Public Displays of Annoyance

Summary: It isn't that Katara begrudges Zuko and Mai their very active love life. She just wishes they would stop having it in front of her. Katara/Aang, Zuko/Mai, mentions of Sokka/Suki.

Disclaimer: All of the characters depicted and mentioned within this story are the creations and property of the infinitely awesome Mike and Brian, and are being borrowed for a little bit of totally not-for-profit fun.

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, beloved daughter of Hakoda, more or less beloved sister of Sokka, master waterbender, adored and adoring sweetheart of Avatar Aang, co-kicker of the almost-Firelord Azula's ass, was miserable.

Well, perhaps miserable was a bit of an overstatement; it was hard to be miserable with so much going on. The world was in the process of taking its first tentative steps towards peace in a hundred years, and really, it was a blessing to not only witness it, but to be in the very centre of it.

More accurately, Katara of the numerous descriptors was distinctly and achingly lonely, which was tangentially related to the adored and adoring sweetheart of Avatar Aang bit of her current view of herself and her place within the grand scheme of things. More specifically, this was due to the fact that he wasn't currently nearby - quite the opposite.

They had barely had time to get settled in the Fire Nation capital when word had come from Omashu that Aang was needed as soon as possible.

It wasn't the first time that he had been obliged to pull himself away from their attempt at a reunion with friends that they didn't get to see as often as they'd like, but generally, when he had to make such a trip, she was right there with him, assuring him that they could always come back for a few extra days when things were resolved.

To be sure, Aang had asked if she would like to come along, flashing that hopeful-but-not-too-hopeful-he-didn't-want-to-be-too-pushy-after-all-he-had-learned-his-lesson-on-that-front smile that tended to make her insides go a little soft and gushy. And at first, she had fully intended to go, despite Sokka's good-natured ribbing about "[his] little baby sister, all grown up and safe in a totally co-dependent relationship."

But then, the evening before they were set to leave, her throat had begun to burn and her head had begun to feel as though a parade was detouring directly through it. Before long, her whole body had ached with fever, and an alarmed Aang had called in one of the Fire Nation capital's healers to confirm what she pretty much knew: just a particularly nasty flu, but bed rest would be essential if she wanted a swift recovery.

To her mind, there was little reason that she couldn't rest just as effectively on Appa's back on the way to Omashu as she could in one of Zuko's guest quarters, but Aang hadn't seen the situation quite the same way.

At first, he had tried reasoning with her.

When that had failed utterly, he had tried looking at her with big, sad eyes until she relented and agreed to bed rest.

Eventually, he had left in the middle of the night and asked Sokka to keep an eye on her to ensure that she didn't try to sneak out after him.

She had, of course, evaded Sokka with ease, but thanks to her pounding, spinning head, tracking her runaway boyfriend had proved more difficult than she'd thought, and his head start had taken that from difficult to impossible.

Thus had she found herself abducted and taken back to the capital by Sokka, Suki and Mai, and tucked forcibly into bed by the latter two.

Her vehement assertion that she was going to kill Aang when he got back had faded along with the worst of her symptoms, although she still planned to give him a chilly reception.

Not that she'd minded the opportunity to spend the time in the Fire Nation. Already she and Aang were finding that they didn't get to see any of their friends nearly as much as they would have liked.

However, she had already found that she vastly preferred visiting her friends when Aang was there to enjoy it with her, and spending time with her friends, without him, just reinforced how much she was already missing him.

And these two idiots, she thought, casting a baleful glare at the aforementioned close friend and increasingly close friend-of-a-friend, weren't helping.

Not that they were being overtly indecent; Katara had seen enough of that, both from them and from her brother and Suki, to know - and fully appreciate - the difference. But the way they were sitting almost in each other's laps, trailing off into occasional thumb wars and tickle attacks, grinning (or at the very least, sort of almost-smiling) blissfully away, was starting to become annoying. And somehow, knowing that the root of said annoyance was located firmly in a particularly wistful, lonely sort of envy did little to help.

