Fanfiction sometimes is like tequila, it tastes better with green limes. The following interlude is just because summer is ending in the Northern Hemisphere and winter is ending in the Southern Hemisphere. And ... yes, because is good for the soul.

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XV. 4th Interlude, A slice of key lime pie

(Katara)

Toph closed the door remarkably discreetly for her usual self. We stood there, frozen for a second, and then I started giggling. I couldn't help it. His face was buried in my neck, and I could feel him chuckling against my skin, suddenly shivering. He removed is hand from my mouth, slowly, and moved it down my face, from my neck to my shoulder. His other hand, which had been grabbing my leg around his waist let me go slowly too, and I found myself standing, suddenly bereft of him, finding difficult to find my balance, between the laughs. He put both his hands against the wall, on the sides of my face, the flicker of the stove barely illuminating his features. He raised his head and smiled at me. I could only see one side of his face, his good side. His absolutely beautiful side. I regained my balance putting my hands on his chest.

"You have to give it to her." He said, whispering. "She's a good sport."

I tip-toed to graze his lips with mine.

"A very good sport." His hand traveled again to my neck, breathing deeply. We were both panting, suddenly realizing that for the first time in almost a year we had privacy, time and no compunction about what we were doing.

"I could use a bed." He said again whispering. "My knees are about to give up on me."

I assented in silence, grabbing his hand and walking towards the bed that Toph had just left.

We laid down facing each other. I slid my hand between his thick wool robes, caressing the black fur trim before letting my hand travel to his neck, and thinking that even in winter wools instead of silk he managed to look regal. Somehow the hunger had subsided, leaving us wondering at each other, like a dream from which we may wake up at any moment. He started caressing my neck too, his fingers on the mark he had left earlier that afternoon, when he had bitten me.

"Every day for almost a year I thought about this." He said. I blinked. My fingers kept touching the dimple where his neck connected with his shoulder, and I suddenly realized that they were shaking.

"Just about this?" I asked, but really not wanting to know. He sighed, and his face flickered, maybe it was a trick of the light but I saw raw emotion in his eyes.

"I didn't dare to think about more." He muttered. It sounded to me that thinking about this all the time was pretty daring, but who understands men? "If I do, I picture Aang and then …"

I put my fingers on his lips.

"Don't mention the word honor." I said meaning it. "Or I'm going to flip."

He kissed my fingertips.

"I'm so far away from my honor right now." He said. "And the worse is, I don't know if I care."

I sighed and turned on my back looking at the ceiling.

"You care." I said. "You care so much that tomorrow we are going to be back where we started. You are going to push me away, and act all princely and aloof and start talking about the Fire Nat…" he did not let me continue, he was kissing me again, between passionate and furious. When he was sure that I had shut up, he leaned his forehead against mine.

"I'm not going to push you away." He said assuredly, while his hands traveled up under my skirt, and he grabbed my thighs. "I don't think that I can do that anymore." He was playing me with his fingers again, like a musical instrument. "I just don't have the energy to keep away from you."

I stretched, trying not to moan.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Because even if you do, I'm talking to Aang tomorrow."

He stopped. The same emotion than before was in his eyes, flickering like a candle down to his lips.

"Are you calling the Ceremony off?" He asked, incredulous.

"I have to." I touched his face. He slowly started opening my robe, undressing me step by step and I realized belatedly that, regardless of whatever else we had been doing all day, we had kept our clothes on. He started raining kisses on my skin, warming me, not letting me be exposed to the cold. His final, and best gesture was to open his robes, exposing his chest and his body, before leaning on top of me, and heating my skin with his.

"I can't continue like this." I said. He kissed me again, opening my mouth with his, before positioning himself, deeply. I gasped, and then tried to talk, but there was no way I could concentrate in what I was trying to say. "Even if you leave, even if you don't love me back, I can't do it."

"I'm not leaving." He whispered in my ear, grabbing my legs and wrapping them around his waist. "I'm not leaving you. Ever."

I couldn't talk. Better still, I couldn't think. But something he said went through my already addled brain.

"What?" I asked half jokingly. "Are you moving to the South Pole?"

He was moving that way that had haunted my memories and my dreams since the first time. My first time. Our first time. More still, that had chased and fired my imagination probably since that day, long ago, when I first saw him bending on the snow. He was like eating sea prunes. Once you tasted one you knew that nothing else would taste that good, and you wanted no other food. Like Toph had said, like chocolates.

"No." He panted in my mouth. "You're moving to the Fire Nation."

This was not the moment to discuss such heavy matters. This was not the moment to discuss anything, period. Being with him again was the only thing I cared about at that moment, and honestly, I couldn't care less about his country, my land, his girlfriend, my fiancée, the future, his stupid, crappy honor or my guilt.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow." I said and suddenly I stopped. He stopped too, wondering. I grabbed his beautiful face in my hands. "But don't you dare mention your honor again tonight. I'm all honored-out. So be a good boy and give us a rest."

He grinned and started moving and kissing me again.

"I'm that good, ah?"

"Shut up." But I had to be honest for once. "You're better." I whispered.

"I've missed you so much." He said and it was the first time he had said it since he got to the South Pole. And then he said something else. "You feel like home. Being here like this with you, feels like coming home."