Spoilers for the Invasion in this chapter. Don't say I didn't warn you!

For the Present

Contrary to what my friends may think, it's not hard for me to imagine how other people look like. I'm sure their faces are fairly similar to my own: two ears, two cheeks, lips, a nose, and eyes. Although the vibrations aren't always very specific, I've learned to take what I can get, and make the most of it.

I can tell that Sokka's facial features are similar to Aang's. Both have the narrow, square jaw structure of young men. Katara's facial features (which, I am assuming, are similar to mine) are less dense, but dip in and out gracefully, and that's probably why she can get Aang to do almost anything for her without yelling.

There are things I can sense. Liars lie and their heart beat plummets and rises, and I can tell right away that some thing's up. Aang and Katara come back from spending the day together, and both of them sound nervous and excited. I can pick up tones that seeing eyes can't. But then there's something else that I can't sense at all: the gazes and "looks" that people give to one another, and their contorting facial expressions.

Sometimes Katara asks Aang to turn around, that his constant staring is quite annoying. Sometimes Sokka asks his sister why she looks so sad and forlorn, and then they're silent, and then I feel Sokka nod understandingly. There are times when both Katara and Aang burst out laughing, even though nothing was funny to begin with.

And then there's Katara's high pitched squeal of a laugh. Don't get me wrong. It sounds...gentle...but...

But also feminine. Way too feminine for my liking, anyway. And, in a sense, just plain girly.

And what was so funny to begin with? If I pay attention, I feel that their faces are turned toward one another. But which way are they looking? Up or down or into each other's eyes?

And what of it? I couldn't care less that, when Katara laughs, I feel Twinkle Toes grow anxious. I couldn't care less that I feel Sokka nod in her direction, as if she's doing the right thing. I couldn't care less that, even though my feet and hands are acute and can feel many different vibrations, I've never actually felt another person smile.

Of course, it does bother me. In a sense, I'd like to slightly-kind-of-maybe be a little more like Katara. A little. I mean, not all of the time...not even a fraction of the time. Just sometimes...like when Sokka and I are left alone because Aang and Katara have bending to practice or food to pick up or breezes to shoot. Sometimes the silences are unbearable, and sometimes I wonder if Sokka is looking at me.

Why Sokka? I feel bad for him, on occasion, because his sister is helplessly in love with a bald monk and he's blind to it. Because his mother was lost in a Fire Nation raid and his father left him to raise a village alone. Because he's not a bender and he's living with a group of benders. Because he's a clumsy fool who thinks too much. Because he's...Sokka. There's no better explanation, no other way for me to phrase this.

I think I can relate to him. But also...I think I've grown far too fond of him.

Is this such a bad thing? Katara's high pitched laughter can keep Aang busy for hours. Does Sokka look at them when they're giving lovey-dovey looks to each other? Is he blind to the secret gazes the way I am?

After the Invasion failed us, we headed for the Western Air Temple with three or more new members to our group.

That same night, a full moon graced the night sky as we tried to rest. The only way I was able to know this information was because Katara wouldn't sleep a wink. She stood up numerous times and paced in and out between our sleeping bags, looking up and sighing. It was then I felt that Sokka wasn't sleeping with us. There was a presence some way off near the rails of the temple, overlooking the mountain ranges below. I assumed the form was Sokka, and Katara must have assumed the same thing, because she walked over and touched his shoulder.

"Can't sleep either?"

"No. It's a full moon tonight."

"You're still thinking about Hamma, aren't you?" Sokka's voice fell, almost until I could barely hear it. "Listen, Katara, just forget what she taught you, okay? She's just a crazy old woman with issues and—"

"I'm not thinking of her, Sokka." Even though I was meters away, I could tell Katara was lying. "Why aren't you asleep?"

There was a short silence. I heard Sokka sniffle gruffly and shift his weight. "It's...a full moon tonight."

Katara sat next to him, her arm around his shoulder in a consoling matter. I imagined her frowning. "Yue wouldn't want you to mourn her like this, Sokka. You know that."

Yue? Who was Yue? This wasn't the first time I had heard her name, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to be the last. I rolled to my side, moving loose strands of hair away from my ears.

"Even Aang's fallen asleep. We should follow his example."

"I'd rather not." It was then I noticed that Sokka's neck was craned upward, towards the sky. It sounded as if he was struggling to find words. "Do you think she's...still...you know..."

Katara scooted closer to her brother. "Alive?"

He didn't answer.

"You saw her spirit in the Swamp, didn't you? Of course she's alive, Sokka. She visited you. She must still care about you deeply."

"...You think so?"

Katara's pitch was high and excited. "Think so? I know so! And look at it this way," she pointed upwards. "Now you have the Moon Spirit always looking out for you. That's more than any one person can ask for."

She helped her brother up and they both headed for their sleeping bags. I closed my eyes and tried to understand what they had just talked about. But it made no sense to me. I didn't know who Yue was, but obviously she made Sokka very emotional and lethargic. And the Moon Spirit? I didn't care much for cosmic gibberish, but still, for reasons unknown to me, I was interested.

