Sokka! Sokka, come back here!"
Sokka laughs freely, sprinting down the hallway. He turns his head back every once in a while to catch a glimpse of the man behind him, who's running as fast as he can, making grabby hands at the scrolls in Sokka's arms.
"Catch me if you can!" Sokka calls back at him, turning the corner out into the courtyard. He runs down the grassy hills until he reaches the turtleduck pond, then stands on the shore and extends his arm out as far over the water as it can go, the scrolls still clutched tightly in his grip.
The other man seems to have finally caught up to him, now that Sokka's stopped running, and he stoops over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. "I thought you were supposed to be athletic?" Sokka teases. "Or, is all of that paper-pushing Firelord stuff making you lose your touch?"
The man glares at him, but Sokka knows it's not malicious. "Sokka, please," he tries, reaching out for the scrolls in Sokka's hands. "C'mon, I just need those notes so I can finalize my documents, and then we can hang out in the gardens as much as you want. Please?"
"No way!" Sokka insists, leaning further over the pond. "You've been working all day, just take a break. Please?" he asks, "For me?" When that doesn't work, Sokka huffs out a sigh. It's time to pull out the big guns. "Please, sweetheart?"
He turns toward the man, who seems to have finally given up. He's standing upright now, his breath caught, and Sokka can see the scar on his face and the crown in his long, black hair. His robes are lightweight and red, and he's smiling softly, all previous annoyance melted away from his expression.
"Fine," he says, and Sokka cheers. He sets down the scrolls on a boulder and reaches out towards the other man, grabbing onto the front of his robes. Sokka hauls him in for a kiss, and it's sweet and soft for a moment, before he loses his balance and they both fall into the pond.
On shore, the scrolls sit dry and crisp, ready for use. But in the pond, Sokka and his soulmate are laughing and smiling, and Sokka can just barely see a flash of blue under the collar of the other man's red robes, before everything goes black.
~~~
Sokka awakes panting, grasping at his bedroll as if it'll keep him chained to the ground. That was it, then, his first soulmate dream.
Sokka knows the stories, of course. His parents told him and Katara their own tale plenty of times. After you meet your soulmate for the first time, you'll start having glimpses of your future with them, as seen through your future self's eyes. For Hakoda and Kya, the dreams started when they were young, but they didn't start dating until they were teenagers. Sokka knows that Katara and Aang had their first dreams just yesterday, after they pulled the Avatar from an iceberg.
And now, Sokka's had his own. There, in his dream, was Prince Jerkface, laughing and smiling and splashing around in a turtleduck pond.
Fuck this,Sokka thinks,fuck me.
~~~
Why can't Suki be his soulmate?
She's perfect. She's everything that Sokka could've ever wanted. Strong, beautiful, willing to kick his ass. But one night, they lay on the beach under the stars, and they talk about soulmates, and Sokka hates that their dreams don't line up.
"It was," Suki starts, picking up a handful of sand, "a few years ago, that I had my first one. This rich family visited the island, I think the dad was a merchant, or something like that. They had a daughter. She was blind, so her parents wouldn't let her come to any of the training classes, but she loved the warriors and the fans. She's three years younger than me, I think."
"And that night, after you met her?" Sokka prompts.
"I had my first dream."
Sokka swallows, ignoring the prickling behind his eyes. Suki gets a girl who's sweet and blind and who loves the warriors, someone with rich parents who let her travel the world. Sokka gets the Fire Prince.
"Will you tell me about your future?" he asks. "Is- is that okay? Back home, everybody talks about their futures, I don't know what it's like here."
"Yeah," Suki says, "I'll tell you."
They have two daughters, she explains, Lin and Suyin. At some point, their daughters have a big falling out, but they figure it out eventually. Suyin marries an architect named Bataar and has a boatload of kids, and Lin goes on to be chief of police in some city that doesn't exist yet, and she falls in love with a waterbender named-
"Wait," Sokka interrupts, "what did you say the waterbender's name was?"
