-0-

They had a bit of a squabble over Toph's many sarcastic comments in regards to Sokka's posters. Sokka knew it was hypocritical for him to get annoyed by someone's sarcasm, but did Toph really have to do it all the time? She pointed out that he was the most sarcastic person she had ever met. She declared boldly that she could live without sarcasm. But she was sure Sokka would spontaneously combust if he had to go more than an hour without making a sarcastic remark.

"Please, neither of you can live without sarcasm," Katara chimed in while she did the dishes. "Rather than arguing with each other about who is more sarcastic, could one of you help me dry these?"

"Okay, I have an idea," Toph said. "Let's make a bet. The first person to say something sarcastic has to help Katara with the chores for the rest of time."

"The rest of time is a bit excessive. Why don't we put an end date on it – like when we leave Ba Sing Se?"

Sokka knew that Toph thought she had this in the bag, but she was also the type who blurted out whatever joke she thought was funny. She wouldn't be able to help herself. Sokka was older and had more practise restraining himself. He'd held so many comments back for the sake of other people's feelings lately. He was sure he could do it for the sake of watching Toph do the dishes.

"Deal! You are going down, Sokka."

"Oi!" Katara's irritated voice came from the kitchen. "These dishes aren't drying themselves!" She turned to Aang, who'd landed neatly on the verandah. "Aang, will you help?"

"Leave the dishes. Finding Appa is more important. I dropped posters all over the city and we still haven't heard anything."

"Aang, you might have to be a bit more patient," Katara said softly.

Less than a moment later, there was a knock at the door. Poor, sweet, optimistic, vegetarian Aang thought that their visitor would be "patience paying off", but it wasn't.

It was Joo Dee, original flavour.

They'd been through a few Joo Dees by this point. They all had the exact same personality and it was giving Sokka the creeps. There was clearly some nefarious, brain-washing thing happening, but Sokka wasn't sure what they could do to stop it.

They had gone into the Lower Ring, District Twenty-Two, when Katara was looking for Zuko again. (She was working her way up the numbered districts, but she hadn't had any luck so far.) They'd gone to the market with Joo Dee number four. There, they'd run into that Joo Dee's family, and it had been awful. Joo Dee hadn't recognised her own daughter. The poor little girl had been crying. The father pleaded with Aang to fly away with her, just before the Dai Li had showed up, so her distraught sobbing didn't tip them off. Then this poor husband had to pretend that he didn't know his own wife. He had to say shit like, "There is no war in Ba Sing Se," and "No, nothing unusual happened."

Katara had been shaking with rage. She had tried to heal their Joo Dee's memories when they got back home, but she had no idea what she was doing. Joo Dee had sat there in the chair making inane comments like, "This is a quaint Water Tribe custom, isn't it – to repeatedly splash your host in the face?", but otherwise not resisting. The next day they were given a new Joo Dee to escort them. They hadn't seen Joo Dee number four since.

Joo Dee, original flavour, had obviously been sent by the Dai Li to be an enormous obstruction to their attempt at finding Appa. Sokka wondered if she had a family missing her out there as well. She probably did.

Sokka saw Aang well and truly lose his temper with her. Aang losing his temper happened rarely, but it was always a sight to behold when it did. Aang was done putting up with these stupid rules! Toph was so delighted about breaking some rules that she broke a wall in her excitement.

"Let's go put these posters up on some walls now!" Aang said, thrusting the papers at Katara, who began sorting them out into piles as they walked.

They started at the Upper Ring and worked their way down. Sokka stuck with Toph. He wasn't going to let her off the hook. He needed to watch her in case she said something sarcastic. Also, he knew putting up posters was pretty much impossible for her to do on her own, and she'd hate to be left out just because she was blind.

They started talking in this oddly formal fashion with each other to avoid anything even remotely sarcastic. They had made it all the way to the Twentieth District when they heard a big commotion coming from nearby. Sokka recognised the sound of Katara shouting and waterbending.

Uh oh.

They raced to her and found her at the opening of a street, breathing heavily with her arms up in a bending pose. Her hands were pointing towards the back of the dead end.

