Hey there readers. New chapter! I AM SO SORRY FOR THE SPELLING AND GRAMMAR MISTAKES IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER! I just read through it and nearly pulled my hair out... so so so so so so so sorry... now that I've apologised...

Lets see if I can't get a little bit of `action` in this one hmm? Hope you at least read the previous chapter!

I would very much like to point out something... They aren't in Iroh's main teashop.

Warning: YAOI! SHONEN-AI! BOYxBOY LOVE! please don't read if you don't like and don't spam me about how you don't like it. I don't do that to you. Also, some swearing...

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar- The Last Air Bender/ The Legend of Aang. Story line is mine, although I'm sure there may be ones similar... damn it.

All right my pretties, for now... ENJOY! XD

A flaming piece of timber crashed down behind Zuko. The scarred teen jumped forward to avoid being burned but was forced to lean back as Jet slashed at him with his hook swords. So, Zuko jumped over the piece of wood. Jet wasn't put off by the flames, though, and lurched after him.

They had been fighting for less than five minutes but they were both getting dreary and the lack of clean oxygen would kill them if they kept at this. Zuko needed to stop Jet, maybe knock him out if not at least restrain him so that he could drag him out of the teashop. Not that it was recognisable as a teashop any more.

The beautifully painted walls were pealing and the wood was burning and crackling and morphing into a pitch black, a far cry from its original mahogany brilliance. The colourful tapestries and table cloths were alight as if in a demonic furnace. The flames trundled behind Zuko, almost tripping him up with the heat as he jumped yet again to avoid them.

Falling backwards while escaping from Jet trying to skewer him from the front, Zuko managed to snag the hysterical teens sleeve and pull him with him. He had successfully gotten a hold of Jet...

`Now what? ` He thought to himself as he clung to Jet in order to keep him from stabbing him.

He could feel Jet's actions growing sluggish but they were still strong and the suffocating smoke was having a hard time choking his feisty nature.

Zuko looked around, not much to see through the smoke, mind. Though it was easier to breath nearer the ground. He couldn't see any clear way out and the building was creaking unbelievably loud above the whoosh and roars of the fire. He might actually have to use his fire bending. Just what Jet wanted. But why was he to care about Jet? This guy had come into this building and tried to set it alight with Zuko to burn in his sleep. If not for gut instinct, Zuko surely would have gone to sleep, suffocated on the smoke and burned to death.

Jet had truly lost sight of what ever spark they had found together in the forest those months ago. Jet was trying to kill him, and if that wasn't enough to send a sane man running there was the fact that he tried burning people in their sleep.

Jet shoved at Zuko's chest and rolled away, leaving one of his hook swords caught in Zuko's clothing as he did so. He got up on his knees and scowled at Zuko through the smoke.

"There's no where to run, so use your fire bending, fire bender."

He wasn't even calling him Li any more, it was just fire bender now. Zuko the evil fire bender. Not even a catchy title.

Maybe there was still something left to say that could help this situation. Zuko also got into a crouched position on the floor.

"You've done all this just to prove that I'm a fire bender? You're willing to die just to prove it? Who would you prove it to if I chose to just burn to death? You would have just burned down an innocent man's hard work and maybe died in the process. If you survived you would be thrown in jail!"

Jet sneered at him.

"Well that would be one less fire bender in the world. If I die, so be it, at least I did good going out! If I survived and was thrown in prison, it wouldn't matter. You would be dead."

Zuko's heart felt like it was a second away from exploding. How could someone he had liked- possibly even loved- say something like `It wouldn't matter. You would be dead.` ? Was this just the curse of the universe on Zuko?

"So, you can look past any man's differences, all the bad they have done and become friends over one good dead, as long as they're not a fire bender or from the fire nation? What kind of freedom fighter are you to hate some one who has done nothing but understand you when you yourself tried to wipe out an entire village?"

The obvious confusion was all over Jet's face.

"How the hell do you know about that?"

Zuko replied in a harsh tone.

"Some of the people who lost their homes, they had to come here because there was no other safe place to go."

Jet raised his one hook sword.

"You're a fire bender, you're bound to have burned some innocent child. They all do because the fire nation is evil. They all are!"

Jet saw something sink in Zuko's eyes and for a split second he got a chill up his entire body. Was he really doing right with this? His common sense was kicking in, but the lick of a flame against his hand quickly shot him back into irrationality.

Zuko knew there was no saving this situation then. He stood up, speaking quietly.

"I'm not saying I haven't done things I'm not proud of. And I can see how it can be different from wrong you may have done... the only difference is... mine included fire."
Zuko then came eye to eye with Jet.

"Until this time that is."
Some things sting in life, but that one sentence nearly knocked Jet off of his feet.

This couldn't have been wrong, he was fighting fire with fire!

He was... killing... fire with fire... it was right... it had to be... he had tried killing them with water, with arrows, with a blade, but there were only more behind the ones that fell at his feet. It was never ending. He could live with all those, he could surely live with killing Li... but there would be no one else like Li after he fell at his feet...

Jet didn't have a second more to think about it. The roof caved in from above and flattened him. Zuko was hit in the chest as a piece swung down and knocked him back. He landed somewhere in the hall, the extra hook sword flinging somewhere onto the stairs. He slowly got up holding his chest, coughing, and looked up. There was a window on the second floor, open, with light, barely visible, spilling in. And there was a clear path to it.

He looked back to Jet, ready to help him... but froze. Would it do any good? He turned his back and looked back up to his only exit, his ticket to life. But Jet just had to go and spit in his direction.

