DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor am I in any way affiliated with Michael Dante DiMartino or Bryan Konietzko. This story is purely fan-made.

"You're interested, then?" Toph pressed.

"Yes," Zuko told her, facing her again. Something had flickered across his mind and it worried him. "But what I don't get is why you are."

"What?"

"I'm not stupid, Toph," Zuko frowned. "Aang and Katara are two of your best friends, it doesn't make sense for you to want to split them up. Unless, of course, there's something in it for you."

Toph's mouth opened as though she was offended. "Zuzu, I'm hurt. All I want is for you two crazy kids to finally - no, you're right, there's something in it for me."

"Couldn't even pretend to be selfless, huh?"

"Nope," Toph answered, unashamed.

"Well, I appreciate your honesty," Zuko muttered, heading for a bench which had been cast in shadows by the grand tree overhead. He sat down with a sigh. "What's in it for you?"

"The pleasure of seeing you doing something other than brooding all day," Toph answered smartly.

"I don't brood," Zuko told her, outraged. "And I need the truth if this is going to work."

"Fine, the truth is that you brood. Constantly."

Zuko scowled and stood up. This was going nowhere fast, and if Toph was just going to stand around poking fun at him all day, he might as well just cut his losses and leave now.

"Zuko, wait," Toph said, holding up her hand as she sensed he was about to walk away. Her tone had changed to something more serious and her sightless eyes were directed towards the ground. "You don't need to know my reasons."

"Yes, I do," Zuko insisted. "You know why I'm doing it, it's only fair that I know your reasons too. There's got to something that you'd gain from splitting Aang and Katara up. I'd get Katara, but what would you…" he stopped talking and his eyebrow raised in surprise as Toph's reason registered. "Oh. I'd get Katara, and you'd get Aang."

"If you tell anyone…" Toph let her threat linger, although the usual bite in her warning was missing.

"I won't," Zuko promised quickly. "I would never." He shook his head in disbelief. "The Avatar? Really?"

"Hey, he's good enough for Sugar Queen," Toph spat back. "Or have you forgotten the reason we're here?"

Chastised, Zuko nodded. "Right. Sorry." He made a mental note to remember how touchy girls were. "So, what do we do?"

"At the moment, nothing," Toph answered. "Just treat Katara like you've always treated her."

"Indifferently?"

"Okay then, treat her like you've treated her these past couple of weeks."

Zuko was confused. "Less indifferently?"

"Like you're crazy about her," Toph corrected with a smirk.

"It's that obvious?" Zuko asked, his heart sinking.

"Only to me." Toph waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Considering I'm blind, I see a whole lot more than the others do. Plus I've got heartbeats to go off, and your heart does this little," Toph grinned evilly, "dance when you see Katara. It's hilarious, actually."

Zuko ignored this jibe, although he knew it'd come back to haunt him. "And Katara?"

"When she sees you? Not so much a dance as a skip," Toph shrugged. As though she could see Zuko's crestfallen expression, she hastily added, "Of course, it's more than what happens when she sees Aang."

"Then why's she with him, up there, right now?" Zuko asked miserably.

"Snap out of it, Zuzu," Toph groaned, completely unsympathetic. "No one finds self-pity attractive. I'm going back up there to mock Sokka's artwork some more. You coming?"

"No," Zuko answered, falling back onto the shady wooden bench. "I'll see you later. And don't call me that."

Toph shrugged in a 'suit yourself' way, and left without another word. Zuko's internal clock was telling him that nightfall was well on its way, but he didn't feel like going back to the others. His shoes scuffed the ground as he stood up after deciding instead on another course of action.

Making sure he was well away from anything particularly flammable - difficult considering he was surrounded by trees and grass - he placed his palms together, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Nothing focused his thoughts quite like meditation. He slowly broke his palms away from each other, creating a small sphere of fire in the center of each. Unaffected by the breeze that whispered through the trees, the fire shrank and grew with each breath Zuko took.

It was times like these that Zuko felt truly connected with everything and, for a short time, at peace. So he was annoyed when Toph's faint voice broke through his concentration:

"Yeah, he's down there."

Zuko could hear footsteps descending the stone stairwell that led into the garden and, turning around, cracked one eye open. He fully intended to send away the person who had unwittingly interrupted him, until he saw that it was Katara. He hurriedly opened both eyes and extinguished the dying flames in his palm.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Katara asked once she'd reached the grassy part of the garden. Her eyes lingered on Zuko for a moment before they wandered away to her surroundings. "Huh. I didn't know there was a garden here."

"Yeah. Uncle thought that we could open it up to The Jasmine Dragon customers before…" Zuko stopped himself and looked away, ashamed.

"Before everything that happened," Katara supplemented, also uncomfortable. "But you're back from the Fire Nation now, so does that mean that you and Iroh be running the tea shop?"

Zuko smiled. "Well, no, I have a nation to run."

Katara blushed and laughed. "Right," she said, embarrassed. "Can't believe I just asked that."

"It's okay, 'Fire Lord Zuko' will take some getting used to." Zuko looked around him, then up at the pink-streaked sky as the sun set. "I think Uncle will stay here, though. He deserves an uncomplicated life."

"So do you," Katara murmured. "But I guess now you're Fire Lord, it's just going to get busier." She glanced at him, then dropped her gaze to the grass. "I'm sure you and Mai will cope."

Zuko sighed. He'd avoided the topic so far, but telling Katara anything other than that he was no longer with Mai would be an outright lie, and Zuko didn't feel right about lying to her.

"I broke up with Mai."

Katara frowned, her eyes betraying her confusion.

