Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

when his uncle had offered zuko a job at a tea shop, he had laughed a bit. now that he was here, he wished he had declined. it was too loud, the sun streaming in through the windows, making his head throb. he could have survived at his home for a couple more years, but he was here now and there was no going back. the arrangement was that zuko lived with his uncle and helped at the teashop, and his uncle didn’t tell his father. iroh was kind, maybe too kind, and when zuko thought it over (for about twenty minutes) he had finally agreed.

the cafe was nice, yeah. it was warm and always smelled like chai and oolong and pastries. (zuko had caused the pastry scents.) the colours were warm and green and homey, and zuko really did like it. the early mornings were his favourite, when the sun turned the room warm oranges and painted the world gold. where he would walk into the living room and a for was already crackling and his uncle would greet him with a hug and a cup of coffee(zuko wasn’t especially fond of tea, despite working in a tea shop. his uncle had finally agreed to sell coffee after months of begging, and it really had helped business, just like zuko had said it would).

but as soon as the day started, he had about ten minutes to enjoy the peace before customers started streaming in. some of them were regulars, like some girl named toph and an older man named dirai who would play pai sho with his uncle.

“sir, we only sell pumpkin lattes in october,” zuko explained calmly. he was used to annoying customers, but not this early in the morning, it was only eight!

the man at the counter groaned. “but it’s only november, why can’t you just make one?!”

zuko sighed, rolling his eyes. “sir, if you don’t want anything that we have available i’m going to have to ask you to leave. you’re holding up the line,”

“bullshit!” the man said, throwing his arms in the air. a puff of hot smoke came from his mouth. oh, he’s a firebender. “it’s only november tenth, you can still make the damn drink!”

zuko was so fucking tired.

“ok, sir,” zuko’s uncle, iroh, has come up to the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. “why not come with me? i can find you a drink,”

iroh shot zuko a warm smile which zuko didn’t quite reciprocate. iroh led the man away, and zuko returned to customers.

they came and went, and zuko filtered most of what they said into: order, name, and cup size. the repetitive behaviours were familiar, and he didn’t have to think of what to say, he just whipped out the customer service voice and let his autopilot do the rest. get the cup, mix the drink, boil the water, find the tea, pour, deliver. the familiarity eased his mind, and sometimes it was enough to bring a soft smile to his face. that was rare, though.

“hey, hotman!”

zuko smiled at that. toph has finally shown up, bare feet and all. he had already started preparing her usual when he turned around to say hello.

“toph. how goes it?” he asked, instantly regretting he words.

toph grinned. “oh, y’know. just came from a friends house, thought i’d say hello,” she tugged at her bangs. “so. hello,”

zuko smiled. he needed this, the familiarity of his friends and and the shop and the warmth of the southern earth kingdom.

“hi,” he said simply. he wasn’t sure what else to say, so he opted to go and check on toph’s drink instead.

when he delievered it, he was greeted with an affection (not really, it hurt really bad) punch to the arm.

“you da man, zukes,” she yelled, spinning on her heels to exit the store. “i’ll see you later!”

zuko waved, them remembered that toph was both facing the other direction and blind. he mentally facepalmed at his idiocy.

he served more drinks, tried to avoid conflict. when he was finally dismissed for his lunch break, he went straight to his room. he quietly munched on some fire flakes, scrolling idly through instagram. he liked a couple of his ex-girlfriend mai’s posts, sending her the occasional meme.

it was weird when he first saw it, the drawing. a pencil drawing of some weird type of creature, one with shaggy fur and six legs, like some strange insect. zuko stared. the drawing was really good, way better than anything he could do. the account was named “drawings.mostly”

he scrolled through, careful not to like too many posts. he came across a photo of someone who he assumed was the artist. a profile shot showing their new fade, with an intricate design of the moon shaved into it. the guys eyes were shut, and a smile rested on his face. the caption was simply a blue heart.

zuko followed the account without thinking.

when zuko closed the shop that night, he watched the snow fall. it was only early november, but it wasn’t unheard of for snow to fall that early. he watched the flakes fall slowly and gracefully, twirling through the air like it was a ballet. he turned up his the music coming from his earbuds, getting lost in the notes and beat.

sweeping notes and chords, flying through his ears and landing gracefully in his mind.

zuko sweeps and wipes the counters, letting the lyrics smooth over his brain and lessen the lines on his face.

lyrics speaking of experiences he has never had, but they’re so familiar. slow dancing in the rain, stealing kisses in the moonlight, strolling hand in hand, words of love and praise spilling out as though it was effortless.

god, he fucking loved that shop.

