A/N: I know, I know, waay too long. I had most of this written then I deleted like an entire scene because it was dumb and I wrote a total of 330 words (approx.) so this could have been up AGES ago. I want to promise the next one will be up soon but I'm so busy with school right now its almost an impracticality. You know what would help...maybe a couple of messages every now and then.
On another note I've been reading some really good stuff but not a lot. There are few stories being updated which I understand but as a reader hate. So, if anyone knows any good Zutara (not tragic where one dies) that they've read and is not in my favorites (which is huge) or is writing one - please let me know, I would love to read it. Also, a shout out to Kismet Sorrow's story The Kiss which is really good although maybe with a bit more encouragement she'll update faster! Check that out.
And yes, this is short - don't hate me =).
She had completely frozen.
His breath gently breezed against her face, his nose skimming along hers. Her eyes closed and she held back a whimper as his warm hands curled around her waist and tugged her closer. They felt hot against her skin and she could feel him trail a warm path against the curve of her back.
She trembled slightly, whether in fear or anticipation she didn't know, but his lips were hovering over hers and the nerves were tightening and she tilted her head up to be closer when he lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. It was tentative, careful, curious and he leaned in again, his lower lip drawing against her top one. It was warm and she could feel his breath as he gently exhaled against her skin, the tingles spreading across her.
Her hands were trapped on his shoulders (she couldn't remember putting them there) and the lightest sigh escaped her as she felt him close his mouth over hers completely.
The gentle rolling motion of his lips against hers and his hand sliding up over her back, a finger lightly trailing along her spine caused her to shudder in delight. His hand crept up, running over the soft fabric of her wraparound and twisting into her hair, gently pulling her towards him.
This was nice, she thought vaguely as she heard him sigh against her mouth. Ever so slowly, his lips parted, the slight dryness of his warm lip giving way to his moist tongue as it gently swept across her bottom one. She tensed at the new sensation, nervous and hot all at once. Her first kiss was getting further than she imagined and she suddenly realized she had no idea what she was doing.
Zuko's hand gently traced warm circles on her skin, his tongue sweeping against her lips again. Awkwardly, Katara let her mouth open, clutching onto him even tighter, unsure of what to do. She held still as she felt his hot, warm wet tongue slip into her mouth, and she whimpered, enjoying this intimate invasion of her mouth yet trying not to squirm as she didn't know how to respond. The firebender seemed to sense her unease and slowly slipped his hand out of her brown curls and let his thumb graze her cheek as he brought his hand around to cup her chin and tilt it slightly, giving him a better angle of access.
She sighed as his tongue met hers, curiously sliding along, tasting her and both his hands pulled her even closer, pulling her until she was flush against his warm muscular body. Katara forgot about everything else, how she was angry at him, how he was a prince and this was oh, so wrong and wonderful and she didn't want it to end as he pulled her lower lip in between his teeth and nibbled it lightly, pulling a moan from her as she felt herself being leaned over from his intensity –
"Sir?"
Katara shoved the boy away, gasping for breath as she heard someone come around to where they were – had – been embracing and she heard Zuko's voice stammer uncharacteristically as he tried to regain his bearings. Their voices drowned out as she stared unseeingly at the water, hiding her face, the breeze caressing her kiss-bruised swollen lips, and she ran her tongue over them, tasting spices and tea, and she felt something pleasant coil in her stomach as she shivered slightly.
The voices went away along with their footsteps and she was left alone by a reluctant Zuko as he followed the man and she put her hands to her mouth and began to giggle.
Dinner was unbearable. Neither of them spoke and the food was eaten much more quickly than desired, chopsticks scratching at the bottom of the porcelain bowls loudly. Zuko cleared his throat but his voice died in his throat when she glanced at him briefly and he quickly picked up his cup to take a drink, coughing when he sucked on empty air.
His awkwardness was kind of cute, although it did nothing to lessen her own. She snuck a glance as he neatly fed himself rice with his chopsticks, his lips a pale pink. She immediately tore her gaze away as his came to rest on her, almost catching her staring.
