Is it just a coincidence? (Sokka x Zuko) [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty two

    "What?" Zuko looked at her again.

    "Apparently your Dad really wants this alliance thing with my Dad. But he can't do that unless someone from our family marries the other. And despite soulmates, both of our Dad's are kind of homophobic meaning I can't just... marry Azula or something." She explained, cringing at the thought of marrying Azula.

    "I don't care! I don't care about his alliance, I don't want to be here and I never will," Zuko burst. "All I want is to go back to my life. With my uncle, and my soulmate... I love them."

    Mai glanced around the building, clenching her fists. Then she grabbed Zuko's arm and dragged him over to the door.

    "What are you-?"

    She shushed him, leaning over to peek through the doors.

    "Alright, come on." She grabbed his arm again and yanked him out the door and down the hallway.

    "Where are you taking me?" Zuko whisper shouted to her.

    "I'm getting you out of here." She pressed a button for the elevator.

    "What? Why?"

    "You think I want to marry someone who's not my soulmate? No way," She shoved him in the doors and pressed several buttons before pressing the ground floor. "So you're going back to your soulmate and you're hiding there until I find my soulmate and my father has no choice but to let me be with them."

    "I..." Zuko uttered.

    She dragged him out to the front entrance and shoved him out the doors.

    "Now run, and lose the shoes. Your Dad planted a tracker in them."

_

    The doors opened and closed. Zuko locked the door behind him and sunk to the ground with a shaky exhale. He didn't really feel safe here either, but he had to make sure he wasn't being followed before he could go on.

    Standing in an abandoned building,  he slipped off his sweater and pants to pull on new ones he'd just bought with a tiny bit of money he had in his pockets. Figuring he'd just stay there for the night, he set a small fire, burning his old clothes and settled down to sleep. 

    Tomorrow, he'd see Sokka.

_

    He couldn't sleep. Laying in bed with nothing to distract him was a bad idea. He couldn't focus on anything else. Zuko was gone. And it was probably his fault.

    So instead he decided to use his restlessness to his advantage and look up where Zuko's Dad's company was.

    An article about Zuko's banishment popped up. He ignored it. Scrolling down.... Flameo city! In palace square.

    "I know that I said I wouldn't do anything, but... Sorry, Iroh." Sokka whispered to himself, looking up the building on his phone and then getting up to get dressed.

_

    Driving through the almost barren streets, Sokka made his way to the office building he'd looked up before. Stopping near the entrance, he got a good look at the guards before driving away again.

    When he came back, he was dressed like one.

    "Hey guys," He waved to the guards, barely able to hear his own voice over the heart beating in his ears. "I'm the new guy. Where should I go?"

    "Oh, you must be Wang. Right, um. Follow me." One of the guards nodded, getting him to follow her.

    "Sweet, thanks."

    They made their way through the building and up to the penthouse where she stationed him outside a door.

    "Thanks, Ming." He nodded to her before standing there.

    A few minutes after Ming had left, he started hearing shouting on the other side of the door.

    "How could you let him go? It took weeks to track him down!" A man's voice seethed.

    Whoever he was talking to didn't reply.

    "Now we won't be able to unite our companies! Do you have any idea what you've cost us?" He continued.

    "Shut up!" The other voice, a feminine one spoke up. "I don't want to marry him and he doesn't want to marry me! Why can't you see that?"

    "You think I care? We need this unison, Mai."

    Sokka froze. Mai? The same one who'd texted before? The one who told Zuko he needed to hide somewhere?

    And they were fighting about someone not being here anymore who was supposed to get married to her so... Zuko.

    "I gotta get out of here." He whispered to himself, running for the elevator.

    Closing the doors behind him, he felt a rush of relief. Pressing the floor that ended in the garage, he watched as the numbers moved down.

    "Surprised there's no stops on the way..." He muttered as he passed 7 floors without picking anyone up.

    He checked his phone. 3 am.

    "Not surprised anymore."

    Getting to the garage, he stepped out quietly as the elevator opened. And the garage was huge.

    "Shit." He cursed, making his way to the left.

    There were barely any cars, so it shouldn't have been too hard to find the exit, but this place was huge.

    As he searched, he started to wonder. Where did Zuko go? He didn't go back to the house probably, it's too far on foot. So he had to be somewhere in between...

    What felt like an hour later, he still hadn't found the exit. But he also couldn't find his way back to the elevator either.

    "I'm gonna be stuck in a parking garage for the rest of my life." He groaned to himself.

    "Who's there?" A voice called from somewhere within the parking lot.

    "Uh... Wang?" He choked out.

    There was silence. It didn't end.

    He panicked.

_

   Zuko woke up in a cold sweat, stifling a scream. The building was empty around him but he was panicking. It wasn't him, it was Sokka.

    Why would Sokka be panicking at ungodly hours of the night though? Maybe he was having a nightmare?

    Under the panic he felt a dark, sinking feeling. Something wasn't right. Sokka was in danger.

    He got up, shaking the tired out of his mind and leaving the building through the broken window in the back. He ran through side alleys and ducked through crowds, ensuring that he wasn't being followed.

    When he finally made it to Sokka's house, he felt like he could collapse. The fight or flight response he'd experienced second hand was still lingering, but he just used it to move faster.

    Checking the house, he quickly realized that Sokka wasn't home. When he went in his room, there was Zuko's phone sitting idly on the nightstand. He grabbed it and opened his contacts, scrolling past the messages from everyone else before getting to Sokka.

    Pressing the name, it rang. And rang. And rang.