Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. If I did, I wouldn't change a thing. Why do people use this space to voice their frustrations about the show?

Zuko awoke to a badgerfrog croaking nearby. He looked outside and was relieved to see the Sun had not risen yet. He pulled himself out of his bed and went over to the Avatar, who was sleeping on his bison. When Zuko shook him to wake him up, the young Avatar looked at him and rolled over.

That bastard. And he was having the best dream, too. He was flying through the sky on Appa, and he had just told Katara that he loved her. She felt the same way, and he was woken up just as they were leaning in to each other, eyes closed, lips out...

"Get up. It's time to start your training," Zuko said.

"Jus a sec," Aang murmured and tried to finish the dream with his imagination. They were leaning in, and...

Zuko pulled him off of the bison. "Listen, Avatar, your other teachers may have gone easy on you, but I will not. Now get up. A firebender's strength is greatest when the Sun is up."

"So you wake me up before dawn because-"

"You can't get reliant on the Sun. If you get used to firebending without the Sun, you'll be much better when it's up."

The Avatar followed him, mumbling something about liking Zuko better when he was trying to capture him.

"Alright," Zuko said, "Let's see how much fire you can make without any training."

Aang remembered what Jeong Jeong had said, and assumed what he thought was a good firebending stance.

Zuko, who was standing a few feet in front of him, also assumed a stance. He prepared to block a powerful Avatar-caliber fire blast.

Aang took a step forward and stuck out his fist.

The air around Zuko heated up about 3 degrees. He was so convinced that the Avatar would produce a large blast of fire that he even did the motions, making an arrow with his arms and pushing them out.

Aang looked at his firebending teacher, who was making ridiculous motions, with a concerned look.

Zuko looked around, trying to find remnants of Aang's fire-blast. It dawned on him what had happened and he put his head in his hands. "Good lord, it's worse than I thought," he said.

The pair began again at noon, with much better results. After about half an hour, the Avatar began to create a little fire. Eventually, he created a full fledged blast of fire.

"Woah!" the young Avatar said with excitement bristling in his voice. He looked down at his hands, as if they were different from a few seconds ago. The Avatar stuck his fists forward three more times and three more shots of flame came out. As Zuko watched, his expression changed from one of pleasure to one of frustration.

"That's enough!" Zuko said and with a movement of his hand, the flames died. "We're done for now."

"But I just got the hang of it."

"No, you didn't. We'll start again later." Aang was confused, but left anyway. Zuko exhaled and sat down on a nearby rock. He looked down at a leaf that was burning from one of the Avatar's embers and wondered if someone like Zhao could have been someone like Aang before he could wield fire.

A/N: Sorry it takes so long for me to write these, but it's a combination of writer's block, lack of motivation, and lack of free time. I've decided to upload these in smaller chunks, rather the 10 page colossus that was chapter 1. This is just the beginning of the Aang learning firebending arc. There'll probably be 1 more chapter to end this, then end the Zuko half and get into more Kataang

AM