"Why exactly do we have to take a vacation?" Katsuki grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Izuku had never heard of someone complaining about vacation, but here they were.

"That's what I'm saying, we don't have time for this," Sokka crossed his arms and glared at the ground below them, obviously annoyed.

"There's nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves a little bit. Besides, I'm sure it'll be really fun at the Misty Palms Oasis, okay?" Katara said, turning back to look at the two.

"This is too much work, besides when you don't do what you're supposed to bad things happen." Katsuki said.

"What bad?" Izuku asked.

"Penalties."

"We're not doing that, we're just taking a break. Then we'll get right back to defeating the firelord." Aang explained cheerily.

"Pft, right, like it's totally normal to take a break when you're not doing much except oh, I don't know, saving the fucking world."

"Kacchan, everyone need breaks, even us."

"Sure, whatever, Deku." Katsuki rolled and Izuku presumed he napped the rest of the time they flew.

Izuku knew he would never admit it, but Katsuki was still recovering from what had happened yesterday. Izuku didn't blame him for that of course, but that didn't mean Katsuki was ever going to say anything to him.

They arrived at their destination rather quickly, but it wasn't the Oasis they had all been imagining. "Great, we took a vacation to a waste land. This is just PERFECT!" Katsuki grumbled.

"Kacchan, it isn't that bad. We could still have fun." Izuku encouraged in Japanese, "don't judge a book by its cover."

"I'll judge whatever the hell I want."

They all walked into what seemed to be a small village, but it was barren, and dusty. There were also strange people there with clothes they'd never seen before. Perhaps it was common attire in these parts however, considering how dusty it was. The looks the people were giving them made Izuku feel uncomfortable though. Katsuki just sneered at all of them and growled. People needed to learn to mind their own business.

The group walked into one of the open places. It was dark, and Izuku thought everyone looked kind of mean, but then again so did Kacchan.

As they walked Aang bumped into someone, and the drink spilled all over the two of them. "Watch where you're going you fucking idiot!" Katsuki shouted, for some reason more irritable than usual.

Izuku just sighed and shook his head.

"It's fine." Aang said, and just used airbending to blow himself dry.

The man who bumped int Aang adjusted his hat, looking at Aang with a sort of weird combination of surprise and awe on his face. "An airbender!" he exclaimed, I haven't seen one in a long time." He looked Aang over with his eyes, marveling at him as if he were some sort of specimen. "I'm professor Zei, nice to meet you!" and he started asking Aang a lot of questions. Aang looked flustered and tried to answer them as best he could to satisfy the professor but was mostly failing.

Katsuki just wanted to get out of here. There were too many people, it was too loud, and he didn't like the smell of the place either. Plus the weird looks from people outside made him uneasy. It was the look petty villain robbers gave a big wad of cash.

"Hey, so, do you have a map of this place? Like, something more recent than…" Sokka trailed off, but they all got that he was talking about their current map.

"Oh sure, here you go." Professor Zei handed over a map of the area.

"What are all these markings you made?" Sokka asked.

"Oh, those are all the places I've gone in search for The Secret Library."

"The huh?" Katsuki growled.

"A library? With books?" Katara asked.

"Yes, this library is special. It holds almost all the knowledge in the world."

"All?" Sokka mumbled before his eyes lit up. "That means it might have information on the Fire Nation!"

"How do you know it's useful?" Katsuki grumbled.

"Well, we don't have any other plans. So, for my vacation, we're going to the library!"

"That's a great idea." Professor Zei told Sokka.

"Who ever said this guy was coming!" Katsuki snarled, crossing his arms, and scowling at the professor who held his hands up in surrender.

"Kacchan, it not large deal? Or you scared?"

"Not scared you jackass! Fine, whatever, I don't care!" Katsuki growled stomping out the way they'd come, those creepy whatever guys still staring. "What are you looking at, bastards." He seethed, glaring at all of them.

Izuku rushed out and started pushing him forward so that they could get out of there as soon as possible. No need to cause any more of a scene than what had already occurred.

"Kacchan, lets go…"

"Don't fucking patronize me Deku!" he started cussing in Japanese, and Izuku tried to calm him down in the language.

The others watched, having no idea what they were saying, but somehow they still recognized all the cuss words.

"Kacchan, you are setting a bad example, we are some of the oldest here, what if Aang starts using your words!"

"Oh no, that would be just horrible. NOT!"

"Stop being immature, it's highly unattractive." Izuku said bluntly.

"Yeah? Well who says I was trying to be attractive? Nobody! I don't want a fucking girlfriend Deku!"

Izuku rolled his eyes, "I mean, that even people who could've been your friends won't be, because your personality is trash."

"You are walking on thin. Fucking. Ice. Deku."

"So you're going to cause another public scene? Where our fight can end the same way it did last time?"

"With me winning? That's perfectly fine by me!"

"No, since you have such a short term memory, I'll remind you. You ran away last time, because you were scared I'd beat you, but you disguised it as being mature."

"Fuck you!"

"Please don't."

Katsuki whirled around, not liking Deku's attitude. "Don't take that fucking tone with me!"

"What are you? My mom?"

"I'm the one who's gonna beat your ass!"

Katsuki pushed his forehead to Izuku's as Izuku pushed back, wrestling to the ground.

"Are they always like this?" Professor Zei asked.

"Pretty much." Katara shrugged. "Alright boys," She bent a bit of water from her pouch and splashed it on both of them, "play nice. We don't have all day."

