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Speeding through the palace halls, Zuko is more than a little shocked, and rightfully so.
Ursa had unloaded some seriously heavy news on him this morning and he really needs to tell Sokka.
So as he opened the door to the ambassador’s study with a little more force than necessary, he tried not to feel too bad.
“Zuko?” Sokka asked, looking up from his scroll. Ah. Sokka. They’d just had their third-anniversary last week, and Zuko is unbelievably grateful for his boyfriend. They may seem like an unlikely couple, but they balance each other out perfectly. Like yesterday! Sokka was testing out a new contraption, one that effectively works as Aang's glider minus the air bending. So when the dumbass crashed through the window to their bed chambers, (after dismissing the very alarmed guards), Zuko scolded his boyfriend for his idiocy while also welding the broken metal back into place. There were a lot of amazing things that had happened to him since becoming Fire Lord, but Sokka was by far the best. Zuko can’t believe how he’d got so luck-
“So yeah! I’m just finishing up article 54 and then the democracy institution act will be ready for review with the council.” Zuko snaps out of his love-struck reverie right at the end of Sokka's speech about beginning to elect local leaders around the Fire Nation. Suddenly, Zuko remembers why he came here and his face pales appropriately.
Looking back up from his work, Sokka dons a worried expression, “Zuko? Babe are you okay? Let's sit down?” He stands up and gently grasps Zuko's robes, guiding him over to sit on the nearby couch. “Is something wrong?”
Zuko nods, looking down at his hands, “I just spoke with my mother, she got in from Hira'a last night. She told me something, and it’s kind of unbelievable…”
It’s 12:03 am when Zuko is born. The dead of night, never a good sign. Ozai’s already weary, but when he looks into his infant son’s eyes, he scoffs. Hazel.
“He doesn’t have the spark. This boy is no prince, no firebender, no son of mine. I must speak to the Fire Lord about this.” Ozai promptly spins on his heel and stalks away.
Ursa’s sobbing and the baby’s not. It should be the other way around. Eventually, they’re both crying, but it seems wrong either way.
The Fire Prince returns after about an hour, a disdainful look in his eye. “I’ve spoken with the Fire Lord, he trusts my judgment and the baby will be executed come sunrise.”
“Ozai, no! This is your child! You can’t just throw him aside, he’s your blood!” Ursa begs and her husband glares. “I’ll do anything, please Ozai. Give him a chance! He’s just a baby! He’s your baby.” She goes on like this, delirious from labor and preemptive grief until Ozai puts a hand up.
“Fine. Since you are losing your mind about this, I’ll give you one day with the child. If you try to run away, well, simply put, you’ll lose your son.. and that, that Ikem.” He spits and storms away, slamming the door behind him.
Ursa can’t help but cry again, much to her nurse’s worry of dehydration. “Oh Zuko, don’t worry, hush child, you’ll be alright, don’t worry.” staring into her newborn’s tiny features, Ursa won’t give up. She cries, but not only does she cry. She plans.
One hour before the sun hits its highest point in the sky, Ursa tells the nurses that she’s leaving, that she will fight for her son’s life. She tells them that she will be back before one pm, to do everything in their power to prevent Ozai or Azulon from entering the birthing ward. They don’t try to stop her. After all, they were there when Zuko was born. They are mothers. They understand.
The caldera takes a siesta at noon, basking and relaxing in Agni's light. Today, Ursa does anything but. Newly a mother, unrested and angry, she climbs out the window of the birthing ward with her newborn child. She sneaks across the roofs, toward the Royal Temple of Agni. If the guards look away? Well, word spreads fast in the palace.
She enters the golden temple, cautiously stepping toward the ever-burning flame. This is said to be the most spiritual place in the whole of the Fire Nation, “Oh great sun spirit Agni. My son is the new Fire Prince of your nation. His father and the Fire Lord plan to kill him in a mere half day. I beg, Great Spirit of the Sun, please help my child, he is all I have left.” She holds out the (far too quiet) baby towards the flame. “Please.” she pleads, voice cracking.
A small salamander emerges from the fire. It should be startling, but all Ursa feels is overwhelming relief. The creature waits atop his perch in the ever-burning flame. The mother inches Zuko closer, only a finger’s length away from being burnt. The salamander gently reaches out His tiny arm and places it on the infant’s forehead.
