A/N: The Following is rated NB; for Naughty Bits (seriously)

Reader discretion is seriously advised.


Chapter 14 "Tales of Ba Sing Se: Part 3"


Late Spring, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai

Zuko was warm.

Not in an unpleasant way. Warm in the muzzy cloudy way one finds oneself in when waking up after a good long nap.

It had been so long since he slept so deeply, he didn't even recognize the sensation.

Perhaps I fell asleep in the Sun? he thought foggily. Odd. I don't nap. Where was I?

Something tickled at his nose, smelling faintly of flowers and… the sea?

Was I at the beach?

He cracked his eye open and took in waves of brown hair. Katara had turned in her sleep and he had apparently curled around her, his arm draped protectively over her middle. He raised his head slightly to take in the situation and then silently began to panic.

Ash! I'm over the wall. If she wakes up she'll kill me. How in Akodo's name am I going to get out of this!? Maybe if I just…

He stopped. His mind going blank as he suddenly realized that she was already awake.

She seemed to be examining his hand. Just winding her smaller fingers in between his, examining the texture, tracing her fingers over an old knife scar he'd gotten in a fight in the Colonies.

He squeezed her hand back.

She released his hand and rolled over, turning back to him, her grey-blue eyes wide and searching. She wasn't angry, and in that moment Zuko forgot why she should be.

Suddenly he was kissing her. Or she was kissing him. Or they were kissing each other, it didn't matter, nothing mattered. Katara made his kimono, already loosened from sleeping, vanish as if by magic and her hands danced across his skin, grasping and raking his back in equal measure. Zuko could feel her heartbeat accelerating, matching his own as he pressed her closer to him, molding her body against him.

With a clench and a twist of her hips she rolled on top of him, sitting herself on his legs. Her kimono was loose as well, the white wrappings of her sarashi starkly visible against her dark skin and Zuko's hands, as if compelled by some bizarre magnetism, flew to them, tugging and pulling as he continued to kiss her as much as he was physically capable.

How in the ashpits does this thing unhook? He'd never actually gotten this far before, and what at first glance had seemed to be a simple set of wrappings was now far too difficult for his addled brain to comprehend.

Katara unwound her arms from around his neck and with a single deft tug behind her back the wrappings fell away, spilling down to her midriff like snow off a mountain. Zuko's mouth slowly trailed after them, spilling kisses down her neck, her collarbone and onto her breasts. She squeaked in surprise as he lightly bit at her nipple and, face still at her breasts, he chuckled at the sound.

She growled at him wordlessly in mock fury and seized a handful of his hair, bending his head away, back and to the side. Then, incongruously, she began to kiss his scar, feather-light, the ghosts of kisses from jaw to brow. Zuko felt a groan escape his lips, as something like electric shocks seemed to run up and down his spine. His own hands slipped downward into her kimono, towards the small of her back, her bottom and her underwear. He gripped firmly, and with a growl of his own he pulled her forward on top of the insistent bulge at his crotch.

She went still, pulling away from him, face flushed and biting at her lower lip. Her eyes were wide and embarrassed and Zuko's own eye widened in surprise. It made sense of course, who would she have done this with? She had been constantly on the run, that was his fault after all. Neither of them could bring themselves to speak. If there was a moment to back down, this was it. They had a silent conversation there, half-naked, clutching one another on green silk. A conversation with just their eyes.

I've never… embarrassed flush.

We don't have to… concern on a mangled face, a minute shake of the head.

I want… eyes endlessly wide, grey-blue and full of desire.

I want… lone eye narrowed, smoldering yellow.

Her eyes hardened in determination and then she gave him a small jerky nod, exhaling a shuddering breath. Zuko nodded back and, as gently as he had ever done anything in his life, he kissed her and rolled her on to her back.

He took it as slowly as he could. He hadn't had the opportunity to practice this very much, and it had been years, but he was determined to do it right. He kissed her gently as he slowly traced his fingers down her belly in little circles, past her waist, past her navel, under the hem of her underwear. He took his time and kissed her deeply as he began.

Please. Honored Ancestors. Don't let me fuck THIS up, he prayed silently.

She gasped, her hands grasping reflexively, one in silk sheets, one in his hair, as his fingers found the mark. He continued. Slowly. He had been told that this might hurt a girl at first.

