Chapter 11
Rocky Start

"Actually I was thinking that-" Suddenly the door opened behind her and Kai's head turned sharply to see who it was. "Perfect timing," Kai's eyes widened and filled with dismay. Her piercing crimson eyes met with a pair of equally piercing and familiar gold eyes.

"Oh good gods no. . ." said Kai slowly.

"What are you looking at?" demanded Prince Zuko as he stood in the doorway of his Uncle's quarters. Kai didn't answer his question; she merely glared at him, a habit that she seemed to pick up whenever Zuko was around her.

"You can't be serious?!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, I think it would be a great way for the two of you to spend some time together. Maybe you could even become friends?" smiled Iroh, hopefully.

"NO WAY!" exclaimed Kai, banging her fist once on the table.

"Uncle, what are you talking about?" asked Prince Zuko, confused.

"Well, Prince Zuko, Dr. Shin and I were discussing something earlier, " Prince Zuko raised an eyebrow at this and Kai banged her head against the table once and let her forehead rest against the cold wood, "In Miss Kai's current condition, it's not suitable for her to wander around alone. . .so I was hoping that you could escort Miss Kai around the ship."

"Are you insane?!" exclaimed Prince Zuko in shock, "I'm a Prince, not some babysitter!" The tempered Prince glared at Kai before turning to his Uncle. "Besides Uncle, I need to train! I have no time for watching anyone, especially her!" he shouted, pointing a finger at Kai.

"Well, how about you come in, my nephew," smiled Iroh as he gestured for Prince Zuko to sit beside him at the table, "and have some Green Tea. It's quite delicious."

"Uncle!" exclaimed Prince Zuko as hit is forehead lightly with his hand, "I don't have time for tea! I need to train!"

"If you don't have time for tea, then hopefully you won't have time to watch me. . ." grumbled Kai as she turned away and buried her mouth in her hand, her elbow leaning on the table. She looked briefly at Uncle Iroh, silently hoping that he would submit to his stubborn nephew's will and that the old man would forget about her, leaving her to wander wherever and whenever she wished.

"Uncle!" barked Zuko at his Uncle, "If I don't train and increase my skills, I'll never be able to capture the Avatar!" Kai's eyes narrowed at Zuko's last bit about capturing the Avatar. She became so bothered by it that the hand rested on the table balled up into a tight fist. Iroh sighed and he drank the last bit of cooled tea that was left in the cup and placing his hands on the table, he pushed himself off the floor into a standing position. He placed his hands on his back and stretched himself out a bit; Kai even swore that she heard a couple of his bones crack.

"Very, well Prince Zuko," said his Uncle, letting out a breathy sigh. Iroh walked towards his nephew and immediately, Zuko almost ran out of the room, eager to start his training. "Come along Kai," Kai cringed at the sound of her name.

"Uh, no thanks. . ." she grumbled.

"Well. . . would you rather have me lock you up here instead?"

"What do you mean?" asked Kai warily as she turned around.

"Well, seeing as how you refuse to accompany Prince Zuko and I. . . well, the only way I see to keep you out of any trouble is to lock you up in here," Iroh began to pull a key out of his sleeve and he grasped the door handle and began to shut the door, "So, my nephew and I will be back in a few hours to let you o-" Kai's hand shot out and stopped the slowly closing door.

"On second thought I think I'll come. . ." Iroh smiled at her sudden reaction and opened the door for her.

"After you," smiled Iroh amiably.

"UNCLE!! HURRY UP!!" roared Zuko, his voice echoing all the way down the hall. Kai cringed at the volume while Iroh laughed. Kai shook her head and walked down the hall slowly, allowing Iroh to walk ahead of her. She followed Iroh from a distance and from time to time her eyes darted back and forth and side to side, looking for a way to escape. But after some thinking Kai realized that the freedom she had at the moment was a blessing and if she were to run away now, she'd probably be locked away in a closet. Kai could see Prince Zuko walking down the hall several feet in front of her and Iroh and all she could do was glare whenever she laid her eyes on him. It sickened her to the core to know that he wanted to capture the Avatar. At that moment she felt no sympathy towards him, since she always felt a bit sorry that he was banished after the Agni Kai with his father (even though she didn't experience the Agni Kai first hand, almost everyone in the Fire Nation knew what happened). Kai was disgusted with the fact that some one wanted to capture the world's one hope to end the war, her temper began to rise and threatened to make her snap. Her fist tightened immediately, but she calmed herself and relaxed. As she and Iroh continue to walk down the hall, a man walked towards them in the opposite direction. Kai could see Iroh nod and acknowledge the crew man walking towards them.