In an instant, Agni’s mortal form retreats into the fiery depths. In an instant, Zuko’s eyes shoot open. In an instant, Ursa is running from the Royal Temple. Gold. His eyes are gold. The purest gold she’s ever seen. The boy has been touched by The Great Spirit, and no one can ever know.
Until now. Having finished relaying the tale that Ursa told him, Zuko finally looks up from his hands. Whatever Zuko was expecting, it sure wasn’t this.
Sokka looks… afraid. Terrified, actually, and then. Then he bursts into violent sobs. Absolutely nothing in Zuko’s short life has prepared him for this, so, in typical Zuko fashion, he demands answers. “Sokka?? What’s wrong??”
His boyfriend begins mumbling some barely coherent phrases, of which Zuko can only hear so many because Sokka is now holding him tightly and speaking into his shirt. “oh no no no spirits please don't let another one of my lovers turn into a celestial body ... holy shit …. why me … this is the worst … oh god oh fuck”
Even Fire Lord Zuko, the most socially inept twenty-two-year-old this side of Ba Sing Se, can take this cue. Sokka’s clearly not able to get a sentence out right now, so it’s probably best to just hold him for the time being. Following this thought process, Zuko grabs onto his boyfriend and lies down with him.
Zuko takes deliberate deep breaths to try and help Sokka calm down. It feels eerily like a role reversal from all the times that Zuko's had to be coaxed out of panic attacks after seeing something that reminds him just a little too much of his father. Needless to say, Zuko's more than happy to comfort his boyfriend this time around.
Eventually, Sokka's eyes dry up, and their foreheads are pressed together. “Are you okay?” Zuko whispers, fearful of the answer he might receive.
“Yeah.” Sokka moves to sit on the ground and Zuko follows suit. The two now facing each other, cross-legged, on the elaborately crafted royal rugs. “Do you remember how I told you that my first girlfriend turned into the moon?”
Zuko, with a distant look in his eye - having flashbacks to “that’s rough buddy”, responds, “Yeah. Yeah I remember.” then, coming back to reality, “but you never really gave any context and honestly, I was too afraid to ask.”
“Well you were there, but I guess you were fighting Zhao. At the siege of the north? There was the princess, Arnook's daughter, Yue. We were kinda dating, we had been crushing on each other for a while when Zhao killed Tui. See, when she was born, much like you I guess, she was blessed by the moon spirit, that’s why she had such white hair. Since Tui gave Yue life, she decided to give it back. So yeah. You have really gold eyes. Please don't turn into the sun.” Sokka looks dangerously close to sobbing again, so Zuko scoots forward and pulls him in for a kiss.
It’s soft and it’s sweet, but it didn’t quite do the job. Zuko can feel tears that don’t belong to him hit his cheeks and he pulls back. “Obviously, I don’t know what will happen in the future. I don’t know if Zhao’s going to rise from the dead and decide to murder Agni but please, Sokka. Know that I’d never leave you by my own volition, I love you.”
--
Late that night, Sokka finds himself on the roof of the tallest tower in the palace.
“What the fuck Yue. You’re the moon. Zuko’s the sun. What the fuck. I wouldn’t be surprised if Suki was the stars at this point. What the fuck. You guys aren’t even blessed by inconsequential spirits or anything. You’re both part great spirit. I know I’m just rambling, but can you blame me? My first love turned into the moon and now there is a real possibility that my second love will turn into the sun! What the fuck!” Sokka only stops his tirade because he sees a familiar pale hand grab the edge of the roof.
He grabs it, of course, and helps his boyfriend sit down on the surprisingly comfortable royal rooftop. “Are you okay?” Zuko asks, voice even rougher than usual with sleep.
Aw, Sokka thinks, he probably realized I wasn’t in bed and then came and found me. Then proceeded to climb the roof of a three-story pagoda in the dead of night. The things this bitch will do for love.
“Yeah.” Sokka sighs and Zuko nods, a few feet away. Sokka scoots up close and Zuko puts a comforting hand on his lower back. They stay there, gazing at Yue.
That night, Sokka sits under the moon and beside the sun.