2. Luminous

"Now, I'm going to assign all of you a very special assignment!" Bumi cackled, as he strolled down the aisles and handed out bright pink pieces of paper.

"Isn't that a bit redundant?" Sokka whispered to Zuko, paper held up in front of his face so no one could see what he was saying. Zuko snickered, but Katara's steely blue eyes pierced both of them, and she hissed, "Shhh..."

"It will be due in two weeks!" their English teacher proudly proclaimed. "Now, as it says right there, I will order you to come up and randomly select an adjective out of this bowl! Then describe something, someONE, using it!" He brandished said bowl with a flourish, and the class laughed, some pulling out phones to take pictures. It was sculpted exactly like a jackrabbit, but dressed in an absurd green headdress with large antlers and flowing, deep purple robe with golden tassels and scallops. It was "Earthbending" a bowl, something he had covered in the "Mythology" section last month.

"This will be a partnership project, so...you will be writing about your partner!" This was met with either loud groans or happy grins, swooping around the classroom to find their chosen preference. Zuko sighed, but let his eyes flicker to the girl who was sitting diagonally across from him.

"BUT—" Bumi swooped his arms, and Zuko feared that the...extravagant jar might break and shatter. He highly suspected Bumi would dramatize it like those terrible Ember Island Players—

"We will be picking out partners a different way!"

Now the class was staring at Bumi with dumbfounded looks. Katara looked around and raised her hand. "What do you mean by that, Mr. Bumi? Are we...picking names out of a hat or something?"

"Not something as ordinary as that—ha! A rhyme!" Bumi cackled. Sokka looked over at Zuko and raised his eyebrows. Zuko rolled his eyes in response. This time, Katara joined in with a skeptical scrunch of her nose that made Zuko feel something soften in his chest.

"Everyone, stand up!"

"Mr. Bumi, what—?" Haru began to ask, still in his seat. The other students were looking around to see if anyone else was standing, and some were slowly beginning to rise once well-trained or startled students jumped up.

"This will be fun—stand up!" This time, everyone did so, Zuko grumbling reluctantly. What was going on now?

"Now! Close your eyes, spin right around twice, then hop to your right, mimic a rabaroo, spin left five times, crouch and roll, and point!"

"But, what no one points at the same time to the same person?" Suki inquired. She didn't bother raising her hand; Bumi didn't care.

"I'll figure that out! Now, get into position!"

"What's a rabaroo?" Sokka whispered to Zuko, who managed to shrug violently before Bumi blew his whistle (causing almost everyone to shriek) and yelled, "Begin!"

Zuko immediately forgot the third step and just pointed in a random direction after nearly falling over on his rear and scowling furiously in the direction of Bumi's cheering. He heard a chair fall over with a loud crash, someone swear (Jet), apologies for bumping into someone, thumpings of people jumping, hesitant mimicry of what was thought to be a rabaroo, groans of dizziness, and shouts of laughter and confusion.

"Open your eyes, everyone!" Another blow of the whistle. Zuko used to wonder why no teacher came to inquire what was going on or ask Bumi to stop surely disturbing other classes, but like him, they probably had given up.

He was facing Katara, who looked flustered, probably because of the stupid exercise. Bumi was now shoving people together on account of their shirt colors, their same feet position, their favorite smells, or just at random. Zuko shook his head and heard a giggle from Katara.

"YOU TWO! Get together!" Katara yelped as she was thrust into Zuko's chest. He automatically caught her, then quickly tried to think of his uncle in the hot springs, lost puppies, Zhao and his sister together, and a bunch of heinous crimes. This helped.

"Now..." Bumi waggled his eyebrows. "Let's pick an adjective!"

"This is a really stupid project."

"I think it's nice." Katara tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as the sun faded, painting orange against her cheekbones. He quickly looked at his shoes, neatly crossed in the grass. "It's very creative. What did you get?"

Zuko sighed. "We're not supposed to tell about our adverbs."

"Adjectives, Zuko." Katara corrected, then scribbled down something in her notebook paper. He tried to peek at it, but she lightly smacked him on the wrist like a disobedient child.

"Whatever. It's a really weird one, anyway." He looked down at the little slip taped to his binder and scowled.

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Katara smiled at him, patting his arm. He felt a nice, swooping sensation in his chest, then coughed awkwardly.

