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He never particularly liked Kitsunetsuki. He didn’t like possessing people. It felt wrong, and intrusive. He never really liked using his fox magic. Yes, it was useful and he delighted in messing with people, but sometimes it felt wrong. Like Kitsunetsuki. Possessing someone just felt...wrong. Horribly wrong and intrusive, so he didn’t. When he was in fox form, he made sure he knew exactly where his kitsunebi ball was at all times. Sometimes he’d hold it in his mouth, or carry it on his black tail. He made sure nobody could steal it; like the story of someone using a fox's hoshi no tama to secure a favor.
He loved tofu. Specifically abura-age , but that wasn’t important. He felt oddly protective of Kyoshi island, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. He’d only been there for two years, after his banishment.
He doesn’t quite know why he does the things he does, but some of the stories he’d been told about his kind made sense to him. Like his fur color. It was black, not red like some common fox-hybrids he’d seen, and supposedly meant he was a good Kitsune.
Apparently he possesses the power to ward off evil, and serve as a guardian spirit. In addition to protecting shrines, he could be petitioned to intervene on behalf of the locals and particularly to aid against troublesome nogitsune , those spirit foxes who do not serve a shrine. Black foxes and nine-tailed foxes were likewise considered good omens. Zuko didn’t have to worry about fighting his own kind, he hoped. He desperately wanted to know more about himself.
Father never liked him, but somehow he found out about Zuko’s….furry little problem. His attitude toward Zuko changed. Instead of wanting nothing to do with him, he was somehow finding time to make sure Zuko was doing something correctly and never hesitated to burn him if Zuko messed up slightly. Zuko would get him back for that, but he would never figure out who messed up the orders to generals and commanders.
Mother helped him to find a way to hide his ears and tail on days that were particularly difficult to concentrate. He viciously guarded the palace gardens from people he knew would disrupt the peace. If Zuko promised something, he would keep it wound up tight until he could fulfill it. Keep a secret? Not one peep from him about it. He’d say something about “honor,” but really, he physically had to keep it. It’s in his nature.
But his whole little world got turned upside down when the Avatar made his debut on the Island of Kyoshi.
~
“-and no illusions!” He pouted a little and rolled his eyes. “I know, Suki, I know.” Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, was giving him a lecture on the rules of sparring with him. He loved sparring with illusion magic, but it wasn’t fair to Suki or the other Warriors he sparred with.
He was just getting into a hand-to-hand fighting stance when He felt something brush up against his subconscious. It felt...invasive and not friendly. He decided to ignore it when Suki attacked, side stepping only to nearly get incapacitated by a glinting gold fan. It was three against one; Suki and two of her Warriors in full Kyoshi attire versus Zuko and his Blue Spirit outfit.
He slashed, dodged, and kicked his way around, careful to not use any firebending or fox magic. They were only experimenting, playing around with different moves and styles from their own nations. It was fun.
He was in the middle of executing something he called slide-and-throw (he really needs a better name for that) when Oyaji, the town’s mayor, burst through the doorway of the studio. He was out of breath and not entirely making sense, but Zuko got the gist of the explanation. Someone was here.
....It would partially explain the invading presence in his mind. It was similar to the feelings he got when merchants and traders arrived on their shores, but had little hint of something more. Something...dangerous. And powerful.
He could feel it in only one direction, but that shouldn’t be possible. The invading presence felt in the direction of the Unagi, and the Unagi ate most hostile invaders. It was a shared agreement between the two of them; Unagi patrolled the outside waters and Zuko guards the land.
The girls immediately ran out, but not before asking Zuko where he thought they might be. Everybody knows that Kitsune can feel where invaders were, it was part of the reason why Sozin wished them dead.
~
The Avatar was a child. A twelve-year old child.
Zuko growled from his spot on the roof. The world expects a CHILD to take the Fire Lord? How messed up was that?
Like what happened to the 41st… And he’s not going down that road.
And he was here, in Zuko’s territory. He didn’t like it. He also didn’t particularly like his companions either. Except maybe the bison or the lemor.
He was lying on his back, looking up at the distant stars. The familiar pose and setting brought memories to him of a time Before. Of a time he knew he would probably never see again. Of bright young eyes and happy giggles that promised nothing but love, Before. The only thing missing was the small body tucked beside his own, smiling into his shoulder.
He slowly fell asleep to the blissful sounds of the night.
~
How did I end up with babysitting duty? He wondered when Suki sent him to look for the Avatar-Aang. Apparently he and a group of fangirls were out doing...something. He didn’t quite hear the rest of what Suki said, only that the Avatar was loose on his territory. The invading feeling disappeared a few hours after Aang’s arrival, so he couldn’t rely on that to find him.
