Work Text:
The day started when the first sun rays pierced through the room where Fire Lord Zuko and his husband Ambassador Sokka were sleeping peacefully. Zuko had his head on Sokka's chest, one of his arms was loosely around Sokka's waist and the other under him and Sokka had both of his arms around Zuko like he was holding him for a hug.
Feeling the sun, Zuko started waking up, shifting his position on the bed and trying to get out of his lover's hold without waking him up, which didn’t work since Sokka's raspy voice announced the failed plan, "Good morning, Hot Lord."
"Good morning, love", Zuko answered giving Sokka a peck on his lips,"You can stay and sleep a little more, you don't have any meeting until 11."
"Nah, you know I can't sleep without my personal heater. Plus I'm feeling up for a training session with Space Sword"
"That's all I am to you? Your personal space heater?" Zuko asked, trying to sound annoyed but the grin on his face was betraying him.
"That and other perks but I can't spoil all the details because it would lose all the fun of it"
"Oh I see. I imagine that this is one of the perks you were talking about", Zuko said as he laid on top of Sokka and started kissing his neck, his jawline and then his face until their lips finally connected.
"Yep. Definitely one of them.", Sokka said between kisses
Sokka was training for about an hour in the gardens, he liked the fresh air of the morning on his face when he was sparing either alone or with Zuko, when he noticed by the corner of his eyes that like half a dozen guards were surrounding him.
"Seriously guys, you must think I'm an idiot, your suits are a little old-fashioned you know, we don't use the shoulder spikes anymore.", he explained and then charged at one of the bandits that was caught by surprise and was knocked unconscious instantly.
"Well, then we'll bring them back when we kill you and Zuko and Ozai gets back to where he belongs.Too bad you won't be here to see it. For the Ozai resistance!!", one of them, probably the leader, yelled back as he drew his sword and charged against Sokka.
Unfortunately for him, even though Sokka was training for a while he was feeling as fresh as a cabbage so he can say that he was kicking it with pretty much no effort. But then the man made a signal for the other 4 that were watching closely, that's when they escaped the gardens a made their way to the palace corridors, making a turn that lead to Zuko's study, that little distraction was enough for the man slash an open wound on his left hip making Sokka lose a little balance but also giving him a rush of adrenaline that was enough to knock him down. As soon as he could he started sprinting through the hallway following the path of the group, running to Zuko.
On his way, Sokka found Ty Lee talking with another Kioshi warrior, as soon as they saw his blooded shirt the girls became pale and rushed towards him as Ty Lee started “Sokka, what the hell happened? Come we’ll take you to the healers-”
“Ty Lee, sorry, but I don’t have time, I need to get to Zuko, go to the gardens, there’s two of them down there and call Suki and the others to Zuko’s study, this is an assassination attempt to the Fire Lord. GO! NOW! ” Sokka ordered as fast as he could before he started sprinting through the hallway again as the girls started running in the opposite direction.
As soon as Sokka got to the studys front door, he rushed inside but the four assassins must have made a wrong turn because Zuko was deeply focused on the work papers in front of him until Sokka spoke, walking towards Zuko and gently grabbing his elbow for him to get up. “Thank you spirits, you are unharmed, come on, we have to get you out of here.”
“Sokka, what are you doing, what do you mean that I’m “unharmed”, Sokka-”, Zuko was starting to protest when he saw Sokka’s shirt drenched in blood on his left side and stopped their tracks to take a look at it. “Dear Agni, you are hurt, and why you are worrying about me, we need to take you to the healers-”
“Zuko, there’s no time, the assassins must be getting close-”, suddenly the doors bursted open, interrupting Sokka’s line of thought and the four men charged inside.
Although being a little surprised by the sudden attack of the quartet, the couple was fast to hold them up. After a couple of minutes the group splitted as Zuko was fighting two of them that soon enough were dropping unconscious to the floor. Sokka on the other hand was able to make one of them crash easily on the ground but his wound was making him a little slow so when the last man came charging at him, he only got time to duck, falling back but luckily Suki was rushing inside the room and as soon as she saw the bandit stumbling towards her, she gracefully put him down.
Sokka got back on his feet and went to check on Zuko that was looking at the men that were being taken by the Kioshi Warriors and the palace guards but at the moment he took a step, the room started spinning.”Zuko-”, and that’s all he could say before his back hit the hard floor and his vision become black.
Zuko spinned on his heels as soon as he heard Sokka murmuring his name, only to face his lover hitting the floor too hard for his own taste, so Zuko ran to him as fast as he could trying to wake him up, feeling wet tears starting to roll down his face.” Hey sweetheart, wake up, I’m here, Sokka come on, open your eyes for me.” Zuko got no response but he could feel Sokka’s heart beating slowly but steady inside his chest, which made him relax the tiniest bit but it was still something.
