MY PLOTBUNNY BRAIN IDEAS

a child of sea falls for the son of the heavens

Once, when the world was still young and the spirits were careless and carefree with their interaction with mankind, an existence known as the children of spirits walked amongst mankind. A special existence that was treasured and worshipped as gods and heroes, or feared and hunted down for being monsters, the life of a child of spirits was not easy. 

But that was in the past, when the Spirit Realm hadn’t been erected yet and the spirits weren’t distant and aloof as they have become now. Now , the children of spirits were hardly remembered and the few who did had only seen it as mere legends and tales of some powerful bender. 

“The children of spirits did not really exist” an elder would say, scoffing.

Unfortunately for Sokka, that elder had been wrong. The children of spirits do exist, and Sokka’s himself proved it just by simply breathing.

When Sokka had been born, his parents were in a canoe and had been lost and stuck in the midst of the South Pole seas. There was no sun with only the sympathy of Tui’s light with them.

He had been thought dead, a stillborn baby, when a walrus suddenly came up from the waters and let out a wail, splashing water everywhere. Sokka, who had been cold and still, breathed. He had a fishtail, fish scales on his legs, small claws and folded puppy ears and small coral stubs where normal ears would have been. 

His father and mother feared for him. He was special, after all, and his fate would either be sent to the palace or the icy temples in the North Water Tribe or be killed by the other small tribes here in the South Pole. 

And so Sokka had to stay quiet and unseen in the high tides and full moons for being a son of La, while his sister was praised by everyone they knew for being blessed by Tui and La. 

It was difficult. 

If his sister hadn’t discovered his secret at that night, Sokka would have still believed that being a child of La was a curse, that he was a monster.

“You can be so stupid sometimes, Sokka” that eight year old Katara had said, huffing with crossed arms “no child of our gods would be cursed.”

“Besides, before you are a son of La, you are my brother first.” Katara continued, sitting beside Sokka’s scaled and furred form, dipping her feet foolishly in the ice-cold waters of Sokka’s secret pool “and I know my brother very well. Sokka’s silly and stupid and he could be really annoying sometimes, but he isn’t a monster.”

And well, how could he not hug his sister tightly and whine like a pup? Sokka didn’t like it whenever Katara mentioned it and he would always deny it, but he had cried, his shoulders feeling light as if something heavy had been lifted that night (it did) and something tight in his chest was just, gone. 

Sokka knew his family very well. Gran-Gran was a no nonsense woman who liked to dote on them at the same time she would give them a tongue lash. Dad was a jolly man who would often be reprimanded by their gentle Mom. Katara was as annoying as every little sister could be, especially with her water magic. They all love and care for him, Sokka knew that. 

But sometimes, he just forgets it. Sometimes, when he’s all alone and it was all quiet, he doubts his place in the family.  

That night, when Katara found out his secret, she had slapped some sense to him, and later on scolded their parents in the day about Sokka feelings about seeing himself a monster, it was also like, a slap in the face for him that yes, his family loved him very much, and being a fish-tailed, scaled leg furry person who howls at full moons and could breathe underwater, did not mean anything different to them.

Now it didn’t mean Sokka’s life was not difficult, but it did get easier. And lighter on the shoulders and his heart.

~ o ~

A year later, a ten year old Sokka and a nine year old Katara hear about the death of a prince of the Fire Nation. That same year, a banished Northerner reaches their very small tribe and asks for dried fish and a night of rest before he is sent away. That same night ends with the Northerner asking his father, wanting to take Sokka’s little sister as his wife, and then getting rejected by everybody in the clan. As a response, that Northerner killed everybody else in the tribe, killing their mother, grandmother and giving a fatal wound to their father. 

Sokka willingly changed forms for the first time without the influence of the moon, and sunk his teeth to the man’s neck. 

Katara was safe. Dad, they had almost lost him, but he  was alive. But Gran-Gran was gone, and so was their loving Mom. The small family of five became a family of three, and the small tribe Akhtnut of the many scattered Southern Water Tribes was just… gone. They lost everybody else.

But it’ll be okay. With a heavy, grieving heart and people Sokka loves becoming just a part of the past, Sokka believes they’ll be one hundred percent okay in the future (they have to be okay-).

They have each other, and they were all alive and safe. 

So yes, Katara, we might not be okay now or tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow. But we will be someday, so keep moving forward and stop splashing me with your stupid magic water! 

~o~

Sokka has just turned eleven years old when Dad entered their tent with a grim expression on his face, before telling him that the a (stupid, stupid, so so so stupid) Tribal War will happen again in a few moons and unless he gives Katara’s hand in marriage, no tribe will take them in and call them family. Dad had been a chief back then (when everyone was still alive) and the fact that he was breathing and yet everybody else in their tribe was dead made him an incompetent coward. It didn’t matter that it was the stupid Northern Water Tribe fault for not sinking the banished (sick, sick, sick disgusting monster of a man) Northerner when they should have and instead, let him roam around to prey other children and slaughter innocents and- 

And it didn’t matter what really happened. Not to the people here. Most of the small tribes in the South Pole looked up and admired the Northern Water Tribe for being whole and complete, unlike the small, separated and scattered tribes that was once a whole Southern Water Tribe.

Not to mention, Sokka’s secret being a child of La becoming known to strangers and outsiders of their small family was too great of a risk to take. 

“No,” Sokka’s said, eyes sad but firm “I will not marry Katara off to some old coot because she’s a waterbender, or risk your life all because of a vague promise of becoming family with a tribe that will not accept us, and will most likely use us for the coming Tribal War.” 

