It's Been Years Since I Saw You Last

Ba Sing Se could, Zuko thought, be quite nice. He leaned back on his arms and enjoyed the sun at one of the public gardens in the middle ring. He and Katara were newly engaged and visiting Iroh and Jun before settling in for detailed wedding negotiations and haggling and harassing the nobility into fiscal responsibility.

Speaking of fiscal responsibility, he should probably search Uncle's room back at the palace and make sure he wasn't hoarding useless junk again. And he'd have to take a look at the books for the Jasmine Dragon before he left. Uncle knew how to brew tea and draw in a steady crowd, but he was almost worse than Sokka with his spending. Zuko sighed. He'd have to get Jun to sneak them out; there's no way Uncle would let him near the office.

"Lee? I mean, I guess I shouldn't call you Lee now, but…spirits, Zuko? Should I say Fire Lord Zuko?"

The moment she started speaking, Zuko shot upright, instinctively ready to bend, knowing it was stupid. If someone was coming to kill him, they wouldn't use his refugee name. But stranger things had happened. He'd let his guard down, and his instincts kicked in, urging him to defense.

"Jin?"

She hadn't changed too much. She was…curvier, but he wasn't supposed to notice that. And she was smiling at him. She hadn't gotten much taller, but her face wasn't as round. She looked more mature, more sure of herself, even though she'd been pretty straightforward when they first met.

"I didn't think you'd remember me." She paused. "My lord." She made an awkward little bow, peeking up at him to see how he was reacting.

"You don't have to bow," Zuko said, standing, dusting off his pants. "And you can just call me Zuko. And of course I remembered you."

He'd hoped he was past that awkward phase. Standing in front of Jin with her eyes roaming over him like that, assessing him and smiling, liking what she saw, he wasn't so sure. He rubbed the back of his neck, as Jin crossed her arms and cocked her hip to the side. Which he also wasn't supposed to notice. There were an awful lot of things he wasn't supposed to notice, now. Katara's orders.

"What brings you to Ba Sing Se?"

"Visiting my uncle."

"We should go get tea! It can be a date," Jin said, latching onto his arm and getting very close to him. She laid her head on his shoulder "I still visit it whenever I have the chance."

"Actually, I'm—"

"Lee?"

Zuko turned as quickly as he could with an entire person firmly latched onto his arm.

"Song?" His voice almost came out as a squeak. Dammit, he was the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord does not squeak when confronted by several women from his past while vacationing with his fiancée. Ok, so several might only mean two, but that didn't make it any less awkward, particularly since he didn't know from what shady corner Katara might spring.

Song gasped and covered her mouth, looking apologetic. She bowed quickly. "Lord Zuko."

Now, Song had changed. He swore she was taller, and her eyes brighter. She was wearing a tight fitting dress in light Earth Kingdom greens, and she wore her hair in the style of the Earth Kingdom nobility; she'd probably come from that spa Katara told him about. She looked very fancy, and was smiling sweetly at him in a way that reminded him of the comfort she and her mother offered. And that reminded him of the guilt.

"Please, just Zuko is fine."

Jin was clinging to him even harder, giving Song the stink eye, and Zuko tried to pry her off without seeming like he was trying to get rid of her. Really, he didn't mind spending time with her and becoming friends again. He just didn't like the way this whole encounter was going.

"I really wish I could have gone back to your village to apologize for the ostrich horse in person."

"Oh, but you've made up for it in so many other ways. And all three ostrich horses and the turtleducks are settling in fine. They're so adorable."

"Turtleducks?" Jin asked, waving a hand and sounding unimpressed. "There are turtleducks all over the Earth Kingdom."

"Yes, but mine are royal turtleducks," Song said, putting her hands on her hips. "Sent as an apology gift from the Fire Lord." Here, she gestured to Zuko, as if Jin didn't know who the Fire Lord was.

Zuko was pretty sure this wasn't how his day was supposed to go. Katara had suggested they come to 'Ba Sing Se's hottest social spot,' a popular café that served drinks and snacks with a nearby garden for socializing. It was said that anyone who was anyone frequented that place. He'd only agreed because the alternative was serving tea at the Jasmine Dragon and getting felt up like he was sixteen again, only this time the women would do it with their eyes, which he felt was far more invasive. They'd do it even more now that he was twenty, more muscular, and taller. When those women—especially the older ones—couldn't touch, they thought and talked. And they thought and talked dirty things. Things even he wouldn't do.

And then Katara had gone and disappeared on him, and he was stuck, very awkwardly, between two girls arguing over him.

