A/N: Thanks for the reviews...I loved reading them. And it really makes me hate posting this chapter, but the story needs to go on. I'll explain why it went this way at the end.

Traveling on foot they continued their journey south staying in the forest eating whatever Chiara could kill. Arriving in another village, she decided to try and earn some money. Zuko felt frustrated but he did not argue with her since the last bit of money she earned stopped Iroh's whining about not having any tea and prevented him from turning another poisonous plant into an emergency trip to the hospital. At the end of the day, she had a few more coins, and they enjoyed a hot meal that had a lot more flavor than the unseasoned meat and fish they had been eating for too long. Not having enough for an inn, they stayed in the woods as usual, but the next morning, Zuko appeared with an ostrich horse.

"Where'd you get that?" asked Chiara when they were getting ready to return to the village for food.

"Nowhere it'll be missed," he said.

She glared at him.

"I'm done walking," he said. "Just get on."

"This isn't right," she argued.

"What's not right is us living like this! Come on, Uncle. It can carry all three of us. We're not walking anymore."

Iroh sighed, and Chiara huffed as Zuko pulled her over to the animal.

"Get on," he demanded.

"Chiara, we need to go," said Iroh sadly.

She reluctantly climbed on as Iroh sat behind her and Zuko sat in front of her holding the reins.

They rode on, now at a much faster pace, and camped in the evenings. Chiara would continue hunting as the few coins she earned did not provide too many meals. A few days later they discovered a cave where they decided to sleep that night. It was not far from a village that they visited the following day where Chiara was relieved to find some work. As Iroh and Zuko sat outside to rest, someone walked by and threw a coin into Iroh's overturned hat. He looked at it.

"Ooh, thank you," he said.

After that, he began begging for money to Zuko's complete embarrassment. Towards the late afternoon, Chiara came out after a day's work. Iroh held his hat up.

"It's been quite a productive day," he said.

She smiled. "Far more than mine." She held out her hand to show three coins which she dropped in his hat.

"That's it?" asked Zuko. "You're worth more than that."

"There wasn't much business," she said as she sat down next to him.

Iroh held out his hat to a passerby. "Spare coins for weary travelers?"

"This is humiliating," said Zuko angrily. "We're royalty. These people should be giving us whatever we want."

"They will if you ask nicely," said Iroh.

Chiara giggled and lightly patted Zuko's hand.

"They're going to be celebrating Avatar Day in Chin Village in a few days," she said.

Zuko looked at her. "Avatar Day?" He sighed. "Great. He's got a whole day just for him," he said wryly.

"Yep. They hate the Avatar," she said.

"What?"

"They believe Avatar Kyoshi murdered Chin the Great, so every year they burn giant images of the Avatars."

He was stunned and did not know what to say.

"We should go see it," she said. "It sounds like something you'd like."

"Will the Avatar be there?" he asked.

"I hope not," laughed Iroh.

They continued sitting there while the sun was still up, and Iroh continued begging.

"Spare change for a hungry, old man," he said to a young woman passing by.

"Aww. Here you go." She dropped a coin in his hat.

"The coin is appreciated," said Iroh, "but not as much as your smile," he added sweetly.

The woman giggled as did Chiara while Zuko felt disgusted and embarrassed.

After she walked away, a man walked up and stood before them. "How about some entertainment in exchange for a gold piece?" He held up a gold coin.

"We're not performers," said Zuko.

"Not professional anyways," said Iroh as he stood up. He started singing. "It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, but the girls in the city, they look so pretty."

"Come on," said the man annoyed. "We're talking a gold piece here," he said as he drew his broad swords.

Chiara jumped up and stepped over to Iroh and started singing. It seemed like a long time since they heard her beautiful voice during music night on Zuko's ship. Iroh joined in with her.

"And they kiss so sweet that you've really got to meet the girls from Ba Sing Se."

The man laughed as he watched the duet. "What's a pretty young thing like you doing begging for coins with them?" he asked Chiara.

Zuko started feeling heated.

"This is my daughter," said Iroh proudly.

"I have a few more gold coins if you let me borrow your pretty daughter for the evening," he said.

Zuko jumped up and stood in between the man and Chiara. "She's not for sale!"

"I'm not talking about buying her. I just want to rent her for the evening."

Zuko went to jump at the man, but Chiara and Iroh held him back.

"If you change your mind, I'll be around," he said, and he walked off laughing.

"That's it, Uncle!" said Zuko. "Now it's getting dangerous for her."

"Well, I think we earned enough," said Iroh as he shook the hat making the coins jingle.

Zuko took Chiara's hand and they followed Iroh. After having dinner, they returned to their cave in the woods, but late that night, Zuko disappeared for a few hours.