The next morning, while Aang was off exploring the Western Air Temple with Sokka and the rest of the group, Katara stayed behind and prepared breakfast. I stayed behind too, claiming that I could already feel what was around the temple anyway, and in hopes that I could ask about Yue without having Katara know that I had eavesdropped last night.

"Need any help?" I asked the waterbender, trying my best to sound dainty.

I felt Katara look up from her spot. Her head moved back a little bit. "Toph? You want to...to help me make breakfast?" She stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "Well! This is definitely a first. Would you pass me that ginger root?"

I did as I was told, taking a seat next to the pot. "Katara, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

I was fairly glad that Katara couldn't tell if I was lying. "A few weeks ago, I heard Sokka mention 'Yue' when he was...asleep."

"I didn't know Sokka talked in his sleep," she claimed. "And?"

"I was just wondering who Yue is, that's all. It sounds like...a nice name." I felt my stomach churn.

"Oh." I heard little splashes as Katara chopped up the ginger root and threw it into the pot. "Yue is...well, Yue was the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe. We visited the North Pole before we met you, so that Aang and I could master waterbending."

"That's it?" I asked disappointedly. "She's just some princess?"

Katara's tone dropped, and I felt her face turn to me. "She was a very, very nice person, Toph," she told me, as if I had offended her. "She was a member of our Sister Tribe. She helped Aang find a simpler route to the Spirit World, and she was...very close friends with Sokka. "

Katara turned her face at the last statement as she added more mysterious legumes to the stew. I also realized that she was using the past tense to describe this person for me. "Did she leave or something?" I asked as I handed her some dried meat.

"Let's just say that, in a sense, she's still alive, but in another sense, she also left us."

"Hmm." I rubbed my feet. "So...she died?"

"In a sense."

"Who's sense?"

"Her death was complicated."

"How complicated can a death get?"

"It involved the Spirit World."

"And? A death's a death."

"Toph," Katara sounded aggravated and weary, as if remembering this was painful for her. I kind of regretted asking. "Let's just say that Sokka loved her very much and she sacrificed her life for a spirit to restore balance to the world, okay?"

"Hmm." Sokka loved her very much? Restoring balance to the world? I didn't remember Katara or Sokka mentioning that on their little Yue discussion sessions.

"Why were you asking, anyway?" Katara inquired as she bended the stew into separate bowls. "It's really not a happy story." She paused, wiping her brow. "And Toph, do you really expect me to believe it's because you thought Yue was a pretty name?"

I heard her laugh before Sokka, Aang, and the rest of our new members arrived for breakfast. My head spun with thought and slight embarrassment. Katara was a clever one.

Over the next few days, I couldn't help but ask more and more questions about Yue. But then the questions branched. I asked Aang about Yue, and then about Sokka, and then about Suki and what Azula had said on the day of the Invasion. But the conversations I held between Katara and Aang always ended the same way.

"Toph, why are you asking?"

Or worse, "Why don't you just go ask Sokka?"

Because I couldn't! Because, for some reason, after I had heard the pain in Sokka's voice when he had asked, "Where's...Suki?" or the tremor in his heartbeat when he looked up to the sky, I had been provoked. I could actually feel Sokka's love life. And, because Katara and Aang were always so busy with one another, I figured focusing on Sokka was just my job.

Everything changed when Zuko joined our group almost a week after the Invasion.

Sokka was constantly standing up and sitting down, his heartbeat loud and angry, beating on the corners of his rib cage. He erupted and yelled and Zuko and at Aang, sometimes even leaking putrid words at his sister. He was tense and up tight, always shouting and acting nervous, because finally, there was another boy his age in the group. Who also happened to be a firebender.

Once, in the morning, Zuko had taken Aang to train off in the distance somewhere. It was our last day at the Western Air Temple. Our plans needed refining (much to my displeasure. The lazy days we spent at the temple were heaven). Katara had went with them, arguing that she should also be helping Aang train. The Duke, Haru, and even Tao wanted to see Aang firebend. So Sokka and I were left alone. Sokka because he hated Zuko, me because I couldn't care less if Twinkle Toes could firebend or not.

The silence began right after Katara said, "Finish packing our stuff, Sokka. And make sure Appa doesn't eat anymore of those yellow berries. They're going to make him sick."

Sokka grumbled a reply, and we were left behind.

I could feel him getting angry again, his pulse rising. His pace started, too. He walked back and forth in large strides, as if he was late for something.

"You need to relax," was all I could come with.

"Relax? Relax! You want me to relax, Toph?" I felt him throw his arms into the air. "We have the Fire Lord's son on our team. He's hearing our every word! He's always right there." He pointed to Zuko's sleeping bag. I imaged that it was colored red with a huge Fire Nation emblem on it. "Katara and Aang may have fallen for it, but I know he's up to no good. The way he walks around scowling at everyone! Ha! He thinks just because he's royalty he can march right up and do whatever he wants! Do you see the way he talks to Aang? The way he talks to us?"