She gave a polite cough and put her utensils down beside her bowl and stared at her hands in her lap as she waited for him to say something.
He cleared his throat again, forcing his mouth to open and speak the words. "About what happened…" he began slowly.
"What about it?" she said before she could stop herself, her heart thumping loudly. Did he regret it? Sure, it was her first kiss but would that turn him away? Wait, did he actually like her? Did she like him? Or was she too caught up in her attraction for him that she was mistaking it as like? "I mean," she said, trying to calm down. "Did you – did you not…want –"
"No, I did!" he said hurriedly. She blinked at him and he felt heat of the highest degree flood his face at his bluntness. He picked up his cup to distract himself before remembering it was empty, and set it back down again, feeling unusually flustered. "Uh, I mean…it was –"
Someone rapped on the door. "Prince Zuko, would you like me to clean up?" asked a voice.
"Yes!" Zuko practically yelled and both benders breathed a sigh of relief as the servant came in and began to clear up silently. Katara pretended to fiddle around at the desk while Zuko fled the room.
It was what? She frowned as he left, wanting him to stay but still too nervous to look at him. Was this how it would always be? So awkward? Or would he kiss her again? Her stomach thrilled pleasantly at that thought, remembering how he'd planted the tiniest nibble on her lower lip. She flushed, putting a hand to her mouth, trembling slightly.
She was totally head over heels for him and she wanted him to kiss her and kiss her some more and keep kissing her.
Katara groaned as she fell onto the silky bed, closing her eyes as she pressed her face into the pillows.
She heard footsteps and quickly pretended to be asleep, debating mentally whether or not to ask him about his unfinished statement.
"Katara?" she heard him rasp in a low tone. He had come back! And they were all alone…Just the thought sent a dangerous thrill through her. "Hey, listen." She felt a hesitant hand touch her shoulder and held back a shiver. She turned her head slowly and glanced at his face as he lowered himself to kneel by the bed. "I…" he swallowed nervously. "Are you…ok?"
She nodded and turned a little more so she was lying on her side as she looked at him. He stared back at her, his gold eyes boring into hers, drawing her in. Her hand rose and she gently touched it to his face, her fingertips softly grazing the perfect side of his face. He watched her calmly and she blushed drawing her hand away. He caught it as she pulled it back and closed his fingers around it, the warmth from his palm spreading up her entire arm. She returned her gaze to his shyly as he ran his thumb over her hand. This was new. That look in his eyes…she felt utterly warm and protected. To see him act so openly for her was definitely not normal yet it caused her immense happiness that she was one of the few that got to see him like this.
"Can I ask you something?" she asked softly. He leaned closer to rest his chin against her pillow, his breath softly washing over her as he nodded. "Why did you kiss me?"
He was silent for a moment, his thumb pausing in its movements. "I guess…because I really like you." He glanced away quickly, cheeks red.
She smiled slightly, a pleasant thrum causing her heart to bounce. Actually bounce. "I never thought that the guy with the ponytail who always yelled and set things on fire would ever say he liked me."
His lips twitched. "I never thought that one of the most annoying girls I've ever met would like me."
"How do you know I like you?" she challenged, smirking.
He grinned back lightly. "Katara…" he began.
"Hmm?" She drew a little closer.
"Katara…"
"What?"
"Katara…Katara…Katara!"
Her eyes snapped open as she felt herself be completely turned over onto her back and sat up straight, almost knocking heads with the Fire Prince.
He looked irritated. "Come on! Time to go." He tossed a cloth bag on the bed with two water skins attached to it before striding to his wardrobe and pulling a cloak out, a fine black one already covering his clothes. He handed it to her and made his way to the door, telling her to hurry up.
Still breathing heavily, Katara slapped a hand over her face. Sokka was going to kill her.
"What is your crew going to say when they know you're gone? You're the prince, aren't you? Won't they notice you're missing?"
