Simply because I haven't done a positive Jetzula fic yet, I wanted to do a second submission for avatarworldweek's event.
He hated the fire but he loved her. Everything she was, everything she stood for, everything her people did—Jet hated it all. But somehow, holding her in his arms, that made it different. The fire princess slept easy…easier than she ought to, Jet speculated. She didn't seem to know that he figured it out. It had taken much longer than it should have, weeks, but he knew it was her. He should have seen it in her eyes that she was full-blood fire. But she had been strangely kind to him and he wanted to believe her when she said that her mother was Earth Kingdom. Jet wondered if any of it was genuine; wondered if she truly loved the deep brown of his eyes as she had said. If she truly admired his creativity in battle tactics and hiding places. Or was she just trying to gain information.
She rubbed her head against him as she adjusted positions. With a soft, sleepy sigh the princess was asleep again.
He could kill her then. It would be so easy.
He could run his blade across her throat and she'd sleep again before she truly had a chance to wake. He could slip some white jade into her mouth and watch her struggle for breath. He could bind her up and leave her to die in some hidden place. It would be so satisfying, he could tell everyone that he had taken down a fire royal. One of the more dangerous of them. He could play a huge hand in snuffing the blight that was the Fire Nation. All he had to do was act.
But his mind was full of memories. Showing her his woodsy hideaway. Teaching her to use his hook swords; she was so elegant with them, it seemed to come so naturally to her, the symmetry needed to wield them. Taking her down to the creek and trying to teach her to fish; this apparently lay just outside her skill sets, watching her pout at the water's surface with her arms across her chest as he reeled in fish number seven had been a high point. She was so good at everything else.
Jet racked his hands through his hair, he needed to act now. He poised the blade at neck level, the cool steel pricked her neck. All he had to do was dig in and slash.
But she muttered something soft and nonsensical in her sleep, it was rather precious and he remembered that she was still human.
Taking the care not to let out a frustrated roar, he threw the blades. They clattered louder than he anticipated and Suyan—that was the name she'd given him, a false one he was assuming—bolted up right. "What are you doing?" She grumbled.
"I got startled by a fox-antelope."
She shot him a skeptical look before touching her throat, her fingers coming away with a trace of blood. She always had been good at figuring things out for herself. Yet she seemed to struggle to grasp it, "you tried to kill me…in my sleep." Her tone was unusually incredulous. It was hard to catch her by surprise but he had done it.
"I couldn't do it."
"Clearly." She agreed. She was quiet for a while, sitting with her legs drawn up to her chest and staring blankly into the forest as the wind tousled her bangs. "When did you figure it out?"
"A few days ago I started to suspect that you are Fire Nation. I saw a picture yesterday, of the Fire Nation princess. I can put two and two together…Suyan."
"If you know who I am, then you can address me accordingly."
"I don't know your real name. I never cared to learn it. I planned to erase it from the world."
"Then do it, Jet." She challenged.
She was making it easy, making herself unlikable. Ignoring how he truly felt—how he could almost pretend that this was another one of their petty squabbles—he reclaimed his hook swords. She waited, staring him down as he lifted them. A fair fight, he decided, was more noble anyhow. He went in for his first cut and she ducked beneath the blade. A second swipe with his other blade and she dodged the strike. So was the rest of the battle; a series of slashes and cuts followed by ducks and parries. But no fire, not even a spark.
She wasn't fighting back.
When he wasn't attacking, she stood with that indifferent expression and her hands clasped behind her back.
She remained that way when he thrusted the sword into her side. The jab wasn't very deep but he could inflict more damage whenever he was ready…
Whenever he was ready.
But he stood frozen thinking about the night when he'd almost kissed her. When he told her of how his village was invaded and she told him that she had been thrown into the war as well. The sword was still lodged in her side and she wasn't doing anything to remove it and he couldn't bring himself to push it further. The truth was, he had come to love Suyan and he couldn't seem to find the power to kill the woman who created her.
He let the sword drop, it came away from the princess with a flinch-inducing wet noise. Yet, she wasn't the one who flinched, it was he. "What are you doing?" She asked.
He returned the question and added, "why didn't you fight me."
She shrugged. After a moment she added, "I would have won."
Jet blinked.
"If I would have won, you would have been dead." She pulled the ribbon from her hair and dressed her wound. "I don't want you dead."
At once he wondered just what the hell she was doing here. Surly there were more important things for a fire princess to accomplish. Yet, she was messing with him. He was almost willing to say that she didn't want to accomplish anything in particular. "Then what do you want."
"I want to…follow my own path." She answered. "My father and I have two different goals. He wants conquest and he sent me out to get it for him. I want to see the world, I want to experience it. I know everything there is to know about my own nation, but know little of the others…" She never did like ignorance, Jet recalled. She had a certain curiosity about her, always asking, always imploring. It was something he liked about, that she wanted to know as much as she could just for the sake of knowing. She came a few feet closer, "I want you to follow my path with me. You…" she paused, trying to find the word. "You intrigue me."
She didn't know much about love nor kissing, but like most things she was willing to learn. She liked to think of herself as a fast learner. "You intrigue me very much." She said again, taking him by the collar of his shirt.
Looking into her eyes was like looking into a blazing fire that he had mixed feelings about extinguishing. So he let her brush her lips over his. She was unsure, he guessed, that could be the only reason for her hesitation. Eventually, though, she actually gave him the kiss. She pulled away quicker than he would have liked, but her hands were still linked with his.
He didn't even know her real name but he returned her interest. He was still weary, but he somehow wanted another kiss, even just a small one. Deep down he wondered, maybe if she loved him enough, she would help him save the world from her father. But could she turn from her nation like that?
But could he love a Fire Nation woman. One of status at that? Could he love her in spite of it?
As she brushed her fingers through his hair, he decided that he probably could, she was making it easy enough. Looking into Fire Nation eyes he had only ever seen fury and hate. But hers, they were different. They were calm yet vivid. They had a spark, as all firebender eyes seemed to have, but there was care, maybe love, in them.
He decided that he wanted to take the chance. That he wanted to love her despite it all.