The next day Iroh and Chiara returned to the village where she worked again, and when she finished working she joined Iroh who had spent the day begging. When she was with him, they would often sing together and draw small crowds. Some days she would remain at their campsite and hunt small game and fowl and they would enjoy the meat in the evening.

"This will allow us to save more money," said Iroh as he was eating part of a bird they cooked. "I think we should try to save up for a tsungi horn or an erhu or pipa. That will really bring in crowds."

"Good idea," said Chiara.

Zuko just rolled his eyes at the thought of them being street performers.

He refused to go into the village with them when they were together as he found it humiliating when they would sing for coins. He isolated himself on those days and did not speak to them much when they returned to the cave in the evenings. On the days that Chiara remained at the camp to hunt, she and Zuko would often spar together while the meat was roasting over a fire. For Zuko their sparring was the only thing that felt normal to him, and it was something they both missed as they had not had time for it since before Zhao stole the crew. The cave offered them some stability and an opportunity for rest as it provided shelter, a luxury they had not had since they started running from the Fire Nation, and it was the first time they remained in an area for an extended period. Unfortunately, without the continuous traveling and non-stop work attending to their basic needs to provide a distraction, Zuko began dwelling on his current situation and plotting ways to resume his search for the Avatar.

One morning, before the other two left for the village, Zuko returned with two barrels of food.

"Where did you get these?" asked Iroh.

"What does it matter where they came from?" he said as he walked out of the cave.

Iroh growled, but then he started eating. He offered some to Chiara.

"I'm not eating stolen food," she said as she stood up. "I'm going fishing."

She left the cave and went down to the river. Zuko saw her and followed her down there. He was surprised when he saw her working for her food after the barrels he had just left in the cave.

"Why are you fishing? I thought you were sick of seafood?" he asked.

"I'm not eating stolen food."

"How do you know it's stolen?"

She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Where did you get it?"

"What does it matter?"

She turned back to the water.

"I'm not used to this life," he said, "begging and groveling and...and singing for my dinner."

"And I am?" she asked.

"You and Uncle wandered the Earth Kingdom before."

"But not begging. We left the camp with provisions that lasted us our entire journey. We didn't live like royalty, but we weren't impoverished either. We even shared what we had with those who had nothing. The coins people drop in the General's hat could have been coins he dropped in someone else's back then."

She threw her stick in the water, and pulling it up, she had a fish on the end. Zuko built a fire for her while she gutted it, and after she ate, she cleaned up and returned to the cave.

"I'm going to town," she told Iroh.

"Chiara, wait," called Iroh as he stood up and went after her. "You should not go alone."

They left to go to the village while Zuko remained at the cave to sulk.

A few days later, while Iroh was in town, Zuko and Chiara were sparring in the woods. As they battled, she did not hold back like she used to, and he could not understand why he could not defeat her as he was always able to win when they sparred on the ship.

"Have you been practicing without me?" he asked as they fought.

"No."

"You seem more...aggressive?"

"Maybe you're just out of practice," she said.

He narrowed his eyes at her now determined to win, and after a particularly aggressive move of his own, he disarmed her, took her to the ground, and sat on top of her.

"You win," she said a bit breathlessly.

"So you surrender?" he asked.

Her hair flowed everywhere, and he slowly moved it relishing its softness as it moved through his fingers.

"I could fight my way out," she said.

"I'd rather you not."

He tenderly caressed her face as he moved closer to her. Chiara suddenly felt nervous by his affectionate touch, and her mind wanted to turn away from him, but her heart did not. His fiery eyes were locked onto hers; he was drawn to her just as he had always been, and he could not help giving in to his heart's desire. He tenderly pressed his lips against hers just as the Blue Spirit had done. Chiara's heart was racing as she had always loved him. With her left hand she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, gently resting her hand on his neck behind his right ear. His heart was burning fiercely at her receptiveness and touch.

Her heart desired his love, and it did not want to let him go, but her mind did not give up the battle, and she knew she could not continue giving in to her desire. She placed her hand on his chest and pushed him back.

"I-I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For giving in to my heart."

"Don't be sorry. I love you, Chiara. I've always loved you."

"You can't. You're not allowed to."

"Why? Because I'm the Prince of the Fire Nation? Well, I'm not anymore. I'm a fugitive stuck in the middle of enemy territory."

"You won't be a fugitive forever. One day you'll be Fire Lord. I won't do anything that will..."

He forced a kiss upon her lips before she could finish. She pushed him away, and after forcing him off, she stood up to run, but he quickly stood up and grabbed her wrist pulling her back to him.

"I won't let you go."

"You have to."

He forced her against a tree and kissed her again. She pulled out a small blade and pushed him away from her as she pinned his sleeve to the tree, and then she started running away. He reached for her but could not get hold of her as he was stuck, and by the time he removed it, she had disappeared.

That evening neither of them spoke much over dinner, but Iroh did not really notice as he happily chatted away about the coins he made while in the village.

