A peaceable silence settled over the crew once they were in the air. Nobody spoke a word. Katara led Appa high in the air to a cloudbank, where cool cloud mists settled on everyone's skin. Aang sneezed. Momo blinked and shook out his fur. Iroh laughed in delight, and Zuko grimaced.

What is she doing? There's a water spirit endangering us, and she's flying through water? He was surprised by how much that hurt. They weren't even thinking of the water spirit, were they? It was like they didn't even care. They just… they just… Gah! Is there any negotiating with these people? Do they all have to see natural disasters with their own eyes before they'll believe anything?

The hurt silenced him. He did not yell, or even grumble. Uncle wouldn't appreciate it anyway. He sat back against the edge of the saddle and kept an eye on the cloud, wishing he had the luxury of not thinking about the water spirit.

4, maybe 5 years of blissfully not thinking about it had come to an end for him. The water spirit was out, it was obnoxious, and it was not okay with the future he'd envisioned or the minimal role it was supposed to play in that future.

Let me guess. You want to do whatever you want, steer me whatever way you choose, like you did before? Well too bad! I grew up, and I am not going to take that kind of treatment anymore! As a child, a boy left to play in the imperial gardens and on the beach, the water spirit had had control over him. It had had all the freedom it wanted to distract him from his firebending, tempt him to sit around uselessly, make Zuko less and less of the prince he should be and endanger his life. He was almost certain the water spirit was the reason he was considered enough of a disappointment and an embarrassment to be exiled. The fire spirit, too, for creating the rumor that he was the only firebender in existence who could fail badly enough to burn himself. I am not! It's their fault people see me like that! Spirits don't belong in the Fire Nation. I was a fool to let them play with me.

As far as he could tell, the water spirit was ruining his life, not letting up even though it had already driven him all the way to exile. What did it want? To leave him permanently homeless? Purposeless? Or worse, guilt-ridden after it destroyed or scared away everyone he could possibly care for? You act so innocent, so friendly, acting ridiculous and never killing anybody and seeming to be so kind. But you aren't kind. If it wasn't for you, I would be the prince I should be, that the Fire Nation deserves. I would be honored. I was honored, until you froze my boat and made me release him!

The cloud fluff did nothing to soothe the way he burned inside. Quite the opposite.

They passed through the cloud without incident. Iroh reached out to snatch one last wisp. After it passed through his fingers, he sat back down and looked in wonder at his hand. "Life is full of surprises yet!"

The Avatar smiled up at him. "You never thought you would touch a cloud, did you?"

"No," Iroh admitted. "I didn't expect to find ice that doesn't melt, either." He looked at his hand once more, then put it down. "There is much I don't know."

"Ice that doesn't melt?" The Avatar's eyes were wide.

"That's impossible," Sokka said. "Ice melts. That's just science!"

Iroh shook his head. "Not when the water spirit has touched it. The ice on the ship wasn't melting, and it wasn't cold either."

"Woah. Imagine a slide made out of that stuff! It would be the best slide ever!" The Avatar sounded like he had forgotten who and what he was talking about. The world is doomed.

Sokka stopped rubbing his sore arms. "If the water spirit really can make ice that doesn't melt…" He cut himself off with a shrug. "Whatever. It's not an animal you can tame. Even if ice like that would be really useful…"

"How do you know you can't?" the Avatar asked. "It was trying to keep me safe, remember? It's friendly. I'm sure you could get it to make ice for you."

That was too much! First they risk everyone's lives, then they start trying to invite it over for an ice-making party? Why did I want to travel with these people? Zuko could not stay silent any more than he could trust the Avatar and his friends. The discussion was rapidly costing him both abilities. "What is wrong with you people?!" he snapped. "The water spirit is dangerous! It froze my boat with no effort, it makes ice that moves and can't be broken or melted, and it can't be negotiated with at all! There is no being friends with it, there is no asking it for help, and we need to get to the Northern Water tribe to get rid of it before something worse happens."

