Katara stared wide eyed at the young man waiting in her office.
Her new patient swung his legs on the uncomfortable hospital bed like a carefree child and his grin quirked against his cheeks upon her arrival.
Nurse Suki handed her the clipboard as she exited, the amusement on her face nearly emitting its own sound.
"Here's his information this time, Doctor."
She sighed and lifted the papers from the clipboard, skipping his past basic medical information-date of birth, eye color, height, name; it was practically a study page on a test she could pass with her eyes closed at this point.
"Thank you nurse, I'll take from here."
"I'm sure he'd have it no other way." Suki whispered, the door closing behind her before Katara could land one of her scolding glances.
"Yes Aang, what seems to be the problem today? Certainly nothing could've happened in the…" Katara glanced at the clock above his bed, "Three days since my house call?"
Aang was her most… dutiful patient, to say the least. The twenty-nine year old man had been her personal patient for as long as she could remember, dating back to their college years when she had just been volunteering as a school nurse. At first she believed her little friend to be understandably accident prone given his rather 'outgoing' look on life.
A bump, bruise, or bad scrape would land him in the office each time she was on-duty.
To say it was flattering would've been an understatement, Katara wasn't blind after all… though she had to have his obvious attention pointed out by a few close friends and eventually Aang who, before she left for medical school, more or less spelled it out on her lawn at the going away party that 'yes, I was and am flirting with you'…
Katara was a busy woman! She couldn't be held accountable for missing some advances here or there.
Besides, she thought he would be over it after college. He was such a nice kid that of course another girl would come along and be able to tend to his affections and dote on him in ways that she just didn't have time for at that point in her life.
Imagine her surprise on the first day of her budding clinic when her first patient arrived, shaved head, strange tattoos and an abnormal rash blooming over his face claiming, "I don't want another girl. Besides, who else can deal with something like this? It's really starting to itch Doc!"
"Well, you know me. I'm a bit accident prone."
"Right, just a bit." Katara smiled, washing her hands and getting out a fresh pair of latex gloves before approaching her patient. She slowly lifted his shirt and inspected the fresh gauze wrapped around his upper torso.
"Doctor Katara, I didn't realize you'd become so fresh." Aang fluttered his lashes, succeeding in that first snort of laughter that he always got out of her no matter how hard she tried to hold in.
"Maybe you've finally worn me down." She made her way behind him and sighed deeply. The back of his shirt was sticking to the bandages.
"Thank goodness, I was running out of skin to bruise."
"Well now it just sounds like I abuse you. Lift." Katara commanded softly, raising his shirt over and off. The bandage was beginning to soak a little more at the source.
"Your wrapping is getting better; soon you won't even need to come in for me." She praised, placing her hand delicately against his shoulder blade while she unwrapped him completely.
"I better stop practicing then." Aang joked, craning his neck a little, "How is it?"
Katara didn't speak for awhile, focusing on walking back and forth from her little station to get everything his wound usually required when it bled. Usually she would put everything on her little silver tray and get her patient patched up quickly and efficiently but, she need a little more noise in this situation.
She needed the click of her heels and the small sounds of rummaging through squeaky cabinet doors, the tiny rustle of unwrapping fresh gauze and the click of sterile needles and the distraction of how to make removing old stitches for new ones as painless as possible for her strong little patient because the night he came in with that awful wound, the night she finally agreed on meeting up with him, was still fresh in her mind.
As a Doctor, all she wanted was to see her beloved patients happy and carefree and lively, and Aang was the embodiment of that in her life.
"Katara?" His hand reached out and she realized she'd somehow finished patching him up.
She was standing in front of a clean and neat procedure completely contrasting the haze of her mind.
Aang smiled and squeezed her fingers, coaxing her closer to him until she could feel that smile's warmth in the crook of her neck.
"Look at that, you saved me again. Thank you, Katara."
The doctor timidly inched to slouching against him. She aligned her ear on his steady heart beating and traced her free hand along his right side, feeling each bump healed by her hands.
