A/N So this is late but better late than never I guess. Here we have some shameless fluff, hopefully this will make up for all of the crap I dragged this sweethearts through for the last few prompts. This one fits into the little continuity that I've got going for most of these (1, 3, 5 & 8 are so far the other ones that fit) but it should still be fine as a stand alone piece. I've started getting ideas for longer stories (generally AUs because I just find them so fun and interesting) but I won't start any of that until Zutara month is done (I'm currently still planning to do all 31, they just may be on the late side)

I hope you're having a great day/night and happy reading :) x

Making the Most of the Moments

It's rather rare for Zuko to have a free afternoon. He's generally stuck in meetings, overwhelmed by paperwork or on tours talking to his people and inspecting his projects first hand.

It makes him an excellent ruler.

It also makes him a rather annoying boyfriend.

Katara understands though. She doesn't push (…actively) for him to take time off and makes the most of the time they do have.

When he happened to be free on one of the most beautiful spring afternoons of the season she was utterly thrilled.

She wanted to go on a picnic. She'd insisted to help the chef make some of his favourite meals and lay out a cloth over the grass of the Royal Gardens (they had quickly become her favourite part of the palace). She brought a bottle of Earth Kingdom White Wine from the cellar in case he wanted it but asked a servant to put it on ice inside until they wanted it. She'd worn one of her nicest dresses and gotten compliments for it all morning as she'd studied with the Fire Nation doctors.

One of the positives of their relationship being public was that they could do things like this. They weren't sneaking around and having only stolen moments. Katara was becoming accustomed to the crude and disrespectful slurs being said behind her back. She didn't tell him about it much anymore, they were both under constant scrutiny and a lot of the people who originally were spreading the rumours had decided that the announcement of their relationship confirmed all their suspicions. She tried to ignore them mostly.

When Zuko arrived in the gardens he was feeling a little groggy. It had been a gruelling discussion and he'd fallen asleep twice, embarrassingly enough. Katara was already sitting there waiting for him with a basket by her side. She hadn't noticed him yet so he took the time to appreciate and memorise the way she looked.

She was in all blue. It was his favourite colour on her. It honoured her ancestors and was so beautiful and calming, just like her. She was a cool breeze in the constant, aggressive heat of Fire Nation and seeing her was finding a sliver of blue standing out amongst the red which just reinforced her relaxing effect tenfold. The thin white scar where an arrow hand punctured her shoulder a few years ago was visible. She was proud of it actually; Zuko was suspicious that she'd purposefully not healed it completely at the time. Her hair was out; rambunctious curls tumbled down her back. She had a scroll on her lap but was instead looking over the pond at the Turtle Ducklings that hatched recently.

She looked peaceful.

All Zuko could feel was love for her. He stepped on a twig and she whipped around. The smile on her face made him feel like his heart exploded. He wanted to see that face every day for the rest of his life.

"Zuko! You made it!"

He grimaced; was he really that unreliable?

She kissed him. It was soft, romantic and over all too soon. She drags him towards the blanket and basket.

"I heard General Zian saying something needed the Fire Lord's urgent attention,"

He chuckled, "He probably meant the backs of my eyelid; I feel asleep in the council meeting today."

She smirked at him, "I did tell you it was a bad idea to stay up so late."

"You did but the novel you gave me was a real page turner…"

She laughed and they sat down. She started getting the food out; with every plate he looked more and more excited.

"So what part of the story are you up to?"

He slurped his noodles into his mouth, the broth flicked up and landed on his nose (the spicy liquid frightfully close to his eye). She laughed and wiped it off as he went red.

"That part when the bounty hunter meets the old woman in a tavern."

"Oooh It's coming up to a good bit,"

"No! Don't tell me that!"

"Don't tell you what? I didn't spoil anything!"

"I expect something to happen now,"

"You should be expecting something to happen anyway, who would want to read a story where nothing happens?"

He pouted at her.

"You must've been puppy seal in a past life,"

He set aside his bowl and quirked a brow at her, "How do you figure that?"

"Your expression was totally a puppy-seal face."

"No it's not! It's a brooding sabre-toothed moose lion face."

"If that's any kind of moose-lion it's a baby one, when they're tiny and adorable."

"Are you calling the Fire Lord tiny and adorable? Wouldn't that undermine my authority?"

"Probably," she chuckled, "perhaps you should save the royal pout for informal matters."

He consciously stopped himself from pouting.

She noticed.

"I think in a past life you were an Armadillo Lion."

"ZUKO!"

"The big dangerous ones from the Earth Kingdom,"

"Are you calling me mean?"

"Maybe I'm just saying you're powerful." He said with a shrug. He had a mischievous glint in his eye. She looks at him critically, she pecked a kiss on his lips but her brows remained furrowed with distrust.

"I think you'll find I was a koalaotter,"

"You can have many past lives. If you say you were a koalaotter in one, who am I to disagree?"

"Exactly."

"Come to think of it, you'd make a fine Koalaotter."

She smiles warmly, "thank you."

