Prompt: Fire

Characters: Zuko, Aang, Iroh

Pairing: None

A teacher should not be as ignorant as his student—yet somehow, he realized, that was what had happened.

At the sight of the dragons, he had been as shocked, awed, and (he was willing to admit it now) frightened as Aang—perhaps even more so, given that in Aang's time dragons had still roamed free. It made Zuko question, for a moment, whether he, a mediocre firebender who had always been second to his younger sister and struggled to master the most basic forms, was fit to train the Avatar, who would need a thorough mastery of fire now more than ever if he were to bring down his father.

The question, however, was pointless. There was no one else to do it, and so Zuko would.

More than ever, he wished that Uncle were here. Uncle would have been a far better teacher to the Avatar; he had the patience and the mastery, and he even shared a kindred spirit with Aang. The two of them would have gotten along so well, he thought. The Avatar deserved the Dragon of the West—yet he would have to make do with Zuko.

If nothing else, however, he could at least take comfort from the fact that he was finally beginning to understand Uncle's lessons, and after learning that Uncle had once stood where he now stood and learned from the dragons just as he had, Zuko couldn't help but feel that Uncle was still here, teaching him the meaning of fire.