In the midst of the castle grounds of the Fire Lord's Palace, a young woman with dark skin, darker hair, and the brightest of cerulean blue eyes marched her way out of the inner workings of the palace grounds. She was an extremely beautiful sight to see, clad in a dress with long lace sleeves and the skirt falling effortlessly like a waterfall against the shape of her form, trailing behind her.
The only thing that ruined it all was the snarl on her beautiful face.
Katara, princess of the Southern Water Tribe, water-bending master and ambassador for the Avatar, was pissed.
Beyond the wrath of the devil.
She made her way across the grounds and stormed past the open doors of the cpalace fortress, daring the guards to stop her in any way or form.
"If you see the Fire Lord come around," she began, "say nothing about my whereabouts. Just tell the royal jerk that he can go to hell. Personal message from the Water tribe 'peasant'."
The men felt a chill run through their spines as they recognised the underlying venom that tainted her words. As Katara stormed off into the growing darkness of night, she ripped out the elaborate silver pins that held her hair in an elegant chignon, letting it fall across her bareback. "Oh screw this." She wrenched the elegant heels off her feet and lobbed them together with a resounding smack and threw them over her shoulders. Let someone else take them for themselves – she had no further use for such trifles.
She waded out into the glade on the west side of the palace, surrounding herself with the tall trees that gladly welcomed her in their abode. Katara's stress levels decreased momentarily and she felt a bit more at ease.
Zuko's announcements back at dinner in the palace were if anything troublesome. The water-bender closed her fists in a tight embrace and felt her blood boil at the memory of what he'd done moments ago. How could he be so stupid, so irresponsible? Did he have any idea, any inkling of the repercussions that would follow the chosen course he'd taken? There was no going back from that point – he'd not only doomed himself, but also her as well.
"Stupid imbecile," she hissed vehemently. The young woman curled a length of water from the lower plants around her, and snapped it out in sharp blades of ice. How dare he go ahead without her approval? How dare he go against everything they'd talked about? She'd been schooling him up for months on how he was to approach his people regarding the subject, and he'd just tossed it in the air with no regard whatsoever to how she would feel.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Katara repeated, swinging her arms and gathering more water from the plants around her. She froze them all into spears and launched them one at a time into the tree across from the glade, feeling them embed themselves deeper into the trunk with every attack.
"Katara! Katara!"
The waterbending master rolled her eyes and spun around to face the oncoming Firelord. Dressed in silk robes of red and gold, with his hair up in a topknot and his crown resting amongst it, Zuko was a handsome man. He'd grown well over the last few years of peace and prosperity between nations, and the role of Firelord suited him well. The boy had left his country as a broken spirit, returning with the heart and soul of a sovereign worthy of the title.
Zuko fixed his gold eyes on Katara, his burning bright while hers canceled out the heat with ice fury. "Katara, you need to calm down."
"Calm down?" Katara growled, curling more water up around her arm. She let out a wild, unhinged cackle and narrowed her gaze at the young Fire Lord."I need to calm down? Zuko I have every right to be angry with you! How could you do this to me of people?!"
"Because its what I want!" Zuko yelled back to her, circling her form in a wide arc. "And I don't give a damn about whose permission I need."
"You don't get it, do you?" she hissed. Without warning the woman lashed her whip out with extreme precision, watching with sadistic pleasure as the young man darted out of the way, the whip barely catching on and slicing through his robe. Zuko rolled up onto his feet and narrowed his eyes at the woman before him. He tossed his robe off his shoulders, leaving him in his red and black armor. In retaliation he shot out a ball of fire at the Katara, who stole water from the plants around her and used it to form a wall to extinguish the flame.
"I'm trying to stop you from making the greatest mistake of your life! You're not thinking about the needs of your people here!"
The two individuals battled one another with intense ferocity. Katara was an unpredictable force of nature, throwing ice daggers one after the other at the man with raven hair. She dodged beneath an oncoming wave of gold and snapped out her leg, sending a whip out towards the man.
