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It had been a long time since Zuko felt like this. Static electricity clung to him, sending little sparks out to anything he touched. His nerves were shot—perhaps from his resurrection or from watching his friends family die or from the pile of paperwork left in his room at the inn in Republic City. He had only been able to have one drink with everyone after Tagah, after rebuilding what they could tonight, after Katara healed Aang, before he received a letter from the Grand Chamberlain requiring his attention to a few urgent matters. He bid his farewell with a promise to meet them all in the morning—he assumed he only had a morning of freedom left—and went on his way.
The Fire Lord never sleeps.
A distant part of him thought about what would have happened had Katara not been able to save them. If Zuko died, who would take the throne? Of course, they had contingency plans set. His uncle was next in line of succession, but he had only agreed to a more temporary basis, stepping in when Zuko had to abruptly leave to assist the Avatar. He was not after a permanent appointment. The Fire Nation was fairly antiquated in its familial bloodline dictating the throne. So in the end he was left with Azula, who had been missing for years, and his father, Ozai, who was obviously not an option.
This had been one of the urgent matters in the stack of paperwork, buried beneath budget plans and other intel—an heir. Marriage. It was on every agenda as of late—lists of women, eligible matches, important political connections—each meeting, Zuko skipped over this item with a wave of his hand.
But now…
He didn't particularly want a loveless arrangement like his parents had, but then again, he knew the importance of stability in this fragile era of peace. If Zuko were gone, how long could this peace last? While the assassination attempts certainly had slowed down in frequency in recent years, they were still not gone. He had to completely clear house of his father's staff, recruited the Kyoshi Warriors for his guard, and it took years to rebuild. He knew his rule was still weak, someone could come in and take over if he wasn't careful, if he spent too much time gallivanting with the Avatar and not at home, if he wavered or showed weakness or—
Thus, the discussion of an heir. It would bring promise of a future, a legacy, stability, hope. At least, this is what he had been told by his peers. It was everything he hoped to build and the security of knowing it would last would bring him ease and yet he didn't want it.
Perhaps Mai would be open to an arrangement, having an heir as a surrogate with no strings attached. He and Mai broke up nearly a decade ago, but she was still a close friend, an ally, someone he wrote to nearly every week. It wouldn't necessarily be what the Chamberlain and counsel meant, but it was a decent compromise.
Zuko collapsed in a chair by the window, staring blankly at the desk piled with profiles of marriage candidates. He reached forward and the papers snapped back away from him with a little spark. Hunching forward, elbows on his knees, he breathed in, tried to settle the fire within him. The static fizzled and clung to him, fighting against his attempts to smother it. He wouldn't be able to sleep like this, he wasn't sure he could sleep at all.
A knock at the door.
"Um, Mister Fire Lord, sir?" the guard squeaked. Zuko was never alone—he had many heavily vetted guards in his decade as Fire Lord, but they always seemed to send the newest one to deliver messages. Normally messages he did not want to receive.
How many urgent messages could there be?
"Yes," he called, voice wavering. "Come in."
The door opened swiftly and the guard stepped in, bowing to Zuko and not taking a step further. Frozen in that position.
"What, uh," Zuko cleared his throat. "What is it?"
The guard sprung to attention. "Yes, of course, my apologies, Your Majesty. I am sorry to disturb you, I know you said—"
"It is quite alright, did you have another message for me?" Zuko held out his hand, still slumped in his chair. He did not reign on fear like his father, but the intimidation of the crown was not something he could shake no matter how hard he tried. A century of ruthless violence was hard to forget. He couldn't blame anyone for being wary of the family legacy.
"You have a visitor, Your Majesty!" the guard's voice cracked. "I, um, told him you were not taking any visitors, like you said, but he was quite insistent and he wanted me to see if you would reconsider."
Zuko felt his resolve cracking, the static reaching the table, emanating far outside himself. He really needed to get rid of this Grand Chamberlain. Surely that was who was waiting to speak to him.
The guard took his beat of silence for upset. "Shall I send him away?"
"You—" But when Zuko looked up at the open doorway, it was not the Grand Chamberlain leaning against the doorframe.
It was Sokka.
