AN: Foooo... Well, here's another chapter!
Most-exalted reviewers, your words of pleasure/support/constructive criticism have made this entire endeavor really great. Keep on rockin.
"Then tell me about it."
Her voice was muffled, her breath steaming against the top of his chest. Her arms hung loosely around his waist, hands cupped over the flesh of his lower back. Her belly, sealed against his, was cool and smooth and the sensation of her skin pressed to his was both soothing and maddening. He could feel her breasts…
Zuko swallowed.
He wanted to move, to slide his flesh against hers in a near-frictionless brush. He wanted to unleash his hands and let them coast down her back, past the strips of her bindings to the curve at the base of her spine. He wanted to press his body fully against hers, hold her tightly to him, and sink into the herbal scent of her hair.
But Zuko did not do these things. No funny stuff. No kissing. They were straight-forward rules. Zuko could respect straight-forward rules.
He kept his body still and his palms lightly in place on her back. He kept his hips angled away so that she would not feel the erection he'd been sporting since she started that tantalizing one-fingered healing.
Despite everything that had happened since the start of the evening – Katara's bad experience, the revelation of her new (and frankly terrifying) ability, and his own torture and residual soreness – the firebender's arousal had lingered at the back of his mind, only to burst forth at the slightest provocation. Really, it was kind of embarrassing.
He blamed that look she'd had on her face back in his room at the palace.
"You think I'm scared?" He looked up at her, only to find her breathing elevated, her painted eyes alight and crinkling with a nascent smirk.
Katara had stood there watching him pleasure himself and, when he met her eyes, she had not looked frightened or shocked in the least. She had looked amused, excited… aroused. The image wouldn't leave him.
Which made it even more challenging for Zuko to think straight with her breasts pressed against his chest, separated from his skin only by those thin layers of fabric.
He took a deep breath and forcefully turned his thoughts in another direction. He thought of his hot hands, enough like her attackers' to make her draw away from him. The lust guttered.
"Zuko?" Her breath was so humid against his skin… The lust flared.
The hot springs had been humid, too. Uncle Iroh, rising out of the water, dripping…
"Gah…" The firebender raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. It worked every time because, no matter how many years had passed, the horror never quite lost potency.
Katara's head tilted to the side so that she could peer up at him with a lifted eyebrow while still digging her chin into his shoulder as she seemed to enjoy…
Zuko looked away as he mentally scrambled, searching for the right words. "I… want you… Katara… because…"
Hadn't he given some pretty smart, respectable reasons to Hakoda just this morning? Why was it so much harder to think while looking into this pair of blue eyes…?
He made the mistake of looking back into those eyes that, despite being out of direct lamplight, sparkled in the dim room… where they were alone… together…
…Uncle Iroh, Uncle Iroh, Uncle Iroh…
She seemed to be getting angry, a furrow forming between her brows. Zuko swallowed and latched onto the closest thing to mind, the smartest solution; what would Uncle Iroh say?
"…you're really… good," he offered lamely. When she only blinked at him, he peered off over her head and pressed on. "And… that goodness really, uh… speaks to the goodness that is… within me."
She was silent for a long moment, then scoffed, incredulous. "You want to marry me because I'm good?"
"Yes… no. Partly." Zuko hazarded a glance down into the waterbender's eyes, only to find her staring dryly back at him. He looked away again, brow furrowing in thought. "You're… just and kind-hearted and… merciful – though maybe not tonight, so much…" His eyes flicked back to her, then away again. She still didn't look impressed.
Zuko took another big breath. "Sometimes, you're really fearless. I…" He looked down at the floor behind her. "It took me a long time to see you that way – because I thought of you for so long as an enemy standing between me and my own honor… I was so… frustrated with you in the beginning – especially after I captured you that first time. You just refused to cooperate. It was so obnoxious…"
She sputtered, drawing back from him slightly. "Oh, I am so sorry-"
Zuko hurried on. "No! I mean that was what I thought then but, later, when I decided to join the Avatar, I thought about that whole scenario from your perspective. I…" He hesitated, then forged ahead. "Katara, I caught you alone and threatened you with pirates and tied you up. By all reason, you should have been terrified. You should have been willing to tell me anything I asked and, instead…" He tucked his chin to look at her, a smile pulling at his lips. "Instead, you told me to go jump in the river."
Katara settled back against him, but didn't quite return his smile. "I really believed in Aang. That was all."
