Long Way to Happy Chapter 1: Long Way to Happy, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

This is intended to be a one-shot Longerbee/Smellershot story set after Lake Laogai. I may turn it into an actual story, depending on how much I like the results .

So if you want for it to continue…review!

Song (in italics) "Long Way to Happy" – P!NK

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One night to you
Lasted six weeks for me
Just a bitter little pill now
Just to try to go to sleep

She couldn't sleep. She couldn't think; the world was moving around her and yet, she couldn't see a bit of it. The world had gone dark; it would never again alight for her. The dark recesses of her mind refused to release their steely grip on her spirit. She had been engulfed by her situation; how depressing her life had become. What had happened? How had they gone from thriving, living in the trees with each other, their own community, to this? From nearly fifty of them, to only two. Two. Only her, her and Longshot. What had happened?

Jet was gone. Gone! The most important person in her life…he was simply gone. Her mentor, her brother in everyway except biologically, her savior. One of the only two people in the world who encouraged her, no matter how bleak the outlook.

He was gone.

No more waking up to innocence
Say hello to hesitance
To everyone I meet
Thanks to you years ago
I guess I'll never know
What love means to me but oh
I'll keep on rolling down this road
But I've got a bad, bad feeling

They had left Ba Sing Se. Fled, avoiding the Dai Li at every turn as they struggled to break out of the great cage the walls created. It hadn't taken them too terribly long; they had been out of the city long before Jet's body had even been found.

Jet's body; no longer a person. Just a nameless corpse that would be buried in a nameless grave; if buried at all. She couldn't stand the thought of him rotting away, no one to mourn him.

But she would mourn him; life would not be the same without her leader. The one who had guided her for so long. Now she couldn't quite piece her life together; without Jet to hold it in place. Her fingers curved, grimy, chewed nails digging into the softly rotting wood of the platform on which she sat, shoulders slumped, legs dangling listlessly over the side.

It's gonna take a long time to love
It's gonna take a lot to hold on
It's gonna be a long way to happy, yeah
Left in the pieces that you broke me into
Torn apart but now I've got to
Keep on rolling like a stone
Cause it's gonna be a long long way to happy

But she wasn't giving Longshot enough credit.

He had been terrific; somehow disregarding his own feelings to salve her broken ones. "Smellerbee," He had whispered in her ear, holding her in a tight embrace after Jet had taken his last breath and she had been unable to control the irrepressible sobs that she muffled against his shirt, "He went the way he would have wanted to," He had continued; his voice slightly rough from its usual lack of use, "And I'm sure he's proud of you."

Longshot had been terrific.

He had kept her on her feet; refusing to allow her to wallow in her own misery for too long. He had prodded her along, urging her to return with him to their old home in the trees. They both were aware that their old friends; Pipsqueak, the Duke, and all the rest, wouldn't be there any longer.

But they needed closure.

Left my childhood behind
In a roll away bed
Everything was so damn simple
Now I'm losing my head
Trying to cover up the damage
And pad out all the bruises
Do you know I had it
So it didn't hurt to lose it
Didn't hurt to lose it
No but oh
I'll keep on rolling down this road
But I've got a bad, bad feeling

The world around her was a familiar one. Where she had lived since the age of seven. Since Jet had found her wandering; practically lifeless. She had lived with him as their company grew, as did she. Morphing into the tomboy she was at the present.

She no longer bothered to think of her life before Jet. Before the Freedom Fighters. It was pointless. There was nothing for her there; only the future held any promise.

But now even that seemed bleak.

She felt the tears well up in the back of her heavily shadowed eyes. Smellerbee wasn't the kind of girl, wasn't the kind of person, who cried heavily. But she couldn't…her mind, she refused to release Jet. Refused to accept that he was gone.

To her he had been a god.

And gods didn't die.

Now I'm numb as hell and I can't feel a thing
But don't worry about regret or guilt cause I never knew your name
I just want to thank you
Thank you
From the bottem of my heart
For all the sleepless nights
And for tearing me apart yeah yeah

The tears burst forward in a mangled sob, her awkwardly trimmed shag cutting forward to brush against her gaunt, if still somewhat cherub cheeks. Restrained by the dark headband that covered her forehead and shaded her eyes, the brown locks struggled to crowd her face and impair her vision.

Tears rolled down her cheeks; though Smellerbee sobbed no more. The wood of the platform creaked awkwardly; though she took no noticed until a familiar scent and arms encased her small frame.

"Longshot." She murmured into his shirt as she pressed her face against it, breathing in his familiar scent of cedar and some sort of oil he used on his bow. He held her closely, tucking her head against his collar bone and resting his chin on her crown. The stoic gaze of his steely eyes looking out over the trees.

"He's gone." She continued, tilting her head back to look up at him, tears having smeared the crimson war paint on her jaw line, "What are we going to do?"

It's gonna take a long time to love
It's gonna take a lot to hold on
It's gonna be a long, long, long, long way to happy, yeah
Left in the pieces that you broke me into
Torn apart but now I've got to
Keep on rolling like a stone
Cause it's gonna be a long long way to happy