Smellerbee and Longshot

When left Together

"Another searing day in the forest, her bare feet quietly making contact with the autumn leaves and mud rising from between her toes. Not that she minded, she loved the season of autumn, the warmth of the sun on her armored back. It was familiar to the girl, who'd grown to be a young woman in this forest. Most days. But today, her armor seemed to especially weigh her down, and amplify the blistering rays. But she would never take it off, not in a situation like this, surrounded by her fellow Freedom Fighters, most all oblivious to her gender. And it was obvious as soon as she removed it that she was no male. But aside from that, they were readying themselves for a brawl with the militia. They'd been planning this ambush for three days, and it was so well thought out, no one questioned the outcome, or how it would play out.

But, as she'd come to realize over the years after the dam incident, he was sometimes capable of, Jet miscalculated

He'd miscalculated the number of soldiers, and their position, but the biggest shock was the Yu Yan arches set to protect the army. The Yu Yan archers where good, but not as good as Longshot, and their trust was not misplaced. Longshot heard, felt, rather than saw the archers take aim at Smellerbee, and he acted instinctively, notching and shooting his arrow to intercept the path of the enemies, archer. The snap of the wooden arrows caught her attention and she flung her knives up into the trees, narrowly missing where she knew Longshot would be hiding and hitting her target dead on in the chest.

After that, things got interesting. Arrows flew and blew by the faces of the Freedom Fighters, all swiftly dodging and positioning themselves so the flying arrows would hit the soldiers on foot. A clever move, but it wouldn't work twice.

As Smellerbee ducked underneath one arrow, another flew close to her feet, and so on. Because she was the most agile of the group, they had faith she would come out unscathed. Unfortunately, to be agile as she was, you had to be built like a bird, light weight and quick on your toes. This also made her the most fragile of the group, and Longshot went out of his way to shoot the arrows aimed at her small and rapidly beating heart out of the sky. And to return the favor, she picked up speed, slicing through the crowds of soldiers and leaping into the trees to take out the Yu Yan, it was really their only hope seeing as not all could be so quick, and already the distressed cries of the Freedom Fighters with arrows in their shoulders or scraping roughly by their cheeks filled the air.

Smellerbee flew through the trees, right past Longshot and swiped an arrow aimed at his head out of the air, and followed the path it took to the offending archer, taking him out with ease.

The archers where lousy in hand to hand combat, it was a weakness Longshot shared. But unfortunately for them, they didn't have anyone to watch their backs like he did. Longshot and Smellerbee where a commonly known team, they worked together like clockwork, and for that Jet would keep them together, always flanking him or silently protecting him from the trees of the forest.

Once the forest's leaf littered floors where now cluttered with the bodies of Fire Nation soldiers and the Yu Yan's blood dripped from the trees, they went to inspect the cargo. "If they had Yu Yan protecting them, they must have had something worth protecting," Jet had said. But they'd found nothing, and soon they began to shuffle out, empty handed save a few containers of blasting jelly and minimal food supply.

Jet stopped Longshot and Smellerbee though as they readied themselves for the walk back to H.Q. "Wait, Smellerbee, your our best tracker, see if you can find what they were hiding this secret cargo, Longshot, cover her." While Longshot agreed wordlessly, Bee complained "But why us? Why can't Sneers do it? Come on, we took out the Yu Yan!" but she knew he had his reasons. And as he stalked off into the trees, he turned and winked slyly in Longshot's direction. "What was that about?" she wondered out loud. Her only answer was a silent shake of his head before he looked at, mutely telling her to start searching.

She sighed and began her investigation. She followed the blood trails of the dead soldiers {they would instinctively run to protect anything valuable}, she searched the tents of the high ranking general, and even looked for any dirt that looked like it was recently dug up. In the end, she came out with nothing. But as she turned to Longshot to head towards the tree house, they both tensed and a knife was at her throat.

She inwardly groaned as Longshot took aim at her assailant's skull. She knew he wouldn't miss. "Drop you weapon, and take me to your superior or the kid dies," a surprisingly high voice said from behind her. It wasn't quite the octave of a woman, more like an unfortunate young man. From the way he held the knife to her throat and the stance of his feet, she could tell he was an amateur, but that wouldn't stop him from dragging the blade across her neck. No, but Longshot would. She could take this punk by herself, but she'd enjoy the shock on his face after he realized that the stoic young man wasn't backing down.

Longshot squinted, pulled his arrow taught, and took aim for the man's forehead. But something was off, his face, he looked worried, concerned, and…. distressed? The man behind her tightened his grip on her wrists and held the knife against her skin just hard enough to draw blood, a warning. But the man was out of luck, because Longshot was a professional, and just seconds later, an arrow flew by her face, unnervingly close. So close in fact, she thought it may have just scarcely grazed her cheek, taking with it a thin layer of her war paint.

