I DO NOT OWN AVATAR: THE LAST AIR BENDER
Fire is a complex entity. A two headed mistress. It can harm, lash out when least expected, and cause destruction in an instant. Burn everything in its path down to nothing more than ash.
But, when shown the respect that it deserves, then it can bring life, and warmth needed to survive. Light the darkest nights, and thaw the coldest hearts.
Fire, in a lot of ways, can be compared to Zuko, they intertwine when personality and characteristics come in to question. Both can lash out when abused or mistreated, but can be open arms of warmth and life when shown the respect they silently ask for.
They both have to be careful with who they choose to accompany them. Some can snuff them out without even trying to, or unconsciously agitate to where their brilliant flames engulf everything in its path, leaving nothing left, and never looking back.
Very few know how to fuel them just right, knowing when to give room, and let them spread, but also giving enough to keep them stable, keeping the light on. The kiss of life.
Mai, though not a fire bender, was still Fire Nation. All the old sayings come into play: Never play with fire or you might get burned, don't mix fire and fire. When Zuko's flames were exciding to hazardous levels, Mai's just added on instead of cooling it. When Zuko's flames were wavering, Mai's just took over, and he lost himself. He couldn't rely to get distracted by somebody else's flame to light his. That's when Zuko realized that when you do combine fire and fire, you just get fire. He wanted more.
Now, Katara was a bit more interesting, what better to tame fire that water, right? Water was healing, and it too brought life as fire did. Water: the symbol of re-birth, exactly what Zuko was looking for. Water: the exact opposite of fire, what fire destroyed, water could fix. But, that was the problem, all Water wanted to do was heal and fix, sometimes try and heal things they weren't broken. Zuko noticed that because fire and water were opposites, Water would drench his flame relentlessly until it flickered out by trying to heal, fix, and smother. He realized that even though his fire had a tendency of getting out of hands at time, he wasn't broken, and his fire didn't need fixing.
Toph was a better choice than the previous two, and yet so much worse. Earth, in its self, is such a sturdy element, it can handle Fire without breaking a sweat. It wouldn't give out from under you all of sudden like Fire and Water tended to do. It could stand up to fire when its flames took up just a bit too much room, and Earth with put fire back in its place. But, Earth was the most flammable under its hard crust. When Fire would throw a fit, and sent sparks everywhere, it was the embers that sent Earth quaking with blind fear that could be read all over its surface. And Earth too had a tendency of snuffing out Fire's flames, when it got a bit too close, neither could stand the suffocation. Zuko didn't want someone who would fear him every time he raised his voice a notch, it all ways made him feel guilty. An emotion he knows all too well. He needed someone who could take the good with the bad, someone who could help him breath without holding his hand the whole time.
Enter Aang. What better for Fire than the one thing it needs to survive? Air had patience for Fire, it let Fire raise it flames high and proud, but would blow a cool breeze if it over stepped its boundaries with out blowing the entire flame out. Air would sit back and let Fire spit sparks when it needed to get rid of excess energy, and efficiently put the embers out if they swayed too close to causing harm. When Fire's flame was dwindling, Air would send a gust of wind to bring the flames back to their former glory. Fire always felt so alive with Air, never feeling as if today was its last day, and knew tomorrow was always going to better that the previous because of air always by its side. Even though Air could just call it quits, and blow a great tide of wide and blow fire's flames out once and for all, Air didn't, because Air loved Fire just as much. It was weird for Zuko to have that fear of someone else hurting him just as much as could hurt them, and trusting that person no to. As strange as it was, he wouldn't give it up for the world, he wouldn't give Aang up for the world. Zuko actually understood this time what was like to love someone so much that it would hurt enough to kill you if they just walked away, leaving no physical wounds.
He knew as soon as they had their first kiss, this was it, this was love. He could never breath, not with fire, not with water, not with earth. But with air, he had never been so willing to give that up. So much so, he swears he could get drunk on it, on Aang.
Finally, fire was tamed by air as it kissed his breath away.