Thank you all for your wonderful comments.
I'm postponing formal thanks until the next chapter.

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I don't own Avatar. But I do own his friend, Jay. You can't have him. I also own all of my interpretations of Sokka, Aang, Katara, and Zuko, so stay as far away from those as you would your neighbors' sheep. NOTE: If this metaphor doesn't apply to you, I will try to come up with a more suitable one in the future.

Chapter Sixteen

"We really should get moving soon. Staying in one place for too long is dangerous," Katara told Sokka, Aang, and Jay one morning before Zuko woke up.

"What do you mean? Zuko said it himself that first day. We have one less ship to dodge now that we've got him, and Admiral Zhao was leagues behind us," Sokka said, lazily pulling on his shirt.

"With Zuko here, his uncle is tailing us, and his ship obviously wasn't too far off," Katara corrected with the perfect air of a little know-it-all sister, Sokka thought.

"Where do we go when we've got a paralyzed Fire-Nation prince?" Jay asked seriously.

"He's not paralyzed," Katara said, "just temporarily handicapped."

"Oh yeah, and Momo is just a short-term member of the Dumbo club," Sokka said. "Reality check, Katara. Puko's not getting better fast. Even Jay doesn't have much hope for the hopeless."

"I thought you said we got him just in time!" Katara blurted, a little more enthusiastically than she had planned to let on. Aang looked at her, but Jay and Sokka didn't catch her note of horror.

"I did, but I'm not sure I was right." Jay said ruefully. "However, I wouldn't call him 'hopeless' quite yet, Sokka."

"Darn," Sokka whispered.

"Anyway, let's not talk about that now. We need to get moving. To where?" Jay asked quickly, inwardly cursing Sokka's tactlessness.

"Yes…where…where do we go?" Katara asked, pulling herself into a whole again.

"North," Sokka said numbly.

"Are you thick?" Katara asked him. "Or do you just enjoy not helping?"

"I'm sick and tired of picking up and leaving every day or two. Frankly, these past couple of days when we didn't have any plans for travel felt good. I'm not in any hurry to hop back onto that overgrown tuft any time soon." He looked at Aang and quickly changed his tone. "Not that there's anything wrong with an overgrown tuft. I like them, actually. They're quite lovely and decorative. And if you put them in just the right light—"

"Oh, give it a rest, Sokka," Katara said angrily. She was still simmering over the whole Zuko ordeal. "We have to leave first thing tomorrow. I vote that we go north and west until we hit some sort of village. We can drop Jay off and pick up some supplies."

"Drop Jay off?" Aang and Jay asked together.

"Well, yes. I mean, I just figured that you'd want, you know, to go home."

"We can't let him go," Aang said. Jay turned at him, a little surprised.

"Uh…why not?" Katara asked.

"Well, two reasons," Aang said as though he didn't quite know what the two reasons were yet. "One is that he's teaching me Earth Bending. I figure, if I can learn as much as possible as we travel, I won't have to cram so much once we get to the North Pole."

"Yes, but you already know the basics. It's not impossible for you to teach yourself the rest," Katara argued. She liked Jay; it was not as though she was excited to see him go. But because she liked Jay, so she didn't want to put him in any more danger by taking him along with them.

"And two," Aang continued, as if Katara had said nothing, "without Jay, Zuko will most likely get worse."

Long silence followed these words. Aang could see that he had finally found the truth behind Katara's eyes. There was more than just duty there. It was now something other than sheer responsibility driving her care of the prince. Aang still wasn't quite sure what it was, but he was sure what it wasn't.

He kept his eyes closed; he didn't want them to know that he was awake, that way he could listen to their conversation. It was his right: they were talking about him, after all.

"Jay could teach us how to treat him," Sokka said, disdain in his voice.

Do I want her to agree with the Avatar, or with her brother?

"I could do that, I suppose," Jay said slowly.

If she let's Jay come along, what does that mean for me?

"There are some really complex potions we'd have to make, though," Aang said.

It means…

"Sokka can make them, I'm sure." The smile on Jay's face was audible in his voice.

"No!" Katara and Sokka said together.

It means that she cares about me more than she cares about the Avatar learning how to Earth Bend.

"Why not?" Sokka asked his sister. Even though he agreed with her, he clearly didn't understand why she agreed with him.

"Because," she said simply.

Because she knows he'll kill me, whether purposefully or otherwise.

"So Jay has to come with us," Aang said.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Katara said, talking to Jay.

She never wants anyone to get hurt.

"I wouldn't get hurt any more than any of you would," Jay defended.

"Yes, but we have to do this. You don't. I don't want to force you into something that could have you looking like him by the end," she said, undoubtedly motioning to Zuko.

