Episode 10: Appa Needs A Party Hat

The smile he'd been sporting from the night's events was gone. Forgotten. All rational thought emptied from his mind to make way for anger, bitterness, and a slight taste of fear.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"In my country we exchange a pleasant 'hello' before asking questions," she said with a flip of her hair. "Have you become uncivilized so soon, Zuzu?"

"Don't call me that."

Her golden eyes, always more calculating than his own, narrowed. "How rude. Aren't you happy to see your dear, younger sister?"

Zuko only continued to stare. "What do you want, Azula?"

"It's not what I want." She held a manicured hand to her chest, her nails filed to points. Every aspect of Azula was a weapon.

"Our father is the one asking for you," she continued. "Something about your internship."

"My internship?" Zuko repeated. "Since when has father cared about anything to do with the Agni Kais?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "He doesn't. He cares about you, dumb dumb. He wants you to visit the office."

Zuko became acutely aware that it was midnight and they were standing out in the open of his apartment complex where anyone could overhear.

If only to prove his point, the door to his apartment burst open and his roommate leaned into the night air. "Hey man! How was your-?" Sokka's eyes alighted on Azula behind him and his face dropped.

"Peasant," she scoffed, her nose wrinkled as if she'd just smelled something foul. "I won't talk around the rabble, Zuzu, you know that." She flipped one of her bangs out of her face before saying, "Join me for dinner tomorrow at Ember Island and we'll discuss the meeting. Don't be late." Her eyes ran up and down his figure and she frowned. "I will provide an outfit for you to wear once you get there."

"I don't need your-" Zuko started.

"It's a gift." She cut him off with a grin that was anything but friendly. "I'll see you at 6 o'clock, sharp."

And just as suddenly as she'd appeared, she was off down the stairwell not even bothering to look back.

"So Azula's in town," Sokka mused, leaning against the doorway. "That's always...fun."

Katara had been fighting down her grin from the moment she'd stepped off the roof. She'd worn it through her shift, all the way home, past her father and Aang in the kitchen, she'd probably even worn it the entire time she'd been asleep. Even a morning meeting with Zuko couldn't deter her smile as she skipped into the tea shop on Sunday morning.

He looked up when she entered, two steaming mugs of tea already on the table in front of him.

"Well, good morning," he greeted her.

"Good morning." She beamed at him and his mug hit the table with a thud splashing a small amount of tea across the surface.

"Oops," she giggled, grabbing napkins off the nearest table and helping him clean it up. "Watch yourself."

Zuko continued to stare at her as she collected the wet napkins and carried them to the trash.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he stammered, finally looking away. "You just seem...in a really good mood."

Katara shrugged. "I had a good shift at the hospital."

A new light, almost disbelieving, seemed to enter Zuko's eyes as he smiled. "Did you?" he asked. "What made it so great?"

"I got to spend some time with a friend during my shift," she said. If anything, his smile widened.

"Would this friend happen to be a boy?" he asked.

"Shut up," she said, but it lacked her usual bite as she blushed. "Aren't you the one who had a date last night?"

She had unconsciously remembered. Katara wanted to blame it on the way the girl, Jin, had looked at her with a sort of territorial expression. Perhaps she was protective of Zuko because he was Sokka's roommate. That had to be it...

"I did," he said, pulling out his textbook. "It went very well, I think. How was yours?"

"Mine went well, too," she replied before it hit her what she was saying. His evil grin was back.

"So it was a date," he said.

"No!" Katara waved her hands about the table, panicked, grabbed the closest object which was her tea, and took a large swig of the drink. She had to stop doing that!

The ginseng was still steaming hot and burned her tongue as well as her throat on the way down. The coughing and streaming of snot and tears down her face was starting to feel all too familiar. At least the Blue Spirit wasn't here to witness it this time. His words rang in her ears: beautiful.

Not the time, she scolded herself.

"Katara!" Zuko exclaimed, all teasing gone as he rushed to the counter to grab her a glass of ice water.

"Is she alright?" Iroh asked.

"I'm fine," she croaked, taking the drink Zuko offered and taking some small sips. "Just a little to impatient for my morning tea."

Zuko didn't bother her about her date for the rest of the morning and she appreciated it enough to lay off her usual snide comments. They were a surprisingly efficient team, completing their chapter for the past week as well as the upcoming one in their scheduled meeting time. He was easier to talk to than she had realized, and funny. Before she knew it they were joking like old pals, bonding over Sokka's bad habits.

