The sun had gone down hours ago. Katara assumed that the rest of the Fire Nation palace was asleep while she couldn't bring herself to close her eyes. After giving up, she crawled out from beneath the silk sheets of her bed in the cozy guest room and decided to continue filing through paperwork that would (hopefully) eventually lead to the building of a city in the South Pole. She did this for a while, reading through contracts and treaties, singing the more important ones, and dosing off every few minutes. Finally she just put her head down on her desk and closed her eyes, giving up on the piles of papers that made no sense.
As her mind started to drift, she remembered her encounter with the recently crowned Fire Lord that she'd had earlier that day.
She'd been reading a scroll while walking swiftly through the hallways and didn't see the Fire Bender walking towards her who was doing the same. In moments they collided, her hands instinctively landing on his strong chest as he placed his on her waist to steady her. The worst part wasn't even even how warm his hands felt through her robes, or the sheer embarrassment of not watching where she was going, the worst part was what she saw in his eyes when she finally looked up at him. They glimmered with some amusement, but mostly she saw something else that she couldn't place.
"Sorry, I didn't see you coming," he said in a raspy whisper.
A quick glance told Katara that, for once, he wasn't being escorted by anyone. They were completely alone. The scrolls lied on the ground, forgotten, as the two remained in each others arms.
She felt him slowly slide his arms around her, gently pulling her to him; and she in turn slid her arms up to wrap around his neck, using one of her fingers to trace up his jaw. "Neither did I," she whispered back, a smile curving upward on her lips. He leaned down a placed a disappointingly chaste kiss on her lips, resulting in her scowling at him for the lack of passion. But he simply winked at her, picked up his scroll, and fled around the nearest corner.
She stared after him in shock, but not a moment later-
"Hey, Katara!" Came Aang's cheery voice.
She spun around to see him and her brother turning onto the hallway she and Zuko had been in seconds before.
"Oh," she said, suddenly realizing why Zuko had left, "Hi guys, " she said mustering as much cheer as possible.
And so once again, they'd been interrupted by annoying circumstances.
Her head snapped up when someone crashed through the double doors into her room. There was loud protesting from the guards that stood outside, but the intruder told them to leave us before he slammed the doors in their faces. He paused there for a moment before spinning around to look at her. Gold eyes clashed against blue, but of course she had already known it was him, even only seeing by the dim candlelight, because only he would crash into her room at this hour.
"Tara, they cant make you. You don't have to agree to anything, you know that the Fire Nation can support your tribe in anyway needed," he spoke quickly approaching her. She stood, not fully grasping everything he said because she was distracted by their current circumstance. Over her under wraps she wore only a blue silk robe that left her very exposed, and he was wearing one of the shirts that they use to wear when they'd traveled together; one that let her see his exposed arms and the dipped neckline that let her see the expanse of his chiseled chest.
"You don't have to feel obligated to do this, no one can force you. I can't lose you, Tara!"
She gently brought her fingertips to his lips to halt his panicked speaking and looked him straight in the eye, "You aren't going to lose me, Zuko. We're a team, and I don't ever intend to leave your side," she said quietly, giving him a small smile. He looked intensely relieved and pulled her into a passionate embrace.
No annoying circumstances interrupted them that night.
And I will leave it to your imaginations to create the rest;)
Hope you guys enjoyed that so..ya R&R I guess...
PEACE!
ZutaraLoves