Chapter Text
If there was one thing Zuko knew for sure about his soul mate, is that he was clumsy. Every new bruise appearing on his skin from a body that wasn’t his. And the exclamations were just as ridiculous. He would circle the bruise, a simple question mark annotating his pale skin. It took his soulmate a while before he received his response. A tickling sensation as his soul mate replied. Boomerang. Sister. Boomerang. A child. Every bruise got an answer that just left Zuko wanting to know more about the clumsy fool he was falling in love with him.
He remembers, back when he was young, clumsily writing on his arm a simple word “ Name? ” The reply and equally sloppy reply of “ Sokka. You?”
Zuko remembers hastily scribbling his reply.
They learned alot about each other over the years and knew that eventually Sokka might figure out who he was. He did know half of it. One night, after no communication for a week came the familiar sensation of writing on his skin. He bolted up in bed, creating a small flame to read by, and his heart stopped. “ Are you fire nation? ” He asked. The topic had never come up before between them, but now that they were older, it was bound to be brought up. He wished he still had his mother around, she would know what to say. But, he realized, he had the next best thing. And he climbed out of his bed and made his way to his uncle's room.
Despite waking him at such an hour, Iroh was quick to usher the young boy in. Listening intently as Zuko poured out all his doubt onto him.
“Just, I don’t know what to tell him. Should I lie? But he’d know I lied the minute we met. I can’t hide that I’m a fire bender from him. He doesn’t even know I’m the prince. I just. I need your advice, Uncle.” He looked over at him, the man nursing a cup of jasmine tea and he hummed in thought.
“It takes strength and courage to admit the truth, Zuko.” He spoke, “Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.”
Zuko thought for a moment and asked, “Do you have a quill I can use?” And Iroh smiled.
It was nearly daybreak when Sokka got his answer, the hours of anxiety balling up in his stomach threatening to make him sick. Katara had asked him why he would even ask his soulmate a question like that. His response was simple.
“He can’t be all that bad if he’s my soulmate, Katara.” Despite everything the fire nation had done to their family and to their tribe, Sokka tried to see the good in his soul mate. Though he knew if he was, it would take a great deal of time to adjust. It’s not like his soul mate was the firelord himself. He shuddered at the thought.
He watched with bated breath as his soul mate responded with one simple word. “ Yes ”. And Sokka was stunned. More words appearing, “ My Uncle said it would be best to speak the truth. I’m sorry, Sokka.”
Sokka was silent, the distant sounds of ocean waves luring him to calmness. Next to him, Katara shuffled in her sleep, her head poking up from where it was nestled on the pillow. “Sokka?” She asked softly, her arm snaking out of covers to touch his shoulder. Her own soul marks visible in the faint moonlight. “Is everything ok?” She asked. And when Sokka looked at her, he couldn’t help but let the emotions flood him.
He liked to think he was good at concealing his emotions, but no matter what he did, Katara always saw through him. She was quick to sit up, wrapping her arms around Sokka’s frame and holding him close.
It was a week later when he felt the searing pain in his face.
It wasn’t like the quill Zuko usually used to communicate. No warm feelings and emotions coursing through his blood stream. This was hot and painful. He was dropping to his knees in agony, clutching his face with enough force to break his skull. The whole village dropping what they were doing and rushing to him. Katara reached him first, a gentle hand on his back as he continued to scream. With the sun beating down on them her own soul marks were visible, arrows on her hands, feet, and head. Her soul mate must have the strange markings too, but hers was a small contrast against her dark skin.
The pain seemed to last eternity before Sokka finally pulled himself away. “Sokka, look at me.” Katara pleaded and he had no choice but to obey her. Her shocked expression was enough to tell him that it was bad.
Zuko wore long sleeves for the first few days of his banishment. This mark was still burning on his face and his vision was still fuzzy around the edges. His soul mate continued to talk to him. He could feel the brushes of ink forming on his skin, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at them. He didn’t care about himself, he was more concerned with how Sokka’s face would match his. How, now, he probably resented Zuko.