"Kya," Suki says softly. "I- the girls were only in a couple of dreams, and the one with their kids and family was Lin's wedding."
"My mother's name was Kya," Sokka says softly.
"Was?" Suki asks. Her eyes are wide, and she reaches out across the sand to take Sokka's hand into her's. He nods. "Oh, Sokka."
"It's fine," Sokka sniffs. "Tell me more."
Suki talks about a future revival of the Kyoshi Warriors, how they get back to where they once were, peace with the Fire Nation, and so many other things that seem unachievable. "I- I think we'll win the war," she says at some point, and Sokka almost laughs.
"Tell me about your future," Suki asks after a while. Sokka shakes his head.
"They're not from the South," he tells her. "I just met them a few weeks ago, I've only had one dream."
Suki nods her understanding, and they fall back to silence. For a few minutes, everything is calm, and the only noises are the crashing of the waves and the rustling of leaves. Then, Sokka says, "What's your soulmate's name?"
"Toph Beifong," Suki tells him, and they leave it at that.
~~~
When King Crazy of Omashu finally reveals his real name to them, Sokka hears Katara swear under her breath. Aang and Bumi are busy having their own little reunion after a century apart, so Sokka grabs onto his sister's wrist and drags her off to the side.
"What is it?" he whispers. "What's wrong?" Both of them are still stiff from being stuck inside those crystals all day, but Sokka can tell that the twisting of Katara's fingers is from nerves, not stiffness.
"It's-" she takes a breath and breaks off, staring down at her shoes. "Bumi," she says finally. "That name. I- I've heard it before."
"Really?" Sokka asks, immediately on edge. "Where? Is he trouble?"
"No, no, not like that," Katara clarifies, glancing over Sokka's shoulder to where Aang and Bumi are. "It- I heard it in a dream. A soulmate dream."
Oh. As close as they are, Sokka and Katara try not to talk about soulmates. It's been a touchy subject ever since their mother died, when their father started having dreams about a future with Bato. Despite the fact that Sokka knows that Katara and Aang are soulmates, neither of them know about Prince Angry Jerk, and he'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much.
"Was Crazy King Bumi in your soulmate dream?" Sokka asks, perplexed.
"No, he wasn't," Katara huffs. "It was a baby's name.Mybaby's name."
Sokka swallows. For whatever reason, that makes everything so much more real. At some point, hopefully far, far in the future, Aang and Katara will have a baby named Bumi. Sokka thinks about Fire Jerk, and about having a baby with him, then shakes the thought out of his head.
"I'll bet your baby will have better hair than this guy," he jokes, knocking Katara's shoulder with his own. The humor lightens the mood, and all thoughts of soulmates go out the window, at least for the moment.
~~~
Sokka is awoken by the sound of quiet whimpering beside him. He's always been a light sleeper, and now he sits up and turns over, frowning softly at the sight that greets him. Zuko is swathed in moonlight, writhing and twisting in his sleep, his face contorted into a grimace. To Sokka, he looks beautiful, even like this.
"F-Father, please," Zuko whimpers. Sokka's heart breaks, just a little.
"Zuko," he says softly, leaning down so that his breath tickles Zuko's ear. "Zuko, sweetheart, wake up. It's just a dream."
Zuko awakens with a small shout, jolting up so fast that he nearly slams his nose into Sokka's. Sokka gently pushes him back onto the mattress, then lays down and hauls Zuko into his side, his head pillowed right atop Sokka's heart. Zuko's tears stream down his face and slide off of Sokka's chest, and Sokka rubs his back as he sobs, whispering soothing things into his ears. Eventually, Zuko's sobs taper off into little whimpers, then snores.
Sokka falls asleep with a weight on his chest, but it's comforting, not suffocating.
~~~
"You don't have to do this," Sokka says suddenly, trying his best to twist his neck and look at Zuko, but also keep his voice down.
