"Are you seriously moping over there again, Serg?" an irritating voice asked from behind Sokka.

He'd barely heard it over the loud, thumping music that was playing over the loud speakers of the bar, but there was just something so grating about it that Sokka just couldn't seem to ignore. He literally had to use all of his willpower to stop himself from slamming his forehead down onto the counter.

Slowly, he turned to Jet. Fucking Jet. Okay, he was being unfair. He really didn't mind Jet too much, but he had his moments. They'd gone to the police academy together, which was where they had met. His only gripe with the dude was his infatuation with Katara. It didn't seem to matter to Jet that Aang and Katara were already practically married. He still thought he had a shot with her. Not that she'd ever tolerate him anyhow, so he didn't really need to worry about his subordinate and his sister shacking up.

But it wasn't just him! Another officer Sokka found equally irritating, Hahn, had latched onto him, too. He was a Water Tribe native, just like Sokka. He, on the other hand, was a northerner. They'd known each other since they were kids because of the inter tribal gatherings, but they didn't grow up together, not really. For years, there had been this unspoken rivalry between them. Hahn mocked Sokka as much as possible, and Sokka did exactly that back. When he'd moved to Ba Sing Se with Katara, Aang, and Toph, Hahn had followed. If Sokka could have helped it, he would have told the guy to fuck off and go somewhere else. But he was just too damn nice for that. He was the bigger person. Considering the childhood rivalry thing that went on, though, Sokka didn't exactly understand how Hahn had become one of his Friday night drinking buddies.

Regardless of his daily irritations with both Hahn and Jet, he still found himself in a bar with the jerks damn near every fricken Friday. He never had one to himself. If he tried to leave without them, they'd always follow him there. If they couldn't find him, they'd blow up his phone until he told them where he'd gone. They were like children. Except, like, the same age as him and way craftier. And after a particularly long day of listening to the pair of them argue in the bullpen over some bullshit that happened on a patrol, he was done with both of them.

Hence the reason he was sitting at the bar, sipping on his cactus juice while making it obnoxiously clear that he wanted to be alone. And by that, he literally had made a wall of menus around himself so he didn't have to talk to anyone. He was satisfied to be alone with his thoughts and his glass.

Cactus juice had quickly become Sokka's new favorite mixed drink. Four years had passed since Piandao had introduced him to it that first night at The Secret Tunnel, a bar in the middle ring, and it was still his go-to when he went to the joint. It was busy that night. He, Jet, and Hahn actually had to wait in the bouncer line for once, which had been a shock. Luckily, Teo was at the bar and had gotten their drinks out to them in no time at all.

But the wall of menus did nothing to hide him from Jet.

"I'm not moping. I'm hiding."

"From what?"

"You."

He heard the scrape of chair legs to his right as Jet pulled out the chair beside him. If the counter in front of him wasn't so sticky, he would have seriously contemplated thwacking his head off the surface.

"And you're sitting next to me," Sokka said. "I said I was hiding from you. How do you see that as an invitation to sit?"

Jet shrugged as he plucked one of Sokka's menus from its place. It just happened to be the menu separating the pair of them. Jet flipped through it for a moment before setting it down in front of him. Fucking prick.

"You're definitely moping," Jet said. "What's going on?"

"I'm not-"

"Well, if your denial is really just that thick, then I guess we'll just have to talk about my problems," Jet said

Sokka couldn't control the twitch in his eye. Jet hadn't even let him finish the sentence. Sure, he was gonna say 'I'm not moping', but now that he'd gone in and interrupted him... Maybe he did want to mope. There was a lot he could mope about. Like the responsibility of being a sergeant over idiots like Jet and Hahn.

Just a year earlier, Sokka had solved a particularly grueling and depressing arson case. He'd been promoted to sergeant not long after, and since then, he'd been working his ass off to help make the station run smoothly. Jet and Hahn always seemed to make his job harder.

And don't get him wrong. Sokka loved his job. It was one of the few things, aside from his friends, that made him happy these days. Sokka had been through a lot since that first night on patrols. It had changed him for better and for worse, but he'd made it through. He'd succeeded in building a name for himself, so that was a start.

