Chapter Three

After Zuko had left the room, Katara had kept staring at the door in which his body had just disappeared from. She wasn't looking at anything in particular or expecting anyone to walk back in, her eyes were just looking in that direction, focusing in and out. She wasn't exactly shocked from what just happened or from the revelation that she was now under the captivity of the Fire Prince. She had already knew she was somewhere with the Fire Nation from when she woke up and saw the glimpse of their Nations colors upon the receding figure of the man, whom she was now informed of, is Hito. The old man looked harmless, almost what you'd picture someone's grandfather would look like, but she didn't trust him. She didn't trust anyone on this ship. Once Zuko had indicated this was Hito's room, she felt weird laying in his bed. It also caused some sort of panic within her, hearing that she was unable to stay in this room any longer and that Zuko himself didn't even know where she was going to go.

However, Katara was disturbed. In her current condition, she wasn't exactly in the greatest shape to put up a good fight. Or a fight at all for that matter. And the fact it was hers and Aang's enemy who had her, didn't make her anymore pleased. Everything was falling into Zukos favor. She was aboard his ship, and finding out that she had been out for a total of three days made her dread about where they currently were. She could be farther from her friends and her brother than she first imagined.

It was clear they had taken all possessions of hers, everything around her was practically foreign to her, even what she was wearing wasn't hers. A seemingly very long white shirt had been put on her, it reached past her knees and then loose fitted pants had put on her also. She shuddered at the thought of who changed her. She prayed it were a woman but she didn't think many, or any, women were on the ship besides her. It almost made her want to get sick.

After awhile of going over her situation and replaying everything that had happened, starting from when Appa had fallen sick to now, her mind wandered to Aang. She ached to know where they were. She so badly wanted to know how Appa was doing, what her friends and brother thought of her disappearance and what they were doing because of it. She day dreamed of them coming to her rescue and her waking up from this nightmare and everything going back to normal.

Amidst her thoughts, the door had creaked open slightly and she was fully aware of everything around her in an instant, carefully watching the door. It slowly opened and revealed the tiny fat man. Hito. Katara narrowed her eyes at him, he walked in and gave her short nod and waddled over to his little chair which was still a few feet from the bed. He took it and moved it back to its previous place in the corner and sat down. He didn't look at Katara again but she continued to stare at him. As she watched him sit there, head bowed, eyes slightly close, she huffed and crossed her arms. She had begun growing tired again. She tried fighting sleep, she had just woken up and wanted to stay awake but she ended being taken over by her tiredness and closed her eyes.


Katara startled awake a few hours later from a nightmare involving the man who had stabbed her. She woke in a sweat, gasping, his face flashing in her mind. She held her head and shook it, trying to get the images of his crazed face out of her mind and to stop replaying the sight of blood spilling out of her. She started calming down, telling herself she was awake now, that it was okay. She looked up to find Hito staring at her, in what she was surprised by, sadness and concern.

"Nightmare..." she mumbled and started playing with her hands, embarrassed he had just witnessed her.

"No need to be embarrassed."

Katara almost didn't even hear him, he said it so quietly, she had to strain to listen. It was the first time she heard him talk, and though she was sleeping, someone had come in and gave him permission to talk to her if he wanted to. She looked at him at again, she hadn't realized before, but now he held a book in his hands, quite a thick book. She wasn't able to see the title, so had no idea what it was about, but she assumed he was avid reader, from the size of it. She truly did wonder about this man, he didn't seem like he'd be a part of the Fire Nation. He looked to harmless. Too caring.

He'd had gone back to reading, and Katara began fiddling with her hands again, unsure of what to do. Obviously this was his room, and seeing that he continued to stay in here while she was placed in the room and the fact that Zuko didn't know where else to put her, made her assume there were no available rooms. She felt bad for both the old man, and for herself. She wondered whether they had a prison on the ship and if they were going to throw her in there.

As the time passed by, Katara started feeling more comfortable with the Hito being in the room with her. She was curious as to if Zuko had ordered him to watch her, but she really didn't care. It's not like she would be able to get him out anyways. She began to think more and more about her injury, the pain had subdued a minimal amount. With every movement it still stung and throbbed and it became very obnoxious and maddening. She knew a bruise on her back had formed from falling on the rock. And her head was, more or less, constantly pounding. She started to roll up the shirt to examine the wound. She couldn't tell much at first glance. There were gauzes which covered, they needed to be changed soon though, as they were dirty with darkened dried blood and tinted yellow from the stab.

"You're lucky," Hito said, "the knife didn't hit any major organs or arteries. It was deep and caused a lot of blood to spill, but if it were to have hit anything, you could very likely be dead right now."

Katara gulped. She knew she could be dead, and that scared her, and hearing another person say she was fortunate to have lived made her feel even more lucky to be alive. She nodded at him.

"Yes, Zuko had told me it didn't hit anything."

She was unsure of what exactly to say next. There were many questions she wanted answered and she saw this as an opportunity to possibly have some of them cleared up.

"Who, exactly, carried me here after I was stabbed?"

"Prince Zuko carried you himself onto the ship," he watched Katara sigh and roll her eyes, she had hoped it was anyone else besides Zuko who had carried her. Hito chuckled, "Yes. He had to run back to the ship, yelling out orders to everyone, making sure the doctors were ready for you. By the time he had made it back, he was covered in a lot of your blood."

