Trying something new, hope you like it.

Zuko sat in the corner of the Stoked Coals; a dark and slighty shady bar where he knew no one would recognize him. He wasn't Fire Lord Zuko tonight, he wasn't even Zuko. Tonight, he was 'Lee', wearing Earth Kingdom clothes like the ones he had back when he lived as a refugee in Ba Sing Se. Some nights he needed to get away from the pressures and just be him. He was halfway through his third spiced beer and feeling comfortably buzzed when someone sat across from him.

"And what would the Fire Lord be doing in a place like this?" He almost panicked until he realized who it was.

"I could ask you the same thing, Katara," he said with a laugh. He indicated his Earth Kingdom clothes and the loose hair that hide his scarred eye. "Besides, I'm 'Lee' tonight."

"Well if you're 'Lee' then I'm 'Sapphire'," she replied. Zuko raised a brow and she laughed. "It's the alias Sokka came up with before Day of Black Sun, Aang had gotten into trouble and we had to pretend to be his parents; Wang and Sapphire Fire." Zuko laughed at his friends' names while noticing that Katara was indeed wearing Fire Nation clothes. "Really though what are you doing here?" she asked signalling the bar maid for a drink.

"Sometimes I just need to get away, Mai understands so she makes excuses so I can have a night in peace. She's at home with Wei. What about Aang and Bumi?"

"Aang wanted to take Bumi to see the Western Air Temple, I chose to stay behind. Aang is still trying to coax some bending out of him."

"Bonding," Zuko agreed with a nod, he did the same with Wei, his little firebender. He glanced around the bar before nodding towards the stairs. "I have a room, why don't we go and drink there. I don't want us to be overheard telling drunken stories."

"Agreed," Katara said with a laugh. "The last thing we need is for people to know who we really are." The pair made their way to the inn portion upstairs, Zuko's room was simple; a bed, a wash basin and a table in the corner with two chairs.

"So why do you have a room?"

"Mai doesn't want me coming home late and smelling of alcohol, so I stay the night here and go home in the morning. Did you want more to drink?"

"Sure, if you can keep up with me," Katara said with a laugh as she took a seat.

"I think you got it backwards," Zuko laughed while he sent the barmaid to bring plenty of drinks for them. They traded banter and jokes, getting louder and rowdier with every mug. Someone had the idea to play a drinking game, Truth or Lies. One would tell a story and the other needed to say if it was true or not. If they were wrong they took a drink, if they were right the story teller took a drink.

As they traded stories old secrets surfaced, secrets that shouldn't have mattered after over a decade later. Inhibitions were lost in their drunken haze, tensions that had been buried deep years ago surfaced. Zuko had vague memories of what happened, shadows playing in the corner of his clouded mind.

It was the best night he'd had, he loved the way her tanned skin contrasted with his own. The way she breathlessly gasped his name.

It was a room he had been in many times, but one he never imagined sharing. Zuko sat up and drank some of the stale water. Though he couldn't remember half of the night before he knew enough that it had been a mistake. A wonderful, exhilarating and passionate like never before mistake.

"Zuko?"

"Hey," he answered softly, he didn't know she was awake. "Want some water?"

"What did we do? I mean and know what we did, but what happened?"

"I-I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know. Dammit Zuko what do we do?" she cried tossing her pillow at him as she tried to discreetly slide from the bed to dress. Zuko turned his back to her to give her what little privacy he could. "What's wrong with you? Don't you love your wife?" Katara accused.

"Don't you love your husband?" he snapped back, feeling sickly satisfied when she sat back down, her face guilty. Katara's rage had been adverted for now. "Of course I love Mai."

"And I love Aang. This was a stupid, drunken mistake."

"One that will never be repeated."

"I'm leaving. I'm going to go home and we're going to pretend this never happened," Katara announced. "If you're as hungover as I am forgetting should be easy."

An idea I had at work,will be a series of oneshots, six chapters long.