Chapter Text
Aang and Katara head out for bending school, and Sokka quickly discovers that there’s not much for him and Li to do around here. Travel involves so much work that he doesn’t know what to do with himself when his responsibilities can all be summed up as ‘Li.’
Lacking anything better to do, he takes Li out to explore the city. They run into Yue on a passing boat and are both so excited to see her that they almost fall into the canal waving at her. Yue obviously finds it charming, and waves back as she passes.
Once Yue’s out of sight, Sokka runs into Tiya and Nuwa, who invite him and Li to a playdate with some of the other kiddos.
“Man, that would be great,” Sokka says, smiling. “I gotta admit, I’ve been kind of worried he’s not really getting all the social stuff he needs, you know? I feel like he should get to be around kids his own age, make some friends, all that, but it hasn’t really been a thing we can do. It’s probably why he’s so shy, honestly, I just- why are you all smiling at me like that?”
“You are adorable,” Tiya informs him, still smiling. “You’re going to be such a great mother.”
“Honestly,” Sokka says, “I’d be a bit offended, but I’ve been here for like a day and a half and I’ve already seen what passes for fathers around here, so.” He shrugs. “My dad’s a great mother, too, by the way.”
“So you come by it honestly, then,” Nuwa says.
“Apparently,” Sokka agrees. “Though I wouldn’t say no to some pointers if you have any, first-time parent and all.”
“Don’t worry, Sokka,” Tiya says, patting his shoulder. “We’ll teach you all you need to know.”
We work through the bits that are identical to canon like Pakku being Like That, while Sokka and Yue have not-a-dates chaperoned by Li.
There’s some added condescension towards Sokka involved in Pakku’s idiocy, but it’s still Katara who fights him. Gotta try and find a way to bring the necklace into it without having Katara’s acceptance hinge on Pakku’s pining for Kana, since that’s the catalyst for the whole ‘Yue’s engaged’ thing that’s kind of important to her relationship with Sokka.
Sokka tries to cheer Yue up by introducing her to Appa. They and Li go out for a flight, which does cheer Yue up a bit. There’s an almost kiss that’s interrupted by Li almost falling out of the saddle again because they still haven’t gotten that kid a harness.
Black snowfall happens and now nothing is good and everything’s bad and they need to jet back to town immediately.
At the big meeting, Sokka again volunteers himself as a warrior, on the condition that someone take care of Li in his absence.
To everyone’s surprise - including her own - Yue steps up to take him. Li is distressingly obedient about the whole affair, like he already knows what being left behind is like and already knows that kicking up a fuss won’t do him any good.
The meeting adjourns and everyone separates to see to their duties.
Meanwhile on a Fire Navy ship, Zhao is being Zhao in Iroh’s presence. Iroh plays along while worrying about Zuko, if he’s safe and if the Gaang are taking good care of him, and wishes he dared try and sneak out a message to the city to make sure and ease his mind.
Back in the city, we sidestep that canon subplot with Hahn because who needs that? Instead, Arnook just directly assigns Sokka as Yue’s guard because he’s a cool old dude and not only does it put a competent warrior who already knows how to work with Aang and Katara with Yue, it also puts Sokka near his kid.
Sokka gratefully joins his friends, kiddo, and not-girlfriend as they decide to head to the spirit oasis to ask for spirit aid.
While everyone’s discussing how to contact the Moon Spirit and Aang prepares to get his meditate on, Li kneels down next to the pond, watching the fish in utter fascination. Chapter ends with him calling one of them ‘Moon’ without anyone hearing him.
Next chapter opens with the invasion underway. There’s fighting in the city as Aang attempts to find the Moon Spirit in the Spirit World and has his uncomfortable talk with Koh while Sokka and Katara guard his body for him and Yue picks Li up to keep him from falling into the pond.
Aang returns to his body with updated Moon Location Info just in time for Zhao to barge in. The Gaang moves forward to protect the spirits, while Yue moves back with Li to keep him out of the way and safe.
Zhao has seen the royal family up close and even seen a portrait or two of Zuko as a baby, and recognizes him almost immediately. He starts gloating in a way that utterly confuses all parties present, until Iroh steps in.
Zhao demands to know if Iroh will really betray his nation for the sake of his useless nephew.
Iroh takes a moment to reflect on the choice he’s actually making: whether the greater good or his nephew are his higher priority. The White Lotus has Big Plans, many of which rely heavily on the inside information he has access to as a prince of the Fire Nation; can he really throw all that away for Zuko’s sake?
(Lean hard into this because apparently I wrote that part super fucking badly, given how many people have completely misunderstood it.)
He also touches on the irony of this being the exact choice he left Zuko with the Gaang to avoid having to make, and the proverb about meeting one’s destiny on the road one takes to avoid it.
Turns out, it’s not nearly as difficult a choice as he expected.
With the moon un-barbecued and waterbenders (plus the Avatar) backing Iroh up, Zhao’s plans kind of fall apart on him, and he makes a run for it.
He doesn’t get very far.
