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Chapter Text

When Zuko came back onto the ship, Miyu wasn't there. That wasn't that rare. She rarely waited around for anybody. Zuko didn't think anything of it. She was probably in the hold hunting rat-snakes.

He also thought very little of it when she didn't come to to sit with him as he checked the log books, or with his uncle as he trained. She liked her solitude and she liked her freedom. After all she wasn't a pet, she was a ship's cat, and this distinction was by mutual agreement.

He missed her at night when he was getting into bed, but she wasn't always there when he got into bed. Often she came in later as he was drifting off to sleep. But that didn't happen either and when he awoke to find her still missing, that's when he began to worry.

o0O0o

"Uh guys, I think we stole the Fire Sages' cat," Sokka said.

"That is one ugly cat," Katara cooed. "Aren't you, sweetie?"

The cat drew its ears back and hissed in reply.

Sokka eyed it warily. "Yeah, I wouldn't try petting it if I were you."

"I know that, Sokka, I'm not stupid."

Aang turned around on Appa's head as Momo came over to bat the cat in the face. It batted right back, leaving a thin red scratch on Momo's nose. "It uh, seems friendly."

"What are we going to do with it?" Katara asked, putting her hand on Momo's head and petting him while he chittered sulkily. "We can't exactly take it back to the Fire Sages. They'll try to arrest us again."

"Well we're not keeping it. It hurt Momo."

"Awwww, I didn't know you cared, Sokka."

"Look, all I'm saying is he was here first. He has seniority."

"It's kind of cute," Aang said, peering down at her as Appa flew on toward the Earth Kingdom coast. "Anybody know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"I am not checking." Sokka shook his head firmly.

"Me neither."

"Cowards," Katara called them both.

"Hey, you're not checking either," Sokka pointed out.

"Okay, so we're all cowards." Katara held her hand out to the cat gingerly, and the cat studiously ignored her.

Aang slid down into the saddle. It turned its single unblinking yellow eye on him, its tail flicking in warning. When he quietly joined Sokka and Katara on the other side of the saddle, it curled up. But its eye stayed open and focused on them.

"I'm not sure it belonged to the sages," Katara said, examining it from a distance. "It looks like a stray."

"I don't know," Aang said. "It's kind of fat."

"Maybe it's a really good hunter," Sokka offered. "But yeah, it doesn't exactly act like a pet either."

Suddenly, Aang's face erupted in a gleeful grin. "I just noticed it kind of looks like Zuko."

At the name, the cat's good ear flicked toward them.

"Oh yeah," Sokka snickered. "Yeah, you're right."

It sat up to watch them, torn up ear and scared face making it look fearsome. It glared at them like it knew they were laughing at it.

Sokka grinned at it. "Actually, that would be a great name for it. Hey fella, do you think you're a Zuko?"

"No no." Aang's smile widened, and he held up one finger, nose in the air. "Prince Zuko. We should show him the proper respect."

They broke down laughing, and the cat hissed at the commotion.

"Well kitty cat," Katara told it. "I guess you're a him. I mean, until you yet us lift your tail, or go into heat or something."

"Gross, Katara."

"Shut up, Sokka."

"Welcome to the group, Prince Zuko," Aang said gravely.

o0O0o

The ship's hallways were lined with small bowls of fish guts, smelling worse by the second, but Miyu hadn't touched any of them. The cook reported she hadn't come sniffing around the kitchen either. "What if she's hurt and stuck somewhere?" he asked his uncle.

His uncle shrugged.

He stuck his head out of the control tower. "I want every inch of this ship searched," he commanded. "Check the bilge, the hold, the cabins, everywhere she likes to go!"

When the crew didn't immediately leave to follow his orders, he marched out on deck. "Now!"

The men scattered, whether to follow his orders, or simply to find something to do out of the way of his temper, was impossible to tell.

"Did you check the skiff?" His uncle asked from inside the control tower. "Could she have slipped in before you locked it back up?"

Vaguely, Zuko remembered rubbing her ears as he sailed to the sanctuary island. He ran off to check.

