Zuko lowered his weight onto Aang, kissing him deeply. Aang's hands ran down his sides then started unbuttoning his pants to slide them down his hips. Zuko tore his lips away to press a line of kisses down the other boy's throat, then slid his hands underneath Aang's shirt, drawing a moan from him.

Zuko jerked awake, and rubbed his hand over his bare scalp. The dreams were coming more frequently now. They'd started about a month after he was hospitalized, and had been becoming steadily more sexual. He had never thought about his best friend that way before. He told himself the dreams meant nothing, but it was growing increasingly hard to convince himself of that. If Aang thought of him as anything but a friend, he'd never given any sign of it. And he never would, unless he was almost certain Zuko felt the same way. After being publicly humiliated-and outed as gay-by Jet, Aang had become shy and unsure of himself when it came to love.

He smiled as he watched Aang approach. He couldn't hear what he said to Song since the intercom wasn't on, but it looked like they both laughed. Aang was wearing a huge shirt that was at least five sizes too big, and billowed around his slender frame. He figured that shirt would figure into whatever dream he had about Aang that night. Before Aang moved in with his uncle, that shirt would be a dead giveaway that his father had beaten him again. Aang swore they were comfortable, though. A shirt like that would have driven Zuko insane with all that extra fabric.

Aang flipped the intercom on, smiled brightly at him, than sank to his knees and pulled out the sock puppets. Zuko was glad that Aang couldn't see his face because he was blushing as he remembered another one of those damned dreams. Aang had made a villain he called 'Admiral Zhao' that was based off one of the most hated teachers in school, Mr. Cho.

"I have you now, Avatar! When I hand you over to the Fire Lord, I'll have glory beyond measure. Mua ha ha!" Zuko laughed at Aang's over exaggerated bad-guy laugh.

"Ha! We'll see about that, Zhao. Prince Zuko can't keep a hold of me, what makes you think you can?" He liked the fact that Aang had made him a prince, even if he was a bad guy. Prince Zuko kind of sucked at being bad, though.

"This is an impenetrable fortress, Avatar. You won't escape, and there is no one coming for you." The Zhao-puppet bobbed off below the ledge of the window and was replaced by a different puppet, this one in a blue mask. This new puppet bounced over to the Avatar puppet and smacked at his wrists, which were 'chained.' The Avatar puppet hopped on his back and they waddled off towards the edge of the window.

"Wow! Thanks for rescuing me, Blue dude." The masked puppet suddenly fell backwards the mask coming a little askew, revealing that it was the Prince Zuko puppet in disguise. "Prince Zuko! Why did he save me?" The Aang puppet turned around and looked the way they had come. "Oh, no. Zhao's soldiers are getting close. I can't just leave him here! I have to save him!" The Aang puppet scooped the Zuko puppet onto it's back and then they both bobbed off to the edge of the window. Aang's head appeared over the bottom ledge of the window. (A/N: The sock puppets are supposed to exaggerated versions of themselves. They aren't intended to be in character.)

"That's all I got for now, Zuko. How'd you like it?"

"Aang, I don't know what those puppets were doing at the end but it was not 'saving' each other." Aang blushed and smiled crookedly.

"That's what they were doing, I swear. The Avatar puppet loves his best friend, the Katara puppet. You know that." Zuko did know that. Aang had managed to make that perfectly clear-along with the fact that the Katara puppet simply was not interested. It didn't change the fact that the Aang puppet and the Zuko puppet had not been 'saving' each other. Zuko let it go, though.

"Mai asked about you at school today," Aang blurted abruptly. They'd been making small talk for almost half an hour. Zuko's heart sped up a little bit at his words. Mai had asked about him? Did that mean she was going to visit him soon? He hoped so.

"What did she want to know?"

"How you were doing." He hesitated for a moment. "She said she was glad to hear you were doing alright." Zuko raised his eyebrow.

"What exactly did you tell her?" Aang told him how he had told Mai about his hair falling out, his paleness, his white blood cell count, all of it. "And she thought I was doing alright after you told her that?"

"Yeah." Zuko sat back, stunned. Aang had told Mai how sick he was and she thought he was doing alright? If he was doing alright, he'd be getting better, not staying the same. He'd be out of the reverse isolation ward. He'd have hair. He decided to change the subject.

"When my hair grows back, I think I'll grow it out in a ponytail like Prince Zuko's," he announced. Aang snorted.

"That'll look nice. You'll definitely start a fad." Zuko laughed. They made small talk until it was time for Aang to leave. Zuko pressed his hand against the glass, and watched as Aang did the same.

"See you tomorrow, Aang?" He hated the fact that he was so lonely he always asked. Aang had already more than proven that he would visit everyday.

"Only the end of the world could keep me away." Zuko smiled at him. It was probably true. If they cancelled visiting hours, he'd find a way to sneak in. Hell, if he died he'd probably come as a ghost. The only reason he wouldn't come was if his uncle Gyatso died. Zuko swallowed hard, trying to banish thoughts of Aang or his uncle dying.

It was boring in his little bubble when he didn't have visitors. He'd read all of the books that Aang and his Uncle had brought him several times, and they hadn't finished sterilizing the one Aang had brought him the day before. Until that was done, they couldn't risk bringing it in. He'd finished all the schoolwork they'd given him for that semester already, too. Uncle Iroh should be arriving soon, though. The intercom flipped on.

