Colours of the Wind

'Stop. Stop! STOP!' She shouted it for the umpteenth time that day, her hands on her hips. He glared at her and dropped his arms. The flaming whips he had been using to mimic her movements dissipated in a puff of smoke.

'What?!' he spat. His fuse, always short, was now burning dangerously low. If she criticised him just one more time he'd…

'You're doing it again.'

'Doing what again?'

'Trying to control it.' She said it perfectly brightly, her frustration of moments before gone.

'In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a firebender. Fire is for me to control. Just because the water tribes let their element rule over them, rather than the other way around…'

'Oh shut up,' thank goodness she had stopped smiling. It made his stomach do flips. 'The elements aren't just dead things for you to control. They have their own spirits governing and abiding in them.'

'Fire's different.' He folded his arms, insistent.

'No it's not. You wanted to learn from other types of bending so shut up and learn! You aren't the Prince of Fire itself you know. You're at best its humble guide. So stop trying to beat it into submission like you do everything else, and start guiding!'

Without so much as a warning she was behind him, her toes pressed against his bare heels, her hands clamped about his wrists. And before he could throw her off, she was moving him through the stances.

They were moves he had seen on the many occasions he'd opposed her. They were moves he had spent the entire afternoon trying to perfect. But only in that instant where her hands guided his, her feet nudging his into position, did he share the complete fluidity which came so naturally to her.

'You're not bending.' Heat rose to his face as she spoke into his shoulder blade. She was not tall enough to reach his ear. They had stopped moving, but she had not released her hold.

'Again,' he cleared his throat. His voice had not just croaked. 'Once more.'

As they began to move, fire flowed effortlessly through his veins.

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AN: Song four in the KataraZuko Shuffle Challenge: Colour of the Wind, from Disney's Pocahontas. It's been done. And now I've redone it. Yay!