Chapter 9

"We are having lunch in the cafeteria whether you like it or not.", Suki grumbled.

"No we are not!", I hissed, trying to push past her. But if there was one thing Suki was... it was that she was strong as hell.

"Katara, you can't avoid the cafeteria forever just because she might be there.", she grunted, pushing me closer to the door.

"Watch me.", I tried pushing back, only to slide right through the door, Suki steering me towards the cafeteria.

I put up a fight the whole time, even as we crossed through the cafeteria doors, calling more attention to ourselves than I wanted. Aang, Sokka and Toph were already sitting at out usual table, waving at us. Suki waved back, pushing me forward with one arm. She pushed me down between Toph and Aang, claiming her spot next to Sokka. I frowned at her, she was going to pay for making me live through this.

Aang blinked at me, "Katara, are you okay? You look like you haven't had fun a day in your life."

"That's because she hasn't.", Sokka snorted, making Suki giggle.

"She's just scared that the Knife Queen will come up behind her and chop her up.", Toph explained in a bored manner.

Aang raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head and mouthed "later". I really didn't want to be talking about this in front of the whole school, where anyone could be listening. I picked at my lunch, listening to Suki rant about how the Kyoshi Warriors had to battle the Dai Li during her battle class. Apparently, one of them broke her second favorite fan and she had almost impaled him with one of the shards out of rage. And Sokka... Sokka was looking at her like she had just talked about picking flowers on a green field and making flower crowns.

I rolled my eyes at them. Anyone who had a single braincell could see how much they liked each other. I don't know why Suki bothered to keep her feelings hidden from me when it was dead obvious she liked Sokka.

After pulling out of his trance, Sokka leaned in closer to the table and whispered, "I heard that the fire prince and the emo girl broke up."

I froze, nearly choking on my food. Suki's eyes met mine for a second, no one but the three of us and Zuko knew about the bet. Sokka knowing was too much of a wild card, and Suki had insisted we didn't tell Aang for some reason.

Toph sighed, "And that concerns us, why?". 

Looks like she was going to keep it a secret after all...

Sokka blinked at Toph, "Well, it concerns us because we don't know why they broke up." I took a bite of my food, ignoring my brother. "Katara! You've been spending an awful lot of time with him! You should know!". 

It's safe to say, I nearly died at that moment. My food got stuck in my throat, turning me into a coughing mess while Aang slapped my back gently, trying to get the food down. Toph was laughing so hard that she had managed to quiet the whole cafeteria down. Sokka eyed me suspiciously, while Suki just cringed the entire time. 

A glass of water was shoved into my hand, making me look up. If I wasn't choking already, I might as well have started to as I witnessed who it was that gave me a glass of water. 

Zuko's big golden, worried eyes stared at me, and then zeroed in on Aang, who was still trying to get my food to go down. 

"You're doing it wrong.", He said, frowning at Aang and quickly taking over. "Try taking a small sip of water."

I frowned at him, tears stinging in my eyes. What was he doing here? Still I did as he told me, managing to stop coughing for enough time to sip some water. I drank the rest of the glass once I felt like I wasn't going to choke anymore and Zuko had stopped patting my back. I turned around to thank him, only to find him and Sokka engaged in a stare down. Well, it was more like Sokka was trying to have a stare down and Zuko was looking at him like he had gone insane. 

Zuko leaned in closer and whispered, "Is he okay?".

I nodded, rolling my eyes, "He's just like that some times."

Zuko nodded in understanding, propping his head on his fist as he picked at his nails. Was he... was he planning on staying here?

Sokka didn't take his eyes off him as he said, "So why did you and the emo girl break up?". The rest of us stared at him with eyes wide as plates from how direct he was being.

Zuko looked up from his nails, looking bored, "I have my reasons."

"Which are...", Sokka pushed.

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him, "Other than the obvious?". He finally pushed himself up from his fist, looking at Sokka directly in the eye, "If you're looking for some over-the-top reason, or some dramatic story as to why I broke up with her...", he gave me a quick side glance, "There isn't one."

