• Summery: You're awesome at a certain Chinese board game. The same one, in fact, that Iroh loves. So when you wind up on Zhao's ship threw a mystical portal you can only see one way out of Zhaos evil grasp, and that's getting invited onto prince Zuko's ship. Hopefully youll be able to keep out of trouble on it; then again, maybe not You X Zuko


    Quick note: This does not, as I said in my journal, follow the next episode: The worriers of Kyoshi. I don’t even know if the next one will either but it’s still undecided. Also, I am aware that Christmas is coming up soon, I’m definitely thinking about actually putting up a special chapter, it’ll depend if I can write it in time. I will try but I can promise nothing. Anywho, one with the 6th chapter ^_^
    ~
    Chapter: 6- Try, Try, again
    “This is where the crew has breaks and breakfast in the morning; you get to make your own food.” The older man said sternly. You and Yumi sweat dropped, making your own food wasn’t a problem, however, the fact that the break room was also the boiler room kind of caught you both off guard.
    “The kitchen is on the top level next to the helm-mans room where the ship is steered. Most of the time General Iroh and Prince Zuko eat there.” He instructed as you both headed upwards. The ship wasn’t big but man did it have a lot of levels. Most of it consisted of rooms for the solders. Not that you needed to know where any of those were since thank who ever is up there you didn’t have to clean there rooms or anything. On Commander Zhao’s ship you’d heard terrifying stories of the smell of their armor while trying to clean it. Let alone their actual room!
    “This is Prince Zuko’s room. You should report to him after this tour is over to find out what he would like you to do.” He said his stern expression unchanging. You nodded at least he wasn’t trying to embarrass you as Yumi had as soon as Zuko and Iroh had been out of ear shot. You remember her words very clearly: Aw man Y.N. you get all the good jobs, a personal servant to a hot prince. This came along with a wink from Yumi and huge blush on your part.
    “Right next to it is General Iroh’s quarters, just incase he sends for tea in his room I don’t have to waist time trying to tell you where it is.” He muttered the last part just loud enough for you to hear. Your eye twitched. The tour dragged on until about two floors above Zuko and Iroh’s room you stopped by another hall full of doors.
    “These will be your rooms.” The man said gesturing to them.
    “Rooms, plural? You mean I get to have my own room again!” Yumi exclaimed happily with stars in her eyes.
    “Jeeze Yumi, it’s not like I snore or anything!” You muttered a little embarrassed.
    “No, but back at home I always shared a room and when I joined the fire nations army as a servant I finally got my own room, until you showed up that is.” She chuckled. You blinked, before she had gone into the fire nation army? You felt like kicking yourself, of course Yumi hadn’t always been working on Zhao’s ship, she’d obviously had had a home before this, a home on land. You’d never thought about it, maybe you would ask her later.
    “Well, this way I’ll be able to decorate my own room.” You chuckled smirking at her.
    “I guess so.”
    “I’ll let you two get settled in, please report to the deck in about 3 hours.” You both nodded and slightly bowed your heads as he left. Both you and Yumi headed into your respective rooms. In yours you found your own bed to the farthest side of the room, a large fire nation banner above it against the wall. The rest of the room was fairly… well barren.
    The only other decorations where a medium sized wooden chest and another door you guessed led to a bathroom. Sitting down on the bed you noticed it wasn’t as “firm” (Yumi’s word for it in attempt to make it seem less like a rock) as the bunk bed back on the other ship. You also noticed that the covers where a bit scratchy. Hopefully you would be able to trade them in or buy new ones next time you made port. According to the man from earlier (let’s call him Zhang for now since I don’t have the episode where comes from right in front of me) you probably wouldn’t make port until you and Yumi received your first pay check from here.
    Two weeks to get used to your new home (My pay check is every two weeks so that is how long yours will be too XD) and hopefully to be able to get the hang of being a ‘personal servant’. You made a face at this thought. You still didn’t care for the idea. Sighing as you realized you had nothing to really do you made your way out into the hall and headed toward the stairs that lead to the deck. You would leave Yumi to her ‘new one person room’ and instead go and explore. You wound up on deck as expected, however you didn’t expect to get a fire ball thrown at you. Making a ‘Yipes’ sound you ducked out of the way only to fall flat on your face; looking up you yelled in the direction he fire ball came from.
    “What the hell?! Can’t a girl walk around here without getting fire thrown at her?” Then you noticed the angry set of gold eyes glaring in your direction and shrank back. You had yelled at prince Zuko.