The point is, if he really wanted to mope, he could mope. Moping was something he was good at given the right circumstances. He honestly felt a little miffed that Jet had cut him off before he could make that decision. But he let it go because, in all honesty, it wasn't worth telling Jet anything that was remotely close to gossip. He'd tell Hahn, and Hahn... Well, Hahn would tell anyone in the station who would listen. He'd learned that lesson the hard way several times over.

"Since Katara is taking her sweet time in realizing what we could have would be special-" Jet started.

"No chance there, buddy," Sokka responded dully, sipping on his drink. "She doesn't like you."

"That's a technicality," Jet said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Sokka snorted and thought, a pretty big technicality.

"Anyhow. Since I'm waiting for Katara, I figured I'd look at other girls. Test out the waters. Maybe make Katara realize what she's missing out on."

"Uh-huh," Sokka hummed. "And who is the unfortunate victim this week."

He saw Jet roll his eye before he jammed his thumb in the direction of a group of girls across the bar. There were three of them, and Sokka had to admit, all three of them were attractive. Not that he was exactly concerned about their looks. He'd sworn off girls for at least another year; he wasn't ready for that sort of commitment.

"The one with the bangs and the one bun is the one I'm looking at," Jet said.

Sokka squinted his eyes and attempted to focus on the girls' features from where he sat. Apparently, the cactus juice was hitting him harder than he'd thought. He'd only had, what, two or three. That wasn't too bad.

But, anywho, back to the girls. The first one he saw was tall. She had bangs, two buns, and a sour expression. Definitely not that one. The next was shorter. She also had bangs, but her hair was twisted into a long braid. Not her, either. The last girl was about average height. This girl had bangs and a single bun, just as Jet had described. This had to be the one.

"Isn't she hot?" Jet asked as he leaned over the counter.

Sokka gave a shrug of agreement. "I don't really do one night stands. You know how I feel on that."

Jet groaned, but before he could say anything, another person to Sokka's left chimed in.

"She'll take one look at you and try to crush you like a spider roach," they said.

Something sounded kind of familiar about that voice, something that Sokka couldn't place. It had a certain texture to it that he couldn't describe as anything but smokey. He glanced over at the speaker, and as soon as his eyes made contact, they widened slightly. Beside him sat the guy as Sokka had referred to him to his sister, Aang, and Toph after that night.

It was Zuko.

Sokka had seen a number of the people he had helped because of his job when he was off the clock. He'd seen them, exchanged a few words, and moved on with his day feeling good about the encounter. But he'd never crossed paths with Zuko. He'd imagined what it would be like meeting him after that day in the hospital, but he'd never seen him. In the last four years, he hadn't seen Zuko once. At one point, he was worried that he'd find the guy dead in a ditch somewhere or his face would appear on the news for some recent homicide. But that never happened, either. Ba Sing Se was a big city so he knew he really shouldn't have been surprised. Still, seeing him now in a bar that he came to weekly, he found that he was surprised.

Sokka hadn't seen him before through his wall of menus, but now that he was looking... He was here, in the flesh, and Sokka couldn't describe the emotions that were running through him. He looked the same as he did back then. His hair was longer now. Messier, but his face looked the same. Until he turned his head. The last time Sokka had seen him, Zuko had been covered in bandages. He hadn't seen the burn that lay beneath or what the lasting damage had been. Not until now.

Zuko had, just as Sokka expected, a large, angry, red scar stretching over his left eye. The skin was so puckered and keloided that Sokka was surprised to see that beneath it all his golden eye was still intact. Sokka was probably staring for too long because Zuko turned to meet his gaze. Fuck. There came the awkward eye contact. He needed to look away. He needed to stop staring at him, but he just couldn't. This was the victim from the night that had haunted his dreams for months. How could someone expect him to just look away?

Thankfully, Jet's voice shifted his attention. He looked at the officer who had an irritated look on his face. "How would you know? She hasn't met me yet."

Zuko simply shrugged and looked back at the drink that was in his hand. It had that distinct caramel color of straight firewhiskey, and it was definitely on the rocks. Gross.

"Shoot your shot, man," Sokka said.

"I think I will," Jet replied. Sokka heard the distinct scrape of his chair on the floor, and before he knew it, he was on his way through the crowd, away from Sokka.

