Disclaimer: If I owned ATLA, I would've made Yukka endgame, and I wouldn't be writing this fanfic. So...yeah, I own nothing.


Chapter 1: Photoshoot

"Hold still, Bumi."

"Come on, kiddo, just a quick pic."

"Kya, you're blocking me, sweetie."

With bleary eyes, Sokka briefly turned away from the window to see the Avatar and his family get ready for their first-ever family photo session. It was quite a revolutionary trend that many families were undertaking following the invention of the camera, which Sokka himself had a hand in designing. It's one of many booming technological milestones to come for Republic City thanks to the tribesman's efforts, and it was most certainly a treat for the rest of the world, particularly the luxury-loving citizens of Ba Sing Se's upper ring.

And it was natural that Aang, being the kid at heart that he was, would be excited about the photo opportunity. Sokka could still remember the giddy look on the Avatar's face earlier that morning when he stepped out of an important meeting with the Earth King just to speak to the photographer and arrange for this session.

"Why does she get to stand on the table?" Bumi whined.

"You can sit next to her if you want," Aang chirped.

"Mom, can I please hold Tenzin in the picture?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Katara fixed her older son's hair with Tenzin perched on her hip. "Aang?"

"I'm on it, Sweetie," and the Avatar quickly took to braiding his daughter's hair, coaxing her to keep still.

The tribesman chuckled as his sister and brother-in-law continued getting the children situated. As hectic as he imagined family life to be, he couldn't help enjoying the playful banters and aggravations. It all provided him the most solace these days...well, that is, until it didn't. As his eyes feasted on the chaos, a part of him suddenly began to feel empty. He could feel it, the usual onslaught of unexplained teariness, waves of emotion bursting forth. Not again. He turned back around and peeked through the window again, sensitized by the day's last blistering rays of the setting sun.

How much longer? he looked up at the sky. Please. With a swallow, he glanced at the photographer, looking for a distraction to kill the time. "You think you'll be ready today with that contraption, Lee?"

"Almost, sir."

"What's the hold-up?"

"Trying to adjust the lens here…"

"Let me see," he stepped in to try to help, watching his sister and brother-in-law from the corner of his eye. As the seconds passed by, the empty feeling in him was starting to eat away at his insides.

It always starts off as an apprehensive sensation that churned in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't the kind of nervousness that someone would experience when running into a pretty girl or when giving a speech in front of hundreds of people. It's deeper than he could ever describe. It continues on throughout the day, developing into something that makes his voice squeak and his legs shake. It would block his chest and cause his eyes and throat to burn, making an inexplicable heat ravage his insides, and before he knew it, he would be simmering from sorrow.

Although it had been consistent within him for a very long time, he had noticed this feeling first start to intensify on Zuko and Mai's wedding day. It had continued throughout the marriage ceremony and even when he roamed the reception hall to distract himself with food. Okay, maybe it was just the fire flakes acting up in his belly, but the feeling intensified again during Aang and Katara's wedding ceremony and stayed with him longer. Sokka had gotten pretty emotional that day (in secret, of course), but whether or not he was the emotional type, this feeling, in particular, was still foreign to him. There were no fire flakes, either, that day, to explain away the sensation; maybe it was the fruit pies.

The feeling harassed him even more when the Gaang's kids starting entering the world one by one, starting with Izumi. The Fire Lord didn't resist inviting Team Avatar over to celebrate his daughter's birth, but Sokka wasn't into babies that much so there was no need for him to be overly excited, right? This was disproved quickly. Sokka turned out to be the one running around the most during the event— and not for the food, that is. The feeling began to eat him away little by little all throughout the night. Upon Bumi entering the world a few years later, Sokka realized this feeling wasn't just gas or a coincidence. While Aang and Katara lost themselves in the bliss of their baby's coos and murmurs, Sokka ended up holding Bumi the longest. Instead of noting the squishiness of the newborn's features, he focused more on his future as Bumi's uncle and the lessons he would teach the little guy. Kya's arrival was no different for the warrior, but it made him feel more warm and fuzzy on the inside. Of course, he wasn't going to show it. Kya's birth also initiated the perfect time to take matters about Republic City further, involving construction and government establishment, and Sokka became a lot busier. That didn't stop him from pranking on Kya the most with Bumi as his partner in crime. He ended up spending more time than he expected with the Avatar's children and children in general. As far as considering these changes in Sokka, there was the fact that he was no longer a teenager, but that doesn't prove anything about his sudden attachment to family time, or rather, babysitting time.

