Disclaimer: I am not the owner of anything in this story except for Naomi.
"Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience."
-Unknown
Naomi was enjoying this. Zuko had finally agreed to let her go around the ship alone, no chaperone needed. She was currently walking out to the deck to clear her head. She had been having trouble sleeping and decided some fresh air would do her good. When she got to the top of the steps, she looked up at the clear sky to see the stars. That was one thing she loved about being out on the ocean, there was nothing but clouds to block the view of the stars, not much smoke, depending on whether or not Zuko was training, no trees, and no buildings. However, she heard a slicing sound and turned her head back to the deck. 'Well, that's strange,' She saw Zuko, practicing with broadswords, not hers she saw with relief, in the middle of the night, with horrible form. She watched for a couple more minutes before deciding she couldn't let this go on; Zuko's movements were jerky and he moved the swords like they were typical, separate swords.
She sighed and stepped farther onto the deck, "This is painful, Zuko, you're doing it all wrong." He turned to face her, a look of surprise on his face.
"Naomi, what are you doing out here?"
She shrugged, "Couldn't sleep, now do you want some help with those swords or do you want to learn how to use them improperly?"
"Well what would you suggest?" She raised an eyebrow at his willingness to listen, but offered up her advice none the less.
"First off, you're holding them all wrong." She moved forward and placed her hands on the hilts of the swords, "Don't worry, I'm just adjusting your grip," She said, seeing the look on his face, "You can't hold it like you would a normal sword, you have to hold them like equals. Now show me how you were using them before." She stepped back and he started stabbing with the swords. "Okay, okay, no, they aren't typical swords, they're…well, think of them as one and the same and use them that way. Move them in tandem with each other, like they're connected." Zuko tried again, and again she corrected him, finally he gave up.
"Ugh, I just don't get this. How can you fight with them, it's not natural to move swords like that."
"Look, if you would let me show you how to use them instead of just telling you, you would improve a lot faster."
"No, it's late and I don't want-"
"You don't want to risk giving me a weapon unless you know someone else would be around to help you should I try and fight my way off the ship, right?" She smirked knowingly. He gave her a sheepish look. "How about we continue this tomorrow instead of sparring, so you can feel okay with me using the swords?" He nodded in agreement and they went their separate ways to get some sleep before their next day began.
At the usual time they sparred, Naomi walked up to the deck again, ready to continue their lesson. Zuko was waiting for her. "Okay, how do you do this?" He passed the swords to her warily; still not sure it was the best choice.
"Oh, calm down, if I was going to hurt you I would have done it a long time ago." She took the swords from him and started showing him how to use them, explaining as she went. She spun her way across the deck, swinging the swords on separate sides of her body, almost never having them on the same side unless it was necessary. "Broadswords are about equality, one sword is no more powerful than the other and you can't treat either like it is. If you move one, you should be moving the other to maintain the balance." She handed him the swords again and he tried to copy what she had done. They continued on like this for about an hour, her showing him how it was done and explaining what she thought he needed explained and him copying her movements and applying her advice. "Zuko, you're not going to master them from just one day of using them. Nothing's that simple. No matter how hard you try, it'll take time." Zuko nodded, but knowing him, he would hear her and not listen. "I'll help you more tomorrow, okay?" When he nodded his consent she walked back to her room to catch up on some more sleep.
Before she collapsed on her bed to rest, she noticed the jar of ointment and the roll of bandages Iroh had given her when she was still treating her wound, 'I should give these back to him' she thought and grabbed the medical items and walked in the direction she knew Iroh's room to be. Since she and Zuko had started talking again she had made it her personal mission to learn where his and Iroh's rooms were since they were the only ones on the ship she really talked to. She knocked on the door and waited to hear an affirmative answer before opening it and stepping inside. "Iroh, I just wanted to drop these off, I figured you'd need them eventually." She held the objects towards him.
"No, Naomi, you should keep them, you never know when you might need them, especially since you plan on fighting firebenders again once you leave this ship for good."
"Thank you, Iroh. Even if I don't need them, and I seriously hope I don't, I appreciate the fact that you care enough to let me keep them should I need them." She nodded to him and went back to her room. Before she went to sleep, she placed the ointment and bandages in her bag,which she had only gotten back when it had been checked for weapons or anything else that could help her escape, 'As if I would leave without my broadswords.' She continued thinking about how ridiculous Zuko was about keeping her on the ship as she fell asleep.
