Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Merits ❯ Part Seven ( Chapter 7 )

“Merits” - Part Seven

 

“What do you mean, `evaluator'? I don't remember this being brought up at the last faculty meeting,” argued Katara. Her dark hair was tied back in a messy knot as she leaned back in her chair to regard her supervisor and his unwelcome news.

Professor Bumi grinned down at her from the doorway of the double-office. Normally there were pairs of graduate students assigned to each office, however Katara had been lucky enough to get the office to herself following one of her colleague's early graduation, the term before.  Katara herself was the grad student rep appointed to the faculty meetings, to report the major happenings to the rest of her fellow students. She knew she hadn't missed a meeting - so she was more than just a little offended the department had brought in an outside evaluator without notifying them through any sort of official memo or announcement. 'Dropping-in' on her on a Friday afternoon during her office hours did NOT count as official, in her book.

“Oh, it was decided before you arrived, my dear. Now, this is our `little helper' as we're calling him, Mr. Zuko Sozin. He has traveled to many institutions, and has a great head on his shoulders. He's just here to observe the classes and the department runnings for a while, and offer a few suggestions if he sees anything he thinks needs improving.”

Taking a calming breath, Katara tried to look on the bright side. It would be good to have someone come in and straighten out some of the tenured profs who thought the grad students were slave-labour… And now they had an expert to do the reporting of this problem for them… Hmmm. The young woman perked up considerably at the potential uses for the new member of the department. Not that she had any intention of exploiting him, but he'd definitely need a tour from the view point of the graduate students, and who better than she, the student representative, to show him the ropes? Definite possibilities. Putting on her brightest, most welcoming smile, Katara nodded, inviting them in.

“Ah, Zuko m'boy, this is your new office-mate, Katara Kuruk.”

Katara's daydream shattered. Wait, office-mate? As in, sharing her beloved personal space?

Then her composure was stolen when she saw the handsome man… whose face was marred by a gash that crossed the side of it, from ear to chin. She was too stunned to react. No, not a gash - a burn. Looks like a chemical spill or…

“Hi, roomie,” he said, extending his hand politely.

“I'll leave you two to get acquainted,” said Bumi. The older gentleman skipped away back to his own office around the corner, leaving Zuko and Katara staring at each other. The room was quiet for a moment.

“Well, I'll just… put my stuff over on that desk…” pulling his un-accepted hand back and picking up his laptop bag, Zuko turned towards the second desk in the tiny office - to discover it was completely covered in Katara's work.

“Used to working alone, I see. Well, that'll be changing,” said the intruder off-hand.
Katara's eyes narrowed. It wasn't what he said, it was the way he said it…

Her lovely mouth tightened into a thin line as she stood to clear the desk for the new comer. There was something not right about this man… he'd been so polite a moment before. And useful.

Ok, maybe this won't be as useful as I thought, she reflected. But it can still work.

“I'll be needing space on the shelves and in the filing cabinet by Monday.”

Katara whirled around to say something back, but the bossy new `roomie' had already left, leaving the door open behind him. Irked, but trying to stay focused, she cleared her own desk and packed her things to take home for the weekend.

“Just relax, go home, and read a trashy book in the bath,” she mumbled to herself out loud, already mentally perusing her bookcase for a good one to choose to settle in with. She spent the next half-hour clearing Zuko's desk off, and leaned down to grab the last few books from underneath her neighbour's desk. Crawling forward on her knees, she mumbled to herself. “Elizabeth Lowell, Nora Roberts maybe? Something really--.”

“I can see we'll need to set some guidelines on professional conduct around here.”

Katara startled so suddenly she whacked her head on the underside of the desk and swore audibly. The resounding crack didn't seem to deter the intruder-again from his original intent.

“I'll be bringing in a few things this weekend. I'd appreciate it if you didn't touch them, if you came in to work before Monday,” Zuko's voice addressed Katara's rear, the only part of her visible to him from her station under the desk. His polite façade had disappeared, and a rude, arrogant one had slipped into place. Unsure of whether it was her head-injury or his personality, Katara squeezed her eyes shut and prayed it was her head injury - she really didn't want to have to have to be partnered up with an asshole during her busiest term so far.

Thoroughly embarrassed at her position, and insulted he hadn't even asked if she was ok, Katara backed away from underneath the desk slowly. If the switch wasn't just in her head, truth be told she'd appreciate it if he didn't come in to work at all if he was going to keep being such a jerk.

“I was planning to work from home this weekend,” and possibly a whole lot more often from now on, she replied. She rubbed the sorest part of her head and tried not to glare too hard at the newcomer. It was the same Zuko as before, just to be clear—and he was no longer polite now that Doc Bumi had left for the weekend. Ok, maybe this guy's just socially awkward and not used to working with people. If he's so into `improving' workplaces, he probably has to keep a professional distance and just doesn't know how to interact with other colleagues anymore, she rationalized. Her Gran-gran had always taught her to look for the good in people, and that it sometimes lay below the surface. You couldn't always see the merits of an individual right away. Katara reminded herself of this several times while she applied pressure to the already-forming bump and glanced up at the `socially underdeveloped' new `friend'.

“You probably have a lot of catch-up to do, if you have so much work left out. I'm sure you'll get it all done by 8:00am, though. Good luck.”

With that backhanded compliment, he left her wide-eyed and kneeling on the floor of `their' office.

x X x

As Zuko closed the door and walked away, he distinctly heard a feminine voice utter, sonofab--, behind him. Slipping his sunglasses on again, he smirked and went for a tour of the campus' administrative records office.