Chapter Text
Zuko to Katara: hey, I think you left your laptop charger at the tea shop?
Katara: what? no I didn’t
Zuko: I mean…I didn’t see you here either, but it’s in the place you usually sit and it has your name written on it in big letters
Katara: what?! hold on
Katara: okay I do not have my laptop charger so…yes I believe that is probably it. I can’t possibly think how it got there though
Katara: unless this is some cruel prank my friends are playing on me
Zuko: why would it be cruel?
Katara: idk bc it’s cold outside
Zuko: let me bring it to you
Katara: no, it’s okay, I can come get it later
Zuko: are you sure? I can just drop it off. And I can leave it outside if you don’t want to see me
Zuko: but I’d really like to talk to you if you’ll let me
Katara: wait, what? why wouldn’t I want to see you?
Zuko: I might have seen Suki today
Katara: what did she say to you? oh no. oh spirits.
Zuko: nothing bad! can I please bring you your charger? and explain?
Katara: okay
***
Toph to Suki: I can’t believe you stole her charger
Toph: I’m cackling, property of Katara
Toph: what if another Katara finds it though!
Suki: ah but I wrote “PROPERTY OF KATARA WATER TRIBE” on it so there wouldn’t be any confusion
Toph: I can’t breathe right now, spirits
Toph: what luck that Jin is allergic to sea prunes and Zuko had to cover her shift today
Suki: La was smiling down on us
Katara sat on her and Sokka’s couch in a fit of nervous energy. She knew she shouldn’t feel nervous about Zuko just stopping by, for two specific reasons.
1. They were friends. Friends can stop by without it being weird!
2. He was dating someone else.
But he’d texted that he’d “really like to talk” to her. What could that possibly mean? The worst-case scenario that Katara had come up with was that Suki had accidentally let something slip about her feelings to Jin when she was at the tea shop today. And then Jin had told Zuko, and Zuko wanted to use returning her laptop charger as an excuse to let her down easy.
But that didn’t explain why he had her laptop charger, and the more she thought about that, the more she figured that someone wanted Zuko to find her laptop charger…to bring them together? Which screamed her friends’ doing—except they weren’t stupid. They were the ones who’d told her about Zuko’s date with Jin!
But before she could think through what was possibly going on, she was interrupted from nervously jiggling her knee by a knock at the door. Sokka was at Suki’s for the afternoon, so she had the place to herself. Which was kind of funny, considering she’d wanted to get Zuko here alone just a couple weeks ago and couldn’t do it, and now, when it didn’t matter, here he was.
Katara walked to the door as if it were the gallows. She opened it, and sure enough, there was Zuko, looking just as handsome as ever. His jet-black hair fell into his eyes in that way that she admired, and he had on a soft flannel shirt over his Jasmine Dragon t-shirt. The tea shop uniform reminded Katara that Zuko had come from work—which instantly reminded her that Zuko was not supposed to work today. Today was his day off, which is why Suki was going to return the ceremony kit so that Katara wouldn’t have to face Jin and Iroh. But apparently…Zuko had been working. And if Suki had talked to Zuko while returning it, not Jin—
Oh fuck.
“Hey,” he said with his easy grin. “Delivery,” he added, shrugging his backpack off of his back and pulling out her laptop charger, its cord neatly tied around the charging brick. And written on it in large letters, in recognizable handwriting that was not her own: PROPERTY OF KATARA WATER TRIBE.
Great.
“Thanks,” she said, surprised how normal her voice sounded when her stomach was currently in a complicated series of knots. “I have no idea how this got to you though, and I didn’t even write that on my charger, maybe it’s a joke because of the last time I forgot it, though not a very funny one—”
Perfect, she was rambling. But Zuko just watched her with his soft smile until she carefully took the charger from his hands, trying her best not to brush his hands with hers. He almost seemed to notice this because his little grin faltered for a moment.
“Can, we, um, talk?” he asked, sliding his bag back onto his shoulders.
