A/N: Thank you all so much for taking the time to read and review this story. It means the world. I can't wait to see what you make of this chapter and very much look forward to your reactions.
xx-Kitten.
Brightest Nights or Darkest Days
By Kittenshift17
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When they finally reached the town just before nightfall, Zuko was tired, cranky, and ready to throttle Meng. He'd thought Katara had been annoying with the way she alternated between prattling idly to fill the time, and falling silent in contemplation, fatigue or boredom. Meng was a thousand times worse because Meng didn't ever seem to fall silent. The whole day had been spent, trudging along, listening to her endlessly exclaiming over the Katara's Bending skills as she cleared the road for them to travel. Or over how cute the trees looked, all bent over and hunched beneath heavy blankets of snow.
She'd prattled about the sight of small animals trying to go about their lives and keep from starving. She'd excitedly exclaimed over the delight it was whenever they encountered other travellers searching for missing loved ones due to separation during the storm. She'd cost them almost half their travel time, insisting on making conversation with everyone they met. The only blessing had been that all of them had been travelling in the opposite direction, otherwise Zuko was certain the girl would've asked them to come along.
For the most part, Katara had managed to keep her occupied in the sense of having her regale them all with stories about her boring childhood as a means to keep her from constantly squealing with excitement whenever she spotted an animal. Zuko had begun to suspect that wherever she'd come from, she'd led a very sheltered life, unable to see the world. In fact, between her wonder at the world around her, the nigh on constant way she hung off Kuzon, shagged Kuzon, or otherwise kept as close to him as humanly possible, Zuko had begun to the think the girl had actually run away from her family to be with Kuzon.
It was something he planned to confront the other Fire Bender about just as soon as he wouldn't have to listen to Meng interrupting every five seconds.
"The hotel first?" Katara asked when they finally reached the outskirts of town.
"Oh, we're going to stay in a hotel?" Meng asked excitedly. "That will be fun. Do you think they'll have rooms? They might all be taken. Not that I'd mind sleeping in an igloo again. That was fun. I think I'd like to visit a Water Tribe village or city one day. I liked the ice walls and the cosiness, even if it was colder than I'm used to."
"Meng?" Kuzon asked of his girlfriend before Zuko could actually tell her to shut her pie hole.
"Yes?" she asked, looking up at the Fire Bender with big innocent eyes, completely naïve and oblivious to how annoying she really was.
"It's time to button the chatter, beautiful," Kuzon said, and Zuko could tell her chatter was getting to him too, even though he did a good job of hiding it. "There are Fire Nation soldiers in this village and they'll take issue with anyone drawing attention to themselves or causing trouble, you understand?"
"Oh." Meng frowned. "Am I being too loud? Gods, I've probably talked your ears off. Again. Sorry about that. I just like to talk, you know?"
Kuzon put his hand over her mouth before she could continue to justify herself.
"Hush," he told her. "Before Zuko actually pulls a knife on you. He's resisted valiantly all day, and I've got to tell you babe, I can't take him in a fight."
Meng's eyes went wide, eyeing Zuko. Zuko leered at her coldly in return before turning his attention to Katara.
"If anyone asks, my name if Lee," he told the other two, touching Katara's arm lightly in question when she suddenly stiffened, cocking her head to one side.
"There are soldiers coming," Katara said. "A patrol. We need to get out of sight. Zuko, keep your hood up and let me do the talking. We're just four kids looking to stay at the Inn, got it? Refugees heading for Ba Sing Se. Nothing else. No one says a word. Alright, Meng?"
Kuzon had his hand over the girl's mouth, but she nodded her agreement. Trudging once more, they all followed Katara's lead, keeping their hoods up, hunching into the weight of their packs, and make slow progress toward the flashing sign advertising rooms for rent at the Inn.
"Do you have enough coins?" Kuzon asked of Zuko in a mutter.
Zuko patted his coin-purse in return – full of stolen Fire Nation gold – and nodded.
"Rooming away from us?" Kuzon guessed.
