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Trinnnggggg
The bell trills again for the eighth time in the last five or so minutes.
It’s not exactly rush hour - not that they really get rush hour in the small family owned tea shop- but it’s busy enough where he has to be in the weird in between of being working constantly and flitting around with nothing to do.
He takes a deep breath exhaling loudly.
Customer service.
Finally after dealing with two, two, people asking for extra hot tea and trying to explain that the water is boiling they cannot make it any hotter, he begins to recess back into his mind absently swiping down the surrounding surfaces.
But it seems during his absentminded motions he missed another customer walking in and oh-
He’s-
He’s gorgeous.
Planes of smooth dark tan skin stretch around broad shoulders, - practically framed by a very tight vest, muscle tee? He doesn’t know the proper term- he’s tall but marginally less tall than Zuko who had always been thin and lanky. His hair shaved at the sides accentuating a myriad of gold and blue piercings. And- oh his eyes, blue. Blue like he’s never seen.
Oh.
Oh no.
Zuko has not been listening to him.
He was…distracted.
To Zuko’s luck it seems he’s a friendly introduction guy as well - of course he is with a smile like that- and is just about to begin ordering.
“…nd could I please get one berry tea and one chamomile to go please. Thanks, Handsome”
Wha- handsome??
Who does this guy think he is?
Being all hot and- friendly and…stuff
“Could I get a name please for that?”
He turns away slightly as he says it, preparing to make the tea.
And this is where things go from fine to terrible.
Zuko has very minimal hearing in his left ear and -just his luck- his hearing aid died this morning.
So he doesn’t catch the entirety of his name.
Too embarrassed to ask him to repeat himself, Zuko begins making the tea debating over how to do this.
Look the guy is well hot and charismatic and Zuko is already lacking in both those departments tremendously - his awkward slightly snarky nature shines through a little even with his “customer service personality”- and if the guy is serious about flirting with him he doesn’t want to dash his all ready quite terrible chances. So he runs over his options.
He immediately crosses off addressing him as you. Thats too rude, even with his abysmal social skills he knows that.
Wow he really has no idea.
God dammit.
He is going to die single.
He is just going to have to guess from the scattered syllables he heard.
“Drink for…Costco”
Nooooo.
What was he thinking?
Costco? For fucks sake obviously his names not Costco.
He sees him look up.
They make eye contact for a couple seconds.
No no no no no
He’s walking up to him.
Why is he walking up to him?
Oh…for his drinks probably.
“These for me?”
He questions, smirking.
Zuko scowls and let’s out a withering
“Yes.”
“Costco?”
“Do you want the drinks or not?”
Wow. Great going Zuko be rude to some friendly, nice , ridiculously attractive man.
“Sure, thanks…”
He leans forward bracing his arms on the counter and looking up at Zuko through his eyelashes and Jesus thats is-
Wait hold on.
He’s not looking at Zuko. He’s looking at his name tag. It’s nothing special, it says Lee because all the old ladies that come into the tea shop found every which way to butcher the name Zuko and… he’s paranoid okay? He doesn’t like strangers knowing who he is!
“Thanks Lidil”
He smirks cheekily, dimples stretching.
Wha- LIDIL.
Lidil like the supermarket? Really?
Oh he’s doing a bit because Zuko stupidly called him Costco.
Zuko hates life.
He hates himself.
But before he can address the fact he was just referred to as Lidil, hot Costco guy is all ready walking towards the door.
“Bye hottie”
He calls turning around and winking at Zuko, god it’s so so cheesy.
Zuko might be in love.
…
He doesn’t see “Hot Costco guy” for a couple days ,now his permanent name as dubbed by Toph when she came in that night - always right before closing so it’s empty and she can bully Zuko and demand tea without disturbance- to laugh at him and his awkwardness.
It’s a Wednesday morning when he next comes in and orders tea.
“Lidil!”
Zuko is happy he gets to delight in looking at his well- everything again but still slightly mortified over there last interactions.
7am is too early for the mix of emotions he is feeling.
Hot Costco guy walks up with ultimately far too much pep is his step for the time then leans onto the counter casually resting his face in his hands.
Zuko will deny the way his breath hitched until he dies at the chipped blue nail Polish which would look scruffy on anyone else but he manages to make look attractive.
“Hey there sweetheart, want to hear a joke?”
Zuko scowls to try mitigate his blush.
“No, what tea would you like?”
“Come onnn just one joke”
He waggles his eyebrows ridiculously. Idiot.
“Fine.”
He says to shut him up. He’s hoping the joke is bad enough that he looses his… crush (?) immediately before he can embarrass himself further.
“What did the tea cup say to the kettle?”
……
“Water you up to?”
That was…terrible. So, so terrible. But the guys eyebrows are raised and he has an endearing smirk plastered across his face and he can’t help the little tick up the corner of his mouth does.
“Ah yes! I got a smile! I am making this my new mission I will make you laugh Mr. Lidil”
As he says is he does a ridiculous victory dance with his arms.
As Zuko begins to speak amusement still dances in his eyes.
“So are you going to order your tea or not… Costco?”
