Work Text:
“D4?”
“Hit. You have any 3s?”
“No, but I do have this trap card.”
“Really, Zuko? I just got out of jail.”
“That’s for stealing my livestock.”
“Okay, that’s it,” Katara said, throwing down the waterbending scroll she had been poring over for the hundredth time. “What are you two doing because I feel like I’m having a stroke listening to you.”
This earned confused looks from Sokka and Zuko, sitting facing one another on either side of a crude grid made of twigs, covered in leaves with writing on them, pebbles, some string, and Aang’s glider for some reason.
Sokka raised an eyebrow. “We’re playing a game?”
“What game?” Katara asked, standing up and walking across the Western Air Temple’s main courtyard to inspect the atrocity that lay between her brother and her unrequited nemesis.
“Game,” Sokka and Zuko said together.
“...Game.”
“We made it up.”
“You named your game Game? ”
The boys nodded.
Katara looked bewildered, before quickly hiding her confusion under a smirk. “I suppose this is the genius who gave us Hawkie the Hawk.”
Zuko looked from Katara to Sokka. “You named a hawk Hawkie?”
“Yup.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Right?”
“Okay clearly you two got some kind of matching brain damage at the Boiling Rock,” Katara said, throwing up her hands in defeat, before turning on her heel and going to scoop up her scrolls. “I’m gonna go read these somewhere sane .”
Zuko and Sokka’s attention had already returned to Game.
“Okay.”
“Later.”
Rolling her eyes, Katara took her leave. Only once she was definitely out of earshot did Sokka break, which was Zuko’s cue that he too could burst out laughing.
Wiping tears out of his eyes, Sokka choked out, “Okay, I know she definitely hates you more now, but that was worth it.”
Zuko snorted, something that only Sokka knew he did. Sokka’s laugh died down into more of an affectionate chuckle at that.
“I’m amazed at how long she lasted,” Zuko said once he could speak. “I thought she was going to drown me after the Animal Impressions Round.”
“You have no idea how hard it was to keep a straight face when you came out with that one,” Sokka said, shaking his head. “That was a masterstroke I honestly didn’t think you had in you.”
“Hey, give me some credit, Game was a co-creation.”
“True, true, it is both our baby,” Sokka admitted, looking back at the mess they’d made. “I guess we should probably clean all this up.”
Zuko suddenly grew quiet.
“Something weighing on you, co-creator?”
Brushing back his bangs, Zuko raised his eyes to meet Sokka’s. “Alright, hear me out.”
“The floor is yours.”
“I know we were literally just making it up as we went along, but—this sounds crazy—I feel like—”
“Like you actually understand the ridiculous rules? ” Sokka said with energy that said he had been desperately trying not to be the one to say it.
Zuko rubbed a finger on his temple like a man doubting his sanity. “It’s like a language I didn’t know I’m fluent in and I’m scared of it.”
“Oh, thank you universe,” Sokka said, bowing his head. “For our matching brain damage.”
Zuko snickered and Sokka smiled.
Picking up Aang’s glider, Sokka set it diagonally across the pile of dirt that they called a game board. “Okay, so let’s pick up where we left off: water-earth-fire-shoot, Omashu rules.”
“Omashu rules won’t save you from my cavalry.”
“Oh, can your cavalry kill Mega Momo? Yeah, I thought not.”
Catching Sokka’s downward slash with a one-handed block, Zuko said, “Good power, you’re getting better.”
Looking over their blade-lock, Sokka couldn’t help but feel that he’d find that more convincing if Zuko wasn’t using his off-hand to straighten his binding bandages.
“Yeah, you’re clearly on your last legs,” Sokka half-huffed, half-laughed. “Come on man, don’t patronise me.”
“Oh, okay.” Zuko’s voice was calm but his eyes narrowing made Sokka reconsider his request, but also he looked really cool unsheathing his second sword. So, y’know, you win some, you lose some.
The shift in Zuko’s form was immediate, and the sudden flurry from the twin swords put Sokka on the back foot pretty much right away. Dodging and parrying, with no room to strike back, Sokka disengaged to put a few feet of Air Temple between himself and Zuko.
