In the early morning Aang was snuggling up in his blanket. A real bed always felt so good after having been out in the wild for a long time. He was ready to just stay there forever!

The mercy though wasn't granted as a warm hand grabbed his shoulder and gently shook him. "Hey." a raspy voice spoke, almost in a whisper. "It's time to wake up."

"Zuko?" Aang asked. "What are you doing?"

"The sun is about to rise." Zuko replied. "It's time for meditation."

Aang blinked as he turned to Zuko wide-eyed looking up at the scarred boy. "What?" he asked.

"What part of every day did you fail to understand?" Zuko asked with a lifted eyebrow.

"Oh." Aang realized as he slowly sat up.

Zuko smirked amused. "If you want you can go back to sleep after. My uncle is also a big fan of afternoon naps. Like he would say, we may rise with the sun but there is nothing stopping us from taking a nap after." he shook his head and Aang chuckled as he jumped out of bed and found Zuko.

Easily they found a way out on the roof, it seemed like it was build for easy access, even had a small veranda up there and Aang gasped as he looked at the view of the city and then grinned as he pointed. "Look it's Ming!"

Zuko as well looked towards the pottery shop and true enough, so the young woman coming out on her own roof. Zuko looked around and were seeing multiple people coming out to prepare themselves for the sunrise. About half of the city… The fire nation half.

"Wow!" Aang seemed to notice to as some sat down and other started to make stretches and stands.

Zuko smiled. "The people of the fire nation. Rise with the sun." he said.

"That's amazing!" Aang grinned. "Now that I think about it, when I was in the fire nation in the past and I woke up. Everybody else was always already awake and working by the time I got out of bed! Kuzon always teased me for being lazy! I thought that was silly because he would be sleeping in the middle of the day!"

"You mean, when it's to hot to work because the sun is at its highest?" Zuko asked in a smirk.

"Ooooh." Aang realized. "Yeah I never had to worry about that in the fire nation. Cause I could cool myself down with the wind!" he laughed. "Though I did get sunburned… A lot."

Zuko smirked amused. Then finally sat down crossing his legs gesturing for Aang to do the same and Aang grinned as he sat down next to Zuko.

And as the meditated, it honestly felt kind of cool because they were doing it with half the city! And if they had been in the fire nation it would have been with the entire city and nation! "The fire nation is really cool!" Aang blurted.

Zuko smirked as well. "Yeah?" he asked.

And Aang grinned up at Zuko. "Yeah!" he stated.


"There you are!" Katara gasped as they made it down to the dining area after their sunrise meditation. "Where were you?"

"On the roof." Aang pointed upwards. "For daily sunrise meditation!"

"Without us?!" Toph asked.

"I'm not complaining. I still think this was to early to get up." Sokka yawned deeply from where he was sitting on a chair. "That bed was so nice."

"It's probably better that we get moving while it's still early." Zuko commented. "We should walk for a while so Appa wont be spotted."

"You're really keen on that walking huh?" Sokka commented.

"How do you think I managed to keep tracking you in the past?" Zuko asked as he rolled his eyes. "A giant flying bison will be spotted! And fire nation soldiers has direct orders to send message hawks to their generals when they spot the only five ton flying bison that currently exist!"

"Oh." Aang blinked. "Did you get those message hawks."

"No… I lured them to my ship using bait, caught them with net and stole the messages meant for the generals and admirals." Zuko admitted.

Everyone looked at Zuko.

"What? The birds weren't hurt I promise! I took really good care of them!" Zuko stated.

"You stole important fire nation entail?" Sokka asked.

"Look. I was being told that the only way I could end my banishment was if I brought the Avatar back in chains which meant I would have to be the one doing it. I couldn't let any of those admirals or generals get ahead of me! I had been searching for three years! And then suddenly they just started to bud in after I found him first!"

Again they were all looking at Zuko.

"I'm not trying to capture him…. Any more." Zuko at last added in a small pout.

"So what you're saying is…" Sokka stated. "The reason we didn't have several generals and half the fire nation army on our tails was because you stole the entail about our whereabouts."

