A/N: So, I started this little story last summer after my friend Smill took my OC from "Prison Conversations" to heights I hadn't imagined. It occurred to me to think there may have been more than one un-finished story lingering in "PC's" depths. And because I've hit a bit of a brick wall in my other stories, I thought I might be inspired to break through writer's block if I gave my muse another line to gnaw upon.

I imagine this much more along PC's lines – just the two characters' interacting. I hope that will help to keep it defined and flowing.

Disclaimer: Who me? Attempting to claim ownership or generate income therefrom? No chance. So go away and leave me to meander among my delusions…

Crossing the Line: Chapter 1

It was absolutely none of his business, and he was usually pretty good at controlling any urge to satisfy his curiosity about the goings-on in any of the villages through which they traveled. He had learned the hard way to keep his head down and avoid attention. Even in territory still held by the Earth Kingdom, any word of the Avatar or his companions could lead to trouble, if only in the form of delays of one kind or another. He really couldn't afford to be delayed if he was going to rejoin the others in time for the message he carried to have any relevance. A pity they didn't have the advantage of the Fire Nation's messenger birds...

So when he first became aware of the altercation between a pair of soldiers in green and the lone figure in faded but still distinctive red he really should have turned the other direction and walked quickly away. Just because the one in red was female did not mean she couldn't look out for herself; a point that had been made painfully clear to Sokka time and again over the many months since he had left his home at the South Pole. Nevertheless, when one of the soldiers struck the girl and she fell to her knees without getting back up he found himself quickly stepping forward to protest.

"Stay out of it, boy," said one of the men, inserting his body between Sokka and the kneeling woman. "She's Fire Nation, and almost certainly a spy."

"Maybe so, but until you know for sure she's a spy there's no call to hit her like that." Sokka narrowed his eyes, assessing his chances of standing up to these two should it come to that. He noted with relief that neither appeared to be an earth-bender.

"I said, stay out of it!" The soldier gave Sokka a hard shove, drawing his sword at the same time.

As he rocked back from the momentum of the blow Sokka pulled his boomerang free of its sheath and the war club from his belt. "Aw, man. You really don't want to do this. Can't you just be nice to the lady?"

Her back was turned to him, and he was pleased to see her starting to rise. Perhaps she hadn't been hurt after all.

"What are you, some kind of Fire Nation sympathizer?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but never got the chance to actually speak.

"He's not! Don't you know who he is? He's the Avatar's friend!" Sokka was stunned as much by the familiar voice as by its revelation. He was also annoyed to see a small crowd had gathered in the street.

"Ling-Ling? What the hell are you doing here?" It simply wasn't possible that the woman at issue was the same prison warden's daughter Sokka had last seen weeks before when he had blown the Fire Nation prison up in the process of breaking out of it. Something which may not have been possible without her help.

"They know each other," "Hey, wait, she's right, I've seen his picture!" "The Avatar? Is he here too?" "What's a friend of the Avatar doing with a Fire Nation spy?" Amid a chorus of similar exclamations Sokka quickly sheathed his boomerang, side-stepped the now thoroughly confused soldier and grabbed the girl's hand.

"Just RUN!"

He dodged through the lightest part of the crowd, dragging the stumbling girl in red behind him. Happily, within a few yards she seemed to get her legs beneath her and proved nimble enough for him to consider a quick detour through the crowded market. Spotting a cart piled high with cabbages, Sokka hooked his club around one of the cart's upright supports as they ran past, jerking it forwards and upsetting the balance of vegetables to tumble into the path of the only two pursuers - the soldiers who had accosted Ling-Ling in the first place. Shrieking vendors fell upon the angry men, and Sokka and the Fire Nation girl disappeared in the confusion.

Sokka was by now quite experienced at evasive tactics, and as they ran he used his club to snag a dark drape of material from yet another cart, and then pulled his companion into an alleyway.

"Don't talk, don't argue. Just get rid of whatever you have to so you're comfortable wearing this and no longer screaming 'Fire Nation' ," he groaned at her raised eyebrow over the amorphous cloth he had brought into the alley with them. Surely Katara would not have complained, although Toph may have objected under her breath to its roughness even as she made do. Girls.

