Aang was practising the roundhouse-fire-kick for what felt like the one thousandth time while Zuko stood a little distance away in the shadows, watching his student closely leaning at the wall with his arms crossed. When he had shown the kick to Aang after breakfast, he had been surprised by the effort it had cost him to perform the move.
Since then, he had been watching Aang, and just standing there took so much energy. His lungs had started to hurt even more, and when he couldn´t stop it, he had coughed restrained into his sleeve. He was longing for the moment when Aang would start to practise Earthbending with Toph, because that would be the moment when he would curl up in his bed and go back to sleep.
He clenched his teeth and made a few steps away from the wall. When Aang saw him moving, he stopped kicking. "How was I?", he asked hopefully. Zuko nodded. "Not bad.", he said, the words aching in his throat. "I think you should try and combine it now." Aang nodded and wanted to start when he took a closer look at his Firebending teacher. Zuko seemed… exhausted. He had when Aang had seen him in the morning, but back then he had been sure that Zuko was just tired but now… "Are you alright, Zuko?", he asked carefully. The other one seemed clearly surprised by the question. "Yeah. Yeah, I´m just… tired. Now go on. Try to combine the kick into your other techniques." Aang gave him a doubted look, but didn´t ask anymore. He concentrated on the other techniques he had learned and started to do some of them. Zuko was watching him when a sudden, ice-cold shower ran through his body, and he shivered. Until now he had thought it was a pretty hot day, and the sun was burning from the sky. Within seconds, Zuko felt his energy fade. He started to feel dizzy and reached for the wall behind him. When his back hit the bricks, he couldn´t hold back the cough anymore.
It was a tiny movement from Zuko that got Aang out of his concentration. The Fireprince shivered and started to reach backwards, and Aang immediately stopped in his movement and turned to the other boy. He watched in horror when Zuko basically collapsed against the wall behind him and suddenly started coughing violently. With an airbender´s jump, Aang got to his friend, who was standing there bend over while hacking into his sleeve. "Hey, Zuko…" The young airbender started rubbing the boys shaking back.
After a while, Zuko finally managed to catch his breath again. "It´s ok.", he panted. "I´m alright, I just…" His knees gave way when another coughing fit jolted his body, making his head spin like a tornado. Aang managed to catch him when he fell and just held his trembling friend, looking helplessly around. "What´s going on here?", he suddenly heard Sokkas voice behind him. The boy had heard the coughing noises from the other courtyard where he had been training with his sword. When he saw his friends on the floor, he hustled next to them. He caught Aang´s feared look and lifted Zuko, who was still coughing his lung out, from the Avatar´s lap. By carefully massaging the fireprince´s chest, he managed to calm the fit down to a rhythmic, flat panting.
"Zuko?", he asked calmly. "Can you hear me?" Zuko´s face was wet from sweat and tears when he opened his eyes weakly and tried to focus on Sokka´s worried face. Although his head hurt from the movement, he nodded slowly. "Okay.", Sokka said, trying to keep his voice calm while he was freaking out inside. "What´s wrong with you, Buddy?" If only Zuko knew. When he had felt unwell in the morning, he had thought he might have caught a cold or a mild sickness, but he hadn´t expected lying on the floor with his whole body aching and hardly being able to breath. "I – I´m freezing.", he muttered, as he felt as if he had been thrown into the arctic sea. However, at the same time, his head felt like a hot fire.
How he hated this situation. He was helpless and weak, and others were around to see it. Showing weakness had always been a no-go for Zuko, the only people he had ever felt comfortable showing his feelings to had been his mother and Uncle Iroh… He shivered when another cold shudder went through his body. "It´s so cold." Sokka gave Aang a concerned look. "Actually he´s burning up.", he said, as Zuko´s skin in his arms was hotter than Sokka had ever thought a body could get.
The two boys just wanted to figure out what to do when Zuko got shaken from another, even more violent, coughing attack. "Get Katara, quick!", Sokka told the airbender, who nodded and made a giant jump towards the house. The watertribe boy did his best to comfort his friend, but Zuko didn´t realize anything over his painful, severe hacking. When he suddenly couldn´t gasp for air anymore, he started to panic. He grabbed the first thing he could get hold on, what happened to be Sokka´s hand.
"Come on, Zuko, breathe!", Sokka´s voice came to his ears. I can´t!, he thought panicked while he clutched his chest with his free hand and doubled up. Then he suddenly had a strange feeling, as if air were forced into his mouth and down his throat by violence. When it reached his lungs, he finally felt some relief. In the next moment, he coughed again, but it only lasted a few second. He remained trembling and sweaty in Sokka´s arms, where he collapsed.