Zuko glanced at the boy who'd once been his childhood friend. The truth was that Kuzon wasn't that bad. Zuko's only real gripe about him was that he and Meng were a package deal, and that he kept fucking his girlfriend when Zuko had to listen given Meng's inability to keep quiet, no matter her activity.
"If we can get room at the opposite ends of the hotel, I'll pay double," Zuko replied. He'd expected Kuzon to look insulted and he didn't quite know what to make of it when the other boy laughed instead.
"Sorry, Prince Zuko," he muttered. "Thank you for not killing her."
"Yeah. Since you insist on fucking her every other second, if you could at least shove something in her mouth to shut her up, I'd appreciate it," Zuko replied.
Kuzon smirked wickedly.
"We disturbed you? I thought you'd be used to having no privacy. You're the prince. You constantly have people invading your space, rubbing your feet, washing your hair, all that."
"When I was at the palace they waited on me while I did whatever I wanted. You are making me endure your pleasure. That's not how this works. I haven't enjoyed the supposed luxury of palace life in five years. Most of the time I barely tolerate the Water Bender."
Kuzon raised one eyebrow but before they could continue speaking, Katara shushed the pair of them and led them into the office of the Inn.
"Hello! Travellers? How exciting! Welcome to Madame Yin's Inn. Can I get you a room?"
"Two rooms," Katara said.
"Away from each other," Zuko added.
"Oh, wonderful. Two couples? Or are separate beds required?"
"Two couples," Katara answered for the four of them while Kuzon turned his attention to Meng, clasping her hands when she opened her mouth to argue with the idea of rooms apart or to spout nonsense about the sagging and dated décor.
Zuko handed over the money for the rooms when the woman asked for it, ensuring that they were actually given rooms at different ends of the hotel despite the way the clerk looked at him strangely.
"Should we freshen up and then meet for dinner?" Meng suggested brightly.
Zuko couldn't contain his groan.
"Why don't we fend for ourselves tonight and see how things look tomorrow?" Kuzon suggested instead, laughing at Zuko's reaction while Katara began flailing for some kind of excuse to avoid spending any more time with the other two.
"Oh," Meng said, looking sad. "Alright. I suppose it has been a long day. I guess… we'll see you tomorrow, then?"
"We'll see you in the morning, Meng," Katara nodded. "Unless the blizzard picks up again, I expect we'll wander about a bit in search of our missing friends, get some more supplies, and then be on our way again."
"So soon?" Meng frowned.
"You can stay longer, if you like," Zuko suggested. "You don't have to travel with us."
From the amused expression on Kuzon's face, Zuko knew that the other boy found his attitude and his frustration with Meng hilarious but he was too tired and too cranky to care.
"Of course we want to keep travelling with you, don't we, Kuzon? Katara and Z…Lee are great. And we're all travelling in the same direction. We might as well go together," Meng said, almost slipping up and using his real name.
"Let's just get some rest tonight, Meng," Kuzon said. "I'm sure Lee and Katara wouldn't leave without us."
He tugged on her hand, pulling the chatty girl away in the direction of their room and Zuko pitied the poor fool that he had to spend the whole night in her presence, too.
"It would be very wrong of us to leave without them, wouldn't it?" Katara muttered to him, tugging his sleeve gently before making for the room they'd been given – mercifully on a different floor and at the other end of the hotel.
"No."
Katara laughed at him, and it amused Zuko that she was as frustrated with Meng as he was.
"She just doesn't stop talking," Katara complained. "I wonder if this is how Aang and Sokka felt about me in the beginning."
"You don't talk that much," Zuko informed her. "I'd have told you to shut your pie hole if you did."
"You did tell me to shut my pie hole when we were travelling the first day, before we ran into them," Katara reminded him. "And you haven't told her to shut her pie hole."
"I didn't think I'd manage it without violence," Zuko replied.
Katara laughed again as she unlocked the room they'd paid for, dumping her pack on the floor and beginning to peel herself out of the layers of clothing she'd worn for trudging through the snow all day.
