AFTER TRAVELLING FOR A FEW DAYS, the gAang decides to stop just outside a small fishing village so that Appa can rest for a night or two.

"Do you see that group of stars over there?" Kida asks, pointing to the sky. As Appa sleeps, Kida snuggles against the flying bison's tail, looking up at the stars.

Aang, who lies down next to Kida, follows her gaze. "Yep."

Kida starts telling Aang some story about a boy and a girl who were forbidden to fall in love, but did anyway. Having gone against their destinies, they were cursed: the boy would turn into a wolf at night while the girl became a dragon during the day. They died, never having seen each other again, but were reunited in the stars.

"You get all of that from a bunch of dots in the sky?"

Kida chuckles. "Yeah. You should see what I can read from the clouds, too."

"That's awesome! You got any more stories?"

Nearby, Katara and Sokka sit around the fire. The group had made, and eaten, dinner a while ago, so the flames were dying down.

"Katara, I'm telling you, something's off about her," Sokka whispers. He pokes at the fire with a stick, watching as the embers fly into the air. "For all we know, she's a Fire Nation spy."

"That's not true, Sokka," Katara groans. It's been about a week since Kida joined the team, but her and Sokka still weren't getting along.

After the Jet incident, they seemed to be warming up to each other, but that pretty much lasted a few hours.

They argued all through the next morning about the group's travel plans.

"No, I say we go this way. We'd cut our travel time in half so if Appa needs more time to rest, we could stop and still get to the North Pole on time."

"What do you know? You just got here!"

"I'm sorry, between the two of us, who has lived in the South Pole his whole life, and who has actual experience using maps and travelling around?"

They disagreed so much that they accidentally ripped the map in half; thankfully Kida had an extra that she pulled out, but not before Sokka muttered something about girls ruining everything. Later that night, Katara had to stop Kida from cutting off Sokka's ponytail - sorry wolf tail - while he slept.

The pointless arguments and unnecessary competitiveness between Kida and Sokka had only increased as the days went by.

One afternoon, during their rest stop, Kida claimed that she could climb a tree faster than Sokka, who then almost sprained his ankle when they decided to determine a winner.

Another time, Sokka accused Kida of stealing his boomerang, so he threw her bow off of Appa.

"Spirits, Sokka! I told you it wasn't me! Why would I want your stupid boomerang, anyways?"

"It's not stupid, a boomerang is a warrior's -"

"Hey, Sokka," Aang interrupted, leaning over into the saddle where Kida and Sokka sat. "Here's your boomerang back. Thanks for letting me borrow it!"

When Aang went back to his conversation with Katara, Kida scowled at Sokka.

"Right..." Sokka said sheepishly. "It's not hard to make one of those bow things, right?"

Katara thought that Kida would strangle Sokka then and there.

The worst was, earlier today, when the group went into town, Kida and Sokka were supposed to be in charge of the money, which, looking back, probably wasn't the best idea.

"You said, 'Got the money!' before we left, and you're telling me it's my fault the money is gone?"

"No, before we left, I asked 'Got the money?' and you said fine. So where is it?"

"Would you guys stop arguing for one second?" Katara yelled, causing Kida and Sokka to turn their attention to her. "It's not important how we lost the money, but we need to find something to eat."

"Well, I would offer to go into the woods and hunt, but it seems I've misplaced my bow!"

The group ended up having fish for dinner, courtesy of Kida going down by the river with a makeshift fishing pole. Sokka refused to have any, but Katara noticed how he looked at their food longingly.

Despite it all, Katara thought Kida fit well into the group: she was resourceful and could hold her own in a fight and, yeah, she was a bit secretive and closed off, but Kida was still pleasant to talk to. Plus, it was nice to have another girl around. In truth, Katara couldn't understand why Sokka had such a problem with Kida in the first place; then again, Kida wasn't making as much of an effort to be his friend as she was with Aang and Katara.

Kida and Sokka didn't seem to care much if they liked each other or not, but Katara did. She wants them to be friends, or at least friendly because it was important to her that everyone on the team got along. How else would they end the war, if not together?

And, frankly, Katara is getting tired of her brother going on and on about how annoying and how much of a show off Kida is.

"And another thing!" Sokka exclaims before going on another long-winded rant.

Katara lets her brother continue as she tries to form a plan in her mind. There has to be a way for Sokka and Kida to get along; Katara is starting to get a headache.

