Avatar the Last Airbender - Book 4: Air (The Master of the Lion Turtles)

Chapter Eight: A Past in the Sky

ZUKO POV

Watching Aang burst into tears for what seemed like the fourteenth time that day was almost too much for Zuko. So, when Sokka tackled him in a hug, he felt his eyes prick. Sokka had been awkwardly standing close by since Aang woke up but the two hadn't spoken since before the fight. Sokka ran his fingers through Zuko's long hair, almost trying to make sure he was real.

"I thought," he sniffed into Zuko's shoulder, "I thought I had lost you. I can't...I can't loose anyone else. Please." Zuko's back stiffened. His gripped Sokka as tightly as he could, spreading his blood all over the other's back but he didn't care. He hadn't really stopped to realize that he almost died. Well, he didn't, but it would have looked that way. He stroked Sokka's back.

"She caught me," he whispered into Sokka's hair, "She didn't want to harm me." Sokka sniffed and lent back slightly. He gave Zuko a questioning look, tear lines streaking through the dirt on his face. "When I was falling, I kept grappling for my sword to catch myself but then I just stopped. I was just levitating half way down the cliff. It was like I was on cloud, just sitting on thin air. So, I just leapt, grabbed the rock and climbed back up here." He brought one of his hands round between them to show Sokka the red, raw skin. Sokka lightly brushed his fingers over Zuko's palms, cooling them slightly. "I had no idea who she was or what she could do, but you were all in danger. Even a 200-foot drop couldn't stop me from helping my family." Sokka rested both his hands on Zuko's and smiled. 

"I'm just glad you're okay. I don't know what we'd do without our Hot-man," he said, winking. Zuko felt heat rising up in his face. He coughed to cover his blush and noticed something heavy in his hand. He opened his palm and surveyed the headpiece resting there. He looked back up at Sokka, shocked. His cheeky grin had returned; he waved the matching pin in his hand. Zuko smiled softly.

"You mind holding on to it for me? Until we get back to base. I'm kinda enjoying how light my head feels." Sokka frowned slightly, but slid the crown into his pouch all the same. Zuko let his eyes run over Sokka's face, his strong jaw and the clean cut of his hairline against his face. He admired the smile lines forming around his eyes and light dusting of freckles across his nose and lips. He watched the loose stands of hair dance across his face in the light breeze and felt himself drowning in those blue eyes. Zuko thought he would have been sick of water, what with all those banishment years stuck on the sea, but he couldn't stop staring into those ocean's that surrounded Sokka's pupils. 

He'd drown a million times over if that was what it took for Sokka to look at him with those blue eyes the way Zuko wished he did. 

He was pulled from the sea by Toph's voice.

"So, I'll bite. We all know Aang is only here because he was frozen for a hundred years in an ice berg. So how, in the name off all the Spirits, are you here? Or even alive?" Her voice was calm, unlike Katara's face. Katara was standing a few feet behind Aang and Nalo, stiff as a board, her arms crossed and eyes bulging. She was being so obvious that even Zuko could tell what was up. Though maybe that was the point. 

Nalo either didn't notice Katara, or ignored her. She kept one arm wrapped around Aang whilst she spoke, "When I jumped I just felt as if I left my body. I thought I was dying, that that was what dying felt like. When I woke up, I was lying in the middle of a forest, surrounded by trees all a mile high. So I climbed one." She seemed to register Katara now because she slid her hand off of Aang's back. "I was stranded on an island, in the middle of the sky, surrounded by clouds and stars. I had heard stories, growing up, about the original benders...but this was something else..." Toph frowned.

"Original like the Badger-moles and Dragons?" Nalo shook her head. Zuko racked his brain. Something older than the original benders...no...there was no way.