“This is Suki’s handwriting,” said Katara without answering Zuko’s question, staring at the distinctive way Suki crossed her t’s instead of looking at Zuko’s golden eyes.
“Yeah, I figured,” said Zuko.
“What?” asked Katara sharply, meeting his eyes immediately in a panic.
“We talked some today—”
“What did she say?” she asked quickly.
“I’ll tell you the whole story,” he said gently. “Can I, um, come inside? I can stay out here if you want me to—”
“You can come in,” she said evenly, opening the door wider. “Sorry for just now inviting you in…”
Zuko stepped inside, shifting his backpack off again and looking around the little living room. The last time he’d been here was the first time they’d hung out, the first time he’d brought back her laptop charger. Katara, stupidly, wanted to cry at the thought, like the pathetic sap she was.
Katara motioned Zuko to sit down, and she perched on the edge of the sofa next to him, a respectable distance away.
“So,” said Zuko, hesitating.
“So what did Suki say?” Katara asked, her desire to know what was going on winning out over her nerves.
“It’s kind of a funny story,” Zuko said, wincing. “So Suki came into the shop, and she like, power-walks to the register before she notices me, and she sort of does a double-take, which I thought was weird because she knows I work there—”
“And I did sort of a double take, because even though I know he works there, I also know that Katara knows Zuko’s schedule, and she said that he wasn’t working today. And that Jin would be there instead,” explained Suki from where she was stretched out on her bed, Sokka next to her. The boy was fast asleep, though every few minutes he’d mutter some gibberish to remind Suki that he was there.
“Right, and we figured that Katara returning the tea kit to anyone would be too embarrassing, but that you returning it to Jin would be the least awkward for Katara,” said Toph into the phone.
“Exactly, but instead there was Zuko. So I’m thinking ‘Okay well I guess I’m just gonna power through returning this thing to Zuko, it’s not like he knew Katara bought it anyway,’ and I go up to the counter and Zuko’s all smiley like ‘Hi Suki how are you blah blah blah’ because he’s suddenly charming now, or maybe he was always charming and we were just getting Katara’s perspective before—”
“Probably the latter,” interjected Toph. “Who’s snoring?”
“Who do you think?” asked Suki, sending the sleeping Sokka a saccharine look before continuing her story. “So I take out the tea kit and I’m like ‘Yeah so I’m just here to return this’ and Zuko, no shit, stares at it. Like, stares for a solid eight seconds. Go ahead, count to eight, it doesn’t sound like a long time but it’s a long time.”
“Sounds uncomfy.”
“Yeah. So I’m standing there uncomfy, just waiting for him to give me the money back, when he’s like ‘Do you have a receipt?’”
“Ha, like a nerd.”
“I mean, it was a fair question. It is his job. And I do have a receipt, I have Katara’s receipt, so I pull that out and Zuko stares at that for like ten whole seconds.”
“Weird,” said Toph, munching on fire flakes into the phone and making Suki think they were having connection problems for a moment.
“And then he says, ‘You didn’t buy this,’ which, no I didn’t, but I can return it for someone else can’t I? So I say that, and he’s just like ‘Who are you returning it for?’
At this point I’m getting pretty annoyed, so I say, ‘Should you go get Iroh? Will that make this easier?’ Zuko looks at me, full force of his intense stare and his scar—totally ignores what I said, by the way—and he goes ‘I thought Katara bought that. Didn’t she?’”
Toph hissed, long and low. “Oh wow. Oh spirits. So that means—"
“Yeah!” squealed Suki, before lowering her voice so as not to wake her sleeping boyfriend. “Though, I have to say you were much quicker on the uptake than I was—”
“Usually am—”
“Ignoring that. But anyway, so he says that, and I’m a good friend so I’m like ‘So what if she did?!’ in my scariest voice—”
“Which is pretty scary—”
“Thank you, I think so too. But Zuko doesn’t back down! It seems that he’s too, like, confused to react to my intimidation tactics. Instead, he’s just staring at the tea kit, before looking back up at me and saying something like, ‘I know this is a weird question, but please bear with me. Did it not work out between her and the…person she bought this for?”
