Just an idea that I had, please let me know what you think or if you would like to take the idea and run with it-I'd like to read anything that comes of it!
Disclaimers are redundant in FanFiction.
This is unbeta'd and I haven't written in a while, you have been warned. This fic takes place shortly after Zuko was banished, so I tried to get the angst, but honestly I'm not very good at angst so pretend Zuko is more moody than he is.
[FPZfpzFPZfpz]
It was a perfect day for a festival. The sun was out but so were multiple fluffy clouds to provide shade and a soft breeze to cool the crowds. Zuko hated it.
Today was the first time he was making port after removing the bandages from his face and he smoldered in anger every time someone sent a horrified or pitiful glance his way. Stupid crew. Stupid Uncle. Stupid shore leave. Stupid luck.
Zuko would have stayed on the ship but his Uncle insisted he enjoy the festivities before renewing his hunt for the Avatar. Zuko ground his teeth as a group of children rushed past him, laughing. He did not need down time, what he needed was more training and intelligence on where the Avatar might be hiding. By now he would either be an old man airbender or similarly old waterbender, or possibly middle aged earthbender. Unlikely since the Earth Kingdom would have flaunted their advantage and used him on the front lines, and the Water Tribes would have sent their last hope out of the frozen tundras long ago. Not to mention the fact that the Southern Water Tribe where the next Avatar would be born was depleted of any waterbenders.
Zuko huffed and leaned against a pilar, arms crossed and mouth in a hard line. He would have returned to the ship by now but he feared his crew would get into trouble if he did not keep an eye on them. Heh, eye. Guess he was lucky to still have both. Just like he was lucky to be born.
A cheer from the crowds brought him out of his dark musings and he glanced up to see a troupe of dancers take the stage. Without conscious thought he straightened and moved a bit closer, but still hidden in the shadows cast by the buildings as the sun set. He had always enjoyed when his mother took him to the theater or, when they could get away with it, the circus. Since the circus was deemed commoner entertainment and the Fire Festivals that the Fire Lord's family went to rarely boasted street performers and were more religious, Zuko had only seen dancers and tumblers a handful of times. He secretly loved them.
The dancers bowed and the crowd quieted. Soft music began and a narrator told the tale of how Agni blessed humans and then had them learn to control their gift with the aid of dragons. Ribbons of red silk snapped out from a few of the dancers symbolizing firebending. A small group of dancers in a dragon costume tumbled and jumped around, appearing to actually be a singular creature, and demonstrated how the dragons taught humans the first firebending forms. Then, the music picked up and the drums started beating. A gush of actual flame burst from the costume dragon's mouth, igniting one of the dancer's silks. The crowd shouted, but the dancer simply whipped it around and ignited his fellow dancer's silks. The narrator began to summarize the history of the Fire Nation as the dancers expressed great sorrow, joy, setbacks, and advancements.
The dancers who previously were the dragon abandoned their outer costumes while the crowd watched the fire-lit ribbons weave gracefully through the air, growing shorter and shorter until with one final flick and kick, the dancers snuffed the flames and bowed. The crowd cheered with gusto as the ribbon dancers handed the stage over to their newly recostumed partners. The dancers now wore barely any clothing, but were decorated with bands of leather and dark parrotmonkey feathers. In their hands they held short staffs with some sort of cloth on the ends.
By now the sun had almost completely set, casting an ethereal glow on the dancers. They thrust the staffs out horizontally and jumped into a wide stance so that the row of four dancers was connected via staffs and toes. Then they spun the staffs and in unison slammed them against the stage once and held the intimidating stance for a moment, which was when Zuko noticed there was no accompanying music,then they slammed the staffs twice more onto the stage and proceeded to rapidly spin the staffs, now alight with flames at the cloth tips.
Zuko watched entranced as the dancers spun the flaming staffs in various planes around themselves and each other, using not just their hands but every part of their bodies. Occasionally the staffs would be launched into the air and deftly caught. The end of the performance came with a resounding crack as the dancers smacked their staffs against each others, and the flames died instantly with barely a whisper. Obviously a firebender extinguished the flames, the same one who had lit them in the first place, but Zuko did not see any katas to put out fire done by any of the dancers onstage or off.
A frown worked its way onto Zuko's face as the applauding crowd slowly faded away to watch other performances or enjoy the hotflakes sold nearby. He had seen fire dancers before although only at the circus though because high society theater shows knew the nobles would watch a semiannual demonstration by the best firebending masters in order to decide who they would hire to teach their firebending children (the Master's Manifestation was open to all masters seeking apprentices or employment from the upper class, although firebending masters were the most common).
