Chapter Text
Some days Zuko regretted leasing that gloomy, black-painted house with Mai. But it was too good of a deal for the two friends who just graduated college that were desperate to get out of their homes and branch out on their own for once. Plus it was in the woods with only one other house in sight, and both of them valued their privacy above all else.
He especially regretted it when he found out the people next door ran some sort of witchcraft-style healing center and yoga retreat.
He especially especially doesn’t like that the locals call them witches and assume he’s the witch, instead of the chipper boy next door, who —according to all the people that passed through here— was the best “metaphysical healer” in the area... whatever that means.
One thing that was weird about Aang (besides the obvious) was that he apparently had an outrageously impressive track record. So either the kid was actually a psychic healer or whatever he’s called, or he’s a master of manipulation.
And well, he’s met Aang — the guy once cried when Zuko told him that he and Mai had lost their cat. Aang doesn’t come across like the type to be wary of. Strangely enough, Aang had found the cat himself ten minutes after Zuko had come by his house, which led Zuko to believe that Aang just might, maybe, possibly, have some sort of weird witch abilities. But still, ever the doubtful one, he wanted Aang to keep all that business far from him — in his own house, to be exact.
That didn’t stop Aang from always trying to strike up a conversation though. Seriously, why did Zuko put all that effort into his style and generally unpleasant disposition to look unapproachable if the kindest, friendliest person in the world is still going to talk to him?
Also, Aang had a roommate that was constantly doing yoga and stretches on the lawn — that in of itself isn’t terrible, his problem was that Mai was absolutely besotted with the girl. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say Mai had fallen in love with Ty Lee with just a glance. But that would be absurd, Mai is much more logical than that. Still, it didn’t stop her from always humoring Ty Lee when she came by, or going out to meet her at the flowerbeds that separated their front yards, or attending Ty Lee’s yoga classes every time Ty Lee offered a free session.
Zuko was convinced Ty Lee and Mai should just suck it up and date already. They were infatuated with each other, and honestly, he was getting tired of their little song and dance where neither of them wanted to make the first move.
Zuko was disturbed from his thoughts when he heard a soft knocking at the front door. He groaned as he got off the couch, then opened the door with a scowl. “What?”
Two teenage girls stood there, staring at him. “Oh yeah, we’re in the right place,” the first one declared.
“Um,” the second one began. “We’re looking for the witch—”
“He’s not a witch,” the first girl scoffed. “Um, we have a soulmate reading with the psychic? Are you him?”
Not again. “Aang lives next door,” he sighed, pointing to the pastel pink house right down the road.
The man in question was outside wearing a sunhat while watering the rose bushes that he and Ty Lee so meticulously maintained. He looked up when he heard his name, and he waved enthusiastically as he walked over to Zuko’s house. “Hi! Hello! You’re Song and Jin, yes?”
“See, he is psychic!” One of them gasped.
Aang’s infectious laugh filled the air. “Actually, you gave me your names when you made your appointment, but I appreciate the confidence.” He gestured for the girls to follow him back to his house, before calling over his shoulder, “Thanks, Zuko! You’re the best receptionist ever!”
“Stop calling me that!” Zuko shouted back. It was, unfortunately, correct in a way. Aang and Ty Lee’s clients always seemed to come to Zuko and Mai’s house first. Zuko was about one more visit away from buying a sign with a giant arrow that points towards Aang’s house that reads THE WITCH IS THAT WAY.
He closed the door firmly behind him, making sure to slam it a little bit to make sure Aang heard. From the giggle that travel across the yard, he had. Zuko flopped back down on the couch, turning on the TV. He rolled his eyes. Soulmate reading, he thought bitterly. Give me a break.
No matter how ridiculous it sounded, he knew there was a reason Aang was so popular and it was because of his accuracy. Apparently, he was well known for his ability to do some weird psychic reading, and it would show him the soulmate of the person in front of him. He would then draw the face he saw with astounding likeness —even if the kid somehow had tricked all these people into thinking he was psychic, he was still a talented artist— and then some additional information, including a general time of when you would meet them. He was normally right on the mark, with a few weeks margin for error.
