Work Text:
“How is it that you can’t lie but you can act?”
“Acting and lying are two very different things!” Zuko declares, because they are. When he acts, it’s putting on a show; it's playing a character separate from himself. When he lies, it’s—well, it’s lying, and between Azula and Ozai, he’s had quite enough of that.
Jean continues to stare at him with bafflement that’s honestly a little offensive, before they sigh. “Well, that actually makes things easier,” they say.
“What?”
“Zuko, I love you, but you’re terrible with people.”
Zuko doesn’t even try to argue. It’s true. He didn’t even need one lifetime to figure that out. “So…?”
“I thought you were hopeless, but if you can act, you can just create a character to deal with people,” Jean explains. “If you can be someone completely different, you’ll have no trouble becoming famous.”
Zuko frowns. “I don’t really want to be famous.”
“If you’re famous, you get jobs, and jobs mean money. And I like money.” Jean narrows their eyes. “You will not deny me my money.”
“…Okay.”
And so, Skull the Immortal Stuntman was born.
1.
The man in the hat refers to him as ‘Skull’, so it’s ‘Skull’ who answers back, the character draping over him with the ease of a well-worn cloak. Luckily, he hasn’t wiped off his makeup yet.
“What do you need from the Great Skull?” he chirps with a grand bow in the stranger’s direction. Skull takes things in stride. Skull does not question why mysterious men suddenly appeared in his room at eleven in the evening. Skull thinks this is exciting and not at all concerning, and therefore there’s no need to call security.
“I’m here to offer you a job,” the man says.
“Oh, my manager deals with all of that stuff,” Skull says breezily. “You’ll have to talk to them for approval—”
“It’s not a stunt job,” the man interrupts.
Damn. There went any hope of throwing this onto Jean.
Skull crosses his arms. “Stunts are my job.”
“It’s for your other talents.”
Skull has no other talents. Skull is a stuntman—a charming, obnoxious stuntman, who can easily work his way around fans but otherwise has no head for anything else. An adrenaline junkie through and through.
Zuko, on the other hand, has many talents, or so Jean’s screaming says every time The Blue Spirit shows up on the news.
But this man isn’t asking for Zuko. He’s asking for Skull.
He could understand someone figuring out the Blue Spirit; it’s not that hard to knock off a mask. He doesn’t bother with Skull when he’s alone, so someone could even have caught Zuko doing things he shouldn’t have any business doing. It would have been hard to find his name, but not impossible. Skull only makes appearances for shows and fan meets. He’s not supposed to have any attention outside of his stunt work, especially not this kind.
“All you need to do is attend one meeting,” the man says, which is suspicious in itself. “If, after you meet everyone, you’re still willing, I may employ you for more jobs. You’ll be paid handsomely.”
Skull eyes him warily. “Name your price.”
The man tells him the price.
Jean’s going to yell at him later about taking shady and reckless offers, but he’s sure they’ll be placated once he tells them how much money they’re getting out of it.
2.
Oh, now these people—
These people are dangerous. Zuko counts too many firearms in one room, at least one martial arts specialist, and fire.
Skull doesn’t notice any of these things in the aftermath of throwing the door open and introducing himself. He does notice the unimpressed stares, but he ignores them, because Skull has never been one to care about what other people think of him. He finds a seat and goes to work badgering the one who seems less likely to immediately murder him. Fon only smiles and humors him and doesn’t look noticeably like he’s liable to shoot him the louder Skull’s voice gets.
One of the others does actually shoot him, though.
“What the fuck?” Skull screeches, tumbling out of the way just in time. The man with the sideburns clicks his tongue, glaring down at his gun.
“Okay.” One of the women stands up and claps. That’s all it takes for her to command attention. Skull is a second slower than the rest to look over. “Let’s not fight, alright? We’re all here, so let’s get this meeting started.” She smiles calmly. Skull would almost think she’s out of place in this group, if he couldn’t feel the pressure threatening to crush him. “My name is Luce.”
