Chapter 1: Sokka vs. The Fireflakes

"Okay, this is really, really weird," I said to Aang as we left Prince Jerk – or former Prince Jerk – in his own room. Aang smiled optimistically and nodded serenely. Of course he's not too worried. He has way too much faith in mankind; the same way Katara has hope. Speak of the water witch, there she was heading towards Prince Jerk's room right now. She looked pissed.

"Hey, what the hell happened?" Haru burst in, followed closely by Teo and Duke. Sorry, I mean The Duke.

"What you mean about letting Zuko join us?" Aang asked.

"I meant what happened here?" Haru gestured to the blown up debris and the occasional missing building. Okay, fair enough. "W-wait a second – Zuko… w-whaaat?"

"Zuko saved us from Combustion Man," Aang explained. I harrumphed. Seriously, all the guy did was get himself blown off a cliffside. Do I get any acknowledgement around here? And what about poor Boomerang? "He's going to teach me firebending."

"What?" Haru, Teo and The Duke chorused together. Teo scowled. "I thought you guys said you were never letting Zuko join our camp?"

"Well…" I said. "Aang needs a firebending teacher. He's the only one we've got. So…"

I gave a helpless shrug. Hopefully they understood the situation. Clearly The Duke didn't.

"But firebenders are evil!" he sputtered. "What if he slits our throats during our sleep? What if he burns this Air Temple down?"

I saw Katara stomping out of Prince Jerk's room. You know what? I wouldn't worry too much about Prince Jerk right now.

Lunch was interesting. It had been tense for the last few days because we had been discussing what to do with Prince Jerk but now that he was here with us... Katara called out lunch and everyone, or rather everyone who wasn't Zuko, congregated around the cooking pot as usual. I spotted Zuko peek his head out of the door and then slip back inside. I stifled a laugh – if all it took to scare Prince Jerk were some firm words from Katara then we should have set her on him ages ago.

Everyone ate quietly for fear of setting off a waterbomb. There was hot soup nearby and having that explode would not be pretty. Eventually Toph sighed and strode over to Prince Jerk's room.

"Why is she so concerned about Zuko?" Katara complained. "He burned her feet! She shouldn't be going anywhere near him!"

I would agree with her but Aang and I were smarter than to get involved. The Toph vs. Katara battles were messy – and I'm not just talking about mud fights. I gave a noncommittal shrug. Katara seemed to be annoyed that no one was willing to argue this point with her so she dealt with it by stirring the stew. Forcefully.

Toph came out followed by a hesitant Prince Jerk. He was carrying out a bag of something, which he seemed to be eating his lunch from. Toph plopped herself back down and began eating her stew again without much notice of Katara's frown. I've often wondered if Toph can sense glowering. Prince Jerk looked around, not sure where to sit – we didn't save a spot for him. He made a move to sit next to Appa until Toph decided to push herself closer to me to make space for him. I nearly knocked over the stew pot, earning a glare from Katara. Thanks Toph. Prince Jerk didn't look too grateful either. He sat down and said, "Er hi, my name is Zuko."

I wondered who on earth he was introducing himself to seeing as we all already know him until I remembered we didn't actually formally introduce him to Haru, Teo and TheDuke. He put out his hand for them to shake. The three of them glanced at each other not sure what to do with it. Prince Jerk's smile faltered before letting his arm drop back to his side. Thankfully Teo saved us from awkward silence.

"I'm Teo. And this is Haru and Duke."

"It's The Duke!" the kid exclaimed. Sheesh. Apparently the The is his first name.

Prince Jerk nodded as if this was perfectly normal and shook hands with the hesitant Haru and Teo. He made a move to shake The Duke's hand but the kid just refused and stared. He gave up and continued eating whatever was in his bag. Whatever it was, it sure sounded tasty. They were these round crunchy things he kept popping into his mouth. Katara scowled at him and thrust a bowl of stew at him. He looked up at her nervously.

"Um, don't worry about me, that's not necessary," he said. "I brought my own food so you don't have to worry about feeding me and stuff."

Perhaps as a surprise to everyone who wasn't Aang, Toph or myself, Katara looked even more affronted. Toph snickered.

"What, is my cooking not good enough for you?" she asked.

"What?" Prince Jerk looked bewildered. "N-no! I just thought you wouldn't appreciate an extra mouth to feed, that's all! And seeing as you people already hate me – "

I laughed and shook my head. Meh, Katara was too angry with Prince Jerk to notice me. She practically threw the bowl of soup in front of him. A lot of stew spilled out. If it weren't for the presence of the younger kids like The Duke and even Aang I think she would have sworn her head off at him. As it was she scowled and continued eating her own stew.

Prince Jerk stared at the bowl unsure what to do with it. I grinned behind the guise of drinking from my bowl – I had actually finished it long ago. But seriously, the way he was eying that bowl – Buddy! You just drink from it, all right? It's not that hard. Especially to appease an angry Katara.

"It's not poisoned, just in case you're wondering." Ah Toph. She always knows the right thing to say at the right moment.

Prince Jerk blushed. I didn't even know he was capable of such a human gesture. Katara exploded. Or to be more precise, she exploded the stew. That, sadly, I knew she was capable of. I'm so glad she wasn't born a firebender.

"You think I'm going to poison you?" she said dangerously. "I would never resort to that kind of treachery, unlike you – "

"Katara!" Toph and Aang called out at the same time. Katara promptly continued to eat her stew in sullen silence.