"My dear sister, what is the source of all this commotion?" Sokka asked.

"Why are you talking so weird?" she said, eyebrow raised.

"Weirdly? Me? Oh pish posh. I have always spoken most elegantly."

"As have I, my dear woman!" Toph chimed in. "My, what a lovely day it is for waterbending. Whom, pray tell, are you bending at today?"

Katara blinked twice, looking between them in irritation.

"Whatever. Jet's back." She pointed angrily towards a boy with an exceptionally well-groomed and 'artfully dishevelled' hairdo. She had frozen him to the back of the wall of the alley.

"Yo," Jet said ever so coolly, with a sardonic little wave of his unfrozen hand.

Then Aang came and Jet spouted some bullshit for him. Jet said he wanted to help them find Appa, and he had changed. "People change, you guys," he said insistently. "I swear I'm not the same guy I was back in Gaipan. I don't want to drown anyone now. I just want to help."

People did change. Sokka knew that was true. But he just didn't know if Jet was capable of it. Sokka had very quickly judged Jet harshly when he first met him. Sokka had been wrong about many things, but he was sure he had been absolutely right about Jet.

Two of Jet's cronies showed up, and Sokka felt vindicated. It turned out that Jet had been captured by the Dai Li and brainwashed. Jet hadn't changed. Jet was a Dai Li plant and he hadn't even known it.

Smellerbee told them that they had been looking for Jet and Appa at the same time, scoping out different Dai Lee prisons and holding cells. They really wanted to help, too. Sokka was surprised that any of Jet's cronies would do anything to help them out of the goodness of their heart. Katara was always going on about looking for the best in people. Sokka had always assumed this was just part of her hopeful optimist schtick, but maybe she had been right.

They went to the newly created zoo to talk, because they needed a place where the Dai Lee couldn't listen in. There were no other buildings for those slimeballs to be lurking in, only the open sky above and the earth below – and if those sneaky dickheads were hiding under them, Toph would feel it. Also Smellerbee and Longshot had never been to the zoo and realised that Aang would get them in for free. They were quick to grab a freebie, those two.

Jet kept trying to encourage them all to go to this warehouse where he had seen Appa, saying they were going to move the bison soon. This smelled like a trap to Sokka. That was just what the Dai Li wanted Jet to say!

Still, Aang wanted to check it out. Sokka said that before they did that, they had to figure out how much the Dai Li had washed out of Jet's overly-styled head. They needed to unwash Jet's brain and get a better picture of what the Dai Li were doing, then it would make coming up with a plan easier.

Katara gave it a try with her healing water, but her attempt left both her and Jet reeling. Jet was obviously shaken from whatever she'd done and had gone very pale. Smellerbee got worried for him and said that before they splashed Jet again, they should try and figure out how much he remembered and see if they could figure out which memories the Dai Li altered. Jet knew who they were, so the Dai Li had left his memories of Gaipan intact. They should start there and work forward.

"It's only logical," Smellerbee concluded.

She liked to do things logically? Sokka really had misjudged her.

"Do you remember why we left the forest?" Smellerbee asked Jet matter-of-factly.

Jet hung his head. "Yes."

"Do you remember why the Duke and Pipsqueak left?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember that you did the exact same thing here, you arsehole!" Smellerbee suddenly smacked him upside the head.

"Jeez, Smellerbee, why did you have to go bring that up?" Jet huffed.

"Wait. Why did they leave?" Sokka interjected, wanting to understand what was happening in this conversation.

"After we exploded the dam, Pipsqueak said Jet was becoming a monster," Smellerbee explained. "He said Jet was going to get someone killed. He wasn't going to let that happen to The Duke. They had an argument and he ended up punching Jet. Then he left with The Duke and most of the little kids. It split up our group. Pipsqueak said Jet was too obsessed with fighting the Fire Nation to ever change."

"We have to fight the Fire Nation! They're all monsters who..."

Longshot rolled his eyes at Jet. Jet didn't seem to realise he was proving Smellerbee's point for her. Smellerbee didn't seem smugly vindicated. She was exasperated instead.

