Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I keep dreaming of the nights where

The world I spent with you is already forever

I’ll be here, I’ll be here in the midnight

Run away, run away from the light

The Avatar crashes into Heeseung and Jake’s life on an ordinary Tuesday morning. 

Jake is about to finish setting the table for breakfast, Riki is pouring himself a glass of water, and Heeseung has just stepped outside to investigate the source of the loud crashing noise that, surely, with how loud it’d been, the entire village must have heard by now. 

After a couple of seconds, a familiar voice is calling his name, and Jake puts down his pitcher to rush outside, following Heeseung, as he always does. He barely remembers to tell Riki to stay put, before he is gone. 

When he emerges from the house, he is greeted by the sight of two men, both unfamiliar to him, and immediately, his guard is up. He chances a glance at Heeseung, only to see that he is equally tense. Almost reflexively, Jake reaches over to grab his hand in his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

When Heeseung offers him a small smile in return, though his shoulders remain raised, Jake feels a familiar warmth bloom in the pit of his stomach. 

I’m here to protect you , Heeseung’s eyes seem to say. Afterall, he is their village’s strongest bender. So am I , Jake offers in return, because he will never let Heeseung fight alone. 

A second later, both of their gazes return to the unusual sight in front of them. 

At that moment, the taller of the two strangers lifts his head from where it’d been perched over the ground, and the sight that greets them has the entire village letting out a collective gasp of air. 

The man is handsome, yes, with strong features, and soft, brown hair. There are two moles dotting both sides of his nose, and it gives the sense that he has been painted, or, created, in an otherwise unnatural fashion, for Jake doubts that someone that beautiful can truly be human. It is almost off-putting, how perfect he looks.

The man’s beauty aside, that is not what has the village so shocked. Rather, it’s the blue arrows peeking out from under his bangs, the edge of his sleeves, denoting him, this boy, really, as he can’t be older than 18, as the last survivor of a race of people the entire world has thought extinct for 100 years. 

An airbender .

And, more importantly, such markings can only mean one thing: after a century of bloodshed and war, the avatar has crash-landed on Kiyoshi island. 

For a moment, nobody moves, too spellbound by the living, breathing history that has just fallen into their laps. The avatar’s mouth opens, and everyone holds their breath. 

Then, the airbender lets out a groan, before his eyes shut and he falls back down. It is like a bucket of cold water poured over the villager’s heads, and suddenly everyone is clamouring to help him up. 

After 100 years of fire nation led tyranny, of believing that he—the Avatar—has abandoned them, his presence now is nothing short of divinity, at least in the eyes of Jake’s people. He is their promised saviour in the body of a teenage boy, and right now, he needs them. 

Immediately, Heeseung rushes to the avatar’s side, hand slipping out of Jake’s. The younger man’s arm falls limp by his thigh, feet rooted to the ground. 

A path clears for Heeseung as he hurries over, and it sparks a sense of pride in Jake’s chest to see him recognized, a natural leader. Still, there is something else, buried a little deeper in the cavity of his ribs, that gives him pause. 

It is the feeling you get right before you know you’re about to wake up from a good dream, but aren't quite ready yet to leave.

For his village, the confirmation that the avatar lived signifies the start of a new era, one in which there existed hope for escaping the century-long war which has marred and plagued their lives.

For Jake, hand cold against his side, as he watches Heeseung prop the avatar’s head up against his leg, directing those around him to help lift him and his companion up, it signifies nothing short of the beginning of the end. 

Jake and Heeseung first meet when they are 12 years old. Jake’s village has just been burned to the ground, and his vision is blurry with tears and dust. There is someone calling his name, but he doesn’t recognize their voice.

Jake turns to the side from where his body is laid down across the floor. He blinks to clear his eyes, and tries not to gasp when the world finally starts to come to. Instead of the greens and earth with which he is so familiar, he is met instead with fire and ash. 

The world he has grown up in has been reduced to nothingness. If he squints, he thinks he can see the last of his innocence leaving him behind in a trail of smoke. 

Then, he hears it—-a voice, small. It’s no louder than a whine, but Jake hears it. Pushing himself up, though it makes every single part of him physically burn, he quickly scans the area. When he sees it, his heart stops.

There, lying a couple feet away from him, is a cradle. Immediately, it feels like something has been activated in Jake’s body, a need to protect unlike anything else he has ever felt before. 

Digging his fingers into the ground, he crawls his way forward, ignoring the smell of burning wood and cloth emanating from all around him. At one point, his leg gets stuck on something behind him that he cannot see, and does not want to turn around and check. 

He falls to the ground, and can’t hold back the loud gasp he lets out when his body collides with the solid rock beneath him. Everything hurts, so fucking badly. For a moment, Jake wonders whether or not it’d just be easier to stay there, eyelids already beginning to close. 

Then, he hears the voice again, and forces himself to get back up. He keeps having to blink the ash away from his eyes, and there are now tears decorating the sides of his cheeks. 

When he is finally within reach of the cradle, the underside of his nails are caked in dirt, and all he can do is collapse down onto his knees beside it. He stays there for a second, before he forces his bones to move. Supporting himself with his hand, he peers over the side.  

There is a baby in the cradle, though that much, at least, Jake had expected. What he hadn’t expected, that is, is the feeling that bursts forward when he finally takes all of him in.

Small, innocent, vulnerable, adorable, beautiful . The baby has big, brown eyes and just enough hair for him to tell that it’ll be black once it all grows in. Then, the baby stops crying to meet his gaze head on, stare curious and head just barely cocked to the side in mild intrigue. Jake’s heart stops, and everything else fades away. 

“Hello,” Jake whispers, quiet and private, as though the world isn’t burning to the ground around them. The baby blinks at him once, as though to say he has heard him and he understands.  

Jake falls in love.

There is noise coming from behind him that Jake vaguely registers, but his mind is too occupied with what exactly he is supposed to do with a baby in the middle of a warzone, for him to truly pay attention to it. 

“—You okay? Hey, can you hear me?” 

For a second, Jake thinks that it’s the baby talking to him, and he wonders if all the smoke has caused him to start hallucinating things that aren’t there. Then, the voice comes again, and Jake realizes that there is somebody behind him. 

Immediately, he spins around, fist raised in a feeble attempt at protecting himself, arms shaking. There is only one thought going through his mind: protect the baby. He positions himself in front of the cradle, chest heaving with the exertion it took him just to do that. 

When his eyes finally focus on the figure in front of him, his shoulders drop. Though he is someone Jake has never spoken to before, he still recognizes him. Afterall, who wouldn’t? 

Lee Heeseung. 

He’s a year older than Jake, so they’ve never had any classes together, but that doesn’t matter. The elders call him the most talented earthbender the village has seen in decades. Jake has only ever caught glimpses of him through closed gates, training by himself near the edge of the woods. 

He is someone who Jake has always been aware of, but never tried to approach. As a non-bender, it felt wrong, somehow, like they were destined for two very different paths. Still, it seemed as though fate had drawn them together, now. 

He is far from the pristine, put together picture Jake has so often seen walking around the town. Right now, face is covered in dirt, clothes ripped, and there is a cut above his brow that has hardened into something solid. It makes Jake want to reach out and brush some of it away. He still looks handsome, even now, but it is hidden under the pain.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” 

It is then that Jake realizes he still hasn’t said anything to Heeseung in reply, just stared at him dumbly as though the other boy could hear the thoughts inside of head. He quickly nods, before the earthbender thinks he’s lost it. 

Heeseung offers him a small smile, and it makes something in his chest crack. The earthbender quickly looks down to the small figure Jake is hiding behind him.

“Is this your brother?” He asks.

Jake blinks. For a second, he is completely uncomprehending of the situation, and of who Heeseung could be talking about. As the earthbender stares at him, expression open and questioning, it finally clicks in his head.

“Oh! No, no. I just—found him,” Jake replies, gesturing haphazardly to the area around them. “He was here, but I don’t—”

Throat dry, Jake cuts himself off, suddenly at a loss for what to say. Thankfully, Heeseung takes it in stride, crouching down to meet Jake at his level. 

“Do you see his parents anywhere around here?”

Jake shakes his head, feeling the panic start to close up his throat. “No, I don’t. He was—alone. Who would just leave him here by himself?”

It’s a thought that hasn’t fully passed through his mind until it’s out of his mouth. And then suddenly, it’s all that he can think of. Usually, babies are a big deal in the village, with less and less of them being born every year, and Jake can’t remember there being any news recently, meaning he has no idea where this one has come from.

And if he wasn’t from the village, then—?

Before Jake can spiral any further, there is a hand on his shoulder, and he is forced to look up. Heeseung is looking at him with concern painted across his face. 

“Hey, it’s okay. Breathe with me.” He takes a deep breath in, which Jake mirrors, shaky at first, before it steadies out. Heeseung smiles, and it’s a gentle thing. 

“That’s good,” the earthbender says when he sees Jake calm down. “You’re doing great.”

“Thank you,” the non-bender lets out, and Heeseung squeezes his shoulder in response.

“It’s no problem, but we need to leave. Now.” 

Shakily, Heeseung helps him up. Once Jake is on his two feet, body burning, he reaches behind him to pick up the baby. At first, the extra weight almost makes him go back crashing to the ground, but then, there is a hand on his side, supporting him. 

“Leave the cradle,” Heeseung tells him. “It’s too heavy.”

Jake can only give him a stilted nod in response, bending down to pick up the baby, swaddled in the blanket. He makes sure that he is carrying him with both hands because he knows, immediately, that he is the most precious thing he has ever held.

“Hi there,” Heeseung says, hand still supporting Jake on the side, but gaze directed towards the little guy in his arms. “I’m Heeseung.” 

At the sound of the earthbender’s voice, the baby lets out a giggle, small hands reaching up to grab at him. Awed, Heeseung reaches back, giving his arm a playful tug that makes the baby giggle even harder, grabbing onto his finger with both hands. Heeseung smiles back.

Somehow, even in the middle of a decimated village, smoke, fire and ash all around, it is one of the most beautiful things that Jake has ever seen. 

Even though Jake knows that the earthbender’s introduction hadn’t been directed towards him, he still offers his own name in reply.  

“I’m Jake,” he says, voice cracked and raw. Still, Heeseung only smiles at him in response, and the expression looks like it was made to sit on his face. 

“Nice to meet you, Jake,” he replies. 

His name is Sunghoon. The avatar, that is. 

It’s a fitting name: to rise, shine. Composed of the characters for excellency, virtue, and learning. The prophesied avatar, back from the dead. Personally, the weight of such a name scares Jake, and it makes his own shoulders feel heavier just from hearing it. 

Sunghoon is 18 years old, making him the same age as Jake. Although, it would be more accurate to say he is 118 years old, having been frozen in an iceberg in the South Pole longer than Jake or his grandparents had even been alive, combined. 

Jake, along with the rest of the village, presumably, learns this fact later that day, when Heeseung finally returns home, bones tired, but eyes fierce and alive in a way that Jake hasn’t seen in a long time, maybe even ever. There is an air to the way he carries himself as he pushes through the door that makes Jake’s heart ache with something unfamiliar. 

There are an innumerable amount of implications surrounding what it means for the avatar to have missed a century of his life. Honestly, it hurts Jake’s head just thinking about them if he does so for more than a minute.

An entire race of people, ¼ of the world’s population, gone, millions of lives lost, decades of technological progress and advancement, a world which now views Sunghoon as their sole saviour from a conflict spanning all the way from one end of the planet to the other. 

The avatar’s friend is named Sunoo, Heeseung also tells him, and he is a waterbender who the other man had run into in the South Pole. Supposedly, he was teaching Sunghoon waterbending, though he looked even younger than the avatar himself. 

Sunoo had explained how they’d been attacked by Fire Nation soldiers a little ways off from Kiyoshi, but had escaped via Sunghoon’s flying air bison, Gaeul, who’d dropped them off at the first village she’d seen, before leaving so that the soldiers would lose their track. 

Apparently, she’d be back soon, though when, exactly, that would be was unclear. Sunoo had passed out before Heeseung could wheedle that bit of information out of him. 

Jake jokes that at least they’d gotten a warning before a giant air bison touched down in the middle of the town square, for which he is rewarded with a light chuckle from the earthbender beside him. 

“Hm, I suppose that’s true,” Heeseung concedes, reaching forward to gently brush a strand of hair from Jake’s face. Leaning into the earthbender’s touch, Jake bites his lip to keep himself from smiling too widely. 

Though they were trying to be quiet, apparently their soft voices had still been loud enough to wake Riki up, who’d crawled out of bed to join them, wearily rubbing at his eyes. 

Jake winces, already knowing just how much this was going to mess up his brother’s sleep schedule. In a low voice, he calls for the younger’s attention.

“Hi baby, I’m sorry we woke you up. You should go back to bed. Do you want me to come tuck you in?”

In response, Riki only shakes his head, looking more alert by the minute. 

“Jakey’s right, Riki,” Heeseung adds, thumb absentmindedly drawing circles into the back of Jake’s hand. “It’s pretty late.”

At the elder’s words, the younger boy directs his gaze to Heeseung, eyes narrowing in a way Jake was sure was supposed to look intimidating, but only served to highlight the puffiness of Riki’s cheeks and how adorable he looked sleep-addled and warm.

“You left during breakfast,” the seven year-old states, very matter-of-factly, though his bottom lip begins to tremble as he forces out his next words. “I know Jake-hyung said you were okay, but I didn’t know.”

Immediately, Heeseung melts, reaching forward to grab Riki and pull him up to his lap. 

“I’m sorry, Riks. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay,” the seven year old mumbles into Heeseung’s chest, though the little fist buried in the front of his shirt seems to say otherwise. Soothingly, the earth-bender runs a hand up and down his back. The sight does something to Jake’s heart. 

After a second, Riki says something else, though it’s muffled. 

Jake cocks his head, looking up at Heeseung to see if he’d caught what the younger boy had said. Looking equally clueless, the red-haired earthbender only offers him a shrug in return, before redirecting his attention back to Riki.

“Hm?” Heeseung inquires, gently jostling the younger boy on his lap. “I didn’t quite catch that, buddy. What is it?”

Lifting his head from where it’d been buried in the juncture of Heeseung’s neck, though his hands remain fixed in the elder’s shirt, stare directed pointedly at the ground, Riki’s next question seems to steal all lightness from the room and Jake’s lungs. 

“Is… Is the avatar really going to save us?” 

A moment passes. Jake glances at Heeseung, though the earthbender isn’t looking at him in return. 

“Yeah, Riki. I think he is,” Heeseung replies, voice barely louder than a whisper. 

“How long is it going to take?”

Jake can see the conflicting thoughts flitting across Heeseung’s face as he struggles to give Riki an answer without lying to him. It’s something Jake has always loved about him, the way he treats Riki with respect while still acknowledging what it means to grow up too soon, and the ways in which he tries to shield Riki from that as much as he can. 

“I’m not sure, bud,” Heeseung pauses, as though debating whether or not he should say his next words. In the end, he adds a quiet, “But—I hope it’s soon.”

It seems as though this answer is enough to satisfy Riki’s curiosity, as he reburies himself in Heeseung’s warmth immediately after. 

“Hm. Okay.”

Jake swallows around the lump which had started to form in his throat as soon as the word ‘avatar’ had left Riki’s mouth. Hope is a very, very dangerous thing, and it scares Jake what might happen if that newfound hope were to suddenly be dashed away. 

After a couple of seconds spent in silence, Jakes reaches forward to quietly signal to Heeseung that they get Riki back to bed. 

The older man nods once in understanding, slowly standing up so as to not rock the younger boy too much from where he’d started to doze back off in his arms. 

Jake follows behind them, silently tracing with his eyes the strong curve of Heeseung’s back, honed through years of training and survival, and tries not to think about how the avatar can’t save the world without learning how to earthbend first. 

When Heeseung is 10, he defends the entire village from a small legion of fire nation soldiers. Jake is only 9, stuck in that period of the year where their birthdays don’t quite overlap in age.

Still, that one year feels like a lifetime as he watches, along with the rest of his classmates and their parents, the way Heeseung uses his bending to single-handedly defeat men three times their age and twice their size. 

It makes Jake feel small, even though he knows that is not the earthbender’s intention. Heeseung has been given a gift, and he is using it now to protect them. Jake looks down at his palms, which will never bend, and clenches them tightly. 

He knows Heeseung has trained for this, earned his stripes, honed his skill through hours spent on the training grounds while Jake was in the playground, but still—Jake never even got the chance . 

Stuck watching on the sidelines, that is how he felt that day while everyone around him had cheered.

Now, at ages 12 and 13, watching Heeseung take down another dozen fire nation men while the three of them—Jake, Heeseung and Riki—try to escape their pursuers, Jake feels that same sense of awe and insecurity. 

Still, he pushes it down, because there are more important things than Jake’s feelings. This is war. Right now, he is just grateful to still be alive. 

The elders hadn’t been exaggerating when they called Heeseung a prodigy. Watching him now, it is like he hasn’t missed a beat from that day all those years ago. Jake swears he is seeing double—both the 13 and 10 year old Heeseung fighting to protect them.

But then, who will protect you ? Jake wonders, Riki clutched tightly in his arms and crying. 

The earthbender is nothing short of extraordinary, especially when considering where he came from. Their village had been small. It wasn’t exactly the home of great soldiers. Nobody had ever written a poem about it. It was bigger than Kiyoshi, yes, but only because it hadn’t yet been shaved down by war. 

After it’d burned down, the three of them had traveled together for a while: two scrawny 12 and 13 year olds, and a baby made from the same cloth as their enemy’s kind. 

His name is Riki—sewed into the corner of the blanket they’d found him in. Less important to Jake, but no less pressing to their situation, he is fire nation, born and left behind. 

Heeseung and Jake are barely teenagers, but even they know better than to share that information around. Even though Riki has only just lived a year, there are people who would blame him for a war started a century before his time. 

For that reason, as far as anyone else knows, Riki is Jake’s biological brother. It’s not a hard lie to keep up when the three of them are their village’s only survivors. 

On the run, Heeseung is their protector, a 13 year old earthbender with 30 years of experience. He defends them from soldiers with fire for palms and steel armour for skin. Jake, for his part, takes care of almost everything else. 

Jake bandages Heeseung’s legs after they get scrapped against the ground. He cooks their food while Heeseung patrols their camp. He takes Riki somewhere safe when they are surrounded, trusting that Heeseung will cover his retreating back. 

Jake clubs a man to death with a rock after he slips past Heeseung’s guard and tries to strangle him in his sleep. It is the first time Jake kills someone to protect someone else, and he wonders if that means that he must love him. 

He isn’t even fire nation, just some poor robber probably hoping that the three of them had enough money to buy himself a meal. 

“Does that make me a monster?” Jake asks Heeseung one day. The two of them are filthy, covered in dirt and blood. They are sitting together by the fire, their surroundings completely dark. Riki is in Jake’s lap, playing with his fingers. 

For a while, Heeseung says nothing, just stares into the burning flames in front of them. Funny, how the very same fire to which they’ve lost everything, they now rely on to keep them warm and safe. 

“No, I don’t think so,” is what the earthbender eventually says. He takes so long that Jake had assumed he’d forgotten about the question entirely, and his voice catches him off guard.

Then, Heeseung looks away from the fire to stare directly into Jake’s eyes, instead. It does something to the beat of Jake’s heart. 

“I’ve killed ten times as many men as you, Jakey. Does that make me a monster?”

Jake doesn’t even need a second to think about it; he shakes his head, ‘no’. How could Heeseung, who has only ever wanted to protect, be a monster?

The earthbender in question stares at him for a beat longer, as though he is looking inside of Jake, to his very core, before he turns away. The non-bender wonders if he is satisfied with what he’s found. 

When the fire next illuminates Heeseung’s face, there is a small smile decorating it, though Jake would never call it a ‘happy’ expression. 

“It doesn’t matter what we are,” Heeseung continues, and the way he speaks doesn’t leave any room for argument. “Let’s just be us, okay?”

“Okay,” Jake agrees, nodding. “Just you, me and Riki.”

This time, the smile gracing Heeseung’s face practically beams. As though compelled by an imaginary magnetism, Jake can only smile back in return. 

At that moment, Riki tugs at his index finger, and he giggles when it makes Jake jump. As Heeseung takes the small boy from him, Jake wonders about the dichotomy between the earthbender’s capacity for violence and the kindness with which he cradles Riki in his arms now.

Eventually, almost 3 months after they first set out on the run, they find Kiyoshi, and their second life begins.

Sunoo wakes up before Sunghoon does. It is to be expected, afterall. It appears as though the airbender had been the one to suffer the brunt of whatever attack and subsequent crash-landing the pair had been subjected to. 

“It’s because Sunghoon-hyung protected me,” Sunoo shrugs, though there is an edge to his voice that speaks to something deeper than merely having stated a fact. It sounds a lot like guilt. 

Jake only hums in return, not wanting to get into whatever complicated feelings the waterbender might harbour towards their famed avatar. 

“And he is the avatar, right? Those arrows aren’t just for decoration?” Heeseung cuts in, tone joking in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. 

“Yes,” is Sunoo’s simple reply, grave in a way neither Heeseung, nor Jake had been expecting. It speaks to a knowledge of the other man that neither of them are privy to, and that he isn’t willing to offer up. 

Before he can reply, Jake watches the blonde haired waterbender sneak a glance at the current topic of conversation, who was still asleep in the medical cot beside him, and decides to hold his tongue. 

The three of them are holed up in the town’s med-bay. It isn’t very glamorous, nothing more than a home which has been hollowed out and abandoned due to the war none of them like to mention, but has suddenly jumped to the forefront of everybody's mind. But, still, it gets the job done. 

Jake is sitting on the seat beside Sunoo’s cot. There is only one chair, so Heeseung is standing beside the wall, opposite them. 

As having been the one to carry Sunghoon to their medical center, Heeseung had insisted on visiting as soon as he’d heard that Sunoo had woken up. As always, Jake had followed. 

“Is—Is he going to be alright?” The blonde haired man asks. And although it sounds like the words had gotten caught in his throat halfway through, Sunoo still manages to force them out. 

“He is,” Jake replies, offering the younger boy a kind smile when his head whips around in his direction. Of this declaration, Jake is sure. 

Though Sunghoon’s condition might appear severe, the avatar was more exhausted than he was anything else. It was likely he’d over-exerted himself in the pair’s hasty escape, but it was nothing critical. 

Sunoo nods once in response as Jake relays this information to him, and to his credit, the action is only slightly stilted. Jake admires the strong front he is putting up. 

He has round cheeks that make him look younger than he actually is, but that knowledge does nothing to abate the pain in Jake’s chest when he thinks about someone so young having to carry so much.

“That’s good. I’m glad,” Sunoo says, smiling weakly. His eyes flit quickly to Heeseung’s direction, before returning to his clasped hands. “Do you know when…?” 

“Not sure,” Heeseung states, shaking his head. “Hopefully, he’ll wake up soon, but he got pretty banged up. You, ah, wouldn’t happen to know any healing, would you?” 

Apparently this is the wrong thing to ask, since all it results in is Sunoo guiltily biting at his lower lip, eyes welling up with something close to tears. 

Immediately, Jake enters damage control mode, shooting Heeseung a quick glare, though it lacks any real heat, for upsetting their guest. Weirdly enough, it feels reminiscent of their early days trying to figure out how to take care of Riki.

“Hey, it’s okay, Sunoo,” he says, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. He tries to offer him a reassuring smile, though he’s not sure how well it lands. “You’re too tired right now to heal anyone, even if you were able to.”

Sunoo shakes his head, nervously fisting the sheets covering his legs. “I was the only water-bender left in the South Pole. I don’t—No one taught me anything.”

Jake and Heeseung exchange a worried glance. They both understand all too well what it means to be the last of something. Not for the first time, Jake is so incredibly grateful to have had Heeseung beside him. 

“Sunoo—,” he starts, but the other boy barrels on. Apparently, too caught up in his own head to even register Jake’s voice.

“It’s a coincidence that I happen to be traveling with Sunghoon-hyung now, but he’s the avatar . He deserves a real teacher, not—Me.”

The waterbender spits out his last word, and it is enveloped in so much venom that it makes Jake’s heart ache. There is a softness to the way his tongue shapes the words ‘Sunghoon-hyung’ that is contrasted with the complete lack of kindness he affords to himself. 

“Once we get to the North Pole,” Sunoo continues, steadying himself. “I’ll leave him alone. But for now, even a shitty water-bending teacher is better than none, right?”

Clearly, Jake is not the only one feeling the weight of the other boy’s words. Heeseung stares at his imploring face and looks physically pained. The earthbender’s lips are pulled taut, and his eyes are narrowed as though he is bracing himself for a blow.

“You’re just a kid, Sunoo,” he says, voice soft. “You’re doing your best.” 

The waterbender only shrugs, averting his eyes. “So is hyung.”

Sensing the room’s rapidly dropping atmosphere, Jake scrapes his brain for something to add. He is self-aware enough to acknowledge that what he settles on is less than ideal. 

“He is, isn’t he? An 18 year old saving the world, who let that happen?” Jake cringes as soon as the words leave his mouth. It is a weak attempt at a joke, but Sunoo is kind, and laughs anyway. 

“Yeah,” the waterbender agrees, though his tone suggests that he has more to say. “But hyung is special. You’ll see when he wakes up.”

The concept of being special . It is an idea Jake has never liked, nor does he like the shine in Sunoo’s eyes as he says it. Before he can reply, however, Heeseung’s voice cuts across the room. 

“So you really think he can do it, huh? Save the world?”

There is a solemnity to his words that makes all the blood in Jake’s veins freeze, even though he can tell that the earthbender is trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. If anything, whether he is aware of it or not, the fact that Heeseung is trying to hide it worries Jake more than anything else.

Sunoo’s reply is simple, and speaks to the unwavering faith that he has in his ‘Sunghoon-hyung’. 

“Yes, I do.”

Heeseung’s eyes sparkle in response, and Jake can feel his life slipping away from him.

“But, the North Pole? That’s where you’re heading?” He cuts in, gently stealing Sunoo’s attention, and the younger boy nods. The non-bender resists the urge to whistle. From one side of the world to the other… It is quite the journey. Sunoo is just barely 17 years old. 

“Yeah. So we can get Hyung a proper teacher.”

“You’re still a ways off,” Heeseung comments lightly, stealing the words directly from Jake’s brain. “It’s not going to be easy.”

Sunoo’s eyes narrow, and there is a look of determination on his face that speaks volumes. It says ‘ I will get Sunghoon to the North Pole, or I will die trying ’.

“I know,” he replies, voice more sure at 17 than Jake thinks anyone’s ever been about anything in the history of the entire world. 

“Well,” he interjects, trying to soften the room, and Sunoo’s head turns in his direction. Jake offers him a smile. “You’re welcome to stay for as long as you need. We’ll make sure to give you some supplies for when you eventually leave us, too.”

The waterbender replies with a blinding smile that only makes him look even younger than he already is. 

Still, as the words leave his mouth, it somehow feels as though Sunoo is not the only one in the room to whom Jake is speaking. He tries not to think about how that makes him feel. 

Jake asks to be trained by the Kiyoshi warrior to answer the one question that had been haunting him the entire time he, Heeseung and Riki had been on the run: if Heeseung was so busy protecting everyone else, then who was going to protect him?

The answer, as he himself decides, is Jake. 

He starts training when he is 13, a year after he and Heeseung have first landed in Kiyoshi and settled in. It isn’t easy at first, but over time, he starts to get a hang of it. The trainers, even, say that he is a natural. 

He and Heeseung take turns watching Riki. Sometimes, some of the older village women come and help, too. Jake does not train everyday, and Heeseung helps out around the town when he can, but he doesn’t have any official job. 

The townspeople are all nice, and they all understand what it means for three children to be living by themselves in a town that isn’t their own. 

For the first time in his life, Jake feels a sense of pride and usefulness in himself that had previously been missing. He likes the weight of a fan in his hands, the feeling of makeup on his face, the ache of bruises along his body that speak to a long day spent training at the dojo. Equally, he likes the weight of Riki asleep in his arms, making the three of them breakfast in the morning, and telling Riki stories before bed. 

Riki’s first word is his own name, and it makes Heeseung cry with laughter when he first hears it. It is a small ‘Ri-key’. He then cries for real, because Riki is starting to learn how to speak. 

The next time a group of bandits attack their village, trying to rob them blind as though the war hasn’t already robbed them of enough, Jake is there, standing alongside Heeseung and the other Kiyoshi warriors, helping to fight them off. 

Still, when one of the bandits is a bender, and he sends a block of earth headed Jake’s way, it is only Heeseung, with his years of honed skills and innate abilities, who can divert it from its path and save him. 

“Thank you,” Jake tells him later that night, when he is bandaging the length of Heeseung’s arm—It had been cut in his efforts to intervene in time to stop the block from splitting Jake in two. 

“I should be the one thanking you, you know,” is the earthbender’s only response, and it makes Jake look up at him in question, confused. 

He is met with the older boy’s boyish grin, like he is in on some joke that Jake isn’t. “Thanks for not letting me fight alone.”

At the other boy’s words, Jake stops moving, hands frozen in their task. The bandage almost slips through his fingers, but he just barely manages to catch it in time for the world to start spinning again normally, head now ducked away from Heeseung’s prying eyes. 

“Of course,” is what he eventually decides to reply with, cheeks burning a furious red.

Jake never becomes a full-fledged Kiyoshi warrior. He is too busy taking care of Riki, and eventually, with teaching the other children at the school as well. Most of their previous staff had been killed in a fire nation attack, and Jake had always been good at thinking and teaching.

Still, he likes knowing how to fight if he needs to. Secretly, he hopes that he will never need to again. Jake likes the life that he and Heeseung have built for themselves, sequestered away in some Earth nation village in a small, but cozy home—just the three of them. 

The next time Jake sees Sunoo, he is deep in discussion with some of the village girls near the bottom of the townhall stairs. It is an interesting sight knowing that soon, the waterbender will be gone, off to the other side of the globe, and these girls will still be there, as they always are. 

Jake is bringing Riki to school for the day, where he will join him later on to teach some classes. They have more teachers now than they did 5 years ago, but that isn’t to say that they have enough , especially when people are constantly calling in sick, or having to go lend an extra helping hand in the farm so that they have enough food for the week. 

Jake waves at Sunoo from across the yard, catching Riki’s attention in the process.

“Hi, Jake-hyung!” The waterbender exclaims, making his way towards the pair after having said a quick goodbye to his new friends. “It’s nice to see you,” he adds, when is finally within normal speaking distance. 

His energy is almost too much for Jake, but the older boy does his best to keep up.

“Hi Sunoo. You too.” The non-bender smiles widely, before concern overtakes him, evident in the pinch of his brow. “Have you been feeling better since I last saw you?” 

“Yep!” Sunoo replies, giving him two enthusiastic thumbs up. 

Before Jake can say anything more, ask him any follow-up questions about his injuries or condition, the waterbender has moved on, now peering at Riki—who has hidden himself behind Jake—-with an open curiosity painted across his face.

“And who is this little cutie?” Sunoo says, crouching down to meet Riki at his level. His smile is patient and kind, and his eyes are close to shut in little crescents. 

The waterbender’s energy seems to prove a little too much for Riki, who has always been shy. The younger boy hides himself even further behind Jake’s leg, clutching onto his pants in a vice grip. 

His cheeks are very pink, though, which isn’t something Jake has seen on him often. It makes his lips curl up in an amused smile. 

“This is my little brother, Riki,” Jake explains, after it becomes clear that the younger boy isn’t going to do so himself. “Say hi,” he adds, gently encouraging him forward.

“Hi,” Riki mumbles out, after a second of mustering his courage. For his efforts, Jake rewards him with a pat on the head that has Riki smiling into the length of his leg. 

Sunoo, for his part, takes it all in stride. “Hi Riki! My name is Sunoo. I’m a friend of your brother’s. He really helped me. Heeseung, too.”

Jake wonders what it was about him and Heeseung that gave Sunoo the impression that, undoubtedly, Jake’s little brother would know of him, too. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it for long.

Something about the waterbender’s kind words and even kinder smile must give Riki courage, because a second later he has left his hiding spot in favour of inching closer to the blonde. 

“Heeseung-hyung is helping uncle Beomgyu fix his roof,” the seven year old states, like this is very important information that he has to share. He even completes his relaying of it with a serious nod of the head that has Jake resisting the urge to coo. 

“Wow, good job, Heeseung-hyung!” Sunoo exclaims, clapping once to top it off.

Riki puffs out his chest in pride like he is the one who is fixing the roof. Suddenly, all of his previous shyness is gone at first sight of a topic he understands, and feels comfortable in. 

“Heeseung-hyung is really strong,” Riki adds. He then glances up at Jake, wrapping his hand around his, as though he is looking to him for approval or support. 

“He is,” Jake agrees, because he can sense that that is what Riki wants him to say, and he is rewarded with the blinding smile that blooms across Riki’s face at his words. 

“He’s probably stronger than the avatar,” Riki continues, and that’s when Jake has to intervene. 

Sunoo looks extremely amused as Jake tries to explain to him that he probably shouldn’t say that to people in the future, especially those who might want to take him up on the perceived challenge. Riki only pouts in response, annoyed at being reprimanded in front of a stranger.

“Sunghoon-hyung is also very strong,” Sunoo says, after Jake has largely calmed his brother down. The waterbender’s face takes on that same look it always does whenever he talks about the avatar, like he is looking into the sun. “I can’t imagine him losing to anyone.”

Sunoo’s words have a strange effect on Riki, who stares up at him with poorly concealed skepticism and disbelief. But, buried deep somewhere beneath that, there is something that looks an awful lot like hope starting to break free.

“Maybe. They’d have to fight, though, to be sure,” the younger boy reluctantly lets out, a childish pout decorating his lips at the thought of anyone being stronger than his hyung, eyes darting back to his feet. 

Just then, Riki spots one of his friends, Taki, by the playground, and gives Jake’s pant leg an impatient tug. Jake looks down and is met with his brother’s, frankly, very adorable pleading face. 

“Jake-hyung, can I go now?” He asks, eyes darting back and forth between his brother and his friends. 

“Yes—” Jake starts, but is cut off by Riki making a break for it. Before he can scamper off too quickly, Jake stops him, gesturing towards the waterbender in front of them, who only looks extremely amused. “But say bye to Sunoo first, okay?”

“Bye, Sunoo,” he rushes out, all signs of the previously practically-mute boy who’d hidden himself behind Jake’s legs wiped away. “You’re, um, you’re really pretty.” 

Riki just barely manages to mumble out that last part of his sentence before he is gone in a flash of dust trails and excited shouts as he joins his friends in the park. Jake can only shake his head in disbelief at the gall of his younger brother. 

“I’m so sorry about him. He’s seven,” Jake sighs, shrugging at Sunoo like that explains everything. 

The waterbender only laughs in response. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Sunoo dismisses quickly. His face then takes on a wistful look. “He’s so cute. To be honest, even though I know the years don’t quite add up, when you first walked up to me, I thought you were going to say that he was your and Heeseung’s son.”

It’s a small observation, one told to Jake with a lightness bordering on a joke. It shouldn’t really hold any weight to it, but still, it manages to stop him in his tracks. It isn’t a particularly new concept. It’s one that he and Heeseung have even joked about—the idea of them being Riki’s parents. Still, it feels different to hear it come from Sunoo’s mouth, rather than from their own. 

After a second, he remembers to laugh. Thankfully, Sunoo does not call him out on his strange behaviour. 

“It’s nice,” the waterbender continues, letting out a sigh. “I always wanted to have a family like that.”

Jake only hums in reply, choosing not to tackle that particular can of worms today. 

“Were you waiting for something?” Jake says, instead. 

He’d noticed the way Sunoo kept glancing at the med-bay whenever there was a pause in the conversation. To be honest, the non-bender already knows what it is—or rather, who it is—that the waterbender is waiting for, but he asks anyway to be polite. 

“Ah,” Sunoo says, and his ears go slightly pink. “Well, I’m still waiting for news on Sunghoon-hyung. The doctors told me he should be waking up—soon.”

His eyes dart once again to the direction of the sick bay, like it isn’t even something he is aware of anymore, but still does anyway. 

“You like him, right? The avatar?” Jake asks, though, again, it isn’t really a question. 

In response, Sunoo’s face blushes such a deep red, Jake is momentarily concerned for his health. 

“W-What? Where did that even come from? I don’t—I mean, what?” The waterbender’s face has only gotten redder since opening his mouth. 

Jake offers Sunoo an apologetic smile, laughing nervously. He hadn’t meant to embarrass him, and he feels his own cheeks start to warm in response, feeling guilty. 

“I’m sorry. It’s just something I was wondering about. You don’t have to reply if you don’t want to.”

Sunoo clears his throat, playing with the edges of his fingers. His blush has calmed down, though, barely . He’s still pink.   

“No, it’s fine. I just didn’t realize how obvious I was being.” He laughs, shaking his head. “It’s just a little crush, though. It’ll go away.” 

Jake hums, and chooses not to comment. Personally, he isn’t so sure if it will, but he’s already pushed Sunoo far enough. It was just to satiate his own selfish curiosity, anyway. 

Nervously, Sunoo continues, even though Jake has not said anything in response. “I mean, you’ve seen Sunghoon-hyung, right? But it’s not just his face; it’s his—Well, everything.” He gestures nervously with his hand. ”I think it’s only natural, or something like that. I mean, who wouldn’t have a crush on him... Still, I’ll get over it soon.”

After finishing off his spiel, the waterbender does his best to appear nonchalant, pretending to look at something by his feet. It softens Jake’s heart, the openness with which he wears his emotions on his sleeve. 

“Well, either way,” Jake starts, smiling reassuringly at Sunoo when looks back up at his face. “I hope he wakes up soon.”

When Jake wakes up that morning, Heeseung is still sleeping beside him, his arm is numb, and he just knows that something life-altering—world-altering—is going to take place before noon.

On paper, there is nothing out of the ordinary. The cat-birds are chirping, there is a slight breeze that is perfect for the season, and the sky is a clear blue with no signs of rain in sight. 

For a second, Jake closes his eyes, ready to go back to sleep. After a couple of moments, he realizes that he can’t and decides to get ready for the day instead. 

As he is stepping out of the bathroom, Heeseung begins to stir. He is rubbing sleepily at his eyes in a way that is very reminiscent of Riki when he has stayed up past his bedtime. The sight makes Jake smile as he makes his way over. Privately, he thinks that this is when Heeseung is at his most beautiful, though he’d never tell him that.

“Good morning,” he greets him, and Heeseung automatically grins at him in response as he sits up. 

“Hi. It’s a good morning now,” the earthbender replies, and it makes Jake roll his eyes at its cheesiness, even though he is smiling. 

“It’s early,” Heeseung continues, curious, referring to the fact that Jake has woken up almost an hour and a half earlier than normal. The non-bender only shrugs in response. Even he is not sure why he is up.

Though, secretly, he has a feeling that it has something to do with the pit in the bottom of his stomach he’s had since first opening his eyes that morning. Logically, there is no reason for him to feel this way, though, so he doesn’t bring it up. 

“I know,” Jake replies, shrugging again. “But I couldn’t fall back asleep. You can go back to bed if you want. I’m kind of hungry though.”

Heeseung only shakes his head in reply, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of his eyes. Slowly, he stretches, before getting out of bed himself. He drops a playful kiss on the crown of Jake’s head complete with a loud ‘mwuah’ sound that makes the shorter man scrunch up his nose in mock-disgust. 

“Just give me 10 minutes to get ready and then I’ll join you.”

Jake nods in response, watching as Heeseung makes his way towards the bathroom all the way up until the door shuts behind him. 

“I talked to Sunoo yesterday,” Jake tells Heeseung, as soon as the two of them have sat down for breakfast. Riki is still sleeping. Neither of them had wanted to wake him. They were happy to let him rest, especially considering they’d both gotten up earlier than usual. 

“He likes the avatar,” Jake continues, a private smile blooming across his face. It is times like these where he really feels like a kid again, sharing gossip in the school’s courtyard. 

Heeseung laughs, shaking his head. He looks at Jake with an amused smile. “Yeah, I got that. You should have seen him when he first woke up. ‘Sunghoon-hyung’ was all he could talk about. 

“I’m sure,” Jake agrees, laughing. “They’re cute.” 

There is a slight pause as both of them consider their next words. Then:

“What do you think of them, Jaeyun?” Heeseungs asks him, genuinely curious. 

Jake takes a second to think over the question, rolling it over in his head before he lets it slide down his tongue. He’s not sure exactly what Heeseung is looking for, but whatever it is, he wants to give it to him. 

“I think,” he starts, voice purposefully steady and calm. “That Sunghoon is going to wake up to a lot of pressure hanging over his head.”

Heeseung nods, but it is clear that Jake is not done, and so he waits for him to continue. 

“I also think that he and Sunoo aren’t going to separate after the North Pole, but that one’s just a hunch. I don’t know how Sunghoon feels, but I do know how Sunoo feels, and I just don’t think that it’s possible.”

“Also,” Jake adds, as though the thought has just occurred to him then, “Waterbending aside, he still needs to find an earthbender and a firebender to teach him before he can even think about saving the world. He might be the avatar, but that doesn’t mean that any of this is going to be easy.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Heeseung replies, and he looks down at his hands. “I can’t imagine it. You know, when our village burned down, for those first few weeks, the only thing I could think of was protecting you and Riki. If I thought of anything else for even a minute, it felt like I was letting you down.”

Jake hums. This is a story he has heard before, but that doesn’t mean that it breaks his heart any less each time he hears it. 

“I can’t imagine having to protect the entire world. I think it would kill me. He’s 18, Jaeyun. He could have been our classmate.” 

You were only 12 , Jake thinks in return, but doesn’t say anything out loud. At the end of his speech, Heeseung lifts his head back up to look him in the eye. 

“I know,” Jake says instead, and his throat feels dry. “But all we can do right now is help them, in any way we can.”

Jaw clenched, the only thing Heeseung can do is agree. There is a pensive look on his face, and the younger man can practically see the gears turning around and over themselves in his head.

The non-bender reaches across the table to squeeze Heeseung’s hand in his, and the earthbender offers him a grateful look in return.  When Riki ambles in a couple of minutes later, still yawning, the conversation is naturally steered in a much lighter direction. 

The day continues on as per usual, Heeseung soon leaves to go continue helping out Beomgyu, who, in addition to the broken roof, has somehow managed to throw a chair through his window. 

He kisses Riki on both cheeks before he leaves, which makes the seven year old squeal in delight. The earthbender gives Jake a kiss of his own on the cheek, too, though it is much softer, one hand raised to gently cradle his other cheek with his palm. 

Jake says nothing, just stares. 

Later, Riki jumps up and down as Jake gets his bag ready for the day, complete with pencils, papers and a lunch. He skips along as Jake holds his small hand in his, making sure that he doesn’t run off too far before he is supposed to. He is more excited than usual, though Jake can’t say why. He assumes it is something his friends did yesterday, or maybe it is just the nice weather. 

They see Sunoo as they pass by, once again sitting by the same steps as he was the day before. This time, though, he is surrounded by some of the village boys. He waves as they pass, and Jake and Riki wave back. 

Everything is as it should be. Then, hours later, right as the sun is about to reach the highest point in the sky, Jake feels his stomach ache, and the avatar wakes up.

“If that day had never happened, what would you have done?” 

They must be 16 and 17 years old, two years before Sunghoon will crash-land into their lives like a blazing star. The world is still unchanged by the avatar’s touch. Jake asks Heeseung the question while they are stretched out under the stars.

“What day?” Heeseung replies, turning his head towards him. His eyebrows are scrunched up in confusion, but his face is relaxed and kind.

“The one we met,” Jake specifies. 

Neither of them mention what that day really was: the day both of them lost their parents, the day the village burned to the ground. 

“Hm,” Heeseung hums, stretching his arms behind his head in thought. He takes a second to think about it. Jake waits.

“Travel the world, probably, to master my bending and meet new people. Just think of how many things are out there—crazy things, like we’d never believe. I’d love to see them, learn about them. I mean, there’s only so much you can learn in a little Earth nation village like ours.” 

He pointedly does not specify which village. 

Jake is already nodding in response, sure that Heeseung is finished. It makes sense, he supposes. Heeseung has always had a wanderlust Jake never has. It is just that sense of completion that catches Jake so off guard when Heeseung continues.

“But I’d have dragged you with me. Riki, too, of course.”

Of course , he says, like it should be obvious. It isn’t. He turns to look at Heeseung, and the surety burning in his eyes makes him freeze in his tracks. 

“You didn’t even know me,” Jake laughs softly, incredulous. There is a disbelieving smile pulling at the side of his face. 

“No,” Heeseung agrees, smiling, too. “But I would have, eventually.”

Jake tilts his head, brows pinched together. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re my soulmate, Jakey. Of course we were always going to meet.” 

There is starlight reflecting in Heeseung’s eyes. For a moment, Jake feels like the two of them are alone at the edge of the universe. There is so much he wants to say to Heeseung in response. Years, now, of untold feelings and thoughts gather at the forefront of his mind. 

I love you. Thank you. I’m sorry. I’m glad that you’re the one who found us. I wish I could do more for you.  

Jake swallows. In the end, all he can muster up is a small:

“I don’t believe in soulmates.”

“No?” Heeseung replies, and there is a tone to his voice that suggests he knows something Jake doesn’t. “Neither do I.”

The first thing Sunghoon does when he wakes up is ask for Sunoo. 

The avatar is thrashing, forehead soaked in sweat and bones weak, but he is asking for Sunoo with a desperation that says he does not know if the waterbender is even alive. It takes three grown men to hold him down, Heeseung included, and even then it is iffy.

As Jake watches the scene in front of him, all he can think is ‘here is a god in a teenage body, and all he wants to know is whether or not his friend is okay’. 

Jake does his best to reassure him that Sunoo is alright, that he’s just somewhere on the other side of town and that he’ll be there soon, but clearly, it isn’t enough. The avatar will not believe them until he can see Sunoo with his own two eyes.

Of all the days for Sunoo to go out with the village children, it had to be today , Jake thinks to himself with a sigh.

None of them can say how long it takes for the avatar to calm down and to believe that they are safe. It feels like a lifetime. Still, eventually, he does stop fighting them. His shoulders, however, remain tense and raised, like he is ready at any moment for an attack. Similarly, his hands are raised by his side. 

He is Jake’s age—bar 100 years, technically speaking—but he carries on his back both the fate of the world and the weight of what it means to be his people’s final survivor. It has literally been inked into his skin, from head to toe, in a bright blue. 

Sunghoon has only been awake for a couple of weeks, at most, from the iceberg, and yet he already looks beyond weathered by what has come to greet him since his slumber. Jake can see it in his eyes. 

When Jake had first seen him, he’d thought that Sunghoon didn’t look real. There was a beauty to his face that spoke to the divinity he carries through his veins. Now, though, as Jake looks at him from closer up, he just looks like a boy. 

As soon as Sunoo finally enters the room—chest heaving and sweat gathering at the base of his neck—Sunghoon pushes Heeseung to the side and wraps his arms around him in a devastating embrace. 

The avatar buries his face in the crook of Sunoo’s neck, fingers digging into the small of his waist in a deathly hold. For his part, the waterbender’s hands are looped around the taller man’s neck, one supporting the back of his head while the other grips his hair, just as tightly. 

Sunoo is on the tips of his toes—and it can’t be comfortable—but he looks like he’d rather stay there forever than come back down to the ground, so long as it means that he can stay in Sunghoon’s arms. It shocks Jake, after only having seen the avatar’s sleeping, expressionless figure, to now see so much emotion bleeding out through every single one of his pores. 

The avatar’s arms are wound so tightly around the shorter man, Jake half-wonders if he should step forward and intervene—gently pry the two off of one another—before someone gets hurt. He can no longer tell where Sunoo ends and Sunghoon begins.   

He makes a step towards them, even, before Heeseung’s soft touch on his forearm tells him to stop and leave them be. ‘They are exactly where they want to be’, the earthbender’s grip seems to tell him, and so Jake relents.

“Sunoo-yah,” the avatar says, and these are the first real words that Jake has heard him speak since he woke up. They are slightly muffled by his position, but in the otherwise silent room, they are all anyone can hear. 

For a second, It feels like the entire world is holding its breath. 

At that moment, the avatar does not sound like I thought he would , is all Jake can think of. His voice is quieter—a little rougher—-than he’d been imagining, like he is not used to saying much, even under normal circumstances. Jake had been picturing a god, but Sunghoon is human. 

Still, his words hold a kind of quiet power that even Jake cannot deny. 

“Sunghoon-hyung,” the waterbender replies, and Jake swears that he can hear the smile in his voice. After a second, he adds, “I missed you.”

The avatar says something in response, but this time, it is too soft for anyone else but the boy held tightly in his arms to hear. 

“What about you?” Heeseung asks him, after a brief pause. 

“Huh? What about me?” Jake replies, confused about the direction in which the conversation has been taken. The stars glitter above them, silent in their observation. 

“What would you have done if that day had never happened?” 