“That’s exactly where I thought this was going. He didn’t realize that he—”
“Well, okay, that makes this a little more embarrassing, because I still hadn’t picked up on that yet?” said Suki, cringing a little into her phone. “So instead I get angry—because I’m a good friend!—and I’m like ‘How dare you—‘”
The rest of Suki’s sentence was drowned out by Toph’s laughter.
“Shut up, there’s more to this story!”
“Sorry, sorry, I just—my friends are so entertaining, I love you all so much.”
“Well, I’m glad we can provide you entertainment, Toph,” snapped Suki.
“Me too,” said Toph, wiping tears from her eyes.
“For some reason,” hissed Suki, “I’m still going to keep going with this story—”
“Because it’s a fantastic story and you tell it very well.”
“Thank you. Okay so anyway, I get angry at Zuko and he’s like, completely baffled, and is like ‘What are you talking about, blah blah blah,’ and then—"
“No, wait, what was the ‘blah, blah, blah?’”
“Um, let me try to remember,” said Suki, squinting in thought. “It was something like, “What are you talking about? I was just asking a question; you don’t have to bite my head off.”
“Let me guess: that made you angrier.”
Suki sighed. “Yes. So then I’m almost yelling—well no, I was yelling. I go, ‘Just asking a question? You clearly know that you broke my best friend’s heart, and here I thought you didn’t do it intentionally—' and at that point Zuko interrupts me with ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ and he’s loud. This old woman actually stood up and chided him for his language and stormed out of the shop.”
“I’m liking these colorful details.”
“It was wild. But he actually completely ignored her and was just staring at me waiting for me to explain. So…that was when I realized there could have been a bit of a misunderstanding.”
“Wow, it took so long for that to dawn on you. But it does make for a better story.”
“It’s not over yet! So, I try to apologize to him, and I start using my sweet voice, saying something like, ‘I’m sorry, I think maybe we’re talking past each other, did you not know that Katara bought this for you before you started dating Jin?’
And I don’t know if it was my sweet voice that made Zuko comfortable enough to like, well, react the way he did…but after I said that, Zuko put his head in his hands and like, moaned.”
“He moaned?”
“Okay, maybe it was more like a long groan. It wasn’t weird. It was actually kinda funny.”
“When you tell this story again, maybe say groan. Moan sound weird.”
“You’re right. Okay. So. Zuko’s groaning. And then! Iroh comes out. And he’s like, ‘Zuko, did I hear an uproar in the front of the shop?’”
“Damn, your Iroh voice is terrible.”
“It’s a distinctive voice, leave me alone. So Zuko is just like, shaking his head, unable to talk. And then Iroh sees the tea ceremony kit and he’s like, ‘Oh, are you buying this miss? Can I help you since Zuko is occupied?’”
“Occupied with moaning into his hands.”
“Groaning, but yes. So I say to Iroh, ‘I’m actually returning it for a friend.’ And Iroh looks at me—recognizes me I think, as Katara’s friend—and then turns very slowly, and very comically, to Zuko, who is still shaking his head.”
“So Iroh was in on it too!”
“Yes,’ said Suki fervently. “At this point, I’m just kind of like, fuck it, let’s air everything out, let’s clear things up, so I say, ‘Katara bought this to use with Zuko, but since he’s not interested, I’m returning it for her.’”
“Wow, it’s so good you went to the shop instead of Katara.”
“I know. I know!”
“What did Iroh say?”
“Okay, so Iroh is dumbfounded for several moments, just like Zuko when I first got to the counter. Like uncle, like nephew, or whatever. But then he claps Zuko on the back and is like, ‘Nephew, do you have anything to say to help us work through this misunderstanding?’”
“Your Iroh voice is getting better as you go.”