"Good afternoon, Mizuki," said Iroh, smiling.

"Good afternoon General Iroh," he nodded at Iroh, "Miss," he nodded at Kai. As he walked past her she recognized him as the man from before who stepped out from behind the pillar as Iroh dragged her away to drink tea. Kai eyed and glared at him suspiciously as he walked by. The most unsettling thing was the smirk on his face and the way he looked at her, but she disregarded it. She felt him slightly bump into her shoulder and judging from the force behind it, he did on purpose. Kai spun around to lash out at him, but before she could do anything she heard a door open behind her. The sound of the metal door opening distracted her and she turned around only to be nearly blinded by the noon-time sun. Kai immediately brought her bandaged arm to her face to block and she squinted her eyes to block out the blinding sun. Once her eyes had gotten used to the sudden introduction of light Kai saw Zuko standing in the middle of the deck doing some pre-training session stretches. Kai stopped following Iroh and she rested her body against a wall and watched Iroh talk to Prince Zuko, even though she couldn't here anything they were saying.

Her crimson eyes stopped looking at the Uncle and nephew duo and turned her eyes up to the sky. The sky was a soft blue color and puffy white clouds passed over head providing some temporary shade on the hot deck. Occasionally, Kai felt compelled to reach out, thinking that she could touch the one of the clouds. But, she felt stupid when the sudden urge hit her so she kept her arms at her sides. As the minutes passed, Kai shifted her position and she pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her chin rested on her knees as she watched Iroh instruct and guide Prince Zuko through several motions that she recognized. Prince Zuko impatiently rushed through the movements; his mere physicality showed that he didn't want to go through any basics of at all and he wanted to do was firebend. And when he actually did start to firebend, his movements were choppy and stiff. Kai continued to watch Zuko train and she began to wonder how she would apologize to Zuko for the incident that happened earlier that morning. Suddenly, she saw a stream of fire coming right at her. Kai's eyes widened and she quickly rolled on her side and barely managed to avoid it and as she rolled away she felt the heat lick at her skin and as the heat increased it felt like the heat waves wrapped around her throat and began to strangle her. As the heat subsided, the invisible arms that strangled her released her and she coughed and panted for air. Kai crimson eyes scanned the deck for her attacker and immediately her eyes fell upon Prince Zuko, who was smirking at her in a fighting stance.

"Sorry about that. . ." smirked Prince Zuko mockingly. Kai opened her mouth to shout something when a stinging sensation shot through her leg. She let out an agonized cry of pain and looked down at her leg and saw that part of her pant leg had caught fire. Kai quickly extended her hand and lifted the fire from the fabric of her pants. She locked her eyes on Zuko, who still was smirking down at her. Growling, she quickly shot the fire that spiraled and swirled in her hand, straight at Zuko. As the flame flew through the air, it narrowed into the shape of a dagger and Zuko barely managed to dodge the attack.

"What the hell was that for?! You did that on purpose!" roared Kai as she stood up and stormed at Zuko. Iroh ran over to her and took hold of her shoulders to calm her down.

"Are you okay?" asked Iroh, looking down at Kai's slightly burned leg.

"I'm fine!" she said through clenched teeth and walked past the concerned Iroh and went straight for Zuko. "Okay you better explain yourself!!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Zuko. His face was serious, but when Kai saw his lips quiver slightly, she knew that he was hiding his smirk.

"Don't pull that crap with me! You did that on purpose!"

"Well, maybe you deserved it. . ." growled Zuko in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" suddenly it Kai and she chuckled teasingly, "You still upset about what happened this morning?"

"Why wouldn't I?!" shouted Prince Zuko, getting right into Kai's face. Kai's eyes narrowed and her face became serious and all consideration of apologizing to Zuko vanished and was replaced with blind fury. Kai's hand balled up into a fist and without warning, and much to Zuko's surprise, she swung her fiery fist right and Zuko's face. Zuko's eyes widened and he staggered back in time to avoid the attack. "What are you doing?!" he shouted, exasperated. Kai didn't answer, she merely continued to glare and him before lunging at him. Just before Kai could get within a foot of Zuko, she felt a pair of arms take hold of her.

