Random idea that popped into my head-I owe this one to my landlady's cute dog (papillon/chihuahua)! And yes, I took full advantage of the opportunity to use Lady and the Tramp even though it's not terribly like what you're going to read.

All mistakes are mine-I wrote this while watching the Food Network and food porn, subsequently. (Likewise, the rating is T because of my curse-filled writing and perhaps some adult themes towards the end.)

And this is dedicated to raidersfan777, just because he's been an awesome support for the unpaid writer that I am. I'm hoping you'll like this piece! (Knockout will be updated later this week, I swear.)

Enjoy!

It appeared on the curb of the sidewalk by his apartment, curled up on a spot that was clear from the thin layer of snow on the ground from the snowy winter night before.

Zuko almost tripped over it—bagel in his mouth, right hand pulling up his suit sleeve to check his watch, and untied tie hanging around his neck.

"Oh—shit!" he cursed through the cream cheese before regaining his gait and looking back at the furry mound.

What the hell was a dog doing there?

Taking once more glance at the startled small animal, he continued on his way toward the train station. But after a couple of steps, his guilt trip started and he turned around once more to cast a gaze at the dark brown mutt.

Damn, he was already late—this dog was just going to make things worse.

He started off toward the station again, but then found himself unable to just leave the poor creature sitting there in the snow.

It was probably hungry too.

"Ah, fuck it," he muttered before he scowled and reached down to cradle the puppy, which immediately barked in glee and raised a snout toward his face to sniff him, subsequently licking him.

He leaned backwards to prevent any dog saliva from getting on him, grimacing at the dog breath.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked it.

It barked and hurled forward to check out the bagel in his mouth.

"Hey, not—" But then it licked the edge of his breakfast and he decided to surrender it to the four-legged pest. "Fine, eat my damn food," he mumbled, while taking the bagel out of his mouth and offering it to the pup, who seemed uninterested in the sustenance after licking it a couple more times.

This frustrated Zuko, who had really wanted to get into that everything bagel.

He caught a glance at the time, and then cursed before realizing that he couldn't just rush off to work with a dog in his arms. He'd have to find a place to put the dog for now.

Zuko thought of throwing the dog into his apartment, but then changed his mind, thinking it might not be a good idea to leave an excited dirty ball of energy in there.

There was an animal shelter on the way to the train station, though.

He quickly started his way down the street, taking the half of the dog-breathed bagel that hadn't been licked and holding it in his teeth again.

Well clearly the dog had to have an owner, he thought, spotting the puppy's collar. But looking around, Zuko found no man or woman chasing after him telling him to give back their dog. And the dog didn't have a leash attached to it either—which was probably the reason why it had run off in the first place.

Zuko sighed, bagel still uneaten and tie still hanging loose around his collar, as he took the furry mess in his arms heading toward someone—anyone—that would take this burden off him.

And then he sighed again upon finding that the shelter wasn't going to be opening until later on in the day. And not only that, but it would also be closing before he was home from work.

Trying to think of a solution, he stood helplessly in front of the locked building before setting the dog down on the ground by the shelter.

Perhaps it'd stay?

"Stay," he commanded, before continuing to walk.

But then finding it following after him still, he repeated his demand to the dog once more.

And again, it was disobedient.

"Fuck it," he said, for the second time in the bright, early, and innocent morning, and subsequently headed toward the train station, the dog coming along for the ride.

It was just going to be one day at work—and when he got back, he'd figure out what the hell to do with the nuisance.

What a bother.

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Having thrown his uneaten bagel into the trash, Zuko came into the cubicle-filled room and was confronted by his very stick-in-the-ass boss.

"You're late."

Zuko's morning hadn't exactly been the best, so he didn't reply with flowers blooming out of his words. "I know," he said, while quickly fixing his tie into a knot.

"You were late yesterday—Wednesday—as well."

"Yes I was," he affirmed without mentioning that he had been drinking with friends that night before for no goddamn reason at all except for the fact that it was Tuesday.

"And I suppose that you're also aware of what your hours are?"

"Eight to five, sir."

"Right so why aren't you—...why is there a dog licking my shoe?"

"Must have followed me here."

