Refraction

also titled 'why yes I'm a huge nerd'

I do not own ATLA or make any money off of this

Lovely pic by luco_millian is linked in my profile. This time it should probably be seen prior to starting the fic.

Rated M for sexual situations and mild violence.

The colors of the earth seemed to change from within with the rising sun, cool tones of evening blossoming to vivid color. Jet inhaled deeply, enjoying the warmth across his back. It had been a long while since he allowed himself to enjoy such simple pleasures.

His haggard likeness looking back at him from the mirror on the far wall made him scowl. These early hours he was keeping were still a challenge. He had never been much of a morning person, really. Probably due to lack of any incentive.

He leaned against the balustrade to admire his new incentive. Too swift a glance and one could have mistaken the sleeping figure for sculpted marble. The slow rise and fall of breath was the only thing that broke the illusion. The boy he had met in Ba Sing Se was even more impossibly handsome than Jet remembered, here framed in red silk as a prince of the Fire Nation should be.

It seemed fitting that he should kill the boy here.

It hadn't been part of the original mission, the one that had been come to Jet on his sick bed. Even in his haze during his long recovery he heard whispers that the Avatar had been killed. He didn't believe a word of it. But when weeks went by with no sign of Aang, it was a struggle to keep the faith.

The plan was simple at its heart. If there was no more Avatar, someone had to take out Ozai. Might as well be the Freedom Fighters. Reality had been only slightly more complicated.

Smellerbee tried to hide the news from him about spotting Lee or Zuko or whatever the fuck the boy was calling himself now. Her initial scouting report had been so lacking in detail that Jet figured something was up. It had taken a bit of work to tease the information from her but he got what he wanted in the end. He always did.

The look of disapproval Longshot gave when Jet added the task of taking out Lee to their already difficult mission made Jet feel a small pang of guilt but only for a little while. The prince was the next in line for the throne. It made sense to kill him too. That's what Jet kept telling the others, anyway.

It had nothing to do with what had happened in Ba Sing Se and that's what he kept telling himself.

Figuring out when the boy was alone had been a challenge. Either he was surrounded by servants or with that oddly sullen girl. In the evenings, Lee would take off for a heavily guarded prison tower. No way to follow him there. Jet's curiosity burned to find out what drew the boy there but it would have to go unsatisfied for now.

Finding the window to the prince's bedchamber was probably his best bit of fortune in a while. Or possibly his worst, if the others had anything to say about it.

These early mornings on the balcony weren't that bad. The sleeping prince would retire in wearing very little if anything which was very much appreciated. It also allowed Jet to replay those days on the boat that he looked back on frequently. Flush with success from their raid of the kitchens, Lee had shyly reached out seeking release that they mutually enjoyed satisfying. /Taste of sweat drying on the boy's skin/ It was hard not to get lost in it sometimes.

"Back again?" A familiar rasp snapped Jet back to the present. He roundly cursed himself. Sloppy. Sloppy. The sculpture was awake, those damn gold eyes watching him, revealing nothing.

Old emotion surged forward. Desire, resentment, lust, enmity. Jet wanted to bruise that face for making him feel this way. This boy had turned his world upside down, forcing shades of gray into what had always been simple black and white. Lake Laogai had shattered what was left, leaving him broken body and mind to pick up the pieces.

Jet cloaked himself in a veneer of calm and remained silent.

"I can't figure out why you haven't tried to kill me yet," Lee said softly, sitting up against his headboard. The motion forced his silken coverlet to fall, revealing a trail of fine hairs on taut belly. /Lee would always gasp if you kissed him there/

Don't lose focus. The rebel hissed through clenched teeth: "Is Aang dead?"

Lee suddenly pulled up his thin layer of silk, as if that alone could shield him. "No."

"Good."

Lee was already retreating as Jet lunged for him.

Drawing his hook swords hadn't ever been an option. Jet needed, wanted to feel this with his hands. The grunt he heard when his first punch landed just under the line of muscled rib made him smile. Feeling the corner of that too-pretty mouth split under his knuckles was even better.

Afterwards, he realized he had made a tactical error by getting too close. It was the sharp tang of sweat and expanse of exposed skin that did it. /Jet laughing with Lee writhing eagerly underneath him. Lee stuffing his own tattered shirt in his mouth to muffle his cries, afraid to have anyone hear them in the shadows by the engine room but not too afraid to stop/ The elbow that caught him under the ear caught Jet by surprise.

Jet felt Lee's hand grab him under the chin and slam him back against the wall, impact setting the heavy mirror rattling even through stone. Blows rained down on the rebel with shocking ferocity. The naked boy was like a mad thing, making it impossible to get in an effective counter. A heel kick that Jet brought down on Lee's instep should have been bone-crushingly painful but it did little to slow the attack.

