Standard disclaimers apply.

This chapter deals mostly with the 'friends' part of being friends with perks.

Sokka woke well past dawn and wondered by the angle of the sunlight entering his room if he'd missed breakfast. But somehow he was too relaxed to worry much about it as he threw on some clothes and headed for the courtyard.

The two teens had stayed up another hour, lazily talking about nothing in particular, until the number of yawns and length of sleepy silences convinced the water tribesman it was time to go back to his own bed. Zuko had already mostly drifted off by that point, so he just gave a quiet 'goodnight' and slipped out. Heading for breakfast, though, he second guessed himself a bit. Would Zuko have expected a kiss goodbye? Or for Sokka to spend the night? Would he be offended, or had leaving his room just as if they had been hanging out and talking the whole time more appropriate? The prince had said he didn't want romance, but was kissing goodbye or cuddling a while romantic per se or just the reasonable aftermath of an encounter if you didn't immediately sneak out in the dark? Should he have...?

Then he walked through the archway and saw Zuko sitting with the others, engaging in the new morning ritual of dividing up Aang's day in training while the young monk pathetically attempted to get any time to enjoy himself away from three very demanding bending masters. And when Zuko caught sight of Sokka and gestured casually to the heaping bowl of rice and fruit that he was subtly defending from both Toph's desire for seconds and Katara's attempts to clean up, the water tribesman found himself relaxing. He and Zuko were friends. If he wondered whether Zuko preferred a goodnight kiss after his friendship perks, well then he could just ask, now couldn't he?

Well, maybe not over breakfast with everyone else there.

lineline

When the group had gathered again for lunch, Aang and Zuko both tired from a full morning of firebending practice, Sokka repaid breakfast by nabbing a serving of badgerfrog for each of them and settling beside the prince. "We're running low on meat," he commented with his mouth full. "Maybe we should go fishing sometime."

He caught Katara scowling at the offer out of the corner of his eye, but seriously, even before last night he had been starting to think she needed to let this go.

"I don't know..." Zuko had waited until he was done swallowing to respond. "I tried spear fishing once when Uncle and I were first on our own, and what I came up with would have been barely worth using for bait to catch a real fish." He must have caught Sokka's amused grin, because he quickly deflected any oncoming humor attempts. "Not that it mattered, because in the meantime, Uncle had found a poisonous bush to brew up into tea..."

Toph laughed out loud. "Glad he figured that one out before he offered me tea that time! I thought your uncle was a pretty smart guy, but now I'm wondering."

The prince smirked. "Uncle is a very wise old man, who turns into a complete idiot any time tea is involved."

Katara started to say something, but Sokka didn't feel like letting her ruin the mood. "So all that time you were chasing us around, all we needed to do was tell your Uncle there was good tea in the other direction and he would have dragged you off?"

More of a grimace this time, though there was still amusement in his voice. "Pretty much, he did alter our course for a Pai Sho tile once and he likes tea even more than that crazy game."

Aang interrupted this time. "Did you actually drink the tea? What happened?"

"Uncle drank the tea and started getting hives all over his body, so we had to find a healer. We knew if we were recognized by Earth Kingdom forces we'd be killed, though anyone in the Fire Nation colonies could report our presence to my sister. So of course we headed to the nearest Earth Kingdom town..."

Haru, Teo and The Duke, who had been listening to the story in silence all burst out in a combination of laughs and confusion. Sokka grinned, but waved them down. "Seriously, guys, you have not met his sister."

"I'd think being his sister would be sufficient clue," Katara finally got a snipe in edgewise. Zuko stiffened slightly, but didn't look or respond.

"Yum, lunch was good!" Aang put down his empty bowl with exaggerated cheer. "Come on Katara, waterbending training up next and I want to show you a neat waterfall near the bottom of the temple!" The young monk dragged her off with only slightly faked enthusiasm while Sokka relaxed.

lineline

After the dishes had all been cleaned up, Zuko asked Toph to get them up to the top of the cliff so he could bring his war balloon down to the temple. "I'd rather it not turn into a badgerfrog nest, and it might come in handy with this many people here."

"Oh, can I come?" Teo piped up. "I didn't get much of a chance to see Sokka's prototype in action, and obviously during the retreat I didn't want a close up view."

"The more the merrier, Wheels," Toph said cheerfully. She led the way a bit back into the temple. "Everyone hold on tight, I think I can actually bring us up right near it." She gave Zuko a sightless glare as the floor they were standing on shot up into a continually shifting tunnel. "I have a good memory for where people burn my feet."

Sokka jumped in before the prince could attempt an apology. "Yeah, cause I'm sure Zuko expects everyone who sneaks up on him in the middle of the night to be both friendly and barefoot. It would have been a warning shot to anyone else in the group."

Zuko smiled as he elbowed the water tribesman. "I could have held off on any sort of shot, warning or otherwise. Toph can stay mad for a couple more weeks if she wants." But he added, in a much quieter voice, "Thanks though."

"Darn it Sparky, you're no fun to be mad at if you take the blame that easily. Aaaand, here we are!" Toph hadn't been bragging, they came up in sight of the red balloon silk, spread tentlike between some trees. The earthbender sat down to wait while Sokka and Zuko started untangling it and Teo eagerly investigated the equipment in the basket.

"It seems like there isn't enough fuel to be useful."

"Well, not on it's own," the prince agreed. "It was reworked to be primarily fueled by firebending, with a secondary supply for if the pilot needed a nap. It frees up a lot of weight."

Sokka was a little disappointed. "So you're the only one who can fly this thing?"

"Me or Aang. But it will carry two people easily, three in a pinch... maybe four if one of them is Toph or the Duke."

