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Zuko fiddled with his phone absentmindedly, staring at the wall to his right. He shifted in the hospital bed, stretching out his leg just a bit without straining the stitches on his abdomen. All in all, this was an anticlimactic hospital experience. The doctors removed his appendix before it had ruptured and he was supposedly on track to be released from their care in a day or two. The scar was expected to ‘heal over nicely.’ Zuko snorted when the doctor had said those words. He scratched at the scar over his eye, the scar that definitely had not healed over nicely after he received it three years earlier. Well, at least today’s hospitalization had been much less eventful than that one.
No yelling fathers or cackling sisters. No searing pain on his face that would last for weeks. Hopefully no teasing or invasive looks that would last for even longer.
An opening door disrupted Zuko’s trudge down memory lane. A nurse with a warm smile peeked her head in.
“Are you up for a visitor?”
“Visitor?” Zuko asked blankly. He had spoken to Uncle just minutes earlier on the phone. Uncle apologized profusely for not being able to arrive back in town until tomorrow morning. Every time Uncle apologized Zuko assured him it was fine and not his fault. It wasn’t like he could have predicted Zuko’s appendix acting up before he booked his ticket to the retail conference across the country.
The nurse nodded. “There’s a boy here to see you.”
Zuko frowned. Well, Uncle was not in town and certainly not likely to be referred to as ‘a boy,’ but Zuko couldn’t imagine any other person who would visit him. He had been admitted into the emergency room this morning and hadn’t told anyone else about the incident. Well, except for when he realized he would miss school for a couple days and decided to text--
Zuko jolted in bed and then winced, the pain in his lower abdomen immediately causing him to regret his sudden movement. He had texted Sokka that he wouldn’t be in class for a couple days and asked if he could send him the assignments in their shared classes, but he...he would never…
Another head poked into the room, hovering over the nurse’s. “Zuko!” Sokka cried. Spirits. He looked like an excited puppy. His bright blue eyes gleamed in enthusiasm and he waved at Zuko.
The nurse raised her eyebrows and gave Zuko another look. Right. He had never answered her original question. “It’s fine,” he said quickly. “I--he can come in.”
She nodded and walked away. Sokka burst into the room, a backpack slung over one shoulder and some sort of tupperware container under his arm.
Zuko readjusted in the bed, sitting up just slightly. He swiped his hand through his hair and was suddenly very aware that it had been hours since he had last checked his appearance in a mirror. And that he was shirtless. He was shirtless in a hospital bed and Sokka was here. Why was Sokka here?
“You didn’t have to come all the way here,” Zuko blurted. He felt bad for texting Sokka at all. He could have texted someone else. He could have texted Mai or Ty Lee. But he shared more classes with Sokka than any other student at their high school. And...well. He liked having an excuse to text Sokka. They had exchanged numbers the previous semester when they were paired together to work on a physics project. After that assignment, Zuko stared at Sokka’s name in his phone, always tempted to click on it. But he didn’t want to be weird or creepy. Asking for Sokka to email him the assignments he missed while he recovered from his surgery seemed like a reasonable reason to text a classmate. But now Sokka was here. And Zuko had bedhead. Worse! He had I-underwent-surgery-this-morning-and-have-been-lying-around-ever-since head!
“‘Course I did! You’re in the hospital, dude. How’re you feeling?”
“Oh, uh--” Zuko fiddled with his bedsheet. “Fine.”
Sokka nodded and bobbed over to the bed. He slid the backpack off his shoulder and it fell to the ground with a heavy thunk. Proudly thrusting the tupperware container under Zuko's nose, he said, “Katara, Aang and I made you Get Well Soon cookies!”
Zuko widened his eyes. “You..you told your sister and Aang? You all made cookies?”
“Well, yeah.” Sokka scratched at his shaved undercut. “Your appendicitis wasn’t supposed to be a secret, right?”
Zuko shook his head.
Sokka let out a big sigh in relief. “Good. Because yeah, I told like twenty people.”
