"Here?" Zuko asked with a touch of nervous uncertainty in his voice as his hand came to rest low on her back, right over the swell of her rear end. Sweat soaked his hair, which he'd pulled back, but little strands had escaped and clung to his face. Suki was equally as damp, her short hair frizzing out as the heat of high summer built around them. The massive windows to Zuko's dojo were open to the breeze coming in off of the sea, but the air was hot and smelled faintly of volcanic ash.

"A…a little higher," Suki said, reaching behind her and pulling his hand a few inches higher to rest in the small of her back. Zuko's cheeks flushed even redder, a droplet of sweat navigating his temple, cheek and then the strong line of his jaw.

"Oh. Sorry," he mumbled in reply as she flashed him a grin that he didn't return. She stepped a little closer to him, sliding one hand over his shoulder, the other hand finding his. Their fingers folded together as the hand on her lower back shook a little. "Like this?"

"Perfect. See? You're doing fine," she said, looking up into his eyes. He stared back, standing stiffly in place as the small music box, their only accompaniment, rewound itself and started plunking out its tinkling song. "Remember what I showed you. Just move your feet and hold on to me."

"I think I can do that," he said, and there was a small smile on his lips that faded into concentration.

"One, two, three," she counted off and then Zuko started moving, leading her in the simple step pattern she'd been showing him for the last half-hour. He moved stiffly, but at an encouraging smile from her, he loosened up with each step. His hand tightened on her lower back as he looked down at his feet, silently counting the steps. She lifted his chin with her thumb and shook her head. "No, no. Look at me, not your feet. Don't think about the steps. Just move. Concentrate on me."

Zuko's gaze locked onto hers and didn't deviate an inch. His brow knit together in the middle as the hot breeze caught their frizzy hair. She shot him another encouraging smile and he cautiously returned it, letting one corner of his mouth tilt upward.

"How am I doing?" he asked.

"You're a natural, Zuko," she replied, nibbling on her lower lip as Zuko turned them in place. "You've got the steps down right. You just need to loosen up."

"You sound like Uncle," Zuko mumbled.

"Is he coming?"

"Are you kidding me? He wouldn't miss my humiliation for the world. He's been trying to get me to settle down and find 'a nice girl' for months now. I think he likes teasing me."

"Don't we all?"

"Shut it, you," Zuko said, eyes flashing. She grinned at him and saw that half-smile attempting to force its way past his insecurity. His frown won out and a look of abject misery boiled over him. "How am I supposed to dance with these women in front of everyone? I'm going to make a fool of myself. I can't do this."

"You're dancing just fine right now," she said as the song wound down and then tinkered out. They stopped dancing and stood together, still locked in a close embrace.

"Because I'm dancing with you," he said, catching her gaze. "You're different. You don't expect anything out of me and I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not when I'm with you. I can just…be. You know?"

"I, I know," she said as she took a breath and dropped her arms. Zuko slowly released her and they stared at one another for a long moment as she felt the floor dropping away beneath her, trying in vain not to let her mind wander where it wanted to go most.

Don't think about it. Don't look at him like that… He's your friend and nothing more and there are a million reasons that things will stay that way. Because of Sokka. You love Sokka, remember? Also, he's the Fire Lord and what are you? A peasant from Kyoshi. A glorified bodyguard. He wouldn't look twice at you and why should he? You're friends. Best friends. Stop being an idiot. It's just a harmless, stupid crush and it means absolutely nothing…

She'd been repeating variations of that argument for months. Guilt had set in almost immediately. Every time her mind wandered to Zuko, Sokka flashed in her mind, reminding her of the fact that they were still dating, despite the problems they were obviously having. She loved Sokka. She always had. She'd never believed she'd ever feel any different…but confusion had set in. Her emotions were murky, muddled and untrustworthy.

And being around Zuko was not helping. Thoughts of him dancing with all of the beautiful single women in the Fire Nation made her guts twist up into knots. Being near him was becoming torturous. Her heartbeat betrayed her, quickening at the mere sight of him and pounding out of control whenever he touched her. Dancing with him made her feel lightheaded and unsure of her limbs…which was not helpful with dance instruction. When he held her she was pretty sure she might come out of her skin.