Zuko smirked. "Right. Because belief is all it takes to inspire that kind of defiance in the face of danger."
She eyed him for a long moment and, just when the firebender started to think he was going to have to argue further about this, she shrugged. "Alright, fine. I'm brave. What else?"
"Um…" His eyes widened and he looked back at the floor for a long moment. What else would Uncle Iroh say?
After the silence had stretched on for a while, Katara dryly murmured, "I'm that good, huh?"
Zuko turned his head and met her eyes. He swallowed and spoke seriously. "Yeah. You are. It's… kind of inspirational, really. There have been times when you… actually made me want to be a better person."
At this, Katara smiled. It was a subtle up-turning of her lips, accompanied by a sparkle in her eyes. Her dimly-lit cheeks turned just a little red. Zuko couldn't stop himself. He reached up and brushed the pad of his thumb along the bottom edge of the paint on her cheek.
For an instant, her eyes widened in something that may have been panic. As quickly as it had come, though, it passed and she peered up at him, directly into his bad eye. "Tell me something else," she murmured, casting a slow gaze around the ridges of his scar. Zuko almost thought he could feel the contact of her eyes, like a physical touch. "Why else do you want me? Apart from how good I am."
He found that he couldn't look away. He swallowed, licked his lips. His thumb lingered against her cool, soft skin.
Uncle Iroh would say something wise about balance, about the struggle within all beings – and Zuko in particular – to find a middle road between innate goodness with the evil lurking in the shadows of the mind. Uncle would say something about complimentary parts working together to make a stronger whole.
Zuko, however, was drowning in lustrous blue and the part of his brain that was supplying substitute-wisdom was beginning to shut down. In place of Uncle Iroh, something else began whispering suggestions.
"I… I like how bad you are, too…"
"Bad? Me?" Katara's brow furrowed and she let out a little huff, peering away from him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Zuko spotted the darkening of her cheeks and a little smile crept onto his face. "Mostly, it's how much you enjoy using intimidation to set someone back on the path of righteousness…"
"I do it because it's necessary." She sniffed, frowning.
"Sure. Me too. But you still like it."
Her blue eyes narrowed and snapped onto him. "How do you know? Maybe I'm just a really good actress."
"When you finish with a target and send him running off into the dark, your eyes light up like it's your birthday and you can't wait for cake… And you keep barging into my room at unreasonably early hours, obviously excited to go."
She blinked and Zuko could see the moment she remembered just what she had walked in on at the start of this evening; her eyes widened and her cheeks darkened to a full-on blush.
The firebender couldn't resist; he bared his teeth in a sly grin. "…unless there's another reason you do that," he whispered. "Hoping to catch me in a towel again?"
Katara's jaw dropped. "Pure accident – both times!" Her brow furrowed and her chin jerked upward. "And who are you to go pointing fingers, Mister Likes-Groping-Himself-In-Front-Of-Others?"
Zuko's grin vanished and he felt his own face heating. "I do not! I just… got caught up in the moment…"
"Sure you did." She squinted thoughtfully at him. "You really would have done it right in front of me, wouldn't you?"
"I…" Momentarily flustered, he blinked down at her before taking note of the spark in her eyes, the tiny up-turning at the very corners of her lips… She was teasing him back.
Zuko forced a pensive frown, tilted his chin up, and peered down his nose at her, in spite of his hot cheeks. "I suppose I can admit to that…" His eyes narrowed. "…if you'll admit that you would have watched."
Katara didn't shy away, though her eyes widened. She seemed to be caught, locked in his stare, and she licked her lips before she finally managed speech. "I… I was curious. I've never seen a boy… do that, before." Zuko's blood heated and he fought the urge to react, to make inappropriate offers. Her blue eyes flickered in a blink before narrowing, as if she had decided that she wouldn't be outdone. Her voice took on a husky tone as she spoke a final word. "Yes."
"So…" Zuko tucked his chin, a victorious smile taking his lips. "Why didn't you?"
"What, and take advantage of you when you seemed completely unaware? Do you really think I'm that depraved?"
"You aren't depraved…" He turned his head slightly to cast her a thoughtful, sideways look. The sounds of rain were diminishing, so the quiet was intense as he paused. "…but you did seduce me into kissing you for the first time in an alley…"
"Oh, that hardly counts!" Katara shot him a frown and Zuko straightened as she prodded the tender flesh above the back of his hip. "You were the one who backed me up against a wall in the palace when anyone could have wandered by! No need to pose for a scandal, then, huh?" Her cold fingers dug into his skin a second time, lightly pinching now.
