All Your Fault

"Look," Toph said, pointing. "Here she comes."

Zuko smiled to himself. Katara was smiling, and it made his heart beat faster. She was holding up the end of her dress. If it could be called a dress. Dresses don't normally come in two pieces. It was more like a shirt and a skirt. But shirt would also be loosely used. It wasn't covering much of her. Her stomach and her arms were bare. So was some of her back. Some members of his council had banded together and told her it was improper for a Fire Lady to be dressed in so little clothing. She should cover up more, they said. In her defense, it was a really hot summer, and she did look damn good. He didn't think the council would be challenging her fashion sense anymore.

"Really, Sparky?" Toph said, folding her arms and shaking her head. "You are so going to chicken out of this. I can already feel you getting all mushy."

"I am not. I'm not scared of her."

"Nor should you be," Katara said, sitting in the grass next to Zuko.

She kissed Zuko's cheek, and he admitted that while he wasn't scared of her, he didn't want to lose cuddle privileges. Katara hated having to apologize, especially for things she wouldn't consider her fault. And she definitely wouldn't consider this her fault. Toph raised her eyebrows at him and nodded in Katara's direction. She could at least have the grace not to be all smug about his impending loneliness. But then grace and Toph weren't said in the same sentence when she was on 'vacation,' and her 'vacation' lasted the majority of the year.

Katara was looking between them, a little confused.

"Is there something you're supposed to tell me?"

Right. He crossed his arms, put on his own smug look. "Actually, Toph and I were talking, and we decided you owe me an apology. And everyone else, too, really."

"What?" This was just confusion. She ran her fingers through her hair as she thought. "I don't think I've hurt anyone recently. Well, not where it would deserve an apology." She ran her hand up Zuko's arm.

"You do know I can tell what you're doing?" Toph said, making the ground vibrate beneath them. The turtleducks quacked angrily as water sloshed out of their pond. "Don't take advantage of me because I can't see." She punched the ground for good measure, and Katara fell over.

"Are you done, Toph?" Zuko asked, setting an errant turtleduck back in the water.

"Yes."

"Good. Anyway, Katara, Toph and I were talking about Ba Sing Se—"

"I don't know what you heard, but I didn't do anything in Ba Sing Se." She was pulling her hair like she did when she got nervous, and looking around to see if anyone else was listening.

"…Yeah, I'm talking about five years ago when you snitched on me to Azula."

Zuko could have asked her what she did that no one was supposed to know about, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to know. Some things were better left as mysteries. Besides, it was better to get the hard part over. Already her face was changing. She was going back to that day they'd been locked in prison together. She opened and closed her mouth a few times. This was Katara-fury coming on.

"You… Let me get this straight," she said, pointing a finger in his direction. "You are blaming me for what happened that day? You?"

"All I'm saying is that I was finally beginning to not mind working in a tea shop—"

"Is this some kind of joke?"

Katara fury was definitely coming on. Zuko wondered if she even realized she had her hands—no, fists—on her hips. Her head was cocked to the side, her eyebrows raised, and her mouth was a thin line of tension. She would start huffing soon and making that little indignant noise that precedes one of her speeches.

"No, Sweetness, this is the smackdown!" Toph said from her spot under a tree, laughing and enjoying this way too much.

She didn't have a glare that would make Toph wither like Zuko did, but Katara gave it a good try. Her eyes were narrowed so much they were practically closed, and she was literally snarling.

"I'm not apologizing for that! I didn't know it was Azula."

"Yeah, but you still would have brought hell on us—"

"You deserved it!" Katara jabbed him in the chest. "I can't believe you're even…"

She stopped using words then and just gurgle screamed, throwing her hands in the air. The huffing started and she pointed angrily at Zuko a few times before rounding on Toph, but always coming back to Zuko. He was definitely losing cuddle privileges. She jabbed him again for good measure.

"I don't think I deserved that," Zuko said, rubbing his shoulder. "Did you even realize I'd stopped chasing you?"

That was the thing he never quite understood. Before the siege in the North, he'd caught up with them almost weekly. It was like they had regularly scheduled play dates, only they'd play with fire and water and air. And occasionally a boomerang, depending on Sokka's state of mind. After they'd parted ways, and he and Uncle had floated off on that raft, they hadn't run into each other in months. At that point, Zuko had his own problems to worry about.

"You never stopped chasing us," Katara sputtered weakly.

She was still clutching her anger like a whip, though. Zuko smiled, but he probably shouldn't have. He was only imagining Katara with a whip, but she probably thought he was laughing at her, which would give her another reason to be angry.

"I did." Ok, now Zuko was being smug because she hadn't even realized he'd been gone for so long. "Look, I know you couldn't stand the sight of me back then, but really, I thought you'd be more observant than that."

"Are you calling me lazy?" Any huffing that was interrupted by Zuko pointing out that he hadn't been chasing them was resumed. She was readying her poking finger again, but Zuko was quick. He dodged, which made her angrier.

"No—"

"Yes—"

Zuko looked at Toph. She'd said yes at exactly the same time he said no. "Just whose side are you on, here?"

"I'm on the side of a good fight." Toph picked her ear and leaned back against the tree. She waved her hand in some vague 'please continue' motion, which Katara took to heart.

"Do you know what I had to go through? Do you know what you put me through?"

"Look, I'm not talking about the entire time—"

Katara stood up and started to walk away, but she came back. And there was that little indignant noise. "Look, Zuko, I thought this was all dead and behind us, but clearly you intend to bring up old dead moldy carcasses. I don't know where you get off thinking I owe you an apology for your poor behavior, mister, but it's not happening. Maybe I should have you committed to the hospital where Azula stayed, because she learned to accept responsibility for her actions."

