Okay so I saw this tiktok the other day and it got me thinking
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJEToRVQ/
(if you don't want to/cant watch it's just comparing how Sokka looks when he is sick vs Zuko when he goes into his angst coma)
You know that one episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney can't take a bad photo? Zuko is like that with just everything
Like as he gets older he just keeps getting prettier and prettier and it's def something the GAang teases him about, specifically Sokka. At first it's all fun and games until Sokka realizes that he has never seen Zuko look bad. Like the other day he def saw Zuzu trip into the turtleduck pond and Zuko ended up just looking like he was posing for Vogue.
So Sokka starts trying to trip him up, both literally and figuratively, but nothing is working
(Spices don't work because nothing is too spicy for Zuko
When Sokka tricked him into going into tunnel that stunk of sulfer Zuko just primly put his sleeve over his nose
Sokka even bribed Toph into covering him with Mud but somehow that looked just as good, if not better, than when he was soaking wet
Even after an Appa lick he still looked good!)
And I don't think firebenders get sick easily, I mean if fanfiction has taught me anything, they are probably always rocking a low grade fever so I think it would be harder for them to catch the simple stuff. So none of the GAang has even seen him sniffle
UNTIL one day Sokka get's news that Zuko is super sick and he's currently with Aang and Katara in [Ba Sing Se? Republic City? Southern Watertribe?] and this is rare enough that Katara feels the need to go visit to make sure he's alright.
Sokka is of course concerned for his friend BUT he is also secretly very excited because no one looks good when they are that sick.
Except when they get there they find Zuko laying across his bed like some maiden in a romance novel, shirtless, with hooded eyes, breathing heavily and with hair that would suggest a much more enjoyable activity than vomiting his guts out (which is what he actually did two minutes before their arrival). And Sokka can't even clock him for the vomit part because he is
a) the quietest person Sokka has every heard do that act,
b) as soon as he finishes hunching over a bucket to do the nasty he tilts his head back so everyone can see his so-sharp-it-could-cut-glass jawline and surprisingly attractive neck, and
c) he then always drinks water in such a dramatic but undeniably attractive way (aka exactly like he does in the show w/Iroh)
And Sokka is so mad because how is that fair?????
Everyone else just chalks Sokka's bad mood up to him being worried about his friend
Sokka doesn't get to see Zuko looking ugly until Druk hatches in which case Zuko proceeds to ugly cry over his small danger noodle, going so far as to sit down where he stood and wail (it happens again when Izumi is born, Sokka is unprepared both times)
