Zuko wasn't the best when it came to emotions and serious conversations about them. He really hated apologies, and yet he seemed to be apologizing to Asuni a lot. And yes, he realized he'd been a bit out of line on the shore like that, berating her when all she'd done was try to protect him. The walk back to the docks had been incredibly awkward, Asuni practically radiating an oppressive rage that kept them all silent.

Zuko stared down at the captain's sword resting on his bed. He hadn't put it anywhere yet, simply because he wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Strictly speaking, Asuni shouldn't have presented it to him – or as much of a presentation as she'd given, anyway. The sword of a vanquished enemy was supposed to be presented by the leader of the attack – a military leader – to their lord.

Zuko turned away from the sword, which seemed to gleam at him accusingly, reminding him of the sharp scowl Asuni had been wearing since they got back to the ship. In a fit of annoyance, he swung his sheets up and over the blade, but the niggling reminder of it was still there.

With no other option open to him, Zuko turned and headed for the kitchen. Even from the hall outside with the door shut, he could hear pots and pans banging, which wasn't a good sign. Asuni was never particularly loud in the kitchen unless something had irked her.

But he'd come all the way down here…

Zuko opened the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. Asuni was at the counter chopping vegetables. Some apples and a chunk of fish lay nearby, waiting to be prepared. Knives for each rested on the counter and Zuko found himself swallowing against his will.

"Asuni," he greeted. She didn't react, just kept chopping. "I came down here to talk to you," he added, trying to hint that he'd like her to turn around.

"Thant's nice," Asuni replied coolly.

… Okay, so she clearly wasn't going to make this easy on him. Zuko paused, wondering quite how to start.

"Well?" Asuni demanded sharply. She knocked the vegetables into a pan on the stove and tossed the knife into the sink. "Talk." She grabbed the apples and another knife and began peeling them, the peels dropping into a bucket by her feet.

"I wanted to say that I… reacted badly by the river," Zuko replied stiffly. He drew himself up proudly. There, that sounded good.

But Asuni just snorted. "No kidding. You think so?" she asked sarcastically, moving on to cutting the apples into thin slices and laying them out in a baking dish.

"I could have handled him easily," Zuko tried to defend himself. "I didn't need your help."

"I don't recall ever saying you did," Asuni replied shortly, tossing that knife aside as well and picking up a small, wickedly-sharp blade to begin carving up the fish.

"Right, well… good," Zuko fumbled, not quite sure how to play off of that.

Asuni remained silent, but she did put the knife down, which made him feel a bit better. Her hands rested on the edge of the counter as she leaned over it. Just then, a horrible and infuriating thought occurred to him.

"Did you doubt my abilities?" he demanded.

Asuni spun around, and her blue eyes pinned him from across the kitchen. "I would never doubt you, my prince," she said sharply. "Never. But in the fight, in any fight, you might have been injured, no matter how mildly, and the Fire Nation needs you more than it needs a cook."

Her expression… he'd never seen that look on her face. He'd seen her smiling and laughing and happy all too often. He'd seen the softer expression on her face as she danced around the kitchen and sang lullabies while she cooked. He's seen her in pain, he'd seen her annoyed, and just recently, he learned what she looked like when she was truly furious.

Now her expression was unyielding. The smiles and chuckles were replaced by hard, unmoving features. Her cheeks were sucked in ever so slightly, showing off her prominent cheekbones even more. Her usually plump lips were pulled thin in her displeasure and her big blue eyes were half-lidded in annoyance.

Even her posture had shifted. Her back was ramrod straight, shoulders back, heels together. She stood with military precision, looking at him from under her brows. Her chin was raised fearlessly, unwaveringly, and he was honestly alarmed by how different she seemed.

The posture seemed to fit the words, but the words did not seem to fit Asuni. Her voice was brisk and business-like, a statement of fact instead of a teasing barb or a comforting whisper. Those words were the kind that a general promised his Fire Lord. They were the words of a warrior, not a simple cook.

But Asuni was quite obviously not a simple cook. She was a Waterbender, she was good in a fight. She knew about armor and she knew about military rituals like presenting swords. She hadn't wavered when Zhao backhanded her, she'd sat up and twirled her own blood around her fingers, daring anyone to try it again.

An image of the woman in black danced in his mind, but he quickly brushed it away in disbelief.

"I think what pissed me off the most about the whole thing," Asuni continued, sounding at once more like herself and still not at all normal. Zuko actually flinched when she cursed; he'd never heard her use profanity before. He took some small comfort in the fact that a bit of her usual drawl was coming back out in her voice, though.

