Six
Later that day, as the sun was setting, Maya grew bored of lying on her cot, and decided to go up on deck for some fresh air before it would be too cold to go out. They had been steadily heading farther into the South Pole, after Zuko had ordered the captain to head in the direction of the beam of light.
She passed Uncle Iroh on her way up. He looked irritated, but smiled and put a hand on her shoulder before continuing on to his room. She watched him for a moment, wondering what Zuko had done this time. And then she shook her head and continued going up the stairs. When she got to the top, she saw Zuko standing at the railing, staring ahead. She was about to change her mind about coming up, and then she thought, There's no reason why we can't both be on deck. Zuko needs to learn how to share.
She went and stood at the opposite corner of the ship, and glanced discreetly to her left, trying to gauge his reaction. He didn't even seem to notice that she was there. She turned to face him fully, seeing now that he looked very upset. She remembered all too well what had happened the last time she had tried to get Zuko to open up, but she was determined to figure out what his problem was, so she walked over to him.
Finally, he looked at her, and seemed genuinely surprised to see her standing there. At first Maya thought that maybe he would relax his guard a little, but then the hardened mask returned over his face, and he said in a flat tone, "What?"
She stood there and continued to stare at him for a moment, and then she sighed and turned to face the ocean. "You're impossible," she muttered.
"What did you say?" he asked, voice threatening.
"I said you're impossible!" she repeated loudly, making sure that she put as much annoyance into her voice as she could. She spun to face him again. "Now, are you going to threaten to burn me again? Or maybe you'd like to call me a peasant?"
"How about I call you a bitch again and we call it even?" Zuko said, eyebrow raised.
"Ugh!" Maya exclaimed. "This is what I get for trying to be nice to you! I swear, if I could firebend I would gladly accept an Agni Kai, just to teach you a lesson!"
Zuko flinched, quite visibly, and Maya knew she had, somehow, struck a nerve. He turned his back to her, and began to walk away. Maya tried to think of something to say, to get him to tell her why he had reacted the way he had, but she could think of nothing, and he had already disappeared downstairs. Sighing, she waited a good five minutes, so that he couldn't accuse her of following him, and then she went downstairs also, and flopped onto her cot to try and get some sleep.