—

“sokka, can you please clean your room,”

“i’m older than you,”

this was an old argument, with katara telling sokka to do something (literally anything, usually it was just to get off his ass and be productive) and sokka being a little shit and outright saying no. it was a very consistent routine, and it never failed to amuse sokka, and royally piss off his little baby sister. (she was actually sixteen, but still.)

“sokka,” katara said carefully, clearly trying to not lose her temper. “please just clean your room. i cant even see the floor!”

sokka hummed thoughtfully before replying with a simple “no.”

katara groaned. “fine! but next time you have someone over, don’t blame me when they point it out!” she slammed the door as she left.

sokka rolled his eyes. katara was truly a piece of work, more of a mom than any other moms he knew.

he looked out his window at the falling snow. since moving to the earth kingdom, life had been boring. there wasn’t anything to do in the city, really. only shopping, and that got old after a while. sokka hasn’t left the house much, due to the fact that outside was just as boring as inside. he wished toph was still there. she had slept over with katara, and left an hour before, saying something about going to see a friend.

everything was different.

but at least the snow was the same. soft white flakes falling gently, landing on the ground and disappearing after a couple seconds. the frost on the grass was going to build up to snow, which was going to go rice, then it was going to melt. it was the one constant that could ground sokka in this godforsaken city. he had just turned eighteen, and he was being pressured by No One In Particular (katara) to go to college. he didnt know what for, though. he liked math, and engineering, and art, and he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to go to college.

sokka’s phone rang.

he picked it up quickly upon seeing who was calling.

“suki!” he said, his tone excited. “what’s up?”

suki laughed a little. “sokka, hey,” she said. “i just wanted to tell you that i’m coming up for a visit and that you have absolutely no say,”

“good, i was going to let you anyway,” he said, a laugh bubbling up through his throat. “where are you right now?”

“i’m at home. how about you?”

“i’m in my room. it’s snowing here,”

suki hummed.

they chatted about everything that came to mind, conversation flowing easily between them. when they finally hung up, sokka had felt his eyes starting to droop. he fought it, but finally let his eyes slip closed. on the brink of consciousness he heard a sigh and felt a blanket being draped across his shoulders. when he rolled over on his bed, he was no longer awake.

until he was woken up at about 3 in the morning by one toph beifong.

“oi, snoozles!” she yelled in his ear.

sokka groaned. “what the fuck, toph?” his said, his voice gravelly from sleep.

toph giggled. “sorry. i’m just bored, and i found a good spot for a photo shoot!”

sokka threw a pillow over his head. toph often did this, usually to him. she would go to someone’s house and wake them up to do something (probably something dangerous and incredibly stupid) in the middle of the night.

“gimme a minute,” sokka said. “i’ll be dressed in five,”

true to his word, six minutes later sokka was dressed in a plain blue hoodie and jeans and his hair is tied back. he was allowed to be lazy, it was three in the goddamn morning. he trudged downstairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. he found toph outside on the front porch.

“god, what took you so long?” she said.

sokka scoffed. “it took me exactly five minutes to get ready, just like i said,” he flicked her head lightly. “so you can shut your face,”

toph tapped her chin. “no, i don’t think i will,”

sokka followed toph down several streets, passing shops among shops among shops. nothing was really interesting, so it would be cool to see what toph has thought was so amazing that it warranted a three am photo shoot.

they finally stopped at a construction site, closed off by a chain link fence.

a metal chain link fence.

“please don’t tell me we’re breaking in,” sokka says. he already knew the answer, he just really hoped he was wrong.

but judging by toph’s mischievous grin, he was horribly, horribly right. he sighed, turning on his camera. well, katara’s camera.

“ok, let’s do this quickly,”

Chapter Text

the photos were posted very early in the morning.

a girl with jet black hair tied in a loose bun, sitting with her legs up on a giant concrete tube. the sky dark and the images blurry, streetlights barely visible in the inky background. the next picture was one of a boy, the same boy from before. he was on a big vehicle, laughing at something the girl must have said. the shot was even blurrier, and looked as though it was taken haphazardly. at random, almost.

zuko liked it, smiling a little at the caption.

“please don’t tell my sister.”

“zuko!” his uncle calls. “someone’s at the counter for you!”

zuko groans, dragging himself from the couch. of course on his day off toph has to come expecting him to be there. when he sees her, he also sees someone else. someone who he almost instantly recognizes.

the guy from the instagram page.

there’s no doubt about it. he had the same caramel skin, the same calm smile and the same moon design etched into his hair. zuko swallowed before walking up to the pair.

“hey, hotman!” toph says, punching his arm. “i knew you couldn’t resist seeing me,”

“did i have a choice?” zuko asks.