"What really pissed me off," she explained, "was that you clearly didn't listen to a word I said on that bank."

Zuko blinked, completely not understanding what she meant. "I didn't… what?"

"I told you I was loyal to you," Asuni snapped, brows furrowing as she scowled at him.

She understood that Zuko wasn't exactly a font of emotional maturity, or even emotional stability. She understood that, as a girl, she would definitely be more emotional than him ninety-nine point nine percent of the time. But Asuni still couldn't quite shake her anger at being yelled at for doing her duty. For protecting him.

And, much as she hated to admit it, the 'just a cook' line had opened up old wounds. For years she'd wanted to be recognized. To be able to stand up and say she was more than a servant, that she kept the Fire Nation safe, that she was one of its elite guardians. Even if she had been 'just a cook' it was still a blatantly insensitive thing to say, demeaning someone based on their occupation.

She saw Zuko's eyes widen when she reminded him of that. Clearly, that's not where he'd expected her to take this.

"I told you," Asuni repeated more slowly, "that I was loyal to you. Aside from the obvious fact that accidents can happen and the Fire Nation needs its prince more than it needs just a cook," she paused and gave him a dark look. He had the decency to look mildly ashamed, even though he mostly just looked startled. "I will protect those I am loyal to. That's what loyalty means to me. To be there, be it for a person or a place or a group. To stand by them faithfully and try to shield them from as much harm as you possibly can. So when I knew that I could freeze that captain in his tracks before he even had the chance to hurt you… why wouldn't I do it? Why would I even stop to contemplate it?"

Zuko stared at her, her words hitting him hard. It impacted him more than he'd thought it would, to hear someone essentially say they'd die for him if the need arose. Something told him it was because it was Asuni saying it. Cheerful Asuni who always seemed like death wasn't even a part of her vocabulary.

He'd… sort of half-way known that already. She'd placed herself between him and a spear in the South Pole. She'd fought for him when the pirates attacked at the beginning of their journey, back when they'd barely known each other. Hearing it said aloud though, hearing her admit to it, was something else entirely.

He was being forced to accept that Asuni wasn't quite what she seemed, even less so than he'd already assumed. She wasn't quite the friendly, kind person she projected. There was something deeper that was darker, but not necessarily in a bad way. Just… more adult, more mature, more worldly than she appeared at first glance. It was… not alarming, but it was definitely surprising.

Again the image of the woman in black drifted across his thoughts, and again he shoved it aside.

"I understand," Zuko said quietly. Then he turned on his heel and left the kitchen, mind spinning.

Asuni looked up from her cooking at the tapping on the little window of the kitchen. A hawk was sitting there with a note attached to its leg. Hastily she beckoned it inside, draping a dish towel over her arm and offering it to the bird. With a quiet caw, it hopped from the window onto her arm and offered its leg to her.

Asuni plucked the tube from it, popping the lid off with her teeth and sliding the scroll out into her hand. She dumped the capsule onto the table and opened up the scroll, reading. Her eyes widened in concern.

Report received. News from Pohuai Stronghold. Commander Zhao planning visit. Requested meeting with Colonel Shinu about Yu Yan Archers. Reason unknown. Stay alert.

The Yu Yan Archers were the best there were. They were one of the elite forces in the Fire Nation military. Their abilities were second only to the Royal Guards, and even then, they could do some things that many of the Royal Guard members couldn't. Eiji was one of them, that's where Asuni guessed this information had come from.

The news that Zhao was asking about Yu Yan Archers wasn't good. He was hunting the Avatar and they were one group that probably could take on the avatar and come out on top. If he got the Yu Yan Archers on his side, that would definitely be a hit to Zuko's chances.

Zuko…

He was getting better, she'd give him that. He knew he'd done wrong and he'd come down to apologize to her. She hadn't been nice about it either, she knew that. But… well, she was angry. And hurt. And when she was really angry and hurt she tended to get a bit blunt. She'd give him credit though. He'd stood there and listened, and seemed to genuinely take it to heart.

Which was mildly concerning. Because she'd dropped character, just a little. The cook Asuni was one of those people who was always happy and friendly, and that was her… to an extent. But she had been trained to be a disciplined member of the military, and that was also part of her personality, one she usually kept hidden. It had slipped through a little. She could only hope it wouldn't raise any red flags or that Zuko would just attribute it to her being angry.

The bird on her arm gave a little caw, drawing her attention back to it. Asuni picked up a little piece of fish from the cutting board and tossed it to the bird. It caught it, gave a grateful caw, and soared out through the window. Asuni turned and tossed the scroll into the stove and watched as it was consumed.

