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+++ (ONE) TEMPLE OFF THE COAST OF THE FIRE NATION +++
The path to victory is understanding one’s enemy, Zuko.
Zuko didn’t think this was what his uncle had meant, pressed up against his enemy to such an intimate degree to be considered lewd, his face and body flushed with humiliation. He attempted, and failed, to put any amount of space between their bodies. All that did was cause certain body parts to rub unnecessarily against one another.
“Will you stop squirming!” the other man hissed, loud in the tiny alcove they had packed themselves into three minutes prior to escape Zhao, a common enemy for the time being, and his forces. “Just fucking… for the love of Tui, stop.”
Indignant, even if he was in agreement, Zuko scowled, hissing under his breath, “Then move a little. I can’t breathe with you like this.”
“Don’t you think I would’ve if I could, oh almighty jerkbender!”
“What did you call me, you filthy peasant! You’re lucky I’m not—”
Abruptly, his hand flew up to press against Zuko’s lips as the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder, nearing their current hideout. Zuko held his breath, waiting, not daring to move an inch despite the hand pressed to his face. Finally, the footsteps receded as they rounded the corner and silence once again descended.
“Mhhmmfff!” Zuko grumbled, reminding the man of his hand.
The man pressed even closer, his hand putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure against Zuko’s mouth. “You know you’re so much more tolerable when you’re quiet.”
Zuko wasn’t proud of his juvenile actions but he poked his tongue out to lick the man’s hand—of course, the immoral peasant only laughed, though he did pull back, only so far as to grip Zuko’s chin. “You think I’d care, your highness?”
The man leaned forcefully into Zuko, his breath hitching at the sudden pressure against him. It was too dark in this alcove for Zuko to see much of anything but he could feel his gaze, almost as physically intimate as the rest of him. “Wha–what are you doing…”
The man’s breath tickled Zuko’s cheek, as the fingers gripping his chin tilted his head up—and for reasons beyond his own understanding, Zuko obliged, still and waiting.
“I fucking hate you,” the man murmured before crashing his lips against Zuko’s, sloppy and painful as teeth mashed together—but they quickly found an unyielding rhythm, a push and pull not unlike their albeit brief interactions over the past few months.
Zuko’s hands slid up the man’s broad chest, settling on gripping his tunic tightly, whether to shove him away or pull him closer was a question that Zuko shamefully couldn’t answer. All rationality had left him the moment the man’s lips found his, the moment his hands settled on Zuko’s hips and began tantalisingly sliding up his body, underneath his own tunic.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” the man swore as he latched onto Zuko’s neck, licking and biting, making Zuko arch for something else, something more… more what?
When Zuko felt the sudden scratch of a nail against his nipple, he whimpered.
“Tui and La, you’re going to kill me, Jerkbender.”
“I hate you too, peasant,” Zuko rasped, though he gripped the tunic tighter and pulled the man back to his lips. “So much,” he said into the kiss as he opened his mouth, welcoming him in further.
“Sokka!!”
The sudden shout was like a bucket of cold water drenching them from head to toe.
“Where are you? We have to go! Zhao’s gone!”
For the briefest of seconds, Zuko felt the man’s hand flex against his waist, holding tightly, before he let go, slid out of the alcove and ran. Zuko watched his retreating figure from their hiding spot as he disappeared around the corner.
What the hell just happened…
+++ (TWO) THE SEIGE IN THE NORTHERN WATER TRIBE +++
Thrown from the ship in the ensuing explosion, Zuko hit the water hard, pain exploding across his shoulder and down his back. There was no time to lick his wounds though; Zuko had to get as far away from the ship as possible. Zhao was dead and the Avatar was on a rampage. If he didn’t want to die with that traitorous scum, he had to swim.
But the pain in his side was blinding; Zuko was exhausted. His body felt like lead in the water, his muscles freezing up and his inner fire stuttering like a candle in the wind. Was he really going to die here? Before he could even go home?
Zuko swam harder, pushing and ignoring the screaming protest within his body, but the ice-cold water was like a death sentence to a firebender. Each stroke of his arm against the current struggled more than the last, slowing until he was no longer moving at all and he was just sinking.
Ah… Forgive me, Uncle…
Arms suddenly wrapped around his waist, dragging him through the freezing ocean. Zuko was pushed up onto land, still cold but the solid earthy ground was more comforting than the void-like nothingness that lay beneath him in the ocean.
He sat halfway up, spluttering and coughing up water, before lying back down on the ground. It took him a second to gain full consciousness of himself—and his saviour. “You… saved me?”
The man shook his head like a polar bear dog, water droplets flying every which way, snorting softly. “Don’t even ask. Can’t tell ya.”
Zuko tried to sit all the way up this time, which turned out to be a bad idea as the world spun and he swayed with it.
“Woah, what the fuck are you doing, Jerkbender?” the man said, pressing a hand to Zuko’s shoulder so he’d have to lie back down. He leaned over him. “You’re in no condition to fight me so just give up.”
