Chapter Text
Zuko wasn’t entirely sure at first what had happened in the Spirit Oasis, but as he lay on the raft, staring up blankly at the arctic sky while Uncle worked the sail, he knew he had fucked up monumentally.
He knew a few things, and he assembled them over and over in his head, trying to make sense of them. Before... the bad thing happened, the Avatar had been there, sitting on the shrine in some kind of trance state, and it had seemed at first like his mission was finally within reach. Then he got waylaid by the waterbender instead, who had all but mastered her element now, apparently. They started fighting and...
And then the bad thing had happened.
Zuko remembered that there was a smell on the warm air when he arrived. Something vast and fecund, building around him as he fought the waterbender, as she beat him and froze him to a wall. He’d hung there for a time, caught in her ice and steeping in that scent that lit up unfamiliar parts of his brain. He’d thought it was just the oasis, a place of great spiritual power and unlikely fertility, but he’d been wrong. When the sun rose and he burst from the ice and took the waterbender down-
Things after that got hazy. And the little flashes of memory that kept bursting into Zuko’s head now... what he was now fully coming to accept that he had actually done... It was not something he would have done in his right mind.
Iroh finally broke the silence once he had steered their raft through the wreckage that remained of the fleet and the wind caught their makeshift sail and pulled them onto the open ocean marked only by jagged floating ice formations. Zuko had left his uncle to handle it and laid down for some hours. But now the sun was sinking in the south-west and the wind cut colder. His time of respite had ended.
He had to face this new reality.
“My nephew, I know things did not go as planned with your infiltration of the citadel... but what happened?”
Zuko lay on his back and watched the sky soften toward evening, just a moment longer. “The waterbender is an omega,” he said aloud at last.
The thought had been rattling through his head for hours, the only plausible explanation for... the bad thing. The things he had done... and said... the things she had...
“An omega? But, Prince Zuko, they are so terribly rare!” His uncle’s voice turned a tiny bit sly, a little amused and teasing. “Women can be quite alluring without being omegas, you know.”
Zuko glared at the sky. Then he sat up in a rush and leaned forward to scowl off to the south, the impossible unreachable distance between him and solid ground. “Not like this, Uncle. I... lost control.”
“Oh?” Iroh asked.
It was an understated sound, a casual query, but Zuko could sense his uncle was not taking this as seriously as he needed to be. The scent of his amusement was on the wind. Zuko shot him an irritated sideways look, but Iroh only turned his eyes up at the slowly brightening stars, a pleased little smile on his face.
“You would not be the first young man to find himself overwhelmed by a lovely young woman - which, any man with eyes would note that Miss Katara has become inordinately lovely-”
“I knotted her,” Zuko blurted.
It might have been gratifying, the way Iroh’s face dropped from wistful delight to shock, but Zuko was riding a line between panic and fury. Nothing about this situation was gratifying. Nothing was okay.
Especially not the rumbling pleased part of him that stirred fiercely to life as he told another alpha what he’d done to the waterbender. That was so not okay.
“The stand of bamboo by the shrine,” he went on. “I was in there with her all day. Over and over. I couldn’t stop.”
Iroh’s eyebrows rode high. He even blushed a tiny bit. But then he squinted. “Zuko, when you say you knotted, are you certain-?”
“I couldn’t pull out. After. My...” Zuko opened and closed his fists atop his thighs. He still ached from it, the bizarre swelling that had held him locked inside her. “It got too big and wouldn’t come out. It... it must have happened a dozen times and the whole while I just couldn’t control myself. At all! I... I bit her, Uncle.”
Panic was much closer than fury now. The alarm in Iroh’s scent didn’t help. “You claimed her?”
Zuko lurched to his feet and paced the short distance open to him, knuckling at his scalp. “I can’t have claimed her! This wasn’t supposed to happen! It was an accident! Her scent got in my head and made me crazy!”
“It is important now,” Iroh said firmly, “that you remain calm.”
