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“Come on, chill out, dude. It’s a stakeout, it’s not like you have anything better to do. Truth or dare?”
Why had it come to this? They’d only been crouching by the tree for ten minutes max, talking about the Fire Nation and the Freedom Fighters, and now Jet was trying to get him to play some dumbass Earth Kingdom game.
“Fine,” Sokka grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as he fully settled with his back against the tree trunk. “Truth.”
Sokka wasn’t going to fall for Jet’s bullshit. If he agreed to a dare this early in the game, he would probably end up having to beat up some random old guy. It was better to play it safe for now, even if the eye roll he got from Jet hurt his pride.
“Okay. Ever kissed someone?”
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Sokka answered through gritted teeth, not bothering to elaborate. Leave it to Jet to ask a lame question. For his part, Jet was quirking his eyebrow up in the worst way and flicking the piece of grass in his teeth. Up. Down. Up. Down. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Jet replied easily, shifting so that his arms were supporting his head where he was laying on the ground to Sokka’s left.
“Alright, same question, asshole.”
Jet chuckled, taking the grass out of his mouth for a second before turning and making direct eye contact with Sokka.
“Sure have. You probably wouldn’t like to know who, though.” Sokka grimaced. He knew what Jet was implying, and he resolutely tried to ignore the thought of his sweet little sister kissing this guy. He refused to believe it. Jet was just messing with him, and besides, there was no way Katara had such low standards. “Truth or dare?”
Jet tucked a piece of hair behind his ear as he asked, and it was kinda hot. Shit. No way Sokka has such low standards.
“Truth.”
Jet sighed, rolling his eyes again. It seemed to be his favorite facial expression to make.
“You’re so predictable, Sokka. At least I know I can count on you for an honest opinion,” he joked, bumping Sokka’s shoulder. Lightning raced up Sokka’s arm from the point of contact, and he did his best to ignore the whirlwind of thoughts that flooded his head. No way do I have a crush on fucking Jet. “Do you like boys?”
If Sokka was predictable, then he didn’t know what Jet was.
He mulled the question over, gave it some genuine thought. Did he like boys? He really had no clue, so he answered honestly.
“I don’t know. You’re the first boy my age that I’ve ever had a conversation with.”
“Really?” Jet asked, finally looking mildly interested in the conversation they’d been engaged in for the past twenty minutes. “Little old me?”
“I mean, it's not like I haven't-- I’ve seen another teenage boy, okay?" he rushed out, suddenly feeling defensive. Jet's expression was growing more and more amused, and Sokka couldn't stand it. "It was some Fire Nation asshole with a ponytail. He raided my village.”
Jet’s face hardened at the mention of the Fire Nation, but it quickly morphed into something playfully sly.
“You have a ponytail, Sokka.”
Sokka spluttered, cheeks going red as he reached for his hair self-consciously.
“It’s not a ponytail! It’s a warrior’s wolf tail! It represents--”
“Alright, alright, whatever you say,” Jet cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Don’t you have something to ask me?”
Sokka huffed in annoyance, settling back against the tree trunk.
“You're a jerk, you know that? Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” was the response, and the way Jet said it with no hesitation made Sokka a bit wary.
Jet stared at him. Sokka stared back. His heart felt like it might beat out of his chest. This was not how he imagined a stakeout with Jet would go.
Shut up, thoughts! Jet wanted a dare.
Sokka glanced around, trying his best to think of something interesting or embarrassing to make Jet do. They were sitting at the base of a tree in a forest, supposedly waiting for some Fire Nation soldiers that were going to pass through here. Not much to work with, all things considered.
“Alright… I dare you to switch tunics with me.”
Sokka had no clue what he was doing, but he figured it was at least slightly right when Jet’s easy grin faltered.
“An interesting choice. Fine, let’s do it.”
And then Sokka realized that he’d severely miscalculated because Jet started yanking off his shirt right then and there, not even bothering to remove his dumb shoulder pads first.
"Hey, give a guy some warning first before you start flashing me! There are some thing I do not want to see."
Jet scoffed and continued stripping, paying Sokka no mind.
"This was your idea, pal," he said, and then the shirt was off.
He had abs. Of course he had abs. Washboard abs. Spirits, Sokka should’ve guessed. This was a mistake.
Despite knowing this, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from broad shoulders, tight arm muscles, and beautiful tan skin. It felt like his spirit had left his body.
“You know, if we’re switching tunics you need to take yours off too, lover boy,” Jet snarked, trademark smirk already back in place.
“Obviously I know that,” Sokka replied hastily as he scrambled to pull his shirt off.
He didn’t miss the aborted gasp Jet made even though he was temporarily blinded by his tunic over his eyes. He wriggled the shirt over his head and handed it off the Jet, who was clearly staring at Sokka's chest, which was now on full display.