“Oh yeaaa, sorry!
…
The following weeks continue similarly, hot Costco guy comes in every couple days bright and early , makes either a tea or supermarket related joke, heavily hits on him, orders one or two teas , lets Zuko refer to him as Costco, then leaves.
And each week Zuko gets closer and closer to loosing his shit and just reaching over the counter and kissing his stupid, beautiful face.
He’s learnt bits and pieces about him over the weeks whether from casual- predominantly one sided- conversations or observations that Zuko has made; he’s a university student studying engineering , he has a sister who is the person he occasionally orders tea for, he comes in so early because all his maths classes are before 8:30am, he wants a pet dog but his sister is a cat person and he cuts his own hair.
The last tidbit of information was discovered after he came in with his hair braided down the middle showing his shaved sided and Zuko embarrassingly stammered through their interaction and muttered under his breath about “stupidly beautiful guys, with stupidly beautiful hair” unaware Costco guy was still there as he was in his blind spot.
Despite all this he never does learn his name.
…
It’s after almost a month of this that everything comes to head.
The sky is dark, for once Costco guy coming in before closing.
Zuko’s actually warmed up quite a lot to him, he has found himself smiling at most his jokes - with even the occasional subdued laugh- and sometimes if it’s a good day Zuko flirts back a little. As awkward and stiff as he is Zuko can flirt- he can thank you very much Toph!- just not with words so he lets his hand linger on his when swapping cash or leans over the counter just a little more than necessary when talking to him.
He was having fun. He was actually enjoying their interactions. He thought that maybe… he actually had a chance with the guy.
Then everything goes to shit.
Jet, Zuko’s ex boyfriend, comes into the tea shop when Zuko is talking to hot Costco guy. Him and Jet ended on… bad terms. After finding out that Zuko had hid who his Farther was -the owner of the shadiest law office that screws over just about anyone with a morsel of empathy- he had thrown all his rage at Zuko. He screamed about how his family was in ruins because of his Dad, because of him. Jet would not listen to any of his placating explanations of how they hadn’t spoken in years. Jet was… still quite angry at him evidently. He walks up to the counter with all his disgusting bravado - how Zuko ever dated this guy he has no idea- and then he falters.
He spots Costco guy in all his beautiful 6 feet of glory and sneers, pushing past him roughly.
“Hey Zuko how’d you trick this guy to talk to you?”
He barks his words out practically throwing himself between Zuko and the guy.
“You pay him off with your Daddies money? He’s pretty hot too”
He turns directing his attention away from Zuko,
“Don’t waste your time with this guy he’s a fucking pushover-
“Jet please-“
“Corrupt, life ruiner, liar. I could go on!”
“Jet I told you-“
He turns his body back to face Zuko.
He can feel tears building in his eyes as he curls in on himself as jet continues his war path. He wants to snap. To bite. Like he did the first few times they had this argument. But he’s so tired.
“What? You haven’t told him your little sob story yet to excuse your relation to that monster? Your Dad ruined my life and I bet you and him still get along all nice and well despite what he did to your ugly fac-“
Jet is cut off.
Jet is-
Jet is covered in tea.
Costco guy is picking up is second cup of tea.
Jet is now covered in more tea.
“Get the fuck out.”
Jet stammers clearly thrown off.
“Now.”
“Who do you think you are? You don’t need to protect him, go on Zuko tell him who gave you that scar”
He looks over to the Costco guy his eyes have darkened and he can practically feel the anger coming off him in bouts.
“Thats it.”
Hot Costco guy grabs Jet by the scruff of his neck and practically hauls him out the shop with his big muscled arms before flipping the sign on the door to closed. They’re lucky they are the only ones in the shop, maybe that was Jets plan though. Ambush him alone.
And as the closed sign clinks gently Zuko promptly begins having a panic attack.
…
(POV change to Sokka)
Oh my god he just threw tea on someone, he deserved it though, what a jerk. Ha. He bets he can make that into a good joke for Lee. Tea + jerk makes… eh he will work on it.
Oh no Lee!
He speeds up his walk to the counter seeing him clutching at his chest violently shaking his head and hyperventilating.
“Lee? Lee..?”
He is not responding. Okay, okay this is fine! Let’s try a different route.
“Hey Mr. Lidil?”
No! Now is not the time for jokes.
Okay new plan.
Sokka can’t see a door to get to the other side of the counter so he rather ungracefully scrambles over the top so he is standing in front of Lee.
“Okay Lee I’m going to touch your hand”
Sokka can tell that Lee is past the point of conversing so he hopes that warning him about what he’s going to do.
He grabs Lee’s hand as gently as possible but he still flinches.
Placing his hand on his chest Sokka breathes deeply whilst speaking softly,
“You’re okay, it’s okay, follow my breathing in and out, you’re safe, I’ve got you baby”
The pet name just slipped out but he can’t bring himself to regret it.
“Now come on, again, in and out”
After almost 20 gruelling minutes Lee’s breathing has returned to an almost steady pace, the poor guy looks exausted though.
