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.


Just after lunch that same day, Toph led Katara away from the group on the pretence of wanting to go shopping. Or maybe she and Katara actually were going shopping, Zuko didn't know. But Toph made sure he knew that he should begin phase one of her plan. So as he, Aang and Sokka lounged around the living area of the home Aang and his friends had been given, it was with a certain amount of awkwardness that Zuko began his part.

"Toph looked nice today," he said, sitting on the edge of the green velvet chaise longue uncomfortably.

"Did she?" Aang asked, uninterested. He grinned, looking all of his twelve years. "I wouldn't know, I can't keep my eyes off Katara now I know for sure that she likes me back."

Sokka, lying down on one of the cushy settees, held up a hand in protest. It was the only part of him visible from where Zuko was sat, as the rest of him was obscured by the arms of the furniture.

"Hey," Sokka protested, "can we not talk about girls? We finally got rid of Toph and Katara and Suki's gone to the Kyoshi Warriors for a few hours and now I want a guy day."

"Which involves what?" Aang asked, sitting on the steps between the settee and the chaise, his head flicking alternately between Sokka and Zuko.

"I don't know. Guy stuff."

The three young men pondered this for a moment.

"Wonder what Toph and Katara are up to?" Zuko asked, trying to get back onto the right topic.

"Probably not giving us a second thought," Sokka replied. "Let's return the favor."


"Zuko's hot, don't you think?"

Katara turned to Toph and raised her eyebrows. Her blind friend came out with random things at random times, but this was particularly unusual.

"No offence, but how would you know?" Katara asked as they ambled along the streets of the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se. "You don't know what any of us look like."

Toph shrugged. "Okay, then. Is Zuko hot?"

"Yes," Katara replied before she could stop herself. She flushed, glad that Toph couldn't see her. "I mean, you know, to some people."

"What about Aang?" Toph asked. Unbeknownst to Katara, Toph already had an idealized version of Aang in her imagination. "Is he hot?"

"He's…Aang," Katara replied, fully aware that this wasn't a proper answer. "He's cute."

"Ouch," Toph commented, purposefully gliding over to a nearby shop and pretending to peer into the window. "Nice stuff in here?"

"What do you mean, 'ouch'?" Katara demanded, reacting exactly as Toph had wanted her to.

"Nothing," Toph shrugged, working hard to conceal the smile that came with knowing that Katara was still easy to manipulate. "Just that…no, it doesn't matter."

"What?" Katara asked, beginning to get flustered as Toph moved from shop to shop.

"Well…cute is what you'd call the boy you like when you're seven," Toph said with a heavy sigh. "And when you're calling someone else hot, it just seems a bit weird."

Katara stopped dead in her tracks.

"I do not like Zuko."

Toph stopped with feigned disinterest.

"I never said that." She carried on walking. "But I wouldn't blame you if you did. I mean, he's strong and protective and kind…and apparently good looking."

"I'm with Aang," Katara replied with less conviction.

"I know." Toph began to muse. "I'm thinking about buying a new headband, will you pick one out for me?"

"Sure," Katara murmured, trying to shake her mind away from the topic of Zuko.


The mission was not going successfully for Zuko. An hour had passed since his first attempt to talk about Toph had been dismissed, and the boys had resorted to speaking about anything that popped into their minds. None of them had moved.

As Sokka and Aang discussed the possibility of frozen fire flakes ("would they still be fire flakes?") Zuko sighed in irritation. He knew how to persuade and manipulate people with threats and violence, that was easy. But he wasn't sure how to broach the topic of Aang with Toph instead of Katara without giving away his feelings, and that of course would ruin everything. So he decided to approach it from a different angle.

"Hey Aang, how would things be different if it hadn't been Katara who found you in the iceberg?"

No one questioned Zuko's new topic; it had been one of the more sensible questions of the morning.

"You mean if it had been some other girl?" Aang pondered this for a moment. "I don't know. I would've met Katara at the Southern Water Tribe's home, I guess, and we would've gone from there. She's my destiny, so we would've met somewhere along the line."

