The 1985 movie Ladyhawke inspired this little story – if you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out! A young Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer star in it. This is definitely AU, and I try to explain everything within the story; please review if you notice any plot holes or have any questions. I'm always looking to improve my writing :) This story takes place in the Northwestern part of the Earth Kingdom where the Fire Nation colonies and strongholds are.

I referenced a great map a LOT while working on this – I recommend a look to better understand the geography of this story (and ATLA in general)! It's at http (colon-slash-slash) bit (period) ly (slash) 1Ad1A3p

As the Fire Nation soldiers chased him in their bulky armor, Aang realized he had probably been hallucinating a little when he stole that fruit pie. The lychee nut berries had practically been singing to him about how happy they were to be contained by that perfectly golden flakey crust, and he had been hypnotized by their song when talk of how much better they would feel in his stomach began. When the merchant turned around to begin closing up shop, he had swiped it and ran, realizing his mistake when the merchant began shouting for guards. The market had a few stragglers from the day, but most of the people in this sleepy town had returned home for the evening.

He dropped the pastry in the bag he wore across his body, and began to look for his escape in earnest. He swore at himself, and those traitorous lychee nuts when he found himself in a dead-end ally and began to climb.

The soldiers ran past the ally, calling out to another and Aang counted himself lucky until a huffing suit of armor at the rear saw him. Why had it been easier to escape that Fire Nation stronghold in the mountains that morning than this stupid little colony town? He hoisted himself up onto the red-tiled roof and began jumping high above streets and walkways, heading toward the gate he had entered earlier that afternoon. His glider staff would have been very handy in this scenario, but it was only-spirits-knew-where.

Suddenly the rooftops ran out as he reached another square in town, and he flipped off the ledge. He landed lightly, and saw another small company of soldiers marching near the fountain in the middle of the square. He tried to look nonchalant and completely innocent of any wrongdoing, hoping the news hadn't reached them yet. As he turned and whistled, a ruckus warned him that his luck had run out.

Stupid lychee nut pastry pie, he thought. You'd better be worth this trouble.

This second company of soldiers chasing him was fast, and before he could stop himself, his airbending instincts kicked in as he created an air scooter to make a sharp corner at high speeds.

Great, now I've really done it, he thought to himself when horns and drums sounded along with the shouts. He could see the gate he had entered the city through, and he counted himself lucky that they had not closed it for the night though twilight crept quickly over the land.

The guards at the gate looked confused at the melee. More civilians came to windows and hollered at the airbender. Some of the younger children egged him on, their mothers covering their mouths and shushing them before the neighbors could hear and gossip. Teenagers not quite old enough for the draft laughed, and some threw trash at him. Some of the older men grabbed whatever tools they had been using – broomsticks, hammers, cooking pans – and joined in the chase.

Aang dodged it all – focusing all of his energy on the lowering portcullis ahead of him. He leaned forward and put more effort into the scooter, leaving a plume of dust in his wake, forcing some of his pursuers to cough.

He didn't have the energy to make it up and over the wall safely if he failed to beat the gate, and he couldn't risk recapture and whatever that insane commander at the fortress had planned. The gate chain creaked slowly, but he still had to dive off his air scooter and roll under the large metal gate before it made contact with the ground. He dusted himself off as he stood, laughing and smiling at the soldiers on the wrong side of the barrier.

"Haha! Come and catch me if you can!" He stuck out his tongue, and promptly sidestepped some fireballs thrown his way as the chain began its slow grind again, winding the gate back up.

Really good use of time, buddy, he berated himself as he took off at a dead sprint for the nearby woods. By the time he reached the edge of the meadow, darkness had truly fallen and the small force chasing him had fanned out to cover more ground. He ran his foot into a stump or a rock and swallowed back curses as the soldiers called back and forth to another.

He climbed the first tree tall enough to support him, and he began jumping from tree to tree further into the forest. After about ten minutes, he paused and waited. The soft symphony of owls and insects around him gradually quieted and stopped.

The silence emphasized the sounds of a search party closing in. Two men holding a torch came near Aang's tree. Aang thought of himself as a statue, not knowing how long it had been since he moved. It could've been shortly after dusk; it could have been midnight, or it could have been shortly before dawn. His legs shook and then cramped. The stillness of the night continued as if all creatures, including the breeze in the tress, were holding their breathes with Aang.

"I don't know why we haven't just gotten rid of this forest yet," one complained to the other. "These trees give me the creeps."

