Archive of Our Own

Zuko had started receiving reports about a Blue Spirit about a month ago.

He hadn't paid a lot of attention at the time. Actually, he hadn't been paying much attention to most of his paperwork then. A month before that, a frantic Aang had showed up at dawn, demanding that Zuko tell him where Katara was. When Zuko, bewildered, reminded him that he hadn't seen either Katara or Aang for nearly a year, the Avatar had collapsed in tears.

It seemed that things had been rocky between them for a while. Then they'd had a big fight - about 'stupid stuff' according to Aang - and when he'd woken up the next morning, Katara had been gone. They hadn't been far from Kyoshi, at the time, so Aang had assumed she'd gone to Suki.

But she hadn't. From the morning when Aang woke to find her gone, nobody had seen her. Zuko had coordinated a flood of messenger hawks, sending relays everywhere, from the North Pole to Ba Sing Se to Kyoshi to the new Republic City to the crews rebuilding the Air Temples. Every message came back the same. No sign of Master Katara, the Avatar's Waterbender. Sokka had showed up, demanding - and getting - Zuko's fastest war-balloons so he could search for his sister himself. Zuko had put men and hawks at Sokka's disposal, but he couldn't leave the Fire Nation himself and they all knew it. After what had happened the last time he set foot on Earth Kingdom soil...

So he'd waited, and worried, and eventually started catching up on his paperwork. Eventually, the name of the Blue Spirit caught his eye.

There had been several sightings of the 'known enemy' the Blue Spirit after the war. Some outright lies, at least one fraud, and... well, occasionally Zuko sneaked out to clear his head and vent a little frustration on whatever deserving lowlife crossed his path.

This was clearly a different Blue Spirit. She was female, all the reports agreed on that. Her presence was heralded by sudden chills and strange fogs, sweet unearthly voices and weird noises. He was inclined to suspect a hoax until, in the pile of reports, he found a claim that the Blue Spirit had passed through a village suffering from an outbreak of dysentery and not only cured the sick, but raised a spring of pure water from solid earth and told the people to stop drinking out of the river.

A few days later, he received a report that the Blue Spirit had purified a polluted river by walking across it in a haze of mist. An hour with a map and some coloured pins confirmed that the 'Blue Spirit' was travelling by water, following a meandering but predictable course. Suspicions well and truly roused, Zuko went to have a polite conversation with his seneschal. There must be something he could visit in that direction.

A week later, he was officially inspecting a factory that had once produced armour for the troops, and was now supposed to be creating irrigation equipment to improve the efficiency of Fire Nation farms. As far as Zuko could tell, what they were mostly creating was trouble. The factory itself was filthy and poorly maintained, the river was polluted, and the sheer panic obvious on the overseer's face when the Fire Lord himself descended unexpectedly on him was both telling and hilarious.

Perfect bait.

Zuko insisted on settling down for several days, to investigate the whereabouts of the assistance the villagers should have been getting. And though the Blue Spirit didn't make an appearance as such, Zuko noticed after a couple of days that the river was running clearer. Much clearer.

He ostentatiously withdrew, making promises of aid to the villagers and taking several corrupt officials with him to have examples made of them. Then he put on his black silks and mask, and sneaked back under cover of darkness.

It was when the moon rose that she appeared, of course. Draped in soft, diaphanous layers of blue silk that outlined a lushly feminine form, her hair covered with a white veil and her face painted with patterns of white and dark blue, she glowed faintly in the moonlight and the mist rising off the river making her look as ephemeral as a ghost. Sitting in a tree, Zuko watched her drift through the village to the makeshift hospital he'd had erected for everyone who was sick or had suffered injury in the poorly-maintained factory. The open-sided building filled with mist, and he saw the soft blue glow of water-healing.

When she came out, he dropped from the tree in front of her, blocking her path to the river. She stopped, startled, and he saw very human blue eyes widen. Then, as he walked towards her, she smiled slightly, inclining her head.

He'd known her the moment he saw her. He wondered how she'd known him. Had Aang told her about the Blue Spirit he'd once been?

But people might be watching, and he wasn't going to ruin the story she'd so carefully created. So he paced towards her, slow and steadily, and she stood with her hands folded. When he reached her, he drew both swords, then dropped smoothly to one knee, laying the swords at her feet.

Katara smiled again, and a small hand settled on his bowed head as if in blessing. Then mist rose around them both, blocking everything out, and he scooped up the swords and followed her noiselessly down to the water, where she summoned a disk of ice and waved to him to step onto it.