"Gah, will you just STOP already!" Smellerbee shouted at him with real feeling. "I wish the Dai Li could wash away how much you hate the Fire Nation, because this is getting ridiculous."

Jet was stunned into silence.

"You have to let this go, Jet. We were meant to make a fresh start here, and you ruined it! You went nuts! Lee is literally just some random ninja guy who only wanted to make tea with his uncle, break into Dai Li headquarters and steal shit, and you couldn't leave him alone! And he's not a firebender at all. No firebenders learn ninja shit. They just bust into a place and set everything on fire. But Lee's a great ninja. Did you ever think of that?"

Jet looked taken aback. He clearly had not considered this.

"He's been helping us as we looked for you! He was the one who wanted to look for Appa in the first place. He knows these guys!" Smellerbee pointed at them angrily.

Sokka exchanged no way/yes way faces with Katara and Aang. Toph was no good at making no way/yes way faces because of her blindness, but Sokka knew she got the general vibe of excitement.

Sokka couldn't believe this stroke of dumb luck. Ba Sing Se was massive. He'd known it was going to be exceedingly difficult to find Zuko in this city. He'd half given up hope that they would ever see their grumpiest friend again, despite all of Katara's attempts. But now Smellerbee was here, grumbling about a ninja named Lee with a tea loving uncle who wanted to free Appa. Sokka knew exactly who that sounded like.

"But your stupid crush on him made you do such stupid shit!" Smellerbee continued. "You got thrown in Dai Lee prison! You got brainwashed! We nearly lost you! So just fucking stop!"

Crush?

The plot was rapidly thickening.

"Okay, I have to ask, who is Lee?" Toph interjected.

"He's a firebender, I swear," Jet started to say, but Smellerbee covered his mouth with her hand.

"Shush," she said firmly, then looked at Toph. "It's a really long story."

"Well, we want to hear it."

"Knowing the full story would really help," Sokka said. "This city is so full of secrets and lies. The more real information we have, the better."

Smellerbee nodded. She was logical, too.

"Lee was this tall, grumpy boy we met on the ferry who was travelling with his uncle. He was a dual sword wielder too. Jet was instantly smitten with him and said shit like he's perfect. I want him in our group."

"I wouldn't..." Jet said indignantly, breaking away from her.

Longshot came up behind him and covered Jet's mouth with his hand. He gave Jet a long look and then nodded at Smellerbee, indicating it was her turn to talk and Jet's turn to listen.

"Anyway, Lee helped us with some heists on the boat, 'cause first class were eating five course luxury and we were eating garbage. We broke into the kitchen together and looted all the good snacks and shared them out with all the other refugees. Lee could do heaps of tricks with his swords. Jet was watching him just like in love at this point,"

Jet struggled against Longshot's hold, looking furious.

"The next day, he asked Lee to join us. Lee didn't like Jet that much and so he told Jet to go fuck himself sideways, which was kinda rude and unnecessary. I do give ya that, Jet. He's a rude ninja."

It was Zuko!

Only Zuko told people to go fuck themselves sideways! He normally said it to Sokka, as a matter of fact. But Sokka had never been happier to hear that phrase! They'd found him at last.

"Then Jet saw Lee's uncle holding a cup of tea, so Jet immediately decided that Lee was a firebender who needed to go down."

"Why? I don't see how having a cup of tea means someone is a firebending," Aang said mildly. "I mean I like tea, and I'm not a firebender. I mean I could be, because I'm the Avatar, but …"

"Drinking tea and firebending actually aren't related at all," Smellerbee answered shortly. "This nonsense was never about whether Lee was a firebender. It was about Jet's big crush. Here's where it gets really weird."

Oh, good to know this was the weird bit! Sokka managed to hold his sarcasm, but it was getting harder and harder the more Smellerbee spoke. Sokka's shoulders were shaking under the weight of all the sarcasm and wise-cracks he wasn't releasing.

