It's been so long since I've written Animorph fanfiction, I didn't realize until now how much I missed it. This was written as a challenge using these prompts: Sokka/Zuko, ANIMORPHS. Cross-species cuddling. So, just in case you don't get the hint, squint and you can see there is slight pre-slash within. It also looks like this website is forcing me to us ((Blah, blah, blah )) for mind-speech. Apologies.



There was no doubt about it. Stakeouts were boring, no matter what morph you were currently in.

Sokka would have sighed – if falcons could sigh. Instead he shifted his light weight from foot to foot and allowed the bird instincts to take the drivers seat for awhile, keeping mildly entertained by zooming in on all the tasty field mice and small twittery birds in the next field over.

((Are you even trying to pay attention?)) snapped a disgruntled mind-voice.

It was a shame falcons couldn't roll their eyes, either.

((Chill, Zuko. I got this.))

A tan and grey pigeon, slow and fat from feasting all day in the park, blundered across the rooftops overhead. Sokka's sharp talons flexed against the branch, his wings half spread to leap upward before his common sense – his human common sense – snapped him back into reality. With an effort, he pushed the falcon instincts down and made himself relax.

But Zuko had just as good of vision as him, even from the next tree over. He had seen everything. Yeah right. His glare of disapproval drilled into Sokka from forty feet away with hawk-like intensity.

Which was easy for him, seeing as Zuko was a hawk.

((Maybe you'd better demorph for a bit and take a break.)) Zuko said, after a moment. ((I'll be fine. You only got forty-five minutes left anyway.))

((Really, oh time-keeper?))

((I can see the living-room clock from here.))

Sokka was tempted to take him up on it, but as bored as he was he knew he should stick it out for a little bit longer. It was… leaderly of him, or something. Besides, he, Katara, Toph and Aang already decided by mutual agreement that Zuko shouldn't be left alone in this mission. He was… too close to this.

((Naw,)) he said, forcefully putting a devil-may-care tone in his mind-speech. ((Ax is due in a half hour. I can make it.))

A sweet gust of air ruffled his feathers from the south, and suddenly Sokka couldn't take staying in place any longer. He lifted his wings again and dove down from his branch, trusting the falcon-brain to get him back up in the air before he ate dirt. His wings cupped the wind and he swung upwards again -- beat his wings once, twice, and joined Zuko on his branch.

Zuko glared at him – well, his hawk form meant he was always glaring, but he seemed more peeved than usual. ((What are you doing? Get back over there.))

Sokka did his best impersonation of a shrug. ((I can only see the bathroom from that tree, and trust me, I don't really care to see what's going on in there.))

Zuko didn't answer, except to lower his head and wipe his beak on the rough bark. That was probably some bird-of-prey type insult, but if it was, Sokka didn't quite get it. Then again, sometimes it seemed the longer this went on the more Zuko seemed to be drifting away from good old humankind all together. Sokka worried for the guy, a lot. And that wasn't the only reason.

((Hey,)) Sokka said softly, sidling up to the red-tailed hawk. ((I need to know if you're going to be okay. You know, about this.))

He was silent for so long Sokka was on the verge of asking again. Eventually, though, Zuko's head turned from the house – his old house – and looked at him with that too piercing gaze.

((My dad and my sister are controllers. And we're hoping by following them they'll lead us to a new entrance to the yeerk pool. Once we figure it out, there will be another horrible battle and hey, maybe they'll be killed this time. So I'm fine Sokka. How's your day going? Still bored?))

((Look,)) Sokka said after a dead, horribly awkward minute. ((We know Azula has been yeerked for sure, but your dad--))

((No, you don't get it. He didn't do anything when I disappeared. No missing flyers. Nothing.)) Zuko's head jerked back and forth, a parody of a headshake, too long not being in a human body to remember how it was done. ((That's not him, Sokka. I know my father, okay? He would miss me. He wouldn't just –)) He broke off, beak open and panting, wings half mantled in distress.

