Katara

I can do this. I can do this. I… can…

I turn away from the door.

Then I turn back to it.

Then I turn away again.

What is wrong with me tonight? I have done crazier things than this! I have challenged a master waterbender, I have defeated a master bloodbender, I am as fearless as it gets!

(So why am I so afraid to ask a simple, tiny, flimsy favor to a friend?)

My fingers fly to my lips.

(Well, I wouldn't consider a matter like this "simple"…) But still, it's just a favor!

I look at Zuko's bedroom door through the corner of my eye, the wood is perfectly carved, it almost seems like it is taunting me to knock once and for all. I want to yell at the stupid thing that I'll do it when I'm ready!

(Okay, there's something wrong if I suddenly want to yell at a door.)

My face lands in the palm of my hands. If I'm being rational, then I know this entire idea is pure nonsense and that I should just go to sleep. If I'm being rational, I know that there's no space to worry about my love life when we are in the mere center of a war. If I'm being rational, I know that this kind of issues are not solved with ideas like this one, and that they bring more trouble than the ones I already have.

I'm not being rational. I do know enough to know that girls my age rarely are rational when it comes to boy-trouble.

"Ugh!" I growl. "Why is it so difficult to be a teenager?"

I almost scream out of shock when the door opens by itself.

"Katara?" Zuko stands in the doorframe, one foot almost stepping out of the room. "I thought I had heard someone out here."

He could hear me through an oak-tree door?

"Zuko! Hey!" I sort of wave, sort of smiling. "I… uh… was just… uh… Do you mind if I come in?"

I'm pretty sure that I look as awkward as I feel while I half-pray that he'll say no, and half-hope he'll say yes to get over with this.

"Um… sure."

He gives me space to come in as he holds the door open, I don't turn back until I hear it close. It gives me time to catch a glance of Zuko's Ember Island room, it's big and minimalistic and well-illuminated. The walls seem bright orange with the light from the lamp.

"So, what's up?" Now, Zuko looks completely unaware of my intentions, oblivious as only Zuko can be.

"I… uh… wanted to ask you for a favor."

I'm not diving in yet.

"Sure, what is it?"

"I… uh…" I'm not diving in yet. "I… wanted you to kiss me," I say. "If that's… not so much to ask."

I dived in.

Darn!

Zuko

"What?"

That's my first reaction after blinking – those were the only two things I could muster after recovering from seeing black.

"I…," Katara trails off, appearing like she would rather bend a water tentacle that dragged her to the depths of the ocean instead of standing here, "It's for… There is… something I want to see."

"Something like what?" I'm surprised by how calm my voice comes out. Maybe it's just that I'm still too shocked to properly act on it.

"Well…," Katara's head ducks in embarrassment, "There is… this boy, who likes me."

"Uh-huh." The words leave my mouth too automatically.

"But I don't how I feel about him."

"Mm-hmmm."

"And tonight we had a conversation about us," Katara speaks more fluently now after getting far into the explanation. "But it didn't turn out well." She starts pacing around my room as she keeps going, letting the emotions guide her.

"It was like, we already kissed once, okay? But I'm not sure what was it that I felt then! I mean, I've only kissed one boy before of him, how am I supposed to know what I should feel on a real kiss? Shouldn't I feel something special? Something that differentiate it from other kisses? I don't have enough references for that! So how am I supposed to tell when I do feel that something special or when I don't feel it?"

"Katara, Katara." I step in front of her and gently hold her back by her shoulders. "Calm down, I get it."

She sighs and lets her face fall in the palm of her hand. Her hair cascades around her shoulders, it shines with the light of the room's lamp.

"Sorry," she mutters, "It's just that all of this is getting to me."

"I understand," I say, "but… you think kissing me will help you to solve it?"

"I don't know. I thought that, if I kissed another person, it would help me to tell better if I did feel something different than to other kisses."

Silence.

Um…

"It's a stupid plan; I know!" she admits, irritated at my questioning look. "I just need to get over with it, okay?"

"Okay, okay," I consent, placing my palms in front of me to ease her, "but… I don't know. Wouldn't it be… awkward if we kissed?"

"No. Well, maybe." She hides her face in her palms again. "I don't know, I already told you I don't know about these things."

