Avatar ficlet: If (Longshot/Smellerbee)

[sophinisba]

Title: If
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Wordcount: 825
Rating: PG
Starring: Longshot/Smellerbee
Contains: maybe underage characters?
Notes: My first Avatar fic, for the "temperature play" square on my kink_bingo card! This completes my second bingo this year! \o/ It's also part of a still incomplete trans*/genderqueer characters bingo going in a different direction.
Summary: A missing scene from "The Drill": Longshot lets Smellerbee blow off some steam.
Links: Read it on the AO3!



"Jet thinks he knows what's best for everybody, but if you ask me he's being stubborn and shortsighted. What a hothead! Refusing to let Li join us, just because his uncle found a way to warm up his tea!"

Longshot frowned. He didn't agree. Though he wasn't going to go around shouting accusations, he was as upset as Jet when he realized Li had been lying to them. But sometimes when Smellerbee was in a mood like this the best thing was just to let the words breathe and breed and bounce around a little. It didn't need to be an argument.

"If we had a firebender on our team – Hell, Longshot, how much better would our strategy be if we had someone who actually trained with the Fire Nation Army? Li's offering us better intel than we'd get with a hundred nights of sneaking around eavesdropping on the guards. I can't believe Jet wants to throw that kind of opportunity away. I mean, he didn't even try to talk to him!"

Longshot didn't want to talk to them either, but he understood why Smellerbee did. Not the old man, with his empty affability and his old-fashioned ideas about boys and girls, of course not. But Li was just the kind of person who'd always fascinated Smellerbee. After all, it was that kind of mystery, that quiet shaking fury, and a desire to unlock his secrets, that had first drawn Smellerbee to Longshot.

"I don't know who decided Jet should be in charge of the Freedom Fighters anyway, " Smellerbee grumbled. "I sure didn't vote for him. I mean, who cares if he started out as part of the Fire Nation? As long as he wants to help us now I don't think we should turn that help away. And exposing them? What's that even about? If I were Li I'd be so mad I'd come back at him with a firestorm! If I were him –"

Longshot laid a heavy hand on Smellerbee's shoulder, a reminder of his presence, and Smellerbee looked into his eyes and was quiet for a long moment, taking deep breaths.

"I know. We might be refugees, but we're not like him. We have each other and we understand each other, and we don't ever have to pretend to be someone else."

Longshot drew Smellerbee into a hug. Other people in the gang liked Longshot because he was a good fighter and didn't cause trouble, but he knew sometimes they complained that they could never tell what he was thinking. The thing is, none of them ever really tried. Nobody else looked at him and, well, listened like Smellerbee.

"It would still be cool if we had a firebender, though," Smellerbee said at length with a sigh. "Not even for fighting, or not just that. It would be nice to keep warm even when our clothes are wet and there's no shelter on the deck. Even Jet can't argue with that."

Their clothes had never really gotten dry in the time they'd been on the ferry, but Longshot squeezed Smellerbee tight, sharing warmth with his touch and his breath.

"And just because we don't have to pretend to be something else," Smellerbee said, voice low and laughing, "doesn't mean we never can. What would you do for me if you were a firebender, Longshot?"

Longshot let go, took a step back, just out of reach, and moved into a dramatic bending pose. Smellerbee grinned at him.

Longshot had never mimed the action before, but he had good control of his motions and he'd done an awful lot of spying on Fire Nation soldiers over the last few years. The spark itself might not be there, but the twist of Longshot's body and the arc of his hand were flawless. Smellerbee knew right where the motion was aimed, too, and jumped back with a hushed cry when it landed.

"Ow, my arm, it burns!" Smellerbee was wincing and covering the imagined injury with one hand. "It's a good thing I know how to defend myself!"

Then Smellerbee took in a deep breath and blew it out toward Longshot, and when the damp air hit him it didn't matter that the game hadn't been explained, or that he'd already been cold for days, or that Smellerbee's posture was nowhere near as graceful as Katara's. It didn't matter that Ba Sing Se was still a dangerous and unknown piece of their future, or that they'd lost an ally in Li and might well lose Jet too, with the kind of risks he was taking. Smellerbee's breath on Longshot's body was ice, and he was frozen still, and it felt just right. He was smitten, just like the first time Smellerbee looked at him and they both knew, they were perfect for each other.

With a slow melting struggle, Longshot freed himself and fired back with another shot of imaginary flame. It was also a surrender.

Comments

[such_heights]

Awwww! This is really adorable, and a lovely look at them both.