"Sorry…" Izuku mumbled while Katsuki growled his displeasure at being wet.

"Let's just get going." Sokka grumbled, and they all climbed on top of Appa and took off to go find the library.

They were flying forever, Toph making jokes and pretending to see the library only for everyone to be reminded she was blind. Izuku honestly wasn't sure what was wrong with Katsuki, because he didn't even laugh at their stupidity, just scowled out at the desert wasteland.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Sokka inquired pointing to a tall, tower-like structure.

They headed over towards it and discovered from the drawing of the building, that this was the tippy top of the library, and the rest was buried under sand.

"Well great, we came all this way for nothing." Katsuki growled.

"No, we didn't." Toph said, putting her hand on the tower. "The building down below, it's hollow. Everything must still be intact."

"Are we sure this is the library?" Katara asked.

Then, they saw a dog, or, no, maybe a fox? Enter through the open window at the top of the library.

"That fox, it's a knowledge seeker. This is definitely the library. And if it's all intact, we should be able to get through the window as well." Professor Zei explained.

"I'll pass. Libraries aren't exactly that interesting to me."

"Why—oh…" Katara said, looking sheepish.

"I'm not going either. Too many books and stupid stuff." Katsuki complained.

"Alright, then you two can stay out here with Appa, and the rest of us will go in."

They all agreed and Katsuki, Toph, and Appa stayed outside while the rest climbed into the library to find out about the Fire Nation.

When they finally stopped, Zuko, Iroh, And Shouto were all out of breath. They'd lost her by now, at least Shouto hoped so.

Shouto stood up straight after a couple minutes and glanced around at their surroundings. They were in the forest again, though Shouto had no idea where, he hoped his companions did.

"Well, we're lost." Iroh said.

"Utterly lost." Zuko grumbled unhappily, looking around as Shouto was. "This is stupid."

Shouto didn't really understand what exactly was stupid, but Zuko looked angry, so Shouto didn't say anything.

"I guess we'll have to walk." Iroh sighed.

Zuko was already marching down the path by the time he said that with no sense of direction, and only luck to get them out of this.

Then again, they'd been lucky so far, so he didn't see why not this time.

Shouto really shouldn't have wondered anything like that. Sure, they'd gotten out of the forest, but now they were in the desert with just as much sense of direction as they'd started with four hours ago.

As they walked, Iroh started groaning in pain, "Zuko," he complained, "Can't we stop here for a little while?"

Zuko grumbled in discontent but nodded. "Fine. We will stop here for tonight and resume travel early tomorrow morning." Just as they were starting to settle down, Shouto heard some noises in the distance. From the way Iroh and Zuko perked up, they heard it too.

Soon, they were surrounded by what seemed to be soldiers. Fire Nation soldiers to be exact, judging from their red uniforms.

"Okay, so… what now?" Shouto asked.

"Now, we fight." Zuko raised his fists.

"Ah, pleasure to see you again, colonel Mongke." Iroh said kindly.

"Uncle stop it!"

"It's been a long time." Iroh persisted.

"Indeed." The colonel said shortly, a sinister smile on his ugly face, "Now then, we're here to capture you as fugitives. Come quietly and no one gets hurt."

"No can do." Shouto said and froze them where they stood.

Zuko and Iroh were both surprised. Shouto never took initiative. Never. Their would-be captors seemed just as surprised as Iroh and Zuko though, as they didn't even start struggling immediately. "How do you like all the shade I just through." Shouto said and adjusted nonexistent sunglasses.

Zuko facepalmed, his face a mixture of amusement and 'why do I even try'. "Let's go." Zuko grumbled. "before they figure out they can burn through the ice." He added while watching the firebenders try to break out through pure force.

Then they all started running again. "Curse you! Get back here!" The colonel hollered, struggling, but alas by the time they broke free, the three fugitives were gone.

"Uncle, do you have any friends who don't want to kill us?" Zuko asked, rolling his eyes.

Iroh sighed, but with a contemplative look in his eye. "Yes, like a close friend group you play pai sho with." Shouto elaborated while Zuko glared at him.

Shouto thought he might get yelled at, because apparently Zuko hated pai sho, but the firebender just crossed his arms and let out a huff of annoyance.

"You know what boys, that gives me an idea." Iroh said cheerily. "And we're in just the right place."

"Uncle, how do you know we're in the right place?"

Iroh was silent.

"Uncle, how long have you known where we are?"

More silence.

"Uncle!"

"Shh, good things come to those with great patience, prince Zuko." Iroh said, placing his hands together, with his eyes closed, a picture of calm.

Shouto imitated him, but then nearly tripped over his own feet so he decided it was probably best to have his eyes open.

Zuko let out a tired groan and gave up, following Iroh and Shouto through the desert wasteland to their next destination, where hopefully they could get some help.

A/N I'm so sorry you guys had to wait this long for an update once again. I just kind of lost sight for what I wanted, and was having a hard time finding a reason to like this story for a while, but now I'm back. Honestly, this is probably my most struggled-with fic for finding motivation to keep going. But honestly, that's why I'm so glad I have all of you, who love this story so much and tell me how much you love it, and I love going through your replies to the chapters that I've written to refind what I too love about this story. I am so thankful, for every single one of you that's kept with this fic up until this point, losing people on the way, and new ones joining. Thank you so much for taking this journey with me, and being there to read one chapter at a time. I love you guys so much, thank you so much for reading, and I hope to continue producing chapters that you can love just as much as the last!