Disclaimer: If I owned this…well I don't quite know what I'd do, but I don't own it so I guess it doesn't really matter.

"If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were."

― Kahlil Gibran

"Winter, spring, summer and fall.

Winter, spring, summer and fall.

Four seasons, four loves.

Four seasons, for love."

Naomi stared up at the stars as Iroh sang at music night. She was trying not to think about a certain banished prince who had again decided to stay in his room and the song was, for some reason, not helping at all. She only looked down again when Lieutenant Jee stopped playing with a wrong note. She looked in the direction all the men were looking and saw, to her displeasure, Admiral Zhao.

"Take me to Prince Zuko, we need to have a talk about his crew." He said with a sneer.

"For the last time, I'm not playing the tsungi horn." Zuko said as Iroh opened his door.

"No, it's about our plans. There is a bit of a problem." Iroh replied, stepping into the room and away from the door so that Zhao could do the same. Naomi had followed, whether Zhao wanted her to or not. She hated him, yes, but she really didn't trust him and her time on the ship was almost up anyway, a day or two, so she would be willing to break her promise a little early if he forced her to.

"I'm taking your crew." Zhao announced as he stepped into Zuko's view.

"What?!" Zuko exclaimed as he stood up from his bed and stalked a little towards Zhao. Uh-oh, she could see this turning into another Agni Kai situation and that couldn't end well.

"I've recruited them for a little expedition to the North Pole."

"Uncle, is that true?" Zuko asked, apparently he didn't want to just believe Zhao. Well, she couldn't disagree with him on that but she'd heard him tell the crew already.

"I'm afraid so. He's taking everyone—" Iroh told him, then continued, getting a little teary-eyed, "even the cook."

"Everyone?" Zuko asked again, this time looking at Naomi.

"Everyone in the crew." She replied evenly. Zhao's actual words had been that he had no need for Zuko's "prisoner garbage", but she figured it would be safer not to tell him that. No use having him lose his head in the small metal room below deck on a ship. She preferred not drowning thank you.

"Sorry you won't be there to watch me capture the Avatar, but I can't have you getting in my way again."

Of course, at the mention of Zhao capturing Aang, Zuko lunged at him. Really would he ever learn? "No!" Iroh shouted as he stopped Zuko from attacking Zhao, who had walked over to look at the broadswords hanging on the wall. He actually seemed kind of bothered by them. Zuko seemed worried that he noticed them at all. What was going on?

"I didn't know you were skilled with broadswords, Prince Zuko." He asked in a scarily calm tone as he swung one of the around.

"I'm not." Zuko answered. "They're just decorative, the spoils from when I captured Naomi." Now she was really confused. Those weren't her broadswords. As far as she knew, Zuko had always had them, and they had only been decorative until she started to teach him how to use them. He was very skilled with broadswords, she was quite proud of that actually, so why would he lie?

Admiral Zhao didn't seem too concerned with his answer. "Have you heard of the Blue Spirit, General Iroh?" He continued questioning the Fire Nation royals with the same calm tone.

"Just rumors. I don't think he is real." Iroh replied. Now he'd adopted that calm tone. What did they all know that she didn't? And better yet, why didn't she know?

"He's real, all right. He's a criminal and an enemy of the Fire Nation, but I have a feeling justice will catch up with him soon." He said, the last part seemingly more directed towards Zuko. "General Iroh, the offer to join my mission still stands… if you change your mind."

"Would you like to come for a walk with me and see the crew off, Naomi?" Iroh asked, peeking into her room.

She looked up from where she was organizing her bag and shook her head. "Sorry, Iroh, you know today's my last day. I'm almost finished packing."

"Oh, yes, right. I had almost forgotten you were not a member of this ship." Iroh said, again getting a little sad.

"Iroh," She gave him an equally sad smile, "as much as I would love to stay with you, and even Zuko, we all have our parts to play in this war and right now mine is helping the Northern Water Tribe as best as I can. I can't do that from here."

Iroh sighed, "Yes, I know." He walked the rest of the way into her room and hugged her. "If I had a daughter, I hope she would have been like you, Naomi, full of determination to do what's right."

She smiled sadly again and hugged him back, "Thank you, Iroh."

"Good luck." He said as he pulled back and left her to her packing.

"Zuko, can I come in?" Naomi asked as she knocked on his door. When she heard a grunt from the other side of the door that she took as an affirmative answer, she opened it and stepped in. Zuko was meditating in front of a couple candles, making the flames grow and shrink with his breaths. "It's been a year you know." She said quietly, she still remembered what happened the last time he had been surprised ('Or was it angry?') while he was meditating.

"Has it?" He asked calmly, and not that scary calm, just calm. The meditation must be doing wonders.

"Yeah. Remember, our deal said that if you found or captured Aang in a year, I could go with my stuff."

"I remember." He said in an almost dejected tone as he stood up. 'Dejected? Why would he be dejected? I figured he'd be thrilled to be rid of me.' She thought as he walked to the other side of his room, not looking at her. He reached under the bed and pulled out her broadswords and water pouch. "Here, just go." She looked at him confused before taking her effects and leaving the room. 'What was that all about?'