Zuko blinked up at those startlingly blue eyes, almost indistinct from the blueness of their glacial surroundings. “I wasn’t going to fight you.”
The man snorted. “Sure like I’d believe that.”
“No!” Zuko snapped. He may be hellbent on imprisoning this man’s friend but he was not a dishonourable person. “I owe you. Whatever—in the future, I owe you. Okay?”
“What if I ask you to stop chasing Aang?”
Zuko looked away. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not? For your honour?” The man sneered.
“Yes! So,” Zuko looked out at the frozen tundra. He could still hear the explosions in the distance but out here, it was eerily still and void of life. He sighed. “Anything but that.”
“Then help me now.” At that request, Zuko turned his attention back to the man, a wordless question in his eyes. The Water Tribe peasant leaned closer. “Help me forget that I just lost the woman I love because of your evil, murderous nation.”
Zuko’s heart stopped. He wanted to protest the accusation, to defend his people but the words wouldn’t come, and the man didn’t let him. Immediately following that request, he captured Zuko’s lips with his own, a searing heat igniting between them, almost as if they were back in that alcove.
No, this was different. More desperate. More tragic.
Zuko decided thinking was useless. He was freezing, exhausted, and soon, he would have to escape with his uncle, branded as traitors for all of the world to see. So, for now, he just wanted to be Zuko. And this man, whoever he was, needed this.
Zuko wrapped his arms around his neck, dragging him down until he was flushed against his body. The man groaned and nipped at Zuko’s lips in answer. He adjusted himself so he had one leg in between Zuko’s, while one hand cradled Zuko’s neck, thumb pressing painfully into his pulse point. The kiss grew more insistent, more desperate, and Zuko felt like he would be swallowed whole if he wasn’t too careful, but he wasn’t sure if he even cared right now. He wanted more.
Arching his hips, Zuko pressed himself against the man’s thigh with needy want.
“Does anyone else know you’re like this, your highness?” the man groaned, pressing back just as needily. The hand that had been gripping his neck tightly slid down to cup Zuko through his trousers. “Does the Fire Nation know how wanton their little prince is?”
“Fuck off,” Zuko breathed out, though there was no fire behind his words. He couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate on anything but the sensations this man’s ministrations brought forth. He wanted more; he wanted everything.
True to his proclamation to stop thinking, Zuko, without hesitation, adjusted his body so he had the other man in between his legs, wrapping his own tightly around his hips and pulling the Water Tribe peasant tightly against him. Zuko wanted to feel all of him, every line and curve of this man he should be repulsed by and yet found only unbidden desire in its place. “I need…”
“What do you need? Hmmm?” The man asked, dropping his lips to Zuko’s neck as he sucked a dark, harsh bruising pattern down the column of his neck. “Tell me, Jerkbender.” The man pulled at the string of Zuko’s trousers so fast he had hardly a second to adjust when he felt a cold hand wrap around his length.
Zuko sucked in a breath, hissing, as he arched his back and cried out, moaning in such a lewd fashion his cheeks flushed immediately with embarrassment.
“Do you want this?”
“I…” The Water Tribe peasant’s hand quickly began moving while he kept thrusting his own hardened length against Zuko. It was altogether too much and not nearly enough.
Zuko’s hands slid up to his dark hair, undoing it from its wolf tail, and pulled harshly. “Too fast. You’re–” A sudden jerk of the man’s hand caused Zuko to keen loudly, a deliciously painful pressure building up within him. Zuko clenched the Water Tribe man’s hair even tighter in between his fingers. “I said too fast, you stupid peasant—”
“Sokka.”
Zuko blinked owlishly back even in the midst of his climax being so near.
“Say it, your highness,” he demanded, as he then bit harshly down on Zuko’s ear.
At the sudden pressure of teeth, Zuko jerked, coming hard and calling his name out with wild, shameful abandon, “Sokka! Ah fuck, Sokka, I–I’m coming!”
“Good, good. That’s my good jerkbender,” he cooed, chuckling in Zuko’s ear. “But don’t think this means your debt has been repaid. You still owe me.”
Zuko opened his eyes, not even realising he had shut them. The man—no, Sokka had gotten up, looking as flushed as Zuko felt. Then, with a wink and a salute, Sokka dove back into the water and disappeared, leaving Zuko to suddenly remember he was freezing wet, and now, alone.
Asshole…
+++ (THREE) AN ABANDONED VILLAGE IN THE EARTH KINGDOM +++
Zuko woke with a start, sweat beading across his forehead, the harsh, accusatory eyes of Lee and the villagers still haunting him even while awake. He had tried to keep such useless emotions hardened away but they persisted in the subconscious of his dreams, waiting to grasp at him until he was begging for retribution for his sins. Tearful and pathetic, his dream self couldn’t handle the weight of their glares, the unfairness of being tried for the crimes of his nation and family—and yet, Zuko knew it was justified.
“Help me forget that I just lost the woman I love because of your evil, murderous nation.”
