There's a bit of smut later on, AngelaLeeHarden/WitnessMELosers helped with that, so be warned!
Milling about the Freedom Fighters base of operations, Jet shepherds his fellow Freedom Fighters with minor tasks such as cleaning or organizing which none of them really questions, thoroughly involving himself in whatever he could in an attempt to forget what went down between him and Zuko, as well as the look of hurt and utter hatred that had crossed the amber-eyed boy's features. Breathing deeply, he closes his eyes and runs a shaky hand through tousled, mahogany locks, but once he hears the heads-up he's been waiting for since he'd gotten back, he looks over his shoulder and spots The Duke waving him over, the boy must have spotted the others. As he makes his way towards the younger boy, he notices the rest of the gang giving him curious glances to which he waves off nonchalantly as he goes, all the while mouthing its cool. Standing beside the young Freedom Fighter, Jet peers over the edge of the circular platform where he sees both Smellerbee and Longshot standing beside the rope, both seem to be talking, most likely on who would get the rope first, but Longshot soon takes the girl under his arm – Jet's heart drops, where was Zuko?
His concerns are quickly dashed when he spots the firebender's familiar form, he lets out a breath of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding until then, he looks to The Duke and offers a trained smile that shows his gratitude.
"Thanks." Jet acknowledges.
The Duke smiles, "No problem, Jet."
The look The Duke sends his way before he leaves says it all, the young boy obviously knew that something was wrong with his respected leader despite Jet putting up his best face – Jet sighs, both Longshot and Smellerbee were now on the platform, Smellerbee was the first out of the two to see him:
"Thank you."
"We didn't do it for you." is all the girl says, both her and the silent archer walking passed him – by we, she had meant her and Zuko.
Jet sighs, "Still."
Movement from the rope pulling up captures his attention, Zuko was currently on his way up. Pursing his lips, he shifts his weight from foot to foot as he waits for the second they stood face to face; he'd be lying if he were to say that he wasn't the slightest bit nervous. Just as Zuko finds his footing, their eyes lock on one another, Jet offers a strained smile to which Zuko returns with a spiteful glare.
"What do you want?" Zuko spits, voice acidic.
"I – came to apologize." Jet murmurs, looking away due to his own shame creeping up on him, "All of those things I said, to you, they were uncalled for. I just, I don't know – I wasn't thinking clearly is all."
"You never do." came Zuko's bitter reply.
"I - ," Jet took a steadying breath, "The thing is, recently, since the uh – y'know."
"Yes."
"Well, ever since then, I just, something changed – in me, I don't know what it is exactly, I just, whenever I see those Fire Nation bastards, I get so angry and I, I can't help myself. I have to do anything I can to get rid of them, every single one of them." he looks to Zuko for some sort of confirmation; he gets nothing, "No matter what."
"And I understand, I really do." Zuko frowns coolly, "But does this personal vendetta extend to me as well?"
"No!" Jet exclaims a little too loudly, causing Zuko to arch his one good brow, "No, you're – you're special, you mean so much to me, Zuko," he approaches said teen, placing a hand upon Zuko's shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze, "I love you."
Zuko blinks up at Jet with unimpressed eyes, a derisive snort escapes him as he smacks Jet's hand off his shoulder, the action causing Jet to blink a little in surprise, he looks to the younger teen for any signs of what the boy might be thinking. Confusion and a hint of fear are evident in the taller boy's features, and although this is clear as day to Zuko, he just can't bring himself to care, instead, he pins Jet with a heated glare.
"Do you honestly think I'll just fall back into your arms with a simple apology?" sneers Zuko, "If so, then you underestimate the extent of this little problem we seem to be having. You're bright, Jet." he sidesteps the older teen, "Just not when it comes to the emotions of another, or yours for that matter."
Saying all that he needed to say at the moment, Zuko walks away with Jet watching him leave without so much as a second glance, throwing his head back, the Freedom Fighter leader rakes his hands through his hair, a move riddled with anxious energy. Yeah, he was probably expecting a bit too much, thinking a simple apology would placate the firebender. Brows knitting, Jet slumps against the tree's rough bark, apologizing obviously didn't work since the other threw it back in his face – so what more did he have to do?
