[On the river-steamer.]
Zhao had died and Jet couldn't exactly say he was mourning. Couldn't have happened to a better jackass. Not that he'd wish that death on anyone but— no, actually that was twice a lie. He would wish that death on someone, and it wouldn't be Zhao, it'd be Ozai.
x
[S2, After Azula's offer to come back home.]
Zuko pressed the heels of his hands against his temples until his head was forced back. "Why am I so selfish?"
Jet was wary-careful as he grabbed Zuko's wrists and pulled them away. Slow and reluctant, Zuko let him. "I hate to be the one to tell you this, given the god-blood and being a direct descendant of Agni and all, but you are in fact still just human, ya know?"
"Is that the problem?"
Jet smirked. "Nah, that's the dragon-heart you're running on."
And there it was, that up-twitch of Zuko's mouth. "Dragons are very selfish," he admitted like he was sharing a secret.
x
[S2 Azula's Ship]
"Thoughts?" Zuko asked.
"I've got one very pointed question, but I'm not sure you're ready for me to ask it."
Jet leaned against the wall after Zuko left, waiting maybe longer than necessary, but Zuko's hearing wasn't something to be underestimated, and Azula didn't seem to care to push it, either. He gave it another several breaths anyway. "You know what he is?" he asked at last.
"A traitor? A sentimental fool? I've always known what Zuzu is."
"Hearth," he replied, just to see if she'd twitch.
And Azula did twitch.
"You've felt it, haven't you, Azula? Zuko is the hearthfire of the royal family, of the whole Fire Nation. And the heart of the hearth is—"
"Forever faithful," she finished.
"It's not something Ozai understood. I'm not even sure it's something Ursa ever understood. But Iroh sees it. And you do, too, don't you?"
Zuko was light and life and he denied his warmth to no one. If they let him, he'd give those around him a home to always come back to. Would be the homefire burning for them to come home to.
If Azula let him, he'd be that for her, too.
"Zuko isn't Ozai's heir," Jet admitted. But he was Iroh's. He didn't say that, though. What he said instead was possibly even worse. "But, then, Ozai wasn't Azulon's."
Azula went stiff, as she always did when mention of her mother threatened to enter the conversation. "Fire Lord Ozai," she hissed in correction.
Jet held his hand up, fingers spread, to show the scar across his palm. He didn't say the words 'Not my Fire Lord', but he wasn't being subtle. He didn't feel like being subtle. Iroh had called Zuko his own son and the spirit of the ocean had acknowledged Zuko's right to speak for the entire Fire Nation. There were higher powers than Ozai's that had spoken out. The scar on his palm, even. Banished, disgraced and scarred, Agni had still heard Jet's pleas and found Zuko worthy of Jet's oath.
"What's your pointed question?"
"She said he regretted banishing you. That might be true, or it might not. But he didn't only banish you, Zuko."
"Jet—" The warning on that word came far too late.
"Does he regret burning you?"
x
[S2, Azula's ship]
"Azula's lips lie, but her body always tells the truth."
Jet choked. "You might—you might want to find a different way to phrase that," he got out, strangled.
Zuko frowned, but no way was Jet explaining that one, uh-uh, no how. Zuko's frown deepened. "This has something to do with me failing to be a person again, doesn't it?"
"Something like that."
[Sneaking Around Azula's ship to look for clues.]
[Finding wanted posters for Jet, Zuko, and Iroh. Zuko steals Azula's ship's messenger hawk to send the posters and a message to Uncle Iroh before they flee.]
x
[S2, Zuko Not-Alone, Zuko POV snip]
"What's the plan?" Jet asked. "Pan-handling in the streets? Probably the easiest way to get money in this place." It was a cool assessment from someone who'd spent time on the streets in a prosperous city and knew its ins and outs and seething, rotting underbelly.
In another life, if Uncle were here, he'd probably have them beg. In another life, if Uncle were here, Zuko would probably have swallowed the bitter pill of his pride and let them.
But this was his life and Uncle wasn't here and it was just him and Jet. "You said, once, that you trusted my way."
"Still do."