Heeseung has flipped Jake’s question back towards him. Probably, Jake should have expected it. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that he has absolutely no idea what to say when it is asked. 

He pauses, turning back so that his head lays flat against the grass. He absent-mindedly tries to count the stars a million light-years away from them, before giving up when he realizes that there are simply too many for him to ever do so in his lifetime.

“Is it wrong to say that I like our life as it is?” Jake says, after a couple more seconds have gone by. As soon as the words leave his mouth, he knows that he means them. When Heeseung doesn’t say anything in return, Jake cranes his head to look him in the eye. 

“I don’t know what I would have done,” Jake adds, once he does so. 

Heeseung is staring back at him with something unreadable across his face, like he is taking Jake in for the last time. It makes the non-bender slightly nervous, and he does his best not to squirm under Heeseung’s searching gaze. 

Eventually, the earthbender nods, eyes softening. He smiles at Jake, wide and toothy, and it soothes something cracked in the core of Jake’s heart. 

“That’s fair,” he agrees, and he sounds like he means it, 100%. “I like our life, too.”

Still, even as he says it, it feels like there is a part of Jake that knows that it can’t last forever. A glowing star shoots over their heads and disappears into the horizon, just shy of the South Pole. 

The thing is, Jake likes Sunghoon. 

Jake likes the way he spends hours playing with the children of the village when they knock on his door the next morning, requesting he make them fly. He has just barely recovered from his own exhaustion, but he says yes, anyway. 

The girls giggle about his strong, princely features, while the boys ask him to throw them as far as he can into the lake using his bending. Even Riki, who is usually shy around those he doesn’t know, is drawn to Sunghoon, a consequence of the inescapable pull the avatar has on those around him. 

Jake likes how he helps some of the grannies carry their groceries from the market back to their homes without having been asked. They can’t stop gushing about him the next day, their kind avatar, awoken from 100 years of slumber, older than them, even, but with a spirit still untainted by the world’s cruelties.

Secretly, Jake likes watching Sunghoon look at Sunoo. The airbender does it when he thinks nobody else is looking—the waterbender, most of all—but he does so with the softest eyes Jake has ever seen. When Sunoo laughs, Jake could swear Sunghoon glows, in a manner totally foreign to any power his bending might afford him. 

He sees the two of them walking together, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by other people. No matter who it is though, it always feels as though the two of them are in their own little world, smiles shy and ears pink. 

Sunghoon is everything an avatar should be, if not more: brave, strong, impressive, kind. From the minute Jake had first laid eyes on him, he knew that he was standing in the presence of the kind of person you only ever meet once in a lifetime, someone incredibly, undeniably special. Someone, who could save the world. 

There is a lot about Sunghoon that Jake likes. If given time, maybe they could even be friends. But, that was the problem, wasn't it? They were in the midst of a war, one which had spanned over a century now, and of which Sunghoon was 75% of the world’s only hope for escaping. 

The concept of time is a luxury that none of them can afford. 

Sunghoon needs to have mastered the four elements yesterday , and Heeseung is the greatest earthbender Jake has ever known. 

Something about Sunghoon that Jake despises? That’s easy. He hates the way that Heeseung looks at him, with a goal in his eyes and a stitch in his heart. The earthbender stares at Sunghoon with so much drive, Jake could practically see the itch crawling up his spine, calling to him, drawing him in.

He hates the way Heeseung offers to teach him some earthbending basics, at least ‘until he finds himself a real teacher, somewhere down the line’. He hates how satisfied Heeseung looks when he comes back from those training sessions, when he tells him ‘Sunghoon is a natural. I think he can really do it, you know. Save the world’.

Apparently, Sunghoon had asked him at one point if he’d consider going with them to the North Pole. Heeseung had turned him down. “I have a life here,” he’d said, and he’d meant it.

More than anything, Jake hates the way Heeseung still puts Jake and Riki above everything else. How, no matter how tired he is, he always makes time to read to Riki before bed. How he makes sure that he is completely clean, before slipping into bed behind Jake. How he wraps his arms around his waist and tells him ’Good night, I love you’, and means it. 

Jake hates the way Heeseung truly does not have any desire to leave them, ever. Jake hates how he knows that none of that really matters, not when the fate of the world hangs in the balance. 

Jake has always known Heeseung better than anyone else in the entire world. 

For that reason, Jake is also the first to know that Heeseung is going to leave him to go help the avatar save the world, even before the red-haired man himself does. Of that, Jake is sure.

Jake is trying to transfer a large stack of crates from the school down to the city square. Apparently, they need some of the supplies for some meeting, or other. Jake isn’t really sure, but he hadn’t been doing anything else, so he’d volunteered his help. 

He is struggling with two or three of them, when a voice peeks out over the pile of stuff in Jake’s arms. He can’t see who is speaking to, but he recognizes it instantly. It isn’t easy to forget the avatar’s voice, afterall.

“Do you need any help?” Sunghoon asks him, blue arrowed hands coming into Jake’s field of view, quickly followed by the rest of him. 

Jake nods gratefully, and Sunghoon uses his bending to pick up all the extra crates which Jake had been planning on bringing back in a separate trip. The last one, Sunghoon takes from the pile in the shorter man’s arms, and holds it himself.

The two of them make the journey to the square in complete silence, during which Jake’s previous assumption of the avatar being a man of few words is confirmed. 

At first, Jake can’t help but sneak a couple of glances at the man beside him. 

Afterall, the teenager walking next to him—Jake’s age, even—was supposed to be the one to free them from the war that had taken from him Jake’s village and his parents along with it. It is a hard concept to grasp and to believe, even with Sunghoon, with his arrows and prince-like appearance, looking every bit the prophesied avatar Jake, along with the rest of the world, had pictured.

Still, around halfway through the walk, Jake stops checking. Sunghoon’s presence becomes something steady and solid beside him, and the non-bender even starts to enjoy the easy silence and companionship that he brings. 

He wonders how he and Sunoo get along, with the latter’s overwhelming friendliness and the former’s quiet restraint. Maybe that’s exactly why they get along so well, opposites attract, and all that.

It is only after they’ve gone around the back, and Jake begins to start unpacking the crates that Sunghoon breaks the silence that the two of them have fallen into.

“Thank you for taking care of Sunoo while I was out. It means a lot to me.” The avatar’s words are quiet and calm, not so much carefully considered, but rather honest and to the point.

Notably, he doesn’t mention how they had also taken care of him . Somehow, Jake feels as though he learns a lot about the avatar in that moment. A little bit of the myth unravels. 

“Don’t worry about it, seriously,” Jake replies, smiling up at him. “I’m happy the both of you are doing better now.”

Sunghoon nods, and Jake thinks that this is going to be the end of their very brief, first proper conversation. It’s strange for Jake to realize that fact. He wonders if, subconsciously, he has been avoiding the airbender. Or, maybe they’d simply both been busy with other things. Jake isn’t sure.

But before Jake can get back to business, Sunghoon does something that surprises him, and continues. 

“Sorry if this comes off as sudden, I’m not exactly the best at… interacting with people, but I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while.”

“Me? Why me?” Jake questions, and he just barely resists the urge to say more. It is almost laughable, the avatar, seeking him out. He puts down the crate, and turns to face him. The avatar looks almost awkward, and that is enough for Jake to devote his full attention to the conversation at hand.

“Heeseung-ssi speaks highly of you,” Sunghoon says, like that should explain it. Then, the airbender gets a considering look on his face, as though he is unsure if he should continue. After a second, he must come to a conclusion, as he does. 

“He also told me a bit about your past. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I know what it’s like to lose your home.”

“Thank you,” Jake replies, and the words just barely make it off the roof of his mouth in his surprise. Sunghoon has a way of looking at you that makes you feel really seen, in the sense that he can see all of you, and has decided to meet you where you stand. 

It’s a strange feeling, one Jake doesn’t think he’s had in a long time. The taller man’s words wash over him like a cool breeze, and Jake isn’t sure exactly what to make of it.

“You’ve been raising him since you were 12, right?” 

“Yeah, me and Heeseung,” Jake replies, a small smile stretching across his face. “I know this makes me sound like an old man, but I really can’t believe how much he’s grown now.”

“It doesn’t,” Sunghoon disagrees, shaking his head. “Time is a funny thing.” 

Jake eyes him consideringly, pensive. “Things must have been very different when you were 12, right?”

Sunghoon thinks for a second, and then nods. He has a small smile on his face, though Jake isn’t sure that it’s really meant for him, in the sense that Sunghoon is reliving a life that has been wiped from the planet 100 years ago. 

“It was a different time, and a different culture. When I was 12, I got my tattoos. They made me the youngest airbending master in the history of our people. They also made me arrogant. When I found out the war would take me from my home, I ran. That's how I got trapped in the iceberg.”

All of a sudden, his gaze sharpens back into focus, landing on Jake. The non-bender feels the need to straighten his back where he stands, even though there is nothing particularly harsh about the airbender’s stare.

“You didn’t run when you had to make your choice. Had I done the same, the world might have been saved from a lot of suffering.”

They are in uncharted territory, and Jake doesn’t know what to say. He wants to tell Sunghoon that he was just a kid, still is, and that dwelling on hypotheticals doesn’t do anyone any good. But it’s hard, and for all that they’ve shared during this conversation, they are still strangers. 

Eventually, all Jake can come up with is:

“I don't know if raising a single child is equivalent to saving the world, but thank you.” It sounds weak to his own ears, but it brings a small smile to Sunghoon’s face anyway. He and Sunoo are similar in that sense. They are both kind. 

The airbender shakes his head, softly dismissing Jake’s attempts at lightening the conversation.

“I'm not the grand hero everybody seems to think I am,” he starts, and Jake can only stand there in silence, listening. “We all have our fights, this just so happens to be mine.” 

He says these words casually, like they are something he has long since come to terms with. It makes Jake think: so this is what it means to be the avatar . 

With nothing more to add, the two get back to their task. Once again, they do so in silence, but this time it is different. There is a charge to the empty spaces in their conversation that have grown and taken on a new light in the absence of words. 

Once they finish unboxing the last of the crates, gotten them ready for whoever it is who has to come and get them, Jake turns back to face the avatar.

“Thank you,” Jake says, and he doesn’t just mean for the boxes. He hopes that Sunghoon understands. 

“Sorry for wasting your time,” the taller man responds, and for a second, Jake is very confused and wonders if something has been lost in translation. “I promise I don't usually talk this much.”

The non-bender shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it. I liked talking with you,” Jake says, and he is almost shocked to find that it’s the truth.

“Me too”, Sunghoon replies. 

“I can see why Sunoo likes you so much,” Jake then adds, just to see the way Sunghoon’s face immediately flares a bright pink. He is so pale that the effect is sudden and overpowering. It almost makes Jake want to laugh, but he holds it in. 

“Ah. Thanks,” is all the airbender can say. The shorter man feels as though he can see his brain short circuiting in real time. 

“You can call me Jaeyun, if you want to,” Jake says, and immediately, he is confused as to why exactly he does so. He hasn’t introduced himself as Jaeyun since, well, before his parents died. Only Heeseung ever calls him that now.

Still, there is something about Sunghoon that compels the name out of him, from where it’d been buried in the crevices of his chest, somewhere deep between his ribs. 

“Okay,” the avatar replies, smiling. He seems to have recovered from his previous Sunoo-induced meltdown. “See you later, then, Jaeyun.”

He waves once, and then he is gone—like a burst of wind.  

In another life, one in which they had more time, maybe they could have been closer. Jake hasn’t felt that easy of a connection with anyone since Heeseung. Maybe it has something to do with him being the avatar, the ease with which Jake had spoken to him. He isn’t sure. 

Really, he thinks it’s just Sunghoon. And, for the first time, he feels like he is seeing what everybody else is seeing. He understands it. 

For the first time, Jake truly believes, from the bottom of his heart, that Sunghoon will be the one to free them.

From then on, it becomes easier for Jake to look at him. He no longer feels the need to shy away from the avatar when he sees him in the village square. Still, they don’t talk much. There just isn’t any time. 

They are like two passing strangers in the night. 

Heeseung and Jake are walking together by the lake. Riki is sleeping over at his friend’s house, so they don’t feel guilty leaving theirs unattended, at least for a little while. The moon is big and bright, and it gives the water a silver glow that makes Jake want to crouch down and take a sip. 

“Look at the stars,” Heeseung says, lightly interrupting Jake’s thoughts. He tilts his head back to the sky. “They’re beautiful tonight.”

The non-bender laughs, though he looks up anyway. After a moment, his gaze returns to the earthbender by his side. 

“Are they ever not?” He asks, amused. They’ve had this conversation before, under a different set of stars. Heeseung gives him a sheepish smile back. 

“I suppose not,” the earthbender acquiesces. He shrugs lightly, but there is something far-off in his gaze, as though he is thinking about something else. “Still, they feel different tonight.”

Jake looks back up, as though the stars will have changed in the 30 seconds since his last glance. The stars look still, frozen in time. That must be how the stars see them, too. Two teenage boys playing at men. Still, Jake knows that they must be moving somewhere, millions of light-years away. 

“The calm before the storm?” Jake questions, returning his thoughts to the ground, and Heeseung hums in reply. 

“Maybe,” he says, and doesn’t elaborate any further. 

It is at that moment that a loud splash catches both of their attention. Squinting, Jake tries to make out where the sound came from. At his side, Heeseung seems to be doing the same. Eventually, two blurry figures at the edge of the lake come into focus out of the dark. 

For a moment, Jake is on guard, worried that someone has snuck into the village. His fears, however, dissipate just as quickly as they’d appeared. 

Nudging the earthbender with his shoulder, Jake points in their direction once he has his attention. Heeseung follows his finger until it lands on the familiar shape of two teenage boys. 

For a second, the moon shines on the lake just so , and it illuminates the smiling faces of Park Sunghoon and Kim Sunoo. 

In the darkness, they almost seem to be glowing in the moonlight. Sunghoon’s already pale face looks halfway translucent, like he is a mirage or a ghost—Like if you tried to grab him, he’d slip through your grasp like water. Sunoo, for his part, looks equally unreal. He is shining like one of the stars fallen to the ground. It almost makes Jake want to look up and check to see if there are any missing from the sky. 

They seem to be very loosely training the avatar in waterbending. 

Then, the clouds move, and they are gone, once again hidden in the darkness—Returned to their own private world. 

A moment later, Jake hears another splash, followed by a high pitched squeal and then the sound of laughter. The noises can only belong to Sunoo and Sunghoon, respectively. It is the first time that Jake has heard the avatar truly laugh, and it is young and boyish in a way that clashes with his regular monk-like robes and full-body tattoos.

Another splash, and this time, Sunoo is the one laughing. His laughter is lighter, less rough than Sunghoon's. He sounds like he laughs more often than the avatar does, and is more practiced, accordingly. Still, it is no less bright, or filled with joy.

A beat passes where nothing happens. 

Then, a wave of water is raised towards the sky, like the start of a small typhoon. It grows so large; it momentarily blocks out Jake’s view of the moon, so that what little he’d been able to make out, up until that point, has now been washed away. 

The avatar holds this wave for a second longer, and it is a monstrous display of power. Jake can see the water ripple as Sunghoon holds it in place, little bits of moonlight shining through. Heeseung lets out a low whistle at the strength required for something like it, and Jake can do nothing but agree.

In that moment, it really does feel as though Sunghoon is holding the fate of the world in his hands. 

Then, the avatar lets it go, and Sunoo’s laughter is completely drowned out and drenched in the process. His resulting “SUNGHOON!” is so loud and offended, that Jake and Heeseung can hear it from the other side of the lake. This time, there is nothing restrained about Sunghoon’s resulting laughter.

As the water quietly settles from its fall, Sunghoon and Sunoo are not the avatar and the South Pole’s last surviving waterbender. They are just two teenage boys, basking in both the moonlight and each other’s company. 

Suddenly, Jake feels as though he is interrupting something private, even though the two of them are in the middle of the lake where anyone can see them. Heeseung must feel the same way, because a second later, he is squeezing Jake’s hand, tugging them along. 

The two walk together in silence, away from the lake and back towards the rest of the village. Sunghoon and Sunoo’s fading voices accompany them as they go. There is a slight breeze in the air, and it makes Jake regret not having brought another layer for warmth. 

“It almost makes you forget about the war—About what Sunghoon has to do,” Heeseung says, after a bit, in reference to what they just saw. He has a thoughtful look on his face. 

“It does,” Jake agrees, even though he doesn’t want to, because he had thought the same and honesty is always something that he will give Heeseung, if he can. After a second, he adds, “I can’t believe how strong he is.”

There is a gargantuan power held within the avatar’s teenage hands.

“He’s only been waterbending for a couple of weeks,” the earthbender replies, and he sounds as though he can’t even imagine it. “Makes you wonder what he could do with an entire year.”

All of a sudden, Jake doesn’t really want to talk about bending anymore, and he swallows around the lump in his throat. 

“He and Sunoo seem happy together,” is what Jake says instead, and Heeseung gives him a look, as though he knows that Jake has purposefully avoided his implicit question, but the earthbender doesn’t press. 

He has always understood exactly what Jake needs. It makes the non-bender’s heart ache all the more for it.

“They do. I hope they figure things out soon,” is what Heeseung eventually contributes to Jake’s abrupt change in conversation, and he doesn’t need to bother explaining what things he means. For Sunoo and Sunghoon, it’s nothing short of everything. 

“Yeah,” Jake agrees, hand brushing against Heeseung’s at his side. He looks down at his feet, quiet. “Me too.”

Common misconception, Jake and Heeseung aren’t actually together . They are in all the ways that matter, but not really. Not in the way everyone else seems to think. 

They aren’t married, like Sunoo had implied. Jake wouldn’t even say that they are dating. They are a secret, third thing, birthed in the throngs of war. 

When Jake really thinks about it, he thinks that Heeseung must love him back. There is simply no way that he couldn’t. He has kissed Jake on every single part of his face except for his lips, held Jake in his arms as they fell asleep, and called him his soulmate under the stars. Riki calls them ‘Jake-hyung’ and ‘Heeseung-hyung’, like they are a unit. Surely, these aren’t the trademarks of a couple of good friends?

Sometimes, the earthbender looks at him like all he wants to do is kiss him senseless. But there are other times, just as many, even, where he looks at Jake like he is so terrified of breaking him that he doesn’t even want to get close. 

Jake knows that he is just as responsible, that he could just as easily tell Heeseung how he feels, but he is too scared of losing him—of losing what they have—to even try. And he likes what they have now, truly, he does. This in-between place that they seem to have colonized for their own. 

Maybe Jake has always known, somewhere deep in his subconscious, that Heeseung would have to leave him. That no matter what he did, he’d always lose him, eventually. 

Maybe that fear was holding him back from ever officializing things, from ever saying those three magic words in a way where it’d be impossible to misunderstand what he meant by them. If things were any realer than they already were, then it’d hurt even more. 

Or maybe those are all just excuses, because Jake is a coward. 

You didn’t run , Sunghoon had said to him. Little does he know, Jake has been running for as long as Riki’s been alive. He hasn’t stopped running ever since that fateful day, where Heeseung had offered him his hand, and told him that they ‘needed to leave, now’.

Sometimes, Jake feels like he is still escaping that burning building, lungs filled with ash, desperately crawling his way towards a cradle that is just out of sight. 

They have grown up in a strange time, sharpened by the knives of war. 

Jake and Heeseung love each other, probably, but they’ve never done anything about it. They go to sleep in the same bed they’ve shared since they were 13, even though they’ve long since outgrown its frame. What was once a necessity has now turned into indulgence, and yet neither of them bring it up. 

That night, although he does not know it, Jake holds Heeseung for the last time, without the definitive knowledge that the earthbender is going to leave him tomorrow. 

“Do you believe in destiny, Jaeyun?” Heeseung asks him one night when they can’t sleep. They’ve been in Kiyoshi for less than a month, and the nightmares are still fresh. 

“No, I don’t,” Jake replies, shaking his head. He turns to look in Heeseung’s direction, even though he can’t see anything in the dark. “Do you?”

“Sometimes,” Heeseungs says, and he looks at Jake as though that is supposed to mean something to him. 

After a second, Jake hums in acknowledgment and then closes his eyes. 

The day of reckoning comes sooner than Jake would like. Ideally, he’d like for it to have never come, at all. 

It is 10pm at night when they get attacked by the same fire nation soldiers who brought Sunghoon to Kiyoshi Island in the first place. After weeks of silence, they’ve found him. Gaeul still hasn’t found her way back to them like Sunoo had said, and now, they have run out of time to wait. 

As soon as the first soldier attacks in a burst of fire, Heeseung and Sunghoon are there to step in and protect them. Heeseung erects a wall of earth to shield the group of school children towards whom the blast had been aimed, while Sunghoon leaps over the top to send the firebender packing with a single, overpowering gust of wind. 

After that, it is all-out chaos. 

Those without any fighting experience make a break for it towards the lake, while those who do steel themselves for battle. Jake looks for the first weapon he can find—a long, metal pole—and picks it up in his hands.

As people scramble to take their places, the avatar and earthbender fight together to protect the village. It is like watching a unit. Not quite soulmates—-something else, but no less fated. In sync. With Sunoo at the rear, the three of them look like a team. 

Water, earth, air, and there is fire all around them. 

Jake watches from his place on the ground as they blaze through the sky in a flurry of red, blue and dirt, pole clutched tightly between his fists.

The Kiyoshi warriors provide extra support, taking care of anyone who slips through the cracks, though there aren’t many. Mainly, they rush to the homes of the elderly and the young, those who can’t defend themselves, to get them out while they still can. 

Beomgyu hurls himself into Jake’s field of vision and tells him that he is going to bring the other children to the lake, away from the conflict. Jake nods once, and then the other man is gone. 

Jake uses his pole to bat away at some of the soldiers, then makes a break for it towards their home. Riki will have been sleeping when they arrived, and Jake needs to make sure that he is okay. He trusts Heeseung and the rest of the avatar’s team to take care of the village while he does just that.

It feels like he has been running for a lifetime before the blurry outline of his house finally starts to come into view. It gives Jake a renewed sense of purpose as he sprints the remaining distance forward.

When the non-bender finally arrives, chest heaving, there is a stillness to his front porch that makes him pause. It is an almost eerie silence in the midst of the rest of the battle. Immediately, he is on guard as he creeps towards the front, trying to make as little noise as possible. 

An explosion goes off somewhere behind him, and he stumbles forward, soundless. It takes him three more steps to reach the front. 

The door is already unlocked when he gets there, and it pushes open easily. Jake’s palm has only just made contact with the wood, when it moves aside and invites him in. 

Immediately, Jake’s blood freezes, ice in his veins, at the realisation that someone—someone who isn’t Heeseung or Jake or Riki—has been there already. 

Jake is terrified in a way he hasn’t been since he was 12 years old and on the run. When he’d woken up to a man looming over Heeseung’s vulnerable, sleeping figure, and knew instinctively that it was either kill or be killed. Back then, he’d picked up a rock and bashed the bandit’s skull in without any hesitation.

Now, his thoughts are going a million miles a minute, until they eventually hone in on one single idea. At that moment, the only thing he can think of is ‘ get Riki, now .’ 

Jake makes sure to make as little noise as possible as he walks inside the room, feet softly padding inside. There aren’t any lights, and so it takes a second for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. 

It takes everything in him not to let out a loud gasp at what he sees when they finally do. 

There is a man in fire nation armour standing in the middle of his living room. 

Jake’s feet stop in their tracks. Right away, his eyes dart to their kitchen, where he knows they own a large knife for cutting the meat, among other pseudo-weapons. He is ready to stab a fork through the man’s neck if he so much as breathes another breath in Riki’s direction. 

The fire nation soldier has his back to Jake, of which the non-bender takes advantage to slowly make his way towards the kitchen. He ducks behind a section of the wall as the man turns to the left. 

The soldier has a pouch full of coins wrapped around his waist that jingle as he moves, and he is digging through Jake and Heeseung’s drawers like he hasn’t already been greedy enough already. A coward and a bandit, thieving from people’s homes while his fellow nation-men fight outside. 

Jake wrinkles his nose in disgust, and he wants to see this man’s insides painted on the walls of his home. 

Just then, in his distraction, Jake’s foot makes contact with one of Riki’s toys that they never bothered to clean up from that morning, and the ensuing ‘thud’ it makes as it hits the wall sounds an awful lot like a funerary march as it echoes in Jake’s ears.

The soldier immediately spins around to meet him, and Jake doesn’t hesitate for a second before he is already leaping towards their knife set, arm outstretched. 

His hand locks around the large knife he’d been thinking of earlier, and he just barely manages to duck in time before a blast of fire is sent through the pocket of air where he’d just been standing. Jake feels the heat singe the back of his ear as he does so. 

A crash of plates and bowls follow the movement. The fire has already spread to the rest of their cupboards. If Riki hadn’t been awake before, then he definitely is now. 

Hidden behind their kitchen island, Jake takes a single breath, before he pushes himself up and around the side. The soldier is not expecting it and Jake manages to knock him over onto his back. Immediately, he presses down on his chest.

The two wrestle for a second with Jake attacking with an almost animalistic force. The knife does little against the fire nation man’s armour, but Jake aims for the holes in his mask. 

Clearly, the soldier has not been trained for a proper fight, as he just barely manages to turn his head in time to avoid losing both of his eyes. He had been searching through Jake and Heeseung’s living room instead of fighting for a reason, afterall. 

For a moment, Jake tries to wrestle his mask off of him, but it seems as though the soldier’s survival instincts finally kick in as he musters up enough force to reverse their position.

Physically, he looms large over the non-bender, who has always been small for his age. The man has one hand on Jake’s shoulder, while the other balances itself on the floor. 

Jake takes the opportunity to stab the chink in his armour right where his bicep and forearm connect. He digs it in even further after piercing the initial skin, twisting the knife. The scream the larger man lets out is pathetic—a mix between a high-pitched whine and an animalistic cry. Some of the blood drips down onto Jake’s face and neck. 

Jake goes to stab him again, when his wrist is grabbed and then starts to heat up with fire. He drops the knife at his side. 

It is pain unlike anything Jake has ever felt before, and for a second his vision completely blacks out in white. He can feel the skin melting around the joint. Worse, he can smell it. His arm spasms with the pain, and for a second, Jake wonders if his hand is even still attached to his body. 

It seems as though at some point during the struggle, Jake had managed to knock off the soldier’s mask, anyway. But all it does for him now is provide him a clear view of the blood stained smile of the man above him as his vision abruptly comes back into focus.

The man releases his wrist as Jake tries to buck him off in a final act of resistance and fails. His arm lays uselessly at his side. The soldier rears his fist back to deliver another fiery blow—This time, to kill, and Jake is sure that he is about to die. 

All Jake can do is close his eyes and pray that in all of the confusion, Riki had slipped out the back and run to Heeseung, and safety. 

Except, in the next second, the blast never comes, and Jake just barely has enough time to re-open up his eyes before his entire vision is coated in red and heat. 

He doesn’t understand what is happening right away. His house has been enveloped in flames, but they are not coming from the man who is—no longer above him. Instead, the soldier has been sent flying onto his back, a couple of paces away.

There, standing above him, is Riki. Both of his hands are covered in flames and he looks absolutely terrified. His eyes are wide and his mouth is twisted into something nasty. 

Still, when the soldier makes a move to attack him, the young boy shoves both of his arms forward and releases such a large burst of fire that it burns the soldier’s entire face off. It’s so strong that it knocks the 7 year old off of his own two feet, and he goes skidding to the ground. 

The screams are unlike anything Jake has ever heard in his life, and yet he can’t bring himself to look away. They almost make him want to cover his ears, if he hadn’t been so ready to rip those screams from the man’s throat himself.

A second later, the soldier falls down to his knees. His head lolls to the side in Jake’s direction and the face that greets him is black, charred and unrecognizable as belonging to a human being. He wants to vomit just looking at it, and he checks to make sure that Riki can’t see it from where he rests.

Immediately, Jake is rushing to his brother’s side, ignoring the pain in his left arm entirely. The younger boy is staring at the soldier’s lifeless body with a horrified look on his face and his hands are shaking. He is sitting on the floor and Jake crouches to meet him at his level. 

“Hey,” Jake says, only slightly frantic. “Hey, Riki. Look at me, please. Baby.”

When his voice is still not enough to reach him, Jake grabs the younger boy’s face in both of his hands and forces him to look in his direction. His left arm howls in pain, but he ignores it. 

“Riki,” he says, looking into his eyes, and the wide-eyed innocence staring back at him just about breaks his heart. He feels like he is looking into his own reflection, 6 years ago. “You saved me. Thank you.”

In response to his words, the younger boy’s eyes well up with tears and he shakes his head. He hiccups once, reaching up to pull at his hair. 

“I killed him,” Riki says, voice raw. He tugs even harder at his hair, scrunching up his eyes like that will make everything go away, like he is trying to wake up from a bad dream.

“Jake-hyung,” he hiccups, opening his eyes to look up at the older boy pleadingly, eyes wide and scared. “I don’t want to be a firebender. They’re bad. Please, I don’t want to be bad.”

His voice cracks at the end of his sentence, and that’s when he starts crying for real. His big eyes are drowning in tears. It does more than break Jake’s heart. 

“No,” the non-bender says, chest aching. He gently pries Riki’s hands away from his scalp, and the angry little red marks in his brother’s palms make him want to kill someone. “You’re not bad, Riki. You’re not . You saved me.” 

Riki shakes his head and doesn’t respond.

“Where’s Heeseung-hyung?” His brother asks him, and Jake hates that he is going to have to tell him that he is not there. 

“He’s outside protecting the village, Riki. Just like you protected me.”

The young firebender shakes his head again, voice getting louder and more panicked the longer Jake denies him of what he wants. 

“I want Heeseung-hyung. Please, Jake-hyung.”

Jake brushes some of the hair from his face, drying his tears with his thumb. “He’s not here right now, baby.” 

There is a pause, as Riki takes that information in. Jake sees it settle down across his face. 

Then, of all the possible things for Riki to say next, there is nothing that could have prepared Jake for what comes out of his brother’s mouth in response. 

“Is Heeseung-hyung going to leave us to go help the avatar?” 

Riki asks him the question in a quiet voice that suggests that he already knows the answer, and it’s like all of the breath is stolen from Jake’s lungs. 

When Jake looks into Riki’s eyes, it does not feel as though a 7 year old is the one who is staring back. There is a quiet understanding in his brother’s eyes that far exceeds his years. For all of Jake and Heeseung’s efforts, it seems as though Riki has somehow grown up without their permission. 

Jake swears his heart is being ripped out of his chest. 

“It’s okay,” is what Riki says next, as though he is the one who now has to comfort Jake. The younger boy’s bottom lip trembles as he forces out his next words. “I understand. It just makes me sad. I don’t want him to go.”

“I don’t want him to go either,” is all Jake manages to get out, voice hoarse, before Riki is launching himself into Jake’s arms. 

His left wrist screams in protest, but Jake can’t afford to listen to it as he feels the front of his shirt start to wet with tears. He feels little hiccups being pressed into the center of his chest. Immediately, he wraps his little brother in between his arms and brings him closer to his heart, resting his chin on his head.

Suddenly, Jake is 12 again, and he has just looked into Riki’s cradle for the first time. 

“When did you get so big, huh, Riki?” Jake asks him as he slowly threads his fingers through his younger brother’s hair. His voice sounds watery even to his own ears. A single tear escapes Jake’s eyes and trails down his cheek. Riki sniffles in response.

“I dunno,” his brother mumbles, burying his reply somewhere in between Jake's neck and his chest. 

If he could, Jake would stay here forever, basking in the sound of his brother’s still-beating heart, and the knowledge that he is okay. But he knows that he can’t, not while Heeseung is still out there. He needs to go back to the fight. 

After a couple more seconds, Jake gently pats Riki on the head one last time, and then starts to pull away. 

Immediately, his little brother lunges forward, tightening his grip on Jake’s shirt in his hands. 

“Riki,” Jake starts, and it takes every bone in his body not to give in to his brother’s silent pleas. He runs his fingers through Riki’s hair to try and calm him down. “I have to go now.”

All he gets in response is a tiny shake of the head. He feels it brush against his stomach. 

Jake sighs, and bends down to press a quick kiss to the crown of Riki’s head. 

“I’ll be back soon, okay? I promise. But I have to go make sure that Heeseung is alright.”

“Okay,” Riki mumbles out, but he does not let Jake go. He feels so small right now in Jake’s arms. His palms are still hot from the fire he’d only just realized lived dormant inside of him. 

Eventually, Riki lifts his head to look up at his brother. His eyes are red-rimmed and puffy, and Jake can still see the barely-dried tears decorating his cheeks, but he looks determined. 

Jake hates that he feels like he has to put up a strong front right now. Still, he can tell that Riki wants him to act like he believes it, and so he does. 

The non-bender looks his little brother in the eye to make sure that he understands what he is about to say. He speaks clearly, because his next words are going to ensure that he is safe. 

“Go find uncle Beomgyu, alright?” Jake says, and he waits for Riki to nod and show that he’s listening before he continues. “He should be headed towards the lake. Go around the side, and don’t stop for anyone.” 

Riki nods again, and this time, he does not protest when Jake pulls himself away. The two make their way out of the house where the fire nation soldier’s corpse is still hot to the touch. Riki is clutching Jake’s good hand in his so tightly it almost hurts. 

“See you later, Jake-hyung,” his brother says with one last hug around his legs, before he is running off towards Beomgyu and the rest of his friends. He doesn’t even give Jake enough time to respond before he has rounded a corner and is out of sight. 

It feels like a part of Jake leaves with him as he watches him go.

When Jake makes his way back towards the center of the conflict, he is met with a horrifying sight. 

Fire nation bodies litter the ground, and there is not a single house in sight that has not been consumed by flames. Among them, Jake thinks he can make out the unconscious figures of some of the village men, and he does want to think about whether or not he can still make out the rising of their chests.

But that is not the horrifying part. No, that was only to be expected, afterall. They are at war. No, something far worse has occurred in Jake’s absence. 

The non-bender doesn’t even know what it is that he is looking at, but he knows enough to know that it isn’t anything good. 

Sunghoon is floating high above the carnage, his eyes and arrows glowing a bright blue. His mouth is pressed into a flat line and there is none of the emotion that Jake has come to associate with the other man present on his face. He looks impassive, unconcerned. 

There is something inhuman about the avatar as he leisurely scans his surroundings and the people he has been trying to protect—Not seeing them, but seeing through them. With a shock, Jake realizes that he looks a lot like the God he’d been picturing before he’d learned that Sunghoon was just a boy. Well, he doesn’t look like just a boy right now. 

Water, earth and air surround him, but it does not look like the avatar has any of the elements under control. Rather, they look like they are the ones controlling him , bending him to their will. 

Below him, Sunoo is bleeding from the temple and shouting something that Jake cannot hear from where he is standing, a distance away. He has a terrified look on his face, but it isn’t of the avatar. No, he looks terrified for him. 

Almost reflexively, Jake scans for Heeseung next. He doesn’t see him at first, and it makes his throat close up in panic. After another second, the earthbender’s familiar shock of red hair comes into focus, and Jake’s feet are carrying him forward before he even realizes what is happening.

“Heeseung!” He calls out, once he is close enough to be sure his voice is going to carry over the violent winds around them. 

The earthbender spins around at the sound of his name, and his face looks terrified when he sees Jake pushing his way across the battlefield towards him. His face is covered in dirt and blood, and for a second, he looks just like he did at 13, the day they first met. 

“Jaeyun, what are you doing here?!” Heeseung shouts back, stumbling over the rubble to meet the other man halfway. 

As soon as the non-bender is close enough to touch, he does just that. He grips Jake’s arms like he is worried the shorter man is going to disappear in a cloud of smoke any second if he doesn’t. 

“Where’s Riki?” Heeseung continues, just as panicked. 

“I sent him to go find Beomgyu,” Jake replies, out of breath. Finally, it feels like the pain in his arm has caught up to his brain, and he winces at the sensation of his skin melting off his bone. Heeseung’s eyes catch it, and immediately, they dart to the left arm dangling uselessly at Jake’s side. 

“What happened to you? Are you okay?” He questions, voice getting increasingly frantic the longer he does not know what is going on. 

Jake shakes his head. “There was a soldier. I fought him. But more importantly, what the fuck is happening to Sunghoon?” 

His answer seems to do little to abate the earthbender’s concern, but right now, they don’t have time to dwell on it.

At the sound of the avatar’s name, both of their heads turn to the spectacle beside them. It is then that Jake realizes that there is a man in the ground in front of him. Sunghoon is twisting him into the dirt, and Jake is now close enough to hear the soldier begging for his life. It makes his eyes widen in surprise. 

“I don’t know,” Heeseung says, and he sounds like he is terrified. “It’s some—avatar power, I don’t know. Sunoo tried to explain it, but it was all rushed. It has something to do with his emotions.”

“What triggered it?” Jake asks, but as soon as the words leave his mouth, he feels like he already knows the answer. 

“Sunghoon-hyung, I’m okay now!” The waterbender shouts—interrupting whatever response Heeseung had been about to give him—and this time Jake is close enough to hear what he says. The blood streaming down his face has stained his blonde hair red. 

“I’m alright!” Sunoo continues. “You’re going to hurt yourself! Stop, please! Fucking stop !”

His voice is raw and hoarse, like he has been screaming at the top of his lungs for hours. He sounds absolutely wrecked as he begs the avatar to come down from whatever state it is that he’s entered into. 

“The air nomads don’t kill,” Heeseung says from beside him, and Jake turns to look him in the eye. “Whoever that is right now, it isn’t Sunghoon.”

“You’re going to fucking kill him!” Sunoo shouts again, impossibly loud. He digs his fingers into the dirt and then launches it in the avatar’s direction. It uselessly bounces off of the air circulating around him, and Sunoo screams in frustration.

Heeseung steps forward, and for a second, Jake is confused as to what he’s trying to do. His arms are outstretched like he is bending, but Jake cannot see him moving any earth. He follows the earthbender’s line of sight, and it lands on the soldier who Sunghoon had been trying to suffocate into the ground. 

A second later, Jake understands what is going on. Heeseung is sweating, face twisted in concentration and grit, as he tries to stop the avatar from killing the soldier responsible for the cut and bruises on Sunoo’s face, because he knows that taking a life would kill Sunghoon.

It is a testament to Heeseung’s abilities that he does not immediately fold under the avatar’s pressure, though it looks like he can’t hold whatever it is that he’s doing for long. Jake wonders if it also has something to do with the fact that Sunghoon does not truly want to kill the man in front of him, and he is trying to fight back against whatever force has taken hold over his body. 

Mustering what appears to be what little remains of his strength, Sunoo raises a whip of water, and sends it flying in Sunghoon’s direction. It isn’t so much an attack as it is a cry for attention.

In a millisecond—faster than Jake can blink—Sunghoon has raised his arm to deflect it with a powerful gust of wind, and sends the waterbender flying into the building behind him. 

Sunoo crashes through the wall with a sickening crunch, and Jake is immediately running over to his side. 

“Hey!” Heeseung calls out, and he sounds absolutely furious—Raw in a way Jake has not heard him in a long, long time. “What the fuck are you doing?! That was fucking Sunoo!”

Miraculously, the earthbender’s words seem to trigger something in the avatar, and his eyes flicker once, losing the bright blue glow that Jake has come to despise in the short time he’s spent in their presence. 

Jake reaches up to shout something, too, but he is stopped by a weak, but insistent grip on his forearm. Sunoo uses Jake to push himself up back onto his knees, and the non-bender immediately moves to help support him. Sunoo’s arm is slung over his shoulder, and Jake’s other arm is wrapped around his waist.

“That’s not Sunghoon-hyung…” is all the waterbender says, gritting his teeth, before he is forcing himself back up onto his two legs. 

Stumbling out of the wreckage, Sunoo’s foot catches on a plank of wood, and Jake just barely has time to catch him around the waist before he falls back to his knees. 

Sunoo turns his face up towards the raging god above them, and there must be something in his eyes that Jake cannot see, because he can feel the elements around them start to stutter in response. 

“Sunghoon-hyung!” Sunoo shouts, and there is so much raw desperation behind the two words, Jake is sure that the waterbender must have ripped them straight from his heart himself. 

When the avatar turns to face him, he adds, quieter this time, “Come down, please.”

It feels like the entire village is waiting in suspense for what Sunghoon is going to do next. For a second, Jake is worried that it isn’t going to work, and the avatar is about to kill them all. 

But something about Sunoo’s final plea must do it, because a second later, the winds around them grind to a halt, and Sunghoon is coming back down to the ground. The village seems to get darker without Sunghoon’s blue glow, but Jake does not miss it. His eyes are brown again, and he looks devastated in a way that a God never could. 

He looks human. 

As soon as the avatar has returned to his normal state, Sunoo falls back down, as though his only goal had been for the airbender to see him and calm down. Now that that goal had been accomplished, he no longer needed to be upright for anything.  

It catches Jake off-guard, and he doesn’t have time to catch Sunoo before his legs give out and his knees are hitting the floor. 

At the same time, Sunghoon stumbles as he makes contact with the earth, and as soon as he is close enough to touch, he lunges forward to clutch Sunoo in his arms. 

“I’m so sorry,” he says, face buried in the waterbender’s neck, and the desperation in his voice turns the words into something like a plea. 

“It’s okay,” Sunoo replies. 

It is like a sick parody of their first meeting after Sunghoon had first woken up from his coma. Except this time, Sunoo really is injured, and whether intentionally or not, Sunghoon had been the one to hurt him. 

Sunoo’s arms are wrapped around Sunghoon’s shoulders, coming together at his back. The waterbender looks absolutely wrecked—blonde hair knotted and marred, pretty face covered in blood, clothes torn—but despite everything, he is smiling, and he looks relieved. 

“Don’t go,” Sunghoon begs into his skin, and what a marvel it is—to hear the closest thing their world has to a god beg. 

“I won’t. Hyung, I’m here. I’m okay,” Sunoo replies, and there is so much pain in his voice that it makes Jake’s breath catch. Even after everything, the thing that has worried Sunoo the most about their situation is how the avatar state had hurt Sunghoon . 

“You can’t leave me,” the airbender says, but his voice is so gone that it comes out closer to a whisper. He sounds like he is talking about more than just the present moment, like he is living both the past and the future behind his closed eyes.

“I won’t,” Sunoo replies, and it looks like there is something painful in his throat trying to push its way out. He swallows. “I won’t.”

Jake takes a step back and lets them have their moment. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Heeseung also collapse to the ground, exhausted, and he rushes over to be by his side. At that moment, something large and white flies over their heads and lands near the forest. Only Jake is the one to see it.

Immediately, he knows what he has to do, and it feels like it’s been a long time coming—Since the day Sunghoon first landed on Kiyoshi island, or maybe even earlier than that, since the day Jake had first caught a glimpse of Heeseung training behind closed doors. 

Crouching by Heeseung’s side, Jake lifts him up with his arms until he is on his knees in front of him. 

“Heeseung,” Jake calls to get the earthbender’s attention. “Heeseung, you need to leave.”

It takes a second for the words to register in the earthbender’s mind. The red-haired man blearily blinks back at him.

“What?” He asks, confused. His eyebrows are scrunched together, like he doesn’t understand any of the words coming out of Jake’s mouth.

“You need to take Sunoo and Sunghoon and go to Gaeul, Sunghoon’s flying air bison. I just saw her land about 500m south of the forest. Grab both of them and get out of here.”

Heeseung nods, pushing himself up to stand on his own two feet. Jake follows, holding his arm to help him do exactly that.

“Okay,” the earthbender replies. He stumbles once, but then seems to find his balance. “I’ll be back soon.”

He turns to leave, but Jake’s sudden grip on his arm stops him. It makes the taller man turn around, a questioning look on his face.

“Heeseung,” the non-bender says, mouth wrapping around the familiar shape of the other man’s name. Jake’s lips are dry and cracked, and he licks them once to wet them. “No. You need to leave. With them.”

“What?” The earthbender repeats, sounding even more confused than he had before. 

Jake smiles, and it is a pained thing. 

For a second, he allows himself to indulge, one last time. He takes in the way Heeseung looks in that moment; he commits the sight to memory, sears it into his mind. 

Heeseung’s hair is stuck to his forehead, beaded with sweat. There is a cut going across his nose, but the bleeding has stopped. He has dirt across both cheeks, and his eyes are wide and questioning. They are Jake’s favourite shade of brown, and he can see the reflection of both him and the fire surrouding them in the pupils. 

The world around them is dark, but Jake swears he can see a sliver of moonlight bounce off of Heeseung’s face if he squints. 

His chest is heaving, and he takes Jake’s good hand in his, softly running his thumb along the back as he waits for him to explain. 

He looks beautiful, and he looks like Jake’s. 

“Go help Sunghoon save the world,” Jake tells him, and it feels like everything finally clicks into place in Heeseung’s mind.

“Jake,” he says, and the sound of his name in Heeseung’s voice alone is enough to make the non-bender’s eyes start to prickle with tears. He blames it on the smoke. “No. I can’t.”

“You have to,” the shorter man replies, and he tries to smile. “It has to be you. We both know it.”

Heeseung stares at him for a second longer, and he looks shell-shocked, like the weight of Jake’s words still have not set in. He searches Jake’s face for any hint of a lie, eyes darting from his mouth to his brows. Whatever Heeseung finds there does nothing to ease the pained expression stretching across his face.

“Come with us then,” is what the earthbender says next, like the solution is obvious. It isn’t. The words are quick and rushed. They seem to leave him before he even knows that he’s opened his mouth.

Jake only shakes his head in response. There is a strange feeling in his chest, like he is having deja vu, though he can’t explain why. 

“I can’t leave Riki,” he replies. “And it’s too dangerous to bring him with you.” 

The earthbender doesn’t say anything in reply. His mouth opens and closes once, useless, and then he stares at Jake like Jake is the one who is leaving him and not the other way around. His forehead is creased together in disbelief, still, like he thinks they can figure out some other way if only they have a little more time.

Jake knows that they can’t.

“You have to go,” he repeats, like it’ll get easier tp believe the more he says it. It doesn’t. 

Heeseung brings up a hand to run through his hair, frantic. His expression look slightly crazed. He tugs Jake closer, and looks him deep in the eyes.

“I can’t ,” he emphasizes, aching, like Jake had not heard him the first time. “Not without you.”

When Jake doesn’t say anything in reply, Heeseung continues, and his voice cracks in desperation. 

“Don’t do this to me. Please.”

Heeseung is begging, and Jake needs to look away before he gives in. 

“Heeseung,” Jake says again, and this time his voice breaks with it. The emotion he has been trying to conceal shoves through. A second longer, and he will start crying. “Go, please.”

Heeseung ignores his words and takes his face in his hands, directing his gaze to his.  Almost instinctually, Jake melts into the touch, and hates himself for it. The earthbender rubs a patch of dirt off of his cheek with his thumb, gentle, like Jake is something indescribably precious to him.

“Jaeyun. You’re fucking killing me,” he states, like this is something that Jake doesn’t already know. He briefly ducks his head to blink away the tears before the shorter man can see them. He’s too slow.

“Heeseung. I’ll be okay,” Jake replies, and Heeseung looks back up at the sound of his voice. 

His eyes are wet and red. The non-bender can feel his own watering in reply. He gives the taller man a shaky smile. 

“Jake,” Heeseung breathes out, and his eyes dart down briefly to the non-bender’s lips before they come back up. For a moment, Jake considers it—what Heeseung is trying to ask him. For all he knows, this is the last time he and Heeseung will ever speak. 

Maybe it is time that Jake stops running.

When Jake says nothing, the taller man takes it as permission, and he leans down slowly, grip tightening on Jake’s cheek. His eyes gently flutter closed. 

As the earthbender’s eyelashes brush against Jake’s nose, the non-bender turns his head to the side. 

Heeseung freezes in his tracks. 

For a second, neither of them move. Then, Jake gently pries Heeseung’s hand away from his cheek, intertwining their fingers as he goes. He gives Heeseung’s palm one last squeeze, before he lets go and takes a step back.

“Kiss me properly when you come back, okay?” Jake says, trying to keep his voice steady as he ties their futures together in the only way he knows how.

For a second, Heeseung’s hand remains hanging uselessly between them, before he seems to realize and draws it back to his side. He looks beyond devastated in the aftermath, and he is staring at Jake with grief in his eyes. 

“Okay, Jaeyun,” Heeseung says, voice heavy. He looks like his chest is about to cave in and crush his lungs. “Okay.”

There is a moment of silence where neither of them know what to say. Then, Heeseung gives him a small smile, and his eyes soften. 

“Tell Riki I love him. Please.”

“I will,” Jake replies immediately, voice soft, as it always is whenever his brother is involved. 

“I’ll come back to you,” Heeseung says, after a moment, and his eyes are ablaze with determination. He looks like he has never meant words more in his entire life. 

Heeseung’s entire being drips with decisiveness, like he can’t stand for even a second the thought of Jake not believing him. He is staring at him like there is nothing else in the world that could possibly be worth looking at instead. 

Jake smiles and tells him, “I know,” because he does.

