I slip back into the house unnoticed and make my way to my room. It's almost time to get up, but if I've learned anything it's that a little sleep is better than no sleep, so I collapse on my bed with a sigh, smiling softly with the knowledge that I'm only tired because I've helped people.

         “Kara!”

         The shout echoes through my head and I sit straight up with a gasp, glaring at the sun streaking through the shutters. “I'll be right there!” I shout as I jump about, tugging on my clothes. When I finally trudge into the main room, Aki is sitting calmly at the table, two steaming bowls of porridge set before her. I give her a tired smile and slide into the creaky chair across from her.

         It's just wheat porridge--nothing much, but it's better than most usually have. I start to shove porridge into my mouth, but then Aki's quiet question stops me.

         “Did you... remember anything yet?”

         I swallow hard, feeling the familiar helplessness rise in me. I shake my head and duck down to my porridge again, hating the flood of knowledge that comes with her words. She asks me the same question every morning--and has ever since she found me six months ago, washed up on the shore near her house.

         I still remember the feeling of opening my eyes, a blinding headache making me close them immediately. Aki's soft voice, asking me my name. And the horrible, hateful realization that followed--that still follows--I don't know.

         I don't know my own name.

         I don't know where I'm from. I don't know what happened to me. I don't know who I am. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know much of anything--except that Aki took me in when no one else would. That she helps me every single day to move forward--and that without her I would probably be dead.

         I close my eyes against the tears that flood them--in all this time, no one has come looking for me. No one has been asking, anywhere, about a girl with blue eyes and chocolate brown hair that may have been seen around. I mean, maybe I just wasn't a nice person, or something... but really---no one? Not one single person in the world cares enough about me, whoever I am, to try and find me?

         I tell myself that they probably think I'm dead or just don't realize that I'm missing--maybe I disappear a lot. But I don't know--and I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will.

         Aki reaches out and touches my hand, and I have to stop myself from pulling away. I know she's just trying to help, but I don't want her sympathy. I can still do things--it's not like I'm invalid or anything. As is shown by my nighttime jaunts as The Painted Lady.

         The mere thought of becoming her again makes me smile, and I dig into my porridge with renewed vigor. Aki says nothing--she's used to my odd mood swings by now.

**__**

         Zuko stared around the bustling marketplace, scowling at their naiveté. They just kept carrying on, like nothing had happened. Like the Fire Nation wasn't just around the corner, always threatening; like they didn't have to scrape and save to make ends meet. Like they could actually be happy, living like this.

         Zuko forced back the thought that maybe he could be too--he knew better than to think that he could ever be happy. He was honor-less, hopeless, resolve-less… and completely alone. It hadn't taken long for Uncle to find him again, after the North Pole. A part of Zuko wished Iroh would've just left him in that Earth Kingdom prison to rot. It was no more than he deserved--he'd killed an innocent girl, after all, and was having serious urges to chase said girl's innocent friend, the Avatar.

         The lure of his honor got stronger every day, but Zuko fought it. He didn't deserve honor, and he couldn't desecrate her memory that way--not when she'd died saving him. Not when she'd--no! He mentally cursed himself, hating that he still felt this way, even after all the time that had passed.

         He couldn't stop seeing her face--the peace that had stolen over her features, the understanding. The trust. Why had she done it? The question reverberated in his head for the millionth time, beating his senses; his own private hatred. Zuko didn't understand why she'd saved him. She could've bended herself back onto the cliff and taken out the firebender, and then she would've been rid of the nuisance of him, too.

         After all, he had been chasing her and her friends for months, trying to capture the Avatar. If he didn't, he would never get his honor back! He would never return home... never feel the heat of the island sun or the sand beneath his feet. Never smell the fire lilies in his mother's garden, never watch the turtle ducks play in the pond.

         Never--he cursed himself again for his sentimentality. What was wrong with him lately? It seemed that he'd been even more melancholy than usual, and that was saying something. Being here in the northern Earth Kingdom, though, was as close as he'd been to.. that place since it had happened. But ever since Uncle had tried to make Zuko stop being the Blue Spirit, he'd been restless. If he was being honest with himself, he regretted leaving Uncle.

         He regretted being so hasty, because now he was alone. Even Uncle's tea addiction and fortune cookie sayings would be better than being alone with his mind. Zuko smiled wryly at the thought--lately anything seemed better than being alone.