Chapter 8

"You did it, you rescued me! You were amazing, you're wonderful. You're a little unorthodox I'll admit it, but still you saved me!"

Now safely on the other side of the gorge and a good distance from the castle, the Princess was celebrating her new found freedom, she's so ecstatic she runs to the bedraggled Zuko and gives him a tight hug...which proves too much of a sensory overload for the exhausted fire-bender. As calmly as possible Zuko pushes the princess away from him, completely oblivious the princess continues on;

"Thy deed is great, and thy heart is pure. I am eternally in your debt."

"What'd you do to her?" Aang asks getting up in Zuko's face.

"Nothing she's always like that." He replies taking off his gloves. Hanging on to a rickety rope bridge/ladder over a sea of molten rock had turned his armour into a very small and cramped sweat box. Unaware of the guys' conversation, the princess is still going on,

"The battle is won. You may remove your helmet, good sir."

"Uh, no." Zuko had completely forgotten about that. The princess would take one look at his face and run back to the castle, even if it meant swimming through the lava to do it. Under no circumstances was that helmet coming off until the Princess was safely in the Fire Nation.

"Well why not?"

"I...I have helmet hair."

"Oh please, a little helmet hair never hurt anyone. I would'st look upon the face of my rescuer."

"Oh no you wouldn't—st."

"But, then how will you kiss me?"

"What?" shocked he turns to Aang, "That wasn't in the job description...was it?"

Shaking his head Aang says, "Maybe it's a perk?"

"No of course not," the princess says laughingly and the two visibly un-tense.

"It's destiny." And there's the tension...

"Excuse me?"

"You must know how it goes. A beautiful princess locked in a tower and beset by a dragon is rescued by a brave knight, and then they share true love's first kiss."

"Wait, you think Zuko is your true love?" Aang asks, sounding surprised.

"Yes." The princess replies whole-heartedly.

Without warning Zuko starts laughing...rather exuberantly, while the princess and Aang watch confused.

"Is he alright?" the princess asks uncertainly.

"I don't know this is the happiest I've seen him since I met him."

"What is so funny?"

Taking a few calming breaths Zuko takes a moment before answering, "Let's just say I'm not your type princess."

"Of course you are, you came and rescued me. Now remove your helmet."

"Guys I really don't think this is a good idea." Aang says nervously.

"I'm not going to."

"Take it off."

"No!"

"NOW!"

"Okay! Easy, as you command 'Your Highness'." With a sense of dread Zuko removes his helmet, and being a glutton for punishment, forces himself to keep his eyes open to watch her reaction.

As Zuko finally removes the helmet both the Princess and Aang have an unobstructed view of Zuko's scarred face, as the only was to get the helmet on was to pull his hair into a topknot. When Aang had first met Zuko most of his hair was covering his face so he hadn't seen the full extent, but now he could see everything. Zuko's scar covered the upper portion of the left side of his face, covering not just his eye but his left ear as well, and it spiked into his hair line too. It looked like an angry red fire ball streaking across his face.

Honestly, Aang admitted to himself, it was pretty bad. But he'd been around Zuko for over a month now, so he was used to the scar, it was the princess he was concerned about. What would her reaction be?

Keeping perfectly still Aang looks over to the princess and watches as a myriad of emotion fly across her face; shock, fear, disgust, outrage, bewilderment, and finally...recognition?

Aang watches as Katara takes a few hesitant steps forward and looks closer at Zuko's face.

"I know you." She almost whispers, looking into Zuko's eyes. As Aang watches with those few words a strange light enters Zuko's eyes, staring back at the Princess. But before Aang can identify it said light is extinguished with the princess' next few words. "You're the Exile from the fire nation all those knights would talk about!"

Completely shut down, Zuko undoes the top not and his hair falls back into his face. "You were expecting Prince charming?"

"Well, yeah. No, no, no this is all wrong! You're supposed to be a knight, or preferably a Prince."

"How about a King?" at her puzzled expression Zuko continues, "I was sent to rescue you by Prince Ozai. He's the one who wants to marry you, all you have to do is say yes and not only will he be a king, you'll be a queen."