Deciding not to even bother to ask, the manager just lifted his hands up in surrender and walked off. "Don't let it happen again."

Zuko crashed down into his seat, reclining far back into the stiff chair and took a deep breath. His meditation was interrupted by the dog, however, who had jumped up onto his lap.

"This is all your fault," he scolded the pup, who gave him a sharp yap. "Hey! Sh!"

The four-legged creature stood on its haunches, placing its forelegs onto his chest before slobbering all over his face.

"Augh…" he groaned, disgusted and clamping his lips shut to prevent any inter-species make-outs. Pushing the pooch into the corner of his cubicle and reluctantly using the sleeve of his work shirt to wipe off the dog's licks, he stood up and paced about his office briefly.

And it started to whine, clawing at his pants.

"Stay."

The dog settled back down, panting.

"What do you want from me?" he asked, in exasperation. Immediately an answer came up in his head. "Ah, I know, you need something to eat…"

Seeing the dog not doing anything, Zuko took the opportunity to rush down to the office kitchen. But what the hell was he going to find in there? Dog food? Really now?

Milk, he decided, and then took a Styrofoam cup from the coffee counter before pouring the rest of the two-percent milk in.

"Damn." Unfortunately, the carton was empty—something Zuko realized when he picked it up with a bit too much ease. His eyes grazed the rest of the sugar-and-coffee-ringed table before landing on the little cartons of cream.

Cream was practically milk, and if milk was sometimes okay for dogs, then cream was…just as well for dogs, he figured. It was sloppy logic, but he wasn't in the mood to be crunching more than numbers this day.

He took a handful and walked back to his desk, ripping open the creamers and pouring the stuff into the cup after tearing off some of the rim so that the small dog's snout could actually reach. Slamming it down to the floor in front of the dog's nose, he rolled back in his chair to observe.

It sniffed it a couple times before lapping, and relieved, Zuko waved his computer to drag his monitor back from sleep.

He hadn't even been able to plug in his password before he was distracted again.

"Dogsitting today?"

Swiveling around, Zuko greeted his coworker, "Yes. I found it on the street. Do you want it?"

"Nah," Jet replied, reaching down to the pet Zuko's newly adopted friend. "She's cute though—I'm sure it's not going to be that hard to find her a new home."

"She?"

"Your dog's a girl—a bitch. Haha," Jet laughed at his own joke, stroking the puppy's belly. He lifted the dog up, holding it like a baby and scruffing up its fur. "Aww yeah, good girl," he whispered to the dog, who was immensely enjoying actually being pet as opposed to being fed half-and-half. "You should name her."

"I'm not keeping her."

"Still," his coworker insisted. "It'd probably help when people are trying to decide to adopt her or something."

"Well, the dog has a collar. Check for a tag or name or something," Zuko replied, opening up his inbox and groaning at the number of unread messages.

Jet flipped the little circle on its collar and frowned. "Not even a number. Probably not registered either."

"Well aren't I a lucky guy," the hungry Zuko muttered under his breath.

Not hearing Jet reply with a snarky comment, Zuko turned to see what his friend was up to.

His coworker had his eyes set on someone across the room and Zuko slowly stood from his chair to follow Jet's gaze.

"Who's she?" he asked Jet, taking a look at the caramel-skinned female making copies across the room. She wore a black suit with white blouse, a dark blue pencil skirt that reached up to her calves, which donned navy stockings and simple black heels. Her thick dark brown hair was worn down, gathered in an octopus clip at the back of her head.

"I thought you knew," his coworker replied back, the pen in his mouth flipping up and down. "I was going to ask you."

"I don't know—how the hell should I know?" Zuko angrily retorted, watching the slight sway of the woman's hips as she feed more papers into the machine.

"But she's in your consulting group and she joined like yesterday. The boss must have made you and the rest of the group meet her."

"So?"

"You didn't introduce yourself to her?"

"I was hungover yesterday, idiot," he reminded his coworker. "If I did, I don't remember her name at all."

Among other things, he didn't add.

The dog barked at that moment, breaking the atmosphere, and the woman whipped her head around.

