Hidden Amongst the Dragons

by fina5

Love and loyalty are often at odds in a world at war. Sokka meets his soulmate just as he throws himself into the fray of the Hundred Year War at the side of his sister and Avatar Aang. Devastated to find his other half on the side of the Fire Nation, he stands steadfast in opposition to their tyrannical rule, even when he finds himself behind enemy lines.

1. Book One: Water

Soulmate fanon in this au: Soulmates feel each other's pain, only see the color of their soulmate's eyes until they meet, and see the rest of the colors after first hearing their soulmates voice.

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Book One: Water

There are more children than ever in recent history who cannot see the blues of the icy plains stretching for miles beyond the small village. They see the white of the snow and the black soot in the air, but everything else overlaps in different hues of gray.

For the past hundred years, most born to the Southern Water Tribe have heard the voice of their soulmates and watched as the world around them was painted in colors beyond the shade of blue contained in their soulmates' eyes within the first few years of their lives. With the youngest generation, however, only two children have the privilege of finding their soulmates so early on, pairing—unsurprisingly—with each other. Ahnah and Silla trail each other around the village, hand in hand and absolutely inseparable from the moment Silla is born a little under a year after Ahnah.

The children of the chief, however, are not so lucky. Katara, the last waterbender of the tribe, is known to collect driftwood that's just the right shade of brown, rich and dark. She arranges them as artfully as is possible for a child under the age of eight in a pile beside her bedroll, growing especially fitful when her grandmother insists on using some pieces for kindling during the colder weeks of winter.

The chief's eldest, born under a new moon, sees only in black and white, having never glimpsed so much as a shade of light on the spectrum. The boy, Sokka, worries little about the implications of such things, too focused on following in his father's footsteps and training as a warrior.

"They must be a shade of green we don't get here," his father tells his mother one day as the two of them strip seaweed for the night's supper, speaking of his soulmate's eyes. Sokka doesn't so much as look up to acknowledge them, fixated on scaling the fish he'd caught earlier in the day. Kya chuckles softly when she notices his disinterest.

It's not until two years after she's passed that Sokka feels a connection to his soulmate beyond the disjointed notion that they're out there somewhere, seeing the world in sparks of what his parents tell him are grayish-blues.

He's slumbering on his side, having been playing chopsticks with Katara as they were drifting off to sleep. His hair is loose from its usual wolftail, but he finds himself numb to the feeling of he strands grazing his cheeks when he wakes up, wailing at the burning sensation overtaking his face. Hand pressed to his left eye, he surges upward from his bedroll, screaming "It burns!"

Quickly, the rest of the household is up, looking around for the source of the commotion. Katara scuttles closer to her brother, growing increasingly distressed as he is. His voice has been reduced to a watery imitation of its usual cadence, and is rapidly becoming hoarse from crying. Tears stream down his face, half of which he presses into his father's chest when the man lumbers over on sleep-heavy limbs to comfort him.

Hakoda tries to remove Sokka's hand from his eye, but it quickly moves to his ear instead. Sokka tugs at it viciously, as though to tear it off to keep it from hurting, at least in the way it is now.

"Sokka," Hakoda says, hand brushing under his son's eye before he brings it to cup the back of his head. "Sokka, I need you to tell me what's wrong." From what he sees, the skin around his eye is unblemished, if a bot blotchy from the exertion of crying. He can't fathom what the source of the pain would be were it truly coming from Sokka.

"You're burning me," Sokka cries, hiccupping as his chest heaves to take in a grueling breath. He moves fitfully from side to side, as though trying to shake off the pain. "Stop, Dad, please!"

Hakoda's scalp begins to tingle with nervous sweat as he fretfully tries to calm his son with little success. Sokka doesn't respond to any of his attempts at placation, continuing to rub harshly at his face.

Fists tucked under her chin, Katara looms over her brother as he squirms in their father's arms. "Dad, what's wrong with Sokka," she asks, eyes wide and shiny with tears.

Feeling at a complete loss for what to do, Hakoda simply hands Sokka over to Kanna, hoping that she can soothe the boy. Shaking his head, he tells his daughter, "It's not what's wrong with your brother, but what's happening to his soulmate."

Katara looks tearfully back at her brother, watching him continues to squirm where he's seated in front of their grandmother. Through his gritted teeth, little keening cries of discomfort manage to seep out. Kanna presses a handful of ice to the left side of Sokka's face, hoping to ease the burning sensation he's been describing. Her efforts have little effect, however, Sokka continuing to wail quietly.

"But—" she starts, bottom lip trembling. "But this seems really bad."

"I know," Hakoda commiserates with her, gently pulling her into his side. He may not be able to comfort his son, but he can bring Katara what little solace he can offer.

Eventually, Sokka's sobbing fades to whimpering, which dissipates in turn as he collapses back into sleep from sheer exhaustion. Gently, they lay him back down on his bedroll, keeping the covers off lest he grow feverish over the course of the night.

The next morning, Kanna and Katara both dote on Sokka a fair bit more than they would usually. Kanna gives him an extra helping of breakfast without his having to ask, and Katara offers to sew up anything he may need fixed.

Sokka remains distracted, however, paying them little mind beyond idly thanking them. Every so often, his hand will rise to caress the skin under his left eye and of his ear, seemingly unable to comprehend its texture. He looks perplexed, as though he expects to feel a blemish or elicit more of the previous night's pain.

It's not until later in the day when Sokka strings more than a few words together. He and Hakoda are out on the ice together, fishing for the weekend's meals. They've been at it for nearly ten minutes when Sokka bridges the taut silence.

"Hey, Dad," he starts, catching Hakoda's attention.

Looking up from the hole they'd carved in the ice, Hakoda's eyes shift to Sokka, who's gazing up at him with uncertainty and trepidation in his eyes. "What is it, Son?"

"Last night," he begins, eyes drifting from his father's gaze once again. "I was feeling my soulmate's pain, wasn't I?"

Hakoda sits up a little straighter, clenching his jaw and dropping one of his hands onto his thigh as he settles in for what will certainly be a tough talk. "I believe so."

Sokka's eyes shift from side to side as he contemplates asking the next question on his mind. "How come it felt like you were doing it?"

Anxiety starting up his spine, Hakoda asks, "What do you mean?"

Shrugging, Sokka answers, "It just felt like it was you who was burning me, is all."

Hakoda hums, considering how to respond. In hindsight, he supposes it had been strange the way that Sokka had asked Hakoda to make the pain stop. At the time, Hakoda had assumed it was simply a cry for help from his father, in whose arms he surely knew he had been. Now, however, he sees the truth of the matter. A bad taste overtakes his mouth in preparation for what he's about to say.

With as much care as he can, Hakoda explains that with intense pain sometimes comes an emotional connection between soulmates. For most, it's just a vague feeling of sadness, anger, or fear that sparks in the back of one's mind. However, if the pain is severe enough, one can sometimes catch glimpses of their soulmate's thoughts.

"Okay," Sokka says Hakoda's explanation draws to a close, wiping away a few errant tears. "Do you think they're feeling better now?"

Mouth set in a grim line, Hakoda tells him, "Honestly, Son, they're probably still having a rough go of it. From what it looked like, they got a pretty severe burn. It'll need a few weeks to heal—even longer if it gets infected."

Bottom lip trembling, Sokka nods and wipes at his eyes again. Ever the stubborn little warrior, he tries to steady himself and return his focus to his fishing.

Taking pity on him, Hakoda says, "I'm sure they're through the worst of it. They'll only get better from here on out." Sokka doesn't respond, and at a loss for anything else to say, Hakoda lets the topic drop.

Sokka thinks about that night with dwindling frequency over the next three years. For many months, it's all he can think about, especially when the sun sits high in the sky. A year out, however, his thoughts on the matter drop out to once every few days. When his father and the other men of the tribe leave for the war, it rarely comes to mind at all. Rather, it only springs to the forefront of his memory when he strays too close to the fire on long winter nights.

He doesn't really worry about meeting his soulmate anytime soon either. For right now, he's busy protecting his tribe and training a new generation of warriors. He's sure that when his dad finally comes back for him and they go off to war together, he'll run into a pretty stranger with light green eyes and a scar over the left side of their face. Maybe he'll promise to come back for them after the war against the Fire Nation is won, or perhaps they'll be running into battle together. Regardless, it's not a present concern for him.

That all changes when a boy with a large scar running up the left side of his face comes marching down the gangplank of a Fire Navy ship.

At first, Sokka thinks little of the scar. He's sure that plenty of firebenders blast themselves in the face in the midst of ethnically cleansing the rest of the world. Besides, he's a little busy charging at him as he defends his village from the invaders.

As soon as Sokka meets him halfway up the ramp, the other boy knocks his weapon from his hand and kicks him into the snow below. For a short but humiliating moment, he's unable to dislodge himself from the broken-up chunks of snow that used to serve as a protective wall around the village.

When he finally manages to break free, however, he's soon knocked back off his feet.

As he's approaching the Fire Nation soldiers again, the leader swings his arm in an arch before the tribeswomen, letting loose some fire as a bit of intimidation. When the boy grunts as he does so—with Sokka just close enough to hear his voice—the burst of fire turns a bright, warm color in the air before dissipating.

The rest of his surroundings come into focus, as well. The cool shade—blue, certainly—of the thread running through his clothes. The dark hue of the flag fluttering from its perch on the ship. The warm, glittering color of his soulmate's eyes as the boy turns to parry Sokka's attacks once more.

So, that's why I've never seen any colors, Sokka thinks as he goes tumbling into the snow yet again. His eyes flit about the landscape as he searches for a color that matches that of the Fire Nation boy's eyes, but he comes up with nothing. I've never seen that one before.

He's careful to be quiet and keep his voice to himself as he rolls away from a tendril of flames and lets loose his boomerang. The weapon goes soaring past his soulmate's head, sweeping into the sky beyond him before turning back.

They glare fiercely at each other as he waits for his boomerang to return. Sokka turns away briefly when one of the young boys of the village, Kallaq, tosses him his spear and calls, "Show no fear," in a tinny voice.

Looking at Kallaq and the other children, along with their mothers and aunts and grandmothers, he's reminded of his duty to protect them. He cannot fail to defend the village—no matter what. He can't let anyone get in the way, and he'll weather whatever consequences there may be of attacking his soulmate later.

Determined, he charges the Fire Nation boy with his spear pointed forward. The other boy stands his ground, and when Sokka reaches him, he uses his gauntlets to break through the boney material of the spear. He takes it from Sokka, jabbing the dull end of it into his head and knocking him to the ground. Sokka forcibly swallows his grunts on the way down and looks up only to see the other boy snap what's left of the spear in half and toss the pieces into the snow.

His boomerang takes this moment to come back, slicing through the air as it twists and turns before slamming into his soulmate's helmet and knocking it askew.

Any victory Sokka might have felt is quickly stomped out as the other boy grits his teeth and summons fire to his fists. Gulping nervously, Sokka digs his heels into the snow, preparing to launch himself up at any onslaught of attack.

It appears his efforts are no longer needed, however, as Aang slides over on the back of an otter-penguin and knocks the Fire Nation boy off his feet. When Aang comes to a stop in front of them, Sokka feels glad for the first time all day that he and Katara had found the boy in the iceberg.

"Hey, Katara," Aang chirps with a bright smile. His eyes drop down to Sokka, and he greets him, as well.

Sullenly, Sokka waves at him. Given his poor performance up until now, he resigns to stay where he is and let the little airbender handle things from here on out, however embarrassing it may turn out for him.

Slowly, the Fire Nation soldiers advance on Aang, and he turns his attention away from the Water Tribe siblings. He gets to his feet and swipes large swaths of snow at the firebenders with his staff, leaving only Sokka's soulmate left. "Looking for me," he asks.

"You're the airbender," his soulmate questions in turn, incredulous. "You're the avatar?"

A ripple of shock runs over the villagers at the statement, each of them stunned to discover that they'd been unwittingly harboring the avatar for the better part of a day.

"Aang," Katara mutters, voice tinged with uncertainty and quiet enough for only Sokka to hear.

No way, Sokka thinks, eyes wide. With a degree of humiliation, he reflects, I can't believe I banished the avatar.

Sokka's soulmate and Aang circle each other, keeping their defensive stances as they go. "I've spent years preparing for this encounter: training, meditating," the Fire Nation boy starts, gaze hardening. "You're just a child!"

Befuddled, Aang stops, lowering his staff slightly and rebutting, "Well, you're just a teenager."

Frustration growing, Sokka's soulmate sends off a blast of fire at Aang, who dodges it with the use of his staff and some careful footwork. Sokka watches on in horror as the two of them fight, wondering how anyone could outright attack someone as innocent-looking as Aang.

At one point, the flames get a little too close for comfort. Collectively, the villagers turn away from the blast, Aang's glider being the only thing that keeps them from being singed. By the time Sokka faces forward once more, Aang is surrendering and inciting the Fire Nation soldiers to leave the village alone.

As he's being led away, Katara steps forward, clutching her hands together in front of her and crying, "No, Aang, don't do this!"

Unable to sit by and let the boy be taken either, Sokka steps forward to play his last card. "Wait," he says, projecting his voice across the clearing. The Fire Nation boy whips around so fast that Sokka would be sure the boy had given himself whiplash if not for the fact that he'd be able to feel it if he had. "You can't take him."

"I can and I will," he's quick to rebut, scowling defiantly at Sokka. He seems to ponder something for a moment, clenching his fists and staring down at the snow. When he looks back up, he says, "And you're coming, too." He makes a gesture to one of his underlings, who moves to approach Sokka in turn.

Katara's hand comes up to grip his arm, tight enough to cut off his circulation. "No," she says, voice taking on an even more distressed tone. "You can't take him."

She grows increasingly anxious as the soldier nears them, trying at one point to pull Sokka back. Sokka can easily imagine how she must feel. They lost their mother years ago, and their father left for the war effort recently, as well. If he were to be taken captive, it would just be her and Gran-Gran, who would surely leave her eventually, too.

Thinking quickly, he drops a kiss on the crown of her head, mumbling, "It'll be okay. Go get Aang's giant, fluffy snot-monster and follow us from a distance."

She doesn't have time to respond before the soldier approaches them. Her hand stays on his arm until the soldier all but tugs him loose of it and steers him towards the ship. At first, he tries to pull away from the man's grip, reticent to part from his family and village, but he's forced to march on as the soldier shoves him forward. When he's halfway up the gangplank, he manages to twist his head around long enough to see Katara nod the affirmative at him, and he allows himself to relax as much is possible for someone being carted away from their home.

"Head a course for the Fire Nation," his soulmate yells ahead of them, no doubt addressing a helmsman. "I'm going home."

At the top of the ramp, the soldiers stop them, and they have the opportunity to look down at the village as it disappears from sight, but Sokka is too ashamed to do so. He looks away, locking eyes with his soulmate instead. The boy is staring at him with a fathomless expression. Unbidden, memories of the night he woke up to the feeling of his face burning—melting, really, as he can see now—come to his mind, and one of his hands comes up to brush the skin under his eye. His soulmate's eyes track the movement, and the boy recoils and turns away.

Taking this as a signal of some sort, the soldiers make to follow, dragging Aang and Sokka along with them. They make their way onto the deck of the ship, where they're greeted by an elderly man who stands next to Sokka's soulmate when they come to a stop at the deck's center. A soldier ties Aang's hands behind his back while another hands his staff over to the Fire Nation boy, who's clearly the captain of the ship, Sokka realizes.

