isolated,, sokka

i.

zhavia's eyes shot open, her back straightening as anxiety coursed through her body. it was still dark out, the faint glow from the sun peeking through the sky. a cold sweat swept over her forehead, and she wiped it with the sleeve of her shirt before glancing around appa's saddle. none of the others had woken up, and she figured it was because it was probably sometime during the middle of the night.

she rubbed her eyes a bit, trying to rid herself of the tiredness she felt as she blinked  for a few seconds. sure, zhavia was exhausted, but she couldn't bring herself to go back to sleep. she hadn't told the others of her on and off nightmares, not wanting to burden them with her problems.

it had been around a week since the events at the northern water tribe, and zhavia was still plagued with nightmares of her father's body being pulled away.  sure, he hadn't been the most supportive, or overall good parent, but now she felt absolutely alone.

what could she do once aang's journey was over? she didn't have her family to go back to anymore. the only parental figure she had left was zaia, who was already getting old and who had already retired as the position of the young firebender's handmaiden, so she held no obligation towards the young girl.

and thoughts like that turned into worries coursing her brain whenever she closed her eyes, which was the reason of her continuous exhaustion.

a hand grabbed gently onto her forearm, and she glanced down to see a fully asleep sokka moving closer to her side. a ghost of a smile formed on her half asleep lips at the contact, her arm sizzling in pleasure from his body heat. it was a nice contrast from the cold sky, them being in such high altitude brought a lower heat temperature than she was comfortable with. it was still better than the pure coldness of the northern water tribe, and her body was slowly adjusting to the nights spent on appa over being in a warm tent on some unoccupied area of land.

a small yawn left her lips as she glanced back out of appa's saddle and watched the rising sun. she felt a warm rush of energy course through her body at the full sight of the bright star, it was now day and she felt her bending strength return to normal after the night.

a few hours later, everyone had woken up and prepared to land for the morning. aang and katara were both flying appa, discussing things with hushed whispers seeing as sokka was half-asleep against the side of appa's saddle as he looked through the fishing supplies, and zhavia was quiet and reading through some scrolls.

"this would be the perfect day for some waterbending practice," katara grinned cheerfully, and zhavia didn't understand how she had that much energy to produce such a toothy smile, "right, aang?" she asked the airbender, who nodded a few times cheerfully from his spot on appa's head.

"yay," sokka mumbled enthusiastically as he worked on untying a fishing line, "we get to do nothing for hours while those two soak us." he directed his last statement towards zhavia, who was laying on her back and holding up one of the waterbending scrolls master pakku supplied aang with before they left the north pole.

zhavia shook her head with an amused smile playing on her lips as she looked over to sokka, "we could always spar." she suggested, "i mean, you could always use the practice." she teased, a smirk hinting on the corners of her lips as he glared towards her.

"you're on." sokka raised his eyebrows playfully, and zhavia laughed. she figured there was a pretty good chance she could take him down, but she hadn't sparred without her bending since before she joined aang and the others.

she was about to reply again before a yawn left her mouth, probably her fifth yawn in the last few minutes, which didn't go unnoticed by sokka.

"tired?" he asked, knowing her sleeping habits hadn't been the most reliable in the past week, even if he hadn't directly commented on his noticing.