Author's Notes:
Everyone ready for some sexy Sunday fluff and stuff? Enjoy. Installment three next week.
Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.
Zuko
The thing is: Zuko wasn't just in love with Katara. He was crazily, unreasonably in love with her. With the girl who had gone from annoyance to opponent, from ally to friend. Tonight she was his lover, though that term only partially captured what she was to him now. When she returned from the washroom, he stood up to meet her again. His intention had been to show her into his bedroom, but this time she was the one who backed him against something - the very door he had planned to open - and he happily leaned against that door, and she leaned against him, while she kissed him like they had all the time in the world and also no time left at all.
Her hands slid down his chest over his robes. His hands slid up from her waist to her rib cage. She put pressure on his bicep with a strong grip. He stroked her neck and threaded his fingers through her hair. They both breathed into another deep kiss that made her go "mm" and made him respond likewise. It didn't end for a long long time.
There was lust involved. The scent hung heavy between them while the heat continued to rise. Maybe it should all have been one passionate rush, but maybe they both knew where this was going and there would be - he hoped - other occasions for things to be faster and harder. This was an occasion for a slow, gentle burn. He wanted to kiss more than her mouth, so he tilted her head back and found the skin of her neck with his lips, caressing her while she closed her eyes and purred, giving him incentive to push back the clothing covering her shoulder. She ran her fingers through his hair. There was need coming up between them. She tilted her hips slightly into his. They both closed their eyes and breathed heavily at the intensely sexual contact. Then he found her lips again, but the kissing was interrupted more frequently after that. They had to pause for her to say "oh" when his body pressed up against hers, and also for him to gasp when she pressed back.
She untied the belt of his robes. He undid hers. Their robes hung loose on their shoulders. The soft skin of her stomach was exposed and he took pleasure in the right she gave him to feel that skin and warm her belly with just the touch of his hands. He was bold with her, as she was with him, her hands moving over the bare skin of his chest with a soft pressure that seemed to feel good for both of them. They explored with their hands while they kissed, tugging on each other's lips with their teeth, lapping at the inside of each other's mouths, paying attention to neglected corners. He traveled from her mouth to her neck to her shoulders to her collarbone. She explored similarly, and his whole body tightened when she sucked softly at his neck while her hands glided low on his stomach and her fingers found the skin just under his waistband.
The moment did become fast and hard then: he was spinning her against the door, pushing her up until she was barely standing on her toes, and grinding madly and breathlessly against her before he could calm himself. He stopped only when he heard a short, low whimper.
"I'm sorry," he gasped, letting her down while he caught his breath. "I should have…I shouldn't have…are you okay?"
She looked wildly at him, her hands clasped around the back of his neck, keeping him close. "What are you sorry for?" she asked, and her voice was breathy too. He watched her eyes carefully. "Zuko," she said, "I want this. I want all of this. I want all of you. I don't want to wait for anything anymore. But if you don't - if you still want to wait to have sex-"
"I don't want to wait," he said affirmatively. "I want all of it too. I want all of you."
"Then can we go back to the part where you hold me up against the door?" she asked. "Because that was so hot."
He laughed and she did too, but he was glad they'd stopped for that. If they hadn't, he might not have been brave enough to catch her thigh as her foot slid up along his calf and he pushed her back up against the door. Then their bodies wouldn't have been so perfectly aligned, and that would have made it harder for her to roll her hips against him while she tilted her head back and shut her eyes. He moaned in delicious agony as she did it. There was nothing more erotic, he realized, than a woman who truly wanted you.
Katara
Her back was against the door, one of his hands was high on her thigh, his other arm was resting above her head, and her hands were free to roam his entire torso while he stole her breath and her essence and her lips bled into him. They would both be swollen and sore the next day from this, but she really didn't care, and if her head was light from lack of air, then she needed what she was getting from him more than air.
He was moaning and panting, and she could feel him pressed hard against her through their clothes. Some part of her wondered if she should be more giving or less needy or something like that, but the rest of her was lost in reaction to him and it was all she could do to rock back and forth with him, rubbing herself against him until a first orgasmic wave passed through and she slammed her entire body into his, throwing her head back. She found his hand behind her head, protecting her from hitting the door itself.
She opened her eyes. He looked at her like he wanted her now. "God, Katara," he said, his gaze dark and driven. She opened her mouth to say…something…but his mouth was back on hers again, and what she had just experienced had only been temporary relief. Her whole body trembled in response to the way he tried to devour her. He swept her into his arms entirely, pushed open the door they'd been leaning against, and she promptly found herself on his bed, which was too big for one person on any ship, though he didn't join her until he'd unceremoniously discarded his upper robes, tossing them to the floor before he climbed up next to her. She leaned back into his pillows on her elbows, her own robes falling back.
He knelt on his heels, gazing over her like he was drunk from the sight. She sat up, arching her back toward him just slightly to do it, and he surrendered to her, leaning forward to catch her in his arms. Every touch of his lips to her skin after that made her feel like he was pleading with her, though she wasn't sure why he needed to plead. Every "ahh" and "mmm" that came from her throat was freely given.
She slipped out of her leggings herself, requiring him to sit back while she did it, and now the loose robes falling from her shoulders were only covering underclothes. He blinked at her, she blushed, and he smiled wistfully before carefully lifting one of her calves so he could kiss it. Those gentle kisses, which made her feel cherished instead of electrified, slowed everything down.
"Zuko," she said quietly. She wasn't sure he would afford her the opportunity to show him the worship he was showing her. "I fell in love with you the day of the comet. The lightning-"
He caught her eye, then crawled up to her and lay down by her side so they faced each other. She could see the scar from the lightning on his chest, and she traced the faded evidence with her fingers. It still made her want to cry. He shifted closer, sliding one arm under her head and wrapping the other around her back. She nestled her face into his chest and felt his lips kiss the crown of her head. "It's just a scar, Katara," he said.
She closed her eyes and savored the warm safety of cuddling close to Zuko. "I love you," she said into his chest, "and I can't stand the memory of you getting hurt."
He didn't answer - just held her and stroked her hair - and the silence gave her time to notice that Zuko's bed was feather soft and the sheets were red silk, but she wished she could tell what he was thinking. "I'm sorry, Zuko," she said. "This isn't very sexy, is it?"
Zuko laughed quietly. "I have an extremely pretty girl in my bed-" he slid his index finger under the lower edge of the bindings at her side "-I have her stripped down to her underclothes-" he found the edge and started to loosen the bindings "-I'm so in love with her it hurts-" he rolled her onto her back and hovered over her "-and she thinks it isn't sexy that she loves me too?" He leaned down to kiss her again, allowing his body to rest over hers briefly. The hard, muscular edges made her feel heady and warm. He lifted himself up again and settled on his side next to her, tracing an invisible line from behind her ear to her collarbone with his fingers. "Honestly, Katara, it doesn't get much sexier than this."
She smiled. He was misinformed. "You don't think it gets sexier than this?" she asked. She sat up and encouraged him with her body to roll onto his back. She climbed over him, and he blinked rapidly in surprise as she positioned herself so she was straddling his body between her knees. She could see his pupils dilate. She arched an eyebrow at him. "I bet it does, Zuko."
