Zuko was feeling a lot of things but at the top of that list was awkward. Rezalia was here. Next to him. Mostly because Appa's saddle was only so big but still. She was here. And he could reach out and touch her if he wanted to. He did want to. He kept his hands to himself. Being this close to her was amazing and horrible all at the same time. He wanted more space between them. He wanted less.
But Zuko knew he wasn't allowed to want things when it came to her anymore so he kept his mouth shut and looked away. Looked away from her and looked away from Aang, who was staring at him oddly. But maybe that's the way he always looks so Zuko doesn't mention it. "We've been riding for hours. I don't know why, but I thought this thing would be a lot faster," he says, trying to stop the awful itching feeling that had begun under his collar.
Appa growls and Aang frowns at him as well. "Appa's right, Zuko. In our group, typically we start our missions with a more up-beat attitude."
Rezalia snorts. "Since when? Two weeks ago Sokka threatened to throw Toph overboard if she made us stop to pee again." Zuko laughs and maybe he's imagining the way Rezalia's head twitches in his direction. Maybe she misses him too.
"Hush," Aang scolds.
The purple eyed girl nods seriously. "Yes, sir, Mr. Avatar, sir."
Aang scowls at her. Luckily, the ruins come into view before Aang can throw her overboard. All of them stop and stare, awed. Before long they were strolling through the collapsed city. Zuko and Aang prattled on about architecture and the past, bonding in some weird capacity Rezalia would never understand. It was going pretty well until Aang nearly died.
Only just barely managing to avoid both the arrows and the metal spikes, Aang turns to them in terror. "Zuko, I think the past is trying to kill me."
Rezalia snorts, kneeling in unison with Zuko to look at the spikes. "I can't believe it. This booby trap must be centuries old and it still works," Zuko murmurs.
"Not a whole lot of dust, though," the girl notes, swiping a finger along the side of one of the spikes and holding it up as proof. Zuko frowns a bit, humming low in his throat as he thinks.
"There's probably a lot more. Maybe this means we shouldn't be here," Aang says nervously.
Zuko grins a bit and runs along the wall to join him on the other side of the hole. "Where's that up-beat attitude you were talkin' about?"
Rezalia flips over, ignoted flames under her hands and feet to keep her airborne. "Don't be a spoilsport, Aang, this is the fun part. Besides, boobytraps are only used when someone has something to hide."
"Crazy," Aang moans. "You're both crazy. I hate you."
"Ooh, don't let the monks hear you say that," Rezalia teases and Aang pushes her for her efforts. Her and Toph truly were an awful influence on the boy.
Zuko slowly drags his thumb down the center of his chest and Rezalia nods once, falling back a bit as he sped up. When Aang attempted to follow Zuko, Rezalia was there to pull him back and whisper in his ear. "He hears something, stay with me."
In the end, Zuko found nothing and waves them forward. They enter a large building that was mostly intact, surprising for something hundreds of thousands years old. "Look, this seems promising," Aang chirps as they gaze around at the statures of men and dragons. "Though I'm not sure what this tells us about the original source of firebending."
"They look pretty angry to me," Zuko replies, examinging one of the statues.
Aang gazes at the dragon statues, breathing fire at the men. "I thought the dragons were friends with the Sun Warriors."
"Well, they had a funny way of showing it," the prince mutters, taking a few steps before stopping short as Aang begins to speak.
"Zuko, something happened to the dragons in the last hundred years. Something you're not telling me."
Rezalia gives Zuko a once over, noting the tense set of his shoulders and the restlessness of his fingers tapping against his thigh. He was uncomfortable but too much. She didn't need to step in. "My great-grandfather Sozin happened," Zuko walks as he talks and the others follow him. "He started the tradition of hunting dragons for glory. There were the ultimate firebenders. And if you could conquer one, your firebending talents would become legendary and you'd earn the honorary title, Dragon. The last great dragon was conquered long before I was born, by my uncle."
Aang gasps a bit. "But I thought your uncle was...I don't know, good?"
"He is," Rezalia murmurs, staring at the statue of a dragon's head in front of them.
"He had a complicated past. Family tradition, I guess. Let's just move on."
They walk in silence for a moment before coming to a locked gate. Aang attempts to open the gate using his taff but it yields no results. Rezalia trails her fingers along the metal as Zuko steps back and looks around them. "Wait. It's a celestial calendar. Just like the Fire Sages have in their temples. I bet that sunstone opens the door, but only when sunlight hits at just the right angle. On the solstice."
Rezalia turns to see what he was seeing as Aang groans. "Monkeyfeathers! The solstice again? We can't wait here that long."
"Monkeyfeathers?" Rezalia echoes, a grin playing on her lips. "Just say fuck."
"No."
Zuko interupts before Rezalia could attmept to make the younger boy say an actual curse word. " No, we can't. But we might be able to speed time up. Let's see if we can outsmart the sunstone."
Rezalia watches as Zuko unseathes one of his swords and kneels down next to where the sun hit the ground. As he redirects the beam of light up to the sunstone, she coos, "Well aren't you smart."
Aang pretends not to notice the way Zuko ducks his head bashfully. The gates creak open and Aang comes face to face with a staute of a very angry man. "Looks like my father," Rezalia muses and Zuko snorts.
"It says this is something called the Dancing Dragon," Aang says, looking down at a plaque on the series of statues in the center of the room. Rezalia steps back as Aang drats forward and grabs Zuko's hand, dragging him to the statues. "Zuko, get over here! I want you to dance with me!"
Zuko pulls his hand back. "What?!"
