Title: Toward the Rising Sun
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: Zuko, Aang, some Zuko/Katara
Warnings: uh, some kissing; probably some violence eventually
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to the nice folks at Nickelodeon.
Summary: Zuko and Aang need to learn to trust each other. Cue the road trip to find the Sun Warriors, with plenty of arguing, dirty jokes, and pirates besides. S3 AU. [Heals All Wounds #4]
A/N: Thank you to jin_fenghuang for the beta!
4.
Aang's back stiffened as he felt more than heard Zuko come back onto the deck. Probably just to argue with him more. He scowled, breathing out deliberately as he tried to regain his focus. He'd really thought they were starting to get along! Sure, there was a little more pyromania from Zuko than strictly necessary, but it hadn't been directed at Aang - a major improvement from their previous relationship. But then it all went wrong.
He wasn't afraid of the Avatar State. He wasn't. That was sort of the whole thing the guru had taught him, that he couldn't focus on his fear of that power or the cost of it. He needed it to preserve and protect the things he loved. He'd never defeat the Fire Nation without it, and the cost to the rest of the world would be far greater than the cost to himself. He got that now.
But Aang also knew the Avatar State wasn't really him. Or, it was, in every variation since the beginning of the Avatar Cycle. It was more him than anything was, but it wasn't truly Aang. In the Avatar State, he did things that Aang would never choose to do. Like drowning thousands of soldiers.
Aang swallowed back against the guilt the thought brought. Closing his eyes, he tried to stretch out and feel the waves buoying the ship up and down. He could sense the barest hint of Yue's pull, along with the much more powerful daytime push of La. It was comforting to feel their power, but not join with it. Power to be respected, but not feared, and used only sparingly.
Just like the Avatar State.
Finally feeling centered, Aang let a smile flicker across his face. Eyes still closed, he reached into the flow of power ushering the boat along in the water. He pushed along with La, rippling the ocean, and then pulled. He could feel the water come under his direction, spiraling above the deck of the small ship in a long column. He shifted his weight onto his back foot, following through the forms as his hands guided the water above him.
He opened his eyes, grinning up at the shining spout of water above his head, hands still working in quick circles to keep it steady. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the scowl slipping off Zuko's face. With determination, Aang snapped his hands back down to his side – the water shuddered and creaked as it froze – and he then clenched his hands into fists, shattering the ice. Turning about on his heels, Aang thrust his hands outward, and the ice sprayed back out over the ocean, a hundred sharp slivers arcing in the tropical sun and then disappearing.
Breathing evenly, Aang completed the form, nodding to himself in satisfaction before he spun to meet Zuko's stunned eyes.
Aang looked up at him challengingly.
"Nothing to say?"
Zuko blinked at him.
"You're… really good at that."
"I had a good teacher," Aang replied with force, and then immediately felt bad. "I mean, uh, you know Katara. She's really amazing."
It was weird, Aang thought, how Katara had somehow become the safe topic.
"Yeah, she is," Zuko said. A dopey look crossed his face briefly. Safe, but not exactly something Aang wanted to hear about in detail. He scrunched up his face, and Zuko abruptly came back to himself. Clearing his throat, Zuko turned to look out over the ocean. "You could show me more, sometime. Waterbending, that is."
"Uh, sure, okay."
Aang slid into a ready stance, unsure if he was ready to relax yet. It was weird, demonstrating bending for Zuko, and weirder still given their argument earlier. For a guy with a hair-trigger temper, Zuko could be remarkably hard to read at times. Was this his gesture of reconciliation? Or was this all going to manage to blow up in Aang's face again?
"Uncle said he learned from waterbending," Zuko added, when Aang hesitated. He was quiet for a moment, seeming to think, before he made a decision. "Maybe we could start with that."
"You lost me."
Zuko gave Aang a measured, sidelong glance.
"We should start your firebending training –" Aang opened his mouth to interrupt, but Zuko beat him to the punch, continuing, "but since we need to find the 'secret of firebending' or whatever first, maybe we should start with waterbending."
