Sort of Strangers

So, he's got a favorite customer.

And look, it isn't as if it's a big deal or anything. Everyone has one. His is this girl who comes here every day, at late in the afternoon and she's got this pretty, dark hair that's always twisted into a pair of braids and eyes that are always wide and clear and smiling.

He doesn't even know why she's his favorite customer. It's not as if she's particularly nice to him and she doesn't leave him a big tip or anything. And she's also the only regular without a regular order. That normally pisses him off but he thinks that it's actually, sort of adorable whenever she taps her fingers against her thighs and chews on her bottom lip and looks at the menu board as if she has never stepped foot in the shop her whole life. He makes it a kind of game to try and guess what kind of tea flavor she'll order, but so far, he's never been right.

Maybe she's his favorite customer because she always comes into the shop with a smile and she's really nice and patient and she never gets annoyed whenever he brings her order in too late or gives her the wrong one. It's a nice break from all the impatient, obnoxious assholes he constantly has to deal with every day and whenever she shows up, he doesn't feel half as snarky as he normally does.

And look, it's not that he hates being here. He doesn't. He knows that his uncle really needs his help because the teashop is new and they're just starting out so they can't afford to hire as many employees as they need. The teashop thing started really suddenly, to be honest. His uncle used to be a corporate executive in a really big company here in Ba Sing Se but after they had gone to this "spiritual" trip to the Western Air Temple, he decided to quit his job and start his own teashop. He doesn't really remember much of his uncle's explanation but it involved a lot of confusing, nonsensical metaphors and fortune-cookie sayings.

Anyways.

Obviously, his uncle's earning a lot less than he used to but Zuko doesn't really mind. If setting up a teashop is what makes the man happy, then Zuko's more than ready to support him and do whatever he can to help his uncle out. He owes that much to the man—after some messy business with his family, his uncle took him in when he was thirteen years old and practically raised him.

And besides, even though he now has to work, they're still living in a nice flat in the Upper Ring and his uncle can still afford the tuition in Ba Sing Se University so it's all good. The pay's good too and the hours are flexible and he can basically work as much or as less as he wants. So even though the job really sucks sometimes, he doesn't mind putting in the extra hours.

His uncle tells him that he can take his break and he's about to turn around and head to the back room when he sees her entering through the door. He looks at the clock and sees that it's late in the afternoon. Just in time as always.

She stands in front of the counter and grins at him and he tries to ignore the way the corners of his mouth are twitching at the sight of her.

"So...what will it be?" he asks her.

She looks at the menu board and bites at her bottom lip. This time she has her wallet in her fingers, so she's tapping it against her thighs.

"You have new flavors," she tells him. Her brow arches as she turns to look at him. "Milk tea?"

"Yeah. My uncle's...trying to keep up with the times," he says. They're falling a little behind in terms of sales so they're trying to bring in more customers by being more modern and adding new stuff, like milk tea, to keep up with the trends. His uncle doesn't mind, because he loves tea, no matter what kind but Zuko's still kind of iffy around it.

"Is it any good?" she asks him.

He shrugs. "I don't know. I haven't tried one yet."

"Hmm..." She purses her lips and looks over at the menu board one last time. "I don't mind trying something new. I'll try the black tea and brown sugar one."

"It's going to take me a few minutes," he says.

She gives him a patient smile and nods her head. "No problem."

Agni, it's crazy how incredibly nice this girl is.

He starts working on her tea and adds about more brown sugar than necessary because if there's one thing he's noticed, it's that no matter what flavor she orders, she likes her tea sweet. He closes the cup up with a lid and carefully places it in a plastic bag before handing it to her. She gives him the money and he's about to hand her, the change when she shakes her head and says, "Keep it."

It's pretty small and he knows that it's practically the same amount she gives to everyone but he's still happy because she gives him this smile that he hasn't seen her give to anyone else.

She waves goodbye and he waves back as he watches her walk out of the door.

She comes in one day with this little boy who can't be more than five years old. He has her smile and her eyes and her rumpled, dark hair. Curled around his tiny, chubby fingers is a toy sword. The little boy runs towards the counter and Zuko forces out a tired smile. He's exhausted because he's just dealt with an entire squad of douchey football players and he's impatiently counting the minutes until his break. He kind of wants to escape right now and just hide out in the back and sleep.

