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Zuko hated the snow. With a burning passion, no pun intended.
That much was obvious, he was from the Fire Nation. He was a firebender. Spirits, he almost died last time he was around this much snow. Sure, maybe he was the idiot who didn’t have a proper parka made before he left, but it wasn’t like he had much time to pack or prepare for his sudden trip to the South Pole. It was Katara and Aang who decided to get married with barely enough notice for his ship to cross the water that separated their two nations.
By the time he gets there, the sun is tucked well behind the snow and ice wall that separates the village from the cold water winds. Zuko feels a deep chill set all the way down into his bones as the ship docks.
He only begins to thaw when he is greeted on the ground by everyone. Everyone was exaggerating, but the welcoming committee did include Chieftain Hakoda and his husband, Bato, as well as the soon-to-be newly weds, Katara and Aang. Toph had gotten there before Zuko, the Earth Kingdom closer in distance than the Fire Nation. Suki had come with Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee sending gifts and their regards but deciding to skip the festivities in order to stay with Azula.
(Zuko had gone to see her the day before he left, asking her once more if she was sure she didn’t want to come. She had none too politely told him “it would be weird to go to the wedding of two people I tried to kill, wouldn’t it?”
That was Zuko couldn’t exactly argue with, so he promised that they would take a trip down together in the near future.)
There seemed to be a slight absence of a person between everyone else, and Zuko only seemed to notice once the hugs and greetings were over.
“Where’s Sokka?” He hears himself ask, using the height he got from a growth spurt just shy of his eighteenth birthday to peer over Hakoda’s shoulder.
A laugh rips through the Chieftain, shaking his head slightly. The blue beads (and newly added grey bead) clacked as he did so, “That boy is somewhere on the southside of the wall, supposedly he has something waiting for you there?”
Zuko is glad for the cold for just a moment, because without it he wouldn’t have an excuse for the redness in his cheeks or the warm blood rushing to his head. “Uh- What do you mean?”
“We should start getting ready for dinner. Go look for him,” Katara cuts in, and smiles at him, “It won’t be hard to find that big ego of his, trust me” Even without her brother there, she still had to take the chance to get a jab in. Classic little sister move.
“Don’t be gone for too long, I’ll come looking for you two,” Suki warns. She’s got a calm energy about her that she hasn’t had in a while. Zuko made a mental note to give her more days off.
(Or, more like force her to take the days off she already gets, and refuses to take. You almost die a few times and it’s like you’re made of glass or something.)
Zuko does what he is basically peer pressured into, hugging his robe closer and blowing out a little puff of smoke that mixes with the cold air as he walks. It takes less time than he thought, which is not to say that he didn’t jog a little, wanting to find Sokka and a blanket as quickly as possible.
When Zuko finally finds Sokka, he’s sitting up on a pile of tightly packed snow, head tilted back toward the sky. Toward the moon. The blue-ish glow is lighting up his tanned skin like it was made just for him, catching every angle of his face. Maybe it was made for Sokka, it was Yue up there after all.
Zuko hated to disturb him like this, but his ungloved fingers were starting to cramp up and he didn’t know to what extent Katara had been perfecting her “healing powers” nowadays. Best not to test it out on possible hypothermia.
He clears his throat gently, and instead of startling Sokka like he had expected to, he sees a smile spread across Sokka’s face. His eyes stayed closed for a moment more, his chest rising and falling slowly, taking a visibly deep breath before he looked down at the boy in red.
“Hey, flame lord!” Sokka says, hopping down, sliding a little on the ice below before he trekked the short distance to pull Zuko into a hug.
Zuko hugs back, selfishly keeping him for a moment longer than necessary just for the warmth that radiates off of the water tribe boy. Like he somehow wasn’t affected by the natural elements he was born and raised in. “Alright, get on with it, what did you want to show me?”
“Not even a greeting? You know, you’re on our territory now, Zuko” Sokka laughed. His voice had deepend over the few years since the war, his hair had grown out, shoulders broadened. But his eyes never lost their childish gleam.
“Right, well I don’t think I can get any colder so if you’re gonna sick Katara after me, get it over with,” Zuko smiles, shy but real.
