It happens to the Best of Us
"Do you know what I called you?" Sokka looked across at Mai and grinned, a big, dopey grin that almost made Mai smile in return.
"Oh, I can imagine." The brand new Fire Lord's girlfriend, fresh out of prison and properly meeting Zuko's new friends for the first time, rolled her eyes and tapped her long, freshly painted fingernails on the arm of her chair.
"I called you 'that gloomy girl who sighs a lot'. What do you think of that?" Sokka leaned forward, eager to hear her reply.
"I can see how you would get that impression," Mai answered reasonably. "But there's a bit more to me than that."
"So you can smile?" Sokka joked. "I've never seen you do it."
"It's been known to happen. But I need a good reason." Mai sensed that it was a game now, a back and forth between her and this quirky Water Tribe boy, who seemed determined to make her laugh or at least crack a smile.
"A good reason, huh?" Sokka stroked his chin, fingers caressing the few wiry hairs that grew there now. His blue eyes looked thoughtful as he pondered Mai.
"Do you know that I drank cactus juice once?" he finally asked.
"No, I wasn't aware of that. How did you like it?" Mai put a hand over her mouth to cover a yawn.
"Well, that's difficult to answer. See, I thought that cacti had water inside them, so I cut a piece off one and took a drink. We were stuck in the desert, you know, and it was really hot and we were all really thirsty. Everyone yelled at me for doing it, but I didn't care because I was too busy seeing crazy things like huge clouds that looked like mushrooms and …."
"Is there a point to this story?" Mai yawned again, this time not bothering to disguise it.
Sokka looked deflated for a moment and huffed indignantly, muttering about people who couldn't appreciate good stories if their lives depended on it. Mai smiled then, more of a smirk really, but the Water Tribe warrior caught it.
"Aha!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "So you do think I'm funny."
"No, I'm just glad that you finally shut up." She smiled again, a kinder one this time and Sokka returned it.
Two Loves
Sokka knew in his heart that even had Yue lived, there was no future for the two of them. She would have married Hahn like a good princess and served her nation well, producing offspring and staying in the city where the daughter of a ruler belonged. Though he wished with all his heart that she was alive, Sokka was secretly glad that she never had to marry that stupid, elitist jerk. Being the moon spirit had to be better than that.
He smiled wistfully as he looked up at the night sky, the moon hanging huge and yellow and full over the beach at Kyoshi Island. Suki slept beside him, her head against his shoulder, both of them sitting on a blanket spread out on the sand. It was warm where Suki's body touched his and when she made a little snoring sound in her sleep, Sokka felt an equally warm surge of affection for his girl. She was pretty special and he loved her.
He ran a hand through her auburn hair and brushed his lips against the top of her head. But the moon called to him again and his eyes were drawn away from his girlfriend and back up. He wondered if Yue was cold there in the sky and then called himself an idiot for wondering such a thing. She was a spirit, with special spirit powers. Surely she couldn't feel human things like cold.
Clouds began to roll in and they covered the moon and its cool, white light. Sokka turned back to Suki who was so warm and right there with him, breathing softly in and out, in and out.
"Hey," he whispered in her ear. He nibbled on the lobe then, trying to wake the warrior woman gently.
"I fell asleep?" She rubbed at her eyes and looked apologetically at her boyfriend. "I guess I've been working too hard."
"You have," Sokka agreed solemnly. "And it must stop." He winked then and gave her a nudge.
Neither of them would lessen their workloads for some time yet. There was just too much to do.
"Did I miss anything?" Suki snuggled against Sokka and sighed contentedly.
"Nope, I was just looking at the moon."
"Oh." Suki knew the story of Yue and accepted that her boyfriend had a special spot for her in his heart, despite the brevity of their friendship. And she was a big enough person to accept it gracefully. "Was it a pretty one tonight?"
"Beautiful; but not as beautiful as you."
Suki laughed at the compliment and swatted him playfully. But she was glad to hear it nevertheless.
Strange Turn
He had been through so much; the murder of his parents when he was but eight years old, the destruction of his entire village, with him the only survivor, should have destroyed him. But it didn't, at least not in ways that were visible to the eye. In fact, little eight year old Jet, who took one last look at the still blazing remains of his village and the violent men who had perpetrated the deed for nothing other than their own personal thrills, did quite well for himself. He pushed those memories away; maybe he would look at them later, maybe he wouldn't.
He taught himself how to steal and how to fight and how to survive. Those hooked swords he took from a drunk and distracted bounty hunter became his best friends. He cared for them like he would a little brother or sister. They were always clean and polished and sharpened, ready for use. And after years of training himself, practicing intensely, the swords were essentially a part of him. He couldn't imagine life without them hanging from his belt, first banging off his ankles and as he grew older and taller, resting comfortably against his lean thigh, a reassuring weight.
Sure he did questionable things, but he had always been in control. Maybe it was wrong to flood the village near their forest hideout, but war was wrong too and Jet and his Freedom Fighters, those orphans he had picked along his travels, needed to fight back. For years, Jet had done just that, calmly and methodically.
But when he saw Li's sweet old uncle, Mushi was his name, firebend his tea in the Ba Sing Se train station, something inside Jet cracked. Control left him and was replaced with a hunger to make them pay, a hunger that almost made him physically ill. Why did they bother him so much? After days of watching them, peering in through their decrepit apartment's window, sneaking in and stealing their spark rocks, huddling outside the tea shop they both worked at, Jet finally figured it out. It wasn't the fact that they were firebenders, although that was awful enough in itself. It was the fact that they pretended to be Earth Kingdom refugees. They pretended to be part of the crawling masses of poor who made their way to the great walled city in droves every day. They took jobs away from good people. They didn't belong and everyone should know it. Jet would see to it that they did.
But that wasn't the way it happened and as he lay dying on the cold stone, his stomach and chest crushed by Long Feng's rock, his remaining friends beside him, Jet laughed. What else could he do?
A/N: So yeah, the first two really are random. Sokka must be on my brain today. I like to think that he and Mai would get along well and I think his love for Yue will always be there, not between Suki and him, but simply a part of him that she has to accept. The last one was written for the prompt 'crack'.