Zuko spared her a glance as he glanced over the rail. They couldn't afford to wait for the tides to bring the ship in and Jee had already informed him of another royal navy ship leaving the waters. If Azula got there first…
"They have orders," he told her. "Can you bend us there?" He pointed at the rocky face of the island.
She nodded before shooting him a look. "Can you surf?"
He stared at her. "What?"
She smirked at him for raising her hands and pulling up a wave. "Jump."
He didn't wait to question her before climbing over the rails and throwing himself onto the white crest, closing his eyes as he prepared himself for the ice cold plunge. His knees bent as he hit the hard ice, centering himself as he felt himself about to be pitched forward. Katara was suddenly beside him and then the wind was burning his eyes as he gripped the edge of the board with numb fingers, and the water bender's arms moved gracefully propelling them faster than any Fire Navy ship could manage, and then suddenly he was thrown headfirst into the sand as the ice board disappeared.
Spluttering from the shock and loss of dignity, he rolled over to find Katara standing over him wearing a smug expression before offering him her hand. He got to his feet unassisted, shaking the sand out of his hair. His ship was quite far, a small shape in the distance and he mentally bade it farewell before turning back to Katara.
"Come on," was all he said before he took off at a fast walk into the forest. It gave him great satisfaction to hear her stumbling over hidden roots while his hand held a small flame.
"Hey, wait up," she said stumbling in her inappropriate clothes and shoes, hindered even more by her bag and oversized cloak. She tried to keep close to him because travelling the forest at night was not at all a pleasant experience with just two people. There was a loud sound and she jumped, crashing into Zuko's back.
He turned to face her impatiently.
"Can we…just slow down, please? It's dark," she said sheepishly. He rolled his eyes and slowed so she could walk beside him, peering into the forest. "Do you know where you're going?" she asked seeing no map. If they were relying on instinct…
"This is a marked trail leading directly to the top of the island. It's where your friends should be if they're here."
"What if they're not?" Katara asked almost tripping over a tree root.
Zuko glanced at her from the corner of his eye, hand half-rising to catch her if she fell. "You said they would be here until the eclipse. We have four days and by this route it shouldn't take us longer than two if we hurry and stop for minimum breaks." He quickened his pace and Katara resisted grabbing his arm so she could keep up.
Huffing angrily she followed, fighting back yawns and stumbling along the trail.
She lost track of time, sleepily keeping her eyes on Zuko's dark form. The moon slowly shifted across the midnight sky and when they finally reached a clearing, Zuko suggested they stop.
With a sigh of relief, Katara dropped her pack and threw herself down on the twig-strewn grass. Zuko sat himself down with a little more grace after dragging some logs to the middle of their clearing and setting it alight. Or trying to.
"Have you never set a fire before?" Katara asked incredulously staring from where she was leaning against a fallen tree.
Zuko frowned, ignoring her, as he tried to light it up again.
"You need kindling, Your Highness," said Katara throwing small twigs and dry leaves in his general direction.
"Why don't you come and do it then?" he snarled grabbing a handful and throwing it on the logs before lighting it forcefully. It flared to life, the logs quickly catching alight.
Katara smiled at him just to be annoying and rested her head back against the log, closing her eyes. To her annoyance, as sleepy as she felt she couldn't fall asleep. She sat up and watched Zuko quickly organizing his sleeping roll and grabbing his water skin.
"Where are you going?" she asked as he strode over to the trees.
"Refilling this," he replied disappearing into the shadows.
Katara ran her hand through her hair a few times, untangling the knots. Just yesterday evening she'd had her first kiss with the Prince of the Fire Nation and now they were back to their prisoner-captor routine.
She stared at the trees after him trying to think through her confusing feelings. Did he like her? What did that kiss mean?
"I hate him," she grumbled to herself, clutching her head. She grabbed her empty water skins and pushed herself up off the ground. Maybe a nice cool bath would help calm her down.
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