Sokka breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank Agni something had gotten rid of Jet for just a little while. He didn't think he could handle any more of his self-absorbed conversations.

"You got dragged out here, too, huh?" that same rasping voice asked from beside him.

Sokka looked over to his left. Shit. Zuko. Right. How could he have forgotten already? He quickly scrambled to take the menus down in some attempt to save face.

"Uh, yeah," he said quickly. Tui and La, he was embarrassing himself. "My coworkers Jet and Hahn make me come here just about every Friday."

"This is my first time here," Zuko said.

"It's not bad," Sokka said lamely. "I like it. The drinks are good."

He lifted his glass and took a sip. The alcohol hit his tongue, and he hummed delightfully in response. It was fruity and sweet and tart all at the same time. It left a pleasant coolness in his chest when he drank it.

"What're you drinking?" Zuko asked quietly. Sokka could barely hear him over the music. He had to strain his ears just to catch the soft words.

"It's cactus juice. My personal favorite, if I do say so myself," he said.

"What's it like? I'm a firewhiskey kind of guy," he said. "Is it anything like that?"

"Well, not really. It's cooler, more quenchy, I think. You should try it," Sokka suggested. "It'll quench ya. Nothing is quenchier. It's the quenchiest!"

Sokka blinked as soon as the word vomit tumbled from his lips. What the hell..? He just stared at Zuko, completely dumbfounded with himself. Was he drunker than he initially thought? He had to be for that shit he'd just spewed.

Zuko looked at him, equally nonplussed. "I'll take your word for it," he said as he brought his own glass to his lips. Sokka could see the slightest of smirks resting there, and that made him feel a little bit better.

"I'm Sokka," he said. He scratched the back of his head, shooting Zuko a grin.

"I know."

"Oh," Sokka said. And then, "I'm surprised you remember me."

Zuko shrugged. "I guess you're not easy to forget."

"Neither are you."

Zuko snorted in response. "I'm sure you've had worse calls."

"Oh, I have," Sokka said with a shift of his eyes. Staring at his cactus juice seemed a lot easier than allowing Zuko to see the sadness in his eyes. "But that night was my first night on patrols. Before that, I'd just been on desk duty."

That seemed to freeze Zuko with his glass halfway to his lips. "Well then."

"Helluva first," he said with a shrug. "Anywho. Enough of that. What's been going on with you?"

"Aside from being dragged to the bar with my sister and her friends?"

"Yeah, aside from that."

Zuko sipped his drink, again. "Ah, not much, really."

"C'mon," Sokka said. "It's been four years. You have to have done something."

The man beside him was quiet for a few moments as he swirled the liquid in his glass. When he didn't make a move to say anything right away, Sokka took those moments just to stare at him. When he'd initially met Zuko, he came off as angry. Angry and, well, afraid of some unknown monster lurking in the corner. Considering the circumstances, he understood why, but... Now, he seemed so relaxed. Sokka didn't see any traces of anger or fear or even stress in his posture. He was a carefree, relaxed guy having a drink. He didn't seem anything like the jerk he'd originally met back then.

"I hear you got promoted to sergeant," Zuko eventually said. "I saw it on the news."

Sokka perked up at this. "Yeah! I got the new job last year-" He froze, his eyes shifting over to Zuko. He pointed his finger at the guy and shook it. "Hey wait! I see what you're doing! Don't turn the conversation away from you."

"It'd bore you," Zuko said simply.

"I didn't ask for an entire life's story full of riveting details." Zuko breathed out a snort at that, and Sokka took it as a sign to continue. "Just tell me something. One thing. And I'll tell you one thing. Something the news can't tell you. How about that?"

"Are you sure you weren't a door to door sales person in a past life?"

"Haha. People say I could sell cabbages. That is, if I liked them," Sokka deadpanned. He hid a smile behind his glass. He couldn't have Zuko thinking he actually thought the guy was funny. Because that was lamer than one of the puns he reserves for Sunday dinners at Kataras. "Now isn't the time for your comic ingenuity, Zuko. Besides, it's best you leave that to the pros like myself."

"You'll have to tell me when your next standup show is," Zuko said. "I'll be sure to get a ticket before you sell out. If you sell out."

