kyoshi hold 'em
(part six: mistakes and consequences)
Katara had made a mistake. A very big, very huge, very terrible mistake, the repercussions of which she would probably be dealing with for a very, very long time.
She had, in a fit of mischievousness, dumped her entire bucket of soapy water on Zuko.
In her defense, he was being such a grouch to everyone about everything, and without Toph there to lighten his mood (and with Ty Lee too afraid of his wrath to do or say anything about it), and with Sokka overly preoccupied with trying to escape, it had fallen to her to make the Fire Lord stop being such a grumpy-pants.
On the one hand, it did work - Zuko had glared daggers at her and tossed a sponge at her face (and missed), nearly kick-starting a full-fledged Cleaning Supplies War (only stopped when Aang shuffled purposefully between them, wide-eyed and mopping pointedly), but he'd stopped growling at everything, if only to plot his revenge against her. The mistake was not that she had caused Zuko to plot revenge, however.
The mistake was that now Zuko was dripping wet and soapy and she couldn't focus on anything but that fact.
At least she wasn't the only one - Ty Lee and Suki were both openly staring, especially when he got frustrated and started tugging at his shirt like he was considering just taking it off (all three of them found themselves suddenly very interested in helping him clean his area), and a vein in Mai's forehead was beginning to twitch, as though she really wanted to attack them but knew she no longer had the right. Sokka had also taken notice of what the girls had taken notice of, Suki in particular.
"Oh, come on!" he huffed, "It's not that interesting. He's just soaked. What could you possibly find attractive about Zuko looking like a drowned rat?" Ty Lee leaned close to Sokka conspiratorially and whispered something to him, which caused his face to turn an odd shade of green. "You pervert!" he spluttered, as Ty Lee shrugged and went back to mopping, "his pants aren't that tight!"
Unfortunately, this drew Zuko's attention, and he looked down in horror, apparently just realizing what was going on around him. He shot Katara a venomous glare, and she began to whistle a tune, hiding her blush behind her hair and trying not to laugh. Then, to everyone's (except Sokka's and Mai's) dismay, he loudly announced that he was going to go change, and left.
Ty Lee groaned, "Thanks, Sokka. Now I have to follow him."
"Why do you have to follow him?" Aang asked curiously. Suki snickered.
"Why do you think, Aang?" she answered for Ty Lee. "So she can see him wet, soapy, and naked."
This was all Sokka could take. "You've gotta be kidding me! Zuko is not that hot! I'm hotter than Zuko!" Ty Lee was suddenly hit with a vicious coughing fit, Katara laughed outright, but Suki inspected him critically.
"I don't know... Zuko's got a really nice body..."
Sokka gaped at the girls like a fish, and then a look of angry determination came over his face, and he snatched Aang's mop-bucket ("Hey!") and dumped it over his own head, flipping his hat as though it were hair and striking what he must have thought was a sexy pose. "See? I'm much hotter than Zuko!"
"How about we call it even?" Suki suggested (Katara had a sneaking suspicion that she had been manipulating her boyfriend into doing just this).
"Yeah, Sokka, let's call it even," Katara said, trying her level best not to collapse into either hysterics or vomiting at Sokka's posing. Ty Lee, on the other hand, wasn't even looking at Sokka.
She was gaping at Mai. "Are you..." she began, drawing the attention of everyone, "Are you ogling Sokka?"
Mai turned a color of red that Katara never would have expected, and opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Instead of a response, she threw her sponge at Ty Lee and rushed out of the room with as much dignity as she could muster, chased out by Suki's hysterical laughter and Ty Lee's insistence that it was totally okay to be a normal, red-blooded female.
"Great," Aang muttered darkly, "now we're out two cleaners and Sokka used all of my mop water."
"We're only out one cleaner," Katara said breezily. "Zuko will be back once he's changed. And you know, you can just waterbend yourself some more water, right? Or just get the water off Sokka."
"No," Suki whined, "Sokka's so entertaining when he's soapy and wet."
"Not to me," Katara grumbled.
"You're just mad that Zuko left," Ty Lee replied, a hint of something in her tone. Katara eyed her warily.
"Am not."
"Oh, please. I saw you staring. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Katara..." Sokka started, in a dangerous tone.
"Oh, will you look at that!" Katara said, all in a rush, "We're running really low on soap. I'll go get some more!" With that, she rushed from the room, sympathizing suddenly with the position Mai had been in minutes prior.
She ran into the girl in question in the hallway outside the dining area, apparently locked in a vehement argument with Jet.
"You're not allowed in the dining area," Mai hissed, arms crossed over her chest.
"Why the hell not?" Jet asked loudly, "I just want to get some dessert for the Duke! He missed out because someone thought it would be funny to throw his pie."
