AN: First off, let me say that I am really, really, really sorry that this chapter is so long in coming. If you want something to curse, curse holidays and career-related obligations and my deep discomfort with writing this chapter in public... and Zelda, Twilight Princess (Hyrule doesn't save itself, you know...) and maybe the difficulty I had getting back into the swing of this story. I had to reread a lot of chapters to get back on top of this thing. Now, though, I'm pumped. The end is in sight.
Secondly, my computer is fixed because my roommate is awesome and awesomely fixed it. Thanks, awesome roommate!
Thirdly, for the ninety-five reviews left on the last chapter, thankyouthankyouthankyou and I am so sorry... I owe you all better than two months of silence. Thank you to Tsuyoi for the positive reinforcement! Thanks to Cutegenius for a very valid point! Sorry to k-kwadrat about your chair... And, finally, THANKS to moviefan-92 for correcting my definition of 'lemons' - and, since the popular definition of sex is not necessarily restricted to the heterosexual act of intercourse, does this count? ;D
Now, please enjoy your extra-long, extra-smutty new chapter and remember that I love you!
Katara's eyes shot wide open when her back hit the wall as, for an instant, she was filled to bursting with remembered fear. Her vision, though, of two very different sides of the same face blurring together at so short a distance, immediately calmed her. It was something in the landscape of his scar, the rippling flesh, the twisted eye - she could get lost there.
Zuko. He would respect her desire for honor. He wouldn't go too far.
His kisses were enthusiastic and thrummed through Katara's throat like a silent song and she found her fingers tangling in his hair, gripping his smooth shoulder close, closer. Everything about him was heat and flickering. His hands were splayed against her ribcage and slid around her body until his thumbs lightly stroked the undersides of her breasts. His hardness pressed against the soft flesh of her abdomen and it was easier than she had ever thought it might be to imagine that velvety shaft entering her body.
In the back of her mind, Katara counted the steps it would take to get him inside of her. Physical steps, simple motions - a bend of the knees, a tilt of the pelvis. The fantasy made her inner muscles clench and, with a groan, she slid her palms down his arms to his unmoving hands.
Zuko's yellow eyes opened and, drawing back a bit, he blinked down at her as she guided his palms up against her flesh, following the contours of her breasts. His gaze broke from hers and he began again to stare at her chest.
His intense gaze had made Katara feel awkward and uncertain before - more because she couldn't tell what he was thinking than because she didn't like the feeling of his eyes on her. Now, though, she could see him breathing through his mouth, could see his eyes flaring with heat like two embers being blown on.
She slipped her hands up his arms and traced the insides of his elbows with her thumbs as his fingers spread across her breasts, hesitantly exploring. Zuko was gentle, almost surprisingly so after that initial burst of motion, and his eyes flicked up to hers occasionally as he massaged her chest. Katara's nipples hardened against his palms and, yellow eyes a bit wondering, he traced one of her wrinkled aureoles with a single fingertip, spiraling closer to her nipple until his fingernail lightly scraped the tip of the fleshy protrusion.
"Ah!" Katara shuddered, one of her knees jerking oddly out to the side.
Zuko's hands jerked away from her. "Agni - sorry, Katara! I didn't mean to scratch-"
"Do it again," she breathed. When the firebender didn't move, she dragged his hands back to her and pressed them firmly against her skin. "Please, Zuko. Do it again."
He lowered his chin and watched her intently as he repeated the motion and Katara, caught between the sensation and his penetrating yellow gaze, gasped. Her head dropped back against the wall and her mouth fell open. Zuko, seeming to gain some confidence, went on lightly toying with her nipples and Katara's hands lowered from his elbows to the pale flesh of his sides, her fingertips absentmindedly tracing the subtle ridges of his ribs.
"Stop that," he murmured, lips curling downward in a frown. His hands stilled.
Katara blinked, a little dazed. "What?"
"What you're doing with your fingers. Stop it."
The waterbender, brow furrowing, stopped. Zuko immediately relaxed and resumed the pleasant stroking of his own hands. With a sigh of mixed pleasure and resignation, Katara drummed her fingers against his sides. "Why?"
He was quiet for a long while and peered thoughtfully at her breasts instead of her eyes. The waterbender raised an annoyed brow and lightly stroked down his ribs with the fingertips of one hand. Zuko tensed and his frown returned, as did his focus on her face. He caught her hand in his lightly, stilling it. "I just don't like... tickling, okay?"