"You heard the Commander, Lee. He wants that airbender in custody by midnight," the other replied as he hacked away at some low-hanging branches with a hatchet. "We don't have time to worry about this gods-forsaken place right now."

"That's the other thing," Lee continued, apparently not concerned with how his voice carried in the still night. "Where did that airbender come from? I thought they were trapped on their mountains. And if he is a terrorist like the wanted notice claims, he's the dumbest I've ever heard of – risking his freedom for a fruit pie!"

Aang silently agreed with Lee. It was a dumb move.

His companion sighed and slumped beneath the tree. "We're not going to find anything out here until dawn," he stated, dejected. "We should just burn this entire place down. You're right – it's depressing."

The night's stillness continued while the soldiers complained and moaned about their lot in life, but Aang thought he heard something growling softly nearby.

"Did you hear that?" the one who wasn't Lee must've heard it too.

Aang didn't find out if Lee had heard the growl, because a large grey wolf jumped out and took him by the throat. A man in dark clothing stepped into the torchlight.

"Leave him," he ordered, and the wolf dropped Lee, who held a hand up to staunch the blood now ringing the front of his neck.

The two soldiers scrambled away from the man and his wolf with matching looks of terror on their faces.

"Who – who are you?" not-Lee stuttered.

"It's none of your concern if you leave these woods tonight," the man growled. "Now tell me your business here."

"We are soldiers from Pohuai Stronghold, and we patrol these lands," not-Lee stated with false bravado, straightening his spine but not hiding the shake in his voice. "We ask the questions here, now who are you?"

"What are you patrolling for in these woods?" the man was unfazed, and the wolf bared its teeth.

"We are in charge – now who –" the wolf snarled and lunged at him.

"Airbender," Lee gasped out, still holding his throat. "Airbender escaped Zhao."

The man stepped closer and held Lee up by the front of his shirt. "You're lying. Why would an airbender be here?" he demanded.

Lee shook his head. "Don't know, just that Zhao needs him back."

The man tore Lee's sleeve off before throwing him down to the ground. "Stop the blood with that. It's only a flesh wound anyway," he sounded slightly disgusted as he tossed the sleeve down on him.

Lee nodded, but his uneasy facial expression betrayed his fear. His companion knelt, held in place on his knees by the wolf's stare. As Lee wrapped the sleeve around his neck, he peered at the man again in the torchlight.

"Sir, have we met before? You look familiar," he ventured. The torch started going out for no apparent reason.

"If you have no other information, you should leave these woods before dawn. It would be difficult if that torch were to be extinguished," the man threatened.

Lee and the other soldier nodded and stood. Not-Lee picked up the torch and they began retreating. Lee looked behind him one last time at the man while holding his impromptu bandage together.

Even after the sounds of their crashing in the underbrush subsided and the forest slowly release its held breath, Aang remained motionless in the tree, and the man and the wolf stood silently below. The wolf began scratching at the base of the trunk.

"Airbender, come out of that tree," the man spoke after a few more minutes of silence.

Aang huffed and stretched before bounding down the tree. He thought briefly about the lychee nut pastry in his satchel that was probably squished beyond recognition and wondered if he would ever get to actually eat it.

"Thanks for getting those soldiers out of here," he began, wondering if gratuity would help his case.

"Was what they said true?" the man interrupted Aang's thanks.

"Which part?" Aang expected threats or a wolf attack, not questions.

"That you escaped Zhao."

"Oh, that? Yeah, but please don't take me back – they were trumped up charges anyway! I just got caught in a storm and crashed my glider within Pohuai, which I guess Zhao thought was some sort of attack," Aang felt the words rush from his brain to mouth without filtering first. Word vomit, Aang thought of his friend Jinju's term for the unfortunate habit. "I honestly did nothing wrong – well, until I stole that fruit pie after I left, but what is a stale lychee nut tart actually worth at the end of the day?" he shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed.

"So, you escaped Zhao at Pohuai?" the man clarified.

"Yes?"

"I bet he hated that," the man smirked slightly. The wolf wagged its tail and leaned its head against the man's leg for an ear scratch.

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have used his head as a springboard when I ran away either."

At this the man smiled dangerously, and the wolf barked, wagging its tail. Aang fleetingly thought about what kind of unhinged, unsavory type of person lived in the woods with a pet wolf, and disliked authority. Crazy hermit? He wondered.