Long lines, crossed arms, crooked knowing smile. Windswept, flushed cheeks, sweat dried at his temple making his hair curl. He smelled like smoke—no doubt from the bike engine he had been tinkering with earlier—and he had a shadow of exhaust dust across his cheek.
Yes, this is what Zuko needed.
"Hey," Sokka smiled, all casual.
"Hey," Zuko replied, breath warm and shaking already.
The guard panicked. "I told him to stay outside, I—"
"It's quite alright," Zuko bit back a smile. "He can come in."
"I'm an exception to the rule," Sokka grinned, boastful and proud.
"Shut the door on your way out," Zuko called after the guard, standing up from his chair to step forward on the other side of the desk.
Once the door shut, Sokka looked from the piles of paperwork to Zuko. "Busy?"
"It can wait." Zuko leaned back against the desk, legs spread, heart hammering in his chest. "Did you fix your engine?"
Sokka blinked, clearly not anticipating the line of questioning, but Zuko's awkward need to fill the silence made him stumble. He snorted a laugh. "Is that a euphemism?"
Zuko's cheeks flushed and he wanted to hide under the desk. "It can be?"
When Sokka stepped forward and reached for Zuko, the static shocked him before slowly—with Zuko's immense concentration—enveloped him into the fold of it, drawing them closer together. Zuko settled an arm around Sokka's waist, pulling them flush together, and the air felt charged between them. While he couldn't conjure lightning, this was the closest to electricity he could get.
Sokka fell forward with his hands on Zuko's chest and shoulder, eyes wide at the air sparking around them. "Are you going to kiss me or wh—"
When their lips met, it was frantic and messy. Desperate and familiar. This was not the first time they had done this and not the first time he had felt like this. This devastatingly beautiful situation had been going on for years. Zuko did not see Sokka often, but when he did, they came together like this. Between Ambassadorship visits to the Fire Nation palace and reunions or missions with Aang, they found the time to make this a consistent pattern albeit on an inconsistent cadence.
Sokka pushed forward to shift Zuko back up on the desk, slotting between his legs, hands resting on his thighs. Zuko let a little helpless sound escape his mouth, tucking his legs around Sokka's own to pull him in closer. Their lips met again and again, insistent and appreciative. When Sokka broke the kiss to move his lips down Zuko's jaw, Zuko shakily exhaled sparks.
He was burning up from the inside out.
"You're so tense," Sokka noted, body vibrating with energy all the time.
"Am I?" Zuko didn't feel tense. All things considered he felt much better in the position he was in currently.
"And… sparky?" Sokka hummed and his hands moved up to slip under the silk robe, pushing it off Zuko's shoulders. His lips followed the newly exposed path, teeth worrying at a spot at the base of Zuko's neck.
Zuko breathed, shutting his eyes. His hands roamed Sokka's shoulders and back, grounding him. Then all of a sudden, all sensation stopped. He looked up at Sokka, who pouted, brow furrowed, as if he hadn't been driving Zuko crazy a moment ago.
"Did you really think Tagah was attractive?"
A beat. Incredulous laughter bubbled up from Zuko's chest. "What?"
Sokka frowned, hard lines, all defensive. "Hey! Why are you laughing?"
Zuko muffled his laughter into Sokka neck as he pushed off the desk and moved them back toward the bed with a sharp bite to his pulse point.
"It's a simple followup question! I—" Sokka broke off with a sigh, back hitting the mattress, hands restlessly clawing at Zuko's back. "It's more telling that you won't answer."
Zuko grinned, sitting back on Sokka's hips, straddling him, hands on his chest, looking down at him. "I find you attractive," he confessed sincerely.
Sokka blushed, flustered and frustrated, flapped his arms on the air. "That's not the point!"
"I think it's exactly the point."
"He was—"
"Do you really want to talk about other men—"
"—basically evil and I resent that you—"
"—while we're in bed?"
Sokka gasped. "I don't know, do you?"
"Not really," Zuko shrugged dismissively.
He moved to get up off the bed and Sokka grabbed him, leveraging his weight to push Zuko back down on the mattress, climbing on top of him. He pinned Zuko's wrists above his head and Zuko let himself be handled, staring up at Sokka, who was trying and failing at pretending to be annoyed with him.
"Do you want me to talk about your bone structure?" Zuko offered with a smirk.
Sokka rolled his eyes, fond. "Shut up."