"You're... ticklish." She couldn't keep the note of incredulity from her voice.
Zuko scowled. "I am not ticklish. I just don't like sensations that... tickle."
Katara grinned. "Right... Okay, I'll try not to tickle His Majesty..." The firebender's scowl deepened. She went on, tone more serious. "...but I do want to touch you. How... How do you like to be touched?"
He blinked and his expression gentled a bit. His eyes flicked down, then quickly off to one side. "Um... I don't know. Harder, I guess. Not so light and teasing."
"Like this?" She flattened her palms against his skin and slid them up his chest, over his flat nipples and the slightly upraised planes of his pectorals.
He gave her a little smile and, lightly, his fingers went back to work on her flesh. "That's good."
Zuko experimentally rolled her nipples between his fingers and thumbs and Katara tensed at the new sensation, fingers curling claw-like against his chest as she gasped. He coughed out a surprised grunt and his hips rocked firmly against her once before he seemed to return to himself a bit.
They blinked at each other for a second before Zuko looked down at her blunt nails, still pressed against his chest. He cleared his throat. "Yeah... that's good, too."
Katara smirked and slid her arms around his back as he leaned in to kiss her again. His lips slanted against hers in a slick slide and she pulled him closer, trapping his hands between them. He groaned into her mouth and, again, his hips pressed against her, digging his erection into the softness of her belly. It wasn't entirely comfortable, but there was something maddening about the contact, something that made the waterbender want to hitch up her leg and meet him properly.
Her eyes popped open and she broke the kiss, breathing hard. "Zuko, this is... I don't know if it's a good idea for us to go on like this..." Katara peered up into his concerned eyes, his reddened lips. Her voice was a bit huskier than usual. "I'm starting to... get really stupid ideas."
Zuko snorted out a quiet laugh.
She frowned, eyes narrowing. "Funny?"
He shook his head and quieted, then smiled down at her for a moment. That smile faded under her stern gaze and the firebender cleared his throat. "Katara... would you like... um..." He frowned and again glanced off to one side. "Would you like to learn one of the practices of my people?"
The waterbender blinked, a bit blown by the apparent change in subject, and then nodded. "Of course."
A tiny smirk tugged at Zuko's lips. "I should warn you that it's... very intimate."
"Well..." Katara swallowed. "...as long as I don't need more of that foul tea, I don't think that will be a problem."
His gaze sharpened for an instant before he nodded. "You won't." His voice was a purr as he leaned down to lay a soft kiss on her lips. The waterbender wasn't certain, but she thought he might be able to convince her of anything with that tone. His mouth trailed from hers, dotting the skin down her throat with hot kisses and puffs of steamy breath. Katara's head dropped back and she felt his hands gently returning to tug and twirl her nipples.
She cried out when his mouth replaced one hand and looked down into his simmering yellow eyes. Her entire aureole had disappeared into his soft mouth and she could feel the quick flick of his tongue against her hardened nub. Her hips surged forward against him and her hands glided down his bent back, coming to a stop against the base of his spine. Zuko's knees were slightly bent so that he could reach her chest with his mouth and his erection throbbed now against her upper thigh.
Katara was not exactly conscious of deciding to slide her hand around his hip, to trace the borderline where their flesh met with one finger. She wasn't sure if Zuko was aware of drawing his hips back at that subtle hint, either, but when her fingertips lightly slid over the silky flesh of his organ, they were both very aware of the contact.
Zuko's tongue stopped moving and his mouth drew back slightly from her breast. He peered up at her, breathing hard against her damp skin. Katara swallowed again and, after a second's hesitation, curled her fingers around the rigid shaft.
The firebender grunted and his eyes fluttered shut. In her hand, the organ twitched oddly. Fascinated by the resistance, the hardness of this flesh, Katara squeezed.
Zuko's reaction was instant. His hand shot down to grip hers and he looked up at her, yellow eyes perhaps a little desperate. "Katara..." His voice was low, nearly a growl, but he trailed off while glancing back and forth between her eyes and lips, seeming to forget that he had been speaking.
She licked her lips. His eyes followed the motion hungrily. "Did I... tickle you again?"
Zuko blinked. His shoulders were heaving with his breath and his jaw tipped forward. His voice was a growl. "Didn't I tell you? Harder." He squeezed his hand around hers around his erection.
