Standard disclaimers apply.
Happy Lunar New Year!
It was too crowded in the street. Sokka didn't mind crowding usually, but when it felt like there were more people than had been in your entire tribe even before the warriors left all within touching distance of you, it was a bit much. And when the reason they were all within touching distance was that there were possibly thousands of times as many people just past them pushing them in... well, it was a lot much. He really wanted to go and hide in the room they had been given for the night, but he had never seen a Earth Kingdom New Year's celebration, and he didn't want to miss it. Maybe just... not see it from right in the middle of it.
A few minutes later he was hauling himself up onto the peaked roof of one of the taller buildings that faced the wide street. It wasn't flat enough to have encouraged a roof party, but he wouldn't slide to his death if he sat down and relaxed a little. As he looked for someplace good to sit, he realized he wasn't the only one to get the idea. A lone figure wrapped in a cloak against the chill sat leaned against a wide chimney, a bottle resting on the small flat area at it's base, perfectly positioned to see the festivities.
Sokka hesitated, if the other guy wanted privacy... but he'd already scraped his hands once... "Hey, mind if I join you? I've got some crunchers we could share." He waved the fresh fried snacks enticingly. The other man turned towards him and he saw the features under the hood. Pale skin. Big scar. Gold eyes that almost glittered in the dark. Oops. "Or hey, I can find my own roof, no problem-"
A pale hand waved him over. "Come on, then, the parade's almost here." And, in spite of the mind boggling amount of weird currently in the area, he really didn't want to miss the parade, so... well, okay.
"Um, cruncher?" The prince took one but made a face while he crunched it.
"These look like fire flakes, but you might as well be eating oiled rice paper. Just because it's the Earth Kingdom everything doesn't have to be as boring as dirt..." He took a drink from the bottle beside him then after a slight hesitation, silently offered it over.
"Thanks? Um..." He took and experimental sip and was glad it hadn't been a gulp. Tastes exploded over his mouth and he managed manfully not to cough. "Wow! Not from the Earth Kingdom, I take it?"
"Spiced wine, Ember Island make. There's the dragon." The firebender gestured to the street and Sokka saw the crowd giving way to the huge puppet as it danced and roared. Red and gold streamers burst out of it's mouth to imitate flames and a soft snort could be heard on the roof.
The tribesman risked a sidelong glance and a smirk. "I assume they use real fire in the ones you grew up with?"
"Of course." After watching the dragon dance for a moment the prince startled him by adding, "But the costume is much heavier so it can be fireproof, so it isn't as lively. And the streamers aren't bad, they use the same sort of thing in the theater for firebending duels."
Sokka nodded, keeping his eyes on the parade. "We don't do anything like this in the Water Tribe. The new year is celebrated when the three month night ends." He thought he caught a slight shudder from beside him, but figured he must be imagining things.
"That would be something worth celebrating." Small fireworks were going off below them as more puppets passed and people cheered and danced.
"Did you go to New Year's parades in the Fire Nation?" He surprised himself with the question, but he was thinking of the pavilion at the start of the route where Aang had been asked to sit with the town's dignitaries. Surely that was how a prince would have been used to watching such a thing.
"I asked to once when I was young. I thought it was the most boring thing in the world and couldn't understand why the servants and guards were always so excited in the week before." Sokka was going to ask how it was different than what was going on below them - Fire Nation was probably so controlling that even their own people didn't have any fun - but Zuko spoke again first. "Then I heard one of Azula's bearers complaining that he had been stuck beside her palanquin for the whole thing and hadn't gotten to see the 'real parade'. It stuck in the back of my head, and the next year I said I didn't want to go again, and then snuck out of the palace to watch it on my own. Then I got it."
"How was it different?" He gestured for the wine bottle, worried he might be overstepping, but it was handed over without hesitation.
"When I saw it as a prince, the puppets would dance before us so perfectly, and the crowd that was there would applaud like they were at the opera. It was well done theater, but that's all that it was... A presentation, not a celebration. But when I saw it the next year, winding through the streets, they were dancing for themselves as much as for the crowd and people would scream and laugh and join in. It was like this but with more flames."
"Hmm... Guess for once I'm better off being the boomerang guy. Aang's missing the good part." Sokka heard a soft chuckle from beside him and caught a nod of agreement out of the corner of his eye. The puppets and entertainers were all past, and now the street was just filled with revelers dancing behind, forming a growing tail as the parade wound through the city. He wondered how this evening was going to end, when the relaxed boy beside him would turn back into Aang's obsessed stalker. Out of nowhere, he heard himself saying, "I didn't know I'd be seeing anyone tonight, so I didn't give you a New Year's gift."
When he heard the laugh again, stronger and honestly amused, he realized he'd said it just for that sound. "The company was nice. And you did offer to share your oiled rice paper." Zuko stood, stretching like a cat, and offered him the remainder of the wine. "I should get back to the ship. The crew will probably all be hung over tomorrow, so I'll let them sleep in till noon before I try to get anyone to care that the Avatar is here. Happy New Year."
And he simply stepped off the side of the building, catching a windowsill to swing himself safely to the ground and disappearing into the crowd. Sokka sat a moment, finishing the wine and thinking how stressful it would be if he told Aang and Katara about the encounter tonight. They wouldn't believe him that they could relax until the morning, and he wanted to rest in a nice warm bed. So he'd just wait to tell them at breakfast. His sister could make fun of his instincts all she wanted, but he somehow just knew that the prince wouldn't take back his New Year's gift.
A/N : Fire Nation is often considered to be based on Japanese culture, and while the modern Japanese apparently (from very lazy 'research') don't celebrate the Lunar New Year, they traditionally did before the Westernization efforts a couple centuries back. So I see no reason Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom wouldn't have similar traditions.
A/N2 : I'm still working on A Learning Experience! It will update soon! Don't hurt me!