"You don't have to repent tonight. Stargaze in the moonlight, we'll burn.

You don't have to defend the light at all." Lustration, Circa Survive

Xx

Zuko wakes early the next morning, the feeling of Katara's lips on his a ghost that disappears with the night. He has to pinch himself to remember that it wasn't a dream, that she had actually wanted to kiss him, that she had touched his scar and hadn't recoiled in disgust. He smiles wider than he has in years as he rises and dresses for the day, excited to see Katara even through his anxiety about teaching Aang firebending. They had decided yesterday that it was imperative for Aang to start learning firebending right away, and Zuko still hadn't told anyone that his bending wasn't exactly up to snuff. He hopes that the new positive emotions will help fuel his bending, but he isn't convinced. He still has nightmares about the Dai Li; they're not as intense as his strange visions from back when he was brainwashed, which he had remembered after Katara freed his mind, but they're still unpleasant to say the least. He knows it's holding back his bending, even though he believes Katara when she told him that she had gotten all of that darkness out of his head. He's been meaning to ask her to look in there again; the only reason he can think of that his bending is still stifled would be if the Dai Li's brainwashing had left some kind of scar in his head (another one to add to the list) that was blocking his chi… or something like that. He doesn't understand fully how it all works, and he doesn't want to think about it right now.

He walks out onto the terrace, a humid chill hanging in the air, waiting to be replaced by the warmth of Agni breaking into the sky. He's gotten up extra early today, the sky still stained indigo, a swath of azure hanging on to the horizon line. He pulls his shirt over his head and drops into the lotus position to wait for Aang. Thankfully he doesn't have to wait long; he hadn't been looking forward to the possibility of having to drag the kid out of bed. The boy approaches him, yawning and rubbing his eyes before ditching his shirt and sitting next to Zuko.

"Good morning." His breath is even and deep, having delved into his meditation before Aang had arrived.

"Morning..." Aang yawns, stretching his arms over his head before settling into a lotus position to match Zuko.

"Have you ever meditated before?" His eyes are closed as he speaks, keeping his breaths measured.

"A little. The monks meditated all the time, but I was a little too…" he trails off, another yawn escaping him.

"Hyperactive?" Almost every time Zuko has seen Aang, he's been full of energy and pep, practically bouncing off the walls. The boy hums an affirmation, and Zuko's mouth turns up the tiniest bit at the corner. "Well, maybe since you're tired, you'll be able to relax a little easier."

The two of them sit in silence as Agni ascends above the horizon, darker hues of the night crawling across to the west as he sets the world alight with vivid pinks and yellows. Zuko breathes in the energy, instructing Aang to feel Agni's power seep into his chi, to accept it with open arms and an open heart. They meditate until the sun is fully above the horizon, and as he moves with Aang through his katas, Zuko feels a little bit more confident that his bending will be back to normal.

Until he actually starts bending, that is. Or, better said, trying to bend. Aang's attempt at making any flame at all is pitiful, consisting entirely of a small puff of smoke and Aang's sheepish grin. Zuko goes to show him how it's done, only for a measly flame no bigger than his fist to plume out from his outstretched hand. Aang claps, and Zuko groans.

"It's supposed to be bigger than that!" His frustration is mounting as he tries again with the same result.

"That one felt a little hot!"

He knows Aang is trying to help, but it feels more like he's patronizing Zuko rather than encouraging him.

"Augh!" Zuko throws his hands into the air in exasperation. "This is useless, my bending has been all fucked up since Ba Sing Se."

"I thought Katara took care of everything up there?" Aang taps on his temple with a finger.

"She did. I mean, I thought she did." He pushes his damp hair back off of his face. "I guess I should go talk to her."

Zuko and Aang go back to the common area where Sokka, Toph, and Katara are sitting and fishing up their breakfast. Aang immediately makes for a bowl and serves himself, while Zuko plops down next to Katara.

"I thought you two were off jerkbending?" Sokka's mouth is full, and Zuko is glad to see that their talk yesterday helped him feel a little more normal.

"Zuko's firebending is broken," Aang declares between spoonfuls of jook.

"It's not broken!" Zuko pushes his hair off of his face again. "It's just… not working right."

"So, it's broken." He groans at Toph's deadpan words.

"I haven't been able to bend right since I left Ba Sing Se." He turns to Katara, who has her spoon hanging halfway to her mouth and her eyes on his bare chest. "Can you, like—" she looks up at him with rosy cheeks— "I don't know, look around in there and see if something's wrong?" Her brows crease in concern as she puts her food down. "I'm worried that there's some residual damage from the whole brainwashing thing."

"Sure." She motions for him to turn towards her, and he tilts his head down a little so that she can reach his temples. He closes his eyes as her water coated fingers hover around his head, trying not to get distracted by her proximity. He didn't realize how hard it would be for him to not go back for more once he got a proper taste of her lips. "Hm..." she pulls back, sympathy painted on her face as he opens his eyes to look at her. "There is a little bit of… I guess you could call it scarring on your chi. That's the only way I can explain it." His face falls and Katara lays her hand on his knee in solidarity.