"You don't know that!" Zuko spits. "You don't knowanything!"
"I certainly know more than you'd like me to," Sokka says. He thinks back to his dream from last night, where Future Sokka had comforted Future Zuko after a nightmare.Father,he'd said. What in the world would Zuko's nightmares have to do with the Firelord?
Sokka tugs listlessly at the chains that hold him to the pillar. Aang and Katara are still tied up, and the volcano is erupting, and everything is going wrong. There's a comet that's coming at the end of the summer, and they've only got less than a year to train Aang to take down the Firelord.
"He's just your father, Zuko," Sokka tries. Zuko's face pales, making his scar stand out even more, and Sokka subconsciously notices that it somewhat resembles a hand. "He doesn't have to control you."
~~~
Where thehelldid this guy get a giant poisonous rat?
Sokka dodges another strike of the shirshu's tongue, glaring at Prince Zuko.Zuko.The name rolls around in his mind, settling there like a puzzle piece. Sokka shoves the thought away and glares harder, striking out with his club.
"Tui and La, why are youdoing this?"he groans, ducking away from a stripe of fire.
"Wouldn'tyoulike to know?" Zuko spits, punching out more flames.
"Oh," Sokka says, "I'm sure I'll know eventually. You know, in the future."
For a moment, flames stop pouring from Zuko's hands. This is the first time that they've acknowledged it, and the first time that Sokka's ever said anything about it out loud, despite the fact that he's spent many a sleepless night antagonizing over it mentally. The world seems to freeze, every noise muffled and far away as Sokka's blue eyes meet Zuko's gold.
The prince growls, and everything snaps back into place. Fire lights up the abbey, and Sokka shakes his head at himself, frowning.There's a war to fight,he reminds himself.We're on opposite sides.
~~~
Yue is perfect and beautiful and lovely, and she's also engaged. Her fiance is a douchebag, but Yue says that she has a duty to her tribe, and she's been having soulmate dreams since the day she was born, so Sokka won't mess with it. As much as he wishes something could happen, they're here for a reason, and once Katara kicks Pakku's ass and Aang takes his master's exams, they'll have to leave.
When Sokka asks Yue about her soulmate dreams, she smiles softly. "It's complicated," she explains, "but I think I'm meant to die."
Sokka blinks at her. "What?"
"My soulmate is La," Yue says, like it's the most simple thing in the world. "I don't know if that means I'll be lonely forever, or maybe it means that I'll die young and go to the Spirit World, but I've made my peace with it. I like to think it means I'm connected to Tui, because you know what they say, Tui and La, the original soulmates. I wouldn't want to get in the way of all that."
This conversation leaves Sokka baffled for much longer than he'd like to admit, but in the end it all makes sense. Yue isn'tconnectedto Tui, sheisTui. Or, maybe, Tui isinYue. Whatever it is, Sokka knows it's meant to be.
~~~
Sokkawillkill a group of singing nomads, but not until their torches burn out. If it happens in the dark, how will anybody know it was him?
For now, though, he's got to bide his time. Chong and Lily, the husband and wife nomads, are telling Sokka their soulmate story through song, and he's about to take one of those Spirits-damned torches and set himself on fire. Chong holds out one last low note, while Lily sings something ear-shatteringly high, and Moku, the other guy, strums a last chord on his instrument.
"That's the end of the song bruh," Chong says, turning to Sokka. "Didja like it?"
"Yeah, sure, it was wonderful," Sokka mumbles, mentally reeling off every swear word he knows.
"We've got another one, if you want," Lily offers. "It's a tragic tale, about Moku's soulmate."
"They'reFire Nationdude," Moku says. "That's, like, scary."
Sokka barks out a laugh, despite himself. "Oh, you think your Fire Nation soulmate is scary. I bet they're- what, a commoner or a foot soldier, maybe. A General in the army, if you've got it really bad."