"Now that's just cold," Sokka said as he mimed a wounded stance. "I'll have you know my comedy is great."

"Uh huh."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Do we have a deal?"

"Fine," Zuko said. He huffed out a little sigh before he turned his body toward Sokka more. His elbow leaned casually on the counter with his hand acting as a cushion to support his head. His other hand held his nearly empty glass. "After I recovered, my Uncle and I went backpacking across the Earth Kingdom."

Now that was a story that Sokka could jump on. "No shit! Where'd ya go?" he asked. "Anywhere specific?"

Zuko shrugged. "Not really."

Sokka blinked. Zuko could really be a man of few words when he wanted to be. "Care to expand?"

"We went all over, I guess."

"Did anything eventful happen?"

"Aside from Uncle making poisonous tea, not really."

Sokka looked at Zuko as if he'd grown three heads. "You can't just lead with that and not tell the story!"

Cue the awkward turtleduck face. Zuko looked absolutely flustered at Sokka's sudden interest in his life, but the guy just rolled with it.

"Uh. This was when we first got on the road. We were camping on the edge of a small town, and he thought he'd try and make some tea from some of the local plants. He thought he'd found the white dragon bush, but I guess he found the white jade bush, which made a tea that was a deadly poison," Zuko said. Another fond, little smile played on Zuko's lips, and Sokka found it entirely endearing. "Well, he made the tea and gave it to some of the locals to try. They all got poisoned, and Uncle, well, he got arrested for it because we're obviously foreigners with poison. I had to track him down and talk the cops out of the charges because obviously he wouldn't be trying to poison himself along with the locals."

Sokka was invested in Zuko's story. It was funny and intriguing, and it honestly reminded him of all of the shit that he and the gaang had gotten into when they were younger. That, and he couldn't help but think that Zuko was freaking hot. He had those mesmerizing eyes that Sokka had been drawn to since he'd met the guy. His hair was that perfect kind of messy. His jawline was sharp and defined. The scar on his face didn't bother Sokka, either. It put a strong aura behind him. The guy had that super smokey actor voice. Heck, he even swirled his drink while he talked. Who wouldn't think that that was hot? But Sokka's intent staring must have bothered him because suddenly, Zuko stopped. He seemed to become self aware all of a sudden, which Sokka didn't particularly like. He had been enjoying the story. That, and his hotness. But that was beside the point.

"Fuck. Sorry. I'm talking too much," he said, looking away.

In the dim lighting, Sokka could see that his cheeks were a bright red color. Zuko was blushing. Sokka couldn't help but smile dumbly at him. It was a big, toothy grin that he couldn't suppress. Gods, if he was acting like this, he had to be drunk. He never got interested in people.

"No! I liked the story!" he said animatedly. "It's funny!"

That only seemed to make Zuko blush more. He didn't seem to like the praise that Sokka was giving him, even if it was miniscule.

Zuko cleared his throat. "Why don't you keep up your end of the deal."

"Fair enough," Sokka said, nodding. "Hmm. Not long into my first year as a beat cop, I went to Kyoshi Island with my sister and our friend Aang."

"How'd you end up there?"

"We were passing through on our way to see some friends in the Northern Water Tribe," he said. "We ended up staying longer than planned. Met some awesome people there. One of them actually moved up here and started a self defense dojo based on the traditional fighting style of Kyoshi Island."

"Oh, I think I've heard of that," Zuko said much to Sokka's surprise. "I think Ty Lee works there. She always comes over with weird face paint."

Sokka chuckled. "Yeah. That sounds like Suki's dojo alright."

"Huh," Zuko said.

"What?"

"Small world, I guess."

"How so?"

"Well, our friends are friends, but neither of us have crossed paths once in the last four years," Zuko said with a nonchalant wave of his glass.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sokka agreed.

A quiet silence followed, and in that silence, Sokka and Zuko finished their drinks. Sokka didn't feel the need to fill the silence. He didn't mind the quiet so much. Usually, it bothered him, but there was something about this silence with Zuko that didn't seem all that bad.

"I never said thank you, by the way," Zuko said after a while.

Sokka looked at him, brows furrowed. "Hmm? What for?"

