It was early morning again, but this time, the weather felt foreboding. It was chilly outside. Maybe we'd strayed too far from the equator, or a storm was about to take over. Either way, I didn't really like it. The cook was cranky, and I was banished from the kitchen. Considering the cook was a whiz with knives, I didn't feel like testing him too much, so I let it be.
The problem with that is that I didn't look busy. I was worried that the prince would jump all over me again for not working. I could already see him now, the yelling, the insults, the threats. It was times like this that I could kind of understand what Lieutenant Jee meant when he pretty much bashed the prince's position as commander of the ship.
Maybe I was thinking about this all wrong. What had I learned in all of my years hunting extra jobs to line my pockets? People always need their clothes fixed, or to have something tidied up. There was always something. So definitely the best move would be to ask around about laundry, if anyone had clothes that needed fixing up, and seeing who needed their boots shined or whatever. And what was the best place to do this?
Down below. In the hold where the crew all slept.
This was a horrible idea.
The alternative? I looked around, and saw the prince, so I decided that no matter what a bad idea it was just to go for it.
Something you should know about men's bedrooms: they stink. Usually stuff is littered everywhere, clothes, shoes, all kinds of leftovers, dishes, or debris. Multiply that by, like 50, and you'll get what the hold was like. It was a military area, so things tended to be neater, but really, how neat can things get if your bed is a hammock, and you have to share with that many others? The result is a walkway between the hammocks with stuff stashed in heaps on two sides in a somewhat ordered fashion. But I could walk, so I guess it wasn't too bad.
I expected everyone to stare at me, but they didn't. Most were asleep. A few people who were awake and fiddling around or something did look up. Now, I wasn't sure whether I should go to each person individually and ask about laundry, torn clothes, or booth shining, or if I should make a general request.
I ended up deciding on the individual approach. There were maybe three people awake anyway.
I went up to the first guy, a large man, half dressed, fiddling with a block puzzle.
"Um, excuse me…" I started.
He looked up. "Yeah?"
"Well, I was wondering if you had any clothes that you wanted washed or fixed." I asked. I realized how it sounded, as if I was his mom or something. "The prince wants me working all the time, but I can't find any other jobs-"
I didn't even get a chance. Three enormous shirts and a pair of pants were tossed on top of me. "Both." He didn't spare me a second look, so I counted myself lucky and moved on to the next person. This guy was older, but still muscular. He looked like he was daydreaming, so I wasn't sure how to break any kind of silence with him. I decided to give him the same routine as the other guy.
"Excuse me… Do you have any clothes that need washed, or fixed? I need a job, so…. Um.."
This time, the guy kind of stared at me uncomprehendingly, but then he hopped down, pulled two shirts from the pile next to his hammock and handed them to me. "They've gotten a little burned in places, and there's a rip in the second one."
I bowed to him. "Many thanks." I turned to go to the next hammock. Behind me, the guy resumed his previous position.
The next guy was maybe two to three years older than me, and kind of handsome. He had to have a girlfriend or a wife back home. No one looks like that and is unattached.
"Ex-"
He laughed. "It's okay. I heard you the other two times." He handed me three pairs of pants. "Mostly just rips, but if you could wash them too, that'd be good."
"Thank you." I smiled, shifting everything around so I could carry it all. Now I just had to remember what went to who.
"No, thank you. It takes time that we don't have to wash and clean them. If it benefits both of us, all the better."
I could feel my face redden, so I mumbled something and made a hasty retreat. Better to get started on this right away. The tiny wash basin in my room should be good enough, and I needed to ask around to see if anyone had a sewing kit. Although I was already unsure what I could do about the scorch marks. Either this guy was fighting, or he was the mechanic.
I went to my room and dumped the clothes into piles based on who they belonged to. I could go around asking more people, and basically advertising myself when I finished with these. It was going to take a while as it was.
The one person I could think who might possibly either have a sewing kit, or know who did was general Iroh.
"Sorry, I don't have anything like that." Iroh said apologetically when I had explained my situation to him.
"Oh, I see." My face reddened. "I'm sorry I bothered you."
"It's fine. I think the cook might have something, so you could ask him." he suggested.
