Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or anything related to it.

Chapter Six

The group had traveled another three relatively uneventful days. Most of their traveling was done in the sky, but whenever they spot a suitable place for resting, they would land and stretch their legs, allowing Appa to rest. By now, both Aang and Zuko's bending abilities have returned, so Aang would use this time to practice earthbending with Toph, then waterbending with Katara while Iroh observed with interest. Zuko, finding himself with nothing better to do, would sometimes watch as well, though with more discretion. Other times he would meditate on his own. Sokka, the only non-bender, would busy himself with tasks such as hunting, sharpening his tools, and grooming Appa while the others engrossed themselves in their "magic." When break time ends, they'd once again take to the sky. And when night draws near, they would seek a site to set up camp. Such was the general routine the group had fallen into.

It was now sunset, and Zuko was eating his dinner alone away from everyone else like most times. Then again, he really wasn't exactly alone. Momo was with him. The lemur had developed a habit of sitting beside the prince during meals and just looking up at him as though he was expecting something. Why? Because there was something to be expected.

Zuko glanced at his tiny companion who only stared back up at him with blinking eyes. The boy then dug around his bowl until he found that night's stew surprise. Picking it up with is fingers, he studied it for a moment before passing it off to Momo. "Here you go," he said in monotone. "This time it's a grasshopper fly larva."

He watched Momo chomp away at his prize then resumed eating himself. It used to bother him to eat food knowing that a live something or other had just been swimming in it. But after about the fifth time, he became desensitized. "There sure are a lot of bugs out here in the wild," he mused with a heavy sigh.

When Zuko was finished with his food, Momo grabbed his empty bowl and ran off, disappearing behind the bushes to take it back to camp. The service was the lemur's idea of a fair trade for the insect.

After lingering a while longer, Zuko decided that he, too, should return to camp. As he turned around, he saw Katara leaning up against a tree not too far away with her arms crossed, just watching him.

No. Staring at him might be a better description.

Actually…scratch that as well. Trying to glare him to death was more like it.

The Water Tribe siblings had been watching Zuko's every move. Constantly. Needless to say, the prince was feeling just a tad bit annoyed. "Can I help you with something?"

"You? Help? That would be a first," she scoffed.

"Then would you mind stop staring at me? It's disturbing."

"Hate to break it to you, but liars lose their rights to demand such things, Your Highness." Katara noted once again the hurtful expression that flashed across his features.

Zuko looked away. "I see. So you're doing that 'watching me' thing your brother won't shut up about."

Katara didn't answer, but that was exactly what she was doing. In truth, she was secretly hoping that he would pull some sort of attack. That way, she would have an excuse to get rid of him. But much to her disappointment, nothing of that nature had come to pass.

"Will you give it a rest already?!" he said, getting more irritable. "I haven't done anything suspicious this whole time, have I?"

"That doesn't really say a whole lot, seeing as how you tend to change so often."

Internally, Zuko was pulling his hair out in frustration. All right, so he brought this on himself. But hadn't he been sucking it up and keeping quiet so far? There was only so much he could take, no matter how guilty he felt.

The prince stormed up to the waterbender. "I've had just about enough of you," he hissed. "What more do you want from me? I've apologized. And with the steady diet of insects you've been TRYING to feed me, I'd say that more than makes us even."

Katara's eyes widened as her hands flew up to suppress the sudden laugh that was about to escape her lips. Oh, so he knew about that… Straightening up with her head held high, she smirked defiantly in his face. "Extra protein. It's good for you."

Zuko scowled. "Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Well, our fight at Ba Sing Se did end a bit prematurely," she said, not backing away.

He narrowed his eyes. "If I win, you leave me alone."

She mirrored his expression. "If I win, you leave altogether!"

As soon as the terms were made, the two of them jumped right into it.

