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The Agni Kai room.
13-year-old Zuko stood there, shirtless with gold bands around his biceps. His eyes flickered from one side of the long room to the other, seeing familiar faces looking at him with amusement and mockery. The long walkway before him seemed as if it went on for miles and miles, eventually disappearing into the shadows.
Laughter.
It sounded like their voices were underwater, an incessant chatter in his ears that just wouldn’t go away no matter how hard he tried to block them out. Azula chuckled quietly behind her sleeve, her judgemental eyes glinting with something like anticipation. Zhao sat with a smug grin, tapping his fingers on his knee in impatience. Uncle… looked away. He refused to meet Zuko’s eyes.
Everyone else filling the Agni Kai stands all seemed to be ragdolls, faceless and barely distinguishable from one another, but they laughed all the same. At him.
The warm orange glow of the flames illuminating the room shifted and twisted, making the shadows morph into a blacked-out figure on the roof. It loomed over him, waiting to watch his demise. He looked down and swallowed, covering his ears with his hands and screwing his eyes shut to escape everyone’s burning gazes.
Zuko’s breathing came in quick, shallow breaths. His throat was constricting until he couldn’t breathe anymore and hot, salty tears forced their way out of his eyes.
The laughing didn’t stop. His hands did absolutely nothing to block out the noise, like the soundwaves managed to slip past the cracks in his fingers and worm their way into his mind. His eyes snapped open without his permission, forcing the boy to watch the sight before him.
From the shadows, a large, hulking figure appeared. The Firelord.
Zuko’s heartbeat sped up tenfold and he wanted nothing more than to back away, but his legs wouldn’t cooperate. It was as if his body was being puppeteered by an invisible force. He took one step forward, then two, and then they were standing face to face with his worst nightmare.
Ozai looked down at him with a look that felt like it was searing a hole right through him, his left hand lifting before Zuko could even get the chance to grovel on his knees for forgiveness. No, no, no no no no no no no please-
When his father spoke, the words echoed and bounced off the walls in his head until he couldn’t think of anything else. “You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.”
And then his face was on fire.
“…uko! Zuko, wake up!” Sokka held his burning-hot face in his cool hands, and held their foreheads together as he gently tried to wake up his husband. It was the middle of the night in the Fire Nation, the air outside chilly with the coming of early spring, but the temperature in their private quarters felt like 40°C as they laid in bed with the amount of heat that Zuko was radiating.
He let go of Zuko for only a moment to wipe off the sheen of sweat on his forehead. The Firelord was muttering something intelligible in his sleep that sounded like pleas, while rocking his head back and forth. His breathing was laboured and unconscious tears slipped down his face.
Sokka’s heart twisted at the sight of his poor husband. He wiped away his tears and kissed his overheating forehead over and over while shushing him gently, praying that he’d wake up soon. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the better nights of his semi-frequent nightmares. At least there was no screaming or thrashing, or Tui-forbid firebending this time.
The Water Tribe man called for a servant to bring a cold pitcher of water and ash-banana pudding and profusely apologised for disturbing them such a late hour. He would’ve just gone on his own, but the chances of Zuko waking up while he was gone and panicking himself into a fit were too high.
The firebender’s eyebrows twitched minutely, his muttering starting and stopping in random bursts. That meant he was going to wake up soon.
Sokka laid down on his right side and gathered him up in his arms, running his fingers through Zuko’s long, silky black hair while trying not to jostle him too much at the same time. He had learned that lesson after shaking him awake one night and earning a nose-breaking punch to the face from his unconscious husband. Zuko was, of course, horrified and cradled Sokka’s head on his chest for the next half hour while sputtering apologies.
But to be honest, getting to use the Firelord’s chest (which had to have been hand crafted by the Spirits) as a pillow for the night far outweighed any pain his nose felt. Not that he would ever admit that, though.
“Mmm… Father, no, I’m sorry…! Ugh… Sok.. Sokka?” Zuko’s babbling came to a stop as his eyes cracked open a little, unfocused. Sokka breathed a sigh of relief and kissed his cheek.
