"Uh, Zuko? Are you listening?" Aang waved his hand back and forth in front of Zuko's face. "Earth to Zuko!"
Zuko snapped his head back toward Aang. "Don't do that," he said, fists pounding against the table between them. He paused for a moment and sighed. "Yes, I'm listening."
Aang continued on with his explanation of the game he was making up. Something about using bending to keep a ball in the air. It fell on deaf ears though because Zuko was, in fact, not listening. His gaze kept creeping off to the side of the room where Sokka crouched over some sort of weapon he was crafting. Well, "weapon" was a generous description. He had taken a knife to a long stick and was whittling it down to a point on one end.
It was a hot day. Even with the door to their makeshift housing and all shutters open, it was suffocating inside the clay walls of the building. Zuko assumed some earthbender had constructed the small one-room house, but whoever had done it definitely didn't account for how hot this region could get during the summer. He wished there were at least three more windows to let in a breeze. If Toph were with them, it would be an easy enough fix, but instead the only earthbender with them was Aang. For whatever reason, he refused to bend open the walls enough to create new windows. He said it was something about respecting the integrity of the original building. Nonsense, if you asked Zuko.
"And since the ball is made of metal, no one will be able to actually bend the ball. They'll have to keep off the ground another way! Obviously, this game won't work with Toph." Aang seemed very pleased with himself as he went on explaining his new game.
"This sounds like a game for kids," Zuko argued.
"It is!" Aang exclaimed.
"Hey," Sokka called from a few feet away. Zuko looked over at him quickly, muscles poised to jump. "Keep it down over there, I'm trying to focus." Zuko let out a breath. Sokka wasn't calling for help, he was just chastising them.
Zuko had been on edge constantly since he became Fire Lord. Not necessarily because of the new title, but because of what gaining that title had meant. His father was overthrown, and his sister was in prison.
He knew objectively that he could trust Aang and the rest of their crew, but it was still painful to think about betraying his own family. Even if it was the right thing to do. He'd betrayed Uncle Iroh more than once, and he'd learned a very difficult lesson upon doing so. What if betraying his father would end with a similar result? The whole ordeal had made him skittish, ready to jump up and fight at a moment's notice, despite it having been several years since the leadership change and all related betrayals.
He pushed the thoughts aside. For now, he could focus on the task at hand. The task at hand being the ridiculous game Aang was making up.
"I think there should be a point system, what do you think?" Aang had pulled out a piece of parchment and was sketching what looked to be a playing field on it.
"You're much better at having fun than I am, you know. I'm not sure I can really help with this. Plus, Sokka can't play a game that requires bending," Zuko said.
Aang's brows pulled together and his mouth twisted in thought. "Oh yeah..."
"Oh, come on," Sokka said with a grunt. He stood from where he was working away at the stick and walked over to the table. He stuck the point of his newly made weapon directly into the packed dirt that made up the floor of this house. "You've been a part of the Gaang for long enough now. You've had plenty of time to lighten up. I just know you can have fun." Sokka leaned over dramatically to point a finger at Zuko's face.
Zuko felt his ears turn hot and looked away. "Well, I don't agree. No amount of time with you guys will change the fact that I lack the inherent ability to enjoy myself. I just don't have that gene."
"Of course you do," Sokka yelled as he slung an arm over Zuko's shoulders. "What we need is a night out on the town."
Aang didn't look disappointed at all that his newly created game was being abandoned. "A night out! That sounds perfect Sokka!"
"I'm a genius, right?" Sokka wiggled his eyebrows at the other boys.
Zuko groaned as loudly as he could to make sure they got the hint that he wasn't excited about this. "What could we even do on a night out in this town? There's nothing to do, it's just a tiny village."
"Hey, the Southern Water Tribe was a tiny village and we still knew how to party," Sokka argued.
"Oh yeah? And how exactly did you party?" Zuko asked.
"Well," Sokka hunched over, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, "it was mostly penguin sledding related activities."
