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Chapter Text

It had only been a week since the men left when they saw the black snow again. 

Sokka cursed in his head as he rushed towards the boat that was peaking over the horizon, spear in hand. It was too soon, they weren’t supposed to come yet, he thought to himself. I was supposed to have more time.

The ship stopped just as Sokka approached the bay, so he stopped as well, pulling his spear into a fighting stance. He took a deep breath as he waited for the attack. 

They didn’t pull out the gangplank.

They didn’t send out the raiders.

They opened a door on what looked like one of the lower decks, and pushed a single person out into the snow. The body looked small, maybe as big as Sokka, and it practically collapsed to the ground as it was thrust out of the door. Sokka thought he heard laughter as the body fell to the ground, but before he could hear anymore, the door shut and the ship began to sail away.

Sokka’s brows furrowed. He was sure that the women would be watching from the village, and maybe one of them would know what to do. But Sokka could either wait until one of them ran the whole way towards the bay, or he could figure out what the person who was dropped wanted.

Holding his spear in shaky hands, Sokka walked towards the person in the snow. He caught sight of red silk and black hair, but not much else. The snow was deep that time of year, and the person must have been very skinny, because they were nearly buried.

As Sokka got closer to the person, he gasped. It was a boy. A boy his age, with a fresh burn across his face.

~~~💙🧡~~~

“Sokka, what in Tui’s name do you think you’re doing!”

Sokka gasped for air as he set the boy down as gently as he could, right next to the fire inside of their igloo. He bent over with his hands on his knees and tried to regain his breath, meanwhile sending pleading looks towards Kanna.

“Gran Gran, I promise I can explain!” he wheezed, trying to be as quiet as possible. “He needs our help!” Sokka exclaimed, grabbing her wrist and tugging her towards the sleeping boy. “They- they just dumped him off the ship! They didn’t send any raiders or soldiers, but they dumped him off of the ship and left! And he’s got this really massive burn on his face and I think that needs treatment, so- so we should help him!”

“Sokka, he’s Fire Nation,” Katara whispered, poking her head through the doorway of the igloo. Sokka knew that the rest of the village would be standing outside with her, eavesdropping on the conversation so that they could find out if the boy was staying or not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“So what, Katara?” Sokka spit back. “Would you really not help someone who’s hurt just because they’re Fire Nation?”

Katara huffed and walked back out of the igloo, her hair swaying behind her. Sokka huffed as well. Girls.

“Gran Gran, please?” he tried one more time. “He needs our help! And it’s not like he has anywhere else to go! We can’t just send him back!”

Kanna sighed. She stepped past Sokka and towards the boy, bending down at his side. As she examined the burn, Sokka winced. It stretched across almost the whole left side of his face, coming down from his hairline and covering his left eye and ear completely. The worst of it stopped just below his cheekbone, but there were little flecks of burnt skin that lingered on his neck, almost as if the fire that caused the burn had gotten out of control. 

The boy shivered in his sleep, curling in on himself. “Father, please,” he whispered. Kanna stiffened up. There was no way, right? “I am your loyal son.”

Kanna sighed again. “He can stay.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Three days later the boy woke up.

They had been trying their best to figure out his story from the things that he came off of this ship with, but it was hard. Kanna and Katara had been treating his burns, and they always had someone sitting by him, keeping watch just in case he woke up. 

It was Sokka who was keeping watch when he did.

There had been moments before, when it had looked like he was about to wake up. His eyelids had fluttered and he had shivered slightly, but that was it. When he did wake up, it was just around sunrise and Sokka had just woken up and switched places with Kanna, who had taken the brunt of the overnight watches.

Sokka sighed as the boy flipped over in his sleep, his eyes cracking open slightly. Then, Sokka’s eyes practically bulged out of his head as the boy shot up into a sitting position. 

“Where am I?” he gasped out, wrapping his arms around his chest. “Who are you?”

Sokka sucked in a breath. He dropped to his knees next to the boy and grabbed his hands in his own, keeping them from moving to pry at his now-bandaged burn. “You’re in the South Pole. My name is Sokka. We’ve been helping you get better.”

The boy was taking big, deep breaths, and his hands were shaking in Sokka’s, but he looked around the igloo and seemed to calm down, if only a little. “I’m Zuko,” he rasped. 

Sokka nodded. “Okay. Just- hold on for one sec, let me go and get Gran Gran. She’ll be able to explain everything better.”

He rushed out of the room that Zuko was in- the main room, where the fire was- and into the back room, where Katara and Kanna were still sleeping.

“Gran Gran!” he exclaimed. She stirred slightly, glaring up at Sokka for interrupting her brief nap. “Gran Gran, he woke up!”

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly, trying her best not to jostle Katara where she was sleeping on the furs next to her. She followed Sokka into the main room where Zuko was and then practically pushed him out the door, muttering to his back to give me some space, for La’s sake!

It was almost a half an hour before Sokka was let back into the igloo, to have breakfast with Katara, Gran Gran, and Zuko.

Zuko was quiet for almost the entire meal, listening to Katara talking about the dream that she’d had the previous night; something about a polar bear dog and a snow leopard dancing together while Katara sang to them.

(Sokka cringed at that. As much as she’d like to believe it, Katara did not have a good voice.)

“Zuko,” Kanna said when Katara had finished her story, causing the boy to look up from his soup. “Do you think you could tell us a bit about yourself?”

He swallowed audibly, but set his bowl down on the table nonetheless. “I grew up in Caldera City with my mom and my dad and my sister.” Zuko started, staring down at his hands. “My dad has a lot of power in the Fire Nation, and he’s not- he was never a very good father. My sister was always his favorite, and I was my mother’s favorite, but when I was eleven my cousin died at war and my grandfather died in his sleep, and my uncle was supposed to take over my grandfather’s position but he was grieving his son, so my father took it instead. Well- I mean, it’s kinda more complicated than that, I think, but that’s what my uncle told me. My mother ran away when my grandfather died, and when my dad inherited his position he became less of a father to me and my sister, and more of a dictator.

“My sister- she’s a much better bender than I am, even though she’s younger. So when my father- when he got more power, he stopped caring about us as anything more than his heirs. And my sister is younger, so I would’ve inherited his position by default because I’m older, and my father didn’t want me to. So when I got invited to one of his meetings and I disrespected one of his generals, he challenged me to an Agni Kai. That’s- I don’t know if you know what that is- it’s a firebending dual, basically. And it’s- it’s a fight to the-”

“To the death,” Kanna finished for him, her voice an icy whisper.

Zuko nodded. “Well, I thought I’d be fighting the general, so I accepted. But it was my father’s war room, so I was fighting him. But I didn’t- I couldn't fight him. Because he’s my father. So instead of fighting him, I asked for forgiveness, and he didn’t give it to me. He burned my face and banished me, and I thought he’d just send me to the Earth Kingdom, or maybe the Northern Tribe, but he sent me here, because- well, I guess it was because he thought that there was no one left down here.” Zuko swallowed again. “He was wrong about that.”

Sokka’s hands were balled into fists at his side, but he said nothing because he was afraid of the string of curses that would come out of his mouth if he opened it. Beside him, the water in Katara’s flask turned to ice. Kanna was breathing heavily, her eyes narrowed with anger.

“You will stay here,” she said after a moment. Zuko looked up in surprise, and Sokka noticed for the first time that his eyes were gold, pure, molten gold. “You will be safe with us. So long as you contribute to the Tribe and treat everyone as if they are family, you can stay.”

“I- thank you,” he whispered after a moment, his voice sounding choked up. “Thank you so much.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

It wasn’t until a week later when Sokka finally caught Zuko alone.

He had been all over the village in the past week, learning how to make nets and rope, learning to fish,  helping to relight fires and cook meals, and Sokka had been waiting for a quiet moment to talk to him.

It was early in the morning, and Sokka had followed Zuko to the top of a hill near the village, where he went to meditate every morning. It was the closest point to the sun, Zuko had explained when Katara asked about it, and that was why he went up there so much.

“Hey,” Sokka said softly when it looked like Zuko was done, sitting down next to him in the snow. 

“Hey,” Zuko said back.

Over the course of the week, the two of them had formed a tentative friendship. Sokka was excited to finally have a boy his age in the village, and although Zuko was jumpy and quiet, he was fun to be around and cracked really funny jokes whenever Sokka least expected it.

“I need your help with something,” Sokka murmured, looking out towards the horizon. 

“With what?” Zuko asked. Sokka could see Zuko turning towards him in his peripheral, but he didn’t look away from the ocean. 

“I need you to teach me how to firebend.”

Zuko sucked in a breath. “Sokka- I can’t- I can’t teach a nonbender how to bend, that’s just not how it works. I’m sorry.”

Sokka huffed. “I’m not a nonbender,” he muttered. Zuko turned even further towards him. Quietly, Sokka lit a small flame in his palm. Zuko sucked in another breath.

“How are you still alive?” he sputtered after a moment. “I- I mean, I’ve only been here for a week, and the cold is really hard! And you’ve been here for your whole life- how- how in Agni’s name have you survived?”

Sokka sighed, extinguishing the flame. “I honestly don’t know. I mean, I’ve still got the same build as everyone else around here- so I’ve got the genes that help me with the cold. But it’s always been harder for me anyways.”

“Why don’t you bend?” Zuko asked. “I’ve been here for almost two weeks now, and I haven’t seen you bend once.”

“Nobody knows that I can bend.” Sokka sighed. Zuko’s head snapped up in surprise. “I honestly don’t even know why I can bend. It makes no sense. What I’ve decided is that I probably have some, like, miniscule amount of Fire Nation lineage from a couple hundred centuries ago, and it decided to make a comeback, or maybe there’s some ridiculous spirit mumbo-jumbo that I don’t know about, but I’ve never told anyone else about it. But I- I keep, like, sparking up. I don’t know why. But I need- I need some way to control it, and use it to protect myself and the rest of my Tribe. And you’re basically, like, the only non-evil firebender that I know, so I was wondering if you could, maybe, teach me.”

“I’m not that good,” Zuko said after a moment. “I’m no master. But, if you want, I can teach you what I know. And then we can, uh, we can learn together, if you’d like.”

Sokka finally looked away from the coastline, making eye contact with Zuko’s pools of gold. “Yeah. I’d like that. And, don’t beat yourself up. You’re really good.”

Zuko looked away, blushing. He shook his head slightly, and then turned back towards Sokka, smiling slightly. “Meet me here, tomorrow, at dawn. We’ll start then.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

When Sokka climbed to the top of the hill the next morning, Zuko was already there, waiting for him. He smiled and waved, and Sokka smiled and waved back as he reached the peak, closing the remaining distance between them. The two boys sat down together in the snow and Zuko led Sokka through the meditations that he did every morning, which centered around syncing up a flame with your breaths.

Once they were finished with that, Zuko had Sokka sit facing him, and he grabbed a stick out of his pocket, leaning down to draw in the snow.

“In the Fire Nation,” he started, “we believe that Agni, the deity of the sun, is the giver of life. Agni is the sibling of Tui, the moon spirit, who I’m sure you know plenty about. If you want to be a real firebender, you’ll have to give up your disbelief about all of the ‘spirit mumbo-jumbo’, because to be a firebender you have to channel Agni’s energy.”

Sokka nodded fervently, looking down in the snow at Zuko’s depictions of the sun spirit. “Okay. I promise I’ll try, at least.”

Zuko continued on, moving his stick to an empty patch of snow. “The reason that we meditated just then is so that we can connect with our inner flames. Firebending is sorta different from waterbending and earthbending, because you make your own fire. Like, a waterbender couldn’t waterbend if they were in a desert without any water. But firebenders like you and me can firebend anywhere, because our fire comes from within. So, you need to make sure that you keep your connection with your inner flame, because without it, you can’t make your own fire.”

In the snow, he had drawn a messy image of a flame, a rock, and a wave. “Master firebenders are sometimes skilled enough that they can connect their inner flame to giant fires, but for now you and I can stick to the little fires in our hands,” Zuko explained. 

“Is that why-” Sokka started, cutting himself off when Zuko looked up at him. “When you were asleep, those first few days, sometimes the cooking fire in the igloo would move at the same time as your breathing. Is that why? Because of your inner flame?”

“Yeah,” Zuko nodded, “it is.”

“Oh, dude, that’s so cool!” Sokka exclaimed. Zuko chuckled lightly and blushed, looking back down at the snow.

“So, the first thing I wanted to see was check if you had a connection with your inner flame,” Zuko said. “And you do. While you were meditating, the flame synched up with your breath, which is much more than I thought you’d be able to do in one day. That kinda stuff took me, like, two whole years to master. So we can move on to some really simple katas.”

Throughout the morning, Zuko showed Sokka a few different moves, all of them ending with little flourishes and bursts of flame. By the time that Kanna called them in for lunch, Sokka had learned five new katas, and mastered two of them. They went inside with rosy cheeks and warm hands, and after lunch while they were weaving nets by the bay, Sokka had Zuko tell him all about what he learned from his masters back in the Fire Nation. When they finished making their nets, they went back up the hill and Zuko helped Sokka master another two katas before dinner. It was, all in all, a very successful day.

