Katara has known the tender heat of the sun, it's soft fingers on her skin. She has known the inner-melting of hot food, lovingly home-cooked spreading the gooey heat deeper into her bones. The flaring ignition of true laughter is a constant around Sokka and Aang. She's known the sharp, napalm burn of strong spiritous alcohol, cooling into a low burn. She's felt the soft fizzling of crushes in her youth that stark reality and grim responsibility quickly stamped out.
Yes, despite being born of the ice, Katara has never been deprived of warmth.
But the body next to hers, the arm a weight over her stomach, is a new warmth. It burns low, ignites before she realises. Like low coals, her gut shifts and sparks. Bursts of heat leave her light-headed. Flushes and lopsided smiles rob her of words. Molten eyes burn with a pain she's all too familiar with, a flickering candle within her own shattered soul. He's the flame, she the ice it reflects, casting a brighter glow.
She isn't familiar with this heat, and like the first fire she tried to light on her own, it burns out before she can be consumed.
~ ~ ~
Acknowledging Sokka's capability is possibly the worst mistake of Katara's life. Overnight her brother goes from moody man-child to bossy know-it-all. If he's not confidently taking them in the wrong direction, he's harping on about instincts, the trials of leadership, or mooning over missing Suki. Somehow, out of the three, his bemoaned whining about his love-life is her preferred option.
But she's seen now how much her opinion matters to him, so she makes her jabs as playful as possible, only striking for the ego when he gets out of control. Aang sometimes joins in, though the monk is so earnest, Katara thinks he's actually being sincere while she speaks sarcasm so thickly the poor boy can't tell the difference.
She didn't think Sokka could get any worse than grounding Appa before he walks them smack-dab into the middle of a Fire Nation camp.
"Let us pass and we won't hurt you." Sokka's voice trembles around the reverse threat.
"You're gonna hurt us?" An eye-patched captain cackles until Sokka's face is the same shade of red as his ornamented armour. Those cackles are cut short as the man stiffens. When he topples face-first into the ground, a slim dart protrudes between two links in his armour. An impossible shot.
"How'd you do that, Sokka?" Aang gasps.
"Uh... Instinct?"
Metal flashes. A shadow slips from the canopy above their heads, swinging down as if an extension of the branches.
"They're in the trees!"
A young boy lands on top of a soldier charging Aang and turns his helmet around. Blind, the soldier thrashes, and the boy rides him and laughs. Arrows zip past anyone not in armour, expertly finding their marks. It's all Katara can do to flood her target to the ground before one of the forest dwellers is helping her.
A huge boy drops from the trees, so massive it's a wonder the branches could hold him up. He hefts a log like Sokka used to swing sticks when he played warrior as a child. He swings it through the soldiers, denting armour, bending steel, turning flesh and bone to pulp the way Momo does to Lychee nuts.
Surprise and momentum means the battle is over in seconds, and when the hooked swords bring their leader down, he strides easily into the swing. Right up to Katara, and smiles.
"Hey."
Her cheeks ignite before the rest of her. "Hi."
~ ~ ~
"Katara," a husky voice breathes against her neck as hips shift and grind together.
Having an older brother means she knows the sting of burns. Cruel, outmatched snowball fights which left her half-blind, eyes burning and streaming tears. Sokka would grip her arm and rub viciously at the skin until she was screaming, her arm raw from the South Snow Sting, as he liked to call it.
But this is a different kind of friction. One she leans into, learns to match. And suddenly a voice is capable of setting fire to a new, low, flame in her belly.
~ ~ ~
Jet plays with her fingers as they sit together at his feast table. Aang's hilariously sandwiched between The Duke and Pipsqueak, laughing as the Duke makes sabretooth mooselion tusks out of roasted vegetable skewers and pretends to spear Pipsqueak's massive chest. Katara holds his hand under the table, not wanting to draw attention to this flame they're building. True, fire needs oxygen to light, but too much will blow it out. So, she smiles softly, delegates her attention, and blushes furiously when Jet steals a kiss on her cheek because he thinks she's playing hard to get. The children Jet's taken in toast him and celebrate together, and even Sokka's sulking can't dampen Katara's mood.
"You really cause the Fire Nation a lot of trouble," she hedges, wanting to her all about his adventures.
Unfortunately, massive Pipsqueak hears and leans his huge body over the table. "We've been ambushin' their troops, cutting off their supply lines, and doing anything we can to mess with 'em." An intense gleam dominates his small, focused eyes. He turned those soldier's heads to lychee jam with a stick and a lazy swing. Katara's a little disappointed not to be hearing this from Jet, but she's not going to be the one to tell Pipsqueak his story telling is less to be desired.