"Misha," Moku sighs, "she's got a leather goods store in Caldera City that serves a few different corps in the army. Our future looks happy, but like, totally far away dude."
"Hah!" Sokka says, "A leather worker! And you thinkthat'stragic. Guess whomyFire Nation soulmate is!"
"Oh, bruh, is it, like, the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation?" Chong asks, waving his hands. Sokka's jaw drops.
"How thehelldid you get that?" he stammers.
"Just good guessin', I guess," Chong says. "Y'know guys," he goes on, turning towards Lily and Moku as he starts to walk backwards, "I think we could freestyle a song about that."
"Oh, totally!" Lily agrees.
"Rock on, dude," Moku says, already pulling his instrument back around his front. Chong hums a note, and Sokka gives into the urge to smack his hand to his forehead once more.
~~~
The doors to the study burst open, and all that Sokka can see over his desk is a head of unruly, black hair. He grins anyways, and turns his chair to the side so that he's prepped and ready for when an energetic five year old catapults herself onto his lap, and when she does so Sokka catches her readily, wrapping his arms around her small frame.
"Daddy!" she squeals, "I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too, Princess," Sokka says, pressing little kisses to her soft hair. She's too young to wear the headpiece of the Crown Princess, and Sokka thinks that maybe she never will, if Zuko gets his way. But, for now, he still has to kiss around the miniscule topknot that half of her hair is pulled into, as well as all of the little braids that he likes to hide there. From the doorframe, someone chuckles.
"Hello to you too, darling," Sokka says without looking up, smiling as he hears the rustling of Zuko's many robes and feels a kiss being pressed against his cheek.
"Papa," the girl in his lap says, "tell Daddy what we did today!"
Zuko straightens up from where he was pressing a kiss to their daughter's cheek and grins at Sokka, looking proud of himself and unfairly handsome. "Well," he says, "Izumi and I decided to ditch the Ministers of Agriculture and have a picnic by the turtleduck pond instead. We were wondering if you'd maybe like to join us?"
A grin lights up on Sokka's face to mirror Zuko's, and he squeezes Izumi even tighter. "Of course I would!" he exclaims, standing from his chair and shifting Izumi so that she's perched on his hip. "Do we need to go to the kitchens to get food, or no?"
"Suki is making us a basket right now," Zuko tells him, and they start to walk hand in hand down the palace hallways. Sokka is almost a hundred percent sure that Izumi should technically be with her tutors right now, but she's five years old and he's willing to cut her some slack. As for the Ministers of Agriculture and the documents sitting on Sokka's desk, well… they can wait.
For now, they get to be a family.
~~~
Sokka awakes silently gasping for air, just as he always does when he has soulmate dreams. It baffles him, the way that his future with Zuko seems so picturesque, and now…
They have adaughter?
Izumi. The name fits like another puzzle piece in Sokka's mind, just like Zuko's did however many months ago. He mentioned Suki in the dream, so that must mean that they meet again at some point, right? Or is it maybe another Suki that Sokka hasn't met yet.
Agni, his head hurts. It's still the middle of the night, but Sokka knows he won't go back to sleep, so he shimmies out of his sleeping bag and makes his way towards the edge of the cliff that they're camping on, letting his legs dangle over the side. It's not really much of a cliff, maybe ten or fifteen feet above the ground, but the feeling of his legs swinging there, nothing but air beneath them, still makes his heart pound.
They left the North nearly two weeks ago, and theystillhaven't found Aang's earthbending teacher. For whatever reason, Suki's soulmate keeps popping into Sokka's mind, and her name in particular.Toph Beifong.If she's three years younger than Suki, that means she's Aang's age, so it makes no sense for her to be a master already. Although, Aang mastered airbending whenhewas twelve, so maybe it's not too far off.
For whatever reason, tonight's soulmate dream has thrown Sokka off. Is it the kid? Is it someone named Suki being mentioned? Is it the way that Zuko smiled, so carefree and light, or maybe the way that Sokka smiled back?
