When I said slow-burn I kinda meant there'd be no kissing/smut/nonsense of any kind until later in the story, like way later, maybe the middle. There will be romantic tension though (which neither will act upon until maybe after the smut (maybe))! I'm a mess! I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender!

Fault-finding eyes watch the sword master go through and explain the more complex maneuvers. Jet's mind already noting the possibilities of a takedown as well as perfecting it by adding his own flair to the mix. It had been eleven days since he'd begun his training with the teachers, whom of which were reluctant to give him lessons due to both his heritage and social status, but oh how it was worth the criticism and doubt when he got to see the looks on their pompous faces once he passed their teachings with ease – the young Earth Kingdom boy had soaked up all they had to teach him, all he needed to know about swordplay and arts to defeating his opponents. These lessons extending as far as how to subdue a firebender with just his weapons. If things continued on the way they were, he would surely be ahead of the schedule he'd set for himself.

"Your turn."

Without missing a beat, Jet rises from his spot upon the grassy field and takes the teacher's spot. Standing before the man, the young boy imagines cutting him down where he stands, just to get rid of that infuriating look of disgust he wears, wooden sword or not. Turning his gaze towards the palace wall, he concentrates on nothing in particular as he glides through the motions, the wooden sword cutting through the air with just as much intent to kill as a real one.

Finishing off the move with an added flair meaning to taunt the older male, Jet turns mocking eyes upon his teacher who looks torn between glaring and remaining stoic faced.

"There is nothing more I can teach you."

Jet smirks, "As if there was anything you could teach me to begin with."

The tanned boy resists the urge to laugh out loud at the scowl darkening his teacher's face:

"Ah ~ hello!" Jet frowns at the familiar voice calling out to them, "How goes training ~ ?"

"Well." the teacher steps forward, bowing in way of greeting, "He's learned all I can teach him."

Jet stops listening and stabs the end of the wooden sword into the dirt before sitting next to it with his back turned on the adults, he takes to glaring at one of the many palace windows, in fact, he'd forgotten about the young Prince. Prince Zuko who had slapped him during their first meeting, who called him a monster, who said he didn't approve of what Jet did to the soldier but didn't want him to die either. Prince Zuko who talked to him as if they were equals, who looked at him as though he were just like any other person instead of Earth Kingdom trash – brought him food as though it were no big deal. The soft-hearted Prince who had a love for turtle-ducks.

Perhaps he could make the young boy's death as quick and painless as possible.

"That boy makes me uneasy, General Iron." the sword-master mutters, both adults looking at the hunched over child, "There are days when he is quiet, watching me like an animal waiting for me to let my guard down. Then there are days when he spits foul words and threatens like he is possessed by an evil spirit."

"It is the days he is quiet that you should be on your guard, Chun."

"General, I am being serious!"

"As am I." Iroh laughs, "But do not worry; a feral heart needs but a compassionate soul."

"I do not understand G - ,"

"It is time we see the young Prince before he gets too impatient, Lion-Heart ~ !"

Both Iroh and sword-master Chun watch the boy rise from his spot on the ground, dust off his pants, and walk past them with little acknowledgement. Already knowing the path to the gardens. Chun gives Iroh a see what I mean look, but the old General merely smiles and bow politely.

oOo

"Sword master Chun informs me that he has no more to teach you." Iroh states thoughtfully as he follows a few steps behind Lion-Heart through the palace halls, "Perhaps it is time we start teaching you about the royal family and their possible enemies."

"I don't care about the royal family or their stupid enemies."

"But you must or - ,"

"Why don't you take your friends and go somewhere else?"

"Aww – don't you want to play with us, Big Brother?"

"No!"

Brows pinching at the absurdity of hearing the soft-hearted Prince yelling, Jet pushes the door open and steps out into the shade of the walkway's roof, followed shortly by Iroh. Near the tree, the Prince is frowning at three girls he's never seen before, each wearing different clothing and hairstyles – and that's basically all Jet can see, considering their backs are facing him. Although, neither party notices their arrival.

"Why not ~ ?" the same girl asks, faux sweetness woven into her tone, "Want to keep the peasant all to yourself ~ ?"

