I'm sorry I took so long but I was helping AngelaLeeHarden with her story, Feral, and her possible future Jetko fic, that and I was trying to find out how to write chapter 22 of Walking Disaster. I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.
Beads of sweat trace paths across heated skin; he dodges a quick jab followed closely by another, stepping into his sparring partner's personal space. A fraction of a second passes where both combatants meet one another's eyes. Driving his fist into the man's gut, Jet takes a quick step back out of the man's swinging range and watches him double over, large hands flying to his stomach in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but surprisingly enough, the man is still standing after such an underhanded hit like that – he certainly is sturdier than most and Jet appreciates that. The man rights himself in time to see Jet's heel flying for his jaw; he spins out of the way and sends an open-handed chop for the teen's unguarded side. Jet brings his arm down, the hand connecting just above the bend of his arm, bringing his forearm up, he traps the man's arm and grabs a hold of his wrist, twisting it behind him, kicking the back of the man's knees causing the bulky man fall heavily to his knees.
"Why is it that every time I see you, you're always so disgustingly sweaty?"
Jet releases his sparring partner, doesn't bother glancing at Azula, "Please tell me this isn't a social call."
It's only been a week, but apparently that was enough for rumors of his supposed relationship with the Princess to circulate and catch like wild fire, the rumors stating that Jet's constant mockery was a way of attracting the Princess's attention, that their banter was them flirting with one another, and there is a potential spark there, one that Jet would explore if he hadn't known how nasty Azula could get. There was no way he was going to forget or forgive her constant bullying of soft-hearted Prince Zuko – especially when he could vividly remember Zuko crying to Ursa, the young Prince sobbing about not understanding why Azula was so mean as he was only doing what he thought was right. Poor thing.
"Something on your mind?"
Jet comes to, he sees the annoyed look on Azula's face – his sparring partner is gone, "Uh yeah, you could say that."
"I hope it was worthwhile seeing as how you completely ignored me." Azula narrows her eyes, "So please, share whatever is on that decrepit mind of yours."
"Are you sure you want to know?" Jet moves to a nearby bench where he grabs a canteen of water, "I could be thinking about two girls getting it on."
Azula's nose wrinkles, the action reminds Jet of Zuko, "I very much doubt that, and if that were the case, you would be erect."
Jet chokes on the water and fights the urge to hide himself from view; he feels like he's losing some sort of game, "Just tell me what you want."
"You and I are weighed down by the royal procession." Azula starts, her eyes tracing Jet's face for any giveaway, "Therefore we will continue without the dead weight."
"Right," Jet snorts, he uses the water canteen as he gestures between the both of them, "And you expect us to capture both Iroh and Zuko alone?"
"Of course not. I know of your – fondness for my brother," she says, face scrunching at the thought, "So we will be enlisting the help of some old friends of mine."
"You have friends?" Jet can't help but blurt jeeringly, "Color me surprised." he can feel Azula's glare on him, his mind working in overdrive to guess at the names of these supposed friends, he pauses, "Wait – you don't mean Ty-Lee and Mai? Do you?"
"The very same." Azula hums, Jet tries to crush the surge of animosity that swells at the thought of the dour girl Azula hung out with, "Something wrong?"
"No," Jet offers a lecherous grin, "Not at all ~ I can't wait to see how they've filled out."
It isn't Mai's fault that Zuko likes his partners of the feminine gender.
Azula sneers at the lewd gesture Jet makes with his hands, "Remember that you are under my rule, I will not tolerate debasing of any kind."
"Unless it's you right ~ because I can think of so many things I could do with that little lightning bending you've got going on."
A look of anger, disgust, and something bordering on something dangerously close to self-consciousness flashes through Azula's livid eyes, she snarls at him before pivoting on her heel and making for the exit. Jet feels like he's just won. Satisfied with himself, he sits upon the bench and takes to staring at the metal ceiling overhead. If he were to use that line on Zuko, the Prince would turn a lovely shade of red and trip over himself as he tries to argue with Jet, which is never a good thing as the Prince never wins once he's flustered and tripping over himself. Unless the little bastard touches him and looks at him with those trusting golden eyes. A small smile crosses his lips as he thinks of his moody friend, unaware of just how much he affected the Princess whom of which held a frustrated hand to her chest in a vain attempt at calming her fluttering heart.
oOo
"Are you sure this is the place?"
"I'm sure." Azula replies, "I never make mistakes."
"Right, of course. What was I thinking?"
The Princess glares at the snarky boy, but other than that, she remains silent as she decides to concentrate on finding Ty-Lee and not on the proximity of the tall, tanned, and suddenly noticeably handsome adolescent at her side. But try as she might, she couldn't ignore the bravado coming off Lion-heart in waves. After last night, and the vulgar comment he'd tossed her way, she hasn't been able to get her traitorous heart and mind under control – her mind often wandered to scenarios where she would touch the tanned skin, marvel at his physique, wondering how it would feel to be entrapped within his arms, meanwhile her heart flutters and does something unpleasant when she thinks of these things, like now, her heart beats faster in the presence of the over-confident and self-righteous boy. These thoughts and feelings were disgusting. Soft. Weak. Like Zuko. But perhaps that was why their Uncle, Mother, and even Lion-heart favored him over her, perhaps they looked at Zuko and saw someone who was weak and needed protecting – something didn't set well with that theory, but she refused to think of anything other than that being the drive behind their noticeable interest in her wimp of a brother despite her being stronger and more talented.
