Ok, so this story was inspired by a scene from the show "How I Met Your Mother" where Lily and Marshall pause their conversations when things are getting out of hand. It's a pretty good idea if you think about, and I knew I had to write a Zutara fic around the idea.

Enough ramblings; on with the story!

(I own nothing, btw)

The Pause Clause

They were arguing about trade agreements the first time it happened.

"There is no way I'm agreeing to this!" Zuko shouted after reading the demands made by the Northern Water Tribe's Ambassador. "Is he insane?"

Katara sighed wearily. She had had a feeling Zuko would react like this. "Normally I would say yes, but his requests really are not that unreasonable."

" 'Not that unreasonable'? Katara, they only thing he hasn't asked me for are the keys to the palace! There is no way he needs, or deserves, any of this!"

"Well if you want the help of the Northern Waterbenders, then you're going to have to come to a compromise," Katara stated logically.

Zuko groaned and slumped back in his chair. Negotiations to re-open trade routes with the Earth Kingdom hadn't been nearly this complicated. "Can't you talk to him?"

"Absolutely not!" Katara snapped. "Just because I'm the Ambassador for the Southern Tribe doesn't mean you can pass your troubles off on me. You're the Fire Lord now Zuko; you have to get used these sorts of things."

"Well it isn't my fault that your people have such a strong stubborn streak," Zuko muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately, Katara heard him. "I'm the stubborn one? That's rich coming from you. We wouldn't even be in this situation if you hadn't insulted the Ambassador!"

"How was I supposed to know that would be considered an insult?" Zuko said in his defense. "You were supposed to teach me about the Water Tribe customs, but you never showed up that day."

"Because I was at the ceremony announcing the selection of the Ambassadors, which you were supposed to be at by the way."

"But I was busy meeting with King Bumi!" Zuko protested. "You have no idea how busy my schedule has been!"

"You don't think I'm busy too? I – urgh!" Katara actually stomped her foot in frustration. "Pause!"

"What?" Zuko asked in confusion.

"Pause. We need a pause before we both loose our heads," Katara said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ward off an approaching headache. "You know we both have short tempers. If we're going to be working together we need to have a... a pause clause as part of our professional relationship."

Zuko failed at suppressing the laugh that followed Katara's statement. " 'A pause clause'?"

"I'm serious Zuko! You know as well I do that this will happen again. When we think a conversation is getting too heated, or we just need a break, we'll take a pause and move on to something completely unrelated to the previous conversation. Then, once we've had ample time to cool off, we can un-pause and get back to the task at hand."

"I…yeah that could actually work," Zuko agreed after a moment.

"It's a deal then," Katara said with a decisive nod.

"So now what?"

"Sparring match?"

"You're on!"

A/N: I do plan to add a few more chapters to this story. The only problem is that I'm drawing a blank on argument topics. So if any of you have any ideas, let me know!