Chapter Text
“He’s quieter today than yesterday,” Hanta comments when Zuko is out of earshot for a moment, “did you two get into a fight?”
“Not exactly…” Sokka sighs, as he helps Hanta move the large crate below deck. “I think I might have freaked him out a little though,” he explains vaguely as they maneuver through tight hallways.
Hanta raises a brow at him over the box, a silent but very clear question of what he did, he does follow it with, “You ask him to marry you or something?”
“No! I didn’t ask him to marry me!” Sokka whisper-shouts at him, not sure how close Katjuk and Zuko are. “He was all stressed after talking to my dad yesterday. He doesn’t know how to react to him being… well, a dad, you know?”
“I guess that’s not surprising, all things considered. But that happened yesterday morning, didn’t it? That’s why he was kinda off in his head yesterday.” He says it in a tone that definitely shows their difference in age, despite it not being even half a decade. “He seems to do that when something’s up, he did it that last time, after what happened with Juatan, though he didn’t fake being present as much this time.”
“Uh–” Sokka can’t find his words for a long few moments, he hadn’t thought Hanta was this observant, maybe he’d missed it, maybe it’s the fact that he's pretty quick to joke around, but he certainly hadn’t expected him to read Zuko so seemingly easily. “He tries to pretend he doesn’t care about his dad at all, but he does, at least enough to still fear him.”
“So, when you told him Hakoda was acting like a father…”
“It sort of messed with him I think. I probably should've tried to talk to him earlier. He’s worried that he’s not good enough for my dad to care about him, that he’d end up making my dad think he hates him.” Sokka knows what really set off what, if he didn’t know better, would feel a bit like a cold shoulder. “I told him he doesn’t need to earn love. He sort of just shut down after that.”
____
It’s jarring to watch Zuko in a meeting with a few of the Chieftains, sure he’d seen Zuko interact while not entirely present in the moment, he’d seen it more often than he’d like, but this was different. He didn’t say anymore than necessary, explaining the network of tunnels under the castle with not a trace of emotion. If he noticed the concerned looks Bato and his dad threw his way, well he didn’t make it known.
Eventually they get through the meeting and the others leave to do whatever it is they have to get done, but Bato and his father remain. “Boys, could we talk for a minute,” he asks, stopping them from leaving the room.
Sokka sees the moment Zuko’s expression shifts, flashes to something other than stoic emptiness. He sees the fraction of a second that fear showed through clear as day. He shifts toward him slightly, lightly bumping into his side, Zuko’s now eerily calm eyes finding his own, which probably revealed to him everything he’s thinking.
“What’s up, dad?” Sokka asks as he returns his gaze to the two of them.
“I just thought we should check in, make sure everything is going–”
The wooden door creaks as Toklo pops his head into the room, Sokka hadn’t realised how young he was earlier, he likely isn’t much more than three years his senior. He stops himself from stepping in front of Zuko, knowing that if he wanted to he wouldn’t try anything now, not with who’s in the room. He watches the warrior's eyes widen at who is present, his gaze immediately going to Zuko, who really isn’t helping the other’s fear of him with his flat expression. Toklo seems to struggle to bring his attention to his dad and Bato, but he manages it after a moment. “Letters, one from the Earth King and one from Katara.”
“Katara sent a letter? Did something happen?” Sokka asks as he quickly takes the letters from Toklo, who surprisingly doesn’t look annoyed by his doing so. He’ll worry about his questions of why Toklo got to stick around later. Sokka’s opening his sister’s letter immediately, eyes scanning over the familiar handwriting. “Aang’s awake.”
____
The next few days go by relatively easy. Zuko’s still a bit quiet but Sokka’s elected not to push, especially as he’s started joining into conversations with Hanta and Katjuk again. The other warriors on the ship don’t pay him or Zuko any more attention than anyone else, Sokka’s pretty sure his dad had made sure that would be the case. The only person that’s putting him on edge is Toklo, the old teen constantly seems to be watching them, that is until Zuko makes a point of noticing him, then he’s fast to run off. Sokka’s really not sure what his deal is, he hasn’t said anything to either of them.
“We should be getting to Ba Sing Se soon,” Zuko comments, pulling his attention from the currently starring Toklo.
Katjuk hums in agreement, “another day at most, by tonight if the winds favor us.”
Sokka can’t bring himself not to ask, he’s honestly a bit surprised Zuko’s managing to ignore the guy most of the time. “Either of you know what’s with Toklo?”
“You mean his decision to stalk the two of you?” Hanta asks, his gaze flicking to where Sokka knows Toklo is. “Not sure honestly, he’s always been quiet. While most of our villages have faced attacks from the Fire Navy, he’s from Grey Wolf, one which honestly I’m shocked has survived at all. He might just not be as okay with…” The warrior looks at Zuko with a slight shrug.
Sokka doesn’t miss the look of realisation on Zuko’s face, and he’s not sure he wants to ask why it’s there. He doesn’t have to ask, because Hanta does it for him.