Katara and Sokka were frightened, because they do agree with their father. Katara didn’t want to be married of and Sokka didn’t want an old coot marry his very little sister, and order his Dad around. But to become Nomads? The only Nomads are those who have been banished and exiled by their tribes for being criminals, or loners who crave the life of the cold and ice and no warmth of family. Having a tribe is important and if Dad really decides that they shouldn’t have tribes meant that… that they would be the same person as that MONSTER who kill ed everyone-

“Sokka,” their dad snaps, eyes sharp “tuck those fangs away, now.”

Sokka doesn’t want to, not if-

“Sokka,” his little sister says, tugging Sokka’s hair with tears in her baby blue eyes “Sokka please, listen to Dad” Katara pleads.

Sokka stops, realizing he was letting out a growl, his wolf ears were out, so were his claws and finned ears and blue corals, and his teeth were sharp and bared at Dad. He was threatening his Dad. Their Dad.

Sokka stops and stops the half-way morphing and the growling, and instead, looks down and feels cold.

What if Katara didn’t stop him? Would he have jumped at his own father and snap his neck like he had done to the monster-?

Whatever Sokka looked like was bad because Katara bursted into tears and Dad took both of them in his arms, consoling them both.

“Not all nomads are criminals, you silly children” their Dad chided, although his voice sounds wet “sometimes, tribes can be bad or the chiefs are too strict and mean, or maybe someone just wanted to travel around like a nomad of the Air Temples are.

We won’t be without a home, after all, we have each other remember? We are a family, and we give each other all the love and warmth we need. You guys are the most important to me, and I want nothing more than for you guys to be safe and happy.”

Katara hits him “stupid, stupid, stupid Sokka” she says, stuttering while still crying “stop being stupid and listen to Dad- and I told you before remember? You’re just stupid, not a monster.”

Sokka just cried, shoving a hand to Katara’s face and pushing it away from him “shut up”

“Listen to your sister Sokka, she’s right.” Dad says, gently as he rubs Sokka’s back.

There was a muffled ‘ ha !’ from Katara that just made Sokka growl a bit at Katara and snapped his teeth at her. She splashed water at him.

Dad sighed, exasperated, but he had a smile on his face.

“Children please-” 

~o~

Life as a nomad wasn’t so bad after all. 

Sokka is twelve and Katara had just turned eleven when they finally left (a long, arduous journey that was spent with being sleepless and nonstop running and maiming at anyone who chased them and tried to kill him and their dad just to get Katara) the South Pole and it’s cold waters (also narrowly avoiding being stuck as a nomad in a Tribal War) and also arrived in the Earth Kingdom. 

First thing first, it was hot. Too hot it made Sokka and Katara and their Dad shed most of their winter clothes. Sokka and Dad wore sleeveless shirts that exposed their arms and collars and it was awesome to learn that, no, in this place you don’t have to worry about losing limbs and freezing to death from the cold. Katara was enjoying the dress that stopped below her knees and the light leggings she had on. 

Second, everything in the Earth Kingdom (and everywhere else except for the North and South Poles) was filled with bright colors. Green, especially, was everywhere. The trees that had thicker trunks and branches, the bushes and shrubbery, and the grass that was just, everywhere.

Third, the Earth Kingdom, from what Dad had shown them in the map, was big. So big that most of it was unoccupied even though it was habitable! How crazy was that? Most of the reasons for the Tribal War was often because disputes of the habitable land in the South Pole. People of Tui and La aside, they were still warm-blooded mortals that could not just live on the dark, frigid hell areas in the South Pole. 

Fourth and the last, while Sokka wouldn’t be bothered by the zero-point cold waters at the pole for being a child of La, the warm climate and it’s warm waters felt pleasant to Sokka.

Sokka tried to not make it a habit and restrained himself, really, but the water just felt so warm and pleasant he couldn’t help but sneak away at night to enjoy to cool but still warm rivers. It had been moons since they were in Earth Kingdom and the times they met fellow travellers, Sokka could count it with one hand.

This night was not so different, and so when Dad and Katara had fallen asleep, Sokka snuck out and quick sped for the small river they came across, and jumped into it. Clothes be damned. 

He rose from the waters, and sighed into the evening night. The stars were bright and Tui’s light was still there despite La’s water being so little and warm here. Sokka flipped his tail over his scaled legs. His tail was a deep blue color with sharp fins. Sokka had the same sharp white fins on his arms. He had long and sharp black tipped claws. Located slightly above his dark blue finned ears were corals that grew out of his skull like sharp antlers. On top of his head, among the unbound hair, were two furred wolf ears. The same dark colored fur that run across his spine. 

From the times he glanced at a mirror and from Katara’s description, his eyes would change into a brighter blue color with slits for pupils whenever he was in this form. It also glowed whenever it was dark, so that was really cool. 

Sokka was relaxing.

That was a mistake (the whole sneaking out for a midnight bath was a mistake).

Interrupting him and his thoughts of when would they reach the nearest port to get some seal-jerky, was a high pitched voice with an airy, light and melodious accent, saying-

“Oh Spirits! You’re a Merwolf?” a bald kid shoves his face to Sokka’s, eyes wide and mouth open in a ‘ooh!’ “that’s so cool!”

Sokka frozed, heart momentarily stopping as the orange (the most annoying color that Sokka has come to know) clothed kid suddenly flips and then proceeds to break Sokka’s mind by hovering over the water.

“Hi!” the bald-kid says cheerfully “my name’s Aang! Wanna go find some horse-bear and ride them? We can race!” 

Sokka would forever deny this (just like he’d deny the times he cried in front of Katara) but he panicked, so he let out an ear-splitting shriek of “DAD!” 

~o~

Aang is nine years old when he finally becomes a Master Airbender (the youngest airbender to ever receive his airbending tattoos, ever) and was allowed by the elders of the temple to start his journey as a nomad monk by travelling around the world by himself. 