~~~💙🧡~~~

They agreed to keep their training a secret. Sokka didn’t want Katara to be afraid of his bending, and he still wasn’t very good at it, so he and Zuko both agreed to keep it to themselves. As time went by, Sokka nearly caught up to where Zuko was, skill wise, and by the time that Zuko had been with the Tribe for a year, they were an equal match.

They had moved on from simple katas and meditations, and moved their morning sessions to a hill that was further away from the village, so that they could spar together without anyone seeing. As Sokka became a better firebender, Zuko’s transition into the Tribe evened out, and he no longer felt like an outsider.

When Sokka first found Zuko in the snow, Sokka had just turned thirteen, Katara was almost eleven, and Zuko was six months away from his fourteenth birthday. Two and a half years later, when Sokka was sixteen, and Katara was fourteen, it was Zuko’s seventeenth birthday, and Sokka found him on their new usual hill, always up just a few minutes before him.

“Hey,” Zuko said as Sokka dropped into the snow beside him, their hands intertwining mindlessly between them. As Zuko had blended into the Tribe, he and Sokka had become nearly inseparable, and casual touches flew between them as naturally as fire did.

“Hi,” Sokka murmured, dropping his head onto Zuko’s shoulder. He yawned as they watched the sun come up over the horizon, squinting his eyes against the bright light. “Remind me again why we have to wake up this fucking early.”

Zuko chuckled lightly. “Oh, shut up. C’mon, let’s spar.”

They stood and dusted off the snow from their clothes, shedding the top layers of their parkas until both of them were barefoot in the snow with just a thick pair of pants and a sleeveless blue tunic on. Both of them bowed with the sign of the flame, and then they were off.

Zuko started his attack with a punch to the left, and Sokka dodged it quickly before retaliating with a swift kick to straight at Zuko’s chest. He flipped out of the way and sent a jab of flame towards Sokka, who spun out of the range of fire and sent a breath of flames towards Zuko. 

After ten or so minutes of back and forth, Zuko managed to get Sokka on his back in the snow, sitting atop his chest.

“I yield,” Sokka choked out, gasping in greedy lungfuls of air when Zuko rolled off of him. “Just so you know,” he said after a moment, when he was able to talk without gasping, “I’m only letting you win because it’s your birthday. You know I wouldn’t go so easy on you otherwise.”

Zuko snorted under his breath and stood, extending a hand to help Sokka do the same. Together, they put their layers back on and walked towards the village, hands linked once more. 

“Zuko!” Katara exclaimed when she caught sight of the pair, barreling towards him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Happy birthday!”

Zuko chuckled lightly and extracted his hand from Sokka’s, wrapping both arms around Katara. “Thanks, Kat,” he murmured. “Have you practised yet today? I want to see your new move!”

Katara nodded excitedly and grabbed one of his hands, dragging him towards the bay that she used for practice. At the last moment, Zuko extended his free hand to Sokka, and the two boys let themselves be dragged across the village so that they could watch Katara practice. 

After a morning of bending, Kanna called everyone back to the igloo for lunch, and then they went out fishing so that they could get something to eat for dinner. 

“-here, Kat, can you start bringing spheres of water above the boat so that Sokka and I can spear any fish?” Zuko offered once they’d been out of luck for about an hour, floating about aimlessly through the ice caps. 

Katara nodded and furrowed her brows as she brought orb after empty orb of water over the side of their boat, not a single fish among them. 

“Ugh!” she exclaimed as yet another ball of water came up empty, before letting it drop onto Sokka’s head. He sputtered, indignant. “I can’t do anything!”

“Hey, don’t say that,” Zuko murmured, ignoring Sokka’s whining. He quietly sent a blast of hot air towards his friend, hoping that he could maybe help to dry him off. “You’re a great bender, you just need to learn a bit more control. And it’s certainly not your fault that we’re not around any fish. Why don’t we move east, there are usually more fish over there.”

Katara nodded, and Sokka started to paddle the boat in the proper direction as she used waterbending to steer them, using Zuko’s directions to get around icebergs. They were so, so close to the eastern side of the bay, where all of the good fish were, when a current came out of nowhere and started to drag them off-course. 

“Go left, Sokka, left!” Katara yelled over the din of the waves. Sokka’s paddle kept getting stuck under blocks of ice, but he continued trying to no avail. Beside him, Zuko was trying to use bursts of flame to tip the boat back on track, but seemingly nothing was working. Suddenly, an even larger wave crashed over the boat and slammed it between two icebergs, throwing Katara, Sokka, and Zuko onto one, and the boat under the other.

Zuko stood shakily, coughing out a mouthful of water, and extended a hand towards Sokka, who stood up quickly and bent down to help Katara do the same. Both of them moved towards Zuko, who raised his body heat to help them dry off. 

(Sokka did the same, of course, but Katara didn’t know that.)

After a moment, the three of them stepped away from each other, and Katara sighed.

“Tui, I can’t do anything right!” She exclaimed, pacing across the plain of ice that they were standing on.

“Katara, you know that’s not true,” Zuko said softly, Sokka nodding along fervently at his side.

She ignored them. “Ever since Mom died, I’ve tried to be better, and learn how to waterbend and help out with stuff around the village, but I’m no good at anything that I try to learn how to do! I can’t even waterbend enough to get us out of a current, how am I supposed to become a master! If it weren’t for this stupid war, I’d’ve been able to learn from other Southern masters, but instead I have to suck! It’s not fair!”

Sokka’s eyes widened as he looked behind Katara and saw an iceberg cracking with the force of her anger, but as he tried to interrupt her and get her to calm down, she just kept riling herself up.

“It’s all so stupid!” she went on. Zuko and Sokka exchanged a look over her head as the iceberg continued to crack. “Why can’t I just be better?!”

On her last word, the iceberg finally cracked, and the plane of ice that they were standing on went flying once again. Sokka reached out through the haze of ice shards and water and pulled both Zuko and Katara close to him, trying his best to protect them from the blow.

When they dust (or rather, ice) finally settled, the three of them stood back up to see that Katara had caused the iceberg to completely shatter, leaving a shell in its wake.

“I- did I do that?” she whispered, stepping closer to the edge of the ice sheet. Sokka grabbed the hood of her parka, holding her back. “Sokka!” she exclaimed. “Put me down!”

“No way,” Sokka muttered. “I am not letting you fall into the ocean again! Two times in one day is already two times too many, and I do not want a third!”

Zuko ignored the sibling’s bickering as he watched a glowing orb slowly rise to the surface of the water. “Guys,” he spit, grabbing the two away from each other. “We’ve got company.”

The three of them watched with growing concern as the rest of the newfound iceberg rose up out of the water, Zuko’s hand grasping Sokka’s out of habit. Once it was fully out of the water, Katara bounded across a few pieces of ice to get to it, grabbing Sokka’s club so that she could start hacking at the ice.

“There’s someone in there!” she yelled. “We need to help them!”

Zuko sighed deeply and followed her, using their joint hands to drag Sokka along with him. He rested his hands against the ice and concentrated on creating a white-hot flame, so that he could melt through the ice. When he finally broke through the surface, a pure white glow shot up from the iceberg, and a boy jumped out.

“Happy fucking birthday to me,” Zuko muttered under his breath.

Chapter Text

Zuko blew out a breath. “You guys,” he said, grabbing Katara and Aang’s attention. Sokka still seemed to be distracted by the idea of their new friend being the Avatar, so Zuko had to try again to get his. “Sokka!” Sokka finally looked towards him, and Zuko sighed, grabbing his hand. “We’ve got company!”

