Disclaimer: I do not, and never will, own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

"There it is," Zuko said, coming to a stop a foot in front of the canyon.

"Umm..." Katara raised her eyebrows at him.

"Trust me," Zuko answered, peering through the mist that shrouded the rocks. Katara's face flashed with uncertainty and the full meaning of what he had just said crashed down upon zuko. His good eye widened and he turned, borderline frantic, to Katara.

"Not that. I mean, you should trust me, but I understand if you don't. And-" Katara's face softened as Zuko babbled.

"We have to go down the cliff, right?" she asked, cutting off his ranting. Katara tossed him a rope she found in the pack and after glancing at her uncertainly, Zuko walked over to the edge.

"I'll go first, I guess," Zuko said as he prepared to slide down the rope. Katara rolled her eyes.

"I have a broken arm, Zuko. It's not like I can hold on to a rope,"

"Oh, right,"

Katara walked over to him and when he made no move, Katara explained, exasperated, "You have to carry me,"

Zuko blinked. Awkwardly, he wrapped one arm tightly around her waist, hugging her slender form to his own. He held on to the rope with the other and jumped down in to the mist.

****************************************************************

Appa opened his mouth in a rumbling groan as he shifted in his sleep. Aang lay propped up against some blankets on a raised stone platform that Toph had earthbended, his body still weak. He was slowly spooning watery porridge into his mouth, the results of Sokka's earlier attempt to cook. Despite his insistence that cooking was women's work and therefore Toph should do it, Sokka still ended up on cooking duty with a large lump on his head, courtesy of Toph. The young earthbender in question sat leaning against Aang's bed, stroking Momo. Sokka sat deep in concentration on the other side of their fire, trying desperately to come up with a plan to save his younger sister and find out where she was. The Earth King was no help; as soon as Appa landed, he took off to explore the world disguised as a peasant accompanied by Bosco.

"What if we-aw, no. Never mind," Sokka sank back into thought. Fifteen seconds later.

"We could always- wait. No, that won't work," Fifteen seconds later.

"Maybe w-"

"SHUT. UP." Toph stomped her foot and a pillar of rock sprung up beneath Sokka, propelling him into the air a few feet with a painful jerk.

Sokka glared at her but was too worried for Katara to make any fuss. The camp fell into a weary silence, broken only by Sokka's quiet half-made plans muttered beneath his breath, the clinking of Aang's spoon against the side of the bowl, and Appa's groaning snores. Suddenly, Toph sat straight up and jumped to her feet.

"Sugar Queen!" she cried happily.

"What? where!" Sokka leaped up and looked around frantically. Catching sight of Zuko with his arm around his baby sister standing on the edge of the temple,
a dangling rope hanging behind them.

"Get your arm off my sister, scum!" Sokka cried, brandishing his space-sword. Toph stomped her foot and a wall of earth erupted between Zuko and Katara. Toph shifted her feet and an earth tent sprung up around Zuko, encasing him and rendering him immobile except for his head. He made no move to get out.

"Katara?" Aang called weakly, struggling to push himself off the bed.

"Aang!" Katara cried, forgetting about Zuko stuck between giant slabs of rock and running over to Aang. "Aang, how are you? How are you feeling? Are you all right? I was so worried!"

Aang smiled faintly, happy that the girl he loved was back.

"You were so worried?" Sokka cried increduously, "We were worried! We couldn't figure out how to go back to look for you without getting killed ourselves. And all this time you were with him?!" By the end of his speach, Sokka was panting and was pointing a finger accusingly at the trapped-in-an-earth-tent Zuko.

"Glad to see you too, big brother," Katara smiled, hugging him.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see you back, but Sokka's right. Where were you? And what are you doing with him?" Toph asked as Katara hugged her, "You might want to explain why your arm is broken,"

"Your arm is broken!?" Sokka screeched. Katara rolled her eyes, gesturing to her splinted arm.

"Explain," Sokka demanded, sitting down.

"Well, Toph, let Zuko move. He's injured too," Katara said.

"No. I don't trust him," Sokka glared at the firebender in question.

"Well, I tr-" Katara stopped, amazed that she actually had come to trust him in the last few days.

"Crazy as this may seem, I trust him," Sokka opened his mouth to argue but Toph had already released Zuko. Zuko stumbled forward, then caught himself. Cautiously, he came to sit a few feet away from them, stopping when Sokka glared furiously.

"After I fell off Appa, I remember crashing through a bunch of trees and landing by a stream. I fell on my arm and it broke. When I woke up, I was leaning against a tree, my wounds treated, my arm splinted, and with a blanket covering me,"

"zuko?" Sokka asked disbelievingly.

Katara nodded.

"I didn't trust him at first," 'him' lowered his head, staring resoloutely at the stone floor at Katara's words, "But he offered to take me to the Western Air Temple, because he said that's most likely where you guys went. I didn't want to, because I didn't want to lead him to you guys. He said that he had c changed and wanted to join our group and teach Aang firebending. I told him that we would never let him join our group and he said he would take me here and then go away if we didn't want him,"

Zuko was getting nervous.

"I didn't believe him at first, but I guess I really do trust him now, even if I still don't like him too much. He didn't hurt me at all these past few days and I was injured so I couldn't bend. Plus, Aang needs a firebending teacher,"

Sokka gaped.

"Seriously? You trust...him?!"

"Yes,"

Somewhere between shock, surprise, and a bit of anger that Katara could trust this firebending piece of scum, Sokka rounded on Aang.

"What do you think? Do you honestly trust Zuko?!" he asked.

Aang closed his eyes tiredly and pushed his bowl aside.

"I trust Katara, and Katara trusts him," he mumbled.

"Aang's with me on this one," Katara smirked. Zuko, meanwhile, was amazed that the two siblings could so obviously be arguing with each other and neither of them were getting hurt or making death threats in any number of ways. I guess Azula and I never really had a normal sibling relationship...

"Toph? What about you?" Sokka asked.

"Nyah. He's a firebender, and Aang needs a teacher. I say let him join, we can always beat him into a pulp if he annoys us right?" Toph shrugged, grinning. The blunt earthbender was no doubt imagining all the possible ways to throw rocks at Zuko. Zuko cringed internally.

"Good point," Sokka conceded.

"Thank you, Sokka!" Katara threw herself at her big brother and wrapped both arms around him. Sokka shoved her off, embarassed.

"Yeah, yeah..sisters," he muttered beneath his breath.

"Sokka, you help Zuko settle in while I check on Aang," Katara called over her shoulder as she sat down beside her friend.

"What?! No!" Sokka cried.

"I also have to make dinner, or are you not hungry?"

"Come on, let's go," Sokka said to Zuko. Toph snickered as she felt the two boys walk away.

Author's Note: Yeah, I know that was a really bad ending to the chapter but I don't have time to write more and I want to get what I do have up and published. Reveiw!!!!!