Zuko summoned the fire from within, intent on gaining an advantage by dealing the first blow. Katara, however, beat him to the punch. Swiftly uncorking her waterskin without her opponent's notice, she forced him back with a blast of water to the chest. Calling the liquid back to her, Katara's body whirled around once with the momentum before launching a series of water whip attacks.

Zuko back flipped away to put some distance between himself and the waterbender. He'd fought her enough times to know how far her water whip would reach using just the amount of water from her waterskin. He was careful to remain at a constant distance that was just barely out of her reach, moving back a step whenever she advanced and stepping forth to the beat of her retreat, never allowing her near him, forcing her to use the whip to try to reach him.

Zuko quickly memorized the rhythm of Katara's attacks. As she made her fourth strike of the water whip, stretching it out towards him again, Zuko dodged it and closed the distance between them with lightning speed. Caught off guard in mid strike, Katara was unable to switch to defense in time.

Zuko went on the offense, throwing a continuous string of flame-laced strikes, pushing her back until suddenly, he found his right foot unable to move. Sparing a moment to look down, he realized Katara had somehow managed to encase his foot in ice, locking it in place to the ground.

Taking advantage of the firebender's distraction, Katara wrapped the rest of her water around both of her forearms, freezing them into blade-like icicles with a sharp edge running along the inside length of her arms, coming to a point at the end of her fingertips. The distraction lasted but a few seconds, but that was all the time she needed. By the time Zuko looked back up, her arms were already swinging in like a pair of scissors, aiming to snip off his head.

Zuko back flipped not a fraction of a second too soon in evasion. As his feet came up, they hooked themselves under Katara's arms, picking her up along the way and tossing her over.

Katara was now lying on her back with the wind knocked out of her. Zuko straddled her, his knees pinning her arms to her sides, his flaming fist held mere inches from her face. She was panting hard and could barely see through the flames, but she had no doubt he must have been wearing a smug look on his features by now.

With the flames so close, the heat was nearly unbearable. Katara turned her head to the side. "All right, all right! You win." Grudgingly, she admitted defeat.

Zuko smirked. "That's what I thought." He got to his feet and began to walk away, releasing her from her prison. "The sun has set, the moon is out, and still you were defeated," he said casually. "Seems you're losing your touch, waterbender."

"Why, you arrogant…!" Katara mumbled as she scrambled to her feet, steaming with anger. "I want a rematch!!" she yelled after him.

Zuko stopped, his smirk still on his face. "Tomorrow. Same time." That said, he left.

Katara seethed some more as she kicked a rock in attempt to relieve her frustration. Losing my touch, am I? Well, I'll show YOU, you stupid, arrogant, firebending CREEP! After dealing a second kick to another unfortunate rock, she stomped off in the opposite direction.

When both benders disappeared, Toph stepped into the clearing. With all that rumbling those two were generating in the earth, it was hard for her not to notice. With her arms folded and a sly grin on her face, the earthbender had but one decision to make: Which one should she mess with?

While it was tempting to go after Katara to point and laugh in her face for losing so quickly to the one she despised so much, Toph decided to trail after Zuko instead. After all, there hasn't been a dull moment since the banished prince joined their merry little gang. Even though Toph didn't care much one way or the other about Zuko to begin with, the fact that all the people around her had such strong feelings about him, dividing at polar opposites, did appeal to her curiosity.

When she caught up with him, he was perched on a rock beside a cliff, brooding. "Why so glum?" she asked, her voice a little too cheerful to seem consoling. "You won, didn't you?"

Zuko spared a glance her way. "What? You want a fight, too?"

Toph grinned. "No. Not today." She had to admit she did feel just a wee bit sorry for him, remember the hard time she had adjusting to the group in the beginning as well. The poor guy was having such trouble dealing with the Water Tribe siblings. They weren't taking to him very well, for obvious reasons. But for Toph, it was easy enough to "see" that there wasn't anything truly menacing about the clump of depression sitting before her.

