Disclaimer: Yo. Avatar still doesn't belong to me. I put it on my Christmas list… though I think that's the one thing Santa can't bring me this year. D:

Author's Notes: Soo… I've been promising this story as a gift for Kiminator Mark XII since, uh… LAST FEBRUARY. That's just insane, people; even worse than my obvious neglect of Out the Window. So I finally sat down and said to myself, "I WILL write this, no matter how long it takes."

So here we go, people. My first serious Maiko.

Absolutely Priceless

"Guuh." I moaned almost imperceptibly and fell back against my pillow. It was the beginning of the new college school year, and even though I was now a sophomore, the school board thought it would be funny to force me to stay on campus for another year. Pssh. Only freshmen and dorks lived on campus. A sigh escaped my lips. Well, at least I could be thankful that my roommate finally graduated. Spirits, but he was an idiot. Slim and quick, and he looked the part, but Heaven above… there was nothing but hot air between his ears.

I buried my face in my pillow, dreading my new roommate. At least my old one left me alone 95 percent of the time—most everyone at Old Phoenix University did. But I didn't know if I could take another three years of bunking with an idiot without any shred of personality.

I punched my pillow and nimbly slid off the top bunk, landing perfectly on the linoleum floor. The bottom bunks of both beds had been taken out, and a desk area had replaced it. I brushed a hand through my scraggly black hair. Maybe a sugary pop would take my mind off of things. But as soon as I reached the entrance, the door swung widely open and nearly beamed me in the face.

"Hey!" I declared hotly. "Watch it."

The idiot outside just blinked. "Uh, sorry," he apologized sheepishly. "But… I'm guessing you're Zuko? 'Cause I'm Sokka." And the new freshie shifted his massive suitcase to the ground and held out his hand. Like he actually expected me to shake it or something.

I stared at it, then cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. Sokka just kept wearing the same huge, goofball smile; he didn't miss a beat. "Yeeah…" I moved away from the entrance and ignored him, instead plopping down in front of my laptop. Well, there went that brilliant idea. Sokka's smile faded quickly as he dropped his hand—I could tell because I was watching from the corner of my eye. He seemed a little confused by my reaction, as if he had never met anyone who had a bad attitude.

Yeah, well, he would get used to it.

--

There was a rule at Old Phoenix that stated either an upper-classman or the roommate of every new freshman had to show him or her around the university. There would be no ditching, no lying about campus rules or layout, and above all, there would be absolutely NO hazing. And, of course, ME, being the oh-so-lucky college sophomore I am, had the wonderful opportunity of showing Sokka around.

My first impression was that he was a complete idiot. As we plodded around the large architectures, I would point to something and simply say a name, and he would stop and stare for a few moments. But of course, he was never happy with just the name of something. Oh no. Sokka had to ask every freaking question possible under the sun.

At first, I was super-annoyed and very, very tempted to disobey the rules and drop him off in the nearest body of water, Laogai Pond. But as we continued our painful journey around the entire school grounds, I realized that he didn't even pick up on the fact that his queries were bothering me. It was like asking so many questions came naturally to him.

So finally, I stopped our trek and said to his face, "Dude… cut it out. You are seriously bugging me! I never would have agreed to this if it weren't school policy… If you wanna know so bad, that's what the library's for. Just leave me alone."

Just leave me alone. That's what I told everyone; and for the most part, they listened quite attentively. But this guy just wasn't getting the picture. Instead, he was staring—not glancing, not looking, not even admiring; he was STARING—at a pair of beautifully-made pieces of artwork. I turned so we faced the same direction and noted the dopey grin on his face. "Aah," he sighed, "it's beautiful. I can't help but admire the perfection that is the female human being."

I shook my head and resisted the urge to groan and pinch the bridge of my nose. The two girls he was talking about were apparently in the same predicament we were; there was a tall, pale-skinned, ebony-haired one with eyes that gleamed like quicksilver; while her friend was a little bit shorter but still just-as-gorgeous redhead with a quirky smile and dark blue eyes that shone brightly. A sudden, strange lump caught in my throat.

…Whoa.

I hated to admit it, but my freshie roommate was right. Those girls were a piece of work. It was obvious the redhead was new at Old Phoenix University; I had seen the taller one before, but her companion was a new addition to me. I noticed Sokka's eyes following them as they casually walked past us, making soft girl conversation. I never knew the silver-eyed one (whose name I recalled just in that moment as "Mai") could talk so much, but apparently, she and her new freshman companion found plenty of conversation.