The little boy—her little brother, he figures—presses his face against the glass and the girl comes up from behind him and gives Zuko a small smile.

"Hi," she says.

"Hi," he replies and immediately, he wishes that he had said something more clever. Which is absolutely idiotic because it's not as if he wants to impress her or something.

She looks at the menu and starts examining it and in his head, he makes a guess that she will order green tea. Her little brother's by her side, happily chattering and pointing at the cakes and pastries on display. She's trying to shush him but he's not really listening. Despite his sour mood, Zuko thinks that it's kind of adorable.

"I think I'll have some red tea," she tells him. "Just the regular one. Not the one with the milk."

"Right. Red tea," he says with a nod of his head.

"And maybe some iced tea for my little brother—''

Her little brother jumps up and grabs her elbow and squeals, "I want cake!"

She frowns at him and says, "You know you're not supposed to eat sweets."

Her little brother pouts, his bottom lip jutting out from above his chin. "Aww..."

Her eyes soften and she looks down in contemplation before giving an easygoing shrug and saying, "Well...I guess one slice of cake won't hurt."

He's smiling, he realizes and he can't really get rid of it. It's really crazy because just moments ago, he was frowning and scowling and complaining from under his breath.

She gives him her orders and he turns around and starts fixing them up. He listens to the two of them talking—well, mostly her little brother's doing the talking—before pressing down the lids of their cups, wrapping up the cake and handing everything to her.

"Thanks," she says. She places a hand on top of her brother's head and gently steers him out of the door. She looks over her shoulder and sends him a look that he can't quite decipher.

"See you tomorrow?" she says.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow," he mumbles.

He's definitely feeling a lot better.

She comes in later than usual the next day and he's immediately worried because she obviously ran into some trouble. She looks frazzled and tired and instead of two braids, her hair is haphazardly tied into a ponytail. She's wearing a loose shirt that's caked with mud and there's a bandage wrapped around her forearm.

"What happened?" he asks her as soon as she steps in front of the counter. His forehead creases as his eyes sweep over her bandaged wound. His fingers clench at the thought that some sleazy asshole might've done something to her on her way here.

Stupid girl.

She should know better than to come wandering at the teashop at this time of the night.

(Okay, so it's like 6:30. But still.)

She gives him a breezy smile and says, "Oh, this? Don't worry. It's nothing. Just ran into an accident at practice."

He starts wondering what kind of practice she had been doing for her to end up looking so messed-up. He's about to ask but then he decides against it because it's so stupid and they hardly even know each other. She's a customer and he's just the tea-server boy so the things she does outside of the teashop isn't any of his business.

"You showed up late today."

"Yeah?"

"You usually come by in the afternoon." His face flushes and he hastily adds, "Not that I've been paying attention."

Her smile shifts so that it looks like a cross between one of amusement and mischievousness. "Practice ran a bit late and then I had to finish up this paper and get this scrape I got sorted out."

She points at the bandage on her arm.

"Oh. Okay. So...what do you want to order?" he asks.

She looks disappointed, almost as if she had been hoping that he would ask her more or something else. The look lasts for about a millisecond because the next thing he knows, she's looking at the menu and chewing on her bottom lip and tapping her fingers against her thighs. She orders Jasmine tea in the end and he fills up her cup a little more than he should.

Before she can turn around to leave, he says, "You sure you're going to be okay walking back home alone?"

He doesn't know why he said it because he obviously can't do anything ridiculous like offer to walk her home or something. He can't just leave the shop and they aren't even acquaintances, let alone friends. She probably won't accept, even if he asked.

She smiles at him and cheerfully says, "I'm good."

"Okay," he says. He looks down and wipes the counter with a rag. "You be careful."

"I will," she says before walking out of the door.

He moves to glass window and watches her walk down the street. He doesn't leave until she turns left into a corner and disappears.

She comes in with a guy one day and the first thing Zuko thinks about is that the guy she's with is probably one of those ridiculous, douchey, shampoo commercial models. He swears that if Sokka were here, he'd make jokes about the guy's hairstyle. His hair is really long and shiny and loose around his face and you'd expect him to wear hipster, artsy clothes or something but he's not. Instead, he's wearing slacks and a neat polo that's buttoned all the way to his neck.

