Hot Wife

It was the middle of summer, and Agni seemed dead set on baking everyone to a crisp. The summer season at Ember Island was only two weeks away, and everyone was doing their best to focus on the last of the meetings before they were free to run away to the fun of Ember Island. For once, Zuko found himself somewhat anxious to get away, too. For the moment, though, he was stuck in his office, listening to final reports from his agriculture, financial, and cultural ministers.

"We've had a record year, your majesty," Agricultural Minister Risa was saying. "We are on track to be at full production capacity within the next two years."

Zuko nodded, feeling restless as he paced his office, coming to stand in front of the windows overlooking the private gardens. He only half listened as Minister Risa droned on about possibilities for next year, and increasing exports or decreasing imports and something else as his attention quickly slipped away when he noticed Katara. She was down by the pond, aggressively bending the water, scowling as she collected all of the water in the pond and held it above her head in a perfect globe. Her movements were graceful and smooth, and as she spun, sending the water back into the pond, he could almost hear grunt with the effort of keeping all of the water contained.

"Your majesty?"

"Continue. I'm listening."

She was wiping sweat from her forehead, then bundling her hair on top of her head. Then undoing the ties on her already small dress and discarding it. When she bent over to put her neatly folded dress on the ground, Zuko found himself smiling and his mind quickly filling with thoughts of what he'd like to do to her in that position. She had on tiny blue shorts, and when she stood up, Zuko almost choked as she ran her fingers along the edge of her shorts to unstick them from her butt, arching her back and looking over her shoulder. When she returned to her bending, she seemed a little more comfortable, but Zuko could see the sweat rolling down her back as she switched to Southern Style bending, swaying her hips in languid, exaggerated patterns, her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted. Her upper wrappings did little to hide anything from the imagination, and Zuko was glad that she was in the royal family's private gardens.

"Um… Your majesty?"

Zuko started, turning away from the window. His advisors looked highly irritated, but at the moment, Zuko didn't have the strength or the presence of mind to care.

"If your majesty has too many things to take care of at the moment, we can always reschedule this meeting after the Ember Island season."

"No," Zuko said with a sigh. "It's better to get this over with."

"Well then, Crown Prince Kurzu is wishing to have a larger hand in the cultural activities. With Lady Ursa's role being reduced, I think this would be a perfect time for her to hand her responsibilities to him."

Zuko turned back toward the window and nodded. "That's fine."

Katara was sticking with Southern Style, clearly moving to some drum beat in her head as she swirled the water around her, keeping it moving constantly, her body like liquid as she bent over backwards, sending an ice spear into a tree, and she turned her backbend into a flip, her legs long and lean, her muscles rippling. The sweat on her body glistened in the sun, and her deep, labored breaths made her chest heave, straining against the thin fabric, and Zuko licked his lips, trying to pull his brain out of an increasingly inappropriate place.

"The Crown Prince will be pleased, your majesty."

"Until he realizes how much work is involved," Zuko mumbled.

He was pretty sure the temperature hadn't actually tripled, but it sure as hell felt like it, and the proper thing to do would be to turn away from the window and bury his head in the mountain of papers on his desk. If he turned away from the window, though, he'd miss Katara walking into the pond and completely immersing herself in the water. Or her coming out of the pond, soaking wet…her clothes sticking to her…

Zuko took a deep breath and silently thanked Agni for this heat wave, especially when Katara froze the water still on her, and a shiver rolled down her back. She hugged herself, looking very satisfied at finally finding some relief from the heat, and Zuko burned this image into his mind, filing it away for later.

"Your majesty, please, we're all tired and burned out, but the quicker we get through with this meeting, the quicker we can all be on our way."

When he turned around, the financial minister looked incredibly nervous, possibly having realized that he shouldn't talk to his sovereign that way, and the other advisors gathered started to inch away. Zuko only smiled and took his seat behind his desk.

"No, no, we can get through this."

This only made them more nervous. Usually, Zuko was very tense in the run-up to the summer season, but there was no anger in him this time. He could already tell this was going to be a fantastic summer season.

A/N: Ugh, guys, writing is hard right now. Not entirely happy with this, but here it is. I wanted to get something up here. Anywhoo, I imagine Zuko and Katara to be that couple. The ones who, no matter how old they are, are always snuggled up to each other or holding hands or giving each other fuck me eyes. They're passionate people who love hard, and I think it would completely gross out and embarrass their kids, but in the end, they come to appreciate having some positive relationship role models. Because, let's face it, there aren't too many of those in Avatar. Good thing the Gaang is around.