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Jack is driving along one of the many roads on this big ol' wide continent in the Coraline, with all the windows open and a self-satisfied grin on his face. There's a bass guitar in the back, along with a couple amps (one of which actually goes up to 11 - he found the best); his cutlasses and guns are resting happily on the passenger seat and he's whistling while he looks out for other useful things to bring back to the farm.

(He's also looking for a friend he's missed recently)

There's no joy like the simple joys, and of them, Jack's favourite has always been the open ~~sea~~ road, knowledge of being useful to his friends, and a warm woman waiting for when he's done roaming.

Yo ho.

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"Isn't that nice," Mai repeats. She makes no move to get into the car.

Jack grins at her.

And grins.

And lifts his nearside leg onto the seat so he can twist and face her. Jack never wears a seatbelt.

And then he waits.

Mai waits as well, her hands still hidden in her sleeves. Despite being dirty, the silk robes have held up surprisingly well with very few rips or tears.

All this grinning makes Mai think, for just a moment, of Ty Lee.

Jack's looking as he sits. Reading and thinking and analysing and altogether being too smart for his own good.

He leans back against the door, and tilts his head.

"From where do you hail?"

The question is considered for a moment, and then answered with a question. "Why do you care?"

"Conversation," Jack says cheerfully. "I like meeting people."

"I don't," Mai replied flatly.

"Then we have a conflict of interests."

Jack, it seems, is determined to win.

"Were this my world, your face and clothing would root you as Nihonese. But you are neither that, nor of this world."

"Oh, good," Mai's voice remains flat. "You're not blind."

She was worried there for a moment. Really.

Jack guffaws quietly and winks at her.

"And yet the style seems familiar. I've seen someone from the same area, I'm sure."

In fact, the more he studies the girl's imprint, the more he's sure he can place her home world...

"You have no idea how much that reassures me."

Jack winks.

"I have some idea."

Though his grin fades slightly as it occurs to him.

"Fire Nation?"

Sokka's enemies. And she particularly is no friend of Sokka's.

It's odd, because the boy back at the farm wasn't an enemy to either.

Mai stiffens slightly, but that's her only reaction. Well, other than her hand tightening around one of the knives at her wrist.

"Maybe."

It's possible that the surprise is why her reply is so obviously lame.

"You'll miss."

It's not a threat, nor a particularly worried warning. More a mild statement of fact.

Then, just as mildly, as an explanation:

"Myself, I bow to no king, and have fealty to no nation."

"Miss?" Mai asks with false innosence.

Then she shrugs, "Well good for you."

As certain as he is of this point, Jack opens the door behind him just enough to take it off the lock. Then both his hands are visible again.

"You have countrymen in the farm where I put into port," he informs her.

"And those who call your home an enemy."

The 'contrymen' part flies right past Mai as she narrows her eyes, "You know Sokka."

"Both of them," Jack says cheerfully. "We found the world together."

And fought a Kraken, and Jack swears fealty to no King, but he'd die and kill for Sokka.

- He'd die and kill for a few people. It's just how he rolls.

Something of that makes its way to Mai and she shrugs in feigned indifference.

"Then maybe you should keep going."

Mai's not feeling very well-inclined toward Sokka's friends.

Jack doesn't move, but he tilts his head curiously.

"Do you wish them harm?"

Again with the rhetorical questions.

Mai shrugs vaguely, "Not especially." Wishing them harm would take work, after all. Though she's still less than pleased that they simply left her on the beach.

"So why should I leave you where you may come to harm?"

"Out here, at least, no one wants to kill me specifically." The Sokkas were pretty specific.

Jack gives an irritatingly confident smirk.

"I'm sure we could could come to an agreement."

He'll tell them she won't harm them. He trusts them to trust him.

"Which I am equally sure I could not trust."

But that's because Mai doesn't really trust anyone.