Sorry for not mentioning all you wonderful people specifically, but thanks for Favouriting and Following! And thanks so much to you who review too. It's so lovely to see that others are enjoying this. Thank you!


~ The Boiling Rock (Part 1)~

Ryuu POV

"Hey - Zuko - you alright?" I hissed, peeking through the crack in the door. I had been woken by a scuffle and a crash, that sounded horribly like a human body. Gritting my teeth, I pushed the door open further and further until it was wide enough to fit my head out of.

By then, Zuko had gotten up and was hastily brushing himself off. He met my eyes and opened his mouth to explain himself. Before he got the chance, I swung the door fully open and shook my head slowly. He was going to do something stupid; Sokka had pulled him aside earlier to talk about something. Ever since then, he had been strangely avoiding.

"I- I fell over my own feet," Zuko admitted - hanging his head while blushing slightly.

I snikered and stepped towards him, "You should be more careful... what are you doing anyway?"

His eyes widened and a hand shot to his chin in thought. He thought for a bit before meekly shrugging: "Going for a walk?"

I ran a hand down my face in exasperation and took another step foward. Zuko dropped his hands, glanced down the hall and snarled to himself. This meant he was definitely going to do something stupid. He tapped his legs; a nervous twitch in his eye. I curled my lip into a smile; his awkward avoidance was amusing.

"Since when did you go for night walks? Come on," I folded my arms, "Out with it."

He threw his arms up, "Ugh! Sokka's going after his dad-"

"In prison?!"

"-Yes. And he can't go alone."

He turned to leave, but I caught his hand. His head snapped back to meet my eye; I tittered slightly. He grunted and pulled his hand from my grip.

"I'm going with you."

Grinding his teeth, he shook his head quickly, "No. It's way to danger-"

"That's exactly why I'm going. You need protection."

His worry was replaced by laughing. His kind, lovely, caring laugh. He knew he had no option that to let me come - I was way to stubborn. Reaching out a hand, he gestured for me to come with him. I took his hand and we tiptoed through the temple, towards the sleeping Appa.

We waited on his saddle, managing not to wake him or anyone else, for Sokka. It wasn't very long at all before we were joined by the Water boy. Zuko sat back, arms crossed, staring over at him.

"Not up to anything, huh?"

Sokka screamed and fell backwards, his bag's contents spilling out. It was a marvel he didn't wake anyone actually. Zuko and I leaned over the edge of the saddle - Zuko looking frustrated and me, worried. Sokka scowled up and started ramming stuff into his bag.

"Fine, you caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?"

With a straight face, Zuko joked, "I'm never happy."

I snikered and elbowed my boyfriend to check if it actually was a joke. He glanced up, dead-panning but the glint in his eyes told me not to worry for his happiness. Sokka began beating himself up about the Invasion going wrong. As soon as he mentioned honor, Zuko's ears pricked up.

"You need to regain your honor? Believe me, I get it. I'm going with you."

He took my hand as I hissed down at Sokka, "And so am I."

Sokka screwed up his nose, "No. I have to do this alone."

I leaned foward on my elbow while still clutching Zuko's hand with another. Zuko and I met eyes briefly before staring back down at Sokka. We huffed in sync. Zuko pinched his nose:

"How are you going to get there? On Appa? Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison daycares. We'll take my war balloon. "

A tiny frown tugged at Sokka's lips. He pushed his arms up in defeat and sighed deeply.

"Fine! Come on-"

"Wait," I fumbled about until I found a pack of scrolls and a pencil and began scribbling on it. Handing it to Zuko, he read it and nodded steadily. He held it in his mouth as he carefully slid off of Appa. I followed him and watched as he carefully tucked it under Momo's arm. He then flicked a hand and told us to follow him towards the war balloon.

...

We chugged along slowly and in complete silence. It was so, terribly awkward. Several times, someone would try to break the silence, but the conversation went nowhere. I leant on the edge, tapping my arms against the outside of the basket while Zuko provided us with fuel and Sokka drummed his fingers on his chest.

"Pretty clouds," Sokka popped his lips.

"Poofy," I made an action with my arms.

Zuko made a small sound of agreement, "Fluffy... What?"

Sokka whistled and shook his head to show he didn't say anything. I hung my head over the basket rail as the silence carried on. Sokka eventually broke it by pointing up.

"You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons."

"That's cool... Was it Teo's dad?"

"Mmm," Sokka nodded.

"Huh, no kidding, " Was all Zuko's input. I started snikering at the completely bizarre awkwardness of the trip. Zuko made a comment about his family and war - Sokka joined in by got the wrong end of the stick so Zuko defended it.

"I meant my uncle. He was more of a father to me. And I really let him down."

Sokka shrugged, " I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us? That's hard."

Zuko blasted another shot into the engine. I turned around where I stood and put my feet against the bottom of the engine.

