Cartoon One Shots

Zuko's birthday

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender

Note: I'm just so in love with atla right now! And Zuko is my little fire prince 😍😍 (honestly I just stan any poor broken boy with fire abilities and daddy issues 🤣🤣🤣) So, I thought up this real cute idea! It'll include my atla ocs, mainly just through little mentions (Miko and Lin) and maybe I'll put it in my atla fic (Defiance) when I get to book three. We'll see! Anyway, enjoy the fluff because it's adorable!

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They're distracting him. He knows this, he just can't figure out why they're distracting him. There's not even enough time to think. Every time Zuko turns around Sokka wants to practice sparring with the new swords they'd gotten a hold of after fending off those Fire Nation troops three days ago. Or, if not the Water Tribe boy, it's Aang wanting to practice his fire bending training, even though they already practiced earlier that morning and Aang hates practicing fire bending. (And Zuko is pretty sure he's been messing up on purpose so this extra training takes even longer.)

He hasn't seen Katara or his cousin Miko all day either, which is also strange. Katara is always so reluctant to leave Aang's side, especially when Zuko is around. (She still thinks he's going to try something to hurt the Avatar even after that "life changing field trip" they'd take to find her mother's killer.) Miko might have been off somewhere gallivanting with Lin (they do so often enough these days), but she usually comes around every now and again. It's not like her to just disappear. (After all, she's the only real reason Aang and his friends have let him stick around this long.)

The Earth bender, Toph, hasn't made a peep either. Which is really strange. She always has something -- some snarky comment usually -- to say. The girl is always around, always cackling, always taunting everyone or just plain making fun of them. The silence is a nice change, but still. It's suspicious.

"Oh, monkey feathers!" Aang suddenly lets the flames in his palms extinguish; it's on purpose, but he acts like it's an accident. His tone couldn't be more obvious. "Zuko, I'm just not getting it! How about another demonstration?" He is definitely up to something, and everyone else is in on it, even his own cousin! Zuko wonders if its some sort of pay back for hunting the Avatar and his friends for the last three years... Maybe Katara has Lin and Toph with her, and the girls are preparing to jump him as soon as Aang and Sokka get his guard down. Or maybe the Avatar is trying to hurry up and master fire bending and leave Zuko far, far behind him. Its no secret the team dislikes him, and they're a long way from forgiving him, he thinks, especially Katara. (But he's been trying!)

Zuko would like to believe Miko wouldn't let them do that to him, but he's not sure about anyone in his family anymore. Maybe she cares for them more than she cares for him.

When Sokka nods the movement is so quick Zuko wonders how it doesn't break his neck. "Yeah, and when you're done with that, you can show me that cool jabby move again!" He poorly mimicks the move, jabbing his fist in the air wildly; he's making unnecessary sound effects.

"And then, we can take Appa for a ride," Aang suggests. "He hasn't gotten to fly around a lot lately."

"Exactly!" Sokka is quick to agree. He slings one arm around Zuko, his other around Aang, tilting his head to the sky in a dramatic way only he seemed to possess. "We can fly him somewhere far far away from here for the rest of the day -- or at least for another three hours -- because there is absolutely nothing interesting going on here!"

"Nope! Nothing at all!" It's Aang's turn to nod so vigorously it should have snapped his tiny neck.

The pair don identical grins, big and wide; their eyes are equally twitchy. Zuko's pretty sure he can see beads of sweat forming on both of their temples. He shoves Sokka off and narrows his eyes at the two of them. What are you up to?