Chapter 3: Communication is key, and whatnot

Katara sighs as the spray of freezing water hits her in her shower. It's 5:30 in the morning, and the sun rays are feebly rising towards the sky. There's no reason to get up this early, of course, apart from habit. She gathers shampoo in her palms and rubs it against her hair until the sweet smell of sea kelp, avocado oil, and white lily permeates her tiny bathroom. This is her third year of being an early riser; by nature, she would sleep in until noon and finally go to bed well past midnight, but medical school irons those habits right out.

She relishes the feel of the cold spray trickling down her scalp, pulling up shivers from her, before stepping out of her shower and wrapping herself in a warm, blue towel.

Today is Saturday, and there is nothing on the agenda apart from calling Suki. Her exams have made her time scarce, but Katara has flat-out begged to talk to Suki with the promise of juicy gossip. She must have sensed the desperation in Katara's voice because she had cancelled her morning study group. So Katara spends time lying on her bed, allowing her hair to dry naturally, and skimming through some book or another that has been gifted to her. Next to her, her phone pings eagerly, and she picks it up. Three unread messages from Dr. Zuko Sozin.

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Out for a morning run.

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Ran by this place. Do you remember it?

Dr. Zuko Sozin: 1 image attached

Katara opens up the image to see the dive bar Toph's birthday party was held in. The Blue Spirit, the neon sign reads.

Biting her lip against a smile, she puts her book aside to reply.

Katara: how could I forget, that's where you abducted me

Dr. Zuko Sozin: You were dying to come with me. I could tell.

Katara: could you? idk, I was having a great time with that guy

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Don't lie, naughty girl. You don't even remember his name.

Point taken.

Dr. Zuko Sozin: And what does 'idk' mean?

Her grin spreads across her face.

Katara: I don't know

Dr. Zuko Sozin: You'd better figure it out, then.

At this, she laughs, imagining his cheeky smile.

Katara: very funny. btw (by the way), why did you put your name as Dr. Zuko Sozin in my phone?

Dr. Zuko Sozin: But that's my name. What else should I have put?

Katara: idk, maybe Zuko? i put my name as Katara on your phone

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Yes, but I've changed it.

Katara: to what?

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Student no. 7.

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Kidding. I've changed it to 'Kitten'.

Katara: ... is that a joke?

Dr. Zuko Sozin: Not in the slightest.

Heat flares up in her, equal parts aroused at the nickname and annoyed that maybe he does have other students' phone numbers, before she catches herself and throws her phone towards the far corner of her bed in irritation. This was supposed to be a short break away from Zuko, but here she is, talking to him again. Her call with Suki cannot come fast enough. She pulls on her workout clothes and laces her running shoes, stepping out into the feeble summer morning. As she begins her run, Suki's name flashed on her screen, and she is soon picking up the phone.

"Hi Suki," Katara calls, turning the corner and running past the series of cheap eats situated in her neighbourhood.

"Hi Katara," Suki's voice sounds out, tinny, with the sound of frying in the background. "I'm just making breakfast: bacon. You know how you can't wake Sokka up without any."

Katara laughs. "How are you two?"

"Oh good, just exams, you know. We were pretty bummed to miss out on Toph's party. How was it?"

Katara can't think of anything other than falling asleep tucked up to Dr. Sozin. "It was nice."

"Uh oh. I know that tone, Katara. Is this the gossip I'd been promised?"

Katara runs towards a park that is separated from her neighbourhood by a river, taking a deep breath and ripping off the proverbial bandage. "Yeah. I've, uh, been seeing someone."

"Oh, congrat - "

"But it's just casual. Just sex."

"Well, that's - "

"And it's my professor."

The line goes silent for a while.

"Hello?" Katara pauses on the bridge over the river. "Suki?"

"Sorry," Suki says, a tremble in her voice. "What did you say?"

Katara blushes. "It's no big deal. I told you, it's just casual."

"Yes, but casual sex? With your professor? Who are you and what have you done to Katara?"

"Shut up," Katara mutters. "I need advice."

"Okay, sorry," Suki replies, out and out laughing now. "What's the problem?"

"Well. That's the problem. It's just casual sex."

"So?"

"So, I've never had casual sex before. What does it mean? Someone else asked me out, does casual mean exclusive?"