"Honestly, Ling-Ling, I would have thought you were smart enough to figure out to dress more anonymously if you were going into your enemy's territory."

He turned away mostly for privacy's sake, and because he had no desire to witness whatever change in garb the plain warden's daughter might think sufficient to hide her identity. In the meantime, he pulled out the leather thong holding back his hair in its wolf-tail, running his fingers through the loose locks to make them fall on either side of his face. It would occasionally hinder his vision this way, but the uncharacteristic hairstyle would make him less easily recognized, turning him into just another random wanderer from the water tribes. Too bad Ling-Ling had drawn attention to his presence in the first place.

He turned back to her. The red shapeless tunic she had worn had been turned inside-out, its dull grey lining now on the surface. The dark fabric lay discarded on the ground beside her. He shrugged. At least her nationality was no longer obvious to every passerby.

"C'mon. Let's get you out of here."

Without a word she followed him. He was going to be delayed after all, but he couldn't just leave her here. This city on the edge of the front lines in the war had seen its share of Fire Nation attacks in all their brutality, and little in the way of mercy would be offered someone suspected of being a spy. And perhaps she was a spy. Sokka could not imagine what this girl was doing so far from the prison safely ensconced in territory long controlled and settled by her countrymen. It made no sense.

But he did owe her his life and his freedom. So he would see her back on the road to safety for her, even if that meant he had to set foot back in dangerous territory for himself. The others would understand.

As it happened, the road to safety was actually not a road at all. This particular city sat on the banks of one of the largest rivers in the Earth Kingdom, a river that currently defined the boundaries of territory controlled by the opposing parties in the war. Virtually everything north of the this port had been conquered in the name of the Fire Lord, and over the last 20 years or so had been settled here and there by Fire Nation emigrants hampered back home by the lack of land and opportunity. The river here was nearly a mile wide, and there was a faint salt tang on the wind that reminded Sokka that the sea was only a half-day's journey down river. If he could get Ling-Ling across the river he could then be on his way to rejoin his friends fairly quickly.

All they needed was a boat.

The exigencies of efficiency warred against the concerns of safety, leading city fathers to build walls along the shoreline punctuated by many gates, not all of which were equally fortified or adequately manned. From the inside it was hardly more than a few hours' work to assess the more vulnerable of these apertures in a city's defenses. Despite his youth, Sokka was well versed in looking for such vulnerabilities. He didn't bother looking for other options once he had found one to his liking. Having ascertained that Ling-Ling was no better provisioned in money than he was himself, he resigned himself to the need to steal - no, he chose to think of it as commandeering - a boat under cover of darkness.

Near the chosen gate along the wall they found an embrasure of sufficient depth and width to give them a comfortable few hours waiting, complete with a small hole in the wall at slightly over shoulder-height for Sokka - a perfect niche for loosing arrows for a full-grown man - and deep, low benches hewn out of the surrounding stonework.

"Where is he now? How is he?" She didn't bother specifying whom she meant, and he didn't need clarification.

"No idea."

"You left together."

"So? Why would we stick together, anyway? He's a damned fire-bender, my enemy, remember?"

"His father condemned him. Are you so sure he's your enemy?"

"I thought his identity was supposed to be unknown - the Fire Lord not wanting to be embarrassed, or accidentally turn his son into some kind of martyr for his enemies to rally round. Oh, but wait, Zuko told you himself."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I knew who he was. There were wanted posters with his picture, and besides, the prison had to have records on every inmate's identity. Especially those to be executed. Of course, you never told anyone your name. But he knew it."

Sokka grinned, "So you had records on me but no name? That's great! How did you refer to me - by some number or random description? How did the order for my execution read? 'As of such and such date, decapitate the guy in blue with the wolf's tail...'"

"You laugh at the thought of your own death? You are very strange, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."

"Aw, Zuko told you my name, too. Damn. I was enjoying my anonymity. Which reminds me. If I ever run into you again I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't blab out who I am to anyone."

