ASHES, the last airbender

CHAPTER THREE

"Lady friend?!"

In the end, it was her uncle that had suddenly found his arms full of the waterbending peasant of course, in fact, the old man had been the only contender for the job he hadn't been aware he was applying for, though Honora had no doubt that he'd slip into his role well from experience alone. Now, you must understand that the Princess was many things...a monster, a dark creation of spite and fire, merely self destruction waiting to happen as the flames of hell licked at her heel...but she wasn't that cruel, and she wasn't about to leave a helpless girl to fend to herself on a ship full of men without at least some form of burning protection.

However, the princess truly wished that she hadn't even bothered to force herself awake that very morning, because perhaps if she hadn't, she wouldn't have to listen to the argument currently bleeding her eardrums dry. Her uncle had taken his role of babysitter far to seriously, far more than she had expected, so much so that she was almost genuinely concerned the man was about to adopt their prisoner into the royal family, as dysfunctional and banished as they may be, as she leant back against the ship wall and watched as her uncle engaged in battle with his nephew, flickering her gaze right to left and back again.

"The water-tribe peasant isn't coming with us for repairs uncle, for all we know it's a trick, a trap for us to let our guard down and-"

"A trap Prince Zuko? How on earth could she have orchestrated such a thing, it was my idea for the poor girl to come with us to stretch her legs-"

"Her legs? Her legs!? I don't care about her legs I care about capturing the Avatar!" Zuko shouted, spit flying and his upper lip curled into absolute displeasure at his uncle who was oh so carefully avoiding his eyes to give a encouraging thumbs up to the waterbender. And spirits above the boy was quite literally, trembling with a rage that was very unbecoming, his teeth bared and hands clenched into tight fists at his side, all anger and sickness that had made a home inside of him, all for the sake of some lost honor, that he still had yet to realise, was never his father's to take away.

But it was then that Honora finally decided that she'd had enough, truly unable to listen to the two squabble amongst each other like bastard children for a moment longer in fear that she'd just give into temptation and throw herself into the murky waters below the deck to spare herself the headache, as she kicked herself from the wall with a dark scowl. "Enough, both of you. It's a short trip out, brother mine, and if she were to try to run, she'd find herself back in that cell instead of the rooms we so kindly bestowed to her. And of course, if she were to scream and try to get help...well, I'm sure she wouldn't want innocent blood on her hands, would she?"

She shot a deadly smile down at Katara who lingered behind the comforting heat of the old firebender, all shiny white teeth that looked absolutely blinding and ever so sharp in the flickering light, and pretend to ignore the girl sticking out her tongue in return. Immature brat. But her attention was stolen rather swiftly by her brother as his face flushed, a vein bulging in his pale neck as he glared up at her in obvious frustration. "Who's side are you even on?"

"My own. Either let the water-bender come or don't, I truly don't care as long as she doesn't get in my way." Because you see, there was, in fact, a reason she handed the girl off to her uncle, and that was the fact that she didn't want  her anywhere in her general vicinity. But currently, Honora just wanted this outing to be as quick as possible, she had no desire to linger upon the port, to feel that careful scrutiny of people passing her by that set her ever hungry teeth on edge. Somehow being lost at sea for three years had left her even less sociable than before, and she was in no rush to try and rectify that by spending time around those lesser than her in every sense of the word.