#zukka fanfic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mangoofthesea · 2 years

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fluffy zukka beach fic inspired by @ash-and-starlight 's pretty pretty art you can find here

fic also on ao3 here

It was the last hot day of the summer, at least it was the last hot day forecast before they have to pack up and return to the reality of college in a couple of days. The last couple weeks have been spent staying at Mai’s family’s beach house, less than an hour’s walk from the nearby beach, the same beach which the four of them are currently hanging out on following their pattern of the most of their time spent on this vacation.

The weather is humid and airy, the brilliant heat of the sun shining overhead, bright and glowing, casting long shadows from the trees and houses as they had walked the path down to the beach, and now the only shadows being cast here are from the umbrella he and Mai are sheltering under. The sun is glancing off of the shining, turquoise water and pale sands, creating an air of magical beauty that is being thankfully undisturbed by the usual other tourists that would normally be flocking to such a beauty spot. The secluded nature of this pretty little beach on the east side of the island means that Mai only knows about it because her family have been coming here for vacation for so long.

However, it's not the shining sun, which he is hiding from at the moment for fear of over aggravating the reddened skin around his scar, nor the sparkling sea or even the delicate fluffy clouds overhead are what’s holding his attention most today.

Zuko’s whole focus is narrowed down to the beautiful man running back and forth on the sands in blue swimming trunks and floral shirt patterned with lilies, that is somehow garish but tasteful at the same time, throwing a beach ball back and forth with Ty Lee. He sees Sokka’s face light up with laughter as the beachball hits its mark on Ty Lee before he shrieks as he’s tackled by a blur of a pink strawberry patterned swimsuit and delicately corded muscle. It takes less than a minute for Sokka to get pinned by Ty Lee and for them to be back up and running around the beach like children.

Zuko sighs and rests his head against the top of the one knee he has pulled up to his chest as he watches them.

“Stop brooding, Zuko.”

Zuko spares a glance towards Mai. She’s holding her phone, but he knows she’s watching the two just as much as he is, a small smile gracing her lips as her girlfriend laughs, loud and musical over the quiet of the beach.

“I’m not brooding,” Zuko says petulantly.

“Yes, you are,” she sighs, placing her phone in Ty Lee’s woven basket on the towel beside her and swishing her black skirts over to better cover the portion of her legs that are just outside the shade of the umbrella. Despite the large shade over her head, Mai is still wearing her wide brimmed, deep red sun hat, somehow not sweltering and sweating the way the rest of them are. “You know you like him, Zuko, why do you have to make it more complicated? Just ask him out.”

Zuko leans his chin more heavily on his knee, planting it firmly like he’s making a protest. One which he is all too aware is childish and sulky in the way he’s being accused of. “Shut up, Mai. Not everyone can be you and Ty Lee.”

He catches her smile peeking out from under the hat in his periphery as she replies. “No, I suppose not. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give it a try for once.”

Zuko sighs and slumps backward until his back is flat on the towel. “Mai, he’s my best friend. And one of the best parts of college for me! I don’t- I can’t risk that,” he sighs again and stares up at the glowing orange of the underside of the shade. “Sokka’s just so pretty and brilliant and funny and he’s so great to study with and-” he cuts off as Mai groans, lightly kicking at his still stretched out leg.

“Yes Zuko, I know from the last five times you told me everything that’s great about Sokka.”

He frowns up at her but her attention has moved elsewhere again. Instead, he casts his eyes to the side where Ty Lee and Sokka are investigating the rock pools at the edge of the beach. Even though he can’t hear them, he can tell Sokka is talking rapidly. Ty Lee is watching him with interest, nodding occasionally as he points to different things in the pools. Despite Sokka’s major being engineering, his mind is full of other facts and fascinating information, some of which must be coming into play now. Zuko would happily sit and listen to him talk about anything. The way new information makes him light up as his brain moves a million miles an hour, and mouth working to keep up, the way his dark blue eyes dance as he speaks; it all enthralls Zuko in a way he knows he should be wildly embarrassed about.

