Chapter Text
“Shh! Keep Quiet!” Sokka hissed harshly after Aang pointed out a cave below. Zuko tensed, looking over the side of the bison’s saddle expecting to see soldiers underfoot. There was… nothing, absolutely nothing but forests and cave. Katara and Aang had bent a cloud around Appa that had so far completely kept anyone from noticing them as they flew over barricades and naval forts in small outlying islands. That didn’t keep the water tribe teen from complaining. “Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, lets disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud that knows how to keep it’s mouth shut.”
Zuko shared a glance with Aang and Katara, the latter of whom rolled her eyes. Toph scoffed as she slipped off of the bison and sensed the complete lack of people that the others could see from the bison. “Yeah, we couldn’t want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in.”
“Hey!” Sokka huffed defensively. “We’re in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds.”
He pointed at some of the birds hopping on nearby rocks. Zuko blinked at them, then at the boy. “Actually, those are toucan-puffins.”
“Not the point, Zuko.” Sokka huffed as he started into the cave and started saying some nonsense about hiding out in caves until the invasion. Which… that wasn’t what Zuko thought this would be at all. The others seemed to agree, if the looks on their faces were anything to go off of.
“I thought the whole point of pretending that Aang was dead was that they wouldn’t be looking for us.” Zuko argued. “That we would be able to move around the Fire Nation in disguise.”
“That doesn’t mean that an airbender, two watertribesmen, and an earthbender should be walking around with signs tied to our chests saying ‘look, it’s the Avatar!’. Besides, you’rre still pretty ‘Wanted’, buddy.”
“But they won’t be looking for me here.” Zuko pointed out. “I’m banished from the Fire Nation.”
“Right, cause enemies of the state are so well known to follow laws like ‘banishment’.”
Zuko scowled, but… that was a good point. He closed his eyes and forced down the part of him that had been so excited to see the Fire Nation that he couldn’t see from the palace, the average Fire Nation full of the ones that truly formed his ‘People’. “Fine. That doesn’t mean that the rest of you have to be in hiding. You are right that you can’t walk around as people from other nations, but if you just get some Fire Nation clothing, you shouldn’t have any issues.”
People thought that Zuko couldn’t think things through, that he couldn’t plan ahead. That wasn’t true. If it was, not even Uncle’s love for him or esteem for his character would have allowed the man to advocate for Zuko to take the throne. A leader needed to be able to plan ahead, Zuko needed to be able to plan ahead. He could, of course he could. It just seemed like most of the time, there were immediate time constraints that meant that acting had to come before planning.
But he did plan. He had spent hours upon days planning escape attempt after escape attempt while in the cave. In times of true despair and desperation, he’d even imagined a reality where he decided to ignore the banishment and attempt to sneak back into his nation as a random citizen. He’d never imagined he would actually do it of course. It had been simple thoughts that invaded after hours of darkness that he just couldn’t find it in himself to banish.
Sitting with Aang in the boat had cast him in a similar mental state. When his thoughts were tired of self-recriminating for hurting Aang, replaying his battle with Azula and trying to find a way it could have ended any other way, trying to plan for the actual invasion plan, he found his mind wandering to his old guiltily-formed plans.They hadn’t seemed any more likely to come to fruition now, in the face of a carefully planned invasion plan, but it had been a relief to think about when all other thoughts felt heavy and dark.
Now… now he was glad for his furtive imaginings.
“We passed over a port city a little while back. Port cities are used to people coming from the colonies. As long as you get disguises first, you should be able to get your Earth Kingdom money exchanged for Fire Nation coins. Any further inland and they wouldn’t accept it at all. And if you act… weird or don’t know where things are, they’re probably used to that and will be more forgiving than other places. It would be the best place to get a feel for… for Fire Nation life.”
“I woulda thought you would be able to help us out with that, Sparky.” Toph said, but Zuko shook his head.
“I… only even experienced the Fire Nation through the palace. We would ride through towns like this, but we would never leave the carriage. I know what the other nobles said what the common people lived like, but…”
“But they weren’t exactly fountains of truth, got it.” Toph said sardonically.
The Firebender nodded. “I know the geography, and the exports and imports of different cities, but not enough about how people just… live.”
“Or, we could ignore all of that and be nice and safe hidden in the woods.” Sokka tried again. “We don’t even have to stay in caves, as long as we can hide Appa.” He wagged his eyebrows at Zuko, and the fire prince flushed with anger. He wasn't just trying to avoid caves. That wasn't what this was about. This was a good idea.
“I’m with Zuko.” Aang interjected. “Blending in is better than hiding out. We just need to get Fire Nation disguises.”
Katara hummed and looked to the bright sky. “It doesn’t look like rain. Even the Fire Nation has to do laundry. I’m sure we can find a clothesline somewhere that has stuff that will work.”