Katara hears the clinking of cutlery being pulled out before Suki answers. "Casual doesn't really mean anything unless you talk it over with the guy. But if he's not saying anything about exclusivity, then yes, I'd say you can see other people. Best to take it slowly with him. It's probably good for you as well, Katara, you've gone from Hanh to Jet really quickly, and then you've been living like a monk."

"I've been busy," Katara protests. "Med school, remember that thing?"

"Agree to disagree. Point being, talk it over with the guy. Communication is key, and whatnot. Who's the guy anyway? How old is he?"

"Um, maybe forty? His name is Professor Sozin."

A pause. "Oh, damn... I just looked him up. How come I got all the ugly professors? You should definitely have hot, casual, once-in-a-lifetime sex with - "

"Oh shit, Suki, I have to go." Katara's heart leaps in her throat as she sees someone jogging towards her.

"Why? Is hot professor guy there?"

"Yep."

"Can I say hi?"

"Absolutely not."

Suki laughs. "Fine. Remember what I said," she calls, just as Dr. Sozin reaches the beginning of the small bridge, "talk to him!"

"Bye, Suki!" Katara ends the call abruptly as Dr. Sozin comes to a standstill in front of her. He's got his hair tied up again, and he's divested himself of his glasses and his top. His muscles and tattoos are on display for everyone in the park to see, covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

"Up so early, Katara?"

Katara manages to drag her eyes back to his smirking face. "Yeah. Habit. I'm in med school and all the teachers insist on having their classes early."

"Sounds like a nightmare. Do you live around here?"

"No, I live by Ash Street, near Tsurai's Noodle Shop."

"Oh." Dr. Sozin crosses his arms, amused. "The place with the really good cabbage noodle soup. Good to know."

The memory of The Blue Spirit surfaces, when she had tried to describe where she lived, and Katara pulls a face.

Dr. Sozin is already checking his watch. "Listen, I have to go. Got lots of work to do today. What are you up to tonight?"

"I don't know, watching a movie." Researching how to have a casual relationship.

"Come over to mine. I'll make dinner."

Katara shouldn't. They should establish boundaries first. But the sun is bouncing off his muscles, and his lips are pulled up into an attractive smile, so she nods, then watches as he runs past her.

Only when he's out of eyesight does she turn back to the river and smack herself on the forehead.

Well done, Katara, she thinks. What an idiot.

Evening barrels its way through with surprising alacrity, and Katara double checks her phone for the address that Dr. Sozin had sent her.

She's standing outside what she thinks is his apartment building. It's in the affluent district of Caldera City, near the palace itself, and Katara figures that members of the royal family - she realises with a start that Dr. Sozin is technically a prince - probably all live near the palace. She takes a steadying breath, having rehearsed multiple times what she wants to say to Dr. Sozin when she sees him. She enters the building, passes by the guards, citing Zuko's name, gets on the elevator, and finds herself outside his door. She rings the doorbell with some trepidation, and soon enough, the door swings open.

On the other side of it is Dr. Sozin, whose hair is half pulled up. He's wearing a pair of dark jeans and a plaid red shirt over a white tee. She thinks he may have dressed up for her; she stifles a smile.

Zuko's eyes are flicking over her hungrily as well. She's got on a short, flowing, pink summer dress, and she's taken time to put on makeup.

"Don't you look nice," he purrs, pulling the door wider to let her in. Immediately, the smell of food hits her, and her stomach rumbles in response.

He laughs. "Hungry?"

She nods, walking over to the dining table by the large windows. From here, she has a view of the sprawling city. "Wow," Katara breathes. "I never really got a chance to appreciate how nice this apartment is, last time."

He chuckles again, handing her a glass of wine and setting the food down on the table. "I guessed."

They sit, and Katara looks up to where he's watching her with an amused smile. He opens his mouth to start conversation, but Katara beats him to it before she loses her gumption.

"I think we need to talk about a few things."

Zuko raises his eyebrow. "Sounds serious."

She nods. "It is. I think we need to establish ground rules."

He leans back on his chair, propping an elbow against the top of the backrest. "Go ahead."

She takes a deep breath, raises a finger. "First. No pathology talk during... this, and no this during pathology."

He nods his head. "Agreed. I thought we were doing that anyway?"

"Best to formalise it," she reasons, like the good medical student that she is, before raising her middle finger to join her index. "Second. Nobody on campus should know."

He looks off to the side, annoyed. "If that's what you want."

"It is. Third." Her ring finger is raised up. "I think we need to discuss what casual means."