Just as he thinks that, Sokka looks up towards them and waves. Zuko blushes at having been caught watching, even if he’s not sure how well Sokka can see them from the distance they’re at. He rapidly turns his head, staring back up at the umbrella’s canopy, eyes wide and face warm.

“He likes you too, you know. You can tell from how he looks at you.”

Zuko spares a glance at her, but Mai is still intently scrolling through her phone, holding her half finished boba in the other hand as she sips at it delicately.

She’s said it before, every time they’ve had this discussion since she came to visit him at the end of his first semester when he started realising that he maybe liked his new friend in a little more than a friendly way. More than a year on and the conversation has changed but its core is the same. He still thinks she’s delusional about Sokka returning his affection. People in love think everyone else is in love too. Even Mai with her cold heart and carefully contained feelings isn’t immune to that.

Not that Sokka would love him. And he doesn't love Sokka. Just...has a crush on him. A really huge crush that according to his friend Toph ‘even she can see, and she’s blind'.

But that's all it is. Really.

Maybe if he tells himself that enough it will start being true.

Zuko groans and throws an arm over his eyes. He doesn't care that it feeds into Mai's accusations about him being dramatic or sulking, the alternative is staring out across one of the most beautiful beaches he's ever seen but only being able to focus on one body.

"C'mon guys! It’s our last day at the beach, you can't stay under here the whole time."

Speak of the devil. Zuko peeks up around his arm, and oh, it's so much worse up close.

Sokka leans down to peek under the umbrella, looking sweaty and beautiful in an incredibly irritating way while Ty Lee bounces around to Mai's side, joining her girlfriend on the towel she’s sat on. Zuko removes his arm from his face to smirk at her and the way her sullen appearance has been destroyed by the grinning girl making herself comfortable half way into her lap, but she merely raises her middle finger from the others holding her phone in a half hearted effort to flip him off.

Leaving them be, he turns back to looking up at Sokka’s shadowy shape where he’s blocking out the worst of the sun. “We’ve been coming to the beach practically every day for the last two weeks.”

That doesn’t seem to deter Sokka’s enthusiasm. "Yeah, but still, c'mon! Look at this place!"

Sokka crouches down to sit on the slightly cooler patch of sand beside Zuko, partially sheltered under the umbrella and subsequently close enough that Zuko can feel the heat coming off of him. Zuko sits up, trying to not focus on the way Sokka's necklace frames the muscles of his neck or the way the sun is glinting off his earrings making him look like some pinnacle of the effortlessly beautiful beach boy. Like he was made to exist here instead of being born and growing up in one of the coldest parts of the globe.

Unfortunately, by moving into a sitting position, he is brought a close up view of those beautiful ocean eyes and blinding smile framed by the locks of soft dark hair not being pushed back by his sunglasses perched on his head.

Someone somewhere must really hate Zuko.

"Yeah alright, Mr. Grumpy. But we’re going home this week, we should have a last bit of fun! The tides are set to keep going out and there’s hardly a cloud on the forecast for the whole day! It’s basically a perfect day, even you can’t deny that.” Sokka grins wide, smile disarming in its charm and Zuko knows he’ll cave. He has every time they’ve come to the beach, even on days it was hotter than this Sokka eventually forces him out from under the shelter of orange and blue fabric and into the sweltering heat. And worst of all, Sokka knows it too.

“A perfect day doesn't justify getting more skin damage to add to my collection,” Zuko says wryly, just to try and retain some of his credibility that he’s so not easily swayed by a stupid childish crush. He’s aware of Mai and Ty Lee only a little bit away, Ty Lee now outside the protection of the umbrella, chattering as she roots around in her bag and reapplies suncream at the same time. Even without looking he’s sure Mai is paying enough attention to their conversation to be able to mock him about it later.