"He's not a peasant and no – I just don't trust you."

"Why, Zuzu!" the girl proclaims, sounding scandalized, "I'm hurt. I really am. But you know ~ the moment you let him live, was the moment he became a Fire Nation slave. So, he belongs to the whole family, and not just you."

"He isn't a slave Azula."

Jet frowns, his fingers itching to wrap around the Princess's throat.

"Oh Brother, I wouldn't expect you to understand. What with you treating him like our equal, instead of a commoner, or well, your equal."

Jet can see Zuko's brows knit and his fists clench, just as the young Prince is about to retort, Iroh brushes past Jet and steps out into the light. For once, he figures he might as well keep his mouth shut and follow the old man's lead:

"What is going on here?"

"Uncle Iroh ~ ." the Prince turns on her heel, face the picture of innocence, "Zuzu and I were just talking, he won't let us play with him and his friend."

"I see." Iroh hums, he looks down at Jet, "What do you think, Lion-Heart? Shall we let the girls stay?"

"No." Jet spits without a second thought. Taking pleasure in seeing the Princess's expression falter. "They're a bunch of girls."

"But I - ,"

"Come now Azula," Iroh gently leads the Princess towards the palace, her two friends following after them, "I'm sure there's plenty of other places for you and your two friends to play at."

Watching the doors close, Jet hears Zuko huff after a while, craning his neck, he sees the Prince making his way towards the shade of the tree. Instinctively, he follows as the soft-hearted boy sits with a pout, amber eyes trained on the family of turtle-ducks swimming within the pond.

"Your sister?" Jet finally speaks.

Zuko blinks, shocked eyes looking at him almost quizzically, it soon passes though as the boy turns a glare to the pond, "Yeah."

"And the two girls?" Jet sits an arm's reach away from the Prince.

"Her friends." Zuko sighs, "I don't know much about them, but they're pretty weird."

"How?"

"The girl in the pink, her name is Ty-Lee and she's always so happy every time I see her, no matter what, she's happy, even when Azula is being mean. And the other girl, Mai, she's just so quiet, she hardly speaks and sometimes I forget that she's there." Jet stares at the pond, its silent until Zuko speaks again, "You know, this is the most you've talked to me since the day we met." Jet blinks, watches the black-haired boy look at him seconds before a rather flattering shade of pink dusts his cheeks and quickly looks away, "I mean – I don't mind that you never talk, it's just – I thought I'd point that out since - ,"

"Jet."

"Huh?"

"My name," Jet explains, "My name is Jet."

"Jet?" Zuko looks at him, so he nods, when the Prince looks to the skies, Jet begins to expect a mocking comment from him. "I don't think I've met a person named Jet before – I like it." he did not expect that, "Does this mean you're going to talk more?"

Jet finds himself saying, "Depends."

"On what?"

"How well you keep a secret."

"A secret?" Zuko repeats, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't want anyone else knowing my name."

"Why?"

"Just because." Jet snaps, "I don't want no one else to know and you gotta keep it a secret or I'm not talking to you anymore."

Thinking his threat was perfectly legitimate, Jet watches the young Prince go through severl motions, each showing clearly on his face, until he nods:

"Okay, but, what if there are people around?"

"Then you keep calling me Lion-heart."

"Okay."

Silence.

"Do you think you're better than me just because you're a Prince?"

"I – no? I don't know?" Zuko draws his knees to his chest, gaze concentrating upon the pond's waters, "I know I'm supposed to, and I know that others do, but I don't really care."

"You're so different than you sister."

"I know." Zuko sighs, "My dad keeps reminding me, he thinks I should be more like her – he says I'm weak."

"That's stupid." Jet declares, "He's stupid."

Zuko glares at him, "But maybe he's right." he looks back to the water, "Azula's a lot better than me at, pretty much everything, especially firebending. When I was born, they weren't sure I was going to even be a firebender."

"You're a – firebender?"

"Yeah. Why?" Jet glares at his lap, with how kind the Prince is, he forgot what he was. "I'm sorry."

Jet spits, "For what?"