Her hands abruptly fly to cover her mouth. Her eyes are wide and bewildered.

She removes her hands just enough for her words to come out understandable: "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yes."

She groans. "Why is this so difficult?"

The vivid flashbacks of Mai and Jin appear in front of my eyes.

"It's even more difficult than what you're making it seem," I mutter.

"Have you kissed girls before?" she asks me, innocently.

I feel my cheeks burning with a dismayed blush. Who does she takes me for? "Of course, I have!"

"Really?" Katara sounds fascinated. And a little disbelieving. It makes me frown. "Who? Do I know them?"

"No."

(That's only half-true, though.)

"Then what are their names? Where did you meet them?"

"Weren't we talking about you?"

"Is it even more than one girl?"

"Can we just stop talking about how many girls I've kissed?" I exclaim, gritting my teeth a little.

"Touchy-touchy," she smirks, satisfied. "Well, if you have only kissed few girls, it makes me feel a little better after I have only kissed two boys."

I stare at her, and her slightly sad smile, and lost, dreamy gaze.

Then I roll my eyes.

And then I sigh resigned. "I have kissed only two girls, too."

"Really?" She gives a little excited jump up and she claps her hands together, but then it looks like she thought better right after. "Oh. Sorry. I mean…"

"It's okay," I say.

"So…" she trails off once more, but this time more relaxed, "If we have only kissed two people each on the past, we could be each other's third kiss! You know, for it to not look like we have kissed too few people."

The idea still doesn't seem like the best one, but I guess I'm just weary for talking about kissing, and girls, and cheesy love confessions and... I shrug, "Okay."

Katara squeals and claps her hands again.

"Okay," I repeat. "Um… Close your eyes."

She complies trustingly.

I step closer to her and – very carefully – place my hands on her hips. (She feels smaller under my grip.) I lean in looking straight at her mouth. Her lips are full and defined, with her bottom lip only slightly fuller than the upper one, it's something that I have noticed before.

"Are you chickening out?"

Her question startles me and I lift my gaze to her eyes, which are still closed. Her mouth curves momentarily in a brief smirk.

"I am no chicken," I assure, and lean in once again.

I have also noticed that Katara's lips are slightly clearer than the rest of her skin. They're the color of the petals of a desert's flower…

And before I have time to react, Katara's hands pull at my jaw and she kisses me.

Katara

He thinks too much.

Zuko

Katara's lips are soft as she tastes mine. They easily, yet slowly, mold our mouths together.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but Katara's actually good.

I mean, I – It's not that I was – Never mind.

But she feels confident as she kisses me (not with tongue but with movement) and she holds my jaw firmly but gently to still me in place. For a moment, the idea of telling her that she shouldn't worry about me stepping away crosses my mind, but that would mean to stop kissing her, so I push the thought away and command myself to not think about it ever again.

Suddenly, I realize that Katara's the one that's taking the lead of the kiss, so I kiss back harder and more thoroughly, pulling our bodies closer together. Katara responds by wrapping her arms around my neck and digging her fingers in my hair. My arms lock around her waist to erase any space separating us.

I'm not sure how much time we stay like this, but the kissing continues to grow. It becomes more intense with both of us fighting and sharing the lead. We take only brief gasps of air.

Katara's hands continue to dig on my hair and stroke my neck. Her palms are smooth too, even with the small scratches and callous from the different battles for fighting the war; they feel warm and familiar to me… the feeling makes me kiss her deeper chasing that euphoria I felt under her touch. She gasps. Her fists clenches on my hair and she pulls lightly at it.

I press her against the wall. (I was wrong when I thought there was no space left between us before, now there's truly no space left.) My hands return to her sides as her arms snake from my neck to place themselves on my chest.

Katara

I never thought Zuko would kiss like this. So powerfully but tenderly. I mean… It's not like I was imagining how his kisses would be like, I just… didn't expect it.

And I'm not complaining either, it feels good to… be with him.

It feels good to have his arms around me, our height difference feels good to make our mouths to reach for each other. It makes me think about when I asked Aunt Wu if that powerful bender that I would marry would be tall.