“How can I be calm?” Zuko shouted, throwing up his arms. “The waterbender went into heat and tricked me into biting a claim on her! She made me bind myself to her! Forever!”
“I am quite sure she did not intend for this to happen-”
“And how much worse is that?! How much worse is it if she didn’t want what I did to her at all?!”
The words echoed off distant towers of ice and Zuko stood there, panting and tense, staring furious and pleading at the old man where he knelt by their makeshift mast. Iroh peered back at him with wide, troubled eyes. But then he blinked, and his look was gentle, soothing.
“It speaks well of you that this situation is so very emotionally fraught for you, Prince Zuko. You care deeply and recognize the significance of what has transpired. You are considering the ramifications and are aware that this matter is complex in terms of both feelings and honor - for both parties involved.”
It was a small but deep comfort, how clearly his uncle saw the best of him, even when it was not clear in his own mind. Zuko peered back at him, beginning to calm as he listened.
“So what are we doing all the way out here?” Iroh asked, a little wide-eyed. “However it came to pass, Miss Katara is now your omega. She might need you, and you are too far away to help her. At the very least, it is clear you need to have a conversation to clear up these uncertainties.”
Zuko turned his head and looked back the way they had come. He ached in more than just his body.
...my omega...
He’d been fighting thinking those words, because even though he had claimed her, even though he felt that tether linking him back to her even now, he was horrified that this had happened. That he had done this.
He had awakened alone in the dark, sprawled on the flattened grass in that stand of trees. He had felt so confused and sore and clumsy, almost drugged, with a great aching hole in him where she was supposed to be but wasn’t. He had sat up and struggled to light even a small flame in his palm. By that wavering light, he’d discovered that she really was gone, had taken all her clothes. She had dressed and left and the only traces of her were her lingering scent - smelling of fear and anger and deep, terrible sadness.
And she’d left. And there sat Zuko, still partially wearing his pants around his knees but otherwise stupidly naked and vulnerable... and sore...
...and the wavering light of his flame had been enough to reveal the blood that had dried around the base of his penis. It was just a little blood, but its placement suggested only deeply alarming possibilities to Zuko.
Wherever the waterbender had gone, it was immediately clear that it would be unwise to follow.
Instinct was screaming inside him, but instinct had driven him to enough mistakes for one day. Night. Lifetime. He bucked the urge to chase her, dressed, and secreted himself out of the oasis and into the waking nightmare beyond. The sky was strangely dark and empty, as if the heart had been ripped from the night. A vast and terrible spirit - the Avatar, somehow - was rampaging the city, but then Zuko crossed paths with Zhao and...
His bending at least was back to full strength, but he had almost come apart confronting that man. It wasn’t like him.
You tried to have me killed!
You're the Blue Spirit, an enemy of the Fire Nation! You freed the Avatar.
I had no choice!
You should have chosen to accept your failure; you're a disgrace!
They were some of Zhao’s last words before the spirit-Avatar took him, and they had chased Zuko all the way from the city to where he stood now, adrift.
Disgrace.
Presently, he was coming to realize that he’d been wrong before. He’d had options about how to deal with the Avatar. He had chosen to become the Blue Spirit and commit treason. He had chosen to pursue his own redemption at the expense of the Fire Nation’s war efforts. Because he refused to give up or beg, and he refused to let Zhao turn Zuko’s one chance at redemption into his own personal bid for glory.
He was realizing all that had been a choice he had made - because it was suddenly very clear to him that he’d had no choice at all in how he’d dealt with the waterbender’s heat. He hadn’t decided to have sex with her, or knot her, or- or spill his seed inside her - oh Agni! - or bite her or... say... the things he’d said. (What had he said?!) He had made almost no choices at all in the situation with the waterbender.
Except for running away instead of following her and confronting her. He’d definitely chosen to do that.
