The following week, the patio was actually starting to take some shape in spite of the best efforts of the builders not to make any progress. Sokka had already turned down Iroh's offer of money for his labor in favor of Pai Sho tips and the autographed copy of his book.

On this particular afternoon, the whole gang was present -- Toph mostly for 'moral support' though Katara and Aang were helping out.

"Are you sure this is a patio?" Toph asked, her version of 'moral support' as she felt out the structure, moving slowly around it with light fingers in case of splinters or loose nails. "Because it just feels like a bunch of pieces of wood stuck together to me."

"But Toph, that's what a patio is..." said Aang, helplessly.

"This nail isn't pounded in all the way," she interrupted, ignoring Aang's protest.

"I'll get it," Zuko offered, but the younger girl held up a hand, halting him in his tracks.

"Oh no. I heard what you did to your thumb like five times already. Give me the hammer."

"Bu--"

"Just so you know," Katara warned, "She's twelve, but she can and will kick your butt."

Toph was giving a stern look somewhere off to Zuko's left, and it was all Zuko could do to keep a straight face as he placed the hammer in her open palm.

"Laugh it up, Pretty Boy," Toph scolded. "And watch the little blind girl kick your ass at construction."

"She helped me make Appa a dog house last summer!" Aang piped up cheerfully.

"Hey, Sweet-cheeks, don't you go advertising my charitable works. I've got a rep to keep up." With that, Toph took a brief moment to feel out the nail, and then with one sure and perfectly accurate pound, she sunk it all the way in. Then she sighed and started feeling her way around the forming structure again. "Guess I better do some quality control."

Sokka caught Zuko's gaze and rolled his eyes. "Girls," he muttered under his breath, and was then promptly startled into falling off of his perch on one of the sawhorses when his sister shouted in his ear.

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

Zuko laughed awkwardly and took the opportunity to step away from the downed boy. Friendship was one thing, Katara's wrath was another altogether.

"What he -meant- to say, I'm -sure-, was that girls are mysterious creatures with abilities far superior to his own," Toph interjected, punctuating her statement with a solid smash of the hammer. "That's why his girlfriend kicks his ass at WoW everyday."

"Oh my god, NONE of you people understand how this game works!" Sokka cried in frustration with the sharp smack of his palm against his forehead. Then he paused and coughed, pulling himself to his feet with dignity. "And for your information, Suki and I disbanded the guild."

Everyone stopped working. Katara gasped quietly, and Aang's eyes were wide. Toph was shaking her head.

"Sokka..." The angry edge was gone from his sibling's voice. "Are you okay?"

In the meantime, Zuko was staring between Sokka and the rest of them, doing his best to figure out what the hell they were talking about. He wanted to ask, but something about the way that even Toph's scoffing remarks had gone silent kept his own mouth shut. He managed to meet Aang's eyes with a quizzical expression and a shrug of his shoulders, hoping the other boy would clue him in.

Sokka was shrugging in response to his sister. "Honestly? Yeah," he said, sounding somewhat surprised at his own reaction.

Meanwhile Aang was creeping closer to stand on his tiptoes and whispered to Zuko, "The guild is the thing that him and Suki run on WoW. It's like the group of their friends and they all play together. It means they broke up."

"I mean, she was upset because I haven't been online as much." Sokka shrugged. "But I was still texting her and emailing her regularly... I think she just liked me for my gaming skills. And there's more to me than that, you know?"

Toph spoke up. "Who is this and where is Sokka?"

Even Katara looked like she might reach out and pinch him just to be sure it was really Sokka standing there and saying those things.

Zuko still looked a little confused, but he seemed to have gotten the gist of it, nodding faintly in response to Aang's explanation. He still wasn't sure why Sokka didn't just say 'we broke up', but then he'd already admitted that he didn't really get most of this gaming stuff.

"Two weeks ago you were practically on the verge of tears because she wouldn't come visit for Spring Break," Katara was continuing, suspicious. "And now you're just fine?"

"I was not on the verge of tears!" Sokka said, defensive and embarrassed. "Look -- maybe I've just gained some perspective, okay? Aren't you the one that keeps telling me I shouldn't be looking for relationships online?" he asked pointedly, not-quite-glaring at Katara.

It was true, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to remain healthily skeptical. "Yeah, I said that," she admitted. "But I didn't say you should break up with her. I'm not a total jerk!"

"Does this mean I can finally take Sokka speed-dating?" Toph cut in. "Because I think it would be hilarious."

"I think you have to be over 18 to do that," Aang answered, a bit nervously, his gaze darting to Sokka's stony face.

"Killjoy," Toph shot back.

"SANDWICHES!" The rumble of the sliding glass door broke the tension as Iroh emerged from the house bearing a tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of iced tea. "Who's hungry?"