Taking the unsubtle hint, Katara squeezed harder. Zuko groaned and his hips pressed forward, driving his hot flesh through her tight grip. He stopped as the top of her fist came to rest in the downy thatch of hair between his legs and, gritting his teeth, gazed at her intensely.
"This is not helping me focus, Katara."
"You need to focus?"
"I need to not come on your thigh..." He removed his hand from hers, trailing the backs of his knuckles against the soft flesh of her leg. His lips curled upward slightly. "... though it is a very nice thigh."
She smiled at him, and lightened her grip. "Later?"
Zuko stared at her for a second before letting his forehead drop against her chest. "Yes. Agni, yes."
Katara slid her hand along his length, taking a final second to marvel at the unique silkiness of this skin and the unfamiliar yet enticing shape against her palm before letting go.
The firebender sighed and looked back up at her, a smirk spreading across his face. "Until then..." He placed a kiss against her sternum, then another just above her navel. He knelt before her. "...it's my turn."
Katara's brow furrowed as she peered down at him. He was planting a hot, wet kiss against the flesh over the joining of her hip and thigh and the sensation was a little dizzying, but her mind still whirred. She had some inkling of what he might be planning to do - her sister-in-law was a Kyoshi Warrior, after all - but she found herself unsure of how she felt about it. Instead of speaking, she slid her fingers into Zuko's shagging hair and pulled it back from his face until he looked up at her.
His eyes were at first hooded, gleaming and golden with desire and candlelight, but he quickly took in her hesitance and withdrew his mouth from her skin. His lips were thickened by so much kissing, but Zuko spoke very clearly. "Tell me to stop and I will."
Katara smiled and raked her nails over his scalp. His eyes shut and his chin rested lightly against her abdomen until he heard her speak again.
"Don't stop."
Peering up at her, he caught one of her hands in his and pressed a kiss to her palm before returning his attention to her hip. His hand slid down the outside of her thigh to the back of her knee and his mouth latched momentarily to her other hip, tracing the seam of her leg. Katara gasped as his fingers trailed tiny circles against the tender flesh at the back of her knee and she yielded immediately as he tugged her leg up to hook over his shoulder.
"Lean back," he murmured, breath steaming into her pubic hair. The words were unnecessary, as the waterbender's shoulder blades were already pressed to the wall, but the sound of his voice and the heat of his breathing made her squirm and sigh. Zuko's free hand crept up her other leg - warming her ankle, her shin, her knee - as he laid slow kisses on her inner thigh.
Katara, feeling a bit wobbly, braced one hand on a nearby towel rack and burrowed her other hand deeper in the firebender's hair. She was watching him, the pale contrast of his skin against hers, the dark dash of his brow lowered over one glittering eye. With the same hand that had lifted her leg, Zuko lightly traced one side of her bottom where it pressed to the wall before dragging his fingers down to a sensitive spot that made the waterbender hop up on the ball of her foot.
She met his questioning glance and smiled with her parted lips. "Don't stop."
Zuko cupped her mound with firm fingers, smirking against her inner thigh as she shuddered and tightened her grip on the towel rack. Gently, he parted her down-covered lips, baring the slick folds of her flesh to the cool air, to his hot breath. Katara stared down at him, meeting his unflinching yellow gaze as he opened his mouth and laid a hot, wet kiss on that explosive place, what Healers called the Pearl.
"Ooh..." The thick muscles of her thighs flexed to spread that surge of heat. Her head tilted back, her eyes shut, and her mouth hung open, emitting soft gasps and pants as the firebender's tongue swirled, slick and maddening against her. Her hand clenched around the tuft of hair that she had been stroking until Katara realized she might be hurting him.
...should be more careful with the one I...
Though she went on gripping the towel rack as if for dear life, the waterbender released her other hand and worked her nails lightly against Zuko's scalp. She looked back down in time to see his eyes flutter shut. Then, he groaned against her sensitized flesh, a low rumble that quaked and scorched through her, and Katara, gritting her teeth, ground down against his hand, his mouth.
"Zuko..." She bit her lip against the words, but went on again in the next breath as she met his eyes. "I... I need more... please."
Mouth still occupied, the firebender slid a slow finger against her slick inner lips, toying briefly with that flesh before seeking, seeking some deeper contact. He found it.
