Opposite Elements

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, for it is clearly property of Nickelodeon/Viacom/MTV.

Notes: I suck at titles. This is my first fanfiction EVER. That is all I have to say bitches.

--

"Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Because I said so!"

"And since when did I start taking orders from you?"

"Since…since…ugh! You're ruining the surprise!"

Toph listened with disgust to Sokka and Suki's conversation. She sat on a stone border that surrounded a fountains edge, the main water source of the Western Air Temple. Her feet were submerged in the fountains cool water, where Katara silently worked water through her burn victim's rough skin.

Toph flicked a small rock directly at Sokka's forehead. "Just show her already!"

"Fine!" Sokka cried in defeat, and revealed a bundle of red clothes he had hidden behind his back. "I thought you would want some new clothes, since the rags from the prison aren't exactly…"

"-Flattering?" Toph interjected.

Sokka's face reddened. "NO! No, that's not what I meant. I just meant that the prison wasn't exactly clean and kinda smelled-"

"-Are you saying I smell?" Suki then asked, threateningly closing the space between them, "and that I'm dirty because of what I'm wearing?"

"NO! You smell amazing! And you are very clean! And beautiful! You could wear anything and still be beautiful! You could even wear nothing and still be beautiful!"

Silence followed Sokka's last comment as he turned an even darker shade of crimson.

In an attempt to change the subject, Suki graciously took the new clothes from his hands.

"Uhh, thanks Sokka."

Suki raised the top piece into view and let out a breath of air. "The top is a little…it's just little. Yeah. Maybe you meant to give these to Toph?"

"Heyyy!" Both Sokka and Toph cried in unison.

Sokka reached for the top she was viewing and held it in front of him. "I worked hard to steal these! And I specifically chose these hues so they would match your eyes."

"Sokka, my eyes are green. 'Fire Nation Red' doesn't exactly match-"

"--will you two shut up already!?" Toph swung her legs out of the water and stomped both feet on the ground, sending vibrations through the stone. The pain from the burns sent a jolt up her leg and the earthbender couldn't help but wince.

"Toph!" Katara cried, "I told you not to stand yet! You're not completely healed!"

"I'll stand if I want to, and I'll walk away if it's to get away from these two freaks." Toph turned on her heal, but her direction was quickly distracted by being swiftly picked up by two strong hands. She was then tossed onto that person's shoulders, and the earthbender did her best to wiggle free. "Let me down Zuko, I mean it! I can walk without your help!"

Katara stared at the firebender for a long moment before finally snapping back to her senses. She hadn't heard Zuko come outside, let alone seen him come to Toph's aid until he was already tossing the girl onto his back. His movements were almost ghost-like, and she wondered how much training he had to go through to gain such an ability. Standing up from her crouched position, Katara was able to fully view a flustered Toph on Zuko's shoulders. Now that she had grasped the situation, the waterbender found it almost comical.

Small rocks began to pelt Zuko's head. "Ow. Ow! OW!! Geeze, stop will you!?" Zuko stopped walking and gently held Toph's ankles in place. "I know you can walk without my help. I just need you to be in top condition when you give me my payback."

Toph cracked her knuckles thoughtfully as Zuko began to move again. He ducked inside the shelter of the temple and passed Aang doing a set of hotsquats.

"Keep it up twinkle-toes!" Toph called out as they continued down the hallway. The earthbender lifted her arms and dragged her hands along the cool stone surface of the ceiling. Though she could feel Zuko's feet vibrate through his shoulders, her vision was still fuzzy because she wasn't making the direct contact with the ground. This way, her hands worked the way her feet did, and she could feel all movement happening in the temple.

"I'm still really sorry…about your feet." Zuko muttered when he stopped outside of Toph's room. He gently kicked open the door and lifted her off his shoulders and onto the sleeping mat on the floor.

Toph lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest. "I know you are, which is why you're still here."

Zuko took a step back and leaned against the door frame. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Toph began, "If you weren't really sorry, then you would be the old Zuko that Katara won't shut up about. Then, you would be the bad guy, and probably would have done something incredibly stupid like reveal our location to the Fire Nation or try to kidnap Aang or something, and then Katara would have water-blasted your butt outta here. So as you can see, Katara has yet to water-blast your butt, so you're still here."

Zuko crossed his arms over his chest and smirked, "And how do you know that I'm not planning to kidnap Aang, or that I haven't already revealed our location to the Fire Nation?"

"Because Katara would water-blast your butt, and you're scared of her. For whatever reason, her opinion of you matters most, and you wouldn't risk jeopardizing that." Toph let out an exaggerated yawn and glanced out her window towards a setting sun she couldn't see. "Welp, I'm tired, so go away." And with that, Toph plopped over in the opposite direction and began to snore.

Smiling, Zuko stepped back into the hallway and shut the door behind him. He walked back to the main sitting room where Aang had been doing hotsquats earlier, but found it to be empty.

"Aang?" Zuko called, and heard a faint "Out here!" coming from outside. The firebender lightly jogged to the direction of his voice, and saw that Hakoda, Haru, The Duke and Teo had finally arrived. They had left a few days earlier to restock on supplies (or to be more politically correct, steal them) and from the amount of bags and crates strewn about the balcony, it seems they did very well.

"Zuko!" Aang called. "Guess what? The guys just came back from across the canyon, and they built a training area for us!"

