Title: Midsummer Madness
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Author: BurningIce
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Rating: M
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Summary: Katara learns that there are both advantages and drawbacks to being a female water bending master, and pays back a favor to an old friend..
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Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. If I did it would have been considerably less awesome, but Katara and Zuko would have totally gotten together, so I guess it's a toss up.
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Chapter 15: The Dungeon
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Jun sat at her chair, sipping her fire whiskey. The Earth Kingdom men who were drinking and gambling knew better than to bother her. Nobody bothered her unless they wanted to hire her, or wanted a broken nose.
She took another shot, then pulled out her dagger and used it to clean under her nails. Behind her two idiots had started punching each other, yelling about their sister and lover. Jun wasn't sure if the man's sister was his lover, or the other man loved his sister, either way they were making an unpleasant scene just when she wanted to return to the bar and buy another shot. She was still aggravatingly sober.
A red cloaked figure slipped into the seat opposite her, Jun could tell it was a woman by her delicately polished nails, even though a hood obscured the woman's face.
"Bounty Hunter Jun?"
"Who is asking?" She replied curtly.
The woman pulled a lady slipper flower out of her sleeve and placed it on the table between them, "We are."
"What is it? I am informed of the latest comings and goings." June snapped, irritated that the lady was standing between her and her liquor.
"This is a commission." The woman replied, "I am hiring you, I want you to lead me to someone."
"Mm" Jun laced her fingers, "This wouldn't have anything to do with the escaped Fire Nation Princess would it?"
The figure shrunk down in the seat as a glass shattered against the wall of their table, "We're prepared to offer any hunter double the Fire Lord's bounty for her."
"You have my attention." Jun leaned closer, "Double the bounty, huh? I bet that's cause you want her alive?"
"And unharmed." The woman agreed, shaking the glass off her cloak.
"And to where shall I deliver her? You're not exactly easy to get in touch with, Fire Lady." It was her, Jun would wager a million coin on it.
The woman cringed, then tugged the cloak further over her face, "I'm coming with you. I'm to make sure there are no lose ends."
"You're serious? What did they say? They cannot expect you to kill your own daughter."
"I am not at liberty to discuss that, My orders are confidential, and you are not of a high enough rank to demand them."
Jun scowled, "It's my business if you're hiring me, I'm putting my life in danger for your mission." It was not true, Jun would high tail it out of there if there was any threat of her own personal danger. Bandits, runaways, and murders were one thing, Azula was another. Azula was utterly insane, Jun had heard whisperings through the network of the women of the order as well as her fellow bounty hunters.
"You have vowed to risk your life in service to the Order already, your argument has no legs to stand on." The woman scooted over on her seat as a huge man was flung against the table, Jun stomped hard on his groin, using the heel of her boot and the man howled and fell to the floor.
Jun rolled her eyes, pledging to the order had been the only way to get where she wanted to be in the world. She had wanted to learn to ride, and since she was not born a bender, to fight with weapons, to hunt, and to frighten those around her. Sometimes it felt as though she had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, the Order was much stricter.
"I'll need something from the person to track them with, something that has their smell on it." She informed the woman, running her finger along the rim of her shot glass.
The Fire Lady reached into her cloak and pulled out a doll, it's head and right leg were torn almost all the way off, both it's arms were missing, it's torso had a huge tear through it as though it had been impaled, and it's hair was almost all shorn off. Someone had dripped red ink all over it's face and limbs, making it appear as though it was dripping blood from multiple wounds. She picked it up for a better look, and the head flopped sickeningly to the side.
"Shit, your daughter was crazy from when she was a kid!" Jun crinkled her nose in disgust.
"Careful!" The woman stood up as if to snatch it back, but Jun yanked it out of her reach. Clearly it had a lot of sentimental value to the woman, and she wondered if there was any of the princess's scent left on the damn thing.
"We have a deal, but I have a few more demands than just double the bounty." Jun grinned, "There is someone I want to apprentice with, they've continually rejected me because of my profession, you and your golden tongue are going to make it happen."