“Zuko, c’mon, I know you can stay in the sun at least for a bit when you put on enough sunscreen and if you protect your face. I’ll even help you with it if you want!”

Zuko thinks of the one occasion on this trip he agreed to let Sokka help him apply sunscreen to his shoulders and back. It was only the once as he discovered that he would not survive a second time without combusting in awkward embarrassment. The offer being extended again makes his face warm, and he hopes it could be passable as just the effect of the weather. It doesn’t help that Sokka both remembered and factored in his needs so easily.

“Zuko, hey,” Sokka’s face takes on a softer but still playful expression and oh Agni why does he have to look like that. “Let yourself relax a bit, okay? We’re gonna be starting a whole new college year in a couple weeks, and then it's gonna be all work. You can just enjoy all this,” he gestures to the beach with a wide sweep of his arm, “for another day.”

Their eyes meet and Zuko can see the soft affection there, one which mixes with the childish glee at being in a location he didn’t get a chance to encounter when he was younger and that he is now making the most of. He looks radiant like this, Zuko thinks. It would be so easy to just tip forward closer and -

“Hey guys! Remember I brought the beach ball today! We should totally have a game of beach volleyball!” Ty Lee’s musical lilt of tone startles Zuko back to the moment. The way he now notices he was leaning closer into Sokka to talk to him makes him feel unsteady as he tries to form a suitable response to that suggestion.

“Uh, what-” Zuko mutters as he leans back and looks to her where she’s somehow still kneeling on the hot sand without much of an appearance of bother, holding out the inflatable beach ball that was being tossed back and forth only a few minutes ago. The ball which they had also nearly lost twice on the walk here because they apparently couldn’t blow it up when they got down here.

“Yes! Ty Lee you’re a genius! Guys?” Sokka asks, grin back to full brilliance. His eyes switch rapidly between Ty Lee, Zuko, and Mai, eyes wide and pleading. Zuko feels entirely too aware of how weak he is for this man.

His one consolation is he knows Mai is just as weak for Ty Lee. Mai groans, and sets aside her boba, tucking her phone into Ty Lee’s bag. “Fine. If Zuko comes too, I’ll play.”

Zuko narrows his eyes at her, but she either ignores him or doesn’t see while extracting herself from her comfortable seat on the soft sand and delicately replacing her hat where she had been sitting.

Zuko turns back to find Sokka where he left him, looking expectant.

“Yeah, fine, okay,” he sighs. Sokka’s whoop of joy is mostly ignored aside from the little quirk of Zuko’s lips it inspires, instead paying attention to reaching for the sunscreen and reapplying a coating to his face. Sokka seems unphased, dipping out from under the shade and running towards where the girls are standing. Or rather, where Mai is standing and Ty Lee is bouncing on the balls of her feet, an action which makes the frills of her swimsuit flutter softly adding more movement to her figure.

Zuko’s last move is to take out his hearing aid for fear of getting it damaged by sand, placing it in Ty Lee’s bag alongside all their phones as the bag was the only one they brought with them. He finally extracts himself and winces as the bright sun hits him, sudden heat combined with the glare off of the water and the pale colour of the beach doubling to his feelings of discomfort, even with all his experience living in hot climates his whole life. Zuko wanders towards the gathered group where Sokka and Ty Lee appear to now be drawing lines in the sand with pieces of driftwood. He drifts over to Mai, hands shoved into the pockets of his shorts. They must look like an interesting pair in comparison to their companions, their dark clothes contrasting with the bright scenery; the one point of colour on his ensemble the bright yellow and orange flames on his shorts and on Mai’s, the pink broken heart necklace that she’s playing with as she watches the two more energetic members of their party decide on the rules for the net-less volleyball game.

“And you call me weak,” he says softly, tone teasing and fond.

Mai sighs. “Yeah well at least I’m dating mine already,” she replies, monotone and equally quiet.

