Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Nickleodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or its associated characters. No profit is gained from the writing and publishing of this story but should the creators, legal owners, their solicitors or the site administration of deem this post offensive and request it's removal, it shall of course be taken down without hesitation.

The prompts that inspired all pieces of this collection belong to Rashaka and her community 64damn-prompts (written with an underscore instead of a dash) at livejournal. There they have been posted under the name 'kirschreich', which is the name of my writing journal.

Author's Note: Most of these pieces are set some time after the conclusion of the series. It is definitely a Zutara A/U. Although it does not seem like it, the individual snippets are in fact connected.

Ratings vary – corresponding warnings are included in every chapter.

Please note that this story features the regular community prompts, revisited prompts (meaning prompts that have been picked up a second time) and versus prompts (meaning drabbles containing/relating to two or more prompts).

04 A pleasant view – I want to pretend

Theme: #01 – 2 a.m.

Characters: Zuko, Katara

Warnings: reference to minor sexual content

Rating: T

He seems to be perfectly at home, lying nestled beneath those heavy sheets. Katara envies him for it because those very sheets, no matter whether they are crimson-colored like the Fire Nation's banner or pure white like freshly fallen snow, make her feel like a fish out of water.

Brushing against her bare skin the fabric feels sinfully exotic - but so does his hand resting intimately against her waist. Still, the waterbending master cannot shake the feeling that nothing good will come of enjoying these caresses. They are forbidden, she knows. 'And for a good reason, too', she thinks, hushing her never-tiring conscience with empty promises of 'This is the last time' and 'We're not hurting anyone'.

It's a lie, of course, because she can never get enough of watching the Fire Lord sleep.

It is a rather unspectacular thing, watching him sleep, and it can be only successfully done in the dead of night, when sleep has a firm hold on him, but it means the world to Katara.

They fall asleep together, wrapped in each other's arms - skin to skin and breath to breath - but when all the candle's are burnt out and Yue is the only source of light left in the inky darkness of night, she wakes and her eyes trace the contours of his face, the shape of his body as tenderly as her hands would, were he awake, too. Because when he sleeps, the transformation is complete and Zuko is completely hers, masks carelessly cast aside.

He is not the Fire Lord, hidden behind a screen of ruby and golden flames, impassive face and impossibly cold eyes; he is not the firebending master that challenges her every time anew; he is not the Blue Spirit, vigilant hero of her girlhood dreams.

He is Zuko; as much a man as she is a woman. Free of the bonds of the world, free of the duties all his masks impose on him, free to be resting next to her with nothing between them but a few sheets and the cool night air.

The Fire Lord will be forced to lose his 'heart' to a noble woman for he mustn't waste his attentions on lowly peasants; the firebending master is required to pass on the Inner Flame - he will belong to a woman of his own nation, eventually; the Blue Spirit belongs to the world (not Katara exclusively, although once she wished he did) and there simply is no room left for love in his life.

All that remains is Zuko - and when watching him sleep at nights, she can pretend that he loves her as much, as she loves him.

"I am wrong, Yue, I know," she tells the silvery orb in the sky, her heart heavy with regret. "But you must understand... I still want to pretend."