"Wait," Lion-heart starts, bringing her from her thoughts, he looks to her, "How the hell am I supposed to know what she looks like?"
"Just look for a girl about my age dressed in shades of pink and a noticeable braid."
"Thank you, Princess Azula," Lion-heart sneers, that's another thing she hates about him but it attracts her as well, he wasn't afraid, "Thanks for the tip, I'll just go around grabbing random girls while shouting 'Ty-Lee is that you!?' in their faces, I'm sure that'll work out well, it might get me a few slaps in the face and probably a quick tour of the local jail, but hey, how could I refuse to trust our Princess, what with the amazing description she'd given me."
"Fine." Azula frowns, "I'll look for Ty-Lee, and you stay out of my way."
Lion-heart snorts, "Fine by me."
They continue walking once more. Azula is the proud, pure-blooded Princess of the greatest Nation in the world, the strongest Nation, she is clever, quick, sharp-minded, talented, and precise, she is perfect, and she is also very beautiful. Men should be falling over themselves to gain her attention, to have her hand in marriage, and she, the coy and innocent woman they think she is would turn each and every one of them down But, they don't see her that way. They're all afraid of her, intimidated. And that's fine by her, that means they're weak and they have no place at her side, yet there is one who isn't afraid of her but he isn't all too interested in her as he should be, no, he'd threatened and cursed her – she'd seen him fight, he was cruel, quick, talented, and vicious. A perfect companion to her own skills. They could be unstoppable. They could rule together.
But the idiot held a soft spot for her weak-minded brother, she'd seen them playing in the garden, they were smiling and laughing, roughhousing as boys did – Lion-heart had the advantage against her useless brother and still Zuko fought back, unaware that he was losing as he still had hope that he would win, it had been pathetic and Azula had lingered, hoping to see Lion-heart crush her brother's hopes of a win, but what happened next had both surprised and angered her. Lion-heart had willingly relinquished his control and allowed Zuko to pin him to the ground. Zuzu had been happy and even rejoiced in his victory, Azula would have figured that Lion-heart would have been annoyed as he'd let Zuko win, but instead of annoyance, he had this dopey little smile and a painfully vulnerable look in his eyes, he trusted her brother with his life, even going willingly along when he'd been banished, his loyalty to her brother was annoying, and he still felt that way. She knew he wouldn't do anything to hurt Zuzu, which is why they were even here in the first place.
And for this, she wanted to destroy Lion-heart, to show him that he would gain nothing if he continued being loyal to her dead-end brother:
"Azula?" a familiar voice calls out, the Princess turns her head to see a girl in pink quickly rise to her feet only to fall to her hands and knees before jumping to her feet and hugging her, "Azula ~ it's so good to see you!"
"Hello Ty-Lee," Azula hums pleasantly, she watches her friend step back, she watches Ty-Lee's eyes flick towards Lion-heart, her eyes widening, "I'm sure you remember Lion-heart."
"Of course ~ !" she beams, Azula watches Lion-heart offer a friendly smile and open his arms, allowing Ty-Lee to throw herself at him, "Wow ~ you're really tall, and so handsome!"
Lion-heart leers at the girl as she steps back, "And you've certainly grown ~ I always thought you were pretty before, but now, you look breathtaking."
The blush that crosses Ty-Lee's face as Azula feeling territorial, "Please Ty-Lee, don't let us interrupt – whatever it was you were doing."
Azula watches Ty-Lee slip into a rather flexible move, she knows Lion-heart is appraising her friend's body, she feels the need to snap at the boy, these feelings she was having towards Lion-heart were nothing more than a nuisance – Jet drifts off as the two girls start a fairly friendly conversation, but every once in a while, Ty-Lee's eyes would drift towards Jet and a small blush would form whenever she noticed that he was checking out her figure. Yeah, he may love Zuko but that didn't mean he couldn't look at others, besides, it wasn't like he and Zuko were going steady or anything. He was a free man. Gods, he really should stop staring, he was beginning to feel like a creep – Azula starts walking away, jerking Jet back into the present.
"I look forward to watching the performance tonight," Azula says, she turns to Jet, "And how about you, Lion-heart?"
"No," he shakes his head, he was hoping to hide away in his room until they found Zuko, "I'm good."
"Very well." Azula continues walking, throwing a few parting words over her shoulder, "I will see you at the show Ty-Lee."
oOo
Why does he hate us?
He doesn't hate us.
Why didn't he call for us?
He didn't know it was us.
Why does our friend hate us?
He doesn't hate us.
Why does Zuko hate us when we love him?
Jet shuts his eyes and hangs his head in defeat, running his hands through his hair, he pulls on handfuls until it hurts, he'd been carefully avoiding the particular memory of Zuko yelling at him to leave, he didn't want to think about the only person in the world he's come to love shun him for something as inconsequential as an accidental confession, he knew it wouldn't go over well, but he didn't think Zuko would abandon him completely. Tears begin to well within his eyes before falling, he feels so alone. They were friends!
Why!? Why!? Why!?
Jet's demon cries in his head over and over again, how can Jet avoid thinking of such a thing when the monster inside was screaming?
The demon/voice thing came about when Jet had to murder his fellow Earth Kingdom citizens, I think that's in chapter 8 – Jet, poor thing, has been through so much so it is understandable that he has a few problems of his own.