When Aang comes back, pale reams of light have only barely begun to stream through into their hiding place, and Katara blinks away fuzziness as he walks toward them, peering curiously at the body he's dragging along with him.
"Suck on these, They'll make you feel better," He says tiredly, pulling what looks like two blocks of ice out of his pocket and gently placing one in her and Sokka's mouth. Katara tries to mumble a thank you, but wearily closes her eyes instead, sighing with contentment as the ice melts in her mouth.
"Aang, how was your trip? Did you make any new friends?" Sokka mumbles around the ice in his mouth, peeking at the body Aang was gently setting to rest against Appa's tail alongside him. The boy was quiet for a moment, before a slow smile spread over his young features.
"I hope so..." He replied softly, and Katara gave into the weariness, hearing no more.
"Mmm, this is tasty!" Blinking out of her stupor at the sound of her idiot brother's voice, Katara watched in horror as the ice in his mouth melted into a wriggling, squirming frog. Yelping in surprise as she realized one of those frogs was currently on her tongue, the waterbender spat out the amphibian and promptly crawled out of her sleeping bag to find a place where she could vomit in peace.
Shivering softly as she wiped her hand over the side of her mouth, Katara wrinkled her nose as she stood and walked away from the bush, smirking as her brother ran past her with a green tinge on his cheeks and his hands clapped over his mouth. Strolling back inside of their temporary shelter, she froze in alarm, every nerve sparking to life in alarm as she the body laying ontop of Appa's tail stir to life with a pained grunt.
The only sound she could manage was a loud squeak, clapping her hand over her mouth as she stared at none other than Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. Aka, the guy who had been chasing them all around the world, and who had apparently relocated to bleeding from the shoulder ontop of Appa.
He blinked at her, confusion softening his harsh features when he heard her squeal, and Katara pushed away her sympathy, trying to ignore the fact that he had actually looked human for a second, instead focusing on not shaking and melting into a pile of goo from terror.
"Where..." The Prince started, sitting up and groaning, and Katara winced, her instincts immediately kicking in as she came to kneel beside him.
The young woman could just barely make out the shaft of wood embedded in his skin, and moved closer to get a better look, ignoring the boy's grunt of protest.
"Get away from me, peasant. I don't know how in Agni's name I ended up here, but I will not have your filthy hands on me," The boy with the ponytail snarled, and Katara had to fight the suddenly strong urge to yank the ponytail in question.
"Look, I have a little experience in healing...and I really don't think you want to walk around with an arrow poking out of your shoulder, do you?" Katara pointed out smugly.
Prince Zuko was silent, but a flush tinted his cheeks and he pointedly stared at the ground.
"Thought so," Katara continued. "Besides, the quicker I fix you up, the faster you can get back to, oh, I don't know, following us around and trying to kill us?"
The last sentence had been said mostly for her own benefit, as a way of convincing herself not to do what she was about to do. For La's sake, she'd never even truly healed someone before! But when she looked at the scarred prince in front of her, pale and sweating from the pain, she couldn't resist the tug on her heartstrings.
He sneered at that. "Kill you? You're not worth soiling my hands, or my honor, peasant. Don't flatter yourself."
Count to ten, Katara, he's not worth it...She chanted inwardly.
"Can you walk?" She snapped at him, wanting to move him off Appa and outside the cave.
At his reluctant nod, he stood and swayed on his feet, causing Katara hesitantly step towards him in concern. He slipped an arm over her shoulders and she supported his weight as they slowly limped the first time, Katara noticed that he was without his armor. Instead, he was clad in an all-black outfit that clung to his frame. Frowning, but unwilling to approach the subject, Katara wondered exactly how the hell he had ended up being dragged there by Aang with an arrow in his shoulder.
They stopped at a tree a little ways from the cave, and he sat down with his back against the trunk, eyes fluttering closed in a grimace. Katara ignored the voices in her head screaming out in protest and hesitantly, trembling, reached out her hand.
When his hand snagged her wrist, she swallowed back a snarl. Of course.
"Let me help you," She hissed, trying to ignore the way her pulse leapt at that simple contact, his fingers uncurling even as she spoke.
He was quiet and unflinching when she moved her hands to the wound at his shoulder, but she could feel his muscles tensing and flexing beneath her probing touches as she examined the place where the arrow had gone through.
It occurred to her then that she was kneeling between his legs, hands on his chest and his warm puffs of breath brushing over her ear with every inhale and exhale due to their close proximity. She was surprised to find that she wasn't unsettled at all by the fact that she was practically sitting on the lap of the boy, who by all rights, should have been considered her mortal enemy.