The next morning, Chiara was up early performing her daily chores.

"Let's spar," said Zuko.

"No."

"Why not?" he asked.

"I have work to do."

"After you work."

"I'm never going to be done," she said as she placed some feed before the ostrich horse.

"What about after Uncle leaves?"

"I'm going with him."

"I thought you were staying here today."

"I changed my mind," she said.

He walked away feeling frustrated. Chiara picked up a bucket and walked through the woods on her way to the river. Suddenly, Zuko jumped out from behind a tree and he swung a sword at her. He swung high in order to deliberately miss her, but she ducked at the same time and pulled out her own sword, so when he swung down, she stopped it. She fought as hard as she could, and after a long exhausting sword fight in which neither could claim victory, they stopped to rest. As they were catching their breath, she put her sword in her sheath as did he, but then he ran towards her. She turned and began running back towards the camp, but he was faster and tackled her. She pushed him away and jumped up and started running again until she made it to the camp.

"Chiara, are you okay?" asked Iroh when he saw her.

"I'm fine," she said, though she was breathless.

Zuko came running into camp.

"Did you feed the ostrich horse?" Iroh was asking her.

"Yes, but I didn't water him," she said. "Have Lee do it. He knows where the bucket is."

She disappeared into the cave.

"I'm on it," said Zuko in a flat tone as he turned to walk back towards the river.

Days later, Iroh walked into the cave to find some luxury items.

"Looks like you did some serious shopping," said Iroh as he lifted a teapot. "But where did you get the money?"

"Do you like your new teapot?" asked Zuko.

"To be honest with you, the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes in a porcelain pot or a tin cup." Iroh got up and sat next to Zuko. "I know we've had some difficult times lately. We've had to struggle just to get by, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. There is a simple honor in poverty."

"There's no honor for me without the Avatar."

"Zuko," sighed Iroh, "even if you did capture the Avatar, I'm not so sure it would solve our problems, not now."

"Then there is no hope at all," said Zuko sadly as he started to get up.

"No, Zuko," said Iroh pulling him back. "You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength."

Zuko looked at Iroh, but then he got up and walked away.

A short time later, Chiara returned to the cave. She looked at the things that were not present before, and then she sat down and started cooking the fish for her and Iroh.

"I'm really worried about him," she said softly.

"He is having a hard time dealing with this change."

"Aren't we all?"

"You have a remarkable way of adapting," he said. "It's not so easy for Prince Zuko."

Later that day, Chiara took some clothes down to the river to do some washing. Zuko had been watching her for a while, and eventually he approached her and knelt down behind her.

"You shouldn't be doing this peasant work," he said.

"I don't mind."

He tenderly ran his hand up her arm, and then he pulled her long hair back over her shoulder. She was a bit puzzled and nervous by his touch.

"You are so beautiful, Chiara," he said softly as he delicately touched her neck and shoulder.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, not stopping her work.

"The men on the ship used to talk about how beautiful you are."

He ran his fingers through her hair. She tried to ignore him hoping he would stop, but he moved closer to her.

"They would fantasize about being wrapped in your hair," he said as he allowed the long curls to flow over his hand. "They wanted to feel your soft skin under their fingertips." He began touching her neck again.

"Please stop," she said

She was deeply concerned about his mood.

He held a jeweled necklace in front of her.

"I got you something," he said.

"Where did you get that?" she asked as she stopped working.

"What does it matter?" he said as he placed it against her neck.

She took it from him and then turned around and held it out to him. "Return it to whomever it belongs," she demanded.

"It belongs to you."

"No, it doesn't. I will not take something that's been stolen."

"You deserve it," he said. "You earned it."

"No, I didn't." She looked in his eyes and softly sighed. "Prince Zuko, this isn't you," she said tenderly.

"No, it's not, but what choice do I have now?"

"You can choose not to steal."

"I should be able to have whatever I want," he said deeply.

He leaned towards her and kissed her, but she placed her hand on his chest and backed away from him. He grabbed hold of her upper arm and pulled her close and kissed her again.

"Stop!" she demanded as she stood up and stepped away from him.

He stood up too.

"You need to snap out of this," she said.

He grabbed her and pulled her to him and forced a kiss upon her lips. She pushed him back and turned to run, but she did not make it far in the woods before he caught up and forced her against a tree.

"Prince Zuko, please stop," she begged.

"I've lost everything," he said softly. "I don't want to lose you."

"You-you're not going to lose me."

"I heard you tell Uncle that you'll leave the Fire Nation and go north. Everything's been taken from me. You're all I have left."

"I'm...I'm not leaving. I'm doing the best I can to take care of you."

"I heard you crying my name on the dock," he said. "You called me out of the water; it was as if the waves were lifting me towards your voice. Even through the ringing in my ears, I heard you call me your heart," he said tenderly as he caressed her face. "You're my heart. You've always been my heart."

