Hey everybody!! Yeah, I know I should be updating HinaV, as some of you have kindly reminded me, and I AM (sorta) working on it. But I've been traveling these past 2 weeks, and with Zutara Week 2009 starting today, I decided to whip some entries out of my ass. Thus, this little fiction was born. Isn't it cute? =3 Besides that, everyone's about a year older in this story. So Katara's 15, Zuko's 17, Toph's 13, and I don't really care about the rest of the Avatar Gaang. As for the Ouran cast, everyone's the same age. And yes, I know I said some MorixToph, and that's what I meant. I don't fucking care if there's a 5 year age difference! If there's KakaSaku, then by God, there can be MoriToph! ^^; sorry, little rant i needed to get out of the way. Alright, I think that's it! Please R&R and keep your eyes open for the next chapter! It should be out later today :D Enjoy!

I hate, hate, HATE these stupid diplomacy missions. Why the heck did Zuko insist that I come? I'm needed at home! Repairing the village, restocking the supplies, acting as the go-between for the Southern Water Tribe and the other nations…being with Aang…

Katara mentally winced when she thought of Aang. She was leading him on, and she had known it since the day after he kissed her at Zuko's coronation.

The young bender sighed as she mentally argued with herself. I was high in a sense! High on the excitement, the thought of finally being free from Ozai, and all that stuff! You're just making excuses. You didn't have to let him kiss you, and of course you had to go and make it even worse by kissing him BACK. Again, it was a happy day! One of the best days in our lives! I wasn't going to go ruin it, now was I? Okay, you make something of a point. But you still should've told him. No! It was too soon…and besides, nothing else has really happened. He just holds my hand on occasion, tries to stand next to me whenever possible, is always trying to help me, kisses me on the cheek once in a while…Katara groaned. When she accepted the facts as they were, she realized there was virtually no hope that Aang would get over her.

"You alright Katara?"

The 15 year old snapped her head up to look at Zuko. He had a bit of a frown on his face and his eyes, those beautiful golden eyes, like melting-

Katara slapped herself. Physically slapped herself, drawing odd glances from Zuko and the Kyoshi Warriors.

"Um, Katara? You okay over there?" Toph asked. She was in the back of the group, protecting them from possible attacks, but she could hear the slap loud and clear, along with feeling the movement of Katara's body. It told the Earthbender that no one had hit Katara, but instead Katara had actually hit herself. Thus the question.

The spoken-of girl blushed from embarrassment. You idiot, keep it mental! Mentally slapping yourself is fine! Actually DOING it is a big, fat, freaking NO!

"Uhh, Yeah!" She managed to squeak out. "I, um, think that I may have accidently, uhhh, drunk some cactus juice! Yep, some cactus juice."

This resulted in more stares. "Katara, we're in the middle of the woods. How in the world did you find a desert cactus here? Unless you brought some with you…" Suki took advantage of the momentary halt to adjust her headdress. "Or did somebody spike your water with it?"

This drew a sharp intake of breath on Zuko's part. "Could someone be trying to sabotage our mission? But we're at peace right now…" His voice dropped to a mumble as Katara thought wildly.

"I, uh, you, er, cou-, see-, um, Aang!" She stuttered, hands waving around.

"Aang what?" One of Kyoshi asked. Not a whole lot of people knew they were technically together, though Katara didn't think they really were, but everyone could tell how protective Aang was with Katara and how he had clearly marked her as his girl. So whenever she mentioned Aang, every male in the vicinity would take a quick glance around to make sure he wasn't there. Even if the girl was cute, she was NOT worth crossing the Avatar.

"Um, maybe Aang was playing a joke and decided to put a bit of cactus juice in my water?" With a quick shake of her head, Katara continued. "Not enough for full hallucinations, but just enough to give everyone a laugh." She plastered what she hoped was a convincing smile on her face. "So, um, I'm good and all that."

Silence ensued. Nobody moved until Toph spoke up and said, "Well, Twinkle-Toes might do something stupid like that. I thought he was starting to grow out of that stuff finally, but I guess not."

The tension eased up slightly at this. "Now you're sure you're okay? We can stop and rest for a bit if you need…" As Zuko shifted his gaze from Toph to Katara, concern once again flooded his eyes. They had traveled long and far, though not always together, but they were much closer than friends. For some reason though, their relationship could not be described as something like siblings, or at least not to Zuko. Katara…was different, this he knew from experience. To him, Mai was like a sibling. A beautiful, sometimes lovable, demanding, and occasionally annoying sibling, but she was a sister to him none the less. It would be a terrifying day when he finally dragged up the courage to tell her that.