Zuko had no idea what to say so he just drank in Sokka’s huge grin. For a few moments. Then he cleared his throat and stopped staring because that was a weird thing to do, right?
“Um well...thank you. For the cookies and for...visiting. That means a lot.” His voice sounded hoarse to his own ears and he felt his face warm. He blushed far too often around Sokka. Like when Sokka lent him a pencil on the first day of last semester. Or when they bumped knees while working on their project at Uncle’s tea shop. Or when they got an A+ on the project and Sokka had beamed at him from across the class. Just. Little things. Like that.
“No problem!” Sokka placed the cookies on the table next to Zuko’s bed. “Fair warning, they may taste weird. Katara told me and Aang how to make the cookies but I went a little off recipe. Sort of guesstimated on some stuff. And it wasn’t until the end that Katara said baking was a science and I had to be exact and yadda yadda. So. Yeah. But hopefully they’re edible and mediocre cookies are still better than hospital food, right?”
“Much better than jello,” Zuko murmured, his lips quirking up into a smile without permission from his brain.
Sokka returned his smile. “So how ya feeling? I mean, really.”
“I feel fine. It was just my appendix. But they got it out in time so not much harm done. And I have this souvenir,” he said, pointing down to the bandage on his lower stomach. Sokka’s eyes drifted down Zuko’s chest and abs. It was such a casual thing, but it made Zuko want to squirm. “Um, so. Not so bad. I’ll have a scar after, but what else is new.” He let out a soft chuckle, but there was no warmth behind it.
Sokka sat down on the edge of the bed. “Does that bother you?”
Zuko blinked. The question surprised him. He mulled it over for a few moments. “No. Not really. It’s not as obvious as this one anyway.” He gestured to his face.
Sokka nodded. And then, because apparently he was on a mission to obliterate every single one of Zuko’s nerves, he suddenly lifted his own shirt several inches, exposing his chest. “I got this scar from falling off a boat,” he said, pointing to a long semi-faded mark on the side of his torso.
Zuko tried to concentrate on the scar and not on how Sokka’s skin would feel under his fingers.
“I got it years ago, being a klutz. It was on a fishing trip with my dads so it was especially embarrassing. It hurt like hell but just for like a second. And then once I got over that I was super excited to have this gnarly looking scar. Even after it healed up I would scratch at it because I hoped it would keep the scar from fading too much.” He paused and offered Zuko a soft smile. “Anyway.” He lowered his shirt. “I guess I was a pretty silly kid, hoping a scar would make me look tough and less goofy.”
Zuko looked up into Sokka’s shining blue eyes. “You don’t look goofy.”
Sokka smirked. “Yea, well luckily I grew up into a strapping young man.” He puffed up his chest dramatically.
Zuko rolled his eyes, biting at his lip to keep it from smiling too wide. “Okay, you still act goofy.”
Sokka laughed.
“So, um. How was school?”
Sokka shrugged. “Boring. Toph tried to start a food fight during lunch but no one was willing to play along. Except for Aang but then Katara glared at him so he stopped.”
“Toph seems...interesting. They come by Uncle’s shop sometimes and the two of them get along, um. Weirdly well.”
“Toph’s a terror but I love that about them. Hey, you should sit with us at lunch sometime after you come back.”
Zuko’s stomach flipped. “Really?”
“Yeah! I’ve been, uh. Well, after we joined forces on that project I thought it would be cool to spend time together outside of class.” Sokka rubbed at the back of his neck, breaking eye contact to stare down at the floor. “Like at lunch or, you know. Some other time.”
“Some other time?”
“Yeah. Your uncle’s shop is fun. Or just anywhere. I don’t know. It was nice hanging with you last semester and then the project ended and then you stopped talking to me until you texted today. And that was just because of an emergency.”
Zuko couldn’t believe Sokka’s words. Sokka thought Zuko was ignoring him? And he sounded...disappointed about that? “Oh, I...sorry. I didn’t know you’d be...I didn’t know you would be interested in hanging out. Outside of class.”