Iroh knocked on his door and he looked up as he poked his in, “The crew is still awaiting your orders, Prince Zuko.” He spoke, stepping into the room fully, his demeanor as calm as always. Zuko turned his back to him, still glaring out at the open waters. “We can head north to Ember Island. The players are performing Love Amongst The Dragons ”, He suggested.
“I don’t have time for a vacation, Uncle.” Zuko replied, “I need to find the avatar.”
There was silence once more and Zuko felt the familiar tickle on his skin once more. His hand coming out to hold his arm. Not wanting to look at it.
“Have you talked to him?” Iroh asked, his words sparse and calculated, not wanting to overstep his nephews boundaries and what he was comfortable with.
“No.” Zuko spoke, his voice rough. He was tired. If it wasn’t the pain that kept him awake it was the ever present strokes on his skin. Words that Zuko never wanted to see. Never wanted to acknowledge that not only did his father scar him, but also left a mark on his soulmate as well. Iroh was silent, the sound of the waves against the ship and the caw of a stranded toucan puffin the only noise between them. The seconds seemed to stretch on as infinite as the empty sea in front of them, and Zuko spoke once more. “Not since…” he drifted, the memory flashing in his mind as he turned away from the waters.
“Perhaps it would be wise to do so now.” Iroh suggested softly. Hesitating slightly before approaching his nephew.
Zuko bit out a laugh, “And say what, exactly, uncle?” He turned to face him, “Sorry about your face, at least it probably looks better than mine. Oh? How did I get it, Sokka? Oh well my father thought it would be fun to burn half my face off?” The flames lit in the chamber, growing brighter and hotter with each word as Zuko’s rage filled it.
Iroh waited, watching Zuko in silent comfort. Watching as the anger dripped away from his face and the flames around them calmed. “My apologies, Uncle.” Zuko whispered out, his shoulders dropping as he focused on one of the many meditation techniques Iroh had taught him. “It was not right of me to speak to you like that.” He continued.
Iroh smiled softly, allowing himself to approach closer to Zuko. “It is okay, Prince Zuko.” He spoke, his voice forever calm. His hand came out to rest on Zuko’s shoulder. “You have every right to be mad at your father. But communication is key when your soulmate is involved.”
“But how?” He asked, Zuko’s voice hitching as he looked his uncle in the eye, “I fear he would resent me now. It took him a week to accept the fact I was fire nation. Now he has a mark on his own face. He can’t forgive me for that.”
Iroh was silent for a moment before he replied, “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” He spoke.
“Another proverb, uncle?” Zuko responded, a light air to his voice that caused a hint of a smile to spread across Iroh’s features.
“Perhaps. Every moment calls for a proverb.” Iroh replied.
Zuko looked away, Iroh could see the twitching of his face. Knew his nephew was deep in thought, turning words and ideas over in his head. Trying to make sense of what he wanted to say before he did so. He was so much like his mother in that way.
“I can’t…” Zuko began, “I mean…” he struggled once more to find the words. Iroh was silent. Giving him all the time he needed. “Will you help me?” He finally asked. A hand came up to rub the back of his neck. “I’m still having a hard time reading. And writing. Legibly.” He confessed and Iroh’s face softened.
“It would be my pleasure, Prince Zuko.” He replied, and they walked to the seating area in the quarters and began the process of communicating with the Prince’s soulmate.
Sokka was about to give up on all hope that his soulmate would respond. He stopped trying to write words, instead doodling random things on his skin. An otter penguin, the view from the top of the village, katara’s necklace, smiley faces. Anything he could think of to maybe lift his soulmates spirits.
Sokka wouldn’t let himself think of anything else tragic happening to his soulmate. He was burned, that was a worse enough fate. He couldn’t help at the thought to touch his own face. Looking into the his reflection in the water, his fingers ghosting over the different shades his skin was marked. It had seemed worse when it first happened. He was afraid, of course. But not for him. But for Zuko. His Zuko.
The Zuko who drew him a turtle duck for his birthday. Who talked about having tea with his uncle, and all the bad jokes he told. Sokka knew that Zuko’s uncle might just be his new favorite person, that is, if he ever got the chance to meet him. Who could relate to having a little sister. And briefly, Sokka was worried if something had happened to her as well. He knew he would have gone crazy if something had happened to Katara.