Skull only sort of pays attention as she gets down to business. Most of what she’s talking about goes straight over his head. He watches out of the corner of his eye and he gets the feeling he’s the only one lost, which isn’t very comforting.
“Hold on!” he interrupts, halfway through Luce’s speech about teamwork, or something. “I have a question.”
“Yes? What is it, Skull?” Luce asks, smiling serenely. They both ignore everyone staring dangerously his way.
“What are Flames?”
There’s a brief moment of silence before the others explode. Skull is unamused by the overall resounding cries of, “HE’S A CIVILIAN?”
“Is someone going to explain what Flames are to me?” he demands, raising his voice over the yelling. It’s something that Skull took from Zuko; once, Zuko had to make sure he was heard over all of his advisors and councilmembers. Now, as a showman, Skull needs to make sure he’s heard over everyone. It’s not too different. He’s very good at being loud, and it gets everyone to shut up, even if it’s mostly out of shock.
“Of course, Skull,” Luce says soothingly. He can’t decide if he likes or hates the way she talks. “Have you ever set yourself on fire?”
Skull stares at her blankly. Does she not know what he does for a living? “Many times. Usually it’s on purpose though.”
“That’s not quite what I meant.” She laughs. “Maybe it’s easier if I show you.”
There are Seven Flames of Sky summoned by an individual’s will to live: Sky, Storm, Rain, Sun, Lightning, Cloud, Mist—each with their own colors and characteristics, she tells him. He ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s at all the right places, listening attentively as she tells him about these powers exclusive to the criminal underworld. Annoyance radiates from pretty much everyone else, except possibly Fon, but Skull ignores them. Just because they grew up in this environment doesn’t mean he did, so they can all stuff it.
“I see!” he says by the end of Luce’s explanation. “So I’m a Cloud.” He turns the knowledge around in his head. Cloud, he thinks. Cloud, Cloud, Cloud; with the color purple and the characteristic of Propagation or multiplying. “Wait,” he adds, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, “it has nothing to do with healing?”
“No,” Luce says. “Healing is most often associated with the Sun’s characteristic of Activation.”
“Huh. Well the Great Skull doesn’t understand that at all.” He frowns. He’ll have to ask Jean; they’ll probably understand what ‘multiplication’ means for his healing factor better than he does.
“Are we sure we have the right guy?” the woman called Lal demands. “He’s fucking clueless! An absolute idiot!”
“Hey!” Skull exclaims. “This isn’t my fault!”
“No, he’s the right person,” Luce says, smile never once faltering. “I can feel it.”
(2.5.
The truth is, Zuko knows about Flames, or at least, he has as much knowledge as he can have about the fire that sometimes erupts from him whenever he calls for it.
He was six when he found out about them. Six, and already out on the streets. Even with a lifetime of experience behind him, it wasn’t easy to survive, especially in this new world. He should have died, and would have, had it not been for a subconscious calling for his firebending, for fire—and the next thing he knew, he was okay. His injury had healed, his blood no longer flowing freely out of his body.
At the time he thought, Huh. I thought Katara was the healer.
He learns later that his fire isn’t firebending, and comes with extra abilities. It didn’t take much more maneuvering to make the fire work like firebending. By the time he was ten years old, he was using his fire like he was Fire Lord Zuko again, with some added abilities on top of it. Azula would be so mad.
When he creates Skull, he decides to make a distinction. ‘Skull’ doesn’t know anything about fire, or firebending, or how to turn fire into firebending. Skull has never been formally introduced to the concept of fire made from nothing. As far as he’s concerned, sometimes things just multiply around him without any conscious effort, and most of his injuries heal before he even notices them.
Skull is very good at using his fire without noticing or thinking about it.)
3.
