A. N. : Jet has now hijacked this fic for a few chapters. Beware. I started headcanoning he has trichotillomania after a particularly bad day, and now I can't let it go.

Jet is worried.

He's also kind of scared, but not because of Lin – she is sleeping and he has a bucket full of water ready in case she starts a fire because of a nightmare or just by sneezing. No, the really scary thing was Li's expression, the way he looked ready to throw everything away, even his life, maybe even Lin, just to get to – whatever it is he's chasing.

And Jet is conscious he probably looked like that when he blew up the dam – made Longshot do it and he'll never be sorry enough – and he doesn't know what Li is going to do, just that he shouldn't.

And that's the reason he tried to bend Li, to stop him from doing whatever stupid thing he's aiming for, and with what he read yesterday he could've done it, could've told him he was safe, could've told him he didn't need to do that, could've told him his father wouldn't hurt him anymore – Jet doesn't know what happened, but he doesn't need to for such a simple task as stop – maybe he should have, but bending Li would be like betraying him and they would both drown in the end, so Jet backed down and tried the honest way and Li didn't care, Li left him with a child he will kill if he breaks Li didn't care about Lin or Jet or anything and Jet can hear the dam blow up and see the wave crashing down on him and Mushi and Lin and he wonders if that's how Katara felt when she couldn't stop him.

No, she probably felt worse and if he ever sees her again, he'll bow so low to apologize he'll become one with the dirt.

He hopes Li will at least steer clear from the Dai Li. Something is wrong with them, Jet can feel it, and he saw his boss after he was back from arrest and he was different and if the Dai Li are responsible for this, what would they do to Li, who has the war written on his face –

Jet breathes.

Li will be alright. Li has to be alright so Jet can kick his ass once he comes back. Smellerbee will probably want to join too.

The sun is setting and Li hasn't come to fetch Lin and Jet is so fucking worried and maybe Mushi will know something – anything – and anyway he can't keep Lin around at night too, he'd just break – so he sets off.

He manages to keep Lin asleep when taking her in his arms and leaves a teapot on the table so Bee and Longshot will know where to find him.

Mushi hasn't come home yet when he gets there, so Jet waits in front in front of the door, praying that Lin won't wake up, thinking that maybe, after Li comes back and gets his ass properly kicked, he could try to find Katara to apologize – he has seen the posters and how the fuck do you lose a huge flying monster ? The lemur, he would understand, but Appa ? Seriously ? Maybe the details are written on the posters, but he can't read, so…

Mushi arrives and he looks surprised at first, but then his eyes become steel and Jet has only seen that look on the men who burned down his house and now he can see Mushi was – is – a soldier, probably important, maybe even a general, and if this man is going to give up tea for war, then Li is probably in even deeper shit than jet thought he was.

And Jet probably looks awful, because Mushi's eyes soften and he forces a smile and invites him inside to have a cup of tea while they wait for Li to come back.

And they drink and wait and Lin in on Mushi's lap and Jet is fighting to not pick at his eyebrows, but it's hard because today was shit and now he isn't doing anything, so instead he plays with the wheat, but it's not the same, it's not enough, and soon there are little bits of wheat on the table and the ground and nothing in his hand anymore and he won't touch the brows in front of someone, he is supposed to be in control, but even as he thinks that his hand goes up anyway and he's never been able to stop it.

Mushi asks him if he plays Pai Sho and offers to teach him and gets a board out of nowhere and Jet has to concentrate and he can play with the tiles and Li really has the best uncle in the whole world and he better know it.

It's completely dark outside when the door opens.

Li is drenched – where the fuck did he find so much water – and he has a theatre mask in his hand – and they really need to have a talk because he's the fucking Blue Spirit – and he looks at them with dead eyes and stumbles and suddenly he's on the floor and he says he freed it, whatever it is, and he's shaking and maybe crying and he clearly isn't breathing right but at least he's alive and still Li so that's fine.

The ass-kicking will have to wait, though.