These words reminded him so. Over and over again, Zuko had repeated it to himself since leaving the North Pole, wondering exactly what had become of that Water Tribe man, Sokka, and the woman he had lost. Was what they did even enough to ease that pain? Why had he asked him for that when it probably didn’t?
Breathing heavily, Zuko sat still, listening to the rustle of the creatures nearby. Alone without Uncle, he kept to odd hours, sleeping through the afternoons, waking to the moonlight, bizarre and dangerous for a firebender whose power came from the sun. Zuko didn’t care. It was pointless, as with everything else in his life, to care about these things. If he were to be found by the Fire Nation, it would simply be his fate.
Fate… A funny, malicious entity that seemed so elusive to Zuko yet so binding and uncompromising.
Daylight filtered in through the cracks in the rotting wood panelling. Zuko had found this abandoned village a day ago. It smelled of ash and things he’d rather not put a name to, but it was sequestered from the beaten path and void of any other life. A perfect hiding spot for a man unwanted everywhere else.
Zuko headed outside to the woods where he relieved himself against a tree. He closed his eyes and continued to listen to the silence. He wondered where Uncle was and hoped to Agni he was at least safe. Probably safer than when he was with Zuko, that’s for sure.
Abruptly, pain lanced up Zuko’s spine as he was bodily rammed into the tree. Zuko caught purchase against the truck with the heel of his foot and shoved, knocking the assailant backwards. Zuko turned swiftly with both hands up, ready to fling fire at whoever had attacked him when the fire inside him immediately fizzled out upon seeing his face.
“Hello to you too, Prince Jerkbender.”
Zuko didn’t say anything to acknowledge the other man. He just zipped up his pants and walked away, from whatever this was. He was not in the mood.
“Hey!” The man—no, Sokka called out to him, circling his wrist with his rough, calloused hands, hands that had once been wrapped around…
Zuko jerked his hand back. “What?”
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Sokka was looking at him peculiarly, almost as if he was studying him. “You look like you’ve given up on life, almighty prince of the scum nation.” Sokka snorted, chuckling at his own joke.
But Zuko never did have a sense of humour. “Something like that.” He turned again and started walking back to his current makeshift home. He entered the abandoned building, all too aware that Sokka was following him, and settled in the nest of blankets in the corner.
“Woah, are you living here?” Sokka walked up to Zuko’s bed, if one could call it that. “What’s wrong with you? You’re freaking me the hell out, man.”
“Look, peas—Sokka, I’m really not in the mood.” Zuko sighed, running a hand through his unkempt, short hair, an ever-present reminder of his fugitive state. “I’m not here to chase the Avatar, so you can go back to your friends.”
A few seconds passed in silence. Zuko fidgeted under his scratchy blanket and looked down at his hands, wondering when the Water Tribe man would finally leave. Just go, he wanted to shout.
Instead, Sokka sat down. “I thought you were dead.”
Zuko looked up at that. “What?”
“I know I saved you in the North Pole but you just stopped coming after us so we all thought you died there,” Sokka explained, voice quieter than before. His eyes held something indecipherable to Zuko.
Zuko shrugged. “It’s better if the world believes so.”
Rough hands gripped his shoulder and shook. “What the fuck is wrong with you! Don’t joke about your life like that!”
Zuko shrugged him off, eyes now furious. “Why not! Is there a single nation out there that would rejoice if I were alive, Sokka? The only person who cares is better off without me.” His uncle could open the tea shop he had always dreamed of without Zuko as added weight.
“This self-pitying act is unbecoming of you, Prince Zuko,” Sokka glared, his words harsh, and for some reason, it cut Zuko in a way he hadn’t expected.
“I am no longer a prince.”
“So, that’s it? You’re giving up? The asshole that chased the Avatar all over the world is just gonna curl up and die?”
“I don’t get why you care,” Zuko sighed angrily. “Me giving up is the best thing for you and your friends, isn’t it?”
“Actually, now it’s your psychotic sister chasing us around the world,” Sokka exhaled exasperatedly, dropping his hands and sitting cross-legged beside Zuko. “I much prefer you than her, to be honest.”
Zuko could understand that. While he had made it his lifelong mission to capture the Avatar, he had never wished to harm him. Maybe that was what made him pathetic—a prince unwilling to shed blood. Unfortunately for the Avatar and his friends, Azula had no such qualms.
They lapsed into silence once more and Zuko used this opportunity to bury himself deeper into his nest, wrapping the blanket tighter around him.
“For the record, I don’t want you to die either. So that’s two people.”
Zuko pretended he didn’t hear that and laid down, turning so his back faced the Water Tribe man.
“Hey, are you fucking ignoring me, Jerkbender?” Sokka shook his shoulders again, and when Zuko didn’t answer, he felt arms snake around his waist, alerting Zuko to another kind of threat. “Do you need me to make you talk?” A low growl at his ear and the feel of Sokka against his back made Zuko shiver even in spite of the tepid climate.