(a child airbending nomad by himself and that was allowed to roam around the continent without anyone by himself. an adult that volunteered to accompany him was shot down. the silent “finally you are out of our hair” that did not go unheard. the looks of relief of the nuns and monks he had passed by, the look of sadness in monk gyatso’s eyes… 

aang wasn’t stupid.

he wouldn’t begrudge them for it. despite their misgivings, they tried. aang had already long forgiven them.

...though, it didn’t stop him from feeling lonely, or lessen the hurt in him.)

He has been travelling around the Earth Kingdom for a year already when he stumbles upon a child of La in a small river at night. He immediately flew to the boy and introduced himself. 

Unfortunately, the merwolf didn’t seem to speak human language (but that’s okay! aang will just have to learn mermish or wolf-tongue), and only let out a shriek that was so high pitched if there were any human around, they would have bursted eardrums.

“DAD!”

Oh! Aang was wrong, the boy could talk to people talk too! But why he would say ‘dad’, Aang didn’t have an idea- 

“Sokka?!” a man that looked like the boy came bursting in from the bushes, with a very sharp weapon in his hand and a wild look in his eyes. 

Oh, so that was why he said that… wait, what?

Then the son of La pointed at Aang, causing the (Water Tribe) man to look at him.

Aang eeped , and immediately flew upwards and away from both father and son with raised hands. 

“Please don’t kill me!”

~o~

Long story short, that night ended in Sokka being scolded by his father while letting a STRANGER (who could fly, he could fly! Do all airbenders do that?) follow them back to camp, knowing Sokka’s most important and gravest of the grave secrets. 

“Aang, was it?” the bald headed kid nodded at Dad “my name is Hakoda, and this is Sokka. In that tent over there, is Katara, my daughter-” Sokka glared at his dad. Was there a need to point out where his sister is sleeping and what her name was, to a stranger that would be out of their lives soon? Preferably, without knowing Sokka’s secret? “now , I am assuming you are an airbender from the Air Temples?”

The kid smiled “Yup!”

“And,” at this, Dad looked hesitant and wary at the kid (Aang, his mind whispered which he ignored) “you saw my son’s… other form?”

Still smiling, the kid nodded “Yeah, I didn’t mean to disturb you or anything,” he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile “but I was a little too surprised to find a child of La in the middle of Earth Kingdom, in some small river” 

His father made a grave expression, one that looked the same as the night he told Sokka and Katara that they were leaving the South Pole. It made Sokka feel a little bit uneasy, more than the fact that Aang saw him and knew him for what he was.

(He’s a kid, a tinier one than Katara. Dad won’t hurt him.)

“Aang… if you know what he is, then that means you are probably aware of the dangers that come from being a child of the spirits?”

The smiling face was gone in an instant and the kid, Aang, looked at his dad seriously “I won’t breathe a word of Sokka’s secret to anyone else, Mister Hakoda, you have my word for it.” 

Dad sighed “I know you mean well Aang, but what if you tell someone else? What if you go back to your group and tell them about it, maybe not on purpose, but on accident? If not your guardian, then what if to someone else-”

“I won’t.” Aang says, firm. And woah, this little guy seemed a little bit cool? The way he said that, the way he held himself, tall and proud, despite being so short and tiny. “I told you Mister Hakoda, you have my word that your son’s secret is safe with me.”

Sokka was impressed (and he believed him).

And then suddenly Aang said this that made both Sokka and his Dad to double-take.

“Besides, I don’t have a group. Or a guardian as you say it, that I trust to tell his secret and keep it a secret. Gyatso’s the only one who would be cool with it and he’s back at the temple - not that I would tell him even if he was with me, because, you know. I promised? I really won’t-”

Sokka held a hand, shaking his head “wait, wait wait. Hold on,” Sokka looked at Aang, the bald, blue-tattoed (who would let a ten year old have tattoos?) big grey eyes that reminded him of the seal-pups at home “you- you were- you’re saying that, you don’t have a group?”

“Uh, yes?”

“No guardian?”

“No?”

“You, a ten year old, is in the middle of Earth Kingdom, without an adult? From what I remembered, the temple you’re from is, like, a thousand miles away from here.” Sokka says, arms flailing in the air because what? “why would, why would a kid like you be out on your own?”

Who was your parent (or this Gyatso) and where is he and how could he let a kid like you be on your own? Was what was running Sokka’s and most likely in Dad’s minds.

As if reading their thoughts, Aang quickly defended the (deadbeat, useless and irresponsible) Gyatso “-he’s not deadbeat, or useless, or even irresponsible!” face red, he defends hotly.

Oh wow, do airbenders have an ability that could read Sokka’s mind or something? If not, that was a very lucky guess, or Sokka’s face was just too easy to read.

“Besides, its not that he didn’t want to. In fact, he wanted to come with me! But the elders in the temple didn’t allow him because he was the appointed teacher for the newest batch of students and I couldn’t stay in the temple any longer for him. Also, I am plenty capable of looking after myself, I am a master airbender after all-”

Scratch that. There was no way in hell would they let Aang return. Nope.

Dad looked at Aang incredulously, not that Sokka could blame him. Sokka was also looking at Aang incredulously, and wondering if he could get away with drowning a couple old coots in Aang’s home. 

“They kicked you out?! How could they?” Uh oh, was what Sokka thought as all heads turned to a newly awakened, very grumpy-looking, and very angry Katara “Why would they do that to a kid?! I thought that monks and nuns are supposed to be peaceful and nice?!” 

