Disclaimer: I currently do not possess the copyright of ATLA; therefore it's not mine, and nor will it ever be for that matter.

Ch 10: Catching On

By the time Zuko got to the training ground, he found Aang practicing jumping through the sky, combining Airbending maneuvers with Firebending, but making sure not to burn anything with his wild flares. Zuko didn't want him to notice him just yet; he certainly did have to admit that the Avatar was a quick study. After getting a good show of the boy's learned skills, Zuko thought that it was a fine time to start the training session.

"Aang, I think you've warmed up enough, don't you agree?" he hollered as he watched his student hover, temporarily suspended in the air. "Unless, of course, you want to keep on fooling around and never learn the other things I have to teach you."

Aang immediately stopped from jumping around through the air and gently brought himself down to earth. "Great, let's get started now! So what're you gonna' teach me in the advanced sets?" he asked jumping around with great enthusiasm in his voice.

"Let me guess, lighting right? No, wait…maybe lava even? Or…blue fire like yours?"

Zuko couldn't help but think that the next classes for the advanced set were going to be hell. "Doesn't this kid ever get tired?" he moaned to himself. Zuko noticed that his pupil was still observing him, and jolted himself back to present matters.

"Aang, the basic steps were for you to channel your energy to create fire from your hands. Today however, we'll be working on how you create fire from your other extremities, all right?"

His pupil nodded and kept watching him ever so closely, making sure not to miss a single detail while rubbing his chin.

Zuko placed himself in a peculiar stance, very similar to the one Aang knew from his Earthbending lessons. Zuko placed his to feet together and closing his fists, putting the left one on top of the other, placing them at his right side, and turning to face his left. He turned his head towards his pupil to see if he was studying his stance, and when he was sure that Aang was paying attention, he thrust his arm out and kicked in unison, releasing a double fireball that he made sure would blow out by the time it would reach any trees.

"Now remember that the basic principle for this technique is to adjust your energy to be the same in both extremities. It can't be stronger in either of them…if it is, you will lose balance from your own combustion and be rendered helpless to defend yourself. Now that that's been said, give it a try."

Aang quickly put himself in the new stance that was taught him, trying to make sure that it was an exact copy of Zuko's.

Aang took a deep breathe just like he did in his former training lessons, and shot out his fist and kicked, but he put so much power in his fist that he launched himself against a tree.

Zuko didn't even flinch when Aang hit the tree; he just watched how his young pupil rolled to the ground and rubbed his neck, trying to numb out the pain from his accident.

"Get up and try it again."

Aang jumped back up, startled by Zuko's harsh voice and placed himself faster than the last time into the advanced stance. This time, though, Zuko walked up to him to study the flaws of the stance.

"Your fists, they shouldn't be too tight, but not too loose either. The key to Firebending is not in the muscles but in your breath. This is something you should have learned from the basic sets, Aang!" he lectured him sternly. "Your fists should be held at your waist line, not below it." Zuko then grabbed Aang's fists and forced them to be as loose as he needed them to be, while Aang, a little disturbed at his teacher's forcefulness, only watched him.

"Don't look at me! What, don't tell me, you think I'm pretty or something, right? Your enemy is that way, so look that way!" Zuko could go on forever complaining about Aang's stance. This was more like the Zuko he knew before. Strict and perfectionist, and though he did miss the somewhat transformed Zuko, since he seemed more fun to learn from, you had to admit, that the old personality did bring quick results.

When Zuko deemed his posture acceptable, he took two steps behind Aang to study him closely while he executed the technique. Thankfully, Zuko had good reflexes so when Aang screwed up again, he was able to catch him with his left arm before he hit the tree again. After he noticed that he was held by Zuko's arm, he immediately broke away and began throwing a fit criticizing himself.

"Why does it keep blowing up at me? I mean, I did the stance like you showed me and I still get it wrong!" Aang was really frustrated; he couldn't understand fire. There were so many tricks to fire that the other elements never troubled him with. He could be forceful with every element and let his instincts carry him, but fire required more control than he could imagine…and he hated the fact that he still didn't posses enough of it.

Zuko only watched as the young Avatar went rambling in circles at how bad he was and how stupid fire was because he couldn't get it, until he shouted at him from behind, stopping him in his tracks, the sudden holler sending shivers down his spine.

"Aang, first thing, never blame the element your trying to master, not earth, not air, not water and especially not fire. Only quitters and the weak make excuses for themselves. Second your stance was not off, but the balance of energy between your fist and foot was."