Fury burned in gold eyes, blind anger at nothing and everything coming to a head all at once, all being directed at a conveniently available Earth Kingdom target. The firebender tightened fingers around Jet's windpipe, drawing back a blazing fist.

It didn't feel surprising that it would end here like this, between the two of them. Jet managed to draw a ragged breath. "Do it!" he croaked.

The strike didn't come.

Catching sight of his own image, Lee had frozen, hypnotized. Horror replaced the feral snarl that had consumed his features once he saw his own bloodied face. Arm that had been ready to maim flopped uselessly to one side. "What am I… No. No!"

The sudden weight of Lee clinging to him like a drowning man forced them both to stagger. "It shouldn't have to be like this!" the boy growled, twisting up handfuls of red tunic. "Hate and destruction! Over and over again! And for what? For nothing! It has to stop!"

Jet felt the fight drain from him. All he could do was hold the prince in his arms.

Tears were welling up in the boy's eyes as he blurted "There's going to be an invasion attempt, probably led by the Avatar and his friends."

"It's going to fail." There was no hubris as Lee said this. "My father is going to be well hidden. I don't even know where he'll be. Not yet, anyway." The prince released his death grip and looked like he was ready to get on his knees in front of an Earth Kingdom peasant. "I need you. You have to try and find them. Let them know that their invasion plan is no secret. Even if that doesn't stop them, at least they'll have warning."

Lee slowly regained composure and brought himself to his full height, analyzing his appearance in the mirror. He made a futile pass of his hand to clean the dried trail of blood on his chin. Giving up in disgust, he continued. "My shame for what my people have done makes lash out in anger. And for that I'm sorry. I've been too slow to act, but that's about to change." Lee watched the rebel's reflection carefully for any response, the indirect quality of it perhaps making it easier for both to process such raw emotion. "Can you set aside our past so we can bring peace to this world? Or are you just here to kill?"

Was this real? Peace was just something found in tattered old scrolls. But if not for peace then what was he fighting for? Jet's mind whirled with all the wrong reasons why Lee would be telling him these things. A trap, a suicide mission, a fool's errand. But the boy had never been a good actor. His sincerity rang true.

What would it be like? To sleep through the night without risk of capture. To walk the streets without fear. He was never one to shy from a difficult mission but this was several orders of magnitude more dangerous than anything he had ever actually accomplished. It seemed the will of the spirits that it would have to involve this boy, who was everything he wanted and everything he despised at the same time. Could they do it?

"We made a good team once." He hadn't realized he had spoken aloud until he noticed Lee go wide eyed, face suffused with hope. The rebel let out a weary sigh.

"There's one thing from our past that will be hard to forgive," said Jet as he pressed in behind the naked boy, breathing him in. "I can't stop hating how much I need this." He dipped his head to savor the taste of the hollow just above sharp collarbone. Glancing up, he caught the shock in Lee's reflection. A wave of relief went through them both as the boy melted against him. A soft moan escaped his mouth as Jet used the sparse stubble on his cheek against the prince's soft neck.

"You.." -Jet used his teeth to rake the angular jaw- "have no idea how much I miss this." He slowly ran his possessive hand up bare thigh. "And how much I hated you for making me feel this way." Lee's callused hand grabbed a fistful of Jet's hair, pulling him closer. Jet didn't mind.

They watched their mirrored selves, the rebel letting hands roam to reacquaint himself with what he could reach. "Look at you," he said digging fingernails into muscled chest, relishing the tremble it produced. "Work of art."

"If we have to start over, I need to start over right." The rebel moved on to what he wanted, wrapping his hand around the fully aroused Lee. The flush this caused consumed pale skin from neck to navel. The boy couldn't stop watching himself move into Jet's hand. Neither could Jet.

He had already cataloged all of what Lee liked. The twist at the base, the thumb playing with the tip. The tell tale hitch of breath showed Jet when he found the right spot. It didn't take long to have the boy bucking wildly

Lee was close, eyelids fluttering shut. "No." The command made the prince open his eyes. "I need you to see this. To know why it's been haunting me."

Jet hugged the boy to his chest to get the full feel of him and redoubled his efforts. "Do it," he whispered. Lee cried out, trying so hard to not blink for him. One, two full strokes, and in the middle of one more the boy rippled and pulsed.

It was beautiful.

When this war was over, and Jet now knew it most certainly would be, he would have a home. A real home, a proper home. He would cover every surface he could with polished metal and he would find this boy wherever he was and steal him away. Then with a view from every angle they would explore each other again and again and again.