Well hello again, and welcome to chapter 8 of A Walk Through Fire. This was a really fun one to write and it's only going to get more exciting as we head into the next chapter! I hope y'all enjoy it and don't forget to review, favorite, and follow!

Mai got up and was surprised to find that both Aang and Azula weren't anywhere to be seen. Usually, she saw one of them awake, but this morning was the exception. Deciding to investigate the sudden disappearance of her friends, she looked around and tried to find Aang's things. Walking around the general area, she found that his clothes were hanging on a tree and seemed to be dry.

Hmm, that wasn't there when I went to sleep last night, Mai thought to herself. And where is Aang?

She continued to walk around the campsite until she decided to ask Azula if she knew where Aang was. She walked up to her tent, moved the flaps a little, peeked inside, and was surprised to see what she saw.

"Is that…" she whispered to herself in surprise. "She's seriously cuddling him while he sleeps. Oh, I gotta go get Ty Lee! She's gonna freak!" She ran from the tent and went straight to Ty Lee's. She was still asleep when Mai entered.

"Ty Lee," Mai urged, "Get up! There's something you gotta see!"

Ty Lee simply groaned and rolled over, still trying to catch a little more sleep. "Go away," she replied groggily. "Whatever it is, it can wait till morning."

Mai kicked her in the leg, getting antsy. "They are cuddling and you are about to miss it!"

This got Ty Lee's attention and she sat up. "Who are 'they'? And why the fuck are you this excited so early in the damn morning?"

"Azula and Aang are cuddling!" Mai shouted, causing Ty Lee to let out a girlish squeal.

She exited her tent in just her nightgown. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go see them!" she squealed as they walked towards Azula's tent.

"Ok, but you can't be that loud, or else you will be noticed," Mai ordered the acrobat as they both peered into the tent.

Aang was on Azula's lap, dead asleep. He was still having some nightmares, but they would go away after Azula would shush him. It was comforting for her knowing that someone was in her care. She didn't feel her normal malice toward him. She felt...happy. She was so happy that she didn't realize she was humming a soft tune to herself.

Ty Lee looked at Mai. "Is she…"

"Humming?" Mai finished. "Yes; she is humming to a sleeping Avatar."

"Wow," Ty Lee said, amazed at the scene playing out in front of her. "Never in a million years did I ever think that Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation, would be humming to and holding the Avatar."

"And you will never have to imagine it because it won't happen again."

Both Mai and Ty Lee gasped at Azula's sudden sentence and both fell into the tent, which made Azula chuckle.

"You heard us, didn't you?" Mai asked in a monotone voice, returning to her normal deadpan expression.

"Of course I heard you," Azula answered, looking at the two girls as she continued to rub Aang's back. "Ty Lee is very loud. I'm shocked that Aang wasn't woken up by it."

"Wait, did you just call him Aang?" Ty Lee questioned, looking confused.

"I guess I did," Azula responded, all the while starting to blush. She looked down at the sleeping boy in her lap and smiled.

"So it's true," Mai spoke, looking at Azula. "You like him, don't you?"

Azula sighed. She knew that she was going to have this conversation; she just wasn't ready to have it now. To her, feelings were a weakness. Sure, she was friends with Mai and Ty Lee, but they were also her comrades. She had never had more than those two friends. Aang just had to waltz into her life. She thought that if she captured him, everything would be fine. But everything wasn't fine. When she went into that cell for the first time, something in her changed. She felt bad for him. She felt remorse for the very first time in her life.

These feelings grew overtime within her. She had come up with a plan to use him as this "ultimate weapon", but she couldn't do it. She had originally planned to convince him to fight with her and make the Fire Nation the supreme nation, but she couldn't. These feelings had gotten in the way. However, this time, they won't.

Sometimes our greatest weaknesses can turn into our greatest strengths.

"When I first captured him," she began slowly, "I had this entire plan in my head. I knew what I was going to do with him, how I was going to treat him, and I had everything figured out." She paused and looked up into her friends' eyes. Her features softened as she let out a sigh. "Now," she went on, "I can't even get him out of my head. I feel so vulnerable when I'm around him. I feel so calm. I actually feel happy. He gives me this feeling as I belong to something other than this war going on."

