When Zuko awoke, Aang's spot lay empty. He almost laughed mirthlessly when he felt his heart skip a beat. Aang was the strongest bender and a swift fighter. He could take care of himself. Anyway, he would have heard a struggle if something occurred.
This didn't stop Zuko much. Quietly, he rose to his feet, taking a quick survey of the area. His heart seemingly pounding in his ears, he softly called, "Aang?" A rustle of leaves made him look up.
His mouth opened to reprimand the younger man, but the anger quickly died away. Gold eyes watched him, and Aang barely moved, crouched on a branch as if ready to spring down. Aang's face was expressionless.
Zuko cleared his throat, and licked his dry lips. "Is something wrong, Aang?"
"Nothing, no," replied Aang, barely moving. "I had a talk with the Fire Spirit, Aden. You remember me mentioning him, right?"
Zuko's mind rewound through several conversations, and he did vaguely remember the name. Normally, the spirits seemed to lead Aang around and about before getting to the point. Apparently the fire Spirit took a more direct route.
"I remember," said Zuko.
Aang was always fast, but with the use of the Earth sprite's gift, he not only moved gracefully, but far quicker. Zuko swore that one second Aang stood in the trees, and the next, he was in front of him. He meant to take a step backwards, but his limbs refused to obey the command. Perhaps Aang stopped time, or perhaps the arms encircling him immobilized him.
He felt a presence in his mind. Describing how it felt when Aang entered his mind was difficult, because it seemed to affect his senses in odd ways. It felt like light, and warmth, or the moments that he was truly happy, and safe.
Zuko's face warmed with embarrassment. Aang held him gently, and they stared at each other. He was fairly certain this type of scene appeared in silly romance stories…not that he knew much about that…
He noticed that Aang's eyes were not completely gold, as he originally thought. Around his iris was a thin circle of silver that bled into the gold.
"Beautiful," Aang said, echoing what Zuko thought of his eyes.
Aang smiled, then bent down to devour Zuko's lips. His thoughts bounced around, but Zuko mostly wondered if humans ever went into heat like animals did, because his whole body felt hot and just a little shaky…and…yes, he was indeed making a sound in the back of his throat somewhat similar to the sound of purring and moaning blended together. How the hell did he do that? He couldn't make that sound beforehand!
Aang pulled away, and Zuko expected him to smirk. There was indeed a slight upturn to his lips, but he seemed far too focused on, well, him. Aang pulled his own shirt off, tossing it carelessly to the side, before hastily working on Zuko's clothing.
"Hey!"
Now Aang smirked. "I'd say I'm sorry, but it'd be a lie."
Zuko usually kept a tight reign on his actions, especially since he knew his temper could be dangerous. However, the immature side apparently escaped, and he stuck his tongue out. Aang chuckled, pulling Zuko towards him, their bare bodies intertwining. Carefully, they lay down on Zuko's sleeping bag, Aang practically blanketing Zuko with his own body.
Then, Zuko felt the small tug in his mind. It was as if someone held a ball of warmth, and was asking if they could take it. Zuko's eyes widened.
"Do you trust me?" Aang asked softly.
Zuko closed his eyes, and he gave his answer mentally.
He thought that perhaps he would feel empty, but instead it felt like something wrapping around him. He couldn't touch that energy anymore, knew that he couldn't bend, but Aang…
Aang was fire.
Zuko couldn't decide if he were irritated that Aang figured out how to become that element first, terrified that he had a flaming man on top of him, or turned on at the sheer thrill. Aang wasn't hurting him, but he was sure that it could. It felt almost like it had when the dragons had enveloped them in flames.
The fire disappeared, leaving Aang, and yet it still seemed as if flames danced along his body.
Aang focused on his neck while fingers stretched him. Zuko was positive there would be quite a few marks left on his body. Right at the moment, though, he didn't care.
He wasn't sure if he was hypersensitive to compensate for his lack of bending, but each touch left him moaning and nearly begging. He couldn't stop moving, touching Aang and leaning into the caresses.
And was Aang always quite so large…?
"Relax," said Aang. The bastard was smirking.
What he wanted to say was "if you don't shut up, I'm kicking you out of my mind." What emerged was, "Aaah…"
At least, Aang let him rest for a few moments.
Aang knew his body, so it took very little to arouse Zuko's body, and he didn't hold back. Zuko was fairly sure that Aang had managed to figure out how to press his pleasure senses in his mind.
He ran his fingernails down Aang's back, and when he felt him shiver, repeated his actions, digging in a little deeper. Aang growled, nipping at his neck.
When he was nearing his climax, Aang whispered in his ear, "Thank you."
And then Aang let go of Zuko's powers. He hadn't thought the return would shock his system, but it really did seem as if the gift flooded his whole body, fire running through his whole body.
Zuko threw his head back and cried out, tipping over the edge.
Bee hated the moments before battle. It always gave her time to imagine all the terrible things that could happen.
"Let the bastards come," said Jet. "We'll show them who's boss."
Bee glared at him. It just figured that not too long after coming back from the dead, Jet would say crap like that.
"If you don't start moving," said Teo, "I'm going to ask someone to tranquilize you."
"Just his tongue," Bee said, earning a glare from her former leader.
"So far everything's looking good," said Hahn, examining Jet's vitals.
"You better hurry, though," said Katara, walking quickly towards the small group. "They've spotted the first wave, and it doesn't look good…"
The streets were empty of people, the town having been evacuated. Anyone who was brave enough to stay had boarded up their house and remained lying low.
The army waited, protecting the gate to the palace.
Iroh sighed. People were going to die again, and he always hated that. And to make matters worse, the instigator was his brother. Again.
Oh, he knew the Dark Avatar had helped things along just a bit, but mostly, he blamed his brother. He thanked the higher powers that Zuko had turned out all right.
"As acting Fire Lord, we cannot allow harm to come to Lord Iroh," he heard a captain telling his soldiers again.
"We must not let the Fire Nation fall back into his hands!"
They didn't call him by name any longer, Iroh noted. Once, they had fought for their Phoenix King. Now, they just wanted the peace back again, brought about by his nephew.
'Be safe,' he thought. 'Come back alive.'
"The enemy approaches!" came the call they had all waited for.
"For the Fire Lord!" cried a soldier, raising his weapon.
"No!" said Iroh. "For our people! For our world!"
A cheer rose with the chorus of 'for our people' and 'for our world.' Then, as suddenly as it rose, it became silent once more.
The first wave hit.
Notes: I want to apologize to everyone for the long wait. Every time I say I'll try to work faster, I seem to go slower. So this time I'm not going to make promises, and then end up disappointing everyone. Everyone probably thought I'd abandoned the story. I'm sorry!
Let the battles begin…
