An Unexpected Meeting
A cool breeze swept through the forest, running softly against the water tribe boy’s face.
It was ridiculous. The stupid townsfolk were willing to let two already tired as hell teenagers probably starve because he had made one comment about their precious fortuneteller.
“Stupid town. Stupid villagers. Stupid forest” Sokka grumbled to himself as he clutched his boomerang.
His stomach was grumbling and he swears he’s going insane with hunger. Honestly anything looked like food now.
Suddenly, he finally noticed a silhouette—something moving.
His mouth watered and he squeezed his weapon harder in his hand.
In one swift movement, his boomerang was flying, aimed at the dark shadow.
Just as the projectile was about to hit its target, the silhouette turned. He had missed, and in a flash—
Thump!
The teenager was being pinned down to the ground, a warm and somehow gracefully dense weight pressing against him. He tried to push the creature off, but his wrist were pinned to the ground by two hands gripping them.
‘A person?’
He looked up to see a pair of golden eyes, the prettiest eyes he had ever seen, staring down at him angrily.
A softly gruff voice growled at him.
“Who are you? Why are you attacking me?”
The dark was still obscuring Sokka’s view as he tried to decipher who was on top of him. He finally stuttered out.
“I...I thought y...you were an animal. I was just tryna get something...to eat.”
The fiery eyes squinted back at him, and the harsh voice now spoke through gritted teeth.
“That sounds like a load of shit to me. Tell me who you are.”
Instead of responding, the water tribe teen rammed a knee into the gut above him, wrapped his legs around the body and rolled, slamming the stranger onto his back. Now it was Sokka’s turn to stare down at a face.
The moonlight finally allowed him to see who he had entrapped, and he was surprised to see a youthful face, someone who looked his own age. The gold in the boy’s eyes was gleaming now, and it was then that he noticed the giant scar that spanned over half of the poor guy’s face.
A sudden wave of guilt rushed over Sokka. He after all, did attack this dude first. He probably would have flipped out too if someone tried to chuck a weapon at him from behind.
He slowly moved off the other teenager, who had looked like he was about to murder him if he did it a moment later.
He scratched his head as he stared back at the now sitting up figure.
“I wasn’t lying. I truly didn’t mean to attack you. I’m Sokka.”
He extended a hand, to which the golden eyed individual looked at suspiciously. Instead of grabbing it, the other boy stood up on his own, grumbling.
“Whatever.”
Sokka scoffed at the teen’s rudeness.
“Can you at least tell me your name?”
The teenager didn’t even turn to face him, but Sokka could see his fists were clenched. He also could have sworn he felt the area surrounding him heat up. The other teen grumbled back at him once again, this time with more annoyance.
“I don’t need to tell you anything peasant.”
Before he had any time to react to the insult, Sokka instead watched as the mysterious teenager marched back into the woods in the direction of the village.
‘Peasant?! Who’s he calling a peasant’Sokka thought to himself angrily. Just who did this random boy think he was?
His stomach grumbled once again. He was so frustrated with his interaction with the stranger that he almost completely forgot why he was in the woods in the first place.
He pushed the golden eyed stranger to the back of his mind as best he could before continuing his search for food.
...........................................
The fire nation prince practically stomped into Makapu village after his encounter with the strange teenager in the woods. Zuko was simply just trying to enjoy some peace and quiet by himself, but for some reason some idiot with brilliantly blue eyes had to throw a boomerangat the back of his head.
The situation would have been almost comedic if he has a sense of humor. Unfortunately for the young firebender, he did not.
The prince entered the village and searched for his uncle, whom he had left to get dinner by himself. He would have joined him if he had an appetite, but Zhao’s visit had spoiled it. He tried to shake off the memory of Zhao’s uncomfortable body heat lingering next to him, and his eyes boring into his soul. He hated everything about that man, and he especially did now because he wanted to accept the offer he had presented to him. Of course he wanted to take the more reasonable and realistic way to getting his throne back, but his honor also held him back from ever working with the admiral. The asshole had done enough to tamper any future cooperation with the prince.
Eventually, Zuko finally spotted his uncle sitting at a table eating his dinner, but he was accompanied by what looked like a young girl. How his uncle could be so social with everyone he met, the prince would never know.
“Uncle! I’ve been looking all over for you” the teenager shouted.