Rolling his aching shoulder, Sokka shot Zuko an accusatory look. “Jeez man, do you get a kick out of beating me up?”
Smiling, Zuko, with that absurd speed of his, lunged forward, bringing both blades forward in a cross strike. Sokka raised the space sword just in time to catch the attack and avoid being hypothetically cut in half.
Zuko’s smile didn’t falter as he leaned over the three swords, right into Sokka’s face.
“Sword of.”
What.
What.
“Wha—ah! ”
A sweeping kick took Sokka’s legs out from under him and he came crashing down. Ordinarily, this is when Sokka would gripe that they should really start sparring on grass, but his mind was a bit preoccupied with the fact that Zuko just made—
“A pun?! ” Sokka yelled, leaping back up to his feet.
Zuko just hummed a bit, beginning to stretch. “That’ll do for swordbending for today.”
Brushing temple floor dirt off of his sweaty skin, Sokka marched after Zuko as he strolled over to where they had left their shirts.
“Am I going crazy or did you— Zuko —just— Prince Zuko —did you just make a pun? ”
Tying the sash of his tunic, Zuko just raised his eyebrow, face maddeningly blank. “Sokka, come on. Me? Making a pun?” His face finally let a smile slip as he added, “No one would ever believe that, would they?”
Realising what exactly was happening, Sokka just gaped at this new evil Zuko for a moment, before abruptly slapping his hands down onto Zuko’s shoulders and gripping on tight.
“You sick son of a bitch, you are my best friend.”
A few days after Katara and Zuko got back from their life-changing field trip, Team Avatar dinners were finally able to be fun again. Splitting up from half their party after Azula’s attack on the Air Temple had been tough on everyone, but at least the six of them still had each other, and the grassy hills where the invasion force had gathered made for a pleasant campsite. And the entire team was clearly delighted to see Zuko and Katara actually talking and laughing together, none more than Sokka.
He was third to arrive at the dinner campfire, right as the sun was setting.
“Sokka!” Katara greeted, bending clean water into the cooking pot, before Zuko ignited the kindling beneath it. “Thanks, Zuko.” Zuko gave her a thumbs up before both of them turned to Sokka. “Where have you been all day?”
Sokka patted the sack he carried over his shoulder. “Hunting.”
Katara groaned. “Sokka , it’s Aang’s turn to make dinner, he and the others are off collecting food right now. You can’t just—”
Throwing down the sack of surprisingly well-sliced koala sheep meat next to where Zuko was sitting, Sokka said, “Look, no offense to Aang, but it’s the middle of the week.”
“What does that have to do with—”
A loud slap startled Katara and she looked to find Zuko with his hand on his forehead. “It’s Meatsword Night, I completely forgot. Sorry Sokka, I’m an idiot.”
Sokka reached down and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry Zuko, I just keep you around for your looks anyway.”
“Okay, wow,” Katara grimaced, looking pointedly away from the pair. “I am your literal sister, please do not discuss your...meatswords in front of me.”
“What? Oh, ew Katara, don’t make it weird,” Sokka said with distaste, absently running his fingers through Zuko’s hair.
“How did your mind even go there?” Zuko added, leaning against Sokka’s legs.
Katara quietly cursed that there was no one else around to confirm whether or not she was just wildly hallucinating. “Oh, I don’t know, clearly I’m just crazy.”
Sokka closed his eyes and nodded. “Clearly.”
In that weird sync the two had achieved, Sokka offered his hand to pull Zuko to his feet right as Zuko reached for it, and Zuko walked over to his rucksack and began to rummage.
A roar from the sky signalled Appa’s return, pulling in for a characteristically gentle landing. Aang hopped off, as was his way, right before they touched ground, floating gently downward while proudly brandishing his basket of multi-coloured berries.
“Hey guys! I’m back with— murder?! ” Scrambling a bit to nail his landing, Aang looked at the bag of meat with a frown. “Haha, I meant, why is there murder—I mean , why do we have a sack full of meat? I thought I got to pick dinner tonight.”
Suki helped Toph down from Appa’s saddle, and the second her feet touched the ground her face lit up. “Wait, we have meat? I thought we were stuck with rabaroo food tonight?”