The Harmonization characteristic of the Sky likes to prod at him. Usually, it’s only when he’s around Luce, but sometimes it tries to grab him while he’s off on his own. Zuko ignores it, batting it away with ease. Skull lets it try to wrap him but always keeps its hold loose, so he can break away when Skull retreats. He’s not sure if Luce notices.
He’s doesn’t think any of the others have noticed, either. They all gravitate towards Luce, seemingly unaware of what they’re doing. Even Verde pauses to listen to her when she speaks. In the beginning, Skull thought it was something in the cookies she brought to every meeting, but he’s figured out since then that it’s just her trying to keep them, bond with them.
But her Sky is an uncomfortable fit for him, like a puzzle trying to distort him to fit with it, even though he comes from an entirely different set. He always makes sure to untangle and walk away, free from this messed up picture that Luce is trying to put together.
There’s something terribly off about this group that they’re all a part of, and Luce and that man who brought them together are the only ones who know why.
He knows he’s right when they’re all turned into babies.
Everyone rages, demanding answers and explanations as Luce averts her eyes. Skull is the only one unsurprised. He turns his hand over, gazing down at the stubby little fingers. The others likely feel the way he did, the first time he woke up in a child’s body. It’s a little painful, and very disorienting. There’s so much power contained within such a small body that it almost feels like he’s going to burst. He remembers the feeling well, but it’s easier to ignore now.
Luce is the one to call for him when he doesn’t participate in the interrogation.
“Skull,” she says, calling attention to his quiet. “Skull, please.”
Skull looks up at her and frowns. Her eyes are wide, with genuine pain swirling inside. No remorse, though. Everyone watches him, too, waiting for his anger, his questions. By all accounts, he should be the one freaking out the most.
He delivers. “What the hell is this?” he cries. “I don’t understand! I don’t understand at all! Why, Luce? What did you do to us? What could have possibly possessed you to do this to us?”
A new wave starts up again, this time with Skull joining in, despair coating their words. Luce is brought near to tears before they all calm down, affected by their Sky’s own upset, as tenuous as the bond might be.
Skull feels nothing.
He realizes, in this moment, that there is, in fact, nothing tying him to Luce at all. She is constantly reaching for him, but it doesn’t touch him when he doesn’t let it. While Reborn struggles between his own frustration and his care for his Sky, and Viper turns their anger on a nearby boulder, and Fon goes quiet and sullen—Skull’s anger is only geared towards the fact that he has to be an infant again, for a third time.
(Seriously. Once was enough, much less thrice.)
He doesn’t care that Luce had no choice, or that they’re supposed to be her Guardians. Skull has never held a bond with her, or any of them. He would certainly never deign to be so close to anyone who would dare call him lackey.
Luce tried.
Tried to make a bond, intertwine them together. It worked, for the most part.
It might have worked for him, too; but before he is Skull, he is Zuko. He doesn’t know if Flames ever existed in his first life, but maybe there was something there. Maybe it followed him into this life, into Zuko the Orphan, also known as Skull the Immortal Stuntman, and that’s why Luce and the others always felt so wrong.
4.
It’s not the first time Skull has been approached by a mafia family hoping to have the so-called weakest Arcobaleno under their thumb. Every time, Skull beats them down, uninterested in getting involved with any group so needlessly cruel. Really, he doesn’t know where people get the idea that weakest Arcobaleno means weaker than everyone else too. It’s embarrassing.
The only reason he doesn’t do the same to the Carcassa Family is because they’re the least reprehensible out of all of the other groups who have tried to capture him. They don’t try to force him; instead, they pander. It’s annoying, similar to the Fire Nation nobles who clawed at his robes trying to win his favor, but it’s nothing Skull can’t handle. At the very least, this Family knows they’re no match for him, which makes interacting with them easy.
“I’ve decided!” Skull declares. “I will join your Family on two conditions!” Jean, accompanying him as they often do these days, looks alarmed and they begin to hiss questions at him. He pretends not to hear, even though they’re standing right next to him. This is why he didn’t run this by them.