He leans forward at this, arms crossed on the dining chair. "It means just sex, Katara."

"Well, yes, but does it include seeing other people?"

A beat. He clears his throat, then says, quietly, "Do you want to see other people, Katara?"

"Well, no, but I'd like to know where we stand in the future if someone asks me out."

"That Haru boy already asked you out," he replies, irritated.

"And you saw me turn him down," she counters, crossing her arms. "I only want something casual right now, and Haru wanted something serious."

He studies her, as though searching for a deeper truth in her eyes. She fights the urge to drop his gaze, and he finally picks up his cutlery. "Whatever you want is fine with me. Dinner?" he says, as though he's deemed the conversation as complete.

She lets the topic slide, digging into her own meal. They talk about everything else, and Katara thinks to her during the small moments of silence that she'll take his word for it. It'll be fine with him.

Later, Zuko pulls her to him as they lie down on his sofa. He pulls a blanket over the two of them and Katara sets up a movie, allowing herself to get lost in the convoluted and inane humour of it all.

Behind her, Zuko has his face pressed into her neck, making her squirm when he huffs laughs against the sensitive skin. His left arm is wrapped around her torso, and his right arm pillows his head. She feels relaxed and sleepy, having changed into a tank top and shorts for bed a while back. Zuko has on only a pair of briefs, but when Katara had reached for him earlier, he only shook his head and gave her a mysterious smile.

Now, she understand what the smile means. Through the haze of sleepiness, she feels his hand creep down from her stomach to tease her pussy briefly through her shorts, before slipping under her waistband and cupping it. She whines and cants her hips against his hand, but he only shushes her with a quick kiss to her hair. He leaves the hand there, and Katara finally stops squirming, focussing once more on the television, despite the heat building slowly between her thighs. At one point, he shifts his palm, and his hot chuckle against her neck means he's noticed how wet she's becoming.

"Keep watching," he whispers, before she hears some shuffling. She tries hard to obey what he's saying, and doesn't turn around, despite her curiosity. Soon after, he taps the side of her hip and she lifts her hips up, allowing him to pull her shorts and panties aside. She hears them drop to the ground, but before she can fully concentrate on that, she feels the thick head of his cock nestling itself between her folds.

She gasps and tries to rock against him, but he holds her still once again. He sinks in slowly, letting out a low groan, and she abandons all pretence of caring about the movie, whimpering and pushing back against him, until he's finally seated inside of her, huge and twitching.

He pulls her closer again, his grip solid as iron around her, and drops a few kisses to her neck. He hushes her again.

"Shh, Katara, let me just feel you like this. You're so warm and wet, and you feel so good around me. I don't want to fuck you yet, I just want to feel you, is that okay?"

She nods and he pushes his hand under her top to play softly with a nipple. Soon, she gets lost in the hazy pleasure of it all, slipping back into a relaxed state while the movie plays in the background, and his hand reaches down to rub her clit lazily. Half awake, she feels herself heading to a slow-building orgasm she's never successfully given herself, feeling the orgasm trickle through her leisurely. The energy of it saps the last of her consciousness from her, and she falls asleep.

Later, she wakes up to Zuko carrying her into his room. As he deposits her on the bed, she notices that they're both naked, and he's still hard. He smiles at her, predatory.

"Did you like that, Kitten? Do you like having me inside you?"

"Yes," she whispers, lying on her back and spreading her legs open.

"Yes what?" He crawls into bed between her legs.

"Yes, sir," she amends, breath hitching once again as he pushes himself inside her. He rolls them over so that they're both lying on their sides, Katara's head tucked under his chin. He reaches between them to play with her clit.

"So beautiful. You feel so warm, so wet. I love having you like this, maybe I'll make you sit on my cock in my office, what do you think?"

She nods, gasping, as he presses rougher circles against her clit.

"I'm going to make you cum again, isn't that right? Nobody's made you cum this quickly before, have they?"

"N-no," she replies, fingernails digging into his biceps as she begins to clench around him.

"Oh fuck, that feels so good, whose cum do you want?"

"Yours," she gasps, "yours, please..."

Suddenly, his hand is in her hair and he wrenches her face up so that she's staring at him, startled by his sudden intensity.

"That's right," he growls, jaw clenched against his own impending orgasm, "mine."

