Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender and any of its content.

Setting: Western Air Temple, shortly after The Firebending Masters

Zuko shut the door to his room behind him and looked down to assess exactly how soaking wet he was.

Katara had made it extremely clear that she didn't want him eating with them—which, truth be told, Zuko didn't mind—he was never the social type. He ate in his room. The food she gave him consisted of bits of cold, goopy gunk scraped up from the bottom of the pot. He had a bowl of the stuff in the corner now, uneaten. Honestly, he'd given up on the food being edible long ago. By the look the lumpy mess, it might rise up from the bowl and eat him any minute.

He sighed and peeled off his wet tunic, rubbing the soaking fabric with his fingers. Even though he didn't complain about the gruel Katara gave him to eat, this morning he'd decided to try to make something himself. There had been an empty pot from breakfast in the main hall. Except, when he'd tried to cook something up (not that he could have, anyway, but it was worth a try) . . . Katara entered the room. Apparently the pot was some unnamed part of her territory. After thoroughly making sure he wouldn't forget that by making good use of the fountain, she'd placed the pot among her things. Zuko had run from the scene of the crime immediately, afraid that his anger would get the better of him and he would accidentally (or not so accidentally) shoot flames in her direction. Thank the spirits he could better control his temper.

Zuko snorted at the very memory. What grudge she had, he didn't know, and he didn't care. He concentrated heat to his hands in the hopes of drying his tunic a bit. Unfortunately the fabric merely sizzled and steam rose in a cloud. Defeated, he donned the tunic again and decided to wait out the day; it would dry before sundown.

No sooner had he pulled the tunic back over his torso than someone knocked on the door, and a second later Aang entered. "Zuko?" he said tentatively. His eye caught the bowl of uneaten food in the corner and his eyes flashed with concern.

Zuko looked up. "Training doesn't start for another hour."

"I was thinking . . . you're soaking wet."

Zuko scowled. "I know that I'm soaking wet. Did you come down here to tell me that?"

Aang chuckled nervously and raised his hands slowly, and the water came out of Zuko's tunic with them. "Right. Well, I was thinking that—I dunno, we could start training earlier today?"

Zuko stared at him in surprise. Aang usually used his free time to do . . . whatever he did. Explore, play in the all-day echo chamber, do Appa and Momo imitations and a bunch of other junk. But not training. "Well . . . okay," he said in confusion, getting up.

Aang beamed as he followed him out the door.

Zuko led the way through the massive Western Air Temple, turning down hallways and rooms the size of cathedrals until they emerged on one of the rock platforms protruding from the side of the cliff. This location was where he taught Aang Firebending. It was located outside, under the cliff face, and there were no plants around to catch fire if one of their flames went astray. Zuko took a deep breath before he started. "We both know that fire is an effective weapon to be used in battle," he began. Aang straightened up to pay attention at once. "But it can also be very useful in the area of defense . . . here, shoot a flame at me and I'll show you."

Aang obeyed, and Zuko created a shield of fire that absorbed Aang's blast. The fire circled around him once and disappeared. "You try now," he told Aang, "but only the shield. We'll practice the real thing later."

Aang tried again and again. He was mostly just able to produce wisps of flame, but his last attempt had resulted in a spinning circle of fire. Unfortunately he lost control, and the fire spun outwards and disappeared on the wind. Zuko was finding, more and more, strangely, that he was liking this teaching thing. Aang was enjoyable company, and there was some kind of satisfaction in giving knowledge of the art of Firebending on to the Avatar—he couldn't place his finger on the feeling. Like he was contributing to keeping his art alive by passing it on.

"That's enough for today," Zuko said at last. It was dusk now and it would almost be time for dinner. If Katara didn't see Aang in a few minutes Zuko would be in trouble.

Aang kicked a pebble with his boot shyly. "Um, Zuko . . . are you going to eat dinner with us?"

Zuko raised his eyebrow, caught off-guard by the question. He'd never eaten dinner with them. Katara left his bowl of gruel out of the way, and he came and got it and snuck back to his room. "No, sorry, Aang."

"Oh," Aang said, his shoulders slumping. "Okay."

Zuko tapped his foot impatiently. Does he have to take so long to get going? Sure, he hadn't told anyone about Katara's death threat so Aang had no way of knowing Zuko would be in trouble if Aang didn't show up for dinner. But he was so slow! "You go ahead," Zuko urged. "I've got that bowl of . . ." He wasn't sure what it was. "Anyway, it's in my room I haven't eaten it."

"It's cold and nasty, though," Aang pointed out.