"So, Jet stalks this poor dude non-stop for weeks, trying to catch him out. In what surprised exactly no one, Jet never saw any actual evidence of Lee firebending. Meanwhile, Lee is just confused as fuck by all this Jet-stalking. I told him about Jet's massive crush and said that if he broke up with Jet super nicely, Jet would get over it." Smellerbee gave Jet a very judgemental look.

"And let me guess, he told you to fuck off sideways, too?" Sokka ventured, feeling delighted.

Jet had a big bisexual crush on Zuko? Frozen hell, the spirits had given Sokka a rare and hilarious gift. Sokka didn't care if he had to do chores with Katara until the end of time. Zuko was going to get so teased about this when they found him again.

"No, he wanted to help us. He's honestly a really decent guy, Jet. Sure, he's a bit of a grumpy bitch, but I dunno ... he's nice too. He showed Longshot and me how to ninja properly. He really looked out for us."

Jet looked like he was on the verge of literally dying from embarrassment, but Smellerbee still wasn't done.

"I wrote out the nicest, sweetest breakup speech ever and Lee read it aloud to Jet. And then Jet just went absolutely fucking nuts. He said some super mean things about Lee's scar, 'cause Lee has this massive scar on his face and he's a bit sensitive about it. Then Jet started ranting about how he had been, ya know ... intimate ... with Katara." She looked at Katara a little apologetically here. "Jet said banging Katara proved he wasn't bisexual. But this pissed Lee off so much more than the dig about the scar, I reckon."

"We were never intimate!" Katara shouted at Jet. She slapped him with a waterwhip several times and called him a couple of really rude names Sokka didn't think she knew. Then again, she had been dating Zuko.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it, baby!" Jet sassed back, with a little wink.

Katara blinked twice, then started slapping him vigorously with waterwhips again, clearly unimpressed with his attempts to charm her.

Sokka encouraged Smellerbee to ignore those two and get back to her story. She was gazing at Katara slapping Jet in a very distracted fashion and sighing wistfully.

"So Jet and Lee had this massive fight in the market place," Smellerbee continued. "They just grabbed any produce they could to hit each other with. Jet tried to beat Lee up with sausages and was like trying to use them as nunchucks, I think. Then Lee retaliates by whacking him with pineapples. I think some other fruit got involved too ... but mostly pineapples. I never knew pineapples were such a brutal and effective weapon, ya know? " Smellerbee sounded a little awed but also vaguely horrified.

"Lee beat the shit out of Jet with a pineapple?" Sokka asked gleefully.

Zuko had done his thing, again! And he'd beaten up Jet. With a pineapple. This was even more awesome than when he'd beaten up Hahn. This was the best day ever.

"Yeah. He broke heaps of them over Jet's head. But then they got arrested by the home guard for brawling and destruction of market property and sausage vandalism and fruit ruining. They got thrown in the clink together. They had to share a cell and not murder each other. I still have no idea how they both made it out alive. Lee's uncle bailed him out pretty quickly, but we let Jet sit in there for a little bit, hoping the shame of it would ... do something. Like make Jet stop being nuts, but no dice.

"Then Lee goes through this phase where he just really tries to, like, be a good boy and not get into fights and shenanigans." Smellerbee said this disdainfully. "Mostly 'cause his uncle was still lecturing him a full week later about the market place brawl." She put on an old man's voice. "'Oh, Lee, you make me so worried. I have had eight hundred heart attacks because of you. You are so reckless, you give me more heart attacks. Now I have had nine hundred heart attacks. My life is one constant heart attack. If anything bad happens to you, I will die! You will kill me with your stupidity. There is no amount of calming tea in the world to make living with you less stressful...'" She shrugged. "Like that kind of thing. It was the full-on guilt trip.

"You could tell Lee was really trying too, 'cause he loved that old guy and didn't want to kill him with heart attacks. Lee was super keen on laying low and not attracting attention, since he and Jet had both had a first offence, and second offence carries a much higher ... consequence. Lee starts doing all this dramatic sighing and deep breathing shit whenever he hears the sound of Jet's voice, and clenching his fists and not reacting. It was like he had just got his five day token from anger management.