"We could always retrofit an auxiliary fuel tank," Teo put in. "We don't have a lot of parts around here, but it wouldn't be hard to make it so it could switch between bending fueled and normal fairly easily."

Zuko smiled. "As long as Sokka doesn't blow himself up piloting it. So who wants a ride down to the courtyard?"

"Not me, Sparky," Toph looked up from her comfortable spot. "These feet don't leave the ground when there's another way to get there."

"I'd love to, but my chair is too bulky, I think." Teo looked sad, but the prince reassured him quickly.

"We'll rig a seat for you tonight and take a flight tomorrow. You definitely should see it in action. Sokka?"

"Of course I'm coming, I helped invent this thing, you know! And I'd like a flight without explosions."

"Well, I can't promise anything... Ow!"

lineline

"So Zuko... if you're willing to give Toph a couple more weeks of being her style of mad, how long are you planning on putting up with Katara?"

The firebender's jaw tightened and the flames he was feeding into the burner might have gotten a little hotter than they needed to be. "I guess until I can find a way to get her to stop hating me... Toph guilting me into doing things for her is one thing, but your sister's level of hostility..." He sighed and looked out over the landscape. "I mean, I've worked with people who aren't particularly nice to me. I've been my sister's favorite emotional punching bag practically her whole life, and when she wasn't actually assigned to kill me, we've always worked well together, but with Katara-"

"Have I mentioned lately that your family is completely screwed up?"

"It pretty much goes without saying, but we were talking about your sister, not mine. And the point is, she and I don't work well together, we can't even be in the same area without it making everything more difficult, and I don't think it's just for me."

"No, it isn't." Sokka was feeling bad for 'siding' against his own family, but Team Avatar as a whole was his family too. "The tension is getting to everyone in the group, and little things are always turning into conflicts where everyone feels like they have to take sides. And Katara isn't the type to understand the difference between saying I think you're wrong about this exact issue and meaning I like Zuko better than you and hereby betray our entire tribe and spit upon the memory of our mother by siding with him."

"Well, she is younger than us..." The prince glanced over and Sokka saw concern in his eyes. "Is that really how she makes you feel?"

"Yeah, a little." He looked away but could still feel golden eyes boring into his skull. "Okay, sometimes a lot. Katara doesn't really see things in shades of grey... and she really loves that necklace-"

"I. Didn't. Steal. Her. Necklace," the prince ground out between gritted teeth. Sokka was almost pleased to see his demeanor change from concern and worry to the annoyance that had clearly been simmering underneath it. Annoyed Zuko was more familiar. "I was investigating a report of the Avatar being part of a prison break and I found that pendant on the rig. Technically if I hadn't picked it up, she never would have gotten it back, but I don't exactly deserve thanks for that." He rather forcefully added extra flame to the burner and checked their heading. "Maybe that's why it's easier to put up with Toph. At least I really did burn her feet."

The water tribesman set a hand on his shoulder and gave a friendly squeeze. "Been biting your tongue on that one a while?" Zuko held on to the annoyance for a moment then relaxed into an embarrassed chuckle and nodded. "She also likes to claim that you 'set pirates on us' when Aang and I know she stole that scroll." He moved his hand from the prince's shoulder to start rubbing his back. A change of topic seemed in order. "So, I can't help but notice that you're wearing a shirt."

This laugh was more surprised than embarrassed. "Is that a problem?"

"Hmmm... Yes, yes it is. See here on Team Avatar, everyone has a secondary role along with their combat or teaching abilities. And I feel a shirt seriously interferes with your secondary role as my eye candy." Sokka gave a cheeky grin as Zuko started to smirk.

"Your personal eye candy? That doesn't seem like much of a team role..." But he slipped his shirt off anyway, causing a contented sigh to escape the water tribesman.

"Aaaahhh, now that's what Sokka's talking about... Well, the others can look if they want to - except Toph of course - but yeah, being eye candy for me will be the main point." He was going to suggest a few other roles that he personally felt needed filled when the other boy stiffened slightly, looking beyond him. "What is it?" He turned around but just saw sky and landscape.

"Can you hit that hawk with your boomerang?" Zuko pointed to the bird, which seemed to have an odd lump on its back. A messenger hawk?

"I'll give it a try, just keep us steady." He flung the weapon hard and saw it hit. "Don't descend till Boomerang comes back! And I thought you could shoot fire that far."

"I can, but burning up the scroll case would defeat the purpose."

"Yeah, what's the purpose?"

"Curiosity, mostly. It had a green ribbon, which is administrative, and I thought we might get lucky and find out something useful." The war balloon landed in a clearing near where the bird had dropped and the two teens spread out looking. Sokka found it thrashing in some berry bushes.

"Awww, poor guy's wing is broken. It's okay, Katara will fix it some, and I'll feed you and nurse you back to health and you'll be mine and I'll name you Hawkie Two and-"

"You really are insane, aren't you?"

"Hey, I had a messenger hawk for a while, and it was really cool!" But he gave Zuko the scroll case before gathering up the bird to take back to the war balloon. Once they were in the air again he fussed over the wounded hawk while the prince began looking through several scrolls it had been carrying. "Anything interesting?"

"Maybe. Informative, at least. Looks like summary reports going to an administrative hub in the Earth Kingdom colonies. Officer reassignments, prisoner transfers, my return to being wanted dead or alive, stationing airships..." Hawkie Two was occupying most of the water tribesman's attention and he mostly heard the information as background noise until a change of tone caught his ear. "Hey, Sokka?"

He looked up from his attempts to tempt the bird into eating a bit of jerky to see Zuko looking very intently at one of the scrolls. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Do you know anyone from the invasion named Hakoda?"