Jet was still his, as much as Uncle, but they could both handle themselves, and Zuko… Zuko had reached a limit somewhere between the ocean spirit and the town-of-no-name. "I won't beg anymore."
Solemn eyes and solemn voice, Jet asked again, "What's the plan?"
"We've both got perfectly good legs. We'll stand up and use them."
x
[Jet POV]
"I made dinner," Zuko offered.
"Great!" Jet grinned, let it sit, asked, "Is it edible?"
Zuko, tellingly, didn't react more than pursing his lips. "It's good," he countered.
But Zuko was Fire Nation. Was Fire Nation royalty, and everything that implied, taste included. "But is it edible?"
And Zuko very insultingly-blatantly considered that, and that Jet was not Fire Nation royalty and everything that implied, before allowing, "…probably not."
Jet took a bowl anyway.
Zuko could cook. In that he could get food from a raw state into one hot enough to eat without it causing raw-sickness.
That said, Zuko could not cook.
Jet got through the bowl and set it aside with a sigh. "Want me to make some tea?"
Zuko scoffed. "I've tried your tea."
"I've tried your tea! You've got no chicken-dog in this fight!"
Because Zuko didn't make tea, he made decoctions.
x
"This is your idea of an idea?" Zuko asked.
Which, given the source, was frankly insulting. "Hey, remember the last idea you had? Of praying to the vengeful fish-monster trying to kill us?"
Zuko groaned. "This is a terrible idea."
"This is an awesome idea," Jet corrected.
[Being put up for the night is Li's family's loft. Where Jet came up with their fake names.]
"Easier when everything's all warm and melty and I can stop thinking."
"Don't think I can warm you up well enough on my own?"
"Rather full of yourself, aren't you?"
"You're about to be full of me."
Zuko stilled, blinked at him once, twice, with the faintest look of horror as the moment stretched painfully. Then he buried his face in his hand, shoulders shaking.
His fire prince was laughing at him.
"Agni," Zuko gasped. "That was terrible."
"Oh, fuck you," he groused good naturedly.
"I'll have to. I'm too ashamed to know you let alone do anything more."
"Lee—"
That, or more specifically, Zuko's twitch at that, never got old.
"Li?"
Zuko made a kind of face spasm that didn't quality as an expression but still admirably conveyed 'You better answer that if you want it answered because I am NOT'.
[Yes, Jet named them Li and Lee.]
"Where are you from?"
"Far away," was Zuko's clipped response.
"We've been a little bit everywhere," Jet added. "Most recently, north."
"And where are you going?"
"Even farther away."
"Anywhere but north."
…it wasn't a great page, but at least they were on the same page.
Zuko looked up at the roof with every doubt in his head flashing across his face.
Jet snorted. "I'll take the roof if you've got the food."
Voice insultingly dry, Zuko immediately returned, "I've got the food if you've got the roof."
"Good enough for me, s'long as you're only cooking it and not seasoning it."
He got a distinctly rude, naval, unprincely gesture in response. "Mud-tongue."
"Dragon breath."
Zuko drew in a breath—and visibly choked on it, remembering where they were and swallowing back the small curl of flame he'd undoubtedly have let slip if they were ribbing each other back on the Wani. He clenched his jaw and breathed out through his nose, and Jet double-checked around at the wisp of steam that resulted. But, for the moment, it was just them, and Zuko gave a small nod before heading back to the house.
x
[Both of them watching Little Li trying to train.]
Jet toyed with a wheat stalk casually. "You know we won't be able to use live steel around kids and rookies."
And there was Zuko's entirely unfair smirk as he grabbed a thick branch and flipped it into the air, catching it by the opposite end. "Guess we'll have to make do."
"Back to basics," Jet agreed.
[Involving more of the neighborhood kids in combat training.]
"Next up: Improvisational Combat."
"What's that mean?"
"It means you don't even need a weapon to be dangerous." Jet hiked his thumb over his shoulder to point at Zuko. "He once took out a firebender with a bucket."
Zuko flushed red and looked up because no, Jet was not ever letting him forget his Adventure in Pohuai Stronghold.
