"You mean you didn't bring any food?" Toph said accusingly.

"Well-" Sokka began.

Toph's stomach grumbled loudly. "This is still a problem," she said, pointing at her gut. "You guys were supposed to fix it."

Zuko picked up his swords, "I'll go get something, I think there's a river not too far from here."

"That's more like it," Toph said in an approving tone.

"It'll go faster if we go as a group," said Hokoda. "I'll go with you. Katara, Sokka, do you want to come?"

"Of course!" said Katara as she jumped to her feet. "I'm the best fisher here anyway."

"She really is," Sokka chimed in, "she's the big fish at fishing."

Zuko glanced at him, Sokka had complimented his sister in front of their father for no reason. How weird, he thought.

The little group set off towards the nearby river. Katara and Sokka were practically clinging to their father. Katara had looped her arm around his, and Sokka was talking a mile a minute, recounting all their adventures to this point, breathlessly jumping from one story to the next as Katara chipped in little comments. Zuko walked a few paces behind them, he could never remember hanging onto his father like that, even when he was very young. For that matter he couldn't even imagine himself and Azula ever even sharing a second of their father's attention. In the firelord's house approval was a zero sum game.

They came to the river just as the sun was dipping below the skyline. "We have to work quickly," said Katara.

"Let's do the whirlpool," said Sokka. "That's always super fast."

"We usually do it with Aang." Katara looked Zuko up and down with a small frown, "I suppose you'll have to do."

"What's this whirlpool?" Hakoda asked. "Can I help?"

"It's a method of fishing I developed using beding," Katara said as she waded into the stream. "Sokka and Zuko know how it goes, we'll toss the fish to the shore and you can kill them."

Sokka splashed into the water too. "Yeah, this will be over before you know it."

The siblings looked expectantly at Zuko who was still standing on the shore. While he had seen Katara's whirlpool before he'd never helped her with it. "Fine," he sighed drawing one of his swords and sloshing into the riverbed. Standing opposite Sokka, about five feet apart, Zuko glanced at Hakoda who stood on the shore watching his daughter keenly.

"Ready boys?" Katara asked as she raised her hands. Zuko and Sokka nodded. Katara began to push the water, slowly at at first, then gaining speed the water began to swirl in a counterclockwise direction between the two boys. A moment or two passed as Katara span the water faster, her eyes closed in concentration. Zuko readied himself, this part took timing.

Fish began to collect in the whirlpool, at first just one or two would slip into the moving stream, but as Katara pushed and pulled the water to move faster more fish got caught in the current. Using his sword Sokka dipped the blade into the flowing water and expertly flicked it, catching a fish and sending it sailing through the air to land on the shore where Hakoda quickly grabbed it and finished it off.

Zuko tried to follow Sokka's lead, but he was not much better at fishing than he had been when he and Iroh had deserted the Fire nation after the battle of the North Pole. Zuko dipped his sword in the water and splashed wildly in an effort to dislodge a fish from the whirlpool.

"Get out of the water you, you, fish!" Zuko splashed more violently and actually managed to clip a fish with the flat of his blade tossing it out of the water and into the air. Gracefully the fish arced through the sky, it's scales shimmering in the twilight as it flopped back and forth before landing with a loud SMACK on Sokka's head and then bouncing off and falling back into the river with a splash.

Sokka glared at Zuko as the sound of laughter from Katara and Hakoda filled the air. He jabbed a finger toward the shore. "The fish go that way."

"Sorry," Zuko said sheepishly. Glancing at how Sokka was holding his sword, Zuko copied him making sure to hold his blade more parallel to the shore. He began batting at the fish once more, and while not as fast as Sokka, he did manage to toss a fair number of fish out of the river.

"That's more like it," said Sokka as he swung his own sword rhythmically. "Nice and easy does it."

"You three are doing a great job," Hakoda said approvingly. "Katara, did you come up with this all by yourself?"

Katara beamed. "I did, we've done a lot of fishing since we left the South Pole so we needed a way to get a lot really quick."

"I'm so proud of you." Hakoda looked up from the fish he was cleaning. "This is such a great idea."

Katara's eyes didn't leave the whirlpool, but Zuko could see her smile in the dim light. There was a time when he would have killed, maybe even literally, to hear praise like this from his father.

Katara began to slow the churning of the whirlpool. "Ready for the big finish?" She didn't wait for an aswer. Jumping forward she pushed the whirlpool and the remaining fish in it into the air where she deposited them on the shore in a small wave. The water ran back into the stream leaving a dozen fish flopping on the wet bank.

The three teens slogged out of the river. "Now comes the stinky part." Sokka unsheathed his knife and began gutting the remaining fish. Katara joined him, her knife flashing as she worked quickly.

Hakoda glanced over at his son as he descaled his fish. "Hey, Sokka," he said, "how do fish always know how much they weigh?"

