"You're still up?" Sokka held up his small lantern, gazing down at F/N with a concerned expression. "Are you going to be alright?"
F/N squinted from the light, having only had the glowing embers of a dying fire as light for the past few hours. Sokka had apparently gotten up to go to the bathroom, and on the way back to his room, found F/N staring blankly at the fire pit outside.
"He just makes me nervous." She said simply, pulling her thin blanket closer around her shoulders, adjusting her mask farther up her nose. "The prospect of him being close doesn't sit well anymore. I have no control anymore, I just see him once, and I get scared. It's exhausting."
"Well, that's understandable." Sokka grunted as he sat down next to her, against the half broken wall F/N leaned against. "Imagining seeing the person who killed you again, I would be scared too."
"But I'm not Y/N anymore, I shouldn't be afraid of him. I could've killed him right then-"
"That's the thing, F/N, Y/N could've ended his life in an instant." Sokka threw a few more sticks into the embers, causing small flames to rise up as he extinguished his lantern. He paused for a moment, thinking. He spoke after a short minute of silence.
"The thing is, F/N, you're losing yourself. Because as much as you'll try to escape her, my sister won't just lay down and die like that." He spoke softly, making sure to meet her eyes. "F/N is weaker, and she crumbles when Y/N sees a point where she needs to step in."
"F/N is NOT weaker." F/N retorted. "She doesn't react to the tiny, insignificant things, she isn't all emotional-"
"F/N is scared." Sokka interrupted firmly. "She's scared of Y/N, and what she can do. She's scared of being broken again." He tapped a stick to her forehead, nodding at her fractured eyes. "F/N isn't strong, she's hiding."
"What are you suggesting??" F/N slapped away the stick angrily. "That Y/N comes back, snaps the Avatar in half, and gets herself killed?"
"I'm asking F/N and Y/N to push their love, fear, and brokenness aside, and answer me honestly, as my twin sister." Sokka threw the stick into the fire. "If Zuko ends up being our only hope, our only option for Aang, could you accept him into the group? I'm not saying just let him travel with us. Could he ever be part of the Gaang, you know?"
"You've been staying up thinking, haven't you?"
"You didn't answer my question."
"Fine, to put it simply, yes, I could." F/N studied him closely. "But I hope you'll understand this."
"Yes?"
"I can't be Y/N around him ever again." F/N spoke simply, and to the point. Sokka bit his lip, poking at the small fire with his foot.
"And I hope you'll understand two things,.." he muttered quietly, waiting until F/N met his eyes again.
"I don't want you to be the old Y/N ever again, F/N. We change. I have, Katara has, Aang has, and if nothing changed, you wouldn't be my sister. The second thing you must know? You will be Y/N around him again. F/N can't stop her. You and I both know Y/N still loves him."
"No, you don't understand, he needs to move on-"
"And it was clear from yesterday that that won't happen. Sure, he's gonna find more girls out there, but they'll never be enough. They can't fill the hole you left behind. I'm not happy about what he's done, to all of us, but I'm not blind, and I don't control the universe. No girl can replace my sister, got that?" Sokka took one of F/N's gloved hands, cupping it in both of his.
"And what if the new Y/N isn't enough either?" F/N asked in a strangled voice.
"Y/N, you will always be enough. Hear me? You are enough, always will be. Back at home we never told you that, and I wish every day I could go back and smack myself for how much I took you for granted." Sokka spoke in an urgent voice, his tone rising from their low whisper.
"Y/N could never fill mother's shoes back at home." F/N whispered quietly.
"No, she couldn't, but she was the best sibling I could've asked for. You're not mom, and I never want you to be, but whenever I think of her, caring for us, all I see if your face. You were there, always."
Sokka let go of F/N's hand, and she let it fall into her lap, a whirlwind of emotions building up in her throat.
"Katara is in a lot of pain right now." He lowered his voice again, staring at the fire. "She needs rest, something to reconcile for what she's lost. You know she was never one for change, I mean, none of us were, but her in particular. She needs to come to a conclusion with herself, and we just need to be supportive, as we're all figuring this out."
F/N nodded, silently poking at the fire with a long thin stick, watching the end catch fire, starting to creep up towards her hand.
"Thank you, Sokka." She mumbled. "I don't know what we'd do without you."
—| § ථ § |—
"Guys!" F/N and Sokka woke up with a start from snoozing against the wall. They jumped up, running to Toph, who was crawling on the ground from a tunnel she'd made.
"My feet got burned!" She spoke with a tiny bit of panic, understandably, as her main way of seeing was now cut off.
"Oh no! What happened?" Katara exclaimed, running up and immediately taking out water, healing her feet the best she could.
"I just said," Toph said sassily. "My feet got burned."
"More details?" Sokka asked, helping her up and to the foundation, sitting her on the side and letting her feet dip in the water.
"Well, I kinda went to see Zuko last night," she said hesitantly. "It was kind of an accident."
"It's alright, Katara can get you fixed up. Here, the others went for a supply run and got fresh vegetables and meats yesterday." F/N dug through one of their bags. "You can tell us while we make some breakfast."
"I knew it! Zuko is dangerous, we can't trust him." Katara spat. "If he even considers stepping foot near us again I'll-"
"Geez, Katara, have a carrot, calm yourself." F/N handed her a random carrot, leaving her staring at it in confusion as F/N went back over to the fire pit, trying to stoke the flames back up.
"Why-" the rest of her words were cut off and drowned out by an ear splitting explosion, making the ground under them shudder and crack. Part of the ceiling fell, nearly crushing F/N as she rolled out of the way.
"Get to cover!" she yelled, quickly picking up Toph and ducking behind a large pillar with Sokka.
"What's going on?" She yelled over a second explosion, seemingly farther away.
"Sparky Sparky Boom Man!" Sokka exclaimed, and F/N snorted despite his serious tone. She gently set Toph down, peering around the pillar to look.
"We're lucky he didn't hit us directly with his first shot, he was at the perfect angle to take us out, and we didn't even see it coming." She hissed quickly, moving aside to let Sokka take a quick look. "If we don't take him out soon, this entire place is coming down on us."
"That's cause we've got more company! Go go! While he's distracted, we need to meet with Katara and Aang." Sokka pulled F/N along. F/N barely had time to pick up Toph, and right before they got behind another pillar, she saw it.
Zuko was on the giant man's shoulders, attempting to wrap his arms around his neck and strangle him. It was working, if only a little, and Combustion Man stumbled back from the edge.
Then they were behind the other pillar with Aang and Katara, right as a faint crash could be heard. F/N winced, knowing he had just used his back to slam Zuko into the wall behind them.
"Is he mental? He's going to die!" She yelled, setting Toph down again an stepping out from her hiding place, only to be pulled back.
"What are you doing?" Sokka's words were barely audible over an explosion from Zuko's direction above them.
"Saving our firebender." F/N ripped her arm from his grasp, running out onto the edge of the platform. Combustion Man was aiming right at Zuko.
She spun one of her shurikens, throwing it with all her might at the shelf above. She yanked, hard, and the spikes got wedged in between two large rocks. Praying it would be enough, she jumped, just as the explosion rang in her ears, Zuko flying off the edge of the platform.
There was a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach as she fell, then the string tightened, swinging her forward, hand reaching out.
And catching his hand.