"You're not forcing me into anything," Jay said.

What am I thinking! This has nothing to do with me!

"You're going to be stuck sitting on a bison for hours on end, Jay. Remember that. And that saddle isn't all too comfortable either," Sokka said.

And what are you thinking 'she cares about me'. You're denser than solid mercury!

"I don't care. I want to come! Please, let me come! I can help you! I can bend, and I can heal."

"And he can cook," Sokka said.

"Whose side are you on? Because it sounds to me like you're going back and forth, and that's very annoying," Katara said, frustrated.

"My question is, what makes this decision final? If Jay ends up wanting to leave, why can't he do it later? Why do you have to get rid of him now?"

"Because later might be too late," Katara said, not even noticing who had spoken.

"And I thought you were talking about leaving. You must have a cumulative attention span of two seconds between the four of you."

Aang, Sokka, and Jay all snapped their heads in his direction. Katara's eyes, however, moved very slowly, almost sorrowfully. Had he heard everything they had said?

And what would be the problem if he did? It's not like you said anything incriminating.

No...But it's not exactly what I say that matters, it's how I say it.

"We were, you're right," Jay said, evidently happy to get on another topic.

"Hang on a second," Sokka interrupted. He glared at the prince. "Do you think you're above us all enough to eavesdrop on our conversation?"

"It concerns me, doesn't it?"

"Hardly."

"I'm going wherever you're going, aren't I? So I think I have some right to know what's going on."

"It's not as if you have any say in the matter."

"I don't think that holds any relevance here.

"And even if you did have some sort of 'right' to be a part of the conversation, I would scarcely consider fake-sleeping being a part of the conversation."

"What are you saying?" Zuko sounded almost offended.

"I'm saying that no matter what your purpose, your methods were not pure." Sokka sounded almost mature.

"Sokka! Zuko!" Katara shouted, trying to bring peace. Besides the fact that they were loud and obnoxious, they looked rather silly with Sokka standing awkwardly over Zuko who was lying helplessly on the ground. "Please! Try not to chop off each other's noses for just one minute while we figure things out."

"I think it's already decided," Aang said happily, hopping to his feet. "We'll leave tomorrow morning and head north and west, like you said, Katara, and we'll stop in a village to pick up supplies. We'll let Jay stay on to help tend to Zuko and teach me bending, and Sokka and Zuko won't speak to each other unless what they have to say is in no way offensive or argumentative."

Katara, Jay, Sokka, and Zuko gaped at him.

Very executive, Katara thought.

Very fair, Jay thought.

Stupid Avatar Peacekeeper, Sokka and Zuko thought.

"Okay, that sounds all right," Katara said at long last, a little disturbed that her and Aang were making all the decisions when Sokka had already proclaimed himself group leader. We have a new group now; I guess that means we need new leaders. "We leave tomorrow." "Okay, that sounds all right," Katara said at long last, a little disturbed that her and Aang were making all the decisions when Sokka had already proclaimed himself group leader. "We leave tomorrow."

"What do we do today?" Zuko asked softly, rather mellowed.

"Rest as much as possible. I don't know how far we'll have to fly tomorrow to reach a town."

Rest, as if I haven't done enough of that lately. It seems that's all I'm able to do any more. And if what Sokka said is true, resting may be all I'll ever be able to do, Zuko thought, and suddenly he became very depressed.

"Katara, can I talk to you for a second?" Aang asked, feeling a sudden wave of déja vu.

"Sure, Aang." The two walked out into the forest a ways. "What is it this time? I think I've been pretty nice to Zuko, considering the circumstances, but if you want me to go softer on him, I'm sure I can."

"No, that's not what I wanted to talk about. Well, it is, but it isn't." He watched her face as it grew extremely confused. "Just…listen."

"Okay."

"I've noticed…things, things going on between you and Zuko."

"Oh…what things?" Katara asked, trying to hide her blushing skin.

"Just…things," Aang said cryptically, carefully analyzing her face. "But if you haven't noticed them, I suppose they're nothing."

"I haven't noticed anything at all." Her voice cracked.

"Then I'm probably just seeing things that aren't there."

"Probably." She was slowly losing her composure, and she prayed that this little meeting would end soon.

"Yes. Anyway, that was all I wanted to know."

"Really? Okay, good. I have to go feed Appa so…" and she left.

Only his eye was scarred. He had perfect ears.

/chapter sixteen

A/N: Whaddya think? Sorry for the delay. Band camp's kind of thrown me off my high-dive lately. I've got sunburn on my sunburn, so typing has kind of been far from my mind.