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So Jet and his regiment got banished by the Fire Lord for insubordination, "insubordination" here meaning "not dying when told to", and frankly Jet would rather live than "preserve his honor" by going on a suicide run, so he's just fine with that. He joined the army because there's not much else for an orphan to do in the Fire Nation and he was sick of going hungry, not because he was excited about showing the world the honor and glory of their nation.
Also, it's less that they're "banished" and more that there's an "execute on sight" order going.
So that's a thing.
There aren't many deserters from the Fire Nation army. People don't tend to make it out. Jet's smart, though, and good with people, and a damn good liar. Their whole regiment walked right out of camp unaccosted and never came back. It's not a story that gets told, of course, because it's the kind of story that might give somebody else ideas. The army doesn't like people with ideas.
They couldn't stay together, of course—too obvious, that way—but a couple of the other soldiers did stick with him and they've all been making their way through the Earth Kingdom together, looking for a good place to hunker down and hide out for a while. Not for too long; just 'til the majority of the wanted posters come down.
Jet would rather live, like he said.
"You really want to sleep in a forest tonight?" Smellerbee asks as they're walking through one tall enough to put every spire of the Fire Lord's palace to shame, and Jet shrugs easily and adjusts the hook swords on his hips. He trained a little with them as a cadet, and obviously he doesn't want to go around firebending at anyone out here.
"Better than a grave," he says. There's Fire soldiers occupying the town below, and they're still only so good at pretending to be Earth Kingdom. Jet's a quick study, but Smellerbee and Longshot are slower. So's everybody, compared to Jet, so he doesn't hold it against them. They're loyal; that's what he cares about. They're also, respectively, very good with knives and very good with a bow, and that's gotten them out of more than a few scrapes.
"I don't like it out here," Smellerbee says, rubbing at her arms. It’s cold, admittedly, and she doesn't have firebending to keep her warm. "They said the woods weren't safe, back in town."
"You felt safer surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers?" Jet asks dryly, cocking an eyebrow at her. She scowls at him.
"I felt safer under a roof," she says irritably.
“Stop right there!” a voice barks, and a squad of soldiers stomps onto the path. Fire Nation ones, of course. Not that Earth Kingdom ones would be much better, but at least the Earth Kingdom doesn’t have “kill on sight” wanted posters for them.
“Are you kidding?” Jet asks with a disbelieving grin, holding his hands up. Maybe he does want to firebend out here.
“Great,” Smellerbee sighs, blowing warm air into her cupped hands. She and Longshot look at him. “Jet?”
“Okay, so the roof might’ve been safer,” Jet says with a shrug.
“State your business!” one of the soldiers orders.
Jet never was very good at taking orders.
"Killing you, probably," he says lightly, and draws his swords. The fight is ugly, a quick and brutal thing, and they don't get so much as nicked. Jet's just an ordinary soldier, but he's a very good one. These guys? These guys are nothing.
"That was stupid," Smellerbee says, wiping blood off her knife as Longshot starts dragging the bodies off the trail and into the bushes.
"Did you want to actually state our business?" Jet asks.
"We could have lied," she says.
"Yeah, because Fire Nation patrols love hearing excuses," he snorts.
"Mm." She frowns. Jet makes a note of it, but dismisses the protest as currently unimportant and starts helping Longshot with the bodies. Smellerbee sighs, but helps too. Longshot kicks dirt and mast over the blood on the trail. They're efficient, like always.
It's inconvenient, but better these guys than them, Jet thinks.
He dusts off his hands and looks around. The forest is silent, or at least silent aside from random bird calls and the rustling of the wind in the leaves. So, as silent as a forest gets, he guesses.
Silent-ish, anyway.
They walk on. No reason to linger, after all.
Turns out these woods are thick with Fire Nation patrols, is the problem, and not all the patrols are as small as that first one.
“Dammit,” Smellerbee says through gritted teeth as Longshot’s eyes flick from side to side. Jet’s already looking for the angle. They’re surrounded, so the angle is going to be very, very tight, assuming there even is one.
