The Drabble Scrolls

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, everyone. Sokka isn't as easy to write about as I had thought he was, but you know. It was fun anyway.

Again, I'm really sorry I haven't gotten around to updating. Just remember to review. It'll be like your holiday gift to me!

Also: Spoiler for Episode 12 (The Western Air Temple). It's small though...just a warning.

-ScorpioRed112


Unstable


There was something wrong with Katara's lungs.

It was when she was little...she probably doesn't remember it. When she was born, my Gran Gran lifted her up and noticed she was slightly blue. When they realized she wasn't breathing, they pumped up her chest with their thumbs until the air inflated her and forced a tan shade across her cheeks. She gasped as if she was an old woman, and then went to sleep.

I remember because my mother exclaimed to me with tears in her eyes, "Oh...Sokka, your little sister...she's isn't stable!"

She was so scared that Katara was going to die, because she had had a miscarriage before me, and now the thought of losing another child was slowly creeping back into her head. It scared me too, because I didn't want to end up like Katara. I didn't want to become unstable or cough or die or do any of the above.

Gran Gran said that, unlike Katara, I was born balanced. Stable. I came out and cried a little before settling. And when I started to crawl around the igloo, I organized things and gave them names, and built little watch towers out of snow and ice, and I rarely cried about anything, but tried to understand the reasons of what was going on rationally, and always asked questions.

Katara was quiet when we were growing up, but her temper would erupt over the smallest things. "So sensative!" my mother would bark, out of breath, and exhausted from watching Katara all day long. "What do I expect? Such an unbalanced child."

The problem was that the world we lived in wasn't balanced at all, and maybe that's why Katara was born with the gift of Waterbending and I wasn't. The sun refused to come out on certain days, and sometimes it snowed so hard that the watch towers I built would get covered. It didn't make any sense to me...then again, I didn't know that the rest of the world even existed at that point.

When the Fire Nation attacked and when my mother died and after my father was leaving and just as we set out on Appa right as soon as we met Aang, I realized nothing was stable anymore. Not even the world we lived in.

And of course, after careful inspection, I noticed that not even Aang was stable. He erupted at the Southern Air Temple, his hatred and pain so great that it blew the bones and dust away from Monk Gyatso's skeleton. Katara and Aang both...they bend and move and go crazy just like the elements they bend.

I don't want to say it...but maybe I will...because I feel it's true. Sometimes I realize that there are only two stable forces in our group: my rational explanations and questions and Toph's unchanging opinions and reason.

Personally, she's the one who convinced me to allow Zuko into our group. I thought about what she had said and realized that we couldn't really let emotions get in the way of our plans. Aang needed a teacher and Zuko just happened to be available. In all truth...she was right.

Toph was never overexcited about anything, or too depressed, or too angry. She was subtle but potent, letting her opinions out without screaming them like Katara usually did, or keeping them inside like Aang.

Even though her senses were unbalanced because of her blindness, she was unmoving and clear. And, no matter what I'm trying to tell myself now, I had immediatly grown attached.

So it was hard, for me as well as the rest of us, when Toph burned her feet. Because I had come to see Toph as such an unchanging, constant stone, I couldn't bare to see her helpless. She had to crawl to get from place to place without our assistance, and I found myself carrying her wherever she needed or wanted to go. But there was something else, too. She was afraid...afraid that her feet and toes would never heal, and that a huge, burning red blister would plague her feet for the rest of her life. I could tell.

"Katara, how much longer?" she would ask impatiently, tugging on the edges of her over shirt. "A few more days?"

"Maybe weeks," Katara would answer slowly, inspecting the blind girl's feet. "Really, Toph, did you need to go see Zuko? Look at what happened, Sokka. Can you see this? These scars are just impossible." Katara would sigh nervously and angrily, her breath wavering. No matter what, she was never going to let Toph forget that what she had done was a mistake on her part.

"Just shut up and heal," Toph would retort, her eyes narrow. And then her tone would soften. "Hey...um, Katara, they're going to get better...right?"

I still remember Toph gently rubbing the sores on her feet, and silently I would wonder how on earth she was going to possibly "get Zuko back," if such a thing was possible. He had probably hindered her ability to live a semi-normal life because of his Firebending, even if it was unintentional.

There was something else, too...because Toph became less stable than before. In all honesty, it started to scare me.

