modern AU before

The biology teacher really didn't want to deal with the government and economics teacher/cross country coach/whatever else a student decided to ask him for his help on even if they rarely did so. He was a great guy, but Mr. Zuko King had crossed the line and she wasn't about to let him continue thinking that what he was doing was okay.

"Hey you!" Ms. Katara Hakoda had one finger jammed into his chest before the shocked man could say anything. "I heard that you're part of the bake sale now."

"Uh, that's right." Mr. King stammered, a little confused as to why the biology teacher/bake sale coordinator/most involved teacher ever was using all 5 feet 6 inches of herself in an attempt to intimidate him. Unfortunately for him, the attempt seemed to be working out well.

Katara grabbed his chin and brought him down the inch or two to her level. "Well, Mr. King I want you to know I've heard all about what happened at the last bake sale you were involved in, and at the charity dinner before that, AND the car wash before that. Everything you are involved in burns up around you, sometimes quite literally! I'm not even sure how you managed to catch something on fire at a car wash. I do not need nor want that from the bake sale. So let me tell you something right now, you make one slip up, give me one reason to think you might mess this up and you won't have to worry about any bake sales ever again. I'll make sure you stay away from them, permanently." She stalked off.

Zuko wasn't exactly sure how one would make someone stay away from bake sales permanently, but he sure as hell didn't want to find out. The 'down-to-earth, charitable, happy, loving,' skirt-and-sandal-wearing biology teacher he'd heard so much about was actually terrifying and he had to wonder if perhaps his fellow coworkers with incredibly blind or just plain stupid. Maybe it was just him though considering that Miss Katara was now jabbering happily with the gym teacher Ms. Lee.

The next week consisted of angry glares shot in his direction from the coffee machine when she thought he wasn't looking and muttering about catching parking lots on fire. That wasn't really his fault though. He'd caught one of his worst team cross country girls smoking pot instead of helping wash cars. She tried really hard in class and on the field but never quite managed to do as well as anyone else. He could see the bags under her eyes during tests and watched from the sidelines as she pushed herself past the breaking point while running so rather than bust the kid for pot and get her in trouble, he made her flick it out and go do some extra cars. He didn't know that the sprinklers weren't working behind the dumpster where they were or that the overhang made that grass especially dry. He didn't know that the blunt would land in just the right patch of dry grass and that within seconds in would be a blaze. He had panicked at the fire, memories of a misspent youth and the pain from the scar that marked his face invaded his brain and so in the time that he could have put it out, he froze instead. Afterwards, he took the blame and didn't get his student in trouble even though if nearly cost him his job or at least a hefty lawsuit. Ms. Katara didn't know any of that and just saw him as a potential screw in her plans for the perfect sale.

The morning of, he came with five dozen home made death by chocolate cookies to the practically abandoned school parking lot. One topless blue mustang parked in front of the doors and Katara sat there with her head on the steering wheel trying and failing to stop tears from leaking out the sides of her eyes.

"Hey, are you alright?" That's a stupid question, he mentally scolds. Of course she's not alright.

"Yeah," She smiles weakly, trying to hide her stupid stupid tears. "It looks like everyone else beat you to the punch of making this suck. We're the only two who aren't sick right now, no one else can make it. That means we won't get the money to put in a handicap ramp in front of the school! I let everyone down."

Zuko blew out an explosive breathe, relieved that it was only something like that. From the looks of it, she made enough cookies and brownies to feed an army and so two people could handle the bake sale no problem. "It's not that bad." She scoffs. "So what if a few people didn't show. We've got enough food, there are tables inside and we really don't need any more than two people to run this thing. Signs were put up for it earlier in the week so all we need is to get the stuff out there. It'll be fine. Everything will be okay." He offered his hand and surprisingly she took it.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you," the biology teacher muttered. It was barely audible but he smiles nonetheless.

Within an hour they had the tables set up, the food displayed, and people were beginning to wander in. An hour after that half of his cookies had sold and all of her brownies had. They switched between who was marketing the items and who was accepting money but every now and then when there was a millisecond of peace Katara would find herself staring at the man she'd been so rude to, incredibly thankful that she hadn't scared him off. Three hours later they were all sold out and the two exhausted teachers slumped against each other, grinning. "So, there's a spaghetti dinner at the end of the month. Think you could help out Zuko?"