They cum together, Katara jerking in his arms and whining his name. When his hips finally settle, he begins to pull out, but Katara wraps a leg around him and pulls him closer.

"Stay in me," she murmurs, exhausted.

"Fuck. Of course, Kitten. I'll stay in you."

They both drift off to sleep.

The opportunity to test out Dr. Sozin's 'whatever you want is fine with me' philosophy presents itself a few days later. She stops by the café near the science department to grab herself some breakfast after an especially gruelling and soporific lecture in Anatomy. After paying for her mantou and tea, she hears someone clear his throat; turning around, she sees the boy from Toph's party.

"Hey... Katara, right?" He slinks up to her.

"Yeah," she winces. "Sorry, I forgot your name..."

Luckily, he laughs. "You were really drunk. Ruon Jian."

She shakes her head. "Of course! Sorry, how are you?"

"Alright, not too bad," he says, propping himself up against a counter. "I don't think I've recovered fully from Toph's party yet."

She agrees, chatting about Toph and university parties in general, when he asks her about Dr. Sozin.

"Who was that guy who came to pick you up?"

"Um, it's just..."

"Your boyfriend?"

"No, it's just... casual," she recites the mantra she's been saying to herself recently.

"Just casual meaning you won't slap me if I ask you for a date?"

She takes a pause, thinking of Suki's advice. "Absolutely not. Dinner tonight?"

He grins at her. "Looking forward to it."

They exchange numbers, and Katara stands there, gripping her mantou with such force she's sure it will never recover from its dents. Grimacing, she stuffs it into her bag and downs her tea in a few gulps. Dimly, she registers herself leaving the café, still reeling at the turn of events, and is more surprised than she should be when she stands outside a door that reads Doctor Z. Sozin, M.D.

She knocks, enters.

Dr. Sozin is in deep discussion with her ancient immunology professor, whose suspenders were the same ones he wore daily - she doubts the man has another pair. The two of them look towards her, and Dr. Sozin gives her one of those surveying looks.

"Ah. Miss Kanna. Here for Dr. Sozin's office hours, I presume?" her immunology professor asks.

"Yes, Professor."

"Let me leave you to it, then. Zuko, swing by my office later if you want to discuss!"

The old man shuffles out of the room, and she's left alone with Dr. Sozin.

"So. Pathology, or...?"

"Someone asked me out," Katara blurts, staring at a spot just above his shoulder. "And I said yes."

Dr. Sozin pushes himself off the window sill he's been leaning against. "And?"

"And his name is Ruon Jian. The guy from The Blue Spirit. And we're going to dinner tonight."

His brow furrows. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know how casual works; this is my first casual... fling, or whatever! I'm just trying to be honest with you."

"Katara," he growls, and she starts because he's closed half the distance between them in a few strides, "I don't want to know who else you're fucking."

The idea sits dissonantly within her; if he was seeing someone else, she'd want to know, completely, obsessively. Something ugly bubbles up her at the thought, so she focuses on the last part of his sentence.

"Nobody said anything about fucking, Zuko."

He takes another step towards her, crosses his arms. He lets out a mirthless laugh. "So, what? You're going to hold hands? Take long walks on the beach?"

"I happen to like the beach! And that's not the point - ugh, I regret telling you anything! Forget it!" Katara throws her arms up in the air and turns to leave, but Zuko has caught her wrist.

"Katara. I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

She turns to glare at him, and he runs a hand through his hair. "Look, will you come over to mine in the afternoon? I have a present for you. And I won't make you late for your date."

"Fine," she snaps, still irritated with him. He lets her leave.

Afternoon brings with it a sense of nervous trepidation and excitement in equal measure; the former because of her date, and the latter because of her curiosity about Zuko's present. She meets him with a waning sense of anger at his door, and he pulls her to him with an apologetic kiss.

"You look beautiful," he tells her, and Katara blushes. The whole time, she's been refusing to ask herself whether she's dressed prettily for her date or for Zuko, but her pink, sheer lingerie answers the question for her.

"Ruon Jian is meeting me nearby," she explains, nervously tugging the hem of her tight, black dress down.

He says nothing in response, pulling her into the apartment and kissing her thoroughly. He picks her up and places her on the counter, pushing the straps of her dress off and pulling it under her breasts. He notices her pink lingerie, which is not nearly generous enough to even cover much of her breasts, and grins wickedly at her.

"Is this for me, sweet girl?" he asks her, running his finger over a stiffened nipple.