Aang then turned his complete attention toward his Sifu, hopping that he would give him a trick for this difficult technique.

"Aang, I think that this technique is a little difficult for you, so we'll start smaller. Let's focus on drawing fire from your feet shall we?" he placed himself in front of him and jerked his leg out and released a swirling flare of fire from the sole of his foot.

"Unlike the other elements, which are usually found in nature, fire has to be created from somewhere; the fire you create is the combination of the heat you receive from the Sun and your personal Chi. The better control of Chi you have, the stronger or weaker the flame can be depending on your choice, but there are some parts of the body where directing ones Chi is very difficult, or more precisely, the most difficult being the feet." He finished his explanation with a sage-like expression full of understanding on his face.

"Therefore, what I want you to do is shoot fifty flares from each foot with the same intensity each time, as best you can; I'll be watching you from under that tree over there, understood?"

The monk quickly got himself to work while his mentor went to rest under the tree. Zuko pulled the left sleeve from his green Earth Kingdom clothes to his elbow and started to inspect it. It had gotten really swollen from the impact Aang had on it. He kept opening and closing his fists, trying to get the muscles in his forearms to relax; he flinched a little at first but with opening of his fists, there came a small amount of relief. As he continued his treatment, he raised his head to watch the young Firebender in training.

Apparently, Aang was having trouble collecting the exact same amount of energy in his feet each time. There were times when he would have launched a long flare that wouldn't fizzle out unless he put his leg down as fast as possible, others that would be so strong that would break his balance and send him flying, and then there were others where only a small wick would come out. Zuko looked up at the sky, eyeing the sun, being well protected by the generous shade of the tree.

"It's noon already. We've been here since dawn, so basically six hours have passed and still nothing. If he goes on with this, his Firebending abilities will be at their max, and most probably end up blasting himself again," he thought

"Aang, take a break or you'll end up blowing yourself up, and then you won't be any good to anyone!" He didn't like having to go back to his strict attitude again, but it was the only way he knew of motivation for achieving perfection.

Aang listened to the instruction of his Sifu and sat down on the right side of the tree. Zuko looked at the depressed Avatar, wishing that his bending would have been miraculously as easy to learn like the others. Aang was new at failing and he wasn't taking it very well.

"Aang, don't trouble yourself if your not getting the advanced set right, right now. You just started learning about a week ago with my uncle and yesterday just started to learn with me and you're already in the advanced sets. It took me years to learn that much. After you can master bending fire with your feet, you'll find it very easy to do everything else. Like this…"

Aang turned around his head to better see what his master was up to. Zuko had his fist partially closed near his mouth. He took a few breathes and a giant cloud of fire came out of Zuko's mouth. "Like a dragon," Aang thought as he watched with awe the fun technique that was promised he would learn. His eagerness to learn was revived from watching that maneuver. Aang rested for a while, rubbing the back of his head that still throbbed from the earlier accident he had.

The silence between them was so thick that it could have probably been cut with one of Zuko's broad swords.

It was true that Aang had accepted Zuko into the gang, but besides from training, they never really had a normal conversation before, and that really felt weird to him. To see a person everyday and not say a single word to them or hear one from them was a thing that easily got to Aang, so he decided to break the ice with hope of starting up a conversation to better understand the banished prince.

"Um, Zuko?" he asked a little bit uncertain, trying not raising his voice too loud. He waited for an answer till Zuko stretched out his hand to signal him that he was listening.

"So, after the advanced sets, what comes next?" He thought of asking him, hoping that Zuko's jaw would relax enough to actually get to know each other better. Zuko sat up only to cross his arms and use them as a cushion for his head, coming down again to lie against the tree.

"I think that after the advanced sets, we start off with defensive maneuvers for two months, then finally, lightning. I don't know how to use lava, so don't ask me much about it, and I don't think my uncle knows how to use it either. After we're done with lightning, we'll focus on putting those skills in practice through some sparring, agreed?"

Aang liked the idea, if he could just get past the bump in the road of the advanced set, then he could learn all of the fun stuff Firebenders knew, and he also liked the idea of being able to spar with Zuko. Even though Zuko always fought with him before joining his gang, this sounded like fun to him because now there were no stakes involved.

Zuko could sense how happy the boy was, so excited and ready to learn new things. He liked that a lot about the Avatar, his care free spirit; mostly he envied it, not having one like his since he was born.

He remembered the countless terrors he had had to deal with everyday when he was a child living in the palace. Trying to survive Azula's pranks and save his sanity from her malicious lies. Trying so hard to gain his father's acceptance, even though he knew there was no place in his heart for him. He even doubted then if his father had a heart, but he quickly shook out those painful memories, and tried to keep track of the present.