Zuko had to admit, he was a little curious. Even if it’s all fake, he still kind of wanted to experience it. His pride would never allow him to ask for one though, it would be like admitting there was some merit to the existence of soulmates. Believing in soulmates was childish, he knew. But still, he couldn’t help but think how incredible it would be if it was real.
Which is what led him to Aang’s door. Not because he had sought him out, but by fate’s hand.
He knocked on the door hesitantly, a small parcel held in the other hand. When the door opened, Ty Lee stood on the other side and she grinned at him so brightly that it could rival the sun. “Zuko! So good to see you!”
“Hi, Ty Lee,” he answered weakly. “Um, one of Aang’s packages was delivered to our house by mistake, figured I should bring it over.”
“Thanks, I know he’ll appreciate it!” She took the parcel, then said, “Do you want to come in?”
“Uh...” He did, actually. He didn’t want to tell her that though. “I’m sure you’re busy with clients—”
“Nope!” Ty Lee chirped. “I’m done for the day, Aang’s in his last appointment, he should be out soon. It’d give us just enough time to serve the tea.”
Zuko was beginning to sense that Ty Lee didn’t plan to take no as an answer to her tea invitation. “Yeah. That sounds... nice.”
She squealed and pulled him in by the hand, closing the door behind him. The first thing he noticed upon entering the house was how warm and inviting it was; the second was the smell, like fresh cranberries and lavender incense. The walls of the home were adorned with plenty of tapestries, crystals taking rest upon nearly every surface he could see, and there was a collection of fancy Tibetan bowls near a pyramid of rolled-up yoga mats in the next room over.
Ty Lee sat him down at a low table in what appeared to be their main room that had been turned into a meditation center, and told him to wait while she made the tea. Zuko stared at the different books on the table, and they appeared to mostly be self-help books in nature, the titles reading The Starseed Monologues and Embracing Your Shadow Self — Zuko hadn’t a clue what either of those things meant, but they were interesting enough for him to warrant reading the back of them to see what they were about.
When Ty Lee came bounding back into the room with a kettle and three teacups, three bags of tea already in them, Zuko flipped the books back over quickly, pretending he hadn’t been looking. If Ty Lee noticed, she didn’t say anything.
Just as she started to pour the tea, Aang came out of an adjoined room, leading an old woman out as she held onto his arm. The woman was smiling at him widely. “Thank you, young man,” she said to him. “It just does my heart good to know my Edgar is resting easy.”
“Of course he is,” Aang confirmed gently. “It was a pleasure to do this for you.” When the woman left, Aang turned back to Zuko and Ty Lee, grinning, his seriousness completely replaced by his normal cheerful attitude. “Zuko, hi! What brings you over here for the first time?”
“Some of your crystals got delivered to their house,” Ty Lee responded, taking a sip of her tea. “Are you going to join us?”
It was quiet as Aang hummed, preparing himself a cup of tea. He took a single sip. “This is green tea?” When Ty Lee nodded, he added, “Where from? It’s really good.”
Ty Lee smirked. “Actually, Mai recommended it. I got it from the tea shop Zuko’s uncle owns. He only recently started making bags of tea and coffee to sell for people to make the drinks at home, but it’s still his recipes and it’s incredible.”
“It is! Give him my best for me, will you?”
Zuko nodded noncommittally, before he cleared his throat, hesitantly asking, “So what was that lady talking about?”
“I can’t tell you that,” Aang answered apologetically. “Client confidentiality, I won’t break their trust.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Zuko quickly replied. “My mistake.” He was silent for a beat, before saying, “But, uh... those girls the other day... they told me something about a soulmate reading? What is that?”
“A lot of young people come in to ask about their soulmates,” Aang told him with a small smile. “Everyone wants to find true love and when you’re young, it’s all the easier to find them. You can travel without attachments if they aren’t in your area and you have time to look for them wherever life takes you next.”
“You say ‘young people’ as if you aren’t young. What are you, like nineteen? Twenty?”
“My body is twenty-one, but my soul is infinite,” Aang tutted.
