A Different Perspective
Zuko and Sokka came back into the throne room arguing just as bad as when they left. "Arg you're as stubborn as a Komodo Rhino."
"Well at least…" that was as far as Zuko got before he was interrupted by Aang. "I thought the whole point of going to find Sokka was to make up with him, not make him madder than when he left."
"I did or at least I thought I did. I don't know what happened." And with that Zuko threw his hands up in the air, and marched over to his dais. Aang started watching the firelord carefully before turning to face Sokka. A sudden thought struck him, and made him grin. It was perfect, what better way to make two people understand each other more than by making them walk a mile in each other's shoes.
"I think I have an answer to your problems." With that everyone in the room turned to stare at the airbender not sure what he was talking about. "You two always fight about not understanding where the other is coming from right? Well I have a way to solve that problem." With that said Aang's arrows started glowing as he entered the avatar state. Only the glowing didn't stop there. His who body turned light blue as he walked to where Zuko sat. He placed his hand upon Zuko's head and chest and Zuko started glowing an orangey-red. Sokka tried to open his mouth to ask Aang what he was doing to his lover, but stopped when Aang's sightless looking eyes turned to him. He backed up a few steps before his back hit the wall.
"A-A-Aang w-waitwhat are you doing?" He practically shouted the last part out as Aang closed in on him, and pressed the glowing sphere of orangey-red into his chest. A light burst forth from his mouth and eyes before it faded, and the glowing on Aang disappeared as well.
Zuko looked up from staring at his hand to where Sokka and Aang where. His eyes were wide with disbelief and unfocused. He closed his fist and thrust it forward trying to summon his flame from within. When that didn't work he jumped down into a firebending form and tried again with the same result as before. He walked over to the avatar and clutched the front of his robes. "What did you do with my bending?" He screamed at him. Zuko felt as if a part of him had been ripped from him, leaving him with a cold empty space inside.
Aang calmly pried Zuko curled fist off from his robes before turning to look at the murderous firelord and pale water tribesman. Sokka was looking at him in complete horrification. His normally tan face was an ashy paste color as he gazed at the small flame he held lit in his hand.
"What did you do to me?" his voice was barely above a whisper as Zuko turned to face his distressed lover. His eyes widen from shock again as he saw his fire being bended by Sokka.
"How can this be?" He asked himself, but then remembered what the avatar did the day of the comet when he faced his father. He remembered Aang telling them all that he took the firelord's bending from him so that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again.
"I took the energies that allowed you to firebend and gave it to Sokka." Sokka's face turn a shade paler, and he started wobbling on his feet, as the fire in his hand started to grow and become unstable. Zuko marched over to his lover's side and tried to calm him down.
"Sokka Sokka you need to calm down, if you don't you could accidently burn someone." With that said Sokka snapped out of his daze and took a deep calming breath. Slowly the flame became more controlled and smaller till it disappeared altogether. But Sokka could still feel the heat inside him, warming his blood like liquid fire, and that unsettled him a great deal. Sure the fire nation wasn't as bad as it was before, and he considered it a second home, hell he was the firelord's lover, but he still couldn't forget all the pain and hurt that the fire that was now flowing in his veins had caused.
Zuko noticed his lover's breath coming out in shaky gasps, and his eyes clenched tight. He knew Sokka still had problems with fire, but didn't know that it was seeded that deep inside him He took him into his arms hoping to calm him.
Aang noticing his friend's behavior walked over to Sokka and offered a calming hand on his shoulder. Sokka opened his eyes and looked at his younger friend. "Don't worry Sokka; I wouldn't have made the switch if I didn't think you could handle it. I learned from the sun warriors that fire isn't all destruction, that it brings life like a tiny heartbeat; and I'm hoping this experience can teach that to you too." He shifted his gaze to Zuko again gaining his attention. "Now the reason I did this swap is so that maybe you two can learn more about each other from this, and hopefully your relationship will become stronger; instead of you two fighting." He turned and walked off to where Katara was standing by the door still in quiet shock. She couldn't believe that Aang made Sokka a firebender.
When Aang came over and saw her look he smiled and said, "Don't worry its only for the three months while we're here, what the worse that could happen." With that he led Katara out of the throne room, leaving behind the couple to get over their shock and try to make three months work with trying to control an aggressive fire beneath his skin and deal with the feeling of emptiness that the flame left in the other.
Oh if Aang only knew what those three months would entail.