.:b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l:.:l.i.e.s:.

"Why didn't you just let me die?"

Jet turned with a smirk as she spoke. So she was just some suicidal little girl.

"Now why in the world would I do a thing like that? You're not Fire Nation, are you?" He asked, squatting down next to her. Her eyes were beautiful, like the rest of her, even if they were full of so much hate. They were so bright, a color he had never seen before, "Besides, you're too pretty. What kind of guy would I be if I just let a pretty girl like you just die, hmm?"

Azula didn't speak. She only stared him down. She didn't like that he was this close to her, especially after he made that indirect threat to her life. She could feel his warm breath going down her neck. Not many things ever made Azula nervous, but this boy was. There were a million things she could say to him right now, a million ways she could kill him, even if she was wounded. But none of the things she could do or say would keep her true identity a secret. Mentally, the princess slapped herself, cursing her normally cunning wit for not being there for her when she needed it the most.

"One, I don't know why you'd do something like that, two, I'm not Fire Nation, I was born and raised here in the Earth Kingdom and three, why should I care what kind of guy you are?" Azula spat coldly, lying like she always did. Jet only laughed at her comments. He picked up her half eaten lunch and stood, handing the plate to Pipsqueak.

"Here, you can have the rest of this, " Jet told him, Pipsqueak grinned and left, stuffing his face with Azula's leftovers, "Smellerbee, Longshot wanted to see you," Jet told her, she raised an eyebrow.

"He does not, you're just trying to get rid of all of us so you can be alone with girliegirl." Smellerbee snapped. The Duke giggled at Smellerbee's rotten words.

"Jet and Akuen, sittin' in a tree-" He was cut off by Smellerbee, who punched him in the arm.

"Shut up, stupid."

"Yeah? So what if I'm trying to get rid of you? She needs her bandages changed. I'm sure no one has changed them yet today, and plus, Smellerbee, you really should go find some clothes for her to wear."

"Are you just afraid you'll end up getting a nosebleed?" Smellerbee joked, "Come on, Duke. Let's go. You know how Jet gets over anything that has boobs."

"-But that water tribe girl didn't have boobs!" the Duke exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, Jet still thought she was hot."

"You two, shut your freakin' traps and get the hell out of here, alright?" Jet growled, a little blush tinting his cheeks. Azula quietly snickered to herself as Jet's two colleagues mocked him.

"Whatever." Bee mumbled, putting her hand on the Duke's shoulder to lead him out of the hut.

Finally, they were alone. As awkward as this would be, Jet was happy he would finally get a chance to talk to her. He wanted to know what the hell she had been doing so close to the river that she fell in. He just wanted to know everything he could about her. From what he could tell already, she was a little firecracker, ready to blow at any moment. Maybe this girl would prove to be a valuable asset to his band of rebels. Plus, even if Smellerbee was already berating the injured girl, Jet knew she'd enjoy having another female around the tree house.

"Sorry about them, they can be pretty immature at times but you'll get used to them...eventually," Jet said, smiling sweetly. Here came the awkward...

Silence.

"I'm also sorry if you didn't want to be saved, but hey, how was I supposed to know that? I just saw a pretty girl laying on the riverbanks unconscious. Any halfway decent guy would have come saved you."

A little more silence fell between them, but then Azula spoke.

"Its fine," She said softly, looking down at her arm in the splint. She tried to push past the wrappings and scratch a particularly annoying itch.

"So, we still haven't had a real introduction...I'm Jet and I'm the leader of this crazy group of rebels. We don't do much, but we mess with Fire Nation troops as much as we possibly can," He explained. Without emotion, Azula replied,

"Everyone must do their part."

"Yeah, exactly..." Yuck, another awkward silence, "So your name is...?"

"Akuen, thats all you need to know," Azula replied, the lie coming so naturally from her lips.

"That's a very pretty name, you know, "Jet complimented her, his voice growing soft and almost...almost a little bit seductive.

"...Thanks...I was named after my...grandmother," Azula told him, refusing to look up at him. She focused on trying to get some of the knots out of her long hair. It felt disgusting. Azula managed to get quite a few knots out of her hair, but then she came upon a rather stubborn one. After a few attempts at simply brushing through it with her fingers, Azula tried to pull it apart. That, however, only resulted in pulling hair that was close to the wound on the back of her head. With a short yelp, Azula's hand shot up to hold her pounding head. She grimaced, looking down at her blanket covered lap.

"Are you alright?" Jet inquired, Azula nodded.

"I'm fine," She snapped, softly rubbing her head.

"I should change that bandage for you..." Jet said, reaching for one of the spare, clean pieces of linen and the bottle of ointment.

"I can take care of myself, thank you, "Azula growled, snatching the bandage first, then the bottle. It was hard to grab things when one of your arms was tied up in a splint and was pulsing with pain. With her right hand, she attempted to reach up and untie the bandage, but it obviously wouldn't work. She was getting rather irritated, Jet could see. He sighed, smiling.

"Let me help you. It'll take you an hour to untie that knot at this rate."

"So? I don't care, I'd rather not have you--" Azula stopped mid-sentence, her eyes wide as he placed one of his hands over hers and pried it away from the knot. His hands were rough and calloused, hardly a pleasant feeling, "...touch...me..." Azula finished as he untied the knot effortlessly and then pulled the dirty bandage away from her head. Jet tossed it to the side and moved closer to Azula. He parted her hair where the wound was to inspect it. It was healing quickly and it was scabbed over nicely. It took every ounce of Azula's self control to not turn and burn this...Jet to a crisp. Didn't he know he was invading her personal space without permission? Honestly.

