Chapter Text
Jet’s daemon settled young. Of course she did. Pretty much everybody he knows had their daemon settle young.
Trauma will do that, they say.
Lee’s daemon still isn’t settled, which is interesting. But there’s a lot of interesting things about Lee, and his daemon’s unsettled state is just one of many, along with that harsh expression he wears and the tight line of his shoulders and his bitter tone of voice and that scar. Jet would figure somebody with a scar like that would be more than traumatized enough to settle, but Lee’s daemon flickers from form to form like it’s nothing, the only constants her burned face and restless nature.
Jet wants to know her name like he’s never wanted to know anyone else’s in his life, but Lee won’t tell it.
You can’t lie about your daemon’s name the same way you can lie about your own, so Jet guesses that makes sense.
It’s making his Kira crazy not to know, though.
“You’re so pretty,” she says, wolf-serpent eyes glittering. Lee’s daemon ignores her and shifts from a lizard-ermine to a swallow-shrike on the rail, which doesn’t make her any less pretty. Lee looks annoyed.
“Tell her to stop that,” he says. Jet tries not to laugh.
“Kira does what she wants,” he says. “I’m just along for the ride.”
“She’s your daemon,” Lee says, scowling at him.
“Yeah, and I’m her human,” Jet says, still amused. Of course somebody like Lee thinks he can control his freaking soul, he thinks wryly.
“So tell her to stop,” Lee says, obviously irritated. Jet wonders what it’d take to get him to soften up. A lot, probably. He’s willing to provide, given the opportunity.
“Hey, Kira,” he says.
“Fuck you,” she says, thumping her scaled tail against his leg and not looking away from Lee’s daemon. Jet laughs. Lee’s scowl darkens.
“Told you,” Jet says, reaching down to ruffle Kira’s fur. Lee doesn’t touch his daemon much; she doesn’t even perch on him. Jet wonders if he ever touches her, actually. He could believe that he wouldn’t; Lee seems like that kind of guy. Jet wouldn’t have noticed, probably, except she’s only been small things so far. He’d have expected . . . he doesn’t know, a komodo puma or a tiger-dog or something. Something big and fierce.
Not that she hasn’t been turning into fierce things, though.
“What do you want, anyway?” Lee says, folding his arms.
“To tell you you're pretty, pretty much,” Jet says. Lee scowls even darker.
"That's not funny," he says.
"Wasn't joking," Jet says with a shrug. Lee's definitely pretty, daemon and all. He hasn't seen anyone so pretty . . . maybe ever, really. "What, you're that surprised to hear it? How blind are the people you hang out with?"
"Shut up," Lee says.
"Make me," Jet suggests. He can think of a couple ways Lee could that he'd like. A couple he wouldn't like too, admittedly, but he's holding out hope here. He’d definitely rather get kissed than get dumped over the rail.
"I should," Lee says. His daemon hisses. She's a mongoose-viper now.
"You could," Jet says, grinning lazily at him as Kira's tail thumps against his leg again. She wants to pounce; he can tell. He does too, so no surprise there. He wants to pounce and he wants to devour, kiss Lee stupid, kiss him 'til he gets bitten for it and put his hands all over him. Or just wherever Lee will let him.
"Don't," Lee says. He doesn't elaborate. Jet really, really wants to kiss him. He leans against the rail Lee probably does want to dump him over instead.
"What if I want to?" he says lightly.
"You shouldn't." Lee looks away. Jet doesn't want to kiss him any less. He wonders if Lee's noticed that yet. Maybe not, considering. The kind of guy who doesn't touch his own daemon really might not be aware of how damn kissable he is.
“I hear that a lot, actually,” he says, glancing at Lee’s daemon, who’s looking away too. Lee’s looking backwards; she’s looking ahead. That might mean something, or it might just be them avoiding looking at each other. “That I ‘shouldn’t’. Don’t you?”
“Mm.” Lee’s still looking away.
“Come on, Lee,” Jet says. “Let me.”
“No,” Lee says tersely. Jet resists the urge to touch him and watches his daemon flicker into a really strange-looking . . . lemur? Is that a lemur? It looks a lot like the one Aang and Katara and Sokka had with them—the one he’d never seen the likes of before.
That’s weird, he thinks distractedly, but she only holds the shape for a moment before twisting into a chameleon-lark, which might be the most harmless-looking thing she’s been so far. Jet wonders if that’s a vulnerability, but he’s doing his best not to manipulate those like he used to, so he doesn’t pursue it. At least, not with allies, anyway.
Obviously if he saw that kind of thing in somebody Fire, he’d let Kira bite it in half.
“I’d let you,” he says, and Lee glowers at him, and it takes everything Jet’s got not to do something that might scare him off.
“Are you always like this?” Lee says.
“This is the only way I’m like,” Jet says with a shrug. He’s done being a liar. It didn’t work. Now he’s just who he is, and that’s it. What people see is what they get.
It’s their own fault if they make any misassumptions, of course, but that goes without saying.