Way to go, Aang. Setting off Katara’s sense of justice that would probably become some sort of a mission to either correct the injustice, or having vengeance. Either way, both sounds extremely troublesome. Especially when it is making Sokka consider in joining the crusade.

“They are!” Aang defends “they just don’t really like me!”

He didn’t have to look at Dad to know the man had already adopted Aang, and Sokka didn’t really mind it that much. It meant that they could keep a close eye on Aang, but nevermind that- 

Sokka is about to lose his mind.

“Why!” Katara screamed.

Aang did not scream back at Katara, as Sokka had thought he would. Instead, he turned to Sokka and gave him a confused look “Uh, don’t you know?”

“Why would I know?” he shouldn’t look at Sokka like that- he was the one who should look confused! Why on Tui and La’s love, would Sokka know the reason of  the people at the Air Temple being a jerk to Aang? The last time he checked, being a merwolf meant being part wolf and part fish, and none of that meant having abilities like, omnipotence or something.

Aang looked at them like they were the ones who was crazy.

“Uh, I’m also a child of a spirit-” what? “A dragonfly-faelf, to be more specific.” He smiled and looked at them nervously.

And then Aang’s form changes. It was unsubtle, unlike with Sokka, but still obvious that he wasn’t mortal. That the airbender child in front of them was also a child of spirits.   His ears were longer and pointier, elven sharp. His eyes had gone from grey to silver and gold. His blue tattoos colors became more bright and striking in color and hue (and it was only at this moment that Sokka noticed that Aang didn’t have an arrowhead tattoo on his head, he had them everywhere) in a whitish-cyan blue. On his back were dragonfly wings, a beautiful orange and yellow color with something gold dust, or what looked like glitter, in them. 

Katara gasps besides Sokka, while Dad was choking (not in a bad way, more in a, oh-spirits-is-this-really-happening-what-is-even-my-life kind of a thing, and kinda funny that Sokka would laugh about it later on). Sokka didn’t gasp or choke or say “comrade!” or anything. He just stared.

That’s another child of spirits, alright.

And then he saw it, felt it, and wow. No wonder Aang looked at him like he was crazy and stupid. How could Sokka not notice that?

(and he also looked like how Sokka looked at himself years ago before Katara knew about his fishy-furry secret, and oh, he understood now why Dad got sad and Katara got angry whenever he forgets and does that.)

“We can talk about this in the morning.” Dad says, seemingly calm, as he stares at all three of them (as if he wasn’t struggling picking up the pieces of his world being broken and remade) “Aang, you can join Katara and Sokka in that tent.”

Aang morphs back and nods- Wait, they only had two tents. And Katara being a daddy’s girl, had her turn last night. Which should mean that- 

“Why am I sharing a tent with Katara and Aang? Isn’t it my night to share with you?” Sokka says, indignant.

Dad gives him a dry look “rewarding you after I told you so many times, to be careful, and stop sneaking at midnight for you to swim around? I am glad that it was Aang who found you, son, but what if it wasn’t Aang? What if, next time you do that, it was someone else?”

He didn’t reply. He couldn’t. 

Dad sighs, putting a hand on Sokka’s head “don’t sulk, and no, I’m not angry. I’m just worried.” he ruffled Sokka’s hair “I want you safe son, but also happy. So next time you wanna go for a swim, ask us, okay? We’ll swim with you and keep a look out. Okay?”

“Okay, Dad.” Sokka says, and before he follows Katara and Aang (who were lingering, waiting for him) “ he gives his father a hug “thanksdadyoukindasmellbadgoodnight” 

Sokka runs off, dodging the swipe his father made at him.

Dad chuckles “brat.”

“Goodnight Dad,” Katara says as Sokka stops at her side. They both nudge the awkward and hesitating Aang.

“G-goodnight, Mister Hakoda.”

Dad smiles “it’s Uncle or Hakoda, Aang. Goodnight to you kids, you sleep well because we’ll have a long talk tomorrow.”

Aang didn’t look too excited about that. Something in that pale-face tightening and turning sad. 

“Oh, and Aang?”

Aang looked up from the ground, startled and nervous once again. Sokka and Katara shared a look, smiling.

“From now on, you’re adopted. Welcome to the family.” and with that, Dad disappeared into his tent, leaving a dumbfounded Aang and a snickering Sokka and Katara.

The way Dad had his exit was cool. Sokka’s Dad is really cool, period (unlike the stingy coots in Aang’s temple or back at the stupid tribes in the south pole).

“Welcome to the family, little brother” Sokka says, because ha! He gets two kids to order around now! Being the eldest really is the best, he thinks while smiling as he lets Katara drag the both of them into the tent.

“No more talking and focus on sleeping-” Katara sends him a sharp look “and you’re helping me cooking tomorrow”

Before Sokka can’t say, no, I’m not gonna help you cook because, a, I’m a man and you’re the girl. B is that, he sucks at cooking and often burns the meat down so no, I am not helping you cook, Katara, Aang interrupts.

“I’m a vegetarian.” 

And Katara goes and fusses over Aang who still looks lost and dumbfounded as he was earlier. Sokka just rolls his eyes and tells them off to stop talking and start sleeping, and then getting pinched by Katara. 

This starts a fight between the two of them. Pinching, pushing, pulling hair and insulting each other. Aang looks so confused, but it’ll be fine, Sokka and Katara will be there to teach him the ropes - 

“Oof.” 

Katara splashes him with water, again, and causes him to morph into his furry-fishy self. 

“Argh! Can you stop using your magic water? That’s cheating!”

“How is it cheating?” Katara replies “and it’s waterbending, you shrimp-head!”

