Sokka smiled mechanically at his sister and made a terrible joke over dinner - it didn't even make sense, he was pretty sure, but they didn't call him on it - and held it together until he was lying in his bedroll, the only one still awake.

He shifted onto his side carefully, swallowing a whine, and unwound the cloth around his wrist, looking at the newly-bloomed soulmark there; it was bright and unmistakable, even in the faint starlight, deep red and in the shape of a coiled dragon with fangs bared.

He knew who it was, of course - he had only touched one person today that he never had before - but he never could have imagined- "How could it be you?" he asked softly, wrapping his hand around his wrist, hiding away the soulmark, his stomach twisting in sickening knots.