Asuni was surprised with what the latest gossip on the ship was. Apparently Zuko almost got into a duel with Lieutenant Ji on deck earlier in the day. Iroh had to separate the two of them before anything got serious.

She wasn't altogether surprised. With no sign of the Avatar since the encounter on the river, tensions on the prince's ship were starting to skyrocket again, and no one was touchier than the prince himself. He took that out on the crew, who responded by getting more and more irritable. The ship had become a giant pot just waiting to boil over.

Asuni had a plan though. A plan that as certain to succeed. A plan so genius, so brilliant, that no one could resist it's power.

As Asuni pulled the last batch of almond cookies from the stove, inhaling deeply and smiling at the scent, she mentally patted herself on the back. It was really hard to be mad at someone while you were eating cookies, and her almond cookies were without a doubt her best dish.

Setting the last pan aside to cool, Asuni turned back to icing each individual cookies with a simple sugar glaze and sprinkling bits of chopped almonds on top of them. When each cookie had been decorated, she arranged tem on a large platter in a precise pattern and readied herself to go out into the fray.

She paused just inside the ship and squinted into the distance, where thick thunderclouds could be seen rolling in from the east. They roiled and flashed with lightning, and the faint sound of rumbling thunder could be heard over the splashing of the ocean and the hum of the ship's engines.

"Loks like your uncle was right about the storm after all."

Asuni's eyes flicked from the sky to the deck. Lieutenant Ji stood near the rail with a cluster of crew members, all of whom were watching the approaching storm grimly. The lieutenant had turned to face Zuko, arms crossed over his chest pointedly.

Like the brewing trouble had conjured him up, Iroh appeared out of nowhere, holding up his hands innocently and smiling. "It was just a lucky guess."

"Lieutenant!" Zuko snapped, whirling around to face the officer. His fists were clenched at his side and his mouth was pulled back into a snarl. "You'd better learn some respect," he warned, striding up to Ji and prodding the taller man in the chest with two fingers. "Or I will teach it to you." He turned, stalking across the deck and away from his officer.

"What do you know about respect?" Lieutenant Ji snapped. Zuko froze in his tracks. "The way you talk to everyone around here, from your hardworking crew to your esteemed uncle, shows you know nothing about respect! You don't care about anyone but yourself! Then again, what should I expect from a spoiled prince."

For a moment, the deck was deathly silent as the watching crew waited to see what would happen. Zuko whirled around, arms placed in front of him in a ready bending stance, a wordless challenge. Ji sank into a crouch ad mirrored him, accepting the challenge.

A wave of ocean water suddenly roared up over the edge of the ship, deluging the two Firebenders with gallons of chilly salt water. They dropped their stances immediately and looked around for an explanation, the water steaming off of them.

"You two needed to cool off."

All eyes turned to Asuni as she stepped from the ship and onto the deck, one hand balancing the platter with practiced ease and the other firmly on her hip. She stared at the lieutenant and the prince sternly, mouth pressed into an unamused line.

"We've been in close quarters for weeks and everyone's starting to get touchy. Let's not blow things out of proportion," Asuni chastised. Then she added, somewhat weakly, "Cookie?"

The crew surrounded her happily, plucking one of two cookies from the platter and praising her for her baking as they ate eagerly. It had been months since most of them had some real baked goods. Asuni eyed Iroh as he snuck two extra cookies up his voluminous sleeves. When he caught her looking, he gave a weak smile. Asuni just chuckled and shook her head.

Zuko turned away from his snacking crew and took a few steps away from them down to a relatively secluded part of the deck, staring out over the sea. Asuni frowned slightly and ducked out of the crowd of soldiers unseen. They continued chatting and eating with renewed friendliness as she scurried down the deck towards Zuko.

"Cookie?" she offered, proffering the raided platter to him. Zuko gave her a dismissive sideways glance.

"No thank you."

"It'll cheer you up," Asuni wheedled. "I promise."

Zuko gave her another look, his face hard and unyielding. Asuni smiled at him hopefully, shoulders rising in a little shrug as she nodded to the plate. His expression softened slightly and he took one cookie, fiddling with it absently as he stared over the ocean.

Asuni sighed. It was something at least. She turned to walk away, only for Zuko to stop her with a hand around her upper arm. She looked up at him questioningly. He was still staring at the water, but she got the feeling he was doing it for a reason now, purposefully avoiding her gaze.

"Do you think I'm disrespectful?" he asked her. Asuni blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected a question like that to come out of the prince, particularly when he was in a mood.