No, instead, when his hands gravitated toward her waist to keep her steady and her breathing quickened, Katara found she was experiencing an entirely different spectrum of emotion, and one she was altogether inexperienced with.
Desire.
Her mouth was dry, when she next spoke, and she nervously wet her lips, missing the way his amber eyes followed the simple motion.
"This...is going to hurt," She told him softly, placing her hands on the arrow and watching as he braced himself. The girl worried her lower lip between her teeth before taking a deep breath and sliding the arrow out, thanking the spirits it had gone clean through, leaving no splinters behind. Tossing the bit of wood to the side, she studied the boy in front of her, who was shaking from the pain.
Of their own volition, her hand came up to gently cup his cheek, and she brung their foreheads together, murmuring gentle words of comfort and reveling in the fact that he inched closer in lieu of pulling away. She took the opportunity to study him, map out his handsome, aristocratic features with her eyes.
The thrum of desire in her blood only grew stronger.
Pulling away, she bent water from her pouch and focused hard, pressing her hands to the wound on his shoulder and pouring every ounce of positive energy she could muster into the water on her hands. When the water began to glow, a soft, iridescent light emitting from her fingers, she gasped.
She could feel the steady pulse of his blood under her fingers, feel every nerve that was wrecked with pain...feel the way his rapid heartbeat matched the rhythm of her own. The intimacy of the act surprised her, but she pressed on, knotting together and fixing his torn flesh.
"There..." Katara murmured when she was finished, brushing her hand gently over the sealed wound.
She bent the water back into her pouch and pulled back, only to be stopped by the gentle pressure of a hand on her lower back. Her breath hitched, cheeks already tinged with pink, and she blinked with confusion as Zuko raised his head to look at her.
"Thank you," He rasped, and Katara's heart skipped a beat at what she saw in his amber eyes.
Ignorant though she may have been about certain acts, Katara knew enough to be able to tell when a boy -more like a man- was interested in her. And she could see it now, in the way his eyes lingered over her chest, his pupils dilated not with pain, but with lust.
Gathering her courage, she leaned forward to press a soft, barely-there kiss against his lips, pulling away after a moment when he stiffened beneath her. Katara only had a moment to be embarrassed before his warm, slightly chapped lips descended on her own.. The kiss was soft and tender, two words she wouldn't have associated with Zuko before now, and when his tongue traced her bottom lip teasingly, she parted her lips and granted him entry.
He hummed beneath her, bringing a hand up to cup her jaw as his tongue began sweeping lazily over teeth and gums before stroking her own muscle smoothly. Her nervousness was evident as she tentatively kissed him back, confidence growing as the kiss progressed.
When he bit her lower lip, tugging the pouty flesh between his teeth she moaned, and he took the opportunity to skim his hands up her sides and over her breasts. The young woman gasped at the contact, but encouraged him by wriggling on his lap and pressing her breasts more firmly into his hands.
With trembling fingers, she tugged the material of her dress down over her shoulders and unwound her bindings, cheeks dark and her eyes lowered to the ground.
Zuko scattered kisses over her collarbone, tongue occasionally tracing bony ridges until he came to the sweet mounds he had been longing to taste. He pulled back to admire them, observing dusky nipples already hard from his chaste kisses, flicking his fingertips over the sensitive points and watching with interest as Katara whimpered and arched into his hands.
"You're beautiful," He purred into her ear. "Filthy, but beautiful."
She dug her nails into the skin on his forearms, breathing hard, blue eyes blazing as she leaned forward, all too aware of the hard evidence of his desire pressed against her thigh.
"If I'm so filthy," Katara breathed over his lips, grinding her lower body against his own and taking pleasure in the way his eyes dilated, "Then why are you still touching me?"
The waterbender didn't wait for his answer. She dove forward and wrapped her fingers into his ponytail and pulled him down for a bruising kiss, hissing softly when he returned the kiss with equal force. Her blood was pounding, and she finally admitted to herself that this was what she wanted; had wanted since he'd crashed into her village with his icy sneer and commanding tone.
What made it even better was the fact that he wanted her too, that he was just as wrecked as she was.
It was surprising how easy this was, how easy he was tearing her apart with rough touches and harsh kisses. When he pushed her onto her back, she went, staring into his flickering gold eyes as he leaned above her, weight supported on his elbows. His fingers tugged insistently on her dress, pulling hard until he wriggled it over her hips and tossed it to the side, baring her completely.
The hunger in his eyes only made her want him more.
Zuko's hands slid under her back, lifting her legs and spreading them apart. Trembling, Katara wrapped them around his waist, hardly able to believe that she was letting Zuko of all people do this her, allowing him to know her body so completely and fully.
