Life of Air

Chapter 8

Friends For Sure

Zuko's POV

We flew through the air in mostly an uncomfortable silence. I worked on keeping the fire that kept the balloon up strong while Sokka sat and watched. There wasn't much to talk about it and we hadn't exactly become friends yet, our past as enemies still heavy in the air. I reminded myself that he did trust me enough to join him on this journey and not double cross him, though I was sure that was mostly due to his desperation to get to his father.

"You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons." Sokka said, gesturing to our ride with a grin.

"No kidding." I replied, not knowing what else to say.

He nodded nervously, obviously unsure how to continue the conversation he started. "Yep, a balloon, but for war."

I grit my teeth together and sent another blast of fire into the balloon's tank then shut the door. "If there's anything my Dad's good at, it's war."

Sokka chuckled. "Yeah it seems to run in the family."

"Hey, not everyone in my family is like that." I defended, thinking about my uncle.

Sokka held up his hand. "I know, you've changed."

With a glance out the side of the balloon I answered. "I wasn't talking about me, it's my uncle. He was more of a father to me... and I really let him down."

It was silent again for a minute then Sokka spoke up once again in a cheery manor, leaning forward. "I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us, that had to be hard."

I shut my eyes, thinking to the people I was leaving and the one and only person I didn't want to leave. "It wasn't that hard, actually."

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

"Well," I said, deciding on whether I wanted to mention this. "I did have a girlfriend, Mai."

The Watertribe warrior's grin was back as he seemed amused by my choice in girls. "That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?"

I nodded, seeing her face in my mind and feeling a familiar ache in my chest. "Yeah, that's her. She's the first girl who I thought I could see myself with. But before I left we had a big fight about this war and I realized we just... didn't see things the same way. I thought it was better to end it rather than drag her into this without knowing what she really wanted."

"That was probably for the best." Sokka said, looking up into the balloon. "My first girlfriend turned into the moon, so I get when things don't work out like you thought."

"That's rough, buddy." I said, slightly uncomfortable with all of this sensitive talk and unsure how to respond to his confession. I knew I had messed up as silence filled the air once again. We fiddled with our hands, looked around, and avoided eye contact. Then I saw Sokka grin out of the corner of my eye.

"What about Iyashi?" He asked.

I turned to him, caught off guard. "What are you talking about?"

He shrugged. "She just spends a lot of time with you and she's the reason you're part of the group now. I bet she's got a thing for you. She's cute too."

I relaxed slightly, realizing he was only making assumptions based on her actions and didn't know anything about me. "She's just friendly. She stood up for me because of her airbender values and besides, she spends most of her time with Aang. They understand each other since they're both, you know... airbenders."

Sokka shook his head. "I don't think that's all. And you didn't say anything about me mentioning that she's cute."

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "That's irrelevant."

"So you do think she's cute."

Sokka's smug expression only irritated me and I decided not to look at him, too afraid I'd want to shove him out of the balloon. "Like I said, irrelevant."

Sokka laughed and waved his hands in defeat. "Alright Zuko, I give up. I'm done pushing."

The subject was dropped then and the silence returned, but this time I wasn't eager to fill it. Thoughts of the young airbender filled my head and through everything else I felt when I thought of her guilt rose to the surface as always. It didn't matter what I was doing now, what I had done in my dark past was still a large part of me and there was no way I could be completely exonerated for all of that. Not to mention what my family had done to her people. How could I think about her like that when it's my family that's the reason she and her family have been hiding out in the tunnels for all this time?

No, she deserves better. Much better.

Still something inside me told me I wanted to be the one to give her what she deserved, even if I wasn't the one who deserved to.

Iyashi's POV

"Hey, Sweet Feet."

I turned around to find the one and only blind earthbender standing in my kitchen. She was leaning against the doorway, her expression blank and her arms crossed over her chest. I smile at her even though her sudden arrival was rather shocking. "Oh, hi Toph. How did you find me down here?"

Toph shrugged. "Oh I can feel those dainty foot steps of yours from the temple, following them was easy." She lifted her nose into the air and took a sniff. "What are you cooking?"

"Sweet zucchini bread!" I exclaimed, holding the pan up. "It's a family recipe. Do you want some?"

"Sure." She said, moving from the wall and creating a stool to sit at my counter. "How do you handle yourself down here? Almost everything is made out of rock."

I cut a slice of bread for each of us and buttered them generously before handing Toph her slice. "It's not that bad, well actually it is." I corrected with a giggle. "But I have my brothers to help me and there are a lot of other earthbenders down here that will do almost anything I ask. If I need something I can get it, for the most part."

Toph took a bite of her bread and nodded, moaning through her full mouth. "This is great!" She said once she swallowed. "But I didn't just come down here for your fancy veggie bread."

"Oh?" I asked, leaning against the counter in my standing position as I enjoyed my bread. "What did you need?"

"Zuko and Sokka have been gone for a while now." She said, and suddenly the air around us got much more serious.

I looked down at the table, drawing little circles on it with my finger nervously. "Yeah, I guess it has been a while. I hope the fishing trip is going alright."

"Let's not play around, Sweet Feet, I know you know something and you didn't tell anyone." She shoved the last bite of her bread in her mouth and continued once she finished it off. "What's the story?"

"That's... complicated." I said, biting my lip. "Zuko told me not to tell anyone, I think he didn't want everyone to worry about them."

"They're doing something dangerous, huh?" She asked softly.

I nodded. "I think so, Zuko didn't give me any details and I didn't talk to Sokka."