The whole thing was ridiculous. She wasn't some naïve girl any longer, prone to crushes and silly flirtations, but she couldn't stop what was happening. Or the sure feeling that, even though she hadn't wanted to admit it out loud, it had been happening for a long time. Too long.

Zuko stared at her, that half-smile back on his lips. He reached out a hand, pushing a strand of her hair, which had grown particularly frizzy in the unrelenting humidity, behind her ear. His hand lingered for a moment as he studied her face. "Thank you for all of this. Without you, I'd be lost with this dancing stuff."

Suki pushed a wide grin onto her face, though every particle of her being was focusing on the feel of his callused fingertips just below her ear, and the gentle sweep of his thumb along her jawline. She didn't think he knew that he was doing it, or the effect it was having on her whole body. "You'd be lost without me on a lot of stuff. Let's be honest."

Zuko's hand dropped, eyebrow lifting. "Oh, really? Name one thing."

"Just one?" she snarked as she turned her back and walked over to the music box, which had rewound and started to replay the song again. She turned it off and closed it, and then glanced over her shoulder at him. "How about the time I saved your ass from that assassin?"

"I could have beaten him."

"You set the Royal gardens on fire trying. On the plus side, I hated the topiary anyway," she said and glanced out the wide windows, a view of the gardens in question spreading before her. If she looked closely she could still see the scorch marks on the bricks in places. "And let's not forget what happened yesterday, shall we?"

Zuko groaned as she turned to face him, his face buried in his hands. "Spirits."

Suki fought a grin and instead shot him a look of sympathy. "I almost felt bad for you."

"No, you didn't! You were laughing!"

"I was not. I was…okay, I was laughing, but in my defense Lady Shura was half-naked in your bed. And I thought you were going to scream and jump off the balcony."

"That was horrifying," Zuko said in a haunted voice, his gaze far away. His hands wandered in front of his chest, vaguely gesturing to a pair of imaginary breasts. "She was so…naked…"

"You're not the one who had to tackle her. I got up close and personal with those things."

"I didn't tell you to tackle her," he said, lifting his hands.

"I know, but I figured if I got physical and threatened her she'd think twice about trying to get into your suite again. I warned you. It's only going to get worse, too. The closer you get to this ball the more desperate they'll be for your attention…" her voice trailed off, thinking of the past week and all of the "random" run-in's Zuko had had with various generals, noblemen and their eligible daughters who had come to court in preparation for the ball. All of them had clearly been trying to capture the Fire Lord's eye.

Some of them had been gorgeous, too. She hadn't been able to stop herself from noticing. Zuko had feigned polite interest and walked away as soon as he could, but she couldn't stop the nagging thought that some of the girls had at least caught his eye. And some of those girls would definitely be dancing with him; he'd all but promised them.

She didn't know how to feel about that. Her stomach was in knots and she didn't like it.

"I'm not a piece of meat," he mumbled. "I wish I could cancel this stupid thing altogether, but the money's been spent. I just hate that I'm being forced into this."

"I know you do. You're hopeless, you know."

"I know," he said, and their gazes met. "Completely. Totally. Hopeless."

There was an odd catch in his voice, and it sent little zings through her body from head to toe. concern flooded her. "Zuko?"

Zuko stared at her and then seemed to catch himself. His gaze flicked to the window and he swallowed, tilting his head so that his sweat-soaked hair fell across his scarred eye. "Um… I have a Council meeting in an hour."

"Oh. Yes. I think that's enough dance practice for now," she said, flustered, and not sure why. There had been something in Zuko's face, in the line of his shoulders and a glint in his eye. She saw it sometimes, in unguarded moments. She didn't know what it meant, but he always seemed to shut down after that and change the subject. "You really are doing well."

He grunted his thanks, frowning as he turned toward the door. She followed, studying him in silence as they walked to his suite, she one step behind him in deference to his rank as Fire Lord. Zuko didn't hold with protocol unless he was forced into it (something that endeared him with his subjects), but the nobles and politicians in the palace did. Zuko would often make her walk side by side with him when he caught her bowing to his rank, and whenever he did the courtiers usually gave her the stink-eye. They did it to all of the servants that dared be too familiar with the Fire Lord, regardless of Zuko's insistence on the subversion of his rank.