He wants to be offended, but really, he has nothing to say for himself.

The game turns out better than expected, but Mai and Ty Lee still destroy him and Sokka in terms of points. Ty Lee’s superior athleticism and flexibility winning even in the face of his and Sokka’s best efforts, leaving them both panting and sweaty.

They decide to take a break after the last set ends with Zuko face planting into the sand for the fifth time accompanied by Ty Lee’s cheers as they steal the last set.

Zuko lies in the hot sand, feeling the sun making his already sweaty skin across the expanse of his shoulders heat more around the loose shoulders of his tank top. His eyes are thankfully protected by the sunglasses Sokka leant him part way into the game, after his first few minutes of squinting at the sun and missing the ball - a decision which ultimately did little to improve their game in the long run, but nonetheless achieved Zuko feeling even more flustered than he already was by Sokka removing his shirt completely towards the start of the game.

He hears Ty Lee and Mai’s voices drifting further away, but he continues to lie there, content to wallow in his failure. Then a chuckle sounds from above him as the ground shifts. He turns his head, spitting out a mouthful of sand as Sokka drops down beside his head, putting Zuko unfairly eye level with the thick muscle of Sokka’s thigh and the boomerang insignia on the edge of his shorts. Even distracted by that though, he makes an effort to lift his head enough to free his other ear to be able to hear.

“Well, I think we did better than I expected,’” Sokka says, leaning back on one of his arms and looking down at Zuko. His hair has been tied back at some point, undercut visible, and shirt abandoned in favour of improving their futile chances at winning. It’s all very cruel, Zuko thinks.

“They beat us five sets to one. And that one we only got because Ty Lee’s headband fell off.”

“Well, yeah,” he says, extending the last word. “Maybe could have gone worse though?”

“How?”

Sokka laughs, looking out at the sea behind Zuko. “Don’t know. You could have got carried off by an albatross?”

That startles a soft laugh out of Zuko as well. “I think that would have been preferable.”

He turns over, flopping onto his back and staring up at the blue sky shaded by the tint of Sokka’s sunglasses, skin over warm and muscles protesting after the unexpected exercise. He’s going to have to stretch when they get back.

“I’m gonna miss this when we go back to college.” Zuko turns his head, aware of the amount of sand probably in his hair at this point and simultaneously too tired to care. He makes a sound to show Sokka he’s listening even as the other boy keeps looking out towards the horizon.

“We never get to just hang out like this during the semester, we’re both so busy. Plus the weather isn’t exactly comparable,” he laughs, eyes darting to the sand then to the side and landing on Zuko. It’s not the same as earlier, not with the dark pieces of glass in the way, but it still feels like a moment just between the two of them, the only noise now being the sound of the sea on the shore and occasional bird calls overhead.

“Thanks for inviting me, Zuko. We should do something like this again.” His expression is soft and contemplative, the sun partially behind his head making him look so ethereal Zuko’s starting to wonder if he should be concerned he’s getting heatstroke. He wouldn’t be surprised at this point, but it would certainly be humiliating for the reason for it being ‘I was trying to impress a pretty boy.’ Then Sokka's expression alights, eyebrows rising and genteel smile widening into a full grin. “Hey, maybe next year I can take you up north!”

Zuko’s former serenity is immediately split between the confusing mix of emotion that sentence encourages. On the one hand, he loves the idea of spending any and all time with Sokka, the notion that he wants to take Zuko home with him and show him his hometown, making the warm fuzziness he associates with the boy double. Zuko feels so honoured, he wants to beam back at Sokka and agree immediately, despite it being more than a year away. However, at the same time he is aware that going essentially to the coldest part of the world would perhaps be...unpleasant for him, even with the warmth of Sokka’s company.

As a result, he’s not sure what expression shows on his face, though he can feel his eyebrows crease as he thinks and he’s glad at this moment Sokka’s view of his features is partially obscured.

