When the sun rises it was natural for all Firebenders to rise with the sun as well. It showed discipline and respect to Agni. Two warriors wake up as the sun peaks above the land. One is a prince the other a princess, they do what they were taught over the years. Meditating and breathing exercises. Two in the same mind set but yet do it in two different ways.
Azula slowly gets out of bed making sure not to wake her lover then walks over to a small desk opening a drawer. She sees a couple of candles that Katara placed in there; she takes out three and walks over to the table. She carefully sets each candle standing up straight then lights each one with the tips of her fingers. Once that was done she sat crisscross in front of the candles, she closed her eyes and began doing her breathing exercises.
Zuko was doing the same thing as well except with candles he was breathing with the sun. His legs crossed and his eyes closed breathing in and out deeply. Preparing himself to teach the Avatar firebending.
As time passed people around the temple began to wake up. Katara was the first to awaken she stretched her body and slowly sat up. She looked around the room for a moment noticing her firebender was not in bed with her but she smiled as she laid eyes on the sitting figure across the room. She watched Azula for a while seeing the small flames of the candle get bigger then smaller.
"Good morning Katara" the young woman said still facing the candles with her eyes closed
"Morning" she responded back with a smile "how did you know I was awake?"
Azula breathed in and out once more "usually when people are in a certain state of mind they can scenes everything around them."
"That's amazing" Katara slowly got out of bed and walked over to her lover then she leaned over and gently placed a kiss on her cheek "stay here for a bit, I'll be right back ok"
"Don't worry princess I won't leave any time soon." Azula said with a gentle smile on her lips
The young waterbender nodded then started to get dressed. Once that was done she walked out the room closing the door behind her. She made her way back to the fountain getting the food ready as fast as possible. While she was doing that everyone started to gather around smelling the food being cooked.
"Good morning everybody" Aang said with a big smile on his face
"Morning" everyone responded back in a sleepy tone.
"So what's todays plan?" the young monk asked
"Well Aang today me and you are going to do some firebending technics" Zuko said walking up to the group
"Great I can't wait. What about the rest of you guys?"
"Well I was hoping to spar with Toph" Haru said looking at the other earthbender "What do you say Toph? Going one on one?"
"Sounds good to me, I could use a bit of a workout"
"Great you guys wanna watch?" the older earthbender said
"I'll go" "Count me in" The Duke and Teo said excitedly
"Sokka, Katara what about ya'll?" Haru asked
"No thanks, today I think I'll take a break and rest up more" Sokka said yawning
"Oh ok Katara what about you? Want to hang out with us?"
"No thank you I rather stay here and make sure we have plenty food for all of us. Maybe gather some things around here as well" She said with a smile
"If you're going to do that take Momo with you, he's great with finding stuff" Aang said watching Momo fly from him over to Katara
"Thanks Aang" Katara said giving everyone one a bowl of food.
Minutes later after everyone ate everyone took off on their own little adventure. Aang and Zuko took off to train. Toph and Haru are sparring while Teo and The Duke watch. And Sokka was sleeping. A small smile played at her lips as she gathered another bowl of food and a drink as well heading back to her room along with Momo on her shoulder.
"Ok Momo please be good for me ok. I don't want to get in trouble." Katara spoke calmly to the lemur. He looked at her and spoke back as if saying he understood. Then again his animal intuitions were telling him that Katara was pretty nervous about showing him something. "Ok here it goes."
Katara slowly walked into the room and closed the door behind her. When she turned around she was a bit surprised seeing Azula still sitting there the way she left her minutes ago.
"Welcome back" Azula said opening her eyes turning around looking at her lover
The young woman lightly blushes and smiled "I got some stuff for you"
"You know you didn't really need to do that" the firebender said turning off the candles and slowly standing up.
"I know but I wanted too anyways. After all you couldn't stop me even if you tried." Katara said grinning at her lover
"Oh really and what makes you think that?" she asked as she walked up to her waterbender placing her hands around her lovers waist.
"Because water can also put out your flame Zula" the young woman said leaning in kissing the warriors lips.
Momo stayed silent throughout the whole event. At first he was very confused and scared because this was the woman who chased them around and had hurt his owner. He was about to leave and tell everyone the enemy was here. But he settled down when he noticed Katara enacting with this firebender. He also felt some kind of vibe between the two so he decided to stay put wanting to see what else has changed with Azula.