“You know I’d never do that to you!” Sokka feigns exasperation, tugging Zuko’s arm as he starts to walk closer to the stairs that lead up toward the protective wall. “I was out here talking to Yue last night and I realized you’ve never seen the village from up here, not since we rebuild at least.” he explained, as if he needed an explanation to get anyone to go along with him. Sokka could have led the Fire Nation army away from Ozai’s dictatorship himself if he had been given enough time to woo them.
The view was… wow .
Zuko had been back to the Southern Water Tribe lots of times since the end of the war, but being the single ruler of a deeply corrupted and destroyed nation at sixteen meant that his visits were usually for business and fairly short.
Sokka sat them both down on the wall, steadying Zuko so he doesn’t slip or trip on his own robes and fall right off. “I got those fire-less lights I learned about set up around the whole village. It makes night hunting and building much easier. I wrote the last letter I sent you in the middle of the night, inside my tent!”
Zuko was watching Sokka now, instead of the beautiful little ("but growing!") ice city, a smile on his face at the excitement in Sokka’s voice. “Much safer than fire,” he nods.
Sokka hummed in agreement, nudging his shoulder gently into Zuko’s. “I like when you come to visit us here. It can get a bit lonely with Katara and Aang always gone bringing peace to the world, and Hakoda and Bato always in meetings and doing important official things.”
Zuko starts to realize then just how lonely he had been, too. Sure he had his family and friends, but he spent a majority of his days locked away in his meeting rooms or his official office chambers. Endlessly reading scrolls, until he was eventually dragged to bed by a different guard or Kyoshi Warrior every night after he had fallen asleep on some budget reports or what not. There was no one around the Fire Nation that made him feel as welcome as Sokka. There was nowhere that felt as much like home than when he was here, and Zuko knew enough by his big age of twenty to know that it had nothing to do with the seal jerky and the wide open sky free of smog. It had all to do with the people there, specifically the boy- man who had waited out in the cold at night just to show him a pretty view that made Sokka think of Zuko. “I like when I visit too. It’s nice getting to be…” he searches the glittering snowflakes falling sporadically in front of his face for the right word. “Boring.”
(And be near you. Zuko doesn't say that part out loud, not yet anyway. He would, a few days later. When they're sitting by a fire, whispering back and forth while Hakoda talks fondly about him and Kya's wedding over two decades before. The emotion in his voice is enough to draw the words from Zuko's mouth, to Sokka's ear.)
“Got that right,” Sokka shoots back with a laugh, but it’s a kind and breathy laugh, nothing mean spirited or even teasing, like he would have had the conversation felt less serious. They were both aware of the underlying meaning to their words, reading between the lines and through the glances and touches. It was as if they had both been waiting for the next time they were together in person to admit anything, and they still couldn't get the words out. Maybe that was just how Sokka and Zuko worked, maybe that was always how they had worked. “Stay a little longer.” Something in Sokka’s voice had shifted, reminding him nothing of the strong warrior inches to his left. He sounded small, almost as if he was skittish.
Zuko tilts his head back, eyelashes brushing along the tops of his cold-flushed cheeks. He thinks about it, fresh show melting upon contact with his Fire Nation naturally warm skin.
The snow is something Zuko could get used to, the food maybe a little harder but doable. His uncle would be fine holding down the palace for a little longer than previously expected, right? Zuko had figured it out at sixteen, Uncle could manage.
It could be nice here, with a little bit more time. They could do whatever this “ice dodging” thing Sokka always talked so highly of and promised to take him out to do every time he visited, but always ended up not having the free time for. Zuko could talk with Hakoda more candidly about their nations relations, and actually see through with some of their plans first hand. Most importantly, he could spend more time with Sokka.
“Okay,” Zuko turns to look at the beautiful boy at his side with bits of snow in his wolf tail, easily mimicking the contagious, slightly surprised grin staring back at him.
Maybe Zuko didn’t hate the snow. A new kind of burning replaced the warmth in his chest.
-
The snow is deep on the ground.
Always the light falls
Softly down on the hair of my belovèd.
This is a good world.
The war has failed.
God shall not forget us.
Who made the snow waits where love is.
Only a few go mad.
The sky moves in its whiteness
Like the withered hand of an old king.
God shall not forget us.
Who made the sky knows of our love.
The snow is beautiful on the ground.
And always the lights of heaven glow
Softly down on the hair of my belovèd.