Chapter Text
If there was anything useful about the fact that you were stabbed in the chest with a dagger to death in front of your best friend (who was probably stabbed in the to death shortly thereafter) and you went back in time, it was the fact that you had the opportunity to hear the most awkward speech you had ever heard for the second time in your life.
At least, that's how it was supposed to be in theory.
Meanwhile, Sokka—former Ambassador Sokka, one of the heroes of the Hundred Year War, future Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, partner of the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, friend of the Avatar and the Fire Lord, brother of the youngest Waterbending Master in the world and foster brother of the inventor of metalbending, etc., etc. — that same Sokka has been staring at the cliff for a good few minutes.
And nothing.
Zuko still hasn't shown up.
Even though he should have.
Which doesn't make sense, because Sokka knows that this is the moment when Zuko should show up, with his uncertain smile and “hello, Zuko here”. And then everyone should get angry at him, kick him out of the camp—and then Sokka, like a good friend, planned to comfort him, befriend him again, and help him become part of the group, this time without burning Toph's feets.
At least that was the plan.
But Zuko doesn't show up.
Is it Sokka's fault? But honestly, Sokka doesn't know what he did wrong. He realized he had traveled through time when, instead of being dead, he woke up on Appa among his panicked younger friends, who claimed they had just escaped from the Fire Nation (Sokka didn't miss that version of the Fire Nation) after a failed invasion.
And Sokka was going to tell them that he had traveled through time, really — the only problem was that everyone was panicking, half of them looked like they were about to cry — Tui and La, why did everyone have to be so small and young? How on earth were they able to win this war? And somehow, Sokka found himself calming his friends down, and then... well, somehow he ended up here.
At the Western Air Temple. Waiting for Zuko to come to them.
Zuko, who is still not here.
Did Sokka accidentally change something by traveling through time? Maybe he prevented him from following them? But no, that didn't make sense — because not that much time had passed, right?
But Zuko is still not here.
Sokka stares at the cliff, waiting for a familiar figure to emerge.
Still nothing.
A minute passes. Two. Ten. Fifteen.
Too long.
Sokka gets up.
“I'm going for a walk,” he says, catching his friends' attention. “To make sure our surroundings are safe.”
“I'll go with you,” Aang offers.
“I'll be fine,” Sokka smiles at him. “If anything happens, I'll shout.”
And he leaves before anyone has time to realize (rightly so) that he will probably be so far away that no one will be able to hear him.
Sokka decides not to worry about it, just as he decides to ignore the quiet voice in his head telling him that he has just left a group of kids unattended. But Sokka will have plenty of time to take care of them—for now, he has to make sure that the last of his charges joins their team.
And that's why Sokka is searching the surrounding forest.
Some time passes.
Sokka keeps walking.
And he finds a balloon. And a small camp.
There is also Zuko, pacing around it, looking as if he is about to let all his thoughts out (Sokka has seen him enough times to know that sometimes his friend just needs to shout out all his thoughts). But he doesn't do it yet — because he turns around abruptly.
Sokka looks at him.
Zuko looks at him too.
A moment passes. Then another.
“You're late,” Sokka says in explanation.
Only after a moment does he realize what he has just said and implied.
“I'm late?” Zuko asks. “Sokka, what are you talking about?”
Silence.
Sokka looks at Zuko.
Zuko looks back.
Sokka shouldn't know that Zuko should have shown up a long time ago. Zuko shouldn't know his name—wait, maybe he did? After all, Zuko had been chasing them for months, so...
Well. Either way, Zuko seems to be just as confused as Sokka right now, and Sokka realizes that fifteen-year-old Sokka would probably consider Zuko an enemy and try to attack him.
“About ‘hello, Zuko here’?” Sokka says, raising his hand, deciding he might as well be honest. “Well, I guess since you haven't attacked me yet and you've been following us, you either want to be our enemy or you've finally realized that Ozai isn't a good Fire Lord.”
Sokka, what are you doing? Sokka asks himself in his mind. You've been an ambassador for almost seven years. Politics is your daily life. Is that the best you can say?
