Inspired by my own doodles.

His uncle was smiling at him.

Zuko could feel it. He looked up from his doodling and glanced across the council room table to meet his uncle's knowing and pleased smile. Zuko's eyes narrowed.

He had seen that smile often when he was still banished; it usually came when he did something that made his uncle proud, like learning how to make tea or, you know, saving the world.

It usually meant teasing, a type of attention Zuko would rather flee from than face. Things like falling on a flame spear or jumping off a cliff also come to mind.

There was no way he could get out of meeting with these ministers now and he would sooner actually fall on a flame spear than dismiss his uncle and the wisdom he offered...

So Zuko did what every mature and confident Firelord would do...he ducked his head and went back to doodling, pretending he didn't see that heart-warming smile.

A metaphorical escape. Doodles. How diplomatic.

Hours later, when the meeting had finished, and the palace was silent under the moonlight and stars, the same brave Firelord sat in his office with his best friend.

Katara reclined in her plush chair and propped her feet on his broad desk, causing parchment to flutter with barely a crinkle to the floor.

Zuko scowled from behind the desk but made no movement to pick them up. "You say you're on vacation, but you don't have to treat my furniture-which is centuries old, by the way-like your personal spa lounge."

Katara didn't even deign to look up from the parchment she was reading (legal agreements for an exchange problem aimed for healers from their respective lands). "Don't talk to me that way, I'm grieving."

Zuko's lips twitched but he resisted the smile. He settled for an eye roll. "It's been a month, Katara. And you broke up with him. My sympathy only lasts so far when it comes to important Fire Nation documents."

"Then tidy them up."

Zuko pushed her feet off the desk.

They fell hard and noisily, the action so clumsy and un-Katara that Zuko snorted. She flashed him a glare which made his lips twitch again, betraying him as they finally bloomed into a smile.

He couldn't help it though. He liked it when Katara glared at him.

Maybe he was addicted to it. Her glares...or a smile, or...any look of hers in his direction, really, sent a hot rush through him.

And Agni, how she tried to look fierce. It once cowed him-it still sent lesser men running for the hills-but he liked the fierce display of emotion.

But really, at the end of the day, when she traded her day silks for cozy linen pajamas, and she let her hair down from its braid so that it looked like a fluffy cloud (soft, probably, his fingers twitching as he looked at it), she looked so sweet and endearing but, damn, she also looked...

Like she belonged in his office in the middle of the night with no servants or ministers to interrupt them.

At home.

Zuko sucked in a breath at the same time she rolled her eyes, breaking the...whatever it was that fell over them. He blinked, trying to remember what he had been thinking about before…

Katara slid off the chair before his desk and onto the floor, gathering the fallen parchment. "You should really get a secretary," she said with a shake of her head.

...her glare, he realized. He liked her fierce emotion. But he also liked her softness. Like the soft smile she was giving him now. His heart did a weird flippy thing.

"It won't do to have such a messy and unorganized Firelord," she continued. "Then you won't get pissy with me and assault my poor feet when a few papers fall."

"Or maybe," he said, distracting himself from her lips-dusty pink, full, probably soft like her hair-by getting on the floor with her to help. "You should respect my chaos and not knock things over."

She gave him a wry smile and handed him some sheets of parchment. They were wide enough that their fingers didn't brush; maybe that was a good thing, he thought with a frown. She reached for some more papers but her hand paused briefly.

"What's this?"

Zuko looked and saw her reaching for his sheet of notes, the one covered with doodles. A different sort of heat crept over his cheeks while she studied it, smiling at the various nonsense he had drawn.

"This is pretty cute," she giggled. Zuko scowled at the word and reached for it but she jerked it away, out of reach. "I thought you rose with the sun-why so many stars and moons?"

Zuko sputtered, which probably wasn't a very good look. He felt like a fumbling teenager again, not the dignified twenty year old Firelord entrusted with a great nation.

"Uh…"

So eloquent, he yelled at himself. Katara's smile didn't slip which made him feel all the more indignant.

"Stars are suns, too," he finished, like that was an answer to a question that stumped many scholars.

"Sure," Katara indulged, rolling up the parchment and sticking it carefully into her pants pocket, out of reach (he wasn't stupid enough to try). She stretched, her arms unfolding elegantly above her head while her back arched ever so slightly (Zuko bit his lip). "I'm going to get to bed."

"My notes…" he said, forcing his eyes from curve of her back.

She gave him a smile he couldn't read and stood (he also couldn't read her eyes-what was that glint?), her hair swinging as she did. "Good night, Zuko."

When her padded steps finally faded and silence descended on the palace once more, Zuko threw himself back onto the plush carpet. He dug the heels of his palms into his brow and groaned.

"Stars are suns, too," he repeated to himself, incredulous and slightly offended that he would say something so stupid. "What the heck was that? Why not say something else stupid, while you're at it, like red and blue makes purple. Ugh."

And that, Zuko realized, was probably what made his uncle smile in the first place.

Stars and moons. Purple.

Zuko groaned again.

Hello~

To answer a question: I'm going to shoot for five chapters. Just a quick, tidy fic for this, my favorite of OTPs. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!