As if the holiday season wasn't busy enough normally for Zuko he was in the midst of a large deal at work. The largest deal of his entire career, actually. It meant spending more time away from home than he wanted to, much more. Getting home after dark in December wasn't exactly uncommon, what with the sun deciding to set around 4:30 every Montreal afternoon.

Yet, it was after 8:00 by the time he even left his office today and although the traffic had cleared considerably compared to when he left around 5:00 and the highways were clogged with commuters heading back to Laval or the South Shore or wherever they lived on the island itself, it was still another twenty before Zuko had his car parked in the garage and was making his way upstairs.

Perhaps that was the reason for his cold reception from Izumi when he arrived back home that day. Usually he got along very well with his teenager, it had been the two of them her whole life, after all and he liked to think that they were close. Today though, instead of greeting him with a smile she didn't bother looking up from her phone when he entered the room, seemingly ignoring him.

"Hi Zumi, sorry I'm late," he apologized once he'd gotten his coat, shoes and winter gear put away. "Work was crazy today."

"Sure. Ty Lee left your plate in the microwave," she answered coolly, gesturing toward the kitchen. Ty Lee was their cook and although she was definitely gone home by now, Zuko knew that the food was definitely going to be amazing. "I was too hungry to wait for you."

He sighed, debating on trying to explain that he really had tried to get out on time tonight because he did know that Izumi was unhappy with how much he'd been preoccupied lately. It didn't help, he knew, that in a few days he'd be flying over to Hong Kong where he was set to meet up with the buyer for his technology company. He'd thought about bringing Izumi along but she had classes and it wasn't like he was going to have a lot of free time while there anyway. These were conversations that they'd already had though and he didn't see the point in rehashing them.

"Anything exciting happen at school today?" he tried.

Now she looked up to hit him with an unimpressed stare. "I need to shower," she stood and walked upstairs with a bit more force than necessary but Zuko was far too tired to tell her off for it.

He loved his daughter with all of his heart but sometimes the stress of running a company while being a single father was overwhelming. When he talked to his uncle about it, he always gave some proverb about the gift of children being worth every struggle. When he talked to Azula about it, she told him that she'd warned him when he decided to adopt Izumi without a partner that he'd end up feeling this way. When he talked to Mai about it, she told him that he was doing better than her parents or his had ever done. The last one was at least true, but it was a very low bar to set.

As he pushed the button on the microwave to reheat the dinner, a delicious looking stir-fry, he stared out the window into the dark Canadian night and hoped that the deal could be finished swiftly and without further hassle. He was more than ready for things to be over with.

–

Off the South Shore, Sokka was having a much worse night than he'd had in a long while. Standing out in the cold with Varrick as firefighters exited their home and he tried to explain to the police officer what had caused the fire to start in the first place while at the same time trying not to sound like a negligent parent. Which, for the record, he wasn't.

It was just that his son, crazy mad genius at all of eight years old, tended to like to experiment in. And while Sokka had insisted that he always be around when said experiments happened, and had also made clear rules about not using fire in any of those experiments... However, sometimes children went behind their parents back while they were making dinner and stole matches that they used to make fire in their attempt to combine different materials.

Sometimes, that led to a fire. Sometimes, that fire rapidly spread without a proper source to put it out. Sometimes, said child thought they could handle the fire themselves but could not get to the fire extinguisher in time so the fire safety sprinkler went off and put it out instead – which, while preferable to the alternative, meant that water damage was now an issue to contend with.

After a few firefighers had finished their check to make sure that the fire was completely out and that there was no immediate structural damage and the police finished their questioning, the father and son were left alone.

Technically, they were advised not to go back into the house for the night so Sokka was already texting Suki to ask if they could go and crash at her place.

"Bonne soiree!" Varrick waved to the police car as it pulled away and then looked to his dad. "Dad, I'm really sorry. I didn't think that it was going to get out of control like that."

Sokka looked away from his phone, kneeling down to be face to face with his son. "Varrick, I know that you didn't mean for this to happen. But that doesn't mean that what you did was okay. You could have gotten very hurt. I make rules for you for a reason and the reason is that I don't want to see you getting hurt. You knew that you weren't allowed to use fire and while I'm so glad that you're okay, I'm going to have to ground you."

