A/N

Mood: spiteful

Listening to: Paramore (if you've never heard, you must)

Yet again, I am faced with the thirteenth chapter.

Yum. –coos-

I so love the number thirteen… Blue Spirit-y, ya know?

News Update: Great thanks to Irrel and IcEKoLd for their fanarts! Links up on my profile page. Do check them out. They are simply faaaantasimal.

On the down-side, I've been a horrible review-replier lately. I barely have time to write, and to reply to my reviews would require an hour or so that I don't have. Fear not! I read every one of them, savor every word, and smile at all the appropriate moments. Keep 'em comin'! They're extremely encouraging. I especially love that I'm getting more critiquing feedback. –thumbs up-

I do love you all!... I just don't have the time to show it.

Tell me what you thought of the Secret of the Fire Nation on my deviant account, please! I love chats about the show.

And I love Zuko.

Nuff said.

Disclaimer: the following characters do not belong to me, but to the almighty creators at Nickelodeon Studios. –bows in worship-

xxx

Katara pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, catching another glance Zuko was sending her. He looked the other direction when she caught him. Why did he do that? Was he thinking the same things she was?

She shook her head to herself, already feeling ridiculous.

Sokka folded his arms across his chest. "I don't like this place."

Aang sighed. "You don't like it because you didn't pick it."

Zuko pretended to be too engrossed in the crowd around the restaurant to care that Sokka was berating his choice of dinner, not feeling up to a fight.

"Why didn't Iroh come, again?" Katara asked Zuko.

He jerked his attention back to her, her voice jarring his 'distracted' thoughts.

"He said he just wanted to stay at the apartment today. The crowds were getting to him." Zuko answered with a gentle roll of his shoulders.

Katara nodded. "It takes a little getting used to."

Zuko's eyes were still entranced with her face. Katara blushed, refusing to bring her brother or Aang's attention to the matter.

Zuko pulled his focus away once more. He wasn't really 'infatuated', as Uncle had so blatantly put it. He was simply… puzzled. How could this one girl enchant him so much as for him to spill his feelings to her in any way shape or form? His own uncle, closer to him than his own father, didn't even warrant such a reaction from Zuko.

Puzzled, Zuko assured himself. Only puzzled.

"The food's taking too long." Sokka pouted.

Katara decided to divert the bickering. "So how's the earth bending instruction going, Aang?"

"Slow… Most of them are phony; they just wanted to meet me, but I've mastered some basic moves. Wanna come see after lunch?"

"That sounds great!" Katara replied.

"Yeah… I'll go…" Sokka answered grudgingly.

"Zuko?"

A poster had just been tossed from one squealing girl to the other at a table next to them. Zuko wasn't interested in the girls, but the face plastered ominously on the thin paper was intriguing enough to make him stare.

Katara nudged him. "Something interesting over there?"

Sokka scoffed. "I don't see anything worth anyone's time."

"Are you coming to-." Aang paused as he too caught the familiar face. "What's that?"

"It's a wanted poster." Zuko swallowed uncomfortably.

Aang chuckled. "That's pretty dumb."

Zuko shot him a look.

"What?" Katara asked. "Who's on the wanted poster?"

"It's that 'Blue Spirit' guy." Sokka rolled his eyes. "All the Fire Nation's wanted boards are the same. He's on every one of them."

"I've never heard of him." Katara remarked.

Aang laughed again. "Let's see what they say about him."

Zuko fidgeted. "He's probably just some fugitive with a mask…"

"Sh!" Aang insisted.

The girls were in a frenzy of faux swoons and breathless giggles as they passed the poster around, their chatter increasing volume with each moment.

"… wanted by the Fire Nation… got the poster from a board outside the city… But what did he do, exactly?"

"Well," the loudest boasted. "I happen to have heard the entire story."

"Oh, really?" they gasped. "Tell it!"

"The Avatar had been ruthlessly beaten by the elite team of soldiers held by that dashing Admiral Zhao! The Avatar was tied in a room surrounded by a hundred guards, half of them the best fire benders in the world! Then… When it seemed all hope for the world was lost and the Avatar to be turned in to the Fire Lord… A stranger appeared… He beat his way through a thousand guards at the gates and demanded he be taken to the Avatar. When he got to his cell, the Avatar had broken up into tears, and he pledged his very honor to the Blue Spirit. The stranger carried the Avatar to the gates when Zhao himself challenged him!..." The rest was drowned out in another bout of giggling for that 'dashing Zhao'.

Sokka and Katara swiveled to Aang with bemused expressions.

"So? Ever heard that story?" Sokka asked.

"It's a little exaggerated."

Zuko held his breath. He wasn't ready to explain that tale just yet.

"A little?" Katara laughed. "Isn't it absolutely exaggerated? I mean none of that stuff ever happened!"

"Yeah… Actually, it did." Aang muttered, preoccupied with a scrape on his knuckle.