Now that he's no longer actively fighting him, Sokka takes a moment to actually take in his soulmate. The scar is exactly what he'd imagined, a cluster of misshapen flesh extending from his left eye to his ear, an angry mish-mash of color vastly different from his regular skin tone. The rest of him takes Sokka completely by surprise, though. His eyes are brighter than he'd expected them to be—not to mention, a completely different color. His skin is pale all over, including on his head, which is shaved in all the wrong places, Sokka thinks. His hair, or what little there is of it, is darker than he'd imagined it would be. When put in contrast with the lightness of his skin, he looks far more severe than any teenager should. His clothes, while not the biggest point of disparity, also come as a surprise. They're an armor of fine quality, indicating a relatively high station from what Sokka can glean.

Overall, Sokka's surprised, but more than that, he's incredibly disappointed. Never in all his life had he imagined that his soulmate would be from the Fire Nation, let alone actively waging war on its behalf. How can he be expected to spend the rest of his life with someone who evidently has no qualms with colonizing the rest of the world? Someone who sees no issue with the slow but steady destruction of Sokka's home?

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father," his soulmate says, bringing his focus back to the present. He holds the staff up to inspect it, continuing, "I suppose, you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks." He punctuates his statement by lightly striking the ground with the glider.

At least, his father didn't blast half his face off, Sokka thinks not-so-nicely to himself, resentment growing stronger with every passing second. At his side, Aang's expression models a similar sentiment, consternation pulling his brow into a furrow.

With a flick of his wrist, the older boy orders, "Take the avatar to the prison hold." With the staff still in his grip, he strides forward to grasp Sokka by the wrist with his other hand. "And don't disturb us," he adds as he starts them towards a doorway that disappears into the mast of the ship.

Sokka follows along without much complaint, though he's a little insulted that no one thought to restrain him as they did Aang. Granted, there's not much he can do by himself with no weapons on a ship full of hostile firebenders in what will soon be the middle of the ocean. Thus, he resigns himself to watching his soulmate's weird ponytail swing behind him as he leads them up a flight of stairs and through the poorly-lit halls.

After turning a corner, he's pulled through a door in the center of the corridor into a sparsely decorated room. The captain's quarters, he assumes. The room has a simple layout. One side is dedicated to what must be meditation, what with all the candles situated against the wall. There's a bed pushed up against the far wall, and a table sits beside it. The table, which is unremarkable by itself, is littered with objects adorned with softly-colored stones and other inlays. Vaguely, Sokka makes the connection that the stones are the same color as his eyes, meaning they must be blue, though a different shade than that of his clothes.

Colors are weird, he decides.

The other boy finally lets go of his wrist and deposits the staff against a table that sits under a pair of swords. Sokka lets both his arms drop to his sides, but doesn't completely relax in the event that he needs to defend himself.

After coming back around and staring at him for a little while, his soulmate awkwardly breaches the silence, "So, uh, it's nice to meet you."

Sokka raises an eyebrow, taken aback at the entirely misplaced, faux-casual greeting. "It's nice to meet me?" The other boy's expression turns unsure—or more so, anyway—but he holds a defiant light in his eye that prompts Sokka to go on. "You just attacked my village, manhandled my grandmother, and kidnapped me, and it's nice to meet me?"

"Yes," the boy barks at him, brow furrowing as his glare slips back onto his face.

Sokka looks away, letting his eyes focus on a tapestry hanging from the wall beside the door. It depicts the symbol of the Fire Nation, and he thinks to ask, "Where are we even going, anyway?"

"The Fire Nation," the other boy answers, and Sokka sees the boy angle away from him in his peripheral vision. His voice is calmer now than it was a moment ago. It rings with something akin to longing, which Sokka chooses to ignore as his gaze slides back to regard the other boy.

"Right," Sokka says, rolling his eyes. "But where, specifically? Am I going to prison?"

"No," the boy contends, whipping back around. "You'll be staying with me in the palace. The avatar, on the other hand—"

Confusion evident on his face, Sokka interrupts, "The palace? What are you, some kind of prince?"

Miffed at having been interrupted, he says, "Yes. I'm Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation, next in line for the throne."

Sokka's thoughts grow foggy. Voice dropping an octave, he starts, "You're—"

Aang takes this moment to creep into the room, startling both of the older boys. Zuko takes an offense stance as soon as his shock wears off, but it's ultimately to his detriment. His attention having shifted, Sokka takes the opportunity to take the other boy down from behind, kicking him in the back of the knee and shoving him to the ground. On his way out the door, he grabs Aang, who's just picked up his staff from where it had been leaning against the opposite wall.

As soon as they clear the doorway, a burst of fire and a furious shout follow them into the corridor, prompting them to run faster. Aang takes up the lead, dragging Sokka along with him at his astonishingly fast gait. Zuko is hot on their heels, so Aang makes sure to blow as many doors closed between them and Zuko on their way out of the ship.

When they reach the top deck, Sokka finds himself disoriented as he takes in their surroundings. On either side of them, the walls of great, imposing glaciers stand, forcing the helmsman to stay on a predetermined course lest he crash the ship and strand them in the ice. The ship has already made it to the outer caverns leading to the pole, leaving them a fair bit from the village. He wonders, perhaps irrelevantly, if Katara will manage to find them in time for them to make an escape.

Beside Sokka, Aang undoes his glider and exclaims, "Hold on," as he prepares to take flight.

"Hold on," Sokka shouts back, arms up as he gesticulates his anxiety and confusion. It's not every day a twelve-year-old monk he found in an iceberg helps him outrun his soulmate, after all. "Hold onto what?"

Aang doesn't answer, but Zuko emerges from the hatch in the bridge behind them, so without much time for continued deliberation, Sokka encircles Aang's middle with his arms and hangs on for dear life as the kid launches them into the air. His legs dangle behind them as they soar off the ship's mast, which ultimately leads to their downfall—literally.

Zuko manages to snag one of Sokka's ankles as they make to clear the mast. Soon, all three boys are descending through the frigid air and tumbling onto the deck of the ship. Sokka can feel bruises sprouting all over his body, unsure as to which are his and which belong to Zuko, but all the same not looking forward to dealing with them later. As soon as they get their bearings, each of the boys get to their feet once more and assume fighting positions.

Before anyone can make a move, a roar sounds in the distance. Each of them looks up to see Aang's bison flying toward the ship.

"Huh," Sokka mumbles as he spots the blue of Katara's parka on top of the animal. "So, he really can fly."

Zuko's offensive stance falters as he takes in the bison, wondering, "What is that?"

"Appa," Aang exclaims, excitement overtaking him. He's nearly unprepared for a blast from Zuko, which knocks him back to the portside of the ship. He manages to keep himself from falling overboard, but Zuko is quick to overwhelm him again, knocking away his staff.

Sokka goes to grab the staff, resolved to use it as a weapon no matter what Aang says it's for or how useless it looks. In the time it takes him to retrieve it, however, Zuko's already sent Aang off the edge of the ship, and the younger boy goes crashing into the sea.

"Aang, no," Katara yells from atop Appa, repeating his name over and over.

Sokka, meanwhile, fixes his aggression on Zuko. "What did you just do," he shouts.

Looking far too pleased with himself, Zuko dusts himself off, asserting, "Don't worry. We'll fish him out."

"Why, you—" he starts, only to be interrupted by the ocean erupting behind him as Aang soars out from the waves. The young avatar's eyes and tattoos glow white as water curls around him, keeping him suspended far above the ship.

When he comes back down to the deck, he lands beside Sokka. The water from the sea comes around them in a circle at Aang's urging. He uses it to cast the Fire Nation soldiers away from them. Some of them, including Zuko, fall overboard.

Shocked but nevertheless delighted, Sokka turns to him, exclaiming, "Now, that was some waterbending!" His relieved grin slips from his face, however, when he notices Aang coming down from whatever powerful state he'd been in, the younger boy collapsing into Sokka's arms.

Katara lands Appa on the deck, jumps from his back, and rushes over to meet them. "Is he okay," she asks as he hands Aang over to her.

Aang's eyes peel open before Sokka gets the chance to answer, and he mumbles, "Hey, Katara. Thanks for coming."

She smiles down at him, warm and doting. "Of course, Aang, I couldn't just leave you."

"And me, too, I hope," Sokka interjects, not one to be left out. "Your darling older brother?"

"'Darling' is a strong word," she quips as she helps Aang to stand up and ushers him over to Appa. Sokka squawks in protest, but follows nonetheless. Once the three of them are seated on the bison, she says, "Yip yip," and Appa vaults himself into the air.

As they fly away, Sokka turns in the saddle, catching a glimpse of Zuko being pulled onto the ship by the elderly man from earlier. They're too far away for him to tell where Zuko's gaze is fixed, but he'd bet anything it's on either him or Aang.

What Zuko wants with either of them, though, he can't say.

---

They don't run into Zuko for a few weeks after that.

Sokka feels relaxed for most of their stay on Kyoshi Island. He has plenty of time to work on his training, and there's lots of food on which to gorge himself. What's more, there's so many colors here that at first, he has trouble taking them all in. He talks one of the village kids into showing him around and pointing out the different colors, shades, and hues. He learns about the greens that litter the trees and span over the ground. He sees that there are blues in more than just water and ice.

After handling non-Water Tribe money for the first time in the market, he sees gold in the palm of his hand. When it comes time to spends the same coins he recognizes the color on, he ignores the feeling of guilt that comes with it. Sure, Zuko'd had a bunch of stuff with the color of his eyes on them, but that was different. Those were weapons and jewelry—items meant to be kept for a long time. Money, on the other hand, was meant to be spent, especially when you didn't have enough to be stingy with it. Plus, he doesn't care how Zuko—that jerk—may or may not feel about Sokka not keeping anything the color of his eyes.

He also finds Suki to be a fun if slightly humbling companion. In the short time they've been there, he's already learned a lot about different fighting styles and cultures from her. What's more—and a little embarrassing—she's shown him how hen-pigheaded he'd been about gender roles. Not very manly of him, in hindsight, he'll admit.

He's still training with Suki when Zuko arrives on the island, dolled up in a silky dress and unfamiliar war paint. Oyaji runs into the room, out of breath as he warns, "Firebenders have landed on our shores! Girls, come quickly!"

Suki dashes out of the building after him. Despite being a bit miffed at being confused for a girl, Sokka is quick to follow. They make their way down to the village as fast as they can—Sokka desperately trying not to trip over his skirts—and meet up with the other Kyoshi Warriors to hash out a quick strategy.

They opt for cover beyond the tree line as they carefully wind their way down to the village entrance. From behind one of the houses at the edge of the street, Sokka can see Fire Nation soldiers atop komodo rhinoceros stationed at the beginning of the main road. Much to his dismay, he can make out Zuko astride one of them.

"Come out, Avatar," Zuko yells, the anger in his voice apparent as he projects it over the village square. "You can't hide from me forever."

A few villagers peek out from windows and doorways to watch, but no one else emerges. Sokka isn't sure where Aang is, but he's certain he's not within earshot of Zuko. As self-sacrificing as that kid is, Sokka knows he'd give himself up in a heartbeat to save the village from Zuko's wrath, if only to narrowly escape from his clutches later anyway.

Still, he's glad Aang isn't around. It gives him and the other warriors an opportunity to launch their attack and drive out the invaders, and he'll be damned if he doesn't take it. He's still pissed about Zuko ramming through his village's wall and kicking him in the face.

They take the soldiers by surprise, some of the girls dropping down from the rooftops while the rest of them slip out onto the street from the alleyways. As the leader, Suki goes straight for Zuko, dodging his fire blasts and trying to knock him from his perch on the rhinoceros. Unfortunately, she doesn't expect the beast's tail to knock her away, and she hits the ground hard, dropping her fans.

Despite her clearly being down, Zuko aims another blast at her. Sokka picks up his gait when he sees Zuko's arms come up, afraid he won't be able to protect her, but he slides in front of her just in time to intercept the flames with his fan.

He grits his teeth and clenches his free hand into a fist with half the mind to scream at Zuko for daring to attack someone so dishonorably. Before he gets the chance, however, another warrior comes crashing down on him, finally managing to knock him off his stead. He goes tumbling onto a porch lining the side of the road, and the three of them surround him.

Before they land so much as a hit, however, Zuko is wielding some fancy firebending move and knocking them all off their feet. Sokka's back hits the floor hard, and he grunts from the pain starting to flair in his shoulders. Nonetheless, he pushes himself up and follows Zuko back out onto the street.

"Nice try, Avatar," Zuko is sneering into the empty air as Sokka sneaks up behind him. "But these little girls can't save yo—Oh!"

"You know," Sokka says after tackling the other boy to the ground. "I'm getting kinda sick of people mistaking me for a girl."

Wide-eyed, Zuko stares up at him from beneath him. He'd been struggling to push Sokka off of him, but he stills when their eyes lock. "You," he whispers, finally recognizing Sokka under his Kyoshi Warrior garb.

"Me," Sokka agrees, shoving down on Zuko's shoulders to keep him from getting up again. From this close, he can feel Zuko's body heat. Idly, he wonders if all firebenders run this warm.

With Sokka's mind elsewhere, Zuko manages to lock one of his legs around Sokka's middle and flip them in an attempt to reverse their positions. Sokka manages to scuttle back before Zuko can pin him, but it doesn't matter. His advantage is gone.

"Tell me where the avatar is," Zuko demands, fists curled as what Sokka is beginning to recognize as his usual look of fury slips over his face again.

"Not a chance," Sokka replies, shifting back into a defensive stance. Zuko doesn't mirror him, looking at something over Sokka's shoulder.

"Hey, over here," Aang yells from behind him.

Sokka turns around to see the boy standing at the end of the road, staff held out in front of him. He almost shakes his head in exasperation. Why can't Aang let him finish a fight for once?

"Finally," Zuko crows, shoving past Sokka on his way to Aang. "Stay here," he tells Sokka before he gets too far.

Sokka scoffs as Zuko and Aang start fighting. "Yeah, right," he mutters to himself, turning back to where he'd left Suki and helping her up. He drags her behind one of the houses amid her protests, insisting she's fine and ready to head back into the fight. "Just give me a minute, alright," he implores, gently setting her down. "I need to say good-bye."

Quick as ever, she rebuts, "There's no time to say good-bye."

Not willing to let their conversation end here, he asks, "What about 'I'm sorry?'" When they'd first met, he'd acted so rudely that now, he almost wishes she had thrown him in with the Unagi. The only drawback to seeing the error in his ways is that he probably has to apologize to Katara and Gran-Gran, too, but he'll get to that later.

She looks uncertain for the first time since he met her. Faltering for half a moment, she returns, "For what?"

Sokka takes a deep breath as he prepares the apology he's been mulling over all day. "I treated you like a girl when I should have treated you like a warrior."

Suki leans in. "I am a warrior," she agrees, and then kisses him on the cheek. "But I'm a girl, too."

Hand pressed to his cheek in surprise, he stares into her deep blue eyes. They're colored a shade he's probably seen a million times but never known it, having evoked absolutely nothing in him, and the same is true of now. Suki is great—wonderful, awesome—but she's not what the universe has planned for him, and he can feel it.

He resents it, too.

---

In hindsight, Sokka probably shouldn't have tried to fight the giant, angry spirit.

Yes, he thinks, staring at Zuko in the face. He definitely should have just stayed in that village's town hall where it was safe and non-spirit-ey.

"You—" Zuko chokes out, eyes bulging and pointing at Sokka in shock. "What are you doing here? How are you here?"