I paled. "Th-the cook?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing… He just… kinda banished me, after I broke…" My face reddened again. "Five plates…"
"Five plates?"
I rubbed the back of my neck and looked to the left hand corner of my eyes. "My fire is getting out of control. Sometimes I summon it without even trying… The plates sort of went up in flames."
"Oh my!" He looked grim, but then he laughed. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you wanted to learn firebending, were you?"
I shook my head. "I wasn't. This happens from time to time, so I wanted to learn how to control it."
"Well, I'll have someone let you know when we decide to take it back up again."
I smiled. "Many thanks."
The general smiled and returned to his game.
I turned and started slowly towards the kitchen. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I had daydreamed about working for the general…. And to my shame, most of my thoughts were preoccupied with the prince. It was all wrong, I was thinking, worrying, wondering about, and trying to impress the prince, when the person I truly cared about impressing and thinking about somehow managed to go out of my mind. Who exactly was I serving here? This was maddening! For my whole life I'd only wanted to serve him… And now it was all wrong somehow.
I knocked at the kitchen door. When the cook opened it, I started speaking before he could. "The general said you might have a sewing kit. If you do, can I borrow it?"
The cook paused, opened his mouth, shut it, opened his mouth again, shut it again, and finally just turned away. "I'll get it for you after the afternoon meal."
"Thank you very much!"
The door shut behind him, and I was left staring at it for a second. I sighed, and looked around.
"Man!" I kicked the door for a minute, quietly, because I didn't really want it reopening, and looked around. I didn't want to wash anything until I'd fixed everything, because it might rip more or something, and it would be easier to wash all of the clothes together.
That, and I was still tired from not sleeping well last night.
Time is wasted when you are trying to get out of doing work, but having to hide it. I ended up not enjoying any of my free time, and didn't get anything accomplished either. The cook finally handed over the sewing kit, which really wasn't much, but it wasn't too bad either. I was a simple person after all, just some needles and thread was good enough for me. The sewing in and of itself only took about an hour to complete, and only that because I was trying to do a good job. The washing on the other hand….
Let's just say that it was late evening by the time I was finished with the washing. My little wash basin was meant for hands, and could only take a few clothes at a time. Even with the bucket that I'd used to take a bath, hauling water was difficult too. By the time I had finished, my hands were raw and red. I could feel the salt drying on my skin. Let me tell you, that's not a pleasant feeling. I went to sleep without bothering to go back on deck, because by then, I was completely exhausted. Too exhausted to want to eat. I simply hung up the clothes on my cage/room to dry, and then hit the sack.
I woke up several times during the night with feverish dreams, but I couldn't recall any of them by the time I woke up.
The clothes were stiff from using salt water on them, but they were dry. I beat them, and hit them against things to loosen them up and work the salt loose, but I could only hope that the result was worth it. I figured the salt wasn't going to be too big of a deal, and the clothes would still be comfortable anyway. Finally, I folded them up, and made my way back up to the deck.
Zuko and Iroh were standing on the deck, looking around. I sighed. It was pitiful how looking for the avatar was ruining their lives. Bird watching would be more interesting than scanning clouds for some guy. Oh well, not like I was going to argue with them on the point.
I walked past them, and headed to the entrance of the hold where all of the crew slept. Ah, back to the piles. The hammocks. The dirty man smell.
It was approximately the same time that day from the day before, so I figured all three guys were off duty again at the same time.
Sure enough, the largish man was taking a nap, the guy with the block game was still playing with it, and the guy from before, the really handsome one, was reading a scroll. I decided to go in order.
I stood underneath the huge guy's hammock and debated how to wake him up. Did I want to wake him up? Yes, I did. I had to give him his clothes. It wasn't hard to tell which were his, they were larger than the other ones. In the end, I just poked him until he woke up. It didn't take long, so I figured he was a light sleeper.
"What do you want?" He asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
I put on my best winning smile. "I finished your clothes! Sorry for the wait~!"
The man just grunted, and accepted them from me, going to his pile of stuff, and dumping it in somewhere.
Then I went to the man with the block puzzle. It looked interesting. Maybe I should get one sometime. Since he was awake, it was less work.