"I was hoping you would have succeeded where I had failed," she laughed.

"The day Sokka does laundry, I will eat my own socks." Zuko laughed along with her. "But he's still the best roommate a guy could wish for."

"We may have to get your brain checked," Katara teased. "You're choosing to live with him. I couldn't wait to get him out of my house."

Zuko shrugged. "I like to think of it as balancing each other out. He has strengths in my weaknesses and the other way around. I do the laundry and cooking, he keeps me from being a hermit inside the house."

"I think he's getting the better end of the deal," Katara remarked.

"Who are we talking about?" Suki slipped into the third, empty seat at their table. Katara hadn't even noticed her coming in, let alone having enough time to order tea and walk to their area of the café. She sat up straighter while at the same time Zuko stiffened in his chair. How long had she been watching them?

"Detective," he greeted her. "We're discussing the resident mess."

"Ah, yes." Suki nodded. "That boy is in for a rude awakening if you guys ever stop parenting him."

She blew on her tea as if the comment were nothing but Katara noticed Zuko's blush even as her own cheeks heated.

"Well, speaking of, I'd better go," he said, zipping up his bag. "Sokka and I are getting some things together for the party this Wednesday and you know how much he loves his shopping."

"Good luck," the two girls called after him. Katara watched him as he left, her eyes tracing his easy gait and the brief moment he hesitated before heading out the door.

Suki sat up straighter, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You like Zuko!"

Katara wrinkled her nose. "I most definitely do not."

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I-" she cut herself off, glancing around before leaning in and lowering her voice. "I may have admired the idea of Zuko when he was a faceless caretaker of my brother and father but-"

"And then you saw him and realized his brains aren't the only fancy thing about him?" Suki wagged her eyebrows suggestively and Katara's face burned.

"No!" She gushed, covering her face with her hands.

"You don't think Zuko is attractive?" Suki asked skeptically.

"That's not what I'm saying," Katara said from behind her hands.

"So you do think he's attractive," Suki deduced.

Katara sighed, dropping her hands to the table. "Let's face it, any girl who says she doesn't think that man is attractive is lying."

Suki nodded with a triumphant smile.

"However," Katara gritted out. "I am not interested in him because I...because I have someone else."

The detective leaned forward, finally joining in on the effort to privatize the conversation. "Who?"

"He's...I..." Katara slumped in her chair. "I don't know."

Suki blinked. "You don't know?"

"I don't know his name..." Katara bit her lip. "...Or what he looks like."

Suki blinked again. "What is this? Some kind of online thing? What's his username? I'll look him up."

She started pulling out her laptop.

"No! No." Katara pushed the device down. "It's not online it's...he's..." she sighed. "Remember when I saved the Blue Spirit last week?"

"Yeah, the night of my big bust? Sokka was livid." Suki nodded. Then her eyes bugged wide. "No."

Katara continued to chew her lip sheepishly.

"No." Suki repeated. "Katara, he is a criminal."

"Now you really sound like Sokka."

"He's stolen countless items-"

"That he returned," Katara countered.

"-and he's an Agni Kai hunter," Suki added. "Do you have any idea how many missing people there are because of him?"

Katara's shoulders drooped. This was good, a wake up call. She'd been living in a fantasy. It was one thing to work with him as the Painted Lady, it was an entirely different thing to start liking him romantically as herself.

"You're right," she said. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Weren't your objections to Zuko that he was affiliated with Phoenix industries?" Suki asked. "And now your cavorting with a known employee of their worst faction?"

"I know, okay?" Katara blurted. "I know it was stupid, I just...he was willing to change. Zuko still wants to go back there."

Suki stared at her. "Have you ever asked him why?"

Katara shifted in her seat, remembering the exchange. "Once."

"Ask him again," Suki said, then took pity on her. "So...the Blue Spirit. How did you meet him?"

"Well..." the giddiness was gone, washed away with the cold splash of reality. "He was thanking me for saving his life. We had a kind of...activity?"

Suki's raised a single eyebrow. "Activity?"

"There were lights...and candles...and tea..." Katara trailed off, twirling her hair and failing at hiding a smile.

"Aww, that's cute," Suki leaned her chin on the palm of her hand. "Who knew a thief and murderer could be so sweet?"

Katara 'hmpf'ed.

"Read me the list again?" Zuko pushed their overflowing cart down the final aisle, keeping Sokka in view at all times so he didn't lose him.