The Avatar held up his hands. "I know! We know it's dangerous. But every spirit is dangerous, if they choose to be. What if we get it to choose not to be?"

"You would bet lives on somehow making friends with a spirit that can do whatever it wants?" Zuko looked at him with disgust. "You're an idiot."

"Hey," Sokka snapped. He sat up and threw his right arm out to cover the Avatar. He kept it raised, even though it must have hurt. "Nobody talks to my friends like that. Especially not some high and mighty firebender that's probably never made friends with anybody in his life! Aang's done things I didn't think anyone could do. He got a spirit that was kidnapping people to release them all just by showing it an acorn." The Avatar's eyes grew wide at this praise. Sokka narrowed his eyes and set his jaw, as close to a warrior's stance as he could have while sitting. "So leave him alone! You have no right to tell anyone what he can or can't do."

"The water spirit doesn't care about acorns," Zuko retorted. "Or trinkets, or nice words, or anything except its own power. It's nice that you met such a friendly and soft-hearted spirit once, but not every spirit is like that! This one has a heart of ice."

"I want to at least try," the Avatar said, pushing away Sokka's arm. "I'm the Avatar. I'm supposed to make peace with spirits. I have to at least try, even if it looks hopeless."

"Trying to make peace with it will get everyone killed."

"You don't know that!"

"It's made itself more than clear."

"No it hasn't." The Avatar smiled as though he had caught Zuko in unbreakable logic. "It didn't even speak. Unless you have an ice-to-human translator in your pockets, it didn't make anything clear."

He was right; that logic was unbreakable. The only way Zuko could break it would be to admit that he had known the water spirit for far longer than a week, and that it could communicate with him. That was obviously impossible, so Zuko deflected instead. "I don't see a translator in your pocket. You have no idea what you're talking about. You're just going to gamble with lives as if they mean nothing to you, as if everything's a game."

The Avatar's mouth dropped open. He looked shocked and hurt. Good. He should be. "I care! I care about Katara and Sokka, and I care about you too, even though you've spent months chasing us. It's not a game."

Zuko glared back. "You expect me to believe that? How stupid do you think I am?!"

The nonbender threw his arm out again, and the Avatar made no move to stop him. "We're doing you a favor, jerkface! I, for one, would have liked to leave you somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, since you insisted so much that you would do whatever it took to get to the North Pole on your own. You should be grateful we're bringing you anywhere!"

Zuko sat forward with his hands curled into fists. "I had you on my ship. I'm the one who did you a favor! And not for much, apparently."

"No." Sokka curled his hands into fists too. "Nobody's going to be grateful to you for basic not-being-evil!"

"I am not evil!"

Zuko and Sokka growled at each other, fists ready and eyes hardened into steel daggers. The Avatar scrambled backward, reaching for his staff in case he had to leap out of the saddle. Momo was way ahead of him, already soaring in front of Appa's face. Iroh reached out, but just before he would have laid a calming hand on his nephew's shoulder Katara jerked the reins, and they all went tumbling as Appa rolled to the right.

Zuko grabbed onto the edge he had just been sitting against and held on. Iroh found a grip on the bottom of the saddle. Sokka fell against the right edge, yelping as he hit his head.

After Appa completed one very small circle flying this way, Katara directed him to fly straight. "I only hear one idiot, and it's not Aang," she called. Zuko pulled himself back into a sitting position and tried not to roar fire, even as the fire spirit roared inside him. She thinks I'm an idiot for being the only one who's appropriately concerned for our safety?

I will not be grateful. Even if they were doing me a favor, which they aren't, I might prefer to be somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. It would be slow and dangerous, but even that might be better than having all my opinions and thoughts ridiculed like this.

.

The threat of another roll kept them silent for the rest of the day. Zuko could feel Iroh watching him, always ready to intervene, and his shoulders began to itch. When they landed for lunch, he and Sokka went off in opposite directions for firewood, and that was good. It was even better when Zuko sat behind a rock to eat, not looking at anyone.

