Title- Precautions
Author- Melon
Rating- K+
Summary- When you're traveling with the Fire Lord's unbalanced little sister, it never hurts to be a little extra cautious. At least, Katara certainly thinks so.
A/N- This is it, my final piece for this summer's Kataang Week. However, there is a bonus! I will be finishing up my original response to the Day 5 prompt sometime in the next week or two (I'm in the process of moving, so I can't promise it as soon as I ordinarily would). And it's decidedly R-rated.
This piece, as you may have gathered from the summary, takes place at an undisclosed point in time during The Search.
Days 7: Protection
Azula was asleep. Well, probably asleep. Katara wasn't willing to believe anything the firebender said or did was one hundred percent genuine without concrete proof from an impartial third party. She'd only let her guard down around Azula once, but the consequences of that one time had been awful and it was never, never happening again.
That was why Katara was still awake, although she was feeling a little worn-down from an especially long day of traveling. Aang had left their campsite to meditate, hoping for some clarity about the strange spirit encounters they had been having. Sokka was passed out on the other side of the dying campfire, snoring like a buzzard-wasp, and Zuko was curled up in a surprisingly childlike pose not far from his sister. There was no one else to keep an eye on Azula, so she had assigned the task to herself.
Katara stood up slowly, stretching muscles gone stiff from sitting too long in one position, and grabbed the stick they'd been using as a poker to stir up the fire. Every few moments, her eyes would dart back to Azula. No chances.
She was reaching for another branch from the pile to add more fuel to the dwindling pile of coals when a warm pair of arms encircled her torso. She jumped slightly and sucked in a startled gasp.
"It's only me," Aang murmured in her ear, resting his chin on her shoulder. His voice, so much deeper now (at least when it wasn't cracking all over the place) sent a shiver through her body and something warm and quivering stirred in her belly. He pressed a kiss against her cheek, then left a series of little, ticklish pecks down the side of her neck. She giggled, caught off guard by his playful affection although she shouldn't have been. Ordinarily they made their best effort to be discreet when others were around (though to be fair, their best effort didn't amount to a very effective result), but when they were alone (or alone as they ever were with Sokka constantly tagging around after them and complaining about oogies), any attempt at social decorum tended to be thrown out the window.
"What are you still doing awake?" he asked, unwinding his arms from around her waist and giving her a bit of space so that she could finish her task of feeding the fire. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."
"Someone has to keep an eye on Azula," Katara explained.
Aang quirked an eyebrow in confusion, settling down on the ground with his back resting against a dozing Appa. "Katara, she's asleep," he pointed out.
She shook her head as she sat beside him, scooting close and automatically leaning into him as his arm went around her shoulder. "I don't trust her, whether she's conscious or not."
"Don't you think that's a little..." He paused while he searched for the right word. "-Extreme?"
"No," she said adamantly. "She's dangerous and unstable and way too clever for her own good."
He turned his head to look at her, frowning slightly. "Why is watching her so important to you?"
If it had been anyone else, she would have felt judged and attacked in this situation, but this was Aang and he wasn't like everyone else. Not once had he ever judged her unfairly for her decisions, whether he agreed with them or not, and it was a big part of why she felt so comfortable with him. She knew that Aang was questioning this, not because he thought she was being ridiculous or paranoid, but because he genuinely didn't understand why and wanted to understand what was motivating her.
"She took you away from me once. She's not getting a chance to try again," she told him quietly, and she spoke it like a vow.
Aang's hand tightened ever so slightly around her shoulder, and his expression was thoughtful. "So you want to protect me?" he extrapolated.
She nodded. "I need to make sure you're safe."
He smiled. It wasn't his everyday star-bright smile he gave to everybody or to nobody at all, or the soft, serene smile that crossed his face every so often when he thought no one was looking. This was her favorite smile, because she knew it was just for her. All the love he felt for her showed in his eyes and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a sweet, contented little grin, and she couldn't help but melt when he looked at her that way.
His free hand came up to caress her cheek, and he leaned in and kissed her long and deep, savoring her lips and pouring as much love and affection as he could manage into that one simple expression of affection. When they parted at last, he pressed his forehead to hers, gazing into her eyes with that deliriously happy look he sometimes gave her, his long fingers still cupping her cheek gently.
"You're incredible, you know that?" he said.
She blushed (oh spirits, he was so good at making her blush) and reached up with her right hand to catch the fingers of his arm that was wrapped around her shoulder. She twined their fingers together, telling him all she needed to say with a gentle squeeze.
"Thanks for looking out for me," he whispered.
"Any time," she replied.
She tilted her head up and captured his lips again in another kiss, fiercer and more intense than the last. Aang's free hand slipped to her waist, turning her body slightly and tugging her closer, an action she whole-heartedly approved of. After all, when you're traveling with your thoroughly grossed-out older brother, you take what alone time you can get.