Never mind all that, he told himself. He felt he was somewhat strong for someone who was able to get over so many other things in his life. If he did his best, he could get over this feeling, too, whatever it was...At least, this was what he told himself every single time before being proven wrong yet again by some gut-wrenching challenge.

"These photoshoots always turn out nicely on moonlit nights," the photographer interrupted his thoughts. "Especially during full moons. The lighting seems to be just perfect for these kinds of lenses."

Speaking of the aforementioned gut-wrenching challenges… "Yeah," an inexplicable wave of heat scorched his throat, "the moon's perfect like that…"

"Say, Councilman Sokka," the photographer looked up at him, "the people of your culture worship the moon, right? In goddess form?"

Sokka nodded, pausing, closing his eyes to compose himself. "Yeah."

"...Oh yeah, wait, I forgot, sorry. You're not exactly religious, are you?"

He frowned, a lurch in his chest. "That doesn't mean I don't love my moon goddess."

'My'? Lee raised his eyebrows in amusement. That was certainly an... interesting slip of words... "Maybe that's why you designed these lenses to give their optimal performance under 'your' moon," he chuckled, continuing to tinker with another part of the camera setup once Sokka finished securing the lens in place. "I really wonder how she does it, Councilman. Your moon goddess, that is."

"Does what?"

"Stand in as a symbol of love and balance it all with the lonely cosmos." The man sighed. "Everybody talks about the sun, but it seems to me that people don't talk about the moon nearly as much."

Sokka mumbled something in the affirmative, his fingers shaking.

"I've read some Water Tribe poetry before. My friend back in Republic City is a tribesman. He introduced me to some of it. I read something called the Hymn to Tui and man, I've been fascinated with the moon ever since. The way those poets describe the moon and go on and on... Oh man, beautiful. The goddess and her beauty and...just that poignant sense of duty—"

"Y-Yeah, I hear ya—"

"Especially those love poems. The speaker of those poems is always the moon's lover, right? The ocean? Gosh, he's personified as a pining lover and all that, and she's just so dutiful that she barely has time for herself and...that shit is just so beautiful to me, so painful, you know? Sorry, didn't mean to say it's shit shit, I meant—"

"I know," Sokka held back a whimper with great difficulty as if there was a persistent geyser within him ready to burst forth. The burn in his stomach intensified as did the heaviness in his heart.

"I heard from someone that there had been some princess in the North who was blessed by the moon or something. Apparently your people now believe she's the moon herself reborn. I'm sure you're familiar with that story. You know, since this was during the Siege in the Northern Water Tribe and you and the Avatar had been there? Do you believe she's Tui, or is it just yakshit—?"

"Can you get a torch?" Sokka interrupted him. "It's getting dark. I can't see this thing properly."

"Oh, yeah, just a second."

As soon as the photographer left, the councilman, bursting with urgency at the sight of darkness outside of the window, looked to his sister and brother-in-law. "Hey, guys, could you give me a few minutes?"

"Why, what's…" Aang didn't finish upon noticing how dark the room had really gotten. The monk nodded in concern. "Oh, yeah, of course. Hurry, 'cause we're about to—"

He barely stuck around to finish hearing anything beyond the affirmative. He shoved the pelt curtains aside and stepped out just as the last ray of sunlight disappeared. It seemed there were a lot of clouds in the sky today, taunting him by hiding from him the one his life revolved so greatly around.

Please please please...

Soon enough, the clouds slowly began to part. There, Yue. Her celestial form, that is. Luminous, overwhelmingly full. Sokka let loose the floodgates in him and sighed raggedly, grabbing onto one of the pillars outside of the residence to keep his knees from buckling. He smiled at the newly risen moon, relieved yet wistful.

