"Ah, but I'm flying like a bird to you now"

- Hozier

Zuko looked through the tent, not seeing.

Sokka was on the other side, no doubt planning out more for the invasion… but he could be with the Suki warrior that they'd met in the prison.

It was unusual. When he first saw the water tribesman, he didn't want anything to do with him. He was just an idiot in face paint and had a boomerang. He felt uncounted rage when he was bettered by a barbarian's stick.

He was ab pebble in his shoe, a barrier to the Avatar. A block that was preventing him from returning home.

Now?

Zuko furrowed his brow, turning away.

Now Sokka had somehow managed to make him fall. Hard. To a point where there was no getting back up, no matter how stubborn he was.

When he first saw Sokka, he wanted to fly away - to chase after that Avatar that had escaped his ship. He wanted to scream, to claw… but he didn't. He was many things - angry, a problem, a terrible person - but he wasn't a monster.

Now Sokka, the very person he had wanted to claw apart in his mind… all he wanted was to fly like a bird towards his embrace. To gain his good side. To impress, to trust.

To love.

Was it too soon?

Probably, but try telling Zuko's beating heart that Toph had called him out on with a smirk. He just hadn't known why it did that before now.

He sighed, getting up from his seat in the sand, and he started to walk back to his own tent.