"How do you feel like this? All you do is act so harshly towards him," Ty Lee spoke up, noticing how relaxed and zen Azula became.

"I guess...I kind of realized it after a while," she said. "I would panic if I didn't see him or know where he was. I would also act differently when he was around. Mai pointed that one out to me earlier." She spoke while her hands were still rubbing his shoulders.

"So what are you going to do with this revelation?" Mai asked. "Surely you can't just forget about these feelings." She crossed her arms and smirked. She knew all along that she liked him and now Azula had just confirmed it.

"I'll tell him eventually," Azula admitted. "But right now we have to not let a prisoner get captured by…" she sighed and looked at the still asleep boy in her lap.

"It's his friend, isn't it," Mai said. "That's who we can't let escape." She noticed the frown slowly appearing on the Princess' face.

"And his friends are also the ones that are trying to rescue her," Ty Lee concluded. She closed her eyes as she let out a sigh.

"Yes," Azula whispered, shocking both the girls in the tent.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mai questioned the distraught Princess. "We should have known this beforehand."

"Yeah, we should have been told, Zula!" Ty Lee piped in.

"You think I don't know that?" Azula snapped at the girls, causing Aang to shift in his sleep. "I didn't know how to say it without…" She stopped herself. She tried to find a valid reason to give for not telling her closest friends the true nature of the mission.

"Without what?" Ty Lee pried.

"HURTING HIM!"

Aang shifted again and mumbled incoherent words before drifting back into unconsciousness. This caused everyone to shut up instantly as they didn't want to wake him up.

"Go prepare the eel hounds," Azula ordered the girls. "We leave as soon as I wake up the Avatar. This conversation is over."

"Yes, Princess," both girls answered, leaving the tent immediately as they didn't want to cross her. They both looked at each other and sighed.

Azula, on the other hand, was a mess. She had just spoken her feelings into existence and while it felt relieving, she was also terrified. She didn't know if these feelings were reciprocated on Aang's part.

Whelp, now I have to wake him up, she decided to herself. She lightly shook him but got no response. Great, he's a deep sleeper.

Deciding to just carry him to his eel, she picked him up bridal style and brought him outside and next to a fire that Mai had made.

"Ty Lee," the Princess spoke while looking at the acrobat.

"Yeah, what's up Zula?"

"Aang's clothing is hanging on a tree. Can you bring them over here and dress him please?"

"D-dress him?"

"Yes; dress him. I need to check the maps and make sure we are going the right direction." Azula noticed that Ty Lee started to blush a little and smirked.

"Okay," Ty Lee responded timidly. "I'll do it to the best of my abilities."She grabbed his clothing and started to put them onto his body. Why do I have to dress him?

She started with his tunic and moved down to his pants. While fastening his pants, she accidentally brushed her hand against something. Knowing exactly what it was, she blushed and finished clothing him.

Holy shit...it's massive, Ty Lee said to herself, flustered. Zula is gonna have a field day with that monster he has. She went red a little and walked away.

Wow, he's been out for a while, Azula thought to herself. Whatever he did to his body, it must've taken a lot out of him. She packed up her stuff and loaded it onto her eel hound. I hope he gets up soon. I kinda miss him. She reddened in the face at the thought and sighed to herself. "That boy is going to be the death of me," she thought aloud.

It was very late morning when Aang awoke from his unconscious state. He didn't know where he was, or how he got there. All he knew was that he was laying on something very warm and very soft. He groaned and snuggled closer to it but whatever he was laying on was moving.

"Ugh, what day is it?" he croaked and grabbed the attention of whatever he was laying on.

"Well, look who decided to join the land of the living," Ty Lee giggled as she felt him sit up from her lap.

"Why…" Aang looked up to see that he was laying on Ty Lee and that both of them were moving. He sighed and glanced ahead to see Mai and Azula once again talking about something. "Why am I laying on your lap?"

"Well…" Ty Lee hesitated. "It's kind of a long story, but Mai didn't want to hold you while she was riding, and Zula…"

I think after the morning she's had, I think it was best if I held you, the voice in her head affirmed, but she spoke aloud differently.

"She's had a long morning so she told me to hold you while you were out."