Heeseung swallows, and takes him at his word. He says, “I know it’s selfish, but please wait for me, Jaeyun.”

“Always, hyung,” Jake replies, without missing a beat, and this must be the first time he has called Heeseung that in a very long time, but somehow it feels right. “Always.”

The avatar leaves Jake’s life, taking Heeseung with him, on a devastating Tuesday night. 

Jake’s village is in flames around him, the only source of light in the darkness other than the moon. The fire is so bright at times that it almost gives the illusion of it being day, if it weren’t for the heavy blanket of smoke that covers them. 

He is surrounded by countless dead men, some of whom he knew, most of whom he didn’t. Jake does not yet know whether or not Riki has safely made it to the lake with the rest of the evacuees, and Heeseung is leaving him alone. 

As the earthbender makes his way over to Sunghoon and Sunoo, telling them both that they need to go, Jake follows behind him. He sees Sunoo’s eyes dart over to where he stands a few paces to Heeseung’s side, and his eyebrows scrunch together in confusion, but the water bender graciously does not say anything more. 

In the time since Jake has left them, Sunghoon has apparently passed out, completely exhausted from whatever state he’d been in. If anything, it’s a miracle he hadn’t done so sooner.

His head is draped over Sunoo’s lap, who is gently supporting his neck with his hand. 

Jake relays the information he’d learned about Gaeul to Sunoo, to which the blonde nods once in understanding. He also tells him that he can’t go with them to the forest, because he needs to check on Riki, but that Heeseung will be able to accompany them. He doesn’t mention yet for how long. 

“I’m going to miss you, Jake-hyung,” the waterbender says once he is finished talking, and his smile is much too young and bright for the situation they’ve found themselves in. 

Still, Jake smiles back.

“I’ll miss you, too, Sunoo. Save the world for me, okay?”

The waterbender laughs once, and it is a light and airy thing. It makes some of the weight on Jake’s chest disappear. He directs his attention to the sleeping avatar on the waterbender’s lap next.

Sunghoon looks just like he did during all those weeks he’d spent unconscious in Kiyoshi’s sick bay. It almost makes Jake nostalgic, though he’d never say that out loud. 

Jake is sad that he won’t be able to give Sunghoon a proper goodbye. Though they only ever had one real conversation, Jake feels like he’d learned a lot about the avatar in that short moment. He hopes that the airbender will take care of Heeseung for him, and that he and Sunoo will figure out their shit soon. 

With nothing more to say to each other, Sunoo and Heeseung each take one of the avatar’s arms and drape them over their shoulders, while Jake watches. They take a moment to make sure that they are steady, before they get ready to leave.

They straighten up, and Heeseung looks at Jake one last time, likely trying to memorize his face in the same way the non-bender had done for him just moments before. His gaze is heavy and comforting, like a warm blanket draped over Jake’s shoulders. 

“I’ll see you later, Jaeyun,” he says, and they are practically the same words Riki had left him with earlier. Not for the first time, Jake laments the similarities between the two. 

“See you, Heeseung-hyung,” Jake replies.

Heeseung gives Jake one last smile, before he turns around and starts to leave. The younger man looks away so that he doesn’t have to see them disappear in real time. 

Eyes closed, Jake counts to one hundred in his head, unmoving from where they have left him, and when he turns back around, Park Sunghoon, Lee Heeseung, and Kim Sunoo are gone—swallowed up by the forest’s darkness like they’d never even been there at all. 

A second goes by as Jake’s feet remain fixed firmly in place. Then, he takes a deep breath, and starts to make his way towards the lake. 

Hopefully, Riki will be safe with Beomgyu by the time he gets there, and Jake can begin to learn what it means to live a life without Heeseung in it.

Chapter Text

We can’t wind back our time, yet we struggle to even so

An answer set in stone, something like that is worthless

To our changed selves from yesterday, 

Shout out to the sky of today

Jake has only been in Ba Sing Se for three months when everything goes to shit. 

He is sitting in the corner of his favourite tea shop, Chaconne Tea. He is reading the newspaper while he waits for his order of jasmine to arrive at his table. There is no mention of the war on the front page, instead, the blown-up image of some up-and-coming earth nation performer graces its pages. 

As far as the officials like to pretend, there is no war in Ba Sing Se. 

Most of the lower classes know better, but they are just as aware that talking about it will get them—Removed, for lack of a better word. Jakes wonders if the city’s upper classes ever think to stop and wonder why there are hundreds of people showing up to their walls seeking refuge from the outside.

Still, the interior of Ba Sing Se’s great walls allow Jake to breathe comfortably with the knowledge that he and Riki are safe. For that, he is grateful, and he will do anything to ensure that things remain that way. 

The nation’s capital is a far cry from the rundown villages and abandoned side-roads they are used to. 

About a day after they’d first settled down into their new home and slightly overwhelmed, the pair had ducked into the first welcoming-looking shop that they could find. That’s how Jake and Riki had first discovered Chaconne Tea.

The teashop’s interior is humble and warm. The employees are friendly, and the tea is delicious. The soft melodies of a pair of wind-chimes hanging in the window give the entire store a kind of lightness that lets Jake momentarily forget about the war raging on outside the city’s walls, just as the Ba Sing Se propaganda posters attempt to do. 

At that moment, one of the waiters places his tray down on Jake’s table and it makes contact with the table with a soft ‘thunk’. It makes Jake look up from his paper, and he is pleased to be greeted with the face of one of his favourite people in Ba Sing Se.

“Sorry to bother you, Jake-ssi,” the waiter says, lips turned up in a small, apologetic smile. He gestures to the tray in front of them. “I brought you your tea.”

“Thanks, Johnny-ah,” Jake replies. “And I’ve told you to just call me Hyung. It’s fine.”

Johnny is one of two employees at the shop who are around Jake’s age. He has slightly curly, blonde hair, and big, cat-like grey eyes. His round cheeks kind of remind Jake of Sunoo, though the waiter’s features are just-barely more sharp. 

The other employee is named Buhner, but from a quick scan of the restaurant, it doesn’t appear as though he is in today. 

At Jake’s words, the blonde waiter only shrugs in reply, adjusting the teapot so that its spout now faces the non-bender. 

“You’re a customer. It feels wrong,” he says, and they are words that Jake has heard from his mouth before. The blonde glances at the seat across from him. “Where’s Riki?” 

“He’s at a friend’s today,” Jake replies, folding his paper in two and setting it aside. 

“Ah, alright,” Johnny nods. He gives Jake a friendly smile. “Tell him I say ‘hi’. Next time you come in, I’ll make sure to sneak him an extra moon cake.”

Jake laughs, shaking his head. “You’re spoiling him, but thank you. He’ll be happy.”

“He’s too cute not to spoil,” the waiter retorts, shrugging his shoulders. He turns the teapot one more time, so that it’s now back to its original position, before stepping away.

“Bye, Jake-ssi,” he says with a little wave. “Enjoy your tea.” 

Jake just barely has time to wave back, before Johnny has turned around and left, apron fluttering to the beat of the chimes. Jake smiles and goes to re-open his paper. 

Except, right at that moment, someone else walks into the shop, and it feels as though all of the breath has just been stolen from Jake’s lungs.

Red hair, and broad shoulders. It is a boy around Jake’s age, but he is taller. He has the frame of an earthbender. These are all familiar features. Jake would know them in his sleep. 

For a second, Jake is sure that he must have Heeseung’s face, as well. He feels excitement begin to rise in his chest.

“Heeseung—” He starts, already smiling, but then abruptly cuts himself off as soon as the other man turns around. The man has blue eyes and a beard. He is plain where Heeseung shines, and he is not the love of Jake’s life. 

He is not Heeseung. 

Jake feels all of his hope crash back down to his stomach, and suddenly, he is no longer hungry. Instead, a deep seeded sense of disappointment and anguish settles in the back of his throat, and he has to swallow to get it to go away.

At the very least, Jake is sure that no one had heard him speak, but when he glances back up, he spots Johnny staring back at him out of the corner of his eye. 

The waiter looks confused, eyebrows drawn together in thought. He is probably wondering why Jake had practically shouted out the name of another man at a total stranger in the middle of his shop. 

The non-bender feels his cheeks colour in embarrassment at being caught, and he sinks back down into his seat, averting his gaze. He reaches to pour himself a cup of tea, and busies himself with watching the patterns the steam makes as it rises towards the roof. 

“Now why in the world would Lee Heeseung be here, you idiot,” Jake whispers to himself, one second away from burying his face in his hands out of shame. 

He quickly finishes up the rest of his order, and then exits the shop. 

In his rush, he doesn’t notice the pair of glinting, grey eyes that follow his back as he goes.

The first couple of days on the run are hard for both Jake and Riki. 

For Jake, they are an unwelcome reminder of a time he thought he’d long since left behind. Once again, their village has burned down, and they must abandon their home. Except this time, Heeseung is not standing there beside him to help.

For Riki, it is hard on him in the way losing a brother and a home all in one night would be for any seven year old. He cries a lot when Jake finally makes his way to the lake, and Heeseung is nowhere to be seen behind him. 

Despite the strong front he’d been putting up back when Jake had left him, it is clear that Riki had not wanted Heeseung to go.

Jake pulls Riki into his arms and rests his chin on his head while his brother cries into his shirt. He runs his hands up and down his back to soothe him, but it does little in competition with the overwhelming absence of the earthbender’s presence. 

At one point, Beomgyu comes over and tries to ask Jake where Heeseung is, and the non-bender can only tell him that he isn’t sure, in return. Beomgyu goes to ask again, but the look on Jake’s face is enough to get him to stop asking any more questions.

Jake stands up, lifting Riki in his arms. His brother has gotten heavier since the last time he has done so, and it makes Jake realize that out of the two of them, it is Heeseung who carries him more often. He shuffles his brother’s weight around in his arms, and makes sure that his hold is strong. 

His left arm still stings from the fire nation soldier’s flames, but he is doing his best to ignore it. Still, carrying Riki in his arms is doing him no favours, and something of the pain must show on his face.

One of the village healers makes her way over to Jake and offers to bandage his arm. He almost tells her that it is alright, because Heeseung will do it for him, before he realizes that that is now a lie. 

It is like a punch to Jake’s gut, a hole in his chest whose presence he has only just started to notice. Suddenly, he feels very alone, and the world feels very large in comparison. 

After a beat, Jake nods, and thanks her. He hopes she hadn’t seen the way his mouth had formed Heeseung’s name like a match to a candle’s flame, only for him to put it out with his next breath.

Jake gently places Riki back onto the ground, though not without one last kiss dropped to the front of his temple. Usually, his brother’s face would scrunch up in annoyance at the move, but today, he does not react. It does something to Jake’s heart.

The ghost of Heeseung’s touch follows the healer as she wraps the bandage around Jake’s arm. If he closes his eyes, he can almost imagine that it is him. Except, the pads of her fingertips have not been hardened like Heeseung’s, through countless hours spent bending the ground they walk on. The weight of her touch is shy on Jake’s wrist in a way Heeseung’s never is. 

The healer finishes up, and Jake opens his eyes. Her smile is soft in the way all healers’ are, but he can see no love in her gaze. He thanks her again, and then she is gone—Off to treat the next patient.

Jake picks Riki up again, his brother’s arms reaching up to wrap around his neck, and he pulls him close to his chest. Jake wonders if Riki can feel the difference between Jake’s hold on him and Heeseung’s, the same way he’d been able to feel the difference between Heeseung’s touch and the healer’s. 

He grips his brother a little together, and hopes that it is enough.  

Beomgyu is talking to another one of the villagers near the edge of the lake, and Jake goes to meet him there. The earthbender gives the pair a small wave as they approach.

“Almost everyone has family near here,” Beomgyu states once Jake has made his way over, and the implication that Jake and Riki do not are loud in the words he chooses not to say.

“I’m glad,” Jake replies, and he means it. These are the people who took Jake in when he had nothing. He is glad they have someone to do the same for them, now. 

Jake watches the earthbender’s mouth twitch as though there is something that he wants to say, but isn’t sure how to say it. His fingers twist over themselves in his hands. 

“I have a couple of friends,” Beomgyu starts, nervously chewing on his bottom lip. “They own a farm near the outskirts of Omashu. That’s probably where I’m headed. There’s four of them, but they have room for more. Would you—?” 

The earthbender cuts himself off, but Jake can understand where the rest of his sentence is leading. Beomgyu looks at the non-bender expectantly, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Despite everything, it is an endearing sight, and Jake smiles. 

Jake has always liked Beomgyu. He has been a good friend to both Heeseung and Jake, and he used to take care of Riki if the two of them were busy. His kindness both now and then is not something Jake will forget anytime soon. 

However, despite Beomgyu’s offer that he and Riki come stay with him and his old friends, Jake already has a destination in mind. 

“Thanks, Beomgyu, but it’s alright,” he replies, and he can tell that the earthbender is not entirely happy with his response. He fidgets with his hands like he wants to reach out, but isn’t sure that he can. 

“Are you sure?” He asks again, eyes wide. Riki shifts in Jake’s arms, and Beomgyu’s gaze darts down to him in response. “It’s really no burden to me, or to them. They’d probably love to have Riki there. Yeonjun-hyung, especially, loves kids. Taehyun, not so much, but I’m sure he’d come around once he saw how cute he was.”

“I’m sure,” Jake states, shaking his head. He is careful not to jostle Riki in the process. “But thank you, seriously.” 

Beomgyu bites his tongue and does not press any further. 

“Okay,” the earthbender says, and he tries to smile, though it is shaky. “Good luck, then, Jake.”

Jake smiles back. 

“Thanks, Beomgyu,” he replies, and it feels like the final chapter of his second life is being closed in the process. 

The last thing Jake tells Beomgyu before they part ways is where they are going, if the earthbender ever needs somewhere else to be. Beomgyu listens carefully, and nods in understanding. Before he leaves for Omashu, he throws a single wave over his shoulder, and then he is gone.

For their part, Jake and Riki are headed to the impenetrable walls of Ba Sing Se, behind which there is no more war, no more avatar, and most certainly, no more trouble. At least, this is what Jake has in mind when they go. 

A couple of hours after having left Chaconne Tea, Jake is walking home carrying a bag of groceries in his arms.

He can still feel the disappointment curling in his chest from what had occurred earlier that morning at the unassuming shop. 

More than that though, he feels angry at himself, for having reacted so stupidly in the first place. He thought he knew better now than to get his hopes up for impossible things.

Somewhere, on the other side of the world, Heeseung must be helping the avatar save the world while Jake chases after his after-images in teashops like he might have abandoned the fate of the world to come see him. 

Jakes shakes his head, and mentally berates himself for being so stupid. He readjusts his hold on the groceries, and picks up the pace.

Just then, he hears a rustling noise coming from somewhere to his left behind him, and immediately, his guard is up. When no noise follows, he forces himself to try and relax, though he knows his posture remains tense. 

He hopes that it is just a monkey-squirrel, or something equally as harmless. Unfortunately, there is a bad feeling crawling its way towards the back of Jake’s head, and he readies himself for the worst.

Trying not to give away the fact that he has heard whoever it is that may be following him, Jake continues to walk forward, without slowing down or speeding up the rhythm of his steps. 

He clutches his bag a little tighter to his chest, and hopes that his pursuer thinks it is just because he is cold. 

Then, he hears the rustling noise again—Closer. This time, Jake does not pretend to ignore it. If they want to get him, then they are going to have to work for it.

Jake drops his groceries and starts to run. They make a loud thumping noise as they hit the ground and spill out. He has barely made it 20 feet before he feels a hard tug on the back of his shirt, and he is dragged into the nearest alleyway. 

In the next second, Jake’s back has been pinned to the wall behind him, and there is a knife pressed against the column of his throat.

“How do you know the name Lee Heeseung?” The voice asks, and Jake’s eyes widen as he realizes that he recognizes it. “What do you know?”

It takes a moment for Jake’s eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness, during which he prays that he has heard wrong. Except, once they do, the face with which he is greeted is familiar to him, and only confirms his previous suspicions. 

It is Johnny, the waiter from the tea shop, and someone who Jake had thought was his friend. His head reels back in shock. 

The expression on the waiter’s face is unlike anything Jake has ever seen on him before. His mouth is flattened into a thin line, and his eyes are cold and hard. He is looking at Jake like he is less than the dirt on the bottom of his shoe. If it weren’t for his familiar set of grey eyes and blonde hair, Jake might not have even recognized him at all. 

In Jake’s shock from the night’s developments, he forgets to reply, and says nothing. 

At the non-bender’s silence, Johnny presses down even harder with the weapon in his hand. If Jake were to gulp, he’s sure it’d draw blood. His other arm is on Jake’s chest, pinning him down, and crushing his lungs. He struggles to take a breath. 

“I said, what do you know about him?”

The better question, Jake thinks, is what doesn’t he know about Heeseung? Apparently, he does not know why an angry, teenage boy would be holding Jake at knife-point in a dark alleyway at the mere mention of his name. 

“Answer me, before I slit your throat.”

The threat falls on deaf ears, as Jake cycles through all the possible scenarios in which Heeseung could have gotten himself into this kind of trouble. Suddenly, Jake’s head is knocked back onto the cement wall behind him, and spots momentarily overtake his field of vision.

“How do you know Lee Heeseung?” The blonde repeats, voice hard. 

Jake blinks, and looks into the familiar, cat-like eyes of his favourite waiter, who, probably, isn’t really all that much of a waiter, afterall.

As the non-bender takes in the tense snarl of Johnny’s lips, and the familiarity with which he wields his knife, only one question comes to Jake’s mind. Wide-eyed and incredulous, all he can say is:

“Who the hell are you?”

To Jake, Ba Sing Se has always been more than just a city. It is a symbol of all the things he and Heeseung could never have.

It is something they used to talk about under the stars—Visiting the earth nation’s capital someplace far away. Now though, it seems like that dream has been put on pause, along with all of the other things Jake and Heeseung used to talk about doing together. 

“There are zoos there that we could take Riki to. Massive ones, with every animal in the world. You know he’s always wanted to see a tiger-bear in real life,” Heeseung says to Jake one time, eyes shining as he looks at the sky. “There are shows, too. Huge productions with hundreds of performers, not like anything we have on Kiyoshi.”

“Riki would love that,” Jake replies, and he is smiling widely against his own will in response to Heeseung's excitement. 

His lips curl into something teasing as his next words leave his mouth. “Though, I don’t think that he’d be the only one.”

Heeseung turns and gives him a sheepish smile at being caught. 

“Guilty,” he shrugs, and Jake laughs. 

“But still, we should go one day. Together,” Heeseung insists once Jake’s laughter has quieted down, and Jake feels himself being dragged along by his magnetism. He tilts his head to the side, and lets the thought bounce around for a second in his skull. 

“After the war is over, maybe. Or when Riki is older,” Jake eventually concedes, giving Heeseung a small smile. Both feel like they are a lifetime away.

Heeseung nods, and they move onto another subject. 

Now, the war is neither over, nor is Riki any older, but Jake and Riki have left for Ba Sing Se nonetheless. It is the safest city in the entirety of the earth kingdom, and Jake just wants what’s left of his family to be protected. 

It takes them two weeks to get there, and there are some things Jake notices along the way that worry him. 

Sometimes, when Riki wakes up in the morning, he forgets that they are no longer in Kiyoshi, and he asks Jake when Heeseung will be back. Sometimes, Jake forgets, too, and almost tells him that it must be soon, before he catches himself.

Other times, they will both be all too aware of Heeseung’s absence, and it is like a dark cloud hanging over their heads as they move. On those days, Riki will get tired more easily, and he will insist that Jake carry him so that he can press his ear up against Jake’s chest, and listen to the beat of his heart to remind himself that he is there.

Something else that worries Jake, though he isn’t sure yet to what extent: Riki has not used his bending once since the night Kiyoshi burned to the ground. 

For a while, Jake and Riki are able to hear snippets of the avatar’s journey, their progress to the North Pole, from the people they pass. It is reassuring to know that it doesn’t seem as though any of them have been hurt like that night Sunghoon and Sunoo crash-landed on Kiyoshi Island, and that they seem to be doing well. 

At one point, they run into a cabbage vendor, who tells them that the red-haired earthbender with whom the avatar was travelling had paid for him to get a new truck after his previous one had suffered as collateral as fire nation soldiers chased the avatar and his friends through his village’s square. 

He’d called Heeseung ‘a very charming young man, though he could stand to carry a little less weight on his shoulders,’ and it’d made Riki laugh when Jake recounted the vendor’s words to him later that night. 

Still, it makes Jake feel strange, somewhere in the pit of his heart, to hear so much about Heeseung from someone else’s mouth. 

The last thing Jake hears before they enter the rigid walls of Ba Sing Se, where the papers talk less about the avatar’s efforts in stopping the war, and more about what brand of clothing the king now prefers to wear, is that the trio has successfully made it to the North Pole, just as Sunoo had promised they would. 

Thirty minutes after being accosted in the alleyway, Jake is sitting in front of the crown prince of the fire nation and his personal aide, and wondering how in the world the decisions he’s made in life have led him here.

Here being the two’s shared apartment, in which they have graciously allowed Jake to sit across from them at the kitchen table. From what little of the place has seen, it is nicely decorated, though the home decor of the man who pressed a knife to his throat is not exactly Jake’s biggest concern. 

Apparently, who Jake had thought were Johnny and Buhner are actually Jungwon and Jay. His two favourite waiters have turned out to be fire nation royalty—and the closest thing to it—in disguise. 

In the next 30 seconds, Jake learns many things about the two teenage boys in front of him. First, he learns that they are grossly overqualified for their position as minimum wage-earning teaboys, that their favourites are Jasmine and Green tea, respectively, and they have known each other for 13 years. 

Jay is a bending prodigy the likes of which the royal family has never seen who apparently breathed fire upon exiting the womb, and Jungwon has been training as an assassin and to be Jay’s personal protector since he was 3. Jake also learns that Jay likes to cook, and that Jungwon’s favourite pastime is knitting, when they have the time. 

It is, in all, a lot to take in. In fact, Jake is still processing these facts, when the son of the firelord himself decides to speak. 

“Sorry about Jungwon,” Jay says with a little sheepish smile like he has not just rocked Jake’s entire worldview in the last half an hour. “He’s a little trigger-happy when it comes to his knives.”

The blonde lets out a scoff from his seat beside him. “I was trying to protect you. Thank you for letting me know that the next time you’re in danger, I should just let it be, Your Highness.” 

The knife-wielder’s icy tone makes both Jake and Jay wince. Jungwon’s arms are crossed against his chest, and he is glaring at Jay something fierce. The firebender reaches up to sheepishly rub at the back of his neck with his hand. 

“You only ever call me that when you’re mad,” the fire nation prince states, looking at Jungwon who refuses to look back. Instead, the blonde is picking at his nails with one of his knives. 

“Don’t make me mad, then, if you have a problem with it,” is all the knife-wielder has to offer him in response. 

Jay sighs, and it is a sound that comes from somewhere deep in the pit of his chest. When the blonde doesn’t react, he reaches over to poke him in the cheek. 

“Wonie, come on.” 

For his efforts, Jungwon rewards him with a single twitch of the eye in acknowledgement, and nothing else. The silence that follows borders on painful, and it makes Jake wonder a many number of things. 

First, how the two in front of him have known each other for so long, and not yet murdered each other is nothing short of a miracle. 

Second, why the fire nation prince and his personal aide are masquerading as teaboys in Ba Sing Se instead of being, well, in the fire nation, is another one of Jake’s concerns. 

Finally, Jake is very scared to know why they want to find Heeseung so badly, they were willing to kill Jake for his silence. 

The first two questions are answered fairly quickly. Jungwon and Jay both live to see another day, because clearly, they are in love with each other—Afterall, Jake would know. He is the expert on being in love with your childhood friend. For all their bickering, there is a softness to their gazes that can’t be anything other than love. 

As for why they are in Ba Sing Se, well, that is a bit of a longer story, one which Jay is more than happy to explain to Jake once he asks. Apparently, the two had fled the fire nation about 4 months back, almost one month exactly before Jake and Riki had arrived. 

Fed up with the atrocities his father and his nation had been committing against the rest of the world, Jay had decided to flee and fight back—Undo some of the harm they’d inflicted. Originally, he’d told no one, scared of being imprisoned for treason. But really, Jay should have known better. 

There wasn’t a single thing about Jay that he could hide from Jungwon for any long.

Inevitably, his aide had found out. Except, rather than turn Jay in, like he’d expected, Jungwon had told him he was going with him. If Jay tried to stop him, he’d said, then he’d turn them both in, and they could rot in the prison cells together beneath the fire nation palace for the rest of their lives. 

Romantic, Jake thinks with a grimace. 

They’d been on the run ever since. As far as they know, Jay’s father still hasn’t said anything about his eldest son’s disappearance. The firelord’s motivations for doing such a thing, they can only guess at.

Jay thinks it is because he doesn’t want to waste the firepower it’d take to bring him in, and he’s still hoping that eventually his son will come back. Jungwon stays silent, but looks like he has a lot of thoughts on the topic of his own. 

Either way, Jake knows a thing or two about being on the run, and there is nothing to complain about when it comes to a lack of pursuers, no matter the reason as to why. 

“Along the way, we started to hear rumours of the avatar crash-landing onto Kiyoshi island,” Jay says, and he has a spark in his eyes as he does so, smile wide. “Can you believe that? After 100 years of absence, it turns out that he’s actually alive.”

His tone has taken on a fairy-tale-like quality, as though he is talking about the thing of myths and legends. He is speaking slowly and carefully, and he uses his hands, gesturing widely so as to capture the grandiosity of the things he is saying. 

Had he been delivering his story to a different audience, he would have had them hanging onto his every word. 

To Jake, however, the mythical avatar is just Sunghoon, and Kiyoshi Island is just his home. 

“They say he’s travelling with two companions,” Jungwon cuts in, voice sounding a lot more detached from the whole subject than Jay’s had been. Objective and clinical. “A waterbender named Kim Sunoo, and an earthbender: Lee Heeseung.” 

At the delivery of Heeseung’s name, Jungwon pauses. He looks at Jake with an eyebrow raised in question, though Jake gets the sense that he isn’t really asking him anything that he doesn’t already know. 

“I assume you know him?” 

Jake blinks once, caught off guard at being so directly addressed. No one has ever asked him whether or not he knows Heeseung before. It has always been obvious to anyone with eyes that they were a pair. 

Well, not anymore, he supposes, and that realization does something funny to his heart.

“I’ve known Heeseung since we were 12,” Jake replies after a second, because it is the only thing he can think to say. The words get stuck to the roof of his mouth. He still feels as though he is in something close to shock. 

“You’d be the only one in this entire city, then,” Jungwon says, eyes narrowed. For some reason, he still looks slightly suspicious of Jake, to which the non-bender can’t help but feel a little offended.

“Nobody here knows anything about the war,” Jay adds onto his aide’s words, air much more casual than Jungwon’s. He gestures lazily to the blonde next time. “That’s why Wonie got so scared when you mentioned Heeseung’s name. He thought you might be an enemy.”

“It wasn’t about being scared,” Jungwon interrupts, rolling his eyes. “I was doing my job to ensure that you were safe. Something you always seem to neglect to do.”

At his aide’s words, Jay’s eyebrow twitches up in annoyance, and he goes to open his mouth.

Sensing another oncoming argument, Jake quickly jumps in, trying to diffuse the situation before it can escalate any further. They only have so much time, and he’d rather not waste it on the verbal equivalent of pulling pigtails on the school playground.

“So why Ba Sing Se, then, if you were trying to fight back against your father? There isn’t anything to do here. It’s like you said, these people barely know about the war to begin with.”

At Jake’s words, the fire nation prince turns and gives him a confident smirk. On someone else it would have been less than charming, but there was a certain charisma to the firebender that made it work—Miraculously. 

“Tell me, Jake. What better way is there to fight against my father than by personally helping the avatar defeat him?” is what Jay replies. 

It takes a second for the words to click in Jake’s head. Once he gets it, however, he can’t help but want to let out a sigh. Suddenly, it feels like he is having deja vu.

“You want to teach him how to firebend,” Jake surmises, and he fails to completely hide the strange feelings the words stir inside of him. 

Jungwon gives him a funny look, but the prince doesn’t quite seem to catch it.

“Well, he needs to learn, doesn’t he? And not to brag, but I’m the strongest firebender the royal family has ever seen,” Jay says, and although the first half of his words is phrased like a question, there is not a single person sitting at the table that doesn't already know the answer. 

“If you ask me,” Jay continues, and the tone of his voice is suddenly a lot more serious. His expression, too. “I think it’s about time the fire nation repents for what it’s done to the world. I can’t control what my family does, but this much, at least, I can do.”

The sudden change in the room’s atmosphere catches Jake off-guard, and it is a reminder that the firebender in front of him is much more complex than the arrogant persona he is trying to portray. This is a man who has been raised in fire nation politics, and has learned to mask his behaviour accordingly. 

In that moment, Jake feels as though he is looking at Jay through a shower of rain, and his face is being distorted by the droplets. There is an overwhelming need to help the avatar save the world burning in his eyes, as though he is being tugged along by the fated strings of something larger than himself.

For a second, Jake swears that he sees Heeseung’s face reflected back at him through the rain. Then, the water shifts, and the illusion is gone.

The air becomes a lot more somber, and Jake struggles at what to say. Taking pity, Jungwon lets out a small sigh, and picks up the conversation. 

“We got a lead saying that the avatar was coming to Ba Sing Se. That’s why we’re here,” he explains, and Jake nods, though it is more reflex than actual understanding. “We haven’t heard anything else about him since, but it’s still the best chance we have at finding him.”

“Sunghoon is coming here?” Jake says, and the words seem to leave his mouth before he is even aware.

“Yeah,” Jay replies, scratching the back of his head. “I mean, as far as we know.”

Jake tilts his head in confusion. His brain isn’t allowing him to process what those words actually mean and who exactly they threaten to bring with them. He’s already dealt with enough disappointment in the past 24 hours, and he isn’t going to get his hopes up again for nothing.

“What reason could he possibly have for doing that?” The non-bender asks, words getting clogged in the back of his throat. 

Jay shrugs, seemingly unbothered. Jake, on the other hand, currently feels extremely bothered, and is trying very hard not to let it show. By the calculating gaze Jungwon gives to his fidgeting hands, he’s not sure how well he does.

“Not sure, but it can’t be for anything good,” the firebender replies, and the words have the effect of dousing the room back under its slightly oppressive atmosphere. 

The thought of seeing Heeseung again is like a physical weight on Jake’s chest, threatening to crush his lungs. The longer he thinks about it, the heavier the weight feels, and he’s worried if they keep talking about it, he is going to stop being able to breathe entirely. 

Jungwon clears his throat.

“Whatever his reasons may be,” the knife-wielder cuts in, eyes darting to the prince at his side. “It works in our favour to have him come here. Personally, I don’t see any point in speculating as to the why until then.”

Though Jake does not entirely agree, he equally wants to move on from all discussion of Sunghoon and the rest of team avatar coming to Ba Sing Se as soon as possible. It is stirring an uncomfortable mix of emotions within him, of which he’d rather not confront right at that moment. 

He nods in agreement at Jungwon’s words, and hopes that it will put a rest to that specific train of conversation, at least for now.

Jay claps his hands once, and it alleviates some of the tension in the room. He turns to Jake and smiles.

“Well, now that you’ve learned all about us, isn’t it your turn?”

“Huh?” The non-bender replies, confused.

Jay only smiles wider, and it is a dangerous thing. All of a sudden, Jake feels like he is on the opposite end of an interrogation. If he weren’t so sure that nothing was going to happen to him, he would have begun to sweat under the pressure. 

“Tell us about why you call the avatar by his first name,” the prince elaborates, as though it should be obvious that that is what he was asking. “And also how exactly you know his earthbending teacher.”

Both Jay and Jungwon are staring at Jake expectantly, and he knows that he is going to have to tell them almost everything. He thinks of the last time he’d seen Heeseung, and all the pain that it caused him. 

Jake takes a deep breath, and starts from the beginning.

It must be the fifth night since Jake and Riki left what remains of Kiyoshi Island behind them when Jake wakes up to fire. 

They are staying in a cheap inn by the side of the road, except, not in any of the rooms. They are in the barn out back, away from the rest of the guests. It isn’t glamorous, but it is a roof over their heads, which is more than what Jake had been expecting in exchange for a payment of exactly zero coins.

The innkeeper had taken one look at Riki and Jake’s fire-singed clothes and dirt-covered cheeks, and given them a key. Jake had offered to pay her with the promise of free labour, to which the innkeeper had accepted with a single nod. 

There was a boulder out back, she told them, and it’d been there for generations now. Sometimes, nearby village children would climb it while they played, but it was taking up valuable space that could be better used to expand the inn. 

The innkeeper had asked if either of them were earthbenders, and if so, whether or not they’d be able to move it for her. Jake clutched at Riki’s hand and shook his head in reply. 

“Neither of us can bend,” is what he’d told her, face blank, trying to ignore the way Riki’s grip tightened in his.

The innkeeper had eyed the way Riki fidgeted nervously beside him, but said nothing, for which Jake was grateful.

“That’s alright,” she’d replied instead, smile kind. “An earthbender will come along for me someday. For now, I suppose the children will be happy to know that the rock is still there for them to play.”

And so, rather than move the rock, Jake had been sent to help in the inn’s kitchen, while Riki cleaned floors with a bucket and mop. 

That night, after hours of working away, the pair had retired to the barn and been met with a fresh set of clothes carefully laid out and folded against two beds made of straw. 

Jake helps Riki slip into his new shirt and shorts, and they were only slightly too long on the arms and also everything else. They make him look even younger than he already is, and it makes Jake’s smile tighten from where it rests on his face.

Exhausted from the day’s work, both of them had fallen asleep as soon as their heads hit the ground.

When he wakes, Jake is sure that he is still trapped in a nightmare—-Of the night he and Heeseung first met, of the night he and Heeseung had to part—-but then the smell of smoke reaches his nose, and the light of the flames crosses his eyes, and he realizes that this is real. 

Immediately, he springs up and looks to where Riki is sleeping beside him to make sure that he is safe. Except, it soon becomes clear that the source of the fire is none other than the younger boy himself. 

Riki is huddled in the corner of the barn, clutching his right hand in his left, and staring at the flames slowly crawling up his arm like they have sentenced him to death. Jake can see the fear illuminated in his eyes by his own fire, and quickly gets up to help. In the darkness of the night, it is all that Jake can see. 

When Riki notices Jake’s approach, his eyes widen and he immediately starts to vigorously shake his head. It makes the non-bender stop in his steps. 

“Don’t come closer!” Riki yells, and coming from his brother, who is usually so quiet, the words are deafening. His voice wobbles as he gets out his next words. “I don’t—I can’t control it. I was just trying to make a light to see, but then—It didn’t work. I just want the fire to go away. But I don’t know how to make it leave.”

Jake can see the panic swelling on his brother’s face. The flames only grow brighter as Riki’s distress grows, and for the first time in his life, Jake does not know how to comfort his little brother.

“Riki, it’s okay. Breathe with me, please. You’re okay,” he says, and there is nothing he wants to do more right now than bring his brother into his arms, but he can’t. He takes a step forward, and Riki’s fire only burns brighter in response.

Riki’s eyes are wide with distress, and there are tears threatening to spill over as the fire continues to crawl up his arm. 

“I want Heeseung-hyung,” he says, and it is like a knife to Jake’s heart. 

Almost a week has passed since the night Kiyoshi burned to the ground, and yet it feels like nothing has really changed. He feels like they are back in their old home, and Riki has just traded a fire nation soldier’s life for Jake’s. 

“Riki, he’s not here. Let me help you,” Jake pleads, and it feels like they are reciting lines from a script they’ve already performed.

Riki shakes his head, and for a second his eyes flash with something angry. 

“You can’t help me, Jake-hyung,” his brother says, and this is something new. A line Jake has not prepared for. “You’re not like me.”

The unsaid ‘but Heeseung is’ threatens to bowl Jake over. 

His little brother has always reminded Jake so much of Heeseung. That is something Jake has always loved, but right now, he is not sure how it makes him feel. 

Something uncomfortable is stirring in the center of his chest: the realization that there is a part of both Heeseung and Riki that Jake will never be able to understand, the feeling of an element’s power breathing life under your skin.

Jake is not a bender, and he does not know what to say to get Riki to reel his flames in. 

“Riki—” Jake starts, unsure of where the rest of his sentence is going, but before he can say anything more, Riki loses control of his fire, and Jake barely has enough time to raise a hand over his eyes, before the overwhelming sensation of pain explodes along the length of his arm. 

Jake bites his lip hard enough to draw blood to avoid screaming out in pain, but it does nothing to mask the sound his knees make as they hit the ground. He can already feel the blisters beginning to form, but the only thing on his mind is making sure that Riki does not feel guilty for hurting him. 

He clutches at his hand, and hunches over to focus on something else other than the pain.

“Jake-hyung?” A small voice calls out, and it is shaky and scared in a way Jake has not heard in a long time. 

Jake squeezes both of his eyes shut as he presses his forehead against the ground, because he does not want Riki to see him cry. He takes a deep breath to regain control, before he sits back up and cracks them open. 

Riki is looking at him with terrified eyes, but his flames have fizzled out. The barn is dark once again, and the only light is that of the moon’s coming in through a crack in the roof. Jake allows himself to breathe, because Riki does not look harmed. 

“It’s okay, Riki. I’m alright,” Jake reassures him, forcing himself to smile. He clutches his arm in his hand, and is grateful that the extent of the damage is hidden in the dark. “You did good, baby. You stopped the flames.”

He holds his arms open, though it is slightly shaky, and Riki is immediately flinging himself into their hold. 

“I’m sorry,” Riki sobs, and Jake can only run his fingers through his hair in response. If he talks right now, he is sure his brother will be able to hear the hurt in his voice, and that is the very last thing he wants to do. 

A couple of seconds pass as Riki sniffles into his chest, before he is able to force out a strained, “It’s alright. I’m not mad at you, Riki.”

“I hate being a firebender,” his brother says into the crook of Jake’s neck, and the venom in his voice is enough to make Jake peer down at him in concern. He is shaking in Jake’s arms as he clutches at the front of his shirt. “I don’t want to keep hurting people. I wish I was your real brother so I could be like you or Heeseung-hyung. I never want to firebend again. I just want everything to be normal like before.” 

He pauses, taking shallow breaths to steady the rhythm of his rising and falling chest. 

“You are my real brother, Riki. Of course you are,” Jake tells him, face pinched into something pained. He runs a hand up and down his back, and resists the urge to squeeze him hard enough to hurt. Riki does not respond right away, just continues to breathe shakily into Jake’s neck. 

When Riki speaks again, this time, his voice comes out much softer than before, and Jake has to strain his ears to hear what he says.

“I just want Heeseung-hyung to come back,” his brother whispers, voice breaking, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about.

“Me too, Riki. Me too,” Jake replies, shutting his eyes. He tries to change his tone into something more optimistic. “But he has to help Sunghoon save the world first, before he can.” 

The words sound hollow even to Jake’s own ears, but he knows that they are something he has to say, because anything else will be a betrayal to the sacrifices Heeseung has made for them.

Not for the first time, Jake feels a sting of resentment towards the avatar for choosing to land in Kiyoshi that day. A stroke of luck turned into something else, but had they never met, none of this would have ever happened.

Except, a second passes, and then images flash through Jake’s mind: Sunghoon’s gentle hold on Sunoo’s waist as they’d hugged, the way he’d told Jake that he thought he was brave, the calm acceptance with which he’d talked about what it meant to have to save the world. Slowly, he feels the anger melt away.

We all have our battles, Sunghoon had said. This just so happens to be mine. 

“I don’t care about the avatar,” Riki says, and Jake does not know what to say to him in return. “Why does it have to be Heeseung-hyung? Why can’t it be someone else?” 

Words like destiny and fate float through Jake’s mind, but between the two of them, it is Heeseung who has always been the bigger believer. In the end, Jake says nothing, because he knows anything he says will sound like a lie. 

He drops a kiss to the crown of Riki’s head, and keeps his mouth shut. As Jake holds his little brother tight in his arms, all he can think is: 

Heeseung, I really wish you were here right now to help me.

Of course, his call falls on deaf ears, and Heeseung does not magically appear to save them. The only response is the howl of an empty wind, and the quiet pulse of Jake’s heart under his skin. 

When Jake and Riki wake up the next morning, there are still only two straw beds laid out beside each other instead of three, and the boulder behind the inn remains unmoved. 

“So, Riki’s a firebender, huh?” Jay says, finger tapping at his chin in thought. 

The two of them are back at Chaconne Tea, except this time, instead of serving Jake his order and then leaving, the firebending prince has elected to plop himself down in the seat across from Jake without asking. 

From the scheming glint in Jay’s eyes as he’d done just that, Jake had known better than to protest.

The shop is largely empty, with only half an hour until close. They are the only two sitting at any of the tables. It’s been about a week since Jake had learned about their secret, and them his, in return. 

Jungwon is standing behind the counter a couple of paces away cleaning some of the tea sets with a cloth. Riki is on a stool next to him—Helping, supposedly. Though, if you were to ask Jake, he’d say that his little brother is less drying dishes as he is chatting Jungwon’s ear off about something completely unrelated.

Shockingly, Riki has really taken a liking to the knife-wielder in the short time since they’ve properly met. Maybe it is because he is two years younger than Jake, and therefore only 9 years older than Riki instead of 11.

Or, it might be because rather than treat him like he does not exist, Jungwon, personal aide to the crown prince of the fire nation, had asked Riki if he wanted to help him, and Riki had liked the feeling of being seen.  

In the kitchen, Jungwon reaches across the sink to flick some water onto Riki’s face, and the young firebender shrieks in response. Jungwon laughs, and it makes him look younger than the knives strapped to the underside of his belt would imply. Riki clumsily sends some water back in the older boy’s direction, and pouts when Jungwon does little to react in turn.

After a second, the knife-wielder says something to the younger boy, and Riki lets out a small giggle, annoyance washed away with the soap covering their hands. 

They are too far for the two 18 year olds to hear, but Jake watches the scene unfold in silence. It makes him happy to see Riki smile, especially after—Well, everything. It also makes his heart ache when he thinks about why such a sight has become so rare lately. 

After a second, he turns his head back to face Jay.

“Yeah, he is,” Jake replies to the firebender’s question, slightly guarded in the way that he always is when it comes to Riki. “Why do you ask?” 

Jay grins at his response. He leans back in his chair, relaxed, and then shrugs. 

“No particular reason, I guess. It’s just—Has he tried bending since you guys left Kiyoshi?” 

The fire nation prince is working hard to project an air of nonchalance, but Jake’s eyebrows draw together as he tries to piece together the potential motives the firebender would have for bringing Riki’s bending up. 

He feels like he is taking a test that he hasn’t studied for.

In the end, Jake can’t think of any reasons not to tell Jay the truth, and as much as it pains him to admit, he does somewhat trust the other man. He doesn’t believe that he would do anything to hurt them. Still, he omits some details. Jay does not need to know about that night in the barn.

“No, he hasn’t,” Jake replies. 

Jay glances once to where Jungwon and Riki are playing, before his eyes shift back to Jake. Once he does, it shocks Jake to see that his expression is serious, and the weight of it makes the non-bender want to sit up straighter in his seat. 

“Let me help him.”

“What?” Jake blinks in confusion, tilting his head. 

Jay leans back and gestures to himself—Confident. “You’re sitting across from someone who’s been firebending for as long as he’s been alive. I can teach him how to use his fire.”

Jake lets out a small, uncomfortable laugh. 

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” he says, avoiding the firebender’s gaze. He busies himself with turning his empty teacup around in his hands, and hopes that he doesn’t look as uneasy as he feels. 

Jay’s eyes follow Jake as he fidgets in his seat. 

“Why not?” The firebender asks after a second of letting Jake think that he has gotten away with it. He sounds genuinely curious, and it makes Jake’s eye want to twitch. 

“Doesn’t it feel like it’s a bit too soon for that?” Jake replies, placing the cup back down onto the table. It hits the surface with a loud ‘thunk’, and in the silence of the rest of the tearoom, it sounds a lot angrier than it is. 

Jay’s eyes never once leave Jake’s face. 

“It’s only been four months since Kiyoshi Island was burned to the ground for saving the 18 year old avatar’s life,” the non-bender says. His voice is detached like he is talking about someone else. “In that time, Heeseung left to go help him, and me and Riki started a new life in Ba Sing Se. For a while, I thought things were okay. Then, you showed up, and everything changed for a second time.” 

An incredulous laugh forces it way out of Jake’s throat, and it borders on something painful. 

“Right now, I am sitting across from the crown prince of the fire nation in a teashop while Riki dries dishes with his personal aide in the kitchen. Do you understand how insane that sounds?”

For a moment, Jake pauses, lightly dragging his thumb across the surface of his cup. He can feel Jay’s eyes watching him as he does.

“There’s been so much change recently. I’m tired of it. Why rush towards more? He’s seven, Jay. The last time he used his bending, he killed someone. He doesn’t want to firebend. He’s—scared of it.”

At the end of his speech, Jake lowers his head and stares at the table. If he looks at the firebender right now, he is going to say something that he is going to regret. There is a sense of anger boiling in the pit of his stomach, and he doesn’t want to take it out on Jay, because it is a feeling larger than the 18 year old boy sitting in front of him. 

Jake is angry at a lot of things. He is angry at the fire nation for taking away his home. He is angry at the world for making Riki grow up too soon. He is angry at Jungwon and Jay for reminding him that no matter how many walls he hides behind, there is still a war raging on outside of them. 

More than anything, even though he wishes he wasn’t, Jake is angry at Heeseung for leaving him at exactly the point in time where Jake needed him the most. 

Jake stares at the wood of the table, and traces its patterns with his eyes. He steadies the rhythm of his chest from where it’d been getting dangerously close to beating something erratic, and feels the heat of his cheeks retreat back to the warmth of his insides. 

“You know, Jake,” the firebender starts off slowly, and it makes the non-bender look back up to see him. “I don’t think that Riki is the only one who’s scared.

Jake furrows his brows. He does not understand what the fire nation prince is saying. 

“What do you mean?”

Jay stares at him, face blank, but with serious eyes. Jake feels like the composition of his soul is being weighted and judged against something outside of his field of vision.

Another second passes by while the firebender just continues to look. There is the smallest of furrows near the base of his brow, and it is like a crack in an otherwise pristine mask. 

“Can I be honest with you for a second?” The firebending prince asks, and it sounds like the words come from a place buried deep inside him. Jay is used to the politics of the royal court; he is not used to being honest.

Jake nods. 

“I think that somewhere deep down, you blame bending for taking Heeseung away from you,” the firebender starts, and already, Jake wants him to stop. The non-bender goes to say something, except his tongue feels like it is stuck to the roof of his mouth. Jay continues. 

“‘If he hadn’t been an earthbender, he would have stayed,’” Jay says, and it is like he has ripped the words directly from a part of Jake’s mind he didn’t even know existed. 

He tilts his head to peer at Jake. “That’s not a crazy thing to think, you know. And you’re worried now that the same thing will happen to Riki. That if you let me teach him, there will be a part of him that you will never be able to reach.”

Jay pauses to take a sip of his drink, and Jake feels like he is a spectator to his own conversation. No words are leaving his mouth. He can only sit there in silence as Jay drinks his tea and strips him down to his bones. 

Jay puts his cup back down. He is looking at Jake like there is a book he has just understood, and now wants Jake to understand, too.

“But bending isn’t what made Heeseung leave, Jake. He left to protect you—You and Riki.”

“He left to help Sunghoon protect the world,” Jake corrects, and the words are mechanical and familiar, a collection of letters he has written to himself before. They are out of his mouth on reflex before Jay’s words can even properly seep into his skull. 

“And who do you think are the people who make up Heeseung’s world?” Jay asks, and he says it like it is an argument he has already won. He laughs. “It certainly isn’t me and Jungwon.”

Jake pauses, and lets his words sink in. All of a sudden, he misses Heeseung so much that it hurts, and it is like a physical ache cutting through his chest. He sits up a little straighter to try and get rid of the feeling. It doesn’t work. 

Jay’s words are a reminder of something that Jake always hates to think about. The fact that Heeseung has always loved Riki and Jake most of all, and that that, more than anything, is why he couldn’t stay. 

It makes it harder to be mad at him. And if Jake can’t be mad, then, what else is there for him to do?

“It’s still a lot for Riki,” Jake says after a second, trying to regain some semblance of control over the conversation. “The first time he used his bending he—hurt someone, badly.”

“The first time Riki used his bending he saved you,” Jay retorts, sound and sure. He looks Jake in the eye, and he has the gaze of a fire nation prince. “Don’t let him turn that feeling into something ugly—Something he feels like he needs to hide.”

Against his will, images of Jake’s 12 year old self flash through his mind, when he’d picked up a rock and killed a man before he could kill Heeseung, instead. He thinks of asking Heeseung whether or not he was a monster afterwards, and the older boy telling him that from then on, they were just them. 

Jake swallows, and buries the memory in his mind.

