Chapter 10: Don't worry, the feeling's mutual

When I awoke, I found it was next morning already, since I actually had a window in my room. Zuko was standing at my doorway, looking quite ticked. "Aww, it's okay Zuko, sweetie!"

"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!"

"Don't worry, the feeling's mutual," I replied with a happy smile. Zuko was steaming, as usual. I stood up, finding myself in Fire Nation clothing. WAIT, who changed me? WHO DID THIS?

Zuko, as if he read my mind, replied, "The maid changed your clothes…"

"We have women on this ship?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Zuko angrily started to scream at me. I backed off. "Okay, I'm sorry oh mighty lord…"

"Finally, you get the idea," Zuko replied with a cute smirk. Wait? Did I say cute? I meant, uhh… ugly! Yeah, ugly, that's what I meant. Anyway, he smirked and I started to worry. He walked closer towards me, still with that little smirk on his face.

I got up and stared at him; it soon turned into a glare. What is up with him? I was now pressing my back against the wall from backing away. DUDE, Zuko is being out of character! I'm gonna call my lawyer again!

"Why did you come on this boat?" he asked, his face so close, I could feel his breath. Hey, I gotta say, he has nice hygiene. Zuko placed his right hand right next to my face. "Well?"

"What's up with the sacrifice for the comet?" I asked, glaring back. The information that I was supposed to be sacrificed was on a need-to-know basis. No way I'm going to tell the Fire Nation I'm the one to be sacrificed. Might as well tell the world I came from an alternate universe where we watch them. No, not a chance I was blabbing off what I knew.

"That's on a need-to-know basis," Zuko replied, backing off.

"Well, I NEED TO KNOW," I retorted angrily. Zuko swirled around, the fire that engulfed his hand too close to my face for comfort.

"I don't need to hear anything like that from you," Zuko replied, glaring. I could see a little playfulness in his eyes though. Oh, what a little liar he is. He wants me to scream back at him. Just to tick him off, I turned away.

"Fine."

"Good," Zuko stated leaving the room, slamming the door shut. I smirked, holding keys to the room up. It's not like they locked my rooms, but I want to see the rooms they locked to keep me out. Phew, I almost thought I wouldn't be able to grab it when he was so close. I heard the jingle, so I knew it must've been something good, seeing how it was tied so closely to his waist. Thanks to sound bending, I was able to let the keys fall loose and let it fall into my pocket.

I left the room in a little hurry and bumped into Iroh-san. I bowed deeply. "Good morning, Iroh-san!"

"And where will you be going?" Iroh asked me with a little smile.

"Bathroom, please."

"Okay, it's down the hallway and to the right. I guess every girl has her mornings," Iroh said, sounding a little intelligent, as usual. I smiled and hurried off. What a fool. I had to use the bathroom too, in a way. I pretended to go to the bathroom, being able to keep the soft jingle of the keys quiet by my sound barrier around it. Every single time someone asked me where I was going, I asked if I was going the right way to the bathroom. They would nod and I'd go on, like I was a cute little lost girl.

In the bathroom, they actually had a female bathroom, it was shocking. It was beautiful. Pure jade walls that had been dyed a slight orange color to match the ship and pure black toilets that reminded me of ashes. Going to the bathroom was ONE creepy thing, I tell you. It was so strange seeing a pure black toilet. I washed my hands and washed up.

When I left the bathroom, I found Zuko waiting outside for me. SNAP, I can't go exploring at all. He took my hand impatiently and I was dragged to the front of the ship. He stopped, making me trip over a loose plank and falling flat on my face. He had let go of my hand too! Getting up, I was about to scream when I saw it. I saw what made Zuko stop. A dozen fire nation ships were heading our way.

"We're in Fire Nation waters?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, YOU KNOW! I mean, c'mon! You're banned and I get shivers when I look at battleships so big!"

"Quiet, useless…"

"The name's Sammy."

"I said QUIET," he snapped. I shut up. This was out of my hands now. Iroh quietly tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to inside. He pressed a map into my hands and hurried me off. I got into the ship and looked at the map. It was a map of the ship and there was an X on it. Well, by the looks of it, he wants me to go there. Maybe I'll be safe there.

