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A Peculiar Digression

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Mike & Bryan's world.

AN: Just a pilot; seeing if the idea's interesting to anyone. Still deciding whether or not to continue, you know? Way more character interaction in the next chapter - and don't worry, I'm not a pagebreak junky. Just this chapter :P

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1. A Peculiar Assignment

It all started with an in-class assignment.

You know, Valentine's day was coming up, so the teacher though she'd mix it up a bit.

Professor Iio told her teenage classes not to take it too seriously - for it was merely an exercise in expressing feelings by means of prose. The assignment was to write a note to someone, explaining one's romantic feelings towards that person. It wouldn't be collected or shown to anyone else.

"All I ask is that you don't erase anything you write…"

And so began the problem. The adult had removed the cork from an already hyper-pressurized jar, expecting its contents to settle, to behave.

You know, I've spent these last years hunting you down... and when I stopped trying to kill you and joined you, I-

Nevermind, that's not what I meant to say.

When I first saw you, I thought you were really-

I'm bad at notes.

What I mean to say is, I don't think your giant blue coat makes you look fat-

I mean, you're hot. I mean pretty. Um...

Screw this.

Wanna make out?

Your body could generate enough lightning to burn the fire-proof fortress at Ba-Sing-Se, causing thousands to perish and the Earth kingdom to go up in flames, you're so hot-

If you go out with me, I won't kill you-

Your jokes are

Nevermind

I like your sword.

We've been friends for a long time, and after all we've been through, I think I love you.

And I know you need time to figure this out, but I don't want to wait.

You can do better than Zuko-

I love you.

Why are we even writing these things-

You already know I'd kill you if you broke up with me.

How's my favorite Kyoshi warrior?

By the way, I've always liked your facepaint. You look like a-

Maybe I shouldn't go there.

Meet me tonight for some-

Well, you know.

Hi cutie.

I'm pretty sure I already know what your letter says, and no, I will not wear my facepaint tonight. No matter how much you like it.

You know, just because I have a pink aura doesn't mean I'm stupid.

I know you were staring at my boobs that time we went to the beach-

But I forgive you, because you're cute.

I'm sure I could do a number on - I mean - help brighten your aura.

Hey, twinkle toes.

I'm not really in love with anyone, so I thought I'd write to my best friend.

If that's alright with you.

So...

I hate you. I hate your stupid face. Your stupid hair. I hate how everything's always about you, and how you're always so ridiculously angsty.

I could heal your scar sometime-

I wish I could like with the nice, sane guy for once-

I think I'm actually physically attracted to you.

Expecting the jar's contents to behave.

Boy, did she have another thing coming.

The class filed out, joking around and trying to grab each other's papers. Aang, of course, had more of an advantage, being able to weave skillfully through the crowd and snatch papers as he went - but the only paper he was really interested in was Katara's. And she wasn't willing to relinquish hers that easily.

Zuko picked up his piece of parchment, crumpling it up and throwing it in the wastepaper basket. He glanced back over his shoulder at Katara, bending some water from her canteen playfully at Aang, and smirked. He had a plan - or so he thought… for after the whole class and the professor had emptied out of the room, Toph grabbed Zuko's piece of paper (identifiable by his signature purple ink) from the trash and, bored, opened it up to find evidence that would prove one of her many theories right.

She wondered how much she'd be able to milk the situation before he got over it.