Aang nodded, seeing the logic in her statement. "So how long was I out?" he asked while moving back to his eel hound which was next to Ty Lee's.

"We don't know," she answered hollowly. "Zula found you this morning and then we left." While that was technically true, there were a lot of details being glanced over.

The story made sense to Aang, so he just went with it. "Alright," he sighed, and leaned back on his eel. "Do you want to know what happened last night, or do you care?"

"It sounds like a lot happened so just give me the gist of it," she replied while doing a handstand on her eel.

"It was just Avatar stuff and meditation," he nonchalantly replied while spinning a ball of air on his finger. "Complicated Avatar stuff."

"I bet, you were out for a good portion of the day!"

"Yeah." Aang rubbed his arm sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to," she said as she did a flip and landed on one foot.

Aang looked at the acrobat confused. "Who do I need to apologize to? It's not like Azula cared that I was out."

Ty Lee internally cackled at Aang's response. Oh, if only he knew the truth behind those words, she thought, and responded aloud with "You'll figure it out soon enough."

"Sure, I will," Aang said with some curiosity.

It was close to dusk when they made it to the Stronghold. The air was cool and crisp as it blew through the coast. The building itself was covered in basalt and iron. There were two large doors at the entrance where guards were posted. Beyond the first wall, there was a gap of space before a second wall that was covered in iron and bore the same doors. Behind those doors was a large basalt staircase that went up to a tall red building.

"I've been here before!" Aang shouted as he pointed to the complex that was in front of them.

"So I've heard, Avatar," Azula called, brushing the comment aside and thinking nothing of it.

"Wait," Mai said quietly to the Princess, which got her attention. "If he's been here before, shouldn't we hide him? Or do they know that the Avatar is not dead?"

This caused Azula to stop for a moment. She had not thought about the fact that people wouldn't know the Avatar was alive. She didn't know if the news had spread that she had shot him down had reached all over the Earth Kingdom or not, and now they were entering a Fire Nation controlled Stronghold with the Avatar, their "Public Enemy Number One" at her side. She didn't consider that.

"We need to disguise him," Azula stated, stopping her eel and jumping onto the ground.

"How are we going to do that?" Ty Lee asked after she flipped off of her eel hound.

"We could give him a headband or a hat so that it covers the giant arrow on his forehead," Mai suggested.

"Alright, that takes care of the one on his head," said Azula. "What about the ones on his arms and legs?"

The girls went on talking about Aang's disguise for quite some time. They had left him out of it since he was already opposed to the idea that he wouldn't be able to display his arrows proudly. Not wanting to get on Azula's bad side, he decided to just go along with it.

They managed to have some extra outfits with them, so they dressed him in a large hat as well as a slightly oversized shirt and pants that covered his arrows perfectly.

"Alright, are you guys done treating me like a doll?" Aang asked, getting annoyed with Ty Lee and Azula constantly messing with his clothing.

"Yes, I agree," Mai said, "it's getting quite late, and I would like to sleep in a bed tonight." She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot on the ground.

"Yes, we will be at the Stronghold in a little while, so don't fret," Azula reassured the group as she hopped back onto her eel and started riding towards the Stronghold.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the soldiers and the captain stationed there. Azula got all their paperwork squared away and the soldiers left them to start their meeting on the events that were going to take place tomorrow.

"Alright, we are expecting a prison convoy to arrive tomorrow," Azula affirmed, pointing to a map on a large round table in front of her. "We also have intel that there is a possibility that the aforementioned convoy will be ambushed."

Everyone in the room was silent as the Princess continued to explain what her plan was to catch those trying to rescue the prisoner of interest. Aang watched and listened to her go into her plan with such detail.

Gosh, how is she like this? She's so commanding and powerful. She's a true leader. He kept staring at the Princess who effortlessly took command of all operations of the Stronghold. She was doing it with such finesse and poise that it really made her look like a seasoned war general.

He snapped out of his trance when he felt something cold and sharp press up against his leg. He looked down and saw that Mai was pointing one of her knives at him.

"You're staring at her," she mumbled under her breath.

"I'm sorry!" he hissed quickly.

"You better be," she muttered and continued to pay attention to the plan being explained.

