Chapter 33: They Know (Part 2)

"I was afraid this might happen… that we were both crushing on the same guy." Zuko hung his head as he sat on the porch next to Azula. "Given everything Ozai put us through, always pitting us against each other, I never wanted this to be another – "

"It's okay, Zuzu," she cut him off. "I'm not upset, I-I was just caught off-guard, that's all."

A weak laugh escaped his lips. "This… probably wasn't the easiest way for you to find out, huh."

"No… no, it was not," she chuckled softly, trying to get the image of Sokka and her brother out of her head. "Look, I… I did use to have feelings for Sokka, and admittedly seeing you two together made me realize that I probably do have some lingering feelings for him, but… well, let's just say you don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Is it because…" A small smirk played on his lips. "…you have feelings for somebody else?"

She was quiet for a second. "Perhaps…"

He lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Well, I think you two would be perfect together."

"What makes you say that?" she asked, gazing into his eyes.

"Because you're best friends. You and Jet just… get each other."

"Yeah," she smiled, her cheeks filling with heat. "W-Well it's the same with you and Sokka. From what I've heard, you two have been practically inseparable since you met."

"We actually butted heads a lot when we first met freshman year, but honestly, I think I've always had a bit of a crush on him. It's hard to resist those blue eyes of his…"

"He's a keeper all right," she said, nodding slowly, though in that moment all she could think about were Jet's warm, chocolatey brown eyes. "Zuko…" She reached up to touch his hand. "I'm happy for you. Really."

"Thanks, Azula." He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close as he chuckled nervously. "I'm… really glad we've grown wise enough not to let a boy come between us."

"Thank the spirits we've moved past competing with each other over every little thing," she laughed, pressing her cheek against his shoulder. "So… are you two… boyfriends now?"

"You know… we've never really had 'the talk'."

She raised an eyebrow.

"We've been, umm… more preoccupied with the physical aspects of our relationship."

"Well Zuzu," she smirked, standing up and out of his embrace, "there's no time like the present." Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door.

"Alright, have a good one," Jet said to the cheery airbender who was on his way out with his freshly made mocha frappuccino. Seeing that he had a slight break in his schedule as there were no other students in line for coffee, Jet reached for his phone to check his messages when suddenly Katara came barreling in looking frantic and frazzled.

"Jet, you have to – ngh!" Not paying attention to her surroundings, Katara plowed right into the airbender, sending him flying back along with his frozen coffee drink.

"Mph," the airbender groaned, wincing in pain as he rubbed his probably bruised butt.

"I'll get paper towels," Jet grumbled, but Katara stopped him with a wave of her hand.

"Oh spirits, I am so sorry!" she apologized urgently. "Are you hurt? Did you hit your head?" She held out her hand to help collect him from the floor.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he assured, taking Katara's hand. "Just a little sore, no big deal."

He seemed to float to his feet as Katara pulled him up. They held each other's gaze for a long moment, still holding hands.

"I'm really sorry," she said softly, blushing faintly as she let go of his hand. "I-I wasn't looking where I was going."

"I-It's okay, really, I'm fine – "

"Please, let me buy you another coffee."

"I'd like that," he chuckled, "but I'm actually on my way to a campus tour that starts in…" He quickly checked his phone. "…three minutes."

"Oh, are you a prospective student?"

"Yep! Graduating high school in a couple months."

"Well… m-maybe I can treat you to coffee after your tour?" she squeaked, her cheeks red. Meekly, she held out her phone.

It took him a second to get the hint. "Oh!" He traded phones with her and they promptly exchanged information. "Katara," he smiled upon retrieving his phone. "That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you," she smiled back. Her eyes flashed with surprise as she read his contact info. "Aang?! As in, Avatar Aang?!"

"That's me," he grinned.

"Oh spirits, now I'm really embarrassed I crashed into you…"

"N-No, don't be embarrassed, I-I'm glad we – "

"Hey, Twinkle Toes!" a young girl with messy black hair and pale green eyes shouted, poking her head into the café. "Come on! We're gonna miss the tour!"

"Heh," Aang's face flushed. "She gave all the prospies nicknames. I'm… not quite a fan of mine." He turned to his friend in the doorway. "Coming!" He turned back to Katara. "I-I'll text you after I get out." Beaming, he strode toward the door.

"Looking forward to it! Oh, and Aang!" she called after him.

