I know I said I'd update this yesterday. But it took longer than I expected it to, this chapter is longer than I expected it to be too. Oh well hope you enjoy. Cos this is my last day of freedom (holidays) and woot! I managed to keep my promise about updating before February.

Rocky Relationships

Toph woke up leaning on someone's shoulder, as her senses sharpened she realized that person was Zuko and that he was still asleep. Grinning to herself she punched him in the arm then shouted into his ear:

'Hey Sparky, wake up!'

Zuko woke with a start, he looked at Toph in concern.

'Are we being attacked?'

'No silly, but the others are waking up, and they might be mad at us.'

'Why?' asked the Firebender before he remembered the cactus juice. 'Right.'

An angry looking Katara marched towards Zuko. Toph's expression read speaking of the devil.

'You,' spat Katara. 'Why did you spike the tea with cactus juice? Did you think it was poison?'

Zuko couldn't think of anything to say, luckily for him Toph answered.

'Relax, Sugar Queen. He didn't know a thing, it was me; I figured you could all do with some fun. And you all call me blind, that idiot didn't even see me slip anything extra into the water as he taught me how to make tea.'

Katara softened a little.

'Alright then,' she said. 'But why is he the only person who doesn't have a hangover?'

Toph rolled her eyes.

'Because I drank his cup as well,' she replied. 'Judging by how this place is still standing, I guess he spent the whole night making sure I didn't destroy anything.' She finished smirking at Zuko.

'Fine, but I'm watching you. Both of you.' Katara snapped before marching off to "fix Aang's headache"

'Thank you,' Zuko said as soon as Katara was out of sight.

'No problems,' Toph replied. 'I told you I'd take all the blame, now you owe me again.'

The exiled prince groaned.

'That's right,' Toph said as if reading his mind. 'We gonna pull another prank.'

Half a day and two Avatar training sessions later

'Are you sure this is a good idea?'

'Of course I'm sure, if I make a plan; it's a good idea.'

Of course, Zuko though, mentally slapping himself for asking Toph such a stupid question. From the time he spent with her in the last day, he knew she never took anything she said back.

Right now they were crouching behind a rather prickly bush, in fact it was the most prickly one. Toph had asked him to specifically to locate it.

'Now we wait for Sokka to come, I know he'll come, because I told him I heard a flock of fat squirrelmonkeys scampering around here. With all his complaining about not having enough meat, he's sure to try and hunt for more.' She said smugly.

Zuko wasn't convinced.

'We've been behind this bush for half an hour already, and those spikes keep falling on me—oww'

Toph had kicked him, whispering:

'Shh. He's coming.'

A second later Zuko felt, or rather, heard him as well.

'Come here fat squirrelmonkeys,' Sokka was saying in a sing-song voice. 'Come to uncle Sokka.'

Zuko resisted the urge to laugh.

'Is that how he always hunts?' he asked Toph.

'Yes, now shut up.' the Earthbender answered in an irritated voice.

Finally Sokka got into range, Toph grinned, a small rock was bended just in front of Sokka's foot. Sokka screamed as he tripped and fell into the bush.

Owwwwww!' he yelled, before peering back at the place where he'd tripped and seeing nothing but flat ground.

'The bush grabbed me!' he gasped. 'It must be haunted!' with that he ran away screaming about haunted bushes.

Toph and Zuko, who'd watched the whole spectacle though a gap in the bush, burst out laughing.

'His screams,' Toph managed to say between laughs. 'Have you ever heard any girlier screams? Even Sugar Queen doesn't go that high.'

'Well he certainy rivals Ty Lee. Did you see he's expression? He looked like he'd seen a spirit.'

'Hello Sparky, I'm blind.' Toph stated with slight annoyance.

'I'm sorry, I forgot.' Zuko said, not sure if he'd hurt her feelings.

'Don't be, Snoozles is much worse. It's like he makes a point of forgetting.'