"Give me all your things," she said over her shoulder as she wandered toward the bathroom within their small room. "I think five days' worth of wear warrants another wash, don't you?"
"For me, or the clothes?" he asked.
"Both," she told him. "It's a copper bathtub. I'll fill it, you heat it, deal?"
"Planning to share it with me?" he smirked as he followed her, setting his pack down at the end of the bed and removing his weapons before stripping slowly out of his outer layers.
Katara scoffed. "I don't share."
"Of the two of us, I'm supposed to be the spoiled prince, remember?"
She rolled her eyes at him while untangling part of her shirt from her hair where it had gotten stuck.
"Just heat the tub, Zuko," she replied, Bending water in through the bathroom window to fill it.
"Are you going to do laundry first, or bathe first? I'm not waiting around naked if you're going to soak for an hour and aren't planning to let me join you," Zuko told her, noting when he entered the bathroom that it was a large tub – definitely big enough for two.
"I get the feeling that sharing the tub would be a very bad idea," she muttered, frowning slightly when she'd stripped down to just her sarashi wraps.
"As opposed to sharing the bed?"
"We're not naked in bed," she reminded him.
As though he could have forgotten? Every night he crawled into the bedroll next to her, all but naked, with his fingers itching to run across her soft skin and every night he kept his hands to himself despite the throbbing ache in his groin and the thickest sexual tension he'd ever had with anyone, ever. Zuko pulled his shirt off over his head until he was standing only in his undershorts before Fire Bending the bathwater until steam rose from it and it bubbled slightly with the heat. He found a bottle of bubble-bath and dumped some of it into the water before heating it even more to make them foam.
He met her gaze, smirking, before very deliberately lowering his hands to his shorts, planning to strip out of them and climb into the tub. His eyes dared her to keep watching and he smirked all the more when her cheeks flushed crimson, trailing over his body heatedly.
"Do the bubbles count as being not naked, Water Bender?" he asked, laughing very softly when she looked away while he stripped before he got into the tub.
He was momentarily distracted by the pure pleasure of the warmth and comfort of the hot water soothing his aching muscles and warming his chilled form. Katara looked over sharply at the sound when he sank down into the water to his chin, sighing and relaxing.
"You're not making this easy, Zuko," she complained quietly, frowning at him.
"Feeling a little tense, Water Bender?"
She made a sound of frustration before throwing her shirt at him. It landed over his face and he got the feeling she'd appreciate it if he left it there long enough for her to strip when he heard her muttering about her wraps, and what a jerk he was, and how horrible Meng and Kuzon were for being so inappropriate.
When the water sloshed slightly, Zuko smirked, waiting for her to settle into the water, leaning her back against the other end of the bathtub. He suspected he was doomed when, just as he'd done, she groaned at the warmth and the pleasure of being submerged.
"Decent yet?" he asked, pulling the shirt from over his face to regard her carefully from the other end of the tub.
She was blushing pink, the bubbles hiding her naked form from view, her fingers tapping out a beat against the edge of the bathtub.
"This was a bad idea," she said, frowning slightly when he regarded her for several long minutes in silence, simply watching her. She was nervous, he could tell. If he was being honest, he was nervous too. The only time he'd ever spent naked with a girl had been paid for and they tended to want to get them job done before they went on their way with their coins.
"You're worried about the reaction of your friends if they find out you've been travelling with me, let alone if they find out you shared a bath with me," he said.
She nodded. "To them, you're still the enemy who keeps trying to kill us. If Sokka could see us…"
"If Sokka could see us, I'd be asking what he was doing bursting in on his sister while she was bathing," Zuko said. She snorted, rolling her eyes at him.
"You'd be having to defend your own life if he did that," she told him.
"I can take him in a fight," Zuko shrugged. "I've done it before."
"It's still a bad idea," she said.
"Because they'll be angry with you?"
