Avatar the Last Airbender: The Admiral's Daughter Zuko and OC

A Missing Iroh

After that night Azari moved her bed into Zuko's room, the nightmares had stopped, or at least they mostly had, and Azari wasn't taking any chances.

Azari did however hate the stares the crew gave her as she walked down the dark halls of the ship, stares that she she was unwanted, and that she was not one of them. Stares she had had her whole life.

Zuko and Azari practiced training more and more, Zuko with his firebending and Azari with her waterbending. There was no one there to teach Azari waterbending so she invented her own style, it was firebending with water. Azari mastered all the firebending stances and moves and blocks, except with water. Zuko and Iroh thought it was amazing but Azari just wished she had a real teacher.

Azari had also begun to use a bow, it was a slim wooden bow that Zuko had bought for her, she had learned quickly and took it with her wherever she went. But Azari didn't use arrows, she used water that she bent into arrows and froze.

They had only had one run in with the avatar since meeting him and it was brief, they had found him on Kyoshi Island and tried to capture him. But they had failed, and Azari couldn't help but feel relieved about it.

Zuko on the other hand wasn't happy about it, he now spent every waking moment observing maps and drawing on them as well. Azari hated to see Zuko so frantic and desperate but she knew she couldn't help him.

Iroh tried to help too by reminding Zuko of other things, but even Iroh's wise words didn't help Zuko.

On one of the many occasions when they stopped for supplies Azari decided to go out too. She didn't often venture off the ship but she decided she needed a distraction. Azari grabbed an empty satchel that was lying in Zuko's room, grabbed her bow, put on a silky red cloak, and got off the ship with the rest of the crew and Iroh.

But before Azari had even stepped onto the dock she heard Zuko calling her name. Azari turned around to see Zuko rushing after her and the rest of the group frantically.

"You can't just run off like that!" Zuko said once he reached her, he was panting and breathing hard like a dog in hot summer weather.

Azari covered her smile with a hand. "Zuko, seriously, I'm here with the whole crew and Iroh, I think I'll be fine," Azari said, dropping her hand to her side.

"Yes but what if... what if..." Zuko trailed off, blushing and looking at the floor awkwardly.

Azari smiled at him, "whatever, you can come if you want," she said in an amused voice. Zuko smiled at her.

"Prince Zuko, you've decided to join us! I didn't know you liked shopping," Iroh said, popping up out of nowhere and getting a smile out of Azari. "Do you want to enjoy looking at the tea cups with me? I see some very fine ones over here by the tea shop. On second thought, do you want to go to tea?"

Zuko put a hand to his head in annoyance, "No uncle, I don't really want to look at tea right now," Zuko said to Iroh. "It's a waste of time anyway."

"Tea isn't a waste of time!" Iroh said to Zuko, extremely annoyed with his nephew. "Tea is an elegant art that takes years to master and is never a waste of time," Iroh said indignantly.

"Whatever," Zuko said, turning away from Iroh and taking Azari's hand, pulling her along with him.

Azari gave Iroh a sympathetic look, "Maybe later?" she called out to him, turning around to see his face.

Iroh smiled at Azari, "Later then," he agreed with her.

Azari and Zuko browsed through the shops, there were many stands full of jewelry and Azari stopped often to admire the beads and pearls of many of the necklaces and bracelets.

They finally stopped at a clothing store, Azari hadn't had new clothes in years and she spent almost an hour browsing till she found a couple outfits she liked. Zuko had left a couple guards with her to be on the safe side while he went to go look for Iroh.

Finally Zuko got back, Azari was already back on the ship and waiting for him in the quarters they now shared. Azari was working on waterbending water into knives that she could throw if she didn't have a bow on her, Azari however liked her bow better.

She had learned to throw knives from Mai, one of her friends from the academy, Azari however was never any good at it and Mai didn't pay much attention to Azari anyway.

Azari heard the door creak and she looked up to see Zuko.

"Did you find him?" Azari asked as Zuko entered the room. He looked tired and slightly annoyed.

"Yeah he, uh... will be here in a little while," Zuko said, turning a little red and sitting down on the floor to observe his maps.

Azari wondered what Iroh was doing but went back to shaping her knives. It was hopeless, she let the water melt and fall back into the bowl she kept by her bed. "Do you remember Mai?" Azari asked Zuko.

Zuko stiffened, "Yeah I guess, she always played with Azula right?" He looked like he was concentrating on his map as hard as he could/

"Yeah," Azari said, confused at why Zuko was acting so tense. "Anyway I was trying to figure out if I could make throwing knives like hers, it's really hard though, do you remember what her throwing knives looked like?"

"No, why would I remember random details about a girl I hardly knew or cared about," Zuko said stiffly and a bit rudely. He rolled up a map and pulled out another identical to it.

"Okay...?" Azari said, not sure what to say. "Well, um.. I guess I'll just keep working with bows and arrows, easier right?"

"Yeah," Zuko said, drawing on the floor with his pencil instead of the map.

Azari laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling as she listened to the scratch scratch of Zuko's pencil on paper. The sound was soothing and before Azari knew it she was asleep.

Azari felt someone nudge her shoulder, Azari groaned.

"Wake up Azari!" Zuko said he sounded worried and Azari was up in an instant.

"What is it?" Azari asked Zuko, getting up and realizing that someone, probably Zuko, had put a blanket over her while she slept.

"My uncle hasn't returned," Zuko said, beginning to pace as Azari got up and slipped her shoes and cloak on. "It's been almost two hours since I told Uncle that he had half an hour."

"Really?" Azari said, not realizing she had slept that long. "Well we need to search for him," she said, rushing to the door and opening it. "Come on Zuko!"

The two of them rushed to the stables and retrieved a few of the komodo rhinos to ride since Zuko said it was a bit of a longer walk to where he had last seen Iroh.

A few of the soldiers came with as they searched for Iroh, finally they stopped at the hot springs where Zuko said he had seen Iroh.

"Uncle! Uncle! Where are you?" Zuko called, Azari rode up to Zuko on her komodo rhino.

"Maybe he thought you left without him?" Azari asked, it didn't seem likely but they could have missed him on the way to the hot springs.

"Somethings not right here," Zuko said, looking around warily. "That pile of rocks."

"It looks like there's been a landslide sir," said one of the soldiers.

"Land doesn't slide uphill, those rocks didn't move naturally," Zuko said, staring at the rocks intently. "My uncle's been captured by earthbenders!"

Yes I know, a little bit of a filler, but I had fun writing it. Don't forget to vote on whether or not my book should be first person. Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes!