Kurt and Blaine are the intellectual property of Ryan Murphy and Fox.

Notes: This was done as part of the 30 Day Writing Challenge, one of the words being flame, and since the word flame only seems to be able to conjure up firebending in my mind, this is the result.

To say Blaine was frustrated would be an understatement. Blaine was not just frustrated. Blaine was maddeningly irritated to the point where his hair was in danger of being ripped out of his head. He was usually such a patient, gentle person, but this was threatening to push him over the edge of insanity.

"Any progress?" asked a soft voice behind him, and Blaine nearly tumbled off the rock he was sitting on.

"Kurt!" Blaine huffed, readjusting his position on the rock. "I thought you said I was supposed to be concentrating."

"You are," Kurt agreed, taking a seat next to him. His red and black tunic stood out starkly against his pale skin, even more so with the afternoon sun beating down on them.

"How am I supposed to concentrate with you startling me like that?" Blaine asked, smoothing out the wrinkles on his brown pants. He'd been sitting cross-legged for so long that his pants were full of creases and his limbs tingled sharply from the lack of blood flow.

Kurt shrugged, flashing him a smile. "You looked like you needed a break. Any longer in that position and I was afraid you were going to completely snap."

Blaine hung his head and sighed in agitation. "It just doesn't make any sense," he explained. "Fire isn't even my natural opposite, this shouldn't be so hard." He punctuated the last word by slamming his fists into the rock beneath him, forming two tiny craters on either side of him.

Kurt laughed, a high, melodic sound, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's not so much about your bending, Blaine, as it is about you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

"It's like this," Kurt began, turning himself so he and Blaine were face to face. "To fire bend, you need to draw on the passion inside of you. It doesn't matter what kind of passion, but it does need to be strong and forceful. You're too loose, too laid back. You need drive."

"But I do have passion, Kurt!" Blaine insisted, voice heavy with exasperation. "I definitely have passion for how much I hate doing this."

"It needs to be a steady passion, Blaine," Kurt tried to explain to him. "Something you'll be able to carry with you your whole life, and summon whenever you need to."

"Well, what do you use then?"

Kurt hesitated for a moment and turned his eyes downward to look at his knees, bunching up the fabric of his pants in his fists. Blaine waited patiently, and, catching the solemn look in Kurt's eyes, wondered if maybe that hadn't been the right thing to ask.

"I think about my dad," he answered finally, still looking at his knees. "I think about how much I love him, and I think about how he's all I have left. And when I do…." Kurt held out his right hand and, flexing the muscles in his palm slightly, conjured up a tiny burst of fire.

"Oh, Kurt," Blaine said, eyes sympathetic. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, no," Kurt assured, closing his fist and extinguishing the flame. "It's alright. I'm supposed to be teaching you fire bending, and it's always easiest to understand something difficult when you have examples to go off of." Kurt flashed him another friendly smile, and Blaine returned it, bringing his hand forward as well.

"Something I'm passionate about…"Blaine closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. Flexing his palm in a similar fashion as Kurt, he willed himself to make something, a spark, some smoke, anything. The longer he sat there, outstretched hand shaking slightly, the more tense his body seemed to become, shoulders hunching up and jaw clenching tightly. Even though his eyes were closed, Blaine could feel Kurt's gaze on him, no doubt observing his technique.

After another minute or so, Kurt took a hold of his hand and brought it back down to his side. "Alright, alright," he insisted. "That's enough of that."

Blaine let out a deep sigh, running his fingers through his dark curls and pulling at them slightly. "I'm never going to get this right. I just don't have the motivation like you do."

"I dunno…." Kurt teased. "I'd say being chosen by a bunch of omnipotent beings to save the world is just about as much motivation as you're ever going to get."

Blaine snorted and hung his head, untangling his fingers from his hair. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"Look, why don't you try telling me some of the things you're passionate about? Things that you feel so strongly about that they always cause you to have an emotional response. Maybe saying them out loud will help you process your thoughts better."

