Chapter Text
Sokka was book smart. He could swing with the best benders, but it’s common sense that he couldn’t seem to grasp. Not having that common sense voice is what lands him in situations like these. Where he is rushing to change out of armor and wipe off face paint to run to a meeting. You would think he would notice when running to the meeting he would have seen Suki running after him gesturing to his hair. Just his luck he makes it to the meeting on time. Most of the counsel is having small talk while Zuko is having some tea. Sokka goes to sit beside Zuko and while he is staring at the table he doesn’t notice Zuko staring at him.
“I like your hair.” Sokka was snapped out of his trance and put his hands where his wolf tail should be. He forgot to put it back in!
“I am sorry, I thought I put it up. It’s been a long week for me.” That’s not exactly a lie, he has been taking up a lot of extra work to help take some of the stress off Zuko.
“You can always take a break you know. You are the ambassador of the Southern Water Tribe not my personal bodyguard.” It took every bone in Sokka’s body not to laugh. Though he shouldn’t make fun of Zuko for being oblivious considering he didn’t even know he had feelings for Zuko until today.
“Hey I need to keep myself busy, plus it means you have extra time to feed your turtleducks.” Zuko quickly looks away,
“Well look at that the meeting is going to start. Everyone may I have your attention.” Sokka can admit while Zuko can be an awkward mess, he knows how to grab the attention of a room. “Today we are going to be going over a previous policy that was made by my grandfather. It was a ban on same sex marriage as well as them being able to adopt children. Now I am here to convince you all to repeal this law. There are some laws where I can make edits to and send it for approval. I believe this one would be better if done in person. Personally I see no need for this law. What is the point of having a law that forbids consenting adults to get married. Due to the war many children were left without families, repealing this could cause many of those children to have a home.” Everyone was silent except for the secretary of war.
“What’s the point?! They are abominations and would cause the end of the fire nation. They are disgusting and Firelord Sozin was right for banning their existence.” Zuko’s expression darkend, he was never a fan of the secretary of war, but he had to keep him to appeal to some people who still were loyal to Ozai. Sokka decided that it was time for him to step in.
“I think it would be a great show of change. Everywhere else it is legal and it is commonly accepted. It started off with the air nomads, southern water tribe, northern water tribe, and then the earth kingdom. Doing this would be a huge symbol of change. Now of course you could say that there is other stuff to prove we have changed, but I can already counteract that point. What’s better than combating war with love? Love versus war is such an important thing you can’t forget.” Sokka was glad he could see Zuko visibly relax. The problem was the secretary of war who looked as if he was about to bust a vain open. Of course Zuko being the smart Firelord he is, he calls a 15 minute recess. Zuko gets up and waves Sokka over to go to the kitchen and of course he follows.
“Thank you for taking that one. He can be very very very old fashioned. I just want to do what's best, but they make it so hard. Would you like any tea?”
“Sure, it would be nice. Also it’s no problem, this is something that should be very basic. Plus you are working all the time. You don’t need to do everything I will help any time you want. I mean that’s my job. To be your brains from the Southern Water Tribe.” Zuko chuckled as the sweet aroma of jasmine tea filled the air. Sokka could always tell when Zuko was coming because even before he saw him he could smell jasmine tea. He had been drinking it a lot more ever since Iroh left to take care of his tea shop full time.
“Oh sorry I forgot to ask what you would want.”
“Don’t worry it’s perfect. We should probably head back to make sure Mr. War hasn’t gone crazy. “ They both laugh and start to head back. The hall is still normal Mr.War hasn’t killed anyone and they still had 5 minutes to themselves. It was nice to talk to Zuko because while it called his nerves he was hoping he was making Zuko more relaxed in the process. Helping rebuild the Fire Nation is very important to Zuko and repealing this law may just be the start they need. Everything was going good until 3 minutes before the meeting started Sokka noticed the secretary of war flash a symbol to Ozai. There was going to be an assassianation attempt. Sokka quickly got up and went to Suki
“Someone is going to try to kill Zuko, I am going to leave and get changed. I have a feeling it will happen when the meeting starts again.” Suki nods,
“I trust you, now go.” Suki took a few paces forwards to be closer to protect Zuko.
“Hey Zuko I have to use the bathroom. I will be right back” Before Zuko could respond Sokka was already out the door. He sprinted and grabbed his armor. Somehow he put his face paint on in 2 minutes. As he was running back he heard a blast and someone saying,
“Long live firelord Ozai!” Sokka ran in and she saw Suki tackling the secretary of war. Sokka ran in front of Zuko as a fireball almost hit him. It missed, but had it been an inch closer he would have been hit. In the short second of when the fireball was shot Suki had been shoved aside. The secretary of war ran out the door. Zuko ran after him,
“Lord Zuko where are you going?!”
“Sokka is still out there he could get killed!” Suki and Sokka shared the same look of “Oh no” and they both ran after Zuko trying to come up with a plan.