He has an arm around the girl's shoulder and Zuko finds himself trying to figure out if the way long-haired-shampoo-commercial-guy's holding her is in a platonic or not-really-platonic manner. Then, he tells himself to stop because whoever the guy is (whether he's the girl's boyfriend or friend or brother or whatever) isn't really any of his business. Who she sees outside of the teashop isn't a concern of his.

"So, what're you going to order?" long-haired-shampoo-commercial-guy asks.

She shrugs and (as always), she looks up to stare at the menu board contemplatively. "I don't know, Haru. You should just order first."

Haru nods his head and says, "Okay."

He moves forward and says, "I'll have some Butter Toffee Milk Tea please."

The girl wrinkles her nose and says, "You should just try the plain ones. I don't think the milk tea is all that good."

Then her eyes widen and she turns to give him a sheepish look, "No offense."

He gives her a half-smile and says, "None taken."

Haru shrugs and says, "I like it."

The girl's reply is cut short by a loud ringing. Haru holds his hand up and signals the girl to wait as he shimmies a phone out of his pocket. He presses it close to his ear and says, "Oh, hi babe. Yeah. We're on our way..."

He stalks off and Zuko suddenly feels triumphant because Haru just addressed the caller as 'babe' and surely, if the teashop girl was really his girlfriend, he wouldn't be going around calling other people 'babe.' He doesn't know why it matters to him so much but it does.

"I'll have some oolong tea, please," she says and he mutely nods his head as he starts preparing their orders.

They both pay separately and he watches her and her not-boyfriend as they walk out of the door.

He thinks that it's messed up that he knows the name of her friend but he still has no idea who she is.

They're in the grocery and he's feeling impatient because his uncle is taking forever in deciding what kind of milk to buy. His uncle's going to be making cake and he's trying to decide whether he should buy the milk that's on sale or the one that's not but actually better. And look, he gets it okay? Picking the right kind of milk is important in order to get the recipe right. But seriously. They are blocking the aisle and he's had to move and apologize for the last fifteen minutes because people kept bumping into him. And he can't even move somewhere else because the old man wants him to be here so that he can "give his opinion."

Agni.

It's just milk.

Someone taps him on the shoulder and he jumps a little. He's about to apologize when he turns around and finds the girl. She's wearing a little sundress today with skinny straps and a flowing skirt and her hair is tied into two braids. She looks cute and he thinks that it's mostly because he's never seen her wear something so girly before. Yeah, she wears skirts from time to time, but her outfits usually comprise of t-shirts and jeans or shorts.

(Not that he's been paying attention.)

"Hi," he says.

"Hey," she says. She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and says, "You shop here?"

"Yeah. My uncle's making cake. He still can't decide which milk to buy so..." He trails off and tries to block his uncle, who's already nosily trying to peer over his shoulder.

The girl gives a mock-serious look. "Of course. Milk is everything after all."

He chuckles and wishes that he can come up with a clever, lighthearted response that will make her laugh. Instead, he says, "Yeah. Do...do you shop here too?"

(Lame. Very lame.)

He doesn't know why he sounds so hopeful at the idea that she does her grocery shopping here. But if she does, then it must mean that she lives nearby, probably only a few blocks from his and his uncle's apartment. Not that it matters, because it's not as if he actually plans on visiting her.

She shakes her head. "Oh, no. I only came here because I was running late and I needed to buy some ingredients in time for this dinner. And plus, they're the only shop that sells this special kind of oyster sauce that I want to get. I live in the Lower Ring."

"Oh." He's a little disappointed because the Lower Ring is miles off—he's obviously not going to be seeing her walking around the neighborhood anytime soon.

She leans forward and conspiratorially whispers. "Frankly, I try not to shop here as much as I can. The prices here are outrageous."

"Right," he says. "They kind of are. But it's the nearest to our apartment so it's more convenient for us to shop here."

They make small talk but it's mostly just about the prices and the new tea flavors he's uncle's selling so he still doesn't really know that much about her. Which is fine really, because it's not as if he wants to.

"Well...I better get going," she says. She gestures at the cart in front of him and continues, "Do you mind..."

"No, of course not," he says. He moves it a little so she has room to pass. Her elbow brushes against his as she walks by and he tries to pretend as if it did not affect him.

"Bye," she says.

"Bye," he replies.