Zuko opened his mouth as he held up a finger then halted.

Sokka couldn't help but grin, then laughed into his hand. "That's hilarious."

Now Katara was chuckling as well as she got the humour in it.

"You saved our butts Zuko." Aang also started to laugh as he realized.

"Sssh! Lee. I'm Lee." Zuko shushed at him.

"Good on your Lee!" Toph shouted punching him in the arm.

"Auw!" Zuko shouted as he stumbled to the side from the sheer force of the punch.

"You've been a really effective saboteur haven't you?" Sokka asked.

"No!" Zuko stated… Though even had to admit. The sabotage he had done to the fire nation army was… Quite extensive in hindsight and he blushed deeply. Okay no wonder he was wanted for treason! That was treason. That was definitely treason… Oh Agni he really was a traitor to the fire nation.

No… no! Zuko shook his head. He was a traitor to the fire lord! There was a difference! There was a big difference!

Zuko sucked in a deep breath to steady himself and exhaled again.

"Well." Katara smirked as she dug into her shoulder bag to find a jar. "With that piece of information. I think you earned this!" she said offering the jar to Zuko.

Zuko halted as he recognised the jar from the other day. "The… The Zingiber salve!" he realized. "But. It was so expensive!"

"Wait." Sokka looked at the jar. "Is that the reason we couldn't buy any meat?!" he asked.

Katara rolled her eyes. "You can hunt for meat. This is a little harder to come by."

"I erhm… I don't really." Zuko swallowed.

"Just take it!" Katara demanded. "I bought it. Now it's yours!"

Zuko halted then finally took the jar awkwardly standing with it. "Thank you." he whispered. Then looked down at the jar and twisted off the lid.

Immediately and incredible strong smell came through the air making everyones faces scrounge. Toph slapping her hands over her nose. "Ewww!" she laughed. "What is that?" she asked.

"Smells like stomach acid from a tiger-whale mixed with old socks and rotten ginger!" Sokka exclaimed also holding his nose.

The only one not reacting so strongly was Zuko who carefully dipped two fingers into the salve, scooped out just a little bit and then… Put it on his face. Right on the scar! Rubbing it in gently.

"Hey! Don't put it on your face! You are going to smell like that!" Sokka gasped.

"Sokka!" Katara lectured. "Zingiber salve is for softening scar tissue! If you haven't noticed, Lee can barely move the left side of his face because the tissue is so tough. And sometimes a scar like that will get dry and annoyed. It must be really uncomfortable for Lee."

"It.. It's okay. I learned how to deal with it." Zuko muttered as he put the lid back on. Then he hissed as his eyes watered.

"You okay?" Katara asked.

"Yup. This is just really good stuff. Stings a little." Zuko informed. "But, it does feel better already." he sighed deeply. "Thank you." he said sincerely.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "If that was what it was for, you should just have said so! Katara is right. I can just hunt for meat!"

"And I can get vegetables somewhere else." Aang stated.

"Oh erhm…. Okay." Zuko swallowed.

"And when you're about to run out. Just say so." Katara rolled her eyes.

Zuko nodded slowly. "Kay. Thank you."

"Actually it's not just me you should thank." Katara then admitted. "Even when not buying meat we didn't have enough money. The lady gave me a good discount."

Zukos eyes widened.

"She thought you were so nice and polite." Katara informed in a smile. "She didn't want you to be bothered more by that scar then you had to."

Zuko swallowed. "I… I should go thank her."

Katara smiled warmly. "We can do it after breakfast. I bet she'll be happy to see you. You should have heard her! Such a polite young man. There should be more young men like him around." she imitated the old lady.

Zuko blushed deeply as he nodded. "I… I'll think I'll go make some tea." he finally said as he turned and scurried towards the inn kitchen.

Sokka smirked. "Tea is his answer to everything isn't it?" he asked.

"Just a pretty good excuse when he can't stand hanging around you any more snoozles." Toph smirked.

"Who says I am the problem! It might be you Toph!" Sokka stated.

"Njah! I'm to loveable." Toph grinned. "Anyway what's for breakfast?" she asked making Katara chuckle.