shadowsong26 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shadowsong26) wrote2009-07-24 02:47 pm
shadowsong26) wrote2009-07-24 02:47 pm
Entry tags:
no, i haven't forgotten this!
Title: Buried Child
Rating: M
Genre: General
Summary: Four years after his village is destroyed, Jet begins to make a new family.
Warning: There will be fairly graphic content later in this story.
Two years passed, and Jet and Lee had yet to manage to recruit anyone else to stay in their treehouse city for more than a couple weeks. Jet had just turned fifteen, and Lee would be fourteen at some point at the end of the summer. The younger boy had remained quiet and withdrawn, though he was either having fewer bad days or hiding them better.
Their days had fallen into a somewhat monotonous pattern. Jet would scout around the valley, moving out of the woods and towards the town, plotting sabotage and robbing anyone in Fire colors, while Lee would drift deeper into the woods with his sling and his knife, returning usually with a deerhare or two and some roots and berries he'd learned were edible over the years.
Lee had always insisted on trying strange plants on himself. Jet had allowed this until one time, the year before, when Lee had tested some slightly-bitter berries and been sick for a month, coming close to dying during the worst parts. "We've figured out enough to have some variety. We don't need any more." The younger boy had quietly agreed, and stuck to things he'd already determined were safe.
It was a rather glorious spring day when their pattern changed. Jet had been stalking a small group of soldiers for a while, waiting for a chance when he could ambush one or two of them and pick them off--reckless and determined he was, but not so arrogant as to think he could take out twelve well-trained adult fighters all by himself.
Finally, finally he saw an opportunity. One of the soldiers split off from the main group and headed towards the stream. Jet grinned, and ghosted after him, staying in the treetops.
Once they were a safe distance away, he pounced, leaping out of the trees with his swords drawn. He managed to surprise the soldier and get a good slash across the man's back before he spun around and lashed back. By Jet's ill luck, this soldier was a firebender, and he was now too close to dodge fully. He yelled when the blast connected with his side, and struck back wildly, aiming for the soldier's eyes. He failed to connect, but the soldier lost his balance when stepping backwards and fell into the stream, buying Jet some time to escape. He fled back to base, then crawled into the central house to see how bad the burns were and wait for Lee.
They weren't as bad as he'd thought at first. His skin was red and blistering, but not blackened. He sagged a little in relief, and crawled out again to get some cold water to rinse them out and hopefully deaden the pain. He found the supply of bandages they'd stolen a while ago, and noted that they were starting to run low--he and Lee ran through them fairly quickly, between his direct fighting and Lee sometimes tangling with various kinds of wolves and bears for what he'd hunted. He made a mental note to steal some more soon, and set about cleaning and wrapping his latest injuries.
Lee returned around sunset, also a bit scratched up, with a deerhare. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the bandages--while Jet's burns weren't serious, they were fairly extensive, covering his right forearm and a good portion of his torso. "What happened?" he asked, setting the deerhare down.
"Didn't do the research," Jet said, a little sheepishly. "Cornered one of the firebenders without setting up for it right."
"How bad are you hurt?"
"It's not as bad as it looks. They're just blistering a bit."
Lee relaxed a little, clearly relieved. "I'll look at them once I'm done with dinner," he promised. Jet didn't object--while he had cleaned and wrapped them himself, it was always better to have someone else do it. Pain and awkwardness of placement made it easy to do a slipshod job of treating one's own injuries. Instead, he just settled back to watch Lee put dinner together.
He noticed little things, things he'd started gradually noticing a few months after they left Song's. The way Lee moved, the way everything about him was long and narrow, sharp, even--he didn't eat much, which left him fairly skinny. The way he gave each task his undivided focus, almost to a point where it was a bad thing. He wasn't fanatically opposed to the Firenation, like Jet was, but, having accepted the task of supplying Jet and his still-hypothetical guerrilla army, he devoted himself to it with a single-mindedness that was endearing, putting his assigned tasks above everything else, including care for himself. So Jet had to watch for that, especially in the winter--while it didn't get particularly cold or snow much here, winter was still unpleasant for the younger boy.
Lee wore his hair long, pulled up in a tail at the top of his head. For some reason, the way the tail twitched back and forth when he walked drew Jet's attention like very little else. He even dreamed about it sometimes, Lee's hair, dreamed about pulling it free from the tail and running his hands through it. These dreams always left him hot, and tight, and unsatisfied, and guilty. Things like he dreamed about were Not Done, not in the Earth Kingdom, and if he did them, well, people might be less willing to join his army.
He brooded on this for a while, watching Lee put together their meal, and while they ate.
And then Lee came to unravel the bandages and check on the burns underneath. That hot, tight, guilty feeling spread over Jet again, and the younger boy paused, noting the source of it. He looked up at Jet, expression unreadable. Jet whispered something that may have been his name, then reached up and twisted Lee's tail in his hand. The younger boy closed his eyes, unresisting. Taking that as permission, Jet pulled him down and kissed him.