"I like your hair," Song said, stepping closer and reaching up to touch his hair. Instinctively, he moved. He tended to not like people going for his face.

"See," Jin said, never letting go of his arm, but putting out a hand to urge Song back. "He doesn't like when you do that."

"It's not that I don't—"

"You shouldn't talk for other people," Song said, looking at Jin suspiciously. "It's rude."

At some point, Zuko had become invisible, and now people were stopping to look and point, because neither of those women happened to be his fiancée. And then there was a familiar laugh that also didn't belong to his fiancée.

"You always seem to find yourself in some sort of trouble, don't you?" Mai asked, standing at the front of the crowd.

"What have I done that's so bad?" Zuko asked, looking at the sun. "Why do you hate me?"

"Oh, please," Mai said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling, openly and warmly.

Smiles suited her. She looked good. She'd foregone those stupid little buns and just wore her hair down, and she wasn't wearing all that dark makeup anymore. She looked so much lighter; light like he hadn't seen her since they were children. It was a good look for her. Not that he was supposed to notice.

"You look good," Zuko said, unable to resist a smile.

"Thanks. You don't look half bad yourself."

Jin let go of Zuko's arm to put her hands on her hips, turning to stare Mai down.

"And who are you? Zuko and I were about to go on a date—"

Mai must have been feeling good because she started laughing. "Relax, I'm not here to steal him away." She waved away the notion. "Been there, done that."

Zuko tried not to smile, because this whole thing was inappropriate, and it was about to get worse because there was Katara, stalking over to him.

"I leave you alone for five minutes," she said, pushing her way through the small, amused crowd. She stopped when she saw the three women surrounding him. "What's going on here?"

Mai laughed again. "What's going on here, Zuko?"

Zuko sighed. "This is Jin. She and I went on a date when Uncle and I were refugees. This is Song. I stole an ostrich horse from her—"

"Zuko!" Katara's fists flew to hips, and she was getting shrill.

"It's a long story, and I've paid her back."

"With three ostrich horses and two turtleducks," Song pointed out defensively. She looked a little out of her depth with three other girls and a small crowd of people watching. Zuko wanted to give her a hug, but that might be too much.

Jin took his hand. "We were just going to go on a date to the Jasmine Dragon," she declared, starting to pull.

"No, you weren't," Katara said gently, stepping close to Zuko and putting a hand on Jin's shoulder. "You must not have heard about his recent change in relationship status. He's no longer single."

Jin looked shocked, her eyebrows rising and her mouth forming a little "o". She looked back and forth between Zuko and Katara. Then she looked at Song and Mai, like she wasn't sure which one of them could be his girlfriend.

"Yeah, at some point people stopped listening to me," Zuko said, rubbing the back of his neck. It would be just his luck to get surrounded by four beautiful women and then get all four of them all riled up in one way or the other.

"I'm his fiancée," Katara explained, touching him unnecessarily. She slipped her arm around his waist, rubbing his back, and smiled up at him. She was doing that on purpose, making him feel all dopey so he'd start smiling like an idiot again. And it was working.

Jin looked massively disappointed, and Song only looked embarrassed. Mai just smiled. She looked happy for him. Katara took his hand and began leading him off with a bit more sashay than was called for. Zuko resisted rolling his eyes. Talk about dominant female.

"You're like a magnet for your ex girlfriends, aren't you?" she asked when they were back at the café. She pulled Zuko into the seat, then sat on his lap, casting a glance over her shoulder to make sure the other girls were watching. She ran her hands through his hair.

"I wasn't trying to date them," he said. "Things just got out of control. You think about that next time you want to visit some social hot spot. I'm very hard to resist."

"Oh, whatever," she said, giving him a playful slap.

A/N: It was a lot funnier in my head. I didn't want to do an AU for social network, and the deviant art Zutara week page mentioned things like myspace and facebook, and that other thing. Then I thought I'd do something obscure like I did for mask. Then I had this idea. I hope you guys caught the references to things like status updates and relationship status. I also incorporated the idea that you get on facebook and all your ex's find you, and your current doesn't like you friending them. Some of them have the intention of getting back with you, some really do just want to be friends, and some just get embarrassed. So yeah. That's where my mind was. This is the only thing that's *slightly* out of my continuity.

Oh! And turtleducks are totally an international symbol of peace now. Plus I imagine the ponds at the palace might be getting kind of full, and giving some away is a great way to keep them from having territorial squabbles. And the Avatar Wiki tells me they are Fire Nation animals. For this, we'll pretend they're Earth Kingdom. Pretend, dammit!