I have this weird OCD to not update on even numbers or any number that doesn't end in 5 or in the 10s, like 5, 10 15, 20, and so on and so forth, I don't know why. I know nothing of auras so I googled it D: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.
Walking on the opposite side of the stupid palanquin Azula feels the need to use, Jet glares at every little thing that catches his attention, he clenches his fists, digging his nails into the flesh of his palm, they're in this dreadfully dull city for one reason and one reason only, and it upsets him tremendously. Even if he despises the Prince for leading him on, he can't stand the thought of anyone but him having Zuko, he doesn't care if Mai knows she's the object of Zuko's affection, he'll make sure the girl doesn't so much as think of the firebending Prince while in his presence or else there'll be hell to pay.
"What's wrong, Lion-heart?"
Jet glances over to Ty-Lee, "What?"
"Your aura is so – menacing," Ty-Lee explains, that doesn't help Jet's confusion but he gets what she's getting at, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." Jet scowls, turning his gaze to a column of smoke, "I just hate this place and I these people."
"Why?" Ty-Lee smiles uneasily, she glances around, "I think it's nice ~ we also get to see Mai again."
"Great," Jet jeers mockingly, "That'll make my day."
The nimble girl watches the tanned boy as he takes to glaring at the scenery once more, his aura flickers like a wildfire but before she spoke up, it had been orange-reddish with a healthy dose of red, but at the mention of seeing Mai once again, his aura had turned to a scary black with sickly looking, cloudy red smeared amongst the black canvas. It was obvious that he didn't like Mai, that he had a problem with her, but she didn't think it was this bad – she hadn't realized she'd been staring until Lion-heart snaps his attention to her, she notes that there's a smidgen of dark green surrounding his chest region. But she doesn't pay this any mind as her eyes are glued to his, she can see something staring out, it's angry and hateful. Almost demonic.
"What?"
Ty-Lee purses her lips, she whispers, quiet so the others won't hear, "You don't like Mai, do you?"
"Of course I like Mai." the way he spits her friend's name says otherwise, "She's great. Amazing. She's a big ball of fun."
The girl doesn't like the way Lion-heart's dark aura seems to flicker towards her as if it wants to swallow her whole, for a second, she wonders how anyone can stand being so close to the intimidating boy, but she pauses, turning her head away from the evil aura festering around the tall boy. Even the man closest to Lion-heart's aura seems uneasy. Now she remembers why she always avoided Lion-heart when they were younger, his aura had been a powerful, muddy red back then but then it blossomed into a beautiful bright pink and a lovely shade of light blue once he met up with Zuko whose aura, had been more often than not, calming pastel colors. Their auras had twirled and danced with one another – they had adored each other. Like an epiphany, she realizes the reason behind his apparent hatred for Mai. Lion-heart knew that Mai liked Zuko and he didn't like that.
She doesn't even know why she speaks to Lion-heart, "Does this have to do with Zuko?"
The reaction is instantaneous, his aura erupts into a mix of colors, there were shades of red, shades of silver, shades of brown, then all black, "Of course not!"
The way his aura flies for her has her flinching, but the horrifying black color dies down into a pale gray with a hint of dark blue, she realizes that he feels bad for snapping at her.
"Ty-Lee!" Azula snaps from the palanquin,
Ty-Lee flinches once more, "Yes, Azula?"
"Don't bother Lion-heart; I need him to stay focused."
"I'm sorry, Azula."
That was another thing that bothers her, Azula likes Lion-heart because of the dark thing inside him, but she also wants the kind of attention he'd given to Zuko, last night, they'd spent the night talking about boys and how to get their attention, namely Lion-heart's, although it had been kind of adorable watching Azula try and flirt with Lion-heart, even if it came out all wrong and left Lion-heart both confused and mildly disturbed. Up ahead, she spots a familiar pasty aura, she looks towards Lion-heart and sees whatever color, no matter how little, had been smothered and replaced with a deep black – standing before them, Jet can see a gloomy looking girl, he doesn't have to think twice or for very long to know just who it was that was waiting for them, he notices Ty-Lee sending another curious look his way but doesn't say anything, doing as Azula had ordered and leaving him alone.
