Chapter Text
Toph hangs upside down from the top of the bleachers, her knees curled around a worryingly rusty railing.
“Can’t believe you’re just now joining us, Snoozles,” she says to Sokka. “You too, Ooky.”
“I want a new nickname,” Suki announces loudly, her voice drowning out Sokka’s explanation.
“No can do, Ooky,” Toph says, clenching her knees so she swings a little from her upside-down perch. “The nickname chooses the person, I don’t make the rules.”
“You literally make up the rules,” Suki seethes, though not with any real bite behind her words. She crosses her arms and slumps back against one of the bleacher poles.
“I think ‘Ooky’ is cute,” Sokka says, and Suki gives him a look so saccharine that Katara is sure if Toph could see it, she would never call Suki ‘Ooky’ again. “Anyway,” her brother says, “nobody told me the bleachers could be so much more fun than P.E.”
“Anything is more fun than P.E.” Aang offers, while Katara scoffs.
“Please,” she says, “you’ve always outrun everyone.”
Aang turns to Katara to respond but then immediately looks away. She only feels a little bit guilty as she remembers that Aang is younger than her and Zuko and is therefore a little less comfortable with how…comfortable she and Zuko are with each other.
But Katara is merely sitting on Zuko’s lap—sure, she’s sitting sideways so that he can wrap one arm around her waist and the other around her thighs, and his chin is resting on her shoulder—but Suki sits in Sokka’s lap all the time.
Sokka notices Aang’s hesitation and he snaps his attention to Katara and Zuko before he sighs. “Katara. Zuko. You’re making everyone uncomfortable again.”
“We are not!” Katara yelps just as Zuko squeezes her a little tighter to his chest. “She’s just sitting in my lap,” he says nonchalantly.
Suki giggles. “Nah, it’d be normal for her to ‘just sit in your lap,’” Suki says, using exaggerated air quotes. “But you guys are stupid gross,” she says, laughing again.
“Sorry for being in love,” Katara sighs melodramatically and leans into Zuko’s face. She was just doing it for the bit…but now that she’s here—his eyes lock onto hers and she pushes her forehead against his, breathing in his scent and his warmth. She can’t help but lean in and push her lips against his for a quick peck—
“Bet you all wish you were blind,” Toph says from above them.
“Eh,” says Suki, “I like that they’re stupid gross. It’s sweet.”
“Yeah!” Zuko says, leaning his head to one side to better gaze at their friends. “It’s sweet!”
Sokka and Aang are still averting their eyes, but Suki’s hand is over her heart in a dramatic stamp of approval. Katara appreciates the support, even as she wonders how much of it is motivated by Suki’s enduring guilt at how she originally treated Zuko. Katara might just be imagining it, but every new thing Suki learns about Zuko—like the fact that he developed his smoking habit in the hospital because that was the only way patients could go outside—causes her to egg on the couple’s public displays of affection ever more openly, as if allowing her two friends to make out in the backseat as she drives them home was her personal form of penance.
When Suki eventually learns the truth about how Zuko got his scar, Katara’s pretty sure her friend is going to tell her that she should feel free to fuck him right in front of her.
“I was only just allowed to start watching PG-13 movies you know,” Aang says.
“Okay, well, Zuko and Katara are much tamer than PG-13,” Sokka admits.
“Yeah, but my parental guidance isn’t here!”
They all laugh at that, and so does Aang, who valiantly turns back to Katara with little more than a faint blush on his cheeks.
“But,” he says in a quiet voice. “I was going to say that I’d definitely skip P.E. to hang out with you guys, but I’m skipping World Cultures now, so I should probably get back.”
“Are we not cultured enough for you?!” Toph says, affronted.
Instead of getting up to get to class, Aang sinks backward on the ground and closes his eyes. “You’re right. I’ve got enough culture right here.”
Zuko unwinds his left hand from Katara’s thigh, and she whines in disappointment at the loss of contact, but he shakes his head and gestures to where he’s digging into his pocket for his pack of cigarettes.
He pulls one out, stuffs it into his mouth, and deftly lights up a cigarette, all with one hand. He inhales before turning his head to exhale behind them. “Sorry,” he says, “You know I’m trying to quit.”
“And I did quit!” Katara says.
Zuko groans, but it’s affectionate. “Baby, you barely smoked,” he says with a chuckle.
“And I quit barely smoking.”
“That’s true. Good job.” He kisses her nose.
Sokka groans.
“Hey,” says Toph, “You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.”
“Toph, Suki and I have never been this gross. Never.”
“Please, that’s only because you follow Suki’s lead and she has a reputation to uphold. Can’t be the resident badass if you get nose kisses.”
“I think you’re a badass,” Zuko whispers in Katara’s ear, and she giggles.
“Well, now I want nose kisses,” Suki declares, crossing her arms and turning to her boyfriend with a swish of her hair. “In fact, I’m offended you haven’t given me nose kisses.”
“I want to die,” says Aang from where he lies on the ground, his eyes still closed.
Katara takes pity on Aang and shimmies away from Zuko—well, a few inches away from him.