"It wasn't that hard..." Zuko glanced at me. I raised my brow while smiling. Sokka prodded on the subject a bit more. I shifted uncomfortably where I leaned.

"Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?"

The Prince and I exchanged glances, "Not really..."

Sokka clapped his hands and pointed at both Zuko and me, " So, umm, how long've you been- been a thing?"

Zuko turned away and blasted more Fire, leaving me to answer the question by my self.

"Funny story actually... quite long... and rambling. In truth only this week. Princess's my first real boyfriend..."

At this, Sokka leant back, "Congrats. My first girlfriend turned into the moon..."

"That's rough, buddy," Zuko chimed, completely unsure of what else to say. I'd been there when it happened, so could explain more to Zuko later; but for now, the conversation dropped down dead. I began picking at the wicker basket until Zuko slapped my hand and told me to stop. I huffed and popped my lips - knowing it annoyed him more than anything else.

...

"...Fifty four cups of tea on the wall, fifty four cups of tea. You take one down, drink it all down - fifty three cups of tea on the wall!"

Zuko shot another blast into the engine. He was having a hard time keeping awake - so I thought that singing annoying songs very badly would help keep him from falling asleep and the balloon crashing into the sea. The song had started at one hundred cups, so Zuko was thoroughly annoyed by now. He screwed up his face - if anything the expression made it hard not to laugh.

Totally worth it.

"Can you sing something else? Anything?!"

Sokka was snoring away happily, occasionally murmuring something about Foo Foo Cuddlypoops. Mabye his pet or a really unfortunately named human. Zuko shot another blast into the tank. I started another song - per request.

"Myeong had a joey lamb, joey lamb, joey lamb. Myeong had a joey lamb its fleece as white as-"

"Not that!" Zuko snapped. Sokka began to stir now. We held our breaths until he curled back up, sucking his thumb.

I teasingly pouted at Zuko, "You got to love the classics, Princess-"

"And stop calling me that!"

Shrugging, I stared ahead of us. We'd been travelling for a day across the wide blue nothingness that was the ocean. In the war balloon, it didn't feel half as safe as land. Grumbling to myself about this, I scanned as far as I could see for the prison Island that was once going to be my home.

The stars were out and the sliver of the moon that showed was bright enough to reflect off of the lashing waves. Firelight bounced off of Zuko - giving him an almost ethereal appearance. Scratch that - it was an ethereal appearance. Like a spirit. I stared aimlessly at him, until he turned towards me.

"What are you doing? "

I snapped my head towards the ocean - my whole face blushing, "Nothing! You just look cute in the firelight..."

It was his turn to blush. He swivled to look out the front of the basket. We floated on for a while longer with no noise but the breaking waves, Sokka snoring and crackling fire until a large lump with an efervessing plume of steam came into view. The Island...

"There it is! There's plenty of steam to keep us covered. As long as we're quiet, we should be able to navigate through it without being caught."

Sokka awoke with a start as we began bobbing into the crater of the volcano. I ducked into the basket as steam rose around us. Something was wrong, we began to lose altitude. Slapping my forehead - I remembered. Hot air rises in cool air and now that we were in a hot, steaming volcano... we were sinking.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Zuko paniced. Sokka shrugged, "I don't know! Crash-landing? "

Bracing myself as the basket dipped sideways and Zuko crashed next to me, I made a quick and silent prayer to the Spirit of Volcanoes, Aditinggi. He must've been listening because, instead of crashing into the boiling lake, we smacked into the shoreline.

"Thank you," I hissed out loud. But then he took back his kindness as the balloon ejected us onto the rocky shore. I rubbed my head as I sat up next to Zuko, who pulled me into a brief hug. I smiled gently and stared at the wreck of the war balloon. There was no way we could take that thing out.

"How are we gonna get off the island if the balloon won't work?" Zuko growled quietly.

Sokka pushed himself up on his elbows, "We'll figure something out! I suspected it might be a one-way ticket."

"You wha-?!" I began loudly before Zuko clapped a hand over my mouth. He pointed up at the ramparts and let me go. I shook my hands in apology. Zuko got up and offered me his hand, "You knew this would happen and you wanted to come anyway?"

Sokka trundled up the the wreck of the balloon and sighed nervously, "My dad might be here! I had to come and see!"

"Might? There are hundreds of prisoners and prisons in this Nation. Who knows where he could be. Even Zuko's plans aren't this insane. No offense," Zuko and I walked up beside him. Zuko set his jaw, "None taken. I know my plans are insane."

Sokka began pushing the balloon into the lake,"Hey, I never wanted you two to come along in the first place! And for the record, I always think things through! But my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time, I'm playing it by ear. So there."

He fell onto the rocks as the balloon slipped beneath the lake with an indignant hiss. Zuko snaked his arm around my shoulders and turned around towards the maliciously towering ramparts. Sokka struggled to his feet and knitted his brow at the building. We stared up in horrified awe.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Zuko utterd slowly, "There's no turning back now."