THREE MONTHS LATER

     Hikari stared at the paper in front of her. Her hands covered her nose and mouth as her eyes glared at the scroll in front of her. It was clear, though deep in thought, she was aggravated.

     The writing on the parchment was foreign to her. It was discovered, shortly after she woke up, that she could not read. Furthermore, the way she wrote was foreign to everyone else on the ship. It seemed to be that only she could understand her own handwriting; what was common was alien to her. Iroh took it upon himself to teach her, thus her current predicament. She hated this.

     After three months on the ship, she was more or less a welcomed sight. The crew had taken a shine to her after she began assisting around when she could. Plus, after being out on sea for so long, a girl on board was not so bad. She could be very sarcastic and witty, but was also apologetic about every little thing. Iroh had taken her in as his own, without having to vocalize it.

     Now, being with the Fire Nation, or at least the angsty prince had told her, required her to dress like one. She wore pair of red pants and a matching, red, short sleeved top. It was more of a shawl, so she had a sleeveless, black tank top under it and tied the two ends of the shawl together. She decided it would work to cover whatever felt exposed. She had her pants tucked into her boots, giving the effect of those weird, poofy trouser that her companions wore. As it also turned out, she was bad at doing her own hair. She could braid it or pull it back in a low ponytail, but when she attempted to pull her hair back into a bun, it resulted in Iroh having to tame the rat's nest she created.

     At the current moment, they were traveling through the South Pole. She wore a black cloak over her shoulders. It was a descent tool to keep the cold winds out. Her hair was left to do as it pleased, for the most part, and kept her neck warm like a scarf.

"Glare at the paper any longer, we might discover you have been a firebender all along... Or you're face will get stuck like that," Iroh grinned and shrugged lightheartedly, "Which ever you choose to allow first."

     General Iroh had been her closest friend and she stayed with him the most. She liked his stories, his good nature, humor, and patients. He had been helping her discover who she was little by little.

     They found out that she was not a bender. And while she knew what bending was, it seemed like a whole new concept at the same time. It brought back memories of pretending to be a bender, yet she admitted it was also because it...was because it was a fictional concept. Yet that was so weird considering the prince had nearly burnt her on quite a few occasions. She could not read kanji, yet was able to fluently write...whatever it was that she wrote.

     There were still a lot of things she could not put a face or a name too. There were a few stories she remembered and was able to recite. The name of her parents still remained a mystery. Even the place she had grown up in for so long had no name in her mind, on top of that, a lot of those memories were blank. Plenty of it was just little things, but it still made her all the happier to remember a small amount of her life before her sudden loss.

     Her relationship with the prince was...interesting. There were some moments where they could get along, they got mad and shouted at each other, or one would attempt to be nicer to the other, only to start fighting again. Her temper only seemed to flare up with him. She was peaceful and fun around General Iroh and the rest of the crew, yet just seeing the prince would seem to set her off... Either that, or she was annoyed with her reading lessons. Such as that moment.

Hikari growled, "It all looks like a bunch of lines! It's really, really aggravating and I'm mad that I don't get it."

"Learning is a process that will never end, but like reading, it's a skill you should pick up as soon as you can." Iroh placed a hand on one shoulder when he stood next to her on the other side, "Don't be ashamed at your lack of one particular skill. You have plenty of other talents...but reading will help you along in the future."

She rolled her eyes, but smile nonetheless, "I'm sorry you have to put up with me. I know this is probably just as aggravating for you if not more so."

"Do not apologize. It is a pleasure to have you as a student. Let you're mind rest, I will teach you an old game I know. It will help you relax, and," he started laying out some tiles he pulled from his sleeve, "you might learn a few more words while you're at it."

Her mixed colored eyes, she called the color hazel, shined at the thought of another game, "Is it anything like Pai Sho?"

     She loved to play games. She barely remembered what games she played or even what they were called. She could remember sitting with her family and getting mad at her father for always winning. It was another bit of joy in her new life on that dreary ship with the bane of her existence. To think, the same guy who had tried to kill her, was still the cause of her constant headaches three months later.

     Prince Zuko was a pain in the butt. He was constantly yelling and was always so angry... But she was pretty sure that he was on friendlier terms with him. They would be sarcastic with each other, argue, get angry, but the crew had yet to throw her body overboard. She took it as a good sign that the prince was comfortable with her. There was even one instance where he was really nice to her, but again, it was only once. He was a jerk.

     The game was simple. It was actually a very familiar concept to her. The goal was to clear the board by getting the tiles into four stacks, but the only way you could do that was if you laid them out in some particular order. Iroh was explaining what tiles went where when the prince made an appearance.