She might need him, Iroh had said - a fact that rocked him on a deep, fundamental axis, because it had not occurred to him beyond the dumb animal corner of his brain that she might actually need him - the waterbender might actually need his help - and now he was too far away to help her.
“I panicked,” he admitted sourly, still staring back to the north. “I couldn’t think and I didn’t want to be captured by the Water Tribe in the middle of Zhao’s invasion. But you’re right. However it got this way, I have a responsibility to her now.”
Because she was his omega. Because she might get pregnant. (Oh Agni!) Because, even if he hadn’t made one single choice to get himself into this situation, he was in it. He was an alpha, and that came with obligations. Responsibilities.
He was about to tell his uncle they needed to turn the raft around when he spotted it. A pale shape in the northern sky, sweeping in a wide arc to the west.
“The Avatar,” he said, almost reflexively. As he watched, the bison changed direction and began a rapid approach, straight for them. “He’s spotted us.”
What he felt was the familiar flood of anticipation and fear - but much more of the latter than usual. The Avatar had just flattened the armada like a handful of children’s toys. What he meant to do to Zuko when he caught up to him was not likely to be much of a contest.
...And the waterbender was probably with him...
Anticipation had him tense and ready. Dread had his guts in knots.
“You must choose your words carefully, Prince Zuko,” Iroh said with grim urgency. “Not only because of the personal matters you are dealing with. We have just fled the field of a battle that cost the Water Tribe the life of their princess. She was able to resurrect the Moon Spirit, but sacrificed herself to do so.”
Zuko blinked at his uncle, stunned. “The Moon Spirit died?”
“Zhao believed he could annihilate the waterbenders. He would have succeeded, if not for Princess Yue.”
It returned to Zuko vaguely, the heart carved out of the night. He had thought it was just... inside him. But it wasn’t.
There was nothing to do but wait, so Zuko crossed his arms over his chest and watched the bison hurtle toward them.
But when the great beast came down heavily in the water beside the raft and sent it bobbing and jerking erratically with the wave of its impact, it was not the Avatar - or the waterbender - who scowled down at them.
“Alright,” her brother said, frowning severely at Zuko. “You get one chance-”
He squinted.
“Did my sister do that to your face?”
Zuko was, for a second, deeply furious. In general, when people talked about the state of his face, they were talking about his scar. But presently, he recalled, he was cut and bruised from getting blasted out the control tower of his ship when it was destroyed.
“Pirates,” he answered stonily.
The brother’s eyes flicked across the open ocean.
“Days ago!” Zuko snapped. “They blew up my ship!”
“Yeah, I noticed you’re rocking a much lower tech conveyance, but I thought maybe Aang put that junker out of its misery last night.”
Zuko clenched his fists at his sides and was about to snarl something inadvisable.
“Prince Zuko was not a part of the invasion force,” Iroh cut in firmly. “I helped him to stow away among the crew of Zhao’s ship so that he could continue his pursuit of the Avatar. A separate matter.”
Zuko shot his uncle a sideways glare. Why was he revealing all this?
The brother heaved a sigh and folded his arms over his chest. “Sure, sure. Different Fire Nation guys doing different nefarious Fire Nation stuff. Do you know what your nephew did?”
“I am given to understand there was-”
“He knows,” Zuko snapped. “Your sister’s an omega. She went into heat. It wasn’t my fault.”
The brother’s eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t her fault, either.”
“A blameless situation, really,” Iroh tried.
“Blameless doesn’t change the facts.”
His blue eyes were fierce, uncompromising. He looked at Zuko with the hard conviction that what he was about to say was only right. Zuko frowned back, bracing himself for the condemnation that was coming. Probably accusations... aspersions on his honor and his manhood and...
...and, while he may not have chosen any of this, he also wasn’t entirely convinced he didn’t deserve that. He’d made her bleed... and flee from him in terrible distress...
Disgrace.
Truly, he needed to face the repercussions of whatever exactly he had done.
So what the brother said instead took him kind of by surprise.