But Katara had been his rock. His support system. She knew what it was like to have a soulmate who didn’t respond. But unlike Katara, he knew his soulmate. Felt his absence every day in the warm sensation he would wake up to. Zuko would draw a sun on the back of his hand. Every morning to signal his rise from slumber to his soulmate. And when Sokka laid his head down before he slept he’d draw a crescent moon. It was a habit.
A habit they had had since they were children. A habit that, although Zuko had not acknowledged for the last week, Sokka did though. Sokka did wonder if perhaps his soulmate did not know the sun had risen. So he began to draw the sun too.
Sokka looked up, laying back against the hard pack snow at the sky above him. It was a clear day and the smell of fresh fallen snow and the smoked Yak being cooked in the village below him filled the air around him. He closed his eyes, and let the suns rays wash over him. Wondering if this is what his soulmate felt every morning he greeted.
“I thought I’d find you up here.” Came the voice of Katara. Sokka turned his head and smiled at his sister as she approached him.
“Zuko said he meditated every morning with the rise of the sun. Since, I thought, if he can’t, maybe I could for him.” He spoke, trying to explain the jumble of words and feelings that clouded his head.
“That’s really sweet, Sokka.” Katara responded, kneeling down next to him and lifting her face towards the sun. She wondered briefly to herself if her soulmate had any quirks like Sokka’s did. She wondered if she would ever know.
They sat in a comfortable silence as the sound of the waves stirred below them. The bustle of the village below them coming to a full start as the children rushed out of their igloos to greet the day.
“We should head back down.” Katara spoke standing up and offering her hand to Sokka, who gladly accepted the assistance in rising from the snow. “We don’t want to miss breakfast.”
“I’ll meet you down there in a moment, there’s something I have to do first.” He replied. Katara nodded her head and smiled before turning around and heading down the hill towards the village. Sokka turned to look at the sun once more and sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the special quill he made and carefully drew the sun on the back of his palm.
Smiling down at his work he returned the quil to the designated pocket in his parka before filling Katara’s footprints down the path.
Sokka had just finished eating when he felt it. The sensation that spread across his skin and sent tingles up his spine. Zuko. He was responding. He’s alive . A dark part of his brain supplied, and Sokka never wanted to admit that he did fear the worst at times.
He looked around for Katara to share his good news when a thought dawned on him. Zuko’s first response back to him should first be read in private. Katara could be privy to the conversation later. Now, Sokka just wanted to know that Zuko was safe.
He looked around once more before making his way to their family igloo and ducking into the privacy of his own home. He lit the small fire pit in the center and watched as more words appeared on his skin and he read. Sighing in relief.
Zuko was ok. Hurting. But ok. Zuko apologized. Over and over and over again. Asked if his face looked bad. How his uncle was looking in to see if there was a way to remove a soul scar, but so far nothing. He explained the burning and Sokka wanted nothing more than to hunt Zuko’s father down. Zuko talked about his banishment. How he had to travel and find something. How he was still at sea, wondering where to go.
And Sokka was thrilled. Thrilled to know that Zuko was ok. He grabbed his quill and before he could think his words through he wrote a simple sentence. ‘ Come see me?’ And before he could run the ink over the words and erase intrudent thoughts from existence Sokka stopped. Zuko clearly had nowhere to go. And Zuko was only a year older than him. It wouldn’t be awful to have another man in the tribe. But Zuko was fire nation. And there would be resentment possibly. After everything their village had been through there would be mistrust. And who knew if Zuko would even want to come to their village? From their conversations, Zuko sounded upper class. He had no reason to mingle with their tribe much less stay here.
But there were ice sheets a ways out from the village out of sight from low vantage points of the tribe. He could meet Zuko there. They were strong enough to hold him and Katara when they would stop for a small lunch while fishing. It could be just the two of them getting to actually. Talk. For once. Face to face. Instead of quill to skin.
Sokka quickly added, “ I know a place .” And he couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.
It was minutes of silence and Sokka pushed down the fear and worry that threatened to bubble up once more.
Zuko’s reply was simple, “ Sounds perfect. ” He said and Sokka smiled. He was going to finally meet his soulmate.