"So… you want to teach me waterbending instead of firebending?" Aang squinted at Zuko. "No offense, but maybe you should leave that to Katara."
"It's not waterbending!" Zuko snapped. "It's a firebending technique my uncle figured out from waterbending – and it's the only way to counter lightening!"
Okay, yeah, when he put it that way, it did seem like a really good idea. Much as he was wary about learning firebending in general, and from Zuko in particular, Aang wasn't at all keen to get lit up by Azula again.
He nodded eagerly up at Zuko, and together they walked back out to the center of the deck. The dishes from the morning had long been cleared away, boxes shifted off to the side, so there was plenty of room to practice. Zuko fell easily into a ready stance, breathing deeply, and Aang mimicked him. For all the bending arts, it was remarkably the same sometimes. They started in the same position, felt for the same energy. It was just how they directed it that changed.
Aang watched Zuko closely as he went through the movements for redirecting lightning, tuning out his voice as the older boy talked. It made sense, in a way. All of the bending was the same, that's how it could come together in Aang himself. To turn the power away, to change its form or dissipate it altogether, all that took was the will to take on the power itself. He could let it in and just as easily let it go without being harmed.
Since getting barbequed once was enough. Really.
When it came time for Aang to practice the movements, feeling his chi flow and imagining the lightning coursing along that path, through his stomach and out his fingertips, he allowed Zuko close to adjust his stance and his posture. Zuko frowned minutely before nodding, satisfied, and Aang grinned up at him. Not so bad, for a first lesson.
His smile faded as he watched the other boy. Zuko's hair blew in the faint ocean breeze, lifting away from his face. He was half turned, and for a moment, Aang imagined that when he turned back his face would again be scarred.
"Have you ever redirected lightning?" he blurted.
It'd be nice to know if the technique actually worked. But, well, more than that, Aang only knew two people in the world who could even throw lightning. One was Azula, who had tried to kill them both with lightning in a fit rage when she saw Zuko was healed. The other was the Fire Lord himself. Aang knew what the Fire Lord had done to Zuko, burning his own son, and he had to wonder… was that how Zuko learned to redirect lightning? Why General Iroh taught him this?
Zuko shook his head.
"No. But next time we face Azula, I'll be ready. She fights with everything she has, every time. That's what makes her so dangerous. You can't hold back either," Zuko said, fixing Aang with a stern look.
Aang bit back his comment on that: Runs in the family. Never once would Aang accuse Zuko of holding back, or going easy on him – particularly not in the bad old days.
"Zuko…" Aang started. He was trying to think of a delicate way to put this. 'Cause, come on, there was not holding back and then there was not holding back. Even Zuko couldn't possibly want him to kill Azula. "I know you mean well and all, but that kinda doesn't apply to me. I always have to hold back. It gets sorta messy otherwise."
General Fong could attest to that.
"No. You can't hold back. We will lose if you do."
Aang threw his hands up in frustration.
"Make up your mind! You were just yelling at me for going all Avatar State and killing soldiers at the North Pole, and now you're telling me that I have to do the same thing to your sister. Don't you even care? She's your family!"
"Of course, I care!" Zuko shouted back.
"Then how can you ask me to kill her?"
"Oh, right, good point," Zuko scoffed. His eyes were narrowed and but for the high color in his cheeks, his expression had gone flat. "She's my family. Guess I should be on her side."
"That's not what I meant. I just – there's gotta be a third way."
"No, there doesn't. You fight with everything you have, or you die."
While he shouted, Zuko crowded in on Aang, forcing him back across the deck. He stumbled slightly when they reached the port side, wheeling his arms, before righting himself. Aang shot a worried look over the guardrail – the water looked murky and deep and was that something moving down there? – before his eyes shot back up to Zuko. He wasn't done yelling, apparently.
"You can't save everyone. Do you even know how much of an insult it is, fighting you? You always know you'll win – you don't even try! Not everyone has the talent you do, not everyone can be so confident that they'll make it through to the end. We don't get second lives to try again!"