He was now free like he wanted to be, and was surrounded by warm, loving people, who were actually beginning to respond to him. As he tried to take advantage of Aang's break to rest up from his last night's training, he took a deep breath and slowly, unwillingly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Aang didn't mind the idea of sleeping, but he hated losing valuable time for training. But then he started to look at the bright side of this break. He was able to enjoy a beautiful afternoon, under a cool shady tree after training for almost half the day, and the sky was clear, without even a cloud in sight. Aang carelessly yawned as he watched the clear blue sky.

He continued to watch it, feeling the worries of his training slowly melt away like ice turns to water. He couldn't help but wonder if this was part of his training or if Zuko had noticed his bummed out attitude to actually propose a break, but he had to admit, having Zuko as a teacher was fun, like having another older brother, other than Sokka of course. But this one was the more mature, cool one that taught you all the stuff you wanted to know.

As he turned his sights to the pure blue sky, he quickly turned behind him for he had been startled after hearing a few rattling sounds coming from the bushes. He waited for the person to reveal himself and soon enough he heard a familiar cry, "hey guys!" followed by Katara pushing against a bush that had gotten caught in her blue coat

"Hey Katara, what'cha doin' here?" he responded with a slight wave from behind the tree.

"I thought I'd come to check up on your training. I'm still your Waterbending master, and my student's outcome is very important to me, so care to explain what kind of exercise this is?" using a higher pitched voice to see if Zuko was still among the living.

"He's out cold, huh?" she said, giving up on the vain waving of her hand in the Firebender's face. "I can't believe this! He's actually sleeping, and I thought that Firebender's were supposedly sons of the superior element, didn't you, Aang?" she mocked sarcastically while looking towards Aang with a devilish smile. "Got my back?" she asked while the young Avatar silently nodded.

Katara gave him thumbs up, and she put herself right behind the tree Zuko was resting against. She coaxed a stream of water from her battle canteen and gently bended it into a ball right over Zuko's head. Aang started to giggle from the idea trying to restrain himself by muffling his mouth with his hand.

"Ready?" she whispered looking at Aang, who was lying down trying to look like he was asleep, but he gave her a thumb up, eyes still closed. She counted backwards, "3, 2, 1, 0…" splash! Zuko popped his eyes open looking around for the culprit.

"Aang, what's the big idea, why did you wet me?"

The young Avatar yawned like he was just waking up from a long nap, stretching out his arms as far as he could, looking back at his Sifu with a dazed look. "What happened?" he asked innocently.

"You got me all wet, cue ball, that's what happened!" He was very angry with Aang, but he looked around his surroundings and saw that no water was to be found and Aang was supposedly asleep right next to him, so the only logical explanation could be… but his thoughts were broken off when he felt the familiar touch of two cool soft hands blindfold him from behind the tree.

"So this is how you prepare for fighting against the Fire Lord, huh? Then it's safe to say we're all goners, right Aang?" she smiled sinisterly knowing that she had him pinned. Aang on the other hand was a little surprised from Katara's next reaction. He thought she would hit him or something, not act so fondly to him. Somehow the picture of those two together made Aang remember something he saw or had experienced, but couldn't put his finger on it.

"I only gave Aang a break because the Sun was already at its strongest and he kept blowing himself up, so that he could be given a chance to get psyched again about his training. And also because he's been training for about six hours," he added with a smile in his face. He kind of liked the predicament he was in. The cool touch of her hand over his eyes, especially over his scar soothed him more than the whole collection of tea his uncle had.

Aang felt like if he traveled to some parallel universe in that moment. He couldn't believe Zuko had gotten wet, and because it was Katara, he did absolutely nothing, and she started to play with him. It had finally hit him like a bag of bricks, he thought that what they were doing was familiar to him because he did live it, but when he was alone with Toph! So could this mean that Zuko liked Katara…and worse, that she liked him back?

Aang observed wide-eyed as Katara kept on teasing Zuko until she released him, giving him back his sight.

"I have to go back now and make sure that Sokka doesn't burn our lunch to a crisp, but the weird part is that I would have expected that from a Firebender!"

Zuko answered her with a sarcastic laugh and starred at her as she jogged her way back to the camp. Zuko didn't know it, but Aang was sure now of what was going on since Zuko wouldn't stop starring until he got his attention back with a loud clearing of his throat sound.

