Categories > Cartoons > Avatar: The Last Airbender > Letters Between Friends
AN: This is my first time working with the Avatar characters. This probably won’t be incredibly long, but I haven’t seen an Avatar story done like this and thought it would be interesting to write. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don’t own, please don’t sue!
O-O-O-O-O-O-O
Letters Between Friends
Chapter 1
Zuko sorted through the message scrolls that had been delivered to him that morning. Treaty update, treaty update, reparations negotiation; sometimes being the Fire Lord could be a little boring. At twenty-two years old, people already regarded him as one of the greatest Fire Lords in hundreds of years even though he was still learning most things as he went along. He continued to organize his paperwork for the day until one of the scrolls caught his eye. It was from one of the ambassadors he’d sent out.
Opening the scroll and reading the first few lines, Zuko recognized the feminine handwriting instantly. ‘Katara,’ he thought.
Fire Lord Zuko,
You will be pleased to hear that negotiations with the Northern Water Tribe are complete. Chief Arnook has agreed to give safe passage to Fire Nation transport and passenger ships provided that any armed guard accompaniment doesn’t exceed a one guard to ten passenger ratio. He is also willing to open the tribe’s ports for trade and will send an emissary within the next month with trading terms and conduct that he will expect.
I’ve looked over the terms already, and I don’t think that you could ask for a better arrangement at this point in time without overstepping a boundary. I highly encourage you to accept the terms. After a trust is built, then you might think about a renegotiation so that your nation benefits more.
All in all, I think that things have gone very well despite negotiations taking three weeks longer than planned.
Now that all the political talk is out of the way…how are you, old friend? It’s been a while since your last letter. The last time I heard from you, things seemed a little tense. Have your advisors finally started accepting that you don’t care what they think?? They seemed pretty annoyed with you last time I was there!
And what about your father and sister? You should hear some of the rumors I’ve heard about your sister’s breakdown. Your family is still apparently a hot gossip topic. But last time you said that Azula had been receiving treatments that seemed to be helping. Has she made any improvement? As much trouble as she put us through, it’s terrible that someone as smart and strong as she was has completely lost herself. Maybe one day she’ll be back to normal. Only hopefully, you know, nicer?
I doubt your father will want to reconcile, and I doubt you want that either. But has he given any information on where your mother is yet? You’ve been interrogating him for a few years now. Surely he’s close to telling you something other than that she was still alive the last time he heard anything.
And what about Fire Lady Mai? I think you’re good for each other, Zuko. You make each other smile even if it’s because you hate the same things. But she’s slowly learning that it’s okay to have fun and you’re learning that it’s okay to let people in again. Don’t lose sight of that during all of those Fire Lord duties.
The last time I heard from Aang was about a week ago. He’s still traveling the world and helping to rebuild the cities and villages. The Earth Kingdom needed a lot of work once the colonies were emancipated.
Sokka and Suki are settling into their life while they rebuild the village on Kyoshi Island. Suki is training a new generation of Kyoshi Warriors with Ty Lee’s help and Sokka is still being goofy when he’s not teaching swordsmanship to those two poor apprentices that he took on. If he wasn’t so good at it I’d tell him to leave the children alone. The world can only handle one Sokka at a time.
I’ll probably have moved on from the Northern Water Tribe by the time you get this letter and can respond, but I’m planning on going to Ba Sing Se next to make sure that the treaty is holding. After that I’ll be going to outlying cities to make sure that everyone is getting the food and medicine that they should be getting. If you need me back in the Fire Nation capital for any reason, just send word.
Until next time, I hope life treats you well.
Sincerely,
Ambassador of the Fire Nation, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe
Zuko allowed a small smile to tug at his lips before taking a fresh scroll and his ink and brush to compose a reply message. He’d received a couple of report letters from Katara during her negotiations with the Northern Water Tribe’s chief, but he hadn’t had the time to reply to any of them.
Placing brush to paper, he wrote,
Ambassador Katara…
O-O-O-O-O-O-O
AN: And that’s where the next chapter will pick up. The chapters will basically be their letters and reactions to the letters. I’ll put in a little bit of what’s happening in their lives here and there around the letters, but it will mostly be what they’re writing to one another because I think that would give a better insight to what’s going on and how they’re feeling about it than anything else. The letters may get longer as the story progresses, but we’ll just have to see! Also, don’t freak about Zuko being married to Mai. This IS a Zutara story and will get there eventually, but I’m not going to say how right now. That’s part of the surprise. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Feedback is greatly appreciated. See you guys next time.
