The Life of Air

Chapter 20

"Are you enjoying your stay, Fire Lord.. sir? Can I get you and Lady Iyashi anything more?"

I watched with quiet amusement as Zuko did his best to politely shoo yet another overly helpful and easily excited acolyte. These people sought out my family when they heard of them building a new air temple and were welcomed with open arms along with many stories of our great adventures. These stories included Yuji's tale of how he, Zuko, and I defeated Azula and helped the Avatar return balance to our world. Even as Fire Nation, and now Lord of that nation, it was easy to see Zuko was a hero to them and they wanted to treat him as such. Unfortunately for them, we came here for peace and my beloved was determined to make it so.

The door was shut gently and I heard a tired sigh. "What did your parents tell these people? It's not like I solved world hunger or anything." Zuko then sat down on the largest chair in the room and closed his eyes, looking defeated.

"Oh Zuko," I called in a loving voice. "Try not to let the attention tire you so. Tea?"

He grunted in response which I took as a yes. I pored our teas and carried them to him, taking a seat next to him, though it was snug and I ended up resting my legs over his lap. He nodded his thanks and took the cup I offered him, sipping at it while also letting his other hand rest at my neck and begin to rub circles there.

A smile formed on my lips due to the gentle caressing of his fingers on my neck, oh how I never tired of his loving touches and the way he seemed to do it without any effort or words as though it was second nature to lay his fingers against me. I took a sip of my own tea, enjoying the comfort we had found for that moment. He seemed to notice the peace we had as his body started to relax and I felt him breath easier. I silently hoped no one would come and disturb us again.

"Hey Sis! How are you and that guy settling in?"

And just like that, the peace was over. I chucked and smiled to my dear younger brother standing at the door he had just barged into. "We are doing just fine, thank you, Yuji. Is there something you needed?"

He gave a thoughtful expression and rubbed the back of his neck. "Not really, just wanted to check on you. I've missed you, since you know... you're my only sister and you've been traveling around the whole world for months and then you stayed in the Fire Nation for a while and this is the fire time that we've gotten to have you with us."

"Don't lay it on thick or nothing, thanks kid." Zuko said to him, turning his head to give him an irritated look. "You know she had a lot to do."

Yuji crossed his arms and glared at Zuko. "And you reacted to her leaving with such grace. Yeah, I heard about your little hissy fit and the fight that you had. Don't even try that with me."

Zuko reddened with what I considered a mix of embarrassment and anger but turned his face away from my brother and grunted as his last retort. Yuji grinned, obviously pleased over winning the battle over his sister with the Fire Lord.

"Yuji, how about in a little while we all take some time outside? The whole family together doing anything you like. Does that sound good?" I offered him and he seemed to beam at the idea.

"That's perfect. I'll give you two an hour to get rested and then come get you." Yuji then left and shut the door behind him.

Zuko groaned. "Your family, I never realized how much effort it takes to keep them entertained."

"That is because you are only used to entertaining me and I am very content with you in times like that." I said softly, a grin hiding behind my tea cup.

Golden eyes turned to mine and my dear firebender grinned at me. "Only content? I could make it more enjoyable if you want more than just contentment." In quick movements he set down his tea, took mine to set it with his, and switched around our positions to hold my hips so my legs were on the sides of his legs. I giggled and laid my hands on his shoulder, happy to play along. Zuko began slowly caressing my hips, moving his hands down on my thigh with the gentlest touch and back again to my hips and up over my waist. It was such a Zuko like move, telling me everything I could have and everything he wanted, showing he would give me anything, all I had to do was ask. This all while keeping complete, never ending eye contact.

"And what of my family?" I whispered just loud enough for him to hear me. "They will be expecting us in an hour. Are we to continue avoiding them?"

Zuko chuckled and his body shook with it, moving my body along with it. "I'm always fighting someone for your attention, I guess I'm just getting used to it now."

At that point Zuko was tired of talking it over and I could see it in his eyes just before he pulled me closer and leaned down to shower my stomach with gentle kisses. I took in deep breaths and hung my head back, taking in all that he was giving me. His hands began caressing my thighs again though they stayed there this time, pulling my skirt up to find the creamy white skin underneath. I wrapped my arms around his head and held him to me, my fingers going into his dark and unruly hair. He seemed pleased with this, as I heard a quiet moan followed by more fervent kissing on my stomach that soon moved up my chest and between my breasts.

I took in a sharp breath when his warm, wet tongue found the flesh between my breasts that my low cut top offered to him. It seemed almost completely sinful to receive this much pleasure only from kisses, but somehow I was unable to control my desire for what he could do to me there. In no time I found myself wishing he would remove my top all together, but his honor and respect for me wouldn't allow him to do so. I wished hard to marry him in that moment, for the spirits to bless us right then so that maybe it wouldn't feel like such a betrayal of values to go further, but it just wasn't so.