As if reading her mind, Jet waves Pipsqueak off before tucking his nose close to Katara's neck. "One day, we'll drive the Fire Nation out of here for good and free the valley."
He takes his time after that, letting her get to know his brave boys and girls. He knows all their names, where they came from, and from the cold fire in his eyes, she knows he will never let them suffer as they once did ever again. She understands that cold rage and puts her hand over his when it chokes his voice.
He smiles, squeezes back, then grabs his cup and stands. Chatter breaks off immediately, all eyes of the Freedom Fighters glued to the firm, lank boy. Katara more than any. "Today, we struck another blow against the Fire Nation swine. I got a special joy from the look on one soldier's face, when The Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hog monkey."
Helmet rocking on the table beside him, The Duke marches around the table with his hands in the air to the cheers of his fellows.
"Now, the Fire Nation thinks they don't have to worry about a couple of kids hiding in the trees. Maybe they're right." He grins around the lip of his cup at the hearty Boo! "Or maybe... they're dead wrong."
He sits back down to the cheers. When they fade enough for the normal chatter to resume, he tilts the half-empty cup down the table to her and Aang. "By the way, I was really impressed with you and Aang. That was some great bending I saw out there today."
She isn't used to this kind of admiration from a boy and is redirecting Jet's praise to Aang before she can preen under his attention. "Well, Aang's great. He's the Avatar. I could use some more training."
"Avatar huh? Very nice." His eyes zero in on Aang.
Katara goes from flying on cloud nine to feeling like she doesn't exist any more as Jet probes Aang across her. She'd be embarrassed at how badly she wants his attention back on her if she weren't so upset that it wasn't. "Did I mention how lucky we were you saved us from those soldiers?" she whispers against Jet's neck.
He breaks off his conversation with Aang to grin up at her. "Maybe once, not that I'm complaining."
"Good thing we were there to get the ball rolling," she finishes with a teasing grin of her own.
"I can't be the only one causing the Fire Nation trouble." His eyes darken as he shuffles closer to her. "You might be as good at it as I am, but I have years of Fire Nation antagonism on you. That particular troop were part of a bigger company that took over an Earth Kingdom town a few years back."
"Professional Fire Nation Antagoniser sounds like a lot of fun." Could she count her encounters with Zuko as practice?
"It is," Jet murmurs close to her ear, and she forgets the scarred prince. "Stick around and I'll get you on your way. We might even drive the Fire Nation out of here for good and free that town."
"I'd like that."
The Fire Nation killed his parents. They took her mother from her. It's not only his charm, his heroics, which draw her in. His pain matches the cracks in her own heart. His tears sting with the same salt she's tasted a thousand nights when her grief overwhelmed her. When he takes her hand and presses his lips to the back, she goes with him. He kisses her in front of his treetop tent. Not a chaste, teasing cheek kiss, but one where she's sinking into him. He's threading his fingers into her hair. Whispering her name against her lips.
He takes her hand and leads her inside.
~ ~ ~
Sleep thickens the grunt against her neck. Tan skin, light compared to hers, bunches at the base of the neck as the shoulders work. Jet rolls away, taking his warmth with him. She'll see him later in the day once he and Sokka return from their secret mission, so she snuggles back into the warm embrace of blankets which smell like woodsmoke and trust.
~ ~ ~
Sokka sneers at Jet as the Freedom Fighter defends himself. Katara wonders if Sokka knows the bed Jet lounges on was shared with his sister hours before. She silently begs to Tui and La that he doesn't figure it out, studiously looking away whenever Jet tries to catch her eye and smile slyly.
"If you could stop making eyes at my sister and tell them what really happened," Sokka grumbles. Mission failed, and now Katara can't face her brother without her cheeks catching fire.
"Sokka, you told them what happened, but you didn't mention that the guy was Fire Nation?"
"He conveniently left that part out." She blushes and looks away when Sokka turns his glare on her.
"Fine! But even if he was Fire Nation, he was a harmless civilian!" But Sokka's protests die in his throat when Jet slams the knife into the table, unhinging the hidden compartment and revealing the vile of poison inside. Desperate, he turns to his sister. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm defending a Fire Nation man, Katara. You know I wouldn't do that unless I thought it was the right call."
Her eyes flick between the knife and her older brother. "Explain the knife, the poison, Sokka." Jet's done nothing wrong, but she's begging Sokka to give her the answer he wants of her.
Softer, he inclines his head. "I had your back on Kyoshi, 'Tara."
