Zuko had gotten fed up with just boiling sea water for the past several hours, deciding to switch to practicing some of his firebending and airbending. At least with those he'd make any progress with getting the elements to do what he wanted. He saw Appa fly off a while ago just before he switched to using his other bending styles. Now three hours later, he sees Appa returning, circling around the city a couple of times before landing at the stables. From the position of the sun, he figures that Pakku would be returning soon to teach the beginner classes for the young children wishing to learn waterbending. While he didn't want to return to the now partially frozen pool of water, he had no choice. Walking back over to the small pool, Zuko extends his hand towards the icy slush before creating a small flame helping to melt the ice.

"So, you're the all powerful Avatar I've heard so much about." The voice of a teen around his age perks Zuko's attention but not enough to distract him from melting the ice. "A little birdie told me that you can't bend water, that's pathetic."

"Pathetic huh? I've already mastered Airbending and Firebending." Zuko responds, standing to his full height and turning to the man speaking to him. Zuko is met with a man of slightly taller stature than himself with a flat chin, hard cheekbones and long hair partially tied back in a wolf tail on the top of his head. "If you've come here to just waste your breath ragging on me then I'm only going to say this once. Piss off."

"Don't you talk to me like that." The man states indignantly, but Zuko ignores him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Someone who's wasting my time." Zuko responds, turning his back to the teen before opening a bending scroll that Katara was kind enough to give him.

"You shouldnt talk to me like that, Zuko. I'm going to be chief of the northern watertribe." the man says but Zuko once again tries to ignore him. The firenation prince shifts his weight back as he draws his hands in towards himself trying to move the water. "I'm Hahn, Chief Hahn to you."

"You Princess Yue's older brother or something?" Zuko asks feigning interest, "One of the first things you need to know as a leader is how to address people and not make yourself look stupid. If you're gonna go around introducing yourself with a title you don't have then let me play along. I'm the Earth king." He says sarcastically.

"No, I'm the one gonna be marrying her." Zuko stops what he's doing before turning to look at Hahn once more. "That's just one of the perks I'll get, and the moment I'm chief I'm gonna make this place mine."

"Feel bad for her then." Zuko says, the insult causing Hahn's face to twist with anger. "Since you're either an idiot or have ice lodged between your ears, I'm gonna say it again. Fuck off, or I'll launch you off this ledge and into the canals."

"Ha! I'd like to see you trYYYYyyyyy..." Hahn tries to say but being sufficiently fed up with the boisterous teen, Zuko shifts downwards and spins his right arm creating a massive current of air that slams Hahn in the stomach and launches him off the icy plateau and into the canals hundreds of feet below them.

"Finally, some peace and quiet." Zuko sighs before walking back over to the little hole in the ice. Not a moment after saying this to himself, he hears a set of footsteps walking up the icy stairs towards the training ground. "Before you ask Master Pakku, I haven't made any progress."

"I'm not master Pakku, prince Zuko." Yue says as she gets up to the training grounds. "I just wanted to see how it was going. I also saw you launch someone off the ledge, who was that?" She asks politely.

"Your fiance." Zuko responds, causing Yue to snicker to herself. "He decided to come bother me when I was trying to focus, insulted me then started bragging. So I threw him off the ledge. I was aiming for the canal but I'm hoping I missed."

"He landed in the water," Zuko sighs to himself hearing this, "I don't like him very much either." She says.

"I kinda figured that, with how excited you were to go see Sokka. How'd that go?" Zuko asks. "I saw Appa fly off a little after master Pakku dismissed everyone."

"He took me flying with Appa, it was the most fun I've had in my entire life and when we landed I showed him some of the bending I've been learning." Yue says, her voice filled with life and excitement.

"Sounds like fun." Zuko says before shifting his attention back to the water in front of him. "This on the other hand... not so much."

"I heard you say you were having issues with it, think I could give you a hand?" Zuko is surprised at Yue's offer to help him. So much so he can't find the words to respond, but she takes his silence as him accepting her request. "Ok, go ahead and show me your method of waving the water."