Aang understood the general idea of the plan. He was going to be walking around the Stronghold to make sure that no one escaped or got away. He was going to be near Azula and Ty Lee and was not supposed to engage unless it was a last resort. There was a cave nearby which he took note of in case something happened. Mai was going to be around the other side doing the same thing that Aang was but with Firebending soldiers instead of with Azula and Ty Lee.

He gathered that Ty Lee and Azula were both supposed to be the first ones to engage the assailants. Azula didn't mention who he was but came up with an alias for him. To everyone in that room, Aang was Lee, one of Azula's servants and soldiers. No one knew that he could bend three out of the four elements.

"Alright, does everyone know their orders?" Azula announced as she placed her hands on her hips and looked at everyone in the eyes.

"Yes, my Princess!" they all said in unison, saluting her in the process.

"Good," she said, smirking at the group in front of her. "I expect this plan to work flawlessly, so you better not fail me."

"Yes, Princess Azula, we will not fail you," they all announced while they bowed to show their respects to her.

"You are now dismissed to your rooms. The convoy will arrive at midday so I expect to see all of you there. Now leave."

Suddenly the room cleared out of people leaving Aang, Ty Lee, and Mai to be the ones that were left.

Azula looked at a parchment that the captain had given her. It housed their rooms for the night. Since no one had informed the captain that a fourth person was going to be joining them, they only had two rooms.

"Wait, why are there only two rooms?" Mai asked, looking at the parchment in front of her.

"There certainly must be a mistake and it will be corrected immediately!" Azula was on her way out of the room when Ty Lee stopped her.

"Zula, take it easy," she said softly, grabbing the Princess' arm and holding her back. "Mai and I could share a room and you and Aang could share a room. It will be like a giant sleepover!" Ty Lee squealed, causing the assassin and Princess to groan.

"I'm fine with it if you are, Azula...?" Aang stammered. Just thinking about spending the night with her was making him flush.

"I agree," said Mai. "I will gladly spend the night with Ty Lee if it means that I get to sleep in a bed." She sighed and grabbed the key from the table.

"Fine," Azula said, defeated. "Avatar, you will be sleeping with me tonight." She glared at her friends as they walked out of the room, grabbed the key, and left, leaving Aang to try and catch up to her.

Azula was conflicted. While she wanted to sleep near Aang, she also knew that her feelings were going to flare up if she spent time alone with him. She knew that she liked him and those feelings were only confirmed when she had let him sleep in her lap, but this time it was different. They were going to be sharing a room.

Let's hope this goes well, Azula prayed to herself. It's only one night.

The pair arrived at their room. It was a large room with an equally large bed. There was a bathroom and even a balcony that overlooked the entire Stronghold and the area around it. The view was spectacular and if one listened closely, the sounds of the ocean could be heard.

Azula entered the room and internally groaned. There was only one bed which meant that they had to share it.

Damn it! she cursed to herself. Of course, it just had to get worse, didn't it? She looked around the room and sighed, placing her belongings down on her side of the bed and heading into the bathroom.

Aang walked in and saw that Azula had already claimed a side of the bed for herself. He decided to put down his pack and walk over to the balcony to do some meditation before he had to get ready for bed. He sat down and began to steady his breathing.

Azula stepped out of the bathroom in her sleep-wear and saw that the balcony door was open. No, no, no, no, no! she cried internally. He escaped?! But how?! Was it because I was mean about sleeping next to him? She walked over and stepped outside and saw that the Avatar was meditating. She sighed with relief and tapped him on the shoulder.

"You can use the bathroom now," she spoke, causing him to jump slightly which caused her to giggle.

"Okay," he responded coolly, and got up and entered the bathroom. He cleaned himself and brushed his teeth. He sighed to himself and saw his reflection in the mirror. He looked tired and he surely felt it. He exited the bathroom, walked over to the bed, and climbed into it.

He used his Airbending to extinguish the candles that were in the room and laid in the bed. He could feel the heat radiating off of Azula.

"Hey, Princess?" Aang asked timidly.

"What, Avatar?" Azula's voice answered.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused today."

Azula stiffened when she heard that. She wasn't expecting him to apologize for everything that had happened today, and it caught her quite off guard, but she also appreciated it in any way.