"Agreed." The woman held out her hand and they shook on it.
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"That's the last of it." One of the deckhands told Suki as they carted up her luggage, "Tell your little friend she is going to miss the boat."
Suki leaned over the railing, "Ty Lee!! Wrap up your goodbyes, the ship is about to cast off!!"
Ty Lee broke off her kiss and called a, "Yes ma'am!" then she turned back to Kisa and the two hugged one more time. She had changed back into fire nation cloths, and she used the heel of her hand to wipe Kisa's makeup off her chin.
The horn blasted.
The acrobat decided to show off and somersaulted backwards, landing neatly on one of the ropes tethering the ship to the shore. Pivoting on her toe, she jumped again, landing on the railing of the ship, and blowing her girlfriend a kiss.
The horn blasted a second time, and the crew began untying the ropes and tossing them to shore.
Ty Lee panted, turning her back on the shore and dropping the smile and letting her face show the strain it had been, "Woah, that was pretty far, I was jarred all the way to my ears sticking that landing."
"How do you DO that?"
Ty Lee looked at Sokka, "Do what? Blow kisses? It's pretty easy, see you put your fingers to your mouth like so-"
"No, I mean jump like that. I've never seen anyone but Aang jump like that, but he is an air bender."
"Oh," Ty Lee thought about it then shrugged, "I've always been good at jumping, the landing part took a little practice, but I was always pretty good at that too."
"But you jumped and flew fiftty feet through the air!" Sokka argued.
"Really? That would be a new record! I've only been able to do forty eight . . . Ah the power of showing off in front of your girlfriend." She smiled waved to Kisa who was shrinking on the shoreline.
Kisa waved back with both hands.
"Normal people cant jump that far." Sokka persisted, squinting an eye at her and pondering.
"I bet you could too if you practiced!" she encouraged clasping her hands together and bouncing, "You want me to teach you? That would be so much fun!!"
The bouncing had caught the attention of several crew members who had stopped their coiling to watch the show. Ty Lee did not seem to notice, or if she did, she ignored it.
"No no," Sokka cursed as his face started to flush, "I'm good, I like the way I jump, nice and easy, keep it simple."
"Okay." Ty Lee grinned, "Then I am going to go check out my cabin!" she bounced off.
The crew of men began to snicker and whisper to one another, and Suki had the feeling that the deck outside Ty Lee's window and door would always be thoroughly swabbed.
"So you noticed too?" Suki leaned against the railing, peering to make sure the brunette was out of earshot.
"Yea." Sokka nodded, "Yours are nicer." He shot in quickly.
"I meant her jumping," Suki was amused, she was never much of the jealous type as girls had been in and out of beds for years on Kyoshi, "She has been trying to teach the younger girls to be as flexible and acrobatic, she has put them through the exact same drills that she did to learn how to do them, and still, most of them cant get past a back flip on level ground, even without heavy armor."
Sokka frowned putting two and two together, finally, "You don't think . . ."
"I don't know, Aang has never said anything, and I've never seen her sneeze and fly into the air, or get angry and make the wind blow."
"Never seen her get angry, period."
"But just hypothetically, what if she was, what if there are descendants of the nomads scattered across the four nations?" Suki toyed with the hem of her robes, "I mean, I know that the fire nation was very very thorough through the years, but . . . I can't help but think that . . . some of them must have survived."
"We should figure it out first, I mean, it would be cruel to tell Aang our theory unless we had some sort of proof that there were dormant air benders throughout the four nations."
"I'm going to go ask her about her family." Suki pushed away from the rail and started for the cabins.
"See if you can make her sneeze while you're at it!" Sokka called after her.
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Mai watched her friend pick through the ruins of the house. Most of it still stood, since it was made out of stone, but much of the furniture and décor had been either stolen or destroyed. Through the trees they had a good view of the capital, and Mai guessed they were no more than fifteen miles from the palace. Probably less.
"Shouldn't we find somewhere on a different Island to lay low for a while?" The goth asked as Azula was pulling an old cloth out from under a pile of wood that might have once been a table.
