A.N.: uh...hi again..sorry about not updating last week but we had sols! Ugh! They're evil...blah...and we might not update next week either because Leah's going to another state for her cousin's operation for a few days...

Disclaimer: Refer to previous chapter

Chapter 9: The untitled chapter

:Leah's POV:

I woke up and rubbed my eyes tiredly; I glanced at my watch, "Damn! It's already after eight! I curse you, you windowless room!"

I blinked a couple of times and stretched lazily, then counted how long I'd been here. Whoa...already on the 'Imprisoned' episode.

Yesterday I'd gotten some weird stares when I'd done my bubble bender stunt.

What to do today? There's not gonna be any exciting episode stuff until tomorrow, so I must find something to do.

"Eh...whatever," I yawned as I stood up.

My t-shirt and pants were laid out across the foot of the bed, and Zuko's training outfit was gone. Too bad...I really liked the outfit.

:A little while later:

I was on deck, sitting lazily as I wondered what I should do. I'd thought the fresh air would open my mind, but it didn't.

I finally chose to experiment, "Zuko! Come here a second!"

While I was waiting I scribbled something on the paper I had with me. A shirtless Zuko approached me; he had another irritable look on his face.

"Can you read this?" I asked as I thrust the paper into his hands.

"No, it's just a bunch of nonsense," he looked at me like I was stupid or something.

"It's not nonsense, it's English," I said haughtily.

"Never heard of it; what does it say?" Zuko asked skeptically.

I rolled my eyes at him, "It says: Can you read this?"

"Creative," Zuko didn't sound convinced.

"I'll prove it!" I announced as I pulled out my ipod, "Here! Look at this."

He took it and turned it on like I'd shown him earlier, "Interesting," he sounded less skeptical, "Give me a scroll."

I blinked, "No scrolls, just cheap Dollar Store paper."

"I won't ask. Just give me something to write on," he shook his head.

"Whatever dude," I handed him a sheet of paper and a green pen.

He wrote something on it and showed it to me, "Read this."

"I can't...it looks like Chinese, and I can't read Chinese," I grumbled, "But I wish I could."

"It says," he mocked, "Read this."

I tilted my head to the side and smirked a little, "Is the great and powerful Zuko trying to be funny? It's hard to do when you're shirtless."

"Is that all you wanted?" he tried to change the subject.

"Yeah, trying to get a shirtless Zuko to read English is exactly what I wanted," I grinned.

"Why are you obsessed with seeing me shirtless?" he questioned frustratedly.

"You have nice abs," I replied with another grin, "do you not want me to look at you when you're shirtless? If you don't want me to, I won't."

"No, it's not that," Zuko sighed, "I'm just not used to it."

"Oh," I said, "Don't see why."

"Nevermind, I've got to go back to training," Zuko said and walked back the way he came.

"Um, Zuko?" I asked hesitantly.

"What?" he responded.

"Can I train with you?" I was slightly more confident while saying this.

"Sure, I guess," Zuko replied after a moments thought.

:Red's POV:

The next day the group and I found a nice clearing in the woods. Sokka was nowhere to be seen, probably looking for nuts or rocks. Nut shaped rocks! Yummy! Not...Faithful was sleeping in my lap and I was carefully sewing pockets inside of my new clothes when I finished I put our money inside them with one coin per pocket. That made thirty pockets.

Katara noticed what I was doing and grinned, "Good idea!" she knelt down beside me and inspected my work, "Now it looks like we have no money."

"That's the point," I explained, "When we meet up with bandits there is a chance they won't be able to take our money. Money we will need in the future."

Katara nodded and stood up to help Aang comb Appa's fur.

A little while later Sokka returned with the nuts. Then, we heard a loud bang.

'Haru!' I smiled and slipped my outer shirt back on and placed the still sleeping Faithful on my shoulder. Momo's ears were standing straight up and he was gliding around in excitement.

Together we raced towards the noise and found Haru, an earthbender, well, bending.

"Hello Haru!" being stupid, I walked up and waved happily. As expected, he ran away.

"You know his name is Haru?" Aang asked as he walked up with the others.

