Well….I'm gonna keep writing this for a while, I guess…I apologize to any and all readers for my ADHD writing style…I can't really sit still and keep one story going for any long period of time…I get bored, I leave, and I come back later. But for now, I'm back, so I'll see how far I can get. I mean, last time I got…what, eleven chapters? So, here's chapter 13. Enjoy! Oh yeah, warning for minor adult content, situations, hints, whatever. That's what happens when I make long chapters, I guess. So if that's ok with you, slash, if you're above 12 ish, read away!

Zuko returned to Katara's side, panting and sweating with exertion. For an old man, his uncle was pretty fast!

"Eh…I'm sorry about Uncle, Katara…I mean, what he said, that is…" Zuko fumbled for the words to apologize for his uncle's perverted sense of humor, scratching the back of his head in frustration and confusion. Katara merely stared, once again shocked by such an unprecedented display of humanity from the dour prince.

"It's…it's fine, it was just a joke, so…"

Think, Katara! Say something! Change the subject –

"Well…uh…you wanted to talk to me about Aang, right? And we were going to your room, so…um…let's go!"

- Into something meaningful and not at all perverted. Idiot!

Zuko raised an eyebrow. She looked angry, but it all seemed directed inward at herself.

Odd…she's not mad at me – but at herself? Why? I'd understand if it were about Uncle still, but she hasn't done anything...

Instead of further pondering that, he nodded in response to her comment and led the way to his suite.

For, in fact, a suite it was. Zuko, being the Prince, had a complex of rooms, connected by a door or a small hallway. The first was an entrance chamber, where formal guests were kept for conferences. The next was a small, private sitting room, with a low table and a meditation bench to one side, followed by his bedroom (Katara glanced curiously at it, but couldn't see anything), and a bathing chamber off of the sitting room.

"Wow…nice place you got here!" Katara, lowering herself onto one of the cushions by the table, could have slapped herself for such a peasant-like comment.

"I mean…um…well, what do you want to know first?" For once, she'd changed the subject successfully; diverting his attention away from her earlier, and quite graceless, comment. Zuko sat catty-corner to her, pondering his first question.

"Oh…um…well, how far has he gotten on his bending? I know he's a master of Air, and he's obviously not a master of Fire, but what of Water and Earth?"

"Well, I'm his water bending teacher, and I'd have to say he's basically mastered it…I can still beat him, of course – I've had more practice – but he's very good. As for earth, we had a teacher for a while there, but she went on a sort of…well, pilgrimage, I suppose, to one of the ancient Earth Temples. She's supposed to be back in…Oh, I don't know…a month, or so. Anyway, Aang hasn't really got the Earth discipline down yet; too flighty, or something. He can do a couple basic moves, and then he loses control."

Zuko started at that. Before, he'd just been listening, one part of his brain absorbing the information, the other half enjoying the lilting, soothing rhythm of her voice…but, 'loses control'?

"Wait. What do you mean, exactly, when you say, 'lose control'? Does his power go completely haywire, or…"

"Oh! Sorry, I should have been clearer. No, he just loses the ability to Earth Bend. To earth bend, you see, he has to have an iron will, be totally unshakable, and stand his ground in all things; Aang's just not like that; so when he loses control, it's like the rocks refuse to listen to him…or at least, that's how Toph, his teacher, explained it to me."

"Oh." Zuko couldn't think of anything else to say to that. Rocks refusing to listen? Weird! He racked his brain for some other question he could ask that would have a long, complicated answer. Ahah! That would work.

"In some of the old legends of the Avatar – as well as in my experiences with him, on occasion – I've heard about and seen the Avatar State…but what exactly is it? Does it happen often?"