"So, naturally, Jet decides that this no-brawling situation can't stand, and he really wants Lee to fight him again. He barges into their teashop in their busy period and tries to attack Lee's uncle in front of everyone, even some guards. Jet goes directly for the old guy, saying he'll have to show us his bending to defend himself. So Lee says, 'You wanna show? I'll give you a show!' And it was badass! Lee was like ,'Oh hell no! Consequences be damned! It's ninja ass-kicking time!' I guess it just goes to show you..."

Everyone was looking at her eagerly, waiting for her to continue.

"What does it go to show you?" Sokka asked, feeling impatient.

"It doesn't matter if you're a ninja really trying to lay low, or a waterbender, or a hot girl from the flower market, or a giant hunk of muscle like Pipsqueak, there's only so far you can push someone before they want to bitch slap Jet with the first blunt or sharp object that comes to hand ... and Jet finds that point every damn time," she said with a shrug, like people wanting to bitch slap Jet with a variety of objects was a really common occurrence for her. Still, she looked at him fondly. "What am I going to do with you?" she said real softly as she ruffled her friend's hair.

"Then what happened?" Katara asked, looking at Smellerbee insistently.

"So Lee grabbed the nearest swords. I think he stole them from Guardsman Lo, actually. At least you were right about him being a thief, Jet."

"Because he stole Jet's heart?" Toph chimed in gleefully.

"No. Because Lee has stolen so much shit from the Dai Li. He really hates the Dai Li, you know. Most of it was finding-Appa related, but he confessed to me that he took some of the stuff just for the sheer joy of taking shit from those bastards and fucking with them. Total criminal there.

"Anyway, so those two idiots had this even more massive street fight. It was way bigger than the market brawl. Furniture and windows got smashed. They were pretty evenly matched with swords, and they were just going at it, and it was like, the coolest fight ever! So this crowd gathered and people are cheering them on, and everyone's picking their fighter and placing bets and stuff, and that was kinda fun … until Jet started shouting about firebenders and the Fire Nation, and ruined a perfectly good public spectacle. The Dai Lee came pretty quickly after that to make it awful for everyone and arrest Jet, all because there is no war in Ba Sing Se." She said the Joo Dee Line so bitterly. "And then Jet..."

"I don't care about Jet," Katara said dismissively. "We know what happened to Jet. What happened to Lee?"

Ouch. Jet was going to need some ice for that burn, and he certainly wasn't getting it from Katara! This day just got better and better for Jet! Sokka thought gleefully.

"Lee wasn't shouting about the war like an idiot, so the Dai Li had zero interest in him. And Guardsman Lo also agreed that Jet was dick who attacked first." Smellerbee glanced at Jet apologetically.

Katara was still bouncing worriedly.

"Don't worry," Smellerbee added. "They left Lee alone. He's fine. Think he got a warning and like a buttload more lectures from his uncle, but no other consequences." She looked at Katara strangely. "You two know each other real good, don't you?"

"You could say that," Katara said, a huge blush blossoming on her cheeks.

"Listen, can I talk to Jet privately for a moment?" Smellerbee asked suddenly.

Sokka nodded and they made a little huddle a few feet away from Longshot, Smellerbee and Jet. They all pretended they weren't listening while the other three had their conversation.

Smellerbee nodded at Longshot to let her friend go, saying, "I know this is hard for you, Jet, but you've got to let this craziness go. We want to help you, so don't freak out on us again. Please?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Jet, like they were expecting him to spontaneously combust with a combination of rage and humiliation. But he just crossed his arms defensively and looked down at the ground. He wouldn't even look up at Smellerbee.

"Lee is friends with these guys, so he can't be Fire Nation. Bossy, sexy Katara would never even be friends with anyone from the Fire Nation. You know how judgemental she is."

Katara made an extremely offended face at this, mouth open in indignation.

"He isn't our enemy," Smellerbee continued. "You were totally wrong about him. The Dai Li are the ones we really have to watch out for."

Jet still wouldn't look up.

