A. N. : Guanyin, also known as Kannon in Japanese, is a bodhisattva known for her compassion, to the point that she is sometimes depicted with as much as eleven heads, and a thousand arms, to hear the complaints of the world and help as many people as possible. She is also associated with healing. All of this is a roundabout way to say that this chapter makes me feel things, and might be one of my personal favorites. Healing, y'all. Healing.

Jet asks what the plan is.

He is smiling, and his voice is light like when he tells a joke, but his shoulders are tense and his hands clench and unclench by his side, the way Zuko noticed they do when Jet seems to try not to draw his swords.

Not the best start, then.

Zuko moves so he's sitting in front of Jet, legs crosses, hands on his own thighs – Jet adjusts his own position to mirror that, but his hands can't seems to keep still. Zuko breathes.

Honestly, he still hasn't quite figured out what his plan is, only what it isn't. So he tells Jet that. I'm not going to attack you, he says, and Jet nods slowly, still tense, but in a more focused way. Less jumpy. His hands are gripping his thighs a little too hard.

When Uncle realized what was wrong with Zuko – when Zuko stopped lashing out at him at the slightest suggestion that he might need his help – the first thing he did was sit Zuko down and breathe with him. A simple meditation exercise, feeling the sun and the sun in his stomach, and slowly moving that heat around the body, never producing a flame but simply feeling its presence.

Consciousness of one's inner fire. The kind of exercise you do with young benders who make sparks but have trouble with flames. The kind of exercise Father resented Zuko for needing. The kind of exercise Uncle put so much importance on.

It can't really work for Jet, though. Zuko doesn't precisely get how this whole chi thing goes, but he doubts a non-bender can manipulate theirs in the same way, let alone feel it flow through their body.

It probably wouldn't even feel like fire to Jet anyway. Not like a threat he'd react to.

A bit of meditation might calm him down, though. They're already in position, and Zuko doesn't have a better idea yet.

Zuko straightens his back, and Jet raises an eyebrow. It's a breathing exercise, Zuko explains, just a way to relax a little. Jet lets out a short laugh, then copies Zuko's position once more. Back straight, hands on thighs, palms facing the sun. Eyes closed.

Breathe in – and out –

Feel the air feel your lungs, the way your chest expands to make more space, the heat of the sun on your skin. Focus only on the sensations.

Zuko hopes Jet is following the instructions better than he is, otherwise they'll be in trouble. But he needs an idea, because as much as Jet needs to learn to sit down and breathe, there are more pressing matters at hand. Learning how to breathe probably won't stop Jet from committing murder.

For Zuko, the first step was growing familiar with his own fire again. Only after that, after he felt comfortable holding a flame in his hand, trusting that it wouldn't do anything he didn't want it to, only then did Uncle involve himself in the bending exercises. By then, it had been over a year of constant caring and attention, and it wasn't too hard for Zuko to trust in Uncle and the fact that he wouldn't hurt him, not on purpose, and certainly not on accident with how much mastery Uncle had – has – over his own fire.

Trust was essential. That… might be a problem.

Jet doesn't trust Zuko, he's made that much clear back in Awa, when he said Zuko wasn't trying – and maybe Zuko didn't get it entirely, didn't realize Jet was talking about giving a little warning and standing on the back of the same bison, but that doesn't mean he had the right to say Zuko isn't trying to stand with them when he has no idea what's expected of him.

Jet doesn't trust him, but Zuko is the only one who can do this. He breathes, opens his eyes. Jet is still in the same position, looking calmer than before.

Hopefully what Zuko will do next won't ruin this.

He leans forward, places his hands on top of Jet's, whose breath hitches a little before he resumes the exercise. Zuko won't make a flame, only heat, and if it hurts – he'll try really hard to avoid it but they don't have the same tolerance for these things, so it could happen – if it hurts, Jet only has to say it and Zuko will stop immediately and he knows Jet doesn't trust him but –

I trust you.

And for a second Zuko thinks he misheard, but Jet repeats his words, and it shouldn't matter, or at least not this much but –

But it does.

Zuko closes his eyes, steadies his breath, opens his eyes again. Jet hasn't moved, and Zuko knows how hard it must be, how hard it is, to trust someone not to burn you, and all he can do is whisper thank you, before closing his eyes again.

In – and out –

He lets the heat spread from his hands to Jet's.