Cemetery: Saturday Morning

[cantjossme]

She had been leaping across rooftops, as you do. She was chasing a particular nasty lurk who had been trying to assemble some artifact of Olos Nah and put it on the shrine of Accabwhec causing the demon of Aiel Reklawyks to rise and destroy Haddyn on even of the appearance of the comet of Ekul. Or at least he had until Mel had grabbed one of the

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[sarcasm_guy]

Well, this was slightly awkward...

And Sokka certainly hadn't run to the graveyard after his aging cell phone sprung to life with her text. That would have been undignified. Of course. He checked his reflection in his boomerang and smoothed down his beard before stepping forward to lean nonchalantly against a tree.

"Do we have to worry about lurks in the daytime, now?"

[the_merriest]

Dignity was for people who were not friends with people like Rikku.

"PONYTAIL!" she chirped, flinging herself excitedly at him. "Whoa, you grew up!"

[sarcasm_guy]

Sokka wrapped his arms around her and chuckled. "Orangey! How have you been?" He gave her a grin. "I may have gotten older, sure, but there are those who maintain that I never grew up."

[the_merriest]

"I'm good!" Rikku chirped. "We've been, like, going to Spira for a bit and then Gaia and then back here and then Spira and Gaia again and around and around. Maybe I'm just not good at staying in one place! Are you like way older than me now? How did you get older? Did the time just move superfast? Oh! What happened with your war and everything??? Are you here with Mel?"

One question at a time, Rikku. One at a time.

[sarcasm_guy]

Sokka ticked off answers on his fingers. "I'm glad. That sounds interesting. Maybe you're not, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yes, probably. By living. It depends on your perspective. We won. And no, I'm not, but I sure am happy to see her again." He grinned. "How's Reno, these days?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku was going to count on her fingers and make sure that was everything. Yup, it all checked out.

"He's good," she said. "Same as ever. Our entire place right now is just covered in fur and engine grease? It's kind of homey like that. Until we get bored and move on."

She shook her head. "It is so weird seeing you as, like, some kind of grown-up, you know that? But it's even weirder seeing all the little kids run around here. Were we seriously this young at their age? 'Cause they seem young."

[sarcasm_guy]

Sokka shrugged. "At their age, I think we were younger." He shook his head with a chuckle. "But also older, too. ...Enjoy the freedom to get bored and move on, while it lasts. Eventually, you get responsibilities, you settle down somewhere, and you keep all of the engine grease in your workshop across town, because if any gets on your nice suits, you might offend some ambassador or another."

[the_merriest]

Rikku couldn't help laughing, not unkindly.

"Oh, wow, you did grow up," she said, her eyes sparkling. "So is everything okay with you? I mean, you said that you won the war, but like ... that's usually only half of it, you know? The war's over, that just means you've got this big gaping wound to heal up, and people are bad at being nice to each other most of the time."

[sarcasm_guy]

Sokka nodded. "They really, really are. It helps that the new Fire Lord is a friend who worked hard to make up for his father and grandfather's mistakes. Even so, the war almost started up again -- there was a colony that the Earth King and Fire Lord couldn't agree on what to do with, and it nearly came to blows. But now that colony is a new Republic, and everyone is happy, and it is so, so hard to keep everyone happy. Just getting the rest of the Council to agree on anything..." He sighed. "After war comes politics. I hate politics."

[the_merriest]

"Me, too," Rikku sighed. "Yunie's better at being patient with people, but that means they take advantage. She's too nice. I'm not good at lying to people when they're being jerkfaces and pretending I care."

[sarcasm_guy]

"Diplomacy is the art of not telling people they're being jerkfaces when they actually are," Sokka told her sagely. "It can be extremely difficult at times."

[cantjossme]

Just slightly awkward.

"Well I hear about these lurks that sparkle in-"

She stopped cold.

"Dude. You're rutting old!"

[sarcasm_guy]

"I like to think that I'm young in spirit," Sokka announced with a smirk. "And you... you look exactly the way I remember you."

[cantjossme]

"It's only been a couple years for me, slick," Mel said shifting a little as she looked over her old boyfriend. "How long has it been for you? You doing all right back in avatar-land?"

[sarcasm_guy]

"It's been a bit longer than that," Sokka told her with an easy shrug. He knew exactly how long it had been, without having to think and work it out, but telling her would probably come off as creepy and obsessive. "Don't let my face fool you -- all those lines aren't from years, they're from meetings. Turns out, after you save the world, people look up to you, ask you for advice, one thing leads to another, and then you're running a small country. Go figure. And you? Have the lurks learned to fear your name, yet?"

[cantjossme]

"Oh, they fear it all right," Mel said tilting her head and smirking. "And the legend of 'Boomerang Boy' is still tossed about every now and again."