Inspired by one of tumblr user keirbear-rawr's zukka drawings, you'll know the one if you search them up.

What a great way to kick of the new year, huh? Staying up till 3am editing and revising something a stayed up till 4am yesterday writing. Seriously though, it feels great getting back into writing. Haven't done it since April, probably. Haven't written for this fandom in longer than that! 2011 was the last I did anything for Zukka and that... didn't end... well... Not that you would know, since this is a whole new account.

Anyway!

"Sokka, we can do it after the meeting," Zuko sighed for the uptenth time. He glanced over at his partner who - unsurprisingly - did his darndest to look like a kicked cat rabbit. The Fire Lord had decided he would not fall for it though. Not again.

"Please," Sokka whined, tugging lightly on their intertwined hands. "This is like… the hundredth meeting you've gone to. And that's just this week! When are we gonna have date night?"

Zuko slowed his walk as he mauled over his boyfriend's words. He knew Sokka was over exaggerating, but perhaps missing one meeting wouldn't hurt. Besides that, it wasn't everyday that Sokka visited the Royal Palace. The Water Tribesman yielded as well, half out of being forced to and half out of hopes that they would turn and leave that second. The slim chance was quickly squashed as he watched Zuko shake his head in finality.

"We have these meetings for a reason, Sokka," Zuko answered, picking up his pace once more.

Sokka sighed, but made no more arguments. He wistfully tried to recall the last time he had gotten to spend any alone time with Zuko: two months. The Fire Lord gave Sokka's hand a reassuring squeeze, successfully drawing his attention. "Hey, we'll find time this week," Zuko murmured.

"Promise?"

"Promise,"

Sokka's spirits lifted as he gave a wide, toothy grin. Zuko returned the gesture with a smaller, but still genuine smile.

"Oh, hey guys," a familiarly cheerful voice greeted.

The men shifted their attention to the two figures in front of them. Apparently, they had gotten so lost in each other's smiles that they hadn't noticed arriving at their destination. Aang and Katara stood outside the door. Sokka wondered if the couple had been waiting for them.

"Hey, 'Tara. Hey, Aang," Sokka greeted, giving a curt wave with his free hand.

"Aang thought we should wait for you two before going inside," Katara explained, confirming Sokka's thoughts. For a brief moment, she gave her brother an odd look before turning back to Aang. It looked somewhere between a smirk and a smile, Sokka decided. Then he decided he didn't fully trust that look, but ignored it for the moment. The sooner they got on with the meeting the sooner it would be over.

Aang pushed open the door, but not before getting two steps into the room was the group ushered right back out. "What is the meaning of this?" Zuko asked in an agitated tone. He had never been shooed out of his own meeting room. It reminded him too much of when he had been a child.

"My apologize, Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang," the man said with a slight bow, blatantly ignoring the two Water Tribe members. "However, this meeting is for the highest ranking government officials,"

"Yeah, that's why we're here," Sokka huffed, waving a hand at the shut door.

"No, that is not what I meant. This meeting is only for high ranking government officials: leaders, royalty, avatars," he drawled before waving a hand at Katara and Sokka, "Not boyfriends or spouses."

Had the man not just seemingly insulted Katara, Aang would have sputtered at the implications. Instead, he furrowed his brows and inquired, "Why not? Katara and Sokka have played huge roles in saving the world and keeping peace. More than anyone else in there. Their opinions should matter just as much as ours."

"But they do not currently- "

Zuko cut the man off, having only held his tongue so that Aang could give the man a piece of his mind as well. "Whether they do or they don't hold any political standing - and believe me, they do - it is not your place to decided who is let into my meeting hall. You are a guest here King Toa and I expect- "

"Whoa there! Down, armadillo lion," Sokka quickly cut in, placing a hand on Zuko's chest to push him back from the Ka Muji Colonial leader. He could only imagine the repercussions of talking smack to an Earth Kingdom leader not four years after the end of a major war. Even if the guy was just the leader of a small Colony.

Sokka narrowed his eyes at the man before glancing back at his best friend and lover. "Katara and I will hang back here, you guys have your meeting," he told them rather than suggested.

Before either could protest Katara added, "Sokka's right. Our feelings aren't worth severing ties with leaders over."

It looked as though Zuko wanted to argue, but gave in when he saw Aang's acceptance of the situation. In hopes to cheer Zuko up, Sokka added, "Besides, who wants to go to yet another dumb meeting? You two are getting the real short end of the stick."

The Avatar and Fire Lord gave slight nods before moving through the door without Katara nor Sokka.

Once the heavy wooden door shut behind the King, the siblings dropped their masks of political politeness. Sokka grumbled to himself before he slumped to the ground. Katara attempted to will herself into becoming a firebender and set Toa's robes on fire through the door. When her planned failed, she took a seat next to Sokka.

Knowing how long the meetings usually took, and how ungodly long they seemed when uninvolved, Katara decided to pass the time with the question on her mind. "So, when did you and Zuko become so oogie?"

"What?" Sokka scoffed in disbelief. He snapped his head up from where he had been glaring at the floor. "We are not oogie,"

Katara raise a single eyebrow. "You guys were holding hands all the way here and staring at each other the whole time. That's pretty oogie,"

"It is not," Sokka squeaked, voice rising to a pitch he had thought he'd never reach again.

She gave him an unconvinced 'uh-huh'.

"Well, it's still not as oogie as you and airboy," Sokka countered, defensively reverting back to his old nickname for Aang.