“This whole designation thing is coming as a nasty shock to most of us on Team Avatar. Katara and I didn’t grow up with alphas around, for reasons that should be pretty obvious-”
He said it blandly, but Zuko scented the hostility under that passing mention. The Fire Nation, after all, had had to eliminate all the alphas in the Southern Water Tribe before they could arrest the waterbenders. In a conflict, alphas were drawn to the front lines. Removing them was an inevitable part of defeating a people.
So Zuko had been taught. After years traveling and observing the war, not to mention the most recent couple years during which he’d been thrown into conflict with the particularly resourceful beta facing him right now, Zuko had a new appreciation for what a pain in the ass betas could be, too.
“-and Aang is a kid,” the brother shrugged, gesturing reasonably. “What little he does know is from a hundred years ago. Whether it’s helpful in the present - eh, hit-or-miss. Point being, nobody up here knows anything about how to deal with omegas. It’s been like fifty years since one presented here. Plus, if an omega presents at the North Pole, they just have her bond with an alpha. That’s it. Whole society with half the benders just focused on healing and that’s the best they can do.” He rolled his eyes, frowning harder. “Point being, it seems to me like, if it wasn’t you, it was gonna be some other guy. And we’d still be more or less where we are now.”
Zuko’s ears were hot, but he didn’t interrupt. Couldn’t. This was far more understanding and pragmatism than he had dared hope for, but that only served to unsettle him. The brother went on.
“But it was you. So I came all the way out here to put this situation in perspective for you. When you bit Katara, you tied her life to yours. That means, until we can figure out some way to fix that, her life depends on you being...” His mouth twisted, clearly unhappy with what he was saying. “...available to her when... whenever.”
“What do you mean, fix it?” Zuko demanded. He had already decided on his own that he was going back, so the rest of this seemed unimportant. Yeah, he’d be there in case she needed him. It was an alpha’s duty. But this other thing...
“Well, a mating bond is basically a connection forged between spirits,” the brother said, waving a casual hand. “Aang thinks he might be able to figure out a way to sever that tie and release you both. Some Spirit World mumbo jumbo, I don’t know.”
Rationally, Zuko knew this was a good thing, a possible way out of an impossible situation. But instead of hope, he was rushed by a terrible feeling. Rage and pain, betrayal and rejection, fear. The Avatar was going to break his bond to his omega? Did she know about this? Did she approve? Did she want to be severed from him, just like that? Because he had hurt and upset her? Or had she resorted to this because he had fled? He was coming back! He hadn’t even fully come to terms with what being bonded to her meant in the first place and she just wanted it severed?!
He drew breath to snarl some of this aloud. But he was cut off.
“The bond between alpha and omega is said to be permanent,” Iroh ventured. “Can such a thing even be possible?”
“You know, I’ve been asking some version of ‘is that even possible?’ since the other end of the planet and-” The brother shrugged and rolled his eyes. “-apparently a lot of stuff is possible that shouldn’t be. And, in that vein,” he pressed, looking hard back at Zuko, “I’m offering you a chance to be a man about this and take responsibility for your actions while we figure it out.”
There it was. Aspersions on his manhood and honor. Zuko glared back at him, but the brother immediately went on, layering seriousness over the barb.
“My sister’s life literally depends on you right now. You’re... ugh. You’re her alpha, I guess, whether you like it or not. Trust me, I definitely don’t. I hate this, it’s literally my least favorite adventure. But I’m gonna do whatever it takes to keep Katara alive. And that means getting you on this bison, one way or another.”
“You actually think you could force me?” Zuko demanded.
“We will of course come willingly,” Iroh said hurriedly - and was duly ignored.
Zuko was getting on the bison - he’d known he would before the thing even landed, assuming he wasn’t about to be obliterated - but he wasn’t going to be goaded and threatened by this guy, the Avatar’s waterbender’s beta brother. What did he even do? He had a boomerang and a smart mouth. And he honestly thought he could come out here and confront Zuko like they were somehow equals? Not fucking likely.
