The Eventual Agreement

Zuko had been wandering the plains for hours. He briefly remembered how, back when he and his Uncle had first became fugitives of the Firenation, he had only managed to catch a pitifully tiny fish.

His skills had not improved in the slightest.

The day before, he had been out most of the day hunting, and only found a small rabbit-turtle near a small, fishless pond. Today, he hadn't even had that much luck, not seeing a single animal at all.

He was groaning when he rounded another hill and saw a small patchwork of holes. Not knowing what they were, he knelt next to one. He frowned and reached toward the hole, but when his hand got close, a small, brown head popped out and bit it.

"Ow!" he yelled, jerking backward in an awkward sitting position. He glared at the hole the creature had ducked back into. Then he realized. "An animal." He stood up and thought. After a moment, he decided; since the creature had bit his finger for coming close the the hole, he would use his knife as bait, and when the creature's head came up, he'd grab it.

He drew the dagger from his boot, and moved the tip to the hole. The small creature's head stuck out, and Zuko snatched at it- but it ducked back into the hole before his hand got anywhere near it. He had repeated this three times when he lost his temper. "Get back here!" he yelled, reaching down into the hole searching for it. His middle finger tip was bit, and he swore as he yanked his hand back- only to find he couldn't get it out. His fingers continued to be bit until Zuko started flicking at the creature. Soon, it stopped biting and left.

"Ugh," he grumbled, pulling harder to get his hand out, but it remained decidedly stuck. He clawed at the dirt around his stuck hand with his free one, but to no real effect. He looked around for where he laid his dagger, only to see that he had thrown it out of reach in his frustration.

He was going to be there awhile it seemed.

Surprisingly, he didn't have to wait too long. He was pulling on his buried hand's wrist with his free one as hard as he could, when he saw someone walking toward him. He didn't recognize the figure at first, but as she approached, he saw that it was Sokka's girlfriend, Suki.

She stopped in front of him. He looked up at her. She spoke. "Um, Zuko? Do you need help?"

"Uh.."

"What are you doing?"

"Creatures.." he shook and cleared his head. "There's small, brown animals living in these holes." he explained.

"Oh, yeah," Suki said, looking around them at the dozen holes. "Gophers." She looked down at him. "So you tried to catch one by reaching into the hole, and got your hand stuck instead. Do you need help?"

Zuko sighed. "Yeah.. if you don't mind.. thanks." Suki knelt down next to him, drew a hunting knife that Zuko was pretty sure belonged to Sokka, and began scrapping and digging the dirt surrounding his wrist. After a moment, she had dug enough that he was able to twist his hand around and widen the hole himself. After a few seconds, he was able to take his hand out. "Thank you." he said, rubbing his wrist.

"No problem," she replied, standing back up. "Why did you reach inside the hole though?"

He glared at the hole, once again thinking that he wasn't meant for hunting for his food. "I don't have much experience in this." he said. "And I honestly wish Sokka would just get his act together, so I wouldn't have to gain it."

She smiled. "You do know that you're the reason he sulking, right?"

Zuko glowered at her slightly. "He doesn't have to be so childish about it."

Suki laughed. Zuko blinked at her. "Zuko.. you've been around him long enough to know that 'being childish' is basically half his identity."

"Really?" Zuko drawled, now with a small smile of his own. "I thought it was ninety percent of it."

"Ha.. not that much." she said, her tone changing as her thoughts seemed to wonder.

Zuko didn't know how to respond. There was an awkward silence.

"So.." he started uncertainly. "What were you out here for?"

Suki blinked. "Oh, right. I was actually looking for you so I could help with hunting."

"You can hunt?"

"Well, I can trap. Speaking of which, about these gophers.." She turned and looked at the holes, then smiled as an idea came to her. "Take off your shirt." she told Zuko.

Zuko stepped back. "What?"

"Just do it."

He complied, taking his shirt off in front of her. As soon as he did, she took it from him, and placed it over the hole. Then she said, "Okay, so we need to block all but one of the other holes with dirt. Then you put grass into the free hole, and slowly burn it with your bending; the smoke will chase them out the only hole left- into your shirt, our improvised net."

They quickly packed most of the holes with dirt, and with grass for one, then Zuko knelt next to the grass filled hole and started burning it with a small flame at the end of his finger. Within half a minute, one of the gophers had gotten out and into his shirt where Suki then started to struggle with it. Another came, and another. Deciding that three was enough, Zuko stopped firebending, and helped Suki with the gophers.