They would have cursed and ducked their head down had they known this was going to happen, but her strikingly sky blue eyes caught their gazes before either of them could react.

A soft smile graced her lips and she gave them a little wave of hello.

After they forced smiles and nods back at the woman, Zuko hurled himself back into his seat and rose a palm to his face. "Crap, she knows me, and I don't even remember ever seeing her before."

Jet scowled at him. "What are you talking about? She was clearly saying hi to me, not you, you self-centered bastard."

"Geez, alright. Getting possessive already?" Zuko furrowed his eyes at his coworker, adding mockingly, "I mean I am the one in her group, unlike you, who just files and drinks coffee."

"Find out her name," Jet snarled before he placed the dog back onto Zuko's lap to remind him. "You're the one with the bitch."

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After sneaking out of work relatively early, Zuko once again stopped in front of the now open shelter.

"Well, now you're going to be off my hands," he told the pup before walking into the building.

"Hey, how can I help you?" a girl in an apron with paw prints on it asked him.

"I found this dog on the street next to my house. She has a collar but I don't think she's registered and I don't find anyone in my neighborhood missing a dog."

"Oh okay, let me just her off your hands and do a quick examination," she explained, lifting the dog from his arms and placing her on a nearby counter.

Zuko waited, hearing the whining, barking, and grumbling of the other dogs inside the building, which seemed to bristle up his dog. She was baring her teeth and growling in low canine threats. Curious, he looked over down the room of the shelter.

"So, uh, what's going to happen to her?"

"We're going to get her registered after a health check and then she'll be up for adoption to the public, or if anyone comes by to claim her."

He nodded, watching the counter girl check the dog's teeth, when something slowly began to curdle at his stomach.

"How…long does it usually take for a dog to get adopted?"

The girl rose to her full height, trying to look a bit more serious, which wasn't impressive, since Zuko still towered over her. "Well…it depends," she replied vaguely. "But I'd say two or three months."

For some reason, the whines that Zuko heard from the other room didn't sound like fresh ones.

He bit his lip, thrusting his hands further into his pocket as he waited.

"Uh, you don't have to stay for the remainder of this," the girl flushed. "I can take care of the rest."

"Actually, I think I know someone that might take her," he blurted suddenly. "Sorry about all that," and he gracefully scooped the dog off the counter and headed out with another apology.

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Man's best friend, huh?

More like man's worst competition, he thought when the dog quickly scooped up the dropped chicken breast and eat it in front of his eyes.

"You destroyed my breakfast and practically ate half my dinner," he snapped at the dog, shaking his head when seeing the plain rice and stewed vegetables left on his plate. "This is unacceptable. You have to go."

He ambled through out of his kitchen with his meatless dinner and strode through his apartment to his laptop.

It was probably the tenth time he checked his email all day—eager to get a reply from someone who would want a dog on craigslist.

Unfortunately, there were no responses, and Zuko was beginning to feel like Jet was actually right about something for once. Zuko barely knew what kind of dog it was, how old it was, and he had only recently found out that it was a female.

The description "dark brown female dog. doesn't like bagels" probably didn't fly in popularity. And the picture that he had taken of her was rather unappealing—the dog had invariably been trying to tackle and lick him while he was taking the photo shoot.

He scooped up another mouthful of rice into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, staring down at the canine.

While the shelter would have been the easy way to get out of all the trouble, Zuko had felt some sort of sympathy for the dog and was uncomfortable with leaving the no more than 10 pound dog in a strange foreign place with a shitload of others for a shitload of time—just waiting for some person to come adopt it, and hopefully someone that would actually take care of the pet.

"The things I do for you," he sighed under his breath before popping another bite of rice into his mouth. "Be late, bring you to work, check my email constantly like a moron, and starve."

The dog took a running leap onto his lap and started to sniff the rice, and Zuko pushed his plate away from her snout's reach before anything could happen to the food—which the bachelor had painstakingly cooked a batch up the previous Sunday so as to not bother with the cooking the remainder of his week.

He turned his head back to the pooch and inevitably found himself scratching the dog's head and neck before massaging its back. She stepped in circles on his thighs before settling down to take a nap, heat radiating from her warm body.

