A/N- So apparently it's Ty Laru, not Harulee. Can't decide if I like that better or not. Oh well, it's not like it matters so much. Everything comes up Teo Lee in the end, as it always must. Also, I'm beginning to think this fic may be a few chapters longer than I originally planned. We'll see. For some reason it just lends itself better to short chapters (at least at this point). And also I may have gotten just a teensy bit overwhelmed by happy founding-of-Republic-City feels from writing this chapter and want to play around with that a little.

Two weeks later...

"Um... what?"

Clearly, Teo was having a stroke. Or hallucinating. Or having some kind of inner ear problem that was making him hear things. Because there was no other explanation for the words coming out of his best friend's mouth.

He'd known Ty Lee for years, officially. He'd first met her during the week-long celebration following the coronation of Fire Lord Zuko, and they'd run into each other a time or two since, when the inevitable crises that still shook the delicate balance between the nations created a problem that required their talents. They hadn't really been friends, though. He'd known that she used to be friends with the disgraced and fragile Fire Princess, and that she was a warrior with a mysterious and unique skill set. She'd known that he was a cripple who made up for his disabilities with a glider chair and a knack for tinkering that almost rivaled his father's.

He hadn't really gotten to know her, though, until about a year and a half ago. After she left the Kyoshi Warriors and moved to the northern Earth Kingdom, she and Haru had settled, not entirely by chance, in the same village Teo had called home ever since leaving the Air Temple shortly after the war. That was when he'd first really experienced Ty Lee in all her glory.

And glorious she was. She was sweet and funny (sometimes without meaning to be) and obviously she was gorgeous. She was friendly to everybody, even Teo, who was considered something of an oddball by the other members of their little community. It was no wonder he'd fallen hard and fast for her: she was amazing.

She was also head over heels in love with Haru, which was why he was having a really hard time grasping the idea that he'd correctly heard her just now. She had dropped by for what seemed like an ordinary visit at first, and then she'd said it, without any preamble...

"I need you to pretend to be in love with me for a week," she repeated, with good-natured roll of her eyes. "For the inaugural ceremony for the new Air Nation. Weren't you listening?"

Okay. So he had heard her correctly, after all. Didn't help his confusion in the slightest.

"No, I was listening. I just don't understand."

"Really? I thought it was pretty simple, and if I think something is straightforward, it definitely is."

At any other time, Teo would have jumped on the self-deprecating comment. Years spent in the damaging company of Princess Azula had not done wonders for Ty Lee's view of herself. Teo had spent most of the time they'd been friends gently trying to push her out of the habit of presenting herself as unintelligent when both of them knew she wasn't. But right now, he was still struggling to wrap his head around her unusual request.

"I thought you would be going with Haru." He struggled to get the words out without any taint of bitterness.

It was the wrong thing to say, because Ty Lee's posture slumped and her expression became beautifully, tragically fragile. "Well... yes. I was planning on it. I thought he was planning on it, too."

"What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly concerned. Jealousy had no place in his emotions when her lower lip was quivering like that.

Abruptly, her large gray eyes filled with tears. "He left me," she confessed shakily. "Haru just... left."

Teo couldn't contain a gasp of shock. Ty Lee and Haru had been together longer than he himself had been friends with her. They had always seemed really happy together, which had been helpful in keeping a lid on his futile jealousy. At least if he couldn't be with her, she wasn't dating some jerk. Haru was a decent guy, and he made her smile. But now they were broken up?

"I'm sorry," he said, leaning forward to put a hand on her shoulder and hating himself because he didn't mean the words as much as he should.

Abruptly, she let out a strangled little sob and launched herself into his arms. To his amazement, she curled up against him and cried on his shoulder. He put his arms around her shaking shoulders and held her, despite the awkward angle as she leaned across the armrests of his chair.

She calmed quickly, but didn't pull away.

"I'm sorry," she said, still with her face turned into his body. "I don't mean to break down on you."

"No, I- it's okay. I mean, you guys were together a long time."

"I've been more mad about it than anything. It's just, you're the first person I've told, and... oh, I don't even know how to explain it!"

Teo rubbed her shoulder affectionately. "Saying it out loud made it real, huh?"

She finally looked up, and despite her red-rimmed eyes, she was beaming at him. "Exactly!"

"You wanna tell me what happened?"

