It had been a warm night, but not too warm for a fire. They had all been exhausted; Zuko in particular, considering the fact that he was teaching the Avatar—Aang—the basics of firebending. Despite the exhaustion of teaching Aang, who was an apt student despite his rather short attention span, the exiled Fire Nation prince could not sleep. He kept seeing lovely blue eyes, imagining those eyes closing as he leaned in to kiss her…
Someone had cleared their throat. Startled, Zuko had looked up…right into the very eyes he had been fantasizing about. "Ack!" he'd cried, falling off the log he'd been sitting on. Wincing, he had sat up, trying very hard to ignore Shu's—Katara's—concerned questions of whether or not he was alright. Unfortunately, the effort was in vain, for her concern for him had pleased Zuko a lot more than he'd cared to admit.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Uh, thanks." He had managed to haul himself back onto the log, trying hard—and failing miserably—to quell the irrational glee that coursed through him as she sat down beside him.
An awkward silence had followed. Finally, though, after a few minutes, Zuko had broken the silence. "So…couldn't sleep?" he'd asked, partially wanting to end the silence, partially because he wanted to know, to hear her lovely voice again. Spirits, but he was pathetic…
Katara had looked down, as if embarrassed, and said, "Yeah. I'm so exhausted, yet…" She'd shrugged, finally looking up at him. "I noticed that you weren't sleeping either, so I decided to come join you…I guess I startled you…umm…sorry." She blushed so prettily. Too bad she had turned her head, blocking his view of her eyes. He'd bet that they sparkled beautifully when she blushed. He knew they did when she smiled.
The prince had fought the urge to smile, fighting also to keep his thoughts from being written on his face. That would have been bad. "It's alright. I was just thinking, really…" Right when he said it, he'd known he shouldn't have.
Sure enough, Katara had looked up, a question in her lovely eyes that she asked but a second later. "Oh?" she'd asked softly, scooting a little closer to him, much to his delight and discomfort. "What were you thinking about?"
Now he'd done it. He'd had to think of a lie, and quickly. After all, he couldn't have very well told her that he had been imagining what it would be like to kiss her. "Uh, I was just…thinking about how Uncle and I had come to travel with you, your brother, and the Avatar," he'd answered, pleased that he'd been able to think up a lie quickly enough yet at the same time feeling ashamed for lying at all. He had looked at her, then, warming to the subject. "I'd been trying to capture Aang for so long, then when we became outlaws of the Fire Nation and finally joined with together…It just seems so crazy. The Avatar was my enemy, and then I join forces to travel with him?" Zuko had shaken his head, amazed at the turn his life had taken. "Even going so far as to teach him firebending…"
It'd taken him a moment to realize that she'd been staring at him in a way that confused and excited him all at the same time. He'd seen girls with that look in their eyes before, some directed at him, most not. But, with her it was different. With her…Next thing he'd known, his eyes were closed and he was kissing her! And she was kissing him back! Spirits, but it had been wonderful, heavenly…and it had ended far too soon.
"Zuko, wait," she'd said, pulling away from him, which had caused a strange feeling of loss in him. "This isn't right. Spirits know it feels right, but—"
The banished prince of the Fire Nation had covered her lips with a finger, ignoring the tingly feeling the contact was giving him, and had smiled. "If it feels right, then how do you know it isn't?" He had thought himself quite clever for coming up with that, but that hadn't lasted long for, still smiling, he had recaptured her lips and had deepened the kiss that had begun gentle and tender and had been interrupted.
After a moment of pure bliss had passed, Katara had once again pulled away, but that time, it had not been to question or protest, but rather it'd been to pull him off into the woods, both smiling and laughing softly. This is right, Zuko had thought as he'd been gently, but insistently, pulled along a scant few steps behind her. Perhaps logically it'd been wrong, they'd been enemies not six months before, but emotionally, nothing had felt more right.
They'd reached a small clearing, just out of earshot of the camp. There, Shu had pushed Oma down onto the ground, gently of course, and had resumed kissing…devouring…loving. Sometime during their kissing, Zuko had managed to get Katara onto her back, and their clothing had mysteriously disappeared from their bodies—and had landed not too far away. How that had happened, neither had known, but so deep had they been in their ardor that an earthquake could have raged beneath their entwined bodies and they would have merely thought it was part of the immense passion that they had shared.
There, on a warm night in a clearing not a quarter mile from the camp where the others slept, the children of two enemy nations had once again proclaimed their love of each other for the first time…