"Naomi, Naomi, wake up." Someone was shaking her and she was getting annoyed. She grumbled and turned her head further into her pillow hoping that the mystery person would go away.
They didn't.
All that happened was the mystery person chuckled and continued to shake her until she gave up on going back to sleep and she turned and opened her eyes. She nearly yelled in surprise. Zuko was standing over her and their faces were uncomfortably close. She pushed him away and he chuckled again.
"What's got you in such a good mood, Flame Head?" She questioned as she sat up and got out of bed.
"Nothing, just in a good mood." He started walking out her door, gesturing for her to follow; she did. "Did you know you snore in your sleep?" He smirked over his shoulder as he walked ahead of her. So that was it, he got to tease her.
"What, I do not!" She ran to catch up with him.
"I heard you, you do."
"Ugh, whatever, where are we going anyway?" She asked, refusing to fight about something she was sure was false.
"Uncle wanted me to get you because he said you shouldn't go an entire day without food and tea."
"Let me guess, he said tea first and thought about it before he said food, right?"
Zuko laughed, "You know him almost as well as I do." Naomi joined his laughter, even though she was a bit suspicious of his recent elatedness, he hadn't even been annoyed at her calling him 'Flame Head'. By this time they had reached the room where Zuko, Iroh, Naomi, and sometimes the lieutenant, ate. They walked in to see Iroh pouring three cups of tea.
"Ah, Naomi, it's good to see you up and awake."
"How long was I asleep?" She asked as she sat down next to Iroh.
"About six hours, I think." Zuko answered her question instead.
"Well did you at least practice some more with the broadswords while I was asleep?"
"No, I figured if I didn't have someone to tell me what I was doing wrong there was no point."
"Hey! I did more than just tell you what you did wrong!" She exclaimed, putting down her tea cup. "Besides, if you don't practice, with a teacher or not, you're never going to get any better."
"I'm already not getting better; I don't think neglecting to practice for a couple of hours after already practicing within the day is going to hurt me that much."
"Zuko," she sighed, "you won't get better without practice. Like the saying says 'Practice makes perfect.' If you don't practice, nothing is going to happen, no matter how much you sulk about it. In fact you'll probably get worse."
"I don't sulk!"
"Yes, you do, denying it is just going to be embarrassing." She replied calmly; Iroh nodded his head next to her.
"Whatever, if practice is so important, then will you help me with it tomorrow?"
Naomi raised her eyebrows; Zuko was actually asking her to help him, in those words and everything? "Sure, but you can't complain if you don't get it perfectly right away, alright?"
"No problem."
"By the way, you never told me why you wanted to learn to use broadswords so bad." That had been nagging her in the back of her head since she saw him using them the night before.
"I just figured you had the right idea, knowing how to fight without bending, eventually there's probably going to be some situation where I can't use mine. Broadswords just seemed like a good thing to learn as a substitute." She nodded and they both went back to their meals. Iroh looked between to two of them.
"When did you two start getting along?"
Naomi gave Zuko a 'you-want-to-take-that-one' gesture. He sighed and shrugged "I don't know; we just did."
"Don't worry, Iroh, I'm sure we'll be fighting about something by tomorrow." Naomi assured him because she, like him, was a little wary of the newly improved relationship between her and Zuko.
"We don't fight that much!" Zuko exclaimed.
Naomi smirked, "Yes we do, Zuko, we just started a fight over how much we fight. I think my point has been proven." Iroh laughed and Zuko even cracked a small smile. Naomi looked at her two dinner companions and smiled as well. 'Maybe this isn't such a bad situation to be in after all, I just needed to wait it out.'
Hey just a request, if you guys have any advice about my writing or comments about the story or vice versa, let me know, I'm trying to improve my writing.
Reviewers:
Spiderninjapirate22: Thanks, I'm glad you like it and Naomi. (P.S. I love your name).
Chocolate Orchids: Thanks so much. Yeah I wasn't sure about another way to say that without it being really choppy and unIroh-like so I just went with it. And it's totally okay I want your feedback about the story.
Princess of Olympus: Thanks. I'm actually glad you only said it was not bad, I don't know it just makes it feel like much less pressure for the next chapters to be awesome (though I still hope it is) if that makes any sense. (I just searched avatar the last airbender and I think it was a picture I cropped but I'm not sure.
