So my plan to end this fic on chapter 8 went well… Not. Last year's Zutara Week themes kept running through my head. Finally I couldn't take it any more and I gave in to my muse. So this is the next chapter to my fic. It leads on from Smug and is between the two episodes The Southern Raiders and The Ember Island Players. I promise this is the last chapter. I swear. I hope you enjoy: I giggled and smirked as much in this one as I did in Smug, even though it's almost as short and I'm not sure the story stuck to the theme manipulative…

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the trees in the show.

Manipulative

Wearily five of the gang members trudged back to their camp. They had won the battle they had just been engaged in, but one of them had paid a terrible price for the victory.

"Katara, I'm sure someone in the village will find it…"

Aang looked at the Waterbender with false hope on his face. She did not lift her head, but her hand strayed almost unconsciously to the base of her throat. Finding it bare she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears from flowing.

"I mean," Aang went on, panicking as he saw she was on the verge of tears. "We're going to be camped outside the village for a while. And it's really small so it relies on the river a lot…"

"Aang, I bended that river. I know how strong its current is. Nobody's going to find my mother's necklace," Katara replied dully, her voice breaking slightly.

Aang looked down and everybody else looked at Katara with sympathy. Sokka put his arm around her shoulders. He also had the feeling that, this time, Katara would not be as lucky as the last time her necklace had disappeared. And it hurt him to see her hurt.

"So," Toph spoke up, changing the subject abruptly, as only she could. "Does anybody know where the sixth member of our family is? He was supposed to meet us a couple of meters back."

Katara's eyes widened as her heart clenched in her chest. She had been so caught up in the loss of her necklace that she hadn't even noticed Zuko was still gone. Her heart started beating faster.

"Toph, can you feel him?" Aang asked worriedly.

Toph shook her head, crouching low to the ground just to make sure. Aang unfolded his glider and took off, scanning the ground for the prince. After a few minutes he came back, his face now truly worried.

"He must be under the cover of the trees," Sokka told them soothingly. "That's why you couldn't spot him, Aang."

Aang's face lost some of its worry, but Katara was unconvinced. She turned around to face the way they had just come, her eyes scanning for any sight of him. Her hands clenched into fists when he didn't appear. This time it was Suki who embraced her.

"He's okay," the warrior told her softly, squeezing her shoulders. "He must have just got held up."

"Yeah, come on: this is Zuko we're talking about. We've seen from personal experience that he's hard to kill."

Suki gave Sokka an exasperated look as Katara flinched at the word 'kill'.

"Well it's no use we just stand here," Toph put in. "Let's get back to camp; that's the first place he'll go, anyway."

Katara said nothing but willingly followed the others back. Her heart felt even heavier now then it had before. She could live without her mother's necklace, even if it would always leave a dull ache in her. But even the thought of living without Zuko…

He's okay; don't think about that. He's okay she chanted to herself, over and over.

Momo greeted them cheerfully as they entered their current campsite. Everybody automatically began doing their bit to prepare supper, all the while keeping an ear out for Zuko's return. Finally, after the tension and worry had built to the thickness where it could be cut with a knife, Toph's head jerked up.

"Well, it's about time!" she yelled to somebody they couldn't see.

Katara whirled around and felt waves of relief wash over her as Zuko came into sight. Then her eyes widened as she saw the many bruises and cuts that lined his skin, some showing through the tears in his clothes. He grinned sheepishly at them, showing he was not hurt more seriously then that.

"Where the heck were you?" Sokka snapped at him, trying to sound angry but sounding relieved in the end.

"I decided to take a swim," Zuko answered calmly.

Everybody gaped at him; they all knew how cold and rough the water of the river near to them was.

"Well, that explains how you got so battered," Suki murmured, looking him up and down.

"You just… decided to go swimming?" Aang asked him incredulously.

"Yes, I just decided randomly to go swimming," Zuko stressed.

"Okay…" Sokka said, playing along. "So… what happened? While you were randomly taking the swim you decided you wanted?"

"Well I was just swimming along, minding my own business, when I saw something," Zuko replied, seeming offhand. "And I decided that while I was already swimming in the water I might as well get it."

"Oh, well that was lucky. Spotting something worth getting while randomly swimming," Sokka said, still playing along. "So what's this thing used for?"

"Uh…" Zuko hesitated for a split second. "It hasn't really got a use. Not for the three of us guys, anyway. And it's not really Suki or Toph's type. No offence," he added hurriedly, and both said girls shrugged and told him none was taken. "So," he went on, digging in his pocket and pulling something out. "I thought maybe Katara would want it?"

He held out the thing in his hand and Katara's breath stopped. He was holding her mother's necklace and it was undamaged. She met his steady gaze with one of wide-eyed amazement. He smiled at her, making her melt inside.

"Zuko…" she breathed, starting forward and gently running her fingers over the necklace. Suddenly she flung her arms around him. "Thank you," she whispered, her voice catching.

He smiled and gently turned her around so her back was facing him. Then he gently slipped the necklace around her neck and began fastening it. Both of them were suddenly reminded of the night with the pirates…

"It turned out a bit different then last time," Katara remarked, making Zuko grin sheepishly.

"Last time?" Toph asked, intrigued.

