"You can stop staring at me, you know," a voice came from above, though the speaker's eyes were closed- or atleast, that's what it looked like from Katara's point of view, far below from the tree's uppermost branches, where a certain firebender was. "I'm not going to try anything."

"Yeah, right," she rolled her eyes, though it wasn't at him.. She was slightly embarrassed at being caught in her sleeping bag, staring at him, to make sure he didn't try anything. "So... How's Aang's firebending?" She asked, her attempt at making casual conversation. She paused to listen to her brother sleeping across from the fire, which had died down to small flames- independent little sparks, fighting the light breezes to stay lit.

"Fine," the waterbender nodded at this; his responses were always short.

The two's fighting had stopped- for the most part. They kept it at verbal attacks, since Katara didn't want to lose the firebender, who was willing to help Aang.

She snuggled into the warmth of her sleeping fur-lined sleeping sack, yawning. She closed her eyes, before gazing through her lashes at the barely visible form of the Prince, high up in a nearby tree. His crouched form was silhouetted by moonlight, and she was just able to see him toying with the sash to his Earth Kingdom robes.

--

The Next Day...

"Aang, you set up tents," Katara paused, thinking of something suitable for the 'Blind Bandit'. "Toph, do you think you could find that river Aang saw when he was up on Appa?" With an approving crack of her knuckles, the earthbender was off. "Um, I'm going to go get firewood." The waterbender looked over at the two remaining- Zuko was leaned against Appa and Sokka was sharpening his boomerang. "Sokka, you can gather some food this time. Fish, maybe."

A derisive snort came from Zuko, who pushed himself away from Appa's side. "He's more suitable for picking berries- though I wouldn't trust him with that." Sneering at Sokka, he continued, "He'd probably manage to find the most poisonous berries in the entire forest."

Instead of snorting, as the Crown Prince had, Katara gave a lady-like sniffle, "He only knows how to collect nuts." The scarred teenager gave her an approving look before speaking.

"Alright what do I have to do?" He raised a brow.

"Hey! Hey!" Her sibling waved a hand in the air, successfully gaining their attention. "Why don't we see how well you fish, pretty boy?"

"First of all, never call me that ever again, or you'll be eating dirt for the rest of your life," Zuko smirked, knowing the inevitable.

"Dirt?" Sokka asked.

"A demonstration? Of course," in one swift movement, Zuko had thrown the Water Tribe warrior to the ground, his face being ground into the earth. "Mmm, how does that taste?" The Prince had one knee pressing into the small of the other boy's back, and the other was on the ground, giving him balance. Letting go of one of Sokka's shoulders, he lifted his head off the ground with his 'warrior's wolf-tail'. Just as quickly as he had taken him down, he released the younger teen and backed away marveling at how much dirt he was spitting out.

"Jerk!" Boomerang boy cried- that was Zuko's term for the non-bending slob- Boomerang boy. Being someone who grew up with a sadistic little sister and a psycho father, he personally thought it was very witty. "Katara, tell him. Tell him he's a jerk!"

"Zuk," The Prince frowned at his nickname. Zuk? Where was the 'o' part? The last syllable in his birth name? Strange. "You're a jerk," she smirked toward her brother. "But your face when you bit the dust- literally- was priceless."

"As I was saying," The firebender rubbed his hands on his thighs, hoping to get the 'Essence of Sokka' off of him. "What do I do?"

"You can help Sokka," she grinned.

"What?!" The two boys asked in unison.

"You can't seriously expect me-" Zuko was cut off by a raging Sokka.

"Did you see what he just did? I mean, seriously-"

"If you want your brother to come back alive, assign me a different task." The Prince added in a hasty, "Now."

"Nope," The waterbender shrugged her shoulders. "You two don't have to work together, you just have to gather food. Shoo, shoo." She waved them off before snaking into the forest to gather firewood.

"Better not try that stunt again," Sokka warned, once his sister was out of ear shot.

"And what are you gonna do about it?" The Prince took this time to look especially menacing, squaring his shoulders and jaw, glaring down at the shorter boy. "Well?"

"I'm gonna go look for those nuts," The Water Tribe warrior scampered off. There was no way he was picking a fight with a firebender when...

A. His friends weren't there to back him up.

B. He had no clue where his machete was- Toph probably took it as her back-scratcher... Again.

C. He wasn't a bender.

D. Did he mention that his friends weren't there to back him up?

For the next half-hour, Sokka wandered aimlessly about the forest, picking up only the things he knew the names of. Let's see he found some acorns and maybe- what was that?- a rock? He'd been picking through the contents at the base of a tree, when his face went dull, before becoming shocked. He'd been hit, but by what... And who?