“We are,” Katara said, breaking out the dreaded Momtara Voice. Noticing Aang’s pout, she quickly added, “Not that I think it’s rabaroo food, you know I love berry soup and, uh, what have you got up there Suki?”
Suki, taking down the last few baskets from the saddle, gave an incredibly unconvincingly upbeat, “More berries!”
“Oh, my favourite!” Katara said, making Suki’s acting look much better.
“Look, there isn’t much vegetarian food around here, I don’t complain on your nights.” Aang sat down on one of the three logs around the campfire and tossed a berry into his mouth, hoping no one noticed his immediate grimace. Giving him a sympathetic look, Suki began to pour the berries into the boiling water and stir.
“Sorry Aang, it’s not about your food,” said Zuko, emerging from his bag with his two swords in hand. “It’s Meatsword Night.”
Aang blinked. “It’s what now?”
As Zuko handed the sheathed swords to Sokka and the two stood just behind their log, Katara sat next to Aang and whispered, “You heard it too right? ”
Sokka drew the two swords, holding them horizontally in front of him with their blades flat against one another. Zuko held out his hands just below the blades without touching them, and began to produce two small flames, moving them along the length of the swords.
“Maybe I’m just missing something,” Toph said, taking her seat and lying back. “But is anyone else seeing what Mr and Mr Meatsword are doing over there?”
Sokka looked over at the group. “Can I help you people with something? We’re cooking here.”
Suki gave the pot another stir, adding more berries. “Uh...huh. Unrelated question, have you two ever cooked before?”
“Haha,” Zuko said, not even close to resembling a laugh.
“Okay, we need to show these non-believers how we do. We ready?”
Dissipating his flames, Zuko nodded with a grin and extracted three of the koala lamb chops from the sack. Sokka lifted the swords apart just long enough for Zuko to place the meat along the blade of the lower sword, where it began to sizzle. Once the last chop was in place, Sokka brought the other heated sword down on top of them, doubling the sizzle and the smell, while Zuko brought smaller flames to his hand under the swords to keep the heat alive.
Sokka threw a smug smile at the rest of Team Avatar, who simply watched with varying degrees of disbelief.
After the meat was about half-done, Suki broke the silence.
“Okay, I’ll say it. That is...” she gave a small laugh and shook her head, “...honestly a pretty creative way to cook meat.”
Aang tilted his head to the side, watching with morbid fascination. “How did you guys even come up with this?”
Lifting the blades slightly apart to check their progress, Sokka explained, “Well, before we left the Air Temple, Zuko and I were out for a swim when he saw this huge flying mackerel and we just had to catch it.”
“And then we got really hungry from catching it,” Zuko added.
“Right, so I said, ‘I’m gonna cook this right now, ’ and Zuko said, ‘With what, genius? Also, your muscles are huge'."
“Lies.”
“Artistic license,” Sokka countered, lifting the top sword off the sizzling meat again for Zuko to salt it. “Anyway, all I had on hand was my sword and my firebender, so I had a stroke of inspiration.”
At “my firebender”, Katara looked at Suki incredulously, amazed at her brother’s obliviousness, and Suki bit her lip and focused intently on stirring the berries, holding back laughter.
“So I brilliantly created meatsword, with Zuko providing the fire, and the fish was delicious.”
“We cooked it unevenly though,” Zuko admitted.
“Which is why we use two swords now.”
Toph gave a slow clap. “I respect any and all innovations in the area of cooking meat.”
“I gotta say,” Aang said with his crooked smile. “This whole thing does reek of Sokka’s brand of brilliance.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Sokka said, bowing his head to his adoring audience. “But meatsword isn’t just about cooking the meat. Zuko?”
Of course, Zuko was already on the same wavelength, reaching over Sokka’s shoulder and drawing the space sword. He took a step back and twirled the sword, before pointing it at the central koala lamb chop. Which was only a few inches in front of Sokka’s chest.
Toph sat up right. “Hey are my feet broken or is Zuko about to stab Sokka?”
Clutching his shiny head, Aang frantically said, “Your feet are fine, it’s these two’s common sense that needs work. ZUKO. NO. NO STABBING TOWARDS OUR FRIEND.”
