As requested, I wrote this one! Enjoy!

-

YOU'RE KIDDING!

"What? Did we get captured again?" Sokka asked with groggy voice as he grabbed his weapons, straightening up. He would do no good if they had actually been.

"It's nothing. I just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Sokka answered and laid back down.

"Are you all right, Aang?" his sister asked, and Sokka's mind darkened. Did she have to stop him from sleeping by talking about some you-can-tell-me-nonsense? Not now!

"I'm okay," Aang answered. Good! Now let's get back to sleep!

"You seem to be having a lot of nightmares lately." Why did she notice? "Do you wanna tell me about it?" Why?! Why did she have to do that?! Be so predictable! He grumbled. Couldn't they just be quiet?

"I think I just need some rest," Aang answered.

Well, now that he was already awake … "You guys wanna hear about my dream?" he asked as he straightened up.

Katara gave him a sour glance, and he frowned. "That's okay," he said and laid back. "I didn't wanna talk about it anyway."

Stupid sister … Stupid avatar.

He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again, but at first, he couldn't. He kept having all these thoughts about his father and where he might be. If he would be proud, if he saw his son now. What he would expect him to do. Sokka flinched. He must see Katara as a much more worthy child. Her with her bending; even if she couldn't control it properly. But he … He only had a boomerang.

He suddenly remembered Suki. She'd taught him a bit, but not much. As he thought more about Suki, he began to smile. He missed her, he realized. He'd wished she'd gone with them, but then he decided that that was too risky for her – even if she would start to yell at him after he'd said the words.

With thoughts of Suki he fell into the land of dreams, where he was surprised to find someone much different from Suki looking at him.

He was crawling up on Appa, sneaking, actually, in the dark. He had a little bag with him. He didn't know what he was doing; then again, who ever knew what dreams was about?

But this dream seemed strangely real.

He finally got to his destination, but when he peeked up, he was surprised.

"Not up to anything, huh?"

"Eaaarh!" Sokka exclaimed and fell to the ground. Zuko! What was he doing there? Even though he looked different, it was him! Sokka prepared to fight …

Only he didn't. The body wouldn't do as he commanded.

Zuko would destroy him.

But what did his words mean? 'Not up to anything, huh?' Sokka tried to remember, but he'd never heard or said anything that could trigger the words.

This was a very weird dream.

"Fine!" he heard himself say, to his huge surprise. "You caught me!" He began picking up the stuff that had fallen out of the back when he fell. "I'm gonna rescue my dad." What?! "Ya' happy now?" What was this conversation? And why wasn't any of them attacking?

"I'm never happy," Zuko answered.

Zuko simply peeked over the edge of Appa's saddle, he didn't attack. He just looked at Sokka through narrowed eyes.

"Look, I have to do this," Sokka said, his back to Zuko. "The invasion plan was my idea," what plan? "it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong." He walked back toward Zuko, who had jumped to the ground. They stood at the same level. There was no cold atmosphere.

"It's my mistake," Sokka went on, "and it's my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me Zuko." Sokka reached out for Zuko, and he expected himself to punch him or something – seriously, after all he'd done, he deserved it! – but instead he just put a calm hand on his shoulder and pushed him gently out of the way, just to tell him that he wasn't going to get his way.

"You need to regain your honor?" Zuko asked as Sokka began to climb Appa again. "Believe me, I get it! I'm going with you." Why did he sound so friendly?

"No!" Sokka stated. Yes! "I have to do this alone!"

"How are you going to get there," Zuko asked. "On Appa?" What does it look like, idiot? "Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison day-cares." Sokka sighed heavily and looked back at Zuko with a lost and sad expression.

"We'll take my war balloon," Zuko stated and began walking away. Sokka jumped off Appa with an annoyed face and followed. Before they left, Zuko wrote a note, which he left in Momo's arms. Sokka noticed the others by a fire. What was going on?!

Need meat. Gone fishing. Back in a few days. Sokka and Zuko. One more thing: Aang, practice your fire bending while I'm gone – do twenty sets of fire fists and then hot squats every time you hear a batcher frog croak. Zuko.

Sokka stared at the paper – in truth, he was just peeking at it, but it felt as if he was gazing – and then Zuko took his arm, and they left.

-

Sokka looked at the clouds as Zuko made fire into the so called balloon. He was very confused, not getting what was going on. Why was Zuko helping him? And why did he need to rescue his father? What was this plan?

When Zuko finished making the fire, he looked at him, and Sokka looked back. An awkward silence began. Before realizing what he was doing, Sokka said: "Pretty clouds."

"Yea," Zuko answered. "Fluffy."

Silence again.

Sokka began whistling in lack of anything else to do. The balloon was claustrophobic.

"What?" Zuko asked, turning towards him again.

"What? Oh, I didn't say anything," Sokka said.

More silence.

"You know, a friend of my actually designed these war balloons."

"No kidding," Zuko said.

"Yep," Sokka said. "A balloon. But for war."

"If there's one thing my dad's good at, it's war," Zuko said and put more fire into the lid.

"Yea, it seems to run in the family," Sokka said grumpily. What, why were they talking about his father? For some reason, Sokka found that he didn't hate Zuko right now. He was actually kind of friendly. And Sokka felt safe there, by his side.

"Hey, hold on! Not everyone in my family is like that!" Zuko said, slight anger in his voice.

"I know, I know, you've changed," Sokka answered. Zuko had … changed?

Zuko got a new, sad expression on his face and looked away. "I meant my uncle," he said. Sokka remembered the guy. "He was more of a father to me, and I really let him down."

"I think your uncle would be proud of you," Sokka said, meaning every word, but not knowing how he could know. "Leaving your home to come help us – that's hard." Hmm …

"It wasn't that hard," Zuko said and closed his eyes.

"Really?" Sokka asked. "You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?"

"Well, I did have a girlfriend," Zuko answered and looked at him. "Mai." He said the word as a sigh, and Sokka could hear both hope and grief in that sigh.

A picture was suddenly in his face; a woman with strange, black hair, white skin and an annoyed face. "That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?" he asked cheerily, leaning forward.

"Yea," Zuko answered with a both proud and dreaming smile on his face. Then his expression was sad again. "Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor," he said and looked into the fire. "I couldn't drag her into it."

Sokka leaned back, feeling true sympathy for his … companion. A beautiful face with white hair danced through his mind. "My first girlfriend turned into the moon," he said sadly.

Zuko looked up and back at him. "That's rough, body."

Sokka shook his head and opened his eyes, sleep-drunk. He remembered having a strange dream, but he couldn't figure out the specifics. He decided to go back to sleep; there couldn't be long till dawn.

The dream soon faded out of his memory.

And the hate returned.

-

Please tell me what you think :) There will be cake!