02 - Running Away Together

Sokka just needed a minute to rest. Just a minute.

The battle had been over for- a couple of hours, now? He'd been helping with the cleanup since then. Not that he'd been especially effective at moving the bison-sized chunks of lightning-scorched stone and wood that were the remains of the Hemudelìzi Temple. Toph and the other Earthbenders were doing a lot more with that. The Waterbenders from the North were taking care of the injuries. The Fire Army was guarding against further attacks, while the Firebenders were providing light against the moonless sky for everyone else's efforts. And of course Aang and Katara and Zuko were making sure that Azula's little tantrum hadn't wrecked the agreements they'd been on the verge of finalizing.

No, Sokka had nothing special to contribute to a situation like this, but he was the one with what he liked to consider to be the working brain. It was a good idea for him to keep an eye on everything and everyone, in case someone was required to be sensible.

He just need a minute to rest. Then he'd be back at it.

He found a wide set of stairs, littered with pieces of the statues that had been knocked off the roof of the shrine at the top of the path, and sat down next to a sculpture of some kind of spirit patron or something. He leaned back on the stairs and spread his limbs out, letting out a breath heavy with soot and dust and whatever other filth was in the air after the building's collapse.

Then the statue next to him said in Mai's voice, "We should run away together."

Sokka blinked and looked to the side. Mai had been so still, with her eyes closed, he'd mistaken the dust she was covered in for masonry. "We should what now?"

"Just run away." She opened her eyes but didn't look at him. She just stared straight ahead at, from what Sokka could judge of the angle, nothing in particular. "Just leave this all behind."

"Why just us?" Sokka gestured over at half of a stone pillar, which was currently floating through the air towards where it had been standing whole earlier today. "Toph's pretty useful. And she can be fun."

Mai's head dipped in what could have been a nod. "I like Toph. But she's very noticeable, don't you think?"

"When she wants to be." Sokka ran some calculations through his head, and just barely managed to get to the end of them without falling asleep. "Which is at least twice a day."

"Exactly. But you and me- we can just disappear. Forget our names and just become whatever for however long we want."

Sokka looked over at Mai, but she still wasn't moving much. He went back to watching the cleanup. "That's definitely a possibility. Anything in particular you want to become?"

"I don't know. Mercenaries for hire. Professional thieves, maybe. Or celebrity artists."

"Celebrity artists?" Sokka tried to laugh, but his body complained that it didn't have the energy, so he just turned to Mai with a disbelieving smile.

She managed a twitch that was almost a shrug. "You like to paint, right? I can do poetry and stories. Maybe we're good enough that people will pay us for it. Or to hear our opinions."

"You write? Can I read some?"

Mai's eyes flickered to him for the first time during the whole conversation. "Yes. Anyway, it would at least make a good cover story if we become professional thieves."

"You're getting this all planned out. How long are we going to try to make this work?"

"Forever." Her head turned to him, the whites of her eyes a disturbing contrast with the dust that covered her so completely. "We could just go. Give this all up. Let the others deal with Azula and warlords and rebels and bandits and politicians and assassins. They're good at it."

Sokka found himself nodding. "They are. But being good at it doesn't mean they always get it right."

"That's another reason to leave." She leaned forward and whispered, "We won't have to be here when it all goes wrong and someone finally dies. It won't be us that lets it happen."

Sokka leaned his head back on one of the stairs, the corner making a poor resting place for the back of his skull. He thought back to earlier, when Azula and her Obstructionist Army had attacked, and how many times he nearly saw Aang and Katara and Zuko and everyone nearly die. Of course, he and Mai had nearly died a number of times, too. Everyone had saved everyone else at least once. He and Mai weren't special that way. But they were the only ones who ever seemed to feel any fear for it.

He sighed. "Yeah. But we're not going to run away. We're going to be here the whole time."

"Yes." Mai sighed. "But we should run away together."

"We totally should."

The others found them hours later, asleep on those stairs, sore and dirty and ready to get back to work.

END