Tui and La, this is stupid. Why can't his soulmate be someone else, anyone else? Katara and Aang get each other, a match made in the Spirit World that seems perfect on earth. Even though they haven't really talked about it, Sokka can tell that they're both crushing on each other, and it's bound to happen eventually.
"Yue, why do they get each other and I get Prince Angry Jerk?" he asks, leaning back so that his legs are still dangling over the cliff but he's staring up at the sky.
Surprisingly enough, the moon says nothing back. Sokka groans, and decides to try in vain to go back to sleep.
~~~
Toph Beifong is Aang's earthbending teacher.
Toph Beifongis Suki's soulmate.
Toph Beifong is twelve years old and a chisel that takes off years of Sokka's life, but he already loves her with every fibre of his being.
~~~
Somehow, Sokka's stupid, firebending, jerkhole of a soulmate has an evenworsesister.
Azula's crazy, and she shoots Old Man McTea with lightning, which,holy shit, firebenders can do that?Zuko, who has apparently been separated from his uncle and finally gotten a better haircut, looks half out of his mind when Iroh goes down, but he gets even more crazed when Katara approaches to try and heal him.
"No!" Zuko screams, "Get away from him! We don't need your help!"
"Zuko, I can heal him," Katara insists. Sokka wants to tell her to back off, to let him handle this, because the stupid Spirits have made it so that Sokka knows that Zuko turns to anger when he's scared.
"We don'tneedyour healing," Zuko spits, and Katara takes a hesitant step back. Zuko looks like an animal, half crazed, and Sokka hates himself for it but he takes a step towards him anyways. The prince- is he even a prince anymore? Sokka knows he becomes Firelord one day, but the Earth Kingdom robes he's got on say differently- snarls significantly less at Sokka, and his hands don't light up with flames, so Sokka takes that as a win.
"Zuko," he says softly, quietly, the way that he might talk to a sick kid or a wounded animal, "please, just let her help. She's a healer, she can use waterbending, she won't hurt him. Katara knows what she's doing."
"We'reenemies,"Zuko says, but he sounds a little frantic now, like he's trying to convince himself that he's fighting for the right cause. "I- ofcourseshe'll hurt him. We're enemies, enemies hurt each other."
"We won't always be enemies," Sokka insists, his voice still low and gentle. "C'mon, you know that just as much as I do. Let her heal him, and then we'll get out of your hair."
Zuko swallows, and Sokka can practicallyseethe way that his resolve cracks. "Fine," he says after a moment, turning towards Katara. "You can heal him."
"Thank you," Katara says, already rushing over to Iroh's side. She uncaps her waterskin and coats her hands, then holds them down on Iroh's burnt skin as they start to glow. Aang watches her with unrestrained wonder, and Toph has her toes pointed toward them with a smirk on her face. Zuko watches as Katara knits Iroh's skin back together, silently gravitating towards Sokka's side.
"She'sgood,"Sokka insists quietly, hopefully in a tone that only Zuko can hear. "Your uncle will be fine, I promise."
Zuko nods, crossing his arms against his chest. "I've seen her do it, once," he murmurs, "in a dream, I mean. I just don't trust her."
"I know," Sokka agrees, "we don't trust you either."
Zuko nods, and they wait for Katara to finish in silence.
~~~
Ba Sing Se is ashit show.Sokka knows this, and he thinks he's always known this, but it's more of a mess than he ever could've imagined.No war in Ba Sing Se my ass,he thinks as he walks down a Middle Ring street and sees a Dai Lee agent prowling around. He hasn't been sleeping well, riddled with nightmares and soulmate dreams alike, and he's practically dead on his feet as he walks through the market.
The last time they saw Zuko was when Katara healed his uncle, and Sokka will be damned, but he's getting worried. After spending so long looking over his shoulder for the prince, spending a near month without seeing him is slightly unnerving.
