A/N: I apologise how long it took to get this out. I finished my final exam on Wednesday and intended to do this the day after, but I just really wanted a break to relax. I'm so thankful to God that I've come to the end of my degree and excited to get my results, for graduation and the future. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, there isn't much to it, for which I'm sorry, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I've been gone for a little while, so please review and give me a shout-out that you're still around and interested in this story! Thank you!

Sokka's POV:

"Katara have you seen Aang? I haven't seen him since breakfast." I question restlessly as I step into the kitchen as she finishes drying the final dish. I nearly gasp at the look on my sister's face as she turns to face me. 'I realised she was quiet during dinner but how did I miss the lack of emotions on her face?'

"He wanted to be alone." She comments offhandedly, but I can see clearly behind her facade. I walk up to her until a mere half metre distance separates us.

"Katara what's wrong?" The Master Waterbender averts her gaze and busies herself with stacking the plate into a cupboard.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired, that's all. We had dinner late and I think I'm going to head to bed, it's already midnight." I narrow my eyes at her obvious lie and I turn her round by the shoulder to face me.

"Don't you think I know you well enough to tell when you're lying?"

"Well you couldn't tell I was lying when I said Appa was sick after we visited that Fire Nation fishing town." I purse my lips at this and then frown when I realise my sister's true intention of changing the subject.

"True, but that's not the point! What happened? Did you and Aang have an argument?" I ask and Katara's sharp intake of breath is enough to tell me how accurate my guess is. I slap my forehead in frustration, already piecing together what happened.

"Don't tell me you confronted him about what he said to Toph!" As the Waterbender averts her gaze away from me I throw up my arms in anger. "For goodness sake Katara, I told you to leave it be! If he wants to tell us then he will in his own time, we can't just push him! And if he doesn't then...then that's his choice." The meek embarrassment from my sister's face is gone in an instant and is replaced with harsh fury.

"What did you expect me to do? Wait for him to talk to us?!" She yells to which I nod vigorously.

"Yes! You were meant to do nothing. For all we know you could've pushed him further away from us!"

"Stop it! You know as well as I do that he never intended to tell us anything. Toph pushed him and she got what she was looking for, was it so wrong that I tried to do the same?!" I cross my arms in an effort to control my irritation.

"You're not Toph! Whatever conversation that happened between Aang and Toph is their business, not ours!"

"Don't try to tell me that you're ok with this! I know you're hurt as much as I am." I sigh heavily, dropping my arms to my sides. 'I don't want to confront these feelings now, this...this hurt.'

"Listen, I know it hurts that Aang couldn't talk to us, but maybe we're being too rash, for all we know Aang might've revealed very little to Toph but he did it in a way that kept her satisfied." I say in an effort to placid her mood down but Katara just turns her back to me.

"No, Toph isn't easily swayed and you know that. Stop making excuses and face the fact that he doesn't consider us as his first priority any more. It seems that Toph has replaced us." My sister snaps whilst turning back to face me and the hurtful truth that I've been avoiding for the last couple of days rears its ugly head, but I internally shake my head.

"Number one we don't know if that's true and number two even if it is then we shouldn't be complaining. Toph is our friend and if Aang can talk to her in a way he can't to us, then...then I'm happy he chose one of our friends to be open with and you should be too." I watch as tears trails down my sister's cheek.

"Does he not consider us his friends anymore?" Katara whispers softly and I can't help but feel my heart crack for her. I draw her into a hug and hold her tight.

"He's going through a rough time. We need to give him space. It's been over than 3 years of assassin attacks and it's going to take more than a couple of days for him to heal mentally. Let's give him the time he needs." I say wisely despite the fact that my heart says otherwise, but for now I'm going to follow my brain. The Waterbender sniffs and pulls away slightly.

"His words were so brutally harsh." I sigh.

"It's all his pent up emotions spilling out, he hasn't had much chance to let it out so it's coming out in angry bursts. Just be patient." This time it's Katara who sighs.
"I'll try. All I know is that I'm going to give him all the space he wants and I won't come to him anymore. He'll have to be the one to do that." For some reason Katara's tone and words sends a chill down my spine and I'm alarmed that she may have taken my words in the wrong way, but being unsure on what to say I go back to my original question.

