Author's Note: The name "Miya" sounds like "my-uh," not "mee-uh." Just wanted to make that clear...

This... is interesting. Of course, we all know that Sokka got two fishhooks stuck in his thumb, so... here's the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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Edition 3: His Embarrassing Predicament (Sokka, age 8)

"Kuh-TAR-uh!" Sokka exclaimed, snatching his boomerang back. "That's MINE!"

Katara was seven. She had matured phenomenally in the past year, and her attitude (and lack of admiration for her brother) had grown accordingly. "Mom said I could see it!"

"Well it's MINE!"

"MO-OM! SOKKA'S BEING MEAN!"

The siblings' mother stalked over. She was at her wit's end with her two children, who, nowadays, hardly ever got along. She was getting sick of it. To avoid yelling at them and hurting youthful feelings, she inhaled... exhaled... "Sokka, please let your sister see your new toy."

"But this is MY boomerang! Dad gave it to me special!"

Their mother rolled her eyes and breathed deeply. "Fine. Just separate, then. Sokka, you run along that way, and Katara, you run along that way. No contact whatsoever, okay? Mom's gonna go back into Gran-Gran's tent and have a nice, soothing cup of tea..."

Their mother walked away, leaving the two siblings glaring at each other. Sokka tucked his boomerang away, shielding it protectively.

Suddenly a bright voice broke the stiff silence. "Hey, guys!" It belonged to a young girl, about Sokka's own age, who was waving at them vigorously. She had her hair up in a ponytail.

"Hey, Miya!" Katara called back. Sokka cocked his head questioningly.

"Miya's dad fishes with our dad," Katara supplied helpfully, though her expression was everything but pleasant.

Miya ran over. "I was... going to... go watch our dads... catch some fish... and thought maybe... you guys would like to... come, too," she managed to say, panting.

"That sounds great," Katara grinned. "Sokka can't come, though. Mom says we have to stay away from each other for a while."

"Oh. Sorry, Sokka," Miya murmured.

"It's no big deal. Men like me have better things to do than watch other guys fish. I have, uh, manly stuff to do."

Katara giggled. "Like what?"

"Um... sharpening my boomerang," Sokka replied, unsheathing his weapon so Miya could see it.

"You aren't allowed to go near any of the sharpening tools," Katara taunted.

"Am so!"

"No, you're not, and I don't have time to stand here and listen to your yapping. C'mon, Miya." Katara grabbed her friend's arm and stalked away. Sokka watched them go and considered shouting after them but thought better of it; after all, Katara would simply shout some rude reply, and although he hated to admit it (he would never, ever say it out loud), if it came to a battle of the wits, Katara would beat him.

Sokka put his new boomerang back into its pouch and shifted his attention back to the retreating pair. Miya's ponytail bounced as the girl skipped alongside his little sister, and the two seemed to be having a very animated conversation, now; Katara was using her hands to illustrate some sort of large quantity, and Miya was nodding enthusiastically. He could hear Katara's bright voice carrying toward him, but he couldn't make out the words. Were they talking about him? Was she telling Miya how selfish he'd been earlier?

He shook his head. Selfish? He hadn't been selfish. And why did he care, anyway? It wasn't like he liked Miya... he didn't even know the girl. He'd only seen her once. And still, he thought she sure was pretty... very upbeat, too. She seemed really nice...

What in the world is wrong with me? He approached a puddle and gazed at his reflection. He looked the same- the tuft of a ponytail ("Warrior's Wolftail," his dad had corrected him), the blue eyes, the brown skin, the mouth and nose that had always been there... he was the same. Exactly the same as he had been the day before, and the day before that.

Why, then, did he feel so strange?

He diverted his gaze to Miya and Katara. They were very distant now, almost out of sight. Follow them, something prodded, and he obeyed.

At the lake, he noticed his father readying a boat to head out into the water. He glanced at Miya- she and his sister had wandered a couple of feet into the water and were gazing in the direction of their feet intently, their eyes following what he thought to be fish that were swimming just beneath the surface. He hurried over to has dad and asked, "Hey, Dad? Can I come, too?"

Hakoda smiled down at the small boy before him. He glanced at the sky, then said, "Sure, Sokka. This isn't for work, so I have a little time to spend with you for fishing."

Sokka grinned. That was exactly what he wanted. He hoped Miya would see him fishing, would talk about how brave and talented he was when he caught a big one. Most boys in his tribe knew how to fish at his age- he'd been one of the first to learn. It had never been his strong point, but hey, he wasn't bad...

He waved at the girls to get their attention. They didn't see him. When he realized this, he got a little frustrated and yelled, "Hey, Miya! Katara!"

They glanced up, and when Katara saw her brother waving to them, she turned her gaze back toward the water. Miya glanced at her friend, then followed suit.

Sokka got an annoyed expression on his face. "You guys! Watch!"

Katara didn't look up this time, but Miya did. She turned to Katara, seemed to say a few words to her, then Katara looked up, too.

Sokka grinned triumphantly. He was in a hurry because he didn't want to lose the girls' attention and was especially distracted, so when the fishhook went clean into his thumb, it wasn't actually as surprising as he found it to be.

There was a moment of silence as Sokka realized what he'd done. Then, of course, the pain registered. "Agh! Ow, OW, get it off, get it off!" Sokka shook his hand vigorously, only worsening the stab.

Hakoda turned around immediately and took one second to evaluate the situation. "Sokka! Sit still! Here, let me-"

"Augh, ow! No, I can do it..." He jerked his head around, a tear of pain falling from his left eye, and snatched at another fishhook with his spare hand. The girls ran up to the boat, alarmed. Hakoda frowned and adopted a curious look.

"What are you- Sokka, don't-!"

Sokka tried to pry the dratted fishhook from his thumb with the other fishhook that he held in his good hand, but as he tried to reposition the hook, it slipped. Now he had a grand total of two fishhooks stuck in his thumb, he was flailing and screaming worse than anyone within earshot had heard in their life, and both Katara and Miya were watching him with curious and slightly pained expressions. Things couldn't get much worse.

"Stop being such a baby," Katara snapped. Hakoda knelt down, grabbed Sokka's hand, and pulled out both fishhooks at the same time to make it as short and painless as possible.

Well, maybe painless wasn't the right word.

"OW!" he howled. "DAD! IT BURNS! OW! OWWW! Make it stop, make the pain stop!"

"Oh, Sokka..." The words Your sister's right, stop being such a baby, pressed against his lips, but he refused to say them. He wouldn't ruin his son's self-esteem worse than it already was. Katara would certainly taunt the poor boy about this for the rest of his days...

Hakoda knelt down. Then he tore off a piece of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around Sokka's thumb. "It's tight," the boy protested.

"It's supposed to be tight," Hakoda replied. He finished bandaging Sokka's thumb and stood up, a sense of dismissal surrounding him. Sokka stood up and, now that the pain had dulled into a steady throb, took the time to allow embarrassment creep into him. His cheeks flamed.

"Need me to kiss it better?" Katara cooed.

Miya looked utterly sympathetic. "Are you okay? Do you need any help?"

Katara stopped giggling long enough to throw her companion an annoyed look.

"I'm... fine," Sokka insisted, refusing to sniffle. He shrugged. "It was just-"

"You got two fishhooks stuck in your thumb. That isn't just anything... How do you... I, dear brother, will never understand you."

Sokka nodded. "Yeah. Me, neither."

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Author's Note: Originally is was called "His First Crush," but I changed my mind on the story's title because, well, it was embarrassing.