Dear Reader,

I know one or two of you are still awating further chapters for "Nation Integration." And I can assure you that they are on their way. But I've had this little kumquat fermenting in my mind for some time now and had no other choice but to indulge in my more, primal creativities.

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It all happened overnight.

In all honesty, it wasn't anything to be ashamed of, it was just that Katara had never been exposed to..."stirrings" of the sorts, as they were. She came from a strict tribal setting, deep in the frozen desert of the South Pole. When girls entered their so called "womanhood," generally they just carried on into their destined roles, cleaning, nurturing, maintaining. Woman's work.

But since she and her brother found the Avatar, traveled around the world and fought their battles, life for the last Southern Water Bender was anything but woman's work. And as such, her body began to mature into her own signifcant role as a young woman.

But that was just it. She WAS a woman. A woman who had seen the world differently than other girls her age, especially girls from the water tribes. It was only natural that her hormones would eventually catch up to her. She never expected it to be here, in the Fire Nation...the worst place in the entire world right now. But land locations didn't matter to biology.

She dreampt of a shirtless and finely muscled body, serene, flawless, shimmering in an aura of warm, golden sunlight. She couldn't define a face but she saw him coming up behind her, wrapping his defined arms around her and nuzzling into her neck. She turned to jelly in his embrace. The man started to kiss her, between her head and shoulder, along her jawbone, up to her mouth. And right when she had turned her face to look at him and meet her lips with his...

She woke up. The dream weighed heavily on her conscience at first. She didn't know who it was or why she had dreampt it in the first place, but she had. And thinking about it all day had plagued her concentration. A plague that lasted for a whole week and made her feel paranoid about anyone she locked eyes with.

The dream was reoccuring every night, but with different situations. Always his body, his arms holding her and squeezing her, touching in ways that would sometimes make her laugh, and other times back her head roll in pleasure. But she never got to see her mystery man's entire body, and worse yet, she still hadn't seen his face. She would never know who he was.

After a few days of blindly going through her usual routine, and succombing to the welcoming dstractions of her daydreams, she looked around at the world absentmindedly. Of the non-related males that used to be in their menagerie of "warriors" as her brother called them, none could compare to her mystery man. They were either too old, too young, too senstive with mustaches...or just immature, if not related to her. She sighed dejectedly.

Sure, she was in the middle of a war, there was a nasty comet coming and in a few weeks, she would be fighting for her life. She had a million other things to worry about, but damnit, if Sokkq could release his hormones and enjoy a relationship right now, she could get lost in her thoughts!

"Katara? Are you ok? Do you need to go lay down or something?"

Sokka's girlfriend, Suki, once captain of the Kyoshi Warriors, had walked up to her while she was making breakfast in the kitchen of the Fire Lord's old, abandoned beach house. The warrior looked concerned as she put a comforting hand on Katara's shoulder.

"Katara?...uhm..."

The water bender came back to her senses, slowly focusing on Suki. She stopped stirring the ladle in the big pot in front of her.

"...wh...what?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

Suki's grey-blue eyes filled Katara's vision as she cast an inspecting look at her, searching for any signs of illness.

"Yea...I'm fine, why?"

Sokka's girlfrend smiled awkwardly, emitting a light chuckle, "Well. You're stirring a pot. Wearing oven mitts."

Katara raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip, "And you're point? I'm kinda cooking here..."

Sokka, who was sitting at a table on the far end of the kitchen, tried valiently to hold in his building mirth, hands clamped over his mouth and tears threatening to flood his eyes. Aang sat beside him, equally tickled and biting his lower lip while his body shook with silent laughter.

Suki raised a hand and pointed towards the cooking utensils in front of her friend.

"I mean, that's fine and all, when you are cooking. But, you're kinda of stirring an empty pot...and there is no fire under neath it."

Katara followed the direction that Suki was pointing in and saw that she WAS stirring an empty, cold pot.

The water bender backed away in embarrasment, "..errr..."

Suki turned to her and gently reached for the ladle, taking in from Katara's hand and putting another hand at the girl's shoulder, "You seem really distracted lately. Maybe you should just take it easy for a little while. Go relax or something, I'll cook breakfast and the guys will help me with everything else."

Katara tried to object but Suki gave her a firm coaxing push towards the kitchen exit.