Lunch time finds Jet wandering the many platforms, bridges, and huts looking for Zuko when he should be eating like the rest, just as he starts to consider himself something to eat, he spots Zuko sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of a platform, his own bowl of meat stew held in his lap. Smoothing his clothes down and readying himself, Jet swaggers towards his target with a large bouquet of flowers hidden behind his back.
"Hey." Jet greets smoothly, sitting himself beside Zuko who gives him an unimpressed look, "I gotcha these ~ ."
As he hands the bouquet off to Zuko, he makes sure they make some sort of physical contact, as little as it may be, such as their fingers touching or brushing against one another – watching as the firebender seemingly inspects the bouquet that had been presented to him, the plants catch fire suddenly, the sight of the roaring flames making Jet jump. The burning bouquet is then tossed over the edge, Zuko getting to his feet, not caring to stay and watch the bouquet hit the ground, Jet soon finds a bowl of warm stew on his head and hears the sound of Zuko's footsteps walking away, but not before he hears the firebender call out to him.
"You might want to make sure those don't catch the forest on fire."
A sigh escapes Jet, he can feel chunks of meat sliding down his shirt, and it's an unpleasant sensation that makes his skin crawl. About ten minutes later after ordering some of the Freedom Fighters lounging about to scan the forest floor and taking a quick bath in the cold river after Zuko had dumped the rest of his lunch all over him, Jet sets off in search of Zuko who he finds helping the twin sisters with the firewood, he sidles up beside the pale teen, the latter continuing to work even as the two sisters stop their respective work upon seeing their leader freshly clean and ready to charm.
"I made this for you." Jet says as he hands over a small, wooden flame to Zuko, it was something he'd finished after his bath, "Like it?"
Instead of replying, Zuko tosses it onto the firewood that was being used to keep the fire, that kept the lunch warm, alive, the twin sisters gasp as all four watch the little wooden flame start to blacken and go up in flames, Zuko stands, dusts his pants off, and starts to walk away, leaving Jet to pout and the sisters to console him. Twenty minutes later, Jet finds Zuko helping Longshot with creating a few makeshift arrows, and just as he is about to give Zuko his latest present, which took him considerably longer to make, Zuko just up and walks away without saying a word to either him or Longshot.
"Oh c'mon." Jet huffs, "You didn't even give me a chance that time."
But five minutes later he manages to find Zuko and stop the firebender in his tracks completely, Zuko looks at him, features devoid of any emotion except for annoyance, his arms are crossed just below his chest, eyes narrowed, and hip jutting – the ex-Prince looks pretty damn sexy, of course, Jet's mind chooses that exact moment to throw itself in the gutter. Pulling himself together, he hands over the poem he'd written, to which Zuko crumples up and sets on fire.
"You didn't even read it!" Jet exclaims with a pout.
"I don't need to read it to know it sucks."
Is all Zuko says as he blows the ashes in Jet's face, coughing, Jet swipes at the air, when he opens his eyes to glare at the firebender, he finds that Zuko is already walking away, swearing under his breath, Jet jogs a little until he manages to catch Zuko:
"Here." Jet places a pouch of money into Zuko's hands, "Have some money."
"I'm not some whore, Jet." Zuko growls, he looks at the money pouch, "What do I need it for anyway?"
"I don't know!" Jet is exasperated, "Just take it, it's a gift!"
"It'll make a good donation." Zuko says, walking away.
Thirty minutes later with his new gift in hand, Jet starts his search for Zuko, only to learn that he was out on a hunt with Lang, a part of Jet feels a little tense at the idea of both boys being alone together. Jet groans as he flops onto his back. About two hours pass before both Zuko and Lang show up:
"What took you guys so long?" Jet whines as soon as he spots Zuko and Lang.
"We couldn't find anything in the snares, or the traps, so we decided to hunt something down." Lang answers easily enough, "Which resulted in nothing."
"Huh." Jet hums thoughtfully, storing the piece of information away for later, "Well, Zuko, I got you something." he hands the entire bag over, "It's all yours!"
A curious expression crosses Zuko's features as well as Lang's, Jet tries not to puff up at the firebender's curiosity, Zuko begins rummaging through the bag, pulling out a shiny jeweled necklace, there were a variety of other jewelry within the bag, he places the necklace back into the bag. Just as Jet thinks he'd won, Zuko hands it to Lang.