Zuko didn't know what to say and was saved by the sounds of Aang and Sokka approaching.

'It was that bush.' Sokka said, pointing at the bush they were hiding behind.

'I sure it's not actually haunted,' Aang replied walking up to the bush. 'See—'

As soon as that word left his mouth, he too tripped into the bush.

'Maybe you're right,' he said to Sokka, while brushing himself off. 'We should warn Katara and the others.'

And as soon as they were out of earshot, very human laughter burst out from the bush.

Meanwhile at the centre of the Western Air Temple

'I don't believe in this haunted bush,' Katara retorted after hearing Aang and Sokka's story. 'And have either of you Seen Toph or Zuko?'

'They're probably in the all day echo chamber, she was showing him around earlier.' Sokka said brushing her the question off. 'But anyway this bush, it grabbed us. Just don't go near it, who knows what it'lk do next.'

'Alright,' Katara said, just so Sokka would stop nagging her. In reality she was planning to investigate this "haunted bush" for herself.

Back behind the bush

The pranksters were just getting bored when Toph felt Katara approaching.

'Sugar Queen's coming,' she whispered excitedly. 'I'm going to get her back for breakfast.'

That morning at breakfast Katara had yelled at Toph for spiking the tea, then told her to find her own food, conveniently there was also not enough food for Zuko either. Toph complied, sneaking into Sokka's room and raiding his stash of food, she then shared what she stole with Zuko.

When Katara approached the bush, Toph who wanted revenge, bent the earth slightly overeagerly. Katara immediately knew it was Toph.

Zuko saw Katara's furious expression as she picked herself up from the bush and glanced at Toph. She gave him a pointed look, run.

The two of them somehow managed to start sprinting at exactly to same time, but unfortunatly Katara had spotted them and was chasing after them while pulling her water pouch out at the same time. They kept running until they realised that running towards a creek while an angry Waterbender is chasing after them was not a very good idea. However it was too late, as soon as they turned to go another direction, Katara had used the water to freeze them in place. Ignoring Toph she glared at Zuko.

'What's the big idea this time? Was that plant poisonous? it probably was. How did you manage to get Toph to help you. You're a bad influence on a her.'

At this point Toph muttered under her breath:

'Huh, I think its the other way around.'

Zuko heard her and smirked.

Katara turned to Toph.

'What did you say?' she asked almost worriedly, as if she'd though Toph had been brainwashed.

'Nothing,' Toph replied. 'It's just you've gotten it wrong. Again. He's just gotten caught up in my plot against you for not giving me breakfast. I asked him to point out the prickly bushes so I could avoid them. Then I just choose one and hid behind it; waiting for you. It just happened that I was bored and Snoozles and Twinkletoes got here before you. He was just checking to see where I was, when you arrived, I didn't want him blowing my cover so I dragged him behind the bush too.'

Zuko had to admire Toph's lying skills, they were fit to rival his sister's, except for the fact that Azula had always lied to get him into trouble, not out of it. But he wasn't quite out of trouble yet.

'So why did he ran away?' Katara demanded. 'If he had nothing to do with it.'

'That,' Toph said enunciating. 'Is easily explained. According to both Snoozles and Twinkletoes, you are really scary when you're angry.'

Zuko had to agree with that, especially when she'd stormed into his room and given him a death threat a few nights ago. Katara seem satified with Toph's answer, but judging from her still annoyed expression, Aang and Sokka were in for a rather nasty lecture soon.

As they watched Katara leave, Zuko melting the ice off them, Toph said:

'You know what this means right?'

Zuko knew the answer to his question before he asked it.

'I owe you again, don't I?'

'Yes.'

In the next chapter—oh wait, if I tell you I'll ruin the surprise. Just be patient, and I'll try not to keep you waiting too long. Reviews always help! And also please vote on my poll, it's about which story I should write next and is currently in a tied. Until next time, which hopefully won't be that far away

~Hunter.