"You call yourself the greatest mistake of my life?" Zuko growled. "Is that what you think of yourself? A mistake?"
"In this situation, yes!"
Zuko's thoughts ran rampant with the words of his former lover. How could she think so low of herself? This woman was a beacon, an example to be followed. She had the prowess of a tiger, and all the intelligence of one in command of a military position. She was skilled beyond compare in the fields of medicine, and was a highly accomplished master of water-bending, making her a formidable opponent on the battlefield. Above all, she was humble, kind, charitable, and unbiased when it came to negotiations. She'd been to all the nations and she'd seen the different forms of politics that reigned supreme, comparing the systems against one another to find the flaws and benefits of them for future references.
And here she was fighting against him with all her might over one little thing.
Marriage.
With him.
"Zuko, you're being selfish! We talked about this!" Katara snapped out a whip towards him, lashing out at the armor he wore. He was flung back momentarily but managed to regain his balance, kicking out heat waves towards her. Katara rolled beneath them and wrapped a lasso of water around his ankle. Her smirk was triumphant as she tugged hard and sent him sailing to the side.
While she was busy avoiding his attacks he exerted two concentrated spurts of flame behind him as he somersaulted above the attacks, launching him in close range of her attacks. When he landed in front of her in a three-point stance, he heard her breath hitch in her throat. He growled low in his chest and made a move to tackle her. The woman barely had time to manoeuvre herself out of his attack, his fingers grasping at the spot where she use to be.
Katara felt a hunger in her gut, an insatiable desire for the man before her. Oh, how she wanted to decorate his already scarred body with marks of her own.
Bloody hormones!
"You-" she ducked low and sent a sweeper kick to his legs, hissing with vengeance as he jumped up, "- were suppose to choose Mai! That's the bloody reason why I left you!" She flung herself at him and spun around in a swirling tornado kick, encasing her leg with ice as it smashed against the metal protectors on his arm. "We planned everything together! You were to marry a Fire Nation noble, someone that your people would approve of - woman that they can look up to. Do that and the people will love and follow you willingly. I even helped you pick the bloody best candidate for the role of Firelady, and you were fine with it! But no – you had to go make things more complicated than a blind woman putting on make-up."
Zuko snarled and caught her hand in his fist twirling her around so that her hands were held close against her chest and her back was pressed against his front.
"So what if you're not Fire Nation?" he breathed against her neck. "So what if you haven't been raised up by my nation's rules of society? That doesn't matter because I chose you and they will respect me for that."
"Zuko, you're not listening," Katara whined darkly, struggling against his grip. "I'm not fit for the role of Fire Lady. That role belongs to Mai. The people will love her. She knows the needs of the people-"
"And you know the needs of the world," Zuko rebuked hotly. He spun Katara around and held both her hands in his own grasp, feeling a heat rise up in him. "Yes, Mai knows what our people need. Yes, she knows the ways of Court, but she is single-minded, Katara. And I can't have someone by my side that only knows one way to rule when you know thousands to live and thrive. You may not be what the people want Katara, but you are what this country as a whole needs. Have you got that through your thick skull yet?"
The dark-skinned woman had entered a state of shock as she looked up at the man with burning gold eyes. Gone was the young, insecure prince who could barely hold hands without blushing like a beetroot. Here was a man who could demand respect, one that could save a nation and usher it from the remnants of an ancient civilization into a new era of peace.
A man that she admired with all her heart, mind and soul, more than she could bear to admit.
A man that she had no right to be with whatsoever.
Katara's eyes shimmered slightly with tears, though Zuko could not guess what kind they were. He gently released his hold on her hands and brought them down along the shape of her torso till they rested firmly on her waist. He smirked inwardly at the shiver that ran through her – he could still make her tremble with a touch.