“Don’t…”
“Why not?” Sokka asked, pressing himself against Zuko’s ass, already hard and wanting. “My little jerkbender is in a huff.”
Zuko bristled, annoyed at himself for falling for the obvious taunt but still unable to ignore it. He whirled around and gripped Sokka by the collar. “I’m not little and I’m not yours,” he hissed.
Sokka smirked, wrapping his arms tighter around Zuko and pulling him close. One hand dropped to cup Zuko’s ass. “What do you need me to do to make you feel alive again, huh, Zuko?” He squeezed, almost painfully. “What should I do?”
“I don’t understand,” Zuko’s voice hitched when he felt Sokka’s fingers dip in between his cheeks. “Why do you care so much?” He keened embarrassingly loud when he felt the slightest pressure against his hole. “S-stop that.”
“You think too much, Zuko,” Sokka murmured as he pulled back his other hand to cup Zuko’s cheek, dropping a lingering kiss on his lips. “Can’t you just accept that I’m attracted to you? That should be enough for this situation.”
Something clenched tightly in his chest. Zuko turned his face when Sokka tried to kiss him again. His breathing was growing more and more haggard the longer Sokka circled his finger around his hole, but Zuko needed to keep clarity. This was crossing a line. “And what is this situation?”
That indecipherable look flashed across Sokka’s face again before he was smirking, cheeky as ever. “Two people on opposite sides of the war who just need a good fuck.”
Ah, right…
Zuko inhaled shakily and pushed Sokka off of him. “Get out.” Sokka looked bewildered. As he started to open his mouth, no doubt to complain, Zuko shoved him again. “Get the fuck out! Before I really burn you!”
Without another word, Sokka got up, glancing once more at Zuko before disappearing out the door.
Good. That’s how it should be.
+++ (THREE.FIVE) DARK ALLEY IN BA SING SE +++
His kisses were rough, and painful, and left his lips bruising in a way that Zuko didn’t like. He just wanted to forget, to be a normal twenty-something man, but this felt wrong in a way he didn’t understand. It was just hormones. It should be easy.
Just sex… Zuko just needed meaningless sex.
“Mhmm, you taste so good,” Jet murmured against Zuko’s lips as he had Zuko’s leg hitched up his thigh. Zuko could feel his hard length pressing against his own and the friction had him gasping—but even through the pleasure of having anything touch his cock, Zuko wasn’t into this.
He didn’t like this. It felt wrong.
“Jet,” Zuko said in between kisses, pushing him gently, trying to get some space between them. Unexpectedly, Jet’s hands forced their way into Zuko’s trousers, gripping his bare ass and pressing a finger there. “No! Hey, stop it!” Zuko pushed him back with even more force this time.
Jet looked annoyed. “What the hell, man? Don’t tell me you’re not into this when we’ve already gotten this far?”
Zuko rolled his eyes. He had heard the maids in the palace whisper about men being nothing more than primitive bull pigs in heat. He now understood what that meant. “I said no, so stop.”
“You’re pretty, Lee, but not that pretty,” Jet sneered. “C’mon. Loosen up.”
If only he wasn’t in hiding, he would have blasted this asshole with all of the fire inside of him. “It’s getting late. I need to go help Uncle close the shop,” Zuko lied and rearranged his clothes.
As Zuko left the alley, he heard Jet call him a string of colourful names. None of which mattered to him.
It was just wrong.
+++ (FOUR) DIFFERENT DARK ALLEY IN BA SING SE +++
“How long have you been living here?”
“Long enough,” Zuko answered, ignoring the way Sokka was right behind him, following him into a dark alleyway. What a trusting idiot.
“You’re still not after Aang, right?” he continued his questioning.
Zuko rolled his eyes and sighed. “I was here before you arrived. Unless I’m psychic, Sokka, I did not come here to wait and ambush your friend.”
“Well, I don’t know! When you were chasing us around the world, it sure felt like you were psychic,” Sokka said with a flourish of his hands. Zuko had stopped in the middle of the alley to look at his animated way of talking. A twinge in his chest again forced him to turn away and keep walking.
Of course, that would be too simple.
Sokka stopped him with three simple words. “How’ve you been?”
Inhaling deeply, Zuko shook his head. “None of your business.”
“Fucking Tui and La,” Sokka cursed as he walked swiftly to stand in front of Zuko. “Can we stop pretending that I don’t give a shit whether you’re dead or alive?”
Zuko scowled. “I thought to you I was just a good fuck.”
Sokka visibly winced. He then shook his head, a sheepish smile on his face. “Well, technically, we haven’t fucked—”
“Goodbye, Sokka.”
“Wait, wait! I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to say,” Sokka said, grabbing hold of Zuko’s wrist and gently pulling him back. “I’m also sorry I said it that day too. It’s… not exactly what I meant.”
“What did you mean?” Zuko asked, arching his good brow. “Because nothing’s changed. I may be a fugitive but I am still Fire Nation. To you, we’re all scum. And to me, you’re just… well, that doesn’t matter. We’re not on the same side of the war. We never will be.”