"I missed you these few hours, you know," he leaned against the pillar and basked in his lover's light. He didn't have long at all, though, before he could hear brisk footsteps coming from inside.

"I'm ready, sir!"

"Fuck," wiping his face, "Yeah, I'm coming!" And after a few more seconds of moon-gazing and unspoken love declarations, he fumbled back inside, trying to lift his frown into a smile. "Okay okay, Avatar family, get settled."

"Look at the camera, kids."

"Ow! Mom, he's pushing me!"

"Hey, you pushed me first!"

Aang sighed playfully. "Katara, I guess we're going to have to put off that egg custard recipe-" He didn't need to finish as Bumi and Kya settled down and grinned at the camera. Katara smirked.

"Okay, one….two...three!" Lee chirped.

Multiple bright flashes surrounded the room all at once. Afterwards, Katara handed Tenzin over to Aang and held Kya close to her. Another set of flashes followed. Sokka grinned widely as they all made funny faces for the next picture. The next few pictures included ones of Aang and the boys. Katara and Kya took one after that. Then came Katara and the boys while Aang and Kya posed after that. It was one happy family Sokka was looking at.

"Lee, can you take one with just the kids in it?"

"Of course, Avatar Aang."

"Ooh! I want to hold Uncle Sokka's boomerang!" Bumi jumped up.

Sokka chuckled, handing Bumi his boomerang. "Give your best pose, buddy."

"I'm gonna hold it next."

"I'll think about it," Bumi smirked.

"Daddy!"

"He'll give you a turn, Princess, now smile."

Kya and Bumi tried their best not to fight over the boomerang. Again, another set of flashes. Aang and Katara posed together next, handing Tenzin over to Sokka. Aang wrapped his hands most willingly around Katara.

"The Oogie couple," Sokka thought, shaking his head at little Tenzin. "I don't know how you handle 'em, Tenboy."

Tenzin cooed and flapped his arms up and down.

"Ugh, tell me about it."

Snap! Click!

"Hey, Sokka," Aang smiled at his brother-in-law, "join us for the next one."

"Nah, Aang, I think I'm good—"

"Drag him over here, kids."

"On second thought, I'm coming."

While Bumi took over the center spot this time, Kya climbed up to Sokka's shoulders and wrapped her arms around her uncle's neck. "Uncle Sokka, let's take one together. Just me and you, okay?"

"Okay," the warrior managed the biggest smile he was able, feeling his discomfort slowly numbed with the touch of his niece's tiny fingers and cutesy words. As tiring as it was being an uncle sometimes, it was all worth it when he got to have a spot in the family picture. Not to mention the full moon.

Her light spilled over him, lighting him up, and he let himself imagine another pair of arms wrapped around him, pretending the space next to him wasn't empty but contained a baby-blue-eyed woman in sweeping silks and milky hair.

She's here. She's always here, she promised me...

Just when they all gave the camera their biggest smiles, Lee glanced at them apologetically. "I'm sorry, Avatar Aang. The film has run out."

"No!" Kya squealed.

Sokka felt like he was hit by a train. That awful feeling again. It's just a picture. Don't overreact, Sokka.

"We don't have enough for just two pictures?" Katara asked.

"I apologize, Lady Katara," the photographer winced. "I thought I replaced the old one this morning. I'm not exactly sure what happened."

But this is a family picture! Sokka yelled inwardly. How can you not bring a spare film thingy?!

"I'm sure you can get another one right quick, right?" Aang said. "Money's not a problem."

"I wish I could, but we're out of stock, and our next shipment will arrive tomorrow night. You are aware of how strict the Earth Kingdom forces have gotten with trade."

"Completely understandable," Sokka cleared his throat, trying to be nonchalant. "At least you got through the main session."

"But I wanted to take another picture!" Bumi whined. "And Uncle Sokka didn't get to be in a single picture with us!"

Katara glanced at her brother in apology. "Sorry, Sokka, we probably should've—"

"Geez, Katara, you make everything sound like a problem," Sokka disappointedly let Kya slide off of his shoulder. "I'm fine."