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Azula sighed exhaustedly as she shuffled through the halls of the palace that were mired in silence due to it being quite late in the night, she would dare say that there were still about four hours before sunrise and most of the palace staff were sleeping except for several royal guards who were standing watch.
All the guards that Azula passed on her way to her apartment gave her a military salute, respecting her rank as the highest military authority of the Fire Nation's Ground Army below her brother who, when ruling the nation, was the head of the three armies: the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Air Forces.
But Azula's exhaustion was such that she skipped the formalities and did not return their salute.
The firebender had been away from home for more than three months and her absence was not because of any pleasure trip but because numerous revolts had broken out in a large part of the Fire Nation colonies settled in the Earth Kingdom and Azula had been sent to stop riots in the least violent way possible.
And after hard work and resist several attacks from the rebels Azula had succeeded although she had to leave several groups of hundreds of soldiers stationed to maintain order in the colonies until the situation cooled down a bit.
When finally, after walking through the long and multiple corridors of the palace, Azula arrived at the one where her and Katara's apartment was located she let out a small sigh of relief.
The four royal guards guarding the entrance to her chambers quickly and disciplinedly stood at attention as they saw Azula heading towards them.
"Good night, your highness," the four guards greeted at the same time as if they were one, they were clearly some of the best soldiers of all the royal guard, which is why Azula had ordered them to protect Katara during her absence, much to her wife annoyance who let Azula know her disagreement.
“Good night,” Azula responded politely, surely these loyal guards deserved her respect.
And without the desire or strength to say anything else Azula walked to the door of her apartment, which had already been opened by one of her guards, and entered. When she heard the door close behind her Azula relaxed her aching shoulders and headed to her and Katara’s bedroom wanting nothing more than to sleep for a whole week.
When she entered her bedroom Azula smiled tiredly as she saw her wife curled up in a ball in the center of their bed and clutching a pillow to her chest.
The firebender approached the bed slowly and quietly so as not to wake Katara. For a moment she thought about removing her heavy armor to rest more comfortably but her aching body protested at the idea and Azula simply plopped down next to Katara.
The sudden movement and sinking of the bed woke Katara up, who without thinking grabbed the pitcher of water from the nightstand and turned around hitting the intruder hard with it.
“Ouch!” Azula groaned as she brought her hands to her face right where her wife had hit her.
“Azula!” Katara shouted as her eyes widened in surprise, she didn't expect Azula to return so soon. “Why did you scare me?!”
The firebender's only response was a painful groan as she held her nose in an unsuccessful attempt to lessen the pain.
Katara blinked a few times sleepily until she finally reacted and bended the water she had spilled and healed Azula's nose.
“My poor baby, did I hurt you?”
Azula sighed in relief as Katara eased her pain and shook her head.
“It barely hurt me,” the firebender lied.
Katara simply rolled her eyes before leaning in and kissing Azula deeply, who returned the kiss lovingly but lazyly.
Resting her hands on Azula's shoulders, Katara climbed onto her lap as she deepened the kiss.
“Azula… what are you doing with your armor still on,” the healer asked between kisses as she leaned against the other woman's body.
“I wanted to sleep so bad and I was too tired to take it off,” Azula shrugged before letting out a loud yawn.
Katara smiled sympathetically at her partner and began to untie all the leather clasps one by one. After several long minutes of Azula nearly falling asleep three times, Katara finally removed her armor and Azula melted into the sheets with an exhausted groan.
The waterbender smiled amused at her before standing up, picking up Azula’s armor and taking it to the closet in their room to store it properly.
“Kat,” Azula moaned, pouting now with her eyes closed. “Leave the armor on the floor and come to bed with me.”
"Azula I'm not going to leave your armor on the ground, just give me a few minutes."
“But Kat! I want to hug you,” Azula added between yawns, feeling how her sleep was slowly coming to her and her body was relaxing against the soft silk sheets.
“Azula, don't be silly,” Katara laughed as she continued putting away her partner's armor.
“Stop putting away the stupid armor and come into my arms,” Azula's words came out clumsily as she nuzzled her cheek against the pillow.
“Come here and make me.”
Azula opened her eyes, a little surprised.
"What?"
“I said come here and make me,” Katara repeated, aware of the tone she was using.
Azula blinked several times before getting out of bed. Sleep fading away from her as she got closer and closer to Katara.
Once Azula was at Katara's side and before her wife could say anything about her she pulled her into a slow, sensual kiss that quickly turned into a heated kiss.
“I… I missed you so much,” Katara moaned as Azula's hands moved down from her waist to grab her butt. "You don’t know how much…"
“I can… imagine how… how much,” Azula moaned with her eyes closed as she enjoyed the pleasant sensation of being able to feel Katara's body again with her hands.
Katara frowned slightly as she reluctantly separated her lips from Azula's and stared up at her as she cleared her throat.
The firebender was a little surprised by Katara's sudden change in attitude but she immediately understood why her wife was frowning at her.
Azula chuckled as she leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Katara's forehead. "I've missed you too darling, a lot."
A big smile appeared on the blue-eyed woman's lips as she leaned forward and hugged Azula tightly to try to recover in one hug all the time they had been apart.
Azula hugged her back with the same intensity as she rested her cheek on the top of Katara's head letting out a long sigh of happiness. Azula had really missed Katara every day during these three long, difficult months and she was deeply glad to be back home.
“Azula?” Katara asked, her voice muffled against Azula's shoulder.
Azula just hummed in response, her tiredness returning to her as quickly as it had left her moments ago.
“Why don't we go to bed and get some rest…”, Katara began as she rubbed her partner's tense shoulders. “And tomorrow when we've rested well… we'll have some fun activities,” Katara added with a smirk.
“Sounds perfect to me,” Azula smiled to the delight of Katara whose smile grew bigger.
Breaking away from the hug, Azula walked back to her bed only to realize that Katara didn’t walk with her.
“Honey, don’t you come to bed?” Azula asked confusedly as she rubbed her eyebrow.
Katara smirked.
“Come here and make me.”
Azula smiled as she walked up to Katara and picked her up in her arms. “Maybe we could have some fun activities now, don't you think?
Katara laughed happily and nodded.