A Waterbending Quirk

Diverging Paths

Stretching her arms, Katara walked across the training room floor as she turned and faced Todoroki. The waterbender couldn't help but chuckle at where they were. "Seems like we are fighting each other again."

"We aren't fighting. You said this was training." Shoto blandly responded.

Katara rolled her eyes and smiled. "I was being sarcastic. Now... you said you wanted to learn how to use your fire more, right?"

He gave a small nod. "Yes. I don't have the proper amount of control yet."

Katara cracked her knuckles and nodded in return. "Alright then... best way to learn is just to use it. Try attacking me only with your fire, so no ice right now."

Huffing out, Shoto raised his left hand and ignited the fire from his palm. He stared at it for a moment before looking back up. "Okay. I will do that."

Popping her canteen open, Katara bended out a stream and circled it around her body. "Go ahead. I'm ready."

Taking a quick breath, Shoto stepped forward and shot forth a stream of flames from his hand. Katara quickly whipped her arms forward and blocked the fire from reaching her. As the steam lifted out of the way, Katara circled to the side while she eyed the flames coming again. The waterbender swiped around, whipping the water up and diverting the flames away from her body before bringing it back around herself. "Not bad. Keep it up." She said to him as he nodded and shot his attack again.

The pair of them continued this routine, with Shoto shooting forth his fire while Katara would be his testing dummy. For saying he wasn't experienced to his left side, she had to admit he seemed pretty adept to it. She did, however, note that these streams of fire he was shooting now were much smaller than the ones he attempted at her during their match. After a few more minutes of their pattern, both had worked up a decent sweat, but Katara noticed his wasn't from the fire. It was more from nerves instead. "You okay?" She asked him.

Shoto grunted in annoyance and looked to his hand. "I am trying to keep them from getting too large. It's been quite some time for me."

Katara raised her eyebrow curiously as she watched him bring his hand forward and shoot out another small stream of fire, keeping her eyes on how he shot it from his open palmed hand but kept his fingers close together. As she blocked it again, she noticed how he was pushing the flames out, but his arm was tensing as he tried to maintain the size. She stood up straight and lowered her hands. "Don't try to force the fire smaller. Just go with it." She tried saying, only earning a frown from her sparring partner.

"I am trying that, but every time I release it, I have to focus and think how to keep it from growing."

As she watched him continue this same way for several more minutes, she could recognize the annoyed look on his face from the process, having to think constantly about the size of his fire. It seemed he knew well enough how to actually use his left side, but the fine-tuning control was definitely lacking. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind, one crazy enough it could work.

"Hey, hold up for a minute." She said as she stood upright and bended the water back into her canteen. "I want to see if something else can help you."

"What?" Shoto asked as she walked over towards him. "What do you have in mind?"

Katara crossed her arms and thought for a moment. While she certainly knew his quirk operated differently than bending, she was hoping some of the principles were at least similar to one another. And when it came to firebending, she had seen enough of it in action and training to get a decent idea of the basics. Thinking back to the many days she watched her old friends practicing, Katara knew where to start.