“It’s all this practice! So, he asks Zuko if he has anything to say for himself, and Zuko says, ‘No. Yes. No.’ and so then I’m like, ‘Aren’t you dating Jin? I saw you on a date with Jin. She said it was a date, you were wearing a tie.’ And Zuko, I shit you not, screams. He screamed, Toph. Like if you were at the park, and a duck came up to you and you tried to pet it, but it bit you and you screamed, that’s what it sounded like.”
“Why…why is that how you’re describing this?”
“Because it happened to Sokka last weekend and Zuko sounded just like him. Like he got bit by a duck. Identical.”
“Okay, so Zuko screamed like he got bit by a duck. And then?”
“And then, Zuko takes a deep breath, looks at me intently, and says, ‘No, I am not dating Jin, absolutely not, I was dressed up nice for the Teamakers’ Awards. Jin and I went to collect Uncle’s award because he has won for the 14th year in a row and he’s tired of attending. In fact, that’s why Jin isn’t here today, she’s still sick; turns out she she’s allergic to sea prunes and they served sea prunes at the dinner, which was not. a. date.’”
“The Teamakers’ Awards! Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?!”
“Because it is ludicrous. But that is what they were doing together, and it was not a date, even though Jin wanted it to be. And also, Zuko is mad mad mad for Katara. He said that too.”
“Well, we knew that already. But how did he say it?! He didn’t say ‘mad mad mad,’ for real?”
“No, he didn’t. He was like…I think he’d reached a point where he was just completely overwhelmed so he was sort of oversharing.”
“He didn’t say…you know…the L-word—"
“No, of course not. He just said something like, ‘Katara is the most amazing girl I’ve ever met in my entire life and if I had known that she wanted to serve me tea and not some random dude with this over-priced, culturally inaccurate tea ceremony kit, I would have sawed off my own legs for the opportunity.”
“Wow. Intense.”
“Super intense. I think Katara would have been into it,” said Suki thoughtfully.
“I think so too.”
“And that’s everything! Oh, except Iroh was really insistent the tea kits weren’t overpriced. He was like, telling everyone in the shop that, because Zuko had been kinda shouty during that part.”
“I love this for Katara,” said Toph.
“Me too. Sokka’s waking up now, so I gotta go. Gotta retell this story on the way back to his place.”
“Practice your Iroh voice!”
“I will, bye!”
“So that’s…everything that happened,” said Zuko as he finished his story, wincing again.
Katara gaped at him, wide eyed. She hadn’t said anything since he started telling her what had happened at the shop; her eyes had just gotten wider and wider as he talked.
“So you’re…you’re not dating Jin,” she finally said, and Zuko laughed.
“No, I thought I was pretty clear about that.”
“Just checking,” she said, her eyes falling to the smile on his lips and then darting back up to meet his gaze, hoping she wasn’t too transparent.
But Katara watched Zuko’s eyes move quickly back up to meet hers…was he also looking at her lips? They were both silent for a moment.
“So…” started Zuko, and Katara finally noticed how nervous he looked—was he…sweating a little? And his hands were shaking, just like hers. “What did you think about the last part?” he finally asked.
“The part where you said I was amazing?”
“Yeah. That part.”
“I think…that I wish I still had that silly kit so I could make you tea.”
“Hmm,” said Zuko, tapping his chin with one finger. “You do?” he asked, before reaching into his bag and pulling out the tea ceremony kit—romance version.
“Suki didn’t return it?!”
“Sort of—it’s more like I bought it from her.”
“Zuko—”
“Can I serve you tea? Romantically?”
Katara bit her lip to keep from smiling so wide her face would hurt. “Yes,” she said quietly. “But first, I want to do something.” And she closed the space between them to kiss him.
Katara to Strong Female Leads: thank you for what you guys did for me :’)
Toph: you mean clearing up the World’s Worst Case of Miscommunication?
Katara: yes. that.
Suki: you know how you can thank me? you can go stay at Zuko’s tonight
Katara: sorry, he lives with his uncle :)
Suki: Katara he’s SO LOUD
Katara: SO IS MY BROTHER