"Here are your clothes! Thank you for waiting!" I chimed, thrusting the pile of his clothes into his hands, and turning away before he could respond. He had no choice but to take them, but I didn't see what he did with them after that.
I went to stand in front of the younger man's hammock and waited for him to notice me. I figured it wouldn't take long since he'd been observant before and listened to my explanation to the other two. However, he didn't look up. And he continued not to look up. I shifted my weight a little, starting to feel embarrassed, like I was some kind of creep that was just staring at him. How to break his concentration without making it obvious that I had been waiting for a while.
"Um, I brought your clothes." I said, smiling nervously.
No effect.
I repeated myself, just a little louder.
No effect.
Finally, I touched his shoulder. He looked up curiously, like he really hadn't realized that I'd been there the whole time. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "Your concentration is sure amazing!" Then I realized that I'd just blurted out what I was thinking and hadn't actually just gotten to the point of what I'd come to do.
He grinned. "Thanks."
I felt my face redden again. It felt like I was firebending with my face.
I held out his pile of clothes. "Here. Um. These are yours. I mean, I guess you know that, but… I'm sorry I took so long!" I bowed and tried to make a hasty retreat.
"Hey, wait!" He called after me.
Busted.
I turned back around. "Yes?"
"What's your name? I'm Lee."
"Uh…. I don't… remember."
"What?" He looked a little confused.
I blushed even more fiercely as I realized how this sounded. "I mean, I don't actually… you know, have one."
He didn't say anything, so I tried to compensate. "I mean… uh… I guess I did have one at some point, but I don't really remember what it was, and no one's really bothered to give me a ..new….one…. Yep. I… uh… better go."
"Oh." He sounded slightly baffled still, but if I was correct, I caught a taste of disappointment. "Okay. Well, thanks for washing them."
I smiled. "No problem. If you want me to wash or fix anything else, you can… uh… bring it down to my room. You know, in the prison hold? It's the first one." Why did I sound like such an idiot? I decided to spare myself some grief, and just ran away, back up to the deck.
Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I couldn't take the stress. Usually I was analytical and level headed. How did this happen?
It was still early morning, so I had to figure out something to do with myself. Maybe I should go advertise my new job or something. The first person I ran into-
"Oof!" I grunted, falling down again on my backside, similarly to when I bumped into Lieutenant Jee for the first time.
"Ahhh!" The other person yelled, as he fell over.
"I'm s-" I looked up, and stopped short in the middle of my apology. "Prince Zuko!"
"Watch where you're going!" He snapped.
I sighed, relaxing. "Sorry. I was thinking." What better opportunity? I pushed myself off of the floor of the deck, and extended a hand to help him up, which was pushed away as he climbed back to his feet on his own. "I was wondering if you had any clothes that needed washed. I was kicked off of my first job, so I figured laundry would be a good place to start up again."
At first he didn't say anything, then he nodded.
I clapped my hands once. "Good! Then I'll be by to pick them up this evening."
"Make sure you swing by Uncle's room." he instructed, turning and leaving me to decide who to target next. I decided I was not going to be so disrespectful as to barge in on General Iroh that night to collect clothes, I should at least give him due warning.
So, I made my way up to the recreation hall/steering area. There was an enormous pi-sho gambling tournament going on. Of course, it wasn't hard to guess who was winning. Suddenly I felt embarrassed about bringing up laundry duty. Perhaps later…
It occurred to me that it wouldn't hurt to brush up on my firebending a bit. Still, it would be bad if it seemed like I never worked… I'd just check the kitchen to see if there was anything to do….
Back to the beginning. Even if I couldn't tell Iroh that I needed his clothes, I could still go around to the other crew members and ask them if they needed laundry to be done, and tell them where to drop it off. This was going to be one busy night.
Author's Note:
So, I'm a little stuck on filler material. This chapter was both short and hectic, I apologize. It won't be like that in the future, but I'm making sure certain things have roots/a chance to start. If anyone has any ideas that they think would be good for the story, or things that they would like to see happen, I'd be more than happy to hear them, although I do have an outline planned for this. Sorry for the wait! I wrote this chapter three times, persuing different ideas and none of them seemed right. This was the best thing to come out of it, so I'm leaving it here. Again, if you have ideas, you can PM me. Thanks!
