Summer's End
They had made camp one final time in the forest by a lake just outside the capitol. Dinner had been tense with no one willing to voice any of the fears they all shared. Aang had been the first to retire, though none could understand how he could be at all tired knowing what he must face come tomorrow.
Katara followed him, and then Toph. Sokka had gone into their tent and gotten in his sleeping bag, but no matter how long he closed his eyes, he could not sleep. He got up, as quietly as possible so as not to disturb his sleeping sister.
He walked out and sat by the bank of the lake. He wiped the back of his hand against his forehead, the worst part, he mused, of being in the Fire Nation, especially at this time of year, was the heat. True, he had grown up in the South Pole, so his idea of heat was relative, but even Toph, who had been raised in the heart of the Earth Kingdom, often commented on the stifling heat.
He gazed up, at the almost full moon. They were lucky, due to the comet coming on the same day as that month's full moon, Katara and the other waterbenders from the Northern Water Tribe would be in top form to fight.
He said a quick prayer for everyone's safety. He no longer felt sad when he looked at the moon, he instead felt a mild tranquility, he knew Yue was watching out for them.
He heard footsteps behind him, and was not surprised when he turned and saw Suki standing behind him. She had been prone to sleepless nights.
The others had discovered, badly injured, but alive, in the infirmiry of a small Earth Kingdom village. When she had been well enough to talk to them, she had broken down several times when telling them what had happened when her and her friends were ambushed by Azula and her cronies.
The others hadn't made it, she herself had only survived because Azula had left her, believing she could not possibly be alive. She had gathered herself as well as she could, abandoning the charred, bloody corpses of her comrades, and walked to the nearest village.
With Katara's help, the healers had said she would make a full recovery. Her left leg was badly weakened, and her left hand sometimes hang at an odd angle from her body, but she had bounced back as well as anyone could have expected.
She had been a great help in the battle of Black Sun, when they had retaken Ba Sing Se. She was as graceful and nimble a warrior as Sokka recalled, but she had a fierceness in her that he could not remember. Off the battlefield she was often distant and listless. He had made deveral attemots at comforting her, but she clammed up, and all he could do was hold her and stroke her hair, while she did not allow herself to cry.
That night her hair was tied back from her face, free of war paint since the bloodbath in the forest.
"Couldn't sleep either?" he asked her quietly.
She nodded softly, and sat down beside him. After a pregnant silence, she spoke.
"Its strange," she said looking up at the sky, "It's so calm tonight, and to know, that no matter what, it all ends tomorrow. "
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it could go one of two ways. Aang could win, defeat the Fire Lord, and end this war for good, or Aang could lose, Ozai could gain unimaginable power, and finish the war for good" She paused again, "Not all of us are going to make it through tomorrow Sokka, and I wanted to be able to remember clearly, what may be the last calm, happy hours of my life, that's why I couldn't sleep. Not tonight." She turned her head away.
Her voice was more certain than he had heard in in months. She was right of course, any of them could be dead by the next night, and for all they knew...She was right to want these calm hours.
He took her face in his hands and turned it towards him. He wiped a tear gently from her face, and gathered her lips with his own.
After a minute of bliss, they're tongues gently battling for dominance, she pulled back and stood up.
He was taken aback, afraid he had done something wrong, but when she stood, she smiled, and did not turn back.
"It's hot," she said, wiping her brow. And then slightly more mischevious, "Want to go swimming?".
He was more than a bit shocked, and could only slightly nod. She turned back towards the water, and began to untie the sash on her tunic. Pulling it over her head, before sliding her leggings off and tossing them aside, Sokka gasped. He had seen her withered and broken hand, and supported her when her leg had twinged, but he had not seen the extent of the damage that the Fire Nation girls had inflicted on her. Knife wounds covered her torso, and burns were up and down her legs, a specifically bad one on her back, centered just below her shoulder blades, likely from lightning which had somehow not killed her.
Yet despite this, she was beautiful to him. Her legs, slender but well muscled, and her skin tan and smooth, shone in the moonlight. For a moment, he almost couldn't breathe. When she jumped in, it broke his trance and he stood up to watch her.
"Hey, I thought you were going to join me?" she said almost saucily.
He peels off his clothes as quickly as possible, and dives in beside her. As they both tread water, less than seven feet deep at best, their eyes met. His were surprised, but hers were clouded with desire, She splashed him a bit, and then moved toward him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, her lips once again on his.
She kissed him eagerly, her tongue gently running along his bottom lip, moving to his ear, and his neck. After a minute, he gently pushes her away, taking both of her hands in his and gazing at her.
"What's wrong?" she asked, apparantly wondering what she had done.
He held her still as best he could in the moving water, and kissed her softly on the lips, moving downward to her chin, her throat, and pausing over a particularly large scar on her collarbone, placed one on it too.
Her eyes shot open in surprise.
"Don't..." she said weakly.
He placed a finger on her lips, silencing her.
"It's alright, actually they're kind of sexy." He said, grinning wickedly.
She, for the first time is a long while, laughed out loud, throwing her head back. He took this as a good sign, and continued. Kissing the side of her neck, he reached up to just below the surface of the water to place his hand on one of her breasts. She gasped as he rubbed it softly.
She reached her arms up around him, her hands resting on the side of his head, and wound her fingers lightly in the end of his wolf tail and gently pulled on it.
"Hey!" he said, a bit offended, remembering what Katara had once said about him wearing a ponytail.
She laughed again.
"Don't complain, you asked for it by wearing it."
Their mouths continued their assault on each others bodies. His hand made its way between her legs, softly exploring her. Her hands reached out and grasped his manhood gently, sliding her fingers along it and taking hold and tugging gently. As things grew more heated, they drifted slowly toward the shore, and lay down, still partially in the gentle surf.
He rolled over, so that he was above her, kissed her soundly and then paused, looking her in the eyes with the question in his eyes, do you want?
She smiled brightly, and nodded. Her then buries his face in the side of her neck.
It hurts a bit when he enters her, but she doesn't mind as the gentle waves surround them, gently lapping at the lover's sides. They moved against each other her skin tanned, but glistening pale against his darker flesh. He moves slowly at first, afraid of hurting her, but as she places her hands on his shoulders and presses, urging him on, he begins to pick up speed, her soft moans and touches only making him feel more heated.
She feels the heat building within her, as his movements become more erratic and when she hits her climax, the waves crashing through her have more than twice the power of the ones around her legs and back, and she cries out. Her cries triggerd his climax, and her buried himself against her chest and neck, as his movements become almost desperate, and they became one.
The moon shone brightly on the two that hot night, as the new lovers lay in each others arms in the gentle surf almost until morning.
A/N: Actually based on a Kataang pic I saw at deviantart called The Wind and the Surf.
Not to great, but my first try at anything even vaguely smutty. Man is it awkward trying to write this from a mostly male perspective when I'm a virgin myself.