Molten Ice [A:TLA au]

epigraph + summary

"At times there will
be fire; this we can't
avoid. But it's up to
us to decide whether
it will consume or it
will purify."
—cristen rodgers

"Ice burns, and it is
hard to the warm-
skinned to distinguish
one sensation, fire,
from the other, frost."
—a.s. byatt

"You fall in love with
the most unexpected
person at the most
unexpected time."
—unknown

————

In one part of the world, lived a firebender within a nation covered in ice and water, among men and women who bent the element opposite of her own.

In another part of the world, lived a waterbender within a nation made of volcanic rock, surrounded by benders of the element opposite of his own.

Both had to hide to keep themselves safe (alive).

This was the story of how they eventually left those places, found family and love within a group of friends, fought against the Fire Nation to save the world, and learned of the fact that they were twins – albeit, not in that exact order.

OR, Koda of the Fire Nation was molded by his step-father into a soldier alongside his older half-brother; the only difference was that he's forced to never waterbend lest he bring shame to Commander Zhao. Stuck in a place with no way out, he only dreamed of leaving. That want merely grew once his step-father began attempts at taking over the search of the Avatar from Prince Zuko.

Meanwhile, Akiko of the Northern Water Tribe molded her flames to be small and gentle to stay unnoticed, only for things to go awry at the age of sixteen. She never dreamed of leaving, per se, but feared of how the people of her tribe would react if they learned of her true bending abilities. After the sacrifice of Princess Yue, that fear grew alongside new ones and she left her home behind.

What followed was a journey neither of them saw coming.

————

A/N— Welcome to yet another revamped version of this fic! Let's hope this is the last time I do this. Yes, this is no longer YuexOC story; I went back to what I originally had planned before that, which was a ZukoxFem!OC story. I love Yue, believe me!! But I found the very first draft of this fic in my Google docs, skimmed over it, & was like "...you know what. Let me bring parts of this back" and voilà! Here we are lmao. A lot of things still changed tho

The romance in this fic is Zuko & Akiko, if you're wondering, but it's not the main focus (at least not at first; they don't meet for a long time lol). And there is still something between Akiko & Yue but nothing is ever official between them, unfortunately

By the way, this is connected to my other fics Lost Arrow and Ocean's Calling!! I'm not going to, like, force you guys to read those if you don't want to, but they're there if anyone chooses to do so. Neither of them have been updated in a hot minute or two, but I'm working on it lol

DEDICATION(S)— to all the a:tla lovers & any of my mutuals who love it.

WARNING(S)— violence, death, sexism, Zhao and Ozai being terrible fathers, typical A:TLA shenanigans
[if needed, I will add onto this as well as up a warning at the beginning of the chapter if necessary]

DISCLAIMER— I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender nor the plot of the show. The characters and stories rightfully belong to the creators, and whoever else helped make the show. I only own this story's plot and my original characters.

started — 4.23.2020
posted — 5.01.2020
re-posted — 11.09.2023
finished — TBA