"Oh Yue! Yes!" Katara's back bowed out from the wall as his digit sank into her body, the sensation of something other entering this place that was hers, hers and no one else's, only heightening her arousal. Her own fingers ran restlessly through his hair and she ground downward as she felt his knuckle press against her outer lips. Zuko began to slowly withdraw his finger and Katara, with a grunt of protest, clamped her inner muscles against him. His finger still easily slid free, but the firebender's mouth stopped its delicious movements as he peered up at her, wide-eyed. His hesitation lasted only for a surprised instant before he set his mouth back to work and sank his finger a little harder into her aching depths.
Head once more falling back, Katara felt the familiar building-up inside her, that rushing wave seeking its crest, but she couldn't quite tip over. The friction of Zuko's finger gliding in and out of her slick, surging channel was wonderful, but he wasn't hitting that perfect spot. She peered down at him again, thinking to perhaps offer some guidance...
...and that was when she saw what the firebender was doing with his free hand.
He knelt before her and, at the apex of his bent legs, his fist pumped slowly up and down the length of his shaft, twisting slightly against the blood-darkened head before sinking down again.
The wave crashed home, sizzling through Katara's extremities and dragging a hoarse cry from her throat.
As she settled, panting, Katara realized she had lost her grip on the towel rack and was pinned between the wall and the kneeling firebender, the one leg she had been standing on having crumpled. Still breathing heavily, she peered down at Zuko's upraised face, his slick chin, his arrogant smirk. His hand was still lightly stroking his organ. The waterbender straightened and lowered her other leg to the floor, though she kept her grip on his hair.
He released himself, but clearly didn't have the grace to look embarrassed. Rather, his face split into a grin. "Do the practices of my people... please you?"
Katara licked her lips and narrowed her eyes, tugging lightly upward on his hair. Zuko braced his arms on the wall to either side of her and slowly rose to his feet. As soon as he was level with her face, the waterbender snaked her free arm around his torso and pulled him into a fierce kiss. Tasting herself on his hot, wet lips was thrilling and she couldn't help but press herself against him, cradle the back of his neck to draw him closer.
Zuko responded immediately, wrapping his own arms around her and settling his shockingly hot organ firmly against her belly. When Katara dragged her blunt nails down his back to the soft flesh of his bottom, he broke the kiss to allow his gasping breath and pressed his hips against her in a slow, hard grind. She gripped his buttock, savoring the press of his body, the flex of his muscles.
His eyes opened and he examined her smirking face before growling, "Well, aren't you getting fierce..." He dragged his steamy palms down her back and bent slightly to cup them beneath the cheeks of her bottom, lifting her against him and again pressing her back to the wall. All the while, he pinned her in place with those sharp yellow eyes.
On instinct, Katara hitched up her legs and wrapped them around him, her heels wedging against the backs of his thighs. His erection was now trapped, hot and obvious, against her mound and the base of her abdomen, but she felt oddly unafraid of this dangerous proximity, this intense temptation. Instead of protesting, she twirled her fingers through the hair on the back of his head and smirked all the wider. "I've always been fierce." She tugged his head down to hers, gazing into his piercing stare as she laid a tender kiss on the corner of his mouth. "Take me to bed, Zuko. It's my turn, now."
He stared into her eyes for another second before meeting her lips with his own and Katara, fingers clenching against his neck, returned the kiss eagerly. She was only really half-aware of the movement as he pushed away from the wall and began an awkward half-stagger across the bathroom.
Occupied as they were, both grunted when Zuko bumped her into the door frame on the way out. The impact did nothing to diminish the steady roll of their kiss, though.
Katara only realized that they had made it to the bed when the firebender removed one hand from her backside to brace himself on the mattress as he lowered her to her back and came down above her, his chest covering hers like a hot, firm blanket. His lips became more demanding as he settled, braced on his elbows with his hands sinking into her hair. There was a sensation sparkling between the heat of his belly against hers and his weight grounding her to the bed – as if she might float away without his anchoring body, his binding mouth.
"Mmf..." After a moment more, the waterbender turned her head to break the kiss and gave his lower back a brief, vigorous rub. "Hey, my turn."
Zuko blinked down at her for a confused second before drawing back, his good cheek going just a bit red. "Oh. Right."
Katara watched the muscles of his body flex as he drew himself off of her and sat to one side on the enormous bed. Catching her staring, Zuko smirked and leaned back on his elbows, stretching one leg out before him and bending his other knee, a pose that seemed strategically planned draw the waterbender's gaze to his swollen organ.
