Chapter 4: You don't get if you don't ask

The slight drop in temperature signals one thing to all Caldera University medical students - the bi-annual staff/student mixer. The first one each year is in the middle of September, and most students wrap themselves up in their favourite new scarves and discuss the party in excited whispers during class.

Katara, however, is an exception. She is of course excited for the mixer - after all, the free-flowing drinks and funky music is nothing to scoff at - but she takes on the task of organising it year after year. Each time, she promises herself that it will be the last, and each time, she finds herself unable to turn down the professors who are keen to see her organisational skills at work. She has to admit, with no small sense of pride, that she does a great job of it each time.

This year, she really did mean to put her foot down. But she is filled with a strange mixture of nostalgia for the place she will leave in two years and a deep desire to put her mind to something more constructive than thinking about a certain someone that she's been studiously avoiding.

Not that she can avoid him much. Given that the certain someone is her professor, it means that twice a week, she sits in his lecture hall taking notes and valiantly trying to think about why he hasn't chased after her. Granted, she had left him in the middle of sex after riling him up, but she didn't expect to be met with his stony silence - if she thinks about this too hard, all she can envision are the wicked punishments he could have drawn up for her. More importantly, she's imagining a glorious apology from him for his idiotic behaviour.

She shuts her eyes from where she stands on a stepladder, dredging up the remnants of self-control.

Focus, she scolds herself, pinning the remaining end of some streamers to an archway that leads out to the large courtyard in which the party will be held. She wipes her forehead with the back of her hand, smiling at a pair of girls heading towards her, bundled up in absurdly warm clothes. She's still trying to adjust to Fire Nation weather - even the most bitter winters in Caldera City are nothing compared to the Southern Water Tribe's summers, and the sight of people pulling out their winter clothes makes her grin each time.

"Wow," On Ji whistles, "looks good Katara!"

Katara accepts the compliment, taking Meng's proffered hand and climbing down the stepladder. They chat for a while about what they're going to wear - Katara, being broke, will wear what she wore during her first mixer.

"Oh, you looked great, I remember the dress," Meng replies, patting Katara's arm. "By the way... did you hear who's going to be coming?"

"Who?" On Ji asks, eager as ever for a bit of gossip.

Meng leans in conspiratorially, and Katara follows. "Dr. Sozin," she hisses, before dissolving into giggles.

Katara's smile is frozen. "Come again?"

"I know!" Meng replies emphatically, glancing around and still laughing, "I overheard Dr. Jiao telling Dr. Liang! Dr. Sozin never come to one of these before, I wonder what's changed his mind?"

"More like who's changed his mind," On Ji replies dreamily. "Maybe he's come for one of us!"

Meng pinches On Ji. "Don't be stupid. I don't think he likes any student. When was the last time you saw him smile at any of us?"

"Point taken," On Ji concedes grudgingly.

Both girls turn to the mute Katara, who offers them up a strained smile. "That's... cool. Anyway, I've got a lot to do - the party's tomorrow, so, you know..."

"Okay," both girls chorus, leaving arm in arm, discussing exactly what Dr. Sozin is likely to wear.

Katara quashes the tail end of her own thought - what is he likely to wear? - and glares at the door Meng and On Ji have exited from. Why did he have to decide to come to the party? Is it for her? Worse still, is it for someone else? What would she say to him tomorrow? Despondently, she stands in the middle of what will be the dance floor tomorrow, reeling at the fact that this party has turned into the absolute worst way to avoid Zuko.

Even when the party is in full swing, even when all the staff announcements have been made, even when the sun has tucked itself under the horizon, the food served, and the alcohol doled out generously, there is no sign of Dr. Sozin.

It's fine, she thinks to herself, staring at the table of alcohol she has refused to touch to keep a clear mind for tonight. I don't care.

So far, the party has been a success. The vegetarian and vegan food has not been mixed up with all the meat, the music is good enough to bring everyone out on to the dance floor, and most importantly, the students and professors are mingling.

She bites back a smile at the sight of Dr. Lian, her immunology professor, swaying on his feet unsteadily while students conglomerate around him to cheer him on. As Katara had hoped, the party looks fun, but she just can't find it in her to join, not when she's busy staring at the arched entryway for any sign of latecomers. A specific one, really.