Sokka opened his mouth to spit something back, but Toph cut in, "What are you doing here, Fire prince?".

Zuko blinked at her, as if he hadn't noticed the small blind girl at our table, "Katara was choking."

Toph huffed, "She's not choking anymore."

Zuko blinked again, "Yeah, thanks to me. Also I would appreciate it if you all could call me Zuko from now on."

Now it was our to turn to look at him in confusion. Suki gave him a small smile, "What do you mean?".

Zuko gave her a look that was dead serious as he said, "I don't really feel like hanging around my crazy sister, her gymnast friend and my ex anymore. They are....", he hesitated for a few seconds, "They are not the type of people I wish to be associated with." He scooted closer to me unconsciously.

Toph snorted, "So what? You want to start hanging out with us now?".

Zuko gave her a small smile and nodded, "Katara has been really nice to me, and so I was hoping that you guys would accept me hanging out with you guys from now on."

I felt Toph's attention on me, and Suki's warning stare as panic flooded through me. If Zuko started hanging out with us, spending as little time with him as necessary was going to be harder than we thought. Suki's eyes became hard as steel as she turned towards Zuko, opening her mouth to shut him down.

But Aang popped out from behind me and gave a big lopsided smile to the fire prince, "We'd love to hang out with you, Zuko!".

Suki frowned at him, and I could have sworn that my limbs turned into jelly. For some reason, Toph found this amusing and was smirking like a crazy lady. Sokka just eyed the fire prince suspiciously.

He pointed a finger at Zuko and said, "If you're anything like your sister or her friends, we won't hesitate to kick you out of the gang, Zuko."

To my surprise, Zuko just nodded at him, and then turned to me, giving me a small, sweet smile. Even though the look in his eyes said something different. I smiled back at him, trying to push my panic down and not letting it show. 

He propped his face on his hands and turned towards Suki, who flinched from the sudden attention, "I heard you're a Kyoshi Warrior."

That was all it took to engage Suki in conversation, with Sokka cutting in to add some details to the stories she was telling, like he knew them by heart. 

Aang scooted closer to me and leaned in, "He seems nice, I really think he deserves a chance." 

I gulped, giving him a shrug as an answer. 

He tilted his head, looking at me, "Do you not like him?".

I felt myself tense up at the words. But then I remembered that Aang had no idea about the bet, "I just don't think a person can hang out with them", I pointed towards Azula's table, "And suddenly have a change of heart."

I cringed internally at my words. I knew Zuko was nothing like them. But what else could explain the way I was acting, or why I was so wary and alert around him? Aang sighed, giving me a sympathetic yet understanding look, and went back to eating his salad. 

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That night, Zuko invited us all to the Jasmine Dragon. Claiming he wanted us to really meet his uncle this time. Suki had stopped by my room an hour before it was time for us to head over to the tea shop. One look at her, and I knew she had been scheming for a way to get me out of this situation the moment Zuko had mentioned the idea. 

"I'm not ditching the whole group just because of Zuko.", I said to her before she could even finish closing the door.

She took in a deep breath, as if keeping all of the plans in her head from spilling out, "Fine." She plopped onto my bed, "Though I do think that Zuko being part of the group could work to our advantage." She gave me a wicked smile when I turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "Think of it. This way, we can watch him the whole time he's with you, and if all four of us are around you two the whole time, he will never have time to set his plan in motion!".

I blinked at Suki. She wasn't wrong. Not in the least. Maybe this way was the best way to keep him from doing anything, or from trying to get me away from the group so we could be alone. Yes, this would actually work to my advantage. 

"The only problem then," I said, "is my project with him."

Suki pursed her lips into a thin line, "Yes... I believe there is nothing we can do about that."

I sighed, I knew there was nothing we could do about it. But it still scared me, considering it was the only moment we were going to be alone, and the only moment where he could use any little excuse to get close to me. Unless...

I spun around towards Suki, nearly knocking down my mirror, "I have an idea!".

We both headed towards the Jasmine Dragon after I was done explaining my idea to her, to which she had fully approved. I was nearly skipping with joy when we got to the tea shop. We scanned the place, looking for our friends. Well, Suki was. I was looking for a bald kid with monk robes and an arrow on his head. Suki pulled my arm, heading over to a table where Zuko, Toph and Sokka were already sitting. 

