More Than Friends // zukka

After the War

Gathered around the Jasmine Dragon in Ba Sing Se were Aang, Toph, Katara and Sokka. They were there to celebrate two peaceful years after the war had ended. The early autumn air filled the streets around the little tea shop and golden rays of sunshine caressed Sokka's dark skin. Aang sat with Iroh and Toph while Sokka tried to talk himself out of something Katara had asked him to do. The Waterbender stood across from him and raised an eyebrow in suspicion. In response, Sokka simply rolled his eyes and huffed. He still hoped to get out of this somehow, but his hope was shrinking; and fast.

"It's just... Why do I need to be the one going with him? Why can't you do it? Or Aang, for that matter? You know, being the Avatar and stuff..." he complained.

This was typical. She never asked him to do anything he would enjoy doing, but now she wanted him to go look for Zuko's mother with the Firebender.
Sure, Zuko was the Fire Lord now and the war was over, and he didn't want to kill Aang anymore. But it was still Zuko, the angry and rash Firebender. Sokka hadn't quite warmed up to the idea of Zuko being their ally, much less their friend.

Of course, Sokka had been the one to accept Zuko into their group pretty soon before the battle of the Avatar and Fire Lord Ozai, but that was when he had offered to train Aang and Sokka had seen that they would get something out of the alliance. It was just really hard to imagine Zuko being his friend outside of the battlefield. After all, they had only seen each other - what? - three times in the past two years. But he would probably give in, since it was his sister asking. Although they had their fair share of fights, Sokka would never say no to Katara.

"It'll distract you from thinking about Suki and the breakup. This will be good for you! And you can get to know Zuko better. You'll have a friend your own age that's not me" she added, and Sokka sighed in resignation.

He hadn't thought about Suki in a while, but now that Katara mentioned it, the pain of the breakup began creeping back into his heart. Why did she leave him? Was it really because of the distance, or was there more to it?

"Fine. I'll go with him. When do we leave?" he said.

"There's just one hiccup..." she began, "Zuko... Well, he didn't exactly ask for anyone to go with him..."

Excuse me? He felt his face grow red in anger and his eyebrows might become one single eyebrow so deep was the scowl on his face.

"You can't be serious?!" he yelled, "if he didn't ask how come you're making me go with him?"

"You know Zuko, he'd never ask. But he'll need somebody to talk to, to help him, to keep him company... You know I'm right, Sokka!" Katara defended herself.

Sighing, Sokka nodded and admitted that his sister might be right about that. Zuko was a person, after all, even though Sokka had rarely seen him act like one. Ugh, what did it matter? Going with Zuko definitely sounded more interesting than sitting around and watching Aang do his duty as Avatar, and Katara swooning over him like a crazy scorpion bee.

"Do you have everything you need? Your boomerang, the machete? Enough rations?" Katara asked for the nth time, and Sokka rolled his eyes again.

"Yes, Katara. Thank you, Katara." he said, trying to sound sincere.

It was getting harder with every minute passing. He would take an air balloon and make his way to the Fire Nation Capital where Zuko was currently finishing the process of rebuilding the Palace and most of the city. It had been destroyed in the great Agni Kai between him and Azula; not to mention the fight between Fire Lord Ozai and the Avatar. Most of the Fire Nation's capital city had remained in ashes and dust, and Sokka wondered if Zuko felt lonely in a Palace that had never really been his home. Hm, apparently he did care about Zuko - at least a little bit.

"You - make sure to punch Sparky if he does something stupid!" Toph exclaimed, lightly punching Sokka's arm. Ow! That was her way to ensure Sokka wouldn't forget.

"Will do!" he agreed and hugged the Earthbender.

"I'm a bit jealous that I can't come with you, to be honest. There's some conflict to resolve around the Earth Kingdom and I could really use a break right now..." Aang said longingly, and suddenly Sokka felt bad for not wanting to go in the first place. His Airbender friend was probably right and he was lucky to get away from here for a while.

"But I'll help you, Aang. I'm sure, together we will have a solution in no time!" the Waterbender said kindly and put her hand on Aang's shoulder.

Imagining them investigate the strange occurrences happening in the Earth Kingdom, Sokka hoped they would be fine without him. Although Katara had shown him on multiple occasions that she was more than capable, he still liked to think that he was some sort of protector for her.

Barely an hour later, Sokka was sitting at the window of a modern air balloon, watching the shores of the Merchant Town in the Northwest of the Earth Kingdom grow smaller and smaller. Only now, he started to wonder why Zuko wanted to find his mother all of a sudden. Didn't he say he believed her dead? Maybe he had found evidence of her being alive somewhere...
Or maybe... Azula had something to do with this sudden change of heart.
Sokka sincerely hoped that this was not the case.
Would he be in charge, he'd bury Azula in a single cell made of solid rock and metal deep beneath the catacombs of Ba Sing Se.

author's note: welcome to my zukka story. it is by no means finished and will probably be edited a million times. i use writing to express myself and hope that i can find a community who enjoys my fantasy just as much as i do. have fun reading & leave some votes & comments for me to read (: