Have I told you lately that I love you? Like, seriously, I love all you guys. You're the best. The very best. Like no one ever was. And, as a reward for being awesome, awesome people, here: the next chapter. A new chapter should always be it's own reward. Although, this chapter's significantly less crack than others. Also:
SEE BOTTOM FOR MORE NOTES.
Once Upon a Teashop
The moment Sokka stepped through the threshold of the Jasmine Dragon, he had been able to tell something was off. It wasn't anything largely significant that told him, more something his instincts screamed into his gut. If there was anything the watertribesman had learned in his life, it was that his instincts were rarely ever wrong (although, Katara and Aang would readily argue that point; Jet, too, although he had no basis for his argument. Zuko probably wouldn't care enough to answer). Two minutes later, his instincts had been proven right. Again.
Zuko had been looking at Jet, and he wasn't shooting mental fire in the Freedom Fighter's direction. The firebender hadn't been scowling, either, though—his brow was furrowed, and lips twisted downward, but there was no obvious aura of hostility. And, clearly, from the relatively large number of people that had been sitting in the area Zuko usually served, Sokka wasn't the only one who had noticed.
Now, sitting and waiting for Iroh to get done counting the money to pay each of them, the unease from before was growing as he watched Zuko and Jet interact. Or, rather, he watched Jet sit next to the other boy and mindlessly chat to him while Zuko sat there with his arms crossed, a lack of scowl on his face, and his head tilted slightly in a way that suggested he might actually be paying attention and not completely ignoring Jet. The unreal situation was offset by purpling around Jet's nose and eye: a blatant sign that there were things horribly not right in the world.
There was a sick feeling in stomach slowly replacing his instincts, and Sokka half-recognized it as horror, even as a frown formed on his face.
'Oh dear Yue,' he thought to himself, 'What did I do?'
Because as annoying as Jet had been with his creepy, forceful efforts to get Zuko to notice him, the fact that Zuko did not currently hate the other jerk was indeed a problem. Besides, if there was one thing Sokka knew from both recent and former interactions with the ex-prince, it was that Zuko was, first, a bad decision maker, and, second, an even worse decision maker when it came to his interactions with other people.
Really, though, anyone who managed to befriend Jet—even if it was under false pretences and his true nature was quickly revealed, as was usually the case—was a bad decision maker. There was a reason that Sokka was the plan guy of his little group, and not Katara or Aang. And Toph was stubborn enough that if Sokka ever met his doom, she would take over as I-have-a-better-plan-than-Aang-or-Katara girl. Although, no: Toph being in charge of plans would be just as bad an idea. She was great in a fight, and had that whole 'waiting and listening' thing down, but she was entirely too stubborn, and liked the direct approach.
It had to just be a bender thing, Sokka decided. That was why he was the most stable and sensible out of all his friends and the other benders he knew. Jet might be crazy, but at least he always had things well-thought out, like the true non-bender he was. He wasn't flighty like Aang, or prone to acting without thinking like Zuko, or stubborn to a fault like Toph, or…watery, like Katara. He was just crazy.
Suki would probably be a better example. There was a nice, normal non-bender who was perfect! Sokka was sure that the Kyoshi Warrior always had a plan, and always made good choices. She'd kissed him, hadn't she? And she wasn't crazy.
'Well,' the brown-skinned teen sighed to himself as he continued to watch Zuko and Jet. 'At least Zuko's not, like, smiling at him or something. Then I know I'd have a problem. Not to mention, that'd be freaky.'
A beat passed, during which Jet sidled closer to Zuko and the former prince turned his nose up and slid away so that the same amount of distance remained between them. Sokka caught himself beginning to grin before he replaced his frown.
'Okay, clearly I've been spending way too much time around Zuko if I actually care what bad decisions the jerkbender makes with Jet.' He paused. 'Hah! Jerkbender. That's a keeper.'
Finally, Iroh emerged from the backroom, money pouches in hand. Quickly crossing the room, the stout old man approached Sokka with a broad smile. Sometimes, Sokka wondered how Iroh and Zuko were even related.
"Here you go, Sokka," the friendly old man said, handing over one of the small clinking bags. "I greatly appreciate your help here; you really help out an old man. You, too, Jet." He turned to the Freedom Fighter, giving him his payment. "And you, as well, nephew."