"So where is he?"

"We were doing some Waterbending in Kyoshi' s lake, but that was hours ago, so he might not be there now." I nod.

"Thanks. I'll take Toph with me she'll be able to find him and I'll probably take Zuko too." The Waterbender blinks in puzzlement.

"Why Zuko?" Katara questions as I walk to the door, I turn back briefly and grin.

"Because he's the perfect torch!" My sister chuckles whilst rolling her eyes.

"I don't think he'd appreciate that statement." I look from side to side along the corridor.

"Then don't tell him." I say and leave the room, happy to hear my sister snickering, ignoring the fact that it might sound slightly forced. I go past the flight of stairs, through the corridor and knock when I reach the door I'm looking for.
"Toph? Are you in here?" I hear a bang and jump from the door when I see Toph filling the doorway covered in dirt. I blink in bewilderment. "And what happened to you?" I watch as the blind Earthbender bends the dirt off her and leans against the door frame in irritation.

"I was trying to perfect this new Earthbending move till you distracted me." I purse my lips and send her an apologetic look, before dumbly realising how pointless that is.

"Oh sorry." I apologise and Toph just blows her bangs out of her eyes.

"Well, what do you want?" I scratch my neck and I subconsciously scoot a little further away from her in preparation of her reaction.

"It's late and Aang hasn't come back yet. I was wondering if you could help me find him?" At this Toph stiffens and moves off the door frame.

"You don't think he ran away do you?" I frown slightly at the uncharacteristic emotion in Toph's voice and I'm just about to reassure her when I realise that I didn't even consider that possibility and if their fight was as bad as Katara implies it was then he very well could have.

"I don't know. We need to go and check. You're the best one to find him."

"Let me guess the last person that was with him was Katara right?" I drop my head and nod. "Great, he better not have done something dumb. Let's go." Toph walks past me and heads outside.

"Let me just fetch Zuko, you might be able to see without a light but I can't and the more eyes the better chance we have in finding him." I say as I sprint upstairs.

"I forget how blind the rest of you all are." Toph's mutterings floats up the stairs and I roll my eyes at yet another of her blind jokes.

15 Minutes Later...

We trudge along in the dense woods in the dark, well apart from the fire dancing on Zuko's palm as he scratches his head.
"And you dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night to walk in the woods, why?" I snigger at Zuko's whining tone.

"Because we're trying to find Aang or did you not notice his lack of presence at dinner?" The Firelord blinks at this and worry etches itself on his face.

"He wasn't? I've been so consumed with my correspondence with the Earth King, that I didn't even take notice of my surroundings. What happened?" He questions with a frown. I sigh heavily.

"He and Katara got into an argument before dinner while they were Waterbending." I reply as Zuko widens his eyes in fear.

"You don't think he ran off do you?" I blink twice at hearing the same question in the span of 15 minutes.

"You guys really don't have any faith in him, do you?" Toph snorts at my statement.

"Can you blame us? He always does it, it's not like the possibility isn't there." She replies snidely. I open my mouth to argue but finding no words to refute her argument I wisely close it again. We continue the rest of the walk in silence. Upon reaching the door to Kyoshi lake, I reach to open it.
"He's not in there." The blind Earthbender states neutrally. I frown and turn to face her. Zuko pushes open the door regardless and peeks in, proving Toph's statement correct.

"So where should we look?" The Firelord questions in slight anxiety. I look closely at the bay surrounding the lake and take notice of the woods at the far back.

"What about we check the woods? Maybe he wanted some alone time." I say hesitantly. Zuko and Toph look at each other for a moment and then nod in unison.

"Worth a shot." The blind Earthbender states and walks through the door and towards the woods with Zuko and I trailing behind her.

"Do you think we should split up? There's a lot of ground to cover." I'm about to agree with Zuko when Toph shakes her head.

