Disclaimer: Avatar. Not mine. Comprendo?
AN: Yegods, a serious one! I think you could kinda guess by the title though... I mean moon about Sokka? Yeah, its probably gonna be pretty serious.
71. Moon
Toph knew it was wrong as soon as she said it. Besides the obvious signs like Aang's sharp inhale and wince and Sokka's spiked heart rate, the atmosphere, before humorous and fun, was now tense. The expression "cut the tension with a knife" which Toph never really understood, suddenly made sense.
"The moon spirit is a gentle, loving lady. She rules the sky compassion and…lunar goodness."
"Oh really. Do you know the moon spirit?"
It was honestly, too good an opportunity to pass up. Really. She was expecting him put his hands on his hips and announce, in that stupid manly voice he did, that course he did and then she'd shoot him a dubious glare, and he'd shrink and admit, that no, he really didn't.
It was sharp and she could hear the underlying anger in his voice. "Yes."
And how exactly did he know the Moon Spirit? Aang was the connection to the Spirit World, and as far as Toph knew not many people other people had been there. Unless of course they were dead, which Sokka was not. Then again, she did remember him telling her the story of his kidnapping by Hei Bai, but that had nothing to do with the Moon Spirit, at least what she could remember. And then why would he be angry? It's not like anyone would tell her. Sokka stalked off and Aang… well Aang wasn't any help.
"Really? Aang, did he know the moon spirit?"
"Uh… yeah. We all met her and um… stuff. Look Toph, it's a touchy subject and I don't know if Sokka wouldn't want me to tell you."
Really? Sokka wouldn't want her to know? As far as she knew, they were best friends, family even. Maybe he had done something so embarrassing (which really wasn't hard for her to imagine) that it was hard for him to talk about… But even that didn't seem right. So, she would just have to go ask him herself. She would just march up to him and demand he tell her the story.
She didn't, of course. She was fully ready to, as she marched over to sit next to him on the log, where he was looking up to the moon. But then he turned to her, sighing heavily, and she could hear the tears in his voice as he spoke.
"Her name was Yue. I loved her, Toph."
It was only minutes after that Hama lady had taught Katara "bloodbending", a technique so wrong it gave Toph shivers thinking about it, and had used it on Aang on Sokka as well. They were all shaken up, Katara so much that she was still sobbing, with Aang trying to soothe her with his calm words. Apparently it was a full moon as well, so now Sokka was just as shaken up as Katara, and there was no way she could yell at him.
"Talk when about it when you're ready, ok?"
AN: I thought of writing this right after I saw the Puppet Master... It just took me quite a few months to get it written.