Nevertheless, one couldn't expect all the sweethearts of the world to stop behaving as such just because hers was halfway around the world at the moment, and she had hitherto been content to cough loudly and pointedly whenever a hand would wander dangerously close to somewhere vaguely embarrassing. However, when Zuko whispered something (no doubt horribly inappropriate, if his expression was any indication) against Mai's hair, prompting a giggle of all things, Katara felt strongly that not only was the end of the world clearly around the corner, but that a very definite Line had been crossed.

"Hey!" she called sharply, flicking a bit of sand at the strange two-headed, eight-limbed creature that vaguely resembled her friends. Despite her annoyance, she hid a smile at the clear reluctance with which the brand new sparkly Firelord and his brand new sparkly Intended unwound from each other. "Could you two try to remember that you're not the only ones here?"

"What, you want a snuggle and an ear-nuzzle too?" Mai took a brief moment to consider this, then nudged Zuko towards the younger girl. "Okay, but keep your hands where I can see them."

"Mai!" Zuko yelped, scandalized and scrambling away from both girls. "That's horrible!"

"Well, that's not very nice," the dark-haired girl tsked. "You can't really see her ears with all the hair, but if the rest of her is any indication, they can't be that bad."

"That's not what I meant!" he protested, before turning to Katara. "It's not. I'm just-you know, involved, and… " He trailed off, gesturing helplessly.

"Believe it or not, I really don't mind," Katara assured him mildly. "I'm kind of particular about my ear-nuzzles."

Mai sent her a look that, if found in early infancy and lovingly nurtured into its late teens, might eventually qualify as a sympathetic smile.

"Would it help if we shaved his head first?"

"Mai!" Zuko exclaimed once again, clapping a protective hand over his hair just in case one of them should somehow produce a razor from one of those mysterious hiding places that girls in general, and his girl in particular, seemed to possess in abundance.

Katara peered at him for a long moment of deep consideration, as though superimposing Aang's image over top of her friend.

"You know, it might."

He sent her a look of helpless, deeply betrayed disgust, and then began the process of working up a good, long Sulk.

"Don't worry, we're not going to shave your head," Mai assured him, fingers threading soothingly through the soft, fine hair at the back of his neck. "I like your hair."

Considerably softened by this (and perhaps just a wee bit by the way that, without seeming to move at all, she somehow contrived to end up nearly in his lap), he accepted quite easily the total derailment of his Sulk.

"I like your hair too," he admitted, resting his cheek against the top of her head, his smile growing at the sensation of the expanse of soft sun-warmed black against his skin.

Mai gave a tiny, throaty little purr as his breath stirred her hair, and nuzzled his cheek. His lips brushed through her hair and found the shell of her ear, kissing lightly, prompting another happy little noise.

With a shake of her head and a sniff of gentle amusement, Katara returned to her book. Ere she had gone half a page, however, she noticed out of the corner of her eye a return of the roaming hands that had been symptomatic of her friends' behaviour all afternoon.

"Ack!" Zuko noted curiously as a cloud of sand, assisted by a small paperback novel, enveloped him.

"Erk!" Mai agreed thoughtfully as a second flew swiftly her way.

"Knock it off," Katara ordered sternly.

To his credit, Zuko looked appropriately contrite. Mai, on the other hand, sent her a distinctly outraged glare.

"You got sand down my shirt," she announced, tugging at the thin dark fabric in quick, annoyed movements to shake out the offending sand.

Zuko froze in the act of shaking the sand from his hair as two of his particular favourite parts of his girlfriend were almost-revealed and concealed several times in rapid succession.

"Here, let me help," he offered kindly, fingers already sneaking up under the narrow strip of black that served as her swimsuit top.

"Oh, for..." Instead of finishing this deeply annoyed utterance in words, Katara opted instead to hurl her book at the back of her dear friend's head, and felt an overwhelming satisfaction as it connected with a thud.

