Burnt Out - Zuko x OC

"You make grown men feel uncomfortable."

Season 2, still episode 12

Katara stretched her limbs in the massive doorway of their new apartment the next morning. Blue jays sang around her, the morning air was still crisp and clean. She noticed a scroll sticking out of their mail slot and unrolled it, gasping with excitement.

The doors slammed behind her as she ran into the sitting room, "I've got it! I know how we're going to see the Earth King!"

Kai and Toph were still lying back on a pile of over stuffed pillows, lazily popping powdered sugar covered treats into their mouths.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Toph said with her mouth full, "One doesn't just "pop" in on the Earth King."

Katara held out the parchment for the group to see, a flyer painted with gold and green brush strokes, "The king is having a party at the palace tonight for his pet bear!"

"You mean platypus-bear?" Aang asked from his seat on the floor.

"No, just says 'bear'."

"Certainly you mean his pet skunk-bear." Sokka added, hanging upside down from a reading nook carved into the wall.

"Nope. Just.. bear."

Kai and Toph looked at each other and the older girl tried to imagine such a thing, "This place is weird. But I say you guys should go for it."

Katara grew excited again over their oldest member's support. She clutched the parchment to her chest, "The palace will be packed. We can sneak in with the crowd! And —"

"Won't work." Toph interrupted, "No offense to you simple country folk, but a real society crowd will spot you a mile away. You've got no manners!"

The two earth benders knew it was true. They each shoved more pastries into their mouths and waited for the objection that was sure to come next.

"Excuse me? I've got no manners?!" Kai was fond of Katara, but sometimes her voice sounded exactly like nails on a chalkboard. Especially early in the morning, "The two of you aren't exactly 'Lady Fancy Fingers'."

"Kai and I learned proper society behavior and chose to leave it." She said while throwing a half eaten dough ball to the side, "You never learned anything. And frankly, it's a little too late."

"Give Katara some credit. With a little bit of training and change of wardrobe, I bet she could swing it. You two on the other hand —" Kai pointed her index and middle finger at the two boys, "Would be lucky to pass as busboys."

The three girls watched as Sokka and Aang pulled drapes over their shoulders, mimicking royalty by bowing to each other over and over, until they accidentally head butted. Kai rolled over in laughter and then righted herself, standing up to throw her arm over Katara's shoulders, "Come on, let's doll the two of you up and you'll be ready in no time."

They left the boys for the confines of their oversized bedroom, slamming the French doors behind them. Katara, Toph and Kai played around with makeup and upper ring style clothing for hours.

"You don't think this is a little.. much?" Katara asked while looking in the mirror. A girl that she didn't recognize stared back at her, her eyelids painted light blue and cheeks splashed with bright pink blush to match her lips, "I absolutely do, you'd never catch me with that much clown paint on." Kai pulled at Toph's unruly hair, trying her best to tame it into a neat updo that she'd seen a nobleman's wife sporting the day before, "But this is a different world. The word "subtle" does not belong in an Upper Ring resident's vocabulary. Less is most definitely not more to these people."