Mindbenders

The world moved around Zuko, whirling from reds and blacks to blues and whites. He was no longer in his room at the palace but in the highest room of the central tower of the Temple of the Water Maidens. It was a circular room, beautiful murals made of blue dyed furs were on every wall, surrounding him; encircling him.

They were beautiful, and not for their craftsmanship, but because they depicted the life of the first woman to learn the fighting styles of the Northern Traditions. From her birth on the night of the Winter Solstice during a Blue Moon to her death at the hands of her demon-possessed husband, all of it was there and tended for tirelessly by the Water Maidens, the warrior-priestesses who spent years learning the Waterbending traditions as well as diplomacy, domestic and spiritual skills so that they could emulate Katara.

They even dressed like her and did their hair in the exact same way. The younger ones kept only braids but would eventually let their hair partially loose, a small braid over it. It was one of things that always bothered Zuko about coming here, all of the girls trying their best to look and act exactly like the woman he had loved and lost. But what bothered him the most was what was in the exact center of the room; the ice coffin that held Katara’s body. The freezing temperature keeping her perfectly intact and looking just as she had the day she had died in his arms.

Or had she? What did her spirit mean, and why did it appear more like a projection of someone living? And what was he doing here?

Zuko walked over to Katara’s coffin and looked at her beautiful face, her features slightly distorted by the ice. She lay perfectly still, her lips slightly blue, frost thinly lining her eyelashes. Lips he would never again kiss eyes he would never again gaze into. He held his breath; he had fought the urge to break down and cry for over two hundred years, but he wasn’t sure he would win this time.

A loud noise brought his attention from his grief and back to the coffin, the lid was cracking. Zuko stepped back as the ice shattered into tiny, freezing shards. Had it been one of the Water Maidens? Had it been their way of attacking someone who entered the Master’s Tomb without permission?

No, that didn’t make any sense since there was no way Zuko was really there.

“Zuko.” a familiar voice called

He looked up and was sure he was hallucinating, sure it was some cruel trick Azula was playing on him. Katara sat up.

She turned her head and looked at him, her blue eyes faded for all but the tiniest spark of life. She held her arms out to him, silently pleading him to come and hold her as he used to.

Zuko knew he should walk away from her, every bit of logic told him it was Azula in his mind, again. But something pulled him towards Katara, something that told him that this was the chance he thought gone and it would not present itself again.

He walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her freezing body, relishing in her touch, even if it was no longer warm.

Katara tilted her head up and pressed her lips into his, pulling him down into the coffin as she did. Her hands traveling down to his pants string, she untied it and pulled them off.

“Zuko” she shivered “I need you to warm me, otherwise I’ll be trapped like this forever.”

This was lost on Zuko, how could he warm her? He was just as cold and lifeless as she. He pulled away from Katara, about to explain it to her when for the first time in centuries, he felt warmth. He looked down and noticed his hands glowing slightly red, as if fire would shoot out of them.

Katara took his left hand and put his index finger in her mouth, lightly sucking on it. The heat melting the frost on her lips and giving her cheeks a rosy complexion.

Zuko reached down and undid the silver clasp on the side of her blue velvet funeral robes, revealing her naked body underneath.

He buried himself in her freezing body, not caring that the temperature caused his most sensitive areas to sting from cold. Zuko needed her and he didn’t care what it cost him or how much it hurt. He pushed in and out of her, his memory of her body and where she liked to be touched just as fresh as on the last night they spent together.

Katara groaned underneath him, her nails digging into his backside, begging him for more. As he continued, Zuko’s body got warmer and all of that warmth was going into Katara, with each thrust she looked more and more alive. A spark lit up her blue eyes, her skin changed from blue to the warm, light brown color it had once been.

“Zuko!” she gasped, wrapping her legs around him, pulling him in deeper.

He sped up, getting closer, closer. Zuko knew he should control himself, knew he should slow down and think of Katara’s needs, but the fear that this was some fluke and he would never again know her comfort caused his needs to be beyond his control.

It hit hard and suddenly; his thoughts flew from his mind, every muscle in his body stiffened as the shudder ran through him. Just as it was finishing, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Katara had bitten him.

Zuko’s eyes flew open, he was still in his bed at the palace, the sun having just set. He sat up and looked around, the fear set in that it had all been a dream, that he was so desperate he had imagined everything. He got out of bed and went to light the candles when he realized they were already lit. Had a servant come in while he slept? No, they knew better. Hope filled Zuko as he concentrated on the flames. The warm sensation that he had felt in his dream now crept into him and the flames rose. He couldn’t believe it, he could Firebend again.

A/N: Thanks to Moor for Beta-ing and giving me inspiration with her Zutara fanfic, Merits. It's in my fave stories on FF.net, check it out!