AN: To my dear reviewers, much thanks!
At lunch that day, Katara sat between Iroh and Sokka and spent a large part of her time focusing on not slurping her noodles, keeping her elbows off the table, and sitting up straight.
Boys were watching her.
They weren't actually boys – they were all older than her, anyway – but they sat across the table from her, punching shoulders and quietly telling each other to 'go brick yourself'… whatever that was supposed to mean.
Katara, really, was doing her best to ignore them, but it wasn't easy to do. Only seven of the noblemen Iroh had spotted had made it through customs and into the palace thus far, but seven young Earth Kingdom men was a bunch of rowdies as far as Katara was concerned.
Earth Kingdom lordlings… Yue help her.
Zuko made an appearance at the start of lunch, but he only stayed long enough to gruffly thank his new guests for their 'interest in international cooperation' before stalking off to finish some last-minute preparations for the following day's ceremonies. A servant with a silver tray swooped past and collected the Fire Lord's bowl of noodles, then trotted off after him.
Iroh leaned just a little closer to her. "Does my nephew look poorly to you?"
Katara frowned and replied in a low voice. "No. He looks tired, but otherwise the same as always."
"Not too thin?"
"Not at all."
"Does his scar look… too prominent?"
Katara stared at Iroh for a second, but the old man only blinked innocently. "I… It's Zuko's scar. It's just… there. It always has been." When Iroh said nothing, Katara went on. "I offered to try to heal it for him, once… but that didn't work out and he's never brought it up again."
Iroh smiled. "I suspect that my nephew has come to accept that his scar is a part of him and always will be. I wonder, though, whether others can see it that way, as well."
"Master Katara," interjected one of the Earth Kingdom nobles across the table. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go for-?"
Katara cut him off with a scowl. "What did I say when we sat down to this meal?"
Sokka (who loved this game) leaned forward on his elbows on the table, staring the other young man down. "Yeah, what did she say?"
His eyes widened slightly and he assumed a hurt expression that probably got him everything back home. "You… you said you don't care to converse at meals… I just saw that you were talking to Former General Iroh and I thought that maybe…" He trailed off under the siblings' fierce stares. "Nevermind."
Katara nodded and finished her noodles while Sokka did his little Water Tribe! hand gestures.
On her other side, Iroh was smiling. Katara asserted to herself, as she rushed out of the dining hall, that she didn't care why.
Katara spent the rest of the day hiding out in her room and catching up on the sleep she had missed the night before. When she woke up, she was tangled in her blanket and a storm head was rolling in.
She didn't need to go to the window, didn't even need to open her eyes to the dim light to know; she could feel the water coming, something thick and heavy that made her flex the muscles in her thighs and back. It made her want to run or fight… or…
It wasn't yet time for dinner, so she relaxed in her bedding, letting her hands trail over her clothed belly and breasts. She teased her nipples through her bindings and then slid her palms firmly down her belly, stretching into the sensations. Her fingers slid against the smooth flesh below her navel, slipping between her skin and the layers of her clothing.
There was no hesitation when Katara did this, no shyness. This body was hers.
Thighs already spread, she swirled the tip of one finger around that explosive place, what Healers called the Pearl, then delved deeper, one finger entering her slick channel, only to be followed by a second. She spread them, pressed against the boundaries of her flesh and reached deeper for that good spot, that place that made the thunder shake her.
A little rain slapped against the glass of the windows in her room. Katara's back arched.
She was thinking of those acrobats, with their gleaming, exotically pale skin stretched over muscles that rippled and snapped. She thought of their dark, sleek hair, their shining yellow eyes… their blue masks.
"Ooh…" Her fingers drove against that spot, that perfect spot and one of her legs twitched up, changing her angle.
She thought of his blue, blue mask, his swift movements – like a wild thing, so precise and fierce. She thought of his black clothing peeling back to reveal the pale skin beneath, the places she knew - the star-shaped scar on his belly, the hard terrain of his shoulders. She reached with fantasy into the places she didn't know; his hands were on her, in her, and his face brushed against her neck, the rough flesh of his scar rasped her jaw.
