Protected Princess || Zuko

04 || Iroh

"Since I was a child-" I began to speak.

"Enough of this! We're not taking you with us." Zuko says, getting reading to board the boat.

"Nephew, she is a princess, please show some respect as we listen to her story." Iroh explained.

"Thank you, Iroh. Since I was a child I've always wanted to water bend. I was born a water bender, but the Northern Water Tribe forbids women from learning to fight with water bending. Stupid customs.. anyways, I was going to leave with Aang but I saw you leaving instead. You seemed like a good man. You helped the moon spirit as well as my sister. You were my best chance at getting out of here. If I went with Aang he would've said his farewells to my father and I wouldn't have been able to leave unnoticed. Please let me come with you. All I want to do is master water bending and then I'm planning on coming right back when my training is over." I explain, desperately hoping and trying to get Iroh to accept my request.

"Mastering an element will take years. I bet you're no natural either. And how do you know we won't just kill you?" Zuko replied. I shot him a glare and sighed.

"If you wanted to kill me, you would've done that already." I reply. I focused my attention back to Iroh.

Iroh was looking at me as if he expects me to say more. Once he noticed I have nothing more to say he bowed his head. I looked back over at Zuko who was annoyed and staring out into the water.

"You may come with us Princess Hai." Iroh responded.

My heart stopped for a moment. I couldn't believe this.

"Really?!" I ask starting to get excited.

"If it is your wish to master water bending, you shall master water bending." Iroh responds with a smile as he sits on the boat.

"This is ridiculous. Get on the boat if you wanna come so bad but don't think you're wanted here. You're friends with the avatar so I'll keep you around to answering some questions on his whereabouts."  Zuko said standing and looking down into my eyes.

"Thought you said you didn't care about what the avatar wants right now." I said like a smart ass.

"Ugh!" Zuko huffed, sitting back down on the boat. I proceeded to follow and sit on the boat as well. Which, wasnt really a boat, more like driftwood really. We then took off in the water. Where to? No idea.

"Regardless of what words are being thrown at me," I said glaring at Zuko, "..thank you both very much for letting me come with you. You won't regret this." I say smiling.

"I'm sure that you are correct. And thank you for coming! I finally have someone new to share my tea with!" Iroh says smiling and looking at Zuko and myself. I smiled and laughed at Iroh's kind words.

I looked over at Zuko to notice he wasn't laughing, or looking. He was just looking down. He seemed upset, sad even.

It was morning already. Iroh decided to get up and start fixing the sail so we could move faster. We were a little ways away from the Northern Water Tribe. It was just almost out of sight. Suddenly, Zuko also got up as shot me a glare. He stood on the opposite side of the boat from Iroh. He starred out into the water, viewing the ship wrecks of what once used to be fire navy ships not too long ago. I decided to move closer to Iroh's side of the boat and sat back down. He gave me a slight smile and I smiled back. I then proceeded to look down into the water. I wonder how my fathers doing. We all knew since we were young that this would happen to Yue, but I don't think any of us thought it would be so soon. Now that I think of it.. starring into the ocean made me realize that I've never been in water before. Well, besides my birth obviously. That's strange. My whole life in the Northern WATER tribe and I've never even swam in the ocean. I guess it's too cold to do that anyways.