I remained in a stunned silence for a second; if they were in the same city Zuko would find him in no time. What was I going to do? Momo jumped from my head and landed on the Avatar's shoulder, who laughed as he was reunited with his partner.

"Hey thanks lady! I'm Aang!" I shook my head, snapping out of my thoughts before smiling at the young boy. He can't be older than 12, is he really the Avatar? The arrow on his head… It makes it more than obvious who he is, the last Airbender after the Fire Nation had wiped them all out. He looked at me, confusion written all over his face. He waved his hand in an attempt to get my attention. "Hey lady, are you alright?"

"Aang!" Another voice cut in. A girl with dark skin ran over, grabbing onto the boys arm and looking at him worriedly. "Are you alright? You shouldn't have run off like that!"

"It's okay Katara, this girl rescued Momo!" He pointed to me and gave her a goofy grin; her hardened look softened and she smiled at me.

"Thank you for helping my friend."

"O-Oh anytime." How was I supposed to get out of this one? I couldn't tell Zuko! I didn't know how well I could lie to him though. I just had to get them out of here so that I wouldn't be forced to attack them; I didn't really want to betray Zuko's trust. "You guys need to leave." Katara regarded me suspiciously now.

"Why?" Aang asked innocently. "We needed somewhere to rest-"

"Look, I'm sorry but I don't have any time to talk. The point is Zuko is here, and he'll manage to sniff you out no matter how large this city is."

"He must've followed us here!" Katara looked frustrated. "I told you we shouldn't have used Appa, Aang." The boy blushed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"S-Sorry Katara. Where's Sokka?" Katara shook her head.

"I don't know, we got separated in the crowd. I hope he's smart enough to avoid Zuko though." She looked concerned but I didn't have time to worry about that, because guess who decided to come along the alley next.

"Kaya, where are you!" Zuko's voiced loudly echoed down the alley, causing me to panic. Oh, there was going to be a big scene if he saw Aang and Katara, I knew it. I pushed both of them back down the alley, into the tiny nook I had hidden in with Momo.

"Stay, and be quiet!" I held a finger over my lip for emphasis before re-emerging from the alley and nearly running into Zuko. He grabbed firmly onto my shoulders.

"Where did you go? Are you okay?" Aw, he was concerned for me? How oddly sweet and out of character for him. I pulled away from his touch shyly, realizing we had an audience even though he didn't know. He gave me a confused look; I had to think of something to feed him.

"I was just walking and thinking; you know how I get! I didn't notice where I was going until I got here." He raised an eyebrow; he didn't believe me. Oh no.

"I saw your flames in the sky, did something happen?" He saw my flames, in particular? How? They were like any other firebenders.

"There are other firebenders in this city, you know…"

"Yours are brighter than any 'normal' firebenders." Zuko growled. "Now tell me what happened."

"Excuse you; I'm pretty sure you're not ordering me around, jerk!" I prodded his chest with my finger. "For one, nothing happened. I got surprised by a merchant and accidentally set off some flames. Now can we just go find your Uncle and head back to the Inn?" I had really wanted to stay out for a while longer, but it seemed it was no longer safe to.

"Is your leg okay?" I blushed. Why did he have to be the most embarrassing when there were others around? I crossed my arms and huffed.

"I'm fine, I just want to go." I crossed my arms and glared at him; we stood glaring at each other until Zuko gave in.

"Let's go, Uncle is waiting for us." He grabbed onto my wrist; I glanced back and gave Katara and Aang a weak smile before letting myself be dragged along. I had certainly worked quickly for someone who had just been put under such pressure. I amazed myself sometimes. I let out a loud sigh of relief, earning a look from Zuko that I briefly ignored.

"You're acting weird." Zuko stopped and pulled me from the traffic of people, we were now standing in front of a shop. "There's something you're not telling me."

"I'll be damned if you'll be calling me a liar, buddy!" I crossed my arms and put on a glare; hopefully that'd hide the fact I was sweating profusely under his intense gaze. He knew I was lying, but couldn't he tell I didn't want to be pushed? Please, Zuko, just have some common sense and let it go. I'm on the losing side either way; I'll already feel guilty enough since I've lied to him, I don't want to get Aang revealed, too.

His gaze faltered at the annoyed look in my eye; was he actually going to back off?

"I was trying to find you because I knew the Avatar had been spotted around town." So he already knew? Lying had been of no use then! I pushed him out of the way, storming back off to the hotel and leaving him more confused than he had already been. Avatar this, Avatar that. His life was being taken over by his obsession and it needed to stop. He needed an intervention or something.

And I needed to stop lying.

I stormed into the room, slamming it shut loudly. I jumped as I met Iroh's smile.

"Another fight?" He asked cheerfully; it looks like he just knew it all, didn't he? I scowled and didn't answer, instead sitting on the corner of my bed and facing away from Iroh. I was so frustrated; I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I hadn't expected it to bother me this much to betray his trust. I mean, it never felt good to lie; it was in my nature to be honest, but still. He had helped me in many ways; he made my life exciting again. I did owe him a bit.

"Is it bad that I don't support anything your nephew does at the moment?" My face turned downcast as I suddenly found my knees to be more interesting.

"Zuko doesn't always do the right thing; that's why you're here. You very good at keeping him in line, it seems he's beginning to have doubts about capturing the Avatar himself."

"Did he tell you that Aang was spotted in town?" Iroh chuckled.

"I see that you've met him, then." I flushed, realizing if I slipped up like that around Zuko I would literally be toast. Oh what was I going to do? It wasn't like me to be worried like this, but a certain thought remained in the back of my head and haunted me. He'll hate me completely if I reveal I knew who the Avatar was, and that he could've captured him at that moment in the alley. Now was not the time though.

I let out a cry of frustration and fell backward onto the bed.

"The only thing you can truly do at the moment is try to help Zuko realize what he truly wants. His inner fire has come from hunting the Avatar for so many years, if he finds another reason to regain his honor; he may stop trailing the Avatar." It sounded like he needed a good woman; he probably had a girlfriend back home, right?

"Does he have a girlfriend that could knock some sense into him?"

"They're broken up." Iroh smiled cheerfully as he eyed me. "I was hoping he'd find a new girl, one who could easily keep him in his place…"

"Where are we supposed to find a girl like that? Once they hear he's a Prince they'll do everything he wants! Or they'll leave as soon as they deal with that temper of his." I placed a finger to my chin as I thought; we'd need a strong willed, tough girl who knew what she wanted, and who wouldn't give in just because Zuko was mildly attractive. "This is gonna take some work, Uncle. I don't know any girl like that."

"Oh I do."

"Really? Well that makes my job easier! Why don't you just set them up? I don't know if it'll work since Zuko's so wrapped up on the Avatar, she'll get bored of that talk eventually." Iroh chuckled.

"Don't worry; she has taken a certain… interest in him, too. I believe they'll make a good couple. I do have your complete cooperation on this task, correct?"

"If it makes Zuko happy- I mean if it makes him stop being such a grump, sure." I blushed and closed my eyes; I just couldn't control anything I was saying today. I still felt jealous for some reason; it couldn't be because Zuko had a girlfriend, right? Why would that even matter to me? I wasn't jealous Iroh was setting someone up with Zuko right? Of course not! I was obviously just being stupid. I really needed to get it together. I'm too amazing to be lusting after some silly Prince… Right? Right! Of course I'm right.

I sounded incredibly stupid arguing with myself. I did this much too often as of late, stupid Zuko. It's his entire fault. I sighed, realizing I'd have nothing to do until he came back and started another argument with me. Hopefully Aang had escaped safely.

And now I played the waiting game to see how the rest of the day would fold out.