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Sokka has been Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe for a few months now. Dad believed he was up for it, he proved himself worthy long ago. And the Tribe believes he’s up for it. He’s never felt more at home, surrounded by his people, hunting for food with his people, dodging ice with his people.
He also felt homesick.
Nearing the dreadful days of Sozin’s Comet, Sokka found home within Team Avatar. Specifically, the banished prince. Zuko was awkward at first. And everyone was wary of him. Toph, for some absurd reason, paid no mind, even after Zuko scorched her feet. Sokka was just being practical. Aang needed a teacher! There was no time to search for Jeong Jeong. Zuko was literally a silver platter- no, a gold platter handed to them.
It didn’t take long for Sokka to warm up to Zuko. (also literally, cold nights with him are the best.) After the whole Boiling Rock incident, they fell in tune with each other. Sokka could talk about anything with Zuko, Zuko understood him in his own weird way. He was one of Sokka’s first friends his age, really. He could talk about love and relationships with the guy. Honestly, if he bemoaned about Yue to Katara or Aang one more time, they would have tried to validate her loss to Sokka by talking about it being her duty or whatever. Sokka really didn’t know how much he needed Zuko’s “that’s rough, buddy” until he heard it. It is rough!
Zuko understood Sokka. Sokka somehow understood Zuko too. He found silent comfort in Zuko he didn’t feel with anyone else. When Zuko kissed him after they all met back in the palace, once Aang defeated Ozai, it clicked. When Zuko, with a fresh lightning scar in his chest (which he earned from saving Sokka’s baby sister), clung to Sokka with raw confessions of how he didn’t know what he would have done if Sokka did not have returned from the airships, and possibly deliriously kissed him, Sokka realised. It unfurled to him slowly, almost painfully, a paper lantern expanding after being crushed. The comfort he found in Zuko was love. He found a home there.
So obviously, after everything when they all had to go back to their own countries, Sokka found himself missing Zuko more and more. They’d still exchange letters frequently. But it was never enough.
Sometimes when it comes to peace summits, Sokka finds himself staying in the Fire Nation for longer than needed, but no one comments.
So he didn’t wait long to tie a betrothed necklace on the Fire Lord. Come on, if Yue got stuck with Hahn that early? Sokka’s gonna make sure Zuko’s stuck with him from the start.
But of course.. Blessings. The Fire Nation took blessings for marriage very seriously And Sokka struggled with that as heavily. How in Tui and La was he going to get approval from the Dragon of the West, Princess Azula, and the former Phoenix King?
Zuko had no struggle at all. Gran Gran said yes immediately, Dad sent his blessings to Zuko before his ship even arrived at the Southern Water Tribe. Only Katara, who, mind you - isn’t even protective of Sokka anymore, she was just pretending to be so that she could put dirt on Zuko!
“Katara, I seek your approval in me betrothing Sokka,”
“No,”
“What?”
“No.”
“-Why? Katara, I thought we were on good terms-”
She begrudgingly opted with a ‘fine’ after half an hour, which left Zuko sputtering.
Okay. Mission One ; A trip to Ba Sing Se.
Sokka chose to do it after one of the trade meetings with the Earth Kingdom, after taking a stroll around Ba Sing Se’s upper ring’s finest delicacies and products, he stopped in front of the Jasmine Dragon. Still going strong with a regular amount of customers, as always. Iroh employed some waiters, someone’s always at the counter now. But the tea-brewing is always left to Iroh. Sokka went to take a seat.
At Sokka’s arrival, there were excited, chattering murmurs from the waiters. They looked at each other, biting down smiles. What are they excited to see a Chief for? They’re in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, this is like any other Thursday afternoon. Not until they push one of their waiters to Sokka, that he’s met with the sight of ebony-shoulder length hair, pretty pale skin and the recognisable red scar ; in jade-coloured robes, with an old apron tied. Zuko, Darling, Sweetheart, Sun of his life. Sokka bit down his smile as he pulled the boy’s wrist closer, grinning widely.
“What’s Fire Lord Zuko doing, hanging around here?” He asked in whispers, tilting his head to the side. His cheeky grin is plastered on his face, stretching by the second.
Zuko leans closer to Sokka, clearly struggling to hide his own smile from seeing Sokka. “My advisors know I'm here, I just come here to escape those very duties,” He reassures. Of course, because who is more keen on escaping everything than Zuko, the guy that’s infamous in Team Avatar for breaking and entering?
“What’s Chief Sokka doing around here, though?” He counters, sitting opposite Sokka and leaning forward to him as Sokka interwines their fingers together.
He raises his brows. “On my first blessing task,” He says and gestures his head back to the ‘staff only’ door
“Any chance I could steal your uncle for a bit?”
Zuko looks back at the door with Sokka, before patting his hand and going over inside.
Within a few minutes Iroh came out, sitting across Sokka this time, Zuko placed two cups of tea on their table, and walked away to serve others patrons.
“Chief Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe!” Iroh greeted, beaming.
“Um. And your nephew’s fiance,” He corrected, swallowing. Iroh raised a brow.
“Well, not until I allow it.”
“..So do you allow it?”
“No.”
Sokka felt his jaw go slack. Iroh!? Out of all people!?
“Uncle Iroh, respectfully, why?”