"Thank the lion turtles you guys are here," Toph grunted, "These two were boring me to death. I nearly wished I was also deaf."

"Where's Aang?", I asked.

"Nice to see you too, Sugar Queen.", she said sarcastically.

"We saw each other less than three hours ago, Toph.", I countered, which Toph completely ignored, picking her ear while she did so.

"Aang went to the bathroom.", Sokka said, not even looking at me. He was staring at Suki while she went over the tea menu, trying to decide what to pick.

I wanted to throw a tea cup at his head.

Zuko leaned into my ear, "Are they...?".

"No they are not, but only because they are too blind to each other's feelings.", I said, loud enough so Suki could hear.

Her eyes shot up from the menu to me, giving me a look that seemed to say "right back at you", and then went back to looking at the menu. Aang finally came back, taking a seat next to Toph and Suki. I nibbled on my lower lip, fidgeting with my mom's necklace. I couldn't tell him now.. could I? Suki's eyes shot back up to me, noticing my hesitation, and put down the menu. She shot Aang a warm smile.

"Aang, I heard you and Katara have this really big project in one of your classes.", She turned towards him.

"Yeah! The fire benders from master Jeong Jeong's class are helping us with our bending!", He said excitedly, "It's like a form of collaboration to teach us how even if we have the illusion of being split, we are all actually one."

Or... it was a the fire prince beside me that wanted to work with our class, I thought to myself.

"You know, Aang," I cut in, "I was thinking we could work together. Zuko could help your partner, since there are so few books on air bending and I could help you!".

Aang shot me a big smile, "My techinique in airbending is already perfect. But since I'm working with Master Jeong Jeong, I feel like that would be cheating." He must have seen my distressed face because he quickly added, "But I'm sure Haru and Onji would love to work with you guys!".

Right! I still had Haru! This could work. Onji was talkative enough to keep Zuko busy, and Haru was... well he was Haru. I nodded, giving Aang a small smile and ignoring Zuko's stare as I turned towards the shop's menu.

"I'll be right back.", Zuko said to no one in particular, yet kept staring right at me.

Suki gave me a small thumbs up as if to say "mission complete" and then continued her conversation with Sokka. I nearly deflated from relief. Now I wouldn't have to bare the project by being alone with Zuko. There was never a rule against students helping each other out.

"Everyone," Zuko said, suddenly back and startling all of us, "This is my uncle, General Iroh.".

We smiled at the Dragon of the West, all of us completely aware of who he was. Aang even waved at him enthusiastically.

"Uncle," He said, turning towards Iroh, "These are my friends!". He gave him the biggest smile I've ever seen, looking like a proud little boy. I found myself smiling warmly at him and quickly averted my eyes.

"Please, call me Iroh", He said, smiling at us, "Would you guys like to try Zuko's new tea blend? It's not out on the menu yet.", He said, giving us a wink.

Zuko glanced at us nervously, swallowing hard. I realized he never had friends, not like us anyway. He was new to the group, a group that didn't care about titles or power, and for once, he didn't have to fight to prove he belonged. 

I turned towards his uncle and gave him my sweetest smile, "We would love to."

Zuko loosed a breath he didn't realize he was holding and gripped Iroh's sleeve, "I'll help you serve the tea, uncle!".

Iroh laughed, "None sense, you are out with your friends. I'll be happy to serve them myself.".

They looked at each other in a way that reminded me of the way my mom used to look at me and I at her. Something in my heart broke at the sight of that, realizing that Zuko's past might not be what all of us made it out to be. I turned to look at him as he took his seat next to me, that warm, genuine smile still dancing on his lips. And so I let go of all my worries and troubles and decided that even if I was scared about the bet we had made, I still wanted Zuko as a friend. I could worry about the other feelings that stirred inside me later. And before we knew it the six of us were laughing and joking around, listening to Zuko's stories about the fire nation and about his uncle. And I didn't hate having him around. Not at all.