"Yeesss…" she hissed as the thunder cracked, making the whole room shiver.
As she came down, panting into her bedding, Katara opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling.
Thoughts battered at her, mostly reasons why this brand of fantasy wasn't such a good idea… but she closed her eyes again and let the afterglow penetrate her. Really, what harm could there be in what nobody knew about?
In that spirit, she clenched her inner muscles and started it all over again.
"Katara? Are you okay?"
The waterbender's eyes cracked open and she released a low groan of assent.
"It's time to go to dinner… You've been sleeping all afternoon – are you sure you're not sick?"
"Suki…" Katara's voice was gravely, and she barely restrained herself from saying something profane. Instead, she realized that an opportunity lay before her to avoid having to go out and face those wretched Earth Kingdom boys. "I… think you may be right. All I want to do is sleep… Maybe I'm coming down with something."
"Do you want me to find a healer?"
"No… I'll wait a while, try to sleep it off. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow…"
"I hope so… The welcoming ceremonies are tomorrow – you don't want to miss the processions. I'll bring you something to eat after dinner... Do you need anything right now? Do you want to talk to Sokka?"
"Suki, I'm sick, not dying."
"Right," she said, grinning. "Feel better, Katara."
"Thanks, Suki."
Of course, as soon as the Kyoshi Warrior returned with a meal for her and again closed the door on her way out, Katara sat up, wolfed down the food, and began stretching her tense muscles. She had washed the sex-scent from her hands before going to sleep the second time, but, as often seemed to happen, she still caught whiffs of it.
With a huff of frustration, Katara again walked to the basin and washed with soap and water bent up in a long tendril from the pitcher. When she dried her hands and sniffed them, she smelled soap… and, underlying that, sex. She sighed, gave up; it wasn't like anyone would notice, anyway…
She knew she probably shouldn't be so impatient, but, after all of the rest she'd had, Katara couldn't wait to start the night's activities. So it was that she crept through the corridors to the secret door Zuko had taken her through the previous night. She knocked a couple of times, but got no response and, seeing the light of an approaching patrolman appear around a corner, the waterbender turned the concealed mechanism the way she had seen it done before and slipped inside.
…and was immediately faced with the sight of Zuko, crouched halfway across the room in a firebending start position. She couldn't help it. She stared.
He was wearing a towel wrapped around his hips. That was all and, somehow, his half-naked body was different now than it had been when she had watched him training Aang a year ago.
His hair was wet and the pale skin of his torso was dotted with beads of water that sparkled in the light of the lamps. The scar on his belly was just as she remembered it. His bent knees caused the towel to gap open, revealing one muscular thigh and a hard knee that was spattered with black hair.
Recognizing her, he straightened out of the bending posture and, arms at his sides, stood very straight and still.
"Ah… sorry…" She managed, finally, to look away. "There was… someone coming…"
Without speaking, Zuko grabbed a wad of black fabric from his bed and walked slowly into an adjoined room. The door shut quietly behind him. Katara shook her head and scowled at the floor. He'd obviously seen her staring… How embarrassing…
Zuko stood in his bathroom, breathing deeply and trying to think of anything but rushing back into the other room, shoving that wide-eyed waterbender's back to the closest wall, and showing her just what that searching look had done to him.
Agni… her eyes.
It had taken every ounce of composure he had to walk out of there as if nothing was wrong when his cock was quickly swelling beneath the towel, seconds from becoming unmistakable. Now, it was tenting out the cloth, enthusiastically. The firebender shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose; who was he kidding? She'd probably noticed… Springing wood just because she was looking at him… how embarrassing.
With a sigh, Zuko threw the towel aside and began climbing into his black clothes. Once he was fully dressed, he peered down at himself; there was a very obvious bulge. He closed his eyes and drew on one of his most powerful turn-offs… that image, burned forever into his mind, of Uncle Iroh in the hot springs.