Looking down at his—fairly translucent, he notices—hands, Sokka blinks twice before replying, "I, uh, I don't know." After the Hei Bai spirit had snatched him up and ran off, all he remembers is his hand slipping out of Aang's grip before the other boy could pull him free. Next thing he knew, he was here—wherever herewas—with Zuko. Oh.

"Oh," he echoes aloud. "I know why I'm here. It's your fault," he accuses, jabbing a finger towards Zuko.

"My fault," Zuko exclaims, rearing back in outrage. "I didn't do anything!"

"You didn't have to," Sokka says. "I think I'm supposed to be in the spirit world, but whatever that spirit tried to do didn't work because my soul is otherwise tethered to the material world." It makes sense, he supposes. The same logic must be why Aang doesn't have a soulmate. The avatar must be able to venture into the spirit world without any obstacles.

Zuko seems to deflate, his shock and anger dissipating. "By me," he confirms.

Sokka doesn't try too hard to keep the disappointment from his voice. "Yeah."

Not for the first time, Sokka finds himself wishing for his soulmate to be anyone but Zuko. If they were, he'd probably be meeting them for the first time right now. Sure, they'd most likely freak out at seeing what looked like a ghost at first, but after Sokka explained the situation, they could get to know each other in a nice, non-hostile manner.

"So," Zuko ventures, a little awkwardly, calling Sokka's attention back to him. "How long will you be here?"

Sokka looks around, taking in his new surroundings. They're standing in the middle of a wooded path, accompanied by one of the komodo rhinos that Zuko must cart around with him on his ship. It's still nighttime, so he knows not much time has elapsed. From the looks of the trees and the stars above them, it seems as though Zuko is relatively nearby the village they'd been helping, but he's not about to tell Zuko that. "I'm not sure," he finally answers. "Until Aang saves me, I guess."

"Right," Zuko agrees, eyes shifting from Sokka to the trees behind him and back again.

Zuko looks unsure of himself, and as much as Sokka technically has nowhere to go, he grows impatient. "What," he snaps.

"What's your name," Zuko blurts out angrily, glaring at the hostility in Sokka's tone.

Sokka blanches, mortification rolling over him in waves. "What's my name," he squeaks, indignant. What kind of person doesn't know their soulmate's name?

Fire Nation soulmates, that's who.

"You never told me," Zuko insists, voice breaking.

Sokka crosses his arms and turns away with his nose in the air. "You should just know," he argues.

"What," Zuko barks, sparks flying as he grits his teeth. "You only know mine because I told you!"

Pouting for a few more seconds, Sokka relents when he turns around to look at Zuko again. He may dislike—despise, loathe—the other boy, but something about Zuko looks so sad to not know his name. "It's Sokka," he reluctantly discloses.

Neither of them says anything after that, but when Zuko turns to start towards his rhino, Sokka can see the other boy trying out his name under his breath.

"I'm looking for my uncle," Zuko tells him as he swings into the rhino's saddle. "He's been captured by earthbenders."

Puzzled, Sokka questions, "Your uncle?" His face scrunches up in confusion as his mind conjures up the image of a taller, older, angrier Zuko, but it relaxes as soon as he recalls the time he'd been on Zuko's ship the first day they met. "Wait. Is he that old guy from your ship?"

Zuko nods, gathering the reins in his hands. After a beat, he looks down at Sokka again, then gestures with a tip of his chin towards the open space on the saddle behind him.

Sokka's eyes follow the movement, dread coupled with embarrassment filling him. Shaking his head, he waves his hands back and forth as he refuses. "Nu-huh, no way. I know how this goes. I am not getting up there with you."

"Why not," Zuko demands, his earlier displeasure making a return.

Sokka places his hands on his hips and fixes Zuko with his most admonishing look, usually reserved for Aang when he gives Momo Sokka's share of their fruits and nuts. "If I get onto the stead with you, I'll have to hold your waist to keep from falling off. You can't trick me! I won't be seduced so easily!"

Zuko sputters, a raging blush overcoming his pale face. He looks about as mortified hearing Sokka's words as Sokka felt saying them. Thankfully, however, Sokka has a darker complexion to hide behind. "You probably couldn't touch me even if I—you—either of us wanted it!"

For a second, Sokka's not sure what he means, but he soon recalls his current state and wonders if he can touch the rhino, let alone Zuko. Contemplative, he walks up to the beast, and when Zuko extends a hand, whether to help him up or allow him to test his theory, Sokka's own phases right through it, unable to make contact. His lips twist in confusion. Is he supposed to just walk beside the rhino until he manages to fully leave the spirit world?

Zuko suggests that he try hauling himself onto the saddle because it's an inanimate object. With nothing to lose, Sokka does. Somehow, it works, and soon enough, they're travelling down the road, swaying with the komodo rhino's wide-footed gait.

They ride in uncomfortable silence until daybreak. Sunlight peaks out behind the leaves that populate the many trees in the forest through which they're riding, painting the road in fractured shadows. The sky is a dark blue, gradually growing lighter, and the clouds are few and far between.

Not for the first time, Sokka wonders at the world in color. As much as he may detest Zuko, before they'd met, all Sokka had seen was black, white, and all the shades of gray in between. Now, however, his vision alights with browns, greens, pinks, and blues.

Golds.

From his vantage point on the rhino, he can't see Zuko's eyes, but it doesn't matter. Ever since he first saw them, they've haunted his dreams. He sees them as the color of the midnight sun, reflecting in the dark waters of the pools near the South Pole. He sees them hiding behind the leaves of tall trees in the early mornings, and as the grassy plains they fly over in the light of the afternoon.

When the sun finally makes its appearance over the tops of the trees, Sokka's mind turns to Katara. He's been gone for hours, and whether or not Aang's told her where he is, she's probably worried out of her mind.

"Who," Zuko suddenly asks, startling Sokka out of his thoughts. He's still facing forward, but there's no doubt that he was addressing Sokka.

Sokka makes a noise of bewilderment in the back of his throat, confused by Zuko's question.

Zuko does turn back, and Sokka catches a glimpse of his good eye glinting in the pale morning light. "You were talking about someone named Katara. Is that the other friend you've been traveling with?"

"Katara is my sister," he divulges.

Nodding, Zuko faces away from Sokka again. Absently, Sokka watches his ponytail swing from side to side. Not for the first time, he bemoans his soulmate's awful choice in hairstyles. Why does the other boy think shaved on all sides looks good?

Zuko pipes up again, voice wavering ever so slightly with hesitation. "How old is she?"

Immediately, Sokka perks up, defensive. "Why do you want to know?"

Anger flaring up yet again, Zuko shouts, "I don't!"

Sokka harrumphs, uninterested in Zuko's weird, emotionally-charged excuses. After a moment, however, Zuko explains that he was simply trying to relate to Sokka because he has a sister he thinks is around Katara's age, too.

At first, Sokka is a little bit resentful of the idea that Zuko wants to relate to him, but he lets it slide, figuring its best to limit their arguments to a minimum while he's stuck with him. So, instead of fighting, he asks if Zuko and his sister get along.

Sullenly, Zuko says he doesn't want to talk about it.

Forget it, Sokka thinks, and they lap back into their earlier, awkward silence.

After another hour of riding, Zuko brings them to an abrupt stop and drops to the ground. Looking around, Sokka realizes Zuko stopped them because he spotted a sandal sitting abandoned in the middle of the path and supposes it must be a clue.

Zuko drops to one knee as he picks up the sandal. Much to Sokka's horror, as he brings it up to inspect it, he takes a sniff. His face contorts at the no-doubt horrible smell of the old shoe, and he lets his hand drop. "Yeah," he says, deadpan. "That's Uncle Iroh."

"Dude," Sokka says, voice tinged with disgust. "Why did you smell it?"

Zuko barely glances at him as he pulls himself back onto the rhino's back. "How else was I supposed to know it was his?"

"I don't know," Sokka exclaims, throwing up his hands. "Take a good guess?"

"I'm trying to find him," Zuko shoots back, glaring over his shoulder. "Not get lost."

"Well, you certainly had me fooled," Sokka snidely replies, despite the fact that he doesn't actually know whether they're lost or not.

Zuko turns around fully as he glares at him this time. "Shut up!"

Affronted at being suddenly called out, Sokka gasps, mouth opening and closing like a guppy-shark's before he shouts back, "You shut up!"

"What's your problem," Zuko goes on, his frustration at Sokka evidently bubbling over. "We're supposed to get along perfectly. Why are you being so difficult about everything?"

"Why am I being so difficult," Sokka repeats, incredulous. "You kidnapped me the first day we met!"

"I didn't kidnap you," Zuko brashly insists, fists clenching in front of him as he tries to contain his anger. "I was just taking you to the Fire Nation with me!"

"Against my will," Sokka loudly finishes for him. "Hence the kidnapping part of it!"

Sneering at him, Zuko asks, "Why would you even want to stay in your little village when you could go somewhere with more civilization and culture?"

Eyebrows shooting up to his hairline, Sokka takes a moment to take in how extraordinarily racist the words that just came out his soulmate's mouth were. How had the Great Spirits come to pair them together?

Still, two can play at this game, he supposes.

Blinded by righteous fury, he jeers, "Oh, excuse me if we're not exactly a cultural hub, but at least, our leaders don't mutilate their own kids!"

Zuko balks at Sokka's statement, flinching a little as it resonates with him. Almost immediately, Sokka wants to take it back. Sure, Zuko may be a total jerk, but Sokka can remember how much getting his scar had hurt, not to mention how lonely and afraid Zuko had felt in that moment.

"Zuko," he starts regretfully, beginning to reach out before realizing he could provide no physical comfort. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up."

"Whatever," Zuko grouses. He glares ahead of them, ignoring Sokka as shame rolls over him, causing his stomach to tighten into knots. However, just as Sokka makes to apologize again, he breaches the silence once more. "It happened when I was banished."

"You're banished," Sokka asks, curious. How can a prince be exiled from his own nation? Hadn't Zuko said he was next in line for the throne?

Zuko hums in assent. "I spoke out of turn at a war meeting. For my disrespect, my father challenged me to a duel, and when I refused to fight him, he burned me and cast me out. He said I could only return with the avatar."

Struck into silence, Sokka tries to absorb everything Zuko's told him beyond the short, clipped explanation he'd given. Zuko's only a teenager, which means he must have been around Aang's age when he was banished. Sokka can't imagine what Zuko must have said to warrant banishment by his own father. Clearly, the fire lord's a psychopath, but that comes as no surprise to Sokka.

One detail in particular stands out to him, though—that Zuko has to bring Aang back to the Fire Nation in order to return. It's no wonder, then, that Zuko is so fixated on capturing Aang, inciting him to follow and attack them wherever they go. Furthermore, no matter how little he wants Zuko to capture Aang, he can't imagine how awful it must feel to not be able to return home. If he were unable to return to the South Pole for whatever reason, he'd be devasted.

He doesn't say anything, however, thinking it better to simply stay silent on the matter. They continue for a while, following the path of three-toed ostrich-horses.

Sokka finds himself being lulled into a sort of trance by the swaying motion of the rhino as it scurries along the ground, drawn out of his stupor only when he hears a distant roar. Looking up, he spots Appa in the sky behind them. From this distance, he can't tell who it is that's on Appa, whether it be Aang, Katara, or the both of them. As inconspicuously as he can, he turns back around, hoping that Zuko doesn't notice the giant flying bison.

Unfortunately, Zuko does notice. "The avatar," he rasps in astonishment, watching Appa's path through the sky. He turns to Sokka, realizing, "You're nearby."

Sokka shrugs, unwilling to give him any more information. Sure, the jig may be up, and Zuko is going to turn around and follow Appa, but Sokka certainly isn't going to do him any favors.

"Of course, you didn't tell me," Zuko mutters to himself, sounding particularly resigned with the revelation.

Sokka narrows his eyes to slits, glaring at him. "Why would I," he returns crossly.

Zuko doesn't answer as he tugs on the reins, and they resume their path to his uncle. When they pass a bend in the road, and still, Zuko doesn't turn around, Sokka is surprised that Zuko is choosing to follow his uncle's trail rather than Appa. Wisely, however, he stays silent, fearing any comment may prompt Zuko to change his mind.

As the sun begins to set, they hear bits of a commotion down in a gorge off the side of the road. When they dismount to take a look, they discover that they've found Zuko's uncle, but the man is in deep trouble. He's chained to a large rock and surrounded by earthbenders, and it looks as though he's about to be dealt a grievous punishment.

Without a moment's hesitation, Zuko slides down the slanted wall of the gorge, skillfully keeping himself upright and avoiding any protruding branches or rocks. Sokka follows after him at a slower pace, unconcerned with tripping over anything but preoccupied with thoughts over whether the earthbenders will be able to see him. Soulmate or not, he doesn't want to be associated with the prince of the Fire Nation.

One of the earthbenders raises a small boulder over Iroh's hands, which are laid out on the rock against which he's slumped. For a terrible moment, Sokka thinks Zuko won't make it in time and he'll have to watch the elder's hands get crushed. Iroh may be a firebender, but it would still be an awful thing to witness. Not to mention, Sokka doesn't imagine the soldiers dealing out such a gruesome punishment have the authority to do so. In the Southern Water Tribe, the chief decides punishments, and only after a trial before the village council. Additionally, no penalties are so inhumane. Even traitors deserve a chance at rehabilitation.

Despite Sokka's worries, however, Zuko does make it in time, grunting as he kicks the boulder out of the way. He takes a quick, deep breath before turning and breaking through his uncle's bonds with a sharp kick, and Sokka is begrudgingly impressed.

Zuko's uncle seems to agree. "Excellent form, Prince Zuko."

They both assume battle stances, and Zuko responds as kindly as Sokka imagines he can, "You taught me well."

"Surrender yourselves," orders the earthbender who'd nearly dealt the blow to Iroh's hands. "It's five against two. You're clearly outnumbered."

His observation, though intended as a taunt at the firebenders, allows Sokka to exhale in relief. Surely, only Zuko can see him.

Sokka's relief is short-lived, however, as Iroh's eyes slide over to him and briefly focus on his form before he returns his attention to the earthbenders. "Ah, that's true," he acknowledges. "But you are clearly outmatched."

The fight commences then, the earthbenders tossing rocks at the two firebenders. Each of them defends themselves differently. Iroh uses the chains still attached to his wrists to break apart and sometimes throw back the rocks. Zuko, on the other hand, relies on his fire, kicking out at the earthbenders and knocking them off their feet.

It's only when there's one opponent left standing that Zuko starts to look unsure of himself. The earthbender pulls an enormous amount of earth from the ground, so much that it towers over Zuko, casting him in its great shadow.

At the base of the canyon wall, Sokka steps forward, making to yell out to Zuko so that he'll get out of the way, but he stops himself before the words leave his mouth. What does he care that Zuko gets buried in dirt? He should be rooting for the earthbenders, not the Fire Nation prince and his uncle. They're on opposite sides of the war.

It doesn't matter whether or not Sokka's warning would have done anything, however, as Zuko's uncle comes to his rescue just in time. Iroh wraps the chains still bound to his wrists around the earthbender's ankles and pulls, causing his opponent and all the rock he'd been carrying to come crashing to the ground. At the end of it all, the five earthbenders lie under rubble at the Fire Nation royals' feet, no doubt wallowing in their loss.

Zuko comes to stand at his uncle's side and—much to Sokka's surprise—smiles at him. He places a hand on his shoulder, good-naturedly complaining, "Now, will you please put on some clothes?"