Zuko should yell at him now. Tell him that Sokka is crazy. Or try to convince him that he's on his side.
Instead, Zuko blinks.
“How did you–?” he begins. “Oh. You remember.”
“Remember what?”
“You were stabbed,” Zuko says reproachfully. “Right in front of me. And that's why you're here, because you knew I wanted to join you.”
“Okay, first of all, don't blame me for being stabbed to death because I tried to save your life,” Sokka objects. “And second, really, Zuko? Couldn't you have not been stabbed? What was the point of my heroic sacrifice?”
“I told you so many times not to try and die for me!”
“What was I supposed to do? Let the killers kill my friend?”
“Yes! At least then one of us might’ve made it out alive!”
“Now you’re just being a jerk,” Sokka snaps. “I can’t believe I literally died for someone like you—wait. You remember too?”
Zuko looks at him meaningfully — oh, Sokka knows that look well. It's the ‘I can't believe you can be such a fool’ look that the Fire Lord reserves for certain council meetings.
“We just had a conversation about being stabbed to death, Sokka.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly, oh.”
“Okay. Fine. Give me a minute.”
Sokka closes his eyes. When he opens them, Zuko is still standing in front of him, still with that same ‘I am an incredibly annoyed Fire Lord’ look.
Sokka smiles at him.
“I'm going to hug you,” he informs him, just for the record. “Because it means I'm not crazy and that I really did travel through time and that my best friend is with me in the past.”
“What–? Sokka, no, stay away from me!”
Zuko's protests are quickly ignored as Sokka takes his friend in his arms — his friend who is such a good friend that he followed him into the past.
Of course, Sokka isn't very lucky, and a moment later, his sister's terrified voice rings out:
“Sokka?”
He turns around, instantly letting go of Zuko.
Katara looks at them.
Katara, who doesn't remember the future.
Katara, whose last memory of Zuko is from Ba Sing Se, when he allied himself with Azula.
Sokka raises his hands.
“It's not what it looks like,” he protests.
Which is probably a poor choice of words, because Katara's eyes widen suddenly and fill with hatred when she sees Zuko.
“What's going on here?” his sister doesn't understand. “Never mind, Sokka, step back, it's Zuko!”
“Zuko?” Sokka glances at his friend.
Great. Just great.
How do you explain time travel and spontaneous Zuko-hugging to your sister?
Answer: you don’t.
Also, hello? Future fact #1 — hugging Zuko is amazing. Firebender. Built-in heating. Why is no one else appreciating this?
“That's... not Zuko,” Sokka says, not entirely sure. “That's Lee. My old friend Lee, right?”
Zuko looks like he wants to facepalm.
“Back off!” Katara orders. “Now!”
“I can explain everything,” Zuko says, and wow, the hatred in Katara's eyes grows even stronger.
Sokka grimaces. Poor Zuko. Katara is his friend. One of his best friends. And now she's looking at him with hatred in her eyes.
“I'm not here to hurt anyone,” Zuko says quickly. “I want to help you. I know I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, and I shouldn't have done that, and I'm sorry, but I'm on your side. I want to help you!”
“Sure, just like you wanted to help at Ba Sing Se!” Suddenly, Katara is surrounded by water. Sokka feels strangely certain that she is not attacking Zuko only because Sokka is next to him.
“It was a completely different situation, and I'm sorry!” says Zuko. “Besides, I want to help you because my father has gone completely mad and plans to destroy the Earth Kingdom if we don't stop him. The Fire Nation must be stopped, my father must be stopped, and... I'm sorry?”
He ends his short speech in an almost pleading tone. Sokka feels a little sorry for him. He knows perfectly well that Zuko hates arguing with Katara.
Besides, no one in their right mind argues with Katara.
This is Katara.
Not even Aang dares challenge her when she’s angry.
But then again — he’s her husband. Or was? Will be? Anyway – husbands are allowed to be afraid of their wives, so…
“I don't trust you,” Katara says simply. “Get away from my brother right now!”