"Yuki," Zuko said suddenly, and the dog rose her head looking up expectantly at him.

A crooked smile spread over his lips.

"You'll be Yuki—because I found you in the snow and because you were lucky I damn did."

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Zuko awoke to clawing and licking.

"Ah, god…" he groaned, putting his hands out and shielding his face. He turned around to continue sleeping, only to be met once again with Yuki's incessant licking. "Fuuuuck," he cursed, once again spilling the first swear of the morning, and sat up straight.

Looking out the window, he realized it was barely sunrise and it was six in the morning.

Too tired to think properly, he was quickly reminded of why he was awake in the first place when he heard the tinkling of a dog's collar and some bounces on his mattress.

"Get off my bed," he commanded the dog, knowing that wasn't going to work. Staring at the canine for a while longer, he eventually rolled out of his covers and decided that he'd have an early start to the day, heading straight to the bathroom to wash his face of slobber.

The very next thing he did was check his email for any hopes of late-night requests for the dog.

Nothing, he sighed and felt his stomach rumble in the lapse of disappointment.

Sticking his head into the refrigerator, he was half surprised to see Yuki doing the exact same thing, sniffing at the cold air for some hint of food.

He'd have to feed her too, he realized, and so decided to eat a hot breakfast, reaching down for eggs and then fetching a package of bacon, throwing it into a container of hot water to thaw the meat. He set a bowl of water down on the floor and watched Yuki lap it up thirstily for a moment.

"Augh," he groaned out loud to himself when he realized that everything he had done since yesterday morning when he found the dog had been revolving around her—even his own choice of breakfast.

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Belly actually full with food, not late, and actually properly dressed, Zuko happily made his way to work, sitting down and determining that the day was going to be a good and productive one.

Except for the fact that it was Friday, but he chose to ignore that fact—he was actually feeling awake and uncharacteristically cheerful that day, something his cubicle neighbor immediately noticed.

"Dogsitting again, Zuko?"

He turned to look at Jet. "What?" and then his eyes dropped to floor, his once-positive day now ruined again.

"You brought the dog again."

"No I didn't—she brought herself here. I…" and Zuko didn't continue the sentence, unwilling to admit that he hadn't noticed the dog walking behind him the entire time. "Must have followed me here," he finally said.

"Have you named her yet?" His coworker bent down to pet her.

"Yuki," Zuko grimaced, reminding himself that he had actually named her.

"Sounds gay."

"She's a fucking girl," he defended.

"But…Yuki? That sounds like you did some research."

"I'm half-Japanese, you dimwit." Zuko watched his friend pet Yuki for a while before adding, "Means 'snow' and like 'fortune' or some shit like that."

"That's cute," and the pen in Jet's mouth rolled to the other side.

Slightly annoyed, Zuko retorted, "And what the hell are you doing here? Don't you have work to—oh right, you're just a publicity manager."

"Screw you."

Yuki suddenly caught something in the air and started to bark.

"Sh!" the two men said, immediately going to silence the dog by petting her.

The bitch didn't let up though, and a few more yaps were elicited into the office air. Jet decided that he didn't want to be caught in his friend's mess and so sneaked off to his own cubicle to resume work, ultimately betraying Zuko.

"Shut up!" Zuko scolded and then a figure appeared in front of his cubicle. "Oh I'm so sorry—"

"Oh how cute!" a distinctly sweet feminine voice exclaimed—the exact opposite of the 'what-the-fuck-is-going-on' and deep male voice that he was expecting from his boss.

His eyebrows furrowed a moment but when he lifted his eyes he saw that copy machine woman that they had been checking out the day before.

"Uh…" he said stupidly.

"I thought I heard a dog over here yesterday," she remarked lightly, stepping down to pet Yuki.

"Yeah…I didn't mean to bring her in again."

Today the woman was wearing her dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail, two bangs curling off the side of her head. She wore black pantsuits and a light blue blouse that was buttoned up to the top, save the last two, giving Zuko quite a view when she leaned forward to admire and pet the dog herself.

He sat, stunned and quiet while focusing on other things besides the valley below her neck. Ah, his tie was crooked—and he distracted himself thus, fixing the silky fabric.

