To Build a Home
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Summary
Never mind that he won’t be of age for another year-and-then-some. Never mind that he’s sixteen with bandages still wrapped around his chest and a more intimate knowledge of war than these men will ever have. He wasn’t old enough for his first Agni Kai. He isn’t old enough for the crown. No one batted an eye then, they don’t now. The prayer shawl is a familiar weight on his shoulders.
(Youth is no excuse, the generals hiss to one another.
You will learn respect, a palm of flames says.)
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- Part 1 of To Build a Home
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Summary
Somehow, he survives his first month on the throne, assassination attempts, and Agni Kais be damned. And then he survives the second.
By the start of the third, Zuko thinks, I might make it to seventeen.(Somewhere, the spirits are laughing at him.)
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- Part 2 of To Build a Home
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Iroh steps up as regent. He takes the five-pronged flame crown from his nephew’s head and says with his heart breaking in two, you need to live.
He does not say, I am too selfish to lose you too, and Iroh does not say, I cannot grieve for another son.
He should have done it sooner, he thinks, seeing his nephew look so small in the palace infirmary with bandages around his shoulder and bags under his eyes. He should have done it sooner, he thinks, holding his nephew in his arms as he shatters.
(Iroh has not always been a good man, and he has not always been a good uncle. This, he thinks, is the first step towards being better.)
Series
- Part 3 of To Build a Home