A/N – this is set five years after the war and all that stuff

A/N – this is set five years after the war and all that stuff. The whole group lives in Ba Sing Sei together.

The house was huge.

It was four stories high, a magnificent work of art. It had once belonged to a prime minister or an important diplomat or something rich and stuffy like that-Katara couldn't quite remember. She did know, however, that the place was a wreck.

The four floors were divided by two people to a floor, and the fourth floor was the kitchen, living room, and a huge room that took up half the floor. It had been completely remodeled to withstand the abuse it took, for it was the sparring room. The walls were stone and the floor wooden strewn with mats. The floor and walls were gouged by earth, water and air and scorch marks adorned them as well. The light came from the huge glass ceiling, seeing as any kind of light fixture would be immediately and utterly destroyed.

In the basement lived Toph and Aang, who, shortly after the war, had developed a more-than-friendly relationship–and though they each had a bedroom, everyone in the house turned a blind eye to the fact only one was necessary.

On the second floor, Sokka and Suki legally shared a bedroom-they had been married for 3 years. The spare bedroom was decorated for the baby Suki was expecting in another five months.

And on the third floor, there was a war zone. Oh, wait, Zuko and Katara lived there. Their rooms were decidedly separate, but there was a problem-each floor was designed for a couple, so there were two rooms if they had children or if they just wanted to sleep separately, but there was one bathroom. It had two sinks, one huge cabinet behind the mirror, two toilet, and one shower. Along everything but the shower, there was a thick black dividing line. Alone the counter, the floor, even inside the medicine cabinet, there was a clean, strict border. Neither ever crossed it except to walk to their respective side. The boundaries continued invisibly to the bedrooms-even if the door was open, one never entered the other's room without knocking or calling out.

This brings us to one morning in the kitchen. Toph and Aang were out buying groceries, and Suki was, of all things, going to the doctor to see about her baby. Sokka, Zuko, and Katara were in the kitchen eating breakfast. Katara and Suki were the only decent cooks, so they usually made the meals. However, neither could be bothered in the morning becase they weren't completely awake. Katara was, however, that morning, completely alert, and, having been woken by Zuko's sparring on the floor above, seriously annoyed.

Zuko rummaged through the fridge. "We have nothing to eat," he complained. "Where does all the food GO?"

"Into your mouth, you pig," Katara snapped, "you eat like a black hole."

"A WHAT?"

Katara groaned and smacked her forehead. "Just…eat some toast. We should have bread and butter."

Sokka jerked his head up. "Ooooh no. Do you remember the last time we let Zuko near the toaster? He got mad at it being slow and torched the whole thing."

"So? I'm not going to make his breakfast for him. If you want to, fine. But all I'll do is douse the toaster so he doesn't set my room on fire."

Zuko grumbled something intelligible under his breath and fumbled with the toaster.

"It won't come on."

Katara rose and dumped her dishes in the sink. She glanced at the toaster. "Zuko, you idiot! It's not plugged in."

Zuko looked at the cord like it had landed from outer space. "Oh."

Katara threw up her hands, knocking the toaster in the process. It fell off the counter and nearly connected at top speed with her foot when-

"You're welcome," said Zuko dryly, switching the toaster to his other hand and setting it back on the counter.

Katara stalked off with out so much as a 'Thank you.'

Zuko turned to Sokka. "Why does she hate me so much?" He slammed down the lever on the toaster and it began to heat up.

"She's always hated you. What's new?"

"She's supposed to hate YOU. You're her brother. Siblings fight."

"We fight."

"You argue. She's never attempted to murder you with a toothbrush when I dropped it on her side of the counter once."

"Yeah, well, she's not in love with me."

"She wasn't in love with the toothbrush either," Zuko snapped, unwilling to believe that the fiery waterbender who hated him so much liked him that.

"I'm talking about you. She likes you, you know. And you like her."

"Fat chance."

"Suit yourself. But everyone in this house besides her knows you're crazy for her. And everyone but you knows she feels the same way."

Zuko yanked his burned toast from the toaster, slapped butter on it, and stormed off to his room.

"You burned your toast." Katara observed. Zuko had been walking down the hall towards his room when he ran into to Katara coming from that direction.

"What were you doing in my room?" he asked suspiciously.

"Looking for you. I wanted to say I'm sorry for being so rude this morning."

Katara averted her eyes from his and waited for the inevitable, "Whatever." Instead she got a, "Yeah right. You're not really sorry, this just soothes your conscience."

Katara's temper flared. "Why can't you accept me apology like a normal person?"

"Why can't you be civil to me?!"

"You're not civil to me!"

"In retaliation only."

"Yeah, like if I started being nice to you you'd be nice back!"

"Maybe I would!"

"Maybe I'll fly to the market tomorrow instead of walking!"

Now they were shouting at each other, toe-to-toe and full-out raging.

"You're such a girl. Winning all your fights verbally."

"Not that you'd know a thing about girls."

"Why don't we settle this in the sparring room?"

"Fine!"

Both disappeared into their rooms and reappeared in the sparring room, poised to fight. Sokka ambled in with popcorn. He called them off, "Five, Four, Three, Two, One!"

The battle began. Sokka took cover behind his popcorn bag as they shot water and fire at each other. Ten solid minutes later, they were breathing heavily and sweat rolled off them both. Zuko delivered a particulary nastly blow and Katara cried out sharply. Immediately Zuko froze and the smoke and steam cleared to show Katara kneeling, her hands clasped at a long scorch mark across her thigh.

Sokka raced over. "Katara!" Zuko stood, frozen, his mouth open in horror at what he'd to-here, he was going to admit to himself what everyone else already knew-to the feisty waterbender who'd captured his soot-blackened heart.

Sokka clasped his sister's hand and searched her eyes for how badly she was injured. "Can I see? Take your hands away, Katara."

Katara pulled her other hand away, showing the ugly red mark and releasing the sickly odor of burned skin into the air. Zuko, with great willpower, pulled the lead from his feet and walked over to her. His hair, damp with sweat, hid the pain in his eyes. He hadn't wanted to hurt her…

At his approached, Katara drew in a sharp breath and gave him a look to put him six feet under. Still, he walked to her and knelt beside her. Sokka looked at him like he was crazy.

"Don't you think you've done enough?"

Zuko winced but remained beside her. "Please, I'm fire nation. I have more experience with burn wounds then I'd like to admit."

Reluctantly, Sokka backed away. Suki was home, he could hear her calling for him. He needed to ask her to talk to Katara, get her to lay off Zuko and realize he liked her just as much as she liked him.

Zuko studied the wound carefully, trying very hard not to think about how this was the most he'd ever seen of her legs.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he said gently. Katara reeled and hissed like a cat. "No thanks to you," she spat.

"Would 'I'm sorry' make you forgive me?"

"Not by a long shot."