But even as that anguished cry left his lips, Kouji was already moving, throwing himself to the ground and forcing a platform out of the temple below him to catch the Fire Prince.  Toph jerked into action, too. In a move that she probably should have made a while ago, she sank the swordswoman to her chest in the floor.

Kouji scarcely noticed.  He was running to the edge of the temple, peeking over the top, trying to see if he'd managed to catch Zuko.  In that single, panicked instant, he had forgotten the anger and hurt he'd carried since the fall of Ba Sing Se.

The platform he'd made was empty. But a vine nearby was swinging back and forth too much to be explained by the wind.  Without hesitating, the boy threw himself off the temple, landing easily on the platform, and looking over towards that vine.

Zuko was hanging several feet below, clinging to it with his left arm and both legs. His right hand was pressed against his side, whether the girl had stabbed him.  Silver eyes narrowed, and Kouji launched himself at the nearest vine, catching hold and quickly twining his body around it so he wouldn't fall.  That done, he began sliding carefully down, until he was on a level with the prince.  Once there, he turned to the temple — or rather, the cliff face below.  "Here goes nothing," he said.

With a loud cry, he thrust his arm towards the stone, which responded with a rumble and a cloud of dust, then yanked his hand back to his chest; the stone followed the movement, extending until it formed a platform mere inches below them.

Now Zuko looked away from the vine. "…Kouji?"

Kouji dropped to the platform, making sure it was sturdy enough to hold them both.  It was.  "None other," he said, walking to the prince.  "You can let go." The teenager nodded, releasing his hold on the vine. He wobbled a bit when he hit the platform and nearly fell over, but Kouji steadied him carefully.  He freed one hand, and pulled the platform closer to the cliff.  Hopefully, Sokka will come down with Appa.  I don't want to go through the floor.  The ceiling.  Whatever that is over our heads.

Appa did come down and hover next to the platform a couple minutes later, but it wasn't Sokka who had come to retrieve them.

Aang jumped over onto the platform. "Why are you here?" he asked, quietly.

Zuko bowed his head. "I think this is where I'm supposed to be. But if you don't want me here, I'll go." His eyes flicked over to Kouji for a second, then went back to studying the platform. "Now that I know you're safe, if you want me to, I'll go."

Kouji frowned as he looked over Zuko.  The teenager was ragged and filthy, and much thinner than he remembered. It looked like there was some kind of bandage peeking out through a hole in his right sleeve. The bandage, while ragged, was probably the most intact piece of cloth he had on him. Blood was seeping through his fingers, from the hole the little swordswoman had made in his side.

Kouji bit his lip, considering.  Something had obviously happened to Zuko.  Something bad.  But that made no sense; Zuko had been back in favour ever since Ba Sing Se…   Ever since he abandoned you.

The earthbender ignored that voice and turned to Aang.  "We can't send him away," he said pleadingly.  "It'd be murder."

Aang nodded. "I'll talk to the others. Come on." He leapt back up onto Appa.  Kouji followed more carefully; rather than run up the tail like he normally did, the boy earthbent a set of stairs so that it would be easier for Zuko to board.  While Appa flew them up, Kouji tugged on Zuko's hand, trying to see to his wound.

Zuko didn't resist too much. The injury wasn't too deep, but it was bleeding heavily.  Kouji whistled, and pounced on one of the supply bags.  Katara would yell at him later, but that wouldn't be anything new.  Quickly he pulled bandages from there and went to treat the slash.  The teenager leaned back and closed his eyes, letting Kouji wrap it.

This only worried the boy more.  Why isn't he protesting that he's fine, that he doesn't need a bandage?  Something is wrong.

It turned out he had good reason to worry. By the time he'd finished, Zuko had passed out.

"Zuko!"

His vision was getting blurry, was he sick?  Kouji rubbed his eyes, and was startled when his hands came away wet.  Why am I crying?  I'm mad at him, I hate him, I…

Fortunately, when they landed, Katara was busy helping Toph and Sokka transfer the swordswoman to somewhere she could sit until they figured out what to do with her.

"You can put him in one of the rooms for now," Aang told him. "I'm gonna go figure out who that girl is."

Kouji nodded.  "All right."  He watched Aang go off, then wrestled Zuko off the bison.  Once they were on the ground, he fashioned a stretcher of stone just as Haru came running up.

"Did something happen?" the older boy asked, looking worried.  "I could feel the ben—"  He cut himself off as he noticed Zuko.  "No way."

"Help me get him to a room," Kouji ordered.