Timidly, Zuko resumes trying to produce small waves in the water. Shifting back into a wide stance before lifting his hands out in front of him with his fingers spread slightly apart. He checks back with Yue for a moment to make sure he's doing this correctly, getting a nod from Yue in return. He looks back at the pool of water before taking a deep breath and leaning forwards, he moves his hands forward with his movement before shifting his weight back. He shifts his body over this back foot and pulls his arms inwards towards his chest. Repeating this motion he watches how the water reacts to his movements. At first it does begin to stream back and forth with his movements building his confidence but as he continues the movement the miniscule current he is creating dies off and the water begins to boil and churn again. He growls under his breath in frustration.

"Here, let's change the way we're approaching this. We can't actually get into the water since it'd be too cold, but do you remember how it feels to move your arms while they're underwater?" Zuko nods yes to her question. "Good, now let's try to copy that feeling with our movements. Copy me." Yue walks to the otherside of the small pool that Zuko has been working with before raising her arms up to a similar position to Zuko.

The technique that Yue uses is slightly different from what Zuko has been doing when trying to create the waves that Pakku demonstrated. Her posture is more relaxed and her movements are more fluid as she elegantly rocks back and forth shifting between both feet in one continuous movement. Allowing her arms to slowly follow her movements causing the water to begin to create waves across the surface. Zuko studies her movements as she creates little waves across the surface of the water then tries to emulate her. Though there is a notable amount of vapor wafting off the moving water, for the most part he is successful in moving the water at least back and forth in a small wave barely three inches tall. At least that's what he thinks, as the moment Yue stops to allow him to try bending on his own the water immediately stops streaming back and forth and boils once again. "You need to relax a bit Prince Zuko, your movements are almost right but you're still too rigid." Yue suggests but Zuko is far too focused on the fact that the water isn't doing what he wants it to.

Meanwhile, in the city below, Sokka has a bit of a pep to his step as he snacks on a steamed meat bun. His date with Yue went rather well, even after learning that she's supposed to be engaged. Though with her going to call off the engagement she never agreed with in the first place, he figures it isn't all that bad. As he takes a rather large bite from his afternoon snack, there's a sudden splash in the canal in front of him, almost getting him wet in the process. Looking into the water he sees the soaking wet form of Hahn having just splash landed into the canal. "So, going for a swim?" Sokka asks before taking a bite out of the bun again. "You're better off doing that in the bath house, less of a chance of hypothermia." He says before putting the rest of his snack into his mouth and offering a hand for the abruptly aquatic teen to help him out of the water. Swallowing his pride, Hahn accepts Sokka's gesture, being pulled up from the water.

"Damn firebender." Hahn groans, immediately taking off his parka and shirt to ring them out and get the cold clothes off of his skin. "I'm gonna skin him."

"You and what army? Zuko's an expert firebender and according to Aang he's pretty close to mastering airbending and he's done it in four months. I've seen him take out a hundred guys in three minutes with nothing but a wooden stick, plus a little airbending added in but still." Sokka says, "I'm Sokka by the way, I don't think we met yesterday at the dinner."

"Hahn," He says, the introduction is short but Sokka realizes that this is the same man that Yue mentioned she's supposed to be engaged to.

"Let's get you out of the cold before you actually get hypothermia. Then you can go try to fight Zuko again but this time I'm gonna come watch." Hahn scoffs at this statement from Sokka but allows the southerner to help him inside one of the igloos to warm himself up. "How did you get thrown through the air anyways?"

"I was just trying to put that ash eater in his place, he can't even bend water right, boiling it like a stew the women cook." Hahn laments, as he dries himself with a pelt.

"So you insulted him for no reason?" Sokka questions, "What'd you go and do that for?"

"I'm gonna be the next chief damnit, he needs to respect me! Even if I have to beat it into him." Sokka just rolls his eyes at this, now knowing why Yue can't stand him. "Come on, I'm gonna go put him in his place."

"Your funeral." Sokka says with a shrug as Hahn throws another parka over his new clothes. He steps into a pair of moccasins before storming out the front of the igloo. "What's stopping him from just launching you again? As far as I know you're not a bender right?" Sokka asks.

"Im not a bender but I am the best damn warrior in the entire tribe. That's why my father arranged for me and Princess Yue to get married. He wanted the best of the best to lead this tribe and we've been sitting out of this war for long enough. What we need is a strong leader, and that's me." Hahn boasts, his overinflated ego now beginning to annoy Sokka.