He gestured roughly to the harbor, where a black dot was slowly getting bigger and turning into the far-away outline of a ship. Just as Sokka, Katara, and Aang looked over, the black snow started to fall.

“Oh, this is all my fault!” Aang exclaimed. “I’m so sorry, you guys!”

“Hey, don’t say that,” Katara soothed, laying a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t do this.”

Beside them, Sokka and Zuko were still looking out at the ship. As it got closer, Zuko could see the insignia on the end. He cursed under his breath.

“What is it?” Sokka asked. “Do you know that ship?”

“I don’t know the ship, but I know the guy,” Zuko muttered under his breath. “Zhao.”

Sokka shuddered at his side. He’d heard plenty about Zhao in Zuko’s stories about the Fire Nation, and certainly wasn’t looking forward to any meetings they might have. As the ship got closer and closer, Sokka grasped for Zuko’s hand. They met in the middle, and Sokka squeezed, once, twice, three times.

“Sokka, what are you doing?!” Katara yelled at him as the ship continued to get closer. “Why aren’t you getting any weapons?! You can’t take out a whole fleet with just your boomerang, don’t be an idiot!”

Sokka squeezed Zuko’s hand one more time. “I don’t need any weapons,” he said firmly. Zuko looked towards him, raising an eyebrow. Are you sure you want her to know? his facial expression asked. I can’t keep it a secret any longer, Sokka’s said back. Zuko nodded once, and both of them turned back towards the bay.

“You two need to get back to the village,” Zuko insisted, not looking back at Katara and Aang. Before either of them could protest, he held up a hand, cutting them off. “Don’t start with me. Go, now. Keep yourselves safe.”

When he could hear the crunching of snow under boots moving away from them, Zuko let out a breath. He squeezed Sokka’s hand one last time and then let go, breathing deeply to connect with his inner fire. Beside him, he could hear Sokka doing the same thing, both of them preparing to finally put their past two years of training together to use.

As the ship finally came into the harbor, Zuko scoffed. The sides of the iron were marked with insignias and banners, and there was a Fire Nation flag flying from every tower. Leave it to Zhao to make sure that nobody mistakes where his loyalties lie. 

When the crew on deck started to let down the gangplank, Zuko reached once more for Sokka’s hand. Sokka squeezed tightly, his palms warm after calling his flame to the surface. 

“Ready?” Zuko whispered.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Sokka murmured back. 

Zuko sighed. “Listen, don’t start attacking until I look like I need help, okay? You shouldn’t fight unless you really need to. I know you don’t want to tell Katara yet.”

Sokka nodded gratefully. “Thank you,” he whispered, his grip on Zuko’s hand tightening. 

As the gangplank hit the snow, Zuko’s chest tightened. He hadn’t seen a Fire Nation ship in three years; hadn’t seen anything but the Tribe for three years, really, anything but home. The idea of leaving the tundra, the fluffy snow and safety of the igloos, leaving that all behind, it caused a twinge of pain in his heart. But if they were going to keep Aang safe, then he had to leave.

He just hoped it would be on his own terms.

“My my my,” Zhao drawled as he began to walk down towards the boys. Zuko snarled at him, glaring sharply. “Well then, Zuko, I certainly didn’t think that I’d be seeing you here. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Why so surprised, Zhao?” Zuko spit. “You’re the one who left me here, surely you don’t think I’d’ve escaped.”

Zhao scoffed. “Oh, of course not. Your father isn’t stupid enough to send you somewhere escapeable. No. No, what I’m surprised about is the fact that you’ve survived. I thought that the savages would surely have taken care of you by now.”

Zuko’s eyes narrowed further. “Don’t you dare speak of them that way,” he growled, dropping Sokka’s hand and talking a step towards Zhao. “These people are more human than you’ll ever be, and you have no right to disrespect them that way. If anything, you’re the savage.”

Zuko raised his eyebrows at Zuko, before smirking playfully. “Oh, so they welcomed you in with open arms, then?” he mused, walking slowly closer to Zuko. “I’m sure they wouldn’t be so welcoming if they knew who you really were. What do you think about that, hmm, Prince Zuko?”

“You of all people should recognize that I was stripped of my title years ago, Zhao,” Zuko muttered, mentally cursing himself. Of course Zhao would be the one to give away his identity, the part of him that he was sure the Tribe would hate him for. “Although, if you want to be formal, then it’s actually Crown Prince Zuko.

Zhao scoffed again. “You know, the last time I saw you, your bending skills left much to be desired. I wonder, Zuko, if your time away has improved them.”

With that, he let out a punch of fire. Zuko smiled to himself. This was too easy.

Without preamble, Zuko turned into a flying kick, sending an arch of flames towards Zhao. The Commander paused for a moment, stunned. That particular move wasn’t a traditional Fire Nation kata, no, it had been Sokka who thought of it, which is particularly why Zuko used it. 

You must catch your opponent by surprise, Zuko, Piandao had said once. So Zuko did. He sent another arch of flames towards Zhao, and yelled behind him, “Now, Sokka!” Sokka moved quickly into action and sent four controlled punches of flames at Zhao, skimming along shoulders and hips. Behind him, Zuko could briefly hear the village’s quiet gasps, but he drew his focus back to the man in front of him, who was getting increasingly furious.

“Where is the Avatar?” Zhao roared, sending plumes of fire towards the boys. Sokka quickly caught the flames and sent them back towards Zhao, at the same time that Zuko flipped a ring of fire at him, trapping him in the crossroads of two attacks.

“The Avatar is dead, Zhao!” Zuko yelled back, accompanying his words with a flaming punch. “You’re too late! Whatever stupid quest the Firelord has you on is fruitless!”

“No he’s not!” Aang exclaimed, flying swooping in from behind the two boys. Zuko cursed under his breath. What the fuck was this kid trying to do? “I’m the Avatar!”