I heard Sokka audibly swallow. "I love this place," he said, leaning against my shoulder as his voice cracked dorkishly. I snorted and shoved him off.

"…Get off me."

"Sorry." Yeah, he would get used to my anti-socialness later. God only knew that we would be spending plenty of time together in the upcoming year.

--

I was actually surprised with myself. My roommate and I had been coexisting in the same dorm for a few months now, and so far, I hadn't done anything to completely freak him out. I hadn't set his beer on fire or beat the crap out of him for accidentally using my toothbrush. (Those are both long, long stories which you most definitely do NOT want to hear.) Yeah, I'll admit Sokka appeared to be stupid most of the time, but it didn't take me long to realize his "I'm an idiot" thing was just a façade. When push came to shove, he was a pretty smart kid. He had even helped me write my physics paper a while back.

But I digress.

Today, he and I were both piled into his junk van, a beat-up old thing that was painted dark blue and aptly named "The Boomerang" (I will NOT tell you why, because that's another thing you do not want to know about). We were heading to a sports bar to celebrate… uh, something, I'm not quite sure. But honestly, what's a more manly place to hang out than a sports bar? Duh, nowhere.

In the few months I had known Sokka, we had grown to be fairly good friends. He was the closest thing I had to a best friend, and I was the only one who didn't laugh when he tripped over air. I was also the only one who bailed him out when he accidentally blew up the chemistry lab, but that, of course, is another story you don't want to know about. (Like you didn't see that coming.)

Sokka blew through the door of "Wings 'N Things" like he owned the place and smoothly asked the waitress for a table for two—one of those high-rising ones, if she could. I tried to ignore the coy smile on both their faces as she showed us to a perfect spot right in the center of the room. Ugh. I hated being in the center of anything, much less the center of a giant room where college-age guys (and some girls) would come to eat sorta-good food and watch the game on giant screen televisions.

I slid across the wood uncomfortably as Sokka easily settled into his seat. "Whelp, I know what I'm having," he announced loudly. "Triple Diablo Buffalo Wings! And beer," my dark friend added as sort of an afterthought.

I sighed. "Yeah, 'cause you and alcohol is such a wonderful combination."

"Thanks!" he said brightly. But then his glacier blue eyes darkened as he leaned across the table and said seriously, "But you might want to work on your sarcasm. Dude, it just plain sucks; my Gran-Gran can do better than that."

I snorted as we both burst into laughter. And oh gods, we hadn't even gotten our beer yet. When the waitress came back, I immediately placed the order for both of us so the food would come faster—to heck with stupid appetizers like sickening spinach dip or wimpy mozzarella sticks. Sokka pounded his fist against the table and stated, "Give me meat, man!" I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. One thing I had learned at the beginning of my sophomore year of college was to never, ever, under any circumstances, get between Sokka and his meat.

Call him a meat fanatic. …No, please do. He was shamelessly in love with it and openly admitted it every day of his life—if it didn't annoy the heck out of people first.

I was just about to blow some of the froth off of my alcohol when Sokka tapped my arm. "Dude, check this out." He pointed to a small booth almost right beside us. And—wow, oh lucky us—sitting right there in the booth were the two girls we had seen at the beginning of the year. "It's Redhead and her compadre, Gloomy Girl." He giggled stupidly at his nicknames, and the little alcohol I had had already forced a chuckle from my throat as well.

Sokka slid off the high chair and said to me, "I'm going to flirt with them. Watch and learn, mi amigo." I watched as my friend smoothly slid over to the girls' table and started chatting with them. I couldn't tell what he said, but whatever it was, it was apparently kinda funny. Redhead giggled, and Gloomy Girl actually smiled just a little bit. She started playing with her straw, which I had read in a relationship magazine was a good thing (not that I frequently read relationship magazines… I just found Sokka's one time and thought it would be a good idea if I actually needed to use it later).

Sooner rather than later, Sokka was back and sitting at the table, chomping away at the freshly-arrived batch of triply-hot hot wings. He smiled around his mouthful of meat. "See? That went perfectly. Now it's your turn."

I suddenly felt apprehensive. "Uh… nah, that's OK, Sokka. I'm not that great with girls, anyway." My golden eyes slid downward until I was staring at my shoe. Hah… me and girls. That was funny.

