Burn a little brighter (Zukka - Soulmate AU)

Chapter 13

His mouth tastes like socks.

He's malnourished, to say the least. There's discomfort in his stomach that he clutches at.

It's dark and dingy here. Damp too. The ceiling above is made of iron; the ground underneath digs into his tailbone. He's curled up in a corner, neck so sore that when he moves it an inch, pain shoots through it. His back's going through a similar torment, probably from how he's positioned.

"Great. It's like I woke up from one dream and ended up in another." This one's worse.

He can hear clamoring around him, people up above, and it takes two seconds to pinpoint that specific shade of red that makes his heart drop for the five thousandth time. Were the last three days just a vivid hallucination?

The groaning alerts him to someone near by, and it takes one look for him to surge forward, pain be damned, and pin Zuko to the wall. Zuko struggles like a fish flopping on a deck, pitifully but with a certain fire he shouldn't have, and Sokka growls. "Where are we? When did you capture me? Where are you taking me?"

Zuko's face is pallid, skin almost papery, and Sokka flinches back, hands retracting.

The guy's breathing is raspy enough it's concerning. He hunches, coughing his lungs out. When he manages to stop another wheeze, Sokka braces for an attack, but Zuko's body only sags back into a wooden crate. "Didn't... capture you... peasant. You captured me."

"Yeah right. Then how did we get here? Don't tell me you've tracked us all over the world by teleporting."

Zuko wearily shakes his head. Disturbingly, Sokka realizes the shade of his skin must come from sickness. He didn't know Zuko was able to get sick like normal humans. Another dry cough burdens his throat, and his frame shakes. "I don't know... how we got here."

Sokka wasn't tied up in ropes when he woke up. Were they both captured by the Fire Nation? Why wouldn't Zuko be getting the royal treatment?

Men's voices travel into the room, and Sokka's head snaps up in panic. They're hidden behind dozens of crates, but Sokka takes one look at Zuko and deems him the liability of all liabilities. He slams his back against the wall, wrapping an arm around Zuko's stomach while his other hand clamps over Zuko's mouth. He feels Zuko struggle, but it's so feeble it's almost sad. He's too sick to firebend, right? Sokka's not going to get a fistful of fire, right? He quite likes this hand. It's gotten him through some tough times.

Zuko's snot trickles down his pointer finger, and Sokka holds back a gag. Maybe getting captured and tortured by the Fire Nation isn't so bad? He kind of wants to scream and get a simpler death.

"-on. Fucking finally."

In a crack between the crates, he catches a glimpse of two bodies armored in red.

"You'll get your sea legs soon enough. And stop puking on the deck. If you're going to do it, aim for the fucking water. That's what it's there for."

"You know what, next time I'll aim for you."

He hears the scraping of crates moving, the huff of someone pulling one off the top.

"So, you're telling me that the giant fish was a breeze, but at the hint of rocky waves, you're greener than seaweed?"

There's gruff laughter and then, "Just get the crate," and he watches with nervous anticipation as they trickle out, the door shutting with a creak behind them.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew!" he whines, shoving Zuko away and wiping the guy's snot on one of the crates. "Aw man, what if I catch a disease?"

Zuko snarls at him, but then he clutches his head and groans, and it ruins the impact. Sokka observes at him nervously. He's still in his white outfit, but his stupid ponytail looks worse for wear.

"We're on a ship," Sokka mutters under his breath. "Going where though?" He reconsiders. No, he knows. "Fire Nation," he says wearily, hoping Zuko of all people will deny it and tell him good news for once.

"Where else," Zuko huffs. He heaves out a shaky breath. "If you kill me, dump my body... into the ocean."

"What?"

His eyes are becoming glassier, more delirious. He's blinking more, like he's seconds from falling asleep.

"Don't leave me... for them to see. Better I... drown," he sighs and closes his eyes, and for a second, Sokka panics. He presses a hand against Zuko's stomach, almost collapsing in relief when he realizes he can feel its, albeit shallow, rise and fall.

He's just sleeping. It gives Sokka more time to think.

Sokka sighs, trying to assess their situation, but all he can see are brown crates and one pesky, sick Fire Nation Prince slumped into them. He doesn't trust Zuko, but he also seems too sick to come up with a coherent lie. If he'd actually captured Sokka, they both wouldn't be hidden behind crates at what's probably the lowest level of a Fire Nation ship. They're stowaways. The question is how they time their escape. It needs to match up with when the ship lands and when no one is unloading this area.

Sokka halts. Their escape? These are Zuko's people. He can just dump him off in a visible area on this ship, and they'll all crowd around like flies to aid him.

He takes another look at how Zuko's black hair is plastered to his skin from his sweat. He'd felt hot to the touch- not Fire Nation hot, fever hot. Add that to the fact that it appears neither knows how they got here...

If he leaves Zuko, the asshole could alert the soldiers of Sokka. Sokka bets he's petty enough for it. And if Sokka is needing to get out of the Fire Nation, he'd prefer it without a target on his back.

So the host-age has become the host-ee?

There's something bunched up in his pocket. He pats at it, then slips a hand in to pull it out.

It's crumpled up before he can let it stick in his mind. Things already don't make sense, and this just adds another layer he doesn't want to deal with.

Don't hurt him, Sokka.

Who has the time to read notes anyway?

[For anyone super confused: Sokka briefly swapped consciousnesses with himself from the future. He met his future daughter (Yuka) and Yuka's aunt (Azula). Now he's just woken up back in the present and is extremely confused on how he ended up on a ship with Zuko. A later chapter should briefly explain how this happened. Poor Sokka is going through some stuff.

Sokka's already been close to his consciousness from the future (the right-aligned italic text are events from the future). This is just... a total swap in a desperate time.]