"Well, that and because you're still Prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko. You're Fire Nation royalty and I'm just some nobody from the Southern Water Tribe. We're currently stuck together to travel, but this will get awkward, fast, if we…" she trailed off, looking away.
Zuko supposed she had a point. If he fucked her and it was terrible or it made things awkward, travelling together would be a nightmare. Then again, he'd already been kissing her and it wasn't awkward. It felt good and it made him want to do a whole lot more than just kiss her. But what about after? He'd told her that he no longer planned to capture the Avatar; that he would overthrow his father and take over as a Fire Lord who could end the war.
But that wouldn't be easy. It would certainly suggest that, if the Avatar would have him, Zuko could be the one to teach the kid Fire Bending. Which would mean more time spent around Katara. Eventually though, he would have to take his crown, and what then? He suspected even after spending barely a week with the little Water Bender that she wasn't the type of girl that he could just walk away from. If he fucked her, there might be no going back.
How would his people react to that idea, he wondered. Would they accept a Water Bender as their Fire Lady? He doubted it. They accepted Fire Benders and non-Benders and no one else. Though if he planned to make a show of ending the war and pushing for cooperation and amends with the other Nations, taking a Water Tribe girl for a wife would set quite the example.
Zuko frowned, realising he was spending entirely too much time with her if he was considering how his Nation might react should he marry her. Katara was right. This was a bad idea. They were doomed to failure if they got involved with each other, he was sure of it. Could they walk away at the end of anything sexual or even, potentially, something romantic without ending up enemies once more?
He'd only been travelling with her for a short time, but he'd found he secretly enjoyed her. She annoyed him in the sense that everyone in the world annoyed him merely by existing, but as company went, she was better than most. She didn't harp on at him to do anything he didn't want to do or lecture him about how to be a better person the way Uncle did. She didn't prattle incessantly like Meng, and she was better company than Kuzon. She was easy going and tended to go with the flow, very rarely letting his foul temper bother her unless it was to provoke him to an even higher rage for the sake of making him realise he was being a jerk.
She was fun to spar with and unlike everyone he'd ever known, she actually played with him. She made jokes at his expense, invaded his personal space whenever it suited her, teased him, toyed with him, threw snowballs at him for the fun of it and she knew when to draw the line to keep from turning light hearted fun into something else. Worse, she walked around with that tight, powerful little figure hidden away under her many layers each day until bed-time, when she stripped them all off and climbed into bed with him, snuggling into his arms and letting him steal her body heat.
Even more confusing was the way their chi brushed together, his so often enveloping hers and making him tingle. He didn't understand that at all and he was more than a little desperate to find his uncle just to ask what it was all about and what it meant.
"It's a terrible idea for a hundred reasons," Zuko agreed with her quietly, looking down at the bubbles separating their bodies for a minute, shifting slightly when she tried to get more comfortable, her foot sliding under his calf to curl around the back of his knee as she reclined more fully against the far end of the bathtub.
"I mean, if it was just going to be short-lived interaction and we'd go our separate ways soon, it would be less complicated. But if you're planning to turn traitor to your father's rule to help bring him to justice and end this war, then you're probably the best bet Aang has at learning Fire Bending, Zuko. If you actually mean to work against Ozai, then I know we could use your help. Aang still needs to master Water Bending, and he needs to find an Earth Bending teacher first, but he'll need a Fire Bending teacher soon, too. You could… well, I don't know what your plans are, but if you want to help us take down Ozai, I think Sokka and Aang might forgive all the attempts you made to capture Aang or kill us."
She held his gaze seriously for a long moment, looking like she might not even mind the idea of spending a good deal longer with him, even after they found her friends and his Uncle. She looked hopeful that he'd been serious about switching sides and working toward reclaiming his birth-right through means that didn't involve sacrificing the Avatar.
Zuko wondered how she thought they would pull that off when they'd been kissing for the sake of their charade and when that meant spending even more time together. With the sexual tension already palpable, he doubted they would survive putting anything more off for long. He knew his own strength of will was slipping. Spirits, he'd take her right now if he didn't think she'd object.