“With...the snow?” Is what Zuko eventually says, and he immediately wants to throw himself into the sea. The close proximity to which is making the idea incredibly tempting. “Wait-”

Thankfully, Sokka seems to understand him and instead of getting offended, he throws his head back and laughs, the sound deep and rich and making Zuko feel like his humiliation is absolutely worth it to hear that.

He has enough sense that something in his mind sighs despairingly, seeming to finally give up on maintaining any semblance of dignity.

“Yeah, Zuko, with the snow,” he says when he’s recovered enough to speak around the giggles still escaping. Zuko rubs a hand over his face, then notices the sand still coating it and he has to brush it off of his face yet again. This somehow keeps getting worse, but Sokka is still waiting patiently for his response with an amused but patient smile.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, you- fuck. I mean- um, yeah. Yes, I’d like that, Sokka.”

Sokka’s smile ignites brighter, and it’s like Zuko’s given him a gift. Like Sokka has no idea the real gift he has just bestowed on Zuko. “Aw yeah! You’re gonna love it, Zuko, I promise!”

And despite everything in Zuko cringing at the idea of being somewhere so cold, he’s entirely sure that he will.

Then Sokka’s brushing the sand off his hands with a clap and bringing his stretched out legs in to stand. “C’mon, we still gotta finish this vacation first.” Sokka stands, reaching up as he does and stretching his arms over his head. As the sun pours over his figure, Zuko feels like some puny mortal at the feet of an Olympian, one who he would happily swear his fealty to.

Then Sokka’s looking down and Zuko realises he’s still lying in the sand staring up at Sokka like some hopeless idiot and feels his face flush. He coughs and sits up, grateful of the sunglasses again for covering part of his probably lobster red face. A hand appears in his periphery, outstretched, and he grips it tightly, allowing Sokka to pull him to his feet.

Once upright, he realises Sokka is no longer looking at him, and instead has his head turned towards the back of the beach. Zuko finds himself looking too.

Under the umbrella are the two girls, Ty Lee stretched out wide across the towels with her head on Mai’s lap as the other girl looks down at her while she sips the remains of her boba. Even at the distance, Ty Lee’s matching black broken heart to Mai’s pink stands out starkly against her tanned skin, the tattoos of pale flowers around it and her pink swimsuit contrasting and complimenting at the same time. She looks up to her girlfriend, talking animatedly. Her pink sunglasses catch the light occasionally where they’re clutched in her grip as she throws her arm out while talking.

There’s a familiarity there that Zuko has long envied. Mai and Ty Lee go to a different university to him and Sokka, so Zuko has only witnessed scenes like this incredibly rarely. He can count on one hand exactly how many in fact. But even so, every time it never fails to ignite a deep, aching burn in his chest, one which he hates because it’s caused by one of his best and oldest friends having a real happiness and contentment that is visible even through Mai’s stony exterior.

“They’re cute together.”

Sokka’s voice interrupts his contemplation with an inflection to it that Zuko can’t distinguish. It’s lost the hopeful joy he had only moments ago when they were sitting on the sand, and when he glances to the side to look at his friend, he sees the tight set to his lips and something distant in his eyes Zuko is unable to place.

He pushes the sunglasses to his head, taking in the other man in unfiltered brilliance once again. “Don’t let Mai hear you say that.”

His words seem to bring Sokka back and he turns his head quickly to look at Zuko. Then that smile is back and whatever Zuko saw before is lost. “Ah, she’s not that scary.”

Zuko raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, okay she is,” Sokka concedes with a sigh.

Zuko’s expression cracks and he smiles back, laughing softly. Then he lifts his hand from his head and extends it towards Sokka. “Thanks for these by the way.”

Sokka looks at the sunglasses in his hand but doesn’t take them, then he meets Zuko’s eyes and pushes them back toward him. “Nah, you keep ‘em. They look better on you.”

