Drabbles: A Little Perspective (A:tLA; PG)
Sep. 1st, 2010 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupPG; Avatar: the Last Airbender. Set late Book 1; 2 x 100 words. Reaction drabbles #1.
Refuge in the Abstract
It is easier for Zuko to think about the Avatar in the abstract. As an object: the goal of his redemptive quest. As an obstacle: a power opposing the Fire Nation. As a hurdle: yet another naturally gifted younger bender against whom Zuko must prove himself.
Not so simple to think about Aang, twelve years old and separated from his people, with only a pair of juvenile Water Tribe peasants-- no Uncle Iroh, either of them-- to support him.
But that doesn't matter. Zuko can't let it.
He must capture the Avatar. Of course they never could have been friends.
Living Life in Detail
It isn't that Aang doesn't understand how important he is. He knows. He's always known.
It's too big, though; too much. He's twelve. He's not even as old as Avatars usually are when they're told their destiny. And somehow he has to not only end a hundred-year-old war, but do so on a deadline? He can't live with that on a day to day basis.
This is what he can: one hand offered in friendship; one new town explored or saved; one smile coaxed from Katara.
He'll get there in the end, he's sure. Just-- one step at a time.
Refuge in the Abstract
It is easier for Zuko to think about the Avatar in the abstract. As an object: the goal of his redemptive quest. As an obstacle: a power opposing the Fire Nation. As a hurdle: yet another naturally gifted younger bender against whom Zuko must prove himself.
Not so simple to think about Aang, twelve years old and separated from his people, with only a pair of juvenile Water Tribe peasants-- no Uncle Iroh, either of them-- to support him.
But that doesn't matter. Zuko can't let it.
He must capture the Avatar. Of course they never could have been friends.
Living Life in Detail
It isn't that Aang doesn't understand how important he is. He knows. He's always known.
It's too big, though; too much. He's twelve. He's not even as old as Avatars usually are when they're told their destiny. And somehow he has to not only end a hundred-year-old war, but do so on a deadline? He can't live with that on a day to day basis.
This is what he can: one hand offered in friendship; one new town explored or saved; one smile coaxed from Katara.
He'll get there in the end, he's sure. Just-- one step at a time.
