A/N:

Team: Air Nomads

Round: Practice

Category: Drabble

Prompt: "Yue"

Word count: 593

~*Q*~

There wasn't much for Yue to do in her new role as the moon. Her breath caused the tides, and her ghostly essence caused the moon to shine. Spiritually, anyways.

Those things happened naturally. Beyond that, all Yue could do was watch. She watched the waterbenders, and her father, freeze in the North Pole; she watched children in the Earth Kingdom practice bending after dark, in private, away from their families and from the Fire Nation soldiers who might take them away; she watched over the Avatar and his friends. Or, that was her justification. She was mostly watching Sokka.

It was easy to lose sight of her old mortality after becoming something as great and powerful as Yue the Moon Spirit. Sokka was a line connecting her down to the earth. She held tightly to it, like she was seal-turtle-fishing back in her old home, and didn't let go even when the rope cut into her fingers and burned.

Because it wasn't easy watching Sokka move on. She supported him, of course! The Kyoshi warrior was a sweet girl, powerful, and she knew Sokka much better than Yue had come to in her few days spent with him. And yet, at the same time, it was hard to witness. She turned her face away, and the spiritual ones saw the moon go a little dark.

Her best moments were when Sokka sat outside his tent and stared up at the night sky. She had all the power to appear to him in those moments, but she didn't. It would shatter his illusion. He held onto the memory of her, a time when he'd acted at both his best and his worst, and it made him strong.

And all Yue did was watch.

Sokka came to sit with her (as she thought of it) less and less as time passed, which was good. But she couldn't deny that it made her feel lost. It was worst on days of the new moon, which were typically spent in the spirit world. She would find a place empty of other spirits and sit and stare out into the boundless sea beyond, and try to remember who she had been born as.

But beyond those moments, she was glad to have her role. She loved seeing the happiness the moon brought people in the Water Tribes. On nights when Yue decided to show off her power—tsunamis, whirlpools, unstoppable walls of water—she couldn't deny the thrill it gave her, having been a nonbender in her previous life.

Yue didn't interact personally with many people, the Avatar being an exception. But there were always times when she felt her presence was needed. She'd guided ships of lost waterbenders back home. She'd appeared before people seeking guidance from spirits, losing their way with reality.

And one night, she came before a young woman sitting outside a tent with a coat of white makeup still half on her face, twisting a ring nervously around her finger, and paralyzed at the prospect of the next day.

Yue materialized before her, all ivory ribbons and flowing gown, and the woman could only gape.

"Thank you," she told her. "Please, take good care of Sokka. He needs someone like you. He's not the brightest, sometimes, is he?"

"I…" Suki stammered.

"Tell him I wish him happiness in your marriage."

The moon left smears of light on Suki's face and hands as Yue faded away, leaving Suki still as a statue in the dark. The moon spirit retreated to the heavens, and kept watch.

~*Q*~

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope that all these little stories will be enjoyable even outside of the contest. Feel free to leave a review if you liked it.

Captain of the Air Nomads, signing out!

~*Akirys*~