This takes place after the Firebending Masters. The couples are Kataang, Tokka, and Maiko. I am also going to throw in a pairing of my own later on that is based on the story completely, and no one will see coming. I don't want any killer reviews about the pairings. Constructive criticism please, because I want to be a writer when I grow up.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show, or some of the jokes. I bet the guys who do own it read this stuff and are thinking 'nyah, nyah!'

Chapter One: Girl Talk

Zuko's POV: It's been exactly eight days since the Avatar and I saw Ran and Shao. I still cannot get over the beauty of those dragons, or of the incredible fire they created. Since then I have not wasted a moment in practicing every single firebending move I have ever done before, just to see what it looks like now. I have to admit, it looks fuller, more purposeful, more connected.

Except for the Avatar, I avoid much contact with most people. They all mainly see me as that guy who has been following them obsessively for the past eight months.

Katara, who I met first formally met in the cave, has been cruel, and mean, but she has every right. She's afraid I would betray them again.

Sokka, her brother, has now just officially abused sarcasm in making it perfectly clear he believes I am a jerk, and has this thing against firebending in general; I think even more since I burned Toph.

Speaking of which, Toph has been fairly civil, she was the single person who believed my change in heart in the beginning, but now she's suckered me into these bending duels to get me back for accidentally burning her feet. The only reason I think she doesn't totally crush me is because I still need every part of me working to teach Aang firebending. Everyone knows Katara would never heal me.

"Hey Zuko, are you still on the planet?" I was yanked out of my thoughts by the young monk violently trying to get my attention.

"What is it Aang?"

"How was that for a fire blast?"

"Uh, it was fine, could I see it again."

"How much of it did you space out on?" Aang asked knowingly. From stories at dinner, I know that no one can keep track of how many times the monk had spaced with earthbending and waterbending before so I suppose he could tell.

"Just the last flick of the wrist." I attempted to lie, but from past experience, I had been known to be a terrible liar.

"Just the last flick of the wrist?" I nodded in reply. "So pretty much all of it then." This time Aang said it as more of a statement than a question.

"Pretty much." I knew I couldn't pull anything from this kid. He was really smart for someone who was only twelve.

Aang's POV: I just sighed as I went to redo the intricate move. It was a hard one. I had pretty much covered simple fire blasts from the hands. Now I was learning to use my feet too. Being an airbender helped a lot. How did those guys do some of those moves without being able to bend the air to keep you up longer?

I was anxious to get out of firebending training, Toph said that I'd be learning this incredible trick today, and as for waterbending, I didn't need a reason to want to get to that, there was still the obvious reason of just wanting to be with Katara.

Where was Katara by the way? I looked around for a bit, but only saw Zuko, Sokka, The Duke, Teo, and Haru. All the guys were here, where were the girls?

Katara's POV: Toph and I just needed to get away from all the guys for a bit. They were all great friends, but still, I missed just talking to the girls. Toph, who normally was fairly tomboyish and didn't really enjoy 'girl talk', was surprisingly enthused with the idea. Now we were exploring the huge temple.

"So, uh, Katara… where are you taking us?" Toph asked.

"I honestly don't know." I felt embarrassed even as I said it. I stopped when I felt a hand on her arm. Looking down I saw a large hole in the floor. Toph covered it up before we kept going.

"Thanks."

Toph just shrugged in response. We came to a room with a giant Pi Sho board, and stopped. Toph looked at me and pretty much begged to sit down. So I walked over and sat on a tile. I sat on the Water Lily, Toph sat on the Badgermole.

"So, uh, Katara… can I ask you something" Toph sounded nervous as she asked me that, though I don't know why.

"Anything!" I wanted her to know she could trust me. She is one of my best friends.

"Well…" Toph hesitated, but continued, "I have a friend who might or might not really like someone who doesn't like her back. And he just might like someone else. And it might be weird to tell him because they're supposed to be, like, best friends. Plus, this might be crush just happens to have a… cousin who is friends with the friend of mine, and my friend doesn't know how to approach the crush, or the crush's cousin, and her feelings are getting stronger and stronger, and she just doesn't know how to contain them, and…"

Toph drifted off into quietness as my jaw mentally fell off. I had no idea… well, fine, I had a slight idea that she might like Sokka, but I didn't know she felt so strongly, or that she was so freaked to talk to me about it. I quickly composed myself before answering.

"This friend of yours, let's call her Tomiko, should talk to the cousin, let's call her Kaya and tell her how she feels. If Kaya is a good friend, she will be totally understanding and supportive. Then maybe leave small hints for her crush, we'll call him Sho, and spend more time with him. If she's anything like you she'll be tough and protective of herself. I would suggest maybe telling Tomiko to let down her walls, and let people in. She'll probably find she will have less trouble talking to people." I hoped my suggestion was a good one.

"This moved away from Tomiko, Kaya, and Sho long ago… didn't it?" Toph looked really red in the face, confirming any slivers of doubt I had. "Damn it Katara, your blabbering has infected me too!"