"Why are you buying spark stones?"
As self-denigrating as he could be, Jet almost expected him to say something bad about his firebending skills. He might have preferred that, in fact, because what Zuko actually said was, "To throw them at your head."
x
[The Earth Kingdom soldiers trying to conscript Little Li.]
For the first time, it was Jet's turn to look out over the chaos and think, My people. My people, why?
Earth Army soldiers trying to drag a child off into the war.
And the Earth Kingdom was supposed to be better than the Fire Nation. What a fucking laugh.
Looked like Zuko wouldn't be the only one brooding tonight.
And then Zuko's expression hardened. His voice rang out strong when he spoke, unwavering. "I'm Fire Nation. I'm a firebender. And this is what they did to me." Zuko didn't pull his punches at all. He reached for Li even as he flinched back and Sela tried to cover him, grabbed the boy's hand and forcefully turned it over—
And set his pearl knife in the kid's hand, wrapped small fingers around it. "They'll do no less to you. When the time comes—" When, not if. "—you need to know how to fight for what matters to you." He looked meaningfully up at Sela. "Or they'll take it away from you."
x
[S2 Rough Rhinos encounter]
"Why are we always running into the very worst my nation has to offer?"
"Do you want the nice answer, or the pithy answer?"
+ [Jet recognizes the leader of the Rough Rhinos as the one who burned down his village and attacks in a blind rage. Zuko follows unhesitatingly.]
Zuko vaulted onto the back of the komodo-rhino, grabbing the reins as it bucked, and, with the same stubbornness he'd shown with the Wani's rhinos, wrangled it to a dead standstill. Jet would have stopped to watch, really, but. Sword fight.
And then some thirty seconds later, his fight was rather decisively decided (and rudely interrupted) as Zuko plowed into Jet's opponent and mowed him down with, if not his own komodo-rhino, then one he should have at least had the trust of.
"…Why am I even surprised?"
And dammit, Zuko grinned at him as he wheeled the beast around. "Why are you?"
"You are very surprising in general," he defended.
"That was Colonel Mongke, of the Rough Rhinos."
"I don't care who it was."
Zuko didn't snort and go 'Obviously.' But Jet had the feeling he would have, in literally any other circumstance.
"Kaiju," Zuko scoffed, as if that was a ridiculous name for a ferocious man-killing komodo-rhino. As if he didn't name his own rhinos after sweets.
Zuko wrestled with the tack on the komodo-rhinos—terrible tack if the tone of his cussing was anything to go by.
"Ah! Spirits damn, fuck you like an Akarian mantis-tiger—"
Oh, but it always surprised and delighted when Zuko cursed like the sailor he actually was under all that starched princeliness. How had he even learned that turn of phrase? Who exactly had been talking about Akarian mantis-tiger mating habits on the Wani?
…he wasn't sure he actually wanted the answer to that question.
"—and cast your unsanctified bones to the salted depths! Son of a frigid bitch!"
Spirits, but Jet loved him.
When he finally managed to get it off, there were whip marks on the shoulders of the rhinos, and Jet could feel the tension rising palpably as Zuko carefully and gently ran his fingers over the scars. "I should go back and kill them again."
"I did something really stupid today, and I could have gotten us both killed." He could have gotten them both killed twice over.
And the worst part was that he didn't regret it at all. There was a visceral ball of satisfaction that sat heavy in his stomach that wouldn't let him regret a single one of the incredibly bad decisions he'd made today. And his Fire Prince hadn't hesitated a single second, throwing himself into the battle without question.
"Zuko, why?"
His Fire Prince shrugged, unable or unwilling to look him in the eye. "You weren't…" He faltered, like the words were so far out of his realm of experience that he had to hunt for them. "You weren't there," Zuko whispered, pained. "And I couldn't leave you wherever you'd gone."
"I could have killed us. I could have killed you."
"It's alright," Zuko whispered. "I trust you."
Jet clenched his jaw against the ache those words caused, because he knew now how Zuko's mind worked. He wasn't saying 'I trust you not to hurt me.' What he meant was 'I trust you to be worth the pain.'
X