I don't own Avatar. Nor do I own The Princess Bride; I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Chapter Ten

There had been silence on Appa all day. The usual fruitful conversation that was always present during Aang, Sokka, and Katara's travels together had vanished with the accumulation of the two new passengers. Zuko had been lying unmoving on his side at the back of Appa's saddle since his and Katara's argument earlier. Jay had been sitting with his knees hugged tightly to his chest, constantly reliving his part of the row. The poor child was unimaginably frightened of the Prince, and just sitting on the same bison with him was in itself a traumatic experience. Aang was silently playing with Momo and a small band of purple butterflies. Every now and then he'd look up and watch Jay for a while, trying, it seemed, to discern what the newcomer was thinking. Sokka was staring at the back of Zuko's head, an intense resentment burning in his eyes. Katara hadn't dropped the reins in seven hours of flying, and her eyes, though no one could see them, were beginning to look red and drooping. But her ruthless resolve to not look at the callous prince behind her kept her where she was.

"Katara," Sokka said finally, "I'm hungry. Let's stop somewhere."

"Yeah," Aang agreed, peering down over the side, scanning the ocean below. The vast waters were littered with little islands, but only some of them, Aang noticed, held any sign of civilization. "There are Fire-Nation ships down there by some of them; I'm guessing that they're occupying the Earth Nation." Jay gave a slight twinge, but he tried to conceal it and failed.

"Even if we land on an uninhabited island, I'm sure there's food there," Katara said, filling the silence. "Momo can help us gather berries while a couple people keep an eye on this malignancy," she said, motioning behind her at Zuko.

"I'm not a child," the Prince said. His voice sounded rasp for want of use. "I don't need babysitters."

"That's for us to decide," Sokka said.

Katara landed them on an isolated island. Momo jumped on Aang's shoulder. "First one to find three hundred berries gets to keep his blankets tonight," Aang said, and he ran laughing into the forest.

Jay ran after him. "I call squatters on Sokka's bed!"

Sokka stared bemused after them for a few seconds of hesitation. "Hey! Hang on!" He ran after them. "Not if I find three hundred berries!"

Katara looked behind her at the Prince lying on the ground. She had planned to have Sokka stay with her, but it turned out to be just her and Appa keeping watch.

"Looks like you're all alone with the scary Fire-Nation pest," Zuko taunted her, though his back was still to her.

Katara stormed over to where he lay and turned him over with her heel. "I am not afraid of you, you filthy vagrant. I've never hated someone so much in my life, but I am not afraid of you."

"Then why is there fear behind your eyes?" he asked her with a foul smirk.

His question caught her off guard, and she even physically stepped back a pace. "W-What do you mean?" She hadn't meant to sound so weak.

Zuko laughed mirthlessly. "You may not believe I can hurt you, because as of yet, I cannot," he said. He had a strange look on his scarred face. "But there is something about me that unsettles you, isn't there, Water-Nation Peasant? I may not be a scary Fire Prince to you, but I do frighten you in some way, isn't that true?"

Katara looked at him, the utmost loathing in her expression. However, the anger was just a façade. He was right. There was something she feared in him, but she wasn't sure what it was. "You're an idiot," she retorted. "If you think I could ever fear you," she said, the maximum contempt laced heavily into her words, "you are not only immoral and malicious, you are ignorant and stupid."

She turned sharply away from him and moved to sit under a tree at least ten feet away.

"What do you want from me?" Zuko asked her. He still lay uncomfortably on his side, but now he was facing her.

Katara looked at him. His face was oddly passive, something she had not seen out of him before.

"We don't want anything from you. We are going to heal you, then we're going to throw you to the behests of the ocean," she said, still looking at him odiously.

"We both know that's not true; everyone wants something out of everything," Zuko said, his passive face yet on his features.

"No," Katara said, a mockingly correcting tone to her voice, "only Fire Nation is like that. Most people can just help someone without even thinking about getting something in return."

"I realize this," Zuko said. "However, this is a different situation; I am your sworn enemy. You wouldn't help me just on a whim."

"I wouldn't, you're correct. This was Aang's idea, not mine."

"I'm sure," Zuko said unbelieving. "That makes even more sense. The Avatar, the boy I've been trying to capture for years, would want to help me."

"You forget that the Avatar is impartial," Katara said.

"Not in this battle." He looked menacingly at her. "He is on one said, and I am on the other." He paused and looked out of the corner of his eye at the sky. "In fact, the Avatar is one side and I am the other."

"Aang is not alone," she said defiantly. "That, among other things, is what makes him different than you. It gives him an advantage."

"Does it?" he asked, though there was no real question in his voice. "It seems to me that it's a weakness. I can capture you or your brother at any time and he will come looking for you, falling right into my grasp. I would hardly call that an advantage."

Katara looked at him. He was right. Aang would do anything for her and Sokka…

"You're wrong," she claimed obstinately, though she knew the truth. "If there was no chance that he would survive, he wouldn't take the risk."

"Then I'll always have to give him a chance, won't I?"

"You don't have a choice while you're with us."

"I won't be here forever; you said it yourself." He smirked at her malevolently. His golden eyes flashed with some hidden light, as if there was a candle behind them.

No matter how icy Katara's waters were, she could not smother that dark light. She stared into his eyes for a moment. She didn't know how to reply bravely; he had single-handedly sucked out all of her resolution and will and she felt very drained.

"Do you miss your necklace?" he asked her with mock pity.

"I will never touch it now. Not since its been in your bloodstained hands, you foul beast," she said disgustedly, though her heart was not truly behind the words.

"That's too bad."

"Do you miss your father?" She wanted to provoke him. She wanted to make him mad when there was nothing he could do about it.

He was silent.

"Come on now," she said sardonically, "I answered your question; now it's your turn."

He was seething, that was obvious, but still he did not speak.

"I'll take that as a yes." Katara sighed and "tsked" several times. "I don't understand you, Zuko. Your father banished you, did he not?"

Zuko stayed soundless.

"How can you miss the man who hates you enough to banish you?" She could see that fire in his eyes again, only this time it was less challenging and more livid. Her words were getting to him.

"Honor runs deeper," he said through clenched teeth.

"Honor? Even after your own father disgraced you so completely, you still have honor?" she asked with sarcastic incredulity. "You Fire Benders must be very thick. He doesn't love you! Can't you get that—"

"Shut up! You stupid girl! Shut up!"

/chapter ten