Taboo (Dirty)
Title: Taboo
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Aang
Pairing(s): None
Rating: K+
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 270
Prompt: Dirty
Summery: Aang hates Energybending.
Aang hates Energybending; he hates the feeling of touching another soul, of ripping out something essential and fundamental, of feeling his own soul touched by another. After his battle with Ozai, it takes half an hour for the adrenaline and fear and triumph to wear off and a feeling of uneasy and agitation to set in.
It feels like there’s a layer of grime and muck covering his soul.
When he arrives at the Fire Nation Palace, and Zuko greets them, demanding to know what happened, he still does not know the source of his anxiety, and so when Zuko asks if he will take away Azula’s Firebending, he agrees. It is uncomfortable seeing Azula laying on the ground, asleep, chained to grate, clearly exhausted and drained of any fight that had been in her.
But Aang sees no reason to wake her, and so carefully turns her onto her back as best he can, places one hand on her forehead, the other over her heart and closes his eyes. As he begins, he feels their souls touch and shivers. A feeling of wrongness comes over him, a feeling like he is breaking an ancient taboo. He feels as though he is touching something that was never meant to be touched, going where no one was meant to go, and the feeling overwhelms him until he pulls back.
He refuses to take Azula’s bending. He refuses to explain what is wrong, to try and make anyone understand what it is like to feel as though your soul is covered in grime.
It takes years for that feeling to go away.