Sokka once thought that, because he couldn't bend, it made him useless.
The thought, though, never occurred to him until he met Aang (not that it was the Avatar's fault anyway). But, being a bender, he could not help teach or train the young saviour. He went from protector and provider, to the guy who trailed behind two master benders.
It only became worse when Toph joined.
Not that he could begrudge the blind girl, either, although her remarks during the crazy, deadly chase from a crazy, deadly bender still stung from time to time. He had been brushed aside, purely because he couldn't bend. It took some time to realise that, like a bully who themselves had been put down, Toph was doing to him what had been done to her. She was brushing him aside for a perceived weakness. One that, yes, he did have, but not one that he would allow to bring him down, to hold him back.
She didn't realise it at the time, but it was why he gave her the piece of meteorite left over from his space sword.
Being given the chance to truly become better; to be able to wield a weapon greater than himself — to be special — it awoke something in him. That wasn't the first time he had thought about who the blind girl was, and why she was that way, however it was the first time he truly understood. She was making him better.
Without her constant put downs, and jokes — the flippant remarks and dismissals — he never would have felt the need to prove himself. So, he worked and trained, and came out shining, Toph's bright face waiting for him.
And that was all the little piece of rock was. It was a thank you, and a promise. A promise to never allow himself to believe he was weak, and to never stop trying to be better and greater. She was the girl who invented an entirely new type of bending; what would he do? He looked at her face, smiling gleefully at the strange stone, and he had his answer.
He would create a better world, so no one ever had to feel weak or repressed. So everyone, no matter who they were, could live equally, and so they could live peacefully.
A/N: I swear I'll finish that Christmas story one day. But I really don't like Christmas... maybe next year xD Enjoy, thirty-one days of Tokka. There will be a mix of genres, but at the moment, only three others have been written (chapter 2, 20, and 25) so if you had any other ideas for the prompts (which can be seen at Tokka-Fans-United on deviantArt) just lemme know :)