He couldn’t fathom what was causing Jet to stare like that. Sokka talked a lot of shit, sure, but even he knew he didn’t have anything particularly impressive going on. At least not compared to Jet.
He pointedly looked away as he slipped Jet’s tunic on, the rustling of fabric telling him that Jet was doing the same. Sokka adjusted the shoulder pads and rolled up the sleeves. A little big, but overall not that bad.
He glanced over at Jet and gulped. The Water Tribe tunic was small on him. And the fact that it was sleeveless was not helping Sokka at all.
Jet seemed to notice Sokka’s unease and popped a fresh blade of grass into his mouth, lips curling up.
“Truth or dare, Sokka?”
Sokka could sense the challenge, knew that Jet wanted him to choose a dare for once. And he was helpless to it.
“Dare.”
It shouldn’t have been possible, but Jet’s stupid smirk seemed to double in size. He scooted closer to Sokka, leaning into his personal space.
Sokka couldn't bring himself to lean away.
“Sokka,” he purred, and he thought Jet looked about ready to eat him. He wouldn’t have minded. “I dare you to kiss me.”
He’d known it was coming. Of course he’d known. All of the subtext had been there, every single spoken truth and taken dare had ultimately been leading to this. But Sokka had been expecting more foreplay, more dancing around. More beating around the bush, so to speak.
Wait a second. Sokka was a man of principle! He couldn't just surrender to the enemy on a whim. And Jet was the enemy. Sokka was only playing nice, biding his time until he had solid evidence that Jet was up to no good to bring back to Katara. And if he wanted to do that, the first step was probably to avoid kissing Jet at all costs.
"Yeah, like that would ever happen. I'd hand myself over to the Fire Nation first!" Sokka declared, pressing himself up against the tree and as far away from the other boy as possible, but Jet's eyes narrowed mischievously and he knew he was fucked.
"That so?"
And then Jet was pulling the grass out of his mouth and leaning forward, and Sokka was paralyzed by internal conflict, so in the end he just closed his eyes and accepted that his fate was to consort with the enemy. He’d counted pecking Suki on the lips as a kiss. He had a feeling whatever was about to happen would be nothing like that.
It felt like lifetimes before their lips touched, but then that familiar feeling of electricity was racing through Sokka’s entire body, igniting his skin.
Jet’s lips were chapped and warm and they moved like they knew exactly what they were doing, so Sokka did his best to follow along.
He braced himself against the tree trunk even as Jet managed to move closer, reaching up and tangling long fingers in his hair, causing his wolf tail to fall out.
He was kissing Jet.
Jet, who he still had a bad feeling about. Who had probably been messing around with his sister.
This was definitely a bad idea, like most of Sokka’s ideas, but then Jet was biting at his bottom lip and Sokka had forgotten every reason why he shouldn’t be making out with Jet.
“You sure you’ve kissed someone before?” Jet hummed against his lips, and Sokka pulled away abruptly, trying to catch his breath so he could properly rebut him.
“Of course I’ve kissed before. I wouldn’t lie about that! Seems more like something you’d do.”
“Hm. I thought you’d be able to tell I was an experienced kisser. Guess I’ll have to show you again,” Jet said way too smoothly, leaning back in, but Sokka shoved him away while he still had a properly functioning brain.
“Not so fast. It’s your turn. Truth or dare?” Sokka squeaked out, attempting to maintain some of his dignity.
Jet chuckled at that, sitting back on his heels and adjusting the way-too-tight tunic he was wearing. He winked.
“Truth.”
And although Sokka had managed to buy himself some time, he had no clue what to ask Jet.
The other boy was staring at him, maintaining eye contact even as he wedged another blade of grass between his teeth. Sokka latched onto that. It was all he had.
“What’s with the grass?”
Jet actually laughed for once, not a condescending chuckle but a real, actual laugh. It was surprisingly nice sounding.
“I guess I picked it up from my dad,” he murmured thoughtfully, reaching up to play around with the fresh piece in his mouth. “Doesn’t taste half bad, though. The grass in this valley is good. Wanna try?”
Sokka didn’t protest when Jet inched toward him again, offering Sokka the end of grass that was sticking out of his mouth.
Technically, Sokka could’ve argued that they were surrounded by grass and he could get his own blade.
He didn’t.
Instead, he leaned forward, biting onto the grass and enjoying the sweet flavor. It wasn’t bad, just like Jet had said.
It also wasn’t bad when Jet grinned at him, breaking the piece of grass in half as he closed the distance between them and sealed their lips together again.
Their hands found each other even as Jet’s tongue found its way into Sokka’s mouth, and Sokka’s eyes slipped shut again as he decided that maybe Jet was a perfectly reasonable guy, after all.
So much for their stakeout.