Kiss THIS!

zutara drabbles. (Plot, what plot? Have you ever heard of this strange thing they call plot?) A series of drabbles concerning a certain fire prince and water peasant and an authoress' many ways to get them to kiss.

Taken from the sixteen zutara prompts on lj. This is the seventh one. Expect at least nine (in the single digits now, folks!) more. (I plan to finish) I don't know for sure if all of them will have a kiss, but I'm going to try.

This one deals more with Zuko and the voices-in-his-head, but also contains the tiniest of religious references. So small that if you blink, you may miss it, but I still felt the need to warn some of you. In fact, it might not even be a religious reference at all—but I've always heard forbidden fruit and such being used in the Bible and that's the only place I can think of off the top of my head where it was used (Adam and Eve, yadda yadda yadda…)

"Such a muddy line between/ The things we want/ And the things we have to do." –Sheryl Crow

"I'm sorry," She whispered, breaking away from the man in front of her. "I shouldn't have done that."

The kiss had been soft, short, and in the end, bittersweet, leaving behind only a dazed and confused Prince as he watched her walk away. A strange and peticulur desire pulsed through him—he had never felt this way before. Had he never been kissed before? That seemed strange—he could almost swear he had, (what sort of Prince would he be if he hadn't?) but no memory of any sort came to mind.

So he ran after her.

You're being stupid. His conscience berated him. You are a Prince. You can have any girl in the world at the your fingertips in seconds, why bother chasing after this nobody water peasant?

Yet still he ran—his conscience kept throwing logical, reasonable explainations as for why he should not have been chasing her—Think of your people! Think of your father! He may have banished you once, but if he knew what sort of thoughts are running through your head about this waterbender he would not think twice before he'd never let you return home! It is your duty as a Prince to put the Fire Nation before yourself in all accounts…

Yes, his head was filled with logic and reason, but it was his heart that was able to throw all of it out the window with one whisper, a single solitary name—Katara—and the heart knows how to speak louder than the mind ever could.

"Wait!" He called after her, stopping a few behind her; his voice becoming hoarse and thick from disuse. She paused, turning to look at him, shocked to see that he had followed her. "Why did you run? Why did you—"

I just want to know one thing—you could have any woman in the world, and yet still you chase after this waterbender—why?

He finds he can't answer himself at first, not yet--he's tired, sweaty, and the voices in his head can learn to wait their turn, there was someone more important to occupy his thoughts now. A pair of blue, teary eyes are staring back at him, a shallowed, small body so near his own, and he finds his answer inside the kiss that happens next.

Forbidden fruit always tastes the sweetest.

XXX
END

For the record, the last chapter did have a kiss—abiet, not a real big one, but a kiss on the hand does count as a kiss, at least in my book. Oh, and Katara wasn't royality—back in those days, even the poor were expected to dress up to go to balls and have gentlemen callers and things, Zuko just happened to be at the same one she was. :shrugs: Hope you liked this one—it was kinda rushed, but I still like it. (I knew I should have gotten out of bed at four in the morning and wrote it when I first had the idea…)

Read, review, enjoy!

Jak