"Mmm hmm. So, Sokka… how long?"

"Since that library; he was the first one who forgot about my blindness, and just saw me."

Toph's POV: First came the touching you can share anything with me part, then came the grilling for information part. I needed to take the heat off of me, and I knew just how.

"So what about you, who do you got the hots for, cuz, y'know you can tell me!" I felt silly asking the question; any one with eyes could tell how much she was helplessly falling for a certain Avatar.

"What do y-you m-mean Toph?" I rolled my eyes at her bad excuses of lying. Her voice had suddenly gotten very high pitched, stuttery, and her heartbeat was loud and fast, I was surprised she could keep it from jumping out of her chest. That feeling there pretty much portrayed how I felt around Sokka.

"At the moment, you have broken both your's, and everyone else's records in the world for worst liars... except Zuko! Come on Katara, I'm blind, not stupid."

After what seemed like forever of debating with herself, Katara pushed over and confirmed what I'd felt. "Tell anyone and I kill you, but I think I'm kinda falling for Aang… hard! I hate hormones! Spirits, I am so whacked! I shouldn't be thinking about him like that, especially since he's the Avatar. I don't think he could like me, like that; I'm his teacher for spirits sakes! Not to mention, I'm just a peasant, there's nothing about me that… But I can't help myself, he's gotten so… wow! And I don't know how much more I can…" She paused and her shoulders sagged. "This conversation ended up on a much different, and probably more explicit level than it started on, didn't it?" Katara's blabbering was so hilarious, but she kept herself composed with me, so I bit my cheeks.

"Well, as your best friend, and someone who's studied a bit of psychology when I lived with my parents, I am qualified to go hmmm! But seriously, Katara, you should talk to him. I mean, have you seen the way he looks at you…" Katara cut me off.

"We haven't had a real, normal conversation since before the invasion…eep!" Before the invasion? My curiosity was peaked especially because after she said that, she acted as though she slipped up.

"What happened before th…?" I had to ask, and she interrupted with an answer.

"He kissed me! But it was probably just a fluke, like Pre-Invasion Day jitters, that can't be how he actually feels about me! It was just a fluke!" I felt my brain unhinge. How did I not feel that, even through all the metal? Way to go Twinkle Toes! Katara got off the Pi Sho board and started walking again. I followed her, slightly confused.

"Ok, new topic now!" Katara begged.

"Aw, but this one was getting fun!" I whined teasingly.

"Fine, but now it's my turn to hear you talk about your hormoney impulses." Ooh, she knew where to go to get what she wants.

"Boring dinner conversations it is." I might have been disappointed, but not too much so, to forget sarcasm.

"So… how far is Aang in his earthbending training?" I grinned. Aang was a great student and I was very proud in his accomplishments. I had reached mastery in 5 months, which was an Earth Kingdom record. Aang was fairly close to beating me, with almost mastered in slightly less than six months.

"Close to mastery, in fact. He's almost giving me a run for my money. There are only a few things left for me to teach him, such as metalbending, seeing vibrations all the time, even without a blindfold, and lie bending." I kept it to myself that there was one other move left, I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to teach him that. Katara seemed to wig out a little after I told her that.

"Not lie bending! Please don't teach him that… not just yet. Please!" Uh oh, it was things like that which ruined relationships.

"Fine Katara, not just yet." Like hell I was gonna keep that promise.

We stopped when I felt a dead end. It was a little balcony that was a great place to check out the rest of the canyon, that is, if you can see. I put my hand on the wall of rock that was the canyon and felt to the bottom. There it felt very wet, and there was a piece of the temple that Combustion Man fell off of, and next to it, was Combustion Man himself, in all his deadish glory.

Suddenly I couldn't feel Katara's presence anymore. I turned to where I last felt her and touched what felt like the beginning of an ice bridge.

"Katara what are you doing? And what did you connect you ice bridge to?" At that moment the ice turned to water, and I felt Katara jump back down. With one hand she bent the water back into the pouch. In the other she was holding something.

Katara's POV: "Ok, spill, what is it Sugar Queen?" Toph demanded. I wondered why she suddenly snapped at me. I was just too curious though. First I see a scroll floating in the mist, then I see it is on a ledge, and I don't know why, but I feel myself compelled to read it. So I went and got it.

"Well…?" Toph sounded impatient, so I quickly opened it up and read through it. I just got more and more confused.

A Reversal is in order, soon to make two.

Talk about it, you won't be disappointed.

Tell her to let her walls crumble, it isn't just one way.

He has more than he knows, but first she must get close.

He needs to fulfill all three, despite how he feels, he should be happy, he is different.

"This is so weird!" I slowly repeated the contents on the scroll to Toph who just scrunched up her face in confusion. I rolled the words over in my mind, but I couldn't make sense of what was sitting in front of me.

Maybe Aang will be able to make sense of it, after all, he would know every part of the temple, maybe he'd know what it was." Toph suggested, making me feel silly for not coming up with the idea in the first place. Aang would know what to do.

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