I rushed to it, but the door to the place was locked. Quickly, I thought of the keys in my pocket, but how did they know? Couldn't they have thought that Zuko 'accidentally' dropped it somewhere? Whatever, I opened the door and inside was the engine room. Nice, but I soon noticed a door at the end of the hallway—THUD. The noise came from behind me. I shut the door and ran down the corridor as quick as I could. I slammed the door open and shut it behind me. I gasped. Inside was so much junk it wasn't even funny. This was probably where Iroh kept all of his stuff.

"Hello…?" I said, hoping no one would answer. I felt a hand grab out for me and bring me into a crowded corner. The hand stayed on my mouth.

"Shh…"

The door slammed open and General Zhao entered. I felt myself pressed closer to the wall. He passed us and seemed to be staring right at us, but there was stuff ahead of us. General Zhao walked back out and the person let me go. She had light brown hair with deep red eyes. Holding her finger to her lips, she led me to a hidden passageway. As soon as she opened the door, the door slammed opened and we quickly hurried inside.

"My name is Hana…"

The name snapped into my head, but before I could ask anything, she covered my mouth with her hand until she heard absolutely nothing. Quickly, she replied, "Not Zuko's friend."

"Oh…" I replied, nodding. That's good because I would've gotten out my metal again. If you don't remember, Zuko had a friend, I guess he considered her a girlfriend, and she dumped him because he defiled his father's wishes. Of course, who would want to go against the leader of the Fire Nation?

Hana started to crawl through the small tunnel we were in. We were silent the whole way because both of us were probably in thought. I was thinking about General Zhao. Why was he here? Was he gone?

"Wear this," Hana told me, pulling some clothes out of her bags. They were Fire Nation clothing, but not fancy, they were torn at the edges and looked dusty. Without question, I took off my clothes and put those on. This is weird. Hana took out my ponytail and put in two messy braids and smudged a little dirt on both of my cheeks, hands, arms, and forehead. I guess this is where she would say VOILA; you are now one of Zuko's rare female servants! We crawled out of the tunnel and were in the kitchen. It wasn't as fancy, I tell you.

"Pretend you're cooking," she whispered to me. I followed her and I did exact same as she did. She handed me some carrots and I peeled the outside and started to cut it in small pieces. General Zhao entered when he passed, Hana bowed, so I did right after her. Zhao looked at the two of us and moved on. However, when he passed us the second time and we bowed again, he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. "Why are you smiling?"

"Am I smiling?"

"Yes."

"I am sure you will win the war, General Zhao."

I thought I saw him smirk a little. "Come with me."

When he was looking the other way, I glanced at Hana. She looked worried, but nodded her head for me to go along. Following Zhao like a puppy, he led to the front of the ship where Zuko was. Zuko immediately could tell it was me. However, I had hoped that General Zhao couldn't tell it was me. I seriously hoped so.

"When did you recruit this little girl?" he asked, suspiciously. I would've gulped, but that would have made me even more suspicious. Zuko frowned.

"She's from the Earth-bender island when we went to go chase for the Avatar. She was poor and snuck on. She could do good, so I kept her on my ship," Zuko replied, almost having absolutely no respect. I'd be careful around General Zhao. Zhao smirked again and lifted me up by my collar as if I were a pillow. Now, there I was, hanging like a rag doll.

"Now, do you think I'm stupid?" General Zhao asked. Oh jeez, I hope he doesn't say 'Don't be joking! I know this is the girl we're supposed to be sacrificing.' Oh please don't let him remember my face when I told him to pick on people his own size.

"I know who she is."

Chapter 10: Don't worry, the feeling's mutual

Author's Note: Ooops, forgot to add this before. I just finished watching the last two episodes of Avatar. I mean, I haven't seen it before because all the time it was on, I had to do stuff... that took forever. I'm a bit sad that Yue died... although, that's Chinese for moon, not Japanese, just to tell you all. Anyway, I do NOT like Zuko... -scratches cheek embarrassedly- that much. I just feel sorry for him to be considered a failure. It reminds me of Hinata-chan from Naruto...