By the time Toph and Sokka had stopped arguing and they'd taken off, it was almost noon. Realizing this, they had packed in something of a hurry, rushing about and bumping into each other in their rush. Said rush had only gotten worse when Sokka had tripped over a rock and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to blame Toph. On top of all that, Aang couldn't seem to stay focused for long enough to pack more than a single bag, and Momo had rifled through Katara's bags every time she turned her back.

In all the confusion, not even Iroh noticed that Zuko hadn't spoken for over three hours.

'This is absurd! It's taken me over three years to even find him. Father was justified in sending Azula. It was a sound military decision. Questioning it would be a real act of treason. Treason… Why did he have us declared traitors? It must be another tactic, or maybe a misunderstanding… I bet Azula told him something! Yeah, that's it. Azula. It's all her fault. She had us declared traitors… Hmmm, treason- damn! We're traveling with the avatar! Now it's going to look like she was telling the truth! What do I do? Wait, I'm five feet away from him! All I have to do is come up with a good plan, and we can go home. I've got to talk to Uncle Iroh, he probably has-'

"ZUKO!"

"Huh?"

Sokka rolled his eyes. "We've been trying to get your attention for like, twenty minutes. What's up?"

"Oh, sorry. I must've been somewhere else."

"I'll say." He shrugged and gestured as he went on. "So anywho, do you want to keep flying through the night, or just stop an hour later than usual?"

"Um, let's just keep going. We want to get there soon, right?"

At this, Sokka rounded on an aggrieved-looking Katara. "Ha! See? Told ya he'd take my side!" She confined her response to a roll of the eyes.

The conversation ended, Zuko tried to return to his thoughts, but he found it hard to focus. Every time he thought of a new idea, he'd be distracted by the sound of Aang's laugh, or the movement of Katara's hand as she brushed the hair out of her face, or the bizarre sense that, even though she couldn't see him, Toph was looking straight at him. He finally gave up in favor of watching the clouds and wondering what his uncle would think of his decision. This, too, was soon interrupted.

"Whatcha doing?" Zuko jumped a little at Aang's near-shout, noting that the world's greatest master of elements had no indoor voice.

"Oh, um, watching the clouds." He was a little embarrassed that a) he had no better answer and b) it was the truth.

"Oh, OK. What do you see?"

He hadn't really been thinking about it. Now, he focused on a small cloud off to their left. "That one looks sort of like a koalaotter."

"Oh, yeah. Hey, that one looks like Appa! See, there's the head, and there's the tail! Oh, and there's a cat! Or maybe a cat owl?"

Zuko studied the cloud in question. "I'd say that it looks more like… a fire ferret."

"Ugh, this is so boring!" Toph groaned. "I don't even know what you're pointing at!"

They spent the rest of the hour looking at clouds, and the hour after that watching the sun set. It wasn't until Aang fell asleep that Zuko remembered his mission and felt a stab of guilt. He looked down at the small bald child sleeping beside him.

'I'll ask Uncle about it when we land. He'll know what to do."