Suki in particular was not well-liked among the members of Zuko's council and the dislike was mutual. Zuko often asked her to attend meetings with him, especially when important matters were being discussed or planned. He said he enjoyed bouncing ideas off of her, and there had been more times than she could count when they'd stayed up late into the night, pouring over law books or maps, attempting to disentangle the trickier problems of ruling a Nation crafted by a hundred-year war and then forced into peace.

Zuko had also taken up the habit of turning to her mid-meeting and asking her opinion on matters being discussed. That didn't sit well with his more-qualified generals, mathematicians, advisors, lawyers and dukes, who eyed her like a gardener would eye a poisonous weed in their rose garden. That Zuko often took her advice over theirs didn't help matters in the slightest.

She'd heard them call her "that loud-mouthed painted Earth Kingdom whore" more than a few times. She had yet to respond to any of it, mostly because they carefully kept their spiteful slings out of Zuko's earshot, and because they'd done nothing more than call her names. She didn't know what she'd do if their antagonism escalated. Or why they felt so threatened by her presence.

They entered his suite and Zuko promptly took off his sweat-soaked tunic and tossed it on the floor. Suki came up behind him and picked it up.

"Slob."

"Leave it on the floor. The housekeeper complains when I don't give her enough work," Zuko said, walking through his bedroom and into the luxurious bathing room. Suki tossed the shirt at the laundry bin, and then poured herself a glass of water from the sweating pitcher sitting upon the table in anticipation of Zuko's needs. She gulped half of it and then followed him to the doorway and leaned against the wall.

"You and your excuses. I swear, it's like you think you're Royalty or something," she mused, propping one foot against the wall and staring out the window.

She assessed the room with an expert eye, one hand on the bladed fan she'd tucked into the belt of her lightweight green pants. She'd forgone her full Kyoshi uniform for the dance lessons. Her full uniform had proven to be too hot for the Fire Nation's punishing summer heat. She was drenched as it was.

"Are you coming with me?" he said as he ducked his head out of the bathing room doorway.

"I'm off-duty in a few minutes, but Ty Lee should be here any minute to accompany you. Unless you want me to?" she volunteered, noticing that he'd taken his hair down. He'd let it grow to the middle of his back, and she loved the sight of it all messy, slung carelessly over one broad shoulder. She bit the inside of her lip and swallowed.

"You don't have to. We're just going over accounts for the ball."

"We'll you're gonna be late. Go clean up. You smell."

"So do you."

"Yeah, but in my defense I spent most of the day teaching this complete idiot how to dance and it was hotter than the sun in the dojo. I've got sweat in places you couldn't imagine."

"Oh…I can imagine," he said, his gaze flicking down across her body and back again. Her eyebrows lifted and he flushed again. "Uh…I'll just…"

"Yeah."

"Kay."

He ducked back into the bathing room and shut the door behind him, leaving her alone in his suite. Suki leaned against the wall, her heart racing and her thoughts reeling.

Was Zuko just…flirting with me?

When Zuko finally emerged from the bathing room, it was to find Suki sitting in her favorite chair beside the window, waving her bladed fan in her face in an attempt to push the humid air around. Her hair was delightfully frizzy from the humidity, and as he watched, she lifted it off of her neck and tilted her head as she fanned herself. She had one leg slung over the arm of the chair, the other stretched out before her.

He stopped dead in his tracks, unable to look away from her slender neck, the flushed skin, the way she worried her lip between teeth, or the sweat slowly sliding down her temples. When she noticed that he'd come out of the bathing room, she turned her large blue eyes on him and he felt his heart squeeze like a vise in his chest.

His quick shower had been blessedly cold, but the shock of the water had done very little to knock the thoughts out of his head. Thoughts of Suki; thoughts he should not have been having under any circumstances, thoughts and feelings that had been plaguing him for months now.