"Um, yeah...we better go to the village he's from," I blushed and absently petted Faithful. She meowed in my ear and tickled my neck with her whiskers, "We're in for it now Faithful," I muttered as we marched forward.

:Leah's POV:

"Oooph," I muttered as I once again toppled over.

"You have to focus," Zuko sighed and offered his hand to help me up.

I took it reluctantly, "And here I thought I was pretty good at this."

"You're an excellent bender Leah, but raw talent is not enough," Zuko explained.

"I wish it was," I grouched, "Now let's go over this set again."

"Alright," Zuko replied while taking a stance he'd taught me earlier today.

In seconds I was flat on my back again.

"You resemble each other more and more every day," Uncle Iroh laughed form behind me.

I turned on my heel and glared at him, and decided to quote Zuko, "I'm going to my room; no disturbances," then disappeared belowdecks.

"But I repeat myself," Uncle grinned, "More and more every day."

I wondered through the many halls of the ship; damn if I hadn't gotten lost. Figures...I'd only been here for a short amount of time anyway, btu which way was my room?

Steel door, ...steel door,...another steel door. Damn! They're all the friggin' same!

Ugh...I'll just keep walking and hope I find it. The only way I figured to actually recognize the door was to adhere a sign to it, it said: "Leah's room! - Please don't clean up my mess, you'll confuse me and screw up my world!"

But like that would help if I didn't know which way my room actually was.

"Need any help?" said a voice from behind me.

"Damn! What is it with you people and sneaking up on me?" I muttered as Zuko came into view.

"Do you want my help or not?" he asked.

"I suppose so," I replied and followed him.

"Why are you mad at me? Uncle's the one who said that," Zuko arched an eyebrow at me questioningly.

"Oh I'm not mad at you persay(sp?)...I'm just following a good quote's example," I replied and stretched my arms lazily.

"What quote would that be?" he asked with slight curiosity.

" 'I didn't say it was your fault; I said I was going to blame you.' " I quoted with a smirk, "By the way, where did you get the Blue Spirit mask?"

Zuko clamped a hand over my mouth, "Don't talk about that! Okay?"

I nodded mutely as he released his grip, "Okay dude, just curious."

A door with a lime green and purple sign came into view, "Ah, we're here. Now if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to ."

I rolled my eyes at him and entered my room.

:Jess's POV:

Once we arrived at the village the first thing I noticed was a hot guy selling peaches. Excited, with Faithful on my shoulder, I walked up to the cute vendor and smiled, "Hey there! What is your name?"

He blushed and scratched his head absently, "Koga."

My blue eyes practically sparkled with the realization that his name was the same as the wolf demon in Inuyasha.

Before I could even begin my flirtation...Sokka appeared, glaring at me. I rolled my eyes and placed my hands on my hips.

'He messed with my game!' I grumbled in my head.

"Would you mind telling me what you're doing?" I could almost see the jealousy in his eyes, but that only made me smile more.

"Flirting with Koga. He's cute," I licked my lips and winked at the boy in question. Just as Koga was growing red from my forwardness, Sokka grabbed my arm and pulled me away and into Haru's Mom's shop and shut the door.

Furious, he leaned toward my left ear and whispered, "I know you're not from around here, but let me tell you girls around here don't flirt with random guys."

"So that means I can flirt with you?" the look on his face was priceless.

I laughed and walked way to inspect a barrel of apples. 'We could use some of these,' was what I thought before the fire benders started beating down the door. Being the evil people they are, they took Haru's money and left.

"Someone should teach them a lesson," the air around me moved around me like a tornado, but ceased when Aang laid a hand of warning on my shoulder.

"Sorry," I mumbled and scratched Faithful's ears to ease her of her tension and to calm myself, "I lost myself for a moment."

"Be careful, you don't want anyone else to know," he advised. For now only my friends and Zuko's ship know of my airbending powers.

'Why do I feel as if a great burden has been placed on my shoulders?' I sighed and grasped my necklace as it glowed a deep, dark orange. The color of my fear and depression combined. Flashes of pictures of Leah training with Zuko went past my mind's eye like a t.v. screen. Also, a sense of calm washed over me and I received the distinct feeling it was all Leah's doing.

