There she was standing alone on the beach. Her long bright blond hair was flowing in the wind. The azure waves lapping at her feet. She turned and looked at him; her piercing blue eyes seemed to look through him, beyond him. Her red tank top and black skirt seemed to lure him towards her. As he started to walk towards her the sand caught his feet and she started to walk away. She said something but the sound was lost to the wind. Suddenly he wakes up, cold sweat sticking to his body.
"Who was that?" Zuko asked himself "she seemed so familiar"
A knock came from the door.
"Zuko?" uncle Iroh asked opening the door.
"What is it uncle?" zuko asked.
"We've made port." Iroh responded.
"I'll be down in a minuet" zuko said pulling on a shirt. "And I'll be going alone."
-----------------------------------------------------Later------------------------------------------------
"Hey let me go!" a girl was struggling against a rather large man, tears forming in her eyes.
"What seems to be the problem here sir?" Iroh asked.
The girl took the opportunity to push her self away from the large man, and ran off.
"Damn that girl." The man said.
"What ever for" Iroh asked.
"That girl is both a slave and a thief." The man said.
"Are you her owner?" Iroh asked.
"Yeah. What of it?" The man remarked.
"How much to take her off your hands?" Iroh queried.
"500 gold pieces. But you don't want her; she'll rob you blind, and run away."
"Here you are sir, and I don't think running away will be a problem. If you could bring her to the entrance of that large ship before sun set."
"Yeah sure." The man said surprised.
--------------------------------------------------else where---------------------------------------------
"Stupid man" the girl said sinking against the wall of an alley.
The girl had long blond hair; she was also wearing a red tank top with a golden dragon on the front and a floor length black skirt with a slit in the side.
She pulled her knees to her chest and stared at the wall opposite her. Her blue eyes scrutinized the wall as if it held the key to her future.
Soon a shadow fell across the wall, and she looked up into the face of the large man.
"What do you want Ko?" the blond asked poisonously.
"lucky for you, you have a new owner, other wise I'd have to punish you for that mouth." Ko said.
"what!" he girl said, "who is it?"
That elderly man that you ran past and you're going to be aboard that fire navy ship. So let's get going." Ko informed her.
"Like hell I am." The girl said standing up and preparing to run away.
Ko caught her by the wrist, and dragged her along to where Iroh was waiting.
"You!" the girl spat as Ko released her.
She fell into Iroh. Ko left the two alone on the dock.
"are you okay?" Iroh asked.
the girl stood up "yeah I'm fine, why did you do that? I could have handled my self."
"uncle what's taking so long?" Zuko asked.
"just welcoming our new guest" the old man replied.
"just what!" the prince yelled sticking his head over the railing.
the blond looked up at him. Zuko quickly withdrew his head from her sight line.
"that was her" he thought to himself "the girl from my dreams."
The blond walked up the ramp on to the deck followed closely by Iroh who led her deep into the ship's belly.
"Now here is your room miss…" Iroh said opening a door.
It was a small room. In the way of furnishings it wasn't much, there was a bed, a dresser and a small mirror. She had had worse.
"if you'll follow me I'll show you to your new job."
He led her through a series of confusing passageways. He rambled on about one thing or another, she didn't hear, lost in thought. Eventually they made it to the kitchen.
"You are our new cook; don't worry all the recipes are in that cook book over there. Now you must meet everyone." He said leading her next door to the dining hall. As they entered the doors the room got silent.
"Everyone this is miss…" Iroh started to say.
"Amaya" the blond finished.
"Miss Amaya. She is going to be our new cook." The old man said enthusiastically.
The room stayed silent as all eyes turned to look at her. She smiled softly. Then she felt two more eyes staring at her from behind, she turned around swiftly and found herself staring into the golden eyes of the prince. She ran out the door past him, back down the confusing passageways and into her room. She slammed the door behind her and slumped to the ground pulling her knees to her chest and resting her forehead on them, she slipped into her thoughts. The last ones she remembered thinking were who was that and why was he so familiar.
-----------------------------------------the dining hall-------------------------------------------------
The hall had cleared out as everyone was returning to their jobs.
"uncle who was that?" Zuko questioned.
"That was the new cook nephew" he replied.
"where did you find her?" zuko asked sitting down at a table.
"why do you want to know so much about our cook prince zuko? You've never been this interested in the crew before?" his uncle said sitting across from him.
"Just asking." Zuko said irritably
"She's sixteen."
"yeah."
"She is very beautiful"
"yeah" zuko said absent-mindedly.
Iroh smiled at Zuko's last comment.
--------------------------------------------The next morning------------------------------------------
Amaya woke up still leaning against her knees. She could feel the ship rocking beneath her.
"There goes my chance for escape." She thought to herself "next time we make port ill try and sneak off." she promised to herself silently.
Opening the door she walked to the kitchen and started cooking breakfast. By the time she had finished the men were arriving in the dining hall. She set the plates down in front of them, and when every body had left she sat down and ate her own breakfast. As Iroh and Zuko came in she stood up and retrieved their breakfast from the kitchen. She set the plates down in front of them. He could see her figure very well. She was very beautiful, her skin was light a light tan, the colors of her clothes complemented it very well, she was rather muscular, and had curves in all the right places.