He glares, raising his tail threateningly at her “do you see me smacking you with my tail? You don’t because I am such a nice big brother-” Katara snorts “to not smack my sister with my fishy tail, no matter how much I feel the urge to do so-”

“Um, hey” they both stopped and looked at Aang, looking smaller and tinier than what Sokka would have thought was possible “ah, I think I’m not going to leave tomorrow?”

Katara puts her hands down “you aren’t, as Dad says, you’re adopted now. But, but if you don’t want that, that’s fine” wow, Katara, as if you aren’t already attached to bald kid “you can leave, we won’t stop you”

Sokka corrects her “but only if you have someone to look after you. Because no matter what those old geezers in your temple would say, an airbending master doesn’t mean being an adult.”

Katara agrees with him “yeah Aang, you can go, but only if your Gyatso is there with you. It’s not safe for kids like us to be on our own, especially to kids like you and Sokka. People can be dangerous.”

They both did not mention the Northerner man.

Aang didn’t notice the tightness in Sokka’s jaw or the darkening look in Katara’s eyes. He just looked down, worried “but I don’t want you guys to be forced to be around me if you don’t want, I mean, it’s okay to leave me on my own, really. There’s nothing wrong with me being alone-”

Sokka interrupts “Uh, yeah there is. A hundred and ten percent wrong!” he shakes his head, now already in his mortal form “look, kids are kids no matter if they are half fishy, half wolf, or half elf and fly or whatever. You need someone to be with you until you’re like, twenty or something. Besides, who told you we were being forced?”

“What?” and Aang looks at him, really at him, like he was scared to believe what Sokka says but still hoping that yeah, it was true really really true.

“You need someone to look after you and to be with you, and you have us Now, a ten year old kid doesn’t have to be on his own in his travels. But does that mean the people around him doesn’t like it and hates him secretly?” Aang flinches “No! Wrong!”

“We like you Aang,” Katara says “and we want to be your friend.”

“Dad likes you too, he likes almost everyone except the old crooks back home and you’re not an old crook aren’t you?”

“Uh, no?” Aang says.

“No you aren’t.” Sokka agrees “so stop the-” he gestured something with his hands to Aang “ and just believe us when we say that, we like you, we wanna be your friends, and yeah, you’re stuck with us. Most likely for forever.”

Katara nods “welcome to the family Aang” and then watched as Aang stares at the both of them in disbelief, tears pooling at the corner of his eyes.

And before they knew it, Aang threw himself to them and hugged them, sniffling quietly and saying “thankyouthankyouthankyou”.

It takes a while but they do fall asleep. But before Sokka did, he makes a vow to not return Aang to the jerks at the temples. 

What he said earlier was the truth, Aang was stuck with them forever and Sokka would drown and tear apart anyone who wants to take Aang from them and keep him crying in the dark, always making sure he stifles any sounds he made that could be heard. 

And so after that, Sokka falls asleep, dreaming about a sea of seal-jerky.

~o~

Morning comes and it wasn’t quiet at all. They were greeted by Dad boisterously, before he proceeded to scold Sokka again, and then grounding him off for several days of cooking and sewing before making a promise of a swim. Aang, who had returned to being quiet, sad and afraid insecure faelf he was, got a head pat and had his clarification from Dad that “yeah, you’re my kid now” before telling him what they were doing, how the day will go and what their destination or if Aang has any ideas of where to go.

All in all, it was almost perfect day (if it weren’t for getting grounded).

~o~

Aang flies fast in his dragonfly-faelf form, like, really fast. So fast that even if he stays still in the air and hovers, you wouldn’t be able to see and count how fast his wings were fluttering. 

Oh, and he showed Sokka and Katara what a dragonfly was. Cool. He tries to explain the faelf thing, it was confusing so not cool.

And before Sokka forgets to mention it, Dad beat up some pirates and stole a couple waterbending scrolls for his sister and a couple of nice things for both Sokka (boomerang!)  and Aang (an airbender’s staff, why would pirates have an airbending staff? I am so going to tell Monk Gyatso about this!).

It was not even a year or so when they stumbled across another child of the spirits. Dad looks like he’s gonna go bald.

~o~

Toph even smaller and tinier than Aang, and she’s a couple month’s younger than Aang so she’s still nine. 

She has paler skin than Aang, like the china and ceramics they have in this land, and she has very long dark hair bundled up in these ridiculous big-buns. She wears very nice and very much expensive green Earth-Kingdom dress and she’s blind.

She still kickass people with her earthbending though.

Anyways, Toph’s another child of the spirits. They met her while Dad (and Sokka and the others tagging along without him knowing) was on a missing to ‘rescue’ her because according to her parents, she was kidnapped. She wasn’t. She had willingly ran from her parents when she approached them about learning to earthbend from a badgermole, of being able to see through her feet (Sokka doesn’t get about that yet) and of realizing she was a child of spirits. 

The first two were mistakes but the last one was something she shouldn’t have ever done. Her parents went crazy before deciding that Toph was possessed by a spirit and asked a ‘sage’ (a fake, liar, fraud! Aang had all but screamed, eyes angry and worried) who told them that to put Toph in a room of metal, cutting her connection to the earth. He had even dared suggesting to bind her feet. Toph of course, decided enough was enough and ran like sharkbears was right behind her. 

Long story short, they all kidnapped and adopted Toph in their tiny family and then proceeded to run  far, far, and far away from Gaoling and were on their way out to Earth Kingdom.

Oh, and if Sokka thought that Katara was scary when she was angry, Toph was a literal hell-gremlin child alive that was angrier, louder and bossier than Katara ever was while at the same time, being so clueless and ignorant of anything new she came across of.

~o~ 

The next two years was a blur of running around the Fire Nation and avoiding bounty hunters that targeted at his Dad for being a (kidnapper). 