"I have to find my Uncle, first," he said, frowning a little.
Katara nodded and Zuko wondered what she was thinking about when she frowned a little too. Before he could ask, she opened her mouth to tell him.
"Will you stay?" she asked in a whisper, her bright blue eyes searching his face for some hint that he might actually stay and work with the Avatar to bring down his father.
"Do you want me to?" Zuko countered, wondering if she would be bold enough to admit one way or the other if she wanted to keep him around.
She opened her mouth like she might say something before closing it again and frowning deeper. She looked him over critically as she reclined against the end of the tub, her legs twisted up with his under the bubbly water. Her eyes travelled over the hair he'd been slowly growing out to better hide his scar and his identity as the Fire Prince. They travelled over his face, the harsh line of his oft-furrowed brow and the puckered flesh of his scar.
Finally, thoughtfully, she nodded her head. Zuko blinked slowly, absorbing the idea that she'd want him to stay.
"Why?" he asked.
"Why would I want you to stay?" she confirmed.
Zuko nodded.
Katara frowned again. "You challenge me," she said softly. "You don't expect me to pick up after you or rely on me to make sure you don't get sunburnt or that you've had enough to eat or that you've got clean clothes to wear. You challenge me to think about things from a perspective I hadn't considered and you challenge me to be a better fighter. I like sparring and training with you, and even though you're often the grumpiest person I've ever met, you do have a sense of humour buried under that layer of snobbish fury."
She grinned when he flicked her toes in punishment. Zuko was annoyed with himself for the little glow of happiness he felt deep inside when she listed some of the things she liked about him.
"Things would've been a lot easier if you'd never kissed me," he told her, eyeing her carefully in return.
"Maybe," she admitted. "But we'd likely have both been arrested if I hadn't."
"We've both escaped incarceration before," Zuko reminded her. Katara nodded in agreement. Yes, they'd both been captured before. Sometimes he'd been the one capturing her and her friends, and they always escaped. At the North Pole, after he'd captured Aang, he'd been tied up and hauled back to the Tribe's spiritual oasis, but he'd escaped that too. He'd freed the Avatar when Zhao had captured him, too. Neither of them were strangers to wiggling their way out of chains.
"Maybe I didn't think about that," she admitted, blushing a little. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Actually, no, it seemed like I needed to get your attention before you got caught and I suspected that if I didn't latch onto you, you'd make a big scene claiming not to know me before realising it was me and then trying to take me captive, thinking you'd be able to use me to catch Aang."
Zuko smirked, knowing he'd likely have done exactly that had she not assaulted him. He continued to eye her, both of them watching the other from the far end of the bathtub, keeping their hands to themselves despite being naked together in such close proximity.
"So," she said finally, her cheeks turning pink once more. "We're agreed that anything other than the things we have to do for the sake of hiding your identity in the public eye is an ill-conceived idea?"
"No," he replied before he'd really thought through his answer.
Katara's head jerked up, her eyes wide as she stared at him.
"No?" she asked.
"The more we do out there, the more we're going to want to do in here," Zuko told her.
"Anything we do, anywhere, will be things we have to live with forever, Zuko," Katara said softly. "Do you understand that? We could have sex now, right here in this bathtub, but we'll have to live with it afterwards. We might temporarily feel better with the alleviation of tension, but are you going to be able to look me in the eye tomorrow? Or next week? Or next year? Are you going to be able to go on to become Fire Lord one day, knowing that you slept with me? If your Uncle or the people of the Fire Nation found out you'd slept with me, would you still think it had been a good idea? That it was worth the momentary dissipation of tension between us today?"
Zuko thought about it, wondering if she realised that the mere acknowledgement of the fact that she wanted to fuck him made him think that any consequence would be worth it as long as he didn't have to deal with one more awkward and painful erection in her presence that he couldn't relieve and was unable to will away. He thought about telling her as much, but suspected that she'd say no for the sake of making him think about it properly.