"Why not? Why didn't you want those people to know who you were? Wouldn't they have been more likely to listen to you as the Avatar's friend?"

"Please. There are few things more painful than watching someone you know has the ability to think completely ignore it. C'mon, girl, use your brain. You heard them - they didn't just think I was in the neighborhood; everyone immediately assumed Aang - the Avatar - was also. Word gets around and the next thing you know you've got a Fire Nation attack on some poor place totally unprepared for it. Especially one so close to the front lines. Even if Aang were nearby the last thing he needs to worry about right now is protecting some township from its own inability to keep its lips buttoned!"

"So the Avatar is not nearby."

"Did I say that? Did I say otherwise? Listen, for the war's sake, Aang's whereabouts are best left unknown."

"But you know."

"Who, me? I'm just a guy with a boomerang. I got nothin' to say."

"You never did."

"Nothin's changed."

"And the prince?"

"Like I said, I got nothin' to say."

She laughed. It was an odd sound, something he had not heard in the odd month or so of her comings and goings in the tiny block of cells he and the Fire Nation prince had shared. It was strangely pleasant.

"You were full of smart-assed remarks during your interrogations. But yes, there never was anything of value."

"No big surprise you would know all about that. Did the record mention the various injuries I received during those 'interrogations'? Oh, I forgot, it was your father who gave me those injuries. Did he get a citation for a job well done?"

"You survived." She didn't meet his eyes, but she didn't need to. After every such session with the prison warden Ling-Ling had appeared, silently appraising the status of the Water Tribe prisoner, occasionally providing a small basin of warm water steeped in herbs along with his meal tray, a square of clean linen tucked along one side. Sometimes a mug of something smelling pungent would be included, which he never touched. She had never met his eyes or said a word to him, but these had been among the signs in those first days that Sokka had interpreted to mean this girl did not wholly discount the wellbeing of her charges. Of course, then he had not known who she was.

"So I did." Sokka was ever a sucker for other people's pain, and much as he wanted to ignore it he couldn't help but notice that Ling-Ling's bony features were even more pale beneath their powder than he had remembered, and dark circles emphasized those too-wide, slightly protuberant orbs. "Look, last time I saw Zuko he was fine, cranky as ever and telling me off for being an incompetent fool. It was only about a week ago. As far as I know, he wasn't getting ready to do anything particularly dangerous. But he's such an ass, who knows? Does that make you feel any better?"

She smiled in satisfaction. "So you didn't separate after all. He's joined the Avatar. I knew he would."

"You don't know anything of the kind. And he had no reason to do anything except stay out of his father and sister's way. Just shut up." He groaned. If she were in fact a spy he really wasn't helping anyone but the enemy.

"Tell me about him."

He paused, unsure for a moment who she was asking about.

"This time you mean the Avatar, don't you? What's to say? Aang's the most powerful bender in the world. He'll kick the Fire Lord's ass."

"Why does he need you?"

Sokka said nothing. It was not a question he hadn't pondered before, although it would seem to be an obvious one. Some things weren't for talking about. He hadn't really discussed this with Zuko and he sure as hell wasn't going to talk about it with Ling-Ling, a girl he didn't really trust even though he knew he owed her, perhaps, his life.

"I'll tell you that when you tell me why you betrayed the Fire Nation, not just in helping us escape but the others as well. If that's too hard, tell me what the hell you're doing here now. Somehow, I never got the sense that you were the traveling kind..."

"Sokka..."

"Don't even try, girl. Did you forget I watched you take a perfectly normal... wait. Strike that. Take a wholly self-absorbed arrogant shit-head and turn him into a patient, concerned, almost-prince among men for a mere drab of a girl." There was an odd viciousness to his tone that surprised even Sokka.

She hesitated, considering his words. Well, it had always been a risk, and it didn't take a particularly intelligent person to make the connections between the price she had exacted for the help she had provided in escaping the prison. That the Water Tribe boy knew about the others before the prince suggested either more collaboration between the two than she had suspected or greater intelligence on the part of the foreigner than she had expected. In either case, it was obvious that Sokka was treading a fine line between gratitude for her role in his escape and total distrust. For Ling-Ling, the response was a predictable frisson of excitement.

