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If he had gone to bed like he was supposed to, he wouldn’t have heard the sudden influx of noise and movement in the first place. But Zuko roams the halls the way he usually does the night before important meetings, and tonight, it makes him privy to late night exchanges.
“Y-your Highness! I don’t think—”
“Nonsense,” Zuko freezes in place, because he knows that voice, and even though he should drag himself away, he can’t find it in his bones to do so. He roots himself in place, eyes vividly pinned on the adjacent hallway where the voices are coming from.
“This is perfectly fitting, Noriko,” her voice sounds low, tangled with amusement, and he can hear the distinct click of heeled shoes down the hallway.
His breath catches when it comes closer, despite the noisy protest in the background. “Please,” comes the plea, “please, your Highness, you can’t just walk around like this, not in the Fire Nation, it’s—”
She rounds the corner and Zuko is standing there, in the center of the hallway, and he’s almost sure that he can’t breathe anymore. No, he thinks, no, she can’t just walk around like this.
Katara’s hair is all pinned away from her face, loose curls falling from the haphazard tumble of her hair, and her eyes glint as she meets his gaze. But Zuko’s focus is on her clothes, on the sky blue silk poured over her frame, clinging to every curve of her body (and especially the parts that are cut away to reveal smooth, dark skin at the lower arch of her back and the slope of her thighs, a dangerous slit that parts when she steps towards him).
“Prince Zuko,” she greets with her hands on her hips, wrists jingling with intricate bangles—gold, Fire Nation artisanship—and starry-silver heels on her feet.
“I, um,” he stumbles over his words, taking a step back and trying to choke back the embarrassed, attracted noise in the back of his throat, “I should be o-on my way to bed,” he dismisses himself, turning on the heel of his foot and marching away.
Zuko hears the click of her shoes away, but what he thinks on when he returns to his chambers, is her response, “I think I’ll save this for the right occasion, Noriko.”