Chapter Text
Zuko doesn't always know how he ends up in situations such as these.
Well, maybe he chalks it up to his brash decision making.
But enemy or not, he wasn't going to let the girl fight on her own against two Earth Kingdom soldiers. He sneers. They're more thug than soldier, no matter the uniform.
But the fact of the matter is that she won't shut up. She's been speaking since he's whisked her away and through the back ways of the Lower Ring.
How she managed to speak all the while running and jumping he has no clue. He's never tried it, and as the Blue Spirit he has never been vocal. And because this is the Avatar's waterbender, and he's her enemy, and she knows his voice he won't dare to even utter a single word in her presence.
Why ruin the small bit of peace he's found in Ba Sing Se with his uncle because of some waterbender?
He might just, however, leave her to her own devices if she doesn't stop talking.
He stops and turns to face her.
"Oh, is this it?" she asks. Her hands have come rest on her hips.
With a thick swallow of .... nerves? Is that what he's feeling as he skims his eyes over her? He notices that she's definitely filled out some since the last time he saw her. She's fleshier in a way that can only be described as appealing.
He gives a quick curt nod.
"Whew, thank the Spirits! I was running out of breath back there!"
'Hardly noticeable,' he thinks, 'with the way you were yapping back there.'
"I don't know how you do it! You make it look so easy!" she laughs brightly. "Wow, what a run. I think I'd be exhausted if I didn't find myself so filled with a rush. What is that feeling called again?"
She stops to think, but it's so brief, and she's back to yapping all over again within seconds.
He sighs deeply.
"Oh sorry!" she exclaims, hand coming up to her mouth. "I forgot that you don't speak, must be hard to not be able to talk back when all I've been doing is basically pestering you with questions."
'You don't say?'
"Anyways, thank you for rescuing me back there. I froze up. I shouldn't have. But it's been a while since ... well, I guess I just wasn't ready and I was scared," her laugh is nervous this time.
She moves towards him. For someone that is louder than an kimodo-rhino, her movements are near silent. Before he knows it, she's standing before him.
She takes her time to observe his form. He tries not to run as her eyes seem to pierce right through him.
"You know there's something very familiar about you," she says in a pondering tone, "But I can't put my finger on it. But I feel as though we've met before."
He shakes his head.
"So I don't know you? Huh."
'Oh you know me. You know me Katara. But I can't have you knowing that it's me behind this mask. I can't have you ruining the little peace I've found.'
Her eyebrow arches. "You rescued my friend once and he spoke very highly of you. I guess I can say the same now! But I haven't even thanked you yet."
She moves her hand to the edge of his mask and he feels the blood drain away from his face. His reaction is immediate as he grabs her wrists to keep her from moving his mask. Something flashes behind her eyes. It is almost too quick to notice but Zuko is a prince raised in a court where reading another's facial expressions is an art. Anyone else wouldn't have noticed, but he did.
Could she know? She did say she found him familiar. This could end if disaster if she even so much as screams right now.
He relaxes his grip and swallows. She stays silent.
'Now you shut up.'
She seems to think the release of her wrists is some sort of permission to continue what she was doing.
"I wasn't going to unmask you," she says with a quick quirk of her lips. He's suddenly aware of the rising sun shining like a halo behind her.
Was the waterbender always this .... attractive? He wasn't blind. Granted, he saw her as an obstacle in his mission to capture the Avatar, but he was also a boy. A very hotblooded teenage boy. He had noticed that she was beautiful in a way that was very different from any girl in the Fire Nation or even the Earth Kingdom. Glowing, dusky skin, lush lips, a button nose, and eyes that seemed to hold the oceans.
He pretends the restlessness he feels in his arms and legs is due to the sun coming up and not the very very pretty girl in front of him who's fingers feel so cool against the skin of his jaw as the mask comes up above his lips.
She pauses, eyes darting to his lips and then the slits where his eyes are. Her eyes narrow. Zuko knows she's realized who he is.
She takes a step forward, hands still on the edge of his mask. She smiles.
"I was going to thank you," she murmurs.
