(A/N)- Weekly chapter update! Have a bit of Angka focus. Couldn't resist sneaking some more Katar in there too, sue me I love the kid.

Disclaimer: Still don't own. Rats. Which are actually quite lovely creatures.

Jealous

Angka sat quietly, hands in her lap, fingers braiding thin strands of cord together. The campfire popped and snapped, the light chatter of the Freedom Fighters drifting around the circle.

She glanced up briefly, looking around the group. At least a dozen girls ranging in age from eighteen to eight, and one very short, very fierce-looking shaggy-haired boy with a painted face. Jet was at the head of the table, sipping casually from her drink cup. Katar was fidgeting next to her, his eyes averted bashfully.

Jet said something that made Katar look up, and the boy beamed widely, flashing a broad smile.

Angka felt a tiny prick in her heart and looked back down at her project.

Her hands stilled and she stared at the strands.

She wished she could make Katar smile like that.

Quickly, she shook her head, furiously braiding the cords again. They twisted between her fingers, rubbing against her skin, distracting her from the stray thoughts that had been creeping through her head more and more as the night went on.

She didn't know where they were coming from. Was there something wrong with her? Was she ill?

Yeah. That had to be it.

I better go get some water, wash my hands, she thought idly, getting up from her seat and hurrying off, looking for the group's water supply.

The cold water that she splashed across her face and neck didn't seem to do anything to cool the weird heat in her face. Angka gripped both sides of the water barrel and sighed at her reflection.

She straightened, wandering back through the trees. She didn't return to the table just yet, looking around for where Sokki had gotten to. The older girl had been extraordinarily sulky—well, more so than usual—and keeping to herself on the fringes of the firelight.

Angka found her momentarily, her back against the tree she leaned on, arms crossed and scowling out at the forest beyond.

"Hey Sokki," she greeted. She strode up to the Water Tribe girl with what she hoped was casual nonchalance. "So... what do you think? The Freedom Fighters are pretty cool, huh?"

Sokki huffed. "I'm trying not to think about them," she muttered.

"You're not still mad about Jet showing you up when she rescued us from those Fire Nation soldiers are you?" Angka asked.

"No." After a moment, Sokki corrected, "Okay, yes, but that's really not relevant."

Angka made a doubtful noise. "Nnnmm, it sort of is," she pointed out. "She did save our lives back there and, well..." She hesitated uncomfortably. "...you haven't exactly been grateful about it."

"Don't tell me you're taken in by her whole 'I'm so noble and amazing' act too," Sokki groaned.

She blinked. "What act?" she asked, genuinely confused.

Sokki uncurled her arms, gesturing agitatedly. "The way she's all charming and smooth-talking, like she's covering up something she doesn't want you to see." She shoved her arms back together, curling them tightly. "I'm telling you, there's something off about her."

Angka restrained herself from making a crack about Sokki's instincts or from arguing that Jet just seemed so nice. Sure her chest clenched every time Jet smiled at Katar and something in the pit of her stomach had felt weirdly sick for a while but that was because she was still jumpy from the ambush they had stumbled into that morning.

"Katar likes her," she pointed out, feeling that weird churn in her gut again as she said it.

Sokki's face twisted with chagrin. "Yeah I worry about that," she sighed. She looked across the clearing, watching her brother fumble all over himself as he tried to eat, sneaking glances at Jet. "I'm afraid he might be thinking with his little head on that one."

"His what?" asked Angka, eyes squinching.

The Water Tribe girl quickly waved her off, a mortified look crossing her face. "Uh, never mind! Anyway—" she said, straightening. "—we're not staying here any longer than we need to. Agreed?"

Angka scuffed the dirt with her toe. "Yeah... agreed."

The words pulled out of her reluctantly. She liked it here. The Freedom Fighters' secret base was really fun, and it was nice to find a place actively fighting back against the Fire Nation.

But...

Angka's fingers wrung together in front of her. Her gaze was on her feet, her chin hanging.

"Sokki?" she called timidly.

Sokki didn't reply, but Angka felt her shift and turn to acknowledge her.

Her cheeks were hot and her bangs drooped into her eyes.

"Do... do you think Jet is... prettier than me?" she asked quietly.

The older girl tilted her head curiously. "What do you mean?"

It sounded so stupid now that she'd said it. "I mean..." Angka continued, fidgeting, rubbing her thumb between her fingers. "...she's just so brave and confident and... grown-up..."

"Where's this coming from?"

"I dunno," Angka sighed, and she didn't, really, it was hard to articulate why she cared. "I guess... she's just been fighting the Fire Nation since she was little and now she's a leader who inspires others to join her cause while I was stuck sleeping in an iceberg and..." Her head dropped even lower. "...I guess I just feel kind of lame in comparison."

"Yeah she's inspiring a lot of that," Sokki muttered, almost inaudibly. Louder, she said, "Look, honest opinion? I don't trust her, and I especially don't trust her around my brother." She leaned a shoulder back against the tree trunk. "But I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now."

"Okay..." Angka inhaled slowly, raising her head. "Then... I guess I can too."

They wandered back to join the others, and Angka took her seat and tried not to look at how Katar's eyes shone at Jet or how his smile was so easy around her, busying herself with the braided cord.

-ATLA-

"Nice bracelet."

Katar started, his hands closing on the handmade shell pendant necklace that had replaced his mother's, looking up to see Jet shadowing the doorway of the hut. His heart stuttered at the sight of her, framed in pale golden light from the early morning, her long, frizzled brown hair like a halo around her head.

"Necklace, actually," he corrected. He held it up with a smile. "Angka made it for me," he told her.

"Mmm-hmm." Seemingly losing interest, Jet tilted her head over her shoulder. "C'mon, it's time to go," she urged.

