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Sharing moon peaches.

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Subject is feeling miles better today. Subject claims it is the healing effects of fireflakes that has brought about his recovery. Just to annoy me I think. I think it is the fact that Subject has been abed for the better part if four days that has contributed to his recovery. And that is thanks to me.

Did fireflakes check his temperature every two hours?

Did fireflakes make him chicken soup and honey lemon tea?

Did fireflakes rub ice on his neck?

No, fireflakes did none of these things. I did. Does my Subject remember none of this?

I asked Subject what he remembered from his days of delirium. Subject thought for a second and asked if I dropped him in an ice fountain. Oh sure, that's what Subject remembers! Subject then got the strangest look on his face and asked me if I had sung to him while he was feverish. Bollocks! Why does Subject not remember the things I want him to remember ie. How he owes me big time, but remembers all the things I want him to forget! I have denied the singing vehemently. Hopefully Subject will just think he imagined it.

Subject has been frantically trying to catch up with Aang on all the firebending practice they have missed. Chit Sang has taught Aang some very showy, non-combative moves, the sort of thing we saw at that firenation fair so long ago. Aang loves this sort of stuff and Subject had to get a bit stern with him. Apparently now is not the time for sparkle dragons and look-at-me-firebending, now is the time for lotus forms and don't-mess-with-me-firebending. Aang wants to learn the sparkle dragon. Subject has promised to teach him it after he's mastered a very long list of other forms.

Chit Sang had a very different teaching style to Subject. Chit Sang took to dangling Aang by his ankles when he wouldn't concentrate. Aang actually loved it and thought it was a game, so it was not the most effective discipline technique. According to Chit Sang, when all the blood rushes to your head, you think better. I beg to differ. We have gotten into a small argument about this. Chit Sang's faith that a rush of blood to the head improves intellectual ability explains a lot about Chit Sang.

Chit Sang cannot remember my name and keeps referring to me as little blue. Sokka is big blue. Dad is daddy blue. He has given us all nicknames and spirits help me, I actually answered to little blue this morning. Aang is smiley, Toph is tiny, Subject is grumpy and Suki is referred to as my lady, followed by a small bow. Whatever she did in prison has left a lasting impression on Chit Sang and he doesn't want to get on her bad side. The one good thing I can say about Chit Sang is that he's great with the kids. He plays hide and seek and all other sorts of games with them and manages to keep everybody occupied.

Subject and Aang have been at the firebending all day, even though I have been nagging Subject to take it easy. Only because I am not dealing with sickly Subject again, should he have a relapse. Still everybody is quite happy that Subject is feeling better, especially Subject himself, who has his appetite and his usual grumpiness back.

I think Chit Sang was spot on with Subject's nickname.

-!-

Things I have learned about Subject.

Subject has possibly gone a little stir crazy at being cooped up.

Subject is eager to do things and bend things and teach Aang things and eat things.

Subject is terribly ungrateful for all I have done for him. I am cross at him because of this.

-!-

Subject has set Aang a form called the Phoenix Flume which he is to practice today. It is extremely complicated, but apparently very useful. Subject has demonstrated it at least 26 times and I thought I would be able to do it before Aang could. Aang has stepped up his attentiveness to Subject during lessons and seems to be really trying, but it still takes him a while with something this complicated.

Subject made tea for everyone and was just sitting in the kitchen with Dad and Sokka and Suki, while they come up with plans and attacks for when we eventually attack the firenation again. Dad and Sokka are being their usual selves and are making bad jokes and complimenting each other on their genius. There was much hilarity at their cleverness at calling a bomb the stink and sink. We have all been treated to an explanation of how the stink and sink works. They are now trying to come up with a lame pun for something that stinks but is on land. Frequently whenever one of them comes up with a suggestion there is this exchange:

"You are the smartest Dad ever!"

"You are the smartest Son ever!"

And then they do this water tribe high five that they invented themselves.

Suki rolls her eyes affectionately at their shenanigans but Subject was watching them with this really odd look on his face. He got up at one point to make everyone tea again and then after he served everybody he claimed he was going for a nap. Everybody else was okay with this, because he has just been quite sick.

Does nobody else remember that Subject never naps! It's not his thing. Subject hates naps and there was no way he was napping now that he is almost fully healthy again. Am I the only one who notices these things about Subject? Am I the only one with commonsense?

I have checked his room and he wasn't there. Maybe he was pissed off about all these plans to attack his home country. Subject does retain an unhealthy affection for his militant, war-mongering homeland and its people. He's definitely having a mope about that. It's just not a good idea to let Subject out of your sight when he's sulking. Who knows what sneaky ideas will come to him mid-mope.