"When?" Sokka pressed.

Zuko frowned. Maybe he could find some escape… Didn't Uncle need some help moving the Pai Sho board?

Aang continued, despite Zuko's mental protests, "Do you remember when you two were sick after that huge storm? We stopped at an abandoned temple, and I went to find some medicine to help you?"

Sokka narrowed his eyes. "I don't think I'm going to like this story."

"Zhao did capture me-."

"What?" Katara gasped. "Why didn't we know about it?"

"I escaped." Aang glanced at Zuko. "I really didn't think it was a big deal…"

"That Zhao captured you?" Sokka sniffed. "So where's the Blue Spirit fit in to all of this?"

"He helped me escape."

"So who is he?" Katara asked.

"He's…" Aang chewed his cheek. He didn't want to lie to them.

Zuko sighed. As much as the entire ideal shamed him, he hated to put Aang between a rock and hard place.

"It was me." Zuko answered dully.

The three stared at him for what ranked as the most embarrassing moment of Zuko's life. Finally Sokka broke the silence.

"You?" he chortled. "You helped Aang escape?"

Zuko scowled. "I guess you could say that…"

"I don't believe it." Sokka snorted. "You're lying. Aang, he's lying."

"No." Aang said softly. "He's not."

"Why didn't you two tell us?" Katara demanded, her eyes alight with fury.

Zuko and Aang exchanged nervous glances, both wishing the other to take the blame.

"You've known her longer…" Zuko muttered.

"Because," Aang sighed. "I didn't want to… embarrass the prince."

"You didn't want to disgrace yourself!" Zuko protested. "You failed in 'conforming' me, and that gave you a bad name as the Avatar! Don't pretend-."

"Hey! Don't forget your reasons for coming in the place, Mr. Honorable." Aang snapped.

"I want the whole story." Katara cut in through gritted teeth. "From start to finish."

"Take it away, Avatar," Zuko snarled. "How did I go so wrong?"

"I got captured by a group of archers under the command of Zhao." Aang began seethingly. "He, like the girls said, tied me in a chamber before he could ship me off to the Fire Lord. I did not start bawling, though. So then…"

"So then I snuck in from the outside." Zuko continued. "Took out the guards posted at Aang's cell and broke him free."

"Why?" Katara asked skeptically.

Aang snorted and was granted another glare from Zuko.

"Because I wanted to take him in myself." He admitted. "If Zhao took him, I'd-."

" 'Never have a chance at restoring my honor,'" Sokka mimicked. "Yeah, we can guess. You're one noble guy, I tell ya."

"And just what would you have done you worthless hogmonkey?" Zuko exclaimed.

"I wouldn't have gotten banished in the first place, hothead!"

Zuko pushed himself to his feet. "Say that again." He dared.

"That's enough." Katara pulled Zuko down into his seat before he averted any more eyes to their table. "This is all so… childish! Sokka, you don't even know why Zuko was banished, so just shut up!"

"And you do?" Sokka sneered. "Don't take his side!"

"I'm not taking his side! I'm not taking any sides! He was wrong for doing what he did."

"And I ask you, too, what would you have done?" Zuko accused her.

"I would've done what was best for my people, and for you that would've meant letting Zhao take Aang to the Fire Lord."

"What are you suggesting?" Aang asked, dumb-struck.

"I'm not suggesting anything, Aang. And I can't believe you didn't tell us this!" Katara exclaimed.

Zuko rubbed his temples. Oh, he thought, this is why I never had friends…

xxx

The moods around the group didn't change much during dinner, either. The only ones that weren't upset or in trouble with someone else were Momo and Iroh, who seemed to take the seething silence bad enough as it were.

"Why-." Iroh began.

"Don't ask." Zuko ordered.

"Why do you always talk to him that way?" Katara snarled.

Zuko groaned. "This is just like when we first got together, this group. We bickered and fought over all those stupid little things that happened ages ago! Can't we just drop it?"

"It wasn't stupid or little!" She retorted. "Aang could've been in serious trouble!"

"But I saved him." Zuko protested. "I'm getting penalized for keeping him free!"

"You would've turned me in as soon as you had the chance." Aang growled.

"Has it occurred to you that I might regret my actions, Avatar?" Zuko asked hotly.

Aang scowled in reply.

"Let's just… Sleep on it." Katara sighed. "Maybe tomorrow we'll all have cooled down."

"Isn't that kind of an oxymoron?" Sokka asked. "For Zuko to cool down?"

The rest blew off his comment and slipped off into their bedrooms.

"Katara…" Zuko attempted to get her attention as they shuffled down the hall.

"Zuko, quite honestly, I don't want to talk to you right now." She answered, miffed. "I'm too disappointed in you."

Without a further breath, she slammed her door in his face.

A/N

Yeah… Another classic filler chapter… Dang. –pulls drawstring on bow and shoots it down-