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When Zuko woke up, he was aware of only one thing: his head ached. And not just a little pounding in the temples, mind you, but a full blown roaring pain that forced all other thoughts from his fuddled mind.
The second thing that he was aware of: he was curled around something very warm, and very, very soft.
Zuko forced his eyes open, and groaned as an exceptionally bright stream of light flooded his senses. He squeezed them closed again, relishing the darkness. What on earth had been in the tea he had served the night before? It had seemed safe enough, and Katara had even complimented him on…
And then, Zuko froze. Oh, shit.
The warm being beside him moved, and Zuko swallowed convulsively as he forced his eyes open. Katara was sleeping beside him, her shoulders bare and her hair splayed out over his arm. The arm that was curled tightly around her waist, no less.
Shit. That seemed to be the only word in Zuko's vocabulary that could suitably cover the situation. He shut his eyes again, wracking his brain. He remembered making the water tribe girl tea long after everyone else had fallen asleep. He remembered how she smiled at him through her tears. And he remembered that he was sitting beside the fire, leaning closer and closer to Katara, and then… absolutely nothing. Blackness.
Zuko cursed again, and rolled over, burying his head in Katara's neck. Katara's very bare neck, he abruptly realized. What, by Agni, happened last night?
A shadow fell over the sleeping bag, and Zuko's brow knit together. "Not now, Uncle!" he demanded, his head swimming.
"You have ten seconds to explain what you're doing in my sister's sleeping bag." Zuko grimaced at the sound of the water tribe warrior's very tense, very dangerous voice. "And if you can't come up with a good excuse, I'm going to be forced to kill you."
Zuko winced. "Talk softer, peasant, you're making my headache worse," he muttered, rolling farther into the sleeping bag, desperate to ignore the blinding sun and the ear-splitting voice of the water tribe boy.
"That's it!" Sokka exclaimed, and lunged towards Zuko, only to be stopped by a rock wall thrust upwards by Toph. The blind girl cackled, and Zuko pulled the blankets over his head to block out the sound of the warrior's outraged screams.
And he decided one thing: morning afters definitely were not fun.