"I know Katara says I have an ego but this guy is ridiculous." Sokka thinks to himself, "I don't think this is a good idea, I've been traveling with him for the past few months and the things I've seen him do are pretty impressive."

"Yeah?" Hahn asks sarcastically, "Like what?"

"He fought a volcano, and won." Sokka says, while Zuko did have help from Aang and the rest of Aunt Wu's village to help 'fight' the volcano, he isn't exactly wrong with this statement. "Took down an entire armored tank division when we were at the northern air temple, with help from myself Aang and Katara, freed several hundred earthbender slaves from a firenation shipyard, fought a mutton chop wearing admiral who's triple his age a master firebender and beat him without breaking a sweat." All this list gets is Hahn spitting on the ground in disgust.

"Well he hasn't fought me." Hahn declares, as the two begin marching up the staircase towards the training grounds.

"Dumbass." Sokka thinks.

As the two make their way up the large staircase, a sudden pained scream startles the two of them. Both men immediately recognise the voice as Yue's which is quickie followed by Zuko shouting "Y-yue It was an accident I-I didn't mean to burn you!" These words from Zuko cause Hahn's blood to boil. Of course that firebender would burn the most perfect girl in the north pole, Hahn thought. Sokka being the wiser of the two, for once, realized that it must have happened the same way it did with his own sister. Yue had told him that she was going to give Zuko a hand, completely forgetting that whenever he tried to bend water it would boil. Both men hussle up the stairs, getting to the plateau before the chief's palace in a few moments. Hahn with fury in his eyes immediately sprints after Zuko who is trying to tend to the burns on Yue's hands as the white haired girl dips her hands in the snow. The crunching of snow is all the warning Zuko gets as he barely has enough time to look up to see Hahn running right for him. Zuko doesn't get a chance to explain what happened as Han launches himself into Zuko tackling him into the snow.

Both men roll through the snow from the momentum of the tackle ending with Zuko flat on his back and Hahn with a knee planted in Zuko's stomach. The enraged water tribe warrior rears back to throw a hard punch right for Zuko's head just barely missing as Zuko jerks his head to the side causing Hahn to punch the ice instead. With Hahn's knee in his stomach, Zuko can't take a deep enough breath to breath fire at Hahn to at least get free of the warrior's assault. Hahn clutches his hand in pain from punching the ice before this pain turns to even more anger as he drives his knee into Zuko's stomach causing the avatar to grunt in pain. Zuko takes in a sharp breath before punching Hahn in the face hard. The strike knocks Hahn off of his chest and allows Zuko to roll to the side and get to his feet. Meanwhile Hahn rubs his hand under his nose seeing blood on his skin from the punch. "Bastard. You couldn't resist burning my woman could you? You did it just to get back at me didn't you?"

"It was an accident, dumbass." Zuko responds, raising both hands into a fighting stance. "You saw what happened earlier when I tried bending, I was boiling the water. She was too close when I lost control and it splashed on her."

"Liar!" Hahn yells rushing Zuko again, with Hahn not using any bending during this fight Zuko opts to do the same and clenches his fists, furrowing his eyebrow and preparing for the second round.

As Zuko dodged another attempt at tackling him from Hahn, Sokka turns his attention from the fight and towards Yue who is crying in pain as she dips her hands in the snow to ebb the burns. Immediately he rushes over to her side, ripping his bag from his side and sifting through it for the burn ointment that Zuko regularly bought for the scar on his face. Taking the lid off the small container, Sokka kneels down by Yue's side to inspect her wounds. The burns on her hands were at least second degree her skin red and raw from the boiling water that scalded her. The pain is too much to move her fingers so she can attempt to use her waterbending to heal herself. "S-sokka, stop Hahn, it was just an accident. I'm fine." She says slightly regaining her composure as the snow helps with the pain. "Right, here use this. It's meant to help with burns. I'll stop those two from killing each other." Sokka says, leaving the ceramic jar on the ice next to her hands so he can stop the fight.