Her heart nosedives into her stomach. "Explain why he was carrying a knife."
"There was no knife!" Sokka cries, but her eyes sliding to Jet in apology is the final straw. "I'm going back to the hut and packing my things. I'll see you guys at Appa!"
She winces as he stomps past her. Not even Jet's encouraging smile can lift her spirits, but they're two matched, scarred souls, and he knows busy-work, feeling useful, is the best way to take her mind off things. "Tell me you guys aren't leaving yet. I really need your help."
"What can we do?" Aang asks.
~ ~ ~
"You're a lot more chipper this afternoon," Aang comments as they work the water out of the geysers and into the river.
It's true. She can't hide how she feels lighter than air; she might even have skipped. Though she begs quietly to Tui and La Aang doesn't ask her about it. He's a sweet boy approaching manhood too quickly. Let him be innocent for as long as the world will let him.
"I slept well." Not completely a lie. The time she spent asleep, she was sated and deeply under.
He grins, happily not ascertaining any double meaning from her words like Sokka or the other men of her tribe would. "That's great, Katara. I'm glad to see you happy."
"I'm always happy whenever I get to use my bending to help others." She favours him with a soft smile, one that makes the young monk blush and focus on his practice. "Jet really is doing this valley a lot of good. Do you think once he's won the battle here, he'd come with us?"
"Maybe." Aang perks up. "You think The Duke and Pipsqueak would come too? They're a riot."
"They're dedicated to keeping the people safe from the Fire Nation. If we share our mission with them, I'm sure they'd be honoured to offer the Freedom Fighters aid." Katara sighs, thinking of how Jet will smile when they invite them to join the good fight.
~ ~ ~
But when Jet meets her eyes, it physically stings. "You wouldn't."
"I would." Cold. No hesitation. He doesn't even think about all the lives he'll take. "You would too if you just stopped to think. Think about what the Fire Nation did to your mother, we can't let them do that to anyone else, ever again."
"This isn't the answer!" She won't show her betrayal, not yet, not in front of him.
"It's the only answer!" he snarls back. "They asked the question with violence, and I answered!"
The soft boy who held her this morning, told her stories of loving parents in gaudy greens he can't look at now without crying, is gone. Did he ever exist? Did those parents? "The Fire Nation didn't do this, Jet, you did."
"So did you. Don't pretend you don't want as many of them wiped from the face of the earth as I do, else you wouldn't have helped me fill the dam."
Was she such a walking wound that he could so easily pick the scab, force her open with some words here, a touch there?
She feels sick. Everywhere he touched she needs to scrub. Needs to freeze over and rip off her body. Her fingers throb where they bended the water he used to wipe out an entire settlement of lives. Like fire he is nothing but a curse, destined to cause destruction. His warmth was the water that boils the lobsterfrog alive, heating so gently the poor beast doesn't even know its cooking until it's too late. Stoked her pain, manipulated her inability to stop and remember the roots of her pain by focusing the single-minded energy into fitting his means, killing for his ends.
Like fire, she never should have trusted it.
"You're sick." She trips over her revulsion. "You used me to... All those people..."
"This was a victory, Katara." Like that, he can wipe his hands clean, if they weren't frozen to the tree trunk behind him. "The Fire Nation is gone, and this valley will be safe."
"Say what you did, Jet!" Aang doesn't understand what she means. He stares at the raging water, trying to comprehend what's happened as the wreckage of lives streams past. Using her, Katara can forgive, but he's stripped Aang of his last shreds of innocence. For that she'll hate this injured boy until Tui calls her spirit back to the ocean. "You didn't rid this valley of Fire Nation. You. Killed. Innocents!"
"There are no innocents. I rid this valley." His eyes are cold when he meets hers. Nothing exists but his righteous war. Whatever she says, today was a victory. A step forwards in the war against the Fire Nation. Ends for means, or lives in his case. "Free of Fire Nation, and collaborators. The valley is safe."
"The only thing this valley is safe from is you!" Sokka appears, standing atop Appa as the bison rises from below the cliffs. The beast's belly is wet, fat droplets of water splattering the swaying grass.
Jets eyes go wide. "Sokka, you traitor!"
Her brother won't look at the boy struggling against the tree trunk as he helps her up into Appa's saddle. There's no blame in his eyes for her, no I told you so she completely deserves. Could he hear how disgusted she was with the Freedom Fighter, with herself, below the cliffs? She doesn't deserve his understanding but grips his hand as he begins to turn Appa away from this valley of pain.
"No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people. If you ever did."