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Katara slunk into a chair, lolled her head over the arm rest like a broken doll, and said, “Can I kill something tonight, or are we gonna starve quietly again?”

"I know, right?" her brother chimed in. He propped his boots on the exquisitely crafted antique desert table that stood in front of the love seat. "I feel like a fucking vegetarian or something, eating livestock like this. It's not natural to eat things that only eat vegetables."

From his side, Mai sent a withering glance at the boots corrupting the spotless furniture, but on hearing his last remark she let a snide smile crawl across her face. "You could always eat a rat," she said, snuggling closer under his arm. Obligingly, Sokka let his hand play at the underside of Mai's breasts. "They're omnivores."

"Rats are disgusting," Katara announced. She tapped her fingers lightly against the cushion of the armchair. "And you're going just as stir-crazy as I am if you're seriously considering it."

"Well," Sokka began, "They would be something different, at least. And I'm sure we have some tequila to mix with--"

"ENOUGH!" Katara roared, soaring to her feet and quaking with power. Her voice no longer had even the affectation of humanity. "I am bored and hungry and I am leaving this place."

"But Master Ozai said we had to stay here until the territory is open," her brother protested. "And we're not impressed by your shouting."

"Screw Ozai and screw this prison," Katara snarled. "There are no other clans here, or we'd have felt them by now. Nineteen days, nineteen we have been sheltered here like misbehaving dogs on the pretense of avoiding a turf war. I am done with it."

Katara spun on her steel and leather heels and marched toward the double doors of the sitting room. Sokka leaned forward, but Mai held him back,

"Let her go, she'll be fine. Let her be the first, and once Ozai sees it is open range, we'll go hunting too."

Her dark-skinned lover frowned. "Master Ozai will be furious. He's kept us silent for a reason. He'll be enraged that she disobeyed his orders and broke the clan-wide curfew. He might kill her for it."

Mai looked at his scrunched, concerned expression, and laughed. It was a beautiful laugh, echoing across the luxurious room like iced wind-chimes. "He won't kill his precious Katara. After all, she's his favorite. His little bloodbending prodigy, the daughter to replace the children he lost."

Sokka shook himself free of Mai, and stood up with his hands at his belt. "You're too casual about this. Master Ozai would kill any one of us in a moment if he thought we were endangering his operation."

"You and me, sure," Mai admitted. She shrugged her shoulders and didn't even pretend to be interested in his sibling dramatics. "He only turned you to ensure your sister would serve him willingly, and he keeps me around because my family has pawned off its daughters to his clan for generations. But he would think twice about killing Katara."

Crossing his arms, Sokka said, "Because she's a bloodbender. She's valuable, the rarest kind of bender to be successfully turned. But her value to Ozai will change if she becomes rebellious. You know how he deals with threats to his control."

"She's not that powerful."

"Yet."

"You're talking treason, Sokka." For the first time in argument, Mai looked away from his gaze. "That's disloyalty, and I won't be party to it."

"I serve Ozai's will as you do, Mai. But I'm thinking long-term, and our master is paranoid."

"Then you'd better control your Mistress," Mai snapped, and curled on the love seat. "I'm tired of this discussion. Just...go somewhere else."

Sokka sighed, and went to go find a rat.