It lodged itself in the man's skull and his grip on her loosened before he fell hard to the ground. She ducked quickly under his limp arm before the knife, still griped in his hand, could nick her upon his descent.

She grinned widely and walked casually towards Longshot. But he had that odd look in his communicative eyes that told her something was wrong. As she approached, he reached a sturdy and calloused hand out to her cheek, sliding his finger over where she supposed the arrow got her. He smeared her war paint, but when he pulled his hand back and held it out for her to see, there was something else, a deeper red staining his skin. She moved her hand to the same spot and sure enough, when her hand pulled back, blood was on her finger tips.

But that was normal, the Freedom Fighters usually came back with cuts or bruises, or sometimes even scars, so she didn't think twice before shrugging and wiping her hand on her pants before walking towards the forest. She soon noticed that Longshot was not following, and came up on his left, her still red tinted fingers resting on his shoulder comfortingly. He was still looking down at his hand, which was now shaking slightly.

He turned to her with eyes filled with emotion. Regret, disappointment, guilt, but what scared her most was the self loathing in his eyes. The hatred she knew was pointed at himself, and maybe the man lying nearly ten feet away. "I did this to you, I hurt you, I betrayed your trust…." His eyes said as he brought his hand back to her cheek before letting it slide down her jaw to her neck where she could feel a slow trickle of blood run down into her shirt. "I should have seen him," he thought, but he knew exactly why he didn't.

He knew exactly where his focus was, and he was so ashamed. He had been watching her move, lightly, gracefully, he'd been admiring her skill as she thoroughly scanned the campsite. Admiring her. He always had.

Smellerbee, seeing a whole new set of emotions in his eyes, moved so that her hand was griping his wrist as his thumb slowly ran the length of the cut on her neck. "It's not your fault, you know. You saved my ass. Again. I owe you my life ten times over," she said sternly, her eye brows furrowed. "So don't you dare blame yourself. And to be honest, I'd rather have one more cut to cover up than not be here at all," she gave her best soothing voice. "I'm so, so sorry, "his eyes spoke again.

His eyes locked with hers before he seized her small frame in a hug that was at once, gentle, and rib crushing. Bee awkwardly wrapped her arms around his waist, and waited for him to release her. This took longer than she expected. And as she breathed in the scent of the forest from his cloths and felt him shudder, she finally put the pieces together.

Longshot loved her. She was sure. Much too intense to be a simple infatuation, and too strong to be anything else. But how did she feel about him? He'd been her brother figure for so long…. No, Jet had been a brother, Longshot had been a friend, an advisor, a companion. And when she actually took the time to think about her future, she couldn't see herself any place other than with Longshot and possibly Jet. They were her family. And she loved them equally. But it was a different kind of love, she realized as she gripped the cloth of his shirt. She loved jet, and would die for him, for his cause, but she would live for Longshot. Always him. It always had been.

They pulled away slowly and Longshot carefully brought his lips to her hurt cheek, hesitating a moment, then letting his tongue flick out and lick the blood from her cheek. A pleasant chill ran down her spine, and she felt him smirk slightly against her skin. She was enjoying it more than she should have, but that didn't matter here, where they were completely alone.

Once he was satisfied that the cut was efficiently cleaned, he motioned her to sit, her back against a tree. Longshot silently slid down next to her, and with a minute grin, he brought her into his lap. She squeaked slightly in surprise before turning her head to hide the pink in her cheeks. But all other emotions and rational thought left her mind as he turned her head, cupping her chin softly, and brought his lips to her neck. Licking at her wound and slowly biting the tender flesh, he inwardly laughed. He'd had day dreams about moments like these.

She shuddered and arched into his touch as he moved from her cut up to her jaw line and then back down to her collarbone. He was cautious not to leave any trace; he didn't want the other freedom fighters to know until she decided to tell them. After all, it would mean making her gender known to all the fighters. She wasn't ashamed of her sex, but she was afraid she'd loose respect if they knew, that they'd go out of their way to protect her. Not that she ever needed it.

Minutes of bliss went by before Bee decided that she could enjoy this in more ways than one. She slowly pulled away, and began to remove her armor, Longshot looking bewildered. She tossed her armor aside, leaving her in just her loose shirt that she fit into better every day, and her tight legging like pants. She slid her headband off and put it by her armor then shook her hair out, which looked twice as long without the band, her bangs hanging loosely in her eyes and her hair coming just above her shoulders.

Her face had gotten longer, and her features more defined over the years, and though she hid it well, it was plain as day now that she was female. Oh, so female.

