Reunion
For #75: Skin to Skin

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Roku stepped to the edge of all he knew. Here, there were no people to speak to him. There was nothing to burden his thoughts or destroy his concentration.

Silence permeated through the area, filling every nook and cranny with the soft sounds of nothingness.

Roku smiled at the deep perfection here in the nothing that was the edge of his heart. He smiled because this emptiness was his own. It belonged to no one before him, and would not be passed on. It was his sanctuary within the thoughts of thousands.

"Time has not been good to you," a voice dripping with sarcastic wit laughed behind him.

The old avatar's smile only widened. "Perhaps not, but it seems that not even time could dull the sharpness of your tongue, Mayu."

Mayu scoffed. "Time's naught but an illusion, you old gasbag." Here she winked. "And I'm not one to let an illusion get the upper hand on me now am I?"

"You most certainly aren't."

Many years had passed without Mayu and her originality. The avatar had sorely missed her friendship in that time. There was no one there to question everything he did, or show him how to do it properly. There was no little wild airbender to liven up his life when honor seemed to drag him down.

There was no Mayu. And life without her, he decided, was a life emptied of all fun.

"You know why I'm here." It was a statement, not a question. The sound of her voice was playfully childish, as he'd always remembered her, but this time it held something else.

Roku couldn't help but smile, even if it was a little sad. "I do."

Her voice held the fate of all things, even spirits. Even the avatar. Her voice was filled to the brim with death. But, as he noted pleasantly, it was a defeated death.

Mayu walked to him and took his hand. He held it gently, feeling it was nothing but a child's hand within his wrinkled, calloused one. He looked into the eyes of a woman, but still one too young for death. She smiled.

"Let's go you old fool and a half."

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The screwed up child of Lord of the Rings and Twilight Princess. Not sure how it happened, but I'm definitely not leaving them alone again.

It's not one of my best, but I kind of like it. Well, I'm off to play more TP…because I'm slow as a snail on a Monday morning. And no…I have no idea what that means.

MCL