"Between me and you, I think dogs should be allowed in the office," she told him, blue eyes sparkling. "Don't you think?"

"Yeah," he forced himself to speak. "They'd definitely brighten up the office and make it less boring."

"Totally agree," her musical voice affirmed, continuing to pet Yuki, who was all too much enjoying the attention that was being given to her.

And all too soon, the woman was rising back up to her feet and cradling the clipboard in her hand against her. "Well," she announced, giving Yuki a final pat. "I should probably get back to work."

"Have fun," he languidly told her, giving her a wave goodbye.

She smiled brilliantly back at him and went about her own way.

After a couple minutes, he realized that he didn't get her name. "Augh," he groaned at his forgetfulness.

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"Crap," he said upon hearing his phone ring from behind the bathroom doors. Quickly turning off the water and grabbing his towel, he made his way to his cell phone.

Every call was important when you had something on craigslist.

Zuko had changed the description of Yuki and retook the picture, so he wasn't surprised when this offer turned out to be a lot more successful than the previous run.

"Hi, hello?"

"Is this Zuko Kaji?"

"Speaking."

"Sorry, I was wondering about your dog."

"Yeah, ask away."

"I couldn't really see on the photo that you had of her, but could you check if she has dewclaws?"

The hell was that?

"Uh….I'm sorry," he said, making his way towards Yuki. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that."

"It's like the dog's thumb. You can check if there's a claw below her paw. Just let me know if she has a claw there."

"Sure, give me a moment." He walked over to Yuki, cursing the rather inconvenient time that this phone call was, and with his free hand, grabbed hold of her front paw, lifting it up.

Yuki, however, was unwilling to cooperate at the moment and barked at him instead.

"Sorry about that," Zuko sheepishly apologized into the phone. He grit his teeth and pet Yuki, hoping that she'd flip over onto her back and allow him to see if she had any sort of "dewclaw" whatever the hell that was.

She didn't budge, instead, sniffing at his waist.

He tried pushing her onto her back but this didn't work either—she was sitting quite determinedly on her hind haunches.

Resisting the urge to curse, he desperately tried again, but a minor struggle left his towel falling to the floor.

He bit his lip very hard to prevent a blurted damnation before speaking. "Sorry, let me call you back."

"Oh okay su—" and he hung up before the other end had finished speaking.

Throwing the phone to the floor, he wrapped the towel back around his waist before angrily glaring down the dog that had caused all the mess to happen.

To be honest, he wasn't quite sure why he felt extremely self-conscious about being naked in front of a dog. It wasn't like it really mattered—it just felt wrong.

Zuko figured that he was actually starting to feel like the dog had sentiments and that he was anthropomorphizing his temporary pet.

Which probably wasn't a good thing, since she was going to move out, or at least supposed to be.

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"No," he scolded, feeling a thump onto his bed and then a few seconds later, licks on his face. "Get off the bed."

Yuki was going to get it dirty—and he didn't want to wake up with fur in his mouth and a layer of saliva on him.

She was already stumbling in circles on his pillow, not giving him any headspace at all. And then she plopped down—and rested herself.

He sighed, taking what he could of his pillow back, but found his nose in dog hair—which wasn't the most pleasant thing that he had smelled in his lifetime. Zuko turned his head away from her, and found her paw under his head.

This was neither comfortable for him or her—he could only assume—and it was decided that there was no way that sharing was possible.

She was little less than ten pounds, and he picked her up and put her at the corner of his mattress.

Whimpering, she got back up again and strolled back in his direction.

Zuko groaned—this wasn't going to get anywhere, and it didn't seem like she was going to give up her position. And if he was going to fight it, it didn't seem like he was going to be getting any sleep.

Tiring already—it was a few hours well past midnight—he just let it go ("Fine, take the damn pillow, you bitch.") and let her take what she wanted, opting instead to make himself something to sleep on out of a tangling of his own arms and blankets.

He just hoped to hell that he wasn't going to wake up the next morning with an ache in his neck.

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He wasn't surprised to end up with pain at his collarbone the entire rest of the day after that night's wrestle with Yuki, but he was surprised to see that copy-machine-dog-petting woman stop by his cubicle that Monday, as she was stopping by the kitchen to grab herself some coffee.