Sokka didn't know Zuko very well before that day in the construction site. He ran in the rich kid's clique, only joining them on the walk home because Katara asked sweetly and batted her eyes. You know, the usual. Hell, Sokka could hardly picture him now – he'd known Zuko has a hawk for far too long. All he remembered was a kid a little taller than himself with golden eyes, dark hair… and the bruises.

In the early days – the really early days – they hadn't quite got the hang of morphing with clothes. Toph was the one to figure it out – strange because she was the least inclined of modesty out of all of them, but no doubt the best morpher after Aang.

So there had been a couple… accidents. Embarrassing accidents that Sokka wished he could bleach away from his mind. No one should ever have to see his sister coming out of a dog morph, stark naked.

And on one of those occasions, Sokka had seen Zuko's bruises. Mostly faded things, and shrugged off when he gave the other boy a look. But Sokka wasn't an idiot.

Not that Zuko ever said anything. The guy wouldn't hear a bad word said against his father. A shame, because there was plenty of bad stuff to be said. From what Sokka had seen just staking out Zuko's old house over the last couple of days, Ozai was a successful businessman and a complete jerk. He yelled at his minions over the phone – rants loud enough to be heard even without animal ears, and kicked holes in the wall if things didn't go his way. Real stand-up guy.

Ozai hadn't missed his underachieving son at all.

Zuko spread his wings again, looking like he was going to bolt. Sokka knew he couldn't let that happen. It was one thing to flap from tree to tree, but the controllers were getting smarter now and were on the look out for wild birds of prey hanging out around suburban homes.

((No, don't. Stay here.)) And without really knowing what he was doing… or why, Sokka stretched his neck over.

For one horrible second he saw his reflection mirrored in Zuko's own – saw up close and personal with excellent falcon eyes the deadly curve of Zuko's beak, his sharp rending talons.

Then Sokka was at Zuko's neck, right at the juncture between shoulder and breast bone. The falcon in him seemed to take over again and he lightly poked some of the soft feathers there and then started to groom him – soft little bites that arranged and rearranged the tiny pin feathers.

Zuko froze, but did not move away -- Didn't ask what Sokka was doing, or demand an answer… he just let him. And slowly, as Sokka scooted closer and nibbled his way upward, dipped his head to allow more access.

The falcon in Sokka noted that Zuko's feathers were a bit dusty. That only made sense – he had no mate to clean them for him. Female falcons were bigger than the males anyway, so this wasn't too much of a stretch –

Whoa.

He needed to get his bird-brain under control.

Perhaps sensing the hesitation, Zuko drew back. His wings were flicked back into place, eyes half shut, in a strange lazy expression. That felt… He didn't finish, shaking his head and puffing out his feathers before settling them back into place. He blinked – one set of eyelids and then another, in bird style.

((Feeling better?)) Sokka asked, lightly.

Zuko hesitated. ((Then. Yeah. I guess.))

((Great.)) Sokka flicked his tail and then yawned. ((Next time you do me.))

Zuko just stared at him.

There probably would have been more said between them – Sokka would stay up late that night imagining all there was to say between them. But at that moment, Ax decided to show up in his harrier morph… right on time.

((I'm here Prince-Sokka.)) He landed on their branch, accidentally swaying it under his greater weight, and bobbed his head in greeting. ((Has there been any change in the controller's movements?))

((Not yet, Ax-man.)) Sokka turned to Zuko. I guess that's my cue. ((I only have fifteen minutes anyway.)) A pause. ((See you later?))

((Yeah.)) Zuko's mindspeech still had a slightly dumbstruck air about it, as if he had figured out several things at once and wasn't sure what to do with them. ((See you.))

Sokka turned and flapped away, searching for a nice dumpster of alley to demorph behind. Part of him – a big part of him – didn't really want to leave. But he had homework to do, and Gran-Gran would be on his case if he was late for another dinner. She already didn't like how much time he spent out of the house lately, and he was quickly using up his vast pool of excuses.

Hey, no one said that life as an Animorph was easy.