So uhhh. Would anyone be interested in a self-indulgent zukka fic where Sokka inherits his mother's necklace and eventually leaves the group, falls in love with Zuko and they become a(n) (evil??? not really, more like morally grey?) power couple?
Here's the prologue, please accept my zukka fanfic writer application:
[Trigger warning for implied homophobia, also please ignore the weird formatting]
Soot and ash fell from the ground, tainting the snow dark gray. Sokka could smell smoke and burning flesh. He looked over the chaos, frozen in place. Something flashed at the corner of his eyes, and he turned. A man was walking towards his family's igloo.
Momma.
He ran as fast as he could, nearly stumbling in the snow, until his breath was coming out in ragged gasps.
"Stop!" Sokka glared at the hard lines of his face, and his cruel eyes.
"Move aside, boy." When Sokka didn't move, the man shoved him.
No, no, no.
Sokka took the knife he had stolen before the raid and shoved it into the man's thigh. The man howled, and unsheathed his sword. It came down in a blinding arc.
••••
Sokka watched the flames flicker in front of him. Katara was crying. Their father was sharpening his sword. The silence was oppressive. Sokka wanted to cry but he didn't have any more tears left.
Hakoda cleared his throat. "Katara, we can save your mother's clothes and belongings until you're old enough for them." He didn't meet either of their eyes.
"Um," Said sokka. "Could I have her necklace?" He fussed with the bandages along his collarbone.
The necklace, carved with blue whorls, sat loosely around Sokka's neck.
Sokka didn't understand the looks that the other boys gave him. There was confusion, mostly. Curiosity. From the elders and adults he earned a few looks of disgust and offhand comments. Hakoda didn't notice at first, in his grief induced stupor. When he did, he defended Sokka, and told them that it was the last tie the boy had to his mother. They told Hakoda that he was wrong to give Sokka the necklace, that he would become less of a man because of it. Sokka couldn't handle the staring, and the eventual taunting from the boys. He put the necklace in his furs and held it at night instead.
Hakoda was never the same after Kya died. He was silent, mostly, stuck in his own head. There were a few months afterward where he wasnt able to get out of his furs. Katara skowly took over the house chores, and Hakoda's friend Bato brought them food. When he did get up, he was slow to recover, and he was still eerily quiet after. He had a hard time looking at them, Katara especially. He never said it, but she looked too much like Kya.
Katara blamed herself, and took it upon herself to replace her mom.
Sokka blamed himself too. He started hanging out with the older boys more, when they would let him. It was a way to escape the house overflowing with guilt, and when he came home in the evening he almost thought Kya would walk out and hug him, and tell him everything was just a bad dream. She never did.
••••
Years passed, and Hakoda left with all of the soldiers of the village. Sokka was the oldest man left. He wasn't yet a man, really, and he was scared, no matter what he told his father. He had to protect his sister, the women, the elders, the children. They depended on him.
When Aang had been taken by the fire nation ship, and Sokka was packing to leave, he saw the necklace in his furs. For the first time in years, he put it on.