    “Maybe you should watch where you’re going.” He muttered walking up to you. You frowned at him and stood up to meet him at almost eye level (You had to look up a bit).
    “Maybe you should have a bit more self control and not shoot at innocent bystanders.” You threw back.
    “I wasn’t aiming at you stupid, I am training, and you would do well not to get in my way.” Zuko growled back looking at you fiercely. You where about to retort your rebuttal but a hand placed itself on your shoulder stopping you. Looking back in surprise you found General Iroh standing there smiling.
    “Now, now, why don’t we sit and have a nice game of pi sho?” He asked. You blinked and slowly nodded. Turning around you found Iroh had the board all set up off to the side, apparently, you guessed, so that he could still watch Zuko train. Speaking of the prince you turned back slightly to glare at him, he did the same.
    “Now, I assume you know how to play?” General Iroh said calling your attention back to him. You sighed and turned back to him, trying to put on at least a small smile. After all, he wasn’t the subject of your agitation.
    (Again, I am winging it; I haven’t a clue how to play pi sho.)
    “Yes, I do.” You replied, already letting the prince fade to the back of your mind, ready to play.
    “Ok then, shall we start, I shall let you make the first move.” Iroh offered. You smiled as you two began playing.
    “Your clothing choice for today is very interesting. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. Where did you find such clothes?” Iroh said after a while making you look up in slight alarm. He was looking at you with a speculative look.
    “Ah…I dunno… I was found wearing them.” You said quickly spitting out the first thing that came to mind. Hey, if you where going to lie about not remembering you might as well stick to the same story… then again you never much liked to lie. You just didn’t like being looked at like you where crazy (in the bad sense).
    “You where found?” Iroh asked looking at you with a confused look.
    “Oh, sorry, I never told you, I have a bit of amnesia. Crew members from Commander Zhao’s ship found me unconscious in the forest. I can’t remember anything before I woke up on Commander Zhao’s ship.” You explained. A laugh caught your attention as Yumi approached you both.
    “Yea, it was so bad Y.N. couldn’t even remember what a fire bender was.” Yumi chuckled.
    General Iroh raised an eye brow. Oh well, so much for people not giving you crazy looks.
    “Yea, but Yumi’s helped me a lot. She filled me in on most of it. I do remember some things, like how to kick peoples butt at Pi Sho for example.” You replied grinning widely as you moved a tile. Iroh’s eyes widened but then he laughed whole heartedly.
    “Ha ha, it would appear so, but then again, things aren’t always what they appear.” Iroh replied moving another tile making your face fall and your eyes widen.
    General Iroh had just beaten your butt. Yumi laughed as you pouted.
    “Apparently you don’t remember after all Y.N..” She laughed out.
    “Yea, I’d like to see you beat me.” You muttered still pouting.
    “Bet I could.” She retorted still chuckling.
    “Not at Pi Sho.” You replied smiling now, ready for the challenge.
    “Why don’t you two play, it’s been a while since I’ve simply watched a game.” The general said standing up and gesturing towards the now open seat. Yumi’s eyes widened, a high ranking officer had just offered her a seat.
    “No, no I couldn’t General Iroh, I’m sure Y.N. and I could play in our own rooms on my Pi Sho table.” Yumi said holding her hands up.
    “No please, I would love to watch you two, I insist.” He replied, a warm smile on his lips. Yumi bit her lower lip debating over whether she should do the proper thing and refuse so that she wouldn’t get into trouble as she would if she was on Commander Zhao’s ship or if she should treed into more dangerous waters and take the seat. Slowly a smile spread across her face and she moved into the seat as you cleared the board. You both started out, testing each others skill. This went on for about 15 minutes, each of you holding steady and not getting to far a head or behind. Finally Yumi moved in for the kill but you smiled and moved the White Lotus tile into place. Yumi’s face fell and a pout graced her lips. You had won. You smiled and General Iroh clapped.
    “Well done both of you, I knew you both would have great potential in this game. You both looked over and smiled at him.
    “Excuse me General Iroh.” A voice behind the general called. All three of you looked over to the new arrival to the small crowd on the bow of the ship. In the background you also noticed that the fierce sound of the fire bending fight had momentarily stopped as well.
    The man standing before the General was the same man from earlier, Zhang.
    “Oh yes, you’re going to show the girls their work schedules now.” General Iroh said smiling pleasantly.
