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She was bored. From the glances she kept stealing at Aang, she could tell he was too, but was doing a better job at hiding it. If she didn’t know him so well and wasn’t sitting so close to him, she wouldn’t have been able to tell. She, on the other hand, was very aware that her boredom was written all over her face.
Shifting in her seat and slumping down slightly, she lamented over the fact that she didn’t really need to be here, it was just supposed to be a show of good faith that somebody from the Southern Water Tribe was there, and a stroke of bad luck that neither he father or brother was available. She shifted again, sitting up more fully as the Earth King prattled on about unity in the new times. She propped her hand up and rested her cheek on it. She wasn’t voting on anything, this wasn’t a speech she really needed to hear, she wondered again why Kuei had insisted on her being there.
Katara straightened again, stealing yet another glance at Aang. He was giving the Earth King his full attention, sitting up straight, but Katara could see his fingers in his lap tapping out a rhythm that could only be heard in his head. She smiled at him, and surreptitiously reached her own hand to grab his, interlacing their fingers together under the table they all sat it. He stole a glance of his own, giving her a soft smile that would have made her knees weak if she’d been standing. His eyes quickly flicked back to King Kuei, who was still prattling on. For a man who didn’t know the war even existed until the last few months of it, he sure liked to talk about it.
She couldn’t help but smile at how much of a diplomat Aang was. At only 17, he’d brokered the world in peace and remained the face of this new era, even when he had to go to boring meetings like this one. She gave his hand a quick squeeze for no other reason than she could, and preened a little when he squeezed her hand back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before she shifted again, releasing his hand to tuck one leg under her. When she’d stilled again, his hand had slipped back into his robes, so she settled for resting hers on his thigh. She stifled another sigh of boredom when an idea struck her. She stole another glance at Aang, who’s attention seemed to be completely on the still jabbering Earth King.
Katara began rubbing little circles on his thigh with her thumb. He didn’t react, and she knew if she wanted her little plan to work, she’d have to ease into it. She let her thumb continue its track, before adding the rest of her hand, tracing small circles with her fingers and palm. Still no reaction from Aang. Her hand, which had begun its journey on the outside of his thigh, moved slightly, her circles now hitting the top of his thigh. He took a deeper inhale than he had been taking, but didn’t move. She fought of a slight smirk, shifting slightly so it wasn’t obvious where her hand was reaching. She got into a rhythm and left her hand there for a few moments. After she was sure most of his attention was elsewhere, she kept her same tempo, but began moving slightly, a few centimeters at a time when she hit a certain point in her circle. At the first brush of her fingertips on the inside of his thigh, he stiffened, but only slightly. She kept her gaze fixed on King Kuei, but could see Aang steal a quick glance at her out of the corner of her eye. She forced her eyes ahead and her face to remain neutral. For a moment, she was worried he would push her hand away, but she kept her hand in the same spot, making her small circles over and over again. He finally looked away, and she couldn’t help the small smirk that appeared. She took a deep breath and turned her face neutral again.
She kept her movements up, trying to get him used to it and turn his attention back to the Earth King. Katara wondered idly how long he would talk for. Finally, after counting to a hundred and back down in her head, she shifted the angle of her hand just slightly, and on her next pass around, she brushed Aang through the fabric of his trousers with just her pointer finger. He straightened up more visibly this time, and shot her a look, but she was decidedly not looking at him. She retracted her hand just enough that she wouldn’t brush against him, but continued her ‘innocent’ motions. She heard him school his breathing, deep breaths in, deep breaths out, and fought the urge to smile. The fact that she could do that to the all-powerful Avatar definitely fueled her ego. After listening to him do that for a moment, she moved again, touching him more fully with all of her fingers. He choked slightly on one of his breaths in, and covered it with a cough. While he fought his hardest to keep his face and body language controlled, she fought her hardest to not laugh. He covertly swatted her hand away from him, which fueled her barely contained laughter. She straightened though, and kept to her hands to herself the rest of the meeting, which blessedly didn’t last too much longer.