Katar eagerly scrambled up, following Jet as she led him and Angka up to a ridge overlooking the valley. Angka trailed a few paces behind him the whole time, some uncertain expression on her face. Katar peered back at her in concern. He wanted to ask what was wrong.

"Almost there," Jet said, interrupting his thoughts.

Katar turned forward again, speaking up.

"Jet? I'm really sorry for how Sokki's been acting," he said, apologizing on behalf of his sister's paranoid outburst a day ago. She'd accused the girl of being a thug and a bully, attacking an innocent old man. It had sounded so cartoonishly evil that Katar had outright snorted at her, but she couldn't be dissuaded from her loud opinions and finally just stormed off.

Jet gave a nonchalant shrug. "No worries. She already apologized," she told them.

That made Angka startle behind him. "Really?" she said, surprise lacing her tone. "Sokki apologized?"

Jet swiveled around, one hand on her hip. "Yeah, I was surprised too," she quipped, grinning lazily. "I got the sense that maybe you talked to her or something?"

Katar frowned. "Yeah, I did."

She winked at him. "Guess something you said got through to her."

His pulse skipped, his trepidations vanishing.

Jet swept her arm around them, indicating the area. Steam was billowing up from several pocked cracks in the ground.

"All right, we're here," she announced. "Underground water is trying to escape from these vents. I need you guys to help it along."

Katar eyed the vents with doubt.

"I've never used bending on water I can't see," he said. His hand drifted up to touch his neck uncertainly. "I don't know..."

He felt Jet's hands on his shoulders suddenly, warm and encouraging, and she was smiling as she brought her face intimately close.

"Katar... you can do this," she said.

He looked down, his body thrilling, a blush creeping through his cheeks.

"What about me?" came a flat interruption from Angka. They both glanced up to see her staring at them, her arms crossed sourly.

Jet stepped back, extending a hand and her winsome smile out to Angka. "I know the Avatar can do this," she added smoothly.

Angka looked skeptical a moment or two more, but then accepted the words, moving to take up position next to one of the vents.

Wonder what that's about? Katar wondered as he stepped up opposite her.

-ATLA-

He was such an idiot.

Katar craned his head up towards the trees, struggling to keep Angka and Jet in view, as he ran along the ground after them.

How had not seen it? Was a charming smile and a well-timed compliment all it took to completely dazzle his sense?

Jet's veneer of heroic rebellion seemed paper-thin to him now. It had disappeared under the anger and hatred in her voice, the way she'd snarled when she grabbed Angka's glider away from her, attacked Angka to prevent her from warning the Earth Nation village she was about to drown. Jet had pleaded with him to understand, and all that repeated in his head was Liar, liar, lair, as he shoved her away with a tendril of water from his jug.

She had lied to him, she had used him, had probably done something terrible to his sister, and now she was going to hurt Angka.

Hot fury roiled within him. He pumped his arms and legs, rushing forward as he saw Angka take a hard hit from a tree branch and crumple to the ground, next to her ruined glider.

He saw red.

As Jet dropped down next to Angka's prone form, raising her hooked swords, Katar let loose, pulling wave after wave from the creek behind him and slamming them into Jet, pushing her back until she was pinned up against a tree trunk.

His anger channeling into calm determination, Katar blew out, concentrating. He'd never tried to freeze water since the South Pole, but he knew he could do it.

Slowly, the water still dripping down Jet's form solidified, heat sapping out and the liquid growing hard, turning into ice, creeping up her body until she was encased from neck to toe.

Katar exhaled, dropping his hands in grim satisfaction. Angka rose to her feet shakily, grabbing her glider and scurrying behind him, and he'd never felt more powerful.

Or more hurt.

-ATLA-

The ride away on Appa wasn't quite as awkward as it could have been. Sokki got her 'I told you so' out of the way quickly, Katar accepted it with a tired sigh but no protest, and Angka sat cuddled with Momo for a long while, before she got up and crossed over to Katar.

"I'm sorry about Jet," she said quietly. "I really wanted her to be our friend too."

Katar sighed. "No chance of that happening now," he muttered.

He met her eyes with a fiercely intense expression.

"She tried to hurt you. I'll never forgive her for that."

A funny little flip seemed to go through her heart. Angka tried to keep her face neutral. She really needed to figure out what was wrong with her, she was starting to worry a little.

She brushed her hair over her shoulder.

"At least Sokki's instincts were good for something," she quipped.

He grinned. "For once," he joked back.

"You guys know I can hear you," Sokki called from her position on Appa's head.

"We love you, Sokki!" Angka chirped in a teasing sing-song.

"Yeah yeah," she huffed. "Next time we don't let our goo-goo eyes distract us okay?"

That drew Katar into a heated debate with her about how much he was not remotely interested in Jet, which Angka enjoyed listening to for a moment before losing herself in her thoughts and the gentle sway of Appa's flight.

(A/N)- Angka gets mildly jealous of Jet and starts to feel really funny in her chest around Katar for reasons unfathomable, has inadequacy issues that are starting to manifest regarding her leaving the world out to dry for a hundred years, and Sokki really really does not like Jet, like, AT ALL, lol.

So! I actually found it quite refreshing that Aang had zero hostile reaction to Jet in his introductory episode and didn't get jealous in the least. But I knew I wanted Katar being flustered and blushy around Jet to awaken Some Kind Of Feelings in Angka. The solution I found was mostly downplaying the jealousy aspect and having Angka look at Jet and being all "Wow she's really pretty." and feeling extremely ordinary and plain by comparison as well as unheroic for running away when the world needed her, while Jet was off liberating towns for a supposedly righteous cause. (And that of course will be expanded and followed through in subsequent chapters, especially once we get to "The Storm".)

I think it works like this.

Interlude chapter up next for a small break and then we're back to the action. Thanks for reading!