Zuko nodded, going back to his old mental plans, and started talking them through how to find homes that looked upper middle class. The nomadic airbender and communal watertribesmen had seemed confused by the phrasing, until Toph had interjected to compare it to the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se.
“Right,” Zuko nodded. “Rich enough to afford new clothes, but not so rich that they’ll have servants to blame for losing them. And fashionable enough that you’ll fit in anywhere, but not so fashionable that people would stare.”
Sokka scrunched his nose a bit. “Alright, I get that I’ve been outvoted, but does fashion really matter that much?”
“Yes.” Both Zuko and Toph said simultaneously. The two rich kids had identical expressions of exasperation, but Zuko was the one to elaborate. “What you wear can tell a lot about where you’re from, how much money you have, how nice of a family you come from… more than you’d think. You could get away with it when you were obviously foreign in the Earth Kingdom, but if you want to fit in, you need to get clothes that actually, you know, fit in.”
“Alright, alright.” Sokka rolled his eyes, fingers running over the bag he’d gone back and forth on buying so long ago, a bag he was about to have to abandon, or at least keep tucked away on Appa. “I got it, we gotta pick nice clothes.”
“With the right disguises,” Zuko continued, diverting once again to the plans he’d made in the dark foreign places, where going home in any way was tantamount to a dream. “People won’t pay too much attention to you. Anyone who does ask questions, you can say that you’re from the colonies, but that your parents sent you to the mainland to stay with relatives. It should get you a pass for weird behavior and explain why you’re moving around alone.”
Sokka hummed, seemingly having completely accepted that they were going with the disguises plan. “We could even use Gaipan as an excuse, say we’re from the area and our parents sent us home to protect us.” Zuko grimaced. He didn’t really like invoking memories of Gaipan, but Sokka was right that it was a good idea, so he didn’t say anything as the boy continued strategizing. “If we really need to distract them, we can play up all of that propaganda stuff that we got birds for. Say stuff like ‘since we’re winning the war soon anyway, our parents want us here where it’s safer until its all over’, and stuff like that.”
Toph’s responding grin was feral. “I like it. Gets them to underestimate us, and then wham, when they least suspect it.”
Zuko sighed. “Please do not wham people. That isn’t a good way to stay undercover.”
“Maybe not the way you do it.” Toph grumbled, and Zuko rolled his eyes.
“This is great!” Aang cheered. “I hung out with Kuzon of the Fire Nation all the time as a kid! I’m so excited to finally explore it.”
Zuko felt along his scar as Sokka once again scolded Aang about being excited when surrounded by the enemy. He said nothing though, worried that if he opened his mouth, he would mention how much he wished he could say the same.
Aang practically vibrated as they eyed the home from their hiding place behind a stone wall. Toph, Katara, and Sokka crouched near him, with Sokka dutifully chanting every single indicator that Zuko had mentioned meant it was a home they could steal from. Er, he didn’t word it like that but essentially that was what he meant. Aang wished the older team had come with them, but since they were going into the town right after getting the disguises, and he couldn’t join them without being recognized, he had elected to stay behind with Appa.
Aang thought he wasn’t as okay with that as he’d said he’d been, but he didn’t know how to help with that. Since he hadn’t known, he’d mentioned it to Sokka on the walk over, since Sokka was usually better about all things Zuko. The watertribesman had agreed with Aang and had promised that he was trying to think of something to help as well. Well, at the moment he wasn’t, he was still going through Zuko’s list. Finally, Sokka petered off.
“So…” Aang, who definitely hadn’t been paying attention, asked. “Does that mean we can-”
“I call the silk robe!” Katara interrupted, darting for the clothesline.
Aang perked. “I call the suit!”
Soon, he and the others were pulling off clothes with abandon. Whoever lived in this house must have had a big family, because there were plenty of different sizes. They were all able to find something that looked like it would fit, and managed to find something that would suit Zuko as well. They didn’t linger at the home though, instead grabbing everything that they thought might work and fleeing back to the relative safety of a grove of rocks.
Aang worked on positioning a headband around his new hair to fully hide his tattoos as Toph blasted the bottom out of her shoes and Sokka decided what he wanted to wear and what he was going to pack away in his new bag for Zuko.
“How do I look?” Katara asked. Aang looked up and she was… wow.
She was just wow.
For a moment, the airbender was struck with the sight. Geez, the Fire Nation sure was warm, he could feel his face burning. By the time he could force words through his dry throat, all he could do was point out her mother’s necklace, the blue contrasting greatly against the red of the rest of her outfit.