"No." The princess retorted, "We'll be fine as long as we don't make too much noise or burn any fires."
"Whatever." Mai found an old chair and sat down, putting her elbow on the armrest, and her chin in her palm.
She had not expected the princess to be so unstable, or a murderess. As far as she knew, Azula had never killed anyone, though both her and Ty Lee had always secretly assumed that she had. Mai couldn't call her on it though, she had taken out a few Earth Kingdom men herself with her daggers.
It was impractical to pin people to things by their cloths after all, but killing was still a last resort for her. Not a rare psychological treat.
"Shut up! I can do what I want!"
Mai snapped back to attention, thinking that the princess was talking to her, but the girl's eyes were focused across the trashed room at an empty chair.
"I didn't say anything." Mai remarked, and watched as Azula started, as though she had forgotten that the goth was there.
"Right." Azula gathered herself, "Go untack the mongoose dragons Mai."
"I don't feel like it."
"DO IT MAI!!" Azula's hands balled into fists, and she spun on her friend.
Mai rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, but got up and glided across the floor, and out into the courtyard where the creatures were waiting. One had caught a squirrel and was tearing at it happily. Mai crinkled her nose in disgust.
Mai hated animals.
Azula watched her go, wringing her hands together anxiously.
"You should be nicer to her, she could kill you in your sleep." Ursa remarked.
"Leave me alone, you don't exist!" Azula started to send a fire blast at the hallucination, but then thought better of it, she didn't want the whole building crumbling inward.
Instead she ignored it, and began poking around the house. She managed to locate two old mattresses, and cleaned them off, she accomplished this by flipping them on their sides and kicking them till all the dust came loose.
Azula sneezed. Twice.
"You forgot to open the window,"
"I know!!" Azula crossed the chamber and hauled the wooden shutters open, waving her hands in an attempt to clear the air. It didn't help
"Ugh!" She growled in frustration, and thought about making Mai do it, but the goth already seemed to be annoyed about doing menial labor, and forcing her to do more might push her over the edge. Azula really didn't want to be killed in her sleep.
Instead, she poked around for some sheets, though most had been eaten away so much by bugs or . . . something, Azula didn't know what ate fabric, that they were unusable. Finding her way back to the parlor, she opened the bag she had taken from her room. The Avatar's room.
Not much, all the cloths that were in the secret room did not fit her anymore. They were too big across since she had lost weight, and too short up and down since she had grown. Luckily, her boots fit, and she pulled them on along with the best fitting pair of leggings and a chest wrap.
She tossed the hospital gown aside, she would have use for it later, it was, after all, far more terrifying than anything else, drenched with blood and singed as it was. A physical testament to what she was capable of when provoked.
"I'm done with the beasts." Mai stuck her head into the room, "What do we do now?"
"We wait."
"Sounds dull."
"Very dull." Azula agreed, Mai wanted attention, and she was in no mood to provide it.
"Ok."
She heard her 'fiancée's' footsteps retreat down the hallway. Azula grinned and settled in to wait for sunset.
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Katara came around slowly, there was a bell ringing, but she covered her ears and ignored it. What did make her come around was being alone in her bed, she sat up and surveyed her room, disappointed to see no fire bender in residence.
She stretched and pulled back the blankets, now far too many to be comfortable, and assessed the damage. Her leg was not as swollen as she would have thought, and peeling back the bandages, she saw fresh new skin over the fang holes. It was scarred, but nearly healed, and luckily the marks were so high up, only her future husband would probably ever see them.
She wrapped the blankets around her top, annoyed that it had probably been three days or more, and neither Zuko nor the priestesses had thought to replace her top. Well . . . Zuko at least had probably thought about it and then conciously decided against it.
"Katara! You're awake!" Zuko was pushing through the curtain to his room, and seemed to look surprised. He carried two bowls of something steaming, and a plate of sliced papaya.
"The bell woke me." She explained, slipping her legs over the edge and testing them. Her right leg was very very stiff, but no real pain. She tugged the fabric up and smoothed her thumb over the skin, probing the muscle underneath. It seemed too good to be true. She pulled out her seaweed lotion and began massaging the muscle to loosen it.