"So um, I should probably be off now. Don't want to run into any other soldiers tonight or anything," he announced, brushing his hands on his filthy pants and standing straighter. "Thanks again for the help!"

The wolf sat and seemed to have a staring contest with the man while cocking its head in Aang's direction. Now I'm starting to act like a woods weirdo too, Aang thought nervously, thinking this wolf understands what is going on. He slowly edged away from the duo.

Whatever transpired between the two, the man seemed to lose their wordless debate. "You can stay with us tonight and decide what to do tomorrow. It'll be safer at our camp"

The man held up a ball of flame in his hand and started leading the way, holding a finger to his lips in the universal sign for silence. Aang startled at the fire and swallowed hard, but followed them further into the woods.

The man was nearly silent on their walk to his camp, and stopped a few times to extinguish his fire and listen if an animal made a strange noise. Aang, in comparison, felt like a bumbling fool announcing their position with every cracked twig, every bush he scratched himself on. Remembering the last time he was in such close proximity to a Fire Bender, he was warily grateful for the light. After nearly another hour in the woods – Aang assumed the man was taking him in circles to throw off any followers or to confuse him – they arrived in a small clearing.

The camp was sparse, but tidy. Aang spotted a single bedroll laid out and pack next to it. Some trees towered overhead that Aang figured he could post up in. He could hear the faint trickle of a spring or stream nearby.

Aang nervously leaned against a log near the fire and fidgeted while the man piled some wood in the stone fire circle and snapped his fingers near some leaves and kindling. He lifted the lid on a pot that had been in the dying embers of the fire from the day before. Aang's stomach growled loudly as he realized he had eaten nothing but a measly bowl of prison gruel in two days.

The man looked up as he stirred the contents with a wooden spoon. "There isn't much here – I didn't exactly get the chance to hunt tonight."

"That's fine," Aang replied, remembering the pastry. "I actually don't eat meat, and I have this tart that we could split." He pulled a sad, squished lychee nut pastry from his satchel. It was worse than he had imagined.

"You weren't kidding about that lychee nut thing?" the man sounded surprised.

Aang looked at his face for the first time. He was only a few years older than Aang – perhaps twenty or so - and had the black hair and golden eyes typical in the Fire Nation. He also had a large healed scar on the left side of his face. Rather startled by the sight, he realized he hadn't replied. "I never kid about lychee nuts," he intoned in a mock-serious manner. When the man didn't say anything more, he continued cautiously. "My name is Aang. Thanks for letting me stay here tonight."

The man seemed a little bashful and kept stirring the pot. "Well, it wasn't really my idea."

The previous thought of an unhinged man living in the forest to avoid authority figures flashed in Aang's mind again, and he wondered how the man got his scar.

Perhaps realizing how awkward this was becoming, the man replaced the lid on the pot and leaned against the wolf, which was lying on the ground behind him. "I'm Zuko," he finally said, reaching over his shoulder to scratch the wolf's belly. "I haven't exactly made a lot of friends since I moved here."

Crazy Firebending hermit, Aang glanced up, hoping he hadn't vocalized his initial thoughts. "How long have you and your," he motioned toward the wolf, not sure if "pet" was an acceptable term, "companion lived out here?"

"Here? Maybe a year. It's hard for me to keep track of time. Now tell me again, slower – how were you captured by Zhao?"

Aang wondered how hard it could be to keep track of time, but didn't ask. Instead, he told him how he had left his air bison to scout ahead on his glider. He was only trying to find a safe path for a large furry bison to fly without causing a ruckus in a Fire Nation colony town or stronghold, when a storm had stranded him too close to one such stronghold. He had been captured, and spent a night there before he had evaded his captors when they were taking him to be 'interrogated.'

Zuko asked few questions, but asked again for the tale of his escape. He seemed especially entertained by the thought of Aang stepping up on Zhao's head and flipping up on the ramparts. When it was ready, he handed him a small bowl of earthy stew. They split the fruit pie, and ate in near silence. Aang savored every last buttery golden flake of the crust and found a perverse joy in eating the treacherous singing lychee nuts. He smacked his lips together to distract from how his stomach rumbled a bit even after he finished eating. The events of the day caught up with him quickly, and he hopped up in a tree to settle in for the night, reciting a small prayer of protection for Appa and thanks for the strange, scarred firebender who helped him.

Next chapter is nearly polished – should be posted soon! :D