"I think it looks good enough to leave a bandage off, letting the air get at it will help it heal faster, " Jet said, ignoring her bitter words. He didn't care if she didn't want him touching her in any way, shape or form. He'd be the one to take care of her, regardless if she wanted him to or not. Until she was well enough to leave, she was his responsibility.

"Great, " Azula mumbled with a sigh, trying to cross her arms. She wasn't too sucessful though, with her left arm in a ratty splint. Regardless, Azula hoped her body language would send him the message that she wanted him to just to away.

Mission failed.

Jet plopped up against the side of a crate, relaxing a bit. He pulled out a piece of ragweed that he had tucked in his clothes and placed it in his mouth.

"So where'd ya come from, Miss Akuen?" He asked, almost sarcastically, but he was curious.

"None of your business, " Azula replied coldly, "And why do you care anyway?"

"Just because. Its not every day someone pops out of nowhere. I'm just curious," Jet explained, holding the weed between his fingers so he could speak, then replacing it between his lips.

"Curiousity killed the pumacat."

"Is that a threat?" Jet smirked, almost laughing at her simply because of the tone she used. Akuen was so bitter, so rude, but she was beautiful. That was one thing Jet couldn't deny even if he tried.

"Maybe it is. Keep asking questions and you'll find out, " Azula grumbled.

"Wow, you're a rather naughty girl, aren't you?"

"You have no idea."

---

Longshot had simply been practicing with his bow and arrow. Not that he really needed to, he already had enough skill to be a formidable foe to even the best Fire Nation YuYan archer. There just wasn't anything better to do. Pipsqueak was off doing...whatever Pipsqueak did, so was Sneers. And the Duke wasn't bothering him at all, he was probably just up to no good, playing pranks or clinging to Smellerbee. Longshot had a pretty good idea what Smellerbee was up to. She was probably off being bitter about that girl Jet saved. Longshot knew she was just being jealous, she was just used to being the only girl around.

"Hey, Longshot!" Smellerbee called, interuppting Longshot. His arrow ended up flying totally off course and went right past the tree he had been aiming at. Rolling his eyes, he turned to see Smellerbee. She had various articles of clothing thrown over her shoulders, a few pairs of pants, some old beat up tops which Longshot recognized as Jet's and she carried a few pairs of shoes, most with holes in the toes. Longshot raised an eyebrow, inquiring what in the world Smellerbee was doing and if he wanted to really know or not.

"Its all for that girliegirl. She needs some clothes so she isn't running around in her underwear. I came to see if you had any extra things you could donate to the cause. I dunno what's gonna fit her and stuff and I'd rather not have to keep running all around the trees to track down more clothes," Smellerbee ranted, Longshot only watched her, nodding softly. He slung his bow on his back and motioned for Smellerbee to follow him. She followed, juggling all of the clothes, sighing, Longshot stopped and snatched the pile she had thrown over her left shoulder.

"Thanks, but you really don't hafta do that, you know. I'm perfectly capable of carrying all of this myself. I'm not weak like girliegirl, "Smellerbee protested, trying to snag the clothing back from him. He wouldn't let her, though. Defeated, Smellerbee groaned, "Have you even seen her yet, Longshot? Aside from the day Jet dragged her here?"

Longshot shook his head, giving her a silent reply of "No, not really."

"You should go see her. She's so...gah, I really don't even know how to explain her. I don't like her...but you know that, I keep telling you that and you're probably ready to just punch me in the face, "Smellerbee continued, "I almost guarantee that you won't like her either...bleh, no I don't just because you're Longshot and you always show complete indifference to everyone and anyone and you never ever talk, so why am I talking to you?"

Longshot shrugged as he handed her a rope so they could swing down to the next platform. Smellerbee took it and swung down, landing gracefully, even if she was weighed down by all the cloth. Longshot came down right after her, landing right next to her on his feet, like a cat.

"I don't know, maybe because it just seems like you're actually listening to me, when you're probably not, but whatever..."

With a sigh that was barely there, Longshot turned on the balls of his feet and stepped right in front of Smellerbee. He looked down at her sternly, placing his hands on her shoulders. His gaze said something along the lines of,

"Of course I do, I always listen to you."

"You can't possibly-Ugh, you dumbass. I hate you." Smellerbee growled, pushing him away from her. She stomped past him, storming into his small tent. With a shrug and a smile, Longshot followed her into his tent. He kneeled down by his bedding and started looking through his neatly folded pile of clothes. Smellerbee plopped next to him, setting all the clothes she had already collected beside her. Longshot handed her a red tunic that was missing the sleeves. Smellerbee held it up and examined it, then tossed it on top of the pile.

"That looks like it'll fit over her chest nicely," Smellerbee said, Longshot rolled his eyes as he grabbed a pair of pants that he didn't particularly like and showed them to his female companion. Without holding them up, Smellerbee just added them to the pile too.

"I don't even know why the heck I'm collecting so many clothes for her, I mean, I already have more than enough, plus the other stuff that Jet's donating to the cause. I guess I'm just using this as an excuse to vent..."

After concluding that he didn't posess any more clothing he could give up, Longshot folded everything back up and then gathered all of the clothes Smellerbee had dropped on the floor up in his arms.

"I told you, you don't need help carrying this crap. I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself!" She protested, trying to grab the clothes from him, but he wouldn't let her. He held them up just high enough so she couldn't grab anything. Longshot almost laughed. Almost.

"Fine, you win, " Smellerbee declared, defeated. She crossed her arms and stomped out of the tent, Longshot trailing close behind with a big smile. He always thought she looked so cute when she got all angry at him like that.

---

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short guys! School has been eating at my brain, lol.