Zuko ignored the scowl he felt coming on at Aang's suggestion that Katara was his destiny.

"If Katara and I had grown up in the Earth Kingdom, Toph had grown up in the Southern Water Tribe and Zuko was the second-to-last Airbender, then…" Sokka trailed off to consider this before shaking his head. "No, it'd be too weird."

"Toph would've been the one to find you in the iceberg," Zuko spoke up, glad that he wasn't having to steer the conversation for once. "She'd be your Waterbending teacher, I guess. Who knows, you may even have ended up with her instead of Katara."

He forced a laugh, as though he found this idea ludicrous and the opposite of what he wanted to happen. Sokka and Aang laughed with him.

"It wouldn't be such a bad thing," Sokka said after he had stopped laughing. "At least Katara would be free to go with Haru."

"And his moustache," Aang agreed, starting fresh a new round of laughing for himself and Sokka.

"If Katara hadn't ended up with you, who would she be with?" Sokka asked, causing Zuko to hold his breath.

Aang scratched his smooth head. "Someone she likes, trusts, spends time with…you!"

Zuko snapped his eyes up as his heart spluttered, only to find that Aang was pointing hysterically at Sokka.

"That's gross, Aang, she's my sister!" Sokka protested as Aang started laughing again.

Zuko sat back in his chair, sulking that Aang found the idea of incest more likely than Katara being with the new Fire Lord.

The day didn't improve from there. Sokka and Aang delighted in naming everyone they had ever met as a potential partner for Katara. Except, of course, for Zuko himself. Zuko had no idea who the Cabbage and Foaming Mouth guys were, but if they were half as bad as their nicknames then it was doubly insulting for him.

"Are we going out for dinner tonight or staying in?" he asked, interrupting the list when he was no longer able to bear it. "Because I figure we should give Katara a break from cooking for us."

"She volunteers," Sokka said defensively.

"No, Zuko's right," Aang piped up. "What's everyone in the mood for?" Without waiting for suggestions, he ploughed on, "I'm thinking that new sushi place."

Sokka groaned. "Fish?"

"What's wrong with fish?"

"Well, it isn't…meat." Sokka glanced over to the Fire Lord. "Zuko, back me up here."

"Fish is meat, Sokka," Zuko replied wearily. "But we should wait until everyone gets back before we make a decision." He glanced out of the window at nothing in particular and sighed. "I'm going back to the Dragon, I've got a headache."

"Want us to walk you over?" Aang asked, standing up at the ready.

Zuko shook his head, guilt flaring up in him again. Aang, sweet, thoughtful Aang, didn't deserve the pain he would go through if Toph's plan came into fruition.

Still, it wasn't enough to stop Zuko from going after what he wanted.


It was late afternoon by the time Toph and Katara arrived back at the house the group shared. Toph almost immediately dumped the bags she was carrying and went to her room, clutching her head and muttering 'never again.'

"What's with her?" Sokka asked, watching the Earthbender leave.

"She doesn't cope well with shopping," Katara explained in a hushed voice. "I think she's got sensory overload or something." She brightened up. "But on the plus side, I got some nice things!"

"And this is where I leave," Sokka said, heaving himself up from the couch with difficulty. "Aang, she's all yours. Just make sure she doesn't go on about clothes too much."

"I'll talk about clothes as much as you've talked about food or sleep in the last few hours," Katara replied.

"Then Aang's in trouble," Sokka said as he disappeared into his room.

Shaking her head, Katara placed her own bags down carefully on a chair and went to sit on the newly vacated couch. Aang sprang up and sat down next to her, kissing her on the cheek sweetly as he did.

"How was your day?" he asked, and Katara immediately felt guilty for even entertaining thoughts about Zuko.

"It was good," she answered. "I tried not to take advantage of the fact that most of the shops in the city were prepared to give me free stuff."

Aang's eyes drifted over to the chair, almost groaning under the weight of several filled bags.

