Author's Note: there are a few details in the backstories that aren't 100% accurate. This is partially out of laziness and partially out of creative license.

...

"Zuko!" Aang cried out over the rush of wind as the Fire Prince clung to him and his glider. The two had carelessly cast themselves over the edge of a cliff in the heat of their fight and while Aang readied his glider to save the both of them, Zuko wasn't about to give up. He clawed and tore at the glider, grunting desperately. Aang pleaded, "You have to stop! You can fight me once we reach the ground!"

If Zuko had heard him, he didn't show it.

"Zuko! You're gonna get us both-"

The prince's fist shot out in a fury, sending a fireball burning through one of the glider's

wings. The craft began to plummet, and the boys hollered out their terror as they crashed down, down, down.

When Aang woke up, it might have been minutes later. Or it could have been hours. He couldn't tell. His head throbbed and his body ached and upon opening his eyes, all he could make out were vague, blurry, vertical lines that were obscured by blinding light and blue sky. He laid there for a few moments, breathing deeply until his vision shifted into focus - tree tops. He was staring at tree tops. And as he glanced around, he saw many hundreds more trees. Moving around a little, he felt rocks and vines and thorns scraping against his skin - felt insects and worms squirming underneath him, and felt the ache of his sore bones as he struggled to sit upright. There, in front of him, was his glider - snapped in two.

What happened? He thought to himself, having no memory of the fight or the fall. The sight of his glider tore him to bits inside, but a sound distracted him from his grief. From behind him came an awful groan, and a sickly familiar voice.

Aang turned to find Prince Zuko, slumped against a tree, tending to a badly injured and quickly swelling knee. "No..." The firebender moaned and writhed. "No, no, no, NO!" He slammed his fists angrily into the ground, igniting all the leaf litter around him.

With a yelp Aang leapt into the air to avoid the scalding heat, and quickly bent the flames away with a gust of wind. When he was back on his feet - still shaky from the shock of the impact - Aang said simply, "You're hurt."

As if Zuko hadn't realized it. But for what it was worth, the fire prince may as well not have even heard the Avatar. He was far too distressed. It wasn't even the pain that overwhelmed him - how would he capture the Avatar if he couldn't even walk? Gritting his teeth, Zuko pressed his back against the tree and struggled to stand. But his leg gave underneath him and sent him back down with a hard thud as he cried out miserably.

Aang knew he could run - he could hightail it back to his friends and they'd be well on their way, free from the burden of knowing the Prince of the Fire Nation was close behind. He could have left him there to fend for himself in this nowhere-land. But when Aang looked at him there, helpless on the ground, all he could think about was that same teenage boy being helpless back at the North Pole. Aang had saved him then, and even with all the strife that boy caused him and his friends, never once did he regret it.

No sooner than Aang took his first step toward Zuko, did Zuko lash out with angst and ferocity. He must have put every ounce of his rage into punching fireballs out at Aang's feet, letting out a gruesome grunt with each blow. Aang, with such ease that it enraged Zuko further, slipped and slid out of the paths of the attacks, until he was standing right upon the fallen enemy.

"Zuko, you have to calm down. Let me see." He urged, standing with palms outward.

"Come any closer to me, and I'll incinerate you!" Zuko snarled like a beast, teeth bared and all. There was something, Aang noticed, profoundly pathetic about the anger glowering in Zuko's golden eyes. That's when Aang started remembering.

When the two had been fighting earlier, Aang began to notice something peculiar about the older boy - that his frantic attacks and his grunts of frustration seemed more desperate than angry, and more terrified than evil. And it was around the time of this realization that they each lost their footing and began to fall. Zuko had let out a shrill yell of terror, unable to save himself, while Aang was safe on his glider within moments. He didn't even have to convince himself to swoop down and rescue Zuko - he just sort of did it. It was the "Aang" thing to do. And it was that decision, it seemed, that wound them up down here, together, in the middle of nowhere and with at least two hundred vertical feet between where they ended up, and where they'd been before.

Aang remained where he was, and sat down cross-legged on the ground with his hands folded in his lap, looking Zuko over carefully. He was in bad shape. Terrible, even. Aside from the obvious knee injury, he was covered in other bruises and scrapes and contusions. His nose was dark and his lower lip busted from where his face must have slammed into the ground. Blood seeped through his clothing in blotches and streaks. The child looked gnarly. Nothing like the prestigious royalty from which he descended.

"That looks like a bad sprain." Aang addressed Zuko's knee. "And you're bleeding. We can't stay here," he said, craning his neck up and around to observe the expanse of wilderness around them. "It's too vulnerable. We need to find shelter."

"We don't need to do anything." Zuko was volatile. He could feel his heart racing - adrenaline flooded his entire body, numbing the pain and amplifying the desperate rage. "What I need to do is get back to the Fire Nation, and with you as my prisoner!"

"Well," Aang began, "you're not going anywhere on that leg without any help." With that he stood, and extended a hand to Zuko.

"Get out of here!" He growled back, smoke wafting from his clenched fists. "Leave me be!"

"I will not leave you." Aang was stern. "If I leave you, you could die."

"All the better for you! Get moving unless you want to get burnt to a crisp!"

For a while they stared long and hard at each other - Aang, with curiosity and confusion, and Zuko with a faithful, unwavering disdain. The latter won the contest, it seemed, because Aang finally sighed to himself, turned around, and began to walk away.

But he couldn't get those eyes out of his head. Those eyes that he could only imagine were still locked on him so fixedly and with such contempt that he felt like he should catch on fire - those eyes, belonging to an enemy whose motives, he was starting to believe, were much more complex than simply "capture the Avatar." With each step away that Aang took, he felt as though he was not only leaving behind a living, breathing, feeling human being, but also leaving behind an opportunity. He looked over his shoulder to find Zuko doubled over with his face in his hands, lamenting his helplessness - his gross failure.

So Aang turned to face him again, standing strong and firm.

"If I don't make it back to my friends soon," he said measuredly, "they will try to find me. Who will try to find you?"

Zuko hoped he didn't show it, but those words hit him with much the same impact that he'd hit the ground with. Who would try to find me? He wondered to himself. There was Uncle Iroh... but Zuko had left him behind long ago. Or was it even that long ago? He couldn't remember. But he couldn't imagine after everything he'd done and said to Iroh, that the old man have any interest in speaking to him ever again. Zuko had a home with Iroh once, just like he'd had a home in the Fire Nation. But, he thought, he'd done a pretty spectacular job of ruining both of those. The only people who would come looking for him were the people sent out to imprison him. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Zuko realized that the Avatar was right - he couldn't go anywhere. Not without help.

Glaring up at the airbender through messy hair, he said lowly and warily, "...Why should I trust you to help me?"

"When have I ever meant you harm?" Aang answered, and once more Zuko found himself taken aback. He really couldn't remember any time that the Avatar had made a move at him that wasn't defensive.

With an expression that was now slightly more inquisitive than angry, Zuko said "...You could end me right now, Avatar. And make sure I never get in your way again. Why don't you?"

And with those words, Aang realized something odd.

He asked, cocking his head to a curious angle, "Zuko... do you even know what my name is?"

Fire ignited in Zuko's eyes again and he exploded, "I don't care about your name!"

"Okay! Okay!" Aang shrunk back a little, holding up his hands in surrender.

"I didn't need to know it before, and I certainly don't need to know it now, Avatar." Zuko spat the title like it was a slur, and Aang felt it like an attack on his spirit.

Suddenly, Aang wasn't so sure what he was doing. "...Come on. We'd better get moving," He said.