Congrats! 23 reviews! Now on with the "thank you"s!

kuramafan58 – I can't give the story away like that, but I can tell you that if there is any pairing in this, it's not going to be a solely romantic fic. I'm not sappy enough for that quite yet
1likethat – I know, Sokka would rather use his own head as a punchbowl than let his sister be alone with a Fire Bender. Don't worry though, I'm trying my best to stay true to the characters. I just think Sokka kind of lost his head in the heat of the moment. I did kind of too. I just wrote out the dialog and then counted out the characters I had left and realized that Zuko and Katara were alone with Appa…oops.
ShieldMaidenofEdoras – Your name is bloody brilliant, by the way. It's an honor to know that you can't criticize my story, although I think that if you look close enough you'll definitely find things wrong with it.
chiisai Kogoro –­ Thank you! It's lovely to get praise like that!
Jadedragon77 – Aye, will. Excellent, dude!
too lazy to sign in – Thanks! I really appreciate that.
Who wants to know? – Good idea. I'm having a lot of trouble writing Iroh; his humor is so random, and yet laced with patterns, and I can't quite get it right. I'll try to fix the transition problem though. Thanks a lot for your input.
Dine Bilagaana – Yeah, I hate those cliché KxZ stories. It's good to know that mine isn't considered one.
Deamon – Thank you so much for the suggestions. As with Iroh, I'm having trouble with Sokka and Aang, trying to keep them in character and yet bend them to my impending will, but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don't want Zuko to seem too soft, so I agree; I think I over compensated a couple times on that. I will work on it, trust me.

Okay...moving on...
I don't own Avatar. I don't own The Beauty and the Beast either, just in case you feel like this scene is taken from that…

NOTE: For those rather squeamish people out there, there's a rather disgusting reference in this chapter to…well…slightly gross stuff.

Chapter Twelve

"What does it feel like, to be the Avatar I mean?" Jay asked Aang the next day. They had decided to stay where they were for another day so that they could tend to Zuko's and Jay's wounds. Aang and Jay had gone exploring with Momo, trying to find the shore of the island.

"It's a big responsibility, but I don't really notice it much when I'm around Sokka and Katara," Aang replied. "I only feel overwhelmed when I have to fight someone like Zuko or the King of Omashu."

"You had to fight the King of Omashu? But he's the greatest Earth Bender the world has ever known!" Jay said, very impressed. "Did you win?"

"Well, yes," Aang said, "But only because he didn't really want to kill me. We were best friends."

"What? How is that possible? The King of Omashu is—"

"One hundred and fourteen years old? Yeah, I know," Aang said, smiling broadly. "I'm one hundred and eleven."

Jay gaped at him. "That's impossible. You don't look any older than me!"

"That's because I was frozen in an iceberg for one hundred years."

"That would explain where you were when everyone was looking for you." It seemed to all make sense, and yet, it didn't. Jay saw Aang's face fall at the mention of his century's absence. "I'm sorry, did I say something I shouldn't have?"

"No," Aang assured him, feigning a smile. "Come on; I'll race you to the top of this tree. I'll even give you a five second head start."

"You'll regret it," Jay said, grinning.

"1…2…3…GO!"

Jay raised his arms above his head. A pillar of stone began to form and grow taller right underneath him. He was level with the top of the tree in less than five seconds. He leaped from his plateau to the tallest branch. Aang followed him up.

"How did you do that? That was amazing!" Aang was still below him as Jay jumped back onto his rocky perch.

"It's a simple Earth Bending move," he said simply. Lowering his hands, the mountain receded back into the earth. As Aang came back down to join him, he thought of an idea. "Do you want me to teach you how to Earth Bend?"

Aang's face lit up. "Really! You'd teach me?"

"Yeah, sure! It'd be an honor to teach the Avatar" Jay added, making a regal bow.

"Zuko, sit still!" Sokka said, trying to clean the rather large cut on his arm before he changed the dressing. Katara watched from a ways a way as she washed the old cloth they had used as bandages.

