To Pass A Law ||Zukka Fanfic||

Chapter 22: Talking

Zuko's POV

"Sokka, Sokka wake up." I said, shaking him lightly. Sokka groaned and clung onto me even more, pushing his face further into my neck. I was lying down facing him with our legs intertwined and our chest pressed together. I had my arm resting on his lowering while he was just spread across my entire body. "Do I have too?" He whined, "Yes Sokka, we are meeting up with the Earth King in two hours." "We still have time then." "Sokka," "Zuko," he mimicked. I glared down at him. "We need to get up," "Twenty more minutes!" He bargained. "Twenty?!" I exclaimed. "Hmm," "How about ten?" "How about eighteen," I scoffed as Sokka wiggled himself even closer to me. "Fifteen and that's my final offer." "I'll think about it," "Sokka I'm being serious! We have things to do today," "Fine, fine, you win. We'll stay for seventeen more minutes." I tilted my head up and groaned, "You're impossible," I mumbled. "Shush, I'm trying to sleep!" Sokka sighed, squeezing me tighter. "You're really annoying, you know that." I told him. "Aw, thanks. Love you too," I groaned and Sokka let out a small giggle. "You know from the stories Katara had told me about you, I would think that you would be more inclined to wake up earlier so we wouldn't be late. 'Oh wise schedule master." "Well that was because we were in the middle of a WAR and people could DIE if we weren't on time. And besides back then my boyfriend was trying to attack me rather than cuddle me." "That's not true, right now your boyfriend wants to get dressed and ready so he's not late for a very important signage with the Earth King," "Shush, you said we could sleep. Stop talking." I rolled my eyes and moved as close as possible to him. "Why are you like this?" I grumbled in a defeated tone. Sokka didn't reply and just kissed my chin instead. "Fifteen minutes, only fifteen." I sighed, "Whatever you say Fire Lord." Sokka teased. "You're going to be the death of me." I groaned as I closed my eyes burying my face into his hair. "So dramatic," Sokka remarked, as I squeezed his waist. "Love you." Sokka mumbled, "I love you too." I whispered back giving him a light kiss.

Aang's POV

The delegations with the Earth Kingdom have been going smoothly and you could definitely see the precautions being taken into place. The streets were filled with Dai Lee Agents at every corner as well as the word about the Red Lotus was being spread. During our trip to the market I heard a few people discussing the horrors that happened in the Fire Nation with regards to them. It was good to hear that the people of Ba Sing Se were horrified about how the Red Lotus almost killed Zuko, instead of discussing ways to join them. But yet again the market was located in the Middle Ring, and based off of Sokka's observations the middle class and upper class tend to believe and follow structure a lot better compared to the lower class, simply because the status quo really beniftted their business. The stop to the market was quick, just to get hay for Appa so we could continue to fly towards the Earth Kingdom Palace, and finally finish up the final delegations. So when we arrived at the Palace the first thing we did was sign the documents and agreements on our course of action when dealing with the Red Lotus Society. King Kuei also printed off many sheets of our speeches and pamphlets for us to sign. Which was a lot considering the fact that we need to spread out the speeches across each ring of Ba Sing Se and take back half of them to the Fire Nation. Not to mention that neither Sokka or I brought up the fight that happened last night. It had to be addressed, unfortunately. I know that I should forgive Sokka, and I'm planning to, however it's just not that easy and I haven't really had any time to discuss what happened with him. Sokka is my best friend, he's basically my brother! And I know that Katara would hate to see this rift between us. But I am not ready to discuss it with Sokka at the moment, he killed someone! Sure his intentions were pure, but I can't just gloss over murder. Even if I wanted to discuss what occurred last night, I haven't had the chance yet. He's been clinging to Zuko's side the entire time, they were never alone and almost never physically separated from each other. Even right now! I glanced underneath the table and sure enough they were holding hands. Sokka shot Zuko an anxious look and I knew that he was going to bring up Xuza's death. "Wait, before the Avatar, Earth King, and Fire Lord declare their speeches to the globe there's one more thing that needs to be addressed. Last night Avatar Aang and I sent a letter out to my sister and Toph, but we knew that the letters being sent to the city weren't reaching your citizens, evidence with Fire Lord's Zuko's letter addressed to General Iroh. The Avatar and I decided to follow the messenger hawk and unsurprisingly the message was intercepted from the Red Lotus. We managed to intercept the hideout, however we couldn't obtain any useful information before being caught. The Red Lotus located us and a major fight broke out. Eventually we managed to relocate above ground where Fire Lord Zuko and General Iroh found us. Unfortunately during the fight I had no choice but to kill Red Lotus member Xuza and we also found out that Fire Nation criminal Lee escaped prison sometime either last night or the day before and joined the Red Lotus Society." Earth King Kuei looked shocked and almost had a satisfied grin on his face, which was odd. "Well that's a lot of information to process," He replied. I glanced over at Zuko who was just staring straight at Sokka with so much care. It made my heart ache, "It's very alarming that the Red Lotus managed to infiltrate our mail system, but at least both yourself and Avatar Aang are alright." I just nodded, thankful that those were the words he used. "So King Kuei, how are the reprimands going along?" Iroh asked. "We just finished signing all of the paperwork between here and the Fire Nation, as well as we sent out the document with our signatures to both the Northern and Southern Watertribes. But on second thought we should send out another two copies with Fire Lord Zuko and Ambassador Sokka due to the non-reliable mail functions occurring. Last night I formally declared anyone who associates with the Red Lotus enemies of the Kingdom as well as I doubled the amount of Dai Lee Agents and military spies lurking around the city." "That's excellent your Majesty. Once I reach the Fire Nation I will gather the Yuyan Archers and repeat the speeches being given today. And I do agree with your decision of giving Ambassador Sokka and I physical copies of the agreements just in case they don't reach the Watertribes." Zuko agreed. We then went back to finishing signing the last documents and speeches, and hopefully it will be enough.