Rating: M
Genre: General
Summary: Four years after his village is destroyed, Jet begins to make a new family.
Warning: There will be fairly graphic content later in this story.
Two years passed, and Jet and Lee had yet to manage to recruit anyone else to stay in their treehouse city for more than a couple weeks. Jet had just turned fifteen, and Lee would be fourteen at some point at the end of the summer. The younger boy had remained quiet and withdrawn, though he was either having fewer bad days or hiding them better.
Their days had fallen into a somewhat monotonous pattern. Jet would scout around the valley, moving out of the woods and towards the town, plotting sabotage and robbing anyone in Fire colors, while Lee would drift deeper into the woods with his sling and his knife, returning usually with a deerhare or two and some roots and berries he'd learned were edible over the years.
Lee had always insisted on trying strange plants on himself. Jet had allowed this until one time, the year before, when Lee had tested some slightly-bitter berries and been sick for a month, coming close to dying during the worst parts. "We've figured out enough to have some variety. We don't need any more." The younger boy had quietly agreed, and stuck to things he'd already determined were safe.
It was a rather glorious spring day when their pattern changed. Jet had been stalking a small group of soldiers for a while, waiting for a chance when he could ambush one or two of them and pick them off--reckless and determined he was, but not so arrogant as to think he could take out twelve well-trained adult fighters all by himself.
Finally, finally he saw an opportunity. One of the soldiers split off from the main group and headed towards the stream. Jet grinned, and ghosted after him, staying in the treetops.
Once they were a safe distance away, he pounced, leaping out of the trees with his swords drawn. He managed to surprise the soldier and get a good slash across the man's back before he spun around and lashed back. By Jet's ill luck, this soldier was a firebender, and he was now too close to dodge fully. He yelled when the blast connected with his side, and struck back wildly, aiming for the soldier's eyes. He failed to connect, but the soldier lost his balance when stepping backwards and fell into the stream, buying Jet some time to escape. He fled back to base, then crawled into the central house to see how bad the burns were and wait for Lee.
They weren't as bad as he'd thought at first. His skin was red and blistering, but not blackened. He sagged a little in relief, and crawled out again to get some cold water to rinse them out and hopefully deaden the pain. He found the supply of bandages they'd stolen a while ago, and noted that they were starting to run low--he and Lee ran through them fairly quickly, between his direct fighting and Lee sometimes tangling with various kinds of wolves and bears for what he'd hunted. He made a mental note to steal some more soon, and set about cleaning and wrapping his latest injuries.
Lee returned around sunset, also a bit scratched up, with a deerhare. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the bandages--while Jet's burns weren't serious, they were fairly extensive, covering his right forearm and a good portion of his torso. "What happened?" he asked, setting the deerhare down.
"Didn't do the research," Jet said, a little sheepishly. "Cornered one of the firebenders without setting up for it right."
"How bad are you hurt?"
"It's not as bad as it looks. They're just blistering a bit."
Lee relaxed a little, clearly relieved. "I'll look at them once I'm done with dinner," he promised. Jet didn't object--while he had cleaned and wrapped them himself, it was always better to have someone else do it. Pain and awkwardness of placement made it easy to do a slipshod job of treating one's own injuries. Instead, he just settled back to watch Lee put dinner together.
He noticed little things, things he'd started gradually noticing a few months after they left Song's. The way Lee moved, the way everything about him was long and narrow, sharp, even--he didn't eat much, which left him fairly skinny. The way he gave each task his undivided focus, almost to a point where it was a bad thing. He wasn't fanatically opposed to the Firenation, like Jet was, but, having accepted the task of supplying Jet and his still-hypothetical guerrilla army, he devoted himself to it with a single-mindedness that was endearing, putting his assigned tasks above everything else, including care for himself. So Jet had to watch for that, especially in the winter--while it didn't get particularly cold or snow much here, winter was still unpleasant for the younger boy.
Lee wore his hair long, pulled up in a tail at the top of his head. For some reason, the way the tail twitched back and forth when he walked drew Jet's attention like very little else. He even dreamed about it sometimes, Lee's hair, dreamed about pulling it free from the tail and running his hands through it. These dreams always left him hot, and tight, and unsatisfied, and guilty. Things like he dreamed about were Not Done, not in the Earth Kingdom, and if he did them, well, people might be less willing to join his army.
He brooded on this for a while, watching Lee put together their meal, and while they ate.
And then Lee came to unravel the bandages and check on the burns underneath. That hot, tight, guilty feeling spread over Jet again, and the younger boy paused, noting the source of it. He looked up at Jet, expression unreadable. Jet whispered something that may have been his name, then reached up and twisted Lee's tail in his hand. The younger boy closed his eyes, unresisting. Taking that as permission, Jet pulled him down and kissed him.