Avatar Zuko

Chapter 27

Katara was abruptly woken up by the sound of several boulders crashing into each other, at only just sunrise. Personally, she didn't find this too awful but Sokka certainly seemed annoyed by the interruption to his slumber.

“Toph!” He cried at the earthbender, who was happily bending several rocks so that they fell down the steep cliff near them.

They'd positioned their campsite in a rocky quarry so that they could catch up on sleep and Zuko could begin his earthbending training, plus Azula and her, pretty damn terrifying, friends would have a hard time finding them. The quarry was also surrounded at the top by pretty thick forests full of wildlife, making them even more inaccessible.

“Sorry, Sleeping Beauty, but I've got too much work to do to start worrying about the bags under your eyes.” Toph chanted, slamming another boulder against the quarry wall. “Now, where's Sparky?”.

“Right here.” Groaned the firebender, raising a hand from under his several blankets (one of which that looked suspiciously blue) but making no effort to get up.

Due to Zuko’s lack of enthusiasm, Toph forced him to his feet with a well placed jab of rocks from under his back, which he growled at angrily

“Come on, Zuko, how can you be tired? You always get up at sunrise anyway.” Asked Aang brightly, and Katara noticed that he was completely right, and even now Zuko still looked decently well rested, so why the bad attitude?

“Fine, let's get on with it.” He muttered, brushing back his bedhead and frowning as Sokka stared at him. “What?”.

“Uhhhhhhh…” Katara's brother mumbled, still staring at the firebender but now… Blushing? “Ahem, nothing, nope- nah, ugh, noth- nothing at all, yeah, at- at, uh, all. I'm gonna go, *gulp* hunt or, uh, something.”.

Apparently accepting this stuttered mess as an adequate response, Zuko shrugged and fixed himself a quick ponytail, before following Toph towards a couple of the large boulders she had been bending just a few minutes earlier. As he did this Sokka rushed hurriedly off in the other direction, his boomerang and club strapped to his sides. Figuring they had some time to kill, Katara and Aang then went about planning their dream vacation, the waterbender wondering if it would be possible to actually go to their dream places at some point soon.

__

Zuko did not want to try earthbending. Which, okay, he should have figured out before he'd decided to take a shot at learning all the elements but ah well. It's just that… If he could earthbend then that meant he could bend all the elements, and then it would only be a matter of time until he managed to master them all to a degree that his friends would think he was ready to fight his father. Which he definitely wasn't ready for, no where close, if it was up to him he'd never face the Firelord and would just spend the rest of his life practicing the elements is some tranquil resort on the East coast of the Earth Kingdom.

Yet here he was, stood next to the most terrifying twelve year old earthbender to ever exist and about thirty seconds away from getting forced to at least try bending a boulder.

“Earthbending is all about your stance, you bend your legs, keep your back straight, and-” Toph crouched down a little, getting into what the Prince assumed was a flawless pose, and she jutted her hand out, sending the boulder flying right to the other side of the quarry. “Okay, your turn.”.

Zuko did a shoddy replica of her stance, purposefully making his muscles lax, and half heartedly attempted to move the boulder, barely even touching it. Unsurprisingly, he did not successfully earthbend.

“Are you even trying?! That was the worst attempt I've ever seen! And I can't even see!” She yelled pretty fairly, and Zuko dodged as she threw a pebble at him, almost missing it thanks to it being at his blind side.