His kisses had to move to my neck, going down was simply getting too dangerous and I'm sure even he felt that. But even on my neck he was bringing out soft cries of pleasure from my lips. My fingers grew tight on his ebony hair once he began to suck in one spot, and as the sucking continued with the teasing efforts of his tongue I grew fearful that I might pull his hair completely out and lose my careful quietness in our little room. He seemed to use that as his signal and released my neck with a pop sort of sound. I released the breath I held for so long, accidentally releasing a quiet moan along with it. I looked down to see a smirk on my Zuko's face, he must have been admiring the mark he left on me...

Suddenly reality struck. "Have you left a mark!?"

That satisfied and cocky smirk only grew. "I sure did, right at the bottom of your beautiful neck." He then kissed the mark and nuzzled my neck. "A man deserves the right to mark the love of his life for the world to see and know just how much he loves her."

I pouted. "Oh Zuko, that is very sweet to say but I'm going to need something to cover this. There is no way I can go out with my family with... well proof of our... time together like this."

It seemed he then understood the severity of the situation we had gotten ourselves into. "Your father would stuff rocks down my throat if he saw this." He said with a quick brush of fingers over my new mark and then lifted me up to set me down on the chair alone and started rifling through our bags. After a while he lifted one of my many scarfs in triumph. "Wear this!"

"Let us hope no one asks about this." The scarf easily wrapped around my neck and torso until the tails were short enough to stuff into my skirt. I did my best to make it seem more like a simple piece of clothing instead of a strategically placed item to hide my mark. I stood and held my hands in front of me. "How does it look?"

A smile spread on Zuko's face and he took me in his arms at the waist with my hands resting on his chest. "Beautiful." He then placed a kiss on my forehead.

Even here, where we were suppose to be vacationing from all of our duties, we had rules that could not be broken. Zuko is the leader of a nation that is in a very fragile state, especially the relationships it has with the rest of the world, and so he must appear as proper and strong as possible while also being sensitive to the other nations' traditions and current situations. To be engaging in a relationship such as ours, between a Lord and a member of the newly discovered surviving airbenders, without making it well known and parading our personal lives around for everyone to know and see... well it simply is not done. While my culture was much more relaxed about affection between lovers, and lovers to us being simply two people that love each other. All was fine as long as we didn't cross a particular line, though that was more in respect to my relationship with the spirits and how they felt about things like that.

When I first came here, it was described to us by my parents. My mother said that to the rest of the world I am basically a princess of the air nation, no matter the fact that we live our lives without royalty or even the simplest governing systems in place. The fact that in our society I was not really a princess did not even matter as much as the reality that Zuko is in fact a Lord, and as a Lord it would only be appropriate to have a relationship of any kind with someone he was betrothed to. We have not gotten to that point in our relationship though... and neither of us was ready for it at this time, as things in the world required too much of our attention. And so our relations are usually behind closed doors, holding hands in public is even a forbidden act.

Even though we were careful we did not have control over everything, as rumors had spread over the nations about me staying at the palace in the Fire Nation for more than would appear to be necessary. We must also factor in the guards of the palace, as I had stayed there when Zuko was absent and he gave orders that I was in charge, so even if they did not see anything happening between us it was easy to tell there was a special kind of trust between us. The guards respected me as the Lady by their Lord's side, and this had traveled even to my parents. If my parents knew what kind of status I had in the palace, it was obvious a good assumption to believe leaders in the world knew as well.

I often wondered what it would be like to tell people that Zuko was simply courting me, trying to woo me in hope that I might one day accept his hand and stand by his side forever. It seemed romantic to some, as I discussed it with Katara she seemed wooed by the idea itself, but for me it seems as though Zuko is the only one that matters in a situation like that. He is courting, he picked, and he is waiting for an answer. It was sickeningly simplified by that, because in the end all that mattered in terms of me alone was the answer I would give him. I wanted what we're doing to be about us, the way each of us feels and what we each do to improve the other and ourselves together. So opening up our relationship to the rest of the world as a courtship was not going to happen. Thankfully Zuko agreed with me.

Now if only we could change the minds of the rest of the world. As the thought passed into my mind I couldn't help but giggle, which caused Zuko to give me an odd stare.

"Something funny?" he said, pushing hair out of my face.

I shook my head. "Only the idea that we could change the minds of the entire world. Not that I do not love being with you, I just still want to be me at the same time."

A gentle caress over my cheek with his fingertips made me close my eyes in comfort. Zuko leaned his forehead against mine and whispered with a tone I could only label as pure happiness. "We helped change the world once, I don't see why we couldn't do it again."

Looks like I'm back to being able to write a chapter... hmm... I was honestly ready to give up on myself. I've been dealing with so much stress that writing was like a burden, which it should never be, so I just didn't write very much at all. I finished up the last half of the today... while the beginning was done with short little writing spurts every once in a while for months. Can you tell? Does it flow enough? I don't know. It went where I wanted it to, but I'm not sure about how it turned out. I might be doing so more writing though, I've got a one shot in my head that isn't related to this story but it's Avatar:TLA none the less. Would anyone read it? Let me know in a review, I'd greatly appreciate the feedback right now.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend!

P.S. I'm working on my other story, Sugar, in case anyone here reads that one too.