Disclaimer: Don't own.

A/N: Thanks to snarkhunter for inspiring this. I know this isn't the word you gave but actually this did come from urgent in a way. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and such!

Zuko let out a breath as he bent over his right leg in his finishing stretches. He'd probably pushed himself harder than he should have in his practice this morning: he's collapsed on the ground after his final move and he could feel his muscles protesting as he stretched them out. It was his own fault he thought as he switched to stretching over his left leg. He hadn't practiced for a month now but with good reason. A month ago was his wedding to Katara and, well, she tended to hinder his ability to get out of bed in the morning to practice. Considering every time Katara changed into her practice clothes Zuko made sure she didn't get to leave the bedroom either.

As he stood his back twinged. He couldn't think of why it would hurt (really they were trying new things but nothing that should hurt his back). He ignored the pain as he slide on and loosely tied his shirt before heading back to his rooms to wash up and change before breakfast. He expected to find Katara still in bed (and maybe up for helping him clean up) but she wasn't there. This was the first morning he wasn't there when she really woke up (he had kissed her and told her where he was going when he left and she had mumbled something before turning away from him and going back to bed). It felt odd knowing that this would be the first of many mornings where he wouldn't be there when she woke up and wondered how his life had changed so much in such a short time.

Deciding to just wash up instead of taking a full bath (he could save that for later and hopefully with Katara) he filled the sink and grabbed a towel and soap. He shed his shirt again and absent mindly began cleaning the sweat off. Everything seems fine, his aches less than they were before, until he ran the towel over his back. That hurt. A stinging kind of hurt that he was pretty sure wasn't from training. He was entirely sure when he quickly pulled the cloth away and noticed there were red splotches on it. Blood. How was he bleeding? He turned around and looked at his back in the mirror. There were thin red lines there, none of them dripping blood but he knew they were open. Putting two and two together he knew exactly where they had come from. Last night they had been a little rougher than usual. He remembered how good it felt when she ran her nails over his back. Apparently in the morning it didn't feel so good.

She made them she can fix them he thought as he finished cleaning up and dressed. Having become aware of the scratches he now felt them with everything he did.

He made his way to the small informal dinning room for breakfast hoping to find her there. He found her in there like he expected.

"Katara I have matching scratches on my back the width of your finger nails. Can you do something about that?" He saw her blush and then heard laughter. His uncle and mother's laughter to be precise.

"Zuko, that's not the proper way to great your wife. You say 'good morning' and offer her some tea. Then you ask her to heal the injuries she inflicted." Zuko was sure the old man was enjoying this way too much.

Blushing himself he sat down next to Katara and gave her a quick kiss. "Sorry about that," he paused and looked at her empty cup, "would you like some tea?" he asked sheepishly.

"Yes, thank you," he could see the blush fading from her checks. "After we finish I'll take a look."

"Thanks."

"And I'll try to be more careful next time," she added softly.

"I liked it though," he whispered in her ear. He loved that he made her shiver at that.

"Nephew, you're very lucky. I had to suffer through some of the pains of the newly married without the benefit of a waterbender with the ability to heal." Zuko felt his face heat up again and decided to ignore Iroh for the time being.