Falling, Fallen

Chapter 9: Firebending

That night at dinner Zuko finds Katara doing some exercises alone.
"Katara?" His voice calls out causing her to freeze. "Go away." Katara replies not turning to look at him. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened-" "I'm not your property anymore Zuko I don't have to talk to you about anything go away." The firebender decided not to push his luck anymore than he had today so he obeyed and retired back to his room.
Katara looked back over her shoulder not sure why she was upset at the fact he did as she asked.
Zuko and Aang stood on the balcony of the upside down pagoda in the temple the next morning starting Aang's first lesson.
"I know you're nervous, but remember, firebending in it of itself is not something to fear." Aang takes a deep breath. "Okay. Not something to fear." "But if you don't respect it, it'll chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo rhino!" Zuko yells causing Aang to yelp. "Now show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make."Aang inhales nervously and tries to firebend, a small cloud of smoke appears, and is dissipated.
"Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?""Good idea. You might wanna take a couple steps back." Zuko instructs. Aang walks back, as Zuko inhales deeply.
Zuko grunts, and punches a fist, which lets out a very small flame. Aang applauds at this display. Zuko takes a step back staring at his hands. "What was that? That was the worst firebending I've ever seen!" Aang shrugs. "I thought it was ... nice." Zuko grunts again and tries firebending again, with all three attempts resulting in very small flames similar to the first. He grunts and looks at his palms, frustrated. "Why is this happening?" Aang rubs his head. "Maybe it's the altitude." "Yeah, could be."
Half an hour later Zuko is still attempting firebending, which results in a similar small flame again.  He grunts and delivers another similar blast, as Aang yawns and lies down on the pillar.
"Just breathe, and ..." Zuko delivers another blast with no improvement. Aang sat up. "That one kind of felt hot." "Don't patronize me! You know what it's supposed to look like!" Zuko yells face red with anger. "Sorry, Sifu Hotman."
Zuko raised his arms to his head, and throws them down back, and shouts in frustration, as Aang cringed. "And stop calling me that!"
Sokka walks toward the teacher and his pupil, eating an apple. Then sits down near the two, as they turn their heads toward him.
"Hey, jerks! Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerkbending?" Zuko gets even more frustrated. "Get out of here!" "Okay, take it easy. I was just kiddin' around." He got up and turn around, laughing. "Jerkbending, still got it." Zuko dropped his head, dejected, and moans.
At dinner time Zuko leaned on a column with his arms crossed, looking down and thinking deeply. He then turned his head to the campfire where everyone is settled eating, and walks toward them.
"Listen everybody, I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff." He said looking down  dejectedly. Toph raises both hands to her head. "Don't look at me, I didn't touch your stuff." "I'm talking about my firebending. It's gone."
Katara laughs, and everyone's attention went on her. Zuko looks at the waterbender with an annoyed expression. "I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would've been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago." "Well, it's not lost. It's just ... weaker for some reason." "Maybe you're not as good as you think you are." She fires back. "Ouch." Toph quips in. "I bet it's because I changed sides." Zuko said.
"That's ridiculous." Katara says with a roll of her eyes. Aang shakes his head. "I don't know. Maybe it isn't. Maybe your firebending comes from rage and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to." "Sooo, all we need to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough." Sokka starts poking Zuko with his sword's hilt in the head and waist several times, laughing. "Okay, cut it out!" Zuko shouts causing Sokka to jump, as his sword thrown above, before falling on his head. Zuko rubs his nose. "Look, even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way." "You're gonna need to learn to draw your firebending from a different source. I recommend the original source." Toph says causing Sokka to get excited. "How's he supposed to do that‌? By jumping into a volcano‌?" Toph rolls her eyes. "No. Zuko needs to go back to whatever the original source of firebending is." "So, is it jumping into a volcano?" "I don't know. For earthbending, the original benders were badgermoles."
Toph tells the story of her first learning her earth bending as Zuko listened intently before getting disappointed.
"Well, this doesn't help me. The original firebenders were the dragons, and they're extinct." Aang looks at him confused. "What do you mean‌? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." "Well, they aren't around anymore, okay?" Zuko yells. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry." Then Zuko got an idea. "But maybe there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors." "Sun Warriors? Well, I know they weren't around when I was a kid." "No, they died off thousands of years ago. But their civilization wasn't too far from where we are now. Maybe we can learn something by poking around their ruins." "It's like the monks used to tell me. Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt by the present." "So, what? Maybe you'll pick up some super old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood a thousand years ago?" Sokka adds in.
"More or less. Either I find a new way to firebend, or the Avatar has to find a new teacher." Aang looks concerned and worried at Zuko's statement.
The next morning the firebender and the Avatar are on the bison flying across the sky.
"We've been riding for hours. I don't know why, but I thought this thing would be a lot faster."Appa growls from bellow them. Aang turns his head toward Zuko. "Appa's right, Zuko. In our group, typically we start our missions with a more up-beat attitude."
"I can't believe this." Zuko whispers. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it." Aang smiles.

Back at camp Katara was keeping herself busy cleaning rooms when she found herself in Zuko's room. Picking up his bag she decided to look through it. To make sure he's not got a hidden agenda or anything like that. She told herself.
Ten minutes later when the bag was now empty she was disappointed to find nothing. She started to pack it back up when she caught a whiff of something. Grabbing a shirt she brought it to her nose. "Mmmm" she felt herself relax at the smell she didn't know she'd been missing. Then she realized what she was doing and now weird and wrong it was. I can't trust him not again. She thought before finishing putting everything back and leaving his room.
Two days later the boys returned showing them some "moves" they learned.
"With this technique the dragons showed us, Zuko and I will be unstoppable." The two got into their final postures and Team Avatar applauds. "Yeah, that's a great dance you two learned there." Sokka laughed. "It's not a dance. It's a firebending form." Zuko defended. "We'll just tap-dance our way to victory over the Fire Lord." Sokka continues on. Zuko walks up to him. "It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old!" "Oh, yeah‌? What's your little form called‌?" Katara says folding her arms. "The Dancing Dragon." Zuko mutters embarrasses. The team all erupts with laughter.
"Katara can we talk now." Zuko calls to her as she passes his room heading to her own. "No." She says but then changes her mind when she catches the smell of him as he comes closer. "Please I just want to explain something's about what happened back at the Capital." Katara turns around arms folded. "You have 5 minutes."
Zuko sat on the bed trying to find the words to say. Katara stood across the room arms still folded. "I just wanted to apologize for putting you in a cell and the things I said. But I only intended for you to stay in there one night not even that long cause when I tried to come get you out they wouldn't let me and I-I just wanted to say I'm sorry for how you were treated while you were at my home." "Is that all?" She asked. "I know there's more but that's all I can think of now." Zuko muttered. "Ok well not forgiven I'm leaving now." He grabbed her arm as she turned to leave. "Katara wait." He tried for ignore how nice her cool skin felt just as she tried to ignore how his warm skin felt against hers. They stared at each other. "I'm trying my best to change things-" "Well you can't! You can't change the fact that I've trusted you twice and twice you have let me down! You haven't earned my forgiveness and a lame sorry isn't going to make it happen ether!" She hissed pulling her arm free and leaving his room.
It was a restless sleep for the prince that night.