Zuko snorted into his cup of tea. “Sure.”
Aang made a face, then said, “Why do you bring it up? Do you want a reading?”
“What?” Zuko asked. “I-I don’t know, like what would I even do with that information — I probably don’t even have one.”
Ty Lee gasped. “No, of course you do!” She cried, reaching across the table to grab Zuko’s hand. “Everyone has multiple soulmates; platonic, romantic, familial, anything. Trust me, Zuko, you’ve got soulmates.”
“I doubt I’d be able to find a romantic soulmate in this lifetime,” Zuko said softly. “With...” He gestured uselessly to his face. He knew the scar was ugly. He’d known it was an eyesore from the first day he had seen it, and no matter what any of his friends say, he knows it’s hard to ignore.
“Soulmates don’t care about that type of stuff, Zuko,” replied Aang in a stern voice that allowed no arguments. “If you meet someone with that connection to you, they don’t care what you look like — none of that superficial stuff matters. That’s the point of soulmates. It’s unconditional love.” He paused. “Don’t you think Mai loves you unconditionally?”
“She’s my best friend, always has been,” Zuko responded easily, tapping his fingers absentmindedly on the table. “She’s... the closest thing to family I have, other than my uncle.”
“You don’t think there’s a chance she could be a soulmate?” Ty Lee continued, “Familial or platonic?”
Zuko froze at her words. He tried to think of any time Mai had chosen someone over him — any time that Mai hadn’t stuck up for him in school, hadn’t fought with and for him — any time that Mai hadn’t been there for him, every second he struggled, every time he fell down — he couldn’t think of one, not a single time.
“I... I guess she is,” he finally said with reverence.
“See? You’ve got soulmates, we all do,” Aang told him happily. “I mean, if you want me to do a reading for one of your romantic soulmates, I can. Pro bono.”
“What? No, this is your work, I couldn’t take advantage of you like that.”
“Think of it like a gift then, from a friend who just wants to help another friend.”
Zuko swallowed thickly. Should he actually accept? Surely there wasn’t any truth to the matter, surely it would just be some random portrait — but Aang didn’t seem like he would lie to him like this. After all, he’s offering to do the reading for free, what could he gain by lying? They definitely believe in all this... why shouldn’t he?
“I — yeah. Okay. As long as you don’t mind—”
Zuko didn’t even have time to finish the thought before Aang cheered and grabbed Zuko by the wrist to make him stand, and all but dragged him into the room he had just come out of not even twenty minutes ago.
The door closed firmly behind them, Ty Lee shouting a giggly “Good luck!”
Aang lit some incense and candles, before putting on some calming music that resembled chanting. A few small lamps that resembled lanterns shined lowly in the corners of the room. Aang cleared his throat as he sat down on the cushion on the floor, a sketchbook and pencil beside him, which he pulled into his lap. “Take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the cushion across from him.
Zuko followed his direction. He never saw Aang this direct unless he was talking about work — it was strange to someone normally so bubbly, now so composed.
“First, we start off with a meditation,” Aang began. “That’s how I get to the place where I can see things — astral realm and all that, it's hard to explain. Once I get there, I’ll look for your romantic soulmates. Soulmates can be with you for an indiscernible amount of time; some people meet a soulmate and their relationship lasts forever, leads to marriage, kids, but not every soulmate can be a winner in every life. So, I’ll be looking for your longest lasting soulmate. That make sense?”
Zuko just nodded. He didn’t think he would be able to find his voice to respond, even if he did know what to say. What if his longest lasting soulmate would only be for weeks, months, before they tired of him? He was afraid of the answer, but now that he was here — he had to know.
“Great. Let’s start then.”
Aang closed his eyes and took deep breaths. Zuko did his best to match it, trying to keep his heart from beating out of his chest with nerves. He couldn’t keep his eyes closed, he really needed to see how Aang does what he does.
It could have been minutes or hours, Zuko couldn’t tell, but eventually Aang began moving the pencil across the sketchbook in his lap. His eyes were still closed, a little smile sliding across his lips. He let loose a single laugh, "Huh."