"Hello, my nephew. How are you feeling today? I brought you another book." Zuko smiled broadly.

"I'm feeling fine. I hope you didn't bring the same book Aang did." Uncle Iroh chuckled.

"No need to worry about that. We coordinate what books we bring you." Of course they did.

"I had another one of those dreams. Two actually."

"Tell me about them." Zuko told him about the first one, the one he'd had just before Aang arrived the day before.

"In the one I had last night, Gyatso was out of town, and he let Aang spend the night because I promised to behave myself. We were snuggled up together, and he was sound asleep. I was close to it. I remember thinking, in the dream, about how much I loved him, and how lucky I was to have someone as sweet as him." He looked at his uncle. "You don't think the dreams are telling me that I'm gay, do you?"

"No, I don't. Dreams come from our subconscious, so it's likely that they are trying to tell you something. However, since you're interested in girls, you aren't gay. Bisexual, perhaps, but not gay."

"Do you think I should tell Aang about them?"

"No." Iroh studied him for a moment. "I don't think you should tell him about your dreams."

"Oh. Why not?" Iroh looked surprised.

"You've never realized?"

"Realized what?"

"That Aang loves you." Aang loved him? He had certainly hid it well. He still should have noticed, though. He'd been Aang's best friend since middle school. Zuko was preoccupied thinking about Aang and how Aang felt about him, and didn't really pay attention to what his uncle was saying about the teashop.

"I'm afraid I have to go now, Zuko." Zuko must have lost track of time.

"I'm sorry, Uncle. I've been distracted. See you tomorrow?" He pressed his hand against the glass. Iroh pressed his hand against the other side of the glass.

"Nothing short of Armageddon could keep me away, my nephew."

Zuko frowned through the glass. What the hell was Jet Walker doing here? (A/N: I know 'Walker' isn't an Asian last name. Jet's Asian, but he has a white stepfather in this. Hence the last name.) They had never gotten along. After Aang had developed a crush on him, and told him so, Jet had deliberately waited until lunch so that he could reject Aang in the most public and humiliating way possible. Zuko had absolutely hated Jet after that. Jet flipped on the intercom, then leaned against the window frame, smirking.

"Hey, Ohasi. How are you feeling?"

"What the hell do you want, Walker?"

"Just to tell you that Mai is absolutely wonderful in bed." How the hell would Jet know how Zuko's girlfriend was in bed? "Oh, I almost forgot. She's dating me now. Has been for about three months." Mai was cheating on him? Not possible. She loved him. Didn't she? Aang had mentioned that he had told her how he was doing and she had thought he was 'doing alright.' Mai still wouldn't cheat on him. Zuko glared at him.

"Don't you have anything better to do than make up lies about other people's girlfriends?" Jet's smirk widened.

"Oh, but I'm not lying. I have proof. Do you want to see it?" He didn't wait for Zuko's answer, but flipped open his phone and loaded a video of him and Mai in bed together. Zuko swallowed hard, paling.

"Get out of here!" Zuko shouted, hating the fact that he was stuck in this stupid bubble so he couldn't wring the smug bastard's neck. Song heard him shout and came over.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave and not come back, young man." Zuko glared after him as he left. Song turned to him. "Zuko, are you all right? What was that all about?" Now that his anger had cooled, Zuko could feel his eyes burning.

"I'm fine, Song. I don't want to talk about it."

"All right, then. Aang should be here to see you soon." He waited until she was gone before letting the tears he'd been holding back go. He never cried in front of people, not even his uncle.

"Oh, Zuko, please don't cry. Not when I can't do anything about it." Zuko looked up startled at the pain in Aang's voice. He found it hard to believe, looking at Aang now, that he had ever not known that Aang loved him. He was suddenly glad of the bubble, because it meant that he couldn't take advantage of his friend's love for him to seek comfort over Mai's betrayal. "What happened? Did the doctors give you bad news?"

"No. Jet was here. Did you know he's dating Mai?" Aang's eyes widened.

"If I had, I would have told you, Zuko. I would never have let you find out from him." Zuko managed a wobbly smile for Aang. Of course Aang would have told him. Even though it probably would have turned him inside out to cause Zuko pain like that.

"I know, Aang." He forced thoughts of his ex-girlfriend out of his mind. "How's everything going in school?"

"Oh, good. We're starting World War II in history class tomorrow. Mrs. Paddywhacker's decided to start with Germany and Japan surrendering and work our way back to the invasion of Poland and Pearl Harbor." Zuko snorted.

"That's like deciding to read a mystery novel starting with the last chapter and reading backwards, chapter by chapter, till you reach the beginning."

"It is not. We already know how World War II ended, unlike a mystery novel; where you don't know who did it until, hopefully anyway, close to the end. Unless it's one of those crappy ones where the butler did it. Those ones you can figure out no later than midway." They argued good-naturedly over this until it was time for Aang to go home.

"I'm sorry about Mai, Zuko."

"It's not your fault. See you tomorrow, Aang?" He smiled.

"Only the end of the world could keep me away, Zuko."