Several more days had passed since the intrusion at the tea shop. The fat man and his posse hadn't shown up to bother anyone and Zuko was finally beginning to think that things would start to get back to normal. Today was his day off, finaly! Zuko needed a break from the chaos and stress of working. He wasn't used to this kind of labor, in his youth as a prince he would just lounge about and enjoy the day. He never even had to bother with dressing himself, he had servants to do that for him. Now he had been stripped of everything and it was taking a while to get used to it.

Zuko had decided to walk about the town for a bit, go and get some fresh air for once. Well it was actually more of Uncle Iroh's decision than Zuko's, His uncle had been sick of him just brooding around their miniscule apartment and demanded Zuko leave and just go do something, go make some friends.

The only thing was that there was absolutely nothing to do!!! This side of town was so dull, the only thing on the streets were merchants begging for any bit of business. Zuko almost had to fight off an old woman trying to sell him a ceramic dog that was said to bring good luck. The sight was truly pathetic.

Zuko continued to walk down the dirt road throughout the city. The city was so large that you could be walking for days and still be in Ba Sing Se. Zuko turned left and walked down that street instead. This street was full of children running about screaming for their mothers. He guessed that their must have been a school or something nearby and sure enough there was a small play ground next to a building where little boys and girl were learning about Earth Kingdom History.

Zuko continued to walk along, paying no attention to how far he had gone. Zuko wasn't even sure which direction to go to get back to the tea shop. He was constantly taking turns on the street and thinking about his life. Like he always did

Zuko became so lost in thought that once again he was not paying attention to his surroundings and once again did not notice the figure running towards him quickly. And just like the 7 days before, the figure of a young woman collided with Zuko and they both fell to the ground once more.

Sai felt a bit light headed as she got up from the ground. She seemed to be okay with the exception of the pain in her wrist. The thing she ran into must have hurt it somehow. She really needed to start looking where she was going from now on. As she tenderly held her wrist she completlely forgot about the thing she was sitting on, until it moaned.

Sai looked down to see a familiar pair of golden eyes and the familiar scar that haunted her memories. It was Lee!!!

Lee just layed there staring at her with an astonished expression on his face. It really wasn't helping that Sai was straddling his waist and he could feel her pressing on his abdomen. Sai just stared back, cradling her wrist and not noticing their provocative position. It wasn't until the two heard the screaming of profanities that they broke their stare and looked back towards an elderly man holding cabbages and screaming in their direction.

Actually, there were cabbages shrewn about all over the place. The man who was yelling was surrounded by the rotten vegetables that had aparantly fallen out of the cart that was now tipped over.

Sai laughed a bit and turned back to zuko "interesting how we always seem to meet up like this, huh?"

Zuko would have laughed as well if it wasn't for the Earth Kingdom soldiers that were headed towards the frantic cabbage man. Both Zuko and Sai scrambled off the ground quickly fearing the worst. The Cabbage man pointed directly at them and Sai grabbed zuko's arm with her good hand and they were off running.

"Hey there! Stop" the Earth Kingdom soldiers were after them scrambling through the crowd of pedestrians after them.

Zuko and Sai ran as fast as they could. Just as they had done a week earlier. They dodged past the merchants on the streets. Zuko tried to slow down the soldiers by knocking over crates and turning over barrels in the middle of the street. Sai laughed as the soildirs fell over each other on the barrels. Zuko and Sai rounded a corner and stopped to catch their breath for a moment. Zuko was keeled over resting his hands on his knees and struggling to catch his breath. Sai had straightened up and paused for a moment. Zuko looked up to her face and she looked back at him. A smile tore across her face and she burst out laughing. Zuko's firm lips that hadn't smiled since he became a fugitive finaly broke into a grin. She leaned against the wall still laughing. She still laughed even as the guards rouned the corner and continued their chase after them.

"O shit!" Sai craked before both she and Zuko darted off once again. They weaved in and out of the crowded streets with the guards not to far behind them. Dispite their serious situation Sai still had a smile plastered on her face as she ran knocking things over as she did so. Zuko was baffled at her ability to find humor in this situation. They were running for their lives and she thought it was funny!

Zuko began to accelerate but was jerked to a stop by Sai's hand who had pulled him into a small allyway like she had done when he had been on the run from the 3 men whom he had confronted.

She pulled him in and hid them behind a stack of crates as she watched for the guards to pass. They ran by quickly shouting down the streets ordering people out of their way and stumbling over the barrel Zuko had knocked over before he was pulled into the ally.

Sai giggled quietly and turned her smiling face to Zuko. She was breathing heavily as was Zuko. She starred into his gold eyes suddenly becoming aware that their bodies were matted together from the cramped space they were hiding in. Zuko backed out from the space when he felt her chest heaving against him.

