Chapter 7

"are you a bender?"

"What are you doing peasant?" Zuko asked, stepping outside onto the deck of the ship to see violet with her back to him. She didn't answer, he walked closer, he heard a noise coming from her ears. "Hello? I asked you a question!" he growled angrily, grabbing her shoulder which triggered a violent reaction from her, she whipped around and tried to hit a pressure point on his neck which he deflected her hand in an instant, knocking her backwards, she landed on the hard metal with a reverberating thud, she pulled out the headphones and looked up at him with scared eyes "I'm sorry! I didn't know that was you!" she stated making Zuko glare at her. "Your attacks are too slow and stiff." he stated dully, looking at all her stuff on the floor. "What's this?" he asked, picking up her journal making violet jump to her feet "don't touch that!" she yelled, trying to grab it from him but he just tossed it back on the ground. "fine." he stated, giving her a look of loathing.

"You have some nerve to speak to me the way you do." he stated flatly after a couple seconds of silence besides the small thumping from her ipod.

"I treat everyone the same."

"I am a prince, you should show more respect."

"I've met more interesting people."

What did you say?"

"You heard me."

Violet's voice was calm and flat but Zuko's was rough and heated like he was going to flare up any minute. He looked at violet who had taken her place at the railing and was staring up at the starry sky. "You are a prince, no doubt about that but I still won't bow down to your every whim and command." she stated, Zuko glared daggers at her back. "I am the heir to the throne of the Fire nation! You should be grateful that you are even in my presence!" he shot back at her which just earned a puzzling look from her "I am grateful that I am on your ship but you did not offer me the place, your uncle did, and you are only the heir if you capture the avatar." (Burn!)

"You will not speak to me in that tone!" Zuko shouted at her, Violet shot a warning look back at him. "I will only show you respect if you show me some! If your going to continue yelling at me and treating my like trash than that's how I'm going to treat you!" she shot back at him with fists clenched, Zuko glared right back, "If you don't respect me I will have you thrown into the brig, peasant!" he hissed the last part out with hatred towards her which in turn earned him a slap to the face.

"Don't you call me a peasant!"

"You'd do well to respect me then."

"No, I don't have to!"

"Guards!"

About 5 huge guards ran on deck quickly as Zuko pointed to violet "take her down to the brig!" violet tried to run away but didn't get very far before she was grabbed on both arms and someone grabbed her legs "get off me!" she yelled angrily, squirming as best she could, Takehiko heard violet yelling and cantered over from the other end of the ship, he reared up and kicked out with his hind legs, striking a guard on the side of his thigh, he fell immediately to the ground, that freed violet's left arm which was strongest, but then a guard who was standing to the side took over. "I'm being man-handled!" she yelled, Zuko glared at takehiko who snorted loudly, "takehiko, don't even try." violet said in a defeated voice, takehiko looked at her and lowered his head, Zuko stepped forward over the injured guard and stared her in the face, he was about 2 inches from her face. "Are you going to respect me or are you going to spend time in a cell without your beast?" he asked, Violet narrowed her eyes and spit on his face "Fuck you!" she yelled angrily. "Take her below!" Zuko yelled.

Iroh

Zuko came back to the kitchen and sat down, wiping off his face, "How did it go prince Zuko?" he asked, watching the troubled teen glare back at him "She spit on me." he replied while wiping his hand on a passing crew member. (I had to put that.) "Well maybe you have to earn her respect and trust." he stated. Earning another angry glare "I threw her in the brig; she's going to learn the hard way to respect someone who is more superior to her."

"Prince Zuko, you should have at least tried to be nice to her."

"I did uncle!"

"Then I don't know what to tell you, just figure it out on your own, you can't just lock up a flower without sunlight and expect it to live."

"What?"

"Never mind."

Violet

Violet was thrown into the small dark cell onto her back, she gasped in pain as her spine came in contact with the hard metal floor. "That hurt you bastard!" she yelled, they just laughed at her. She sighed and walked to the corner of the metal cell, there was no window or any other source of light besides the torch across the small hallway, there was a small mat that looked like a bed, it was stained with something that looked like blood, she shuddered and turned to the guard who was guarding her cell, "Is there anything else that I could sleep on? That is just nasty!" he turned to her and smirked. "Get used the it." his gruff voice cut the air like a sword. "Eww." There were footsteps coming down the hall and violet crossed her arms over her chest, she saw Iroh walk to her cell, "leave us." he commanded, the guard obeyed with a bow and then walked away. "Iroh! Thank god!" she said, going over to the bars, he smiled at her, "you spit on prince Zuko?" he asked her, she laughed lightly "he deserved it though." she stated, feeling defiant about her very stupid act. Iroh gave a hearty smile. "You are braver than I thought, not many would go against him and still have their head, he must be fond of you." Violet gave a loud sarcastic laugh.

