Sokka knew he wasn't the strongest. He knew he wasn't the best. But he also knew if he just laid down and accepted defeat then he was the equivalent of dead meat. And if there was one thing that Sokka wasn't going to be it was a liability.

On another note, Zuko turned out to be unexpectedly stealthy. Every step he took was calculated and precise, he'd dodge twigs and particular patches of leaves that would make too much noise without focusing too much on just the ground.

Zuko barely looked at him throughout their manoeuvring through the forest and at first Sokka had been insulted by the other man's behaviour when it dawned him.

Zuko didn't feel he needed to look at him and that was because Zuko trusted him.

This information took a rather long time to process as he studied the Firebender. He knew Zuko had trust issues, of course he did. Sokka did too to an extent. Aang could befriend a stick and Katara was an 'innocent to proven guilty' type of person. He wasn't trying to say that they were bad qualities; god no. It was just in their circumstance you couldn't just trust people on a goddamn whim. There were too many people who wanted Aang dead and not everyone in the world was as nice as people from the South Pole. Not that Katara and Aang didn't know that especially after what had happened to their mother all those years ago and what had happened to Aang's people. They all knew that there were terrible people in this world but the problem was sometimes those terrible people came to you in the disguise of a comrade and a comrade would come in the disguise of an enemy.

He glanced over at Zuko as they crouched behind different trees. Pale skin and black hair verses Sokka's heavily tanned skin and dark brown hair. These were physical and racial differences but is that all they were? These differences seemed to run deeper than he could describe. He could imagine his father's face, the tribe's face when he told him he's befriended not only a Fire Nation man and not only a Firebender but the Prince of the Fire Nation. Sokka had to control himself from snorting out loud as he pictured the shock written on their faces.

But it made Sokka think, something that many seemed to assume he never did. Sure, the Fire Nation was bad there is no doubt but from the perspective of a soldier, did they ever think that what they were doing was wrong? How could they think that what they were doing was right? He remembered Zuko had briefly and vaguely mentioned something about his education and propaganda and it seemed to click. What the Fire Lord was wrong but he was telling his people that was right and if you were told that since the day you were born, who are you to question it?

Why did most of Sokka's serious thinking happen when he was doing important things such as sneaking up behind a possible enemy?

Zuko looked at him and frowned. Sounds of fighting had erupted from only a couple of metres further into the forest. The puzzling thing was that it was hard to tell who was fighting. He knew there was most definitely swords involved by the scraping of metal against metal but due to the trees blocking their view and the slight darkness that remained of the night it was difficult to tell whether or not Firebenders were involved or not and whether or not they should be concerned.

Zuko carefully and silently made his way closer to Sokka, hiding behind another tree a little closer. "It sounds as though there is a lot of them" Whispering didn't suit Zuko's husky voice Sokka decided than internally shook his head of such strange thoughts at this time.

"I think we should just re-group with the others." Sokka moved his body to crouch facing Zuko more. "They seem to be pretty pre-occupied in whoever they're fighting so it's probably not worth our time to butt out heads in."

Zuko nodded in agreement and the two boys slowly made their way back to the clearing and to where they would then walk a bit further on to meet Appa and the others.

Sokka had told them to fly not too far away so when Sokka and Zuko walked to their location they'd get there within a few hours.

They began their walk in silence, adrenaline still present and still too cautious to make too much noise. Sokka was grateful for the silence in a strange way. He usually started conversations and was constantly making jokes but with Zuko he felt he didn't need to. He felt whether he talked or not it didn't matter. Zuko wasn't going to throw him to the side.

The other boy seemed to be getting a little weary as time wore on and understandably so after all he'd just rescued his long-lost uncle and gotten no sleep so Sokka could empathise. However, they'd slowed their pace down to a not so suitable walk.

Sokka leaned over to the Firebender "you fairing okay, you've slowed down a lot and you're looking kinda pale" Zuko could be incredibly stubborn and so Sokka supposed if he actually pointed out that Zuko wasn't looking too flash then he's actually listen.

Zuko didn't answer straight away instead looking Sokka up and down carefully.

"Sorry, I'll rest when we get to the others"

Honestly Sokka should have expected such a short quipped answer but he was happy Zuko acknowledged that he was tired.

"I wonder who those people were, I mean we never got to see them." Sokka glanced over to the other boy.

Zuko frowned. "If we got any closer we would have had to get involved and it was just unfortunate that is was dark and those trees were in the way, but hopefully they this won't come back to haunt us"

Sokka nodded, they'll soon find out.

Due to a personal issue that happened I was not able to post for ages. I can't promise consistent updates because of school but I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!