“Why do you care so much?” Jake asks, and it comes out a lot more accusatory than he’d intended. He almost wants to take it back, but he bites his tongue and doesn’t say anything more. 

Jay gives him a crooked grin, but it lacks any of the playfulness he’d had earlier. He looks tired in a way that is all too familiar, and it reminds Jake that he and Riki are not the only ones who have had to leave their home because of the war. 

“Because I know what it’s like to hate the blood flowing through your veins,” Jay starts off, and his voice is heavy with the weight of a history Jake does not know. “Because I’m here and I can help. Because my father is the reason any of this is happening in the first place, and this is the least that I can do to make up for that.”

“You’re not your father, Jay,” Jake says, and he wishes he could say more more, but the words do not come. “You aren’t responsible for fixing what he broke.”

Jay shrugs. He glances towards the kitchen once, where Jungwon is diligently scrubbing the dishes clean, and Riki continues to dry them in between bouts of chatter. Both he and Jake have people they want to protect.

Jake can not relate to the weight the fire nation prince has placed over his own shoulders. Jake has never been responsible for anything larger than his own family of three, but Jay is the heir to hundreds of pages of history, the most recent of which have been rendered illegible with blood.

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try.”

A silence overtakes the table as Jake struggles to come up with a response. 

In his entire life, Jake has only ever accepted help from one person. 

Except, that person is not here right now, and Jake wonders if it is about time he accepts that instead of pretending like he is. In the end, he says nothing—Only continues to stare, a thousand thoughts flowing through his mind. 

At Jake’s silence, Jay sighs. He tilts his head before giving him a meaningful look. 

“Just—Think about it, okay?” 

Jake nods, and it isn’t a proper answer, but for now, they pretend that it is. They drink the rest of their tea in silence. 

When it’s time to close, Jungwon brings Riki back to the seating area, and Jake’s younger brother jumps excitedly as he sees them at the table. 

He lets go of Jungwon’s hand and rushes to Jake’s side, bouncing up and down where he stands. He proudly tells him that he helped uncle Jungwon clean the dishes, and that Jungwon had given him two bronze coins as payment. 

Jay makes a show of exclaiming over the money and the now spotless dishes, and his animated excitement makes Riki giggle in delight. Jungwon says that Riki is a hard worker, but that he could stand to talk a little less when he is trying to get stuff done. It makes the seven year old pout, and Jungwon ruffles his hair teasingly in response. 

It is quite the sight: two of the most powerful people in the world, and they are indulging Jake’s little brother with the semblance of normalcy in the midst of war. 

Jungwon exchanges an amused glance with Jay over the young firebender’s head, and the crown prince is barely able to conceal a smile in response. It softens both of their faces. 

Jake watches in silence, and feels the absence of someone else’s presence so vividly at his side that it burns. 

He looks down at his brother’s smile and bright eyes, and desperately hopes that he is making the right choices to keep him safe. 

Dear Jake, 

I know this letter won’t ever reach you, but I couldn’t help myself. It feels too weird not to have you next to me to talk to, and I need to get these thoughts out somehow. 

We’re about to reach the North Pole, and I’m kind of excited, honestly. Sunghoon said it’d be less than three days, but I’m starting to realize that for all his “avatar-ness”, he’s a much bigger loser once you get to know him than you’d think. 

He likes to pretend that he’s got it all figured out, but I know that he’s just as clueless as the rest of us. It’ll probably be something closer to five days, once he realizes that the only way we’ll get there any faster is if we skip all of our meals for the next 48 hours. 

While he might be okay with punishing himself like that, I know Sunoo isn’t, and so, really, Sunghoon won’t be okay with it either. 

They’re still not together, by the way, in case you were wondering, and it’s starting to get pretty painful to watch. Even worse than on Kiyoshi, if you can even believe that.

The only difference is that you’re not here anymore to laugh at them with me, so instead I just avert my eyes, and pretend like I can’t see them whenever they’re acting disgustingly in love. Or, well, it might be too early for that. Disgustingly in like, let’s go with that instead. 

Sunghoon’s getting better at both water and earthbending. To be honest, it’s frankly unfair how easy it seems to come to him. Does he know how long it took me to learn how to move multiple rocks bigger than my entire body at the same time? Definitely longer than a week, I’ll tell you that. 

Maybe it’s just because he has such a good teacher, not to pat myself on the back. Or maybe it has something to do with the impending threat of what happens if he doesn’t. Or maybe it’s because he’s the avatar and that’s just what an avatar does. Who knows. 

He’s not the only one improving though. Sunoo’s working hard, too. It’s nice to see him becoming more confident in his bending. I just wish that confidence would also transfer over to the way he behaves around Sunghoon. 

For two people who hugged like they’d rather die than be apart, they sure do move pretty slowly when it comes to everything else. 

Though, I guess I’m the last person to talk when it comes to things like that.

How’s Riki doing, by the way?

We both know how hard it is to lose your home, and I hope that he’s taking it better than we did. Still, he has you, and out of the three of us, he’s always been the strongest, so I know that he’ll be fine. 

I hope that he doesn’t miss me too much, even though I miss him so much that it hurts. I wish I could have told him that myself before I left. I’ll be sure to bring him a souvenir from the North Pole so that he knows I was thinking of him. 

I miss both of you, really. Not a day goes by where I don’t.

It scares me to know that the next time I see him, he’ll be older. Will he look older? Will he be taller? Will his cheeks be thinner? I know he isn’t ours by blood, but I’ve always thought that he had your smile, just a little bit rounder. 

He shouldn’t be allowed to keep growing while I’m gone. I mean, who let that happen? It’s just not right. It feels like it was only yesterday we were 12 and 13, and he’d just said his first words. It makes me wish that we could go back to that time, where everything was big and scary, but at least we were together.

But really, that’s just my selfishness talking. It’d be unfair of me to ask that of him when I’m the one who left. More than anything, I want Riki to continue to grow and be happy—Even if I’m not there to see it happen. 

But I know you’ll make the right decisions, Jakey. You always do. Not just for me, but for Riki, too. It’s something that I’ve always admired about you, how you always seem to know exactly what to say. I just wish that you’d also make the right decisions for yourself, sometimes, too, even if you think that they make you selfish. 

Anyway, whatever you decide, I know that Riki is safe in your hands. It doesn’t hurt as much when I think about the two of you taking care of each other, but you’ll still have to tell me about all the parts of his life I missed while I was gone. 

One week after their conversation in the teashop, Jake and Jay are sitting on the steps of an abandoned building. Judging from the open layout, and multiple rooms, Jake thinks it must have been a kind of vacation house at some point in time. They are near the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, still within its walls, but in a part of the city where nobody likes to go.

Jungwon is somewhere in town, but the knife-wielder hadn’t bothered to tell Jake anything before he was gone. When Jake had asked Jay, in turn, the firebender had only shrugged, and said that if “Wonie didn’t tell you anything, then it’s not my place to tell you, either.”

It is a beautiful day. The sun is bright in the sky, but there are enough clouds that the heat is not overbearing. Jake leans back on both his palms, and tilts his head up, letting the breeze gently wash over him and cool him down. 

There is a cloud in the shape of a dog directly over his head.

If he strains his ears, he thinks he can hear the chirping of lemur-birds, but they are few and far between. Otherwise, the only noise is that of feet hitting the ground in front him. 

The quiet of the afternoon is interrupted by an excited call coming from the courtyard directly facing where the two 18 year olds are seated. 

“Jake-hyung, look at this!” His brother calls out excitedly, and Jake has barely enough time to turn his head back down, before Riki has fired off a beautiful controlled burst of flames in a straight line, directly in front of him. 

A burst of red, yellow, and orange. It is like the start of a rainbow, but better, because it has come from his brother's hands. 

Riki’s smile is wide and bright as he turns his head to Jake for approval, and it makes something clench in the non-bender’s heart. 

Heeseung doesn’t even know that Riki is a firebender.

Riki has one arm outstretched in front of him, while the other is raised so that it’s in line with his shoulder for balance. His legs are spread about a shoulder width’s worth of distance, and he looks strong and stable on his feet. 

Jay has only been training him for about four days, but already, Riki looks comfortable and content as he exercises a power he had, only days prior, been too afraid of to even try. 

If Jake squints, he swears he can see the red and black traditional wear of fire nation people draped over his brother’s tiny shoulders. 

In a way, it’s still strange for Jake to see the same bending that burned their home to the ground now flow out of Riki’s small and fragile hands, but Jay’s presence beside him also serves as a reminder that fire itself is not what caused the war. The selfishness and greed of people are what are responsible. 

Jake claps loudly and Riki preens under his praise.

“Wow! Good job, Riki,” he exclaims, genuinely impressed at how much progress his brother has made in such a short amount of time. Riki smiles toothily at him in response, puffing out his chest in pride.

“Yeah, nice work on the direction,” Jay comments next, giving Riki a small grin. “But make sure to bend your right leg a little more. It’ll help you better control the strength of the blast.”

“Okay, got it, Jay-nim,” Riki nods once, expression serious and it is adorable on his chubby cheeks and big eyes. He looks once second again from bowing at the waist in respect, but instead he turns around and gets back into position to practice the same maneuver over again. 

Jake watches him thoughtfully for a couple seconds more, before he turns to Jay, a questioning look on his face. He tilts his head. 

“How did you get him to bend?” He asks the firebender, genuinely curious, because had you asked Jake even a week ago, he would have thought it impossible. 

Rather than verbally reply, the firebender opens his palm, and a small flame burns at the center. It is small and bright. It almost feels friendly, like the embrace of an old friend welcoming you home. 

“I showed him that fire doesn’t always have to hurt,” Jay says after a second of letting the fire burn. He makes the flame jump from one finger to another, tracking it carefully with his eyes. “In the right hands, it becomes life.” 

Jake watches it flicker, its bright light casting a shadow on the firebender’s face. 

“At the end of the day, it just comes down to control,” Jay adds, and then a small smile breaks out across his face. “You know, it’s funny. That’s something Wonie taught me, actually, back when we were kids.”

After these words, which speak to a lifetime of memories of which Jake is not privy to, Jay extinguishes the flame and then stands up to go assist Riki with the exercises he’d assigned him. 

He dusts his palms off from where they’d been resting on the stone behind them. He looks back at Jake once, before he turns around to meet Riki where he stands. 

Jake watches him go, and then lifts his head to look back up at the sky. The clouds have drifted so that the dog-shaped one is gone, and it looks like a rabbit has now formed in its place.

It feels like everything around Jake is moving towards something. Meanwhile, he has been frozen in time ever since the night Heeseung disappeared into Kiyoshi’s forest with the avatar’s arms draped across his back. 

Jake is like a grandfather clock whose hands have stopped working, rusted and out of use, or forcibly stopped by someone else’s careful touch—Maybe his own. There is a horizontal hourglass in Jake’s chest in place of a heart, gravity holding the grains of sand in place. 

Jungwon is off doing—Who knows what, but he has travelled across the world by Jay’s side, the firebending prince who is running towards his own goal of helping the avatar undo the centuries of the harm his family has inflicted. 

Sunghoon and Sunoo are wrapped up in each other, with the waterbender learning mastery over his element after a lifetime spent isolated in the South Pole, and the airbender putting to rest a conflict that should have ended over 100 years ago. 

Even Riki is no longer shying away from the blood which flows through his veins, embracing change as the leaves of a tree embrace the different seasons. 

And then there is Heeseung, who, most of all, is following the path destiny has gently laid down for him at his feet. Even if that path has led him away from Jake.

In contrast, Jake cannot seem to find his own call. He does not know where he is going. He has never had to go anywhere alone, and it feels like there is a distinctly Heeseung shaped absence where the other half of his body should be. 

He is like a compass who has lost its magnetism, and, rather than spinning out of control, he has remained stagnant—Pointing nowhere and everywhere, all at once. 

Across the yard, Jay gently corrects Riki’s posture, showing him the proper form, and the younger firebender mimics him in turn. Riki punches forward, and a beautiful flame bursts out from his fist. 

Jay ruffles his hair, and Riki swats at the firebender’s hands as though he is annoyed, but he is grinning under the fringe of his bangs.

In another world, Jake is sure that it would have been Heeseung at Riki’s back, carefully guiding his hands into the same positions the red-haired man adopts when he goes to earthbend. 

If Jake closes his eyes, he can almost see it as clearly as the day, and it brings a small smile to his face. 

Riki has always reassembled Heeseung in all the ways that matter most, and he is sure that it would have been no different when it came to this. He can so vividly picture the earthbender training Riki to be his mini-me, commanding the power of an element of the earth. 

But, Jake thinks, as he slowly cracks open his eyes and returns to this world once again, maybe there is a reason that never came to be. 

Heeseung is not a firebender. Jay and Riki are. And maybe, at this specific point in this specific time, Heeseung is not who Riki needs to grow. 

Jake watches the ease with which Riki takes to the fire prince’s instruction, and feels the remnants of the other world wash away. He is sure: Riki would have never been satisfied learning to bend like he is made of earth instead of fire. 

Had they stayed in Kiyoshi, he would have spent his life pretending to be something he isn’t. Maybe he would have been okay with that, had he never known a life outside of Kiyoshi’s borders. 

But for better or for worse, Jake and Riki are in Ba Sing Se, and they are here in this abandoned summer house, and the son of the firelord is showing Riki what it means to be born from fire.  

Heeseung is not here, and finally, Jake thinks that he is learning how to be okay with that. 

As the chirps of the lemur-birds continue to fill the silence, the hands of the grandfather clock slowly start to tick forward in time. The hourglass flips over so that it no longer lays flat on its side, and the grains of sand start to trickle down its center. The lost compass finds its course, and turns to point true North, once again. 

The clouds part, revealing the shining sun, and Jake finally allows himself to breathe. 

Anyway, Jaeyun, all this to say, I hope you’re doing well, and that you don’t miss me too much. 

I know that I asked you to wait for me, but I hope that you didn’t take that to mean that you have to wait wait. Please keep learning and doing new things without me. Don’t hold back on my account. 

Hopefully, the next time I see you, Sunghoon will have saved the world for us, and I can finally give you that “real kiss” you were talking about. And then you can tell me everything that you’ve been up to since I’ve been gone. I know I sound pretty presumptuous bringing things like that up so casually, but it’s all I have to hold onto these days. 

I love you. Always. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you that more often. I was scared, but that feels like such a stupid excuse now. Still, there is nothing about you or our life together that I could ever regret. 

I hope that one day you’ll be able to forgive me, for everything. I know I’ve put you through a lot. I’m sorry.

Sunghoon’s telling us that we need to land soon to get more food (what did I tell you?), so I’ll have to continue this letter later. 

Don’t forget about me in the meantime, alright? I’ll be back before you know it, maybe even sooner than you think. 

See you, Jaeyun, and I hope that wherever you are right now, you’re learning to let go.

That night, when Jungwon returns to the comfort of his apartment, Jake is waiting there for him. Jay had let him in earlier, when the non-bender had expressed wanting to talk to the knife-wielder about something in private.

As a result, the firebender is staying with Riki at Jake’s, entertaining him while Jake is gone. It is the first time Jake has trusted anyone with his brother since Beomgyu, and even then, it was more out of necessity than it was anything else.  

It means something, that he is trusting Jay with him now.

The knife-wielder does not react when he lights a candle, and Jake is sitting there silently on his couch. He doesn’t even jump, and it gives Jake the impression that Jungwon had been the one waiting for Jake, instead of the other way around. 

It is too dark to tell, but Jake thinks he can see a splatter of blood across the younger boy’s cheek. He pockets something into the leg of his pants, and shrugs off the mask he’d been wearing over half of his face. 

“What were you doing?” Jake asks him. It is not much for a greeting, but Jake does not think that the knife-wielder is one to appreciate beating around the bush, anyway. 

“Some recon, I guess you could say. About the Dai Lee, or whatever. It didn’t go very well,” Jungwon replies, toeing off his shoes in the entryway. He gives Jake a sardonic smile. “This is the longest I’ve ever gone without an assassination attempt on Jay-hyung’s life, you know. I’m not really sure what to do with myself in the absence.”

He is limping slightly as he makes his way further into the room, but his steps are no less graceful than usual. Jake can sense that he does not have anything more to say on the subject, so he does not press.

Jungwon plops himself down onto one of the kitchen stools, and props his chin in his hand. He stares at Jake expectantly, as though he is waiting for him to get on with what he has to say. Except, all the action does is draw attention to the blood oozing down the length of his arm, and a lifetime of Jake’s protective older brother instincts start to go off.

“Are you alright?” Jake asks, concern growing at the base of his brow as he takes Jungwon’s appearance in. 

The knife-wielder shrugs, but his expression transforms into a wince as he pulls on something he probably shouldn’t have. Immediately, Jake is on his feet, walking towards him. 

“Where do you keep your first aid kit?” He asks him, and Jungwon mumbles out that they keep it in the bathroom. Jake turns on his heels to go get it.

When Jake returns to the kitchen island, Jungwon is rolling up the fabric of his sleeves, and a myriad of fresh cuts greet them in return. Wordlessly, Jake pulls out the roll of bandages and alcohol to disinfect them down. 

Sitting in front of him now, as Jake takes his arm in his, Jungwon looks extremely young. Much too young, anyway, to be littered in a constellation of scars, both new and old. As Jake studies the length of his forearm, he sees some that look as though they were carved into his skin over a decade ago.

“This might sting,” Jake warns him, and Jungwon only puffs out his cheeks in reply. Strangely, it reminds Jake a lot of Riki after he’s scrapped a knee, and he feels a strange sense of protection over the younger boy. 

Afterall, before Jake had found out his true identity, he’d always considered “Johnny, the waiter” a friend. 

“You know, I used to do this for Heeseung a lot, back when we were younger and on the run,” Jake offers, concentrating on getting each one of Jungwon’s wounds. The knife-wielder stares at him unblinking, and Jake cracks a small smile. “He would complain a lot more than you are now, though.”

“Funny,” Jungwon replies, though his voice sounds like it is coming from some far off place. “Jay-hyung used to do the same for me. He’d always apologize as he was wrapping my arm in bandages, as if it wasn’t my job to make sure that the hits landed on me, rather than on him.”

“He probably didn’t like to see you hurt,” Jake replies, voice soft. 

He thinks of his own complicated feelings as he would nurse Heeseung back to health. Torn between gratitude and anger at the older boy’s disregard for his own safety. He is halfway done with Jungwon's right arm, and the movements are as familiar to him as breathing. 

“It’s my job,” Jungwon repeats, and the words sound practiced in his mouth. He shrugs and avoids Jake’s eyes. The non-bender has just finished wrapping his right arm. 

“It isn’t anymore,” Jake gently reminds him as he goes to pick up a new bandage and get started on the assassin’s left. “I think that nothing would hurt Jay more than seeing you kill yourself trying to save him.”

The younger boy remains silent at Jake’s words. He looks like he is thinking about something serious, and Jake does not want to disturb him. A couple of seconds pass by in silence as Jake continues bandaging him up.

“Tell me about your Heeseung,” is what Jungwon says next, and it catches Jake so brutally off guard he almost drops the bandages in his hands. 

“About Heeseung?” He asks, just to make sure he has heard Jungwon right, and when the assassin nods, Jake tilts his head in thought. There are a lot of things he could say when it comes to Heeseung, and he doesn’t know where to start.

“Heeseung is the strongest person I know,” Jake starts, and already, he can hear something sappy seeping into his tone. “Even before I knew him, I knew of him. And he’s always been someone others rely on to protect them.”

Jake thinks of a young Heeseung, already carrying the weight of a village on his back, and the memory brings a small, sardonic smile to his face. 

“But more than that, he’s also the kindest person I know. He used to help around the village a lot. He’d help the adults, too, even when he was just barely a teenager himself. When we were 14, actually, he broke his arm trying to catch one of our other friends, Beomgyu, after we’d climbed up onto the school roof. Beomgyu had been doing something near the edge when he lost his balance, and Heeseung had lunged forward to grab him before he fell.”

Jake wipes away some of the blood as Jungwon listens in silence. 

“In the end, Beomgyu had been fine, but Heeseung couldn’t use his arm for almost two months. I had to help him get ready in the morning, but he never complained. He’d always thank me, even though it felt like I was never really doing all that much. Sometimes, I wonder, if I’d been stronger, could I have caught Beomgyu instead, so that Heeseung didn’t have to?”

Another silence settles over the pair of them at the end of Jake’s speech. A second later, the non-bender finishes up with the bandages, and there is no longer an excuse for them to delay the inevitable—What Jake had come there to do in the first place.

“Is there something you needed from me, Jake-hyung?” Jungwon asks him, and it is the first time he has called Jake by that honorific. 

“Yeah, there is,” Jake starts, and his voice is level and calm. He gives Jungwon a considering stare. “You’re a non-bender, but you were chosen to protect the fire nation’s crown prince.”

“I don’t need bending to slit a man’s throat,” Jungwon replies, giving Jake a little shrug. Jake's lips feel very dry, and he runs his tongue over them once to wet them, before he speaks next.

“When Jay left, did you ever consider not going with him?” 

“Never,” Jungwon replies, not an ounce of hesitation in his voice. “I meant it when I said I’d rather we both rot in prison forever than let Jay-hyung leave without me. At least then I’d know he was safe.”

“He’s a firebender, yet he relies on you to protect him,” Jake states, and he can feel the weight of Jungwon’s stare as he waits for Jake to get to the point. 

“I want to be useful, too,” Jake says, after a beat. “I can’t keep pretending like this war is something that isn’t happening. Not when Heeseung, and Sunghoon, and Sunoo, and you and Jay are all out there fighting on the front lines to stop it. I want to get stronger. And I want you to—help me do that.”

At his words, Jungwon quirks up an eyebrow in interest, though nothing about his expression is mocking. He is studying Jake like he is a puzzle he is trying very hard to figure out.

“You’re not useless, Jake-hyung,” the assassin starts off slowly, unfolding his hands so that they now rest flat on the table. He looks at his freshly bandaged arms, before his gaze lifts to look Jake in the face. “You're good at a lot of things that most people aren’t. You’re caring. You think fast on your feet. You’re a good friend, and a good brother. And, I think that you probably do a lot more for people than you might think.”

He studies Jake’s face one more time, and there must be something in his eyes that makes his lips curl up into a small smile. 

“But sure, I can teach you. It’s not like I’m doing anything else here, anyway.”

Jake has just started to settle into the new rhythm of his life when it is ruined once again. 

Jungwon has been training him for a couple of weeks now, while Jay trains Riki. According to both of their teachers, they have both been making significant progress since. Somehow, the two of them have found themselves being taken under the wings of two of the most powerful people in the entire world. How any of this came to be, Jake is still unsure. 

Privately, Jay had confessed to him that Riki is progressing a lot faster than he’d thought possible. That even Jay, a prodigy in his own right, hadn’t been able to do some of the things Riki is now doing at his age. He isn’t sure what that means for him, yet.

The days remind Jake of when he’d first started learning how to defend himself from the Kiyoshi warriors. He’d been younger, then, and the weight of a weapon feels more comfortable in his hands now than it had back then. Jungwon is a good teacher, strict when he has to be, but never unkind. 

He demands effort, not perfection. And with little else to do, Jake gives it his all. Jungwon’s smile when Jake finally pins him during one of their spars feels like something special in Jake’s heart. 

Today, Jake is walking around the marketplace, filling up a bag with groceries for the upcoming week, as has now become a part of his weekly routine. Jungwon had given him the day off as a reward for his good behaviour. 

It is a hot day, and the sun bears down on the back of Jake’s neck. He can feel sweat begin to gather at the base of his skull. He briefly stops at a stall selling toys and debates getting something for Riki, but eventually decides against it. 

As he does so, he makes small talk with some of the vendors who have come to recognize him over the weeks. 

One woman selling flowers asks Jake where his brother is, and she hands him a small daisy to give to him when Jake tells her that he is at home. Jake thanks her, and promises that he will buy something from her soon. She tells him it’s no bother, and that both he and his brother are sweet kids. 

Arms full, Jake turns the corner to begin to make his way back towards his apartment. Except, as he does so, he catches a glimpse of an unfamiliar woman crossing the street. 

It makes Jake stop in his tracks, only because she is carrying a large parasol that looks like it is too expensive for anyone around the neighbourhood to own. He wonders briefly if she has gotten lost, and makes a move in her direction to see if she needs help.

She has long, light blonde hair, and she is walking with a light grace to her steps that reminds Jake of—Something, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. 

He watches as she moves out of the way as a group of Ba Sing Se children rush past her, kicking a ball as they do so. The movement brings her closer to Jake. Some of the dust gets onto her dress, but she doesn’t seem to notice. 

Her back had been facing him, but he thinks he can now make out the colour of her eyes as she shifts slightly to the side to avoid them. 

Then, the girl turns around fully, and Jake has to do a double take at what he sees, because staring back at him buried under some layers of makeup is a face that has occupied no small part of Jake’s brain over the past few months.

It is a face he never expected to see inside the walls of Ba Sing Se, but is now standing unquestionably in front of him. Last he heard, they had just landed in the North Pole, some thousands of kilometers away from them. 

“Sunoo?!” 

Jake sputters out, incredulous, and at the sound of his name coming from a stranger’s mouth, the waterbender’s eyes widen in disbelief, then recognition. 

“Jake-hyung?!” 

The waterbender gapes back, and the look on his face makes Jake feel like all of his worlds are about to come colliding together in a massive supernova of light. 

The two stare back at each other, unblinking, because what is one even supposed to say in this situation? The last time they’d seen each other, Jake’s village had just gone up in flames, and Sunoo had the avatar’s limp form draped across his knees. 

It feels more than impossible for them to be meeting again now, and yet, here they are. 

Still, there is only one thing that Sunoo’s presence in this place at this time can mean to Jake. 

The avatar has landed in Ba Sing Se, and both his waterbending and earthbending teachers have landed with him. 

Heeseung and Jake are in the earth nation’s capital at the same time, just as they used to talk about under the stars. 

Chapter Text

Now I realized the fate that I devoted my life to. How could I forget? 

Fate is in my hands again, feeling the power flowing like blood inside me

Finally, I’m calling you desperately 

The first words out of Jake’s mouth after confirming that the blonde woman in front of him is, in fact, not actually a woman at all, but rather the waterbender who crash-landed onto Kiyoshi Island, are:

“Where’s Heeseung?”

They come as natural to him as breathing, a question on the tip of his tongue that had been begging to be asked as soon as he’d recognized the familiar slope of Sunoo’s features.

Except, the next second, rather than being met with the reassuring words he’d been expecting, Jake is being dragged into yet another alleyway, and it is like he is having Jungwon flashbacks all over again. 

“Sunoo, what—” Jake tries to ask, caught off guard, but a hand over his mouth quickly shuts him up. He blinks owlishly at the waterbender in front of him. 

“Shhh,” the waterbender hisses, eyes rapidly darting back and forth across the marketplace they’d just come from. Eventually, they settle on Jake, and the non-bender feels stupidly out of the loop under their weight. 

His back is pressed up against the wall, and Sunoo is hovering some centimeters away from him, before he lets go of Jake and steps back. He looks antsy. His hands rapidly clench and unclench the fabrics of his dress.

“Sunoo—” the non-bender tries again, but this time, he is interrupted by the waterbender before he can even get out anything else.

“Jake-hyung, is there somewhere we can talk in private?” The blonde asks, nervously glancing over his shoulder. His eyes turn to gaze imploring up at Jake. The non-bender blinks once in confusion, head swimming. 

The back-end of an alleyway feels fairly private to Jake, but by the way the waterbender continues to fidget in place, it must not be adequate to his tastes. 

“My apartment, I guess,” Jake replies, after a second. He tries to peek out the alleyway himself to see what it is that has Sunoo looking so on edge. All he sees are the usual stalls, and the usual children. 

By the time he turns back around, Sunoo is already dusting off the hem of his dress, and looking as though he is ready to leave. 

“Let’s go,” Sunoo says, not even bothering to ask Jake for permission, nor any directions. He turns to exit, but the non-bender reaches out to grab at his wrist before he can go. The blonde looks back at him questioningly, eyebrows furrowing in confusion and impatience. 

“Just tell me if Heeseung is here with you. I’m not going anywhere until you do,” Jake says, and he hopes his voice sounds less pathetic to Sunoo’s ears than they do to his own. 

The waterbender’s eyes soften, and Jake lets go of his arm. He feels like the waterbender is holding the fate of his world in his next words. 

“Heeeseung-hyung is here, Jake-hyung,” Sunoo replies, gentle and soft, before his face takes on something solemn. “But, there’s definitely some things we need to talk about. In private. So, let’s go.”

This time, when the blonde makes his move to leave, Jake does not protest. Instead, he simply follows, and tries not to let the way his pulse hums under his skin distract him from the steady act of placing one foot ahead of the other. 

At the confirmation that Heeseung is in Ba Sing Se, Jake feels like he is walking on air, like his body is no longer his own to control. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands, or his arms, and they swing gracelessly at his sides as he mindlessly follows Sunoo back onto the main street. 

As they go to turn the corner, Sunoo reaches out and smears something against the brick wall beside them. Jake glances at the action, curious, and sees a faint, white mark left behind. 

Still, he does little more than register it vaguely, somewhere in the back of his mind. Right now, Jake has far more important things to think about. 

The steady thump of his heart against the inside of his ribs beats to the sound of a march. It does not speed up, nor slow down as they make their way towards the walls of Jake’s temporary home—Not a state of excitement, but of limbo, anticipation. 

Jake does not want to allow himself to hope, because hope is a very dangerous thing. Still, it’s hard not to let his mind soar as he stares at the small frame of the waterbender in front of him, because he knows that Sunoo would never be anywhere if Sunghoon were not there, too. 

And, after all the trouble Jake went through to get him to leave with him, Heeseung better be with Sunghoon, too. 

Sunoo pauses at a fork in the road—unsure of where to go next—and Jake gently pushes past him to take the lead. The waterbender follows him in silence as they quickly, but carefully make their way back to Jake’s apartment. 

When Jake and Sunoo burst through the door of the non-bender’s home, Jungwon and Jay are already sitting there at the kitchen table. It makes Jake remember that they had been coming over for lunch, and he freezes as their twin gazes swing to land on them in the doorway. 

He thanks the spirits that Riki is at a friend’s house right now, and he does not have to deal with that on top of everything else, too. 

There must be something slightly off about Jake’s expression, because the next second, Jungwon is standing up and inching his way towards them. 

Jake’s eyes dart to where the knife-wielder’s sleeve pools over his hand, and imagines that there is something hidden underneath the fabric lodged between Jungwon’s steady grasp. 

Jay, for his part, stays seated at the table, face carefully blank, and hands crossed lightly in front of him. Every inch of his posture is deliberate. Calculated. With the speed with which they’d both reacted—Jungwon in front, and Jay behind—the act feels practiced, and familiar. A unit. 

“Who’s this, Jake?” The firebender asks, one eyebrow carefully arched up in question. The tone of his voice is cold, and demeaning. The voice of a prince. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake sees Sunoo stiffen under the weight of the older man’s stare, and Jungwon’s presence at his side is certainly doing nothing to alleviate his discomfort. However, where in the past, Sunoo may have cowered behind him, now, the waterbender straightens up and bares his shoulders instead.

The waterbender says nothing, just defiantly glares back at the two fire nation citizens who seem to have deemed him something close to a threat. 

The three of them continue to stare and assess each other in silence, and Jake suddenly feels very, very tired. 

Jake lets out a sigh, because he cannot believe that this is his life. Immediately, all three pairs of eyes in the room turn to face him. 

“This is Kim Sunoo,” Jake says into the tense air, and he watches as Jay’s eyes widen in recognition at the name. “The avatar’s waterbending teacher.”

The knife in Jungwon’s hand does not clatter to the ground, but for a second, it slips slightly out of his grasp, and its tip slides out of the sleeve. For Jungwon, this is tantamount to fainting in shock. 

“Hello. It’s nice to meet you,” the waterbender says, smile clipped, hands gently clasped behind his back. He doesn’t bow, and it is a small thing, but it makes something proud bloom in the warmth of Jake’s chest. 

The concept of Sunoo choosing to value himself. How novel. 

“I wasn’t aware that the avatar’s waterbending teacher was a woman,” Jay comments. All Sunoo does in reply is cock his head lightly to the side, lips tight. 

It makes Jake glances at Jungwon and Jay, wondering if they are going to introduce themselves in turn, but they both remain silent, instead. Jake resists the urge to let out another, even more laboured, sigh. 

“These two,” Jake begins, gesturing to the pair in front of them. “Are Jay Park and Yang Jungwon, the—”

“Crown prince of the fire nation and his personal aide,” a familiar voice cuts in, and this time, everyone jumps in shock at the unexpectedness of its addition. Jake sees Jungwon reach again for his knives, angling his body so that it covers Jay. 

Jake turns in the voice’s direction himself, heart beating even though it is not the person he wishes it was. 

The voice’s owner is sitting casually in the window’s frame, one long leg dangling over the side. As for the other, an arm is resting lightly on its raised knee. The person carefully sets one foot down, then the next, footsteps light as air, so that he is now standing fully in the dining room of Jake’s apartment. 

It feels as though even the wind itself is holding its breath as the last airbender, Sunghoon Park, straightens to full attention, a headband where his arrow should be, and sleeves long enough to cover his hands. 

He looks calm, but Jake can see a silent storm brewing under the surface of his skin. It is clear he doesn’t know exactly what is going on, and the addition of two high profile fire nation figures are doing little to temper that storm.

“You’re quiet,” Jungwon remarks, eyes narrowed in suspicion and caution. He looks like he cannot understand how the taller man slipped past his guard. 

At this point, Jay is standing, too, and he looks like he is putting together the pieces of the puzzle in his mind. There is something shining in his eyes, and an awed smile is tugging at the corner of his lips. 

“Sunghoon-hyung!” The waterbender exclaims, and Jake sees Jungwon’s mouth part slightly at the name. Sunoo is smiling widely. “I see you got my message.” 

At the sound of the blonde’s voice, Sunghoon turns in his direction. It’s infinitely subtle, but his entire demeanour changes in a second. There is a faint smile on his face, and the storm is gone. 

He nods. “Yeah. Thanks, Sunoo-yah.” 

The waterbender practically beams in response, and Jake feels a fond smile of his own gracing his lips. 

“Sunghoon,” Jake calls, giving the avatar a small wave to get his attention. For a second, Sunghoon looks confused, like the non-bender is the last person the airbender had been expecting to see, before his expression shifts into something much friendlier. 

“Hi, Jaeyun,” he replies, and it makes Jake remember that he had given the airbender permission to call him by that name. 

Jake smiles at him in response. 

Suddenly, Sunghoon’s brows pinch together at the base of his temple, mouth twitching into a strained line. It is such a minute change, Jake half wonders if he has imagined it. 

Jake tilts his head to the side in question. He is about to ask the avatar if everything is alright, before someone clears their throat from across the room, interrupting the moment. 

“The famed avatar, in the flesh,” Jay cuts in, voice heavy with ambition and awe. He is a good speaker, and he projects well. His arms are crossed.

Jake sees Sunghoon stiffen all over again at the words, eyes darting from Sunoo, to Jake, to Jungwon, to the black-haired man in front of him. His hands clench and unclench at his sides, like he doesn’t know what to expect from Jay’s introduction, but he is ready to act in a second should anything go wrong. 

Jay takes a casual step forward in the avatar’s direction, and Sunghoon’s fingers twitch like he is about to bend. 

Except, in the next breath, the firebender is swooping down into a low bow—-an angle of 90 degrees—in front of him. His hair drops to cover his face, and his arms are carefully glued to his sides. Respect bleeds from every inch of his form. 

“Jay-hyung,” Jungwon hisses, like he is opposed to the fire nation prince debasing himself in such a manner, but the black-haired man ignores him. 

“I’m sorry for the pain my people have caused both you, and the rest of the world,” Jay starts, voice laden with all the weight and power of a fire nation crown prince. “I want to help you defeat my father. I’m the youngest firebending master in the history of the royal family. Please let me teach you how to bend.”

After he is done, Jay stays in his bow, still not looking Sunghoon in the eye, as he waits for his response.

Jake watches Sunghoon as he takes in the fire prince’s words. His expression is serious, and thoughtful, and he looks like he takes a second to mull them over in his mind. 

Then, the avatar gives a small smile, and it truly does feel like Jake is watching someone divine. 

“Thank you,” Sunghoon replies, bowing back carefully in turn. “I’d really appreciate that.”

At the airbender’s words, Jay’s head snaps up in shock, mouth parted and eyes wide, like he cannot believe Sunghoon has agreed so easily. He looks absolutely flabbergasted to see Sunghoon’s head inclined down just as his own had been only moments earlier. 

“W-What?” Jay sputters out, straightening up on pure instinct alone. He is staring at Sunghoon like the avatar has just told him that the sky is not blue, or the fire nation is not real. 

Sunghoon shrugs as he stands back up. “If Jake trusts you, then I trust you, too.”

His eyes shift to the non-bender, and there is something amused swimming in the browns of his eyes. Jake does not know what he has done in the airbender’s eyes to warrant so much respect in his judgement, but he does not question it now. 

Jay is still blinking rapidly up at the brown-haired man in front of him. He looks very different from the composed, confident fire nation prince he so often presents himself as. It almost makes Jake want to laugh. 

Sunghoon has that effect on people, he supposes. Of stripping them down to their bare bones, and leaving them there to rediscover themselves in the process.

“Oh. Um, okay, then,” the firebender agrees, mouth flapping uselessly around the words. Jake sees Jungwon roll his eyes at Jay’s behaviour, though there is something fond blossoming in the corners of his smile.  

As a momentary silence settles over the room, Jake feels a mix of hope and excitement begin to swirl around on the inside of his chest. 

There is only one person missing right now from the party of five in front of them to complete the puzzle: Jake’s most important person—beside Riki, of course—who he hasn’t seen in over four months. 

Someone who left with Sunghoon and Sunoo to the North Pole as Kiyoshi went up in flames, but has since followed them to Ba Sing Se, and back to Jake, in the process. Someone who Jake has built a life with, even if that life had been momentarily put on pause. 

Against his control, a smile starts to sneak its way onto Jake’s face as his memories curl into that person’s shape. 

“Will Heeseung be here soon, too?” The non-bender asks, head cocked curiously to the side. 

A deathly silence falls over the room. 

Jake feels his pulse begin to speed up under his wrist. He turns to Sunoo, who is avoiding his gaze. 

“Did he not get your message?” Jake asks the waterbender, and the words just barely escape getting lodged somewhere in the back of his throat. In response, Sunoo bites at his bottom lip, eyes darting between Jake, his clasped hands in front of him, and the ground. 

Jake’s heart is suddenly pounding against his chest, but he tries to give the younger boy a reassuring smile anyway, though he’s sure it must be terrible. 

“It’s okay if he didn’t. I don’t need to see him right away, as long as it’s soon.”

Still, nobody says anything, and Jake’s head starts to spin at the lack of answers. It is so quiet, Jake swears he can hear the sound of Sunghoon’s hair brushing against his forehead as he slowly lowers his head. 

Jake sees Jungwon’s dart between them, quietly assessing the situation. Beside him, Jay is doing the same. Only Jake feels like he is still completely lost. 

He feels like there is cotton plugging the hole of his ears, and everything around him is slowly fading into illegibility. He forces out a quick laugh, and a shaky smile makes its way onto his face. 

“Maybe it’s better this way,” he tries to lighten the mood. “If we go meet him at yours, then me and Riki can see him again at the same time.”

“Jake-hyung…” Sunoo starts off. His voice is practically quivering, and it is like the shattering of an illusion in real time. 

The waterbender shifts to look up at him with pleading, guilty eyes, and Jake’s stomach drops to the ground.

“I told you that there were some things that we needed to talk about, right?” He says, and Jake does not know what he is saying. 

It feels like he has lost his ability to understand the common language, because suddenly, none of the words coming out of the waterbender’s mouth are making any sense.

“Heeseung-hyung is here,” Sunghoon says next, and Jake’s head snaps to his direction. Even though his words are reassuring, his expression is anything but, and Jake feels sweat start to pool under his palms. “We just don’t know… where he is, here, exactly.”

The avatar looks into Jake’s eyes, and the non-bender can see a century of guilt dancing behind them. His mouth is pressed into a thin line. It does very little to soothe the nausea swirling up towards Jake’s head. 

“I’m sorry, Jaeyun,” the avatar says, voice heavy and hoarse. “I should have protected him in your absence. But—I failed.”

Jake’s heart stops in his chest, and it suddenly feels like his body is not his own—Like he has floated away from his feet. 

He ignores the pitying glance Jungwon throws him from across the room. 

Sunghoon is standing in front of him with all the patience of an air-nomadian monk. He is waiting like he is ready for whatever punishment Jake might choose to inflict upon him, and he has already accepted his fate. There isn’t even a hint of reluctance in his eyes. 

He sees Sunoo glance nervously at the airbender in concern. The waterbender opens his mouth to say something, but Sunghoon gives him a small shake of the head before he can.  

Sunoo’s jaw clamps shut. He purses his lips, even though he still looks like he wants to intervene. His eyes dart to Jake, then to the floor, before they return once again to the avatar. Accepting, but not happy.

The ball is now completely in Jake’s court.  

For a second, Jake considers doing something drastic, like screaming in the airbender’s face, or reaching across the table to take Sunghoon’s fragile neck between his hands. He feels angry, and violent, and betrayed, and he wants to make the avatar feel it. 

His hands twitch at his sides. 

He wants to ask Sunghoon ‘ How do you expect to save the world when you can’t even protect this one person? ’ because he knows that it will hurt. He wants to tell him ‘ I never should have trusted Heeseung with you ’, because at that moment, it feels like the truth.

He wants to spit on his shoes, and ask how he can still call him Jaeyun like they are friends, when he has just lost the most important thing in Jake’s life. 

But most of all, under all of the anger, and violence, and hurt, Jake just feels defeated , because he thought he was finally going to be able to see Heeseung again after 4 months of his heart being ripped from his chest, and he does not know how much more disappointment he can take before something crucial inside of him breaks. 

Jake takes a deep breath to gather his thoughts, and very pointedly does not look at Sunghoon’s guilt-wracked face.

There are already a lifetime of failures painted across the avatar’s fragile form as he stands before him. Sunghoon carries them around with him in a neat little bag that he has strapped to his back. If Jake wanted to, he could add to that bag. Had it been anyone else, maybe he would have. 

But, despite everything, Jake has always liked Sunghoon the person first, before he has liked Sunghoon the avatar. 

Sunghoon is Jake’s friend, and he does not want to see him hurt by his hand. They are the same age, and they are both just doing their best to survive. Somewhere, someplace, that must mean something. It feels like it has to. 

We all have our battles. This just so happens to be mine. 

Jake swallows, trying to wet his throat from where it has suddenly gone dry. He is trembling with barely repressed anger and confusion, but it leaves him in a flash. He suddenly just feels very hollow, and very empty. 

Jake exhales, and feels the rest of the emotion leave his body as he does. 

He forces his mouth open, even though it feels like his tongue is made of sandpaper, and heavy as a rock against his teeth. 

“Explain. Now,” he demands. His hands are shaking at his sides. He crosses his arms and digs his nails into the skin to make them stop. 

At the sound of Jake’s voice, Sunghoon raises his head from where it’d been lowered to look up. He blinks up at him, eyes wide. 

A silent understanding passes between the avatar and non-bender as their eyes meet from across the room. 

It isn’t forgiveness, not yet, but it is the opportunity to earn it . 

Sunghoon lets out a breath, and there is something about his face that is saying ‘ thank you ’. Maybe it is his eyes. Jake isn’t sure. Jake tries to give him a weak smile in return, though it feels like it takes every ounce of his strength to do so. 

“You might want to sit down for this, Jake-hyung,” the waterbender suggests, gently nudging him forward with his hand. 

Jake takes a careful seat at his kitchen table. There are only four, so Sunoo, Jay and Sunghoon take the other three. Jungwon stays standing with his back against the wall, arms crossed. 

Jake listens to the sound of his beating heart, and waits patiently for Sunoo and Sunghoon to explain to him what is going on so that he knows whether or not there are people that he needs to kill. 

Of course, Sunoo does not have time to recount everything, but between his rushed breaths and slightly incoherent rambles, Jake is able to piece together a vague idea of the sequence of events which had brought Team Avatar knocking on Ba Sing Se’s doors—Or, walls, rather. 

After the North Pole (which was a whole ordeal in of itself—Think Moon spirits, Fire Nation invasions and more), the trio had ventured back to the Earth Kingdom following rumours of a firebending master who’d deserted his nation, and therefore, might be willing to help them. 

Unfortunately, all that line of searching had resulted in was an outright refusal, followed by an ambush by the same fire nation general who’d been pursuing them since Kiyoshi. And so, the trio was on the run once again. 

Eventually, their journey led them to the Si Wong Desert where they’d stumbled upon a library belonging to the knowledge spirit, Wan Shi Tong. Despite barely escaping with their lives—The great owl having tried to bury them beneath the sand dunes along with the rest of his library—Sunghoon, Sunoo and Heeseung had escaped with one critical piece of information. 

A solar eclipse was approaching. Without the life of the sun, all firebenders would be left unable to bend. It was the perfect opportunity for the world’s largest nation to strike back against the fire nation’s tyranny, and they’d come to Ba Sing Se to inform the King of exactly that fact.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t accounted for the Dai Li, and all the ways in which one is punished for bringing war inside of Ba Sing Se’s walls. 

They hadn’t even been able to meet the King, before the Dai Li were ushering them into a carefully selected apartment within the bounds of their surveillance, and told them to wait until the King would see them. 

Sunoo tells him that they’d been in Ba Sing Se for about two weeks— Heeseung had been in Ba Sing Se for two weeks—before they lost him, and Jake had had no idea. He had been so close, almost impossibly so. 

Jake can’t help but think fate cruel for the jokes it plays.

“Heeseung-hyung and I were out shopping one day,” Sunoo starts, and he is anxiously wringing his fingers in front of him as he does. “There was this little boy. He couldn’t have been any older than 10, really, but he was going on about the fire nation, his village, the war—Right in the middle of the marketplace. Obviously , the Dai Li didn’t like that.”

Jake grips his arms closer to his chest, because there is only one way this story ends. 

“They tried to arrest him,” Sunoo continues, biting his lip at the memory. “And that’s when he started crying. It was obvious he was just scared. Alone. He kept asking for his brother. And then, before I even knew what was happening, Heeseung-hyung was stepping in, and claiming that that brother was—Him. Hyung told them to arrest him instead, since he’d been the one feeding ideas into his brother’s mind.”

At this, Sunoo glances up from where his gaze had been resting on his clasped hands. Blue meets brown, and Jake does not flinch as the waterbender looks at him with something as thoughtful as it is pained. He does not falter as he says his next words, like they are something that he thinks, unquestionably, Jake should know.

“I think he reminded Heeseung-hyung of… Riki. The boy,” Sunoo says, and it is like Jake is being hit with all of the weight of the world against his ribs. 

Unwittingly, he feels his throat start to close, and he digs his nails so deep into his arms he breaks skin.

“You idiot …” Jake mumbles, and he resists the urge to blink back tears, because even after everything, it was still Riki that got him. 

Jake would have let out a humourless laugh if he wasn’t currently drowning, because of course , that’s how Heeseung would get himself captured. He never did know when to let things be. Jake would know best. Afterall, it’s the way he and Riki and Heeseung’s lives had first become intertwined, all those years ago. 

It’s something Jake has always loved about Heeseung. It’s something he’s always hated.  

“I’m so sorry, Jake-hyung,” Sunoo says, voice wobbly, and the waterbender is looking at him guiltily—Always, guiltier than he should be. It makes Jake’s wrists ache, and he wishes that Sunoo would relieve his shoulders of all the burdens he places on them. 

“I should have stopped him,” the waterbender forces out, ducking his head so that blonde bangs fall over the wetness of his eyes. It does little to conceal the droplets as they land on the table in front of him, or the way his shoulders begin to shake. “But I—” He cuts himself off.

At his side, Sunghoon reaches over and gently takes his hand in his. The waterbender’s fingers intertwine with his seamlessly, like he does not even realize that they are there. It gives Sunoo strength, anyway. 

“I didn’t even see Hyung move until he was already—There, pushing the boy behind him and telling him to go home. I couldn’t do anything. I could tell by Hyung’s face that he didn’t want me to. The boy was crying and shaking as they took Heeseung away, but all Hyung did was offer him a gentle smile, and tell him that it was going to be okay.”

Suddenly, Jake’s heart burns , because it is such a Heeseung thing to do, and it makes Jake hate him, and love him, and miss him, and mourn him all at once. 

“Of course he did,” Jake barely manages to get out, because there is a love as devastating as all the pain in the world piercing him through the neck. He ducks his head, and grips his arms as he chokes around his next words. 

“For once, just one time , I wish he’d put himself first.”

“Jaeyun,” Sunghoon calls, and it makes the non-bender look up. The airbender looks sorry for having to interrupt, but the story is not done. “Sunoo-yah and I have been looking for information. But they must have realized who he is, because we can’t go anywhere anymore without their personal watchdog trailing behind us.”

