Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

Author's Note: Someone wanted Zuko/Jin, someone wanted Zuko/Song, so I decided to combine them. Therefore, this is the…

Tale of avatarkataang and Egglette

Zuko brought Jin her free cup of tea the day after their dinner date. He didn't have any idea what to say to her, so he simply placed the cup on her table and began to turn. She tugged at his sleeve, keeping him there.

"Li, about last night," she began, a confused and worried expression in her brown eyes. "I'm sorry if I offended you. Maybe I was a little too forward…"

"It's not that," he said quickly, not wanting her to go on. Her kissing him had been rather unexpected, but it wasn't necessarily bad. In fact, he still didn't really know how to feel about it. "I just need some time to think about…things."

"Oh. Okay." She let him leave, now. Zuko wanted to tell her he was sorry for running out on her like that, but some remnant of his royal pride prevented him. He went back to the counter, where Uncle Iroh had been watching the exchange.

"So?" Iroh queried. "Will you two be going out again?"

"I don't know," Zuko answered shortly.

"You said it was nice."

"It was."

"But?" Iroh prompted. Zuko looked around quickly, saw that no one seemed to need anything for the moment, and gestured his uncle to follow him into the back.

"Mom told me to never forget who I am," Zuko began in a whisper. "Isn't that what I'm doing if I become friends with someone who can never know the real me? If I form attachments here, does it mean that I'm giving up on ever going home again, resigning myself to living a lie for the rest of my life?"

Iroh mulled this over for a while without saying anything. Zuko realized that he had presented a lot of questions, so the pause was understandable, but he eventually began to grow impatient. He peeked out the door into the main room of the tea house, noting that everything remained calm.

"Not necessarily," Iroh spoke at last. "It could simply mean that you are finally deciding to live, accepting your present circumstances."

"There's something else, too," Zuko said, nodding a little as he tried to accept this answer. "She kissed me."

"Yes? And?"

"I kissed her back, a little, but I stopped. I realized there was someone else I'd like to be doing that with."

"What? Who?"

Now it was Zuko's turn to pause for a moment, as his mind's eye filled with large, brown eyes and a pleasant smile.

"Song," he replied simply, closing his own eyes. He tightened his left hand into a fist, remembering the one time he had touched her, even though it was only to push her hand away. He was beginning to wish he hadn't stopped her.

"She was very nice, too," Iroh agreed. "And her mother was a charming woman and an excellent cook."

"I can't ever go back, though, can I?" He heard the plaintive note in his voice, and he hated it. Certainly, he had closed that door when he had stolen from her. Even now, he wasn't completely sure why he had done it.

"Hard to say," his uncle answered him honestly. "A lot could still happen in the next few months." Suddenly, their employer called to them, and they returned to work. It occurred to Zuko that perhaps it was time he learned to take life's moments as they came to him. With this in mind, he stopped Jin as she was leaving.

"I hope we can see each other again," he told her. She looked at him in surprise before a happy smile bloomed on her face.

"Of course," she said shyly. "I'll be back tomorrow."

Author's note: So, that pretty much leaves it open to interpretation. I think this is the last of this collection, but I'll leave it open just in case. Since I don't have much time to write these days, I've been thinking of uploading some of the Harry Potter fics I have on another site. I was wondering if my readers would be interested? As with Avatar, I tend to follow canon ships: Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. If I decide to put them here, I don't want those of you who have me on Author Alert to be too surprised or disappointed to see it's not new Avatar stuff.

Member of the Boomeraang Squad: charleegirl, Jesus.Lives, Liselle129

Review responses: In addition to those already mentioned, thank you to Coeus, Rose Kiwi, Ari-Griffin, Sifu-KataraRose, Kairuthefrog, kataangfan22, Artemis Rae, Dakyu, Tech-Man, GodricGirl, TTAvatarfan, pokey, charleegirl, frozenheat, MormonMaiden, SnakeEyes16, pinguinolatino, and kataang93. Wow, there are a lot of you!

Aangsfan: I wasn't trying to say that he was stupid, merely innocent. I happen to like him that way.

Jesus.Lives: I was assuming they had talked about it, but I actually think he'd be elated either way. I'm drawing that from the Avatar pilot. There's a scene where Kaia (Katara) denies to Sokka that Aang is her boyfriend, and Aang looks rather downcast and disappointed. So, even though they obviously hadn't discussed it, he clearly would have been happy if she'd acknowledged him as her boyfriend.