“Why not?” Sokka asked quietly. To his shock, he cupped Zuko’s cheek tenderly. “Zuko, you could help us stop this war. I know you don’t like to see bloodshed either.”
“How do you know that? You don’t know me!”
Sokka laughed. “I know that every time we fought, you held back so you wouldn’t badly hurt us. I know you kept your men from doing the same.” Zuko closed his eyes and exhaled. Another hand joined the first to hold Zuko’s face. “And I know you chose to fight against Zhao because you disagreed with his methods.”
It was too easy to lose himself to whatever this was between them. Sokka made it easy, with his ocean-blue eyes that always seemed to see too much and his infuriatingly disarming way of talking. But nothing in Zuko’s life was ever that simple, including this.
“I would’ve handed Aang to Fire Lord Ozai for a chance to return home,” Zuko told him bluntly. “I would’ve looked the other way to whatever my father did for my own selfish gain. I’m not sure I wouldn’t still do that now.”
Sokka’s eyes hardened.
See, you idiot… They’re not on the same side—could never be.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Ha,” Zuko laughed humourlessly. “Believe what you want. I don’t care.”
The hands holding Zuko’s face tensed imperceptibly. “I think you do care.” Sokka angled his face and kissed him, softer than he ever had before. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have let me do that.” He kissed him again. “Or that.”
Zuko shoved him, though it was half-hearted at best. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“No can do, my angsty little jerkbender,” Sokka snorted, before dropping more kisses to Zuko’s lips, not lingering long enough for Zuko to return them.
“We’re the same height!” Zuko huffed out, annoyed.
Sokka laughed, a bright ring that echoed in the dark alley. “Sure, okay.” He backed Zuko into the wall, and this time, he kissed him soundly, deeply, forcing Zuko to part his lips and let him in. “Why do you always taste a little spicy?”
Unable to help himself, Zuko chuckled, remembering something Jet had said only a week prior. “Do I taste… good?”
“Mhmm, so good,” Sokka murmured, licking into his mouth. “I wanna be able to kiss you like this every day.” Zuko’s heart seized with anxiety and fear and something like excitement. He wanted to ask what he meant by that but Sokka was kissing him even more fervently than before, forcing all thoughts out of Zuko’s head.
“You drive me crazy.” For some reason, Sokka was more talkative today than ever, gentler too. It was disorienting. “I want to fuck you right here.” To emphasise his point, Sokka grabbed Zuko’s leg and hitched it up his thigh, almost a mirror action to what Jet had done, and yet, with Jet, it never felt this good. The feeling of Sokka against Zuko was incomparable; this was intoxicating, almost to the point of being terrifying for him.
“Do you want that too?” Sokka asked, a smirk in his voice, as he licked a stripe up Zuko’s neck, nibbling at his ear. “Do you want me to fuck you right here where anyone could walk by?”
Zuko scowled in annoyance as he carded his fingers through Sokka’s hair and gripped tightly, forcing his lips back to Zuko’s. He kissed him fiercely, pouring his desperation and want into this one kiss. “Then do it, or are you a coward too, peasant?”
That snapped something inside of Sokka as he let out a low growl, dropping Zuko’s leg only to grab his hips and whip him around so Zuko was facing the wall. Without a word, Sokka hastily pulled Zuko’s trousers and underclothes all the way down, leaving his ass bare to the cool evening air.
Zuko’s breath hitched in his throat when he felt Sokka press a kiss to one cheek and then to the other. He wanted to tell Sokka to get on with it but he was afraid as well of what that actually meant, whether he could really go through with it.
“You’re a bratty little jerkbender, aren’t you?” Sokka said as he bit into Zuko’s ass, causing him to yelp out in equal parts pain and pleasure. “Fuck.”
And then he was right there, both hands spreading Zuko open, as Sokka licked into him, the feeling, unlike anything Zuko had ever felt. Embarrassment, desire and impatience all rolled into one nauseating feeling in the pit of Zuko’s stomach. Sokka continued to lick, circling his hole, and teasing the entrance, driving Zuko near to the brink of madness. When he was sure he couldn’t handle any more of the Water Tribe man’s teasing, he felt a sudden sharp thrust of a finger deep inside him that had Zuko biting down on his own tongue. He tasted copper.
“You fucking asshole,” Zuko snarled. “A little warning would’ve been–ah!” Sokka’s finger curled up inside of him and Zuko lost all ability to speak, think, or hell, even breathe at this point.
“Do you think you can come from just your ass?” Sokka murmured out loud with a huff of amusement. “By the sounds you’re making…”
“Shut up! Shut the—” Zuko moaned loudly as Sokka added a second finger, stretching him far more than he had ever done to himself, which admittedly wasn’t much. He got too embarrassed to go further than a finger.
