No One's POV
It was late at night as everyone, except for Zuko, was getting ready to eat dinner. As they were about to eat Zuko walked up to the group, "Listen everybody, I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff." Toph threw her hands up, "Don't look at me. I didn't touch your stuff." "I'm talking about my fire bending. It's gone." This made Katara laugh, "I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would've nice for us if you lost your fire bending 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." (Y/N) swallowed some of his food, "Ouch."
Zuko then thought of something, "I bet it's because I switched sides." Katara rolled her eyes, "That's ridiculous." Aang thought about Zuko's problem for a second, "Maybe it isn't. Maybe your bending comes from rage. And maybe you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to." Sokka stood next to Zuko, "So all we have to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough." Sokka started poking Zuko with a stick making Zuko shout, "Okay cut it out! Look. Even if you're right I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way." Toph stared blankly ahead of her, "You're gonna have to learn to draw your fire bending from a different source. I recommend the original source." Sokka sat next to her, "How's he supposed to do that? By jumping into a volcano?" "No. Zuko needs to go back to whatever the source of fire bending is." "So is it jumping into a volcano?" "I don't know. For earth bending 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 earth bending, not just as a martial art but as an extension of my senses. For them, the original earth benders, it wasn't just about fighting. It was their way of interacting with the world."
When Toph finished her story Aang spoke up, "That's mazing Toph. I learned from the monks, but the original air benders were the sky bison." Aang looked over at Appa, "Maybe you can give me a lesson sometime buddy." Appa roared for Zuko to sigh, "That doesn't help me. The original fire benders were the dragon's and they're extinct." "What do you mean? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." "Well they're not around anymore, okay?" "Okay. Sorry." "But maybe there's another way. The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors." "Sun Warriors? Well I know they weren't around when I was a kid." "No, they died off thousands of years ago. But their civilization wasn't to far from where we are now. Maybe we could lean something by poking around the ruins." "It's like the monks used to tell me. Sometimes, the shadows of the past can be felt by the present." (Y/N) finished eating, "So, what? Maybe you'll pick up some old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood thousands of years ago?" Zuko shrugged, "More or less. Either I find a new way to fire bend, or the Avatar had to find a new teacher."
The Next Morning
It has been an hour since Aang and Zuko left to find the dragons. (Y/N) was near the fountain with Katara, as (Y/N) had asked her to meet with him. She had her arms crossed, "What did you want to talk about?" "Is it possible for water benders to bend steam?" "Well some can heat up water with their bending, so when it turns to steam they can control it for a few seconds until it becomes air. Why?" "Can you do it?" "Of course I can." (Y/N) spoke to himself, "Well fire benders can control steam as well. I've done it before." "What?" (Y/N) looked back at Katara, "Remember when Combustion man shot at us back at the hot spring, and I bended it away?" "Yeah." "So it must of been steam coming out of his head." "What are you getting at?" "Well what if we could do what Combustion man did?" Katara looked at (Y/N) with some concern in her eyes, "Did you hit your head this morning?" "All it would take is a water bender to and fire bender to mix the two elements together at the right amounts to make steam, and then while they have the chance to control it, shoot it in a direction. The sudden hot temperature will then cause steam to go boom." "Really?" "I have no idea." "What makes you think that this'll work?" "Well we discovered that metal bending and blood bending is a thing, so might as well try it when we have time." Katara shrugged, "It's better than watching Sokka practicing with his boomerang. So what do we do first?" (Y/N) created a flame in his hand, "First we need to figure out how much water and fire it takes to make steam that isn't too much for us not to control it all, but not enough that we can't shoot it at all." "How do we do that?"
A few minutes later (Y/N) and Katara were clashing water and fire together. They kept trying different proportions of each element for them to get some steam, but there would be some fire or water left over. Katara kept getting water from the fountain, so she had plenty to work with. They soon found out that to create the perfect amount of steam they needed a small ball of water that could fit in Katara's palm, with the fire being the same but just a little bigger. Once they figured that out they stood facing each other. (Y/N) was on the left as Katara was on the right. Their target was a dummy made of rock that Toph had made for them, who was now watching them. (Y/N) quickly brought his left hand up with a flame in his palm, as Katara did the same with her right hand and with water.
