I think Appa really needs to rest," Harry frowned as Appa flew them between two mountain ridges, steadily slowing and slowing as he descended down to the ground.
"What makes you say that?" Sokka asked sarcastically from his sleeping bag, just before Appa landed on his side on a flat-surfaced rock bed, throwing everyone onto the ground along with their belongings.
"That," Harry sighed. "That is what made me say that," He said, getting up to his feet along with the rest of the group, except for Sokka who simply crawled forward a bit.
"Forget camping," Sokka said firmly. "Find a spot and go to sleep, that's what I'm doing at least. Come on guys, this bit of ground is decently soft."
"Yeah," Katara huffed. "Don't bother setting up camp, it's not like Toph will help anyway."
"Oh, I'm sorry, do you need me to hold your hands and tuck the little babies into bed?" Toph mocked. "Do you want me to make your milk and wipe your asses while I'm at it?"
"Do you have to be so infuriating?!" Katara demanded.
"Do you?!" Toph shot back. "You were camping perfectly fine before I came along, weren't you?! I haven't given any of you any extra work to do, so why the hell won't you stop nagging me?!"
"Isn't it obvious, you little brat?!"
"Who are you calling a brat, hair-loopy?!" Toph glared at her. "You're the one who needs help, you big fucking baby!"
"Guys," Harry cut in, his voice noticeably more irritated than before. "This has all gone past the point of amusing, can we shut it for a second and get to doing something productive instead?"
"Yeah," Aang said, adjusting his clothes which had gotten messed up on landing. "Like trying to work out who is chasing us, Harry and I suspect Fire Nation." He added before he and Harry started placing their stuff back in the saddle.
"Hmm, well...it could be Zuko, we haven't seen him in a while," Katara frowned thoughtfully.
"Who the hell is Zuko?" Toph couldn't help but ask.
"Some freak with a ponytail that's been chasing us around the world," Sokka yawned.
"What's wrong with ponytails, Ponytail?" Katara said, narrowly beating out Harry.
"I'll have you all know that this is a 'warrior's wolf tail'," Sokka grunted. "And don't you start calling me 'ponytail' as well, it's bad enough that Harry keeps doing it. Not to mention the new Earth Kingdom version of him."
"You're comparing me to the most dangerous guy in the world?" Toph asked. "Huh, thanks," She said, sounding genuinely pleased.
"If Zuko's the one following us then won't that mean that the others would be with him?" Katara asked.
"Others? What others?"
"Zuko's friends and family," Aang answered Toph's questions. "That's including his sister, Azula, Harry's fiancee."
"Damn, you're married?" Toph blurted out, staring at Harry in shock.
"I'm engaged," Harry rolled his eyes. "There's a difference,"
"Still though, didn't know that you were taken," Toph said with a thoughtful frown. "I guess that ruins my plan to grow big and marry you then," She said matter-of-factly.
"You what?!" Katara gaped at her.
"Hey, I didn't know he was engaged," Toph said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Guess we just have to stay as best friends then," She told Harry who let an amused snort.
"I can work with that," He replied.
"Look," Sokka interrupted. "As much as this amuses me, this is our chance to finally have some uninterrupted sleep instead of a few hours on top of a sky bison. We should all be trying to get some sleep now, whoever is following us definitely cannot get to us from up here, can we please have some sleep now? A tired Sokka is a cranky Sokka,"
"That must be bad given how regular Sokka's a cunt," Harry said dryly.
"Fuck you too," Sokka said, just as dryly. Harry nodded in a satisfied manner before turning to the others, he opened his mouth to speak when Momo began making lots of noises, the team turned in his direction and saw him standing at the ledge and looking down with an alarmed look. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Sokka groaned as he stood, picking up his boomerang and sword as he did so.
"We should get out of here," Katara suggested as they all walked over to take a look.
"Appa's tired," Aang said in a worried voice.
"We should fight," Toph suggested.
"We should take a moment and assess the situation first," Harry cut in before more could be said. Looking down he saw the same tank train from earlier, it slowly ground to a halt before one of its compartments opened with a loud burst of steam. From the mist emerged four mongoose lizards with four riders attached on top of them. "Shit," Harry muttered, seeing Azula and the others on top of the lizards.
"It's them," Aang sighed.
"What's so great about them? Are they firebenders?" Toph asked curiously.
"Two of them are," Harry nodded. "Mai is a long-range specialist, Ty Lee is close quarters and fair warning, she can stop you from bending if you get too close."
"What? How?"
"You wouldn't feel a thing," Harry told her. "As for the benders, Zuko's above average when it comes to fire, do not underestimate him. And then there's Azula, none of you fight her at all."
"Stay away from the missus, got it," Sokka said just before the lizards suddenly charged up towards them.
"I can take her easily," Toph said, sounding irritated that they didn't think she could.
"Give it a shot, I dare you," Harry told her, Toph narrowed her eyes at him before waving her arms and creating a rock wall in the path of the four Fire Nation attackers, only for it to be destroyed instantly by a powerful blue fire blast.
"Whoa!" Toph gaped.
"Told you," Harry said, managing to sound only slightly smug.
"They're coming!" Aang yelled and the group immediately got into fighting stances.
"We can take them," Toph said in a determined voice. "Three on four,"
"Actually, Toph, there's...five of us," Sokka said in a confused voice.