The whole way into the skiff's hold, he imagined opening the skiff up to find Miyu staring back at him, eye full of betrayal for leaving her trapped there for a whole day and a half. But when he opened the skiff up, she was nowhere to be found. He searched every inch of it before a horrible idea struck him.

He bolted back to the control tower and took the stairs into the cockpit two at a time. "Helmsman!" He shouted, out of breath. "Turn this ship around!"

"What are you doing, Prince Zuko!" his uncle demanded, raising his voice in alarm.

The helmsman, Zuko noted, hadn't started on the process of turning the ship."

"I left Miyu on the island with the Fire Sages," he yelled.

"Calm down and stop shouting," his uncle said kindly. "We can't go back."

"What do you mean?" Zuko shouted. "We have to go get her!"

"The Fire Navy blockade is in the way," his uncle explained patiently. "Remember what happened when you tried to run it?"

Zuko flushed.

"Besides, we are following the Avatar. Do you plan to leave his trail and let him slip away."

Zuko looked at him, torn.

o0O0o

Prince Zuko jumped out of the saddle before Appa's feet even touched the ground. He darted off into the trees. "Well that takes care of that problem," Sokka said.

Aang stared off into the underbrush sadly. "I guess."

o0O0o

But a few hours later, Prince Zuko was back, with a fat mouse-pigeon clutched in his jaws and a smug gleam in his eye.

"Hello, little guy," Katara whispered. "Good to have you back."

Prince Zuko glowered at her.

"Maybe it's all the splashing around you did," Sokka said. "Maybe he can tell."

"Maybe he's just shy," Katara shot back. "He doesn't know us."

"Either way, thanks to your splashing, we have to go into town to buy more supplies," Sokka reminded them, folding his arms. "Because somebody splashed all our supplies down the river."

"Sorry, Prince Zuko, you're going to have to wait here with Appa," Aang said, opening his arms and letting Momo scurry into them. "Unless you let one of us carry you."

The cat eyed them all disdainfully.

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

o0O0o

"What's the meaning of this mutiny?" Zuko shouted, marching into the cockpit. "No one told you to change course!"

His uncle cleared his throat. "Actually, someone did. I assure you it is a matter of utmost importance, Prince Zuko."

"Is it something to do with the Avatar?"

"Even more urgent." His uncle didn't smile. "It seems I've lost my lotus tile."

"Lotus tile?" Zuko sneered.

"For my Pai Sho game," his uncle told him, as if the words he was saying made any sense. "Most people think the lotus tile insignificant, but it is essential for the unusual strategy that I employ."

Zuko stared at him, shocked and enraged all at once. "You've changed our course for a stupid lotus tile?"

His uncle smiled expansively. "See, you, like most people, underestimate its value. Just give me ten minutes to check the merchants at this port of call. Hopefully they'll have the lotus tile in stock and I can get on with my life."

Zuko gritted his teeth. "So when I want to change course to rescue Miyu from where I accidentally abandoned her, it's a foolish waste of time, but when you want to change course to buy a Pai Sho tile instead of hunting the Avatar, like we're supposed to, it's perfectly reasonable!"

"Thank you for understanding, Nephew!"

Zuko let his feelings be known in a great jet of flame from his mouth to the ceiling, but his uncle's smile never faltered.

"We'll find you a kitten while we're there," his uncle promised.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" he snarled. "It's not going to be Miyu."

o0O0o

Katara slipped the scroll out of the bag and padded down to the water. In the darkness, one yellow eye glowed, as its owner followed her down to the riverbank.

The water refused to cooperate. Her water whip collapsed over and over again. Prince Zuko sat at the edge of the water, out of reach of her splashing, licking his paw and watching her.

"Okay, Katara, shift your weight through the stances," she told herself. But the water collapsed again. The sound of metal grinding against the ground startled her. She whipped around, and started running before she even realized what she saw, the pirates, and Zuko. When one of the pirates grabbed her, she bent water right in his face. The water whip. It worked.

But as soon as she was free, Zuko caught her by the wrist. "I'll save you from the- Miyu!"

Katara stumbled back as he let go. "Miyu?"

"You stole my cat!" he squalled, fire wreathing his fists.