“Hence the disguises,” Sunoo adds, his makeup smudged, and his elegant dress pooling at his feet. Despite the situation, there is no humour in his voice. He is not even looking at Jake, staring mournfully at his hands on the table in front of him, instead. 

“We have no clue where they might be holding him,” the waterbender states. He looks guilty, and shameful, and angry, all at once. “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out, but it’s impossible. No one here knows anything.”

A heavy silence overfalls the room. 

Jake’s hands ball up into fists at his side, and he resists the urge to do something more drastic in frustration. It is like all of the hope Sunoo’s appearance had initially ignited in him has been sucked from his body, leaving him limp and empty like a deflated balloon.

Except, after a second, someone lets out a laboured sigh from across the room. 

Immediately, all 4 heads swivel in its direction. 

“I think—I know where they might be holding him,” Jungwon states, arms crossed and an unfortunate grimace plastered across his face. He looks like he has just come to a terrible realization, and he is not looking forward to sharing it with the rest of the class.

Jake does not even give it a second. 

“Where?” Jake demands, hand shaking. His voice is pulled taut like the ends of a tightrope, and his eyes are fixed intensely on the knife-wielder, whose back is pressed against the wall. Predator and prey. 

Jungwon shifts his head to look the non-bender dead in the eye. His stare is serious, and the corners of his lips are pulled down into something regretful. Jungwon has never been one to hold back when it comes to the deliverance of bad news—surgical and deliberate in his choice of words.

Except, something on Jake’s face must make him hesitate, because his lips open and close once, before he swallows and shuts his mouth. 

His aide’s behaviour makes Jay’s eyes furrow in confusion, and his right hand twitches forward as though to reach out to him, but ultimately he doesn’t.

“Jungwon,” Jake says, and his name sounds like a plea in the context of their situation.

The knife-wielder’s eyes shake with something foreign as he continues to stare at him. Jake stares back. He wonders what his face looks like right now, to have the unflappable aide of the fire nation’s prince falter under its weight.

At the last second, Jungwon averts his eyes, pinning his gaze somewhere to the right of Jake’s head. When he speaks next, his voice is loud in the otherwise silent room, and there is a clipped edge to his words, like they have a physical weight as they leave his mouth.

“He’s probably in the same place that the Dai Li keep all of their prisoners. The catacombs of Ba Sing Se.”

“How do you know that?” Sunoo asks, eyebrows furrowed. 

“I’ve been tracking the Dai Li for a while now,” the knife-wielder states reluctantly, looking slightly uncomfortable as he avoids the fire nation prince’s gaze. Clearly, this is an activity he had been hoping to keep hidden from Jay. 

The firebender presses his lips into a thin line, but says nothing in return. It is not the right time, nor place, and they have bigger things to worry about right now. 

“So, when do we leave?” Jake interrupts, head swivelling around the room to gauge the others’ expressions. “Now that we know where Heeseung is, we can go save him.”

Jungwon shakes his head in response. 

The knife-wielder tightens his arms from where they are crossed against his chest, like he is trying to ground himself in the conversation—Or, like he is trying to feel the fabric of the bandages Jake had wrapped around them through the sleeves of his shirt.

“It isn’t that simple, Jake-hyung,” Jungwon starts, words clipped. “The Dai Li aren’t just strong, they’re everywhere. They basically run Ba Sing Se from the shadows. Trying to go against them like this—It’s practically suicide.”

“I don’t care,” Jake replies immediately, eyes hard. He means it with every fiber of his soul. 

“Me neither,” Sunghoon adds not even a second later, gaze equally determined. The two exchange a quick look of understanding. Acknowledgement. 

For his part, Sunoo also nods his head in agreement, a fiery expression painted across his pretty face. 

“We owe it to Heeseung-hyung to at least try,” the waterbender states, hands balled up into little fists. “He’d do the same for any of us.” 

His eyes dart to the two fire nation people in the room. “I mean—If he knew you. But even if he didn’t, he probably still would.”  

Jake feels a sense of impossible hope begin to rise in his chest. He looks at the knife-wielder, eyes ablaze. 

“Whether you help us or not, I’m going,” the non-bender declares, fists clenched at his sides. “I won’t leave Heeseung behind. I’d rather die. This is exactly the situation you’ve been helping me prepare for.”

Jungwon stares back at them as they wait impatiently for his response. There is an obvious conflict swimming across the planes of his face, and he bites at his lip between his teeth. 

Then, Jungwon takes a deep breath, and slowly and deliberately shifts his gaze to Jay. 

The fire nation prince does not look surprised in the slightest to find himself at its receiving end. He only gives Jungwon a patient smile, and waits for him to speak. 

“Jay-hyung?” The knife-wielder asks, voice trembling, and there is something deeply vulnerable in the way his mouth shapes the firebender’s name.  

“We’ve beaten worse odds in our lives before, Wonie,” the firebender replies, a small grin painted across his face like he is remembering something fond. He nods. “Let’s go save him.”

Jungwon closes his eyes, takes a second to breathe, and then slowly opens them back up again. 

Immediately, he turns to look Jake dead in the eye, and the non-bender straightens up, blinking in surprise.

“The earliest we can leave is tonight,” the knife-wielder says. And it is like a flip has been switched, and he is suddenly all-business, scarily efficient and dedicated to his cause. “The dark will provide us with the security we need, and I can take us to one of the catacombs’ openings. We’ll need an earthbender once we get there, though, to unlock it.”

“I can earthbend,” Sunghoon says, raising his hand like he is a school student and not the avatar. If the situation wasn't so dire, it would have almost made Jake laugh. 

Jungwon inclines his head at the airbender in acknowledgement. “Good.”

“We’ll be operating on borrowed time. For every minute that goes by, our chances of being discovered go up, and consequently, those of rescuing Heeseung go down. I don’t know the catacombs that well, but it’s better than nothing. We’ll find him once we’re down there.”

They all nod in understanding, faces solemn, but determined. 

“So, do we just wait here until it’s time, then?” Jay asks, looking around the room. 

Sunoo shakes his head in the corner of Jake’s  eye. He looks down at the heavy dress he is wearing, lifting up some of it in his hands as if to illustrate his point. Sunghoon’s eyes dart to him at the movement. 

“I need to change out of this thing, and I left my water at home. Sunghoon-hyung’s staff is there, too, I think.”

He looks to the airbender for confirmation, who gives him a quick nod. He then turns to address the rest of the room, head tilted to the side. 

“We’ll meet you back here at nightfall,” Sunoo says. “Does that work?”

Jungwon nods in confirmation, and the two benders rise from their seats, as though they’d been waiting for his signal. Jake and Jay do the same, a second later. 

“It was nice meeting you, Jay-hyung and Jungwon-ah,” Sunoo says with a polite, little bow. It is made extra endearing by the outfit he is wearing. “I’m sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances.”

“Hard to find better circumstances in the midst of war,” Jay replies, shrugging. He scratches awkwardly at the back of his neck. “But it was nice meeting you, too.”

“Thank you for all of your help,” Sunghoon speaks next, gently inclining his head like the illusion of a bow. He then turns to dip more fully in Jungwon’s direction, hands placed against his sides just as Jay’s had been only moments earlier. 

“Especially you, Jungwon-ssi. I don’t know what we would have done had you not agreed to help us.”

Jake sees the knife-wielder straighten up against the wall in response, eyes wide, like he does not know what to make of an avatar who is bowing before him like the common man. 

“Don’t mention it,” the knife-wielder eventually replies, mouth sounding suspiciously dry. 

Sunghoon gives him a small smile, before he turns to Sunoo, like he is waiting for him to decide if it’s time to go. The waterbender looks at Sunghoon with all the fondness in the sky, before he turns to give Jungwon a knowing grin at his familiarly stupified expression. 

“We’re off, then,” the waterbender declares, grabbing Sunghoon’s hand to pull him along. The airbender willingly allows himself to be dragged across the room. 

Everything about them feels very soft, and very young. It reminds Jake of himself and… Heeseung, back when they’d first met. 

“Don’t be late,” Jake reminds the pair as they make their way to the door. He wants to say more, but he is worried that if he opens his mouth any further, a number of unintelligible things will tumble out instead. 

“Wear black,” Jungwon adds, seemingly only now regaining some of his ability to think. 

The benders nod, and Sunoo even gives him a little thumbs up to make sure that his understanding is clear. 

Jay raises his own hand in the semblance of a wave. “See you soon.”

Sunoo and Sunghoon wave back once in response, before they are gone, and the door is closing behind them with a soft ‘thunk’ as it settles back into place. 

Jake closes his eyes and tries not to think about what is about to happen in the next 7 hours.   

The avatar, the crown prince of the fire nation, his personal bodyguard and aide, the last waterbender of the South Pole, and Jake, all walk into a bar…

Standing in front of them, just barely out of reach, is Lee Heeseung, the avatar’s earthbending teacher. Except, they can’t see him, because he is buried somewhere deep in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se, hidden by the Dai Li in an attempt to postpone the war from reaching their city’s walls. 

Tonight, they save him, and Jake does not have to keep living as though he is missing the other half of his heart. 

A couple hours later, only Jake and Jay remain in Jake’s small, rundown Ba Sing Se apartment. 

It isn’t a bad space for a one bedroom in the earth nation’s capital’s lower ring. They have clean water, and enough space in their joint kitchen/dining room to hold 5 fully grown—or, nearly—adult men, as had been proven earlier that day. 

Still, it feels empty and soulless in comparison to the home he, Heeseung and Riki used to occupy on Kiyoshi Island. 

For all the previous owner’s efforts to try and give it a sort-of homely feel with the kitschy decor, and bright colours, they fall flat in the overwhelming absence of one specific person in Jake’s bed when he closes his eyes against his pillow at night. 

Jungwon had left a little after Sunghoon and Sunoo’s own departure to go scout out the area, and ensure that nothing about it had changed since the last time he’d been. He’d also promised to stop by the friend with whom Riki was staying, to see if they’d be willing to host the younger boy for the night. 

This leaves only Jake and the son of the firelord in the apartment. 

For some reason, they are sitting side by side on the floor, heads pressed against the wall behind them. Jake has both knees pulled up against his chest, arms loosely wrapped around them to keep them in place. One of Jay’s legs is stretched out in front of him, while the other is bent and raised. 

Jake does not know why they aren’t sitting at the table, or the couch. 

Maybe their choice of seating has something to do with the fact that it is almost nightfall, and that means that Sunghoon, Sunoo, and Jungwon will be back any minute now, and they want to be ready to go as soon as they can. 

Maybe, it is because the kitchen table feels very empty now in comparison to how full it’d been only a handful of hours before, and Jake and Jay are on the floor, because they are subconsciously avoiding sitting in the absences of those who are no longer there. 

Or, maybe it has nothing to do with anyone else at all, and everything to do with themselves, instead. Maybe, they are both punishing themselves for things that aren’t their faults, and in the silence and stillness of the evening light, this is the only way they can think of doing that right now. 

Whatever the reason may be, there they sit, and there they stay. It has been a strange day, and so it is only fitting that Jake and Jay are behaving strangely in turn. 

“Is the avatar dating his waterbending teacher? What’re the ethics on that one?” Jay asks very suddenly, interrupting the quiet of the night. 

It is a silly question, one the son of the firelord has carefully designed to try and lighten the mood. It falls a little flat with the way it echoes off the four walls of the otherwise empty apartment. 

Jake decides to bite the bait, anyway, because what else is there to do?

“You want to date your bodyguard. I’d say it’s about the same,” the non-bender replies, shrugging. 

At this, Jay lets out an offended scoff, flexing his hand from where it rests on one upright knee. For a moment, it looks like he is about to bend, before he clenches his fist, and returns it to his side. 

“Hey, you're the last guy who can judge when it comes to having a crush on your childhood best friend.”

Jake says nothing in response, because there is nothing he can say to that, anyway. It’s not like it isn’t true. The resulting silence lingers for a moment, before it becomes too oppressive, too heavy, and Jake feels the need to keep talking.

“Sunghoon and Sunoo aren’t dating, though. I mean, they weren’t the last time I last saw them.”

“Let’s hope they move faster than we do, then,” Jay replies with a little shrug that almost brushes up against the non-bender’s shoulder, but there is enough space between them that it doesn’t.

Jake tilts his head to the side to try and squint at the other man. In the almost-darkness of the evening, it is hard to make out his expression. Eventually, Jake gives up on trying, and turns back around.  

“It is so weird that you’re talking to me about this right now,” the non-bender states, and he is not sure what tone his voice is taking on. It feels like the silence of the apartment is warping everything that comes out of his mouth, and it no longer belongs to him the second that it leaves.  

“It’s not weird for me,” Jay replies, seemingly unbothered. “You’re like the first friend I’ve ever had who wasn’t being paid to hang out with me.” 

“We’re friends?” Jake asks, and it is only half-joking. Jake, friends with the crown prince of the fire nation, who could have thought?

Jake feels a sharp poke in his shoulder, and it makes him flinch, because he hadn’t been expecting it. 

“Shut the fuck up. You know about my stupid crush on Wonie, and I know that you’re in love with Heeseung. We’re friends.”

“I never said I was in love with him,” Jake grumbles after a second, and it sounds weak even to his own ears.  

The words make Jay laugh, and it is loud and boyish in its sound. Jake feels like he is being made fun of, and one of his eyebrows twitch in annoyance, though there is no real heat behind it. 

“Dude, have you looked in a mirror? I know pining when I see it,” Jay says, once his amusement has quieted down. 

“Whatever,” Jake relents, because really, it is whatever . 

For a moment, the atmosphere of the apartment feels much lighter, and it is almost like Heeseung is not missing, but simply left, and he will be back soon. 

Except, Jake has decided to stop running a long time ago, and there are certain things he wants to know in case this is the last conversation he and the firebender ever have. 

Jake’s voice takes on something much more real as he speaks his next words. They are quiet and vulnerable in the stillness of the night. 

“Why haven’t you told Jungwon how you feel? You’ve only had 13 years.”

“You’ve had 6. Don’t act like you’re any better,” Jay shoots back. 

But then, a moment passes by, and Jake hears him let out a slow breath into the silence. It is like a fog has settled over the room, masking their hearts, and they are only now slowly trying to uncover them. 

Jake waits patiently for his reply. 

“I haven’t told Wonie because I’m selfish,” Jay says, like the words are being physically pulled out of him. “And I’ve already dragged him halfway across the globe in search of something I don’t even know exists. Because he only did it out of some stupid sense of loyalty that my family programmed into him, and it feels unfair of me to ask him for anything more.”

The firebender shrugs, and this time he does light a small flame on the tip of his index finger. He stares at it like the heat is grounding him, before he blows, and it softly goes out. They are enveloped in darkness once again. 

“Jungwon already has enough going on because of me. I’m not going to add to that now.”

“What, because your feelings are such a burden?” Jake scoffs, and suddenly, he feels very angry. “Jungwon chose to follow you. It has nothing to do with your family. He cares about you.”

“I never said he didn’t,” Jay says, and it sounds like a sigh. He stretches out a leg. “Maybe that’s the problem.”

How could that be a problem ? Jake thinks, frustrated. He almost says as much out loud, but Jay is too quick, and interrupts him. 

“Why didn’t you ever confess to Heeseung?” The firebender asks, voice flat. 

So, they are playing this game now. Jake still feels some of the anger simmering under his skin as he bites out his next words. 

“You know why. I was scared of ruining what we had. Why mess with something that works? I was—Happy.”

He feels like they are having two different conversations at the same time, and he is struggling to keep up.

Jake doesn’t even know why the firebender’s answers to his question are agitating him so much, but he feels unreasonably angry as they sit there in the ensuing silence. 

There is something about Jay that always makes Jake confront the parts of himself he does not want to think about. 

It feels like his words have burrowed a place under Jake’s skin, and he resists the urge to scratch at his arm to get them out. 

“Sure you were,” the firebender taunts, words harnessed with all the sharpness of one of his aide’s knives. “Next time I ask you that question, give me a real reason, okay? Or, better yet, don’t give me a reason at all.”

“Like yours were any better,” Jake mutters, and he is about to say something more, when, the next second, the door creaks open, and Jungwon steps in—Silent as a cat and dressed in black. 

Immediately, the two 18 year olds are on their feet, and ready to go. The conversation forcibly ended, but not so easily forgotten. 

Jay and Jake do not look at each other as they wait for the knife-wielder to say something. 

“Sunghoon and Sunoo are on their way,” Jungwon says, eyeing them curiously, though he does not comment on the distance between them. “Get ready, we leave in 5.”

Exactly five minutes later, the door falls open once again. This time, the avatar and his waterbending teacher stand in its previously empty frame. 

They are standing much closer together than Jake and Jay had been only minutes earlier. Sunghoon holds the door open as Sunoo slips inside, before he follows the waterbender in, softly closing it behind him. 

Sunoo gives him a grateful smile that is much too lovely for what is about to happen, but Sunghoon returns it, nonetheless. It is a quiet moment shared between two people who, for a moment, have forgotten that anyone else is in the room. 

“Not dating, my ass,” the firebender mutters under his breath. 

Jungwon tilts his head at Jay’s words, sharp ears picking them up, though he does not seem overly confused. Jake doubts that there is anything going on the fire prince’s mind that Jungwon does not already know. 

Jake rolls his eyes, and does not dignify the comment with a response. 

The five of them are creeping along in the darkness towards Jungwon’s promised land. The knife-wielder is leading them between the city’s twists and turns, carving a path out for them through Ba Sing Se’s hidden alleyways and backstreets.  

Ten minutes ago, Jungwon had claimed they were only 15 minutes away. With every second that ticks by, Jake’s blood sings a fraction louder under his skin. 

That being said, between the way Sunghoon seems to almost float on air, and Jungwon’s carefully trained steps, Jake feels like a newborn elephant-bear stomping clumsily against the ground in comparison. 

His only consolation is that Jay and Sunoo seem to be in a similar boat, awkwardly trailing behind the knife-wielder and the avatar leading the pack, and doing their best to emulate their silent steps. 

“Wait,” Jungwon says, sticking out his arm to stop Jake from continuing any further. 

The sudden stop almost makes Jay crash into the non-bender’s back. Jake, who is still feeling slightly annoyed at the other man’s presence, gives him a short glare in response. 

“There’s someone following us,” the knife-wielder continues, already unstrapping one of the knives from around his waist. 

Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jay and Jake all stiffen up at the blonde’s words, rapidly spinning around to face the threat head on. Sunghoon subtly positions himself in front of the waterbender, and Jake raises his own weapon in preparation. 

It is a medium-sized dagger, not unlike the one he used on Kiyoshi to beat back the fire nation soldier, at least in terms of its length. 

Jungwon had given him a couple extras, but they are strapped to the underside of his shirt, and he does not have access to them right now. 

There is another weapon in Jake’s arsenal, one that is less obvious and which he hasn’t had nearly enough time to perfect, but it is still his to use should he need it, nonetheless.

They don’t have the time to carefully draw out their pursuer. The clock is ticking, and for every second that goes by, their chances of rescuing Heeseung are diminished. If this person following them is a threat, then they need to eliminate them, now . 

“Show yourself,” Jay commands with all the power of a fire nation prince, arms poised for an attack of his own. “We know that you’re there.”

A rustle goes by, and all ten of their eyes dart to a bush half-hidden in the darkness. For a second, Jake wonders if it is just something like a monkey-bunny, and they are just letting their paranoia get the better of them. 

Except, a second later, a familiar head of black hair is popping out from the leaves, before the rest of his small body follows suit. 

“ Riki ?!” Jake exclaims, his stomach dropping. He feels both fear and fury overtake him as his next words are ripped out from his mouth. “ What are you doing here?”

The seven year old puffs out his chest, and stands his ground. His little hands are balled up into fists at his side. 

“I’m coming, too.”

Immediately, Jake is stepping towards him, and shaking his head in disagreement. He feels indescribably panicked, heart rate skyrocketing beneath his ribs. It is pounding so hard he can almost feel it as it brushes against skin and bone.   

“ No , you’re not.”

Jake glances around to make sure there isn’t anybody around them—No Dai Li agents, or other guards. He feels manic, and frantic, and terrified. Riki needs to get out of here, now . 

In none of Jungwon’s plans had there ever been any mention of what to do if a seven year old halted the operation. 

“Yes, I am!” Riki retorts, dodging Jake as the non-bender goes to take him by the arm. 

The young firebender runs to hide behind Sunoo, clutching at his pants as he sticks his head out around the side. It makes the blonde waterbender jolt in shock, wide eyes going from Jake to the small boy at his feet. 

Riki stares pleadingly up at his brother. Jake doesn’t register any of it over the way his pulse is jack-hammering against his skull. He is already shaking his head ‘no’ before Riki’s next words even leave his mouth. 

“Please let me come with you, Jake-hyung!”

“No, you are going home. How did you even—?” Jake cuts himself off, unsure of what he’s even trying to ask. He has a billion questions, and they have time for exactly none of them.

Riki steps out from behind Sunoo’s legs, seemingly emboldened by Jake’s confusion. He looks determined as he recounts his next words, stature confident and sure. 

“Uncle Jungwon was acting weird at Harua’s, so I waited until he fell asleep, and then I walked back home. That’s when I saw you, and uncle Jungwon, and uncle Jay, and Sunoo-hyung, and the avatar all coming out of the door. I knew something must be going on, and it probably had something to do with Heeseung-hyung. And if Heeseung-hyung is in trouble, then I’m coming, too.”

There is a brief silence, before, “Smart kid,” Sunghoon comments. 

Jake shoots a disbelieving look in Jungwon’s direction, but the blonde is only staring stupified at the seven year old firebender in turn. 

“What did you say to Harua’s parents?” Jake asks him. 

“I just asked if they could watch him, because there were some things we had to take care of.”

Apparently, this makes Riki’s grin take on something smug, like he has cracked the code. 

“Jake-hyung would never let me go to sleep without saying ‘I love you’ first. He would have made you tell me for him.”

In any other circumstance, Jake’s brother’s words would have been extremely heartwarming. In the current one, however, they just make him feel like the floor has been dropped out from under his feet. 

He suddenly feels inexpressibly annoyed, and it is a combination of his previous anger towards Jay, Jungwon’s slip of the tongue, Sunoo’s wide eyes, Sunghoon’s unflappable demeanour, Riki putting himself in needless danger, Heeseung leaving Jake by himself on Kiyoshi Island just to get himself captured months later, and everybody—including Jake’s own’s—inability to just protect what is Jake’s .

“Riki, that’s it. Come on,” he says, grabbing the younger boy’s arm to haul him home. The young firebender lets out a shriek of protest. 

He digs his small feet into the ground, pulling at Jake’s arm to let him stay, and glares up at the non-bender defiantly when Jake turns to look down at him in disbelief. 

“Jake-hyung,” Sunoo nervously interrupts, and the non-bender’s head swerves to look in his direction. The blonde’s eyes anxiously dart between them and the rest of the road as he says his next words. 

“We don’t have enough time to bring Riki back. Either he comes with us, or we have to try again another day.”

“No,” Jungwon cuts in before Jake can say anything in response. The knife-wielder’s lips press into a thin line as everyone in their group looks to him to continue. 

“They’re moving Heeseung-ssi somewhere else after today. I heard them talking about it last week at one of their bases, but I didn’t realize at the time who it was about,” he explains. 

“What are you saying?” Jake asks, and it is like his voice is coming from somewhere else, echoing off imaginary walls back to his ears. He thinks that he already knows what the blonde’s answer is going to be, but he is praying to every spirit there is that he will be proven wrong. 

Jungwon’s eyes are enough of an answer on their own. Jake feels his heart crack. 

“I’m sorry, Jake-hyung, but either we save Heeseung today, or we don’t save him at all.”

Jake just can’t seem to catch a fucking break. He almost wants to laugh, because of course this is what it comes down to. Riki or Heeseung. Heeseung or Riki. The two most important people in Jake’s life. Who does he want to protect more? Can he even protect anyone ? 

At the rate things are going, Jake wouldn’t be surprised if they just took them both from his grasping hands and never looked back. 

“I’m going to Heeseung-hyung,” Sunghoon states, interrupting Jake’s spiralling thoughts. He nods in Riki’s direction. “Only one of us needs to take him back, but I’m going.”

“No! Let me come. Please. I’m strong,” Riki exclaims. Then, he turns to glare at the avatar with so much fire in his eyes it makes Jake freeze. Sunghoon blinks down at him in surprise. 

Riki turns to Jake next. His eyes are wide, desperate, and pleading, and there is so much determination burning behind them that Jake is momentarily stunned. 

“Ask uncle Jay. Please, Jake-hyung. I can help. I promise.”

Jake feels like he is being asked to make an impossible decision, and everything is starting to spin out of his control. He doesn’t know what to do as he stares down at Riki who is staring back. 

Heeseung was never able to deny him anything when he made those eyes, but Jake is supposed to be the one with more sense. 

Except, his brother is gripping his hand so hard it hurts, and he is looking at Jake like he is begging him to let him come, and it is doing things to the parts of the non-bender’s brain that should know better, because Riki looks a whole lot like Jake right now—Young and scared, but more than anything, so desperate to be useful that he is willing to do anything for it. 

Jake screws his eyes shut to avoid looking at him. 

Heeseung, what should I do? He thinks. I can’t do this without you, please. Tell me what to do. 

There is no response, because of course there isn’t. And Jake feels more alone than ever.

For the first time since leaving Kiyoshi Island, Jake truly feels as though he will never see Heeseung again—Like the earthbender isn’t just gone, but erased . There is a break in Jake’s soul. 

Except, in the next second, a whisper of wind goes by, and the non-bender swears he can hear it shape the sounds I trust you, Jakey as it does. 

Jake might be going crazy, but he opens his eyes and feels steadied, anyway. His heart has stopped beating like it is trying to escape from his chest. Maybe Riki’s grip cut off the circulation to Jake’s brain. Whatever it is, it has given Jake the clear mind he’s been needing, and he doesn’t have the time to question it any further than that. 

Jake swallows his pride, and turns to face the firebending prince. 

“What do you think? You’ve been the one training him.”

Jay looks surprised to have Jake address him so directly, but he quickly schools his expression into one that is carefully blank. 

“Riki is… strong. He isn’t lying about that. If he were to come, I think—He could hold his own.”

The words are spoken with all the clinical assessment of a firebending master towards his pupil. 

“Jake-hyung, we need to start moving again soon,” Jungwon interrupts, eyes scanning around. His tone of voice makes Sunoo start fidgeting beside him. “The guards are on rotation, but they’ll be around here in less than 5 minutes.” 

Jake takes a deep breath, and comes to a decision.

He looks down at his younger brother who is still gripping his hand like Jake will abandon him if he doesn’t. He almost wants to bite off his tongue to prevent the next words from leaving his mouth, but he knows he can’t.  

“Fine,” Jake relents, “You can come. But—,” he adds, when he sees Riki open his mouth to respond, “You’re grounded for life after this. I don’t care.”

Jake tries to ignore the beaming smile that breaks across Riki’s face at his words. It becomes harder when Riki hugs Jake’s leg, and tells him “You won’t regret it, Jake-hyung. I promise” as he looks up at Jake with sparkling eyes, still holding his brother’s hand. 

Jake gently pats his brother’s head, and marvels at how soft the hair is under his touch. Riki smiles, and leans up into its comfort. 

I hope you don’t regret trusting me , Heeseung . Jake thinks to himself—His brother’s fragile skull under the pads of his fingers. Not a second later, their party of 5-turned-6 continues on into the night. 

They are about 1 minute away from reaching the entrance to the Dai Li’s catacombs, when Sunghoon leans over and whispers to Jake. 

“If you want, I can bend a cage out of the earth to keep him from coming with us.”

The non-bender stiffens at his words, and pointedly does not turn to look in the avatar’s direction, not wanting to alert the others—Riki especially, who has graduated from holding Jake’s hand to bugging Sunoo about the North Pole while Jay makes sure he doesn’t trip—to their conversation. 

Jake shakes his head. “We’re too close. What if someone finds him?”

The avatar shrugs, and this time Jake does chance a glance at the boy beside him. The avatar’s thick brows are pinched together, mouth drawn into a fine line. His arrow has been covered by the ends of his bangs, and it makes him look softer in the moonlight. 

“It still might be better than the alternative,” Sunghoon replies, and neither of them need to specify what that alternative might be. 

For a moment, Jake considers the avatar’s offer, and recognizes it for the olive branch that it is. 

He almost wants to sigh, because it is so incredibly hard to stay mad at Sunghoon when it’s so obvious that the only thing the airbender wants to do is protect those around him, no matter who he has to go up against to do so, even if it makes him look like the bad guy in the process. 

Jake lets out a breath, before he turns to the airbender and offers him a small smile. It makes the taller man’s expression slacken in surprise. 

“Thanks, Sunghoon,” Jake says. “But it’s okay.” 

The avatar does not look surprised, but he does look curious as he asks Jake if he’s sure, eyebrows raised. 

The non-bender shrugs in reply, not fully convinced of the decision himself, but doing his best to pretend that he is. 

“Maybe this makes me a bad brother,” Jake starts, staring at Riki in front of them as he talks to Jay. “But—I don’t know. I know what it’s like to want to help those you love, and to be denied that opportunity. Maybe letting Riki come along isn’t—The worst thing I could do for him.”

“You’re a good brother, Jaeyun,” Sunghoon replies, and it makes Jake turn to him in surprise at the conviction in his voice. Jake has never heard Sunghoon sound anything less than sure, and it makes him wonder if the avatar is even capable of telling a lie. 

“Riki wouldn’t be trying so hard to help you, otherwise,” the airbender continues, before his voice drops to something more serious. “And for what it’s worth, I’ll do everything I can to keep him safe.”

Coming from the avatar himself, the words are nothing short of an oath, binding and divine in their weight. Another responsibility added to the planes of the airbender’s shoulders, or maybe an extension to that which is already present, there—The world’s expectations for a god. 

Coming from Sunghoon Park, 18 years old, the last survivor of his kind, and already so, so burdened, they mean something else to Jake, entirely. 

“Well,” Jake smiles, voice not a hymn, but something friendly, and kind. “Coming from you, Hoon, I’d say that it’s worth a lot. Thanks.”

The nickname makes the avatar blink once in surprise, before his lips even out into a small smile of his own. 

Jake opens his mouth to say something else—sensing that the avatar has run out of words for the time being—when:

“Sunghoon-hyung, Jake-hyung!” Sunoo calls, interrupting them. 

When they turn to face him, the waterbender is beckoning them forward with his hand. Riki, Jay and Jungwon are still walking a couple of paces in front of him, but it looks like Sunoo has stayed behind to wait for the same aged pair. 

Sunoo’s eyes dart between Sunghoon and Jake as they approach—at the lack of space between them—and for a second, it twists his expression into something foreign and wrong. It smoothes out just as quick, but the whole thing still makes Jake cock his head in thought. 

Sunghoon remains oblivious at Jake’s side, eyebrows drawn together in confusion and worry as he reaches out a hand to the waterbender in front of them, but for all the wrong reasons. 

“Is everything alright, Sunoo-yah?” Sunghoon asks, going to hold the waterbender’s hand, only for the blonde to yank it back at the last second. It makes Jake want to slap a palm to his forehead in embarrassment. 

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Sunoo replies, avoiding Sunghoon’s questioning gaze and face slightly red. “But we’re here, so—Come on.”

After these words, the waterbender turns around and hurries to catch up to the fire nation trio in front of them, leaving behind a very confused Sunghoon in his wake. 

Jake rolls his eyes, and nudges Sunghoon with his arm. The airbender turns to look at him, and his kicked puppy expression would have made Jake feel bad for him if he wasn’t so stupid. 

“You’re hopeless, but it’s okay,” Jake says, patting his shoulder. “You can’t be good at everything.”

“I don’t understand,” Sunghoon replies, eyes comically wide, and it almost makes Jake want to laugh. 

“It’s okay, dude,” he reassures him. “Let’s just go catch up to Jungwon.”

Sunghoon nods, eyes still fixed on the waterbender’s retreating figure in front of them, and it takes Jake physically pushing the taller man for him to start moving forward again. 

Once the pair reach the rest of their rag-tag group made of people from every nation in the world, Riki detaches himself from Jungwon’s side to tug on Jake’s arm. 

“Thanks again for letting me come, Jake-hyung,” his brother says, and Jake ruffles his hair fondly in response. It makes Riki whine in annoyance, but he is smiling anyway. 

A moment later, Sunghoon is opening a hole in the ground under their feet as per Jungwon’s instructions, and the six of them plunge into the unknown darkness of the earth nation’s capital’s underground catacombs. 

Heeseung, just wait a little longer. I’m on my way , are Jake’s last thoughts, before the entrance closes up over their heads and his vision goes black. 

Chapter Text

I'll never forget it now, everything was the power I received from you. 

I grew up in an eternity that will soon return to you. 

They have not been inside of the catacombs for even 10 minutes when the first attack comes. They have just made it into something resembling a large room—Apparently, the perfect place for an ambush, as they very quickly find out. 

“Look out!” Jungwon exclaims, right before the ground where Sunoo had just been standing is bent into a block and the waterbender is sent flying into the catacombs’ wall, and then rolling onto the floor. 

“Sunoo-yah!” Sunghoon yells, rushing towards the waterbender’s limp figure. Except, he is blocked by the ominous black uniform of a Dai Li agent intercepting his path, hands raised.

Meanwhile, the blonde barely has time to roll out of the way, before another Dai Li member is on him in a barrage of boulders. Sunoo uses his water like a whip to knock him off his feet, momentarily halting him in his attack. 

The two of them are engaged in battle as soon as Sunoo recovers enough to push himself back upright and sends another tidal wave of water in the Dai Li’s direction. 

At the same time, a third Dai Li agent jumps down from above to land behind Jay’s head, and the firebender whirls around to deliver an arc of flames which the earthbender blocks with a perfectly timed shield of earth. 

The Dai Li agent smirks. “Well, if it isn’t the crown prince of the fire nation. Jay Park, what are you doing here?”

“Fuck off,” Jay bites back, accompanied by another strong blast of fire as he punches forward.

Except, rather than cower, the Dai Li agent raises an arm in defence, moving the earth along with him. He dodges another one of the prince’s attacks, rolling into a crouch. He laughs. 

“Aren’t you curious why daddy hasn’t sent the troops after you yet, Your Highness ?”

The words make Jay freeze, and for a second, Jake is worried that he is going to get killed in his hesitation. 

Except, as soon as the earthbender goes to attack, he is knocked off balance by the sharp blur of a knife as it whizzes past his head. He barely has enough time to dodge, before another one follows, landing right in his leg. 

The Dai Li agent lets out a cry, and stumbles to the ground. It is at that moment that Jungwon’s presence becomes clear behind him, having snuck around back while he was distracted with Jay. 

The blonde is about to ram a knife into the vulnerability of the Dai Li agent’s neck, when he is bulldozed over by a column of earth two times his size and three times his weight, and lands painfully on his side with a loud crack.

A fourth Dai Li member emerges from the shadow as its culprit, hands poised for another attack. 

“Jungwon!” Jay yells, voice raw. He sends a random wall of flames in the two earthbenders’ vague direction, before he is rushing over to the knife-wielder’s side. 

Jake does not have time to follow where he goes, because at that moment, he notices a fifth agent using his bending to cling to the walls. He is about to shout in warning, when a blast of air knocks the agent onto the ground. 

Jake’s hair is blown forward as Sunghoon flies past him to lock the man in a cage of earth, seemingly done with his opponent from before, who now lays passed out on the ground behind them. 

The Dai Li agent breaks out of the avatar’s hold almost immediately after, but it does its job of distracting him long enough for the avatar to hit him with a second powerful burst of wind.  

Jake cannot dwell on any of it, because at that moment, he feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he spins around—weapon raised—just in time to intercept a sixth Dai Li agent from snapping his neck from behind. 

Jake’s fighting style is a combination of all that he learned from his time spent with the Kiyoshi warriors—using your opponent’s force against them, movements precise and controlled—and his more recent sessions with Jungwon. 

He skillfully dodges the earthbender’s thrusts, before jamming the end of his dagger into the side of his leg. The Dai Li agent lets out a loud scream, features twisting in anger and pain. He recovers quickly, though, and goes to bend the earth around Jake’s feet into spikes. 

Jake reaches out to use his other—additional weapon. 

Except, before he can, there is an explosion of fire shoving the Dai Li agent out of the way and knocking him off balance. As he stumbles to the ground, Riki, along with his outstretched arms and a determined furrow to his brow, are revealed from where he’d been hidden behind him. 

Jake takes the opportunity to slice the earthbender across the neck, and his body smacks the ground with a loud ‘thunk’.

Jake is about to open his mouth to thank his little brother, pride blooming in his chest at the control he has just exhibited, when a flash of blonde and blue whirls past him. 

“Riki!” Sunoo exclaims, lunging towards the 7 year old to shield him in his arms. A second later, a hole opens up in the ground and swallows them whole. The two disappear from Jake’s sight. 

Jake’s heart fully stops. 

Not even a full heartbeat later, he spots the agent responsible—his arms are still raised in the direction of the ground where his brother had just stood—and Jake does not hesitate before launching a knife clean through his heart. 

The hole reopens a second after, and for a moment, Jake is confused, because he is sure that the earthbender is now dead. Then, Sunghoon’s frantic figure overtakes his field of vision, and Jake understands what is going on. 

“Sunoo-yah!” The airbender calls, but he is met with no response. “Sunoo?!”

Silence.

“I’m going after them,” Sunghoon states, already making his way towards the hole when a firm grip is wrapped around his arm, holding him back. 

“Don’t you think that’s exactly what they want us to do?” Jay asks, eyes narrowed into little slits as Sunghoon turns around to see who stopped him. 

The firebender is accompanied by Jungwon at his back, who is doing his best to pretend like he is not clutching at his side in pain. Jake glances behind them, and sees the motionless and charred figures of the two remaining Dai Li agents lying face down on the ground. 

Sunghoon rips his arm from Jay’s hand, lips turning up into something resembling a snarl. It reveals a sharp, fanged canine on either side, and it makes Jake realize that this is the first time he has seen anything close to anger on the avatar’s face.

“So, what?” Sunghoon spits. “You’re suggesting we just leave them there?”

“I’m suggesting that they would never purposefully lead us in Heeseung’s direction,” the fire nation prince fires back. He scoffs and gestures to the ground at their feet. “And this has ‘avatar bait’ written all over it.”

Jake’s eyes narrow, mouth twisting into something hard. 

“It doesn’t matter. They have Riki. I’m going too,” Jake states, except this time, it is Jungwon doing the stopping, gently laying his unharmed hand on Jake’s shoulder.

“Jake-hyung,” he says, and the tone of his voice, fragile in a way Jake is not used to, makes him pause. “I won’t stop you if you want to go, but Jay-hyung is right when he says that Heeseung will never be in that direction.”

“I don’t care,” Sunghoon says, ignoring the frustrated noise the firebender makes at his words. “We didn’t come here to save Heeseung-hyung, just to lose two more. I can handle whoever’s down there. And with the three of you—” 

“Don’t you trust that your friend is strong enough to hold his own?” Jay interrupts, and a series of emotions flicker across the avatar’s face. 

“I do. Of course he is, but—” 

“So trust him,” Jay says, words unshakable with the simple confidence only the crown prince of the fire nation could possess. At his side, Jungwon’s eyes flicker with something unnamed, and he inclines his head. 

There is a short silence as the avatar processes the firebender’s words.

“Besides,” Jay continues, shrugging. “I never said that we weren’t going to help them, you know. I just said that this has ‘avatar-bait’ written all over it.”

Sunghoon raises an eyebrow, body still buzzing with something like anger, but trying . “So, what?”

Jay’s eyes are annoyed, voice harsh. “ So , we aren’t going to give them the avatar. We—are going to give them a firebender, and Wonie.” 

The knife-wielder rolls his eyes at the prince’s use of the familiar nickname, but nods, anyway.

“It’s the one element you can’t bend, Sunghoon-ssi. Whatever plan they have to face you, it won’t include what to do against fire,” Jungwon adds, logical and sensible where Jay had been emotional and raw. At his side, the firebender nods.

Jake can only stare at them in disbelief, brain working overtime to try and make sense of the situation.

The pair present the modified plan like it is simple, like it is something they’d discussed beforehand, though they can’t have had any time. Neither of them had questioned it for a second—The idea that Jungwon would follow Jay, or that Jay would be accompanied by Jungwon. 

Sunghoon opens his mouth like he is about to argue, and it makes Jungwon’s eyes narrow, posture tightening, as he cuts him off. 

“Jay-hyung didn't risk everything by going against his father just for you to get captured here,” Jungwon says, voice deadly and scathing. It makes the avatar recoil, blinking in shock. “The fate of the world resides in your hands, Sunghoon-ssi. For better or for worse, you are the avatar, and this is bigger than you alone.”

Jungwon’s words have the effect of stretching the air in the room taut, and it is an unwelcome reminder of everything that is at stake for them, now. 

Jake swallows, suddenly at a loss for words. 

“Plus,” Jay adds, drawing their attention, voice heavy as his eyes take on something dark. “One of those bastards said something about my father. If these people know anything—Then, I need to know, too.”

For a second, nobody moves, and the proposal hangs in the air in a tense silence. Jay and Sunghoon are staring at each other, locked in a battle of wills. Jungwon is standing solidly at the firebender’s back, his ever-present shadow.

Jake takes a second to organize his thoughts. Then, he lets out a breath, and all three heads turn in his direction. 

“Okay,” he says, and the word feels like sandpaper against his tongue. “Jungwon and Jay will go.”

It seems like not a single one of them had been expecting him to agree. Sunghoon’s brow twitches, and Jay’s head tilts to the side. Even Jungwon blinks at him, like he might have heard the non-bender wrong.

“What?” Sunghoon says a moment later, asking both nothing and everything at the same time.

Jake swallows, and hopes that he won’t regret his next words. 

“I trust them,” he starts reluctantly, and ignores the way Jay’s eyes widen at the words. “If Jay says that they can take care of it, then—I think they will. And I need—,” Jake’s voice gets caught in his throat and it is so intense, it’s almost painful. He takes a breath, and forces it out, anyway. 

“I’m not leaving here without Heeseung,” Jake says, body brimming with every emotion under the sun, hands clenched at his side. “I know that might make me selfish, but I can’t. I won’t.”

He shifts his gaze so that it lands on the fire nation pair who stand before him, quietly awaiting judgement. 

“The only reason I am trusting you with Riki,” Jake says, words like molasses in his mouth “Is because I know that you are two of the strongest fighters in the entire world. But tonight, you are going to prove it. Because if Riki comes back with even a single scratch on his face, you’ll pray to all the spirits you never left the fire nation. I mean it, Jay. Jungwon. I don’t care if we’re friends. If anything happens to him, I’ll kill you myself.”

Jake’s voice trembles as he gets out the last words—With meaning, with fear, with determination, and acceptance and anger. He does not know how much weight they hold coming from someone like him in the face of someone like Jay, or Sunghoon, or even Jungwon, but he doesn’t care.

He means them more than he’s ever meant anything else in his entire life. 

“Jake-hyung…” Jungwon starts, voice trailing off, like he doesn’t know what else to say, and it is a rare sight. It would almost make Jake proud, if he wasn’t so focused on other things. 

Jay recovers quicker, however, back straightening as he meets Jake’s eyes head on. There is a fire burning deep within his chest, and Jake can see it through his eyes. 

“You have my word that we’ll protect them,” the firebender promises, sentence like a vow. “I will not let Riki get hurt.”

Jake jerks his head in thanks, and doesn’t— can’t —say anything more. He is worried that if he opens his mouth again, something unwanted will tumble out against his will. 

Then, Jay turns to the airbender, expression determined, but challenging. His eyes are not asking. They stare at each other; a prince and a god. 

“What about you, avatar?” The firebender says.

Jake sees Sunghoon visibly swallow his next words. His hands are balled up into fists at his side—Decision seemingly made, though he does not look happy about it. 

“Okay,” the airbender forces out, because the idea of accepting help from others has never been something that comes easy, not to Jake, not to him. After a moment, he dips his head, and quietly, no louder than a brush in the wind, adds, “…Thank you.”

Jungwon and Jay only nod in reply, because they both understand what it means for Jake and Sunghoon to let go, and trust them to take care of the two people they value most. 

“We’ll find you later,” Jungwon states, voice determined and sure. “Riki and Sunoo-ssi will be fine. I promise.”

Sunghoon reaches into his pocket, and lifts up a small bag of white powder like an offering. “This is something Sunoo-yah and I used to mark our paths. I’ll leave a trail along the wall for you to follow.”

The two fire nation boys nod in understanding. Then, they lower themselves into the hole Sunghoon re-opened—Jungwon first, Jay second—and disappear from sight. 

A second later, Sunghoon and Jake turn to face each other, a silent understanding passing between them, before they look ahead, and continue on in the direction in which they’d been moving before six Dai Li men, a hostage situation, and the fire nation prince and his aide’s proposal to help, had interrupted them. 

There is nothing else for Sunghoon and Jake to do now other than walk, and pray that somehow, somewhere, they will eventually stumble upon Heeseung’s cage. 

The two move together in a steady silence, and it is not so unlike the one they shared during the only conversation they’d had back on Kiyoshi Island moving boxes, before Sunghoon had had to leave, taking Heeseung with him. 

Jake does not think about Riki, or Sunoo, or Jungwon and Jay. He is worried that if he does, and for long enough, he will force Sunghoon to turn around and go back for them. And he can’t do that, not if he wants to see Heeseung again. 

He lets himself trust that, for once, everything will be alright.

The inside of the cavernous tunnels is dark, with only the occasional lantern strapped to the side to light their way. 

Jake almost trips over a dip in the ground he’d missed in the blackness, and silently curses out Sunghoon in his head for not yet being able to firebend, though he doesn’t really mean it. 

Still, it’d be nice to have, at a time like this. It almost makes him miss Jay. 

Jake feels the ghost of a hand hovering over his shoulder as he straightens up, like it is hesitating on whether or not to help him. Eventually, the presence disappears, returning instead to the avatar’s side, as though it’d never even been there to begin with.

Privately, Jake feels grateful for Sunghoon’s restraint. 

As much as Jake considers the airbender a friend, there are still things he’d like to do on his own, and he does not need the avatar’s help for something as inconsequential as recovering from a small fall. 

The two silently continue down their path once Jake’s regained his balance.  

A few more metres pass by much in the same way. Sunghoon and Jake are quiet, not talking, but there is no tension between them. 

It is different from the silence he and Jay had shared earlier in Jake’s apartment. And the contrast almost makes Jake want to laugh as he thinks about it. 

His conversations with Jay are always thrumming with something slightly wild, whereas Sunghoon’s presence at his side is like a soft summer’s wind, allowing Jake to breathe.

Jay pushes and pulls. Sunghoon steadies and holds. 

Only to himself, Jake can admit that both are important, though he’d rather die than ever tell that to the firebending prince.

Maybe that’s why it catches him so off guard when Sunghoon speaks next. His voice reverberates off the catacomb walls, and it is overpowering in the silence, even though he can’t have spoken any louder than a breath. 

“I’m sorry for that night on Kiyoshi,” the avatar says, gaze fixed somewhere far away as Jake turns slowly to face him. “They were only there for me. The soldiers.”

Jake’s steps do not falter, but his eyes do tighten, and his mouth does press down into a thin line. It is a thought he has had before—of course it is—but it feels different to hear it coming from Sunghoon’s mouth rather than his own. 

Wrapped in Sunghoon’s soft baritone, the words sound strange, like they are trying to reach Jake’s ears from somewhere under the water. There is a calm acceptance and a quiet guilt curling around their edges that is not present whenever Jake thinks them to himself. 

Jake swallows, and carefully considers what he is going to say in reply. He rolls words around in his head, once, before he lets them exit his mouth, because he knows that they are important. 

“That wasn’t your fault, Hoon. Those soldiers, the fire nation—It’s this war. And it was always going to reach Kiyoshi Island, eventually.”

For a second, there is silence, before, very quietly, spoken from behind Jake’s back:

“...Thank you.”

Jake’s throat tightens despite himself, and he does not turn around. He tries to force out a laugh. 

“What’s there to thank me for?”

Sunghoon catches up a second later, and the non-bender can tell that he wants to say something more.

Jake stops him before he can. 

“Really, Hoon, it’s alright. And, this might sound weird, but sometimes I think that it—had to happen, in a way.”

The words are a confession pulled from someplace deep in the corner of his chest, and Jake does not even know that they have left him until they’re out into the open air, and his face freezes in realization. 

The airbender tilts his head, silently urging him to go on. As always, there is just something about Sunghoon that makes Jake feel so very seen , and so, he talks. 

“Heeseung asked me once whether or not I believed in destiny,” he starts, swallowing down the lump in his throat at the thought of the other man. “I told him then that I didn’t. But—If he were to ask me that again, right now, I don’t know how I would respond. It just feels like some things had to happen to get us to where we are today, you know?”

The avatar remains silent, and it is an open invitation for Jake to continue. 