When their lips met again, it was molten slow and honey sweet. Soft sighs, gentle touch. Reverent. Worshipful.
Zuko would be lying if he said he didn't want more of this. In a world where he was consistently set apart from everyone—for being the Fire Lord, for being wary of others after countless threats to his life, for being awkward and un-personable—he often missed having people around him who truly knew him, who weren't afraid to be themselves around him. At the palace, people would often scatter when he walked the halls. Outside of his friends, there was no one around who truly knew him and it took sometimes a full day to reach them.
His relationship with Sokka, if he could be bold enough to call it a relationship, was simple and short lived. When they were together it was the easiest thing in the world, they just seemed to understand each other. A quick glance from across the room during a particularly boring presentation by the Grand Chamberlain had Zuko stifling laughter. A smile across the room at a multinational banquet had Sokka blushing and tucking his smile into his shoulder.
They didn't talk about this turning into anything more. It didn't seem feasible given the delicate stability of the Fire Nation—a relationship between the Fire Lord and the Southern Water Tribe Ambassador was probably not going to help matters.
As the years passed and the pattern set into place, Zuko didn't find the need to look for anyone else for this sort of companionship. It was difficult enough as Fire Lord, sure, but there were always people willing to be discreet and yet, he was no longer interested in anyone else. He found himself comparing each new partner to how effortless it was with Sokka and each situation always seemed to end soon after.
Zuko wasn't sure if Sokka was sleeping with other people. The Kyoshi Warriors still frequented the security detail, but Suki hadn't been at the palace in half a decade and while he wrote to her frequently, he wasn't sure they had the level of friendship where he could ask about her love life. Still, there were no doubt other partners given Sokka's restless need for travel and unrelenting ability to charm whoever—
"Stop thinking," Sokka muttered against Zuko's llips, one hand working at the silk tie of his robe, fingertips roaming his chest and tugging at his waistband.
"Sorry."
Sokka smirked and ducked his head to bury a husky chuckle in his shoulder. His hips pushed forward, a dirty slow grind that had Zuko closing his eyes and gasping. "Are you tired?"
Another grind and Zuko let out a strangled, "not really."
"You suck at lying." Sokka sat back on Zuko's hips and took his shirt off, tossing it across the room. "Jerkbender got too tired from jerkbending all day."
Wrists freed, Zuko reached for Sokka's waist, chest, following the urge to reacquaint himself. "Says the guy who jerked around on a bike all day."
"Hey! Don't diss the bike!"
"Okay, okay, sorry."
It took Sokka a moment or two to recalibrate after the teasing.
"It's okay if you're tired, I'll do all the work." Sokka ducked his smile down to Zuko's waistband, sliding down his body to take off his pants. "You can just sit back and look pretty."
Zuko reflexively covered his face to hide his blush and laughed a little embarrassed at how that word always seemed to make him weak. Pretty.
It was fine if Sokka was seeing other people. He should see other people. He deserves to be happy, to have fun. Katara and Aang were talking about starting a family, Zuko was getting pressure to start his own. He wasn't sure if that was something Sokka wanted, but if he—
"Ah!"
His mind pleasantly went blank at the feeling of Sokka's teeth at his hip, a tight grip around his cock. Each touch was electrically charged, crackling and fizzling, leaving a sharp hot burn in its wake. Sokka moaned—he must have felt it too. Zuko had to be careful, the energy wrapped around them both could prove destructive—he had burned a few sets of sheets in the past.
"So, how does it work?"
Zuko blinked heavily, brain trying to follow Sokka's words. "Huh?"
"Do you choose the most flammable clothes with the intention of burning them off?" Sokka laid down on his stomach between Zuko's legs, stroking him with a slow tight grip, talking as if he weren't taking him apart. "Every time I looked at you, you burned off another layer. Poof."
Another tight squeeze had Zuko's eyes closing. He gasped, "Sokk-ah!"
"You should invest in some fire-proof clothes. You guys invent that yet or—"
Zuko cupped Sokka's cheek in his hand, thumb brushing across his lower lip. "Come up here."