"I'll heat it up."

"Then it'll be hot and nasty."

"I'm not going to let good food go to waste," he lied.

Aang looked at him like he was crazy. "Zuko, there's no reason to eat nasty junk when we've got a whole pot of warm rice."

Yeah, a whole pot of warm rice that Katara won't let me touch. "Just go eat," Zuko sighed.

Aang looked like he was going to object, but Zuko walked away. With a pained look on his face, Aang trudged off to dinner.

Zuko walked through the maze of hallways. Several times he took a wrong turn and had to retrace his steps before he finally found his room. He pushed open the door and shut it behind him and, picking up the cold bowl of gunk, he sat down on the bed.

He took a bite of the revolting stuff and gagged. Why couldn't Katara just pick some other form of torture instead of feeding him this junk? Eye twitching, he took another bite. Yes, he was definitely paying the price.

It went on like this for a good fifteen minutes. Zuko choked yet another mouthful down and looked to see how much he had left. To his dismay he'd only eaten half of the bowl's contents.

Someone knocked on the door. Zuko sat up in surprise. He was rarely visited in his room. I wonder if Aang got there in time, he thought worriedly. He edged across the bed towards what he had deemed the Escape Window. "Who's there?"

"It's me. Don't burn my feet this time." A second later the door opened and Toph stepped inside. She studied him for a moment and smirked. "What's up, Zuko? Your heart rate went way up and now you're almost melting with relief."

Zuko felt the heat rise to his face and gnashed his teeth. He hated that she did that. "What do you want?" he asked grumpily, poking at the white goop in his bowl.

She turned serious and walked over to his bed, plopping herself down beside him. "Aang's worried about you."

Zuko froze in surprise at her straightforwardness and stared at her. "What?"

"Call me crazy, but I think you've been losing weight. You never eat with us. Aang says your food's always nasty when he sees it. So, at least when we see you eat," Toph poked her finger in his bowl and stuck it in her mouth, and gagged, "it's this junk. And then you stay cooped up in here all day, except for when you're training Aang."

Zuko scowled. "Training Aang is my job. The rest doesn't matter."

"It does matter, though," Toph objected. "You're miserable and everyone knows it. Aang cares about his friends, and seeing you down all the time really impacts him. He tried to train with you today earlier to see if it perked you up, but it didn't work. He invited you to dinner but it didn't work. Now he's miserable."

Zuko cupped his chin in his hand and rested his elbow on his knee. "He doesn't have to be. I'm fine. Really."

There was silence for a few moments. Zuko played with the food in his bowl while he wondered when Toph would leave.

"Where did you get that, anyway?" Toph demanded, frowning. "Honestly, I didn't even know we had food that disgusting. Sure, we're stuck in a temple with limited supplies, but Sugar Queen does a pretty good job of scrounging up a tasty meal. You must have looked pretty hard to find that." She laughed, apparently amused at the idea of him hunting down disgusting food.

"It's all Katara'll let me have," Zuko snapped.

"What?" Her humor faded. "This is all you've been eating? Zuko, you can't live off of this. I thought you were starting to lose weight, but this is ridiculous!"

Zuko shrugged and made to choke down another bite. "I wouldn't want to make Katara think I dislike her––" he restrained an unsatisfactory belch and a shiver, "––cooking."

"This isn't cooking," Toph snapped angrily, swiping the bowl from his hands and chucking it out the window. "It's nasty and raw and you're going to get something decent to eat right now."

Before he could escape through the window she'd grabbed the collar of his tunic and was hauling him off the blankets.

Horrified with the prospect of actually joining the group for dinner, Zuko gripped the edge of the bed with his fingers; he'd never exactly been 'social'. "Toph, it's fine, really!"

"You're almost skin and bones, Zuko!"

"I'm fine! Seriously, just let go!"

"You're being hauled out of your room by a twelve year old girl. What does that tell you?"

"That doesn't count!" Zuko snapped, desperately clawing at the bed for a better hold as she tugged at him. "You're a champion Earthbender."

Toph paused. "Hmm. Good point." With an almighty yank, she jerked him onto the floor and dragged him out the door.

Zuko tried to slow her down by digging his fingers into any little groove he could possibly find on the floor. Unfortunately she, being an Earthbender, just closed them up or made the earth shift to make pulling him easier. When they were twenty yards from where the group ate Zuko started to panic. "Toph, please, let go, I'll do anything!"

She didn't stop but looked thoughtful. "Anything?"

"YES!"