There was a crisscrossed scar on his shoulder from his circus disaster, a line running along his inner bicep from an archery incident, and when she rested the hand atop his she could feel the scratches on his knuckles from the roller-blade mishap.
"Why are you so accident prone?" Katara stood up straight and tried to look him in the eye but his hands snaked around her waist, holding firmly on her hips to keep his head on its claimed position and she felt if she didn't stand taller he'd feel her heart racing.
Her patient shrugged lightly, the baritone of his reply sent vibrations against her neck, "How else will I get my Doctor to notice me?"
After a few more minutes of enjoying the position, Katara succeeded in eye contact and slowly her hands lifted to cup his chin, her thumbs rubbing light circles on his jaw.
"She notices you. …She notices all your injuries and changes and quirks. You come around so much; she was bound to notice eventually."
Aang took in a deep breath and exhaled just as he leisurely made his way back to the crook of her shoulder, placing tiny kisses along each side her neck before removing himself completely.
He smirked at how easily she was able to look so ravished; her curls were matted onto her flushed cheeks and her eyes brightened and followed his every move. To create such a look from just a few caresses... an urge welled up inside of him wanting to make sure none of the staff or any other patient ever caused her to look so wonderful.
"What else can I do though… to get her attention?"
His lips brushed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, "Y'see, I really want her attention."
His hands pushed the buttons of her blouse apart, languidly scrunching the silk fabric against her stomach, "Sometimes it's all I think about. It's a real dangerous distraction; I get so caught up in thinking about her I get hurt doing the silliest things."
He chuckled at the hitch in her breath when the last button, stubborn thing, had to be popped from the shirt. It thumped his collar bone and fell to the floor with a soft 'tick'. His thumb slid across the top of her bosom and he smiled at the familiar swirling pattern on her bra before he took full advantage of her pouting lips.
Her words fell breathlessly in between the seconds he would release and recapture her mouth, "You can sta… start by… sowing that… button back on."
An embarrassing mewl left her throat when he paused to rest his forehead against hers, and she spoke to try and cover it, "I liked that blouse."
"I know. I was kind of jealous."
He nipped the top of her breast and she gasped, eyelids lazing while she let him pull her farther back. The sound of the hospital paper crinkling on the bed excited her with how loud it seemed and Aang rode his hands along her legs until she straddled him.
His doctor giggled and shook her head, allowing that waterfall of curls to shield them from anything but each other. "You are impossible."
"And you have another patient scheduled in four minutes, Doctor."
Nurse Suki's voice and loud rap on the door pierced the warm bubble of her patient's affection from outside the room.
Katara sighed and arched back up in annoyance, but Aang could see her cheeks getting redder as he redid the buttons and straightened out her coat despite the beautiful diversion attempt.
"Guess my time is up." Aang grinned while she helped him pull his shirt back on. The doctor wore a frazzled smile while trekking to return supplies back to the cabinets and grabbing her clipboard. Her back turned to give him a little privacy, adjustment-wise.
"As usual, no strenuous activity for three weeks; with you I can never be too careful,"
Aang pouted, "Three weeks? But I promised my fiancée we'd play 'Doctor' tonight when I got home. The stethoscope is in the freezer as we speak."
Her calm demeanor broke momentarily as her pen nearly scratched off her own signature, "I'm sure your fiancée has probably been looking for that stethoscope."
Aang pulled her in close from behind for a kiss on her ear before slipping the prescription off her board, "I'm sure she'll forgive me, she wouldn't hurt an injured man after all."
Aang left her in the office with, her adorably frustrated face, and made his way to the front desk.
"You can send in the next patient." He grinned, not the least bit bashfully at the nurse who must've been ordering his painkillers as he passed.
Nurse Suki hung up the phone and smiled innocently, calling out as he left, "Have a good afternoon, 'Doctor'!"
(Disclaimer and all that)
Back in my time of rating fics by order of citrus fruits, this would probably be a slight lime.