"What do you want, Katara?" Zuko asked seriously. "Setting aside the obvious answer that you currently want me, what do you want? Release? Fun? A distraction? Or something else?"
He wondered if she would realise he was asking if she wanted this to turn into something else. They were already playing at being a couple, and Zuko wondered if maybe they should be. As she'd pointed out, she obviously liked some things about him. He could admit that he liked things about her too. He liked that she played and that she was quick to laugh and so easy going. He liked the way she occasionally forgot herself and would begin humming some Water Tribe song he'd never heard of, or the way she absently traced patterns on his skin when they were in bed at night, curled together for warmth and comfortable with one another.
"I don't know," Katara whispered. "I can't think clearly knowing you're sitting there naked."
"Do you want to…?" Zuko frowned, trailing off, realising he'd been about to ask if she wanted to be with him.
"I want to make sure this won't turn awkward, Zuko," she admitted. "Spirits, I want you, but I don't want to deal with you taking your temper out on me if we did anything and it was terrible or awkward. I don't want to deal with tip-toeing around you afterward, now or when we run into Iroh or Sokka and Aang. I don't want to try navigating the mess of something broken with you if you're planning to stick around and help Aang, Sokka and I defeat your father. I don't want to just be some quick thrill, either. If this was just something for the night and we were going our separate ways in the morning, I'd probably already be on your lap, but it's not. We're going to have to talk to each other tomorrow. We're going have to talk to each other weeks from now."
"You know the only way to find out if it will be awkward is to roll the dice, don't you?" Zuko asked, raising his only eyebrow at her.
She sighed, closing her eyes and slumping back against the edge of the tub, nodding her head slowly.
"It hasn't been awkward so far," he added when she didn't say anything for several minutes.
Katara laughed. "Yes, it has!"
"Not because we've been kissing," Zuko argued. "If it's been awkward so far it's because we've only been kissing, whilst both tense and wanting to do more. Don't deny it, I know you're attracted to me, Water Bender."
"I'm sure it wouldn't be this bad if the other two weren't constantly at each other," Katara said.
Zuko doubted that.
"It was this bad before they turned up," he disagreed. "If it hadn't been, you wouldn't have been stripping me and kissing me on the bed when those two morons showed up."
Katara sighed again, her cheeks turning pink. Her eyes were still closed and she looked like she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Sighing softly himself, Zuko realised that she needed more time to think about it all and as frustrating as it was to even contemplate waiting when he wanted her now, he would wait. He was a Fire Bender, after all, he was no stranger to the need for restraint and he wouldn't push her.
Reaching for a wash cloth and the soap that had been set on a little table by the bath, he wet the towel and soaped it up, submerging himself completely for a moment before scrubbing at his travel-grimy skin. Katara opened her eyes when he nudged her leg, handing her a second wash cloth and the soap. She frowned slightly for a moment.
Zuko suspected she was going to protest the idea of bathing fulling when he was in the tub with her, given that the soap would kill all the bubbles and that eventually, they were going to see each other naked. He decided he didn't care about that. She'd seen almost all of him already, and she'd certainly touched almost every square inch of his body in her sleep through his clothes. He suspected that eventually, after some more hesitation from her, she was going to give in and fuck him. Until then, she could get used to the sight of him naked – maybe it would make her feel more comfortable with the idea.
When he was clean and sick of soaking, the tension between them increasing the longer they sat and bathed in silence, Zuko met her eyes.
"What do you want for dinner?" he asked seriously.
"I don't know," she admitted.
"I'll bring you something," he said.
"You're going out again?" she asked. "Without me?"
"You wanted to do laundry," he reminded her. "Come with me if you want to, or stay and finish washing your hair and doing whatever else you want to do. I'll get food and come back."
"We should ask around to see if Iroh, Sokka or Aang are here," Katara said. "And it would make more sense for me to go out alone, than you. This village is crawling with soldiers. They'll recognise you."
