Genre: Humor/Romance
Pairings: ZukoxAang etc.
Warnings: Yaoi. Don't like? Don't read.
Summary: 16 year old Aang didn't mind when his guardian, Gyatso, went off for a fitness program concerning his arthritis. He didn't mind having to spend three whole weeks of the summer without him. But he most certainly did mind having to stay over at Zuko's house for three whole weeks and the series of inconveniences that befell him that particular summer.

INCOVENIENCE NO. 4
The Stupid Bag

Aang sat there for nearly fifteen minutes, alternating between focusing on the throbbing in his nose and whether or not his words had really been that offending. It took him entirely three seconds to realize that, judging by Zuko's reaction, his words had been very offending.

Aang was sympathetic, he supposed. Being friends with Toph had showed him what a dysfunctional family could do to someone but he wasn't sorry for what he'd said. After all, he and Zuko were even now.

Sort of?

Aang faltered a bit but before he could brood anymore, the sound of the doorbell rang out through the house. There was a pause and then, he stood up; hastily wiping away the last of the blood and leaving the cloth on the table as he made his way out of the kitchen. However, Aang had barely reached the front door when he heard a slight thud behind him. He liked to believe that he didn't spin around in a rather panicked manner to come face to face with Zuko who was leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs.

'Did you invite someone?' he said flatly.

'No.' Aang ventured.

'Then it's not for you, is it?' Zuko said with a scowl.

'I thought you were busy so...' Aang began and despite himself, his fingers fiddled nervously with the hem of his shirt.

'How considerate.' Zuko spat out angrily. 'Now fuck off.'

Aang flinched at the venom in Zuko's voice and even though he knew that it was in the best interests of his survival to move before the older boy descended from the stairs and decided to punch him some more, he didn't. He couldn't.

Aang wasn't exactly sure whether it was his pride keeping him or there, or his stubbornness, but he refused to move. Instead, he spoke.

God. How he wished he hadn't.

But the words were spilling out before he could even think to stop them.

'Look, I'm sorry for what I said but how was I supposed to know that you have a dysfunctional family?' Aang demanded.

There was a pause and the younger boy tried to ignore the heat rushing to his cheeks as he realized that he'd been just a little too loud in his nervousness.

'I spend the summer with my uncle.' Zuko said and Aang's jaw clenched with determination as the older boy began to descend from the stairs. 'What does that tell you?'

'I'm spending the summer here too! That doesn't mean anything.'

'Except the fact that you don't have a family.' Zuko said and glared at the door as someone thundered on it.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Aang said sharply.

'It means don't try to pretend like you know what someone else is going through when you don't even have a family.'

'That's low.' Aang said, his voice cold. 'Even for you.' Another series of knocks, this time louder, echoed throughout the house.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Zuko countered and Aang silently prided himself on the fact that he didn't even flinch as the older boy reached the foot of the stairs.

'Is this your way of feeling better? Telling me that people hate me? Punching me?' Aang said through gritted teeth.

By now, the person on the other side of the door was thundering on it and Aang could hear a voice on the other side.

'Maybe it is.' Zuko countered with a smirk.

'And you call me a loser,' Aang said and before another word could be said, he spun on his heel and threw open the front door. 'What?' he snapped.

'Wow, Twinkles. Emo-boy getting to you already?' Toph said, an amused smirk on her lips.

Aang threw one last glare over his shoulder before stepping out of the house and slamming the door shut behind him. On the pavement stood a short girl, dressed in loose cargo pants and a tank top. A messenger bag was slung over one shoulder and her converse shoes looked like they were about to fall to pieces. 'Hi, Toph. Did you need something?'

'Twinkles! Blowing me off? And here I thought I would never even live to see the day!' Toph said.

Aang swiftly smothered the twinge of annoyance at the edge of his conscience. 'I'm serious.' he said quietly.

'So am I. We need to write this down, Aang. Do something. Have a par-' Toph began but swiftly cut herself off as her eyes widened. 'What the hell happened to your face, Twinkles?'

'I fell.' he said shortly.

'Where'd you fall from? And how hard?' Toph said in amazement as she leaned forward to look at his face.

'Um, pretty hard. I fell down the stairs.' Aang ventured.

'Unless you deliberately threw yourself off the stairs and then smashed your face into the banister a few times, I don't think you got that from a fall, Twinkles.' Toph said shrewdly.

There was a pause and Aang shuffled nervously. 'Did he punch you?' she cried.

Aang looked up and promptly reared back as he saw the grin on Toph's face. 'Oh God. I need to go congratulate him. He made our Twinkles a man! Let me meet him!' she demanded.

'You're supposed to be my friend!' Aang declared in an affronted manner.