"For coming in and saving me that night," he replied quietly. His voice was so quiet, Sokka almost missed what he'd said entirely. "They said I would have lost my sight completely had I come in any later. So, thank you for that."

"Don't mention it," Sokka said. "I was doing my job. If I wasn't around, someone else would have been. Plus, it was my pleasure to save a damsel in distress."

Zuko laughed awkwardly, his face burning that same bright red again. "Right."

Another silence lapsed around them, but it didn't last too long. Shouts from across the bar pulled them out of their quiet. Sokka turned his head. Jet's white t-shirt was covered in dark, red liquid. Probably wine. The source of that wine was an empty glass in the hand of the girl Zuko had said would crush Jet like a spider roach.

"And that's my cue to leave," Zuko said. He set his glass on the counter, and Sokka watched as he ran a weary hand over his face. "Thanks for tonight. It was nice to talk to someone who doesn't look at me with pity because of my scar."

"Happy to oblige," Sokka said with a light salute.

As Zuko got up to collect his friends and leave, he flashed Sokka a smile that looked more like a grimace. But Sokka would take it. He'd take anything if it meant that he didn't see fear in Zuko's eyes four years after his accident. If it meant the guy was happy. Before he could stop himself, Sokka reached out and grabbed Zuko's elbow. He was just as shocked with the gesture as Zuko seemed to be, but Sokka just rolled with it.

"Honestly, man," he said, his tone shifting from joking to sincere. "I'm glad you're alright. Not a lot of people would have been able to bounce back from that. You're a strong guy."

That earned him another grimace-like smile, but again, Sokka would take it. "Thanks. I'll see you around."

"Yeah. See you around."

And then Zuko took that smokey voice of his and left. He left, and Sokka doubted that he'd actually see him around. If Zuko had been so elusive in the last four years, Sokka could only imagine what the future would mean.

A sudden realization hit Sokka. He didn't ask the dude for his phone number.

Sokka's head hit the counter of the bar with a complete disregard for the stickiness there. A loud groan fell from his lips. That conversation had to be one of the strangest yet most interesting he'd had in a long time. And he'd just let the guy walk out! What kind of person doesn't ask for another person's phone number? Especially when there's the intent to see one another again.

Zuko had said 'see you around' in that deep, raspy voice of his. Why didn't Sokka ask for his number so he could, you know, see him around?

"What's got you down?" a new voice asked.

Thankfully it was neither Jet or Hahn. He didn't think he could take either of them right now. Sokka lifted his head from the sticky counter and came face to face with Teo. He sat a little low behind the counter because of his wheelchair. He offered Teo a weak smile.

"I totally could have gotten a hot guy's number and failed. Miserably."

Teo looked at him, unimpressed. "It couldn't have been that bad."

"That's the point. It wasn't," Sokka lamented. "It was good. So good."

"So how exactly did you fail?"

"Did you not hear me?" Sokka asked. "I didn't get his number!"

"Right," Teo said. He scooped up Sokka's empty glass as well as Zuko's before setting them in the sink. "You're a cop. Can't you just look that up?"

Sokka looked at Teo as if he'd just murdered his sister or something. "No! That's an invasion of privacy."

"Then, I don't know what to tell you Sokka," he said. "Other than to drink."

Teo set another glass of cactus juice in front of Sokka, and he eyed it warily.

"I don't remember asking for another drink, Teo. Am I that drunk?"

Teo shook his head. "Honestly, this is the most sober you'd been on a Friday night in a long time, dude."

"Then...? Why the drink?"

"That guy you were sitting with?" Teo prompted.

"Yeah, the hot guy with the beautiful golden eyes and the voice that I could listen to on loop for hours. What about him?"

"He bought you a drink," Teo said.

Sokka perked up at that. "What? Really?"

"Yeah. And he paid your tab."

Sokka's jaw literally dropped at that. "He did what?"

"Paid your tab. Told me to tell you 'thanks', but he didn't say specifically what for," Teo said with a wave. "I just assumed you had helped him out at one point or another during work."

"You're not far off, Teo," Sokka said as he picked up the drink that Zuko had bought him. He sipped on it lightly, allowing the coolness that the cactus juice always brought on spread through him. It made him feel happy and airy. "You're not far off."