"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." Zuko inspects the staff, intrigued by its odd design. The equipment and culture of the air nomads had been lost for a hundred years, seeing the real thing up close was something Zuko never thought he'd be able to do. Not giving the airbender a glance as he inspected it, he continued, "I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks."

Putting the staff down, he gave his orders. "Take the Avatar to the prison hold," he handed the staff to his uncle, who was standing beside him, "and take this to my quarters."

Iroh gave the staff a glance before handing it to a soldier that was beside him, the prince having already left without looking back. "Hey, mind taking this to his quarters for me?" He asks casually. The soldier accepts the staff and Iroh walks away, heading to his own chambers for a much needed nap.

A while passed by peacefully, and Zuko sat in his room letting the events of the day sink in.

He'd just captured the Avatar. He was headed for home, a place he hadn't been allowed to go in the last two years. How many nights had he dreamt of this moment? How many times had he looked in the mirror in shame, disgust, and confusion? All of his searching, all of his shattered hopes with each failed mission, and finally... finally... he had him.

Even if he was just a child, he was real.

For the first time in two long years he felt like he could breathe.

He was going home.

But that thought was then followed by another. That tiny, sad excuse of a village he'd just left. The scarred water tribe warrior.

'He was strong.'

He was very strong. If their battle had lasted longer, Zuko was not sure who the winner would be. The very thought enraged him, the lit candles before him flaring dangerously at the mere thought of what could have been. But Zuko was not one who did not acknowledge skill. He may not be as experienced as others when it came to battle and weapons, but he was certain that the way that warrior used his spear was strange and unique.

And he could tell that he was avoiding any fatal injury towards him. That warrior, now that he was in a place where he was at liberty to think in detail about he events, had shown him mercy. How many opportunities did he have to strike him down? How many times had he been caught off guard by the fluidity of his spear movement and attacks?

'Too many.'

He could not excuse his own weakness. He could not allow it to exist. He had to train harder, smarter. He could not return home showing such weakness. To him, not being capable enough was an unforgivable sin. The candles continued to rage with his emotions, it was a common sight for him. But as they calmed, another thought came into his mind.

'When he saw my fire, he hesitated.'

There was fear in his eyes, only for a moment. The instinctual fear of feeling a familiar pain. Zuko would know that type of fear. He had experienced it himself, two years worth of nightmares of that pain. His hand glided to his scarred face, going across his eyes and then his ear. Vicious red and ugly burns that would forever stain his skin.

But not only was fear in his eyes, but there was rage. A deep seated rage that seemed to go past the prince and to something beyond him. Zuko only caught a glimpse of that emotion for a fleeting moment, but that was all he needed to know how much of it ran through the warrior.

'That warrior... he had impressive control over his emotions. Much more than I do.'

Zuko was no fool to his own shortcomings, but fixing that was not something he wanted nor needed in his hunt for the avatar. He was sure that the warrior's rage had something to do with that burn scar. It would make sense, they were at war with them, and everyone else.

Zuko had not seen the extent of that warrior's scar. But, from what he had seen, it was much larger than his own. Unlike his own, it was a solid, darker color, but it was unmistakable as a burn of a severe proportion. Unlike his own, it seemed to have had a long time to heal. But he could see no more than that during their brief encounter, and did not want to wonder about it any further.

The warrior took down his men as if they were child's play to him. It was unacceptable. It seemed that he was not the only one in need of training. Hopefully, his uncle would let him practice more than just the basics. But for now, he would worry about such things later.

This was his time to ease his mind, and to do that required not thinking about what makes him upset.

...Kinda hard when that applies to everything.

...

..

.

Aang had his hands tied, literally, and was walking down a series of corridors. He was making sure to commit them to memory—he had a very good memory, mind you—so that when he decided to enact his eventual escape plan he'd know where to go. Or, at least, he was trying to.

This ship was way bigger on the inside than it seemed on the outside and this walk was taking forever. The two guards marching him to wherever their 'prison hold' was were absolutely boring, did not speak a single word to him. They were really committed to their soldier act, huh? It made them just the slightest bit intimidating. Just a bit.

But then he thought about how Ayaan wiped the floor with them and all intimidation vanished, replaced with him struggling to hold back a giggle.

"Silence!"

Well, that obviously didn't work. He stuck his tongue out to the soldier in front of him. This was the guy Ayaan had three pieced with the most bored expression Aang's ever seen on him. Granted, he only knew him and his siblings for like a week and Ayaan's expressions—the only one's he'd ever seen—consisted of neutral, eye-brow raised, and glare.

...His glare was quite scary, way worse than when he used to play pranks on the other monks with Gyatso. Speaking on his old friend and mentor, he'd be really, really old by now. He was already old when he left, so does that mean he could be... No. Aang did not want to admit those types of thoughts even though he knew.

