Zuko came out of the tent and took in the scene around him. Aang was working up a sweat in the mid-morning sun as he moved through the basic forms of fire bending under Iroh's watchful eye. There was no fire involved, merely the movements, but even those were giving him some difficulty. A short distance beyond, Toph sat with her back against the cliff, her hands planted firmly on the ground. It took Zuko a moment to realize she was 'watching' Aang practice. Spotting Toph's frown he walked over and sat down next to her, observing the young Avatar. It became apparent what she was scowling about and he voiced, almost absently, what was wrong with scene before them.
"He's too light on his feet."
"Tell me about it," Toph snorted. "I thought his earth bending lessons might have broken him of that, but it's as though he just forgot everything I taught him. I mean, I'm a blind earth bender and even I can tell he's doing it wrong." Sensing Zuko's curiosity at her statement, she continued. "The one thing earth and fire bending have in common is that the forms are both strong and deliberate. But he's not being either right now. He's still moving like an air bender." She let out a frustrated breath. Zuko frowned.
"I suppose I should go say something since Uncle doesn't seem to be correcting him," he muttered, not bothering to hide his annoyance at the observation.
"It couldn't hurt," grumbled Toph.
With an irritated sigh, Zuko rose to his feet and headed over to his uncle. A small voice in his head tried to suggest that he should not be bothered with this: that the Avatar's fire bending education was none of his concern, but he shook the thought away. It wasn't as though he had anything better to do. Plus, if Aang was going to succeed in his destiny and thereby help Zuko claim what was rightfully his, then making sure the young Avatar mastered all the elements most certainly was his business. He stood there for a moment, still watching Aang move carelessly through the basic forms before turning to the older fire bender.
"He's doing it wrong," he said low enough not to be overheard. Iroh merely nodded thoughtfully and Zuko scowled, "Well aren't you going to correct him?"
"It's his first lesson, Zuko," Iroh answered dismissively. "If he gets it wrong for a while, there's no harm done." At this, Zuko's eyes narrowed, flickering with disapproval. Seeing his nephew's irritation, Iroh merely smiled faintly in amusement. "Perhaps you would like to show him? Seeing an excellent example might improve his stances."
Zuko crossed his arms as he considered this for a moment. His uncle's thinly veiled compliment was not lost on him, nor was the obvious fact that Iroh wanted to try and force, however innocently, some form of interaction between the two youths. He almost said as much but realizing it was a pointless argument, simply glared.
"You were never this easy on me," he growled accusingly. And with that, he dropped his arms to his sides and strode over to the Avatar while Iroh chuckled smugly and went to prepare a pot of tea.
"Stop," said Zuko, almost pleadingly to Aang as he approached the young air bender.
"Hey, Zuko!" Aang chirped as he dropped from his last form and looked up at his new ally.
"You're embarrassing to watch," the ex-prince stated, but not unkindly.
"Oh," answered Aang, crestfallen, "am I really that bad?"
Zuko only raised his eyebrow, the sarcastic expression on his face saying more than words ever could. Taking a deep breath and repressing the urge to say something harsh, he began to move slowly through the basic fire bending forms without conjuring any flames and speaking as he did so, his voice following the cadence of his motions.
"Fire bending requires complete and absolute control, not just when using flames but of the entire body as well. And while power comes from the breath, not the muscle, you must still be deliberate in all of your movements. You must root yourself to the earth or your aim will go wild." As he said all this, Zuko moved with tense purpose, ending each punch and jab as though striking invisible barriers while Aang observed in silence. As he stood from his last stance, Zuko turned to Aang.
"Now you try; slowly and with precision."
With a deep breath, Aang did as he was instructed and went through the forms, this time almost mimicking Zuko's example perfectly. Circling him critically, Zuko nodded in satisfaction.
"Again."
As Aang began the exercise once more, Zuko expanded on the lesson.
"End the moves with force and finality. Imagine you are hitting something solid or," he paused for a moment and glanced at Toph who was still 'watching', taking sudden inspiration from her earlier comment, "moving stone."
At this, Aang blinked for a moment in surprise, faltering in his movements. He looked quizzically at Zuko and asked, "Like earth bending?"
"Mm-hmm," Zuko nodded and Aang continued; this time flawlessly.
"Better. Now do it again, but faster this time. Remember your breathing, and feel your own energy coursing through your limbs as you move them. Good," Zuko said approvingly as Aang finished, "now again, and keep repeating it."
Zuko watched Aang as he repeatedly went through his stances and could not help but feel some small amount of pride at how quickly the young student had improved with so little instruction. As a pleased smile barely graced his lips, he was suddenly surprised to realize that he actually enjoyed teaching the boy, much as he had enjoyed teaching a slightly younger boy only a couple of months ago. His own sibling had never required any help from him, so getting the chance to do something so 'brotherly' was a very nice sensation and, until now, he never realized how badly he wanted, no…needed, to feel that.
As the sounds of a playful argument between the nearby water tribe siblings reached his ears, he began to wonder if perhaps that was what bothered him most about Azula. There was never any closeness between them and their rivalry was nothing short of hatred for each other. She most certainly despised him, but as cruel as she was, he had always wished he could have been someone she looked up to and respected, that she could have been someone who he could teach and protect. Glancing over at the partially open tent where Katara and Sokka were hunched over a diagram and finally coming to an agreement about the new saddle, he could tell that even though they often argued with each other there was still a bond of love between them; and he envied that.
