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"You’ve never seen rain before?"
Zuko stared at Sokka incredulously, gaping.
Sokka blinked back at him, clearly surprised by the violent reaction his admission had gotten.
“Aside from the storm I just told you about, no, I haven’t. I live in the South Pole, Zuko. Everything’s frozen down here.”
“But it’s rain,” Zuko said, waving his hands, trying to communicate to Sokka what exactly he was talking about. “You’re from the Water Tribe!”
Sokka lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.
“What’s the big deal? It’s just melted snow. So what?”
This wasn’t going to fly. Despite being a firebender, Zuko had always found water incredibly soothing. The smell right before it rained, the grey clouds, the pitter-patter of a light drizzle. Iroh nearby, a kettle of tea brewing. He’d always loved rainy days.
“Come on,” Zuko said suddenly, grabbing Sokka’s wrist and dragging him out of their shared home in the Southern Water Tribe village.
Zuko had taken a break from his Fire Lord duties to help with the rebuilding effort, and progress was fast with all of the new waterbenders that had come down from the north. Unfortunately, that left Sokka and Katara with a lot more people to take care of than they’d anticipated, so rebuilding was still taking a considerable effort from the two siblings.
Zuko liked to think he helped them, or at least one of them, relax a bit from time to time.
“Wha-- hey! Where’re we going?” Sokka asked, trying to snatch his sword on the way out of their igloo but missing.
He sounded annoyed, yet he let himself be tugged along through the quiet village with no resistance. Sokka probably wasn’t even doing it consciously, but he’d long since given up the pretense of not being madly in love with Zuko to the point that he would do anything for him.
And Zuko loved using that to his advantage.
“Do you trust me, Sokka?” he asked, turning to hold both of Sokka’s hands in his own as he continued to walk backwards through the snow while facing his boyfriend.
“Of course,” came the immediate response, and Zuko’s heart fluttered when there wasn’t a second of hesitation, not a hint of doubt on Sokka’s face.
A lot could change in a few years. He stopped walking then, leaning in to peck Sokka on the forehead.
“What was that for, jerkbender?”
Zuko beamed, the smile pulling at the scarred flesh on the left side of his face. He’d learned to appreciate the sensation -- it meant he was happy. And the more time he spent with Sokka, the more often it happened.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered, and like magic, Sokka’s eyes slipped shut.
He was beautiful, of course.
Zuko was supposed to be leading Sokka somewhere, but he was momentarily distracted by the sheer perfection of the Water Tribe warrior’s face, relaxed and happy. Snowflakes danced around him, some landing on his wonderfully long eyelashes.
Zuko reached forward, tracing Sokka’s cheeks with featherlight touches and marveling at how this beautiful boy loved him. He had no doubts about it, Sokka had made sure of that, and it made Zuko’s heart full to the point of bursting just thinking about it. Just knowing that he would get to spend the rest of his life with this man.
And that Sokka wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
Zuko leaned forward to capture his lips, wondering why they didn’t do this all the time.
“If you wanted to make out, you could’ve just--”
“It’s not what I wanted,” Zuko said, and then he cringed when Sokka’s eyes flew open, a telltale mischievous twinkle in them.
“It’s not? But I thought we were dating? We’ve kissed before...” Sokka purred, reaching forward and batting his ocean blue eyes.
Zuko blushed, stepping back and slapping Sokka’s wandering hands away.
“That’s not what I meant, Sokka. I just meant that I hadn’t planned on kissing you right then, but I got a little… distracted,” he said, delighting in the blush that bloomed on Sokka’s cheeks. How the tables have turned. “Come on, close your eyes again. Promise I won’t kiss you this time, babe.”
Sokka laughed as his eyes slid shut once more, his hands instinctively searching for Zuko’s. Their fingers curled together perfectly, and it felt like they’d always been meant to hold hands.
“Babe? That’s a new one.”
“It’s better than Water Tribe peasant.”
“Whatever you say, sifu hotman.”
Zuko just grinned like an idiot, pulling Sokka’s hand again and carefully leading him farther away from the village, making sure to avoid any obstacles so that Sokka wouldn’t trip on something.
“We’re almost there.”
“Where’s there?”
“You’ll see in a second. Now stand right here and keep your eyes closed.”
“Roger that!” Sokka answered, sporting a goofy smile that only made an appearance when they were hanging out like this, outside of Fire Nation business and ambassador meetings.
It was dark out, probably a few hours past when they normally went to bed. But he’d been having trouble sleeping, so Sokka had been telling him stories to help him fall asleep. That's how they ended up here, because Sokka’s only experience with rain had apparently been nearly drowning in a violent storm.
This was either going to backfire spectacularly or be really fucking cool.
When Zuko had first visited the South Pole a long time ago, before he had found himself and his family, he had hated the snow. It was cold and it melted and got everything wet. Snow made it difficult to see, and it had ultimately foiled his attempt to capture the Avatar.