He had been wandering the woods for quite some time, perking his ears at any noise that sounded even remotely human.
That’s when he heard it. A sort of...grumbling? He shifted into his fox form and began stalking the sound. It grew louder as he krept through the dark green undergrowth, but wasn’t quite intelligible.
“...think she’s so great…” Oh dear. That was the male who came with the Avatar. He flicked his ears and rounded the corner of the tree, to find Sokka sitting nearby the stream and...fishing? Zuko tilted his head out of curiosity. It was then that Sokka straightened and turned towards him. “So you’re the Kitsune that guards this place…” Zuko glared and flicked his ears apprehensively. How did he know?
Gold eyes asked icy blue.
Sokka turned over his hand and showed his inside forearm. There was a mark.
Tui’s mark.
Sokka had a silver crescent moon painted on his dark brown skin. Spirit-touched.
“...I can sense the spirits and spirit boundaries. I told Aang that coming here would be a bad idea…” Oh he was telling a story. “You protect the land while the Unagi guards the sea surrounding Kyoshi, right?” Zuko sat down and nodded. “Yeah...sorry about that. Intruding, I mean. I’m making this worse, aren’t I?”
Zuko turned, shifted and walked away, but once he got a few feet away from Sokka he looked back and motioned with his head to follow.
~
He led Sokka-ignoring his annoying voice- right back to the heart of the village, and basically thrust him in Suki’s direction. That should sort him out. Sokka had apologized earlier to her and even learned some new moves.
Turning back to finding Aang, he saw Katara and Aang running and frowned. “Firebenders! Firebenders on our shore!” That was Oyaji.
The invading presence was back. Zuko ran across dirt and gravel road, making sure to hide his tail and ears with illusions. If this is who he thought it was... Today was going to be fun!
~
Strapping on his Dark Water Spirit mask, he gathered his weapons. He had some ideas of how to get rid of the invaders, and he was going to have fun doing it. Might as well make it interesting. He won’t let them fight on their level, he was going to make them fight on his.
~
“Come out, come out little Avatar! You can’t hide behind these little girls forever!” Zhao’s smarmy voice rang out from around the empty village. A roar of flames.
Zuko was angry. He hated the asshole Zhao. Zhao was too busy burning the houses- Zuko’s houses- to notice how the shadows seemed off.
The shadows were moving. Disappearing, flickering.
The other firebenders with Zhao slowly grew more and more nervous as they ventured on. Invade my island, you do. You are not welcome here.
A thick fog was rolling in. The Unagi was helping him, making loud and eerie noises.
Zuko stood in the middle of the village, mask on and facing away from Zhao. Never underestimate the power of a dramatic entrance, sang Piandao’s voice from long ago.
“Hey! You there! Where’s the Avatar?!” Zhao was a few hundred paces behind him. Right where I need him. “Answer me! Where is the Avatar?” He could feel Zhao moving into a firebending stance.
He breathed. In. out. Tendrils of darkness burst from the ground and snaked toward Zhao and he turned. In. Out.
“What…” he heard Zhao whisper. He sounded slightly worried. Good.
“You invade my island, Zhao. You come, burning and taking that which is not yours.” He tilted his head slightly, still fancied away from the firebender. He could feel the other benders huddled up together in the thick, milky fog off to his left. “You even endanger the men on your ship,” Zhao was approaching fast. In. Out. Don’t screw this up!
“Who are you?”
Zuko turned. “Your worst nightmare.” And he disappeared into the fog. Nailed it!
~
He threw screaming voices around and played with shadows, tossing knives of darkness around Zhao. He was having fun!
He knew they weren’t real, of course, but he could sure make it feel like it was. Zhao dodged and tossed flames carelessly. Anger and fear were prominent on Zhao’s face, and Zuko was having fun messing with him. He knew the others were safe in the forest as long as he kept the enemy here for now.
Been a while since I've fought fire. He launched a flickering ball towards Zhao. Can I bend someone else’s flames? He wondered randomly as he dodged yet another round of Zhao’s flames.
Then he cleared the fog around him. Suki and the other Kyoshi warriors had been knocking out the other firebenders and were now standing behind him at the ready. “Give up, Zhao. You’re outnumbered,” Zuko had slowly been herding him out of the village towards a cliff edge. He hoped Aang and the others had made their getaway.
“I will NEVER surrender to peasants like you!” Zhao roared as the Avatar riding the Unagi reared up, snagged his pant leg and threw him into the sea. Zhao’s ship was leaving and Zhao would be smart to board it sooner rather than later. If he was even alive, of course.
