Thank you Bdeogale Nigripes, kausingkayn, DragonKing, and Opaul. This is the very first oneshot - the thing that started it all. Once again, alphabetical order.
Sokka
(If I told you I was afraid of something… would you believe me?)
Probably.
Through all his tough, macho manly-man act, he was still just a fifteen-year-old kid. A teen who had helped reinvent the war balloon, plan and execute a full-scale invasion of the Fire Nation, and help the Avatar bring peace and balance to the world.
Fifteen.
Would you believe that?
(I'm gonna tell you something crazy…)
So he was tough. So he was strong. So he loved swinging his heavy sword and boomerang around, pretending to be a leader and a protector and someone who actually knew what he was talking about all in one.
But, in all honesty, he was still just a kid.
A young six-year-old—far too young to have his heart broken in two—who watched as his mother died, and as flaming dragons' tongues leapt from the darkness and consumed his village.
He could never forget the smell of burning flesh, nor the knowledge of what lurked in the inky shadows of the unknown.
He was just a kid. Fifteen years old. Six years old.
(…But I honestly can't remember my mother's face anymore.)
Because theirs were the only ones he saw when he tried to go back. Snarling lips, blood spatter, fire and water and soot covering the soft-white snow. Curling claws snatching things into the unknown.
He'd never tell anyone, but secretly, Sokka was afraid of the dark.