"Don't blame me," Mai replied coldly, "and you're not allowed in there. Both Katara and the Matriarch of the Southern Tribe said you can't go in."
"Gran-Gran said he couldn't go in there?" Katara asked, trying to remember if she had heard anything of the sort. Mai shot her a glare, and she suddenly caught on. "Oh... Yeah, she did, didn't she?" Unfortunately, Jet had also caught on.
"Stop lying, and let me in."
"No," Mai said firmly. Katara was about to offer a compromise, such as Jet staying here while either she or Mai went to get the Duke some pie, but then she realized that both she and Mai had left the dining area for very good reasons.
"Sorry, Jet. But you can't go in."
"Can you at least tell me why the -" here he cursed so strongly that Katara took a step back, "I can't go in there?"
"Because..." she cast around for an excuse, but Mai beat her to the punch.
"Because we're cleaning up the mess you and your crew made, and we don't need you in there to make things worse," she cast a sidelong glance at Katara, "Any worse than it already is, that is." Katara blushed. Jet, on the other hand, looked mildly interested.
"And you went through the trouble of posting a guard to keep me out?"
"No," Katara said, "that was just freak coincidence. Oh! That reminds me, I need to get soap."
"We already need more soap?" Mai asked, turning to her suddenly. Katara's blush deepened, and she began to wonder if it might not be a good idea to fake a deathly illness to get out of the rest of cleaning duty.
"Well, no, but... Um. I was going to get some... to, uh, make sure we didn't run out!" She explained hurriedly, wincing at her own complete inability to lie with any sort of grace. Mai nodded, raising an eyebrow and looking utterly unconvinced, but she stepped aside and allowed Katara to pass. Jet, however, was not so kind.
"Riiiiiight," he drawled, holding his hand out to stop her. "What are you really doing?"
"She's probably going to spy on Zuko changing," Mai said, a hint of amusement in her voice.
It was about at this point that she began wishing for the earth to open up and swallow her whole, or maybe for the South Pole's indigenous seal population to suddenly stage a coup against them, or possibly for a freak accident to suddenly strike Jet and Mai dead.
"Oh, really?" Jet said, drawing out the syllables and leaning forward like a predator catching scent of his prey. "Spying on Zuko changing, huh? Veeeery interesting," he said thoughtfully, tapping his finger on his chin.
"I wasn't - It's not like - You've got the wrong idea! That wasn't what I - Stop laughing!"
Ty Lee chose that moment to walk into the hallway. Katara lit up in excitement, but her relief was short-lived. Both Mai and Jet let Ty Lee pass with only a short "Oh, hey Mai, hey Jet." "Hey, Ty Lee."
"What!" Katara shrieked desperately, "Why did you let her just walk on by! She probably is going to spy on Zuko changing!"
"Probably," Jet said matter-of-factly, and then grinned, "but she wouldn't freak out about it and deny it, like some people I might name."
Where were world-ending cataclysms when you needed them?
"So," Toph said, startling Zuko, who whipped around in horror before relaxing when he saw who had intruded.
"Don't do that," he grumbled, "you do realize I'm half-naked?"
"Nope, not really," she replied, grinning, "anyway, how'd ya get soaked?"
"Katara," he said, and didn't elaborate.
"Oh, really?" she asked in deeply interested tone. "And why did she soak you?" She sniffed at the air suddenly, "And why with soap?"
"We were cleaning the dining area. I guess she started channeling you."
"Nah," Toph replied, hopping onto Zuko's bed, sitting directly on his shirt and pants. He nudged her shoulder pointedly, but she refused to budge, so he started rummaging through his clothes, apparently too tired to bother arguing. "If she started channeling me, she would have frozen the water after she dunked you with it."
"You can't freeze water."
She waved off his argument, "It's the principle of the thing."
He rolled his eyes. "There a reason you're here?"
"I heard arguing in the dining area, something about you being all sexy and soaked," He groaned and blushed. Toph grinned, "so I figured I would do you a huge, massive favor and keep anyone from, you know, spying on you. Like Ty Lee, for instance." There was a gasp from outside the door, and the sound of footsteps hurriedly running away. Zuko smacked his forehead angrily. Toph laughed, "I just guessed on that one! I am awesome!"
"No, you just know Ty Lee," he corrected, before she could get too much into self-praise, and pulled a pair of conspicuously loose pants on. "So what do you want in return for this huge, massive favor?"
"Um," she started, twisting uncharacteristically with her hair. He peered at her concernedly.
"What is it? You can tell me."
She took a deep breath, and plunged on quickly, "How well do you know Jet?"
He raised an eyebrow, both surprised and slightly horrified. "Why do you ask?"
She coughed, and blushed. "No reason."