Prince Jerk's eyes continued to dart between Katara and the bowl of soup. All of sudden his arm shot out, snatching the bowl of soup and gulping what was left of it down. He promptly dropped the bowl back on the floor. That was the strangest form of appeasement I have ever seen.

"So…" I said. "How was it?"

"Um, it was good," he mumbled wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "I mean, it could have used some fireflakes but – "

Katara promptly got up and snatched his empty bowl away from him and throwing it into the empty pot along with other dirty dishes before stomping over to the water fountain and throwing everything in. Seriously, didn't the guy know how not to piss off a woman? He put his head in his hands.

"Don't mind Sugar Queen," Toph said slapping him on the back. "I told her the same thing about pulling my own weight when I first joined and she got ticked off at me too."

"Thanks to Zuko no one gets second rounds of soup!" Katara yelled from the fountain. Haru and I exchanged glances of disappointment. We are men! We need a lot of food to grow, be strong, healthy, protect people from firebenders…

"Um, well," Prince Jerk said. "You guys can have some of my fireflakes if you want. You know if you're still hungry…"

He threw his food bag to the middle as a peace offering. Before Katara could even react Aang grabbed the bag with enthusiasm and said, "Oh boy I haven't had fireflakes in a hundred years!"

He grabbed them and wolfed them down. "Why didn't I think of getting some of these back when I was in Fire Nation school? Fireflakes don't have meat!"

"You were in a Fire Nation school?" Prince Jerk raised an eyebrow. I wonder if he had both eyebrows he'd raise both of them or just one.

"Yeah but we had to leave after the dance party we threw," Toph said. Prince Jerk sat with a confused expression but decided not to ask. Katara and I watched Aang cautiously for signs of being poisoned but he remained as bubbly as ever.

"It's not poisoned you know," Prince Jerk said with a smile. I think this was a poor attempt at a joke. Katara scowled but continued with the dishes.

I eyed off the fireflakes. They may be from the evil Fire Nation but I've got to hand it to them, their food was pretty good. And Prince Jerk and Aang seemed to be fine. I slowly took up the bag.

"Be careful, they're hot," Prince Jerk advised. Pfft! What did that jerkbender know about hot? I can take the heat! I fought benders and non-benders with the only mighty Boomerang to help me out, no wishy-washy magic needed. What's a couple crispy spicy potato slices?

I grabbed a handful and shoved them into my mouth to make a point to Prince Jerk. Then, sadly and pathetically, I choked. Oh God, my mouth was on fire! It was like the devils and arsonists were having a party in there! I began spluttering and writhing on the floor. Tears welled up in the most undignifying unmanly fashion. Someone put it out, put it out!

"What's going on here?" Katara stormed over. I gestured to my mouth and made dry-retching noises because I couldn't say anything else. Oh come on, waterbend into my mouth woman! She turned to Prince Jerk. Oh jeez, don't get distracted with him now! Hello? I'm dying here!

"What did you do?" she screeched.

"I tried to warn him!" Prince Jerk gestured at me. Woman! Pay attention to me! Now! "Look he'll be fine! He just needs water! Or even milk! Do you guys have milk?"

Aang, thank Tui and La for Aang! With his airbending he sped all the way to the kitchen and back with the milk jug at hand. I wolfed it down. Oh man that was the stuff. Relief! Sweet relief.

Oh wait, maybe not. Katara was glaring at me now.

"What?" I said. Jeez wasn't she relieved I was still alive?

"You just finished our supply of milk!" Katara yelled at me.

"What? My mouth was on fire! It was an emergency! I was dying!"

"It wouldn't have been on fire if you didn't listen to him!" She jerked her thumb to Prince Jerk.

"It's not my fault he can't handle it!" Prince Jerk protested. "I tried to warn him – "

Katara sighed and yanked the milk jug from my hands, stomping off into the kitchen. Prince Jerk glared at me and snatched his fireflakes back. Then he stomped off to his room. Pfft. Drama queens.

A/N: Some of you may notice I just changed the title – I felt this was more suitable for the whole story. Thank you to everyone who faved and even more thanks to those who reviewed – this encouraged me to write more and upload.

This was written when I got frustrated by the lack of bromance fics between Sokka and Zuko compared to the amount of slash fics. I don't have anything against slash fics – in some cases I even ship it, but not for Sokka and Zuko. I really love watching bromances – to me they're much more fun to watch a pair of guys being guys. In slash fics I also find that guys can get a bit out of character and a bit too sentimental. So I wrote a bromance fic here, whilst waiting for my favourite Avatar authors to update. I hope I've kept everyone relatively in character.

I love Sokka's tendency to overreact. I wrote this waiting for my favourite Avatar authors to update. I expect that the first mealtime with Gaang would be especially awkward for Zuko. I was a bit sad they didn't expand on these awkward moments so I wrote it out here. Teo, Haru and The Duke also don't really get mentioned a lot so I chucked them in here. If you want me to write more, do say so :D

I borrowed fireflakes from the wonderful emletish, author of Stalking Zuko and Not Stalking Zuko on . Actually, a lot of this fic is inspired by her writing so check out her stuff if you haven't already done so. The stories are Zutarian but even as a non-Zutarian you'll enjoy them because the stories are well written, the romance is slow boiled, not ham fried up and the characters are in character. She also explores fascinating aspects of the Avatar universe I never even thought of, so it's worth reading for those. And, as we can see, I have borrowed her style of long rambly author's notes, so with that I bit you adieu!