A/N: this chapter should explain a little more! Hope that it helps you, I'm really putting these up for my bud. NANESKA YOU'D BETTER BE REVIWEING! …. hmm. Alright you start to see Tsukiaye become a little more affectionate in this chapter, then Zuko drops the friggen bomb!…read on!

Chapter 3

Break my heart

Sadly enough, Zuko and Tsukiaye were forced to sit at the head of the table together. Iroh told them that it gave the crews hope for the future of the kingdom. Zuko and Tsukiaye had both changed out of their war uniforms and into their traditional fire robes. Tsukiaye's hair had been let hang down, and she was forced to wear makeup. Her and Zuko sat quietly eating while the others held conversation. Iroh would look over and check on them every once-in-a-while only to see that they were seemingly refusing to talk to each other. For almost the rest of the dinner they sat perfectly poised in their crimson outfits. One of the male solders shouted something at them that made them snap to attention, "What?" Zuko looked up from his food.

"I was just saying that you two look pretty good together!" The solder shouted at them again so that Zuko and Tsukiaye could hear.

"He must be drunk." Tsukiaye used her fan to cover her face and shake her head when Zuko looked over at her. The rest of the table let their attention wander back to their previous conversations, but Zuko and Tsukiaye had begun to talk to each other.

"Funny how one simple comment can change everything in a room." Tsukiaye smiled softly at Zuko.

Zuko sighed, "I haven't seen one of your solders be incompetent…"

"…Are you complimenting me or my crew?"

Zuko looked away from her, "A crew cannot be structured without a good leader."

Tsukiaye leaned slightly against him giving him a questioning look, "What are you saying? You admit that I might be better than you?"

Zuko nudged her until she quit leaning on him, "No, I'm saying you're as good as me… well you might be as good as me. And the fact that your solders are women has an effect on the situation too."

Tsukiaye smiled, "Well then maybe we do have something in common."

"…hm."

Iroh looked over at the two and noticed that they were making slight conversation and smiled at them. When they looked up and saw him looking at them they looked away from each other and sat quietly.

"Your honor shouldn't have been affected by my weakness."

Tsukiaye felt the anger that she had been holding in swell up inside of her, "Did you have to bring that up?" Her face turned bitter and her voice went to an angry whisper.

Zuko nodded, "I will restore your honor."

Tsukiaye snapped her fan in half and Zuko turned to look at it, and then looked at her expression. Her face was tight and emotionless.

"Don't think that I will stop my quest to find the Avatar and restore my honor on my own."

"I don't expect you to. May the best man win." Zuko slightly sat up to seem a little cocky.

Tsukiaye smiled at him competitively, "Yes, the best man."

Zuko stood out on the edge of Tsukiaye's ship holding lightly to the railing. The sun had gone down and the sky was lighting up with stars. He was completely lost in thought as sad memories of his childhood ran through his head.

"What are you doing out here?" Tsukiaye walked up to him and broke him from the nostalgic thought process that was running through his mind.

He looked away from her, "It's none of your concern."

"It's always my concern when you're moping. I'm made to worry about you." Tsukiaye leaned on the railing staring at the red and blue stars that lit up the sky. "They're slightly depressing aren't they?"

Zuko looked over at Tsukiaye who seemed to be doing exactly what he had been, "Yes, but the point is that life goes on. Nothing can change now, too many things have happened."

Tsukiaye sat up and looked over at him seriously, "You remember them? The fireflies, and the others that we we're friends with?"

Zuko nodded, "We were all fools back then."

She nodded, "And we all still are. Fools… you know that the water bender that's on our ship, she left her country purely for the fact that she wanted to kill her younger sister. It's her way of proving to her family that she isn't weak."

Zuko looked out across the ocean, "I said that nothing is going to change. Nothing ever did change, yet you still resent me for what I did. You know what I said was right."

"Yes." Tsukiaye looked at him with her unburned eye, "You did it to yourself. You knew that those generals were ruthless."

Zuko turned to her in a slight bit of anger, "But what they were doing was-"

"What they've been taught to do. Win. Zuko, the only way that you'll ever catch the avatar is if you don't play fare. I've almost captured him three times. Each trying to obey the rules. I look back now and see that if I just would have taken another step to get him, fought a little dirty, I wouldn't be in this mess that I am in now."

Zuko turned away from her, "What happened to you?"

Tsukiaye crossed her arms and sneered at him, "I got stronger and learned a few things on the way. What happened to you Zuko? Did you learn that the world isn't all that it's cut out to be? Prince."

Zuko glared at her over his shoulder, "I don't have to deal with you."

"You will soon!" she shouted, fire was erupting from her palms and she was in a fighting stance that Zuko had only seen used by his father, "When you have to marry me, the first thing that I will teach you is respect."

Zuko turned around and crossed his arms at her, "Tsukiaye, I've known respect, I've grown up. I'm just wondering why you haven't."

"Because of you!" Tsukiaye let a circle of flames erupt around her, "You ruined my life! All you had to do was what you were told. 'be quiet' or 'fight' but you did neither! And because of what you did, the subjects of the fire nation give me looks and talk about me when my back is turned! You destroyed my life! You made me the tainted princess!"

Zuko turned around and began to walk to the bridge that connected the two ships, "I'm going back to my ship now. When you decide that you can be a little more grown up about the matter, then maybe we can talk. Until then my princess, I bid you goodnight."

Tsukiaye let the flames that encircled her erupt into a wall of fire that almost seemed to entrap her, " well…I HATE YOU!"

"Excuse me, princess?" Kasa walked out to where the princess was, avoiding her flames.

She looked back at him with red eyes, "What is it?"

"The captain wishes to speak with you right away." Kasa walked back toward the innards of the ship and left her in her cloud of fire.

Tsukiaye let out a slow breath and the flames died, and her eyes turned back to their normal yellow.

A/N: yeah, sorry that these notes are so short, I'm busy right now! Love yah!