Sunburn

6

'Phew, that had been a close one,' Tsai thought exhausted as she returned to the ship.

She had returned to meet Admiral Zhao in record time. It appeared he didn't suspect a thing. Perhaps it was the wine? He talked about his glory and how he expected to send a fill written transcript of his Avatar capture speech to the Fire Lord himself tomorrow. It was when he got too close for comfort that she prayed somebody would interrupt and her prayers were answered.

"Admiral Zhao!" A soldier sprinted into the room. "It's the Avatar!" He shouted in an alarmed tone.

xxx

She took advantage of this distraction and hauled her ass back to the ship. Exhausted, praying that the Avatar had made it out and that she had made the right call in trusting the Blue Spirit.

xxx

A couple of days later Iroh, Prince Zuko and Tsai sat before a tea table in Iroh's room. Zuko had been behaving extremely weird since the night that Tsai had gone away to rescue the Avatar. She wondered if he knew- if he suspected of her, but there was no way in hell he would've known. She had been fast. Subtle too having even made it to the music night to hear Iroh play the trombone and listen to the Lieutenant's love song. 

There was absolutely no way he knew.

The three currently sat in the upper deck dinning chamber. The private room which the three shared their meals. It was decorated with two long fire nation banners on the walls, several candles and a figure of a red dragon's head under the horizontal window on the wall.

Tsai figured even Iroh had noticed the prince's off behavior.

"See Prince Zuko, a moment of quiet is good for your mental well-being," Iroh said after taking a most well enjoyed sip of ginseng tea. Tsai simply smiled at the older man and turned to pour some tea on the prince's cup. She watched him with a curious expression as he took a sip of it. However he stopped before and looked at her with suspicion. A nervous smile carved her face as she made eye contact with him. At the same time the ship was suddenly jerked causing the tea to slosh out of the cup and soak all of the prince's face and hair.

Tsai failed to hold in her laughter and laughed loudly. Zuko growled out in frustration and she could swear she could see the tea evaporating from his forehead. 'Now what?' He leapt to his feet and stomped out of the room into the main deck, the other two followed.

"Woah!" the girl starred in awe at a large beast that had just boarded the ship. A young dark haired woman rode the mighty beast to the deck.

"Get back!" She barked at the crew of fire benders that were ready to attack. "We're after a stowaway," she explained cutting to the chase.

"There are no stowaways on my ship. None besides this one," he added the last part in a lower tone and glared at the auburn haired girl. "Hey!" She protested crossing her arms over her chest.

It took that creature a second to rip the floor of the deck and sniffing loudly stuck its head inside the hole. To everyone's surprise an injured man climbed out of the hole and ran for his life. The beast opened its mouth and whipped its tongue striking the stowaway. The man then collapsed frozen stuff with a horrified expression on his face.

"He's paralyzed," Zuko muttered shocked.

"It's only temporary," The woman stated as she effortlessly hauled the stowaway over her shoulder. "The toxins will wear off in about an hour," she explained. "But by then, he'll be in jail and I'll have my money." She walked over to the beast her hips swaying slightly as she tossed the man onto the beasts back cooly.