Chapter Text
Summer is over. Which unfortunately means we have to go back to school. Due to the time of night, I arrive at the mansion hidden in the middle of a forest in northern Italy much earlier than everyone else, so I take my stuff up to my room to unpack. For as long as I have been here, there have been few new pupils and due to the close friendships made, a dormitory reshuffle has never been necessary. It is eerily quiet in the school, but despite the almost derelict feel of the building, I definitely feel home. The quiet is nice after having to put up with my sisters constant nagging all summer. If this wasn’t an all-boys school, I’m almost certain she would have followed me here just to annoy me more. That’s just how she is; she lives to make my life unbearable.
At the sounds of the first engine cautiously manoeuvring the dirt track that leads to the school, I cross the room to kneel on a bed and peer out the first floor window at the new arrivals. I’m not watching them, not really, I’m searching for people. One of my room-mates, Aang, is easily distinguishable in the bustling crowds below.
He lives in a nearby monastery and the monks there make him shave his head (something about religious purposes) but he lets it grow during term time because he either likes it better that way or cannot be bothered with the upkeep required. But his baldness isn’t the thing that makes him stand out most; the large arrow tattoo on his head is his most easily distinguishable feature. The one on his head goes down his back, with other arrows breaking off to twirl around each of his limbs. Apparently he had them when the monks found him abandoned on their doorstep. Nobody knows how he got them or where he came from, but that doesn’t bother him in the slightest.0
As if feeling my gaze, he looks up at me and smiles. He makes his way through the crowds and – within moments – is entering the room. He’s the fastest person in a school for people with special talents in the fighting area, just like I’m the most flexible. “How many times do I have to tell you, Sokka? Get off of my bed!” He exclaims with a laugh, attempting to wrestle me from his bed. For such a little guy, he sure packs a punch.
“Hey! I need to perv up the guys, you know that!” We both know that’s not what I had been doing, but he plays along with it. I’m not entirely sure if I should be insulted or not that he didn’t deny my ‘perving’. He probably thinks I’m capable of it. He slips out of the room, shaking his head sadly at me. I keep looking out of the window watching, waiting long after everyone has gone inside and the courtyard is eerily empty.
Aang puts a hand on my shoulder, jolting me out of my gormless staring. “Dinners ready.” I don’t move, or even acknowledge him. “I know how much you miss him – even I do – but it doesn’t look like he’s coming today. You know Zuko; he’ll turn up eventually.” I resign myself and let the shorter boy lead me to the main hall for the welcome back speech, dinner and our timetables for the year. Zuko was always unreliable getting back for the start of terms. Hell, one year he was two weeks late when he arrived, sauntering into gym as though he had been there all along. He never gave explanation for his tardiness, and it was frustrating, to say the least.
“Aw, man! Triple martial arts on Thursdays? You have got to be kidding me!” I throw myself onto my bed and give a cry of despair. “At least we’re in the same classes again.” Aang chirps happily. In this school, you are put into classes according to your ability, not your age. If Aang and I are in the same classes again, that means Zuko is most likely to be with us too. Between the three of us, we have three separate traditional school years, what with Aang being 14, Zuko 16, and me 15. Our age doesn’t matter; we’re in the top class and have been since we got here. It isn’t a surprise to find we are together again, but more of a relief now that it has finally been confirmed.
A teacher can be heard yelling in the corridor outside that it is lights out time. “I’m going to hit the hay. You staying up again?” I nod. Over the past few years – the ones that I’ve been here – I can only sleep when I become exhausted for some strange reason. It usually means that I only get a handful of hours of sleep a night. It doesn’t have any detrimental effect on my life whatsoever, which is what the over-cautious Aang tolerates me ‘odd behaviour’. I take the book resting on my bedside shelf and begin to read. Now, don’t get me wrong – I like action and fighting, but there’s only so much of that kind of thing a guy can take. There is only so much manliness one can cram into a lifestyle.
I mostly read romance novels. Well, romance is a rather loose term, it’s more like … a gay porn novel? Yes, that sounds right. Only I keep them hidden at the back of my closet because I’d never hear the end of it if anyone found out. I make a nest out of bedding for myself and slowly chew on my left thumbnail – a bad habit I can’t seem to kick - as I take it in.
“You know what I want to hear…” Alex purred, completely enjoying his authority over the captive boy. The green eyes of the native met his own amber ones, and within them he could see that he had won. The boy was completely and utterly broken. “Please…” He whined, averting his eyes and rattling his restraints in an enticing manner. “Please what?” The officer teasingly slid his hand down his trousers and began pleasuring himself. The native, he noticed, was beet red all over and erect as anything. “Fuck me.” Alex looked at him expectantly, waiting for more. “Hard.” The native added. This seemed to be what the officer was waiting for because he strode across the room and…
The door opened with a barely audible click, light gushing in from the corridor outside and a familiar muscular silhouette slunk into the room. It crossed to the only free bed and dropped his bags at the foot of the bed with a couple of dull thuds.
“I should have known you’d be up.” Zuko murmured quietly without turning to look at me. “You know me, watching you and Aang sleep turns me on.” Just like Aang earlier, he knows I’m bluffing. However, he’s silent, not agreeing or disagreeing and only speaks once he’s stripped down to his boxers and is in bed.
“What’re you reading that’s so interesting?” I sigh, turning off the lamp. “Go to bed, Zu, it’ll be a long day tomorrow – first ones back always are.” Within minutes his breathing has evened out to sleep-mode, so I turn the light back on and continue to read.