    “Yes sir.” He replied. You inwardly groaned, and just when you where starting to have some fun.
    “Come with me, the head chief wants to meet you both. Y.N., when you aren’t attending to anything Prince Zuko would be assigning you, you should report to either the kitchen or to me, it doesn’t matter which. Most of the crew will have breaks and meals at the same time; we always have someone at the wheel and in the crows nest but as you would have guessed we switch off. Y.N. every Monday you will be working in the crows nest during your normal break time. You will switch off with Shu, our normal person in the middle of evening break. Yumi, you will be working it every Wednesday.” He instructed as you mentally tried to retain this schedule long enough to be able to go write it down.
    “Each break is 15 minutes long, each main meal, Lunch and Dinner, is a half an hour. Breakfast is as long as you want it to be since you may get up as early as you choose, but if you get up to late be prepared to go without breakfast, we don’t have very many extra men on this ship to work so you had better not be late.” He gave you both a stern look.
    “If you are sick notify someone as soon as you can so that we can find some way of replacing you. We don’t make inspections of whether you’re really sick because people around here do not like working double shifts, if you are sick you’ll have to deal with a generally cranky crew. So I suggest you don’t skip work unless you have to.” You both looked at each other nervously. Man, this guy just seemed to have the ability to make anyone take his words seriously.
    Zhang introduced you to the chief cook. He was nothing like Miguel in stature, he was fairly thin and had a tuff disposition, the only similarities where that he had huge hands and he was taller than most people you had met. His name was Zee. For the rest of the day you avoided going to ask Prince Zuko what you should do by diving head first into work that had to be done in the kitchen. You had a bad feeling his answer would be similar to what he had told you before his Agni Kai with Zhao.
    Just stay out of my way.
    Yumi too dived into kitchen work. Zee was not letting up at all on her, he was teaching her how to make different dishes. So far Yumi was able to do well enough to keep from getting yelled at. At one point you swore you saw a smile twitch onto his lips when she set a finished plate in front of him and then turn to begin the next task. Then again the tears from the onion could be messing with your vision, you never know…

    Just before sunset you ran out of things to do and you where booted out of the kitchen. Sighing, you made your way to the deck where you found Zuko looking out at the sea.
    “Prince Zuko?” You asked quietly. He made no move to acknowledge you.
    “Prince Zuko?” You asked again, a little louder this time.
    “What is it?” He asked impatiently, though it seemed less intense than before.
    “I was told to report to you to see if you needed anything or if you wanted me to do anything for you tomorrow.” You replied, steeling yourself up for his reply, which again was probably for you to leave him alone.
    “I don’t need looking after.” Zuko muttered.
    “Obviously…” You muttered to yourself and then sighed.
    “Yes, I know that prince Zuko, I’m sorry to have bothered you.” You grumbled biting down on your tong as you turned to leave.
    A week passed like this. In the morning you would get up and meet with Yumi for breakfast. Then you would check to see if Prince Zuko needed anything. One day you accidently interrupted his training and accidently caused him to fall flat on his butt making him yell at you, this of course didn’t actually keep you from laughing at him before hastily retreating. Then you would report to the kitchen which always seemed to be in need of workers. You would eat with Yumi at lunch, go out to find Prince Zuko training again and then get called over to play a game of Pi Sho with Iroh, sometimes he would ask you to play another. Then you would go to Zhang and run a few errands for him.
    When dinner came you all would meet in the boiler room and have food Yumi had cooked as part of her ‘training’. Most of the men drank alcohol and got a little tipsy but not many got too drunk. You would then either have to report to the crows nest or have free time. Most of which you spent drawing on barrowed paper from Yumi or a few of your other new co-workers or playing Pi Sho, chess or some other game with Yumi. Once in a while you where able to find some alone time to practice your fire bending, which you whole heartedly admitted was still quite pitiful. That was one plus you did get for having to check with prince Zuko every morning, after deciding to wait until he was done or until he took a break you began watching him. Not because he had his shirt off most of the time (that was simply an added bonus lol) but because you where able to remember some of his fire bending moves and try them out after dinner.
    On Thursday of the second week you made your way up to the stern of the ship, as usual Zuko was training. You grumbled a bit and moved over to where General Iroh sat waiting patiently for his normal before dinner Pi Sho opponent to show up. Sitting down in a bit of a huff you looked down at the board setting down a tile.
    “You seem a bit frustrated.” He commented as he too began to place tiles on the board.
    “It’s nothing.” You muttered in response.