His uncle asks him who she is and he answers that he doesn't know. And it's the truth anyway because the extent of their conversations usually comprise of him asking for her order and her giving it to him. By all accounts, she's nothing more than a stranger to him.

The only thing he knows is that she likes her tea sweet and that she taps her fingers against her thighs when she's thinking and that she always orders take-out but if she decides to sit down and stay she picks the table by the window.

It's weird because he feels like he knows her a bit better than what a normal stranger would have.

He wishes that he at least bothered to get her name.

She comes by one day, looking a lot more nervous than she usually does. The smile he gives her falters a little, because she's worried about something and he doesn't like seeing her so off-kilter. She steps in front of the counter and as always, looks at the menu board. He's about to ask her what's wrong when she cuts him off and says, "A cup of lychee please."

"Plain?"

"Yes."

He starts making her cup but every once in awhile, he's distracted by the sight of her restlessly shifting in her place. As soon as he finishes pouring the tea into a plastic cup, he hands it over to her with some tissues and she pays.

"So..." She hesitates for a moment before continuing. "Do you have a break?"

"I already took it," he nonchalantly says. "About two hours ago."

"Oh." Her smile doesn't falter. "Are you...busy or anything?"

"What?"

"After your shift, I mean?"

He blinks at her twice, confused at where she's going with her questions.

"I still have to do the inventory for my uncle."

As soon as the words leave his mouth, he immediately regrets them. He can't help but feel that it's not the answer he really wants to give her or the answer she wants to hear. But it's the truth and it's something he can't back out of anyway—the inventory needs to be done by today and he's the only person his uncle trusts to do it the right way.

"Oh. Okay," she says as she gives him a disarming smile. He suddenly, irrationally wants to ask her to stay but then, that will be stupid because he's busy working and it's not as if he'll be able to talk to her anyways.

"See you later," she says.

"Yeah. Have a great day," he replies.

He doesn't miss the look of disappointment on her face as she walks out of the door.

He's in his desert cultures class and he's trying to pay attention. Really. He is. But the thing is, he feels like going to this class is a waste of time because it's not even something that's remotely useful for his major, anyways. It's ridiculous that he has to take a bunch of "required" classes that are completely useless for his course.

He's a Political Science major and he's planning to take up law afterwards. Someone's always in trouble with the Dai Li here in Ba Sing Se, so lawyers make big money weaseling people out of jail. He took the course because a.) he wants be rich and b.) his dad's in the government so he's already a bit familiar with legal systems.

Still, he doesn't know how desert cultures have anything to do with political science. He'll probably understand if they took up stuff like the political systems of the desert tribes but so far, the only thing they've been discussing is weird, crazy marriage rituals.

Absolutely pointless.

Anyways, the bell's about to ring and he's sitting near the door so that he can make an easy getaway. Professor Zei's assigning them a three thousand word paper and everyone groans but him. Yeah, it's super annoying but he already finished his other papers so he'll probably be able to pencil it in or something in between his breaks. He takes his schoolwork really, really seriously and he's trying to maintain his spot on the Dean's List so he usually does all of his assignments weeks before they're due.

Most people will say that he's obsessed but it doesn't matter because maybe he really is. He's been through a ton of horrible shit and most of the time, he either feels like he's not himself or too much of himself or not enough of himself. He can't even make sense of what he's going through for like, ninety-five percent of the time. He doesn't really feel like dealing with all this stuff so school work and regular work is a nice distraction. Having a goal he can work his way into achieving helps.

The bell rings and he walks out and heads to the library. It's already six o'clock but he has a ton of reading to do and it doesn't hurt to get started.

He's about to turn to the left when he sees her walking down the hallway. She's wearing a dress with some sneakers and she's walking with this girl with short, auburn hair and grey eyes. He stares at her and blinks a couple of times because fuck. What are the odds that they go to the same school? He can't believe that she's been going to the teashop every day and they're actually schoolmates this whole time. How has he not seen her before?

It does sort of make sense, he supposes. Maybe she's younger than him by a year or two or maybe they have completely different courses. People with completely different course majors never have the same classes together and the buildings are so huge and far apart from each other that it's very likely for two different people to never cross paths.

She catches his eyes and she looks just as surprised as he does. She waves her hand and he waves back and it looks as if she's on the verge of walking towards him.