Katara gently touched the pendant. “Oh, oh, yeah. I guess it’s pretty obviously Water Tribe, isn’t it?” She took off the necklace and very carefully tucked it into a pocket of her wow dress.
Sokka rose to his feet, nodding at the group. “Alright, we look very Fire-Nation-y. So! Next stop, getting our money exchanged and then I need food. And then back to Zuko because I bet he’d worked himself into a paranoid puddle while we were gone.”
Aang perked. “Kuzon told me how to look natural in the Fire Nation, so, everyone just follow my lead and stay cool. Or, as they say in the Fire Nation, "stay flamin'".”
Sokka led the way into town and took them into a small office building that claimed to exchange money. Aang leaned on the counter and grinned at the person behind the desk. “Greetings, my good hotman.”
The person behind the desk looked surprised, then bemused. “From the colonies, I’m guessing.”
“Uh, yeah.” Katara answered from behind him. “How did you know?”
“Different slang. You colony kids always seem to be a bit behind on that kinda stuff.” The office worker shrugged. “You’ll catch on pretty quick though. Young ones like you usually do. Now, what can I do for you?”
Sokka gave them the money to transfer, loudly describing the background story that they had come up with while Aang tried to figure out what he’d meant by the ‘bit behind’ thing. The clerk had actually seemed more helpful than he’d expected, providing a map and some friendly directions as well as the money. He remarked about fashion trends being different on the colonies, and suggested some local shops for hair accessories. Aang felt bad about it but he was actually kinda surprised that they seemed to care about fashion as much as Zuko had said they would. However, as he looked around he did see that the majority of the people in the town did had top knots or crowns or hair decorations of some point. He hoped that his headband would be enough, given how short his hair was.
They left the shop with a good amount of Fire Nation coin, a map, and plenty of helpful advice, skirting out around a group that claimed to have returned to the mainland after traveling all over the Earth Kingdom for stories for something called the Ember Island Players.
The shop was actually really fun. Aang greeted everyone they met with a hotman, which continued to get him weird stares. No one complained though, so he figures they were just really surprised that a colony person knew so much about their culture. As he’d hoped, no one seemed to think that he needed anything beyond his headband. The other, however, got swamped by peddlers of accessories as they walked past the shops. Toph got a crown-chaped comb and Sokka and Katara both grabbed a few top knot bands. Sokka also grabbed a jar of some kind of goop that Aang didn’t know. Katara paused at one point, stopping by a kiosk selling jewelry.
The man at the stand had a broad smile as he showed her his wares, jewelry at a variety of quality and price. Curiously, Aang glanced at the jewelry as well, but what really caught his attention was the brooch that was pinned to the man’s shirt. It looked like a flame motif, but something was off about it. More importantly, it somehow shone like a rainbow.
“That’s such a cool pin!” The man tensed for some reason, and brushed a funger against the design.
“Thank you. It… was designed by my daughter, before…” He coughed and notably didn’t finish the sentence. “Unfortunately, these are special order only. However, I have several other lovely pendants. Now, young lady, you look like you would be well-suited to a choker style necklace, and I think I have just the thing.”
The necklace Katara bought didn’t have nearly the sentimental value as her mother’s jewelry, but Aang could tell that it comforted her to have anything around her neck as they finished their shopping. By the time they were done, Sokka was practically drooling with his desire for food. It shouldn’t have surprised Aang, then, that they went to some… meat… place. He would have fought harder against it, but a quick glance around the town square revealed that there were no shops that didn’t have meat on their signs. Zuko could probably have told them what places would have had vegetarian options at least, but he wasn’t here and none of them were quite sure how suspicious of a request that would be out of the blue.
Reluctantly, he told the others to go on without him, forcing himself to be content with knowing he would eventually get some of the provisions they’d managed to pack on Appa before coming to get him. Of course, waiting for his friends to get done with their meal couldn’t have been more boring. He was considered ‘irresponsible with money’ so he couldn’t even go back to the market!
He was trying to figure out how to entertain himself without air-bender-marble-juggling when he was suddenly surrounded by a pair of soldiers. “It’s over. We caught you.”
Icy terror ran up Aang’s entire body. He found himself fidgeting with the headband just to make sure it was covering his arrow. It was. How did they know? “Who, me?” He tried, already mentally preparing what bending he could do to escape.
He didn’t have a glider so air wouldn’t be as helpful as usual.
The soldier sneered. “It couldn’t be any more obvious that you don’t belong here.”
There was a fountain right in the center of the market, and it was a port city so the ocean wasn’t too far if he really needed it.
“Next time you play hooky, you might wanna take off your school uniform.”
The roads and ground were all hard-packed dirt and rock so he could always- wait what?
Without any further discussion, the two soldiers grabbed Aang’s arms, and started dragging him through the town to… a school.
This was so not flameo.