Ignoring his spitting fury, the cat, apparently named Miyu, strolled over to Zuko and headbutted him in the legs, nuzzling his boots with a purr.

"We did not," Katara retorted indignantly. "He just showed up a few days ago. We didn't steal him!"

"Miyu's a girl!"

Katara didn't care. She took advantage of Zuko's distraction as he picked up Miyu, and bolted away. Straight into the arms of a waiting pirate. She screamed with frustration and tried to kick his shin. He lifted her clear off the ground.

Holding Miyu one handed, Zuko dug something out of his pocket and dangled it in front of his cat, letting her bat at it. Katara gasped. "My mother's necklace! How did you get that?"

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're wondering," he told her. "I don't do that, unlike some people here."

Katara thrashed in the air, but the pirate held on tight. "For the last time, we didn't steal your stupid pet!"

"Miyu is not a pet," the bald prince yelled.

"Uh huh."

"She's a ship's cat. She's very useful!"

Katara kicked hard into the pirate's leg, but he swung her away from himself before the blow connected. She landed in the dirt and scrambled to her feet. "Give me my mother's necklace!"

"You know, I was going to offer it to you in exchange for telling me where thr Avatar, is," he sniped. "But I think I'm just going to give it to Miyu as a cat toy. She deserves it after you stole her and traumatized her."

"We didn't traumatize-"

"Enough of this garbage," the pirate captain cut in. "You promised the scroll!"

Zuko put the necklace away and pulled out the waterbending scroll. Hitching Miyu into the crook of his arm, he held a handful of fire under the scroll. "I wonder how much money this is worth?"

Gasps from the pirates accompanied a strangled "No," from the captain.

Zuko smirked. Katara wanted to hit him. "A lot, apparently. Now you help me find what I want, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the boy and meet back here."

He passed the cat to his uncle, but before he walked away, he planted a kiss on her forehead.

o0O0o

Zuko watched helplessly as the skiff sailed straight over the waterfall. "My boat!"

Then, his uncle started laughing. Zuko was ready to murder him. It wouldn't be too hard. He was a soft old man, he told himself. "Prince Zuko, you're really going to get a kick out of this."

Zuko glowered at him, certain he would not get a kick out of it.

His uncle held up a Pai Sho tile. "The missing lotus tile was in my sleeve the whole time!"

He snatched the tile out of his uncle's hand and threw it as hard as he could, vibrating with fury. Miyu mewed loudly at his sudden movement.

"I don't know why you're so angry, Prince Zuko," his uncle chided. "You got your pet back."

"Miyu is not a pet!"

His uncle shook his head. "If anything, this whole mess proves that's not true, Nephew."

Zuko put a hand on Miyu's head and rubbed her tattered ear. Mollified, she stopped squirming. "Just shut up, Uncle."

"You know," his uncle said. "Now that you've done that, I'm going to have to get a new white lotus tile."

"Absolutely not," he snapped, beginning the long trudge back to the ship.

His uncle followed with a smile. "It's your own fault, Nephew, if you hadn't thrown it in the water..."

"It's a stupid waste of time, and it serves you right if you never play Pai Sho again!"

"Oh believe me, Nephew," his uncle said wryly. "The white lotus tile is not a stupid waste of time. It's more important than you can possibly imagine. Now come on. Let's get your pet back to the ship."

"She's not a-"

But his uncle only laughed.

o0O0o

"Hey wait a second..." Aang said, once they were in the air. "Where's Prince Zuko?"

Sokka waved his hands back at the waterfall. "Over there somewhere, probably still throwing a tantrum."

"I mean the cat, Sokka."

"Yeah, I knew that," he said unconvincingly.

"She's probably in the same place," Katara told them, fighting back a grin.

"Why do you look so happy?" Sokka asked. "I thought you liked the little one-eyed monster."

"Her name's Miyu." Katara couldn't keep it in any longer. She grinned from ear to ear, snorting with laughter.

"It doesn't matter what you named it, since we're probably not going to see it again," Sokka said sulkily, almost sad.

"I don't know about that," she said, then paused for effect. "She's Zuko's pet."

