Avatar: The Banished Fire Prince

The Island of Kyoshi

"Gran-Gran, I don't want to leave the village," Katara said.
"You both came across the avatar for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his," she said in return.
"Who will protect the village against raids?!" Sokka asked, worried for the tribe.
"There will be no raids, Sokka," said their grandmother, "There is nothing here for the Fire Nation, and they don't waste time. Go. Help the avatar on his journey to our sister tribe."
"Yes Gran-Gran," they both said, knowing that this was the right thing to do. And secretly, they had been hoping for some action.

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Their ship came across land that day, and while they were wandering around, trying to find food, they were ambushed.

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Sokka's POV:

When the blindfolds were taken off of me, I saw a bunch of girls and a man in front of me. How were they able to ambush us? There's only one man, and he's practically the same shape as Iroh. He doesn't look very capable of ambushing us.

"Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?" I asked, confused.
"There were no men. We ambushed you. Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?" the girl in the center spoke, and I was taken back. Them? A bunch of girls with weird face paint? No way!
"Wait! There's no way a bunch of girls took us down!" I said. They had to be lying. I'm Sokka! Literally the best warrior of EVER! They can't take me down!
"A bunch of girls, huh? The unagi's going to eat well tonight," the same girl spoke again.
"Wait! Don't hurt him! He didn't mean it!" I heard Katara say, "My brother is just an idiot sometimes!"
"Hey!! I am not!"

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Zuko's POV: 

The islanders allowed us to stay after they spoke for a while and found out I was the avatar. I figured we could ask the Kyoshi islanders for a ship, so I told the crew to go back to their families in the Fire Nation. I knew that they must miss them very much. Azula and Sokka left a while ago to train, and my uncle was somewhere, probably drinking tea. I sighed. Typical. That left me with Katara. I followed her to the beach. She sat down, so I sat down too. She looked at the water, and it looked as if she was in a trance. Then, the trance broke, and she suddenly turned to me.

"Do you know how to swim?" she asked me.
"Uh... no."
"Oh. Well, this water's not safe enough to teach you. Suki said the unagi lives in the water here."
"Yeah."
"How long have you been banished? You never told us."
"A bit more than four years."
"Woah! That long? What did you do for four whole years? Were you just on the water the whole time? You were really just sightseeing?"
"Yes. Four years. We travelled around the world the whole time, yes."

She talked a lot. She was curious about my banishment. I told her a lot, but not everything. I told her how Azula and I were both banished for speaking out against a Fire Nation general, which disrespected the Firelord. Katara knew a lot about her culture, and I learned about the spirituality of waterbending. It was pretty interesting to learn about Tui and La, the moon and water spirits who take the form of two koi fish in the North Pole. They swim forever in a circle, achieving balance.

"Do you want to practice waterbending with me?" she asked me after a while.
"I don't really know how to bend really well yet."
"I don't either, but we can still play with it! Bending doesn't have to be for fighting, it can be for fun!"
"Okay then."

I followed her into the shallower parts of the water. We could see our feet in the clear water here, so we would be safe from the unagi. She picked up a ball of water and sent it at me yelling, "Try to stop it!" And I did. I managed to stop most of it, and the parts I didn't just fell back into the water. She kept sending little bits of water my way, and I stopped most of them and sent them back. She was having a lot of fun. I could see that she was happy. She looked relaxed. Like she wasn't a teenager who had to step up and take care of her tribe because of a war.

A war that my own father started.

I felt rage come over me at the thought of my father. I felt adrenaline flow through my veins at the thought of war, of battle. I sent a huge wave of water at Katara. I saw her shock. It knocked her over before she was able to stop it.

"Agni! I'm so sorry Katara!"

She laughed, and my heart stopped. Her laugh was so beautiful. It was so melodic, it was- 

My train of thought was interrupted when she sent a wave equally as big towards me, knocking me over this time. I looked at her, and she was still laughing.

"I'm sorry, Zuko. I didn't even know I could do that!"

We spent the rest of the afternoon practicing. She discovered the ability to freeze the water, and she taught it to me so I could do it too. We were already improving. 

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A week later, in Kyoshi:

Katara's POV:

Zuko and I had improved a lot with our waterbending. We were practicing every day in the shallower waters. Today was the same, and we went out into the water after a quick lunch.

We warmed up, and soon we were sparring. Today, he was firebending so that I would know how to defend myself against a firebending opponent. I was having no trouble blocking all his fire, no matter how big. Then, I heard Azula call my name, and when I looked away, Zuko sent a fireball in my direction, but I didn't notice.

"Katara!!" he shouted, "Look out!"

I looked back and held my hands up in front of me with minimal water in front of them. The fire scorched my palms, and it hurt really bad. I let out a scream. The fire was extremely painful. My brother came running outside at the sound of my scream. I dipped my hands in the water immediately, hoping it would help with the heat. It did, and all three of my friends came running towards me. Sokka tackled Zuko and started yelling at him. But I wasn't paying attention. I noticed how my hands had started to glow.

"Sokka! Zuko! Stop! Come look at this!"

All three of them stood near me and looked as I healed my hands with the water. Iroh came up to us a moment later and noticed what I was doing. I asked him about it, hoping he would know more, since he was older and all.

"Yes, Katara. Some waterbenders are healers. It is a rare ability that not all waterbenders are capable of doing. You are very skilled, Katara. You're a natural!"

My friends all congratulated me on my new ability, and we made plans to leave for the Southern Air Temple. The Kyoshi islanders provided us with a new ship. About the same size as the old one, but this one had nothing to indicate that Fire Nation men were on the ship.

"Thank you Suki," Zuko said, smiling at her.
"Yeah, thank you Suki!" Sokka said, giving her a hug. I had noticed that they had become quite close. They were training together, so I always thought nothing of it, but....
"Suki, would you like to come with us on our journey?" Zuko asked her, "I understand if you would rather stay with the Kyoshi warriors, but I would like to invite you nevertheless."
She bowed. "I would be honored to join the avatar and his friends," she said with a big smile.

And we were off to the Southern Air Temple. We had decided it would be best for Zuko to start learning airbending there. It was closer to where we were than the North Pole, and it helped that Iroh was once friends with Monk Gyatso before the war started. We were able to send Iroh's messenger hawk to let him know, and he had returned a note stating they were ready for us to arrive.