Author Notes:
I had all these grand plans to write much much more for ZutaraWeek 2015, but, alas, I've been sorely lacking in time. In any case, I had this little one-shot mostly written, and I felt it fit somewhat well with Day 7: Maelstrom (noun); turbulence; violent turmoil. Or maybe I should say it "aspires" to maelstrom, because that's what's really happening in this story, which you will probably only find delicious IF you're mostly a vanilla lemon type. Ah, well, enjoy either way. It's sort of a favorite of mine.
Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.
"Zuko, why is there a knife under our mattress?" Katara had asked.
"You do not want to know," Zuko had said, and he'd followed that up with gentle kisses and soft touches and the kind of love that made her want to spend the rest of the afternoon cuddled with her new husband in the sheets, Fire Lord (and Fire Lady) duties be damned.
But then there were the rumors about the Fire Lord that she'd overheard from those women talking at the street market. They couldn't have known who she was, or maybe they just didn't see her, and what they said made her blush so hard it was all she could do not to flee. It was embarrassing. When she saw Zuko later that day - he was in his office, doing paperwork for spirit's sake - and he said "how was your morning out?", she blushed again like a teenager and barely squeaked out "fine" before she had to back away, faking like she'd just remembered something important she had to do.
Had it helped that they had that formal military ceremony to attend? That Zuko showed up in full armor and regalia? The version with the spiked shoulders and the gold breastplates, and how many swords did a guy who could have burned down the whole place without thinking about it need to carry? Had she missed the maelstrom in his eyes as he'd glared at that general he hated — the one who eyed her up and down while slyly reporting things that made steam just barely rise from Zuko's skin?
Of course not. And she hadn't missed the shiver that ran down her spine when Zuko turned that look on her and she saw the shift — not to anything less turbulent but to something in his eyes that made her swallow hard. She supposed it also hadn't helped that the palace tailor chose that night to put her in that long, black dress. It was the one with the tight corset that made her breathless all night, and a slit in the side that drove Zuko's eyes appreciatively up from her ankles to her thigh.
"I couldn't stop looking at you," he said, when they were finally alone in their chambers later and he held her at the waist, appraising her as if she were something he wanted to devour. The blush crept up her throat again against her will. He blinked and tilted his head and she knew she would have to tell him about the things that were making her restless at night. So she did, in broken, strangled sentences, her skin hot, and when she was done he stood leaning against the bed post, laughing.
"It's not that funny, Zuko!" she said angrily, kicking off her shoes and feeling faintly that the corset had become too tight. She started an attempt to unlace it herself, but he was at her back before she could even find the first knot, kissing her shoulder while he undid the ties for her. She could feel the smile on his lips and she resented it as much as she could, which was, perhaps, not as much as she should have, but she couldn't help that, could she? When his focus was so intent on her?
"So?" she asked, her breath coming back to her as he deftly loosened the constraining fabric and helped her out of it.
"So what?" he asked, his eyes darkening as she stepped away from the dress, exposed except for something barely there the tailor had called "panties." Well, that and the dagger strapped to her thigh. (Her advisers had conspired on that one - they always demanded she be armed and this skin-tight black number hadn't left a lot of room for hidden weapons.)
She growled. She had the feeling that the look in her eyes was anything but "light" or "airy" by that point.
He snorted and pointed at the dagger. "Katara, you're the one who was dressed to kill tonight."
"But what about the rumors?" she demanded, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. He loosened his own robes and began to peal off the outer layers.
"Oh those." He winked at her. He was infuriating. "Well, you know, it doesn't hurt my image as the Fire Lord to let those rumors stand."
"But are they true?" They had better not be true. He had better never have — even if it was with Mai, whose dangerous nature Katara liked quite a lot — and Agni forbid if Zuko had ever done anything like what those women at the market had been talking about with someone he'd barely known.
He raised his eyebrow, but she didn't back down. He was her husband and this was not the kind of secret he was allowed to keep from her! (And strange how she could feel powerful standing in front of Zuko wearing nothing but a dagger and a pair of little black "panties.")
He sighed. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes!" She did not stomp her foot for good measure. (She didn't stomp it very hard anyway.)
"Okay then." He rolled his eyes. "Yes, they are partially true."
Her jaw dropped.
"What?" He crossed his arms defensively over his bare chest. "You knew Mai. Sharp objects were kind of her thing."
"Oh great spirits," Katara said, thinking of the knife she'd found under the mattress and the thought crossing her mind that she really had married the Lord of Hell. "What part? Did you tie her up?"
"Um, do we have to talk about this?"
She narrowed her eyebrows even more and Zuko started to look afraid. "Okay, yes," he admitted. "There was, uh, bondage. But mostly it was the other way around."
"She tied you up?" Katara spluttered, aghast. "Did you hurt each other?"
"Not really. I mean, she might have drawn blood once or twice but-"
"You let her draw blood?!"
"Why are you so interested?"
"I…" Katara thought to turn and hide the blush this time, but the rosy flush was washing over her entire body and it would have been little use to turn considering how little she was wearing. Zuko pressed his lips together like he was trying not to laugh this time.
"It's just strange to me, that's all," she lied. "You've always been so sweet with me. I've never felt threatened by you in bed."
"I'd never threaten you, in bed or out." He moved around her in their room so he could lounge on the aforementioned bed. She came to sit next to him at the edge and he put his hand on her thigh. "And you inspire me to be sweet to you," he continued, propping himself up and leaning over so he could kiss the curve of her hip.
She unstrapped the dagger at her thigh and held it in her hands.
Zuko chuckled. "Kat, if there's something you want, you don't have to threaten me either. Just tell me."
She bit her lip. "What's it like?"
"To have Mai playing around with daggers in bed? If you really want to know, I'm sure I could contact her and ask her to join us for an evening of fun and torture."