There’s always an angle, Jet tells himself, fingers itching to call up flames.
“Jet?” Smellerbee says warily.
“One sec,” he mutters.
“Drop your weapons!” one of the soldiers says, and then someone drops out of the tree above her and smashes her into the ground. Jet makes a mildly surprised noise.
It’s an Earth Kingdom guy, one about their age with loose, messy hair and a bunch of nasty scars over his left eye that look like he got dragged down the side of a cliff or something. He’s got two swords, and he’s wearing mismatched armor that blends in with the leaves and trees.
“Huh,” Jet says, tilting his head, and then the guy proceeds to start fucking shit up and, well, he’s not going to turn down a helpful opportunity not to die, obviously. He draws his own swords and Smellerbee draws her knives and Longshot nocks an arrow, and between the four of them they do some very serious damage very, very quickly.
Jet thinks he’s smitten.
“Don’t you know how to avoid one lousy patrol?” the guy says as the surviving soldiers run for it.
Jet’s definitely smitten.
“You’re out here alone?” he asks.
“Obviously,” the guy snorts, shaking his hair out of his eyes. Jet is very, very definitely smitten. He wants to go over and kiss the blood off his face, which is a very normal reaction to have to this situation, in his opinion.
“What are you doing here?” Smellerbee says suspiciously. The guy’s mouth twists.
“Does it matter?” he asks.
“I asked, didn’t I?” Smellerbee retorts.
“You’re pretty good with those swords,” Jet says, unable to keep himself from grinning. Smellerbee and Longshot both give him looks, but he doesn’t care. “Thanks for the help.”
“Whatever,” the guy says. He turns to walk away, and Jet trots after him like a dumb little lemming-fox. Smellerbee sighs in exasperation.
“Hey, hold up,” Jet says, slipping up beside him. “I’m Jet. This is Smellerbee and Longshot.”
“I don’t care,” the guy says. Jet is so far past smitten.
“Yeah?” he says, grinning all the wider. He did an awfully good job saving them, for someone who doesn’t care. “Where are you going?”
“None of your business,” the guy says irritably. Jet tries not to laugh, but it’s really tempting.
“Okay,” he says. “Wanna join forces for a bit? Get ourselves through this forest a little safer?”
“I don’t need help getting through this forest,” the guy says. Jet has a thousand questions for him.
“Anybody ever tell you how impressive you are?” he asks, and the guy scowls at him.
“Fuck off,” he says, clearly still irritated.
“That is the last thing I wanna do,” Jet informs him.
“What is wrong with you?” the guy says, stopping in his tracks to stare incredulously at him. Jet grins at him again.
“Me?” he says. “I’m just a lost little idiot who can’t avoid one lousy patrol.” The guy makes a face at him, then blows his hair out of his eyes.
“Fine,” he says in annoyance. “I’ll show you the way through.”
“Hey, nice,” Jet says appreciatively, flicking his eyes up and down the other, because why not? “Thanks, man.”
“Whatever,” the guy says again.
“What’s your name?” Jet asks, and the guy gives him a dubious look. Jet’s taste is questionable, he’ll be the first to admit. Self-knowledge isn’t changing that particular character flaw, though. “I mean, I could just call you ‘handsome’.”
“It’s Lee,” the guy blatantly lies. “Now hurry up and get your friends. It gets dark soon.”
“We could camp,” Jet says reasonably.
“You’d freeze,” Lee replies matter-of-factly. Jet wouldn’t, obviously, but he figures he’ll avoid mentioning that just now. Or, like . . . ever.
“Okay,” he says. Well, that won’t give him as much time to win the guy over, but hey, he’s worked with less. He knows a valuable ally when he sees one, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a normal Earth Kingdom guy on hand to make them look more . . . earthy, let’s say. “Longshot! Smellerbee!”
“You’re hopeless,” Smellerbee says dubiously, coming up behind them with Longshot.
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Jet lies easily. “Alright, Lee. Which way we headed?”
“This way,” Lee says, pointing into the trees with a sword. Smellerbee makes a face.
“Sure,” Jet says with another grin. “Lead the way, handsome.”