Author’s Note: Written for cfpepperz for Secret Santa, obviously.. it's the 4th of March so I'm a bit late with it, but regardless I hope you all enjoy.
Characters: Smellerbee/ Longshot
Word Count: 946
Rating: T
Summary: Returning home was never easy.
Calloused hands gripped together tight in a form of comfort and restraint.
Throughout their lives they’ve seen the ramifications of the war within the Earth Kingdom, they breathed it, they’ve lived it. Both their homes— and the homes and villages of their friends had been raided, taken over, and destroyed by the hands of the Fire Nation. They ran with Jet to Ba Sing Se so that they may outrun their past and be safe, to start fresh. But even if the safest place in the world, death still haunted them.
They missed Jet; he was their friend, their leader. The one who showed them that their life wasn’t over when they thought it was. He taught them to keep living, to keep pushing forward and fighting because if they didn’t the Fire Nation won.
And neither of them would allow themselves to break after so many years of keeping strong. Jet didn’t, even to his last breath he stayed strong. As will they.
Both stood still, hands clasp tight staring back at the scene before them. There was a vacant pit in both their stomachs; one with the lingering touches of shock.
Soon anger seeped through, pressing in only slightly and quicker with Longshot than with Smellerbee.
Thick brows furrowed and head bowed, blocking his sight further. He couldn’t bear to look as the emptiness within him began to warm, boiling over and pouring into his limbs. Muscles clenched in all but his hands as he prepared his own mind to come to terms with the scene before him. He didn’t want to— he couldn’t, not again.
“I—“ Smellerbee had let go of his hand and took a few paces closer to the site, “this isn’t right.”
“This isn’t FAIR.” “They can’t do this to us, Shot.” “How could we have let this happen?”
“We should have been here, Longshot.” “To protect everyone.”
She hadn’t stopped speaking, her mind racing, and the pit within her stomach filled with confusion, worry and regret. Her breathing began to accelerate she pieced together assumptions of the prior nights.
The forest, once beautiful with leaves of crimson and gold flourishing up into the highest peeks of the Earth Kingdom now lay barren and scorched. Hardly anything stood apart from the tall thin charred bark of the thicker trees. There was hardly any sign of the previous beauty and life it held.
Taking in a determined breath, Smellerbee traveled down the hill and unto the lands of which we had been so familiar with. With each step she tried to envision the previous land, the old trails, the carvings with marked their tree house… but it was all gone. The only reminiscent she could feel the ash below her feet. Longshot walked close behind, his anger still in tact but unexpressed, formulated what had happened. Unlike Smellerbee, he’d seen this sight up close and personal before; he remembered the scent of ash, of pain, of hurt and fear, of fire. Memories like this always stuck.
“They were here.” He spoke up only to assure Smellerbee of the thoughts he knew had been circling her mind.
Almost immediately she let out an exhale, “I know,” her voice had been harsher than anticipated, but he was too preoccupied with his own emotions to notice nor care.
“We could have stopped this from happening, if we didn’t leave — if Jet stayed! We would have been able to stop this to save our forest and our hideout,” she paused in her speech, turning to Longshot for the first time since they set eyes on the horrific view, “do you think the Freedom Fighters got out okay?”
“We were prepared for something like this to happen, they’ve got to know the plans. How to escape. How to put it all out. They know it all.”
Regret finally filled over, “I should have stayed and you gone with Jet, things would have worked out better, maybe you could have stopped him from going after those guys. He likes you better, he would have understood clearer.”
“Maybe then everything would be normal.” “At least then he’d be here to tell us what to do.”
She stopped her ranting, her hands tight about the air, palms facing up. This was too much for her— she’d lost her home and her parents, she lost her friends, they all have. Her and Longshot couldn’t be the last remaining Freedom Fighters. They just couldn’t be.
His own hand placed firmly on her shoulder, reassuring her in his own way that they’d be fine and that the Freedom Fighters were okay.
They’d find them, they knew where they’d go if trouble come, and they’d take care of them. A tear swelled up in Smellerbee’s eyes, she couldn’t lose another friend, neither of them could. “The Fire Nation will pay for what they did. To everything. They’ve taken too much already. They can’t just get away with everything they’ve done before and they can’t get away with it now. We’ll make them pay, Longshot. And we won’t make it easier for them.”
Perhaps it wasn’t right— this thinking had been what got Jet killed. This thinking is what set the war to a continuous loop of hatred. This is the thinking they’ve lived with their entire lives, the one they left to Ba Sing Se to forget.
And yet, when the going got tough, when their hatred refueled and had more purpose, they reverted back.
Purpose now filled the once empty pits of their stomachs.
After all, it’s what they knew best. They were Freedom Fighters and they were going to fight.
“The war won’t be over. Not until we say it is."
