Grr...If this keeps up, then you guys have permission to throw virtual "UPDATE! UPDATE!" messages tied to pillows at me. (Won't hurt, but it will get annoying.)

Katara woke up. When she felt the weight of a blanket on her body, she knew that last night had not been a dream. Zuko had given her a blanket when she was shivering. That was something you didn't expect to see every day. Or be at the receiving end of.

Katara looked around, snickering when she saw Sokka and Suki. The spot her little nest was had the best view of the entire cave. She could see Aang, Toph's tent, Iroh…and Zuko.

Said Firebender was sleeping where he had sat down last night, on the other side of the burned out fire. He rested against the pile of rocks Aang and Toph had made with Earthbending, setting his head on his chest. Katara giggled softly when she heard a slight snore coming from the Fire Prince.

"Sinuses," she whispered.

Katara waited for someone else to wake up. Finally, Toph's tent collapsed back into the ground.

"Morning, Toph."

"Whatever." She paused. "Is that Scarface?" Katara giggled in response. "Sounds like Snoozles when he's not sleeping with Suki."

"You know, Suki is the only one you haven't given a nickname to," Katara pointed out. Toph held up a finger.

"Actually, she's Sokka's Fan Girl, both because she uses fans and because she's madly in love with the loser."

Katara laughed. "This coming from the girl who has a crush on my brother!"

"Hey, I had a crush on him, but then he and Suki started making out and it just went pfft." Toph stuck her tongue out for emphasis. "That can seriously ruin it."

"What can seriously ruin what?" Aang's groggy little voice piped up from Appa. Momo mewed.

"Seeing or hearing your crush kiss someone else," Katara replied. "It can ruin your crush."

"Yeah, that would do it." Aang got up, Appa fur stuck all to his face where he had drooled. Katara giggled. Aang blushed and wiped it off. "What's for breakfast?"

"Ask someone else to cook. I plan on taking full advantage of my injury and play Sokka," Katara said, getting comfortable.

"Meaning...?"

"Meaning I'm going to be very lazy for awhile, especially since my mini-vacation went up the creek," explained the Waterbender. "Besides, you've practically got Waterbending down. You can spend this time learning Firebending and working on Earthbending. And maybe you can learn other useful skills, like cooking and cleaning and laundry." Katara said that word slowly, trying to get a point across.

"I get it, I get it. I thought it was bad enough that I had to learn all four elements before that stupid eclipse; now I'm learning domestic skills!" Katara and Toph broke out into uproarious laughter.

"Breath in, out. In, out." Aang nodded and repeated what Iroh had told him to repeat for the tenth time.

Zuko was sitting nearby, listening to his uncle repeat the age-old mantra. He (Zuko) knew that he had been known to mutter that in his sleep. He watched the young Avatar as he went through the pre-warm up stages Zuko loathed with a passion that rivaled Sokka's when food was around. How could Aang go through those stages so eagerly?

The new girl's voice distracted him. "Hey, Zuko, could you hand me my fans?" The young Firebender nodded and tossed the surprisingly dangerous fans to the Earth girl. "Thanks. I'm going to see if a smith somewhere can make copies of these so I can give a set to Aang."

"Fans?" Zuko couldn't hide his slight snort of disbelief. "I never understood those fans."

Suki stood with her hands on her hips. "These fans were first used by Avatar Kyoshi, the largest Avatar yet."

"I'll say! Her boots could fit Appa!" Aang called.

"She wasn't that big, Aang. Anyway, all the warriors on Kyoshi Islands, all girls, use the fans. They're actually quite deadly. And if they don't work, we have our swords," Suki explained. "And do you want a haircut?"

Zuko looked at her as if she had grown three heads. "What?"

"Your hair is shaggier than Appa's fur and Momo's combined, and it's bugging me. I can give you a haircut; at least neaten you up a bit."

Zuko was rendered speechless by Suki's proposal. He knew he needed a haircut if he wasn't to tie his hair back into a topknot again, but the thought of letting someone professionally (he hoped) cut his hair just made him nervous.

"At least let me trim it so you can tie it back in something similar to Sokka's…whatever he has." Suki looked down at the slumbering warrior. "Or let me give you a comb!"

"Someone has obsessive neatness," Toph muttered. She reached into her bag and pulled out a comb. "There. Scarface, I have a funny feeling that Fan Girl over here won't shut up until you do something about your hair. Do us all a favor and fix it." Zuko took the comb and, rolling his eyes, he began to attempt to tame his now-wild hair.

Where's some oil when you need it? Before…all this, it wasn't so hard to fix, he thought resentfully. Surprisingly, with a little work, his hair went back to a neatened state. Katara gave him one of Sokka's hair ties (her brother was the only guy she knew that spent more money on hair stuff than a girl) and Zuko tied his hair back, a knot at the base of his neck rather than on top of his head. When he was done, Katara thought he was very good looking. Not that she'd admit it to anyone except herself and maybe Momo.

"There. Now I won't be bugging you to fix it!" Iroh called from his position, helping Aang get into the right position to feel the sun. "He wouldn't even let the barbers at Ba Sing Se fix his hair."

Zuko glared at his uncle. There were times he wished his uncle had lost his voice during the influenza outbreak when Zuko was ten. He had come so close…

"Hey, who's the new guy?" Sokka's groggy voice came from his sleeping bag. "And where's Zuko?" Katara and Suki laughed.

"Sokka, that is Zuko. Suki asked him to fix his hair," Katara said.

"I hate messes. They drive me nuts. The girls were always teasing me for it back home," sighed the warrior. "They'd purposely leave a mess when they were done training and we had nothing to do."

Sokka nodded. "Reminds me of Katara and her superstitions."

"That's perfectly normal!"

"Yeah, as long as they don't take it overboard!" Sokka pointed out.

"I do not!"

"Sis, every time you spill salt, you pinch it and throw it over your right shoulder. Every time! Do you know how often I get an eyeful of salt?" Katara rolled her eyes.

"So I'm superstitious! So is about half the world. Have you ever seen a town where people breathe when passing a graveyard?" Katara asked. "I've counted. Every town does something superstitious, especially Aunt Wu's."

Sokka groaned. "Let's not get into that again, Katara."

The Water Tribe siblings spent a good hour arguing about that topic, providing entertainment to everyone when Aang had finished his training.