A/N: A short little blurb for my bingo card. The prompt for this one is "her first period." So, be warned of some menstrual references. But, I did not go into explicit detail. For this shot, I chose the perspective of Ty Lee.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Warnings: Menstrual references, spoilers concerning Ty Lee's family life (with an added interpretation of how they might have reacted).
Late to the Party
By: Nuit Songeur
Ty Lee was a little late to the party— especially compared to her six other sisters. Their talks of a red dragon visiting every month confused her. Whenever she would question them about it, they would simply laugh in her face.
"Maybe when you're older, Ty Lee." It frustrated her. She may have been the youngest out of all of them, but she was still their exact same age. At this, Ty Lee would stick out her lower lip and irritably fold her arms across her chest.
Ty Lee also noticed that whenever this red dragon visited her sisters, it was usually when they were at their peak in moodiness, always yelling and complaining at their nearest target. Namely Ty Lee, who could only do so much to avoid them. All six of them.
Her sisters started to receive these visits from the red dragon when they were about ten years old. Ty Lee didn't get to find out about them until she was thirteen.
It was a horrific experience, to discover she bled in a place that she was pretty sure wasn't supposed to bleed. None of her sisters warned her about it, and their mother assumed that Ty Lee would learn from them. On the initial day, Ty Lee locked herself in the bathing house, trying to stop the bleeding as much as she could, panicking. This wasn't normal. What was wrong with her? Why wouldn't it stop?
"Come on, Ty Lee. Hurry up," called her sisters from the other side of the locked door. "You're not the only one who has to use the bathing room." Ty Lee squeezed her eyes shut, fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she felt her sensitive emotions flail around wildly.
"Go away!" she shouted back to the door, trying not to let her despair show through her voice. She heard a chorus of impatient sighs.
"Today is Performance Day at school," one of them reminded. Ty Lee's eyes flew open, and she immediately jumped to her feet, only to double back over when a sudden pain clenched at her waist. Performance Day? She would have to take those physical tests like this?
There was another stab of pain in her lower abdomen that sent her retreating back on the floor, tightly clutching the unrelenting spot. Her aura had never been so distorted.
"I can't come today. I'm sick," she said. There were groans of annoyance, but Ty Lee did not speak back to them. Nor did she let them in the room. Eventually, they all gave up on her and searched for their mother to try to force her out of the bathing house. Ty Lee took advantage of their absence, springing onto her feet and gathering her wits about her.
Azula would know— what was wrong, what to do. She trusted Azula, more so than her snobbish sisters.
I hope this wasn't TOO unbearable for you. I hope you enjoyed! Please review!
-NuitSongeur