They sat down at the small table and started to chat for a bit. Azula ate the food Katara brought her. She noticed Momo who was trying to steal a bit of food from her, she lightly smiled and handed him some. He took it and quickly perched himself on her shoulder. Katara smiled watching Azula easily handle Momo.
"I didn't know you were good with animals" watching the flying lemur perch himself on the firebender
"I'm ok with them if they want to be near me. But I'm not good with all animals." She said giving Momo more food.
"Do you have any pets?" Katara asked
"Just one, he's my messenger hawk. I had him since I was little. Father didn't approve but I didn't care." She said looking at her lover
"Why?" the young woman asked
"Because he said it was showing weakness, he was going to get rid of him but I somehow managed to persuade him." Looking down into her cup before drinking some
"You don't seem to care for your father much" watching Azula stiffen a bit
"It's a long and complicated story Katara. We can talk about it later ok." Azula said placing the empty cup down.
"Oh ok." She said a bit surprised from getting a quick answer back. Something was obviously wrong between the fire lord and the princess.
"Do you want to meet him?" Azula asked
"Who your father? No thanks" Katara said
Azula chuckled and shook her head "No of course not I'm talking about my pet"
"Yea I would like to meet him"
"Alright then, let me get dressed and then we'll go out on our own little adventure" Azula said standing up.
"That sounds great, just let me put these away ok"
"Ok, don't take too long. Oh and take him I don't want your friends asking where he went to just in case."
The young woman nodded her head understanding what her lover meant. She picked up the dish and cup then called Momo back to her. Once she had everything she exited out of the room, she looked around on her way over to the fountain. No one was around so it was a lot easier for her. As soon as she came back Azula was already dressed in her royal armor.
Katara looked over at her lover carefully; she loved it when Azula wore her armor for some odd reason. Maybe it was the way she wore it, it made her look more powerful, more muscular. There was no doubt that Azula could put any man to shame, the armor and sharpen features said it all. But what was even better was what was under that armor.
"Hey paint a picture it'll last longer" Katara's thoughts were cut off and she started to blush at her lover
"Shut up I can look all I want" she quickly shot back
"Hmmm I don't know are you sure about that?" Azula asked raising a fine brow
"Of course I'm sure. In fact I'm so sure it's going to be like that for the rest of your life" Katara said walking up to the Fire Nation princess
"Is that a promise?" she asked slowly leaning in
"Count on it" the young woman said giving her lover a quick peck on the lips
"We better hurry; don't want to waste the day away" the warrior said walking over to the window
"What are you doing?" looking at her lover
"Leaving why?" the firebender replied
"Azula you know I don't like this" Katara said pointing at the never ending ground
"Come on, don't worry I'll keep you safe and everything." Azula said wrapping her arms around her lover's waist holding her close
"Well ok I guess" she said still looking at the ground
"Just wrap your arms around my neck ok even your legs if you want" the slightly taller girl said holding her close
"Oh you'll like that wouldn't you" the young woman said wrapping her arms around Azula's neck
"I would like a lot of things from you but you don't see me asking" the prodigy said grinning at her lover as she carefully slipped out the window and started climbing down the rope
"Cut it out" the waterbender pouted
"Alright, Alright I'll stop. Geez take the fun out of everything." Katara glared at her and started to tighten her grip around her lover's neck "Joking, just joking you know I love you"
"Better love me" she mumbled
As they slowly started to climb down the rope Katara looked around for a while seeing the clouds float around, she also noticed a couple of birds flying around and making nest around the old temple. Momo was near by flying around too, she knew he was waiting for them to touch land. But who knows when that was going to happen then she looked at Azula noticing how easy it was for her to lower both of them down. 'Is she really that strong? Even with both of our body weight it won't bother her?' She lightly blushed at the thought.
"Hey princess guess what?"
"What?"
"Free Fall!" Azula grinned and lets her hands slip through the rope making them fall
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" she screams closing her eyes and holding on to Azula tightly
Within seconds she heard thud after that she hears a lot of laughter. She opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is Azula laughing hard then she looks down noticing both of them are standing on ground with Momo looking at the curiously. She starts to blush a deep shade of red.
"You-You idiot I could have died!" Katara said quickly shoving Azula's shoulder who was still laughing.
"Oh come on you know it was funny" the young firebender said trying to catch her breath and wiping a tear away from her eye
"It was not, you scared the shit out of me" the angry waterbender said stomping away up some steps.
"Awww come on beautiful I didn't mean it" Azula said smiling and following her lover
"I don't car- wait what did you say?"