“You know it?” He sounds wary asking, likely thinking something similar to what Sokka is thinking, there are very few reasons for him to know a village in the South Pole.
“When I was young my sister and I had a habit of going through my father’s things, which rarely ended well, but my sister has always been curious and I’d rarely let her get in trouble on her own.” Sokka has met Azula a few times now, he finds it hard to believe they ever got along, despite Zuko’s stories. “I was maybe eight when we found his records of his time in the Navy.”
“The Fire Lord served in the Navy?” Katjuk asked, sounding understandably surprised.
“Everyone in the Fire Nation, including the royal family, is expected to serve in the military. It’s not technically required outside of certain areas or families, but near everyone does,” he explains.
“Guys–” Hanta interrupts, gesturing to the nearing Toklo.
The older teen gets to their little group quickly, he gaze entirely focused on Zuko. The four of them don’t get up from their seated positions, but Sokka can see Zuko’s shoulders tense; can feel his own body doing the same. After a few endlessly long moments Toklo lets out a sigh. “Juatan wanted me to spy on you. He thinks you’re gonna turn on us. I don’t think that.”
“You don’t?” Zuko asks.
“At first, I did.” He looks nervous, opening his mouth to continue a few times before he finally manages it. “Your glare is very similar to your father’s.”
Zuko flinches at the comparison, his shoulders falling with his now lowered head, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, or make you uncomfortable.” Sokka can help but worry the comment will cause his boyfriend to spiral, seeing as he’s just barely managed to pull himself from the last one.
“I know you didn’t. I should have just told you from the beginning, but with everything Juatan has said. He’s come up with some rather outlandish claims. I think the only thing he’s gotten right is how smitten with you Sokka is, I just don’t believe that a bad thing, considering the feeling seems quite mutual.”
____
“Look at you, back from the dead!” Sokka cheers, throwing his arm over Aang’s shoulder, pulling the airbender into a one armed hug.
“Careful Sokka,” Katara scolds, looking understandably stressed. Sokka for his part lets up on the hug a bit, thought doesn’t miss ruffling the hair that’s grown in on Aang's head.
“Nice hair,” he laughs warmly.
“It’s weird, I haven’t had hair in ages,” Aang looks up as if he could see the minimal hair that’s grown in.
“Good look, especially if we’re going with the plan of you faking dead until the invasion,” Sokka comments. His boyfriend’s mind seems rarely on anything but the upcoming eclipse. Zuko doesn’t mind his focus much, but the more he thinks about it the more he thinks he’d like nothing more than to not be involved, knowing he’ll likely have to see his father again. He knows he has to see it through though, he’s essentially offered himself as Aang’s only backup, being that he knows the tunnels.
“I hate this plan…” Aang mumbles.
“It’s for a good plan,” Katara comments mildly, giving a soft sort of smile to Aang, almost a silent apology.
“You know I hate to agree with Katara, but I have to agree,” Toph agrees.
“We’ll be lucky if Azula didn’t hear some of the plans prior to everything that happened, it’ll be good to have some surprises for them,” he tries to reason. “I’m glad to see you’re recovering.”
Aang doesn’t look entirely enthused by being the only one who isn’t in support of keeping his actually being alive a secret, but he doesn’t comment on it. “And I’m glad to be recovering!”
____
“Something happened between you two?” Toph asks a few days later, when the two of them are in the lower ring, mostly just trying to get away from the chaos that’s become of the now rather crowded upper ring and palace. Zuko’s sort of sick of everyone recognising him again, and that’s much less of a problem here.
It takes Zuko a second to get who Toph is talking about, it shouldn't but they’d been walking in relative silence and he’d been a bit in his head. “Not really. We had a conversation after I kind of freaked out about talking with his dad. I didn’t tell Sokka, but I sort of told his dad I love him…”
“Wait, for real? You actually said that to his dad? Have you even told Sokka you love him?” Toph asks, he can tell she’s struggling to hold back her laugh at his stupidity.
“It wasn’t like I meant to!” Zuko argues, which only breaks Tophs resolve not to laugh at him. “It’s not funny Toph,” he groans at his own idiocy. “He was trying to help and I didn’t know how to react, I basically ran away from him. Then I freaked out to Sokka about it, got all stuck in my head because he told me that Hakoda was trying to be fatherly. Seriously what is wrong with–” He’s interrupted by tapping on his hand, we’re being followed, Toph says while calming her original laughter. Northeast, second building, just before the street splits.
Zuko finds the person attempting to blend into the crowd, but he only finds them easily because he recognises that face. He pulls his gaze away, acting as though he was casually looking around. “I really think I stressed him out,” Zuko says in continuation of their original line of conversation. Act natural.
“Zuzu I don’t think you stressing him out is anything new,” Toph says with a mild smirk.
The comment to act natural doesn’t hold up long, as the moment they are close enough to where their stalker is Zuko shoots off toward them. He hears Toph yell, “what happened to act natural!?” He doesn’t stop though, following after his old friend.