You're just being stupid. She's with Sokka. She's been with Sokka since you met her and that's not going to change, so just stop it. She's your friend and she doesn't see you as anything but that, and why should she? She's in love with Sokka, your friend Sokka and the things you're thinking are wrong. They're wrong and you wouldn't do that to her, or to Sokka. No matter how incredible you think she is, or how beautiful, or how she makes you feel. Just stop.

His jumbled thoughts crashed and burned as he stared at her for a long moment. She looked back and her mouth lifted into a small smile that warmed him to his toes. He wrenched his gaze away and dropped down onto another chair beside her, where he pulled on the boots he'd found in the bathing room beside his robes, laid out by his servants.

He stood and tied up his robes with a bit of chagrin. He hated wearing the robes of the Fire Lord; they were stiff and overly pompous and he was never comfortable in them.

"Your collar," she said, pointing.

"What?" he asked, smoothing it down, and then glancing at her. She shook her head and stood.

"Let me," Suki mumbled, tucking the fan into her belt and then reaching up to flip his collar up. She fussed with it with both hands, her lip bitten as she concentrated. They were only inches apart and he couldn't help studying the curve of her lips and the way the blood played in her cheeks. She glanced up and their gazes met yet again. It felt like the floor was dropping out from beneath him. Her hands caught hold of his hair and smoothed it across one shoulder; he swayed in place, an ache low in his guts. "There."

Her hands moved down his shoulders and swept across his chest, smoothing imaginary wrinkles in his robes. "Thank you. For everything."

"My pleasure."

"Uh… Do you have any plans tonight?" She shook her head and he half-smiled. "Would you like to have dinner with me then? I'd like a nice quiet meal in my room tonight, but I don't want to eat alone."

"Trying to avoid your army of would-be suitors?"

"Yes, actually," Zuko said, blushing again.

"Coward."

"Maybe."

"Well, I suppose I'd better have dinner with you then. You know, just in case another desperate woman ends up in your bed and I have to rescue you again."

"She was just…so naked," Zuko said, shuddering, images of Lady Shura in his bed flashing in his mind. The thought of finding her, or any of the various women he'd been introduced to over the past few days in his bed was enough to make him bar the door and hole up in his suite until the ball was over. Seeing his horror, Suki burst out laughing, throwing back her head with glee.

He loved watching her like this. She had a way about her, a way of making him slip out of his usual dour, sour mood. She was like sunshine in a dark place and he gravitated toward the ease in which she laughed or teased him. It was impossible not to like her, and over the years he'd slipped into an easy and comfortable friendship with her that he hadn't expected, but valued deeply. He'd come to rely on her, not just as a bodyguard, but for her opinions on any number of topics. She had a level-headed way of thinking that was clear and to the point. Her advice was something he not only sought out, but treasured.

If only I could just keep thinking of her as a friend…

There was a knock on the door and Suki crossed the room to answer it.

"Hi! How were the dance lessons?" Ty Lee's bright and cheery voice said from the hallway as Suki moved aside to allow her entry to the suite. The acrobat was dressed in the full Kyoshi uniform, and she looked absolutely impervious to the heat, despite the layers of armor and the paint on her face. He saw Suki lifting her hand to her frizzy hair in a self-conscious move, probably thinking she looked unkempt. He thought she looked beautiful.

Suki's gaze cut to him and then back to Ty Lee who grinned at the two of them in turn. "He's coming along nicely. A few more days and he'll be seducing the ladies of the Fire Nation with his sweet dance moves."

"Hmmph," Zuko harrumphed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"To say nothing of his sparkling personality," Suki shot at him with a grin and he fought to keep the scowl on his face. She turned back to Ty Lee. "Make sure there aren't any unexpected visitors to the suite when you get out of the meeting. Zuko's purity is in jeopardy."

"Lady Shura again?" Ty Lee asked in a commiserating voice.

"You told the other Warriors?" Zuko exclaimed, horrified.

Suki grinned. "I had to. It's a threat to you and your other bodyguards have to know."

"Did she touch you inappropriately? Do you want to talk about it?" Ty Lee asked him in a falsely innocent whisper, gesturing to his crotch.