"Hi" was all she could say

Zuko didn't say anything. He was still trying to tame his racing breath.

Sai moved from her corner behind the crates as well and as she did so accedentaly hit her hand on one of them. She sucked in her breath sharply as the pain that she had ignored for the sake of their chase became evident. She grasped her wrist tenderly trying to ease the burning feeling.

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked, concerned about her condition.

Sai looked up "yea….I just hurt my wrist a bit when I ran into you. You have a very hard body"

Zuko fought the blush that tried to creep onto his face. He appologized quickly and stared at the ground trying his hardest to ignore the comment that she had just made.

"Why are you sorry, it wasn't your fault" Sai giggled and then made a remark about how she really needed to watch where she was going more often.

She walked past the bewildered prince and peeked her head around her corner of the ally to see if the guards were out of sight then proceeded out to the open.

She then turned to Zuko with another smile on her face. "Funny how we always end up meeting up like this, huh, Lee?"

"You already said that"

"I did?"

Zuko nodded.

Sai made and o with her mouth and they stood there for another akeward moment as Sai examined her wrist, looking at it from all angles and trying to hide the pain on her face from Zuko.

Zuko noticed and held out his hand to her. "here let me see it" he grumbed

Reluctantly she gave him her hand when he assured her he wouldn't hurt it.

Both Zuko and Sai had found a set of stairs to sit on for Zuko to doctor her wrist up. He completely ignored the loud confusion of the merchants and pedestrians passing by as he devoted all his attention to examining the girl.

Zuko felt the way up her wrist, gently sqeezing.

"Does this hurt?"

Sai shook her head no, then suddenly winced when he tried to move her wrist up and down.

"How abut that?"

"O, a little bit…" she responded in a sarcastic tone

Zuko didn't laugh as he continued to check her for any damages. It was times like this when he was happy for all his training in the military. The men on his ship were constantly getting bruised, scarred, and hurt. Including Zuko.

Sai was amazed at how gently he handled her hand. His skin was very rough, but very warm. Even the palms of his hands were dry and they contrasted sharply against her smooth, even skin. He ran his hands up and down her forearm checking for any breaks not knowing that it sent slight chills down the length of her body.

"Well it doesn't seem to be broken…" Zuko finally said after a while

Sai nodded. That was good news

"But it is sprained, you had better go get it wrapped"

Sai looked at him with a curious look "where?"

"I don't know, a doctor I guess"

"But I don't know any"

Zuko sighed heavily and rubbed the side of his face with one hand, he supposed his uncle could have a look at it. Zuko really didn't want his Uncle bothering him about the girl but Zuko supposed he had no choice. It was either help the girl or let her suffer.

"I suppose you could come back with me and have my Uncle look at it for you"

Sai smiled again and thanked him. God, she had such a pretty smile.

It was still early in the evening when Zuko and Sai had made it to the tea shop. Zuko hadn't realized how far away he had run off to with the girl until they tried to walk back. On the way back they had gotten lost several times and made more than 4 or 5 wrong turns trying to find which way to go. It only made the 'adventure', as Sai had called it, that much more exciting and humorous. Sai eventually decided that Zuko was terrible with directions and asked a friendly woman passing by to point them in the right direction.

The time they had spent lost together gave them another opportunity to catch up. Just like last time Zuko didn't want anything to do with her or her questions about him but he gave in to her charm eventually and soon began to talk. But only a little.

"What were you doing all the way on the east side?" Sai asked

Zuko was reluctant to answer that question. He didn't want to admit to her that he was lost when she had run into him.

"I was shopping" he eventually said

"Shopping?"

"Yes"

"Really…what for"

"Tea pots"

"But you hate tea"

Zuko was surprised she remembered that tiny detail from their previous meeting. "So?"

"Why would you buy tea pots if you hate tea"

"It was a present"
"For who"

"My uncle"

Sai gave Zuko a disbelieving stare. And when he questioned her she just rolled her eyes at him.

"What do you want from me!!! Why is it so weird to you that I would buy a present for my uncle!!!" Zuko was heated now.

Sai just ignored his little outburst and kept walking in silence until he couldn't take the silent treatment any more.

"Alright!" he finally admitted "I was walking and got lost"

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" she laughed. She did that a lot. She was a very cheerful and positive person.

Zuko averted his gaze from her smile and focused on his feet as he walked. "I don't know."

"Well, it's a pretty big city" sai replied "I mean its understandable that YOU would get lost, you are terrible with directions!"

Zuko turned to her still a little bit livid from his previous outburst "Well what were you doing? I mean do you always have people chasing after you when you go out?!"