"It's alright, Katara. We'll be fine. You've done so much already, I think we can survive one day without you. Go for a walk or something, just relax."

Aang jumped up at the table and stood rigid, "Yea, that sounds like a great idea! Let's go for a walk Katara!"

Suki interjected immediately, blocking Aang's path, "Er, Aang, I think she needs a quiet walk by herself. It would be best, trust me."

The airbender's eyes shifted from Katara thoroughly exiting out of the kitchen back to the hulking warriors surrounding him. Sokka put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back into his chair, shaking his head, "Believe me buddy, I've known Katara her whole life. I'll never understand. But Suki is a girl. And girls speak girl. If she says Katara needs it alone, then it's best to let it stay. C'mon, let's rummage through what's left of Zuko's old stuff while Suki gets breakfast going."

Aang lowered hs head briefly, then brightened suddenly and agreed with Sokka, following the older boy out of the kitchen.

Suki looked n the direction Katara had left in and a sly, knowing smile crept across her face. She was Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors. An all FEMALE crew.

Katara wandered out over the beaches, hugging the edge of the forest entrance. She let her feelings meander and soon her feet were following along, carrying her mindlessly onward. She eventually found herself in amongst the trees, watching her feet stepping from sand to grass to thick foliage.

She stepped nimbly onto a moss covered rock and stood looking around, taking note of the incline steadily rising behind her. She closed her eyes and let her senses reach out, feeling the tentrils of moisture out. She could detect the overpowering feeling of the ocean far of but all around. But there was something else. Something closer and feeling more like a moving pool.

She located the push and pull, climbing the hill and seeing an edge. As she stepped caustiously towards the edge, she looked down and took in a deep breath of surprise. Below, carved naturally into the earth, was a gully of lush greenery. Situated inside of the gully were three large hotspring pools, their bubblng waters billowing steam up towards the sky. She wandered if the steam was like the suana room she and Toph had shared back in Ba Sing Sei.

Katara looked down the straight fall into the gully, wondering if there was some way down from up here. She got down on her knees so she wouldn't lose her balance and looked along the wall face for grips and ledges, but saw none. She got up to stand but a movement on the wall face to her right made her freeze in place. Down at the base of the wall was a large cave she hadn't noticed until now.

It was of moderate size, but the hanging vines and roots covering it's entrance made almost impossible to see. But when an arm swung out of the wall to sweep away the vines, it came in to clear view. Katara thought about crawling backward and better out of site when a person stepped out into the clearing.

It was none other than Zuko!

"So this is where he comes every morning!" She wondered why he disappears after bending practice with Aang and didn't show up for Breakfast until much later. He must come to the hotsprings to meditate.

He walked out to a large pool, keeping his eyes down. Katara expected him to just sit down in a crossed legged postion, like the lotus postion, and start meditating. She felt a little awkward spying on her newly accepted friend and turned to leave, when the fire bender suddenly took his shirt off.

Katara's eyes widened when she caught site if his muscles and flat stomach, carved with abs. Her heart quickened as realization dawned upon her. Was Zuko...?

She didn't have time to think as Zuko began sliding his hands to the sides of his trousers and pulling down. The water bender stifled her yelp of surprise as she turned over onto her back, flopping down on the grass. Her face flushed red and she felt a hot wave spread from ear to ear, coming to a boil at her cheeks and nose. Somewhere down in the gully, a dozen yards or so, Zuko was naked.

The guy who had chased them around the world, tirelessly tracking them down, battling them, causing life to be a living hell for the majority of the year and the one guy she had despised the most, was also, definitely, the guy she had been dreaming about for the last week.

This was going to be the worst last month of her life.

She lay there looking up at the clouds and clutching nervously at the grass underneath her. She needed to get out of here, to get back to the house and be on her way. She just needed to forget what she had seen...almost seen...wanted to see.

No!

She couldn't think that! Her eyes flicked back and forth, paranoia setting in. Spirits...Yue...all of them, they could be watching her now and shaking their heads at her in shame. But she couldn't move. If she tried to get up and stepped on a twig, or fell down the hill, he would surely hear and find her out. What would he say if he found she had seen him?!

You were watching me!

Katara closed her eyes, not wanting to think about how angry he would be. He had a temper and a habit of stomping away irrationally and she definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that or the reason he had left.

The water bender exhaled slowly, trying to calm her nerves. Ah, but he was SO damn fine!