Suddenly, it is like the floodgates have opened, and he can’t stop the words from flowing out of him in an uncontrollable river of honesty. If anything, it is a welcome distraction from everything else.

“Like, when you crash landed on Kiyoshi Island, I felt like you had been perfectly crafted to take Heeseung away from me. It just made sense, even though I hated it. Sunoo probably felt the same way when you first tumbled out of that iceberg, like this was something that just had to happen for the fate of the world. Because of that, Riki ended up meeting Jay, which was something he needed. And then that allowed Jay to meet you, something Jay needed… And then all of us inevitably ended up here in Ba Sing Se, together.”

Maybe it is a narcissistic thought: seven boys, tied together by the world’s invisible strings of fate. Still, with everything that has happened so far, Jake doesn’t think that it is unreasonable to think. 

Jake lets out a hollow laugh. 

“I always hated the idea of there being some… predetermined path we were destined to follow. Heeseung and I… Everything we got to do together; everything it took to start over after our first lives burned down. That wasn’t fate. That was just us, and our bare hands. Heeseung, Riki and I. Fate only ever threatened to take Heeseung away from me, never stay.”

Jake pauses, suddenly feeling a little winded. He didn’t realize he was getting so worked up, but something about his last words had lit a fire in the hollow of his chest.

Sunghoon lets out a quiet hum in the meantime, not agreeing or disagreeing, just simple acknowledgement and understanding as they continue to move. Jake takes a deep breath, and focuses his gaze on the shape of the ground as it shifts beneath his feet.

“Heeseung used to think of it differently,” Jake continues, and the words are heavy on his tongue. “He felt like, because we had been able to do all of that—found each other in the middle of an empty world—that there must have been something guiding us along the way. Like it must have been written in the stars, or something like that. Soulmates—even.”

His voice catches on the last word.

Jake lets out a pathetic laugh, squeezing his arms to ground himself as the memories threaten to bowl him over. 

After a second, he realizes that his eyes have closed too, and he opens them back up. The darkness of the tunnel almost feels light in comparison to the back of his eyelids and the loneliness of the word ‘soulmate’ without its other half. 

“Sorry if none of this is making any sense,” he shrugs, avoiding Sunghoon’s gaze. “I probably sound crazy right now.”

“There’s nothing crazy about sharing your thoughts with a friend,” the airbender replies.

Then, Sunghoon is silent for a couple of seconds, and Jake finds himself subconsciously holding his breath as they walk. He feels like he is waiting for—Something, a question he does not remember asking, but wants to know the answer to, anyway. 

It must have something to do with being the avatar, Jake thinks, Sunghoon’s ability to make you feel as though he is cradling the whole of your soul in the small of his palm. 

“Fate…,” the avatar starts, voice far away. “It’s a concept that I am well acquainted with, probably even more so than you might think. My entire life is both mine, and not mine at the same time. My body is shared between the ‘me’ who is here now, and those who have come before me.”

Jake blinks, and remembers that the avatar is not just the boy standing in front of him. He is a collection of all the avatars who have ever existed, a long line of some of the most important and influential people to have ever walked the seas and the earth. 

Sunghoon flexes his hand, like he might be able to see the imprint of his former lives running along the lines of his palm so long as he looks for them hard enough. 

“I know that all of my past lives are contained somewhere within the confines of my current self. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if there is anything that I can truly choose on my own, if that’s the case. Or, will I always be just a vessel for someone else’s experiences—A life chosen for me thousands of years before I was even born?”

After a second, he lets out a weary sigh, then turns to give Jake an amused smile. 

It catches the non-bender off-guard in the otherwise solemn environment. 

“But why bother thinking about it? Fate, destiny, coincidence… If you and Heeseung are soulmates, so what? And if you aren’t?” Sunghoon asks, voice soft. “Really, Jaeyun, what would it change?”

When Jake fails to provide him with an answer, Sunghoon gently inclines his head, before continuing to move forward with all the casualness of a teenage boy. Jake can only follow behind him numbly in response. 

“I think,” the avatar continues, voice distant despite their proximity. “That all that matters is what we do with what we have. In that sense, we all make our own destinities. At least, that’s what I’d like to believe.” 

He laughs. “My life would be fairly meaningless, otherwise.”

Jake blinks, and lets the words flow through him like a billowing wind.

“Oh.” 

Sunghoon turns back to raise an eyebrow at him in question, eyes twinkling with something fond. 

“But if you want my opinion, Jakey, I think that Heeseung loves you. And even if I didn’t believe in soulmates, I’d still believe in you . That, at least, isn’t something you should ever doubt.”

The avatar smiles, and in that moment, everything about Sunghoon feels like the answer to a question Jake does not remember asking. He ducks his head, suddenly feeling a little bit too vulnerable, a little bit too exposed.

He swallows, and hopes the fringe of his bangs is enough to cover the warmth as it rushes to his face. “Thanks, Hoon.”

Sunghoon nods, gentle, and they leave it at that. 

A second later, the two of them come upon a fork in the road. 

“Which way should we go?” Sunghoon asks, walking up to inspect the two passageways. 

The tunnel on their left is brighter, lanterns strapped to the makeshift walls lighting the way. If Jake squints, he can see almost 200m down its length, though there isn’t much to see. The shape of the rocks looks older than the surrounding earth, weathered by the constant shifting and re-shifting of the Earth Nation Capital’s catacombs. 

The passage to their right, in contrast, is illuminated by only a single light. There is something foreboding about its entrance, like it is warning them to stay away. Sunghoon brushes a hand along its interior, and when he brings it back into the light it is black with dust and grime. 

Jake is just about to respond to the avatar’s question when he feels something like a magnetism pulling him towards the pathway on the right. It is subtle—barely there under the surface of his skin, but still, he finds himself drawn to its direction.

He’s not sure why or how—maybe it was all the talk about fate they’d just shared—but Jake suddenly finds himself convinced, 100% sure, that the path on the right is the one that will lead him to Heeseung. 

At the same time, Sunghoon is leaning to the left like he is feeling that same pull, just in the opposite direction to Jake.

“I think we should go left.”

“Let's go right.”

The two 18 year olds turn to blink at each other in surprise at having spoken at the same time, and at the conflict of their words. An awkward pause falls over the pair as they hesitate in front of the dividing paths.

Jake tightens his lips, and is the one to break the silence first.

“Why do you want to go left?” Jake asks, though he thinks he already knows the answer.  

The avatar’s eyebrows are drawn together in careful thought. He nods his head to the left tunnel, gaze someplace far away. “I can’t explain it, but… I think Sunoo-yah is somewhere at the end of this passageway. And—I feel like he needs me.”

He turns to face Jake, and his expression is not asking. There is understanding in the depths of his brown eyes.

“Is Heeseung-hyung on the right?”

It is more than a question. It feels like the truth. Jake’s mouth suddenly feels very dry, and all he can do is nod. 

Sunghoon sighs, lips curving up into a humourless smile. “I thought so.”

“Yeah,” Jake echoes. His eyes dart to the blackened tunnel. “I don’t know how, but… I’m sure of it. He is.”

Sunghoon does not look surprised to hear his answer.

“I guess this is where we part ways, then?”

Jake swallows. Tightens his lips, loosens them. “I guess so.”

Sunghoon reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a bag. “Here—To mark your way.”

Jake takes the proffered item, slipping it into his belt. It feels more solemn than a proper goodbye. 

Sunghoon stares at Jake with searching eyes. He must read something on the planes of Jake’s face, because after a second, he gives the non-bender one last nod, and then starts to make his way towards the left. 

The avatar has barely gotten ten steps into the tunnel when Jake feels a claustrophobic panic crawling up the length of his neck, and he feels the need to intervene. 

“Wait,” Jake calls out, and almost hesitates when Sunghoon turns around to face him. “I—Riki’s with them.”

He does not say anything more—he can’t , not without feeling like he is going to throw up—but the fear in the words left unsaid are obvious. 

Sunghoon smiles, and it is a quiet thing. “Trust me with him, Jaeyun. Go save Heeseung, alright?”

The concept of Jake being the one to save Heeseung . It does something funny to Jake’s heart. 

Sunghoon’s words are not unlike those Jay had spoken to Jake when he’d followed his own pull earlier in the night, and for a second, despite all their differences, Jake swears he can see a little bit of the firebending prince’s face bleeding into Sunghoon’s. 

But maybe it’s just the dark, because he blinks, and the illusion is gone. Jake’s mind is finished playing tricks on him. 

For the second time that night, Jake must take a breath, and let go. 

“Okay,” the non-bender replies, voice more hoarse than he remembers. “I trust you, Hoon.”

This time, when Sunghoon makes to leave, Jake does not stop him. 

The non-bender watches for a second as the avatar’s back fades into the length of the cavern, before he turns around himself, and makes his way towards the right. 

Jake’s vision disappears almost immediately in the dark, but he sticks out a careful hand in front of him, and follows the tug in his chest guiding him forward. 

Now alone, the absence by Jake’s side is more obvious than ever. It is like a physical pain, a chunk taken out from his heart. There is a burning along the lines of his palm as it brushes up against the stone wall. 

But still, this is the closest Jake has been to Heeseung in 4 months, and he is not going to let him slip away from him now. 

Jake steels his mind, finds the ground, and pushes forward.

The world has just begun to fade back into focus, when Jake hears the unmistakable sounds of two pairs of unfamiliar footsteps round the corner in front of him. Immediately, he is ducking back into the shadows, holding his breath and praying that they cannot hear the sudden pounding of his heart. 

“Doesn’t it feel wrong, though?” A young-sounding voice says, and Jake can only assume it belongs to another member of the Dai Li. “I mean, this is the avatar we’re talking about here. The actual avatar. And if we’re the ones fighting him, then—?”

“Shut up,” a second voice hisses back, cutting him off. From its gruffness and bass, Jake assumes he is older. “You shouldn’t be talking like that. Just keep your head down, and follow orders.”

Jake hears the first guard let out a small noise of protest. “It just doesn’t make any sense. Shouldn’t we be helping him? I was talking to the earthbender earlier, and he’s not like they said. Why would the avatar and his friends be trying to—”

“ Jeongin ,” his partner interrupts, voice scathing and hard. “Shut. Up.”

Silence descends upon the pair a second later, and Jake is glad that he is not in the guard—Jeongin’s—shoes right now. He is even more glad that they have passed by him, and he remains undetected. 

In the ensuing quiet, Jake takes a chance, and peeks around the corner as the two Dai Li guards continue to make their way down the tunnel. Just as he thought, one of them looks as though he is around Jake or Heeseung’s age. He has black and white hair underneath his black hat, and fox-like golden eyes. 

The other one is a lot older. Physically, he is a lot bigger than Jake, but the younger one is around his size. 

A crazy plan begins to form in the non-bender’s mind. 

Here are the facts: clearly, the two guards know something. More specifically, they know something about Heeseung . Something else of note, the younger-sounding guard is having doubts, and Jake can only pray that those doubts might be enough for him to consider doing what is right, even if it goes against everything he knows.

There is no time for Jake to carefully consider his next move. With every second that the non-bender spends frozen in place, the guards move further and further away. Eventually, they will disappear back into the darkness, and Jake will be left just as alone as ever before. 

Already, their footsteps are a distant rhythm against the ground. 

Jake takes a breath, and makes a decision. 

He goes for the older guard first.

Jake can hear Jungwon’s steady advice echo in his ears as he leaps forward. 

“If your opponent is bigger than you,” Jungwon starts, “Then you need to use their size against them. You’re light, and you’re quick. Play dirty, don’t let them drag you into their game.”

Jake’s knife cuts through one of the tendons at the back of the man’s knees before the Dai Li agent can even turn around. He hits the ground with a blood-curtling scream, clutching at his leg as he lunges at Jake’s feet. 

The non-bender tries to dodge swiftly to the side, but he is not quick enough. The guard gets a hand around Jake’s ankle, and he uses his weight to drag the non-bender to the ground to join him. 

It hurts as Jake’s body makes contact with the earth—The numb kind of hurt that disorients him in its confusion, and its delay. He does not hear anything crack, but he is sure that it will leave a nasty bruise up the side of his ribcage tomorrow morning.

The man raises a hand to use his bending, and Jake kicks up a cloud of dust and dirt in his eyes before he can. It makes the Dai Li agent sputter as he gets some in his mouth, and the non-bender takes the opportunity to ram his knife into the wrist holding his ankle in place.

The sound the agent makes is animalistic in its howl.  

Jake does not dwell on it. Instead, he kicks at his face, and he can hear the crack of the guard’s teeth as his foot makes contact with his mouth. 

It is at that moment that the younger guard seems to finally wake up, and Jake just barely has enough time to roll out of the way and onto his feet, before the ground where he’d just been lying has been transformed and bent into a series of spikes. 

Suddenly, it becomes two-against-one, and Jake begins to sweat at the situation he has found himself in. Still, there is nothing else for him to do but fight, and hope that the Kiyoshi Warriors and Jungwon have not wasted their time in helping him. 

He tightens his grip around his knife, and darts forward, just barely missing as Jeongin moves out of the way. 

The younger-guard is clumsy in his movements as he swipes back at the non-bender’s arms, face pinched in something scared. Jake would bet anything that this is his first real fight, and he thanks all the spirits above for their gift. 

The older guard takes the opportunity to push himself up and send a boulder Jake’s way, but his injuries have made him slow, and it gives Jake enough time to duck right as it flies over his head, just barely missing the other Dai Li agent as he does the same. 

In the cramped space of the catacomb tunnel, the rock ends up hitting the wall instead, covering the three of them in a thin layer of dust as it bursts against the earth. It has the added effect of plunging them into darkness as one of the pieces smash the glass of one of the lanterns against the wall. 

Jake feels one of the shards slice through his sleeve, and the familiar sting of blood begins to trickle down his arm. 

Taking advantage of the natural cover the earthbender has provided, Jake turns his back to the younger guard, confident that his instincts are not yet refined enough to make out Jake’s small figure through the haze. 

With a decisive swipe, Jake spins around and cuts the older agent’s throat. His lifeless body hits the ground with a loud ‘thump’ a second later. 

Unfortunately, the sound has the added effect of alerting Jeongin to Jake’s presence, and the next thing Jake knows, he is being flung into the wall by a slab of earth. He feels all the air leave his lungs as his back smashes into the hardness behind him.

For a moment, he blacks out, and he can feel his head begin to swim. His eyes must close, because he can’t see anything. 

He cracks them back open just in time to recognize the earthbender as he raises both arms over Jake’s head. There is just enough light left in the tunnel for Jake to make out the way the earthbender’s features twist in regret before him.

Except, just as the younger agent is about to crush Jake between the earth, the two make eye contact—Brown against gold. Jake sees the earthbender hesitate, expression and fists wavering, and the non-bender does not let the opportunity slip by.

He jumps to the side, and Jeongin’s attack closes around the empty air where Jake had been lying just milliseconds before. 

Then, Jake drops his knife as he pushes himself up to his feet, and he uses the one other weapon he possesses that isn’t really all that much of a weapon at all. 

The non-bender darts forward, and presses his fingers against the juncture between Jeongin’s collar and neck. It makes the black and white haired man crumple forward.

Stunned, the earthbender does not have enough time to react before Jake is doing the same to another pressure point against his arms, and then two more at his sides. 

“It’s called Chi-blocking,” Jungwon tells him one day, after Jake is already exhausted from the knife-wielder’s training. The non-bender curiously tilts his head for the blonde to go on from where he is splayed out against the ground. 

“That move I used against you at the end,” Jungwon clarifies. “That was Chi-blocking.”

Jake squints, trying to remember. “That one? It felt so weird, like I’d lost all control of my limbs.”

The blonde nods, tapping at his neck. “It’s because it targets your pressure points. If you hit them with enough force, and at the right place, then that’s basically what happens.”

“Weird,” Jake says, shivering. 

Jungwon shrugs. “Yeah. I was taught the basics by the Royal Fire Academy, but I never really had the talent for it. I always preferred my knives, anyway. Still, it can be useful, especially if you’re going up against a bender.”

Jake stares. “Why?”

“It’s non-deadly, but it disables their bending,” Jungwon replies. “Most benders don’t know how to fight without it, because they’re idiots. That gives you enough time to do whatever it is that you need to do.” 

The knife-wielder pauses, then turns to tilt his head down at the older man in question. “Want me to teach you?” 

Jake blinks, eyes wide. Jungwon continues to stare down at him expectantly. After a second, Jake nods, and so he does. 

In the present moment, Jake watches as Jeongin’s limbs go slack in real time. It is the first time he has successfully used Chi-blocking on someone else, and he does not even have the time to celebrate. 

Privately, he thanks Jungwon for everything he’s done for him.

The earthbender’s head lolls to the side as he stares at the non-bender with wide, frightened eyes, like he does not understand what is happening to his body.

Instead of giving him the time to try, Jake, in a move he learned directly from Jungwon—experienced first-hand even—pins the guard to the wall, arm pressed against the column of his throat. Jeongin makes a choked noise as his airway gets cut off. 

Jake stares into the Dai Li agent’s golden eyes, and prays that he will be swayed by what the non-bender has to say.

“My name is Jake. I’m the avatar’s friend,” the non-bender says, and he watches the way the earthbender pales at the words. “I need you to tell me where Heeseung is—The earthbender. Please . I know you know where he is.”

The Dai Li agent is frantically shaking his head before Jake can even finish his sentence, mouth flattened into a thin, scared line. 

Jake feels desperation start to claw at his throat, but he quickly swallows it down. He increases the weight on his arm, and ignores the way the earthbender gasps for breath at the action.

“I don’t know what they’re telling you,” Jake continues, and his voice does not shake. “But this war is real, and it’s coming for Ba Sing Se. You can’t keep running from it forever. You were right. What you’re doing right now is wrong . Sunghoon is out there fighting to save the world, and you people are punishing him for trying to protect you.” 

Jake pauses, and his eyes soften. “Just tell me where Heeseung is, and I’ll let you go.”

“I can’t,” the guard chokes out, squeezing his eyes shut.  “You don’t understand. I can’t . They’ll kill me.” 

Jake can feel his plan disintegrating between his fingertips at the words.

It was already flimsy to begin with—Made of straw, and a strong gust of wind has just passed by to knock it over. Jake rapidly searches for something— anything —to say to get the earthbender to help him. Gears grind against one another as he desperately scans through every nook and crevice of his mind.

He comes up blank. And he can see the way the Dai Li agent physically retreats back into his shell the longer Jake goes on without saying anything in reply. He feels panic begin to climb up his chest, and the next thing he knows, he is talking. 

“Have you ever loved someone?” Jake blurts out, and the words make Jeongin’s head jerk in surprise. 

For a moment, the non-bender does not know where the words have come from, and he is stunned into silence himself. 

Except, as the earthbender stares back at him with something unreadable but listening painted across his face, it gives Jake the push he needs to keep going. He is chasing the thread before it gets away, and the words tumble out of him, clumsy and rushed. 

“Because—I love Heeseung,” Jake says, and his voice cracks as the older man’s name leaves his mouth. He feels something wet prickling at the corners of his eyes, and he ducks his head to blink it away. 

“I love him in all the ways you can love someone. I love him so much that I thought that letting him go was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t. And it’s been four months now since the fire nation burned our life to the ground. And I just want to get him back .”

Jake looks up, eyes burning with all the force of the blazing sun, and meets the earthbender’s gaze head on. 

“Jeongin, please . Help me. Tell me where he is.”

Jake can see the earthbender wavering, something like a memory dancing behind his eyes. It makes him look younger, for a second. Regretful. Jake does not dwell, and jumps on the chance it presents. 

“I’ll tell the earth king to pardon you. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that they don’t hurt you for helping me. If I have to storm back down here again just to save you, then I will. I swear on my life. Just tell me where he is .”

Jake’s breath catches as he gets out his final words, and he does not know what the earthbender is going to say in reply. What he does know, however, is that that had just been his final chance. 

A second passes by in a tense silence. 

Jake bites his lip. He is about to give up when it happens.

Jeongin lowers his head, body slackening like he is letting out a breath, and Jake knows that he has won. He feels dizzy with the feeling. The non-bender carefully steps back, and lets the earthbender orient himself against the wall. 

Jeongin’s gaze is directed at the floor, his Dai Li hat blocking his face so that Jake cannot make out his expression in the dark. 

“He’s in a room at the end of this tunnel,” Jeongin says quietly, still avoiding Jake’s searching gaze. “Turn left at the fourteenth lantern, then right again about 5 minutes later. If you continue down a straight line, eventually, you’ll reach a ledge. Your earthbender will be in a cage near the bottom. You can’t miss it.”

The Dai Li agent yanks the hat from off his head, handing it to Jake. The non-bender accepts it before he can even register that his hands have moved.

“Here,” Jeongin says, gesturing for Jake to put it on. He does. “In case you run into any guards along the way. With how dark it is here, that should be enough to at least make them hesitate. There shouldn’t be any, though. Most of them would have been sent to deal with the avatar and the rest of your friends.”

Jake does not say anything, and prays to everything that Riki is okay.

Trust me, Jaeyun. Jake. He does.

Next, the Dai Li agent reaches into his pocket to pull out a large, metallic set of keys, tossing them to the shorter man. “These are the keys to his cell. He’ll have bending-suppressing shackles on, but I don’t have their keys. I can’t help you any more than that. I’m sorry.”

Jake cradles the keys in his hands, and brings them to his chest. He looks at the earthbender, who is still not looking at him back.  

“It’s alright,” Jake replies, voice thick. “Thank you. I won’t forget my promise.”

Jeongin nods. 

“Good luck, Jake. I hope you find him,” he says, and then slips away, back around the corner he came from and into the dark. Silent, then gone.

Jake does not bother to watch him go. 

Instead, he is already turned around and sprinting down the corridor towards which the earthbender had directed him, heart pounding impossibly loud against his chest. He barely remembers to leave a trail for Sunghoon to follow as he does. 

15 minutes later, Jake is hunched over and catching his breath, thinking to himself that there is not a single thing that is even remotely special about Heeseung’s cell. 

In fact, it is almost deceptive in its plainness, and it makes Jake wonder for a moment if he has arrived at the right place at the right time. It is a crystal room with a metal lock in the middle of a vast open space, some metres down from where Jake had been standing just moments before. 

There are no guards around, just as Jeongin had told him, and so Jake quickly makes his way down the ledge—Towards the cage, and its large metallic door. 

Every step he takes feels like another step closer to salvation. 

The non-bender’s hands begin to shake as he realizes that Heeseung is on the other side of that door. His brain is barely allowing him to process what that might even mean. All he knows is that after four months of heart-breaking distance, Heeseung is here .

Carefully, he brings the key to the lock. The first time he tries, he misses because his hands are shaking too much for him to properly line anything up. He takes a breath to steady his racing heart then grips one hand in the other—steadying them—and turns. 

The door unlocks with a deafening ‘click’ against the silence of the night. 

Jake pauses, almost scared to see what will be revealed on the other side. For a moment, he wonders what he will do if Heeseung is no longer there. If Jungwon had gotten the dates wrong, and he’d already been moved. If Jeongin had been lying, sending Jake not to the earthbender, but to a trap, instead. If Heeseung had simply vanished, slipped through Jake’s closed grasp like water or smoke. 

An innumerable amount of thoughts pass through the non-bender’s mind as he stands there, unmoving, before they are atomized into a single point of focus a second later. No matter what, if there is even a chance at Heeseung hiding behind that metallic door, then Jake will have to take it. Even if the disappointment will kill him, otherwise.

Jake takes a steadying breath. Then, he is gently pushing the door open with his right arm and stepping into the cage. 

The next second, before he can even react—before his second foot has even touched the ground—there are strong hands pushing against his shoulders and pinning him to the wall. An angry snarl reaches Jake’s ears from somewhere above his covered head.

“I thought I told you to stay the fuck away from me unless you were planning on letting me out, Jeongin,” a familiar voice spits out, and it is a tone Jake has never heard come from the other man. 

Against his will, he feels his eyes widen in surprise beneath the brim of his hat. 

When Jake doesn’t reply right away, the hands push him harder against the wall, and Jake feels his breath leave him as he makes contact with the cell. 

“Well? Fucking talk .”

Jake’s head is beginning to spin. The press of Heeseung’s palms against his shoulders is both heart-achingly familiar, and yet so foreign in its hold, that it is disorienting. He forces his jaw to move from where it suddenly weighs a million tonnes underneath his skull, trying to muster up the words.

“...Heeseung?” Jake eventually chokes out. 

He tilts his head up to look at him and the borrowed hat falls against his neck, revealing his face. 

What he is greeted with when he does, towering over the non-bender, expression twisted into something furious and cold, is Heeseung. 

Lee Heeseung. Jake’s Heeseung. And all Jake can do as his vision starts to blur is stare dumbly, and take him in.

Broad shoulders and red hair. Dirt-stained cheeks, and deep brown eyes. Torn, loose clothes. Metal shackles around his ankles and wrists. Dark bags underneath his eyes. Lips pulled up into a fierce snarl, revealing straight white teeth underneath full lips. Familiar brows. Strong hands.

Infinitely real where he stands—chest heaving—before him. Disarmingly soft in the pale green glow of the crystal cave. Undeniably tired, something bone-deep etched into the sharp planes of his pale face. 

In that moment, he is so beautiful that it hurts , and Jake feels his lips part in something close to awe as he looks up at him. 

It makes Heeseung blink, like he is finally seeing the shorter boy in front of him for who he really is, and not who he thought he was.

Against his will, the non-bender’s mouth curves up into a small, unbelievable smile.

Heeseung’s eyes widen as it seems to finally click in the earthbender’s mind, and the hands let go of Jake’s shoulders like they have been physically burned. 

The earthbender staggers back, arms trembling violently at his sides. His angry expression rapidly fades into something half-way terrified.

Distantly, somewhere in the back of his mind, Jake remarks that it is another expression he has never seen before on the taller man’s face.

“... Jaeyun ?” Heeseung says after a second, breath held like he will not survive being wrong, and there is disbelief colouring every centimetre of his voice. His eyes shake as though he cannot believe Jake is real, and in front of him now. 

A sudden, incredulous laugh forces its way out of Jake’s chest at the sight, because finally, finally , he has found him. 

“Heeseung,” he replies, smiling, and it is like something fundamental clicks back into place in Jake’s heart. Lock and key.

Something similar must happen to Heeseung as well, because the next second, there are arms wrapped around Jake’s waist, and Heeseung is gripping the smaller man so hard he is sure it will leave behind a bruise tomorrow morning. 

It almost makes him wince, but Jake doesn’t care. The weight of Heeseung’s forearms against his back is proof that he is here, and that he is real. It is an unbelievable feeling after months spent chasing the ghost of the earthbender’s touch. 

Jake doesn’t hesitate before wrapping his own arms around Heeseung’s shoulders in turn, burying his face in the crook of the taller man’s neck. Jeongin’s hat clatters unheard somewhere against the ground.

Jake lets out a watery laugh against the column of the earthbender’s throat, and feels Heeseung’s grip tighten against him in response. 

Usually, Heeseung touches Jake like he is something fragile. As though he might break if Heeseung presses down too hard. A porcelain doll Heeseung has been granted permission to touch, but not hold. It has always made Jake feel special, and valued, but that is not how Heeseung is touching him now. 

Now, Heeseung is gripping him like he is the only thing holding the pieces of Jake together in his hands. Like the non-bender will fall apart and away from him—again—if he doesn’t. Like Jake is made of sand, and he will crumble to dust if Heeseung lets go for even a second. 

His fingers dig into the dips of Jake’s hips, and he is pressing against him so firmly Jake half wonders if he is trying to mold their bodies together as one. There is not a single inch of space between them, and it settles something scattered in Jake’s head.

Heeseung squeezes him once—like he just wants to confirm the feeling of Jake’s sides under his hands—-before his arms move so that one is resting on the small of Jake’s back—pressing him even closer—and the other goes to the base of the non-bender’s neck. 

For a second, it tickles, and Jake squirms a little under his touch. He feels Heeseung’s hold on his nape tighten, like he is trying to keep Jake in place against him. As if there is anywhere else Jake would want to be. 

Suddenly, the intensity of the moment fades, and something much softer settles over them in the confines of their crystal cage. 

“ Jake ,” Heeseung repeats quietly, like it is the only word he knows.

“Hyung,” Jake replies, words muffled against the crook of the earthbender’s neck. 

Jake feels like his skin is buzzing, and he can hear a pulse in his ear drowning out everything else. He is not sure who it belongs to—Heeseung or him, or both. Either way, its steady and familiar rhythm is soothing, and coupled with the familiar everything of Heeseung at his side, it almost makes him want to fall asleep. 

Heeseung’s hands leave a trail of goosebumps up Jake’s back as the earthbender gently traces the knobs of the non-bender’s spine under his fingers. Jake resists the urge to shiver at the touch. 

He tightens his grip around the earthbender’s shoulders and buries his face deeper into the dip of his neck instead. 

The non-bender breathes in the familiar scent of earth and wood, and he can feel the break in his chest slowly being sealed by the warmth of Heeseung’s embrace and the feeling of his touch against his skin. 

The hand at the base of Jake’s neck moves further up through his hair, and then there are fingers scraping lightly against his scalp—like Heeseung is still trying to prove to himself that Jake is real under his palms. The non-bender bites his lip to stop a satisfied noise from leaving his throat, mouth brushing against Heeseung’s clavicle as he does. 

It is at that second that Jake realizes that Heeseung is shaking, breaths shallow as he rests his chin on the top of Jake’s head. He can feel the earthbender take a deep inhale, but it does little to calm the way his body seems to tremble in Jake’s grasp. 

Suddenly, it is all Jake can focus on: how despite his height and build, Heeseung feels very small in his arms. It breaks a part of Jake’s heart all over again. 

Slowly, the non-bender shifts, dislodging Heeseung from where he’d been hiding. The earthbender’s arms fall back to Jake’s waist, and Jake reaches up to carefully hold Heeseung’s face in his hands so that he can look at him more clearly, expression contorted into something concerned. 

However, instead of letting him do so, the earthbender dips his head to press a gentle kiss against Jake’s palm, and then another, a little further down on the bone of his wrist. A third, on the inside. His lips linger against Jake’s pulse, like he is making sure that it is there. 

The sensation is light and feathery, and it almost makes the non-bender giggle at the ticklish feeling. 

“Hey, don’t hide from me,” Jake says, gently bringing Heeseung’s face back up so that he can look him in the eyes. 

Heeseung blinks twice, like he is only now coming back down to the ground from someplace higher up and far away. 

“...Are you real?” Heeseung asks him after a moment, staring down at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

It makes Jake laugh, sudden and light—The sound pulled unexpectedly out from the cavity of his chest. Heeseung follows the movement carefully, eyes fixed on Jake’s face and the way it contorts his features with his joy. 

“Yes, Heeseung. I’m real,” Jake says once his laughter has quieted down, smiling softly up at him. 

It seems as though Jake’s confirmation is all Heeseung needed, because the next second, the earthbender allows his face to break out into a wide smile, and it is like the roof above their heads has just split open and bathed the earthbender in something light.  

“My Jakey. Yunie,” he says, familiar words dripping in adoration. He looks reverent, staring at Jake with shining eyes. His hand curls into the hairs at the back of Jake’s neck. 

The non-bender allows his eyes to flutter closed at the feeling, expression soft. After a second, he cracks them back open, only to be met with the earthbender’s beaming smile. 

Heeseung lets out an incredulous laugh of his own, tilting his head as he looks at Jake as though he still can’t believe it. Jake’s hands drop to rest around his shoulders. 

“How—?” Heeseung starts, hands fluttering against him. “What are you even doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious, hyung?” Jake asks, and he can feel a smile tugging up the corner of his mouth against his will. Suddenly, everything feels lighter, even funny. “I’m here to rescue you. I got the keys from one of the guards. Sunghoon’s on his way with backup, and they’ll be here soon to get you out completely.” 

“Sunghoon—? But, wasn’t he—? What—?” Heeseung cuts himself off, and he still looks like he is completely lost, but he is smiling.

It makes Jake smile, too, and there is something like pride beginning to curl around in his chest at his rendering of the other man speechless. It isn’t often that Jake gets the upper hand. Usually, Heeseung knows exactly what he’s about to do before he even gets the chance to think about doing it. 

Jake shrugs his shoulders lightly, feigning nonchalance, before giving Heeseung a teasing grin. 

“I just felt like it was about time that I saved you for a change, Hee-hyung. Instead of the other way around. Not bad for a first attempt, right?” 

For some reason, these words make Heeseung laugh, and it has the effect of making Jake tilt his head in confusion in response. He hadn’t been trying to be funny. Still, despite his confusion, his smile does not leave his face. 

Honestly, Jake doesn’t think he could stop smiling, even if he tried. Not when he has Heeseung in his arms in front of him, and the earthbender is looking at him like he is, in turn. 

“What? What is it?” Jake asks, annoyingly prodding at the other man’s back. Heeseung laughs again as he hunches to avoid Jake’s attack. 

All of a sudden, Jake feels very young again, teasing the earthbender like his only goal is keeping his attention for as long as he possibly can. 

Something about Jake in that moment must make Heeseung soften, because he quiets down and looks at Jake like he knows something the other man doesn’t. It is a familiar expression, and it makes Jake’s breath catch somewhere in the back of his throat. 

“Jaeyun, you still don’t know?” Heeseung starts, and he is looking at Jake like he has hung every single one of the stars they used to watch together in the sky. 

One of his hands lifts to cup the curve of Jake’s cheek, and the smaller man leans into the touch on reflex.

Jake blinks up at him in confusion, head and heart held in the small of Heeseung’s palm. The non-bender’s expression has faded into something in the shape of a question, and he waits patiently for the earthbender to explain. 

Heeseung smiles and gently brushes away some of the dirt under Jake’s eye.

“It’s always been the other way around, Jakey,” Heeseung says, and it is like Jake has suddenly lost the ability to take even a single breath. “You’ve saved me every single day since the moment we met. Because everyday, for 6 years, I got to wake up, and look at you beside me. And in those moments, I’d know, unquestionably, that I was yours, and you were mine. We got to raise Riki together, and my life got to mean something”  

Jake feels his eyes start to sting as he listens to the earthbender’s words. 

“Even when we were apart,” Heeseung continues, adamant. “Not a single second went by where I wasn’t thinking of you, and of all the ways you’ve taught me what it means to love. You really have no idea, huh? How much you mean to me.”

Jake can only shake his head, struck dumb. Heeseung gives him such an adoringly fond smile in response, it almost makes Jake shy.

“I’m sorry I didn’t make it clearer, then, but I’m letting you know now. Thank you for letting me love you, Jakey. And thanks for saving me, like you always do.”

The words hit Jake with all the force of a tsunami, and he can’t bring himself to utter a single thing in response. He blinks. Heeseung is looking at him like he is the most precious thing in the entire world. 

Jake barely has enough time to process the earthbender’s words before the other man is leaning down, and then softly pressing his lips to Jake’s. 

Jake’s eyes flutter closed on instinct, and for a second, he is too shocked to move. 

Heeseung’s lips are soft against his, a little bit dry—Like the earthbender hasn’t had anything to drink in a while, and it makes concern momentarily flood the non-bender’s mind.

The hand on his cheek moves to cradle his jaw, changing the angle so that their lips slot against each other more comfortably, and Jake feels Heeseung make a pleased little hum into his mouth. 

Jake, because he is an idiot , remains frozen, still not fully convinced that this isn’t a dream. 

The earthbender seems to realize that Jake isn’t moving, because in the next second, Jake feels Heeseung go to pull away, a soft and hesitant “Yunie?” being muttered as he goes. 

Finally, this is what makes Jake’s brain kick back into high gear, thank God , and then he is practically tackling the taller man to the ground. 

Heeseung’s back hits the floor and the earthbender lets out a loud “Oof” as Jake lands on top of him. Still, his hands automatically move to steady Jake at his hips as the non-bender shuffles so that he is sitting more comfortably in his lap. 

Heeseung lets out a shocked—almost nervous—burst of laughter. He is staring at Jake like he has no idea what is going on. 

“Jake? What is it? Are you—?”

“I love you, too,” Jake cuts him off, and they are words Heeseung should already know, but the earthbender’s face breaks out into a beautiful smile at their sound, anyway. 

Jake leans down to press another kiss to Heeseung’s lips, nothing more than a peck, really, but it still makes the tips of Jake’s ears burn red. He looks away, suddenly bashful. 

“I’ve loved you forever, I think,” the non-bender says, and he means it, smoothing out the collar of the earthbender’s shirt to avoid staring into his face.

He isn’t looking at Heeseung, so he is shocked when the arms around his waist suddenly squeeze him closer. He lets out an embarrassing squeak as Heeseung manhandles him around on his lap, hands flying to the earthbender’s shoulders to steady himself. 

He pouts when Heeseung laughs at the sound, but it is hard to stay annoyed for long when the earthbender drops a kiss to Jake’s cheek in apology. Then another, right under the curve of his eye. A third, on the underside of his jaw. 

“I’ve loved you for longer than forever. Thank you for waiting for me, Jakey,” Heeseung smiles into the column of Jake’s throat, and the words cause a shiver to run up Jake’s spine, ticklish. 

Then, because Heeseung is approximately five years old, Jake feels something wet lick up the side of his neck, and he is letting out a loud shriek as he pulls away. The sound makes Heeseung laugh.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Heeseung doesn’t let him get very far. The arms around his waist are like a vicelock, and Jake barely has any time to process things before, suddenly, their positions are reversed and Jake’s back is the one on the ground.

He stares up at Heeseung with wide eyes, blinking like he can’t believe what just happened—Stunned. The earthbender gives him a teasing smile as he looms over him, knees resting on either side of Jake’s legs, and the rest of his weight resting on the arms caging Jake in around the head. 

The position makes Jake feel very small, and he feels his face heat at the implications.

Heeseung looks as though he is staring at Jake from somewhere far away, pupils blown wide. 

“You’re so beautiful,” Heeseung whispers, and it is like a ghost in the night. His eyes carefully trace the features of Jake’s face. 

This time, when he leans down for a proper kiss, Jake is ready, and he surges up to meet him halfway. 

A thousand supernovas burst forth from Jake’s chest as Heeseung presses his lips to his—Soft, at first, but then increasingly firmer, like he is trying to make sure that Jake is real under his touch.

Jake’s back arches off the ground as Heeseung slides one of his hands underneath his waist. The other is gently supporting Jake’s head, making sure that it is alright against the ground. The feeling of the dirt beneath them should be uncomfortable, but the only thing Jake can focus on is the searing heat of Heeseung’s skin against his. 

Jake’s hands find themselves tangled in the earthbender’s hair. He gives some of the locks an experimental tug, and delights in the noise Heeseung makes into his mouth. The earthbender presses down further in response, like a man in the desert who has just gotten his first glimpse of the rain. 

It makes something light flutter in the pit of Jake’s stomach—butterflies. His heartrate picks up impossibly fast as Heeseung licks into his mouth, squeezing Jake’s waist like it is his lifeline.

Heeseung tastes like earth, and blood, and home. Jake’s fingers twist in Heeseung’s hair at the feeling. Strange, how something so new can feel so familiar, as though they’d done it a thousand times. 

Against his will, Jake feels his lips curve up into a wide smile, and it makes him giggle when Heeseung’s teeth clack against his a second later. It should be painful, but all it does is make him smile even wider, because he can’t believe that this is something he is now allowed to do—That they possess the luxury of a clumsy first kiss. 

Jake tries to school his features into something less gleeful so that they can continue kissing, but it soon proves impossible as the earthbender continues on as if nothing is wrong.

“Heeseung—” Jake tries to start, laughing, but he gets cut off by the earthbender leaning down to pepper his face in kisses, staring at his mouth and then trailing all the way up his cheeks to his temple, and then back down to his chin.

They are light and feathery, and they pull a giggle out from Jake’s chest at the feeling of them decorating every inch of his face. He can feel Heeseung smiling against his skin. 

“Hee—” He tries again, still giggling, but this time, Heeseung captures his lips in his, swallowing the noise and continuing to kiss him like Jake had not just been trying to say something. 

Jake makes a muffled noise of complaint against the earthbender’s mouth, but he is sure that Heeseung can tell he is bluffing by the way he smiles into the kiss a second later. 

Jake isn’t sure how long it lasts, but it could be anymore from minutes to hours. His head is spinning, and he’d be hard pressed to remember anything going on besides the feeling of Heeseung’s body against his. 

Still, eventually, at this rate, Jake is going to suffocate. Unlike Heeseung, who, apparently, has decided that he’d rather keep kissing Jake than remember how to breathe, Jake can feel his face going red from lack of oxygen. 

It takes Jake forcefully grabbing Heeseung’s head in his hands, and turning him to the side to get him to stop. And even then, the earthbender can’t resist pressing one last kiss to the skin right behind Jake’s ear.

Jake gives the earthbender an unimpressed look as he comes back to, but all Heeseung does is smile cheekily down at him in response, not even trying to look anything even remotely close to guilty. 

“Lee Heeseung,” Jake deadpans, hoping that his expression looks at least somewhat disapproving.  

“Sim Jaeyun,” the earthbender parrots back, still smiling and looking about one second away from reinstating their previous activity, completely unaffected by Jake’s attempts at being firm. 

“You are insatiable,” Jake scolds, poking him in the cheek. 

It only makes Heeseung playfully stick his tongue out at him in reply. He snaps his jaw like he is trying to bite Jake’s finger off, and Jake cannot believe that he is in love with an actual pre-schooler. 

“Stop!” He shrieks, trying to push Heeseung’s face away from him when the earthbender leans back down for yet another kiss. Jake laughs as he redirects his attack to Jake’s forehead instead. “What is wrong with you?”

“Sorry, love, I just can’t believe that I’m allowed to do this now,” Heeseung says once he resurfaces. He is smiling like his mouth is stuck in that position. 

Jake feels his face heat at the unexpected nickname. 

“You’re also allowed to breathe , you know,” He jokes, hoping that it’ll distract Heeseung from the rapid reddening of his cheeks. 

“Hm,” Heeseung hums, like he is considering it, and for a second, Jake is sure that he will agree. Then, he shrugs, and gives Jake a dazzling smile. “Nah, I think I’ll just keep kissing you instead.”

True to his word, Heeseung’s lips are on Jake’s in the next second, and really, at the end of the day, Jake is only a man. Who is he to deny the love of his life one or two more kisses when he puts it so nicely?

It is like the earthbender is trying to make up for lost time. He kisses Jake like he needs him to live, like there is a hole in his heart begging to be filled by the non-bender’s touch. Jake loses track of the number of times he detaches and reattaches his lips to his, but he can’t find it in himself to make the earthbender stop. 

When they finally part, Jake is breathing shallowly, and he stares up at Heeseung with something close to awe. He resists the urge to pinch himself to make sure that this is real.

The earthbender is looking down at him with something equally fond, and it warms something in the cavity of Jake’s chest. Suddenly, it’s too much, and Jake feels the need to redirect him, too seen under Heeseung’s careful eyes.

“I still don’t believe in soulmates,” Jake says, just to see the way it twists Heeseung’s features into something amused.

“This again?” The earthbender asks, disbelieving, but he is smiling at Jake with something undeniably endeared. “I guess I’ll just have to make you believe, then, won’t I?”

Jake doesn’t dignify his words with a response. Instead, he brings him down into yet another searing kiss, despite his earlier complaints against exactly such a thing. 

Heeseung does not call him out for his hypocrisy, and gladly kisses him back. 

The two of them are sitting in Heeseung’s crystal prison. 

Jake is explaining, more or less, what has transpired in the time since Heeseung got himself captured. The earthbender is holding Jake’s hand in his, absentmindedly drawing circles into the back of the non-bender’s palm as he listens attentively to him speak. 

Jake has just gotten to the part where Jay asked Sunghoon if he’d let him teach him—The firebender’s shock at Sunghoon’s easy agreement bringing a smile to Heeseung’s face—when the door bursts open and said avatar is standing right there in front of them, like he has been ripped straight from Jake’s story, chest heaving.

“Hyung!” Sunghoon says, face breaking out into a wide smile. 

He is followed not even seconds later by a dishevelled looking Sunoo, whose normally pristine blonde hair now looks something closer to brown in its current dirt-covered condition. Neither of them look particularly worried or pressed for time, and it makes something unclench with relief in Jake’s chest.

“Heeseung-hyung!” The waterbender exclaims excitedly, pushing past the avatar and tackling the earthbender—and Jake along with him—to the ground in a massive group hug. 

“Ah, Sunoo!” Heeseung cries out, before they are once again splayed out against the floor in a messy jumble of limbs. 

“I missed you so much, hyung!” The waterbender manages to get out between sniffles, voice watery around the edges. 

Heeseung looks to Jake pleadingly over the handful of sniffling Sunoo in his arms like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. His lost expression makes Jake laugh, who shrugs in response to the earthbender’s unspoken cry for help. 

“Thanks for coming to get me, Sunoo,” Heeseung says, awkwardly patting the blonde waterbender on the back as he does.  

This only serves to make Sunoo start crying for real, eyes red rimmed and glossy as he starts to babble out apologies for not coming to rescue Heeseung earlier. 

Jake raises his head just in time to see Sunghoon let out a loud sigh from his position at the doorway, arms crossed. In response, the waterbender spins around to shoot a quick glare in his direction, rapidly straightening up. 

“Don’t act like you weren’t worried about him too, Hoonie-hyung,” Sunoo states, eyes narrowed, and Jake watches as Sunghoon’s ears turn red in real time at the term of endearment. 

“Of course I was, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to jump on him…” The airbender mumbles in reply, pale skin doing him no favours in terms of hiding the pink flush as it overtakes his features. 

Sunoo rolls his eyes exasperatedly, like he is infinitely burdened by the avatar’s words, but there is a fond smile tugging at the corner of his lips anyway.

A second later, the waterbender reaches out to yank the avatar into the group hug. Sunghoon stumbles forward, clearly not expecting the move, and there is a look of shock decorating his handsome face. 

The three teenagers shift to accommodate the new addition to their circle. 

“Where’s Riki?” Jake asks him, once the airbender has fully joined them, one arm awkwardly slung over Jake’s shoulder, and the other twitching just above the curve of Sunoo’s waist. 

Sunghoon goes to open his mouth and reply, but before he can—

“Riki’s here?” Heeseung interrupts, and now there is worry pawing at the corners of his voice. His next words come out rushed and harsh, and scared. “What? What is he doing here?”

“Don’t worry, hyung!” Sunoo rapidly cuts in to try and reassure him. He waves his hands as Heeseung turns to face him, eyes wide.

“Riki’s fine! He’s just with Jay-hyung and Jungwonie right now and they’re being a little slow.” He tilts his head. 

“Well, actually, it’s not really their fault for being so slow. Sunghoon-hyung insisted on using his airbending to get over here as fast as possible. And then I used my waterbending to do the same, because I wasn’t going to let him come see you alone. Also, Jay-hyung got, ah… injured, a little bit, trying to protect Jungwonie. Actually, it was looking pretty bad, but—!” He lights up, eyes shining. “That’s when Hoonie-hyung came swooping in at the perfect time! He was so cool, you should have seen it. It was like—”

“Sunoo-yah,” the avatar interrupts him, cheeks slightly red. 

It makes the waterbender blink, seemingly realizing that he was getting off topic. 

“Ah, sorry,” he says, face warming in turn. His eyes dart to the equally red airbender beside him before going back to Heeseung. “But, um, anyway, long story short, everyone’s okay—Riki included. The evil has been defeated, and they’re on their way!”

Jake blinks at the role reversal of the firebending prince protecting his aide (he is sure Jungwon has some… feelings about that), as well as the rushed way in which the waterbender had presented his information, and an incredulous burst of air forces its way past his lips. 

Still, despite his efforts, clearly Sunoo’s words do not alleviate all of Heeseung’s concerns, because he turns to Jake not even a heartbeat later, brows are pinched together in anxiety, but expecting an explanation—Like he is not questioning Jake, just waiting to understand. 

The familiarity of the action makes the non-bender smile. 

Even after all this time spent with the blonde waterbender, it is Jake who Heeseung looks to when he doesn’t know where else to go. Heeseung is still Heeseung, and the realization alleviates a worry he didn’t even realize he’d been harboring somewhere in his chest. 

Jake takes the earthbender’s hand in his, gently lacing their fingers together. Heeseung follows the movement willingly, like it is instinctual, though his eyes never once leave Jake’s face. 

Jake gives the earthbender’s palm a small squeeze—The reassurance he had been asking him for. Heeseung’s shoulders relax at the touch, and he looks a lot less concerned as he waits patiently for Jake to explain.

“Don’t worry,” Jake says, and there is an amused smile painted across his face. “I had the same reaction when I realized that he’d followed us out of the house and all the way to the Dai Li. But Riki’s strong, and if Sunoo says he’s alright, then I believe him.”

From there, Jake quickly summarizes the night’s events starting from where he’d left off, including Riki’s brief stint as an agent of stealth, and ending with their group separating and then reconvening here, now. 