"Look, even the Avatar thinks you were nuts, and it's his job to crush the Fire Nation."

"That's not actually my job," Aang said quickly, forgetting that they weren't meant to be listening. "I'm the spiritual bridge."

"Whatever. Do you think Jet was crazy and should stop trying to attack random guys just because he thinks they're a bit cute and their uncle has tea, oh wise spiritual bridge?"

Aang looked uncomfortable. He very clearly did not want to be dragged into the sheer amount of embarrassment, shame and disgrace going around in this conversation, but he'd already waded into it foolishly. "I think that's a good question for Jet," Aang said, passing the buck and trying to sound wise, but Sokka knew he was clearly trying to escape the awkwardness.

"Was it really like that?" Jet asked Smellerbee slowly. "Did I really do all those things? Is that really how I got arrested?"

"Yes. It was exactly like that."

Jet groaned and ran his hands through his overly styled hair, looking a little distressed. "What is this feeling? I feel all weird in my stomach. I kind of want to crawl into that badgermole hole and never come out."

"That's probably a combination of guilt and shame there, Jet," Sokka said. There was no point pretending they weren't listening now.

"Well, it sucks. How do I make the feeling go away!"

"By trying to do the right thing?" Aang offered. "You can help us find Appa at least."

"I'm telling you, Appa is definitely being moved to Whale Tail Island!" Jet cut in, still clearly still under the influence of his brainwashing.

"Shush, Jet," Smellerbee said indulgently. "You've done nothing but lie since we found you." She turned to Aang. "We've been looking for Appa with Lee for a while now, and we haven't found him yet. But we've ruled out heaps of places. Lee reckons Appa's got to be in Lake Laogai prison. That's the biggest prison. You need an earthbender to get in there, but Lee wouldn't let us solve that the easy way." She gave a huge roll of her eyes. "He's no fun, honestly. Anyway, we've been looking for another entrance, but no dice so far."

"Well, good thing I'm an earthbender," Toph announced proudly. "Let's do this the easy way."

Smellerbee gave her a look. It was clear having an earthbender volunteer wasn't what she meant by the easy way, but she'd take it.

"I was at Lake Laogai," Jet announced quickly. Too quickly. "That was where they kept me. I think I remember the layout. I can help."

"Thanks for the offer, Jet, but we'll pass on your bundle of deception," Sokka said, finally breaking the no-sarcasm-pact. He just couldn't contain it any longer.

Toph smiled gleefully, but that wasn't important now. They needed to be logical about the next step.

"Can we have a moment now?" Sokka said, and dragged his friends back into the huddle while the other three stood awkwardly to the side, clearly also listening. "Let's not rush off with these three. Look, Jet was full of lies even before the Dai Li. Even if we could wash out everything they did, we'd still be left with original flavour Jet. But Z—Lee has been looking for Appa, too. I don't trust Jet as far as I can throw him, but I trust Lee. I think we find him first, see what else he knows."

"Or, you know, we could be happy we've found our friend again," Katara scolded, but she also seemed very excited. "Rather than immediately pump him for information, we could start by saying hi."

"Really? You're just going to say hi to him?" Toph said sarcastically.

Damnit, Sokka had cracked too soon. She'd only been a minute behind him on the sarcasm front!

Aang was way more focussed on finding Appa though. He agreed with Sokka's plan and broke away from the huddle. "Where's Lee now?"

Smellerbee was a little surprised at Aang's forthright and commanding tone. "He'll be at work. It's before their morning rush, so he'd probably be at the market now."

-0-

Zuko was just about to buy the pepper his uncle needed when he saw a flash of heartbreakingly familiar blue all the way over the other side of the busy market place. He shook his head, rubbed his eyes and looked again. He wasn't going crazy. The blue was a dress, and the dress was on Katara. His heart skipped a beat. He felt frozen. Time felt like it was going super slowly as he watched her walk along the stalls for a brief moment.

She was here!

Then time speed up really rapidly. It felt like a lot of things happened at once. Katara was turning away from him. She was heading down a little alley, the one that connected the food market to the flower vendors. Zuko dropped everything and ran towards her, causing a bit of commotion and knocking over some baskets. He didn't give a shit. Didn't even stop to apologise or help.