"No way!"

"Yes way," Katara snickered. "You should have seen him cuddling her, and kissing her, and telling her how sorry he was that she got kidnapped by us big meanies."

"Seriously?" Sokka asked, delighted.

"That's us." Aang doubled over laughing. "Big mean cat kidnappers!"

Katara tried to look stern. "I hope you're ashamed of yourself, Aang. There's no excuse for kidnapping someone's cat."

Momo hopped down from the rim of the saddle and chittered at them, rubbing the still healing scratch on his nose.

"It's okay, Momo," Katara told him. "No more mean cats."

With a soft burbling coo, he slipped under Aang's arm, blinking sleepily at Katara, and curled up contentedly, closing his eyes as Aang rubbed his ears.

Chapter Text

"Are you happy to be back on a ship again?" her human asked her.  A lesser creature might have deigned to answer him, but not Miyu.  She just looked at him out of her one eye, flicked her tail, and sped off down the hall.

It wasn't the same as the ship from before.  It was bigger, for one thing, and the smell of age and slow decay didn't hang around it like a comforting shroud, but it moved under her feet the same way, and the same metallic tang filled her nose.  The humans's fake feet rang when they hit the metal the same way, and small stupid creatures hid in the same kinds of places.  It didn't take long before she had a plump rat-lizard in her jaws.

o0O0o

The human with the buns in her hair lay sleeping.  Miyu watched from the floor as the ship swayed.  Miyu liked her buns.  If she ever found herself on the human's shoulders, she would have something to play with.  They were in little cloth bags for the night, and it struck her that she didn't have to wait.  She could climb up and swat at them now as the human slept, and she would never know.  She could even steal one of the bun bags and runaway with it back to her human and play with it while he slept.

Miyu hopped up onto the bed and padded her way over to the human's head.

The human blinked one eye open, half hidden behind the fall of her hair.  Miyu wasn't worried.  Humans could only see in the very brightest of lights.

"What are you doing in here?" the human mumbled.

Miyu took no notice, but before her paw could bat at the bun, the human's arm snaked out from under her blanket and knocked it away.  Miyu batted at the hand instead.

"You're kind of creepy, you know," the human said, her voice a dark, gentle rumble.  She shifted on the bed and put a hand out to Miyu.  The human had left a place for her just like her human did.  The blankets were warm from the human's body.  Miyu butted her head up against the hand.  The human smiled as Miyu lay down next to her, and the next thing Miyu knew, there was a hand stroking her fur.

o0O0o

The hole wasn't that small.  It only took a wriggle and a twist, and Miyu was inside.  In a patch of sunlight from the grille, the old, round human who smelled like tea, sat with his legs crossed.  Miyu pressed her head under his hand.  Her back arched as she rubbed herself against it.

It was cold down there in the cage they had put him in.  His hand was warm and large.

"Hello, little one," he murmured.  "It is good to see you."

As his hand moved its way up and down her back, Miyu purred, but she stopped, ears twitching at the sound of skittering in the shadows.  She could smell them.  There was a nest somewhere, with fat little rat-lizard babies, and an exhausted mother, reluctant to move her brood.

The old round human chuckled.  "Are you here to visit me, little one, or are you here to find your dinner?  I'm happy either way."

Shooting him a quelling look, Miyu padded silently along the sheet metal floor, back into the deep shadows.  Her single pupil went wide to catch the light  Her muscles rolled fluidly as she crouched down.  Her head shot forward teeth latching onto the mother rat-lizard's tail.  The tail came away in her mouth, but the force had pulled the rat-lizard backward.  Grabbing its body with her teeth, she pulled it free of its hidden nest and trapped it between her paws.  The rat-lizard and her babies squeaked frantically.  All thoughts of a quick meal dissolved.  Gleefully, Miyu whipped her body around, batting the rat-lizard mother in front of her with her paw.  She now sat crouched between her and her nest.  She her free, to try to run around her, back to her babies, but before she could make it even halfway around, Miyu pounced again, trapping her beneath her belly.  Stunned, the rat-lizard mother lay still under her, so Miyu waited.