Disclaimer: I don’t own, please don’t sue!
O-O-O-O-O-O-O
Letters Between Friends
Chapter 1
Zuko sorted through the message scrolls that had been delivered to him that morning. Treaty update, treaty update, reparations negotiation; sometimes being the Fire Lord could be a little boring. At twenty-two years old, people already regarded him as one of the greatest Fire Lords in hundreds of years even though he was still learning most things as he went along. He continued to organize his paperwork for the day until one of the scrolls caught his eye. It was from one of the ambassadors he’d sent out.
Opening the scroll and reading the first few lines, Zuko recognized the feminine handwriting instantly. ‘Katara,’ he thought.
Fire Lord Zuko,
You will be pleased to hear that negotiations with the Northern Water Tribe are complete. Chief Arnook has agreed to give safe passage to Fire Nation transport and passenger ships provided that any armed guard accompaniment doesn’t exceed a one guard to ten passenger ratio. He is also willing to open the tribe’s ports for trade and will send an emissary within the next month with trading terms and conduct that he will expect.
I’ve looked over the terms already, and I don’t think that you could ask for a better arrangement at this point in time without overstepping a boundary. I highly encourage you to accept the terms. After a trust is built, then you might think about a renegotiation so that your nation benefits more.
All in all, I think that things have gone very well despite negotiations taking three weeks longer than planned.
Now that all the political talk is out of the way…how are you, old friend? It’s been a while since your last letter. The last time I heard from you, things seemed a little tense. Have your advisors finally started accepting that you don’t care what they think?? They seemed pretty annoyed with you last time I was there!
And what about your father and sister? You should hear some of the rumors I’ve heard about your sister’s breakdown. Your family is still apparently a hot gossip topic. But last time you said that Azula had been receiving treatments that seemed to be helping. Has she made any improvement? As much trouble as she put us through, it’s terrible that someone as smart and strong as she was has completely lost herself. Maybe one day she’ll be back to normal. Only hopefully, you know, nicer?
I doubt your father will want to reconcile, and I doubt you want that either. But has he given any information on where your mother is yet? You’ve been interrogating him for a few years now. Surely he’s close to telling you something other than that she was still alive the last time he heard anything.
And what about Fire Lady Mai? I think you’re good for each other, Zuko. You make each other smile even if it’s because you hate the same things. But she’s slowly learning that it’s okay to have fun and you’re learning that it’s okay to let people in again. Don’t lose sight of that during all of those Fire Lord duties.
The last time I heard from Aang was about a week ago. He’s still traveling the world and helping to rebuild the cities and villages. The Earth Kingdom needed a lot of work once the colonies were emancipated.
Sokka and Suki are settling into their life while they rebuild the village on Kyoshi Island. Suki is training a new generation of Kyoshi Warriors with Ty Lee’s help and Sokka is still being goofy when he’s not teaching swordsmanship to those two poor apprentices that he took on. If he wasn’t so good at it I’d tell him to leave the children alone. The world can only handle one Sokka at a time.
I’ll probably have moved on from the Northern Water Tribe by the time you get this letter and can respond, but I’m planning on going to Ba Sing Se next to make sure that the treaty is holding. After that I’ll be going to outlying cities to make sure that everyone is getting the food and medicine that they should be getting. If you need me back in the Fire Nation capital for any reason, just send word.
Until next time, I hope life treats you well.
Sincerely,
Ambassador of the Fire Nation, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe
Zuko allowed a small smile to tug at his lips before taking a fresh scroll and his ink and brush to compose a reply message. He’d received a couple of report letters from Katara during her negotiations with the Northern Water Tribe’s chief, but he hadn’t had the time to reply to any of them.
Placing brush to paper, he wrote,
Ambassador Katara…
O-O-O-O-O-O-O
AN: And that’s where the next chapter will pick up. The chapters will basically be their letters and reactions to the letters. I’ll put in a little bit of what’s happening in their lives here and there around the letters, but it will mostly be what they’re writing to one another because I think that would give a better insight to what’s going on and how they’re feeling about it than anything else. The letters may get longer as the story progresses, but we’ll just have to see! Also, don’t freak about Zuko being married to Mai. This IS a Zutara story and will get there eventually, but I’m not going to say how right now. That’s part of the surprise. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Feedback is greatly appreciated. See you guys next time.
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