'Screw that. If he punched you, he easily qualifies as awesome.' she said before shoving Aang clean aside with one shove and marching up to the house.

'Come on, Toph. You don't want to do that. He's not even my friend and he doesn't like me very much. He might get...I dunno, offended?' Aang pleaded as he ran after her.

'Jeez, Twinkles. Not everyone's a girl like you,' Toph said.

'Come on, Toph. Please! For me!' Aang yelled as she threw open the front door and marched into the house.

'Zuko! ZUKO!' Toph yelled as she poked her head into the kitchen before thundering up the stairs.

'Toph!' Aang said weakly but Toph was succeeding quite spectacularly at an imitation of a deaf person.

Aang would have liked to believe that his protests got more vehement as they neared Zuko's room, but the fact was, they died down and by the time, Toph threw open the door, he was completely silent.

'There you are!' Toph said as if she had known Zuko for years.

Aang frowned as he peeked over Toph's shoulder into the room. 'What's up, emo-boy?' she said brightly, stepping into the room and pulling Aang in with her.

'Do I know you?' Zuko asked from where he was sitting at his desk, laptop screen propped open. His eyebrows were raised.

'Nope but I'm here to congratulate on finally initiating Aang into the circle of manliness.' Toph said.

'What?' Zuko snapped, his brows furrowing with confusion.

'You punched him, didn't you?' Toph said and Aang glared at the back of her head as Zuko turned to stare at him, the older boy's jaw clenched with irritation.

'Yes, he did but-' the younger boy began.

'What are you, eight?' Zuko said as he glared at him. 'If someone punches you, you punch them back. You don't go complaining to your girlfriend.'

'You're the one who was mothering over me once you did punch me!' Aang retorted sharply.

'Maybe that's because I felt sorry. You can rest assured that it doesn't even compare to how sorry I am that I even bothered.' Zuko spat out angrily.

An abrupt silence followed his words and for several minutes, no one moved. Then:

'So, Snoozle's having a party next week. Wanna come?' she said to Zuko.

There was a pause and then, he turned to her with a scowl. 'I am not even going to ask who Snoozles is.' he said quietly.

'That'd be Sokka. You have Chemistry with him.' Toph said.

'Why the hell would I go to his party? I don't know him.' Zuko said before shifting his gaze back to the screen of his laptop.

'Yeah, but you know Aang.' Toph said as she dropped her bag onto the foldup bed and positioned herself onto it, cross-legged.

Zuko's lips twitched into a smirk and his eyes flickered over to Aang before returning to the screen. 'You're insane.' he stated flatly.

'Well, fine then. But I can guarantee that you'll be at that party.' Toph said.

'Yep, because me and Aang are the bestest of buddies.' Zuko said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

'Toph, let's just go.' Aang said as he glared at Zuko.

'Well, don't believe me. But you'll see. Aang won me over, he could win you over any day. It's what he does. Blabbering until people surrender and talk to him just for the sake of making him go away. He's an expert.' Toph said brightly.

'Thanks, Toph. You're the best.' Aang said through gritted teeth.

'He couldn't win me over even if I wanted to be won over.' Zuko said with narrowed eyes.

'Which actually changes everything, you see. You don't want to be won over, meaning that you'll hate Aang even more when he starts trying..'

'Which I'm not going to do...' Aang muttered.

'So, you'll get so annoyed that in the end, you'll make peace with him just for the sake of your sanity. It's how we became friends, right, Twinkles?' Toph said and Aang winced as she punched him hard in the arm.

'That's a nice story. Now get out.' Zuko said, his eyes not moving from the screen.

'Wow.' was all Toph said as she stood up and sauntered over to Zuko's table.

'Toph.' Aang said warningly.

However, instead of kicking Zuko in the shin - as Aang had been expecting - she merely shot him a contemplative look before turning to Aang and smiling brightly. 'Let's get outta here, Twinkles.'

'Yeah...' Aang said as he lead her out of the room.

'See you around.' she called out just before Aang slammed the door shut.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Aang and Toph were sitting on a rickety bench in Iroh's backyard; two cokes and a large bag of Doritos sitting in between them.

'I can't believe you!' Aang exclaimed. 'Why would you invite HIM to Sokka's party? And when were you going to plan on telling me about it?'

'Done?' Toph asked through a mouthful of chips.

'NO!' Aang said.

'Go on then.'

There was a pause and then, Aang sighed. 'What?'

'You might die if I say it out loud.'

'Toph.' Aang said tiredly. 'Can you please just stop already?'

'Fine, Twinkles. But only because you sound extra pathetic today.'

'Thanks.' Aang muttered darkly.

'So, want me to say it?' Toph asked, a little too politely.

'Not really.' Aang said. 'But-.'