"Are you ready?" he whispered peering down at her face. She was biting her lip again and looking a little nervous, but she nodded her reply, signaling she wanted him to continue.
He took her hands in his, intertwining their fingers as he leaned forward, pinning her hands to either side of her head, their faces only a few inches apart. The duality of his actions surprised her; one moment he was rough and fierce, and the next he was sweet and gentle.
Katara's eyes never left Zuko's as she felt her body open up for him, felt his hardness sink slowly inside of her and push deeper, deeper, stretching her in a way she had never experienced. Her kiss-swollen lips parted in a breathy moan as he filled her. There was no pain, just the new and strange sensation of being so full, like an emptiness she hadn't even known about was made whole by him. So this was what it felt to be as physically close to another human as possible.
He pumped into her, shallow and slow, ravaging her mouth while keeping her hands pinned by her head. Every forward thrust extracted a soft moan from her which he swallowed up with his demanding kiss. Her legs came up to lock around his waist, ankles crossed at the small of his back as he groaned at the exquisite feeling of her tightness.
Finally, his lungs needed air more than his mouth needed hers, and he broke the kiss to gaze down at her, never stopping the steady rhythm of his hips. She was panting hard, breath punctuated by a soft moan with every thrust. Her own pelvis was lifting to meet his and her firm breasts were bouncing captivatingly every time he pushed into her.
"More," she whimpered softly, a little embarrassed to make such a wanton request, but her breathless plea seemed to arouse her partner further, for he paused and gazed at her with lust-darkened eyes.
"What do you want?" he asked, voice raspy and low as he paused momentarily in his ministrations, her body burning with need and clenching around him, trying to urge him to continue.
"I want you…deeper," she mumbled, cheeks heating, but un-embarrassed at her request.
He chuckled, low and dirty in her air before nipping at her earlobe with a wicked grin. His hips moved slower, in light, shallow thrusts and Katara growled in frustration; that had been the complete opposite of what she wanted.
"Maybe if you ask me nicely, peasant," Zuko hissed softly, but she could detect the slightest hint of teasing in his tone.
She sank her teeth into his shoulder in retaliation, leaving a harsh red mark to blossom across his pale skin. His hips jerked to drive him deeper inside her at the bite, and she moaned in gratification, raking her nails down his back.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and crushed him against her, pressing his sculpted torso against her bare chest. The feel of him inside her was like nothing she had experienced before, so deep and intimate, and even his deep thrusting wasn't enough. Her hands began to wander his slick back restlessly, fingers exploring pale skin and smearing the droplets of sweat formed there until they found his hips and settled on the toned expanse of his ass.
The hard muscle flexed enticingly as he moved and she was so caught up in the moment that she grabbed a firm cheek in each hand, trying to press him more fully into herself as she arched up to meet him.
Zuko made a low, primal sound in the back of his throat and slammed deeper inside of her, causing her to practically sob with pleasure, her toes curling where they were wrapped around his waist.
She couldn't have stopped herself from screaming if she tried, her orgasm ripping away all rational thought as it threatened to tear her apart. The fire in her veins turned to blinding light, blotting out her vision and racing through her at top speed only to bounce back and reverberate throughout her entire body, making her dizzy as her senses were overloaded.
Zuko managed a few more thrusts, before burying his face in the crook of her shoulder and let his own release wash over him, his teeth scraping along the sensitive skin of her throat as he whimpered softly.
It took them long minutes to collect their breath, and when he rolled off her, she fought the urge to protest.
He was quiet for a long moment before speaking. "It's my destiny to hunt the Avatar."
She didn't answer. She understood what he was saying. Who was she, a mere girl, to get in the way of destiny, of all things? But her heart clenched anyway. Stupid of me to think this would have changed him.
Then he turned, swiping a thumb over her bottom lip and pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"Tell Aang that maybe...he was right," Zuko murmured into her cheek.
Katara nodded, and he stared at her, giving her one last inscrutable look before his features hardened and he fixed his clothing, disappearing the way they'd come without a word. She waits by the tree until the sun is bright in the sky before fixing herself up and returning to the cave.
Aang sighs in relief when he sees her and she manages a weak smile, waving away his questions and Sokka's suspicious gaze.
"I thought for a second Zuko might have done something to you," Aang told her softly, and she fought the urge to snort.
Later, when they're on Appa's back and flying over the sea, she tells Aang what Zuko told her. He nods once, giving her a curious look, but she turns away to stare at the ocean. Her body is sore, her most intimate place is aching; but in the end, she thinks the ache between her legs is nothing compared to the ache inside her chest.
a/n; shannon i hate this so much i will write you something better i promise~ /flies away