Then Suki kneeled beside them with concern written all over her face, but she gathered all her mental strength and looked at Zuko in the eyes. “He’s hurt, we need to get him to the healers where it’s cleaner and safer, come on Zuko, he’s going to be just fine, he is stronger than he looks right now.” Zuko wasn't sure if she was trying to convince him or herself but he nodded and with the help of some other Kioshi Warriors they took Sokka to be taken care of.
Two days had passed since Sokka was treated but he was still lying unconscious on the bed, the healers said this could happen due to amount of blood loss, and Zuko had been resting on the chair right beside it, not wanting him to be alone when he wakes up.
The young Fire Lord getting exhausted, requested Suki to send hawks to Uncle Iroh and the Gaang with the news. They all arrived on Appa that morning, apparently they ran into each other in a supply market and decided that it would be faster if they traveled together.
As soon as they landed, they went straight to the room where Sokka was, Katara being his sister was the first one bursting in,making her way towards the bed “Zuko, how is he?”
Zuko was caught by surprise seeing Katara but also got relieved “Katara? I don’t know, he’s been unconscious for two days and there’s nothing else that the Fire Nation healers are able to do and-”, he was starting to hyperventilate but then he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and he saw the rest of the group and his uncle walking through the doors.
“Then it’s good that a Water Tribe healer is here, let me see what I can do”, Katara said as Zuko got up, giving her all the space necessary and then giving his friends and uncle a welcoming hug while saying "I'm really glad you're all here and I know Sokka will be too"
It was already night time and with Katara healing session there was no doubt that Sokka would make a full recovery and also nobody dared to speak against her capacities so it was given the permission for Sokka to be moved back to his and Zuko's room.
Sokka woke up bathet by darkness but slowly he started to acknowledge his surroundings, the silk sheets, the dim light of the moon piercing through the windows and a sweet murmur coming from the balcony. He was in his and Zuko's room - wait, why was Zuko whispering in the balcony?
When he tried to get up, the slight pain in his side brought it all back to him but as soon as the flashback of the attack ended he was falling to the ground, leaving a loud groan escape from his lips.
Zuko heard some shuffling and rushed back inside only to see an empty bed but then realising Sokka was on the floor"Sokka? Oh spirits-" In a second Zuko was already by his side helping him up"Thank Agni you woke up, I was really, really worried"
"My beauty sleep was completed and I was starting to miss so-"Sokka was starting to say when Zuko cut him off with a desperate kiss and then a light smack on his arm" Ouch, what was that for?"
"Don't you ever do that to me again. Why would you be so reckless...because of me?"Zuko said as tears started to roll down his cheeks.
"Oh, hey sunshine, it's alright, see I'm just fine. Here, sit" Zuko sat beside him, resting his head on his shoulder as Sokka put his arms around him " You know, you call me reckless and yeah you're entirely right but I couldn't stay still knowing that you were about to get hurt, and I would do it again because, call me selfish now but, I'd rather die, than live a life without you in it"
"Sokka. I could call you selfish but I would be hypocrite because I couldn't bear live without you and I refuse to think about a life where you wouldn't be present either to recklessly save my life or to squeeze my hand during stressful meetings or even to hold me during my worst times of the day. So yeah, when you fell to the ground, my heart stopped because I thought yours had stopped too" Zuko admitted between sobs earning a breathtaking kiss from Sokka, in that moment everything was perfect and there was nothing in the world that could step between the love that the two of them share.
When they pulled away, Sokka's curiosity came out and he asked "Who were you talking to? In the balcony?"
"Oh. I was- uh- talking to Yue- uh- you know praying for you to wake up."Zuko answered a little awkwardly knowing he had been caught but Sokka's heart was so full "Well, it actually worked" then he hugged Zuko and looked through the windows to the moon and muted thank you and somehow the moonlight seemed to shine brighter.
Suddenly the doors busted open and soon enough three people were jumping onto the bed carefully hugging Sokka as his sister checked his side and Toph spoke, punching his arm "We heard voices and I saw all the movement, can't believe you weren't going to invite us to the awakening party. How are you snoozles?"
"I'm really good actually. I can't believe you're all here. How much time are you staying? We could schedule some time to spend all together, like old times"
"Actually, I was thinking. We could all go on vacation to Ember Island-" Zuko was starting to say as Aang got excited and started flying around the room "Oh yeah, let's go"
"Well, I guess it's settled then, we leave tomorrow" Katara added, getting excited too.
They stayed talking a bit more, catching up on each other's lives until falling asleep on Zuko and Sokka's massive bed and feeling like the kids they once were.