After a pathetic fifteen minutes of moping by the alcohol, intervention comes in the form of Yue, the biochemistry teacher's assistant. As one of the few Water Tribe girls in CU, they've hit it off like a house on fire; Katara has always enjoyed Yue's easy company. Yue, like her, has opted to wear something reminiscent of summer weather, a stark contrast to the girls huddling under their autumnal coats when they're not dancing.

"Great party," Yue starts off, and Katara smiles in thanks. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Katara repeats, slightly taken aback. Yue comes to stand next to her, looking out at the dance floor.

"I've never seen someone so sad about their own party," Yue explains, reaching behind Katara to grab another drink.

"It's nothing," Katara mutters, picking at the seam of the tablecloth behind her. "I just expected someone to turn up here."

Yue nods knowingly. "Is it Haru?"

"What? No!" Katara glances around nervously to see if Haru had heard their conversation, but he's nowhere to be found.

"I heard he went back home for his brother's graduation. So, what happened between you two?"

"Nothing," Katara replies honestly. "He asked me out and I wasn't really interested, so that was that."

"So if it's not Haru, then who is it?"

"It's nobody," Katara insists, fighting the sudden instinct to glance at the entryway again.

Yue rolls her eyes, putting down her drink. "Fine, Katara, then let's show nobody what they're missing out on." Yue grabs her hands and pulls her out on to the dance floor, and Katara begrudgingly lets herself be pulled, figuring that sulking during her party and not caring that Dr. Sozin isn't here are inherently juxtaposing feelings. She might as well have fun.

It's easy to get lost in the rhythm, and Katara has never been a good dancer, ever, but she's grown up with her brother and they both know how to have a great time without any refined talent. She spins around and giggles as other med students and professors drunkenly join her, shouting inane lyrics to the new hit single, Secret Tunnel by The Traveling Nomads. Darkness grips the night in earnest now, beaten away only by the warm glow of candlelights surrounding the courtyard.

Meng and On Ji join her, screaming their own off-key rendition of the lyrics, and Katara can't help but laugh, swinging her arms around both of them. Meng immediately proceeds to step on her foot, and Katara clutches on to On Ji in surprise.

"Ow," Katara complains loudly, but Meng is not paying attention.

"Sorry," Meng breathes, sounding anything but, and then elbows Katara urgently to add insult to injury. "Look who came!"

Katara knows who it is before she turns around, but she cannot help herself. Dr. Sozin stands at the entrance to the courtyard, smiling at her organic chemistry professor and unwinding a deep maroon scarf from his neck. Under the scarf is a brown tweed jacket and a black turtleneck, complete with his topknot and his glasses. He looks good.

All the mirth from the past half an hour saps out of her and she turns back to Yue, smiling tightly. Luckily, the other girl doesn't notice that something is amiss, and loops her arm around Katara's waist.

"He's so hot," Yue sighs dreamily, and Katara shrugs. She tries to get back into the mood of the party, but it's entirely halfhearted, and she can't help but feel relieved when one of her professors calls her over.

Dr. Isha, the biochemistry professor, is beckoning her with a waving arm, and to Katara's deep an unending chagrin, she sees Dr. Sozin standing next to her. When she reaches the two professors, Dr. Isha smiles warmly at her, but Dr. Sozin won't meet her eye. At all.

She tries to snuff out a sudden flare of irritation, accepting for the umpteenth time Dr. Isha's compliment on the party.

"She organised it herself, did you know?" Dr. Isha is explaining to Dr. Sozin, who keeps his eyes on his colleague the whole time. "She's quite a brilliant girl, she's doing exceptionally well in my class... but of course you'd know that; she's skipped a year of pathology to join your course!"

"She's pretty exceptional," Dr. Sozin allows, and Katara would feel warmed by the compliment if not for the fact that he's still not looking at her.

In her suppressed daydreams about him coming to this party, all of them included him apologising to her and her magnanimously accepting, and each daydream would finish off with him pulling her into her office and showing her exactly how sorry he is. Dr. Sozin is sending this plan helter skelter by refusing to acknowledge her existence apart from in the abstract, third-party way, as though she's not standing before him and glaring with the force of all her ancestors combined.

"Well," Dr. Isha continues, oblivious, or perhaps uncaring, to the tension around her. "I've just spied a few of my med students gearing up for a karaoke performance; let's see if I can go stop the silly girls."