"They were coming and going so much." Zuko seemed mesmerized by her hands, "They kept giving you this stuff to drink, I think it kept you knocked out, and changing those weird herbs in the bandages, and they were chanting things and sometimes you would struggle, sometimes you wouldn't . . . do you need help with that? No? Ok, well, you would struggle, and they did some weird water bending on your leg, they had drums and burt this stuff around the room and had you breathe the smoke . . . are you sure you don't need help with that?"
"I'm fine Zuko."
"Then Hue told that woman Vel that it would take years for you to reach the level that she and he are at, and that she should know this, and to stop trying to give you a crash course in swamp philosophy. He has forbidden her from trying anything else like that to get your third eye open."
"Really? He has that kind of authority? I always thought that the swamp was a bit more . . . matriarchal."
"I might have helped him a little."
"I suppose the Fire Lord does carry a little bit of authority, huh?"
"A little bit."
Katara sighed, normally she would scold him for daring to decide what was best for her, but since he came bearing food she would let it slide, maybe mucking about in the swamp alone at night was not really a good idea.
He offered her a bowl and then sat down next to her on the bed, he blew his bangs out of his face before sipping the steaming liquid.
"You haven't really made progress with it have you?" he asked.
"No, not really, I know how to do it in theory, just, not in practice."
Zuko sighed, chewing on his lip, "I don't think we should give it any longer than another week."
Katara nodded in agreement, a week seemed fair, he did need to get back to the Fire Nation. She could always come back on her own to study.
"What happens when we leave the swamp?"
"We'll head back to the Fire Nation via Omashu."
"No I meant, what happens to-"
There was a knock on the door.
Yeo stepped in, she had a skin of something, "Oh good y'all're up!" She said, pleased, "How'r ya doing? Shoot, Yer blood was everywhere, Water Tribe, EVERYWHERE! How do y'all keep so much blood in ya?" She set the skin down and flopped into the empty chair, "Yer leg hurtin ya? It shoulda been better by now."
"It's feeling better," Katara touched it gingerly, "It's still a bit stiff though, I'll need to do some stretching."
"Y'all can come to afternoon classes," Yeo crossed her legs, "Do some drills, make sure everythin is the way it's s'posed ta be."
"Maybe, I'll see if I'm up to it." Katara didn't like the sound of being on her leg so fast, but it did seem to be healed all the way.
Another bell rang.
"Aw, damn, I'm late fer meditation," she sighed, "Everyone is gon give me the evil eye when I come in. Y'all rest ok Water Tribe? No vigorous activity for a few hours." She winked before letting the curtain fall and trotting off down the hallway.
Katara blushed, and then snapped to cover her embarrassment, "Zuko, where did these swamp women put my top?!"
Zuko shrugged, suddenly very interested in his bowl.
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When Suko got to Ty Lee's room, two of the crew were eagerly helping her rearrange her furniture.
"Oh, the energy flows through the room so much better now, oh, maybe just a little more to the left . . . yes! That's PERFECT!!" Ty Lee grinned at them from where she stood in the middle of the room.
Suki rolled her eyes, the Kyoshi had always been a ladies man . . . or a gentlemen's lady. Or an anyone's anyone. Even out of a bikini.
" . . . Yes, this room is so feng shui, maybe that chest a little more to the right-"
"Ty Lee, I would like a word with you." Suki stepped fully into the room, and the two man glared at her as they dragged their heels out of the acrobat's cabin.
The acrobat nodded and straightened, ready to take an order.
"No no, not like that, as . . . gal pals." Suki sat down on one of the chairs and motioned for Ty Lee to do the same.
"Okay," Ty Lee grinned and flopped down on the floor, going into a scorpion asana.
"So . . ." Suki began casually, "Where is your family originally from?"
"The Fire Nation." Ty Lee squinted her eyes suspiciously at her captain, not sure what game the girl was playing at.
"No, I mean, what part of the Fire Nation?"