Oh, for fucks sake.

~~~💙🧡~~~

As Appa flew away from Zhao’s ship, Sokka let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. They got out. They got out, and they were safe, Aang was the Avatar, Zuko was Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, apparently, and holy shit, he needed to take a nap.

“Holy shit, I need to take a nap,” Sokka said, trying his best not to look over the sides of Appa’s saddle and melting into Zuko’s side. Carefully, he wrapped an arm around Zuko’s shoulders, playing with the hairs at the nape of his friend’s neck.

Katara cleared her throat pointedly from across the saddle, glaring out at the three boys. “I think you’ve all got some explaining to do,” she muttered.

Sokka and Zuko exchanged sheepish glances. On top of Appa’s head, Aang turned around so that he was facing the rest of them, staring guiltily down at his hands.

“I am the Avatar,” Aang said after a moment of silence. Katara inhaled sharply. “When I- when the monks told me, I got scared and I ran away. While I was over the ocean, me and Appa got caught in a storm, so I airbent us a bubble to keep us safe. But I- I’ve only mastered air yet. I haven’t even tried any of the other elements.”

Sokka noticed belatedly that Zuko had tensed next to him, and he turned towards his friend, brows knit. “You good?” he whispered. 

Zuko coughed out a little laugh. “Eh,” he replied, moving impossibly closer to Sokka. “As good as I’ll ever be.”

Satisfied with Aang’s answer, Katara turned to Sokka and Zuko. Her eyes pierced Zuko first, leaving Sokka’s interrogation for last.

“Alright then,” Katara hummed, “Zuko. Who the hell was that guy, why do you know him, and why the hell was he calling you ‘Prince Zuko’?”

“Commander Zhao,” Zuko started, “was my father’s right hand man, sort of. When I was growing up, he was always around the palace, trying to get higher up in the government’s hierarchy. He always buttered up my father, because he saw my Uncle as weak and lesser-than, even though Uncle is older and was in line to inherit the throne. And when my cousin Lu Ten died in the siege of Ba Sing Se,” here, Zuko took a shivering breath, looking up at the sky, “my Uncle called off the siege and came home. He couldn’t bear to fight in the war that killed his son, and my father thought of him as weak because of it. 

“The week that my Uncle came home, my grandfather, Firelord Azulon, fell ill. He was old, really old, and my father asked him to consider having him be the heir instead of my Uncle because he was still grieving. My grandfather told him that if he wanted to be heir, he had to go through the pain of losing his firstborn son. My mother overheard, and she came up with a plan that had my grandfather die, my father become Firelord, and herself disappear, all so that I could live. I still don’t know what happened to her.”

Zuko finally looked away from the sky, and back down towards his hands. “When I was thirteen, I convinced my Uncle to let me into one of my father’s meetings. One of his most respected generals proposed a plan that said they should sacrifice an entire battalion of new recruits, just kids, really, who wanted to serve their country, and use them as bait so that a more experienced division could come in and attack from the back. I spoke out against it.” From the top of the saddle, Aang looked at him hopefully. Sokka’s arm was almost painfully tight around Zuko’s waist at that point, but it grounded him, keeping him from floating away into the memories.

“My father challenged me to an Agni Kai for my disrespect. I was cocky. I thought I’d be fighting the general. But it was my father’s war room,” across from Zuko, Katara inhaled a horrified breath, “so I’d have to fight him. I knelt down in front of him, and I asked for- I begged for forgiveness. I promised to be loyal. I promised to be better.” Zuko could feel himself getting choked up, but his voice was nothing but static to his ears. All he could hear was the phantom flickering of flames, his father’s voice echoing throughout his mind. 

“And he said- he said to me, you will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher. And then he held his hand to my face and lit it on fire.”

A single tear slipped out of Zuko’s good eye. He vaguely registered the feeling of a hand on his back, and then Sokka was guiding Zuko’s head towards the crook of his neck, holding him tightly. Zuko’s hands fisted into the back of his friend’s tunic and he gasped for air as he felt two more bodies piling on top of him, Aang and Katara quickly trying to comfort him as best they could. 

“I’ll kill him,” Sokka murmured into Zuko’s ear, holding him the tightest of all. “I swear to Tui and La, Zu, if anybody hurts you again, I’ll-”

“I know.” Zuko interrupted him. “I know.”

The four of them pulled away from each other after a few moments, although Zuko stayed glued to Sokka’s side. As Aang returned to his place on Appa’s head, Katara sat back down across from the boys, crossing her arms.

“Sokka,” she said, turning her death glare onto her brother. “You’re a firebender?”

Sokka blushed sheepishly, squeezing his arm around Zuko’s waist before lighting a small fire in his free hand. “Surprise?” he offered.

Katara’s eyes widened. “What? But- but- how? This makes so sense. How the hell are you- but there’s no- how?”

Sokka sighed. “I don’t know, Kat. How would I know? I just- I've always been able to do it, but I never knew how to control it, or use it to fight, not until Zuko came along. And he taught me what he knew, and then we started making up new things together.”

Katara was stunned. “So you- you’ve been training for two years? And you didn’t tell me?” She looked hurt, her blue eyes shining with unshed tears.

Sokka exhaled in defeat, looking down at his hands. “I’m sorry. But I didn’t want you to be scared of me, or mad at me, or whatever, so I didn’t tell you.”

Katara crossed the saddle suddenly, drawing both Sokka and Zuko into another hug. “I forgive you,” she whispered fiercely. “I forgive you.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Sokka found Zuko outside, leaning against one of the Temple’s many arched door frames and breathing heavily. When Sokka reached him, he rested a hand gently on Zuko’s shoulder, and Zuko slid to the ground, hugging his knees to his chest and resting his head on top of them.

“Hey,” Sokka murmured, crouching down next to him and keeping a hand plastered to his shoulder. “What’s going on?”

Zuko sniffled, pressing his forehead against his kneecap. A tear spilled from his good eye and landed on the ground. “It’s stupid,” he whispered.

“Don’t say that,” Sokka murmured, “nothing that makes my best friend cry is stupid.”

Zuko sniffed out a chuckle. “It’s just that- I mean, Aang is in there and he just found out that his entire nation is just- fucking gone. And I- I’m such a fucking wuss, because it was my people who did this- it was my fucking great-grandfather who ordered for it to happen in the first place, and I- I just-” he huffed out a breath, defeated. “The people of the Fire Nation- they’re still my people, Sokka. And I can’t- I just can’t even fathom that someone who I’m related to killed an entire nation. And my nation, my people, they’re just heading towards that same fate. This war is going to take the Fire Nation down from the inside out, Sokka, it’ll strip at the world until there’s nothing left but flames.”

Sokka sighed, sitting down fully and drawing Zuko into his chest. “But we can stop it,” he whispered. “We’ve got Aang now, we have the Avatar back, and we’re gonna put an end to all of it. I promise.” Zuko let out a shuddering breath into Sokka’s chest, fisting his hands into the back of Sokka’s tunic. Every breath he took shook in his ribcage, and Sokka started counting out loud above his head, one to four and back to one again.

“Just breathe, buddy,” Sokka whispered. “Just breathe.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

“So, uh, those two are pretty close, yeah?”

Katara turned to Aang where they were watching Sokka and Zuko, smiling softly at him. “Yeah, they are. They’ve always been like this, I guess. Just the two of them against the world. It’s nice, honestly. Sokka never really had any other friends his age before Zuko came along, and I get the sense that the same goes for Zuko as well. They fit, y’know?”

Aang hummed. “Yeah. They fit.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Kyoshi Island was beautiful, Zuko knew that much. Sokka had gone off for training with Suki and the warriors, and Aang was with Katara studying Avatar Kyoshi, so Zuko was on his own for the day. He walked calmly along the beach, dragging his toes in the sand.

“Are you enjoying your stay?” a voice asked from behind him. Zuko jumped and spun around, only to be faced with Suki. He breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded.

“Yeah, thanks for asking. It’s nice to take a break for a second.” Zuko said, smiling slightly at her.

Suki sat down on the sand and gestured for Zuko to join her, so he did, folding into a lotus position, akin to how he would meditate. “Sokka told me that you’ve lived with his family for three years, yeah?”

Zuko nodded. “I went to the pole when I was thirteen and a half or so, and I just turned seventeen a week ago, so yeah, it’s been about three years.”

Suki hummed. “If you don’t mind me asking, why did you go to the pole in the first place? If what I understand from Sokka and Katara is true, then it doesn’t sound like a very optimal vacation spot.”

Zuko swallowed audibly. He thought for a moment about lying, maybe, telling a different version of the truth, but the idea of lying to this girl who’d been nothing but nice to all of them made his stomach churn. “I was banished,” he said simply, looking out at the ocean. 

Suki sucked in a sharp breath. “At thirteen?” she asked quietly. “But how- what the hell can a thirteen year old do to get banished?”

Zuko scoffed humorlessly. “I was born as the Firelord’s son.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” he huffed, leaning back against his hands. “I’m sure you can guess where that got me,” he muttered, gesturing to his scar. “It was hard, at first. To be at the pole. But Sokka, and Katara, and everyone else, they gave me a home. They let me be a part of their family. And after that, well, it was so, so worth it.”

Suki blew out another breath. “Zuko?” she asked after a moment, making him look up at her. “How would you feel about joining us for a training session?”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Sokka was going to ignore the way that butterflies erupted in his stomach the moment that he caught sight of Zuko in Kyoshi Warriors makeup. He’d been eating lunch with some of the other girls, talking amongst themselves about the events of that morning’s training session, when Suki had called everyone back to the main room for the afternoon’s classes. 

And, standing next to her in full Kyoshi regalia, was Zuko. His hair was pulled into the same style that Suki had her’s in, half of it up in a bun on top of his head and the other half hanging onto his shoulders, despite the fact that he’d been growing his hair out since he arrived at the pole and the half that hung down his back could very well get in his way. He was dressed in the full armour set, and had a pair of fans tucked up his sleeves.

And Sokka- Sokka was into it.

Fuck.

This wasn’t- he didn’t have the time to worry about how his best friend looked good in armour. He was a part of the Avatar’s group, he had to be a fighter, a warrior,  had to be prepared, had no time at all to worry about a sudden attraction to Zuko, of all people.

(Sokka had known since his father had first sat him down to talk about becoming a man, and everything that came with it, that he wasn’t quite like the other boys. Sure, he understood what they said about girls being pretty, but why were none of them talking about boys? It made no sense to him, until it did.)

Oh, fuck. Fucking shitting hell.

“Ladies,” Suki started, “and Sokka, of course, you all should know by now that this is Zuko. He’s been travelling with Aang along with Sokka and Katara, and he just told me that he had some experience with dual swords, so I thought we should give him a chance to spar with fans instead.”

“Hello, Zuko here,” Zuko greeted, along with a little wave.

Fuck, he was cute.

Fuck. Fuck! Where the hell were all of those feelings coming from? Sokka’s fingers twitched underneath his sleeves. Zuko had been in his life for three years, and yeah, maybe he thought sometimes about how beautiful he looked in the moonlight, or how nice it was when he wore his long hair down every once in a while, but it had never, not ever, escalated to this level.

Fuck, he had a crush on Zuko, didn’t he.

Fuck.

~~~💙🧡~~~

Seeing Sokka in the Kyoshi Warriors uniform for the first time brought something up to the surface, for Zuko. His hair was pulled into it’s usual wolftail, and his face was carefully made up with the same makeup as Zuko’s. In the green armour, Sokka looked strong, broad, and tall. 

Like everything that Zuko was not.

As the rest of the warriors lined up against the back wall to watch Zuko and Suki spar (she’d insisted on it, had wanted to see how his skills with the swords that he hadn’t seen in three years since he was banished would hold up with the fans), Sokka flashed Zuko his perfect, blinding smile, and Zuko’s stomach dropped out of his feet. 

Because Sokka looked good with that smile on his face at the same time as the makeup, and the white base was creasing at the corners of his eyes and mouth, and the red smears across his eyes were perfectly precise and complimented the chestnut tones of his hair and cerulean tones of his eyes perfectly and-

Fuck.

Zuko had known he was gay since he was seven. There was a servant’s kid, a boy around his age, with honey brown eyes that were so different from his gold, and skin that was a shade darker than Zuko’s, marking him as being from the Fire Nation’s outer islands. Zuko thought he was beautiful, and knew that he’d never be able to tell anyone about it.

And, sure, when he’d come to the pole and got to know Sokka, maybe there were moments- when his best friend pulled off a perfect variation of a kata, or came up with a new move for them to use, when his blue eyes would sparkle and he would smile that same perfect smile, when Zuko would feel that familiar fluttering of something low in his stomach- that Zuko thought he could maybe feel something other than friendship for Sokka.

But none of them were stronger than that moment, then, in the training room of Kyoshi Island, when Sokka was smiling and Zuko should have been stretching before his spar, but instead he was staring at his best friend like he’s just grown a second head because when did Sokka get so beautiful?

Oh, fucking Agni above, Zuko did not have time for this.

He had a crush on Sokka.

He. Had a crush. On Sokka. Sokka, who was his best friend, probably straight, and a guy.

Zuko tore his eyes away from Sokka’s blinding smile and back towards Suki, who was smirking slightly at him. “Ready, fire boy?” she snarked, pulling out her fans and getting into a fighting stance.

Zuko put on a mask of confidence and squared his shoulders across from her. “You bet.”

Chapter Text

In his head, Zuko made a list.

It was a long one, there was no doubt about that. But, in his defense, a lot had happened since they left Kyoshi Island.

So, to keep track of it all, Zuko made a list.

Zuko’s Incomplete List of All the Shit That Happened After They Left Kyoshi

1. They went to Omashu and it turned out that Aang's friend from childhood was the hundred year old king who was also crazy (???)
2. They went to an earthbender’s prison and busted out the Earth benders.
3. Apparently Aang had to defeat Ozai before Sozin’s Comet (???) which was in less than a year (!!!).
4. Also, Avatar Roku made a surprise guest appearance, so that was fun.
5. Katara and Aang tried to steal a waterbending scroll, ft. Pirates.
6. All that shit with Jet happened. (Both Zuko and Sokka abstained from bending the entire time that they were with the Freedom Fighters, and afterwards they had to spar for two hours straight to get out all of their pent up energy.) (No, Sokka did not spend the entirety of those two hours admiring the sheen of sweat on Zuko’s abs, thank you very much.) (And, no, Zuko did not spend an entire thirty seconds staring at the piece of hair that fell out of Sokka’s wolftail, that’s crazy.)
7. They escorted two groups of refugees across the great divide. 
8. Sokka and Katara got sick in a storm, so Zuko and Aang had to go and get frozen frogs to cure them (???), but then Aang got caught by Zhao,
9. So Zuko had to dress up in all black and a theatre mask to save him.
10. They all went to Aunt Wu’s village, got their fortunes told, argued about science, and then left, ft. volcanos.