She wouldn't let her guard down. Her face was always contorted and her expression alive. Even a little while after she was able to stand again, she kept a palm close to the ground, ears always attentive to where Zuko was standing. Once she erupted at Aang for leaving the fire running all night instead of putting it out. Another time she was so excited that her feet had healed somewhat completely that she swung her arms around Katara's neck and thanked her for being such a great healer, although most of the healing had been done by Toph herself.

Zuko in the group meant Katara getting angry and upset over nothing. She always shot him glances that suggested hatred and disgust, and then she would calmly return to her meal or whatever else she was doing. There was no doubt, having Zuko with us was weird. Especially because he never called us by our proper names. It was always, "Water Tribe boy" or "Earthbender" or "Avatar." He didn't speak to Katara much or at all, and when he did, his voice was hollow and empty.

Once, after another argument with Aang about our plans (or something else...to be perfectly honest, I seriously have no clue to this day), Katara went into a fit. Her breath was ragged and she wheezed so hard that mucas exploded from her open mouth. Her eyes were wide with terror, and I gripped her firmly and pounded her back the way I had seen Gran Gran do so many years ago.

It did nothing. She would stop and then start up again, coughing and breathing so heavily that it sounded as if sandpaper lined her throat. When her face turned that ghostly blue color that I could easily distinguish from my memory, I looked at Aang in desperation, begging him to please do something.

And as if he had known what I wanted him to do, he ran over and gave my sister mouth-to-mouth right in front of me.

I would have done it myself, but I didn't know how. And even if I did, I couldn't...not to my sister, who was not only related to me but my dearest and nearest posession. I would have been too afraid to even try, afraid that I might kill her by accident or something ridiculous of that sort.

Aang's breaths were steady even though his face was red and sweat visibly glistened on his brow. Katara had taught him what to do months before, because he had been curious as to why people would be saved by "a little kiss." Now, it looked as if he had learned everything perfectly. He opened Katara's kimono (just a little, because I was right there, probably) and compressed the center of her chest. One, two, rescue breath. One, two, ten compressions.

I briefly wondered what it must have felt like to have lungs opened by an Airbender.

Katara's fit stopped after she and Aang had locked lips about five times. And then Aang did it once more, without any compressions, just in case, but it didn't look like he was delivering any air to me. And then Katara shoved him off of her, probably still angry about the argument they had just minutes ago, and then hugged him and said she was sorry for being so mad before. And he said he was sorry for not helping her soon enough and being so stubborn. And I was sorry that I was there watching them gush over each other as if I didn't exist.

I went inside to find someone to talk to. At this point, I didn't even care if it was Zuko. But I found Toph instead, standing over one of the balconies in the Temple, her face focused as if she could actually see the view in front of her.

"Katara's okay," she told me calmly, as if I didn't know.

"Yes," I answered, slightly annoyed. I stood next to her, noticing that her hair happened to be down and that it reached the base of her spine. "Why didn't you check up on us?"

She took her time, playing with a strand of her hair, pulling it through all five of her fingers. I was faintly aware that it was sunset. "I knew she'd be okay, Sokka. Both you and Aang were with her."

I paused briefly, contemplating. "So...you know what happened?"

"Of course."

I didn't answer. I just stared out at the mountain ranges below the balcony, wondering why the hell Aang had to go do what he did...even if he had saved my sister.

"You're angry," she said calmly, again as if this was a new fact to me.

"Hmm."

"You know, this isn't the first time they've kissed before."

"What?" I felt a strange amount of heat rise to my face. "What? What do you mean this isn't the first time they've—they didn't kiss! That was just...Katara couldn't breathe and Aang was—Wait, what do you mean?"

"Would you relax? I only said that to calm you down." She turned to me. "It obviously didn't do any good."

"What do you mean this isn't the first time they've kissed?" I asked again, my head throbbing. "And how the heck was that supposed to calm me down?"

"I mean that they've done it before is all, so don't be so shocked. And if I'm right, they'll probably do it again some time tomorrow, or the next day. Just get used to it. Relax. It's no big deal."

There was nothing I could add at this point. Everything I had ever imagined about my sister and the Avatar turned to assumptions and anger. I sighed, my head filling with horrible thoughts and impulses to go back and beat Aang to a pulp, before I felt Toph touch my shoulder.

"When?" I asked quietly, trying hard not to pound the balcony.

"The Invasion," she answered, her tone surprisingly apologetic. "It really doesn't matter, Sokka. To be honest with you, I knew they were going to end up together some day. You just need to get Katara to admit it first."