"Well, until my grandfather died, our family governed parts of the northern chain of islands, since then Azulon and Ozai had us moving from place to place, where we were needed for the war effort." Ty Lee wiggled her toes where they rested on her head.
"So, how long have you been so flexible?"
"Umm," Ty Lee tried to smile, but Suki saw her glance longingly at the door, entertaining the idea of bolting, "I've always been flexible."
"Like, since you were born?"
"Captain, I'm dating your sister." Ty Lee seemed taken aback, but not insulted, "Did Sokka put you up to this?"
"Er . . . not really," Sokka didnt exactly put her up to it.
"Look, I'm flattered, really flattered, and I would accept, I mean, you're hot, I'm hot, and Sokka is really hot, but I am taken right now, and I am actually a little surprised that you would proposition me, I didn't think you were that kind of sister."
Suki choked, "What? No! I am not . . . That's not . . ."
Ty Lee dropped the pose, "Then what's going on captain? Is this some big sister quiz I have to pass before I can date your little sister?"
Suki shook her head, "No no! I just thought, you know, if you were going to be part of the family, we should know something about you!"
"You're lying, your throat chakra is muddying." Ty Lee accused.
Suki kicked herself, it was like talking to Toph all over again, only there was more giggles and less ankles behind ears.
"Ok, well, good chat, we'll have to do it again sometime." Suki stood and made for the door, making a mental note to put Kisa on reconnaissance. She was just not up to the challenge that was Ty Lee.
Sokka was waiting for her down the hall and followed her like a puppy when she brushed past, "Well? Well? What did she say?"
"She said her family is from the northern islands, right around where any refugees from the western air temple would wash ashore."
"And?" Sokka made a keep it coming gesture, eager to hear more gossip.
"And that's it." Suki looked a little sheepish.
"That's all you got out of her?" Sokka stared, in exaggerated disbelief.
"Well, she is all suspicious of me because I am her Captain!" Suki sulked, "She thought I was hitting on her or something."
"Did she?" Sokka seemed to unfocus, and Suki guessed his mind had conjured some sort of threesome fantasy. She elbowed him.
"So maybe we'll just wait and I can ask Kisa to find out. Or Katara, when we pick her up, she is good at girl talk."
Sokka shrugged, "She doesn't really have any 'girl friends' unless you count Aang and Toph, which I don't."
"Sokka!" Suki scolded, "What am I then?!"
"Oh right!" Sokka grinned awkwardly, scratching the back of his head, "You're a girl too huh?"
Suki kissed him, then opened the door to her cabin, smiling coquettishly, "You better hope so."
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The moss was soft and comfortable, and Katara enjoyed the cool breeze that was blowing through the bangrove's branches. Her stiff leg was extended out in front of her, and she watched the girl's move in the strange water bending dance that they did. It was very seductive, the way their arms moved like snakes, trailing ribbons of water through the air, it was a martial art disguised as a dance.
As she watched, she moved into frog pose, her quad complaining, then relaxing after a few minutes. Although a drop of blood occasionally dripped from her nose, the venom seemed to have nullified, whatever the women had done had gotten her back on her feet surprisingly fast. They had warned her it would mess up her cycle, and since apparently the venom was a chief ingredient in their preventative drink, they said she wouldn't be having any problems with an unplanned pregnancy for a few weeks as well.
Yeo and the girls of her friend circle were practicing holding each other pinned from behind and undulating their stomachs and ribcages, using them to raise a pillar of water around their captor and freezing it. Katara wished she had know that technique when Zuko had tied her to a tree nearly a year earlier. She would have showed him.
As If he could read her mind, Zuko leaned over, "I've never seen you do a move like that, your attacks usually involve your arms and legs and breath."
Katara shrugged, "Master Pakku never taught me anything like that . . . he'd think its much too . . . feminine . . ."
One of Yeo's friends must have been in earshot, "Y'all wanna give it a try Water Tribe Virgin?" she teased.
The others nodded, motioning for her to get up and come over.
Katara shook her head, blushing, wishing they wouldn't call her that in front of Zuko, "Maybe tomorrow, I'm still too stiff."