Zuko made his list whilst walking through a forest, Aang, Katara, and Sokka by his side, as the four of them searched for a campsite for the night. They were on an Earth Kingdom Island, one of the smaller ones, and there was a slight chill in the night air.

Suddenly, Sokka very abruptly stopped walking.

“What is it?” Zuko asked, stepping forward to place a hand on his shoulder.

“Those- these are Water Tribe weapons!” he exclaimed, wrenching a knife from where it was stuck in a tree trunk. Zuko bent over his shoulder to examine it, ignoring the goosebumps that popped up on his arms when he felt Sokka’s breath on his neck.

“They are,” Zuko murmured.

“There are more, over here you guys!” Aang shouted, waving them over. The clearing that they were in looked as if there was a fight there, a struggle, and the scorch marks on the trees made Sokka’s breath catch in his throat.

“Shit,” he said. “We’ve got to follow the trail and see if there’s anyone left here who needs our help.”

Before anyone could veto his idea, Sokka shot off through the forest, following the scorched trail. Zuko gave himself a moment to sigh, staring longingly at his friend’s back, before he took off behind Sokka. He could hear Aang and Katara’s footsteps behind him and grit his teeth. So this has turned into a group activity.

So they ran. They ran until they reached the coastline, and then Sokka stopped in his tracks.

“A ship,” he breathed. “There’s a ship.”

Zuko was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, but he straightened up for Sokka’s sake, grabbing his hand. Behind them, Aang and Katara emerged from the woods, both of them panting. 

Suddenly, something rustled in the bushes. Zuko shivered and called a fire to his hands, holding it up so that he could see better around him.

“Hello?” he called out. “Who’s there?”

Beside him, Sokka called a fireball into his own hand. Behind them, Katara drew out a shaky water whip and Aang pulled his staff into a fighting stance. 

“Sokka?” a voice came from around the coast. “Katara? Oh, Tui and La.”

Sokka’s hand tightened around Zuko’s. “Holy shit,” he breathed. Then, he raised his voice. “Bato?” he called out, “Bato, is that you?”

Suddenly, the rustling from the bushes stopped, and an exponentially tall figure stepped onto the beach. Zuko stiffened up, and his fire flared in his hand. This person- Bato, Sokka had called him- he looked like a father. He was dressed in Water Tribe blues, just like Sokka, Katara, and Zuko, and he had a bandage wrapped around his torso and left arm. His hair was long and in a half-up-half-down style, brushing the middle of his back.

“Bato!” Katara exclaimed, dropping her water in favor of throwing herself at the man. He caught her with a muted ‘oof!’ and wrapped his arms around her back. Zuko expected Sokka to do the same, but he was frozen beside him, fire still lit in his palm.

Oh. Fire. If this Bato was someone from home, then Zuko reckoned that he wouldn’t know about Sokka’s bending. At least, not until now.

Zuko put out his own flame and moved to stand in front of Sokka, cupping his right hand (the one with the fire) in both of his own and taking ahold of Sokka’s fire. Sokka still seemed to be frozen, staring straight ahead without looking at anything, so Zuko wrapped him up in his arms.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, “it’s okay Sokka. You’re okay.”

Somewhere far away, Bato was inviting them to camp with him. Katara and Aang were following, so Zuko assumed that he should as well, and he let go of Sokka in favor of grabbing his hand and dragging him along.

They ended up at an abbey. Bato invited everyone to eat, but Zuko declined politely, heading off to the area where they were supposed to set up their tents after bidding Bato good night with a traditional Water Tribe greeting. If Bato was surprised to see a very clearly Fire Nation person dressed in full Water Tribe attire, he said nothing, only treating Zuko with as much respect as he did Aang.

Just as Zuko was about ready to head to bed, finished with both pitching the tent that he and Sokka were to share and his evening meditations, the tent flap opened and Sokka stepped inside. He looked tired and drained, so Zuko smiled slightly at him and patted the free space on his bedroll. Sokka collapsed next to him gratefully, resting his head on Zuko’s lap.

“Bato is Dad’s best friend,” he said after a moment. “They grew up together. He was always there for our family, y’know? He was the witness when my parents got married, he was there when me and Katara were born, he taught me how to fight when my dad was busy, all that stuff.” Sokka turned to Zuko with red-rimmed eyes, and sighed deeply, sitting up so that he could bury his face in Zuko’s shoulder. “I always- I always looked up to him, so much.” His voice was getting choked with tears, so Zuko wrapped his arms tightly around him, rubbing gentle circles into his back. “And he- now he knows, Zuko. He knows. And he’s gonna hate me.”

Silently, a few drops of tears hit Zuko’s shoulder. He concentrated on pulling heat away from his core and kept rubbing circles into Sokka’s back, his hands warm and sure.

“Please, Sokka, don’t say that,” Zuko whispered. “He won’t hate you. If he loves you- and that’s what it sounds like, it sounds like he really does love you- then he won’t hold something that you can’t control against you. That’s just wrong.” Sokka let out a painful sounding sob, muffled into Zuko’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Sokka, I promise. You’ll be okay. You’ve still got me, and Katara, and Aang, and we’re always gonna love you, no matter what.”

Sokka nodded into his shoulder, and Zuko moved a hand from his back to his hair, gently taking it out of it’s wolftail and brushing through the chestnut strands. After a few minutes of that, Sokka sniffled again and straightened up slightly, so that Zuko could see his face.

“Thanks, Zu,” he whispered. “We should probably get to sleep, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Zuko breathed. Despite his puffy, watery eyes, and red cheeks, Sokka looked absolutely breathtaking in the low firelight of their tent, an orange glow casting dancing shadows across his face. No, Tui, stupid feelings, fuck off!

Sokka went to lay down on his own bedroll, across from Zuko’s, and as he settled down into his blankets, he reached out a hand for Zuko, a silent plea for silent comfort. Zuko obliged him, grasping Sokka’s warm hand in his own, and with a wave of his free hand he extinguished the fire to embers.

~~~💙🧡~~~

The air around the abbey was cold and salty, a familiar breeze from the sea that reminded Sokka of home. 

He was sitting on a cliffside near the tent that he was supposed to be sharing with Zuko, wanting to fall asleep and yet so, so awake. He’d crept out of the tent once he was sure that Zuko was asleep, careful not to wake him, with the warmth of his hand still lingering in Sokka’s own.

“Can’t sleep?” a voice asked from behind him. Sokka sighed, shaking his head. Bato sat down beside him, staring out at the sea. “I’ve always known, you know. About your firebending, I mean,” 

Sokka looked up suddenly. “What? How could you know?”

Bato chuckled under his breath. “I think I first realised you were different the night you were born. Kya was passed out, and so was your dad, but I was awake. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. I was holding you, and we were sitting by the fire, and you were falling asleep. I think I’d been sitting there for an entire hour before I realised that the fire was moving in time with your breath.”

“My inner fire,” Sokka breathed. “That’s so strange. Zuko told me that most firebenders don’t connect with their inner fire until they first start to bend, and I didn’t start sparking up until I was like six or seven.”

Bato hummed. “Zuko, huh? What’s the story there?”

Sokka growled under his breath. “His father’s an abusive dipshit who dropped him in the snow because he wanted him to die. We took him in, and he taught me to bend. End of story.”

“Oh, I’m sure that there’s not it,” Bato sighed. “But it’s his story, and not yours, I appreciate your respect for that.”

“He’s my best friend, of course I respect him.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure he’s more than that,” Bato murmured under his breath. “He trains you?”

“Yeah,” Sokka said. “Well, I mean he taught me everything he knows, and when he was banished he was already almost a master, but he wasn’t one yet so once he taught me all of the stuff that he knew before, we both just started making up moves on our own.”

“Can I see?” Bato asked.

“What? Now?”

“Sure, why not?” he said. “C’mon son, show me what you’ve got. Katara promised me that she and Aang would show me their waterbending, I want to see your bending too.”

“Oh,” Sokka breathed. “Uh, yeah, sure, I’ll show you.”

He stood from his place on the cliffside and stretched his arms over his head, breathing deep. For a moment, that was all he did. Just stood there, breathing. His eyes were closed and Bato could tell that he was wound up, tight.

Sokka opened his eyes, and then he let go.

He sent out a circle of fireballs with his fists, illuminating the forest around them. Then, with a spin, he kicked out bursts of flames into the fireballs, so that they flared up high. Sokka brought his arms over his head and pulled, so that all of the flames came together into one, and then he spun out again and sent down a shower of harmless, golden sparks.

The sparks went out. For a moment, all was silent.

“Tui and La, Sokka,” Bato breathed. “Did Zuko really come up with that all by himself?”

Sokka looked down and blushed. “Actually, uh, I came up with that one,” he murmured. Bato’s eyes went wide. “It’s not too functional in combat, or anything like that, but it’s kinda pretty. I don’t get to practice it all that much because it’s pretty visible, so it might have been a bit shaky, but, uh, yeah.”

“Sokka, that’s incredible!” Bato exclaimed. “You- you- that’s amazing, son. I’m so proud of you.”

Shit. Pride always started up the waterworks. Careful of his injury, Sokka launched himself at Bato, wrapping his arms around him.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

~~~💙🧡~~~

So, Zhao kinda tipped their little abbey excursion off with a bang, but they did manage to get away from him and his evil rat-monster. Then, they somehow managed coming into contact with a Fire Nation deserter, whose name made Zuko’s nostrils flare.

“Take us to him,” he said. The soldier that they met in town cowered at the hardness of Zuko’s voice, and Sokka stepped forward, grabbing his hand.

They walked in silence to the campsite, and when they got there the soldier squeaked out that he was going to fetch Jeong Jeong from his tent. He came back a few minutes later with a downturned gaze.

“He says that you all have to leave,” the soldier whimpered. “He’s mad at me for bringing you here.”

“Yeah, no,” Zuko muttered, stomping straight past the soldier and into the camp. He still had Sokka’s hand in a death grip, and didn’t look like he’d be letting go any time soon, so Sokka was dragged across the campsite and into Jeong Jeong’s tent.

“I thought I told Li that I didn’t want any visitors,” Jeong Jeong said coolly when Zuko stormed through the tent flap, Sokka at his side. 