They were engaged, but it was still frowned upon for the two of them to share a room. Which is how she got away from his retribution for the meeting. After the conference with the Earth King, there had been a small party in the palace, which lasted most of the night. By the time they had finally gotten to their rooms, they were both too tired to do anything but sleep. The next day, he caught her in the hallway. It was obviously an accident, she came out of her room as he turned the corner, and they quite literally ran into each other. Ever the opportunist, however, he used his heavier momentum to get her back in her room, shutting the door behind them, and had her against the wall before she could comprehend what was happening.
“That was mean, Katara.” He reprimanded against her neck in between nips and kisses.
His movements against her neck at the rapidness at which this situation came about were making her head spin, but she couldn’t bring herself to complain.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She finally managed to reply coyly.
Aang didn’t like that answer, and nipped her collarbone in retribution before straightening to his full height, which was a solid seven or eight inches above her own at this point. She tried and failed to contain a cheeky smile as he eyed her, unsuccessfully attempting to give her a reprimanding look. He gave up on his efforts entirely when she snaked her hands up, throwing one around his neck while the other she brought to his cheek, bringing his face to her own, and kissing him fiercely.
“Don’t pretend that wasn’t the most interesting thing to happen at that meeting.” She murmured as she pulled away, moving down to his neck to repeat the motions he had made on her.
Aang was having problems remembering why he was fussing at her in the first place when she was this close and her mouth knew all the sensitive spots to hit on his neck. His hands involuntarily came up to fist her tunic, keeping her close to him.
“I don’t know about interesting.” He managed to get out.
Katara laughed against him, and was about to say something else when a knock came at the door, snapping them out of the little bubble they had built around themselves.
“Miss Katara?” Came the timid voice of a servant. “The healers are waiting on you to begin today’s lesson.”
Aang’s head hit the wood of the wall above her own, and he let out a quiet groan while she giggled.
“I’m coming, just a moment!” Katara called, before reaching up to give Aang another kiss, slotting their mouths together and pulling away before he could really kiss her back, making him pout even more. She laughed again. “Wait a couple minutes after I’m gone to come out.” She instructed before kissing the tip of his nose and slipping out of his arms and out the door.
Aang beat his head against the wall of the room a couple times, before turning around and sliding against it to the ground, his legs straight out in front of him. He scrubbed his face. He was going to need more than two minutes.
Unfortunately for the young Avatar, he didn’t see his betrothed for the rest of that day, both of them caught up in other things. When it was just the two of them in the city, they didn’t stay in their little house to keep up appearances, which also meant they saw less of each other, and Aang couldn’t help but be irked at that fact at that very moment. The next day, however, Aang couldn’t help but smile when he wandered into the dining room of the palace to find Katara setting out plates and laughing with some of the servants milling about.
He crossed the room and threw his arm around her waist. “Hey.” He said, smiling down at her.
She returned the same smile. “Morning, sweetie.”
She leaned up as he leaned down, and they shared a chaste kiss, which got a chorus of ‘Awes’ from the women around them. Katara laughed and pulled away.
“No wonder you’re in such a good mood in the mornings. I would be too if I got to wake up to that.” Said an older lady with a handful of napkins.
Aang and Katara both blushed, but Katara managed to swipe at her with the towel in her own hands. The woman laughed as she easily avoided Katara’s swing, disappearing back into the kitchen. Katara rolled her eyes as she turned to Aang, shrugging slightly in a ‘What are you gonna do?’ motion.
“Ah, young Avatar!” King Kuei exclaimed, walking in at the same moment.
Katara barely concealed her eye roll by looking down at her feet.
“Good morning, your majesty!” Aang greeted, equally as joyful. He lightly squeezed Katara’s waist where his hand still rested, Aang’s code for her to ‘be nice’. She huffed a little and he did it again.
“I wanted to inform the two of you that we’ll be throwing an event tonight.”