'Two normal guys are rarely that passionate about anything.' Toph said flatly.

'And?' Aang asked.

'Figure it out or do you want me to get Suki to spill one of her love quotes on you?' Toph said with a roll of her eyes.

'Love quotes?' Aang exclaimed and was on the other side of the bench in an instant. 'What are you talking about?' he demanded.

'Jeez, it does make people more stupid.' Toph said as she leaned back on the bench and scratched the back of her neck.

'What? What's it?' Aang said, unnerved.

'Love, Twinkles. Limerence. Infatuation. Whatever you want to call it.' Toph said as she popped some more chips into her mouth.

'I'm not in love. Who would I be in love with?' Aang marveled, a confused grin dawning on his face.

'I don't know. Zuko, maybe.' Toph said with a bright grin.

'Oh, of course, I'm in love with Zuko.' Aang said with a chuckle.

'You two sound just like a married couple when you fight. It's even worse than Katara PMSing.' Toph said as Aang stood up and snatched up his coke. 'Two normal guys don't sound like that.'

'Toph, I thought it was Sokka's turn to get picked on.'

'It's always Sokka's turn to get picked on. But that's not the point. The point is that you aren't taking me very seriously.' Toph said. She gathered up the bag of Doritos and her coke before jogging after Aang who was halfway through the back door.

'Toph, I don't do this very often but if you don't stop, I won't ask Teo to let us see his video game collection.' Aang stated flatly.

There was a pause and then Toph groaned. 'Fine. If you insist on being boring.' she said as they made their way into the kitchen through the back door. 'Anyway, Twinkles, I went to Miyako's shop the other day, turned out she was selling copies of NFS: Hot Pursuit. Teo is going to die next time I see him. He was supposed to tell us!'

'Do you have it now?' Aang asked brightly.

'Honestly, Twinkles. Do you ever stop with the stupid questions. Of course, I have it!' Toph said exasperatedly.

'Where?' Aang said as he dropped his can into the trash can and turned to Toph.

'In my bag. Speaking of which, where did it go?' she wondered, a little too enthusiastically.

'I think you left it upstairs.' Aang said as he stared at her through the corner of his eye.

'Well... get it for me,' Toph said brightly.

There was a pause and then, Aang's brow furrowed in puzzlement as he stared at Toph. She responded with an innocent smile. 'Okay, then.' he said.

Aang made his way out of the kitchen, throwing one last glance at Toph before trudging up the stairs. Upon reaching the landing, he was too focused on whether he should wait for Zuko to go to the bathroom and then get the bag or just go and get it, to hear the sounds coming from inside the room. Aang decided on the latter and pushed open the door.

That particular incident made Aang wish that Gyatso had taught him to knock before entering someone else's room. He wished Katara had said it a few hundred times more. He wished he had enough sense to listen at the door before entering. If he had, he would have heard.

And Aang would have preferred hearing it over seeing it. It would have prevented a lot of disconcerting events later on. In fact, Aang would even go far as to say that, had that particular incident not taken place, his life would have been different. But it happened.

It took Aang's eyes a few moments to adjust to the dimness of the room. He wished it had taken longer. At least, it would have given them some time to just fucking stop what they were doing but they didn't. Instead, once the light flooded in through the landing, Aang found himself staring at a rather flushed Zuko perched on his laptop desk; hair tousled and head thrown back with his hand clutching a shoulder that seemed a little too broad to belong to a girl.

Aang didn't just watch it happening. He drank it in, he heard the gasps and moans spilling from Zuko's mouths; sounds that sounded so utterly absurd spilling from the older boy's mouth that for some reason, he couldn't tear his eyes away from his dazed expression.

Aang didn't know avidly he'd been staring at Zuko, perhaps a little too avidly because it took him a few seconds to register the fact that one moment, he'd been rooted in his place and the next, someone had slammed the door in his face. Very, very literally. Aang sensed more than felt the bone crack and then the blood was gushing down his face and tears were spilling from his eyes as he doubled over in the hallway.

Through the cloud of pain obscuring his mind, Aang managed to pull away from the carpet before any more blood could drip on it.

And then he was running. He barely made it two feet before he felt someone's hand graze his shoulder.

Aang wasn't sure if it was the person that pushed him or if it was just a reflex action to shy away from the touch when his nose and head were pounding, but then, his foot caught in something and he fell.

His face connected solidly with the floor and the last thing he heard before passing out from the pain was the sound of his name.

Well, there you go!
Thank you soo much for all the reviews, you guys! I know its probably getting old but you guys are still utterly awesome! I demand that you do not stop! :D

Oh and hurray for 'Once Upon A Play' on reaching 100 favorites! YAY! :D

Don't forget to review! Hopefully the next chapter will be up by next Friday :]

-Jade