"What are you reading? You weren't paying attention to me all through lunch," Zuko complained as he caught up with Katara, back pack slung over one shoulder and a half-empty soda in his right hand.

"Oh," Katara started, looking up from the book in her hands with a trace of a dreamy look on her face. "Romeo and Juliet, by Shaksepeare. It's a very good read...really romantic."

"Huh," he replied, shifting his backpack to his other shoulder and tossing the can at a metal trash can as they passed it. "Score!"

"Now who isn't listening?" Katara asked absently, already absorbed in the book once more.

"If it's so good, maybe I should read it," Zuko commented, rolling his eyes.

"That's a great idea!" his friend exclaimed. "I have another copy in my backpack," Katara told him, already pawing through her belongings.

"I wasn't really serious," Zuko whined as she placed the book in his hand, already leafing through the pages in her book to find where'd she'd left off.

"You should read it anyway," she muttered, glancing up. "Oh, here's my street - gotta go." Just as she was stepping off the side walk and into the empty street, she called back to him, "If Jet was ever that romantic with me, we'd already be married. And if some other guy was that romantic...I'd dump dumb old Jet in a second."

For a moment, Zuko just stared after her.

Then, scrambling for the book, he plopped down on the curb and started reading.


I just thought that ol' Zuzu could use some lessons in romance...and who's better for the job than Shakespeare himself?

Teehee. I like writing this one.