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“Okay,” stated Aang, “He should probably be able to find that by the end of the day.” Toph raised an eyebrow, staring blindly at Aang, “You really think Sparky’s gonna bother finding our Stuff? He’s going to see right through you, pal. Not to mention that there’s no way he’s going to find that until tomorrow.”
Sokka gave her a side eye (not like she’d see it, but still), “I’d like to see you do better.” Katara laughed, “Sokka she’s blind!” Toph snapped, “I saw where Aang put it, idiots. I can see with my feet, remember?” Sokka and Katara exchanged a glance.
Zukko spoke up from behind the group, startling everyone except Toph. “Hey,” he said simply.
The gAang looked to Zuko for a moment before Aang spoke, “Hey.” Zuko fought the urge to roll his eyes and instead asked, “What’cha guys up to?”
”Oh,” Toph spoke up, “Twinkle toes managed to lose all our supplies. Could you help us find them?” Zuko looked as if he wanted to question it, but probably decided against it, “Sure.”
And with that, the hunt began. Toph, Sokka, Katara and Aang all began placing their bets; “There’s no way he’s going to take that long, Toph. He doesn’t see with his toes like you do, but he still has eyes,” Katara scoffed, “I’m saying he’s going to take at least until dinner. Not that I’m complaining - I don’t mind the distance between us.”
Sokka quickly got bored of waiting and wondered off, perhaps to find and help Zuko. As he began walking, he heard a soft, “no...” from Toph. Whipping around, Sokka could see Zuko approaching with their supplies. It had been what? Ten minutes?
Zuko narrowed his eyes at everybody, unimpressed, “These weren’t even hard to find, how’d you lose them?”
Everybody exchanged glances, seemingly agreeing on the next course of action.
Zuko looked unimpressed, “How many times are you going to ‘lose’ thé supplies, Aang?” Aang shrugged while the others watched with slight curiosity. “And why am I the one looked for your stuff?” He snapped.
Katara interjected, “Technically it’s all of our stuff since you’re a part of the team...” Zuko shot her a glare and the his hands up in defeat, turning to look for the ‘missing’ supplies.
Not long after, the group returned to their usual activities. (Minus Zuko, of course.) Sokka stares at Aang, impressed, “Maybe Zuko just had a bit of luck yesterday. Where did you end up hiding our stuff, anyways?” Aang smiled brightly, “I searched for a place even I wouldn’t find our stuff in. Besides, it’s behind a door he can’t open, it’ll just be fun watching him come back defeated.”
”I thought that making Zuko feel bad was Katara’s job!” That earned a ‘hey!’ from Katara.
Not long, but a little while later, Toph was again the first to spot Zuko. “Guys, look!” Toph pointes in the general direction, not being exactly on point. (It was still impressive though, because she’s... y’know.)
Zuko smiled a little, even if it was only for a moment. Aang looked the most shocked, but everybody certainly wasn’t expecting Zuko to come back so quickly.
Zuko wasn’t going to lie; he liked the extra attention. That night at the fire, he got a few impressed comments here and there and at one point, he was even the topic of conversation. He wasn’t quite sure yesterday if Aang was mocking him or trying to ease the tension, but now it was clear.
”I guess I had a lot of practice finding things when I was searching for my honour,” He sighed. This comment drew a few laughs from the others.
Before, Katara had hardly spoken to him; now, Zuko could’ve sworn he caught her smiling in his direction. Even Sokka who had been relatively and rightfully sceptical seemed more than comfortable sitting close to the fire bender. (A little too close, if you ask Zuko.)
By the time the night ended Zuko was feeling a bit overwhelmed and uncomfortable, but honestly? He felt a little less alone.
”If you guys are going to do this every day, you better start trying harder,” Zuko teased. This gained an equally teasing (and overly confident) response from Katara; “Oh yeah? Seems to me like you’ve come back awfully empty handed.”
This gained a smirk from the firebender, one that invoked realization in Katara. At that moment, she knew that he knew.
Sokka’s jaw dropped as Zuko led them to the small body of water, where the chunk of ice was almost invisible to the eye. “I would’ve grabbed it, but it looked cold,” this earned a few laughs from Aang. Katara was about to comment on him acting like a spoiled prince, but then remembered he was formerly a spoiled prince.
Aang looked up at Zuko, while Katara used her bending to remove the ice from the water then melt the ice off the supplies. Aang asked, “Zuko, how do you keep finding our stuff?” That just earned an unreadable look and a shrug from Zuko.
Again at the campfire, Zuko was temporarily the topic of discussion. However, Zuko left shortly before the conversation started, causing more accusations than praise.
”I’m telling you, there’s no way he would’ve just stumbled upon our stuff! Why would he even look in the water, anyways?!” Sokka groaned in frustration. Everybody nodded in agreement except Katara.