“Zuko and I are going to the nursing home today—he’s doing a fancy tea-making demonstration for everyone. You guys wanna come?” she asks hopefully.
“Can’t. Football,” says Sokka simply, but Katara can hear the relief in his voice.
“I can’t either, I’m going to the dog rescue,” says Aang, who at least sounds a little more apologetic.
“I probably can,” Suki says thoughtfully, just as Toph interrupts. “I would literally rather do anything else.”
“Toph, you might actually like it there,” Zuko says, and Toph raises her brow, seemingly a little more open to the idea. Probably because she’s a traitor and trusts Zuko more than she trusts Katara. Zuko’s right though: she’s a little worried about how well Toph and Marathy might get along.
“But,” Katara says, “none of you are actually off the hook because we’re not going for a few hours after school lets out.”
“Oooh, are we getting food?” Suki asks.
“Um, no, I’m just busy later,” Katara replies vaguely, trailing off a bit.
“I thought you purposely kept Wednesdays free?”
“I mean, I do—I just—um—”
“She has detention,” Zuko says with a smirk.
“Zuko!”
“She talked back to Pakku after he suggested girls have more trouble with calculus than boys.”
“Nice going,” says Suki approvingly.
“He was being such an ass!”
“You’re not going with her?” Suki asks Zuko in a playful tone, batting her eyelashes at him. “You didn’t throttle Pakku for besmirching her honor? Or at the very least, put Sokka in a headlock again so you could get detention too?”
“That was one time!” Sokka whines, as Suki brings up the last time Sokka and Zuko had wrestled during gym. “And we’re friends now, so—I let him win!”
“Sure you did, babe,” Suki says, winking at Katara.
“Okay, Sokka after football you can drive me—Toph and Aang, do you need a ride too?”
“I’m going with Zuko and Katara,” Toph says, but Zuko interrupts.
“Sorry Toph, I’m picking up Katara on my motorcycle.
Toph groans. “Fine, yes I need a ride.”
“Same,” says Aang. “Toph and I will be together so it’s easier.”
“Cool,” Suki says, pushing off the ground and wiping her hands on her jeans. “Well, I’m off to math. You all coming with?”
Sokka and Aang wordlessly get up from the grass as Toph lowers herself from the bleachers. Aang and Toph begin wandering away, muttering to each other. Toph pushes Aang for some unknown reason, and the boy yelps. Sokka follows, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his notifications.
Suki starts to trail after them but turns back to Zuko and Katara. “Are you two coming?”
“Yeah, we’ll be there in a second,” Katara says.
Suki raises one eyebrow, skeptical.
“Okay, don’t wait—but you’ll see me in five minutes in calc.”
Suki waves to them and trudges off after their other friends.
Katara leans back into Zuko’s hold, ready to enjoy his warmth for just a little longer.
“Are you sure you want to go to calc right now?” he whispers in her ear.
“Don’t be a bad influence,” she says, reaching back to shove his shoulder lightly.
He kisses her underneath her ear, a little too long and lingering to make heading off to do integrals seem like the right idea.
But then he hums and pushes her forward as he stands. He reaches out to help her up. “I’m not, I’m just eternally frustrated that I have to go to physics instead of defile you under the bleachers.”
“Ew!”
“Come on, you’d prefer that too,” Zuko says, no doubt remembering how she had cornered him under the bleachers before school just two days ago for some, um, peer-to-peer socialization.
“I mean, I would, but your car is much comfier.”
“What about my motorbike?”
“You want to hook up on your motorbike?”
“Not like, while it’s moving.”
Katara snorts as they amble away from the bleachers, hand in hand. The bell rings and students pour out around them, disguising them from hall monitors and anyone else who’s want to give Katara another detention.
“I’m a little tempted to put Sokka in a headlock again,” Zuko says lightly.
“You can use your non-detention free time to perfect your teamaking. Iroh would never forgive you if you were a sorry ambassador for his tea shop.”
“Fair,” Zuko says, but he’s still frowning.
He puts his hands on her hips and she leans into him, automatically wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close. Katara never thought she’d be the type to be into PDA—but she’s not into PDA—she’s just into kissing Zuko, and right now they just happen to be in a crowded hallway, but later they’ll be alone, whether in his room, or hers, or the back of his car—most likely the back of his car—
“Zuko! Katara! This is your third warning for public displays of affection,” comes Piandao’s exasperated voice from behind.
Zuko extricates his mouth from hers, the unpleasant pop almost making Katara feel guilty for subjecting bystanders to this.
Almost.
“I’m going to give you a pass—again—because I can see you’re happy. But you have to stop.”
“Sorry, sir,” Zuko says, shoulders erect.
“Sorry,” Katara mutters after she whips around to face their teacher.
Piandao gives them an unimpressed look before shaking his head.
“If I’m subjected to that one more time, you’re both getting detention for a week,” he says as he breezes past them.
They’re silent as Zuko’s hand finds hers and squeezes it. And then they turn to each other, eyes locked, and burst out laughing.