Katara's face darkened a bit. She did not like to think about the Avatar State. Still, it was a good question…

"Well…when Aang is in mortal peril, or under extreme emotional stress – for example, when Appa was stolen by some desert thugs – he goes into the Avatar State. Basically, as Avatar Roku explained it for him, that means that he's opened his body as a channel for one of the previous Avatars to work through his body, or, on the other hand, that he's unleashing extreme amounts of power in order to do something. But…" and she lowered her voice, just in case someone might be listening, "if he were to be killed while in the Avatar State, the cycle would end; there would be no new Avatar. That's why we don't like him using it."

Again, Zuko was surprised. There were so many odd quirks in life. When the kid's arrows glowed white, it meant there was another Avatar from the past working through him? Whoa.

"When he's got one of his past lives working through him…do you always know which it is? I mean, does he take on their appearance, or do they just do the job and leave?"

"Hmm…it depends. Avatar Roku and Avatar Kyoshi both used his body, but their own shape, but all of the other times, it was like his body was being used, by some unseen force…I've only seen him change into the other Avatar those two times I mentioned. You were there, actually, for one of them – at that Fire Temple? That was Avatar Roku. The other time, we were on some Earth Nation coastal city, and they were holding an Anti-Avatar festival, because they blamed Avatar Kyoshi for the death of some great General or another. So they put Aang up for trial, but since it was a past life, not him, Aang had no idea what had happened. We borrowed Avatar Kyoshi's old clothes and dressed him up in them, and after a few minutes, Kyoshi herself came through and told everyone what happened – she was one intimidating lady!" Katara paused, noticing that she'd spoken for a whole paragraph.

"Sorry – I hope that helps…" Zuko, still listening to her voice, sighed as she stopped talking and stood up.

"Sorry, could you give me a moment? I still need to change shirts, so…Oh, by the way, isn't the Avatar supposed to be a connection to the Spirit world? Has he ever done anything with that?" He got up and headed for his bedroom, gesturing for her to follow as she opened her mouth to answer his question.

His bedroom, decorated in the typical fire nation colors, was utterly sparse in comparison to the sitting room. Katara raised her eyebrows. After all the nice furniture in the lounge, not to mention in her own room, she'd figured that the Prince could have spared himself more than a standard issue army-style cot.

Oh well, she told herself, he's probably trying to impose self-control or something…I mean, look at the size of the cot! He'd never manage to fit more than one person on that…

Again, she flushed in reaction to her own thoughts.

How could I even consider that? His…ugh, his sex life is none of my business! The cot is probably just another training exercise the spiritual art called "doing without."

Zuko, meanwhile, was rummaging through his wardrobe, looking for a clean, suitable shirt.

Great Agni, why on earth don't I have any normal shirts? All that I have left are those weird courting things. Where did all of my training and casual shirts go!

He turned to eye his laundry basket suspiciously. Yep, that was it – it was totally full. He sighed, and turned back to the wardrobe, cautiously selecting one of the plainer courting shirts. He pulled off the shirt he was currently wearing – Yeesh, how on earth did I manage to work up such a sweat just from training the Avatar and chasing uncle! – and pulled on the new one.

Well, seeing as she's from a small, secluded water tribe, she probably won't know the difference from this and a normal shirt…although it would have been nice if whoever designed this hadn't felt that skin was meant to be shown off…

Katara, sitting on the bed and pondering his most recent question (as he was clearly not paying attention for an answer), noticed his desperate glance towards the laundry basket.

Wow…it's been a while, huh? He must have used up all his normal shirts. Wait, he's putting something on…She stared. Does that really count as a shirt?I would almost have preferred it if he just went topless – at least it wouldn't be so…suggestive! It's like the most ragged beggar's shirt has been transformed into something fancy looking…it's so full of slits and knots…what is that thing for? It can't possibly serve any practical purpose except to make him look sexy…Gotta say though, it's good at that…

Zuko, in the meantime, was fumbling with one of the many lace-ups. Not only had the dratted tailor cut the shirt full of holes, he's added places where the shirt could be loosened, if the wearer chose to show even more skin. However, Zuko noticed, whichever way he chose to wear it, laced up all the way, or not laced up at all, it looked as though he were out to seduce someone. Laced all the way, it was tight, formfitting, and each of the slits left just enough skin showing the give anyone looking at it a good idea of how…well, built…the wearer was. Shit, this was going to be awkward…

He turned to see if she had even noticed. And sighed – she had. She definitely had. Her gorgeous blue eyes were wide, delicate brown cheeks flushed, and her hands seemed to have a death grip on the edge of the bed.