He noticed that he liked her coffee sweet—just a shade darker than her own caramel skin—yet another something that he knew about the woman that he did not know the name of.

"Hey," she said, and he turned around, taking in her sharply dressed self.

"Hey," Zuko greeted, swirling his office chair to face her. "What's up?"

"You didn't bring your dog back to work today?"

He didn't bother to correct her and say that he was just only going to be keeping Yuki for a short amount of time. And that Yuki technically wasn't 'his.'

"Unfortunately not," he replied, giving her a nervous smile.

"That's too bad," she smiled, leaning against his cubicle wall and taking a sip of her coffee.

He wasn't sure what to say, so he was glad that she had something to ask him.

"How old is she—your dog?"

"Uh, I actually don't know," he answered sheepishly. "I sorta found her on the street and adopted her, I guess."

"Oh, how sweet of you, I would have never guessed she was on the street at all—you probably take care of her really well."

"I…do what I can," he said, not taking the compliment.

Clearly she wasn't aware that he had been feeding Yuki half of whatever he had been eating for the past few days—which definitely couldn't have been good for her.

"So I guess you just got her the other day when you first brought her into the office?"

"Yeah."

"How's that going?"

"It's actually been going really well. I actually have never owned a dog and I wasn't ever expecting to," he explained. "I guess this is all really just an experiment for me."

"Oh, but you're enjoying it right?"

"Admittedly, yes," he replied honestly, though he was a bit hesitant to do so.

He was starting to get afraid that perhaps he wouldn't be able to part with Yuki later. But he drew himself back to the present so that he wouldn't awkwardize the talk going on.

"You've named her by now?"

"Yuki."

"Is that…?" she dropped off, not wanting to assume anything.

He forced a smile. "Japanese—means snow or good luck. Maybe both in her case," he explained.

Warmly, her lips curved, a genuine admiration. "So how was your weekend?" the woman asked. "I mean, you're always working so hard, I'd hate to think that you didn't have a restful break."

"It was good, pretty chill. Yours?"

"Pretty much the same. I actually had to go on a coffee date with the boss—he says there's some sort of a tradition that he has with all his new employees."

"Yeah," he laughed lightly, playing with the paperclip on his desk. "It's the only free thing you're going to be getting from him, so hopefully you enjoyed."

She chuckled along with him. "He wasn't much of a good conversation," she admitted, wrinkling her nose, her cerulean blue eyes staring straight at him.

"I don't ever remember hearing anything out of his mouth besides a complaint."

This elicited something like a giggle from her. After a beat, she regained her footing and unstuck herself from his cubicle wall. "Well," she dismissed herself. "I'll have to get going before the boss comes around and takes back the money he paid for my coffee in insults against me."

"Yeah, see you around," he smiled.

Only a couple seconds after she stepped out, his jealous coworker replaced her.

"Dude she's totally flirting with you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zuko replied.

"She asked you about your weekend? And told you about how the boss can't make a good conversation? She was definitely trying to get you to ask her out unconsciously!"

He shrugged. "I think she'd just ask me directly if she wanted that to happen."

"Well no…she just wants to have you ask her so that it makes her feel like you like her, which obviously means that she actually likes you. The dog is just a decoy—she's actually stopping by because she wants to see you," Jet concluded, doing the messy math for his coworker.

"Just ask her out, you fucker—she's just waiting for you to do it!"

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Yuki was waiting for him too, and was jumping and barking at him when he came home.

He couldn't help but smile and kneel down and cuddle with the dog.

The petting was interrupted by his shrill cell phone's ringtone. Lifting himself to his feet, he reached into his pocket to receive the call.

"Hey, so has there been anyone reclaiming the dog yet?" a young female voice chirped on the other end of the line.

"Uh, no," Zuko replied. "Are you interested in adopting her?"

"Yes, I am!"

Relieved, he said, "Oh alright, awesome! Let me get a pen so that I could write down your address and drive her over to your place so that you could see her in person."

"Oh okay!"