He had time, as they crossed the river, to wonder why he'd done it. Why the gesture of fealty? It had seemed... right, to acknowledge the power of the 'Blue Spirit'. She'd given his people hope, spending her power to heal them, to purify their water and their land, though she owed them nothing.

She didn't say anything until they were across the river and she'd led him to a tiny campsite, hidden in a stand of trees. "What gave me away?" she asked, smiling at him as she tugged the veil off her hair.

"It wasn't hard." He took his mask off, leaning against a tree and watching her. "I knew there was a missing water master, and suddenly there were a series of healings and water-purifications just happening to occur along the major water-ways. I know you, Katara. I recognized your work when I saw it."

She sighed. "Aang told you I left?" She was peeling off the soft flowing silk, as if he wasn't there. The soft draperies slipped away, revealing tight blue leggings and a sarashi that left stomach and shoulders bare.

It had been four years since the war ended. She'd been a pretty girl then, all big eyes and coltishly slender limbs. As she'd grown, they'd seen each other less and less often. Now...

Now looking at her made Zuko's mouth go suddenly dry. Lush curves over long, lean muscle, hair that flowed down her strong back to ripely rounded hips, full blue-painted lips curving in an amused smile as she glanced over her shoulder at him...

Oh. They'd been talking. He floundered for a second, then realized what she'd said. "Aang told... yes, Aang told me you'd left. Katara, have you had any contact with anyone in the last couple of months?"

She blinked. "No, not really. I wanted to take some time. Why?"

Zuko groaned. "Because we've been tearing the world apart looking for you! Aang's been wearing Appa to a big hairy bag of bones, Toph's been rampaging around the Earth Kingdom, Sokka has four of my war balloons, a couple of dozen messenger hawks and a full troop of my Yu Yan archers helping him look for you, Suki - "

"WHAT?" Katara yelped, swinging around to face him again, her eyes wide. "Why on earth - I told Aang I was going! I told him I needed some time alone!"

"Well, that's not what he told us!" Zuko spread his arms helplessly. "He showed up at my palace at dawn, had me dragged out of bed to talk to him right away, asked me if you were there and when I said I hadn't seen you in a year he threw himself on me and started crying! According to him, you'd been fighting a lot, then one night you had a big fight about stupid stuff - "

"Stupid stuff?" Zuko hadn't heard her use that tone of voice since the Western Air Temple, when she'd been threatening to kill him.

"That's what he said. His exact words." If someone was going down for calling whatever Katara was upset about 'stupid', it wasn't going to be Zuko. "You had a big fight about, I quote, stupid stuff, then when he woke up the next morning you were gone. He tried to find you to apologise, but you'd just vanished, and he got worried and started going around to all your friends to find out where you were."

Katara's eyes narrowed. "That little... I swear, if he wasn't the last Air Nomad, I would wring his skinny neck for this."

"I might help. Are you seriously telling me that he's been creating this uproar for months after you told him you were going away to be alone for a while?"

"Yes! Well..." Katara hesitated. "We were both shouting at the time. I guess maybe he might not have heard all of it... or believed that I meant it this time. But it never occurred to me that he'd get all of you to look for me!"

"Sokka was pretty angry with Aang, when he showed up. He wouldn't tell me why, but I did get the impression that he blamed Aang for... whatever the fight was." Zuko was trying to be discreet about watching her, but... Agni, she was beautiful. Strong, graceful, perfect...

It had been a long time since he'd been involved with anyone. A really long time. He cleared his throat, trying not to think about that, or to stare too obviously at her as she paced the small clear space. "Damn right he blamed Aang," she snapped. "He knows it was..." She hissed in an angry breath, fists clenched. "Stupid stuff? That's what he called it?"

"That was all I could get out of him." Zuko shrugged, turning the mask over in his hands. "I... admit I'm curious. But if you don't want to tell me..."

She stopped, standing in a narrow band of moonlight, lifting her face to gaze up at it as it drenched her in pale light. "Children," she said softly, and the bitterness in her voice drained any humour out of the ridiculous misunderstanding. "We fought about having children."

"Oh." Zuko straightened up, reaching out to touch her shoulder lightly. "I... thought you both..."