"I hope you like it." Amaya said standing up again and retreating to the kitchen.
His uncle asked her to join them; she nodded and sat down next to Iroh.
Her voice sounded like a chorus of songbirds, and he found himself staring at her whenever he could, when she handed out the food his eyes lingered on her skin, when she spoke to him he stared into her cerulean blue eyes. Zuko couldn't stop staring at her. His uncle had said something, and she had laughed and said yes to whatever it was. His uncle asked him the same question; he didn't hear it but nodded his head politely.
--------------------------------------------Later on deck-----------------------------------------------
Every punch he threw landed with practiced precision. Amaya walked up on to the deck and Zuko missed the sequence his uncle had just showed him. He cursed him self silently for getting distracted. After picking himself up off the ground, he noticed that Amaya was wearing some of his old training clothes.
"Uncle what's going on?" Zuko asked.
"Don't you remember General Iroh invited me to train with you? And you said it was ok." Amaya said
"No I don't remember" Zuko answered
Iroh smiled knowingly at them. "This game is quite fun." he thought to himself.
"And why don't you remember?" Amaya asked crossing her arms and wearing a smug grin.
Zuko grumbled something about being distracted but it was in audible to everyone but her and Iroh.
"Right." She said sarcastically. "Shall we begin?" she said taking a fighting stance that was reminiscent of waterbending.
"I'm not going to fight you." The firebender said walking past her.
"Why not? Is it because I'm a girl?, or is there some other reason?" Amaya asked him quickly before he left.
He didn't respond.
"Fine if you won't fight then I will." Amaya said kicking him in the back
Zuko turned around just in time to dodge a punch from her, He quickly countered with a low kick that sent her to the ground. She rolled to dodge another one of his blows, and with a sweeping movement got to her feet again. Zuko aimed a series of successive punches at the blond and she dodged them well and countered with her own combination of kicks and punches. For hours, they continued this dance until finally Zuko used a sweeping kick to knock Amaya to the ground. Quickly he pined her there, hands held above her head and her legs pined by his own. Both of them were out of breath, panting the two of them stayed like that for several minuets before Zuko leaned down and kissed her passionately. Shocked for a moment she didn't realize what had happened, when her thoughts caught up to her she kneed him hard in the gut, and shoved him off. She stood up quickly, and without a second thought, she ran off into the ship, leaving Zuko writhing on the ground in pain.
-------------------------------------------Later in the dining hall-------------------------------------
The hall was empty except for Zuko and Amaya.
"Im sorry." Amaya said bowing, "If I hurt you…"
"No. you were within your rights to that." Zuko said not looking at her.
As the two of them ate, they avoided looking at each other.
"That was good," Zuko said finishing his dinner "thank you Amaya"
"I… I'm glad you liked it." Amaya said leaning over to take his plate.
Zuko stopped her by taking her hand. Amaya stared at him with a look of shock on her face, Zuko didn't notice, he was staring at her hand.
"I'm sorry Amaya, I shouldn't have kissed you. It was wrong, and I didn't mean any thing by it. Forgive me?"
She stayed silent for a moment.
"Please let go." she finally said trying to pull her hand out of his grasp.
Zuko looked up at Amaya; tears had started to form in her eyes.
"Zuko," she begged "please let go"
He released her hand, and as quickly as she could, she rushed out of the dining hall.
"What did I do wrong now?" zuko fumed
"… Price Zuko?" Iroh asked stepping into the dining hall. "Is everything okay?"
"Uncle?" Zuko asked, "I just don't get it. Every time she gets near me, my concentration just vanishes. And-"
"You should just go talk to her." His uncle cut off
"What?"
"Go talk to her."
Zuko mumbled some thing about it not being that simple and stalked off.
Iroh smiled to himself and wandered back to his room.
-------------------------------------------Amaya's room-----------------------------------------------
Zuko opened the door to Amaya's room. The sparsely furnished room was dark; there was only one candle lit. He could barely see the outline of her form; she seemed to be crying into her pillow.
"Amaya? Amaya what's wrong?" zuko asked stepping into the room.
"Go away" came a muffled reply.
Zuko took another step into her room. "Can we talk?"
A pillow hit his face. "I told you to go away" Amaya sobbed
"Amaya look, I'm sorry, but please tell me what's wrong, so I can fix-… avoid it." Zuko said sitting on the mattress next to her.
"Just leave me alone." She replied.
"Amaya I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."
"So you plan to stay here forever then?" Amaya asked turning to face him.
"That depends on you Amaya." Zuko responded.
In the dim light, she made out his form, and she began to blush. He wasn't wearing a shirt, his chest was finely muscular, and his skin seemed to glow.
"Something wrong?" zuko asked turning to her.
"Why are you still here?" she snapped
"It is my ship." He replied laying down on the bed.
"Fine, rot here for all I care." she said rolling over, and facing away from him.
The two of them soon fell asleep.
the story takes place a year after the war ends and zuko is searching for his mom.