Sokka smiled, climbing up Zuko's body and licking into his mouth. It was dirty, filthy, and they only paused for Sokka to toss his shirt somewhere in the room. Zuko wrapped a leg around his hip, pulling him down so they were flush, grinding slow against each other. They somehow wriggled out of the rest of their clothes without missing a beat, Zuko's hands sliding down Sokka's spine, spreading heat and warmth in his exploration.
Humming appreciatively against his mouth, Sokka eventually broke for air, his hands holding him up, hovering above Zuko. "I'm going to ride you," cool breath fanned out across Zuko's cheeks. "Okay?"
Blushing, stammering, Zuko replied, "y-yes."
"Good, because I already prepped before I got here." Without any further preparation or warning, Sokka leaned back and sunk down on Zuko's cock. Thinking about Sokka prepping himself, wanting Zuko and planning this seduction before he showed up at his door, he had to shut his eyes and breathe so his imagination didn't end things too quickly. It was something to think about later.
Sokka fell back on his heels, sitting down on Zuko's lap and clenching, hand on Zuko's chest and arcing back, hand on Zuko's knee for stability. It was a show, the stretch of his abdomen, the long lines of him on display for Zuko to admire and worship.
And worship he did.
He lunged forward, licking, kissing and moaning against his skin as Sokka raised himself up and slowly sunk down again. When his hand slid down to his hip, Sokka hissed and only then did Zuko realize he had shocked him with another spark. Zuko's blood ran cold. He lost control. He hurt Sokka. How could he—
"I'm sorry, I'm so—"
"Do it again," Sokka breathed, wrapping his arms around Zuko's shoulders, holding him to his chest, tossing his head back as he chased his pleasure.
"What?"
"Do it. Again."
Zuko shakily settled a hand back on Sokka's hip and another sharp spark shot out without thought. Sokka groaned, quickening the pace. The air around them thick with the charged current around them, reminiscent of a thunderstorm.
"Please."
Another sharp heat at the base of Sokka's neck as Zuko held him steady had them both moaning into each other's mouths. There was something about tonight, about this time, that was different from all the rest. Not just the voltage, but the desperation. Fueled by their near-death experience or jealousy or something else, Zuko wasn't sure, but he was lost in the sensation of it, the feeling of being wanted, craved.
He gripped Sokka's shoulder and hip and in an instant, he had Sokka beneath him. He buried his face in Sokka's neck, breathed him in, and roughened the pace, ruthless and unrelenting. Sokka clung to him, nails digging into his back, legs wrapped around his waist, making sharp little whimpering sounds into his ear.
"So are you gonn-ah—talk about my—oh—bone structure now or—right there—"
Zuko stifled a laugh and lifted Sokka's hips a bit to chase that angle. "I'm doing this wrong if you're still talking."
"I was just curious," Sokka gasped, fingers through Zuko's hair, tugging tight at the scalp, setting his nerve endings aflame.
"You're hot." Zuko's warm breath panting, teeth tugging at Sokka's ear lobe.
"No, you're hot," Sokka choked on a laugh as Zuko took him in hand. "Don't stop."
"Wasn't planning on it." Zuko smothered a smile into Sokka's neck and matched the pace of his hand with the pace of his thrusts. Sokka trembled in his arms, gasping and moaning and no longer able to crack jokes or form a coherent sentence—there was always a point. He brought Sokka to his release with a few short strokes, groaning into his neck as he followed soon after.
Their lips met again, sated and molten, over and over. Sokka had tossed Zuko's hair elastic at some point and he spent time pushing the long strands back from his face. Soft. Sweet. Something was clearly different about tonight, but then Sokka always cuddled like a purple pentapus after sex, never wanting to let go. Clingy, although he would protest the word choice.
Lost in the rhythm of their lips, it took Zuko a moment to realize Sokka was absently patting the pillow beside their head, stamping out a spark that had shot out and burned a hole in the blanket. The air had cleared, the static had dissipated. Zuko gave one last dirty thrust that left Sokka groaning and swatting at him before he pulled out and laid down beside him.
He listened to their panting, closed his eyes and tried not to think about how long he would have to wait for a next timewith Sokka. A next time of happiness and ease. Of being understood. A pocket of reprieve from the life of duty and politics. Quietly, wordlessly, he felt Sokka's hand slip into his own. He held it tight.