"Ha! Go!Go and save your pitiful self, but there will only be more like me who will-"

He cut himself off with a cough.

"Only more who will strive to get rid of all fire nation... I'm only the beginning-!"

More rubble fell onto the already existing pile, including a massive piece of burning timber. Jet physically cried out as the pressure built on the lower half of his body. His voice was suddenly hallow.

"I was always ready to die... when I was shot with that arrow. And of course, only the likes of you found me and I survived."

Now his common sense was sinking in. Not hysteria, like with most people, because Jet had already exhausted that flame during his brief battle. Now it was only logic and sense and fate.

"And then near that lake those weeks ago...You could have killed me but you didn't... why...?"

He heard Zuko's footsteps leaving him, leaving him behind. Alone in the burning building to die. Frustration, sadness... Jet's fingers curled around his hook sword.

"You... you actually... you understood and I didn't... and now I'm going to die. Alone..."

Jet frowned at the floor as a tear threatened to spill out and dribble down his nose. He through of his friends, Smellerbee... Longshot. Suddenly, he heard the floor in front of him creak. His head shot up and he came face to face with Li. The look in the scarred teens eyes was hard to read. In his hand was the other hook sword. Was he going to kill him and put him out of his misery?

No, a hand came up to cup Jet's ash covered cheek.

"I will never leave you alone. You and I believe in second chances, that's why you came here. I left you alive because I believe in second chances. I don't believe war will change, but the fire nation can and I want this to persuade you. I want to persuade you."

Their faces grew close, Zuko's jaw line evident in the low glow that was the flame through the smoke... and Jet's lids dropped as he followed Li's lips until they met his own. Something warm stung his stomach and it went deep and all through his body.

Then that feeling left with the other boys lips.

Zuko took the hook sword in his hand and jammed it under the pile of rubble on top of Jet. He took in a deep breath, mindless of the killer smoke as it smelled like tea, before placing the front of his clothing over his nose and mouth and pushing down on the sword. The burning debris wasn't easy to move but Zuko prevailed as the weight of the pile shifted and eventually fell off Jet.

Unfortunately, with the amount of time it took Zuko to get Jet free, the other teen was already partially unconscious from the smoke. Zuko placed the swords in Jet's belt and pulled an arm over his shoulder. He made his way up the burning stairs and made it to the top just before the roof fell onto the stairs.

He glanced out of the window and saw a crowd of people gathered in front of the shop. They suddenly grew very loud at the sight of him and he couldn't believe he actually had second thoughts about leaving the burning building and facing the annoying groups of worried looking old women. He mentally slapped himself and sat on the windowsill. Even though it was quite the height to jump from, he was sure he could make it. Then again, he was holding another person, but it wasn't like he had that sort of time on his hands to think about things.

He slipped himself off the edge slowly, the shifting weight of his own body plus that of Jet's as gravity kicked in and carried him down the side of the building. He landed on the angled, tiled platform that was the bit above the entrance before rolling off and into the street. He then quickly gathered himself and Jet up and moved away from the heat.

The cool summer air was unbelievably relieving as he placed Jet's warm and scorched body on the ground. After a couple of seconds of being crowded around by worried bystanders, he got to do a little CPR. Of course, since Zuko was a fire bender, the hot smoke in Jet's lungs came under his jurisdiction, but he couldn't fire bend in public.

Zuko placed his lips onto Jets and he he inhaled softly, not wanting to suck to teens lungs out. The people standing by blushed and asked on another what he was doing. A few came up with `he's sucking the smoke out!` and they didn't class him as a fire bender so it was all cool. As Jet was coming two, some soldiers made their way into the crowd.

"What's going on here?"

It was quite the used question with these guys. Zuko barely got a chance to explain before the crowd kicked in. People had seen Jet closing the doors and windows, `a wicked look in his eyes` some claimed, and the next thing they knew, the building was on fire and `Li was saving the insane man`. `What a brave boy`.

`Take the evil man away!`

`Put that crazy boy in prison!`

`He was shouting about fire benders in the city!`

That was enough to get the guards moving. They picked up Jet, who was still barley conscious, and carried him off. Zuko was stunned t how fast things had happened and tried to stop it all, but before they knew it, they had carted Jet away.

–

Under the lake in the dark cells illuminated by only a green glow, Jet wheezed with exhaustion as he sat tied to a chair.

"Now Jet... we know that you happen to know the where a bout's of a fire bender. You need to tell us. Was it that boy in the teashop...?"

Jet let out a chuckle.

"How would I know...? I'm just a `crazy little brat`..."

The title given to him as he had attempted to bit a guard who had restrained him from running away. The creepy looking man before him gave a sigh.

"Well Jet, you need to learn that all fire benders are bad, and you need to tell us the whereabouts of this bad fire bender so that we can take care of him immediately."

Jet's thoughts flashed back to Zuko.

"Don't know what you're talking about..."

The man lowered his head and turned to leave the room.

"Men, get it into this boys head why fire nation is bad... use the light. Oh, and you may also use a little bit of physical education on the boy, he looks like he can handle it."

With that, the creepy man left and the guards closed in on Jet.

The teen remembered the words of Li in the burning teashop. `I will never leave you alone.`

Jet smirked and thought to himself. `You better hurry up...`

Back in Iroh's main teashop, after being cleaned and tended to by Iroh, Zuko stood over a set of drawers. He opened the bottom one and lifted up the secret hatch in the bottom where a blue mask and black clothing lay in wait for use.