A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I have a hard time coming up with pairings to write for. Anyways, Mai/Sokka is one of the ships I recently have come to really like. So, hopefully someone will enjoy my take on them. My next drabble will be Kya/Lin.
6. Silence
Mai had never asked for silence more than she did right now. She had always hated the loud talking in the cafeteria and the annoying sound of people chewing their food. But she hated the scraping of chairs on the ground even more. It always made chills run down her arms when she heard it and put her on edge for the remainder of lunch. Today was even worse, as the one sound she hated more than anything had drowned out the rest of the noises, even the scraping of the chairs. The source and name of the noise? Sokka, a fellow classmate, who happened to be the most irritating person in the world. He was the owner of the loudest, most whiniest sounding voice she had ever had the displeasure of hearing. She gripped her fork tighter in her hand as she turned discreetly to look at him.
Sure enough, there he was, surrounded by his friends and sister. He looked the same; disgustingly colorful and in high spirits. He was leaning back in his chair, his hands behind his head and a look of complete ease on his face. Gross. The new boy, Aang kept laughing at what he was saying and his sister was rolling her eyes, the blind girl, Toph was eating and paying no attention to him. There was no sign of Suki. Good. They all looked so sickeningly happy. It was disgusting. What did they have to be so happy about? A voice in the back of her head told her that she sounded jealous. She ignored it as she always did. She wasn't jealous. She had her family, as distant and cool as they were, and she had her friends; Ty Lee and Azula. Well, Ty Lee mainly. Azula had never really gotten real close to her, and the only times she had tried to keep a close friendship between them was if she needed her help, or to try and pair her with Zuko.
Mai had never been interested in Zuko, save for when she had first met him. Then after getting to know him, had come to view him as more of a friend than a crush. Azula had never caught on to that. Azula was bad at romance and love things. She would tell Azula soon that she was interested in him. Soon. She vowed inwardly. But telling Azula things she didn't like to hear were dangerous and hard, and watching Sokka be his frustratingly normal, cheerful self was much easier.
After all, she had plenty of time to break the news to Azula. Sokka and her would only be sharing one more year of school together. One last year of misery and jealously and something Mai couldn't name, something that kept her awake at night, thinking of him. Something that made her stomach clench whenever she saw Suki and Sokka walk down the hall, holding hands, smiling, blushing. Something that made her throw darts at a drawing of him she had made. She could not think of a name for it, would not think of a name for it. She didn't want to think about those kind of things. Not while she was eating.
For now, she planned to finish her lunch and listen in on Sokka and his friends, and wish for once that she could have silence.