Zuko frowned. He needed to get away from her, or he was liable to test his own self-control, especially if she was planning on standing up out of the tub and revealing herself to him.
"What do you think they'll do to you if they think you're travelling alone or lost?" he challenged.
She sighed. "Well, then we'll have to go together, won't we? Just… do you have a change of clothes in your pack?"
Zuko nodded. He'd stolen a few pairs of the fire-nation clothes for soldiers from the barracks they'd raided so that he'd have something warm and durable to wear under his outer coat.
"Alright, then let's get out and we'll go. The laundry can soak until we get back," said Katara.
Zuko nodded before smirking to himself just a little bit as he levered himself up and out of the tub without giving her any warning. The sharp gasp of her indrawn breath when she caught sight of him in all his naked glory made Zuko laugh.
"Zuko!" she hissed, clapping her hand over her eyes.
"What?" he asked, feigning innocence as he grabbed one of the towels from the rack and wrapped it around himself. He hissed when she used her Bending to pull all the water from his skin without looking.
He laughed harder when she peeked between her fingers before he'd fully secured his towel, whimpering as she covered her eyes again.
"You can look, Water Bender," he told her. "I don't mind. I'm used to having peasants see me naked."
That got her looking. She glared at him for the peasant remark and Zuko smirked. "Getting out?"
"Not with you watching," she said.
"Wimp."
Katara spluttered with indignation. "I'm not a wimp. I just think it's a bad idea to let you see me naked when you're already making a tent of that towel."
Zuko glanced down at the front of the towel he wore. It was tented high with his arousal and he smirked, lifting his eyes back to look at her.
"All those bubbles are gone, Water Bender," he pointed out, nodding indicatively at the bath-water. It was a little milky from their bathing, but he could clearly see her through it.
She gasped, clapping her hands over her breasts and Zuko laughed again.
"Just get out and get dry so we can go, would you?" he asked. "I'm not going to jump you just because I happen to see you naked."
She narrowed her eyes at him and Zuko realised she'd taken it as a challenge when she let go of her boobs, levered herself up in the bath and stood in all her naked, dripping wet glory. If his body wasn't already standing at attention, it would've done then. He'd gotten a peek at her the last time they'd shared a bathing space before leaving the last town, but to see her defiantly glaring at him whilst waiting to be given her towel was something else entirely.
Digging deep for his restraint, Zuko handed her the towel, his eyes fixed on her face no matter how badly he wanted to drink in the sight of her naked. She made a face when he gave her the towel without looking and he smirked, knowing that she'd been torn between wanting him to look - maybe even to be overcome with lust - and wanting him to prove that he could be a gentleman when the need arose. When she began drying off, bending the water from her skin before wrapping the towel around herself, Zuko left the bathroom to raid his pack for something clean to wear.
She followed and Zuko hid his smirk when she returned to the bathroom to dress despite the fact that he'd dropped the towel where she could get another glimpse at him before dressing. When she returned - fully clothed once more - she handed him his outer coat for warmth.
"What do you want to eat?" she asked as they left the hotel room, venturing out into the cold once more in search of a meal they wouldn't have to cook themselves.
"Something hot," Zuko muttered, looping his arm around her shoulders and tucking her into his side to fight against the cold and to warn way the soldiers who were patrolling the street that began eyeing her the minute they spotted her.
"They serve tea and meals at that shop down there," Katara pointed with her free arm while looping the other around his waist. Zuko hid his reaction at how easily she did it, obviously unaware of the soldiers' interest in her and simply reacting to the fact that he'd hugged her first. "Do you think we'll hear anything about Sokka and Aang?"
She sounded hopeful that she might be reunited with her brother and her friend soon. Zuko knew the feeling. Every new village or town he'd entered since he'd been separated from his Uncle filled him with new hope to locate the man, but he wasn't holding out much hope for this village. Zuko doubted his Uncle would come here unless he had to, knowing the soldiers would be here and might recognise him. Not only was he on the Wanted posters, but he'd probably trained most of them before retiring from the war as a General after he'd lost Lu Ten.