"Yeah right! He acts all big and bad but I can see right through him, I don't care if he's a prince, he should not speak to me like he does."

"He doesn't know how to talk to women."

"got that right, and the guards don't know how to handle one properly either, talk about man-handling."

"Hahaha, you must show some more respect to prince Zuko, he is a prince."

"Whatever, if he shows me the respect, I will show him more respect."

"He just thinks that you should give him respect no matter what."

"I don't care if he rules the world, I just want someone to show me that I am respected and he needs to show some sensitivity."

"Well, you can't change thinks that have already happened, I say just show him respect so you can get out of this cell, then you could show him respect and that in turn, he will also respect you."

"Ok, I will try but if he calls me a peasant one more time than the battle is on!"

Later that night

Zuko lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling of his room, thinking about how he should approach Violet the coming morning. Thinking about how she would probably react to him would not be so pleasant to think about. He got up and quietly walked up on deck, the cool ocean air hit him immediately, he heard a nickering sound and saw takehiko who was staring at him, he was standing over violet's things which were still spread out everywhere in one area, he carefully walked over, takehiko flattened his ears and snorted, pawing the metal which made a scraping sound. "It's ok; I was just going to put her stuff back in her bag." Zuko whispered, takehiko gave him a look like 'you touch, you die.' and stepped to the side reluctantly.

Zuko picked up the backpack and some sketch pencils fell out, he picked them back up and put them back, he saw her sketch diary and looked in it, there were pictures in it, of violet, some guy he didn't know, takehiko, a couple of other horses and different things like a candle, each had some scribbling in the lower left hand corner which he couldn't read. He shrugged it off and then he saw a picture that caught his eyes, it was him, he had his arms crossed and was looking over the railing of his ship. "Where did this come from?" he asked, it seemed to be done from a lower view as if you were looking up at him. "strange." he muttered, putting the sketch diary in her bag and putting the rest of her things back in. Takehiko walked over to him and nudged him with his muzzle. Zuko put his had on it, it was soft; he rubbed it and stood up. "why does she hate me?" he asked takehiko who gave him a blank stare but blew on his face, earning him a pat on the nose, takehiko pawed the ground and nodded his whole head and neck. Zuko backed up a couple steps but wasn't that afraid.

Takehiko moved his ears around and nudged Zuko's arm. "Does she hate me because I won't show her some respect?" he asked, takehiko nodded his head, earning a glare from Zuko.

Violet

Violet was fast asleep when someone walked down into the brig, Zuko stood in front of her cell. He looked at her for a second and saw that she was sleeping in a corner, not on the mat, he saw why. "I told those guards to put her in the clean cell, they never listen." he said, he then saw violet jolt awake. "What are you doing here prince Zuko?" she asked, sleep still attached to her, Zuko smirked. "Just checking to see that you haven't escaped." he stated, she laughed, "how could I get out of here? I can't bend metal." she stated, which struck a question in Zuko. "Can you bend?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously. She shook her head. "I don't think so, I've never tried before." she said, getting up and looking at him.

"Try."

"What?"

"I said try to bend something."

"Bend what?"

"Here, try to take the flame out of my hand."

Zuko made a small flame in his hand and held it out for violet, she put her hand closer and felt the heat coming from the flame, she took a deep breath and touched it, resulting in a burn across her fingertips. "Oww! My hand!" she shouted, looking down at her fingers. "I don't think that I can bend fire." she said, looking to a cup of water that was set in her cell, she put her hand over it and tried to swirl the water, it didn't move. She tried harder. Nothing. "I can't bend water either." she said, Zuko looked at her. "Well, maybe you aren't a bender then." he stated, eyeing her still.

"I don't think I can bend air, or earth either so I guess that means I can't bend anything, can I?" she asked him

"I don't think so."

"Wow that sucks, I've always wanted to fire bend."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I've wanted to ever since I was younger."

"Why would you want to be a fire bender?"

"I don't know, just the sense of being able to control an element with your bare hands."

"It's not easy."

"I know."

"How do you know?"

"I've seen."

"It's nearing morning, oh, you left this."

Zuko put violet's backpack in front of her cell and walked off "See you later, prince Zuko." violet said, remembering to be respectful. 'He'll warm up to me sooner or later, a least we didn't start arguing.' Violet thought, walking back to her bare corner and scrunching up in a ball, with that she fell asleep.


A/N: as you can tell this is the longest chapter so far, I got very bored and there are people over at my house and I couldn't stand the noise so I went back to my room, I had to go to church also, first time in about 3 years, it was for my brother's christening and I had to stand up in front of everyone with my mom, step-dad, and sister with him, everyone got to see me, I was about to die since I hate being in front of a crowd shudders and I get a Ankh! Yes! My sister got it for me! It should be delivered here soon and I'm going to get pics with me wearing it since I love ankhs they give me a sense of power. Don't ask. Much love! Taylor.