As his thrusts grew deeper, quicker, Zuko palmed at his front with one hand, jerking himself along to the rhythm of Sokka’s fingers. He was close, so close. “S-Sokka, I’m… Ah, please…”
“What do you want?” Sokka added another finger and Zuko damn nearly lost his mind. “Say it, Zuko.”
Cheeks flushed, warmth spreading down his neck and across his chest, but Zuko swallowed his stupid pride and spat out, “I want you in me. Right now!”
The whining desperation in Zuko’s voice must’ve been what snapped Sokka’s control as abruptly, all three fingers left Zuko, and he could now feel something much, much bigger pressing at his entrance. Anticipation and desire curled low in Zuko’s stomach. He wanted this; he’d wanted this for a long time.
“AH, FIRE!”
An explosion broke through their haze, causing both men to freeze and then immediately jump apart. Zuko pulled his trousers back up at the same time Sokka began running down the alley from where they’d come.
“Hey!” Sokka shouted as Zuko made to run in the opposite direction. Zuko paused to look back. “Be safe.”
Zuko inhaled shakily. “You too.”
What the fuck were they doing?
+++ (FOUR.FIVE) OVER THE EARTH KINGDOM ON APPA’S BACK; ON A FIRE NATION SHIP +++
Was it just the guilt? Or adrenaline? Sokka had lived through his first love turning into the fucking moon right before his eyes but having a lifeless Zuko in his arms, while his sister tried desperately to save him, was more painful than anything he’d ever experienced.
“I told you, you had to keep living, you asshole,” Sokka whispered angrily, ignoring the questioning looks Katara was sending his way. He cradled Zuko’s head gently. Please…
And just like that, two weeks passed as they commandeered a Fire Nation ship and sailed through the Fire Nation. Zuko lay, unmoving, in a bedroom in the lower decks. It was the most opulent room, especially in comparison to the shabbier ones the rest of them were staying in. At first, they had tried to give it to Sokka’s father but everyone was of the same opinion that relegating the Fire Nation Prince, fugitive or not, to a small cot while he had nearly died saving Aang seemed immoral.
Good for Sokka too, because he probably would’ve thrown a fuss, otherwise.
No one quite knew how to broach the subject of Zuko with him over the past couple weeks and he knew his behaviour must seem incredibly bizarre to them. Here he was, driven nearly crazy with guilt and anxiety, over the very man who had chased them for practically a year. To them, those interactions had been their only meetings, but no one knew—and Sokka had no intention of telling them. Not yet; not until he could see Zuko’s angry golden eyes again.
Sokka sat at Zuko’s bedside again today. He took his pale and frighteningly cold hand in his own, trying to warm him up with his own body heat.
“When I asked you to join us, you didn’t need to make such a dramatic entrance into the group, Jerkbender,” Sokka said, a painful knot in his throat. He swallowed past it. “I just wanted you to accept that you’re a good person. I didn’t need you to prove it to me.”
He didn’t need Zuko to die just to be on the same side of this war.
It wasn’t worth it.
“Sokka?”
He pulled his hand away from Zuko. “Oh, hey Katara, what’s up?”
“Uh, well, we’re about to have dinner. You should eat something. You’ve barely been eating lately.”
Sokka frowned, confused. “I eat.”
“Yeah, like one plate per meal! That’s so weird coming from you!” Katara exclaimed, her hands moving wildly. They were very alike when they were flustered. It made Sokka smile which brought a smile to Katara’s face. She walked towards him and wrung her hands together. “Sokka, do you want to tell me… about,” she gestured to the still prone Zuko, “this?”
Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. Well, this was bound to happen. Actually, Sokka was surprised it took this long.
“What’s there to tell?” Sokka answered instead. The truth was a little harder to swallow. At Katara’s expression, he knew he had to concede something. “We ran into each other a few times. He never tried to kill me during it, so we talked.” They did a whole lot more than that but that was a conversation that he would never have with his one and only baby sister. “And Zuko isn’t the villain we made him out to be, that’s all.”
“Oh okay,” Katara said. It was likely she knew he was keeping something from her but was too smart and loving to pry any further. That was his baby sister. Always the emotionally intelligent one. After a few seconds, she put a hand on his shoulder. “Well, he’d want you to eat and be healthy, so come on, Sokka. We have plenty of meat today.”
Right… Zuko would yell at him if he could see him now, dishevelled and making a big deal out of his honourable sacrifice.
With a reassuring smile, Sokka allowed his sister to lead him down to the galley.
+++ (FIVE) THE WESTERN AIR TEMPLE AFTER THE DAY OF BLACK SUN+++
“I let it go because I knew you were struggling after Ba Sing Se and we had more important things to worry about,” Sokka said without preamble, closing the door to Zuko’s chosen room at the Western Air Temple behind him. “I left you alone because I thought that that’s what you needed, but you won’t even look at me now.”
Zuko hated to prove him right but he really couldn’t bear to look at him.
“It’s been two months, Zuko. Are you trying to punish me?” Sokka asked, a hint of hysteria in his voice. Zuko heard him cross the small room but he didn’t touch him. Disappointment warred with relief as he continued staring at the wall.