They threw the two elements up between the two of them, for the first one to fail as (Y/N) let go of the fire to early making the water not hit all of the fire and instead land on him. He heard Toph laugh for Katara to let out a giggle. He spotted Ty Lee a little further away, as she came to see what was happening. She was holding in a laugh making (Y/N) chuckle. Katara composed herself, "Alright let's try again." The two tried again to get it right creating a small cloud of steam. As soon as they created steam they both took a step forward as they turned there bodies to where they had their backs to each other. As they turned they brought the hands they did not use up to punch the air in front of them, as they had their fists facing the dummy. The steam moved forward just a little bit in front of them. The two let out a sigh to continue trying, until an hour had passed. Sokka had joined in watching as he laid on the ground. As (Y/N) and Katara were getting a little frustrated, Ty Lee offered to make some lunch. The group liked the idea so Toph went to find the other three kids as Sokka went to help Ty Lee with lunch, mainly because he wanted the first bowl of food.
A Few Hours Later
The sun was getting dark as Katara and (Y/N) were sitting on the ground, as they have been practicing all day. Copying Combustion Man turned out to be a lot harder than what the two thought. The young boy to looked at the ground, "There's gotta be something missing." Katara looked at him, "It just takes practice." It was silent for a while until something crossed (Y/N)'s mind, "When you and Zuko were locked up in Ba Sing Se, what did he talk about?" Katara thought for a moment, "He mainly talked about your mother and how he misses her." "Well she was a great mom." "He also said that he was happy." "Happy about what?" "About living with you and your uncle. He said that he was glad that you found each other." The two sat in uncomfortable silence for Katara to try and say something, but (Y/N) laid on the ground for Katara to lay next to him, "What's on your mind?" "I don't know what to do Katara. Zuko is my older brother, but he's betrayed me before. Azula is my twin sister, but she wants to end anyone who opposes her." "A liar and a tyrant. I've gotta say, I've never met someone with worse siblings." "Well, there is Sokka." "That is true." (Y/N) let out a sigh, "I want everything to back to the way it was. When Zuko would play with Azula and I. I remember one time when we were little he protected us from an angry mother turtle duck because Azula threw a rock in the pond." "How'd that turn out?" "The mother bit his leg. He's got a scar from it actually." "Seriously?" "Yeah, it's faint but it's there." It went silent for a while until Katara got curious, "What was Azula like as a kid?" "Well she was still mean, but she had a very big soft side." "A soft side?" The boy nodded, "Mhm. She might not of said it, but she always got sad when I didn't play with her, and she would try to apologize if she accidentally hurt me. Not verbally of course. She would usually have the cooks make my favorite breakfast."
It was a silent for a while until (Y/N) sat up, "Let's try again. I feel good about this one." Katara and (Y/N) got back in the position that they were in before. The two took a deep breathe to throw the elements in the air making steam. They then took a step forward to punch the air to bend the steam making it go forward. It went quicker than before for the two to hear a loud whistle until the small ball of steam exploded in front of the rock dummy. The explosion was not so big that it created a crater, but it was enough to knock the dummy back, as the top half of it was now in pieces. (Y/N) threw his hands up, "Yes!" Katara stood there staring at the broken dummy, "It actually worked?" She then held her arms out towards the dummy, "It actually worked!" As the two celebrated Sokka ran out with his boomerang, "Combustion man! Where is he?!" (Y/N) turned to Sokka as he was still excited, "That was us!" Sokka gave him a confused look, "What?"
The Next Day
Everyone was sitting together as they were eating breakfast, which was a bowl of soup containibg rice and vegetables that Ty Lee had made. Ty Lee ended up sitting next to (Y/N). Everyone was having their own conversations for (Y/N) to try the food, "This is really good." Ty Lee looked up at him, "Really?" The boy nodded, "You seem to be a natural at cooking." Ty Lee moved a strand of her hair behind her ear, "Not really. I just did my best to copy what Katara did yesterday." As they continued to eat Ty Lee became curious, "Do you have anything planned today?" "I do have something planned later today." Ty Lee tilted her head a little, "What do you have planned?" "It's a secret." "Come on tell me." "Nope." Ty Lee pouted as she got closer to (Y/N), "What is it?" (Y/N) decided to tease the girl, "Nah. I don't feel like it." Ty Lee lightly hit his arm as she held her bowl with her other hand, "Come on. Tell me now." (Y/N) chuckled a little, "I'll never tell."