“Too bad, looks like we’re still here,” Zuko spit. Jeong Jeong looked up sharply at the sound of his voice, eyes wide.

“Zuko,” he breathed. 

“Hi.”

“I’m just gonna-” Sokka mumbled, starting to slowly back towards the door.

“Don’t you dare leave this tent!” Zuko exclaimed. “Sokka, I may or may not need you to stop me from killing a man with my bare hands.”

“Agni, what happened between the two of you anyways?”

“You could’ve told him!” Zuko roared. Jeong Jeong shrunk back in his seat. “I was there, y’know, when we got news of your desertion. I was in Shu Jing when he got the letter. It was the summer after my mother disappeared, Jeong Jeong! I went there to get away! We thought you’d died! Piandao cried! I’ve never seen him cry before, and he was sobbing!”

Jeong Jeong stared at the ground, stone faced. “I never meant to leave him. I never meant to hurt him, Zuko, you must understand that. I never meant to hurt either of you. I did it because what I was fighting for was wrong, and because I wasn’t going to just sit there and let innocent, stronghearted soldiers sacrifice themselves for a country that would never love them back.”

“I didn’t just sit there either!” Zuko yelled. “I didn’t get half my face burned off for nothing! We were all so fucking worried, we thought you were gone! You could’ve at least sent a letter! Piandao deserves that much!”

Jeong Jeong hung his head. “I’m sorry, Zuko.”

“You don’t- I can’t- you two were the only thing that I had left,” he stuttered, his voice growing emotional. “Those summers with the two of you, that was it. And when- when we thought you were gone-

“Hey,” Sokka whispered, using Zuko’s hold on his hand to tug Zuko towards him. He went without protest, slumping forward into Sokka’s chest. “You need to calm down. Your flames as high as the treetops, Zu, if you’re not careful you’re gonna light yourself on fire.”

Zuko breathed in deeply, exhaling against Sokka’s shoulder. “Sorry,” he murmured.

“It’s okay,” Sokka said back, “we all get worked up sometimes.” He turned to Jeong Jeong, brows pinched. “Listen, I’ve got no clue who you are, but I’m going to go and bring Zuko back to my sister, and then I’m going to come back you’re going to tell me what the hell this was all about.”

Jeong Jeong nodded at him, and then Sokka turned back to Zuko, who was still breathing deeply and leaning against his chest. “C’mon, I need you to watch Katara and Aang while I grill Mr. Spiky Hair.” Zuko hummed nonchalantly against his collarbone, and the two of them walked together out of the tent.

A few minutes later, Sokka ducked back through the tent flap to find Jeong Jeong sitting on the ground, shifting through a pile of letters.

Sokka cleared his throat expectantly, his eyebrows cocked. 

“Come, have a seat,” Jeong Jeong said, without looking up. Sokka kneeled down across from him, his back straight.

“Before we get to talking, you should know something about me,” Sokka started. “I’m from the Southern Water Tribe. And in the south, the thing that is most important to us is our family. And all those kids out there, whether they’re related to me by blood or not, they are my family. If you hurt them, I will never let you forget it.”

There was something hard in Sokka’s eyes that Jeong Jeong had only seen once before.

“He needs to get away, JJ,” Piandao said. “Please. It was- Ursa sent me a letter. I don’t know where she is, or if she’s even okay, but she told me to get Zuko away from there. We’re all he has left.”

“I understand,” Jeong Jeong said. “Although, if you don’t mind, I have a question for you.” Sokka raised his eyebrows and nodded, giving him permission to go on. “How could you sense Zuko’s inner fire? I’ve read about that before, but I’ve never been able to do it, and I’ve never met anyone before who can.”

“We trained together,” Sokka said simply. “When Zuko got banished, his father sent him to the South Pole. Our men had just left for the war, and the village has incredibly poor defenses. We took him in because he was suffering, and he needed our help. Once he had recovered from his scar, he taught me everything he knew. And after that we started to make up new moves ourselves. One of them involves combining our inner fires so that we can compensate for lost energy during a fight. Once we’d practiced that enough, we were in tune enough with each other to sense it when we’re close.”

“You’re a firebender?”

Unimpressed, Sokka lit a flame in his open palm, dissolving it after a few moments. “Always have been, always will be.”

“And you two are both masters?” Jeong Jeong asked. Sokka shook his head.

“Zuko still hadn’t taken his exams when he was banished. He taught me everything that he knows, so we’re both on the same page, but neither of us are traditional masters, no,” Sokka explained.

“I see,” Jeong Jeong hummed. “I can administer your master’s exams, if you’d like.”

Sokka’s eyes lit up. “Would you do that? We’d both really appreciate it.”

“Of course,” Jeong Jeong said. “Now then, I believe you had some questions for me?”

Sokka’s face returned to it’s neutral stance, and he folded his hands together in his lap. “Yes, I do. What were you and Zuko talking about? He doesn’t get that worked up about just anything.”

Jeong Jeong looked down, his cheeks red. “In the summers after Zuko’s mother disappeared, he went to stay with his sword master, in Shu Jing. Piandao is a kind man, with the biggest heart I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and he welcomed Zuko in with open arms. I was there too. Dao and I- we were together.”

Sokka’s breath caught in his throat.

“It wasn’t legal, of course, it still isn’t, so we kept it quiet,” Jeong Jeong went on. “It was an open secret, more or less. It was- blissful, for a while. It was serene. I was on leave from my post, but then I got taken off leave, and put in charge of a division of new recruits. They were young, eighteen at the oldest, all of them just drafted. The Generals wanted to use them as bait.”

The rest of the conversation was brisk and quiet, just like the wind was on the day that Sokka first heard another side of the story. Every word that Jeong Jeong spoke took Sokka back to that day in Appa’s saddle, Zuko crying into his shoulder.

“So, I let my dessertion go public,” Jeong Jeong finished. “To protect the 41st.”

“Thank you,” Sokka said quietly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go and talk to Zuko.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

The sun had set at some point that Sokka was in Jeong Jeong’s tent. He walked out to see Aang and Katara on their bedrolls next to the fire, and Zuko sitting on a log, staring into the flames. Sokka went over and sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Zuko leaned into the touch, exhaling heavily.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Sokka whispered, bringing his free hand across his lap to grab onto Zuko’s. “It’s all gonna be okay.”

“Will it really?” Zuko asked. “All of it?”

“Yeah,” Sokka breathed, “someday.”

Chapter Text

In some horrifying, beautiful way, Yue reminded Zuko of Azula.

She seemed like a take-no-shit, do-no-harm type of person, but in a quieter way than Azula was. She did as she was told, but she wasn’t quiet about her resentment for her place in society. Zuko and Sokka had sat by her side while they watched the fight between Katara and Pakku, and Yue had cheered without abandon, very obviously routing for Katara’s win. 

After the fight, when Pakku had (finally) agreed to take Katara on as a combat student, Yue and Sokka went off to ‘do an activity together’, and Zuko headed for his room in the palace. His plan was to meditate for a while, maybe practice some dry katas, but as he was walking through the palace he heard his name being called from somewhere down the hall. 

“Zuko!” Chief Arnook said, “Zuko, can I speak with you?”

Zuko turned, plastering a carefully blank expression on his face. “Chief,” he said, “of course. What can I help you with?”

“Walk with me to my office,” Arnook told him, already heading down the hallway. “This conversation will be better held there.”

They traversed through the palace in silence, and when they reached the Chief’s office he gestured for Zuko to sit on the other side of his desk, settling down across from him. Arnook shuffled through some papers that were sitting on his desk, straightening them out and setting them to the side before he picked up a fresh piece of parchment and pulled his pen and inkwell towards him. Then, he looked up at Zuko.

“What can I help you with, Chief?” Zuko asked. 

“I’ll be blunt with you,” Arnook started. “It’s quite obvious that, no matter how you wear blue and know the Water Tribe’s customs, you yourself are not from the Water Tribes. Your eyes are golden, Zuko. Golden eyes make you Fire Nation.”

Swallowing, Zuko nodded. “They do,” he said simply. “It’s true that I was born in the Fire Nation, but when I was thirteen years old I was burned and banished, sent to the South Pole. I was expected to die almost as soon as they dropped me off there, but the Fire Nation never gave the South enough credit. Their people are some of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever met, and they took me in and raised me like one of their own. I spent the last three years with them, before I met Aang and we left to find him a waterbending teacher.”

“Hmm,” Arnook murmured. He wrote something down on his paper, then looked back up at Zuko, an unreadable expression on his face. “Zuko is an unusual name, even in the Fire Nation. In fact, the only Zuko that I know of is the Crown Prince.”

“Was,” Zuko said quietly. He cleared his throat. “Was,” he said again, louder that time. “I was the Crown Prince. Then I was banished. My sister will be first in line for the throne now.”

Arnook narrowed his eyes. “The Northern Water Tribe is a secure place,” he said decisively. “Can I trust that your… past… won’t change that?”

There was a quiet threat lacing his words, one that made Zuko’s heart race. Arnook wasn’t his father- wasn’t even like his father, and Zuko knew that, but he was still a leader, and that made Zuko uneasy. 

“Of course, sir,” Zuko said after a moment. “And, although I don’t know if it’ll do any good, I might have some information on the Fire Nation navy, if you need it. There’s one Admiral in particular, Zhao, he’s been trying to capture Aang. Back when I lived in the Fire Nation, he always talked about wanting to stage an invasion on the North, but he couldn’t because he was only a General then. He can now, though, and if he gets wind that the Avatar is in the North…”

“Thank you, Zuko,” Arnook said after Zuko trailed off, still jotting down notes on his paper. “I’ll be sure to discuss that with the council. And, listen,” Arnook looked up at him, a slight smile on his face, “your secret’s safe with me.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Sokka entered the room that he and Zuko were sharing to find his friend facedown on the bed, his head turned toward where the sun was setting over the ocean. Sokka wordlessly came to sit on the edge of Zuko’s bed, laying down on his side and reaching over to wrap his arm around Zuko’s waist. 

“You okay?” 

Zuko turned away from the window, laying so that he was on his side as well, his face tucked into Sokka’s neck. “It was fine,” he said. “Chief Arnook and I talked. I told him who I was. Remembering is hard sometimes.”