With Zuko and Hahn being relatively equal in unarmed and nonbinding combat respectively, the fight has quickly turned into a stalemate. Zuko easily manages to block each punch and strike thrown by Hahn, mixing in some of Aang's teaching with evasion in with his movements. Wanting to tire Hahn out rather than continue the fight, Hahn on the other hand is catching on to Zuko's tricks. Starting to try to predict Zuko's next movement or dodge. Both men had been trained from nearly the day they could walk to fight but Zuko was trained to fight with bending and Hahn knew this. Hahn slides a low kick across the snow, spinning slightly as he tries to trip Zuko up. In the process he grabs a handful of the ice crystals that had settled before following through and throwing them upwards into Zuko's face. While the snow wasn't painful, it was distracting enough for Hahn to dip low and spear his entire body weight into Zuko tackling him again to the ground. As Hahn tries to get on top of Zuko to resume punching him, Sokka comes in and catches Hahn's arm by the elbow spinning as he does so. The movement pulls Hahn downwards to the ground in a swift movement but also succeeds in directing Hahn's anger towards him now. Once realizing that Sokka is now helping Zuko, Hahn rears back and punches Sokka in the face.

Now free of his attacker, Zuko rolls to his feet and takes his turn to rush to Yue's side to see if she's alright. This is the second time he has burned someone completely by accident with an element that's meant to heal and to provide life. Why can't he change for the better? Is he always doomed to be the bad guy? Thoughts like these rush through his head as he rushes the last remaining feet to Yue as she attempts to use the burn ointment on herself. This needs to change, he needs to change, how can he be the avatar if every time he tries to waterbend it ends up burning those around him. This can begin with him helping her, better than anyone Zuko knows how to deal with burn wounds and that's what he's going to do. Crouching down in front of her Zuko grabs a bit of the ointment on his fingers and grabs one of her hands gently so that he can apply it to her burns. "Let me do it, I probably have the most experience with burns than anyone in the entire north pole." He says as he touches the gel like ointment to her skin. She winces slightly at the contact but allows him to work the ointment into her skin. He repeats the process with her other hand, gently making small circles to rub in the ointment and as he finishes he has her place her hands in the snow again to continue to cool the pain.

He coaxes Yue to spread her fingers out slightly so that the cold can work faster to numb the area as he presses his palms against her hands to further the contact with the ice. As he does this, something remarkable happens. The ice around her hands begins to melt into water before submerging their hands in the small puddle created by the act. Then around Zuko's hands the water begins to glow a whitish blue color. The results are nearly immediate, the pain that Yue was feeling in her hands vanishes within moments of the light glowing around Zuko's hands. She looks up at him with a shocked expression, almost as surprised as he is that it actually worked. As the light fades from the water, Yue lifts her hands to inspect them looking for any signs of the burns that were once there. Aside from a slightly pink complexion to her skin there is no sign of the burns. "You... healed me." She says as she turns her hands over to look at the other side. "You can heal with waterbending." Zuko can't find the words to respond instead he just stares wide eyed at what he did. Looking up from her hands she sees Hahn with Sokka pinned on the ground rearing back to punch him.

"Hahn stop! I'm fine, Zuko healed me!" Yue shouts as she rushes over to where the two men are fighting. As she reaches them, she grabs Hahn's arm and tries to hold him back from striking Sokka. "I told you, it was an accident." She yells pulling against him.

"Stay out of this woman!" Hahn shouts as he jerks his arm free from her grasp then rears back and strikes her across the face causing her to tumble to the ground. Yue looks at Hahn in fear as she holds the side of her face.

"You just hit Yue! You bastard!" Sokka shouts, freeing one of his hands from Hahn's grasp, he elbows Hahn in the jaw getting out of the pin before standing and kicking Hahn in the stomach hard.

"ENOUGH!!!" The deep voice of Chief Arnook alerts the four teens causing the fight to immediately stop. "What in the spirit world is going on here!?" He roars scowling at Hahn, Sokka and Zuko.

"That firebender burned Yue!" Hahn calls out first causing Arnook to turn to face Zuko.

"I told you it was an accident! She was trying to teach me how to bend and I warned her earlier that it might happen." Zuko shouts, "I didn't do it on purpose damnit, why the hell would I burn the woman teaching me how to bend on purpose!"