Zuko took what was offered, a mumbled "Thank you, Uncle," under his breath.
"Anyway, I'm gonna take off now," Jet declared, jumping to his feet. "Smellerbee asked me to stop at the market and get some stuff from one of the vendors for her. You coming, Sokka?"
Sokka blinked. Zuko blinked.
"I'm sorry; what?"
Jet stared at the smaller teen, one extremely crooked eyebrow raised and he continued to chew on his wheat stalk nonchalantly. "You heard me. You wanna come to the market with me?"
Sokka's lips turned down lower. He narrowed his eyes at his sister's ex and attempted to siphon off some of Zuko's firebending in order to burn holes into the crazy freak as he inspected him.
"…Sure, why not," he finally settled on, internally heaving a sigh. The blue-clad boy really didn't know why he did these things. His life would be much simpler if he never agreed to anything ever. He used to be like that, he mused sadly. Life was so much easier then. Just living in the South Pole, only worrying about food.
Jet was already heading to the door, so Sokka pushed himself to his feet, turning to the other two males. "Thanks, Mushi. Li. I'll see you tomorrow!" And then he strode to the exit.
"You don't want to go with them, nephew?" Iroh asked the instant the other two boys were out the door.
"Spirits, no," Zuko groaned, running a hand over his face. "I think this has been the most exhausting day since we got to this stupid city." The scarred teen didn't miss the raised eyebrow directed his way, and he scowled, crossing his arms. "What?" he demanded.
"Oh, nothing," replied Iroh, in the tone that always read 'There's definitely something, but I don't feel like sharing because it's about you. Would you like some tea?' "Have you thought about what I told you?"
"…Yes," he admitted, grunting the word out. "But I don't want to be friends with Jet."
"You two seemed pretty friendly today," the old man teased.
Zuko didn't answer. He just frowned more, his arms tightening. "Things were so much easier before. Why can't they just go back to how they used to be?"
"Before what?" Iroh asked, claiming the seat next to his troubled nephew.
"I don't know," he snapped. "Before the North Pole. Before we came to this spirits-damned city. Before, back when we were on the boat."
Iroh was silent for a second. And then he placed a hand reassuringly on his nephew's arm. "Change is a part of life, Zuko. In fact, there's an old saying that goes—"
"I don't want one of your sayings, Uncle," the scarred teen cut in.
xXxXxXxXxXx
"You know, I really have to thank you for your advice, Sokka," Jet grinned. There was a taunt in that, Sokka knew it, and Jet was just waiting for him to rise to it.
"You're welcome," Sokka finally said.
"You were completely right. I've been doing everything wrong. I apologized to Li, and he agreed to go with me to this festival they're having in the middle ring next week. I mean, he said you should come, too. But it's still basically a date. You'll just be like a third wheel."
And now Sokka was twitching. Today had been a great day for Jet, and the opportunity to grate on Sokka's nerves was just the sugar in the tea.
"What type of festival?"
Jet wanted to grin. He really did. Instead, he just shot the younger boy a slightly disbelieving look. "A beer festival," he replied. His tone clearly read, 'Obviously.'
Sokka stopped in his tracks. Jet had to backpeddle a bit to fully grasp the other boy's response, hoping he hadn't missed anything. Luckily, the part of the city they were in was relatively quiet, only a few people passing by the nicely blocked-off stream they were walking next to.
"Wait. You invited Z-Li to a beer festival. And he agreed to go."
"Yeah," Jet said. "You were totally right about it having nothing to do with him not liking me. I apologized, and now we're good."
"I want to say I'm surprised that you actually apologised, but I'm not. You would definitely apologize to get what you want."
Jet glared at Sokka. While it was true that he wasn't always above getting people to do what he wanted, whether by withholding information or telling them just what they wanted to hear, Jet had never once apologised for something he wasn't in the wrong about. If getting on people's good side was all he cared about, he would've apologised to Katara that day she left him iced to the tree. It wasn't like he needed her anymore or anything, but making enemies outside of the Fire Nation wasn't ever Jet's goal.