With a shrug, Haru bent down and scooped Zuko up in his arms.  "Lead the way, Sunshine."

"Only Toph can call me that."

Kouji led Haru to the room he'd picked out; the bigger earthbender put Zuko down on the bed gently, then wandered off to do… whatever it was he did.

About ten minutes later, the prince stirred a little.  Kouji perked up and wiped his face — he'd been crying again.  Zuko sat up groggily, pinched the bridge of his nose, then started to get up.

Now that was something Kouji was used to.  He caught Zuko around the shoulders and forced him back down.  "No, you don't."

"Need to move on," he protested, not fully awake yet.

"You're safe," Kouji told him.  "At least for now."

"Huh?" Zuko blinked, then rubbed at his eyes. "…Oh."

Now Kouji let go, hoping that for once Zuko would show some common sense.

The teenager sighed, staring at his hands.  Kouji echoed his sigh, moving to stare out the window.  Zuko said nothing, unwrapping and rewrapping the bandage on his arm.

"So… now what?" Kouji heard himself ask.

"I don't know," Zuko replied quietly. "I don't know how long they'll let me stay."

The boy shrugged.  "They let me stay."

"That's different. You're a kid and you didn't actually do anything to them."

"Oh, please," snarled Kouji.

Zuko fell silent again, fiddling with the bandage on his arm. "If they make me leave, I know what to do."

Go back to Azula?  Only barely did the boy manage to keep from saying it.  "What?"

The teenager didn't answer, and Kouji sighed, continuing to stare out the window.  Zuko didn't say anything else, just fiddled with his bandages.

"I guess we'll find out.  One way or another."

"Yeah…"

Kouji fell silent once more.

 

A little while later, Sokka poked his head in. "Umm… can I talk to you for a minute, Kouji?"

The boy looked up.  "Uh, sure."  He got up and slipped outside.

"So, um, what's going on in there?"

Kouji sighed.  "He's… different."

"Um. Different how?"

"Just…"  Kouji tried to find the right words.  "He's… well, last winter.  Zhao blew up his ship, with him still aboard.  He immediately infiltrated Zhao's flagship and then broke into the Northern Water Tribe's city single-handedly.  Then last spring, when I got kidnapped by sandbenders, he went into the desert after me with no supplies.  When we found him, he was almost dead of dehydration, but he still insisted that he was fine, that we should get back on the road as soon as possible."  The boy sighed and looked back at the door.  "He's… actually accepting the restrictions now."

"Oh. Um. I'm sorry?" Sokka fidgeted a little.

"…what's up?"

Silently, he handed Kouji a piece of paper.

Confused, the younger boy accepted it.

It was a slightly-torn wanted poster. For Zuko.

Silver eyes went wide.  "What — where did you find this?"

"In the town where we first ran into Meiling. The sword girl. You know, the one with all the gambling?"

"WHAT!?"

Sokka raised his hands in what he thought was a gesture of appeasement. "I found Toph's poster right after, and that one was a little more urgent!"

"And you couldn't have mentioned it after!?"

"I sort of… forgot about it," he admitted sheepishly. "I almost showed you the day before the invasion, but I didn't think you needed any more distractions."

Kouji was silent for a very, very long moment, staring at the poster.  Almost idly, he read the charges while his mind slowly ticked.

They were many and varied: two counts of treason, one of espionage, four for aiding the enemy in wartime, one of attempted murder in the first degree, two counts battery, several counts assault, one count resisting arrest, one count evading arrest, and, finally, two counts vandalism.

The last bit, the vandalism, struck Kouji as so completely absurd compared to the others that he started to laugh, almost hysterically.

"Kouji? Are you okay?" Sokka asked, a little concerned.

"You know?  For the longest time, I'd thought he'd abandoned me," Kouji said, still laughing.  "That he'd given  up everything he had then — the start of a new life, Uncle, me — for that bitch sister of his."   There was wetness on his cheeks, he was crying again.  "He had everything he wanted, at what must have seemed so small a cost."  He let go of the wanted poster and watched it fall to the ground.  "And now this."

"Uh… if it helps… I think he just wanted to go home. It didn't have anything to do with you, his uncle, or his sister?" Sokka suggested tentatively.

Kouji wasn't listening.  "I… I wanted to hate him.  I tried to hate him.  Because of Ba Sing Se, here I was, stuck with people who didn't like me and with a girl who would probably kill me if I so much as sneezed on the Avatar.  But I couldn't— I couldn't—"  Kouji buried his face in his hands, the laughter dying out to be replaced by tears.