"I don't imagine they have very many penguins around here." Zuko waved an arm toward the open door as if to remind him that they were in the middle of the hot, humid Earth Kingdom.
"Okay so what's the Earth Kingdom equivalent of penguin sledding?" Aang asked, finger tapping his chin. "I got it! Let's go to Omashu and ride the delivery chutes!"
"Omashu is a three-day ride by ostrich horse," Zuko reminded him.
"Drats."
"Oh, I know!" Sokka exclaimed. "We could play hide and seek tonight! But with the whole village as our playground."
"That just sounds like another kid's game," Zuko said.
"Yeah," Aang agreed. "That sounds fun!"
Zuko slapped his palm to his forehead. He hadn't meant it as a compliment.
"Relax, Zuko," Sokka said, all his earlier confidence back in full. "It's fine to just have fun every once in a while."
"If it makes you feel better, we can call it stealth training," Aang chimed in.
Zuko sighed and rolled his eyes. "If you guys want to play pretend that our lives are like any of the people that live in this village and we can just play games all day long, then fine, I'll play along. Just for tonight." He had meant it to come across as harsh, but he was actually a little excited to play, and that had definitely shown through in his voice.
"Great! It's decided, hide and seek in the dark." Aang clapped his hands together and completely abandoned his ball, letting it roll off the table and onto the floor.
"Now that that's decided, I'm gonna get back to my new spear now." Sokka walked back over to his little corner of the room and started back in on his stick.
Zuko watched him, though Sokka was facing the opposite wall. Sokka's sleeveless top was pulled tight against his skin because of how he was crouched, allowing Zuko to just make out the light definition in his back muscles as they moved to work on whittling the "spear." He still had his hair pulled back in its usual style, although it was a bit longer on the sides now.
They had been traveling through the Earth Kingdom for a couple of weeks now. Katara had insisted that the boys needed a vacation together, no girls, no distractions. The no girls rule likely had to do with the fact that both Zuko and Sokka had been broken up with by their respective partners. Mai had told Zuko she needed to be with her family, and she didn't have the time to give Zuko the attention he needed. Zuko wasn't sure how Suki had broken it off with Sokka, and he didn't ask.
Of course, Aang and Katara were still going strong. The extended time apart hadn't seemed to cause any emotional stress between the two. Aang still sent letters via messenger hawk every day to let her know what they were up to. When he received letters back, albeit less frequently than they were sent, he would reread Katara's words all day, giggling and smiling to himself. It made Zuko sick to the stomach.
When nightfall eventually came, the group ventured outside. The evening air was much cooler, but it still felt thick with humidity. Crickets chirped their nightly song at the edge of the village, perhaps nervous to get too close to the stomping feet of the people here.
"I'm starting to regret agreeing to this," Zuko said. He looked around to check if anyone was out and about to witness the Fire Lord playing a child's game. His scar would be a dead giveaway of who he was, and he knew he wouldn't be able to deny it. Luckily, it looked like most people had closed their doors and shutters for the night, candlelight spilling out between the cracks.
"If I hear one more complaint from you, I'm gonna extend this vacation by three more weeks and force you to have even more fun," Sokka said.
Zuko clamped his mouth shut.
"So," Aang began. "Here's the rules. One, no bending allowed. This is a stealth game not a fighting game. Two, you're allowed to run from the seeker, getting tagged is how you lose. Three, I want to be the seeker first!"
"That last one isn't a rule," Zuko pointed out.
"It is now!" Aang grinned as big as he could. "Okay, I'm going to count to fifteen, both of you get hiding." Aang began the countdown.
Zuko felt a little embarrassed about taking the game so seriously, but when he saw Sokka jet off without a second thought, he decided to run for it too.
He darted to the right, towards the center of the village. He remembered a spot he'd seen earlier in the day where he could easily climb onto the rooftop of a tea shop. This village might have been small, but every town deserved a tea shop.
By the time he got there, Aang had certainly finished counting and would be on the search. Zuko scrambled on top of the crates he had spotted and pulled himself onto the roof. He knew he could use firebending to push himself up, but he thought it was more fair to honor the rules since Sokka couldn't bend.