"What was that for?" he demanded, gingerly rubbing what he suspected would become a nice-sized lump.

Mai rolled her eyes good-naturedly, tossing Katara's book back to her.

"Come on, Zuko; don't you know anything? Her boyfriend is out of town and she's lonely, so no one else gets to get any either."

"Exactly!" Katara agreed, thumping the blanket beside her emphatically. "I'm glad someone understands."

"Guys," Mai shrugged, as though this easily explained Zuko's lack of understanding on this crucial issue. Then she sent the pretty brunette a curious sideways look. "So, if you knew you were going to be miserable the whole time Aang was gone, why didn't you go with him?"

"She was sick, Mai," Zuko explained patiently. "He wanted her to stay behind and rest."

Katara hid a smile as Mai's expression took on a baffled, faintly disappointed air.

"And you actually did? Just like that?"

"You know, not all girls consider it their personal mission statement to go against their boyfriends' wishes," Zuko said pointedly. "Some girls even listen to their boyfriends every now and then."

"Yeah," Katara agreed sadly. "Plus, he left while I was asleep, and backtracked and changed his route about fifteen times so I couldn't catch up with him."

At this, Zuko made a noise of deep disgust, partially at this revelation and partly at Mai's unsuccessful attempt to cover her distinctly approving laugh with a cough.

"You're both insane."

"Don't worry, Zuko," Mai said, patting his hand soothingly. "I'm sure when Toph gets a boyfriend, she'll be the picture of obedience."

There was a long, stunned silence, and then all three broke into gales of hysterical laughter.

"Thanks, guys," Katara said after a long moment, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "I needed that." She sighed. "This is the first time Aang and I have been apart for so long in a year, and I knew I'd miss him, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Maybe Sokka's right – maybe we are codependent."

Zuko gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze, while Mai shot her a skeptical look.

"Give yourself a break. You're not the first girl in the world to mope a little because your boyfriend's halfway around the world. Ask Ty Lee sometime how I was when this idiot decided to take off and break up with me with a letter."

Zuko regarded his girlfriend with sad, appealing eyes.

"Mai, you know I never wanted to leave you behind. It was too dangerous; I couldn't drag you into it."

"The joke's on you, Zuko – she dragged herself into it," Katara giggled.

"And let me tell you," Mai added with a tiny grin, "there are few things funnier than the sight of Ty Lee in that orange jumpsuit, flirting with every cute guard and prisoner she sees."

He smiled halfheartedly, which quickly dissolved into a haunted sort of expression. Mai sighed, and touched his shoulder gently.

"Hey; you know I don't blame you for any of that, right?"

He regarded her skeptically.

"So, that was my other girlfriend who got her uncle to restrain me so I couldn't go anywhere while she was yelling at me?"

She hesitated.

"So I overreacted a little. Okay, a lot," she amended as she caught two disbelieving stares. The stares remained. She threw up her hands helplessly. "Okay, so we're matching idiots."

His smile was decidedly more genuine.

"I can live with that."

"Good," she said, shuffling closer and wrapping one arm around him. "Because you're not getting rid of me."

"Good," he agreed, resting his cheek on her shoulder and pressing a kiss to the soft skin there.

She responded with a happy little sigh, and then nudged him upright so that she could kiss him properly.

Repeatedly.

With dangerously wandering hands, yet again.

"Guys!" Katara called sharply.

When this yielded no result, she glowered darkly. Flicking sand hadn't worked; flicking more sand hadn't worked; even a novel to the back of the head had proven useless in the long run. Therefore, there was only one thing to do.

Seconds later, Mai and Zuko shrieked in startled unison as a vast column of water arced up from the surface of the ocean, over the expanse of sun-warmed sand, and directly onto their heads.

"You know," she mused aloud to no one in particular as her dear friends attempted to shake the water from their ears, "I feel a lot better now."

End Notes: Hee, I like the idea of Katara with a slightly vindictive sense of humour. *hearts*