He grabbed Sokka's hunting knife and- suddenly there was a loud scream of outrage that Zuko felt was directed at him. He jerked around and saw Katara and Sokka cresting the top of the hill.. the hill that Sokka just started running down at full speed.

Realizing what was about to happen, Zuko yelled, "Wait! Sokka, I have a-" Suki suddenly disarmed him of the knife he was about to mention just as Sokka crashed into him in a tackle. "Ugh!" Zuko grunted, the breath knocked out of him as his back slammed into the ground. Sokka rolled to the side, and Zuko sat up. "What's wrong with-" he started angrily as both he and Sokka stood up.

"Why are you out here alone with Suki- and with your shirt off?!" Sokka demanded. "And why were the two of you huddled down on the ground facing each other?!" His face was positively red now.

"We were just hunting!" Zuko exclaimed. "I got stuck, and Suki-"

"My girlfriend," Sokka added, hugging her protectively away from him.

"Sokka, it's fine!" Suki said, exiting his hug, and stepping between them. "After I got his hand unstuck-"

"What?" Sokka asked, his anger now tinted with confusion.

"He had his hand stuck in the ground, and couldn't get it out when I found him," Suki explained, gesturing to the hole. "I had to help dig it out for him, and-" She was interrupted when Sokka started laughing.

Zuko waited until Sokka stopped his irritating laughter, then explained further, "We just caught three gophers actually, using my shirt as a net- which is why I'm not wearing it."

"Oh." Sokka seemed to think for a moment like he was about to accept Zuko's reasoning. "But wait, there's nothing in your shirt." he said, pointing down at the partly shredded red shirt.

"Huh?" Zuko and Suki said, both turning to realize the shirt that was now empty. "Oh.. I guess I dropped it when I took the knife from your hand." Suki said. "They probably escaped back into their tunnels."

Zuko turned on Sokka, all his hours of wandering around, his time spent with his hand stuck in a hole, the effort of trapping the gophers- now pointless because of Sokka. "You.." Zuko started, trying to get the words out and keep the flames in. "You just ruined everything," he growled. "This was supposed to-"

"Oh, shut up," Sokka said, glaring. "You're here, on the ground, alone, and shirtless, with Suki- and you think you have the right to be mad?"

"I spent hours out here, and just finally managed to get something, and then you charge in here, causing them to escape!"

"I don't care!"

"I noticed that!" Zuko put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. Then he looked up. "Whatever, it doesn't matter now." he said, and looked at the hole. "We might be able to repeat-"

"It does still matter," Sokka said. "For trying to steal Suki from me, I challenge you to a SwordBending-Kai!"

Zuko stared at him. "What?"

Sokka gave him a defiant glare. "You heard me."

"You're the one at fault here for letting go what we worked so hard to get! I never tried stealing your girlfriend- and there's no such thing as SwordBending already!" He could feel a headache coming.

"Both of you calm down!" Katara yelled. Zuko jumped, having completely forgotten about her, and not knowing when she actually joined them. She turned to Sokka. "You were going to challenge him anyways, and you know it." she turned to Zuko. "And you.. well, no actually, you have every right to be mad at him."

"Hey!" Sokka objected.

"Fine. Zuko, please be more careful in the future to avoid this type of situation."

"But Katara, you were the one who asked me to go look for him." Suki said.

Katara hesitated, then sighed, "I know, you're right." She turned to Zuko. "But still."

Zuko glared at Sokka one more time, before he sighed. "Anyways Sokka, We could use your help now catching the gophers again." He lifted his halfway shredded shirt. "This is of no use anymore, so we'll be needing yours."

Zuko expected him to complain, but he just shrugged, took it off, and handed it to him. "Sure. But afterward, we're SwordBending."

"There's no such thing." Zuko said, taking the offered clothing. He passed it to Suki to repeat what she did before. "But sure, if you promise to do all the hunting again."

"Deal."

Notes: This one was a bit long, but the next one will be pretty short probably. I hope you liked Zuko getting his hand stuck in the ground, the person who's village he burned down helping him, and then Sokka coming and taking advantage of his own misunderstanding and Zuko's irritation with hunting to get him to agree to his challenge. :P

The next chapter is the last; it will probably take me a couple days to write it. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and will go on to the next. Please review!