What if, just if, he were like any other seventeen year old boy? Under all that stress, trauma, and aggression, there could still be a hope. And if it was that way, what would he say?

So. You were watching me?...Like what you saw?- Sexy smirk.

Oh, you found out?- Innocent smile, fluttery eyelashes.

Maybe he would tie her up, like back by the river, with her wrists bound to a tree. Maybe he would saunter around her like he had, sidle up real close and whisper into her ear with his sultry voice.

Would you like a private performance or personal tour?

A silly grin curved her lips and she tapped her hands on the ground, trying to will herself to move.

If he could tie her to a tree and whisper like that before, then he obviously was capable of a few other...seductive things. Really though? What teenage boy would have a problem with girls peeking on them every once and a while? What's the worst he could do?

She flipped back onto her stomach and eased upward to view over the edge. There he was, sitting in the hot spring. The bubbling water made getting a better view less than satisfactory, but even if it wasn't bubbling, she wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway. Zuko was currently scrubbing at his clothes in the water, cleaning them of the morning's practice.

But what she could see was still a good view. His well toned body had beads of water streaking down, curving across his muscles and making his skin gleam. His hair was slicked down and his bangs tapered across his eyes. He kept a straight expression on his face, like he knew what he was doing but was thinking of far away things.

She watched him washing his clothes and wandered how hot the water was and if she could tolerate it. Now that she had a face to place the "man of her dreams," all of those images kept springing back to mind, making her imagination run wild.

I can't believe this, I used to hate him!...But he has done so much to redeem himself. He's saved me. I've saved him.

"And if it weren't for me, the incident in Ba Sing Sei wouldn't have happened..."

It was her own fault she hated him so horribly for breaking her trust. Had she not have run to King Kuei, Azula wouldn't have found them and Aang wouldn't have been hurt. She couldn't honestly blame him for what he did, taking his sister over their group. Though he didn't know it at the time, she had caused him to lose what little happiness he had finally managed in the last three years.

She sighed quietly as she surveyed him, her emotions drowning her mood. How could he ever like a girl like her anyway? Who was a Southern Water Tribe girl to the Prince of the Fire Nation? She was the Chief's daughter, but it meant nothing. And though Zuko had been banished, it didn't erase the decade or so of Royal Formal life he had been groomed for. His blood came from a champion line of powerful fire benders and High Aristocracy. He was born Someone, and knew nothing else in the world, and if they won this war, he would be crowned Fire Lord Zuko.

And she would still only be Katara from the Southern Water Tribe, the girl who helped the Avatar. She huffed out in annoyance but was immediately distracted as Zuko began to move around in the water. He stood significantly above water level. He held his shirt in front of him and placed it along the rim of the pool, then found his trousers and underlings and placed them beside his top. He stood before her only partially covered by water.

An immediate sensation racked her lower abdomen and she felt some inner muscles relax. Her eyes roamed about his exposed front, lingering curiously at the area right above water level. His abdominal muscles flexed down to his waist, where a dominant V shaped it's way along his hips. As if it were enticing her to look. Though she didn't need any more help.

A light line of hair reached up to his navel from below the water, something her dreams had neglected to add and she briefly wondered what it would feel like tracing her fingertips along it, perhaps finding out where it lead to. The thought made her blush again but she didn't look away, deciding instead to hood her eyelids and bite her lower lip.

It was only a matter of time before...

Katara nearly blew her cover as she squealed out suddenly before clamping a firm hand over her mouth, eyes bulging wildly. Zuko had walked to the edge of the pool and climbed out, revealing his body waist down. He grabbed his clothes and walked a distance from the humidity.

The drilling sensation bore it's way to a point in between Katara's legs as she stared at the shapely length of Zuko. She had never seen a man before but the drawings and stories that the other women in her tribe shared didn't mention anything too utterly pleasant, at least, length-wise.

Maybe it was a Water Tribe thing, but Zuko certainly would have given the women something nice to talk about. He faced her and brought his hands to his chest, running them down the front of his body sending steam rising in their trail. The motion sent images from her frist dream spinning to the front of her eyes and she immediately tried to imagine what his hands would feel like running down the front of her body. Caressing her, smoothing her skin, palming down her navel to tickle her sensually.

