You've all been so wonderful. There aren't many chapters left in Part I of this story, so I've gotta step up my game and start on part II!

Chapter 14: Black Storms

To breathe, breathe, breathe
I need this space
Just like you need air
I need this time
Time to clear up my mind
Just breathe

The storm was just starting to boil when I made my way to the deck of the United Republic's flag ship. The waves made me more than just a little nauseous. Others were running around, trying to hoist the sails to keep them from getting damaged in the raging inferno to come. The engine rooms, when I'd passed, had been a flurry of activity as well.

I searched for Iroh everywhere, from the helm to his room and down into the officer's mess. I tried asking some of the men but they just shoved me out of the way and went on with their work. Hamin was up in the helm looking rather irate when I barged in, trying to find my commanding officer.

"Where is he?" Hamin asked, his lips pursed like they always were when they looked at me. "Well? You're supposed to know, boy!"

I was getting tired of being called that and I almost snapped back, but then I realized that I was a boy and that I had to act like one. "I'm trying to find him! Do you know where he might be?"

The old man just clenched his jaw at me and widened his stance which meant one of two things—either his fish was overcooked or he was angry at me. Most likely the latter, in this case. "I wouldn't be asking you if I knew, Huo! No go and find him! Tell him that we need him at the helm and that the helmsman has no idea how to navigate in a storm!"

The helmsman started to argue with Hamin as I quickly made my leave. Hamin wasn't my favorite person in the world; he'd been mean to me as a woman and he'd also been mean to me as a boy. It took a pretty awful kind of person who showed his worst side to complete strangers, male or female.

Where would Iroh be? I made my way back down into the hull where the rocking seemed to be the worst. He wouldn't run away from a storm. He'd be somewhere where he could help his men. Maybe even work beside them to get through this. Turns out, I was right. I found Iroh in the engine room.

His shirt was off, like the other men. He was shoveling in coal and sweating rivers as his muscles strained to carry the load that most of his men did without recognition or kudos. Giant coal furnaces lined either side, heating up the room more than my Firebending self could even handle. I'd never noticed before, but in the flickering fire I saw that Iroh's waist dipped in and his hip bones protruded in a 'V' down to his—

"Get outta here, boy!" This came from some old man in a faded uniform.

I jumped and ran inside instead, running to Iroh who was leaving his shovel in exchange for moving to the engine itself. Most of the time, the ship ran on electricity. On those days where we needed a little more oomph (say, to outrun a storm) there were the coal engines. Iroh's specialty, however, was powering the electrical rig.

His lightening arched from his fingers and into the rods, like the rest of the benders in his row. He looked like one of them...like he belonged. He was helping out his crew as if he weren't their general but their shipmate. For the first time since I'd met him, Iroh didn't look like the noble or the Prince. He looked like a soldier. A worker.

"Iroh," I said when his lightening stopped for a moment and he took a breath. "Iroh, they need you up top!"

"Huo, this is dangerous!" He grabbed my shoulders with his large hands and moved me away from anything that he deemed "dangerous." He bent down and I could only see him when the fires from the coal flickered or the lightening struck. The firelight/blue lightening flashes were contradicting against his pale skin tone. "You can't be in here."

He looked tired. Tired but alive. His eyes were shining and sweat poured down his face. For the first time since I'd met him, his hair wasn't perfect. It was sticking up all over the place like he'd been sweating and then he'd run his hand through it. Soot was smeared all over his face and down his chest. That chest was so perfect and close that I felt like I should reach out and touch it. I didn't, but the girl part of me really wished I could.

"It's my job to be where you are," I said simply as I met the challenge in his eyes.

Iroh only sighed. "Right. Well then, I'm sure that Hamin is impatiently picking at our helmsman right now, is he not?" I didn't bother asking how he knew that. "Let's get to it, then. We've got a storm to outrun."

After Iroh grabbed his shirt, I practically had to sprint to keep up with his long strides. He was talking to me but it was hard to hear over the beating of the waves against the hull. "...navigate to the eye of the storm. ...got to...Huo, are you listening?"

"I'm trying!" I caught up with him as we both finally emerged from the hull. "We've got to be careful! The storm—"

Rain was pelting both of us as Iroh stopped and knelt down in front of me. He put both hands on my shoulders and looked me dead in the eye. Water poured in rivers down his planed face, running off his square chin and dropped to the metal floor where water was already starting to stand. "This isn't my first storm, Huo. We'll be fine." He was yelling in order to be heard above the tumultuous pounding of thunder and water against a metal hull. "I need you to secure the lifelines. Can you do that for me?"