And then Aang came across a Fire Nation Princess in his dragonfly-faelf form. 

The next year was spent with avoiding and running away from the Fire Nation, and then the Earth Kingdom and then the Water Tribe and eventually the Air Temples. It was exhausting.

Aang had felt so terrible and guilty he proposed that he’d just give himself up so the rest of them could live in peace (“-I was the one who caused this, Katara, if I hadn’t been so stupid-”) and when Dad said no child (as he should!) Aang proceeds to turn himself in and gets himself captured and locked up to be tortured and experimented or whatever these ashmakers are planning to do-

And in the midst of panic and scrambling around, Aang returns safe and sound with a guy that was a taller than Sokka by an inch or two, with two swords he would come to learn later are called dao, on his back with clothes covering every inch of his body. Any normalcy (or as one would attempt to while being dressed as some masked ninja) ends there. Instead of human feet covered in boots, he had scaled feet of any fowl species with giant talons that… had blood on them (okay, good to know he attempted, or did, murder for Aang, okay, cool, cool cool-). And remember when Sokka said ‘return’? He meant Aang returned by flying back to the camp, a little bruised and tired, with the guy also flying with him. Except unlike the orange-yellow dragonfly wings with glitter on them that Aang has, the guy had feathered wings of three pairs on each side of his back. A large feathered scaled-lion tail found located just under the third pair of wings, which was by his tailbone. He had a blue kabuki mask on, and above that were long and sharp and dark horns. 

Sokka, with his fur and fish scales, was all dark and blue and a little bit of white. This guy with his horn and feathers, was all  vibrant red, orange, yellow, and gold. He looked like he was the personification of fire. Colorful and dangerous. 

Huh.

When he hands the exhausted Aang to the extremely worried Katara and very feisty Toph and protective Hakoda, he does not back down. Not when Katara has her guard up, the cap of her water pouch open with some leftover water, perfect to use for an attack as she focused checking up on Aang. Toph, in her dryad-elf form of long, pointy elven eared girl with long green hair that became stalks at the ends, and her eyes looking like the abyss, snarling at the newcomer. Dad who had his weapon out, standing before them and though he didn’t look like he was going to attack, he was prepared to if the guy made one wrong move.

And Sokka? Sokka was at the very back, in his fur and scales, sitting with his legs open. The coral-antlers directed at the newcomer, ear’s flickered in every direction, while Sokka’s tail was poised up and hovering over him. He had his claws on the ground, and though Sokka looked like he was lounging, he was all too prepared to just, jump up like how a rabitroo would and smack the guy with his tail (not only was his fish tail very strong and making him a agile and fast swimmer, it delivered very great smacks too!) and then proceeding to pinning him to the ground with his webbed, clawed feet.

The guy didn’t react at all, though (shame) and merely handed a slip of paper to Dad, before flying off. 

Seeing him not once returning, or going back to the direction where the Fire Nation was, the others returned to fuss and scold Aang. Sokka’s however, couldn’t remove his eyes from the sky.

The wings were really pretty, he thinks, before he was smacked by Katara’s water and thus, forced to move his attention away from the dark sky. 

“Now that the others had their piece, it’s my turn now” he gives a not so nice smile at Aang, who had the balls to still smile sheepishly at him, oh no Aangy , not this time “Aang.”

Aang prepares himself.

“ What the absolute fuck-” 

~o~

The paper tells them to find a white lotus tile in a teashop in Ba Sing Se, but to first go to Aang’s temple to ask for directions of a teashop.

They did, and it turned out the monk who would give them directions was Aang’s pseudo-dad and teacher, Monk Gyatso. Everybody looks at Aang (causing everybody in the family to be all bristled and grizzly) with wary eyes and fear. Not quite hate, but they don’t look warm and nice, and are all too eager to see a wayward child of theirs gone after years of never appearing.

Sokka remembers his vow the night he met Aang, and this day will serve as a reminder to keep it.

Anyways, Monk Gyatso was actually cool, and he certainly loves Aang. he and Aang played go, and then had a philosophical discussion, of Aang telling all the troubles they had, of Gyatso complaining about the elders, and then of bonding and all with the whole team before he hands them a paper that was a coupon.

‘Jasmine Dragon’ in Ba Sing Se. 

And then as they were about to leave, he gives his late birthday gift to Aang - which was Aang’s flying bison, all giant and full grown, Appa. 

Sokka changes his mind about Monk Gyatso being cool when he finds out they had to go to the Northern Water Tribe for some kind of package in need of delivering. Aang had insisted on it and so the family resigned themselves because Aang’s seal-pup’s eyes were no joke, and Katara was lethal now with her magic water, Toph was already dangerous with her bending already, while Dad and Sokka are all too willing to run distractions with smiling and talking to protect the others.

Remember Sokka’s words about being the eldest is awesome? That was a lie. Being the eldest meant becoming responsible in making sure the children don’t get themselves in trouble, and knowing Aang alone all too willing to walk into danger and try hug it, Sokka was going to need more than luck. 

Pity that Dad wouldn’t agree in just leashing the others. 

~o~

Flying on a bison was awesome. It’s been years since he last flew on a bison, and it’s been years since he saw Appa, who had been tiny back then. At least now they were reunited again.

Also, Aang was glad that the others were okay with going for a short trip to the Northern Water Tribe. He knows all too well that Uncle and Sokka and Katara are not one hundred percent okay and comfortable with it, and that was why Aang was so grateful and determined to make sure the trip is safe and ends as quick as it could. He’s not sure about Toph, because while being a dryad-elf, meant she didn’t need to stay in her tree (she doesn’t have a tree) because her tree was the earth itself, but to go into the north pole? There was no way Aang and the others could let her come and endanger herself. They’ll have to find a way to convince her to stay, and if not, find a way to contain her and ditch her before returnig for her with a thousand gifts and a million apologies.

