The blue spirit was not convinced he'd made the right decision in agreeing to meet back up with the boy.

Still he had long ago decided to trust his instincts and his gut feeling was to help the avatar.

Sunset was rolling around and the masked vigilante climbed through the trees. The branches were more comfortable beneath his feet than any human should find possible.

Years of scaling walls and his days studying the spider monkeys paid off.

After the avatar left Zuko had removed his shirt and cauterized the wound. A quick wash later and a small sewing job had the prince ready to meet team avatar.

Way up in the trees he sat waiting. Warm in his freshly dried clothes, via fire bending, all that was left to do was watch.

Watch as the sun dipped into the ocean filling the trees with a warm golden glow. Purple and pink twirled through the sky fading slowly to a darkening blue.

One hour to nightfall.

The once prince didn't need to wait long. Branches broke loudly as three teenagers made their way through the trees. Bickering filled the peaceful silence of the forest.

"Are you sure we're going the right way," the eldest asked, "cause I swear we've passed that rock like five times."

"No we haven't socka, that's a different rock," the girl said exasperated.

"Guys! I swear this is the right way. Look this is the clearing where we stopped."

Aang ran around the clearing excited looking for his new friend.

"That's great Aang, now where is he."

The girl elbowed socka.

"Ow! What the heck katara!"

So that's her name. Socka, Katara and Aang.

"I'm sure he'll be here," she said, "just give him a moment."

The blue spirit took that as his cue and dropped down behind them. He made no sound as he hit the ground.

The avatar turned to talked to his friends and yelped in shock.

Together the siblings swirled to face him. Weapons out they readied themselves to fight. Zuko noted their sloppy stances.

Untrained...

"You came!"

The Avatar ran to hug his savior who quickly backed up arms out defensively.

"Aang he doesn't want to be hugged," katara pulled him back.

The boy, socka, stepped forward arms folded.

"So you're the guy that saved Aang huh?"

Zuko gave a stiff nod.

"Who are you then," he demanded.

"Socka be nice! I'm sorry about him he's overly cautious."

The blue spirit thought he wasn't cautious enough. He wondered how those kids survived running after masked strangers.

The blue spirit motioned that it was okay. He sat down cross legged and gestured across from him.

Sitting down was a sign of diplomacy. You would sit in front of your enemies and make yourself more vulnerable to attacks.

Zuko of course could defend himself just fine from the ground but the teens didn't need to know that.

The Avatar sat first, directly across from him. His friends reluctantly followed.

"So whats your name?"

The blue spirit tapped his mask.

"The blue spirit," socka guessed.

He gave a nod of confirmation.

"Well yeah but I meant like your real name."

Zuko didn't want to tell them so he said nothing. He sat perfectly still staring them down.

"Okay you don't have to tell us," the monk assured him.

"I'm Aang and these are my friends katara and socka."

The blue spirit waved politely.

"So blue," socka started, "is it okay that I call you that?"

Nod.

"Good. So why did you save Aang?"

The blue spirit but his lip beneath his mask. Communicating was going to be difficult.

The young prince had rarely gone around people since his supposed death. He had no reason to speak to anyone.

Zuko reached out and grabbed a stick from the ground.

He held it out and drew in the dirt. Head, torso, legs, stupid beard. He finished his somewhat decent attempt at drawing Admiral zhao.

"Zhao," the boy confirmed.

"You saved Aang because of him?"

Katar gave him a confused look.

The blue spirit drew his knife and stabbed the dirt, essentially killing his makeshift admiral. He noted how Aang and katara flinches at that.

"Got it. You don't like Zhao."

At least socka seemed to understand.

The blue spirit nodded and smoothed it the dirt. This time he drew a man in a flaming crown. A cruel face burned into his memory. The fire lord.

"That's..."

Aang fingered the crown.

"The fire lord... you want me to stop him?"

The blue spirit nodded. He stabbed the dirt again.

"That's great," socka said, "that's what we're trying to do. We want to end this war. Aang can stop the fire nation but he needs to master the elements first."

"Yeah, we're headed north to find a water bending teacher! You can come if you want."

Zuko hesitated.

The girl put a hand in his knee.

"The fire nation hurt you, didn't they..."

Stiff nod. He tried to hide how tense physical touch made him.

"They hurt us too."

She put a hand up to her neck and fingered a pendant sadly.

"The fire nation took our mother away."

The blue spirit visibly softened. He rested his hand on top of hers and patted it softly.

He turned to the avatar and nodded. Pointed to himself and then to their group.

"You'll come! That's great!"

The Avatar jumped up excited.

Socka even nodded along.

"Yeah, do you think you can teach me to use swords like yours?"

Zuko smiled under his mask. For the first time in three years he was interacting with people.

A single nod.

The blue spirit wrote in the dirt, I will teach you.