Disclaimer: I do not own "Avatar." These totally badical rights belong to Nickelodeon alone. All characters © the wonderful minds of Mike and Brian.

Author's Notes: OK y'all, go easy on me. This is my first Avatar fic, and I'm guessing it'll be my last. I'm more of a Kim Possible person anyways. But since Kiminator Mark XII is so into it, I decided to give it a try since Avatar's a pretty bon-diggity show. :) As usual, read and leave a review if you like.

A Warrior's Prayer

Sokka didn't consider himself perfect. In fact, he was probably as imperfect as they came.

…

No really, think about it. When he and Katara first started this whole… Avatar… thing, he was loud and obnoxious and kind of a know it all. He thought of himself as the best warrior in the whole Southern Water Tribe—probably even in the whole nation. He thought he knew all he needed to know about fighting and battle and bloodshed. He thought he was good enough to teach others in the sacred and terrible art of warfare. When his mother died at the hands of the Fire Nation and his father abandoned their family to fight in the war, he thought he knew everything about heartache. About pain. About long-kept suffering that would always resurface, begging to be released… only to be shoved down under the premise that "real warriors didn't feel pain."

And then he met Yue.

And his whole world went berserk.

Oh, but she was lovely. Oh, she was smart. Adventurous. Beautiful. Daring. Endearing. A true princess in his eyes. Sokka couldn't help but still think about that fateful trip to the North Pole to find Katara a master Waterbender.

The brown-haired teen looked around his clifftop perch. He saw the three small silhouettes of Aang, Katara, and Toph up front. Haru and the others were hidden from view behind Appa (and Momo, of course). To the left were dark painted mountains and sparkling, dew-covered treetops. On the right was more of the cliff, and beyond that, the sea in all its glory.

Sokka sighed and cast his icy blue gaze out over the ocean. It was such a breathtaking night—the stars reflected off the rippling waters and seemed to dance in all their shining glory. And the moon… it was beautiful tonight.

She was beautiful tonight.

And without even noticing, his young mind had once again been shifted to thoughts of his lovely princess. Her exotic white hair, and deep blue eyes that sparkled with familiarity yet held a depth that no mortal man could understand. He felt so unworthy of her affections back then. He still did.

Come on, she was the Moon Spirit for crying out loud. She had done so much for the people of the world, and they didn't even know it. Yue had always loved people, even from the very beginning. Yes, she was kind of shy when she met strangers, but once you got to know her, she was so kind, so loving. So gentle. She didn't know how to say 'no.'

Maybe this was why she was up there. She was destined to watch and protect and cast the moon's enlightening glow on Benders and non-Benders all over the world. Even in the Fire Nation.

But especially the Waterbenders.

Now Sokka knew absolutely nothing about Bending. He knew Benders, he respected them (somewhat), and he envied them most of the time. But there was a special connection between a Waterbender and the moon, especially a full one, that he just could not comprehend. This weird relationship was a give-take, a pact of power and strength that was much like those of the Firebenders' to the sun. But somehow, this was different. Firebending was about exerting energy from your center to create fire. But Waterbending was a magic all in its own—full of, yes, power, but also mystery and secrets. In order to understand the magic, you had to be a Bender.

Ugh. He hated that. He had always wanted to be a Waterbender, even from the very beginning. Yes, he used to criticize Katara a lot, often calling her "freak with magic powers."

But when they met Aang, Toph, even Appa—heck, let's throw in Zuko and Iroh for good measure—he felt like the freak. A freak without magical powers.

Don't get Sokka wrong; he had already been through this. He realized he was something special on his own, and with his kind of training, logic, and humor, he really meant a lot to the team. There were probably a total of, like, two swords on the entire planet that were made out of a meteorite, and he had one of them.

He smiled grimly. He loved his sword, and he obviously loved his boomerang. But he still wished he was a Bender just for the sake of the relationship. Oh, what he wouldn't give to talk to Yue just one more time. To see her lovely face smiling at him once again. To kiss her, even just one more time.

Beautiful.

Sokka's gaze traveled up from the pounding surf toward the half-moon overhead. A light breeze blew. "You're beautiful," he said. Yeah, call him cliché, call him soft, a romantic, whatever. He didn't care. She really was lovely this time of night. She took his breath away every time.

Every. Time.

A thought occurred to him. He loved her. He loved her more than his sword, his boomerang, Hawkie, his status as "the funny guy" of the team… all that was just whatever to him. But Yue, in all her goodness, with all of her flaws, was more precious to him than any of these things.

Now let's not forget Katara. Yes, Sokka loved her very much too. But that's because she was his sister. He would do anything for her just because of all they had been through together, all the memories they shared. Although her heart belonged to Aang, he would be willing to step in and give one heck of a Water Tribe fight if anything ever happened to hurt her.

Like that fateful day Aang tried playing with Firebending. Yes, he would've protected Katara from the Avatar himself. If it ever came to that.