"Oi, we're holdin ya ta that!" one of the other girls called, "Y'all are getting old enough to start learnin something sensual."
Katara had always thought water bending was quite sensual, but Tribe Style truly didn't hold a candle to Swamp Style in the sensuality department. She nodded, a vague nod that she hoped would appease them and went back to her stretching.
After a few minutes, Zuko got dragged off by the young men to practice sparring, and soon several girls flocked over as well to try their hand at facing off with a fire bender. Or at least, Katara gave them the benefit of the doubt that that was what they were up to, she didn't think so though. They usually flocked to the Fire Lord when she wasn't around to 'guard' him.
It amused her, watching him, he had no idea how to deal with the fawning girls, in fact, he actually looked a little taken aback and put off by their advances. She shook her head, imagining what it would be like when news broke that he was single and every noblewoman in the kingdom would be trying to push their prettiest daughter on him. She made a face, her father might be in that crowd. From what he was telling her, the Southern Water Tribe was now about half immigrants from the Northern Water Tribe, and with them they had brought their customs, and Hakoda had to yield.
Katara hated the idea of losing her customs to Arnook's clan.
Sometime while she had been lost in thought, Vel had hobbled over to her and sat down, waiting to begin her lesson. It had turned into more of a practice really, since she understood it in theory. Unfortunately, the minute that the patient started fighting her, she lost any semblance of concentration, and the vision slipped through her fingers.
"Y'all feeling up to the lesson?" The old woman sounded apologetic.
"If we can do it right here I am." Katara replied.
"Yea, alright, show me yer stance."
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"Come on, Twinkle Toes, hurry it up." Toph was poking around at the things in Azula's storage room.
Aang was fumbling with a lamp, pouring oil into it and then fire bending a blaze. He held it up and they followed the hallway down into the depths of the castle. Toph led the way, feeling around for any booby traps or loose rock.
After a few minutes, they reached the bottom, and the hallway opened up into large room.
Aang yelped and dropped the lamp, it clattered to the ground and went out.
"What's up with you?!" Toph stamped her foot, getting some good vibrations, "This a torture room?"
Aang picked up the lamp and relit it, his hands shaking again, "Yea, it must be a torture room."
The walls were lined with whips and shackles and gags and knives and needles as well as several things Aang couldn't identify. Some did look suspiciously like man parts though. There was a rack, a few crosses, cages, tables, and a huge chair that had metal straps on it.
Toph was poking around, she had pulled one of the whips off the wall, a cat o nine tails, and was testing the balance.
"Toph! Don't touch anything!!"
She ignored him,"So, who keeps a torture chamber attached to their room?!"
"Azula does." Aang shuddered.
"There's another hallway there." She pointed.
"Should we follow it?"
Toph shrugged, "Sure, why not." She replaced the whip and they both trudged up the hallway, and Aang was much relieved to leave the strange room behind. It led them back up to the castle and to a dead end. Toph knocked on the wood, trying to stir up some vibrations.
"It opens into the Fire Lord's room." She informed him.
"It does?!" Aang looked back down the hall, wondering why one of his best friends would have such a thing. Toph was tapping the wood, her ear pressed against it.
"Definitly Sparky's room." She said again, "Let's cut back around through your room and see if we can open it from the other side."
"No!" Aang argued, "You'll just smash it open! Zuko will be mad!"
Toph rolled her eyes, "I promise I won't smash anything." She started back down to the private dungeon, Aang hung back, he didn't want to go down there again.
"Come on Twinkle Toes, We all know you can be brave when you want to be, so don't pull the cowardly stuff."
He sulked and trudged after her, knowing she would leave him alone in the dead end to walk back alone, and he really would rather not walk through that room alone. Toph was ahead, bathed in darkness, and he would have thought her very brave for walking through in the dark, but she was always in the dark.
"OoooOOooh, Twinkle Toes," She teased, making a ghost noise.
Aang hissed in terror, "Stop it Toph! Stop it!!"
"What? It wasn't me!" Toph said innocently, stepping back into the light.