Lee sinks to the floor slowly, leaning his back up against the cabinets in the shop before grunting slightly.
“Um I’m um sorry about all that. Thank you. Like really thank you. You- you shouldn’t have had to deal with all of…”
He doesn’t finish his sentance instead sitting in somber silence picking nervously at his cuticles.
“You have nothing to apologise for. At all. That guy was an absolute dick.”
Lee looks shocked at his admissions.
“I suppose I do owe you an explanation-“
Sokka feels rude interrupting but he feels that Lee has to know this.
“ no absolutely not. You don’t owe me anything. I did what I did because I like you and some dick was making you sad. Sure I’m curious but you have zero obligation to tell me anything you don’t want to talk about or just anything at all”
…
(Zuko POV again)
As Costco guy wraps up his sentance all Zuko can do is sit there a gape. It’s so vhastly diffrent to how Jet treated him and his feelings that Zuko can’t help the couple tears that slip out. And bless Sokkas beautiful kind soul, he begins to stammer out
“Oh god I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make it worse. I’m such an idio-“
Zuko can’t help it. He launches forward securing his arms tightly around his waist and tucking his face into the crook of his neck.
“I’m sorry… is this okay?”
Zuko murmurs, sniffing slightly.
“ …yes, yes! Of course! I can sit here for however long you want, I’m all yours handsome”
The corner of his mouth curves slightly as he chuckles and he knows the guy - wow he really still doesn’t know his name- feels it against his skin because he hears a whispered
“Yes!”
from above him.
They sit in peaceful silence for a while, Zuko can feel himself nodding off wrapped in a warm embrace so he knows he has to get this over with.
Well he enjoyed it while it lasted.
“Um my Farther he owns Ozai & Co. Law, I didn’t tell Jet that when we started dating and I didn’t know that my Dads company had well…ruined his life. He accused me of lying and tricking him and being a monster like my Dad and working with him to get back at Jet- but none of that is true I swear! I haven’t spoken to him since…”
He clearly had given some indication of his distress because he feels the arms around him tightening and hears quite comforting noises.
“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to sweetheart”
“No, no it’s okay. Um- I haven’t spoken to him since well. I sat in one of his meetings because he wanted me to take over the company one day but they where laughing and joking about ruining this small community, destroying struggling peoples lives further and-“
He breathes deeply.
“I couldn’t not say anything. So I spoke out against it. But it didn’t do anything to help and afterwards my Farther decided he had had enough of me, that I needed to learn my place with something worse than his usual violence.”
He falters for a second realising he is spilling all this to some guy he doesn’t even know the name of but tucked up against his broad chest Zuko finds it hard to panic or feel unsafe.
“He shoved my face into a lit stove and well ever since then I’ve lived with my uncle and worked at his tea shop. But it seems that Jet thinks that that doesn’t remove our relation or make me any less to blame for my Dads actions”
Still feeling relatively calm he allows a little bit of bitterness to slip into his last words, well he felt calm until he looked up at hot Costco guy. He looks as if he’s been overtaken with unimaginable rage but despite this his eyes only display deep bone crushing sadness. Zuko feels a spike of panic - emotions always meant bad in his house- shifting to move out his grasp.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to trick you I swear oh no no no no not again”
Breath beginning to pick up pace again, Zuko frantically looks for an escape route.
“No!”
The guy shouts, he flinches
“No sorry I didn’t mean to shout it’s just… thats so awful which- which you probably know but I’m just so angry! But not at you, never at you. At Jet or your Dad or- ugh! The world for letting such horrible things happen to good people! You’re kind and amazing and beautiful and you didn’t deserve any of that! God if I see your farther I will not hesitate to-“
He stops his rambling when looks down into Zuko’s eyes, they are shining with comfort and a surprising ease despite his rage full ranting.
“You think I’m beautiful?”
The guys face flushes an adorable red and he averts his eyes slightly.
“Well yes among many other things! I was planning to ask you out all smooth today, thats why I came in at closing but… well…”
Zuko’s face suddenly falls, dread coiling as he looks away resolutely
“Oh… no it’s okay I wouldn’t want to ask someone out after I heard about all my shit. Um no don’t worry I mean if you where worrying”
Zuko is the one rambling now.
“No! No no thats not what I meant god. I would really, really love to take you out somewhere, maybe somewhere quiet and I can make up for the tea thats still on the floor of your shop… if you want to?
Zuko can’t help it a laugh burts through his lips. He has been through a real rollercoaster of emotions.
“I would love too!! Oh um… god this is so embarrassing but um I wasn’t wearing my hearing aid the day we met and uhhh… I still don’t know your name…Mr.Costco”
He feels the guys chest reverberate with laughter beneath him.
“It’s Sokka, don’t worry you weren’t too far off Mr Lidil or should I call you something else? ”
“Zuko, quite far from Lidil actually”
Suddenly it’s like a lightbulb flicks on in Sokka’s head,
“Or-“ he giggles slightly and it’s effortlessly cute “or I could just call you mine”
Andddd Zuko hates him. Sokka only laughs louder as Zuko’s face slides into a deadpan glare.