“Oh? Tell me your conditions,” the Don says, eyes light with greed and hunger—and triumph.
He holds up a finger. “Number one! Jean must be allowed to come with me!”
“That can be done.”
He holds up another finger, grinning widely at the man. “Number two! I must be allowed to do whatever I want!”
The Don stammers at that. “B-but, that, um, Sir Arcobaleno—”
Skull makes a face. “Ew, don’t call me that. I am the Great Skull and I will be addressed by the proper title!” He sets his hands on his hips sternly.
“Great Lord Skull,” the man babbles, “surely you don’t mean whatever—”
“Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry!” He laughs loudly, throwing his head back. “I won’t do anything to harm the Family! I just want to be able to go wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go! You guys are so nice to me, that won’t be a problem, right?” His grin widens, a touch too sharp for a usually lax character. The Don pales.
“Yes, yes! Of course, Great Lord Skull! We would love to let you join the Family, of course!”
Skull bounds up to him and grabs his hands, shaking them widely. “Awesome! From now on, the Great Skull is your subordinate! Call Jean if you ever need anything from me!”
“Skull, don’t just offer my number to a mafia boss!” Jean roars, grabbing his ear and tugging him back. “And we’re not joining their Family!”
“Why not?” he whines. “They’re nice people! Nice-ish. Totally better than all those other guys, and if we join a Family, maybe we’ll finally get those guys off our backs too! It’s full-proof!” He flashes a confident, toothy grin their way, then yelps as they tug harder on his ear.
“Fucking idiot,” they growl. “Excuse us. We’ll be back tomorrow to figure this out.”
Without any of the due respect they should give a mafia boss—as cowardly and unknown as the man is—they march out of the room, dragging Skull along with them.
(4.5.
“They’re not all bad,” Zuko tells them as he wipes away the last of the concealer. “I don’t like any mafia family, but I could tolerate this one. And there’s some logic in being affiliated to some Family, right? Most of the others are.”
“The green one isn’t,” Jean grumbles.
“Verde’s got status to protect him. Everyone has more status than me.” He frowns into his mirror. “I’m getting by on luck by this point. Luck and my Flames. I need someone backing me, but I don’t want too much attention. The Carcassa can at least get me things I would otherwise have no access to.”
“They’re a weak Family,” Jean argues. “They won’t give you nearly as much protection as, say, Vongola—”
“I’m not going anywhere near Vongola,” he spits. Heat builds in his fingertips—a trick he’s learned in his efforts to turn Flames into firebending. “That’s where Reborn, Lal, and Colonello are affiliated. I think Viper has an in too? I mean, they’re not that bad—they’re pretty much you but scarier and also nicer to me—but I can’t stand those other three. No way.”
Jean doesn’t say anything.
Zuko begins pacing. “I know they only know me as ‘Skull’, but my acting isn’t that good. They just—they refuse to see me as anything other than convenient. They act like because I didn’t grow up in the mafia then I’m just someone to beat up! ‘Lackey’.” He scoffs. “I’ve never been a lackey. Fucking—when you made this character, I didn’t think he’d take up so much time. I hate Skull, Jean. I hate this.” He digs his palms into his eyes, inhaling deeply before he can lose control of his Flames.
Skull is the character he takes on when he’s performing or working in the mafia. These days, that’s almost all day, every day. He doesn’t have the downtime he used to have when he was just a stuntman. All of his income needs to come from hits and whatever he can get Viper to set him up with that doesn’t involve senseless killing.
He only hears ‘Zuko’ from Jean nowadays.
They approach him carefully and place their hand on his shoulder. “You’re right,” they say quietly. “You’re a lot of things, but you’ve never been a lackey. You’re a leader.” He hears them swallow, their fingers tightening into a grip. When he looks at them, he sees a steely resolve set in their eyes. “You want to join the Carcassa? Fine, but I don’t trust them.”
“You don’t have to,” he says. “I don’t either.”