Zuko swiveled on his heel, heading towards his nightstand. Yuki jumped onto his bed, following his movements and watched him closely, sitting on her hind legs and wagging her tongue. Once he got a pen in his hand, he paused to briefly pat Yuki on the head before returning to his caller.

She licked his hand, and something stirred within him—making him stop to think for a moment.

"Actually..." he said. "She's already been taken. Sorry."

"Oh…oh well."

"Yeah…I had forgotten that someone changed their mind. Sorry about that."

"Well as long as she's ending up with a good person, right?"

He forced a brief laugh. "Heh, yeah. Well thanks for calling, anyway."

His fair hand cut the line and he tossed his cell phone onto his bed, where Yuki had made herself comfortable, her golden brown body curled up on itself and her head tucked into the warm recesses underneath the covers.

Sighing, almost in defeat, Zuko pulled off his shirt in preparation to take a shower, throwing that also onto his mattress.

"Happy now?" he asked the dog. "Now I'm officially stuck with you." He stood there, hands on his hips, before cracking a smile and adoringly petting her head. The dog was asleep already though, after the long evening run and he thought it best to just leave her alone.

Entering the bathroom and swiftly pulling off his jeans before immersing himself in hot shower water, the newly declared dog owner thought long and hard about the decision he had just made.

I must be crazy, he finally concluded.

Rubbing soap over his arms, he figured that this was his unconscious' method of telling him that he actually couldn't live alone for the rest of his life. At twenty-six and the only relationship he had had in his entire life was a middle school fling with a girl named Mai—which technically made his love life as depressing as that girl herself.

He turned to move the hot water onto his back, sighing and shutting out the rest of his thoughts.

This whole dog owner thing wasn't going to be such a big deal—it's not like Yuki was going to be his girlfriend or ruin his chances of getting one either.

I'm just making a big deal out of this, he thought, emerging from the shower and wrapping a towel around himself before stepping out into the cold air outside the humid bathroom.

"Yuki?" he called out in concern.

For some reason, the dog looked a bit differ—

"Mmm….hm?" and sleepy eyes rose up from the sheets.

They screamed simultaneously.

"OH SHI—WHAT THE FUCK?!" he cursed, jumping back into the bathroom. His foot slipped on the steam-condensing floor tiles and he landed straight on his ass.

WHAT THE FUCK was a woman doing on his bed?!

She seemed to be thinking something along the same lines as she shrieked, throwing herself backwards and kicking up the covers.

His honey amber eyes widened.

What the fuck was a naked woman doing on his bed?!

Shock soaring across her blue eyes upon realizing she was bare, she yelped and a quick gasp later, took the first thing she saw and covered her chest with it, tucking herself further into the blankets to hide the rest of herself.

Seeing a chick wearing his own shirt could have never been just as terrifying as it was arousing.

"Who are you and what the fuck are you doing here?!" he panicked, rising from the floor immediately, his hand automatically gathering at the towel slipping from his waist.

"I-I don't know!" she yelled back at the same screeching volume. "WHERE THE HELL AM I?!"

Her eyes descended to the pendant around her neck. She lifted the jewelry from her skin and examined it.

"Shit! That is—" and Zuko lost the ability to think straight, reaching for the necklace and taking it in his own hand. "This same thing was on my—this was on my dog—my dog—you changed into a human?!"

"Wait, what?!"

"This was on my dog!" he repeated, flashing the necklace's aqua medallion in her face. "And now it's on you!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"My dog! This was on my dog!"

"What do you mean it was on your dog? I'm not a—oh…" Her lips rounded into an O and her cerulean eyes suddenly flashed. "Oh…that bitch…that bitch actually did it!"

Now it was his turn to ask: "What are you talking about?"

She looked up at his confused face and then inhaled deeply before continuing.

"Okay, I remember what happened," she said slowly, and then commenced her explanation. "I was practicing spells with one of my friends and we came across one that could turn people into animals. And we promised each other that we weren't going to use the spell on each other and—"

"Wait, what?!" the even more perplexed businessman questioned. "Spells?!"

"Yeah, spells," she affirmed, like she had just said the word 'apple.'

"Are you shitting me?!"

"What?"

