Tricks and Treats- Part 2: Zombie Talk

Mai really couldn't have been happier. She was with Zuko at his apartment, sitting in the pitch black in front of the TV, their only light source, watching horror movies featuring zombies and murderers and ghosts. Zuko sat on the floor, leaning against the couch with Mai leaning on his chest. They'd been doing this since the sun went down, watching movie after movie, and every so often Zuko would give into temptation and kiss her cheek or her neck, which would turn into a seemingly infinite make out session. They'd be so entirely lost in each other that only when someone on the TV screen screamed they would part again, and they'd be pulled back into the movie. Yes, Halloween definitely had to be her favorite holiday.

Her stomach rumbled quietly.

She looked up at him, gray eyes meeting amber ones. "You have any popcorn?"

"Sure. I'll go pop some." He picked up the remote to pause the movie, then made his way to the kitchen. Mai twisted her straight black hair around a slender finger while she watched him flick on the kitchen light and reach up in the cabinet for the package.

They were each people of few words, but the quiet between them was never a nuisance. Their lives had always been so full of words, commands, and lectures, coming in crashing waves of terrible sound, that the silence was like a cup of warm cocoa after a long day in the brisk fall air.

Once he had a steaming bowl of popcorn in his hands, Zuko turned the light back off, enveloping them again into darkness, and sat down again. Once resituated, they snacked on their buttery, salty treat and resumed the movie.

On the screen, a blonde girl crept through the hallway, trembling, listening for any sign of the impending threat. She gripped the broom in her hands. With a loud bang, a grotesque zombie burst forth from behind a door. The girl screamed and tried to hit the undead man with her broom, but her efforts were futile. The zombie made a snack of her flesh. The gory scene didn't faze Mai a bit; she'd watched way too many of these movies too many times to get scared.

"If there was a zombie apocalypse," Zuko began suddenly, "what would you use as a weapon?"

Mai giggled, a sound she would only ever allow him to hear. "Well, I guess I'd grab a kitchen knife. Then I'd get to your place as fast as I can." She shifted sideways to look at him more comfortably. "What about you?"

"A pick-ax," he said without hesitation. "Definitely a pick-ax."

"You don't have a pick-ax."

"So?"

"So, if you don't have one, how are you going to use it? It doesn't make sense."

"We're talking about a zombie apocalypse. It doesn't have to make sense."

She laughed and he cracked a smile. "You're insane."

He brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "It took you this long to figure it out?"

His fingers lingered around her face, unable to resist the softness of her pale skin. His touch left what felt like fire across her skin. It was the rare tender moments like this, when a touch meant something so much more and they simply gazed into each other's eyes and time was nonexistent, that made her melt.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, and without hesitation she answered him back. It was a slow kiss, much unlike their usual ones filled with hunger and desire. No, this one was patient and loving.

The movie that had been playing reaching its conclusion, but neither of them noticed. Even as the credits rolled, they continued to kiss in the still darkness.

Mai's phone vibrated in her pocket.

This had better be important…

Reluctantly, they parted to allow Mai to answer the call. She sighed. "What do you want, Ty Lee?" Mai asked tiredly. Zuko held his ear close to her phone to listen in.

When Ty Lee finished her explanation, Zuko watched Mai's expression as she said "Sounds boring." She may have mastered disguising her voice, but her eyes deceived her.

"Oh, come on, Mai," Ty Lee pleaded through the phone. "Pleeeease?"

She sighed, a smile on her face. "Oh, fine. I'll have Zuko bring his pick-ax."

Zuko laughed, falling backward. Mai let a snicker slip.

"What?" Ty Lee asked, terribly confused.

"Nothing. We'll see you when we get there." Mai hung up and stuffed her phone back in her pocket. "Looks like our movie night's gonna have to be cut short."