He had his sad face on when he left. Because he wasn't in his room when I checked, I know that he's moping hard-core. If it's just a small to medium mope he stays in his room. He has a few favourite other moping places that I know. The balcony on the seventh level is where he goes when he's thinking about his Uncle and the big moon peach tree in the orchard is where he goes when he just wants to be alone, so I will try those first.

-!-

Found Subject!

He was in the big moon peach tree in the orchard near the top. My Subject is so predictable. I yelled up to him and he saw me under the tree and gave this big put-upon sigh. Hey! I am the one who is put-upon by Subject's presence, not the other way around. I should be the one doing the put-upon sigh because I was the one who had just wasted my precious time looking for him.

It was the same moon peach tree I had my sulk in after the Great Seaprune Debacle. You get the best view of the valley from up the top and nice views are conducive to a good sulk. I shouted up to him that running away from whatever it was would never work out in the long run and he shout back down that it was working great in the short term.

Is this a thing with us now? Do we have things? Thankfully, however, when I started climbing up to where he was, he did not peg bits of leaf and twig at me.

He asked me how I found him and I told him that I knew he always came here when he wanted to be alone and I just had to come and bother him. Subject made an incredulous face at me and the corners of his mouth quirked up ever so slightly.

I know he loves his country and it can't be easy to hear people plan to attack something you love with stink bombs. I started going on about how it shouldn't come as a surprise to Subject that we are planning attacks on the firenation after they have done nothing but attack us for years. But Subject silenced me and said it wasn't about that at all. Subject asking me if I wanted a moon peach. I did. Subject reached over and picked a moon peach and handed it to me and picked another one for himself. We ate moon peaches together in a fruity silence.

The sun was nearly setting by this time and I just wanted him to stop sulking already, so I could go get a start on dinner. I flicked my moon peach seed at him and I ask him if he wanted to talk about it and just stared at him. I have noticed Toph do this when she is talking to him. She just stares at him, one eyebrow quirked, until he fessed up to whatever she wants to know. It is amazing. I call it her truth bending ability in my head. Not only can she detect lies, she can get the truth out of someone with just a stare. I thought I would try and see if I could do it too.

But it was so hard not to nag and pick at him and just stay silent and stare.

But it worked!

Eventually Subject fessed up! It was about Dad and Sokka. What could Subject possibly have against Dad and Sokka? Subject got a bit defensive and said he didn't have anything against them at all and that he thought me and Sokka were really, ridiculously lucky to have a dad like my Dad. It was just that he found it hard to watch them together and he wanted to be alone and have a mope, if that was alright with me. He said that last bit quite sarcastically and then he gave me a pointed stare, but I just stared back at him. I was not moving! So there.

I tried the truth bending stare again and Subject sort of sighed ruefully and asked if there was an easy way of getting rid of me. I told him that I would go if he told me what was really the matter with him (besides, you know, all the numerous obvious things that are the matter with him) but otherwise he was stuck with me. There was a very long pause.

And then, amazingly, Subject told me what he was really thinking. I feel like this is a momentous occasion. Subject hates talking about feelings and stuff like that. But we had a nice chat about feelings and it was weird, but in a good way. Mostly Subject was just amazed by how much our Dad really cares about us and is always telling us he loves and us and that we make him proud. The making him proud thing especially got to Subject because he said that he tried for sixteen years and his dad had never said that to him.

He'd told me and I knew I should have held up my end of the deal and left him alone. But I didn't just want to leave him. How could I leave him after he said something like that? Subject has the uncanny knack of just saying something so matter-of-factly (I can't remember the last time someone told me they were proud of me) and it just breaks your heart if you think about it too much. This is just wild speculation, but I think Subject has been left alone too much. He goes off and sulks and people just let him. Maybe he wouldn't have minded someone to listen to him, all those other times, if he had felt inclined to speak. Or maybe he wouldn't have minded someone just to sit with him, if he didn't feel inclined to speak. So I stayed.

I have done something really, absolutely, ridiculously embarrassing. Even more embarrassing than singing to him or tucking him in. I am going soft. Subject is tricking me into feeling sorry for him again and I can't seem to stop it from happening. How does Subject do this! He keeps tricking me with his Subject-ness! First I said that if Subject ever repeated what I was about to say I'd make him eat seaprunes again.

Then I told him that he made me proud with how far he'd come since we first met at the South Pole.

Gah! Why did I do this!

And that is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that I meant it.

What is wrong with me?