"Young lady!" she heard Iroh exclaim, concern in his voice, "you are in no condition to fight, your injuries have yet to heal and you should be resting. It's beyond me how you are able to move around like this or have this much energy!"

"I'll be fine! I'll sleep it off later!" shouted Kai as she struggled in Iroh's grip.

"Look, I don't have time to deal with you," said Zuko pompously, "you're only getting in the way of my t-"

"In the way of what?! Your training?! Well, here's a little head's up mister! You aren't going to learn anything the way you're going! There's not much benefit to fighting some invisible opponent! In short, you're going no where fast!!"

"Take that back!" shouted Prince Zuko.

"I will not!" shouted Kai. Suddenly, Kai felt Iroh's grip starting to loosen, "It's not my fault that you can't handle the fact that your training methods are ineffective!"

"I'll show you ineffective!" Zuko's fist flew to his sides and the two flames took the shape of daggers. Seeing this, Kai quickly broke from Iroh's grip and pushed him out of the way so he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. Once Iroh was out of the way, Zuko charged at Kai with a downward swipe of his fire dagger, which Kai easy avoided by simply stepping to the side. She stepped to the right and jumped up into the air, spun, and delivered a fiery kick to Zuko's side with her left leg, sending him several feet away. Kai landed nimbly in a crouched position and she got up slowly, never taking her eyes off of Zuko, who has off in the distance holding his side in shock. Zuko looked at Kai, once he recovered and charged at her like a crazed animal. Kai smirked when she saw him prepping up for a fire blast and when he unleashed his attack Kai's eyes widened and focused on the central point the attack and pointed her left and right index and middle fingers through it and tore through the middle with a swiping motion. As her hands separated and dispersed the flames, her left hand bumped in to Prince Zuko's and she immediately took hold of it and pulled him down. Her knee shot upward and hit Prince Zuko sharply in the abdomen. Kai heard Zuko gasp and before he could cough she shoved him roughly off her knee and purposely put him in a standing position. Zuko teetered for a bit disoriented and unable to breathe and within second he found himself on the ground, his chest aching from lack of oxygen and from Kai's powerful kick. The world around Zuko spun furiously and suddenly he discovered that he was leaning against the wall of the ship. Zuko shook his head, snapping himself out of his stupor and stood up. He suddenly felt his Uncle's hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright Prince Zuko?" asked Iroh.

"I'm fne. . ." panted Prince Zuko, "How is she doing all this? It's like everything I throw at her doesn't work!" Prince Zuko looked over at Kai and saw that she wasn't doing anything. She was just standing there, staring him down, and waiting.

"Prince Zuko, you need to focus more and break through her root stance and attack her when she is of guard if you wish to defeat her, "

"Uncle, I don't think you understand!" barked Prince Zuko, "She jumps around so much and move so fast, I don't think she has root stance!" Prince Zuko tore away from his Uncle and charged and Kai. He pulled his fist back to punch, but suddenly Zuko saw that she was gone. Kai had flipped over him and landed behind him. But, Prince Zuko's reflexes kicked in and before Kai's drawn back flaming palm could make contact with Zuko's back, he swung his legs around and knocked her off her feet.

"AGH!" yelped Kai in surprise, but her surprise was replaced with an excruciating pain in her back. Kai landed flat on her back on the cold metal deck and she bit her lip to fight the pain, but she didn't have any time to wait and let the pain subside for when she opened her eyes she saw a fireball coming straight at her. Thinking quickly, Kai rolled away just in time to avoid the possibly fatal blow. After she rolled away, Kai stuck her hands out, palms facing Zuko, but suddenly she felt hands wrap around her wrists. She looked up, only to see Iroh holding her down and pushing back his nephew.

"Well, I think that's enough of a sparring session for today," he said smiling, releasing the two teenagers. Kai sprung up from the ground and ran at Zuko only to be stopped by Iroh again.

"I'm not done with him yet!! LEMME AT HIM!!" roared Kai her hands extending outwards in a feeble attempt to grab Zuko and throw him to the ground. Iroh held her so she was dangling away from the floor at Iroh's hip

"Uncle get out of the way!" barked Zuko who was just as eager to fight as Kai.

"I think you two are done here," said a familiar voice. Both Zuko and Kai turned their heads to see who was talking. It was Dr. Shin.

"Oh, Doctor, I didn't see you there," greeted Iroh, "how long have you been here?"