"Stop that!" Zuko snarled and squirmed in her arms. The pinches didn't hurt; they tickled. Zuko hated tickling. He withdrew his hands to reach down and twist his fingers through hers, tugging them away from his sensitive flesh. The pinching abated, but, with her arms trapped around him, she still clung close, peering up at him like a mutinous barnacle. He frowned down at her. "You're as much to blame as I am for that, you know."
"Oh really? How's that?"
"You backed into the wall and you touched me, first. Remember?"
She seemed to retreat somewhat – her fingers relaxed in his and her gaze dropped down and to one side, brow furrowed with a thoughtful frown – but Zuko couldn't seem to stop himself. He sighed and, in a softer voice, persisted. "You started that entire scene by picking a fight over a stupid insult against me, Katara. It was pretty obvious that you liked me, then, and you've already said that you still do. Why can't you just say yes and stop wasting our time with this pointless game?"
There was silence, but Zuko didn't realize that the rain had stopped. He could only look at her.
It was as if a cloud had passed over the moon, but the angry shadow only appeared on Katara's face. She stared at him for a long while, eyes narrowing as the seconds passed. When she finally spoke, her voice was low and dangerous. "'Just say yes?' Zuko, this isn't a simple favor you can ask me and then just expect a quick answer. I like you, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to marry you."
"A favor?" The quiet, raspy voice in the back of Zuko's head had made a resurgence and was telling him to calm down and just let this go; it said that patience cost nothing but impatience bore a heavy price. As he had done so many times before, the firebender did not listen. Outrage and something else – something much closer to the bone – warred within him. "A favor? I, the Fire Lord, ask you to marry me and you consider it doing me a favor?"
Katara shrugged, shaking her head slightly in wonder. Her furious expression remained constant. "You said it yourself; you have to get married. I, on the other hand, don't. I can do as I please with my life – I don't have to be the Fire Lady. So, yes; I think of agreeing to your ridiculous scheme, in part anyway, as doing an old friend a very big favor."
Zuko sensed that she was slipping away and, in a moment of panic, he scrambled for something that meant a lot to her – something that could draw her back. "What about the good of your people? Won't they resent you if you pass up this opportunity for a lasting alliance with the most powerful nation in the world?"
Her lips pinched into a tight frown. "My people think the same way that my father does. They'll understand if we all have to work a little harder because I decided not to sell my entire life away to… to some arrogant hothead!" She released his fingers and began drawing away from him.
Zuko's eyes narrowed and he pulled back as well. They stood separated by a foot of empty space that felt much larger than it looked. His lip curled, seemingly beyond his control. "At least I didn't grow up in a tent made of animal skins."
Katara jabbed a thumb against the top edge of her breast bindings. "At least I don't sit in my palace, gazing down on my people in their poverty… Your Majesty." She offered him a mocking bow, glaring up at him the entire time.
The firebender narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his bare chest. His sealed wounds stung. "I do not-"
"The rain's stopped," Katara snapped. "Let's just go."
"Fine." Zuko spat the word before turning, yanking on his zukin and mask, and shoving the window open with a little more force than was necessary. Despite the sharp sound of the wood swinging wide, despite the fact that he was facing away from her, he still heard her growled word.
"Fine."
They parted silently as soon as they entered the palace proper and made their separate ways to their own chambers. Katara dodged around a lot of corners, made even more paranoid by her state of undress, and held her breath as she eased through the door into the dark lounge.
No one was there. She released a sigh and gave a silent prayer of thanks to Yue; she wasn't sure whether she would have exploded or broken down if her father had been waiting again, but it would have been a nightmare, either way.
Katara was very, very tired. She was so tired, she felt as if a big scoop of her guts had been taken out and replaced with a lump of ice… nasty ice from the shallow end of the pond, full of mud particles and bits of chewed-up leaves.
The waterbender was quiet when she slipped into her dormitory, but it was hard to be quiet enough. Toph snorted and rolled over, grumbling loudly into her pillow.
"…I'll have your loyalty or your head on a pike. Do not underestimuh-" The rest of her words were swallowed by the down.
Katara sighed, rubbing her cold shoulder as she passed Suki's empty bed on her way to the wardrobe. She bathed. She changed. She crawled beneath her blankets.