"Can you heal it?" He knows she can't, but he has to ask.

"No, I don't think I can. It was one thing disentangling the darkness from your chi, but I can't heal the damage left behind." He sighs at her response. "I think because you're a firebender you'll need something… more firebender-y to heal it." She takes his hand in hers. "I'm sorry, Zuko."

"You two finally made out, didn't you?" Zuko starts coughing, as does Sokka, at Toph's interjection.

"Toph!" Katara's voice is shrill, her embarrassment as clear as the deep red tinting her cheeks.

"That's a yes." Aang nudges Toph in the ribs with a smirk, Zuko's face no doubt redder than his shirt at Toph's resounding laugh.

"Can we get back to the issue at hand?" Sokka brandishes his spoon around, flinging specks of jook off into the bushes. "Zuko needs to fix his firebending, like, yesterday."

"I think," Katara and Zuko look at each other helplessly as Toph continues, "that he needs to go to the source of firebending."

"The what now?" Sokka's mouth is, again, full of food as he speaks.

"The source. I think it makes sense that if his chi is damaged or whatever, that whatever the source of firebending is could heal it."

"I can't. The dragons were the original source of firebending, and my family killed them all." An awkward silence follows his words as Zuko reflects on yet another thing that his family has destroyed. "But…" A crazy idea forms in his mind, and it's the only one he's got right now. "The first people who learned from the dragons were the Sun Warriors. They're gone now, but their civilization isn't too far from here. We could go there and see if it helps, and it might help Aang learn firebending too."

"Field trip!" Aang jumps up onto his feet, throwing his hands in the air in excitement.

"That actually might work." Katara's blush lingers on her cheeks as her and Zuko turn to each other. "But have some breakfast first." She shoves a bowl of food into his hands.

"Alright." He feels like his smile is dopey and lopsided, but judging by how Katara smiles back, it's good enough for her. "We'll leave in an hour."

Xx

The Sun Warrior's civilization must have been amazing in its day, because the ruins are impressive even in their dilapidated state. Zuko and Aang walk through the crumbling architecture, dodging a few booby traps as they make their way in. Eventually they come up to a set of large gates, a column adorned with a sun stone standing sentinel in front of it. Aang goes right to the gate, trying unsuccessfully to open it, while Zuko inspects the column and surrounding area, noticing a matching sun stone above the grand gates.

"It's a celestial calendar," he says as he points out the carvings on the ground, one of them lit up by the sun passing through the stone in the column. "It must open only on a certain day. Probably the solstice."

"We can't wait here that long!" Aang throws his hands up in frustration as Zuko looks closely at the sun stone above the gates.

"No, but we don't have to." He uses one of his swords to reflect the light from the sun stone on the column to shine up at the stone above the gate. After a tense minute, the ground starts to shake as the gates open.

"You did it! You know, Zuko, I don't care what everyone else says about you. You're pretty smart!" Aang walks off through the gates, leaving a smiling Zuko behind him. Wait, what?

"Who says stuff about me?!" He jogs up to Aang, who either doesn't hear his question or chooses to ignore it, and Zuko decides with a sigh to drop it.

They walk into a dark room, a circle of statues seeming to be the only things in the large space. The statues depict two people in varying positions, possibly performing some sort of ritual. The forms almost look like some of his firebending katas.

"Zuko!" Aang appears at his arm, taking it in his and tugging on it. "I want you to dance with me!"

"Uhh..." Zuko's eyes are wide as he looks down at Aang, wrenching his arm from the boy's grip.

"The inscription says this is called the dancing dragon," he gestures at the statues around them. "The statues are depicting different forms in the dance. I think we should do the dance." Zuko sighs and shrugs. Well, this might as well happen.

The first position they stand in causes the stones below their feet to sink a few inches into the floor, and the rest of the forms follow suit, until finally at the end Zuko and Aang stand next to each other, arms outstretched as they lean over to touch their fists together. A gentle rumbling starts, and a column in the middle of the circle raises up from the ground, a golden egg-shaped jewel of some sort sitting on top of it.

"Woo!" Aang does a little spin in the air in excitement before the two of them approach the dias. "Wait, what is that thing?"

"It looks like a gem? Or a jewel?" Zuko reaches forward to touch it, but Aang bats his arm away.

"Don't touch it! This whole place is booby trapped, you think that thing isn't?" Aang makes an odd squeaking noise as Zuko ignores him and picks up the gem. It's strangely warm, and almost feels like a heartbeat.

"It almost feels alive..." He goes to put it back on the pedestal, but before he can a geyser of black slime shoots out of it, pushing him bodily up towards the ceiling and sticking him to a grate at the top of the room. "Eugh!"

"I told you!" Aang admonishes him as he tries to use his airbending to get the slime to stop or to get Zuko down from the grate, but he has no luck, and is soon stuck next to Zuko, their faces pressed up against the metal bars with the room completely filled with slime below them.

"Good going, Zuko," Aang snarks at him. He can't see the boy, but from his tone it sounds like he's rolling his eyes.

