A/N: Calling all readers! Can you hear me? Is this thing on? CALLING ALL READERS! After this chapter I have officially RUN OUT OF IDEAS for this story. Now, don't panic. I don't plan to end it here, but I NEED SUGGESTIONS. If you have an idea, if you have something you want to see done, PLEASE don't be shy.

Also, some people have mentioned an interest in reading a high school parody. I would love to try this…but I have no idea where to begin. If anyone (anyone at all!) has an idea as to how I should go about this, please—FOR THE LOVE OF AANG—tell me.

…In other news…if you like Bleach, go check out my profile. I have a new mulitchapter fic up. It's no where near as popular as TFA, but it's my baby.

…That is all. So now, please proceed to (finally…--don't hurt me--) enjoy:

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 9: A Blutara Interlude

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The pregnant moon hung heavy in an indigo sky. A soft breeze sighed into the spring night, sending many colored flower petals spiraling to the ground as it passed by. And in the very center of this beauty stood one extraordinary couple…

"Why aren't you better at this?! You're a prince, aren't you?" Katara demanded angrily as she hobbled around on one foot and clutched at the other. Her poor abused toes. She might never walk without a limp again…

The Blue Spirit looked on the scene with a vacant smile. Meanwhile, Zuko flushed behind his mask and lowered his eyes to the ground.

"I tried my best? I mean, dancing has been outlawed in the Fire Nation for the past seventy two years…" The boy asked, hope in his voice. Katara just hissed at him. Maybe she should take her shoes off and actually attempt a healing?

"Hey!" the outlaw protested, "I said it was a stupid idea! You're the one who was all, 'It's so pretty! Let's dance under the stars and the trees and the flowers-'"

"Shut up! I didn't say it like that! And it's the thing to do in situations like this." She released her foot to plant her hands on her hips. "Don't you know that when the girl falls in love with the mysterious masked stranger they're supposed to do romantic things together?"

"But, Katara… I told you who I was three weeks ago…" the confused prince said, far beyond his depth in trying to contend with a teenaged girl who had spent the last six years of her life waiting to meet a guy—any guy.

Sitting around on a male depleted hunk of ice left a girl with little to do but daydream about her first boyfriend. And that's never a good thing.

In response to the boy's well-meaning but horribly misguided correction, the Water Tribe girl proceeded to engage in an activity she had perfected at the age of two years and four months: glaring and thereby making men uncomfortable.

In the face of such unmitigated rage, the prince paled beneath his mask and forced himself not to fidget. But those eyes. They were staring into his very soul. Just looking into those eyes he knew that she knew that he was nervous and sweaty and blushing. Damn mask! He wore it so people wouldn't be able to tell when he made fool of himself. Why did it betray him?! It was just like the helmet that had come before it!

Zuko began to consider the very real possibility that he needed better friends. Maybe he could try for some that weren't inanimate this time?

…Nah. The turtle ducks had betrayed him too. He just hadn't been able to prove it yet.

Katara, unsure if her glaring was reaching its desired level of male-mind-melting (as Sokka had taken to calling it) because of the mask, turned it all the way up from a Level 2 'You think you're queasy now, just wait until I get through with you' glare to a Level 7 'Stand very still and wait right there while I get the rusty spoon—you didn't really want children anyway, did you?' glare.

Zuko shriveled up and died inside. Just a little.

"And speaking of things you've done wrong-"

"When were we-"

"-where were you that night anyway?" Katara continued as if she'd never been interrupted.

"W-which night do you mean?" Zuko asked, growing more nervous by the second and backing away slowly. He had a feeling he knew exactly which night she meant.

"You know," the girl said, following the taller teen's retreat and stepping up close to him once his back was trapped against a tree. There was no escaping her now…

She trialed a delicate hand down his shoulder, and then back up to gently cup his jaw, "The night that was going to be our second meeting. I had told you to meet me back here at the same time… I waited for you for hours."

Her eyes glinted in the moonlight like a large, hungry cat's. "So, where were you?"

The prince swallowed audibly and prayed she'd make it quick. He knew he wasn't lucky enough for her to have forgotten about that.