“Hey, hey, calm down,” Sokka quickly moves, shielding Zuko with his body. “I know our relationship hasn't been great, but Zuko is on our side. Seriously. I can assure you of that.”
Katara looks at him with growing horror.
“Back off, Sokka!” she orders him. “You don't know what you're talking about!”
“Of course I do!” Sokka objects.
“This is Zuko!”
“Yes, this is Zuko! Who else?”
“A moment ago, you said I was Lee,” Zuko interjects.
“Shut up, Zuko,” Sokka and Katara order him at the same time.
Zuko shuts up.
“I know Zuko has done a lot of bad things, and I'm not saying you have to forgive him or trust him, but I think we should give him a chance,” Sokka says. “He said he can teach Aang firebending. Aang needs a firebending teacher. Zuko wants to help.”
“Yeah, so he can capture Aang and take him to the Fire Nation!”
“I never said Zuko didn't make mistakes. And okay, he's a total jerk who has trouble controlling his emotions, yells too much, has terrible fashion sense, especially when it comes to his hair–”
“Hey!”
“–but I believe he wants to help us. Besides, it's up to Aang to decide whether we accept him or not. Oh, and if Zuko was our enemy, he would have attacked us long ago, right? So he's not an enemy. And I know, I know, we don't have the best history, but I think we can give him the benefit of the doubt — no, wait, a chance. Let's decide together whether he'll be useful to us or not, okay?”
“Sokka, are you listening to yourself?!” Katara asks in disbelief. “This is Zuko!”
“Yes, I know it's Zuko!” Sokka raises his voice. “I understood that the first time! And that's why I think we should take him to everyone so they can all decide what to do with him! What would you rather do, huh? Leave him here to call the rest of his friends—if he came with an army and soldiers?”
Zuko glances at him resentfully.
“I wouldn't come to ask for peace with soldiers with me,” he objects. “I'm not that stupid.”
“Zuko, shut up, you're not helping,” Sokka hisses. “Let me handle this.”
His friend obediently falls silent.
“So,” says Sokka, looking at his sister. “We should just take him with us. To, you know. Make sure he doesn't try to betray us. Or call his evil soldiers. Besides, it's Zuko. You, me, and Aang defeated him many times, years ago.”
“Hey!” Zuko protests. “I'm not weak!”
Sokka elbows him in the stomach.
“You better shut up, can't you see I'm trying to help you?” he hisses. Louder, he adds to Katara. “And now we have Toph with us too. Please, can you imagine Zuko defeating Toph? Because I can't. So. We'll take him with us. We'll interrogate him. Toph will know if he's telling the truth. If he's lying, we'll find out how the Fire Nation found out about us and we'll have a hostage. If he's telling the truth, we'll have a firebending teacher for Aang and a potential source of information about the Fire Nation. Either way, it's a win-win, right?”
The suspicion does not disappear from his sister's eyes. You can still see the hatred in them.
But even she is able to ignore the truth.
“All right,” Katara says after a long pause, much to her displeasure. “But one wrong move, one hint of suspicion, and I’ll end his destiny. Permanently.”
The three of them return to camp. Katara doesn't even know why she agreed to this—okay, she does. She wants to get rid of Zuko, and she'll do it even if she has to fight Sokka, who for some reason seems to like him.
Katara doesn't know how much time they had to talk to each other in the clearing — but it was apparently enough to form some sort of bond, because when Katara saw them, they were hugging each other.
Of course, this is just one big trick on Zuko's part. Katara isn't fooled by it. And she won't let Sokka be fooled by it either.
And that's why Katara is walking a little behind them. If something happens, she will be able to react and attack Zuko.
She watches them suspiciously. Sokka and Zuko walk side by side—and then suddenly Sokka smiles slightly, leans toward Zuko and says something to him in a hushed tone—and then Zuko smiles back at him.
Their strange encounter in the clearing, how Sokka was willing to defend Zuko, the fact that they hugged...
Sweet Tui and La, Katara suddenly realizes. He’s not just infiltrating the group — he’s flirting. With Sokka.