Around Ember Island, a tempest rages.
This is something of an exaggeration: it's not a particularly big storm, the lightning just makes it seem more impressive.
Sokka can't sleep. Summer storms aren't uncommon in the Fire Nation, but this is the first time he's been somewhere he could see the wind lash the waves and bend the trees, and all he can think of is that storm so much earlier in their adventures. He's not quaking in fear, but the wind howling and the thunder crashing and the rain's relentess roar makes his skin prickle uncomfortably. He wishes there was someone else in the room with him, but they'd decided that everyone having their own rooms was better - being constantly at close quarters was starting to make people irritable.
A shadow passes outside his door and he instinctively leaps in fright. Clutching his boomerang, he eases his door open a crack - and finds Zuko, clad only in trousers, hair sleep-messy, clearly on the way back to his own room, looking back at him.
"Sorry, can't sleep. I was trying to be quiet," Zuko whispers, and turns away to go to his own room. Watching his retreating back, an idea occurs to Sokka:
"Psst, Zuko!" He turns again. "Come in a sec." Zuko eyeballs him, but obeys, treading cat-like over the boards. He steps into Sokka's room like he's expecting an ambush - maybe he is. He's won everyone's trust at last, but habits like these are hard to break. Sokka holds his breath as Zuko brushes past him.
Sokka makes himself comfortable, and Zuko follows suit, sitting cross-legged facing him. He starts a small flame in his hand for light. Even disinherited and banished, not to mention shirtless, he still maintains a certain regal bearing, particularly in contrast to Sokka's sprawl. Sokka is briefly taken by the absurdity of the situation: him, little old Sokka of the Water Tribe and the exiled Prince of the Fire Nation, buddies.
They sit in silence for a moment. And then a moment longer, while Sokka thinks of how to go about this, idly admiring Zuko's shoulders as he does. Zuko looks slightly awkward, as usual, and he feels kinda bad for the guy - but then lightning strikes the sea very near the shore, and he goes back to feeling bad for himself and blurts out the first thing that comes to mind:
"Tell me about your Mom." Honestly, he's kind of interested in what kind of person could produce both Zuko and Azula.
Zuko sits up very straight, and his face turns unreadable. But then he says:
"Okay."
And he does.
"My mother was a soldier," he starts, and Sokka promptly interrupts:
"Woah, really?" he says, which is technically a stupid thing to say because of course Zuko isn't just making this up for the hell of it. But Zuko just goes,
"Yeah, she was a Commander in the navy. She was good, really good, but she stopped when I was born. I was sickly and she didn't want to be away from me. Then Azula came along, and I guess she decided she'd rather be with us." He says his sister's name with an inflection that Sokka can't place.
"In our tribe, women didn't fight," Sokka offers. A navy Commander, well. Having met the Kyoshi Warriors and seen the mixed Fire Nation troops fight, he wonders whether this whole women-warrior thing is partly why the Fire Nation has been so successful, by not eliminating half their potential fighters. But Zuko is back to talking, and Sokka drags his attention away from such questions.
"Yeah, I gather from Katara that she had some trouble getting someone to teach her offensive bending, right? In the Fire Nation, the army's split about equally, and I knew a lot of noble girls my age who had ambitions to become great officers." He shrugs. "Anyway, apparently Mom was terrifying as a Commander: I think the lowest, most deferential bow I've ever seen was by one of her former subordinates when he came across her with me in the garden. Even my father didn't get that kind of respect. I think sometimes she brought out that persona when telling off Azula because nothing else would get through." He smiles like he's remembering easier, happier times. "She was always gentle with me, though."
"What did she look like?" He doesn't even know why he asked that.
"Like Azula," Zuko says instantly. "And like me, I guess, because apparently Azula and I resemble each other a lot." He shrugs. "We are siblings, I suppose. But really, she looked like an older Azula, if Azula ever smiled instead of smirking."
"I don't remember my mother," Sokka confesses. "Katara does, even though she's younger than me. But whenever I think of her, she always looks like Katara instead."