»»---------------------►

"OKAY, SO THE GAME WORKS LIKE THIS," Katara starts. Her, Kida, Sokka and Aang are sitting around a makeshift board game Katara and Aang had drawn in the sand earlier. A fire burns next to them, offering itself as a light source.

After last night, Katara asked for Aang's help in finding a solution for the Kida/Sokka conflict; if even the Avatar couldn't figure out a way for them to get along, then there truly was no hope.

Thankfully, Aang had a plan. He suggested that they find a way for the two to actually get to know each other.

"They'll either become the best of friends, or grow to hate each other more," Aang decided.

Katara hopes it's the former. She and Aang spent all day creating THE GREAT QUESTION GAME! and Katara crosses her fingers that it actually does some good.

"Everyone starts here," Katara explains, pointing to the first square. "When it's your turn, you roll the dice and move your rock across the board according to the number you rolled. If you land on a question mark, you get to ask someone a question. If you land on a blank space, someone else gets to ask you a question."

"I have a question," Kida says. "Why are we doing this?"

Katara and Aang look at each other nervously.

"Uh, team bonding!" Aang answers. When Kida raises her eyebrow, he continues: "If we're travelling the world together, we should be good friends -"

"All of us?" Kida interjects, causing Sokka to roll his eyes.

"Yes," Katara declares, glaring at Kida and Sokka. "The best way to do that is to actually learn stuff about each other."

Kida thinks for a second, then shrugs. "As long as it's nothing too personal."

"I've got another question," Sokka pipes in. "What's so great about this game?"

"Let's leave the questions for the game," Katara huffs.

"Well, it's time to pick our players!" Aang exclaims suddenly. He enthusiastically chooses one of the rocks and hands the rest out to Katara, Kida, and Sokka. "Katara, you go first and show us how it's done."

Katara rolls a three, landing her on a question mark. She looks around the circle and stops at Kida.

"Okay, let's start with an easy one," Katara says. "Kida, what's your favourite color?"

"Oh, that's way too personal."

Beside her, Sokka scoffs. "See? She's not respecting the game!"

"I was joking," Kida says. "I'd say my favourite color is purple, like the sky just after sunset."

"Well, isn't that lovely," Sokka remarks sarcastically. Kida narrows her eyes, but before she can say anything, Aang jumps in.

"Kida! You go."

As the game progresses, Katara notes how Kida and Sokka are conveniently avoiding asking each other any questions, only ever addressing Aang and Katara. So, she implements a new rule: you can't ask the same person a question twice unless you've asked everyone a question once.

"Fine," Sokka grumbles. He turns to Kida. "Are you a liar?"

"Why are you such a jerk?" Kida challenges.

"It's not your turn to ask a question," Sokka points out.

"It's not like you'd believe me either way."

"Aha! So you are a liar!"

"Sokka," Aang sighs after noticing how disappointed Katara seems that her plan isn't working. "Please ask a valid question, at least. Literally anything else."

Sokka huffs. "Fine, then, was Jet your first kiss?"

"Sokka!" Katara exclaims, blushing a little herself.

"What? He said literally anything else," Sokka counters.

"It's fine," Kida assures, although her jaw is clenched. "No, Jet wasn't my first kiss."

"But, you did kiss?"

"Actually, it's Kida's turn to -" Aang tries to interject, but Kida cuts him off.

"Yes, we did. Once."

"Wow, you sure know how to pick 'em."

"At least I've actually kissed someone," Kida snaps.

"I have kissed someone!" Sokka defends, his octave higher than normal.

"Oh, really? Who?"

"Lots of people!"

"Okay, then, name one person you've kissed."

"A Kyoshi Warrior," Sokka states proudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, then I guess that's one thing we have in common," Kida points out.

Sokka pauses, then says: "But...The Kyoshi Warriors are all girls."

"People are bisexual, Sokka," Kida says plainly.

"Oh...well, yeah! I... I know that!"

"Let's move on," Kida suggests.

She rolls the dice and moves her rock two spaces forward, to a question mark. Kida asks Aang how he got his tattoos, and from there, the game starts to move forward peacefully. Katara thinks that everything is falling into place, until it's once again Sokka's turn to ask Kida a question.

"Why were you on Kyoshi Island?"

"Uh, pass," Kida states.

"You can't just pass," Sokka scoffs.

Kida shakes her head. "Ask me another question."

"Fine. Why did you leave the Freedom Fighters?"

"Look, Ponytail, I already told you why," Kida replies.