Lifelines of the men on deck. "Yes, sir!" I pulled away from him and ran to the rope and chain that was hung up on pegs all along the main enclosure of the ship. I made sure each of them were knotted exactly how Zargo had shown me the first few weeks of setting sail and then ran and found as many men on board as I could.

Li was just rappelling down from securing the sails when the first big wave hit. I threw his lifeline to him just in time for him to wrap it around his waist and tie it before he was washed overboard. Instead of flying off, he instead got wrapped around the mast and stayed there. His white smile was the only thing I could see in the dark, never-ending rain.

I managed to get a few more men their lines before I realized that I needed mine. I was running back to the main enclosure when I saw the biggest wave yet coming at me. I tried to yell. I tried to scream. Worse yet, I tried to grab someone to help me. I'd never been so scared in my life as the water clawed at me and pulled me against the railing of the ship. My head struck hard and I sucked in a mouthful of saltwater.

I couldn't breathe and I was panicking so much that I was just breathing in more water. I thought that I was going to die. No one would know who I actually was. No one would mourn me.

Then the water was gone. I was coughing up saltwater and dry heaving on the deck before I knew it. Iroh was there, holding me, wrapping a rope around my waist. "It's okay," he said loud enough in my ear for me to hear, grasping my hair and making me look at him. The salt water stung my eyes and I could barely see him through the pelting rain. He wiped my soaked hair out of my face and hugged me tightly. "You're safe."

I clung to him and thought about crying for only a moment. Instead, I shivered. I clenched his shirt and just shivered and tried not to think.

That was when the next wave hit.

Iroh was wrenched from my arms. My entire body was freezing. The black hole of the sea's abyss was swallowing me alive. When I surfaced, I saw that I was overboard and more waves were coming towards me. Iroh...he was nowhere to be found. It'd only been a minute, but Iroh couldn't have gotten that far. I was tethered...he wasn't. I tugged on my lifeline and made sure that it wouldn't come loose. No one had noticed that their general had fallen overboard. No one.

Just like no one would mourn me if I died in the ocean that day.

Don't think like that! I thought as I surfaced and called out Iroh's name. The water was so choppy that even I, an experienced swimmer, was having a hard time staying afloat. Iroh never went swimming with the crew. I didn't even know if he could swim.

I didn't hear anything. I went under water and sent out a pulse of heat that somewhat lit the water. My eyes burned from the salt but I didn't care. I couldn't see anything, so it was a waste. I tried to use my inner heat to find his, like he'd taught me. Human bodies gave off a certain heat signature and if I could lock onto his...

I found him less than fifty yards ahead of me. I shot flames from my feet to speed me up even a little, not that it helped in water. My arms ached, my eyes were full of salt water, and I could hardly breathe. I kept swallowing too much water. I was scared out of my mind and freezing. I wasn't advanced enough to learn how to use my inner heat to warm my entire body.

I saw him, then. Lightening cracked the sky and I saw his body floating face-up. I swam faster, trying to reach him, trying to save him...!

My rope became taught. I cried out in pain as it squeezed around my midsection and started to pull me back, at the same time pulling me under the water. My lungs burned as I fought to move back to the surface.

I'm going to die out here, I thought as I struggled. Alone. That depressing thought made me want to just give up and let go. But then I remembered that Iroh was out there, alone, and my sole purpose on the ship was to make sure that he was never alone.

I grabbed my rope and burned it. I knew that I needed it to get back, but I especially needed to be able to get Iroh. I tried to hurry towards his body. There was still a chance that I would be able to find the rope again. Slim, but a chance.

My hand wrapped around Iroh's wrist and I pulled him towards me. He weighed so much more than me though and as it was I could hardly support myself. "Iroh!" His weight and the storm pushed me under. I resurfaced and sputtered, not able to get enough air. I hit him on the back as hard as I could. "Iroh!"

He became somewhat conscious. He looked at me and his legs started kicking. "Little Fox? What...?"

It felt like my chest was being crushed under all the panic. My throat was tight and tears were streaming down my face. I just said, "Now's not the time. Help me keep us afloat or we'll both die!"

He kicked harder. He was helping if just a little bit. I started steering us in the direction I left the rope. I could hardly sense the ship's heat source with how exhausted I was, but, thank Agni, it was there. I put my free arm out behind me and bent a gout of flame as we crested a wave, which pushed us a good twenty yards back in the right direction. My foot hit something.

The rope! I let go of Iroh for only a second so that I could grab the rope. When I resurfaced with it, I couldn't see him anymore. "Iroh!"

He surfaced and gasped, reaching out blindly for help. He pulled me under with his panic. I kicked and hit, trying to get him to see that we were going to be fine. But a panic like drowning doesn't let you see "fine." All you see is imminent death.