She leaves Katara alone with Dr. Sozin, and Katara opens her mouth to say... what, exactly?

The burden of that decision is yanked away from her unceremoniously as Dr. Sozin walks away without so much as a goodbye.

The next hour is spent avoiding Dr. Sozin in retaliation, joining Meng, On Ji, and to her great delight, Dr. Isha, in a karaoke rendition of Four Seasons, Four Loves, to the utter and unending bemusement of the poor deejay. She grabs some snacks from the table, demonstrates Sokka's Southern Smoothness - a pretty stupid name for what is essentially her moving her feet on the dance floor like they're mops - and cheers on Dr. Lian as he goes up on the podium and drunkenly announces that his dream has always been to recite traditional Fire Nation poetry, which he promptly fulfills, patching together the details of the poem he can't remember with nondescript mumbling.

She has almost succeeded in forgetting about Dr. Sozin, until she sees his silhouette slip out the arched entryway. She chews on her lip thoughtfully before glancing at the party - nobody would notice if she was gone for a few minutes - and follows him.

They end up near the medical department, and Katara knows he's off to his office again. The department is likely to be entirely empty owing to the party. She catches sight of him halfway through the corridor, nearing his office, and he's wound the scarf back around his neck and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

How dare he, Katara thinks to herself suddenly, how dare he look so good.

She storms down the hallway, and Dr. Sozin starts at the sound of her heels, spinning around to stare resignedly at her feet.

"What the hell?" she hisses when she nears him, her well-rehearsed speech of righteous indignation flying straight out the window.

He exhales slowly, but declines to say anything, so Katara fills up the silence.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" she snaps. "I thought you'd come to the party to apologise, but you haven't said a word to me, you haven't even looked at me - how could you just fuck - "

He grabs her by the arm before she can finish he tirade. "Shut up," he hisses, pulling her into his office and slamming the door shut. The fight leaves him immediately, and he rests his forehead against the door, sighing heavily.

"If you're feeling guilty," Katara ventures, somewhat desperate, and Dr. Sozin's shoulders tense, "you just need to apologise, Zuko, and we can talk about it; I get it if you're feeling guilty - "

"Guilty?" Dr. Sozin breathes, finally turning around and meeting her eyes. Katara's breath hitches at the sight, heart leaping into her throat as the click of the office door being locked. Something in his eyes had snapped. "Katara," he growls, "I'm furious."

There is no time to react to that, not when he stalks forward and yanks her towards him, biting at her lips with a kind of angry vengeance. She scrambles to follow his choreography, clutching his shoulders, moaning into his mouth at the sudden heat that ricochets through her. He buries his hand in her hair and pulls her head back roughly, and she whimpers when his teeth find her pulse at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. He works the skin there between his teeth until it is bruised and sensitive, and he pulls the zipper of her dress down roughly, pushing it off her frame before she can even take stock of what is happening. He unhooks her bra and pulls it off her as well, leaving her in an all-black ensemble of heels, sheer tights, and a thong.

"Is this what you wanted?" he demands, pinching her nipples until she's throwing her head back and moaning, working another bruise with his teeth just above where her heart is. "Did you want me to lose control? Little brat, so fucking disobedient, are you asking to get punished?"

She clutches at him even more, her fingers going into his hair and gripping, and he growls at her lack of reply.

"I think you are," he snarls, pulling her over to his chair and putting her across his knees in a smooth motion. She knows what's coming next, and she feels herself getting more wet, hardly daring to breathe with the anticipation of it all.

A hand descends on her butt lightly, caressing it, and Katara bites back a surprised sound.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asks roughly, but there something has faltered in his voice, as if he's genuinely asking.

Embarrassment flushes through her. "No," she whispers, and the hand caressing her pauses, as though surprised.

"No?" he asks, his voice gritty with barely controlled arousal and rage.

She whines, wanting to bury her face in her hands, but his other hand pulls her hair up so that she arches under his touch.

"Ask me for it, Katara."

She trembles where she lies, bent over his knee, struggling to bite back a retort - If you want it so much, why don't you ask - and opts to stay silent, and in retaliation his hand tightens on her hair and he yanks her head further back.

"Ask me, Katara."

She succumbs reluctantly. "Please," she whispers.

