I needed a break from the drama that's been crawling in on ZTD of late and found myself writing this. I'm also pretty much sleep drunk.
Where's the Smoke?
"Uh, what are you doing?" Zuko asked.
Katara flinched and dropped his tunic. Zuko continued to stare at her as if she'd developed a second head. Understandable since he'd just caught her sniffing his clothes. That was creepy.
Her cheeks coloured and she coughed to clear her throat. "I was just, uh, seeing if your clothes needed to be washed."
"Even if they did, I can wash them myself."
"I know that." She folded her arms under her breasts and looked the other way. "I just thought I'd be nice. You know, try to help you out a bit since you're busy training Aang and I'm a waterbender and can do laundry way faster than you."
Zuko stared at her for a long moment. She had said this all in that far too forceful way that suggested she was lying. He decided not to push the issue (because he frankly didn't want to know about why she had actually been sniffing his clothes; he still thought it creepy).
"Okay," he said, stepping more into the room. "Well, thanks for the thought, I guess, but I'll be fine."
Katara's blush darkened. "Right. I'll just go then."
She left in a hurry. Zuko stared at her retreating figure and then back at his bunched up tunic as if it had grown a head. What in the hell?
oOo
The second time it happened he was actually wearing his clothes. Zuko blinked and backed up a step from the waterbender. "Did you just sniff me?" he demanded.
He hadn't actually intended to say the words, but sometimes his filter got faulty and they slipped out anyway. At least he hadn't called her creepy to her face. He knew her temper intimately and had no desire to arouse it again so soon after she had forgiven him (because there was no way she would let the comment slide, even if her sudden predilection for sniffing him was super creepy).
Katara coloured just as she had done the first time. Her eyes had that wide look of a kid whose hand had been caught in the fireflake jar, but then she closed her mouth and tried to look affronted. Try being the key word. "I was not sniffing you." A darker blush. "Not like that anyway."
His lone eyebrow rose. "Not like what?"
"Nothing." She pursed her lips and avoided his gaze. "I just thought something smelt bad and wondered if it was coming from you."
Zuko's brow creased. Okay, that was the second time she had inferred he or his clothes needed washing. Maybe she wasn't trying to be creepy at all. Maybe he really did just smell and she'd been nice enough to try figuring out if it was him before saying it to his face. His own cheeks warmed at the thought. He bathed regularly (certainly more than Toph and Sokka), but perhaps it wasn't enough. He supposed he did train a lot with Aang in the heat.
"Do I really smell that bad?" Zuko couldn't help but ask, giving his left shoulder a sniff. Nothing smelt off to him, but maybe he was just used to it.
Katara chewed on her lip. She avoided his gaze. "To be honest, you probably could do with a bath."
He rubbed the base of his neck. "Oh. Guess I'll do that then. Sorry."
Zuko wandered off feeling like an idiot for being so paranoid. Of course Katara hadn't been sniffing his clothes or person for some creeper reason only known to her. She was a nice, normal girl (when she wasn't making death threats). It was a relief to think that he only had to bathe for everything to return to life as usual.
Oh, how naïve he had been.
oOo
Zuko stared at the blushing waterbender. And stared and stared. Words had completely failed him—at least for the moment. She'd stalked him all the way to where he was bathing and had managed to sneak up on him while he was getting dressed just so she could get in a sniff. At any other time he might have been impressed that she had got so close without him detecting her presence. As it was, he just felt flustered and confused. Really, really confused.
"What's your deal?" he snapped, unable to hold it in any longer. "Do you have any idea how weird it is that you keep sniffing me?"
"I'm sorry!" she cried, ducking her pink face and sounding genuinely remorseful. Or maybe just embarrassed. "I know how it must look, but I swear it's not what you think!"
"Then what is it?" He folded his arms across his chest. "Because coming here when you knew I'd be bathing kind of leaves only one conclusion."
As in, she was a creeper. A cute creeper, he'd give her that, but a creeper nonetheless.
Katara covered her face with her hands. "Look, I didn't—I wouldn't do—" she made a frustrated sound. "It was because of the stupid scroll!"
She shouted this like the meaning should be obvious. Zuko's face only scrunched more.
"What scroll?" he asked.
Katara peeped at him from behind her hands. "Suki found it. It, um, mentioned something about firebenders."
Zuko's confusion did not ease. "Uh, okay. And that led you to sniffing me because …"
"Because it said firebenders were supposed to smell like smoke all the time. I was just curious if you did."
"The hell?"
Her blush reached the tips of her ears. "I know, I know! I'm sorry. I was just curious."
Zuko pressed his palm to his forehead and then dragged said palm over his face. "You couldn't have just asked me?"
She traced circles on the ground with the toe of her sandal. "But that would be embarrassing."
"Because sneaking around to sniff me isn't."
The girl had the grace to blush again. "Right. Guess that was kind of weird now that I think about it."
Zuko resisted the urge to make another sarcastic comment. Instead, he frowned down at her. "Alright, so you were sniffing me to see if I smelt like smoke. By now I hope you've satisfied your curiosity."
