Two chapters in essentially one day? Holy non stop fireworks explosions, Batman. Here we get Zuko spilling the guts, determined to deal with whatever consequences are due as a result. Little does he know Ty Lee has her own insane idea. Thoughts welcome as always, and see y'all next time.

Grave Digger

Rating: K+

Pairing: Zuko x Jin, start of Ty Lee x Jin

The usual spiel: I own nothing, everything is legal property of Nick (Viacom? Can never remember the parent company).

Hands limply resting on the couch cushions either side of him, Zuko lolled his head back, jet black hair fanning out against the headrest of the sofa's back as he stared lazily at the ceiling. How marvelously interesting it was at that moment.

The week proceeding after his ill advised (to put it mildly) fling with Ty Lee had weighed on his mind and his body. The guilt had made sleep difficult to come by, causing him to be grumpier than usual working the till at the Jasmine Dragon. His uncle had asked him about it when his counts had come up wrong a couple of times, but he had tried his best to brush it off as just a bad day.

Or bad couple of days.

With a heavy sigh, he let his head roll to one side, watching the hands ticking off on the clock hanging teasingly from the wall. Each stroke of the second hand brought an agonizing, mind numbing sense of foreboding, signaling the countdown to the end of his life as he knew it.

In his mind he knew he was being over dramatic, and that these things happened. He knew that even though Jin would be furious and probably never speak to him again, he would mope, be bitterly depressed, then gather himself up and move on.

Without Jin.

The thought sent a cold tremor through his core, chilling him to the deepest parts of whatever one might call a soul. In a life filled with miserable setbacks and suffering at the hands of his very own family, Jin had been one of the few unqualified positives to find him, a veritable ray of sunshine piercing the shroud of mental self flagellation and perpetual state of angst.

And he had ruined it by making one dumb mistake, letting himself get swept along by Ty Lee's admittedly enchanting pace. Mental recollections of that heated night with his long time friend popped unbidden to his mind, golden eyes closing as he attempted to squeeze the tantalizing memory of her supple body writhing at his touches from his mind.

"Ugh, what are you thinking about now, you idiot? Even she didn't want to stick around after that, what does that say about you?" he lectured to himself, the castigating words echoing hauntingly through the suddenly cavernous feeling living room.

As he waited for the moment of his metaphorical execution, Zuko lamented that one mistake had more than likely ruined his relationships with two women who had meant so much to him.

The ticking of the hands on the clock seemed to grow ever louder, more insistent in eliciting ever increasing amounts of mental anguish from him.

"I think it's long past time to get a digital clock," he mumbled to himself, feeling a stitch of irritation springing up on his forehead as he listened to the damnable clicking of small metallic rods against one another.

Zuko felt his entire body tense as he heard the sound he had been dreading, muffled sounds of conversation emanating in from outside. Loud, enthusiastic laughs and exclamations that it had been a great trip resounded through the front door, followed by a slamming car door.

There was no getting away from the facts now.

"See you guys later," his heart sank in his chest as he heard Jin's chipper, cheerful voice ringing teasingly in his ear. Only a week ago, it would have been the most reassuring, comforting sound he could have possibly imagined.

But knowing he was about to break her heart, it made him wish that time could somehow stop just in that moment. That some outside force could somehow prevent him from ruining the good mood she was very clearly enjoying.

'Fuck. This sucks,' he thought grimly to himself, closing his eyes as he attempted to gain control of his senses. Yeah, it sucked, but it had to be done. For both their sakes. Not that he felt he deserved any peace after betraying her trust.

As Sokka's car sped off, the harsh screech of tires on asphalt ringing through the undoubtedly bustling street, Zuko could almost feel each step Jin took towards the momentous, irreversible course that was about to be set.

"Wow, that was a fun time. You should definitely come next time. I missed you," her song like voice brushed against his good ear, followed by the clicking of the door into the lock.

"…" he said nothing, finding the words he needed to say sticking cloyingly to his throat.

