A Stolen Kiss

"Thanks, Momo," I sighed happily as the lemur finished gnawing the ropes around my wrists, holding me against the tree. "I owe you a bushel of apples."

He chirruped something in lemur. But suddenly, he was gone. The next thing I knew, the waterbending scroll was up in the air and Momo snatched it before it could reach the pirate summoning it. But before he could do more than fly three meters, the Pirate Captain's reptile-bird was after him.

"Hey!" I shouted at it, trying to get its attention off Momo, "Leave him alone you stupid cretin!"

I waved my arms about frantically, but the bird didn't give me a second glance. It gained on Momo fast and I realized with a pang of horror that the lemur would not be able to out-fly it.

"Momo! Fly this way! Fly towards me!" I shouted as loud as I could and thankfully, the small lemur changed courses and flew in my direction. Sure enough, the reptile-bird rammed into his side and the scroll slipped from his grasp as he tried to steady himself.

I stretched out my hand and caught the scroll with a smile on my face. But the reptile-bird did not come after me; it continued flying after Momo.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

But the beast did not care for what I had to say and soon, I found myself distracted from what was going on in the sky.

"Hello there, peasant."

I turned with a gasp to see Prince Zuko. My grip on the scroll tightened and I stepped backwards a few times until I found myself backed up against the tree once more. I cursed my luck and tried not to panic.

"You have something I could use, whether I get the Avatar or not. Why don't you give me that scroll?" He offered his hand and beckoned for me to hand it over. I clutched it as tight to my body as I could.

"No, go jump in the river!" I yelled, shaking my head.

"Come on now, little peasant. Give me the scroll."

"Forget it!" I shot back with as much courage as I could muster.

"Give it to me."

"No."

"Hand it over!"

"No!"

"Now!"

I struck out, slapping him hard across his unscarred cheek. He seethed angrily and I quickly pushed past him while he was distracted with the sting in his cheek.

"Come back here, Water Tribe Peasant!" he shouted after me. I heard him start running after me, but I did not look back, too afraid that it would slow me down.

But a few moments later, I felt him close his hand around my wrist in a vice grip and as he stopped running, he didn't let go and it wrenched me backwards. I felt my wrist pop out of its socket and I cried out in a mixture of pain and frustration as I failed to free myself.

"I said, give me the scroll," he growled in my ear.

"NO!" I turned around and tried to beat him with my other hand. But he caught it and the scroll dropped from my hands. "LET GO OF ME!"

Zuko tried to push me off him and I knew his next move would have been to get the scroll. But I knew that I couldn't let him take it. When he pushed me away, it was my turned to grab onto him.

"No you don't!" I warned, thrusting myself forward into a stance and doing my best to stand against him.

But Zuko was stronger than me, physically. The way he tried to push me off him the second time made him lift me into the air. But I was stubborn and still did not let go.

"Get your hands off me, peasant!"

I did not make any retort as I did what I could not to let go. He growled angrily and shook his arms as hard as he could to get me off.

I got as close to him as I dared, knowing that I had to get the scroll away. I kicked it and missed and I tried again and still missed. It was on my third attempt that I hit it and it went flying.

Suddenly, I regretted kicking it, because it soared towards the water. Surely it would be lost forever in just moments. But Momo was there in an instant and he snatched it up between his hind legs and continued flying to evade the reptile-bird.

Prince Zuko shook me violently and I let my grip slip from his wrists as he heated them up.

"Stupid peasant," I heard him mutter under his breath.

He stalked after Momo and the reptile-bird as they chased each other into the trees. Suddenly, Momo doubled back - some sort of evasive maneuver - and he flew back towards me. But the reptile-bird followed quickly and rammed into Momo's side once more, causing him to shriek loudly and once more, drop the scroll. But the lemur had only gotten as far as Zuko was standing and the boy reached up a hand as the scroll fell towards him.

Everything went in slow motion as I made a shocking decision. I ran as quick as I could towards Zuko. As the scroll landed in his hand, I slipped mine around it and his hand closed on both the scroll and my hand.

An expression of confusion crossed over the Prince's face as he realized that he was holding my hand. He turned to face me properly, halfheartedly attempting to pull away from me. But I worked to quickly for him.

I pushed myself forward, parting my lips and catching his other hand in mine. And I put my mouth over his before I could even start considering doing something else to distract him.

His whole body tensed and I knew mine had too. I had my eyes tightly shut so I wouldn't be able to see the expression on his face, or see his face at all. I was kissing Prince Zuko, forcing myself on him at my own free will. Whatever was going through my head must have been crazy.

For a moment, he tried to pull away, but I only pressured him more, letting go of his free hand and wrapping it around his neck. I forced my tongue past my teeth and tried to get it into his mouth. And much to my surprise, he relaxed and let me through, returning the favour fervently.

I felt my heart miss a beat as his free hand took my waist and he drew my body closer to his. And suddenly, he let go of my other hand and the scroll. His other hand went to the back of my head and I couldn't help putting my other arm around his neck with my other one too.

"Katara?" I heard my brother's voice call in a mixture of disgust and disbelief.

Oh shit… I thought to myself.

Before Sokka could hurt him more than I was probably about to, I slowly broke the stolen kiss and slipped out of his grip before he had even opened his eyes.

Then I ran towards my dumbfound brother, grabbing his forearm as I passed him and dragging him after me as we ran for it. The scroll was still in my hand.

As I looked back over my shoulder, Zuko blinked in shock and looked around unintelligibly, a dumbfound expression on his pale face.

As he made eye-contact with me as I ran, I saw a deep blush creeping to his unscarred cheek as he stared after me, his mouth hanging slightly open. I felt my cheeks go red as well and I tried to shake the thought of kissing Zuko from my head.

Before anything else could happen, we were on Appa's back and Aang was guiding us through the sky.

"That was close," he murmured, coming to sit in the saddle with Sokka and I. "Um… Sokka, are you all right? Why are you staring at Katara like that?"

"Katara… did you just kiss Zuko?" he asked in disbelief. I saw Aang's eyes widen with shock as they turned sharply towards me.

"Katara?"

"Um…" I stuttered, fiddling with the scroll in my hand, "I had to use some sort of distraction so that I could get the scroll off him. It worked!" I tried to weasel my way out of it, but I knew the boys wouldn't drop this one easily.

Sokka's eyes rolled back in his head and a moment later he was unconscious in the saddle.

"I'd hate to see what would happen if I kissed him," Aang joked. We both laughed, but it was rather nervous.

Ever since that day, I've never been able to forget the stolen kiss. It was my first kiss and it had been amazing. But it had been so wrong. I didn't even know why I had chosen a kiss of all things as a way to distract Zuko. I was standing right next to a river for goodness sake! I COULD HAVE WATERBENDED HIS BUTT! But I'd chosen this instead.

But it wasn't like it meant anything, right? A kiss doesn't mean something unless you want it too. So that was all it was – a stolen kiss and nothing more.

So...

First of all, to the people who have me on their alerts list: long time no see! It has been like months since I've updated/posted anything. I am sorry, I am a lazy butthole with too much schoolwork and a social life to enjoy ff.n to it's full extent anymore. :( It makes me sad. Oh well, at least I HAVE a life nowadays. I'm sure you can find it in your hearts to forgive me :)

And to the readers in general, hope you liked this little snapshot of a story. Set in the episode 'The Waterbending Scroll' in case that wasn't obvious enough. Zutara, in case that wasn't obvious either... just mildly anyway. Mwah-ah-ah! Please drop in a review for me.

Finally, to all Zutaraians out there: join TEAM ZUTARA if you're not already a member. Go to my profile page for more info. :)

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