Usually fire dancers were nonbenders who would acquire their fire from a torch planted next to them. But these dancers today had not used a torch. It was strange, firebenders were encouraged not to use their bending for sacrilegious purposes, in fact most either joined the war effort, the Fire Sages, or were part of the local Fire Watch and provided services to their hometown. Zuko remembered seeing a fire eater for the first time. He had asked his mom why everyone else thought it was amazing the man could breathe fire, his Uncle Iroh and cousin Lu Ten could do that! She had explained that breathing fire was a very advanced technique and that the performer was a non bender risking his life if he did it wrong, firebenders were discouraged from using their gift for such mundane affairs. Although, the troup Zuko had just watched was far more entertaining with a firebender off stage to light and extinguish flames. And a whole lot more comforting, should the dancers lose control.
Scanning the retreating troup, he noticed it only consisted of the dancers and the narrator, the musicians stayed behind for the next performance. Zuko decided he wanted to learn how the narrator had kept control of so many flames. He snuck after he receding troupe, attempting to avoid colliding with the merry citizens.
He caught up with the troupe just as they were entering the hall designated for all of the traveling performers to stay in. Afraid they might not let him follow them in, he called for them to wait. The troupe paused and turned to him expectantly, a few staring at his scar.
Zuko felt himself blush as he said, "I enjoyed your performance."
One of the ribbon dancers gave him a warm smile that reminded him of Ty Lee, especially since her hair was in a braid and she was very curvy. "Thanks! We enjoyed performing it!" The rest of the troupe nodded in assent.
Zuko knew he was about to lose them so blurted out, "Could you teach me how you made those flames without any katas?" He directed his question at the man he knew to be the narrator, but it was one of the dancers who used the staff who replied.
"What makes you think we didn't use any katas?" Zuko blinked at the muscular man. The man's arms were crossed and an eyebrow raised, his hair shockingly similar to Zuko's own, but the patch of hair extended from the brow line to the back of the head.
"Um…" Zuko glanced between the man who had spoken and the narrator, "I had thought you made the flames while they danced." Zuko gestured with his hands to the appropriate people and felt a blush creep up his neck at his brazen assumption.
Luckily, the earlier smiling girl giggled and said, "Good observations kid, Shen does light our ribbons initially, it would be too dangerous for Yami to firebend from behind the mask."
Zuko couldn't help but notice she said initially, and that implied some or all of the dancers were firebenders. Zuko gapped at them, eyes wide, but he could hardly bring himself to care. They freely admit that they wasted their firebending on mere lighting and extinguishing small flames for entertainment? That went against everything he had been taught about firebending.
Tentatively, Zuko asked, "Do you all-" but was cut off by a snort from the man with the ponytail.
"Yami, Shen, and I are the only benders in this group. Think we'd be stupid enough to play with fire without someone to put it out?" His voice dripped with condescension and grated on Zuko's nerves. He felt his fists curling together when some signal was given and the group retreated inside, leaving only one behind to talk to him. The woman was about thirty, with her hair half in a top knot and half down, which only served to accentuate the sparseness of the crimson and black clothing she wore. Zuko supposed that was why she wore it that way.
"Don't mind Talrak, he is protective of the group is all." She spoke with a musical voice, but it was laced with a hint of danger, as if she were trying to get Zuko to understand that she was a threat if her troupe was in danger.
Zuko nodded, both to what she said and what she implied. "I was just surprised, firebenders don't normally…." he trailed off, not sure how to phrase his thoughts.
The woman smirked at him, "Waste their talents?" She looked him over before continuing, "Fire is more than a weapon, soldier. Fire is life."
Before Zuko could help himself he said, "You sound like my Uncle." He nearly winced, it was not like he didn't believe his Uncle, or thought that the dancers were wasting potential (he knew some benders just weren't cut out to be warriors), it was that he didn't have the luxury of his fire being anything but a weapon. A tool to help him find and defeat the Avatar so that he could regain his honor and return home. Which he should be doing now instead of wasting time at a stupid festival in the colonies.
The dancer cocked her head at him. "He sounds like a wise man." She considered him for a moment more before motioning for him to follow. Against his better judgement, Zuko did follow her around the hall and out behind it where there was a wide open yard. He immediately swept his eyes over the far shadows on every side of the relatively enclosed space, and into the darkness cast by the buildings' roofs. An attack could come from anywhere. Not that it would, he was still the Prince and this was a Fire Nation colony, but it never hurt to be cautious.
