"Katara, how can you trust him? He's fire nation! Not to mention he's been chasing us ever since we've left home!" Sokka scolded me in a hushed whisper. It wasn't like Zuko couldn't hear them. Even though they were quite a distance away from where he sat under a tree, Sokka wasn't a very good whisperer.

"Sokka," I said as I reached up to touch his shoulder. "Face it, there isn't much you know about him. But when I was with him, not only did he keep me alive, but he also became my friend." I looked over at Zuko again.

"Sokka, his mother left him too." I looked into my brothers eyes and knew he understood and felt some sympathy in that aspect.

He seemed to think about it for a while then sighed.

He blinked and with his distrust gone for the moment, said "If you trust him Katara, I'll give him a chance. But what does Aang think about this? He is the avatar."

"Aang, what do you think? If there is anything I can say, it's that he could be your fire bending teacher. I highly doubt that any other Fire Nation man would want to train the avatar. Please Aang, he-" I was cut off when Aang flashed me a smile and said "Of course Katara. Everyone deserved a second chance. Although I won't trust him completely at first, I won't leave him here. Besides, we need all the friends we can get."

I squeaked with joy and gave the both of them a hug saying "Thank you!" then turned back to Zuko. I jogged back up to him told him the good news. "You can come with us!" I said then grabbed his hand and made him follow me back to Aang and Sokka.

"Zuko," I said. "This is Sokka, and this is Aang. Welcome to the gang!" I introduced him to them. He stared awkwardly for a moment before giving a small wave and saying "Hi."

Aang to the initiative and shook Zuko's hand, saying "Hey Zuko, welcome to the good side."

Though not the best welcome, I was proud that Aang said something.

I glared at Sokka until he gave Zuko's hand a shake as well mumbling something along the lines of "Welcome" and "How ya doin."

"Umm, I just wanted you guys to know, I'm really sorry about chasing you. I was different then and I have changed," He paused then looked at me and then continued "with the help of Katara." I smiled at him before he turned to Aang and said "I would be honored to teach you fire bending Aang."

"Well, we better get going, you know." Sokka said as he pointed to Appa. "Got a war to fight."

I nodded then walked Zuko over to Appa and Momo. I introduced him to them too. I was glad to add another to our group.

~0~

Katara continued on to introduce me to their animal friends. I remembered feeding the turtle duck in my pond in the gardens, but never actually naming them. Especially names like Appa and Momo. What kind of names are those? Maybe they're air bending names.

Aang I was happy to see, didn't judge and I was glad. Katara's brother seemed to keep his distance and occasionally looked over at me with a suspicious look. This was okay though. I deserved all the suspicion there is after many years of fighting against them.

I was about to get on Appa before I remembered something.

"Wait," I said before we got on. I looked to Katara who was next to me and said "My uncle." She then stopped the process and told Sokka and Aang to wait because I wanted to write a letter to my uncle.

Was it right to jus write a letter to him? After he came with me when I was banished, didn't he deserve more than a letter? But what if he was mad at me for betraying the fire nation? Well, If I'm on "the good side" now, might as well do good things.

I stopped Katara as she reached for her bag to probably get me paper. "I want to talk to him in person."

"Hey! How do we know you're not going to plot against us and make plans to capture Aang?" Sokka accused me.

"Well, Katara could come with me I suppose." I said. It might be nice to have back up with me.

"Sure I'll be glad to-" Katara began but was stopped by Sokka.

"No Katara. You're too close to him. I will go." Sokka declared. I got a bit flustered when he said that we were " too close" but mentally slapped myself so I could concentrate on the situation at hand. Sokka wasn't Katara but maybe I could prove to him I was trustworthy.

"Okay, but you have to be quiet and stealthy." I told him already knowing that this would already be a problem with him. When I came to their village looking for Aang his "sneak attacks" weren't exactly sneaky.

"I'm the most stealthiest person you'll ever meet!" he said while he crossed his arms.

"Sure you are."

"It's true! Ask Katara!" he said his voice cracking a bit. I looked over to Katara and she looked at me and said "Good luck Zuko."

Sokka groaned and went to Appa's saddle bags probably looking for his weapons. I highly doubted the boomerang was going to cut it anyway. He came back with a knife with some sort of animals teeth along the blade. He put this in a sheath on his belt and slung his boomerang case across his back. Again. What's with the boomerang?

"we'll be back before nightfall" I told Katara and Aang then I walked in the general direction I thought my camp to be knowing Sokka was following because I could hear Sokka practically stomping behind me.

I held my tongue on saying he definitely wasn't the "most sneakiest" person I had ever met, but I didn't want to test our "tolerance" for each other so I didn't say anything. We were just going to have to be really quick about this.