"No I'll be able to tell if he's in a certain radius, it will be quicker if we stick together." We mumble our agreement and for the next half hour we wonder around the woods, each minute that ticks by, the more worrying the reality of Aang ditching us again settles in. As I continue squinting around in the barely lit forest I find myself bumping into Toph who suddenly stops. I frown.

"Toph?" I ask, her face looking more pale than usual in the moonlight.

"I think I found him." She mumbles quietly and then suddenly sprints to our left. I frown again and share a troubled look with Zuko who shrugs and runs after Toph. I shake myself out of my confusion and run after them, but with the lack of light I find myself hurdling into Zuko a minute later. Fortunately Zuko's steady stance means we don't go tumbling to the ground. Shaking my head I peer over the Firelord's shoulder and it's so dark that I find myself squinting.

"Hey Zuko, can you make with the fire, I can't see anything." A moment later I understand why they've stopped at this particular spot, as the shady lump is suddenly visible. Toph crouches down and moving off the leaves and some branches she reveals Aang, unconscious. I widen my eyes and stepping forward I kneel down beside him. "Why in the world is he like this?!" I ask somewhat frantically. Zuko snorts.

"How should we know?!" He responds and I scowl at his misunderstanding of my rhetorical question. I reach out to touch him to I find his skin icy cold and his clothes drenched in water, my hand reels back in shock at the coldness of him.

"Spirits he's freezing! We have to get him to Katara. How's his breathing rate?" I question apprehensively. Toph places a head on the ground beside him and shakes her head.

"Not good. Come on, you and Zuko carry him, I'll lead the way back. But we've got to hurry." I nod and grasp Aang by the shoulders, rolling him slightly away from the tree trunk that he's resting against. I slip one arm behind his back and the other under his knees in a bridal-style position, whilst getting back up to my feet. Again I'm hit with shock at how light he is to carry, 'why on earth is he so light?! I've got to make sure I change that when he wakes up.' Zuko walks up to me, his hands out, silently volunteering to help. I shake my head.

"I'm fine, he's really light. Besides I need your help to provide some light, no point following Toph if I trip over a tree root. Then you'll have to carry two dead weights instead of one." I try joking. And despite how dark everything is I do catch the eye roll from Zuko.

"Trust you to joke about a serious situation." The Firelord teases, I shake my head and start following Toph who's already moving out of sight.

"Toph slow down, we can't see you!" I holler, hoping that she can hear me.

"Then pick up the pace! His breathing rate is dropping." I clench my jaws at this revelation and ignoring the biting cold that starts travelling down my arms I break into a run with Zuko staying by my side, so that I can see where I'm going. Soon enough we are out of the forest and at the lake. But I find the cold biting at me and I groan wishing that I had brought my woolly coat instead of just my flimsy T-shirt. Toph and Zuko must have taken notice of my rapidly slowing down feet as they stop and turn to me.
"Pass him here Snoozles, don't want you to get frost bite if you keep holding him." I shake my head.

"I'm fine, besides he's bigger than you are. Let's just keep going." But Toph stubbornly refuses.

"I could hold him?" Zuko suggests but Toph shakes her head.

"You're wearing short sleeves too, we'll just have the same problem. I'm wearing long sleeves, so I'll be fine. Now pass him here, we're wasting time!" At Toph's stubborn protest I finally relinquish my hold on Aang and pass him to Toph, whose eyes widen slightly before shaking her head and dashing towards the door, fortunately Zuko had the foresight to run ahead of her as he opens the door for the both of us. I close the door and we continue running. I hear Toph mutter a string of words as we keep moving; "Spirits Twinkletoes, have you forgotten to eat?!" I manage to pick up from her seemingly incoherent ramblings which causes me to swallow with dread, 'it must be really obvious if Toph picked that up, well that explains her expression when I passed Aang over to her.' I sigh deeply, 'Aang what have you been through?!'

A/N: Eh not the best chapter, but things will start to build up soon. Updates should be more frequent now that I'm on holiday for the next 4 months, I just need your reviews! Hope you all have a lovely day and have enjoyed the update.