He was joking, but she touched the edge of the dagger to the inside of her palm, dragging the sharp point along the skin lightly. There was something…intriguing…about the idea of mixing a little pain with pleasure.
Zuko sat up and frowned. "Come on, Kitty Kat. Set down the knife and let's play. I promise a good time without the torture."
"Do you think you'd ever maybe want to tie me up?"
"You want me to tie you up?" He looked like he was trying to decide if he knew her at all.
"We could start with something kind of loose. Silks or something," Katara suggested, feeling very risque. "Nothing too dangerous." (Would silk count as something dangerous? She really didn't know enough about this stuff to have a good sense of that. She held her breath and hoped she hadn't just said something stupid.)
"And what exactly happens when you want to tie me up?"
She smiled evilly thinking about that. "Well, I am a healer."
Zuko started laughing even harder than he had before. "That is my trade-marked evil Fire Lord smile!" he accused.
"I've been practicing," she said coyly. She slid the knife under the mattress and climbed the rest of the way onto the bed until she was sitting on her knees in front of him. She put her hands on his chest, he put his hands lightly around her wrists and the kissing began.
"I think we'll need…um…a safety code," she said between caresses.
"We can't just use the word 'stop'?" he asked. He was leaving a path of kisses from her neck to her breasts. She liked it…but…
"Nah, that's too boring."
His hands traveled down her hips and over her buttocks. "Well, what's your suggestion, then, dear?" he asked, pulling her close enough for his tongue to bother her nipples.
She hadn't thought about that, and she was never very coherent when he was doing...that...
Soon he took a break to look up and grin at her. "How about we use a phrase, like 'Zuko, you sexy beast, untie me this instant!'"
Katara raised an eyebrow at him, but ran her hands over his muscular chest, using her thumbs to outline every ridge down to his hips. "Fine. But then your safety phrase is 'Save me from the pirates, Water Tribe Princess.'"
Zuko laughed. "Done." His fingers slid in a tease under the thin fabric of the little black panties. "How about a rehearsal?" he asked, flipping her over suddenly so that she was under him. She couldn't suppress a giggle.
"A rehearsal?" She lifted her hips so that he could slide the panties down. He tossed them over the side of the bed casually.
"Baby steps, Katara." He took the inside of her wrist and ran his tongue along the tender skin there before holding it above her head in the pillows. "Just a little fun," he said, doing the same to her other wrist. He pressed both wrists into the pillows with one hand and began pinching her nipples into hard balls with the fingers of his free hand. She closed her eyes to focus on the sensations while he kneaded her breasts. His mouth found her nipples again, and he nipped at her with his teeth while she arched her back up toward him, rewarding his work. He moved his easy assault to her collarbone, her shoulders and her neck. She writhed under him, twisting her wrists in his hand and thinking that his pace was frustratingly slow.
"You want something?" he asked, tightening his hold on her wrists and smirking at her while she tried to arch her neck close enough for her mouth to meet his again. He hovered just out of her reach and she whined pitifully.
He chuckled again. "I don't think this is going to work. If you can't even give up this much control, what makes you think you can handle anything else?"
She hummed quietly, looking up into his eyes and getting lost in the glistening gold there, and really, she thought, whatever control she'd had with Zuko had been lost long ago anyway. Isn't that what fascinated her about all of this anyway? Surrendering control of her body to her new husband? Finding out what he would do if she gave him permission to…
He smiled and used his free hand to lift her under him so that her body pressed up into his length-ways while he pressed his mouth down into hers again, his tongue wrapped around hers while his body sank into her.
She wanted to reach out to him, to put her hands around her neck and pull him to her to make the kissing deeper, but there was pleasure in not knowing what would happen next and freedom in not having to think about it.
He must have been surprised at her contented moan as she relaxed and stopped trying to free herself from his tight grip, because he paused to hover above her for a few minutes, his head tilted at her as though she'd spiked his curiosity.
He rolled her nipples in his fingers again, and she felt heat directed at her sending a rush of flames through her blood. She closed her eyes and moaned wantonly again. When she opened them, he was staring down at her with a look that was positively predatory.
"Next time, we'll tie you up, and I'll explore in other directions," he promised softly, his eyes flashing dangerously before he leaned in again to bit her shoulder.
She shivered at the thought, her hips reaching up to meet his.
He laughed appreciatively…or maliciously, she wasn't really sure which. "You know, normally, I like you unrestrained," he said, "but this does have its benefits."
"Please," she said, and she knew she must be moist with want. She had, after all, been thinking about this all day. Ties could wait. He kissed her mouth again, loosening his grip on her wrists just slightly so that he could re-position himself over her. She spread her legs apart to accommodate and he entered her easily, tightening his hand on her wrists again and closing his eyes at the close contact. She hummed underneath him in approval, her body opening up while she waited for him to set a rhythm inside her. He moaned with her when he started to move to a slow, swirling beat.
Then he kissed her while they swam in the heat together, hips crushed together, her pelvis tilted toward him. He paused to look at her and she had the sensation that he was memorizing her body.
"I love you," she said and he kissed her again.
"I love you," he said. "And all you ever have to do is tell me what you want."
She whimpered and closed her eyes in response, the pleasure building up in her in high waves. He closed his eyes too and the movement became faster, matching the waves that made her contract involuntarily around him until she was arching up with every wave and crying out "please please" and he was saying "oh, spirits, Katara" and she came just before he did, her body spasming around his as he groaned out his own release, pounding hard into her before collapsing next to her, letting her wrists go free in the process but pulling her onto him so that her chest lined up against his and her head rested on his shoulder.
"You are so incredibly perfect," he said.
"Where do you think we can get silk ties from conspicuously?" she asked.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm pretty sure I can find something lying around."