"Hey, Sparky. Did you know that people can lie with the things they say and do, but their heartbeats always tell the truth?" she began conversationally as she summoned a stool from the earth to sit on. "I can tell how someone feels or if he's telling the truth just from the way his heart beats."

Zuko just looked at her with a confused frown, unsure where this topic came from. "How?" he asked, despite himself.

"With vibrations through the earth. When your heart pumps, the pulsing carries through the earth to a certain degree. If I pay attention, I can pick it up with my feet." She raised a foot and wiggled her toes.

"That's rather unbelievable," he said, skeptical.

"What can I say," Toph shrugged. "I'm an earthbending genius. I make the impossible possible."

He still couldn't figure out where she was going with this. "And so?"

"And sooo…I can tell you're not scheming some evil plot or anything like that. You're more…confused and agitated." She waved a casual hand in the air.

"Excuse me?"

She nodded to herself thoughtfully, chin in hand. "Yeah…something like…clueless."

"What?!" Zuko exclaimed, more indignant this time.

"You don't know what the heck you're doing," she continued listing off casually, ignoring his outburst.

He was rather baffled by what he was hearing.

"You're walking around in a haze." She was on a role and thoroughly enjoying the moment. "You're so lost you can hardly tell which way is up."

"Listen, you!" Now Zuko was really beginning to get mad. He wasn't just going to sit there and let his ego get stabbed with pinpoint accuracy without doing anything about it. "If you came here just to—"

Toph held up a hand in the universal stop sign, cutting him off. "I'm JUST trying to say…I believe you."

Zuko was stunned and speechless as he tried to process what just happened. Did she really say what he thought she said?

"So they say you have a big o' scar on your face," she said after a brief pause, upbeat and nonchalant as ever.

Zuko felt like he had been thrown into a little whirlwind, and his brain had to really work at it in order to keep up with her pace. When her words finally registered, he narrowed his eyes slightly, growing suspicious again. "What of it?"

"Just curious," the earthbender shrugged. "Mind if I see it?"

"What? No!" the prince responded reflexively. "I mean…how?" His mood switched from being defensive to being confused in a flash.

"Like this," she said, and she was standing in front of him with his face cupped in her hands before he knew it.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded as he tried to pull away, but she held him firmly in place

"Shh! Don't move." She began moving both of her hands up his cheeks until her fingers grazed the scarred tissue around his eye.

Under the moonlight, Zuko could see her brows furrowing ever so slightly when she came in contact with the scar. The prince certainly wasn't the most comfortable with his current situation, but the gentleness with which this child was touching his face somehow prevented him from simply pushing her away and bolting.

Toph's fingers moved slowly over his cheekbones, back to his ears, up his temples, and over his forehead, reading his features with her hands. Then her thumbs traced lightly down the bridge of his nose to sweep across the bottom of his eyes. Cupping his cheeks in her palms again, she rubbed her right thumb delicately over his scar. "Does it still hurt?"

"It's a scar," he replied, deadpan. "It doesn't hurt."

Toph paused a moment as if to consider his words. "Tsk, tsk… What did I just tell you about heartbeats and lies, hmm, Sparky?" She pinched his cheeks. Hard. The firebender's indignant growl only made her grin and chuckle. She was certain he would have frowned if not for her tight grip on his cheeks.

To her surprise, Zuko returned her pinch, matching her strength. She yelped at first, realizing it wasn't quite as fun to be at the receiving end. But eventually, the absurdity of what they were doing only made her laugh harder.

Seeing this, even Zuko had to smile a little. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the earthbender. She was exhausting at times, though not entirely unpleasant. She seemed to thrive on irritating him, but her cheeky attitude was somewhat refreshing. Idly, Zuko wondered if this might be akin to what it would be like if one were to have a little sister who was not a sadistic maniac.

