a/n: This was originally written to go with a different title that I had come up with as a joke, but it ended up way less crackier than I intended, so I'll have to try it again. I still had fun writing and hope you have fun reading!
Cross posted on my tumblr.
i.
The last time Katara saw the Fire Lord's nephew they had both been quite a bit younger.
It was at the four week long Conference of Nations held every five years when the various leaders of the nations and major subregions of the world, or a designated representative, would gather to discuss treaties and trade and air any grievances. It was a tradition instated a hundred years prior by the now ancient Avatar Aang to prevent another such near-crisis as occurred in his youth, when an overambitious Fire Lord nearly sent the world into chaos.
It was the first time eight-year-old Katara and nine-year-old Sokka were allowed to accompany their father on one of his diplomatic trips while their mother stayed home to act as proxy ruler, though Chief Hakoda insisted that it very boring and they would be begging to go home again after two days. But Omashu, the chosen location for that year's meeting, sounded so exotic and exciting they were sure he was wrong.
As luck would have it the Fire Nation representative, the Fire Lord's younger brother Ozai, was accompanied by not just his wife but his children as well, a boy and girl right around Sokka and Katara's ages. And, though the boy could be a little mopy at times and the girl a little scary, they made quick friends as young children thrown together in a sea of adults do and spent the month as thick as thieves before quickly forgetting about one another for the most part once they'd gone back to their respective homes.
They had been so young and innocent.
Well, they were still quite young, really – at fifteen and sixteen she and her brother were now considered mature enough to go on diplomatic missions on their own. Not ones that were really truly important, just events that required a token appearance to pay respect, like the Fire Lord's sixtieth birthday - and though she couldn't speak for Prince Zuko she was for her part still fairly innocent all things considered.
But, Katara thought, cheeks reddening as she peeked out the window onto the training yard where the now seventeen and very shirtless prince was going through forms with his dao blades, she wasn't so young.
And she wasn't so innocent.
ii.
Prince Zuko was a surprisingly good dancer, Katara silently noted as the young man lead her in a new style of dance imported from a northern Earth Kingdom province called the waltz. He was bit stiff, as he nearly always was, save for rare moments such as that morning when she spied him as he trained, but his steps were light and his hand on her back warm and steady. Katara for her part held her own admirably, breathlessly keeping pace as they turned – almost like flying.
"I think your Uncle's talking about you," she observed. She was trying very hard to keep her left hand where it rested on his shoulder rather than giving into the urge to let it slide down to his bicep and feel those muscles she had watched flexing in the morning sun. As it was she couldn't resist adjusting her grip as a pretense to slide her fingers over the smooth silk covering her partner's powerful shoulders as he turned his head to see Princess Ursa smile knowingly as the Fire Lord leaned forward as if to share a secret.
Th waterbender trained her expression into one of complete innocence as Zuko turned back with a grimace.
"He's probably talking about both of us."
Katara's eyebrows shot up.
"Oh?" she said lightly as she looked past him to catch sight of Princess Ursa saying something back to the Fire Lord while nodding her head towards the couple. "What makes you think that?"
She couldn't resist the smirk that tugged at her lips as Zuko flushed and muttered what sounded like 'nothing'. She watched his eyes search the room for a different topic of conversation before they lighted on something behind her.
"Your brother seems to be enjoying himself." He then deftly turned them so she was facing the banquet table where Sokka was going back and forth between putting food on his plate and stuffing it in his mouth. Katara laughed, extracting a small smile from the prince which sent something fluttering to her chest and something warm to her stomach. She suddenly understood why girls would sometimes laugh at a boy's unfunny jokes.
"Do you remember when we were all kids in Omashu and we rode the postal chutes?" she asked.
Zuko groaned, but his smile grew. (More fluttering, more heat).
"Yes – our father was furious with us. Well, me mostly, since I was oldest and was supposed to set a good example ."
"Ours was, too. But Avatar Aang managed to cool them off a little."
"It was only fair," he grumbled, "He was the one who convinced us to do it in the first place."