Katara pictured being carried by Zuko, bloodied and unconscious. She tried thinking if Zuko would have been scared. Or angry at the fact a girl were just stabbed. Or perhaps he would have been angry for his clothing getting stained instead. Katara didn't know what to think.

"Once they got you sewn up and they were sure you were going to be okay, they brought you here, to my room and I was kicked out after that."

"Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take your room and-"

Hito held up his hand and shook his head. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't apologize, it is fine. I think we'd both say its clear you need the room much more than this old fella does," he said indicating himself, "And I'm going to be getting the room back tomorrow it seems they said anyways."

Katara smiled at him but the reminder of being kicked out of the room tomorrow made her frown and feel that familiar pulse of worry begin.

"Hito, would you by any chance know where Zuko would put me tomorrow?" she shifted in the bed so she was able to look and talk to Hito more comfortably. Hito scratched his head and frowned at her.

"No, I'm sorry, but I don't have any idea where Prince Zuko may be placing you. I haven't been told anything of that sorts and there's not many available rooms upon the main ship."

Katara groaned, she could tell what he said was the truth, he had no idea on the matter of where she possibly could be going.

"You said main ship, is that what were on?"

"Yes."

"So there's more?"

"Yes. There are four other ships accompanying the Prince," he watched her, and then cracked his knuckles.

Katara's jaw dropped as she heard there were four other ships.

How many ships can you possibly need? I would see one as perfectly fine.

Hito seeing her surprise went on to say how the Prince of the Fire Nation on deserved the best and then silently said to himself more than her, even if he were banished.

Katara looked at him as he said that last bit about Zuko being banished. She could tell he regretted even mentioning it, so she didn't say anything about it. She already knew Zuko had been banished, for reasons because of his father, but exactly why she didn't know. And she didn't care to know.

"So then, do you think he would put me on of the other ships if there is no more room on this one?"

"Highly unlikely," he stood up and walked over to the table next to the bed, picking up a jar and opening it, "It would seem reasonable as to Prince Zuko keeping you on this ship so he could make sure you were just in reach of him and was able to keep an eye on your injury himself."

He took clean gauzes out of the drawer on the table.

"I have to re-administer the medicine and clean the wound, so no further infection forms."

She nodded her head, relieved the old gauzes were being changed and her stab cleaned but she did feel awkward as she rolled up her shirt and Hito began removing the old, dirty gauze and started cleaning her wound. What he used to clean it with stung and she had to bite her lip from crying out. He looked at her apologetically. He took the jar he had already opened, and scooped up a thick green, grey paste and smoothed it over the lesion. He then finished up by applying the fresh gauze and put a bandage on it.

He walked over and cleaned his hands in a clean bucket of water that had been put there for that reason.

"Thank you," she said as he finished cleaning off his hands and walked back to his chair.

"You don't need to thank me, anything to help you out miss," he smiled.

Katara smiled back at him. They contunied to talk for awhile after that, and then Katara fell asleep once again.


Zuko sat in the same room as he was before, and his uncle sat across from him. They had been sitting in silence for almost ten minutes before Zuko became overly frustrated and sick of the silence. He sighed, put his elbows on the table in front of him and put his head in his hands.

"I have no place I can put this girl, Uncle," he looked up at Iroh, clearly distressed about it, "All the rooms on this ship are already occupied, and she can't bunk with any of the men for quite obvious reasons. She can't go onto any of the other ships- I have to be able to see her at anytime of the day. And the prison is way off topic since she has a serious injury."

"I see the situation you're in," Iroh nodded his head.

"That's it?" Zuko stared at him. "That's all you have to say? You're not going to say one of your stupid crazy ideas that somehow in the end, end up being actually useful? That give me some sort of idea as to what to do?"

Out of all the times is uncle decides to stay quiet, he picks this time? His uncle gave a small laugh.

"If they are so stupid, Zuko, why then ask me to say them?" He smiled at his annoyed nephew. "As you've stated before, there are no open room upon this ship, and moving her to one of the others is out of the question, so all I am seeing is that... she should be moved into your room."

"What?!" Zuko jumped out of his chair and stared at his uncle in utter disbelief, "You are out of your mind! You honestly think I should put her into my bedroom?"

He watched his uncle nod, he had a slight smile on his face, finding this amusing.

"Yea? And where then, do I sleep?"

"Your bedroom, like every other same old night," his uncle said, looking at him like the answer had been obvious.

"You're crazy," Zuko started pacing the room, "How do you think that is going to work? There is one bed. One bed, uncle. I am not sleeping in the same bed as her!"

"There is the couch," his uncle suggested.

"That couch was supposed to be sat on, not slept on. It's not even a decent size to have a full grown person sleep on it. And with her injury, it wouldn't be so great," he looked at his uncle, Iroh was just about to open his mouth to say something, "No, I'm not sleeping on it either!"

Iroh closed his mouth and stared at his nephew. He had grown a lot of patience for him over the years.

"What other option do you have Zuko?" He stood up and went to were Zuko was standing.

After awhile, Zuko let out a long sigh.

"I know. She's not going to be happy about it."

Iroh nodded and patted Zuko's shoulder.

"She'll probably put up a good fight about it."

"That's what I'm dreading most, she'll probably start screaming and then everyone on the boat will think Im murdering her."

"Yes they will," Iroh chuckled and gave him another pat on the back.

"I have to think about this. See if there are anyways around this," Zuko started for the door, going to his bedroom and thoroughly think through it. If he was lucky something would come to him in his dreams.