Emotion welled up and he tamped it down. It had been a long day, but there was no time for that. Not now anyway. He should enjoy this and be grateful he had this moment, not waste it away feeling sorrow for losing it again. He took a page from Sokka's book of emotional denial and tried for a joke.
"Shocked you still wanted to have sex when you saw me as a hundred year old—what did you call me again, a sea squid?"
Sokka burst into delighted laughter, shifting to drape himself half on top of Zuko. "Was that a joke!? Zuko!! Did you just make a joke?!"
Zuko wrapped his arm around Sokka's waist and pressed a kiss to his head, humming in reply, feeling somewhat at ease with the cuddle.
"Proud of you," Sokka feigned a sniffle and settled into his arms, resting his cheek against Zuko's chest. After a moment or two, he poked at Zuko's cheek. "Are you falling asleep?"
"No."
"I don't… believe you."
Zuko didn't remember his reply, drifting off for a bit in the warmth and comfort of their embrace. He didn't dream, he didn't think, but time passed hazy and languid. It couldn't have been too long, the moon lit up his room through the window when he opened his eyes. Sokka had left his arms and the bed was cold and Zuko let himself feel a little disappointed before he sat up and found Sokka at his desk, dressed in Zuko's red silk robe, looking through Zuko's paperwork. Zuko groaned and hunched forward over his knees, looking exasperatedly at Sokka. "I don't need to tell you that those are confidential."
Sokka was munching on a handful of fire flakes, papers in his other hand. "Yeah, yeah, Sifu Hotman, whatever you say," he waved the handful of fire flakes at him dismissively, still reading.
Truth be told, Zuko told Sokka most of this stuff anyway, both because Sokka was an Ambassador to the Southern Water Tribe and because he—and Aang, Katara, and Toph—were his most trusted counsel. Off the record, of course. He had only made the mistake of not consulting them once as Fire Lord, which nearly caused another war, and he vowed never to do that again.
Zuko grew distracted by the silk robe, tie too loose, fabric slipping to reveal more skin. He forced himself up from the bed to chase it, slipping a hand under the fabric and letting his lips meet Sokka's jaw, stepping in close. "Was this your goal? Seduce me so you can read the Fire Nation budget plans?"
Sokka swallowed his mouthful and stepped back out of their embrace. Zuko looked down at the paper he had been holding. It was, in fact, not the budget plan. "You're getting married?"
That was not what he had expected.
"I mean," Sokka laughed a little, strained and forced. "Congratulations, I just didn't, um—wow."
"I—It's—It's just a proposal." Zuko grimaced. Bad choice of words. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm not courting anyone, but my advisors think that producing an heir would provide some stability to this new—"
"Right, no, that makes sense." Sokka put the papers on the desk and hurriedly started picking up his clothes from the floor.
"Wait," Zuko frowned. "I don't understand what's—what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong!" Sokka's voice cracked. "I just have to go and you've got, like, a mountain of paperwork to get through so I'll leave you to it."
Zuko blinked. "I don't want to get married."
"Okay."
"I was thinking of asking Mai if she would be open to being a surrogate or—"
"Please stop talking."
Zuko watched him for a beat, Sokka frantically putting on clothes, avoiding eye contact. This wasn't fair. They weren't attached, so why was Sokka acting like this was a betrayal? There wasn't even a plan set in place, the paperwork was just another reiteration of the importance of carrying on a royal family bloodline. His advisors were negotiating with him, trying to get him to find this agenda item important after so many weeks of disregarding it.
"I don't understand why you're upset?"
"I'm not—"
"You are," Zuko stepped forward putting a hand on Sokka's forearm to stop him for a moment. "Please explain."
Sokka stared at him, gaze hardened and defiant before he eventually broke down. "You don't know any of them."
"What?"
"They put together a creepy list of women they think you should marry with like, intel about their family backgrounds and political affiliations and—" Sokka waved his arms around emphatically as if continuing his point through body motion. "Like, I know you constantly have threats on your life, so kudos on the due diligence there, lots of info that's probably relevant I guess, but it's laid out like a, like a business proposal."
Zuko paused, tried to follow. "It is sort of a business proposal. Are you against arranged marriages? Is that it?"
"I—no, I think that's—I mean, not always. Like Gran-Gran and Pakku are—fine, I guess, but—" Sokka, flustered and red-faced, struggled to form his next line of argument. "Do you even like any of them?"
