~A~
What Really Motivates Us
~A~
Zuko stared at Aang with a raised brow and disbelief in his rather expressive eyes. "You're supposed to be saving the world, and yet one person is what you're fighting for?"
The avatar looked at the prince appraisingly for a moment and then sat down with a tired sigh. It had been a long day. "Saving the world is a conceptual ideal, Zuko. It's too big for any one person to really imagine or truly be motivated enough by, even the avatar. But we all have things that do motivate us, and those things are usually personal to us – something that's small enough to the world, but of overwhelming importance to us – that gives us the strength to do what has to be done. Even against the worst odds, if that smaller thing is important enough."
The older boy looked surprised but thoughtful. "And Katara is that for you?"
Aang nodded. "And to a lesser extent Sokka and Toph, and even you." He shrugged as Zuko looked astounded at that admission – though thinking about it, he really shouldn't have been. "It's the people and places that we personally know and love that actually motivate us, and higher ideals like saving the world just kind of get... lucky, I suppose, to get the benefits of our willingness to give our all for something, whatever that might be."
Staring at the young monk, the prince of the Fire Nation sat down slowly, his eyes a little puzzled as he took in the other boy's words and really thought about them.
Aang looked steadily back, and after a moment softly questioned, "Who are you really fighting for?"
Zuko's eyes lost focus as he considered his firebending pupil's words. Aang was content enough to remain quiet as his sifu searched for the answer to that, though the avatar was pretty sure he already knew what it would be.
After a time of silence Zuko looked up with the light of self-discovery in his eyes and a new knowledge of himself with it, and Aang smiled a little.
"For my uncle. I'm fighting for my uncle, and for myself," he said, so gently but yet so firmly.
"And the higher concept of bringing balance back to the world?" Aang asked knowingly.
"Is just along for the ride," he admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I definitely want that. But it's for me, my uncle, and my home and people more than anything else, and the world just gets lucky enough to reap the benefits of that."
"So now you know."
Zuko nodded. "For them I'll do whatever I have to do."
"Exactly."
The prince found that he understood Aang a lot better now, and was actually glad for that understanding. As the airbender had once said, separation was an illusion, and Zuko was finding that very true as he really took in just how alike he and the avatar were in some ways.
We truly are all connected. The world is one big web, and we're all parts of it. The effects of what we do ripple outward to affect everything else to greater or lesser degrees.
And so Aang will fight for Katara... but the whole world will benefit from his love for her.
As strange as the concept would have been to him just a few weeks ago, now he found it oddly fitting...
… and strangely beautiful, as well.