He moved his fingers deliberately, rhythmically, noting places and angles which elicited a response. She began to grow slick which, combined with her furtive moans, seemed to indicate that he was doing something right. Her own hand, the one that wasn't attempting to pull his hair out by the roots anyway, joined his; massaging herself slightly higher.

Curious, Zuko placed his thumb at the same place and gave an experimental squeeze.

Katara's hips bucked, her hand flying back to her mouth to hold back a cry.

Well. I guess that's a GOOD spot then.

He began to move faster, gradually accelerating the rhythm, rolling his thumb occasionally and hitting all the places he had noted before. She began to pant, her chest heaving, her hips moving in time with his fingers. He could feel her getting close somehow, the warm wetness at his fingers growing more intense, her breathing more labored, her cries more frequent and less restrained.

Not to mention the fact that he was pretty sure he was going to have a bald patch where her hand was embedded in his scalp.

There was a stiffening and a cry, her loudest one yet, and then she collapsed back to earth, her entire body shivering. She seemed to melt, rigid muscle becoming liquid as she fought to regain control of her breathing. She looked exhausted, her eyelids fluttering, and Zuko drew her close, kissing at any available stretch of skin.

Well done me! he thought proudly. Now, she'll likely fall back asleep… I should consider what excuse I'm going to give uncl-

His brain ceased functioning.

Katara was NOT falling asleep.

Her eyes had grown heavy-lidded, but now she was smiling that dangerous smile he loved and her hand, which had finally released his hair, had stealthily slipped down into his hakama pants and very poignantly reminded him of just how much hand-strength a bending samurai had.

He wanted to tell her it wasn't necessary, that he was perfectly happy just lying next to her, but it seemed that speech was forbidden here, as though a single word would break the strange spell which had fallen over them.

Also, he would have had to lie.

He wanted her. He wanted to do things with her, TO her that he couldn't even have articulated had he wanted to. It felt nothing so much like the slow creeping madness that he'd become familiar with. It was a mindless searing need, a palpable force that wanted nothing more than to take her, throw her down and just be inside her, part of her.

It terrified him.

But that terror was nothing next to the absolute burning conviction that shone in her eyes.

The sounds that came out of his mouth were half moan, half growl as she kissed his neck, her teeth grazing his skin, her hand squeezing and caressing. What had once been a very clinical and detached affair for him now became very real and very urgent. His whole body went rigid, his hands fisted in the bed sheets, as he forced himself not to simply grab her and mount her like a rutting beast.

Again, as if by some sort of sorcery, his pants had been removed and tossed somewhere into that vast oblivion of irrelevant space that was NOT the bed. Katara pulled herself astride him, her hands braced at his stomach. She paused for a moment, a contemplative look on her face, and then, slowly, agonizingly slowly, she rolled her hips against him, along him, stopping just short of the point of no return.

It was torture.

Was this what he had been doing to her? This was infuriating. Insufferable! Had he been capable of speech he would have told her so!

But he couldn't. It was taking everything he had to maintain any control of himself at all.

After a few more torturous passes she halted and, with a pensive look on her face, lowered herself on to him.

Zuko's self-control evaporated like snowfall on a volcano.

With a roar his hands flew to her hips, and with a twist she was under him. He buried her mouth with his as his hips began to thrust, jerkily at first but with gradually increasing steadiness and force. Katara, whose face had gone from mocking smirk, to surprise, to focused intensity in the space of a few heartbeats, wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss with matching ferocity.

Throughout Zuko's life, he had always been trained to always maintain a level of detachment; a sense of impassivity. In battle, in fighting, in conversation, there was always a part of his brain that sat in the back taking notes, analyzing, and offering insight. As he had grown older, it had been joined by another, less helpful, voice which generally seemed to slouch back and shout obscenities and sarcasm while munching on a box of fire-flakes.

Both of these voices had obviously gone on holiday at this point.

Zuko forgot everything. He forgot his past, his scars. He forgot his name. The only thing that mattered was her. Her smell, her taste, her cries, her voice echoing wordlessly in his ear over and over and over again. Her mouth, hot under his. Her nails drawing lines of red on his back. Her legs twisted around his, urging him onward as the tempo increased, the rhythm all consuming, all encompassing, all…

Everything went white.