Iroh hummed, sipping on his tea that he brewed for himself. “Is my nephew really the right one for you? Perhaps you should look-”
Is he seriously asking Sokka if he should marry Zuko? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean is Zuko right for me? If you’re not keen shouldn’t you tell Zuko that?”
Iroh shrugged. “You have a great mind, Chieftain Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Could my nephew handle it? And I'm sure you will be too busy guiding your tribe to even spare visits to your betrothed.”
Is Iroh messing with him? Iroh has got to be messing with him.
“And besides, the weather in the Fire Nation, much less Caldera, which is inside a volcano, would be much too sweltering for someone from the South pole-”
Oh he’s messing with him.
“Uncle Iroh please.” Sokka tries, exasperated.
Iroh hummed again. “Well, If only Zuko was here to tell me that he could marry such a man like you, Chief Sokka.”
“He’s over there!” Sokka gestured wildly to Zuko, taking orders from a group of old ladies.
Iroh raised a brow. “That’s Lee. Are you alright?”
Sokka felt a vein in his temple twitch.
He called for one of the waiters, in which a handful came instead. “Um. Guys? Can you please call Zuko over here?”
To which they all looked at him in confusion.
“Fire Lord Zuko?” One of them asked. Sokka swears he saw Zuko flinch not far from them, but kept his back to them. Sokka slowly nods, mechanically, gesturing to Zuko near them.
“That’s Lee.” They say in unison.
This is going to be a long week.
Mission Two ; Fire Nation Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane
Eventually, he managed to get Iroh to say yes. That was a killer.
Now he’s sitting across Azula, who’s currently in a straightjacket, and the neat bun Sokka’s so used to having seen is let down. Separating them is a glass wall, Sokka’s speaking into the comms.
“Princess Azula, I seek your approval in marrying your older brother, Fire Lord Zuko.”
He’s preparing himself for the worst. He’s not even expecting an answer, actually.
“No.” Azula simply replies.
He let out a sigh of relief at that. At least she bothered to even say something.
“Why?” He tries.
Azula shrugs in her straightjacket.
“Zuzu can’t even handle a country, how’s he gonna handle a man?”
Sokka cocked his head to the side. “Excuse me?!”
“First of all, Zuko’s doing a great job with the Fire Nation-”
“Barely”
“-second of all, we’ve been dating since the comet!”
“And how’s that been?”
“Great, I'll have you know!”
She hums. Like Iroh, actually. (and Zuko!) Sokka tries not to linger on that.
“You know, I always saw you as a threat.”
What? Judging by her nod, Sokka realises he said that out loud.
“You never noticed? I’d always take you out first whenever I came across your little team. You were the only one thinking.”
Okay. Sokka was expecting Azula to say many things when he came here. Nothing like that.
“So if you’re so smart, how are you even gonna see him? Zuzu told me you were Chief of your small village now.”
“The Southern Water Tribe,” He corrected through gritted teeth. She raised her brows, expecting an answer.
Sokka tries to continue with the utmost patience. “Zuko and I have been perfectly fine with a long-distance relationship for the past year, us engaged would be no different. Besides, I can afford monthly visits. My tribe won’t go to ruins without me.”
“What a horrible leader.” Azula tutted. Sokka bristled.
They fall in hush silence for a few minutes after that.
“He’s been looking more dead each day I see him.”
“Leading a nation guilty of a hundred years of war crimes does that,”
“Can you fix the death in his face?”
“I can’t.”
Sokka’s not going to lie to Azula. No matter the comfort Sokka provides Zuko, he’s still going to carry the same weight on his shoulders of a century worth of genocide, propaganda, and injustice. Azula notices that. Because of course she does.
She shrugs.
“Well that’s not going to help your case. No.”
Sokka groaned.
Mission Three ; to the Palace Dungeons.
These past 5 days have been a tailspin. If it took Iroh that long to say yes, Ozai is not even going to spare him a thought.
He’s standing in front of Ozai’s cell. It’s eerily dark, with some torches sourcing light around them. Ozai’s on the concrete, hair messier than Azula’s, quieter than Iroh. Sokka sits down too, preparing himself.
“Ozai. I seek your blessings in betrothing your son, Fire Lord Zuko.”
Ozai doesn’t even try to hide his scowl at the term ‘Fire Lord Zuko’. His words don’t match his expression. “Alright.”
Sokka’s lethargic mind jolts awake.
“Excuse me?”
Ozai looks at him like he grew two heads. “What?” He asks with incredulity that Sokka thinks he should be displaying.
Sokka has to be having a bad dream. He coughs.
“I’m sorry. I’ll repeat that. Ozai. I seek your blessings in betrothing your son, Fire Lord Zuko.”
“Alright.”
Sokka’s eyes are blown out wide now.
“Seriously?”
“Yes?”
“Why? What are you plotting?”
He hummed. (Just like Azula. And Iroh. And Zuko. This family gave Sokka the creeps.)
“You’re keeping tradition alive by continuing to ask blessings from the family before marrying him. You’re keeping honour to the Fire Nation.”
Sokka blinks.
“Heard he banned Agni Kai. I’m sure if you, who wish to betrothe him, are still keen on continuing tradition, you’d knock him into his senses, and he keeps honour alive.”
Sokka blinks again, but nods this time.
Yay? He’s got his blessings?
Hooray?