She was leaning over to practically yell in his face, and Toph was wisely holding in her laughter. Katara was jabbing him in the shoulder again, so Zuko grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together. She just leaned closer to him, but he wasn't looking at her face anymore.

"Are you looking down my shirt?" She asked, bolting upright as much as she could and pressing her shirt against her. "How dare you!"

"There's nothing you've got that I haven't seen before!" Zuko said, gesturing at her, not sure why she should be so prudish now. "And we're married! I look at you naked all the time!"

"That's different, you perv. We're having an argument right now. And let go of my hand."

"No."

The gurgle scream again, and she yanked her arm, but he wasn't letting go. He smiled politely at her.

"I will if you apologize for being a tattle."

That was the wrong thing to say because she gave him a look that could spoil milk before it left the hippo cow, and even Toph felt that. She squeezed his hand with more strength than he thought she had, and he didn't even hesitate to let go. She was looming over him and not in a seductive way. Zuko groaned. He probably just lost a lot more than cuddle privileges.

"You damn well better… I am not a tattle. Take it back."

If Zuko hadn't been very aware of the rather large pond a few feet behind them, he would have challenged her about what she decided to be upset over: not that he was asking her to apologize, but because he called her a tattle. She was moving her arms into a bending posture and the water started splashing behind them.

"Apologize!" Toph screamed, getting to her feet. "It's not worth it, take it back!"

If Zuko was any less stubborn, he might have, only now it was a matter of principle. She was a tattle.

"You know what? I'm not taking that back," he said, standing. "You are a tattle."

The pond behind him went still. This was the calm before the storm.

"When have I ever—"

"To keep this short, I'm going to stick to events in the past week. You tattled on me because I snuck out to get a moment's peace, you told me that Toph was down at the docks again, even though she wasn't supposed to go, you told Uncle that Aang was hiding in the kitchens, then you told me that Aang was hiding in the kitchen. You told my mother that I had dessert at breakfast, then you told her I was burning official documents—which I wasn't. Then you told me that Uncle—"

A wave of water came flying toward him, and Zuko had to cover himself in a ball of fire to keep from getting drenched. He stayed crouched in his little fiery ball wondering why he felt it was some kind of moral obligation to challenge Katara on these things. Oh yeah, the rest of their friends were cowards and no one else would do it.

Zuko took a chance and came out of his fireball.

"Is it safe, yet?"

It took a moment to see Toph peeking out from her underground shelter. He looked to Katara. She'd moved on to Stage Two: Guilt. When Stage One: Anger didn't have the desired effect, she started guilting people into doing stuff. Stage Two is usually where Zuko failed.

"Yeah, it's safe," he grumbled.

Katara was bunching the fabric of her skirt and looking her most apologetic.

"I shouldn't have thrown the pond at you. We're adults. We can discuss things without being petty."

Zuko wasn't about to point out that she'd been the one who started flinging elements and being petty. Ok, so maybe bringing this whole thing up was petty in the first place, but that was Toph's fault. He held his arms open to Katara, and she stepped to him. She gave him a peck on the cheek—not the lips, he noticed—before resting her head on his shoulder. He rubbed her back. Her move to Stage Two, he saw, might also have something to do with the palace staff looking quite concerned.

"You seriously didn't notice that I'd stopped chasing you guys?"

"I guess I didn't give it much thought. I mean, I so thoroughly whipped you at the North Pole—"

"Oh, no." Zuko held her at arm's length. "You did not 'so thoroughly whip me,' nor have you ever."

She was poking out her bottom lip and tracing circles on his chest. She leaned her head to one side, and Zuko pulled at a strand of hair that stuck to her lips. Soft lips.

"No!" Toph shouted, stomping on the ground. "Don't give in, she learned that one from Jun! You're not even fighting fair, Katara!"

Zuko chuckled. There was something inherently wrong about Katara learning manipulative tactics from Jun, but that was an issue to be covered another day.

"What would you have done if I hadn't, as you claim, tattled?" Katara asked.

Zuko shrugged. "We would have stayed in Ba Sing Se. I would have worked at the Jasmine Dragon with Uncle. You and Aang would have defeated Azula. There never would have been a coup. I would have given up on returning to the Fire Nation and started a new life." That's as far as he'd gotten. Or at least as far as he'd gotten and would admit to her. He wouldn't tell her about the part where he imagined himself older and having a family with a woman who was most definitely not Katara.

"Yes, but Aang never would have learned firebending, we never would have had that second or third chance, Aang never would have defeated Ozai, and the war would still be going on."

Her smile started small, then it grew until it was more than a real smile. Zuko realized he lost. He wasn't sure how it happened that she turned the whole thing back around on him, but she was going to hold it over her head for at least a month. She wrapped her arms around his neck and played with the ends of his hair.

"Really, Zuko, the way I see it, you should be thanking me. If I hadn't turned you in to Azula—knowingly or not—you wouldn't be where you are today." She raised an eyebrow suggestively. "And that includes everything." She pointed to the betrothal necklace he carved for her.

Only then, when she'd defeated him, did she kiss him on the lips, but it was soft and fleeting. Then she sauntered away, back to the palace.

"How did you mess that up so badly that she made you thank her?" Toph asked. She punched him in the back since she couldn't reach his shoulder anymore.

"I haven't thanked her, yet, in case you didn't notice."

"Don't worry. You will." Punch.

"Yeah, well you've hardly grown in five years, runt."

A/N: I think this one might be a little less obscure than mask was. This one came from a comment thread on one of my LJ entries. Because the coup all started with Katara being a tattle. Granted, she had reason to do so-she still saw Zuko as an enemy, and freaked out when she saw him and Iroh in the Jasmine Dragon, probably not even bothering to take in her surroundings, just hightailing it out of there. Anyway, it's Toph's fault. She put him up to it.