"Because you're a filthy firebender that's why!' Hahn yells back.

"Silence!" Arnook shouts, turning to face his daughter who has tears in her eyes from being struck. "Yue, what happened? Are you alright?"

"Hahn punched me." She says, "I was trying to teach Prince Zuko and help him figure out how to bend and the water he was working with exploded. It was an accident but Hahn attacked Zuko. Sokka tried to intervene and help me but Hahn started beating on him... Zuko healed me then I tried to break up the fight and I got punched by Hahn." She says as she rubs the slightly swollen part of her face. "I'm not going to marry a man who'd hit me." She says firmly, reaching under her parka and yanking the engagement necklace from her neck. "Take your stupid necklace back." She yells, throwing it in the direction of Hahn. However Zuko catches the necklace before Hahn could get it. He turns to the watertribe warrior then incinerates the necklace in his hand.

"Is this true? Did you strike my daughter?" Arnook questions, now directing his ire towards Hahn who can't find the courage to respond. Instead, he averts his eyes and looks down at the ground. "I'll take your silence as a yes. Hahn, you are to report to the barracks and explain to your father what you've done. I'm sure he'll be pleased to know what you did."

"All I tried to do was stop him from fighting Zuko." Sokka says as he gets to his feet, he rubs the side of his mouth wiping the blood off of his face. "Asshole." Sokka curses as he picks up a piece of ice before holding it to his face.

"Yue, are you alright?" Arnook asks as he rushes to Yue's side to check her face and hands. "Where did Zuko burn you?"

"I told you, it was an accident and he healed me." She answers.

"You healed her?" Arnook echoes.

"Surprised me too to be honest." Zuko says, "Why were they in an arranged marriage anyway?"

"Hahn's father is one of the best military leaders and hunters in the north pole. His family has some pretty high political power aside from my own." Arnook answers, "Though now that this has happened there's bound to be some tensions and others asking for Yue's hand in marriage."

"Father." Yue says, gaining Arnook's attention. "While Hahn wasn't concerned I got hurt... Sokka was. He even gave me burn ointment and tried to make sure I was alright after the incident."

"Sokka, thank you." Arnook says, causing Sokka to nod, accepting the thanks.

"Do you still want her to be in a political marriage?" Zuko asks, "My parents were in an arranged marriage as well, and let's just say it didn't end well."

"It's tradition for the powerful political families to intermarry; it helps solidify family ties and trust in our tribe." Arnook answers.

"If I have to arrange to marry someone, can it be to Sokka?" Yue asks, causing her father to arch an eyebrow. "He is the son of the southern watertribe's chief, it could help strengthen the bond with our sister tribe."

"It couldn't hurt to do that, and it also helps that Yue and I already like each other." Sokka responds, causing Arnook to mill over the idea for a moment. "I'd need to carve a necklace but, would that work for you?"

"Yes, yes it would." Arnook responds, "I'll make the arrangements and announcements once you've carved Yue a necklace and gifted it to her."

"Well things certainly did get interesting around here." Master Pakku says having arrived for his junior classes. Beside him stands Katara and Aang who decided to tag along because he was bored. "I've heard that Zuko figured out how to use waterbending to heal. Care to see if you can do anything else with it?"

Zuko excitedly rushes back over to the small pool of water he's been working with for the majority of the day. He gets back into the same stance Pakku had demonstrated earlier and draws his hands upwards allowing himself to be relaxed through the movements. Immediately the water dips down and jumps upwards into a long snake-like stream of water being controlled solely by the avatar. Going through what little Katara has taught him, he swirls his arms around his body causing the water to move around his body in the same motion, nimbly and fluidly snaking through the air before condensing into an orb of water in front of him. "Well done, and with technique that is pretty good too. I expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning for your proper training."

"Actually, Master Pakku... I was going to ask if I could attend one of the healing classes." Pakku arches an eyebrow at this statement from Zuko. "I can heal, I've had this burn on my face for three long years, I'm blind in that eye and deaf in that ear and now I can actually heal it."

"I'm sure Pagoda wouldn't mind taking the avatar on as her student." Pakku responds causing Zuko to quickly rush down the staircase towards the healing huts to begin learning.