"Aww but Dad," Varrick whined, trying to give a wide eyed look to get himself off the hook.

"No buts, Varrick, you know the rules," Sokka said firmly. He wasn't always the most stern of parents but he knew when he had to hold the line.

"Calice," the young boy muttered under his breath, showing off the French that Sokka was certain he wasn't learning from his teachers.

Sokka got distracted from telling him off by the feeling of his phone buzzing in his hand. A glance at it showed that Suki was calling, so he stood up and answered. "Hey Suki."

"Are you okay?" her voice was clear on the other end of the line, worry coloring her tone.

"We're fine. The fire is out and Varrick didn't get hurt in any way. It's just the water damage we'll have to deal with and the firefighters suggested that we spend the night away to give the place a bit of air."

"You know you're welcome to stay here. I'll get the pullout set up for you." Already he could hear her shuffling around, probably making sure that everything they'd need for the stay was clean. "Have you eaten?"

"No. I was in the process of making dinner when everything went down," Sokka sighed, his stomach grumbling at the reminder that it was empty.

"I'll whip something up for the two of you then," Suki assured him.

"Thanks Suks, you're the best," he gave a smile that she wouldn't see.

"I know." Her bright laugh rang out. "Anyway, just come right in when you get here."

"Will do. See you soon." Hanging up, Sokka looked at Varrick again, who was now sitting on the stairs, looking out at the dark sky. "Okay, bud, I'm gonna run inside and get some things for us to take to Suki's for tonight. She'll feed us when we get there."

"Don't forget my backpack," Varrick told him.

"Buddy, I'm not bringing anything out of your room. It's covered with water." All of the work inside was probably ruined and the school books. Sokka prepared himself for the note that he'd have to write to the teacher about all of this.

"My backpack is by the back door. I already finished my homework so I put it there for tomorrow." That was the system but usually Sokka didn't check it until he was going to bed.

"Oh, okay. I won't."

Heading inside Sokka was grateful that at least the set up of things meant that only Varrick's room and part of the hallway were water damaged because it would be a lot less that needed to be replaced. He was able to stop into his own room and grab out clothes, his work laptop and a suitcase, then the bathroom where he could get hygiene items for the both of them.

His own laziness also came back to be helpful for once because there was a load of laundry in the dryer that he'd been putting off folding that held clothes for Varrick to wear over the next few days. He didn't bother folding them now either, just quickly stuffed them all into the suitcase.

Then it was just a matter of getting himself and Varrick over to Suki's place. She lived in a one bedroom on the island and while Sokka usually took public transit on the island (why wouldn't he when parking in the city was a mess and his work was actually connected via underground tunnel to the metro station saving him from harsh winter wind?) he knew that he'd have to get up extra early tomorrow to drive Varrick to school back on the South Shore.

Sokka owned the spare set of keys to Suki's place, so when he did arrive and they made the trek up the winding outside stairs that he had to remind Varrick to be careful on multiple times he headed straight inside. Varrick got out of his shoes first and set his backpack next to the door while Suki came to greet them.

"Hey, hope you two are hungry because dinner is ready," she said with a smile.

Sokka nodded gratefully. "Thanks Suki, I'm starved." Even so, he brought the suitcase over to the corner where he knew it would be out of the way before he allowed himself to take a seat at the small round table where three plates were already set out.

Varrick explained where his experiment went wrong over the meal and got promptly scolded again for using fire in the first place. The boy had at least the sense to look mildly guilty about breaking the rules but he pushed past all the scolding to explain his experiment in further detail and what he was hoping to accomplish with it.

It was only after Sokka had dismissed Varrick to go take a shower before getting ready for bed that Sokka was able to sit and talk to Suki.

"How are you doing?" she asked, reaching over to pat his hand sympathetically.

"Badly," Sokka groaned, letting his head fall onto the table. "I love this kid more than my whole life, but I swear I have no clue how to keep him from blowing up the entire house."

"I mean, we both knew that any child of yours was going to be a hand full."

"Why couldn't he have taken after Yue?" he asked, a whine entering his voice.