Punish… “What are you talking about?” Zuko asked. “I’m not doing anything.”
Sokka exhaled in frustration. “Exactly! You barely talk to me. You only talk to Aang and Toph. Fuck, Zuko, you talk to my sister more than me! And–” His voice broke and that small moment of vulnerability was all it took for Zuko’s resolve to crumble. He turned, catching sight of a man barely keeping it together. “I needed you and you weren’t around.”
“What do you want me to do?” he harshly snapped back, knowing full well he was in the wrong here, knowing this was all because he was pathetic and weak. “I don’t know what you want from me!”
And that was the crux of the problem.
When Zuko woke up from taking Azula’s lightning to the chest, something had changed between them. Sokka’s eyes were burdening, asking him for something he couldn’t give him, and he didn’t know how to address it. So, he did what any coward would do: he avoided him. Zuko didn’t think it would work but with the solar eclipse fast approaching, they all became consumed with planning the invasion, until months had passed—and here they were.
Sokka took a step forward, reaching for Zuko’s hand, who reflexively pulled away. The hurt in Sokka’s eyes made Zuko want to scream at himself. Pathetic, as always.
“How about a hug? How about you tell me where they might be keeping my father?” Sokka said softly, almost like a child, and even self-loathing Zuko couldn’t refuse him then.
Zuko tentatively touched Sokka’s hand. “He will be kept alive. He’s too important to be killed right away.” He winced at his blunt words but Sokka’s face seemed to lighten up at that, so he continued. “I’d place money on Boiling Rock. It’s a prison in the middle of a boiling lake which is why no one’s ever escaped from it before. There’s only one way in and one way out. All high-level prisoners are taken there.”
Sokka nodded, turning his hand so he could intertwine their fingers. “Okay. He’s alive and that’s all I need to know.”
“You’re going to try and break your father out, aren’t you?” Zuko knew the answer before he even had to ask. If he had learned anything about this man over the past few months, it was that Sokka was stubborn and loyal to a fault—and harebrained plans were all part of his repertoire.
“It’s my fault he’s in there,” Sokka answered, face darkening again, and Zuko’s chest clenched with a sudden desire to fix that.
He dropped Sokka’s hand so he could move closer, touching Sokka’s shoulder gently. “It wasn’t your fault. The plan failed because my father is that powerful. Maybe if I was stronger…”
“You were smart to run when you did, Zuko!” he snapped. “If you hadn’t, you would’ve died then and there, and where would we be?”
“Bett—”
“Let’s not do this,” Sokka sighed, shaking his head. “Let’s not play the blame game. I’m sick of hearing you berate yourself and I’m sick of feeling sorry for myself too.”
“I’m sorry about your father,” Zuko said after a moment’s silence. “I’ll do everything in my power to help you break him out.”
Sokka’s eyes widened. “I don’t want to ask that of you. It’s too dangerous of a mission and people will recognise you. I can figure it out on my own.”
Something clicked then for Zuko; something he had never considered before. He realised he never wanted Sokka to feel like he ever had to do anything on his own. He wanted Sokka to rely on him. He wanted Sokka to turn to him when he was struggling and Zuko wanted to be that person to fix it. Whatever it was.
“I love you.”
Zuko blanched. Fuck. He didn’t mean to say that. An epiphany was one thing but confessing was a whole entirely different matter.
Embarrassment colouring every inch of his pale skin, Zuko jumped away from Sokka. “I-I’m sorry. Please pretend you didn’t hear that. I need to go.”
Before Zuko could even make it back to the door, he was abruptly shackled to a stop by two strong arms around his waist. “Do you mean that?” Sokka’s breathy voice tickled the nape of Zuko’s neck. He shivered, nodding. “You’re so fucking troublesome, you know that, right?”
Zuko huffed, hot smoke expelling from his nostrils. “If you’re going to reject me, you don’t have to be so cruel.” He twisted in Sokka’s arms, trying and failing to escape.
“Who said I was rejecting you?” Sokka pressed a kiss to Zuko’s neck before pushing him roughly against the door. His hands immediately dipped under Zuko’s tunic, running slowly up his abdomen. “When you were lying near-dead in my arms, I thought my whole world had stopped.” Sokka sank his teeth into the juncture between Zuko’s neck and shoulder at the same time he pinched his nipple. Zuko cried out, that delicious combination of pain and pleasure coursing through him. “I realised then that I couldn’t even imagine what life would be like without this thing between us. Fighting with you, arguing with you—kissing you. Zuko, I want it all.”
It was so hard, so infuriatingly hard, to concentrate on what Sokka was saying when he was running his hands all over Zuko’s body, but those words sank into his consciousness regardless and it warmed Zuko right down to his toes. He wasn’t sure he deserved this but he didn’t care anymore. He wanted Sokka.
“Sokka,” he whined when the other man’s exploration stopped just a breath shy of where Zuko needed him most. “Please.”