Sokka almost laughs, only now noticing Iroh's state of undress. While Zuko is decked out in his usual black and deep-red armor, his uncle wears only a loincloth. Fleetingly, he wonders as to whether the earthbenders found him like that or if they stole his clothes as part of some earlier attempt at humiliation.

"Certainly, Prince Zuko," Iroh cedes, nodding graciously. "But first, perhaps you want to introduce me to your friend over there?"

Zuko gasps, whipping around as his gaze moves from his uncle to Sokka and back again. "You can see him?"

Iroh laughs jovially, clasping his hands over his big belly. "Of course! I am very attuned to the spirits, as you know."

Sokka takes a timid step forward and waves shyly. "Uh, hi."

Nodding in greeting, Iroh gives him a kind smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My nephew has told me much about you."

Surprised, Sokka's eyes flit over to Zuko, who looks almost painfully abashed. "He has?"

Laughing again, Iroh tells him, "It's not everyday a young man meets his soulmate."

"Uncle, please," Zuko whispers, ostensibly embarrassed, but his attempt to silence his uncle is unsuccessful.

"Why don't you tell us about yourself while we have the pleasure of your company," Iroh suggests.

Sokka takes a step back, returning to his earlier spot by the rocky wall of the gorge. "Um, I would, but—Oh."

Whatever excuse he'd been about to give is forgotten as a light feeling that starts in his chest overcomes him. Looking down, he finds himself growing more translucent yet, and he imagines he'll soon disappear completely.

Before he can find the wherewithal to get nervous about his constancy—or lack thereof—Iroh speaks up again. "Ah, I see our time has run out. In that case, we look forward to seeing you again soon."

Just as he can no longer see his own feet, Zuko darts forward, hand outstretched. "Wait, Sokka—"

He doesn't hear the rest of what Zuko has to say, however, as he finds himself shouldering his way through a thatch of bamboo and emerging into the village from which the Hei Bai spirit had captured him the day before. He rubs his head in confusion as he continues to stumble forward, still getting his bearings.

"Sokka," he hears someone exclaim, and soon he has an arm-full of Katara as his sister presses her face into his shoulder. When she pulls back, she says, "I was so worried! You and Aang were gone for twenty-four hours."

He nods, thinking back to when he'd first appeared at Zuko's side. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

It's not until they're in the air on the way to the Fire Nation of all places that his time in the spirit world comes up again. They've loaded up on new supplies and are headed to the crescent-shaped island Avatar Roku had told Aang about. A part of Sokka is worried they won't get there in time for the solstice, but with their luck, he figures they'll get to their destination and into trouble—no problem.

"So, Sokka," Aang suddenly says, bridging the comfortable silence they'd been sharing with anticipation in his voice. "What were they like?"

Confused as to whom he's referring, Sokka furrows his brow. "What was who like?"

"Your soulmate," Aang exclaims, throwing out his hands in excitement. "You must have met them in the spirit world."

"You did," Katara cheers, sitting up on her knees and clasping her hands under her chin. Her eyes shine with barely-concealed joy as she asks, "What are they like? What's their name? Are they nice—"

"No," Sokka blurts, interrupting. As soon as he realizes what he's denied, his face heats up with shame, but Katara and Aang don't catch onto the true meaning for his discomfort.

Apprehensive, Aang asks, "They're not nice?"

Sokka sighs, resigned. "I just meant that I didn't actually meet them," he lies, feeling guilty as he watches acceptance wash over their faces.

Katara scoots over to sit beside him on the saddle, rubbing his back comfortingly. "Don't worry, Sokka. I'm sure they were just sleeping or something, and that's why you didn't get to meet them." After a moment's hesitation, her eyes dart over to Aang as she asks for verification, "Right, Aang?"

"Right," he agrees, smiling reassuringly.

Sokka nods emphatically at that, wanting desperately for this conversation to be over and done with. He's not sure how much longer he can bear to lie to them about Zuko. The truth will undoubtedly come out soon, and he's not looking forward to Aang's look of betrayal or Katara's righteous fury when it does.

The topic drops, and they fly on for several hours without discussing any other heavy stuff. Most of their conversation revolves around Momo, who's been scouring their bags in search of snacks for the better part of their trip. It's only when Katara spots Zuko's ship following them at a rapidly-closing distance that they begin to panic about their impromptu journey to the Fire Nation again.

When they reach the Fire Nation blockade and Sokka falls out of the sky, their conversation drops off completely, each of them too nervous to keep themselves from blurting out all of their worries about what will happen when they finally arrive at Roku's island.

As it nears dusk, the island appears on the horizon. They land on it not much later, leaving Appa far enough from the temple and volcano to be neither spotted nor singed.

Once inside the temple, they find themselves on a mad dash to escape the Fire Sages, who are definitely the worst servants of the avatar ever, barring Shyu, Sokka decides. It's only natural that Zuko shows up after that, nearly ruining Sokka's—Katara's, whatever—ingenious plan.

Sokka nearly crows in victory when Aang slips through the sanctuary doors and a blue light nearly blinds all of them, but being tied to a post manages to keep his ego in check enough to ensure his silence.

The remaining Fire Sages and Zuko try to open the doors again. When their efforts breed no success, Zuko complains, "Why isn't it working? It's sealed shut!"

"It must have been the light," the Great Sage explains, head bowed in defeat. "Avatar Roku doesn't want us inside."

Clenching his fists, Zuko growls out his fury and turns away from the sages. When his eyes meet Sokka's, he starts over to him. Sokka is quick to grow apprehensive. Zuko looks so angry, and Sokka definitely doesn't want to talk to him in front of Katara. He finds himself wishing he were invisible again. Only this time, Zuko ideally wouldn't be able to see him either.

When Zuko approaches Sokka—each of them still glaring at the other—he leans in close and asks, "Why are you here? What does the avatar want?"

In lieu of answering, Sokka turns his head away and clenches his jaw. He'd rather give Zuko the silent treatment than speak to him right now. To think we'd almost gotten along yester—

Sokka's thought cut out when he feels two of Zuko's fingers come to softly brush under his chin and turn his head back. When they lock eyes again, Zuko's are noticeably softer, but there's a distinct undercurrent of effort behind his gaze. "Come on, Sokka, tell me," he croons, and Sokka's lips part at his boldness. "Weren't we getting along so well earlier?"

Cheeks heating up, Sokka wills himself to move his head from Zuko's grip, but he finds that he can't look away from Zuko's eyes. He's never seen them this close before, and they're nothing if not entrancing. The way that light seems to swim around in his irises captivates Sokka, and he almost finds himself leaning forward before Katara interrupts.

"Get away from him," she shouts in Zuko's—and by extension, Sokka's—face, rearing forward and pulling against their chains. "We won't tell you anything!"

With Katara staring him down at point-blank range with her thoughts written all over her face, Zuko realizes that she doesn't know that he and Sokka are soulmates. With no small amount of horror, Sokka sees the exact moment it dawns on Zuko, and watches as he gets all moody and walks away. He approaches Shyu, who the other sages have kneeling on the floor with his arms tied behind his back. "Why did you help the avatar?"

"Because it was once the sages' duty," the man answers, solemn and steadfast in his response. "It is still our duty."

As Zuko continues to interrogate the poor man, Sokka embarrassment comes roaring back with a vengeance. He can't believe Zuko tried to seduce him.

He can't believe it almost worked.

Sokka chances a look at Katara to gauge as to whether she's realized what's going on between him and Zuko, and horrified, he watches as her eyes dart away as she's been caught staring. Anxiety flares up in him, almost certain that she knows the truth now but unwilling to ask and be completely sure.

His attention is drawn from both Katara and his roving thoughts when the sound of slow clapping fills the room. A man with long sideburns and fine armor is walking toward the entrance to the sanctuary, accompanied by an entourage of soldiers. "What a moving and heartfelt performance," he says, voice positively dripping with sarcasm and malicious intent. "I'm certain the fire lord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him." He walks right up to Zuko and stares down his nose at him while the boy turns fully to face him.

"Commander Zhao," the Great Sage greets, bowing slightly at the waist.

Fear trickles down Sokka's spine as he hears the man's name and title. Clearly, he's a powerful man, no doubt capable of inflicting serious harm upon whomsoever stands in his way. Tied to a post with the visual of Zuko standing directly before Zhao, Sokka can't help but feel as though they're in a world of trouble.

Come on, Aang, he silently wills. Speak to Avatar Roku quickly so we can get out of here.

"And Prince Zuko," Zhao continues, arms crossed and entirely unaware of Sokka's inner turmoil. "It was a noble effort, but your little smoke screen didn't work. Two traitors in one day. The fire lord will be pleased."

One of Zhao's lackeys comes up behind Zuko and pulls his arms behind his back to restrain him. Zuko groans, yelling, "You're too late, Zhao!" He looks to the sanctuary doors. "The avatar's inside, and the doors are sealed."

"No matter," Zhao calmly replies with a smirk tugging at his lips, following Zuko's gaze. "Sooner or later, he has to come out."

Katara and Sokka share a look of concern at his words, which certainly ring true. Unfortunately, they don't have a plan for what to do when the solstice ends. If Aang is unprepared for an attack of this magnitude—which he almost certainly is, having entered the sanctuary before Zhao arrived—he may not be able to adequately defend himself.

The soldier restraining Zuko pulls him to the post opposite the one to which Katara and Sokka are tied. Zuko, while ostensibly not putting his full strength and determination behind his efforts, struggles as he's dragged and chained to the column, breathing out a puff of flame in frustration as the soldier finishes securing him and moves away. As soon as the soldier walks back to his post, Sokka looks away from Zuko, resolving to not make eye contact. They may be in the same boat, but he doesn't want Zuko to think they're in this together.

As the solstice nears its end, Zhao comes to stand before the great metal doors to the sanctuary, his soldiers laid out in an offensive formation behind him. "When those doors open, unleash all your firepower!"

Katara turns her head to regard him, voice soft and anxious as she whispers, "How's Aang gonna make it out of this?"

"How are we gonna make it outta this," he fires back. If they can't help themselves, they certainly can't help Aang.

Suddenly, the same blue light emanating from inside the sanctuary that they'd seen earlier overcomes the room. Everyone turns away, lest they be blinded by the sheer glory of it. When it dims enough for it to be safe to look back, Sokka watches as the doors open with bated breath.

"Ready," Zhao calls, unnecessarily calling his men's attention to the sanctuary doors. Each of them has their hands up and one foot forward as they prepare to strike the avatar.

Just beyond them, Sokka can make out Aang's eyes glowing in the dark. He begins to struggle against the chains, willing them to loosen so he can do something—anything—to help. Beside him, Katara yells out a warning to Aang, but neither of them can be sure the younger boy can hear—let alone heed—it.

"Fire," Zhao orders, and he and his underlings send forth wild torrents of flame at Aang through the open doors of the sanctuary. Sokka has to refrain from the impulse to turn away, the heat from the fire feeling as though it's close enough to burn him.

It seems as though he concerns are unwarranted, however, as the fire begins to flow into a sphere around Aang, surely not at Zhao's bidding. When the flames part to reveal Aang, they are all shocked to find Avatar Roku in his place, bending his native element to his will.

The avatar lets loose a horrifying wave of fire through the room, dispersing Zhao's men and burning through the chains restraining Sokka. Miraculously, the fire burns neither him nor Katara and Shyu. The three of them let their arms drop by their sides as they're freed, Sokka rolling his shoulders to alleviate the tension that's built up.

"Sokka," Zuko calls as he runs over, evidently having been freed, as well. He grabs Sokka's wrist as soon as he's near. "Let's go."

"Yes," Shyu agrees, trying to urge to her feet Katara, who's taken to kneeling beside him to avoid the barrage of fire coming from the avatar. "Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple. We have to get out of here!"

"Not without Aang," she declares. Sokka silently agrees, yanking his arm out of Zuko's grip.

Manifestly undeterred, Zuko's hands reattach themselves to Sokka's arms. Face imploring as Sokka's ever seen it, he urges, "We don't need to die here."

"We won't," Sokka states just as the floor splits open and lava comes spewing out from the caverns below. Instinctively, Sokka turns away from Zuko, gathers Katara in his arms, and brings them to the ground behind the pillar in an effort to shield them. When at last the rumbling of the temple subsides, they look up to find themselves alone, Shyu and Zuko evidently having run off in an effort to save themselves. Sokka tells himself he's not disappointed.

They make quick work of collecting Aang, the boy having just come out of the Avatar State. As the temple collapses around them, it's Appa that ultimately comes to their rescue, showing up in the nick of time. They jump onto his back, and as they soar away from the island, Sokka finds himself only a little worried about how Zuko made his own escape, if at all. It's not as though the other boy had waited around for him.

Hours later as they cross the same blockade they'd passed when they'd entered the Fire Nation, Sokka finally allows himself to fully relax. They've gotten out of enemy territory unscathed, and he just wants to put the last couple days behind him.

Try as he might, however, he can't get the soft smile Zuko had given his uncle the day before out of his head.

---

Aang spends the next several days freaking out about Sozin's Comet and his progress mastering the elements. When Katara suggests they stop so that he can work on his waterbending, Sokka doesn't think much of it. Frankly, it will be a welcome and productive distraction from their stress-filled run from the Fire Nation.

That is, until Katara steals a waterbending scroll from pirates who team up with Zuko to kidnap them. His only solace in the whole situation is that Zuko must feel it when those pirates throw Sokka from one deck of their ship to the other. A week later, Sokka still has bruises from the fall.

Now, Sokka is convinced that flying around on Appa is simply too conspicuous. If they want to avoid any more interactions with Zuko and Zhao on their way to the North Pole, they need to be smart about their traveling habits. When he tells the others about his concerns, however, they're less than receptive.

"Appa's not too noticeable," Katara argues, sneering at him with her hands on her hips. For whatever reason, she's been noticeably angry with him for the last week. When he'd tried to bring it up the day before, she'd practically ignored him, claiming that she needed to focus on making the broth for their supper as though it wasn't something she'd done a million times before. Frustrated anew, he'd let the topic drop.

Gesturing at Appa, he exclaims, "He's a gigantic, fluffy monster with an arrow on his head! It's kinda hard to miss him." Appa roars in protest, but Sokka holds fast, glaring at Katara to punctuate his point.

Katara glares right back, silently fuming until her sneer turns into a triumphant smirk as Aang says to Appa, "Sokka's just jealous because he doesn't have an arrow."

Sighing, Sokka turns to appeal to Aang. "I know you all want to fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk."

"Whatever," Katara relents, crossing her arms and turning away.

"Who knows," Aang cheers, swooping down from Appa's back to stand by them. "Walking might be fun!"

Of course, it's only natural that minutes later, Sokka bungles his whole plan by walking them right into a Fire Nation encampment.

Caught by surprise, the soldiers are unfortunately quick to drop their lunch and pick up their weapons. One of them, who looks to be an officer given his uniform, sends a blast of fire their way that blocks their exit. The three of them crowd together after realizing they're trapped with Sokka in front, shielding Aang and Katara.

"If you let us pass, we promise not to hurt you," Sokka says, trying to look confident in spite of all the swords and spears pointed at him.

"What are you doing," Katara whispers from behind him.

Shrugging imperceptibly, he replies, "Bluffing."

Snidely, the same firebender who had trapped them says, "You promise not to hurt us?"

Before Sokka can think of a response, the man groans and tumbles to the ground, much to everyone's bewilderment. "Nice work, Sokka," Aang says. "How'd you do that?"

Sokka gives an unintelligent grunt in answer, not quite sure of what else to say. Maybe the guy is a narcolept?

