Training Accidents (An Avatar the Last Airbender One Shot)

Training Accidents

"Aang."

"Aang."

"Aang wake up!"

"Huh?!" Aang felt a sharp jab in his side and instantly shot up. "Ow!"

Zuko just rolled his eyes, "You'll live. Now get up. It's time to start training."

Aang let out a long yawn, "But the sun hasn't even risen yet!"

Zuko sighed, "Yes. That's the point. I want you to see the difference between fire bending before and after the sun comes up. That way you will be a better judge of how much power you possess at any given moment."

"I hate it when you make a good point..." he slowly got up and looked forlornly at his bed roll.

"Alright." As soon as Aang and Zuko entered the clearing, Zuko got into a fighting stance. "Today I'm going to teach you a new set of katas. Just watch me the first couple of times."

Aang did as he said and stared in aw as Zuko perfectly performed the intricate fire-bending moves. "That's amazing!" he started clapping as soon as Zuko finished.

He blushed, "I'm really not that good at that set... Azula was always better... My uncle should really be the one teaching you all of this."

"Hey don't do that." Aang smiled at him and bumped him on the shoulder. "You're doing your, 'Angst Bending' again."

"My what?" Aang laughed at the surprised look on his face.

"It's something Sokka came up with." He continued. "Whenever you get down about yourself, or become self-depreciative, we call it Angst Bending."

"Ok then..." he still seemed very confused but continued. "Anyway, you try it now."

Aang moved to the center of the clearing and started replicating the moves. After going through them several times, and with some extra instruction from Zuko, Aang was soon able to get a hang of it.

"Good." Zuko nodded as he watched Aang go through it one last time. "Okay, now we're going to do something different." Zuko got into a fighting stance. "It is one thing to fire bend in an open arena with no one around, but it's a different story when you're going up against a moving target. I want you to do the same move again, only this time direct it at me, and I'll try to dodge it."

Aang's eyes widened, "You... you want me to fire bend at you?" he couldn't help but glance up at Zuko's scar.

"Yes." He nodded, "This will help you learn how to fight against another fire bender."

"But you mean... you want me to... shoot fire at you?" he said biting his lip.

Zuko rolled his eyes, "Yes that was kind of the point. Don't worry, I'm not going to attack you, this is just so you can get used to attacking someone with fire bending."

"But... what if I... hurt you..." Aang now had to consciously try and not look at Zuko's scar.

"Don't worry, I'll dodge out of the way." He assured.

Aang shook his head, "I... I'm sorry, I can't."

Zuko glared at him, "You throw rocks at Toph, and bend water at Katara all the time! Why is this any different?"

"It is different!" He yelled in frustration, "They're different... You're different..."

Zuko looked down, "Look... if this is because of the time I was chasing you... I promise... I'm not that person anymore... I won't do anything to hurt you..."

"No no no that's not it!" Aang quickly shook his head.

"Then what is it?!" Zuko was getting really frustrated now.

"I don't want to burn you!" Aang finally yelled.

"You... what?" Zuko was surprised by that answer. Subconsciously, his hand reached up to his scar. "This is why you don't want to fight me?" Aang nodded sadly.

Zuko gave him a small smile, "I appreciate the concern, but you shouldn't worry about it." He held out his arm and lit a flame in his hand under it. A few seconds later he held his arm up. For a moment, Aang's heart skipped a beat. "See? No burn. It takes a lot to burn a fire bender. You won't be able to hurt me unless you're really trying to."

"Oh, that's good." Aang let out a sigh of relief. "Wait... then that means that the person that did that... was really trying to hurt you?"

"Yeah..." Zuko looked down. "He was..."

"I... we had always thought it had happened in a training accident..." he continued.

"Yeah, that's what most people think." Zuko shook his head. "That's not what happened though..."

"If you don't mind..." Aang bit his lip again. "What did happen?"

Zuko looked up at him, then sighed. "I guess you deserve to know... I won't go into all the details but... I did something to disappoint my father and well... he needed to teach me respect..."

"Your father did that to you?!" Aang said in shock.

Zuko nodded, "Yeah, then after that, he sent me on a wild goose chase searching for the Avatar, three years before you came out of the ice. The only way I could go home, was if I captured you. I can now see that he obviously never wanted me to come home..."

Suddenly, Aang wrapped himself around Zuko's waist and gave him a bone-crushing hug. "I'm so sorry. If I hadn't gone missing for so long... maybe that never would have happened..."

Zuko gave him a small smile and patted him on the shoulder. "Now look who's Angst Bending." Aang smiled up at him. "All of that's in the past. What's most important, is that you learn fire bending so that you can take down the Fire Lord. Now come on, let's get back to training."

Aang gave him a solute, "Yes sir Sifu Hotman!"

Zuko just rolled his eyes, "No one has said that in over a hundred years!"

Aang laughed as the two got back to their training. Just a couple of weeks later, Aang would take down the Fire Lord, and all things would once again be right with the world.

The End.

(A/N - Hey guys! Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! :) Flamio Hotman!)