In my dreams, when I used to imagine myself kissing that powerful bender, it felt a little like this. I imagined that mysterious, faceless bender to be muscly and tall, like Zuko is now; and that when he kissed me, I would feel like the center of his universe.

Granted that I haven't have time to dream plenty lately, but if it wasn't because I know that this is real, I would think it was another one of my childish dreams with that bender.

But I know that this is real, for the weight of Zuko's hands on my body. For the heat of his skin increasing the more we kiss. It's comforting, it makes my skin prickle with the sense of liveliness it gives me.

It's addictive.

I can feel Zuko's heart hammering inside his chest – (his broad, hard chest) – I can perceive it like it was beating against my own chest, because it is. That's how close our bodies are right now, that's how close Zuko's pressing me against him. (Did I mention that he has a super broad and hard chest?) (Whoa!)

Zuko

Katara suddenly rises the pace of the kiss, clinging to my shirt. She's kissing me intensely, with the consuming force of a forest fire. I feel my own skin heating up and kiss her back just as fiercely.

The entire kiss is turning messy and needy, I'm still chasing and feeding myself from the sensation of Katara's closeness and her tact and her breath and the sound of her broken gasps before kissing me again.

She tightens her grasp on my shirt and pulls me even closer to her. I'm blazing.

Katara

I slide my hands under the flannels of Zuko's shirt, reveling in the softness and the heat of his skin.

It's addictive.

He makes a brief sound that's like half a moan, half a gasp. I caress his chest and stomach gently – before tearing his shirt open and pulling it off of him. He follows my lead and helps me take it off without separating his lips from mine.

The warmth of his skin gets to me, trespassing my clothes. It's like we were both burning together in a giant flame. It's like Zuko was the flame, a whole fire surrounding me, and I was rejoicing in the heat and the excitement and the life force of it all.

Zuko's pecs are firm and definite. His abs rub against my exposed stomach.

I move my hands to his shoulders and sink my nails in them. Hard.

Zuko

I groan, bite and suck on the fullness of Katara's bottom lip, absorbing the pain from her nails in my flesh.

Katara

My nails release Zuko's shoulders and dig on his back, dragging down the whole length of it to his waist. Again. And again.

I keep sliding them down the more ardently he kisses me, burying his hand on my hair, holding the back of my head as he pushes his tongue down my throat. (I can't breathe; I don't want to.) His other hand caresses my back, drawing my spine slowly with the tip of his burning fingers; I can't help the shiver that runs down my body and the gasp that escapes my lips. Zuko sucks on my bottom lip again until it throbs.

His fingers now trace the hem of my top just as slowly, but hesitantly, and then slither underneath it.

I gasp again – but this time a little surprised more than anything – and step back.

"Sorry," Zuko's voice is a faint but excited sigh, like when we are tired in the middle of battle but high on the emotion of it, "Do you want me to – "

"No, no," I say, panting for a little more air, "It's okay."

I untie my top and take it off before kissing Zuko again. (The fabric of my sarashi is even thinner than the one of my off-shoulder silk top.)

Zuko

Katara's breast are perfectly round, I can tell for how they are pressed against my pecs.

I keep my hands on her lower back, though; I don't want to make her feel pressured or like she should do something she doesn't want to do.

For a short-lived moment, I think about telling her we should stop before things get out of control. Then, she caresses my torso and her fingers flutter over my stomach. Then, I think about stopping us again.

Urgh! It's a contradiction!

I really don't want to stop kissing her, but I also don't want us to do anything we aren't sure about. True that I'm mostly worried about Katara – I don't want her to get hurt or feel bad with herself – but I also really don't want to stop kissing her!

Ugh! What is wrong with me? I thought I had more self-control than this!

Apparently I didn't, because if that was the case, then I would be able to slow our kiss to not make things worse than what they already are. I would be able to focus on more than Katara's body and curves and smell. And I wouldn't lose major brain function when she takes off her bra as well as her top.

I can't handle this.

I lock my arms around her again, pushing her against me until I feel our ribs would fuse for us to share a heart. She clings to my neck against and surrounds my waist with her legs, I carry her up to my bed letting us fall together without breaking the kiss.

"Katara," I whisper dragging my lips down her neck. "Katara..."