Then, the goddamn, stupid-as-fuck bell rings and her friend grabs her by the wrist and motions that they have to go.

She gives him one last look before rushing off into the opposite building.

As he continues on to the library, he swears to himself that when she shows up to the teashop tomorrow, he's going to ask for her name and have a proper conversation with her.

He's going to do it.

He waits for her until the shop closes and she doesn't show up. It's what finally makes him realize that he has a bit of a crush on her.

Otherwise, he wouldn't care this much.

Or be this disappointed.

Sokka calls him up the next night and tells him that his girlfriend got him extra tickets to the championship game for the girl's soccer team. He declines and Sokka whines and tells him that everyone's going but him and that he's such a wet blanket for never, ever doing anything fun.

And look, it isn't as if he doesn't want to have fun. He's just really busy, okay? He has his martial arts sessions and school and work, plus he's taking up extra business courses so he can get some tips on how to improve their teashop. He's super busy so aside from a few get-togethers here and there, he doesn't really have time to cultivate his social life.

"Come on, man. Everyone's dying to get tickets to this game and you're just going to throw yours away. Live a little," Sokka says.

Zuko frowns and says, "But—''

"It's just one night. And finals isn't until next month so you're good," Sokka says, cutting him off. "Stop being lame."

He sighs and says yes, deciding that maybe Sokka is right. He's been holed up in his room reading nothing but his theory notes for the last two hours and that can't be healthy. He's allowed to blow off some steam every now and then, right? Sokka gives an excited holler and he shakes his head and chuckles before telling Sokka that he'll meet up with everyone else at the game.

He pulls on a green shirt so that he'll be wearing the school colors before putting a jacket on and telling his uncle that he'll be out for awhile.

When he gets to the soccer field, Sokka already consuming a tray full of beef jerky and Aang and Katara already have their arms wrapped around each other. They all wave at him and he squeezes himself in so that he's in between Toph and Sokka.

"Hey. Mind leaving a space for Suki?" Sokka says as he offers Zuko some of his jerky.

Zuko takes one and says, "Suki?"

"Snoozles' girlfriend," Toph says, faint displeasure littering her voice.

"Oh," Zuko says as he moves and sits on Toph's other side instead.

"I didn't know that the girl's soccer team was so popular," Zuko says as he examines the overcrowded bleachers.

Toph snorts and says, "Are you kidding me, princess? Are you that outdated with everything? Of course, they're popular. It probably helps that a good majority of them are attractive and are always prancing around in tiny shorts. According to Sokka anyway."

Zuko cringes at the nickname while Sokka loudly protests that he has a girlfriend and that he does not openly ogle at the soccer players' incredibly short, shorts. Embarrassed, Zuko starts chewing on his beef jerky. "Are they any good?"

Toph shrugs. "People say that they're decent enough. They did make it to the championships after all. But I wouldn't know."

She gestures at her blank, gray eyes. Zuko chokes on his beef jerky, embarrassed at having forgotten that she's blind.

"Right," he mumbles.

"I'm just here because Snoozles' girlfriend is the best friend of one of the soccer players or something," Toph says.

"Everybody! Shh! Suki's on!" Sokka says as he elbows everyone into silence.

Zuko looks at the field and sees a group of cheerleaders positioning themselves on the center.

"Your new girlfriend's a cheerleader?" Zuko chuckles. Sokka hasn't brought Suki to any of their gatherings so he doesn't know much about her yet. He figures that Sokka and this Suki girl must be a fairly new item because Sokka hasn't once mentioned her up until tonight.

"Shh!" Sokka hisses.

Before Zuko can say anything else, music starts blaring from the speakers and the cheerleaders immediately start dancing. They do a series of impressive, dangerous-looking stunts and Sokka spends the rest of the routine loudly cheering and hollering in his seat. When the routine ends, everyone's up on their feet clapping, with Sokka being the first one standing.

The cheerleaders eventually disperse and Katara irately grabs Sokka by the scruff of his collar and forces him to sit down.

"Hey! Guys! That's Suki!" Sokka says pointing to a girl coming up towards their seats.

Zuko's eyes widen.

