Kyoshi was the last solid lead Zuko had for a while. He heard rumors of the Avatar's activities from various sources, but he was always too late. They criss-crossed around the Earth Kingdom, from Omashu, where the governor had reported seeing the Avatar, to a small Earth Kingdom town, and finally out to a prison derrick in the middle of the ocean. The place was wrecked from whatever battle happened there, but the only solid proof they had that it was the Avatar was a Water Tribe necklace that belonged to Katara.

All in all, it was doing nothing for Zuko's temper. Asuni mostly stayed out of his way as he stomped through the ship, angrily shouting orders and demanding answers. Privately, she thought that the crew would be more willing to help if Zuko was a bit less harsh with them, but she daren't say anything, not with him worked up like this. She did her part by making his favorites for meals and hoping for the best.

Asuni was relatively surprised when Zhu appeared down in the kitchen, looking decidedly nervous.

"Zhu?" she asked curiously, turning away from the night's soup to face the soldier. He was fiddling with his fingers and biting his lip, clearly upset by something. "Is something wrong?"

"The prince…" he began hesitantly.

Immediately, Asuni turned her full attention to him. "What about the prince?" she asked, eyes focusing on him intently.

"He's ordered your presence on the deck," Zhu explained. "He wants to… to spar."

Asuni raised an eyebrow. While it didn't happen often, it wasn't completely unheard of. Iroh encouraged the sparring between the two of them. It was always good to fight against someone who bent a different element, particularly one that was the natural opposite of your own. It built up endurance and pitted you against different techniques.

"Then why do you look like someone put fire ants in your pants?" Asuni asked.

"You can't go up there!" Zhu burst out. Asuni blinked.

"What? Why not?"

Zhu shook his head helplessly. "The prince has been angrier and angrier lately, and we haven't had a good lead in days. He's furious right now, and you know how he gets when he's angry."

Asuni did indeed know. When he was mad, the prince's sparring sessions were vicious. People had had to be fished out of the ocean before. Asuni herself had ended up turning the kitchen into an infirmary for a brief period after one particularly fiery fight, tending to the burns of five different soldiers who faced the prince.

What he lacked in finesse, Zuko overcompensated for with sheer brutality.

"He'll… he'll rip you apart," Zhu finished, looking at her beseechingly. "I could go tell him you're not feeling well."

"That'll just make him angrier," Asuni said, shaking her head. She turned and tugged a towel from the counter, wiping her hands clean. "He'll come down here to fetch me himself, and then I'll be in an enclosed space with limited access to water. If he's going to use me as a punching bag, I'd rather have an escape route."

"You can't-"

"The prince has requested my presence, Zhu," Asuni said sharply, placing the towel back on the counter. "I will, of course, go to him."

Zhu gaped at her, but Asuni stood in front of him, her chin lifted and her stance loose and relaxed. His shoulders slumped and he sighed.

"Very well."

"This should be interesting," Asuni murmured to herself as she moved past Zhu and out the door, flexing her fingers and rolling her limbs as she walked, warming up as best she could.

When she got to the deck, she wasn't surprised to see a few crew members standing aside and looking uncomfortable as they cast the prince nervous glances. Iroh sat at his usual small table by the railing, but even he looked uncharacteristically grim. The biggest cue she had to be worried was that he had an untouched tea cup in front of him. The tea had gone cold.

Zuko himself was pacing the length of the deck in agitation. Coils of smoke drifted from his clenched fists, showing his agitation. His face was twisted into a snarl of rage.

"Prince Zuko, you wanted to see me?" Asuni said, tensing slightly as he turned to face her, that vicious look still on his face. "Zhu said you wanted to spar."

There was no confirmation from the prince, only a fireball directed towards her head. Asuni's eyes widened and she instinctively let her knees go weak, dropping under the blast. Her head lifted and she looked at the prince in surprise.

She didn't have any time to wonder about the sudden ferocity. Asuni scrambled back to her feet, another fireball heading to her stomach. She crouched slightly and pushed off, leaping into the air and flipping over the fireball.

Asuni hit the ground in a crouch, her hair falling out of her bun and around her face. She cursed it. She'd been prepared for a day of wandering around the ship, not a true fight. Now she'd have to deal with it blocking her vision in what was quickly turning towards a true fight, not just a spar.

