"Don't you get it, Suki? My entire world is unraveling before my eyes. I mean, I suppose there's a chance that Zuko wasn't horribly offended by what I did, and he just needs some alone time-but if that was true, why has he been hanging with you instead of me? He hates me now, he's never going to be my boyfriend, and he's going to murder me in my sleep-"

"Uh-huh," Suki muttered. The trio had just been hanging out and chatting in the dorm, and the second Zuko left for the library, she was ambushed by a frazzled Sokka ranting about his recent drama. No one asked her about how she felt about the Yue fiasco, despite Zuko's promises to do just that.

Sokka put his hands on his hips and frowned at her. "Are you even listening to me?"

Suki readjusted her position on the couch and pulled out her phone. "To be honest with you? No, not really."

His jaw dropped open. "Wow, Suki, rude."

"Look, I just don't have time for this drama right now. Go tell someone who cares." She continued to stare at her phone and waved her hand for Sokka to leave.

He huffed and started to march off towards his room, when the door suddenly slammed open. Katara walked in, grinning. "Who's ready for sibling bonding?"

Sokka sputtered, having difficulty forming coherent sentences. "Wha-who-how did you get a key to the dorm?"

Katara smiled innocently. "Zuko gave it to me. Apparently he made another one using a 3d printer and gave it to me so we wouldn't have to spend all of our time in the hotel room."

Sokka cursed. "That sweet, angelic idiot."

Back on the couch, Suki called, "Dang, he gave you one too? I kinda don't feel special anymore."

Katara put down her purse and walked over to the living area. "Hey, Suki! How have you been?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know, I'm doing fine. Just listening to do this one ranting on about drama I don't care about. Please get him out of here."

"Wha-!" he protested.

"That's exactly why I'm here!" Katara winked at her. She started pulling Sokka's arm towards the door. "Come on, get your shoes on, we're going shopping downtown."

Sokka abruptly stopped his protesting. "Shopping?" His eyes lit up.

His sister flashed him a dazzling smile. "Yup. I heard there's a collector's edition pai'sho set available for a limited edition at the game store."

He quickly got his shoes on. "Well, okay. Just for the afternoon, I guess."

As they left, Suki let out a sigh of relief from the quiet. She wasn't sure how much more she could take of Sokka's prattling. She continued to scroll through social media, when suddenly a notification dinged. She frowned, checking her text messages, and froze.

Yue: Can we talk?

...

Sokka buckled into the passenger seat, frowning as Katara slipped in front of the steering wheel. "It's my car; why are you driving?

She scoffed. "You're almost as bad a driver as Aang, and I don't feel like vomiting into a paper bag today." Then engine started up, and they slowly drove out of the parking lot and onto the road.

"So," Katara said, "besides the pai'sho set, was there anything you needed?"

"Yeah, actually. It's Zuko's birthday next week, and I need to buy him a gift," he replied, staring out the window.

"That shouldn't be too hard. What kind of things does he like?"

"He likes books, tea, and spicy food."

Katara looked at him incredulously. "You've known this guy for 4 months now and that's all you know about him?"

He flushed a deep shade of red. "Well...he doesn't talk much, and I guess I didn't want to pry..."

"But these are simple things that I'm sure he wouldn't be offended by. In fact, I bet he'd be happy you're taking an interest to connect to him."

Sokka thought about that. She did have a point, and he didn't have to get too personal. Zuko might not even be mad at him anymore. "Yeah, you're right."

She laughed. "Of course I am. I'm always right."

...

Their first stop was the pai'sho store. Sokka ogled at the collector's pai'sho board, with its glossy exterior and detailed designs. It was, however, seventy dollars, and Sokka wasn't exactly high on cash, so Katara pulled him away from it and they got street tacos a few blocks away.

"Where should we head to get Zuko's present?" she asked, wiping her mouth elegantly.

"Hmmm..." He paused, licking the sauce off of his fingers. "Maybe we could hit up the antique store! He seems like the kind of guy who would like that."

"I suppose it's worth a shot. Hey, can you pay? I'm already paying for the parking meter."

Sokka sighed.

On the walk over to the antique store, Katara suddenly lit up with a dubious grin on her face. "So, Sokka, have you met any new girls lately?" she asked innocently.

His heart froze.

Sokka hadn't been completely honest with his sister about who he liked. He liked girls, and she knew that, but she didn't know that he liked boys as well. For some reason, he thought it would be weird if he told her. He was perfectly fine about confessing to his crushes on female celebrities, but he didn't tell her about the time he saw his hot neighbor jogging with his shirt off and he almost choked on his seal jerky.

"N-no, not really. I haven't super interested in dating lately," he stammered. That sounded like such a lie.

"Are you sure? That Yue we met on our tour seemed nice," she said conversationally.

"Oh yeah, I like her, but not like that. Besides, she only has eyes for Suki." He paused. "I wonder how they're working out."

"Oh, they're dating? I didn't know that," she replied, eyes illuminating with interest. He bit back a sigh of relief. He'd managed to change the subject.

"No, not yet, but it's probably going to happen any day now. They're nuts about each other."

"Aw, they would be so cute together!" she swooned. "Wait. How did you even figure out they like each other? You're the most oblivious person I know when it comes to this kind of stuff."