Katara laughed again at the memory, and to her surprise (and pleasure) Zuko laughed as well. It was quiet and a little shy but also painfully cute, and she found herself flushing and pulling a little closer as they came out of another turn.
iii.
Katara didn't see him again until the next Council of Nations three years later, this time held in Ba Sing Se. She was accompanying and advising her brother as representative in his first diplomatic trip as the official next-in-line to be chief. Zuko was accompanying his older cousin Lu Ten for similar reasons, officially, lthough the heir's real reason for insisting on Zuko's presence had more to do with wanting to get the twenty-year-old away from the training yard to meet some girls.
Katara greeted him with a polite smile and a warm handshake . She was older now, and quite less innocent than the last time they met, but she still felt her heart flutter at the memory of the (disappointingly) chaste kiss he had sweetly placed on the back of her hand as he bid her goodnight the last time their hands had met.
Three days in the two young benders found themselves alone.
In Katara's suite.
Things were getting pretty heated.
"'Love Amongst the Dragons' is a masterpiece – if you think it's awful you obviously have no taste!" Katara huffed, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. It had started so well – they had been catching up over tea (at Lu Ten's suggestion) when they stumbled onto the topic of theater. The Fire Lord would not unoften invite the most prestigious companies to court while Katara was always eager to catch a show at the whatever playhouse was in the area whenever she was out of the South Pole. She'd – oh so innocently – invited him to her suite so she could show him a signed script she'd gotten the last time she'd seen a show in the Fire Nation.
"I'm not saying that," he said evenly, obviously trying to be the calm and reasonable one. "I'm sure it's a fine play when done by a competent company, but the Ember Island Players aren't competent – they butcher everything."
This was the wrong thing to say .
"How can you say that?" she screeched as if personally insulted. She had only seen them once, but the ingenue's final monologue had moved her to such tears that she could barely see the rest of the ending through them.
"Because it's true," Zuko retorted.
Katara turned away from him with her nose in the air.
"You probably just caught them on a bad night, and now, typical aristocrat, you're prejudiced against them forever."
Zuko made a strangle noise at that comment and stalked around her so he was facing her again.
"I've been being dragged to see them every year since I was five," he said, his eyebrows pull down and together in a v. "I think I've seen them enough times to be a proper judge, aristocrat or not."
She stepped forward so there was less than a foot of space between them and she was close enough to see the flecks of gold in his eyes and the half healed nick on his jaw from where he must have cut himself shaving. Spirits he was gorgeous - he was perhaps even more attractive when he was scowling than when he was laughing.
"Maybe you should just leave the public theater to us commoners since it's obviously too base for someone of you station," she said coolly despite the flush spreading over her body as she brought her face even closer to his. She should be ashamed of herself for purposely saying things that she knew would make him angry, but she couldn't stop herself.
As expected his eyes narrowed.
"Stop putting words in my mouth," he growled dangerously. They were nearly nose to nose now.
There are a lot of other things I'd rather be putting in your mouth, she thought wickedly.
She was just on the verge of either saying something suggestive, saying something biting, or shoving him against a wall and biting him when there was a knock on the door.
"Sorry to disturb you, Master Katara, but Master Sokka requires your assistance," came a voice from the hall.
The waterbender looked at Zuko, than the door, than Zuko again.
"Tell him I'll be there in a moment," she finally called, reluctantly. After hearing the shuffle of footsteps leaving she turned back to the prince.
"Duty calls," she sighed apologetically. He gave a jerky, somewhat stunned nod and followed her out of the suite and into the hall. Once out the door and seeing that no one else was around the girl rounded on him, forcing him to back up a step until his back was against the door.
With one hand resting lightly on his shoulder – he was even broader and taller now at twenty than he had been at seventeen – Katara lifted up on her toes and put her mouth by his ear – spirits, she could smell his shampoo.
"We'll finish this conversation later." She let her hand slide lightly down his arm as she stepped back. To her pleasure a deep blush colored his cheeks and his Adam's apple bobbed with a swallow as he nodded.
Katara wasn't nearly as innocent as she had been the last time they met and she had come to a decision.
She was definitely going to fuck Prince Zuko before the month was over.
iv.