And when she felt the faint movements of the rat-lizard mother against her stomach, she leapt up, let her scurry almost all the way back to her nest, and then bit straight through her spine.

With the mother dead, Miyu turned her attention to the babies.  They were too small and stupid to be much fun, so she ate them quickly, and returned to the mother.  She carried it over to the old round human.

She flopped down beside him with her prize.  He grimaced at her, rubbing between her ears as she ate.  "You are a vicious little thing."  She was.  It was nice that someone appreciated this about her.  Even when the rat-lizard mother was no more than a rusty smear on the prison floor, Miyu lay next to him, purring, full and contented, drifting into a nap under his warm hand.

o0O0o

The grate screeched open.  Miyu jerked awake, turning her one eyed glower on the offender.  "Uncle-" he stopped, looking down at her, bemused and grumpy.  "How did you get in here?"

Miyu leapt to her feet and slipped through the bars, out into the small space between the metal wall and the human-sized cage that the other humans had put the old round human into.

Really, Miyu thought the old round human should have scratched and bitten the humans who put them in there.  That's what Miyu had done to the human on the old ship who made the food, when he tried to put her in a cage, and he never tried again.

"Uncle, I just wanted to check on you, to make sure you're okay."

The old round human didn't answer.  Miyu wound idly around her human's feet as he looked back to the old round human, the scent of his agitation heavy in the stagnant air.

"Are he guards treating you alright?" her human's voice cracked on the last word.

The old round human didn't even look at him.  Miyu's tail twitched with uneasiness.  This wasn't how the old round human acted. At least, she had never seen him act this way before.  He always was warm and friendly with her human, even when her human was yelling at him.  This was new.  It was unpredictable, and unpredictable things were dangerous.

"Uncle, please," her human whispered, but the old round human still didn't respond.  He just sat still and silent, facing away, his eyes on the mother rat-lizard's drying blood.

o0O0o

"Here kitty kitty kitty!"  The human with the swingy braid did that thing humans did where they showed all their teeth. Miyu hissed.  The swingy braid human shrugged her shoulders and walked away.  Miyu watched her go, reevaluating her opinion of her.  At least she was smart enough to listen, and to back off when Miyu told her to.  Many humans were not that smart.

o0O0o

Miyu liked her human's bed well enough, but it lacked one essential quality.  The metal of the deck outside was warm with the sunlight, but not yet too warm.  The sunlight soaked into her fur, its warmth seeping into her, chasing away the cold and damp of the sea spray. She curled up in an out of the way corner, far from careless human feet, and closed her eye for a nap in the bright, warm glow of the tropical sun.

o0O0o

The air was acrid with the scent that lightning left behind, the sense that the air itself had been burned.  Miyu fled to the relative safety of an awning, but the rain such smells always heralded, never fell.  Miyu scanned the horizon suspiciously, but the sky was clear, the few clouds over hear were puffy and white, and too far apart to threaten a storm.

There was a human out on deck, unconcerned by the smell.  This was a strange human.  She smelled a lot like Miyu's human, like they might be from the same litter, but she didn't act like him, and her human stank of fear around her.  She eyed the human warily as she crept closer, away from the safety of the awning and the shadows it provided.

The human was alone, moving her body in a way Miyu had come to associate her human reeking of frustration, despair, and not wanting to be bothered.  But this human didn't smell that way.  She didn't smell of anything at all, except herself.

Miyu leapt up onto the railing to observe her.

The human's eyes fell on her, and her mouth curled up, but she never stopped the pattern of her movements.

It came too fast for Miyu to get away, or even to see it coming.  The air boiled, and the smell of it stung her nose.  She leapt away, her one remaining eye blinded at the flash of it.  The human's fingers still curled with smoke and steam when Miyu landed in a stunned heap on the deck.  She could smell singed fur, her own, she knew it had to be.

The human laughed at her, softly, but meanly.  Miyu hissed.

The human stopped laughing.  "You should be grateful, you know.  I could have easily killed you if I wanted."

