Warning: Takes place in Book Two: Earth during "City of Walls and Secrets" and contains heavy spoilers.
He hates him.
There's a lot of hate in his glare, lot of smoldering fury in that glower. It's hard to miss. It's hard to mistaken for anything else.
Longshot knows. So does Smellerbee.
But they don't get why Jet is so furious to begin with. He was angry long before he suspected – no, knew - that Li and his uncle were firebenders. The moment came when it was so obvious that Jet and Li were alike and it was so obvious that they were of the same stuff and was so obvious, so damned obvious, that Li was supposed to be with Jet –no, with the Freedom Fighters– because he knew, quite literally, what it was like to be burned by the Fire Nation –but in the end, Li still rejected him.
Back then, when Li was able to push aside the cowl of grief, he was Jet's. He smiled for Jet, fought for Jet, looked at Jet, and there was nothing more in the world that Jet could ask for, except maybe more than a look, more than a smile, and that he could actually be Jet's...
But things like that took time. They always took time. Not for Jet, though; no, he always falls hard and fast, desperately and passionately. He's just so sick of people running away. He's so sick of people being unable to look past his mistakes. He wants someone to love – no, respect – him for his whole being, and it felt like Li could be that one person...
Because Li has pain, too. Jet knows he does. He recognises it in those – beautiful, shining – yellow eyes, and for the first time in his life Jet actually wonders what another person's pain is like, wonders if it hurts Li to breathe and remember, wonders if Li finds it hard to sleep with the memories alive in his mind, just like him. Of course he does, he's just like me...
There also a cruelty there, in those eyes, one that Jet also knew all too well. It was a kind of animal-like cruelty, one that comes only when that animal has been mistreated far too many times and is desperate for it all to end. All Jet wants is to cup that wounded face into his hands and just listen to it all, actually listen to someone else's pain and try to help it heal and vanish while kissing the tears away...
But it didn't end up that way.
Jet asked Li countless times to join his group. He said it casually, with a cocky grin; he said it somberly, with a careful tone; he said it desperately, with an eager face.
But Li said no. Said that Jet doesn't want him.
But Jet does and not just for his "little gang". Jet wants Li, more than he has ever wanted anyone in his whole life. He wants to heal him, possess him, make him cry out his name and then hear himself say Li's name in just the same way. He wants to taste Li, lick Li, kiss his scars and his pain and swallow them away, wants to hold Li to him and make him listen to his heartbeat and assure him over and over that you are not alone, you are not the only one, I understand you, I understand you…
But Li rejected him. And now Jet wants to hurt him.
His heart aches and rages, a ball of wounded flesh within flesh. He wants to make Li pay for breaking his heart, wants to see him cry in regret, wants to hear him plea for mercy. He wants Li to beg for forgiveness, and he wants to reject Li, just like Li rejected him, so that he would know what it feels like.
He wants to do horrible things to Li for his rejection. He wants to steal him away, possess him without consent, make him scream out his name instead of whisper it, make him plea and beg for mercy, for so much as daring to hurt Jet…
He wants to humiliate Li, just like Li humiliated him, he wants to see that face – that lovely, lopsided face – crumple with disappointment and the pain of betrayal just like Jet's heart did within his breast when Li rejected him so casually…
All of this runs through his mind as he stands before the teashop door, his hands on the hilts of his hookswords. He is shaking, he's so consumed with – love, desperation, need – no! Hate! He hates him! He hates him so much! I hate Li so much!
I love him so much, but I hate him much more!
He grits his teeth, the pulse of anger hotter than the bluest flame. With a snarl, he lunges through the doors, fully intent on taking Li's life – or taking his own.