"So did I." She closed her eyes, swallowing hard. "He's young. I knew that. And there was so much to do. But the peace is starting to settle in now. We could stop travelling so much, and he's sixteen and I'm nearly nineteen, that's old enough to... he's always brushed it off, when I tried to talk about it. At first I thought it was because he didn't feel ready, but I finally pushed it hard enough to get answers out of him."

She looked down at herself, the stark paints turning her face into a tragic mask. "He couldn't understand why I was making a fuss about it. We had plenty of time, he said. Air Nomads don't usually have children before their late twenties or early thirties. We're still young, we should be travelling. Having fun." Her lips were trembling. "When he realised how upset I was, he... he said we could get married now, if that was really important to me."

"Oh, no." Zuko winced. "He didn't."

"Oh, he did! It doesn't matter to him, he's never tried to hide that. I used to think it was sort of... I don't know. Romantic. That love matters to him, not what people think. But I care what people think. He doesn't know what people are starting to call me, when everyone knows we've been travelling together for years, not married, and..." She swallowed hard, throat flexing in the moonlight. "I thought he'd grow up, I guess," she said bleakly. "I didn't know he was expecting it to take another fifteen years."

She sounded so heartbroken. "Sometimes... Sometimes, even when you love someone, you just don't want the same things," he said quietly. "That was one of the problems Mai and I had, before she left the last time. It would have been easier if we didn't love each other. It wouldn't have hurt. But I had trouble with keeping secrets, and she had trouble showing how she felt about things, and she hated how I yell when I'm angry and I hated how she just steams over things without saying anything and we just... didn't work out."

She nodded, a tear trickling over dark blue paint and making a streak in the white. "I've wanted children for as long as I can remember. I've been planning my wedding since I was six. I've been travelling for more than five years and I am so, so tired of it. I want a home, Zuko. I want a family." She sniffled and laughed wryly. "And since half the world thinks I'm a fallen woman, I would like to have sex before I'm thirty!"

Zuko's jaw felt as if it was hanging at knee level. "You haven't... you and Aang never..."

She shook her head, eyes still sparkling with tears. "At first he was too young, and then I thought we should wait until we were married, and then he... he started worrying about breaking with Air Nomad traditions. They don't... do that, except to have children."

Zuko shook his head slightly, having trouble actually comprehending what he was hearing. Aang, a healthy young man in something approximating his right mind, had looked at this beautiful, vital woman who he claimed to love, who loved him... and he'd decided that waiting for another fifteen years to share a bed, to have children and be together, seemed like a great idea? "What an idiot," he blurted, then cleared his throat. "Sorry, I know that doesn't help, but..."

She laughed shakily. "It kind of does. He was acting as if I was being so unreasonable, I honestly wondered for a while if I was, if it was me...."

"It wasn't you. Katara, it's not as if anyone but a complete idiot wouldn't know that was what you wanted!" Zuko shook his head, letting his disbelief show. If she'd started to doubt herself over this, then maybe it would help. "You've been mothering Toph since you were fourteen - she writes to me, you know, or has one of her students do it for her. She complains a lot about you fussing... you know how she does," he added quickly. "When she complains but you know she likes it."

Katara sniffed and nodded. "I know how she does. She was... she kind of caused the fight. She was telling me I needed to have babies of my own so I'd stop babying her, and I realized how badly I wanted that, so after we left the school I started pushing Aang to talk to me."

Zuko reached out to clasp her shoulders between her hands. "Katara, you weren't being unreasonable. You're ready for a family, and he just isn't. Believe me, I'm really proud of myself for finally working this out, but... just because you love someone, that doesn't mean you'll want the same things." He smiled a little sadly. "Mai didn't really want children, either. She would have - the succession, and everything. Duty. But she didn't want them, not like I did."

"I'm sorry." Katara sighed, and then she leaned in to hug him, wreaking havoc both with Zuko's blood pressure and his heart. He'd barely thought about that long-ago crush in years, believing she was irrevocably paired with Aang, but now... all the things that had made him long for her then were still there, only even more so. "It hurts," she said into his black silk shirt. "When you have to choose."

"It does." He rested his hands on her back, warm skin soft under his fingers. "I take it you chose."

She nodded, head still resting on his chest. "I don't know what to do now, though," she said in a small voice. "I can't have a shred of a reputation left, not after being with Aang so long. I suppose I could go home, but Dad's been getting stiffer and stiffer about me not being married as it is. When he knows I've left Aang... and I won't find many men who don't agree with him in the Water Tribe, either! I've never exactly been... been popular with boys, and - " She broke off, jerking away to give him an indignant look.