“Well Sokka,” she began, “Why don’t you try hiding the supplies? Surely you can’t do any better.” To nobody’s surprise, Sokka accepted the challenge. Sokka feel asleep quickly after that.
So did Zuko.
Hakoda stared at the group, mildly confused. “So, you guys are just going to... hide the stuff in the Bison’s mouth?” Sokka nodded enthusiastically.
Katara cut in, saying the words before anybody else could, “Won’t Appa just... eat our supplies?” The Water Tribe boy shook his head, “Nope, I’ve been training Appa since you said I should try hiding our stuff.” Sokka may have smiled a little too confidently.
Hakoda would’ve asked another question, but the answer to the first one left him much more confused than he would’ve liked to admit.
This time, the group walking around the air temple for a while, before returning to Zuko. Katara suggested that it would throw him off their trail.
In Katara’s defence, it would’ve worked on any regular person; Zuko just wasn’t any regular person. Everybody looked defeated, finding that Zuko had found it before they had even started the campfire for the evening.
This night, he was not the focus of attention. Since getting Hakoda and Suki back from boiling rock, the two of them had been catching up with the group. This was one of the few nights where Sokka didn’t sit next to Zuko - Instead, Toph did. “So,” Zuko spoke, already feeling awkward and anti-social. Toph didn’t look over at him, but he understood that she heard him. She smiled a little, “You know Sparky, you don’t have to talk to me just because I’m here.”
Zuko nodded, not like Toph could see him, and felt embarrassed.
The eclipse was approaching and Zuko was tired.
Today, Zuko had decided to avoid the group. Not only because he wasn’t in the mood for games, but also because he feels like it’s been forever since he’d last meditated.
A deep breath in, and deep breathe out.
One, two, three... four, five, six.
He probably would’ve stayed there for hours if he wasn’t startled by a hand on his shoulder, “Agni, don’t sneak up on a man like that!” Zuko recovered from the scare while Hakoda apologetically removed his hand from the banished prince’s shoulder.
”Sorry, son,” The cheiftan replied, “I didn’t realize you were meditating.” That wiped the half-smile from Zuko’s lips.
”It’s alright,” Zuko hesitated, “Uh... why are you here? Not like I don’t want you here- I just wasn’t expecting you to-“ Zuko stopped himself upon hearing a gentle laugh from the older man.
“Oh Zuko, you’re a funny kid,” Hakoda smiled, “I just wanted to see where you were, that’s all. The others are looking for you, why don’t you come back with me?” Hakoda offers Zuko a hand getting up, which Zuko takes cautiously.
As they walk in silence, the duo hear Toph call out, “Sokka, you sad and your boyfriend are back!”
Both Zuko and Sokka turn red with embarrassment, “Toph, I swear to Agni-”
Katara rolls her eyes at them, snickering to herself.
Today’s challenge was definitely much harder. Before, he had been relying on instincts and gut feelings, but today he and neither of those. He wondered about the temple helplessly for a bit, hearing the group gossip and giggle in the distance.
As he began walking, he subconsciously picked up pace, feeling closer.
Meanwhile at the campfire, Toph cackled evilly while the others snickered along, “There’s no way he’s going to find anything unless he becomes an earthbender overnight!” “Even then, he’d have to learn seismic sense! Toph, you’re an evil genius,” Sokka was more than happy to hear where Toph decided to hide their supplies this time.
They sat together contently, collectively concluding that Zuko was defeated.
They eventually stumbled upon Zuko who was looking in and between everything in sight. Zuko rolled his eyes at the group smiling innocently in his direction, determined. Aang has to hand it to him; Zuko was closer to it than they would’ve thought.
”C’mon, Zuko, You don’t have to keep searching if you don’t want to... We won’t hold it against you, we made it really hard to...” Katara trailer off as Zuko suddenly stopped walking, staring down towards his feet.
Everybody went silent, nobody even dared breathing. Suddenly, Zuko smiled and looked up, pointing downward, “Found it.”
And with that; everybody collectively lost their shit.
The icing on the cake was when Katara started crying, “How-?” Aang rested his hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.
Zuko smiled up at the group, unable to read the mood, “Does this mean you guys think I’m cool now?”
Sokka stared at him, unblinking, “Y-yeah, sure.”
Zuko felt... happy? He was proud to be part of the group, but was unfortunately too ignorant to realize the others were terrified and shocked.
“Zuko, how did you find the supplies?” Sokka asked with curiosity - this was one of the nights where Sokka sat a little too close.
The firebender shrugged, “I suppose that years of Azula hiding my belongings have made me a master of my trade.”
The others stare in awe as Zuko goes into more detail. However, Sokka isn’t fascinated by the story - Sokka’s wondering to himself; ‘when did I fall in love with this idiot?’
-FIN-