Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Santa did not bring me Avatar: The Last Airbender for Christmas. I got the Avatar game (which totally rocks), but Nickelodeon still owns the show. P

And a quick A/N- If fire nation has enough smarts to make that crazy tank thing, I believe they can make something to tell time. So there are clocks in my story. So I have spoken, so it shall be!

Chapter 13- Nursemaids and Nieces

"How did I get here?" she asked, her voice faint. He had to lean closer to hear her weak words.

"I carried you," he whispered, still coming closer.

"Is the ship okay then?"

"Fine." His face was only inches from hers as he closed his eyes and began to close the distance. "Just fine."

Happiness. Pure happiness. Her mouth was pressed against his and he was happy. And there was only one explanation for it all.

A dream. It was all but a dream, which became painfully obvious when he opened his eyes and instead of seeing her, he saw the ceiling. Last night after the storm, he had lain down, but he had not risen at her stirring. It was a dream. Prince Zuko propped himself up on his elbows to see the girl still sleeping peacefully in his bed. She did do a lot yesterday, he thought.

The prince quietly got up and went off to find his uncle, no doubt in his mind as he headed or the galley.

And of course the old man was sitting alone at his usual table with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Prince Zuko! Please, join me for a cup of tea!" Iroh coaxed with a smile. He was pleasantly surprised when his nephew did just that, and even refilled his emptied cup. "Prince Zuko, what has come over you?"

"Hmm? Come over me? What did I do?"

"You're in such a good mood. It's a wonderful change."

"Yes… I suppose it is…" he said almost dreamily. But it couldn't be dreamily, could it? Is it possible that that girl has him… lovestruck?! Thoughts of grandnieces and nephews filled his brain as the prince stared into his teacup.

"Is there… is there anything you would like to talk about, Prince Zuko?"

After a silent moment when Iroh assumed he would not answer, the prince asked, "Why do you call me prince? I've been banished. I have no birthright, no real property, nothing to identify me as royalty. I'm no prince."

"I never believed possessions made the prince; his actions do. And your actions, Prince Zuko, are part of the makings of a true Fire Lord. You will be greater than your father, and your grandfather, and your great grandfather, but only if you remain faithful to what you believe deep within your heart," he advised sagely.

"Yes… my heart…"

"Anything else, Prince Zuko?" his uncle asked with a raised eyebrow. "Anything… about hearts…?"

"What?" The teenage firebender suddenly snapped out of his trance-like state as he caught his elder's meaning. "No! Nothing about hearts! I uh…" the prince glanced nervously at the clock on the wall, "I'm late for… something. I'll see you at lunch." And with one last sip of his tea, he hurried out of the galley to find something he could be late for.

A small chuckle escaped Iroh's lips as Katara entered the galley, her attention focused down the hallway.

"What's with him?" she asked as she sat across from him in the seat recently vacated by the moody prince.

"Who knows? Maybe later today you could try to figure it out. If you're up to it, of course. You had quite a day yesterday, and every man on board owes you his life," he said solemnly. "In fact," the old man brightened, "I think we should have a party!" The incredulous look on the girl's face urged him to elaborate. "Yes! We can have music and more dancing, and food and you will be the guest of honor! Oh, we just have to stop at the next port and get food and party supplies! I'm sorry I can't stay, but I have to tell the helmsman to pull in at the next port and-"

"No, no, no! That's not necessary! I don't need a party," she interrupted as soon as she could.

"It won't be just for you, my dear. It's for the men's morale! And you wouldn't want a bunch of depressed men around, would you? How will we ever find your friends?" he convinced her. When he met no argument, he practically squealed, "Wonderful! I'll go alert the helmsman to our plans!" and hurried out of the galley, leaving a dumbfounded waterbender to finish her tea.

"Uncle! What's this I hear about a party?" A fairly enraged prince entered the galley again at lunchtime to see his uncle eating and laughing with the so-called prisoner. They both turned to see the angered prince stalk stiffly to the table to stare them down.

"Yes, we are having a party in a few days. We are celebrating Katara's strength during the storm and it will be good for their morale. Will you be joining us?" Iroh said, trying to calm Zuko down.

"I most definitely will not! I can't believe we are having a party for the prisoner! Instead I will be-" he was suddenly cut off by a series of rapid sneezes.

"Prince Zuko, are you all right?" his uncle asked, slightly worried.

"I'm fine!" he snapped.

"But you've been sneezing all day," Katara interjected. Standing, she placed the back of her hand on his forehead and voiced her opinion. "I think all that rain has given you a cold, Prince Zuko. You should probably go lie down."

"I am not sick!" he assured them heatedly.

"Listen to the girl, she's probably right. She knows more about illnesses that we do."

"That's right. I helped take care of the children in my village and then I learned even more at the North Pole. So, go get some rest or you'll be sick longer," she ordered.

"I am not sick. And I'm not hungry anymore, either. I will see the two of you later. I'm going to train." He turned his back on them and stomped out. And his exit was almost perfect, too. If only he hadn't been caught by another bout of sneezes, causing Katara and Iroh to laugh. He glared at them one more time before promptly slamming the door to the galley, and the two were thrown into another fit of giggles.

"That boy is going to kill himself," Katara chuckled.

"Yes, he probably will," Iroh agreed, wiping tears from his eyes. "Now back to what I was saying earlier. So then Prince Zuko says to me, 'I heard some of the soldiers talking about something called a concubine. What's that?' and all I could think to say was…"

About a day away from port, Zuko stood in the helm studying a map. Katara and Iroh sat nearby playing a pleasant game of Pai Cho. The prince came to sit near them, leaning against the wall, and sighed.