Surprisingly, when Zuko rolled over the edge onto the roof of the small shop, Sokka was already there, lying
flat on his belly.
"Hey! This is my spot," Zuko said in the loudest whisper he dared.
Sokka shot him a glare and put a finger to his lips. Zuko quieted down and crawled over next to Sokka. Neither of them dared to peak over the edge to see if Aang was coming. The good thing about this, Zuko guessed, was that if he was spotted, Sokka would also be spotted and Aang could only chase one of them.
Zuko was keenly aware of how he and Sokka's arms were pressed together. The air was thick and muggy, and both of them had started to sweat during their sprint to the hiding spot. Sokka's skin was smooth and gleamed in the moonlight. With the sudden realization that Sokka'a ex-girlfriend, Yue, was able to see them, he jerked his body to the side so that they no longer touched.
Actually, he didn't really know if she could see them, if she was sentient and present in the physical world in that way. He didn't want to risk it anyway. It wasn't worth it to torture himself all night thinking about how someone might have witnessed them being that close together.
Suddenly, the sound of a tree limb snapping caused Zuko to jerk his head to the side. Sokka heard it too and leaned as close to the edge of the roof as he could get without being seen. Sokka looked back and made eye contact with Zuko, motioning for them to jump over to the next roof. Zuko nodded and crawled over the edge of the roof before getting to his feet and jumping to the next building as quietly as possible. Sokka followed.
When they both righted themselves on the next roof, they looked up directly into Aang's eyes.
"Ha ha!" Aang yelled. "You've fallen for my trap!" Without a second's delay, he rushed towards Zuko and Sokka. The two hiders scrambled away as fast as they could, Zuko a bit faster than Sokka.
Down the side of the building and into the street they went, feet pounding into the dusty earth. Sokka was following Zuko, but Zuko knew he would have to lose Sokka and Aang both if he wanted to win. While once Sokka had been a sort of insurance, he was now a liability.
Zuko zig-zagged through the village, squeezing between buildings and through alleys, trying to find a new spot to hide. Sokka was no longer behind him, and Zuko had to assume he had been caught. He finally found a spot with thick bushes at the side of a house. He ducked into the foliage and held his breath. At least here he had a good view of the road. He kept his eyes peeled, searching for any movement that might indicate Aang was coming.
"I see you!" a voice cried from around the corner. Zuko shot up to see that Aang was coming straight for him. He must have seen through the shrubbery.
Right as Aang reached out to tag him, Zuko jumped backwards, barely missing his touch. He knew Aang was still too close though and shot fire from his fists to propel him even farther.
When he landed though, he was immediately wrapped up in Sokka's arms. They had tag-teamed him.
"Gotcha!" Sokka shouted. Zuko's face heated immediately at the realization that Sokka was essentially hugging him. This close, Zuko could make out the tiny details he had never been able to before. Sokka had a small scratch on his forearm. It had scabbed over, but it was obvious Sokka had been picking at it. If given the time, at this close of a distance, Zuko could've counted each hair on Sokka's arms.
Before he fully realized what was happening, it was over. Sokka spun Zuko around to face him.
"Gotcha," Sokka repeated.
"That's cheating!" Zuko said. "The rules didn't say you could help Aang when you got caught."
"Yeah, but the rules explicitly said no bending, so..." Sokka trailed off. "I think we're even."
The earlier fascination with seeing Sokka that close had faded. "I knew we shouldn't have played this stupid game," Zuko grumbled.
Aang approached the two with hands up. "Hey, hey, it was all in good fun." He patted Zuko on the back. "I never would've seen you there if Sokka didn't point you out. The game would've gone on for an eternity if he hadn't helped me."
Zuko felt a little embarrassed about his outburst. He knew it was just a game, but he couldn't help but feel frustrated, and he wasn't exactly sure why. "Fine." He whipped back towards the house they were staying in and stalked away towards it.
"What's up with him?" he heard Sokka say to Aang.
"I'm not sure," Aang replied.