“Well, I would be,” Sokka muttered.
The fluttering in Zuko’s chest was so rapid it felt as if his heart had grown wings. “Well,” he began breathlessly, “I...I would like that.”
Sokka looked up at Zuko, his grin springing back in full force.
Sokka was sitting so close. He was right here, just inches away, and beautiful as ever. Zuko had been transfixed by him long before Sokka had lent him that pencil months ago, their fingers brushing slightly. He had noticed Sokka freshman year. But only from a distance. He had been going through a lot at the time--had only recently started living with Uncle. He was in no condition to flirt with cute boys, especially not ones with winning smiles or sleek brown hair that looked great tied up but even prettier when it was down brushing against their cheekbones.
Zuko glanced around, wanting to dispel the bubbling nerves in his body. His eyes fell on the container.
“Should we try the cookies?”
“Absolutely.” Sokka leaned over to open the container. Zuko sat very still. He could feel the warmth radiating off of Sokka’s body, and when Zuko breathed in it was Sokka’s minty scent that he inhaled. Sokka leaned away, handing Zuko a cookie.
Zuko eyed it carefully. It looked...lumpy. Zuko took a hesitant bite and then tried to not let his grimace show.
“What is it?” Sokka’s eyes were full of mirth as he studied Zuko.
Zuko shook his head, trying to simultaneously plead the fifth and unglue his jaw. Did Sokka make chocolate chip cement?
“Is it that bad?”
“Um,” Zuko said, swallowing. He coughed.
Sokka laughed. He had a great laugh. It was loud and carefree and Zuko would eat a million terrible cookies if it meant he could make Sokka laugh like that every day. Preferably while they were sitting this close.
“I really appreciate them. I’m not sure if you can still advertise them as edible, though.”
Sokka wiped a tear from his eye, his laughter dying down. “Okay, okay let me see.” But instead of grabbing his own cookie he simply leaned forward and took a generous bite from the one in Zuko’s hand. Zuko held his breath.
“OH BY GOB,” he cried, his mouth full. His jaw seemed to be warring with the cookie; he took a few more moments to harshly chew before valiantly swallowing. “Zuko! That cookie was an act of terrorism!”
Zuko giggled. He felt so light. Was it really this morning that he woke with an intense pain in his stomach?
“I’m so sorry, Zuko.”
“It’s fine. Like I said, I still appreciate it.”
“I’m glad we’re in a hospital already. Just in case these prove to be lethal.”
“I already have a room and everything.”
“Can I share your bed if they admit me?”
Zuko swallowed hard, feeling his face heat up again. Sokka held his gaze, his eyes still alight with amusement, and with something else. Something Zuko was too nervous to name. “Uh sure. I wouldn’t mind.”
“Good. Good. Glad you’re not, um. Stingy.” The two boys stared at each other. Zuko had never before found direct eye contact to be so thrilling. It wasn’t just the pretty shade of blue, it was how lit up Sokka’s eyes always looked. Like he was on the precipice of the funniest joke, or like he was just about to let you in on the most delicious secret. Sokka broke the silence. “You know, the scar on my chest isn’t even the most embarrassing scar I have.”
Zuko cocked his eyebrow. “Oh really?”
Sokka nodded. He held his finger up to Zuko’s eyes. “I got this one on a different fishing expedition.”
“That doesn’t sound so embarrassing.”
“I got a fish hook stuck in my finger and tried to wedge it out with another fish hook.”
That startled another laugh out of Zuko. “I’m surprised you didn’t burn your house down making these concrete cookies.”
“You, sir, are making assumptions. You have no idea if I burnt my house down or not.”
Sokka stayed the rest of the afternoon, eventually moving from the edge of the hospital bed to sitting right next to Zuko and sharing the same pillow. It was a snug fit, but neither boy complained. They watched stupid videos on Zuko's phone and teased each other and every now and then Sokka threatened Zuko with another Deadly Cookie if he didn't behave himself. Zuko continued smiling until his cheeks ached. Then he smiled a bit longer.