"Please what?"

She moans in embarrassment, trying to squirm over his knee, but the hand caressing her ass presses against her lower back so that she is held immobile.

"Please," she finally bites out, trying to buck against the hand holding her still, "please... spank m - oh!"

His hand descended on her in a sharp, stinging motion, and she moans loudly at the sensation. He pauses for a second, hesitating, before she pushes her hips back in a needy search for more.

He groans deeply and proceeds to land hits on to either cheek and, once or twice, between her legs, sending her jolting and scrambling to hold on to something. He growls in response, relishing her reaction, and when he sends another sharp, purposeful smack to the juncture between her legs she moans something loud and obscene. He pulls her up and she's standing between his legs, clutching on to his shoulders for support as the stinging mixture of pain and arousal heightens her sensitivity.

"Did you like that?" he asks, breathing haggardly through clenched teeth.

She nods, and when his eyes flash, she stumbles over a proper reply. "Yes, sir."

He grips her hips and pulls her closer. "And what do you say?"

She bites her lip, petulant about the departure from her plan - she wants him to grovel - and suppresses an eye-roll when she says, "Thank you. Sir."

He's noticed the insolence. He stands up as well and pulls her towards him in a flash, gripping her chin and tilting her face up. "I swear, Katara," he growls, "I will fuck the attitude right out of you." He spins her around and pushes her on the desk, with her ass up in the air, the same position as when he had first fucked her. He grabs her wrists and holds them behind her back, and when she feels his hot breath against her pussy she understands that he's kneeling.

"Keep your hands there or I tie you up," he commands gruffly, releasing her wrists in favour of spreading her thighs further. He pulls her panties and tights down to her heels. The first little lick to her pussy has her gripping her hands together in order to quell the need to flip around and bury her hands in his hair. He pauses, as though waiting for any insolence, but then continues teasing her when she stays as still as a stone.

She cannot stop herself from whimpering loudly each time, especially when he studiously avoids her clit, and she finds herself writhing, struggling to not use her hands to push his face where she wants it. He chuckles against her folds, the vibrations of his huffing breath pulling shudders out of her, and finally rewards her with a lick to her clit and a finger being worked in to her. She bucks against his ministrations, moaning his name, and he sucks at her steadily and adds another finger in as a reward. Soon, she's grinding against his hand and his face, her fingers twisted together, her breasts pressed against the cool desk, and just as she tastes the beginnings of her peak, he pulls away. He's immediately got a hand on his back, so when she beings to get up in surprised protest, she's held down.

She groans, bereft, as the cool air hits her pussy.

"Stay still," he growls. She hears him fiddling with another drawer, and when she hears the bottle being uncapped she knows what this means, and against herself she clenches her butt cheeks together.

"Relax," he whispers, gently stroking a cheek, and she does. To her surprise, she hears his footsteps, and soon he is crouched by the other side of the table, facing her. He raises and unfurls his palm; her breath hitches at the sight of the small, slender butt plug. He swallows; strokes her hair back.

"Have you ever tried something like this?" he asks quietly.

"No," she whispers, heart hammering with anticipation and trepidation in equal measure.

"Do you want to try?" he asks her, even quieter still. She presses her thighs together, her thoughts becoming blurry when her thighs give some much-needed friction against her swollen clit.

"Focus," he commands, noticing her wavering attention.

"Yes," she replies finally, nervous but sure.

"Tell me stop and I will," Dr. Sozin says, something tender in his voice. And he is tender when he walks back around her, pulls her ass cheeks open, and covers his fingers and her little hole with lube. He works a finger in, dropping to his knees again to suck at her clit and keep her distracted. When she's near her peak again, he eases another finger in, the peak receding at the sudden feeling of being over-full. He works her open, rubbing little circles into her clit with his other hand, and she blushes deeply between little whimpers when she thinks of the view she's providing him. Soon, she gets back into the groove of it, the heat swirling in her unlike anything else she's felt before. He's tender when he pulls his fingers out, and even tender still when he gently works the plug in, his voice soothing and low.

"Relax, Kitten, deep breaths, you look so beautiful like this..."

She gasps, hands flying to grip the edge of his desk as the widest part slips in, and it settles against her. She feels oversensitive and full, and she moans his name, and he strokes down her back soothingly. He licks her clit gently again, and when she's building back to the precipice of orgasm, he pulls back, and she whines impatiently.