~
Agni watched in delight as his Fox played in his little sandbox. Agni’s Knife was proof that the Fire Nation hadn’t quite managed to get rid of his little mischief makers. He was Agni the Trickster, afterall. Sozin had decided Kitsune were traitors to the nation, and were decimated like the Air Nomads. But here was Zuko, living proof that they were still alive.
He may have let out a few giggles.
~
Zhao left, and thankfully the Avatar too. He surveyed the damage done to his home. This… is gonna take a while, Zuko thought warily. Maybe if I acted sooner... He shook his head. He was to scare, to warn, and to protect. He’d scared, warned, and protected. Now what? News of what Kyoshi did could reach the ears of anybody. Kyoshi was neutral in the beginning, but now that they’ve sided with the Avatar…
He hoped they were prepared.
~
Suki was suggesting they leave. He can’t leave! He just...Can’t. Even though he knows helping the less fortunate is the right thing to do, he can’t leave. Kyoshi is his new home. He protects it. If he left, wouldn’t he be abandoning it? It made him sick to think about as he listened to the elders sitting around the campfire.
Technically, Zuko couldn’t participate in the meeting because he wasn’t human. But he did try to help the village, so surely that counts for something?
He tried to get closer than forty feet before he was abruptly stopped by an invisible wall. Wards, he thought as he tried to circle around it. No use. Couldn’t get near, couldn’t participate.
Zuko climbed up his favorite tree and sat dangling his feet on one of the thickest branches. He let his ears and tail show, feeling the black fur ruffle slightly in the cool night breeze.
He sighed. Leaning back against the tree, he looked up at the moon.
He wondered how long Tui had been around. Tui was the sister to Agni, and wife of La. He knew the children of Agni had gone a little astray, but he wondered if the Water Tribes had also...changed. The North had walled themselves up, nobody really leaving and nobody coming. The South had been obliterated, their waterbenders stolen in an attempt to find the Avatar.
Water was all about change and adaptation. The thing about rivers is, you can’t step in the same river twice. The water’s always changing, always flowing.
Uncle said they went back to their old rules. That’s not what water does! Water flows down, not up. Everybody knows this.
He drifted slowly to sleep with these thoughts in mind.
~
He felt a pull. Something wanted him to go...that way. He looked out to the ocean. And was promptly yoinked into non-being.
~
“Oh. Hey! It worked! Guys, it worked!” He knew that voice. Ugh, no way! He groaned and sat up.
He was lying on the grassy floor of a forest. He looked around, and saw he was in the middle of a campsite, the fire in the middle dwindling. Water tribe sleeping bags were thrown half-hazardly around, and a familiar ten-ton animal was blinking at him on the right.
Three familiar faces stared at him. Sokka was holding a golden fan. He glared. “Why-what- Where- am I? Why am I here?” The Fox stood up. He was still wearing the black clothing from the previous day. He’d been taken from his home-he should- should what?-
“Well… Roku-”
“What did that annoying prick want?” Silence. “You’ve met Roku?” Aang asked, eyes wide. They were seated around the campfire, sharing meals. Zuko growled and stared into the flames. “He’s appeared a few times in the shrine when I’m there. Something about family matters, I wasn’t really paying attention-” He stopped at the confused looks. “What?”
“ Family matters?”
Zuko sighed. He just wanted to go back...maybe if he cooperated….”He’s my great-grandfather on my mother’s side. It’s part of the reason why my dad married my mom,”
“...Huh. Well, Roku told us that it was your destiny or something-”
“-to teach the Avatar-”
“-make sure he doesn’t-”
Zuko flinched from the sudden outbreak of voices from the group. “He also told us that because you were Kitsune, you weren’t going to leave your territory. So, Sokka grabbed his fans that Suki gave him and Roku told him that he could use them to summon you here so you can help us defeat the Firelord!”
What. They- that’s a- ugh no way! Fuck..Koh damn it all.
Zuko clenched his jaw. His hands were steaming slightly. He was being held here and he didn’t want to be, and he didn’t like it. He took a deep breath in, flicked his ears and expelled smoke from his nostrils. “So... you wish to keep me here against my will?” He looked up and glared at Aang. “Cause that’s what it sounds like. You’re going to use me, and I don’t get a say. Because you have something you can use against me. “ He huffed. “You’re going to force me against my own father. No wonder the other Kitsune went insane! You Avatars are all the same, forcing us to do what you want, not thinking about how we feel about it,” He curled his legs to his chest and glared at the flames. He wanted to go home. He wanted to be back on Kyoshi, with his swords and stuffed turtle-duck. He wanted his mom. But he usually never got what he wanted.