I was able to breach the surface long enough to hit Iroh in the back of the neck, immobilizing him. I tied the rope around the both of us and started pulling. Luckily, Iroh floated. My arms ached and burned but I still pulled. How has no one seen this rope yet? I wondered. Why hasn't anyone tried to pull us up?

There was no one who would know who I was. I looked at Iroh's confused, half-dead face and my heart just hurt. "My name isn't Lu Huo," I said quickly, gasping as I was pulled under and I swallowed more salt water. I resurfaced and coughed, sputtering as we were knocked against the side of the ship. "My real name is Bujing Huo! I'm a woman! I'm a girl!" Please, please, Agni, don't let me die. I can't...not like this...

Just as my arms started giving out, I felt a tug on the rope.

A few tears of relief poured down my face. I just helped keep Iroh's head above water and listened for his breathing—breathing? Iroh, why aren't you breathing? I didn't hit you that hard! "Iroh, stay with me!"

We were being pulled vertically, up the side of the ship at that point. The rope left a nasty burn on my waist but I didn't care. The second we hit the deck, I had Iroh on his back. I tilted his head up and leaned down to give him the kiss of life. Three breaths. Then, compressions. I sat up and started pushing on his sternum, trying to get his heart to beat and his lungs to breathe.

Crewmen surrounded us. They tried to help but I pushed them all away. You can't die on me, Iroh. I just saved your life. Wake up! You can't leave me, too, I'll be all alone... My thoughts turned into garbled words as I compressed his chest for the third round of CPR. "Please, Iroh, you're so strong, don't leave me, don't..." I banged my fist on his chest and cried, "Damn you, wake up!"

He coughed and spewed out salt water on the metal floor next to me. I just grabbed his head and pulled it onto my lap, hugging him like that and never letting him go. "Little Fox?" he asked in a raspy voice.

I shook my head and couldn't answer him. It took three officers to pry me away from him. It took another four to put Iroh onto a gurney and wheel him inside. I was standing all alone out in the rain, surrounded by dozens of crew members who were incredibly confused.

That was when I realized that they didn't have orders. I looked up to the clearing sky and then to the men around me. I have no clue what I'm doing. I don't... But I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to keep calm. Now isn't the time for another panic attack. These men need me. When I opened my eyes, I said, "Set a course for the eye of the storm. We need to get the ship to safety."

At first I didn't think that they would do as I said. It surprised me that they all nodded and went to work in their stations. I felt the ship change course beneath me as the order was carried throughout the ship. My first order... I didn't feel like celebrating.

Rather, I pushed my way through the hoard of men and set a course for the medical ward. If Iroh wasn't there, he would be in his room, privately consulting with the doctor. I didn't care if they needed privacy. I needed to make sure that Iroh was alright. I can't lose him, too.

He wasn't in the medical ward, so I made my way to his room. It was too quiet. I peeked open the door and looked in to see that Hamin was at Iroh's bedside with Kojo's dad. (I always forgot his name, he was just "Kojo's dad" to me.) Iroh was sitting up. He was speaking, albeit with a raspy tone, to both men. And then he saw me.

He sat up straighter. My mind flashed to the confession I'd shouted above the storm when I'd thought we'd been dying. "Huo. Come in."

Hamin gave me a disparaging look, but that was normal. The doctor just looked relieved. I walked in, still soaking wet and shivering, and was greeted by a warm blanket being wrapped around my shoulders. They directed me to sit on the edge of Iroh's bed.

The general grasped my hand and held it between both of his much larger palms. He looked me dead in the eye with a fever that I'd never seen before gracing his features. "Huo...you saved my life." I wanted to say something witty. Maybe something modest. But all I felt was tired. I nodded and wrapped the blankets tighter around my body. "I always knew that there was something special about you. Incredibly stupid as well, but mostly special. You dove into a storming ocean to save me. For that...you have my gratitude and my trust."

I'd always thought that I'd had his trust, but I was glad to know that I especially had it, then. I only felt guilty for a moment about lying. Then I realized that it didn't matter. Iroh trusted Huo, whether that be "Little Fox" Huo or Huo the ship's boy. I'd saved his life that day with my meager resuscitation skills. I'd braved diving out into the storm-ridden waters to save him.

I'd told him who I really was even if he didn't remember it.

"Go and get some sleep, Huo," he said softly as he leaned forward and gave me a bow of respect—as much as he could while sitting up in bed.. My heart clenched. I managed to leave the room before the tears fell and the shock hit. I was alive, but my panic attack didn't want to believe it, yet. I rode it out. I changed and went to my bunk.

I slept for a very long time.