"What?" Aang pushed at Zuko, forcing him back a step. "You have no idea what you're talking about! The Avatar Cycle isn't a do-over card! You think I don't know what happens if I fail? This is my only chance and I'm going to do it right!"
Tense silence fell between them, broken only by their heavy breathing. Zuko glared at Aang from beneath his hair, while Aang raised his chin to meet him head on. His fingers itched for his staff, and he had the strong feeling Zuko wanted a weapon himself – Zuko's fists were at his sides, smoking leaking from between his fingers.
"What do you want from me?" Aang asked. He wanted to grab Zuko, to shake him. He called Aang a killer for fighting at the siege of the North – and then told him to kill his family. He said he cared about his family, but he was on Aang's side anyway. He just couldn't figure Zuko out. "What is this about? Is it just revenge for what they did to you?"
Zuko rolled his eyes.
"It's about defeating the Fire Lord."
"Duh. But why are you here? And don't say Katara!" he added. But that was the answer, wasn't it?
Aang saw confirmation in how Zuko's open mouth immediately clicked shut. Zuko brought his hand up to his face, pinching his nose as he sighed out his annoyance.
"I… don't always know," Zuko admitted haltingly. Aang eyes widened in shock. Zuko dropped his hand from his face, looking away from him. "I know it must be destiny. I'm a traitor now, and my family is as much an enemy to me as it is to you. My uncle is in chains, somewhere, just for the crime of protecting me. It's my destiny to help you, and to free him, but…"
"But you didn't choose this," Aang breathed out, feeling slightly sick. Wow, comforting this was not.
"You don't choose your destiny." Zuko gave him a sharp look. "I'm here now. I'll train you, and then we'll fight Azula and my father together."
"Kill them, you mean."
"It's not like you haven't killed before."
Aang opened his mouth to protest – how many times did he have to say "Ocean Spirit" before it stuck? –and that was right when the ship lurched. He spun around on his heels, looking up into a shadow that blotted out the sun. It was a dragon.
"Huh," he said numbly. "There really was something in the water."
The dragon's red scales gleamed in the sunlight, turning a burnished orange as it twisted and turned its body in the water. It raised its head, leveling a yellow, unblinking glare at the ship. Zuko met its gaze, hardly breathing as he watched the dragon's irises widen and then contract into nothing more than slivers. There was a mesmerizing intelligence in its eyes. No, not 'it', Zuko realized abruptly. She. She was beautiful. Zuko found he barely reacted when the creature reared up, wings flaring out from her back as she roared.
Aang startled beside him, wincing at the deep, scratching sound of the dragon's voice.
"I thought you said they were all gone!" he yelped, pulling at Zuko's sleeve. His voice was barely audible over the dragon's cry.
They were gone – they were supposed to be. Their extermination had been the sport of the Fire Nation royalty for generations. The last had been killed by Uncle Iroh himself, earning him both the title of Dragon and the favor of Fire Lord Azulon. Dimly, Zuko thought Uncle must have lied.
Huffing out smoky breaths, the dragon slithered on top of the water, coiling and uncoiling her body. She snapped her head to the side, baring her teeth as she studied them. For a brief moment, Zuko's attention was drawn from the magnificent animal – out toward the far distant island. The waves broke unnaturally near the shore; something moved beneath them, tip of a wing cutting out from under the water. Another dragon.
"They're amazing," Zuko breathed.
"They?" Aang asked in a panic. He whipped his head around, trying to find the other, and then crowded in close to Zuko. "They're going to eat us, aren't they?"
Slowly, Zuko shook his head.
"I think…" He frowned, stepping closer to the dragon. Aang stuck by his side, despite his apparent nervousness. The dragon exhaled smoke in Zuko's face and the hot air swirled around them both for a moment, pooling before the cooler sea air swept it away. "I think it's judging us."
"Are we passing?"
"Not yet," Zuko replied irritably. He was starting to wish Aang would just shut up and stop distracting him. He tried to focus just on the dragon. There was a message in her movement – something demanding and powerful, but he couldn't understand what. Frustrated, he shook his head. "I don't know what it wants!"