Oh dear…I don't know if that's a good or a bad sign…

Katara couldn't help but stare. Not only was every inch of him perfectly, beautifully muscled, but the shirt seemed completely designed to show off as much as him as was physically possible. She couldn't take her eyes off him; she could feel a blush rising in her cheeks, and her hands clenched on the edge of the bed – his bed!

Oh crap…I had better not get a nosebleed or something…come on, Katara, snap out of it, it's just a shirt, and he's just a prince…

"Um…c-can I just ask…W-what's up with that s-shirt? It's…odd…"

"Oh…haha…it's just something I found in my closet – all my others are dirty, and we don't exactly have a way to wash it on board…"

"Oh, I – I see. Um, if you want…I mean, I'm a water bender, I could clean your clothes…at least a few of them so you don't have to wear that to – to dinner…"

Gods above, I do not want him wearing that past this room…what would Sokka say? What would his uncle think!

"Well, um…I mean, that would be great…that is, you don't have to, but if you could…"

"It's no problem, r-really! Here, I can just use your bathroom – do you have running water?" Katara shook off the awkwardness, briskly lifting the hamper and walking in the direction of the washroom. Zuko, however, had other ideas.

"Well, if you're going to go through the trouble of washing my clothes, I should at least help by carrying them…" He reached around her, snagging the hamper from her grasp.

Besides, he thought, there's some stuff in there that I don't want washed by her…he dug through the basket, pulling out his armor, which had been casually dumped in the hamper to get it out of the way.

"Oh – I should go put this away….I'll be right back, ok? The water system is easy to figure out, just turn the knobs…the one on the left is cold water; the right is hot, ok?"

He hurried back to his room, carrying the armor carefully so that she wouldn't notice the few pairs of clothes he'd stashed in it.

I need to be more careful, next time. I mean, it's great that she's doing my laundry, but she should have considered the fact that I'm a teenage guy on a whole ship full of other guys with nothing to do but think…about stuff. I hope she doesn't even consider washing Uncle's clothes…Agni knows what she might find!

Katara, meanwhile, had not missed his careful concealing of several pairs of underclothes and pants. But she didn't comment. She merely filled the large bathtub as he'd instructed, keeping her thoughts to herself.

Geez, I've traveled with two teenage boys for years now, and it not like they don't volunteer to do their own laundry every once in a while, for reasons they won't admit...Oh well, I doubt he's considered that aspect…I'm supposed to be a naïve water tribe peasant, not a "completely-aware-of-typical-guy-stuff" one, as far as he's concerned. Besides, it's not my business. I think.

Zuko, having stashed the clothing deep in his wardrobe, returned to watch her work. It was fascinating, really, how interesting it could be to watch a Water Bender doing a task as mundane as laundry. She dunked the clothes by hand first, and then pulled them out of the water, pulling delicate streams of water (in various shades of brown) from the garments and sending them down a convenient drain, placing the cleaned garments to one side and starting on the next. When she reached the undergarments on the bottom of the pile, Zuko fidgeted and blushed self-consciously, but she didn't seem notice, merely went about the cleaning process with efficiency and speed. Then, having finished, she turned to him. She blushed, very slightly, on seeing the shirt, but felt obliged to speak her piece about the clothes he'd hidden. It was all very well for him to try to conceal his activities, but it simply wasn't efficient, and it wasn't like she didn't know…what was the point in only washing the clothes he wasn't embarrassed about?

