Maikka Week – Failed Joke
His long lost girlfriend was lying lethargically on her cot when Sokka stepped into the cell. Without otherwise moving, Mai shifted her gaze from the empty space above her head and flung it towards the visitor with all the power and malice that usually accompanied her knife attacks.
Sokka grinned, realizing she didn't recognize him in his stolen guard uniform. "Per your request, I'm telling you I'm here to kill you."
Sokka considered that a good memory, only partially because of what it had started. He and Mai had been technical enemies when they first met, what with him being the Avatar's brother in all but blood and helping the kid to defeat the Fire Nation in the war, and Mai being the spoiled daughter of a noble from said Fire Nation. Sure enough, they had fought a few times after that, and some of Mai's attacks had been potentially lethal, but their eventual love had been written in the stars. The day she switched sides, for his sake, was one of the happiest of Sokka's life, and not just because of the awesome kiss he got. Still, there was something about that first encounter in her father's offices, when she had looked him over, and introduced herself with the immortal line, "Please tell me you're here to kill me."
The way she had appeared that day, so elegant and attractive without being anything like what he had previously considered beautiful, was a marked contrast to the way she was now. Instead of the flowing outfits that somehow obscured and showcased her figure at the same time, Mai was wearing the oversized shirt and pants that all the prisoners of the Boiling Rock were forced into. Her hair was still straight and long, but not as shiny as she liked to keep it, even when camping in the woods, and it was left completely unbound.
Yet she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
Mai hadn't yet replied. "You mean you don't recognize me?" he teased as he stepped towards her.
"I don't even notice you boring thugs. You could all look the same for all I care," was her endearing reply.
"Oh." Sokka had to repress the urge to giggle. This was going to be good. "Then maybe you'll recognize... this!" He dashed forward with puckered lips.
He stopped when he felt contact. Only, it wasn't the contact he had been expecting. Sokka looked down to see a jagged metal spike, haphazardly sharpened out of a piece of scrap metal- a shank- sticking out of a bloody hole in his tunic, just below the armor. The pain began racing through his chest, and Sokka realized with some disappointment that the weapon had been angled to pass straight through his heart.
The blood hit the floor first. Sokka's body followed, collapsing slowly as his willpower had less and less influence on the physical world. Finally, the helmet tumbled off as his head cracked back against the filthy floor.
The last thing Sokka saw before he died was Mai's shocked and horrified face as she finally recognized him. The last thing he heard was her provocatively harsh voice uttering the most emotional exclamation he had ever heard from her.
"Oops."
END
