Ahh I am so so so sorry for disappearing! It has been a crazy last few weeks lol. But I just finished my semester with straight A's so hell yeah. Only one more until I'm a real adult in the real world...eek...but anyways. Here is a really short chapter! The next one will be longer! I have all of January off from school and want to start updating every few days like I was before. Hopefully you still enjoy this one even though its short :)

A cold breeze brushed across Sokka's face, causing him to stir and raise his head from the pillow beneath him. He squinted in the light, unsure of his surroundings for a few seconds. Blinking, the room in front of him slowly came into view. He was alone on the bed, arm layed out still where Zuko had been the previous night. The other boy was sitting at his desk with his head bent over the laptop and seemed to be thoroughly engrossed in what he was doing, but Sokka could see his signature blush rising on his cheeks as caught Sokka's movement out of the corner of his eye. "Morning." Sokka grumbled, rolling over onto his back.

"Morning." Zuko responded awkwardly.

Sokka turned his head and grinned at him, hair cascading across his face. "Are you seriously doing homework on a Sunday?"

"What's wrong with that?" He glared ast Sokka.

"You're such a dork." He laughed, throwing a pillow at Zuko.

The other deflected it, fighting off a smile. Sokka propped his head up on his hand and rolled onto his side, eyes searching Zuko's face for a slight hint of emotion about last night. Zuko looked back at him blankly. "Have you been awake for a while?" He asked, sitting up and pushing the blankets off him.

Zuko seemed not to want to talk about the night before, so Sokka decided it would be best to leave it for the time being. Zuko turned back to his computer and shrugged. "A few hours."

"What time is it anyways?"

"10am"

"What?!"

Zuko raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Do you have somewhere to be?"

The gang is going to have a field day about this one. He thought to himself. He had hoped to wake up early enough to slip home without anyone noticing he had been gone all night. "No….I just...thought it was earlier."

They sat in silence for a second and Zuko pretended to keep working, but Sokka distinctly saw his eyes scan the same portion of his screen at least 10 times, with a few sneaking glances out of the corner of his eye. After a few minutes, Sokka stood up and stretched his arms over his head. "I should get going. Your studiousness reminded me I have a paper due tomorrow also."

Zuko cracked a half smile and nodded, not looking up from his paper still. "Good luck."

Sokka smiled and pulled his sweatshirt and jacket back on and made his way over to Zuko's bedroom door. Right as his hand brushed the knob Zuko suddenly stopped typing and looked up. "And uh….thanks." He said, blushing. "For….for….listening."

Sokka fought back a smirk. Listening….right. "What are friends for?" He smiled, then dipped out the door.

The house seemed quiet and Sokka hoped Iroh was a late sleeper or at least in his room playing that weird game he was obsessed with. He crept carefully cross their small livingroom to the mat where he had discarded his shoes last night. He had expected to only stay a few minutes and hadn't bothered to place them on the rack. He cringed when he noticed they had somehow moved from the mat to the rack in the middle of the night. "Well good morning!" A voice rang out suddenly startling Sokka and making him jump and twist around.

Iroh was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, mug of tea in hand and a jovial smile plastered across his face. "Uh...morning!" Sokka said awkwardly. "I uh..I gave Zuko the tea for you…."

"Thank you!" Iroh smiled again, his eyes twinkling.

"Um….okay! Well….have a good….day!" Sokka said as he reached for the door, trying to ignore the feeling of intense embarrassment now bubbling inside him.

"One moment Sokka" Iroh held up a finger and started walking towards the table. "Take these with you, for you and your friends!" He held a plate of muffins out towards him.

"Oh no I'm okay. I don't want to take your morning muffins." Sokka said starting to blush. All he wanted to do was escape as fast as possible.

"Trust me." Iroh said, pushing the plate into his hands. "Everyone can use a good muffin in the morning! They are particularly handy for distracting." He winked and Sokka turned beet red.

He had no idea what Iroh was insinuating but he took the plate without argument. Whatever the fastest route out of this is. He thought. "Thanks! Uh,...I'll give them to the others. Bye!" and with that he slid out the door before any other embarrassing conversations could take place.

The sunday morning bus ride to campus was full of hungover college kids and a few poor commuters who who had to deal with them. Sokka pressed against the back of his seat as a group of freshman clambered into the lower level, some seemingly still drunk from the night before. They collapsed a few feet away from him and he relaxed again. Being puked on was the last thing he needed. Hopefully everyone was so exhausted from traveling yesterday they were still asleep.