"Spells?! Magic?!"

The girl nodded, her forehead creasing in his bewilderment. "Eeee yeah...what else would I be talking about?"

Zuko didn't ask, choosing instead to let the world he knew for his 26 years of life shatter like wine glass and crumble like feta cheese.

"So then the next day, I played a practical joke on her and turned her entire closet into clothes that she hates to wear and I guess she got really pissed and then pulled this curse on me, the bitch," she concluded. The mocha-skinned woman sighed heavily and then concluded, "So that's probably how I got into this mess—I must have wandered off while I was a dog…"

Speechless, he just stood there, blinking and watching the once-dog-now-woman contemplate. Her head swiveled up appreciatively at him.

"It was fortunate that I ended up being taken care of by you," she thanked him. "Otherwise, I'm sure I would have died out there until the spell wore off. It's like…winter right now, right?" And her face turned toward the window to check the weather.

"Wait, so you turned into a dog and now—wait, you don't know if it's winter?" he interrupted himself. "You were just outside a couple of hours ago!"

"Oh no," she stated with a shake of her head and a wave of her hand. "No, stupid, when you're under a transformation curse, you don't remember anything from your real conscious, and when you get out of it, you don't remember anything from your transformed conscious—don't you know anything?"

"No, I don't," Zuko declared in a grumble. "And you're drunk, high, or a combination of both!"

The woman was clearly offended. "Excuse me?" she asked in a low growl.

"You are on crack. Given, apparently you've replaced my dog, which either means that I need mental treatment or I got really wasted—but what the fuck is this magic shit?"

Pissed, she flashed her pendant at him. "You see this?" she snarled. "This was my mother's and this means that I come from a very special bloodline that is gifted with the ability to use magic." And she glared at him like he was an idiot.

He would have held his head and yelled in exasperation while banging his head against the wall, except that he had to keep his towel on himself and so wasn't able to berate himself over the absurdity he was experiencing.

"Whatever," he said instead. "I don't…I don't even know. I don't know who you are, why you're here, what this magic shit is, what the hell I got myself into, and I don't even want to know." Going further into denial, he reached for a handful of clothes from his laundry hamper, figuring that he could get away with wearing used clothes for this one time just so that he could avoid needing to cross the room to get a fresh outfit.

"Katara."

"What?"

"My name's Katara," she clarified.

"Okay, I don't really care—I just…I wasn't expecting…" and he trailed off, waving a single hand in her direction before sifting through his old clothes.

"Sorry about all this," Katara apologized. "Thank you though, honestly."

It took a while for him to figure out what to say. "I…I wouldn't know what else to do with a lost dog…person."

"So…where am I right now?"

Zuko looked up at her. "Republic City," he answered. "Midori District."

"Oh," she said. "Wow, that's far from where I came from…"

"Where'd you come from?" the inquisitiveness slipping out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"I was training in the North Water Nation…probably got onto some sort of a ship or something…"

"So you really don't remember anything from when you were a dog…" and his question trailed off as something suddenly occurred to Zuko. He placed his free hand over his cheek to hide a spontaneous flush over his face.

"No, not at all."

"Nothing at all?"

"No," she repeated.

"For sure?"

"No…why?"

"Just wondering," he explained, leaving out the part about making sure that a certain incident involving a fallen towel hadn't been seared into her memory.

"And…I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, her mouth twisting curiously, "but I don't know anything about this place—I'd move out right away, except I'm not from around here. You wouldn't mind if I stayed with you for a while right?"

"Uh no…considering that you've been living here…" Zuko replied. "And your room is out in the backyard."

She was puzzled for a moment, her thin eyebrows furrowing, but then she realized he was referring to the doghouse behind his house.

"Fuck you," she told him, a smile gracing her lips as her eyes rolled over. "I'm sure you treated me better as a dog. In fact, I'm sleeping right here tonight," she added, pointing a finger down at his mattress.

Eyeing her slim figure curve generously over his white sheets, he raised a brow and bit his lower lip in an effort to keep his sudden interest from showing.

He swallowed thickly.

"On second thought, I wouldn't mind at all."

Weren't expecting that, huh? :P

thir13enth