"I am not!" he protested indignantly. Katara raised an eyebrow at him, and he blushed. "Okay, fine. Zuko filled me in."

She started laughing, and pretty soon, Sokka was laughing too.

At last, they arrived at the antique store, and began searching for something Zuko might like. Sokka had never been particularly interested in antiques, but the place had a lot of cool finds inside. There were stacks of vintage comic books, a wall of cuckoo clocks, and a pai'sho set from eighty years ago that he just couldn't pass up. Everything was great, but nothing felt...right. He needed something that said Zuko, and he wasn't sure what that meant. He was quiet, a bookworm, and prickly when he wanted to be, but there was so much more that he couldn't quite describe.

Suddenly, Katara called over, "Hey, look! There's a bunch of old tea sets over here."

His mind instantly flashed back to the day they first met, when Zuko cut his hand. He said his tea set had broken in the drive, and he'd cut himself on one of the shards. He still hadn't replaced it, and he'd been using plastic cups and Sokka's old electric kettle ever since.

"I bet he'd like one! His old one broke a few months ago." He inspected the shelves, looking for something that was just right. A few of them were plain, a few of them had symbols of the different elements, others had animals on them. Sokka kept searching, and he reached for one shoved in the back. The second he looked at the design, he knew it was perfect.

It was a plain cream color, with a white top. On the front there was nothing except a very large flower. The White Lotus. However hard he tried to forget about the most embarrassing pai'sho match of his entire life, he knew that he couldn't just sweep it under the rug. Why not turn it into something special?

"This one," he said firmly, and Katars just nodded and they checked out the tea set and the old pai'sho set. Turns out, the cups that came with the teapot had mini designs on them that represented the other tiles of the set.

They put everything in the backseat of the car and hopped in, but didn't start the engine. "Well," Katara breathed. "I'd say that was a pretty successful shopping spree! Thanks for spending the day with me."

Sokka grinned. "Anytime, little sis."

She groaned at the nickname, and the pair started talking about everything that's happened over the past few months. Somehow the conversation traveled to Zuko.

"He might seem really nice, but believe me, don't get on his bad side. I'm not even going to talk about the time he punched Jet in the face," he exclaimed, laughing hysterically at the memory.

Katara, who had been laughing along with him just a second ago, froze. "Jet?"

Crap.

"Um...well, yeah. He's attending college here too, somehow. I didn't know he had the brains for it, honestly," he replied tentatively. He wanted to avoid a rampage at all costs.

"And he hasn't been bothering you guys, has he?" she asked, staring him down.

"No, actually. He's just been ignoring us for the most part," he said, his face sweating like crazy. He had never been a good liar, and Katara knew it.

"Sokka."

He fidgeted.

"Yeah, he's been bothering us a bit. Nothing we can't handle, though."

"What. Did. He. Do."

"..."

He fessed up.

The whole point of not telling her about Jet was so that she didn't go and ahead and commit a murder, but now that'd he spilled the beans about him attending, he was pretty much toast. He told her everything that had happened, and it was frankly a miracle she didn't crush her phone, she was squeezing it so hard.

"Excuse me for just a second. I need to to make a phone call." She left the car, and Sokka facepalmed. This wasn't going to end well.

...

Jet kicked back on the couch in his dorm, Bee and Longshot were blasting music in the kitchen, with Bee singing her lungs out. Longshot was a dancing machine. He was busy watching his favorite movie, Into the Spiderverse.

Suddenly Bee stopped singing and yelled, "Hey, Jet! Someone's calling you!" She threw his phone a good ten feet, and he somehow managed to catch it.

"Thanks, Bee!" He looked at the caller ID, and it was an unknown number. Huh. He pressed the green button and put the phone to his ear. "Yello?"

"JET, YOU PIECE OF HOT STEAMING GARBAGE!"

Jet nearly dropped his phone because of how loud the caller was speaking. Bee and Longshot abruptly stopped their dance session, and turned off the music so they could listen.

"YOU'RE LUCKY I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU IN REAL LIFE, BECAUSE IF I WERE, YOU'D BE BURIED ALIVE!"

"Um..." Jet stammered, "who are you, exactly? What is this about?"

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," the voice replied, lowering its volume and laying on as much sugar as it could manage. "It's Katara, and I'd like you to stay away from my brother and my friends or I'll leak the footage I have of you peeing in the shower."

"Katara? Wait, how did you get this number?" he spluttered, absoutely flabbergasted.

"It's still on my phone. You really should get a new phone, you've had the same one for 3 years. Listen to me carefully-you might think that you're invincible and you can get away with anything, but you can't. I have plenty of dirt on you, and I'm not afraid to make your life a living hell. It's simple-stay clear of who me and who I care about, or the consequences will follow. Have a great rest of your day!"

She hung up.

Bee and Longshot were staring at him, dumbfounded. "Um...what do you feel like for dinner?" Bee asked.

Jet banged his head against the coffee table.

...

Katara swung back into the car, slamming the door behind her. Sokka tapped his foot nervously. He'd overheard the entire conversation, and he had to say, he was pretty impressed.

"All taken care of, see? Problem solved," she said, plastering a sugary sweet smile on her face.

He shook his head. "You're terrifying, sometimes."