Sokka fidgeted awkwardly, having no idea what to say or do.

"A-and all this time… since the solstice… all th-this time he was…"

"You had no way of knowing…" Sokka said.

Kouji's head snapped up and he glared fiercely at Sokka.  "If you'd shown me the damned poster, I would have!" he yelled.

"I told you, I forgot. And you didn't need any distractions during the invasion when I finally remembered!" Sokka said, a little defensively.

"What do you know about it!?"

"You'd just brought up the knife he gave you! I was sure the poster would distract you!"

"I don't care!" Kouji screamed.  "He was like my brother, gods all damn it!"

"What's going on?" Zuko asked, coming to the door.

Fortunately for everybody's ears — and possibly because his throat was burning — Kouji didn't scream again.  Instead, he turned and clung tightly to Zuko's shirt, burying his face in the older boy's chest.  "…What did you do to him?" Zuko asked Sokka, accusingly.

"I just showed him your wanted poster…"

"I have a wanted poster?"

Kouji nodded, refusing to let go of the prince.

Sheepishly, Sokka picked it up and handed it over.

"Wow. They actually counted the vandalism. Huh." He wobbled a little.

Kouji looked up, his face tear-streaked.  "Y-you need to s-sit down…"

"I'm fine," he replied, absently.

There he is.  That's the Zuko I know.  "Are not, and it isn't like Katara's going to fix you."  He sniffled and pulled Zuko back over to the bed.  Zuko sighed, and let Kouji pull him. He was still holding the poster in his left hand.

Kouji pushed Zuko down and checked the bandages.  The ones on his side were a little red, but it looked like the bleeding had stopped and that was from earlier.  Kouji sighed in relief.  "Okay.  Okay, good."

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked quietly.

The boy hesitated.  "Yes."  No.  "I—"

"Yeah?"

"I don't know!" wailed the boy.

"Oh…," the teenager replied, awkwardly hugging him.  Kouji clung desperately to him, until he fell asleep, emotionally exhausted. 

 

When he woke, Zuko wasn't in the room.  The earthbender blinked, then his eyes flew open.  No!  What if Katara—!  He scrambled to his feet and desperately began looking for the Fire Prince.

It didn't take long to find him. He was off in one of the parts of the temple Kouji hadn't seen yet. No one else was with him.  Relieved, Kouji headed off that way, stopping just outside of the room Zuko was in.  Once there, he settled in to wait.

She won't let them keep him.

But Aang needs a firebending teacher.

Look at him!  He's in no condition to—

Yes, but that doesn't mean he can't talk Aang through it.

She'll kill him if he so much as looks at the Avatar funny.

Since when is he the Avatar?

Since when is he Aang?

Shut up!  He's my friend.

And he won't be able to stop her from killing him.

Would so.  She'd listen to him.

She didn't about you.

That's different.

Yeah.  You didn't do anything.  He did everything.  And you're the one who's been paying for it.

Shut up!  Shutupshutupshutupshutup SHUT UP!

Zuko came out of the room, dripping wet, his clothes clinging to him. "Kouji? When did you wake up?"

"Couple minutes ago," the boy answered, grateful that his internal argument had been interrupted.

"Oh. Morning, then." He squeezed some of the water out of his hair with his left hand.

"You hungry?  I could get Teo to bring us some breakfast."  He's too adorable for the Wrath of Katara to hit him.

"I'm all right," he said, then frowned, trying to remember something.

Some things don't change.  "I'll get Teo."

"Yeah, okay," he replied absently, now examining the bandages on his right arm. "…probably should've taken those off first. Oops."

Kouji hesitated.  "What happened to your arm?"

"Huh?" he looked up. "Oh. It got burned while I was escaping the palace."

Kouji's eyes went wide.  "Zu…"

"What?"

A deep breath, and the boy shook his head.  "Never mind…"  He slipped out, keeping a foot out for Zuko, and located Teo.  It didn't take much more than a simple request for the paraplegic to grin and promise to go fetch the food.

Zuko just headed back to the room Kouji had put him in earlier. He was unwrapping the bandage on his arm when he came in. It seemed that he'd slightly understated his injury.

Kouji went white and froze, one hand against the door.

Zuko looked up. "Gah!" He hastily rewrapped the burn. "I didn't think you'd be back yet."

The younger boy only stared.  "Zuko…"

"What?"

"What happened?"  He forced himself to enter the room, and sat next to Zuko.