She bit her lip and looked down at her lap. "A few weeks ago he just... left. He told me he's been in love with Katara all this time."

"But isn't she-"

"Crazy in love with the Avatar? Yeah. But apparently that didn't matter. He said something about 'finally time to stop lying to himself' and then he was gone."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Suddenly she looked up at him, and there was something fierce and furious in her eyes that he'd never seen before. It was somehow both terrifying and funny, because although she was genuinely angry, Ty Lee could pull off intimidating about as well as a baby koala sheep. "Teo, I need you to come with me to the colonies-"

"The United Republic."

"Oh, right. I forgot. Well, whatever it's called, I need you to come with me to the celebration and pretend to be my boyfriend. I mean, you're going anyway. So please come with me."

Teo withdrew his arm from around her shoulder.

It was true that he was headed to the capitol of the new state comprised of the former Fire Nation colonies in just under two weeks. Avatar Aang had spent quite some time constructing a new spiritual center for the fledgling Air Nation (which, to both Teo and Ty Lee's unending amusement, currently consisted of Aang and his multi-chaptered fan club, now renamed the Air Acolytes). And after months of labor on the part of the Avatar, Metalbending Master Toph, and a team of artisans of various kinds, the new Air Temple Island was finally complete. An inaugural ceremony and a week-long celebration was currently in preparation, and Aang had invited all his friends from around the world to attend.

And it was also true that the chance to spend a week with Ty Lee, just the two of them spending time together, was a very appealing prospect. Even more appealing was the prospect of being able to act like Ty Lee's boyfriend. The trouble, however, sprang up from that one little word: act. He wasn't sure if a whole week of Ty Lee doting on him the way she had on Haru, of giving him her undivided attention the way she would a real boyfriend, all the while knowing that it was all pretend, would be good for him in the slightest.

"I'm... not sure that's such a great idea," he hedged.

Her face fell. "Please, Teo?"

"Surely there's somebody else who'd be willing to help you out with this?" he suggested, feeling frantic, because he knew he could never resist those puppy dog eyes for long. "Someone, you know, taller? Someone a little more your type?" Not to mention actually in possession of the use of his legs?

She shook her head solemnly. "I could probably find someone. But I trust you more than anybody, Teo. I'm still hurting, and you're the only boy I know I can trust to do this for me and not expect stuff, see?"

Teo felt a set of very conflicting emotions. Hearing Ty Lee express her high estimation of him (even in a roundabout sort of way) made him swell with pride and feel like he could fly. But on the other hand, he felt a funny sort of shame, because he did expect "stuff." Not quite the way Ty Lee meant it, certainly, but he couldn't help it. No boy harboring secret feelings for his friend can.

"Please," she added again, sensing his conflict if not the cause of it. "I need to do this."

"Why?" Teo asked, genuinely curious. "Are you just trying to make him jealous?"

"No! Nothing like that! I... don't really know how to explain."

The look in her eyes, something desperate and needing, would not allow Teo to let it pass. "Try. Why is this so important to you?"

She thought about it for some time, fiddling with her hands in her lap and not meeting his eyes. At last, she said, "After he packed his things, he looked at me and said, 'You'll be okay, won't you?' Like he thought I would break. I don't want him to think he broke me."

"So... it's a dignity thing?"

"I guess it is."

"Well, I can understand that."

He caught the flicker of her eyes toward the slots on his chair where the glider wings could be fitted at a moment's notice.

"So will you help me?"

And despite all his misgivings, despite the very certain knowledge that this whole plan was a very bad idea, Teo couldn't turn her down. "I suppose you're not leaving me much choice," he said with a teasing roll of his eyes.

She let out a squeal of delight and threw her arms around him in an exuberant hug. "Thank you! Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she exclaimed. "Oh, you're the best!" Then she stunned him by planting a big kiss on his cheek.

Abruptly, she let him go and bounced to her feet. "Oh, I've gotta go write to Katara and let her know we're going together!" she exclaimed. "See ya later, Teo!" And just like that, she was gone again.

Teo just shook his head, marveling at how mercurial she could be. Not for the first time, he was grateful for her high-energy enthusiasm, because it meant she had missed the scarlet blush he couldn't stop from spreading across his face in the aftermath of her kiss.

A/N- Writing this chapter made me ship Teo Lee so hard it hurts. (Like I didn't before...)

Reviews are love, and I always appreciate them.