"Uncle! What are you doing," Zuko demanded.

Hikari place her head in her hands, "Do you ever stop yelling?"

"Silence, I wasn't talking to you!"

"Calm down, nephew." The old man told the boy, "I was only showing, Hikari a game. Would you like to learn as well?

"I don't have time for games! I have to find the Avatar!"

The girl frowned, "You need to relax a little, being angry and stressed all the time isn't good for your health."

Iroh nodded, "She has a point, nephew."

     The prince huffed and stomped away without another word. The two playing cards just shrugged at each other and continued with the new game. It took awhile before Hikari decided that it might help if she just watched him play the game. She was content with just listening to him hum and gain a thoughtful look as he pondered his next move.

She jumped at Zuko's sudden shout, "Finally! Uncle, do you realize what this means?!"

     She noticed the tall pillar of light. It could easily be seen from where they were and no doubt it was just one of the everyday southern lights in the sky that were known to appear here. In fact, Iroh had told her about the few times that had investigated the lights in the hopes it might be the Avatar that her friend was so desperate to find.

"I won't get to finish my game," was the old man's response.

"It means my search is about to come to an end." The prince only received a deep sigh so said royalty glared at his uncle, "That light came from an incredibly powerful source! It has to be him!"

"Or it's just the celestial lights. We've been down this road before, Prince Zuko," He looked at the airbending tile in his hand, "I don't want you to get too excited over nothing." He placed it on the firebending tile and gesture to the other side of the table, "Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?"

Hikari flinched when the royal pain yelled, "I don't need any calming tea! I need to capture the avatar!" The boy pointed towards the fading pillar, "Helmsman, set a course for that light!"

     Hikari sighed at the same time as Iroh. They looked at each other and shared a knowing smile. The prince would be the prince. If he decided to finally listen then he would, until then, that would take a long while.

     The boat slowly moved forward and broke through the frozen waters. People scrambled about to keep the angsty head off of their tails. Everyone was already tired as it was.

     For a while, the girl moved below deck to warm up. She worried about prince. Sure he could be a jerk, and angry, and rude, and once more...angsty. But he was abusing himself. He would go days without eating or sleeping. And this was one of his no sleep streaks.

     She was getting sleepy and decided to see if she could find the prince and speak with him. She wrapped her cloak around herself and made her way to the top, out looking balcony. She saw Iroh had beat her to the punch and placed herself to lean against the doorway, waiting to see what transpired.

The old man stretched and yawned, "I'm going to bed now, a man needs his rest. Prince Zuko, you need some sleep." There was dead silence and the younger never turned around. "Look, even if you're right and the Avatar is alive... You won't find him. Your father, grandfather and great grandfather all tried and failed."

"Because their honor didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture. Mine does." She could see the clinched fist, "This coward's hundred years of hiding are over."

     His uncle shrugged and walked away, Iroh only repeated the action to the girl who offered a smile in response. She waited for some time after the older man left before deciding to approach the tempered young man. She slowly walked forward and stationed herself next to the prince. She leaned on the railing and looked over the cold and frozen landscape.

"Besides the cold," Hikari broke the silence, "It really is a beautiful place. It's practically been untouched by mankind. It's all there, natural and untouched."

"What do you want," was Zuko's irritated response.

"Nothing. Just chat, see how you were, possibly try to change your mind about going to bed?"

"I don't need sleep."

"You say that now, but what will it be like when you face the Avatar?" She backed away from the rail and put up a sloppy fighting stance, "I am Prince Zuko, Avatar. And you..." she yawned, "Will fight...me." And then she fell and pretended to sleep.

"Ha, ha, very funny," he said sarcastically and with an eye roll.

She popped back up to her feet, "But it's true. You've been demanding Iroh to give you the harder techniques. How can you prove you're ready by depriving yourself of sleep and food?"

"I ate."

"You ate a grain of rice, poked at your food and then left, claiming you were full." He glared, but she raised a brow, "You may be a prince and you enjoy intimidating everyone, including me, but you can't look at sleep and glare it off, or threaten your stomach to shut up when it growls."

"That fighting stance had at least ten things wrong with it," the prince said, attempting to change the subject.

"That's you when you're too tired to fight the old man you've been looking for." She sighed, "But I'm well aware of what was wrong, posture, fists, feet were to far apart, I was off balance... What did I miss?"

"Your hands were too high to protect your chest. And the next time you do that without thinking on it, at least managed to get your torso to face your opponent."

"Thanks."

