pressing hard enough to warn. “Better not, Princeling, we are trying to keep things civil but I can’t promise anything if you kill one of us.”
“Civil?” Zuko whispers, keenly aware of every tiny movement his throat makes against a blade as the body behind him presses closer. “You took out my entire envoy.”
There is a laugh against him, low and humming as his would-be kidnapper tightens the hold on his wrist until it aches. “No fatalities other than cowardice of the first few to flee. The rest will be fine, this road is well travelled and they will be found quickly.”
“Quick enough that we need to get moving, Sokka.” The waterbender closes the distance, glancing to her side. “Toph?”
“Yeah, yeah, hold out his arms please.”
Zuko can’t help but recoil back as she reaches for him, but it only forces him harder into the body- Sokka, he supposes- at his back. “Whatever ransom you are expecting is not going to be much if I am missing limbs.”
She shoots him a look like he has fully lost his mind, before snagging his free elbow and yanking it forward. “Noted.”
But it is the earthbender who steps closer, rifling through her bag to produce a straight length of metal with a victorious noise, before Zuko watches in amazement as it bends and warps with her touch as easy as clay.
She places one half onto his wrist, skin tight, and beckons until Sokka moves his other hand in front of his body once more to be clasped as well. “Good to go, you got him Snoozles?”
“In a second.” Sokka removes the blade and shifts beside him just long enough for Zuko to turn and get an actual look at him, and if it weren’t for the current circumstance his mouth would have probably hung right open.
As it is he barely gets to see the spark of icy blue eyes and a cut jaw, and warm dark skin, before a wink is thrown his way as a strip of fabric is dropped over his face. “Sorry Princeling, I’m your eyes from here on out.”
Zuko huffs as the blindfold tightens, and tests the strength of the metal cuffs around him in annoyance. It is not a surprise at all to find they do not have a single hairsbreadth of give. “Whatever it is you are hoping to get from this is not worth what will happen to you.”
But he is mostly ignored, and it is only a handful of seconds before the group starts to move, and an arm hooks under his elbow to guide him.
Sokka leads him for the better part of an hour before he replies, leaning close enough for Zuko to feel the heat radiate between their bodies.
“Whatever it is you think we want, is not really what we are after.”
~~