She chokes back a moan, embarrassed, and he pinches her nipple.

"Yes," she gasps in admittance. "Sir."

He hums, bends down to scrape his teeth over her clothed nipple, and pulls the bra off her entirely at her responding whine.

"One day I'm going to fuck your breasts," he promises darkly, cupping them together before sucking on a nipple. Soon, she is writhing where she's sat, her hands fisted in his unbound hair, and he pushes her dress up past her hips. He pulls the panties to one side, pulling one of her ass cheeks open as he does so as his other hand traces the puckered hole.

"One day, I'll fuck this too," he growls, and she moans out his name, because she knows that there is no room for argument. To her relief and disappointment, he pulls his hand away, and instead sucks her clit with two fingers in her pussy until she's cumming, squeezing her legs around his head and shouting his name until he stops.

He pulls away, satisfied.

Once she regains her breath, she manages to ask weakly, "Is this the present?"

His smile is predatory. "I'm so glad you asked."

He reaches behind her to a cabinet and pulls out a small box. Her breath hitches, and he looks back at her, gaze feral.

"What do you think?" he purrs, flashing her a grin that is all teeth.

"It's a vibrator," is all Katara can say, watching him take it out and slick it with lube.

"And what do you say?" he prompts, smacking her ass lightly when she doesn't respond.

"Thank you," she chokes out, still eyeing the vibrator sitting in his hand innocuously.

"You're welcome," he replies smoothly, unaffected apart from the amusement on his face, a stark contrast to where she sits on his counter, dress pulled down under her breasts and hitched up to her hips. Dr. Sozin leans forward to kiss her, his tongue in her mouth in the demanding way she's come to expect from him. When he pulls away, she's panting, and he smooths a hand up the inside of her thigh, toying with her pussy briefly. She's still got her eyes on the vibrator sitting in his hand, but he tips her chin up with a finger hooked under it.

"I'm going to use this on you, Kitten," he says, "and you're going to enjoy it."

And when he finally presses the vibrator against her clit, she follows his command to enjoy it slavishly, arching and pressing herself against it more until he turns it on. It's a slow, lazy hum against her clit, but she whimpers nonetheless at the foreign sensation. He kisses her again; smirks against her mouth.

"Do you like it?" he asks, and she nods, unable to vocalise anything past her tremulous whimpers. But he praises her for her effort anyway; "Good girl," he breathes. He is steady against her, and she slumps on to him as she builds up past the oversensitive feeling that remains from her first orgasm. Once she is in the groove of it, he leans down and picks up her panties from the floor, pulling it back on to her so that the vibrator is held against her by the thin, flimsy cloth.

"So beautiful," he praises, before helping her down from the counter. She is unsteady on her legs, but it doesn't matter, because he puts her on her knees.

"You're going to return the favour," he tells her, voice sharp. He unbuttons his pants and pulls them down along with his briefs, revealing his hard cock. She whispers, "yes, sir," before taking him in her mouth.

He grits his teeth and groans approvingly, fisting one hand in her hair and helping her, just as he had done the first time they slept together. This time, she tries to remember the tips he gave her, and just like it is a Pathology class, she puts them into practice dutifully. She relaxes her jaw, looking up at him, and he slides deeper into her throat, but all of her hard work is wasted when he ups the speed on the vibrator. She moans, chokes, and he lets out a hungry sound in response.

"That's so good," he croons, pushing her hair away from her face, and when she looks up at him next, there is a possessive look in his eye, teeth bared in a snarl. "I'd keep you on your knees all day, keep your pretty little mouth around my cock all the time, you look so good like this, like you were made for this - god - that's it, suck harder."

She does, and she's rewarded with the vibrator picking up pace again. She presses her thighs together, understanding the game, that she will not be able to come unless he does. She redoubles her efforts, a few tears leaking out of her eyes as she chokes around him, and he finally holds her still with a hand in her hair and fucks into her mouth.

"Look at that," he's breathing harshly, "just made for this, you look so pretty like this, fuck, look at me, Katara - look at me - oh fuck - " He buries himself deep in her mouth and she tries to swallow all the cum he's pumping into her mouth. She is mostly successful, but when a little bit dribbles out of her mouth, he swipes it with his thumb and pushes his thumb between her lips. She sucks his thumb, still keeping her eyes on him as she whimpers. The vibrator increases in speed again, and she nearly doubles over, lights starting to flash between her eyes, but he's pulling her up. She's unsteady on her feet, gripping on to him.

