Adrift - atla and mha

Chapter Asui

"They definitely hate me. I should have brought up when I freed their bison. Would they even have believed that? At least I didn't bring up the assassin. Oh god, the assassin is still hunting them." Zuko rambled on near constantly about his mistakes until he went to sleep. Midoriya did his best to comfort him, but he wasn't the best at it. He barely knew him.

On the other hand, he did know that Todoroki wasn't going to sleep that night. He knew that he couldn't sleep properly if he doesn't feel comfortable in his surroundings, and outside in the middle of a forest in another world was not what he'd call comfortable.

After Zuko and Midoriya had fallen asleep, Todoroki was still sat on his rock, doodling patterns into the moss. He could hear a small rustle in the bushes. He stood up, ready to either fight or catch tomorrow's dinner.

"Hey, Zuko!" the small one in green from earlier emerged into the clearing. As if he was never even asleep, Zuko sat up and responded to the noise with a blast of fire.

"Crap." he swore, realising his mistake. "Let me help!"

"Get away from me!" she screamed back at him, bending the earth to fling him away.

"Can I help?" Todoroki asked calmly. "I can carry you back to the others."

She was silent for a moment before answering. "Fine, but only because my feet need healing quickly."

Todoroki turned back to Zuko, who nodded gently. The other took this as a sign of approval to help the girl.

He picked her up, being careful of her burns. "Hold on tight." he said before using his ice to zoom back to the temple.

~~~~~

Toph had no idea what this boy was doing. She could feel something that felt like Katara's ice, but she couldn't sense any water around for him to bend. He was going quicker than anything she'd ever felt before, even on Appa. Who was this boy and why was he with Zuko of all people?

Within minutes, they were back at the gangs camp. Todoroki thought that it would be best if he just dropped her off and left, but she forced him to meet the others properly.

"Toph! What happened?" Katara asked, helping her over to the fountain.

"My feet got burned."

"I meant how?" Todoroki decided it was best to keep silent for now, so he began to melt his ice.

"I kind of went to see Zuko." she admitted. Todoroki kept melting his ice.

"You what?" Aang said, shocked.

"Did he attack you?"

"Well-"

"Did he, or did he not firebend at you?"

Toph gave in. "Yes."

Katara turned to Todoroki. "And who are you? Is Zuko your friend?"

"Not really. We bumped into him a few days ago and have just been following him around since." he replied. Just keep melting the ice, it'll make things less awkward.

"You're a firebender!" Sokka exclaimed.

"I'm not, why do people think that-"

"You can teach Aang firebending!" Todoroki was interrupted.

"Are you all just going to ignore my giant ice blast?"

"I don't have to be taught by Zuko!" God, these children were idiots.

"I'm not a firebender!" everyone looked at him, confused and astounded, "I'm not even from this world."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked, still healing Toph's feet.

"Me and my friend were teleported here somehow, we're confused, lost and don't know how to get back. I just want to go home, I don't care about some war I have no part in." it felt good to get that out.

"Is your friend the little green one?"

"Yeah. He's fine with the whole thing for the most part, he's just trying to learn new fighting styles." That's all Midoriya had been doing every time he saw someone bend since they arrived. He'd almost forgotten he had to get home.

"Bring them here tomorrow. We'll figure something out on all fronts." Aang said, bowing to Todoroki. He awkwardly bowed back before turning back to where Zuko and Midoriya were.