Except for Momo. Halfway through his lunch, as the sounds of some simple game started coming from the other side of the rock, the lemur approached. His ears were up and he stared at Zuko for a while, then cautiously crept forward. Zuko immediately guarded his bowl. "Don't even think about it."

Momo lowered his ears and curled up on the ground as if to go to sleep. But instead, he kept his head raised. Zuko was still in a very foul mood, which even the lemur's wide eyes couldn't disarm. "What?"

Momo tilted his head, studying. Zuko ignored him and finished his lunch. "Here." He got up and began to walk away, but paused. He looked back. Momo licked out the bowl gladly, not a trace of reserve in his little furry body even after being frightened out of the saddle. Zuko's mood lifted a little. He's forgiven me already. Why are animals so much kinder than people?

He tried subtly beckoning to Momo as they got back in the saddle for an afternoon of flying. Both Sokka and Aang spent an entertaining amount of time with their jaws hanging open. Zuko tried not to smirk; it might provoke someone into speaking, and the lemur sleeping in his lap could not be disturbed.

.

That night, camp was made on a hillside at the edge of the trees covering the hill's base. An afternoon of a little furry body sleeping on his legs had helped tremendously. Iroh was smiling and going about his own business again. Zuko felt guilty for keeping from being able to do so earlier. As he cleared the area and laid out blankets after dinner, he thought, Maybe I should apologize for calling the Avatar an idiot. I won't take back what I said, but the insult was going too far. I should get along better with people I'm stuck with for a while. I'll have to be diplomatic as a Firelord, right?

He had almost convinced himself to, was just about to, when he fell forward and just barely managed to keep himself off the ground. "What the -" His feet were frozen.

"Stand up," Katara ordered from behind him. All thoughts of apology vanished as she tied his wrists, a humiliating fate that Zuko had thought he'd escaped. "Don't want you burning down the tents in a fight with Sokka."

It was a good thing they'd already put out the fire and scattered the ashes, because Katara's fear would have instantly come true if they hadn't. The burst of heat made Zuko almost dizzy, which only worsened his anger. They think the water spirit's harmless and friendly? Maybe I should show them the fire spirit! Maybe then they'd believe elemental spirits are not fluffy and pettable! He obviously would never ever do that, but he did mutter, "So much for peace."

Katara stopped in her tracks. "What did you say?"

"I said, so much for peace. How would jerks like you ever be peaceful with the Fire Nation? Might as well forget about it." He lay down on his blankets and turned firmly away from the tents on the other side of the fire pit.

"The feeling's mutual," Katara muttered, before turning away and crawling into the tent she would be sharing with her brother. The other tent would be shared between the Avatar and Iroh. And then there was Zuko. Left out, uncovered, tied up on a blanket like some half-tamed wild animal in a pen. He meant every word he'd said, and then some. How would people who were willing to treat another human being - because that was what he was, not a monster - in this humiliating way ever going to be the kind of people who could create peace? And he looked so heroic and wonderful just yesterday. Apparently he's only a good Avatar in emergencies. I would really be doing the world a favor by capturing him, if only I could get him back home.

Iroh sat by his side before going to bed. "I can understand your perspective, and I can understand theirs," he said. "You and the Avatar are both trying your best to keep everyone safe."

"If this is his best, I'd hate to see his worst," Zuko replied. "He seems to trust you better than me. Maybe you can try to put some sense in his head. His brain's an airbender too."

Iroh smiled at the joke, and patted Zuko's shoulder. "Remember, Zuko: people never intend to be hurtful. They are always trying to do something good for someone. Keep this in mind; it will help you understand their perspective."

He got up and went into his tent to sleep. Zuko closed his eyes. I know he is, Uncle. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that he can't be trusted. I don't care what he technically wants.

Zuko was not the only one that night thinking this exact same thought.