Katara pulled a face. “Didn’t we just have a party?”
The Earth King waived her off, causing her to roll her eyes again. “Pish posh, that little soiree from two days ago could hardly be called a party.”
“I’ll say.” She muttered, earning another squeeze on her waist.
Aang secretly had to agree with her though. Despite his technical age of 117, the two of them had easily been the youngest ones at the party, which consisted of generals and governors from around the Earth Kingdom had been unbelievably boring, and it had lasted all night. Eight hours of no music, no dancing, just talking with all those politicians had Aang considering trapping himself in the ice again.
“This one will be for all the political leaders in the Earth Kingdom as well as the other nations! We’ll also invite most of the Upper Ring, just so everyone can get to know each other.” The King said offhandedly as he perused through the bowls of fruit that had been brought out while he was talking.
This time it was Aang who pulled a face. “With all due respect, your majesty, I think all the political leaders know each other and the members of the Upper Ring pretty well by now. I’m also not sure everyone could get here in such a short amount of time.”
King Kuei looked up then, a confused look on his own face. “Young Avatar, the invitations for this went out almost a month ago.”
“And we’re just now being told?” Katara cut in.
The King shrugged flippantly. “I assumed you knew about it. Since I knew you would be here in the palace on the day of the party, I didn’t see any reason in sending out two extra invitations.”
Katara gaped at him, and seemed to be ramping up to say something else when Aang cut in, stepping forward and stealthily moving her a bit behind him as he did. He figured getting Kuei out of her line of sight would be beneficial to everybody involved. “We thank you, Your Majesty. We’ll be happy to attend. If you don’t mind, my betrothed and I should probably go prepare our house in the Upper Ring for our friends arrival.”
“Excellent! See you at the party!” The King called as Aang ushered a muttering Katara out of the door.
As soon as it shut behind them, she turned to him, her hands on her hips. “No warning at all because he knew we’d be here?!”
Aang shrugged as he slipped his hand around her waist again and began walking down the hall, taking her with him. They may as well begin the trek to the house while she fussed. “We did have these meetings planned out a few moths ago.”
She scoffed. “Still, a heads up more than twelve hours before would have been nice.”
“I agree, but at least we’re getting to see our friends. It would’ve been another month or two before we saw them without this, and who knows how long it would’ve been before we saw them all in one place.”
She gave a half shrug at that, seemingly acquiescing to his point. She slipped out of his grip, and slid her hand in his. They swung their arms in between them as they chattered and walked the short journey from the palace to their house.
“There’s really not that much to do.” Katara commented as they walked around the main room. “We could open the windows to air it out, but that’s about it.”
Aang gave her a half smile while one hand came up to rub the back of his neck. “I know,” He began sheepishly. “I just needed an excuse to get you away from the Earth King.”
She turned to him, her eyes narrowed. He crossed the room to her in a second, putting his hands on her hips and dropping kisses all over her face, a sort of atonement.
“I’m not saying you were wrong in being upset! Just the less waves we make, the better.” He paused in between kisses, before bringing one hand to her chin and tilting it up to kiss her properly.
“Okay, okay, you’re right.” She complied, laughing as he continued his onslaught of kisses on her cheeks.
She turned her head, catching his lips. They were always slightly chapped, and Katara found it comforting after all these years together. She couldn’t help but release a small moan when his hand slid from her chin to the nape of her neck, tangling in the hair there. Her own hands came up to cup his face, pulling him in even closer. He let out a soft groan, which made her smile. She trailed her lips down to his chin, kissing along his jaw and down to his neck. Her hands settled on the collar of his tunic, beginning to fidget with the ties there.
“Katara…” He groaned out, releasing her hair to place a hand over hers.
She kept working despite his hand being on top of hers, continuing her assault on his neck. “What? I thought we could pick up where we were interrupted yesterday.” She sucked a bruise just beneath his ear, and felt him shudder. “Plus,” She said, trying to be seductive. She wasn’t sure how well it was going, but Aang visibly stiffened when she had whispered in his ear. “We’re alone.”