He turned around. "Hm?"

"I… I really hope you consider enrolling here."

"I will," he smiled, his cheeks reddening once more.

Katara grinned as she watched him leave.

"Oooh…" Jet teased, "someone's got a little crush."

"He's cute, isn't he?"

"Eh," he shrugged. "Not my type."

"I have a good feeling about him. He's special. I can tell."

"Well, he is the Avatar."

"Yeah," she laughed. "Wow… I can't believe I just ran into the Avatar!"

"Literally. So… can I clean up the coffee now?"

"Oh no, I got it." She quickly waterbended the spilled drink back into the plastic cup and tossed it into the trashcan. "Don't tell."

As if he'd tell on his friend for a little bending, especially bending that made his life easier. "So what made you run into the café in the first place? You seemed kinda scared…"

"Ugh, I don't know," she scoffed. "This assassin game has got me all paranoid, I guess. I thought I was being followed, so I was just looking for a quick place to hide."

Just then, a student who looked a little rough around the edges stepped into the café. Jet recognized him instantly.

Katara briskly walked behind the counter and brought her voice down to a low whisper. "That's the guy I thought was following me!" She gestured to the "ALIVE" badge on his lanyard.

"Well then you're in luck," Jet grinned craftily. "That's Kei Lo. My target."

Katara's eyes went wide.

Kei Lo seemed to pay Katara no mind as he ordered his drink, a caramel iced coffee.

As soon as he pulled out his wallet to pay, Jet stopped him. "This one's on the house," he smirked.

"Oh, no way!" he smiled. "How come?"

"Because." Jet lightly slapped Kei Lo's shoulder, tapping it in the process. "You're dead."

His face immediately fell.

"And dead men don't pay."

"Well, that's a bummer," he said nonchalantly, shrugging it off.

"Yeah, sorry." Jet looked somewhat apologetic as he prepared Kei Lo's drink, even though he wasn't really sorry.

"Eh, it's fine." He exchanged his green "ALIVE" badge for the red "CORPSE" badge. "The gift card would have been nice, but I was just playing for fun. At least I got a free coffee out of it." He started to chuckle. "Hey, you know what's funny?

"What?"

"The only reason why I came in here was because I was looking for my own target. I heard she frequents this place."

"Wait…" Katara started, confused. "Your target wasn't me?"

"Nope."

"Hm."

"Well, thanks for the coffee. I'll mark myself dead on the site – it looks like you have a line forming."

"Thanks, man."

Katara frowned, shaking her head. "I really thought he was out to get me."

"Maybe he was lying?"

"Well there's an easy way of finding that out…" Katara grinned mischievously at Jet. "Once the site updates, you'll get your new target, Kei Lo's old target."

He laughed. "Yeah, well, unfortunately that's gonna have to wait." Jet eyed the queue.

"All right, well I'll leave you to it." Katara walked to the other side of the counter. "I'm gonna start setting up for Azula's party. See you there!"

"Later!" he called before taking the next order. Although he was super curious as to who his next target would be, for now he was going to have to be a little patient.

"I am so sorry you had to walk in on that," Sokka apologized, his face filled with shame.

"No, no," Azula dismissed, "I should have knocked. Lesson learned." She laughed softly. "I was just so excited about getting my cast off, I couldn't wait to show you guys – "

"It's perfectly understandable," Zuko acknowledged, following her inside.

"Yeah seriously!" Sokka grinned. "Congratulations!"

Azula smiled as she crossed to the couch, taking a seat next to Sokka.

Zuko shuffled over to the beanbag chair and plunked himself down.

"So…" Azula's eyes settled on Sokka, deconstructing him. "…tell me everything. How did this all begin?"

"I don't really know," Sokka chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "I guess it started right before midterms. It was a Friday night, we were drinking a bit, about to start an anime marathon – "

"We thought we were home alone," Zuko added.

"Yeah…" Sokka momentarily broke eye contact. "…and, I don't know, we were just chatting about how horny and touch-starved we've both been since our respective breakups, you know, as guys do – "

"Sure…"

" – and then, we just sorta started making out!" Sokka smirked. "It was awesome, well, up until Jet came out of his room and caught us in the act."

"Wait… Jet knew?!"

"Yeah, but we swore him to secrecy."

Azula wasn't sure whether or not she should be mad at him for not telling her, or if she should proud of him for keeping his friends' secret.

"Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that I recently figured out I'm bi."

"Yeah, that's probably an important detail," Azula snickered.

"Anyway, we've been hooking up ever since."

Zuko's face was bright red as he listened to Sokka recount the details.

"Okay." Azula thought for a moment. "First of all, I'm proud of you for coming out. That's a big deal! However… there are still some pretty big details I need to know."

Sokka gulped. "Why do I feel like I'm about to be grilled?"

"Because you are." Her gaze intensified. "Now tell me, do you actually have feelings for Zuko, romantic feelings, or are you just using him for… don't make me say it."

Sokka opened his mouth to answer, but Azula kept talking over him.

Zuko flashed Sokka an apologetic glance.

"You just ended things with Suki, who you clearly cared for deeply. How do I know that my brother isn't just some rebound for you?"

Sokka grimaced, letting out a small squeak. "I-I think it's cute how overprotective you are over your brother."

Azula continued to scrutinize him.

"I promise you I have the best intentions. I-I would never want to hurt your brother. The truth is…" He looked softly over at Zuko. "…while I did love Suki, I think I've also been falling for Zuko this whole time. It just didn't click because I thought I was straight. I thought we just had a close friendship, but… it was always more than that. At least, that's how I feel…"

Azula couldn't help but smile at the words.

Her brother looked equally as moved. "I think I've been falling for you this whole time too. I just… never thought you'd feel the same way about me."

A warm glow filled Sokka's cheeks.

"Okay, so… let me recap." Azula cleared her throat, turning to Sokka. "You have feelings for him." She shifted her attention to her brother. "And you have feelings for him. So does this mean you're boyfriends now…?" She grinned, fully realizing she was overstepping her boundaries, but hoping something good would come out of it.

"I would like that," Sokka spoke first.

"Me too," Zuko enthusiastically agreed.

"Yay! Boyfriends!" Azula celebrated as the two met in the middle of the room to kiss. "Spirits, that was so easy. If only all relationships could be that way…"

Sokka turned abruptly to her. "Does that comment have anything to do with Jet by any chance?" He raised his eyebrows, smirking slightly.

She sighed deeply. "Am I really that obvious?"

Jet rushed to get to the party – at his own house – as quickly as possible, showing up only forty-five minutes late. He wouldn't have thought he'd miss a lot in those forty-five minutes, but based off the expressions on everyone's faces, something big had just gone down.

"Hey guys." He shifted his eyes, scanning the group. "What's going on…?"

"Jet, the worst thing just happened!" Ty Lee whined dramatically.

"Let me guess…" Jet noticed her red badge almost immediately. "…you're out of the game."

"Some girl in my year, Zirin, totally snuck up on me as we were walking over here!"

Mai solemnly shook her head. "She came out of nowhere."

Ty Lee huffed and crossed her arms.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. That really sucks. I know how much you were looking forward to killing Hahn."

"I did kill Hahn!" Ty Lee cried, getting worked up. "Mai and I got him earlier today. I texted everyone about it, didn't you get my messages?!"

"I've been working all day! I haven't had a chance to check my phone."

"Hey, well at least you made it into the top 80, babe," Mai said in a comforting tone, rubbing her girlfriend's back.

"Wait, another 10 students have been eliminated?" Jet questioned. "Man, I really have missed a lot today… what else have I missed?"

"Oh!" Katara started bouncing with excitement. "Sokka and Zuko are officially dating!"

The housemates shared a smile.

"Well it's about time."

"This party was supposed to be about me," Azula grumbled, feigning hurt.

"This is true," Jet laughed. "Well then, how about you get first dibs on all these pastries I took from the café?" He reached around for his backpack, crossed to the kitchen counter, and started unloading all the baked goods.

"Works for me," she grinned, eyeing the desserts before grabbing a chocolate croissant. "Mmm. Dibs on the baklava too."

"Damn it," Sokka muttered.

"I'll take you out for some baklava tomorrow," Zuko smiled.

Sokka smiled back. "It's a date."

As the friends swarmed like vultures over the pastries, Jet took the opportunity to steal a glance at his phone, particularly to get his next assignment. He opened the page on his browser. Sure enough, it had been updated. Only 72 students remained. And his next target was… his stomach instantly plummeted to the floor. He nearly dropped his phone as he saw her face on his screen.

Azula.