The older man turned around and smiled at his upcoming nephew.
“Prince Zuko! Come, sit down and enjoy a meal with us.”
He crossed his arms as he stood in front of the table, his glare setting itself on the young girl that was now staring at him wide eyed. Dark hair, brown skin, blue eyes. She had to be from the water tribe. She straightened her back and turned back to face Iroh.
“I’m guessing this is the nephew that you told me about.”
Iroh chuckled and placed a hand on the prince’s shoulder.
“Yes Katara, this is Prince Zuko.”
The teenager shook his uncle’s hand off and scowled.
“Glad to see you’re talking about me behind my back to water tribe peasants uncle.”
The younger girl scoffed and spat back.
“Peasant? Well you look awfully unroyal to be a prince.”
The prince saw red, and almost considered chucking a fireball in the brat’s face until his uncle stood up in front of him. His eyes were calm, at least compared to the fiery ones of the younger boy.
“Nephew, remember to control your temper.”
The teenager clenched his teeth and ground them together, then took a deep breath out, letting steam loose through his nostrils as he did so.
Iroh clamped his hands together, and leaned his head in Katara’s direction.
“Now that you’ve cooled off, I’d like to properly introduce you to Katara. She and her brother have traveled all the way from the South Pole!”
The teenager didn’t say anything, he just nodded at the girl with a look of disinterest prevalent on his face. His uncle continued.
“Now their one mode of transport was destroyed earlier today, and they need a way to get to the North Pole.”
The prince rolled his eyes “And?”
The girl and the older man made eye contact as he finished his thought.
“Since we are low on staff, after Eiji and Ling left, I think we have room for two more people on our ship. What do you say to a couple of more shipmates?”
Zuko blinked a couple of times, anger and confusion burning hot in his chest. His uncle couldn’t be this stupid, could he?
He pointed aggressively at Katara.
“Uncle, she’s water tribe! We can’t have her and whoever this brother of hers is running all about my ship. I won’t allow it!”
The girl finally stood up, and her face was scrunched with anger.
“I am willing to put aside the fact that you’re Fire Nation because me and my brother are desperate. Even after they destroyed my home. Even after they murdered my mother.”
His hard exterior softened at her last statement, and he noticed her hand immediately grasping the necklace around her neck. It must have been owned by her mother.
It must be the last thing she has to remember her by.
He suddenly didn’t feel so angry at the water tribe girl, but also didn’t want to concede to the issue just yet.
“How do I know that you and your brother won’t betray us? How can we possibly trust either of you, especially considering you already have such a distain for the nation me and my ship belong to?”
She responded with her arms crossed.
“Well for one I know you guys don’t really belong to the fire nation. I did spend some time speaking with your uncle and your ship isn’t very friendly with the rest of the fire nation. Me and my brother have no purpose in harming you guys if you have no purpose in harming us.”
The prince thought again for a moment. He couldn’t necessarily rebut her refutes because every point she had made was valid. He could just be a dick like usual and say no without reason, but something about the revelation about her mother made his heart ache with its sense of familiarity. He sighed gruffly.
“If you are willing to do the work below deck, which is cleaning the head, the work that no grown man is willing to do, then fine, whatever, you can come on our ship.”
Her eyes brightened a bit, and she formed a small smile. She reached her hand out to the prince, intending for him to shake it.
“So.....deal?”
He grimaced at the suggestion of physical contact, so he simply nodded his head in agreement.
She slowly lowered her hand and smiled broadly. It wasn’t at him however, it was directed at his uncle.
“Well then, I’ll go get my brother and tell him!”
A voice behind the trio spoke from behind them, and it sounded like the person was nearing them quickly.
“Tell me about what?”
Zuko immediately recognized the voice.
‘The boy from the woods.’
He turned around to face the other approaching teen, and both their faces were as shocked as they were angry.
“You!”
The firebender clenched his jaw as the other teenager stopped right in front of him. Blue stared into gold as they locked eyes.
Of course this had to be Katara’s brother. Because the universe loved him.
The water tribe teen eyed the prince’s attire, taking note of the red outlining his armor. He practically growled at Zuko.
“I should have known you were fire nation.”
Heat rose to the prince’s face, but before he had time to reply, the other teen pushed past him and grabbed his sister’s arm.
“Come on Katara, we’re getting out of here.”
