Toko fans - don't hate me for this chapter. It's major Zutara (one for you flamers to note - we don't hate you!).

I'll get this one thing straight - I'm not against this coupling... just not for more than one episode!

Aang wins out in the end. Fire and water doesn't mix - Zuko's inclination is towards destruction and Katara's toward new life.

But Toph telling Zuko how to win the girl (and of course being there after Katara makes the right choice - i.e. not him) just opens up another layer of sympathetic intimacy for them two.

Zuko only says one sentence in this drabble, set just after the last one.

I'm still not owning Avatar.

----------------------------------------------

Sitting on the edge of the cliff face the young earthbender noted his arrival.

"You like her don't you?" If he heard her, he didn't act like it.

"Twinkle toe's girlfriend. That's what boomerang boy says, anyhow."

"I don't have time to 'like' anyone." He grimaced.

"Yeah. Neither do I." She said, hanging her feet off the cliff.

"It seems airy boy likes prissy girls" She said again, musing half to herself, but glad to have someone to talk to that wasn't Sokka.

Though, it was possible she was a little more sympathetic to how his Uncle Iroh had been now. He wasn't the world's greatest conversationalist.

She wasn't a prissy girl. Anything but. She thought back to all the training times, throwing boulders at him or flicking him in the head.

He didn't speak, but he didn't stalk away either. She knew why he stayed though.

Information.

"She likes attention" Toph went on "though not from me." She added with a grin. The type of attention Toph gave her was usually in the form of an argument.

"And she likes to go somewhere pretty, with clear waters" She said again, thinking of Katara's pick for a vacation spot.

"Somewhere new..."

Nobody else would give him information about their travellers like this, still undecided to whether he was an enemy or not. But he wasn't an enemy to her. He was a fellow outcast. Someone who knew about struggle. Someone who might need a leg up if he wanted something that 'big ears' had.

She didn't really like 'big ears' herself, not like that... but she liked helping the underdog and Zuko was a better fit of that description than anyone.

He didn't thank her but she was sure that he was going to leave.

"And... moody?"

She called him the moody prince on occassion. She was sure Iroh would have liked that name for his nephew.

"Be yourself with the Sugar Queen. She doesn't like the act. None of us do."

The boy smiled at the girl. She looked up and smiled back at him, before he whisked away again to change the course of destiny.

-------------------------------------

No no no! Whew, a good thing we know who really gets the girl (Katara). Kataang - woot! We still love ya Zutara fans!