"To be honest," Zuko began slowly, calmly, "I haven't really looked."
Sokka huffed a breath, blinking owlishly at him. "You haven't?"
"No. I guess I skimmed the list, but I don't really remember—" Zuko froze as Sokka kissed him, making a confused sound against his lips. Suddenly it clicked. The flustered rambling, the flushed cheeks, the frantic disjointed logic of his arguments. Zuko's voice was muffled, but he needed to confirm, "Are you jealous?"
Sokka grunted and pushed forward, biting at Zuko's lower lip. "No."
"But—" Zuko still attempted to communicate. "Don't you have other—aren't there other—Suki?"
"Sokka."
Zuko laughed and put a gentle hand on Sokka's shoulders pushing him back. "I wasn't calling you Suki, I was asking about her. I thought you two—"
Sokka cocked his head to the side confused. "We broke up, like, six years ago?"
Six years.
Sokka had been Ambassador for six years. They started whatever this was between them six years ago. Surely it hadn't been because they started—
Zuko was a little frantic when he followed up. "But there are other people, right?"
"Huh?"
"You're seeing other people, aren't you? I don't understand why you would be jealous when—"
"Never said I was jealous!"
"—you've been seeing other—"
"I haven't."
Zuko's jaw snapped shut. He was desperately confused.
Sokka rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed heavily, looking annoyed at having to participate in the sincerity of the conversation. "You kissed me six years ago and I left—"
"You ran away," Zuko interjected.
"—to go break up with Suki." Sokka fell back a step and crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean, we were basically already broken up. We were just sort of avoiding each other because we wanted to stay friends and we were nervous that breaking up would ruin that, I guess. She's still my best friend. I mean, Aang is like… number one on the best friend list and then maybe Suki? Depends on what we're talking about. So, like—"
"But—"
"—it's cool if you've been sleeping with other people. I figured being Fire Lord or whatever you probably got a line out the door, right?" Sokka rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, avoiding eye contact. "I mean, clearly given the list of eligible marriage material on your desk. And I like, still flirt with people, obviously. I can't really turn it off sometimes, but it doesn't ever go anywhere. I always thought it was because of you—"
"Sokka."
"—but it's not a big deal. You're right I have no reason to be jealous. We're not—we never—it's fine. Really. My fault."
"Sokka."
"Now let me leave because I am going to die of embarrassment if I have to stand here and—"
Zuko's hands were shaking when he cupped Sokka's face, tilting it back and forcing their eyes to meet. Neither of them were equipped with the best communication skills to charter this sort of territory. It was too important and Zuko really, truly did not want to mess this up. Sokka was too important. This was too important.
They always seemed to communicate well through the physical. When their lips met, Sokka sighed into Zuko's mouth and held onto his wrist, melting into the kiss. Zuko tried to let this kiss communicate what his words inevitably would fail to. Soft and sweet, hopeful and yearning. Years of holding himself back from wanting too much, from asking for more, from daring to think about anything beyond just one night or two.
It was not a guarantee, life was more complicated than that. They had countless things to talk about, to consider, but right now Zuko was just grateful to have this—a whisper of something more, of this meaning more to them both than he had originally thought. There was time for politics later, for now he just wanted more time to figure this out, to relish in it.
"I—there hasn't been anyone else for me either," Zuko confessed, forehead knocked against Sokka's. "I was just comparing them all to how—easy things were with you."
Sokka snorted a laugh. "How easy I am? Oof."
"No, that's not what I—how comfortable I am with you," he amended. "You know me. Not like anyone else knows me. You can—see through me somehow and it's both terrifying and sort of comforting."
"Thank… you?" Sokka smirked. "I think I know what you mean."
Zuko pulled back, forcing a bit of space between them. "Stay here tonight."
Sokka bit his lip, considering. "When do you have to go back?"
"I should leave in the morning, but I can push it to mid-day. What about you?"
"Not sure yet," Sokka shrugged, trying for casual and missing it by a mile. "Why?"
Zuko nodded, heart still hammering away in his chest. He took the leap anyway. "Do you think you have time for a detour before heading back to the South Pole?"
Smile growing, Sokka's gaze narrowed. "What did you have in mind?"