Right on cue, Zuko stabbed, right through the chop and stopped within an inch of Sokka’s chest.
The pair looked at the panicked Team Avatar.
“I’m good enough with a sword to not stab Sokka, guys.” Zuko clearly resented the implications about his skill.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m not the stabber,” Sokka said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Katara, who had grabbed onto her hair-loopies for dear life, gave a deep sigh. “Spirits help us,” she said with the weariness of every sister that ever lived. “There’s two of them.”
Before anyone could say more, Zuko threw one more curveball at his friends’ fragile perception of reality. Holding up the impaled koala lamb chop in front of Sokka, he said, “Say ahh.”
Sokka obediently did so, and took a bite. Once he did, Zuko brought the sword to his own face for his bite, and so the cycle went. The two continued to talk to one another through the food in their mouths, inexplicably understanding one another’s garbled gibberish.
Suki put her head in her hands, but her shaking shoulders betrayed her laughter. Toph leaned over to Aang and Katara.
“Should we tell them?”
Aang shook his head, fondly watching the honestly pretty disgusting but also kinda sweet dinner the two were sharing.
“I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”
The royal family’s house on Ember Island was a refreshing change of pace from the cold, hard ground that Team Avatar had grown accustomed to, and Sokka in particular took well to living in a fancy vacation home.
“Zuko,” he sighed one evening, sinking into the soft red pillows of Zuko’s old bed. “Why did you ever leave the life of luxury behind?”
“Hmm, I dunno,” Zuko said as he continued to read, leaning against the four-poster’s bottom-left support beam. Lifting up one of the legs that he had strewn over Sokka’s, he brought it down with a bit of force. “Could’ve been because of the crazy relatives who keep trying to shoot lightning at me.”
“Eh, all families have their issues,” Sokka said with a shrug, sitting up against the headboard. “Gotta say though, this really is a bed fit for a Fire Lord.”
Zuko snorted.
“Got something to say, Your Highness?”
“Oh no.” Zuko set aside his scroll. “I just forget you’re poor sometimes.” He laughed as he took a pillow to the head. Raising up his hands to dissuade further soft and fluffy violence, he explained, “I just meant you haven’t seen a bed fit for a Fire Lord.”
This caught Sokka’s attention. “Oh? You wanna show me?”
Zuko’s smile faltered just a little, so Sokka added with a gentler tone, “You don’t have to, but I feel like jumping on the Fire Lord’s bed is the exact sort of thing that he would just hate.”
That sparked something behind Zuko’s eyes. “...He really would, wouldn’t he?”
Zuko led Sokka to the top floor of the house, which was devoted entirely to the Fire Lord’s suite. There were no family portraits there. What was there was just about everything else.
“Okay, why are there two baths?”
“So the Fire Lord can bathe in the sun no matter what time of day it is.”
“I really was born to be rich,” Sokka said wistfully, before leaping into action to be as invasively curious in Ozai’s chamber as he could.
It was big, spacious and well-lit, and Zuko had only ever been there once before, clinging onto his mother’s dress. He sat down on one of the many soft red couches dotting the suite, and watched with fond amusement as Sokka pulled open drawers, manhandled sculptures, laughed at artwork of Ozai, and generally just made a mockery of what was designed to be the personal space of the most powerful person in the world.
As Sokka held up a much-too-big robe to himself in front of the mirror, Zuko stood up. “I thought you wanted to see the bed?”
Ozai’s beach robe was forgotten before it hit the ground, and Sokka darted to Zuko’s side with a huge grin, nodding feverishly.
Zuko chuckled, and gestured to the four-poster at the centre of the back wall, closed off by the translucent red drapes. Sokka considered it for a second.
“Why would he need another room, in his room, for his bed?”
The corner of Zuko’s mouth twitched. “That is his bed.”
“Fuck off,” Sokka gasped, flying with an airbender’s speed through the drapes to land with a soft thud on the frankly comically oversized bed.
Walking up to the bottom of the frame, Zuko chuckled as Sokka, despite his best efforts and spreading his limbs in any and all directions, couldn’t even come close to covering the whole mattress.