"Well, I didn't try very hard," Katara said, almost guiltily and Aang laughed. "What did you do today?"

"Sat around with Zuko and Sokka." Aang shrugged. "It was okay. Zuko kept talking about Toph, so that was kind of weird."

Katara's chest tightened. "He was?" She tried not to sound irritated or disappointed.

"Yup." Aang rested his chin on his knuckles. "Maybe he likes her! Has she said anything about him?"

"Yeah, she has," Katara answered, quietly deflating.

"We should set them up!"

"What?" Katara asked, perhaps more sharply than she should've.

Aang grinned eagerly, the wheels in his head turning. "Then everyone would be paired off!"

"But…the age difference," Katara said, not fully understanding why she was trying to make up excuses. "And we don't really know if they like each other, I mean, it could be embarrassing for them both."

"Only one way to find out," Aang said, standing up. "We should give them a private place to have dinner together. I'll tell Sokka to distract Zuko and you can distract Toph and in the meantime I can set up a table in the garden or something." He grinned again. "It'll be so cool!"

"But…the age difference," Katara repeated as Aang kissed her cheek and swiftly left.

She sat in the lonely living room and sighed heavily. Her chest hurt when she thought of Toph and Zuko as a couple. They just weren't right for each other at all, not like her and…Aang.

Aang's name is the only name I should finish that sentence with, Katara told herself sternly.

Annoyance and guilt circled round each other in her mind. Annoyance because she didn't want Toph and Zuko to be together, and guilt because of her reasons behind this. Still, Aang could never know, which was why Katara, ignoring her heavy heart, called out to her brother,

"Sokka, come here!"

There came a groan. "Can't it wait? I want to get some sleep!"

"No!" Katara called back, rolling her eyes.

"Shut it, both of you, or I swear there'll be a huge pile of rubble where our house used to be!" Toph hollered from inside her room.

The walls around Katara shook menacingly as though Toph didn't think she was taking her threat seriously.

"Right," Katara shouted. "Sorry."

She walked over to Sokka's door and knocked. "You need to distract Zuko for a couple of hours."

"Why?" Sokka asked, not bothering to open the door.

"Aang's set him and Toph up on a secret date in the garden." Katara, in her growing irritation over the whole set-up, didn't bother with an excuse. "Don't tell him."

That caused Sokka to open the door, his hair dishevelled after lying on a couch all day and then on his bed.

"What?" he demanded. "What do you mean, secret date?"

"I mean, secret date," Katara said, with an insolent shrug. "Sort of self-explanatory." She nodded down the corridor which lead to the living room. "Off you go."


Toph, having heard every word, scowled. Her plan had quite spectacularly backfired. Aang thought she was interested in Zuko? Please. Stupid Airbender. Maybe his element was the only thing that occupied his head, because there sure as anything was no brain there.

Toph listened in some more, although Katara wasn't saying anything else that was useful. Mainly insulting her brother for his laziness. What was up with her?

Toph grinned suddenly. Sugar Queen was jealous. Jealous because she thought she was going to lose her crush to her friend. This was great news for Zuko; it showed Katara was definitely interested in him. Aang, unfortunately, seemed as clueless as ever, but give him time. Give him time.

Refusing to dwell on the recurring worry that Aang would never want her, Toph set her mind to twisting the most recent turn of events in their favor.

She was just about to reach a plan when Katara shattered her concentration by shouting through her door:

"Toph, stay inside your room. I have to keep you distracted."

"Secret date, got it."

Toph would have to assure Katara later that she had no interest in dating Zuko, since Katara seemed pretty angry about the supposedly 'secret date.'


Zuko had been in the middle of meditating when Sokka barged into his room. The flames in Zuko's palm leaped like a startled ostrich-horse before the Firebender had regained control over his breathing.

"Sokka, you need to learn to knock!" he snarled, standing up quickly and scowling. "There could have been a fire!"

"You're the Fire Lord, what does that matter to you?" Sokka asked, raising a valid point that Zuko ignored.

"Why are you here?" he asked instead, clenching his fists until the fires dissipated.