Like magic, he immediately felt himself softening. A few moments later, Zuko opened the bathroom door and stepped out into his bedroom. Katara stood by his bed, clutching her hands together before her. For an instant, as he approached the bed (and thus her as well) he met her blue eyes, framed by the red of her face paint. Then, he looked away and bent to pick up his zukin from the floor where it had fallen.
"Zuko… I'm sorry for staring at you. It was rude. I understand if you're mad – I probably would be, too, if you had walked in on me and just… stared…"
He looked at her again, closer. She thought he was… mad? She must not have seen the reaction he'd had… For an instant, it crossed Zuko's mind to press the advantage, to ask just why she'd been staring, just what she'd seen that was so… fascinating.
But she broke eye contact and looked down at her fidgeting fingers. She didn't look like a lusting woman, now… she looked awkward, uncertain, and it occurred to Zuko that perhaps he had imagined the heat in her gaze. Perhaps he'd only seen it because he wanted to.
With a sigh, he rubbed the back of his head, scratching through his still-damp hair. "I'm not mad, Katara… You just… surprised me. Don't worry about it, okay?" He offered her a small smile and she, glancing up, returned it with her crinkling eyes.
He lifted the zukin to pull it over his head, but at that moment, there was a knock on his door.
Katara looked at him with her wide eyes and, when he nodded toward the bathroom, she slipped inside, easing the door mostly closed behind her.
Zuko used the door to shield his clothing from view as he opened it a crack to look out in the hallway. There, smiling pleasantly, stood Iroh.
"Nephew, do you have a moment to talk before you retire? I have had a most excellent idea…"
"Can it wait until tomorrow? This isn't really a good time…"
The old man's eyes brightened. "Oh? Do you have a guest? I thought I heard voices…"
"Uncle!" Zuko poked his scowling head out and, peering down both ends of the corridor, made sure no one was listening. His guards stood at their stations at either end of the hallway, too distant to hear their low tones. Finally, he opened the door to let Iroh enter. "Fine, we'll talk – but make it quick."
Iroh strolled into the room, his expression pleasant but his eyes trained on Zuko appraisingly. When the door was closed, he peered around the seemingly empty room. "Where is your guest?"
Zuko crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, refusing to reply.
The old man's keen yellow eyes scanned pointedly down his nephew's black clothing. He wove his fingers together over his belly. "Such an elusive guest must make a fine accomplice… Nephew," he admonished gently, "you did not tell me the Blue Spirit had a partner again."
The Fire Lord pinched the bridge of his nose. Was it really worth the struggle of trying to hide anything from this man? "I did not want to compromise her, should she wish to remain anonymous."
"She?" Iroh's eyes widened slightly and a smile of pleasure spread across his face. Zuko fought the urge to kick himself. "Zuko! I am so glad that you have found a lady friend who shares your interests! Perhaps you should consider other problems to which she might provide a solution…"
Trying very hard to ignore the suggestive waggle of the other man's gray eyebrows, Zuko again crossed his arms and frowned. "Did you have something to tell me, uncle?"
"Ah, yes, my idea." Iroh paused in thought and then shrugged, his smile still lingering. "It can wait until tomorrow. Have an enjoyable night, nephew."
With that, Iroh strolled back out the door. A moment later, Katara poked her head out of the bathroom.
"When did you ever work with a partner?"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "Jet. Ba Sing Se. Can we go now? We have important work to do."
"Okay, geeze…" Katara held up her hands as if to fend off his frustration, then planted her hands on her hips. "What are we doing tonight?"
Zuko took a deep breath and pulled the zukin over his head. Then, he dug one hand into an especially bushy potted plant and pulled out the Blue Spirit mask. "Tonight…" He pulled the mask over his face and turned back to the waterbender. "…we're breaking into a governor's house."
AN: Okay, so this is a short chapter, but it's lemony (which totally makes it count for extra...) and the next adventurey installment is underway. Remember, reviews are how you show authors that you like what they do! Or hate what they do! I do like to know when something I write is less-than-stellar... so PLEASE let me know if you're ever let down by something in particular. If I don't know about it, I can't fix it.