Zuko couldn't help it. The startled laugh had escaped against his will, and it actually took him nearly a full minute to stop laughing, the indignant look on that lovely face only making what she'd said even more ridiculous. "I'm sorry," he gasped, trying to get his breath back. "I'm sorry, Katara, but do you really think that?"

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, lip quivering again. "You don't need to laugh at me." she said unhappily. "I know I'm too - "

"Katara," he said, remorseful now. "Katara, do you have any idea... no, you don't, do you? You used to wreak havoc just walking across the common area at the Western Air Temple, didn't you know that? It wasn't just Aang - I saw you make Teo wheel right into a wall more than once, and Haru used to keep staring at your behind and sighing, and I - " He broke off, blushing. "Well. Mai and I were involved then, sort of, so I didn't look much, but... but believe me, you gave me a lot of sleepless nights before Mai."

Her mouth was hanging open, her eyes wide. "I did?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, not quite able to look her in the eye. "Well, yeah. Look, you know what it was like for you and Sokka, growing up in the South Pole with no-one your age except each other. I know you do, he still complains about it. Well, I spent years on a ship with nobody my own age, and no women at all. Then I... Look, you were the first girl I'd said more than two words to since I was thirteen, and you were so pretty and so loyal and brave... Even when we were enemies, I had to work at not, uh, imagining that we weren't. That you might care about me, like you seemed to care about Aang." The way she was looking at him was getting increasingly uncomfortable, and he tried to push on. "And it wasn't just me. Sokka used to complain about it, you know, about the way boys just seemed to converge on you. The way he told it, he had to fight to protect your innocent heart all the way across the world and back."

"He did not!" Katara protested, and then she bit her lip, teeth white against the blue paint. "I mean... did he?"

"He thinks he did. I know that when he showed up to demand I help him look for you he was muttering about all the men you could have had who probably would have treated you better than Aang did." Zuko shrugged. "And it's not just because you're beautiful. You're brave, and loyal, and caring, and dangerous - "

"Dangerous?"

"You were a master of combat bending at fifteen, Katara! Okay, that does put some men off, but believe me, Sokka and I are not the only guys in the world with an, an appreciation for women tougher than we are! Mai could have killed me with one hand, and you know Suki can flatten Sokka any time she wants to." Zuko cleared his throat, trying to sound a little less enthusiastic. "Just... trust me. You're strong and deadly and that's definitely part of what any guy with half a brain would love about you."

She looked up at the moon, and then back at him. "Did you? Like that about me?"

It wasn't easy - but she needed to hear it, and what kind of friend wouldn't give her that much? "Yes," he admitted, hoping the moonlight hid his blush. "I, uh... remember the time we fought at the North Pole?"

"Yes..." she said slowly, frowning a little.

"You were... amazing. Beautiful, deadly..." He didn't quite look her in the eye. "I used to have, uhm, some dreams after that. Where the fight ended... differently. You know."

"Where instead of icing you to a wall I threw myself at your feet and begged you to have your way with me?" She sounded as if she wasn't sure whether to be pleased or horrified, which was more or less how Zuko had reacted to the dreams at the time.

"Well, the one where you iced me to the wall and then had your way with me was actually one of the better ones," he blurted out, sure now that his face must actually be glowing with the force of his blush. "No. Uhm. More that we impressed each other so much that we sort of got... mutually carried away. Look, it wasn't that I wanted to... to lay hands on you if you didn't want me to. I never wanted that, I just..."

"Wanted me to want you to?" Her voice had softened. When he risked a glance at her, she was smiling a little. "I.... might have had one or two dreams like that. Not just that, but..." She looked away, looking as embarrassed as he'd felt. "Silly romantic things. The power of my love being enough to make you give up hunting Aang, to change sides... it's stupid. But I was fourteen."

Zuko cleared his throat once or twice, and not just because of embarrassment. "That. Uh. That might have worked," he admitted. "Probably. Almost certainly. If I'd thought you really loved me, I would have done anything for you."

"Really?" She shifted closer, so they were barely a foot apart, her eyes on his face.