Zuko jumped back and saw the wise guy smile he had smudged all over his face, knowing that he was caught. Zuko wanted to explain what happened to the Avatar, but he just wouldn't take that annoying know-it-all smile off his face.

Aang was at first a little shocked from his ground-breaking discovery, but he was actually happy for them. He never saw Katara so happy as she was while being with him, and Zuko, well, it was the first time that he saw Zuko be relaxed and actually smile when someone played a practical joke on him, especially when taking into account his old self's short temper.

"So, since when has this been going on?" he asked coolly to his Sifu. Zuko looked to his pupil. He was nervous now; all he could think of was if he was going to go tell Sokka about them.

"Since one week ago, I think, why, you want to go tell her brother about it?" he added mockingly with bravado, as if telling Sokka wouldn't have any impact on their relationship, although it certainly would. He didn't want to force a fight between the siblings. One thing he liked about Katara was how she was such a good sister and friend to her companions, and he didn't want to be the one responsible for changing that.

Aang just held his palm out, telling him that he wouldn't tell another soul. "Actually, I think you guys suit each other…I mean, I never saw her have as much fun as when she's with you, and I don't think that your weird change in personality is a coincidence either!"

"Sort of like you and Toph huh, opposites matching and all? Who knew the idea could be so contagious?"

He shot a look back to Zuko surprised to know that he knew "How do you know that, about me and Toph, I mean?"

"Well actually it was Katara who found out like a few months ago, but she accidentally blurted it out to Toph when she caught us. It's actually pretty funny. All of us trying so hard not to let anybody know and yet it all comes down in a second!"

"Yeah, but does that mean that Sokka also knows? You do know how'd he react, right?" sounding a bit concerned for his tutor.

"Yeah, but so far he doesn't, and that's what's important for now, I guess"

"But he will find out eventually, and then what?" His pupil was worried about what his Sifu had gotten himself into, knowing that there could even be a division in the group because of this, and then they wouldn't have a chance against the Fire Lord.

Zuko stayed silent and stood up, walking towards the middle of the training field and answered his student coldly without looking back, "Aang, I think that's enough rest for now, come on there's still a lot of things to teach you before lightning and the sooner we get those things learned, the faster we'll be able to put those things into practice!"

Aang got the idea that he already knew all of the consequences and that he didn't want to talk about them, and decided to respect his wishes. He stood up and ran up to his Sifu to start his training once more.

"Now Aang, get into the new stance I showed you and try bending fire from your feet, another fifty times each leg, understood?" Zuko walked took a few steps back to give the Firebender in training some room, and from there he began to take note of both the strengths and flaws in Aang's bending, while still trying to shake out the words his pupil engraved in his mind.

"We'll just have to be more careful on what we do and where we do it," he planned out in his mind. And then he returned his thought to his student, trying to put all of his focus on the success of today's training.

When the training session was over and the sun was setting, Aang and Zuko went back together to meet up wit the rest. Everyone was sitting around the campfire, doing the usual.

Toph was hanging out with Iroh reminiscing about their glory days. How she used to be The Blind Bandit and won millions of underground tournaments, and he would talk back of how he used to be the feared Dragon of the West and how with only one flick of his arm he could set on fire an entire division.

Sokka, on the other hand, was whistling a cheery tune as he sharpened his boomerang. He was finally able to win back from Iroh on a double or nothing game, and although he had a feeling that Iroh lost because he felt sorry for him, he was still happy for having his most beloved possession back in his arms.

Katara was just finishing feeding Appa and Momo, when she heard Aang holler to everyone that they were back from their training. Iroh and Toph turned around, leaving their conversation on a pause for a moment to answer them back.

"So Aang, tell us how your training went. Did you learn anything new today?" asked the retired general.

Aang ran towards them and sat down on the log beside Toph to tell him about what he learned today, from first screwing up the double shot technique, to how he finally managed to master that move and being able to perform others because of it, like blowing fire through his mouth and nostrils. He was about to show them by blowing some fire through his nose, but Toph said that that would be gross and she blocked his airways with two stones she had bended.

Aang couldn't hold the fire in and was forced to redirect the fire by releasing it through his mouth, coughing smoke out in the end since that move always left his throat parched, while removing the stones from his nose to get some air.

"I'm glad you always think on your toes Twinkle Toes…if not, you would have probably held up all that fire in your head and blew up." Everybody laughed at the idea of Aang's head suddenly exploding, and eventually even Aang himself joined in too.

Meanwhile Katara had already walked over to Zuko to hand over to him the dinner she had cooked. As she handed it to him she tried to take a quick grab of his hand, but he tugged it away, turning his look away from her.

