Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Nickleodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or its associated characters. No profit is gained from the writing and publishing of this story but should the creators, legal owners, their solicitors or the site administration of deem this post offensive and request it's removal, it shall of course be taken down without hesitation.
The prompts that inspired all pieces of this collection belong to Rashaka and her community 64damn-prompts (written with an underscore instead of a dash) at livejournal. There they have been posted under the name 'kirschreich', which is the name of my writing journal.
Author's Note: Most of these pieces are set some time after the conclusion of the series. It is definitely a Zutara A/U. Although it does not seem like it, the individual snippets are in fact connected.
Ratings vary – corresponding warnings are included in every chapter.
Please note that this story features the regular community prompts, revisited prompts (meaning prompts that have been picked up a second time) and versus prompts (meaning drabbles containing/relating to two or more prompts).
01 Illusions
Theme: #19 – itch
Characters: Zuko, Katara
Warnings: reference to minor sexual content
Rating: R – M
He keeps telling himself that he is merely scratching an itch, that what they do is purely physical - no strings attached, no emotions involved. Really, there is nothing to it. It is all about release; to a certain degree it is about control, too, but mostly, it is about scratching.
Because he has tried to take care of this problem himself, but nothing he can do is as satisfying as the things she does to him. Whether it is the way her hands ghost over his scarred face and the often self-inflicted injuries that speak of harsh training sessions or the feel of her breath rolling down his back in short, pleased gasps when her lips brush against his jaw or when her tongue traces the shell of his ear; to him it is as if he hadn't known pleasure until she shared her body with him.
As a lover - in the physical, not emotional sense - she is his perfect match. So is she when they fight: hand to hand, face to face and element to element, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe no longer requires the support of the full moon to tame Zuko's fire. The flames he doesn't conjure from his hands are an entirely different matter, however, and the young firebender is well aware of that. She is like the water she bends: gentle, pliant and cool. But even water can be brought to boil and he enjoys the sight of her writhing underneath his hard body, relishes every gasp and moan he coaxes from her lips and revels in the knowledge that he is the one to pleasure one of the most famous women in their world while others are resigned to lusting after her.
Their relationship is only physical, of course, and no one must know but he sees those glances their former travel companion gives her, the way the men of the court follow her every movement with hungry eyes and he can't help himself but taunt them, if only in the privacy of his mind. For it feels so good to have what others want; to be the only one that may touch her thighs, to wrap them intimately around his waist, the only one to kiss those lips and drink deeply from them.
No, there are no emotions involved in their relationship, no strings attached. They're merely scratching their respective itches, seeking their pleasure.
So why does he wish he could be there in the morning, when she wakes? Why is he so desperate to keep the woman she has grown into by his side?
No, he tells himself as he watches her escort his uncle about the gardens, his heart lurching in an unfamiliar and unwelcome way, it's only physical.