"Really," he said quietly. "I know I hurt you, in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se. I'll always be sorry for that. I was an idiot. But I was an idiot because Azula came to me and begged me to help her, hinted that she and my father loved me and wanted me back, and you..." He sighed. "I know Uncle told you to go, and you wanted to help your brother and your friends. I know that. I even knew it then. But I thought we'd started to understand each other, and... and I wanted to kiss you. For the first time, I thought you might not hate me, that you might not - I'd never let anyone touch my scar before, and it didn't make you flinch. You didn't seem to care. So I wanted to kiss you, to find out if you would kiss me back, and then Aang showed up and you left with him, and... I know it doesn't excuse anything that I did. But for the record, if I'd thought then that you cared, I would have followed you anywhere."

He hadn't meant to tell her any of that, not ever. He'd been ashamed of how stupid he'd been almost from the moment he'd done it, for all sorts of reasons. He'd sincerely loved Mai, and while they'd been together his old crush on Katara had slipped easily to the back of his mind. And after that, she and Aang had been together and he wasn't going to build fantasies around a friend who was all but married to someone else. But if her confidence in herself had really suffered that much then he didn't care how embarrassing it was to rake up those old coals. He would do it for her.

Her hand came up, the way it had in the cave, her soft fingers brushing lightly over the raised ridges of his scar. "I would have," she said very quietly. "For the record. I would have kissed you back."

He swallowed hard. Having her standing this close, her hand on his face, was affecting him just as much now as it had then. "Really?"

She nodded. "I was thinking about it too."

He barely recognised his own voice when the words slipped free. "Do you think... is there any chance you might think about it again, one day?"

* * *

Katara had always liked Zuko's voice. Well, not right at first, when he'd been shouting threats, but he had a nice voice. The soft, distinctive rasp that turned into a purr when he was happy and a tearing snarl when he was angry …. but she'd never heard it sound like this.

She'd been so aware of him in the cave, when they stood so close. When his rasping voice had turned halting and gentle, when her stupid, embarrassing daydreams about love softening him had seemed so possible. It hadn't broken her heart, when he turned on her, but it had cracked it a little, a small lingering pain that had helped to fuel her anger against him for a long time.

The crack Zuko had left in her heart was nothing to the shattered wreckage Aang had created, though. Without even understanding what he was doing he'd torn down four years' worth of hopes and dreams and stabbed her with them, and like a wounded animal she'd slipped away to heal or die alone. She'd stowed away on a Fire Nation trading vessel because she knew Aang wouldn't expect her to go there, and when she reached the Fire Nation she'd turned away from the cities to find the water and solitude she needed.

And what she hadn't known she needed, she'd found anyway - people who needed her. Her, not Aang. Problems she could fix, work only she could do.

She'd considered resuming the mantle of the Painted Lady, but that hadn't felt right. The Painted Lady was a real spirit with her own place, and Katara had no right to usurp her appearance again. But Aang had told her once that Zuko had assumed the role of a 'Blue Spirit', so she'd wandered his lands with a disguise he'd once used while she tried to put her heart back together.

Now she stood in front of him, her face still painted in the Blue Spirit's colours, and it felt... right. She hadn't consciously intended any of this, and she doubted he had either. It wasn't as if they'd been secretly pining for each other all this time - she hadn't, at least. But somehow they were back where they'd been four years ago under Ba Sing Se, hovering on the edge of a choice.

If she said no, she knew he would never bring it up again. He would respect the choice she made, whatever it was. He always had respected her choices - he'd fought her as an equal when they were enemies, let her leave with Aang under Ba Sing Se, waited silently while she chose for herself whether to kill Yon Rha or let him live.

She remembered Aang kissing her after she'd told him she didn't know how she felt about him, and Zuko's bowed head and silent acceptance when she spat venom at him. She saw his head bow again, as she looked at him without answering, his eyes closing. Another moment and he would pull away, assuming her choice was made. He always had been impatient.

So she fanned her fingers over his scarred cheek and raised herself on tiptoe to kiss him gently. His lips were warm and soft under his, and she saw his eyes fly open and then close again as his hands slid over her back, pulling her tightly to him.

The kiss was slow and gentle, almost chaste, but it stole Katara's breath away. It was so new, so fragile and perfect, and he was holding her tightly and kissing her so gently...

They were both breathing fast when they drew apart. "Katara," he said softly. "I... I don't want to, to take advantage of you. I know Aang hurt you, even though he probably didn't mean to, and I know I've hurt you, and I never want that to happen again. So... tell me what you want, and I'll do it. Whatever you need."