Zuko is sure that’s a blatant lie. The glasses have excruciatingly bright neon blue frames that surely clash horribly with everything about Zuko’s appearance, but he can’t find it in himself to argue. Especially not with the way he’s itching to duck his head and hide the way the gesture makes him feel. So instead he accepts.

“Okay, um, thanks.”

Sokka beams widely. “No problem.” He smacks him gently on the shoulder and Zuko hisses and jerks away, suddenly aware of a tenderness to his skin no doubt caused by the last hour or so spent in the sun.

Sokka withdraws his hand and his expression cringes apologetically. “Oops?”

Zuko stares back, warm fuzzy feelings for Sokka suddenly feeling significantly less. “I am fully blaming you for this.”

Sokka presses his lips together like he’s finding his pain funny and Zuko is definitely feeling significantly less warm feelings for this idiot. Well, he isn’t really, but he would if he could. “At least your face is okay?”

Zuko shoves hard at Sokka’s shoulder and gets a squawk of laughter in response before he begins his trudge back up the beach to the girls.

Zuko drops down on the edge of the towel not occupied and grabs the sunscreen to begin reapplying to his shoulders.

“Looking a little red there Zuko,” Mai says from where she has her fingers looped in the little curls at the end of Ty Lee’s braid.

Zuko makes the executive decision to ignore her in favour or focusing on the cooling feel of pouring the liquid over his heated skin.

Sokka joins them, flopping back on the sand in front of them and staring up at the small clouds floating across the sky, falling quiet for a moment as he no doubt feels the effects of their exercise as well. While his right hand continues to massage cream into his bicep, Zuko leans back and grabs a water bottle, tossing it to Sokka who manages to spot it and mostly catch it with only a little fumbling.

“Ah thanks, Zuko,” he says, leaning up on one elbow to chug half of the bottle in one.

They all settle into the moment of quiet peace, looking out at the sea and the quiet sound of the tides rushing a little further out. The day feels a little cooler now, it must be mid afternoon, but Zuko doesn’t want to use his phone to check, like that will shatter the little bubble they’ve created here where it feels like nothing bad beyond his own hopeless pining can reach them.

The sun has dipped lower in the sky, but it's still a number of hours until sunset probably, especially with how clear the sky is.

“What do you guys want to do now?” Sokka asks, drawing Zuko’s gaze back to him, staring up at him from where he’s lounging on his side in the sand. As he waits for a response Sokka reaches up and runs his fingers through his hair, dislodging the tie and returning it to his wrist. The soft strands return to their place around his face, sadly covering his helix piercing but softening his appearance. Zuko’s distracted enough that he misses whatever the girls respond with, zoning back in when Sokka calls his name.

“Zuko?”

“Hmm?”

“You want to come in the sea too? It would be a shame to waste our last day without it. Might be good for the sore muscles and the sunburn too.”

“You mean the sore muscles and sun burn which are both your fault?”

Sokka waves at him while he hears Ty Lee stifle a giggle. “Details details. So what do you say?”

Zuko sighs. He’s hopeless, but he can’t find it in himself to dislike it too much when his agreement causes Sokka’s expression to light up with that beautiful childish glee again.

Another fifteen or so minutes of resting in the shade of the umbrella later finds him and Sokka wading into the shallows while Mai and Ty Lee drift off on a romantic walk along the front arm in arm.

“You guys should totally appreciate being able to swim in the sea without getting hypothermia more,” Sokka says as he wades in further, water coming up to the lower edge of his shorts. Before Zuko can formulate a response, Sokka jumps forward, plunging himself under the water then breaking the surface with a woop a moment later, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

“Not all of us are as desperate to swim in a fish toilet as you are.”

Sokka chuckles as he stands, now waist deep in bright turquoise. The amount of times he’s seen Sokka shirtless and soaking wet on this vacation should have adjusted him to the sight, but even so, the sight of it still takes him unawares and makes him feel hot under the collar. Even at the moment where he has no literal collar to speak of, tank abandoned back under the beach umbrella.