She had, on occasion, almost regretted her decision in the seduction of the Fire Nation prince over the Water Tribe peasant. The former was the obvious choice; he was beautiful and damned. He was her prince! The exquisite roils of deception and betrayal that curled her belly and warmed her loins, even after she had soothed her heated lips against his pale skin, smoothed her calloused palms along the hardened muscles of his chest and abdomen, stretched her own length against him and enveloped his heat, another captive to her will...

But she was no fool. She was perfectly aware that Zuko's role in the seduction was cold, almost practiced, and conducted from an emotional distance that made her first rage and then laugh pathetically in the privacy of her own rooms. Still, he was glorious, in conception anyway, and if he failed at all in completion she blamed ignorance and innocence, failings she had left far behind her.

On contemplation, she was confident the Water Tribe boy would suffer from much the same failings if she had pressed him instead. Yet she also suspected that he would, unlike many young men, recognize the lack and work to amend it. She had seen enough of him to know he was patently not what he appeared. And there was no questioning his own, dark beauty. Had the Fire prince not been there, there was no doubt that this boy would have held her interest. At one point she had forgotten herself and dreamed of having both young men in her thrall. As lessons in humility went, learning otherwise was relatively painless. But her curiosity about the Water Tribe warrior, the chosen companion of the Avatar, was not assuaged. And she still wished to test her mettle against him.

For a plain girl, Ling-Ling was extraordinarily practiced in the seduction of young men. To find herself in the company of 'the one that got away' was a tremendous temptation. Her experience was, as she well knew, the result not of her beauty but of her intelligence and ability to manipulate circumstances and her chosen, ah, victim - an unfortunate word choice, but perhaps an appropriate one. She would be hard-pressed to exercise any such advantages in the current situation. Still, Ling-Ling was also far too aware of the potential for not surviving this latest betrayal of the Fire Nation to consider the risk at this point in her life an unreasonable one. That she may have misjudged him only added to the challenge.

"Why," she asked quietly. "Why did you help me?"

"You know why. You gave us the keys to the cell and his shackles. We couldn't have escaped without them. I owe you."

"No. You stepped in before you knew it was me. It could have been anyone, anyone from the Fire Nation. Why?"

"Cuz I'm getting stupid as I get older, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I've spent too much time hanging out with Aang. It doesn't matter anyway."

"Yes, it does." The look she gave him from those dark, too widely-spaced eyes was unreadable, and he was reminded of those last days in the prison where she had stopped focusing completely on his fellow inmate and turned her gaze on him. It had made him uncomfortable then and it did no less now.

"So. You never answered either of my questions."

"You may not believe it, but the prison was deemed irreparable. My father was transferred, demoted to acting quartermaster for the Third Battalion stationed across the river."

"Okay, I guess I can believe that. I'd be lying if I said I was sorry."

Ling-Ling shrugged. "Nothing for you to be sorry about. It's not good for my father, but the unit is actually more important and the village is much larger, so there is more opportunity for me to, um, find entertainment for myself. Anyway, I was curious. There had been no word of the Avatar, no word of you or Prince Zuko, so I thought I'd cross over the river and see if the Earth Kingdom had heard anything. I'm so used to getting around without being noticed I'm afraid it didn't occur to me that my clothes might be a problem." Ling-Ling paused for breath. It had been a long time since she had said so much at one time.

"You got yourself over the river because you were curious? You're right. I don't believe it. How'd you do it anyway?"

"There's still commerce on both sides of the river on a small scale, if you look for it. There are shellfish beds on our side that produce a superior product, or so they say. Anyway, there's a boat that brings over the night's digging every morning for the market here. They gave me a ride over when I showed up with a bucket-load of large scallops and offered to share my profit."