Toph sighed and leaned back, her hair falling away from her face so that I got a good look at her features for the first time. Her expression was blank as usual, her eyes were pale in an odd way which I assumed was due to her blindness, and her face was round and gentle which contradicted with her rough and tough attitude. It was most likely because she's so young, but she was actually really cute. If I had mentioned that to her she probably would have punched me, the thought making me smile.

"How did you know I knew something?" I asked.

"Just a special earthbending trick. The same way I feel the vibrations around me to 'see', I'm also able to feel the heart rate and breathing of the people around me." She explained and then gave me a wide grin. "See? Even us earthbenders have some fancier tricks than you air heads."

With a scoff I tossed a towel at her playfully. "Who are you calling airhead? Dirt princess."

The towel had landed on her face perfectly but she took it and threw it on the ground, her grin ever present. "Call that an insult? That's a compliment."

We both laughed at each other and continued with the name calling, my personal favorite being veg-bender, which Toph had created for me. It wasn't long before my zucchini bread was gone between the two of us, though mostly because of Toph, that girl could put down some food. Tanro and Yen came in from doing their chores out in the fields and threw a fit when they found out the young earthbender had eaten all the zucchini bread, but she only laughed in their faces.

"Look! Lets settle this like earthbenders!" Tanro yelled, dropping into a bending stance.

"Hold it." Toph said, putting her hand in his face. She seemed like she was focusing on something intently before she grinned. "Our battle for the zucchini bread is going to have to wait. Sweet Feet, sounds like we should head up to the temple."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Tanro asked, confused as he was completely oblivious to whatever Toph was 'seeing'. "You're just afraid to fight me, little girl!"

Toph's expression changed quickly and before I could blink she had turned the slab of earth beneath my brother, flipping him onto his side on the ground. She then sat on top of him, her foot shoving his face into the dirt.

"What's it like to get beat up by a 'little girl'? Huh, big guy?"

I giggled, highly enjoying someone putting my oldest brother in his place. "Um, Toph? You were talking about us needed to head to the temple?"

"Right." She said and stood. "Just come with me." She walked around my equally confused and terrified brothers to head out of the kitchen. "We should welcome them back."

At those words I realized what she must be referring to and dashed out of the kitchen, leaving my brothers in a dust storm. As I ran I grabbed Toph and carried her until we were out of the tunnels to make things faster, she wiggled and yelled at me the entire way but I barely noticed. She was lighter than Yuji, that's all I could tell. When we made it out of the tunnels and her feet were back on the ground she turned to me quickly and pointed her finger in my face.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Toph yelled, but I ignored her and ran around her small frame to what she must have been feeling.

Parked at the edge of the temple was a giant metal... something. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Aang and Katara were already standing next to it when I noticed it was opening up and people were walking out of it. Once I made it over to them I saw it was Sokka and Zuko who were getting out of the metal thing and realized it must have brought them here somehow.

"What are you doing in this thing? What happened to the war balloon?" Katara asked the two men.

"It kinda got destroyed." Zuko answered, a smile on his face.

"Sounds like a crazy fishing trip." Aang said and I shifted nervously at his comment, knowing that this was no fishing trip.

Mine and Zuko's eyes met and his smile seemed to shift to a much more gentle one. He walked over to me as Sokka talked to everyone about what this trip was really about.

"Thank you." Zuko whispered once he stood next to me, and I looked up at him shocked. He nodded his head towards Sokka, silently telling me that my questions would be answered if I pay attention.

"Did you at least get some meat?" Toph asked.

"We got the best meat of all." Sokka said, answering Toph's question. "The meat of friendship... and fatherhood."

Behind them came three new visitors, a girl who looked about my age, an older man with Sokka and Katara's complexion, and a man who was about as tall and muscular as my brother Yen. The last man waved and gave a friendly smile.

"I'm new. What's up everybody?"

"Dad.." Katara said, her face lighting up with joy and tears filling her eyes.

"Hi Katara." The Man I assumed must be her father said, holding his arms out for her as she ran to hug him.

Once they finished hugging Katara looked between her father and brother. "How are you here? Where did you go? What is going on?"

Sokka shrugged with a smug smile. "We... kinda went to a Fire Nation prison."

Katara grabbed her brother and pulled him into their father's arms, the three holding each other in a family group hug. I smiled watching the beautiful scene of a family reunited. Glancing up at Zuko, I notice his expression was the same as mine. This is why he helped Sokka instead of stopping him, Sokka wanted to find and rescue his father.

I touched the prince's arm and smiled up at him. "That was a good thing you did."

He looked down at me, seeming slightly shocked, but his expression changed quickly and he smiled in return. "It looks like you kept the secret, that's why I said thank you."

"I'm just glad it all lead to this and you came back safely." I said, squeezing his arm. "All of you."

Zuko's expression soften more and more the longer he looked at me and I found myself falling into the depths of his eyes, unsure how I had gotten there in the first place. The space between us seemed to be growing smaller as time went on, and I could only tell other people were around us by the faint sound of their voices outside of my focus. It was moments like this that I had found Zuko pulling away from, but somehow he wasn't now, and I wondered what exactly had he went through on their adventure to have found a comfort in the closeness of a friend.

"Are you two coming?" Aang's voice cut through the fog that had formed around my mind and I turned away from Zuko to meet his gaze.

"Oh, yes! But umm... what were you talking about?" I answered, giving a sheepish grin and laughing nervously.

Zuko chuckled next to me and I found myself feeling elated yet self-concious due to the sound. "Come on, everyone's gathering around to tell their stories." He said then took my hand and started to follow Aang and everyone else. His sudden initiation of contact confused me but I let it slide and followed after him, deciding to be happy about his comfort with me rather than question it.

A/N - I love this chapter and I'm so glad everyone gets to read it now. Let me know what you think!