Chapter 11

The next few weeks went smoother to say the least. The longer they all travelled together the closer the three of them became. Particularly, Zuko and Katara, and though they might not have noticed it, Aang most definitely did.

The stolen glances, the nervous laughs when the two accidentally touched each other, it was obvious to even a blind man that the two of them had feelings for each other.

Island in the Fire Nation Archipelago

"I can't believe we ran out of fuel," Zuko says scratching his head as he examines the balloons fuel tanks and burner again. It was only mid-day and they'd been forced to land early because they found that they were running low on fuel for the hot air balloon. This didn't make much sense to Zuko because he was sure they gotten more when they landed a few days ago.

"I saw a town when we were landing, and there was an airship port there, maybe I can buy us more fuel there." Aang says helpfully, secretly feeling guilty because he was the reason they'd landed. During the night he'd secretly syphoned some of the fuel to give his new friends some more time together…..maybe come to their senses and realize that they were falling for each other.

"Good call Aang, I'll go. You two stay here." Zuko moves to leave but he feels a hand on his shoulder. He doesn't need to see them to know the slim delicate hand belongs to the princess.

"Zuko I think you should let Aang go. He's a little less…noticeable."

"He's a bald, twelve year old with bright blue arrow tattoos all over his body."

"Yes I know but…nobody knows who Aang is, but we're in the Fire Nation now. What is someone recognizes you?"

Zuko knows she's telling the truth, and that she means no harm with what she says, but it still hurts. Not all scars fade, especially scars on the heart. Moving out of the princess' grasp he tosses Aang his money pouch.

"Cool, this could take a while; you guys might want to settle in. Bye!" Aang heads off into the woods, taking it at brisk, yet normal pace in case he happen across anyone on the path to the village, hoping the alone time would be good for his friends.

"What's taking him so long?" Zuko thinks aloud, pacing back and forth. It had been two hours already and Aang still wasn't back yet. Zuko was getting anxious, he'd been avoiding being alone with Katara – no, The Princess – since she'd healed his leg a couple of weeks ago, and now here they were, again, alone.

"Zuko can I ask you something?" said princess asks watching him pace like a Tigerdillo in a cage.

"What?"

"Well….it's about your scar. What happened to you?" Zuko stops pacing looking over at the princess astonished. His eyes darken and he sits down, his back to her. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have –

"I was thirteen years old," he says wearily head down, not looking at her. "My mother…she was a Fire Nation noble woman. She'd been invited to a banquet at the palace and she took me along. While we were there I got separated from her in the crowd. I tried to find her in the crowd and I accidentally ran into the prince. He took one look at me and summoned the guards. Apparently I'd "assaulted" him, and I was thrown in prison.

"I sat there for days, waiting for someone, anyone to come and tell me this was all a misunderstanding and that I could go home, but it never happened. After a while two guards came to get me, they said I had a chance to redeem myself and at that point I was willing to do anything for a chance to go home, to see my mother again."

"What did you have to do?" Katara asks, now sitting directly in front of him.

"It turns out my chance at redemption was an Agni Kai…with the prince himself." Beside him Zuko hears her soft gasp of surprise. "I didn't fight him; I wasn't much of a firebender when I was younger and it didn't seem right. Instead I tried begging forgiveness, but he'd have none of it. He burned me, and had me banished never to return to Ember Island. I haven't left since my first failed escape attempt, that was four years ago."

Hearing the pain and sorrow in his voice, Katara can't help but feel for him; all that hurt and loss just because he didn't pay attention to where he was going. It was just too cruel. Taking a chance Katara makes a bold move and gently places her hand on his scarred cheek. Feeling him tense under her hand she knows no one has been this close to him since his exile, but he doesn't move away.

"I'm sorry," she whispers running the pad of her thumb gently along his cheekbone. She apologizes not just for what happened to him all those years ago, but for how the world treated him…how she'd treated him.

Zuko relaxes under her tender ministrations, then he abruptly gets up and moves away from her, "Don't be….I'm not the one marrying him."

She wanted to say something but at that exact moment a large round fuel tank rolled through the trees coming to rest in the space between them. Looking into the trees they see Aang walking over, looking rather embarrassed.

"Sorry about that, it was way too heavy for me to carry back here, so I tried rolling it. I guess it kind of got away from me on that last hill." Aang says laughing nervously, his two friends trying not to look at each other, both very uncomfortable but for the life of him Aang doesn't know why. Zuko picks up the tank and heads over to the balloon and the other two quickly fall in line behind him. Aang had hoped that giving them some alone time would help, but it's now become clear that Aang has to take matters into his own hands.