"I think," she replied slowly, making sure her answer was honest, "that you don't have much practice with it. I suspect there have been very few people in your life worthy of your respect."

Asuni couldn't tell from his profile whether or not he approved of her response, but his grip on her arm loosened for whatever reason. She slid free of his grasp and gave him a small bow. "My prince," she murmured, before sliding away into the depths of the ship.

When the rain finally came, it came hard and cold. Several members of the crew took shelter in the boiler room, where the heat from the engines fought off the gathering chill in the air.

Asuni stepped inside, a pot of hot tea balanced on a tray with a small bowl of honey and a spoon resting next to a dozen cups.

"I've brought you some nice warm drinks," Asuni said, descending into the boiler room. The crew members gave her scattered greetings, circling eagerly as she balanced the tray with one hand and poured with the other, passing out cups of tea and letting the honey circulate.

"Thanks Asuni, you're the best," one crew members said, his hands wrapped firmly around the cup to soak in the warmth. Asuni smiled at the compliment and fixed her own cup of tea.

"Nah, I'm not so great. I just figured you might be cold," she said with a shrug.

One of the crew cast a nasty look at the ceiling and muttered, "I'm sure his highness is in his room wrapped up in a nice, thick blanket."

"Shu!" one of them hissed. The crew member refused to be embarrassed. Instead, he turned to Asuni.

"I don't know why you take such good care of him, Asuni," he continued. "He doesn't deserve it."

Asuni straightened up. The crew inhaled sharply. The fire from the boiler painted her face with bloody red light, flickering shadows dancing across her face and catching in divots, making her look demonic. Her eyes fairly blazed with indignation, mouth pulled down in a scowl.

"He is my prince," she said firmly, staring each of them in the eye individually. "He deserves my loyalty."

"Loyalty," Ji muttered into his cup. "Hah! I'm sick of taking his orders and I'm tired of chasing his Avatar. I mean, who does Zuko think he is?"

"Do you really want to know?"

The crowd whipped around guiltily as Iroh's low voice rumbled from the doorway. Ji jumped to his feet in a show of respected, frantically stammering, "General Iroh! We were just-"

"It's alright," Iroh assured him, raising a hand in dismissal as he stepped into the firelight. "May I join you?"

"Of course, sir," Ji said hastily. Unlike Zuko, the lieutenant had the utmost respect for General Iroh, both as a military commander and as a man.

Iroh took a seat with the men. Asuni set her tray to the side and knelt on the floor, watching curiously as Iroh stroked his beard in thought.

"Try to understand," he began. "My nephew is a complicated man. He has been through much."

And then he began to explain. Asuni knew the story. Zuko had spoken out against General Jing's plan to sacrifice troops, but as Iroh explained it, she could see it all happening in her mind. She remembered Zuko at that age, small but full of energy, standing in the middle of the war room and furiously denouncing the very idea of using his countrymen as cannon fodder.

The next part of the story, the Agni Kai, Asuni didn't have to imagine. She was there. She could still remember it all: the blaze of fire around the Fire Lord's palm, the sneering faces of the nobles, and finally, the heart-wrenching scream of pain as Zuko was burned. Asuni watched the faces of the crew stretch in horror when Iroh explained the origin of Zuko's scar. She felt nauseous as the remembered smell of burning flesh tickled her nose.

"I looked away," Iroh finished.

There was utter silence for a moment, and then Lieutenant Ji spoke. "I always thought… that Prince Zuko was in a training accident." His eyes were downcast and sorrowful as he thought through the story.

"It… was no accident," Iroh sighed. "After the duel, the Fire Lord said that by refusing to fight, Zuko had shown shameful weakness. As punishment he was banished, and sent to capture the Avatar. Only then could he return with his honor."

"So that's why he's so obsessed." Understanding mixed with sympathy broke over Ji's face. "Capturing the Avatar is the only chance he has of things returning to normal."

Iroh shook his head. "Things will never return to normal. But the important thing is, the Avatar gives Zuko hope."

They all sat, silent. Asuni stared at her hands folded in her lap, swallowing against the roiling sensation in her gut. She couldn't imagine what she would do if her father had ever done to her what Zuko's had done to him. The very idea… she couldn't even comprehend it. He wasn't that kind of man.

"I better get back to the kitchen," Asuni said softly, picking the tray back up and rising.

"I'll join you," Iroh said through the muttered goodbye. A pall hung over the crew as they sat, nursing their drinks and thinking over all they had learned about their prince. Asuni nodded to Iroh and together they left the boiler room and turned towards the kitchen.