"Look," Katara says suddenly, pointing at the treetops. There, he spots a boy around his age standing on a branch with two hooked swords at his side. The boy swings down, landing on two of the soldiers before quickly stepping off their backs to flip over another two soldiers by their ankles.

After he sticks his own landing, he boasts, "Down you go."

Beside him, Katara gasps, but Sokka pays her little mind as he dives into battle himself. As yet more children jump down from the trees to assault the Fire Nation squadron, Sokka swings at the soldiers nearest him with his boomerang. He manages to knock one of them down, but the boy with the swords gets in his way before he can get to the next one. "Hey, he was mine," he complains.

The boy smirks at him. "Gotta be quicker next time," he taunts before swooping away again.

Sokka rolls his eyes as he pulls out his axe. Whatever, he thinks. I'll show him.

Granted, that doesn't work out either, as yet another soldier Sokka had been going after gets knocked out by the other boy. "Man," he groans.

The boy then charges another soldier as Sokka watches, dodging the soldier's spear with his sword and jumping over him. When he hits the ground again, he has to take a few bumbling steps to regain his stride, leaving him chest-to-chest with Katara.

"Hey," he greets her, the strand of wheat between his lips swaying slightly.

As bashful as Sokka's ever seen her, she returns the greeting. "Hi."

The boy freezes at her single word, and with the battle drawing to a close around them, neither of them moves from their spot.

"My name is Jet," he tells her.

She blushes furiously, though Sokka can't imagine why. Who cares about this guy's name—or anything else about him, for that matter?

"Katara," she returns, smiling softly. Almost absentmindedly, her gaze drifts over to him, and she adds, "And that's my brother, Sokka, and our friend, Aang." Aang waves cheerily when Jet looks over to him, while Sokka gives a sullen nod.

Jet introduces the rest of his crew—the Freedom Fighters, as he calls them—before inviting them to his hideout. Katara accepts the invitation for them before Sokka can say a word in protest, and he begrudgingly follows behind the group as they make their way to an elaborate system of treehouses deeper in the forest. The whole time, Katara stays glued to Jet's side.

For the rest of the day, Sokka meanders around the Freedom Fighters' hideout, talking to some of the kids and inspecting their equipment. He's particularly taken with their pulley system, but he's not about to tell Jet that. They guy has a big enough head already.

With that in mind, he pulls Katara aside after dinner. "Listen, I know you don't wanna hear this, but I don't trust Jet. We can stay till tomorrow, but after that mission he mentioned, we're leaving."

"No way," she blusters, frowning up at him. "We can't leave!"

"Look," he says, a firmer tone to his voice. "I don't know what it is with you and that guy, but—"

"Jet's my soulmate," she interrupts.

Stopped in his tracks, his argument falls flat on his tongue. "What?"

Katara sighs, twisting one of her hair-loopies around her finger. "I didn't want to tell you right away because I knew you'd be upset, but it's the truth."

"Upset," he echoes, choosing to focus on that part of her statement, and not that his sister is soulmates with Jet, the suspicious jerk. "Why would I be upset?"

She gives him a knowing look, her brows drawn in as she stares him down.

"What," he asks.

"Sokka," she says, sighing. "I know."

"Know what," he questions, but a sneaking suspicion begins to creep up his spine. Katara's never quite given him this look before.

At her next unimpressed look, he acquiesces. Quietly, he says, "So, you did figure it out at the temple." She nods somberly, looking to the ground. After summoning a bit of courage, he takes a deep breath and asks, "Is that why you've been mad at me? Because I have a soulmate from the Fire Nation?"

"No," she cries, face turned down in a distraught expression as she darts forward to bring his hands into her grasp. "I would never be mad at you for something like that. I was just upset that you didn't tell me. Don't you trust me?"

Pulling her in for a hug, he assures her, "Of course, I do. I just didn't want it to color your opinion of me." Holding her at arms' length again, he adds, "I mean, I didn't want anyone to know that my soulmate is from the Fire Nation, much less that he's their prince."

Nodding, she lets her hands drop from his arms, though they quickly become occupied with the end of her braid. "I understand, and I'm sure Aang and Jet will, too, once we tell them."

Sokka suppresses a grimace at the mention of Jet. For whatever reason, he's not too fond of the idea of the Earth Kingdom boy joining their little group. Still, he nods in acceptance, if only to please Katara.

She doesn't say anything else, and for a moment, Sokka thinks the conversation has drawn to a close. However, he notices that she's still fiddling with her hair, a clear indicator that she has something else on her mind. "What," he asks, the rest of his question unspoken.

Timidly looking up at him from underneath her lashes—the way she always does when there's something she's been keeping from him—she admits, "There's something you should know about Zuko."

"That he's a jerk," he's quick to remark in an attempt to break the tension. It doesn't work, so he hums in acknowledgement, imploring her to go on.

"He has Mom's necklace," she tells him, hands finally falling back to her sides to ball into fists.

"What," Sokka hisses, rage filling him. Katara has been distraught over the loss of their mother's necklace for weeks, absently reaching for her neck multiple times a day only to forlornly pull her hand away each time. Pouring over all their recent encounters, he tries to recall a point at which Zuko might have been able to nab it off Katara and comes up blank. "How did he get it?"

"I don't know," Katara admits. "But he showed it to me when he had those pirates tie me up." Sokka winces. There's not much worse that your soulmate can do than have your sister tied to a tree. He almost apologizes out of some weird sense of guilt-by-association, but she continues before he gets the chance, "And I didn't have time to get it back from him because I knew we had to get away, and—" She stops, too upset to continue.

Shushing her in a manner that he can only hope comes off as comforting, he draws her into his arms again. "It's okay. We'll get Mom's necklace back. I promise." Katara nods against him, and he gets the feeling she's drying her tears on his clothes, but he doesn't pull away until she does.

They stand in silence together, wistfully looking out at the trees until she asks what colors the leaves are, finally able to see the brilliance of the world herself.

Sokka's eyes run over the leaves littering the branches around them and tries desperately not to think of Zuko as he answers, "Red."

In the morning, Sokka is not-so-pleasantly surprised to find himself assisting Jet in beating and robbing a helpless old man. Sure, the man had been from the Fire Nation, but so what? He was just hobbling along in the forest, minding his own business. For whatever reason, Jet had decided to terrorize him, and Sokka had the feeling this sort of thing happened a lot with the Freedom Fighters.

When Katara and Aang find him stewing over his unsavory discovery, he can't keep the resentment out of his tone as he informs them of Jet's wrongdoing. Naturally, Katara gets deeply offended, and Sokka wonders if part of her indignation is being drawn from their fight last night as she drags him over to talk to Jet about the mission.

Of course, Jet denies the ugliness of the whole thing. This leaves Sokka back in square one: no reason as to why he feels they should leave instead of his instincts, for which Katara can't seem to do anything but resent him.

Maybe she was lying last night to make me feel better, he thinks, paranoid. She doesn't trust me anymore.

Moreover, who could blame her? Just moments after meeting her soulmate, she'd attached herself at the hip to the guy. She probably thinks Sokka's done the same with Zuko, and that he's just biding his time to betray her and Aang.

But I would never do that, he reasons to himself, growing angrier as he stuffs his belongings into his bag in preparation to leave. Not even unconsciously.

Wait.

Could he be betraying them unconsciously? Soulmates undoubtedly have a connection—that's why he ended up with Zuko during his haphazard journey to the spirit world—but could they possibly lead their soulmates to them? Could Zuko be following some intangible connection to Sokka?

It would certainly explain how he keeps finding us, Sokka realizes, his theory about Appa from the day before suddenly crumbling at his feet.

His thoughts come to a grinding halt when Aang and Katara enter the room. "We can't leave now with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest," she blusters, pinning him with a righteous glare.

Face contorting in confusion for half a second about her claim regarding the Fire Nation, he gets to his feet to reason with her. "I'm sorry, Katara. Jet's very smooth, but we can't trust him."

"You know what I think," she asks, crossing her arms and turning away from him. "You're jealous that my soulmate's a great warrior and a great leader, while yours is just an evil firebender!"

Sokka balks at her harsh words. Aang looks like he wants to intervene, but Sokka doesn't let him. Determined to not let her rash words hurt him, he starts, "Katara, I'm not jealous of you. It's just that my instincts—"

She looks back at him, firing off, "Well, my instincts tell me we need to stay here and help Jet." With that, she leaves, taking Aang with her.

Left with an unpleasant feeling in his gut and a smidge of resentment, Sokka kicks his pack away. When Katara sets her mind to something, she's too stubborn to change it. With her soulmate involved, Sokka realizes it would likely be a hundred times more difficult to dissuade her. He can only hope that her instincts are right and they don't get burned.

Nonetheless, that night, under the cover of darkness, Sokka listens to his own instincts and follows Jet and the other Freedom Fighters out to the edge of the woods. They stop at a cliff that overlooks a river's reservoir and an Earth Kingdom village. It's there that Sokka overhears Jet's nefarious plan to wipe out an entire town of innocent people. Before he can run back to the hideout and warn Aang and Katara, however, Smellerbee and Pipsqueak drag him out of the bushes.

"Sokka," Jet welcomes when he spots him. "I'm glad you decided to join us."

"I heard your plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom town," Sokka says viciously, sneering at Jet as he pushes himself up from where he'd been tossed onto the ground.

Eerily calm, Jet argues, "Our plan is to rid the valley of the Fire Nation."

"There are people living there, Jet," he yells, arms wide and beseeching. "Mothers and fathers and children!"

"We can't win without making some sacrifices," Jet declares, plopping his wheat grain back into his mouth like the giant turd he is.

With that in mind, Sokka shouts, "I can't believe you're my sister's soulmate, you giant turd! She'll never forgive you for this."

Or herself, Sokka thinks, when she realizes she helped you kill all those people.

"She'll come around," Jet tells him, laughing softly to himself.

A wave of fresh hatred for the other boy wells in Sokka at his words. He knows better than anyone that you don't just come around to your soulmate's heinous misdeeds. "You're wrong," Sokka tells him, jaw set in solemnity.

"Whatever." Jet shrugs and gestures to his lackeys. "Take him for a walk. A long walk."

Despite the Freedom Fighters' best efforts, they don't keep Sokka distracted for long. He loses them in the forest, having drawn them into some Fire Nation traps. He feels a little bad about it, but he figures that someone will be along to free them eventually. Besides, he needs to make it to the village before Jet blows the dam.

When he does make it down the cliffside and into the village, he's discouraged by the mistrust he finds there. They simply don't want to believe that the dam is about to let loose a horrible tidal wave upon them. Sokka insists that it's true, that the so-called Freedom Fighters are set to blow the whole thing up and wipe them out. It's only when the old man who Jet had robbed the day before comes forward that they do believe him, and he's relieved to see them all evacuated within the hour.

On his way back into the forest to find Aang and Katara, he runs into Appa, who had been snoozing under a thatch of maple-pine trees.

As he nears his friends on Appa's back—he can hear Katara's muffled voice sounding off from just out of sight—a terrible boom takes over the valley, soaking his ears in agony. After the ringing wears off, the sound is replaced by that of rushing water as it swoops over the river's lazy path towards the village. Even though he knows no one is there anymore, it's still awful to watch as the village is bombarded by the wave generated by the blast.

"Jet, you monster," Sokka hears from up ahead, Katara's voice tinged with grief and fury as she yells at her soulmate.

"This was a victory, Katara. Remember that," he hears Jet tell her, as though he could possibly explain away all the lives he thinks he just wiped out. "The Fire Nation is gone, and this valley will be safe."

As Appa steps over the edge of the cliff, Sokka spots Jet iced to a tree, his swords at his feet, and he can't keep the tinge of victory out of his voice when he says, "It will be safe—without you."

Katara's relief is apparent in her voice when she spots him. "Sokka!"

As Jet's eyes land on him, Sokka feels a surprisingly little amount of righteous joy to find that Jet looks less than happy to see him. Furthermore, as he explains how he warned the villagers of Jet's plan, he takes no pleasure from Jet's increasing distress. He thought he'd feel at least a little good about proving the other boy wrong and ruining hit plot to destroy the village, but that's not the case.

Incredulous with disbelief, Jet spits, "Sokka, you fool! We could have freed this valley!"

"Who would be free," Sokka fires back, disappointed that Jet has the gall to say such a thing. "Everyone would be dead."

"You traitor," Jet snarls, pushing against his icy bonds.

Softly, Sokka says, "No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people."

Manifestly realizing that appealing to Sokka is a dead-end, Jet switches it up and turns his efforts to his soulmate. "Katara, please. Help me." After a beat when she doesn't respond, he tries, "I love you."

Katara's eyes tear up, and for a moment, Sokka is outraged enough at Jet for using such meaningful words as a ploy that he contemplates throwing himself onto the ground and punching the other boy repeatedly in the face. He abstains when Katara mumbles a sad but firm, "Good-bye, Jet," and joins Aang in Appa's saddle.

After a few minutes in the air, Aang takes the reins while Sokka makes his way over to Katara in the saddle. At first, she neither acknowledges him nor moves from her position with her arms around her knees. Her stony demeanor eventually breaks, though.

Sobbing, she launches herself into his chest, arms coming around his middle and squeezing his shoulders. "Why is he so awful," she cries, wetting his shirt with her tears. "Why are they so awful?"

Mouth set into a grim line, Sokka stays silent, unsure of what to say beyond that the two of them had simply gotten a bad draw. That's not what Katara needs to hear right now, though, so he simply pulls her close and pats her back in what he can only hope is a reassuring manner as they soar far past the valley.

---

Running into Bato is a much-needed, happy surprise. When they'd found the ship from the tribe's fleet, they honestly hadn't expected anyone to show up. Rather, the plan had been to soak in some nostalgia during the night and keep flying come daybreak. However, heading back to the abbey with Bato is a far preferable way to spend the evening, in Sokka's opinion, at least.

They'd spent the night enjoying homemade stewed sea prunes and old stories. The next day, Sokka had finally gotten the chance to go ice-dodging—rock-dodging, whatever—and earned the Mark of the Wise, just like his dad. Naturally, something had to ruin the perfect moment. He just hadn't expected that it would be Aang.

"How could you," he yells at Aang, hurt and resentment welling up inside him, leaving his chest feeling tight and his stomach queasy. He can't believe he'd almost shot down a chance to see his dad for a kid who he'd traveled with all over the world only to be stabbed in the back by him. "Well, you can go the North Pole on your own! I'm going to find Dad."

He starts to march off, Bato trying to stop him, "Now, Sokka, I think you should—"

Stopping, he cuts Bato off to ask, "Katara, are you with me?"

Clearly torn, she looks between him and Aang, deliberating over her decision. Sokka stares her down imploringly, hoping to convey his exasperation with the situation. The two of them have followed Aang all over the Earth Kingdom, dodging firebenders and outrunning crazy soulmates. They deserve a break.

Finally, her head bowed, she says, "I'm with you, Sokka."

Bato follows them as they depart from the beach. Sokka doesn't look back at Aang as they disappear into the forest. Once back at the abbey, he makes quick work of packing his things before joining Bato in looking over the map to the rest of the tribe's warriors that Aang had practically stolen.

The two of them quietly peruse it for a while, discussing the various routes they could take to get there. When they finally decide on one, Bato drops his voice and asks, "Are you sure you want to come with me? I'm sure your friend will miss you."

"I'm sure he will, too," he replies, voice hard. Unbidden, his frustration urges him to go on, "But I'm tired of running around and getting into trouble with him. I'm tired of running into Zuko—"

"Who," Bato asks, and Sokka comes up short.