"Long enough. General Iroh, may I speak with you?" asked Dr. Shin. Kai looked at him as she dangled in Iroh's arms, her feet barely touching the floor and her arms dangling freely. Dr. Shin didn't have that normal relaxed look on his face; instead it was replaced with a look of silent fury and worry.

"Of course," nodded Iroh seriously. He followed Dr. Shin to the other side of the deck, with Kai still in his arms. Kai's face dropped and her eyebrow arched.

"Uh, could you put me down before you have you heart to heart man talk?" she asked.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" laughed Iroh. He quickly put Kai down in the normal standing position and pat her shoulder before walking away with Dr. Shin to the a front of the ship out of Kai's hearing range. Kai folded her arms and looked at the two men, trying to read their lips and figure out what they were talking about. They both looked so serious and that peaked her curiosity even more. She was so focused on the silent conversation that Iroh and Dr. Shin were partaking in that she didn't even notice that Zuko was standing right next to her.

"Hey," he said bluntly, in a slightly commanding tone, "what are they talking about?"

"I don't know, I can't figure it ou-" she suddenly stopped when she realized who she talking to, "Wait, why am I talking to you?!" she said, her face twisted in disgust. She even backed away from tempered Prince.

"What? I was just asking a question! Are you looking for another fight?"

"Maybe I am," said Kai getting right into his face.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" shouted Dr. Shin, "No fighting you two! We need you two to get along!" Kai and Zuko backed away from each other and glared at each other from a distance.

"Dr. Shin is right, we do need you two to get along, after all you two are going to be spending a lot more time together. . ."

"Huh?!" said the two teenagers in unison, their eyes wide with shock.

"Kai, remember what you and I discussed?" said Iroh, "about how I thought it would be best if I had Prince Zuko watch over you while you recover?"

"Unfortunately. . ." grumbled Kai.

"Well, now Dr. Shin and I both have agreed on Prince Zuko watching you,"

"Wait! Don't I have any say in this?!" demanded Zuko, "I am NOT a baby sitter!"

"Sorry, but we think that it would be best if you watched over her," said Dr. Shin, "I'm busy going to busy with the crew's monthly check ups so I can't do much and you Uncle will be busy as well. So you two might as well bite your tongues and suck it up because you're going to be stuck with each other!" said Dr. Shin sternly.

"Will you two promise to try to get along?" asked Iroh

"I'm not making any promises. . ." grumbled Zuko.

"Me neither," agreed Kai.

"Well, at the very least make an attempt to tolerate each other. . ." sighed Dr. Shin. Kai looked at Zuko at the corner of her eyes and she could see that Zuko was doing the same. Kai's arm suddenly unlocked it self from it's folded position across her chest and shot out towards Zuko. Zuko looked at her hand in surprise.

"Okay, I'll try to tolerate him. . ." grumbled Kai. Suddenly, all eyes were on Prince Zuko, except for Kai who was looking in the opposite direction.

"Alright, fine!" grumbled Zuko, Kai suddenly felt Zuko's strong hand take hold of her own. When they shook hands it looked like they were trying to rip each other's arms off. And when they pulled apart it was in a sharp jerky motion.

"Wonderful!" smiled Uncle Iroh, "Come along Dr. Shin I'll help you set up the documents for the check ups,"

"Alright," smiled Dr. Shin, "So, we'll be docking tomorrow to get the necessary supplies, right?"

"Correct, we'll be docking some where nea-" the conversation between the two men faded away and Kai and Prince Zuko were left on the deck alone. A soft breeze blew past the two teenagers, making Kai's long black hair flutter in the wind and lifted her loose fitting clothing off her skin, revealing the bandages underneath.

"So. . ." said Kai breaking the awkward silence, "what do you wanna do?"

"I dunno. . ." shrugged Prince Zuko. Kai let out a bored, exasperrated sigh.

"This should be interesting. . ." sighed Kai as she walked away from Prince Zuko.

"Hey! Come back here!" shouted Zuko running after her.

Author's Note:

WOOT I'm done with this ultra long chapter! 8 pages!!! O.o –faints-

Lol anways, I hope you liked it and as always sorry for any typos and stay tuned. Now I gotta go to my aunt's house…. I'll fix my typos when I get back. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
update:
I fixed all the errors I could find so yay
So, reviews/comments are welcome as always

-BeautifullyAbstract