Aang earthbending his going well, at least, and his waterbending is coming along nicely too. Unfortunately for Sokka, Ba Sing Se is a city, and cities tend to lack open spaces in which he can throw a boomerang. He's getting antsy, and all of the bending mumbo-jumbo happening around him makes it that much worse.
Once, in a dream, he and Zuko were sparring with swords. Sokka thinks about that now, and wonders when he'll learn to use a sword. Is it Zuko that will teach him? Sokka's least favorite thing about soulmate dreams is knowing that something will happen, but never knowing how or when.
He falls in love with Zuko, at some point in his life, butwhy?
~~~
Azula shows up, and everything goes to hell.
Zuko and Katara have been in prison together, apparently, and Aang looks like he's thinking about going into the Avatar state, and Sokka can finally throw a boomerang but it's notenough.The Dai Lee are on Azula's side, and she and Iroh are both yelling at Zuko, so Sokka figures he might as well hop on that trend too.
"What are you evendoing?"he asks, desperate and aching and so, so confused. Zuko whips around to face him, eyes wide, and Sokka thinks he maybe wants to cry.
"I don't know!" Zuko yells back, "Agni, do I look like I would know?"
"You shouldn't have to!" Sokka insists. "You're seventeen, you're just a kid! C'mon, Zuko, you've seen the future! What the hell are you gonna do to get there?"
"Zuko, please-" Iroh calls, but his nephew cuts him off by throwing a fireball at Azula's chest. Sokka gapes at him, and Zuko grins crookedly at him as he starts throwing fire at the Dai Lee.
"What are you standing there for?" Zuko calls, out of breath. "C'mon, throw your boomerang or something. I know it hurts!"
Finally, Sokka grins back and does just as he says. As Boomerang soars overhead and into the crow of Dai Lee agents, Aang goes into the Avatar state and Katara starts pulling from the waterfall. Azula growls at her brother, looking unhinged, and kicks out a round of blue fire.
"I should've known you'd be a traitor, Zuzu!" she snarls. "Disgracing your country, for what? A Water Tribe peasant?"
Sokka wants to take offence to that, but there's no time. "It's not for him!" Zuko yells back, sweeping his arms apart from one another to dissolve Azula's fire. Sokka can see the way that sweat beads down his face, and he can't even imagine how oppressive the heat must be. "It's for the future, Azula!" Zuko goes on. "Don't you care about that?"
"There's no reason to care about my future if I can't see it!" Azula cackles, winding her hands up in a way that's horrifyingly familiar.
"Katara!" Sokka calls desperately, "Aang, he needs to get out of the Avatar state, please-"
There's lightning in the air, and then Zuko's throwing himself at his sister, and instead of hitting Aang in the chest like Azula intended it to, the lightning hits him in the leg. He falls out of the air anyways, but Katara's there to catch him, and when they emerge from the water he can see that they're both breathing.
"Sokka, what-" Toph starts, panting from exhaustion as she kicks slabs of rock towards the Dai Lee.
"It was Zuko," Sokka says, partly to Toph and partly to himself. His soulmate and Iroh are both surrounded by Dai Lee, and they're fighting as hard as they can but Sokka knows it's a lost cause.
"Sokka, Toph!" Katara yells, tearful and frightened. "We need to get out of here,now!"
Toph immediately starts running towards her, but Sokka hesitates, looking back at Zuko and Iroh. Zuko catches his eye and tries to muster up a smile.
"It'll all turn out okay in the end, right?" he calls, dodging a punch. "Go without us, we'll be okay!"
Before Sokka can respond, Toph grabs onto his arm and uses the earth to propel them into the waterfall. Katara catches them and then they're going up, up, out of the catacombs and away from the Dai Lee, but also away from Zuko, who just put his entire life at risk to savethem.
What if this changes the future?Sokka thinks desperately.What's going to happen now?