"You're small and cute, from a cold climate, like the water… at you'd probably claw someone's face off if they woke you from a nap."

"Hey! And you called me the mean one!"

"I did not! I said you were powerful," He smirked at her and she shook her head.

"I think you were an Armadillo Lion,"

"Well of course I was."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"If you're an Armadillo Lion, I'm an Armadillo Lion."

Her other eyebrow rose.

"I think you were a cheesy romance scroll writer in a past life."

"Hey!" He tackled her into his arms and began to tickle her. She rolls off his lap and curls into the foetal position.

She laughed hysterically, rolling and tangling herself in the picnic blanket and as he smiled wickedly.

"Sto-HAHAHAHA-p ittt," she eventually gave up on her attempts to block his hands, grabbed his face in hers and kissed him hard on the mouth, trying to hold back her laughter.

To put it simply, he stopped tickling her.

He pulled away, propping himself up on an arm beside her. Her lips are slightly swollen and her cheeks are flushed a soft pink. She smiled unashamedly at him.

"Getting caught was easily the best mistake I've ever made." He thinks to himself.

He pressed a soft, quick kiss on her lips then pulled back again. He grazed her cheek with his thumb, staring down at her with eyes full of love.

"Can you promise me something?"

"I'm not going to bring you fire flakes every time I visit."

"No, I'm serious." He tickled her for a few moments and she coiled herself and giggled.

"What?" She's smiling so widely he worries her beautiful face will split. Her hand wrapped around his neck pulling him to rest his forehead on hers.

"Promise when we're in the spirit world or reincarnated into something else in this world… we'll find each other."

He pulls back a little to gauge her response.

"Can I really make that kind of promise?"

He chuckled against her neck and her toes curled at the warm sound reverberating on her skin.

"Just humour me,"

She laughed aloud, "I can promise you one thing for certain," she stated, sitting up and pushing him up in the process, "there is nothing that I want more at this very moment than to spend all of this life and the next like this,"

Their fingers interlaced and they rested their faces on each other's.

"We're so sappy," he commented. She laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"We bring out the worst in each other,"

"If my council heard me right now they'd have a fit,"

"It's a good thing I was declared a Princess so they can't officially overturn the match."

He guffawed, "As if I'd allow that to happen,"

They kissed again.

"This is nice, why don't we do this more often?"

Before she could have replied a rather nervous servant approached.

"I'm very sorry My Lord, Lady. Prince Sokka and Princess Suki of the Southern Water Tribe have just arrived…"

Zuko detangled himself from his girlfriend in a fraction of a second.

Despite Sokka's overall approval of his best friend and sister as a couple, public displays of affection would probably not be appreciated.

Seconds later Sokka and Suki walk into the garden, arm in arm.

Zuko wasn't fast enough to straighten his robes.

Katara hadn't even bothered. Her hair had grass in it and her dress was delightfully rumpled. She shot her brother a wry expression. Suki gave her a covert nod of approval and a look that said "You have to tell me everything later".

"You'd better tell me that Katara caught on fire and had to roll in the grass to put it out. Actually, don't tell me that. You better not had hurt my sister because you're completely inept at controlling your own element, Jerk Lord."

Zuko scratched the back of his neck and shrugged; he was blushing vibrantly, so much so that it was creeping down his neck.

"Let's talk inside shall we, It'll be more uh…comfortable." He choked out, glancing at the rumpled picnic blanket and his insanely patient girlfriend.

"I had some wine put on ice," She suggested

"WINE? What was that for Katara?"

"Drinking, Sokka," Suki teased, wheeling him back towards the palace.

Zuko held a hand out to help Katara up and picked a blade of grass from her hair, pushing it behind her ear in the process.

"Well that didn't go as planned," she jokes

"When does anything ever?"

She laughed and went onto her tip toes to kiss him.

"You two better be just packing up food out there!" Sokka called from inside, "There will be no smooshing face while I'm around. It gives me serious Oogies. It would be very unprofessional for the Fire Lord to give visiting dignitaries Oogies."

"The only dignified visitor here is Suki and I don't think she minds," Katara retorted, gathering blankets in her arms as Zuko carried the basket.

"I say go get him sister!" Suki shouted

"SUKI! How could you say such a thing?"

Katara shook her head as they stepped back inside. Zuko kissed her on the forehead. Sokka's incensed monologue still audible despite him being halfway down the long hallway 'whispering'.

"I'm related to that." Katara commented, flicking her hair back over her shoulder with a shake of her head.

"I'm related to Azula." He smirked. "I figured we just had an unspoken agreement not to judge one-another on our relatives."

"Good point."

She tilts her head up and he leans down to kiss her.

"OOOOOOOOGIES"

The couple chuckle in response.

"Do you think he was around in our other lives?"

"I don't think any incarnation of us would have the luck of him not being around."

Zuko looked at her. Despite her annoyance she's in good humour. It's clear she loves her brother immensely and regardless of the terrible timing, she's happy to see him.

He playfully nudged her and she smiled and did the same.

Yes, he wanted to see that face every day for the rest of his life and then in the next.