Work Text:
They froze the moment they started stepping off the gangplank. The soldiers behind the lead person wearing armor stumbled, not expecting the sudden halt in the march, and one nearly toppled off into the water.
Between soulmates, the bond between people was sometimes so strong that it happened immediately upon their first meeting. No touching of blood or special ceremonies were necessary; all the soulmates had to do was simply meet each others' eyes, no matter if they could see or not, or, in the case of those whose eyes could not be met, simple skin contact would do.
Neither Sokka nor Katara remembered their first soul bond. The moment Katara opened her eyes and Sokka met his baby sister, their bond had sealed.
Then it happened again with Aang. First between Aang and Katara, then between Aang and Sokka, and they knew right then and there that fate had decided now was a good time to bring them all together, for whatever reason. They knew from the start that Aang was from a different time. That he was too young for the duty on his shoulders, but Sokka and Katara, who had lost so much to the same nation Aang remembered fondly, would never leave him to do it alone.
They'd brought him back to the village, and Aang was welcomed as both the Avatar- his first real introduction to the expectations laid upon him outside of the elders' shortsighted plans- and as a soulmate to their own. As family. And while the women and children of the Southern Water Tribe didn't have much in the way of comforts like food or treasures, they had warmth and each other. They embraced Aang as a new member of the family nearly immediately despite the initial distrust of strangers.
There was no way that was going to happen here. Because Sokka locked eyes with the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation mid-charge with a spear, then tripped and rode out the bond face-first in the snow. Zuko, for his part, just froze in place, precariously balanced.
Then the moment ended.
Sokka's head whipped up. He spat out ice particles and snorted to get them out of his nose. Zuko had come looking for a fight, but now he knew there wasn't anyone there to fight- except one master airbender, one entirely untrained waterbender, and one woefully underprepared and unsupported guy with a sharp stick. And Zuko wasn't even anywhere close to being a master firebender, but Aang was so nonconfrontational that he'd probably win the moment he threatened anyone other than the Avatar himself.
But it was also Zuko standing there, and while he ran away from things he didn't like to hear or yelled at them until they stopped trying to talk to him, he'd just soulbonded with Sokka. He was facing a truth he hadn't known until just now at the moment, which caused him to look around at the village.
And meet Katara's eyes.
And the second soulbond happened.
Katara stumbled. Zuko went down on his butt. Aang came skittering out from behind Gran Gran despite the multiple hands reaching to stop him, too worried about Katara to think about himself, and met Zuko's eyes for the third soulbond.
All this happened in the span of about five seconds.
The thing about soulbonding was that it was an exhausting process. Mentally, not physically, but also spiritually. Some soulmates didn't experience a whole lot of each others' lives. Some were there constantly, as often as their support or understanding of something was needed. Sokka, Katara, and Aang went through two each.
Zuko came out of the soulbond with Aang to look up just as Appa came flying in from above, having sensed something off with His Person, and groaned, "Oh no, no, not Appa too-"
And went through a fourth soulbond.
With Appa.
None of them even thought that a non-Avatar bonding with an Avatar's animal guide was possible.
Appa, for his part, let out a distinctly distressed sound, and charged the ship just to grab the prince in his paws. Sokka would have pointed and laughed at the ensuing licking session if he didn't understand exactly why the bison felt that way. As it were, he pointed and laughed at the confusion of the soldiers behind Zuko (soldiers that had no reason to be loyal to him outside of the very small amount of power he had and the Uncle that paid them).
"Uh," one of the soldiers said, "should we... do something?"
Appa? another mouthed.
Zuko, utterly exhausted after four soulbonds in mere seconds, just let his head flop back against the snow, his helmet dislodged and removed via desperate bison licks. Sokka, Katara, and Aang used this moment of peace to huddle together and plan.
"We're kidnapping him, right?" Katara said.
"Can we get Uncle to come with us?" Aang wondered. "I really want to try some of that tea. And pai sho! It'd be so fun to play with someone again!"
Sokka put a hand on his shoulder. "I dunno about that. It might be safer for Zuko if Uncle pretends to chase us down. That doesn't mean it has to be hostile, though! We could totally pull the wool over the Fire Nation's eyes this way."
"But we're definitely kidnapping him?" Katara pressed.
"Oh absolutely," Sokka said, and they all grinned at each other.