He knows Toph won’t be all too far behind, but he manages to catch up with their stalker thanks to a well placed cabbage cart. He does feel a bit bad about the cabbages currently rolling down the alley, even if he wasn’t the one who crashed into it.
“I know it’s you Soma, that’s no point making me chase you through the entire city,” he says to the other teen who’s likely debating whether to keep running. After a few long moments Soma turns to him, his brown eyes looking back at him, so different from the ones he’d been so caught up in as a boy. He knows who Soma serves under, he’d found that out months ago, back on that ship.
“Hello Zuko,” Soma greets after a few agonisingly long moments. He straightens his stance, using his greater height as is so familiar to see, it doesn’t phase Zuko in the way the other likely hopes it would. Soma betrayed him, yes. He doesn’t not fear the other teen though, he pales in comparison to those he tries to imitate.
“Zhao sent you, I assume.” He keeps his tone carefully level with the mention of the man who still often haunts his nightmares, he’s not entirely sure he succeeds. “I doubt he sent just you, but seeing as you’re the only one following me, I can guess the others have different commands. Did you volunteer for this?”
“I thought I might be able to reason with you, but I’ve watched you these past few days, seen how you act, it’s obvious that you’re too far gone for a chat to fix it. I should have known before, seen it.” Soma steps toward him, but Zuko doesn’t back away, eyes narrowing up at him.
“There’s nothing to fix Soma, I just want this war to end, I want the world to heal. The world will never heal if my father continues our nation’s path of destruction.” Zuko doesn’t straighten him up to try to make himself closer to the other teen’s height, he doesn’t coward when Soma’s once warm brown eyes narrow at him. For once he is not at a disadvantage, he won’t let what happened in the past cloud what he knows to be true, Soma isn’t any real risk, not here, not without Zhao in the room. He was never cruel when they were children, and Zuko knows true cruelty versus a theatre, and Soma’s empty eyes are familiar enough to know exactly which he is. He just has to keep reminding himself, he’s only playing a part, even if Soma himself doesn’t realise it.
“You can act unaffected all you like Zuko, but we both know the truth.” Soma looks down at him, empty eyes narrowed at him, “rumor is you’ll be coming home soon, you really think you can face your father, when you can barely say Zhao’s name?”
“Zuko! I swear–” Soma thrown away from him, earth shooting him back, crashing into the ground a few feet away. “Are you actually insane!?” Toph shouts at him from the edge of the alley.
____
“Zhao has people in the city, we need to get Aang out of here, before they find out he’s alive.” He knows what he’s saying is reasonable, if they want any chance to keep Aang’s survival a secret he needs to leave Ba Sing Se, soon. Much of the invasion plan relies on the surprise of the Avatar being there; relies on his father underestimating the forces they can manage.
“I won’t just run, who knows what Zhao will do if we leave,” Aang argues, in a way that sounds more sincere than angry, an annoying talent he seems to have.
“Zuko has a point.” He can’t help the way his eyes widen a bit at Katara agreeing with him, sure they are getting along well enough, but he’s not sure she’s exactly his biggest fan still.
“If we’re leaving we have to go somewhere Zhao or anyone else wouldn’t think to look for Aang,” Sokka reasons.
“Or Zuko, you know, considering he sent someone after him specifically,” Toph cuts in.
“That too…” Sokka mutters, he’d been avoiding bringing up Soma at all, Zuko has a theory as to why, likely it has something to do with the last person he was involved with also serving under someone wanting to capture him. Despite his attempts to be more open with Sokka recently he’s thinking it might be best not to mention Soma thwarting more than one attempt at escaping Zhao. “Point is, there’s one place they’d never think to look, that we do have a sort of expert on,” he makes a not so subtle gesture toward him.
“You want us to hide out in the Fire Nation? From the Fire Nation?” Katara asks, sounding as though she’s one more very dangerous idea from pulling her hair out.
“It’s not the worst idea…” Toph shrugs, which earns all four of them looking at her like she’s lost her mind, even Sokka, despite it being his idea. “Based on the awkward silence I’m going to guess you’re all staring at me,” she deadpans. “All I’m saying is that it’s just insane enough to work, there are probably people all over the Earth Kingdom looking for, not just Aang, but all of us, we aren’t exactly subtle. If we want to hide out, the Fire Nation might be our best option.”
“If we’re attempting this we can’t just be going into any town, we’ll be made in a second anywhere someone will recognise that any of you aren’t Fire.” Zuko reasons, actually debating going along with this. Aang, if he covers his tattoos with blend in fine, he looks barely different from Ty Lee. Toph will be fine if she doesn’t keep her hair in a very specifically Earth Kingdom style. As for Katara and Sokka, it’s not common, but there are people from the Fire Nation with darker complexion, the difficult thing to explain will be their eyes, he’s not sure he’s met anyone who’s entirely Fire with blue eyes, maybe the excuse of being from the colonies. Maybe they can just hope no one will ask. “I’ll come up with some places, and we’ll have to find some new clothes.”
“You seriously think this is for the best?” Aang asks them.