I actually had a very hard time coming up with something to write for this day, but no very creative or unexpected approach to this prompt came into my mind. As you probably already noticed, I'm not always aiming for the obvious and try to see the prompts in a different way, but how the heck can intimacy mean something else? First, I was thinking about psychological intimacy, but nothing not boring came into my mid about that.

So you got physical intimacy here. Oh, and this is not an AU, but it is set in the future, and Katara and Zuko have been reborn, their different ways of being raised changed them. I guess this story could be set a few days after or weeks after my story for the soulmates prompt.

I hope you enjoy reading!

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender.

Day 16: Intimacy

Panting, Zuko lets himself fall back on the mattress of his bed. Staring at the ceiling of his hotel room, he tries to enjoy the resting feelings. He's in no hurry to calm down, nor does he have to hide the power she has over him.

Sighing, he turns on his side, looking at the darker skinned woman next to him. Her chest rises quickly, and her mouth is still open, her eyes closed.

He smiles and puts an arm around her. Her eyes flutter open, and he turns her on her side, so that he can pull her against his chest.

Katara's soft hair tickles his jaw, but he simply presses closer to her, enjoying having her near him. She seems relaxed to him, and he has to smile into her neck.

"We're cuddling now?" she asks, wiggling a bit away from him.

He tries to rein in his disappointment, since she apparently isn't the cuddly type. But she only turns around on her other side so that she can look him in the eye now.

"Why not?" he asks.

"Just thought you'd be too cool or manly for that," she answers, a smile pulling at her lips.

Zuko immediately smiles back. "I don't care about that." He doesn't have to tell her that he normally doesn't cuddle with women he only sleeps with. He cuddled with his ex-girlfriend, because he actually likes cuddling, a lot. And he likes Katara a lot, too.

"What about you? You don't strike me as the cuddly type either," he says, searching her face. He doesn't know why he wants to know that. What if she's going to say something he won't like?

She looks away and presses her lips together, but reaches out to touch his arm. He's overly aware of that feeling.

"Probably," she says quietly, then looks back at him. "My Dad… is not the cuddling type, and I didn't have someone else, since I was eight. Maybe I'm just not used to it."

He takes her hand on his arm into his own and intertwines their fingers, bringing them up to his lips. "And before your mum died? Did you cuddle with her?"

Her smile seems soft, lighting his heart with golden fire. "Yeah. Dad cuddled with me back then, too. Sometimes I think everything that was good and soft about him died, when Mum died, too." Biting down her lip, she pulls her hand away from his and sits up, combing through her hair with her fingers.

Zuko sits up, too, and wants to reach for her again to comfort her, as she slips to the edge of the bed. Scowling, he gets up faster and grabs her wrist, before she can get up from bed. He pulls her back against him, so strongly that she falls on top of him.

"Zuko!" she growls in an annoyed manner, but he wraps his arms around her and holds her and doesn't let go, until she stops wiggling and calms down.

After a while, she slowly lets her head sink onto his chest.

Zuko strokes up and down her back and then shoves one hand into her hair to keep her like this. He simply wants to give her comfort and show her somehow that he really likes her and isn't only interested in her body. He wants to be there for her. Physically, when she needs a hug, and psychologically, when she needs someone to understand her.

It takes some time, but she relaxes finally, and then falls asleep.