“I’m not done,” Jean says. “I don’t trust them, but like I said, you’re a leader, no matter what character you’re playing. So, let’s take over the Family instead.”)
5.
Luce is dead.
The Arcobaleno aren’t allowed to mourn with her Family, so they have their own, exclusive memorial. It’s a very quiet affair, heads bowed in respect and grief. No one cries except Skull, who muffles his sniffs and wipes his eyes every few seconds. Reborn has already threatened him once, but for once doesn’t keep trying to make him stop.
Skull is actually surprised with himself. He didn’t know he was so good at crying on command.
“Wh-what do we do now?” he stammers, like he doesn’t have something to do after this. This whole memorial is really cutting into his schedule. He has recruits to supervise and a few people he was still gathering evidence on to justify kicking them out of the Family. He doesn’t have time to pretend to mourn for someone who was more tantamount to chains than encompassing Sky.
“We do what we’ve always done,” Viper says quietly. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“But, are you sure? I mean, Luce always said—”
“She’s dead,” Reborn snaps viciously. Skull’s mouth shuts with a click. That’s the harshest Reborn has ever been with him; he didn’t know that was possible. “She never told us the whole truth about what the hell is going on, so who cares? She doesn’t have any authority over us. Not anymore.”
“Reborn…” Fon steps forward, hands raised placatingly. Reborn practically snarls at him, and he stops in his tracks. Skull scurries away to hide himself behind the other man. “Reborn, he’s just confused,” Fon says calmly. “Luce was our Sky. It’s understandable to not know what to do now that… now that we’ve lost her.”
“So what?” Verde scoffs, but he’s not able to fully hide the thickness in his voice. “She’s passed the mantle on to her daughter, and she’s still a kid. Reborn’s right—we don’t have to do anything.”
“Shouldn’t someone look after Aria?” Skull puts forward. “And why aren’t we in her Family, anyway? Aren’t we supposed to be her Guardians?”
“I know you’re new to all this, lackey, but we have our own loyalties,” Colonello snorts derisively. “Just because we’re Arcobaleno doesn’t mean we can abandon our own.”
That’s another thing he doesn’t understand about this situation. If they’re all supposed to be tied together, why are they so divided? Why the strongest individuals rather than the strongest Harmony?
(Even when Team Avatar had to split up, they were always connected. It’s what made them powerful, and what brought the world to an era of peace after one hundred years of war.
Zuko aches with the memory of them.)
“You mafia don’t make any sense,” Skull mutters, and falls to the side as a bullet digs itself into the wall behind where his head just was. “Why?” he wails.
“Hey! We’re not fighting at Luce’s memorial, goddammit!” Lal snaps, glaring at Reborn. “If you damage anything, that’s out of your pocket.”
“Couldn’t help myself. Lackey’s too much of a fucking idiot,” Reborn says carelessly as Leon shifts back into a chameleon.
“I’m just asking!” Skull whines.
“Do you want to be shot again?”
“No, no! I’m sorry!”
“I’m leaving,” Viper says abruptly. “I’ve stayed long enough.” They don’t wait for a response before disappearing in a shroud of Mist Flames.
Soon enough, everyone follows suit, trickling out of the room one by one. Skull stays behind a while longer, until the tears dry.
(5.5.
Zuko blinks. His eyes aren’t exactly stinging.
“I could never have been your Cloud,” he tells Luce’s memorial. “There’s no honor in binding myself to a new Sky when I had already found the perfect one.”
Aang never felt like chains. Not really. After him, how could Zuko ever bond with anyone else?)
+1
“No makeup today, lackey?” Reborn drawls, eyebrows raised in badly masked curiosity. For good reason, probably—Zuko has never shown them his face without overdone make-up.
Zuko ignores him, instead looking at the kid who doesn’t seem to know how to react to this situation. He can’t believe this is the person who broke the Curse; but then again, Aang was twelve when he won the war. “I brought you here to offer something, as thanks for breaking the Curse,” Zuko says. “The Carcassa Family hereby offers an alliance to you, Vongola Decimo, upon your inheritance.”