"It stings!" Zuko said. Katara almost laughed.

"Oh, the great Fire-Bender Prince is too weak for a little soap," Sokka cooed in baby talk.

Zuko was silent.

"Much better," Sokka said, returning to dabbing the ball of lathered cloth over Zuko's arm. This continued in silence for a few minutes, as Sokka inspected the other cuts Zuko had on his legs, his chest, and his head. He found three deep gashes on the back of his neck. They looked painful; they had been covered by Zuko's hair, so they hadn't been cleaned the first time when all the others had. They were infected.

"Katara, can you come here?" Sokka called. Katara walked warily over, avoiding Zuko's eyes; he still wasn't on "good terms" with her. Sokka pointed out to her the three cuts. They looked something like an animal scratch, except now they were puffy and turning green.

Katara gasped at the grotesque sight.

"What? What is it?" Zuko asked them. He was unable to see what they were talking about, for obvious reasons.

"You have a few infected wounds back here," Sokka told him. He gently prodded the gashes, making Zuko scream loudly in protest.

"What can you do about it?" Zuko asked. Katara thought she heard a slight note of panic in his voice, though it was heavily masked by annoyance.

"If we can find Bee Balm, they should be clean in a matter of days," Sokka said optimistically. "However, if we can't, which is more likely, we'll have to cut of this entire flap of skin and wrap it up."

Zuko winced. He realized that this meant he would have another scar.

"That's not a good idea Sokka," Katara said, speaking for the first time in a long while. "Head cuts bleed a lot; we don't know how much blood he could lose. He could die."

"Do you want to try to find Bee Balm around here, Katara?" Sokka asked her, obviously doubting her, and noticeably offended at her "insubordination". "Because if you do want to, go ahead. I doubt you will though."

"I'll help," Zuko said without thinking. He dropped his eyes to see the leather bonds on his wrists.

"Okay," Katara said, bending down and starting to untie him.

"What are you doing?" Sokka yelled at her. He batted her hands away from Zuko's. "He'll run away!"

"Where is he going to go? He's in no shape to swim to one of the other islands."

"He could get one of the other ships to come and capture us," Sokka said as if it were an obvious option.

"He's been banished from the Fire Nation, remember?" Katara said softly, trying not to let Zuko hear her. She failed, but Zuko finally understood. She really was sorry about what she had said. This was her actuated repentance.

"That doesn't change anything," Sokka said stubbornly. He crossed his arms over his chest; "He's not going."

"Then you condemn him to death."

"I would have done so in the first place had it not been for Aang and Jay."

"But he's with us now. Sokka, we have to help him."

"No you don't," Zuko said suddenly, cutting them both off.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Yeah…what?" Sokka dittoed.

"It doesn't matter that much. Just leave the cuts the way they are."

"But the infection will spread," Sokka said.

"So you want to help me?" Zuko asked, very confused at Sokka's self-contradictions.

"Well, no..." he said.

"So then just—"

"So you're going to let him die?" Katara asked her brother.

"We've been over this before, Katara; he's just Fire Nation."

"He's still a human being."

"A pretty pathetic excuse for one, if you ask me," Sokka said, turning away from Zuko to look at his sister.

"Then that makes you just as bad as you say he is."

"How do you figure?" Sokka asked incredulously.

"You say he's scum because the Fire Nation thinks they're better than everyone else. But you're saying he's scum just because he's Fire Nation. Doesn't that seem a little hypocritical to you?"

Sokka stared at her. How can she be defending him?

Zuko stared at her too. How can she be defending me?

"Are you defending him/me?" The boys asked together.

"I'm just saying, he's...well you're..." She looked between her brother and the Prince, confused as to whom she was speaking. "Zuko's life is at stake, I'm never going to find Bee Balm alone, and that we should give him a chance to save his own life."

Sokka looked at Zuko, who stared back, not exactly sure how he wanted this to turn out.

"Fine, be that way." Sokka said.

Katara untied Zuko and helped him stand up.

/chapter twelve