"Well, what do you guys think?"

"Don't tell me you're even considering it Aang!"

"C'mon Katara!"

"Aang, I will never trust that piece of lying Fire Nation filth. He stole my mother's necklace and has tried to kill us time and again.!"

"Cool it Suger Queen and let the rest of us get our say."

The Gaang looked at Toph who smirked and continued "I think we should let them join. Now before you get on me for it let me explain. Firstly, I want Iroh to come along, because he's awesome. If I have to deal with a grumpy nephew then I'm fine with that. Secondly, in case you all haven't noticed, after I'm done pounding some Earthbending awesomeness into Twinkletoes then he's gonna have to find a firebending teacher. Now we're being offered two on a silver platter. I heard stories about the Dragon of the West, that's Iroh, and his Firebending made the rest of the benders in the army look like they were using firecrackers."

They all took a moment to take in what Toph had said, then Aang turned to Sokka.

"What do you think Sokka?"

"I don't know. I will admit that Iroh seems like an alright guy and we're a bit short on Firebenders to teach Aang. I'll let them join but I'll be watching them closely."

"What do you think Aang?"

"I think we should let them join. Before you protest let me explain. Remember when you guys were sick and I had you suck on those frogs."

"Remember! I had a wart on my throat flap for weeks after I spit it out!"

"I looked and told you there was no wart!"

"Anyway, I got captured by the Fire Nation and was brought to one of their fortresses. They chained me up and I couldn't escape. But a guy in a mask called the Blue Spirit saved me."

"Where are you going with this?"

"That guy was Zuko, he personally risked his life to get me out of there. Also, back in that fight yesterday he helped us fence in Azula. He came around eventually and helped us in the fight."

All eyes turned to Katara and she looked mutinous but sighed and said "I'll go along with this if you all want. But remember, I don't trust him."

Iroh was watching Zuko drink his tea without complain, quite a rare occurrence, when Aang zoomed in on an Air-scooter.

"Good knews, you'll be joining us for now."

Iroh grinned along with Aang as they both looked at Zuko. Zuko had managed to regain his composure by now and just stared sullenly at the floor. Aang got off of his scooter and said to Zuko in a cheerful voice "I never got to thank you for that save from the Yu Yan Archer fortress, so thanks."

Zuko glanced up and gave a small nod, then said "I could've saved you in transit to the Fire Nation, but they might've tortured you, or Zhao might've at least."

He shut his jaw abruptly at what he had said but Aang just grinned all the wider. Iroh thought he would like to hear that story later but right now they had things to take care of. He stood up and good naturedly said that they'd better pack and get going.

While they were loading their stuff onto Appa Zuko found himself alone with Katara. He was going to leave but she blocked the doorway. He looked into her eyes and she said in a low and dangerous voice "you may have the others fooled with your sob story but my brother and I know what the Fire Nation will do to get what they want. Don't think that if I catch one whiff of trouble, see one reason that you would hurt us. Then I won't hesitate to get rid of you, permanently!"

She walked out and after a few moments, Zuko followed. He supposed he should've expected it. As they climbed onto the Bison Zuko noticed that the Water Tribe peasants helped Iroh but only Toph and Aang extended a helping hand to him. He was fine with that, he would give them space if they wanted it.

They took off and left the abandoned village behind.

Later that day, they landed. At first Zuko wondered why, but then he realized that the Avatar had to practice Earthbending. He was about to sit down and wait until they would take off again when Iroh beckoned him over.

"Zuko I have decided that since we are going to be pursued by Azula, it's time for you to start practicing more advanced Firebending techniques."

Zuko smiled widely, finally he was moving on. Iroh and he first did the breathing exercises as that helped in firebending. Then Iroh began to teach him. First he taught him how to better control his fire and shoot bigger Fireballs. Then he showed Zuko lightning.

When the lightning arced out of Iroh's fingertips and shot into the canyon wall everyone stopped what they were doing and stared.

"Woooow, how'd you do that Iroh!"

"It is a very advanced Firbending technique. Zuko, I want you to try it now."

Zuko tried but it only resulted in a large explosion that knocked him back. He heard some laughter and knew who it was, the water tribe peasants. He tried again and again and all that he got was an explosion right in his face and the mocking laughter of the boy and the girl. He gritted his teeth; he'd like to see how they would've done having to live through a life like his.

Then Iroh instead decided to teach him him the lightning redirection technique. This intrigued Zuko but he wasn't the only one. The Waterbender came walking over and said "that looks like a waterbending move, why are you doing that, I thought you just stuck to your own element?"

"If you take experience and knowledge from only one area it can become stale. If you branch out and try other things then you may find new possibilites open up. Perhaps you should try some Firebending ideals and try and apply them to waterbending."

All in all the rest of the lesson went quite well until the end. Zuko hated that he'd done all that practicing just to have Iroh be too scared to actually try it out. But he couldn't persuade him otherwise so with a sigh he let it go and sat to watch the Avatar attempting Earthbending.

The Avatar, powerful bender that he was, wasn't having very much success Earthebending. Then Toph stomped over to Zuko and whispered something in his ear. Zuko heard it, stared at her, and then grinned and agreed. This should be fun.

Aang was in a tunnel about twice his height and 3 times that wide. Toph had put him in here as part of a training exercise meant to help him learn Earthbending. He heard a rumbling and then saw that a solid wall had appeared on one end and was moving straight for him. He blanched and began running, completely forgetting about any attempt to try and Earthbend. Then suddenly fire leapt up before him and a wall of fire was blocking his way out.

He tried to blast it out of the way with Air but nothing happened. He had no water and he stared fearfully as the stone wall drew closer and closer, gaining speed. It was close enough for him to leap at and touch when he suddenly planted his feet, remembering what Toph had taught him, and thrust his arms forward. The wall disintegrated to reveal a smiling Toph standing right behind it. Aang's eyes bugged out.

"IT WAS YOU!" he shouted. He turned to see that the flames had stopped and Zuko was grinning as he leaned against the wall.

"But how'd you get the flames to be so strong."

"There was a wall behind them. I was just bending through some tubes Toph had made."

"Why'd you do all that guys?"

"You earthbent didn't you."

Comprehension gleamed in Aang's eyes and he leapt in the air, whooping that he'd finally earthbent. Then he cracked his skull on the ceiling.

Toph grinned at Aang fell back to earth, dazed.

"You still have a lot to learn Twinkletoes."

Hope you liked this, I'm sorry for the long update gap.