The trip to town had taken slightly longer than everyone expected, and it was agreed by all that since they'd be flying the rest of the way to the coast, they could afford to spend one more night in the forest and leave the next day. Most of the supplies had already been stowed away, and Katara and Zuko were both sitting in the large saddle resting on the ground at the far end of the camp, back to back as they rummaged through their respective bags. Meanwhile, Momo sat between them, glancing from one to the other with curiosity.

A small cloud of dust spewed from the saddlebag the water bender shared with Toph, eliciting a fit of coughing followed by a series of sneezes. Frantically waving the drifting powder away with a gag, Katara frowned down into the satchel.

"Why must everything I own be covered in a layer of dirt?" she asked no one in particular as she shook out a garment.

She turned her head and held her breath against the onslaught of finely crushed soil that billowed out from it, causing the lemur to dart over to other side of the saddle, away from the drifting grime.

"This entire bag smells like week-old tea," grumbled Zuko as he held a tunic to his nose briefly before thrusting it aside with a grimace.

Momo picked it up and licked it experimentally before dropping it in distaste as he went to investigate Katara's progress once more.

"You'd think a girl raised in a noble family would be neater," Katara muttered under her breath, disgustedly dropping a rumpled blouse over her shoulder where it landed right on top of Momo.

"Every time I open this bag he's added more junk," the prince mumbled irritably, tossing aside a pile of colorful but useless scraps of fabric as he continued to rummage through the bag.

No sooner had Momo disentangled himself from the wadded shirt Katara had discarded, he was buried in a mound of brightly colored bits of cloth.

Two simultaneous sighs erupted from the saddle before the pair exclaimed in unison.

"And I can't find anything!"

At the sound of their mutual complaint, Zuko and Katara sat up abruptly and snapped their heads around to look over their shoulders at one another. Momo popped his head out of the clutter to stare up at them with an inquisitive chirrup while they blinked at each other in surprise.

Slowly, the two benders let their gazes fall to their own bags for a moment, before slyly turning back toward each other wearing identical grins of clever resolve, obviously sharing the same thought.

"I think I know how to solve this," Katara said to him with a triumphant smirk. Clearing her throat a bit, she stood up.

"Okay, it's time for a change in storage arrangements," she announced to the group in a businesslike fashion.

"What's wrong with the way it's set up now?" asked her brother from across the camp, slightly defensive since he'd originally been the one to determine which people shared each bag with whom.

"Nothing," she said soothingly. "Except that I'm tired of my few worldly possessions constantly being covered in 'a healthy coating of earth'," she explained, looking pointedly at Toph.

"And I am tired of everything I own smelling like tea," Zuko added, with an equally meaningful glare at his uncle.

"So," continued Katara briskly, "if no one has any objections, I propose we change things around a bit."

"A little dirt never harmed anyone," Iroh said with an unconcerned shrug.

"I like the smell of tea," quipped Toph offhandedly.

"Good!" remarked Katara with satisfaction, "Because from now on, Toph, you'll be sharing a bag with Iroh, and Zuko and I will keep our stuff in this one." She tapped the saddlebag for emphasis.

Aang and Sokka looked at each other with bemused expressions. In all honesty, Sokka was proud of his sister for finally getting past her animosity toward Zuko, especially after how frigid she'd been just a little over a week ago. And Aang couldn't help but feel that the advice Toph had given him about letting the two work things out on their own was the best he could have gotten. Things were definitely looking up for their little group, but neither boy was about to voice his thoughts.

"Sounds reasonable enough to me," offered the Avatar with a smile as Momo landed on his shoulder. The lemur had decided it would be much safer there.

"Hey, if it makes you two neat freaks happy," Sokka added, "then knock yourselves out."

Any other time, Zuko and Katara might have taken offense at the warrior's comment, but at that moment, they couldn't care less. They were far too busy happily yanking things out of their current bags so they could begin putting their new one in order.

Two hours later, as twilight shadows gathered around the camp, Katara and Zuko smiled down into the neatly organized satchel, and then up at each other, both of them looking enormously pleased with themselves. Behind them, Aang and Toph stumbled into camp, exhausted after a sparring match with no clear winner. The two of them flopped wearily against Appa's side.

"Well, Twinkle Toes," the girl said tiredly, "I have to admit you're getting better."

"Better?!" he cried incredulously, "I almost won this time!"

"Yeah, almost," she replied archly. "But a draw isn't a win, and I'm not considering you a master until you beat me."

"Then I'll be the only Avatar in history who never masters earth bending," he grumbled morosely.

"Toph is only teasing you, Aang," Katara chided humorously as she sat beside him. "You should be proud of how well you're doing. After all, you're mastering all the elements at a much younger age than any Avatar before you."

"And at the same time, no less," added Iroh as he poured a cup of tea and then began looking around for something he apparently misplaced.

"Oh sure," drawled Toph good-naturedly, "Cheer him up, make him feel better…ya bunch of softies. But I suppose I have to give him some credit," she acquiesced with a small groan, "I don't think I have ever been this tired after a match."

"Too tired for tea?" asked Iroh slyly as he continued to search the area for whatever it was he'd lost.