Asuni reached out her arms and the water came to her over the sides of the ship. She raised her arms and the water rose into a wall in front of her. The next fireball pounded into it, reducing it to steam. Asuni didn't bother removing the mist. She used it to her advantage, thickening it in front of Zuko and trying to give herself time to get her bearings.

Zuko didn't allow her that though. He leapt out of the top of the mist and swung into a powerful spinning kick, fire trailing from his foot. Asuni, who had been trying to slip around him into a new position, was forced to quickly draw the water back together in front of her. Again, the fire reduced her shield to steam, but this time it was followed up with a second attack.

Asuni dodged the first strike and had to throw herself out of the way of the second. She slid along the wet deck, dragging the water along after her. It coiled up to her and lashed out at her direction, shooting towards Zuko. Zuko dodged to the side and sent a stream of fire towards her.

Asuni made a truly desperate move, pulling the water back towards her, but there wasn't time to shape it into a true shield. The two elements met in a messy collision of steam and sparks, and Asuni managed to get to her feet.

She could not let him throw anything else at her. His fire was evaporating her water. Now she needed to use ice, and her preferred tactic with ice was best used up close. Asuni pulled the water into icy daggers around her fingertips. She shot forwards, feet splashing in the stray puddle as she blatantly charged the prince.

Zuko leaned under her first attack, surprised as she swung her clawed nails for his throat. The other hand came in a second later and he had to lean forwards to move his stomach out of the way. He punched and Asuni raised her arm, blocking the hit. She quickly reversed her grip, her hands vice-like on his wrist.

Zuko used his free hand, intending to punch her straight in the nose. Asuni caught his other wrist in her own, locking them hand to hand. That by no means stopped the fight. Zuko raised his right knee towards her stomach. Asuni lifted her left leg and wrapped it around his leg, balancing on her right leg as she locked his.

With a great wrench of her body, Asuni jerked herself up and around. Her knee and lower thigh cracked against the back of his head. As Zuko staggered forwards, Asuni released her grip on him and spun free, dropping into a crouch with one leg extended. She didn't waste time, darting to the right and heading for the railing.

If she could get out into open water she'd be out of Zuko's physical reach. They could trade water whips and fireballs until he wore himself out and got tired of the pointless fight. She'd be out of danger.

And she really was in danger, Asuni realized. Zuko's temper had reached boiling point. It had been too long since he'd had any relief to his desperate search, and his stress and anger were like the pressure in a pot. He was finally boiling over, and she was his unlucky target.

Asuni leaped, trying to get over the railing. She didn't realize that Zuko had recovered just a second faster than she anticipated. A fireball came towards her just as she jumped. The crew all shouted in warning, but for a moment it looked like Asuni would manage to make it through the tiny space between the railing and the fireball.

But she didn't. The fire grazed across her back and they heard Asuni yell in pain just before she dropped out of sight. Immediately the crew rushed to the railing. Ripples marked the spot where she'd gone in, but they couldn't see her.

Iroh stared at his nephew. He was the only one not staring out over the ocean for Asuni's return. He was the only one that saw Zuko's jaw drop open and the expression of horror cross his face. He was the only one who heard him murmur faintly, "I thought… I thought she… would dodge…"

When Asuni felt the searing heat across her back, she thought that wasn't so bad. Surprising, but she could deal with the pain. It was only a glancing blow after all, not a direct hit. It could have been worse…

Then she hit the salty ocean water and her back exploded in pain. Asuni foolishly opened her mouth and tried to scream, but water immediately filled her mouth, choking her despite her efforts to clear her mouth. The pain made her vision flicker, she couldn't breathe, she was sinking…

Asuni shoved her hand down and forced herself from the water. She arced through the air and hit the metal deck with a bone-jarring thud, the pain in her back flaring again. She bit her lip against the pain, refusing to cry out or let any tears fall.

"Give her some room!"

Iroh forced back the soldiers who had surrounded her worriedly when she finally emerged. Asuni lay face down on the deck, sopping and shaking. The skin of her exposed back was pink and red, already swelling slightly.

"Slowly, slowly," Iroh advised, reaching out. He entirely avoided her back and grabbed her upper arms gently, guiding her to her feet. Asuni stood up slowly, wincing with every movement as her back shifted. The crew gathered closer again, concerned.

"You should heal that," Iroh advised, nodding to her back.

Asuni nodded to him. "Of course."

Her back was searing with pain, and she was about three seconds from crying in front the entire crew, a decorated general, and the prince of the Fire Nation. She knew she should have hated him for doing this to her, but form the corner of her eye, she could see his expression.