Once they draw closer, Jet stands back in favor of talking with the girl, he simply watches the girls go through the usual formalities before he promptly loses interest and turns to glance at the various stony buildings and columns of smoke, he feels his anger for the Fire Nation kick up a notch, and if it weren't for the fact that Azula could get him closer to a reunion with the Prince, he'd have escaped the very first chance he'd gotten. But other than that, the place was quiet and rather boring.
Much like Mai.
His demon-self sneers hatefully, Jet does his best not to smirk. The Earth Kingdom teen is brought from his dark musings once he feels eyes on him, turning; he spots the three girls looking at him, as if they were expecting him to say something:
"Well?" Mai prods,
"Oh, I'm sorry." Jet drawls, doing his damndest to keep the malice from his voice, "I kind of zoned out, you're voice does this weird droning thing." he watches the girl narrow her eyes for a fraction, its minor but he still catches on to it, latches onto it like a disease, he smiles spitefully, "I hope you weren't expecting a hug. I can't waste my time on someone who can't so much as work up the nerve to show a little backbone, or, much of anything."
Mai glares this time, Ty-Lee looks nervously between them, and Azula seems darkly amused, "I see you've grown into a jerk." Mai says, voice monotone yet cutting all the same, she isn't quite angry, but she's close, "Why are you hunting Zuko, I thought you two were inseparable."
Jet bristles and Ty-Lee wants to interfere but Azula interrupts, "Come now, Mai. This is a joyous reunion; let's not waste it fighting with one another."
"Right." Mai agrees, but her glare on Jet never wavers or vice versa.
oOo
The day starts to progress in a kind of blur for Ty-Lee after they reunite with Mai, what with Lion-heart's overwhelming black aura, Mai's bored tones that only spiked if Lion-heart took a nasty jab at her, and Azula's seemingly dark amusement in watching the two take potshots at one another. She felt smothered between the trio of overbearing auras. More so by Lion-heart for whenever she thought of teasing Mai about Zuko, she would stop short and quickly change the subject, feeling Lion-heart's dark gaze on her. She didn't even know why she was afraid of the boy in the first place, but she had the distinct feeling that if she were to go against him, he would not be merciful, he was like – Azula, in a way. And in that respect, she supposed the two were perfect for each other, but he's hateful, hates everyone enough to want to kill them. Not like Mai's hate.
And the only person who could coax Lion-heart from his darkness was the very same one they were hunting.
Ty-Lee startles from her reverie once the fighting starts, both she and Mai running after the two Water Tribe members – a part of him feels mildly annoyed at how easily it took for Mai to change her mind once Azula spoke, but he knows he would do the same thing if Zuko were to ask something of him, although he and Mai probably had different reasons for obeying the sovereigns. He watches Ty-Lee and Mai charge towards the Water Tribe siblings, he sees no reason to help, it just wouldn't be fair, eventually though, he draws closer for a better view of the show, and he has to say, Katara has definitely improved in her waterbending. Slipping behind some poles, he watches Appa fly in and use his gigantic tail to send both Ty-Lee and Mai flying through the air, he promptly laughs, cruel and jeering, but how could you not? It was pretty funny, but apparently the sound catches the attention of both Katara and Sokka, the latter stepping forward, holding is boomerang high above his head in what Jet supposed was a menacing manner, he offers an easy grin and holds his hands up in surrender – he'll admit that he kind of likes these kids, even if they had annoyed him from time to time while he was traveling with them:
"Jet!?" Katara splutters, "What are – where's Zuko!?"
Jet feels the grin fall, "I don't know."
She seems to pick up on his mood, "What happened?"
Jet doesn't want to talk about it, but he finds himself saying, "I – we got separated."
"Right!" Sokka interrupts abruptly, "Like we're supposed to believe that! He's probably hiding somewhere close by, waiting to jump us like last time!"
"Get over it!" Jet snaps, he feels his inner demon stirring, "It was never about you in the first place! Look! That bastard, Admiral Side-Burns, drugged me or whatever the fuck he did and shipped me off to the Fire Nation!" he looks to Katara, "Do you think I like hanging out with Psycho-Princess, Gloom-n'-Doom, and Circus-Freak!?"
"Apparently not." Sokka snorts, "I have to give you credit on the names though, I gotta remember those."