But now that he was back, looking at the South Pole from an entirely different perspective, he found that he admired the beauty to be found in the frozen ice all around him. The way some snow was a pleasing matte white while some was glossy and reflected his own face back at him, twisted and warped. Not in a morbid way, like he had used to think, but in a funny way.
At least that’s what Sokka always says when he’s laughing at Zuko’s distorted face. And as far as Zuko’s concerned, Sokka’s sense of humor is impeccable.
Zuko allowed his own eyes to slip shut, just like Sokka’s, and then he focused. He focused on the coldness around him, the flurry of snowflakes that were a constant of the poles. Then he focused on the heated breath in his lungs, the fire in his veins. He reached out with his senses, creating a bubble around him and Sokka that was imperceptibly warmer than the surrounding tundra.
But warm enough.
The snowflakes melted, falling down in fat droplets of lukewarm water, and he heard Sokka gasp.
“Can I open my eyes yet, hot stuff?”
Zuko rolled his eyes at the nickname, opening his own eyes so he would be able to take in Sokka’s expression. Artificial rain fell all around them, splashing into the slurry of melted snow they were now standing in. A slight miscalculation.
“Okay, open them.”
Sokka’s eyes cracked open, and for a moment the world stopped spinning, Zuko was sure of it.
He was staring into two wide, bright blue eyes. And those eyes were darting all around, Sokka’s hands extending upward as he reached for the rain. Zuko struggled to maintain the heat bubble around them, to make sure it kept raining.
They were both thoroughly soaked now, standing in their own personal rain bubble in the middle of the night, the only light coming from the moon. Sokka spun in a slow circle, taking it all in before he finally turned back to Zuko.
And then a blinding grin erupted on his face.
“You made it rain for me.”
Zuko just smiled, taking one of Sokka’s gloved hands and twirling him in a circle. He knew he didn’t need to answer out loud, that Sokka already knew what he’d say. But he said it anyway, because he desperately needed an outlet for all of the love he felt or he was sure his heart would explode.
“I would do anything for you.”
Sokka’s grin never faltered, not even as he stepped away from Zuko, putting his hands together in front of him and bowing while raising an eyebrow in challenge. Zuko returned the bow, a similar grin appearing on his own face.
He hadn’t danced in so long, surely not since he was little and practicing with Mai in the courtyard for his mother. But as he held up a rigidly bent arm and slowly circled his boyfriend nonetheless, the steps came back to him with ease.
They didn’t need music, just the rhythm of the raindrops plip-plopping all around them, creating a larger and larger puddle that they were now stomping around in like idiots.
Zuko laughed, a full-bellied laugh, when they broke apart for the traditional firebending part of the dance. While Zuko moved fluidly, body transitioning between firebending forms long-ingrained in his memory, Sokka wiggled around like a madman, doing a piss-poor imitation of firebending, sound effects and all.
“Bam! Fireball! Pachoo, pachoo!”
They danced in circles around each other for what seemed like an eternity, giggling like schoolboys and splashing each other with the frigid water at their feet. Zuko could’ve stayed like that forever, could’ve ignored the entire world just to be with Sokka, in this moment. To see the brilliant way his lips curled upward as he shimmied his hips and laughed.
Sokka came up closer to Zuko, rubbing their wet noses together and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“That all you got, Fire Lord?”
“Why can’t you just call me by my name?” Zuko mumbled, blushing at their proximity even as he continued his movements, stepping around Sokka and snatching at the tie in his hair, letting his boyfriend's messy locks tumble out of their wolf-tail.
“Because we both know you prefer this,” Sokka answered, jumping in the air while Zuko grabbed him by the hips, executing a graceful spin that ended with both of them standing chest to chest, soaked through to the bone.
Zuko was breathless. He was so, so in love with Sokka, and for a moment the rain around them ceased, replaced by punishingly cold snowflakes and the chill winds of the South Pole.
Sokka giggled even as he shivered, leaning forward and pressing frozen lips to Zuko’s warm ones, the wet tips of his hair brushing against Zuko’s cheeks. He returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around Sokka’s shoulders and holding him close.
Steam rose off of them as the kiss deepened. They were impossibly close, yet not close enough, and Zuko was desperate for everything Sokka would give him. Desperate to give Sokka everything.
They broke apart for air, and Zuko noted with pride that Sokka’s face was flushed, probably from the kiss, but also from the warmth.
“Wanna go back home?”
Home. He had a home with Sokka.
Zuko smiled for what seemed like the millionth time that night, taking Sokka’s hand in his own once again and leading them back to the village. He could barely feel his feet after dancing in a puddle of freezing water for so long, but it was worth it in the end.
No matter how easy it was to make one of Sokka’s radiant smiles appear, it would never not be worth it.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”