It hadn't been his intention to bring up Zuko, but as soon as the boy had popped into his mind at the beach, he'd been running around in Sokka's head, taking up valuable thinking-space. Of course, that always happens whenever Sokka thinks of him, but that doesn't mean he likes it. On the contrary, he doesn't want to think about Zuko, and he definitely doesn't want to talk about him, especially not with Bato.

Still, he can't get out of it when Bato suddenly asks him if he knows what color the rivers are painted on the map.

Closing his eyes in resignation, he turns his head away and admits, "Blue."

Bato nods and allows them to sit in silence for a few moments. It's only when he starts speaking again that Sokka realizes he'd been using the time to formulate his response. "One doesn't always end up with one's soulmate, you know."

"I know, I know," he dismisses, waving his hand. "It's just that all the couples I grew up around were soulmates, and I guess I'm just not ready to reconcile that with my relationship with Zu—with my soulmate."

Another period of quiet ensues, broken when Bato gently tells him that all the couples he'd grown up around hadn't, in fact, been soulmates.

"What do you mean," Sokka asks.

Bato sighs and rubs at his eyes as though he's about to make a huge mistake, admitting, "Your parents weren't soulmates. Your mother's soulmate was our friend Nini, who died in a blizzard when we were children, and your father's soulmate is me."

Sokka's face goes slack as a cold feeling slithers up the back of his head. Shocked beyond belief, he can't help but feel as though his whole life is a lie. From what he can remember, his parents had been so happy together. Had they really not been soulmates? Moreover, how had Bato lived so long beside them without feeling any resentment?

Eerily, Bato's next words answer his last unspoken question. "Your father and I loved each other, but not in the way that counted. Your mother, on the other hand, made him her sweetheart, and they married with my blessing. I even helped him propose."

Biting his lip in contemplation, Sokka looks away. "And you're not together now?" It's not as though Sokka would be particularly angry if his father and the man he'd always considered to be like an uncle were together, but if they're not and happy with that, he supposes it would be a little reassuring to hear it.

A beat passes, during which Bato says nothing, prompting Sokka to look up again. He sees Bato struggling to string together a comforting response, and that's all the confirmation he needs. "So, I guess soulmates do always end up together."

"It's complicated," Bato assures him.

Sokka's already turned away and gotten up. "I'm gonna go tell Katara we're ready to leave," he tells Bato as he all but stomps away.

They're a fair bit a way down the wooded path away from the abbey when Katara and Sokka realize they need to turn back for Aang, only it's too late to make such a decision on their own. The sound of thunderous footsteps grows closer, and soon, the three of them are joined by a terrible-looking monster and its passengers.

Zuko jumps down from the saddle across the animal's back, and dread fills Sokka's stomach with lead. As soon as Bato realizes who Zuko is, he'll know Sokka's soulmate is from the Fire Nation. There's not much Sokka can do to prevent the older man from finding out, however. It's not as though he'll leave Katara and him now that they're in trouble.

"So, this is your soulmate," the woman sitting in front of Iroh says, looking down at Katara. She has a light complexion and dark clothing, which work in tandem to give her an intimidating demeanor. The skull hairpin she wears completes the look. "No wonder she left. She's way too pretty for you." Sokka feels his brow furrow in consternation. Why would this weird lady think Katara is Zuko's soulmate? What had he told her?

Not that Sokka cares, of course.

Ignoring the woman, Zuko glares at Sokka, asking, "Where is he? Where's the avatar?"

"Please," Bato ventures, stepping forward with his arms swept out in a placating manner. "My children and I are simple travelers. Let us pass in peace." Sokka almost cringes as the lie passes Bato's lips, little does the man know it won't convince anyone.

"Enough lies," Zuko declares in protest. He strides over to Katara and Sokka, demanding, "Tell me where he is!"

"We split up," Sokka tries, not technically lying. "He's long gone."

Zuko glares, displeasure curling his lips into a frown. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Feeling only a little regretful, Sokka cruelly tells him, "Pretty stupid," and grabs Katara and Bato as he urges them to make a break for it.

They don't get very far, the beast's pronged tongue lashing out and sending them to the ground. Sokka's body is quickly overcome with an uncomfortable, tingly sensation before it goes almost entirely numb. Strangely, the only thing he can feel is his mouth as he lies prone on the ground. Who knew one could feel one's teeth so vividly?

"What are we supposed to do now," Zuko asks from where he's remained standing, or so Sokka assumes. To be fair, he can't really see much of anything from this vantage point.

Softly, the creature creeps forward toward the three of them. Panic flairs within him at the though of the beast growing closer, but Sokka's limbs don't respond to the surge in adrenalin.

"It's seeking a different scent," the woman says as her beast sniffs around Bato's feet. "Perhaps something that the avatar held."

After a short moment, the beast gets around to Sokka's pack, nudging at it with its mole-like nose. The map to their father falls out of his pack, sliding over Sokka's face. He realizes with fearful clarity that the map will lead them right back to Aang, and in this state, there's not much Katara or Sokka can do to help their friend.

Soon enough, they're being hefted onto the animal's back behind its saddle. Sokka is situated closest to Zuko, who holds a hand to his back throughout the ride back to the abbey. When they arrive, the animal is spooked by Aang, who swoops in from the sky on his glider. Rather unceremoniously, it drops the six of them onto the ground. Katara, Sokka, and Zuko each land on their fronts, their chins scraping against the pavement. Sokka winces, longing for the ability to move his arm so that he can rub at the sore spot.

The woman is quick to rise and mount her stead again, making to go after Aang. Sokka assumes Zuko must have hired her to help him pursue the avatar—that or she's Fire Nation, but she doesn't seem the type.

As he pushes himself up, Zuko tells Iroh—who's landed with his rump in the air—to watch out for Sokka and make sure that he doesn't get away after the paralysis wears off.

"As you wish, Prince Zuko," Iroh promises his nephew as the boy marches towards where Aang has landed.

Sokka makes the mistake of making eye contact with Bato, whose expression shifts in realization. Sokka looks away, shame crawling up the back of his neck and coloring his face as pink as is possible. What will Bato think of him now that the man knows his soulmate is the prince of the Fire Nation?

What will Dad think when Bato inevitably tells him, Sokka anxiously wonders.

Three of the nuns step forward to drag Bato, Katara, and Sokka out of the way of the fight that's just begun between Zuko and Aang. The two of them are racing around the abbey, each of them using their bending to attack the other. At one point, they strike at the same time, which results in both of them being blown backwards into the air, landing hard on opposite roofs.

"Ouch," Iroh comments, not sounding terribly sympathetic.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunter has picked herself and her beast off the ground, and the two of them are going toe-to-toe to Appa. The bison is manifestly not pleased that Zuko is attacking Aang yet again and seems to have an instinctual vendetta against the other animal. He nearly goes down when the mole-like creature lands a lick on his foot, but he gets up and charges the other animal again.

The two animals butt heads, and the bounty hunter gets launched into the air. As she soars over Appa, she manages to turn around and strike him with her whip. Beside Sokka, Katara makes a noise of outrage that Sokka silently echoes. Appa tries to stomp on her in retaliation, but he misses, and Sokka is soon distracted once more by the scuffle between Aang and Zuko.

Eventually, the two of them end up chasing each other around a well, the top of which Zuko destroys with almost zero hesitation. Zuko is trying to grab Aang, whereas Aang seems to be trying to grab something from Zuko. From his vantage point, Sokka can't tell what it is. He resolves to get closer to the action.

Slowly, he pushes himself up from the ground, using the wall behind him as support. Katara and Bato follow suit, and with the help of the Sister Superior and some perfume, the three of them regain their mobility. Not very surprisingly, Iroh does little to stop him, merely standing to the side and giving him a pleasant smile.

Rotating his wrist and finally getting a feel for the damage done to his chin, Sokka watches as the bounty hunter's beast manages to fell Appa at long last. Lip curling in distaste, he says, "That thing sees with its nose. Let's give him something to look at."

The nuns help Bato and him push a few basins of perfume farther into the courtyard and tip them over. The different fragrances sweep out of their containers, flowing across the ground and slipping into the cracks in the pavement. Standing at the front of the wave of perfume—which stinks, Sokka thinks, wondering why it is that girls like this stuff—Katara bends the liquid overhead and brings it crashing down onto the animal, the bounty hunter, and Zuko in one fell swoop.

The animal is quickly overwhelmed by the conflicting scents, swinging its head from side to side and frantically rubbing at its snout. As Sokka predicted, it soon loses Aang's sent and goes ballistic in an attempt to clear its nose. It goes on a small rampage, striking out at Zuko and its owner, crashing into another basin of perfume, and departing from the abbey.

With their enemies subdued, Katara and Sokka rush over to Aang and make sure he's alright. Bato comes over soon after to check on all three of them. For the first time since they were intercepted by Zuko, Sokka realizes how frazzled the older man looks.

"I'm glad you three are alright," Bato says, pulling Katara and Sokka into a hug. Looking over to where Iroh is standing over Zuko, he adds, "Your journey has certainly not been easy, but I can tell you are well-equipped to handle it."

He looks down at Sokka during the last bit of his sentence, as though trying to convey some secret meaning. For the life of him, however, Sokka can't figure it out.

He's still thinking about it an hour later as Aang, Katara, and him are flying off on Appa again, headed north. By the tone of his voice at the look in his eyes, Bato had certainly been trying to give him a discreet message, but what about? Zuko? Their journey to the northern tribe?

For a moment, he contemplates consulting Katara on the matter. She knows Bato just as well as does he, he reasons, but ultimately decides against it. For now, he just wants to forget about Zuko and all the stress that comes with trying to help the avatar save the world. With that in mind, he turns onto his side in the saddle, determined to fit in a quick nap before they make camp for the evening.

---

When the waterbenders find them in the Northern Sea, the three of them get swept up the in the glory of the northern tribe. It's truly nothing like its sister tribe in the south. The tribe itself sits behind a massive, seemingly-impenetrable pearly white wall of snow and ice. Beyond the wall, there are real buildings, dozens of waterbenders and hundreds of citizens, and beautiful girls.

One very beautiful girl in particular, as far as Sokka is concerned.

The chief throws a welcome feast for them with all of the food that Katara and Sokka had been missing on their journey. Sure, they'd had a brief respite from Earth Kingdom food when they'd run into Bato, but there's more than just sea prunes in the Northern Water Tribe. They have seaweed bread, sea squid, and even a giant sea crab.

What's more, Sokka is pleased to find himself seated next to Princess Yue, the chief's daughter who he'd noticed earlier in the day when they'd entered the city. In an attempt to not scare her off, he tries to pace himself while eating in spite of his excitement for the massive crab leg he has clenched in his hand.

Next to him, Yue seems to glow in the moonlight. Her pale hair and lashes shine as Sokka not-so-subtly gazes at her, and the soft smile she'd given him earlier when he'd called himself a prince—thanks for disagreeing with me, Katara—still rests on her face.

"So, uh," he tries once more, and Yue looks up at him with amusement imperceptibly pulling at her lips. Great, Sokka thinks, she already knows he's going to embarrass himself again. "Happy birthday?"

Eyebrows piquing up, she wears an expression of pleasant surprise. In his mind, Sokka gives himself a pat on the back.

"Oh," she says, smiling wider at him. "Thank you."

"Yeah, you know," he goes on, confidence restored. "Everyone loves their birthday."

Laughing lightly, she agrees, "Sure. When's yours?"

"Mine," he asks, and she nods. "Uh, after the next equinox. I'll be turning sixteen."

"That means I'm older than you, then," she tells him, smirking slightly.

Sokka can't help but laugh, though he's not quite sure what's so funny about what she said. All he knows is that there's a light feeling in his chest bubbling up to the surface and causing his smile to not leave his face. "Is that a problem," he asks cheekily.

"No," she says simply, grin still in place as she turns back to her food. "I don't think so."

The next day, Sokka spends most of his time in warrior training. Afterwards, he takes a few hours to make something for Yue. After running into her in the morning, he'd decided that he should have something to bring her for when they meet on one of the city's bridges at nightfall. At first, he'd had trouble choosing what kind of gesture would be appropriate, finally settling on a fish carving. As he well knows, fish are just as essential here as they are in the South Pole. He thinks it will be meaningful, at least, to give her a representation of the fish's spirit, which symbolizes endurance and happiness.

That, or it'll be stupid, but he'll cross that bridge—ha, get it, bridge—when he gets to it.

With the moon high in the sky as he ventures out onto the bridge, the carving gently cradled in his hand, he gasps as pain abruptly envelops his entire body. His skin tingles as it feels as though each and every one of his nerves is being gored by a hot knife.

"Sokka," Yue calls as she nears him, but he barely hears her through the haze of heat and extreme discomfort. He just manages to look over at her, fixing her with a terrified stare. He's not sure what's happening to him, but the pain is overwhelming, so much so that he fears he may pass out.

His back feels as though it's crashing into something hard, and all at once—

It's over.

The pain recedes completely, the sensation of the cool night air suddenly overtaking him as it brushes over his skin. The difference in sensation is so great and jarring that for a moment, he wonders if he'd imagined the incident.

That thought goes away, however, when he glances back over at Yue. She's looking at him with such anguish that for a second, he wonders if the reason the pain had stopped so suddenly is because he's died.

"Oh, no," he blurts, clutching his chest as realization strikes him. "Oh, no, no, no."

Hand gently caressing his arm, Yue makes an attempt to comfort him. "Sokka, it's okay."

"No, no," he repeats, his hands roaming over his body as he tries to remember which spots had hurt the most. "This—It can't be true. It can't."

"Sokka," she tries again, stroking up and down his arm more firmly. "I'm sure that whoever they are—were—"

"Zuko's not dead," he yells, wincing as Yue takes a step back from him. Forcing himself to take deep breaths, he tries to calm down lest he startle her again. "He's too stubborn. It has to be something else."

Yue doesn't say anything to that, but her look of sympathy stays put. A few seconds pass in unbearable silence before he decides he simply can't take it anymore. He excuses himself, barely acknowledging her farewell as he turns away and practically runs to the lodgings the chief had assigned to Katara, Aang, and him.

"How's warrior training going," Katara inquires as soon as he steps through the door.

Not in the mood to speak, he plops down onto his rolled-up sleeping bag and buries his face into it.

"Hey, what's wrong," she asks when he doesn't respond.

"Zuko's gone," he unceremoniously states, sitting up to pull his legs to his chest. Unbidden, he feels his chin start to wobble, but he wills himself not to cry.

Hesitantly, Katara lays a hand on his shoulder. He has no doubt she can feel the shift in his demeanor. "What do you mean he's gone?"

"I mean, he's dead," he explains, tightly wrapping his arms around his legs. "One moment it felt like my whole body was on fire and there was so much pain, and then the next—nothing! It just stopped after some sort of blow to my—his back. He's gone."

Katara's hand moves to his shoulders, where it moves in comforting, concentric circles. "I'm so sorry, Sokka. I know we didn't really like Zuko, but that's just terrible."

Sokka makes a non-committal grunt in response before burying his head in his knees again. For months, he'd been fervently wishing to be rid of Zuko day in and day out. Now that that very wish has come to pass, however, he feels irrevocably guilty. Invariably, he knows he would promise anything to have the events of tonight never take place.

Aang takes a swing at comforting him next. "Sometimes the Great Spirits have mysterious plans that don't always reveal themselves to us right away."

"Well, I'm sick of the spirits," Sokka yells back at him, feeling only a little guilty as he watches Aang shrink back. "First, they give me Zuko as a soulmate, and then they take him away!"

