[Rewriting) Keeping the fire close [Zuko × Sokka]

Two Sides of One Coin

The next morning after arriving at the Northern Water Tribe Aang woke up at the crack of dawn, quickly waking up and getting ready so he could start his training, Katara woke up a little before him and already set out to meet with Master Pakku.

Along the way to go and see Master Pakku Aang stopped by and talked with Appa and Momo, seeming to understand what they were saying even though it wasn't human words. He chuckled a little bit, as if Appa's roar was just a joke, "I know Buddy, I know. I'll be back later today then we can go and fly around. But I need to practice my bending" the small air nomad hugged the giant flying bison, gently rubbing his side, then looked to Momo "You can come along since your smaller Momo, but you have to sit and just watch, no running around" he let go of the sky bison, resting his fists on his hips, leaning forward a little, cocking one eyebrow upwards, as if to scare the lemur into behaving.

Finally after a little more conversation, some more hugs for the bison and saying one final good bye Aang was on his way, a little skip in his step, excited to learn the basics, and some advanced moves, ready to master water, then move onto earth. When he did reach the training grounds though, he was a a little upset, seeing Katara and Master Pakku in a verbal fight.

"So what.if I'm a girl!?" The younger water benders rested her hips on his fists while leaning forwards slightly, glaring at the old water bender, "Girls should be healers, not warriors" Pakku shrugged while sitting calmly, this struck a nerve with Katara, reminding her of Sokka, she frowned then got a little more angry than she already was. "You sexist piece of shit..." She grumbled under her breath, then glared at Pakku once more "Fight me." This surprised the old man a little "What for? You're just going to lose," he shrugged her off once again.

"If I win then you have to teach me, and if I lose then I'll go to the healing hut and never bother you about teaching me again." Katara crossed her arms over her chest, "that's if you're man enough to fight a girl" she smirked a little.

Master Pakku didn't take too kindly to this offer. He watched as Katara shed her coat, tossing it to the side, backing up to the center of the village, she wasn't going to take no for an answer, and she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Pakku stood from his sitting position, walking down the steps that led to said center of the village, keeping his arms folded calmly, fully intent on heading back to his hut, not wanting to deal with this foolish girl who didn't know when to shut her mouth. Katara watched as Pakku stepped off the final ice step and watched him angrily "Not gonna fight?!" She shouted angrily, thinking this man was either a coward, or he was out of practice.

"Go back to the healing hut" the old man waved his hand in dismissile towards the young water bender, who by this point, was tired of Pakku's shit. She held her hand out to the side of her and pulled water from the ice, making a water whip and striking Pakku with it, smirking smuggly when he turned around to look back at her.

"Not giving up huh?" The old man seemed disinterested, then smirked, his eyes widening "I'm not going to go easy on you!" He stopped between two vast pools of water, summoning them to his side, launching them at the young girl when she ran towards him. In turn she was launched into the air, but landed on one foot, one knee, and her hand, her heart was starting to race. When she looked up she saw that water was being swirled around her.

Katara stood up, being pulled in closer by Pakku by the wall of water, she was starting to get a little nervous, but she still refused to give up. She was called back to reality when she heard the old man say "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," once she realized what he was doing, she stopped the flow of the water and broke the circle, sending it outwards, making sure that where she was aiming was clear so she didn't hurt any of the villagers, and Aang, who were watching this all go down.

After a hard fought battle, being flung around like a voodoo doll, and being captured by stakes of ice, Katara panted and looked down, completely hopeless in finding a Master. She lifted her head up and looked to Aang, who was scared the entire time, watching her get thrown around, dunked into a freezing pool of water, it was scary to him. But he was glad that she made it out ok, even though she was being held up at the moment.

During the midst of the battle, Katara didn't realized her necklace had been snagged and fell off, she only noticed when Pakku was walking away, saying that Katara was finished. He stopped when he saw something familiar, a necklace that he had carved over 60 years ago for his beloved bride to be... "This is my necklace..", he pondered aloud, this caught the young water bender off guard "No! It's mine!"

The old man held the necklace in front of his face, reminiscing of all the times he had with Kanna, how he had missed her..he must have said her name aloud while thinking because Katara chimed in with her response of "my grangran"