Someone who hadn't made a point of learning the minutia of the prince's face wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between this annoyed face and his usual annoyed face. She, however, could see that he was several shades paler. The skin around his mouth and eyes had tightened, and despite the anger in the rest of his features, his eyes were pure regret.

So Asuni turned and made herself ignore the pain in her back as she raised her hands and bowed deeply.

"Thank you for the spar, prince Zuko," she said, before straightening up and turning and walking from the deck back to the kitchen. Everyone gaped after her.

"Zuko!"

The prince turned to face Iroh when he barked out his name. The crew quickly backed away as Iroh stalked forwards. The general was old, pudgy, and past his prime, but they could see the energy that had made him a world-famous general in his day.

Iroh grabbed Zuko by the arm and pulled him down into the ship. When they were away from the crew, Iroh turned and asked with surprising calmness, "What happened?"

Zuko licked his dry lips. "I thought she…"

"You thought she would dodge?" Iroh guessed. Zuko nodded dumbly. Iroh sighed and shook his head.

"Zuko, what were you thinking?"

Zuko's stomach clenched. Perhaps it would have been better if Iroh had shouted and raged at him. This disappointment, this was worse than anything else Iroh could have done. It was in his eyes and his tone, and it washed over him like a wave of fire, burning him with humiliation.

Once again, he had failed.

"You were sparring," Iroh continued. "What were you thinking, using blasts that strong and that hot?"

"I wasn't-"

"Exactly, you weren't thinking. Zuko, I understand. You have more cause than anyone else to be angry at your situation, but you cannot let it influence you like this! Because of your rage, a girl who has never done anything to you, who is totally devoted to you, has been burned for doing nothing but what she thought was her duty. Perhaps you understand what that's like?"

Zuko physically flinched at the reminder, his hand jumping up to the scar over his eye. The most horrifying part of it was, Iroh wasn't wrong. Had he done what his father had? Had he really inflicted that on someone else? The realization was like a punch in the gut.

What my father did to me… I did to someone else.

Iroh nodded, seeing the expression on his nephew's face. "Go," he urged. "Apologize. Asuni is not unreasonable."

"I…"

Zuko turned on his heel and headed for the kitchen.

Asuni sat in one of the chairs by the table, her legs spread so that she could straddle the seat backwards, a bowl of water held between her thighs. Her shirt had been chucked onto the table - it was burned beyond use now - so she was only wearing her breast bindings on top. With both hands, she directed the water to pool on her back over the burn, sighing when the anticipated relief set in.

She lowered her head to rest on the back of the chair and closed her eyes, sighing as she continued to heal. The burn wasn't bad. The fire had only grazed her, after all. The problem had been when she hit the water and salt got in the wound. That was what made the pain rage to life.

Asuni let the water fall back into the bowl and straightened up slowly. She took deep breaths, rolling her shoulders and twisting to the left, right, and back, testing to make sure she had full range of motion. There was only a slight twinge of pain when she bent back, but Asuni marked that down to the fact that she hadn't stretched in a few days.

She stood up from the chair and left the bowl on the table before moving back to the stove to tend to her soup. She stirred slowly, contemplatively.

Sure, she'd known that she was well-thought of on the ship, but she was fairly surprised at how violently everyone on the ship reacted to her burn. Her inner cynic chalked it down to the fact that she was a girl, and not a trained soldier, besides. In reality, she knew it was just that they cared about her. They had no way of knowing that she'd had far worse before, and that in terms of her injuries, this was barely a blip on the radar.

Asuni winced as she recalled the time she'd very foolishly asked Lo Shen to spar with her. Merciful, he was not. He'd ruthlessly beaten her down, then turned it into a cautionary lesson. Don't get cocky. Even an amateur can land a lucky hit. Evaluate your opponent and think carefully on whether or not you can take them before initiating a fight.

What really surprised her was the fury with which Zuko fought. She knew he was angry and had a hair-trigger these days, but that… She wasn't used to such displays of pure rage in her fighting. She was used to traditional spars. Dirty tricks were only used to teach lessons, and punches were pulled so that no one came away irreparably maimed.

Asuni supposed this was a teaching moment though. She might have to fight someone that angry again one day, and they certainly wouldn't pull their punches. At least now she wouldn't be surprised by the ferocity.