The three of them sit in silence for a while, each of them stewing over their respective worries. Sokka can't imagine what has Katara and Aang so turned around until Katara says, "If it makes you feel any better, Master Pakku won't teach me waterbending 'cause I'm a girl."

Frowning, he's tempted to shout at her about how that doesn't make him feel any better, but ultimately decides against it. They'd traveled across the planet to get her to a waterbending teacher, after all. She must be terribly disappointed to have her bending potential stomped all over after everything through which they've been.

Thoughtfully, he looks over at Aang, who he assumes must still have Pakku as his master. "Why don't you just teach her, Aang?"

Quickly surging to her feet, Katara exclaims, "Why didn't I think of that? At night, you can teach me whatever moves you learn from Master Pakku. That way, you have someone to practice with, and I get to learn waterbending. Everyone's happy!"

For a moment, Sokka is tempted to dispute her claim about everyone being happy. He loses the chance, however, when she and Aang dart out of the room to practice their waterbending.

Unable to fall asleep that night, Sokka spends the early morning picking at his nails and angrily glaring at Momo whenever the little lemur chirps too loudly for his liking. For the remainder of the day, he keeps expecting to find bruises littered all over his body or feel the pinpricks of pain reemerge from wherever Zuko is injured. No such phantom pain comes, though. He feels completely fine, as though nothing ever happened.

As Katara is fighting Pakku for the right to learn waterbending, Sokka pushes his worries to the back of his mind. He doesn't have time to keep grieving Zuko. Does he even want to?

Unsurprisingly, Katara doesn't win against Pakku. She does, however, learn that Pakku had once been engaged to their grandmother, which Sokka thinks is a bit of cosmic payback for the sexist, old coot, if he does say so himself. Still, the discovery is a little victory, and Pakku agrees to begin teaching girls, starting with Katara.

Yue runs off in the middle of Pakku's story about his brief engagement to Kanna, and Sokka goes after her at Aang's prompting. He follows her back at the bridge they'd been standing on when Zuko died, and she's quick to make clear that she's not happy to see him. "What do you want from me," she asks, voice hard and unhappy.

"Nothing," he answers as he approaches her. They meet at the middle of the bridge, and he goes on, "I just want you to know, I think you're beautiful, and I never though a girl like you would even a notice a guy like me."

"You don't understand," she says in protest.

"No, no," he says. "See, that's the thing. I think I do understand now. You're a princess, and I'm just a southern peasant, but I've been that before."

"No, Sokka," she objects, clearly not liking his characterization of himself.

Holding up a hand, he assures her, "It's okay. Like I said, I'm used to it, but I've gotten different reactions before, I guess."

Brow furrowed, she asks, "What do you mean?"

Taking a deep breath, he admits, "Zuko, my soulmate, he was the prince of the Fire Nation." Yue gasps in shock, but he plows on. "I know, I know. I never quite got over that part either, but I guess, there's no use worrying about it now. My point is, he never really cared about the peasant thing, he always—" He trails off, unable to complete his thought.

"He always," Yue prompts him, voice gentle and reassuring.

Exhaling shakily, he finishes, "He always wanted me." Sure, he'd never wanted to go to the Fire Nation with Zuko, but the other boy had always been dead-set on getting him there. Zuko certainly wouldn't have tried so hard if he didn't want Sokka around.

A fierceness to her voice, Yue startles him out of his thoughts as she says, "It's not that I don't want you, Sokka. I do like you a lot, but we can't be together, and not for the reason you think." Reaching up, she pulls down her collar to reveal a betrothal necklace. "It's because I'm engaged. I'm sorry."

For a moment, it seems as though she wants to pull away and leave. When she makes no move to do so, he feels emboldened to ask, "Are they your soulmate?"

She shakes her head, and silent tears begin to roll down her cheeks. He lifts his hand to wipe them away, but this seems to be the final straw. Yue takes a step back and wipes at her own eyes before turning and sprinting off the bridge.

Sokka watches her go, heart feeling emptier than ever before. His soulmate is gone, and the only girl he's ever had feelings for is engaged to someone else.

---

Over the course of the next few weeks, Sokka spends almost all of his time outside warrior training with Yue. Both of them insist that it's purely as friends, neither one of them willing to admit that the more time they spend together, the more their thoughts become consumed by disappointment that they can't be together.

Katara insists that it's good for Sokka that Yue's already taken because that way he doesn't get swept up in a fledgling romance so soon after his soulmate died. Sokka had some very particular choice words to say in response to that, which resulted in Aang airbending them away from each other anytime they tried to interact for the remainder of that evening.

Despite their disagreements over how Sokka should spend his time, however, they've settled in nicely after three weeks in the Northern Water Tribe, leaving him with enough leeway to avoid Katara most of the time. She's well on her way to mastering waterbending, Master Pakku never passing up an opportunity to brag about her progress without a shred of irony in his tone. Aang is having more trouble with the intermediate forms of the art, but he's learned enough in the basics that Pakku says he'll be able to move onto earthbending in a month or two. Given his improvement, Sokka has little to complain about regarding their long-term goal of defeating the Fire Nation.

That being said, he hadn't let his mind wander to the war as often as he usually does until he sees the black snow with Yue on Appa. In that moment, it's like he's being transported to back when he was a little boy and the Fire Nation had showed up to take away his mother.

With haste, he grips Appa's reins tighter and navigates them back to the tribe.

Voice wrought with fear and anxiety, Yue asks him, "You said they're a lot of them. Do you think they're close?"

"I don't know," he mutters, watching the soot fall from the sky as they descend towards the stables. "Either they're close or—"

He trails off as Appa lands. Hopping off the saddle, he takes a second to compose himself before he helps Yue down. She stumbles a little as she steps onto the ground, her white and purple skirts fluttering in the breeze and threatening to trip her. Gloved hand gripping his tightly, she urges him to continue, "Or?"

Sokka looks away, biting his lip in dread. As she starts towards the palace with him in tow, he divulges, "Or they're already here."

Looking back at him for a split second, Yue picks up the pace. As they go, people call out to her on the streets and from the canals. They ask what's wrong, why there's ash falling from the sky, and what her father is doing about it all. She doesn't stop to answer any of them, merely putting on a brave face and giving them reassuring nods and waves as she rushes on as inconspicuously as possible.

As they stride up the steps of the palace amidst other worried tribesmen and women, warriors begin to sound drums that Sokka can only assume signify an oncoming attack. When they enter the palace's grand meeting hall, Yue goes to sit by her father, who stands at the front of the room, clearly prepared to send his tribe off into battle.

Sokka finds Aang Katara at the side of the room and takes a seat with them as the chief begins his speech. It seems as though most of the tribe is in attendance, everyone wearing a solemn, fearful expression. Parents hold their children to their chests, and couples grip each other's hands tightly as everyone quietly listens to the chief.

"It is with great sadness I call my family here before me, knowing well that some of these faces are about to vanish from our tribe," the chief continues, a great, heavy sorrow marking his voice.

For whatever reason, Chief Arnook's words prompt Sokka to look to Yue, only to find that her attention is fixated elsewhere, as well. She's not gazing at him, however. Rather, her eyes are focused on someone seated at the front of the assembly. From what he can ascertain from his vantage point, he can't quite see the person's face, but he can tell that it's a boy their age. A pit of jealousy in his stomach, he hopes it's not her betrothed.

"I'm going to need volunteers for a dangerous mission," Arnook declares, grabbing Sokka's attention once more. Silently, Sokka stands. He may only have been in warrior training for a few weeks, but he feels well-equipped to go into battle. What's more, he wants the chance to fight alongside his northern brothers. He hadn't been adequately able to protect his own tribe just a few months ago, and he'll be damned if he exhibits the same failures ever again.

It has nothing to do with potentially impressing Yue, of course. That's just ridiculous.

Arnook addresses him and the few other men who have stood around the room. "Be warned: many of you will not return. Come forward to receive my mark if you accept the task."

Sokka and the other warriors step forward at Arnook's prompting, lining up before him. Yue and Pakku stand at the chief's sides as he paints the mark onto the warriors' foreheads. As he brushes the cool, read paint over Sokka's brow, Sokka steals a glance at Yue out of the corner of his eye, surprised but not entirely dismayed to find her looking at him, as well. She looks terribly concerned, her mouth twisted imperceptibly into an unhappy grimace. Rather than take it harshly, however, Sokka takes it to mean that she cares for him. He prays that he does survive the chief's mission, promising himself that he'll tell her how he truly feels about her when it's over—damn the consequences.

Unfortunately, the mission goes sideways extraordinarily fast, though not for the reasons he'd been expecting. Rather than being struck down by a Fire Nation soldier, Sokka is taken off the mission by the chief for beating the snot out of his future son-in-law. As far as Sokka is concerned, however, Hahn deserved it. He's a self-absorbed weasel, and given the chance, Sokka will bash his head into the other boy's skull any day of the week.

Thus, he's only a little regretful about being taken off the mission, and that regret washes away almost entirely when Arnook tells him that he's being assigned to a new mission: protecting Yue. Pleased if not somewhat curious as to why he'd assign a teenager to guard her rather than a seasoned warrior two or three times his age, Sokka readily agrees and goes off in search of her.

As he steps out of the barracks, he's relieved to see that the battle has ceased for the night. Earlier in the day, the bombardment of attacks had left the tribe scrabbling to defend itself against the airborne projectiles being shot towards it. What's left is a considerable amount of damage: toppled towers, caved-in buildings, ruptured canals, and debris galore. Granted, it won't be too much trouble to rebuild with all the waterbenders the northern tribe has in spades, but that's only if tomorrow doesn't bring worse repercussions.

After searching around for a while, he finds Yue at the stables with Appa at daybreak. Surprisingly, she'd been looking for him, as well.

"Sokka," she cries when she sees him. She'd already managed to sling Appa's saddle onto him and situated herself at its helm. With the reins held in one of her hands, she waves him onto the saddle with the other. "Come quickly! I was just about to come find you."

"Were you going to fly around searching for me," he wonders aloud, but his question is mostly rhetorical. That's clearly what she'd intended to do. "What's wrong," he asks instead as he climbs into the saddle and urges Appa into flight.

"Katara is fighting a firebender right now. He's trying to take Aang," she explains, sitting back and grabbing onto the handhold built into the side of the saddle. They're jostled back and forth as he guides Appa to the tribe's spirit oasis at her directives, trying to get there as fast as they can. Past the cliffs that surround the city, he can see the beginnings of a snow storm, but he doesn't think it will reach the tribe, so he puts it to the back of his mind.

Sokka can only imagine that it's Zhao who found them. He's the only man alive with the short-sighted determination to attack a waterbender and an avatar surrounded by snow and ice at nighttime.

When they land inside the oasis, Sokka jumps down from Appa, Yue at his heels. Katara is alone with Momo at the side of a pool with two koi fish in it, looking utterly distressed. "What happened," he asks. "Where's Zhao?"

Katara grabs onto his shoulders, grip firm and unyielding as she tells him, "It wasn't Zhao. It was Zuko."

At her words, Sokka feel as though a bucket of ice-hold water has been dumped over his head, the sensation of cold horror running down his body. As aghast as he'd been weeks earlier to learn—think he'd learned—that Zuko had died, finding out that it was all a terrible misunderstanding is jarring, to say the least.

Katara is panicked as she describes the ordeal, noting everything from Zuko's disheveled appearance to him knocking her out just after the sun rose. The more she goes on, the less disbelieving Sokka feels.

When Katara finishes up her story, he looks around the oasis for a possible exit point. It can't be the door—that's too obvious. Zuko would've been caught in five seconds flat if he'd tried to trek through the city with Aang on his back. That only leaves the tundra past the wall, though. With a blizzard coming in, it would be suicide to go that way.

"Oh, no," he says, sighing in exasperation. "He's going towards the pole."

Looking up past the great wall of ice and snow that surrounds the oasis, Yue's brow furrows in disbelief and concern. "He wouldn't. He'd get buried alive."

"That's where he is," Sokka states, sure of himself now. Zuko's far too stubborn to lose Aang now. He's probably planning on waiting out the battle in the storm before making his getaway. Climbing back onto Appa, he waves the girls on with him. They'll have to go after Zuko and Aang in order to keep them from freezing to death. "Of course, he's actually alive," he sullenly mutters to himself, "and we have to go save his stupid life."

"Don't worry, Sokka," Katara says, laying a hand on his arm as she settles into the saddle beside him. "I'm sure we'll find them in time."

Grunting in acknowledgement, he snaps the reins. "Yip yip!" With a groan, Appa launches himself into the frigid air.

Once they're over the tundra beyond the city, the air grows even colder as the visibility gets gradually worse. Snow and larger shards of ice cloud their vision and tear at their skin as they fly towards the pole, none of them wearing the appropriate clothing for going so far north.

After a while, they turn back and go off in another direction, having seen nothing in the way of tracks or established shelters. For several hours, they keep up the same routine, growing increasingly distressed as they fail to find any leads on Zuko or Aang each time.

"Sokka," Katara calls down to him on their ninth turn, anxiety creeping into her voice. He turns back to see her and Yue bundled up together with the hoods of their parkas up.

Absentmindedly, he pulls his hood over his head, as well. "What," he shouts back over the roar of the wind.

"What if it's too late? What if they're already—"

"They're not dead," yells, cutting her off. "If we know anything, it's that Zuko never gives up."

Biting her lip, Katara looks down, worry still written all over her face.

"They'll survive," he says in the most reassuring tone he can muster. "And we'll find them."

With that, he turns back around, refocusing on steering Appa onward. Despite his words, however, there's a seed of doubt in the back of his own mind. Not that they won't find them, but that he doesn't know what he'll do when he sees Zuko. For weeks, he'd thought the other boy dead and compartmentalized his feelings on the matter. Who's to say he won't charge Zuko and pull him into a hug the second he sees him? How embarrassing would that be?

It's not until nightfall that they see anything. They're flying lower to the ground now, having gone back to the second route they'd originally taken in search of anything they'd missed on their first round. From the direction of the city, Sokka sees a torrent of light that he initially dismisses. He only focuses on it when it soars right past them, and Katara calls, "Look, that's gotta be Aang! Yip yip!"

The light dips into a cave that he remembers mischaracterizing as a small hill several hours before, and he directs Appa to land nearby. As soon as they land, he spots Zuko holding up Aang—who's wrapped in a series of tight ropes—just outside the cave. Immediately, Katara jumps down from Appa's back, and Zuko drops Aang into the snow as soon as he sees her.

He brings his arms up in an offensive but lazy stance. "Here for a rematch?"

"Trust me, Zuko," she says, bringing her arms up to deflect his first strike. "It's not going to be much of a match." Pushing her arms forward, she sends a torrent of snow his way that lifts him high above the ground. Then, with a flick of her wrist, he comes crashing back down to Earth, thoroughly incapacitated.

The sound of Zuko's body falling back onto the ground with a thud resonates in Sokka's head, which throbs sharply for a short but agonizing moment. "Ow," he complains, glaring down at Katara.

"I tried to be gentle," she tells him, manifestly unapologetic. She and Aang—who somehow manages to slip out of his bindings—use the snow to move Zuko to Appa's side before bending him up with them. None too gently, they plop Zuko down on the saddle before sitting themselves.

Still rubbing his head despite the pain being gone, he mumbles, "Yeah, right."