I wanted to cheer him up, because really, never having anyone tell you they were proud of you is just the saddest thing ever. Subject really has come a long way and I thought he should hear it from someone, even if that someone is me. When I first met him he was an arrogant jerkface trying to catch Aang. He's still an arrogant jerkface, of course, don't get me wrong. I mean it's not like I like him or anything. But he's not so bad really. Aang could have a worse firebending teacher than one who really does care about him and care that he learns and tries his best to make Aang unafraid of fire. Subject left his home to come and teach Aang and fight on our side. And that at least deserves some acknowledgement.

Subject confuses me! He makes me want to be nice to him and I can't figure out exactly how he does this. It is very exasperating.

It made him smile, what I said, just a little. He said I shouldn't patronize him and I said I wasn't patronizing him and then he said I obviously was patronizing him. Then I got a bit cross that my sincerity over the most embarrassing thing I have ever said was being called into question. We had a small argument over whether or not I really meant it.

Subject, I know when I am sincere, not you!

So just shut up and enjoy what maybe one of the only nice things I ever say to you. Ever! If this is how Subject reacts when people say nice things to him (with frustrating disbelief), it's no wonder people don't say nice things to him more often. It's a wonder anyone ever says anything nice to him at all. He is frustrating. I told him all this. I told him that he was the most frustrating person on the planet.

But then HE told ME to stop being difficult and to just enjoy the sunset. I am not the difficult one out of the two of us! But he was smiling as he said it, which was a nice change from his mopey face of a few moments ago. I wanted to argue more, but I had achieved my desired result and got him to bloody well stop moping, so I stayed quiet and watched the sunset with him.

Subject loves sunrises and sunsets. Is this a firebender thing? Or just a Subject thing? I always like to be near the ocean, but I think that's a water bender thing. Is a fascination with sunrises and sunsets the firebender equivalent of that? It was a beautiful sunset. There were lots of colours. We watched in together in a companionable silence. We were just sitting in that tree, side by side, like two people who actually are friends.

And it was annoying and frustrating and weird.

But in a good way.

-!-

Things I have learned about Subject.

Subject might say he wants to be left alone, but really sometimes Subject just wants someone to sit with him quietly and he has no idea how to ask for that.

Subject is mystified by functional family relationships and expressions of affection from fathers. It confuses him.

Subject does not know how to react when people are nice to him or say nice things to him.

Subject responds to truth bending much better than he responds to nagging.

Subject's eyes are actually a goldish-amber colour. I always thought they were a light brown, but they are not.

Subject and I can have a nice conversation that doesn't end with me wanting to kill him.

Subject loves sunsets and finds them calming.

Subject gave me the bigger peach.

-!-

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Time for another authors note:

Lovely readers, you have made it to the end of another chapter! Congratulations, you've shared moon peaches!

Big thank you to everyone who reviews. I have so much love for you guys! You're all kinds of fabulous! Sorry I've been a bit late in getting back to you this time! I've had a slight internet hiccup at my end. But don't worry, all is well now!

Brief explanation time!

Okay there are a few more chapters to come before we get to the Southern Raiders lovely readers! And I know some of you are keen beans for us to just get our raider on already! But I have my reasons! Mostly I wanted to develop the relationship more before we get there. When Katara huffs at Zuko around the campfire and then storms off in the beginning of the Southern Raiders, it perplexes her dear companions. Sokka even says 'what's with her?' as if being snappy at Zuko was atypical for her and she wasn't usually so bitchy with him. This has lead me to believe that a bit of time has passed between Boiling rock at The southern Raiders and during that time Zuko and Katara had developed a sort of awkward friendship, even without their life changing field trip of bonding. So this chapter and the next few will fill in some missing moments.

Naturally YMMV!

Katara wasn't completely wrong in her first guess about what was bothering Zuko. Zuko does have a lot of love for his homeland and its people and I think a certain level of patriotism would have been drummed into all firenation kids. The plans to attack the firenation would remind him of how much of a traitor he's become and that would bother him (not so much the plans in themselves because he's completely on team Aang, but more woe-is-me-I-am-the-biggest-traitor-ever.)

But mostly in this chapter he's just mystified by Sokka and Hakoda's bond and maybe a little jealous of it and he feels like a bad friend/person for feeling this way. Previously, I don't think he would have seen many functional families and father-children bond he sees with the water tribe family surprises and confuses him. He's never felt anything close to that level of affection and acknowledgement from Ozai. So he has a sulk. That's how Zuko rolls. And Katara bothers him. That's how she rolls.

And I also wanted them to have another Deep and Meaningful in that tree. So I made it happen.

Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter lovely readers! I enjoyed writing it for you guys!

Next one should be up soon (I have tomorrow morning off, so I'll try to get it up by then!)