Disclaimer: Don't own.
A/N: Spelling of Kwa mai is taken from SCWLC in her story "Airbender's Child: Earth." I looked on the Avatar wiki and regular wiki and imdb and none of them told me a) that Katara used the name as an alias or b) how to spell it. Ps these are my tragic steam baby names, let me share them with you.
Zuko maybe the supreme ruler of the Fire Nation, but Katara ruled the kitchen. At first the chefs in the kitchen tried to keep her out. She, however, insisted that she had every right to be there: she was only dating Zuko at the time, she could easily cook her own meals and it wouldn't be anything for them to worry about. She even sweet-talked them into letting her cook dinner for Zuko one night (the staff liked her, she said please and thank you and spoke to them like people).
As Fire Lady they protested a little more. It just wasn't proper for her to be cooking. At this point she relented, her other duties were beginning to take up more of her time. She did, however, look over the menu for the week and organized and planned every important dinner or other event and always made it a point to taste everything.
On Ember Island, however, everything was different. She made their meals and everyone helped with the shopping. Katara may have been the Fire Lady, a Master waterbender, and a warrior but she was also a Water Tribe woman and she wanted to cook for her family.
She also made it part of her duty as a mother to teach her children to cook. Her daughters and sons. One too many inedible meals from Sokka and just plain horrible meals from Zuko instilled in Katara the desire to know that all of her children could feed themselves if need be. However, not all of them were happy about this.
Irzan, at eleven, had mastered the annoyed glare his father had worn often as a teenager. He currently had it plastered on his face while glaring at his three siblings who were helping. The fourth, Lee, was only seven months and being entertained by Zuko who sat at the table in the kitchen. Nine-year-old Marukku stirred the pot with his waterbending, happy to be practicing though only barely paying attention as to how to make five flavor soup.
Kyra, however, listened intently to everything Katara said. She tried to remember how much broth was needed and how much salt should be added and when. The seven year old brushed a strand of her curly black hair behind her ear while trying to remember if the cabbage or the onion went in first.
Kwa mai, at almost three as she claimed, happily waited till it was her turn to dump the contents of the bowl Katara had given her into the soup. Katara, for her part, hoped the girl didn't drop anything; Kwa mai had the most energy of all Katara's children and a tendency to break things around her. Katara hoped, for the sake of the furniture and structure of the palace and summerhouse that Kwa mai wasn't a firebender.
"Irzan, why don't you start cutting up the meat?" Katara hoped this would help him out of his mood.
"Fine," he huffed. Katara was beginning to get tired of this. They were on vacation and he knew this happened. Last year he liked it and she had no idea what had changed in her son.
"If you want to do something else I understand. I know you have that book of history to read while you're here. Maybe you could work on that if you don't want to help out. But," and here she hoped to spark his interest, "for desert we're making honey cakes with moon peaches. If you don't want to learn how to make that I'll understand," a little guilt wouldn't hurt this either.
Irzan thought about this. On the one hand that stupid girl Momoka said cooking was for girls and would not let him forget that. On the other if he knew how to make his favorite desert maybe he could make it for himself more often. Yeah, that was a good plan. Plus the girl would never know. "No, I'll stay and help. Can you please hand me the knife Mom?"
After setting him up with the meat Katara glanced at Zuko. He was smirking at her manipulation. He knew how much Irzan loved those cakes and knew Katara kept putting off teaching the children how to make them for that reason. He hoped the boy would not only make them for himself though.
Years later Zuko's hope was confirmed when Irzan made honey cakes with moon peaches for Momoka's birthday and got a kiss in return.
A/N: Momoka's name is chosen for a reason: according to behindthename it means either peach tree flower or peach tree perfume.