"Not too tired to drink it," she answered, raising a finger in protest for a moment before it flopped back down as she added, "but definitely too tired to go get it."

In a moment of sympathy for his exhausted friend, Sokka picked up the tea Iroh had just poured. He didn't even notice the old man opening his mouth with a look of slight dismay, holding up a hand as if wanting to stop the boy from taking the cup.

"Uh that's not-"

"Here, Toph," Sokka said kindly, oblivious to Iroh's attempt to get his attention. "Have some tea."

"Wow. Thanks, Sokka," she replied, taken aback somewhat by his uncharacteristic generosity. But as she took the cup from him, she frowned.

"Um…not to sound ungrateful or anything," the girl declined as she handed the drink back, "but, this isn't my cup."

"Huh?"

"That's not my cup," she repeated.

Sokka looked confoundedly at the teacup, then to Aang and Katara who were both giggling at this point, and then back to Toph. Behind him, he could hear Iroh chuckling as well.

"What do you mean it's not your cup?"

"That's not her cup," Zuko explained simply.

"It's a cup!" cried Sokka in exasperation, "The same as all the other cups!"

"No," returned the earth bender patiently, as if speaking to a small child, "my cup is different."

"Toph, all the cups are different!" he yelled, beginning to lose his cool. "We don't have a matched set."

By now, Iroh, Aang, and Katara were clutching their sides to keep from laughing out loud, and even Zuko was holding a hand to his mouth to hide the grin on his face.

"Sokka, how can you be the only person here who doesn't know which cup is mine? I always drink from the same one."

"How can you even tell the difference?" he asked sharply, feeling certain this was another one of her 'blind' jokes and that everyone was in on it.

"It's heavier, and has a specific texture," she replied.

"So what am I supposed to do, pick up each cup and weigh it?" Sokka shot back sarcastically. "Or maybe I should rub them all?"

"Look, I don't know how the others know which one is mine," she went on tersely, "but apparently they do, because they've never given me the wrong one."

"It's the yellow cup," offered Zuko with a hint of humor in his voice.

"Which I can't seem to find at the moment," added Iroh as he resumed he search.

At this, the others also began glancing around the camp, looking for the missing teacup. Zuko spotted it sitting on a log near the edge of the clearing.

"There it is," he said, and walked over to fetch it.

"What is it doing over there?" wondered Iroh aloud.

Picking it up, Zuko noticed a small bit of water in it, probably from being washed. He carelessly dumped the liquid into the woods before holding it out to his uncle to be filled, and then took the cup over to Toph.

"Thank you, Zuko," Toph said graciously before taking a leisurely sip. Hidden beneath her long bangs, her eyebrows knit together as the liquid rolled down her throat.

"Is this a new blend?" she asked Iroh.

"Yes it is," he replied happily, pleased she had noticed.

"I like it," the girl lied smoothly, deciding not to mention the odd aftertaste it had. It was one thing to give Sokka grief over giving her the wrong cup, but she wasn't about to criticize Iroh's tea.

Still pouting over the whole teacup issue, the water tribe warrior 'harrumphed' and sat down, muttering as he did so.

"It's just a cup."

The campfire had burned away to mere glowing embers and the moon was just high enough to filter down through the treetops. Soft snores could be heard from one or two of the stone-made tents, and Appa rumbled occasionally, huffing and snuffling in his sleep, lost in the throws of a pleasant dream.

Not far from the camp, in the small clearing where the group had eaten breakfast, Zuko sat down and pulled the mask he'd purchased earlier from the folds of his tunic where it had been hidden. He had no idea why he'd gone back for it, and it was stupid to try and keep something like this around, running the risk it would be found by one of the others.

Not that he expected Katara to go rummaging through his half of the bag. She at least had some respect for his privacy, unlike his uncle who would have been sure to come across it sooner or later.

Staring into the lifeless blue countenance, memories of Ursa came unbidden to Zuko's mind. He recalled sitting spellbound at her feet, listening to the stories she used to tell him of a dashing masked hero who made up for his lack of fire bending skills by wielding swords.

They were nothing more than fanciful tales meant to sooth his despair after the endlessly disastrous fire bending lessons he had, but they had inspired him nonetheless. So much so that when he'd spotted a mask like this at the market in Bìmíng shortly after his banishment, he'd been compelled to purchase it…as well as a pair of twin dao.

But the things he did under the guise of the Blue Spirit where hardly the same honorable pursuits as his childhood idol. He didn't rescue damsels in distress or save villages from marauding pirates. His incarnation of the Blue Spirit was a thief and a traitor, not only to his country, but also to himself. And now, Zuko couldn't help but feel he'd somehow tainted his mother's stories by such behavior, no matter how necessary it seemed at the time.

The blue and white face leered up at him, its painted grimace mocking the prince for his foolishness.

He really shouldn't have bought it.

As the moon continued its trek across the night sky, no longer glimmering through the foliage, a pair of bottomless eyes set deep in a blue and white scowl peered down from a perch high above the camp. No one stirred, nor had any need to, for the thick wooden tree trunk obscured him from the sight of even Toph's peculiar form of sensory vision.

With a soft rustle of fluttering leaves, the Blue Spirit disappeared into the night

.