"If I remember correctly, she was very proud that he was so much like you," Suki stated mater of factly. She was right. Yue, when she'd still been alive while Varrick was a toddler, had very proudly shown off many pictures of Sokka and his son side by side and drew comparisons between them frequently. Such a comment might have hurt a while ago, but Sokka was past every mention of his wife bringing only pain.

Now Sokka looked up at Suki seriously. "I worry he's gonna hurt himself for real one of these times."

"He's a smart kid," she said soothingly. "And you're a good dad. Don't be so hard on yourself. Though maybe do start searching him for flammable items in the future."

"I don't see what other choice I've got," he grumbled. He should have known a simple rule wouldn't stop his son's scientific curiosity.

"That's the spirit," Suki grinned. "Now, I think I heard the shower go off so come on and help me with these dishes since I made you food."

Given the fact that Sokka was imposing on her hospitality and Suki did not have a dishwasher he figured that it was the least that he could do to help her out.

Spending the night on a pullout couch with his son meant that Sokka didn't exactly get the best night of sleep ever, but he did still manage to get some. Enough that by the time the alarm went off he was able to drag himself out of bed, into the bathroom and get himself ready before making Varrick do the same.

Leaving the island this early in the day wasn't a problem, he knew the trouble would be on his return so he went ahead and followed his usual routine that morning, leaving his car in the parking lot outside the metro stop closest to his home before hopping on the train and starting his daily commute. Usually he spent it listening to podcasts but today he was looking up estimates on what it would cost to fix the water damage that was done to his place.

What he found wasn't encouraging. It wasn't like he just had a few thousand dollars that he could just throw down at a moment's notice.

Shit. What was he going to do?

–

As most mornings had been going lately, Zuko spent the first part of his day in a meeting with the higher ups of the company as they talked about how much outsourcing would be done when they closed the deal.

Azula followed him to his office once the daily meeting was over. She was second in command and while at one point that had caused them some tension they were now at the place where they worked like a well oiled machine together. "Zuko, I'm just saying that telling the employees now, before anything is finalized is a mistake. Some of them will still be needed here and we don't want them to be jumping ship before we can assure them that they should stay."

"I don't know. I just feel like-"

The conversation was paused as Azula held up her hand toward her brother, bringing her ringing phone to her ear. "This is Azula. Oh, Mr. Piandao, it's very nice to hear from you, sir. What? Here?"

Zuko's head wiped toward Azula, raising a questioning eyebrow toward her.

Azula simply waved her hand toward Zuko, dismissing his questions. "No, of course. It's no problem at all. Yes, my brother and his husband will be happy to have you."

"Husband!?" Zuko squeaked out, looking outraged. Did his sister just say that he had a husband? There was no way that she'd said that.

With a glare, she covered the bottom of her phone and hissed at Zuko, "Be quiet!" Then she moved her hand away and forced a smile back onto her face."Yes, we will see you then. Thank you, sir. You as well."

"What the hell was that, Azula?" he demanded as soon as the call was disconnected.

"Oh calm down, Zuzu. I told Mr. Piandao that you had a husband because when I visited him last month he started talking about his own husband and to just say you were gay was a bit anti-climatic, so I gave you a husband," she explained in an almost bored fashion.

"You didn't have to do that! I'm sure being gay was a good enough thing for us to have in common." The idea that he now had to lie to the man when he saw him was making his stomach hurt. He'd never been a good liar.

"Don't assume that because he has a husband he's gay," Azula shot back. "But it doesn't matter anyway, we'll just hire some guy to pretend to be your husband while he's staying with you."

"Wait, wait, wait. We're doing what? He's coming here? You invited him to stay in my house?! Azula! This is a disaster!" He was going to have a stranger staying with him, which was bad enough by itself but now because of his sister's lies he was going to have to hire a fake husband? Izumi was going to be furious and she would have a right to.

"Take some deep breaths, don't over excite yourself," Azula sat down in one of the chairs in front of Zuko's desk. "It's only for two days so he can see the company in person." In her hand she was already furiously typing away on her phone. "I'm sending out feelers to actors in the area already and we'll see them this afternoon to find you a suitable fake husband. All you have to do is act nice in front of him and let him stay in one of your many guest bedrooms."