The human did smell like something now, something that made her smell even more like her human, but Miyu couldn't tell what it was.  Over the smell of burned air and fur, it was hard to tell what anything was.

o0O0o

Miyu's paws thudded against the metal with every step, because she couldn't see where to put them.  Spots of light covered her vision as she made her graceless way down the twisting, maze like hallways of the ship.

Her human wasn't in the cabin he had claimed when she finally made it there.  He had left the door closed tight, barring her entry.  There was nothing for it, nothing Miyu could do.  Dazed and wrung out, unable to even contemplate finding some other bolt hole in which to lick her wounds, Miyu curled up on the floor outside the door, closed her eye, and waited for things to feel normal again.

o0O0o

The door opened, startling Miyu awake.  She scrambled to her feet, blinking and unsettled.

"Miyu, sweetheart, what are you doing out here?" her human asked, voice pitched in the lilting tones he used only for her.  Miyu shot into the cabin and onto the bed. As her human sat down beside her, Miyu let herself stop worrying.  He was big and warm, and most of all, safe.  "What's wrong, baby girl?"

His nostrils flared, eyes going wide. He picked up a half-burned candle from the bedside table and lit it.  It cast a faint light over hem both as he ran his hands carefully through her singed fur.  Her skin stung.  It wasn't bad, but it was... unpleasant.  Still, she purred.  She didn't want him to stop.  "Who did this to you, baby girl?" he whispered.  Miyu of course, couldn't answer him, but that didn't matter.  It didn't sound like a real question anyway.  It sounded like he already knew the answer.

o0O0o

The door was open just a crack, but it was enough.  A sliver of light fell onto the floor and the bed from the dim little lamps in the hall.  Miyu could sleep, safe in the knowledge that she wasn't trapped, and nothing on the ship could creep around too quietly for her to hear.  The fat old rat-lizard she found menacing the rice stores sat easily in her stomach, as did the shrew-gull that had made the error of landing on the deck within striking distance.  Together they left her satiated and sleepy.  The myriad smells of a strange new land wafted tantalizingly out of reach, just waiting for her when the ship docked, and when she woke, she planned to head to the kitchens to wheedle gobbets of meat out of the human who made the food.  The one on this ship was much nicer than the one on the smaller ship from before.

The sky would be dark by then, and the human who made the food would be cleaning up what the other humans had left behind.  The best time to beg.

Miyu drifted lazily in and out of sleep as the hours passed, safe and content, and surrounded by her human's scent on the blankets and pillow, more than making up for the darkness and the cool of the cabin.

She could almost forget where she was, and think herself back on the other ship, the one from before, before all the strangeness, back when she thought her world would never change.

The door opened.  Miyu's eye snapped open, flashing in the darkness of the cabin.  Her human stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him.  There went her plans to scrounge leftovers from the human who made the food.  Her human would just have to make it up to her.  She thrust her head into his hand insistently, which he answered by rubbing his hand into her fur.

Miyu purred.

Her human collapsed on the bed as if his knees had simply made the decision for him to no longer bear his weight. The bed sagged beneath him, creating a valley in the blankets.  Miyu padded over to him.

"Hey, Miyu," he murmured as his hands found that place between her ears and rubbed.  "Did you do anything interesting today?"

Miyu's only reply was to continue purring.  Miyu had done many interesting things, but she had learned the first time she had dropped a rat-lizard on his pillow, back when he had been smaller and skinny, and smelled of growing and constant hunger, that he didn't want to know the details of such things, even if he always asked.

"We're landing soon," he said.  "Sorry.  I know you like the ship."

Miyu waited for him to get up, to start doing all of the familiar things he always did to get ready for sleeping, like taking off his fake feet and bright fabric coverings and letting down his hair, but he didn't do any of these things.  He just lay down and buried his cheek in the blanket.

"It's almost over now," he told her, voice soft.  "We're almost home."  But the stench of fear and agitation rolled off him in waves.  Miyu didn't like the smell. I She wanted it gone.  So she nuzzled him, rubbing her head against his legs, hands, and face, her purring like the low rumble of the ship's engines, until he was coated in her scent, until it covered up the fear smell.

And if she got that fear smell all over herself in the process, if it filled her nostrils and clung to her fur, that was a sacrifice she was willing to make.