"Listen, I'm a little dumb sometimes, okay? Apparently the others already know that," he mutters the last sentence, still not forgetting Aang's comment from earlier.

The day slowly changes to night, and the two benders are still stuck to the grate.

"Hello?" Aang calls out into the empty ruins. "Someone help us!"

"Nobody's lived here for centuries, who's going to hear you?" Zuko is tired, sore, and hungry, and he really doesn't want to listen to Aang yelling in his ear right now.

"Well what do you think we should do?" Aang sounds about as frustrated as Zuko feels.

"Think about our place in the universe?" Zuko would shrug if he could, but the disgusting slime beneath them doesn't allow for him to move at all. Suddenly Zuko hears footsteps, and a tall burly man wearing Sun Warrior regalia and an incredible headdress is towering above him and Aang.

"Who are you two?" The man's voice is deep and commanding as it reverberates through the ruins.

"I'm the Avatar!"

Aang's introduction spurs the Sun Warrior man, and a bunch of others dressed like him who Zuko can only assume are other Sun Warriors, to help them out of the gross slime. They bring in two aardvark-sloths to slurp the rest of the slime off of them, and Zuko would be grossed out by it if the slime weren't even grosser. The Sun Warriors want to punish them for trying to steal the strange egg until they explain why they're actually there.

"If you wish to learn the ways of the Sun, you must learn from the masters, Ran and Shaw. When you present themselves to them, they will examine you. They'll read your hearts, your souls, your ancestry." The chief of the Sun Warriors explains the process to them, and Zuko gulps. "If they deem you worthy, they'll teach you. If they don't, you'll be destroyed on the spot." Aang and Zuko look at each other out of the corners of their wide eyes; he thinks they're in agreement that being destroyed on the spot doesn't sound too great.

They allow Aang and Zuko to sleep for the night, and the next day the chief leads them into a room that holds a large chalice filled with fire.

"If you're going to see the masters, you must bring them a piece of the Eternal Flame. This fire is the very first one; it was given to man by the dragons. We have kept it going for thousands of years." Zuko stares at the fire in astonishment as the chief speaks. "You will each take a piece of it to the masters, to show your commitment to the sacred art of firebending." A different Sun Warrior scoops two handfuls of fire out of the Eternal Flame, handing one to Zuko, and one to a nervous looking Aang.

"Uh..." Aang holds the fire like it's about to flare up and burn his face off. "Can my friend here carry my flame?"

"No." The chief doesn't elaborate, and guides them to a mountain. "You will take your flames up there," he points to the very top of the mountain. "And the masters will judge you."

The two begin their journey, and Aang is able to keep his fire alive the whole trek through the forest and up the mountain despite his nerves. The Sun Warriors meet them at the top of the mountain and begin the ritual for Aang and Zuko to present their fires to the masters. They climb a huge staircase to the beat of the Sun Warrior's drums as the sun sets behind them. At the top of the staircase, they turn away from each other to face two caves, offering their fire with a bow when prompted by the Sun Warrior chief. He sounds a horn, and the mountain starts shaking beneath them.

"Zuko, my flame went out!" Aang's voice is panicked behind him. "Give me some of yours!"

"No!" Zuko moves his fire out of the reach of Aang's grabbing hands. "Just make your own!" Aang continues to reach for Zuko's flame, and as they struggle, the Eternal Flame goes out in Zuko's palm. "Fuck."

At that very moment, two huge dragons, one red and one blue, emerge from the caves. They must be Ran and Shaw.

"Zuko," Aang whispers over his shoulder. "I think they want us to do the dragon dance."

"Really? That's what you're getting from this situation?" Zuko takes a deep breath. "Okay, fine."

The two benders move into the first form, and the dragons follow. They go through the dance, the dragons following their movements through the whole thing, and when they end, the dragons hover before each of them. The blue dragon hovers in front of Zuko, it's giant head and wild eyes intimidating. After a moment, the dragons breathe their fire, the flames swirling around them in every shade. Not just blue like Azula's fire, but green and purple and pink and white as well as yellow, orange, and red. Zuko stares up into the flames; somehow his eyes don't burn or sting, and the heat is comfortable, not unbearable. He feels something shift inside of him; something comes to life in his chest as a warmth he's never known floods through his entire body.

I understand.

Xx

Zuko and Aang get back to the Air Temple and demonstrate the dancing dragon for the group, and Aang shows them his new firebending skills.

"That's a cool dance guys!" Toph laughs at her own joke as Zuko and Aang share an exasperated look between them.

"I'm just glad that you got your bending sorted out." Katara walks over to Zuko and pulls him down to kiss his forehead.

"Aww!"

Aang is smiling at them despite Toph's feigned retching noises beside him, but Zuko doesn't care. His smile is wide as he cups Katara's cheeks and brings her in for a gentle kiss, still feeling giddy that he can actually do this now. The others go inside, but Katara and Zuko sit in the night air for hours, relishing in the comfort and bliss that they bring each other. And if he kisses her a few more times (or a dozen more times), nobody is there to see.