“I was about to ask why someone would ever need this much bed, but actually I don’t think I ever want to touch solid ground again. I live here now.” Lying spread-eagle and staring at the ceiling, Sokka did seem to have found his place in the world.
“I should send a messenger hawk to my father and tell him that I brought a boy into his room,” Zuko hummed. “He might die from the outrage and we can save Aang the trouble of taking him down.”
Looking up, Sokka asked, “He’s not big on guests?”
Tilting his head slightly, Zuko said, “He’s not big on boys. Well, not big on me, bringing boys to bed.” He grinned a bit. “Especially not his bed.”
Sokka propped himself up on his elbows. “Well, unfortunately for that loser, you can bring as many boys here as you want. It’ll be your bed once you’re the Fire Lord, right?”
Zuko’s smile faltered, just a bit, just enough that Sokka noticed. “Right.”
Sensing his misstep, Sokka said, “I’m only asking so I know if I should marry you for your beach house.”
That won him a genuine laugh and Sokka felt a little lighter.
“You can’t just do it because you love me?”
“I have to play a bit hard-to-get.” Sokka patted the duvet next him. “Come on honey, we can talk about this in bed.”
Zuko closing his eyes to laugh was the only opening Sokka needed to reach forward and seize him by the shirt, yanking him down. When Zuko came crashing down on top of him, Sokka remembered how much muscle weighs, and realised that this had been a very bad idea and also a very good idea.
“Mistakes were made,” he choked out, winded. “Please get up.”
Going completely limp, Zuko, in a voice so whiny Sokka was struck with flashbacks to when he had the bald ponytail, said, “Five more minutes, honey.”
Zuko’s face was buried in the duvet beside Sokka’s, his chin comfortably wedged on Sokka’s shoulder. It would be cute if Sokka could breathe.
“Okay, you absolute rock of a man, you win. Release me.”
With a chuckle that Sokka felt vibrating from Zuko’s chest onto his own, Zuko miraculously regained control of his arms, and pushed himself up with a hand on either side of Sokka. Sokka was boxed in by Zuko’s limbs, and Zuko took the moment to admire him, red from breathlessness and ponytail coming loose. Sokka liked when Zuko looked at him like that, like a puzzle to be solved. He never felt so completely at the centre of someone’s attention.
Sokka regained enough air in his lungs to grin and throw out a, “Hey.”
Zuko’s returned smile was uncharacteristically goofy. “Hey.”
“Man, you should kiss me.”
Zuko was never comfortable with emotions, or affection, or romance. He looked back on the handful of kisses he had experienced with a mixture of embarrassment and disinterest. His moment with Jet had been clumsy and awkward, his “relationship” with Mai had been passionless and simply expected of a prince. But after Game, swordbending, Meatsword Night, and generally having more fun than he had ever even considered possible, Zuko, to his surprise, wouldn’t bat an eye at anything Sokka asked of him. They were the same kind of weird.
He just stared at Sokka with a small smile and asked, “Really?”
Sokka reached up, tangling his fingers in Zuko’s hair. “You can’t bring a boy into your dad’s room and not kiss him. What, have you never been gay before?”
“Maybe I just need practise.”
“Then practise.”
It was very over the top, and very chaste at the same time. Sokka turned the first one into a loud mmmmwah, and Zuko laughed. Zuko dramatically leaned in for the second, only to reveal his bait-and-switch at the last second and change to a peck on the nose, and Sokka laughed. In retaliation, he pulled Zuko in for what couldn’t be called a kiss by any metric, more like blowing a raspberry on his cheek, and they both laughed.
Lying on top of Sokka again, this time Zuko allowed him to breathe. Zuko, in a moment that no one but Sokka would ever believe transpired, could not stop — for want of a more Zuko word—giggling. Sokka drank it in.
“I do need practise.”
Sokka stroked his hair. “Well, I’m something of an expert, so you can always ask me.”
“I appreciate it,” Zuko said honestly. “Now, didn’t you want to jump on the bed?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
In the busy years after the war, quiet moments between the members of Team Avatar grew few and far between. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until six years after Sozin’s Comet that Sokka and Zuko had enough concurrent time-off to meet up for a game of Game. Or, more accurately, Zuko had some free time and sent Druk, his young dragon who had grown to the size of an ostrich-horse, to the Southern Water Tribe to abduct Sokka.
