Work Text:
It slipped away unintentionally.
The words melted on Zuko's lips like the liquor he rarely drank with his crew. But unlike the drink, the words were sickeningly sweet. But they made Zuko's mind dizzy like the amber liquid.
He shouldn't have said them.
Even more so uncarefully, unimportant, as a common fact of the painful life that he has been leading for years.
He shouldn't have told them for the first time to someone other than her .
He should have bitten the letters into the warm brown skin that haunts both the dreams and nightmares of his troubled mind. Kissed and painted them in imaginary lines on the bones of wide hips. Whispered, mouth to mouth, amid moans and pleas along with their names, together with promises he so wanted to be able to keep.
But he was pathetic and a coward.
She left thinking she was alone, drowning in forbidden feelings, too tender for people like them - like him .
And he let her go.
He should have held her callused fingers when their hands touched each other for the last time, entwined them, and kissed them.
Asked, pleaded, begged her to stay.
Shaped his body around hers and let their warmth blend and ease in the safety they found there.
But he let her go.
And acted, pretended this was what he wanted, what he intended.
As if the presence of a blue ribbon hidden among the scrolls on his desk was an illusion.
As if he had put up with the lack of her and not destroyed the sheets that still possessed her scent.
As if the melodic syllables that joined and formed her name had never passed his throat and spilled between his lips, breathed against the small space between their faces.
Katara Katara Katara Katara.
His uncle's eyes widened and sparkled before Zuko realized what he had said.
Of course, I know, I love her.
Today he accidentally told someone that he loved her.