"...I'm sorry," says Zuko.
"Don't be," says Sokka dismissively. "I can't miss her if I don't remember her." This isn't technically true, but Zuko's wise enough not to push it.
"...What actually happened to your Mom?" asks Sokka after another brief pause. Zuko sighs and says,
"I don't know any more. Basically, some stupid stuff went down with my father suggesting to my grandfather that he should be made heir instead of Iroh, since Lu-Ten - my cousin, Iroh's son - was dead and he was unlikely to have any more children because of his age. My grandfather, uh, didn't take it well, and ordered him to - to kill me. So that he would know the pain of losing a son."
"But that's terrible!" Sokka interjects, and he knows he sounds like Katara, but seriously, that's messed up. Who even does that? Who even thinks that? Fire Lord Azulon, apparently. What a dick.
Zuko snorts.
"Well, my mother thought so too, apparently. She found out, and made a plan. The next morning they found my grandfather dead, and my father was announced as his 'willed heir'. Yeah, I know," he says, seeing Sokka's face, "subtle, huh?" His face turns grave again. "And my mother was banished for doing 'wicked, treasonous things'."
"So basically, she killed the Fire Lord. Badass." Zuko looks up into Sokka's face and laughs. The flame in his hand lights his face in strange ways, particularly his scar. Sokka wants to touch it, but doesn't think that'd go down very well. He also kinda wants to touch Zuko's chest, which is utterly bizarre. The thought, that is. Not his chest - that's smooth and firm. Apparently Firebending gives you great pecs. And abs. And probably thighs, but he really shouldn't stare at those.
"Yeah, yeah she did. And I guess it was pretty badass." He leans forward, careful not to accidentally set fire to his tunic. "My fath - the Fire Lord only told me this when I confronted him on the Day of Black Sun. Until then, I just thought she'd died. But that made me think: she could still be alive. My mother could be somewhere out there." His face is so full of hope it hurts. "If I survive Sozin's Comet, I want to go and find her myself. She might be dead by now, but even if she is I just want to know."
Sokka kind of wants to ask why he wouldn't survive Sozin's Comet, but instead he focusses on the most important part and says:
"I think you should. If there's a chance, you should go for it - I know I would."
He pauses barely a second before saying, over-eager as always:
"In fact, I'll come with you." Zuko's head jerks up to stare at him. Okay, he may have overstepped the mark a little there. "...Y'know, unless you want to do it alone. That's cool." Just a little.
"No, I - I wouldn't mind having some company, I guess. Thank you, Sokka." Zuko looks touched, and it occurs to Sokka that, without realising, he's just offered something that means a lot to him.
Well, score one for informed cooperation between nations.
Another crash of thunder makes both him and Zuko jump.
"It's further away now," says Zuko. "Do you think you could sleep now?"
"...Maybe. I dunno, I'm enjoying the company." Put more bluntly, he really doesn't want to be alone with the storm again, but he's not telling Zuko that. But Zuko's newly-developed, fledgling and often hibernating tact battles its way out from under, well, the rest of Zuko's personality, and Zuko says nothing, just shuffles to lean back against the wall and closes his eyes, fire still glowing warmly in his hands.
Well, this might work. Assuming that the fire goes out when Zuko falls asleep and he doesn't accidentally burn the house down. Sokka trusts him to have that much sense, at least. Although...
"Hey, the floor isn't that comfortable, you know." Zuko opens his eyes to find Sokka indicating his bed.
"What, really?" he asks, startled. Sokka grins at him.
"I'm feeling generous," he says. Zuko's looking at him in a way he doesn't understand, then says,
"Thank you." Sokka gets the feeling he's thanking him for more than the offer of the bed.
Zuko extinguishes the fire before getting into the bed. It's a bit small for two, but in the Water Tribe Sokka got used to huddling for warmth, so he doesn't mind if Zuko doesn't. Sokka lies down next to him and pulls the covers over them. Zuko is a warm, solid weight at his side, comfortable and comforting. He thinks he's smiling a bit. Yeah, this might work.