"Or we could tell him that my husband and I are split up."

"Why don't we just tell him that your sister is a liar?"

Zuko took his own seat and put his head down onto the desk with a groan. Wondering why things had gotten so complicated and what he'd done to deserve this.

–

It was a normal work day for Sokka, or as normal as it could be when he was also trying to figure out how he was supposed to fit repairing his house into his budget. Luckily, he didn't have any pressing projects right now so it wasn't as big a deal as it could have been.

When his phone answered, he picked it up and expected to hear the voice of one of his co-workers on the other end. "You've got Sokka."

"Monsieur Qaqqaq?"

Sokka sat up instantly, recognizing the voice of his son's teacher. "Oui, c'est moi."

And that was how, twenty minutes later Sokka was walking out of the metro to get his car instead of taking his lunch break because it turned out that today Varrick had decided that he was going to smuggle a mouse inside of the classroom after recess and had been refusing to let it back outside because he wanted to bring it home.

"You can't just bring mice inside, Varrick," Sokka explained tiredly as he drove back to the metro. Luckily he knew that his son would be able to hang out in his office without any trouble, especially because he had a book for him there.

"Mice are the perfect animals for science!" the child argued passionately, unbuckling his seatbelt as they parked.

"You are not doing live animal experiments, Varrick. Especially not with a poor mouse that you found outside!" Silently, Sokka looked up at the sky and wished Yue was around to talk some sense into their son.

"I don't see why not."

"Because that's not how we do things. We're ethical in our experiments."

"But we use mice to test medications on to make sure they're safe for humans."

Sokka could feel a headache coming on. "You are not testing medications and we are done with this conversation. Now come on, I've got to get you a ticket."

Varrick tried to argue his rights to do experiments on mice for the whole trip back to Sokka's office and each time Sokka shot him down, telling him that there was no way that he'd be allowed to do any animal experiments even if (as Varrick pointed out) he wasn't planning on hurting them.

When they were safely back in his office, he sat his son down on his chair. "Please stay here. I'm going to run to the cafe across the street and grab us both some food."

"Okay, dad," Varrick answered, pulling out his homework and starting on it.

–

This was embarrassing and uncomfortable, Zuko decided as he sat in a conference room where a fairly handsome man sat across the table as he auditioned for the 'role' of Zuko's fake husband. He wasn't quite Zuko's type, if he were being honest, and his facial hair could use a shave but it wasn't like he had the room to be picky.

"Now, Hahn, run us through how you'd greet Zuko on his return from home," Azula commanded. "Zuko, stand up."

With a sigh, he did as his sister suggested while the other man came over and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Zuko flinched away as he did so, feeling strange but he tried to plaster a smile on as the other man gave him a grin.

"Hi honey," Hahn slipped an arm around Zuko's waist and nuzzled himself into the other man's neck. "How was your day? I missed you."

Azula made a bit of a face as Zuko tried not to cringe away from how awkward this was. "Okay, stop."

Hahn pulled back, looking over to Azula. "Something different? Maybe a bit more like we're in the honeymoon stage?"

"No!" Zuko exclaimed quickly, not wanting to think about what that would entail.

"It's not working. You're dismissed," Azula gave a short nod in the direction of the door and then turned back to her brother as Hahn took his leave with a shrug. "Zuko, you need to loosen up. It's just two days of pretend."

"Okay well maybe I don't want to pretend, did you think of that, Azula? Can't we just say that my husband is out of town or something?" It was a thought he'd been tossing around. Lying wouldn't be easy but at least that wouldn't require acting too.

"Sure, cause that wouldn't look suspicious at all," she snorted sarcastically.

"I just-" Zuko cut himself off as the head of a child poked into the open door, looking around curiously. He was a small boy, probably around nine if Zuko had to guess. He had dark tan skin, black hair and brown eyes and a look on his face of calculation.

"What is a kid doing here?"

Hearing an acknowledgment of his presence, said kid looked up at the adults and waved, giving a bright smile that Zuko had a feeling he usually used to get out of trouble. "Hello!"