She ran her fingers over his face again, both sides this time, exploring the planes of his face. He meant it, she realised in wonder. She could still tell him to go, and he would go. If she announced she wanted to return to the South Pole, he'd provide a boat and never mention the kiss again. Her choice. Certainty came as easily as breath, in the wake of that realisation, and she smiled up at him, molding her body to his and savouring the way he gasped and shifted against her. "You," she murmured. "I need you."

"I... now?" He was startled, but he didn't pull away from you. "Katara, are you sure - "

She pouted a little, her fingers exploring the side of his neck. "You said whatever I need."

"I... did." He sighed, his hands fanning over her back, stroking gently. "I also said I didn't want to take advantage of you. Are you sure you won't regret this?"

She kissed him again, and it was far less chaste this time. She was glad he'd asked, that he wanted to be sure... but she was sure. "I'm tired of waiting," she murmured, arms twining around his neck. "I am so, so tired of waiting. This is what I want, Zuko." Because she wished he'd kissed her in the cave four years ago, and saved her all the pain Aang had caused. Because he wanted her to make the choice. Because he was the one who'd found her. Because he'd come to her as the Blue Spirit, kneeling in homage instead of confronting her.

Because she'd wanted Zuko first, before anyone else, and this felt right.

"All right." He lowered his head to kiss along the side of her neck, slow gentle kisses that made her shiver. "If you're sure..." His hands moved over her, one settling on her backside, the other smoothing up her spine to cup the back of her head, fingers lacing through her loose hair. And she could tell - from the way his fingers flexed and his lips brushed her skin, from the way his breath caught and from the hard bulge pressing against the pit of her stomach - that his hesitance wasn't because he didn't want her. He wanted it to be what she wanted, and she slid her hand onto his backside to show that it was.

He made a little growling noise, his tongue brushing the sensitive spot under her ear. "I guess you are," he breathed, lifting his head to kiss her again, long and hard. "Okay. How much have you done before?"

"Kissing. A little... oh... a little touching over clothes. That's all." She whimpered a little when the hand on her bottom flexed and squeezed, something it would never have occurred to her could feel good. "Have you, uh..."

"Yes." He kissed her again, then trailed kisses along her jaw. "Do you want me to take the lead this time?"

"Oh, yes." She sighed in pleasure and relief, letting herself melt against him. She'd worried about this, about how to coach Aang through something she'd never done herself. But if Zuko knew what he was doing...

He did. Oh, he did.

She was panting and shivering by the time their clothes were off, his kisses and touches warming her skillfully. He paused then, letting her look - despite his obvious blushes - and Katara touched in turn, her hands wandering over his broad shoulders, down over muscled chest and stomach to tentatively explore the firm length of his erection. He groaned, muscles shifting visibly under his skin as he forced himself to stay still, still trying to give her what she wanted.

It was a heady feeling, to know that she could have whatever she asked for. She tested it over and over, as he eased her down onto her blankets and began exploring in earnest. When she asked for more he gave it to her, fingers teasing her nipples until she arched helplessly. When she pushed his hands away from her ticklish sides he lifted them at once, laughing and ducking his head to kiss her stomach instead. She didn't even have to use words. When she responded with sighs and moans he gave her more, fingers working gently and skilfully between her legs. When she pulled away (he'd found another ticklish spot) he shifted immediately.

When she begged him, shaking with need, he moved up to cover her body with his, kissing her urgently. She could feel him trembling against her and knew how hard he was working to hold back, to make it perfect... and when he finally entered her, she felt barely a twinge of pain. Only pleasure, and the warmth of him above and within her, hungry kisses and a gentle hand sliding down over her stomach to make her buck and writhe with sudden bliss as his fingers found just the right spot. Ecstasy came quickly the first time, and she expected it to stop then... but it didn't. He growled into her ear and sped up, building her up all over again until she arched and shrieked, muscles clenching spasmodically in ecstasy, and she barely heard him groaning a drawn out 'Kataraaaaaaa!' as he found his own release.

Weak and shaking, she managed a protesting whimper as he eased off her, not wanting it to end. But he settled beside her, gathering her gently into his arms and kissing her face. Then he made a little rueful noise. "I don't know what face paint you're using," he murmured, "but the white tastes terrible."

"I know." She found herself smiling, ridiculously and perfectly happy. "That's why I use the blue on my lips. Should I have taken the paint off first?"

"It doesn't matter." He kissed the top of her head. "You're beautiful with the paint, or without it."

She was glad he thought she was beautiful, but knowing that he cared more that she was brave and loyal and dangerous made it perfect. She nuzzled his chest, and realized she was leaving faint traces of blue. She liked that. Liked knowing she'd marked him in some way, claimed him... "So are you," she whispered.