Aang looked horrified. Katara looked angry, and Sokka just stared at the fans in his hands. Or, also known as a ball of Kitsune-bi.
“So you won’t help us. We went through all that-and you won’t even do the right thing!” Zuko snarled. “The right thing, huh? You don’t even know who I am. Who are you to tell me what the “right thing” is?”
“You’re Zuko, the Kitsune of Kyoshi Island,” She said, her tone still full of anger. He gave her a fanged smirk. “I wasn’t born there. Tell me, what nation do I look like?” She glared, but looked like she was thinking. He bared his fangs.
Aang spoke up. “You look like my friend Kuzon. He was from...the Fire Nation. But that doesn’t mean anything! Why should we care where you’re from?”
Sokka’s eyes widened. “-You-you said- against- Oh, man. ” He sucked in a breath. “You’re Prince Zuko, Son of Fire Lady Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, Heir to the Dragon Throne,”
Wow. He knows my whole title. He smirked.
“Technically, that honor goes to Azula. I can’t ascend the throne. Only humans can, and well...I’m not.” Which really bothered him because he really didn’t want Azula on the throne. His ears flicked down and back up.
“Well, I say we hold this conversation until tomorrow and get some sleep. We can discuss in the morning,” Sokka valiantly fought off a yawn. The others nodded and made their way to their sleeping bags.
Sokka stood up and walked to his sleeping bag, leaving Zuko alone.
When he was sure the others were sleeping, he stood up and stretched. He remembered the stretches Ty Lee had given him.
~
When he was done, he walked out of camp with the full intention of going back to his island, wherever it was. He got about twenty paces before hitting the inescapable wall of magic.
He whined. Loudly. And shifted into his fox form, pawing at the barrier and rubbing his flank up against it. Growling, he took a few paces backwards and ran headfirst at the wall. It had the exact same results of hitting the wall of Ba Sing Se. It’s too strong. He shook his head to get rid of the dizziness, hissing at the spirit wall.
Avatars can chain Kitsune to an item from their homeland, or at least that’s what the stories say. And apparently, Roku told Aang how to do it.
He turned back to the campsite. It just wasn’t fair, that literally everybody else could do pretty much anything they wanted without consequence and he couldn’t. They could make him do what they wanted. They could force him to do awful things- he growled and bared his teeth towards the moon. Then he sighed and laid down, curling his tail by his nose and becoming a tight ball of anger in the patch of silvery moonlight.
A prisoner, he thought.
~
He woke up blinking rays of sunlight out of his eyes. Uncurling and stretching, he sniffed around and growled when he realized he was still with the Gaang. Katara was cooking something that smelled divine , and Sokka and Aang were still sleeping.
He yawned and licked his lips. He was hungry, but if he couldn’t leave the campsite because of that Kyoshi fan-
The fan. Of course! Why didn’t he think of it? He could just take the fan and leave!
But...where is it? He glanced around.
Then he sneezed, alerting Katara to his presence. “Zuko! You’re awake!” He ignored her in favor of searching for Appa's saddle.
Getting on it was difficult in this form, but he wouldn’t be able to scent things as well if he shifted. He nosed through their things, which was probably extremely rude but Zuko didn’t care. They never asked if he wanted to leave Kyoshi, so this was pay back.
Disappointed, he jumped off the bison with a growl. It growled back.
He surveyed the campsite, Aang and Sokka starting to move around a bit more, signifying the near end of sleep. Katara was humming a slow song while she cooked. He couldn’t find any sign of the golden fan anywhere until-
There. Damn. Sokka was holding it.
He padded silently up to Sokka, hoping he could just bite and whip the fan out of the non-benders’ grip. Then Sokka had the audacity to move over towards him and wake up. “AH!” Sokka shot up, hitting Zuko on the nose. “Don’t- do that!”
Zuko leapt to reach the lowered fan, but before he could grab it it was hefted much higher over Sokka’s head. “No! Bad Zuko! You can’t have the fan yet!” He stopped jumping and glared up at Sokka, growling slightly.
He shifted to his human form and crossed his arms, glaring sharply. “Why not.”
“Breakfast time!” Aang interrupted. Zuko huffed and turned around, shoulder-length hair flicking his face in the wind.
~
He was not having a good time. He’d found out he couldn’t actually touch the fan! It would glow blue and burn him slightly. So that was fun.
He also wasn’t allowed near the food, after a disaster involving salt and sugar. Zuko thought it was hilarious, but maybe that kind of humor wasn’t shared. If he was going to be a prisoner, might as well make the most of it!