Tears fell from her eyes at his words as she loved him deeply, but for the first time she felt afraid of him. He kissed her again, but she pushed him back, and started to walk away, but he grabbed her wrists. She struggled against him, but he refused to let her go as he gripped her harder.

"You-you're burning me," she cried.

He snapped out of his passionate thoughts and immediately released her wrists which were red. Suddenly, he was filled with guilt for his loss of control.

"I'm-I'm sorry, Chiara," he said taking her hands in his and looking closely at the burns. "I'm so sorry."

They were red marks in the shape of hand prints wrapped around her wrist. It was the first time he had ever burned her, and he felt sick at what he had done.

"I didn't...I didn't mean to hurt you."

He walked her to the river where he scooped up some cool water and poured it over her wrists.

"I'm sorry," he apologized again.

She was trying to hold back her tears.

"I shouldn't have let this happen," he said. He wrapped his arms around her and held her and tenderly caressed her hair. "You're right, this isn't me."

He gently kissed her head, and then he stood up and quickly took off in the woods. Chiara remained by the water's edge and cried as she felt helpless being unable to help him.

The next day, Chiara remained near Iroh though she had not seen Zuko much since the day before. After cooking Iroh's breakfast, she started making tea for him with a small teapot she had purchased with money she had earned. She refused to touch anything Zuko stole or bought with stolen money. Zuko walked into the cave.

"Uncle, I thought a lot about what you said."

"You did? Good, good."

"It's helped me realize something. We no longer have anything to gain by traveling together. I need to find my own way."

Iroh bowed his head, but Chiara stood up. Zuko walked outside, picked up a bag, and started walking away.

"Wait," said Iroh.

Zuko turned to him, and Iroh brought him the ostrich horse and gave it to him.

"I know you'll take good care of Chiara and protect her," Zuko said to him.

He placed his bag on its back and left. Iroh went inside the cave while Chiara followed Zuko.

"Prince Zuko...," she said after they were a short distance away from the cave.

He stopped, but he did not turn towards her because he was afraid he would not be able to leave her.

"If you're going to try to talk me out of it, don't bother," he said.

"I'm not going to try to talk you out of it," she said softly. "I've known you long enough that when you have a mind to do something, you do it." He loved her, and he wanted to laugh. "I...I just want you to know something. In-in case I never see you again, I don't want to lose the opportunity to tell you..." She did not want to say it, but she did not want to leave it unsaid. "I love you." Zuko was sure his heartbeat accelerated upon hearing her words. "I have always loved you. And had I been worthy of being your wife, I would've considered it an honor. Just remember if you ever feel alone on your journey, there is somebody somewhere that loves you and is thinking about you." She tossed something towards him.

Zuko was stunned by her words, and he did not know what to say. The more it sank in, the more he desired to run to her and kiss her. He turned around, but she was gone and at his feet was a small bag. When he picked it up he heard the coins inside. It did not sound like much, but he knew it was probably all she had left from the money she had made working in town, so he tucked it away and left.

Chiara went down to the river where she sat at the water's edge and cried, and later, Iroh found her there and sat down next to her.

"He will be okay," said Iroh. "He is quite resilient."

"I always thought I would be the one to leave one day."

"I think it's time we move on," he said.

A/N: I know Zuko's actions seem dramatic and rash, but I need him to go off on his own to follow the "Zuko Alone" episode (I won't cover that episode except for a couple small scenes; otherwise, it follows the show). I don't think he would've left Chiara had he not done something drastic enough to make him feel he needed to leave her. It's intended to be an eye-opener for him; he now realizes just how much he's changed and how that change is hurting the one closest to him.
We're dealing with two teenagers, now 17 and 16, who have both suffered through quite a bit of trauma.
Zuko's lost everything. He went from Crown Prince of the Fire Nation to a starving, homeless fugitive with little hope of completing his mission, and it's causing him to become reckless as it drives him towards despair.
He's been suffering serious abandonment and rejection issues since his childhood which he takes out on Chiara because she's been the one constant in his life and he doesn't want to lose her. This is what drives his jealousy.
[Just a side note: Because of Iroh's insistence that he can never marry her, Zuko showed his rebellious teenager side that resulted in the dinner scene in the previous chapter.]
As for Chiara, she suffers from her own traumas, and for her the escape is to keep constantly busy. Her self-sacrificial nature is due to the loss of her mother, and any kind of loss of life affects her deeply. She wants to protect everyone, especially Iroh and Zuko (her only family now), and she'll risk her own life to do so. When it comes to Zuko, she's always loved him, but being more logical and less impulsive, she refuses to do anything that could jeopardize his future no matter how much it hurts her own heart or even his.
Anyways, enjoy the upcoming roller coaster.