A/N: Hi. So this is a one-shot series,/dumpsite for ATLA mostly so I can fiddle around with the characters and play with ideas. Mostly for practice though, seeing as I haven't written anything in forever. Evidence of such is seen in my horrible choice of a title for my collections.
This plot bunny bite me and wouldn't let go, so I wrote it out. My inspiration was the balloon ride Zuko and Sokka take on their way to the Boiling Rock, when Sokka talked about Yue. This takes place in a no powers, modern AU.
Sokka/Yue kinda.
Zuko/Mai if you squint.
Alone Together: A Collection of Shattered Hearts
To Fall.
9/18/14
The night was cool as Sokka walked, the lights of the great city twinkling in the distance. They danced and winked across tall buildings, never stopping, never pausing.
Never noticing.
Sokka looked up to the moon, a great bright light illuminating his dark corner of the world. Here, away from the city and its lights and noise, he could see the stars. They lay nestled across the sky, diamonds in folds of black silk. Sokka's heart clenched at the sight of the moon, breath becoming harder to call to him.
It hurt.
It hurt to look at the moon and to think of her. To think of the girl whose smile could send his heart in a fluttering thrum, like the wings of a hummingbird. The girl whose hair was so bright and soft between his finger as he held her on the rare nights they could be together. The girl with eyes like sapphire and skin as smooth as porcelain.
The girl who died, five hours ago.
It had been stupid and unfair and just so sudden and it was his fault because she had wanted to end things but he just couldlethergoandhestillcouldn'tand-
Her let her go. He had to. The cops came after the accident and had to forcibly rip him away from her, screaming at him that CPR wasn't going to work and that she was gone, son, she's gone. They took him to the police station to call his dad.
They took her to the morgue.
Sokka couldn't remember much from the police station, only being slightly aware that he'd answer whenever asked a question. He could only remember feeling cold and numb, as if when she died, she took his soul with her too. Sometime between the kind police officer who gave him a blanket and a cup of coffee and the scramble of police going out to answer a call, suspectedarsonsuspectseenfleeingthescene, Sokka slipped out of the building. He walked without knowing, and his feet brought him to a park, far from the city. He stood on a bridge, under a single light, and stared and stared and stared.
He tried breathing. Really, he did. But a sob bubbled up from his throat, and he hunched over the railing on the pedestrian bridge. He cried until he couldn't, distracted by the plop plop plop of his tears dripping into the water far below. Ripples raced across the water, shimmering the image of the reflected moon. Sokka stared until something settled over him. Mechanically, he climbed over the chest-high railing of the bridge. He stood with his arms behind him, hooked in between the bars of the railing. He balanced on his heels and it would just take on little shift of weight to send himself over. Sokka's heart beat fast, and for the first time since it happened, he felt alive. At peace. He unhooked his arms from the bars and leaned forward and justalittlemore-
"It's not going to kill you, if that's what you want."
With a yelp, butitwasaverymanlyyelp, Sokka threw himself onto the railing, his arms weaving in between the cold metal. Sokka looked and glared at his...rescuer? Intruder?
Sokka's face flushed in embarrassment. "I-I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just enjoying the view."
Sokka couldn't see the stranger's face in the dark, it was too well hidden in shadows. But the stranger's voice carried his disbelief. "Right. Because the view face down in the water is a good one," he said, moving towards the railing, but staying out of Sokka's circle of light. "Only except it isn't high enough. And there are no rocks to hopefully smash your head in on. The most that would happen is that you'd shattered your legs."
Sokka stared at the stranger, trying to puzzle out just where has he heard that voice before. He continue to stare as the lithe figure smoothly lifted himself up and over the railing to stand on the edge with Sokka. Nothing was said.
One second.
Two seconds.
"How do you know?" Sokka whispered into the night, looking over towards the water.
The other boy barked out a strangled laugh, startling Sokka and causing him to hang on tighter. Making sure he wasn't going to fall anytime soon, Sokka turned his attention back to the mystery before him. The other boy fell silent, staring down at the water like it held all of life's answers.
"Oh," Sokka said weakly, glancing towards the water.
The other boy looked at Sokka, finally close enough to let the light hit his face. The face hit him like a ton of bricks. The angry freak from school, who was always alone, always glaring, and never said a word to anyone that wasn't, "Go away." The freak that was in and out of juvenile detention centers because of arson. The kid whose face was consumed by an angry red scar that always had people wondering, what happened?