She was never shy, and she wasn't the type to beat around the bush, that much he knew. But what Longshot didn't know, was that she could use all her best qualities and make herself look extremely seductive.

She fist got to her knees, her hands followed on the forest floor and she slowly crawled over to where Longshot was until she was literally straddling him. She moved so that he could feel her warm breath on his ear before slyly running her tongue over his ear, nibbling a bit on the lobe. She felt him shudder and trailed her lips across the bottom of his jaw, hardly touching his skin; just enough to give him warm chills. She moved until her mouth was just below his ear and kissed the spot tenderly.

He smiled and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her against him and burying himself in her shoulder. Because she was spanning him, she ended up lying on top of him, her legs on either side of his hips. She flushed slightly at his wildly beating heart, and then relaxed into him. She swung one leg over and wrapped both her arms around his neck before leaning into him and closing her eyes. Longshot had one arm around her waist from underneath her, and the other was resting on her hip.

Later, after they'd recovered from their bout of lust and affection, newly found for Bee, they'd gone back to camp to report the news of the incident with the strange man. They'd left the others to check out the identity of the stranger, and went up to the room, Longshot leading her stealthily by the wrist.

As they entered the room that Longshot, Jet, and Bee all shared {for safety precautions} Longshot immediately had her pressed between him and the wall. She smirked up at him. "You know, technically, we haven't had our first kiss yet." He looked down into her deep brown eyes and pressed their noses together, both their eyes fluttering closed. But he pulled away slowly, before she could reach his lips. The warmth of his body gone, she felt oddly cold. Hollow. Did he just reject her?

She looked up at him with questioning eyes and he smiled down sadly at her. "Not here," his eyes seemed to say, and she pouted slightly. Longshot chuckled gingerly, pressing his lips to the new scar on her throat, before backing out of the room, tent flaps closing behind him. And she was left to wonder.

At dinner, they found out that the man who'd attacked Bee was a highly sought after strategist, and was on his way to the fire lord to plan the invasion of the water tribe. "So it wasn't a 'What' they were protecting, it was a 'who'," the Duke said from his spot next to Smellerbee. Longshot had sat on the opposite side of Jet this time, and it felt wrong, out of place, and strangely empty.

After dinner, Bee climbed smoothly into the tree tops, just above the community in the trees, where if you found the right branch to sit on, you could peer through the opening in the leaves. She would go up there and stare at the stars for hours, thinking of absolutely nothing. But this time, she found it excruciatingly difficult not to let her mind stray to the archer.

Especially when half an hour into her star gazing time, Longshot showed up and sat beside her in silence, as per usual. She cocked her head to face him only to find him gazing at her intensely, as if trying to decode some cryptic message on her face that no one else could. She shrugged it off, he probably was. She turned her attention back to the stars.

"So what happened?" she asked quietly. She didn't need to look to read the confusion in his face, in the air. But it quickly turned to understanding and she knew that she was supposed to see the message behind his eyes, but she couldn't make herself do it. She didn't want to read something that she knew would scar her heart forever.

"Bee, please look at me…." Longshot begged her mentally. But she couldn't hear him, her mind was straying to the looming possibility that she read him wrong. What if he didn't mean it?

Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears; never would she let them fall. But a gentle touch pulled her back from outer space as Longshot pulled her head band off, and tugged at the strings of her armor. As her accessories clattered to the lower levels of the thick brush in which they resided, Bee couldn't help but feel naked, fully exposed ad venerable to his inquisitive eyes.

She could hear him calling her back to him, and his voice whispered through her hair and stirred the leaves. Longshot took her face in his hands and pulled her closer into him, until their foreheads touched. Bee looked up into his eyes, strong, deep, and loving.

And then his lips played against her own in a sweet rhythm that could only be described as bliss. Her eyes fluttered closed and from her eyes came tears of relief and joy. Streaming down her face, they each carried away a bit of her war paint, and when Longshot brought his hands up to caress her smooth skin they found it bare of any form of concealment.

She was pure, and she was his.

That night Jet stayed up working on a battle strategy, making altercations to each map and plan. And while he was gone, Longshot and Bee spent those late hours in each other's arms, relishing the sensation of skin against skin.

Bee didn't need words to understand Longshot, his voice was the wind, it was in each touch and smile, each look, his voice was in the beat of his heart beneath her ears as it pounded in time with her own.

And every syllable, every sound screamed "I love you."

"I love you, too." Bee whispered into his chest.

Okay, lame title, I know. Cheesy ending? Defiantly. But didn't it just warm the fuzzy lumpkins of your soul? No? Ouch….

~Mad Éclair