That's just the kind of guy Sokka was—he was totally and completely willing to stand up for whomever happened to be in trouble. He also stood up for what he thought was right. Sometimes he was wrong, but he always fought for it. And over the years, Sokka had gained the wisdom to know when to admit he was wrong. It was like that proverb he had heard a few times before.

Grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage

To change the things I can,

And wisdom

To know the difference.

OK, so it wasn't really a proverb per se, but it was philosophical and it made him sound really smart. (In reality, he read it off a fortune cookie from a tea house in Omashu.) But that was beside the point! After realizing what a showoffy jerk he used to be, he vowed to always admit when he was wrong and think about others' advice, even if it didn't make any sense at the time. It had done him good so far.

Footsteps behind him jostled Sokka out of his thoughts. He turned to see a figure standing behind him. Toph's crude yet feminine features and film-covered eyes were illuminated in the moonlight. "Hey."

"You scared the crap outta me." Sokka made a face and moved over to make some room for her. "Is there any particular reason you decided to come over here and give me a heart attack?"

The Earthbender sat down, and Sokka thought he saw a small smile. "I could tell you needed some company."

He snorted. "Nuh-uh."

"Yeah huh!" Toph insisted. "Remember? I can practically read your feelings through the ground."

"Whatever." He crossed his arms childishly and turned back towards the sea. There was a quiet silence between them—the kind made from one person thinking over their feelings of the other, and the second person completely oblivious to these feelings.

Finally Toph said, "I don't know how much good this will do, but just for the heck of it… I'm sorry."

The Water Tribe boy looked at her with those piercing eyes of blue. "What?"

"I said I'm sorry… y'know for what it's worth." She tilted her head toward the sky, and for a moment Sokka actually thought she could see the moon. "I heard about Yue."

Sokka felt his heart jump. "Oh, yeah." It would've been better if he hadn't totally squeaked out that last 'eah.'

He cleared his throat. "Who… who told you?"

She smiled. "Katara."

"Figures," he muttered. "I should have a talk with her later about personal privacy."

Toph was silent. "She really cares about you, you know," she said finally.

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's just… Well, I've already told you all that. How Katara filled in for Mom after she died? I always think of her as either my matriarch or just… Katara, my little sister. It never really occurred to me that she cared about me… about us… as a family." He shook his head and laughed a little. "I guess Aang really changed all that."

Toph spoke, "It's amazing what one person can do to change your life."

Sokka looked at her funny. "Toph, I think that's the wisest, most thought out sentence you've said your entire life.

"What the crap is wrong with you?! Because whatever it is, we can fix it…"

"Oh shut up, Sokka," she laughed. "I'm just having a really good day."

"Yeeah… now this is where you start hacking loogies and talk about picking your toes. I return to normal, you return to normal, and everyone goes home happy."

Toph thumped her calloused feet against the cliff face. "Whatever… I totally got that off Iroh anyway."

"Figures."

And then there was that silence again. Someone coughed, and Toph got up to leave. "Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning, Sparky."

"Sparky?"

Sokka could hear the smile in her voice. "Yeah. Always up at the crack of dawn reading this letter or drawing this map. And besides, you're the guy that named Sparky Sparky Boom Man."

"You mean 'Combustion Man,' don't you?"

"Whatever. It's all the same to me. Now if you'll let me go, I'm gonna go catch some Z's before dawn comes and I completely lose my mind."

He chuckled. "'Night Toph."

She growled something like "'Night, Sokka," and calmly walked away in that Earthbender way of hers. As he followed her with his eyes, he caught sight of a slim silhouette in the dark. Katara.

She had been hurt so badly by that crazy old Waterbender. Granted, all of them had, at one time or another, "taken one for the team," but never quite to the extent that Katara had. She had been so caring, so trusting, so willing to learn… only to have her innocence destroyed.

It made Sokka very, very angry. But since he wasn't a Bender, there wasn't anything he could do to help. He could only ask others to intervene in her nightmares. And all he could hope to do as a big brother was sit by her bedside and wait until she woke up. Then he would be there to comfort her and chase away all the horrible dreams that had come stalking her in the darkness.

He lifted his eyes toward Heaven and said in a low voice, "Yue, I love my sister Katara. Like so many people who might find themselves in her place, she is being plagued with nightmares." He took a breath. "Yue, you were always a princess to me, and I think you still are. And even if I can't see you and talk to you, I still want you to grant me one single wish tonight.

"Please take care of Katara. She's a Waterbender, so she draws power from the moon." Sokka looked at the sleeping form of his sister. "I don't want her to be a Bloodbender anymore. Paint her skies with stars and her dreams with peace."

And then the Water Tribe boy got up and kissed his sister goodnight.

Under the watchful gaze of the Moon Spirit, of course. She would find a way to take care of the people she loved. She always did.