Disclaimer: I own nothing you might recognise from the series.

Notes: AnaAza asked for the gaang's perspective on Katara and Zuko's relationship at the WAT. I don't know if this is what was wanted, and I know this took forever and a day to get to, but this is what I've got. Hope you enjoy!

Sometimes Toph wondered if she was that much smarter than everyone else or if everyone else was just that dumb. Hard to tell, really. Take the will-they, won't-they dumbness that was Zuko and Katara's not-relationship.

They'd both been totally blind to the fact that they were interested in each other before Zuko got his memory taken by Azula, and now that Zuko couldn't remember anything important he was all over her whenever she'd let him. Seriously, Katara was practically a stranger so it was okay? And Katara was totally flip-flopping around about whether or not she wanted Zuko. Not that she obviously didn't want him all the time, but letting him know that?

Apparently, Not Done. So dumb.

So, all she could do was watch them dance around each other, Katara leaving Zuko thinking she was angry at him for betraying them under Ba Sing Se, even though she wasn't and it totally wasn't his fault, and Zuko leaving Katara thinking he was mad that she abandoned him and stuff, even though they he wasn't and she totally couldn't be blamed for that when he'd been working with Azula. And they both knew it.

Seriously, the least Aang and Sokka could do was not leave it totally up to her to deal with this. But then again, Aang was in total denial and Sokka was pretending he was doofy and unaware of anything that wasn't his space sword or meat.

Well, that is when Sokka was putting in the effort to be aware of more than his silly sword and meat.

A now-familiar vibration on the floor signaling another makeout session broken up by one or the other of the couple pushing each other away had Toph heaving herself to her feet. It would serve them both right if she stole Zuko away from Katara.

Pair of dopes.

So, Zuko was back and that was great, neat, super-duper good. Of course, the lessons in firebending were boring, but Zuko had warned him about that, and unlike Jeong Jeong he didn't just stand around and watch, he meditated with Aang and talked him through the reasons for every exercise. It was a little tiresome since Aang had already mastered a couple elements so he knew the whys of some things, but still, it was nice to have someone make sure you knew why you were bothering with something instead of just telling you to do a big waste of time for no reason you could see until after.

But Zuko was so distracted sometimes, and he knew it had something to do with Katara. And Katara was equally distracted by something to do with Zuko. All he could do about that was snap them both out of it by reminding them he was there.

What was very odd was that they both seemed . . . unhappy when he did it. Sometimes. Other times they seemed happy he'd interrupted or something. It varied. Also, clearly Toph knew something, because she seemed annoyed with them when they were happy he'd interrupted and annoyed with him when they were upset he'd interrupted.

Not that he'd figured out yet what the factors were that meant they'd be happy or unhappy when he poked his head into the room or spoke up when they were having a conversation.

And those conversations! They were weird. They were about sharing and hair loopies and how some foods tasted and spices and stuffed toys and tiger seals and he had no idea what any of it was about, except that The Duke had told him it was a code for something. He and The Duke had started trying to work out the code before Teo, Haru and Suki had stopped them, saying that it wasn't anything to do with the war, nor was it their business.

Then they said Aang clearly wasn't old enough to get it yet.

Hmmph. He was the Avatar, surely that should give him some age advantage, right?

Deep in the back of his mind, Roku and Kuruk chuckled, Yangchen and Kyoshi rolled their eyes, and none of his previous lives spoke up. Apparently this was some part of his current life he'd just have to deal with on his own.

She was new to the group for all she'd met Sokka, Katara, Aang and Lee – Zuko, before. So Suki chose not to say anything. But boy was it obvious something weird was up with Katara and Mr. Firebender there. The pair were blowing hot and cold with each other and there was no way to tell whether it was a good or a bad thing they were together.

Trying to talk to Sokka had proved a bad idea. He'd blown up in fine Sokka style over the idea of his sister being treated like an adult not-nun, Aang was a little young to be useful and so was Toph. As far as Toph went, Suki was actually a little intimidated, mainly because the girl was so very aggressive and perceptive while simultaneously having the sensitivity of a clod of dirt.

The three boys, Haru, Teo and The Duke (what kind of a name was that?) were just as new to this odd dynamic as she was, which left Suki with nothing to latch onto.

What she could see was that Katara liked Zuko now, just as she had back on Kyoshi, and was just as unsure about the whole thing as she was back then. Only now Zuko was pushing things forward. Suki could also see that Zuko was unsure of Katara, probably because of the betrayal she only knew a little about, so that both of them weren't sure of the other at all.

It all made their romance very strange to watch, and Suki was, frankly, not sure this was a good idea at all. Starting a relationship with someone you weren't totally sure liked you and you weren't totally sure that you liked seemed like a recipe for disaster. But if there was one thing she'd learned over the years of watching her fellow Kyoshi warriors, it was that you sometimes just have to let people muddle through things, because whatever you say will just make it all go wrong.

When she reached that conclusion, Suki sat back and waited for the fireworks. Because there would be fireworks and she had no intention of missing them when this either worked out or exploded messily.

Not much else to do, was there?

Sokka could wish he was just a little more oblivious. As it was he was working very hard at it, because imagining his best friend and sister involved in girl-boy stuff? Horrible.

So, when Katara snuck past him, muttering about Zuko and stupid, he pretended really hard he didn't see it. When Zuko looked like a kicked bear-wolf puppy after Katara, he fantasised it was about his sister's cooking. When Aang asked him, he said there was nothing to see, and when Suki hinted, he was blatantly obtuse.

Because there was another problem. He was Katara's big brother and bound by the Law Of Big Brothers to threaten to decapitate any boy who so much as looked at Katara. But Zuko was fragile, in that weird not-literally but totally feeling-ish sort of fragile, and the last thing Sokka wanted was to jeopardise that delicate balance by telling off his friend for doing things with Katara.

So he ignored Katara and Toph talking in furious whispers about what Toph would do (Toph was twelve, what was she going to do?) if Katara didn't deal with things. He studiously misunderstood everything Haru and Teo said. And when that failed he went and set snares because at least then he'd be anywhere else.

But seriously, who did they think they were fooling?