So what if an apology really was what Li had been waiting for? Jet knew he hadn't always been in the right. He'd been feeling like apologising for ages now. He'd tried to apologise that night on the roof, but it hadn't quite…come out. It was a bit weird that it had been Sokka who had prompted the sudden apology, but other than that, this was all Jet. He was determined to make Li like him. If apologising was what it took, then apologising was what he did. But only because he really had done some inappropriate things.
"I only apologised because I was wrong. I mean, I did accuse him of being Fire Nation and tried to get him arrested." And he hadn't actually apologised for that one until this morning, despite the fact that he knew he needed to.
Sokka was still staring at Jet doubtfully. He opened his mouth to respond, when all of a sudden he was interrupted.
"Sokk—Jet?"
The Freedom Fighter turned around to be met with a sudden, all-too familiar blast of water that sent him flying backwards. Katara. Right. Just what he needed right now.
"Sokka!" The girl demanded as she stormed forward, one hand ready at the water pouch to attack again. Aang followed behind her, a confused look on his face, trying to calm her down even as she turned on her brother. "What is Jet doing here, and why are you talking to him? Is this why you were…were…accusing me of things the other day? How long have you known about this! Why didn't you tell any of us?"
Sokka lifted his arms to pacify her. "Well…Toph knows. I mean, we've kind of been…working together? At the teashop I got a job at?"
"You told Toph, but not me?" And, okay, she was angry.
"Maybe you should give him a chance to explain," Aang tried, tugging on the waterbender's arm.
Jet pushed himself up, trying to wring the water out of his clothes as he cautiously approached the girl. "Katara, wait! I've changed!" he tried, but the girl whipped around and, with a shriek, sent him flying again.
"Katara!" Sokka exclaimed. "Calm down!"
"Calm down? Don't tell me to calm down! You're the one hanging around Jet!"
"Yeah, and do you think I'd be hanging around him if I thought he was up to no good?"
"But it's Jet!" she insisted, and then turned to Aang. "Well?" she demanded.
"Um…," the twelve year old replied, rubbing his hand over his bald head. "Normally, I might be inclined to agree with you because it's Jet, but I think we should at least trust Sokka. I mean, his instincts were right about Jet last time, weren't they?"
Right now, Sokka's instincts were still screaming that Jet was no good, and completely a problem—but just for Zuko.
"Thank you, Aang," Sokka said.
"I can't believe you're taking his side!"
"Well, are you going to keep shouting, or are you going to listen to me?" Sokka snapped.
Katara crossed her arms and glared.
"You both know I trust Jet the least out of all of us. But he's really not up to anything here. He's just trying to start over." 'And get into Zuko's pants,' he added mentally.
"I really have changed," Jet piped up, and that Sokka didn't believe. "I'm sorry about the way things went down between us last time."
"I don't believe you," Katara hissed. "Aang, I'm going to go put posters up over there, if you need me." And then she stormed away.
"Posters? What're you putting posters up for?" Jet asked. Aang's face fell, and Sokka sighed.
"We lost Appa. That's why we're in Ba Sing Se, actually. We've been trying to find him, and we know he got sold around here," he said.
"Well, if it helps, I'll be on the lookout for any news. I mean, it's got to be kind of hard to hide a flying bison in the city."
"Thanks, Jet," Aang replied. There was a large crashing noise from in the distance where Katara had run off, and the air nomad winced a bit. "I'm going to go make sure Katara's okay. Bye, Jet. See you, Sokka!" And then he was off.
Sokka and Jet stared at each other for a few seconds, before Jet broke the silence.
"So, about that festival next week."
Sokka snorted. "Right. You really think I'm going to let you take Li to a beer festival without me? Does he even know it's a beer festival?"
"Of course he knows." Somehow, Sokka didn't believe that. Zuko didn't seem the type to willingly subject himself to a beer festival, much less one where he had to endure Jet's company for any duration of time. But then again, Zuko was full of surprises. "But I didn't know you cared so much."
"I don't. But I also know you, and like I said before: this is just going to end badly. For both of you. So you should really stop." Another loud noise came from that same direction, and Sokka huffed. "I'm going to make sure my sister isn't causing any sort of massive public destruction. I'll see you tomorrow or whatever."
Jet watched as the other boy ran off. He smirked around his wheat stalk. Today had definitely been a great day.
TBC…
So, like I said, thanks people! Y'all are great.
The Zukka/Jetko vote is still on. How should this story end?
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