"It's alright," she replied in a soft tone. "Just please don't pass out near a river again, okay?"

"Deal," he answered, turning scarlet as he turned to face her. Her hair was a mess in her face and he could barely make out the outline of her body in the darkroom.

Sometime after they both fell asleep, Azula moved closer to Aang, wrapped his arm with hers, and brought it close to her chest. It was this moment when Aang shifted and wrapped his arms around her. She snuggled closer to him and basked in his warmth. She felt comfortable in his arms. She felt like she was safe.

Neither of them felt alone anymore, and they both loved it.

It was mid-afternoon when Sokka landed Appa near a patch of rock that was a close distance away from the Stronghold. Sokka had made it very clear that they needed to get lots of information about it so they needed to spread out.

He was going to be hanging back by Appa to make a plan with the information that Zuko had given him and a map he had of the general area. Zuko and Katara were going to be figuring out the best way to ambush the prison convoy while Toph was going to be using her sight to pinpoint weaknesses in the ground in and around the area.

Zuko, however, was very nervous. He was going to try and give Katara the ring that he had gotten from the merchant and he needed to find a place that was out of the way so that during all the commotion caused by Toph and Sokka, he and Katara could slip away and have a moment together.

"Hey, do you see that cave over there?" Katara asked Zuko, pointing to a small cave near the far side of the Stronghold.

"Yeah," said Zuko. "That could really come in handy if we ever needed to take shelter during the battle that most likely is going to occur." He made a mental note of where the cave was.

That's where I'm gonna give it to her! he assured himself. That's where I'm gonna give her the ring.

"Actually," Katara spoke, looking at her surroundings and up at the sky, "what do you think is going to happen?"

"What do you mean?" he replied nonchalantly while making notes of all the hiding holes and uneven surfaces there were.

"Well, this whole rescue plan," she continued as she walked on. "Do you think that it's actually going to work?"

Zuko wasn't doubtful of Sokka's plan. He had even helped make parts of it. However, all good plans have the possibility to fall apart. He knew that if a wild card was thrown into the mix, their plan might crumble.

"I think that we are being as prepared as possible when it comes to this mission," he replied to her confidently. "I remember when we were here for the first time, and I was not on your side." He chuckled at the memory of him freeing a kidnapped Aang from General Zhao and then getting saved by Aang in the fight that ensued afterward. "Well, not fully, anyway. My point is, we can do all the preparation we want too, but something will always have the possibility of going wrong."

Katara looked at the man who was walking next to her. She saw that he was thinking about something but decided that it wasn't worth asking about. She knew that it probably had something to do with the story that Aang had told her and Sokka when they both recovered from the terrible illness that they had gotten. "Well, I guess all we can do is plan, right?" she assured, smiling and looking at him. "And besides, it's just one prisoner. How hard could it possibly be to get Suki back?"

"I honestly don't know," Zuko said. "But something tells me that this mission isn't just about Suki."

"Well, maybe that gut of yours is wrong," she said as they returned to the others. "What could go wrong? General Zhao is dead in the Northern Water Tribe, and Azula is still in Ba Sing Se. I mean, sure, this is a highly fortified military base, but I mean, come on, we have three master benders with us. We can pretty much take on the world!" She was getting pumped up. She knew that there could be some possible problems with the plan, but like any other plan, it could all easily fall apart.

"You have a point. I'm sure that we will be fine," Zuko mumbled as they both met up with Sokka and Toph who were going over the information that they had.

"Alright, now that we have some more information, I have made some tweaks to the plan," Sokka began as he unrolled his now-updated map of the surrounding area. He pointed to the sides of the Stronghold. "Alright, Toph and I will ambush the convoy as it begins to let the prisoners out," he stated in a clear tone.

"Zuko and Katara will be around the other side of the complex making sure that no one else comes. Based on the information, the guard's shift is right at midday, which means that there will be a little more chaos when this all starts."

"But, wait," Katara spoke up from her spot next to Zuko. "What are we going to do once we actually successfully get Suki back?"

"Well, dear sister, I'm glad you asked," Sokka boasted, pulling out a bison whistle that he had gotten earlier that day in the village. "Once we have Suki back, I will call Appa using this, and then we will fly somewhere to get shelter. Or, we can just fly away and never look back." He put the whistle back into his pocket.

