She was the one who had suggested meeting quietly the next night if he wanted to be just Zuko. Suki was exactly the friend Toph needed for that; she informed the Kyoshi Warriors, quietly, that the Firelord may be visited by a clever earthbender around midnight, and not to be alarmed.

In the morning, she'd gone out to the marketplace and found a nice chunk of gold. It was small and just impure enough to be malleable, but they still overcharged her. After dinner alone in her room, she passed the time figuring out exactly how she wanted it to look and feel.

At midnight, she earthbent her way into Zuko's room. She could feel him standing there, his pulse quickening when she stepped in and closed the wall behind her. She beckoned him closer, and he walked up without hesitation.

Damn him, he was tall. She could hear his breathing and the rustle of his clothing and realized his chest was at her eye level. She reached forward and traced the lines of his clothes over his chest; regular cotton, not Firelord finery. Good. All of that touching had his pulse racing, though.

"So we're on a date. Where do you want to go, Sparky?" she asked, returning her hands to her hips, where they damn well belonged.

"I, uh, I was planning tea in the side room. I'm pretty good at making it."

"Right, you worked in your uncle's shop during the war." She'd forgotten.

"Yeah." He led the way into the next room, pulling open a door in a decorative partition wall for her. There was a nice table in the center of the room, a pai sho set, and a full tea service. She sat opposite him, cross-legged on the floor.

"Doesn't the Fire Nation have a tea ceremony tradition?"

"Yes, but I don't know any. They've been out of fashion for at least a hundred years. I learned to make tea in your country." She could hear the hint of a smile, or smirk, or something in his voice as he portioned out the tea and heated the pot in his hands.

"Ba Sing Se is the worst city I've ever been to," she said, "but the tea was pretty good."

"Uncle says it's a lot better now. The Dai Li are gone and the Earth King is married. I hear it's peaceful."

"You haven't been?"

"No. I haven't felt safe leaving the capital without leaving strong leadership here. I'd trust Uncle to act as regent, but aside from attending the banquet, which was a surprise, he doesn't want to leave his shop or get involved."

"He's going to have to," Toph shrugged. "It's too important for him to just blow off like that. But, hey, I thought you wanted to be just Zuko tonight. We can discuss this later."

She could actually feel him relax as she said that, the hidden tension in his body draining. He reached for her cup and poured out her tea, passing it back to her carefully.

"Thanks," she murmured, cradling it in her hands. "It's cold; tea was a good choice."

There was a silence, and a strange fluctuation in his vitals. She listened intently as he spoke. "If you're cold, come sit next to me."

Intrigued, she put her teacup down and walked around the table, sitting a handspan away from him. He cupped his hands, and from the sudden heat she knew he'd created a little flame in them; she ran her hands over it, smiling at the warmth.

"Firebenders don't get cold, you know," he said. "We can warm our own bodies in cold environments."

"That's a nice perk." She toasted both sides of her left hand. The right snuck up behind him, slowly. "Is it automatic, or do you have to know where the cold is?" Abruptly, she touched the cold back of her hand to his neck.

"Toph!" he shouted.

"So you have to know," she grinned.

He made a strange, quiet sound that Toph identified, after a moment, as a weak-ass Zuko laugh. "Yes, I have to know. I can't keep myself warm when I'm asleep or unconscious."

"What about that time you burned my feet?"

"I-that was-I woke up to do that. I mean, I wasn't awake enough to know it was you, but I-I wasn't asleep."

She was already laughing. "You go from romantic to awkward so fast, Sparky. It's like you're trying to set a record. Is this how you always are with girls?"

He ran a hand through his hair, and it sailed through smoothly. He must be wearing it loose. "My previous girlfriends had nice, linear, romantic conversations with me instead of throwing me for a loop twice a minute."

"If my main ambition in life was getting laid by the Firelord, I'd probably talk like that, too."

He had the temerity to act embarrassed, picking up his tea to mask it.

"It's only my side ambition," she added.

He coughed, midswallow.

"You're the one who begged me to stay a while," she reminded him, grinning, as she felt for a napkin on the table and gave it to him. "You literally asked for this."

"Surprisingly, I don't regret it." He cleaned the spilled tea and tossed the napkin back on the table. "I hope you've decided to come to Yu Dao with me, too."

"My school is outside of Yu Dao, you know, and two of my three best students are contracted by the mayor to do police work there. I'd be going that way anyway." She put her hand on his chest, over his heart. "Why are you so uneasy about it? Your heartrate is going insane."

"Most of the Fire Nation is opposed to what I'm doing there, and the Restoration movement isn't thrilled, either. Tomorrow I'm spending all day listening to my war council complain about it." He sounded ten years older when he talked about politics.

"Aw, fuck 'em." She felt his pulse change and slid her hand up, exploring his face again. "You've spent the last few years dedicating yourself to fixing this place. You're doing well. And again, you asked to be just Zuko tonight."

"Sometimes I'm not sure if I remember who Zuko is," he said.

"Get over yourself. 'Zuko' is defined by whatever you are, no matter what it is."

"I'm sorry," he said, taking a deep breath. "I'm...not great at this."

She didn't release his face, reveling in its shape. She knew his so well, and yet his face was so foreign to her. Every moment was a revelation. "Relaxing is a skill, and you're comparing yourself to me, the grandmaster. Cut yourself some slack. What you need to do is distract your mind from running in circles all the time." Her thumb ran over his lips. They were pleasantly full, though not as full as hers.

His heart was beating in a new way. A good way, but unfamiliar.

She leaned in and kissed him. His hands slipped behind her neck, untying her headband and letting the full length of her hair tumble down her back, lifting it and letting it fall like silken rain from his fingers.

"I can come back later," said Uncle Iroh.

Toph and Zuko jerked their heads backwards. How had she missed Iroh's presence? Toph wondered. The old man wasn't exactly subtle.

But then, she'd been distracted.

"N-no," Zuko stammered. "Uncle, p-please-sit down-have-have some Jasmine tea."

Toph took a deep breath and faced the table. Iroh was shaking with suppressed laughter; she could feel it through the floor, through the table, in her very bones. If she'd been deprived of all of her senses, she was sure she would still feel Iroh's gleeful presence, somehow.

Well, at least there was no doubt that the old man approved.

Toph left a short game of pai sho later. The first date was a bust, and she knew just who to blame.

"I can't just not let Iroh in," Suki whispered. "The Firelord has a standing order to let his uncle in whenever he asks."

"Well," Toph said, irritated. "I mean, that's fair, but the fact remains that you clit-blocked me."

"Are you kidding?" Suki hissed. "Zuko is the king of cockblocks. It's not my fault that karma is catching up with every time he ruined the moment for me and Sokka or Katara and Aang because he wasn't paying attention."

"I didn't do anything to deserve this," Toph whined. But her mind was already barreling forward towards the next time she and Zuko could meet up. Normal date places wouldn't do, obviously. She'd have to think outside the box.

"We'll make it work," he'd told her. And they still would; just not in a conventional way. That was starting to become a pattern for them.