Sokka was more than thankful for this distraction, not really enjoying being the center of attention under these circumstances. He and Katara exchanged one last look before going to join the others for the food.

"Thanks, Uncle!" Aang was grinning as he scooped up the cucumber sandwich that Iroh had made specifically for his vegetarian preferences.

Iroh meanwhile was rounding the forming structure with a warm smile. ""This is coming along so nicely! You young people are so talented these days! No fingers lost yet, correct?"

"Not for lack of trying, eh, Fancy Pants?" Toph snickered, appearing suddenly beside Zuko to elbow him in the ribs.

"We're fine, Uncle." Zuko nodded, ignoring Toph's prodding mostly because any glare he turned her way would be useless. "Thank you for the food. And the tea."

Iroh beamed. "It's never too early to start enjoying a finely brewed tea. And the weather is just right to partake of it iced!"

Aang and Katara left with Toph a little early to walk her home, and Sokka and Zuko started cleaning up from the afternoon's work as the sun slowly approached the horizon.

"So is Uncle gonna let us dig him a pool next?" Sokka joked as he swept up sawdust.

Zuko chuckled quietly, kneeling to hold out the dustpan for Sokka. "Now that really would take us all summer." This earned a snicker from his companion. "So... if you don't mind me asking," Zuko began as he stood once more, and gathered the scattered tools. "What were you planning for Spring Break? I mean, you know, since the uh... guild disbanding?"

"Huh? Oh..." Sokka rubbed at the side of his head, unknowingly filling his short hair with sawdust. "I dunno. Maybe catch up on my studies. I could use some extra credit to keep my grades up anyway. Maybe start looking at colleges or something. Normally I'd spend the whole week on WoW, but I guess I'm feeling kind of burned out on it. Don't tell the others, they'll cut open my head to make sure I'm not a pod person."

Zuko laughed quietly and settled on the steps, elbows resting on his knees as he looked out at the work they'd done so far. "We should... do something," he mused, almost thinking aloud. "Maybe go to the big museum in the city. They've got a mammoth. We could take pictures of it, and you could map out all the best escape routes."

Sokka looked at him suspiciously, and sunk down beside Zuko. "Are you making fun of me?" he asked with a little smirk. There was something about when Zuko's sense of humor revealed itself in little teasing comments that made Sokka want to grin, even when they were about himself. But before Zuko could answer, he continued. "I'd like that... I'll have my car by then. Would it be okay...?"

Zuko's expression sobered briefly. What would his father say? But then he shrugged. "If it's a class project..." he supposed. "Maybe Zei would give us extra credit or something." A pause, as he turned his head to catch Sokka's eye, a mischievous grin on his lips. "And yeah, I was making fun of you. But only because it's so easy."

"Jerk," Sokka pouted, giving Zuko's shoulder a shove. "Kicking a man when he's down -- that's fighting dirty."

A huff of quiet laughter followed this accusation, but Zuko did give the thought some pause, and finally turned back to stare at the cement step between his feet. "I thought you said you were okay," he teased, but the words were surprisingly gentle and the statement came out more like a question. Zuko still remembered how difficult his breakup with Mai had been two years ago. And even with Jet, though Zuko had been the one to leave. He shook his head faintly, refusing to be distracted by those thoughts.

"I am," Sokka replied with a shrug. "I mean... mostly. It's not as much about her as it is about it," he tried to explain -- inadequately he noticed when he caught Zuko's raised brow. "It's more like... just... feeling like I failed at something, I guess. Even if I'm not sad that it's over, it's just a reflection on how bad I am at this sort of thing." Sokka grimaced, realizing a moment too late the words that were escaping his mouth and that he was self-deprecating instead of boasting.

Zuko shrugged faintly. "I dunno. I don't think that's necessarily true. I mean... how many failed relationships have you had? Two? And from what Aang told me, the first one wasn't any mess-up on your part." He picked idly at a fingernail as he talked, unwilling to meet Sokka's eyes in case he was overstepping his bounds. "Anyway," he went on, a little more quickly. "Me too. Twice." He held up two fingers. "Both ended pretty badly. So, I mean... you know, you aren't alone. In that. You know."

There was a long moment of silence before Sokka spoke up again, "Really? You found two other people who shared your interest in eating babies? Or is that why it didn't work out?"

Zuko snorted,"Shut up." He shoved Sokka's shoulder hard enough that the boy had to grip the side of the step to keep from toppling over. "As a matter of fact, the first decided her abusive friends were more important than me. And the second... well that one's more complicated, I guess." He shook his head lightly. "But neither of them ate babies. As far as I know. How about you? Any baby-eaters in your past? Is that why you hang out with me?"