"That wasn't a kiss though," I assured, still conscious of her fingers right on my shoulder. "I kind of asked Aang to do it...only without really asking him...It just happened—but it wasn't a kiss."

"The first five weren't."

"Toph!" I grasped her shoulders firmly. It surprised me when I saw her face turn a very faint pink color, and how her eyes widened and mouth opened just a bit. "You aren't helping!" I exclaimed loudly, while at the same time trying fairly hard to keep my temper. "You aren't supposed to tell me these things! Just...just keep them to yourself, alright? The last thing I want to hear about is how Aang and Katara—agh! You're ridiculous!"

She pried my hands off of her calmly, turning her false attention back to the view in front of her. "If you ask me," she retorted, "you're the one being ridiculous." And then, as if I had asked her to, she turned around and shook her head before turning to walk back inside. "I used to think you were different, Sokka." Before she reached the door, she turned her face over her shoulder just once more. "I just want to know why no one in this group is stable anymore." And then she left.

I blinked. My eyes opened and closed many times, actually, wondering about what Toph had just said. Stable? Stable! She was the one always being so...so—

So Toph! What was wrong with her, telling me about Katara and Aang's...well, whatever Katara and Aang even had at that moment? I just didn't want to hear it.

I slumped my shoulders forward as far as they would go, and realized that I was afraid of myself for losing my temper. I was afraid of losing balance.

And...also...well, I hated to admit it, but Toph was right. She was more stable than anything I could ever conjure. She was unchanging. She had her outbursts, of course, but really now...she was only trying to help. I mean, I guess I was wondering what Aang and Katara were doing on top of the submarines. I hadn't willed myself to look but there was still that thought crawling into me, winding its way around my brain, whispering thoughts into my head.

Who was the blind one here? Or had I just refused to see?

Suddenly I was angry at myself for acting like such a child, and I promised that I would make it up to the young Earthbender, because she had already been through enough throughout the week. And I owed it to her.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier," I told Toph that night after Aang, Katara, and Zuko had fallen asleep. Ironically, we both ended up at the same balcony that had harbored our..."argument" earlier. "I know you were only trying to help but...you just have to understand that knowing that kind of stuff scares me...as a big brother."

"It doesn't mean you should be blind to it," she answered calmly, playing once again with her feet. "You shouldn't be blind to anything."

"I know. I agree completely."

She turned to me, a baffled expression gracing her paled face. "You aren't going to argue?"

"No. That would be useless," I said defiantly, crossing my arms. "Because you're right, Toph. As soon as you came to travel the world with us, I knew. You're just balanced. You're...well, you're stable. More stable than I've ever been, if anything. And...I...I guess I just respect that."

When I stopped talking, she turned her attention back to her scarred left foot, which she had propped up on her lap. I couldn't help but notice that it still needed healing.

Then she stood up without saying anything, and I regretted that it was too dark to read her expression. She turned to me briefly, her hand on her neck. It sounded as if she had wanted to say something but then she stopped herself quickly before the words could spill out. "Thanks," she sputtered finally. "That means a lot coming from you, Sokka."

"Of course."

"No, it does," she assured, her tone low. "But...it's okay to be kind of unstable sometimes, you know?" She grimaced when she continued, and I could easily tell that she was picking her words carefully, unlike before. "I think it's great that you care about your sister and want the best for her. If anything, I should be sorry because I told you about what had happened on the Day of Black Sun. It was really none of my—well, you know...I was just trying to help you see it in perspective. I'm..." She paused and breathed inward, the air passing through her lips quickly. "I guess I'm sorry, okay?"

"Toph—"

And before I could retort or tell her that it was my fault completely for letting Katara have that stupid coughing fit in the first place and that I no longer cared whether Katara and Aang kissed or not, Toph Bei Fong, three years my junior, wrapped her Earth Kingdom arms around my chest and suppressed my breathing.

I stood there dumbly, because part of me had expected this. Because I knew that somewhere, somehow, Toph and I were the only two rational beings left in our group, and naturally, we couldn't leave each other. Because I knew that we needed to keep ourselves in check before going crazy like Katara or Aang or even Zuko. Because I saw that Toph wasn't an unchanging stone at all, but a hurling avalanche waiting to explode.

Because I realized that day that (even though it frightened me) it was perfectly okay to be a little unstable. Just a little unbalanced.


A/N: I hope everyone liked. Writing from a guy's point of view has proven difficult.

Remember to review so that I shall update!!