"Give these to some of the girls around here."
Jet lets out an exasperated groan as Zuko walks away from them, Lang gives Jet an awkward pat on the back with his clawed gauntlet – Smellerbee doesn't know how long it's been since they came back as she wasn't particularly caring about the time, but now she wishes she'd at least bothered to ask once she catches on to the fact that Jet has been trying to weasel himself back into Zuko's good graces, like now. Watching Jet, the great and fearless leader of the Freedom Fighters who despises all people and things Fire Nation with a vengeance, slave over Zuko, a firebender and the ex-Prince of the Fire Nation, who was starting to get fed up with all his ridiculous attempts. At this point, Smellerbee wonders if they even remember why they're like this in the first place, if Jet wasn't doing all this because his pride was wounded when Zuko hadn't succumbed to his charms, if Zuko wasn't letting Jet wear himself out because he found it all rather hilarious, but she couldn't make assumptions since she'd long ago stopped trying to make sense of their relationship dynamics.
Someone approaches her, standing to her left as she watches Jet seemingly complaining to Zuko who watches with a grimace, when she looks to the Freedom Fighter at her side, she sees that it's none other than Pipsqueak, the man wearing confusion on his face:
"What's going on with Jet and Zuko?"
"I don't know."
oOo
Body aching, Jet plops himself down beside Longshot who was currently keeping watch for any movements within the forest, be they friend or foe, and starts ranting to the silent Freedom Fighter out of nothing better to do:
"He's not making this easy! I've tried everything I can think of and nothing is working! I can't give him gifts, he'll just burn them! I can't talk to him because he's ignoring me! And he won't take an apology! He's so stubborn it's driving me crazy!"
Longshot shrugs.
"C'mon, you've got to have an idea, something I haven't tried yet."
Longshot lifts a lone brow.
"I'm not singing." Jet frowns, he sits up with a heavy sigh, "I'll just embarrass myself and he'll probably just gag me."
Longshot just watches Jet get to his feet and leave, the archer wondering why Jet even bothered coming to him if he wasn't going to take his suggestion seriously, he wonders if the two are even taking this fight seriously anymore – it was almost time for dinner and so far, nothing Jet has tried has gotten through to Zuko, it was frustrating and was starting to consider giving the firebender a piece of his mind, speaking of, Jet spots Zuko walking towards him from the opposite side of the bridge, the two glare at each other as they stop in front of one another in the middle of the bridge, this one being one of the smaller bridges.
"Zuko."
"Jet."
"I'm done trying to ask for your forgiveness."
"Oh?" Zuko starts airily, "Is that what you were doing? I thought you were playing around?"
"What the fuck made you think I was playing around?!"
"Please tell me you're not serious." Zuko then scoffs, arms crossing over his chest, "It was ridiculous!"
"Oh go fuck yourself!"
Zuko narrows his eyes, "You're just mad because I didn't fall for your charm like everyone else, in case you didn't know, not everyone is going to do what you want just because you tell them what they want to hear and use big gestures!"
"At least I know how to charm people unlike your frigid ass!"
"Right, like I want to live in a tree house and play soldier!"
"If you got that huge stick out of your Fire nation ass you would realize that's what you've been doing for years!"
"I'm not the one with a stick up my ass! You hate the Fire Nation, but you've been fucking Fire Nation royalty! You're just a hypocrite!"
Jet yells as he tackles Zuko, the two falling onto the planks of the bridge and making it bob, getting his feet between his and Jet's body, Zuko uses his strength to kick Jet over him, the Freedom Fighter skidding a little before righting himself, when he does, his eyes widen when he sees Zuko already lunging at him, they fall over once more. Zuko raises his fist to punch Jet, but the latter rolls out of the way and off the bridge, Zuko's eyes widen, he crawls to edge, looking for any sign of Jet below, but the bouncing of the bridge gives Jet away, Zuko turns and barely darts out of the punch's reach. Getting to his feet, he backs up as he blocks Jet's hits, he's doing well so far, until his back hits the rough bark of a tree, he looks to scan his surroundings when Jet takes that moment to pin him against the tree, he grabs Zuko's shirt lapels with one fist and slams him into the tree, Zuko hisses despite the fist poised to hit him.
"You don't know what you do to me!" Jet snaps, "You drive me so crazy I'm surprised I'm even half as sane as I am!"