"It was too! No ghost would call me 'Twinkle Toes'!"
"Then why are you so frightened? What really happened with Azula?" Toph pressed.
"Nothing!"
She crossed her arms and frowned at him, sightlessly for several moments before changing the subject, "What do you think that this is for?" She poked a finger at the chair.
"It looks like it straps people down." Aang told her, then noticed something, a note tacked onto the back.
Azula
Make sure your servant cleans the electric chair more thoroughly next time.
Ozai
Aang backed off and turned, power walking for the passage to his room, "Toph, we're leaving right now!!"
"Why-"
"Right now!"
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Katara flopped down onto her bed, it was a few hours yet till dinner, and she had bathed, washed her cloths, given a short, demonstrationless lesson on Tribe style bending, and she flopped down, feeling exhausted. She wiped a spare trickle of blood that the impact of the flop had jarred loose off her upper lip, and put her head down on the pillow.
She had napped for about a half an hour when she heard Zuko in his room, fussing with his things. Dragging herself up, to her elbows she raised her voice enough for him to hear through the muffle effect that the reed mats had.
"You have fun sparring?"
"No. Apparently those swamp vines do NOT catch fire very easily." Came his reply.
"They tie you up?" Katara imagined it, it would be fun, she would have to remember that about the vines. Not flammable. Good for tying up fire benders for the fun of it.
"No, just, I've never had to defend against something like that." She could hear his scowl, "You can do that too, cant you?"
Katara nodded, realized he couldn't see her, and then said "Yea, Hue taught me how." Hue and Hamma, "Can I come in?" She stood, hearing his grunt of agreement and pushed the mat open, then froze. "Zuko, what are you doing?!"
He was about to hack off his bangs with one of his broad swords.
"I'm sick of these things getting in my eyes."
"Zuko, for the love of Agni, put the sword down, I'll loan you a hair tie." She dug through her bag and produced one, shoving it into his hands.
He took it and began smoothing his hair back into a ponytail. Unfortunately, his bangs weren't long enough to reach. It had taken several creams and metal clips for Lo and Lee to convince it into a bun for any special occasion, and one hair tie, he could tell, was not going to cut it.
"I have a better idea." Katara cut in suddenly, seeing that it wasn't going to work. She scooped up her bag and carried it to her bed, "Come here and sit on the floor."
"I can do my own hair 'Tara." He argued through the threshold.
She crossed her arms impatiently, and he shrugged and sat down in front of her, crossing his legs. Katara ran her fingers through his mane, the strands were thicker than hers or Sokka's and coarser, but still very soft and cooperative. She pulled out her comb and parted it, sectioning it off and started to braid it.
Zuko's sulk was short lived. He had always wondered why little girls would spend their time playing with each other's hair. Now he knew. It felt really really nice. He wasn't quite sure what Katara's fingers were doing, but he was hoping it took a while. She brushed a sensitive spot at the base of his skull, where it met his neck, and it made his shoulders involuntarily shudder.
"Sit still." Katara instructed, giving the lock of hair in her hand a gentle tug for emphasis.
He tried to comply, but he felt himself harden, and the way he was sitting was no longer exactly comfortable. He shifted, crossing his fingers that the water bender would not snap.
She didn't.
She had begun humming to herself as she worked, and Zuko relaxed again, allowing himself to enjoy the sensations, and trying to keep the shuddering to a minimum.
"Alright, put your head in my lap." Katara instructed as she tied off another braid.
"What?"
"Lay on your side on the bed and put your head in my lap." She elaborated, patting her thighs like one would encourage an animal to jump into their lap.
Zuko did so, chewing on his bottom lip as she started braiding again, this was going from erotic to torture, her fingers brushed along his ears, tugging gently on his hair as she worked, and he stifled a small moan of surprise and delight in his throat. His fingers slowly found their way to her calf, and he held it softly, trying to keep himself grounded.
"Okay, we need to flip over so I can reach the other side."
Swallowing hard, the Fire Lord switched places, with her, laying down on his other side. He didn't think she was doing anything fancier, but her hands found their way to his face and neck much more often, and seemed to linger there much longer than necessary.