“I don’t believe you,” Lee says. He looks frustrated. Jet’s not trying to be frustrating, but Lee strikes him as the type to get that way pretty easily, so it’s not much of a surprise to see.
“Okay,” Jet says. Lee blinks rapidly, then scowls at him.
“What, you’re fine with that?” he says.
“You don’t have to believe me,” Jet says with a shrug. “I’d like it if you did, though.”
“You’re a thief,” Lee says.
“And you’re a liar,” Jet says. Lee bristles. “What, did you think you were being subtle?”
Lee’s mouth thins and he looks away again. His daemon, though . . .
She’s looking right at Jet, and he’s never felt such a lightning-crackle thrill up his spine outside of a fight.
“It’s cool. There’s a lot of liars around here,” he says. Lee still doesn’t say anything. Jet thinks about doing something that’d probably scare him off again.
Then again, Lee doesn’t seem to scare easy.
Jet reaches out and grabs Lee’s wrist. Lee turns towards him with lightning-crackle eyes and glares, and Jet feels it all the way through his body. He pulls the other’s hand towards him and Lee tenses, and maybe he’s about to pull back and maybe he’s about to hit him, but Jet doesn’t really care which it’s gonna be.
He presses his mouth into Lee’s palm. Lee goes stiff, his fingers curling.
Jet bites him. Just a little; gently, even, but definitely a bite.
Lee makes a noise Jet can’t identify and his daemon paces on the railing. She could fall off so easily and so clearly doesn’t care. Jet guesses it wouldn’t matter, since she can have wings whenever she likes.
“What are you doing,” Lee says roughly.
“What are you gonna let me do?” Jet asks with a smirk. Kira leers at Lee’s daemon, her tail thumping again. Lee’s daemon bristles.
Then she hops down off the rail and turns into a wolf-serpent, a scarred mirror of Kira, and Jet’s heartbeat thrums in his ears.
“You’re the worst,” Lee says tightly, and Jet flicks the straw out of his mouth and kisses him.
It’s really the only thing he can do right now.
Lee’s mouth is hard. Jet doesn’t lean back, though, and there’s a long moment that passes, and then Lee softens, just barely, and then Lee bites him. Jet laughs. He squeezes the hand he’s got around the other’s wrist and bites back, and Lee’s other hand comes up and grips his shoulder roughly. He doesn’t push him away.
Their mouths move against each other’s, but it’s not really a kiss. Lee doesn’t seem to know how to kiss.
It’s really, really close to one, though.
Lee jerks back, breathing heavily and staring at him with those lightning-crackle eyes, and Jet squeezes his wrist again. He doesn’t look at their daemons, but he knows Kira’s stepped towards Lee’s and he’d bet Lee’s has her hackles up.
“How was that?” he asks, licking his lips. Lee keeps staring at him. Jet’s pretty sure he wants to bolt, but for some reason he’s not, and Jet’s more than willing to take advantage of that hesitation. It’s not manipulation; it’s just . . . accepting an opportunity.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lee says. Kira’s tail thumps against Jet’s leg again, but right now it could just as easily be Lee’s daemon’s and he wouldn’t know the difference.
“A lot of things,” Jet says, his eyes trailing over the other’s face. “I feel pretty alright right now, though.”
Lee falls silent. Jet keeps his grip on his wrist, and Lee doesn’t pull away from it. Jet feels like he’s balanced on the edge of a blade; like any little thing could knock him over and slice him up on the way down. Dangerous, but dangerous in a way that feels so, so good.
He wants to make Lee feel that way too.
He wants to make Lee feel a lot of things.
“What about you?” Jet says, and Lee’s eyes flicker. He still looks ready to bolt; he still hasn’t pulled away. Jet feels powerful and weak and dangerous and stupid and so, so many things at once.
“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Lee lies, because of course he does.
“Sure,” Jet says agreeably, not really agreeing. If that’s what Lee’s got to pretend, that’s what Lee’s got to pretend. He pushes his free hand into Kira’s ruff, and thinks about how Lee’s daemon’s would feel exactly the same. Kira’s panting eagerly, tail still thumping. Lee’s eyes flick down to her, but Jet’s don’t need to. He knows exactly what she’s doing right now.
Of course he does. She’s his daemon.
“She’s big,” Lee says. “Even for a wolf-serpent.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jet says. “Yours doesn’t like being big?”
“It’s not that.” Lee’s eyes come back to him, wary and defensive and gorgeous. “It’s just—easier. Not to be.”
“Is it?” Jet says, thinking how unlike Lee that sounds. Lee’s mouth thins again. Jet restrains himself from another kiss. He wants to hear this.
He also wants to teach Lee how to kiss, admittedly.
“Yes,” Lee lies, and Jet thinks that being small must be the hardest thing that Lee’s daemon has ever done.
“Shame,” he says. “I think it kinda suits her.”
Lee looks away; looks back. Kira rumbles low in her chest.
“. . . her name’s Ako,” Lee says gruffly, and Jet grins.
“Nice to meet you, Ako,” Kira says.