Iroh raised the cup to his lips to take another sip of his tea while, behind the cup, his eyes moved steadily from left to right then back to the left again, trailing the waterbender who was pacing restlessly before him. From the look on her face, the old man could tell that the girl wanted to speak with him about something. But after walking over fifty circles in front of him, she still hadn't made up her mind one way or the other. Although Iroh considered himself to be a relatively patient man, his eyes were definitely getting tired. "Katara, you seem a little…troubled. Perhaps I can be of service?"

Katara looked over at Iroh, unaware that he had been watching her this entire time. Heaving a sigh, she went over to sit by the campfire across from him. She was still irate from losing her match, but what really nagged at her was that melancholic look she'd seen twice now in that arrogant prince's eyes. She had ignored it both times, but now she was beginning to doubt herself. Was she wrong? It wasn't that she cared much about Zuko, but she'd hate to be wrong.

She looked over at Iroh, who seemed to be patiently waiting for her to gather her thoughts, then looked away again with a sigh as she fidgeted with her fingers. "Zuko had said once…that the Fire Nation took his mother away…"

The old firebender arched a surprising brow. "Did he now?" This was most unexpected, since his nephew never spoke of his mother. Iroh always tried to avoid mentioning her name in Zuko's presence, knowing the painful memories it would stir up. Returning his attention to the girl before him, he said, "But I'm afraid if you would like to know more about that, you will have to ask him."

Katara shook her head, her eyes downcast. "No… I only wish for you to confirm for me. Is that the truth? Or did he lie to me?"

"I see…" Iroh took another sip of his tea then nodded in understanding. "Well, dear Katara. Unfortunately for my nephew, that is indeed the truth."

Katara grasped at her mother's pendant around her neck, suddenly feeling guilty for accusing Zuko of fabricating that story to prey on her trust, remembering that look in his eyes.

This, of course, did not go unnoticed. Iroh didn't know exactly what had happened between his nephew and the waterbender, but he thought he probably had a pretty good idea. "After you get to know him, you will find that my nephew," he shook his head with a small chuckle, "is a terrible liar."

The old man looked inward as he recalled a distant past. "I remember once, it was before the siege on Ba Sing Se and Zuko was still a young child, coming back from his training, he passed by the banquet hall where the servants were preparing food and decorations for his father's birthday celebration. Hungry and tired, he was captivated by the very appetizing birthday cake that had been set out on the table. He went and cut a slice for himself when he thought no one was watching." Iroh grinned at Katara. "But I was there, and I saw it all. He hid it behind his back when he saw me approaching, a huge cream-covered grin on his face. When I asked him who took a piece of the cake, he just gave his most innocent shrug. So I said, 'It's a shame that person's not around, because I would like to know if the cake's any good myself.' At that, his eyes brightened and he said, 'Oh, it's delicious, Uncle! Here, try it!' And he produced the half-eaten slice he'd been hiding behind his back." Iroh laughed with another shake of the head. "I'll never forget the embarrassed and panicked look on his face when he realized his blunder."

Although it was difficult for her to imagine Zuko as a bright-eyed innocent child, Katara gave a half-hearted smile, recognizing the old man's efforts in trying to brighten her mood. "Did he get into trouble?" she asked politely. "I won't be surprised if heads rolled for that stunt."

"Nobody noticed because Zuko and I patched the cake up with the extra frosting I had from the royal kitchen. We did a splendid job, if I do say so myself. It was good as new!" he beamed proudly.

Katara cocked a questioning brow. "Was it your job to oversee such things? Seems odd for someone of your status."

Iroh laughed. "Oh, no, my dear. I wasn't there to oversee anything. I was there to get a piece of cake for myself as well. Why else do you think I would be carrying extra frosting around with me?"

At that, Katara had to laugh, all the while wondering if this man truly was the fearsome Dragon of the West.

A/N: OK, I'm done with the bugs, I swear. Haha! Fight sequences are difficult. Some feedback on whether or not the Zuko vs. Katara bit was understandable would be nice. Reviews appreciated! Many thanks for reading!