Suki is the teashop girl's auburn-haired friend he saw yesterday. He immediately starts running over all of the facts in his mind. Suki has a best friend who's a soccer player and there was this one night when the teashop girl showed up muddied and cut because of an accident in practice—

His line of thought gets interrupted by the sound of the emcee announcing the soccer players' entrance. He barely pays attention as Sokka introduces his new girlfriend to everyone else—he's too busy trying to make out the soccer players running across the field.

It's her.

He leans forward as he watches her run across the field. She's wearing a loose jersey over a pair of tiny, tiny shorts. Her legs are long and slender but shapely and her ass looks amazing. The jersey is loose but it drapes over her body perfectly and he's seen her in enough form-fitting shirts to know that she's hiding a lot underneath that jersey of hers. He isn't being a pervert or anything but he is a teenage boy and he's allowed to look (and appreciate).

She looks up and there's a split second when their eyes meet and he swears that she had recognized him. But then, she's looking away and running to the center of the field with everyone else.

Suki and Sokka start talking about how they met but Zuko's not really paying attention because he's trying to focus on the game. The kick-off starts and everything moves fairly swiftly from there. Now, he doesn't a lot about soccer but even he can tell that the girl's amazing. She manages to block a bunch of people and she's fast and nimble. It seems as if they're gaining the upper hand for the first thirty minutes but towards the end, the opposing team manages to get a goal in. They're about to score another one when the girl blocks one of their players.

Everyone boos when the opposing member roughly elbows the girl to the ground. Everyone's screaming and yelling foul, including Suki.

She gets a direct free kick. Everyone goes silent as she stands up and dusts herself off. She looks calm enough but there's a crease in between her brow and he can tell that she's pissed.

Agni. She looks even more amazing when she's pissed.

She kicks.

The goalie manages to block it.

Everyone groans in disappointment.

It doesn't matter though because she still comes out on top by the end of the first half. Aside from blocking a couple of people, she manages to send the ball sailing past the goalie's head, leading to a tie.

During the break, she goes sit on the bench and drinks some water. There's mud at the front of her shirt now and her face is matted with sweat. Their coach gathers them together and tells them something. Sokka punches him in the arm and asks him something, but he doesn't really hear it.

The second half starts and it seems even faster than the first. There are moments where he feels as if things are about to turn horribly wrong for their school's team and moments where he feels like they might actually win.

They are down to the last few minutes and Sokka's yelling in his ear about how he it will suck if everything will end in a tie. Zuko mutely nods along as he watches the teashop girl race across the field, two opposing members blocking her. She pauses and looks around, trying to find an opening. One of her teammates yells at her. She subtly nods her head and with a calculated kick, she passes it over to her teammate who manages to send it hurtling towards the net.

The goalie dives down to retrieve it.

The goalie misses.

He's up on his feet cheering because they win.

They win.

All of the soccer players from their team converge to the center and hug and cry and scream. The girl hangs back a little and looks up, her eyes searching.

She sees him and her smile grows wider.

A huge part of him is hoping that she'll come up to talk to Suki.

(Or to talk to him.)

He stands by the entrance and waits for her, but he doesn't see her. He sighs, disappointed and he figures that he must've missed her and that she already left. He was at least hoping that Suki will stay behind to introduce them but she already left to go on a date with Sokka. He turns around and starts walking to the train station.

He's on his way home when someone calls out to him.

"Hey! You!"

He turns around and finds the teashop girl walking towards him. She has changed out of her jersey and she's wearing a green tank top and a pair of shorts. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she looks fresh and clean and neat.

He stops and kicks at the ground, suddenly nervous.

"Hey," she says.

"Hey," he replies. Internally, he kicks himself. He's been waiting for a long time to get a chance to talk to her and this is what he comes up with. He's not exactly good with girls but he isn't entirely horrible either. He usually has more game than this. Somehow, whenever he's around her, he always acts like a total loser.

"Good game," he lamely adds.

"Thanks," she brightly says. "Never pegged you for a soccer fan."

"I'm not, actually," he honestly admits. "Um...your friend...Suki—''

She nods her head. "Right. Suki."

"Yeah. She's my friend's new girlfriend and she had extra tickets and so I came here to watch and..." he's rambling, he realizes. He promptly closes his mouth and loudly clears his throat. "Anyways. Good game. You played well out there."

"Thank you. That's so sweet of you to say." She chews on her bottom lip and nervously toys with the hem of her top. "So...I never knew that you went to school here..."