And Katara finally stopped resisting. With her eyes, she traced the length of it where it rested against his belly, the skin dark with surging blood. It was strange to look on this flesh that was utterly alien to her and find that she was compelled to touch it.
…At the same time, though, it seemed oddly improper to just reach out and make free.
She must have stared for a long while, because Zuko began fidgeting under her gaze. When he cleared his throat, his organ jerked oddly. "Um… You don't have to… if you don't want to."
Her eyes cast back up the pale span of Fire Nation chest, ridged with muscle and dotted with scars – especially the star-shaped blast mark that blossomed in the middle – and met Zuko's gaze. The smirk had faded from his face and he seemed awkward, unsure. His unscarred cheek was mildly pink. "I mean, since you haven't, you know, done any of this before… I won't hold it against you if you don't feel comfortable with… it."
Katara raised a wry brow and cast him a mild smirk. "Trust me, Zuko. If I didn't want to, I wouldn't."
The blush had already faded from his skin. His lips quirked in amusement. "Right. Duty according to the Southern Water Tribe…"
"Exactly. According to the Southern Water Tribe…" Katara's smirk deepened and she began a slow crawl toward him. She was close enough to catch his hitch in breathing, the slackening of his jaw as he watched her. In her mind, she pictured herself an arctic tiger-bear stalking its prey. "…it should not be my duty to please you," she said, her voice both a growl and a purr, as she lay down inches from his side. "Nor for you to please me. Rather…" She raised one dusky hand and passed it over the flesh of his belly, just close enough to feel his heat. "…it should be my pleasure to please you… and yours to please me."
Zuko spoke through already-parted lips, his voice a little softer than usual. His eyes had a molten sheen like nothing so much as the glimmering layer of oil that always topped her grandmother's turtle-seal soup. "The- the ways of your people are… most agreeable."
Katara came closer, sliding her fingertips firmly up the ridges and planes of his chest and following the long tendon up from his collarbone to the tender skin behind his ear. She placed a delicate kiss on his scarred cheek, the flesh stiff and glossy against her lips, and then bowed her head slightly to kiss the hard line of his jaw. It was suddenly as if his skin was magnetic; it drew and drew on her mouth until she again came upon his lips, still thickened from their kissing and parted, waiting for her.
The waterbender slung an arm behind the firebender's head and bore him to his pillows, her lips locked against his in a hot, wet slide of flesh. Zuko's arms curled around her and his hands burrowed in her hair, stroking up her back and neck. Laying half on top of him as she was, Katara quickly became very aware of the velvety heat of his organ brushing against her hip. She began sliding her palm down his throat, down his chest. Under the slow sweep of her hand, his nipple hardened, his torso expanded and collapsed with his breathing. His belly was at first soft before the muscles of his abdomen hardened in a shock under her fingers and Katara thought of a wild ostrich-horse, startled by the strangeness of a human's touch.
She pulled out of the kiss and smiled at him as her fingers traced lightly around his navel. Zuko's eyes bulged and he grabbed her hand with one of his to still the tickling fingers. He met her eyes, a frown taking over his mouth, but the severe expression faded under her warm gaze. "No… sensations that tickle," he declared, though his soft tone exposed the half-heartedness of that proclamation.
"Duly noted." Katara placed a delicate kiss on his chin and let her hand flatten against his belly beneath the weight of his warm fingers. "Show me what you like, Zuko. I want to see."
The firebender's mouth hung slightly open for the brief moment it took him to recover his senses. Then, hesitantly, he slid his palm down to one hip. Katara laid her head on his shoulder to more comfortably watch and followed his motion, her own hand still tucked lightly under his. The skin of Zuko's chest brushed her cheek more rapidly as his breathing quickened.
Her fingers followed his as they traced up the outside of his bent leg as far as he could reach, then slowly descended his inner thigh. Katara's own breathing sped up, pressing her breasts again and again against his side. She let his hand lead down into the black thatch of his pubic hair and watched as he combed his fingers from his abdomen to the base of his rigid organ. When he gripped it, his fist was tight, the muscles in his forearm bulging and rippling as he slowly tugged along its length to the smooth head. Then, he twisted his palm around the last inches of himself before sinking his tight grip back to the veined base.
