All the plans were set. It wouldn't be long until Zuko would be fighting his nation and family along side his new, unexpected friends. Having redeemed himself, the whole gang was confident that he would fight with them. But for now, the group was enjoying a meal around their campfire.

Right now, Suki and Sokka were sitting next to each other, Toph was sitting a bit more further from the fire (she still was nervous around it ever sense Zuko accidentally burned her feet), and Aang and Katara were sitting just across from Zuko. Despite the fact that they would soon have to face their biggest challenge yet, they all were relaxing and enjoying themselves, laughing about there resent memories.

"You never did remember that joke, did you Zuko?" Aang asked, smiling at the memory. Zuko couldn't help but smile too, remembering the awkwardness that fallowed after he had attempted to make a joke and become more friendly with his companions.

"You know, it never was easy to repeat anything that my uncle says," he responded. "The man has always had a way with words. I mean have you ever tried having a conversation with him?" This sent out a wave of laughter from the others.

"I can confirm," Toph said. "I've talked to him. He might be wise, but his way of talking is confusing."

The group kept on smiling as the remembered the old mans use of metaphors. But as the time went on, Zuko remembered what had happened, the last time that he had seen Iroh. His smile soon faded and he slowly shut down. The rest of them didn't need to ask him what was wrong, and they were regretting making fun of the fire bender's uncle.

Aang had never been comfortable with silence, and wanted to find a way to lighten the mood again. He wanted to see everyone smiling before the days that were to come, especially his friend and teacher, Zuko.

It was hard to believe how far Zuko had come with them, the thought of how their once enemy was now sitting along side them was almost humorous. Suddenly, Aang broke the silence with a slight laugh as everyone turned to look at him.

"You know, it's funny," he said with a small smile. "We used to constantly be on the run from you Zuko. Now I can't imagine you hurting a fly."

"Hey," Zuko responded. "Don't think I've gone soft yet, you never know when I might go back to my old ways." But as he said this there was a smile on his face, and everyone knew he wasn't serious.

Suddenly, the scar faced boy stood up, and with a mocking voice said, "I, Zuko, the fire nation prince, shale capture you, Avatar." As he said this, he bended a small stream of fire from his finger, so small it almost immediately turned to smoke.

The whole group laughed as Aang stood up with his chest out and arms on his hips. "You shall never capture me," he said in a deep, macho voice. He suddenly made one of his balls of air and began ridding around the campfire, playing along with Zuko.

Zuko smiled and gave a fighting position, then ran after Aang. The rest of them laughed as they watched the two playing, they had never seen Zuko in such a silly mood before.

Soon, Aang jumped from the ball of air behind Zuko. Zuko played along.

"Where has he gone?" He said, the others still laughing at the antics. As he turned, Aang turned with him, always staying behind his back, making everyone laugh even more.

Suddenly, he turned around to grab Aang, but he jumped quickly out of the way. Backing away from the fire, the two played a game of cat and mouse until Zuko finally grabbed his wrist.

"Finally," he shouted triumphantly. "You've been captured, Avatar."

Aang laughed as he tried to escape his captures grasp, and suddenly got an idea. Very swiftly, he brushed his fingers along Zuko's sides with his free hand. The fire bender suddenly let go with a jolt and a yelp. The rest of them stared at Zuko, almost too stunned to believe what they had just seen.

Aang had a mischievous smile plastered on his face as he walked closer to Zuko, fingers wiggling.

"It seems that we've found the fire prince's weakness." He said, his hands getting closer.
Zuko was backing away from him, being careful to not walk too close to the fire. He didn't want to be anywhere near it for what was about to come.

A sudden gust of wind caused by Aang knocked him onto his back. Not to hard to hurt him though, just hard enough to surprise him. Aang saw his chance and went for it. He pounced.

Zuko felt his stomach and sides being attacked by wiggling fingers. As hard as he tried, he couldn't help the giggles that escaped from him. Soon he was howling with laughter as Aang went for his under arms. He tried to block his hands, but ended up trapping the young monks hands in the ticklish area.

"Aang! WH-whaihihiat! NOHOHOHOH!" He begged, almost unable to stand the ticklish sensations. It had been years sense he had gotten tickled. The only person who ever tickled him was his mother, and she had been gone for what seemed like forever. But it seemed it was just as it had been before, Zuko still squealed with laughter as he tried to escape the tickles.

Little did they know that Suki and Katara decided to get in on the game. They jumped behind Zuko, but instead of joining in the tickling, Katara shouted. "Halt! We are soldiers of the fire nation!" "We will protect the fire prince at all cost!" Suki shouted.

Together, they pounced onto Aang. They began tickling the Avatar's sides and knees, and Aang was laughing as hard as Zuko had been.

"Ahahahah, NO! KATARA! You trahahaitor!" He laughed.

"Who's Katara?" Asked Suki. "We are soldiers of the fire nation!"

Zuko was smiling at the scene, enjoying a moment to breath, when Sokka and Toph stood behind Aang.

"We will protect the Avatar!" Toph shouted above the laughter.

"Attack!" Went Sokka, as they unleashed tickles on their friends.

Above the laughter, Aang shouted, "it looks like we've got a tickle fight on our hands." He got right into the action, grabbing one of Toph's feet.

Zuko took in everything that he was seeing. Aang tickling the tough Toph, Katara and Suki ganging up on Sokka. He grind at his friends. Not long ago he was hunting these guys, now he was getting into tickle fights and other silly antics with them. The moment was short lived though, as Aang noticed him again.

"Hey Zuko!" He shouted. "Don't think that we've forgotten about you." He once again tackled him to the ground, this time pinning him to the ground before lifting up his shirt.

"I think that you need to be punished for going back to your old ways." He said, mischief in his voice.

Suddenly, Zuko leaned his head back in laughter as the Avatar gave him a raspberry on his stomach.

"AHAHHAHAH, NOHOHO!" He giggled uncontrollably.

"This isn't over yet!" The voice of Katara called out.

There was another tackle to the ground, followed by an entire dog pile of everyone else.

The following seemed to go on forever, a mass chaos of everyone tickling each other. The teams had been forgotten, and now it was every man for themselves.

After getting tickley revenge on the Avatar for a few moments, then getting ambushed again and again, Zuko, along with everyone else, got tired. They decided to finally call truce, after everyone had there turn getting tickled. Zuko was still smiling at the silliness long after it was over, and everyone had a good feeling that this was the only time Zuko would be going back to his old ways.