"Yeah, FINALLY I found someone that ENJOYS baby eating," Sokka said, snickering. "Nah, not really anything like that... I mean, even Suki just... I guess it turned out we didn't really have that much in common. I didn't really know her when we started 'dating'." He quoted with his fingers. He then paused for a long moment again, idly reaching for a stray stick to poke through the grass. "Did you like... love either of them?" he asked quietly.

Zuko seemed to consider this for a long moment, and stared at the backs of his hands like there might be some simple answer to read there. Then finally, he shrugged. "I dunno, really. I mean, do you know how you sort of feel like you must be in love at the time and then afterward you kind of wonder if you were only... caught up in the moment? I guess it was like that." It was weird to talk about and Zuko felt a certain tension creep into his shoulders at such casual mentions of both Mai and Jet. It'd been some time since he'd figured out that Aang's talk about Sokka 'liking' him was a matter of misinterpretation, and now he realized that he wasn't sure how Sokka would take to the knowledge that one of the relationships he was talking about had been with another guy.

"Yeah," Sokka said with a faint nod. "I can understand that. Like -- you really want to be, but that doesn't make it true." He paused. "It's not... always like that though," he amended as though he were somehow apologizing for something.

Zuko cast him a brief glance. "Yeah... I hope not, anyway." Then, "You loved her? The first one?"

"Mmm," Sokka responded quietly, still poking at the grass. He coughed softly -- it wasn't exactly something that he often talked about. "I think so," he finally continued. "But who knows? She was my first girlfriend anyway. I guess someone told you about it." He didn't sound like he minded. One less time that he'd have to explain it to someone.

Zuko hesitated but nodded. "Yeah, Aang told me. Sorry... I mean, if you didn't want to talk about it." He stretched out a toe, poking idly at an unopened can of wood stain.

"No," Sokka said quickly with a shake of his head. "It's okay." Why WAS he talking to Zuko about this, anyway, of all people? Maybe because they'd already had one conversation about death. "Just uh..." He offered a little grin to the other boy, trying to lighten the mood a little. "Just don't give up! Cause it's not always bad, you know?"

"Don't you dare let Toph take me to that speed-dating thing she was trying to rope you into," Zuko warned. "I'm not even close to being ready to-- I mean... and if I was it wouldn't be-- you know. Gimmicky crap like that." Besides, he reminded himself, there were two very big obstacles between him and dating. His father and Jet. Zuko sighed.

Sokka laughed quietly. "Neither of us will be going speed-dating, I promise," he said, seriously. "Why would you want that to be FAST, anyway? But anyway -- I think I'm swearing off girls for a while. Just too much trouble." He snickered. "Sounds like you're in the same boat."

"Yeah, you could say that," Zuko answered vaguely, his voice a little odd, but then he gave a small huff of laughter and stood, stretching, arms above his head, t-shirt riding up just enough to show a sliver of pale skin around his hips. Then he dropped his arms, and looked at his watch. "I'd better get going soon. Uncle said he'd give me a ride."

"Oh--right." Sokka rose quickly as well. "I uh -- I'll see you tomorrow." He had a strange, sudden urge to thank Zuko for listening to him but that was decidedly unmanly so he pushed it back. He was sure that Zuko understood somehow anyway.

Dusk was falling as Sokka walked home and he found himself musing over the conversation and caught himself wearing a strange grin which he schooled even though he was walking alone. He couldn't figure out exactly why he found himself so comfortable with Zuko, or why he caught himself wanting to look out for the other boy. That for instance, he was again experiencing the intense desire to kick Jet's ass, with the same angry drive that he'd felt when the older boy had toyed with his sister. Jet's words came back to him, his snipe that Sokka should know what he was protecting.

Zuko was his opposite in nearly everything -- he was quiet and closed off where Sokka was noisy and wore his heart on his sleeve. He thought before he spoke, while Sokka blurted. Zuko was rich and he -- well, he wasn't POOR, but his family was definitely middle-class. But he heard the humor that sometimes came through in Zuko's voice and could see the warmth in him that seemed like it was just looking for some way to escape. Like he'd been hiding it for a long time, maybe because of his family, or maybe because he just hurt. Sokka could understand that.

He reflected on the conversation they'd had -- he still couldn't imagine Zuko having a girlfriend. It just seemed to him like she would bug him or step on his toes or something. Plus he just couldn't imagine Zuko wanting to kiss someone. But then again, maybe he just didn't know the other boy THAT well yet. His old girlfriends were probably snotty girls from his old school anyway -- no wonder he wasn't interested in dating anymore.

About twenty minutes too late, Sokka suddenly realized exactly what he'd SAID. That he was 'swearing off girls'. Walking alone, he palmed his face and groaned -- that sounded so stupid and GAY! Why would he say that!? It wasn't that he didn't LIKE girls anymore, just that... Ugh. How did he manage to embarrass himself at EVERY turn?