"I don't walk around while gazing into Aang's eyes,"

"But you two kiss,"

"And you two haven't?" Katara scoffed. In all honesty, she had never seen her brother and Zuko go beyond innocent pecks before, but she knew they did. People don't just get hickeys after all.

"S-sure, but you two do it. All. The. Time. Plus, I don't go around publicly sucking on his face," Sokka shot back. Not that he hadn't been planning to do just that on their date night, but Katara didn't need to know that.

"I-I don't s-suck on his face," Katara sputtered.

An impressive blush spread across her cheeks and over her ears. Sokka had to hold back his snickering least he wanted a snowball to the face. Not that he might not get one later anyway. "Sure you do," Sokka said, pulling himself together just long enough to give a mocking moan, "Ohh Aang, I wanna lick your face."

Katara groaned, as if just listening her brother gave her physical pain. She pushed Sokka's shoulder and succeeded in knocking him to the ground. Sokka was far too gone in his laughter to care though. Katara argued, "At least we don't have stupid pet names."

"What!? You guys call each other 'sweetie' all the time,"

"Yeah, but 'sweetie' is normal. I've never called Aang my," she raised her hands in the air for quotation marks, "little komodo rhino."

"H-hey," Sokka could only say, his face heating up to an uncomfortable degree.

"Oh, Zuko," Katara sang in a bad impression of her brother, "My turtle duck prince, my handsome dragon, my cuddly otter penguin, my- "

"Okay, okay, I get it! So, maybe I could use some work on the pet names," Sokka said in defeat. However, he felt far more embarrassed Katara had heard him call Zuko all those things rather than the pet names themselves. He figured one of them had to give embarrassing pet names and it wasn't going to be Zuko with his 'babe' calling.

Sokka pondered a moment, not wanting to be bested by his little sister. A sudden memory came crashing back to him. The thought gave him a face splitting smile, before triumphantly boasting, "At least I never asked Gran Gran if..."

.~.~.~.~.~.

"That still didn't have to be a reserved meeting," Zuko commented, still bitter over leaving Sokka in the hall. He stood beside Aang, waiting for the monk so that they may leave together.

The airbender gave his friend an empathetic look. He didn't think the meeting had to exclude Katara and Sokka either, but he had only been half listening anyway. At least it ended and he could spend some relaxation time with his girlfriend. Aang glanced at the only window in the room, pleased to see that no significant amount of time had passed. It had to have been an hour at most. He hoped Katara and Sokka hadn't become too bored in their wait for them.

Aang tuned back into Zuko's grumbling, catching something about a chart. He decided an interruption was due. "So, you and Sokka want to join me and Katara for a bite to eat? There's this new Udon place that has the best noodles,"

Zuko stopped mid-word, only pausing half a second before nodding. "That sounds great, Aang,"

Said boy beamed before he and Zuko strolled out of the meeting room. They were not; however, prepared for the loud scene that awaited them.

"-swore you'd never bring that up," Katara all but shouted. fists balled at her sides and face as red as the Fire Nation's flag.

"And you said you'd never bring up the sheep, but here we are," Sokka shouted back, throwing his arms wide into the air.

Zuko and Aang shared a look of confusion as they watched the two siblings go at it. Shaking himself from his surprise, Zuko spoke first, "What are you two… " he paused, deciding to choose his words carefully, "debating about this time?"

The two Water Tribe members only now seemed to realize their audience. That fact did little quell their argument as Sokka piped up defensively, "She thinks we're more oogie than her and Aang."

"Uhhh… " Zuko responded dumbly.

"You two are more oogie! What about the spoon feeding?" Katara exclaimed, poking Sokka square in chest.

"He was injured, I couldn't let him starve," Sokka argued, swatting away her hand.

Katara quickly pointed out, "You did it for weeks! Even after he was fully healed."

"He didn't seem healed enough to me. Besides, that was even before we got together, you can't count that,"

Meanwhile, Zuko could only give a sidelong glance at Aang as he whispered, "Oogie?"

The airbender took a moment longer to watch the display before turning to his friend slightly. "It means mushy romantic," Aang answered in a low voice, just as fearful as Zuko was about drawing attention.

"At least Aang isn't planning on building a city for me,"

Zuko felt his face flush considerably before trying to cut in, "H-hey! Republic City isn't- "

"Aang made you a statue," Sokka shot back.

Now it had been Aang that turned considerably red. Though, as embarrassed as he was, he couldn't dispute the claim.

"A city is was more extreme than a statue,"

"Yeah, but Aang built it himself"

"He used bending and- "

"It still took weeks,"

Their thoroughly embarrassed counterparts glanced at each other, silently willing the other to break the two apart. It was Aang who stepped up first, clearing his throat before continuing, "Come on, guys. Look, we all do mushy romantic things for each other, can't we just call it a tie?"

At the sight of another argument forming, Zuko came to Aang's defense, "He's right. Besides, who cares? We each found someone we can put our entire heart into, shouldn't that be winning enough?"

Katara and Sokka seemed to consider the words before both nodded. "You're right," Katara said with a small smile. She gave Aang a loving gaze before reaching a hand out for his and intertwining their fingers. Sokka moved beside Zuko and draped an arm across his shoulders. Zuko immediately leaned into his boyfriend and ran his hand along the arm that held him.

The two couples walked away from the meeting hall in comfortable silence. At least, it had been silent before Sokka added, "But you know… even if Zuko and I were more oogie, we totally earned it. I mean, you and Aang have been together way longer and even before that you guys were still making goo-goo eyes at each other. When we first met, we tried to kick each other's asses and- "

"Sokka,"