He tensed against her. "Katara, you don't have to say - "

"You are." She reached down, sliding a slow, appreciative hand over thigh and groin, stomach and chest, working her way up to cup his face and lift her head to brush her lips over the scar, apparent even in dim moonlight. "You are to me."

He sighed, pulling her close and burying his face in her neck. "Thank you," he whispered humbly, and her eyes stung when she heard the little wobble in his voice.

She stroked his hair, holding him tightly. "I mean it."

"I know." He held on for a moment longer then pulled away, taking a deep breath and reaching back to pull a blanket over them both. They curled together in a cocoon of warmth and peace, and it felt perfect. "How did you know?" he asked softly.

"Know what?"

"That it was me under the mask."

She smiled, twining her hand with his and admiring the way dark fingers and pale ones laced comfortably together. "Aang told me once, that you'd done that. That's why I disguised myself as the Blue Spirit, too." She considered. "But I would have known anyway, when I saw you move and the way you held the swords. You can't disguise that."

"I knew you, too," he murmured. "I suspected it was you... but even if I hadn't, I know how you move when you bend. I'd know you no matter how much face-paint you wore."

"Good." She nestled against him, and for the first time in a long time she felt entirely happy. They just lay there, holding each other, and everything was right and after a while she sighed and turned her face into his chest.

She was almost asleep when Zuko jerked away and sat up. "Damn! The moon's almost down. Katara, I have to go."

Perfection vanished in a sudden chill. "Go?"

He kissed her and eased out of the blankets, summoning a flame to his hand to help him look for his discarded clothes. "I have to be back in my tent at dawn. For some reason, my guards get very upset when they lose me."

"Oh. Of course." She blushed for forgetting that, for thinking he could just stay with her - he was the Fire Lord, he had responsibilities. Even so, she pulled the blanket up to cover herself, that little uncertain chill still coiling in her stomach. "So... what now?" Her voice sounded small and plaintive and she blushed.

He'd been pulling on his pants. When she said that, though, sounding so pitiful, he turned at once, holding his pants up with one hand as he knelt beside her to kiss her fiercely. "I go back and resume my crown and my duties," he said quietly. "You go to the nearest messenger-hawk station - there's one a few hours downstream - and officially let me know that you're okay, so I can call off the hunt." He cupped her cheek with his palm, resting his forehead against hers for a moment. "And then I wait," he whispered, "and hope you come to me. I want you to. I want to be with you, to have time to talk about this, about us... but if you need to finish being the Blue Spirit first, or to think, or settle things with Aang, that's okay. I'll be in Sozin when you're ready."

The chill melted and Katara slid her arms around him and kissed him until she was breathless. "It won't take long," she promised. "As soon as I'm finished here..." She loved that he knew she had to finish what she'd started, that she wouldn't leave the people she'd been helping.

"You don't have to do it all right now," he murmured, just a little hopefully. "Official help is coming for these people, now that you've let me know the problem exists. And I'm not going to lock you up in the palace if you come to me."

Katara found herself laughing softly in sheer delight. If he was trying to be perfect, it was working. "You keep trying to give me everything I want. What if I told you I wanted you to spend a year escorting me on a state tour of the Fire Nation, never leaving my side or touching a piece of paperwork?"

He sat back on his heels, smiling at her as he reached for his shirt. "But you wouldn't. You'd never ask me to abandon the people who rely on me."

"No." She hugged her knees, watching pale skin and lean muscle disappear into his clothes again with regret... but she would see it again. "I wouldn't. But what if I asked you to let me spend a year travelling, restoring and cleaning the rivers and streams? Would you let me go?"

"Well, would I have any right to stop you?" he asked, raising his one eyebrow at her. "Right now, I don't, and I wouldn't try. Are you my guest, in this 'what if'? Or my beloved, or... " he hesitated only for a moment, "or my wife?"

It mattered to him, how much she was willing to give him of herself, and that was far more romantic than Aang's disregard for convention. How could she ever have thought otherwise? "And if I was your wife?" she asked quietly. "Would you let me go?"

He did her the courtesy of really considering the question. "I'd ask you if you really had to go for a whole year, if you couldn't do several journeys for a couple of months instead."

"And if it couldn't wait?"

He touched her cheek. "Then I would miss you," he said simply. "But I wouldn't ask you to put me before people who need you, either."