A Few Hours Later
Ty Lee was now teaching Sokka how to play Pai Sho, using an old Pai Sho board that she had found in one of the old rooms in the temple. They played a practice round for Ty Lee to quickly win making Sokka scratch his head, "Wh- What just happened?!" Ty Lee was smiling from victory, "I just won." "How?" "Because you let me use the white jade." "The wha?" "I just told you what it does a few minutes ago." "Well it's all so confusing. How did you even learn how to play this anyways?" "Uncle Iroh taught (Y/N) and I. We would play every week." Before they could play another round (Y/N) walked up to them to look down at the game board, "Oh, you're teaching Sokka how to play Pai Sho." Ty Lee nodded, "Yeah, but he isn't really getting the hang of it." As the two were talking Sokka noticed Katara peering through a doorway behind Ty Lee and (Y/N). She was gesturing him to come to her, but Sokka did not understand. He looked back at Ty Lee, "Alright let's go one more round." Katara face palmed as she walked over to the group of three. She grabbed Sokka's ear as she looked at the other two, "Excuse me but I need to borrow Sokka for a minute." She pulled on his ear making him get up and follow her, "Ow ow ow ow!" This left just Ty Lee and (Y/N).
(Y/N) took a seat where Sokka was before, "Mind if I take his place?" Ty Lee gave a smile, "Nope." The two started playing for Ty Lee to be the first to say something again, "So did you do the thing that you had planned yet?" "Nope. Still getting to it." The young boy moved one of his pieces, "It seems like you've gotten rusty since we last played this." "I'm not rusty. I'm just trying a new tactic. Maybe you've forgotten how to adapt while playing." "Really?" "Yep." "But I just won." Ty Lee looked down at the board to begin going through all of the moves that she could do to see that no matter what she did she would lose within the next two turns. The acrobat sighed, "So that makes it sixty two to fifty nine?" "I think so."
The two continued to play until (Y/N) noticed the sun begining to go down. He stood up to offer his hand to Ty Lee, "I want to show you something." Ty Lee took his hand as he helped her up. Ty Lee followed her boyfriend around the temple for them to reach a pretty large room. The sun shined through some of the ceiling giving the room plenty of light. The two walked to the center of the room for (Y/N) to rub the back of his neck, "I wanted to do this sooner, but I had to wait until the inventor could make this." The young boy reached into his pocket to pull out a small trinket. He brought the top of it up and spun a piece of metal at the bottom. He set the trinket on a table for a melody to begin playing. (Y/N) walked back to Ty Lee to bow a little as he extended his arm, "May I have this dance?" Ty Lee took his hand to get close as she put her other arm on his shoulder, "You may." (Y/N) put his free hand on Ty Lee's waist for the two to begin dancing as if though they were in a ballroom. As they danced Ty Lee had a warm smile, "I see that you haven't forgotten how to dance." "Well once you learn you never forget." "I remember you always complaining about your dance lessons." "I always had to walk with books on my head and-" "And the shoes you had to wear was uncomfortable. I know." "I guess I complained more than I thought I did. But I remember how your dance lessons went." Remembering her lessons made her giggle, "Oh yeah." "It took your instructor two hours to finally figure out who was who." "That's because we all wore the same clothes and had our hair the same way. All of us even responded when he said one of our names." "Well it seems like he was still able to teach all of you." "No, he wasn't able to teach us. I taught myself while at the circus." "Why?" Ty Lee rested her head on (Y/N)'s chest, "For a moment like this." This made (Y/N)'s heart skip a beat as he became flustered. Ty Lee moved her hands to be on (Y/N)'s upper back, for the boy to wrap his arms around Ty Lee's back. The two were now hugging with Ty Lee still having her head resting on he boyfriend's chest as (Y/N) had his chin resting on his girlfriend's head. They were now just swaying from side to side until the music stopped.
Ty Lee raised her head to look up at (Y/N) as she brought herself up a little by standing on her toes. She closed her eyes as she pressed her lips together. (Y/N)'s face was red as he went to lean forward. Just before the two met Sokka walked into the room, "Hey (Y/N) I was wondering if-" He stopped as Ty Lee had her embarrassed face buried (Y/N)'s chest as (Y/N) just looked away with his face red. Sokka looked at the two confused for Katara to come up behind him and hit him in the back of the head, "I told you to not come in here." She grabbed his ear to look at the other two, "Dinner will be ready soon. Sorry about Sokka." She dragged Sokka away for (Y/N) to pat Ty Lee's back, "Let's go to the fountain and meet with everyone else." Ty Lee nodded for the two to go to the fountain.
As everyone was at the fountain waiting for dinner to be ready Zuko and Aang returned. It was soon dark as Appa was resting as he was given his food first. Everyone was sitting around a campfire eating while Zuko and Aang showed everyone what the dragons had taught them. They did a few fire bending maneuvers for Sokka to clap, "Wow that's a nice dance." Zuko got annoyed as he walked towards Sokka, "It's not a dance. It's a sacred fire bending technique." Katara raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah. What's it called?" Zuko became a little embarrassed as he looked away, "The Dancing Dragon." This made everyone laugh as Aang and Zuko sat down to join everyone else in eating dinner.