"Oh, I didn't count you," Toph said, apologetically. "You know, because you got no bending and all,"
"I can still fight!" Sokka yelled angrily, his face contorted with rage.
"Okay, you're right," Toph nodded. "Three on four plus Sokka," The frustrated noise that Sokka would then make was glorious, at least as far as Harry and Toph were concerned.
"No need to fight them, cut their path off!" Harry shouted before raising his foot in the air, thankfully Toph understood and did the same, the pair stomped their feet down, hard to the ground. The area between them shook before seemingly hundreds of rock walls shot up between them. "That won't hold them off for long, let's go!"
"Why aren't we fighting them?" Toph complained as the group all quickly rushed back to Appa.
"Firstly because they're strong, second of all because we're tired, third of all because I don't want to," Harry told her as Appa ascended into the air and took off.
"You're not going to fight them at all?" Toph asked sceptically.
"I don't want to hurt them," Harry said with a shake of his head.
"Fair enough, but...we are in a war, you know," She reminded him.
"Just...give it one more try," Harry sighed. "If they still catch up to us then I'll deal with it,"
"I can help,"
"No,"
"But I'm strong enough to - "
"Toph," Harry cut her off. "Listen to me, the one thing that nobody on this team doubts is your strength. We know you're strong, you don't need to prove that to any of us."
"Then why won't you let me help you?"
"Some things you need to do by yourself," He shrugged. "Besides," He leaned his head in so he could whisper. "Shouldn't I just pull my own weight?" He pulled back and looked between her and Katara who was busy trying hard not to fall asleep.
"That's completely different!" Toph snapped.
"Is it?" Harry asked mildly. "That's how a team works Toph, it's not about proving your strength. You be as strong as you can and we all make each other stronger than we were. You and Katara both make good points, and I'm not going to start ranting if you don't want to help with camp, but we are here for you Toph."
"Why do I need someone to be with me?" Toph grunted, head facing down. "Everyone always thinks I need help. My teachers, the guards, my parents. You saw the life I lived, they wouldn't leave me alone for five minutes because I 'needed' help all the time."
"They helped you because they underestimated you, Toph, we want to help you because we care for you," Harry replied. "Or at least we care for you as well as we can for someone we barely know."
"Thanks," Toph said softly. "I will try not to argue with her,"
"Good, because fair warning, the next time it happens I will lose it."
"Aang, park him," Harry told Aang after they both yawned deeply.
"Sure?" Aang asked, rubbing his eyes.
"He's half-dead in the air, I'd rather put him down before he crashes down," Harry said, knowing that the sky bison was dead tired since Appa was the only one here who hadn't slept recently. The rest of them had taken turns sleeping, only for a couple of hours or so each, meaning they weren't well rested but they were at least better than they had been earlier. A minute or so later, Aang found a nice soft patch of grassland for Appa to land. As soon as they touched the ground, Appa quickly fell asleep and the others climbed out of his saddle.
"So," Sokka sneezed as he placed his stuff on the ground. "Let's get some sleep while we can, it won't be long before old freak-face and his merry band of crazy girls come to find us."
"They're not crazy and don't call him a freak," Harry said irritably, rubbing his eyes. "Anyone worked out how they found us?" He asked while Toph lay down on the floor, enjoying the feel of the grass.
"Beats me, let's sleep," Sokka said, dropping to the floor next to Toph.
"Maybe we could have slept more if Toph had helped us set up the camp quicker," Katara rolled her eyes.
"What?!" Toph shrieked as she quickly got up, causing dents to appear in the ground. "You're really going to blame all of this on me?!"
"If you helped then we'd have set up quicker and been ready to sleep quicker!" Katara snapped.
"Oh yeah, the fact that we're getting chased is all my fault because I don't set up a tent, go fuck yourself!"
"Alright, let's calm down here!" Aang said quickly, jumping in between both girls. "Please, there's no need to fight. Toph. Katara wasn't blaming you,"
"Oh no, I'm blaming her and -"
"And you'll stop that immediately," Harry cut in firmly. "I've had it up to here with both of you!"
"But I -"
"Zip it!" Harry shouted. "I've decided just now that going half-dead to the giant Fire Nation tank train to fight my friends and fiancee is immensely less painful than continuing to listen to this, so that's what I'm going to do and by the time I come back, you two had better have made up with each other or else."
"But she -"
"But she -"
"Or else!" Harry snapped, cutting off the pair of them. "Meanwhile, whilst I'm gone, someone please try to work out how the hell they keep tracking us."
"Uh...I kind of have," Toph said hesitantly before walking over to Appa. "I figured it out just now, they are tracking us because of this," She said, pulling some hair off of Appa.
"Wait, you're blaming Appa?!" Aang asked with disbelief.
"No, wait, she's right," Harry realised. "Appa's shedding his fur, that's how they've been tracking us."
"It's not his fault," Aang said firmly.
"It's ours for not noticing," Harry responded. "You and Katara bathe him with waterbending, Toph keep a watch on them. Sokka, go fuck off."
"Fucking off," Sokka saluted from the floor.
"Once you're done with that, help Toph keep watch," Harry told them before he turned and walked away. "I'm going to go and have a violent and awkward reunion."
"Have fun, you fire-jerk bastard," Sokka called in a kind voice from his position on the floor. Harry shot him a thumbs up.
"Why do you two always have to insult each other?" Katara couldn't help but ask.
"Hey, it's our way of showing we care," Sokka shrugged.