She slid out of the blankets, grabbing his shirt and pulling him in for a long kiss. "I know you wouldn't. That's one of the reasons I'll be there soon," she murmured against his lips.

He kissed her back... then picked her up surprisingly easily, setting her firmly back on the blankets. "Katara, it's hard to make myself leave as it is," he said, and the purr in his voice sent a happy shiver down her spine. "Please don't make it harder."

"Was I doing that?" she asked innocently, glancing meaningfully at his pants.

"Yes." The growl was sexy too... and so was his little chuckle. But he finished dressing, pulling the mask down over his face. "Get some sleep, Katara," the Blue Spirit said softly. "I'll see you soon."

* * *

Gossip had spread like wildfire when the Avatar's lover disappeared. The flames had been fanned when the Fire Lord sent word to the other nations that she had been found.

The flames became an inferno when she stalked into the Fire Lord's palace where the Avatar was waiting and slapped his face so hard she actually knocked him down. She had left him, it transpired, and the hunt that had disrupted the orderly running of three nations had been nothing more than a boy's unwillingness to accept a woman's rejection.

Zuko heard several versions of the truth, in varying shades of luridity, being urgently discussed as he went to the suite of rooms reserved for Water Tribe dignitaries. Katara was alone there, at the moment - Sokka had settled for sending a long letter along with the returned Yu Yan archers, since he had responsibilities of his own that he couldn't neglect just to scold his sister.

She opened the door to him readily enough, though her eyes were a little red. "Come in, Zuko."

Zuko slipped into the room and closed the door quietly behind him. "Aang is gone," he said, and saw a little of the tension ease out of her shoulders. "I politely but firmly suggested that perhaps it would be best for everyone if he left quietly."

"Good." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Are you going to tell me I was too harsh?"

Zuko watched her move restlessly around the suite's reception room. "You know you undermined his credibility pretty badly. It's going to be a while before the Avatar finds the nations willing to drop everything to help him again."

"I know. But do you think I was wrong?" She turned to face him, challenge in her eyes.

She was wearing blue silk again, this time one of the simple gowns always kept here for her visits, and Zuko wondered if it meant something that she'd changed out of the simple red tunic and pants she'd been wearing when she arrived. Those had only been a disguise, of course, but... he shook his head, focusing on what they'd been saying. "No, I don't. One of you was going to lose credibility over this, and he created the problem, not you. Next time, maybe he'll think about what he's doing."

She relaxed further. "I hope so. I know I hurt him," she added sadly. "But after he made it so public, bringing you into it - not just Zuko, but the Fire Lord - not to mention the Earth Kings and the Water Tribes... I couldn't resolve it privately, not without making it look like I'd come crawling back in shame."

"You're certainly popular around here." Zuko had been guiltily pleased to find that out - every noble warmly inclined to Katara was one fewer he'd have to shout down if he was fortunate enough to be able to present her as his consort. "There are plenty of people who - even though they know the peace is better for everyone - can't help being a little pleased at seeing the Avatar taken down a peg or two after he shamed the Fire Nation."

"Politics." Katara sighed, flopping onto a couch. "Being a hero has its downside, doesn't it?"

"Try being Fire Lord." He sat down at the other end of the couch, and after a moment he gathered her small feet - bare here in the safety of her suite - onto his lap, cupping his hands around them. "Have you come to stay?" he asked quietly.

She rested her cheek against the brocaded back of the couch, gazing at him. "I hope so," she said just as quietly. "We'll need... time. To talk. To find out if this works. To make sure it doesn't look as if I ran straight from Aang's arms to yours."

Zuko's heart was beating faster. Having her throw herself into his arms and say 'yes' would have been nice... but this was better. Taking time, wanting to build something real - that was what you did if you wanted a future. Marriage. Children. The things that he already knew they both wanted... and Katara would be a wonderful mother. "We should take time," he agreed, thumbs brushing over her slender ankles. "I want this to be... right. For both of us."

She smiled, and the same giddy happiness he was feeling was all over her face. "It will be."

An almost-decorous three months later, the formal betrothal of Fire Lord Zuko and Master Waterbender Katara was announced. The wedding was held a month later.

Rather less than a year after that, the Fire Lord and Lady were pleased to announce the birth of a princess. And if people assumed that she had been named 'Aoi' because she had her mother's blue eyes, or in acknowledgement of her Water Tribe heritage, her parents never felt it necessary to correct them.