"Is that the entire plan?" Zuko asked as he looked at Sokka, who still had all the maps out in front of him.

"Once we get Suki, there will probably be a lot of noise," Sokka continued. "So when you hear that, you guys can come to help us. Do not reveal yourself until that happens. We don't want to let them know how many people we have with us."

"Alright, that sounds good to me," Toph said, who was looking at Sokka with a smirk. "Let's just hope that this plan goes much better than some of the others that you have had."

The group laughed at the now-embarrassed Sokka who only growled at the Earthbender.

"Hmph, well I know a good plan when I see one," he fired back at Toph.

"Well, in that case, I guess you're more blind than I am," Toph mocked. Knowing that he didn't have a comeback ready, she walked away, leaving Katara who was cackling at the top of her lungs, Zuko who was holding his sides from laughing so much, and a fuming Sokka.

"Fuck you, Toph!" He yelled at her.

She merely smirked. "Wow, Sokka, I know that Suki isn't here, but I didn't think you would ask me to do that with you right now." This earned a glare from Sokka.

Katara and Zuko at this point had lost it and we're both on their knees trying to go a few seconds without laughing from all the insults that were being thrown between the two.

Eventually, everything calmed down again and the sun was going down in the sky. Katara started on dinner and Sokka and Zuko were going over the plan, making sure that everything was ready for tomorrow.

"Hey, Toph," Katara called out to the Earthbender.

"Yeah, what's up, Sweetness?"

"Well, I guess I was wondering how you think tomorrow is going to go?"

Toph looked at the ground and sighed. She knew that this plan was probably going to fail miserably. She had a gut feeling that they weren't taking into account something.

"To be totally honest with you, I don't know," Toph answered unsurely.

"What don't you know?" asked Katara.

"Well, I just have this feeling that we aren't considering something. It's like we are missing something and I don't know what it is."

"You know, it's funny." Katara continued to make the group dinner as she spoke to the Earthbender.

"What's so funny?"

"Well, Zuko said something really similar to what you did. I think he's just paranoid about it," she added while pouring their food into bowls.

"Yeah, maybe he is just a little bit paranoid," Toph wondered. "I mean, he also could be super right and no one would ever know if he was." She gratefully accepts the soup from her friend and smiles. "Wow Katara, this is really good!"

Katara went red at the statement and gave her friend a great big hug.

"Alright, alright, get off me!" Toph complained as she tried to escape the Waterbender's grasp.

Eventually, Zuko and Sokka come outside to join the group in eating dinner. They were talking about what they were going to do after they found Suki.

After everyone was finished with their food, they all sat around and looked up at the sky.

"Hey, guys?" Sokka said, which put an end to the silence.

"What's up, Snoozlers?" Toph replied while playing with some rocks.

"I guess I just want to thank you guys for helping me try to get back Suki," he spoke with a calming aura around himself. He was grateful for his friends in more ways than he could think of.

"Of course we were going to help you find her!" Katara exclaimed while holding her brother's hand in hers. "She's gotten us out of a lot of tight pickles. More importantly, she's family!"

"Yes, though I've never met her before, I know that she means a great deal to you," Zuko added evenly. "So, if it means this much to you, then it means this much for me as well." He looked up at his friend who was trying really hard not to cry.

"Wow, you guys really mean all of that?" he asked, trying to fight back tears.

"Of course we mean it Sokka!" reassured Katara as she got up to hug her brother. Zuko soon came over to give a few pats on his shoulder.

Toph reluctantly patted his head and rolled her eyes. "You know, I bet if I could see you right now, you'd probably look like a mess."

"Fuck off, Toph!" Sokka groaned from his hug. He was far too emotional at the moment to be dealing with any of Toph's insults.

Eventually, he pulled himself together and stood up from the fire. He smiled at his friends in front of him and they returned his smile, except for Toph who was looking down at the ground.

"We'll get her back, Sokka," Katara said comfortingly, which earned a nod from Zuko and Toph.

"Yeah," Sokka sighed as he looked up at the moon. He smiled to himself before he left to go back to his sleeping bag and tent. "I know we will."