He repeated the motion several times and Katara watched, fascinated. It looked like it should hurt, like a body part that red and swollen couldn't be comfortably handled with that level of force. Yet, Zuko went on, his agonizingly slow pace obviously under perfect control.
Then, he stopped. "Katara?"
She lifted her head and turned to face him, not quite managing to shut her gaping mouth. His yellow eyes darted over her heated expression for only an instant before he groaned, brow furrowing, and Katara felt rather than saw his hand repeat its motion, this time a bit quicker than before. Without looking, she sank her fingers into the down covering his groin and scraped her nails against the flesh beneath as she had seen him do.
Zuko shuddered and glanced back and forth between her face and her hand.
Katara licked her dry lips and, smirking, lowered them to the nearer of his flat nipples. His eyes locked on her mouth as it opened to allow her teeth to lightly rasp his flesh.
"Uhn!" That sound, that stifled grunt that concealed itself so well between the firebender's suddenly labored breaths, made Katara's mouth water. Her inner muscles clenched and she slid one leg over Zuko's, dragging it up until the sparse hair above his knee tickled her inner thigh. She slid her fingers around the very base of his erection and peeled her mouth from his chest to speak and to smirk.
"Now watch me."
His mouth hung slightly open and, though he said nothing, his eyes glimmered like something seen through heat. Katara looked down to see that his hand had fallen away from his throbbing erection and lingered on the bed by his hip. Unthinkingly breathing through her mouth, she rigidly wrapped her fingers around the thick base of Zuko's cock and began a slow stroke to his end. His body gave a tiny, reflexive jerk against hers and he groaned from his belly, his breath immediately coming faster.
Watching the slow, firm motion of her own hand, Katara couldn't stop herself from squirming to feel the slickness of her own organs, the lingering throb there. She hitched her leg a little higher up Zuko's thigh and, to her delight, he rolled to face her, pressing his leg between hers. When she looked up, she found him intently watching her face.
"Is this okay?" he asked.
Katara sank her fist again to the base of his organ and watched his eyes narrow, his chin tilt upward. "This is… really good," she said, allowing his leg to press farther between hers. "Is it… okay for you?"
"Mmm. Oh yeah… Yeah, this is… really good. Ah…" His lips pulled into a loose smile as her palm dragged again down his length. Still, he watched her. Katara noticed that, while one of his hands was still nested in her hair, his free hand now perched on his hip like a hesitant bird. "Is it… Would it be okay if I touched you?"
The waterbender smiled and leaned closer to lightly kiss him. "That would be good."
So he did. At first, he simply stroked her jaw to draw her back into a deeper kiss. Then, his fingers trailed down her throat to cup her breast, to roll her nipple beneath his thumb. Katara drew back slightly from the kiss to gasp, then sped the motion of her hand.
It was as if that tiny acceleration was the bucket of water that burst the dam. Zuko gasped and began to press against the rhythm of her strokes with slow thrusts of his hips. His hand roamed down her side to the swell of her thigh and his hot yellow eyes locked with her blue ones.
"Please. Oh, Katara," he groaned, face lined with the strain. "Please!"
Not sure what else to do, the waterbender sped her hand, marveling at the way his entire body seemed to come alive, the muscles down his belly rippling as he worked his hips. His breath puffed out rapidly and his hand on her thigh spread, tightening and relaxing rhythmically. Katara propped herself up on her elbow and lightly nuzzled his ear.
"Tell me what you want, Zuko."
His breath blasting against her neck made her back arch. "You. I want you. I want…" His fingers twitched against her thigh. "I want to feel you."
Katara, panting a bit herself, hitched her leg higher up his thigh until her knee rested at his hip. She spoke with the soft lobe of his ear between her teeth. "Touch me."
He groaned, his hand swiftly gliding between her thighs to stroke her slick outer folds, to sink a finger into her wet opening. Still a bit hypersensitive from her orgasm, Katara clenched her inner muscles around that thrilling other and gasped against his ear.
"Oh, Zuko…"
The firebender growled and sank his finger deeper as he thrust his hips forward more rapidly. The gesture was not lost on the waterbender, who began a steady grind of her own body against his hand so that the heel of his palm would rub that place, that explosive place.
Caught up in her own body's sensations as she quickly approached a second climax, Katara began losing her rhythm. With a frustrated growl, she abandoned the twist at the end of her stokes to go faster, harder. Zuko's velvety flesh was hot against her palm and his breaths pooled, steamy against her collarbone and punctuated by his quick, suddenly desperate grunts.