"Did you know?" Iroh asked as they walked. Asuni gave a bitter laugh at that question, drawing Iroh's eyes to her face.

"Did I know?" she repeated, mouth turned down. Iroh was surprised to see the utter agony in her eyes, trained on the floor. "I was there."

Iroh's eyes widened in shock. "You were?" he asked incredulously.

He returned to the memory of that moment, trying desperately to recall the faces in the crowd. The nobles, the military officers, those who had crept from their jobs around the palace to watch. He could not for the life of him recalling any of Asuni's distinctive features.

Asuni nodded. "I was. Lo Shen pulled me from my duties in the kitchen. He had me dress as a soldier and cover my face in a veil. Disguised as his attendant, he snuck me in to watch the whole thing."

"Why?" Iroh asked, baffled by the idea. What he knew of Lo Shen did not line up with the man forcing a young girl – and Asuni had been as young as Zuko back then – to watch something like that. There had to be a reason…

"He said he wanted me to know who I would be serving one day," Asuni said, a sour twist in her mouth. Iroh nodded in understanding.

The ship jolted under their feet suddenly, and the sound of shouting and pounding feet echoed down into the hull from the deck above.

"What in the world-?" Iroh demanded, looking at the ceiling.

"Were we hit?" Asuni gasped, setting the tea tray on the ground and bracing herself as the ship rocked violently.

"I think so," Iroh said, and turned. For a pudgy old man he moved fast, easily able to keep pace with Asuni as the pair of them sprinted up and onto the deck. Rain pelted them the moment they emerged, the sky dark enough to pass for night despite the fact that it was nearly noon. Men scrambled and slid across the metal deck as they worked to bring the ship under control.

"Where were we hit?" Zuko's voice echoed over it all. He stood wide-legged next to Lieutenant Ji, the both of them trying desperately to keep their balance against the battering of the waves.

"Look!" Iroh cried, pointing upwards.

"The helmsman!"

Nearly ten stories above them, the helmsman was dangling from the smoking tower by one hand, clinging desperately to a twisted bit of metal and waving his free limbs frantically, trying to pull himself back up.

Asuni watched as Zuko and Ji raced past her to the ladder. Both of them began climbing as fast as they could, desperate to reach the helmsman before his grip slipped in the rain. Asuni braced herself against the deck and raised her hands. An stream of water rose up from the ocean and gathered her around the waist, bearing her aloft so that she could reach. Asuni's hands spun through the air, gathering the raindrops that fell above the three men and pulling them towards her so they weren't being blinded by the rain.

There was a loud, rolling boom of thunder. It startled the helmsman so badly that his already weak grip slipped and he began to plummet. There was a communal gasp from the watching crew below. The helmsman's yell of fear was cut off, however, when Zuko's hand caught him by the wrist. Ji gathered the man's dangling torso in his arms and guided him over onto the ladder. Practically shaking with relief, the helmsman began to slowly climb back down from the ladder with his saviors.

He was met on deck with cheers and hearty embraces. The man was still visibly trembling and wide-eyed, but there was a slow smile beginning to stretch across his face as he realized that he was okay.

"The Avatar!"

Nearly the whole crew whipped around at the prince's shout. Sure enough, the Avatar's sky bison could be seen braving the rain not far from them, soaring through the pelting drops.

"What do you want to do, sir?" Lieutenant Ji asked.

For a moment, Zuko's stance was stiff, almost vibrating with energy. Then he slumped, and ordered, "Let them go. We need to get this ship to safety."

"Then we must head directly into the eye of the storm," Iroh advised.

I want to explain this chapter a little. I've gotten a couple of reviews talking about how Asuni's doing that thing a lot of 'fighter-type' OCs do where they jump into every fight, even when they don't need to. The beginning of this chapter was sort of supposed to address why that is. I'm not trying to make her a super badass, and I'm not trying to diminish Zuko's abilities. We all know he kicks ass. But in Asuni's mind, any time he walks into a fight, there is a chance, however small, that he could be hurt, and it's her duty to prevent that.

Also, I don't really know why, but I feel like this chapter took a while. I'm not sure if it actually did though. I mean to update every other week from now on. I don't know, it's probably just that my sense of the past few days is screwy. I just got all four of my wisdom teeth out and I've been taking ALL THE DRUGS! I know this was a short chapter, but I haven't been up to writing much lately.

Thank my writing friend Morgana Deryn for getting this chapter out. We watched some Avatar together and I got my mojo back. If you like Naruto, maybe go check out her story Truths of Life, maybe, possibly, could you? It's pretty good, and I'm not just saying that because she'll hurt me if I don't! XD

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please review!