“What is it you want?” At that moment, Sokka thrust his hard length against Zuko’s ass, making him moan wantonly, need curling inside of him.
“You,” Zuko rasped out in between desperate gasps of breath. He turned swiftly in Sokka’s arms and captured the other man’s lips with his own, crushing his face in between his hands. Pulling back, Zuko scowled. “I need you to fuck me. Now.”
Sokka threw his head back and groaned. “Fucking Tui and La, you really will kill me.”
He kissed Zuko passionately one more time before grabbing him and throwing him down onto the small cot behind them. Sokka made quick work of his own clothes, pulling off his tunic in one move while kicking off his trousers. Zuko followed suit.
Pausing, Sokka shook his head, a genuine smile spreading across his face. “Have I ever told you how sexy you are, Zuko?” Giving him no time to answer, Sokka crawled up Zuko’s body and kissed him deeply, while kneeing Zuko’s legs open to settle in between. The feel of skin on skin set Zuko’s whole body alight, and he nearly came right there when he felt Sokka’s own length rub up against his. “Shit, don’t push me. I can’t last if you keep grinding against me like that.”
Zuko snorted. “Like what?” He snapped his hips forward, making both of them moan at the friction.
“Oh, my prince is being a little brat, is he?” Sokka smirked. He grabbed Zuko’s wrist and brought it up above his head. “Keep both hands like this.” If it was anyone else giving him an order, Zuko would’ve seethed and burnt them to a crisp, but this was Sokka. His Sokka.
With both hands held up above his head, Sokka started kissing down Zuko’s body, paying special attention to his chest. He had gathered many months ago that Zuko surprisingly had very sensitive nipples and any amount of attention lathered on them made his whole body shake with pleasure.
As Sokka sucked and nipped at his nipples, one of his hands slid lower and lower until they wrapped completely around Zuko’s cock. He bit down on his lip. “Stop that.” At Sokka’s questioning gaze, he shook his head. “I… I want to come with you.”
“Shit, okay…” Sokka groaned but obliged by dragging his fingers down the length of Zuko’s cock and finding its way to his entrance, circling the hole with tantalisingly slow movements. “Is this what you want? Hmmm?” Zuko squirmed, trying to grind down, but Sokka removed his fingers entirely. “Nah uh. Don’t be so impatient, your highness.”
Zuko scowled. “Asshole.”
Sokka smirked. He rose up on his knees and pressed three fingers against Zuko’s lips until he opened his mouth and began sucking. Satisfied, Sokka pulled them away to kiss Zuko, while pushing a slicked-up finger at his entrance. At the feel of Sokka inside of him, Zuko moaned into Sokka’s mouth—but it was still not enough. He needed more. As if reading his mind, Sokka wasted no time in adding a second finger. It hurt, unused to the intrusion as Zuko was, but he was fast associating this kind of pain with pleasure.
As Sokka worked him up to a third finger, Zuko began to grow impatient, dropping his sore arms from above his head to grip Sokka’s hair and bring his lips back within reach. “Are you going to fuck me or what?”
Sokka laughed, a breathy sound. “So impatient…” He removed his fingers and quickly replaced them with his hard length, the tip pressing into Zuko’s entrance. “Tell me if it hurts too much, okay?” Zuko scowled back. “I’m serious, Zuko. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Zuko’s eyes softened, cradling Sokka’s face with one hand. “I know. I’m fine, Sokka. Please.”
The feeling of being expanded, the fullness of having Sokka inside of him, was incomparable to anything Zuko had ever felt. It was painful, almost nauseatingly so at first, but there was also pleasure, an addicting euphoria of having sex with the man that he loved. With every thrust of Sokka’s hips, Zuko felt like his whole body would burst with ecstasy.
“Zuko, fuck, Zuko,” Sokka grunted, snapping his hips harder and faster as they both raced to their climax. “I love you so much.”
Zuko cried out as Sokka hit something inside of him that made his whole body spark like lightning coursing through his veins, ready to explode through his chest where his spiderweb-like scar lay across his heart. “Harder, Sokka.”
Sokka grabbed Zuko’s hips, angling them so that he could thrust in him even deeper than before. “I’m so close too, Zuko… C’mon, come with me.” He wrapped his hand around Zuko’s cock as he picked up speed.
Zuko moaned loudly as he tilted over the edge. “Sokka!! I-I’m coming!” Pleasure exploded within him and expanded through every inch of his body. He held onto Sokka’s forearms, riding through the aftershocks of his orgasm, just as Sokka reached his own climax, rocking into Zuko with such force he could already feel the aches and sores.
“Tui and La,” Sokka breathed out, collapsing on top of Zuko. He pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You’ve ruined me for life.”
Zuko smiled, eyes closing, the exhaustion of the past couple of months and tonight already taking its toll on him. “Mhmm, for life.”
Sokka chuckled. “Yes. For life. Me and you.” Before Zuko fully succumbed to sleep, he felt Sokka’s featherlight kiss and, “I love you, my prince.”
Me too…