She caught herself closing her eyes and biting her lip a little too sharply and cursed herself for getting distracted. Zuko was already pulling his trousers up over his undershorts and reaching down for his shirt. Katara let out a sigh and decided this was the best time to make her move back to the house. She quickly managed to move back down the hill through the trees, not knowing where she was going and her core aching in frustration.

Hopefully, tonight she would have an entertaining, and satisfying enough dream that it would suffice the urging between her legs. If not, she could surely take care of some of that herself, now that she had a face to look at.

It took her some time, but she finally managed to find the beach house, after locating the ocean's pull from a league off. She had to walk a good majority of the shore length around just to find some familiar land markings. Her walk had subdued the hazy mood she had been in for the last week, and all she could think about now was Zuko, and how she was going to react when she was near him.

She could already feel her heartbeat respond when she thought about him entering the living room or walking into the kitchen.

What about that time his arm had been around her and he was nearly laying on top of her when he saved her from the falling statue?

His hand had been so close to her chest...

"Ugh...why did I have to be so naive. I had him right there...right there, it could have been. Oh, Yue, he is sooo-"

"Katara?"

The water bender turned suddenly and came face to chest with a tall fire bender. Her hands immediately when up and splayed across his chest.

"Zuko!"

They stood together, Katara nearly pressing up against him and Zuko looking down at her with a bewildered look on his face. He glanced from her eyes, to her hands on his chest and then back to her eyes again, his eyebrow progressively raising higher and higher.

"...er...Are...you ok?"

Katara's breathing became labored as her eyes made a sweep of him, looking from his golden gaze, shooting down to see herself pressing into him, then settling on his chest and trying to come up with the right reaction. Eventually her senses kicked in and she quickly took a step back, pulling her hands away from his chest and bringing them up to her own, fingers curling in. She was blushing wildly and could feel the heat nearly steaming off her face.

"I, ah...I...I'm fine. Yes. Why...would you ask?"

Zuko's face slowly started to take on a pink tint, bravely fighting the embarrassment threatening to engulf him. Her hands had lingered on his chest far longer than what was necessary to consider accidental. If it had been the other way around, she would have frozen his body and shattered the ice into a million pieces.

But this was Katara, and he was Zuko. Her lingering hands were purely accidental, and if he even thought other wise, the situation would surely become worse by tenfold. Better to just pretend nothing happened.

"I saw you walking, and...you were talking to yourself. You sounded kind of...angry."

Katara's eyes shot wide again, and she silently berated herself. Had he heard anything? No, he couldn't have.

"Ah. Er...yeah, I was kind've...arguing with myself. But everything is fine. I'll be alright."

Zuko raised his right hand and put it on the back of his neck, looking out and searching for the right thing to say. Katara found herself rubbing her neck by her right ear, her left hand crossed over her chest, her cheeks still burning brightly. Zuko looked at her and decided this was a good moment to part ways, since it was clear she was embarassed.

"Well, if you're alright. But if you er...need anyone to talk to..."

The water bender's azure gaze immediately met his and she looked at him expectantly. Her look was so gentle that Zuko couldn't quite decide whether or not he had said the right thing. He quickly changed what he was going to say, much to Katara's chagrin.

"I'm sure Aang could help you. The kid has a lot of wisdom for his age. A quiet meditation session could help you if your thoughts are cloudy."

Surprisingly, he saw her mood falter and he knew then he had said the wrong thing. What did she want from him?

"Yea...sure, Zuko. Meditation would probably help. Maybe Suki could help me."

Suki?

Henodded and turned to walk, a part of Katara's hopes dashed away, but right before he took a step, he turned back and looked into her eyes.

"But if you ever just need someone to vent to, I'm here. I know what it's like to have pent up frustration and anger. Sometimes, the best thing you could have is someone to take your emotions out on."

Katara's heart thundered against her rib age. That was definitely the right thing to say. She couldn't help but smile at him.

"Thank you, Zuko! I'd really appreciate that! I'll be looking forward to it."

Something about the way she smiled and how her eyes brightened up, Zuko couldn't decide if she was glad to have his companionship...or just delighted in the thought of verbally, or physically, beating him up.

Well, as long as she was happy, he was doing something right.

"You're welcome Katara."

And with that, they parted, Zuko a bit confused, Katara beaming brightly and trying to focus her thoughts on how his chest had felt under her fingertips.