A/N: BEEP BEEP OMORASHI WARNING. PLEASE GOOGLE THAT IF YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS. BEEP BEEP.
Also, I do not own ATLA or any of the characters.
"Zuko, come on, time to get up!"
Zuko wasn't a morning person. Most firebenders were, but he was so used to staying up late that he'd become accustomed to sleeping in as well. "No…"
"You can sleep on Appa. Come on." Aang insisted.
That finally got Zuko up. Still mostly asleep, he packed up his few belongings and boarded the bison with the rest of the gang. Once they were up in the air, he lied down and wrapped a blanket around himself to shield him from the wind, and he was soon out once again.
He didn't wake for another two hours, and when he did, it was because he was cold. He opened his eyes, first only focusing on the sky and being very confused. He then sat up. The rest of the gang was eating, and Sokka offered some to him. He took some of the food, glancing down. They were over the ocean. That's why the air was so cold. He kept his blanket around his shoulders as he ate.
When he fully awakened, though, he realized that he should've done what the rest of the gang probably did before they left camp that morning: Use the bathroom. His bladder was full, because he hadn't gone since the previous evening, and he'd been drinking a lot because he'd been working with Aang and didn't want to get dehydrated.
He didn't know what to do. Even with as high as they were, all he could see around them was water, without even an island. Telling someone that he needed to go wouldn't really do anything, so he stayed quiet, knowing he'd have to just wait. He munched on his food.
"Here." Katara held a skin of water out to him, and when he shook his head, she insisted. "You'll get dehydrated." He could almost hear the "and I'm not taking care of you when you do" that didn't follow.
Zuko drank a bit, and then handed it back to her, disliking the way the cool water running down his throat made his bladder twitch insistently. "Where are we, exactly?"
Sokka showed him on the map. "About here." They were halfway across some body of water he didn't know the name of. Halfway was good, but he'd been sleeping for the first half, so how long had it taken them to get this far? An hour? Three hours? He had no idea.
Zuko was quiet as usual after that. He'd been with the gang long enough to be used to their somewhat odd conversations, but not long enough to know how to join in with them. He pressed his thighs together discreetly.
As his attempts to hold it in became more and more obvious, Zuko noticed he was getting weird glares from Katara every time he moved. Why? He wasn't sure. She just never seemed to trust him. He was glad when Aang said he was hungry, and Katara switched places with him.
Unlike everyone else, Aang had no fear about sitting down right beside Zuko to eat. "So, how do you like flying, anyway? I bet you don't have anything that can fly in the fire nation, do you? I mean, there were dragons, but—"
"It's alright." Zuko cut him off.
Aang nodded, and asked him more questions that seemed pointless to him. Zuko answered, shifting more and more. He really had to go.
"You're not feeling sick, are you?" Aang watched him, taking another bite of his food. Aang talked with his mouth full, which was irritating to Zuko for some reason.
"No." Zuko answered.
"Good. I know Toph got air-sick a lot at first."
"I did not!" Toph protested, making Aang and Sokka both chuckle.
"But, seriously, you're feeling okay, right?" Aang looked back at him, and Zuko nodded.
"Yeah…Just, restless." He excused.
Aang still seemed suspicious. "Okay…"
"So, where are we now?" Zuko turned his attention back to Sokka, who still hand the map. Sokka pointed, and Zuko swore that they'd only moved a few centimeters on the paper. "Are you sure?"
"Positive." Sokka replied. "Why?"
"It seems like we've gone pretty far."
"It's been twenty minutes."
"Right." Zuko gave up, looking down again. There was no way to keep time and no way to see where they were. There was just water…everywhere. He tensed his muscles more.
"You're not scared of heights, are you?" Toph asked him suddenly. How could she tell anything? She couldn't even see!
"Of course not."
"You're really tense. I can feel it from over here."
Oh, right. She could do that. He couldn't really untense, either. "Well, um-"
"You're fidgeting a lot, too."
"Right, I just…um…"
"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Aang asked.
"A little." Zuko tried to seem calm about it, but just the mention of going made his bladder spasm and a small amount spurt out. He pressed his legs together. "Okay…maybe more than a little…Is there any way I could- I mean….I really need to…um…" He squirmed a bit.
"Um…" Aang looked around. They had one water skin, but they couldn't waste that under any circumstances. There wasn't really anything else he could go in. "Maybe there's an island we can land on." He snatched the map from Sokka, looking closely. There didn't appear to be anything at all.
"Is there?" Zuko asked, silently pleading for there to be something.
"No, sorry." Aang looked around again. "Not for at least another hour, maybe two."
Zuko groaned quietly, then bit his lip as he tensed against another spasm.
"Look…just…go. You're going to hurt yourself." Aang smiled slightly.
"What? No way!"
"What other choice do you have?" Sokka added. "Come on. No one's going to laugh."
"I'm not going to-!" Zuko made a face like a wince, and hunched over, grabbing at his crotch like a child. He was absolutely bursting. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see everyone staring.
He felt something strange, after that. As tense as he was, Zuko felt like the urine was pulled out of him, and instead of soaking his clothes or making a puddle around him, it all went straight into a floating ball between him and Aang. Once his bladder was empty, the ball floated over the edge of Appa and fell down, out of sight.
Zuko looked up, seeing a hesitantly smiling Aang. "Better?"
"Did you just…?"
"Yeah." Aang shifted back a bit, worried Zuko was going to be mad.
Zuko wasn't mad, but was shocked. Aang had just forced him to wet himself, but had also saved him from any further embarrassment. "Um…thanks…I guess…" His face was bright red.
"No problem." Aang got up, going back over to where Katara was and taking her place to steer again. Katara either hadn't noticed or was pretending she hadn't as she walked back and sat beside Sokka.
Zuko stayed silent for the rest of the ride, silently wondering if things like this were normal for them too.