"I lost my necklace once before," Katara told her and Suki, who was also not familiar with the story. "When I was helping Haru free his people."

"I found it and gallantly returned it to her," Zuko added, making Katara glare at him.

"'Gallantly returned it'? You tied me to a tree!"

Toph cracked up laughing as Zuko grinned sheepishly again.

"I offered to return it though," he reminded her, trying to save himself.

"Yeah, if I gave you Aang in return," Katara shot back, unable to keep from smiling. She paused for a while, then added, "Although the offer to save me from the pirates was quite valiant."

"So what happened when Katara refused to hand you Aang?" Toph asked, amused.

"I was left on the tree," she replied with a sniff.

"Yeah and I just had to stand there and wait for the Avatar to appear, all the while looking at her tied to that tree like that."

Katara stopped and looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, trying to work out his tone.

"What was wrong with me?" she asked him, her demanding tone sounding more like a hurt plea.

"Nothing… much."

"Tell me!" she insisted, refusing to be brushed out. "Was my hair all over the place?"

"Your hair was fine," Zuko replied.

"Did I have something on my face?" Katara pressed, following him as he went to start the fire.

"No," he replied simply.

She glared at him, worried and irritated at once. What could possibly have been wrong with her? Her hair had been fine, her face hadn't been a mess… She wracked her brains all through preparing dinner for them, her face a permanent frown that deepened as she got nowhere. Finally, true to Toph's prediction, she couldn't take it any more.

"Tell me what was wrong!" she yelled at Zuko, glaring a foot away from him.

"I told you," he said, his eyebrow raised. "There was not-"

"Zuko!" she exploded, almost stamping her foot. "Tell me or I'll freeze you to the bottom of the river!"

"You really want to know?" he asked her, his voice slightly amused.

"Yes!" she yelled, exasperated.

"Well…" he hesitated and looked at her with a small smirk. "You were wearing far too many unnecessary layers of clothing for my liking."

Sokka choked on whatever he was eating at Katara's entire face flamed up. She tried to reply, but could find nothing to say. Zuko chuckled, which sent little shivers of pleasure through her, and then walked away, ignoring Sokka's glares.

"Hey, Twinkle Toes?" Toph suddenly asked, causing Aang to blink in surprise.

"Yeah?"

"Why haven't you tied me to a tree yet?"

Aang's eyes widened and he started spluttering incoherent things, blushing furiously. The sight made everybody else laugh.

The following evening found all of them except Katara lounging in the grass. The Waterbender had gone off to pick fruit for supplies, beyond irritated when everybody refused to go with her. Aang and Toph had already been on the grass, their hands entwined. Sokka and Suki were sparring with a lot more touching then any other little battle and Zuko had just refused on the grounds that he and Sokka were going to spar later that evening.

No matter how much she begged, threatened or told him how it had been her to heal his bruises and fix his clothes, he would not go along. Finally she had stomped off by herself, muttering curses under her breath at them, and plotting ways to get them to go along the next time.

Twilight had fallen when a little boy from the village jogged up, a rough piece of parchment in his hands.

"Are you Zuko?" he asked the Firebender, who nodded in surprise. "I gotsta tell you something from Katara," he said, looking rather pleased with himself. "She was picking with my brothers and me and when we saids we was going home she asked me to tell you four things. The first one is that there's nobody around in that part of forest that she's picking fruit in. The second thing is…." He checked the bit of parchment. "There's some spare rope around from the games we's played the other day. Third she says that there's a solitary tree that's standing there away from the others. Oh, and it's far away from water," he added after consulting his list. "And last I gotsta tell you that picking made her really hot so she"- another glance down at the parchment-"took off all unnecessary layers of clothing."

Zuko stood stock still, his face blank as the boy ran off, pleased with himself. After about a minute the Firebender's head snapped up.

"Sokka!" he yelled, his voice sounding strangled.

"What's up?" Sokka called back from inside his tent.

"We're going to have to reschedule our duel!" Zuko's voice reached his ears.

Sokka frowned and turned towards the mouth of the tent. They had been looking forward to this spar for days.

"Why?" he called back, sticking his head out of the tent.

He was just in time to see Zuko sprinting into the trees.

"I'm going to help Katara pick fruit!" came back the yelled reply.

I am aware that I may have parodied the conventional capture Zutara fics. I didn't mean to be horrid or snide about anything, so if it came across that way then I'm really sorry. I only wrote this for my own amusement.

DELETED LINES FROM THE END OF THIS FIC:

For reasons unknown to the Water Tribe teen, the rest of the gang erupted into laughter.

"Hmmm… We're going to have to go shopping for food tomorrow," Suki mused, chuckling.

"But Zuko just went to pick fruit with Katara," Sokka said, utterly puzzled.

"Uh… yeah I don't think they'll get much picking done," Suki giggled.

"It's too early to pick fruit," Toph agreed with an evil smirk on her face. "The tree first needs to be deflowered."

Suki and her giggled while Sokka and Aang looked on, utterly confused. The two of them met each other's eyes and shrugged. Something told them they didn't want to understand what that meant.

I wanted to add them, but it disrupted the flow of the story and so I had to take them out :(

If you didn't get what Toph was referring to either I commend you: you have a very pure mind.