"We have the plates, cups, balloons, the banner, and ice cream. All we need now are party hats."

Zuko made a face. "Do we really need those?"

"You can't have a party without party hats!" Sokka insisted, grabbing a stack of pointy gold ones. He started to count, listing off names, "One for me, you, Suki, Aang...do you think Appa needs one?...Yeah, Appa needs one. Katara-"

Zuko's mind snapped to attention at the name and his stomach clenched.

Sokka continued, unaware, "Toph is supposed to be coming, right? We'll see if she actually shows." He placed the correct amount of hats into their basket and looked over the random assortment of items with pride. "I think that should do it!"

"Finally," Zuko said, steering the cart towards the front. "Are you SURE this is everything?"

"Yup!" Sokka said. Then, "wait."

Zuko stopped, all too familiar with his roommate's haphazard mind.

"Should we invite your sister?"

Zuko didn't hesitate. "No. No. A thousand times, no." Not just because having Azula at a party would probably end in murder, he also didn't want her anywhere near Katara.

Sokka shrugged. "Just checki-ah! Hang on!" He suddenly rounded on Zuko. "She-!" He pointed at Zuko and himself rapidly. "We-! She-! We never got to talk about your date!"

"Oh yeah," he trailed off like it was no big deal. It had been wishful thinking, but Zuko had clung to the hope that maybe he'd forgotten. Thankfully, they were in public and if Sokka somehow figured out they were talking about his sister and murdered him, at least there would be witnesses.

"Sooo?" Sokka asked. "How'd it go?"

"It went..." He remembered how Katara had bounced into the Jasmine Dragon that morning with the biggest smile he'd ever seen her wear. A smile of his own grew on his face. "I think it went well."

"Are you going to see her again? Did you pay for dinner? Walk her home?"

"Agni, Sokka, it was a first date," Zuko grumbled in response, flushing.

"Don't say that like it's no big deal," Sokka insisted, throwing his arm around his friend's shoulders. "I just want to make sure I raised a gentleman."

Zuko sighed. "It wasn't long, just a quick cup of tea. We talked. It was...nice." He shrugged.

"Mhmm," Sokka hummed drily. "Just talked, sure. Then what happened?"

Zuko pulled into a line at the front of the store and starting loading their decorations onto the conveyor belt. "She had to go pretty quick, but she said she would be interested in doing it again."

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere." Sokka rubbed his hands together. "Sounds like a success, brother." Then his eyes caught on a mannequin next to the check-out counter. "Hey, this is cool!"

There were times his distractibility was infuriating. This was not one of those times.

"What is it?" Zuko asked.

"An old Earth Kingdom uniform," Sokka said, messing with the layers of dark green fabric. "Apparently, because of the Blue Spirit's stolen items being uncovered and the painted lady being rumored as a waterbender, the hundred year war fashion is making a comeback."

Zuko groaned. "You mean when everyone wore a specific color based on their heritage?"

It had been a time when benders were the majority of the population and you wore a specific color and practiced a particular style based on your geographical location. Zuko couldn't imagine always wearing the same color, especially if everyone else was also wearing those exact same colors.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Sokka said. "I actually think it's pretty cool. I was thinking of having everyone choose a nation to wear as a costume for the after party."

Zuko fought down a second groan. He'd forgotten about the after party. Once they were done celebrating as a small group, anyone who knew Sokka had been invited to join them at the cabbage club. Zuko didn't mind small groups, but large crowds always left him feeling awkward and cranky.

"I can tell by your expression that you hate the idea which means everyone else will love it, so come on!" He began another adventure, this time through the clothing side of the store, and Zuko was left to put the items he'd already removed back into their cart. Well...at least it was better than the year his best friend had been obsessed with weapons.

Just as he was about to head into the abyss after Sokka, his phone alerted him to an incoming message. It was an unknown number but one look at the preview had him scrambling to open it.

[Hey Zuko, it's Katara. Suki gave me your number, hope that's okay. Just wanted to let you know that everything is all set for Friday's surprise. Do you have an idea for how to distract him?]

He read the message several times but there wasn't anything particularly special about it. Well...except that it was from her.

[Hey Katara!]

Delete.

[For shizzle.]

Delete delete.

[Maybe we can distract him by admitting we went on a date.]

Delete delete delete.

[No problem, it will make study scheduling easier. As for the distraction, I'll figure something out.]

Send.