“’M right here, baby,” he soothed. He intentionally breathed louder on purpose to get Zuko to take deeper breaths and rested a hand on his cheek, which the firebender immediately took in his own. As their breathing slowly fell into rhythm with one another, the expression on Zuko’s face shifted from one of distraught to one of embarrassment.
“I’m sorry, Sokk-“ Said Sokka cut off his apology with a gentle kiss to his lips, shushing him. He sounded exhausted.
“None of that, sweetheart. I’ve already told you, it’s okay.” He said, trying to fill his voice with as much sincerity as he could to get his husband to understand that he was being genuine. It wasn’t a matter of Zuko not trusting him, just that he had a hard time getting over his reflexive feelings of embarrassment and shame whenever this happened.
He continued, grabbing a cloth from the bedside table close by and wiping Zuko’s forehead with it. “Besides, I was awake anyway. It doesn’t bother me to help you; I want to, you know that?” He accentuated his statement with another kiss, making an exaggerated ‘mmmwah’ sound.
Zuko grumbled, but a small smile appeared on his face despite it. That smile was Sokka’s reward, what made it all worth it to see for only a moment. It made his heart sing to see Zuko happy when he so rarely was with the responsibility that came with being Firelord. He loved being his reason to smile.
“OK…. Thank you.” He replied, at last. Sokka responded by peppering more soft kisses on every inch of his face. He continued to do so even after Zuko started playfully trying to push him away, answering all of his complaints with a kiss to shut him up. Eventually, they stopped and rested their foreheads together, spending a few moments simply looking at each other.
Tui and La, Sokka didn’t think he could ever get tired of looking at his husband. Those golden amber eyes always seemed to draw him in without fail, as well his inky black hair that formed a halo around his head as he laid down. Right now, Zuko’s face was relaxed, but Sokka noticed the frown lines on his skin and look of slight disorientation in his eyes that lingered from the nightmare.
“You okay?” He asked, running his hands up and down the sides of his husband’s torso against the soft silk of his sleeping robe. Zuko lowered his gaze and worried his pink bottom lip between his teeth, looking away from Sokka.
“I…”
“You don’t have to answer, honey, it’s okay.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind Zuko’s ear, kissing it and feeling his heart melt when he sighed contentedly.
Changing the subject, he decided to ask, “Are you hungry?”, feeling glad when Zuko’s furrowed eyebrows lessened a little. Right on cue, his stomach growled, causing him to cover his reddening face with his hands. Sokka chuckled and moved to sit them both in an upright position.
He grabbed the ash-banana pudding and a spoon, maneuvering them so Zuko was practically sitting on his lap. The firebender instantly melted into Sokka’s embrace and rested the side of his head in the crook of his neck, nuzzling at it with his nose.
“Hey, stop that!” now it was Sokka’s turn for his face to turn red. “C’mon, don’t you wanna go to sleep? You’ve got a meeting with those governors tomorrow.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me…” Zuko grumbled, but obediently opened his mouth when Sokka brought a spoonful of the pudding to his lips. After all, it was his favourite dessert apart from mochi, so in a few short minutes, the bowl was empty.
“Seems like you were hungry, Firelord,” Sokka teased. He dodged a playful swat to his face and kissed Zuko for what seemed to be the millionth time that night except deeper and longer. He licked the taste of ash banana from his lips when they parted.
In what seemed like no time, the two husbands were under the covers and the candles illuminating the room had been extinguished with a wave of Zuko’s hand. By the time their limbs were entangled in a comfortable position, there were only a few hours until the sun was set to rise.
A sleepy apology left Zuko’s lips before he could stop it. “’M sorry for keeping you up, Sokka,” he mumbled. Sokka rubbed gentle circles into his back and leaned forward to plant one final kiss to his husband’s lips.
“I could do it a thousand times, and you wouldn’t have to apologise once, Zuko. Always, for you, my love.”