"Neither did I," he mumbles. He discreetly tries to wipe his sweaty hands. "Who knew that after all this time we've been meeting in the teashop..."

"We're actually schoolmates!" she says with a small laugh. She shakes her. head "Unbelievable, right?"

"Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable."

"I wanted to talk to you that one day but..."

"Oh, right but the bell rang." He shuffles in his place and looks down. "I wanted to...um...talk to you too. Yesterday. And today too. But you didn't show up..."

"I had practice. I actually went there but instead of you, there was this other guy..."

"That was Jet. My shift probably ended," he mumbles. "In the evenings, my shift ends at eight."

"I'll be sure to take that down." She gives a small laugh and he grins at her. After a moment's pause, she says, "You know...I just realized that I never got your name."

"Zuko," he says as he holds his hand out. She grasps it, her smooth, smooth skin pressing up against his. Her handshake is firm and strong and confident.

"I'm Jin," she says. "Nice to meet you."

Jin.

So that's her name.

He rolls the syllable in his tongue and silently repeats it in his head.

Jin.

"So...are you busy or anything?" he suddenly blurts out.

"What?"

"Like, right now, I mean? Are you busy?" he asks her. He knows that he sounds like an idiot but he decides that he actually doesn't care.

"No...but I do have to go home. It is pretty late and I live far off," she says in a slightly disappointed voice.

"Oh. How about tomorrow then?"

Her face brightens and he swears that there's this faint blush creeping on her cheeks. He probably has it as well. He's a little surprised with himself. He's normally never this forward.

"No. I'm not doing anything important tomorrow," she says.

"Do you wanna maybe go out?" The words come out of his mouth in a rush and he looks at her, nervous at her answer.

The expression on her face brightens and at first, she looks at him with this scrutinizing look, almost as if she's trying to see if he's messing with her or not. And then, she's smiling and there's this look in her eyes that makes him stomach warm. She nods her head. "I'd love to!"

"We could meet up in the shop. My first shift ends at eleven in the morning," he says. "We could have tea or something. Or do something else if you don't want to. We can do whatever you like."

Fuck. He's rambling.

"Okay. It's a date then," she giggles and he feels a stab of triumph for finally saying something that makes her laugh. She leans forward and gives him an impish grin. "You know...I thought you'd never ask..."

"Yeah. Sorry about that," he mumbles as he gives her a sheepish grin.

It's crazy because he barely knows anything about her and he's not the kind of guy who goes into relationships with people who he's unfamiliar with. He usually likes to feel things out first, be familiar with the person. He doesn't like going into things without a fair amount of idea of what he's getting into. All of his past girlfriends have started out as his friends to some degree.

But he feels like he does know her. She isn't exactly a complete stranger after all. And he has a good feeling about this.

Also, he doesn't want to wait any longer. She's been showing up to the shop since forever and they've been having all these moments or near-misses or whatever and he's an idiot for never doing anything about it. He's spent a long time being so angry and annoyed that he's forgotten how to go out and throw himself at life without constantly worrying that it will throw nasty shit right back at him.

His uncle used to say that lightning strikes, maybe once or twice, and only a fool wouldn't do anything to catch it. Honestly, he always thought that the metaphor was kind of stupid because who would want to catch lightning? But he gets it, he really does, especially right now. He knows that what his uncle was really trying to say is that when life throws these kinds of moments at you, it will only happen once or twice, and only an idiot is stupid enough not to reach back and grab it.

Except, she's been showing up to the shop every day.

(He's grateful for getting so many chances.)

He's kind of an idiot for waiting this long.

He's not going to fuck up and let this slip away from him.

"I could walk you home," he says.

She gives him a smile that makes his heart rattle against his rib cage. The way the light from the lampposts hits the contours of her skin makes his throat constrict.

She lightly touches his hand and looks at him with a soft, subtle smile. "I'd like that."

Author's Note: I always saw Jin as a mix between a tomboy and a girly-girl. Inspired by this pic i (period) imgur (period) com (slash) IQntu6f (period) jpg I originally planned for something a bit naughtier but this came out instead xD

Update: I've fixed the spelling of 'desert.' Thanks to Colorette for pointing this out! :)

Thank you to those who reviewed my other Jinko oneshot! :))

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this. Give me feedback if you have the time.