“What?” Zuko demanded, clearly on edge.
Aang smiled as the pencil moved deftly and quickly across the page. “Nothing. It’s just... I know this face. Very well, actually. He’s a good friend of mine.”
Not for the first time that day, Zuko stiffened at something that had been revealed. “He” Aang had said.
Zuko never told Aang he was gay, not once. And he wasn’t really out and proud about it, so there’s really no way Aang could have known that, unless of course Mai had said something, but she would never dream of it — there was no way he could know that Zuko’s romantic soulmate had to be a man. Unless...
He decided to stop thinking about it, instead choosing to focus on the way Aang’s hands flew across the page. He couldn’t really see the face he was drawing in the low light from this angle, and Aang looked so focused on his task at hand, Zuko didn’t dare interrupt him.
“Hm,” Aang mused. “I don’t know this other guy, but he keeps popping up as I’m going around.”
“Wait, another soulmate?”
“He was a romantic soulmate, but he wasn’t ready for you,” Aang said, shaking his head. “He isn’t your long lasting one; in fact, your relationship with him has already come and gone. His purpose in your life was to teach you a lesson or to help you learn something about yourself. Does that sound familiar?”
“Yeah, it does.” Zuko let out a disbelieving breath. He somehow knew that Aang had wandered upon Jet in whatever recess of his mind that he had found. And he was right, Jet had taught him a lesson. Jet was the reason he even figured out he was gay, since Jet made him question everything. Jet taught him a lot and no matter how poorly the relationship ended, he did still treasure their memories together.
And yet, he should have always known that he and Jet were never going to last — the fire they both possessed in their hearts was always destined to set everything around them ablaze. Zuko hoped against all hope that he would find someone without that fire that burned without his permission. He needed... water. Or ice. Something to counteract him. That’s what he needed in a partner.
“I can hear you thinking,” Aang said with a chuckle. As if he could feel Zuko’s breath hitch at his words, he corrected himself quickly, “Not physically! I’m not actually in your head, I promise. I just know you. You’re freaking out a little, aren’t you? It’s okay if you are, most people do.”
“Yeah... a little. What if this person isn’t ready for me either? What if I’m not ready for him?” Zuko had never aired his worries like this to anyone but Mai and his uncle before, but here he was, completely at ease with Aang, feeling as though he could say any of his doubts, and Aang would give him all the answers he needed. “What if he’s too good, or if I don’t deserve him?” He finished softly.
Aang scoffed. “I do know this person, remember? Even if you feel like you aren’t good enough for him, it isn’t true. You both are great, you deserve the peace and happiness you can provide for each other. And no matter how you view your own worth, he will never see you as lower than him; he’ll see you as greater.” Aang spoke it with such conviction, Zuko couldn’t find it in himself to try to dissent. “And it’s going to last long. I don’t see an end at all, actually. I see marriage... I see some kids, it looks like you guys adopted a few — no, that’s wrong... you fostered them and you both got too attached to the kids. Then you adopted them.”
Zuko stared at Aang, his jaw slack. Zuko had always thought about fostering kids; not adopting though. He had always been afraid that the cycle of abuse that carried on throughout his family, his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather — his greatest fear was repeating that cycle of abuse on kids of his own. By fostering, he would still have that barrier between himself and those children. But whenever he brought it up, Mai would tell him he gets too attached to strays, that if he let children into his house, they’d wiggle their way into his heart as well.
“I can sense you guys are ready for each other,” Aang continued smoothly, as if he hadn’t just blown Zuko’s entire psyche wide open. “He won’t make the first move though, he doesn’t feel like it’s been long enough since he lost his previous soulmate... he doesn’t really believe in all this. Soulmates. He never got a reading from me, as many times as I offered one. I think that he always knew in his heart that his relationship with her was something that couldn’t last, but he didn’t want it to be true, so he just... refused to believe. In any of it.” Aang looked a bit smug. “Maybe you’ll be able to change his mind.”
“What else can you tell me about him?” Zuko couldn’t stop himself from asking.
