Disclaimer: I don't own Sokka and Suki. But Suki owns Sokka. ;)

A/N: I wrote these three drabbles together, to kind of outline the Sukka wedding that we all know lay just beyond canon. ;) Instead of showing the wedding itself though, I decided to focus on events surrounding the wedding...and got these little snapshots.

Perfection

"Sokka, you should sleep."

Katara leaned against the doorframe of her brother's room and watched him with a worried expression in her blue eyes.

"Can't yet," he muttered in reply, just as he had the other four times she'd come to tell him. He turned the object in his hands over, looking at it from every angle. He brought it close to his face, held it away, and then tossed it over his shoulder with a frustrated growl. It hit the wall a few feet from Katara and fell down onto a small pile of smooth, flat blue stones that had also been discarded.

"Sokka, you're going to run out of sea stone. Get some rest, and you'll do better in the morning."

"I need to have it done by morning!" Sokka grabbed another piece of blue stone from a pile on the corner of the table and picked up a short whalebone knife with a razor point.

Katara came to the edge of the table, shaking her head with worry when she saw her brother's face. Sokka had shadows under his eyes, and he looked disheveled and exhausted. His eyes were narrowed as he carefully brought the tip of the knife to the stone and chipped off a tiny bit. Then he glanced up at Katara.

"Look, I know you're concerned, but I just need to get the design right. Then I'll go to sleep." Sokka etched a few more lines, held the stone up for inspection, and then made a face. He threw it into the rejected pile.

Katara glanced toward the stack of supposedly ruined stones. They all had crude, scratchy marks crisscrossing them. Some of them vaguely resembled waves, others looked like they might have been a moon or sun. The waterbender bit back a sigh. Sokka was no artist, much as he believed himself to be one. If he was going for a perfect design, he could be here for days.

"You know, it doesn't have to be perfect," Katara teased him gently. "Suki will love it no matter what it looks like, if only because it means she gets to marry you."

"I know she will." Sokka sorted through his stack of still untouched stones, looking for a good one. "But that's exactly why I have to make it perfect."

Katara didn't quite follow that line of logic, but she stayed quiet. When Sokka got like this, he could be incredibly stubborn. She asked her next question already knowing the answer, but desperate to make her brother rest a little.

"Do you want me to sort of...outline some patterns? Then you could pick one and..."

Sokka gave her a disgusted look. Katara sighed. She should have known better than to try that approach. Ignoring her now, Sokka meticulously selected a new stone, one with a flat face and smoothly curved sides.

Katara huffed with exasperation and turned to leave, only to see a new, shorter figure in the doorway, outlined by the moonlight. Toph. So she wasn't the only one worried about Sokka falling asleep and stabbing himself with the carving knife, or worse.

She was about to say something to tell the blind earthbender that it was pointless to try and budge Sokka, when Toph called out, "Hey, Snoozles, come on and start living up to your nickname!"

Sokka jumped in his chair, not expecting the new, strident voice. Katara saw his shoulders tense, and then he stood up and turned with an angry expression on his face. He held up the stone.

"Now look what you made me do Toph! Will all of you please stop interrupting me? No wonder I can't finish the stupid…" His shouting trailed off as he looked closer at the stone. Katara could see a fine, wavy line had been scarred across the blue rock, which Sokka must have carved on accident when Toph had startled him. Now he held the stone up close to his face, and a sudden look of delighted comprehension crossed his face.

"I get it now! I have to make the movements quicker...that's perfect! And maybe a few...yes!" Mumbling excitedly to himself, he sat down and started working furiously, the carving knife moving with precise confidence now.

Katara allowed a weary smile to cross her face. She turned to Toph, who had walked in and was now standing beside her. "Thank you," she whispered earnestly, squeezing the earthbender's shoulder. "Now we can all get some sleep."

Toph shrugged, smiling slightly. "I'm not exactly sure what I did...but I'm glad it helped I guess." Of course, Toph would rather have been eaten by the Unagi than ever reveal that she had felt exactly where the stone, the knife, and Sokka were positioned, and that she had timed her shout perfectly on purpose. No one ever needed to know.

So the two of them stood watching with resigned affection on their faces as Sokka worked with the manic intensity of a mad scientist, his carving knife scratching quick and soft on the smooth blue stone.