"Dammit Zuko – me, Fire Lady? I'm just a water-bender from an insignificant tribe, who happens to be totally barbaric at the worst of times and has no aristocratic upbringing whatsoever." Katara flicked a finger and bended the water off her face, trying to maintain a growl in her voice instead of letting it break. "I have no right whatsoever to be a sovereign for this nation."
"Enough of this," Zuko said harshly. "You are chief ambassador for the Avatar, and a hero from the war. You have every right, no matter what anyone says."
Katara's hands moved towards his armor, placing them against the metal plate, just above where his heart should be. "What makes you think I'll even be a good leader?"
Zuko bent down against her forehead, his lips inches away from her own. "Think? Katara, I know you will be a great leader. You were willing to sacrifice the idea of us for the sake of my people, even though I could see the pain in your eyes when you said so. And that goes to show that you think with your heart, Katara."
"Che, what ever made you think there was an 'us'?"
Zuko chuckled and brushed his head against hers, tightening his hold on her waist. Unconsciously, Katara brought her hands up around his neck and breathed in the scent of cinnamon and ash, tempered with her own musk of vanilla and mist.
"I'm still mad at you though," she said through pursed lips, her eyes cast down at his mouth. The young man smirked and brushed his fingers against the base of her spine, sending more chills throughout her body, and inadvertently pressing her body closer against his own. Katara growled in response and furthered her hold around his neck.
"You'll get over it soon enough, my Lady," he said with a smirk.
"Lady Katara of the Fire Nation," she mumbled. "That title alone sounds terrible on its own. Makes me sound like a pretentious snob."
"Shut up already," Zuko growled. "You're distracting me."
He gripped the waterbender tightly as he brushed his lips against hers, moving forcefully but slowly against them. Katara quickly recovered from the shock and held her own against Zuko's attacks, her fingers threading them through his hair. She pulled back slightly and began biting away at his lips, alternating between the top and the bottom.
Zuko moaned into the kiss, running his fingers up and down her back while they moved aimlessly. Once he managed to find something sturdy, he swung them around with Katara's back against the tree, tracing her jawline and the length of her throat with his lips. She let out a suppressed amorous moan, her body surrendering to his hands. Over the past year, they'd been together, mapping each other's body and committing each spot to memory, discovering all the sensitive areas and weakspots. One hand wandered dangerously down her body, reaching down behind the back of her thigh and hitching it up around his waist.
Katara gasped in shock, feeling his fingers splay across her skin.
"I've missed you so goddamn much…" Zuko whispered weakly against her skin.
Katara pulled his head up back to hers, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. His kisses were not to be taken lightly; for all the ferocity and prowess she possessed, even Katara had troubled withstanding the passion and intensity Zuko brought to their relationship.
"Relax, pretty boy," Katara chuckled, bringing her fingers up to cradle to the Fire Lord's face. "I find it funny how you manage to remain so serious in all those meetings when you're a completely reckless, obnoxious rebel outside your office hours," she teased.
"Just one of my many characteristics that you love so much," Zuko answered in return. "Can we head back now? Let them know that everything's peaceful between us?"
Katara tilted her head in mock contemplation but let Zuko lead her away, one hand held fast around her waist. As they walked through the glade, passing the charred plants and across frozen blades of grass, Katara looked up at her fiancé with cheeky eyes.
"Don't think that I've let you off the hook yet, pretty boy,' she threatened teasingly. "I'm not making anything official until you get down on your knees and ask me like a real man."
"Don't worry," Zuko said as he pressed his lips to the crown of her head. "This was just to make sure you don't try to kill me when I do the real deal in front of your father."
Sleep deprivation drives people to the brink of insanity, and yet at the same time brings for the so many strange and wonderfully weird things.
Word of advice - get some sleep kids. Otherwise you end up looking back at some weird stuff you've done in the name of fan fiction.
-Violentkitsune
P.S. - I do not own any of these characters whatsoever. All rights belong to ATLA by nickelodeon and all that stuff.