"I'm bored" Mika whined after they had been flying for only a few hours. For the most part she had been glued to Azula at first, afraid to look out at the clouds. But as the day went on she warmed up to the height they were traveling at and eventually dared to let go of her mother. She had done a little coloring but soon grew tired of it; the same went for playing with her doll.

"Why don't you play with your doll?" Azula suggested, though she knew it was futile, as her daughter had just recently abandoned said doll.

"I only brought Ming-Ming, it's no fun" Mika answered

"Then color" she tried again

"The saddle's too bumpy" Mika replied before groaning, "when are we gonna get there?" She moaned, laying down and sprawling her limbs out for effect.

"Hey Mika, why don't you come up here and help me steer?" Sokka called from his seat upon Appa's head, based on Azula's voice he could hear her reaching her breaking point and figured he better get Mika away from her in order to let her cool down.

Mika looked over at Sokka, uncertain, but then proceeded to crawl to the edge of the saddle and look over before shrinking back in fear.

"Come on I'll hold you" Sokka assured the little girl who was just barely peeking over the saddle's edge at him.

"Uh-uh" she said with a shake of her head.

"Alright, tell me if you change your mind" he said before turning back to watching the sky ahead of them.

Most of the afternoon passed with little more conversation than Mika complaining of boredom and Azula getting more and more frustrated with her daughter. The two of them hadn't traveled since Mika was two, and Azula was thanking the spirits for that. When she was a baby it was easier, she carried her around in a sling on her back and although she would cry a lot at least she could be quieted down easily and was very content to just stare at whatever they were passing. But now that she's older it's not hunger or exhaustion that makes her whine on the long trip. It's boredom, and there is only so much that can be done about boredom. At one point in the afternoon Mika made her way back to the edge of the saddle behind Sokka and peeked over it again, asking if she could still go and help him steer.

"Sure kiddo" Sokka answered with a smile, momentarily leaving Appa to fly by himself while he helped Mika down. She clung onto him with a death grip even after she was sitting comfortably in his lap while the two of them directed Appa.

Azula saw this and couldn't help the smile that fell over her face. Mentally she thanked Sokka for asking Mika to join him; she could tell he knew that the little girl's constant complaining was getting on her nerves. But that was only a small part of it. Mostly she smiled because she managed to steal a glance at the two people sitting at the reins. She could only see Sokka because his back was to her and Mika was in his lap. But she could see Mika's arm, her small arm running along the inside of Sokka's much larger one as his hand encased her little hand which gripped the right rein. It was only that hand, Azula noticed, which held onto the rein and the other one was being controlled only by Sokka. She figured Mika must still be scared and holding onto the fabric of Sokka's shirt with her left hand, only allowing her right hand the exhilaration of holding onto the ropes used for steering a beast so much bigger than herself. For once in her life Azula found herself daring to do something she hadn't done in a long, long time. She found herself daring to hope. She hoped that her daughter would survive this ordeal, but even more she hoped that her future could look the way today's afternoon did. She hoped that her future could be this, not just her and Mika the way the past has been. But the three of them; her, Mika, and Sokka. A real family.

"We'll stop here for the night," Sokka announced when it became dark and they descended into a clearing in a forest somewhere.

"Yay!" Mika cheered as she quickly climbed off of Appa, simply thrilled to once again be on the ground.

"Mika careful" Azula groaned; that last thing she needed was for her weak hearted daughter to hurt herself jumping off of a sky bison.

Mika ignored her mother as she and Sokka also climbed down from Appa, Azula tossing down the bags before she got off.

"I know buddy, you're not used to flying so far anymore." Sokka sympathized with Appa as the flying bison collapsed to the ground and closed his eyes.

"Is he ok?" Azula questioned

"He's fine, just tired. Right buddy?" Sokka asked to which Appa gave roar which was taken by the dark skinned man as a yes, "see?" He asked but Azula merely rolled her eyes and set about reining in her daughter.

"We'll head out in the morning," Sokka announced simply to dull the silence as he and Azula sat around their campfire.

It was late and Mika had already fallen asleep on the end of Appa's tail and a part of this whole thing just reminded Sokka of old times. He didn't realize how much he missed this, camping out in the woods every night just waiting for the next big disaster to strike. Ok so he didn't exactly miss the disaster part, or the constantly having to worry about Toph launching him in the air part, but the sitting around a campfire aspect was a welcome change of pace.

"So what have you been up to?" Azula asked seemingly out of nowhere and Sokka only responded by looking at her curiously. "Last night you asked me what happened to me during the year I was in the institution, I've told you about Bao, Cara, and Rafela. I've told you about Jong and Hariko and the rest of those morons. What have you been doing in the last eighteen years?" She asked more specifically.

Sokka thought hard on the subject, his past was nowhere near as depressing as hers but something told him that that's what she was counting on.

"I don't know, I kept traveling with Aang and Katara tying up a few loose ends like the rebellions in the colonies and some other stuff with that New Ozai Society your friends were trying to revive. I helped Aang and Zuko get Republic City established and then somehow I wound up serving on the council." He said like he still couldn't believe it.

Azula almost said something, almost made some snarky comment on how great his life had been, but she didn't. He had that look on his face again; that look he gets when he doesn't understand something. He was staring into the fire as if it held the answers. But this look was slightly different than all the other times Azula had caught her friend thinking. He wasn't studying something for once, instead his eyes were unfocused and yet focused all at the same time. Like he couldn't even see the fire he was staring directly at but he knew it was there; like he was lost in a memory.

"You know when I was a kid I never thought I was going to amount to anything" he began, "I always thought I just going to grow up, go off to battle, never see any action, then go home and return to exactly what I was doing as a kid; training the boys in the South Pole to fight." He explained

"Well sorry if you never made it back home" Azula muttered but Sokka just shrugged.

