Spoilers: Nothing beyond 3x12 or 3x13. DO NOT PUT SPOILERS IN REVIEWS PLEASE. I don't want to know anything about un-aired episodes, not even your mood reactions.

That being said, reviews are welcome, always.

M for MATURE. There is some significant sexual content, but not QUITE a full-out lemon. More like... lime. Very very limey. Also, it goes OOC. Very, but that's part of the challenge, in a way.

Written for the Zutarotica L J comm's first ever "Zuko/Katara Kink Meme".

Anonymous Challenge: "I'd love to see Katara get back at Zuko for tying her to the tree. Bonus points for oral sex."

Payback

When Zuko came to, blinking furiously to get dust and sleep out of his eyes, he was upright. He was upright and uncomfortable, because at the moment his arms were pulled behind him and his back was against some kind of hard, cold material. The prince craned his neck as far as physically possible, and he could just glimpse the opaque, pupil-less stare of one of the over-sized statues in the air temple's third gallery.

This was the gallery carved farthest into the cliff side, an inner sanctum that Haru had only discovered two days ago. It was filled with marble statues, mostly of past Avatars, arranged to mimic the arrangement of wind and clouds painted on the cavern ceiling. Zuko looked to be tied to the front of one of the female incarnations, nine or ten feet tall, beneath the painting of a stormy raincloud. Typical.

He looked down, and test his bonds. Leather straps, wrapped around each wrist and then again around his waist, pulling his arms backward and probably tied on the other side of the statue. Zuko didn't like the idea of burning through them unless absolutely necessary. He could do it, but he'd end up with a lot more scarring before the leather broke.

"You didn't think I'd use ice, did you?"

Zuko looked up and saw his captor. Typical.

"You don't seem to be panicking," said Katara. "Is this a typical way for you to wake up back at the palace? Happen often?"

The corner of Zuko's mouth pulled down, but he screwed it back into a placid stare.

"You must be wondering about my motives. I mean, it's not like you've tried to kill us over the last week. So you think you're in the clear, right?" She loomed in close. "Wrong!"

Katara stepped even closer, then edged to his side. She lifted her hand and dragged two fingers across Zuko's chest, then down his arms, as she circled. Her contact traveled over his bound wrists, his useless hands, and up the side of his other arm. Zuko wondered if this was some nightmare where any moment, with a three-chorus fanfare, his sister would leap out from behind a statue and rate Katara on the efficacy of her intimidation technique.

And Zuko was, he realized, intimidated. He hadn't talked at first because he wanted the waterbender to reveal her intentions, and he wanted to test the bindings, but now he simply found it difficult to talk at all. Katara had moved her hand around to his chin, and was holding it in a pincer grip.

"This is payback, Zuko. Not for Aang, for me."

This confession was enough to actually yank Zuko back into the here and now. "What?" he sputtered, or tried to sputter, and then coughed because his throat was so dry it had come out more like a weak "Whtd?"

He coughed again, swallowed, and said clearly, "WHAT?"

"Payback."

"What for?"

"First off, for tying me to a tree!" Katara snapped, jamming one finger into his chest. Zuko's mouth dropped open.

"Is this a joke?" Katara's eyes bugged out even more, and he was sure he saw the water in the fountain a few feet away boiling. Well, it probably wasn't boiling because he was mostly certain she couldn't do that, but it was busy doing something. Little waves had started to slosh over the side.

"Second," Katara continued, bypassing his question, "For attacking me from behind at the North Pole! Despicable."

"We were dueling for Aang's life!" Zuko protested. "You shouldn't have turned your back in the first place; who was your teacher, anyway?"

"A great man, but that doesn't matter, because you," Katara poked him in the chest again, "were being a foul, dishonorable spy who attacked from behind and kidnapped people."

"Just one person."

"Shut UP!" she shouted, and then she did something that shocked both of them: she grabbed his balls.

"Uuhhghhh..." Zuko tried to muster a coherent sentence.

"Shut up, Prince Zuko," Katara ordered, and squeezed him through his pants.

He was lost. He was under the metaphorical storm cloud, tied helplessly to the symbolic representation of one of Aang's previous selves, and now this terrifying waterbending girl--who had somehow gotten a lot scarier since their last battle--had her hand around his royal testicles. Zuko had moved beyond shock, beyond fear, and had entered the realm of confusion you only get to when you can look back at your life and genuinely say I, uh, didn't see this coming. Really didn't.

Zuko explored this new feeling of beyond-the-edge and while he ruminated, while he wondered if she'd use the fountain to emasculate him forever, he suddenly heard his uncle's voice in his head. The voice didn't scold for the betrayal, or congratulate him on picking sides, or compliment him on returning the Fire Lord's lightning, or in fact make any reference at all to the life-changing events of recent weeks. Uncle Iroh's voice simply said: "Go for it."

Go for it?

Prince Zuko blinked. He blinked again. He went for it.

"Do I not have your attention right--"

"Squeeze harder."

"What?"

Zuko leaned forward as much as far as he could away from the stone, and said again, "Squeeze harder, Katara. And go in circles."

Her eyes boggled. She looked down at her hand on his pants. She looked back up at him. He met her stare.

Then Katara shocked him again, because she didn't let go and run away screaming, and she didn't waterbend a knife to cut his masculinity off forever. She yanked his pants down and grabbed hold of his cock instead.

She moved her thumb in circles over the head.

"Like this?" Her face was perfectly serious. A line of sweat rivered down Zuko's spine.

"Uuuuh, yuuuuuuuhhhhhyeah! That's, uh, yeah."

Katara brought her other hand over, and wrapped both around his shaft. She poked, prodded, pinched, and twisted. She moved up and down and, yes, in circles. Katara looked at his face as she experimented, and the edge of her tongue peaked out the corner of her mouth as she observed the cause and effect of biology.

Zuko was sagging against the statue of the Avatar. He was breathing heavily. He wanted to look at the painted clouds but he couldn't stop looking at the waterbender who had tied him up, threatened him, and was now giving him a handjob.

"So what if I--"

Zuko came.

"Oh," said Katara. "Huh."