Her plan was proceeding nicely.
Well, she didn't really have a plan, she was more playing it by ear. Katara was however fairly confident that things were moving in a favorable direction.
Mmm, yes, she thought as she tilted back her head to encourage Zuko's lips on their path down her jaw and to her neck, this is the perfect direction.
She had gone to his rooms after dinner, knowing that his cousin had an engagement with the eccentric king of Omashu and the almost as eccentric Avatar, with the intention of apologizing for her earlier behavior (and that's it, really).
"I can just get a little…"
"Passionate?"
"Yes, if you're being nice."
"I'd like to stay on your good side."
He then invited her into the receiving room for a drink.
They sat on a lounge and talked, and flirted. Well, she flirted; the prince mostly embarrassed himself in trying, but Katara still felt a flutter in her chest – the heat would come a little later.
Zuko was really surprisingly amorous once she got him started – though the wine probably helped. He had been saying something about his mother and sister – that was one thing she liked about him, not how she liked his arms and abs and finely cut cheekbones, butreally liked. She liked how loyal he was and how much he cared for his family, she liked how seriously he took concepts like duty and honor, she liked him. A lot.
It was a little overwhelming.
He had been saying how his sister was a handful and how his mother felt guilty for their not being closer, and she told him about the time when Sokka was five and he had emptied out the linen chest and hidden in it for more than a day with a supply of seal jerky because he though their mom was going to sell him to the traders that were at port (both her parents had known he was in their the entire time).
Zuko laughed and Katara felt something buzzing in her veins urge her to lean closer to him. She gave him a moment, when their faces were a breath apart, to pull back if he wanted, but instead, surprisingly given his reticent nature (though less surprising given the wine), he eagerly closed the distance.
It had taken some little encouragement on her part to move him beyond the strictly chaste – a nip at his lips, a hand on his thigh – but they were now hurdling down the metaphorical mail shoot from making out towards full on grinding and Katara wasn't looking back.
His lips and tongue and hands were endearingly clumsy, but he was catching on quickly enough that she found herself wondering in only the vaguest way how much experience he had before the thought was banished from her mind by the feel of his teeth scraping again her pulse.
Throwing one leg across his lap she tugged his head back by his hair so she could meet his lips again.
"Katara," he sighed into her mouth as one arm tightened around her back and the other gripped her hip.
The waterbender hummed into his mouth and guided him backwards until his head hit the arm of the sofa. Her left hand drifted from it's perch on his shoulder, down his chest and over his stomach towards the hem of his tunic.
But before she could reach her goal the door burst open and the man beneath her practically tumbled onto the floor.
"Zuko! Have you really been locked up alone in here sulking all evening when you could be chatting up that little water… tribe…" Lu Ten trailed off when he saw what he had walked in on.
"Excuse me," he coughed, a knowing smirk spreading across his face. "I didn't mean to interrupt."
The younger prince's entire face went a shade of crimson to rival his shirt (which she had be so close to getting off him) as he fumbled to straighten his clothes.
Katara, meanwhile, smoothed down her own hair and clothing with considerably more grace.
"I should be going now, anyway, it's getting late." She stood up to leave, but not before taking one of Zuko's hands and adding with a smile, "It was lovely talking with you, Prince Zuko, we should do it again soon."
She gave his hand a light squeeze before walking out the door, giving a courteous nod to Lu Ten as she passed by.
"So tell me, Zuko, did you have a lovely time talking, too?" she heard through the door once out in the hallway. This was followed by a strangled sounding groan and thump like a pillow hitting the wall.
v.
It was the fifth day of the final week of the Counsel of Nations and Katara still hadn't gotten into Zuko's pants. They'd spent a lot of time together, almost any moment they had free, both talking and kissing and, one memorable evening when they sneaked out of stuffy formal dinner early, dry humping in a bathroom.
She was falling hard for him, and he had told her in a particularly sweet moment after kissing her in one of the palace gardens that he was falling for her as well. In the beginning her fantasies about him had involved a lot of tearing of clothes and shoving against walls and an act that could best be described as fucking. More recently, however, she'd started dreaming of slow sweet kisses and gentle strokes and whispered declarations of love.
