Yay! more reviews. I'm glad you like this story lovergirl1227. Zukopunk, you are right, I never really liked the way I started this story, I just wanted to show off my mad snake charming skills and I might bring it in at later chapters. Dun dun dunnnn. Anyways, I also wanted to explain my chapter titles (most of you probably don't care, but for the one or two of you that do), they are just phrases I use a lot that may or may not tie into the actual chapter content. Mostly, I'm just random.

Don't forget to review my little chicadees.

A/N: this is how I really react when someone knocks on my door in the morning, even if I'm dead asleep.

When Zuko opened his eyes the next morning, the first thing he saw was Katie's face. It was only a few inches away from his. He was slightly disoriented for a few seconds, and then the memory hit him of comforting her the night before. She had fallen asleep, so he just laid her down and fell asleep next to her. She looked much different when she was asleep. Every time he had seen her yesterday her body had been completely tensed like a loaded catapult. Now, however, she was completely relaxed. She looked much younger than seventeen. What am I doing here? This girl is nothing but a bother. Zuko sat up and rubbed his face with his hands. I've been on this stupid ship too long. Zuko snapped out of his musings when he heard a small knock on the door.

"WHA-?" Katie asked, rolling on her back and half sitting up. Her eyes popped open as though she had already been awake. She looked around in a half daze until she realized where she was and who was sitting next to her. "Aw, shit." She said with a groan and rolled over so that her back was to Zuko.

"Who is it?" Zuko asked, ignoring Katie and getting up to fetch his armor.

"It's me prince Zuko. May I come in?" Iroh called from behind the door.

"Yes uncle, go ahead." The door opened and Iroh stepped in. He immediately glanced over at Katie who was still lying facing the wall.

"We are nearing the port of Qwoll. I thought perhaps we could stop and restock and maybe try and find a way to get miss Lin home." Iroh said.

"No uncle. The avatar is still in our sights, we will keep going." Zuko said pulling on his breastplate and strapping it in place. Iroh sighed and looked back down at Katie's still form.

"May I speak with you outside nephew?" Iroh said. Zuko finished pulling on his boots and followed his uncle out the door.

"You know, we have to figure out what will be done with her sometime." Iroh said.

"I do know what we'll do with her. We'll keep on our present course. When we stop to re-supply the ship in four days we'll hand her over to the fire nation authorities at the port." Zuko said adjusting his arm bracer.

"Zuko, we can't just do that to the poor girl. I told her we would find a way to get her back home, it is dishonorable to go back on one's word." Iroh said.

"Uncle, maybe you said that, but I didn't and this is my ship. What I say goes and I say that she gets turned over to the authorities in four days." Zuko said.

"And what charges will you put against her? She has done nothing wrong." Iroh said. Zuko merely gaped back at him.

"What do you mean nothing wrong? She stowed away on a military ship. Who knows where she comes from and what things she's done? I have not heard a believable, let alone comprehensible, sentence come out of her mouth since she showed up. We will turn her over and that is final uncle." Zuko said and stormed away to the dining hall. Iroh sighed and re-entered Zuko's room. Katie hadn't moved. Iroh thought at first that perhaps she was asleep, but when he walked closer he saw that her eyes were open and she was staring at the wall.

"How are you feeling this morning miss Lin?" Iroh asked softly. At first she didn't respond, then she slowly rolled over and sat up.

"I guess as good as can be expected." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair making it stand on end.

"You must be hungry, I don't think you ate much yesterday. Would you care to join me and the prince for breakfast?" Katie had in fact not eaten anything yesterday, but she didn't think she would have been able to hold anything down if she did try to eat. She merely shook her head and buried her face into her knees. "Are you sure?" Iroh asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She nodded. "All right. If you change your mind, feel free to come to the dining hall. There will always be someone there to assist you." Iroh left Katie alone in the room. Katie lay back down and resumed staring at the wall.

Katie barely moved throughout the rest of the day and into the night. Zuko came in late, but she still never stirred. He watched her for a few seconds to make sure she was still breathing, then he got undressed and went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that she wasn't in the room at all. Zuko ran straight to his uncle's room and burst in.

"Uncle! The girl is gone!" Iroh looked up from an old book he was reading and smiled.

"Don't worry nephew, she's on the training deck. I showed her there myself two hours ago. I'm beginning to grow worried about her, she still hasn't eaten. Would you mind inviting her for breakfast when you go down there?" He dropped his gaze back down to his book. Zuko frowned and began walking to the training deck.