He knew that everything from back then would not be the same. He would no longer see the same people and the many friends he had all around the world. Aang did not want to dwell on those thoughts. He had hope that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to see them again.

Sure, they would probably be very old and he was still, um, he still looked twelve. But he'd known people who lived that long. So, he decided to chose hope over everything else. And that thought brought him back to his want to see his newest friends. Of all of the things he's found out, they were the good that came of it.

The three watertribe siblings were the first people he met in this new age. Katara was friendly, pretty, very pretty, and fun. She rode on the penguins with him, he liked her laugh, and she defended him when they got in trouble. She was a really loyal friend.

Sokka was more standoff-ish, but Aang knew it was because was just being protective. Now that he knew that yes; they were in a war, and yes; it had been going on for a very long time and no; they were not winning said war; Aang could understand the brother's actions more.

That left Ayaan, the eldest sibling. For some reason, Aang felt like he was a familiar presence. It was strange, because he was certain that he had never met Ayaan before. There was no way that he could have, being a hundred years his senior and stuck in an iceberg. But the way he maneuvered his spear during that short battle at the village gave him a brief feeling of déjà vu, as if he'd seen it once before.

But that was impossible, so he ignored the feeling.

Aside from when they were on Appa coming to the village and the moment he was banished from it—he still felt bad about that—they had not spoken at all. Aang felt like Ayaan was avoiding any contact with him, just like his younger brother was.

He did not seek Aang out to talk to him, accuse him of schemes with the fire navy or ask him questions about where he came from. Ayaan was quiet. He simply observed him from a distance, both figuratively and literally. Because of this, at first, he thought that Ayaan didn't like him. Like, flat out just did not want anything to do with him. He thought his friendship with the eldest was the shakiest of the three.

But that thought was furthest from the truth.

-Flashback-

It had been a few days since he'd arrived at the village and Aang felt a bit restless. Not being able to sleep, he decided to take a walk around the village. As he exited his temporary tent home, he gazed up at the sky. He could clearly see the stars as they decorated the beautiful purples and dark blues of the southern night sky. Taking in the sight, he decided since he wasn't sleep that he should check in on his best friend.

Appa was resting on the other side of the village in an open clearing. Being as big as he was, they didn't have a proper tent or igloo quite his size, so this was the best option. Appa seemed to enjoy it, since he was under his thick fur coat all of the time he liked being in cooler areas.

Aang and Appa had lived at the Southern Air Temple, which was based on a steep mountain that broke through the clouds. Needless to say, it was cold there, so Appa wasn't bothered by the cold here either.

"I bet he's still sleeping." Aang said to himself, shaking his head at the thought of his snoring bison. But what he found was the opposite. Appa was up and moving much to his surprise. He was about to go over and greet his furry animal guide but saw he wasn't alone. He followed his curious instincts and hid, moving in to get a look at who had beat him to Appa.

One could imagine his surprise when he found the quietest, most stoic of the siblings petting his flying bison with what Aang was shocked to find was an actual, although small, smile on his face. What shocked him more was that Appa wasn't the slightest bit wary of the teen, even leaning in to his touch!

"Oh? Do you enjoy this?" Aang heard him say. Compared to the others, Ayaan's voice was a bit deeper. "You are the biggest animal I have ever seen, and I have encountered many." He continued to pet his fur, Appa resting his six sturdy legs down in the snow. He let out a low growl, and Ayaan went around him before stopping.

"You have a bit of dirt on you." Ayaan gathered a bit of water from the melting snow and put it on the dirty areas and grabbed a brush used to care for their village's polar dog. It was not nearly big enough to properly brush the giant bison's thick fur, but it was enough to get out the lingering dirt. After he brushed it away, he used his waterbending to pull out the dirty water from Appa's fur.

"Is that better?"

Appa responded with a giant lick to Ayaan's entire being, earning a disgusted yet delighted, "I'll take that as a yes." He was covered in slimy saliva, and Aang kicked himself for letting a giggle slip by him. The waterbender used the same trick he did before to get it off of him. He went silent for a moment before speaking again, in a different tone than before.

"You're friend Aang... he is a good kid. It has been too long since the children and my sister have smiled like that." His voice was a lot softer than before as he continued. "I wish I could play with them more, but I am the eldest son of the chief. My duty comes before my wishes."

He let out a sigh. It was small. If Aang wasn't straining his ears to hear him he wouldn't have heard it. Ayaan continued to run his hands through Appa's soft, warm fur, "I hope that my choice to trust him is the right one." He said more to himself than anything.

"I must go now," With a final pat, he left, going to train as he always did, and hunt as he always had.