    “If it where then you wouldn’t have missed this.” He said moving a tile over. Crud, he’s right, I completely missed all of this.
    “Sorry, I guess my game is a little off tonight.” You replied blinking as you tried to think of a way out of the mess you had gotten yourself into.
    “So, what is on your mind?” He said again as he again moved a tile, the clacking sound rebounding off the board and into your ears.
    “You won’t like the answer.” You replied truthfully.
    “Try me I’ll try not to throw you off the boat.” He laughed; you smiled, shacking your head at his dry humor.
    “Well, its Prince Zuko, I know you assigned me to be his…personal worker…” You tried to refrain actually saying it unless it was necessary.
    “But he seems to get more mad at me when I try to help him rather than actually giving me stuff to do… sometimes I feel like I really shouldn’t even bother him at all and just stick to kitchen duty.” You finally relented, looking up hesitantly, hoping the General had indeed been joking about the throwing-you-off-the-boat-thing. He looked back at you and smiled gently.
    “I’m sorry for my nephew’s behavior; he just…has a hard time admitting he needs help with anything sometimes.” He admitted. You chuckled slightly.
    “You can say that again.” You chuckled quietly. The general really had a way of making you feel better.
    “Hey look, I actually managed to get out of that mess I put myself in!” You exclaimed out loud happily.
    “So it would seem.” General Iroh replied back smiling as he set another tile down, trying to stay focused you placed down another tile.
    “We’ll be making port soon.” Iroh said smiling. You smiled as well.
    “So I’d heard, I’ve already been assigned to pick up some stuff for the chief, Yumi and I will be going together so we don’t have to make as many trips. I’m also hoping to buy some new blankets; the ones in my room are kind of scratchy.
    “Very true, when Prince Zuko and I first set sail I noticed that myself. First chance I got I went to the market.” Iroh chuckled.
    “Hey, I saw that!” You laughed as you placed a tile down making Iroh blink and then laugh loudly. You had managed to evade one of his ‘game winning, white lotus, secret moves’.
    “Ha, ha, maybe I should have waited to ask what was on your mind after I had won.” He chuckled as he put down a tile. The game actually ended up in Iroh’s favor as usual. However Iroh commented how much you had improved since you had started playing against him a week and a half ago.
    “How do you figure that one?” you asked curiously as you looked over the board again, still trying to figure out where everything had gone so wrong.
    “It took me longer to beat you.” He replied as you looked up at him questioningly.
    “But you still beat me.” You replied frowning.
    “Yes, but you where able to block me earlier in the game.” Iroh replied holding up a finger in a teaching manor.
    “So?”
    “So, a week and a half ago you wouldn’t have even known what I did. You are making progress.” Iroh replied smiling.
    “Yea, I still wish I cold beat you now and again at least once.” You chuckled rubbing the back of your head.
    “Y.N. no one can beat a master when they first try.” Iroh replied as you rolled your eyes, ignoring how he had placed himself in the ‘master category’.
    “Yes but I didn’t start yesterday, I’ve been playing since I was little.” You argued in a pouting manor.
    “That’s beside the point, Y.N., everyone has different personalities, and in games those personalities come with traits and strategies, if the person is stubborn they will fight to win till the very end, if a person is unpredictable and random, so will his moves be.” Iroh replied as he gestured to the board.
    “You mean like how you seem to always have something up your sleeve on and off the Pi Sho board.” You muttered, still not happy about his placement of you as Zuko’s personal assistant.
    “Sometimes when you face off with someone on the Pi Sho board you will be able to do better against them the more you play against them.” Iroh continued, ignoring your comment.
    “You mean like the saying ‘Even if you don’t succeed, try, try again’?” You asked.
    “I’ve never heard that saying before, but that is exactly what I’m saying.” Iroh replied as you sweat dropped. Was there nothing in this world that was the same as your world? For a split moment you felt a pang of loneliness. The loneliness of being so far away from home with nothing at all that reminds you of home. The only thing you had that kept you from thinking that you might be crazy was the clothes on your back and your vivid memories of home. Iroh seemed to notice you sudden mood swing.
    “Oh speaking of which, you never taught me how to play… what was that board game you mentioned… checkets?” Iroh asked trying in vain to pronounce it. You chuckled outright.
    “Checkers, and if you wait a moment I’ll try and get some stuff to make the board and game pieces.” You said smiling.
    “I would like that very much.” Iroh replied as you began walking towards the entrance to the inside of the ship.