Naomi sighed. After three hours of searching she had failed to find a single boat that was sailing for the Northern Water Tribe. In fact, according to one fisherman, no boats ever sailed for the Northern Water Tribe. The only thing she had managed to find was a place to get a meal and a map showing her which general direction she wanted to go, which was only helpful for knowing which side of the icy tundra to shoot for. The only way she was going to get to the Water Tribe now was if she used her waterbending to propel a raft in that direction. She also didn't have enough money for a raft so that meant she would have to make an ice board and use that instead. 'Well, it might be quicker.' She thought as she made her way to the docks. It was going to take her a few days to get there and as she didn't know when Zhao was going to set out, she needed to leave now. And she would have if it hadn't been for the explosion she heard from down the dock, in the same direction as Zuko's ship. Her eyes widened as she sprinted towards the billowing cloud of smoke and fire.

When she got there, the ship was gone; all that was left was a hunk of scrap floating in the ocean and Iroh standing on the dock looking horrified. "Zuko." He said quietly as he looked down.

"Please tell me he went on a walk with you." Naomi said, fearing the worst. When Iroh shook his head she lost it. 'No, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening.' She thought frantically as she searched the water for any sign of Zuko in the floating debris. 'Not Zuko.' She didn't even notice Iroh doing the same next to her until he cried out.

"There!" He pointed out to a section of the water that was somehow relatively free of debris, and floating face down in the center, was Zuko. Iroh prepared to jump in, but Naomi held him back.

"Let me, the water's too cold." It would be just like the water at the South Pole: not fit for human swimmers. She couldn't let Iroh get hurt too. She took a deep breath and focused on the water. She had to do this right or Zuko would end up smashing into the dock and she had a feeling that wouldn't go over too well with him when he was okay because he was going to be okay. She couldn't let herself think any differently right now. She made a swaying motion and moved her hands upward, creating a wave with the water around Zuko and bringing him within reach. She and Iroh quickly pulled him out of the water. She cringed at the injuries on his face.

Iroh placed his head on his chest. "He's not breathing." He said looking up at her. It broke her heart a little at how broken up Iroh looked, then again she probably looked pretty much the same. She took a deep breath again, Iroh was clearly freaking out and she couldn't blame him, Zuko seemed to be the only member of his family who hadn't gone into the deep end and he was about to lose him, but now she needed to be calm for both of them. She placed her hands over Zuko's chest, not touching him, but feeling around with her senses anyway. She focused her energy on finding water inside him, because if it was there, she could get it out and he would probably start breathing again, if it wasn't, well she didn't want to think about that. There! She found it. She used her bending to focus in on the water and gently moved her hands up towards his mouth and pulled the water out, flinging it into the ocean once it was clear. She breathed a sigh of relief when he started coughing. Iroh propped him up and looked at Naomi, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." She said shakily. "I can't heal any other injuries though; healing's not my strong suit." Iroh nodded and then Zuko tried to speak, effectively ending the conversation about her healing abilities or lack thereof.

"P-pirates." He said weakly.

"What?" She asked.

"The pirates, they did this." He repeated, slowly getting louder.

"And I wonder who put them up to it." She said to Iroh, remembering the strange conversation with Zhao. Iroh nodded obviously thinking the same thing.

"What are you doing here, Naomi?" Zuko asked her.

"Prince Zuko, she-" Iroh started to reprimand Zuko but Naomi cut him off.

"It's fine, Iroh. I was just about to leave when I saw the explosion from the ship; I had to make sure you were okay." She said with a shrug. "You scared the crap out of my Flame Head." Now that the danger of him being dead had passed she had calmed down considerably and was regaining her normal attitude.

"Thank you." He said sincerely. She was surprised that he meant it but managed to hide it quickly.

"What, did you think I'd just let you drown?" She asked with a smirk as she moved back from her kneeling position into a crouch, creating a more comfortable distance between them.

Zuko just rolled his eyes before asking her another question. "You're still leaving aren't you?"

She gave him a sad smile, she didn't even know why she was sad about leaving, before she responded. "Yeah, we've all got our jobs to do. Right now, mine's in the North Pole." And she knew he thought his would be to capture Aang or at least get revenge on Zhao. She stood up, she didn't want this to turn into some teary good-bye; she had never been good at those. Iroh's good-bye had been hard enough. "Good-bye, Zuko."

"Bye, Naomi." She walked away knowing that if she waited, she probably wouldn't be able to go. Iroh and Zuko had somehow become her family and she didn't think she could leave a family behind again, not the same way she'd left her real one. 'I'm going to regret this.' She thought as she stopped and turned back towards Iroh and Zuko.

She walked quickly back to them, kneeled down next to Zuko again and kissed him on the cheek, told him, "Good luck.", and turned back and ran to the edge of the dock. She jumped into the water, formed her ice board and started on her way, the whole time trying to ignore the blush that refused to leave her cheeks.

Iroh looked down at his nephew after Naomi had taken to the water and laughed quietly. Zuko had a shocked look on his face and was holding a hand to his cheek. "Good luck, Naomi." He heard his nephew say quietly.

Reviews:

Sunflower13: Yes, yes she is and thank you.

Luv2read: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.