"Hmm." They were ten yards from the entrance. Zuko waited eagerly for a compromise. Toph plucked at her lip with her free hand and tapped her foot. "Nah, I'm good."

She yanked him forward so hard and fast that he nearly choked. Zuko started thrashing around, trying to break free. He grabbed hold of an old vine on the floor and they had a bout of tug of war that lasted for a few minutes, but of course, she won. "Toph, LET GO OF––"

They were in the main hall now. The group, gathered around a cooking pot, was staring at the two of them in confusion. Zuko couldn't help but wonder if they'd heard them coming down the hall and turned a dark shade of red.

"Zuko's joining us for dinner," Toph announced, dragging him into the ring and depositing him next Aang. She sat down on his other side.

Zuko sat up as soon as he was free of her and resisted his natural impulse to scoot away as fast as he could. He half-raised his hand in greeting with a nervous chuckle.

"What's he doing here?" Sokka demanded.

"He's here to eat something edible," Toph retorted.

Katara froze and glared at Zuko. He met her gaze steadily.

"Edible?" Aang asked. "What do you mean, 'edible'?"

"I mean Katara's been starving him, that's what." Toph pushed her own bowl of food towards him and ignored the group's startled faces.

Zuko bit his lip. The food was hardly touched and it smelled delicious. His stomach clenched and growled at the aroma. But somehow he felt that eating it now would be like giving in. Katara, no doubt, would hate him for revealing her. And he couldn't resist the feeling that he'd be no better than a beggar if he accepted the food in such a way. He didn't need charity.

So, no matter how much his stomach protested, he straightened his shoulders and set his jaw. "I'm not hungry."

"I'll take it," Sokka volunteered, but Teo and Haru slapped their hands over his mouth before he could go on.

Toph's breath escaped from between her teeth in an exasperated hiss. "I can tell you're lying."

As much as he tried Zuko couldn't take his eyes off of the bowl. The smell was making his mouth water and he struggled to control himself. "I'm not lying," he said.

Toph shrugged.

Silence reigned. Every eye in the room switched back and forth from Toph to Zuko. Zuko swallowed, fighting the urge to reach out towards the bowl. His stomach roared in hunger and he tried not to flinch every time it gurgled. It was as if the food was tantalizing him. Is this really worth starving over? His mind tried to reason with him: the food should have been his, anyway. Katara was deliberately feeding him junk because she had a grudge against him, and he knew it and thought he deserved it. But she was the only one who didn't trust him; was her anger really justified? Was he doing this so that she didn't feel he had tattled on her, and somehow that would make her accept him? By the look on her face she would hate him no matter what he did, so he was sitting here starving for nothing. His resistance wavered.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. His hand darted out and snatched up the bowl and chopsticks and he eagerly shoveled the food into his mouth. It tasted even better than it smelled and in seconds he had cleaned the bowl, but his stomach roared and demanded more.

Toph smirked triumphantly.

Aang looked stricken as he passed his bowl to Zuko as well. Zuko muttered his thanks and set to gulping down that, too. "Katara, what did you do?" Aang demanded as he watched him ravenously devour the food.

Katara clenched her fists and glared daggers at Zuko. "Why do I have to cook his food? He can just get it himself if he's hungry!"

They looked at Zuko expectantly.

Now she was getting ridiculous; she knew perfectly well she'd drenched him for trying to do such a thing, but Zuko had a full mouth of food and was willing to put aside his anger and give her a break. Swallowing, he told the half-truth and said, "She keeps all the cooking tools with her things."

"Katara, you know Zuko wouldn't go through your things!" Sokka said in shock. "Why did you keep it there?"

Katara was getting desperate in her anger. "He could have asked to go through and get them!"

And that was where Zuko snapped. Stupid temper. "I did and you threw me in the fountain!" he snarled.

"Truth," Toph said in surprise.

"I did no such thing!" Katara said indignantly.

"False," Toph declared.

"Is that what you do to people?" Zuko was on his feet now, seething. "If you don't like someone or they get on your nerves for whatever reason, you just attack them?"

"How dare you!" Katara started to lunge for him, but Sokka rested a hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

With a snort, Zuko spun around and marched off to his room.

Unfortunately the day after that . . . and the day after that . . . and the day after that . . . Toph made it a point to come drag him out of his room until he got it in his head that he was eating with them from now on.

He started to find that dinner was the most terrifying part of the day.

Zuko knew that eventually he would confront Katara about her grudge. Now just wasn't the right time. He'd let her settle down a bit; he'd only been with them for a week. If it continued on . . . well, he wouldn't take this forever.