Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or its characters.

56

He could hear Katara's foot tapping nervously against the metal legs of the outdoor café table, but he didn't share her anxiety. She was with him. They'd figure this out together.

"Hey," Aang said softly. "It's going to be okay."

She flashed him an embarrassed look. "I know," she mumbled. "But in my head, I imagined myself as sort of an authoritative background figure. Now, I'm sitting here like a nervous little school girl."

"It'll be okay," he said again, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

"How do you know?"

"I just do," he answered. "We're doing this together. Jun's going to be a pain in the butt, no matter what. But at least we'll have answers today."

"You mean she's going to be a bitch."

He chuckled. "More or less." A hint of dark movement caught his eye, the sight of black leather on a sunny day, and he almost snorted with laughter. Jun had clearly picked what she felt was her most intimidating outfit. A year ago, Aang himself would have been intimidated. Now, all he could think about was how much Jun was probably sweating. It was an unseasonably warm day. "Here she comes," he announced quietly.

As Jun sat down, all skin-tight leather and skin so fair she seemed almost translucent, Aang flashed a look at Katara. She bore a surprised expression, one eyebrow quirked as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. The eyebrow raised even higher when Jun unceremoniously propped one foot on the table.

"Well, hello, Aang," Jun drawled. She turned her head to Katara. "And 'Girlfriend'. Don't you look sweet."

Katara stiffened next to him, and he almost groaned. He could literally feel Katara's temper flaring. "Jun," he greeted her, cutting off any response that Katara was forming. "Let's make this quick."

Jun rested her hands behind her head. "Perfect. I have somewhere to be in twenty minutes, anyway."

"Here's the deal," Aang began. "You've been spending time with a guy named Jet. Are you two dating?"

"That fuckboy?" Jun snickered. "He's a good lay, but I don't have the patience for his anti-government rants."

"Well, he's Katara's ex-boyfriend," Aang continued. "And you told him some things about me that I would have preferred you keep to yourself."

"Who's Katara, again?" Jun asked, examining her nails disinterestedly.

"I'm Katara," Katara said hotly, gesturing to herself. "And Jet is my ex."

Jun stared at her in disbelief for a moment, before an impish grin spread across her pale cheeks. Finally, she burst out into laughter. "That's amazing," she gasped. "I knew the name 'Katara' sounded familiar."

"Well, you told him some things you shouldn't have," Katara snapped. "Like Aang's former living situation. A situation you caused."

Jun rolled her eyes. "I didn't cause Aang's living situation. He didn't put me on the lease. I could come and go as I pleased, so I did."

"We had a personal agreement," Aang protested. "You had a place to stay, so you had to pay some of the rent. You knew I wouldn't be able to afford it if you left."

"So? Nobody forced you to stay there," Jun said.

"My lease did."

Katara leaned forward angrily. "You dumped him on the streets."

"And then he found you. Really, the two of you should be thanking me. If I'd stuck around, Aang would still be pining over my emotional unavailability, and you'd still be with your idiot of an ex-boyfriend."

Katara's mouth dropped open. "Thanking you? Are you out of your mind?"

"No," Jun shrugged. "I'm honest. I suspect no one has ever been this honest with you before. You're a good-looking woman; people probably tell you what you want to hear all the time because they think it'll get them into your pants."

At this point, Katara was spluttering, and Aang thought it might be best to refocus the conversation. "Jun," he said firmly. "I'm not here to re-hash our split. That's water under the bridge to me."

"How magnanimous," Jun said placidly. "Why are we here, then?"

"Because, regardless of how I ended up homeless, you told Jet about it, and he has been attacking me about it at every opportunity. You pride yourself on honesty, so be honest. Did you tell him? And, if so, why?"

There was a pause, a weighty silence. Jun chewed on her lower lip for a moment, then rolled her eyes, as if in defeat. "I met Jet at a club like two or three months ago. We got fucked up together, and then he took me to his apartment. I thought he was a bit annoying from the get-go, but I'd been going through a dry spell, so I wasn't feeling particularly picky." She crossed her arms over her chest. "After, we got to talking. He spewed his feelings all over me, about how his ex just left him and he was looking for a rebound. When he started making moon-eyes at me, I had to come up with a reason for how I didn't want to be in a relationship." She paused to give Katara a commiserating look. "The fact that I only wanted to fuck him wasn't going to be good enough. A scenario like that is probably how you ended up in a relationship with him in the first place. Anyway, I told him about what happened with Aang and I. How Aang was homeless, and how I just felt so darn bad about it. And I got what I wanted: he agreed that it probably wasn't a good idea for us to pursue a relationship, since we were both healing, emotionally."

"You're a psycho bitch," Katara said almost blandly.

"Sometimes," she agreed, just as blandly. "So Jet ran around with that story, huh? I'm kind of surprised that he remembered what I told him about Aang. He was pretty fucked up. Although, now that I've got all the pieces of the puzzle, it makes more sense."

"Well, how about in the future, you just don't talk about me at all?" Aang suggested mildly.

"And you can apologize, too, while you're at it," Katara said firmly.

Jun looked back and forth at both of them, before letting out an condescending chuckle. "You two are a good match, I think. Much better than Aang and I were."

"There's one thing we agree on," Katara answered.

Jun laughed again. "Fine, I'm sorry I told your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend that you were homeless. And don't worry; I won't be seeing him again. He asked me to be his girlfriend again last week, so obviously I have to blacklist him." She shook her head. "It's a shame; he's almost as good in bed as you are, Aang. Enjoy it, Girlfriend," she added with a malicious wink. Then she dropped her foot from the table top and stood. "Are we done here?"

Aang nodded, ignoring the angry noises coming from Katara at Jun's comment about his sexual prowess. "We're done."

Jun waved her hand dismissively, before striding off without another word.

Beside him, Katara made an indelicate sound, her expression disgusted. "I can see why it didn't work out between the two of you. What I can't see is how you ended up together in the first place."

Aang grinned at her. "I thought the exact same thing about you and Jet."

"At least she didn't throw beer on me."

"There's that."

She sighed, resting her head against his shoulder. "Do you feel any better?"

"Yes." He kissed her hair. "Do you?"

"Not really," she laughed almost derisively. "Jet's still a dick, and I think I was happier when your ex was just some faceless, nameless woman."

"Yea," he agreed. "But -hopefully- we never have to think about them again."

"We'll see."

He nudged her shoulder. "We can think about other stuff, instead."

"Like what?"

"Like our camping trip tomorrow."

A/N: Jun was tricky to write. I hope I got her.