But the brother only shook his head and arched his eyebrows, unimpressed. “I don’t think I’ll need to resort to force. If you won’t be convinced to act like a man of honor and do the right thing, then I’m prepared to coax you into it using what you really want. What you’ve chased us around the world for. Aang.”
Zuko’s eyes went wide, then narrow. His heart was pounding in his throat. “You’d just hand the Avatar over to me.”
Maybe it should have been a question, but it was a statement of utter disbelief. There was no way that this absolute nightmare blunder could turn out in his favor. It just wasn’t possible.
“No,” the brother admitted with a casual shrug, “but he’d be awfully close, Zuko. So when the time comes for your next doomed attempt to capture him-” He held out his hands to either side, entirely reasonable. “-no waiting. No chasing or tracking. No need to invest in a new ship, because you’ll be riding in the saddle right next to us.”
Zuko’s head was spinning, but he made an effort to appear unaffected. He hadn’t had a chance to think about what his new bond to the waterbender was going to mean for his mission...
As he frowned back at her brother, Zuko realized he recognized what the tribesman was doing. He’d done this with those fucking pirates last year and most of a world away. He’d reframed the situation and made it clear they had the bigger prize, not because it was better to be a captive to pirates, but because he’d known Zuko would take it to a fight - and then he and his little friends had a shot to escape in the chaos.
This guy was trying to play him somehow. Probably, he meant to keep Zuko around until the bond could be dissolved (if that was even possible) and then make a quick getaway. But Zuko could be quick, too.
And what other choice did he have? He had to go back. He was the waterbender’s alpha now. Better to go on the bison in a fraction of the time than to sail against the wind all the way back through the debris from the sunk fleet.
“Speaking of which,” the brother grumbled, examining the raft with clinical skepticism. “You guys were really gonna try to limp all the way to the Earth Kingdom on this thing? That’d take weeks.”
“The winds have been quite favorable,” Iroh demurred cheerfully.
“Yeah, cold too, I’ll bet... Oh right. Firebenders... Do you guys just not get cold or...?”
“We’ll go back with you,” Zuko cut in.
“Great! Now,” the brother rubbed his hands together and went digging through one of the saddlebags. “Being as we’re going back to the Citadel for a few more weeks or months or however long it takes Aang to get good enough at waterbending, and being as the Fire Nation just invaded, causing as-yet uncalculated death and destruction, you guys showing up, even as a part of the Avatar’s entourage, isn’t gonna pass the old ‘torches and pitchforks’ test, if you know what I mean.”
Zuko and Iroh shared a sideways glance as the brother emerged from the bag with a big grin and two looped-and-bound lengths of cord.
“So let’s avoid all that and just call you guys ‘prisoners’ - at least until we leave for the Earth Kingdom.”
“No.”
“A most cunning charade!”
“Uncle!”
“To all the world, we will appear to be the unwilling prisoners of the Avatar.” Iroh fixed him with a meaningful stare. “Including those in the Fire Nation who might see two members of the royal family traveling with our nation’s greatest threat as a sign of treasonous intent.”
“When we explain what happened, no one will question that I was only doing the honorable thing and you followed to support me.”
“An explanation late in coming, unlikely to undo the damage of initial reports. Besides,” Iroh said with a slight shrug, “Sokka is right about the likelihood that we will not be warmly received by the Water Tribe, Prince Zuko. Remember what they have lost.”
The princess. Right. And an angry, mourning populace might decide to express its sorrow by killing one or both of the princes perceived to be responsible for her death. Perhaps they would be less inclined to murder if those princes appeared to at least be there unwillingly.
Zuko grimaced and drew a calming breath, then glared up at the brother. Sokka.
“Fine. We’ll play your stupid game.”
“Fantastic,” Sokka sighed and slapped the cords in his opposite hand. “Stupid prizes, here we come.”