A fight like that also pointed out to her how relaxed she'd become. She had no real challenges when it came to fighting anymore, and she'd become a bit lax in her nightly workouts. She'd need to work harder to stay on top and not let herself become complacent. Maybe she'd send a message to Hikari and ask for advice. The woman was the closest thing to a direct mentor Asuni had in the Royal Guards…

The door behind her opened and Asuni paused in her stirring. Someone lingered in the doorway, and she felt eyes piercing her lower back where the burn used to be.

Zuko was relieved to see that Asuni had already healed herself. He also realized he was relieved to see there wasn't a trace of the burn on her back, so he wouldn't have to be reminded of what he'd done when he looked at her. He was surprised that she was already up and back to her duties. He was also surprised by the faint white lines that seemed to cover her back, shoulder, and arms; old scars that had been healed long ago.

"You don't have to do that," he said shortly, then winced at how stern he sounded. He was supposed to be apologizing. "You can… take the rest of the night off. And... and tomorrow."

Was that enough time? How much time off was appropriate after wounding an employee? Did it change because she had healed herself?

"There's no point in that," Asuni said, turning to look over her shoulder.

She blinked in surprise. Zuko stood in the doorway, a metal rod seemingly welded to his spine. His fists were clenched at his sides and he was pointedly staring at a space just above her head.

"Are you okay?" she asked, completely confused by his stiffness. Sure, she knew he didn't like apologizing, but this was a bit… much. She'd learned to speak Zuko over the years. All he had to do was give her the time off and she would have understood that it was his version of an apology, but he seemed to have more to say.

"I wanted to… to apologize. I was… to harsh on you, and… it got out offhand. I'm… sorry."

It sounded like every word was as painful as pulling teeth, but Asuni's eyes grew bigger with each one. An actual apology from Zuko. The words 'sorry' and 'apologize' actually came out of him. Agni, he must feel terrible! She'd noticed he felt bad, but she hadn't realized he felt this bad!

"I will understand if you want to transfer off of the ship and back to the capital-"

Asuni burst out laughing. Zuko looked at her incredulously. Shame flushed his face and he leaned forwards, snapping, "Why are you laughing?"

"S-Sorry, my prince," Asuni stammered, forcing her laughter to stop. "I'm not laughing at you, r-really. Well, I sort of am, but… Why in Agni's name would I want to transfer?"

Now Zuko was back on his heels. "But I hurt-"

Asuni waved a hand at him absently. "You've hurt me sparring before, and I've been hurt worse than that. I work in a kitchen, prince, that was hardly the first time I've been burned, or the worst I've ever been burned. See?" She twisted around so that he could see her back. "Not even a scar. It healed very easily, too. It's not like you maimed me or anything."

Zuko stared at her. Asuni rolled her eyes and turned back to her soup. He couldn't believe she was taking this so lightly! He'd physically wounded her! He'd hurt her to the point where she nearly cried, he'd seen it on her face.

"But you were near tears…"

Asuni winced, flushing with shame. She'd nearly cried in front of the person she was supposed to protect with her life, that was what she hated most about the situation. "Ah, you noticed? That was all my fault. The salt hurt, and I'm the one that jumped ship. That was all on me."

Asuni couldn't believe he was taking this so seriously. Granted, just like the crew, he couldn't know that she'd had bones broken in spars and still kept fighting. But still, she'd healed it and gone on about her day. There was no lasting damage, it was all over.

Sure, she was a bit miffed that he let his temper get away from him, but she could understand why. The pressure he had on his shoulders was enormous. After such a long search without hope he'd finally gotten solid proof that his hope was achievable, only to have his prize dancing along ahead of him, just beyond arm's reach. That had to hurt. It was enough to make anyone a little crazy.

Asuni thought for a moment. Really, there was very little she personally wouldn't forgive him for. Unless he willfully and happily started going around committing atrocities, she figured she was okay. In the Royal Guard she was trained to understand that sometimes keeping the mission going hurt people. She had no scruples about stealing to keep herself or the prince alive, and very few about killing.

Perhaps it wasn't the healthiest way to think, but it was necessary. Someone had to be there to make the tough calls, to make sure that the Fire Nation got what was best for it. That was why they existed.

Asuni turned to face the prince fully. "My prince, I'm not angry with you. I'm not even slightly miffed," she added with a little chuckle.

Zuko's jaw loosened, but almost immediately he was back to his normal, snappy self.

"You should still be resting," he barked, before turning and leaving, slamming the door behind him.