The Girl No One Knew

Chapter 24

The next morning, it was as if my sickness had never happened. I woke without the nausea, without the dizziness, without the torturous pain in my side. What else was missing? Ah, right — Zuko. Upon awakening that morning, I found myself alone, the tea brought to me by Hung and Bao the day prior was still beside my bed. I stood and dressed myself, running my fingers through my hair to smooth it down.

"You seem well," Iroh observed as I stepped out into the sunlit deck for the first time in days.

"I feel well." I sat next to the man as he played on his Tsungi horn. A number of the crew had taken notice to my arrival, shocked that I was able to get out of bed. But this didn't stop some of them from switching into maternal mode and bringing me a blanket and more tea than I could possibly drink on my own.

I suppose it was good that I was sitting with the one person I knew that could live off of tea only, and still never be sick of it.

By noon, our missing Prince had finally graced us with his arrival.

"Where have you been, Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked. "You missed music night!"

"I'm going to bed," Zuko grunted, glancing at me for less than half of a second before turning his attention back in front of him. "No disturbances." And with that, he disappeared again.

Unlike Iroh, I didn't simply shrug it off. (When have I ever?) I folded the blanket and stood up, then followed Zuko's path.

Iroh ceased his horn playing. "Prince Zuko said not to disturb him."

I didn't listen. After all, thanks to Zuko and his paranoia making him believe that I was going to die if he wasn't watching me while I was sick, it was my room too. I pushed the door open to find Zuko lying flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling. "I said 'No disturbances'," he said flatly. I closed the door behind me.

"You also said you were going to bed," I shrugged. "So I decided to bring you a blanket." One look at him told me that something had happened while he was gone. It also told me that he had no intention of telling me.

I kneeled by his bed and set the blanket next to him. Silently, Zuko scooted over, indicating that he wanted me to lay next to him — so I did. I lay flat on my back with my hands folded over my stomach, staring up at the ceiling with him. We spent five minutes in silence before he asked, "Have you wanted to do something so badly that you'd do anything for it, then something holds you back as soon as you get the chance to do what you wanted to do?"

I turned my head and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about, Zuko?"

"Nothing," he shook his head. "Forget it."

I shifted onto my stomach. "Don't do that, Zuko. You know you can talk to me about anything."

He sighed, rubbing hands up and down his face. "I had a chance to get the Avatar, but I let him go. I had him right in my hands, Saki, and I let him go." He let out a long groan. "I'm weak."

As if by reflex, the back of my hand collided with his shoulder. "Shut up," I said, rather aggressively. "Just shut up! You're not weak, okay?"

Holding his shoulder where there was now a faint red mark, he shot back in defense, "I let the Avatar escape!"

"Then that just means that that wasn't the right time for you to capture him." I softened my voice now, my fingers gently running over the area that I'd hit. That had always been my way of apologizing when we were little and he'd get hurt because of me somehow. I could never apologize verbally lest I wanted to be deemed weak by Ozai (not that I gave a single monkeyfeather about his opinion).