"Look, Zuko,can I just say -I know this probably hasn't occurred to you, but I travel with my seventeen year old brother and the fifteen year old Avatar. I doubt very much that you've managed to do anything worse to your clothes than they have over the years, all right? Since I'm already here, you might as well let me wash all your clothes, not just the ones that are only sweaty." Having finished her speech, she turned, now blushing bright red (although she'd spoken frankly enough, it was still embarrassing to see the shock coloring his face), and started folding the now-dry clothes.

"Oh…" Zuko couldn't think of anything more to say. She'd basically just verbally slapped him for thinking that she was a secluded little peasant who knew nothing of men. And she had a point – her brother, at least, if not the younger Avatar, was all male…hmm. Zuko went and got the other clothes and handed them over.

Katara chuckled softly at his expression (hovering somewhere on the knife's edge between embarrassment and gratitude) and finished his laundry. Then she reached into the completed pile and drew out a normal shirt, and tossed it to him.

"Ah – thanks…" again, Zuko was at a loss. How did she know exactly how to dumbfound him beyond any ability to speak? Was it just a female trait, or was it just her? He couldn't decide, so he busied himself taking off the disturbing shirt…which, as it happens, was easier to put on than to take off. He struggled with the knots he'd somehow managed to tie, tried to pull it off over his head, failed miserably, and tried to control his rising temper.

Katara, watching him from the background, giggled again. She took pity on him as he turned to stare at her, face very red from frustration and embarrassment, and went to help himget it off.

"Wow, this is a complicated shirt…" she commented under her breath, applying her thin, nimble fingers to the knot on his left sleeve. It undid itself readily enough, as did the one on the right sleeve, but predictably enough, the front was going to be more difficult. The shirt was designed to have a series of delicate, fancy looking knots running down the front; but such knots were clearly not Zuko's specialty, as he'd merely tied each one as tightly as he could.

She hesitated, reaching for the first knot, glancing up at his golden eyes for permission. He blushed, but made a pleading expression (the first of it's kind she'd ever seen on his face, and probably the last)– he knew as well as she did that he would never be able to get it off on his own.

With a slight, apologeticsmile, she drew closer, her fingertips brushing his chest as she began on the first knot. He swallowed. This was awkward. This was really awkward, just standing there, watching her take of his shirt, feeling her hands against his skin…

Shit! No! Bad thoughts out, good thoughts in…she's just helping me get out of this freakishly slutty shirt so I can put on a normal one…

Somehow, that didn't help – he could still feel her every movement against his suddenly over-sensitive flesh, and her every breath hitting his skin like a cool breeze off the sea…

She was onto the third knot, fingers working her way down his torso…

I don't know if I should be grateful or angry that this shirt is so long…Her hands brushed against his well-built abs, tickling him slightly and setting his every nerve on fire… Probably grateful, at this rate...

Katara glanced up at his face, again seeking permission as she worked her way even lower. The shirt extended well past his hips, and she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid contact with…certain areas…as she undid the knots. He nodded again, but in his eyes she detected a hint of fire that hadn't been there last time.

I hope that he's not angry at me for getting him into this situation…If Aang had never come here, he wouldn't have sweated through that shirt, none of this would have happened…She took a subtle glance at his face. Then again, he doesn't look angry…

Now she knelt, unable to reach the knots without bending uncomfortably or changing position. She could practically feel – no, check that, she could feel the heat radiating from his body, and glanced up again – only to wish she hadn't. Because she'd changed position, glancing up only gave her a spectacular view of his chiseled abs, not his face. Not to say that was a bad thing, but it was certainly distracting. Speaking of distracting, she'd better watch where her hands went before she drove him to distraction. Lost in her thoughts a moment ago, she'd gotten a little too close, and he'd started to fidget nervously.

"Oh…sorry!" She pulled back a bit and refocused her attention on the knots. Only one to go, right where she really didn't want to go – yet, her mind whispered. She snarled mentally at it and cautiously reached out to take hold of the knot, automatically pulling it closer to herself.