"Don't get your hopes too high, Katara," Zuko muttered his lips by her ear. "They probably aren't here."
She sighed heavily as they made their way down the street, deflating a bit at the thought that maybe she wouldn't find her friends just yet after all. The soldiers passed them in silence, dismissing them at the thought that they were just some young couple on their way out for dinner and illustrating to Zuko all over again that the ranks of the Fire Nation army seemed filled with absolute idiots. They were two new faces in town and they could be anybody. Logic dictated that they should at least be spoken to or questioned of any suspicious activity but the soldiers seemed more interested in getting out of the cold that in focusing on two people in Earth Kingdom garb taking an evening stroll.
"We need to buy supplies before we leave tomorrow," Katara said, glancing up at him quickly to make sure he was listening when they were almost at the restaurant.
Zuko glanced down to meet her gaze and realised she was silently asking whether he planned to purchase supplies in the town, or to raid the local barracks for what he wanted.
"We'll do some shopping in the morning when the markets open," he said, seeing no reason to draw more attention to them after the amount of attention the Blue Spirits had drawn in the last town. If they got caught again, the Fire Nation might just be clever enough to figure out which way he was headed and he didn't want that. He'd prefer to use the money they'd stolen from the barracks to buy things they needed instead.
Katara nodded her head, smiling a little and Zuko could tell she preferred to be honest and buy things rather than steal them - not just because of the risk if they got caught, but because she was generally a law-abiding person. Most of the time he did too. He saw no problem with stealing from his own Nation – after all, he was their Prince and his family had probably funded whatever supplies they'd been given – but he didn't like to steal from the struggling people in these little Earth Kingdom villages. Their lives were hard enough without thieves.
The thought floored him as he had it and Zuko realised with a small jolt that he didn't see the other Nations as the enemy or as nuisances who stood in the way of what he wanted anymore. They were just… people. People with lives and families and friends and pets, and they didn't deserve to have all of that uprooted and taken away because his father's – his Nation's – bloodlust and thirst for power was endless.
He'd been thinking for a while that he didn't like the ruthlessness of his people, but as the thought occurred to him that he wanted to do better and be better, and that he wanted to end the war and redeem his Nation, Zuko suddenly knew what he was going to do. Yes, he would find his Uncle. Maybe they would go to Ba Sing Se, maybe they wouldn't. That would depend on Katara and on the Avatar. Because if he was going to turn full blown traitor and betray his people in order to save them, he was going to do it with the help of this bright-eyed little Water Bender and the world's last hope.
Katara made a little noise of surprise when Zuko used his grip on her shoulders to steer her around in front of him, his free hand coming up to grip her chin and tilting her mouth to his. He kissed her deeply right there in front of the busy shop for all to see. She melted against him, their chi sliding together, pressing and touching and settling together in a way that he was sure he was growing addicted to. She made a soft sound between pleasure and confusion and Zuko swallowed it, wanting to devour her, hoping that she'd make up her mind about letting him have her soon.
Because he realised right then that he wanted her. He didn't know if he even liked her, let alone loved her – or if he was even capable of love - but he wanted her. He knew he liked kissing her and that he was going to like doing whatever else she'd let him do with her. He knew that when he thought about the plans he was beginning to make for his future, he'd begun calculating her into them. Maybe as his girlfriend – maybe not. That would depend on her. But Zuko knew he needed her help and that he wanted to help her take down his father and right the balance of the world again.
It hit him like a blow to the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and almost bowling him over. When Katara broke the kiss, pulling back to blink up at him dazedly for a moment, she looked surprised and confused but a smile was spreading across her slightly swollen lips.
"What was that for?" she asked breathlessly, glancing around for some source of trouble that he might be trying to hide from by kissing her.
Zuko didn't answer, he simply took her hand and led her into the restaurant, not even noticing the rather chubby man with long grey hair who was watching him with happiness and confusion and wonder all at once.