Katara rolled her eyes as Sokka pondered the question for a minute. "I don't know, Dad, how do they know?"

Hakoda held up a fish. "Because they have their own scales." Sokka and Hakoda burst out laughing.

Zuko stood to the side somewhat uselessly as the water tribe family finished cleaning the fish. He pondered the joke for a long moment. He honestly couldn't remember his father ever telling him a joke

"Is that all of them?" asked Katara, looking around the shoreline. Sokka and Hakoda nodded, heaving the fish into bags. Shouldering a bag each, the small party set off back to the camp.

Zuko took the lead holding a small flame aloft in his palm to light the way. He strained to hear the conversation of the water tribe family, all the while having a realization of his own. It struck him that in a lot of ways Sokka and Katara's family was similar to his. A leader father, older son and a prodigy younger sister. Missing mothers. A collision course with destiny because of the Avatar. A shiver ran down his spine. Of course , he thought, that's where the similarities stop . Hakoda actually liked his children. Not something that could be said for the fire lord, probably for many generations.

"How do you plan on cooking these fish?" Hakoda asked, hefting his bag a little. "There's a lot of them here."

"Usually we roast them," said Sokka. "Maybe stuff them with herbs if there are any available."

"We have a lot," Katara joined in. "I think we should dry as much as we can so we have plenty of food for the coming days."

Hakoda patted his daughter's shoulder approvingly. "That's a really smart idea, I'm sure you'll need it. You and your brother have become brilliant strategists. The both of you make me so proud."

Zuko blinked hard for a moment, unexpectedly moved. Sokka and Katara, they were a team. They worked together. They didn't compete for their father's affection, they didn't have too. Hakoda loved them, both of the m . He didn't demand greatness from them, yet they performed feats of greatness anyway. Zuko remembered his family being happy, once. A long time ago. Had it really been as happy as he remembered? Why had his parents abandoned that so quickly? He didn't think Hakoda could ever do to Sokka what Ozai had done to him. What had made his father that way?

His train of thought was derailed before he could begin to fathom an answer as they stumbled out of the forest an into view of the Western Air Temple. They made their way into the building where a small fire greeted them.

"There you are!" Toph jumped to her feet. "I was getting worried that you'd decided to go on another rescue mission an just skip getting dinner altogether."

"We have plenty of fish, they'll be ready soon." Katara knelt before the fire and began unloading her bag. "Zuko, Sokka, can you two go to the woods and get me some skewers? Maybe seven or eight? It'll make this go a lot faster."

"No problem." Sokka unsheathed his sword. "Come on fire boy, I need your light."

Zuko followed Sokka out of the temple to the treeline holding up a small flame for him to see by. Sokka set about slicing small branches from the nearest saplings.

"So, you've been quiet this evening," Sokka said. "Whatcha thinking about?"

Zuko looked from Sokka, then back to the temple where Katara and Hakoda were undoubtedly preparing fish, then back again to Sokka. "We caught a lot of fish today."

Sokka paused his slicing to look over at Zuko. "Okay." After a moment's pause. "Is there anything else?"

Zuko glanced to the ground. "No. It's nothing." Sokka raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Well," Zuko finally said, "your family is so nice."

Sokka quirked his eyebrow higher. "And that's a problem?"

"No. I think it's nice. It's really nice that your family is so nice."

"I'm confused." Sokka began chopping again.

Zuko felt a bit silly saying it out loud. "I, I just never really thought about what it would be like to have a nice family before. In some ways you and me are a lot alike." Sokka opened his mouth to object, but Zuko didn't stop there. "But I can't even imagine what would be like to have a family who loves each other and takes care of each other like yours does."

Sokka closed his mouth for a long moment, then after a moment's thought opened it again. "I wish I could say that maybe your family really loves you, deep, deep, deep down." It was Zuko's turn to look skeptical. "But after fighting your sister at the boiling rock I think that maybe your family is just kind of terrible." Sokka paused to gather the wands he had cut. "I also know that family is hard work, like really really hard work. And if every single person in a family doesn't fight for it every day, you lose it."

"I guess my family thought it was better to fight each other than fight for each other." Zuko rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Sokka sheathed his sword and patted Zuko's shoulder sympathetically. "Family are the people you fight for, not always the people you're related to."

Instantly, Zuko thought of his uncle. Uncle Iroh fought for him, he was the only one who ever had. At every step of the way his uncle had been there. At least, until he drove him away, refused his help and demanded to do it all alone. Zuko felt a deep sorrow settle into his stomach. Uncle Iroh had fought for him, but he'd never fought for Uncle Iroh. Zuko didn't know if or when he would ever see his uncle again, but now he knew that he was sorry.

Sokka clapped Zuko on the back. "Why don't we take these back to the others. I could sure use a good fish dinner."

Zuko caught Sokka's eye and gave a small smile. "Yeah, that sounds nice."