"I thought we could chat," Sokka said, crossing the room to kick back on Zuko's bed.

"Make yourself at home," Zuko muttered, closing the door behind his unwelcome visitor. He turned around and spoke at a normal volume. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Uh…"

Zuko could see Sokka casting around for a topic and silently seethed. The idiot had interrupted his meditation for nothing.

"You and Mai," Sokka settled on.

Zuko almost winced. Of course the warrior would have to choose an awkward subject.

"What about us?" Zuko asked carefully, leaning against the wall opposite his bed.

"Uh, you broke up, right?"

"Yes." Zuko smirked. "Why, you interested in her?"

"No!" Sokka couldn't deny that quick enough. He regained composure and realized he might have caused offence. "I mean, knife-wielding psychos might do it for some people-" at Zuko's expression, he blanched, "-I mean, she was sort of pretty but her personality was just…" Zuko raised an eyebrow and Sokka sighed. "Can I start over?"

Zuko nodded. "Go for it."

Sokka took a deep breath and said slowly, "No, I'm not interested in Mai like that, although I can certainly see why other people might be." His gaze flicked to Zuko. "That better?"

"Much."

"Good." There was a pause. "So why did she break up with you?"

Zuko frowned. "What makes you think she broke up with me? Maybe I broke up with her."

Sokka snorted, then caught Zuko's expression again. "Oh, you're serious."

"Yes, I'm serious!" Zuko scowled. "Things weren't working with us so I ended it."

"Was it her knives? I bet it was her knives. It was her knives, wasn't it?" Sokka looked sympathetic.

"No, Sokka, it wasn't her knives," Zuko said, barely suppressing a sigh. This conversation was annoying him already.

"Was it her monotone voice? Her general blah? Her taste in men?"

"There's nothing wrong with her taste in men!" Zuko snapped. "It just wasn't working out."

"Was there someone else?"

Zuko knew that Sokka was just guessing randomly, but this question momentarily threw him and he didn't answer.

"There is!" Sokka shuffled about and leant closer to Zuko conspiratorially. "Who is it?"

"No one," Zuko told him. "It doesn't matter. It wouldn't happen anyway."

The last bit was muttered under Zuko's breath, yet Sokka still managed to catch it.

"Aha!" he shouted, pointing a finger dramatically in Zuko's direction. "So there is someone else!"

Zuko just glared.

"Who could it be?" Sokka wondered aloud. "It'd have to be someone you've been around a lot in the last few weeks, someone who knows you and your past well…it's a girl, right?"

"Of course it is!" Zuko spat, his fear that Sokka would figure out his feelings for Katara overriding everything else. "You don't know her!"

"I doubt that," Sokka said, bluntly. "I know everyone you know."

Zuko could think of at least four people he knew - or had known - that Sokka didn't, but kept his mouth shut.

"I don't want to talk about it," he settled for saying. "In fact, I don't really want to talk about anything."

If he thought that Sokka would take the hint, he was sadly mistaken.

"Is it Toph?" Sokka asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"No," Zuko answered, confused. "Why would it be…oh."

Toph's plan hadn't gone, well, according to plan. Instead of making Aang think about Toph in a romantic light, now he and Sokka thought Zuko saw Toph in that light.

Damn.

But it was okay, as long as Katara didn't think that.

"I don't like Toph like that," Zuko clarified. "In fact, I don't like anyone like that at the moment."

"Sure." Sokka looked unconvinced, but didn't press the matter. "So, how long you in Ba Sing Se for?"

"I don't know," Zuko answered quickly, eager to pursue this new, safer topic. "I've got a meeting with the Earth King tomorrow, then a couple of speeches to give over the course of the next week. And I want to make sure that Uncle's properly settled in before I leave. So maybe a month?"

Sokka nodded thoughtfully. "Fair enough. We'll probably stay with you. Well, Aang might go off to do Avatar stuff, I might go off to see Suki and Toph might go off to visit her parents, so it could just be you and Katara for awhile. Try not to kill each other."