"Zuko?" she asked, only then realizing that maybe he wasn't in the living room to greet her, as she had simply assumed would be the case.

"...yeah, I'm in here," he said weakly, his voice soft as the words oozed from his lips.

"'I missed you too, Jin'. 'Aww, you're so sweet,'" she said, mimicking the normal interaction of a loving couple.

"Sorry. I did miss you…" he muttered, his voice trailing off as he fought to form the words he needed to speak.

"You have a funny way of showing it," she teased, setting her bag down next to the couch before taking a seat to his left, a small yelp of surprise as she felt his hand that had been rested on the inviting cushion.

"Sorry…."

"Is everything okay? You're kind of scaring me," she said, concern etched on her face as the enthusiastic atmosphere she had enjoyed only moments earlier vanished into the ether.

"No. It's not okay. We need to talk," he said, straightening his posture as he looked into the impossibly beautiful olive eyes, his heart cracking at the sadness that set itself in her gaze.

"That's never a good sign," she tried to joke, unable to hide her fear over what he was about to say. Being greeted after a lengthy period of separation was something she knew from all the stories she had heard never meant anything good. It usually meant…

"I fucked up," he began, a lump forming in her stomach as her suspicions were apparently realized.

"Fucked up how?" she asked, hoping against hope that he was not saying what she thought he was saying. There was no way. It had to be a mistake.

"I don't know how to say this," he said, his mind struggling to force the words out as he watched her face fall. But it had to be done. For her own good. She had a right to know, after being so caring and understanding about the last time he had hurt her. "I made a mistake. A friend came by, and one thing led to another, and things got out of hand, and I know you probably want me to just disappear off the face of the earth right now, and shit, I'm babbling, but I just want you to know I never meant to hurt you and I feel like total trash right now," he ranted, the words spewing forth in an uncontrolled cascade of syllables and apologies.

"Oh…" was all Jin could mutter in response, the strength leaving her body as she slumped against the armrest to her side.

"I'm really sorry, and it was a really dumb mistake, and it'll never happen again, and I'd like to keep being together, but I know that's not something I can ask of you, so I'll be leaving, but you can stay here if you want, I'll talk to my uncle," again he ranted, as though any short pause would make him unable to say anymore.

"Oh…" she said again, her eyes glimmering with the increased moisture as tears threatened to spill out.

Awkward, pained silence filled the room, Zuko waiting for the angry outburst from his girlfriend, Jin trying to process the veritable waterfall of information she had received. Lifting her gaze towards the young man across from her, hurt obvious on her soft features, Jin was the first to break that silence.

"So, you cheated on me?" she asked, summarizing his veritable thesis statement of a mea culpa.

"Yeah…" he said simply, shifting his gaze away from her emerald gaze.

"Wow. That's not what I was expecting to hear on coming back from my vacation," she said, a dry, mirthless chuckle grating painfully on his ears.

"I know. I'm a scumbag who doesn't deserve your forgiveness… again, I guess, but Jin, I really do love you," he said, sincere remorse evident in his tone. Not that he had any faith that something as simple as that would fix the situation.

"...when did it happen?" she asked, a trail of salty tears streaking down her cheek, fingers clenching into tight fists as she fought the urge to just throw the balled digit right into his scarred face.

"...the day you left?"

"What!? You mean I wasn't even gone for a whole day before you had some slut in bed?" Jin vented, eyes widening in time with the anger rising in her chest.

"Well, it wasn't planned or anything. It was kind of out of the blue," he said, finding it difficult to meet her gaze.

"Ohhh, I'm sorry, you just have so many girls throwing themselves at you that it just happens that way?" the brunette was furious, indignant rage flowing effortlessly throughout her body as she rose to her feet.

"It's not like that," Zuko tried to explain, his voice a raspy whisper as all his fears seemed to be coming true in one painfully inglorious moment.

"Then what is it like, Zuko? Please, make me understand how you just happened to have a no doubt beautiful woman happen to end up on your doorstep the same day I leave," Jin shot, eyes narrowed as she fixed the young man squarely in place.