"You really need to sleep," the waterbender chided as she moved a piece on the board.

"I don't need sleep. I'm not- achoo- sick. I'm just fine."

The Pai Cho players looked unconvinced.

"It's been two days, Prince Zuko. If you would just listen, you would have been better by now," Iroh reprimanded.

"I keep telling you, I'm fine!" He turned away as he tried unsuccessfully to hide several more sneezes. The players just shook their heads at the stubborn prince. He just narrowed his eyes scornfully at them and leaned his head back against the wall. "My head does kinda hurt though," he said quietly. After a moment or so, Katara and Iroh suddenly stopped their game when they heard a slump and saw Zuko lying on his side against the wall, asleep.

"I guess we should get him to his quarters, huh?" Katara asked.

"He can wait a few minutes. We're almost done with this game. Besides, where's he going to go? He's finally asleep!"

"Leave me alone," the sick prince whined.

"No. Now drink your tea." Katara had stayed with the prince ever since he was carried to his bedroom the day before. The ship would reach port before nightfall, and Iroh would go out and gather party supplies. Katara had managed to convince him to keep the party small and to let whoever wanted to stay onboard come to the celebration. Everyone else could wander the town freely until the next morning.

Katara handed Prince Zuko his cup, and after a glare at both the cup and the girl, he relented and drank. "Now the soup," she said motherly.

"Why are you bothering me? You're the one that said I just needed some sleep."

"That was three days ago. If you had just listened, you would have needed only a little sleep. But since you seem bent on killing yourself, I will stay here and nurse you back to health."

"I don't need a nurse," he grumbled into his soup.

"Yes, you do. If I weren't here, your fever could get out of hand and become really serious. I'm used to taking care of people anyhow. I did it in my village and I took care of-" her voice hitched a little bit and she continued," I took care of Aang and Sokka." She quickly regained her motherly demeanor and continued. "You really need to drink more water, too. It's best to keep fluids up. And the doctor is bringing something to decease that headache I'm sure you must have."

Must she be right all of the time? he thought bitterly. "Fine," he grumbled some more.

"I doubt that you will be well enough to go to the little party tonight, though. But by tomorrow you should be as good as new!"

"Oh, no!" he cried in mock despair. "I'm going to miss the party? Whatever shall I do?" He grimaced and rolled over on his side. "I'm going to take a nap."

She said nothing, just reclined in the soft chair in the corner to await his next need.

Night was almost upon them as Katara entered the prince's room again.

"I'm back from the party," she murmured, quiet just in case her charge had fallen asleep again. A bored response was lost within his pillow. "Or rather, I finally escaped. Your uncle is really crazy about his parties." A quiet chuckle and an agreement of some sort followed and Zuko rolled over to face her.

"Why didn't you stay then? I heard you were supposed to be the guest of honor."

"I don't much like parties. But I grabbed some food and punch before I ran off, if you can stomach it."

I'm fine. I'm not hungry." His stomach chose that very moment to complain as loudly as it could. "Fine," he sighed and reached out a hand for the food. A plate of fish and rice was thrust into his hand. As soon as he caught scent of the delicious seafood before him, he tore into it with vigor. Katara sat dumbly beside him with the punch as he inhaled his dinner. Handing back an empty plate, Zuko silenced a belch and was handed the cup of punch.

He eats like Sokka, she thought. She mentally sighed as she thought again of her brother and friend. I hope they're ok…

The prince saw the peasant girl's face fall just a bit and set out to brighten her spirits if only a bit.

"Thank you for staying with me," he said sincerely.

"You're welcome," she replied, slightly bewildered at the sudden kindness, but smiled happily nonetheless.

"Tell me… tell me about your village. I know I saw it that first time we met, but I wasn't really paying attention," he confessed, hoping to keep her smiling.

The rest of the night was filled with happy memories and comfortable conversation of both teens past homelands.

"What do you mean he escaped?" Azula hissed to the captain of the guard.

"Well, you see, Princess, the guard in front of the Avatar's cell was somehow knocked unconscious and the boys stole his keys and escaped into the ocean. They presumably swam for the nearby island."

"What nearby island?" the princess growled, tired of his chatter. "We're in the middle of the ocean. Nothing is nearby!"

"Well, it was nearby. Yesterday. The storm blew us off course. It will take several days to get to the island and we aren't even sure they're there now or if they'll be there when we arrive," the soldier said bravely, knowing bad news was never beneficial to the messenger's health.

The princess must have been in a very good mood, despite the discouraging news for she only replied with a harsh, "Fine! Go! I want to be there by tomorrow morning!"

Sokka and Aang dragged themselves ashore just as the storm hit the ship out at sea. The boys trudged further inland before collapsing under an outcropping of rocks.

"Aang?" Sokka whispered, still exhausted.

"Hmm?"

"I'm tired."

"Me too."

"What are we gonna do?"

"Sleep?"

"No, not that. Are we going to try to find Katara or are we going to find you an earthbending master?"

"We need to find Katara," the young Avatar stated simply.

"What about your earthbending?"

"Let's worry about Katara first."

"Aang?"

"Yeah, Sokka?"

"I'm kinda hungry, too."

"Me too," he sighed.

That's everybody I guess. Yay me! I guess it was kind of a filler though. The action is gonna pick up soon, I promise! And the Zutaraness too!!! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I have a very good reason. I couldn't feel the love! I got considerable fewer reviews for chapter 12 than chapter 11 and was slightly miffed. You no likey the story? I know you people read it, and I know a bunch of you have me on alert, so please, could I have a lil bitty review? Please don't hate me for wanting love! So please, if you love me and if you would want someone to review your story, review mine!

I love you all!