"Not here," he whispered. "Too many people are finding out…it's best if we head out over there." He tilted his head pointing to his left into a denser part of the woods.

Katara nodded in understanding and yelled to Aang that she was going off to go find more wood for later in the night, and that Zuko was going with her to help find some since the sun was already setting.

Aang nodded, knowing what they were really going to do. He turned his look to Sokka, but he was too busy tending to his boomerang to even care. Before they went off to their made-up quest, however, Sokka managed to add a, "Come back soon and don't let anything happen to her, Firebender!"

Aang waited for them to be long gone until he could go ask Sokka a few questions to better understand how high the stakes were for both of them.

"Hey Sokka, watcha' doin?" he asked as he sat down beside him with a friendly grin on his face. He waited for a response from his friend, who apparently was too obsessed with his weapon to notice.

When he was done however, he placed the sacred object down and turned to the young Avatar, grinning back at him, "Ahh, now my boomerang's all nice, sharp and shiny, like it should be! What did you say, Aang?"

"I…the thing is, is that I have a friend who has a problem and I don't know what to tell him," he started uneasily. Sokka just looked at him with an interested expression on his face.

"So, this friend, is he anyone I know?" he asked while studying Aang's fidgeting with his hands.

"Well kinda, but that's not the point, it's just that he likes this girl and he's afraid her family will tare them away from each other and he just doesn't know what to do." He was feeling so stupid for asking the question so directly, but Sokka didn't say a word. He kept looking at him with his interested grin, then shifting his sights to where Toph was thinking that he solved the mystery to who was Aang's friend and looking back again to Aang.

Nudging him with his elbow, he got closer to the young Avatar, pulling him downwards so that no one could here his advice. "Aang, why didn't you come to me sooner? Sure, we all know that Toph's family is a little too overprotective, but you're the Avatar, so if you get hooked up with her they'll actually praise you for it because you'll be like the ultimate bodyguard, and for free too!"

Sokka couldn't stop grinning, believing that he had hit the bulls-eye with Aang's question, but the expression on Aang's face was priceless. His eyes went wide from his disbelief at how wrong Sokka's interpretation was, and his jaw dropped so low that if could have almost touched the log they were sitting on.

Aang immediately pulled himself together and peevishly smiled back to his friend with his hand hanging behind the back of his head.

"Thanks a lot Sokka, you're a really smart guy, especially being able to see through my whole friend disguise." He complimented his friend faintly as he stood up and decided to go into the denser parts of the woods for some alone time due to nature's call.

Sokka decided to take up his favorite thing in the whole wide world, and started to sharpen and polish it again when he noticed laughter coming through the woods towards the camp. It was his sister and the banished prince, back with more firewood as promised.

"Since when does my sister laugh so much, especially with a Firebender like him?" he thought. He didn't lift his head to see them, but only shifted his gaze to better observe them out of the corner of his eye. He noticed that ever since Zuko woke up, they have been close like they were in that moment, telling each other jokes and laughing together and…stuff.

"Could there be something going on here that I don't know about?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why would my sister enjoy the company of such a low life like him? No way that there could be something between them! Katara already knows that it was the Firebenders that killed our mom, so she'd never be able to like him that way!" he comforted himself with the idea, but then another detail surged in his mind.

"But what about him? Could he feel something for her? Nah, no way, Katara would have his head in a minute if he tried anything funny with her, so there's nothing to be worried about." With that final conclusion due to his trust in his sister's judgment, he continued to sharpen his boomerang till it was time for lights out.

As he wrapped himself inside his sleeping bag he made sure to see where Zuko would pass the night. To his delight, he saw that Zuko excluded himself from the rest of the gang members, putting his sleeping bag on the other side of the camp along with his uncle and with a small, gleeful smile, his consciousness faded away to slumber.

Well people sorry it took me a while to update. And again I'm sorry but now I'll be going back to school this Monday, actually right now this morning so wish me luck as I go through the Legendary Nine Hells of School Life. Also ch 1-3 have been formatted and I'll probably keep formatting the rest ch 6 so if your bored you can check them and see if they're easier to read. I hope so because I don't really want thing to end and keep it as an on going project dedicated to search of perfection.

Grabs backpack and hurls it over back Damn I forgot how heavy these things are, but I guess when you're carrying everything inside of your locker I guess that's how they should weigh, well see ya all and I hope that all of you in the northern hemisphere are enjoying your summer break as how my short winter one sadly came to an end TT