"You're not thinking of taking him up on his offer, are you?"
"No..." she said thoughtfully, still twirling a lock of her hair. "Just... curious."
"Curious?" he replied, teasing her lightly, "Well, I don't know him that well. He's not exactly a good guy," he warned, shooting her a pointed look.
"Well, now that Fan-Girl's got Sokka all to herself, I need a new, older guy to, you know, um..." she suddenly seemed to realize that she had said a little too much, and groaned.
"Does Toph have a crush?" he asked unnecessarily, poking her in the forehead. She frowned and rubbed her head.
"No." He snorted. "I mean... not really. It's just..." she sighed. "Nevermind."
"No, no, no," Zuko said suddenly, catching her by the arm. "I didn't mean like that. You want me to find out if he likes you?"
She shuffled her feet, clearly wishing she was on solid ground rather than ice, and mumbled something vaguely affirmative. It was a bit unnerving, watching Toph act like such a... girl.
"I'll... do what I can," he said uncertainly. "If you're sure."
"Yeah, I guess," she said. Zuko examined her face, watching for her to let on that it had all been a joke at his expense, but she didn't seem to be letting up any time soon. Or, perhaps, she wasn't joking. It was unsettling thought. "But you can't tell anyone!" she added hurriedly, a look of great alarm crossing over her face.
"Who do you think I am?" he asked, affecting an indignant tone.
"Zuko, come on," she whined, and he realized, with horror, that she wasn't joking or messing with his head. She actually did have a crush on Jet!
"You know I won't tell anyone, Toph," he assured her, "Your secret's safe with me."
"And you'd better not make it... obvious, when you ask him about me!"
"Oh, I would never," he teased, "I'll just ask him what he would do if a young, beautiful, blind... waterbender had developed feelings for him..."
"Sparky!" she shouted, and Zuko laughed.
"Don't worry, Toph. I won't tell."
"Promise," she insisted, pouting. He placed a hand over his heart.
"I promise," he said. She tilted her head, and then rushed forward and hugged him tight around the middle.
"Thanks, Sparky," she said, her voice muffled in his chest. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and patted her on the head.
"You're welcome," he told her sincerely, then stepped back. "Now, can I put on a shirt?"
Toph giggled. "Sure thing. I'll stand guard."
When Zuko returned (with Toph, who insisted that she not be left out of the fun), she found Jet and Mai frozen to opposite walls of the hallway leading down to the dining area, both glaring at the other with vitriol.
"This is your fault," Jet sneered. Mai scoffed.
"You're the one who thought it would be funny to tease her!"
"You're the one who started this!"
"What happened here?" Zuko asked, but had a feeling that he already knew the answer.
"Katara," both Jet and Mai answered, and then returned to their glaring and arguing.
"All right, all right," he interrupted, ignoring Toph's incessant snickering behind him, and went over to thaw Mai out of the ice.
"What about me?" Jet shouted petulantly.
"I'll get to you, just be patient!"
Toph shook her head and went over to begin chipping Jet out of the ice. "Thanks, Toph," he said pointedly, "you're such a good friend." Both Mai and Zuko sneered at him, and Toph ducked her head to hide her blush.
Mai was freed first, and she stalked off with a short "Thank you, Zuko," in the opposite direction as the dining area. Zuko started to ask, but then seemed to think the better of it, and turned to melt Jet out of the ice.
"So," Toph began, rocking back and forth on her feet, "how'd you tick off Sweetness so bad?"
"Just teasing her like always. Apparently," he said, giving Zuko an odd look, "she took it a little too seriously."
Zuko rolled his eyes, "You really shouldn't make fun of her. Next time, I'm not getting you out."
"That's okay," Jet replied, clapping a hand on Toph's shoulder, "'cause my friend Toph here will. She's much better than all the rest of you, anyway."
Toph smirked and stuck her tongue out at Zuko, who winced internally. The thought of what Jet might do if he knew that Toph had a crush on him. Best-case scenario was that he would be uncomfortable and push her away, hurting her feelings. Worst-case scenario...
What if Jet felt the same way? The thought made his skin crawl, although he wasn't entirely sure why. He just didn't think that Jet would quite be good for Toph.
Is this what Sokka felt when Jet was all over Katara? he wondered. Like he would punch the other boy in the face if he so much as thought about touching, or - Agni forbid - hurt her? He couldn't remember ever feeling this way about Azula or any of the boys who had chased her, but then again, he had always been more concerned about the boys in that situation, rather than Azula's feelings.
"So," Toph said, looking worryingly comfortable under Jet's arm, "about this clean-up-the-dining-room thing?"
"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Jet said cheerfully, retracting his arm. Zuko sighed, knowing that he was about to regret this.
"All right, come on."
Jet grinned.