"I can't," she tries explaining between desperate gasps, "I'm so close, oh god... oh..."

But then it stops.

"What - " she begins, and he's reaching down and pulling the vibrator out of her panties, placing it on the counter behind her.

He turns to her with a smug, shit-eating grin. "You're going to be late," he tells her, nodding towards the clock next to the entrance.

Shit, she really is, but she can't think about anything apart from the intense throb between her thighs. It would take very little to pitch her over the edge, but as she begins to reach towards her panties, he grabs her wrist with a bruising grip.

"No," he tells her, yanking her towards him. "Your orgasms are mine, you understand?"

When she nods, he palms her ass roughly. "Say it," he demands.

"My orgasms are yours, sir," she echoes, looking up at him desperately. He just smirks at her, helping her adjust her dress and handing her her purse.

"Have a good time," he tells her, amused at her suffering, as though she should be in on the joke, and with a pat to her but, she's sent out the door.

Who cares, Katara thinks for the umpteenth time as Ruon Jian rouses up another speech about the beauty of self-correcting financial markets. She picks lazily at her food with her chopsticks, zoning out of what has become Ruon Jian's soliloquy on his innate ability to understand markets.

This is, of course, for the best, as is the fact that he has asked her scant questions about herself. She's still keyed up from what Zuko has done to her, and although she should be focussing on lambasting him for it, if not focussing on her date, she instead focusses on the memory of his hands in her hair. Between her thighs. Cupping her face. She thinks about the feel of his cock in her mouth, how wild he looked just before he came. Try as she might, she cannot help but think about all the ways he'd make her feel better if she were there right now. He'd wring every last orgasm out of her until she nearly passes out, and then give her another one just to show that he can, before settling down while he's still inside of her as they fall asleep.

But now Ruon Jian is rounding out his monologue with a rousing chorus of "my dad's a really big deal in the investment banking world, so I can basically work anywhere I want", and Katara rapidly transforms her grimace into a smile.

Really, she just wants to get the date over with, so that she can go back to Zuko's and smack some sense into him. Or fuck him. Or both, really.

So when the waiter comes up to sweep their meals away and inquires about dessert, she shakes her head.

"I'm actually pretty full," she explains to Ruon Jian, who has paused his love letter to himself to look at her. He agrees and accompanies her out of the restaurant after they pay, and they come to a standstill by his swanky car. For a painful moment, she wishes for the sound of a motorbike whirring in her ear.

Ruon Jian is looking at her expectantly, so she gives him a bright smile.

"So," she begins, "thanks for the dinner suggestion. This was a nice restaurant."

"It was," he agrees, and then puts his hand on her waist. She tenses up, especially so when she sees him close his eyes and lean towards her. She puts a hand on his chest.

"Um," she says, "not yet."

His mouth twists thoughtfully. "When we get back to mine?"

"To yours?" she repeats, confused.

His brows furrow as well in a mimicry of hers. "Is that not... was that not the plan?"

She closes her eyes, shakes her head. "Why would you think that's the plan?"

He takes a step back from her. "Didn't you talk about seeing someone casually?"

"Yes, so?"

"So, isn't this what casual means? Coming back to my place? I don't get it - aren't you sleeping with that other guy?"

"I - no, sorry, that's not what I meant. I just... this was the first date, I'm just not that comfortable with..."

He gives her a look, somewhat caught between embarrassment and haughtiness. "I get it. No problem."

She knows what it's like to have a guy suddenly lose interest in her. He's refusing to meet her eyes now, and there's a displeased frown on his face. He gets into his car, rolls his window down, and tells her, "I'll see you around."

Later, as she hails a cab and gives the driver her address, she tries not to get the hurt and embarrassment get to her. Because she can't help but think that while the assumption that she would sleep with Ruon Jian was entirely off base, she hadn't put nearly enough effort into the date as she should have. Who knows, maybe if she could have paid attention to him, she would have been more amenable to - to a goodnight kiss or something, but instead, all she could think about was how Dr. Sozin looked when he held her down and fucked her.

Anger bubbles up inside her suddenly; hot, vengeful. She instructs the driver to drive her elsewhere, and when she's banging on the door of Zuko's door, he swings it open almost immediately.