Blaine thought about it. There was nothing he could really come back to that made him overwhelmingly happy, or overwhelmingly angry, or overwhelmingly anything. He grew up in a good neighborhood of Republic City, right across the street from Kurt nearly his entire life. His parents had always been slightly overprotective of him and more than a little bit smothering, but they were good parents overall and he had a good childhood. He loved his parents dearly but he had never really faced the possibility of being alone like Kurt had, of having to protect the only good thing left in his life, so that didn't provide him with enough drive. He was the Avatar, so that was something he could be passionate about, but the world was at peace right now, so there was no pressing reason for him to feel overtly strong about that. The only thing he could really think of that he dearly wanted, that he'd do anything to protect, the only thing that made him feel like he couldn't contain his own emotions was-

"You," he breathed softly, looking into Kurt's eyes.

"What?" Kurt shrieked, nearly knocking himself off balance. "The thing you're most passionate about is me?"

"Well. Yeah." Blaine admitted. "I mean, I care a lot about you, Kurt. You're my best friend. And I've always felt this overpowering need to make sure that you're okay, that you're happy."

Kurt's expression softened as Blaine continued to explain.

"You understand me like no one else does, and you've always been there for me as long as I can remember. Seeing you hurt or upset or scared makes me want to destroy whatever made you feel that way, and seeing you happy and excited makes me want to jump over the moon with happiness too."

"Blaine…" Kurt began. "Where is this coming from? Why haven't you ever told me this before?"

Blaine shrugged. "I guess I just never realized it. You've always been a constant in my life Kurt. I've never known what it feels like to not have you there. But when I think about it, now that I have a reason to think about it, I just…." Blaine trailed off, and his eyes drifted down to Kurt's partially opened lips. They'd probably feel amazing to kiss, why had he never noticed them before?

"I just realize now that you're probably the most important person in my life."

Then, without thinking about the consequences, Blaine leaned down to catch Kurt's lips with his. Kurt seemed to pull away instinctually at first, but soon melted into the kiss, putting some of his weight on Blaine and wrapping an arm around his neck. Feeling slightly bolder now that Kurt seemed to be responding positively, Blaine began to deepen the kiss, moving his mouth against Kurt's. Maybe he should have felt weird about kissing his best friend, but he didn't. He and Kurt just seemed to fit, and now, lips locked with his own, everything felt like it made sense. Blaine never imagined kissing Kurt, kissing anyone really, could feel so nice, so amazing, so hot….wow, it was really hot. Why was it so hot?

Suddenly, Kurt pushed himself away from Blaine liked he'd been stung, yelping in pain. "Blaine! Fire!"

"What?" Blaine asked, completely dumbstruck.

"Fire, you idiot, you're on fire!"

Looking down, Blaine saw that one of his pant legs was, indeed, on fire. He must have accidently conjured up a flame with his hands while he and Kurt had been…occupied. Cursing in a way that would probably make his mother brush, Blaine vaulted off the rock, patting frantically at leg and hastily bending some water out of a pouch on his belt to douse himself with. When the fire finally sizzled out, Blaine was left standing there, feeling completely and utterly humiliated, clothes thoroughly soaked through and a giant hole in his pants.

Kurt stood a few feet away from him, looking absolutely horrified, before his face crumpled into a huge smile and he began laughing hysterically.

"I'm glad you find this amusing, Kurt," Blaine said dejectedly, ringing out handfuls of fabric the best he could. "I almost died because you turned me on. Hilarious."

"I'm sorry, Blaine, really I am. It was a very touching, sweet moment and I'm sorry it was ruined by your nether regions. But look on the bright side, you can fire bend now!"

Blaine smiled, despite his embarrassment, and strolled over to Kurt to pull him into a hug. Kurt squealed and rambled off something about Blaine getting his clothes wet, but it was half-hearted at best. Kissing him lightly on the cheek, Blaine took a hold of Kurt's hand and began leading them back to the city.

"Come on," he said, pulling Kurt close to him. "Maybe you can help me practice some more. I promise from now on to try and only set pants on fire in the most metaphorically of senses."