Those two little words snapped Aang to the present, and he suddenly surged at her, grabbing her thighs and hoisting her up to his height. Katara let out a shriek of laughter, wrapping her legs around his waist and settling her hands on his chin again while she leaned down to kiss him. She felt them moving but she didn’t know nor care where they were going. His lips opened to hers when she asked entrance, and she kissed him fully, teasing him slightly with the tip of her tongue. He made a sound of frustration into the kiss, not being able to do anything with both hands supporting her. She felt herself being dropped, and instinctively gripped his tunic. She found herself sitting on the couch, and her hands fisted in his shirt had him leaning over her. Aang wasted no time in claiming her mouth again, supporting himself with one hand against the back of the couch while the other began untying the knots in her own blouse. She pulled on the arm supporting his weight, and he sank down on the couch next to her, releasing her lips as he did so, and focusing more on her ties. She laughed at him as she shifted herself, throwing one leg over him and settling in his lap. He pouted slightly, and she reached down to give him a quick kiss, before leaning back and untying all the knots in quick succession.
“I was getting there.”Aang grumbled, but letting his hands wander the toned landscape of her stomach anyway.
“Yes, but you were taking too long.” Katara replied as she kissed him again.
She shoved the tunic off her shoulders without removing her lips from his, shifting to be closer to him when it had hit the ground. She couldn’t help but notice the groan he emitted as she did, and smiled against his mouth. Katara moved again, pushing her hips into his stomach and settling them back. His hands, which were right beneath her wrappings, stilled, and another moan slipped from his mouth.
“Katara…” Aang gritted out.
She smiled before kissing her way to his collarbone, undoing the ties on his robes as she went. She moved her hips into his again and relished the sharp gasp that fell from his lips. She did it again, undid a tie, moved her hips, undid another. One more motion of her hips and Aang’s hand was in her hair, pulling her back up to his lips and claiming her mouth with his tongue. One hand stayed in her dark hair while the other went to her wrappings, pushing the material down instead of taking the time to undo the fabric. It made her smile again, until he cupped a breast and swiped a thumb over her nipple, causing her to groan as well. His hand in her hair slipped down to her shoulder, moving her to sit straighter and pulling one of her nipples into his mouth. She let out another groan and ground her hips into him again. She could feel him hard through his light pants, and continued grinding against him as much for herself as she was to tease him.
Suddenly, he ripped his mouth from her body. “No no no no.”
She looked down at him, panting. “Aang? What’s wrong?”
He groaned as he pulled her wrappings back over her. “They’re here.”
“What?” Katara turned around, but didn’t see anything outside. “What are you-“ Her eyes flicked down, he’d kicked his boots off at some point and had both feet planted firmly on the ground.
She muttered a curse as she stood up, bending down to retrieve her shirt as Aang began to redo the ties on his. She reached up to take her hair down, most of it having fallen out from Aang fussing with it. As she fluffed it out, she felt Aang stand up behind her. She turned to look at him, able to hear their friends chattering at this point. He gave her a sheepish smile.
“I need to stay behind you for a few minutes.”
Katara pulled a face. “Why do you- OH.” It clicked in her brain as she asked the question, and she laughed at him slightly before turning her head back to face the door.
Aang pouted, though she couldn’t see it, she could hear it in his voice when he said “Don’t laugh, it’s partly your fault!”
She bit her lip as she smiled, but kept her head facing forward. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”
Katara could hear their friends coming closer, but reached behind herself to brush her fingertips against Aang, who was still hard against her back. He let out a choked sort of sound, and her smile grew.
“I’ll make it up to you later.” She threw over her shoulder.
“You’re going to be the death of me.” His voice was hot and heavy in her ear, and it made the desire in her belly coil and tighten.
Her hand found him again, and he choked out one word as the door opened and Sokka, Suki, Toph, Zuko and Mai all piled in.
“Tease.”