It’s enough he feels he should avert his eyes a moment to get his bearings, and that is what turns out to be his fatal error.

He only hears a brief splash before Sokka barrels into him with a shout of ‘sneak attack!’ and suddenly Zuko’s being tackled by a large, warm body and dragged down into cool saltwater which engulfs him completely for a moment before he surfaces again spluttering.

He sits up in the water, spitting a mouthful of saltwater. “Sokka-”

Then his words die as he becomes aware of the laughter ringing out from the boy who Zuko is suddenly aware is half on top of him, kneeling at Zuko’s side and leaning over him, dripping water from the strands around his face, sunglasses still on Zuko’s head leaving him with nothing to hold his hair back. His whole body ripples with mirth, unbearably close and with so much skin visible Zuko feels like he's short circuiting in the best possible way. His heart is beating at a speed he thinks is worth worrying about, probably both from the shock of the attack and Sokka's close proximity now.

He's stuck there, leaning back on his hands, afraid to sit up any further to bring him and Sokka any closer together. Sokka's still laughing, guffaws turned to chuckling as his head is still slumped forward, almost close enough for his head to be resting against Zuko’s shoulder. It all makes Zuko feel unbearably fond of everything about this man.

Then Sokka looks up and its like everything, all the feelings from the last year of friendship, all little emotions he had tried to tamp down and hide and push into a little corner of his mind as he declared its just a stupid crush break forth when blue eyes meet hazel. Zuko suddenly feels like he can’t breathe with the affection surging through him for this wonderful being who decided to care about him and who he loves in return.

Zuko is distantly aware of a few things right now.

One is that he’s staring, and that there’s no way Sokka hasn’t noticed, because second of all he notices that Sokka has stopped laughing. Instead he’s staring back at Zuko with a soft smile that’s looking more unsteady by the second. Zuko wants to brush it off, break the moment somehow, but he’s locked in those beautiful eyes a deeper shade of the water they’re sitting in.

There’s salt sticking to his skin and burning in his throat, his shoulders hurt from the sun and where they hit the sand as he was knocked back, but all of that becomes background noise.

They’re so close their breaths are mingling.

Then Sokka’s eyes dart to his lips, and Zuko mirrors the action. And it's like the last piece of a puzzle clicking before they both tip forward and close that last couple inches of space between them.

They crash together with the taste of salt and sweat and the sea. Sokka’s lips are as soft as he had pictured, and taste of saltwater more than anything else. He tastes of the beach, of this vacation, fresh and new and inviting, and Zuko scrambles to kiss back, trying to make sure his actions speak better than he will ever be able to explain how much he cares for him.

It’s only a brush of lips, going no further than a soft press of mouths, partly open and gasping the taste of the ocean between them. Then its over and Sokka is leaning back, having the privilege of the position with more freedom for movement.

His expression looks soft and unsure, but with a look of something tentative there. Maybe something like hope. Zuko wants it to be hope so badly it nearly hurts.

“Um...hi,” Zuko says, voice coming out breathier than he expected.

Sokka smiles, confident and real and it’s like the sun has doubled. Zuko happily basks in the warmth of it.

“Hi.”

“That was...nice.”

“Yeah,” Sokka says smiling. “Is, um… is it alright if I maybe do it again?”

“Please.”

Zuko can’t find himself to be ashamed of the muffled happy sound he lets out when Sokka’s lips meet his again. He instead focuses on balancing his weight on one hand and bringing the other to Sokka’s head, tangling his fingers in the wet strands. He smiles into the kiss and so does Sokka, making their teeth click together. He’s soaked and tired but he feels more content than he ever has before.

Zuko decides he’s fine with summer vacation ending if it means in exchange he can return to the drab mundanity of college with this to show for it.

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