“fair point, fair point,”

the instagram boy looked around. “toph, why are we here?” he asked.

toph motioned to zuko’s general direction. “to see a friend, i already told you!” she says, exasperated. “zuko, this is sokka. he’s new to he city and almost never leaves the house. sokka, this is zuko. he serves tea and is really shit at conversation,”

zuko spluttered for a comeback, earning a light chuckle from the instagram boy. sokka.

“nice to meet you, i guess,” sokka said. “is that it, toph? did you seriously just bring me here to meet this guy?”

toph rolled her eyes. “we’re getting drinks, dumbass,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which... yeah.

sokka nodded slowly. “gotcha. well what are we getting?”

toph looked expectantly at zuko. “yeah, hotman. what are we getting?”

zuko rolled his eyes and finished off toph’s drink. “i know what you’re getting. what does uh...” oh god, had he already forgotten the instagram boys name? “what does your friend want?” zuko cringed.

“is there a... list of things i can get?” sokka asked.

“a... menu?”

“yes, that,”

zuko pointed above his head to the three whiteboards displaying their variety of options. he watched as sokka’s face turned slightly red out of what he was assuming was embarrassment.

“uh...” sokka scanned the boards, subtly looking to toph for assistance before remembering that she can’t see the board. “can i have, um... a medium caramel mocha with... whipped cream? i don’t know,”

zuko nodded, his customer service voice taking over to say “coming right up,” he whipped it up as fast as possible, taking another order before handing it to sokka.

sokka nodded at him, following toph to a table by the windows.

back to work.

mix the drinks, firebend when the customer is impatient, make sure the cookies don’t burn, keep uncle on task. take tips. cash it all in, 3.45 for a cookie plus the amount for the tea, 7.90 in total.

(they really needed to up the prices if they wanted to stay in business. iroh thought that was ridiculous, as “tea is for everyone, so everyone should get to enjoy it.”)

wash hands, mix ingredients, put them in the oven (firebending in the kitchen usually ended up in... well... fire.) and go back to the counter.

repeat.

repeat.

repeat.

again, do that last calculation again.

(god, he hated math.)

call mai.

say goodbye to toph.

...and her friend. (how did zuko forget his name again?!)

repeat.

(save for the last two, of course.)

take last orders, flip over the closed sign.

clean up shop. wipe counters, sweep floor, etcetera.

check the daily income, set some aside for taxes.

play pai sho with iroh.

sleep.

repeat.

—

“c’mon, give me a two...” sokka rolled the die, watching as it pathetically landed on a one. he groaned loudly, ignoring toph’s loud laughter.

katara snickered. “nice one, mr. i-never-lose.” she said, poking his cheek before swiping the die away from him.

“listen,” sokka pointed a finger in her face, trying to make himself look angry despite the urge to laugh along with them. “i am doing my best here, and i find it very rude that you are slandering me in my own damn home!” he moved his game piece as he spoke, never breaking eye contact with his sister.

katara laughed at that, which finally cracked sokka’s resolve to keep up the act.

katara was winning.

aang went next, passing katara. (earning some laughter and teasing from both toph and sokka)

“guys, i think we should be quieter,” aang said softly. “your dad and bato are trying to sleep, yeah?”

sokka shrugged. “meh, they’re probably awake,” he leaned back on his elbows staring at the white popcorn ceiling, letting the patterns pass over his eyes. “i had to inherit my shit sleep schedule from somewhere.”

toph snorted. “either that or you just have a shit schedule in general.”

“sokka doesn’t have a schedule,” katara pointed out. “he just sleeps all day and then plays videogames.”

“they are very smart videogames!” sokka said defensively, his voice raising half an octave higher.

“oh, really? like what?”

“like... strategy games and shit, i dunno!” sokka crosses his arms.

aang groaned. “can we please get back to the game? i’m about to win!”

toph shook her head. “oh, you naïve boy. i am so close to winning, you don’t even know,”

“sure you are, rockhead.”

“ooh, sick burn!”

“it’s a better nickname than ‘sugar queen’!”

“wrong. false, wrong, incorrect. and also rude,”

sokka closed his eyes, listening to his friends, the imprint of the ceilings patterns glazing over his brain, as if his eyes were still open and watching. he liked evenings like this, where they were all awake and the room was dim, and their banter flowed easily. like water, constantly changing and flowing through the cracks, letting everyone finally relax. he smiled to himself.

“sokka!” his sisters voice cut through his mini-nap. “it’s your turn,”

sokka groaned. “fine, i suppose i’ll come back to win and embarrass you all,”

“pfft, come back?”

“just don’t question it,” katara patted aang’s shoulder fondly.

aang smiled, kissing katara’s cheek softly.

sokka pretended to throw up. “oogies! you two are so gross,”

toph nodded eagerly.

katara’s protests ended up waking up their dad and bato, but it was fun. sokka really did love his friends, even though they were... y’know. like that.