"It is your turn, the rest of us already spun around a time or two with clouddancer," Rezalia puts in helpfully. Zuko pouts at her but allows Aang to push him into position.
Aang speaks as he walks to his own starting position. "Let's follow the steps of the statues." They move through the forms of the statues in synch, though Zuko's form was far more firm than Aang's. "Don't you see? These aren't dance moves. These statues are giving us a lesson. I think this is some kind of Sun Warrior firebending form."
"This better teach us some really good firebending," Zuko grumbles.
"Put some energy behind it!" Rezalia calls out from where she walked along with them along the outside of the room. "I want to see your inner fire!"
Zuko mutters something under his breath and Rezalia just grins to herself. When they finish, for a moment nothing happens. Then, the ground rumbles as a small column raises from the ground, supporting a golden egg. "Hurray!" Aang cheers. "Wait, what exactly is that?"
"It's some kind of mystical gemstone," Zuko responds.
"It's an egg," Rezalia adds, gaining two unimpressed looks.
Zuko reaches out, only to have his hand slapped away by Rezalia as Aang shouts, "Well, don't touch it!"
"Why not?"
"Because you should know not to touch shit by now, moron," Rezalia replies with a roll of her eyes.
Aang nods in agreement. "Remember what happened out there with those spikes? I'm just very suspicious of giant glowing gems sitting on pedestals."
But of course Zuko ignores them because when has he ever listened to anyone and picks up the egg. Rezalia is very farmiliar with the way Aang's eye twitches. "It feels almost alive," Zuko remarks before attempting to return the egg.
Go figure, the ancient boobytrapped ruins didn't like that and released a sticky black-green slime. Both Zuko and Rezalia release an impressive stream of cuss words as the slime sends the three of them to the grate in the ceiling. "I can't move! Zuko, do something!"
"Me?" Zuko splutters. "I can't move either!"
Rezalia glares at the two of them to the best of her ability. "Why is it that whenever I'm with either of you I end up it the stupidest situation?!" Both of them wince. "I'm going to kill you both."
"Do I get a last meal?" Aang jokes weakly.
Rezalia scoffs. "You lost the right to that three stupid situations ago and Zuko lost that right eight years ago. You'll die hungry and you'll like it."
"That's fair," Zuko replies.
Hours pass and the sky darkens and the slime doesn't move. "You had to pick up the glowing egg, didn't you?" Aang mutters bitterly.
Zuko lets out an offended noise. "At least I made something happen. If it were up to you, we'd never have made it past the courtyard." Aang opts to ignore him and call for help instead. "Who are you yelling to? Nobody's lived here for centuries."
"Well, what do you think we should do?" Aang asks, irritation creeping into his tone.
The older boy shrugs as best he can. "Think about our place in the universe?"
"No," Rezalia refutes immeaditly.
Luckily, they didn't have to do that, as someone found them. The Sun Warriors - evidently very alive - make quick work at removing them from the grate and getting the slime off of them. Rezalia wasn't fond of the feeling of aardvark sloths licking her but she opted to keep quiet. They were pissed enough as it was.
"For trying to take our sunstone, you must be severely punished!" the chief announces.
Zuko protests as he tries to subtly shake off the aardvark sloths. "We didn't come here to take your sunstone. We came here to find the ancient origin of all firebending."
"Yeah, right. They are obviously thieves, [Cut to the chief and Ham Ghao from the side to show that he is holding the sunstone.] here to steal Sun Warrior treasures," the man who had found them - Ham Ghao - scoffs. Rezalia scowls at him.
Aang shifts as he speaks, "Please, I don't normally play this card, but...I'm the Avatar. Just hear us out."
Ham Ghaoopens his mouth to speak but the chief cuts him off. "You, girl, what is your name?"
Rezalia meets his eyes, confusion painted across her features. "Uh...Rezalia. Why?"
The chief does not answer and Zuko takes the attention off of his best friend. "My name is Zuko, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. O-or at least I used to be. I know my people have distorted the ways of firebending, to be fueled by anger and rage. But now I want to learn the true way, the original way. When we came here, I never imagined the Sun Warrior's civilization was secretly alive. I am truly humbled to be in your presence. Please, teach us."
"If you wish to learn the ways of the Sun, you must learn them from the masters, Ran and Shaw," the chief says gruffly, eyeing the two in front of them.
Zuko looks up with furrowed brows as Aang speaks, "Ran and Shaw? There are two of them?"
The chief does not elaborate. "When you present yourself to them, they will examine you. They'll read your hearts, your souls, and your ancestry. If they deem you worthy, they'll teach you. If they don't, you'll be destroyed on the spot." Rezalia winces in sympathy. The chief leads the three of them to the bottom of a large staircase. "If you're going to see the masters, you must bring them a piece of the Eternal Flame. This fire is the very first one. It was given to man by the dragons. We have kept it going for thousands of years."
"Damn," Rezalia mutters.
"You will each take a piece of it to the masters, to show your commitment to the sacred art of firebending."
Aang rubs the back of his neck. "Umm, Mister Sun Chief Sir, yeah, I'm not a firebender yet. Couldn't my friend here carry my fire for me?" Rezalia's watches as Zuko's brain shuts down temporarily at the mention of being Aang's friend.
"No. This ritual illustrates the essence of Sun Warrior philosophy. You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small. Make it too big, and you might lose control."
Everyone watches as the chief splits the fire into two and hands them pieces to the boys. "What about the girl?" someone asks.
"She does not need to learn from the dragons," the chief answers without hesitation. "She is the Child of the Dragon and as such has already mastered firebending. She is likely more proficient than even me."
And now it was Rezalia's turn to shut down. What?