"I would like to scrub out my brain, actually. Ugh. I'm not talking about it. I keep having flashbacks. Can we please just go to the meeting now?"

"You're the boss," Ty Lee said, throwing up her hands and then gesturing to the door.

"I suppose I'll go clean up now," Suki said, reaching for the door. Ty Lee gasped and grasped Suki's arm with a squeal. "What?!"

"I nearly forgot! You got a letter!" Ty Lee said, reaching into her belt and pulling out a sealed scroll. "It's from Sokka!"

Zuko stared at Suki's face, noting the change in her expression as she took the scroll from Ty Lee's gloved hand. She looked shocked, and thoughtful. "Oh. Thanks."

"That's great news, isn't it? He hasn't written in months!" Ty Lee said brightly and squeezed her other hand.

"Uh…yeah, it's great news," Suki said, and then glanced up to meet his gaze for a moment. She looked away quickly as he stood rooted to the floor. He could suddenly feel heat in his hands and the hot roar of fire that wanted to manifest and break free boiling beneath his skin.

"So what's it say?" Ty Lee pressed, but Suki tucked it into her hand and pulled herself up, a distracted expression on her pretty face. She was chewing on her lip again.

"I should go. See you," she said, opening the door.

The words burst out of him like a flood, eager to catch her before she walked away. "I'll see you at sunset?"

"Huh?" she asked, stopping and turning on him.

"For uh…dinner. In my room," he said lamely.

"Oh," Suki replied, flushing. "Sure. Yeah. See you then."

And with that she walked away, leaving him standing in the doorway of his suite, watching her go. Ty Lee came up beside his elbow. "How long has it been since he's written her?"

"A few months, I guess. She's been upset, but she won't talk about it."

"Hmmph."

Ty Lee glanced at him and stopped. "You're angry."

"What?"

"You're angry. At Sokka."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!"

"I don't like the way he's treating her, okay? He's taking her for granted, something I never thought Sokka would do and it's pissing me off because she deserves better than that!" he burst out, and flames shot from his fists in a fitful, hot burst, much to his horror.

Ty Lee stared at him, a shrewd and serious light in her eyes that he sometimes noticed when she looked at him and Suki together. She seemed to be contemplating something, because her lips pursed and her lids lowered. Finally she said, "You should just tell her that you're in love with her, Zuko."

"WHAT?! No, I'm-I'm not!" he exclaimed, his stomach dropping to his toes, panic bursting in him.

"Yes, you do!" she hissed. "It's been pretty obvious for months now, Zuko. Everyone knows it but Suki, and with all the rumors about the two of you floating around-"

"I don't love her," he interjected, slashing his hand through the air as if that might stop the truth from escaping him.

"Yes, you do."

"Even if I did it wouldn't matter, would it?" he said with bitter reluctance and just a touch of paranoia. He'd been trying to hide his feelings for months, and he'd thought he'd mastered keeping them beneath the surface, but clearly he'd let too many things slip.

Ty Lee's mouth slowly closed and a sad expression crossed her face. "Because she's dating Sokka."

Zuko swallowed and look at his feet. "Yeah. And she loves him."

"Maybe."

"Definitely," he mumbled and glanced at Ty Lee. "Don't say anything, please? I'm just being stupid. It's a crush. I'll get over it and she never has to know. NO ONE has to know."

"I won't. I promise. Trust me, I know what it's like having feelings for someone who only thinks of you as a friend…and trying to hide it," Ty Lee said bitterly and he saw a glint of sadness and longing in her gaze.

"Did you ever get over her?" he asked.

Ty Lee tossed him a sad smile that was almost an apology. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing gently. "Come on. You have a meeting and you're going to be late."

He nodded and they walked to the Council chamber with Ty Lee half a step behind him. He could feel her sad gaze on him. Every step felt like he was walking through thick mud. All he could think of was the scroll in Suki's hands and what it might say.

Jealousy curdled his guts and sank in him like a stone, and no matter how much he told himself that he had no right to feel that way, the feeling persisted and worsened. He felt it pulling him down bit by bit…and he knew that he was in trouble.