3 - Cuddling for Warmth
The storm was not especially bad, according to Katara, but Zuko still found the howling wind and driving snow deeply unnerving. He'd been in the South Pole for three months and this was the first real storm he'd seen, let alone been stuck outside during. They'd been out surveying a possible location for a new cross-bending center, someplace where the bedrock nudged up through the permafrost so that Earthbenders could be accommodated, when the weather took a sudden turn.
Katara was not worried. She Waterbent a small ice hut up to protect them and launched right in to telling him about all the times in her childhood when blizzards lasting weeks had meant she and her family were trapped inside, and all the games they had played and stories they had told. Zuko found himself enchanted by the way she told him these things, just as he always was. She had a natural charisma when she spoke that made people lean in and take everything she said at face value, and while this made some people—people who didn't know her well—leery, Zuko knew that everything she said was sincere, and that's what gave her such power. He privately thought that she would make a far better Ambassador than him.
He couldn't tell how much time passed in the dim whiteness of their impromptu shelter, but it felt like a while, and he realized that night might be falling soon. They had brought food and obviously they could easily get water, but Zuko's thoughts naturally gravitated to the problem of heat.
"Is there anything for a fire?" he asked.
"A fire?" she repeated. "Why would we need a fire?"
"To… stay warm?" he said, puzzled.
"Oh," she laughed. "Oh, no, I think it's time to introduce you to one of the most time-honored Water Tribe traditions." She said up straight, adopting a very serious expression. Zuko, always eager to learn more about her culture, straightened up too. "When ambient environmental temperature falls below a certain threshold, in order for the maintenance of internal physiological warmth, the proper course of action is for the cosharing of existing heat so that individuals are able to split the caloric burden of sustaining it."
Zuko stared at her for a second. "Are you saying… hugging?"
"Cuddling is the technical term." She was trying to keep her serious facade up, but her eyes were getting crinkles at the corners and her lips were pressed suspiciously together.
"And this is a significant Water Tribe tradition, is it?"
"Oh, yes, very."
They managed to keep straight faces for another five seconds, but then they both dissolved into laughter.
"I mean, if you're okay with it," Katara said once they settled down. A smile still hovered at her mouth, but her fingers twined around each other nervously. They hadn't yet totally decided what they were—eleven months of letters that never quite said love and now three months of dancing between flirting and their formal political conversations while never quite getting into the mutual attraction they both knew was there—meant that Zuko was never fully sure what mode they were in, whether he should bring it up or not. But this was a pretty unmistakable invitation. He swallowed thickly.
"I'm okay with it," he said, and the way she blushed and smiled made up for all the butterflies in his stomach.
She shuffled-crawled her way over to him, and he nervously, awkwardly, eagerly opened his arms to her. She settled against his chest with a little sign, and it was like his heart took flight in his chest and soared over the ocean of his happiness.
They passed a little while in silence, except for the wind whipping outside, until she spoke again. "There's another tradition that may interest you."
"Oh?"
"The issue of keeping one's face warm with clothing has never been satisfactorily solved. It is often the only part of the body left exposed, and is therefore at heightened risk of frostbite and other such afflictions."
"Hm," he deadpanned, even though his heart was racing. "It seems the only logical thing, then, would be to…"
"Indeed. The technical term for this one is 'kissing'."
"How innovative the Water Tribes are."
She giggled, and leaned up so she could look at him. "If you're okay with it," she said again, only it was more of a whisper.
"Yeah," Zuko managed, with significant difficulty. He couldn't remember what his mouth usually felt like. How did he usually set his lips? But then she leaned in and it didn't matter anymore. The blizzard could last forever for all he cared.
A/N
Yaaayyy dumb excuses to snuggle and smooch!
Tomorrow, bending practice!
E.I. signing out