"Please, Zuko," she gasps, wanting him to fuck her, and he gets the idea. He helps her stand up and she clutches on to him, her centre of balance thrown off by the plug nestled inside her. He picks her up and walks towards the window, setting her down and bending her over so that her face and breasts are pressed against the window.

She tries to scramble back, knowing that someone could be walking down in the park below, but his hand is in her hair, holding her still. Behind her, Zuko is no longer gentle.

"Katara," he growls, and her breath hitches at his feral, furious tone, "Beg me to fuck you."

She doesn't, swallowing a whimper when he unzips his pants and runs the head of his cock through her dripping folds.

"Katara," he growls in warning, but she won't beg him, not when he should be the one begging her for forgiveness, so when he tightens his grip on her hair, she cannot bite back her retort.

"Why don't you beg me if you want to fuck me so bad - oh, fuck, Zuko!"

He spanks her once, hard, right over where the plug is nestled between her ass cheeks. It jolts inside her and she can feel it all the way in her toes, simultaneously overwhelming and not enough.

"Watch your mouth," he warns darkly, his finger pressing against the head of the plug, making her whine and buck her hips back into his hand. "And beg."

She doesn't, biting down on her lip so hard it almost bleeds, and she hears him inhale sharply at her disobedience. He suddenly begins to pull the plug out, and she clenches around it despite herself.

"What... what are you doing?"

"You don't get if you don't ask, Katara. I'm taking the plug out of you. You're free to go."

She wants to call his bluff, but the widest part of it has slipped out of her, and she clenches again in panic. The pulsing between her legs is getting unbearable and she needs some relief or she'll go crazy.

"Fuck, Zuko!"

"Hmm?" he asks, almost leisurely.

She closes her eyes tightly. "Fuck... please. Please fuck me, please..."

A pause. She opens her eyes to watch him in the reflection. His face is unreadable.

"Please fuck me, Zuko, please..."

In the reflection, his expression shifts to triumphant; furious. He pulls her hair back until she can barely see his reflection. "Katara," he growls, either in warning or promise, "I'm going to fuck you until you scream my name."

In one smooth motion, he pushes the plug back into her. When he slides into her, she almost does just that, feeling more full than she's ever felt in her life with both his cock and the plug inside her. He fucks her with a vengeance, and it comes to her in fragments that he's still livid, and that this is her punishment.

His grip is bruising on her hip. "Is this what you wanted?" he snarls, picking up the pace so that she can feel his thrusts rattling the glass she's pressed up against. "You wanted me to fuck you raw? You wanted me to ruin you for everyone else, didn't you? Come on, Katara, scream my name - go on - let everyone in this whole fucking building hear what I'm doing to you, fuck, I should just fuck you and fill you up and leave you like that, stop you from cumming, you'd deserve that, wouldn't you?"

Zuko, Zuko, is the only think that she can keep whimpering, and when he reaches around her to pinch her clit roughly, she screams his name as she cums. He doesn't stop, his grip on her brutal.

"I'm going to fuck you so good you won't be able to think of anyone else but me," he pants, the wrecked quality in his voice signalling his own end. Her own pleasure is swirling up in her again at both his words and his actions, and when he spanks her again, right over her plug, she clenches around him. He grunts her name, spilling deep inside her and somehow finding it in him to rub her clit again. She orgasms soon after on his oversensitive cock, and he groans.

He pulls out of her, watching his cum drip down her pussy and on to her thighs. After a second, he pulls her up into his arms, careful not to jostle the plug inside her, and sets her on the sofa on the opposite end of the room. He produces a napkin from somewhere and helps clean her up before helping her flip over. He presses a kiss to one of her cheeks and pulls the plug out slowly, watching her reaction as she moans tiredly.

"Hi," he whispers, one corner of his mouth quirking upwards.

"Hi," she whispers back, slurring a little.

He strokes her hair away from her face. "How do you feel?"

She nods. "Good. Sleepy."

He chuckles quietly. "You need to get back to the party, or people will suspect that something is going on with us."

She pulls together the will to sit up, and he helps her redress properly, peppering kisses along her skin as he does so. When she is finally on her feet, she smoothes out the non-existent wrinkles on her dress and turns to him, slightly wobbly on her knees.