Aang continued to draw, eyes still closed. “He’s really smart. Although his logical thinking skills are high, his common sense is at zero. You’ll be able to even him out there.” Aang smiled and paused, as if in thought. “He’s a real creative type. He always thinks there can be a faster or better solution to a problem — he’s usually right, too. Stubborn as a mule, you guys will probably butt heads constantly with that. But he’s got a good heart, like you. He just wants to help people. He’s used to being a protector for people he cares about. Something tells me you could use that.”
Zuko didn’t know how to respond. It was so much to take in, but it felt... real. Aang was checking so many boxes of things that he shouldn’t possibly know, but somehow does; Zuko’s fears, his wants, what he needs in a lover.
Zuko was a skeptical person by nature, and he had convinced himself he was just doing this as an experiment, to see what Aang does at his spiritual job that always went over Zuko's head whenever he brought it up. He wasn’t entirely sure he believed in all this either... and yet...
“Done.”
Zuko’s eyes snapped to Aang.
Aang opened his eyes, the grey irises flashing mischievously. He looked over his work, handing it to Zuko a second later. “This is him,” he said with a smile, pointing with the eraser of the pencil. “Normally I don’t get a name since I only see visions, not hear them, but he’s my friend so I’m sure I can tell you this: his name is Sokka.”
Zuko couldn’t take his eyes off the drawing. This was his soulmate? He was... beautiful. The drawing was so detailed that Zuko didn’t even know where to begin with the man’s face. Aang had drawn him with an easy smile, like that was his natural resting face. He had shaded in skin tone to indicate a darker complexion with dark hair to match. Prominent cheekbones, a slit through one eyebrow — but it didn’t look like he put it there himself for style, it looked like a scar.
His eyes though... they weren’t shaded much at all except for the pupils, and they were framed by long eyelashes. Did he have light-colored eyes then?
It wasn’t a full body drawing, stopping at the chest, but Zuko could see wide shoulders that tapered down as it got closer to his waist. He seemed to be wearing a well worn graphic t-shirt and a chain necklace underneath the neck of the shirt, blocking whatever hung on it from view.
“He... he’s...” Zuko couldn’t even manage to form words, before finally choking out, “He’s perfect.”
“Don’t tell him that, can’t have him getting a big head,” Aang said with a cocky smirk. “I’m dating his sister, who’s literally the most beautiful woman in the world, of course he’s gonna be hot.” Zuko looked at him in shock. “I’m dating a woman, Zuko, but I’m not blind. Come on.”
Zuko nodded, accepting this answer. “I just...” His eyes went back to the picture, his fingers tracing across it with a feather light touch. “Do I... get to keep this?”
“He’s your soulmate, why would I keep it?” Aang replied simply, before snuffing the candles out. The incense had burnt all the way down and Aang emptied the ashes. He moved around, putting things away in their proper place, and Zuko could do nothing but stare at the picture. What could he possibly have done in a past life to meet this man, and to somehow get this man to fall in love with him? And he was supposed to do it again in this life? But according to Aang, it was going to happen... and his soulmate —Sokka— didn’t care. He didn’t care about his scar, and he... he would really love him.
“Can I meet him?” Zuko asked, his voice coming out barely more than a plea. “I know it’s a lot to ask of you considering you already did this for free, but since you know him...”
Aang smiled at him. “Funny you should ask that. Ty Lee is planning to throw a theme party in a few weeks. And I know she really wants to invite Mai, you’d be welcome to come as well, obviously. I’m going to invite my girlfriend and all our friends. He’ll probably come, he isn’t one to turn down a party.”
Zuko nodded numbly. He thought about it. In a few weeks, he could meet his soulmate. The person that he’s meant to be with long enough to have children with, long-lasting love—
Of course, this is all just what Aang had said... but he knew that his whole mind and soul wouldn’t feel like this if it wasn’t real. He wouldn’t feel this burning in his chest, this screaming in his head like the past life that loved this man before now recognized him and was begging to see him again.
Zuko finally managed to tear his eyes from the picture and looked back at Aang. “So, what’s the theme?”