As the bus came to a bumpy stop right outside the union Sokka checked his phone. 10:43. Unlikely his wishes would come true. He had a gnawing feeling of dread that began to grow as he trudged towards his apartment building. Low and behold as he pushed the door open to their place he saw four expectant faces staring back at him.

"Where have you been?" Katara's eyes were bright and full of annoyance and rage.

She was sitting with her arms folded in a hostile manner across her body, Aang to the left and Suki to the right. Toph sat across from her but was now angled towards the door. "I was just out and lost track of time." He said, not wanting to tell her the truth and make her more mad.

He knew her rage was mainly out of concern and worry, but telling her the truth might flip it more on the rage side. "Yeah just out? Out exchanging salvia with a certain proj- do I smell muffins?" Toph suddenly broke off and her sudden realization called the others attention to the platter still clutched in his hand.

"Are those from the jasmine dragon?" Aang said excitedly.

Sokka looked down at the tray. He had completely forgot he was holding them and suddenly Iroh's words rung in his ear. "Uh….yes! They are! And you guys can have all of them in exchange for no more questions about where I was."

They starred back at him for a few moments, obviously weighing the pros and cons of the situation. Then finally Aang broke down. "Okay okay no more questions! Now give us the muffins!"

Sokka slid the plate across the table and the four turned back to focus on devouring them, giving Sokka the chance to slip away into his room and flop down on his bed. Even though he had slept a decent amount last night, he was exhausted. Exhausted from traveling, exhausted from worrying about Zuko, exhausted from excitement, exhausted from trying not to think about all the ways he could mess up….whatever it was he had with his annoyingly adorable project partner. Sokka closed his eyes and rolled on his side, trying to quiet the roar of anxiety the last thought had brought up.

He must have succeeded eventually because he seemed to have drifted off to sleep. He woke up much later in total darkness, disoriented and with the vague sound of a phone going off in the background. He sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes, then began to search his surroundings for the culprit of the offending noise. When he finally found his phone lying upside down underneath his bed, he blinked and had to rub his eyes again to make sure he was actually reading the caller ID correctly.

Call from: Zuko - History Partner.

Fuck. Zuko never ever called him before. "Hello?" Sokka answered, trying to keep the apprehension out of his voice.

"Hey." A low, awkward response came from the other end.

"Hi…."

"Uh,...sorry to call you. I just got an email from Piando that we apparently did the last checkpoint wrong. We were supposed to turn in an outline for the oral notes, not one on the visuals."

Sokka could here the slight panic in Zuko's voice as he talked. He was always so serious, Sokka would bet anything he freaked out the moment he saw that message. "Shit, what do we do then?"

"He said its fine we just need to get the other one done by next check point, which would be the visuals for everyone else I guess."

Sokka smiled to himself. Zuko really didn't need to have called him for this then, but for some reason he was really happy he did. "Sweet. Sounds good partner!" He said with a sarcastic southern drawl.

His joke was met with silence and the icy static of the phone. "Never do a southern accent again." Zuko said.

Sokka chuckled. "Whyy, you don't like ma accents darlin'" He drawled again in the same horrific accent.

"Stop. Please."

Sokka grinned as he imagined Zuko fighting off a smile in his room. "Aww come on puddin'"

"I will literally murder you in your sleep." The other boy hissed through the phone.

This made Sokka burst out into laughter. "Fine fine I'll stop."

"Thank god."

"I'll just have to practice my other accents from now on."

"Oh god. No. Your normal voice is nice why change it."

Sokka's heart pounded a bit faster. "You think my voice is nice?" He teased.

He could hear the awkward silent pause as Zuko realized what he said. "No...no I mean your voice is annoying but its nicer than...than the accents!"

Sokka laughed again.

"Just...just stop doing accents!" He heard a click and then the buzz of a dead line and rolled his eyes.

Sokka: I promise to keep the accents to a minimum :P

Zuko - History Partner: Good. They are horrible.

Sokka: I'm offended!

No response.

Sokka: So what time should we meet?

Zuko - History Partner: I work all week this week and have a big paper due on Thursday. I know its late but can we do friday?

Sokka: The gang and I were going to draw names for secret santa then so as long as it is before 3pm then yes :)

Zuko replied a few minutes later with a thumbs up emoji and Sokka slipped his phone back in his pocket, begrudgingly getting up and going to start his other assignments.