So Maikka Fortnight is still early in its second week, and this time we have the unneeded sequel to my previous "Failed Joke" entry.


Maikka - Mortal

To be honest, she had given up hope that Sokka would ever come. Mai had read plenty of stories in which the captured Ladies pine confidently for their heroes, but she really couldn't work up the energy.

Then came the day when her cell door opened, and it wasn't Azula or her uncle. Today. It was a guard, young, who was far too jaunty to be in a female prisoner's cell. That kind of thing led to problems. He talked, of course. All the guards in the Boiling Rock thought they were masters of sarcasm, poets whose lesser gifts were needed in times of war.

They had nothing on Sokka.

This guy had been insistent, despite the warning her demeanor should have been conveying. He was so thick, he rushed her with his lips puckered, and thought he could actually get away with that. He wasn't so thick that her shank didn't reach his heart when she slammed it into his chest.

It was Sokka, of course, trying to do that playful banter the hero always indulged in while rescuing the lady. Mai briefly considered using the shank to put a hole in her own heart, just so that she wouldn't have to react to anything. Of course, that would be stupid.

The door opened, and Zuko joined the party. Sure, why shouldn't her childhood crush be here, too? Her father was probably driving the giant drill that had been used to breach the prison, with her mother overseeing the Airbender army providing defense, and Tom-Tom playing with the periscope. Zuko looked just as horrified as she felt, and for a second she had the pleasant thought that he would assume she was a traitor and attack her. "What did you do?!?" he asked instead.

"He came onto me!"

Zuko looked at Mai, then back down at Sokka's corpse. "I thought you two had already moved past that stage."

"I didn't recognize him! He was pretending to be a guard! What was I supposed to think?"

"He..." Zuko put a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Okay, this is bad."

"Wow, did you come to that conclusion yourself?"

Zuko eyed her in a not particularly friendly way. "Shouldn't you be a bit more broken up?"

"Shouldn't you know me well enough not to have to ask that?"

"...okay, fair enough." Come to think of it, shouldn't Zuko be a bit more broken up? Granted, the last time Mai saw him, he had just joined up with Azula again, but hey, apparently Sokka hadn't been holding that against him if they were here together. "So, we need to do something about this. Okay, I'm in charge now. I have to think."

He's doomed.

There was a voice from behind him, outside the cell. "What's going on in there?" Another guard, a female. She didn't sound like Sokka's sister. Maybe she was someone new? Oh, an actual guard. What are the odds? Mai couldn't bring herself to care.

Zuko, bless him, recovered his wits and pretended to be on her side. Both the guy on the floor and the prisoner had gotten a little too feisty. Zuko didn't sound very convincing. Granted, he had always been a terrible liar, but his nausea certainly wasn't... oh, it was helping him to sound sincere. The female guard recognized Mai as the Warden's niece. Any punishment would have to wait for his word.

"Stay put," Zuko whispered to her through the door after he locked her in again. "I'll figure something out and come back for you."

Stay put. After he locked the door. He was now the brains of what Mai was assuming to be a planned rescue attempt.

Back to hopeless waiting, then.

Zuko might come back and rescue her. Or Uncle Warden would come to a decision and deal with her. Or figure out that the dead guard wasn't one of his. Or, hey, maybe Azula would show up and do something horrible just to be horrible. Or that stupid comet would arrive and everyone would die in the Fire Lord's purging flames.

Sokka was gone now. She did it.

Life was boring to Mai, but she usually found sudden reminders of her mortality more engaging. Usually.

Maybe someday, it would be that way again.

She waited until after Sokka's father, who Zuko found was coincidentally also being held in the Boiling Rock, masterminded an escape to tell him exactly what happened to his son.

It was close, but in the end, he didn't kill her. Oh well.

END