"We need to talk," she tells him quietly, and he nods solemnly.

"Later," he promises.

She walks to the party without him, trying to look very much like she hasn't had the most vigorous sex of her life.

The next evening, Dr. Sozin turns up at her door, knocking precisely as she was planning on going to bed.

"How do you know where I live?" she asks him wonderingly as he leans against the doorframe, a backpack swung over his shoulder.

He gestures with his chin to the left. "Above Tsurai's, right? I got here and I asked your neighbour, Mrs. Cat Lady."

She smiles, gesturing him in. "Mrs. Goyang."

He enters and she shuts the door behind him, tugging her shorts down. With his impeccably tousled hair and half-zip pullover, he looks entirely at odds with her eclectic and colourful house. While his house was neat lines and dark colours, hers looks very much like the colour blue vomited all over it. Katara looks down at her clothes - black shorts and a hoodie that reads "SWT SWIM TEAM" - a relic from her competitive swimming days. She looks underdressed for a meeting with Zuko that she didn't know they had.

Zuko drops his bag on to her (blue) armchair and sits on her (blue) sofa, somehow managing to take up two of the three seats while doing so. Katara rolls her eyes, taking the remaining seat.

He stretches his arm across the back of her sofa, turning and giving her a funny little smile. Her stomach somersaults in reply, and she smoothes down her hair nervously.

"What?" she finally asks him.

His smile only widens. "SWT swim team?"

She relaxes. "Oh. Yeah. Sokka and I were part of the swim team at school; we got to tour around everywhere. That was the first time I came to the Fire Nation, actually! We beat those Fire Nation losers so easily."

Zuko snorts. "I'm sure you did."

Silence lapses between them, and Dr. Sozin refuses to look away from her. Katara fidgets nervously, not sure exactly what to do.

"What?" she asks again.

"You look... very pretty today, Katara," he says, tossing her another one of those easy smiles.

She frowns. "Don't lie."

He leans forward and catches her hand. "I'm not."

She stares at their laced hands. "Is this just a ploy for me to stop being mad at you?"

He huffs out a laugh, running his thumb along her knuckles. "No. Although I'd really like if you'd stop being mad at me."

She looks up at him, at the hair falling into his eyes. "You still need to apologise," she tells him, pulling her hand away. He lets her, leaning back on the couch with a slight furrow to his brow. "And explain."

For a while, he stares very intently at the selection of Nature magazines lying on her coffee table, and then at the traditionally woven Southern Water Tribe rug under it. Finally, he sighs, running a hand down his face.

"I don't want you to see anyone else," is what he starts with, and she kind of figured that's how he felt, so she just crosses her arms and waits for him to continue. "I'm... jealous." He grimaces; continues. "I've got some jealousy issues, it turns out. I'm not going to name a number, but I've had many casual flings with people, and I've never acted this way before. So, uh... I don't really know where it's coming from. And I mean... I'm significantly older than you, and I really know I have no right to be demanding you to dump what's-his-face, so if you want to kick me out, I'd understand. But I'm sorry. I won't act like that again."

"Were you mad at me today?"

He sighs. "Yeah. I was. I'm not proud of it, but you left me in the middle of sex after taunting me."

She stares at the traditional weaving of her carpet, ashamed. "Yeah. That's not great. I'm sorry too."

He smiles tentatively at her. "Apology accepted."

She smiles back, relieved. "Are you seeing anyone else?"

He glances at her. "No. Not since we started... you know."

She nods, fiddling with the hem of her hoodie. "You're not significantly older than me, you know. You're just older. And, I don't know, I um... like that." She blushes, not meeting his eye. "I'm not seeing Ruon Jian. I'm pretty okay with us just sleeping with each other. And thank you for apologising. But I think we need to establish some boundaries."

He frowns thoughtfully. "I agree. I was pretty nervous today; I wasn't sure what you were and weren't okay with - we need a safe word."

Katara stares at him for a moment before she grins. "Blue Spirit?"

He narrows his eyes at her playfully. "Fine. Blue Spirit."

"And I didn't like that you risked us being seen, with that whole window thing. I told you I wanted to keep this a secret."

"The square that my window faces was locked for the evening, Katara. I should have mentioned."

