avatar the last airbender. disclaimer: i do not own avatar the last airbender.

zuko awoke as the rays of the moon beat down on his eye lids. he frowned getting up and looking around. today no one had woken up before he had. he sighed and walked to the pot and looked at the sludge inside from last night. he looked at sokka. "stupid shit-faced hogmonkey." he went mumbling as he walked over to sokkas sleeping bag. he poured the sludge around sokkas bed with a smile then walked back over to the fire and started it. he filled the pot with water and boiled it until the dried sludge came off, then he dumped it out and repeated the process thoroughly. he then decided to boil some rice and so again he filled the pot with water and put the rice in. letting it simmer on a low boil he walked around until he heard the pot sizzling and the rice boiling over. he went over to it and pulled it off of the fire and looked around. he left the pot only a a few inches away from the fire and walked down the temple. it wasn't even dawn and no one would be up for at least three or four more hours. he smiled as he reached a small pond on the base of the mountain. rolling up his pant legs he stepped in and grabbed at a frog.

zuko walked back up the mountain without a shirt on. he smiled at himself feeling very accomplished at his catch. there had to be at least twelve toads in his shirt. he had tied the sleeves in knots and used his shirt as a net. he walked up the temple stairs as the first rays of the sun peeked up over the mountains peek and suddenly with a burst of energy, he ran to camp and grabbed another pot. he filled it with water and some old grease they had used last night for the turtle ducks sokka had 'caught'. he poured the grease into the pot and set it on boil and dropped the live frogs in. he pulled the rice back over and heated it up with his hands. then grabbed the sizzling pot of fried toads. he fished them out and scewered them, peeling off their skin and cutting them into little peices he mixed them into the pot and stood up with the knife in his hand. he walked over to the middle of camp and hit the knife on the side of the pot loudly. "BREAKFAST TIME!" he said clicking and cooing at the gang. "come on!" he said pulling the covers off of toph. "ehhh!" she said rolling over sticking her head between her pillows. "GET UP!!" he roared as he walked over to the fire. he sat down and dished out a even amount to everyone. he watched as like zombies they all shuffled over to their places,picking up their bowls and slowly taking one bite at a time. except sokka he got up and started to walk over and slipped in his sludge, his arms flailed as he tried to grasp anything in reach, which happened to be tophs arm as she walked by him. he pulled her down and landed on her with an " OOPH!" Zuko grinned and was quit satisfied with his meal he had prepaired. he looked up at everyone who was staring at him. they all had their bowls sticking out towards him. he smirked and gave everyone a little more. "that was truly appetizing nephew." uncle said patting his back. he smiled up at him and stood up. sokka glared at him, "yeah truly filling." sokka got up and put his bowl near the pot and walked away, still looking back at zuko he slipped in the sludge again, raising an arm and giving a thumbs up. "YEAH..dont worry guys im alright! truly!" toph rolled over laughing.
"aang time for training." zuko said walking over to the balcony they had practiced on yesterday.
today he was not quit as bad, but he was still intranced by katara's words. "meet me here tomorrow." he smiled and looked off into the clouds. his mind was wandering on not so appropriate things when aang lunged at him. "zuko! PAY ATTENTION!" he said pushing him. zuko just nodded and told him to go over the fire walk again. "zuko..zuko..zuko..zuko...zuko...ZU-UK-OH!" aang said pressing a finger to his forehead. "what is your deal?" zuko looked at him and smiled. "i dont know yet." he said shaking the thoughts of katara's beautiful brown hair blowing in the wind and the way she walked slowly, her hips moving to a silent rythm only he could hear. "fine im going back to camp." aang finally said walking towards the stairs.
"WAIT! no aang come back im sorry!" zuko said running after him. aang turned around and smiled.
"you apologized?" aang said smiling. "that makes me so happy!" aang got into a horse stance and looked at zuko. "may we please move on to fire now?" zuko smiled at him evily. "sure, lets do fire."

Aang looked at the leaf intensely. "zuko i thought you said i would work with fire!" aang whined. zuko smiled and patted aangs back. " you are...dont worry aang we will get to the sparing soon enough," he smiled at him heartily. "but for now you just concentrate on keeping that leaf from burning, ok? ok!" zuko patted his back and walked infront of him and sat down, begining to meditate.

he kept kataras words in the back of his mind all day. when zuko thought that he should get up and check on aang he looked over to see the airbender still keepign the leaf from burning. he smiled. "your so committed to this." he thought to himself. he looked at aang and smiled. "now for the basics of firebending!" he said looking up at the blazing sun,
aang immediatly dropped the burning leaf and looked at zuko with big innocent, greedy eyes. zuko smiled and got into a different stance than he had been showing aang. "now breath in deeply like you would while doing the firewalk." he breathed in and slowly released it. "just concentrate on you and your opponent. forget everything else and focus on something that makes you feel like you could take on the world." he smiled an thought of katara and his hands lit with white flames. he grinned and moved towards aang. "now try it.'' aang got a serious look on his face and thought about katara and how she made him feel so worthy of love and trust and his hands started to tingle. then as if like a switch had been turned on flames came from his hands. "keep breathing," zuko said walking closer. he got into hsi stance and looked at aang playfully. aang ran towards him releasing the fire from his hands, zuko dodged quickly and rooled out of the way, running towards aang full fledge.

when practice was over zuko put his arm around aang and smiled at him. "i push you so hard because i dont want to see you fail, but at the same time i dont know what will happen if you succeed in learning firebending, i dont want to see you go bad aang and that is why i try to break you." he thought, but he couldn't say that. that was too sapy. he smiled and patted aang on the back. " you made me proud today." zuko removed his arm from aangs back and walked ahead, slowly emerging into camp to see toph,sokka,and katara looking at them giggling.
"did you have a bonding moment with twinkle toes?" toph said bursting with laughter. zuko just looked at her and walked on but aang stopped and smiled at her. "you bet, we had so much fun!" he smiled at zuko and he couldnt help but smile back. but he felt bad now. he had grown attatched to aang and aang was in love with katara too.
" you look worried about something nephew." uncle said walking up to him.
"it is nothing uncle." zuko said faking a smile. uncle looked at him, less concerned than he had been. "well ok if you saw so."

after they ate dinner katara went for a walk alone. zuko waited and waited and waited so more until they all had fallen asleep then he snuck off and ran to that room. he looked around and saw katara leaning up against the wall. she was blushing and he didn't know why. he walked towards her then embraced her and tenderly kissed her on the lips. she kissed him back and smiled as his tongue parted her lips. she accepted it willingly. she kissed him deeply and passionately as he pressed her against the wall. they didnt hear someone slip into the room. they were breathing to hard to here that person walk up behind them. zuko leaned in and kissed her again. he slid his hand up her shirt gripping her breast as he thrust her against the wall. his other hand pulling her pants down slowly. she kissed him harder. "i love you katara," zuko whispered as he slid his hand into her warmth." she moaned and looked into his eyes, panting she whispered back. " i love you too zuko." they kissed again and he pushed his fingers in deeper. then a light lit up the room and uncle stood there and scowled. "we need to talk." he said without a trace of a smile on his face. zuko looked back at him bewildered.

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