And for a brief second… he was completely happy.

Reality reasserted itself.

Zuko looked down at Katara, a slow smile splitting his face.

"Wow."

/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\

There was something Zuko was not supposed to do.

Zuko had suffered through several extremely embarrassing lectures concerning it.

He had been given over to the hands of an exceptionally skilled courtesan the week following his gempukku. A courtesan whose primary task was to familiarize him with the practice of lovemaking and sex, something tradition called "dispelling the great mystery," and also to teach him how to avoid doing the thing he wasn't supposed to do.

It was very important to the Fire-Nation that the line of succession be very clear. Uncomplicated. Obvious.

Zuko, his mind completely gone in the heat of the moment, had done that forbidden thing anyway.

The two of them had basked in the afterglow for a good ten minutes before enough of Zuko's brain returned from vacation to remind him of the thing he wasn't supposed to do. His eye shot open in sheer panic, REAL panic this time and he bounded to his feet, alternating between swearing at himself and apologizing profusely to Katara as he paced like a maniac at the foot of the bed. Katara became concerned as well, at least until she had managed to translate enough of his nearly incoherent rambling to figure out why he was so agitated.

Then, she looked at him like he was an idiot.

Which, in all fairness, he was.

"Firstly," she said, ticking points off on her fingers as she went. "It is the wrong time of the month for me, which is something I took into account before I even kissed you. Second, there are a variety of herbs and teas that I know of that would keep me safe even if it was the right time. Thirdly, and most importantly," her face grew dark and stormy as she glared at the naked nervous man in front of her. "I am a Master waterbender and healer. You don't tell me when I have a baby, Akodo Zuko. I tell YOU."

"But- but I'm not suppos-"

Katara cut him off, leaping to her feet. "You are NOT going to ruin this for me you idiot!" she spat, poking him in the chest with her finger. "This is my first time and it is supposed to special, magical even."

"But-"

"No! You shut up, get back in the bed, and cuddle me until I tell you to stop, you great idiot," she said pointing fiercely.

Zuko lay back down, in a state of pure confusion as Katara wrapped herself around him; her head on his chest.

"You're sure? Absolutely sure, th-"

"MAGICAL!" she shouted, not even looking at him.

Zuko began to laugh, exhausted relieved laughter. "You are such an odd girl."

"But… you like odd?"

"I love odd."

"So…" she was suddenly very tense. "So it was… I… I did it right?"

Zuko paused for a long moment. "I am amazed at how you can go from complete and total self-assurance to ridiculous self-doubt like that," he said wonderingly.

"That wasn't an answ-"

Zuko kissed her firmly, cutting off her words. "You couldn't have done it wrong. It was perfect, you're beautiful, and I love you."

"Oh," she said happily, seeming relieved. She kissed him back, then jerked back suddenly as certain parts of his anatomy responded.

"Uh… Sorry. It… it does that."

"No! No. It's ok," she said, looking downward and blushing slightly. "Does that mean… I mean to say… If you would like, we can-"

He kissed her again, deeply. "I would like," he whispered in her ear after they separated, "I would like, very much."

The sound Katara made in reply could only be described as a purr.

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a thunderous series of knocks which shook the door to their room in its frame.

Zuko was on his feet in an instant, his katana in his hands. Katara was only a beat behind him, water bent from her waterskin into a spear pointed at the door, the sheets pulled around her protectively.

"I'll kill them," Zuko muttered darkly, knuckles white on the hilt of his blade. "They will speak of what I do to this person for a HUNDRED generations. As a warning to anyone else stupid enough to-"

"Who is it?" Katara said brightly, her voice belying the matching look of fury on her face.

"Is Ping there?" a slow, deep and, to Zuko at least, familiar voice said.

"Chou'lou?" Zuko said blankly. "What in the name of the-" he cut off, realizing for the first time that the Sun had been illuminating the room for the better part of an hour.

He was supposed to be at work.

"SHIT!" He put his sword back in its scabbard and quickly started trying to find his clothes, which had somehow managed to become incredibly scattered.

Katara caught on quickly and bent her water back into its skin as Zuko frantically tried to find his socks. Wrapping the sheet tighter around herself she boldly strode to the door, throwing the bolt and opening it.