She blinks. "Oh. Yeah. You should have."

He shifts closer to her, splaying a hand on her knee. "Why don't you want anyone to know about us?"

"I just... I'm not sure what this is, and I don't know how people will react, and I'm just nervous, I guess. We can keep it a secret, right? Please?"

He shuts his eyes for a second before running his thumb over her lower lip. "For however long you want."

She swallows, moving marginally closer to him. "Are we okay?"

"We're okay," he smiles, opening his arms to her. She crawls towards him, curling up against his chest as he strokes her hair. A minute later, she spots his bag on her armchair.

"What's in the bag?" she asks, pointing at it.

The hand in her hair pauses. "My stuff for tonight," he tells her, confused.

She bites back a smile. "A little presumptuous, don't you think?"

He smiles against her hair as he drops a kiss into it. "Just hopeful."

A few hours, a movie, and a whole box of rice rolls later, Zuko climbs out of her shower, naked. Katara is already curled up in her sheets, and when he comes to spoon her, she feels very much like she's cuddling a fireplace. He pulls her clothes off slowly, swiping his fingers through her wet folds and dropping a few kisses to the back of her neck and shoulder.

"Zuko, I'm really tired," she tries explaining, even as the heat seeps into her.

"I know," he replies soothingly, rubbing the head of his cock along her folds before slipping into her slowly. She whimpers his name and he settles inside her, staying still and pulling her to him. They settle like that, both slipping into the haze of sleep.

"Zuko?" she asks suddenly, when something occurs to her.

"Hmm?" His voice is already gritty with sleep, and Katara clenches around him at the sound. He groans, holding her hips still.

"When you say you've slept with people... do you mean... girls and boys?"

He laughs sleepily against her neck. "This is what you woke me up for? Yes. Girls and boys."

She clenches around him again, aroused at the thought, and he chuckles darkly. "You like the thought of that?"

She nods as his fingers find her clit. He presses in a few lazy circles before pulling his hand away and wrapping it around her waist.

"Go to sleep, Katara. We can talk in the morning."

She'd very much like to talk now, but she's exhausted. "Okay, good night, Zuko."

"'Night, Kitten."

They doze off to sleep.

Katara wakes up suddenly to a dark room - it's still the middle of the night. A whimper escapes her immediately - Zuko is still deep inside her, grinding against her as he plays lightly with a nipple. He nips her ear when he feels her wake up, grunting when she pushes back against him. His hand moves somewhere to the side, and she almost whines at the loss of warmth, but she hears a sudden buzzing and knows what's coming.

He pushes the vibrator against her clit, clicking to the lowest setting and grinding against her slowly until she's shaking through an orgasm.

"Let's talk about boundaries, Kitten," he grunts into her ear. "Tell me what you like."

Lost in the haze of orgasm, she doesn't reply until he increases the speed of the vibrator in retaliation. "I - I like what we've done so far," she whispers into the dark.

He growls. "Good. You liked the spanking? The vibrator? My fingers in your ass?"

She writhes at his words and the unrelenting pleasure of the vibrator. "Yes," she gasps.

"Did you like the little plug inside you?"

"Yes," she whimpers.

"Tell me."

"I - I loved it inside me; it felt so good - I went home that night and imagined you fucking me there instead - "

"Fuck, Katara - "

" - I've been thinking about wearing it during class, so that you'd know it's inside me, and neither of us can do anything - "

He groans, upping the vibrations until she's seeing stars, his name choked out in the middle of her garbled shouts of pleasure. He follows her over the edge soon after, biting into her shoulder and pinching a nipple roughly. When they both finally settle down, he tosses the vibrator aside somewhere and pulls her back to him.

"Do you like this?" he asks her quietly, grinding his oversensitive cock into her slightly.

"Yes," she whispers back. "It makes me feel close to you."

He freezes behind her for a second before lifting himself up on an elbow and kissing her thoroughly.

"Me too," he replies, resting his chin on top of her head. "I like feeling close to you, too."

Katara goes to sleep with a smile on her face, the possibilities of his words stretching across her mind like a breaking dawn.

A/N:

I'm not super 100% happy with this chapter so please don't be surprised if there are some revisions.

Also... I've opened the door veeeeery slightly to the possibility of a threesome - I might shut that door right back soon. What do you think? Yes or no?