~o~

Toph already knows what the others are thinking, what Twinkletoes was scheming, and ha! Jokes on them, she’s already bailing out on this trip. She remembered walking on Katara’s snowground she made back then and she never wants to do that ever again. A land full of snow, ice and nothing but the cold? She’s out, and she’s pretty sure crossing the oceans would mean certain death for her, so, yeah, no.

It’s kinda a bummer she wouldn’t get to come to the north with the others, but if there’s one thing that she’s learned about them throughout the years, it was that they were stuck with each other for good and they’ll return for her as soon as they were done. That and they had plenty of adventures with them and more new exciting ones that would soon come after they came back.

So yeah, she’ll behave and listen to them and wait it out (even though Toph’s gonna be go crazy from waiting). For now, she’s gonna keep quiet and make them lose their minds thinking of ways to talk to her, maybe throw a little comment and tantrum here and there. 

“Ugh” and then she’s back to puking her guts out at Appa’s side.

Even without the North Pole not being, well, the North Pole, and Toph being a dryad elf who will certainly die if her connection to the earth is cut longer than what is should, she was already dying from this stupid flying on top of Aang’s crazy pet bison.

~o~

Katara would get mad about the last one but Aang’s sure she’ll agree. Toph was being crazy!

Oh, not to mention, Monk Gyatso was being so mysterious. From all the proverbs he had been using the whole time, Aang caught them. The short trip to north was much more than a package. He wasn’t sure what and when he tried to explain it to the others, they didn’t get it either. 

And they were pretty sure the package was just that, a package- 

“Who ate my seal jerky?!” Sokka yelled, dodging the half-hearted kick from the sick Toph as he rummaged through the bag.

Katara didn’t look up from sewing the clothes.

“Who ate all of the seal jerky?!” 

Aang didn’t have to look at Katara to know she’s rolling her eyes “I don’t know Sokka, perhaps the person who likes to sneak around the camp at midnight and keeps snacking on our food?” 

Sokka denies this, of course. Sokka denies a lot of things, and this, Sokka also denies. Aang wonders how far will Sokka deny the truth and at what point will he admit to it? Scary.

“-I didn’t! And Ah!” Aang winces at Sokka’s high pitched shrill “and our food! Who ate our food!”

“What?”

“The food bag!” Everybody (except for Toph, of course, who couldn’t be bothered with her flysickness) looks at Sokka, who has the sack of foodbag in his hands, empty and turned inside-out “it’s all gone!” 

“Sokka…!”

Aang sweatdrops at the sheer bloodthirst flowing out of Katara.

“I didn’t eat it! Not all of it!” Sokka swears, holding his hands in the air “I’m innocent Katara!” 

Thankfully, Uncle Hakoda manages to interrupt just in time to save Sokka from being skewered by Katara by clearing his throat.

“Katara, sweetheart, don’t kill your brother. He didn’t touch any of the food-”

“Ha!” 

“-and I believe the one I’m holding is the culprit.” 

Aang looks at what Uncle Hakoda is holding and immediately recognizes the sneaky, thieving little glutton of a flying lemur.

“Momo!” 

~o~

They stop at Kiyoshi Island to restock. Aang spends most of it riding the giant koifish and flying away once the Unagi swims close, Katara screaming her head off whenever Aang is about to be Unagi-dinner and then training her already too-lethal waterbending skills, Toph kissing the ground and declaring she’s not leaving the island, Sokka playing tonsil-hockey with Suki and lastly, Uncle Hakoda playing the adult he is and the group all needs, and restocks their food supplies, and more.

It’s a week and half later that they finally leave the island (without Toph, and yeah it feels too wrong to leave her behind, but they’d be coming back for her as soon as they’re done with the frigid north). Sokka’s newly single status causes him to mope and sulk for two months that he soon snaps out of when he realizes they were entering the North Pole waters.

He makes promises and swears he’s moved on, when he really isn’t. Or at least, not yet done in coming to terms that Suki didn’t feel the same for him anymore. But they were soon in enemy territory, and Sokka needs his head clear and straight. 

He can’t afford any distractions now.

~o~

The Northern Water Tribe is what they’ve expected and more, because it didn’t look like a tribe at all. Heck, the Chief’s daughter is called a ‘Princess’ even. 

News flash - Katara hates it. Hates everything in this strong, powerful and united tribe with it’s sexist culture, the misogynistic men in power, and the frail and obedient women that keep their head down. 

(she does not mention of the most grave sin they’ve committed to them, of how they released a savage man, a monster, from the rightful punishment, death, all because his pretty mother batted her eyelashes at the jury. sokka does not need to know how katara knows this, he doesn’t care and all he could think of was his whole tribe was dead, and because of what? because of this? their mother and grandmother died because of this pitiful excuse of a tribe? this was no tribe, not a home at all.)

Sokka? Sokka smiles and laughs and jokes around, but the truth was that he wants to tear down this perfect icy walls and just, drown everyone in their own blood. 

This was the Northern Water Tribe that everyone at the South Pole had looked up and admired to? Pathetic. The people here concerned themselves with matters that shouldn’t even matter to a Water Tribe, making a fuss of something that a child from the South wouldn’t even give a second glance at, and they made everything a big deal, and stretch that to have a hold over that person. 

It’s sickening, especially what they’ve been doing to Yue, daughter of Tui. 

A tundra sea-serpent, Yue is always to be found dressed in the most beautiful and luxurious coats and dresses that flattered her curves and form. Her long silky white hair tied up in elaborate hairstyles and decorated with fancy-ass jewelry. Silver snake eyes with dark kohl to flatter her eye color. Lips painted blue. 