Sokka was a very happy abductee.
“BOOM,” he boomed, setting down a small wooden turtle-duck on Zuko’s pile of twigs. “Your supplies are on fire, and it lasts two turns.”
“I knew the Boom Bonus would come back to haunt me,” Zuko griped. Absent-mindedly scratching Druk’s head as he sat against him, Zuko pondered the state of the board. “I’ve been thinking.”
Across from him, sitting cross-legged against Zuko’s favourite tree in the royal gardens, Sokka raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Have you realised my strategy is unbeatable?”
“Oh, not about Game, I already know how I’m gonna beat you,” Zuko said, though he continued to look at the mess they called a game rather than Sokka. “I’m thinking we should get married.”
Following their tradition of never reacting appropriately to one another’s weirdness, Sokka regarded that with vague interest. “That so?”
“Mhmm.”
Picking at grass and trying to sound bored even as his heart began to race, Sokka asked, “Any particular reason?”
“Yeah, no one in the Fire Nation can understand Game for some reason,” Zuko said calmly, fidgeting with the crude figurine that represented King Bumi as if his face hadn’t grown bright red. “I’ll need you to move in as soon as possible.”
Sokka had been waiting for this moment for years, and so naturally he said, “What’s in it for me?”
Zuko finally looked at him. “I thought the condition was that you’d marry me for my beach house? We could each use one of the baths in my suite, it’d be hot.”
“No, no, my friend,” Sokka said, meeting Zuko’s eyes with his own to confirm that both pairs had indeed lit up. “That was the condition when I was an awesome teenager helping you with your kissing. Now I’m an awesome adult with awesome muscles, you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Trying to frown but failing miserably, Zuko said, “Yeah, that’s fair. What if I put you in charge of my kissing practise again?”
Sokka was positively vibrating. “How would that be different from what we do now?”
“It won’t be Buddy Kissing, it’ll be Husband Kissing.” Zuko’s heart could power the Fire Navy at this point.
“Not a bad deal.” Clearly enjoying himself immensely, Sokka sat up onto his knees. “What else you got?”
“Will I just marry someone else?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“You’re right.” Zuko scratched his cheek, now red enough to match his scar. “I guess I could also love you forever?”
Sokka nodded slightly, eyes looking very wet. When he spoke, his voice had jumped a few octaves. “Tempting, very tempting.”
Then Zuko’s face lit up, if it were even possible, even more. “Oh, I’ve got it.”
Not even hiding his massive grin anymore, Sokka leaned forward. “Yeah?”
“I’ll tell everyone about that pun I made at the Western Ai—”
Zuko couldn’t finish the sentence because his mouth had suddenly become occupied with Sokka’s own crashing into it. It was so sudden that Druk, startled from his nap, took off into the air, leaving Zuko and Sokka to come crashing down without him to lean on. Not that the fall, or anything else, could interrupt this for them.
When they finally broke apart, Sokka said, “Okay, deal. I’ll marry you.”
Zuko sat up, Sokka sinking into his lap. “Cool.”
“Yeah.”
“We’re gonna get married.”
“Yeah.”
“I win.”
“Ye—what?” Sokka’s dreamy bubble burst, as he suddenly realised he had let his guard down.
With a positively shit-eating grin, Zuko held up the King Bumi figurine, and pointed to the board. Following his finger, Sokka realised that one of Zuko’s leaves had Aang’s arrow drawn on it.
“Wait, no.”
Zuko showed no mercy. “I use my energybending trap card to give Bumi firebending.”
Sokka’s mouth hung open. “You can’t.”
“He bends the fire off of my supplies and onto your base.”
“You bastard.”
“I win.”
Looking from Game to Zuko in disbelief, Sokka grabbed him by the face and held their heads together, tears openly flowing now as he laughed.
“I’ve changed my mind, I’m not marrying you after that betrayal.”
Zuko kept his eyes on Sokka’s like there was nothing else in the world.
“No take-backs.”