Sai laughed again. "I guess I'm just unlucky" she admitted then continued her giggling before she told him what occurred. "No, what happened was the man's crate broke and I was the nearest one by it so he automatically blamed me" she then paused "because of what I am"

Zuko noted her joyful flare leaving her as she explained herself to him. It must be hard for her to be in the position she was in. To be cursed by everyone and labeled as a thief and beggar, even if she was innocent.

She shook off he unhappy feeling and continued to pester Zuko with questions. She asked him about his uncle this time and what was he like, since he would be tending her wound. Zuko tried to put his Uncle's personality into words the best he could but eventually just told Sai that she would find out for herself.

Iroh was still serving customers when they had walked in. Zuko pointed him out as he led Sai towards the back of the shop to wait.

Iroh looked up when Zuko passed by "Ah Lee, how are you doing?". Iroh then noticed the shorter slender figure walking next to his nephew. It was a young girl about his nephews age. Iroh smiled "and who is your friend"

This is what Zuko had feared would happen. "Uncle this is Sai" Zuko grumbled

Sai smiled and gave a short bow

"Sai, This is my Uncle…Mushi" Uncle Iroh held out a hand and Sai gladly shook it

"Its very nice to meet you Sai" Iroh was smiling all over, he was so happy his nephew had finally made a friend in town. And it was a girl too! Double bonus! Hopefully this young woman would help change his hard-headed nephews disposition on life.

Sai smiled at the old man. "Its very nice to meet you Mr. Mushi". The way Lee had described him on the way to the tea shop made him seem like a raving lunatic, but he was a very kind and gentle man. Sai could see a lot of his uncle in Lee. Beneath the hard and tough front Lee put up he was a nice guy.

Eager to end his uncle's friendliness towards the girl he quickly explained why they were here. "She hurt her wrist and needs to get it fixed"

Iroh smiled inwardly. "Well, I would love to, but as you can see I am quite busy with the customers" he appologized to Sai then turned to his nephew who stood behind Sai. "Why don't you go help her, Lee?" Zuko's eyes grew wide and he silently made a no gesture with his hands. The last thing he wanted to do was be alone with this girl. He didn't think he could stand it. Who knows what would happen!!!

Zuko quickly stoped his gesturing when Sai turned around to him "would you mind?" she asked with an innocent look in her brown eyes

Zuko sighed and walked past her to the back of the shop, Sai followed. They got to the back of the shop and Zuko had Sai sit at the small table while he went to get the stuff he needed to wrap her wrist. She sat quietly and waited patiently.

Sai could tell that Lee didn't want to do this and she could have sworn that she had seen Lee signal his uncle NO WAY when asked if he would help her. He just didn't want her around very much.

Was she annoying. She knew she was a very uppity kind of person. But it never seemed to bother anybody, people actually liked her because she had such a cheerful disposition. Lee was the only one it seemed to bother. Sai decided to not say anything for the rest of the night.

Mushi had come in and gave her a shawl to wrap herself up in. It was getting late and quite cold. After Mr. Mushi left, Lee came in with a small box and sat down across from her. He held out his hand and Sai place her hand in his. He went to work on her carefully rubbing a soothing lotion on her wrist and then wrapping her wrist up in the tan cloth.

Zuko wondered why she wasn't saying anything. She just sat there…watching. "please say something" zuko silently begged.

It didn't take as long as she thought it would and as soon as he was done Sai got up to leave. She didn't even thank him as she made her way for the door.

She passed Mr. Mushi on her way out. "Sai would you like a cup of tea?" He asked politely.

"No thank you, but thanks for asking though. It was nice to meet you Mr. Mushi"

Then she was gone. Zuko was leaning on the counter. He followed her when she had gotten up so swiftly. At first he thought he hurt her when wrapping up her hand, but she didn't say anything. She just left. If truth be told, Zuko had actually hoped she would have accepted his uncles invitation for tea and stayed. He had secretly hoped to get another kiss from her that night but he wouldn't even admit that to himself.

Zuko left the tea shop, not wanting to endure his Uncle's questions about the girl. She wasn't anything special, just a girl. It was just a coincidence that he had met her again today, but he knew it was a lie. He wouldn't admit it, but it was true that he was attracted to her.

He liked the way she smiled all the time and the way she talked to him. Zuko liked her voice and her ability to get him to talk. She was the first person he had opened up to other than his uncle. And he had only known her for a week and only seen her twice. What the Hell was going on! Zuko kept on telling himself that the only reason he was attracted to her was because he hadn't been with a girl in so long, but that only got Zuko thinking about her even more, and about the fact that he would probably never see her again.

Zuko cursed himself and let out and aggravated breath. He needed to unwind. So once he made it to his apartment, Zuko took the money he had been saving for emergencies only and went to the nearest red light district to ease all of his frustrations.