"That's just his voice, Snoozles," I said flatly. "So he sounds like he's dead! Big deal. He's not plotting anything. If he was, I would know." I rubbed at my ankles. "Unlike you, he actually goes to sleep at night."

It was then I realized that I had said too much.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, walking over to me. "I sleep at night."

"Only when Katara persuades you too."

He took a step back, scratching his head. "How do you know that?"

"It's not like I was spying." Regardless of my regrets, I put my hands behind my head and stretched. "You two just talk really loudly, that's all."

He sighed at sat down, facing me. I wished dearly that I could see his expression. A look of hatred or suspicion? A smile or a scowl?

"Katara and Aang said you've been asking a lot of questions," he said, as if this had something to do with my eavesdropping. "Why?"

I shrugged. "You kept talking about Yue," I stated, trying very hard to keep my voice from cracking. I kept a mental note that I was going to kill both Aang and Katara after they came back from the firebending match. "I was just curious."

"Katara explained it to you?"

"Mostly," I replied. "Not everything. She was vague."

Sokka paused and breathed deeply before he began his explanation. "Admiral Zhao killed her...indirectly..." Sokka said. And then I felt his face drop, and his hands move up to wipe his forehead. "She had to sacrifice her life for the Moon Spirit...she's gone."

I was silent. I could hear a very, very soft whimper erupt from his throat. But he coughed and looked up again.

"This is why you hate Zuko?" I asked dumbly. "It's because he's Fire Nation, isn't it?"

Sokka didn't need to consider this. "They're horrible people, Toph. Living garbage."

"They took everything away from you," I reasoned, mostly because I wanted to agree with him.

And that was it. That was the first time that I actually really did feel sorry for Sokka. All of those other reasons shrunk in comparison. He had experienced losses far greater than anything I had ever experienced. His pains were far worse and far deeper than anything I could even imagine. His mother, father, and two lovers had been taken away by the Fire Nation. And now he feared he was going to lose his sister and closest friends as well.

But he needed to get over it. He needed to forget. "You have to remember that Zuko's changed," I explained. "I know it. He wouldn't have ran away otherwise.

Again, Sokka drifted off into silence. He cleared his throat. "Does that answer your questions about Yue?"

"Yes."

"That's good."

"Do you understand what I mean about relaxing?"

"Kind of."

I beat the floor with my fist, sending a small pebble right into Sokka's forehead.

"Yes! I get it. I'll relax! Goodness, Toph," he whined as he rubbed his head.

I imagined his facial expression: a confused, handsome, baffled look, asking me silently why I was always on his case, why I couldn't just leave him be.

And then I started laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, flicking the pebble away. I could hear the smile in his voice. "Toph, why are you laughing?"

"I just imagined what you looked like," I said through tears. "Sokka...you look really funny."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He stood up, offended. "What are you saying?"

I also stood up and punched his shoulder. "Not like that, Snoozles. I mean, you look funny in a cute way."

I wanted to punch my own shoulder. Hard. The words had seeped out before I was able to stop them. I didn't have to feel his face to know that he was blinking.

But then he laughed, heartily too, and I couldn't help but join in.

"So first you yell at me, and then ask me about Yue, and then sympathize with me, and then earthbend a pebble at my face, and then start laughing at me, and then say I'm cute?" He crossed his arms after wiping the tears away. "Toph, have you been eating those yellow berries or something?"

"You're saying I'm crazy!" I accused loudly, still fighting the urge to laugh again.

"Pretty much," he answered softly. "I just imagined you eating those sour yellow berries the way Appa does. So you are a little crazy." He paused and rubbed his neck. "But...in a cute way."

I felt myself blink, and hoped that the heat igniting in my stomach wasn't showing on my face. "Whatever," I told him quickly. "Quit your snickering and help me finish packing."

Am I at a disadvantage? Ever since that conversation with Sokka, I realized that it's great to imagine the expressions on peoples' faces rather than try in vain to feel them or predict them. It was just that simple.

And now, I think Sokka does the same thing, because sometimes we burst out laughing for no reason, poking fun at a world unseen to Katara and Aang. A world free of firebenders and hatred and Spirits. A world of vibrant imagination, contorted facial expressions, open to benders and non-benders alike, a world that both Sokka and I can see.

Where I think he forgets the pains he's suffered in the past, and looks instead at what he has left to experience at the present.

Author's Note: Extremely pleased with everyones reviewing and alerting. Very nice to see such positive feed back! D

I'm sorry if I just ruined the Invasion for anyone. I think everyone's already watched it on show links anyway. I'm also sorry because even though I love Tokka, it's very hard for me to write it. I hope everyone was in character.

Remember to review, for those of you who haven't done so! Your comments are greatly appreciated, and make my updating even faster.