"Well, let's go. We have Sokka's concert thing to go to in fifteen minutes."

"Ooh, right, I nearly forgot!" She shut her notebook with a snap. "Let's go, Zuko. I'll drive."

"This is Sokka; it rhymes with okka—and we're going to play you a little song. Thanks for coming to our Why the Hell Not? Party! I'm Sokka, again, and this is Jet and Toph. We've kept you long with this exposition, so let's get started."

"AND a ONE! A TWO! A ONE TWO THREE FOUR!" Sokka shouted and began drumming. He was actually quite good, setting up a fast pace for everyone on the makeshift dance floor, which doubled as his backyard. Toph was excellent on the keyboard—she loved parodying the "prissy" piano her parents made her play by hammering out the most "disgusting" songs on that electric thing, and Jet was a good electric guitar player and a nice singer, though Sokka wrote the songs, which Zuko thought weren't as nice as the music, but he always told Sokka that they were great, so that was his own fault.

"...For my love is like a BOOMERANG...!"

Katara came to stand beside him, with an amused look and two drinks in her hands. "Sokka loves boomerangs." She held out of the cans for him to take, and he accepted it with a shy duck of his head, trying not to flush when their fingers touched.

"Your brother is weird." Zuko replied casually. She laughed, bell-like and easily heard despite the racket going up on stage. Her hair blew in the night breeze, and Zuko didn't realize he was staring until Jet bellowed his loudest lyric: "...I will always come back to YOUUUUUUUUU!" and all of them smashed or twanged their respective interments in the final climax. Katara was wincing, but still clapped for her brother onstage as best she could with the drink in her hand.

"That was awful. I might spend the night cleaning blood out of my ears."

"What a morbid idea, Zuko!" she teased, leaning against him. Suddenly, she stiffened when she realized what she was doing.

"Um," she said.

Zuko stared back. Stepped closer. Felt her breath brush his face. Looked into her deep blue eyes. Heard Toph starting a softer tune on the keyboard, which was unusual for her.

"I—"

"My adjective for you was wonderful," she blurted out.

He flushed. "Er—" Well, he didn't have a response to that.

"And..." Her cheeks matched his, but she kept on going in a hurried tone. "I already knew you were wonderful. A good person. But...to me, it lately...it meant something more."

She was stepping closer.

Oh boy. Zuko gulped, tried to control his breathing so he wasn't panting like a nervous bulldog.

"I like you, Zuko. You're wonderful."

She kissed him.

Wow.

The moonlight danced off Katara's eyes before she closed them quickly. That was pretty—very...lum—wait a minute. Was he supposed to close his eyes? Was this a cue? He noticed she had set her soda can down. When had she done that? Should he? How? Should he throw it and hope for the best? Drop it? It would be sort of awkward trying to embrace her like this—

Why was he thinking like this? Did everyone think during kissing—

He was kissing Katara. He liked Katara! Focus on the kiss before it ends!

How long is a ki—

Shut up and enjoy it.

Before Katara pulled away, he managed to respond, pretty sure that he had stood there like a paralyzed idiot for the good part of the first few seconds. Her lips were soft and tasted like 7-Up and cherry lip gloss, and her hair brushed his cheek when he moved in closer. Her small hands gripped his shoulders; he clung rather shell-shocked with one hand to her curvy waist. Her eyes were still closed.

He noticed the moon behind her, how full it was, how gleamed like a lantern on her mocha skin and caramel hair, dancing off her sapphire eyes as she slowly opened them—

"Luminous," Zuko gaped softly.

Katara pulled back slightly, a quizzical look on her face, scrunching her nose in that adorable way. "What?"

He just smiled and pulled her closer as the band started playing a new songs, blessedly without any words. "Just describing you." Katara smiled and buried her face in his shoulder, Zuko finally putting down his soda can on a nearby table when they passed by it, and he smiled. As he began to compose some lines of this night in his head, a summary of the events preceding the kiss flashed through his mind. He then mentaly groaned and made his observation: "You know, I swear Bumi planned all of this."

Katara's eyes widened before she stepped away from him. She poked him in the chest. "Listen, mister, if you're going to be my boyfriend (Zuko's chest expanded), never speak of that mad man on our dates. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he smirked, and they commenced dancing under the silver moon and stars for the majority of the night.

And yes, Bumi DID plan it all. He is truly a mad genius.