While he speaks, Sunghoon and Sunoo undo the rest of the shackles binding Heeseung to his cage by cutting through the chains with their water.

By the end of Jake’s story, Heeseung’s mouth is on the floor as he struggles to form his next thoughts. Jake watches in amusement as his lips open and close around nothing, before eventually settling on: 

“When did Riki become such a little menace?”

Jake squints at him, poking the earthbender in the side. 

“He gets that from you, you know.” 

Heeseung opens his mouth like he wants to argue, but then thinks better of it at the last second. Instead, his lips curve into a sheepish smile, and he tightens his grip on Jake’s hand in his, like that will make him any less responsible for Riki’s rebelliousness. 

Jake rolls his eyes, but leans forward to brush a kiss against his cheek anyway, because Heeseung looks too cute with his windswept hair and chagrined smile for him not to—and also, because he can.

Except, at the last second, the earthbender turns his head so that Jake’s lips land on his own instead. 

Jake gives him a decidedly unimpressed look as he pulls away, which the earthbender only returns with a delighted smile. 

Jake blinks at him incredulously, and can’t help but wonder if he’s created a kiss-obsessed monster, and what potential repercussions this might have. 

At that moment, an excited gasp is heard from beside them, startling the pair from where they’d been momentarily lost in their own world. They spin to face Sunoo, who looks like he is practically glowing as his eyes eagerly dart between the pair. 

“Are you two finally together, for real?” Sunoo asks, hands clasped excitedly in front of him and eyes shining. 

Jake and Heeseung exchange a single glance, and an understanding passes between them, before the earthbender is turning back to Sunoo and giving him a proud little nod, tugging Jake closer by the hand. 

“Yeah,” the red-haired man proclaims, smile wide. He continues, “I finally got him to say yes to me. Only took about six years to wear him down,” which results in Jake elbowing him in the side, ears red. 

“Don’t word it like that,” the non-bender says, and tries to ignore the fierce pout Heeseung shoots back at him in return. 

“I’m happy for you two,” Sunghoon cuts in, a small smile of his own painted across his face. Jake smiles back, before the airbender’s tone takes on something teasing. “It was definitely about time, though.” 

“Oh my god, don’t even get me started!” Sunoo exclaims, pointing an accusatory finger in Heeseung’s direction. “I was getting so sick of all of Heeseung-hyung’s whining about Jake-hyung. It was literally all the time—On Gaeul’s back, in the North Pole. Like, hello! He loves you, too, idiot!” 

The pair’s words make Jake laugh, and he ignores the offended noise Heeseung makes at his side. 

“Hey,” Heeseung pouts, wrapping his arms around Jake’s waist and pulling him so that his back is flush to Heeseung’s front. Jake yelps from the sudden manhandling, ears turning beet red, but Heeseung doesn’t let him go. 

Instead, he only holds him tighter, burying his face in Jake’s shoulder, like he is hiding from the younger pair and using Jake’s body as a shield. 

“My friends are bullying me, Yunie,” he pouts, words tickling the side of Jake’s neck. “Stand up for me, please.” 

“You’re such a baby,” Jake sighs, running his hand through the taller man’s hair. 

Heeseung hums contently into the touch, only proving his point. 

“Your baby, though,” the earthbender replies, and Jake can feel his smug grin against his shoulder. 

Jake’s face flushes red, and he very pointedly ignores the two pairs of amused eyes as they catalogue the interaction in real time. 

It is at that second that a suspiciously Jungwon-and-Jay-sounding commotion is heard from outside their little cell, and all four heads perk up in interest. 

Heeseung detaches himself from Jake’s back, but does not let go of his hand. With Sunghoon leading the charge, the quartet slowly trickle out of the cell. 

What they are greeted with are three blurry figures that slowly fade into focus the closer they get to the cell. 

Jake squints, and makes out Jungwon’s familiar, graceful steps. He has one of Jay’s arms slung over his shoulders, and his own is wrapped around the firebender’s waist, supporting his weight and holding him up as they hobble along. 

Jay looks slightly worse for wear, blood splattered across his cheeks, and an obvious limp as he stumbles his way forward. Jungwon, on the other hand, looks perfectly fine—As capable and well as the day Jake had met him, minus a slight fragility in one of his arms. 

They seem to be bickering about—Something, and Jake barely catches the tailend of their conversation as they approach. 

“You’re just mad I’m better at doing your job than you are,” the firebender states, rolling his eyes.

Jungwon raises an eyebrow, shooting an unimpressed glare in the prince’s direction. 

“Clearly, you aren’t, if this is what happens after one single attempt on my life. Do you know how many of your assassination plots I’ve stopped?”

Jay opens his mouth to respond, when Jungwon cuts him off, voice cold. “No, actually, you wouldn’t. Want to know why? Because I stopped them.”

“Whatever,” Jay mumbles petulantly. He lets out a dramatic sigh. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to say thank you to your handsome saviour…”

The blonde rolls his eyes so hard it must hurt.

“What handsome saviour?” Jungwon casually replies, and the noise Jay makes in response is so offended Jake would have thought that Jungwon had just told him that he was leaving Jay for another, taller, better-looking firebending prince instead. 

It is at that moment, that the third figure pops his head out from around Jungwon’s feet. He is small, a little less than half of the knife-wielder’s height, and he has familiar black hair and brown eyes. 

He looks like he is barely suppressing laughter at the flabbergasted expression on the firebender’s face, but in the end, he can’t hold it in. 

His eyes scrunch up into little crescents as he laughs loudly, and the firebending prince sticks out his uninjured leg to try and trip him. Riki jumps over it, and then turns around to grin smugly back at Jay, who reacts very maturely by sticking out his tongue.

Jungwon whacks Jay over the head a second later, ignoring the offended “I’m injured!” the firebender exclaims in return. This only makes Riki laugh even harder. 

“Is that—Riki?” Heeseung asks, and there is awe colouring the tone of his voice. He is staring at Jake’s brother like he is the single most beautiful thing he has ever seen, and it does something funny to the core of Jake’s heart. 

The sound of the earthbender’s voice must reach Riki, somehow, because in the next second, he is turning around to face them, expression curious, but blank—Like he does not want to be disappointed if he has heard wrong. 

It is like the next seconds go by in slow motion as Riki’s eyes slowly slide over Sunghoon, Sunoo, and then Jake, who gives him a small, reassuring smile as he goes. 

When Riki’s gaze finally lands on Heeseung, his entire face lights up with a loud gasp, and then he is sprinting towards them. 

“Heeseung-hyung!” The seven—almost eight now—year old boy yells, before he is launching himself into Heeseung’s unsuspecting arms. The earthbender just barely has enough time to catch him before he tumbles to the ground, jaw slack and mouth agape. 

For his part, the young firebender’s smile stretches so wide across his face it almost looks like it should hurt. His arms are wrapped around Heeseung's neck as he presses himself down into a fierce hug against the earthbender’s chest. 

“I missed you so much,” he mumbles into the fabric of Heeseung’s shirt. 

Dazed, the only thing the earthbender can do is hug Riki back, squeezing him like he is trying to keep him in his arms forever. 

All at once, Jake sees Heeseung’s eyes start to sting with unshed tears, and the earthbender ducks his head so that his face is buried against the crown of Riki’s head like that will make the shake in his voice any less obvious as he speaks his next words. 

“I missed you, too, baby. So much . You have no idea,” the earthbender says back, and he is practically trembling as he holds the seven year old in his arms. 

“Jake-hyung missed you, too,” Riki adds, like this might be something Heeseung has not yet worked out for himself. 

The earthbender lets out a watery laugh, and hugs Riki tighter against his chest. He does not look at Jake as he gets out his next words, but the non-bender feels his cheeks warm as they reach him, anyway.

“Yeah, I know,” Heeseung says softly. “Me too.”

A short pause falls over the duo as they continue to cling to each other in silence, just content to breathe in the other’s presence. 

During that time, Jungwon and Jay finally make their way over to the rest of them. Jay claps Sunghoon on the shoulder as they pass, and the avatar stumbles slightly at the unexpected weight. It makes Sunoo giggle. Jungwon gives them another unimpressed stare, before turning to look at Jake as though to say ‘look at what I have to deal with’. 

Jake watches both scenes unfold in front of him with a fond smile, heart warm and chest impossibly light.

After a minute, Riki starts to squirm around in Heeseung’s arms, drawing all of their attention to him. 

Heeseung pulls back and squints at the younger boy. “Have you gotten taller since the last time I saw you?”

“Uh-huh,” the seven year old says, grinning proudly in reply. “I’m almost your height now.”

This makes Heeseung chuckle, gently carding his hands through the young firebender’s hair. He ruffles it. 

“Sure, bud,” he replies.

Riki puffs out his cheeks, pouting, but he is soon quelled by Heeseung dropping a quick kiss to the middle of his forehead, featherlight.

Riki hums contentedly at the feeling, before his expression shifts, and he is staring at the earthbender with slightly nervous eyes. 

“Heeseung-hyung, do you—,” he starts, before abruptly clamping his mouth shut. 

The earthbender blinks at the sudden change in his demeanour, cocking his head curiously at the younger boy. 

“Yes, Riki? What is it?” Instead of replying right away, the young firebender continues to squirm around, avoiding the earthbender’s gaze. 

Heeseung holds him gently in his arms, and waits patiently for him to continue. 

“It’s just, a lot of other things also happened after you left… Not—just that. And so, don’t be surprised if it’s not exactly like you remember,” Riki says after a second, words hesitant, like he is not sure whether or not he should have said them. His eyes are trained to where his hands are bunched up on the front of Heeseung’s shirt. 

Jake hears the unspoken fears clinging to the edge of his voice. The thought that Heeseung might be changed now, too—that he might prefer life with the avatar to life with Riki and Jake. The idea that Heeseung might not like Riki anymore if he finds out the ways in which the younger boy has changed, as well. 

It makes Jake’s heart ache somewhere buried in the center of his chest, and Heeseung’s smile falters at the reminder of his absence in Riki’s life. 

Heeseung’s expression drops, before he quickly schools it into something happier—Smile purposefully light. He swipes a careful thumb across the younger boy’s cheek. 

“I’m sure, baby. You’ll have to tell me all about it soon, then, okay? So I’ll know.”

Rik’s head snaps up, like he is shocked at the earthbender’s words, and then he is nodding seriously, like he has just closed an important business deal or signed an oath in blood. It is infinitely endearing against his round cheeks, and big eyes.

“Okay, but you have to promise to listen. Even if it’s long.”

“I promise,” Heeseung replies, reaching out a pinky to intertwine it with the younger boy’s. 

Riki happily complies, beaming at Heeseung once it is over, like the earthbender is the one doing him a favour and not the other way around. In his excitement, he doesn’t notice the way the earthbender quickly blinks away the wetness from his eyes. 

Hidden beneath the words, is another, different promise: the promise of an intertwined future, one in which Heeseung is there to listen to Riki, in the first place.

Then, Riki jolts like he has just remembered something, and he pops his head out from the earthbender’s embrace.

It makes the rest of their group startle, and Jay laughs as Sunghoon stumbles into Sunoo’s side. Riki’s eyes dart around for a moment, excited, before landing on Jake, and he smiles brightly as they do. 

“Jake-hyung! You have to come join the hug now, too.” 

The non-bender blinks in surprise. 

After a second, Riki’s cheeks turn red and he sheepishly adds, “Please.”

In the next moment, Heeseung is also staring at Jake with an equally expectant smile. Next to Riki, the two look like they could be related by blood, with their twin boxy smiles and bright eyes and sharp minds. 

And really, who could be expected to resist that?

Jake sighs (though it’s just for show), and makes his way towards them, a soft smile stretching across his face. Riki reaches out to eagerly pull him into the embrace as soon as he is within tugging distance, and Jake goes willingly. Moth to the flame. 

Heeseung’s arm around his waist. Riki’s small hand in his. The young firebender’s bright laughter as Heeseung smacks an obnoxious kiss against Riki’s cheek. 

The three of them are buried in the unfamiliar and dangerous catacombs of Ba Sing Se. They are nowhere near Kiyoshi Island, which is little more than a pile of ash and dust somewhere outside of the earth nation capital’s impenetrable walls. 

Still, at that moment, his two favourite people in his arms and four more at his back, Jake lets out a breath of laughter, and finally , finally comes home. 

Chapter Text

On the other side of etеrnity,

Because it’s a moment, it’s a brilliant light

Evеry moment that has passed away

Salvation is what you mean, my calling leads me

Finally, you complete me

I'm yours 

Jake wakes up on an ordinary Tuesday morning to the feeling of Heeseung’s arms wrapped securely around his waist. 

Their legs are tangled together beneath soft sheets, and the earthbender’s warm breath is tickling the back of Jake’s neck. There is light streaming in through an open window; its soft glow bathing the room in gold. 

For a moment, Jake allows himself to bask in the combined warmth of the familiar body behind him, the sun’s gentle rays hitting his face, and the mound of blankets they have buried themselves under from the night before.

As always, time does not exist during the early hours of the morning, especially within the confines of their bedroom’s four walls. They are decorated by Riki’s drawings—3 figures holding hands, and 4 more at their side—and remnants of Heeseung’s clumsy attempts at painting them green before they’d redone it in white. 

It is peaceful, infinitely so. 

Jake inhales against the sheets, and the familiar scent of Heeseung’s shampoo enters through his nose. It is an action as comforting as it is instinctual. The high-pitched chirp of the lemur-birds can be heard from outside, and it makes him regret not having closed the window before going to bed.

After a second more, Jake gently turns in his lover’s hold so that his back is no longer glued to Heeseung’s front. The earthbender’s arms tighten around him at the movement, though he does little else to protest—seemingly content so long as Jake remains beside him. 

Heeseung looks serene in the morning light. 

His mouth is gently parted against his pillow, and his brow twitches as Jake reaches forward to carefully brush a strand of red hair away from his eyes. His touch is fleeting, scared of waking the earthbender up when he looks so content. 

Heeseung’s expression smoothes out a second later, and he lets out an adorable little hum as Jake’s hand moves to trace the delicate bones of his cheek with his thumb. 

Heeseung’s features have only matured with time, and Jake can’t help but admire the strong lift of his brows, the sharp edge of his jaw, the hard muscle beneath his hands. 

He catalogues the changes in his mind, and they become mixed and superimposed with images of Heeseung’s still-round cheeks at 13, his star-struck smile at 17, and now, the subtle glow of his sun-kissed skin at 24. 

He has always been beautiful in Jake’s eyes, but it is different now. These days, when Jake stares into Heeseung’s eyes, he does not feel the need to look away from all the parts of himself that are reflected back. He can breathe easier.

Slowly, Jake begins the process of trying to entangle himself from the earthbender’s wayward limbs. He starts with the legs first, and there is no trouble there. Heeseung shifts as they leave, but stills just as quick. 

Next, Jake’s hands encase around the earthbender’s arms, gently pushing them apart so that he can slip out from their embrace. He doesn’t get very far, before Heeseung’s arms are tightening in protest, and Jake finds himself pulled back down to the bed.

Jake lets out a tired sigh, though he can’t stop the fond smile from cracking open against his lips. He leans forward to lay a light kiss on the earthbender’s jaw. His lips linger there for a moment, featherlight, before he exhales and pulls away. 

Something about it must cause the earthbender to stir, because a moment later, there is rustling in the bed, and the red-haired man’s eyes are slowly cracking open. 

Heeseung blinks as his eyes adjust to the sudden light. They soften as Jake comes into focus, something infinitely tender in his smile.

“Hi,” Jake whispers, like it would be sacrilege to speak any louder. “Sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s okay, love,” Heeseung replies, voice equally soft. He doesn’t sound fully awake. 

His eyes lazily flutter closed a second later, lashes brushing against his cheeks. His breathing evens out. Jake wonders if he has fallen back asleep.

After a second, he tries to pull away again, only for Heeseung to let out a muffled noise of protest against the sheets. It makes the non-bender freeze.

“Jakey, go back to sleep,” the earthbender murmurs, shifting so that his body curls further around Jake’s. “It’s too early.”

“I have to go make lunch for Riki,” Jake whispers back. He caresses Heeseung’s cheek with his hand, and the earthbender leans into the warm touch. 

He continues to do so for a minute more, during which no part of Heeseung moves, save for the gentle rise and fall of his chest. It feels like the earthbender is trying to commit the moment to eternity. It makes Jake smile.

This time, when he goes to leave the bed, Heeseung does not stop him, having dozed off back to sleep. He lets out a quiet snore, mumbling something incoherent under his breath. 

The non-bender carefully makes his way over to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. As he looks into the mirror, his eyes absentmindedly follow the faded scars of battles past. 

There is a small one near his ear, right under his brow, from where a stray fraction of the earth had nicked him five years ago on the firelord’s fated planes. It, along with everything else about their re-building world, is a reminder of the sacrifices it took to be able to share the luxury of calm mornings spent with those you love.

When Jake re-enters their bedroom, Heeseung is still fast asleep, head pressed against their pillows. He moves around as Jake approaches the bed, like even in his sleep, he can sense the younger man’s presence. 

Jake sits down at the edge, mattress dipping slightly with the added weight, and laughs as Heeseung’s hand finds his not even a second later. He clutches Jake’s fingers in a light grasp, barely alive in the early hours of the morning, but apparently conscious enough to make a lazy attempt at luring the non-bender back to bed. 

Using the hand that is not occupied, Jake gently cards his fingers through soft red strands. It is more indulgent than it is anything else, especially with Heeseung looking so pliant and peaceful under Jake’s touch. 

His hands naturally find themselves tracing the bridge of the earthbender’s nose next, then his cheekbones, down to his neck. Jake outlines the curve of Heeseung’s throat with his thumb, pressing down against the protruding bone of his clavicle.

He watches as the skin shifts around his touch, and absentmindedly remarks on the human capacity to affect others. 

When he looks back up, the earthbender’s brown eyes are open once again, though he looks much more awake than he had before. He looks like he had been watching Jake watching him, and it brings a sheepish smile to the non-bender’s face.

Heeseung’s brows raise in question, like he does not know what Jake is sheepish for, mind still hazy from the early hour. Jake does not give him time to dwell. 

He leans down, and presses a gentle kiss to the corner of the earthbender’s mouth. Heeseung’s head tilts up in response—instinctually trying to chase the taste of the non-bender’s lips, but Jake pulls away before he can. 

Jake giggles at the pouting face Heeseung makes at him in response as he fully comes to.

“I’ll be back soon,” Jake promises him, smoothing out the crease between the earthbender’s brows with his thumb. It falls to the older man’s cheek a second later as Jake lays another delicate kiss against his forehead.

Heeseung’s hand raises to catch Jake around the wrist as he straightens up, strong fingers gently keeping the appendage in place. The red-haired man’s thumb rests lightly over the non-bender’s pulse as it speeds up under his touch. 

Jake resists the urge to shive as it strokes against the inside of his wrist, carefully brushing over the protruding ligaments, before his hand glides further up—palm against palm—and Heeseung intertwines their fingers together.  

They slot into place like they were meant to hold one another.

The earthbender brings their conjoined hands to his full lips, and his kiss lingers for a second against smooth skin. Jake lets out a contented sigh.

“Okay,” Heeseung eventually replies, pulling away. His hand falls back to the bed, eyes shutting closed. “I love you.”

Jake smiles, endlessly endeared. He gives the earthbender one last pat on the head.

“I love you, too. Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone,” Jake says, standing up from the bed. 

The earthbender lets out a funny snort. “Impossible,” Heeseung mumbles back in reply, before rolling over and falling back asleep. 

Jake goes to the kitchen, and starts his day. 

It is a lot easier getting out of the catacombs than it is getting in. Dirt-covered and blood-singing, this is something Jake soon learns, and for which he is infinitely grateful. 

With the combined bending of Sunghoon and Heeseung, along with the lack of a need for stealth as the sun begins to rise above the rooftops of Ba Sing Se, it is quicker than Jake remembered. 

Almost immediately after bursting free from the earth, Sunghoon whistles, and a white blur whizzes past their heads. Jake cranes his neck to try and see where it went, but by the time his head comes back to the ground, Gaeul is standing in front of them.

Sunoo doesn’t hesitate before pouncing on the sky bison, burying his face into her hide. It’s funny; he almost disappears in the blanket of her white fur. Gaeul emits a small noise of content, nuzzling the waterbender back. Sunoo giggles, then climbs onto her back. 

A moment later, Sunghoon does the same, though not without a handful of fond pets against her face beforehand. He is much quicker, using his airbending to fly. 

Heeseung goes next, extending a hand to Riki once he has safely reached the top. Jake lifts the young firebender up from around his waist until he is within Heeseung’s reach, and the earthbender’s fingers close around his arm, pulling him up. 

A second later, Jake carefully follows behind, emulating the route he’d seen Sunoo take up the sky bison’s back. Once he reaches the top, he is greeted with Riki excitedly tugging on Heeseung’s arm and asking all sorts of questions about what it feels like to fly. 

At the same time, Jungwon and Jay are also making their way up. 

Jungwon is graceful, climbing up the sky bison’s back like he has done so a million times before. The firebender, though, is struggling against his injuries. He almost falls back to the ground when Gaeul shifts around on her feet. Sunghoon catches him with his air before he can, channeling him up.

The firebender’s ears are red when he finally makes it to the top, and Jungwon is sporting his signature cat-like grin from beside him. 

“Everyone ready?” Sunghoon asks, and Jake just barely has enough time to situate Riki in his lap, before Gaeul is pushing up and lifting off. 

Apparently, he is not the only one startled by her sudden movement. Jay lets out a yelp, before toppling against the air bison’s hide, clinging desperately to the soft, fur strands beneath his hands. 

There is a look of complete and utter fear painted across his face as Gaeul moves with the wind. It makes Jungwon, who’d fared much better in comparison, laugh delightedly. 

Sunghoon lets out a loud whoop of joy as the air bison takes to the sky, and it is so uncharacteristically boisterous that it makes Jake‘s jaw slacken. 

At his side, Heeseung slips a quiet arm around his waist, and chuckles at the non-bender‘s stupefied expression.

“He’s a total loser, isn’t he?” Heeseung says, and it makes Riki cackle with glee. 

Jake nods. Smiles. “Yeah.” 

Beside them, Sunoo is healing Jay, palms flat against the firebender’s side as his water glows with the ebbs and flows. Holding Jay’s hand is Jungwon, who is curiously watching the prince’s face as the waterbender works. 

“You know how to heal?” Jake asks as he looks over, surprised. The waterbender grins up at him, pearly whites shining in the dawn’s light. 

“Yep! I learned while we were in the North Pole. Cool, right?”

“Very,” Jake replies, smiling. “It must have been helpful during your adventures,” he continues, and pretends not to notice when the blonde’s eyes instinctually dart to the airbender sitting at the sky bison’s head. 

They reach the earth king’s palace not even 10 minutes later. When the Dai Li try to usher them away, they don’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and there is little they can do in the face of Jungwon’s wrath.

They learn some interesting things as they burst through the doors of the throne room. Apparently, the king had had no idea about the Dai Li’s corruption, but after a quick tour on Gaeul to the kingdom’s walls where there sat a massive, mechanical drill with the fire nation’s insignia painted across its back (long story), he’d been convinced. 

It is, afterall, very hard to deny the word of the avatar, the crown prince of the very nation with which they were at war, and one very, very determined Kim Sunoo. 

The king had given them all rooms to stay in while they prepared for the eclipse, or at least for the night, and they’d graciously accepted, exhausted from the day’s events. Still, despite the 7 rooms provided, Heeseung and Riki find themselves in Jake’s bed when the night falls.  

Riki hasn’t slept between the two older boys since he was 5, but as soon as he hits the bed, he snuggles between them like he’d never stopped. 

Above him, Heeseung and Jake are communicating with hushed voices so as to not wake him up. All of a sudden, there is a rustling under the sheets, and Riki’s head pops out of the hide he’d formed between them.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” the younger boy declares, clumsily throwing off the blankets and climbing over Heeseung’s lap as he tries to leave. 

The earthbender catches him around the wrist before he can get very far. “Wait, Riki, let me light a candle before you go. I don’t want you to trip in the dark.”

The earthbender is reaching for the matches at their bedside table, when the younger boy lets out an impatient huff. 

“No, it’s okay, Heeseung-hyung. Don’t worry,” Riki says, before casually setting his hand on fire. He waves it around. “See? Look.”

For a second, there is complete and utter silence in the room. Then:

“Y-YOU CAN BEND?” Heeseung exclaims, eyes comically wide as he stares down at the young firebender. All of a sudden, Jake realizes the very important detail he’d left out of his summary. 

Heeseung’s tone makes the younger boy hesitate, and he jerkily lowers his arm like he is worried that Heeseung is going to be mad. It must activate something in the earthbender’s brain, because a moment later, he is scrambling to make up for his initial reaction. 

“T-That’s amazing, Riki. Wow. You’re so good at controlling it already.”

Apparently, this is enough for the younger boy, who immediately beams in reply. “Jay-hyung was teaching me! He said I’m the best student ever.”

Jake ruffles his hair, ignoring Heeseung’s dumbfounded expression. “You are also Jay’s only student ever.” 

“Nuh-uh,” Riki retorts, lips jutting out in a pout. “He’s teaching the avatar now, too. Anyway, I really need to go. Excuse me.”

This time, there is no resistance as he clambers over them to get to their attached bathroom, lighting his way all the while. The light dims as he closes the bathroom door, and Heeseung turns to look at Jake. 

“You knew?” Heeseung asks him, unimpressed. He looks like he is still processing. “Is this what Riki was talking about when he said ‘changes’?”

Jake gives him a sheepish smile in return. Heeseung stares flatly back. Jake purses his lips. 

“Um. Yes?” He tilts his head. “You’re not mad, right?”

Heeseung sighs. 

“You are so lucky that I love you,” he says. “Both of you.”

Jake grins, then distracts the earthbender by leaning forward to kiss him. It works. Heeseung is smiling into his lips a second later. They only break apart when Riki’s horrified screech sounds out from beside them, faces red.

Once he has finished setting the table, Jake quietly pokes his head back into he and Heeseung’s shared room. By this point, the earthbender is more alert. He is getting dressed for the day, and Jake lingers by the doorway to watch.

There are already a pair of loose pants hanging around his hips, and Jake takes a moment to admire the planes of Heeseung’s strong back as he sifts through their closet for a shirt. 

Much like Jake, there are a multitude of light scars decorating the tanned skin, pale against sun-kissed shoulders. It stirs something complicated in the pit of Jake’s chest. On one hand, it’s proof that they’ve aged, experienced a life together. On the other, it’s a reminder of all that they’ve lost, everything it took to get here.

Heeseung’s back has always been broad, but the muscles have only been further toned since the war. Even though it’s been years now since they’ve last had to fight, the earthbender still enjoys the satisfaction of sweat against his brow when he trains, and it’s obvious in the strength of his physique. 

Heeseung slips a shirt over his head, mussing up the hair as it goes, and Jake blinks as he is brought back down to earth. The earthbender’s muscles shift as he pulls his arms through the sleeves, gently smoothing down the fabric once it’s in place. 

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Jake says once he’s done, and the earthbender turns around at the sound. 

Heeseung does not look surprised to see the non-bender in the doorway. He gives Jake a tender smile as the younger man makes his way over.

“Hi,” Heeseung replies, taking Jake’s hand once he is close enough to do so. He rubs a small circle on the back of the skin. “It’s a good morning now.”

“Cheesy,” Jake retorts, though he is smiling, too. “You always say that.”

Heeseung gives him a small kiss on the cheek, careful to avoid his lips. “That’s because it’s always true. I need to brush my teeth, but I’ll be at breakfast soon.” He cranes his head. “Is Riki up yet?”

Jake shrugs, bringing up his free hand to smooth down the collar of the red-haired man’s shirt. The fabric is soft beneath his fingertips and he hums as they brush over the exposed skin around Heeseung’s throat. He is not in any particular rush, and Heeseung waits patiently for his reply. 

“I’m not sure,” Jake eventually replies. “I’ll go check on him now.”

Heeseung nods. He gives their conjoined hands one last squeeze, before he is stepping away. Jake watches him go, right up until he can’t anymore, and then leaves. 

The non-bender patters down the hall, and then knocks lightly on Riki’s closed door. Three gentle taps: more an alert of his presence than an alarm. When he receives no response, Jake presses the shell of his ear against the hard wood to see if his brother is up.

“Riki?” He calls, pulling away. “Are you awake? Breakfast’s ready.” 

A muffled reply comes from inside the room. Jake waits, then cracks the door open. 

“I’m almost ready,” Riki says when he sees Jake enter. He is sitting on his bed and pulling on a pair of mismatched socks. The non-bender sighs.

“Your socks don’t match,” he states, unsure if this is on purpose or not. Riki just nods. 

“Okay,” Jake says. “Come down when you’re ready.”

The firebender nods, and Jake shuts the door. 

They are gathered around the kitchen table some odd 10 minutes later, eating the breakfast that Jake has prepared. 

Riki is distractedly doing—Something with his hands, tongue sticking out from the corner of his lips in concentration. A second later, a small burst of fire is expelled. It dances around his index, and he grins. 

“Riki,” Heeseung gently scolds. “No bending at the table.”

“Sorry, hyung,” Riki replies, extinguishing the flame. He starts to shovel eggs and toast into his mouth a second later. The earthbender turns to Jake.

“Are you going to the palace later today?” Heeseung asks, taking a sip of his cup.

Jake nods, sighing. “Yeah, I need to go help Jay with some of the preparations. He’s been freaking out about them all week.”

This makes Heeseung laugh, familiar with the firebender’s capacity for worry, especially when it comes to all matters involving a certain blonde. He is just about to reply, when: 

“You’re going to the palace?” Riki suddenly cuts in, perking up in his seat. 

Jake squints at him suspiciously. “Yes, why?”

“Can I come with you?” The firebender asks, eyes wide. “There’s something I want to show to Sunghoon-hyung.”

“Don’t you have school today, Riks?” Heeseung asks. This makes the firebender pout. 

He turns to the earthbender with pleading eyes, because he knows that Heeseung is the weak link. “Please, Heeseung-hyung. It’s really important. I promise. Plus, we’re not doing anything new in class today, anyway.”

It is a strong effort, and Jake can see Heeseung wavering with every calculated bat of Riki’s eyes. The non-bender interrupts them just as he knows that Heeseung is about to break. 

“Sorry, baby. Maybe next time,” Jake says, shrugging his shoulders. He casually reaches for the pitcher to refill his glass. “But you have to go to school, and I’m sure Sunghoon will be fine to wait.”

In response, the firebender only sinks down into his seat, letting out a dramatic sigh as he goes. Jake raises a single unimpressed eyebrow in his direction. Riki pouts. 

The firebender sighs again, but it is even more drawn out than it was before. He subtly peeks up at Jake after, like he is checking to see if it convinced him. It did not.

“Finee,” the firebender eventually concedes, exhaustedly drawing out the end as he flops down against his seat. He looks like he is infinitely burdened by life’s tasks. 

Jake smiles, amused. “I’ll tell Sunghoon to come see you soon, alright? Then you can show him.”

This makes Riki perk up, mood easily swayed by the non-bender’s words. He is back to happily munching on his eggs and toast. He swallows his food, smiling up at Jake after he does.

“Okay. Thank you, Jake-hyung.”

“No thank you for me?” Heeseung adds, watching Riki in amusement as he puts down his fork to turn in the earthbender’s direction. The firebender tilts his head at him.

“Thanks, Heeseung-hyung. I guess. Even though you didn’t really do anything.”

This time it is Heeseung’s turn to pout. Jake laughs, and the three continue breakfast in relative silence, broken by the occasional question about what Riki is learning in school, or what Heeseung should pick up from the groceries on his way back home.

“Enjoy your day with Sunghoon-ah and Jay-ah,” Heeseung tells him when it is time for him to leave. 

Riki is already at school by that point, and Heeseung only has to meet up with Beomgyu and Jeongin for dinner sometime later during the day.  

Jake leans forward to peck him on the lips, giggling when Heeseung wraps an arm around his waist to prolong it. After a second, he puts his hands on the earthbender’s chest to separate them. The earthbender doesn’t chase.

“Thanks, Heeseung,” Jake says, placing one last kiss against the taller man’s cheek before he steps away. Heeseung’s arms fall back to his side as he does. “I’ll see you later.”

The earthbender smiles. “Bye, Jakey. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Jake replies, then steps out the door. 

It is only later, when they have left the Catacombs of the Dai Li, and Jake and Heeseung are sitting in Jake’s apartment in Ba Sing Se, and the earth king has been informed of the war raging on outside of his walls, that Jake finally allows himself to relax, at least a little.

It is late, and Riki is already in bed, fast asleep. If Jake strains his ears, he is sure that he’d be able to hear his little snores through the open door. 

One day, he will be able to feel at ease with it closed, but right now, the thought of not being able to get to his brother as soon as possible should something go wrong is enough for him to leave a crack. 

The young firebender, despite his insistence every night that he “isn’t tired and would rather stay up with Heeseung-hyung and Jake-hyung than go to bed”, always succumbs to exhaustion almost 10 minutes exactly past his bedtime. 

Tonight, he’d started to doze off in between recounts of Heeseung’s adventures in the North Pole, clutching the walrus-bear plushie Heeseung had brought back for him as a souvenir to his chest.

The earthbender has just gotten to the part where Sunghoon and the water nation princess, Wonyoung, first met, and how scarily similar they’d looked standing side by side—Postures equally straight, skin equally pale, faces equally, unbelievably beautiful—when Riki lets out his first yawn, snuggling deeper into the warmth of his brother at his side. 

It makes Heeseung pause, but Riki catches on quickly, and insists that the earthbender continue talking about “the avatar and the moon lady, please,” even though he looks about two seconds away from falling asleep.

Since the catacombs, Riki has warmed up a lot to the avatar’s presence. 

Jake hadn’t even realized the grudge Riki had been harboring against the last airbender until he’d witnessed his brother glare at Sunghoon with all the fire in the world at the mere suggestion that Riki be left behind. 

Some wounds do not heal so quickly, and in Heeseung’s absence, apparently, all of Riki’s anger had gotten trapped somewhere underneath his skin, and then congregated around the myth of the avatar for having taken the earthbender away. 

Seeing Sunghoon trip over himself in an attempt to talk to Sunoo has done wonders to humanize him in the young firebender’s eyes. That, along with Heeseung’s reintroduction into their lives, of course. 

Even so, there remains some tension between the two—completely one-sided, but stemming this time from the young firebender’s… attachment to a certain waterbender, and that waterbender’s attachment to Sunghoon. Riki still refuses to call Sunghoon by anything other than ‘the avatar’.

Still, it is gentler, and Jake has a feeling that it will fade.

Now, Heeseung’s dramatic retellings of Sunghoon’s ramrod straight back and unflinching eyes no matter how unbelievable the situation only make the young firebender laugh. 

It makes something light flutter in Jake’s chest. 

After the third loud yawn, coupled with Riki sleepily rubbing at his eyes between every couple of words, Heeseung exchanges a knowing glance with Jake over the younger boy’s head. 

A moment later, the earthbender is picking Riki up and carefully bringing to his room. The young firebender only burrows himself further into the comfort of Heeseung’s chest at the action, falling asleep before his body even hits the bed. 

It reminds Jake so painfully of Kiyoshi that it almost makes him want to do something violent like smashing his fist against the wall—For a village that is now ash, for a life that is no longer theirs. Still, it is Heeseung and Riki, so it will always be home, and it will always be enough. 

The fortified walls of Ba Sing Se allow Jake to play at life before the day Sunghoon crash-landed into their village square, only this time, its expiration date is no secret.

Eventually, they will have to leave, but for now—with Sunghoon and Jay engaged in eclipse preparations with the earth nation king—they have been permitted to stay, and to pretend. 

One day, they won’t have to anymore. 

Now, with only the chirps of the cicada-crickets to keep them company, Jake is sitting on Heeseung’s lap on the living room’s couch. 

They are lazily trading kisses, and giggling into each other’s mouths, and trying to catch up on a lifetime of missed opportunities and unspoken wants. 

The earthbender is soft against Jake’s hands, and the gentle grip on the non-bender’s hips make him melt into the touch. Jake’s own fingers are playing with the stray strands at the back of the earthbender’s neck—Longer now since the last time he’d seen him. 

Heeseung makes a little noise into Jake’s mouth as the non-bender lightly scrapes at the skin behind his ears, and it makes something warm swirl in the heat of Jake’s gut. 

“Ah. Yunie,” Heeseung mumbles against his lips, dazed. 

Jake giggles, and the earthbender redirects his efforts to the hollow of Jake’s throat in revenge.

“My Jakey,” Heeseung says, in between a trail of featherlight kisses up the smaller man’s neck. The sensation makes Jake gasp, arms tightening around the earthbender’s neck to steady himself.

Heeseung hums, teeth gently scraping against the underside of his jaw. Jake can practically feel the satisfaction dripping off of him in waves. 

One of the hands moves so that it is cradling Jake’s neck, tilting it back for a better angle as Heeseung tastes the salt of Jake’s skin. The other hand ghosts along the small of his back, and the non-bender arches up into the touch. 

“Sweetheart,” the earthbender mumbles. “My love. You’re so perfect.”

“Heeseung,” Jake whines, and it is a needy thing. His face feels warm at the attention, and he resists the urge to hide in the earthbender’s hair.  

Heeseung lifts to press a quick kiss to the non-bender cheek, before pulling back, eyes loving and fond. He gives Jake a sheepish smile. 

“Too much?” he asks, one hand soothingly running up and down the curve of Jake’s back. 

Jake blushes, shaking his head. “No, it’s good. I’m just—You know.” 

Jake’s bashfulness makes the earthbender laugh, airy and bright. He is staring up at Jake with stars in his eyes, smile soft.

“Sorry,” Heeseung says, massaging a hand against the dip of Jake’s waist. “It’s just hard to control myself when I have the most beautiful boy in the world sitting on my lap.” 

“You’re so cheesy,” Jake retorts, though he is smiling. They remain like that for a moment, content to just bask in each other’s presence. Then, Jake lets out a small sigh, and goes to move off of the earthbender’s lap.

Immediately, Heeseung’s hands tighten against him in response, silent questions obvious in the pinch between his brows. 

Jake ducks down to press a quick peck to his forehead. 

“We have an early morning tomorrow,” he says after he pulls away. He tries to give him a stern look. He’s not sure how effective it is from his position on the earthbender's thighs. “You have to go see Sunoo about those allies you guys were talking about, and Hoon asked me to help him and Jay with some of the eclipse preparations.”

The earthbender lets out an observatory hum at Jake’s words, hands absentmindedly running up and down the non-bender’s sides. 

“You three are so close these days,” Heeseung says, not acknowledging the rest of the younger man’s sentence.

“Yeah,” Jake agrees, thumb stroking against the earthbender’s cheek. He pauses, tilts his head. “Does that bother you?”

“Of course not, sweetheart,” Heeseung says, nuzzling his face into the heat of Jake’s palm. He presses a gentle kiss to the inside of the non-bender’s wrist. “It’s just funny—I wouldn’t have expected it.”

Jake laughs, shaking his head. “Me neither. I mean, me? Friends with the crown prince of the fire nation? The avatar? It sounds like the start of a bad joke: three 18 year olds walk into a bar…” 

It makes Heeseung chuckle, and Jake delights in the sound. After a moment, the earthbender quiets down, and Jake waits for him to speak. 

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Heeseung says, smiling up at him, to which the non-bender makes a questioning noise in reply. 

Heeseung leans up to kiss him adoringly on the cheek, then sighs. 

“You could get along with a brick wall, Yunie, but Jay-ah and Sunghoon-ah are a completely different story. I’m just surprised you’re able to put up with them, especially together. They’re lucky they have Sunoo-ah and Jungwonie to help them. It’d be hopeless, otherwise.”

He lets out another dramatic sigh once he is done, and Jake giggles at the earthbender’s tone.

“Hm, they’re not the only ones,” the non-bender playfully remarks, toying with the earthbender’s crimson locks between his fingertips. “I can think of someone else who’d be pretty hopeless without their other half.” 

It isn’t totally true, but he likes to tease anyway. Still, Heeseung pretends to think, even going so far as to let out a thoughtful hum as he cocks his head to the side. 

After a second, he shrugs. “Sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about.” 

“Oh? You don’t? So you wouldn’t mind if I left right now, then?” Jake asks, eyebrows raised. 

The effect is immediate. Heeseung’s arms tighten around him in a manner that borders on possessiveness. He ducks forward to playfully nip at the non-bender’s neck, making Jake giggle.

“Nope,” the earthbender says. “You’re not allowed to go anywhere.”

“Except to bed, you mean,” Jake replies, poking the earthbender in the cheek. It makes Heeseung’s face scrunch up in mock annoyance. It eases a second later. 

“Fine,” Heeseung sighs, and the arms loosen. “I guess we can go to bed.”

This time, when Jake goes to get up, Heeseung does not stop him. The earthbender’s head lolls against the back of the couch, once, before he follows obediently behind. 

Tomorrow, there will be discussions of war, and ambushes, and fights. Violence and bloodshed and all the things they are willing to sacrifice for the good of the world. Jay, Jake, and Sunghoon around a round table. Heeseung and Sunoo poured over diagrams and enemy maps. Jungwon in the training grounds, commanding earth nation men. 

But for tonight, Jake allows himself to pretend like none of it exists as they soundlessly make their way to the bedroom. They slip into pyjamas, then into bed.

Heeseung’s bangs tumble over his eyes as he lies down, and Jake reaches forward to softly brush them away.

“We should cut your hair soon,” Jake absentmindedly remarks as they settle in.

“Alright,” Heeseung replies, before shuffling under the covers and blowing out the lights.

Sunghoon and Jay are already bickering when Jake enters the throne room. 

At first, they don’t even realize that he is there, too wrapped up in whatever argument they’re currently having. 

The firelord sits on his throne like it is made of the same material as Jake’s couch at home: outstretched and lazy. By his side, Sunghoon is rolling his eyes as he taps an impatient foot against the ground—For the avatar, usually calm as a sinking rock, this is equal to throwing his chair across the room in anger. 

“But what if Wonie doesn’t like peonies?” Jay bemoans, running both hands through his hair. He sighs. “What if he just agreed to it, because he knows that I like them?”

Sunghoon’s expression contorts in disbelief. “When has Jungwon ever lied to you to spare your feelings? If anything, it’s the opposite…”

“This is impossible,” the firelord sighs, cutting him off. “When’s Jake getting here? You’re not helping.”

Sunghoon opens his mouth to say something back, eyebrow twitching in frustration, and the non-bender takes this as his cue to intervene. 

“I’m here,” Jake says, once he is within hearing distance, tearing his two friends away from each other. Their faces light up, happy for the respite from their squabbling. 

“Jake!” Jay exclaims, straightening up in his seat. “Finally. I was starting to think Heeseung-hyung was holding you captive.”

“Jaeyun,” the avatar adds, smiling in acknowledgement. 

“What’s up?” Jake asks them, and almost immediately regrets doing so as Jay launches into a long, overdrawn tangent about what kinds of flowers he should choose for his and Jungwon’s upcoming wedding. 

Sunghoon is silent at his side, staring off blankly into space, having heard it all already. 

Jake does his best to listen, and nod attentively at the appropriate parts, though it’s a little hard.

In a way, Jake can empathise with the firelord’s concerns. The actual ceremony isn’t for another couple of months, but it’s a massive event, one of unheard proportions, and it represents more than just the union between the firelord and his second, though that is, of course, the main thing. 

Jay and Jungwon’s wedding will mark 5 years since the ending of the 100 year war, and 5 years of the fire nation’s attempts at rebuilding themselves in the shadow of what that war cost—What they cost the rest of the world. 

At the beginning, people were against what Jay was trying to do, afraid of the change he threatened to usher into their already fragile lives. 100 years spent in one way, and suddenly, the crown prince turned firelord was suggesting something else entirely. 

With their former leader rotting somewhere beneath the royal palace, the fire nation had only just realized that they were on the wrong side of the war, and now, they were being asked to repent for crimes they did not even know they had been committing. 

Thankfully, the firebender was relentless, and he did not allow for their hesitations to deter him from his goals. When the nation tried to push him, he pushed back—Harder. Jay has always been good at that, really—At forcing people to wake up from the parts of themselves they don’t want to leave behind. 

But even more importantly, Jake thinks, Jay was kind, and genuine, and patient, understanding when faced with his people’s concerns—Something his father never was.

Jay did not rush change, only welcomed it, like the shore welcomes the changing of the tides. Eventually, people began to see what he was trying to do, and they opened themselves up to help him do it. 

It goes without saying that Jungwon stood by his side all the while. 

Cool intelligence and calm mind invaluable to Jay’s impassioned strides. It was of no surprise to anyone—the entirety of the fire nation included, when they finally announced their engagement after 4 long years of non-stop work. 

Now, 5 years after the rise of a fire nation borne from the efforts of a firelord Park Jongseong, the path to their goal has finally been made clear. Real, tangible progress has been made. It will likely take the pair more than a lifetime of work to deconstruct the propaganda and hurt seeped into every facet of their willful nation, but Jake believes in his friends. 

If there is anyone who can do it, it is Jay and Jungwon. Especially, if they have each other.

Their wedding alone is already proof enough that they are on their way. 

(Not to mention, of course, they are aided by the occasional assistance of other members of the ‘Sungang’—Jay is the one who came up with the name, much to the protests of literally everyone except for Heeseung who’d laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard). 

It feels like a long time coming, and yet, Jake can’t believe it anyway. 

The royal wedding, two of the world’s saviours becoming one. The new firelord and his new fire nation being ushered into the light of their new world. The luxury of time and resources to plan such an extravagant event, to welcome those from all nations of the globe into the land that once belonged to their common foe. Proof that the war is over and done with after 105 years of worry and work. 

His best friends getting married after a lifetime spent loving one another in silence.

Jake hears that there is going to be a parade, and a national holiday, and everything. He’s sure Jungwon must hate it. It makes him laugh when Jay tells him.

Already, the fire nation is buzzing with excitement at what all of it means—All the way from the smallest of lemur-mice to the largest of elephant-ducks. It is a feeling palpable in the air, one would have to be deaf and blind to miss it. 

“Why don’t you just ask Jungwonie?” Jake says, once Jay has finished his spiel about flowers, and colours, and everything else there is spiel about. 

It makes the firelord grimace, scratching nervously at the back of his neck. 

“Wonie’s already so busy with everything else. I don’t want to add to that,” he says, and they are familiar words. It almost makes Jake smile with nostalgia.

“It’s just Jungwon, Jongseong,” Sunghoon cuts in, his exasperated tone of voice suggesting he has already said these words before. “He probably doesn’t care either way. You know that, right?”

Jay glares at him. “I know.” Then, his voice takes on something lighter, hesitant even in its sound. “But I don’t know, this is our wedding. I want it to be special, and I want to make it for him. Especially when it’s already so much bigger than just, well—us, and so much is being decided by people who don’t know Wonie like we do.”

Jake’s expression softens, because it is a feeling he understands. 

“It will be special,” the non-bender says. “It’ll be special because it’s you two. Just go talk to him about it later tonight, I’m sure he’ll understand. It’s like Hoon said, it is just Jungwon, afterall.”

Jay smiles, and it smoothes over the sharp edges of his fire nation robes and crown. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Jake.” It is two seconds away from being a nice moment when Jay continues, “You’re way better at this than Sunghoonie by the way.”

For all that the airbender’s advice has always helped the non-bender, it rarely seems to land with the other 23 year old. It is an interesting phenomenon that Jake has not tried to dive into yet. 

Case in point: Jay’s words make the avatar roll his eyes, and he mutters something decidedly… unfitting of an air nomad under his breath.

Jay catches it, and punches him in the shoulder. The airbender doesn’t even flinch. 

“Hey,” the firelord says with narrowed eyes. “Just because you got married in secret and none of this stuff mattered doesn’t mean that it’s the same for the rest of us.” 

Evidently, his words are meant to be scolding. Unfortunately, they seem to have the opposite of their intended effect. 

At the mention of his marriage, the airbender starts to smile. It is a lovestruck thing, and he reaches to gently finger at the silver ring hanging from around his neck. 

“Yeah,” Sunghoon says. 

Jay pretends to barf.

For some reason, it reminds Jake of the request Riki had made of him before he left. 

“Oh, Hoon, I just remembered,” Jake starts, garnering the airbender’s attention. “Riki asked me to tell you to come by the house sometime. There’s something he wants to show you, I think.” 

The avatar blinks, tilting his head in thought. “Oh, really? Okay, sure. Sunoo-yah and I can try and stop by tomorrow.”

“Are the two of you leaving after that?” Jake asks him. 

“Already? You just got here,” Jay adds, sharp brows confusedly pinching together. 

The avatar nods. “Yeah, we’re going back to the North Pole for a bit, then to Chin village. Maybe to Ba Sing Se if we have the time.”

The non-bender hums lightly in acknowledgment. 

Unlike Jake and Heeseung, who have temporarily relocated to the fire nation to help Jungwon and Jay with the impossible task of simultaneously running a nation while trying to coordinate with the royal wedding planners, Sunoo and Sunghoon have not stopped flying across the globe on Gaeul’s back since the war ended. 