"Katara? Don't open the do-" Zuko cut off as he fell over the bed as he tried to put one of his socks on while hopping on the other foot.

"Can I help you?" Katara said, the sweetness in her voice nothing compared to the acid in her glare as she stared down the giant standing outside the door.

"This is for you two, miss," Chou'lou said politely, holding out a basket full of fruits. He leaned down to put his head through the doorway and shouted past her at Zuko. "Ma'am says you got the day off Ping! Have fun!" he finished with a broad grin. With that, he gave a little bow and lumbered away.

"What did he say?" Zuko asked, his head appearing from behind the other side of the bed.

"You have the day off apparently," Katara said, putting the basket down on a small table and closing the door. "And there's a note."

Zuko, still in a state of undress, and only one sock, strode around the bed and plucked the fine parchment from the basket of citrus fruits.

"Congratulations darling,

I hope you have found Ai'luguan, one of my less profitable ventures, to be both comfortable and hospitable. Please enjoy this complimentary basket of fruits which, in my own experience, have proven to be both refreshing and RESTORATIVE."

Zuko grunted irritably. Even in print she managed somehow to be suggestive.

"If you enjoyed the room as much as I think you MUST have, you will be pleased to hear that I am happy to offer it to you at the low, employee discount, rate of a two bu per month, or one bu every pay period. You may find that you require new lodgings soon in any regard as, only last night, one of my subordinates entered into a partnership with your esteemed uncle regarding a tea house soon to be opened in the upper ring. Mushi is very excited of course and was doubly thrilled to hear that you had acquired lodgings AND companionship for the evening.

If it is in fact, as I surmise, Sifu Katara, friend and confidant of the Avatar who you find yourself with, please let her know that I have taken the liberty of providing her with an alibi, involving an outbreak of pentapox, so as to throw off suspicion.

Clandestine relationships ARE the best, are they not darling?

Wishing you BOUNDLESS energy on your well-deserved day off,

Lady Kitsune Xian"

Zuko sighed heavily and handed the note to Katara. "What in the Sun's name is 'pentapox?'"

Katara's eyes grew wide as she neared the end of the letter. "She knows who I am?" she squeaked, looking up at Zuko. "How does she know who I am?"

"She seems to know everything. Even who I am. I think that's half the reason she gave me a job, so she could keep tabs on me." He smiled nervously down at Katara. "So… it would appear that I have the day off… and you…" he frowned, "What IS pentapox?"

"It's a fake disease Sokka made up when we were escaping Omashu," she said huffing irritably. "People keep claiming they have it now and I have to sit them down and explain that it isn't a real thing."

"And… that is an acceptable alibi?"

"It should be. Aang spends most of his days searching the city for Appa now, and as long as Toph doesn't say anything Sokka will buy it." She rolled her eyes. "He thinks it's funny."

"Will Toph say anything?"

"I don't think so. She and I came to an understanding after we escaped from the desert."

"Well then," Zuko said, now grinning. "It would seem we are both free for the rest of the day. Do you have any suggestions, Sifu Katara?" As he said this he snaked his arms around the small of her back and pulled her closer.

"I might," Katara said, eyes glittering with amusement. "As a matter of fact, I think I would quite enjoya foot rub."


A/N: Hello and welcome to the author notes!

So. THAT just happened. In my years of reading fanfiction, it has become par for the course that there would be a, dare I say it, erotic scene in any romance. Smut, it is generally called. Obviously, for those who have read all of my stuff, you will know that I've never written smut before. Honestly, I'm not sure if the above even qualifies. I have tried, in my own fumbling way, to keep it classy (the furthest I go is writing out "nipple"). I hedged for a long time with this chapter, and was halfway into writing a "fade-to-black." But what is this hobby of mine if not a way of pushing my own boundaries? A way of shifting my comfort zone? So, as a challenge to myself, I wrote a smut scene. Erotica. What-have-you.

I just hope nobody is too disappointed in me.

There are no meta-bits!

Any concerns, comments, or referrals to find the love of the deity of your choosing may, and SHOULD, be directed towards the comments/review portions of your screens. Seriously I love comments and double-love questions about the work. It gives me a chance to engage.

Thanks again!

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NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...

Things get domestic. And violent.

TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!

Original post date: 11 November 2018