Sokka cocked a dark brown eyebrow. "Dude. Seriously. That might be true, but this is how you get better!" He punched the air excitedly. "I'm trying to help you get out there, man, and stir up your love life. But I can't help you if you're not willing to suck it up and go for it."

I sighed. So my friend was right; one of the many times in life he was. Nevertheless, I was still torn between taking his good advice and wringing his scrawny little neck for even suggesting that I needed help. In the end, I decided to let him (and his dumb wisdom) survive another day.

I softly made my way over to their table, nervously grabbing at the hem of my shirt in the process. All the scenarios of how this meeting could go wrong kept running through my head, and they all ended up with me getting laughed at. Long and hard. Before I knew it, I was there, and I quickly stuttered out a short, "H—Hello." While Sokka's voice cracked when he was nervous, mine stuttered. Horribly. It was bad.

I managed to take a breath and blink at the same time. The girls were still sitting there; Gloomy Girl had her slim black eyebrow cocked, while Redhead simply looked amused. At my expense. I sighed and hung my head, admitting defeat. I knew when I was beat; I could hear Sokka laughing his butt off in the background and angrily imagined him wiping the tears from his eyes. ("Oh, the socially awkward," he was probably saying to himself.) I straightened up in an attempt to save at least a little bit of my dignity.

In that moment, Sokka rounded the corner and patted me on the back. "Heey…" He spoke to the girls, "What my friend here means is, you girls look awfully pretty tonight."

Gloomy Girl rolled her silver eyes. "Oh please. Like we haven't heard that one before."

"Oh jeez, Mai." Her companion tapped the table. "Lighten up. You're just mad because you haven't had a boyfriend since the third grade." Both the redhead and Sokka laughed, but neither I nor Mai looked amused at all. "I'm Suki, by the way," the blue-eyed girl said, holding out her hand.

Sokka shook it happily. "I'm Sokka, by the way," he parroted, giving her a wink. She chuckled and moved over to let him sit down. I was once again standing by myself, twiddling my fingers uselessly. I could almost feel my face heating up in embarrassment. Socially awkward… socially awkward… And they wondered why I disliked being around other people. But Mai sighed and slid over on her side. "Here," she said, patting the plastic seat beside her. "You can sit by me."

The beer I had had, combined with the fact that I was being offered a seat by a very pretty girl, made me extremely happy. So much so that I actually smiled and sighed in contentment. Smiled and sighed! That never happened… Ah well. It was just the alcohol talking, I figured.

--

Twenty minutes later found me grimacing in disgust. "Oh gods… Sokka, that's just nasty." Suki and Sokka hadn't wasted any time and had gotten to know each other very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that they decided to start a relationship right there inside Wings 'N Things. My best friend was shoved into the corner of their side of the booth while Suki sat on his lap; it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were doing. I could see both of their hands going places they probably shouldn't, and my ears heard things I definitely didn't want to hear.

But then again… I was always up for entertaining the idea of a makeout.

I turned to Mai. "Soo—"

She held up a manicured hand. "Don't even think about it."

"Hnn." I rested my forehead on the table. "All right," I conceded, mumbling into the table. Today had pretty much sucked, anyway; might as well just let her go. I slid out of the booth and let her brush past me. I kind of slumped as I watched Mai start to walk away; I really wanted to say something, but… with the way today had gone, I didn't feel like I had any reason to.

But then… but then she stopped. And turned around. And looked at me with those lovely, amazing, striking liquid silver eyes… and she pushed a piece of paper into my slack hands. Subconsciously, my fingers closed around the slim scrap as she mumbled, "Call me."

I smiled a dorky smile and fell back into the booth as I felt my knees give way. I ran slim fingers through my raven hair as my other hand played with the edges of the paper. Whoa… man. I was so freaking lucky. Lucky lucky lucky. Maybe not as lucky as Sokka, but pretty dang lucky nonetheless.

When I first met Sokka, I never could've imagined that we would become such good friends.

And when I first came into Wings 'N Things, with an idiot by my side and twenty bucks in my pocket, I never could've imagined that I'd meet such a gorgeous girl and finally, finally manage to score her number. Haha. As soon as Sokka and Suki finished making out (cough), I would be sure to rub it in his face.

'Cause this was absolutely priceless.