But screwing or making love or doing the sideways tango, whatever it was you wanted to call it, they still hadn't done it.
They were in Ba Sing Se on official business and were often constrained by time or circumstances or brothers who couldn't take a hint, but every time they did get close, every time she managed to get into his bedroom or lure him into hers he would grow shy or seemed reluctant. She worried that he might not be attracted to her, but he responded to her touches more than favorably and she had felt him hard against her thigh often enough that that seemed unlikely.
She was getting desperate.
Desperate enough for her to grab him the moment he'd open his door and plant a hot, hard kiss on his stupid, wonderful mouth before releasing his lip and panting out:
"Zuko, I want to have sex with you."
Her statement hung in the air between them like a trail of spit. Zuko looked dazed for a long moment.
"Oh," he said at last.
"Oh?" Katara repeated. She stared at him expectantly with wide eyes, brows creased and mouth pursed.
"So," she went on when it became evident he wouldn't. "Do you?"
"Do… I…?"
The waterbender resisted the urge to shake him, instead closing her eyes and taking in a large, calming breath.
"Do you want to have sex with me?"
"Oh!"
Zuko swallowed and cleared his throat before he decided to back up to sit on the sofa, awkwardly drawing her with him.
"Katara, I-"
"I don't want to push you into something you don't want," she said quickly. "I just… I really like you, and I really want to, and I need to know where you are in all this before I lose my mind."
He seemed to relax little.
"I really like you, too, Katara – I've never liked someone, like this, as much as I like you."
She nodded, and waited for him to continue.
"I'm just… I've never…"
She could feel his pulse speed up at his wrist where one of her fingers lay as she held his hand in hers.
"I've never done… um, the… sex before."
It didn't come as much of a surprise as it would have a month ago, or had she not known him, off and on, since he was ten. He was gorgeous, and rich, and gorgeous, and he could have women lining up for him, but he was also hard to get close to and slow to warm up.
There probably weren't a lot of girls with the kind of determination Katara had.
She smiled warmly and squeezed his hand.
"I do want to," he continued once he saw that she wasn't going to react negatively to his admission. "With you." He cupped her cheek with his free hand and Katara took the cue to lean forward and kiss him, a soft, and chaste. When she drew back she rested her forehead against his.
"But not yet?" she breathed.
He nodded
"Not yet."
Katara put her arms around his neck and climbed onto his lap so she was straddling him.
"I can respect that," she said seriously, before kissing him, long and deep, and Katara was fairly certain she was at least half in love him.
vi
Six months later Katara was absolutely completely one hundred percent positive that she was head over heals in love with him.
"So?" he asked, almost shyly. Katara had to smile.
"So….? she mimicked innocently as she stretched, not caring in the slightest when the sheets slid down to reveal her bare breasts.
Zuko huffed and pulled her to him by the waist and buried his face in her hair.
"How was the test drive?" he expanded, his words muffled but still distinguishable.
She hummed and bent her head to kiss his shoulder, a shoulder she'd mapped with her palm and fingers and lips and tongue many times during her visits to the Fire Nation and the prince's visits to the South Pole over the past few months. She'd just arrived that morning (special invitation of the Fire Lord to discuss "evolving diplomatic relations") and after her welcome meal Zuko had taken her to the gardens and presented to her a set of combs. Katara insisted that before she agreed to anything she'd need to try out what she was buying first – Zuko was happy to comply.
He was well acquainted with her body by now, where she liked to be touch and how, knowledge acquired over many heavy petting sessions that end with them both out of breath and slightly sticky on more than one occasion, but he was nervous, at turns timid and over eager. He pressed too lightly here and too hard there, and Katara finally had to tell him to lie back so she could take over.
It was everything she could have hoped for.
"I think I can make do with you," she murmured as she kissed his ear.
Zuko pulled his head back and looked up at her through the hair hanging in his eyes.
"Does that mean you'll marry me?"
Katara kissed him, forcing his mouth open with her tongue so she could taste him before pulling back and answering.
"Of course I will."
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