"Oh, Agni! Ah! Katara!"
It was the sound of his voice that launched her to her peak, this time. It was lower, raspier than usual, and buzzed down her sternum like a wave building as it rushed the beach. Her inner muscles clamped down and Zuko gave a final, unintelligible groan as he found his own release seconds later.
His seed came in a hot rush and, though she didn't see it, she could feel it, from the throb of his sex to the sudden slickness in her hand through which his organ slid a few times as he slowed and finally, stopped. Katara stilled as well and lay listening as their breathing quieted, as her heart returned to a normal speed.
Though she was very sleepy, the waterbender was still aware of Zuko's organ softening in her hand. She peered down, marveling at how much smaller it had become, at the transformative power of blood. With a surreptitious glance at the firebender – who appeared to have passed out with his mouth open against her chest – she gave the organ a little squeeze. It was remarkably soft. In fact, Katara wasn't even sure she had a body part of comparable squishiness. Fascinated, she squeezed it a second time, then lightly prodded it with her index finger.
"Do all Southern Water Tribe women exploit post-orgasmic lethargy to grope their men?" Zuko's voice was soft against her skin and Katara peered down to find him watching her with one yellow eye. The other was still closed, as if half of him might continue sleeping while he had this conversation. "…or is it just you?"
"I… I was just… curious." She blinked, then slowly peeled her fingers from his flesh.
Zuko opened his other eye and smiled faintly up at her. "I didn't mean to complain… but I am… really tired." With that, he gently slid his finger from her sensitive folds, lightly stroking her downy hair as he drew his hand from between her legs. Katara watched, then, as he prodded the edge of a damp patch on the sheet between them and emitted a soft laugh.
"What's so funny?"
He glanced up at her, his good cheek going just a bit pink. "Oh… it's just… this… rule I have… It doesn't matter." He offered her a big, hopeful grin, and changed the subject. "Want to, uh, move to a clean part of the bed?"
Deciding she was too weary to inquire about non-mattering rules, Katara smiled and clambered over him, taking note of the way his eyes followed her bare skin. She settled under the covers near the center of the bed and watched as Zuko followed her, burrowing very close beside her. For a long moment, they lay silent, side-by side, and Katara blinked up at the ceiling. Finally, she turned her head.
"Goodnight kiss?"
Zuko's eyes glistened in the light of the last few guttering candles as he inched closer.
The Fire Lord strode from his chambers shortly after dawn in a hurry, a frown already creasing his brow.
Really, there should have been no reason for him to be angry before even entering his office today. Not only had he spent an amazing night with Katara, he had gotten the first solid block of sleep he'd had in weeks and had awakened to the tickle of her fragrant hair, to the warm curve of her very naked body pressed against his. By all reason, he should have still been in his bed.
But no. No sooner had he kissed the waterbender awake, Lin knocked at the door with an urgent meeting request and managed to march him out of the room in record time. Katara was probably still seething in the bathroom.
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and silently hoped this wasn't Lin's initial strike in a war of retribution. It had seemed like there was an actual emergency that he needed to deal with – some noble who had arrived in the night and needed an audience with the Fire Lord to impart some vital information – but Lin was capable of making a lot of unimportant things seem precisely the opposite, so it was difficult to tell.
At last, he strode through his office door, let it bang shut behind him, and stood, staring blankly at his guest.
"Zuko." Her voice was low, perfectly controlled as she turned to face him… but then, everything about her was always under perfect control. From her sleek black hair to her unwrinkled clothes to her pale, doll-like face, there was nothing about Mai that was the least bit out of her control. "We need to talk."
AN: Okay, so a lot of people were more for the 'waiting until marriage' option. I was really tempted to have them spend the night lying next to each other in agonizing chastity, but then I thought, 'Gee, my darling readers have been waiting since, like, the dawn of time. They may appreciate some seriously lemony deliciousness as a sort of a "sorry I suck" present.' Also, I have trouble imagining two teenagers who like each other getting naked together, spending the night in the same bed, and not doing anything. Maybe I was just a very bad teenager. :) Oh, the shame. Point being, if I end up chucking the sexytimes in this chapter, I'll probably take out the ritual bathing bit, as well... any thoughts from my brilliant readers?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it enough to eventually forgive me. *is ashamed*