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“Zuko,” Aang quietly called his friend as he looked to the side. The older fire bender, now Firelord, was lying down next to him on the floor. They were both breathing quickly in order to gain back their breath from the quick fight they had just had. One week without duelling each other and they were practically out of breath.
“Yeah?”
“I wanted to ask you something,” Aang said in a soft voice, keeping his eyes focused upon the white clouds.
“Go on.”
“Well, actually, I wanted to know if you could teach me something.”
“Hmm,” Zuko prodded.
“About firebending.”
Aang saw Zuko look at him through his peripheral vision but kept his eyes focused on the blue sky.
“I thought I taught you all I knew so that you could defeat my Father. What else can I teach you?”
Aang gulped. “Yes, I know. You see what I want you to teach me, I’m not sure if it’s even possible.”
“Try me,” Zuko said as he sat up on his hands, now very interested in what his friend could be asking of him.
“Well, I-uh, you see, it’s- hum,”
“Just say it Aang.”
Aang closed his eyes as he pondered what to say for a bit, surely he could phrase it so that it was simple and non-incriminating.
Zuko made a noise at the back of his throat, trying to be patient but not accomplishing it very well.
“Can you teach me how to touch someone whilst firebending?”
“What do you mean?”
“Without harming them.”
Zuko frowned.
“I don’t-hum, ok. Well, there’s two ways.” Zuko breathed in and out softly but deeply. “You have to concentrate rather deeply,” Zuko warned.
Aang opened his eyes and sat up too once he saw that Zuko was about to demonstrate.
“One way, is to control the temperature of your body, your hand more specifically.” Zuko extended his right arm, letting his hand rest, not fully open, but nowhere near closed either. The firelord took a couple of breaths, his eyes closed in concentration.
After a few seconds, Aang watched in amazement as Zuko’s hand slowly took on a shade of red. Finally, Zuko opened his eyes and smiled. Zuko grabbed the airbender’s right hand and brought it to rest on top of Zuko’s heated one.
It was a strange, yet familiar feeling, like touching a hot surface, but obviously that surface was now skin.
Aang positively shook with excitement.
“How about the other way?” Aang asked with eagerness.
“This is much harder,” Zuko warned as he let go of Aang’s hand and closed his eyes once more. This time Zuko extended his hand until it was flat but kept his arm close to his body, away from Aang’s immediate reach.
It took no time at all for Aang to see a physical change. Zuko had a flame on the top of his palm. A very small flame and Aang immediately reached for it.
“Aang!” Zuko scolded as he abruptly opened his eyes, placing his hand even further away from the airbender. “Why do you think I kept it so far away from you to start with?”
“I wanted to feel it.”
“I told you this is harder, do you think you could touch it right away? If you had touched the flame, you would have burnt yourself.”
Aang gulped as he remembered what he had done to Katara.
“Just wait a bit.” Zuko closed his eyes and then immediately peaked one eye open to make sure the Avatar stayed rooted in his place.
Zuko breathed in deep and then let out his air in a big whoosh which brushed over the flame but did not even make it flicker.
After a long moment, Zuko finally opened his eyes. Again, he took Aang’s hand, and was about place it against the flame when Aang snatched his hand back.
“It’s safe now,” Zuko assured.
“But it’s still the same.”
“Yes. It’s just the temperature of the flame which is different. It takes time to change the temperature, it’s something outside of the body, therefore it doesn’t change so easily.”
Aang reached slowly for the flame, hovering his palm above it before he gathered courage and finally let his hand fall.
Warmness and tickles, that’s what it felt like.
“That’s amazing.”
Zuko smiled and let Aang play with the flame, moving his hand here and there.
“One last thing though,” Zuko said in a small voice, not wanting to alert Aang.
“You should practice many, many times before trying to touch yourself like this.”
“Excuse me?” Aang blushed as he looked at Zuko.
“Don’t be so rash as to think you can simply go off and wank with this type of firebending the first chance you get. You can seriously harm yourself.”
Zuko smiled internally as he saw Aang get redder and redder before he went in for the final punch.
“In the throes of pleasure it is very, very hard to keep a steady concentration because it is very pleasurable to be able to feel the hotness and tickles of the flames against your flesh. Take it from me, I know what I’m talking about. If you want that desperately to see what it feels like I’m sure we can work something out so that my hand, firebending whichever way, is at your disposal.”