"Actually, that's kind of exactly what happened?"

"What?" the tan skinned young woman asked, voice rising with incredulity.

"Well," he began, explaining the entire situation to his undoubtedly soon to be ex girlfriend, leaving out some of the more tawdry details. He had already dug his own grave on the issue, no need to essentially tunnel to the other side of the world at the same time.

"So let me get this straight," Jin replied once he had finished his recounting of the events, collapsing in exhaustion into the small chair next to their sofa, keeping a fair distance between the two of them.

Which Zuko winced upon noticing.

"You mean to tell me that actually, honestly, a friend you hadn't talked to in like two years literally did just happen to come by the day I left, at your uncle's behest? Why would he offer a young lady a place to stay, when he knew you had a girlfriend?"

Her choice of past tense seemed telling, eliciting another wince of anguish at the verbiage.

"Yeah. I had a talk with him about it afterward, but he just said that wasn't what he had intended."

"No shit! He probably assumed you had more backbone than that," Jin spat, venom dripping from each word she hurled in his direction.

"I know. I know I should have been more forceful. I just… I dunno, the way she looked at me, I just couldn't say no," he admitted.

"And you expect me to believe that you can somehow magically, all of a sudden be able to say no to the next pair of pretty eyes that comes your way? You must think I'm some kind of moron."

"I don't think that at all!" he spoke, his voice regaining some of its natural vigor for the first time since they had begun his descent into misery.

"Then what? You think I'm just some tramp who would be totally okay with you just sleeping around with every skirt in Ba Sing Se?"

"No. It's nothing like that. It's…"

"...complicated? God, everything is with you, isn't it? But you know, some things are just really simple you know?"

"I know…" he had no defense. He was entirely at the young woman's mercy. It was what he had tried to mentally prepare for the entire time she had been gone, but finding himself facing her scorn and fury in person was proving to be an entirely different beast.

"You know, I've noticed your friend Sokka giving me the eye a few times, and he's even come on to me a few times. Poor Suki," Jin began Zuko's blood beginning to boil at the mention.

"I know. I'm not an idiot. Who wouldn't stare at you or try to hit on you? You're beautiful," he admitted, a flicker of a flame sparking behind his amber eyes.

"But I never would have taken him up on it. For two reasons. One, I love Suki, and that would be really messed up, even though she could do so much better, but secondly, I was in love with you, and that would be wrong. Do you get it?"

"Yes. I messed up. You deserve better, so I'll just go. I'll talk to my uncle, assuming you want to stay here at least for a while," he said, his eyes closed as he lifted to his feet.

"What?" Jin's voice pierced the haze of his self pity, causing him to pause and turn back towards her.

"It's the right thing to do. I really did… do, love you, Jin," he said, his eyes glittering as they caught the stray rays of sunlight filtering in through the curtain.

"So that's it? You just say your peace then dip out? What about all that stuff you said about wanting to work through it and it'll never happen again? Was all that just a lie? You're just going to fuck up then leave?"

"I figured that's what you'd want."

"Zuko," she murmured, slowly making her way towards him. "I'll admit I'm seething with anger right now, but I think what we have is a good thing. It's worth fighting for. So I'm willing to forgive you on one condition," she said, holding a raised index finger right in front of his face.

"Anything!" he said, eyes wide as the kindled embers of hope burned in his chest.

"If I so much as think you're looking at another girl like that, I'll make sure you regret it. Do you understand?" she said, wiping at the streak of tears across her cheeks as a small, weak smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Absolutely! I promise," he said, making to wrap his arms around the young woman, finding his progress halted by a firm palm to his chest.

"Not yet. I'm still mad at you. And you're most certainly sleeping on the couch for a while," she added, keeping the serious tone to her gaze as she watched his body slump a bit.

"That's fair. Jin, I really feel bad."

"As you should. But at the very least you owned up to it. And as long as this… what was the girl's name?"

"...Ty Lee…."

"Right, as long as this Ty Lee is not in the picture, then we can work on things. Unless there's any other girls that could possibly have your attention?" Jin questioned, brow rising in accusation as he held his hands up defensively in front of him.