She’s always at her palace, separated from her people with a one-way ice glass where she is paraded and displayed in her long white scaled tail, white fish ears and white coral antlers the same as Sokka had, like an animal in a zoo. 

It makes Sokka grit his teeth, dig his claws in his hand, and wish that he could just rampage and drown everyone in their blood without worrying the consenquences. 

He didn’t. 

Yue looks up and those snake eyes meets his, and though the Chief told them it was a one way glass, Sokka feels seen.

He turns away.

~o~

“Son of La” Yue greets, slinking up to him gracefully in her other form, looking as pretty and delicate a daughter of moon could be.

“Tui’s daughter,” he doesn’t bow (why would he? this was a fellow sibling, and a   sibling of the lover of sokka’s father, so he needs not to bow to her). He is still in his human form “what bring you here late at night when good nights like you should have been already be sleeping?”

The smile doesn’t fall, but it does wave as her eyes looked surprised at the not friendly greeting he gave her.   

“It is full moon tonight, I couldn’t sleep.” 

Sokka hums, knowing that it wasn’t easy to sleep at nights like this with La being so close and Tui beckoning him to gently, but persistently. 

“I was also wondering why you have not revealed yourselves to the others” she admits, hesitant.

“Why should we?” Sokka says, tone nonchalant and his hands crossed behind his head as he walks forward, but his eyes are sharp and Yue caught his gaze. She leans back away from him, and Sokka can’t help but curl his lip from it. “We don’t have an obligation to do so.” 

“But they will love you, after all, a son of La will be called a hero. And a son of another spirit will be called a friend.” 

Sokka deadpans “I don’t want to be a hero, and if it takes revealing his identity for Aang to be seen as a friend, then he won’t want it either” nor does he ever need to, Aang after all, has everything he needs. He has friends and family. 

Unlike Princess Yue, who has no one. 

“I feel sleepy, I’ll head back to rest now. Goodnight Princess-” a scaled, but perfectly trimmed hand stops him.

“You, you don’t feel their call?” 

Sokka turns back to the daughter of La, looking at him confused “is it because you are a son of La, that you can fall asleep and walk around without feeling the need to dive and-”

“I feel Tui’s call every night, Yue. I also hear La crooning from me to come to him even when I am in the air, or in the middle of nowhere, in broad daylight.” Sokka sighs, and shifts to his other form in front of Yue “tell me, what do you see?”

Yue stares at him, eyes wide and in awe at Sokka’s form. 

“A merwolf!” 

Sokka shakes his head “no, that not it.”

She furrows her eyebrows at him “what? But, but you are one-”

Sokka let’s a frustrated growl slip past him, his tail thumping down the ice a bit too aggressively. 

“You don’t get it, do you?” and Sokka steps forward, leans to Yue’s face, stepping more closer and into her space, and growls “how about I tell you what I see? I see a daughter of Tui, a fellow child of spirits, and despite being comfortable in her other skin to show other people of it, you are soft and weak. Instead of a daughter of Tui, I see a china porcelain doll in Earth Kingdom. A declawed beast that was dressed in silks. A daughter who lets herself be gawked and touched and led around by mortal men because of human construct such as gender norms. It sickens me.” 

Yue is pale-faced and her eyes are wide not in awe, but of fear.

“A daughter of Tui should not be like this - it is you who does not hear their calls. You’ve denied yourself of your identity and allow them to put you on a leash and treat you as their songbird.” Sokka shakes his head, ignoring his fellow spirit-sister’s pleas for him to stop “Tui is no gentle woman, she is no kind mother. La is the sea, the water that gives death just as much it gives life, and he is short of temper and shorter of patience. He lashes out, and he brings death. Tui? Tui is the one who pulls La, and at the same time, pushes him. She is there every dark night, watching any horror that happens in darkness, and she does not move and she does not turn to regret. She does not feel anything but her want and her need to see and know. She is someone that La both loves and hates, she is the Great Spirit of the Moon that La the Great Spirit of Seas, fear. She is the woman who drags a man who hates and fears her, back in her embrace.”

Tui’s light is brighter than ever on them, and when Yue looks up (she hadn’t even noticed she was on the ground, how could she not notice when she fell? why couldn’t she find the strength to get up and refute everything the, the outsider has said. he clearly was mocking her from the very beginning why did she not stop it? worse, why was she even listening to what he was saying? he knew nothing of yue-) she sees Tui’s  love and pride for Sokka. Yue hears La gentle humming. She sees their love for the southern child of spirits, something they’ve never bestowed on her.

She has always felt cold, it is the north pole after all, but this is the first time that Yue has been wrong. Throughout the years, she had smiled and bared with the cold. Now? She can’t help but shiver as Sokka turned and walked away, smoothly morphing back into a human without faltering in his steps. 

All this time, Yue had been alone. 

~o~

“Where have you been? Dad’s been looking for you, and he’s close to losing his head-”

“I’m Katara, just a headache. Can you tell Dad I’m fine and all tucked in?”

“I’m not your messanger. And you didn’t tell me where you went.”

“I had a run-in with the princess.”

“Ha, princess. That’s ridiculous. Anyway, yeah okay. So how it went? You two good?”

“Nope, she’s disappointing despite being Tui’s daughter. She’s all soft and wide-eyed like a baby.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, kinda makes me sick.” 

“You mean definitely sick. My skin crawled earlier how she was being treated like a exotic animal in a zoo by her own tribe." Katara shuddered in disgust, "You go rest now, I’ll go and handle Dad for you.”

“Thanks sis,”

“No problem, just stop sneaking around for snack at midnight.”

“Ugh!”

~o~