Push and Pull

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nickelodeon

Some days, she felt like she was forgetting something.

Yue looked out from behind the full moon and out of the Spirit World and out into the World of Men. She was always watching, looking down on the people as they lived their lives under her. She saw the people of the Fire Nation, sharpening weapons. She saw refugees from the Earth Kingdom gathered around camp fires. She saw Water Tribe men keeping watch over the high, proud walls of the Northern Water Tribe. She saw a lone Air Nomad traveling the world. She watched as he gained friends and allies and kept the ones he had already gotten. She watched the friends for a while, as she decided she liked them. When she'd look down, she'd always feel a small tug in her gut, like a small friendly rope trying to drag her out of the moon.

She wasn't sure why.

Yue remembered asking La about it when she had felt it the first time. He had told her that she had been apart of that world, once. She had sacrificed her life and had given it up to be the moon.

Forever, he had said as his words crashed over her like breakers at high tide. Yue felt his presence pulling her in like a rip tide and she struggled to keep him away. He was intoxicating, strong and deep. My lover was lost, he said, you replaced her. His words washed over her head and her thoughts floated away on a long lost current.

When Yue surfaced, head spinning, lungs gasping, she was at waning Gibbous. She panted for a few moments and caught her breath. As she looked down on the Mortal World, she notices her light did not shine as much. The moon was waning, growing smaller. Her power was receding like a tide going out to the ocean. She thought of the boats that used the tide to carry them out to sea. She decided it was not a bad thing.

She wondered what the ocean felt like. She had been told that she controlled the tides with the help of La. He told her her pull gave him enough strength to push. When she pushed him away, he'd pull her back in. That was how it had been, that was how it would be. She wanted to feel the water, washing over her and covering her in its vastness. She decided that water felt like the melting snow when one put her bare hand to it. How Yue knew this, she couldn't know. But she wanted to try it. She wanted to walk in the mortal world and put her hand against the ice and feel the wet, numbing water her own body heat produced. But she couldn't.

So instead she watched.

She looked down on the mortal world from her position high in the sky. She watched firebenders melting ice for water in ships out at sea. She saw earthbenders bracing their city walls against the mighty winds. She saw waterbenders putting out fires. She watched the lone airbender try to be strong and decisive as he learned to move mountains. She smiled as a familiar tug at her gut sent her watching the young Avatar and his gang for longer and longer periods. She heard his familiar laugh and watched as his friends smiled and sat close together under the stars. She wanted to join them and laugh along side them. But they didn't know her. Nor she them.

Don't get too attached, La warned as he saw her gazing down on the Mortal World. It only brings pain. Mortals are weak-hearted and do not understand nor respect the spirits. They will do you no good.

Yue wasn't so sure, however, as she looked down from her third quarter window. She watched the young Avatar and the friends travel the world and help others. They couldn't be that weak-hearted. They were selfless. The moon was growing smaller in its eternal cycle and Yue could feel it. Whenever she was near La, she would feel the rocking back and forth between them, like two ends of the same ship. But the rocking movement was weakening every day. It always did as she waned from full to new. Her connection to the Spirit World was weakening too.

But these changes were never permanent. After new moon she would grow stronger again and she would push harder and harder away from La, as he would try to pull her in. She knew the cycle would never end.

So instead, from her shrinking window in the sky, she would look down at the mortal world. She saw the banished prince and his uncle on a ferry to a giant city. She saw the daughters of Kyoshi fighting valiantly for a lost sky bison. She saw the last airbender flying through the desert on a frantic search for his lost friend. When she saw the young water tribe boy who had accompanied the Avatar, and she felt the comforting tug, just like she did when ever she was with La.

But the boy's tug was different. Instead of La's uncompromising waves rolling toward her and drowning her, the boy's was like a gentle nudge or a friendly hug, making Yue want to come closer to him. It was familiar. But it couldn't be. She didn't remember him, not that she rembered when she had been mortal. Yue was the moon spirit. That was what she had been and that was what she would be. She wouldn't become attached.

So, she stopped watching. She and La were lovers, ever meant to push and pull. It was her duty.

The moon was a waning crescent when she decided to look again. But when her eyes fell upon the Southern Water Tribe boy, she had to stop. She had felt the familiar tug as always and then her heart started to fell the tug to as it started to draw her towards the boy. Her eyes teared and she looked away. He hurt her.

Yue had to look away from her window. Her power was waning as the moon was; she could barely feel La anymore. Why was this boy's tug so strong? She wanted to fall through the moon and land where he was.

It was the night of the new moon, when she decided to brave a look again. She saw his goofy grin and heard his eager laugh as he said a bad joke. Yue couldn't help but grin.

Oh, Sokka, she thought putting her hand over her mouth and giggling. I'm happy you tell that joke when I'm around to hear it. I love to laugh with you.

She watched Sokka and Aang and Katara and their friends as they sat together telling stories and swapping jokes. Yue smiled. It made her feel almost human to witness this. But as it became later and later, one by one, they all went to bed. But Sokka didn't.

Smiling, he looked up at the sky and whispered softly, "I'm sad that I can't see your pretty face tonight, Yue. I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you. I'm sorry I can't be there with you right now. I miss you. I miss your smile, I miss the way you'd laugh at my jokes." He sighed and looked down at his knees. "I really, really like you. It's just nice to talk to you every once and a while. I just wish someday, you'd talk back." He stood up and stretched and took one last, longing look at the sky. "Good night Yue. Talk again, soon."

Yue beamed as she wiped her eyes, ridding them of happy tears. Her heart swelled like the tide and then receded, only to swell again.

Sniffing and smiling, Yue talked to the sleeping Sokka as the sun started to rise. "I know Sokka. I love you too. I'm sorry I can't be there with you, watching you and helping you on your adventures. I'm sorry I can't grow old with you. I'm sorry I can't laugh at your jokes, no matter how bad they get. I'm sorry," She sniffed and watched him turn over in his sleep. "I'm so sorry, Sokka!"

Yue blinked. Sokka? Who was he?

She wiped her teary eyes and wondered why she was watching someone sleep. She shuddered. That was so creepy. But as she walked away from her window, she had sworn that she had heard the name before but she couldn't for the life of her remember where. Maybe La would know.

And as she went off into the Spirit World to find La and ask him, the Mortal World was brightening from the darkest night of the month. The sun had risen over the mountaintops and reptile birds were singing to greet the morning. The next night there would be a moon in the sky to light the way, for the moon's power grew as the moon waxed back to full. Yue could feel it, even now, flooding her veins and rushing all around her, filling her up as she went to find her lover.

Down in the Mortal World, Sokka suddenly awoke. He rubbed his eyes and clutched at his stomach. He had sworn he had felt a tug there. He shook his head, dismissing it. "Probably some bad rice," he muttered, his eyes already shut. He would ask Katara about it in the morning.

Rolling over unaware, he fell back to into a nice, dreamless sleep.