Katara was here!

He ducked down the alley after her and called her name. She had nearly been at the other end. She froze at the sound of his voice, her back going rigid. She didn't turn around for a second that felt like an eternity. She inhaled audibly.

Was she still mad at him? He hadn't seen her since the Northern Water Tribe and their terrible fight. She had said she never wanted to see him again.

"Katara, I know you've probably got mixed feelings about seeing me, but I just want you to know I'm so sorry and—"

She made a little sound, like a happy squeal. She turned abruptly and ran towards him, launching herself at him like she'd been fired out of a catapult. She pretty much gave him the girlfriend equivalent of a crash tackle. Zuko caught her mid-air. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and suddenly he was holding her up. Her head was above his and she was cradling his face with her hands and smiling down at him.

"Hi," she said simply, looking so bright and happy. It was like staring at the sun.

She leaned down and kissed him deeply. He opened his mouth to hers. Her tongue slid between his teeth, soft and gentle, like she was savouring tasting him again. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and one of his hands ended up tangled in her hair. When they paused for breath, Katara leaned her forehead against his tenderly. They were nose to nose.

They hadn't said anything else to each other except a fumbled apology and hi. It should have been awkward, but it wasn't.

"I don't understand. You're not mad at me?" Zuko couldn't help himself. He had to ask.

"No, I was never mad at you."

Zuko raised his good eyebrow at her. That wasn't fooling anyone. He'd been there for that fight. He knew she'd been furious at him.

"Okay, I was a little mad at you," Katara confessed. She moved back a little to look at his face properly. She cupped his scarred cheek with her palm while she brushed his hair out of his face with her other hand delicately. It had grown longer since he had last seen her. "But I missed you too much to stay mad at you." A sad, little smile. "I hated being without you."

"I missed you too."

Then, just like that, all was forgiven. It was amazing. Their fight was in the past. They were kissing again, like they'd never been apart. For once, Zuko was exactly where he needed to be.

It felt like coming home.

It was weird because Zuko hated living in Ba Sing Se. He never lived in fish laneway. But he felt warmth and comfort and familiarity and hope all at once. It felt like the first morning of summer holidays when he saw the Ember Island house and knew things were going to be okay, at least for the next little while. Having Katara with him filled him with joy and solace.

He heard a familiar cough and glanced out of the corner of his eye.

Of course.

He should have known this blissful moment wouldn't last.

"Err, maybe we should stop this," he said sheepishly, pulling his face away from Katara's and putting her back on the ground.

"No! Nothing is coming between us again! Not the war, or your crazy gremlin sister, or—"

"No, I mean everyone is watching us." Blushing furiously, he nodded to their audience.

Sokka was there. Aang was there. The new girl – Toph? – was there too. Also Smellerbee, Longshot and that fucking arsehole Jet were there, standing a little bit behind the others. Seeing Jet ruined the moment a little.

Toph started clapping for them. "So that's what you meant by saying hi, Sugar."

"I think I speak for everyone when I say What The Actual Fuck?" Jet shouted.

"Speak for yourself, jerkface, I knew all about this," Sokka declared, turning around and giving Jet a shove.

Sokka knew? Since when?

"Me too," Toph added.

"I also kinda guessed," Smellerbee chimed in with her two cents.

Longshot nodded to say that he had also known.

Aang looked at the rest of them, aghast, before turning back to Zuko and Katara. "Well, I'm still surprised!"

-0-

Notes:

My rambly notes will be quite short today, as I am a little time poor. I just wanted to take some space to thank Boogum for her fantastic beta skills. She makes everything she touches better.

I really love and appreciate everyone's feedback - so thanks everyone who reviews!

Our Drama Llamas are finally together again and I know some of you have been waiting for this for a long time, so enjoy !Also Everyone knows now! Katara, you were never that subtle. Sokka and Toph have been on to you for a long time. Next chapter everyone will go to Lake Laogai together. Duh duh duh!