Iroh is about to leave to help halt the still ongoing invasion, but stops when he hears Zuko calling for him.
Zuko wiggles out of Yue’s grasp and runs to Iroh, who immediately forgets the whole ‘ongoing invasion’ thing to hug his beloved nephew.
Other people take care of repelling the invaders and restoring peace to the city while Iroh enjoys his reunion. The Gaang asks who tf Iroh is but politely. Iroh introduces himself while mentioning his nephew.
“Your nephew?” Aang asks.
“I believe you have been calling him Li, but you may also know him as Prince Zuko.”
“Zoo!” Zuko pipes up helpfully.
“Oh, spirits, it’s his name! ” Sokka exclaims, smacking himself in the forehead. “All this time we just thought he was obsessed with zoos.”
Because we are dealing with literal children here, Zuko’s affection is enough of a voucher for the Gaang to just be okay with this.
Zuko takes it upon himself to make introductions. He introduces Sokka by calling him Mama.
“You can call me Sokka, though,” Sokka adds, obviously very pleased with himself.
“Well met, Sokka,” Iroh says. “And thank you for caring for my nephew.”
“It was no trouble,” Sokka assures him, then frowns. “Wait, are you here to challenge me for custody? Because I will fight you. I have a boomerang and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Iroh finds this very amusing, but kindly doesn’t laugh. Sokka would probably be offended.
By the time they make it out of the oasis, the invasion’s been handled and Pakku has vouched for Iroh to the grownups. Since it’s only a matter of time before the fleeing invaders make sure Iroh’s branded a traitor and staying at the North Pole isn’t really an option, Iroh offers to go with the Gaang as Aang’s future firebending instructor.
After some discussion, it’s decided that having an actual adult along will be helpful and also none of them have the heart to try and separate Zuko-Li from his uncle.
For no apparent reason, Katara suddenly laughs.
“What?” Sokka demands.
“If we ever find Jeong Jeong again, remind me I owe Hiro an apology,” she says. “We did kidnap one of their princes, after all.”
The Gaang plus Iroh prepare to set off again, which includes meeting with the crew of the Wani, who hung around after everyone else left because where else are they gonna go? They’re probably traitors by association, anyway: they might as well actually betray the Fire Lord while they’re at it.
As soon as the crew catches sight of Zuko-Li, Kyo about has a heart attack. He makes a high-pitched squeaking noise, grabbing the nearest person - Genji - and shaking him.
“Genji. Genji. Genji, he’s so cute I’m going to die.”
“No dying in front of the princes,” Genji says with a sigh
“You’re not the boss of me, Genj.”
“Lieutenant Jee, tell Kyo he’s not allowed to die in front of the princes.”
“No dying in front of the princes, Helmsman,” Jee says with an exasperated air of ‘ how is this my life.’
Plans are made for the Wani’s near future and where to meet up next, then it’s time for goodbyes.
Sokka and Zuko-Li say a private(ish) goodbye to Yue, with much ‘I miss you’ and ‘may we meet again soon’.
“Bring me something nice from your travels,” she requests. “Perhaps some jewelry. I’m in the market for a new necklace.”
(Undecided as of now whether Hahn died in the invasion or Yue just called the whole thing off because arranged marriages are so two Avatar Cycles ago.)
It takes Sokka a second, but he gets it.
Once all goodbyes are said, they all climb aboard Appa and head out for the Earth Kingdom, and that’s the end of fic one.
For fic two, there’s no proper outline because I was gonna do it once I finished fic one, but here we are.
So.
I never got around to going over season two again to see what changes due to Iroh being there (like, they definitely ain’t visiting Fong, they aren’t that dumb), but most of them are shenanigans (including many unexpected custody challengers) because the only really important one is the Swamp episode.
While lost in the swamp, Zuko-Li gets separated from the rest and runs into Sozin and Roku, who both tell him he has a choice to make. Since Zuko-Li is currently two, he is not down for these scary old men looming over him making demands, and he starts crying.
Enter a very exasperated Kya, who swoops in to soothe her adopted grandson and tell the old men off for scaring him.
Since Kya looks a lot like Sokka and is also a mom who knows what she’s doing, she easily calms the kid down.
It’s revealed that Zuko is currently being actively kept in his regressed form by the spirits, hence the sudden sensitivity to spirit things like sensing the Moon’s touch on Yue. He does need to make a choice, though, and he needs to understand the choice in order to make it, so the spirits give him access to his teenage mind.
He has three options.
One, he can become Li permanently. He can grow up again with a loving family who will look out for and protect him, take this do-over the spirits have made and make the most of it.
Two, he can forget Li. He can be returned to his true age and go back to being the Fire Lord’s loyal son, throw himself into the war with no memory of his time as Li to hold him back or divide his loyalties.
Or three, he can choose the hard path. He can become Zuko again while remembering his time as Li, remembering the love he experienced and the things he saw, and help to end the war.
Obviously he goes with option three, but I had no concrete plans past that, so the actual ending is up to your imaginations.