"Maybe it's hungry?" Zuko shot Aang a look, and the boy hastily clarified, "I mean – not that I think you want to eat us, Mr Dragon Sir – but maybe it wants an offering? Of food?"
They had plenty of that. Zuko lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug, giving Aang license to try it. The other boy left his side only for a moment, coming back with a wrapped seal-bear hide. Aang opened it, revealing the salted fish inside which he presented to the dragon.
Zuko slapped a palm across his face.
"Fish?" he hissed to Aang. "You think the dragon swimming in the ocean doesn't have any fish to eat?"
"Well, what do you want to try? I don't think he'll want the tofu!"
"She," Zuko corrected. He ignored Aang's surprised look, grumbling instead, "Where's Momo when you need him?"
"I told you we should have – hey! What is it with you and Sokka and Momo?"
Zuko glared at him. He jerked his head back toward the waiting dragon, which had somehow started to look irritated with them. As if she didn't look ferocious enough to begin with.
"Can we deal with the problem at hand? What else could we give her?"
Aang furrowed his brow.
"Well," he drew out the word, looking anxiously around the deck. "Maybe she's thirsty?"
"That's… actually not as dumb as it sounds," Zuko said slowly.
He looked back at the dragon, studying her. All the legends he recalled mentioned the dragons living mostly on land, not at sea. There was a good chance that she needed sweet water to drink instead of the salt water. And, really, he just had no damn idea what else to do for the dragon. What he wanted to do was reach out and stroke her snout – but that would be putting his hand really close to her enormous teeth, and he was entirely cognizant of what a bad idea that would be.
Aang brightened. He bowed to the dragon, announcing, "Please accept this offering, and be less thirsty!"
He turned to one of the fresh water barrels, hands moving elegantly as he bent the water out, turning it into a ribbon that he directed to the dragon. He moved his legs and arms closer together, centering himself, as he pulled the water into a ball that he swirled in front of the dragon, offering it for her to drink.
The dragon looked from Aang to the water and reared back, nostrils flaring. Zuko's eyes widened in alarm, and he just barely managed to knock Aang out of the way when the dragon let out a huge plume of fire. Zuko parted the fire, pushing it aside with presses of his hands and blocking as much as he could with his forearms. This was a skill he'd never been very good at, despite the time he'd had to practice it. Deflection was all well and good, but true firebending was in the attack - or so he'd been taught.
The flames around flared him, singing his clothes. Zuko winced against the rolling wave of heat, trying to move to the side, to draw the dragon's fire away from Aang. It was hard to breathe in the scalding, dry air, but he had to. He had to bend, to channel that fire and heat away before it killed them both.
Just as suddenly, the fire abated. Zuko waited a moment, still tensed, before peeking over his arm. Rather than inhaling to breathe fire at them again, the dragon was diving down into the ocean.
Zuko sucked in a deep breath of clean air, coughing out soot from scalded lungs. Leaning down, he helped a wary Aang to his feet.
"Is it… gone?" Aang asked.
"I don't think so," Zuko said grimly. It just figured. He found one of the few dragons left in the world, the original firebenders, and then it tried to kill him.
There was a disturbing rushing sound from beneath their feet, and then the clank of something striking the metal hull. Striking hard. The ship jumped at the impact, and they were again thrown to the deck. Zuko gritted his teeth, trying to think of anything he could do. He had to stand and fight, somehow.
He tried to stand, swaying on the unsteady deck. Aang stood beside him. He had an easier time maneuvering, just relying on jumps and airbending any time the deck dropped out from beneath his feet. Quickly, he found his way over to the pilot's cabin where his staff had been stashed, and brought it to bear. The Avatar's expression was serious and cautious as he set a level gaze out over the ocean, waiting for the dragon's next move.
Following his lead, Zuko put his hand to his belt where his knife was tucked, the one Uncle Iroh had given him so long ago. He really didn't think he take down a dragon, firebending by himself.
Before he could pull the knife, the dragon rose again from the water. She snarled once and then whipped her tail across the bow of the boat.
Capsizing it.