Prompt: We aren't going to murder anyone tonight! I just cleaned the carpet!
Modern AU
Zuko sat down at the island in the kitchen, cradling his tea in both hands. He would never ever let his uncle know that he enjoyed drinking tea. If Iroh knew, he would drag Zuko to all the tea shops within a thousand-mile radius. Zuko certainly didn't want that. Taking a sip of his now cool tea, he leaned back and enjoyed the momentary silence.
Note: the word 'momentary'.
Of course, this peaceful silence was broken in a matter of seconds. What else would you expect from the word 'momentary'? Katara quite literally stomped into his apartment and gave him a look that could drown him if he wasn't careful. Zuko tentatively stood and approached his girlfriend as if she was a wild animal.
"Can you believe it?" She growled. "The nerve of that woman!" Zuko was now standing just a foot away.
"What woman?" He asked, carefully.
"Mai!" Katara shouted. Zuko barely managed to evaporate the stream of water whipping around. He took a few more steps and gently rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down, okay? Deep breaths. There we go. Now tell me what happened."
With a false calm, Katara told her story. Apparently, she had met Mai in the grocery store and the two women had engaged in polite small-talk. Until Katara off-handedly mentioned Zuko, that is. Mai seethed when her ex-lover's name was mentioned and proceeded to call Katara ugly names. (I won't repeat those here. I feel dirty just thinking of them.) Naturally, Katara fired back a few of her own handcrafted insults before storming away.
Zuko was infuriated as his partner finished her story. "I thought she was over it by now!" He exclaimed.
"I know. It's been, what, a year since we got together?"
Zuko nodded. "Why can't she accept that I don't love her?"
"I say, we kill her. We could burn her up and then whisk her ashes away." Katara stated, confidently. Zuko's eyes widened.
"That's- that's a great idea! The police would never be able to trace us." He hummed. "But how do we reach her? I mean, I'm not even sure where she lives anymore."
Katara smiled. It was a sinister thing. "Get her number from your sister and then invite her over here, for dinner. She won't even know what hit her."
Zuko nodded, sagely. "That would wo- wait!"
"What?"
"We- we can't kill someone over here!"
Katara shifted her weight, her hands on her hips. "And why not?"
"I just got the carpet cleaned!"
She just raised an eyebrow. "Fine, Katara said. "We can do it at my place, but it might be harder to lure her in..."
{O}
{O}
Zuko woke with a start. It took him a moment to understand why his heart was racing. When it dawned on him, he quickly fumbled with his cellphone, racing to call Katara. After a few rings, she picked up.
"Hello?" Came her groggy greeting.
"Hi, hi, Katara."
"Zuko what are you calling me for? It's two in the mor-"
"Have you seen Mai recently?" He blurted.
A sigh. "No, why?"
"Well, I just had this crazy dream where you could control water and I controlled fire and you got in a fight with Mai because I broke up with her two years ago and we were together. So she called you names and you called her names and you came to my apartment when I was drinking tea- tea, Katara. You know I hate tea! So we made a plan to kill Mai together using our weird powers." Zuko took a deep breath and waited for Katara's reply.
"Well, Mai has always gotten on my nerves." Katara said, now fully awake.
"But you won't kill her, right?"
"Did you say we were together?"
"Katara that's not the poi-"
"Is this just an excuse to confess to me? Oh my gosh, you could not be more obvious."
Zuko groaned. "No! I- it's not- I don't. Fine! It kind of was. But the dream, was real."
"Mhm. So, yes."
"Yes to what?"
"Yes, I'll go on a date with you."
"That's uhh-" Zuko began, but she had hung up.
Zuko grinned. He knew she would call him later. She couldn't not communicate with him.
Word count: 747
Ah. Expanding to new fandoms. I'm so proud of myself. I saw this prompt and I knew that I had to include Zuko in it somehow. I hope I made y'all laugh, or at least smile a bit. Tell me what you thought!
~Rus