"Copyright them, I don't care." Jet rolls his eyes before sighing, he hates Zuko, he really does, "I know you guys hate me, and hey, if I were you, I wouldn't trust me either. But you gotta believe me when I say that I don't care about capturing the Avatar. All I want is to find Prince Zuko and Iroh before these girls do."
Katara seems to have softened, if a little, "Why?"
"I grew up with Zuko and Iroh practically raised me, they're the closest things I have to having an actual family – a place where I belong." Jet doesn't know if he's doing this because he still wants to be with Zuko, or because he wants to capture the Prince, but he knows Katara is close to breaking, so he looks to her, "I'll give you guys anything you want, just please at least tell me you've seen them." he looks to Sokka, "Hell, I'll even let you stab me if that makes you feel any better."
"Tempting," Sokka drawls, "But no. C'mon Katara, we've wasted enough time."
"Sokka wait," Katara begins, Jet feels hopeful, "I'm probably making a huge mistake but, I believe you."
"What!? Katara!"
"Sokka!" Katara snaps, "You know what it's like to be separated from loved ones, I say we give him a second chance."
Sokka grumbles before sighing, "Fine, come on."
Whatever he was trying to do, works, Jet offers a sheepish smile, "Thanks."
Once they're in the air, Katara begins explaining everything that happened to them at the North Pole and Jet offering up what had happened to him, eye for an eye, and tale for a tale:
"I guess that's why we didn't see you there, huh?"
"Yeah." Jet sighs, doesn't know if his heart should sink like that or not, "So – you have no idea where he is?"
"No," she shakes her head, "Sorry."
"That's alright," Jet looks at the passing buildings, "I'll offer you what I know about the girls." once he's sure both siblings are listening, he starts, "Azula is the Princess of the Fire Nation, Zuko's sister, she's cunning with a cruel streak, she's an accomplished firebender who can shoot lightning from her fingertips. Ty-Lee is one of her friends, the girl in pink, always happy and as you've seen, she can block your chi to prevent you from moving, or bending, I'd say it's best to keep some distance from her. Mai is her other friend, the gloomy chick, sighs a lot and knows how to fight with knives, but it seems you know what you're doing." he says, offering a smirk to Katara, "Seems like you've improved."
"Yeah," Katara blushes, "We found a waterbending teacher in the North Pole."
"Cool."
"If we cross Zuko, we'll tell him that you're looking for him, that's the least we can do. Or - ?"
"Or?" Jet blinks, "What?"
"Maybe you can come with us. That will be a lot faster than trying to somehow reach you."
Jet shakes his head, "No, I have to make sure Azula doesn't hurt him or Iroh if we find them."
"Oh."
"As thanks, I'll try to sabotage the Princess's attempts at capturing Aang."
"This is so weird." Sokka says from up front.
"Okay." Katara nods dutifully.
"Can you drop me off somewhere?" Jet asks,
"Why?" Katara blinks.
"So they don't suspect a thing." Jet grins, "Just freeze me to any old surface, I'll get out."
Later, when he regroups with the girls, he's subject to various degrees of staring, he arches a brow at the trio and does his best not to shiver – he's surprised he can still feel his feet:
"What?"
Azula frowns from the palanquin, "Where were you?"
"Chasing after the Avatar's friends after your friends failed to do so." Jet spits, "But of course you wouldn't know how hard it is for a non-bender to get free from ice."
"Really?" Mai drones, "Because it looked like you were hanging back."
"Don't start with me Sunshine." Jet snaps, he notes the glimmer in Azula's eyes at his anger, "I thought you two could handle it. But apparently not."
"Enough." Azula snaps, both Jet and Mai glare at one another, "Lion-heart is right though, I've assembled you two here because I thought you could handle things like this. I'm sure I don't have to remind any of you that I hate being wrong. Now, we've got another task at hand."
Jet crosses his arms over his chest, "Like what?"
"The capture of the Avatar."
Jet frowns, he doesn't like the idea of Azula capturing Aang when Zuko couldn't.
He hates us.
The demon whines.
He doesn't hate us.
Jet counters.
We love him.
We never stopped.
Awww. Poor Jet and poor Ty-Lee, stuck in the middle of all that negativity. Just so you know, I love all of the characters, except Long-Feng (even though he's kinda cool) since he was the one who killed Jet. Jet just hates Mai because he thinks Zuko likes her and he knows that Mai likes Zuko. Jealousy is a horrible thing, I would know.