[Rewriting) Keeping the fire close [Zuko × Sokka]

Time apart

Three months. It had been three months since Sokka had last seen Zuko, had last touched his face, had heard his voice. It seemed like every memory of his boyfriend was slipping away from his hurriedly. Like those memories hated being in his brain, as if his mind was trying to forget an abusive situation.

This depletion of memories ate away at the warrior while he trained with his sister, the Avatar, and a little girl they had met, a blind earth bender that was a earth bending champion. Toph Beifong, a girl who came from one of the wealthiest families in the earth kingdom, she was pretty short, smaller than Aang. Even if she was blind, Toph was most likely the best earth bender around for the time being, able to sense movement with her feet so she could locate her enemies.

That was a skill that she tried to teach to Aang, it was taking him a lot of time and focus; but he was getting sort of close to understanding it, even just a little bit. "Come on Twinkle Toes! You're not trying enough!"

Toph walked in fast paced circles around the air bender, stomping with one foot and using the other to kick whatever sized clump of ground had emerged from the ground, sending it flying towards the air nomad.

He had a blindfold on, so he could practice using his feet as his eyes like his teacher. He'd try and locate what direction the walk was coming from; but since he was still very new to the process be got hit more than he had blocked the mini boulders by summoning a wall of hardened dirt.

"I'm trying my best!" The Avatar turned in the direction of the air born rock, stomping and bringing his arms up to construct a wall that had barely saved him from this weapon of his teacher, another one hitting him in the side. "Alright, that's enough for the day. You're getting good but you need to practice more."

Toph slowly walked up behind Aang and patted his shoulder, ripping his blindfold away from his eyes. "You're just too fast, I need more time to figure out where you are," the student tried to plead with his teacher. His body was covered in bruises and scrapes from air born ground being aimed at him.

"I'm not going too fast, you're just too slow Twinkle Toes. Where'd Sweetness and Snoozles go?" The earth bender turned her head in different directions even though she couldn't see with her eyes. She was able to feel movement within a couple of miles, but it wasn't the brother and sister pair she had come to be slightly less annoyed with. She hated how much they argued, they were probably off somewhere arguing now.

Infact they were not, Sokka was sitting in a nearby lake, something that Toph couldn't sense due to it not having a solid form that was connected to the ground. His clothes were neatly folded next to him, hugging his knees whilst he thought. Trying to remember what Zuko sounded like, what the scar on his eye was.

The warrior never found out the reason behind the scar, and he didn't know if he ever would; but he'd like to know. He had thought about leaving the Avatar multiple times, wanting to take Appa to the fire nation so he could storm in and collect his lover whilst his sister and friends took down the fire Lord; now that he thought about it, it didn't seem like a bad idea. But they'd need to get a fire bender to teach the air nomad.

                            -

Across the ocean Zuko sat in his room, writing down notes; well, notes on what he would tell his lover if they were ever to see each other again. He mainly wrote things like 'how have you been?' 'I miss you' 'uncle says hi' 'i love you' 'come and visit me soon' down, managing to squeeze some filler in about how the young prince had been, talking about his sister, how his father had been a little nicer to him.

The young prince sighed and stepped out of bed for the day, he started to dress himself, which his families staff thought was weird, normally they would dress him, make his breakfast, and clean up for him; but he had taken on all of those responsibilities. Even his father saw it as weird, but the old man figured that time in the earth kingdom, living a domestic life had changed his son.

While the prince got dressed for breakfast he looked into a body size mirror he had on the wall, looking at himself. His hair was still long, his father hadn't told him to cut it yet; meaning the 17 year old wasn't dishonored anymore. Knowing that fact made the young prince's heart feel lifted.

Zuko thought about his time in Ba Sing Se, how he had made several customers happy just by serving them food and tea, how making small conversations about the whether with old men and women taught him about civil life, somehing he never experienced and now yearned for. Wanting to live on his own terms, surely he could do something to be dishonored and earn another scarred over eye, but he decided to try and keep his civil life for when he was alone.

He was a changed man.

The only bad thing is that the prince tended to run his mouth about a water tribe boy when talking about what he had been up to. He never mentioned anything about dating, or having intercourse with said warrior, but he'd try and drop subtle hints.

Hints that only his sister caught onto. "He'd always come by the Jasmine Dragon and order the same thing, he'd sit there and practice jokes then tell them to me whenever I came by to collect his payment or to see what he wanted,"

"Calm down Zuzu," Azula, his younger sister, chuckled a little while holding up a fork, turning it in the light to see a reflection of the flames in it, "we get it, you had a favorite customer and enjoyed being a peasant."

"I wouldn't really say I was a peasant, but yeah. It was nice. I had time to think, I was able to get closer with uncle, understand earth kingdom traditions, it was very nice."

"I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation," Lord Ozai said sarcastically while stepping into the dinning hall for breakfast, where Zuko and Azula already sat; empty plates and silverware set out.

"Good morning father", the siblings said in unison.