A/N: Written for the Avatar_contest community over on LJ. Sorry it's so short. My muse hasn't been very vocal lately.
ALSO: I feel like a review-whore typing this, but if you like these drabbles, please review. Reviews make DPAK happy.
Bato sat on the sandy beach, leaning back against his boat and staring up at the stars. He had made this a nightly habit ever since the nuns deemed him healthy enough to leave the abbey for brief amounts of time. The smell of salty freedom carried by the sea breeze was a welcome change from the sickeningly sweet smell of the perfumes the nuns made. He closed his eyes and sighed; the ache to return to his fellow warriors was growing stronger by the day.
My fellow warriors… He snorted.
Who was he trying to fool? It wasn't the other men of the Water Tribe that he longed to be with right now; they were like family to him, but being separated from them wasn't the cause of his grief. No. It was because of him.
Hakoda.
His chief. His closest friend. His secret desire. His everything.
Every since they were kids, he had never imagined life without Hakoda by his side. Hakoda was always there cracking a lame joke, plotting a prank guaranteed to get them in trouble, letting him know how much their friendship meant to him. Now that Hakoda wasn't here with him…
It's only a temporary thing. You will see him again. Any day now that letter will come. Then you can rejoin him. He tried to reassure himself. The words echoed in his head; he had trouble believing them.
He wasn't sure how long he sat there trying to convince himself that he would be back at Hakoda's side soon enough, but his legs were stiff as he stood. He stretched, his back popping, before he headed back to the abbey, his expression glum.
It was sad. He had never realized how much he needed Hakoda before being separated from him, never realized that so much of his life revolved around the chief. And he planned on letting his friend know this whenever he saw him again.