Katara was enjoying petting the fire bender, letting her fingers stroke along his hairline, his ears, his neck. Her gentle explorations were making him blush, and she noticed the heat in the room had risen a few degrees. It was making her feel hot as well. Zuko's had found it's way to her calf again, though this time he placed it barely an inch below her knee, his fingers curling around the inside of her legs, pressing and releaseing.
He was teasing her back. She quickly tied off his hair and grabbed his chin, pulling his head up for a long kiss, which he surrender to, his mouth eager to taste her again. On hands and knees, he moved closer to her, his fingers trailing up from her knee to the hem of her leather loincloth. Katara cradled his jaw in her hand, and slipped her tongue between his lips, demanding.
The room was definitely getting hotter, she decided, breaking the kiss and pressing the fire bender to the mattress and straddling his hips. Pressing her torso against him, she bent to kiss him again, her hair falling in a curtain around them both. His hands gripped her hips, steadying her as she pressed her mouth to his, the commanding presence of her weight on top of him, her lips against him, was lighting a fire inside him more intense than any he had ever felt.
He wanted to ravish her.
Katara's mouth explored, she rocked back onto her heels and raised one of his hands to her mouth, pressing her tongue into his palm. He gasped softly, encouraging her, and she undid his bracers, pressing her lips to his wrist, her tongue lapping along his vein, so visible in his translucent ivory skin.
He bucked his hips, pressing his length against her, using his free hand holding her in place. She answered with a slight nip, scraping her teeth along the inside of his elbow, and then smiled against him.
He whimpered, and she ran her fingers across the plains of his chest, briefly caressing his scar, then lowering her mouth to kiss it. It was different from the scar on his face, smoother, softer, and she knew it was because of her and her water. He was watching her, so she tongued it slowly, tracing the edges of it, and it reminded her of the first night of their adventure. That night in his uncle's tea shop.
She swallowed her nervousness, at the moment there was no moon or drink to make her bold and sure of herself, and pressed her mouth to his nipple. It tasted like the rest of him, hot, with a hint of sweat and smoke.
He arched his back and his arm flung out, knocking her bag off the bed and it's contents spilled across the floor. Katara ignored it, her mouth pressing against his neck, her fingers looping into his waistband. Something however caught the Fire Lord's eye, and he caught her head, and reached to pick it up. Katara grudgingly raised her head and followed his gaze.
He had picked up Mai's bracelet.
She swore inwardly, watching anger, guilt, and confusion play across his features, he sat up pulling himself out from under her.
"Why do you have this?" He asked, his voice level, betraying nothing.
"I . . . well, it was in the fountain." Katara explained, "I was going to give it back." She added hurriedly.
He frowned.
"I forgot I had it, okay?" She tried again.
He nodded and stood up. She scrambled up after him, ignoring her complaining leg.
"Why are you mad?"
"I'm not mad."
"Then what's the matter?" She stepped between him and his room. She knew what was wrong, he felt guilty, he felt like he was dishonoring the memory of his ex girlfriend or something silly like that.
"I need some time to think."
That sounded silly to her, but she stepped out of the way and let him go. That was the problem with Zuko, he never seemed to know what he wanted. She huffed, throwing herself back down on her bed, she knew what she wanted.
She would be damned if she admitted it before he did though.
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Ok 15!
Done!
No real news really.
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So I figured out why I didn't really like the canon Avatar pairings, there was no "opposites attract" vibes. There was no "Enemies become friends than something more" vibe. It was like, too neat. Fire Nation with Fire Nation, non-benders with non-benders benders with benders and pretty much everyone hooking up with their first crush . . . so . . . Noah's arc.
Well, except Katara with the crush thing, that would either be really hot or really hot for necrophiliacs. Though I don't know, the movie Quills made necrophilia hot, I won't deny it. Anyone who likes the dark Aangzulaness might wanna add it to their netflix queue.
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Thanks for reading!! R&R! And check out Kuro's picture if you haven't.