Sokka and I are standing on a balcony watching over the prisoners in the yard when yet another guard walks up to us.
"Hey there," a familiar voice says, "fellow guards. How goes it?"
"Zuko!" I raise my visor and throw my arms around him.
After hugging me back, he motions for me to keep my voice down, but still keeps an arm around me.
"Listen," he says to Sokka, "I asked around the lounge. There are no water tribe prisoners. I'm afraid your father's not here."
Sokka looks crushed. "What? Are you sure? Did you double check?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Sokka punches the nearby wall with a clang of metal on metal.
"I'm really sorry, Sokka," I sympathize.
"So we came all this way for nothing?" Sokka exclaims. "I failed…again."
"What would Uncle say?" Zuko asks himself. He thinks for a moment, then moves to the railing and looks at the clouds. "Sometimes, clouds have two sides: a dark and light, and a silver lining in between. It's like a silver sandwich!" Sokka and I look at each other with matching faces of confusion. "So when life seems hard, take a bite out of the silver sandwich."
Something in the courtyard catches Sokka's eye. "Maybe we haven't failed after all!"
"That's the spirit! I can't believe that even worked," Zuko says. "I don't even know what I was saying."
"You understood what he said?" I ask Sokka. What Zuko said sounds like Shakespeare to me.
"No, what he said made no sense at all," Sokka admits. "But look!" He points to one lonely, female prisoner sitting on a rock in the yard. "It's Suki!"
I barely glimpse the look of longing on his face before Sokka takes off in the direction of the holding cells. Zuko and I look at each other and shrug, then move to another area of the prison to watch over. We choose the entrance hall, where the prisoners are mopping the floor.
"Honestly, why didn't you want me to come along?" I ask Zuko.
He's quiet for a moment. For a second, I think he didn't hear me before I realize that he doesn't want it to look like we're having a conversation. It would make the other guards suspicious, the two of us talking when we should be guarding.
"I didn't want you to get hurt," Zuko says. "The Fire Nation's a dangerous place, especially for an outsider. You would be in constant danger, and I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt."
I smile at his heartfelt words. "You know I can handle myself," I remind him.
"Can you?" He counters. "Because you certainly don't handle yourself well at night. I've been waking you up nearly every night since I got here because of your night mares."
"That's completely different," I argue.
"How?"
"Because…because…that's when I'm asleep!" It's really the only reason I can give. "And because now we're actually in the Fire Nation!"
"How could that possibly make you feel safe?"
"It just does," I tell him firmly. I refuse to tell him about the nightmare—that fire feels like the only safe thing among the other elements.
"Fine," Zuko finally says. "But I'm still worried about you. Much as you might want to believe it, you're not invincible."
Zuko leaves a few minutes later to check on Sokka. I think about what he said to me. I guess I am vulnerable, but that's only when I fall asleep. I'm perfectly fine when Katara, Toph, and Aang bend their respective elements. A little weirded out, maybe, but not to the point of screaming.