"Katara and I go back every once and awhile, a couple times a year now that she has the kids and wants to take them to see dad. Maybe next time you and Mika can come with us." He offered and Azula couldn't help the small smile that played on her lips.

"Yeah, maybe" she replied wistfully.

Sokka was the first one up when morning came, and he awoke to find half his face was buried in Azula's dark brown hair. He smiled contently as he pulled his head ever so slightly away, briefly reflecting on how funny it is that every time he and Azula are together past midnight they somehow just fall asleep with each other. He didn't have much time to reflect on it, however, because right in that moment Azula began to stir and eventually her eyes fluttered open. She still wasn't facing Sokka, but she could feel his arm draped over her waist and frowned.

"You know if Mika finds us like this again I am going to have a really hard time convincing her we're just friends" she sighed in aggravation.

"Come on she doesn't think we're more than friends" Sokka insisted but Azula only rolled her eyes before throwing the blanket they had somehow ended up sharing off of her and Sokka knew to move his arm.

"Whatever, we should get going" she as she rose to her feet, her emotional walls coming down once again.

Sokka sighed but he stood up and crumpled up the blanket before shoving it into his bag. Briefly he reminisced on how Katara used to nag him to fold his blanket before packing it. He still couldn't understand the point of doing that, its just going to get all crinkled up anyway. He continued to pack up the campsite, not even noticing Azula was still over by Appa shaking her daughter, not until he went over there himself. He was just going to toss the bag in his hand up onto the saddle; but he dropped it when he saw Azula violently shaking her daughter, desperately trying to get her to move. But Mika wouldn't wake, she wouldn't even stir, she just lay there with her eyes closed.

She walked over to wake Mika, they had to get a move on soon or else it could be too late.

"Mika" Azula said softly as she began to lightly shake her daughter, but Mika didn't move. "Mika come on get up" she tried and shook a little harder, still nothing. By now she was on her knees and was vigorously but gently shaking the little girl asleep on the bison's tail. Then, as if to try and help her, Appa moved his tail up ever so slightly before practically slamming it back down, but even as Mika bounced up then down she still did not move. Azula was starting to panic as tears surfaced on the rims of her eyes but she didn't have a chance to let them spill before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Sokka standing there, his eyes asking what his mouth wouldn't, and Azula answered him without a single word.

"Let's go," he said, his stone face masking his concern and when Azula wouldn't move he just pushed past her and gathered Mika in his arms.

Azula grabbed the bags and followed her friend as he climbed up into the saddle. Sokka waited until Azula sat down so that he could hand Mika over to her, rather than simply lay the young girl down on the saddle alone. Azula gratefully pulled her daughter into her lap and Sokka quickly hurried to the reins, praying that they could still save Mika.

"How much longer?" Azula asked after they had been flying for what felt like an agonizingly long amount of time.

"Appa's going as fast as he can," Sokka snapped back

"Well he's not going fast enough" he heard Azula mumble but he chose not to say anything, now he understood how Aang felt driving every time their group became restless.

It didn't help that he was stressed as well. He wanted to hurry up and get to the river already, every minute they spent flying was another minute they spent thinking that it was already too late. In all honesty the only reason they hadn't just turned around and given up was because Azula had managed to find Mika's weak pulse and that was giving them hope that maybe, just maybe, their little girl could still be saved. But it was still hours before they landed in the clearing where Sokka and his friends had camped so many years before, but the feeling of nostalgia was lost among those of panic and fear, as Mika's pulse seemed to grow weaker and weaker, and her skin colder.

"So now what?" Azula questioned as she and Sokka dismounted the bison, she carrying Mika's practically comatose body in her arms.

"I, I don't know" Sokka admitted.

"You don't know?" Azula demanded

"I'm not the most spiritual guy, that's Aang's thing! How am I supposed to know how to find a spirit?" He demanded

"Did you think about asking Aang before we left?" Azula questioned

"He doesn't know how either! He usually just walks around calling it's name and then something weird happens!" Sokka exclaimed; the two of them were so caught up in their argument that they didn't even notice the eerie fog seeping over the grass and hills around them, not until Mika finally began to stir.

"Mom?" She asked in a whisper, her eyes half lidded.

Azula and Sokka stopped their shouting cold when she spoke up and gently Azula lowered her to the ground.

"Mika, how do you feel sweetie?" She asked gently but Mika only gave a shrug before sitting down.

"Tired" she yawned.

Azula knelt down in front of her daughter and was about to say something when she finally noticed the fog.

"Sokka where-?" She began to ask, looking over her shoulder at the man in question, but he was also staring at his surroundings, or lack thereof for that matter, in confusion. When he looked at Azula his eyes widened.

"Mika!" He exclaimed in panic and, alarmed, Azula whipped her head back around, but her daughter was gone.

"Mika? Mika!" She shouted, scrambling to her feet and looking around. "Mika answer me!" She pleaded

"I can't see Appa either" Sokka noted

"She was right here," Azula said, strangely yawning as she finished her sentence.

Noticing this Sokka turned around only to find Azula with her eyes half closed just as Mika was, swaying on her feet as though she could collapse at any moment.

"Azula!" He didn't know why he shouted, nor did he understand what was happening. All he knew was that he hurried to grab her and just barely managed to do so, letting his own body collapse under hers as they fell to the ground.

With her now unconscious form in his lap Sokka began to lightly shake her but she wouldn't wake.

"Azula, Azula come on. Come on" he yawned the last part as a sudden exhaustion fell over him. His eyes began to close, he tried to stay awake but he just couldn't fight it.

"Azula…" he weakly pleaded one last time before he too drifted off to sleep.