"Like you're one to talk!" Zuko spits, "Everything you do is ridiculous and over the top! I'm surprised I'm still here at all!"
Jet crowds Zuko's body with his own and slams their lips together, Zuko moans into the messy kiss and wraps his arms around Jet's neck, hitching his leg on Jet's hip, Jet wedges a leg between Zuko's thighs, rubbing against the other's rapidly hardening cock, tugging at Zuko's sash with a single hand as the other holds Zuko's leg up while Zuko himself slips a hand into Jet's own pants and pulls his already hard cock out of his pants, Zuko struggles with stepping out of his pants, when the article is gone, Jet grabs Zuko's other leg and lifts him up, Zuko's hold on Jet tightening, Jet growls into their kiss and rests Zuko's back against the tree for support, pulling away, he spits onto his hand and lubes himself up, guiding the head of his dick to Zuko's entrance, he lifts his hips up, the head popping inside with the tiniest bit of resistance, it feels a bit awkward, but they're too dizzy to care as they return to swapping spit – Zuko moans when Jet sinks inside him, Jet's body curled around him, keeping him from the view of the world, but there's still so much clothing in the way.
Zuko tightens his hold on Jet's clothing and whispers reverently, "Jet."
Jet licks a stripe up the side of Zuko's neck, "I got you, Babe."
"Jet?"
Both boys freeze when they hear a child's voice.
Jet swallows, "Yeah?"
"Are you on the platform above me?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm - ," he looks to Zuko who shrugs, "I'm carrying Zuko to bed."
"Oh, did he fall asleep?"
"Yeah."
"Did you two make up?"
"Yup, and now I got to get him to bed."
"Okay, I'll save you some food ~ !"
"Thanks!"
"Spirits." Zuko mutters under his breath.
Jet presses a kiss to his lips, "Let's finish this back in the bed."
"I'm fine with that."
Jet pulls out and let's Zuko down, the firebender struggles to get his pants back on, but soon they're on the move and arrive at their shared hut with no more incidents, Jet starts removing his clothes as Zuko moves towards the nightstand, he finds the oil and turns back towards the bed, a proper bed that had been made for them, Zuko leans over Jet and presses a kiss on his lips, he moves his lips along smooth skin and bites at the area just below Jet's jaw, Jet swears.
"I want to feel you." Zuko purrs.
"Spirits, go ahead." Jet wheezes, "Whatever you want, just do something."
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of you ~ ."
oOo
Grumbling to himself, Zuko arches his back in hopes he'll be able to relieve some of the tension put there due to the fact that he and Lang had to lug that damned animal carcass back by themselves since Jet had taken the others to stake out some Fire Nation patrol, or whatever, Zuko hadn't really been paying attention considering he and Jet had woken after a rather splendid night of sex, that and he'd been enjoying the sight of Jet trying to walk without that limp.
"Yo, Zuko." Lang's voice cuts through his train of thought.
"Yeah?"
"I hear Jet brought some company over, why don't you go help them out." Lang gestures towards the animal, "I'll finish up here."
Zuko asks, "You sure?"
"Yeah, I'll because I'm missing a hand doesn't mean I'm useless or anything ridiculous like that."
"I – no! No! That isn't what I - !"
Lang chuckles, "Yeah, I know what you mean, I was just pulling your leg."
"Are they new members?" Zuko asks.
Watching Lang skin the animal with his clawed gauntlet with hard-earned precision, the gauntlet was something he'd gotten a while back from a traveling peddler, the insides were hollow and it was made of metal but moved like a real hand, and he wouldn't let anyone see how it worked no matter how much someone pleaded.
"I dunno – one of them's the Avatar from what I hear."
Zuko feels time stop, "The Avatar?"
Instantly he takes off, causing Lang's brows to knit from confusion at his sudden interest, the dusky-skinned male just shrugs it off in the end and continues with his task, after all, he'd be a little interested in seeing the Avatar too if he hadn't already seen him when Jet brought them in – Zuko jumps over the rope railing and lands heavily upon a bridge below with a loud thump, too anxious to muffle his landing, straightening up, he spots Jet's familiar figure as well as three newcomers, one he instantly recognizes from the many wanted posters that had been posted around the villages: the Avatar.
Man, it begins!