"No. The only other girl who ever showed any interest in me was Mai, and she's, well, you know," Zuko said, realizing that it was a flimsy defense at best. After all, he hadn't even thought Ty Lee had feelings for him. But that was something he was most certainly not going to think about.

"Right. Happily lesbian. Then we can work on this. Just one more thing," she said, watching as his eyebrow raised quizzically.

Before he could react, Jin reached out, tugging on the front of his sleeveless shirt to pull him towards her. "Three strikes and you're out, you got it?" she asked, the threat implicit in her words.

"That's reasonable. And I promise, I'll never-" he was cut off by a heavy knock at their front door, two sets of eyes shifting towards the heavy wooden slab.

"Who could it be? Are you expecting a delivery or something?" Jin asked, earning a shake of the head from Zuko.

"No. You?"

"No."

"I wonder who it is," Zuko muttered, clasping the young woman's hand before placing a soft, feathery kiss to the back of the smooth skin.

Making his way towards the door, the scarred young man felt a dread inducing sense of deja vu prick the back of his neck, flashbacks to what had caused this tiff ringing painfully in his mind.

"No way… it couldn't be," he whispered to himself, hand pausing as it came in contact with the knob. Turning the rounded brass, he slowly swung the door open, a hole opening in his stomach as his heart fell through the floor at the sight before him.

"Oh my gosh, Zuko, I missed you," Ty Lee chirped, carelessly throwing her arms around his neck as she placed a deep, wet kiss to his lips.

'Fuck, why me? How am I doing to explain this to-'

"And can I assume this is the infamous Ty Lee?" Jin asked, arms folded against her chest as she stood a short distance behind the scene at the entryway to their shared home, a distinctly irritated expression on her face.

"Oh, yeah, my name's Ty Lee. I guess you must be Jin then," Ty Lee sung, eyes taking in the sight of the voluptuous fellow brunette. 'Wow, she really is cute. I can see why Zuko is so smitten with her,' the bubbly heiress thought to herself, quite approving of the soft featured older girl.

"So you know about me, and yet you're here. What's your deal?" Jin asked, eyes narrowing as she considered the younger girl.

"Actually," Ty Lee said, tossing her bag effortlessly next to the stairs, quickly making her way from her place in front of Zuko to stand in front of his lovely paramour, "I came to see you, today," she continued, a playful grin on her face as she looked deeply into Jin's soft olive eyes.

"You did?" Jin and Zuko asked in unison, neither able to comprehend what could possibly explain such an outcome.

"Yeah. I didn't want you to be mad at Zuko, and then June kind of threatened a lot of horrible things, so I came up with a great idea," she said, grabbing Jin's arm, the slender appendage resting teasingly between the large pink clothed globes on Ty Lee's chest.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Zuko mumbled, a soft blush tinting his cheeks at the sight of the two brunettes together.

"We're going to go on a date, then we'll all be happy," the effervescent girl said, effortlessly dragging Jin to match her pace as she exited the comfortable home.

"What?" Jin asked, casting a confused look to Zuko for help.

"Don't wait up Zuko. We'll be out late tonight, but it's all for the best, I promise," Ty Lee's voice echoed across the expanse of the stoop and within the entryway of the cozy home, leaving Zuko to simply blink after the pair of girls as they made their way down the street.

"What the heck just happened…?" he asked to no one in particular, weakly shutting the door before shuffling his way back into the living room.

This was certainly not what he had expected when he spilled his guts to Jin about what happened.

I feel like I made Jin TOO forgiving of the mistake here, but this is mostly a light hearted story, so alot of drama wouldn't really have fit that tone. But make no mistake, if Zuko messes up again, she WILL make sure he pays for it. And one day I will definitely do a more "legit" Jinko story, because she deserves one. But that's for the future. Next time here we get the Ty Lee x Jin date: a pinch of drama, lots of sugary sweetness, and a big helping of steamy smut. See you next time, good people.