Remembering is hard sometimes. That rang true with Sokka, deep in his soul, and he pulled Zuko even tighter against him, nuzzling into his hair. “I know what you mean,” he whispered. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Zuko shook his head. “No, not really,” he said. “Can you tell me about your day? How was your- ahem- activity?”

Sokka cracked a grin. “It was good,” he said. “Yue is- she’s a very good friend.”

Zuko raised his eyebrow. “Just a friend?”

“Just a friend,” Sokka clarified, still rubbing at the back of Zuko’s head. “She’s engaged, so even if I did have feelings for her it wouldn’t have gone anywhere, and plus... I have a crush on someone else.”

At that, Zuko wrenched his head away from Sokka’s neck, looking up at him with wide eyes. “You do?” he asked. “How did I not know about this? Who is it?”

Bemused, Sokka chuckled. “It’s no big deal,” he said, “I only realised it at Kyoshi Island. And I’m not telling you who it is.”

Zuko swallowed. “Fine,” he huffed. “But I’m not telling you who I have feelings for either.”

“You have a crush too?” Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Yeah,” Zuko said after a moment. “I do.”

And if that wasn’t promising, then Sokka didn’t know what was. 

~~~💙🧡~~~

Later that night, Chief Arnook found his daughter at the back of the banquet hall, leaning up against a wall. Her gaze was trained on Sokka and Zuko, who were doing some sort of dance that looked suspiciously like a bending form. 

“Those two are close, aren’t they?” Arnook asked, settling next to his daughter. 

“Yes,” Yue said, “they are.”

“Do you think they’re…”

“They’re so in love with each other that you’d have to be blind not to see it,” Yue told him bluntly. “Unfortunately enough, I think the two of them are quite blind.”

“Hmm,” Arnook hummed. 

(Contrary to popular belief, the Northern Chief trusted his daughter more than anyone else in the world. Arnook was a traditional man, and he believed in a woman having her place in the world, but Yue was his only family left, and he’d be damned if he lost her over a simple disagreement. Yue knew this well, and she trusted that her father would go along with whatever she said was the right thing to do.)

“Father,” Yue said quietly, “I’ve been thinking about traveling.”

“Oh?”

“I want to see the world,” Yue told him. “After all,” she said, “the Chief’s wife is his greatest advisor, is she not?”

Arnook swallowed. They both knew what Yue was implying, and as the Chief’s gaze strayed to the betrothal necklace wrapped around his daughter’s throat, he knew that his battle was lost. 

“She is indeed,” he said. 

~~~💙🧡~~~

Hahn was the son of one of the Chief’s advisors. His father had power in the North, and that power (or, possibly, the Chief’s power) would one day be passed to Hahn. The other boys his age knew to do what Hahn told them, if they ever wanted to be anyone later on, and the girls knew to give in to his advances, if they’d ever like to have a proper husband. Hahn’s father had influence with the Northern people, and that translated down to Hahn. 

Hahn’s father did not have influence over the Southern people, and Hahn did not as well. 

Sokka, Zuko, and Yue came barreling around a corner, giggling their heads off. Hahn quickly crossed to the other side of the canal, lest he be barrelled over by them. 

“Oh, Spirits,” Sokka said through laughter, “Kallik’s face.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so angry,” Yue spluttered. 

“That was golden,” Zuko sighed. 

Hahn watched with envy as his betrothed, who he knew he wasn’t marrying, rounded another corner without even noticing him. In the weeks that they’d been there, Hahn took time to observe Sokka and Zuko. Comfort and touch seemed to pass between the two of them like a lifeline, in a way that it passed between lovers, not friends. Hahn wasn’t blind- those two were more in love than his parents ever were, and more in love than Hahn and Yue ever would be. Hahn saw them, and he thought of Councilman Ulliaq’s son, with his icy blue eyes and his big, stupid grin. 

Hahn had power in the North, and power did not bring friends along with it. Power brought followers and betrotheds who were unhappy with their lives, and power brought fear and a need to have good posture. 

Hahn was powerful, but he was not happy. As the sounds of Sokka and Zuko’s giggles finally died out, he thought to himself, but maybe one day I can be. 

~~~💙🧡~~~

“I think I’m actually gonna explode.”

Zuko looked up from his breakfast to see Sokka slumping down next to him, curling tiredly over his plate. He knew the feeling- it had been almost a month since they’d arrived in the North, and running katas dry could only do so much. Sure, they’d been meditating, but without the flame that barely did anything at all. Bending at all in the North seemed like a bad idea; either of them could slip and accidentally burn a hole through a wall, or someone could see them and call them traitors. 

“I know the feeling,” Zuko sighed, reaching over to pat Sokka’s back. “Do you wanna maybe try and meditate again?”

“Let me have breakfast first,” Sokka said, “but yeah, after that. Maybe we can try to find a candle or something, and breathe with that.”

Once they’d both eaten, they set off on a search for the candle, and eventually found one in an abandoned banquet hall. Zuko stuck it under his parka and they made their way back to their room, where they used a match to light the candle and then sat down in front of it, pressed up against each other’s sides. 

“Ready?” Zuko asked. 

“Yeah,” Sokka said. 

As they meditated, the candle started to rise and fall alongside their synched breathing. Despite the ‘rule’ that they were supposed to keep a proper posture while in meditation, Sokka’s head eventually found it’s way to Zuko’s shoulder, and their hands ended up entwined in their laps. Their inner flames reached out and intertwined with one another, growing and shrinking to become one. 

(What Sokka and Zuko didn’t know, was that as they meditated, every flame in the palace started to move with theirs. The lamp lit on Chief Arnook’s desk, the torches in the Council Room, the campfire that the women were sewing by; all of them flickered as one.)

(It took a trained eye to notice such a thing, but Yue had spent most of her life caught up in the little details. She herself was a little detail, but despite that she noticed the warmth of Sokka’s skin, and the dryness of Zuko’s palm, and the life that flickered behind both of their eyes. Yue knew the look of a Spirit hidden inside of a person, and those boys were Agni through and through.)

(It was believed in the Fire Nation that every bender’s inner flame was a piece of the first great fire, a gift given to man by Agni himself. This belief was wrong- firebending was just the same as earth, water, and air; it was a gift given at birth to some random people, not something decided upon by the Spirits. This, however, didn’t mean that Agni didn’t pick favorites.)

(Tui could recognize her brother anywhere, even when they weren’t in the sky. She remembered the days that Agni picked his chosen; they were different from her’s, not asking for his help but deserving of it nonetheless. Yue needed Tui then, but Sokka and Zuko would need Agni at some point, and he gave them the spark for that specific reason. Neither of them was born with it, not like other firebenders, but they deserved all that the sun could give.)

~~~💙🧡~~~

News traveled fast in the North, bad news in particular. This made it so that there were hundreds of men congregated in the city’s central square not even an hour after the request for soldiers to fight against the Fire Nation went out; the Northern Water Tribe had been a safe haven for a hundred years, and they would not go down without a fight. 

“Silence!” Arnook called out, the sound of his voice cutting through the deafening din of almost every man’s shouting and confusion. “Silence, all of you. The Fire Nation has finally decided to bring it’s forces down onto the North Pole, and we must work together to stop them from winning. We will have multiple task forces: Councilman Kallik is taking a group to the harbour, Master Pakku is taking a group of waterbenders to the bay, Healer Yugoda will take a group of women to the field, and Princess Yue’s betrothed, Hahn, will be taking a taskforce to the front lines. I expect all waterbenders to go with Master Pakku, all nonbenders from the city’s eastern quadrant to go with Councilman Kallik, all women to go with Healer Yugoda, and all non benders from the western quadrant to go with Hahn. Is that clear?”

“No!” a voice roared from the back of the courtyard. All eyes turned towards it, stunned to see a group of women standing there, Katara at their head. “The women will be fighting too, and I’ll be damned if you disagree with me this time!”

“The woman cannot fight, they have no training!” Chief Arnook insisted. “They’d be useless on the battlefield, and end up doing more hard than good.”

“We have been training, Chief,” a woman piped up. “A few of the men have been teaching us to fight.”

Arnook swallowed, glaring out at the men. “Well, if the women are on the battlefield, then who will heal the wounded?”

“They’ve taught some of us to heal, too!” a man cried out.

“Wh- but- do you expect the men and women to just switch places?” Arnook blubbered. “That’s simply unacceptable!”

“That’s not what would happen, father,” Yue said suddenly, piping up for the first time. She glanced behind herself to where Sokka and Zuko were standing, and they both sent her encouraging looks, urging her to go on. 

“This is not your place to interrupt me, Yue,” Arnook rumbled, “war is handled by-”

“I was speaking,” Yue said sharply, cutting her father off. Icy silence settled over the room. “As I was saying,” she went on, “just because some women know how to fight and some men know how to heal, that doesn’t mean the roles have been completely reversed. The women who want to fight are fighting, and the men who want to heal are healing. Isn’t that how it should be?”

Arnook’s brow furrowed. “Yue, I-”

“I will be in the Spirit Oasis with the Avatar’s group,” Yue said primly, cutting her father off. “Aang is trying to get into contact with the Ocean Spirit and ask for her assistance. He needs all the protection he can get when he’s in the Avatar state.”

“No,” Arnook growled, “you will be in your room, where it’s safe.”

“The city is under siege, father!” Yue cried. “Nothing is safe, nowhere is safe. I’ve been training how to fight as well, but that’s besides the point, because I’ll have Sokka, Katara, and Zuko there as well. The women will fight with the men, and the men will heal with the women, and I will protect the Avatar.” Yue wheeled around to face the crowd that had amassed, fury burning in your eyes. “I am your Princess,” she spit, “and you will listen to me, no matter your age or your gender. Waterbenders will go with Master Pakku to the bay, nonbenders from the eastern quadrant will go with Councilman Kallik, nonbenders from the western quadrant will go with Hahn, and healers will go with Yugoda, no matter if they are men or women.” She stopped to take a gasping breath, a terrifyingly set expression settling onto her face. “Am I clear?”