The girl ripped her arm away and pleaded with her brother.
“Sokka no! They’re gonna help us get to the Northern water tribe.”
His mouth gaped open, and his eyes widened. He threw his hands up as he practically screamed out.
“ARE YOU CRAZY? THEY’RE FIRE NATION!”
The prince scoffed sarcastically.
“Oh yes we’re so horrible. Says the guy who randomly attacked me in the woods.”
Sokka turned his fury back to the firebender and threw his hands up once more and groaned in a exaggerated manner.
“Oh spirits for the last time I didn’t mean to attack you! And I shouldn’t even have to answer to you.”
As Zuko rolled his eyes, Iroh gave the water tribe teenager a good natured smile.
“This all sounds like a bunch of miscommunication. Please, sit down and enjoy a meal with us.”
Sokka snorted. He couldn’t believe this man from the fire nation was trying to convince him to eat with him. Like they were friends. It didn’t matter that his face was kind and warm, his nation had taken everything from him and he wasn’t about to let them take away his sister too.
He snarled at the firebenders.
“No thank you. Now if you don’t mind, me and my sister are going to go now.”
“Sokka wait-“
He raised his tone once again, his blue eyes gleaming with frustration.
“Katara I’m not backing down on this! I have one job and that’s to protect you, not let you run off with some...some colonizing assholes.”
Iroh and Zuko watched as the siblings continued to argue, not sure if they were supposed to jump in or not. The prince did feel himself clench at the insult hurled at him however.
Katara yelled back in her brother’s face.
“Look, I don’t like it either! But I am trying to be adaptive, because that is how we are going to make it to the North Pole without dying! And the way to fix that problem is right in front of us! So please Sokka, please try and forget they’re fire nation, because I am going with them with or without you, and I really don’t want it to be without you.”
The boy glared into the younger girl’s stubborn eyes, wanting so desperately to simply leave and walk the whole damn way to the northern water tribe and leave these stupid guys behind but-
—But he couldn’t. It was like when she wanted to begin this journey all those months ago. She was a force to be reckoned with, and he couldn’t stop her from going her own path. The only thing he could do was go along with her to ensure her safety. Because that is exactly what he promised his dad he would do.
His eyes darted from Katara to the prince, who was scowling, then back to her. He couldn’t believe he was doing this as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Well of course I’m not letting you get on a ship alone with these jerks. But I’m not doing because I like it or anything!”
The anger in his sister’s face faded, and she pulled her brother into a tight hug. She whispered to him.
“Thank you for trusting me.”
He returned the hug and glared once more into the golden eyes of the prince over her shoulder.
The firebender looked away, almost embarrassed that he was looking at the water tribe peasant before he had turned his glare towards him during his hug with his sister. His cheeks turned slightly pink until he forced his body heat away from his face.
The siblings finished their hug, and Sokka made a face of mock happiness directed at the prince.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me, jerkbender.”
Zuko’s hands nearly burst into flames, but decided against producing any fire, as it would probably give the other boy another tasteless insult to throw back at him. Instead, he got nearly inches from his face and spoke gruffly.
“Well you’ll be happy to know you get to clean the literal shit on our ship, courtesy of your sister’s agreement.”
Sokka glowered in return, ignoring the almost pleasant smokey and cinnamon-like scent coming off of the other teen. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t broken eye contact with him, but his thought was short lived when Iroh cleared his throat.
“Well, you and Katara may do whatever it is you please for the rest of the night, but we usually leave port at dawn, so meet us there by then?”
Both siblings nodded, and the prince merely scoffed and walked away, his uncle following behind him. Before he did however, he bowed slightly to the teens.
“I look forward to seeing you both in the morning. Please rest well.”
Sokka nodded rather curtly, while Katara beamed with gratitude.
“Thank you, Iroh.”
The older man gave the duo a warm smile, bowing his head once again and turning to follow his nephew.
After he left, the older boy dragged his hands down his face, rubbing his eyes with irritation.
“Ughhh. I cannot believe you got us jobs as janitors for the fire nation.”
She simply shrugged her shoulders as a broad and mockingly innocent smile graced her features.
....................................
That night both the prince and the water tribe boy stared up at a starry sky, wondering what exactly the future held for the both of them. Neither of them believed anything good could come from having one another on the same ship, but what did they know?