Iroh had brought Katie to the training deck when she had asked what there was to do on the ship. She couldn't have been happier when she saw what looked like a small, indoor gym. Iroh had left her to do as she pleased and in her wanderings she found a target that was roughly shaped like a human figure and weighed around forty pounds. It wasn't a very sturdy punching bag, but she was happy to find it all the same. She had completely lost track of time after she wrapped some strips of cloth around her knuckles and began wailing on the dummy. In her mind she could hear the voices of her dad and brothers giving her hints and yelling encouragements. She unloaded all the stress and confusion she had felt into the dummy, punching harder and harder with each passing minute. She had already knocked an arm off of it and the seams around the neck were beginning to fray. But she kept punching, sweat streaming down her face.

This is how Zuko found her. He entered the room and stood watching her as she dodged and punched at the dummy. She was using a technique he had never seen before. Finally she seemed to feel his eyes on her back. She turned and looked at him, wiping sweat from her eyes. Her whole body was shaking with exertion.

"Hey." She said in greeting, trying to regain her breath.

"That's an interesting fighting style. Does it have a name?" Zuko asked.

"Well, I call it Ted, but everyone else calls it boxing." Katie said smiling, but the joke was lost on him. "I'm sorry I haven't been the most sociable person or whatever. I was kinda in an emotional rut yesterday. But now I've decided to just go along with what's happening and see where it takes me." Zuko nodded slowly giving her a scrutinizing look. She had dark patches below her eyes, it didn't look like she gotten any sleep last night and she looked a lot thinner than when she had first appeared two days ago.

"Are you hungry?" Zuko said. Katie hadn't really thought about it, but now that she did she realized that her stomach was currently saying hello to her spine.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting there." She followed him out of the deck. "Oh, and sorry about that dummy thing. I didn't mean to get so carried away."

"It was only going to get burned anyway." Zuko said shrugging. They walked in silence down the hall and Katie felt the ship shift suddenly underneath her. She kept trying to walk but ended up crashing into the wall.

"Are you all right?" Zuko asked, thinking she had collapsed.

"Yeah I'm fine. I guess I just have to get used to the waves or something."

"You have a very interesting accent." Zuko said giving her another untrusting look.

"I do? In what way?"

"I've noticed that you don't pronounce your g's when a word ends in 'ing'. And just then when you said 'something', it came out more like: sum'm."

"Yeah, I guess I have a bit of a western slur. I just didn't think it was that noticeable. At least I haven't gone around saying ain't and ya'll." Katie said laughing.

"Yes, it's noticeable." Zuko said nodding as they entered the dining hall.

"It's so wonderful that you could join us miss Lin. Please, have a seat next to me." Iroh said cheerfully. Katie sat down on the cushion by his side and a servant immediately placed a bowl of some kind of porridge in front of her. Katie thought that in her current state of hunger she could have eaten four bowls of the stuff, but her shrunken stomach only allowed her a few bites before she felt full. Mostly she just guzzled water. She felt extremely dehydrated, especially after her workout. She spent the meal nodding to Iroh's attempts at sparking conversation among the three of them, but Katie had never been the biggest talker. She answered each question with a few words and nothing more.

After they got through eating. Zuko disappeared somewhere and Iroh showed Katie up to the main deck for some fresh air. It felt so wonderful to be outside. It was very warm and kind of muggy. They must have been in a tropical area. Iroh left Katie to wander as she pleased, but always made sure she was in his sight. She leaned over the railing and gazed into the deep blue water. To her delight she saw dolphins (or something closely resembling dolphins) leaping in and out of the water around the hull of the ship.

"What are you doing up here?" Katie jumped when she heard the voice and whirled around to see Zuko glaring at her. She glared right back.

"Your unclebrought me up here." She looked around and noticed that the crew was hustling around more than what would be called usual. "Is there something wrong?" Zuko glanced around until he saw his uncle.

"Yes. This ship is being boarded. Can you find my room from here?" Katie nodded and noticed a large steel ship drifting up behind them. "Good. Then get there and stay there until I come down for you." Katie nodded and looked up at the large ship once more before she turned to leave. There standing out from all the rest of his crew was a person that seemed to have been carved from the coldest of stone. Admiral Zhao.

Wahooo! Dance like a monkey! Then review like a monkey! You little monkey minions! Bwahahahahahaaaaaa. Just kidding. But please, feel free to review. It makes me feel good even though this chapter sucked.