She places a quick kiss to his jaw and he stills completely. He's too aware of everything now. How close she is. How cool her fingers actually are. Is the rest of her as cool? He wonders how her hand would feel against the skin of his scar and tries hard not to move her hand just there, just to see if they would feel as soothing.
How his heart is pounding against his chest. He feels as though it might just explode out of his ribcage if she doesn't move away soon. His fingers unclench and clench again. He needs to touch something. He resists touching her.
She moves back with a raised brow.
"Huh," she goes and then moves back in and kisses the corner of his mouth.
He realizes he's breathing unevenly. When she moves back this time he can't resist locking eyes with her. Her pupils are dilated and he tries to bite back the groan that is forming in the back of his throat.
"Hm." Her pointer finger moves to trace the outline of his lips. She's teasing him, he thinks, and he can't do anything more than let her. He wants too, he reasons, he really wants this water tribe girl to tease him.
She tilts her head to the side and looks back up at him. "Would you let me kiss you?"
Something seems to snap at her words. Yes, yes, yes, he wants to scream. Please, please, please.
But he is a Prince and a Prince does not beg. But he wants too, so so badly.
He nods and she smirks. Cursed water witch, she can't be that attractive can she?
"Hm, well I prefer if you gave me a vocal consent," She presses her finger to the middle of his lips. "Speak, just once. Please."
It's the quiet way she says 'please' that undoes him.
"Yes," he says so lowly the wind almost takes the word.
Her eyes widen ever so and her lips part as if to say something. She knows, and he knows she knows. Why hasn't she run? Why is she still here? Why is she asking to kiss him?
"Okay then," she breathes and she steps even closer. She stands on the tips of her toes to better reach him.
He's always been rather impulsive, and his uncle can attest to that more than anyone. So Zuko isn't surprised that he's the one that closes that infernal gap between their mouths and presses her closer.
She relaxes into his hold and slots her mouth to fit his perfectly. Too perfectly he would think later. Right now, it's all about the way the fire in his body seems to rise and hiss in his veins. It's about the weight of her body as she molds herself too him. Also too perfect.
She whimpers as he bites her lower lip and then runs his tongue and begs for entrance.
So maybe a Prince will beg for something.
Her moan as their kiss deepens is the loveliest thing he's heard in years. He feels her body shudder in response and he wonder what other sounds and reactions he could illicit from her if there was more time. If they were different people.
It is she who breaks the kiss. When he can focus on her again her lips are swollen and all the more lush. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are shining. Even her breathing has taken a more ragged edge. He almost dives in for another kiss at the sight.
Damned attractive waterbender.
She gives him a wide, full smile. "Wow. Uhm, that's a proper thank you I believe. The sun's out and uh, I think I can find my way home now."
She pulls the mask back down gently and turns out of the alley where they'd been hiding for a better part of the night.
He's impulsive, there is so many more people than his uncle that can attest to that, but even he is surprised by what he does next.
His mask is out of the way of his mouth by the time he grabs her hand and spins her around.
Quickly, softly, and all to gently for his usual brash nature, he presses a kiss to her knuckles.
"Goodbye, Katara," he mutters.
He looks at her and finds her giving him a very small, almost sad smile.
"Goodbye ... Blue Spirit," she says back before removing her hand from his and briskly walking away.
She soon weaves and disappears into the trickling crowd of merchants and early shoppers of the Lower Ring.
He knows that he has to find his way back to the tea shop before Uncle can ask about where he's been ... or who he's been with.
Zuko sighs. On his way back, he tries to forget about the waterbender that might have just stolen a bit of his peace. And possibly, a tiny piece of his heart.
Days later, he finds himself thrown into some crystal catacombs by his sister, who's somehow find her way to sit on the Earth throne (not that he never envisioned Azula finding him and Uncle in Ba Sing Se, he's had nightmares about that) and to his surprise Katara's there.
Her eyes widen and her hands come up to sit on her hips. To his shock she does not start screaming but rather she chuckles.
"Hm, now how is the Blue Spirit going to get me out of this one?"
And he's near speechless at that.
When he later chooses to follow her and the Avatar and not his sister and her lies, he likes to think that despite the impulsiveness of the moment that he's made the right choice.
Another thank you kiss later that night only seems to seal the deal.