It was nearing nightfall and Aang hadn't landed Appa yet. Ty Lee turned to Sokka.
"Isn't he going to land for camp?" Sokka shook his head.
"We've been getting very little ground covered since we left Ba Sing Se, so Aang's going to fly Appa from now until tomorrow night, then we'll camp," he explained. Ty Lee cocked her head, as did Momo.
"Do you do this often?"
"Pretty much." Sokka wasn't in a mood for talking, that was much was clear, but Ty Lee was determined.
"Don't you get tired?"
"Nope."
Behind them, Toph made a pathetic face and batted her eyelashes. Katara looked at Aang, who was having severe trouble keeping his laugh quiet. Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Really? Then you must have a lot of stamina," Ty Lee said with a flirting tone in her voice.
"If you're trying to get me to untie you, it won't work," Sokka said. Then he smiled proudly. "Though I do have a lot of stamina."
That did it. Toph, Aang, and Katara burst out laughing. Sokka looked at them and huffed.
"I don't see what's so funny," he pouted. That just caused his friends to laugh even harder.
Zuko's sleep was filled with the nightmares that plagued him from time to time. It started like the Agni Kai had actually happened; he was kneeling on the ground, refusing to fight his father. But there was where the similarities ended.
Instead of merely scarring his son and banishing him, Ozai pulled his son's head back by the topknot and smirked in an evil way.
"I don't think one scar will do it, and it makes you look lopsided." He pulled back, his fist on fire…
"AHH!" Zuko sat up, sweating profusely. He took a few deep breaths to calm his labored breathing.
"Here." Someone handed him some water. Not caring who had given it to him, Zuko drank about half and dunked the other half over his head.
"Thank you," he murmured, drying his head off. He turned and saw it was Katara who had given him the water.
"No problem. Your tossing woke me up and then I realized that you were having a nightmare. A vivid one if your face was anything to go by," Katara whispered.
Zuko shut his eyes tightly. Now was not the time to show weakness! Now was not the time to act like a child!
"Do want to talk about it?"
"No," Zuko muttered, turning away. Katara rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Zuko…you can ask Aang, it actually helps to talk it out," she whispered. "He had awful nightmares almost every week before he told me about them. Now he only has them every once in a while."
"I don't need to talk it out," Zuko spat. Katara's hand left his shoulder.
"If you say so," she whispered. He heard her lie down on her sleeping bag, shifting to get comfortable. Zuko sighed and followed suit. He was almost asleep when his conscience hit again.
You really need to stop shutting her out like that.
Not you again! Can't you just let me be?
Now what kind of conscience would I be if I did that?
The kind that shows respect!
Consciences don't have to show respect, Zuzu.
Don't you dare.
Talk to Katara about your nightmare! Trust me on this.
Will it get you to shut up?
For now, yes.
Very well.
Zuko started tossing and turning, acting as though he was having another nightmare. He may have to talk to the girl about it, but he was not going to bring it up first.
"Zuko. Zuko, wake up," Katara whispered, shaking him gently. Having done this many times before to throw his uncle of the scent of sleepless nights, Zuko did a good job of "waking up". "You were having another nightmare." The Waterbender sounded genuinely concerned; Zuko hated making her worry. (Deep down, he wondered why he hated to make her worry.)
"I'm…fine," he muttered. Katara sighed.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"I…it's just history repeating itself then going wrong," Zuko said. There, I told her about it. Happy?
"Oh." Katara looked at her hands. "I get those a lot, too." Zuko frowned. "It's the raid on my village all over again, only I'm the only survivor. Instead of just my mom dying, it's everyone. Sokka, Dad, Gran-Gran…" Katara trailed off.
Unlike Zuko, Katara could open up. It was something that confused the Fire Prince. Just as he was about to ask Katara how she did it, he heard sniffs.
The Waterbender was crying.
Zuko, clueless about what else to do, put a hand on her shoulder. He felt her braid hit his hand, lifted by wind as Appa sailed on.
"I'm sorry," Katara mumbled. "I'm probably making you really uncomfortable."
"Um…it's…okay," Zuko replied, completely thrown. In truth, Zuko had never been more confused in his life and was too busy trying to figure Katara out to be uncomfortable.
Sometimes Zuko hated having normal human emotions, especially at this age.
Katara's sudden gasp snapped Zuko out of his reverie. "What's wrong?" he asked, strangely concerned.
"My bandage is caught on something and when I moved it hurt the cut," Katara gasped. Zuko sighed and gently detached Katara's bandage from the tip of one of his swords that had been sticking out.
"There." Katara moved around and smiled in the dim light of dawn. They had been awake for hours and not known it. Sokka's snores got a lot louder, which they always seemed to do before someone woke him up. Momo's tail started twitching, Aang started muttering from Appa's head, and Toph started to kick. All were telltale signs of waking up in the little group. (Or, in the case of Sokka, feigning sleep until there was a meal ready.) Ty Lee, still tied, couldn't really do anything in the way of stretching before waking up.
Appa groaned, causing Aang to wake up. "Okay boy, we'll stop soon so you can eat and we can all stretch."
"Don't forget bathroom breaks," Sokka said, his voice muffled by sleep and blankets.
"Do you plan on staying awake?" Aang asked, rubbing his eyes and smiling. Sokka replied by promptly taking snoring to a completely new level of volume.
Katara had to cover he mouth to stifle her laughter. "I can't believe Sokka woke up just to remind you we need bathroom breaks!" she said to Aang. The young Avatar merely snickered and got an evil look in his eye.
Zuko noticed the look. "Do I want to know what you are about to do to him?" he asked. Aang smirked.
"No."
Aang slowly bent water from one of the flasks and bent it near Sokka's ear, making it go up and down in waves. Sokka fidgeted for a few minutes, trying to ignore the sound of splashing water, then sat bolt upright. Before he could clear the sleep from his eyes, Aang had replaced the water and acting as though he had done nothing.
"Aang, we need to stop now!" Katara giggled as Sokka look around furtively.
"Why?"
"I feel like I just got of the Spirit World after being there for twenty-four hours again," he said. Aang nodded, watching Sokka's face out of the corner of his eye.
"Appa, down boy." Appa groaned and landed on a small grove of trees. Sokka groaned.
"Not on the trees, Appa, next to them." Sokka scrambled to get out of his blankets and ran off.
Ty Lee, who had woken up when Sokka had unbundled himself, watched Sokka. "Where's he going?"
Aang and Katara looked at each other, then broke out in laughter.
Zuko shook his head and held it in his hand. He was traveling with a twelve-year-old prankster and his friends. He'd lost it.
I'm sorry if Zuko's a little OOC in this chapter. I sorta needed put in something that would make Katara worry more about Zuko for fluff later on, so this came up. Be truthful and tell me what you think.