He is beside me this morning. We walk warmly together. Birds hum and whistle while they dance in the reeds, but the river is too wide to make a sound. On top, the surface reaches from shore to distant shore green and flat like the smooth jade floor in the Earth Kingdom Palace, but I know, were I to wade too far, the undercurrent, like the river's beating lustful heart, would wrench me from my feet and out to sea.

We exchange half-smiled pleasantries that bloom into conversation in the redolent river air. My skin bristles into turtle-duck bumps despite the warm humidity sighing on us as I think about the day, several days gone, when I forgot myself and jumped up on him. He didn't try and shake me off, he just carried me for a ways. I was making a fool of myself—giggling like a little kid—while he was probably wishing I would just get back on the ground. I remember the swaths of skin that clung to him still, broad patches of shame. Thinking about it now my face feels like a little glowing sun, and I speed up my pace to walk in front of Zuko so the emerging blush stays hidden.

My feet tread lightly on the rocky shore. I don't know how anyone else stands to put their full weight on the ground in places like this. Then again, I seem pretty sensitive about a lot of things that don't seem to bother anyone, like undressing out in the open, a process Zuko has already begun. He pinches the leather ribbon in his hair and pulls, releasing the knot into a shaggy mess. Then, as if he sensed my gaze, he peeks through his bangs and smiles. More blushing. More hiding. I turn away to find somewhere (farther away) to lay my towel and clothes. A washed ashore log a short walk down the bank will do. I don't dare look back while I undress. Being seen by Zuko is the last thing I want. I sometimes feel mad at my reflection for showing me myself—taller with little zits and stubble that I can't keep from coming back. And here's the strange boy again staring up at me as I wade into the water. I kick a wave in the water to break up the person the river's showing me to be. The ripples tear me into little strips of light.

When I look up the river, only Zuko's head is bobbing on top of the river. I rush to sink myself in before heading up river. The chill, though shocking at first, is welcome. "Feels good, doesn't it?" Zuko asks. I grin in affirmation, but no conversation follows. The tension builds in the silent invisible push of the river.

I crack first and a thought leaks out, "I forget you're the leader of a nation sometimes."

The Firelord's face fell into a scoff and his mouth sank under the water to blow some exasperated bubbles. He reemerges. "You and me both, Aang." He lowers back down so, like a catgator, his eyes glare at me pensively just above the surface. "Can I tell you a secret?" he asks as his mouth finds air again, but he is already is headed towards me without an answer, a disembodied head rolling down the river with a short trail of hair weaving behind it. There's something mystic about the image and the sky agrees as the sunrise breaks over the eastern hills, filling the hazy air with gold. I tell myself it's the morning that's frozen me, but I know it's Zuko. I wait expressionless in face and voice.

The floating head arrives beside me, and beneath the water, the glowing green currents shift as the secret attached body comes to rest near me, too. I want to be underwater. To hide from his lips by my ear. To open my eyes to the world underneath. But I stay still. Zuko puts his hand on my shoulder and whispers, "I sometimes wish I wasn't." I turn to look at him. At the simple thought he shared. He's there simply. Averting his eyes. Smirking. I push his bangs to to the side across his scar. In the sun his hair is brown. Simple and sweet brown.

"I know," I say. I know how you feel, I know what you mean, I know how much more there is beneath that thought. Any of those would've worked. They all mixed brackish in my mind, and I pulled out what they held in common instead of anything actually helpful. Zuko met my eyes with an expression I didn't know but that I have felt before. I want the river to rip me away right now, but we are too shallow and I have to face this moment. I have no other half-formed thoughts to avoid it. The birds have hushed, the insects hover undetectably in one place, and not even a ripple folds the surface of the water.

Underneath, though, Zuko's hand grabs mine. I squeeze mine around his. There's no thought there. The invisible currents run differently around us. The sunlight cuts straight lines into the bright green murkiness. We stare expectantly at one another. Expecting what? The humidity is heavy waiting for a raincloud to come and relieve it.

"Hey, guys!" calls a crass voice from the shore. "I couldn't sleep at all in this stupid heat." Sokka already has his shirt off when we both look over. "What about you guys?" he asks.

"Yeah, it's pretty gross out," I call back. I sense the old current running through my fingers again. When I see him, Zuko is already half out of the water by Sokka, with small rivers finding the easiest ways down his skin. I paddle toward my own things farther down the riverbank, then give Zuko some time after he has started back to our camp before I begin.

"I see how it is!" I hear Sokka yell as I turn down the trail Zuko and I had walked together this morning. "Well, the water feels just as good without you!"