In light of a devastated world, the avatar is needed just about everywhere, and so just about everywhere Sunghoon goes. As always, accompanied by Sunoo at his side.

Jake still does not even know where the two of them got married—None of them do. Only that, one day, about a year after defeating the firelord, the pair had touched back down in fire nation lands, and proudly showed off their matching silver rings to a disbelieving audience of 5 dropped jaws. 

When asked, Sunghoon had only shrugged, and told them that it felt kind of nice being selfish, and that he’s thinking about doing it more often. It’d made Sunoo roll his eyes, cheeks burning a furious red, but he hadn’t corrected his husband, either.

It’s funny. Despite having known each other for the shortest amount of time, they are the first to get married while Jungwon and Jay, who have known each other the longest, are the last. 

Jay’s hopes had proved correct. The avatar and his waterbending teacher did move faster than Jake, Heeseung, Jungwon and the firebender, combined. Good for them. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back for the wedding,” the airbender continues. He shrugs. “Sunoo-yah would kill me if we missed it. He’s already cried about it and everything.”

Jay’s eyes narrow. “Considering you’re meant to be there as a symbol of peace and hope or whatever, on top of being one of my best men, I would also kill you if you missed it.”

This makes the avatar laugh, and its brightness echoes across the decadent walls. 

Jake smiles, and feels something sappy seep into his chest as he watches Jay get up from his throne to try and shove the avatar to the ground. 

The three of them are the same age, and it’s something Jake can never seem to make himself forget. 

They have all lived the same number of moons, except one of them is the reincarnation of a God a thousand times over, the other sits atop one of the world’s three major thrones, and Jake is just—Well, Jake. 

And yet, he stands beside them, anyway.

23 years old, and as many burdens as there are stars in the sky shared between them. 

Jake laughs as Sunghoon skillfully dodges the firebender’s attack, sidestepping just in time to send him stumbling with a well-timed burst of air. The airbender cackles as the firebender’s head whips around in offence.

Funny thing about burdens. They are made easier when surrounded by those who you can rely on.

Unfortunately, the road to salvation is the furthest thing from easy. 

Ba Sing Se falls to the fire nation not even a full week after Heeseung and Jake reunite with one another. 

Team avatar flies away from the earth nation’s once impenetrable walls on Gaeul’s back with Sunghoon’s limp figure cradled between Sunoo’s arms. 

Struck by lightning between the planes of his back, the waterbender is doing everything he can to ensure that all the airbender gets off with is a scar, and not a grave. The rest of their rag-tag group of benders and non-benders alike watching on in a somber, tense silence. 

Turns out, the Dai Li agents had not been bluffing when they’d claimed to know something about the fire nation. In the chaos of everything else, that crucial piece of information had fallen to the wayside. 

Jay’s father hadn’t bothered to send the dogs after his scent, because he knew that the crown prince would lead him to the avatar, eventually, anyway. Ba Sing Se’s walls had crumbled from the inside out, a coup d’etat dressed in earth nation robes. 

Heeseung has to tackle the firebender against the ground when he finds out before he does something he would have regretted. It does not stop Jay from angrily punching a fiery fist against the wall the second the earthbender lets him up.

In the aftermath, it is Jungwon who comes up with the plan to hide out in the last place the firelord would ever think to look for them while they wait for the day of Black Sun to arrive: within the borders of his own land. It stirs something uncomfortable in both him and the firebending prince, but he does not take it back. 

And so, left with little else for choice, off to the fire nation they decide to go.

Before they leave, Heeseung pulls Jake aside, and asks him if he is sure about coming with them—About bringing Riki along, too. 

“I don’t want you to feel obligated to come with me,” the earthbender says, voice quiet and wrecked. He is doing his best to appear strong, but the way his hand is trembling in Jake’s grasp gives him away. 

Jake shakes his head, words soft but sure.

“It’s not just for you, Hee. It’s for everyone—Sunghoon and Sunoo-ah, and Jungwonie and Jay. For Riki.” He takes a breath, “For me.”

Heeseung stares at him with something unreadable swimming within dark brown depths.

“Besides,” Jake continues, voice purposefully light. “Where else would we go? The strongest city in the world just fell to enemy hands, and I can’t think of a single place where Riki and I would be safer than by your side.”

The non-bender reaches up to gently swipe away the tear that falls down the earthbender’s cheek at the words. Heeseung exhales shakily against the touch, and it does something to Jake’s heart.

“Okay, Jakey. If you’re sure,” Heeseung says, clutching at the non-bender’s hand. He blinks, and suddenly there is fire in his eyes. “In that case, I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

Jake nods, throat tight, and squeezes back. 

The earth nation’s great walls disappear over the horizon as they fly towards blood-red architecture and fire-stained hearts—The place that was once Jungwon and Jay’s home. 

Sunghoon only wakes up from his coma 2 weeks after they touch down—Disoriented and confused, and so, so guilty. Sunoo flings himself into the airbender’s arms and sobs into his chest. Jake thinks that that is what wrecks Sunghoon, most of all.

It makes Jake hold Heeseung just a little bit tighter, that same night. 

“Jake-hyung!” The excited voice of his favourite waterbender calls out just as Jake is about to leave the palace walls, having wrapped up his discussion with Sunghoon and Jay.

The non-bender pauses and then turns around to face him. He smiles. 

Sunoo is practically glowing under their midday sun. The blonde’s elegant water tribe robes hang perfectly from his petite frame as he excitedly makes his way over to the non-bender’s side. 

He still manages to look infinitely put together despite his excitement, flecks of ivory and bone glinting from pierced ears. He looks like someone who knows his own worth, and is unafraid of letting others know it, too. He is carrying a book or a binder in his arms.

“Hi, Sunoo-ah,” Jake greets. “How are you?” 

“I’m good!” Sunoo beams, lovely as always, even around the weight in his hands. “I’m really happy that I caught you before you could leave. Hoonie is always trying to keep you to himself, I swear. I told him that I wanted to say ‘hi’ in case I didn’t see you before we left for the North Pole. And what did he do? Nothing. Of course. But what about you, Jake-hyung? How have you been?”

Jake laughs at the waterbender’s exasperated tone, and the way it rapidly transforms into something much more pleasant by the end.

“I’m alright,” he says, and Sunoo’s pleased smile is reward enough on its own. “And don’t be too mean to Hoon. It’s not his fault that he’s so clueless.”

Sunoo lets out a dramatic sigh. “He really is, isn’t he?”

Jake shrugs. “You’re the one who married him.” 

“Somehow,” Sunoo drawls, rolling his eyes. “I really don’t know how he managed to convince me.” 

His silver ring glints in the summer sun, and Jake bites back an amused smile. He also knows that there is a carefully carved betrothal necklace buried somewhere precious in the waterbender’s room. 

“What’s that?” Jake asks instead, gesturing to the over-flowing binder the waterbender is holding in his hands. 

“Colour theme samples,” Sunoo replies, showing the non-bender some of the swatches. Jake ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ at the appropriate times. “I picked them up for Jungwonie from the royal wedding planners since he was busy with training the new recruits.”

“Ah,” Jake exhales, more than well acquainted with the knife-wielder’s impossibly packed schedule. “How is Jungwon-ah doing? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

The waterbender shrugs. “He’s alright. I think he’s just ready for this whole thing to be over, you know? He just wants to be married to Jay-hyung as soon as he can. Nothing else really matters to him.”

Jake hums noncommittedly at the words. 

It must be a lot for the knife-wielder, Jake thinks, to go from a life spent hiding in the firebender’s shadow to sitting in a golden throne by his side. Still, Jake knows there is nowhere else Jungwon would rather be. That much, at least, is more than clear, and the knife-wielder has always been the best among them at rolling with life’s waves.

Jake laughs, voice taking on a conspiratory tone as he leans down. Sunoo’s nose for gossip perks up excitedly in interest. 

“You should tell that to our esteemed firelord, you know,” Jake mock-whispers, cupping a hand around his mouth. “I heard he spent three hours this morning torturing your husband with whether Jungwon would prefer marigolds or peonies for the reception hall.” 

Jake’s words make Sunoo giggle, before the waterbender tries to school his face into something stern. 

He humphs. “Good. He deserves it.”

Jake smiles, endlessly endeared by the waterbender’s light. 

There is something nostalgic tugging at the strings of his chest as he looks at him. Sunoo was, afterall, the first person to interrupt their quiet lives. He is the first out of all of team avatar—besides Heeseung and Riki, of course—who Jake would have called his friend. 

He remembers Sunoo’s insistence that he would leave Sunghoon alone after they reached the North Pole, and compares it to the pleased little grin that sneaks its way onto the waterbender’s face when Jake refers to the airbender as ‘your husband’. 

“Ah, sorry, Jake-hyung,” the blonde says, pulling the non-bender from his thoughts. His lips are jutted out in a little pout. “I really wish we could talk for longer, but I don’t want to stress Wonie out anymore than he already is, and I promised him that I’d be back about… 5 minutes ago.”

Sunoo gives him a sheepish smile, and Jake laughs. 

“Don’t worry about it, Sunoo-ah,” the non-bender replies, waving away his concern, and it makes the blonde relax. “Tell Jungwonie ‘hi’ for me when you see him. Let him know that we really enjoyed the jasmine blends he gave us a couple of weeks ago, and that I hope he takes a break every once in a while, when he can.”

Sunoo lets out a quiet snort that quickly transforms into an exasperated sigh. 

Surprisingly, though maybe it shouldn’t be, the two youngest members of their little team had grown incredibly close over the course of the war and all that followed after it. After Jay, the waterbender is probably the one who knows the knife-wielder best.

For Jungwon, who has always had to be so much older than his years, Sunoo’s childlike enthusiasm for the wonders of the everyday world must feel like something precious when cradled in his blood-stained and battle-worn hands. 

“The day that Wonie willingly takes a break is the day that the fire nation freezes over,” the waterbender says. “But sure, I’ll try to convince him. And tell Heeseung-hyung and Riki ‘hello’ for me, too!”

Jake nods, and does not inform Sunoo that the blonde will be able to tell the pair that himself, tomorrow. He’ll leave that conversation up to the avatar. 

It makes the waterbender smile up at him, joyous and unrushed, like he does not have places that he needs to be.

“Bye, Sunoo,” Jake says with a knowing grin. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Jake-hyung!” The waterbender replies, one last wave thrown over his shoulder before he is disappearing behind the firelord’s opulent golden gates.

Jake watches him go, and then shakes his head, a smile on his face.

Two months after they flee Ba Sing Se, the eclipse plan fails, anyway, and they are forced to pivot directions once again. 

This time, it is Sunghoon who suggests the Western Air Temple as the perfect place for them to hide. After Jungwon’s previous proposal of the fire nation, it is a series of homecomings directed by blood-stained failures and violently severed hopes. 

In both the bustling fire nation streets, and the deathly quiet air temple halls, Jake and his friends are reminded at every step of the war from which they have been forced to run.

Still, nobody has any better ideas, and so, to the abandoned Western air temple they go. Impossibly, the flight on Gaeul’s back is even more somber than it was on the day the earth nation’s great walls fell. Not even Jay, usually talkative to the point of knives, has anything to add.

They are given a timeline as they go: in 3 weeks, Sozin’s comet will arrive, bringing with it the strength and power to take over the entire world, should the firelord desire it. And ‘oh, does that motherfucker desire it,’ as the crown prince so eloquently puts it.

It is a freezing douse of reality poured over their fragile teenage heads. 

On top of that, there is one other minor problem: Sunghoon refuses to kill the firelord, even though he is the only one who can. It causes more than just tension between him and the rest of Team Avatar—Jungwon, Heeseung and Jay, especially. 

Jay grabs Sunghoon by the collar and calls him a coward to his face. He tells him that he will kill his father himself, if the avatar cannot do it. The airbender does not flinch.

Jungwon, if possible, is even angrier about the airbender’s reluctance than Jay. He refuses to speak to the avatar until he changes his mind, disappearing during the day to practice throwing dozens of knives into the heart of a make-shift dummy with the firelord’s face plastered across its skull.

Heeseung asks Sunghoon if his personal qualms are worth more than the fate of the world. Surely, he says, the air nomads would understand, if they were still here. Sunghoon bares his teeth, and tells him that they are not.

Personally, Jake does not understand the avatar’s reasoning either, but he bites his tongue because he wants to believe that Sunghoon has a plan. It makes Heeseung whirl around to face him, something like betrayal flashing across the sharp planes of his face.

The entire time, Sunoo is quiet and does not say much, but he stands by the airbender’s side, anyway—As he always does. When Jake asks him about it, later, all the blonde says is that he trusts Sunghoon to do what is right for the people he loves. 

Riki says nothing on the matter at all, fast asleep when they discuss it, but aware of the strain between them the next morning, either way. Confused, because he does not know why everyone around him is fighting—Heeseung and Jake, most of all. 

“Are you serious, Jaeyun?” The earthbender says late into the night. He lets out an incredulous laugh, running a disbelieving hand through blood-red hair. He turns to face the non-bender, and in the blue of the moon’s light, his eyes take on something cold.

Jake’s silence is answer enough. Heeseung scoffs. It makes Jake flinch. 

“You’re seriously going to let him throw away everything that we’ve worked for? For what, Jake? For a group of people who are already dead?” 

“I’m not letting him do anything,” Jake bites back, tone venomous. He tries to soften it as he gets out his next words. “I just think that we should hear him out. You know Hoon wouldn’t—”

“You didn’t even like him for the first couple of weeks he was at Kiyoshi,” Heeseung interrupts, and it makes something hot flare beneath the surface of Jake’s skin. Heeseung laughs. “But now that you’re best friends—What, it’s different? You and Hoon—“

“What is your problem?” Jake cuts him off, head spinning like the world is slipping out from between his hands.

It makes the earthbender’s eyes shutter close, a hard wall being erected between them. 

“My problem is that we are this close to the life we have always wanted to live, and you aren’t even trying to fight for it,” Heeseung says. His brows are twisted in frustration, and his next words are meant to hurt when they land. 

“You’re really going to choose him over Riki?” the earthbender says, and it is a physical knife in Jake’s chest. He continues to press. “Over Sunoo, Jungwon? Do you even want this?”

He does not need to say ‘Over me’, Jake hears it anyway. 

The non-bender’s eyes blow wide, and an anger he has never felt before begins to simmer in the cavity between his ribs. Because this is Heeseung, and if there is anyone who Jake thought would never hurt him, it is him. 

Jake’s voice is deathly as he forces out his next words. 

“Of course I want this,” he says, but when he looks up into Heeseung’s eyes, there is a stranger staring back at him. It makes his face twist. “How can you even say that to me? And I’m not choosing anyone—”

The earthbender laughs, cutting him off, and it is a sharp and hollow thing. Jake’s mouth clamps shut at the sound, expression frozen in shock. 

“Well,” the red-haired man scoffs. “It doesn’t really feel like it.”

All of a sudden, Jake is so indescribably furious that his hands begin to tremble at his sides. He feels a wetness building up behind his eyes, and he rapidly tries to blink it away. He clenches his jaw so hard that it hurts. 

Heeseung’s stoic silence as he stands in front of him only makes it worse. Jake takes a steadying breath, but it does little to calm the raging inferno beneath his skin.

“Need I remind you, Heeseung,” the non-bender says from in between bared teeth. “That you’re the one who left first. You’re the one who wanted to help him.” 

Heeseung looks away as he crosses his arms. “Yeah, well, maybe you should have been the one to go, then,” he says, then pauses. His eyes are cold as they slide over him. “If you could earthbend.” 

Jake has known Heeseung for a very long time. 

It is for that reason that he knows the older man does not mean any of the words he has just said. If he strains his ears, Jake can hear the concern, and the worry, and the hurt seeping into the red-haired man’s tone. Logically, Jake knows that more than anything else, Heeseung is just scared, because the world is about to end and it will take all of them along with it, if the avatar does not figure out his shit before their 3 weeks are up.

But, that does not mean that they hurt him any less—No, he thinks, Heeseung has chosen his words very carefully just for that specific reason. 

The non-bender flinches back like he has been physically hit, and it must awaken something in the earthbender’s brain. The fog lifts from his eyes.

“Jake—” Heeseung tries to start, but the non-bender cuts him off.

“Okay,” Jake replies, voice cold, and Heeseung’s jaw shuts. “Alright. Well, if you feel that way, then I won’t say anything.” Jake ducks his chin, and hopes that the bile building behind his mouth does not force its way through. He swallows. 

Heeseung is silent in front of him. Somehow, that hurts more than anything else. 

“I’m going to bed,” Jake says, shaking his head. “I can’t deal with this right now.”

When he looks back up, the blinds have shuttered back over Heeseung’s eyes. His expression is carefully blank, distant and cold. 

“Okay,” the earthbender says, and it is not followed by any indication that he is planning on joining the non-bender. 

Jake waits a second, then turns around on his heel, and does not look back. 

Needless to say, it is an uncomfortable morning all around. 

Jungwon is already gone by the time that Jake wakes up, sheets cold beside him. At the same time, Jay is seething as he makes breakfast for everyone but the avatar, who is doing his best to pretend like the firebender does not exist, in turn. Riki’s neck seems like it is going to break from how much he is looking around in confusion. Sunoo is practically mute as he awkwardly shuffles out of his room, and Jake and Heeseung are barely faring any better themselves.

They have 3 weeks to figure things out—Not even a full moon. It is not nearly enough time. 

And, if they don’t defeat the firelord before then… 

Well, that is something that Jake cannot afford to think about, not if he wants to believe that they can win. 

That night, the non-bender shuts his eyes, and tries his hardest to go to sleep. It is made harder by all of the things that Jake cannot control. 

It must be hours after the non-bender first retreats to their bed that Heeseung slips in quietly behind him—-A space the size of the fire nation between them. Still, it is better than him not being there, at all. 

After a moment, Jake slowly turns around, like the earthbender is an animal he is afraid of scaring away should he move too fast. His hand lifts from where it’d been resting in the empty space of their bed. 

Except, for the first time in their lives, when the non-bender reaches out to touch him, Heeseung does not reach back. Instead, he shifts around, and gives Jake a shoulder colder than he thought possible to feel in the other man’s warmth. 

The earthbender’s eyes had been closed, but Jake can tell by the rise and fall of his chest that he is still awake. 

For a moment, Jake’s hand remains suspended in the air, fingers clenched, before it retreats quietly to his side. He turns around so that his back is to the taller man, and pretends like the wetness against his pillow belongs to someone else. 

It is a lot. 

It is nothing at all. 

It is quiet, when Jake decides to stop at his and Heeseung’s favourite noodle restaurant for dinner. He has just missed the evening rush, and the last patrons are filtering out right as Jake steps inside.

“No husband today, dear?” The owner asks when she spots him, head tilted to the side. 

Jake smiles, lifting a hand in greeting.

The owner is a sweet, older lady with the fiery personality of someone fifteen years her junior. She has grey hair that Jake thinks must have once been brown, and kind, warm eyes decorated by crow’s feet at their sides, which speak to a lifetime spent accompanied by joy. 

Heeseung and Jake have spent countless evenings now sequestered away in the corner of her shop’s soft lights, and warm air—Poured over steaming bowls of ramyeon, and private conversations, and intertwined hands. 

Often, they’ll be joined by Riki, of course. Maybe Sunghoon or Sunoo, if they’re in town. All to glowing reviews.

They’ve yet to convince Jungwon to come out with them, and the firelord is fussy when it comes to leaving his fiance’s side. So, neither of them have tried its menu, but Jake hopes that one day, maybe after the wedding, they’ll be able to eat all 7 of them together, without the weight of everything else hanging over their heads. 

The owner told them once, after they’d been coming over for a while, that the noodle shop had been a lifelong dream—one that had only become achievable in the peacetimes of a post-war world. 

Her words had made Heeseung shuffle closer, and squeeze Jake where his hand rested above the curve of the non-bender’s hip. Jake had tilted his head up, and pressed a faint kiss to the underside of the earthbender’s jaw.

In their distraction, they hadn’t noticed the fond smile directed their way, but they had caught the extra dumplings added to their order, free of charge. 

Most days, the owner’s husband will be around, sitting quietly at one of the tables, happily slurping up his food. He works as a banker for the Imperial Bank, and he often wanders in after his shift. From a quick scan, Jake can see that his usual order is on one of the tables, along with the daily paper. The soup is still warm, gentle smoke rising up towards the roof, so Jake assumes he must have just stepped out to go to the bathroom, or for a smoke. 

The non-bender turns back to face her and shakes his head in reply. 

“No, not today, unfortunately,” Jake says, shrugging. “He’s having dinner with some friends.” 

It makes the owner huff, puffing out her chest.

“Well, that just won’t do,” she says disapprovingly, and it feels like Jake is being lectured by his mother. “Leaving such a lovely boy to eat by himself, and after he married you, no less. He’d be lucky if no one tried to snatch you up while he’s gone.” 

In the emptiness of the restaurant’s interior, it shocks a laugh out of Jake’s chest.

“Hm, I’m not sure that that many suitors seem to be around right now, ajumma,” Jake says, looking around the room. 

She swats at him across the chest, reclaiming the non-bender’s attention. “You know what I meant.” Then, she raises a curious brow. “And your brother? Is he not coming either?”

Jake shakes his head again. “He’s at a friend’s. School project.” He laughs at the memory of Riki’s eyes bulging out of his skull when he’d remembered, right before sprinting out the door. “It’s very important, I think.”

“Ah, that brings back memories,” the owner exhales, a nostalgic smile painted across her lips. She sighs. “Oh, what I’d give to only have to worry about school again. How is Riki? He must be… 11, now? You haven’t brought him around in a while.”

“Only because it’s been so crazy these days with the wedding,” Jake says, a little regretful at her reminder. He hadn’t realized how much he missed the quiet comfort and smell of home-cooked noodles until he’d actually walked in. 

Then, an unbidden grin folds itself against his lips as he adds, “But Riki’s good. He’s actually 12, now.” Jake pauses, heart widening. “He’ll be a teenager in a couple of months. It’s a little scary.”

“I’m sure,” the owner replies, eyes comforting and kind. She shakes her head. “I felt the same way with my kids, you know. But you and your husband will be fine. Really, I can’t think of two people better equipped to handle a 13 year old.”

Then, she reaches up to pat at his cheeks. “You remind me of myself and Hoseok when we were your age. And if we could do it, so can you.”

Jake blushes as he laughs. “Thank you, ajumma,” he replies. “I can only hope to look half as good as you do 40 years from now.”

His words make the owner narrow her eyes at him as she steps away, hands dropping. She scoffs. “Don’t be silly. You are much prettier than I am. Really, that husband of yours doesn’t know how lucky he is.”

Jake’s heart swells, and it is like his entire body warms with it. He’s sure it must be painted all over his face; the adoration which wraps around Heeseung’s memory in his mind.

Jake’s smile is fond as he says, quietly, “We’re both lucky.”

The owner lets out an exasperated sigh, though it is all dramatics. Jake only laughs. 

Then, she tilts her head, a thoughtful look in the purse of her lips. “Alright. I’ll make some extra for you to take home for your family, then. The usual?”

Jake nods.

She squints at him. “And I suppose you’ll insist on paying again?” 

Jake squints back, because what a backwards sentence it is. He gives her an incredulous stare. “Ajumma, just what kind of business are you running here? Of course I’m paying. I’m a customer, afterall.”

She does not look nearly as amused as he is, arms crossed over her chest. 

“A customer who saved the world, sure,” she retorts, and it is a familiar game. Jake just continues to smile down at her, and it is obvious he is not going to budge. 

“Aish, okay. Fine,” she eventually concedes, waving at him to leave. “Go sit. I’ll be there soon.” Then, she turns around and disappears into the kitchen, muttering under her breath about ‘silly boys’ and ‘the firelord’s friends’ all the while. 

Jake smiles, and goes to his seat. Even though Heeseung is not here, Jake finds himself sliding into their regular seating arrangements, anyway—His back to the wall, and Heeseung’s to the door. It is a familiar feeling. 

If Jake closes his eyes, and counts the beats of his heart, it is almost like Heeseung is sitting there with him. Instead, he keeps them open, and wonders where the earthbender and his friends had decided to stop for dinner, because he does not have to imagine, anymore.

The owner’s husband walks in a moment later. He nods to Jake once in acknowledgement, before he goes to the kitchen where his wife resides, bypassing his now lukewarm soup and half-opened paper in favour of being by her side.

Jake absentmindedly runs his thumb over the golden ring decorating his finger, and smiles.

Three days before Sozin’s comet is set to arrive, Sunghoon disappears, and none of them, not even Sunoo, know where he has gone. 

They know that he has not been taken, at least. His room sits undisturbed from the night before, and there are no signs of a struggle anywhere around the temple. 

Gaeul is peaceful in her bed when they go to see her, which means that Sunghoon left willingly, at his own call. 

Unfortunately, that begs the uncomfortable question of whether or not Sunghoon has decided to run, just as he had all those 100 years ago, or if there was something else that had lured him away.

None of them have the stomach to try and talk about it. They do their best to get on with their days like there is not an avatar-shaped absence suffocating the air around them. 

For once, Jungwon does not disappear into the woods along with the moon over the horizon. Jay goes back to cooking 7 meals, instead of 6. Riki glues himself to Sunoo’s side, and Heeseung and Jake sit next to each other when it is time to eat. 

Overall, breakfast is a quiet affair. 

Jake catches Heeseung’s eye while the firebender soundlessly sets out their food, and a simple understanding passes between them. They eat in silence, and no one mentions the untouched plate in the center of the table by the time that they are done.

In the blink of an eye, it is practically nightfall, and Sunghoon still has not returned. 

Jay refuses to throw out the food, claiming that the airbender will probably be hungry by the time he comes back, and that it’d be a waste of good food, anyway. He wraps the plate in a paper cloth, and places it somewhere near the airbender’s empty room. 

Jungwon says something about staying up to stand guard, in case Sunghoon really had been taken by enemy lines, and Sunoo wordlessly joins him a couple of minutes later, a dim lantern in hand.

For a while, Riki, Jake and Heeseung talk quietly around the campfire, and it is a familiar scene, if Jake really goes back far enough. When the firebender’s eyes finally begin to close, Heeseung and Jake deposit Riki in his room, before retreating to their own bed in turn.

This time, there is no hesitation as their bodies find one another in the dark.

“I’m sorry,” Heeseung whispers into Jake’s hair, arms running up and down the non-bender’s sides, and it is like all of the previous week’s tension fades into the darkness with it. 

“It’s okay,” Jake replies, sinking into the earthbender’s hold like it is home. His hands clutch at the fabric around Heeseung’s front. “I’m sorry, too.”

Heeseung presses a kiss against the crown of his head, and the touch lingers against the soft strands. Jake tightens his grip on the taller man, and hopes that he can hear in it all of the things he does not say. 

For a moment, Jake is content to listen to the steady thump of the earthbender’s pulse, and the way it stutters as he gently ghosts a hand over the underside of Heeseung’s jaw.

“...I can’t lose you, Jaeyun,” Heeseung says after a second, and the words are deafening in the silence of the air nomads’ emptied temple. “I can’t. Not again.”

The vulnerability wrapping around his neck makes Jake’s breath catch, and he cannot find anything to say in return. A second passes by, Heeseung’s hand delicately tracing the dips of his spine, before the earthbender speaks next.

“I want to grow old with you,” Heeseung says, and it is breathless and hushed like a wish on a shooting star. 

Jake blinks as his vision begins to blur, and he is sure that Heeseung can feel it against his pulse. 

“I want to know what it feels like to love you when both of our heads are grey, and there are wrinkles around our eyes,” the earthbender continues, hands tightening around Jake’s waist. “I want to know the ache of seeing Riki grow taller than you.” He pauses, then laughs, and it is a choked thing. “Maybe even taller than me, too, who knows? But I want to know. That’s the whole point. I want the luxury of quiet mornings, and lazy nights. I want to hold you without the threat of the world hanging over our heads, and love you at our own pace.”

Jake’s throat feels impossibly tight, and he is shocked that the words are able to make it past at all when he replies, “I want that, too. I want it so badly it hurts. Heeseung, I—”

He gets cut off by the feeling of tears wrapping themselves around his tongue, then quietly spilling over from his eyes. Heeseung pulls back to gently wipe away at the non-bender’s cheeks. 

The earthbender’s lips curl up into a smile as he looks at him, and it is something unbearably soft in the moon’s faint light.

“I want so many things for us,” Heeseung says, brushing away the stray hair from the smaller man’s eyes. “Little things.” His eyes drop down to Jake’s left hand where it is clutching at Heeseung’s wrist, then back up to his face. “Bigger things, too. I don’t know how not to want when it comes to you, Jakey, and it terrifies me that we might not get to do all of the things that I want to do together.”

Jake’s vision blurs as Heeseung leans down to press his lips to his. It feels like all he can do is hold on to the earthbender as the salt mixes with the taste of their skin. Eventually, Heeseung pulls away, eyes still closed as he rests his forehead against Jake’s. 

He inhales shakily.

“I’m so fucking scared, Jake,” the earthbender confesses, voice trembling, and something about it makes all the hurt unwind from where it’d been wrapped around Jake’s ribs, leaving him with only love, instead. 

Jake’s hands reach up to cradle the taller man’s face, and Heeseung melts into the touch like wax to a candle’s flame. He feels so vulnerable in the curve of his non-bending palms, and Jake marvels at the trust with which he is being afforded, instinctual. 

“I know. I’m scared, too,” Jake replies softly, throat dry. Then, he laughs, and it is like the chime of bells in the midnight air. The earthbender’s eyes snap open at the sound, and Jake’s smile turns endeared before he even knows it. 

“Of course I’m scared, Heeseung. You think I’m not terrified? I am. I mean, you and I both know that if Sunghoon doesn’t come back soon, then the world might as well end tomorrow for all the difference that it’d make. It’d save us the stress of waiting, at least.”

Jake’s words startle a chuckle out of the earthbender’s chest, and the non-bender delights in its sound—The way it pushes his eyes up into little crescents against his cheeks. 

For a moment, it makes Jake feel like everything is going to be alright. He melts.

“But we’ll be okay,” Jake continues once the air has quieted down, gaze soft. “I know it. And even if we aren’t, I wouldn’t have any regrets, you know? I love you, and Riki, and all of our friends. It’s almost funny; This war’s taken so much, but it’s also the thing that brought all of us together.”

Heeseung hums lightly in acknowledgement. His eyes carefully trace the planes of the non-bender’s face, like he is searching for something buried beneath the moonlit skin. Jake smiles.

“Whatever happens, I’ll be happy,” Jake says, soft but sure, and Heeseung’s gaze snaps to his. “I’ll be happy,” he continues, “Because I got to spend 6 years of my life with you. And I know it isn’t enough, but just for right now, can’t we pretend like it is? Like we’re 13 again, and the world is on fire, but the only thing that matters is that we have each other.”

Heeseung laughs. “Back when we were still the same height, you mean?” It makes Jake pout as he swats at the earthbender’s chest. Heeseung catches his hand, and threads their fingers together, squeezing at their conjoined palms. 

Something about it makes Jake sober up, and quietly, he adds, “I believe in us—All of us. Don’t you believe in us, too?”

The question makes the earthbender tense, then relax, just as fast. Heeseung’s voice is impossibly soft as he replies, “Yeah, I do.”

They fall asleep sometime after that, bodies intertwined beneath the sheets, and wake up to a crash, followed by the sound of Jay’s surprised yelp and Jungwon’s annoyed shouts. It is almost nostalgic to a certain day on Koyishi Island, except this time, Heeseung, Jake and Riki are not alone. 

Sunghoon returns to the western air temple with the key to defeating the firelord clutched tightly within the small of his palm one turtle-lion visit later.

He stumbles as Jay angrily punches him in the shoulder upon landing, before shoving a plate of warmed food in his unsuspecting arms, and then stalking off. It leaves the airbender in a state of bewilderment that is not helped by the fact that it is Sunghoon’s favourite meal.

Next, Jungwon drags him down and says something that makes the avatar’s face pale, thick brows drawing together as he takes in the knife-wielder’s words. Once he is done, Jungwon gives him one last pat on the back, then leaves to follow Jay.

It is at that moment that the airbender’s eyes catch the presence of a certain blonde haired waterbender standing slightly off to the side, expression purposefully blank and arms crossed lightly against his chest. It is a carefully curated front, one that the airbender is more than well aware of. 

Sunghoon’s face turns hesitant as he takes a small step in the younger man’s direction, expression wavering for the first time since he’d touched down. His hand twitches at his side, like he wants to reach out, but isn’t sure if he still can.

Something about it must make the waterbender soften. In the next moment, Sunoo is uncrossing his arms to wordlessly invite him in. 

The blonde’s smile is kind and forgiving, as he says, “Welcome back, Sunghoon-hyung.”

It is like the avatar’s entire body relaxes at the words, as he quickly makes his way over to the waterbender’s side. Sunghoon’s hands find the delicate curve of Sunoo’s waist like it is instinctual, touch firm as he leans down and says something that is too quiet for Jake to hear.

Whatever he says makes Sunoo giggle, graceful fingers bunching up the fabric around Sunghoon’s chest, and it is like the air itself lightens with the joy of the sound.

Somewhere behind them, Jake hears Jay’s voice as it intermixes with his aide’s. It is joined by Riki’s confused and sleep-addled whines, a moment later.

Jake leans over, and rests his head on Heeseung’s shoulder. The earthbender’s arm wraps around him a second later, hold tight but not oppressive, and something about it makes Jake wish that they could stay in the stillness of the moment forever. 

A beat passes. 

A lemur-bird chirps. 

And Jake lets it wash over him along with the first rays of the dawn, Heeseung’s body a steadying warmth pressed against the quiet buzz beneath his wrists. Unwittingly, he feels a laugh start to build itself up from his chest. 

He feels Heeseung look down at him questioningly, but Jake only shakes his head, smoothing a secluded kiss over the exposed skin around the earthbender’s neck. His lips tingle as he pulls them back.

If there is anything that Jake has learned in the time since Kiyoshi burned away, it is that moments like this one aren’t made to last. They are fleeting, like the migratory monkey-birds against the winter’s chill, or the ghost of a candle’s flame the exact moment before it has gone out. 

Privately, Jake thinks, a quiet smile tucked into the firm muscle of Heeseung’s arm, they are made all the more beautiful, for it.

Jake finishes his ramyeon in silence.

The owner and her husband are still in the kitchen, their hushed voices occasionally sounding through the thin wall, and Jake does not want to disturb them. He leaves a couple of gold coins on the table—more than enough to cover his bill, and then some—and then begins to make his way to the door. 

He makes sure to grab the extra bag of food the owner had prepared for him before he leaves. 

By the time Jake is stepping out of the humble noodle store, the sun is just barely still in the sky. It casts the fire nation streets in hues of pink and gold, softening the usual deep blacks and reds of the nation’s architecture and roads.

It is never really quiet in the fire nation capital, but as Jake walks down the empty streets, he thinks that this must be around the closest that it gets. Most people are home by now, tucked into the cozy corners of their bedrooms, or exchanging simple conversation over dining room tables.

Jake takes in a deep breath, and lets the cool, night breeze hit him as he walks. It is a refreshing change of pace from the restaurant’s stuffy air, and he takes advantage of the stillness of the streets to indulge. 

There is a poster advertising the royal wedding plastered to the wall beside him. It is urging the fire nation people not to miss out on what the papers are already calling the event of the decade. If you were to ask Jake, he’d say that the end of a century-long war felt a little bit more impactful, but he understands where they’re coming from. 

The portrait that Jay had commissioned of himself and Jungwon after their engagement hangs proudly in the center of the poster’s frame—Jay’s fiery eyes, and Jungwon’s composed strength obvious even through the deliberately inked lines. The firelord’s palm on his fiance’s hip is loving, and possessive, and proud, all at once, as Jungwon leans into his side.

Next to it is a flyer for the Ember Island Players’ rendition of the Avatar’s Travels—Sunghoon’s clueless body double looking seriously into the distance with pursed lips and sucked cheeks, like he is doing his best to try and convince you that he is the most beautiful man in the world. 

Jake imagines Sunghoon making a similar face and snorts. 

Another poster for a spinoff based on a certain Kim Sunoo hangs crookedly at its side, and it makes Jake shake his head in exasperation as he realizes what it is. Every year they make a new one. Two years ago, it had been Riki, and last year it had been Beomgyu, of all people. 

He wonders when they will get tired of telling the same stories over and over again, and then remembers that this is the Ember Island Players, and sighs.

In his distraction, he doesn’t notice the two young boys—one with black hair, the other red—approaching until they cut across his path, and Jake almost trips over them in the process. 

The non-bender catches himself at the last minute, and watches as the two children disappear around the corner, the sound of their carefree laughter echoing around them like a doorway to another time. 

Jake blinks once, like he has just seen a ghost. 

A second later, he shakes his head, and continues down his path so that he can make it back before it becomes dark. He wonders how Heeseung’s dinner went, and looks forward to asking him about it once he gets home. 

Despite everything, they manage to defeat the firelord, anyway.

It happens somewhere removed from Jake’s eyes, but that does not make it any less real. As soon as the final battle starts, Sunghoon is grabbing the firelord around the neck, and flying them off to some remote location, away from the rest of the fight.

The rest of them don’t have the time to dwell on it, though, too busy with fire hungry opponents of their own. The battle seems to drag on forever. Jake loses track of how many men he kills. 

Then, in the pandemonium of the war’s final hours, Sunghoon comes back with the limp figure of Jay’s father draped across his back, and the entire battlefield stills. 

For a moment, it is like nobody knows how to react. 

Then, the avatar raises a single shaking fist in victory, and the world explodes. 

Suddenly, it is like everyone is clamouring over one other to get to him. A sea of earth nation soldiers and water tribe warriors push their way to the wafront—To lend the airbender a helping hand, to pat him on the back, to say they touched the mythical avatar at the very moment he saved the world. 

Sunghoon ignores them all. 

Instead, he dumps the unconscious firelord into the hands of the first competent person he sees, and makes his way towards a certain blonde-haired waterbender standing somewhere at the back of the pack. 

The crowd parts for him as he goes.

Sunoo does not even have the time to say ‘hello’, before the airbender’s arm is wrapped around his waist, and Sunghoon is swooping him down into a low, searing kiss. 

A second later, the waterbender’s arms wind around his neck to deepen it. 

The resulting cheer is so deafening, Jake has to cover his ears. 

“Wow. Well, I supposed that’s one way to celebrate,” Jay whistles from beside him, having limped his way to the front during all the commotion, only to get tackled around the neck two seconds later by an impossibly ecstatic Jungwon. 

“Jay-hyung! We won!”

“Ack, Wonie!” 

The firebender just barely has time to steady the knife-wielder around the waist before they go tumbling to the ground. Jungwon’s usual careful composure making way for elated, little giggles, instead.

It makes Jake laugh. 

“We did it,” Heeseung exhales, a smile stretched wide across his face as he turns to look at the non-bender by his side. Except, all of a sudden, his expression shifts, and it is bordering on something closer to concern. 

“Jaeyun?” He asks with furrowed brows. 

For a moment, Jake does not understand what is going on, and why Heeseung is looking at him in that way.

Then, he touches a hand to his cheek, and it comes back wet against the tips of his fingers. A heartbeat passes where the non-bender tries to make sense of the feeling. He wonders if it has started to rain, and if so, how it had escaped his notice. 

In the next second, Jake realizes that he is crying.

After that, it is like something inside of him opens, and he can’t stop the flow of tears from escaping his already red-rimmed eyes. He makes a small, choked noise, and Heeseung’s eyes widen frantically at the sound. 

“Jake?” Heeseung asks, quickly reaching up to cradle his face in his hands, expression dripping with concern. “Are you alright? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?” 

“I—,” Jake tries to start, only to immediately get cut off by another wave of tears forcing themself past his throat.

“Jaeyun?” Heeseung asks again, voice growing increasingly worried the longer the non-bender goes on without replying. “Should I get Sunoo-ah?”

Jake shakes his head, trying to signal that he needs a minute. Heeseung waits patiently for him to come down, thumbs tracing careful lines across the bones of Jake’s cheeks. 

“I—I don’t even know why I’m crying,” Jake eventually manages to force out. 

“It’s alright, Jakey,” Heeseung comforts him. “Come on, love. Breathe with me.”

And so, Jake does. Eventually, he feels the rhythm of his chest return to something steady, throat opening back up. 

“I can’t believe we did it,” he whispers once he can, words shaky and fragile like he is worried they might break if he says them any louder. 

Heeseung only beams in reply, leaning down to press his forehead against Jake’s. It is messy with their blood-mussed hair, and warm with their battle-pumped blood. It’s perfect. It is them. 

“We did it,” the earthbender repeats, smiling widely. His eyes flutter shut, and the lashes tickle Jake’s cheeks. 

“Yeah, we did,” the non-bender replies. For a moment, they stay there, the world fading out from around them, and it is like everything has just fallen into place. 

“…I love you,” Heeseung whispers into the delicate space between their lips.  

Jake is unable to reply with words. He blinks away the last of his tears, and then surges up to pull the earthbender down into a searing kiss of their own.

Heeseung is not surprised, and meets him halfway. 

It is dark by the time that Heeseung finally gets home. 

Jake wakes up to a light pressure on his shoulders gently shaking him awake. He blearily blinks open his eyes at the touch, and is greeted by the handsome figure of his husband standing over him, smile fond. 

“Who’s the sleepyhead, now?” Heeseung asks once Jake has come to, gingerly running a hand through long, black strands.

Jake squints, trying to remember what the taller man is referencing, before he closes his eyes. “Still you. Why’d you get back so late?”

The earthbender does not respond right away, distracted by peppering soft kisses to every inch of the non-bender’s face. It makes Jake scrunch up his nose in faux-annoyance that eventually gives way to ticklish giggles which only spur Heeseung on, even more.

Jake had fallen asleep waiting for the earthbender on the couch, leftovers from the ramyeon shop safely tucked away in the back of their kitchen, and Riki snug in bed. 

“Sorry,” Heeseung eventually says, one last kiss dropped on the top of Jake’s head. “You didn’t have to wait up.”

Jake shrugs sleepily. “Wanted to.”

His words make Heeseung smile as he takes a seat next to the smaller man. Jake immediately folds himself into his husband’s side, head tucked carefully in the crook of the earthbender’s neck. Heeseung’s arm slips around his waist, bringing him close.

“Beomgyu and Jeongin were being annoying, and wanted to go on a walk after dinner. Then, Beomgyu had the brilliant idea of earthbending drunk, and, well…It was a long night,” the earthbender explains, tone exasperated, but eyes fond. 

Jake laughs at their friends’ antics, and it makes the hand around his waist squeeze, then slip under the hem of his shirt. Heeseung flattens his palm against the smooth skin of Jake’s stomach, and the non-bender jolts at the sudden cold. 

He relaxes almost immediately after, practically melting into the touch, as the earthbender drops another kiss to the non-bender’s jaw in apology. Jake hums. 

“But how was your day, sweetheart?” Heeseung asks, once he pulls away, and Jake almost whines at the loss… He does. It makes the earthbender chuckle, and Jake feels the reverberations as they are transmitted through his side.

“Hm, it was good,” the non-bender replies, burrowing further into his husband’s warmth. The hand against his skin smoothes up and down, lingering against the subtle curve of the smaller man’s waist.

At the earthbender’s silent encouragement, Jake recounts the events of his day. From talking with Sunghoon and Jay about peonies around the firelord’s throne, to running into Sunoo just as he was about to leave the outside gates, to stopping by the ramyeon shop and the leftovers that were now stored away in the back of their kitchen. 

He tells him that the airbender and his husband might come over tomorrow, if they can find the time, and that Jungwon can’t wait to be married to Jay.

Heeseung listens to it all. He nods at the appropriate times, and laughs at others. He leans down to give Jake a kiss when the non-bender tells him about the noodle shop owner’s kind words, and Jake smiles against his lips.

Eventually, the non-bender runs out of things to stay, and he goes quiet. He can feel his breathing evening out as he listens to the quiet thump of Heeseung’s heart, the steady rise and fall of the earthbender’s chest.

Then, just as his eyes are about to close, the earthbender speaks.

“After the wedding, let’s go back to Kiyoshi,” Heeseung says into the night’s air, and Jake’s eyes blink back open. 

“What? Hee, there’s nothing there,” he laughs, confused. He tries to tilt his head back to look at the taller man, but the angle isn’t right so he drops it back down a second later. 

Heeseung’s hold on him tightens somewhere outside of his field of view. He shrugs. 

“We don’t need anything else,” the earthbender says, voice purposefully light, and now Jake is sitting up straighter to look at him, brows furrowed together. Heeseung smiles down at him, hand falling to Jake’s hips. His thumb runs careful circles against the bone. “As long as we have you, me, and Riki, we’d be alright.”

“W-What?” Jake sputters out, wondering if his tired state is distorting the words coming out from the red-haired man’s mouth. He blinks, trying to clear his mind.

“Once Jungwonie and Jay get married, they won’t need us here anymore,” Heeseung explains, voice measured and calm, like he has thought about this before. It makes Jake’s head swim. “We can go home. If you want to.”

In his shock, all Jake can manage to reply, struck dumb, is: “Anywhere with you and Riki is home.”

Heeseung kisses his cheek, and Jake melts despite himself. “You’re sweet,” the earthbender says, eyes shining. “But I’m serious. I miss the earth nation. Don’t you?”

Jake swallows, chest tight. “Yes,” the non-bender replies. He pauses around the lump in his throat, and the haze in his head, before adding, “Sometimes. Yeah.” 

Heeseung gives him a fond smile, like he can hear all of the things that Jake cannot bring himself to say aloud. He ducks down to press his nose against the soft skin of Jake’s cheek, nuzzling the smaller man as he grins around his next words. 

“Beomgyu and Jeongin would come, too,” he says, and Jake can only blink dumbly in reply. “And I’m sure there would be others who would be willing to help if we told them.”

“You talked about it with them tonight?” Jake asks, trying to get a clearer picture of just how long this idea has been stirring within him. Heeseung shrugs, and his casualness gives him away.

“A little,” he replies, and before Jake can ask him anything else, the earthbender is grinning down at him, pearly whites stretched across his handsome face. “But come on, Jakey. What do you think?”

Jake’s throat closes up. Unwittingly, he feels himself begin to smile back.

“Okay,” Jake manages to say, and the way Heeseung lights up at the single word is more than enough for him to know that he has made the right choice. “Let’s go home.”

Heeseung and Jake rebuild Kiyoshi over a series of ordinary Tuesday mornings. 

They are helped by Beomgyu and Jeongin, who are more than eager to “repay them” despite the pair’s insistence that there is nothing to repay them for. 

On the quintet’s way back, they stop by the inn Jake and Riki had stayed at while on the run, and the three earthbenders work together to shuffle the boulder a couple of paces back, so that both the children and the innkeeper are able to get what they want.

Along the way, some of the other former Kiyoshi villagers wander back, too. Riki’s old friend Taki, among them. 

In many ways, it is like a portal to a time 6 years past. Jake teaches at the local elementary school during the day, while Heeseung helps out around the village square. Beomgyu’s roof needs repairing, and Heeseung almost breaks his arm trying to assist him. 

Riki is 13 now, a full-blown teenager in the midst of their lives. Heeseung is no longer able to pick him up in his arms, but that does not stop him from trying, anyway, much to the firebender’s chagrin. 

They’d asked him, before they left, if he’d rather they stay in the fire nation. If they did, Riki would be able to keep practicing at the royal fire academy, and he’d be surrounded by the same people whose blood flowed through his veins. 

He’d been so young when the events preceding Kiyoshi’s final days had occurred. It was entirely possible that the firebender no longer considered the earth nation his home.

Except, Riki hadn’t hesitated for even a second before declaring that he wanted to go back to Kiyoshi, a wide, toothy smile stretching across his face. At Jake and Heeseung’s slack jaws and wide eyes, he added that he’d already learned enough from the academy, anyway, and that their stuffiness was, apparently, ‘cramping his style’.

It’d made Jay laugh when Jake told him, sometime later that week. Though the firelord hadn’t agreed or disagreed, either way, his knowing grin and amused eyes had said all the things his mouth did not.   

It was an easy decision, after that.

Sometimes, the trio will visit the rest of their friends when they can: Jay and Jungwon in the fire nation capital, Sunghoon and Sunoo whenever they are somewhere close enough to arrive within a day. 

Other times, their friends will come to them, and marvel at all the progress Jake and Heeseung have made since first arriving back at Kiyoshi’s ash and dust ridden square. It makes Heeseung beam with pride, tugging Jake closer by the hand.

At night, Jake is able to come home, and Heeseung greets him with a tender kiss as he pulls him through the door. They can take their time with their affections, and indulge in their love. They are no longer rushed by the threats of time. 

They’ve stopped running. There’s no longer anything to run from. 

Really, Jake has not been running for a long time, not since he first learned to let go—Not since that fateful day, where the avatar crash-landed into their seemingly peaceful lives, and set the world alight.