"Is that boat still around? How did you plan to get back?" He kept his eyes on hers. She wasn't telling the whole truth, of that he was sure. But he couldn't say if the falsehood was through omission or otherwise. The story sounded reasonable and fit pretty well with his own experience. He began to question the need for seeing her back to Fire Nation territory. Ling-Ling was obviously quite capable on her own. "Won't you be missed?"

"The shellfish boat made the return trip as soon as they could fill the hold with rice wine for the garrison on the other side - it's the bribe for allowing the trade to continue. I didn't know how long it would take me to get any news, and I assumed where there was one boat there would be another. As for whether or not I'll be missed, that kind of depends on whether or not my father drinks enough of the bottle I left by his chair when he comes home this evening, doesn't it?" Ling-Ling smiled inwardly. She could see him weighing her words, and it pleased her to note his wariness. For all that Ling-Ling relished the freedom that her persona as a homely, caretaker drudge to her father had given her over the years, there was also a sense of affirmation in having someone treat her with highly focused attention and respect. When, she wondered, had he started watching her so closely in the prison; was it after he became aware of the flirtation with the prince, or could it have even been before?

"Nice relationships you people have with your parents."

"You shouldn't make generalizations about people."

"I admit, my experience with the Fire Nation is pretty limited. I mean, beyond having its soldiers breathing down my neck and doing me grievous bodily harm at every opportunity. Hardly anyone has actually bothered to converse with me, if you know what I mean. But what little I have seen is a pretty sad commentary on Fire Nation family life."

"I think I had forgotten what a smartass you are. Maybe I was better off with the Earth Kingdom soldiers."

"Shall I escort you back to them?"

"No, thanks, I'll just be going back across the river now."

"Sorry, Sweetheart, I'm still not satisfied as to what exactly you're doing here. I can't believe you were so infatuated with Zuko that you'd risk your life for the possibility of hearing some rumor about him. That's just nuts!"

"Why is it so hard to believe? The two of you changed my life by destroying the prison. Yes, there were others before, but no one who's going to change the world! Why shouldn't I believe that was something special? Look at you, you left your home behind to follow the Avatar. Why shouldn't I take a lousy day out of my life to find out more about you?" There was a fierceness in her voice that she was not used to allowing even in her thoughts. "Do you really think I'm a spy? Do you really think anyone in the Fire Nation believes I'm capable of such a thing?"

He shook his head in wonder. "I don't know what to think. I'm sure no one has a clue as to what you're capable of, and I count myself in that group as well. So you're right, it wouldn't occur to anyone to use you as a spy. Whatever you're doing, you're doing for yourself."

"Well, it's nice to know you can think, water boy. I was beginning to wonder after all." She folded her arms in front of her.

"Ouch. So maybe I deserved that."

For long minutes they glared at one another. Sokka caved first. It tickled his sense of humor that this wisp of a girl had flummoxed the fire nation for several years, long enough to allow not just himself and the Fire Nation prince to escape its prison but others as well, at the whim of a mere girl. The occasionally bitter irony of owing his freedom to the same girl was eased by the closely held belief that he would have, finally, managed his own escape even if he couldn't have saved Zuko as well. Since he honestly held little love for the Fire Nation prince, this was more than mere cold comfort.

Sokka was a clever boy. He wholly understood that had this Fire Nation girl been a beauty the furor for her capture would not have ended with a few stumbles among cabbages, and equally understood the folly of assuming only beauty was dangerous. Had he not already in his heart exonerated her from any ill will he would have marveled at the cleverness of the Fire Nation in its choice of spies. Now he reveled in its lack of intelligence for not recognizing a potential resource.

"Why does anyone allow you to even live?" She asked, and perfect honesty brought a strange sweetness to her voice that clouded Sokka's vision of her features.

"You got a problem with me being alive?"

Her lips twitched. And she found herself laughing yet again. She never really laughed, and yet the Water Tribe boy had incited her laughter twice in less than an hour.

"No. Why should I care if every other word you say is pure shit..."

"Ah, so there are a few pearls among the swine?"

"You presume too much, peasant," She grasped at her dignity, but knew full well it had slipped beyond recall.