As Aang explains how the moon and ocean spirits had traded their immortality to live as fish—fish—Sokka brushes a hand over Zuko's forehead, the many abrasions marring his face. There's a deep bruise at the left side of his jaw, and another one under his good eye. The rest of his skin is marked up with jagged scratches, three above his brow, one across his nose, and two on his upper lip.

"Did you do this to him," he asks Katara, finger running over another cut under his right eye.

The look in her eyes is a little troubled as she tells him, "No, it must have been from whatever happened to him last month."

Sokka makes to reply, but a red sheen suddenly overtaking the moon effectively causes the words to shrivel up on his tongue as it paints both the moon and the rest of the world in darkness. Hissing, Yue doubles over in pain, hands raised to cup her head.

"Are you okay," Sokka asks, moving away from Zuko to comfort her.

Groaning, he shakes her head lightly. "I feel faint."

From his perch on top of Appa's head, Aang chimes in, "I feel it, too. The moon spirit is in trouble."

As they ride on under the red sky, Yue tells the story of her birth and how the moon spirit saved her at her father's request. Throughout her story, a creeping suspicion settles onto the back of Sokka's neck. Apprehensive, his shoulders come up, but he stays quiet, listening.

When she finishes, Katara hesitantly asks, "If Zhao does anything to the moon spirit, do you think you'll be alright?"

Yue shakes her head. "I don't know."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Sokka fervently promises. He'd promised the chief he'd look after her, and there's nothing he wants less than to see something happen to her.

Yue smiles at him, and he's set to return the gesture until he hears Zuko stirring at the back of the saddle. The firebender groans, his arms wiggling as he tries to move them from his back before inevitably realizing he's tied up.

The ropes don't hold for long, though. In one swift movement, a burst of fire tears them apart, and Zuko is left standing where he was lying just moments before, glaring at them while assuming a defensive position. Subtly, Sokka moves in front of Yue, blocking her from any potential attack, however unlikely.

"Zuko," Katara starts, arms up as she attempts to calm him. "We're all in the air. We can't fight right now. Don't make me knock you out of the sky."

"Go ahead and try it, peasant," he sneers, swaying a little as he fights to remain standing amidst the strong winds. "You don't have enough water to—"

"Zuko, sit down," Sokka interrupts, staring him down with enough fury to hopefully burn a hole right through him. Zuko looks over to him, and he tries to put on his most authoritative tone. "I promise you can go ballistic on us when we land."

Somewhat embarrassed, Zuko complies, awkwardly shifting into a seated position. He keeps one foot flat, ready to hop up at any moment, but Sokka pays him little mind. For whatever reason, he doesn't think Zuko will attack them right now. It would be too risky, and the other boy knows it, too.

For a few minutes, they sit in tense silence, Katara and Sokka both watching for any sudden movements from Zuko, who glares right back at them.

Strangely, Yue takes this moment to introduce herself to Zuko. Sokka's head whips around so fast that he can hear his neck crack, and Katara gives her an incredulous stare that Zuko mirrors.

"You're a princess," is all Zuko manages to say in response, clearly at a loss for anything better upon which to remark.

Graciously, she nods. "My father is the chief."

Zuko nods, contemplating something before raising his hands into a sign that Sokka doesn't quite recognize with one hand flat and the other clenched and bowing halfway over his knees. Yue returns the gesture, and Sokka chalks it up to weird, royal mumbo-jumbo.

"Oh, so you're nice to her," Katara asks snidely, crossing her arms over her chest in indignation.

"Maybe I'd treat you better if you behaved more respectably," Zuko fires back, practically spitting the words at her.

Katara gasps in outrage. "Excuse me?" She gets to her knees, and for a brief moment, Sokka thinks she's going to launch herself at Zuko and add to the bruises marring his face.

Sokka echoes the sentiment with half the mind to scuttle over to Zuko and smack him upside the head. Like a mature person, however, he abstains, electing to simply ignore him.

Zuko mutters something like, "You heard me," before turning away. With a final harrumph, Katara lets the topic drop, and the five of them spend the rest of their time in the air in complete silence.

When at last they land at the oasis, Momo is attacking Zhao, who holds the moon spirit's mortal form in a sack at the foot of the pond. As soon as Appa's feet touch the ground, everyone but Yue disembarks, lining up opposite to Zhao and his men with Katara on one end, Zuko on the other, and Aang in the middle. Between Aang and Zuko, Sokka takes out his boomerang, holding it at his side and ready to let it loose at the offending firebenders.

Upon spotting them, Zhao raises his arm and levels a fist at the koi fish he has in his grasp. "Don't bother," he sneers.

Aang is quick to drop his glider and put up his hands, whereas Zuko practically growls, unrelenting. "Zhao, don't," Aang urges the man.

"It's my destiny to destroy the moon and the Water Tribe," Zhao rambles, fish still held aloft. Sokka tries not to take it too personally when Zhao talks about the tribe. He knows the man is mad with power, and that the Fire Nation has nothing in the way of moral responsibility or compassion.

"Destroying the moon won't hurt just the Water Tribe," Aang tries to reason, eyes and tone imploring. "It will hurt everyone, including you. Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance. You have no idea what kind of chaos that would unleash on the world."

"He's right, Zhao," a familiar voice concurs from their left. Everyone turns to see Iroh, standing at the edge of the oasis with a chastising scowl on his face so fierce Sokka almost wants to apologize for whatever he did wrong.

"Uncle," Zuko whispers from beside him. Sokka resists the temptation to look over and spot what is surely the softest expression Zuko can make. He doesn't need to be distracted right now.

"General Iroh," Zhao says, a false saccharine quality to his voice as he greets the older man. "Why am I not surprised to discover the treachery of both you and your nephew, who's somehow still alive?"

Removing his hood, Iroh rebuts, "We're no traitors, Zhao. The Fire Nation needs the moon, too. We all depend on the balance." Pointing at Zhao, he shouts, "Whatever you do to that spirit, I will unleash on you tenfold! Let it go now!"

In the face of Iroh's fury, Zhao's hard expression softens after a moment. Timidly, he releases the fish back into the pond, and they all release a quiet breath of relief.

All except Zuko, apparently. He lashes out, cursing Zhao's name as he sends a shock of flame at the man. "You tried to have me killed!"

Commotion breaks out when Zhao returns Zuko's strike. Zhao's soldiers make to attack Aang, two of them held back only when Iroh steps forward and cuts them down with two swift balls of fire thrown their way.

The remaining soldiers go after Aang while Iroh pursues Zhao. Sokka intercepts one of them, pushing him back and yelling, "Quick, Katara, bend a dome of ice over the pool!"

Katara does just that, swiftly casting a layer of water up from the pool and freezing it before moving to help Aang, who's carefully avoiding a soldier himself.

Tossing his boomerang at his own opponent, Sokka waits for his weapon to strike against the soldier's helmet before rushing over to Appa, who still has Yue on his back. "Yip yip!"

Despite Yue's protests, Appa takes off, allowing Sokka to lay to rest some of his concerns. On Appa's back, Yue will be far enough from the action to stay safe, and Sokka will be able to better focus on the fight at hand. He doesn't know what he would do if anything happened to her.

A cry from his right suddenly grabs his attention, and he turns just in time to see the soldier he'd thought he'd knocked out charging at him. The soldier bends at him, and Sokka rolls out of the way of the flames, backing up to the wall of the oasis. Unfortunately, this allows the soldier to corner him. Sokka moves to pull out his axe, but with the soldier's arms already raised, he fears he may be too slow.

Just as the soldier lets loose a tendril of flames, however, Zuko rolls in front of him to block the blast. As Sokka manages to finally get a grip on his axe's handle, Zuko rises to his full height before dropping down again with one leg kicked out to send fire at the soldier.

The soldier stumbles backwards, having lost his footing when Zuko shot at his feet. Sokka takes the opportunity to dart forward and bring the butt of his axe down on the top of the soldier's head. The man goes sprawling onto the ground, passed out cold.

With his opponent laid out at his feet, Sokka takes the moment to survey the rest of the fighting only to realize it's come to a close. Aang and Katara have apprehended the other three soldiers, and Iroh is standing over Zhao at the far end of the oasis.

Gradually, he becomes aware that Zuko is still standing behind him, and he turns around. The other boy is off to the side, looking torn between staying with Sokka for the time being and going over to his uncle. When Sokka walks up to him, however, his gaze settles more firmly on Sokka, and he stops fidgeting.

"Hey, man," Sokka starts, hand coming up to scratch the back of his head. "I didn't get a chance to say it earlier, and I know we don't always get along, but I'm glad you're not dead."

Zuko shrugs, looking sheepish. "Sorry if I worried you."

Closing his eyes, Sokka flippantly waves a hand. "It's not your fault Zhao's a total psycho."

When he opens his eyes again, Zuko is standing much closer. The other boy doesn't say anything for a long moment, simply staring into Sokka's eyes.

"Uh, what—" Sokka starts, only to stop himself as Zuko brings one of his arms up and slides a hand around the back of Sokka's neck.

Unceremoniously tugged forward, Sokka stumbles into Zuko, who tilts the back of his head up and draws him into a short kiss. Both their lips are chapped, and their breaths run ragged from the fight they'd been in just moments before. Sokka's brain is stuttering to keep up with this turn of events, having certainly not expected his soulmate to lay one on him in front of members of both their families.

Sokka finds himself just barely tilting his head to reciprocate the kiss when Zuko breaks it. He doesn't pull away immediately, opting to instead resume looking into Sokka's eyes. Quietly, so much so that Sokka nearly misses it, Zuko whispers, "I missed you."

"You—Me," Sokka stutters, at a loss for what to say as his lips still tingle from the kiss.

Before he has the time to think up a more articulate response, however, Zuko's uncle calls for him. "Zuko, let's go!"

Not wasting a second, Zuko doesn't look back as he hastens away, following his uncle through the door to the oasis and back out into the fray of the battle still battering the tribe. By the time he's out of sight, Sokka realizes he'd lost the chance to thank Zuko for defending him during the fight.

Dazed, Sokka continues to stand in place, axe held limp in his hand and what he's sure is a dumb expression fixed on his face. He snaps out of his funk only when Katara marches up to him, hands on her hips. "Sokka, what's wrong with you? Why are you just standing here?"

"Why are you just standing here," Sokka retorts, staring accusatorily at her in deflection.

She rolls her eyes and makes to turn away, but her attention is diverted by something behind Sokka, prompting him to turn around.

Yue lands with Appa, who lowers his head so that she can hop down onto the grass. Sokka rushes over to her, offering a hand to help her steady herself. Once she has her footing, she thanks him, pulls away, and starts making her way over to Aang, who's standing over Zhao as Iroh was earlier.

"What's wrong with him," Sokka asks him as they draw closer.

Still looking down, Aang answers, "He's dead."

Once the four of them are all standing together, Sokka sees the truth of Aang's words. Zhao's body is sprawled out on a burnt patch of grass, and a huge, bloodied gash is torn across his chest. Horrified, Sokka can only imagine how hot Iroh's strike must have been to tear through Zhao's armor and leave such a terrible wound. Furthermore, he can't help but find it difficult to reconcile the wound with the man who'd inflicted it.

"We should move his body to the front lines," Yue says, grabbing all of their attentions.

"Why," Katara asks, resolutely not looking at Zhao's fallen form.

Yue explains, "If Zhao's forces see that he's fallen, they'll most likely retreat." After a brief pause, she amends, "Unless they have secondary leadership, in which case we can reassess in the event that they mount another attack."

With Yue's instructions in mind, Aang and Katara leave to find some warriors to help them move the body. In the meantime, rather than continue to stand by the corpse, Sokka pulls Yue over to the other side of the pool where the ice from the dome Katara had bent around it is starting to melt. Just barely, the two of them can see the koi fish swimming around one another.

When Katara returns without Aang—who she tells them is looking for Chief Arnook—two warriors accompany her to retrieve Zhao's body. They cover it with a white sheet, using thin pieces of rope to keep it from falling off. As Katara leads them from the oasis again, she spares a moment to melt the ice dome back into water, which slowly rejoins with the rest of the pool.

Yue takes a seat at the edge of the pool, and the white koi fish comes over to greet her. Smiling down at the moon spirit, she pulls off one of her gloves. Sokka is sure that she's going to dip her hand into the water, so he's surprised when he feels it encircle his own.

He looks up at her, pleased to see that her smile has turned to him. "Thank you for everything today. You were very brave."

"You're welcome," he squeaks, caught off-guard. "I mean, thank you. Uh, you, too, uh—" Clearing his throat, he forces himself to put on his most suave voice. "Anytime, Princess."

Laughing, Yue rolls her eyes and looks away, but Sokka doesn't miss the feeling of her squeezing his hand tight.

The next morning, Chief Arnook pulls Sokka aside for a chat on one of the palace's balconies as he, Katara, and Aang prepare to leave with Pakku and the rest of the group going to the South Pole. He feels sad to leave the North Pole and Yue so soon, but it's time to move on. Aang still needs to master earthbending, after all.

"The spirits gave me a vision when Yue was born," Arnook begins, looking to the sky. "I saw a young warrior sending her off into the sky under a full moon as he and his friends fought to protect the Great Spirits. When you arrived with the avatar, I knew the time had come for the Fire Nation to attack, and I had to wait patiently either for you to protect her, or for my vision to have been wrong."

Turning, he places a hand on Sokka's shoulder, smiling briefly. "I'm glad the vision I saw was true. Thank you for protecting my daughter."

"You're welcome," Sokka replies, still at a bit of a loss as to how to formally address a chief. "I care about Yue a lot. I would've done anything to protect her."

"Yes," Arnook agrees, tone serious. "With that in mind, I have a proposal for you." Curious, Sokka cocks his head to the side, and the chief goes on. "How would you like to marry Yue?"

Taken aback, Sokka takes a moment to ensure that his feet are rooted firmly to the ground before responding. "It's—I, uh—What about Hahn?"

Frowning, Arnook tells him, "Tragically, Hahn passed yesterday during the mission he was leading. We will miss him greatly."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sokka says, and he means it. They hadn't gotten along, sure, but that doesn't mean Sokka is happy to hear of his demise. His parents must be devastated, Sokka knows, thinking of how his own father would feel if anything ever happened to Katara or him.

"Nevertheless," Arnook goes on. "Considering that your father is the chief of our sister tribe, I can think of no better match. As such, Yue will remain unmatched until after Sozin's Comet when you can return and I can speak to your father."

Overjoyed but reticent to simply accept right out of the gate, Sokka asks what Yue's thoughts are on the matter.

Arnook cocks his head towards the balcony's entrance. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Sokka turns to find Yue standing in the hall and goes to join her. With a short nod, Chief Arnook leaves them to their own devices.

"So," she starts cheerily, smiling at him. "What do you think?"

He wants to say something along the lines of, "I think it's great! I'll get started on the betrothal necklace right away," but thinks better of it, opting instead for, "Uh, what do you think?"

Rolling her eyes, much as she did last night, she says, "It was my idea, silly."

Sheepish, he brings his hand up to the back of his neck. "Oh, uh, then yeah, I like it. A lot. And you," he adds, wincing as he embarrassingly fails to string a proper sentence together.

"I like you, too," she says, and for the second time in twenty-four hours, Sokka has a first kiss.

When they leave later that day, Sokka waves down to Yue from atop Appa's back. She stands at her father's side, waving back at him until her father turns away to speak to someone, at which point she blows him a kiss. He pretends to catch it, Katara calls him a dork, and the Northern Water Tribe soon disappears into the distance as they make their way to the Earth Kingdom.

---

I KNOW I MADE JET AND KATARA SOULMATES I'M SORRY