The Waterbender forced another wan smile. "I'm perfect, thanks. We really should be moving on; Sokka said that we needed to reach the ocean by tonight if we want to avoid a typhoon that's heading our direction." Her eyes flicked past Zuko. "Besides, judging by the sun, it should be noon pretty soon, and we can stop for lunch then."

Zuko nodded. This was entirely logical. And it would delay a certain question that he really should have asked Katara before they left.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"WHAT?!"

Zuko unplugged his ears. Well, she hadn't hit him (yet) so he figured that this was going better than he could've expected. Maybe Katara would take this alright after all.

Poor, innocent Zu-Zu was so terribly wrong.

"You want me to pose as your FIANCÉ?! What type of idiotic idea is THAT?!?!" Katara's face was redder than Zuko's fiercest fireball as she jumped up from the log they were sitting on. He wasn't quite sure if it was from embarrassment, flattery, or anger. Perhaps all three, but he wasn't one of the gifted people who understood women. Instead, he just winced and attempted to put on a brave face. It failed. Instead, he looked like a cross between a man that had eaten something incredibly rotten and a growling Platypus Bear.

"Um…well you see, the man we came across on an ocean patrol saw a picture of us all – you, me, Toph, Aang, Sokka – and asked if we were," The trembling young Firelord gulped, "engaged. Before, uh, I could correct him, he swept on about the, er, wonders of love and didn't give me a chance to break in." Another Sour Milk/Platypus Bear smile. "I thought it would be a bad idea to insult a possible alliance, especially one with such high technology, so I just let him think that you're my fiancé. He of course insisted that you come along with the group."

Zuko had carefully monitored Mount Katara throughout his little explanation and had almost sighed with relief when she seemed to calm down. When her face abruptly started to flush a deep red again, Zuko hurriedly added, "Not that I didn't want you along in the first place! Your battle skills are wonderful, and I'm sure that you'd do great as a temporary diplomat, but I knew you had stuff going on back in the Northern Water Tribe! So I wasn't planning on asking until the guy on the boat we found – his name's Tamaki Suoh –pleaded that you join us on our trip. Um, yeah, so that's why I need you to be, I mean PRETEND to be, my fiancé."

Katara glared at him while mentally screaming/squealing. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Fiancé! Zuko's freaking fiancé!!!! Please stop squealing. How could this be any better?!?! It's merely a misunderstanding on the other party's side. It means nothing. How can you even THINK that?! Look at the opportunity we have!! Foreign country. Engaged to Zuko. Pretending to be engaged to Zuko. Whatever. Don't you see?! See what? That you're a complete pervert? Hey, we're the same person technically, so don't go throwing around insults. And is there a problem with being perverted?! That's such a stupid question, I'm not even going to answer it. Would you both shut up? We probably, you know, should maybe ANSWER him?! Oh. Yeah.

She sighed dramatically as she pushed some loose hair out of her face. "Well, you're probably right. It would be bad to upset possible allies, so I guess I'll go along with it." Katara made a face as she shifted her weight to one side. "This guy sounds like a jerk though. Cutting off everyone and all that."

Both Zuko's eyes and mind were wandering a bit as he stared at the curves directly in front of him, neatly framed by Katara's blue dress. "Umm…yeah…" He muttered softly. Then a look of realization crossed his face, and he shook his head a bit. "Wait, no, not really. He's just, er, enthusiastic." Zuko's eye twitched. "Really enthusiastic."

They both groaned. "As in Bumi enthusiastic, Aang enthusiastic, or," Katara's eyes grew large, "Ty Lee enthusiastic?"

Zuko gave her a pitying look. "Ty Lee…but worse."

They both shivered with fear.

After their little panic attacks were finished, Zuko got off the log and swept off his pants. He had thought it might be a good idea to take Katara away from the rest of the party, just in case she whipped out some Waterbending on him. "We'd better be heading back to camp. Do you want to tell the others, or should I?"

A faint blush dusted Katara's cheeks. "Uhh, you can. I need to, um, feed the…the…Kyoshi Warriors? Yeah! They-they haven't had lunch yet, so I should go make them something to eat!" So, wringing her hands, tentatively smiling, Katara booked it out of there as fast as humanly possible.

With a heavy sigh, Zuko started making his way back to camp. He wasn't about to pressure his…fiancé… into telling the group the news, but damn, it was going to be a little awkward. Especially since Toph had taken to teasing him and Katara of late about how cute they would look together. Yep, awkward for sure.