The dancer turned in a slow circle once they reached the middle of the courtyard. She nodded to herself then said, "This will do. Show me how you express your flame."
Zuko started at her in blatant confusion. Express his flame? What did that mean and why was she asking him to do … whatever that was. But, he did still have an hour or so before he needed to be back on the boat, and it did almost wound like she wanted to know what bending he was capable of, which would only be asked by a superior firebender who was willing to teach…. Taking a chance, Zuko readied himself and slid into his firebending regime.
Apparently this was the correct thing to do as the dancer stepped away and watched with sharp eyes as he moved from one kata to the next. She stayed quiet until Zuko finished his pathetically small repertoire of firebending katas. As always, he was aware it was a much shorter demonstration than his sister's were, and a bubble of anger built up in his chest.
Slow clapping distracted him from lamenting over how subpar his bending knowledge was. The dancer stopped clapping and walked up to him with a considering look on her face. "That was impressive bending to see from a child-"
"I'm not a child!" he cut her off with a fume of rage.
She merely lifted an eyebrow and asked, "You are of age?"
Zuko flushed and consented that, no, technically he was not an adult and was therefore a child. He'd prefer youth or teenager but at least she did not seem to be actively trying to insult him.
"As I was saying, impressive, but clearly not your style." She dropped into the typical starting stance for any firebending and struck out a fist, flames surging out from her and sailing across the courtyard before sputtering out. He notice with some satisfaction that here punch was not as powerful as his was.
"Every firebender born in the Fire Nation is taught that fire must strike first, be powerful and precise, and use the exact same form as every other firebender since Sozin's time." Here she shifted out of the traditional stance into one with her arms bent at the elbows and palms parallel to the sky, one foot resting on her other leg's upper thigh. "But no two benders are alike, just as no two sunsets are exactly the same." She lunged out to the side, arms fully extended and hands in fists, and a much stronger ball of flame burst forth to illuminate the darkened courtyard. "Fire is not a weapon. Fire is the excess energy of the world expressed as heat and light." She relaxed her pose and looked him in the eyes as she spoke her next words. "Firebending should express your excess energy, be a drain for the emotions and tension you do not want, and a renewal of your life's own energy."
Zuko watched transfixed as she moved elegantly through a dance routine that took her all over the courtyard, sometimes being soft and fluid, at others being strong and sturdy, but always in motion and always with flames trailing that seemed to beat with the tempo of what Zuko could only assume was her heart. Then, the flames vanished and the dancer bowed.
"I look forward to seeing you again, Prince Zuko. I hope you have found your style by then."
And then she slipped away into the hall, and the doors locked behind her, leaving Zuko shocked an a little put out, if not indignant at the blatant disrespect she had showed him after revealing she knew who he was. It wasn't like he was hiding, and his scar had traveled far on word-of-mouth, but he had assumed the dancers did not know who he was. The fact that they did, and still treated him with disregard… pinched something in side him.
That night while laying in his uncomfortable bed, Zuko lifted a hand and called forth flames, watching them dance along his palm. He watched until all he saw was fire. He watched until he still saw the flickering flames and moving shadows when he closed his eyes for sleep. From that day forth, Zuko vowed to watch every flame he could to see how it moved in order to create his own style. Somehow, he knew he would see that dance troupe again, and he wanted to show the leader that he could express his inner flame in a more personal manner than textbook katas.
Unfortunately, traversing the seas in pursuit of rumors did not yield many flames for him to watch. There were the flames from bending practice, of course, and those that devour coal to power the boat, and the steady ones that the cook tended to, but Zuko knew those would not be enough. Aggression, consumption, and convection-not exactly the grand summation of all that fire is. He snorted to himself and rolled over, attempting to find a more comfortable position to fall asleep in, preferably before the sun woke him.
The sun. Sun. Agni, the sun! The original source of fire!
Zuko smiled to himself, if the original firebenders learned from dragons, and the peasant waterbenders first learned from the moon, well surely Zuko could create new katas based on the sun. He could barely wait until morning.
[FPZfpzFPZfpz]
Some other ideas that relate to this are Zuko break dancing in the Agni Kai against Zhao, because that was totally a break dance move he pulled to get back in the game. I also wanted to explore Zuko "shadow dancing" as the Blue Spirit. I think it would be neat to delve into how he moves differently when firebending versus sword fighting.
These ideas are up for grabs as well, just PM letting me know you are using them and send me a link to the story, I'd love to read it! I might be continuing these ideas, but don't let that discourage you, the takes are likely to be entirely different.
please let me know what you think of this as well, i like comments