Unfortunately, two things were working against her. First, although she had already undone all but one of the knots, the shirt was still very tight, and gave little to no slack for her to pull on; second, she'd pulled with more strength than she'd intended to – and Zuko had already been somewhat off balance from the slight, inevitable contact she'd made with his skin. So, due to these two factors, when she pulled on the knot, she pulled on Zuko, who stumbled forwards. As startled by his movement as he was, she pulled back again in an effort to get further away – without letting go of the knot. She lost her balance and fell backwards, landing (fortunately) in the sunken bathtub, with Zuko on top of her.

She looked desperately into his face to see if he was angry with her, but didn't have time to judge as she was shoved underwater by his weight. As she got her bearings and came up from underwater, hands still nervously gripping that last knot, she sat down on the bench (for the bathtub was equipped with a deep side and a shallow side in the form of two benches), unconsciously pulling Zuko towards her again. She quickly finished untying the knot and helped him out of the shirt. She chose that moment, then, to look up, just in time to intercept his heated and desperate kiss.

Several Minutes Before – Zuko's point of view

She'd reached the last knot. It was almost over. He could feel that his face was flushed (by now, even his ears must surely be blushing), but ignored it as she knelt before him. Zuko, being neither too young nor to innocent to haveexperiencedanything sexual, knew some of the implications of such a position, and begged Agni not to let his uncle come bursting in at that moment. She had glanced up for permission before kneeling – as if he would, or could say no now, even though he knew full well that if he tried, he probably could have pulled the shirt off over his head. Then she'd glanced up again, in a half hearted manner, at an angle where she obviously wouldn't have been able to see his face; from what he'd seen of hers, she was totally lost in thought. Seeing as she wasn't concentrating on unlacing the knot or keeping her hands out of the 'danger zone', they fell – just a little bit – not quite in contact with him, but he could practically feel her closeness to him, and fidgeted, wanting, but not quite daring, to move closer to her.

She noticed the fidget and backed away, assuming he had been upset, but as preoccupied as his mind was, he didn't notice how far she'd pulled away until she'd pulled him with her. His mind was babbling, wondering why she'd pulledaway, even as she scrambledfurther back– then they were falling into the bathtub, the cold water a shock to his overheated skin. They were underwater, and for a moment he marveled at how pale his skin looked when overlapping hers – and that was all it took for him to completely lose control.

When they resurfaced, she pulled him close, yet again by accident, and he moved in as she worked on the last knot.Suddenly her hands were on his shoulders, partially encircling him, as she helped him shrug off the freakish shirt. He tossed it aside impatiently, knowing full well that this was a bad idea, and quiteunable to stop himself, much less convince himself that it really was a bad idea…touching her, kissing her, doing anything and everything he could imagine to her and with her, seemed like a good idea, at the moment…

She glanced up at his face, and he seized the opportunity, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her to him, even as she reached for him,and he lowered his head to crush his lips against hers. Her blue eyes met his smoldering gold ones for a moment before she returned the kiss. He pulled back, just for a moment, examining her face for signs that he'dupset her. Finding none, he kissed her again, exploring her mouth with his agile tongue, letting one of his hands drop off her shoulders to caress her wet, dark skin.

And unfortunately for both of their egos and dignities, that was when Iroh walked in.

Wow, that was long…and now i'm kinda glad I put the whole story as rated T or M…-;; I didn't actually intend for that to happen for a couple of chapters…but I liked the idea of her doing his laundry and the slutty shirt. Ah well, I hope none of you mind the "adult content"…it was spontaneous, but I think it fits rather well (besides, such things aren't usually planned!)- and you all know perfectly well that Iroh just had to walk in on them - it was inevitable. Ok, maybe it doesn't fit (it was a bit sudden, I suppose). But they needed to get that over with. And, as a side note, there is no Kataang in this at all, not one-sided or otherwise. He's the "annoying little brother" and Sokka is the "over protective older brother." Ok? Great! Cya next chapter!