Please stop being a creeper.
He didn't say those words aloud, but she must have heard them anyway since the colour darkened on her cheeks. Then she started tracing circles on the ground again with her foot.
"Actually, I wasn't able to figure it out. I never got close enough."
Zuko heaved a big sigh and spread his arms. "Go ahead."
"What?"
He looked off to the ceiling. "Just sniff me so we can get this over with. That'll be the end of it, right?"
She nodded and stepped closer. Geez, girl didn't even hesitate. Zuko swallowed and kept his gaze fixed at a random point above her. Still didn't stop him from jumping slightly when he felt her zone in on his neck. Why that spot of all places? Her hair tickled his chin and he could feel the warm caress of her breath on his skin. An unbidden shiver passed him. He told himself it was just because she'd revealed herself to be a creeper—certainly not because she was in the position of someone about to place a kiss on his neck.
Katara stepped back with a frown. "I still can't smell any smoke."
Zuko coughed to clear his throat and went back to folding his arms across his chest. "Well, obviously. It's not like I'm a walking campfire."
"But you can bend fire."
"Saying I should smell like smoke because I'm a firebender is like saying you should always smell like the ocean just because you're a waterbender."
She pulled a face.
"Now you see my point." He shook his head. "I'm a person just like anyone else. It would be weird if I smelt like smoke all the time."
Katara made a thoughtful sound. "I wonder if that means you wouldn't taste like it either then."
"What?" If his yelp was a little undignified, he was too stunned to care. "T-taste?"
"The scroll said when the girl kissed the firebender prince that he tasted like wood smoke." Katara's big eyes fixed on him curiously. "Do you taste like that?"
"Why would I—that is so—"
Her brow furrowed and she placed her finger to her chin. "Though I guess you wouldn't know if you did taste like that. Only the person kissing you would be able to tell."
Zuko's eyes narrowed. "No."
"No what?"
"I know what you're going to say next and the answer is no."
Katara made a show of rolling her eyes. "Now you're being dramatic."
"Are you saying you want to kiss me?"
Colour dusted her cheeks. "It's not like that. We'd just be kissing for research purposes. Don't you want to know if the scroll's theory is correct?"
"I already know that scroll is a piece of shi—"
"C'mon, Zuko." She moved closer. He was annoyed that his heartbeat quickened. "It's just a kiss. What harm will it do?"
Zuko frowned at her for a moment. He couldn't deny that he was attracted to her (even if her creepy sniffing habit had thrown him for a bit). Kissing her wouldn't be awful. He also knew that she wouldn't stop pestering him until he satisfied her curiosity. She was annoyingly persistent like that (even if he did admire that obstinacy just a little).
"Fine," he said, grabbing her by the waist and using his other hand to tilt up her face. "If this is the only way to make you forget about that stupid scroll."
Then he leaned down swiftly and pressed his mouth to hers. Katara stilled. Her lips responded a split-second later. It was like they were testing each other, or maybe just teasing each other. Light brushes of contact soon got a little more heated, a little more daring. Blood thrummed in his ears. Their lips parted and their tongues met. She made a soft sound and her hands worked their way up his bare chest, sending shivers all through him. A dim part of Zuko was aware that one of them should probably pull back now. Whatever research she had been hoping to gather had well and truly been ticked off.
"Katara," he said a bit breathlessly.
She fisted her hands in his hair and pressed her hips against his, swallowing the rest of his words in a deep kiss. Zuko bit back a groan. The flow of his blood was quickly heading south. He was going to unravel before her faster than Aang could run with airbending.
"Stop." He gripped her shoulders and pushed back. "This is—this is enough."
Her eyes remained fixed on his mouth. Then she blinked as if snapping from a trance and looked up to meet his gaze. Colour bloomed all over her face. He could appreciate the feeling; they had just kissed each other senseless. Her hair was all mussed from where he'd tangled his fingers in the strands and he was sure his looked the same. Never mind what she'd been doing with her hips. That sweet friction wasn't something he would forget in a hurry.
Zuko released her shoulders and took a step back. Space was good right now. Space was much needed. Katara seemed to be of the same mind. She also took a step back and cleared her throat, trying and failing to fix up her hair.
"Well," she said, still sounding a bit croaky. "I, uh, can confirm you don't taste like smoke."
"Obviously."
They gave each other another surreptitious glance. He could see desire in her eyes. Zuko almost groaned. So much for her saying there was no harm in a kiss. This was not good. This was really, really not good.
"So, um, I'm gonna go now," she all but squeaked.
Zuko didn't stop her. Instead he placed his face in his hands and gave into his frustration. Damn that stupid scroll.
So this was actually inspired by the sheer amount of Zutara fics I have come across where Zuko is described as smelling/tasting like smoke. It makes me laugh because, honestly, why would he smell like smoke, let alone taste like it, all the time just because he's a firebender? Smoke comes from actually burning something, yo (not to mention incomplete combustion of whatever fuel is being used). He's technically not burning anything when he creates his flames. Conclusion: no smoke smell.