For what seemed like hours, the waterbender lay curled on her side, listening to Toph snore and periodically rolling over. No matter which way she faced, though, her worries went on whispering at the back of her mind and her guts wouldn't thaw.
"Katara. Get up, or I'll tell Snoozles you're too sick for the meeting."
"Naugh! I'm up!" The waterbender dragged her sleep-numbed body to the edge of her bed and oozed out onto the floor.
This wasn't the first time she had been called or shaken or threatened this morning, but Toph hadn't resorted to this level of intimidation for a long time… and anything, from cold floors to sleep deprivation, was better than Sokka trying to nurse her back to health.
Bleary-eyed, Katara struggled to find the will to stand up. She spotted Toph standing between her and the glaringly-sunlit windows with her hands fisted on her hips and a frown on her face.
"M'up." The waterbender rubbed her oddly-sore face and threw an arm over the bed to pull herself to her feet. Once vertical, she grumbled loudly to clear her throat and staggered off to the vanity.
Toph didn't exactly follow her; she just rotated ninety degrees to go on facing her. "Sounds like you had a busy night – good times?"
"Mm." Katara stared down at the basin for a long moment, then peered up at her reflection. She blinked. The girl in the mirror couldn't be her.
Her hair had come undone during her twisting in the night and was loose in bushy waves behind her. Her eyes were darkly circled – which stood out strongly against her exhausted pallor – and looked as dry and blood-shot as they felt. And, sprouting from the corner of her mouth was an enormous bruise, vivid in shades of red and purple, where Cho had hit her. Her breath caught as reality came hammering home.
"I guess that's a 'no.'"
She had almost forgotten that Toph was there and unthinkingly raised a hand to cover the mark before forcing it back to her side. In the mirror, she watched the stout girl's arms cross over her chest.
"Wanna tell me what happened or keep on pretending that you're always this stiff and zonked-out?"
"I… don't really want to talk about it." With a measuring glance at the earthbender's reflection, Katara drew some water from the pitcher and began lightly massaging it into the bruise. The swelling and pain faded significantly, but the color faintly lingered – a result of going too long without treatment.
As her hand fell away, the waterbender's gaze flicked up from the slight reddish blotch and, with a sigh, she took in her own stricken expression. Seeing the aftermath laid out so plainly was… shocking. It was evidence that that awful thing that should have been a nightmare had actually happened, that Cho and Yan had been real… and that what she had done to them had been real, too.
"Katara…" Toph took a few steps closer and stopped, face turned down and slightly away as if her hair might conceal her worried expression. Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet – not gentle, but low and firm. "What did you just heal and why are you so freaked out about it?"
The earthbender was using her actual name… Katara had trouble bringing herself to brush her off. "Just a bruise. It's really no big deal, Toph."
"Right, right. Bruise on the face, no big deal…" With a sour frown, the girl uncrossed her arms and again set her hands on her hips. "Your heart's buzzing like a lemur on cactus juice, you know."
The waterbender heaved a sigh. "I know." She picked up a brush and started fighting her hair back into a braid. It snagged and tugged infuriatingly, driving Katara to brush harder. Her eyes welled up.
With a huff, Toph turned and began walking toward the door. "You'd better hurry. The meeting starts at-"
"What meeting?" Katara snarled and whirled simultaneously, the brush caught on an especially stubborn tangle. A few hot tears spilled down her cheeks.
The earthbender turned back and faced the older girl squarely, expression bland. "I don't know. All I know is what people tell me. Snoozles said you needed to be ready for a meeting by the start of the next hour. He didn't say what it was about." She shrugged. "Maybe it's no big deal, too."
Katara swallowed past the lump in her throat and dropped the brush back on the vanity. Her eyes were pouring now and her stomach felt like it was full of angry bees. She needed to get her mood under control. When she spoke, the tears were obvious even in her voice, making her warble slightly. "Toph… I'm sorry for being so secretive and for snapping at you… and I'll understand if you say no… but would you do me a big favor?"
Toph stood still for a long moment before she heaved a sigh and rubbed a palm over both blind eyes. "I'm not gonna like this, am I?"
Katara rubbed her slick eyes with the back of her arm and half-sobbed, half-laughed. "Probably not."
"Let's get it over with, then." The stout earthbender stumped back across the room.
AN: Woof. That first scene was an incredible pain in the butt to write. All feedback is appreciated, cherished, and taken entirely too much to heart.