Now it was Zuko's turn to hold a hand up to Azula, making his way over to the child and getting down to his level. It was something that he used to do with Izumi when she was younger, not wanting to seem like he was talking down to her. "Hi, who might you be?"

"I'm Varrick. My dad works here but I just wanted to see what the rest of the place looked like," he answered, looking past Zuko and over to Azula with a questioning gaze.

"Where is your dad?" Zuko couldn't imagine who in the world let their kid wander around unsupervised but he'd have some words with them.

"Varrick? Varrick Iknik!" a man's voice was whisper shouting down the hall, clearly trying not to disturb anyone.

"I'm over here!" Varrick didn't have any qualms about being loud it seemed because he stuck his head out into the hall and waved toward his father.

The man that entered the room was gorgeous and Zuko found himself staring for a moment, not having moved out of his crouching position. The tall, muscular man had dark tan skin and bright brown eyes, an angular face with cheekbones that seemed like they could cut glass. His dark hair was pulled into a sort of pony tail that left the undercut sides bare. Zuko remembered seeing him around the office now and again but he hadn't really ever interacted with him before.

Upon realizing just who was in the room with his son, his face pulled into a mildly panicked look. "I am so sorry, Mr. Sozin and Ms. Sozin. I just had to run to grab some food and I told him to stay in his seat and he really just got here because something came up with his school and-" he was rambling, but he had a nice voice.

Zuko stood and shook his head, offering a smile. "It's okay," he said softly. "He didn't interrupt anything important.

Unbeknownst to him Azula was watching the interaction with interest and she moved herself closer. With a look over of him she seemed to reach an agreeable conclusion. "Would you be available for an acting job?"

"I'm- what?" The confusion that overtook the man's face was complete and he looked a bit broken, as if the question had rattled his mind.

"An acting job," she repeated. "You and your son, actually. Yes, a son would make things better."

"Azula!" Zuko exclaimed, horrified at the fact that she was even trying to suggest this right now.

"Uh- Ms. Sozin I know you probably don't know this about me, but I'm a software engineer, not an actor." Zuko felt bad about the way that the poor man shifted on his feet, clearly looking for an out.

"Details." Azula was doing that thing she did, where she made completely valid points seem as if they had no baring on the conversation. "Listen, we're in a bit of a bind and we need someone to pretend to be the husband and son of Zuko here."

If the way that the emotions played out across the other man's face was any indication of his acting skill, Zuko wasn't sure that he'd even be a good fit. "I don't think that-"

"Azula, let him go," Zuko cut in. "I'm so sorry about her. This isn't your problem."

She ignored him, as per usual. "We'll pay you two thousand dollars."

Now he paused, suddenly looking more interested. "Two thousand dollars? For what, exactly?"

"There was a misunderstanding about Zuko's family life and he is in rather urgent need of a more picture perfect family to impress a potential investor," Azula condensed the situation. "We just need someone to stay at the house and act like a husband. You know, be waiting for him when he gets there, hold hands, blah blah blah. You'd have the days off of work, paid fully."

Zuko wanted to disappear right now because this was going to get around the office and no one was going to respect him again because they thought he lied about being married to look better to investors which wasn't even fair because he wasn't the one who had put himself in the situation to begin with.

"Anything else expected out of me?" The man was eyeing Azula suspiciously, as if she wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Nothing inappropriate for your child to see if that's what you're worried about."

By this point, Zuko was starting to turn red, not just because the other man was very attractive but because he was being spoken of as if he wasn't there. If he were being honest though, the idea of being pulled into his arms was actually very nice if he were honest. But no, no, he still couldn't have an employee do this before he could voice his objections again the man had turned to his son.

"Dad, take the money. I can pretend to have two dads for two days," Varrick spoke before anything could be asked of him.

Watching the look that passed between father and son, Zuko wasn't sure what was going to happen but then the man straightened again and looked to Zuko for a second before he looked back to Azula. What was going through his mind, he had no clue but he felt like there was a chance he might actually take the deal.

"Alright, I'm in."

Spirits above, Zuko wasn't sure if he should be grateful or worried.