"Then why didn't he come and rescue me?" The princess asks as Zuko continues removing the armour until he is down to his normal clothing.

"That's a good question. You should ask him when we get there."

"But I have to be rescued by my true love-not a couple of rejects!"

"Rejects?" Aang asks, his lower lip trembling in an offended pout.

"Look princess you're not making my job any easier." Zuko says having enough of this princess' attitude.

"Well I'm sorry, Exile, but your job is not my problem. You can tell Prince Ozai that if he wants to rescue me properly, I'll be waiting for him right here." She says taking a dainty seat on the hot sand dune nearest to them.

'So that's where it went.' Aang thinks to himself as no one else seems too concerned about the appearance of the random boulder.

"Alright listen here you; I'm nobody's messenger boy okay?"

"You seem pretty content being someone's errand boy though."

"You have two options, you can come with us the easy way, or I can make you come with us, your choice."

"You wouldn't dare." Without warning Zuko grabs her under the knees and throws her over his shoulder. "What-Hey put me down!"

Though she protests profusely Zuko just ignores her shouting and thumping on his back and starts walking towards where they left Appa.

"You coming or what Aang?"

"Oh yeah, I'm right behind you."

Aang is still astonished at what Zuko has just done, but at least they had the princess now. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong as such; they were taking her back to civilization. No one was forcing her to marry the Prince. Well, at least they weren't fording her into marriage, remembering all of Prince Ozai's fire-benders, Aang thought the princess might be a little bit "inclined" to accept Ozai's offer. All they had to do now was get her back to the Fire Nation.

"Put me down or you will suffer the consequences! Oh this is not dignified!"

'Oh it's going to be such a loooonnnnnggg trip back.' Aang thinks dejectedly following the determined Zuko carrying the screeching princess.

-Midday-

"You didn't really think this one through did you Zuko?"

"Shut Up Aang." The thing that he didn't completely think through, was how to get the princess, and themselves, out of the desert because today felt even hotter than the one before so there was very little chance of the balloon getting off the ground, let alone out of the desert. And though the princess had stopped struggling having gotten exhausted hours ago, Zuko knew that she wouldn't hesitate to take an opportunity to escape him when she saw one. "Aang, do you think you can use your air-bending to get us in the air?"

"I don't know, maybe?"

"What do you mean maybe, you do it all the time, no normal kid can jump ten feet in the air." Zuko turns around to continue deliberating with Aang, the princess gives a small gasp.

"What is this thing?" she asks.

"It's a hot air balloon." Zuko replies, you can almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"And this is how we're going to get out of the desert?"

"Yep."

"Okay, I mean it this time, take me back."

"Not a chance," Getting in Zuko dumps the princess onto the floor of the basket and sets in to enjoy-finally!–A peaceful trip.

Just as Zuko's thinking this the princess gives an angry shout and wraps a slender arm around his throat, trying to choke him, as he said earlier the princess wasn't hesitant to take an opportunity when she saw one. Zuko struggled trying to dislodge her but to no avail; Princess Katara seemed very intent on strangling him.

"Aang, a little help here?" Zuko croaked as the Princess continued to cut off his airway.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Something!" Zuko says, coming out as little more than a strangled cry. If the Princess wanted a fight she was going to get a fight. Grabbing the arm she was choking him with Zuko throws him-and the princess-backwards into the saddle, momentarily dislodging her and allowing him to take a full deep breath.

The princess pushes him off her and scrambles on hands and knees to the edge of the basket. Seeing this Zuko grabs her around the waist and rolls the two of them so that the princess is pinned beneath the weight of his body.

The princess continues to struggle, and Zuko sees Aang out of the corner of his eye jump up onto the balloon's burner as he did the other day. With a mighty heave Aang fills the balloon with sir shooting it quickly high into the sky, causing the two in the basket down onto the floor. Once at a sufficient height Zuko releases her and turns on the burner as they are now high enough that flying was once again possible. He watches as she once again heads for the side, and smiles smugly as she sees that escape is now impossible.

Turning back to The Exile Katara sees him smiling smugly,

"Well Princess," he says leaning back and resting his head on his arms. "Best get comfortable. It's going to be a very long trip."