“Uh?” Tsunayoshi says. “What do you mean?”
“I mean my Family won’t have anything to do with Vongola until you inherit, and when you do, we’ll provide whatever support you ask of us, granted that you do the same in return,” Zuko explains. What has Reborn been doing? This kid needs to learn how to negotiate.
“You may be a former Arcobaleno, but you’re not a mafia boss,” Reborn snorts. “You can’t just offer the whole Carcassa Family like that.”
“But, Skull-san is the boss?” Tsunayoshi says. He’s staring at Reborn now, and Reborn stares back at him with disbelief.
Zuko leans back in his not-really-a-throne, arms propped on each armrest. Jean leans down to mutter in his ear, “Wait, he seriously never figured it out?”
Zuko coughs quietly to hide his amused snort. “Skull’s just a lackey, remember?” he answers quietly. “As far as everyone else is concerned, the boss that deposed the last guy is someone who came out of nowhere.”
“Well, I guess you can say that’s not a lie.”
Reborn’s head whips around to look at him. “When did you take over the Carcassa Family? If Skull the Cloud Arcobaleno were the boss of a Family—even one as small as them—it would have been news. Explain, lackey.”
Zuko twitches. “For the sake of Agni, stop calling me ‘lackey’! It’s Zuko!” he snaps, feeling heat rising in his chest. They’re sitting in his Family’s house, in his meeting room, and here, he is Zuko. In this place, he is the once Fire Lord and current boss of the Carcassa Family; he refuses to be addressed in such a patronizing way in the home he painstakingly carved for himself. He made this place so he could be ‘Zuko’ again and no one was taking that away from him. Especially not now that his body was back.
Reborn recoils as Zuko’s Flames flare over his arms, noticeably burning the armrests. Jean clears their throat and he breathes out slowly, willing his Flames to wind down. He nods in thanks to them.
“Oh,” Tsunayoshi says haltingly. Zuko turns to look at him quizzically. He doesn’t shy away, though Zuko can see him pushing back the urge. “I-I always thought there was something… a bit off. You were just… a lot more fake than everyone else, like you were putting on a play. I guess I was right?”
Zuko blinks.
Jean bursts out laughing, bending at the waist and holding their stomach. “Oh my god,” they wheeze. “Oh my god, a fourteen-year-old figured it out before the entire fucking mafia I’m dying.”
“What,” Reborn says.
“Uh…” Tsunayoshi glances between them. “Reborn, did you not know?”
“Congratulations, kid,” Zuko says dryly, pointedly ignoring Jean’s inability to draw breath at his side. “You broke my only advisor.” Tsunayoshi’s face goes red with embarrassment. “I’m joking. You’re right; I created Skull to be a showman, because Jean says being a showman makes money. My real name is Zuko.”
“Technically—” Jean says, in between their dying chuckles.
“Shut up.”
“What the fuck,” Reborn says again. “You hid your whole name from us?”
“None of you asked!” Zuko protests. “And it’s not like you guys were using your real names either!” Disregarding the fact that he was the only one who hadn’t revealed his real name eventually.
“Is this why you didn’t move in with us after the Curse?”
“Also I don’t like you guys,” Zuko says honestly, for the first time in years. “Except Mammon; they're okay.” When the other former Arcobaleno proposed having a house for all of them, he had run away before giving an answer. He did not want to have to explain why Skull the pushover didn’t want anything more to do with any of them.
“Anyway,” he continues, looking at Tsunayoshi, “Tsunayoshi, do you accept my offer of alliance?”
Tsunayoshi’s gaze flicks to Reborn uncertainly. Then, clearly seeing an opportunity to fuck with him, steels himself and says, “What are your terms?”
Zuko sits up straight, a cordial and somewhat amused smile on his face. “Well, let’s negotiate.”