Chapter 7 – Things have just begun

"Dammit guys, how do you climb this every day?" Sokka said panting as he finally arrived on top of the small hill where Zuko and Aang were standing, hugging warmly.

The water tribe boy was still breathing heavily when he noticed his friends reluctantly leaving their embrace. Sokka was embarrassed, but as he told himself, he hadn't come all this way just to stop at the last minute. So he spoke. "Hey." Was all that came out.

"Hi" Zuko said, amused.
"I – I just want to apologize for my… reaction earlier. I shouldn't have, well… it was all so sudden..." Sokka answered.

"Yeah…" Aang said while rubbing the back of his head with his hand, "Sorry about that."

Sokka made a gesture as if to dismiss Aang's apology "It's okay, it was me. Look – I talked to Katara and she told me about you two and how you had been thinking of each other that way for a while, and how it happened, and, well, it was…" Sokka swallowed. "Really sweet."

Sokka was looking down and so he couldn't see that Zuko had approached him and was surprised when the firebender took him in his arms. He liked the warmth of it, though. He patted the firebender on the back a few times and pulled away gently. The water tribe boy looked at Aang and Zuko and smiled. "Thanks for telling me, guys. I'll see you in the morning." He waved at his friends and left.

Sokka felt relieved.

Aang looked Zuko in the eyes with love. He was happy. Zuko smiled to Aang, then kissed him tenderly.

There was no need for words, truly.

Zuko took Aang's hand and led him up the small slope they had walked on so many times. As every day, they sat and looked towards the horizon. Aang's head rested itself on Zuko's shoulder and his right hand took Zuko's left. There was love and happiness in the air. The Sun was setting.

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Breathe in,

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Breathe out.

The End

/Author's note

And a sunset again. A few notes on the symbols I used throughout this story, in case there were some you didn't notice.

The obvious one is in the fact that the story is told in twenty-four hours: one revolution of the Sun and the Moon around the Earth. The story starts and ends with a sunset, and each chapter advances one step further in the cycle of a full day.

Another interesting symbol is in the positions Aang and Zuko adopt during the chapters. You may have noticed that in Chapter 1, Aang and Zuko are standing (or in this case, the action depicted is about Zuko who is standing) when the chapter begins, and are sitting at its end. In Chapter 2, Aang and Zuko are first sitting, then lying when the chapter ends. In Chapter 3, they are lying, then lying; in Chapter 4, they are lying, then sitting; in Chapter 5, they are sitting, then standing; in Chapter 6, they are standing, then standing; and in Chapter seven, they are standing, then sitting again, exactly as in Chapter 1. This symbol, although difficult to notice when reading the story, was planned from the beginning. Do you think it had any kind of unconscious influence on the sense of harmony you got from reading this story? Because that is exactly the word that sums up my state of mind while writing this. Harmony.

Finally, the last symbol is exterior to the story in itself: I published the seven chapters throughout exactly one year: Chapter 1 came out on the 19th of December, 2012, and Chapter seven has come out today, on the 19th of December, 2013.

I hope that if there are any gay people reading this, they find enough peace within themselves to accept their sexuality.

Love.