"I thought you guys were supposed to be getting meat?" Zuko asked as he eyed them, and the supplies, skeptically.

"We were, and we did," Haru began as he stepped forward, "But we came across this small gorge and thought it would be the perfect place to train. You can't see it from the air, and you're far enough from everyone else that we won't get in the way." Haru laughed and absent-mindedly reached for his non-existent beard. A recent practice session with Aang had singed off half his facial hair, and he was forced to shave off the rest.

Hakoda, now dressed in common Fire Nation clothes, pointed towards the sun. "I was hoping I could show you all before the sun set, so you could take off first thing in the morning and get back to training."

"That would be great Hakoda!" Aang exclaimed, and took off to the stables to get Appa.

"You three," Hakoda pointed to his most recent comrades, "-should probably stay. I don't think Appa would like another full load."

"Awww man!" The Duke complained as he slumped to the ground.

Haru knelt down and patted him on the shoulder. "It's OK The Duke, we can try out those cool…things, that we found in the temple last week."

"YES!" The Duke cried, and scrambled inside the main temple entrance and out of everyone's site.

Aang finally appeared with Appa and the group began to load on. Before Zuko climbed aboard, he pulled Teo aside. He wasn't sure how to bring up his concern, but he found Teo to be pretty understanding when it came to his own lack of tact around everyone. He wasn't great at being social, or at putting his thoughts into words, and Teo seemed to be the most forgiving about it.

"Hey," Zuko whispered, "You think you could keep an eye on Toph for me? She's asleep, and I just don't want anything to happen to her. I mean, I know nothing will happen to her, but, you know, I don't want her to be left alone. "

Teo laughed and patted Zuko on his shoe, since he couldn't reach for his shoulder. "No problem man, don't worry." And without another word, he wheeled away into the living quarters of the temple.

"C'mon, let's go!" Zuko heard Katara call irritably. Everyone had already loaded into Appa's saddle, and was now waiting for him. After heaving a small sigh, Zuko whisked himself up into the bison's saddle. Suki, Sokka, Hakoda, Aang, Katara and himself were then launched into the sky, the bison soaring up towards the orange sun. Hakoda pointed directions for Aang to follow, and explained how they found the area on foot when The Duke's helmet flew off three days earlier. After an hour of backtracking, they were able to retrieve the helmet and came across the dried-up gorge that looked almost non-existent by air. It was then, and a second look at Haru's hairless face, that they decided to build the training area.

"You know dad, we've been without soap for over three days." Sokka lifted an arm and sniffed at his armpit. Suki was forced to clamp her hand over her face as his odor blew directly at her. "As you can see," Sokka stuck a thumb in Suki's direction, "…we've really needed it."

"Just because you can't manage your personal hygiene without soap doesn't mean you can blame it on other people," Katara butted it. "Besides, I think it's great that they took the time to build this for us."

"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed as Appa finally touched down. "You're the one who can bend water. You can even bend your own sweat, so don't even get me started on personal hygiene."

"Ok guys, let's settle down." Hakoda said as he slid off the saddle. The rest of the group followed him, and they were led to an open area partially hidden by bare cliffsides. What appeared to be at least a hundred wooden Fire Nation soldier dummies were either arranged in small circles or lined up beside the wall. A giant rectangle had also been carved into the earth for a sparring arena.

Katara jumped into the center of one of the dummy circles and did a small jump with excitement. "Oh dad, this is great, thank you so much!"

Aang hopped in next to her and created a small ball of wind in his hand. "You wanna try it out Katara?" The airbender eyed the Fire Nation dummies mischievously and the pair went back to back. Katara let the water out of her skins and raised her arms, the water flowing with each movement she made. "Oh yes," she said, "I'm ready when you are."

"Wait a second Katara," Hakoda stepped in, making Aangs ball disappear, and Katara's water falter slightly. "Maybe you should partner with Zuko? I know you work well with Aang, and Aang has been practicing with Zuko ever since he arrived, but I don't remember you mentioning of ever training with him."

Katara's face reddened as she glanced at Zuko, who was just as equally red. "Well," she said, "that's because I haven't." Katara mentally searched for any excuse to throw out, but came up empty.

"That settles it then!" Hakoda called as he nudged Zuko into the training circle. Aang mumbled incoherently as he dragged himself out and plopped himself into the dirt next to Hakoda.

Katara began to panic as Zuko took his stance behind her. "B-But wait. I've never trained with Zuko before; I don't know how he moves. What if something goes wrong?"

Sokka rolled his eyes. "You know very well how he moves, we've fought him a gazillion times before! Just this time, he's on our side. Now stop complainin' and start a-trainin'!"

"Katara…" Zuko spoke lowly, so only she could hear. "Fire and water are opposite elements, just like earth and air. They have different temperaments, but like Yin and Yang, both are needed to control each other."
Katara gritted her teeth as images of Princess Yue and the North Pole flooded her memories. In her mind, the six dummies that surrounded her suddenly took form of actual Fire Nation soldiers, all of them bearing Zuko's scar. She could feel herself getting angry, and the water she held rippled with the effect. Suddenly, she turned her head sharply and spoke directly into Zuko's ear. "Don't lecture me about Yin and Yang."

"-Ready?" Hakoda shouted, not really asking, but calling it as a preparation measure.

"You have to trust me Katara," Zuko rushed before Hakoda gave the final word.

"- GO!"

…and time froze.