"For what happened to your village. I – I didn't know Fire Nation soldiers do that kind of stuff."

"Well – they do."

"I – when I take the throne I'll make sure nothing like that happens to anyone else."

Jet blinks, looking to the Prince, "Really?"

"Yeah, I – it isn't right, what they're doing."

Looking at his hands, Jet wonders if he should rethink his plans, "Okay, well, you wanna do something? All we do is sit around all day watching turtle-ducks."

"You never really said anything." Zuko states as though that made it obvious.

"Well, now I am ~ let's do something ~ !"

"Like what?" Zuko asks, peering up at the boy who gets a wicked grin crossing his features.

SUNSET

"Look ~ !" Zuko smiles, holding out a tan turtle-duck, "It looks like you ~ !"

"It doesn't even look like me!"

"Does too!" Zuko huffs, holding the duck to his chest and turning his back on Jet.

The fact that the Prince seemed to be offended on behalf of the turtle-duck had Jet laughing a genuine laugh that was until water was splashed in his face, spitting out the water that managed to make it into his mouth, he levels a look at the Prince through his wet fringe, the latter holding back his own laughter:

"You just made a big mistake."

"Oh yeah?" Zuko challenges.

Grinning, Jet tackles the Prince into the water, both boys laughing as they fall into the water, sitting back still laughing, Jet watches as the other boy sat up still grinning, but this time his hair was free from its tie. Feeling his face drop, Jet takes in the soft-hearted Prince's image; pale skin, cheeks flushed pink, smiling and laughing, soaked hair sticking to his skin – the tan boy felt something within his chest shift in a way he couldn't explain. The Prince was rather – pretty for a boy. Sitting back on his rear, he watches the Prince swipe his inky black hair from his forehead before opening his eyes, eyes that shone rather bright, a rather pretty color.

"Well now ~ ," Iroh's voice broke through, both boys turned to see the General standing with his hands in his sleeves, "It looks like you two had a fun time ~ ."

"Yeah we did ~ ," Zuko smiles, Jet goes back to frowning.

"As much as I hate to ruin such a wonderful moment, it is time we go Lion-Heart."

"Of course." Jet rolls his eyes, clambering from the pond with the Prince on his heels.

"See you tomorrow?"

Jet looks to the Prince and he still has that strange urge to smile, he nods, "Yeah."

oOo

After having his dinner delivered to his cell, they still wouldn't let him out, Jet moved to the hay piled he'd chosen of the ratty old looking bed, lying on his back with his arms pillowing the back of his head, he stares up at the stone ceiling, most of which seems like a gray blur within the dark of the prison. Thinking back on the day's events, his mind instantly picks out the moment during the play fight he and the Prince had in the pond, the emotion, or at least the wild boy assumes it's an emotion, had come from virtually nowhere, and without reason. Rolling on to his side, he buries himself deeper within the pile of hay; maybe he was over thinking things and it was merely the first moment of contentment he'd had since he'd been dragged here.

Whatever it was, it was over now and it wouldn't affect him or his plans:

Learn all he could about the Fire Nation. Get close to the royal family. As soon as they let their guard down, take them out, starting with weakest to strongest – which means the Prince?

His train of thought falters, somehow the thought of killing the Prince doesn't seem right.

Okay, start with the strongest to weakest.

Fire Lord Azulon seemed like an easy kill, he was an old man, but Prince Ozai and Zuko's mother probably slept in the same bed, which meant they'd be harder to kill as one would most likely wake.

So weakest to strongest.

It was more logically sound but –

The Prince.

Okay. Maybe he could start off with the Princess, Fire Lord Azulon, then the mother, and then Ozai.

What about Iroh?

Him too.

And Zuko?

He'll have to go too, save him for last.

Or?

Or maybe he could convince Zuko to leave the Fire Nation with him, he could show the boy the Earth Kingdom and they could be friends – Jet stops his traitorous mind. The entire family will have to go. No one can be spared. Closing his eyes in determination, he tries his best to ignore the thought plaguing the back of his mind. Lingering like a bad dream.

So, how'd I do ~ ?