"Hey!" He rubbed the bump that was forming on his head. Looking down, he saw a strange multi-colored fruit sitting at his feet. "Who dares hit this warrior?" He asked no one in particular.

"I do," the answer came from above, more fruit raining down.

Thump, thump, thump. They hit the forest floor, rolling a little way from the tree. The boy of water ducked and dodged through these, attempting to look up and see Zuko- the speaker. Thump, thump, thump. Finally, he spotted him, near the tree's top- this was an incredibly large tree, at that- shaking a branch and kicking down the fruit he'd already collected.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thunk! Sokka fell to the forest floor, clutching his bruised skull. The rain of fire stopped, and Zuko began his descent down, carefully climbing through the branches- backward.

After a few more moments, Zuko was nearing the middle of the tall tree, and without thinking, Sokka hurled his boomerang at him, while he wasn't looking.

The Prince cried out as the blade of the sharpened piece of metal struck his arm, and he lost his balance, crashing through the branches. He fought to regain control, but it happened like this- he would struggle to cling to the branches he was crashing into at an amazing speed, but everytime, gravity got the better of him and he would continue to fall. Finally, desperate, he reached for the other limbs of the tree that he hadn't splintered by landing on.

One smashed into his arm, and he lost all conscious thought of stopping himself, and he just, fell.

Though the tree limbs slowed his fall- and also horribly bruised his back- when he landed at the bottom near an amazed Sokka, he lay still, looking quite like he was in a daze.

"Holy... Shit..." Muttered the Water Tribe warrior where he sat on the ground. He didn't think that that would've happened!

Letting loose an angry groan, he attempted to move his arm. He hissed in a gasp of air when he realized what had happened. He'd broken his arm on the way down.

"Ugh, that doesn't look good," muttered Sokka when he saw the already bruising arm that seemed to be bent in the wrong direction.

"You think?" The Prince managed out through clenched teeth. Exhaling slowly, he pushed himself up with the other, un-broken arm; oh how it hurt to move. "Oh fuck," he murmured, almost afraid to move his broken arm. His golden gaze shot upward and he glared at Sokka. "Get away," he whispered, using a menacing monotone.

"What? I hate to admit this, but I'm willing to help-"

"I don't need your help!" Growled Zuko. The Water Tribe warrior sighed- he hadn't been acting as hostile as this since when he first joined the group.

"Good going, Sokka," he muttered to himself. Raising his voice, he spoke. "Come on, atleast let me help you..." He paused. Help you- what? "Umm, I'll go get Katara." Without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and raced away from the area, attempting to stop the guilt-driven thoughts in his mind.

Why should he feel guilty? It wasn't his fault... "Yeah, it was." He muttered stoically as he ducked into the campsite. "Katara!" He called into the forested area he'd remembered her first going into.

"Yeah?" He whipped around to face his sister, who'd been setting down a pile of dry wood for a fire. "What's wrong?" She probably noticed the frightened expression on his brother's face- the exact expression he was hoping to not have!

"Um, well, you see. Uh, oh... How do I put this?" He struggled to find the right words.

"What? You kill Zuko?" She asked sarcastically, wiping her dirty hands on the bottom of her tunic.

"Well, not exactly." He joked, but Katara took it seriously.

"What? Where is he?" She asked urgently. She walked forward, her eyes wide. "What'd you do?"

"I didn't kill him, if that's what you mean!" He rolled his eyes. "But, I think I broke his arm..."

"Show me." Katara commanded, giving him a shove.

"Fine, fine."

They walked through the woods, but were surprised to find the fruits and broken branches on the forest floor, but not the Prince.

"Well?" His sibling asked. "Where is he?"

"He probably wandered off." The eldest shrugged.

"Why is there blood?" She asked, pointing to a small, barely visible trail of blood heading past the tree. Her brother bent over to retrieve his boomerang, which was in the immediate vicinity from where it had stricken Zuko.

"I sorta hit flames with my boomerang while he was up there," he gestured upward with his favored weapon, a small amount of blood flying off the edge and onto the bark of the tree. "He proceeded to fall. Not my fault he couldn't hold on."

It took the waterbender a while to notice, but they were following the blood trail.

Then, they heard voices...