"Zuko?" Sokka asked. The other boy flinched and went back to looking down at the water. A heavy silence settled on the pair that were just so close to the edge. One little push, and it'd be over, right? Zuko had to be wrong; the fall had to at least break his neck. But then, Sokka thought, he didn't sound wrong. Sokka stared at the moon, tears welling in his eyes.
"Whatever it is, it can't be worth your life." Sokka's eyes snapped back towards Zuko, angry.
"You don't know what I'm going through! You can't ever kno-"
"I know enough. I know the way despair swallows you whole, clouding you in darkness and making it so you can't see that there is still something to live for, you just have to find it," Zuko interrupted, his voice solid and firm. He continued, only his voice softer this time, "It not like you have a father that hates you, a mother that's missing, and a sister that seems to always find a way to convince the cops that I set those fires, that I hurt those people." Another strangled laugh crawled from his chest. "I wonder what she'll do once I'm eighteen and can be tried as an adult. Who is she going to blame for her fires once I'm locked away for good?"
Sokka stared in shock. He let the silence stretch on. He looked up at the moon, tears still in his eyes.
"My girlfriend died tonight," he said firmly. Zuko looked at him, then back to the water below.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Right, you and everyone else on the entire planet," Sokka snarled. With a desperate laugh, he continued, "It was so stupid how it happened, too. Like something from a movie, where the guy dies and everyone laughs because it's just so ridiculous. Only it's not. Not when it really happens. Cars suddenly losing control and slamming your girlfriend into a wall isn't funny. It's not funny when she's gasping for air, crying and telling you things will be okay, because you know they won't be okay and there is blood everywhere and it's awful and there is no escaping it or any cool one liners or anything to give you reassurance that yeah, things will be okay."
Sokka released a shuddering gasp, legs shaking as he tried to desperately keep the tears from falling again. His arms tightened around the bars, cold metal biting into his skin.
"Life isn't like a movie. And ending yours won't make it better. That pain you're feeling, the pain that is eating away at your heart right now, do you want to give that to someone else!?" Zuko bit out.
Eyes wide, Sokka stared at the pale boy. Laughing blue eyes and dark skin floated in his mind. Looking down, Sokka sighed. "No. I-I couldn't do that to my sister or my dad. We're all we have left of our family since Gran-Gran died last spring. What I'm feeling, this evil gnawing hole in my chest, I-I just couldn't do that to Katara. S-she never really got over mom, and that was so long ago," Sokka mumbled. Hearing himself say it out loud made it all the more real. Maybe, just maybe, the pain he felt eased. With one last look at the water, Sokka hoisted himself back over the railing. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at the boy still standing on the edge.
"Come on Zuko, let's get out of here," he said, walking past the scarred teen, gesturing for him to follow.
"Would it bug you if I told you I came here to die?" Zuko asked, his words freezing Sokka in place. "I was hoping the water had risen high enough this time, but it didn't. I-I have nothing to go back to, to go home to. I just-"
"Enough of that. Remember, life isn't a movie? You just told me that. So no sappy speeches about having nothing. I'm sure you have something. A pet that needs you to feed it? A teacher that likes seeing you? Something in this world likes you, Zuko," Sokka said, a sad smile on his face as he crossed his arms.
Zuko glared at him and opened his mouth to spit poison words at him, but then stopped. His eyes widened slightly as he came to realization. "M-my uncle. He would be heartbroken. And there's this girl in my class who is always, well, not nice, but she tries talking to me. Because she thinks I'm interesting and the only one who isn't boring in that class. S-she wouldn't have anyone to talk to if I was gone, I guess," he finished lamely.
"See? There you go pal!" Sokka exclaimed, eye twinkling in amusement. He walked over the Zuko and offered him his hand. As he helped Zuko hoist himself over the bar, he said, "And plus, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. So I guess you can kinda say I owe you my life."
The two stared at each other, both still grasping the other's forearm. Zuko swallowed hard and nodded shakily. "Yeah," he whispered.
Sokka beamed and threw his arm around the startled boy's shoulders. "Now come let's go, oh hero of my. I don't feel like going home yet and getting depressed again, so let's go out on the town and ignore our problems like the dysfunctional teens we are. Oooh, I know! We can go to the Rage Rumbles! The Boulder and the Blind Bandit are fighting for the championship belt tonight!"
Zuko smiled and rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. The two walked towards the glistening town, moon shining bright above them.