"Trust me, that's the last thing I want to do."

The conversation continued for quite some time until Aang burst through the door.

"Knock much?" Sokka asked Aang, standing up and raising his eyebrows.

Zuko shot a glare at his hypocritical friend but didn't say anything.

"Zuko, Toph needs your help with something back at the house," Aang said, ignoring Sokka completely. "We'll be along in a bit, I've just got some business to sort out. Sokka, will you help?"

"Sure."

Zuko knew right away that the Avatar had planned something. His shared glances with Sokka were too pointed, his eyes were too wide, his words were too emphasized.

"Right," Zuko said, his gaze darting between the plotters. "I'll go and see to it." He was almost out the door when he turned back. "Try not to mess up my room."

There wasn't much in his room to mess up, to be fair. There was a wardrobe, a bed, a writing desk and chair and a mirror. Zuko wished he had a picture of his mother to hang up, or even the picture of his family on Ember Island. A personal touch to warm an otherwise cold room. Perhaps he could ask Sokka to draw something…although it would be cruel to lead the poor boy on to believe he had actual artistic ability.

He reached the group's house quickly enough. He had tried to keep to the back streets so that no one would bother him, but there weren't many back streets in the Upper Ring. Regardless, aside from a few stares, he had gone unnoticed. The sun was just setting, casting everything in a beautiful amber glow.

He was about to open the front door when it opened, and a flushed Katara exited. She stormed past him, her shoulder colliding with his. Without thinking, Zuko turned and stopped her in her tracks by holding her shoulders.

"Katara, what's wrong?" he asked, turning her to face him.

She wouldn't look at him, but jerked her shoulders back. Zuko realized that his grip had been too tight and let go immediately.

"Sorry. Old habits," he joked weakly.

She didn't laugh. She didn't do anything for a moment, before her eyes lifted to his. They were shining an angry cerulean, like waves crashing against the shore.

"Enjoy your date," she said, spitting out the last word before turning on her heel and striding away from him.

"My what?" he called after her.

She didn't hear. Well, she probably did, but she ignored him anyway, Zuko decided.

Shaking his head, he opened the door and entered the house.

"Toph?" he called into the empty living room.

"Back here," came a faint reply. "In the garden."

Zuko passed through the eerily quiet house. He was used to it being filled with laughter and general noise and it seemed a completely different place when deserted.

"What are you-?" he began when he reached the garden.

The coloured lights strung through the trees stopped him. That, and the lanterns, the table with a rose in a vase at the centre, the two chairs around it and Toph, reclining in the chair furthest from him.

"Am I missing something here?" Zuko asked slowly, his eyes taking everything in.

"Welcome to our date," Toph said, an easy grin settling on her face. "The plan kind of failed."

"Kind of?" Zuko repeated, getting over his initial shock and taking the seat opposite Toph.

Food had been laid out for them, the usual things that Katara cooked for the group.

Katara.

Oh no.

Katara thought he'd had a date. With Toph.

She thought he was interested in Toph.

Zuko would've slammed his head against the table if it wouldn't have meant getting sauce all over his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked, chewing on a breadstick as though she didn't have a care in the world.

"Katara thinks I like you, which means she'll give up on me completely, marry Aang and have little Airbender babies with him!"

Toph raised an eyebrow. "Okay, first, I'm trying to eat. No mention of making babies of any nationality. Second, relax, we've got plenty of time."

"Still, all things considered, this is a step backwards, wouldn't you say?" Zuko asked, too preoccupied with his thoughts to eat. Although he could do with some wine.

"Maybe." Toph grinned again. "But don't worry, I've got another plan."

Where's that wine? Zuko wondered.


A/N:

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry about the wait, I had a lot of things going on.

I know it's awhile off yet, but I got my Halloween costume in the mail last week (pirate girl ftw) so I figured I'd ask everyone: what are you going as for Halloween?

Thank you so much for the reviews, sorry the replies were a little late (:

Have a great week everyone!

- Momo