"I told you. It got burned when I escaped the palace," Zuko said, tying off the bandage.

"Not just that.  The whole story.  Please…"

Zuko fidgeted a little. "Oh."

Hesitantly, Kouji took Zuko's left hand and gave him a pleading look.

"I didn't want to get arrested," Zuko hedged again.

"Zuko."

"What?"

"I… I need to know.  Please…"

"He… thought I was a spy."

Kouji frowned.  "Who di— Ozai?"

Zuko nodded. "He found out the Avatar was still alive."

The boy started to ask how, and then his eyes widened as he remembered what had happened at the swimming hole nearly a month beforehand.  "Oh.  Oh, gods…"

"I was… out of the palace most of the night he got the message, which probably just made him angrier," Zuko said. "As soon as I got back in, I was called in to see him. He told me he thought I was a spy and that I was under arrest and would be questioned about the Avatar's plans."

Kouji blinked.  "But… Azula was the one who…"

"She told him I was," the older boy said quietly.

"Probably because of something like this," he said bitterly.  "Guess that explains the sword girl…"

"The girl I fought earlier?"  Zuko asked, leaping onto the change of subject. He probably didn't want to go into detail about his escape from custody and how he'd survived between then and now.

"Yes," Kouji replied. He knew when not to press Zuko.  "She turned up in Fire Fountain City and managed to get Katara and Toph taken captive."  Because of that stupid scam they were pulling.  "It was bait for a trap for Aang.  She nearly got him then."  Would have, if I hadn't… He sighed.  "Not that Katara cared," he muttered, not realising he was saying it aloud.

"That doesn't make much sense," Zuko said, frowning. "There are better assassins out there. The sword girl's good, but I don't think she was a bender or had any other distance weapons."

Kouji shrugged.  "Either way, Katara and Toph broke out right after she attacked, and we got away.  We didn't see her again until yesterday."

Zuko's eyes suddenly widened slightly, then he shook his head. "Yeah. Right. You got away, that's the important thing."

"Yeah.  Something up?"

"No, no, nothing. Just a thought."

"Oh."  Kouji sighed.

"I think Azula probably wanted a couple of you alive," Zuko finally said, after a minute. "That's why she sent who she did."

"Must've been Katara," Kouji decided.

"Probably. And you."

That… makes absolutely no sense.   The earthbender looked up at the prince.  "Me?  Why would she want me?"

"Because I spent every day until we left Ba Sing Se looking for you. You were probably the only thing that could lure me back."

Kouji's eyes went wide.  "You… you looked for me…?"

Zuko nodded. "I wanted to make sure you'd gotten out of the cave safely. When I couldn't find you, I figured you'd probably left with the Avatar's friends."

The boy looked down.  "I… you…"  Zuko had tried to find him.

Zuko hadn't abandoned him.

He'd abandoned Zuko.

Oh, gods.

"Kouji? What's wrong?"

He was fighting tears again.  "I… I thought…"  How could I have been so stupid?

Awkwardly, Zuko reached over with his good hand and took Kouji's.  The younger boy held on desperately, trying to put everything together in his head and keep his heart from shattering.  "Oh, gods, Zuko…"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should've looked harder…"

He shook his head.  "No.  No, I was with them, you wouldn't have… I just… I thought you'd… but…"

"I'm just glad you got out alive. At first, when I couldn't find you, I thought… but then I figured I'd find a body if… but you're safe, that's good." Zuko was babbling, too.

"No, it's not good!" Kouji whimpered.  "I left you…"

"I told you to," Zuko pointed out. "I told you to run."

Kouji sniffled and looked up at him.  "But if I'd—"

"Stayed? I don't know what would have happened. It might've been okay, or we both might've gotten killed," Zuko looked away. "At least this way you're alive and safe."

"Alive, sure," Kouji replied.  He closed his eyes and leaned into Zuko, resting his forehead against the older boy's good shoulder.

"You're alive and safe," Zuko repeated.

Kouji didn't want to argue this with him.  Instead, he just took a deep breath and let it out again.  Zuko sighed as well. He hadn't let go of Kouji's hand, which the boy didn't mind at all.  "I'll never leave you again," Kouji whispered.

"Don't promise me that," Zuko replied, quietly. "You can't control everything, and if you try, you'll probably end up getting hurt. I don't want that."

Kouji looked up at him, then nodded.  Zuko gave him a little smile, then closed his eyes. He curled his free hand, not quite making a fist.  Smiling in return, Kouji nestled a little closer to his prince, content to remain there.