Chapter IV
As it happened, Sokka actually was next to be caught in the mistletoe's creeping tangle of green leaves and white berries. It happened mere hours later. After they had repaired the ceiling vent to the best of their non-bending capabilities Suki had left, "To knock some sense into that insubordinate, hyperactive ball of pink." She gave her boyfriend explicit orders to stay put and keep himself busy, telling him that it was Kyoshi warrior business, and that he as a man had no part in it.
Sokka really, really wanted a part of it.
Even as a boy it had been hard for him to stay indoors, especially when he knew something much more exciting was going on outside. Only now what had once been Fire Nation raids or Water Tribe war preparations was even the slightest possibility of steamy Kyoshi corporal-sapphic punishment, and that just made it worse.
He tried, really. But after about half a candle—which, in his opinion, was all the waiting a red-blooded water tribesman could realistically be expected to wait in this situation—he was on the edge of the bamboo mats, the head of a walrus yak pelt next to his knees and his fingers furiously working up the laces on his boots.
The outer pelt flap swished, and he jumped straight out of his boots as if burned.
"I wasn't getting ready to go outside and find you two, I swear!"
After a pregnant pause, Mai's dry voice called back from the entrance tunnel. "Do I even want to know?"
Sokka sagged with relief, and went back to his boots. "It's probably best that you don't."
He heard her trudging up the tunnel, seemingly alone. "It doesn't have anything to do with the snow tumor growing on top of igloo, does it?"
"Igluvijaq," Sokka corrected absentmindedly, "and sort of. I kinda fell through the roof earlier today. Again, best you don't know."
"Ashes, you're more of a spaz then Ty Lee."
The laces dropped out of his fingers, and he fumbled to grab them again. "Yeah, speaking of Ty...", a lump rose in his throat, and he swallowed it down, coercing his voice to sound innocent. "Ty Lee, any idea where she might be at?"
If Mai was suspicious, she didn't sound like it. "She ditched out on our lesson five minutes in. Then your dad came and asked to borrow zuko for a moment—something about a trade treaty or whatever—and I haven't seen them since. Had to deal with twenty little Tom-toms entirely on my own for the whole lesson."
Even rushing as he was, sokka paused to wince. "Ugh. Let me guess, bathroom breaks?"
Mai just leaned against the archway and sniffed.
There. Finally. With his boots on and fingers appropriately mittened, Sokka leapt to his feet. "
"Okay well I'd love to stay and chat but—"
"I really don't care." Mai interrupted, "Though aren't you forgetting something?"
Dangling above her, above him, above both of them, the mistletoe taunted.
Sokka's gut reaction was a sharp bark of laughter. "Good one, Mai."
Face impassive, she advanced. "Do I sound like I'm joking?"
"Whoa, hey hey hey!" Sokka backpeddled, first stumbling over the bamboo mats, then nearly tripping over the stones that lined the central hearth. He swallowed heavily, that lump in his throat rising again, but for a very different reason. "Wha, we're in relationships! With other people!"
"That doesn't change the rules." He could swear she was taunting him, he just knew it. "Besides, that didn't seem to stop Ty Lee." At least he hoped that smoky, husky voice she was using was her taunting tone, and not indicative of something else.
"What if Zuko found out?"
Mai hummed. Actually hummed. "That would be pretty interesting, wouldn't it?"
He was up against the wall, suddenly wishing he could melt like the ice he had his back to.
"So," She spoke in a voice like black velvet, and it rolled over him with a dark, cruel warmth. This time when Sokka swallowed, the lump stayed. "Are you going to man up and kiss me, or what?"
"Uh, um...ahem. That is, ah." feeling very little like he was 'manning up', as she put it, Sokka screwed his eyes shut and puckered up.
She snorted, and when he opened his eyes she was half way across the room, heading for the hearth. "Whatever. I'm bored now."
"W-what?"
"I said I'm bored. Means I'm not going to kiss you, Water Tribe."
"O-oh." Heart still hammering against his ribcage like a rabid polar bear dog, Sokka wasn't sure if he was relieved, disappointed, or what. All his emotions were swirling around at once, and it was really hard to pick one out of the crowd. Except confusion. He was definitely confused. "Okay then?"
She regarded him out of the corner of her eye, apparently finding it too troublesome to turn her head fully. "Weren't you going to do something?"
As if released from a spell, Sokka started and peeled himself from the wall. Saying a lot of things that might have once been words, he made a beeline for the entrance tunnel.
He made it back beneath the mistletoe before she called out again.
"Sokka."
He turned, his body still two steps ahead of his brain. A sudden flick of her arm, and a blur of metal rocketed towards him. With a yelp sokka shot a mittened hand up to check his cheek, covering the whisper-shallow, two-inch cut that suddenly bloomed there.
The Kunai quivered in the ice next to his ear, ebony lipstick accenting one side of it's polished steel blade.
"Happy holidays."
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