Day #3: Duty
*
Among the group, Aang was the true innocent. Wide-eyed and curious, still having quite a bit to learn about the world around him after being frozen in time for a century. But innocence didn't necessarily mean a lack of perception, and if there was one thing Aang was learning fast, it was how to read people.
Zuko took his job as Aang's Firebending teacher very seriously. Every day he would take Aang to their designated practice area, just a few feet north of the temple, and they wouldn't come back until it was almost dark. Even when Aang showed vast improvement the sessions still ran so long.
It didn't take Aang long to put two and two together.
"You're not just bringing me out here for Firebending practice, are you?" he asked Zuko one day. "I've gotten so much better, there's no reason for our lessons to be as long as you're telling everyone they are."
Zuko blanched.
"Maybe I think you could be doing better."
"Really." Aang smirked, and Zuko knew the boy could see right through him. No, not the boy, Zuko mentally corrected himself. This wasn't the silly kid he'd been chasing for the past three years, before him stood a young man with enough wisdom to last lifetimes and wide gray eyes staring straight into Zuko's own.
"...am I that obvious?" he asked.
"I see the way you've been looking at me, Zuko," Aang said. "You know, if you wanted to get me out here alone for...other reasons, all you had to do was ask." And before Zuko could respond he felt the Airbender's lips touch his in an innocent kiss. The building war within him between duty and desire quickly ended as desire won out, and he returned the kiss eagerly.
"The others won't approve of this," he said as they came up for air moments later. "If they find out, especially Katara, I'll be kicked out so fast."
"Then we won't tell them or let them find out," Aang said. "Well, there is Toph, but it's not hard to convince her to keep a secret."
"I'll take your word for it, then," Zuko said, and kissed him again.