Worse yet, he was a horrible liar and he severely doubted the truth was the way to go in this instance…

XXXXXXXXXX—four weeks prior—XXXXXXXXXX

"Zuko!" Iroh called, wandering around their current residence in search of the boy. Hmm… Maybe he had already left. His nephew had been acting oddly that morning, and Iroh was convinced it was because Zuko had finally found himself a girl. It was about damn time in any case.

Ah, finally Zuko would-

The old man's shoulders slumped. Well, he had found him.

"Nurg! …No, bad 'Zula… Those're my fire flakes…"

Iroh sighed. Really, in bed an hour past sundown. Which one of them was an old man again?

He turned and made his way from the room. Perhaps it was too much to hope that the boy would find himself a girlfriend. But then, what were charming old uncles for if not to help with the ladies? Why when Iroh had been his nephew's age…

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"…I was with Uncle. He was…sick."

"Really?" Katara asked, staring at him with just a hint of suspicion.

Zuko, sensing that he was on the verge of catching a break for once, nodded vigorously. "Yeah. That's exactly what happened. I made him tea and soup and…and salad… and stuff."

Katara narrowed her eyes and studied what she could see of his face through the eyeholes of his mask.

Uh-oh, maybe he had taken it too far? Darn it, he could never tell! But who made salad for sick people? He was such an idiot! Idiot! Maybe he could say it was a Fire Nation thing? Yeah. Yeah, and then he'd call her racist. That'd work. Nice deflection.

…Or maybe she'd just kill him.

Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts. 'That's so… sweet, Zuko! You're such a loving nephew!" She smiled coyly up at him and pressed herself to his chest, "I like sweet guys."

It actually worked? …Really? Score! That made it Zuko: 2, Universe: 300,000,012. He was catching up!

Doing the Fire Nation equivalent of an internal happy dance (it resembled a particularly violent kata more than anything else) he put one arm around the girl and raised the other to his face to pull back his mask.

He pressed his forehead to hers and smiled. She leaned up to brush her lips against his…

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Toph snorted into the rock ledge she was using to shield her from view. At her side, Aang watched the scene while humming a happy little tune and chomping away at egg-custard flavored sugar-balls. The kid could really pack those things away…

Oh yeah, and Sokka screamed his outrage into a gag from where he flailed about ineffectually on the ground. After several minutes of rolling, kicking, biting, and… creative use of tongue… Sokka spit the cloth from his mouth.

"Why are you two just sitting there when my sister is being accosted by the enemy!" He yowled.

Toph, worried the big mouth would ruin her entertainment, waved a hand over her shoulder and had a rock flick itself at the boy's forehead. "Shut it, Snoozles. They're gonna hear you."

"I wouldn' worry 'bout it, Toph," Aang said around a particularly sticky bit of his treat, before swallowing loudly. "I don't think they'd notice if the Spirit World mounted an attack to wipe out all of humanity at the moment." The boy tilted his head to the left and studied the scene more closely. "Yep. Definitely nothing to worry about."

"What is wrong with both of you?" The distraught brother wailed, "Katara-"

"You know," the earthbender cut in, "I'd really call this 'cavorting with the enemy' more than 'being accosted.' Besides, it's kinda cute."

Sokka's mouth gaped open and Aang nearly choked as they both turned to look at the blind girl.

"What?" Toph demanded, "I'm a girl. I can think things are cute!"

"…So anyway…" Sokka continued, trying to change the subject before Toph killed them all, "Why are you just sitting there, Aang? I thought you had a crush on Katara."

Aang shrugged and turned back to the pair in the clearing. "Well, yeah. But I gotta find something fun to do, and following Katara as she tries to sneak out of camp is about as interesting as it's going to get."

"She really does suck as stealth, doesn't she?" Sokka lamented, finally scooting up next to the others and taking some of Aang's offered sugar-balls.

"That's putting it lightly," Toph laughed, "Can you believe she still thinks we don't know?"

Aang sighed, "I almost feel insulted actually…"

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I just want everyone to know that all the love in the world should go to Shadowhawke for the existence of this chapter, for inspiring me to actually get off my a$$ and write it. Thank you!