He was still lost in his thoughts when Katara finally stood up to leave the tent. Turning his attention back to his pupil, he noticed too late that the young Avatar, having fallen into an sort of trance as he worked through his basic forms, was inadvertently producing a small jet of flame on his latest kick and it was heading straight for an unsuspecting Katara.
Zuko's eyes widened, but before he could shout a warning, or even react, Katara noticed her impending danger and ducked down, allowing the flare to pass harmlessly over her head and igniting the tent instead. Without missing a beat she flicked open her water pouch and using a small water whip, doused the fire, leaving almost no trace of the burn beyond a slight discoloration of the fabric.
Aang had felt the flame leave his foot, and immediately snapped from his almost meditative state in time to see her quick reactions. But instead of being impressed by her timely reflexes, he stared in horror as he realized he had almost burned her…again.
"Aang," Katara called happily, completely un-phased by the near accident in her excitement at what she considered a successful first step to mastering fire bending, "you made fire!" And she grinned.
But Aang wasn't smiling. He had gone completely pale, and seeing this she realized what was wrong. She hurried toward him, intent on letting him know that no harm was done. But instead, he turned away from her, walked over to his staff, opened it up to make his glider, and looked at Zuko.
"I'm done," he stated quietly. And with that, he took to the air as Katara came up behind him, reaching out to the obviously distressed boy. She watched helplessly as he flew away to the top of the bluff. Her arm fell uselessly to her side and she hung her head, a look of sadness and defeat etched on her face.
Iroh and Zuko looked at each other, then at Katara, knowing that some unknown but important piece of history had just passed between her and Aang. They said nothing as she sighed heavily and walked off to the waters edge to sit down on some rocks jutting a few yards out into the bay. Walking over to Zuko, Iroh exchanged glances with his nephew again before looking over at Katara. Finally, the old fire bender spoke up.
"I'll go talk to the Avatar; you see what you can find out from the girl."
"Uncle, I don't really think that's a good idea."
But Iroh merely shot him look that said quite plainly that there was no arguing the matter. Zuko growled to himself and headed over to where Katara had sat down while Iroh climbed the narrow trail up the bluff, with a teapot and some cups in hand, to find his pupil.
Aang sat down on the top of the rocky ridge and sighed in frustration. He thought he was past this. He had gotten past it when he was with Guru Patik. But here he was with that same sense of shame and he could almost feel the chakra in his stomach snapping shut. He didn't even look up as Iroh made it to the top of the hill and sat down heavily next to him, slightly out of breath.
"That was more of a climb than I expected," he said cheerfully. "I must be getting old." There was no reply from the boy, so he continued. "I brought a pot of tea, would you care for some?"
Aang shook his head; he didn't feel like having any tea at the moment. Instead, he looked down at his feet and spoke softly.
"I'm sorry I ran off…" but he stopped, realizing he had no good explanation for his actions.
"It's understandable," said Iroh lightly, much to Aang's surprise. "Fire can be a terrifying element to work with. It certainly gave me a fright when I was first learning."
"Really?" asked Aang with unmasked curiosity.
"Oh yes," Iroh replied merrily. "I remember being foolish enough to practice in my room once when I was a boy. I set the curtains and the bed on fire," and his belly shook with laughter. "The whole palace was in an uproar!" At this Aang allowed a small grin slip onto his face, but then it faded just as quickly.
"Was anyone hurt?" he frowned.
"No, no," Iroh chuckled. "But it gave me quite the scare, and I was in a lot of trouble for it," he answered, still grinning at the memory. Sobering, he continued, "However, the good thing about making mistakes is that you are given the opportunity to learn from them." He paused for a moment then asked, "What did you learn today?"
Aang sighed wretchedly before answering.
"That I'm not ready for this. I can't control fire…and people get hurt when I try," Aang answered, his voice filled with disgrace.
"No one was hurt today," the old general reminded him quietly as he took a sip of tea. "But then, you aren't talking about today, are you?"
Aang shook his head. He knew he should tell his new sifu about his disastrous lessons with Jeong-Jeong, but he just couldn't. Despite his silence, however, the old fire bender seemed to understand the problem.
"One can not live in fear of the past, nor can he hold back because of the possibilities of the future. Much of what you have learned in mastering the other elements can help you as you learn to bend fire."
"But…how?" asked Aang, upset and confused. "Fire is so…different. The flame I made today came out of nowhere. I wasn't even trying to make fire, it just…happened. And once it was there…I couldn't stop it." He finished quietly and hung his head again.
"Learning to create fire is a surprisingly easy thing to do," Iroh remarked, "The bender needs only to draw on his own emotions to call it forth. But most fire benders stop short of true mastery because they fail to learn one very important lesson." Seeing that he had the young Avatar's attention again, the retired general nursed a small flame in his hand. He sent the flicker of fire into some dry grass nearby, the spark growing quickly into a small blaze as Iroh resumed talking.
"One of the greatest feats of bending fire is not the ability to summon the flame," here he paused, looking at the rapidly spreading fire,"but to snuff it out as well," and emphasized the point with a flick of his wrist, sucking the small blaze back to his hand where it vanished without so much as a wisp of smoke. Seeing the look of surprise and admiration on the young boy's face, Iroh smiled and began pouring tea into the second cup he had brought as he spoke again.
"Given what your destiny entails, perhaps this might be a better thing for you to learn first. Unlike a pure fire bender, you have the wisdom and sense of balance to see the importance of this technique and I think you could master it much more easily than anyone else." At last, Aang's countenance was graced with a genuine smile as he took the cup Iroh offered.
"I think I'd like that," he said confidently, and suddenly he felt his energy flow once more as the fire chakra reopened.