"But I saw you together before your Coronation," she said in an almost accusing tone.

"She was upset." Zuko shrugged. "We've been friends for a long time, so I comforted her."

"But I…" Katara trailed off, her creased brow gradually smoothing. She sighed and walked past Zuko to sit on the bench, her dress trailing behind her as she went. She stared down at her clasped hands. "I thought you were still together. I'm sorry."

"What for?" Zuko asked, trying and failing to keep the bitterness from his tone. "Don't feel bad for me just because everyone else has paired off. Sokka and Suki, you and Aang-"

Katara's wide eyes flew upwards towards Zuko's. He held her gaze evenly.

"You know about that, then," she said quietly, focusing back on her hands.

"Yeah." Zuko gritted his teeth. "I think it's great."

"You do?"

Was it Zuko's hope speaking, or was there actual disappointment in her voice?

"Sure." He faced away. "It's not like there's anyone else you'd rather be with."

"Zuko, if I'd have known about you and Mai earlier…" Katara's strong voice lost its nerve as Zuko looked at her. "I wouldn't have been so obvious with Aang."

"Are you dating?"

Katara shrugged awkwardly. "We haven't really talked about it yet."

A blossom fell from the grand tree behind the bench. It went largely ignored, until the wind picked up and suddenly cherry blossoms rained down on them both.

"I should get back," Katara said after a few moments of awkward silence. She stood up, unable to look at him.

"Wait," Zuko said as she passed him. She paused and turned ever so slightly towards him. He raised a hesitant hand and gently lifted a stray blossom from her hair. It almost grazed her face as he brought it down and presented it to her. It filled the small space between them and Katara found that her breath had caught in her throat. She raised her eyes to his and held them there for a moment as he looked back.

"Katara-"

"I should go," she interrupted in a whisper.

She tore her eyes from his and left quickly, leaving him standing there with a blossom in his hand. But instead of feeling rejected, Zuko began to smile. He didn't know that much about girls, and what he did know wouldn't fit into one of the small teacups The Jasmine Dragon owned. But Katara had seemed flustered when she realized how close she and Zuko had gotten, uncomfortable when talking about Aang and a little annoyed when Zuko had given her his blessing on her new relationship. So surely all that had to count for something. His hope that she would see him as more than a friend couldn't be completely unfounded. At least, he hoped not.

Toph went to bed that night in deep speculation. Sugar Queen was with Twinkletoes, but liked Zuzu (or Koko, as she'd have to call him to his face; he wasn't escaping without some form of nickname) whereas Twinkletoes was as he'd always been: completely infatuated with Sugar Queen. Meanwhile she, Toph, friends with all of the above, was trying to plot a way to tear one relationship apart and build two new ones.

It was no wonder Toph didn't like getting involved in politics: she could barely keep up with the intricate relationships of the people she spent all her time with.

She didn't think it would be particularly difficult to accomplish her task. Katara obviously liked Zuko. Her quickly beating heart betrayed that. But she'd do what she had always done with Aang: protect him from harm.

It was either down to Zuko to convince Katara to be selfish for once, or up to Toph to make Aang see her as more than just an Earthbending teacher. She wasn't up for a lifetime of love and commitment - she was twelve, after all - but a little attention definitely wouldn't be bad. Maybe she could enlist Iroh's help. For an old guy, he was pretty cool, and he seemed to like the idea of his nephew and Katara together.

The only problem was how to…

Toph grinned as an idea, a brilliant idea, struck her. She congratulated herself as she closed her eyes and nestled into her bedcovers. She'd have to tell Zuko as soon as she saw him the next day.

"That's a stupid idea."

Toph bristled as Zuko quickly shot down her plan the morning after. Her grip tightened on the patterned china cup - not, of course, that she could tell. The cup could've been painted bright pink with gold spots and she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference…mainly because she didn't actually know what colors looked like - and she scowled.

Zuko's face fell. He didn't like Angry Toph, and especially didn't want to be in the same room alone with her. He glanced at the door, hoping that his uncle would wake up or that the others would join them at the tea shop. As always, luck wasn't on his side.

"I just meant…it'll take all my energy to talk myself up to Katara, I don't know if I'll have the time to talk you up to Aang. Not that you need talking up," he added hastily.

"If I tell Katara how wonderful you are, she'll start to see it for herself," Toph explained. "If you tell Aang the extent of what makes me great - and you could be there for awhile, I'm pretty awesome - then maybe he'll start to realize that it's all true."

Zuko sipped his tea thoughtfully. It could work. He'd have to at least give it a chance, considering Toph had woken him up just past sunrise to tell him all about her 'wonderful plan.' Why she'd walked to The Jasmine Dragon by herself instead of waiting for a more sensible time, he didn't know. Why she'd woken him up by throwing rocks at his window shouting 'rise and shine, Koko!' he didn't know. Why she was now calling him Koko, he didn't know, but he was grateful that it wasn't Zuzu anymore. That reminded him of Azula, and Azula reminded him of everything he had lost.

"Alright," he said finally. "I'll give it a shot."

Toph leaned back in her chair, satisfied. "Great. Now get me another tea."

Zuko frowned. "Toph, I'm the Fire Lord now."

"Oh yeah. Get me another tea, Your Highness."

A/N:

Hello, hope you all enjoyed the second chapter. Not much action going on, but next chapter is when the fun and games begin (:

Thank you very much for your reviews last chapter, they gave me a real boost after a bit of a bad week (everyone at Sixth Form appears to have a modern day version of the Plague, or so you'd think from all the moaning that's going on. Damn British weather).

Hope you all have a good week,

- Momo