"I didn't mean it"
"No, no what did you call me?" Katara said turning around
"Beautiful why?" the young woman said looking at her waterbender
"Nothing, let's just start walking before we get in trouble or something" Katara said blushing and turns around feeling Azula's arm wrap around her shoulder.
"Sounds good to me" As they started to walk away "told you I kept you safe" then a small slap noise was heard followed by a slow reaction"….ow"
Katara meet Azula's pet hawk, his name was Xorshiid meaning the sun. He looked like every other hawk except this one was somewhat lazy. He liked to sleep a lot and eat a lot from what the firebender told her but he could get the job done too if needed. He was very friendly with Momo and Katara. Azula also explained that he could do two interesting tricks. One was that he could track down any type of tea leaves and two he could play a tiny string instrument that Ty Lee gave to him when they were children.
Throughout that morning till afternoon they walked around the forest area talking about random things and also running around acting like kids again whenever either of them hid on purpose. As time cut short for both of them; Azula talk Katara into letting her walk back the temple making sure everything was ok. She even persuaded the waterbender to be carried back into her room.
"I had fun today" Katara said
"Yea me too, I actually got to enjoy the morning for once" she said hanging out the window
"Can you come by tonight?"
"Sorry princess I can't. I gotta make Xorshiid send messages to my father and Ty Lee. I don't want him sending his troops after me if I don't message back to him within a certain amount of time. And I just don't want Ty Lee worrying so much."
"I understand" feeling a bit disappointed
"I'll come by in the morning after I do my morning routines ok." The young warrior said
"Ok I'll see you later then" smiling at her lover
"Yup" noticing Katara leaning over a bit
"Bye Zula" then gave her lover a soft kiss on her lips
"Bye beautiful" she said after giving a kiss back
Night fall came and everyone was gathering around the fire eating dinner, Katara sat quietly for a moment thinking over what happened today with her and Azula. Then she saw Zuko walking up to everyone.
"Listen everybody; I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff." He said
"Don't look at me. I didn't touch your stuff." Toph spoke quickly defending herself
"I'm talking about my firebending, it's gone." Then he hears laughter coming from Katara
"I'm sorry; I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would have been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago."
"Well it's not lost; it's just... weaker for some reason."
"Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are." She quickly shot back
Tpoh smiled after hearing that "Ouch."
"I bet it's because I changed sides."
"That's ridiculous." Katara said and continued to eat
"I don't know, maybe it isn't. Maybe your firebending comes from rage, and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to." Aang pointed out
"So, all we need to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough." Sokka said grabbing his sheathed sword and starting poking the young prince.
"Okay, cut it out!" he yelled causing Sokka to drop this poking weapon "Look, even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way."
"You're gunna need to learn to draw your firebending from a different source. I recommend the original source." Toph said taking a bite of her food
"How's he supposed to do that? By jumping into a volcano?" Sokka asked
"No. Zuko needs to go back to whatever the original source of firebending is." The young earthbender stated
"So, is it jumping into a volcano?" the watertribe warrior said
"I don't know. For earthbending, the original benders were badgermoles. One day when I was little, I ran away and hid in a cave. That's where I met them. They were blind, just like me, so we understood each other. I was able to learn earthbending, not just as a martial art but as an extension of my senses. For them, the original earthbenders, it wasn't just about fighting. It was their way of interacting with the world." She said with a small smile on her lips
"That's amazing Toph. I learned from the monks, but the original airbenders were the skybison." Aang looks at appa "Maybe you can give me a lesson sometime buddy."
"Well this doesn't help me. The original firebenders were the dragons, and they're extinct." Zuko said
"What do you mean? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." The Avatar stated.
"Well they aren't around anymore, okay!" he quickly shot back
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." The young monk said
"But maybe there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors." Zuko said looking out the temple
"Sun Warriors? Well, I know they weren't around when I was a kid." Aang said standing next to Zuko
"No, they died off thousands of years ago. But, their civilization wasn't too far from where we are now. Maybe we can learn something by poking around their ruins." The prince said
"It's like the monks used to tell me, sometimes the shadows of the past can be filled by the present."
"So, what? Maybe you'll pick up some super old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood a thousand years ago?" Sokka asked
"More or less. Either I find a new way to firebend or the Avatar has to find a new teacher." Zuko said looking at Aang
As Aang and Zuko started planning about leaving the next morning, Katara started thinking of her own plans as well. She couldn't wait till morning came.