He doesn't even have the decency to pretend to be surprised that she's here. He smiles at her like she's just on time, and the anger reaches a boiling point. She steps into the threshold of his house, dropping her coat and bag unceremoniously to the floor.

"You," she hisses, shaking with sudden anger. He steps back and raises his hands in mock-surrender.

"What did I do?"

"You know exactly what you did," she spits out, kicking her heels off and stalking towards him so that her chest barely brushes his. "You - you got me all horny on purpose, because you couldn't rein in your jealousy, and then I couldn't think about anything else during my date - and I'm not going to see him again, because I'm pretty sure he asked me to sleep with him, but like an idiot I said no, because I couldn't stop thinking about your - your stupid fucking vibrator - and - "

She cuts off, glaring at him, and he looks at her like he's trying his best to suppress a smirk. She lets out a small scream of frustration, using force to push him on to his sofa.

He falls there with a surprised grunt, and she gets some modicum of satisfaction that there's finally some shock on his face. She's been keyed up all evening, though, and this isn't enough for her. She rips off her dress and shoves her bra and panties off, so that she's entirely naked. He's watching her with a dumbfounded, awed expression, and she is too angry to parse the expression. She unbuttons his jeans and shoves his boxers down, stroking him until he's hard and bucking in her hands. He reaches for her, hungry, but she swats his hands away, opting to straddle his hips and sink down on him in one smooth stroke.

They both let out choked groans, and she rides him quickly, desperately, pushing his hands away every time they reach for her. He finally gets the idea, and he fists his hands by his sides as she supports her weight with her hands on his chest. She sneaks one hand down to her clit, rubbing at herself in the way that she's learned unravels herself fastest, and she's moaning and clenching down on him faster than she cares to admit.

But it's still not enough for her - she's been wet through the whole date, thinking about him, and so she begins to ride him again. He's breathing through gritted teeth underneath her, and looking up at her with dark eyes. She knows that he could easily overpower her if he tried, and she knows that he likes being the one in control, but she can tell that he's curious about the sudden change in dynamic. The idea that she finally gets to control his orgasms, that she can leave him hanging if she wants, with no regard for anything other than her own pleasure, has her gyrating against him in increasingly frantic movements.

The hand that's not circling his clit comes up to her left breast, pinching and tugging it, watching as he watches her. His arms make a quick, sudden movement towards her, and she stills completely in warning, panting and glaring at him. When he settles down with a clenched jaw, she resumes her pace, seeking her second peak. She's angry with him in ways that she can't explain properly, not when her hips are snapping against his at this pace. So the anger seeps out ways that she knows she'll regret later; in a way that she knows is not only unhealthy but also needlessly vengeful.

"I could have fucked him, you know," she pants, and Zuko stiffens underneath her. "This could have been him, instead of you." She pinches her clit lightly and throws her head back. "Maybe I would have let him bend me over, fuck me so I can't walk the next day, oh fuck - " she can feel her second orgasm coming on, "He could have kept me on his cock all night and fucked me properly and fully - " Underneath her, Zuko lets out a low, warning growl, but she can feel the telltale signs of his own orgasm. With one last surge of effort, on the brink of an orgasm, she looks down at him while she says, "He would have filled me up with his - cum - oh god - " she convulses over him, wailing, biting back Zuko's name. When she slumps down on his chest, he is still hard beneath her, and she can feel his resolve crumbling in the face of his anger when he reaches for her.

She pulls herself off him, pulls her dress on and grabs her underwear. Quick as she can, she grabs her shoes, coat, and bag, and wrenches his door open.

She turns back to him, and he sits upright on his sofa, still in his clothes with his cock pulled out, leaking with his precum and her cum. She catches his eye and her breath hitches at his livid expression.

"Next time, I'll fuck him myself, Zuko," she murmurs, and slams the door shut behind her.

A/N: Okay, time to talk about something more serious.

This is just a fic, and I really like writing an angry/jealous/possessive Zuko, so please do not take all the bad communication etc. as an endorsement from me to do the same. If anything, you should listen to what Suki's trying to tell Katara (the fantastic advice comes from FidgetWibbles, whose comment on the last chapter you would be remiss if you do not read). Communication is key, and hate/revenge sex really isn't that cool outside of fiction. It's never how I'd handle my own relationship.

On a lighter note, thank you for all the reviews and kudos! Really fuels my writing urge.

Next chapter, Zuko loses his cool, metaphorically speaking.