:The next morning in the barn:

"Haru has been captured!" was the first thing I heard when I woke up. Tiredly, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and frowned. It took me several seconds to comprehend what was going on.

"Oh! Well, I guess we will go save him then," I yawned and stretched my arms lazily as if I rescued people all the time, I didn't of course, but I knew everything that was going on.

"Yes, we have to save Haru! I have an idea!"

I didn't pay much attention to the planning of The Plan. I wanted it to go well. My presence usually changed small things, and I didn't want to purposely change the outcome of anything.

'I get to tell Sokka he had big ears!' I mentally laughed and waited for The Plan to begin.

:Leah's POV:

"It's times like this that I really wish I had my computer," I commented to the ceiling in my room.

I'd just finished writing the next two chapters for my Avatar fanfiction, 'Broken Wings.'

(A.N.: That's an actual story on my other account. Feel free to read and review if you feel like it...)

'There's NOTHING to do around here!' I thought irritably.

So I did what I always tend to do while bored, I sang.

:Red's POV:

As expected, the fire benders took Katara away for 'earth bending.'

"Sokka does have big ears!" I giggled and tugged on the lobe closest to me.

"I do not!" he denied.

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

This went on for about twenty minutes before Aang suggested we go into the village for food. As we walked away from the mine I used my air bending to jump from rock to rock. I made it into a game I played when I was younger. The game is formally called "the floor is lava."

Aang joined in after awhile and, with him being the better airbender, knocked my down onto the ground when he bumped into me.

Being crazy, I cried out, "I am melting! Melting! Ahhhha!" Sokka gave me a look that was priceless and I bust out laughing.

"I was playing the floor is lava!"

"But it isn't!" he pointed out.

I jumped back to my feet and climbed onto the nearest boulder.

"You just need to have more imagination, Sokka," I told him as I continued the game until we were within earshot of the village.

"Food!" I picked up the pace, hoping to find some foreign fruit to try.

:Leah's POV:

I was now training with Uncle Iroh because Zuko was 'meditating.'

'Meditating' meant that we didn't know where he was so we assumed he was meditating.

The last time I'd seen him he was walking away from me in all his shirtless glory.

'Man he has nice abs...and a really nice...'

I wish I hadn't allowed myself to get so distracted.

The next thing I knew I was falling overboard and into the icy cold ocean. I tried to swim up, but the currents around the ship pulled me down. I couldn't really affect where I went, yet I still tried.

I felt strong arms slide around my waist and begin pulling me upward.

'I wonder who it is?' I thought dazedly from lack of oxygen as my eyes slowly drifted shut.

We broke through the surface, and I immediately gasped for air.

The arms didn't leave me.

"Come on, we need to get back on the ship," Zuko said gruffly while he began swimming over to where the crew had dropped a ladder for us to climb up.

I was automatically brought along for the ride, but nodded numbly anyways.

Once I finally had regained a sense of myself we were on deck, surrounded by the entire crew.

Many of them gazed worriedly at me while I coughed and sputtered, "Stop blasted staring at me! I'm fine!"

They looked shocked at my reaction.

"Sorry. I appreciate your concern, but I'm a tad irritable at the moment. Could you please leave and go back to what you were doing?" I finally said politely.

They all nodded and went in different directions, even Iroh left.

"What? No thank you?" Zuko asked as he walked up, dripping wet and...you guessed it...shirtless.

"No. This is all your fault anyway," I glared and muttered under my breath.

"How so?" I was surprised that he looked more curious than upset at my rudeness.

"Damn distraction that you are," I replied with another glare.

"So I'm a distraction huh? Why were you thinking about me, and more importantly what were you thinking about me?" Zuko questioned with a smirk.

"Damn stubborn, infuriating man! Don't you get it? I like you! I'm beginning to think about you all the time! And what really sucks is that you more than likely don't feel the same way!" I screamed frustratedly and threw my hands up in the air, "Ugh! It doesn't matter anyways."

I turned and began to stomp away, only to have my arm grabbed, "Leah..."

A.N.: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's been awhile since there's been a good cliffhanger in here! Well gotta go! Oh yeh...please review...