     It was one of the few moments they were almost normal. Iroh had convinced her to start learning hand to hand combat and she even spared with Zuko from time to time. This was just a moment he was actually attempting to be nice and not yell at her for being rude or sarcastic... There were no regrets to her on that part. She enjoyed getting a reaction out of him.

She stepped closer and leaned ever so slightly against him, "But in all seriousness, at least come in and warm up. It's freezing and this crew can't function with you in an ice cube."

     He glanced down at her, considering he was taller, and saw her smiling at her own joke. She was surprised that he did not pull away from her affectionate touch like he usually did. Even then, she was hardly affectionate with him. It was only when that were actual, peaceful moments that she would touch his arm or lean against him. She never dared to attempt to hug him, she had a feeling he would push her away.

     Without speaking another word to her, he turned around and went inside. She grinned at her accomplishment and followed him in.

     The night was long and after getting some sleep, Hikari sluggishly made her way to the top deck. It might have been mid-morning, or something like that. She trudged out onto the deck and ignored the battle, opting to get to Iroh and sit next to him. She was still tired, but her mind was awake enough to observe the current training. It continued for a long while. It was bound to happen that the prince would get annoyed at some point.

"Again," the old man ordered sternly.

     Zuko opened the fight by spreading his arms in the direction of the two firebenders, showering them with flames. His opponents blocked the attack with ease. The prince shifted his weight to duck under a retaliation blast of the firebender to his left. The one to his right jumped forward to aim a blast at his feet. Her friend propelled himself out of the way. He twisted around in mid-air and directed another fire blast with his hand to the soldier that retaliated first, and another with his foot to the man who had aimed for his feet. Both soldiers jumped out of the way of Zuko's flames. The boy landed and stretched his fists out toward his opponents, ready to face another attack.

Iroh sighed while getting up, "No! Power in firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles." After demonstrating, he stretched his left arm out as if he was sending a fire blast, "The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes: fire!" A fire blast was directed at his nephew, evaporating just before it could even burn him, "Get it right this time."

"Enough!" Zuko stormed over to his uncle, "I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set! I'm more than ready!"

"It's not even an hour past midday yet," Hikari yawned.

"No, you are impatient." The general sat down again, "You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again!"

The royal pain clenched his teeth in anger. He turned and suddenly directed a powerful fire kick toward one of the soldiers. Hikari flinched as the firebender attempted to stop the attack. He was thrown back, unable to stop the power behind his element.

"The sages tell us that the Avatar is the last airbender." The old man looked very unimpressed with the attitude he was receiving, "He must be over a hundred years old by now. He's had a century to master the four elements! I'll need more than basic firebending to defeat him." Hirkari flinched again at his raised voice, "You will teach me the advanced set!"

The uncle began in a very dire tone, "Very well," His expression changed completely to one of delight as he picked up a bowl from the ground, "but first, I must finish my roast duck."

Seeing the look on Zuko's face caused the brunette to attempt to stifle her laughter. It was a lost cause. The moment the prince's glare was directed at her, it escalated very quickly.

"What's so funny," Zuko demanded.

"The," she laughed some more, "The look...on your face!"

     To make matters worse, when Iroh was done, he went to take a nap. That left the prince to snap at everyone and demand a sparing match with the brunette. She had responded with an eye roll, knowing that this was now an excuse to get at her without suffering dire consequences. Sometimes it was annoying, other times, she appreciated the learning process. Now was the time she was happy to oblige.

     The moment she got into a fighting stance, a high pitched whir and fire-cracker like explosion made her jump. Zuko ran to the side railing, pulling out a telescope while he was at it. Hikari jogged over to stand beside him and attempted to see in the area the trail of smoke had left.

"The last airbender!" He handed the spyglass to the girl so she could see, "Quite agile for his old age."

     She saw the two figures on the snowy grounds. In all honesty, she was pretty sure that the Avatar was shorter than the girl and possibly younger. She did not see any form of a long beard or even long hair. Was...

Was the Avatar just a kid?!

"Wake my uncle! Tell him I found the Avatar." Zuko snatched the scope back without asking, ticking his companion off, "As well as his hiding place..."

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A/N: 

my head: Wait to pre-write more chapters! You're fandom hopping still.

also me: SCREW IT! *publishes next chapter as soon as I finished it*

So that's what happened with this. I'll be taking my sweet time with this story. I will try to update more often, but as of right now, we shall see. Summer is coming to a close. I'm trying to prepare fore my next step in life and a bunch of hoopla. 

I hope you all are enjoy it thuse far, even if it is two chapters.

Tootles~

-Muse