"He... trust me?" Aang was shocked and relieved at the news. Ayaan had known that he lied to Katara when they were returning here, but even so, he said that he trusted him. Even if that trust was small, it was still there. And that was more than Aang could ask for.

He wanted to shout to Ayaan that he'd never break his trust, Airbender's honor! But, he stopped himself before he could, remembering that he was not supposed to have heard that bit of info from the eldest sibling. So, he left back to his hut after checking on Appa, a smile on his face as he'd discovered a wonderful piece of news.

The one he thought he'd have the most trouble befriending was actually the easiest of the three to become friends with. Aang found that sleep came easily, and it was the best sleep he'd had since arriving there.

-End Flashback-

It was after that, the very next day, that he left with Katara and set off that awful flare. He felt even more guilty now that he was thinking about what Ayaan had said about him to Appa. The eldest had trusted him and he broke it. He hoped he could make up for his mistake when he found a way to escape from here.

He wondered how Appa was doing. If Aang knew his bison, he was still sleeping in that ice formation. Being stuck in an iceberg for a hundred years must have tired him out. Aang was going to make sure to give him lots of apples and hay when he got out of here. A good brush through his fur was also in order.

Finally, after what felt like hours of walking. Which, may have actually been a good forty minutes give or take. Aang had a way to enact his plan. The soldier in front of him had a key to unlock the cell door and their pace had slowed.

"So, I guess you've never fought an airbender before. I bet I could take you both with my hands tied behind my back." Aang said with confident slyness.

The soldier, however, was unamused. He was tired, had a rough day, and wanted to get back to his barracks to sleep the shame and embarrassment of today's events away. If he wasn't on duty and actually had enough money for it, he would by the strongest liquor on the market and drink to forget this day. But nay, his luck was not so. He would have to settle for calming jasmine tea, the old general's favorite which was abundant on the ship because of that fact.

"Silence." He told the boy behind him. He just wanted this over and done with.

He did not see the smirking Aang take in a giant breath behind him.

...

..

.

Katara and Ayaan sat in tense silence. Ayaan was on Appa's head, absentmindedly petting his fur while Katara was with Sokka in the saddle. Sokka glanced between his brother and sister uncomfortably, unwilling to break the silence that had ensnared them both.

Everything she had said before was catching up to her, and although she did not regret defending Aang, she did regret what she'd said about Ayaan. It was an indirect jab at him for not being able to teach her, which wasn't his or anyone else's fault.

'Where do you think you're going?'

'To find a waterbender who can actually teach me. Aang is taking me to the North pole.'

Now that they had the time, she was bracing herself for him to reprimand her properly for her selfishness. She wanted him too, actually, because she deserved it.

Ayaan, of course, was the one to break it first. "Katara."

"Y-yes?" Katara answered, not able to look him in the eye.

"Sokka."

"Yeah?" Sokka perked up, not expecting Ayaan to call his name as well. Their eldest brother let out a small breath before he began speaking.

"This trip will be dangerous. So, after we rescue Aang, you will be joining me in training. Both of you." At this, Sokka's eyes practically sparkled. He even did a small victory dance, brandishing his favorite and sacred boomerang. Katara was confused, but soon realized what he meant and hardened her resolve as she nodded.

'You have no combat skill, waterbender or not.'

As much as it hurt, she knew that Ayaan was right. At this point in time, she would be nothing but a hindrance if she didn't at least learn to defend herself until she properly learned waterbending. That was what Ayaan was doing. His waterbending couldn't be used on its own in a battle, so he honed every other battle ready skill he had.

He went out of his way to practice, train, fight when the men of their village were still around. When they left, he hunted, often returning home with the meat and pelts of ferocious beasts.

"I am going to keep all three of you safe, and then," Ayaan turned to look at her, her eyes looking up from the saddle as he gave her a small and rare smile. "Then we will head for the North Pole to find a proper master for you and Aang."

Katara almost cried. She practically jumped from the saddle to hug her eldest brother, who gladly returned it albeit with pats on her back. "You're gonna be learning with us, remember?"

"You will always come first." He replied simply, earning an even stronger hug from his youngest sibling. Sokka was still giddy about his future warrior training, Ayaan could almost see his imagination coming to life about him being the man amongst men after his training. He could only smile, pleased that they were happy.

Though, he was not sure they would enjoy his training. He put himself through hell, and since he did not want to do that to them, he would lighten it a bit. What Ayaan did not understand at the time was that his version of a 'light' exercise was also a form of hell. He just though it would be a bit difficult for them since all forms of training they'd had before, if any, was much kinder to them.

'...They'll get used to it.'

Ayaan was sure it would be fine.

The younger siblings blamed the chill they felt up their spines on the freezing temperatures of the southern pole.