The men could do nothing but nod.

~~~💙🧡~~~

“I hate this.”

“Oh, have some patience.”

“Would you two stop bickering? I’m trying to get into the Spirit world over here.”

“Oops,” Sokka chuckled, “sorry, Aang.”

Zuko sighed, leaning further against Sokka’s shoulder. At their feet, Yue yawned. They had been sitting in the Spirit Oasis for hours now, waiting for something to happen, and Zuko was just about falling asleep. The distant sounds of battle echoed across the frozen tundra, but they couldn’t do anything to help, not when they were sequestered away from the conflict. 

“Are you scared?” Yue asked suddenly, looking up at Zuko with blazing eyes. “I know that you know the Admiral, is he- are we gonna be okay?”

“We’ll be fine,” Zuko assured her. “Zhao is easy to take on when you’ve got a good team.”

“Are you calling us a good team?” Sokka teased, elbowing him in the side. Without looking, Zuko reached over and lightly smacked Sokka on the back of his head. Yue watched this exchange with a sigh. They’ll get it one day, she thought. 

In the Spirit Oasis, they sat and waited, a group of children headed for war. 

~~~💙🧡~~~

Many things happened at once. The door to the Spirit Oasis was forced open, and a group of Fire Nation soldiers made their way inside, Zhao at the front. He looked through the Oasis and grinned. 

“It looks like we’ll be claiming two victories today,” he snarled, gaze catching on Aang. 

“You wish,” Yue growled from her hiding spot. 

All hell broke loose. Katara pulled an ice shield up around the entire pond and the area that Aang was sitting in, forming icy spikes around the edges. Yue sprang up from where she was crouching behind a snow drift, chucking a handful of throwing spears at the Fire Nation soldiers. As she pinned a good few of them to the ice wall behind them, Sokka and Zuko came in from either side of the Oasis, emerging from behind snow drifts of their own, their hands full of fire. If Yue was surprised about their sudden firebending ability, she didn’t show it. 

“Oh, this will be fun,” Zhao snarled. 

He started by shooting fireballs at Katara’s ice shield, trying in vain to melt it. Then, he pulled the fire from Sokka and Zuko’s blows towards himself, directing it towards the ice shield as well. 

(The biggest mistake that Zhao made was underestimating Yue. If he survived that night, the lesson he’d have come away with was to never ignore an angry princess.)

With a cry, Yue threw herself forward, hacking at Zhao’s legs with her spear. Sokka kicked up a fireball and Zuko threw a wave of heat over Zhao’s head, distracting him from the flames that were heading for his chest. Upon impact, Zhao cried out in pain and keeled over, clutching at his burnt up chest. 

Yue raised her spear to strike again, but Zuko held his hand up to halt her. “Stop,” he said, “we don’t need to kill him.”

“You’re too much of a coward to do it,” Zhao spit, his voice gruff and broken. Cautiously, Katara took down her ice shield and moved to stand in front of Aang, her waterskin uncorked at her hip. “I could lay here like I am now, unable to fight you, and you wouldn’t kill me,” Zhao went on, “because you’re too sensitive.”

“I’m not killing you because I’m a decent person,” Zuko said. Sokka extinguished the fire in his hands and stepped up to Zuko’s side, placing a hand on his shoulder. Zuko leaned down in front of Zhao, extending a hand. “Take my hand,” he said. “Take my hand, and we’ll keep you alive. You’ll go to prison, sure, but the prisons up North are much more humane than those in the Fire Nation. Katara can heal your burns, and we’ll take you back to the capital. You’ll survive.”

Zhao glared down at Zuko’s hand, before taking a deep breath and spitting on it. Sighing, Zuko stepped back and wiped his hand on his parka, letting Sokka wrap an arm around his waist. 

“I’d rather perish in the snow than ever accept your help,” Zhao snarled. 

“Then perish you will,” Zuko said. He turned, tugging Sokka along with him. Yue tucked her spear into her belt and followed them out through the door, out of the Spirit Oasis. Carefully, Katara pulled Aang’s body out of it’s meditative pose and into her arms, carrying him away from the pond. 

Zhao stayed kneeling in the snow, curled around his scorched chest. He died that night, not because of the burns, but because of the cold, much too stubborn and not quite skilled enough to warm himself with the breath of fire. 

Once Katara had left the Oasis, Sokka took Aang’s body from her arms and Yue kicked the door closed behind her. The group of children walked from the battlefield to the palace, and maybe this was their first taste of not being children anymore. 

~~~💙🧡~~~

Zuko knew what it looked like when a burn could kill. He knew when a burn went more than skin deep, when it damaged things under the surface, like an eye, or an ear. Zhao’s burns were easy to heal, especially with the help of a waterbender. 

After they’d found the Chief on the battlefield and forced the Fire Nation to surrender, Aang came back from the Spirit world and they told him what had happened. Water healers treated the soldiers' wounds, no matter if they were fire or water, and then the Fire Nation’s ships left the harbor, with an order to never come back, lest they want a less gracious send off. 

Sokka, Katara, and Yue explained to Arnook what had happened in the Spirit Oasis. Zuko stayed quiet the whole time, glued to Sokka’s side like he’d been since the end of the fight. After that, they had a small meal and went off to their rooms, with a plan to pack up and fly out the next day. Aang and Katara were both done with their base level of training, and it was time to move on anyways. 

Sokka found Zuko sitting on his bed, staring out the window at the bay. Silently, he sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Zuko’s flame was low; much too low for Sokka’s liking. 

“You okay?”

Zuko shook his head, turning so that he could bury his face in the side of Sokka’s neck. Sokka shivered- the tip of Zuko’s cold nose brushed his throat, but he didn’t dare push him away. 

“No,” Zuko said after a moment, “I’m not.” He curled up tight, and Sokka just about pulled him into his lap, settling a hand on the back of his neck. 

“You will be.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Sokka stayed like that all night; he didn’t move when Zuko started to wet his collar with tears, he didn’t move when Zuko’s fingers dug into his sides so hard it hurt, and he didn’t move when Zuko’s flame started to flare higher than the sky with his every breath. Silently, Sokka took hold of Zuko’s flame along with his own, pulling it down low and quiet, keeping Zuko’s breath from fanning the flames. 

“You’re okay,” Sokka whispered, his breath brushing over Zuko’s burnt ear. “I have you. You’re okay. I love you.”

“Love y’too,” Zuko mumbled sleepily, his breath still shaky and hitching on the inhale. 

“I know, sweetheart,” Sokka told him, “I know.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

They left on Appa the next day. Yue came with them. There was no fanfare or a great big send off, just Chief Arnook and Healer Yugoda standing on an ice shelf and waving them off. Yue gave the healer a quick hug first, and then hauled her father into a surprisingly strong embrace, tucking her head into his shoulder. 

“I love you, Princess,” Arnook whispered. 

“I love you too,” Yue whispered back. Arnook brought his hand up from Yue’s waist to rest on her neck, twisting his fingers just so. When Yue pulled back, a weight fell from her throat, and her betrothal necklace landed in Arnook’s hand. “Father-” Yue gasped, but Arnook cut her off. 

“You said it yourself,” he chuckled, slightly choked up. “A Chief’s wife is her greatest advisor. I expect you to find an advisor of your own while you travel, alright?”

Yue sniffled quietly. “How did you know?” she asked quietly. 

Arnook laughed again, but this time it wasn’t tinged with sadness. “I’m your father, I’m not blind. I’ve seen how you watch healing practices.”

Yue blushed brightly, glancing down at the ground. “Thank you,” she said after a moment, looking up. “I’ll make you proud, Dad.”

“I know you will.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Sokka watched this exchange with his heart in his throat. He thought of his own father, and he thought of his flames, always burning in his chest. Then, Sokka swallowed those thoughts down, just about crushing Zuko’s hand in his own. 

Zuko looked at Arnook, and he saw a father, not a leader, and not both at once. He thought of his own father, and knew that he’d never see that on Ozai’s face. It didn’t matter, though- Zuko had long given up on making his father proud.

~~~💙🧡~~~

The journey to the East Sea was only a day or two; they camped on a rocky little island for one night and then set off again, flying for another day or so before the ship came into sight. 

“There!” Sokka called out, pointing at a speck in the ocean that was rapidly growing. “I can see her on deck! Aang, can you get Appa to fly some circles around the ship, that should help us get lower.”

“Sure thing!” Aang said from his spot on Appa’s head. As they hovered lower, the figures on the deck became clearer, their armour bright and glinting in the sunlight. Sokka was the first to jump down, and Zuko followed, then Katara and Yue and lastly Aang, softening his landing with a swell of air. Finally, Appa set himself down on the deck, groaning in appreciation at the feeling of not being in the air any longer. 

“Sokka!” Suki exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck. He squeezed her tightly but quickly released her, letting her move on to hug Zuko instead. “Zuko! Aang, Katara, Spirits, it’s so good to see you guys!” Once she’d gotten her fill of hugs, Suki spotted Yue, who was loitering awkwardly next to Appa, unsure of her place in the situation. “You’ve got a new kid, I see?” Suki prompted, elbowing Sokka in the side. 

He grinned. “Suki, this is Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe,” Sokka said, gesturing to Yue. She waved limply. “Yue, this is Commander Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors.” 

“We were hoping she could stay with you,” Zuko put in, leaning over Sokka’s shoulder to look at Suki. “She wanted to travel with us, but she needs training first, and we were hoping you could maybe supply that?”

Suki’s face lit up with a grin, and Yue’s did in return. “Totally,” Suki said, “I’d love to whip a princess into shape.”

Cautiously, Yue stepped away from Appa, holding her forearm out in a traditional Water Tribe greeting. “Hi,” she said quietly, “it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Suki replied, gripping Yue’s arm. As she released her hold, she let her hand slide down the length of Yue’s forearm, squeezing her wrist before letting go. Yue blushed profusely at this. 

“Those two?” Sokka whispered, elbowing Zuko in the side. “Total power couple. I’d love to see it.”

Zuko cracked a crooked smile. “In the ultimate couple fight, who’d win, them or us?”

(For a beautiful, fleeting moment, Sokka’s stomach dropped to his feet at the thought of himself and Zuko being a couple. The two of them holding hands, snuggling up to each other at night, the two of them kissing-)

“Us, obviously,” Sokka said, instead of every other thing he wanted to say. “C’mon, let’s go scope out the cabins, I wanna see which bunks are best.”

~~~💙🧡~~~

Firelord Ozai received news of Zhao’s death with a distasteful snarl. 

“I should’ve known that he’d fail,” Ozai muttered, before turning to the messenger that brought him the death certificate. “Summon Princess Azula to my throne room,” he said. “I have a new task for her.”