Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I'm very jealous of the people who do.

A/N: I wanted to write something mainly focusing on Zuko's regrets about firebending and his friendship with Aang. Hopefully heartwarming. Please review and let me know what you think.

Zuko was not back for dinner. Katara was muttering crossly about him wasting her perfectly good cooking by not showing up, and the others just talked like everything was normal. Only Aang seemed to be worried. He kept glancing over his shoulder, towards the setting sun, and the direction Zuko had fled in. He finally stood and said "I'm going to go look for Zuko. He's been gone awhile." Katara rolled her eyes and said "I'm sure he's fine Aang. He'll come back when he's done sulking." Aang turned away, looking out at the stone carvings of the Western Air Temple and shook his head "I don't know, I just think he might need someone to talk to." Katara just shrugged and said "Alright but don't get lost out there in the dark." Aang simply nodded, picked up his staff and walked away from the campfire.

It took him awhile to find Zuko, but when he finally did the firebender was sitting cross-legged on one of the higher outcroppings of the temple, just staring off into the distance. Aang approached him quietly and sat down next to him. "Zuko?" He didn't answer, just lifted one palm, breathed out and let fire sprout up and light the space around them. He turned his head to the boy "Aang, I'm sorry about today. I only yelled at you because…I don't really know why. But you proved you have what it takes to firebend." Aang nodded "It's okay. I just was wondering if you were…if everything was okay. I mean you seemed angry today, like, more than usual and I didn't know if it was just me or…" Zuko quickly said "No, it's not you Aang. I just…I realized today that I'm still angry with myself. If I had trained harder and focused more on my bending a lot of things might be different. Bending was always hard for me. At least, compared to Azula, the prodigy. But if I'd worked harder I could have proved to my father that I wasn't a failure. I guess when I was trying to teach you I just was afraid that you would fail like I did. I didn't want you to end up like me." Aang studied the firebender, taking in his scarred face, and the damaged eye within it that still held a deep sadness that no amount of flames could take away.

Aang put a gentle hand on his shoulder and said "Zuko, I would be proud to be like you."

***The End***

I hope you enjoyed it, just some fluff really. I have some other plot bunnies I might try and make happen. So please leave me a review, and thanks for reading!