"First of all, this is a warrior's wolf tail," Sokka explains through gritted teeth. "Second, I meant the partial reason. Who were you hoping to find?"

"Get on my good side, then maybe I'll answer your question."

Soon enough he goes back to accusing Kida of hiding something, then she argues that he needs to learn to respect boundaries, then Sokka snaps that she's obviously just here to sabotage the mission, then Kida points out that if she wanted to do that she would have already, then he says that she probably got scared when she saw him, then she states that the team is better off with her than with him because he's just a wannabe warrior, then Sokka retorts that Kida's just a girl who pretends to be tougher and smarter than she actually is, then Kida grumbles something like 'no wonder you were the only boy left in your village' and they just keep arguing and arguing. Maybe it's just Katara's imagination, but the flames seems to burn more ferociously with every minute that passes, and, finally, Katara reaches her breaking point.

"I've had it with you two!" Katara yells. "You're acting like children!"

"Katara..." Aang starts, but is quickly cut off by Katara.

"No, I'm serious, Aang. The team won't do any good if this is how we treat each other. So, either you two start acting like adults, or we leave one of you behind."

A silence falls over the group and they consider the ultimatum Katara had announced.

"You take first watch," Kida says to Sokka before walking away.

Aang watches her leave and lie down on one of Appa's legs.

"Wow, Katara, I guess your plan actually worked," he remarks.

Katara smiles, nodding her head in triumph. "I try my best."

After Aang and Katara settle down for the night, Sokka looks back to where Kida is resting.

»»---------------------►

"LEAVING WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE?" Sokka asks accusingly later that night.

Thinking everyone was asleep, Kida planned to slip away, but of course Sokka of all people would ruin her plan. He stands where the woods meet the sand, blocking her from entering the forest.

"I left a note," Kida says. "It's better if I leave, anyways."

"Oh, believe me, I know that," he assures. Sokka leans back against a tree, crosses his arms and tilts his head at Kida. "But, I want to know why. Because I don't buy that you're just leaving because of what Katara said earlier."

Kida sighs. She looks longingly at the camp, then back to Sokka. "Look, I have reasons to stay, and I want to stay, but the last thing I want to do is make you leave your sister. Katara doesn't deserve to lose her brother, even if it's you. I didn't want her to have to make that choice."

Then, Sokka realizes something.

"That's who you were looking for," Sokka states. "You have a brother, don't you?"

For a few seconds, Kida glares at Sokka. By the look on her face, he imagines that she's deciding whether she should punch him in the face or throw him in the river, but after a while, her face softens and she slides down to the ground, her back leaning against the tree opposite to Sokka. Kida drops her small bag of belongings by her feet and starts fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist. Sokka, unsure of what to do, follows her lead and sits down.

"I think that might actually be past tense," she comments sadly.

"Like, he's dead?" Sokka asks. For a moment, Sokka feels sympathy for Kida, who he realizes probably has no one else in the world now but an airbender and two watertribe teens she met randomly when running away from pirates.

"What do you care, anyways?" Kida challenges, although Sokka can tell that her heart is not really in it, and that her mind is elsewhere.

"I don't," Sokka admits. Well, I do, but I don't, he thinks. "Aang and Katara seem to be attached to you, for some reason," he says, mimicking the words Kida had once told him. "So...even if it physically pains me, I think you should stay."

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

"Maybe, but so are you."

For a minute or two, neither of them says anything; Sokka figures Kida is weighing her options.

"So, I guess we just pretend to tolerate each other?" Kida suggests, breaking the silence.

"Basically. At least, when we're around Aang and Katara."

Kida nods. "First one to start an argument around them has to do the other's laundry for a month." She outstretches her hand, and Sokka shakes it, smirking.

"That's a bet I'll take," he declares. "And one I'll win. Besides, girls are better at doing laundry."

"You're gonna make this hard, aren't you?"

"Did you expect anything else?" Sokka retorts.

Kida laughs - she actually laughs, at something Sokka said - and gets up. Then, she turns back to Sokka, who is still sitting down.

"For the record, I'm not staying because of what you said. I'm staying because that's what my brother would want me to do."

"Keep telling yourself that," Sokka taunts.

Kida rolls her eyes and walks back to camp.

author's note:

i haven't left one of these on this fic in a while, but i want to thank everyone for reading!! i hope you're enjoying the story so far :)

and, just want to point out that i love suki, and even though she won't be sokka's main love interest in this story, she will be mentioned from time to time!

thanks for reading!!!

~blue