Childhood Friends to Lovers au (bending is a thing here)
sokka and zuko met when they were really young like maybe 6 or 7 and the thing is they were both always kind of in their sisters shadows without even realizing it. katara was the bender, the special one, and sokka loved her more than anything but sometimes he just felt like the older brother who carried bags and made plans and wasnât really anything remarkable on his own. and azula was azula, perfect at everything, always one step ahead, and zuko spent most of his childhood feeling like he was constantly failing at just existing
so when they met it was the first time either of them had a friend that was just theirs. not their sisters friend, not a family friend, just someone who chose them specifically.
And with each other they didnât have to be anything. sokka didnât have to be the responsible older brother or prove he was useful without bending. around zuko he was just funny and loud and smart and zuko actually listened to every single one of his plans like they were the greatest ideas heâd ever heard.
and sokka was the first person who never made zuko feel like he was too much or not enough at the same time. never compared him to azula, never looked at him like he was a disappointment, just thought zuko was really cool actually and made him feel like that.
they just made each other feel like real people when everything else made them feel like they were playing a role.
then when they were around 13 zuko just disappeared. no warning, no goodbye, nothing. one day he was just gone and sokka didnât understand why and waited for so long for him to come back or at least reach out and he never did
sokka eventually stopped waiting but he never really stopped thinking about him. because zuko wasnât just his best friend, he was the first person who ever made sokka feel like himself.
fast forward to college and sokka sees a familiar face across campus and his heart just drops because itâs zuko, older now, taller, but unmistakably him except thereâs a scar on his face that wasnât there before and sokka doesnât know what happened but something clearly did
and he wants to run up to him so bad because this is his person, the one who knew him before everything
and thatâs the part that hurts because zuko isnât being mean about it, heâs not cold or rude, he just quietly makes sure theyâre never in the same space for too long. always leaving when sokka enters, always just missing him, and sokka starts to think okay. he clearly wants nothing to do with me. maybe he never did.
so sokka stops trying. it hurts but he stops
what sokka doesnât know is that zuko is doing all of this on purpose because seeing sokka again after everything, after his dad, after the scar, after years of feeling like that little kid who finally felt like himself got completely destroyed, he just canât do it
because zuko never stopped loving sokka. not even a little bit. and he knows if he gets close again he wonât be able to let go and he genuinely believes sokka deserves better than whatever he is now
sokka was the only person who ever made him feel like himself and he doesnât even feel like himself anymore so what is he supposed to offer
so he stays away thinking heâs protecting sokka
while sokka is on the other side thinking he did something wrong and losing the one person who ever made him feel like he was enough.
and they stay like this for a while until something forces them together and sokka finally just looks at him and asks what did i do
and zuko doesnât have an answer because the answer is nothing. it was never sokka. it was always him just being too scared to let sokka see who he became and too in love to pretend he didnât care.