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07:33 pm

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I was bored and procrastinating...
...so I fleshed out some RP.

No title, not yet. First of two parts.

"Zuko? Ichiro?"

The two young men looked up to see Katara in the doorway. "We've talked him into learning firebending," she said. "Will you teach him?"

The two young men exchanged a look. Ichiro and Kouji were still the only people who knew that Zuko wasn't really a firebender, and Ichiro owed Zuko enough that he was still willing to cover for him.

Fortunately, their exploits on the Day of Black Sun had provided the perfect excuse.

"As the possessor of the sole working hand amongst the firebenders..." Ichiro offered the waterbender a lopsided grin.

She smiled back. "All right. I'll take you to him."

Ichiro glanced over at Zuko. "You wanna come?"

The prince shook his head. "I'll stay here." His eyes drifted to where the twins were still sleeping - Toph had worked Kouji hard the previous day, and Yui had all but exhausted herself keeping up with Haru and Teo as they explored the temple. Yes, it was best to leave someone with them.

Ichiro followed Katara to where Aang waited reluctantly. The first words out of his mouth were, "Do I have to?"

Golden eyes blinked. "Uh?" He turned to Katara for an explanation, but she'd already slipped away. Sighing, Ichiro turned back to the Avatar. "Yes. Part of that whole Avatar thing, remember? Master all four elements?"

"I'm doing okay without firebending," Aang said defensively. "And I haven't mastered water or earthbending yet, so I'm really not ready--"

Ichiro gave him his best Big Brother look, and Aang trailed off. "There's something going on here nobody's told me about," the colonist said, sitting down across from Aang. "So talk to me. Why are you so reluctant to learn firebending?"

Aang wouldn't look at him. Ichiro, however, was a career older brother, and waited in silence until finally the Avatar mumbled, "Firebending only hurts people."

Ichiro's temper flared, but with effort he tamped it down. Yelling at Aang really wouldn't help convince the boy to learn what he needed to learn. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, counting silently to seven. When he was certain he was calm, he asked, "And who told you that?"

That was when Aang told him about Jeong-Jeong the Deserter, and his first disastrous attempt at firebending. Ichiro listened in silence, knowing that if he interrupted he would likely start yelling. Finally, when Aang finished, the colonist said, "A single accident, and you'll let that stop you?"

The Avatar gave him a stricken look. "I hurt Katara," he repeated. "And after everything Jeong-Jeong said--"

Ichiro snorted. "Your Jeong-Jeong doesn't understand fire. He was trained like every other firebender's been since the war started."

Confused, Aang stared at him.

"I've talked to Zuko, to the General," Ichiro explained. "The Fire Nation's been training its benders to use anger when they bend. Everything is geared toward combat -- behaving like a forest fire. That's not real firebending."

"It's not?" The Avatar looked so confused, and Ichiro couldn't blame him.

"No. I wasn't trained by the Fire Nation, Aang -- because of Kouji's situation, I trained myself." He grinned. "And because of that, I learned the true nature of fire."

"...what's that?" Aang asked cautiously.

Ever one for the dramatic, Ichiro grinned and created a small red flame in his good hand to underscore the answer: "Life."

Aang blinked, and Ichiro let the fire die. He focused his bending differently for a moment, then offered his hand to the Avatar. "Feel."

After a moment's hesitation, Aang did as instructed, and jumped when he realised that Ichiro's hand was much hotter than it should have been -- certainly more than could have been caused by the fire he'd just held.

Ichiro's smile grew. "This is just one of the multiple aspects of firebending -- heating one's self. It's how Zuko and I survived in the North Pole, when we first infiltrated. We didn't use any real fire until we faced you."

Aang nodded, looking interested. "Okay."

"The best part of this technique," Ichiro went on, "is that you can also use it to warm others by sharing body heat. I've used it with the twins for several winters now."

"How do you do it?" the younger man asked. Bingo. That had done it, it seemed.

"Come with me," Ichiro replied, standing up. He led Aang out into the sunlight, explaining, "I actually discovered the technique on accident - observing how my body reacted to the sun." With a gentle nudge, he got Aang back into shadow. "I didn't like coming inside - it was too cold for me." Back into the light. "But I couldn't stay outside - people would get suspicious. Especially when winter came along."

Light, shadow, light, shadow. In and out he nudged Aang, explaining how he'd decided to try using his firebending to affect his body temperature. It hadn't been easy -- he remembered setting himself on fire no less than three times -- but he'd managed it. And now he could explain the technique properly, so Aang wouldn't have the same problem.

After an hour, Aang had learned how to raise his temperature and hold it steady at the new level. He couldn't do it to the extent that Ichiro could, nor for the length, but Ichiro had several years of practise on him.

"All right, that's enough for now," Ichiro said. "We'll work with actual fire tomorrow." He ignored the nervous look Aang gave him. "Go on, have some fun."

Current Location: my bed
Current Mood: awake

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