Title: Dance Inside
Chapter Title: Duty
Word count: 1317 Rating: G Warnings: the length, perhaps—it's more of a one-shot, almost, than a drabble
Notes: My sisters were looking over my drabbles and told me that they loved them—but they're all about Zuko and/or Katara. Only one had Aang in it, and it still had Zuko and Katara in it, playing major roles. So, of course, I have to change that and make some about Toph, Aang, Sokka and other people. (Maybe even Azula and Ozai) Here's one about Sokka.

Update: 8/19/08: Recall that practically all of these drabbles in this set were written before season three or possibly even most/all of season two. That might the characters' emotions, thoughts, and words more believable.

Duty

Sokka stopped and looked around for a moment, pausing in his work. Twilight was falling upon the camp as the five set out to fix it up for the night. There was actually six people in their group—but one of them couldn't do much because of his injury. And another barely helped at all, even though he was plenty capable of doing it because he perfectly healthy—not injured at all. (At least, not physically.) And he helped mostly while grumbling the whole time and/or when forced. Sokka had asked Katara and the others plenty of times why Zuko and Iroh had joined their group again. He sighed, thinking of how Toph had finally started helping them set up camp, remembering when she had refused to help out—just like Zuko was doing now. What was with people and helping set up camp? He looked over as brightness caught his eye.

A bright campfire blazed as Zuko lit the logs on fire with the little motion of shooting fire from his fingertips—done lazily, almost. Sokka resisted the urge to make a remark, knowing that it would not be good to start an argument now—especially with him. Zuko looked up and gave Sokka a bored look, but yet was almost egging him on to say something. Sokka turned away, ignoring him. Tomorrow would be yet another day and he wanted to go to sleep soon—without any disruptions. He glanced over at the sleeping bags littering the camp before turning his head away to look up at the night sky, looking at the beautiful full moon.

Aang noticed that Sokka had suddenly stopped working and was staring up at the moon, knowing instantly what he was thinking about. He looked over to Katara, but she was busy with packing away the food. Aang walked over to Sokka, and interrupted his thoughts.

"You really miss her, don't you?" He asked quietly, looking at Sokka. The boy didn't reply for awhile and Aang almost thought Sokka hadn't heard him—when suddenly he turned his head and replied back quietly,

"She's gone—and I know that she'll always be with me—but it hurts. To think that I was upset when she was arguing with me—telling me that she had duties to her father, to her tribe, and that she couldn't even be friends with me or be around me any more." He stopped and made a sound that to Aang sounded like, "ptt".

"My duty was to protect her. And I failed." He looked down at the ground, unable to continue.

"No Sokka, you did protect her. You did all you could—there was nothing more you could do. She gave up her life to be the moon spirit because it was her duty to do that—she needed to do that more than she needed to do anything else in world. I know it's hard, but if she didn't do it—well, where would we be? Without the moon, there would be no world—just chaos. We would have all died."

"At least I would have died with her then—not living without her." Sokka turned away, almost to a point of tears. But he didn't cry. He wouldn't, now—not ever. Aang sighed. This was hopeless. He was no good at comforting people—that was Katara's specialty. Someone must have heard his plea, though, because suddenly Katara appeared and put her hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"Sokka, she wouldn't have wanted you to live like this, torturing yourself. She gave her life so we all could live. She loved you, Sokka, and she would hate you to kill yourself for her. Live for her, Sokka. Keep her memory alive by living." Katara smiled and hugged her brother, but when she let go she saw that Sokka still was staring out at the moon, unconvinced. Katara walked over to Aang, smiled sadly, and whispered, "I tried."

Toph was in her little rock tent feeling the three's vibrations and thinking of how pathetic it was. She might not be able to see anything, but she could feel how depressed Sokka was just because of the way he sat and the vibrations he gave off. She sighed. There were now six people in their group and everyone was just so depressing. And right now everybody was thinking of their losses, making her even more depressed. The three over by the clearing were thinking about Yue, the moon spirit—and also the girl who had given her life up to be the moon spirit, sure, she had gathered that much after asking Katara about it before—but they were thinking of other losses as well. She felt the vibrations in the earth, knowing that Zuko wouldn't help comfort Sokka. This was partially because Zuko wasn't the comforting type, partially because he didn't want to, and partially because he needed comfort from his losses as well. Sokka wouldn't get help from the old man beside Zuko either, because he was already asleep.

She sighed again. It was up to her, then. She walked over to the three, sitting down next to Sokka.

"I know that you're probably not going to listen to me since you ignored your closest friend and even your sister, but I'm to say it anyways," she began, pausing for a response from Sokka, but continued when he remained silent. "I'll tell you something somebody once told me, two pieces of advice that I'll never forget. First of all, they told me, 'To find bigger seas, you must not be afraid to lose sight of the shore." Toph paused for dramatic affect, and could feel the people around her deciphering the meaning hidden in her words.

"I may be blind, but I can still see that you loved her very much and she loved you back. She would have wanted you to keep her memory alive, but she would have also wanted you to move on. You need some happiness during this gloom, dreary and devastating war.

"The second piece of advice they told me was in the form of a question. They said to me, 'If you don't have anything to die for, what's there to live for?'" This time Toph got up and went back to her rock tent and laid down to go to sleep, knowing that she had left Sokka plenty to ponder. She fell asleep quickly, happy with what she had done.

Katara stared at Sokka with disbelief. Toph's words were slowly penetrating his mind, showing a combination of confusion and understanding on his face. Katara yawned, and got up to go back to her sleeping bag and get some sleep. But before she did, she hugged her brother and murmured one last piece of advice to him.

"Sokka, sometimes your duty is to your heart. And right now, your heart is telling you to find happiness in someone else." She left, and motioned for Aang to follow. He did, after taking one last glance at Sokka, who had gone back to staring up at the moon.

"Yue," he murmured, knowing that she could hear him, "I ignored my sister and my friends before, too upset to think. But now I've finally heard what they've been saying all along and have finally figured out some things." He paused, looking at the ground, and then continued, still not looking up. "When I was a little kid, I was so carefree, so happy. When my dad went off to fight in the war, I wanted to come with—I thought it was a happy and joyous thing to be fighting, something that I could do because I thought I could fight, never thinking much of it. When he told me that I couldn't come, that it was my responsibility to stay home and protect my sister, I didn't understand and I told him so. He told me that someday I would. I know now what my responsibilities are and what responsibility is." Sokka stopped again and looked up, looking directly at the moon.

"Duty,"